Heiji grinned. Victory!
Wait. That would mean he’d have to spend the next hour or so with Hakuba.
…Victory?
He sighed inwardly. Sometimes he really didn’t know when to shut up. Damn his competitive nature. But he had won that not-argument fair and square, and he wasn’t going to back down just because it was Hakuba. So he was going to make sure the Brit had the best damn lunch he’d ever had.
…Dammit.
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll pay fer my own, don’t worry.”
He pointed down a side street before walking in that direction, not bothering to make sure Hakuba was following. If the Brit wanted to leave, that was fine with him. Well, no it wasn’t, and he’d probably yell at him next time he saw him for being rude, but at least he was providing an out. Sort of. “S’a little ways outta th’ way, but it’s closer ta here than the station is.“
"I’ll trust your judgement, Hattori-san… you do seem to be the expert.”
Sarcasm? Not at all!
Well. That was interesting. Hakuba considered not following, but it was only a brief, fickle thought. After all, to leave now would be a fairly serious offense. Superintendent General Hakuba’s son versus the Superintendent Supervisor Hattori’s son. A scandal in the making.
Actually, it struck the half-brit then that it was somewhat odd that the two hadn’t been forcefully paired together before. Surely, there was the distance to be considered, but a friendship between them could be a very powerful statement, PR included.
Hm.
He followed after Heiji silently, letting the Osakan lead the way.