Evening and Winter (夕方と冬)

A Scam Case

Eve was running down the hallway of the hospital to a room assigned to Taylor Anderson, with Chifuyu following behind her.

"Dad!" Eve pushed the door open in a rush.

"Hello, Eve, Tsuguha-kun." Taylor was resting on his hospital bed in patients' clothing, giving the two a smile as Eve approached him with tears in her eyes.

"What happened??" Eve was sobbing as she fell on her knees beside the bed.

"It's okay, Eve. They already caught who shot me, and it turns out to be a friend of Michael Jones's who is upset that Michael Jones ended up imprisoned." Taylor patted his daughter's head, "I never revealed that I had someone working for me, so he thought I was the one who made Michael Jones placed behind bars." He explained.

"Why...?" Chifuyu asked him.

"Why? I never thought about it actually," Taylor chuckled, but Chifuyu's solemn serious expression made Taylor pause.

"You're protecting me, aren't you?" Chifuyu questioned him.

"Maybe," Taylor shrugged with a smile.

"What now?" Chifuyu's question made Taylor's smile turn into a bewildered expression, "What am I going to do now without the old man giving me cases to finish?" Chifuyu had a stupid and playful look on his face.

"Hey, there are loads of them and you can choose which one to finish." Taylor sighed, "I might have to stay here for a few weeks, but you can still come to discuss with me." He added.

"I was joking, you think I'm that dumb to think that way?" Chifuyu's mischievous smirk rose on his face.

"Urgh, you..." Taylor was playfully annoyed.

"You're going to surgery later, right? Are you not going to rest?" Eve wiped her tears away after the few moments she was silent, calming herself down.

"That's right, maybe I should rest, huh?" Taylor smiled to his daughter.

"You should..." Eve nodded her head, and Taylor noticed she was scared.

"I'm going to be fine, Eve. Ne t'inquiète pas," he comforted her, "Why don't you go home and rest too, Eve? Look at you," he wiped the remaining tears from Eve's cheeks.

"Okay, Dad. I'll be going then," Eve finally smiled, "I love you, Dad." She waved as she walked to the door with Chifuyu.

"Love you too, Eve." Taylor smiled, "Watch over her for me, okay?" he added to Chifuyu.

"Laisse le moi," Chifuyu nodded as Eve walked out of sight.

"And Tsuguha-kun-?" Taylor stopped Chifuyu from going, "Eve gets anxiety when she enters a hospital, please take care of her." He told Chifuyu.

"Yes, sir." Chifuyu smiled, then walked and shut the door behind him.

Victor visited Eve, and the two of them sat in the living room enjoying tea while Chifuyu was preparing the spare room in the house with Lucas's help.

"Tsuguha is going to stay here temporarily?" Victor asked Eve.

"Yeah, Dad's very worried about me, so he wanted Chifuyu-kun to keep me company for now." Eve replied, trying to contain her tears. "I'm so worried about Dad..." tears ran down her cheeks again, as her body trembled in fear.

"Evening, please don't cry." Victor moved closer to her to hug her in his arms, "Your father wouldn't want you crying, you know that..." he said gently to her and Eve slowly calmed down before Victor could release her.

"Thank you, Victor." Eve gave him a small smile, wiping her tears away.

Chifuyu and Lucas fist bumped, celebrating in a small action to their accomplishment of cleaning the spare room, that eventually appears to be a small bedroom.