A/N: YAY FOR SEIDOU FLUFF! It's long overdue because I've been torturing the poor boy. So here, have some Office Realness

Anyway, requests are open! All you need to do is DM me and we'll talk about it! I'm not vicious I swear

Hesitation had struck the man speechless as he stood over your cubicle. His mouth had opened, signalling to you that he indeed had something today, but he couldn't quite spit it out. Takizawa felt himself start to sweat as you probably took him for a fool.

Feeling bad for the poor man that was obviously struck with some kind of public speaking anxiety, you initiated the conversation for him. Once again. "Didn't feel like working?" You joked. Although he vigorously shook his head, you knew better than to let him attempt to continue with the subject he was so obviously afraid of mentioning. You looked back at your own work with a turned up nose and disdain in your eyes. "Yeah, this paperwork's pretty boring."

"U-uh!" Was the only thing Takizawa could utter before he decided to give up. Again. "You're right, I suppose. My only motivation is that I get payed for doing it." He nervously scratched the back of his neck. As much as he tried, he couldn't hide the look of disappointment on his face. Why was it so scary to ask you out on a date? He had invited you to outings multiple time before (as friends, of course), so why was it so much more difficult? The words would be similar; it's nothing he hadn't done before. Yet, every time he walked over to you in an attempt to ask you out, his words had failed him and his brain went into overdrive.

The alternative to this was giving up and coping with his growing crush on you, which started to become an annoyance more than anything. Seidou couldn't just go to work everyday and pretend everything was okay between the two of you when, in reality, things weren't that okay. To him. Another thing that worried him was the (huge) possibility of you thinking of him as a friend and nothing more. He didn't want to ask you out on a date, which you'd refuse, and then have to haul through the awkwardness that came with the result of the situation.

"So..." he muttered, hoping that maybe his brain would figure out a subject of conversation. Usually, he was good at that and the two of you would engage in really interesting debates, but when he needed them most, his social skills went missing. "How about the weather, huh?" If Takizawa was able to, he would have taken a time machine and travelled back to a second ago to beat himself up for that one.

"Oh, come on! We're way past the small talk." You reminded him. If he didn't know any better, he'd say that you looked disappointed in his social skills. ...Did he know any better? "I heard rumours of a raid coming up." Your malicious smirk sent shivers down Seidou's spine. Although you didn't have a mean bone in your body, he still feared you when you gave him a smile like that. Takizawa always believed that you were supposed to have a mean bone somewhere in there, but the universe just forgot to give it to you.

"But did it come from reliable sources?" He questioned, leaning on your desk to give his legs a break. You opened your mouth to answer but Seidou cut you off. "And for the last time, Suzuya is not a reliable source." The two of you chuckled at the memory of a past mistake of yours.

"I learned my lesson, I swear!" You defensively exclaimed while raising your palms up in surrender. "But no, it didn't come from Suzuya this time. Actually, it was just a matter of being in the right place at the right time. I overheard some things."

There was a slight pause in which your colleague (and friend) leaned closer. When you didn't say anything else, he threw his hands up in the air in annoyance. "Well? You can't just leave me hanging! Did you get caught doing something wrong? Were you somewhere you weren't supposed to be again?"

"Something along the lines of that," you giggled. Given the wide eyes your friend shot your way, you assumed that he wanted to know the details. "I didn't do anything illegal, if that's what you're wondering. I was supposed to hand something to Marude-"

"Who the hell do you work with for you to be in contact with Marude?!" Seidou exclaimed. Obviously, neither of you were high enough to be included in the senior investigators' business. You rolled your eyes and waved off his confusion. He shut up and blushed a little after realizing that he had rudely interrupted you. "Sorry." He muttered as you gave him a smile to ensure he knew you weren't bothered by it.

"I wasn't directly tasked with it, Seidou, if that's what you're worried about. It just went down from rank to rank because no one wanted to bring the files to him and no one, and I quote, 'had the time'. Because apparently junior investigators have all the time in the world on their hands." You then hatefully eyed your stack of paperwork that was yet to be completed. "I'm walking in the hallway, and I was planning to get to his office, but I heard voices in one of the conference rooms. So obviously, I made a detour - for important purposes, of course."

