[fic[ TGZ - Apperances and Disappearances
Jan. 11th, 2006 11:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ickaimpReason #247 we like MK:
Saguru in both Kanji (探) and 'kana (サぐる）means 'Searching'
Kaito in Kanji (快斗) means 'Pleasant Big Dipper'. Kaito in 'kana（カいと）means 'a reply to, an answer'.
*whistles innocently*
My apologies to the grammer-whores, there's a sectionin the middle where the tenses suddenly switched. I tried to fix it, but it's still kinda iffy. Point out the ones I missed and we'll fix 'em.
The phrase "Set a thief to catch a thief" had by this time (after strong representations from the Thieves' Guild) replaced a much older and quintessentially Ankh-Morporkian proverb, which was "Set a deep hole with spring-loaded sides, tripwires, whirling knife blades driven by water power, broken glass and scorpions, to catch a thief."
-Guards! Guards! by Terry Prachett
The Grey Zone: Appearances and Disappearances
by Icka! M. Chif
Saguru made a tired sound in the back of his throat as he rubbed between his eyebrows. It had been a long days worth of travel, for almost nothing.
It had been a stupid case. Utterly, totally stupid case. They had been called out on a case of suspected murder most foul. The victim had been a wealthy gentleman who had retired to the country to grow flowers in peace.
Saguru had scoured the insides, looking for information that the police might have missed. Kaito had taken the more preferable job --despite the snow and the ice-- of exploring the outsides, looking for signs of a possible break in. He hadn't, but while hanging upside down from the rooftop to talk, his shirt had fallen over his head, baring waistband and part of his stomach.
He had been immediately been accused by Saguru for stealing his boxers again. Which he had protested,he had found them in -his- drawers, fair and square. Saguru protested who's fault had that been, Kaito was constantly stealing his clothing so of -course- they had migrated to Kaito's room.
The muffled snickering of the officers around them had interrupted their bickering.
Kaito's snooping had revealed that the outside of the cottage was filled with rhododendron flowers. Lovely flowers. A maid had commented that he been drinking tea mixed with honey from a beehive on the edge of the gardens.
Rhododendrons were lovely flowers, harmless to bees, but the honey made from those flowers were poisonous. He'd drunken tea with poisoned honey and had died because of it.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
And so they were slogging their way home when they could have spent the day at home, nice and warm, plotting what to do now that it was well known and advertised that Saguru was both alive and currently living in England. And possibly snogging. Possibly. Mum was home.
She has cameras. As in Multiple. Kaito still hasn't been able to find and steal the film from all of them.
"Almost there," he commented softly. Saguru made a soft sound, nodding dejectedly. Sometimes Kaito thought Saguru was too kind for murders. He hadn't seen it before, with Saguru hiding behind that smug mask of his, but deaths bothered Saguru. It might be one of the things that drove him towards solving the murders, but Kaito thought the half-Briton was better suited to chasing thieves, where no one died.
But that wasn't going to happen any time soon. Because like it or not, Saguru was good at being a detective.
Just like Kaito was good at being a thief.
"Let's go in through the back." Saguru muttered. "Don't wanna deal with Mum fussing about the case."
"Agreed." Shoes off at the back door, drop the bags off on the floor, climb upside and crash on the bed for a while. Good plan. Short, simple, no spine breaking techniques required to pull it off. Kaito gave it his full approval.
They slogged on a little farther until the the Hakuba residence was within sight. Kaito frowned, noticing something unusual out front. "Oi." He nudged Saguru. "Mum say she was expecting visitors?"
"Not that I know of." Saguru shrugged. "But she always has friends stopping by unexpectedly, you know how she is."
"Yeah..." Kaito frowned. Saguru was right, but something just felt... off. It was possible that he was over nervous because their 'alive' status was now known, but there was always the chance that it wasn't just nerves.
Kaito trusted his instincts. Oftentimes they did mean the difference between life and death.
But then, it could just be because the unknown car in the driveway was black. He'd defiantly developed an aversion to large doses of the colour.
Saguru raised an eyebrow. "Something wrong?"
"I'm... not sure." He admitted. "It's probably nothing." He smiled, but it felt fake and probably looked faker.
"If you say so."
They continued on, but Saguru stepped back a little, letting him take the lead. Kaito led them around the side of the house that wasn't visible from the living room where Mum usually hosted. If it was nothing, he was going to have a good laugh at himself. It was... well... Better off safe than sorry.
