Mack's Apartment
Tokyo, Japan
August 2015
9:42 PM
"This is fucking bullshit."
"Aren't you supposed to be used to this?" A joked. Mack scowled and A patted his shoulder, setting a steaming cup of green tea down. "What's wrong this time?"
"I don't know why we always get shitty data and information," he complained. "I can't fucking work with this. This shit is weak and doesn't have anything I can link to any of your theories. They're all so goddamn plausible but no one can fucking prove it because of this shit!" The Englishman gave the small collection of samples a crazed shake. "Shitty data. Shitty samples. Shitty proof–"
"And maybe shitty theories, too," A interrupted. She crossed her arms, "Mack. Even my theories and Touta's can be wrong. If data can't support it, then it's okay. We can work with the angle your data supports."
"But that's the thing!" the curly-haired man threw up his hands in frustration, "Data points nowhere! It points to bumfuck nowhere!" A tried not to laugh at his rants, pressing her lips tightly together. "You – why the hell are you laughing, woman? This is a case!"
"You're usually so calm and collected, Mack," she explained after letting a few laughs pass her lips. "You're the only person who I know remains calm after a pot of coffee, instead of turning into a twitchy piece of shit like myself or Peters." Mack made a face.
"College can scar a man. For me, it scarred me through tea." Mack took the mug and gladly sipped, "This is excellent...how do you do it?"
"Matt loves tea," A explained with a fond smile. She remembered how Matt liked his tea and his endless supply at home. "I know how he takes his favorites and tried out one of them on you."
"Oh? What did you add here?"
"Cyanide and a hint of sugar," she replied with a touch of cheer. Mack nearly snorted into his drink.
"Death. Okay. Considering what we're investigating," he added loudly. A rolled her eyes.
"Let's keep investigating, Mack."
* * * * *
"This can fuck itself."
"It can't."
"The data doesn't hold!"
"We can always try it from another angle, you know."
"I'm going to kill it."
"It's already dead." Mack made a frustrated noise and studied the specimen in the microscope. A watched from the couch as she typed on her laptop, "Do you want to take a break?"
"Breaks are a no," he grumbled. A sighed and looked away from her laptop, closing her eyes and stretching slowly. "Breaks are useless and cut productivity by half."
"Where did you get that?"
"Personal experience." He replied simply, continuing to experiment and test the different substances. "Getting tipsy on cheap beer doesn't make you a lab report genius, apparently."
"What did you do?"
"Cussed out an entire species for being a pain in the arse to investigate. I called crabs a worthless STD. And yes, I confused the animal with the goddamn genital infection." A gave him a blank look and the forensic scientist forced a smile onto his face. “You make one fucking error and they don’t forget…”
“Sounded more like a heartbroken quote to me,” A murmured.
He nearly threw the container at her. She was laughing.
* * * * *
“How are you so calm right now?”
A had convinced Mack to take a break and the Englishman relented after she gave him such a nasty look. The last time he had seen that look on her face, it was directed at Peters. Never had he thought that he would be on the receiving end of her icy stare.
A lightly stirred her coffee. “You remind me of myself, you know. Well. Myself when I first entered HQ and all,” she admitted. Mack blinked.
“I do?”
“Mhm. You can even ask Touta for verification,” she told him, a small smile creeping up her face. “That’s why I’m so amused. All this time, Peters and Touta have been telling me that I’m always too hard on myself when it comes to work. That I work myself dry, crash, and then do it again.” She made a little circling figure with her pointer finger, “I never knew how to take a break. As far as I concerned, working for HQ was a blessing and I constantly thought that I had to always prove myself.” She took a sip from her drink, Mack staying silent as he listened.
It was rare that A chose to share about herself, no matter how personal it was. A sharing was a sharing. Peters and Touta were open about their lives, Mack liked to tell here and there, but A prefered keeping the doors shut.
So her opening them this time around must have meant something.
“One day, I ended up passing out during an investigation.” Seeing Mack’s concerned look, she waved a hand. “It wasn’t serious.”
“How is passing out not serious?”
“…so maybe it was.” She laughed sheepishly. “But it was because of exhaustion, Mack. Fatigue. I wasn’t treating myself right because of work and this body couldn’t really keep up. So it shut down, I was rushed to the hospital, and…” she glanced away, “Touta and Peters had to be the ones to get it through my head that what I was doing wasn’t the best. I was overworking myself, Mack. So now, seeing you obsess over work and being the best and producing the best quality work? It just makes me realize how desperate I was to prove myself, too.”
“You’re harsh on me,” he joked. A rolled her eyes yet again.
“I’m not. Really. I don’t want you to suddenly end up passing out into the microscope and having you rushed to the hospital,” she told him. A fiddled with the mug, “Not only would you miss work, but we’d be worried as fuck too. I don’t think Touta and Pete need another scare.”
Mack studied her. A took another sip and her eyes went elsewhere. Her fingers were merely gripping the handle of the mug tightly. It looked as if she were remembering something which happened time and time ago.
Very suddenly, Touta’s piece of advice prodded his head.
“And by the way…make sure you take care of yourself in this field. Even more than your materials and forensic tools. Take care of yourself."
And he realized that A was indeed telling the truth.
“Trust me, Mack.” A leaned back on the chair and then looked at him. “…there’s so much better than just wanting to be number one.”
It was silent for a number of minutes. A merely kept in thought while Mack let her words settle. “...right.” The man cleared his throat. “Should we continue?”
“We probably should,” she agreed. “More investigation sounds good to me.”
There was a light tone of sarcasm when she said that, but Mack knew she meant well.
“Well, let’s fucking hurry.” He threw a glance at her laptop, “That report isn’t going to write itself.”
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