![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ickaimpHas anyone else seen file 545?! Kaito running around looking like he works for Studio Ghibli!! *squeeeeee*
This one ismore yaoi higher rated than normal. Shoot me now. Becky, don't read.
Fujiyama-san is thanks to Jaelle's TGZ fic, 'The Evidence Never Lies'.
+++
Flesh.
Skin against skin, the smell of shampoo, sweat and sex. Murmured words, soft gasps and pants.
Touch.
He wanted more. It wasn't enough, just hands and lips and tongues. Taste. Silk and salt. Texture.
More, he wanted more. More contact, more heat, more everything.
Golden brown eyes laughed at him as lips touched and tangled. He reached up-
And Kaito sat up in bed, gasping for breath and breathing hard. That wasn't the only part of him that was hard, much to his own embarrassment and painful arousal.
He pushed the warm duvet off his legs, loosely curling up in the cooler air, resting his arms on his knees. Hellooo Hormones. Hadn't seen you in a while.
He'd gotten a reputation early in High School for being a bit of a pervert, flipping Aoko's skirt to see her panties, picking the lock on the Girl's Locker room doors. Then came the discovery of Oyaji's night job, Aoko being family, Oyaji being murdered, actually being shot at as the Kid...
He'd grown up, matured, and set such thoughts and ideas aside as pointless. Thinking with his little head would get himself and others killed. He'd even stopped flipping Aoko's skirt, but no one seemed to notice. He knew what buttons to push around her, to set off the Nakamori temper for her to chase him without it. The locker room was for both the pretext that everything was the same as much as it was for the lock picking practise.
Then had come Hakuba with his bet... And the after-heist visits. He could --and probably should-- have stopped visiting, but it slowly became comforting. The detective was a challenge, not the same 'sword at the throat' challenge that Kudo was, but a steady one, subtly pushing at his abilities, encouraging them to grow sharper.
The detective had also grown safe, comfortable to be around in his own sarcastic way.
Then he'd found Pandora, the gem ripping everything away and pitching everything into chaos. The summer from Hell.
He still had nightmares. The blond stepping in between Snake and himself, catching the bullet in the chest and NOT having the armour that kept the bullet from piercing his heart was frequent enough horror he was thinking of naming it 'George' and keeping it as a pet.
But mostly he dreamt that he'd failed. And in doing so, taking others down with him. Not just the half-Briton, but 'Kaasan, Nakamori-keibu and Aoko too. The night terrors didn't stop there, just like the organisation in black wouldn't stop there.
Kudo Shin'ichi in Edogawa Conan's fragile body, broken and bleeding. His girlfriend-neechan, Mouri Ran, slaughtered with him. Hattori Heiji's smiling face cracked open, his brains spilling onto the ground, dark skinned body attempting to shield his childhood friend Kazuha's still bleeding corpse.
Agasa-hakase, Kudo's neighbour, slaughtered along with Ai, the not-child who's body had been torn apart as if ravaged by beasts, the Organisation taking it's time in prolonging her death. The small bodies of the Shonen Tantei, their glassy eyes wide and unseeing as they stared at him, silently asking why he'd allowed it to happen.
That one was the worst, the small kids. No matter how many nightmares he had, those images always haunted him throughout the day.
On the other hand, he didn't have to worry about being too hard to move anymore. Attempting to explain to Ayumi-chan --who had greeted the Kid so fearlessly on her bedroom balcony one night ages ago-- why he'd let her die in his head always slaughtered any sort of mood.
With a groan, he fell backwards onto the bed, limbs sprawled out. He wasn't getting anymore sleep tonight.
Saguru... kept the nightmares away. It was stupid, trite and true. He slept better with the detective either beside him or in the next room. It was good to know that he had back-up beside him, should he need it.
And the lizard-part of his brain really liked the human physical contact.
But Saguru wasn't home right now. Neither was Mum. The house was empty, save for himself, Hirokini and the birds outside. The detective had been off at some Police Conference for the past few couple of days that was either a punishment or a reward to attend, depending on who you were talking to. Saguru had strongly suggested Kaito not attend, him being both a strange foreigner and not affiliated with law-enforcement. Not to mention bored to tears --or so Saguru said.
Although it might have been amusing to watch a large room full of law officials all trying to manoeuvre themselves so that none of them were sitting with their backs to a doorway. Heh.
Mum had been around the house until this afternoon, when she left for one of her excursions or what ever her job was that kept her busy most of the time. He still wasn't entirely sure as to what she did.
And now the house felt too big, too empty. And neither of the blonds would be home until the day after tomorrow.
He sighed, rubbing his head and messing up his hair. Shower. It was still early, the sun wasn't up yet. He'd take a shower, get dressed and pull some money from one of the slush funds he and Hirokini had set up for emergencies and just go somewhere. Anywhere with people.
It was against his sense of honour as a Kaitou to -steal- without returning, but it tickled his sense of humour to use money they skimmed from the organisation to avoid the killers they sent after them.
"Kaito-niichan?" The AI's voice spoke from his charging mobile phone, where a light on it indicated that the video recorder was on, the computer ghost-boy watching him. He'd probably noticed Kaito's sitting up and was worried. "You okay?"
"Peachy." No need to worry the kid. Nightmares were his problem, not Hirokini's. "Just up a little earlier than usual." Not quite a lie, not quite the truth either.
"Hmm..." Since they couldn't -see- him and Hirokini had lost the machine-whirring noises when they moved, Hirokini relied on a lot more on audio cues to convey his emotions. This was an 'I don't entirely believe you but I'm not going to push it' hmm.
"Train ticket to the conference?" Hirokini finally commented neutrally, as if he didn't have the website already pulled up somewhere, making reservations.
Kaito sat up, staring at the mobile.
Hirokini said nothing.
Kaito chuckled ruefully, running a hand through his hair. That probably would have been where he would have ended up anyway, without realising it. To hell with it. "You're starting to know me too well." He grumbled half-heartedly.
The young AI made a happy sound in return. Kaito gave up and went to take his shower.
+++
Saguru appeared to be surprised to see Kaito outside of his hotel room door. Affection, amusement and wariness quickly flashed across his face before being replaced by a bland facade as the blond invited him inside, quickly glancing around the corridor to see if anyone had seen Kaito's appearance.
No one had, Kaito had made sure of that. His Kaitou skills were good for that at least.
Saguru had bade Kaito to make himself comfortable while he finished getting dressed. Kaito curled up in one of the room's armchairs, watching the blond buttoning his shirt and rummage around for a tie.
He was half-anticipating a comment about his inability to stay home alone, at least until he noticed the slight grey smudges under Saguru's eyes. He wasn't the only one who hadn't gotten much sleep the night before.