He peered in the window. Mum was talking animatedly to a woman with short blond hair and large round glasses. "Oh." Saguru commented with mild surprise as he peered over Kaito's shoulder. "It's Auntie Sharon."
"Sharon?"
"Yeah. One of Mum's older sisters." Saguru smiled fondly. "Haven't seen her in a while. When Grandmum left Granddad and Uncle Gloria, Auntie Sharon went with her. We don't see her very often, I wonder what she's doing here."
Kaito dropped down under the window sill, out of eyesight and dragged Saguru along with him. "Hey, Saguru? You know that thing you do?"
That got him an odd look. "Which thing?"
"That thing where no matter how I'm disguised, you still know it's me?" It still annoyed him to no end how Saguru did that. What was worse was that the blond couldn't seem to explain how he did it either.
"Yes?"
"Do that thing to the blond haired lady talking to your Mum."
"Auntie Sharon?"
"Yes." Kaito nodded. Saguru gave him a strange look but stood up, looking through the window again.
Kaito waited. Saguru squinted, paused, rubbed his eyes and squinted again.
Saguru dropped back down next to Kaito.
"That's not an Auntie." Saguru commented, rather deadpan.
"No." Kaito agreed, resting his chin on a hand.
"That's a young woman."
"Yup."
Saguru gave him a rather deadpan look. Kaito raised an eyebrow back. "Unless I miss my guess, that looks a lot like our photos of Vermouth-san in disguise." Kaito explained blandly. He recognised the makeup techniques. After all, he used them himself.
"Ah." Saguru nodded. "Panic now?"
Kaito was waaaaaaaaay ahead of him there. His pulse had been going double time since he first glanced in the window. But he was used to panicking and not letting it show. And for the first time in months, he was thinking clearly, feeling only the cold sharp touch of logic cover his brain.
"Escape now, then panic." He instructed, picking up his back and motioning for Saguru to follow him. He hadn't seen any other strange cars watching the place or any other suspicious behaviour on their approach. The blond nodded, following him as quietly as possible as they scurried back towards the mews. Sneaking silently was one talent Saguru had been happy to learn from him and he put it to good use now. He wasn't quite as good as Kaito, but that would come in time.
"You sound like you have a plan." Saguru commented once they were safely hidden behind the wooden structure hiding the hawk.
Kaito had several, most of which he was quickly going through and sorting between acceptable, needs revision and dismissing them out of hand. Dammit, they really should not have gone to that murder to day. That could have all too easily been a trap. "You mind running?"
"Works." Saguru agreed easily. "What can I do?"
Kaito pulled out his phone. "First, call Mum from phone. Hirokini-kun, I hate to ask this of you-" The mobile in his hand made an impatient 'About Time!' noise. Hirokini had offered his complete assistance before but Kaito was loathed to use the AI like his personal online servant, he wanted the ghost to have some time to play as a child online. "-but can you imitate the background noise of the London Tube?"
"I think I can muffle the sound a little." Hirokini's voice mused. "But I can definitely fake the triangulation point."
"Good on you." Kaito grinned. "Saguru, if you'll call Mum and tell her that we've been called off on another case?"
"Taking the Kudo approach?" Saguru asked drily. Disappearing, saying they were off on a case for years on end.
Kaito grimaced. "You can clear it up with once you're out of reach. Take my mobile and-"
"Call the local falconer and explain to him that I think it's time to release Watson to the wild." Saguru took the phone. "I'm going to miss her, but I do think it's time."
"I'm sorry." Kaito whispered regretfully. Saguru had talked about releasing Watson back into her natural environment before, but he had hoped to do it in Japan, where the Sparrow hawks were on the 'Near Threatened' Endangered Animals list in their native country. Add some new blood to the increasingly smaller circle of birds.
"Do what you have to." Saguru instructed, waving him off. Kaito nodded.
"I'll be back in five minutes." He instructed. "Head towards the woods if you need to run."
"Got it." Saguru gave him a mock salute, then opened his phone. Kaito gave him a half-smile back, then vanished.
Technically, he didn't vanish, he simply hoisted himself up on top of the Mews and made his way back to his window. There were patches of ice hidden under the snow he had to watch out for, but this danger was a familiar feeling, one he accepted with not quite glee.
