Disclaimer: I do not own Psycho-Pass or the characters.

Rated T

Summary: I'll always have your back… Even if it kills me…

This mountain of paper work just doesn't seem to be getting any smaller, I've been writing reports since I got in this morning and it feels like I haven't even done a single one but I've written over a dozen… All of this work for a single inspector is just too much, it's been nine months since I no longer have a partner and the chief doesn't seem to want to find a replacement soon either. She seems to be confident that I can manage it on my own for now but it doesn't change the fact that I'm only one person, no matter how much experience that I have I can't do it all on my own.

A notification pops up on the screen, a message from the chief asking to have the reports on her desk first thing tomorrow morning. She can't be serious; I have about five more to do, not including the one I'm already working on. She can't expect that I can have all of this done first thing in the morning. At this rate I'll be here all night and to make my job harder the office lights just turned off… Just great, working in the dark isn't my idea of fun; it just amplifies my wanting to sleep.

For the last two years, everything seems to have gone into a frenzy and just recently things seem to have finally calmed down but the blow that hit division one was hard. We were already an enforcer short to begin with and with the Specimen Case it cost both an inspector and enforcer.

"You're still here?"

"What did you expect? You went and made yourself a latent criminal, now I have to do both my job and yours." That's right, when an inspector becomes a latent criminal they get demoted to an enforcer. Something that Kougami could have prevented if only he had listen and got himself treatment for his high psycho-pass but he didn't, he ignored all the warnings and look at him now, nothing but an empty shell of his former self.

"What's done is done, can't undo the past." He says as he sits in his old seat.

"What do you want Kougami? If it's nothing I have more work than I can handle right now so I don't have time to waste like you do." I tell him as I finish the report I have been working on for the last hour and a half, and I send it to the chief as I prepare to write another one.

A light in the corner catches my attention; Kougami just turned the computer on. I really don't have the time for his antics right now. "Kougami turn that off and go to your quarters and let me do my work."

"Do you want to have those reports done by tomorrow? Give me the files you still haven't done a report on. I'll write them sent it to you and you just do a quick change here and there." No use arguing with him, when Kougami makes up his mind on something that's it. There's no changing his idea but I'd lie if I'd say that I mind the help. I hand over two files over to him and he waste no time getting to work.

If someone would have told me a few years ago that Kougami would have ended up as an enforcer I would have laughed. I never believed that he would drop into that abyss, if there was someone that was more in danger to have that fate I always thought that I'd be the one to fall from grace first and not Kougami. When I learned that there was no longer any hope of recovery for him, it hit like someone had punched me right in the face. Kougami is the closest friend I have ever had and now even though I see him every day it doesn't feel the same. It's like there's now a wall between us and I just can't reach him anymore.

Two notifications popped up on my screen, unbelievable he already finished both of them. I just do a quick glance and he's just sitting there with that idiotic grin on his face as he gets up and takes the remaining files I have to work on. Writing up reports was never something that took Kougami long to do but they were done with great quality and from what I'm looking at he hasn't lost his touch considering that he's nothing more than a latent criminal now.

I quickly revise the reports he wrote and changed a few things to make it look it came from my file before sending it to the chief. By the time I send in the last report it's already nine which isn't bad, if Kougami hadn't come to give me a hand I think it would have been midnight and I still wouldn't have been finished.

"Thanks, I appreciate it." I tell him as I sign out and close the computer.

"I couldn't let you do that all by yourself." He replies as he gets up

I make sure that I haven't forgotten anything before putting on my jacket when I look at Kougami who was standing in the doorway, just starring. "What?" I ask, much to his amusement.

"Come with me before you leave, I have something to show you." Something to show me… What is it this time? Last time he wanted to show me something it ended up being something not very holy.

"Don't tell me you found a new dirty magazine…" I ask him as we walk through the empty hall towards the enforcer's quarters.

"Nah you're way too pure and innocent for that kind of stuff." He replies. He just loves to rub that under my nose at every single second that he has. I have to control the urge to slap him in the back of the head for that one.

