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ickaimpOdd observation of the day: The cats don't seem to be too keen on canned salmon, but the chickens go absolutely crazy over it. o_O
Okay, my favourite grammar people (who we're profoundly grateful to even though we may gripe and make snarky comments, which are actually more directed towards me) you're gonna kill us over this one.
The tenses are all over the map, our sentence structure is mostly likely atrocious and at this point, we don't care we're just so happy to get the blasted thing done and out of our head. *cackles manically*
We'll clean it up before we post it elsewhere, promise.
For: Dogmatix. Still For the pretty pretty picture she drew us, the preciousssssssssssss >D
Notes: AU, Hakuba hasn't arrived in Japan, therefore Kid/Kaito doesn't know who he is. For the purpose of this fic, Ekoda is a costal town
+++
Not a Fish.
Not a Fish.
He was not underwater.
He was not underwater kissing a blond.
He was not underwater kissing a blond boy with an orca tail.
Who strangely tasted of pineapple.
Who was definitely NOT a fish. Not a fish, not a fish, not a fish.
Oh God, there were fish all around them... There went his top hat. Bye-bye top hat, not going after you.
Nice merperson. Killer Whales were not fish. They were whales, which meant that they were mammals.
Who just happened to have 'Killer' in their name.
But Orca were not a fish. And that was important.
That was important was that the not-a-fish guy was giving him air. Which was really appreciated, because it stopped him from hyperventilating and trying to breathe water. Which was bad.
And hey, now they were wiggling. Which felt really weird with his legs around the not-a-fish guy's waist, but he wasn't about to let go. He doesn't quite know where to put his legs and since the guy's tail was moving up and down -not side to side like a fish-- he couldn't exactly put them -down- without getting them tangled up in the tail.
Not-a-fish guy doesn't seem to mind, and they were moving towards the surface now, he could feel the pressure change on his skin, so he just continues to cling a little bit longer. And not-a-fish guy was solid and smooth and very reassuring to cling to after a wild madcap chase aerial chase, falling into the water and the lack of air and the fish.
Which not-a-fish guy was not.
Then his head is breaking the surface and he's heaving in great gulps of blessed blessed air, all bitter and salty from the spray around them. He's shaking, it's the adrenaline rush, it's relief, it's terror, it's the water and it's the cold.
The not-a-fish guy is looking at him with something that looks like irritation and amusement. "Idiot."
He laughs, it's a little breathless and giddy, but it's honest. He's alive. And he just kissed a not-a-fish man who just fished him out of the ocean. He's not a drowned sailor and the other guy is far from the mermaids of lore and he could really do well without the fish and 'treasures of the deep' at the moment. "Yeah." He agrees. "Thanks."
The not-a-fish guy gives him another amused and irritated look, more of the former this time and begins to move again, this time heading for the lights of the shore. It's a bit awkward, to swim with their heads above the water, but the not-a-fish guy manages it.
He's content to let him, just drift for a little while. He's tired and can't quite stop the shivers. Too close. Too close tonight.
He concentrates on the simple things, trying to pull himself back together again into some semblance of normality. The splashing sounds of the water around them, the solidness of the form he's holding onto. They're -there-, tangible and real.
The texture of the not-a-fish guy's skin is different, he can't feel it very well through the fabric of his gloves, but it's smooth, almost rubbery, against the skin on his bare wrist, and his face when he rests his face against not-a-fish's guys shoulder. He focuses on that, ignoring the sound of splashing as the tail moves, propelling them forward.
Tail. Air. Breathe.
He's alive.
Not a fish.
Not a fish...
++++
The next morning, Kaito wasn't sure if he had dreamt the entire thing.
He takes a detour on the way to school that morning, stopping by the beach and looking out over the blue waters.
The water doesn't give him any answers.
He debates on skipping school to meditate on brushes with death, people with Orca tails, the joy of being alive and breathing in general, but decides to go to school instead.
At school, there's the usual noise and rowdiness that accompanies hundreds of teenagers being crammed into a single building for the majority of the day. He smiles and is a little distant but doesn't think anyone notices. Quiet is good. Quiet is the calm before the storm. Or so he's heard his classmates say, usually right before a prank is launched.
Today, quiet is for reflection instead of laying low. He could have died last night. He -should- have died last night. But he didn't. Instead he ran into... not-a-fish guy. Which really sounds like some sort of fucked up hallucination. Because really, if you're going to dream about people with... fins, they should have breasts the size of melons, shouldn't they? At least they did in the stories -he'd- read.
When he thought of it that way, he felt sort of gypped. Maybe it's his profession. Sailors get buxom babes, thieves gets half-orca guys.
Only that doesn't explain pirates... they got the babes too. And they were technically thieves... Maybe it was a sea thing. Except that still didn't explain why he got a -guy- and everyone else got girls.
Therefore there was only one logical conclusion. Either he had hit his head when impacting the water a hell of a lot harder than he had previously thought or his subconscious was trying to tell him something and he should spend some time contemplating his belly button.
