Hattori had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from commenting on Hakuba’s choice of… words. He closed his eyes, but only for a few seconds, and regained himself, smile playing on his lips once again.
“Yeah, I guess ya could say tha’.” Hattori fiddled with the napkin once again, licking his lips. Why was this so awkward? He kind of just wanted to sink into the floor, maybe it was the formal atmosphere – he hated formal parties, they were just so… formal…
“Ah…” His father yes… his father. They weren’t exactly on… the best of terms. He didn’t hate his father, no, but he didn’t get along with his as much as he did his mother. “Ya could say tha’, I guess.” He knew he was repeating himself, but honestly, best to skip that subject.
Alas, the difference in perspective had effectively jackhammered a wedge into the fissure between them, and Hakuba had yet to even notice that there was a problem. In fact, he was convinced that the entire affair had proceeded quite swimmingly. Indeed, he couldn’t have been happier with the way things had gone thus far.
Though, the repetition in the Osakan’s broken and stilted Kansai-ben did give him reason to pause. Glancing back at his companion, Hakuba lifted a brow, smile tilting ever so slightly to quirk higher on the left.
“That’s… good to hear,” he said, and let the smile fade. No, there was certainly something amiss here, and Hakuba had finally noticed.
Letting out a little breath, he drummed his fingers on the edge of the table, then swallowed against the nervous lump in his throat.
“Ah…” Hakuba struggled to find another conversational topic to offer in an attempt to salvage the conversation, but found nothing further than shop talk. Did he really need to resort to that? Perhaps so. Business. Detective work. He quirked another, new smile, though this was significantly less confident than the last. “Have you read the latest article on the use of three-dimensional printers in artificially growing bone matter with stem cell research?”
Blink.
“Er.” The foreign detective shifted awkwardly on his side of the bench. “Or, rather, ah, are you… attending the police benefit’s ball in Kyoto at the end of the month…? Or, no, wait; you don’t really like the more formal affairs, do you?”
Hakuba bit his lip. Think, dammit… think!
“Ah, you… … you like some sports team, though, correct? The… the one on your hat, perhaps? Where, ah, where is your trademark baseball cap today, anyway? I was under the impression that it was somewhat of an… extension of your person? Aha…"