"(Y/N)! There are cameras in that hallway!" Seidou reminded you. His concern for your job (and by extension your financial stability) was heartwarming, truly, but you knew that your chances of losing your job were low due to your excuse that you were just looking for Marude. "You could have gotten fired!"

"And leave you here with no emotional support? I think not. I take one day off and when I come back you're moments away from crucifying Mado. I'm the peacekeeper here and I take my job very seriously, Takizawa. Actually, I think the higher ups know about that job too, which is why I'm still here."

Let's be honest here; the true reason for you staying (and making a conscious effort not to get promoted too quickly) was because of how much fun you had with Seidou. You were afraid that if one of you climbed the ranks too quickly in comparison to the other, you'd lose touch. And then you'd get lonely. Seidou was an amazing person; you wouldn't even mind spending the rest of your life with him, whether that was amorously or platonically. For a while, you had the suspicion that he might feel the same about you, but you didn't get enough time to figure out just how he perceived you yet. It was coming along pretty smoothly, though. Just today gave you a few hints.

"Anyways, I get closer to the door and I'm listening, when I hear one of the Washuus say something about Aogiri. Then I was hooked for good." And so was Takizawa, as soon as you mentioned the ghoul organization. "All I heard was that they might have found a potential hideout thanks to satellite cameras before someone in the meeting called me out for eavesdropping. So I was smart enough to just say I was here for Marude. They let me in, I gave Marude his papers and I left. And look at me! I'm still alive and I still have a job!"

Disregarding your last statement, Takizawa groaned. "We're gonna try to disband Aogiri or what?"

"I don't know." You shrugged. "Obviously, Aogiri's too big for us to just... eliminate. I didn't exactly stay long enough to hear about the goal of the raid. It's probably something to do with the fact that Aogiri keeps taking down our investigators in the first ward, honestly." You leaned back into your seat and stretched your arms above your head. Maybe you should get back on your paperwork before you had to stay for overtime.

Seidou must have read your thoughts, because he abruptly got up and brushed himself off. "Well..! Those files aren't gonna fill themselves up, huh? I should probably go too, I got some solved cases I need to close up for Houji." He hesitated, giving you the same look he had on his face when he arrived to your desk, a few minutes ago. His mouth opened but yet again, he was rendered speechless.

Just then, by miracle, Takizawa's superior walked by. "Chop chop, Takizawa! Those papers need to be completed for tonight." Houji reminded him, tapping his wristwatch with his index finger. Although the man was kind and patient to all, you could see right through him. He was a bit frustrated that the rank 2 investigator was wasting his time talking to you instead of doing what he was paid for.

"R-right!" Seidou exclaimed, freezing in place. "I'll do that right away sir!" He gave you one last glance, obviously wishing he could say what he had struggled with saying for the past week or so.

Oh hell no, you weren't about to let him leave you in the dark like that. You didn't exactly know what he wanted to say, but enough was enough. It was time for you to be the bigger person and show him that saying what you think isn't that difficult. And how does one do that? Self-humiliation, of course.

"Seidou!" You called out as soon as Houji was gone. The brunette turned back to you with a child-like curiosity in his eyes. "I'm really sorry if I'm stepping out of line, but are you free this Friday night?"

Takizawa's heart rate started increasing at your inquiry. He both liked and hated where this was heading. "Yeah, I am. Why?"

"If you want, I'll take you out somewhere nice. Call it a date if you will." You gave him a nice little smile and made sure to put some emphasis on the word 'date', just so that there would be zero confusions. At least one of you had the balls to ask the other one out.

"A..." It took all his strength to not choke on his saliva. "A date?" He questioned. Had he heard right? There was no way. There was no way that you'd ask him out like that, out of the blue. There was no way his crush was requited. There was no way you beat him at his own proposition. You could never, ever know that he had been meaning to ask you out today or the other days before that. If you heard, he would never hear the end of it.

"Yeah! Only if you want to, though. But I really like you, so I thought we could maybe step things up if you wanted!" How the hell did you manage to remain so confident? The two of you were asking yourselves that same question.