He was rusty, he could tell from the slight pull in his muscles, the faint lagging in his timing. The occasional roof climb and back-flip weren't enough to keep him in shape. He'd gotten lazy, lulled by the illusion of safety here.
Well, he'd had his chance to lick his wounds, time to return to the hunt.
Last night he'd made some small plans, stashing his Kid gear under the eves of the house above his window along with some gadgets he'd been working on. He'd hoped at the time that he wouldn't need them, but the Black Organisation was moving faster than he thought they would. It should have taken several more days before the magazine reached Japan.
Thank the Seven Lucky Gods for Mogi, or they wouldn't have had any warning at all.
He gathered the small bundle and tucked it between his back pack and himself, he'd put it inside the pack when he got to the ground, then carefully connected two small incongruous looking wires on the window sill together. Sparks zapped his fingers and he bit off a curse, quickly scurrying over to Saguru's room, where he did the same thing, minus the burnt fingers.
Hooking the wires together formed an electromagnetic loop in his room, and set up the ground work for one in Saguru's, where most of the computers were stored. Hirokini would retreat back to the internet, on a server they had prepared for him, erasing and taking files with him as he went. The loop in Saguru's room wouldn't be armed until someone opened the door, presumably for the computers.
The burst of backwards current probably wouldn't erase everything, but it would erase enough. He just hoped Hirokini got himself out of there before anyone opened the door.
Package retrieved and booby trap set in place, he made his way back to where Saguru was.
The blond was inside the mews when he got his feet back on the ground, presumably saying farewell to Watson. It left the detective hidden, but there weren't any exits other than the one door, so it made Kaito a little nervous. He opened the cage door to free his doves instead.
Saguru came out, looking more exhausted than he had when they were walking here in the first place. "Ready," he said quietly, not looking at Kaito.
There was a lump in his throat that took a moment to fade before he could swallow again. His fault. This was all his fault. If he hadn't gotten Saguru involved in this mess in the first place...
Regrets later. Run first, bluff second, fight third. Keep it together until it was safe to break down. Survival always first priority.
He nodded and they were off, slogging their way towards the forest. They knew it, it had cover to hide in and Kaito had back up plans hidden in there.
"You called Mum?" Kaito asked, keeping an eye out for trouble.
"Yes." Saguru wasn't looking at him, instead looking down at the ground. Kaito did a double take, realising that the crease on the blond's forehead wasn't just because of their leaving. Something was bothering the detective.
"What'd she say?"
"To have fun and not to worry about her." The wrinkles in Saguru's forehead increased as the half-Briton finally looked at him. "She said she was having tea with her sister. The one that looks twenty years younger than she actually is."
Holy shyte.... Mum -knew-. Mum knew who she was having tea with.
Vermouth was Mum's sister. Holy Shyte.
What else did Mum know? Was Mum part of Black Organisation that was trying to kill them? They still didn't know what she did for a job. That would explain so much. No wonder Saguru was worried.
He set that worry aside to deal with later, reaching out and grabbing Saguru's hand and giving it a squeeze. The blond looked at him, giving him a wane smile and squeezed back.
"I'll be right back." He instructed, releasing the detective's hand. It took a moment to climb some trees to retrieve the bundles of disguises he'd hidden there after the second snow, hoping that all the little foresty creatures that were going to hide from the cold had found their hidey holes after the first snow, therefore not in his disguises. There didn't seem to be any sign of damage, for which he was grateful.
"You have a plan, I take it?" Saguru's voice was quietly amused as he finished his retrieval. Of course he had plans. He had SEVERAL plans.
"Yes." He set the bundles from the trees down and pulled out the one he retrieved from the house eves. Under the dark outer covering, it's a mass of white silk and silver electronic threads, ideas and plans not yet fully made. A small fabric bag laid tucked away in there too, which he pulls out and shakes the contents out. The largest item was his monocle, which he quickly put back into the bag, which left him with the smaller items.
Kaito leaned forward, biting off Saguru's top button with his teeth. Saguru jumped slightly and he could feel the quick rise in heat from the blond's skin. Before Saguru could do much more than that however, he slid in one of the pieces of 'jewellery' he's been working on, fastening the shirt shut.
"That can double as a tie pin if you want." He explained, smoothing the shirt down. "It's a small camera lens for Hirokini-kun." He unfastened the tiger's eye earring that Auntie Kitty had given him out of his left ear and replaced it with one that looked like an identical piece but was actually another camera. The backing is part of a transmission sender, getting power from the battery under the lens. It's wasn't very powerful, but it didn't have to be.