The teacher drew part of his attention up to the front, announcing the arrival of a new student, from overseas. He tuned it out, counting on either Koizumi or Aoko to fill him in on the sordid details later.
At least until he glanced up and -saw- the new student.
A startled yelp froze in his throat, the impulse to rise from his seat nearly knocking him into the aisle.
There, standing in their usual black and white school uniform, was the blond from the ocean last night. Standing on what appeared to be two very human legs and no orca tail.
"-Nine am, zero minutes and 32.41 seconds. I just transferred from London Bridge School. My name is Hakuba Saguru. Pleased to meet you."
A cry went up from several of the girls. "Ooooh!!! He's so handsome!!!"
This couldn't be right.
Kaito just stared. Even as the teacher directed their newest classmate to a seat a few rows back from his own, next to the window. Beside him, Aoko nudged him with an elbow, grinning conspiratorially at him as she made a comment about greeting him during break. He just nodded vaguely in return, trying desperately to keep his eyeballs -inside- his skull.
Evidently, he needed to be spending a LOT of time contemplating his belly button....
++++
Different night, different heist and this time NO flying over water to evade the cops. And rumour had it that the cops had someone new to help them out to try to catch the infamous Kaitou Kid, someone called 'The Wolf of Europe' or something.
Wolf. Aaauuuooo. How scary. He was shaking in his white patent loafers. Not.
Heh. Life was good.
Yet another thing to mull over while contemplating his belly button. It was becoming increasingly obvious that he also had a bit of a death wish. Otherwise he wouldn't keep volunteering to make a bright shiny 'oh shoot me now' target of himself for the guys who killed his father. Much less continue to throw himself at the police.
Speaking of which... time to step forward. "Ladies and Gentlemen!!!"
And whoosh! They were off again, caught up in the lights, in the the sound -in the bullets- of another Kaitou Kid heist. That was one thing he hadn't expected when he had taken up his father's mantle, was just how -easy- everything was. There were heart stopping times, of course, but it quite literally as if he had been born for this, taking to it like a duck to, no... wait... Like a bird to the sky.
Thieving came as naturally as breathing. So did the showmanship.
And dammit, it was FUN.
Even if it didn't feel like there was much of a contest between him and the police. Always an adrenaline rush, but sometimes it felt like there was just nothing that Nakamori and his men could do. They couldn't even get close to touching him, even with the dogpiles, which he was getting better at evading.
Of course, that was sheer cockiness on his part, which could lead to mistakes, so even if they couldn't catch him, he made sure gave a lot of respect to the men who had fervently sworn to capture him.
But by the time he had reached that part of the internal monologue, he'd already gone in, gotten the jewel and slipped out on to the rooftop to make his escape.
Really, it was just too easy.
Heist tucked away in his inner vest pocket, he prepared to jump and take to the air. If he wrapped this up quickly, he might even be able to get a good night's sleep.
At least, until someone tackled him from behind. He sensed movement before the person made contact, moving just enough that he ended up on his back on the rooftop, instead of eating gravel with his face. A heavy body pinned his down, hands pinning his wrists down. He looked up to find himself meeting a startled golden gaze.
Gold eyes. Wolf. Orcas were known as 'The Wolves of the Sea'. Right.
"You're Orca Boy!"
"You're in my class!"
Oh, shit.
A smoke bomb and a body twist later and he was out of Hakuba's grasp and safely back in the sky.
Oh, shit oh shit oh shit oh shit.
Then again, maybe he -wouldn't- get a good night's sleep.
+++++
When he was younger, Kaito had read a lot of Fairy Tales. Not just Momotaro and the Bamboo Princess, but European ones too. Including several by a guy called 'Hans Christian Anderson', who wrote a story called 'The Little Mermaid'.
Which followed thusly:
Youngest daughter of the Sea King rescues a prince from drowning and in the process fall in love with him. She's got fins, he's got legs, she makes a deal with the Sea Witch to have legs that feel like she's walking on pins and knife edges, in exchange for her voice. Catch is, he's got to love her in return, or she dies at dawn the next day. He marries someone else, her sisters appear with their hair cut short and carrying a knife, informing her that if she spills his heart's blood on her legs, she can return to the sea. She can't do it and instead turns to sea foam.
Lovely story there. Very morbid.
Then there's the American cleaned up version, where the mermaid and her prince kill the Sea Witch and live happily ever after. Which seemed even more unlikely. Not to mention, what was up with the eyes? All big and funny looking. And talking fish. Brrrrrrrr. Fish should NOT sing. Those people were sick.
So here he was, stuck in the plot of a very fucked up European Fairy Tale wondering why -his- mermaid was a guy. With a orca tail, which was actually on the cool side, because that meant that he was Not A Fish, so that at least was a positive.
But not really much of a positive, because his merperson also knew that he was the Kid. Which sucked.
So he got to class earlier than usual, figuring that if he and the Wolf of the Sea were going to have it out, they might as well with as little of an audience as possible. Hakuba struck him as one of those 'sticklers for time' people, always showing up exactly on time or early. So it had been with some regret that he'd ditched Aoko at the docks -having Ichthyophobia in a costal town sucked- where she'd been picking over fish for dinner that night and waited at his desk for the detective to come.
