Winds of Destiny: Rising ~ {Hawks x OC}

Chapter Eleven: Hidden Message

Misaki leaned her head back against the edge of the large, oval soaker tub in her bathroom and let out a contented sigh. Her legs were just short enough that she was able to completely stretch them out while she leaned back against the side of the tall porcelain surface. She'd added some ylang-ylang oil to the bath water to help her relax and stimulate her cognitive functions. She often did that when she was working through a particularly tough problem at work, as had pretty much been the case ever since she'd taken on the role of Commissioner of Analytics.

At the moment, her mind was focused on a different kind of problem; the impromptu run in she'd had with Hawks at the Commission headquarters earlier that evening. It was the first time they'd met face to face since the ranking's presentation at the end of November. When she'd almost run into him walking out of the President's office, she'd thought her heart was going to come to a complete stop. At least she'd had some time to prepare for a possible confrontation at the ranking's event, but almost colliding with him so suddenly at the office had been quite a shock to her system, especially after all of the subtle ways he'd been brought up in her mind over the past two weeks. So much for fate or karma minding their own business.

She had thought that she'd managed to get away from the situation without making a complete fool of herself after he'd helped her with the files she'd dropped, until he'd popped back up at her side while she'd been walking back to her office a second later. He had acted like he didn't even know her. That had been a dead giveaway that something was up, and she should probably play along with the awkward narrative, which probably wouldn't have been so awkward if he hadn't been staring at her so suggestively while attempting to flirt with her. He knew she wasn't the type to appreciate such advances. She'd assumed that was why he'd acted that way—to make it more obvious to her that it was all an act.

Misaki opened her eyes and stared up at the bathroom ceiling, running back through their brief interaction in her mind for the twentieth time since she'd walked away from him in the vending area. The whole conversation had been laced with several innuendoes that were specific mentions to certain moments in their history. One particular phrase stood out to her more clearly than the rest:

"Seems like most of my work these days consists of helping old ladies cross the street and saving cats from trees."

Aside from the phrase itself being significant for both of them, the way his intonation had subtly changed when he'd said it had told her that it was meant as more than a cursory reference. She dove back into her memory to the times when she'd both said and heard those words before:

"Don't you have some old lady to help across the street, or a cat to rescue from a tree somewhere..."

"I'd take helping old ladies cross the street and saving cats from trees over an armed robbery any day of the week..."

The first time she'd said those words to him had been the day after they'd met, while he'd been in his persistent stalking phase. She'd been trying to throw him off his insistent and uncomfortable inquiry into her personal life when she'd tossed that condescending question at him. He'd told her then that only having jobs like those to do every day was like a dream to him. He'd said much the same when referencing that line a few months later, that those kinds of calls represented a sense of peace to him, which was the complete opposite of what was going on in society at the moment.

Her mind wandered back to the time when they had actually rescued an old lady's cat from a tree. It was the only call Hawks had taken her along with him on for their ultimately disastrous hero for a day date. He'd left her to cajole the frightened feline while he had attended to its elderly owner. As he'd dropped her off onto the tree branch next to the cat, he'd mentioned something that had seemed insignificant then, but stood out to her now: