Work Text:
Shhht
Namie glances out the window at the rain pouring down past it. Drops often hit the glass with a tap, tap, tap. Her gaze shifts from there to the cup abandoned next to the computer across the room; Izaya probably didn’t even drink his tea before he pranced off to do who knows what in Ikebukuro. It serves as a reminder for Namie to drink her own tea. Of course, it’s empty now, she’d finished off the last drops while only half paying attention, typing up information on the latest filing system changes so that Izaya won’t complain at her the next time he can’t find something that’s in the most obvious expected spot.
With a sigh, she slides her chair out, getting up to make some more tea.
As it finishes heating, she’s barely pouring it when a knock knock from the door joins the sound of the rain.
Abandoning the steaming, warm drink, Namie goes to the door. Looking out, she recognizes the person and opens up.
“He’s out right now.”
“Ugh,” Mikage says. “I don’t know if I should be disappointed or relieved.”
“Well don’t summon him here. I’m not looking forward to his complaints about being too late to avoid the rain. Or any other aspect of interacting with him.”
“Hah, tell me about it. Trust me, I wouldn’t have come here if I didn’t have to.”
She steps aside, allowing Mikage to enter. The click of the door behind her is followed quickly by Namie’s footsteps clacking as she sits back at her desk. “If you have something for him you can leave it with me here and we’ll be sure to let you know he got it,” Namie says, gaze focused back on her computer where she resumes typing. “If it’s a conversation you’re after, you’re welcome to wait here, though I have no idea when he’ll be back. Alternatively, I can leave him a message and you can find him when he’s not causing problems elsewhere.”
“I’ve got time to kill now. Might as well wait around.” In her periphery, she sees Mikage wandering by the couch, dragging a hand along the top. She moves to the bookcase near his desk and plucks a book out at random, flipping through it.
Namie sighs at the realization she left her tea in the kitchen and looks over at it.
“What’s up?” Mikage asks.
Shaking her head, Namie finishes typing the line of text she’s on. “Just… my tea…” she says distractedly. Mikage walks across the room. Namie pays her no mind and keeps working.
Suddenly something is placed beside her and she looks over to find Mikage stepping back, and the cup of tea placed next to her. “Oh. Thank you.”
“No problem. Not like I’ve got anything else to do.”
“Can I get you any tea?”
Mikage shrugs. “I’ll get it.”
Only the rain, the sound of Mikage bustling around in the kitchen and the clacking of Namie’s hands on the keyboard fill the room for several minutes. Tea made, Mikage flops back onto the couch with a groan.
About half an hour passes, the rain has settled some and Namie has finished up most of what she had planned for the day. With a groan, she stretches her hands together above her head and cracks her back.
“You look hard at work.”
“Hm. You said you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t have to be,” Namie says. “But you agreed to work with him.” She glances over at her temporary companion, perched on the back of the couch with her hands together. “He have something over you?”
Mikage laughs. “Well, probably something…” Her smile looks a little self-depricating.
“You went to high school with him?”
“Huh? What, he’s mentioned me?”
“Well, yes, but I also have done my own digging on most of the people that have joined our pitiful little group.”
“Well, I see why you’re working with him.”
“He actually has something over me,” Namie finds herself confessing.
Minutes after this conversation, Namie is back to work after ignoring Mikage’s questioning look, while Mikage lounges on the couch again, when the door swings open to reveal a drenched and frowning Izaya Orihara.
“Let’s not,” he says without even a glance at Namie.
She spares him a glance and smirks. “Wouldn’t dream of it…” She waits til he visibly relaxes before speaking again. “Just wondering if the drowned rat ran into a cat?”
His back is to her but his posture is definitely still rigid, and she’s sure he’s gritting his teeth. “Here’s some warnings for you: umbrellas can destroy other umbrellas- and I am in charge of your pay.”
