Rui isn't sure what she'd been expecting to come of this impromptu rendezvous, but somehow, this isn't it.

    She wraps both hands snugly around her steaming mug of coffee (strong and black, and just bitter enough to throw off some of her fatigue), willing the warmth seeping into her frigid fingers to flush out the ice that's taken root in her veins as of late. It's a small comfort given the anxiety she's been laboring under, but it helps, if only slightly. She brings the mug to her lips, sipping slowly in an effort to avoid scalding her tongue, peeking at Hinata over the lip.

    He's actually flirting with her, of all things.

    She thinks, anyway. Truth be told she's never been very adept at spotting the charms of others, but this feels like flirting. A strange warmth, different someone from the heat wafting up from her drink, envelops their conversation, and she's begun to suspect it has something to do with Hinata's ever-present smile.

    "Rui-chan?"

    She blinks.

    "Y-Yes?"

    "You're looking a little flushed there... coffee too hot?"

    She can feel it now, the heat licking at her cheeks. Setting the mug down she slaps her hands over her reddening cheeks, a subtle curse on her lips. What is she, a love-struck high-schooler? People flirt all the time; some do it unconsciously.

    Just because you're inexperienced doesn't mean it means something for everyone else... calm down....

    "Something like that," she mumbles, deciding to leave the coffee alone for now.

    Hinata sips from his own mug, head cocked a bit, like he's considering her. She watches his eyes, looking for cues as to where this conversation might be heading. They've danced around with small-talk for a while now, idle chit-chat. The kind she's horrible with. She's no great conversationalist, and she never has been; something stimulating needs to be introduced for her to talk for any great length of time.

    Still, she supposes it wouldn't be a wild idea for her to slip in an interesting topic herself once in awhile.

    "Hinata-kun" - something in her utterly rejects the idea of addressing someone so intimately even after only speaking to them once, and she can tell from the amused glint in Hinata's brown eyes that her discomfort is audible - "you were wondering why I haven't been going into work at the usual time, right?"

    His eyebrows lift curiously as he settles in his chair, arms slung casually over the back. She can't read him as well as she'd like to, and it bothers her more than she (hopefully) lets on.

    "Sorta?" he says, shrugging. "I mean, it's more that I'm interested in you, Rui-chan. But yeah, I'd be lying if I say I hadn't thought about it. 'Salways weird when people break habits."

    It doesn't process at first, what he says. It takes a moment for her to digest the implications of his words, and then she's sent on a dizzying spiral of thought, trying to decode them. Hinata must see how he's unhinged her, but he says nothing of it. It's probably what he's going for, anyway; the more Rui sees of him, the more she hears from him... he's been around, in more ways than one. Rui wouldn't consider herself sheltered by any means, but in terms of worldly experiences, she admits she's lacking - much more than she should be for someone who tried to hack it out as Ikehara Kaori's trainee.

Rui's phone suddenly feels twice as heavy in her pocket.

"I, uh, well, I just thought... You're nice, Hinata-kun, and..."

"I'm not expecting anything, ya know. We don't know each other all that well, Rui-chan."

"I... I know that. But... it makes it... easier to talk about. You not knowing me... makes it..."

Her shoulders tense as his fingers brush the back of her hand, and her gaze falls to the table. She swallows thickly. Unconsciously, her hand had abandoned her mug to clench into a trembling fist atop the table. Hinata's fingers expertly work between hers, his touch soft and delicate, to uncurl her nails from her already-abused palm. She notices the unnatural heat of his hand, compares it to the lukewarm mug she still cradles in her other hand.

Hinata catches her eye and grins as encouragement.

"Don't worry about it, Rui-chan. Unload all ya want."

She hadn't planned on talking about this - Kaori, her grief, the unyielding pain that throbs within her chest with every beat of her heart - with anyone, let alone a perfect stranger. But she said it herself - the anonymity is a blessing in situations such as this. He can't judge her the way a close friend could, and even if he did, what would it matter? Rui could choose the end their relationship here, sever ties with him and never endure his scrutiny again.

So she tells him. In graphic, emotional detail, she relays all the darkness of her recent thoughts, the stress, the terror. The sleepless nights, the distance from work. Everything she couldn't possibly tell First-Class Ghoul Investigator Nomura Shin, regardless of whether or not it's related to Kaori's case.