We didn't talk for the rest of the short walk to his quarters which was more awkward than anything else considering how much we used to have things to say and talk about, now it's just work related subjects right to a minimum. His quarter isn't much; actually I think it might have gotten gloomier than before if that was even possible. It's dark and not much furniture either and what should be his bedroom he made an office with things concerning the Specimen Case, he just won't let this go will he…

If only we could have solved that case maybe things would have turned out differently, the fact that it remains unsolved is what Kougami just can't accept. We did everything we could but in the end it just wasn't enough and I honestly don't think we could have done anything any different either. That day we lost that one, it bothers me that there is still a murderer loose out there but beating myself up won't change the fact that we don't have any evidence to get a lead. I only wished that Kougami could have accepted that fact before he fell.

I take off my jacket placing it over my arm as I go sit on the couch. How can he live in a place so dark and gloomy? His old place wasn't like this; actually Kougami was never the kind of guy to have fancy things or anything but his old home still felt like someone lived there. They say you can tell a lot from someone by looking through their home. Their living spaces reflect on the individual's personality and state of mind. Seeing his place just makes me wonder what exactly goes on in his head, he surely isn't the guy I met back in high school that's for sure.

"What was it that you wanted to show me Kougami? I am beat and I just want to go home already." Considering how little sleep I've had yesterday, I really could use some tonight and I still have to tend to Dime before I can actually relax for the night.

"Give me a second." He answers as he gives me a glass of what I can tell is whisky… Seriously? I want to sleep and you want me to drink… Becoming a latent criminal has to have affected your brain more than I originally thought. He goes straight to his Specimen Case office as I like to call it with his own whisky in hand. "Make sure you stop by pops. He wanted to see you before you go."

"What for?" What the hell does he want? Another preaching about what I do right and what I do wrong on this job, if he doesn't give me that speech at least twice a week he doesn't say it at all. You'd think he still sees me as a little kid.

Kougami comes back out, walks up to me and knocked on my head asking if there was anyone home. I should get an award for not getting up and smack him over the head; I'm really not in the mood for his ridicules tonight.

"Gino you do know what day it is today right?" He asks almost sounding as if he's mocking me.

"A different day, same crap." I simply answer as I place the glass he gave me on his coffee table.

"November twenty-first. Gino don't tell me you forgot about your own birthday?" Is that fricking today? I honestly forgot so yeah I totally forgot to meet Risa at the Café this afternoon then… She's going to kill me tomorrow when I see her. "I didn't forget. Here I got you something a while back."

He gives me a little box wrapped in a shiny gold paper and sits next to me with his own glass of whisky in his hand taking a sip. I feel my ears burning out of embarrassment as I rip the paper off the box and open it to reveal a necklace with a small rectangular pendant with something written on it but I can't understand what it says. Kougami always had this habit of getting me something on my birthday even though I told him so many times not to but this is the weirdest one yet.

"It's Latin; it says I would rather walk with a friend in the dark, than alone in the light."

"Is that your way of telling me that you prefer the life of a criminal than walking the same path as me?" We used to walk side by side; well that's more of an understatement. Kougami has always been further away and no matter what I do I was never able to catch up to him and when I felt like I finally did catch up to him as his equal he slipped right through my fingers to a part I just can't follow.

"No, it means no matter the path as long I have you by my side I'll be fine and remember that the same goes for you. I may have fallen but I'm still here walking by your side until whatever end." Until whatever end… Knowing him, that's not too comforting to say the least.

"You make it sound simple when it isn't…" Enforcers and inspectors can't walk the same path. Inspectors observe the enforcers and that is it, actually I'm not even supposed to even be here hanging with one even though we used to be friends.