He didn't have to wait long. As per his predictions, Hakuba showed up early.
Hakuba paused at the front of the classroom, looking at Kaito.
Kaito looked at Hakuba.
Hakuba continued to his seat.
Stalemate.
Neither could say anything about the other without their own secret being revealed. Therefore neither of them would say anything at all.
Kaito let out a small breath of relief, turning his attention back to the newspaper he'd been reading.
Really, when he thought about it, the Little Mermaid seemed less like a romantic bedtime story and more like a case of an over-obsessive stalker.
+++++
Kaito blamed it on the fact that he hadn't done a heist in weeks. With the 'Wolf of Europe' knowing his secret, and the two of them warily circling each other without a word, he felt it wise not to push his luck too much and had been keeping a low profile. According to Aoko, her Dad had been feeling the lack of adrenaline rush too, becoming increasingly grouchy from being cooped up.
Which meant that Aoko was feeling grouchy and cooped up.
Which was why she was chasing him around the classroom with the bucket containing the fish for her family's dinner in it. He was using his bookbag as a shield to hide behind, although a small voice in the back of his head commented that the fish looked more terrified of the girl than he did.
He was by the window, ducking between desks when Aoko got fed up with their game and simply tossed the contents of the bucket at him.
Kaito flipped, dodging the fish and the water. Hakuba, in his seat next to the window, didn't.
What caught his attention to it was the look of abject horror on the detective's face, followed by a look of absolute pain although the blond didn't make a sound.
Orca guy.
Water.
Oh, boy.
Kaito threw his bookbag on, grabbing a smoke bomb and tossed it down. Grey smoke, not his signature pink, clouded the classroom as he tackled the larger detective out of the window and into the sky. A black hang glider erupted out of the pack, the sides wider but narrower than Kid's cape glider. It caught the breeze, jerking them higher for a second.
Hakuba slid his arms under Kaito's, which were wrapped around the detective's waist, resting his hands on Kaito's shoulders like some sort of awkward tense hug and making it easier to carry the weight. "You bring a hang glider to school?!" The voice was muffled and it took a moment to realise that it was because the blond had his face hidden in Kaito's shirt. Afraid of heights?
Well, when one grew a not-a-fishy tail, that made a certain amount of sense. "It comes in handy." He called back. It was however, not built for two. They were rapidly loosing elevation. "You're heavy!"
"Water weighs approximately .94 kilograms per litre. The bucket was a five litre bucket adding a little over four and a half kilograms, minus the fish, to my weight, which is already several kilos heavier than your own..." Hakuba was babbling. Really afraid of heights then?
He glanced around them, trying to see if there was a good landing area around them, when he noticed Hakuba's hand. There was a raised black area on the hand, the skin around it bright red and painful looking. The whole area looked like a bad burn.
Or a splash pattern.
"So, uh... salt water, huh?" The not-a-fish guy's hands had black on the back of them as well, the orca pattern continuing up the human parts.
"Yes." The voice was tense and unless he was massively mistaken, in a world of pain. Aoko had gotten more than just the arm, that had been a full body splash. Not babbling then, hurting. "I'm afraid I'm not built to be randomly in-between forms."
He looked around the area with a critical eye. If their luck -and the breeze- held, they could just make it to the sea. "Crash land in the sea okay?"
"Perfect."
He nodded in return, not that Hakuba could see that, and threw his weight to the side to aim them where the sea came farther inland. It was awkward, the detective had not been kidding about being heavier, and for a moment he over compensated, sending them wobbling dangerously. This hang glider wasn't built for the agility of his usual one, built more in mind for stealth and surprise exits.
And it went with his school uniform.
He straightened them out, much to Hakuba's relief if the muffled moan was anything to go by, and concentrated on not running into anything before they hit the water. Like trees, buildings, the ground in general. Bad things.
They were less than two metres above the surface when they finally did hit reach the water. Hakuba pulled on his shoulder. "Retract the glider!"
That would mean crashing into the... oh. Yeah.
A fumble and a press of a button on the shoulder strap and the glider snaps shut. Now it's his turn to squeeze his eyes shut as they fall into the ocean with sensation he hates of falling and huge splash. There's a moment of confusion where he doesn't know which way is up before -he's- grabbed by strong arms around his waist. He grabs on, distantly musing that they've flipped positions, Hakuba's now carrying him, tail moving rapidly as they move full speed ahead under water. It's suffocating and he keeps his eyes closed, head pressed against Hakuba's chest, realising exactly why the blond had done that. It doesn't block everything out, but it helps.
There's a sudden shift in the water and suddenly they've broken the surface, arcing through the air. He takes a deep gulp of air, then they've hit the water again, rushing through it at dizzying speeds.
If he was really smart, he should have let go when they reached the water. Then he wouldn't be underwater with the insane not-a-fish guy. Again.