She purses her lips once she's finished, eyes closed. Saying it all out loud... it lessened the burden in her head a bit. Like a balloon had been taking up residence in her skull all this time without her realizing it, and now it's finally deflated to allow her brain space enough to think.

"...Ikehara-san, huh?"

Rui feels his hand tighten around her own, which draws her attention away from the chipped wood of the table's edge. He isn't looking at her, his gaze fastened on something outside the window they're seated in front of. Or, perhaps more likely, he isn't looking at anything at the moment; the faraway gleam of his eyes is one she knows all too well. Kaori wears it often enough whenever she's elbow-deep in one of her cases.

It's a look Rui hasn't seen in weeks, and a sudden ache of longing pangs in her heart.

"Did you--" Rui bites her tongue. She needs to stop referring to Kaori in the past tense; it'll only drive her further to madness. "Do you know Ikehara-san...?"

"No, not really. I read her stuff, that's about it."

So like Amon-san, then.

She isn't surprised. Se can't be, really. Kaori, despite having such a vibrant and outgoing personality, doesn't make a habit of befriending people outside of work. She doesn't see a need for it, as far as Rui can tell, which she's never quite understood. Isn't it natural to seek companionship? Even animals look for others of their own kind - for the most part. She has heard loner types among the animal kingdom, those who actively keep away from their kin, usually to establish some sort of dominance. She supposes Kaori could be like that; she's got the spirit for it, if nothing else.

But Rui... she can't shake the idea that it just isn't right for anyone - anything - to be on their own forever. Maybe that's why she took to Kaori so quickly in the first place, maybe she sensed something lonely in her.

Or maybe she was just jealous of her.

The pressure on her hand snaps Rui from her head again.

"But you're close to her," Hinata continues. "She seems like a good person. Tad too reckless for her own good, though."

A faint chuckle escapes her.

"That's putting it nicely and you know it, Hinata-kun."

"Hey, a smile! Looks good on ya, Rui-chan."

And there she goes, flushing again. She ducks her head, pulling her hand from his grip. This can't be happening. She doesn't need a schoolgirl crush right now; it'd only hinder her efforts to find Kaori, to bring her home.

What she needs to be doing right now... is wheedling information out of Shin. She's not horrible at it, since it's a specialty of Kaori's that she's been trying to impart on Rui since their mentorship began a year ago. However - and thinking about this Rui frowns, heavy creases appearing between her brows - she can't exactly rely on her feminine wiles the way Kaori does; something tells her any attempt at seduction would yield less than satisfactory results from Shin.

But, regardless of all that, it doesn't mean she needs to be rude, either.

"Thanks, Hinata-kun," she murmurs. "You were right - the coffee really hit the spot."

She ignores the fact that she hardly touched her drink. It sits loosely in her left hand's hold, the steam having long-since dissipated. She absently swirls it around in the mug, gathering the dregs into the center, just for something to occupy her hand with her phone so close.

Though Hinata looks as if he wants to say something regarding her obvious lie, he seems to refrain, and instead nods.

"Coffee's a cure for all ailments, if ya ask me," he grins.

She wonders about that. Sure she knows a handful of caffeine-fanatics, but those same people use it as literal fuel for their online-gaming antics, the kind she's never been interested in (mostly because she doesn't have the reflexes for them). Coffee, for her, doesn't have any magical qualities. Hinata, though, he may have been just what she needed right then - even if it kills her to admit it.

Rui's just about to insist she'll be paying for her own bill (despite not having thought to grab her wallet on her way out) when she and Hinata both look up at the sound of the bell above the door chiming. This one, much like the ding of her apartment's elevator, seems to mock her with its cheeriness, as if it senses her dour mood and feels the need to remind her that the rest of world doesn't care what she's going through. She scowls at the thought, however ludicrous it is - but the expression stays fixed to her features when she catches sight of the cafe's latest patron.

"Oh, God," she breathes, heart sinking, much to Hinata's puzzlement.

He sees her in the same heartbeat and pauses mid-step, hand halfway slid into the inside pocket of his suit jacket. By the outline she can see pressed against the suit, he's clenched his fist; but it relaxes before he's pulled it out again, and any feelings she might have had about his reaction to seeing her are cast aside as he makes his way towards their table, brushing past other customers with a complacent business-like smile.

