A/N: I NEVER WROTE ABOUT TAKEOMI BEFORE OOOOOF. This was requested by

I'm sorry if Takeomi's OOC ;^;

"Mutsuki, watch ou-" It was too late. Before you could tell your friend to watch out for the men walking your way, the boy ran into one of them, causing the whole squad to turn towards you. You nearly shrunk at the amount of (terrifying) attention that settled on you both.

"We're sorry!" You both exclaimed, bowing in front of the intimidating men.

Once you both got up, you made brief eye contact with one of the guys from the squad but was quickly snapped out of your daze by Mutsuki dragging you away.

"What a bunch of push overs." A superior grumbled as Takeomi watched the two of you (run) walk away.

"They don't look like Quinxes at all." Another one added, frowning.

"Now, now, don't judge a book by its cover." Kuramoto jokingly scolded. "I'm sure those two can be quite scary in their own ways. And besides, they're co-workers, we should be nice to them."

Scary... You looked no where near scary in Takeomi's opinion. If anything, innocent might be the word Itou was looking for.

"Got your head in the clouds, Kuroiwa?" Kuramoto teased, looking at the two ghoul investigators fleeing. "Got a thing for one of them already? I didn't think you'd go soft this fast!"

Takeomi simply looked forwards once again and caught up with his squad, deciding not to answer Itou, knowing the teasing would never end if he did.

"Ah, which one is it?" Itou inquired. "Is it Mutsuki? (L/N)? Maybe it is Mutsuki... (L/N), maybe? Ah, Kuroiwa, answer your superior!"

Takeomi did nothing of the sorts. He already knew he was never going to hear the end of it. It wasn't worth the trouble.

••••

"Hah? What do you mean we have to work with the Itou squad?" You asked, not hiding the grimace on your face. "They're scary!"

"Are you saying we're not?" Shirazu questioned, a tad bit offended.

"Have you seen us? We look like a gang of lost puppies! We can't cooperate as a squad, who's to say we can cooperate with another squad to join forces? Not me!" You explained, causing Haise to frown.

"We're a good squad!" He exclaimed.

"Ask that to Urie, I'm curious about whether or not he thinks the same." You nodded towards the male who instantly rolled his eyes once you mentioned him.

Haise sighed. "It doesn't matter, we're still going to help them with this ghoul." He sternly said, causing you to sigh. "Besides, they're coming over for information about the case, so you better all behave." He glanced at you and Shirazu at the mention of the word 'behave'. Of course he would.

"God save our souls." You muttered right when the door bell of the Chateau rang. Why right now? You had already met Itou a few weeks prior and probably gave him a very bad first impression along with Mutsuki... This was going to be painfully embarrassing.

"Ah, Itou, welcome!" You heard Haise greet from the entrance, probably welcoming the squad and guiding them towards the living room where you were all seated (minus Saiko, of course).

You awkwardly shifted on the couch, watching as the squad walked into the living room, taking in the foreign look the Chateau had. It's not every day you walk into a western-style three story house, after all.

"Uh, welcome..." You shyly greeted, eyes immediately going to the familiar face you recognized. He was the guy with Itou, the day Mutsuki bumped into the mean investigator... Obviously, he was a Kuroiwa as well. The facial features said it all. He was a pretty one, wasn't he?

"Make yourselves at home!" Haise cheerfully said, settling down in a char himself. "We have a lot to discuss on the case."

"It seems we do." Itou answered with a smirk before shooting a knowing glance towards you and Takeomi.

••••

You sulked in your corner, quinque in hand as you watched Takeomi mess with his own weapon.

"We'll put (L/N) and Kuroiwa together at the exit in case things go wrong and the ghoul tries to escape." Itou had said. It'll be fun, Itou had said.

Yes, great idea to put you with the quiet but pretty boy for hours straight. That won't make you feel flustered and awkward at all.

"So... Not a talkative one, huh?" You finally asked, giving him a soft smile, praying he'd at least answer you. Or praying that the awkward tension that settle between the two of you would go away.