So when Saguru fumbled with tying his tie into a Windsor knot for the third time, he rose and did it for him, awkwardly standing behind the larger blond with his arms wrapped around him to do it right. He was fairly ambidextrous, but even he had trouble tying a tie when it wasn't around his own neck.
... or a close approximation there of.
Whatever. It gave him an excuse to touch Saguru, make sure he was real and not hurt. It was both funny and sad how the bad dreams seemed to stick around longer than the good.
And Saguru didn't seem to mind, even seemed to lean back against him a little. Although that could have been just to get the knot tied faster. Right.
Saguru absently thanked him as he finished getting dressed, advised him to crash in the hotel room --I.E: Not to be seen by anyone-- and informed him he'd be back sometime in the early afternoon.
Then Kaito was left by himself again. He sighed, falling backwards on the bed, his limbs sagging with mild weariness now that he'd made it to his destination and the caffeine rush that had sustained him on the train had faded. His arms brushed against some papers that were tossed out on the bed, something Saguru had been looking at before his arrival.
Curious, he picked up one and glanced at it. It was the convention schedule, notes scribbled about various lectures with Saguru's tidy hand. One interest in particular caught his eye.
A lecture on the International Criminal 1412 aka the Kaitou Kid, given by a renown expert on the subject, Saguru Hakuba.
Held the day before. Blast. He couldn't do anything to play with everyone. Well, maybe he could leave a card somewhere, 'The Kaitou Kid was Here' or something, just to set everyone off and play with their minds.
No wonder Saguru hadn't wanted him to come along. He dismissed the idea with reluctant sigh. Be good. He had to be good. A prank like that would draw unwanted attention to Saguru and his possible connections to Kid.
He picked up a few of the other papers, shuffling through them for a moment before realising that he was looking at Saguru's notes for the lecture. Most of them were basic statistics, basic height and weight, age, overview of his heist record, profile on likely targets. And a few random notes, once again written in Saguru's neat hand, mostly in the heist sections. 'Steals Men's Underwear' and 'Blanket Thief' being two of the more personal and amusing ones.
No wonder Saguru was paranoid over his being seen here, it was stated quite plainly that the Kid was of Japanese decent. Saguru's name was obviously Japanese, but with that information in mind, any officers who attended the lecture would probably be super sensitive of anyone of Asian descent for a while.
Glancing back at the schedule, he noted that Saguru had a lecture on DNA testing to attend this morning. It would have worried him, if the police had any samples of the Kid in their records. But they didn't.
Not any more at least.
They'd gotten his blood type from the case on Valentine's Day, the year before Saguru came, when Akako had made a voodoo doll of him. He'd switched the labelled samples of blood that the police had collected with fruit punch, then personally gone back and cleaned up the blood trail he'd left in the museum, just in case. The strand of hair Saguru had collected he'd also gone back and switched with a cat's hair, but that was before they had started their strange courtship.
Poor Fujiyama-san, the Kaitou Kid Task Force's DNA specialist... always suffering from asthma attacks at the worst possible time....
He chuckled to himself, looking over the rest of the schedule. New weaponry and security measures... that one would have been interesting to attend. It was always a good idea to stay on top of the latest there.
A yawn blind-sided him. He rubbed his eyes with the heel of a hand, still idly looking over things. Saguru had scribbled notes on which of the lectures and demonstrations he wanted to attend, most of them being the same ones that caught Kaito's eye as being interesting to a thief. Made sense in a strange sort of way. Best way to catch a thief supposedly to think like a thief and all. There were one or two on homicides, but that was about it.
Curiosity satisfied for the moment, he kicked off his shoes and wiggled farther onto the bed, pulling the pillows down towards him. They smelled like the hotel detergent, but of Saguru too. He should recognise it by now at least, having spent enough time in close contact with the detective.
Contentedly sprawled across the bed --consequentially taking up most of it in the process-- he allowed himself to drift back off to sleep, willing himself not to dream. Not the old nightmares, nor the newer, more intimate kind either.
+++
Snake had changed his mind. Instead of aiming for heart, which had been protected so many times before, he aimed for a less protectable area.
The Head.
Exit wounds really were larger than entrance wounds, Kaito noticed distantly. It looked like Hakuba had a smudge of dirt on his forehead, between wide surprised eyes, yet his blood and brains coated Kaito's body as he cradled the detective's dead one.
Snake raised his gun again, this time aiming for Kaito's forehead. forehead. There was no where he could move, not with Hakuba's larger body sprawled over his, trapping him with dead weight.
The door opened and shut, footsteps muffled on the carpet walking closer to him. A hand touched him on the shoulder. He lashed out, fists and feet swinging towards the intruder. His strikes were blocked and he found himself grabbed, flipped and pinned to the bed.
"Dammit, Kaito!!!" Saguru's voice snapped. "WAKE UP!!!"
Kaito opened his eyes, staring up at fierce blue ones staring at him from close range. "Hakuba?!"
The blond frowned at being called by the less familiar name. Kaito grimaced. "Sorry, Saguru." That's right, Saguru was familiar with both Judo and Wrestling. Not good for escaping, but damn good to kept someone from doing so. "I didn't get you, did I?" Nightmare. He'd been having a nightmare. Obviously, 'George' had mutated.
"I'm fine." If Saguru's tone was any dryer, his mouth would be too deprived of moisture to talk. The detective's expression was one of concerned however. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, I'm fine." Kaito waved it off. Or would have anyway, if his hands hadn't been pinned down by Saguru. Now that he had a chance to notice it, most of him was pinned down by Saguru. With Saguru.
This morning's dream returned with startling clarity. Saguru's face was looming over his, if he leaned up or Saguru leaned down, they could re-enact some of it right here on the bed...
"Ahh..." Poker Face... Poker Face... dammit, Poker Face! Which Poker Face?! Kaito's face was rarely still while Kid's was always still. If he went expressionless, Saguru would -know- something was up. Ack! Bad word choice!! Bad word choice!! He felt the blood rushing to his head and cleared his throat nervously. "You can let go of me, y'know." He commented, angling for a casual tone and not entirely sure he succeeded. Thank goodness for loose trousers. Although with this close of a proximity, it wasn't going to do much to hide anything.
Saguru looked confused for a moment, then his eyes widened as his cheekbones turned pink. "Oh. Right. Sorry." The detective quickly scrabbled off of him in a tangle of pointy arms, long legs and jabbing knees and elbows. Saguru finally rolled off of him and the bed, smoothing his vest down in an effort to regain some dignity.
Kaito decided that not moving for a moment was a good idea. He could have hurt Saguru. He'd almost hurt Saguru. He'd promised himself after he'd accidentally tossed Saguru into the wall as the Kid that he'd never cause injury to the detective again, a promise he'd nearly broken.
