There's always a downside to the job you have-in this case, it was constantly filling out documents whenever you were on shift. Whether it be helping Kondo with his legal documents, helping other officers fill out their own health documents... you seemed to always have something to do.

"I should have Hijikata-san do Kondo-san's paperwork. Why am I his go-to?" you scratched your head with the pen in your hand.

"...[name]...san." Unless your ears were playing tricks on you, someone had said your name. "Help me... please." That plea certainly caught your attention. You dropped everything and peeked your head out of the infirmary, looking both ways to spot the person calling out to you.

"I'm... over here," your eyes stopped at Yamazaki's injured body just laying in the hallway. His hair was disheveled and his uniform had been ripped up. He was reaching out towards you.

"Yamazaki-san!" you ran to help him up and into your office. "You doing alright? What on earth happened to you?"

While you put him onto the bed he replied, "Vice-Chief was... disciplining me for messing up a stake out, again." Guess this wasn't a strange occurrence. After you grabbed the right supplies to help him? You closed the doors to the room.

"Hijikata-san doesn't need to go that far. He seriously needs some anger management classes," you gazed over to the man in front of you, he looked to be disappointed. "Well, Hijikata-san won't find you here. You're safe with me."

"Thanks for helping me, [name]-san," he bowed his head, a twinge of sadness laced in his words. He was most likely beating himself up from this job he had. He didn't look to have anything else to say to you. So, you took it into your own hands to think of something that might just cheer him up a bit.

"Say," he raised his head at your voice. "Wanna come over?"

"...Huh?" Yamazaki blinked a few times before curling up into a ball on the bed. "What are you asking me?"

"I mean, do you want to come over to my house for dinner?"

"What?! I mean... I would love to! But I couldn't possibly impose! I won't have anything to offer, nor do I believe I'll be a good house guest."

"You shouldn't say that about yourself," you finished patching up the last scratch on his face. "You can't refuse this once-in-a-while offer, can you? Besides, I'm inviting you for fun."

"Um... well... I, I guess I could."

。。。

Yamazaki did end up coming over for dinner, but he was as stiff as a board. When you two were walking, he would be at least five metres behind you. It made the people around you think he was a stalker. Thankfully nobody called the police...

"Excuse my intrusion," he muttered, taking off his shoes before following you into your beloved home. You threw your bag into your room and headed towards the kitchen.

"Yamazaki-san, while I work on dinner, you can make yourself at home," he nodded and made his way into the living area. "I hope you don't mind curry."

"That sounds lovely, thank you again, [name]-san," Yamazaki took his time observing the décor and furniture in the room. His eyes caught a strange thing on the coffee table-it was an old green book. There weren't any notice me creases, but upon further inspection, the cover had cuts and a few burn marks on it.

"Here's some tea to get you started-" you stopped in your tracks when you saw what he was looking at. "Sorry, I must've left it there this morning"-you put the tray of tea down-"I'll put it away," he picked the book up for you and you placed it on a nearby bookshelf.

"Is that important to you?"

"You can say that," you diverted your gaze from him. "I got it from my teacher back I was a kid. He passed away a while ago, so it's one of the only things I have left from him-other than my sword."

"Your sword?"

"Yep! It was a gift from him too. Even though it's old, it's not fragile. I keep it in good condition!" he smiled at your words. "...I thought I was forgetting something! The curry is still cooking!" you sprinted back into the kitchen.

"That must be why she always carries it around," Yamazaki took a sip of the hot tea, taking another glance of the room. The sword you were just talking about was on display beside the bookshelf. He took the time to examine the sheath. "I've never seen such intricate detail on a sword sheath before. I wonder who her teacher is?" he ended up taking the sword out of its cover, "And the blade is incredibly sharp too. Amazing."

"Yamazaki-san?" At the sound of his name, he let out a yelp and dropped the sword.

"AH! I'm so sorry! I'm sorry! I shouldn't have touched this! I might've damaged it!" he crawled into the nearest corner and began to bow at you.

"Like I said before, the sword isn't fragile. So no stress. Also, dinner is finally ready. Hope you're hungry." Your lack of care was really what he needed right now. At least he was able to get rid of his work failures by being with you.

---

"Morning, Hijikata-san," you greeted. To which he just nodded-not even bothering to look up from his newspaper.

"Yeah. Anyway, have you seen Yamazaki anywhere?"

"What do you mean by 'yeah'? At least say good morning," he just rolled his eyes and exhaled a breath of smoke from his cigarette. "Well, as you can see, I only just arrived so I haven't seen him him," you have him the cold shoulder, literally, by bumping shoulders with him. You entered the infirmary, but what you didn't expect was Yamazaki laying on one of the beds. "Yamazaki-san? What are you doing here?"