"Oh? Uh, no, it's just that there's nothing much I have to say." He answered. Oh gosh, even his voice sounded so nice.

"I see. You're pretty serious about your job, aren't you?" You questioned, hoping to make conversation or something similar to that.

Kuroiwa nodded. "I just... I guess I want to improve and that's the best way to do so. And you?"

"About my job?" He nodded again. "Well, uh... I'm just doing this to support my family, really... But I guess I still try to take it seriously."

Takeomi frowned. He had always been against parents forcing their kids to do something they didn't want to do. "I'm sorry."

"Oh, don't be!" You quickly said, realizing he had gotten the wrong idea. "They didn't force me into this! I wanted to help them to repay for everything they've done for me, so here I am!"

His expression lightened considerably at your words. Your kindness was admirable and Takeomi loved it. It wasn't everyday someone becomes a CCG Investigator not to avenge their parents after their death, but support them through life.

"That's a beautiful thing to do." He commented, smiling. You smiled back at him, feeling the tension between you two from earlier fade away. He was a nice guy.

"So why did you join the CCG?" You asked curiously.

"I wanted to follow the path my father took."

Ah, you had a feeling that would be it. He had the potential, anyways. You heard he killed a ghoul with his bare hands once.

"Tiramisu!" You heard Haise yell from afar, causing you both to jump to your feet, alarmed. "TIRAMISU! CHIMERA! TIRAMISU!" He shouted in a panicked manner.

"Shit." You cursed. That codeword meant the ghoul was heading your way and was in full strength. And he added 'chimera', so it was most likely that the ghoul had a chimera kagune. Not a good sign. "I'll take the front. I've technically got a chimera too." You said in a determined tone. "Back me up."

"Roger that." Kuroiwa answered, the softness in his voice now completely gone.

Sooner than expected, the ghoul barged into the room, skidding into a stop once he noticed the two of you, standing tall and ready to fight. His hesitance didn't last long though. He charged at you ready to kill, but luckily you were on your toes when he first attacked and managed to block out the majority of his hits, while the ones you didn't manage to block, Takeomi stopped for you.

You felt as if you had fought by his side forever. Maybe Kuroiwa was just synchronising with your fighting style all on his own, that might be what was actually happening, but it felt as if the two of you had practiced and trained together for years while in reality you had only been fighting side by side for maybe like five minutes.

You attempted to block another hit from the ghoul with your quinque while your kagune incapacitated his second kagune, only to have the weapon in your hands break into a million pieces, officially worn out from the ghoul's relentless attacking. You swore under your breath as the ghoul's rinkaku kagune pierced your skin, going straight through your body like a hook.

With one whiff of your scent, the ghoul's mouth watered as he lost focus on the battle field, directing his attention to you instead. Or more like your scent. Ah yes, the greatest perk of being a quinx...

"Don't you smell like a snack?" He mocked, managing to crawl up on the ceiling with you still hanging on his kagune, frozen in pain. You felt bad for Takeomi, the poor guy'll have to watch you get eaten right before his eyes because of how incompetent you are...

Takeomi watched with fear as the ghoul approached his head towards your shoulder, his intentions obvious. What should he do? What could he do? He glanced at the quinque in his hands before focusing his gaze back to you. You were too close to the ghoul, if Takeomi's aim was off just a centimetre, you could die. Was that risk worth it? Was killing someone who seemed to enjoy his company worth a ghoul's head?

But was losing you to a ghoul worth it as well? After all, you miss 100% of the shots you don't take, right..? Taking a deep breath, Kuroiwa tried to calm his nerves and reduce the nervous shaking in his hands. All he needed to do was throw the quinque and you'd be fine.

If he did this correctly, you'd be fine and the risk would be worth it.

You recoiled in disgust when the ghoul brought you close to his face, mouth opening wide to take a bite out of your shoulder until you saw a blur of gray and red pass next to your face, settling right in the ghoul's forehead. A quinque.