The other reason being he was still a little shaky from the adrenaline rush. Both of them.
"You bring any luggage with you?" Saguru questioned, changing the subject. He moved towards where his bag was sitting open, casually grabbing a shirt to fold.
"None." Kaito sat up and swung his legs off the bed. "This was kind of an unplanned visit."
"Would you fancy a jaunt, then?" The blond shot him a small half-grin. "Mum asked me to check on someone while I was in the area. And to be frank, the convention's a bore."
Kaito glanced at the clock. It was still mid-afternoon and the convention didn't end until tomorrow. "You sure you want to check out early?"
"Positive." Saguru growled, pulling off his tie and tossing it in with the rest of his clothing. The Half-Brit let loose a rapid fire grumbling in Japanese about stuffed shirt old men who thought that you had to be grey-haired and walk with a cane to know anything more on any given subject than they did.
Obviously Saguru was -not- having fun being the youngest person here. Although, Kaito mused with a grin, it was nice to see some of the more teenager-ish personality come to the fore instead of the mature facade Saguru usually maintained.
Hirokini made a snickering sound from the cellphone at Kaito's waist. He'd probably known about this when he 'suggested' that Kaito come here. Although it did raise some questions in his mind as to when they had be come so co-dependent on each other, and if it was healthy for their well being, both physically and mentally.
But then who was he to talk about healthy? He was a Kaitou living with a Detective. Ha.
Which meant that Saguru was a Detective voluntarily living with a Kaitou, so that didn't say much for his own mental health there either....
Kaito distracted himself by grabbing Saguru's toiletries from the bathroom and helping the blond pack.
+++
Kaito eyed the clouds gathering around the red brick Gregorian house they were walking towards. The clouds were starting to gather, a looming grey presence that heralded rain.
It rained here a lot, the imminent threat of rain shouldn't have been that big of a deal, but it just further soured his irritable mood. It was also possible that he was taking Saguru's pet cat analogy to heart too. No sunbeams to crawl inside of.
But he hoped that Saguru would be able to wrap this up quickly, he did not relish the idea of walking back to the terminal in the rain. The detective seemed impervious to the weather, walking along with a bland look on his face, most likely mulling over what ever facts to the case he was here about.
Saguru set his bag down --Kaito had been previously unaware that they still made old-fashion carpet bags, but that was Saguru for you-- and rang the doorbell, patiently waiting. Kaito picked the bag up, mostly to have something to keep his hands occupied with, and waited not-so patiently despite what ever his expression was.
A thin, almost fragile looking woman opened the door, her blond hair held back in a messy ponytail at the back of her head. She blinked owlishly at them, pushing her glasses higher on her face. "I'm afraid we're not interested in buying anything today." She apologised.
Kaito almost grinned at that. "Good." Saguru smiled slightly as he pulled out his identification that identified him as an assistant to the police. "We're not here to sell you anything. I was requested to inquire about a former case at this residence. Do you know a Dr. Honey?"
"He was my father." The woman said slowly, opening the door a bit wider. A second pair of eyes peered curiously at them from about waist height. The blond woman put a hand on the small brown haired girl's head, absently smoothing the strands.
Kaito crouched down until he was eye level with the girl, setting Saguru's bag down. "Hullo. My name is Kaito."
The girl gave him a serious look for a moment. "Your accent is different."
Saguru let out a small snicker. Kaito ignored him. He'd done well, learning as much as he had in the past year. "I'm from Japan."
The girl looked up at Saguru. "Are you?"
"Yes." Saguru admitted. "But I was raised in London, my Mum is English."
"Oh." The solemn wise eyes studied them both. "Do you speak Japanese?"
"Matilda!" The woman scolded. "I'm sorry, she-"
"It's okay." Kaito pulled out a square of of paper from his pocket, then carefully folded it in half, then half again. "Watch. Ore wa maho-tsukai." He clasped the folded piece of paper between his hands, then counted, clearly for the girl to hear. "Ichi. Ni. San!"
He opened his hands and where a folded piece of paper had rested was an even more folded piece of paper, now in the shape of a butterfly. He carefully picked it up by the body of the origami insect, the wings slowly flapping as he did so.
Then for a bit of fun, he gave a little flick of his fingers, tossing the butterfly into the air. It's paper wings flapped, fluttering in the air. He quickly glanced up at Saguru, who was smirking in a resigned amused sort of way.
A quick glance at the girl and her Mum showed no amusement however. Both of them were staring at him with more shock and trepidation than anything else. Feeling guilty and unsure why, he landed the floating butterfly on the girl's head, it's wings flapping a few more times before stilling.
Time seemed to pause, everyone staring at everything and nothing at once. Then the small girl reached forward, touching the side of Kaito's face with a tiny hand. "Your face isn't hot." She said, in a small voice filled with awe and confusion. "And your eyes didn't go all sparkly."
The butterfly fell off her head. Kaito simply stared back, not having a response to that.
"Why don't you both come in?" The blond lady said looking a little shaken as she opened the door and invited them both inside.
Saguru nodded, putting the identification back in his pocket and picking up his carpet bag. The girl picked up the butterfly, examining it carefully as Kaito rose slowly, following the detective.
"Did your brain feel like it was whooshing past the stars when you lifted the butterfly up?" The girl chattered excitedly, following them while her Mum shut the door behind them. "Or like you had thousands of little hands reaching out of your eyeballs and picking it up?"
"Kaito's a Magician." Saguru explained, smiling fondly at them both. "He's always doing tricks or pulling things out of no where."
When Saguru said it, almost sounded lewd. But it saved him an explanation. A Magician never explained his tricks after all.
"Oh." The girl's excited expression fell slightly. "How did you make this? A paper butterfly! Can you make other things out of paper?"
"Matilda!" Her Mum scolded. The girl looked abashed, fiddling with the butterfly.
Kaito grinned. Kids were so curious about everything. That was one of the neat things about them. People got so cynical when they got older and stopped asking questions.
"I'm Jennifer Honey, by the way." The blond lady said by way of apology. "This is Matilda."
"Saguru Hakuba." Saguru gave her a small half bow. "This is my associate, Kaito Kuroba."
Kaito smiled back. 'Associate' was he now? Well, it worked better than saying that the detective was dragging a thief around with him because they were friends. "Pleased to meet you. And yes, I can make other things out of paper." He looked up at Ms. Honey. "I can teach you if that's okay with your Mum."
"That would be lovely." Ms. Honey smiled back. "I'll bring you tea in a bit. Saguru and I will be in the kitchen if you want to try it in the living room."
The living room was easily viewable from the kitchen, Kaito noted with a vague sense of amusement. They would be able to keep an eye on each other without being obtrusive.