He placed an earcuff on the same ear. The cuff like there's another tiger's eye embedded to the side of it, but it's not. He reached out and put a similar one, sans stone, on to Saguru's ear. "Speaker. I adapted it from those sticker things Agasa made for Kudo." He explained. He hadn't made a microphone yet, he'll have to do that later.
Agasa's speaker stickers reacted to the body's heat to function and metal held heat better than air, saving the charge a bit longer. Plus, it was re-usable. Ha.
Saguru fiddled with the cuff for a moment. Kaito knew how weird it felt to to get used to a band of metal around the cartilage of your ear if you're not used to it, but after a while it gets comfortable and easy to forget it's there.
"Where from here?" Saguru asks calmly as Kaito crouched down and began to sort through the piles.
"Kid has an appointment in Ireland in two days." He muttered, mentally flipping through disguises. It was easy enough to disguise himself, but Saguru is harder. "You're heading to the States-"
Kaito found himself hauled from the ground and slammed into a tree trunk before he could retaliate. Furious cold blue eyes stared at him from an uncomfortably close distance. Distractedly, he noticed that he really really really hated those blue contacts.
"No." Saguru informed him bluntly.
"No?"
"No." Saguru gave him a little shake, his expression unusually grim. "Dammit, you are NOT leaving me behind again, locking me up somewhere 'to be safe' or any of that rot! You are not going to go out and play big shiny target and yourself shot at again! We are NOT going to repeat the same damn mistakes we did last time!"
The blond sighed, resting his forehead against Kaito's. "I don't even know if you' can come back this time." He said in a tone that sounded strangely like honesty.
Kaito closed his eyes. Dammit. He could feel himself waver, loosing the cool detachment that let him function as the Kid when things got rough.
Saguru wasn't talking about physically. If he let himself be taken over by the Poker Face again, isolated himself like had over the summer, he wasn't entirely sure if he -could- come back as Kaito again. He still wasn't completely himself. Either of himselves.
"All right." He agreed slowly. "Do you have a better plan?"
"Not yet." Saguru admitted, relaxing his grip on Kaito but not moving away. "But isn't that why we teamed up in the first place?"
"True." He sighed, resting his head on Saguru's shoulder for a moment. Just a moment, he needed to focus, he needed -think-.
Right. Priority.
"All right." He nodded and Saguru stepped back a step, giving him a bit of space. He gave the blond a week smile. "Care to run off to the land of green and little people, oh Great Detective?"
"Sounds nice to me." Saguru agreed, a faint smile on his face. "So where is this land of little green people?"
It took a moment for Kaito to understand what he had said. Palm quickly met face.
"Right." Saguru leaned over and picked up one of the bags. "Off we go-?"
"We should put on disguises first. Gimme your coat." It wasn't much, but their clothes were probably the easiest to spot. They could do hair dye and the rest of it once they got to some place safer. He pulled a short coat out of one of the bags and handed it to Saguru, who took everything out of his jacket pockets and traded coats. Kaito traded his coat as well, wearing a longer one than usual.
Saguru gave him a dark look for that. On the blond, the bomber jacket didn't even cover his ass. Kaito just leered in return. It wasn't what Saguru usually wore, and that's what was needed. A difference from their usual garb.
"Okay then." The remaining packages were quickly divided up and placed in their bags. They'd have to be changed at some point as well, but later. Right now they needed distance. "Ready."
"Looks like our Gap Year continues." Saguru commented, picking up Kaito's bag and slinging it over his shoulders. Kaito gave him a wane grin and picked up Saguru's bag. "Ready."
As ready as they were going to be, anyway.
"Hey, Saguru?" He asked, pulling a hat from the bag and putting it on.
"Yeah?"
"How many more relatives do you have, anyway?"
"Well... There's Mum, Auntie Sharon and Auntie Elena, but Auntie Elena died in a car accident years ago." He mused. "She was a scientist who married a Japanese scientist. Have a couple of cousins that disappeared after her death. Uncle Dorian, of course, and Uncle Klaus. Uncle Ernest, and I think that's about it."
Kaito scratched his chin. "That's your Mum's side, right? What about your Father's?"
"I..." Saguru frowned. "I'm not sure. Holidays were usually spent here."