If he were really smart, he wouldn't be in this situation at all, dammit. 'Nother thing to muse over contemplating his belly button. He really was too damn impulsive, dammit.
But he owed the damn guy.
They do the leap-breathe thing a few more times and just as Kaito's starting to think that he's got it figured out, they're suddenly dive down and it's dark. It's dark and there's no air and they're surrounded on all sides. Trapped.
Just when he's about to panic, they're breaking the surface again and this time he opens his eyes. They're -inside- an island, one that's roughtly tubed shaped. Air vent for a volcano at one time, most likely. But the most important part is that they're hidden from sight. He wasn't sure how much attention they had attracted with the hang glider stunt or the jumping for air thing.
Hakuba kind of pulls him off, shoving him towards a ledge on dry land that he gratefully crawls onto. Hakuba follows, grunting as he kind of slithers the back half, the tail not being of much use on dry land. Kaito gives him a tired hand up, pulling him up next to him. The skin is how he remembered it, all smooth and solid and kind of rubbery feeling.
There's also red lines all over, marring the black and white skin. Or black and pale flesh coloured, the white seems to start about navel level and heads down.
"Dammit." Hakuba curses, flipping himself onto his back and sitting up. Kaito realises that he's got a fin back there too, so the merguy can't exactly lay on his back like Kaito's doing at the moment. And when the hell had Hakuba lost his clothing? Probably during the confusion of hitting the ocean. "Salt water stings like a bitch."
"I can imagine." Actually, he's been there before, little nicks and cuts, never anything quite as large as the splash pattern all over the detective's body. Probably felt like pins and knife edges all over his body. "How-?"
"Mum's a Silkie." The blond closes his eyes, leaning back against the rock behind him. "British version of a mermaid. She turns into a seal. Dad met her there, fell in love, had me. Mum couldn't leave, Dad couldn't stay." He opened a hand, stretching the fingers out and Kaito was vaguely surprised to see that Hakuba's fingers were webbed. Come to think of it, they were when the blond wasn't all whale looking too. He just hadn't noticed because he'd been trying not to notice, period. "Moved here to spend some more time with Dad, ran into you the first night while exploring. You?"
A patch of sunlight fell against them, the warmth evaporating the water off of them. As Kaito watched, the pointed ears seemed to melt away, turning back into normal rounded human ears. Hakuba's body absorbed the salt water, turning it not-fishy. He dried out... human again. In-between forms, --partly hydrated, partly not-- equalled pain city.
"Trying to lure out the guys who killed my dad." He shrugged. That's not all there is to it, there's the rush and the excitement and the chance to really stretch his wings and the things he should really should contemplate his belly button about, but that's what it really did boil down to.
"Ah." Hakuba nods, looking exhausted. Not all of the paleness is from the not-a-fish thing. "Thanks."
He waves it off. "Owed you one." Owed him big. This almost seems to put them even. "Catch a nap before heading back?"
"Sounds like a plan." Hakuba agrees. There's a bit of a twist and a lot more flexibility than he would have expected from the hip and knee area -even as flexible as he was, Kaito's knees didn't bend backwards-, Hakuba was stretched out on his side, out of the water. Kaito shifted to accommodate him, sprawling out to allow his soaked clothing to dry faster. Not that it's going to matter anyway, they're going to have to swim back, the hang glider's not good for much while wet.
Which meant that he had nothing but time, peace and quiet space on his hands to do what he'd been threatening to do ever since he met Hakuba: meditate, contemplate his life and his navel.
Only now that he was here, it was really a lot more interesting to contemplate Hakuba's belly button instead.
-fin-
Thinking doodle for mer-Hakuba
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/17381195/
Okay, my favourite grammar people (who we're profoundly grateful to even though we may gripe and make snarky comments, which are actually more directed towards me) you're gonna kill us over this one.
The tenses are all over the map, our sentence structure is mostly likely atrocious and at this point, we don't care we're just so happy to get the blasted thing done and out of our head. *cackles manically*
We'll clean it up before we post it elsewhere, promise.
For: Dogmatix. Still For the pretty pretty picture she drew us, the preciousssssssssssss >D
Notes: AU, Hakuba hasn't arrived in Japan, therefore Kid/Kaito doesn't know who he is. For the purpose of this fic, Ekoda is a costal town
+++
Not a Fish.
Not a Fish.
He was not underwater.
He was not underwater kissing a blond.
He was not underwater kissing a blond boy with an orca tail.
Who strangely tasted of pineapple.
Who was definitely NOT a fish. Not a fish, not a fish, not a fish.
Oh God, there were fish all around them... There went his top hat. Bye-bye top hat, not going after you.
Nice merperson. Killer Whales were not fish. They were whales, which meant that they were mammals.
Who just happened to have 'Killer' in their name.
But Orca were not a fish. And that was important.
That was important was that the not-a-fish guy was giving him air. Which was really appreciated, because it stopped him from hyperventilating and trying to breathe water. Which was bad.