So while Saguru talked to Ms. Honey about some recent discoveries that her father's supposed suicide might be murder after all and if she knew any thing about a woman named Ms. Agatha Trunchbull, Kaito and Matilda sat on the floor of the living room with scissors and note book paper and he taught her how to make origami animals.
Matilda was a bright young child who picked up his explanations easily and chattered, asking questions about -everything-. What was life like in Japan, how did he become a magician, could he teach her how to speak Japanese, why did he come to England, did he like it here, and on and on. He could barely keep up with her.
She chatted about herself too, how her parents left for Spain and she had moved in with Ms. Honey which was absolutely wonderful, things she read about in books --she read an awful lot of books--, possible jobs she could go into when she got older but there was so much to learn! How she and Ms. Honey had met, things The Trunchbull had done but no one would ever believe --he almost didn't, but he didn't think she was lying either-- and she liked bread with butter and jam, did he?
Actually, he did and Ms. Honey made wonderful bread with butter and jam.
He keep an ear out for Saguru and Ms. Honey as well. Mum had been a friend of Dr. Honey's before his sudden death and asked her son to look into what had happened to her friend and his daughter. Mum had influence in some circles and had no qualms using it if she thought that it might correct an injustice. Saguru didn't get his drive for helping people and justice just from his father.
By the time Kaito realised what time it was, darkness had fallen and the storm outside had gotten worse. Saguru had gotten himself roped into helping to prepare dinner in the kitchen, wearing a spare apron. A pink one. Kaito received death threats about what would happen if Mum ever heard about this.
He ignored the death threats in favour of straightening the living room with it's menagerie of paper animals. Kaito had behaved himself and not positioned them in a variety of naughty ways. He had -some- tact after all.
Some. Not much.
Ms. Honey invited them to spend the night and catch the train in the morning due to the weather and time of night. She was highly apologetic, she only had one bed in the guest room, but she had spare blankets if one of them wished to spend the night on the couch.
He and Saguru exchanged a look and commented that they'd share the bed. They were used to sharing accommodations, or so they explained. Which they were. It was just that some of the time they weren't travelling and didn't necessarily -have- to share accommodations and they did anyway.
There was some bickering before they went to bed, Kaito stole some of Saguru's clothes to sleep in and Saguru protested about it. Kaito pointed out that unlike Saguru, he didn't have anything to sleep in, it was too cold to sleep naked even with a personal bed-warmer --Saguru turned red at that-- and Saguru would have to smell his wrinkled stinky clothes all the way home otherwise. Besides, Saguru was so tidy and fussy, his dirty clothes probably weren't.
He won in the end and curled up in bed feeling rather triumphant. The triumphant feeling lasted until Saguru climbed into bed, a warm presence stretching out against Kaito's back.
Then he didn't want to sleep. Sleep meant dreams. Dreaming was becoming increasingly not good.
He did NOT want to have a repeat of this morning's dreaming with Saguru. Right. There.
Not that he didn't think that Saguru would heckle him about it --they were both guys--, or that he couldn't talk his way out of it, but it would be damn embarrassing. And really really really awkward. Possibly awkward enough that they didn't share accommodations again.
Saguru rolled over, an arm brushing across Kaito's side, then sliding down his waist, Saguru curling around him. "G'to sleep." The blond murmured, his lips brushing the skin on the back of Kaito's neck. Kaito shivered slightly, burrowing a bit more into the blankets. -And Saguru.
Who was now apparently fast asleep. Which meant that he wasn't going to be moving until the half-Brit woke up.
Kaito sighed, which quickly turned into a yawn. With Saguru wrapped around him like a second blanket it was now comfortably warm under the duvet. Almost uncomfortably so. It was dangerous to drift off, but he needed to sleep.
Aw, hell. He'd deal with it in the morning.
+++
Kaito woke up, jolted out of sleep by the creek of floorboards out side the door. He opened his eyes a slit, senses on alert as the door slowly opened. Saguru slept heedlessly behind and around him, a snoring dead-weight. He couldn't move, pinned by Saguru's arms, causing him to panic slightly.
Dead, dead, they were dead because he'd let his guard down around the detective and he could spot something shiny peeking through the doorway, dammit they were both gonna die horrible messy deaths and he hadn't even gotten -laid- yet...
Then Matilda peered at them from behind the door, the dim light glinting off the spine of the book she was carrying. "You awake?" She whispered in that voice kids use when they're trying to be quiet but it doesn't quite work.
"Yeah." He opened his eyes, tossing off the illusion of sleep. No guns, no death, no embarrassing dreams, just a curious little kid. The remains of the adrenaline rush was enough to make him giddy.
He got a shy grin in response. "O-ha-you."
"Ohayou gozai masu." Kaito whispered back. Matilda giggled, creeping into the room, still cradling the book. He could see the title of the book she's holding as she stopped next to the bed. It's a book on learning Japanese, old and battered, like it had been printed in the last world war.
"I said it right?" She asks excitedly, her voice still in the quiet-but-not-quite hushed tone.
"Hai." He can't help but to tease. She looks confused for a second, probably thinking he said 'Hi', then her expression cleared, giving him a big grin. "Can you help me with this? I can read the hiragana and the katakana and some of the kanji okay, but I don't understand how to pronounce them correctly and-"
Kaito laughed quietly, wiggling Saguru's death grip on him from his chest down towards his waist so he can sit up. It's awkward to sit, with one of Saguru's arms wrapped around the small of his back, but at least he could sit up He re-arranged the blankets so Saguru was covered but not suffocating, then motioned for her to climb up on the bed.
She did so, scrabbling up, all knees and elbows, plopping the book down next to him and pointing to the things she didn't understand. He helped her through the pronunciations --she had some problems with the 'R-L' sound-- and wondered what time it was. Saguru would know, but he wasn't waking the blond up.
Although it was awfully tempting when Saguru decided to half roll over and he found himself with a lap full of slightly snoring detective. He turned bright red and Matilda laughed. Which brought a confused looking Ms. Honey looking for her wayward adopted daughter.
Followed by a hushed lecture on annoying sleeping guests that woke a befuddled Saguru from his sleep. Who turned a brilliant shade of red upon discovering his face in Kaito's lap and tried to pretend he was still asleep, much to Kaito's amusement.
This was definitely a pleasant reversal from waking up the previous morning. He'd have to thank Hirokini later.
-fin-
*Icka hops up and down cursing*
We've been working on this damn thing for months. Matilda was one of our favourite Roald Dahl books growing up, and we just had this odd mental picture of Saguru walking up to the door and talking to Ms. Honey about the disappearance of The Trunchbull.
Then Kaito frikking discovered hormones. Or something. We dunno what the freak is up with the dreams.
It was SUPPOSED to be a short little fic, dammit!! Not this huge frikking monster!!!
