Thank You Officer Tamura

Friends?

Suga looked away and began fiddling with his hands. He was clearly nervous about something and Daichi wish he could know what it was but it didn't seem like he would find out.

"We just went different ways Daichi-san. Our lives didn't fit together anymore. You're only seeing me now because someone called in sick. Friends grow apart, it's not uncommon." Suga's voice was soft and everything he was saying was rational – most friendships don't extend from childhood to late adulthood.

Daichi wanted to tell him that he was wrong, that their friendship wasn't supposed to grow apart but his mouth wasn't finding words. Deep down Daichi knew that he'd messed up and that they'd just grown apart naturally, he just wasn't ready to admit it.

"We still have twenty minutes. How about we catch each other up on these last seven years, yeah?"

Sugawara nodded in agreement and began telling Daichi about how his current class should have left him two grades ago but that he fought to keep them. They talked for the next twenty minutes and to any outsider, they would have seemed like normal friends, maybe even good ones. However, they knew. They could tell by the way the other one nodded politely, or the way he held his hands, that it was all surface level conversation and that all the years of friendship had finally been laid to rest.

When the kids filtered back through the door, they were making a lot of noise and the buzz in the air was amplified from the morning. They all made there way over to their seats, greeting Daichi and Kaneko before erupting towards Suga. They told him about everything that had happened over the forty minutes that they'd be away and fired questions at him rapidly about his opinions and the afternoon.

"Sugawara-sensei, will the other police officers come back too? The one at the back is scary." A little girl with two plaits behind her ears asked, perhaps a little loud.

Daichi's face fell and his heart twinged a little. He knew he wasn't as soft as Sugawara but he didn't think he was actually scaring the kids.

"Well Yui, I don't find him scary at all. In fact, he's quite the opposite." Suga looked up at Daichi and smiled. "You guys know Asahi and how scary he used to seem but now you all love him. In fact, Asahi, Detective Sawamura and me were all friends in school and still are now."

"Like me and Yui!?" A blonde girl asked, jumping to her feet.

"Exactly. Sawamura, why don't you come introduce yourself properly to the class."

Suga gestured for Daichi to come to the front and he felt the collar of his shirt tighten. He suddenly felt nervous and he wasn't sure why, they were just little kids. They were Suga's kids though and it was clear how much he cared about them and Daichi had already let him down by scaring them. He stood at the front awkwardly.

"I'm sorry if I scared any of you, Sugawara is always telling me I look too serious and scary. I don't usually dress like this because it makes me look bossy, if you'd like I can change tomorrow when I come back."

Daichi did his best to smile genuinely and relax his body to put the kids at ease.

"You're super tall and muscly! I bet you could pick us all up! I want to be a police officer if it means I look like you" Shouted a small boy with raven hair and green eyes, which sparkled with glee.

Suddenly, all the other children joined in, talking about how cool Daichi looked and how they wanted to know more. It made him happy to see their enthusiasm and to know that he was no longer scaring them. He felt a hand on his arm and turned to see the Suga had appeared at his side.

"I'm sorry about them." Suga said softly, before raising his voice a little to speak to the class. "Okay, let's settle down please. There's plenty of time to talk to Sawamura later but for now we need to practice our spelling and handwriting. So, please get your notebooks out and turn to a fresh page."