And hey, now they were wiggling. Which felt really weird with his legs around the not-a-fish guy's waist, but he wasn't about to let go. He doesn't quite know where to put his legs and since the guy's tail was moving up and down -not side to side like a fish-- he couldn't exactly put them -down- without getting them tangled up in the tail.
Not-a-fish guy doesn't seem to mind, and they were moving towards the surface now, he could feel the pressure change on his skin, so he just continues to cling a little bit longer. And not-a-fish guy was solid and smooth and very reassuring to cling to after a wild madcap chase aerial chase, falling into the water and the lack of air and the fish.
Which not-a-fish guy was not.
Then his head is breaking the surface and he's heaving in great gulps of blessed blessed air, all bitter and salty from the spray around them. He's shaking, it's the adrenaline rush, it's relief, it's terror, it's the water and it's the cold.
The not-a-fish guy is looking at him with something that looks like irritation and amusement. "Idiot."
He laughs, it's a little breathless and giddy, but it's honest. He's alive. And he just kissed a not-a-fish man who just fished him out of the ocean. He's not a drowned sailor and the other guy is far from the mermaids of lore and he could really do well without the fish and 'treasures of the deep' at the moment. "Yeah." He agrees. "Thanks."
The not-a-fish guy gives him another amused and irritated look, more of the former this time and begins to move again, this time heading for the lights of the shore. It's a bit awkward, to swim with their heads above the water, but the not-a-fish guy manages it.
He's content to let him, just drift for a little while. He's tired and can't quite stop the shivers. Too close. Too close tonight.
He concentrates on the simple things, trying to pull himself back together again into some semblance of normality. The splashing sounds of the water around them, the solidness of the form he's holding onto. They're -there-, tangible and real.
The texture of the not-a-fish guy's skin is different, he can't feel it very well through the fabric of his gloves, but it's smooth, almost rubbery, against the skin on his bare wrist, and his face when he rests his face against not-a-fish's guys shoulder. He focuses on that, ignoring the sound of splashing as the tail moves, propelling them forward.
Tail. Air. Breathe.
He's alive.
Not a fish.
Not a fish...
++++
The next morning, Kaito wasn't sure if he had dreamt the entire thing.
He takes a detour on the way to school that morning, stopping by the beach and looking out over the blue waters.
The water doesn't give him any answers.
He debates on skipping school to meditate on brushes with death, people with Orca tails, the joy of being alive and breathing in general, but decides to go to school instead.
At school, there's the usual noise and rowdiness that accompanies hundreds of teenagers being crammed into a single building for the majority of the day. He smiles and is a little distant but doesn't think anyone notices. Quiet is good. Quiet is the calm before the storm. Or so he's heard his classmates say, usually right before a prank is launched.
Today, quiet is for reflection instead of laying low. He could have died last night. He -should- have died last night. But he didn't. Instead he ran into... not-a-fish guy. Which really sounds like some sort of fucked up hallucination. Because really, if you're going to dream about people with... fins, they should have breasts the size of melons, shouldn't they? At least they did in the stories -he'd- read.
When he thought of it that way, he felt sort of gypped. Maybe it's his profession. Sailors get buxom babes, thieves gets half-orca guys.
Only that doesn't explain pirates... they got the babes too. And they were technically thieves... Maybe it was a sea thing. Except that still didn't explain why he got a -guy- and everyone else got girls.
Therefore there was only one logical conclusion. Either he had hit his head when impacting the water a hell of a lot harder than he had previously thought or his subconscious was trying to tell him something and he should spend some time contemplating his belly button.
The teacher drew part of his attention up to the front, announcing the arrival of a new student, from overseas. He tuned it out, counting on either Koizumi or Aoko to fill him in on the sordid details later.
At least until he glanced up and -saw- the new student.
A startled yelp froze in his throat, the impulse to rise from his seat nearly knocking him into the aisle.
There, standing in their usual black and white school uniform, was the blond from the ocean last night. Standing on what appeared to be two very human legs and no orca tail.
"-Nine am, zero minutes and 32.41 seconds. I just transferred from London Bridge School. My name is Hakuba Saguru. Pleased to meet you."
A cry went up from several of the girls. "Ooooh!!! He's so handsome!!!"
This couldn't be right.
Kaito just stared. Even as the teacher directed their newest classmate to a seat a few rows back from his own, next to the window. Beside him, Aoko nudged him with an elbow, grinning conspiratorially at him as she made a comment about greeting him during break. He just nodded vaguely in return, trying desperately to keep his eyeballs -inside- his skull.
Evidently, he needed to be spending a LOT of time contemplating his belly button....
++++
Different night, different heist and this time NO flying over water to evade the cops. And rumour had it that the cops had someone new to help them out to try to catch the infamous Kaitou Kid, someone called 'The Wolf of Europe' or something.
Wolf. Aaauuuooo. How scary. He was shaking in his white patent loafers. Not.
Heh. Life was good.
Yet another thing to mull over while contemplating his belly button. It was becoming increasingly obvious that he also had a bit of a death wish. Otherwise he wouldn't keep volunteering to make a bright shiny 'oh shoot me now' target of himself for the guys who killed his father. Much less continue to throw himself at the police.