Plus the whole Hormones + Children's book was a whole major WTF factor. -_- But Kaito's a big kid himself, (pardon the pun) so there it went... *sighs*
This one is
Fujiyama-san is thanks to Jaelle's TGZ fic, 'The Evidence Never Lies'.
+++
Flesh.
Skin against skin, the smell of shampoo, sweat and sex. Murmured words, soft gasps and pants.
Touch.
He wanted more. It wasn't enough, just hands and lips and tongues. Taste. Silk and salt. Texture.
More, he wanted more. More contact, more heat, more everything.
Golden brown eyes laughed at him as lips touched and tangled. He reached up-
And Kaito sat up in bed, gasping for breath and breathing hard. That wasn't the only part of him that was hard, much to his own embarrassment and painful arousal.
He pushed the warm duvet off his legs, loosely curling up in the cooler air, resting his arms on his knees. Hellooo Hormones. Hadn't seen you in a while.
He'd gotten a reputation early in High School for being a bit of a pervert, flipping Aoko's skirt to see her panties, picking the lock on the Girl's Locker room doors. Then came the discovery of Oyaji's night job, Aoko being family, Oyaji being murdered, actually being shot at as the Kid...
He'd grown up, matured, and set such thoughts and ideas aside as pointless. Thinking with his little head would get himself and others killed. He'd even stopped flipping Aoko's skirt, but no one seemed to notice. He knew what buttons to push around her, to set off the Nakamori temper for her to chase him without it. The locker room was for both the pretext that everything was the same as much as it was for the lock picking practise.
Then had come Hakuba with his bet... And the after-heist visits. He could --and probably should-- have stopped visiting, but it slowly became comforting. The detective was a challenge, not the same 'sword at the throat' challenge that Kudo was, but a steady one, subtly pushing at his abilities, encouraging them to grow sharper.
The detective had also grown safe, comfortable to be around in his own sarcastic way.
Then he'd found Pandora, the gem ripping everything away and pitching everything into chaos. The summer from Hell.
He still had nightmares. The blond stepping in between Snake and himself, catching the bullet in the chest and NOT having the armour that kept the bullet from piercing his heart was frequent enough horror he was thinking of naming it 'George' and keeping it as a pet.
But mostly he dreamt that he'd failed. And in doing so, taking others down with him. Not just the half-Briton, but 'Kaasan, Nakamori-keibu and Aoko too. The night terrors didn't stop there, just like the organisation in black wouldn't stop there.
Kudo Shin'ichi in Edogawa Conan's fragile body, broken and bleeding. His girlfriend-neechan, Mouri Ran, slaughtered with him. Hattori Heiji's smiling face cracked open, his brains spilling onto the ground, dark skinned body attempting to shield his childhood friend Kazuha's still bleeding corpse.
Agasa-hakase, Kudo's neighbour, slaughtered along with Ai, the not-child who's body had been torn apart as if ravaged by beasts, the Organisation taking it's time in prolonging her death. The small bodies of the Shonen Tantei, their glassy eyes wide and unseeing as they stared at him, silently asking why he'd allowed it to happen.
That one was the worst, the small kids. No matter how many nightmares he had, those images always haunted him throughout the day.
On the other hand, he didn't have to worry about being too hard to move anymore. Attempting to explain to Ayumi-chan --who had greeted the Kid so fearlessly on her bedroom balcony one night ages ago-- why he'd let her die in his head always slaughtered any sort of mood.
With a groan, he fell backwards onto the bed, limbs sprawled out. He wasn't getting anymore sleep tonight.
Saguru... kept the nightmares away. It was stupid, trite and true. He slept better with the detective either beside him or in the next room. It was good to know that he had back-up beside him, should he need it.
And the lizard-part of his brain really liked the human physical contact.
But Saguru wasn't home right now. Neither was Mum. The house was empty, save for himself, Hirokini and the birds outside. The detective had been off at some Police Conference for the past few couple of days that was either a punishment or a reward to attend, depending on who you were talking to. Saguru had strongly suggested Kaito not attend, him being both a strange foreigner and not affiliated with law-enforcement. Not to mention bored to tears --or so Saguru said.
Although it might have been amusing to watch a large room full of law officials all trying to manoeuvre themselves so that none of them were sitting with their backs to a doorway. Heh.
Mum had been around the house until this afternoon, when she left for one of her excursions or what ever her job was that kept her busy most of the time. He still wasn't entirely sure as to what she did.
And now the house felt too big, too empty. And neither of the blonds would be home until the day after tomorrow.
He sighed, rubbing his head and messing up his hair. Shower. It was still early, the sun wasn't up yet. He'd take a shower, get dressed and pull some money from one of the slush funds he and Hirokini had set up for emergencies and just go somewhere. Anywhere with people.
It was against his sense of honour as a Kaitou to -steal- without returning, but it tickled his sense of humour to use money they skimmed from the organisation to avoid the killers they sent after them.
"Kaito-niichan?" The AI's voice spoke from his charging mobile phone, where a light on it indicated that the video recorder was on, the computer ghost-boy watching him. He'd probably noticed Kaito's sitting up and was worried. "You okay?"
"Peachy." No need to worry the kid. Nightmares were his problem, not Hirokini's. "Just up a little earlier than usual." Not quite a lie, not quite the truth either.
"Hmm..." Since they couldn't -see- him and Hirokini had lost the machine-whirring noises when they moved, Hirokini relied on a lot more on audio cues to convey his emotions. This was an 'I don't entirely believe you but I'm not going to push it' hmm.
"Train ticket to the conference?" Hirokini finally commented neutrally, as if he didn't have the website already pulled up somewhere, making reservations.
Kaito sat up, staring at the mobile.
Hirokini said nothing.
Kaito chuckled ruefully, running a hand through his hair. That probably would have been where he would have ended up anyway, without realising it. To hell with it. "You're starting to know me too well." He grumbled half-heartedly.
The young AI made a happy sound in return. Kaito gave up and went to take his shower.
+++
Saguru appeared to be surprised to see Kaito outside of his hotel room door. Affection, amusement and wariness quickly flashed across his face before being replaced by a bland facade as the blond invited him inside, quickly glancing around the corridor to see if anyone had seen Kaito's appearance.
No one had, Kaito had made sure of that. His Kaitou skills were good for that at least.
Saguru had bade Kaito to make himself comfortable while he finished getting dressed. Kaito curled up in one of the room's armchairs, watching the blond buttoning his shirt and rummage around for a tie.
He was half-anticipating a comment about his inability to stay home alone, at least until he noticed the slight grey smudges under Saguru's eyes. He wasn't the only one who hadn't gotten much sleep the night before.
So when Saguru fumbled with tying his tie into a Windsor knot for the third time, he rose and did it for him, awkwardly standing behind the larger blond with his arms wrapped around him to do it right. He was fairly ambidextrous, but even he had trouble tying a tie when it wasn't around his own neck.