Great. "So... We still don't know what Mum does, but you've got an assassin and an art thief in your family. You really are the White Sheep of your family."
Saguru looked thoughtful for a moment. "Maybe I -should- become a thief."
"No."
-fin-
[Edit: Thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
edenfalling and marzipan_mikan for the grammar corrections!]
Saguru in both Kanji (探) and 'kana (サぐる）means 'Searching'
Kaito in Kanji (快斗) means 'Pleasant Big Dipper'. Kaito in 'kana（カいと）means 'a reply to, an answer'.
*whistles innocently*
My apologies to the grammer-whores, there's a sectionin the middle where the tenses suddenly switched. I tried to fix it, but it's still kinda iffy. Point out the ones I missed and we'll fix 'em.
The phrase "Set a thief to catch a thief" had by this time (after strong representations from the Thieves' Guild) replaced a much older and quintessentially Ankh-Morporkian proverb, which was "Set a deep hole with spring-loaded sides, tripwires, whirling knife blades driven by water power, broken glass and scorpions, to catch a thief."
-Guards! Guards! by Terry Prachett
The Grey Zone: Appearances and Disappearances
by Icka! M. Chif
Saguru made a tired sound in the back of his throat as he rubbed between his eyebrows. It had been a long days worth of travel, for almost nothing.
It had been a stupid case. Utterly, totally stupid case. They had been called out on a case of suspected murder most foul. The victim had been a wealthy gentleman who had retired to the country to grow flowers in peace.
Saguru had scoured the insides, looking for information that the police might have missed. Kaito had taken the more preferable job --despite the snow and the ice-- of exploring the outsides, looking for signs of a possible break in. He hadn't, but while hanging upside down from the rooftop to talk, his shirt had fallen over his head, baring waistband and part of his stomach.
He had been immediately been accused by Saguru for stealing his boxers again. Which he had protested,he had found them in -his- drawers, fair and square. Saguru protested who's fault had that been, Kaito was constantly stealing his clothing so of -course- they had migrated to Kaito's room.
The muffled snickering of the officers around them had interrupted their bickering.
Kaito's snooping had revealed that the outside of the cottage was filled with rhododendron flowers. Lovely flowers. A maid had commented that he been drinking tea mixed with honey from a beehive on the edge of the gardens.
Rhododendrons were lovely flowers, harmless to bees, but the honey made from those flowers were poisonous. He'd drunken tea with poisoned honey and had died because of it.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
And so they were slogging their way home when they could have spent the day at home, nice and warm, plotting what to do now that it was well known and advertised that Saguru was both alive and currently living in England. And possibly snogging. Possibly. Mum was home.
She has cameras. As in Multiple. Kaito still hasn't been able to find and steal the film from all of them.
"Almost there," he commented softly. Saguru made a soft sound, nodding dejectedly. Sometimes Kaito thought Saguru was too kind for murders. He hadn't seen it before, with Saguru hiding behind that smug mask of his, but deaths bothered Saguru. It might be one of the things that drove him towards solving the murders, but Kaito thought the half-Briton was better suited to chasing thieves, where no one died.
But that wasn't going to happen any time soon. Because like it or not, Saguru was good at being a detective.
Just like Kaito was good at being a thief.
"Let's go in through the back." Saguru muttered. "Don't wanna deal with Mum fussing about the case."
"Agreed." Shoes off at the back door, drop the bags off on the floor, climb upside and crash on the bed for a while. Good plan. Short, simple, no spine breaking techniques required to pull it off. Kaito gave it his full approval.
They slogged on a little farther until the the Hakuba residence was within sight. Kaito frowned, noticing something unusual out front. "Oi." He nudged Saguru. "Mum say she was expecting visitors?"
"Not that I know of." Saguru shrugged. "But she always has friends stopping by unexpectedly, you know how she is."
"Yeah..." Kaito frowned. Saguru was right, but something just felt... off. It was possible that he was over nervous because their 'alive' status was now known, but there was always the chance that it wasn't just nerves.
Kaito trusted his instincts. Oftentimes they did mean the difference between life and death.
But then, it could just be because the unknown car in the driveway was black. He'd defiantly developed an aversion to large doses of the colour.
Saguru raised an eyebrow. "Something wrong?"
"I'm... not sure." He admitted. "It's probably nothing." He smiled, but it felt fake and probably looked faker.
