az: Because Te o tsunagou was giving me ideas. I swear Naruse Shuuhei-san was inserting plot hints in every song he composed intentionally...

Edited, because I tend to notice stuffs. Might amend a bit of Trapped as well, but maybe later. Guess you can say this was Eiji's complimentary shot to Rescue Me. Or was it? XD

Reason to Smile

I want to see you smile

Written by Izzu

o

o

All I wanted was to see you smile...

It was because Ankh had been so distraught, so alarmed. That he wanted to do something to cheer him up. But Ankh would never tell him what was bothering him no matter how much he pressed him about it. So how could he make Ankh feel better if he did not even knowwhat the problem was?

That was why, even if it was by coincidence; he wanted to celebrate Shingo's birthday with Ankh and Hina. Even if it was just a small bit of cheer, if it could lift a smile onto Ankh's face—regardless if it was actually the detective's face—it would worth all the efforts done to make it happen.

It was very rare for him to see Ankh smile. The rare few times when Ankh did,was when he had asked Ankh about his reasoning for collecting his core medals. Even then he was not sure if that was a good smile. Ankh often sneered though, but he would not count those as smiles.

Oh, there were several other times he did sincerely smile out of happiness. It was those few times when Ankh got his daily dose of ice creams or when Hina had given him that Valentine choco ice the other day. But right now, he was not sure if that alone could cheer Ankh up. The thing that freaked Ankh up seemed to be very serious. The nightmare he said he was having, should not have been out of something trivial—even if Ankh rarely had any.

There was no gentler way of saying it, but seeing Ankh so grumpy every day can be a bit annoying. Even then, that was better than seeing Ankh being so afraid. Even rarer than seeing Ankh smile, it was to see Ankh being seriously terrified.

He never actually ask Ankh about it but he had always sensed there was something Ankh was not telling them about what happened eight hundred years ago. But maybe he did, just that he has not drawn attention to it.

Eiji had a guess though, it was related to the previous OOO betraying him. Ankh might look as if he was indifferent about it, but being with him long enough until now Eiji knew that there was still a part of Ankh that was as innocent as a child. That time when the previous OOO had stabbed him to take some of Ankh's cores away, that must have been unexpected. Certainly it would not be hard to imagine Ankh being traumatised by that experience thus become wary of getting close to anyone anymore, for fear of being betrayed again.

That... was something he wanted to change. Since he had depended on Ankh for far too much a time, he hoped that Ankh would be able to depend on him in return.

Because Ankh is a very important person to him. The least Eiji could do for him is to give him a reason to smile about, even during times like these when they still had to take care of the Yummy and other Greeeds' problem. And of course, of the other Ankh who would jump at every chance of taking away Ankh from him.