... or a close approximation there of.
Whatever. It gave him an excuse to touch Saguru, make sure he was real and not hurt. It was both funny and sad how the bad dreams seemed to stick around longer than the good.
And Saguru didn't seem to mind, even seemed to lean back against him a little. Although that could have been just to get the knot tied faster. Right.
Saguru absently thanked him as he finished getting dressed, advised him to crash in the hotel room --I.E: Not to be seen by anyone-- and informed him he'd be back sometime in the early afternoon.
Then Kaito was left by himself again. He sighed, falling backwards on the bed, his limbs sagging with mild weariness now that he'd made it to his destination and the caffeine rush that had sustained him on the train had faded. His arms brushed against some papers that were tossed out on the bed, something Saguru had been looking at before his arrival.
Curious, he picked up one and glanced at it. It was the convention schedule, notes scribbled about various lectures with Saguru's tidy hand. One interest in particular caught his eye.
A lecture on the International Criminal 1412 aka the Kaitou Kid, given by a renown expert on the subject, Saguru Hakuba.
Held the day before. Blast. He couldn't do anything to play with everyone. Well, maybe he could leave a card somewhere, 'The Kaitou Kid was Here' or something, just to set everyone off and play with their minds.
No wonder Saguru hadn't wanted him to come along. He dismissed the idea with reluctant sigh. Be good. He had to be good. A prank like that would draw unwanted attention to Saguru and his possible connections to Kid.
He picked up a few of the other papers, shuffling through them for a moment before realising that he was looking at Saguru's notes for the lecture. Most of them were basic statistics, basic height and weight, age, overview of his heist record, profile on likely targets. And a few random notes, once again written in Saguru's neat hand, mostly in the heist sections. 'Steals Men's Underwear' and 'Blanket Thief' being two of the more personal and amusing ones.
No wonder Saguru was paranoid over his being seen here, it was stated quite plainly that the Kid was of Japanese decent. Saguru's name was obviously Japanese, but with that information in mind, any officers who attended the lecture would probably be super sensitive of anyone of Asian descent for a while.
Glancing back at the schedule, he noted that Saguru had a lecture on DNA testing to attend this morning. It would have worried him, if the police had any samples of the Kid in their records. But they didn't.
Not any more at least.
They'd gotten his blood type from the case on Valentine's Day, the year before Saguru came, when Akako had made a voodoo doll of him. He'd switched the labelled samples of blood that the police had collected with fruit punch, then personally gone back and cleaned up the blood trail he'd left in the museum, just in case. The strand of hair Saguru had collected he'd also gone back and switched with a cat's hair, but that was before they had started their strange courtship.
Poor Fujiyama-san, the Kaitou Kid Task Force's DNA specialist... always suffering from asthma attacks at the worst possible time....
He chuckled to himself, looking over the rest of the schedule. New weaponry and security measures... that one would have been interesting to attend. It was always a good idea to stay on top of the latest there.
A yawn blind-sided him. He rubbed his eyes with the heel of a hand, still idly looking over things. Saguru had scribbled notes on which of the lectures and demonstrations he wanted to attend, most of them being the same ones that caught Kaito's eye as being interesting to a thief. Made sense in a strange sort of way. Best way to catch a thief supposedly to think like a thief and all. There were one or two on homicides, but that was about it.
Curiosity satisfied for the moment, he kicked off his shoes and wiggled farther onto the bed, pulling the pillows down towards him. They smelled like the hotel detergent, but of Saguru too. He should recognise it by now at least, having spent enough time in close contact with the detective.
Contentedly sprawled across the bed --consequentially taking up most of it in the process-- he allowed himself to drift back off to sleep, willing himself not to dream. Not the old nightmares, nor the newer, more intimate kind either.
+++
Snake had changed his mind. Instead of aiming for heart, which had been protected so many times before, he aimed for a less protectable area.
The Head.
Exit wounds really were larger than entrance wounds, Kaito noticed distantly. It looked like Hakuba had a smudge of dirt on his forehead, between wide surprised eyes, yet his blood and brains coated Kaito's body as he cradled the detective's dead one.
Snake raised his gun again, this time aiming for Kaito's forehead. forehead. There was no where he could move, not with Hakuba's larger body sprawled over his, trapping him with dead weight.
The door opened and shut, footsteps muffled on the carpet walking closer to him. A hand touched him on the shoulder. He lashed out, fists and feet swinging towards the intruder. His strikes were blocked and he found himself grabbed, flipped and pinned to the bed.
"Dammit, Kaito!!!" Saguru's voice snapped. "WAKE UP!!!"
Kaito opened his eyes, staring up at fierce blue ones staring at him from close range. "Hakuba?!"
The blond frowned at being called by the less familiar name. Kaito grimaced. "Sorry, Saguru." That's right, Saguru was familiar with both Judo and Wrestling. Not good for escaping, but damn good to kept someone from doing so. "I didn't get you, did I?" Nightmare. He'd been having a nightmare. Obviously, 'George' had mutated.
"I'm fine." If Saguru's tone was any dryer, his mouth would be too deprived of moisture to talk. The detective's expression was one of concerned however. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, I'm fine." Kaito waved it off. Or would have anyway, if his hands hadn't been pinned down by Saguru. Now that he had a chance to notice it, most of him was pinned down by Saguru. With Saguru.
This morning's dream returned with startling clarity. Saguru's face was looming over his, if he leaned up or Saguru leaned down, they could re-enact some of it right here on the bed...
"Ahh..." Poker Face... Poker Face... dammit, Poker Face! Which Poker Face?! Kaito's face was rarely still while Kid's was always still. If he went expressionless, Saguru would -know- something was up. Ack! Bad word choice!! Bad word choice!! He felt the blood rushing to his head and cleared his throat nervously. "You can let go of me, y'know." He commented, angling for a casual tone and not entirely sure he succeeded. Thank goodness for loose trousers. Although with this close of a proximity, it wasn't going to do much to hide anything.
Saguru looked confused for a moment, then his eyes widened as his cheekbones turned pink. "Oh. Right. Sorry." The detective quickly scrabbled off of him in a tangle of pointy arms, long legs and jabbing knees and elbows. Saguru finally rolled off of him and the bed, smoothing his vest down in an effort to regain some dignity.
Kaito decided that not moving for a moment was a good idea. He could have hurt Saguru. He'd almost hurt Saguru. He'd promised himself after he'd accidentally tossed Saguru into the wall as the Kid that he'd never cause injury to the detective again, a promise he'd nearly broken.
The other reason being he was still a little shaky from the adrenaline rush. Both of them.