"If you say so."
They continued on, but Saguru stepped back a little, letting him take the lead. Kaito led them around the side of the house that wasn't visible from the living room where Mum usually hosted. If it was nothing, he was going to have a good laugh at himself. It was... well... Better off safe than sorry.
He peered in the window. Mum was talking animatedly to a woman with short blond hair and large round glasses. "Oh." Saguru commented with mild surprise as he peered over Kaito's shoulder. "It's Auntie Sharon."
"Sharon?"
"Yeah. One of Mum's older sisters." Saguru smiled fondly. "Haven't seen her in a while. When Grandmum left Granddad and Uncle Gloria, Auntie Sharon went with her. We don't see her very often, I wonder what she's doing here."
Kaito dropped down under the window sill, out of eyesight and dragged Saguru along with him. "Hey, Saguru? You know that thing you do?"
That got him an odd look. "Which thing?"
"That thing where no matter how I'm disguised, you still know it's me?" It still annoyed him to no end how Saguru did that. What was worse was that the blond couldn't seem to explain how he did it either.
"Yes?"
"Do that thing to the blond haired lady talking to your Mum."
"Auntie Sharon?"
"Yes." Kaito nodded. Saguru gave him a strange look but stood up, looking through the window again.
Kaito waited. Saguru squinted, paused, rubbed his eyes and squinted again.
Saguru dropped back down next to Kaito.
"That's not an Auntie." Saguru commented, rather deadpan.
"No." Kaito agreed, resting his chin on a hand.
"That's a young woman."
"Yup."
Saguru gave him a rather deadpan look. Kaito raised an eyebrow back. "Unless I miss my guess, that looks a lot like our photos of Vermouth-san in disguise." Kaito explained blandly. He recognised the makeup techniques. After all, he used them himself.
"Ah." Saguru nodded. "Panic now?"
Kaito was waaaaaaaaay ahead of him there. His pulse had been going double time since he first glanced in the window. But he was used to panicking and not letting it show. And for the first time in months, he was thinking clearly, feeling only the cold sharp touch of logic cover his brain.
"Escape now, then panic." He instructed, picking up his back and motioning for Saguru to follow him. He hadn't seen any other strange cars watching the place or any other suspicious behaviour on their approach. The blond nodded, following him as quietly as possible as they scurried back towards the mews. Sneaking silently was one talent Saguru had been happy to learn from him and he put it to good use now. He wasn't quite as good as Kaito, but that would come in time.
"You sound like you have a plan." Saguru commented once they were safely hidden behind the wooden structure hiding the hawk.
Kaito had several, most of which he was quickly going through and sorting between acceptable, needs revision and dismissing them out of hand. Dammit, they really should not have gone to that murder to day. That could have all too easily been a trap. "You mind running?"
"Works." Saguru agreed easily. "What can I do?"
Kaito pulled out his phone. "First, call Mum from phone. Hirokini-kun, I hate to ask this of you-" The mobile in his hand made an impatient 'About Time!' noise. Hirokini had offered his complete assistance before but Kaito was loathed to use the AI like his personal online servant, he wanted the ghost to have some time to play as a child online. "-but can you imitate the background noise of the London Tube?"
"I think I can muffle the sound a little." Hirokini's voice mused. "But I can definitely fake the triangulation point."
"Good on you." Kaito grinned. "Saguru, if you'll call Mum and tell her that we've been called off on another case?"
"Taking the Kudo approach?" Saguru asked drily. Disappearing, saying they were off on a case for years on end.
Kaito grimaced. "You can clear it up with once you're out of reach. Take my mobile and-"
"Call the local falconer and explain to him that I think it's time to release Watson to the wild." Saguru took the phone. "I'm going to miss her, but I do think it's time."
"I'm sorry." Kaito whispered regretfully. Saguru had talked about releasing Watson back into her natural environment before, but he had hoped to do it in Japan, where the Sparrow hawks were on the 'Near Threatened' Endangered Animals list in their native country. Add some new blood to the increasingly smaller circle of birds.
"Do what you have to." Saguru instructed, waving him off. Kaito nodded.
"I'll be back in five minutes." He instructed. "Head towards the woods if you need to run."
"Got it." Saguru gave him a mock salute, then opened his phone. Kaito gave him a half-smile back, then vanished.