"[name]-san! I'm sorry, I didn't realise you would be here so soon. I'll leave right this moment," he jumped out of the bed and was about to walk out, but you stopped him by closing the door behind you. "Huh?"

"It's okay, you can stay here if you'd like." He ended up taking your offer and laid back down. You began to sort out your table and all the paperwork-but the one thing that distracted you within the first ten minutes of being in the room were the constant sighs coming from Yamazaki's mouth.

You spun around in your chair to take a look at him. He was staring up at the ceiling with his hands on his chest. "Yamazaki-san?"

"...Yes?" he didn't bother to look up at you. "Do you want me to leave?"

"No, I wasn't going to say that. Are you alright? Did you have breakfast this morning? What's up?"

He squirmed around, "Hm... it's nothing, I guess. No need to worry about little old me." There was obviously something wrong. The problems from yesterday must still be lingering in his mind.

You decided that you needed to get him out of this area and go do something that will get his thoughts back on track. "Yamazaki-san, want to do some morning exercise with me?"

"Pardon?" he finally sat up.

"Let's go to that park and play some badminton. What do you say?"

"I mean... yeah! I would love too! But I don't know-"

"No take backs! Let's go right now."

。。。

Judging from his behaviour, he seemed to be in a better mood once he got outside. You were glad you knew that he was a badminton freak. "Thanks for inviting me to exercise with you, [name]-san. This is pretty fun!"

You hit the shuttle back at him, "I'm glad it is. I also didn't realise how good you were at badminton," you unfortunately missed hitting the shuttle back.

"Thanks! Here, let me teach you some tricks," he walked over behind you and placed his hand over yours to guide you. "Put your hand on the racquet like this, and then once the shuttle comes close, you want to follow through. See?"

"You make it seem easier said than done."

"I have had a lot of practice after all," he quickly backed away from you and twiddled his fingers out of modesty. "We can always practice together if you're interested in getting better."

"I'll keep that in mind."

After about an hour of full-on playing, you both sat down on a nearby bench for a short break. Yamazaki then offered, "I'll get us some drinks. I think I remember a vending machine somewhere in the park. I'll be right back."

Once he left, you were finally able to have your own thoughts to yourself. "At least this spontaneous plan worked. He seems to be in a better mood. If it weren't for Hijikata-san, he wouldn't have felt this way. I better lecture that man later. He deserves what Sougo does to him sometimes."

"Hey," a few men had appeared in your line of sight, "what are you doing here by yourself?"

"Really? What is this cliché scene doing here? Should I not fight back to get Yamazaki to help me? Or should I take things into my own hands?" you gave them all a disgusted look. "I'm not interested, so go away."

They didn't seem to know the meaning of 'no'. "Why don't you come with us?" the man in front grabbed your wrist and pulled you up from your seat. You were about to lose your patience. You tugged your arm back towards you, but he wouldn't release his grip.

"Let go of me," Just as you were about to flip him over, Yamazaki's voice was heard from down the path.

"Hey!" Right after, the man holding you was thrown off to the side with a red mark starting to form on his cheek. He had just gotten hit by a badminton shuttle. Yamazaki intervened in this scene and separated yourself from the other group of men. "[name]-san, are you alright? They didn't hurt you?"

"I'm fine, thanks for saving me."

"You punk! You asked for it!" the other three men surrounded Yamazaki.

"H-Hey! Stop that! I'm a member-" Before he could pull out his ID, they beat him up until he was covered in dust and bruises. Every time you wanted to help him, he would push you away, making sure that you didn't get involved. "This is a bad way to end my morning."

"Yamazaki-san, you doing okay down there?" you tried to help him up, but he seemed to like the ground better. "I tried to help."

"You didn't need to. As long as I know that you weren't hurt, I'm fine," your eyes widened and you let out a chuckle. "What's so funny?"

"You are. Thank you, my badminton prince," you gave him a grin as well as a peck on the cheek.

"...Huh?!"

。。。

Hijikata angrily stomped on his cigarette butt, "Damn that Yamazaki! Why isn't he at work today?!"

"Vice-Chief!" someone called out, "I saw him walking out with [last name]-san a couple hours ago."

"Why was he out with her?"

"I overheard them saying that they were going to play badminton in the park nearby here."

Sougo then came from the entrance of the building and walked towards Hijikata. "Look what they were doing," he lifted up some pictures he had in his hands.

Hijikata then grabbed the pictures and examined them, "What the heck are they doing playing badminton on the job? And why did he walk away when there were other men who were clearly walking up to [last name]?" He then ripped up the papers, "I'm gonna kill this guy."

"Count me in," Sougo lifted his bazooka on his shoulder.

fun fact- Yamazaki was 32 (according to wiki) when the series began.