𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐘𝐌𝐏𝐇 || ʜᴀᴡᴋꜱ

38➟ In which we're called in for an emergency meeting.

Between us, Rin and I had managed to smuggle two surprisingly large stacks of paper out of the Clover Agency building. Some of which had, what I believed to be, definitive evidence of criminal collusion. If only I could work out the code-- that's what it was, code. It had to be. There was no way that something so chaotic yet cohesive couldn't be some form of code.

The amount of paper in our bags weighed on our shoulders though. By the time we'd gotten through the door of the apartment, the two of us had immediately thrown our bags onto the sofa, sighing in relief when we realised that we didn't have to lug that amount of paper anywhere else for a while. I decided against looking through each sheet of paper right then, Rin and I were tired and the likelihood of either of us deciphering code in the state we were in was so abysmally low, that there was no point in trying.

"Want a takeaway?" I asked, flopping down onto the sofa beside Rin and our bags.

"Thai?" He responded hopefully.

"Yeah, course," I nodded, ruffling his long hair and rolling my ankles so that the air that had built up in between the joints would click. It probably didn't do much in reality, but it sounded like something was happening.

The two of us lay limp on the sofa for a while, simply staring at the ceiling. By that time, the action of actually ordering the takeaway had completely slipped my mind. Something about being around Rinm both helped distract me from everything negative that was happening and distracted me from things I actually needed to do. Though admittedly cheesy to say, it really did feel like we were forming some small little family. It was nice. I just prayed that Rin wasn't reading my mind at that moment, but he seemed far too tired to bother.

We must have laid there for at least half an hour before a faint jingle gradually filled the room. It sounded like Rin had turned the TV on and was slowly turning up the volume, he could've stopped at 50 though because it suddenly grew really loud and I grew highly conscious of our neighbours.

"Oi, Rin, turn that down, it's too loud."

He grumbled something under his breath before lobbing a hard, rectangular object at my head, that made direct contact with my forehead. It fell beside my head, blasting what I'd originally thought to be TV music directly into my ear, only to realise that it was actually my phone and 'Bestie' was calling.

I groaned, immediately recognising the name and dragging the bright green circle across the screen, "What do you want Takami?"

"Hello Ephilates," Weird, "I'm with the President," Oh. He sounded pretty apologetic, quickly adding, "you're on speaker phone."

Immediately, I shot up, holding the phone against my ear and clearing my throat, "Uh, yes, hello Hawks, what do you need?"

The President answered, in her usual, cold, professional tone, "We'd like for you and Delphi to attend a meeting at the Comission building in half an hour."

"Half an hour?" I was panicking slightly, how were we going to get to the Comission building in thirty minutes? They must've known I couldn't use the car they had provided. At least, I would have hoped that they did, it was about to be an embarrassing conversation for me if they didn't.

"A car is five minutes away." I could practically hear her rolling her eyes on the other end of the phone.

Rin was up from the sofa now, obviously listening in to the conversation, a serious look falling over his face.

"Okay then, see you--" A low tone sounded on the line, signalling that the President had hung up. She obviously wasn't a big fan of small talk or pleasantries.