destinystrings | A L In the Darkness/Unexpected Company

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A L In the Darkness/Unexpected Company

Who: Shoutarou, Souji Seta, and Yousuke Hanamura - all AU-flavored.
Where: The ~~Superior~~New Narumi Detective Agency
Summary: Souji follows up on his offer to check up on Shoutarou's wayward kitten.
Warnings: Cats, teenage boys, PAAAAHTONAHS
Finally, after what feels like an eternity in the dark, the lights of the agency come to life.

Unfortunately, they come to life at a really inopportune time, as Shoutarou was trying to make his way out of the building. The sudden brightness catches him off-guard, and he stumbles into a chair, falls over it, and tumbles into a bookcase, knocking a large number of alien texts on top of him.

"...damn it."

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"Oh, right." Souji made a face, taking a moment too long to remember why they were here exactly. "Well, um, for one...I wanted to thank you for your help the other night." With the henshin and the yeah.

"Other than that...I contacted you on the network about your, um, kitten woes." He lifted a hand in a placating gesture. "I would have been upfront about it, but we're..."

Oh right. "This is my friend, Yosuke. We're both...already "here" if you know what I mean. I didn't want to confuse anyone."

Yosuke settled back down, and moved to stand beside his friend so he could actually be seen, watching the kitten gambol about on the floor. It seemed to think that one of the books was some great beast, with how they were pouncing on it and chewing on the corner.

At the sound of his name though, he lifted his head, waving a hand in a greeting. He was still... confused about all this, to be honest. Souji began rambling about that show he was crazy over, then a cat, and then coming over here. Yosuke had nooooo idea what they were doing here, or who this guy even was.

"Nice to meet you, um..." Yosuke gave Souji a glance. He forgot his name, uh, Shi... Sho...

He raises a hand to Yosuke in greeting. "Hidari Shoutarou."

One could almost see the lights click on in Shou's mind when Souji explains why they're there. "Ah! You're the guy from the bench!" He snaps his fingers as he says it. "And from the post..." He thinks back - he thought he was talking to this guy on there, but the person who volunteered to come check out the kitten had been anon.

We're both...already "here" if you know what I mean. I didn't want to confuse anyone.

Combine that statement with that post that had just gone on the network from that girl going on about beef...

His face gets a bit more serious as he looks between the two. "Would it be fair to guess you're 'copies', then?" The question is punctuated with a dose of airquotes for emphasis.

Souji, though a little embarrassed by being called a copy, eventually nods and steps further in to the room.

"We're...uh, not from their world at all. So it's sort of..." All these hesitations were driving him crazy, but how else was he supposed to do this? It was a delicate thing to explain! "...I don't want to drag them in to it."

Souji stopped the potential angst-train in the station when he saw the kitten's valiant battles over a book, smiling bright and crossing the room to pick the calico up.

"Are you causing Mr. Hidari trouble, lil' guy~?"

Yosuke heaved a sigh at Souji's uncertain explanation, and decided to step up to the info-dumping plate when his friend was - predictably - distracted by the cute little kitten. His friend had blinkers on when cats were involved, seriously.

"Copies makes us sound so sci-fi, uh... more like alternative dimension shenanigans," Yosuke said airily, shrugging his shoulders as he crossed his arms, shifting his weight onto one leg. "That kind of, thing."

"A bad choice of words on my part, then. Someone on the network brought the topic up earlier and used the term," Shoutarou answers, then sighs. "Different worlds, then. Parallel worlds, even. It sounds a bit far-fetched, but completely different worlds of all kinds exist out there." Shoutarou makes a vague hand-gesture to the empty air. "Still sci-fi sounding, but it seems somewhat reasonable."

After a few moments of awkward quiet, he frowns, looking back at the two of them as it really sinks in what Souji had suggested. "That's... That's a pretty heavy load to carry, you know? Assuming that 'them' is people you know." His tone is a bit somber at this point, subdued - this is an odd situation he's had stumble into his office, to say the least.

Souji meandered back to the conversation, kitten in toe (or, hand, more properly). The totally unnamed calico seemed to be trying to burrow in to his cheapo sweatshirt, and Souji just let him do it.

"It's like a TV show plot." He was just going to keep claiming that till he believed it. "But, yeah it's..." He shifted his arms, trying to ensure the lump of cat didn't fall out of his hoodie. "...I don't want to get in their way. They have "us" there already. I don't think two is going to help matters."

He drew quiet for only a second, letting Besel pop his head out of Souji's sleeve before sighing. Not even adorable kittens were helping. "We're just going to forge out on our own. It's probably safer than the government housing."

Yosuke watched the cat happily squirm under Souji's hoodie, seemingly tuning out of the conversation - he was actually listening pretty closely though. TV show plot, hah, that was one way to describe it. He understood Souji's feelings though, and for once, he agreed with them, instead of grumbling.

He... didn't really want to see the rest of the IT either. They came from a successful timeline, whereas they came from the fuck ups and, to be honest, Yosuke felt five inches tall when comparing himself to them. 'Only we can catch the culprit', man, they'd been such kids.

But one thing's bugging him...

"Hey, partner..." Yosuke semi-whispered, leaning in towards Souji to try and maintain some privacy - even if Shoutarou could clearly hear them, only being a few feet away from them. "Why're we telling him this stuff...?"