Speaking of which... time to step forward. "Ladies and Gentlemen!!!"
And whoosh! They were off again, caught up in the lights, in the the sound -in the bullets- of another Kaitou Kid heist. That was one thing he hadn't expected when he had taken up his father's mantle, was just how -easy- everything was. There were heart stopping times, of course, but it quite literally as if he had been born for this, taking to it like a duck to, no... wait... Like a bird to the sky.
Thieving came as naturally as breathing. So did the showmanship.
And dammit, it was FUN.
Even if it didn't feel like there was much of a contest between him and the police. Always an adrenaline rush, but sometimes it felt like there was just nothing that Nakamori and his men could do. They couldn't even get close to touching him, even with the dogpiles, which he was getting better at evading.
Of course, that was sheer cockiness on his part, which could lead to mistakes, so even if they couldn't catch him, he made sure gave a lot of respect to the men who had fervently sworn to capture him.
But by the time he had reached that part of the internal monologue, he'd already gone in, gotten the jewel and slipped out on to the rooftop to make his escape.
Really, it was just too easy.
Heist tucked away in his inner vest pocket, he prepared to jump and take to the air. If he wrapped this up quickly, he might even be able to get a good night's sleep.
At least, until someone tackled him from behind. He sensed movement before the person made contact, moving just enough that he ended up on his back on the rooftop, instead of eating gravel with his face. A heavy body pinned his down, hands pinning his wrists down. He looked up to find himself meeting a startled golden gaze.
Gold eyes. Wolf. Orcas were known as 'The Wolves of the Sea'. Right.
"You're Orca Boy!"
"You're in my class!"
Oh, shit.
A smoke bomb and a body twist later and he was out of Hakuba's grasp and safely back in the sky.
Oh, shit oh shit oh shit oh shit.
Then again, maybe he -wouldn't- get a good night's sleep.
+++++
When he was younger, Kaito had read a lot of Fairy Tales. Not just Momotaro and the Bamboo Princess, but European ones too. Including several by a guy called 'Hans Christian Anderson', who wrote a story called 'The Little Mermaid'.
Which followed thusly:
Youngest daughter of the Sea King rescues a prince from drowning and in the process fall in love with him. She's got fins, he's got legs, she makes a deal with the Sea Witch to have legs that feel like she's walking on pins and knife edges, in exchange for her voice. Catch is, he's got to love her in return, or she dies at dawn the next day. He marries someone else, her sisters appear with their hair cut short and carrying a knife, informing her that if she spills his heart's blood on her legs, she can return to the sea. She can't do it and instead turns to sea foam.
Lovely story there. Very morbid.
Then there's the American cleaned up version, where the mermaid and her prince kill the Sea Witch and live happily ever after. Which seemed even more unlikely. Not to mention, what was up with the eyes? All big and funny looking. And talking fish. Brrrrrrrr. Fish should NOT sing. Those people were sick.
So here he was, stuck in the plot of a very fucked up European Fairy Tale wondering why -his- mermaid was a guy. With a orca tail, which was actually on the cool side, because that meant that he was Not A Fish, so that at least was a positive.
But not really much of a positive, because his merperson also knew that he was the Kid. Which sucked.
So he got to class earlier than usual, figuring that if he and the Wolf of the Sea were going to have it out, they might as well with as little of an audience as possible. Hakuba struck him as one of those 'sticklers for time' people, always showing up exactly on time or early. So it had been with some regret that he'd ditched Aoko at the docks -having Ichthyophobia in a costal town sucked- where she'd been picking over fish for dinner that night and waited at his desk for the detective to come.
He didn't have to wait long. As per his predictions, Hakuba showed up early.
Hakuba paused at the front of the classroom, looking at Kaito.
Kaito looked at Hakuba.
Hakuba continued to his seat.
Stalemate.
Neither could say anything about the other without their own secret being revealed. Therefore neither of them would say anything at all.
Kaito let out a small breath of relief, turning his attention back to the newspaper he'd been reading.
Really, when he thought about it, the Little Mermaid seemed less like a romantic bedtime story and more like a case of an over-obsessive stalker.
+++++
Kaito blamed it on the fact that he hadn't done a heist in weeks. With the 'Wolf of Europe' knowing his secret, and the two of them warily circling each other without a word, he felt it wise not to push his luck too much and had been keeping a low profile. According to Aoko, her Dad had been feeling the lack of adrenaline rush too, becoming increasingly grouchy from being cooped up.
Which meant that Aoko was feeling grouchy and cooped up.
Which was why she was chasing him around the classroom with the bucket containing the fish for her family's dinner in it. He was using his bookbag as a shield to hide behind, although a small voice in the back of his head commented that the fish looked more terrified of the girl than he did.
He was by the window, ducking between desks when Aoko got fed up with their game and simply tossed the contents of the bucket at him.
Kaito flipped, dodging the fish and the water. Hakuba, in his seat next to the window, didn't.
