It is indeed a precious gift to understand the for

“Well, you’ve got a lot more experience on the subject than I do, that’s for sure,” Shinjiro responded, gray eyes falling on the wedding band the other man twisted around his finger. “Not that that’s saying much.” It was true—when it came to girls, he had no game. Not necessarily because he couldn’t talk to them, but because the idea of having someone care about him was so terrifying he tried to diminish the possibility of that ever happening in the first place.

Dojima shrugged, "I don't know about that."  he admitted, "I've only really had one serious relationship in my entire life and I married her.  But then again, dating's a young man's game and it tends to change very quickly."  And Dojima was way too old and uninterested in finding another partner.  Things were too complicated with his job and his daughter.  He really didn't need to be dating.  He really didn't want to be dating.  

Dojima fumbled with his wedding band again.  It still hurt, but he was no longer bothered by talking about her.  If anything, he was glad to.  His memories of her were always fond.  

Send me a number from 1-50, without looking at the list!

“Phone calls and tapes,” Adachi repeated, just to let his boss know that he had been listening. “Assuming we get the tapes as soon as possible from hotel security, we can get started on those right away. Well, I can get started on those and you can call the Embassy. We might as well try to get the victim squared away as soon as possible while we wait for autopsy and forensics.”

The younger detective wasn’t particularly thrilled by the concept of setting through a night’s worth of security footage, but it was better than paperwork. Almost anything was better than paperwork, actually. As the pair made their way out of the hotel, Adachi withdrew the keys to the squad car out of the pocket of his suit jacket. He swung one of the key-rings around his index finger, only stopping when the keyring came close to flying off the end of his finger.

Noticing the way that Adachi was eying his carton, he offered it to his partner.  The kid did good, he was allowed a gold star in the form of a single cigarette.  "So am I."  He sighed, lighting his cigarette, "We've got a lot of work to do before we're allowed to eat though."  

No sense in rewarding themselves now, the family still needed to be notified, calls still needed to be made and a murderer still needed to be caught.  "Take us home Adachi."  

Blinking a few times—‘wait, did he actually just offer to kick my ass?’—Shinjiro accepted the dessert menu from Dojima and rolled his eyes playfully. “I almost want to start a fight just to see how tough you are, old man. It would be worth the risk of the potential ER visit.” As he opened the menu and began to peruse the dessert selection, it suddenly occurred to him that he had could count the times he had ordered a dessert at a restaurant one on hand. Although the younger man was well on his way to becoming a skilled baker and could probably make a simple dessert in his sleep at this point, he still found his eyes gravitating towards the pie section. When you ate at a diner, getting pie for dessert was just a thing you did, no questions asked.

"Yeah, don't expect too much."  Dojima snorted, "I have no idea what I did to get my wife to marry me but I'm not going to question a good thing."  He played with the wedding wing he still wore, a habit he picked up after she died whenever he talked about her.  

"It’s been rough, lately." Kougami says, brushing his hair back from his forehead. "A lot’s… happened.  Or not happened, I guess. It’s just a lot of waiting around that gets boring quickly. I think I — " Kougami stops abruptly, narrowing his eyes, God, he can’t figure it out. His deductive skills hadn’t been put to much use lately — or at all, actually — but he just knows this isn’t just a guy.

"It'll work out."  Was all he could come up with.  It was a pathetic answer but it was the only thing he could say to a stranger he was smoking with on a park bench.  "Maybe not the way you think but you'll figure it out."  

Kougami states it as fact. If it were anybody else, it’d probably come out a little self-deprecating or a little bitter.Kougami just… knows that he doesn’t know what’s best. For anyone. But it doesn’t stop him from trying his damnest to help anyway.

Truthfully, Dojima could probably kick his ass. People that had the benefit of police training had a more disciplined fighting style than kids on the street, and they had the resilience to keep going until the threat was shut down. Shinjiro was tough, but Dojima would most likely display an entirely different sort of toughness. Good law enforcement officials were never push-overs. In the event that he did need a good kick to the butt, he’d be more inclined to put what little money he had on Dojima rather than himself.

He wanted to help him.

"And I could try."  He noted, amused, "But I've got quite a few brawls under my belt so we'll see how well that works out for you." 

He did a quick glance of the room but didn't find anything that the crime scene unit hadn't already marked.  The body seemed to be getting ready for transport back to the coroner's office and Dojima knew that that meant that their day had only really just begun now.  

He greeted Adachi when he returned with a quick nod and started his way out of the hotel room.  Adachi had done well so far but he wasn't about to say that out loud yet- he didn't want it to go to the kid's head.