Technically, he didn't vanish, he simply hoisted himself up on top of the Mews and made his way back to his window. There were patches of ice hidden under the snow he had to watch out for, but this danger was a familiar feeling, one he accepted with not quite glee.
He was rusty, he could tell from the slight pull in his muscles, the faint lagging in his timing. The occasional roof climb and back-flip weren't enough to keep him in shape. He'd gotten lazy, lulled by the illusion of safety here.
Well, he'd had his chance to lick his wounds, time to return to the hunt.
Last night he'd made some small plans, stashing his Kid gear under the eves of the house above his window along with some gadgets he'd been working on. He'd hoped at the time that he wouldn't need them, but the Black Organisation was moving faster than he thought they would. It should have taken several more days before the magazine reached Japan.
Thank the Seven Lucky Gods for Mogi, or they wouldn't have had any warning at all.
He gathered the small bundle and tucked it between his back pack and himself, he'd put it inside the pack when he got to the ground, then carefully connected two small incongruous looking wires on the window sill together. Sparks zapped his fingers and he bit off a curse, quickly scurrying over to Saguru's room, where he did the same thing, minus the burnt fingers.
Hooking the wires together formed an electromagnetic loop in his room, and set up the ground work for one in Saguru's, where most of the computers were stored. Hirokini would retreat back to the internet, on a server they had prepared for him, erasing and taking files with him as he went. The loop in Saguru's room wouldn't be armed until someone opened the door, presumably for the computers.
The burst of backwards current probably wouldn't erase everything, but it would erase enough. He just hoped Hirokini got himself out of there before anyone opened the door.
Package retrieved and booby trap set in place, he made his way back to where Saguru was.
The blond was inside the mews when he got his feet back on the ground, presumably saying farewell to Watson. It left the detective hidden, but there weren't any exits other than the one door, so it made Kaito a little nervous. He opened the cage door to free his doves instead.
Saguru came out, looking more exhausted than he had when they were walking here in the first place. "Ready," he said quietly, not looking at Kaito.
There was a lump in his throat that took a moment to fade before he could swallow again. His fault. This was all his fault. If he hadn't gotten Saguru involved in this mess in the first place...
Regrets later. Run first, bluff second, fight third. Keep it together until it was safe to break down. Survival always first priority.
He nodded and they were off, slogging their way towards the forest. They knew it, it had cover to hide in and Kaito had back up plans hidden in there.
"You called Mum?" Kaito asked, keeping an eye out for trouble.
"Yes." Saguru wasn't looking at him, instead looking down at the ground. Kaito did a double take, realising that the crease on the blond's forehead wasn't just because of their leaving. Something was bothering the detective.
"What'd she say?"
"To have fun and not to worry about her." The wrinkles in Saguru's forehead increased as the half-Briton finally looked at him. "She said she was having tea with her sister. The one that looks twenty years younger than she actually is."
Holy shyte.... Mum -knew-. Mum knew who she was having tea with.
Vermouth was Mum's sister. Holy Shyte.
What else did Mum know? Was Mum part of Black Organisation that was trying to kill them? They still didn't know what she did for a job. That would explain so much. No wonder Saguru was worried.
He set that worry aside to deal with later, reaching out and grabbing Saguru's hand and giving it a squeeze. The blond looked at him, giving him a wane smile and squeezed back.
"I'll be right back." He instructed, releasing the detective's hand. It took a moment to climb some trees to retrieve the bundles of disguises he'd hidden there after the second snow, hoping that all the little foresty creatures that were going to hide from the cold had found their hidey holes after the first snow, therefore not in his disguises. There didn't seem to be any sign of damage, for which he was grateful.
"You have a plan, I take it?" Saguru's voice was quietly amused as he finished his retrieval. Of course he had plans. He had SEVERAL plans.
"Yes." He set the bundles from the trees down and pulled out the one he retrieved from the house eves. Under the dark outer covering, it's a mass of white silk and silver electronic threads, ideas and plans not yet fully made. A small fabric bag laid tucked away in there too, which he pulls out and shakes the contents out. The largest item was his monocle, which he quickly put back into the bag, which left him with the smaller items.
Kaito leaned forward, biting off Saguru's top button with his teeth. Saguru jumped slightly and he could feel the quick rise in heat from the blond's skin. Before Saguru could do much more than that however, he slid in one of the pieces of 'jewellery' he's been working on, fastening the shirt shut.