What caught his attention to it was the look of abject horror on the detective's face, followed by a look of absolute pain although the blond didn't make a sound.
Orca guy.
Water.
Oh, boy.
Kaito threw his bookbag on, grabbing a smoke bomb and tossed it down. Grey smoke, not his signature pink, clouded the classroom as he tackled the larger detective out of the window and into the sky. A black hang glider erupted out of the pack, the sides wider but narrower than Kid's cape glider. It caught the breeze, jerking them higher for a second.
Hakuba slid his arms under Kaito's, which were wrapped around the detective's waist, resting his hands on Kaito's shoulders like some sort of awkward tense hug and making it easier to carry the weight. "You bring a hang glider to school?!" The voice was muffled and it took a moment to realise that it was because the blond had his face hidden in Kaito's shirt. Afraid of heights?
Well, when one grew a not-a-fishy tail, that made a certain amount of sense. "It comes in handy." He called back. It was however, not built for two. They were rapidly loosing elevation. "You're heavy!"
"Water weighs approximately .94 kilograms per litre. The bucket was a five litre bucket adding a little over four and a half kilograms, minus the fish, to my weight, which is already several kilos heavier than your own..." Hakuba was babbling. Really afraid of heights then?
He glanced around them, trying to see if there was a good landing area around them, when he noticed Hakuba's hand. There was a raised black area on the hand, the skin around it bright red and painful looking. The whole area looked like a bad burn.
Or a splash pattern.
"So, uh... salt water, huh?" The not-a-fish guy's hands had black on the back of them as well, the orca pattern continuing up the human parts.
"Yes." The voice was tense and unless he was massively mistaken, in a world of pain. Aoko had gotten more than just the arm, that had been a full body splash. Not babbling then, hurting. "I'm afraid I'm not built to be randomly in-between forms."
He looked around the area with a critical eye. If their luck -and the breeze- held, they could just make it to the sea. "Crash land in the sea okay?"
"Perfect."
He nodded in return, not that Hakuba could see that, and threw his weight to the side to aim them where the sea came farther inland. It was awkward, the detective had not been kidding about being heavier, and for a moment he over compensated, sending them wobbling dangerously. This hang glider wasn't built for the agility of his usual one, built more in mind for stealth and surprise exits.
And it went with his school uniform.
He straightened them out, much to Hakuba's relief if the muffled moan was anything to go by, and concentrated on not running into anything before they hit the water. Like trees, buildings, the ground in general. Bad things.
They were less than two metres above the surface when they finally did hit reach the water. Hakuba pulled on his shoulder. "Retract the glider!"
That would mean crashing into the... oh. Yeah.
A fumble and a press of a button on the shoulder strap and the glider snaps shut. Now it's his turn to squeeze his eyes shut as they fall into the ocean with sensation he hates of falling and huge splash. There's a moment of confusion where he doesn't know which way is up before -he's- grabbed by strong arms around his waist. He grabs on, distantly musing that they've flipped positions, Hakuba's now carrying him, tail moving rapidly as they move full speed ahead under water. It's suffocating and he keeps his eyes closed, head pressed against Hakuba's chest, realising exactly why the blond had done that. It doesn't block everything out, but it helps.
There's a sudden shift in the water and suddenly they've broken the surface, arcing through the air. He takes a deep gulp of air, then they've hit the water again, rushing through it at dizzying speeds.
If he was really smart, he should have let go when they reached the water. Then he wouldn't be underwater with the insane not-a-fish guy. Again.
If he were really smart, he wouldn't be in this situation at all, dammit. 'Nother thing to muse over contemplating his belly button. He really was too damn impulsive, dammit.
But he owed the damn guy.
They do the leap-breathe thing a few more times and just as Kaito's starting to think that he's got it figured out, they're suddenly dive down and it's dark. It's dark and there's no air and they're surrounded on all sides. Trapped.
Just when he's about to panic, they're breaking the surface again and this time he opens his eyes. They're -inside- an island, one that's roughtly tubed shaped. Air vent for a volcano at one time, most likely. But the most important part is that they're hidden from sight. He wasn't sure how much attention they had attracted with the hang glider stunt or the jumping for air thing.
Hakuba kind of pulls him off, shoving him towards a ledge on dry land that he gratefully crawls onto. Hakuba follows, grunting as he kind of slithers the back half, the tail not being of much use on dry land. Kaito gives him a tired hand up, pulling him up next to him. The skin is how he remembered it, all smooth and solid and kind of rubbery feeling.
There's also red lines all over, marring the black and white skin. Or black and pale flesh coloured, the white seems to start about navel level and heads down.
"Dammit." Hakuba curses, flipping himself onto his back and sitting up. Kaito realises that he's got a fin back there too, so the merguy can't exactly lay on his back like Kaito's doing at the moment. And when the hell had Hakuba lost his clothing? Probably during the confusion of hitting the ocean. "Salt water stings like a bitch."
"I can imagine." Actually, he's been there before, little nicks and cuts, never anything quite as large as the splash pattern all over the detective's body. Probably felt like pins and knife edges all over his body. "How-?"