"Kitamura-san, fancy meeting you here," he greets.

"Oh, right... It's..."

It isn't nice to see him. Quite the opposite, if she's being honest. Their last phone conversation left a bitter remnant in the pit of Rui's stomach that she's yet to rid herself of, and just seeing his face brings to mind the violent swirl of anger and frustration she felt at being told she's to have nothing to do with Kaori's case.

It must show on her face, because Hinata leans forward in his seat, dropping his elbow - loudly - onto the table, cheek resting on his knuckles. His smile is as infectious as it is terrible; so very different from the pretty-boy grin he'd been using on her all this time.

"You're Nomura-san, right?" he asks, without preamble. Rui starts at first, but then recalls she gave a fairly accurate depiction of Shin in her whining to Hinata; still, she's surprised he'd recognize the man so easily. "The investigator Rui-chan's been talking to about Ikehara-san?"

Shin doesn't miss how casually Hinata refers to her; she can see it reflected in his eyes, how he turns over this new information, likely guessing they're quite close to be calling each other by their first names. Somehow, it pleases her to know he's got it wrong about them, even if it's the logical assumption to make.

"That's correct," Shin replies, and there's a familiar edge to his voice that Rui finds difficult to place. The first time she'd heard it, it conveyed an urgency that she thought contradicted his personality; now, it wraps around his words like armor, shielding his intentions from even her discerning ears. "And you're... what? The boyfriend? Kitamura-san didn't strike me as the type to, well... associate with punks."

"I happen to be a respectable member of society, man!"

"I sincerely doubt that."

"Just 'cause you've got a pole up your ass doesn't mean I'm--"

Rui abruptly stands from her seat, the chair legs scraping harshly over the cafe's polished floors. Dozens of eyes follow the grating sound back to its source, and she knows - she just knows - that her face explodes with a fierce, embarrassed heat but she doesn't care. Because Shin can manage to piss off even the easy-going Hinata in less than two sentences. Because this is downright ridiculous, two grown men tossing insults back and forth like preteens. Because Rui is just done with today.

Her brief respite with Hinata has ended, and she is acutely aware that she's been thrust back into the real world - where death abounds and her heart aches with a consistent vengeance she doesn't have the strength to refute.

"Nomura-san," she says, trying not to speak the words through gritted teeth, "please just go back to... whatever you came here for. Coffee, I guess. I have to go. Somewhere. Home. Just..."

She leaves it at that, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth to keep from spouting any more nonsense. She's not good under stress; it's just another of her many, many faults, though Kaori says this one in particular is somehow endearing. Rui still hasn't decided if she was simply being nice when she mentioned it, or if it really was another of Kaori's roundabout compliments.

Hinata rises as if to follow her, but she waves a hand, asking him to stay put. He may have been her ride here, but she'll be damned if she rides on that bike twice in one day. It's a death trap if she's ever seen one. Shin's arrival has just given her a convenient excuse to refuse Hinata's offer of a ride home.

Rui dips her head to apologize Hinata about the bill, and even though he assures her it's nothing to worry about, she resolves to scrounge together her half of the check and return it to him later. She isn't sure which apartment is his, but she supposes they'll see one another again at some point if she simply keeps an eye out for him.

She's halfway to the do when Shin calls her back.

Running a fidgety hand through her hair, Rui looks back over her shoulder to see he's caught up with her. It irritates her how put-together he seems when her own life is in shambles. Even his mess of dark hair looks styled to perfection. Something inside her finds him intensely disagreeable because of this.

"Kitamura-san, you weren't hungry?"

Out of all the things he could have asked me...

"I'm sorry?"

"You and your friend... you only had coffee?"

"That is something people do, Nomura-san."

"Of course."

Rui narrows her eyes. Shin isn't telling her everything, or even asking what he really wants to. His brows are drawn together, his lips are pursed; the line of his shoulders is too tense to be natural. But she's in no position to delve into his personal problems, nor would she really want to, given the choice. So she offers another tight smile - her second of the day.

"Then I'm going, Nomura-san."

And he doesn't stop her.