Really, to Yosuke, this just seemed like Souji suddenly blarghing his issues onto someone totally random. Was this related to his Kamen Rider rant he tuned out earlier?

Shoutarou plants his hands on his hips and gives a shake of his head at further explanation, only verbal response being a quietly-muttered "Damn, that's rough..."

One thing does pique his curiosity, though.

"If I might ask - just why would going out on your own be safer?" The tone, while inquisitive, isn't accusatory. Even if he'd been burned by criminals coming to him for help a number of times in the past, he still gave everyone that came through his door a chance.

Yosuke's semi-whisper drew Souji's attention first, of course, though it seemed to be in line with Mr. Hidari's question, too. Sighing, he pulled the poor kitten out of his sleeve and tucked him in to the crook of his arm. Besel only squirmed for a bit before giving in to pets.

"This may be another world, but that doesn't matter- you can always trust a Kamen Rider." He nodded as if this were the most clear thing ever, and not naive at all. "We were...accused wrongfully of something in our world. It'd be impossible to explain that to them. They'd want to help, get involved, and they can't."

"..."

Yosuke just gave Souji a look when his question was answered very unsatisfactorily. So this guy was a Kamen Rider, and that, automatically made it okay for Souji to tell him their situation and basically shove themselves into his trust? Okay.

Admittedly, Yosuke was a bit miffed that Souji was making this kind of decision again without really consulting him about it, and made an irritated grunting noise, turning to sulk in the direction of the bookcase.

Shoutarou starts to nod along with Souji.

Then it hits him just what he said, and he splutters as his composure fumbles all over itself. He's not used to getting such direct praise unless there was a suit of ~~rubber~~armor between him and the person saying it.

"Well," he starts with a pleased, and somewhat sheepish laugh. "You are right - though while I'm willing to help out someone in need, either as a Kamen Rider or a detective, I'm admittedly not sure how I can help a situation like that from another world," he adds, and considers for a moment. "Unless you're looking for help on keeping these people you know from finding out."

"I don't really know what I'm looking for." He seemed oblivious to Yosuke's look for the time being, focusing his attention on the cat, partially cos he anticipated a frown or two. He didn't want to prove himself right. "I don't really want to run in to them, but it's not their fault. But staying out of sight means avoiding the apartments we were given."

See, 'ske? He's not telling everything. Just that they're duplicates from an upsetting AU. In the grand scheme, was that too much?

...probably, really. If he hadn't seen Shou henshin in front of his own eyes he probably wouldn't be so trusting. But he couldn't...there was no way he could let his situation back home ruin something as simple as his childhood heroes. Right?

"I don't know what help you can give...but even if it's just this little guy for company, I'll take it."

Even if Souji was withholding some information, he was still saying a pretty large amount to some guy that they essentially just met. Yosuke trusted Souji, even if that trust was a bit shaky nowadays, but that still didn't mean it was okay that his friend kept dragging him into stuff without consulting him first. Yeah, let's ask this guy for help! Who the hell was he? Does't matter, he's a Kamen Rider! That automatically makes him safe!

It wasn't true for the police, so excuse Yosuke if he was more than a little wary about this entire thing. The fact that he was a detective, like Adachi, just made him even more twitchy.

"Why do we even need his help?" Yosuke finally asked, turning to his friend with a bit of a snappish tone. "You didn't say we were coming here for that."

Shou nods at Souji, but he can't help looking just a bit taken aback at Yosuke's words. They make sense, but they do sting nonetheless. He sighs, then turns around to do a bit of deduction.

"Because clearly, he feels it's needed - in my experience, a man's got to be at a pretty low point to up and outright ask for help," Shoutarou explains. "It makes sense that he'd go to someone who he either trusts already, which I'm assuming your options are limited, if even existent in the situation this city presents us - or someone he feels he can trust based on a little bit of information." He turns around and smiles.

"In this case, someone who kept him from getting jumped by a monster while he was asleep."

Souji nodded at Shou's assessment, but turned to Yosuke with a critical look in his eye. "We have an opportunity to not sleep in a park here. I don't trust this government as far as I could throw it, but- why shouldn't we try to recooperate? You're just as mixed up as I am, and we need to do this."

His tone was harsh, and almost patronizing, but he didn't...mean it like that. He was just trying desperately to Leader and ensure that they had someone they could actually ask for help from.

Yosuke looked to be a bit mollified by Shoutarou's words, his frown easing up - before it returned full force at Souji's patronising tone. He openly bristled, shooting his partner an equally harsh look.

"Sorry," Yosuke began, his tone dripping with insincerity, "I forgot my opinion doesn't mean shit. I'll make sure to just shut up and go along with you without a word next time."

Oh, but what happened last time he did that? They got an order of arrest on their head, and had to rough it out in a world crawling with vicious shadows!

"Hey, hey--" Shoutarou frowns at Yosuke's tone, raising a hand to make a calming motion. "I don't know the whole situation, but that's not called for, alright?"

He draws a breath, then huffs it out. "You get your back against the wall like this, the last thing you need to be doing is lashing out against each other, alright? That will just make things worse - take it from someone who's been there more than enough times."

There's a glance between the two of them for a moment. "If you need a place to crash, there's plenty of room here."

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A L In the Darkness/Unexpected Company

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