"Yeah! Yeah, I'd love to!" Takizawa energetically nodded, allowing a large smile to enlighten his face. Oh, he was absolutely adorable. But then, he remembered where he was and why he was here. "B-but I need to go for now! We're still on the clock after all. I'll text you sometime this week and we can figure out the details?" Yeah, 'some time this week'. Sure, as if he wasn't just going to text you the second he was off work today. How could he not? This was an amazing opportunity! And the fact that you wanted the same thing as him was so relieving.

"Sounds like a plan!" You agreed. As he walked away, you witnessed him almost trip over a trash can and tried your very best to conceal your laughter. The result was the ugliest snort you ever made. Takizawa turned back, glaring daggers at you as you placed a hand over your mouth to hide your smile. You ignored his attempts to make you promise not to say a word about his little accident with the trash can to anyone.

EXTENDED ENDING (because I literally can't leave the poor boy alone without an ounce of angst)

You could say your date was somewhat of a success, considering that you were still together seven months later.

You curled up next to Seidou, the both of you busy watching news you were already aware of on the TV. It was pretty late at night, but neither of you could sleep. And besides, you felt bad for going to sleep before your boyfriend's mom came back from her outing with her friends. So, during, you took the chance to act a bit more affectionate with Takizawa than you did in front of her (any signs of PDA in front of her resulted in endless teasing for the both of you). And you also took the chance to mock him for still living with his mother, to which he whined and tried (and failed) to explain his reasoning.

You felt the brunette give you a kiss on the crown of your head while the newscast channel switched to commercials. "Have you or a loved one been diagnosed with mesothelioma-" As soon as you heard that sentence, you closed the television at the speed of light.

"Urgh, I hate that commercial." You complained while Seidou chuckled. "They play it like ten times a day! Anyone would get annoyed by it!"

"It just tells me that you watch too much TV if you counted how many times it played in a day." Your boyfriend teased while you rolled your eyes. You swatted at his shoulder instead of verbally telling him to shut up.

A semi-uncomfortable silence took over the two of you. Neither wanted to talk about the elephant in the room. In fact, it was that tension that had motivated Michie to get out of the house in the first place. She would have been so disappointed in the two of you if she saw that you still refused to talk about it.

Maybe it was that thought that motivated you into finally addressing the subject. "Seidou?"

Your boyfriend didn't immediately answer you. He knew exactly what you were about to say, and he wasn't exactly comfortable with talking about it. However, he knew that it was childish to keep on living the rest of the week pretending as if it wouldn't happen.

"I..." He cleared his throat when he noticed that his voice was a bit shaky. The events of that night were still fresh in his memory and he didn't exactly enjoy that mental breakdown. Take two of Trying to Speak coming right up. "I wrote my will, yeah. Did you?"

"Yeah." You answered, keeping the contents of your will to yourself. You felt that if you told him who you had included, what you said, then it'd be the same as accepting that a week from now, you might be dead. It was too scary of a thing for you to do. "Why does this raid feel so... terrifying?" You asked, craning your neck so that you could see him. Takizawa had his eyes set on a wall far away, but it wasn't enough to hide the tears pooling up in his eyes.

"I don't know." He muttered. He sharply inhaled before focusing his gaze back on you. "Promise me you'll do everything to survive. Even if you have to run away, do it. Do it if it means you'll live."

"I could get fired for that-"

"I don't care! Fired is better than dead, (Y/N), is it not?" You kept the brunette's intense stare, almost as if you were challenging him. In the end, you gave in to his demand, but on one condition.

"Okay, then promise me you'll do the same." You stubbornly shot back.

"I promise." Seeing as Seidou had answered you with no hesitation, you felt bad that you didn't do the same. It seemed that this time (for the first time ever), you were the one hesitating. If the situation wasn't as serious as it was, you might have joked about it and compared yourself to Seidou on the day he tried to ask you out (yeah, that's right, you do know what he was up to that day).

"I promise as well." And you knew he'd keep his promise, because you were set on keeping yours.