Work Text:
The knock at the door came as he was drying his hair. Showering with two broken legs and a (mostly healed) bullet wound was an exercise in patience, flexibility and getting creative. But, as with anything, he was adapting. He'd managed to whittle down the time it took to wrap his legs and upper chest considerably. The shower chair and bucket he'd bought were extremely helpful. Still, he was tired of the whole affair and looked forward to the day he'd get full use of his legs back.
He didn't have a shirt on yet, but it was just Vicky, no one else came to see him. His chief had not been pleased with his decision to leak the information Lupin gave him to the press. As such he'd been given strict orders to remain here, out in the countryside while the ICPO and various other agencies with "jurisdiction", "proper cause" and "warrants" worked through everything. As if he cared about all that. Where Lupin went, he followed.
Besides, it wasn't like they hadn't learned anything about the place on their initial pass through. Despite obvious attempts to destroy computers on the island, they were still able to recover quite a bit of information. The picture painted by the recovered data wasn't pretty. There was other evidence to find too, if you knew what to look for. Vicky had been a good sport about helping him reach hard to reach places, but for the most part he'd kept up with, or sped past many of the other people there. It became less exciting and more serious the more they'd found.
He'd worried, just for a moment, about Lupin when they'd come across the information about the poison tattoos. But Lupin was Lupin, if anyone could figure out a way out of being poisoned it was him. Still, he did regret that he hadn't had the chance to see him on the island.
There was another knock at the door. Vicky had relaxed around him considerably in their time together, but he could still be so formal at times. It wasn't like he locked the door, there was no need to around these parts. "You can come in."
But it wasn't Vicky who walked through the door. "Lupin!" It was his rival, customary red suit and all, making no efforts to hide his appearance. Much like the last time he'd seen him, he even had a fruit basket.
Zenigata pat himself down for handcuffs before he remembered he was only wearing shorts. "Pops, it's good to see you too! Feel free not to get up on my account though." The thief near glided further into the room and placed the basket on the inspector's lap. "Now, now, settle down some old man. Those are some serious injuries, even for you."
Lupin looked around the place, a quick endeavor considering how small the place was. "Well it's not exactly the Ritz, but I like it, it suits you somehow. Maybe it's the rustic charm of it all. The poster is a nice touch."
Zenigata gave up on the handcuffs (for now) and watched his rival. Lupin sounded fine and he looked alright, but something seemed a bit off. He seemed more subdued than usual. Which made sense, the island incident hadn't been that long ago. Even though he no longer bore the poisonous spider, that didn't mean he didn't still have other things weighing on his mind about it all.
Zenigata hated that he didn't know all the details about what went on there (a significant amount of his being depended on knowing things about Lupin, from major to mundane). But he had seen Lupin flying in a jet with a young woman, the same young woman whom they found in a freshly dug grave. Though he wasn't supposed to work on the case, an old friend had told him the bullet she was killed with was the same kind he'd been shot with. It wasn't hard to come to the conclusion that she had died helping Lupin in some capacity or, if not, that Lupin might feel responsible in some way.
Though he didn't make a habit of saying it out loud, he knew Lupin was a good man and generally reliable partner. It was entirely possible he was still upset and might not have had the time to really sit with everything. Or maybe he had, who could say? Although Zenigata's job and desire for justice, relied on Lupin being behind bars and eventually reformed, Zenigata was also a man used to dealing with numerous emotions. If Lupin needed space, he would give him that, just this once.
"Lupin." The thief turned around, no doubt hearing the change in Zenigata's tone. "Though I don't know all the specifics about what happened on the island with Tarantula, I know it must have been hard for you." He put his hand up to stop Lupin from saying anything. "And though you don't have to talk about any of it, you don't have to pretend you're alright with me." He sighed. "It's not like I'm in the position to arrest you right now anyway."
Lupin looked at him and whatever he saw made him relax slightly. "Well it wasn't my most fun island vacation, I'll tell you that much." He stuck his hands in his pockets and looked out of the window he once broke. They sat there, the silence something peaceful and genuine.
Lupin suddenly snapped his fingers, as if he remembered something. "I almost forgot, here I was giving you this basket and I forgot to say thank you. I knew giving you the information was the right move. It will be hard to get the people who backed Tarantula, but this is a good first step."
Zenigata felt his cheeks warm, as they usually did when Lupin complimented him. (Inwardly he did sigh a bit. If Lupin wanted to change the subject he'd let the thief do as he liked. It wasn't as if he was a mental health professional.) "I was just doing my job."
"And what a fine job you did!" Lupin came in closer and nudged his shoulder. "Though I'm sure your bosses weren't happy about that."
Zenigata shrugged. "They'll live." And they would, they could hardly fire him for finding all that information. The media blow back alone would have been incredibly bad PR.
When Lupin laughed it sounded and looked like he was closer to his usual self. While he studied Lupin, Lupin looked back at him and the thief's eyes dropped to his legs. "Ya know Pops, you have all this space, but not a single signature on your casts. That's a shame. But don't you worry, I'm going to fix that."
Now it was Lupin's turn to pat himself down, only he was able to successfully turn up a pen. Zenigata opened his mouth to object, but then thought about it. He wasn't allowed to travel back home until after his casts were removed. The only one who would see it would likely be his doctor, a few locals and Vicky. As long as Lupin didn't write anything too wild, it should be fine. "Alright, but don't write any insults or lies okay? And especially don't sign it with your name or symbol please."
Lupin held his hand to his chest in mock hurt, the other already clicking the pen. "Pops, please, would I do that?"
Zenigata looked at him, unamused. "Yes." The thief shrugged, no longer interested in keeping up the charade.
"Yeah, that's fair. But I won't do it this time." Lupin quickly went on his knees and wrote out something before popping back up to sit on the bed with him. The cast now read: To my favorite inspector, XO.
Now Zenigata felt annoyed. "I thought I told you not to lie on it?"
Lupin rolled his eyes. "I didn't lie, you are my favorite inspector." He rubbed his chin as he thought. "Unless you don't mean that part?" Zenigata opened his mouth to ask what he meant, when the thief suddenly kissed his cheek. While he sat there shocked Lupin carefully climbed into his lap (after setting the basket aside) and hugged him.
Zenigata stiffened his core on instinct to keep from falling backwards, then relaxed as he realized Lupin wasn't putting much weight on him, likely due to his latest bullet wound. It was nice. Lupin was warm and he smelled like something expensive and spicy.
"You're really comfortable Pops, and warm too. Do you mind if I stay here a bit? I'll be out of your hair by morning." Zenigata couldn't see Lupin's face, but he sounded genuine enough.
Zenigata hesitated. "Alright, but you have to be gone before 10 am. That's when Vicky will come by."
"You got it Pops! Oh boy a slumber party, we probably shouldn't do anything too strenuous, what with your injuries and all. But we can still braid our hair and talk about boys. Though it might get awkward if we talk about each other. Maybe we can do our nails instead?" For all his talking, Lupin didn't actually move, opting instead to slowly lean more of his weight onto Zenigata.
It was fine, he could put all the weight he wanted on him. He was inspector Koichi Zenigata and he would always be able to handle whatever Lupin threw at him.
(If Vicky thought anything about the words on his cast, that next day, he declined to say anything about it.)