After Mogi had shown her to her desk the day before, [Y/N] had gone ahead and quickly set things up. She'd even gone ahead and put up the anime figurines of Levi and some characters from [Fav. Anime], hoping that having them might calm her down.

It didn't calm her. It gave her something to fidget with in her nervousness. She was very aware that the others were watching her, and her hands shifted the collectables from place to place on her desk as she tried to pretend that she wasn't the center of attention. Matsuda especially had his deep brown eyes locked onto her actions. [Y/N] remembered his chastising words when he had found Levi's figurine among her spilled possessions yesterday. As though it's presence meant she thought the job was a joke.

Her [E/C] eyes shifted to where he sat, there desks near to each other. When she accidentally locked gazes with him, she jolted and dropped the small anime character she had been repositioning, "Ah, h-hi!"

Quickly she dropped below her desk, grabbing the figurine and sitting up again, all while somehow not smashing her skull in the process, "Erm, M-Matsuda-san...r-right? You...I...uh..."

"Aren't you supposed to be working on that?" The young officer inquired, sighing. Trying to break this kid of crippling awkwardness was going to waste valuable time. His early career may have been plagued by stupidity, but at least he could function. The world was going to eat this girl alive, "But yeah, I'm Matsuda."

[Y/N] bit her lip, feeling rather intimidated by the man and averted her gaze. When she fell into silence, Matsuda began to feel a tug of guilt for his harshness and huffed in frustration.

"You're not gonna get anywhere if you won't talk..." A half hearted smile crossed his face as she glanced back up at him, "Try doing whatever worked in Aizawa's office. So, what on earth made you think you should be in the NPA?"

She knew he was really asking because he thought she didn't belong. It made sense to think that. She needed to answer him honestly...well, as honestly as she dared. She knew Kira was a sensitive subject, one that wasn't open to free discussion beyond former task force members.

Drawing a deep breath she prepared to do her best, "K-Kira..."

Matsuda's eyes widened, any shine in them seeming to dull. If [Y/N] noticed she didn't let on as she continued, "It was...u-unforgivable...wh-what...K-Kira did....a-and you....you guys were so...cool-"

Anything else she had to say was cut off by Matsuda angrily interrupting, "Cool? Nothing we had to do was cool...this isn't cool...you are going to go through...through..."

The final moments of the Kira case flashed through his mind. Light admitting to everything, the loss of self control to rage and grief, the unleashing of his firearm. It played in slow motion and fast forward both at once as round after round was fired into the genius he once called friend.

"Never think this job is something we do because it's cool or fun...okay?" His pained brown eyes met her [E/C] ones, and she had to wonder what tragedy he had seen on the job.

Nodding, she was too concerned to feel flustered at all. She stood up and moved toward him, "Sure...okay, Matsuda-san...I'm sorry..."

Before she could get too close, the man rose from his seat and headed towards the coffee room. Somehow, he found, this made a comforting routine. Getting coffee, even if only for himself, was a familiar thing from before it all fell apart.

The Rookie stood frozen beside her desk, staring at where he had walked off too. She hadn't anticipated that reaction, and wasn't sure if she should be more saddened or scared by it. Her immediate reflex had been to try comforting him, but the more she thought about it, the less sure she was of what the whole thing meant.

Not too far away in the mid-sized room, Mogi and Ide's desks were arranged near one another. They had seen the whole thing unfold, and now exchanged a silent look. They understood. Matsuda had often acted lighthearted during the Kira investigation, and been severely hurt on the emotional level. He was seeing too much of himself in the girl, they thought.

It was only moments later when Aizawa stepped into the room, " Everything okay? I heard a commotion?"

"Matsuda's being a new kind of idiot..." Ide observed with a curious tone that wasn't lost on the chief.

"Really?" Letting his gaze shift toward the coffee room a moment, the man then turned his attention toward [Y/N], "I'll handle that later. [L/N], can I see you a minute?"

"Huh? O-oh! Yes, sir!" She nodded and followed Aizawa to his office.

___

Matsuda was leaning his elbows at the one small table in the coffee room, a cup clasped between shaky hands and head dipped as he drew slow breaths to calm himself. It had been awhile since he'd let himself get that worked up. He certainly didn't let it happen at work. The image in his mind had seemed so vivid, he was just glad he hadn't gone into a full panic attack. He hadn't had one of those in a long time.

This rookie was just so naive and practically helpless (if the way she got flustered was any indication) that she was really getting to him! She was going to land in trouble, and someone was going to get hurt or worse trying to get her out of it. He couldn't handle the thought of one of his only true friends getting killed because he trusted their safety to the wrong person. It wasn't going to happen again.

This [Y/N] person might not mean them harm, but she was dangerously lacking of competence.

Hadn't he been the same? How many times had he screwed up the Kira investigation? How many stupid mistakes had he made that ended up playing right into Light's hands? If it weren't for Matsuda...would the case have been solved sooner? Would Soichiro be alive?

Finally Matsuda drew a sip of the coffee cooling in his hands.

___

"So..." [Y/N] drew out the pause as she settled into the seat across from Aizawa'a desk. He had closed the door behind him, and she was a bit nervous that she was in trouble already.

"Relax, you're not in trouble," the chief could see her visibly calm down with that, "I wanted to talk about your anxiety issue."

Instantly she tensed again, "What? Fine better!"

After receiving a pointed look she slumped in the chair, defeated by her own protest, "You're not fine. It's not getting better. You can't function in the office. I want you to shadow your teammates and get used to them. What do you think?"

Pursing her lips she thought about it. Mogi was big and intimidating, she knew that from yesterday when he'd helped her find her desk. His silent nature kind of creeped her out. Ide was less physically imposing and more talkative. She was a bit paranoid she'd say something about his eyebrows (or lack of) during her nervous babble though. And Matsuda...honestly, she was most tense around him....She thought he might hate her.

"If think help...." She winced and drew a deep breath, "If you...think it might help..."

"I do. It can't hurt." Aizawa paused to think, and jotted a couple notes, "Here, start with Mogi, he shouldn't need much conversation."

He smiled at her, handing her the notes, one for Mogi that explained the shadowing thing, and the other addressed to Ide, "And let Ide know I want to see him. Handing him the note should be enough if you get too nervous, try to say it though."

"Ah...right." With that, [Y/N] nodded and turned to leave the room.

It was a few minutes later that Ide knocked on the door. Aizawa greeted him with a smile, "Come in."

"What are you up to?" Ide questioned, not having experienced his friend scheming often, but certain something was going on.

"Well, for starters, I think I've thought of a way to get [L/N] to relax a bit. We just spend some one on one time by letting her shadow us." That was straight forward enough, and not what Ide thought he had been summoned for. He gave a look to the chief urging him to go on, "You said Matsuda was being a new kind of idiot?"

"He started yelling at [L/N]," Ide replied, "Because she was telling him why she joined the NPA, and used the word 'cool'"

"Hmm..." Aizawa nodded, "They seem to have tension between them?"

"I guess..." Ide responded with a raised brow ridge.

"She's a bit like he once was, isn't she?" The chief mused, earning a confused nod, "I think a mentorship might be good. For both of them."

Ide took a moment to understand, but once he did, he could hardly believe what he was hearing. It made sense, hoping that pairing Matsuda with someone similar to his old self would help his best traits stand out once more. At the same time, he could help her overcome her worst traits. Since when was Aizawa this conniving though? It almost seemed like matchmaking...but what were the odds it would end up romantically?