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7oji · 2 years

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━━ same deep water as you, first part.

toji fushiguro is an unstable private investigator that takes on a case for an equally unstable family. when you have decided to throw everyone in your life away, you meet someone at the dinner you work at.

◞⁺⊹ 💭 toji fushiguro/fem!reader. no curses au, slow-burn ish, reader has a family, angst, age difference, grieving, eloping, protective toji, pet names (bunny/princess), eventual comfort.

╭ cw for light-voyeurism and stalking (not yandere), toxic families, alcohol use, mentions of organized crime, eventual nsft. 1.3k word count.

The old furniture in the office was uncomfortable. The place felt cold and reeked of cigarettes, which made people stay for short amounts of time like Toji preferred.

“After finding her, I just need you to follow her around and tell me what her routine looks like.”

Toji sat across an impatient-looking woman that looked out of place.

He loved desperate clients. Worried husbands, estranged fathers, or cunning wives were all dollar signs to him. And this time it was an obtrusive sister.

“What are you looking for, exactly?” His sharp eyes never left her when she pulled out a cigarette and lit it up.

“Well, we talked from time to time, but after the notice for the funeral, no one can get a hold of her,” the woman paused to take a long breath off the cigar, polluting the air with her anxiousness. “The school could only give me what I gave you. So, my guess is she got together with someone, got knocked up or something.”

Toji nodded at her summary, focusing on the discharge forms from the college she mentioned.

“Okay. Just know, if you are going legal, I can only take evidence on public spaces.” He leaned back into his chair to start his usual spiel. “That's the reason I asked. I try to cather to all needs, so if you’d like more, it’ll be a little bit more pricey for you, but out of record.”

“I know, that's why I came here,” she barely avoided rolling her eyes. “Our dad is just so worried, you know, with his own dad dying too. It’s his little girl and he could never be tough with her. I want to give him something before deciding what to do with her.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry for your loss,” Toji muttered in an attempt to skim over the sob story.

“Thanks. I know you knew him, but his friends better. You come... recommended,” she gave a critical glance across the neglected room.

“You mentioned that on the phone.” Toji flipped through her contact details to find what else to discuss. Both of them knew to keep that topic brief.

“Anyway, after finding her, which I hope will be no issue for you,” she puffed the smoke in his direction. “I'd like you to be with her for up to a month, depending on what comes up.”

He kept nodding mindlessly, getting ahead of himself to daydream about how easy this would be.

“I would prefer that you only focus on this and drop any other case, if possible. Money is not an issue.”

Oh, he’d almost squirm at that.

“I can imagine that,” he agreed, failing to contain a grin. “I do charge hourly and you’ll have to cover the expenses of my current projects to drop them, but we’ll set the payment details later on.”

They were done after the woman insisted on starting that same weekend.

“Have you ever gotten involved with the people you investigated?” was her last inquiry.

“That blows my cover, so, no.”

“But would you be willing to act? Like if someone needed to test if their wife was faithful?”

Toji had been offered similar deals a handful of times, easy to imagine with his looks, but the only one that went through was for a store owner looking to see if the girls at the counter would steal for him. Which they did.

He grinned after giving it a thought.

“Sure, for its right price.”

A chime filled the dimly lit dinner in the last minutes of your shift. It was dark outside when the cooks handed you a plate of tomato soup from the small kitchen.

The two tried some small talk when they held the door open for you, only to receive the usual quiet smile.

You couldn't bring yourself to be mean to them, but this way, it would be easier when you finally disappeared from the face of the earth.

Letting your hair down you exited the restaurant and walked over to the bus stop. Moving through the dark streets was easy now with your pepper spray gripped inside your pocket.

Your edge had gone down a few weeks ago, but the hairs on your neck were up that night, even though nothing seemed out of place.

The first sight when you finally opened the motel's door was of a full trashcan. Room service hadn't passed by that day, but you figured it was better if no one was snooping around your stuff when you weren't there.

When you found a place cheap enough in the next town over, it was too good of an opportunity to let it go. It made sense when one of your sisters called to let you know grandpa had passed away. Your grandfather wasn’t a good person and had always treated the kids and the wives roughly. For him, a man of questionable ethics, there wasn’t any sadness from you and you wouldn’t bother saying goodbye. So, you took it as fate and paid for a whole month in cash.

The urge of flopping face-down into the bed was great, but a reflection in the mirror caught your attention.

The hair color so unnatural to your own popped out in front of you. You inspected that your look was as unrecognizable as possible, like you had intended, before resuming your routine.

There was something specific about people who came to a private investigator for personal affairs. Toji would argue it was either craziness or lack of character.

When taking on a case for crazy, one had to be careful of them interfering in the jobs, so he would make sure to provide juicy information here and there, but not enough for them to know what his next move was.

Cheating husbands were his favorite. He was skillful at consoling a grieving wife, exclusively the ones that could afford him. For lack of excitement and transparency, he would not take any insurance claims or child custody cases. He was careful enough to avoid people from looking too deep into his practice.

Missing people were unusual cases, mostly because if the police couldn't do anything, those were people that didn't want to be found.

And for a moment he thought finding you would be harder than he thought. When he helped your sister file the missing person's report, he could go to the school but with no luck. You had dropped out with all necessary forms signed.

He moved over to the side of campus where most of your classes would take place, but asking around casually for you wasn’t giving him anything either. It seemed that you were hermetic enough.

“Excuse me,” he had heard a small voice when he was close to giving up. "Are you her family?”

Toji turned to find a girl too embarrassed to look him straight in the eye, but the mention of your name was enough for her to approach him.

“Yeah,” he said with a little smile. “Are you friends with her?”

“We were,” she hesitated. “At least I thought so, she didn't really talk to anybody, but we were in most classes together.”

“Did she say anything about where she was going?”

“I was going to ask you what happened to her,” she had finally seen him for a whole sentence, eyes full of surprise. “She… didn't really talk, and the last day she came to class, she was pretty nasty to everyone.”

Her slight lip quiver made Toji realize the girl really meant everyone. You were a little brat, weren't you?

It took a lot from him to not giggle at the thought.

“Sorry to hear that,” he gave his honest attempt at an empathetic smile. “How about we go to the cafeteria and you can tell me more about what my cousin did?”

Her fluster was all the answer he needed. That was his way in.

After that, it didn't take him more than a week to be at the front of a makeshift motel on the side of the road.

“Hi, little bunny,” he whispered to himself when he got his first glance at you locking your room's door. Seems like you changed your hair and wore some glasses, but you couldn't fool his sharp eyes.

SECOND PART TBA.

note. ahhh this is inspired by a dream i had with this man. i plan this to be a short-chaptered series and to update in 1+ week. thank you for reading 💗

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