"You bring any luggage with you?" Saguru questioned, changing the subject. He moved towards where his bag was sitting open, casually grabbing a shirt to fold.
"None." Kaito sat up and swung his legs off the bed. "This was kind of an unplanned visit."
"Would you fancy a jaunt, then?" The blond shot him a small half-grin. "Mum asked me to check on someone while I was in the area. And to be frank, the convention's a bore."
Kaito glanced at the clock. It was still mid-afternoon and the convention didn't end until tomorrow. "You sure you want to check out early?"
"Positive." Saguru growled, pulling off his tie and tossing it in with the rest of his clothing. The Half-Brit let loose a rapid fire grumbling in Japanese about stuffed shirt old men who thought that you had to be grey-haired and walk with a cane to know anything more on any given subject than they did.
Obviously Saguru was -not- having fun being the youngest person here. Although, Kaito mused with a grin, it was nice to see some of the more teenager-ish personality come to the fore instead of the mature facade Saguru usually maintained.
Hirokini made a snickering sound from the cellphone at Kaito's waist. He'd probably known about this when he 'suggested' that Kaito come here. Although it did raise some questions in his mind as to when they had be come so co-dependent on each other, and if it was healthy for their well being, both physically and mentally.
But then who was he to talk about healthy? He was a Kaitou living with a Detective. Ha.
Which meant that Saguru was a Detective voluntarily living with a Kaitou, so that didn't say much for his own mental health there either....
Kaito distracted himself by grabbing Saguru's toiletries from the bathroom and helping the blond pack.
+++
Kaito eyed the clouds gathering around the red brick Gregorian house they were walking towards. The clouds were starting to gather, a looming grey presence that heralded rain.
It rained here a lot, the imminent threat of rain shouldn't have been that big of a deal, but it just further soured his irritable mood. It was also possible that he was taking Saguru's pet cat analogy to heart too. No sunbeams to crawl inside of.
But he hoped that Saguru would be able to wrap this up quickly, he did not relish the idea of walking back to the terminal in the rain. The detective seemed impervious to the weather, walking along with a bland look on his face, most likely mulling over what ever facts to the case he was here about.
Saguru set his bag down --Kaito had been previously unaware that they still made old-fashion carpet bags, but that was Saguru for you-- and rang the doorbell, patiently waiting. Kaito picked the bag up, mostly to have something to keep his hands occupied with, and waited not-so patiently despite what ever his expression was.
A thin, almost fragile looking woman opened the door, her blond hair held back in a messy ponytail at the back of her head. She blinked owlishly at them, pushing her glasses higher on her face. "I'm afraid we're not interested in buying anything today." She apologised.
Kaito almost grinned at that. "Good." Saguru smiled slightly as he pulled out his identification that identified him as an assistant to the police. "We're not here to sell you anything. I was requested to inquire about a former case at this residence. Do you know a Dr. Honey?"
"He was my father." The woman said slowly, opening the door a bit wider. A second pair of eyes peered curiously at them from about waist height. The blond woman put a hand on the small brown haired girl's head, absently smoothing the strands.
Kaito crouched down until he was eye level with the girl, setting Saguru's bag down. "Hullo. My name is Kaito."
The girl gave him a serious look for a moment. "Your accent is different."
Saguru let out a small snicker. Kaito ignored him. He'd done well, learning as much as he had in the past year. "I'm from Japan."
The girl looked up at Saguru. "Are you?"
"Yes." Saguru admitted. "But I was raised in London, my Mum is English."
"Oh." The solemn wise eyes studied them both. "Do you speak Japanese?"
"Matilda!" The woman scolded. "I'm sorry, she-"
"It's okay." Kaito pulled out a square of of paper from his pocket, then carefully folded it in half, then half again. "Watch. Ore wa maho-tsukai." He clasped the folded piece of paper between his hands, then counted, clearly for the girl to hear. "Ichi. Ni. San!"
He opened his hands and where a folded piece of paper had rested was an even more folded piece of paper, now in the shape of a butterfly. He carefully picked it up by the body of the origami insect, the wings slowly flapping as he did so.
Then for a bit of fun, he gave a little flick of his fingers, tossing the butterfly into the air. It's paper wings flapped, fluttering in the air. He quickly glanced up at Saguru, who was smirking in a resigned amused sort of way.
A quick glance at the girl and her Mum showed no amusement however. Both of them were staring at him with more shock and trepidation than anything else. Feeling guilty and unsure why, he landed the floating butterfly on the girl's head, it's wings flapping a few more times before stilling.
Time seemed to pause, everyone staring at everything and nothing at once. Then the small girl reached forward, touching the side of Kaito's face with a tiny hand. "Your face isn't hot." She said, in a small voice filled with awe and confusion. "And your eyes didn't go all sparkly."
The butterfly fell off her head. Kaito simply stared back, not having a response to that.
"Why don't you both come in?" The blond lady said looking a little shaken as she opened the door and invited them both inside.
Saguru nodded, putting the identification back in his pocket and picking up his carpet bag. The girl picked up the butterfly, examining it carefully as Kaito rose slowly, following the detective.
"Did your brain feel like it was whooshing past the stars when you lifted the butterfly up?" The girl chattered excitedly, following them while her Mum shut the door behind them. "Or like you had thousands of little hands reaching out of your eyeballs and picking it up?"
"Kaito's a Magician." Saguru explained, smiling fondly at them both. "He's always doing tricks or pulling things out of no where."
When Saguru said it, almost sounded lewd. But it saved him an explanation. A Magician never explained his tricks after all.
"Oh." The girl's excited expression fell slightly. "How did you make this? A paper butterfly! Can you make other things out of paper?"
"Matilda!" Her Mum scolded. The girl looked abashed, fiddling with the butterfly.
Kaito grinned. Kids were so curious about everything. That was one of the neat things about them. People got so cynical when they got older and stopped asking questions.
"I'm Jennifer Honey, by the way." The blond lady said by way of apology. "This is Matilda."
"Saguru Hakuba." Saguru gave her a small half bow. "This is my associate, Kaito Kuroba."
Kaito smiled back. 'Associate' was he now? Well, it worked better than saying that the detective was dragging a thief around with him because they were friends. "Pleased to meet you. And yes, I can make other things out of paper." He looked up at Ms. Honey. "I can teach you if that's okay with your Mum."
"That would be lovely." Ms. Honey smiled back. "I'll bring you tea in a bit. Saguru and I will be in the kitchen if you want to try it in the living room."
The living room was easily viewable from the kitchen, Kaito noted with a vague sense of amusement. They would be able to keep an eye on each other without being obtrusive.
So while Saguru talked to Ms. Honey about some recent discoveries that her father's supposed suicide might be murder after all and if she knew any thing about a woman named Ms. Agatha Trunchbull, Kaito and Matilda sat on the floor of the living room with scissors and note book paper and he taught her how to make origami animals.
