Souvenirs [2/2]

[honou_no_izumi]

Title: Souvenirs
Series: ガリレオ/Galileo
Characters: Kishitani Misa, Kuribayashi Hiromi, Utsumi Kaoru, Yukawa Manabu etc
Summary: After a long trip, there should be some souvenirs. Kishitani Misa stayed to wait for the professor, only to witness more than she expected to see.

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"Here, Kuribayashi-san..."

Kuribayashi glanced up to see a small box placed on the desk, in front of him. It was a camper's mug, from the Museum of Osteology Oklahoma. He turned to look towards Utsumi.

"This... Utsumi-kun, you don't have to... there's no need—"

Utsumi shrugged. "It's nothing much. And I haven't really thanked you enough for helping me in the past. You didn't really want to but did it anyway because Yukawa-sensei asked you and that must have inconvenienced you all these years. And you've always been the most disapproving of Yukawa's involvement with the police. Considering you've even begged me to stop coming that one time—"

Kuribayashi waved it off, slightly flustered. "Never mind that. I've already accepted that inevitable fate. I can never stop him if he still wants to get involved with police business. Anyway, I've been wanting to ask—Utsumi-kun, you really looked different with your bangs cut evenly like that," he added.

She grinned. "Well, thank you. A friend suggested that I changed my hairstyle—" Utsumi glanced towards Yukawa before addressing Kuribayashi again. "I was told that she was once an alumnus of this university. Shionoya Akari... was her name. You know her, right. She specifically mentioned that she was of physics major... and told me to send you her regards,"

Kuribayashi's eyes brightened up in recognition. "Oh, Shionoya-kun! Eh... you met her in Oklahoma?"

Utsumi nodded.

"I remember her telling me that she decided to become a police officer before. So, Oklahoma?" Yukawa suddenly spoke up.

She turned around from Kuribayashi's desk and approached him. "Yeah, we met by chance. She's currently working at one of the forensic laboratories there as part of the scientific analyst team, which was how we met. I heard a lot of interesting stories about you from her,"

Yukawa got up from his desk. "I supposed that explains it, you got some help from Shionoya. I was wondering why your presentation earlier seemed so good..."

Utsumi hissed at him. "I still did most of the research myself! Akari-chan only did some of the proofreadings, fact-checking—even then, I ended up improvising half of it!"

Yukawa laughed, as Kuribayashi excused himself loudly. He turned to see the older man leaving before Utsumi started to look at her watch.

"Oh! It's already this late! I better—" She started reaching out for her luggage as Yukawa grabbed the handle and pulled the luggage bag away from her.

"Kusanagi's coming over in a bit, you're going to join me for a drink with him tonight. No refusals,"

"Hey! Yukawa! Give it back!"

He glanced towards the paper bag, still on the table. "Oh, what's this? I thought you've already given out all of the souvenirs you brought over besides that other coin set. Who's this for?" Yukawa exclaimed as he took out another small box, that seemed to have been specially-wrapped; unlike the other presents.

"That's for Kusanagi! Give it back, and my luggage too!" Utsumi cried out as Yukawa held them both hostage.

Yukawa frowned at her, before putting Kusanagi's present into his pants pocket. "You didn't get anything for me?"

Utsumi rolled her eyes at him. "I've already got you so many, throughout the year—!"

Yukawa turned around, grabbing his suitcase along the way. "Fine, you're staying at my place tonight. That should be enough of a compensation for me. It's nearer compared to yours anyway and you didn't need to worry about staying out too late after we're done. What a great plan!"

Utsumi's eyes widened after hearing that. "Stay over at your place? That was too fast—!" She ran over before stopping abruptly, as Yukawa leaned over a bit too close to her face.

"Why not? It's been a year since you went back to your apartment, you probably need to have it cleaned up. And you also probably didn't have any food at home, so even if you got hungry later you'd still have to go out to buy some. And you're still a woman, living alone. Even if you're also a police officer, there's no guarantee that you'd be fine going back home by yourself tonight. That aside, my apartment was clean and I can cook, as you've already known. You should be tired from all the travelling by now, so it's better if you stay over."

Utsumi gave him a long look. "You're already aware that I should be exhausted after the trip back here, and you still want me to join you to meet up with Kusanagi?" She placed her hands on her waist. "Is this because you're mad that I didn't get you anything more? What a childish boyfriend!"

Yukawa didn't answer, as Utsumi sighed.

"Fine, you win. I'll stay over... and accompany you for the night. Cheeky," she pouted, before following Yukawa out.

While waiting for Kusanagi to pick them up, Utsumi turned towards Yukawa. "Actually... your present's in the luggage bag. It's a bother to carry around and it was the biggest compared to the others." She glanced over and saw that he was smiling again.

"And why did you want another T-Rex? Didn't I already send you one before? It just happened that I found a slightly different model than the one I got before, so I got that for you. What are you? A T-Rex maniac?"

Yukawa started humming a tune to himself as Utsumi kicked his leg lightly. She pouted again.

"Why on earth did I fall in love with this nerd?"