"You're right. I let you down Gino, I know and I'm sorry about that but chances are if I was given a second chance I'd still go down this path. I'll be the one to dirty my hands while you stay safe, I've always been fine with that." He'll never change. To keep me safe while he does the dirty work; that's what he's been doing ever since we became partners. I was always left with the easy job while he took on the more demanding one. He's always treated me as if I need protecting like I can't take care of myself but I can do that just fine. The first years in this job I was alone and I'm still here.

"You make it sound like I have more value than you do, that you're inferior to me when I never saw you that way. You weren't just my partner; you were my friend and you left me behind to change something that we can't even prove exist. Do you know how that makes me feel? In a sense you can say what you want but as your partner I failed to stop you. I'm just as guilty as you are and you know it." Just thinking about how he ignored to fall back when I asked him to, everything that brought him to where he is right now was something as his partner and Shepherd one should have been able to do but I couldn't. He went in all the way through and through. The frustration and anger I've been keeping inside just burst and I try to control my rage the best I can but I can't hide it in my voice no matter how hard I try.

"It's because you are my friend that I chose this path. I can't allow anyone else to fall victim, I can handle it but I don't want to see you fall. Promise me you'll always remember that you're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. You've always relied on me for strength but truth is I've always needed you the most." He says as he places his empty glass on the coffee table.

The day he found enforcer Sasayama's dismantled corps, a part of him died and something else was born. Kougami no longer cares about his own safety, the crazy stunts that he pulls in the field is enough to prove that assumption but he gets the job done. His detective skills and intuition have never been sharper, he just no longer has to worry about his own psycho-pass so he just lets loose.

"Did you decide on a new enforcer?" His question takes me out of my thoughts after a long silence.

"Yeah I think so. He's young and he's been a latent criminal since the age of five but he seems to want to be an enforcer and be part of society in a sense."

"I wonder what kind of hell that kid's been through to have become a latent criminal that young." He asks more as a question to himself then to me. I've been wondering that myself ever since Sybil decided that kid had the right qualities to become an enforcer. At five years old, you shouldn't have been expose to much stress and yet that kid was red flagged immediately and deemed that treatment was no longer a possibility for him to recover.

"If you think he's the right person for the job then I trust your judgement on it."

I put my coat back on as I get up, stuffing the necklace into my coat pocket as I thank him for the gift when I feel his arms wrap around me from behind. I hate it when he does that but I never fight back to get him to let me go either, I don't know why I let him do it in the first place or why I even hate it to begin with. His head resting on my right shoulder as he holds me tighter in his arms like he always does but this time there's something different how he holds me, his grip is firmer than it usually is as if he's scarred that I'll slip through his fingers.

"Kougami… I have to go home…" I manage to say after a few minutes of silence between us. He doesn't say anything, just holds me tighter as he buries his head more into my shoulder, I can feel his breathing onto my neck with each breath he takes.

"Stay for a few more minutes?" His question was low as he spoke. As much as I want to, I can't stay. I've already stayed too long; it's against protocol for inspectors to mingle too much with the enforcers. It clouds the inspector's judgement to properly function out on the field as it did to Kougami with Sasayama. I reach for Kougami's hands, pulling them away from me to be able to walk away. He doesn't try to tighten his grip or to prevent me from leaving.

"I'll always have your back… Even if it kills me…" His voice was faint as I opened the door. I don't look back as I leave, if I do I won't be able to walk away. The hardest thing to do in this job is having to turn your back on those you care about. Once they become latent criminals, even if they are enforcers we can no longer have what we used to. There's a wall that prevents what should be, that is the law that the Sybil system has made and we must follow if we wish to continue living our lives in the light.

I've never agreed on Sybil's judgement on both my father and Kougami. They've changed due to what they've seen and experience but their judgement towards what is right and what is wrong has never changed so is their judgement truly justified? I don't think so. I've asked myself way too often about what is truly someone's psycho-pass? One day your hue is healthy and the next it starts to get cloudy but you feel the same as to when your hue was healthy. Whatever how Sybil works, I know that it failed us that day with that case; it's not a perfect system as we have been led to believe…

Fuck berries this is so cheezy.