Matilda was a bright young child who picked up his explanations easily and chattered, asking questions about -everything-. What was life like in Japan, how did he become a magician, could he teach her how to speak Japanese, why did he come to England, did he like it here, and on and on. He could barely keep up with her.
She chatted about herself too, how her parents left for Spain and she had moved in with Ms. Honey which was absolutely wonderful, things she read about in books --she read an awful lot of books--, possible jobs she could go into when she got older but there was so much to learn! How she and Ms. Honey had met, things The Trunchbull had done but no one would ever believe --he almost didn't, but he didn't think she was lying either-- and she liked bread with butter and jam, did he?
Actually, he did and Ms. Honey made wonderful bread with butter and jam.
He keep an ear out for Saguru and Ms. Honey as well. Mum had been a friend of Dr. Honey's before his sudden death and asked her son to look into what had happened to her friend and his daughter. Mum had influence in some circles and had no qualms using it if she thought that it might correct an injustice. Saguru didn't get his drive for helping people and justice just from his father.
By the time Kaito realised what time it was, darkness had fallen and the storm outside had gotten worse. Saguru had gotten himself roped into helping to prepare dinner in the kitchen, wearing a spare apron. A pink one. Kaito received death threats about what would happen if Mum ever heard about this.
He ignored the death threats in favour of straightening the living room with it's menagerie of paper animals. Kaito had behaved himself and not positioned them in a variety of naughty ways. He had -some- tact after all.
Some. Not much.
Ms. Honey invited them to spend the night and catch the train in the morning due to the weather and time of night. She was highly apologetic, she only had one bed in the guest room, but she had spare blankets if one of them wished to spend the night on the couch.
He and Saguru exchanged a look and commented that they'd share the bed. They were used to sharing accommodations, or so they explained. Which they were. It was just that some of the time they weren't travelling and didn't necessarily -have- to share accommodations and they did anyway.
There was some bickering before they went to bed, Kaito stole some of Saguru's clothes to sleep in and Saguru protested about it. Kaito pointed out that unlike Saguru, he didn't have anything to sleep in, it was too cold to sleep naked even with a personal bed-warmer --Saguru turned red at that-- and Saguru would have to smell his wrinkled stinky clothes all the way home otherwise. Besides, Saguru was so tidy and fussy, his dirty clothes probably weren't.
He won in the end and curled up in bed feeling rather triumphant. The triumphant feeling lasted until Saguru climbed into bed, a warm presence stretching out against Kaito's back.
Then he didn't want to sleep. Sleep meant dreams. Dreaming was becoming increasingly not good.
He did NOT want to have a repeat of this morning's dreaming with Saguru. Right. There.
Not that he didn't think that Saguru would heckle him about it --they were both guys--, or that he couldn't talk his way out of it, but it would be damn embarrassing. And really really really awkward. Possibly awkward enough that they didn't share accommodations again.
Saguru rolled over, an arm brushing across Kaito's side, then sliding down his waist, Saguru curling around him. "G'to sleep." The blond murmured, his lips brushing the skin on the back of Kaito's neck. Kaito shivered slightly, burrowing a bit more into the blankets. -And Saguru.
Who was now apparently fast asleep. Which meant that he wasn't going to be moving until the half-Brit woke up.
Kaito sighed, which quickly turned into a yawn. With Saguru wrapped around him like a second blanket it was now comfortably warm under the duvet. Almost uncomfortably so. It was dangerous to drift off, but he needed to sleep.
Aw, hell. He'd deal with it in the morning.
+++
Kaito woke up, jolted out of sleep by the creek of floorboards out side the door. He opened his eyes a slit, senses on alert as the door slowly opened. Saguru slept heedlessly behind and around him, a snoring dead-weight. He couldn't move, pinned by Saguru's arms, causing him to panic slightly.
Dead, dead, they were dead because he'd let his guard down around the detective and he could spot something shiny peeking through the doorway, dammit they were both gonna die horrible messy deaths and he hadn't even gotten -laid- yet...
Then Matilda peered at them from behind the door, the dim light glinting off the spine of the book she was carrying. "You awake?" She whispered in that voice kids use when they're trying to be quiet but it doesn't quite work.
"Yeah." He opened his eyes, tossing off the illusion of sleep. No guns, no death, no embarrassing dreams, just a curious little kid. The remains of the adrenaline rush was enough to make him giddy.
He got a shy grin in response. "O-ha-you."
"Ohayou gozai masu." Kaito whispered back. Matilda giggled, creeping into the room, still cradling the book. He could see the title of the book she's holding as she stopped next to the bed. It's a book on learning Japanese, old and battered, like it had been printed in the last world war.
"I said it right?" She asks excitedly, her voice still in the quiet-but-not-quite hushed tone.
"Hai." He can't help but to tease. She looks confused for a second, probably thinking he said 'Hi', then her expression cleared, giving him a big grin. "Can you help me with this? I can read the hiragana and the katakana and some of the kanji okay, but I don't understand how to pronounce them correctly and-"
Kaito laughed quietly, wiggling Saguru's death grip on him from his chest down towards his waist so he can sit up. It's awkward to sit, with one of Saguru's arms wrapped around the small of his back, but at least he could sit up He re-arranged the blankets so Saguru was covered but not suffocating, then motioned for her to climb up on the bed.
She did so, scrabbling up, all knees and elbows, plopping the book down next to him and pointing to the things she didn't understand. He helped her through the pronunciations --she had some problems with the 'R-L' sound-- and wondered what time it was. Saguru would know, but he wasn't waking the blond up.
Although it was awfully tempting when Saguru decided to half roll over and he found himself with a lap full of slightly snoring detective. He turned bright red and Matilda laughed. Which brought a confused looking Ms. Honey looking for her wayward adopted daughter.
Followed by a hushed lecture on annoying sleeping guests that woke a befuddled Saguru from his sleep. Who turned a brilliant shade of red upon discovering his face in Kaito's lap and tried to pretend he was still asleep, much to Kaito's amusement.
This was definitely a pleasant reversal from waking up the previous morning. He'd have to thank Hirokini later.
-fin-
*Icka hops up and down cursing*
We've been working on this damn thing for months. Matilda was one of our favourite Roald Dahl books growing up, and we just had this odd mental picture of Saguru walking up to the door and talking to Ms. Honey about the disappearance of The Trunchbull.
Then Kaito frikking discovered hormones. Or something. We dunno what the freak is up with the dreams.
It was SUPPOSED to be a short little fic, dammit!! Not this huge frikking monster!!!
Plus the whole Hormones + Children's book was a whole major WTF factor. -_- But Kaito's a big kid himself, (pardon the pun) so there it went... *sighs*