The ghoul's grip on the wall slipped and you both fell down at an alarming speed, the only difference being that the ghoul fell back first on the ground while you fell into someone's arms instead, cushioning the fall and preventing you from having several broken bones.

Craning your neck to the side, your gaze fell on Takeomi. "You know that was a really risky shot, right? Could've killed me if it was a little bit to the left or if I moved."

"I know, but you're alive, and that's what matters." He sighed, setting you on the ground safely once he noticed your wound was starting to heal.

"Yeah, thanks about that. I owe you." You stated, finally letting go of the man who backed away a bit to give you some personal space.

"You owe me nothing, really. I wouldn't be doing my job correctly if I didn't try to save you." Takeomi humbly insisted.

"Uh, if you say so..." You shrugged. "But still, thank you. I sort of appreciate the gesture. But uh, might wanna tell me how or why... Why..." Finishing your sentence was your last priority when you noticed the ghoul behind Kuroiwa was starting to twitch. You were about to let it pass since humans twitched sometimes after death too, but red flags were being raised all around when he sprang up to his feet and dashed towards Takeomi, who had yet to turn around.

"Watch out!" You exclaimed, pushing him aside and letting your kagune rip from your back, deciding to decapitate the ghoul once and for all before it could lay his dirty hands on one of you.

His body fell onto the ground once again and laid limp. You could only pray that he wasn't going to get up again.

"Thank you." Takeomi muttered, still assessing the fact that he was moments away from dying right there and then because he had let his guard down.

"No problem." You breathed, keeping an eye on the ghoul as your squads (finally) entered the room, eyes going straight to the dead ghoul in front of the two of you.

"Good job, you two." Sasaki said, slightly out of breath. It seems screaming 'tiramisu' at the top of one's lungs can really tire someone out.

"Now that that's taken care of, I'll go call a clean up squad." Itou stated, fishing his phone out of his pocket.

"Oh, before you all go, we should keep an eye on him." You nodded towards the presumed dead ghoul. "It came back to life and nearly attacked Take-- Kuroiwa, so I don't know if it'll somehow do it again."

Sasaki nodded and assigned the task to Shirazu, Mutsuki and Urie claiming that you deserved a break while ushering you and a confused Takeomi out of the room.

After a few minutes of walking in silence, you decided to gather up the remaining adrenaline and courage inside of you to do something you never thought you'd do.

"Hey," You started, directing Kuroiwa's attention to you. "I know that technically, we should be even, considering we both saved each other's lives, but you told me I owed you nothing when you saved my life."

"I remember saying that." Takeomi stated, trying to understand just what you were getting at.

"Well, I'm really sorry Takeomi-- can I call you Takeomi? Alright, thanks-- but I don't think that way. You owe me something for saving your life." You said, fearing you may sound a bit too full of yourself right about now.

"What do I owe you?" The black haired male asked. He didn't imagine you'd be that type of person, but he wasn't about to refuse what ever favour you'd ask of him, because he wasn't that type of person.

"Hm..." You pretended to think about it for a while before giving him a bright smile, attempting to mask your nervousness. "A date, maybe?"

You obviously had caught him off guard. Takeomi blinked a few times, wondering if you truly had just said that, before giving you a small smile of his own. "Alright, I have no objections with that."

You tried to block the giddy feeling that answer gave you and nodded. "Great!"

"So it was (L/N)!" A voice exclaimed from behind you and you both turned around to be met with Itou Kuramoto himself.

"What?" You asked confused.

"Kuroiwa had a--"

"It was. No need to explain anything." Takeomi calmly answered, although he really didn't want Itou scaring you off with what ever he was going to say.

"Er..." You glanced between the two guys, puzzled. "Alright, then..."

"Give me updates on that date, Kuroiwa! Your father'll be proud of you!"

Takeomi simply sighed, knowing Itou was not going to let him live this down for a while.

But even though he might get annoyed by his superior, Takeomi had a feeling you'd be worth the trouble.