Chapter Text
“So what, you think you’re some kind of cop now?!”
Takehisa’s eye twitched imperceptibly behind his thick frames. The cake he was holding seemed to make an utterly devastating thud when he dropped it into the trash.
“I’m your superior.” As an afterthought that was probably childish and unnecessary, but needed to be said anyways, “I was a sergeant. I’m literally your lieutenant.”
“You may be a lieutenant, but you just threw away my whole ass breakfast! I’ve been looking forwards to that, you idiot!” An exaggerated huff that blew some hair out of your face, only to have it swing right back. “You’re no lieutenant of mine.”
How did you manage to tweak everything that came out of your mouth just enough to give him a rage response? He was this close to drawing his gun and shooting you in the foot. Non-lethally, of course, but still.
“You know full well that to be an officer here, you can’t just indulge in these kinds of junk food all the time—”
“Captain Obi would’ve let me have cake for breakfast,” you whined, cutting him off. Were you even an adult? Next thing, you’d start stomping your feet and crying.
“Captain Obi isn’t talking to you right now.”
“Yes, yes. You’re my Lieutenant, our dearest Hinawa…” You sighed and finally uncrossed your arms, slouching forwards. Defeat?
“Whatever. Have it your way.”
Now that you were done throwing your tantrum and looked genuinely upset, a pang of guilt hit him. Maybe he shouldn’t have tossed the entire cake into the garbage like that and just… admonished you or something. You weren’t a stickler for the rules and he knew that full well. Maki always let it slide because you were unpowered, and the two of you had some sort of mysterious womanly bond he could never hope to understand anyways. Obi simply liked you as a person and let you do whatever the hell you wanted (hence the complex). Iris wasn’t exactly that strict either, so he couldn’t count on her. And it wasn’t like the rookies were going to tell off the engineer that fixed all their stuff. So, it looked like he alone was the one constantly harassing you for being late, sloppy paperwork, reckless habits, general attitude… as you walked away, he wondered with horror,
Did you hate him?
“Hey, what’s going on here? What’s all the ruckus?”
Obi walked into the kitchen stifling a yawn, his hair messy in all sorts of way after just having rolled out of bed. Takehisa whirled to turn to him, almost a bit desperately, just to hear advice from the man that seemed to know it all.
“Do you think [Name] hates me?”
“What makes you say that?” Obi replied with genuine surprise. A gear turned in his head. Without saying anything he went to the fridge and opened it—his brow then furrowed with confusion.
“Are you… looking for a cake?” Takehisa asked hesitantly, the puzzle pieces falling together in his head with neat snaps.
“Wh—how’d you know? She hid it really well! We put it under a cloth and everything!”
As if a thin sheet of fabric could cover a gigantic box with the note “DO NOT LOOK TAKEHISA” and not raise suspicions. But he felt himself bite his tongue sharply. He had a striking feeling he was about to hear something that was going to make him feel terrible.
“She bought a cake for your birthday even though we all said you hate gifts. [Name] was really stubborn about it. Said maybe you’d actually appreciate something nice for once. Man, I was really looking forwards to having a piece of it too…”
Oh, shit.
“You didn’t…?” Understanding lit up his dark eyes and he sighed knowingly. “Man. Hinawa.”
“I didn’t know.”
Obi reached forwards and clapped a hand on Takehisa’s shoulder. Even though he was shaking his head, he had a wry smile.
“You never learn, do you? I’m sure you’ll find a way to make it up to her.”
But how? It wasn’t like he knew how to do anything but snap at you, seeing as you did everything in your power to annoy him. Yet it always turned out like this. He’d mistake something you did as bad behaviour only to find out it was kindness all along. It was almost cyclic. The rock in his gut weighed heavily.
For a subordinate, you really had a lot of power over him.