Coffee in one hand his phone in the other Shinichi got to the front door when his phone went off.
[text]: So far.
Slipping the phone back into his beast pocket he hefted the completed cold case files and started toward the precinct.
Well that was… terse. Hakuba frowned at his phone, but let out a small sigh. Kudou was, after all, an INTJ from his observations– his brevity was simply practical. Efficient. Nothing more was needed, so why bother with the unnecessary fluff of societal convention? It both pleased him, as the authenticity was so refreshing, and made him nervous. He hoped that he could keep his chatter down to a minimum at their meeting. His need for it to go well was somewhat desperate.
Instead of responding right away, Hakuba went about his day. His slow, agonizing day of torture. Relearning the Japanese train system, which was similar to the Tube, but far more compact. At least Twig was allowed to accompany him while wearing her bright red service animal vest. The cane afforded him some preferential seating, as well, but being a foreigner, he did his best to avoid taking advantage. He didn’t want to be separate from the rest of the citizens. He never had. Not for his mixed heritage, and certainly not for his disability.
In the end, after wandering Tokyo, he hailed a cab to take him back to his father’s house, exhausted. He’d forgotten just how much walking there was to do in the city. Not that there wasn’t in London, but it’d been at least two years since he was in fit condition for this amount of physical activity.
Needless to say, with another round of medications, he went to bed early and gratefully.
The next morning, he waited… waited… waited as patiently as he could until he couldn’t stand it any more and finally sent another text to Shinichi. It was 10:34:24 according to his watch. Their proposed meeting was 15:00:00. It had to be safe.
But when he went to text, Hakuba paused, frowned, and sighed. He didn’t want to be a pest. What could he say that didn’t sound so impossibly needy?
He waited until 12:14:00, then sent the text anyway.
[text] I’ll see you there.
Was that too presumptuous?
[text] I’m very much looking forward to it.
Was that too much pressure? Hakuba avoided adding an emoticon, grimacing at the thought, and instead rubbed Twig’s shoulders, rolling her fur between his fingers. She looked up at him, ears back and sniffed.
“…yes, I realize I’m being too sensitive. You don’t need to tell me.”
More nose twitching, then a tailwag.
“Shall we take a cab?”
Indifferent, Twig just wagged her tail again.
“For a service dog, you’re really of no help, my love.”
She smiled. So did he.