"Mum's a Silkie." The blond closes his eyes, leaning back against the rock behind him. "British version of a mermaid. She turns into a seal. Dad met her there, fell in love, had me. Mum couldn't leave, Dad couldn't stay." He opened a hand, stretching the fingers out and Kaito was vaguely surprised to see that Hakuba's fingers were webbed. Come to think of it, they were when the blond wasn't all whale looking too. He just hadn't noticed because he'd been trying not to notice, period. "Moved here to spend some more time with Dad, ran into you the first night while exploring. You?"
A patch of sunlight fell against them, the warmth evaporating the water off of them. As Kaito watched, the pointed ears seemed to melt away, turning back into normal rounded human ears. Hakuba's body absorbed the salt water, turning it not-fishy. He dried out... human again. In-between forms, --partly hydrated, partly not-- equalled pain city.
"Trying to lure out the guys who killed my dad." He shrugged. That's not all there is to it, there's the rush and the excitement and the chance to really stretch his wings and the things he should really should contemplate his belly button about, but that's what it really did boil down to.
"Ah." Hakuba nods, looking exhausted. Not all of the paleness is from the not-a-fish thing. "Thanks."
He waves it off. "Owed you one." Owed him big. This almost seems to put them even. "Catch a nap before heading back?"
"Sounds like a plan." Hakuba agrees. There's a bit of a twist and a lot more flexibility than he would have expected from the hip and knee area -even as flexible as he was, Kaito's knees didn't bend backwards-, Hakuba was stretched out on his side, out of the water. Kaito shifted to accommodate him, sprawling out to allow his soaked clothing to dry faster. Not that it's going to matter anyway, they're going to have to swim back, the hang glider's not good for much while wet.
Which meant that he had nothing but time, peace and quiet space on his hands to do what he'd been threatening to do ever since he met Hakuba: meditate, contemplate his life and his navel.
Only now that he was here, it was really a lot more interesting to contemplate Hakuba's belly button instead.
-fin-
Thinking doodle for mer-Hakuba
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/17381195/
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-04-19 01:27 am (UTC)Icka, marry me.
*tackleglomp* Not A Fish!
Date: 2005-04-19 01:28 am (UTC)And you know my opinion on the rest! *snickers*
no subject
Date: 2005-04-19 02:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-19 02:03 am (UTC), the joy of being a live and breathing in general, but decides to go to school instead.
I think you're missing a word there, though. o_oa
no subject
Date: 2005-04-19 02:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-19 02:25 am (UTC)Ah...lovely job, Icka~ XD
no subject
Date: 2005-04-19 02:44 am (UTC)..is it bad that I read that as 'The teacher drew his pants'? XD;;; *ahem* yes, so, think the first 'his' is perhaps a tad superfluous. *grin*
*hearts the fic madly* I love this fic! With the gold eyes and the water-burns and that was fun! Also? Navels! XD
no subject
Date: 2005-04-19 05:04 am (UTC)But surely there are better parts of Hakuba to admire than his belly button...
no subject
Date: 2005-04-19 05:29 am (UTC)The first part of the fic is written in present tense, would it be okay to write after 'Not a Fish. Not a Fish. Not a Fish' in past tense? Or should I try to put everything in present?
But surely there are better parts of Hakuba to admire than his belly button...
Y'know, you're the first person to point that out... *snickers* ^____^
Po'e, MOrgan and Dogmatix aren't gonna let me live down this bellybutton thing anytime soon... #^^#
no subject
Date: 2005-04-19 02:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-20 03:01 am (UTC)Read through the whole thing, section by section, slowly-- or wait until I get my computer back from the shop and I'll beta it for you.
Gimme more grammer questions! What fun!
no subject
Date: 2005-04-20 10:09 pm (UTC)Was waiting to go over it until I got your response back. #^^#
Will do it scene by scene then. Um... if you wanna look it over after I edit it? ^^
*smirk*
Date: 2005-04-20 04:53 am (UTC)....Meep?
Date: 2005-04-19 02:19 pm (UTC)Bellybuttons? -Adds to list of things that hold the universe together-
Also, because of your fic (Spawned [heh puns] from the picture) I have made a poem. Because that was the only inspiration I could think of when the teacher made the assignment. Heh. I'll type it when I get it back from the teacher.
Re: ....Meep?
Date: 2005-04-25 09:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-19 10:19 pm (UTC)OHHHHH....
Date: 2005-04-20 02:19 am (UTC)BTW does anyone know of any place to get Magic Kaito Translations for all the Manga I just got the three Graphic Novels and I love looking at the pics but I'd really like to know what they are saying..... And I have found Jane's site and another place that only has one chapter.... ^ . ^'
Sheya
Re: OHHHHH....
Date: 2005-04-25 09:20 pm (UTC)*sighs* One of the things we were just thinking about was that we needed to track down translations of the Kid appearances in DC... we have all the volumes, just need the text translations. >_
Selkies
Date: 2005-04-21 05:13 am (UTC)