Namie frowns back herself, meeting Izaya’s intentionally smug grin. It’s only his shifting of attention that stops her from making an ironically scathing remark about his pettiness proving he lost.
“Mikage,” he says, turning the smirk onto her. “How nice of you to drop by.”
....
A mere couple of days later, Mikage is back.
“He’s out,” Namie says simply, bypassing her desk to make some tea. It comes to a boil and she grabs two mugs, placing one on her own desk and passing the other over to Mikage, who after a wide-eyed look takes it and nods.
“Thanks.”
She carries it around with her as she wanders the apartment. Namie leaves her to it, refocusing on work for a while. An uncertain amount of time passes when Mikage sighs.
“Shit this place is nice.”
“I suppose,” Namie replies with a sigh of her own, allowing herself the break.
“What? You been in better?”
“Oh definitely but mostly I just don’t care to say anything that might make him smug. He has too many ways of finding things out.”
Mikage finishes her sip of tea and shrugs. “I won’t tell if you don’t.”
Namie shakes her head.
"I wanna be honest here." Namie raises an eyebrow. "I'm here because I want to be."
"Here?"
"Both right now, right here, talking to you. And working for Izaya."
"I figured."
Mikage's gaze stays fixed on her tea so Namie turns her own back to her laptop screen. "My reasons aren't the same as they'd been in high school."
"Oh?"
....
It’s the following week, bright sunlight drifting in through the windows when there’s a knock on the door. Namie finds Mikage standing on the other side of the door. “If you keep this up I might start believing you're coming when he’s gone on purpose.”
“Well I can’t have every aspect of this job revolve solely around him. Especially since it’s become more than just a day job.”
“You can say that again.”
“Besides… I’m not like you and him… tracking specific movements based on expectations in general life isn’t my specialty.”
“Please refrain from lumping me in with him like that.”
“Swear I only mean it in the best ways.”
“So what is your specialty?”
“Tracking and responding to movements in a fight. Which I suppose you could say kind of is my general life.”
“Well that’s sure an important skill.”
Mikage sits back, leaning on Izaya’s desk, with her hands on the side. “You’re a little difficult to read.”
“You’re not,” Namie responds easily.
Mikage shrugs. “I guess I don’t often find myself needing to be indirect. And you seem like you’d be good at determining things even if I did try to hide them.”
“Well, at least you can read something about me.”
“Well, I have been trying.” Namie quirks one eyebrow at this as she glances at Mikage. A faint flush spreads across Mikage’s face and she goes silent for a few moments. “I wouldn’t know enough to do it on purpose, but I can’t say I’m disappointed in the chance to try to get to know you.”
Somehow, the admittance causes Namie pause. It’s not the idea of the words that surprises her; she’d had a strong feeling but… “You’re quite direct aren’t you.”
“Sometimes.” Despite this, Mikage isn’t really meeting her eyes now, and Namie squints at this. Some ideas begin to form in her head.
“You really know very little about me though.”
“I know.”
“There are some things you may not like too much.”
This time, Namie can now feel Mikage’s gaze on her and lets her own shift from her laptop to easily meet hers head-on. There’s an intensity in her expression. The silence follows for only a second or two. “I’m working for Izaya because I want to. I know I’m hardly involving myself in anything above board.”
“Izaya himself has told me I’m a terrible person.”
“Do you think he has the right to make that call?”
“I don’t really care either way. Just thought you might want to think about it.”
Several minutes of silence pass; Namie is quickly redirected toward her work and unconcerned that Mikage seems to have given up on the conversation.
“I don’t think it would be my call to decide whether or not you’re a terrible person either. And certainly not without all of the information. But from what I do know, I think, either way, you are someone I’d like to get to know more about.”
The door opens, Izaya sauntering smugly inside, saving Namie from having to give her response. She barely takes in any of Izaya and Mikage’s words to each other, as Mikage’s words to her repeat in her mind. They interest her in a way she can’t quite understand.