"That can double as a tie pin if you want." He explained, smoothing the shirt down. "It's a small camera lens for Hirokini-kun." He unfastened the tiger's eye earring that Auntie Kitty had given him out of his left ear and replaced it with one that looked like an identical piece but was actually another camera. The backing is part of a transmission sender, getting power from the battery under the lens. It's wasn't very powerful, but it didn't have to be.
He placed an earcuff on the same ear. The cuff like there's another tiger's eye embedded to the side of it, but it's not. He reached out and put a similar one, sans stone, on to Saguru's ear. "Speaker. I adapted it from those sticker things Agasa made for Kudo." He explained. He hadn't made a microphone yet, he'll have to do that later.
Agasa's speaker stickers reacted to the body's heat to function and metal held heat better than air, saving the charge a bit longer. Plus, it was re-usable. Ha.
Saguru fiddled with the cuff for a moment. Kaito knew how weird it felt to to get used to a band of metal around the cartilage of your ear if you're not used to it, but after a while it gets comfortable and easy to forget it's there.
"Where from here?" Saguru asks calmly as Kaito crouched down and began to sort through the piles.
"Kid has an appointment in Ireland in two days." He muttered, mentally flipping through disguises. It was easy enough to disguise himself, but Saguru is harder. "You're heading to the States-"
Kaito found himself hauled from the ground and slammed into a tree trunk before he could retaliate. Furious cold blue eyes stared at him from an uncomfortably close distance. Distractedly, he noticed that he really really really hated those blue contacts.
"No." Saguru informed him bluntly.
"No?"
"No." Saguru gave him a little shake, his expression unusually grim. "Dammit, you are NOT leaving me behind again, locking me up somewhere 'to be safe' or any of that rot! You are not going to go out and play big shiny target and yourself shot at again! We are NOT going to repeat the same damn mistakes we did last time!"
The blond sighed, resting his forehead against Kaito's. "I don't even know if you' can come back this time." He said in a tone that sounded strangely like honesty.
Kaito closed his eyes. Dammit. He could feel himself waver, loosing the cool detachment that let him function as the Kid when things got rough.
Saguru wasn't talking about physically. If he let himself be taken over by the Poker Face again, isolated himself like had over the summer, he wasn't entirely sure if he -could- come back as Kaito again. He still wasn't completely himself. Either of himselves.
"All right." He agreed slowly. "Do you have a better plan?"
"Not yet." Saguru admitted, relaxing his grip on Kaito but not moving away. "But isn't that why we teamed up in the first place?"
"True." He sighed, resting his head on Saguru's shoulder for a moment. Just a moment, he needed to focus, he needed -think-.
Right. Priority.
"All right." He nodded and Saguru stepped back a step, giving him a bit of space. He gave the blond a week smile. "Care to run off to the land of green and little people, oh Great Detective?"
"Sounds nice to me." Saguru agreed, a faint smile on his face. "So where is this land of little green people?"
It took a moment for Kaito to understand what he had said. Palm quickly met face.
"Right." Saguru leaned over and picked up one of the bags. "Off we go-?"
"We should put on disguises first. Gimme your coat." It wasn't much, but their clothes were probably the easiest to spot. They could do hair dye and the rest of it once they got to some place safer. He pulled a short coat out of one of the bags and handed it to Saguru, who took everything out of his jacket pockets and traded coats. Kaito traded his coat as well, wearing a longer one than usual.
Saguru gave him a dark look for that. On the blond, the bomber jacket didn't even cover his ass. Kaito just leered in return. It wasn't what Saguru usually wore, and that's what was needed. A difference from their usual garb.
"Okay then." The remaining packages were quickly divided up and placed in their bags. They'd have to be changed at some point as well, but later. Right now they needed distance. "Ready."
"Looks like our Gap Year continues." Saguru commented, picking up Kaito's bag and slinging it over his shoulders. Kaito gave him a wane grin and picked up Saguru's bag. "Ready."
As ready as they were going to be, anyway.
"Hey, Saguru?" He asked, pulling a hat from the bag and putting it on.
"Yeah?"
"How many more relatives do you have, anyway?"
"Well... There's Mum, Auntie Sharon and Auntie Elena, but Auntie Elena died in a car accident years ago." He mused. "She was a scientist who married a Japanese scientist. Have a couple of cousins that disappeared after her death. Uncle Dorian, of course, and Uncle Klaus. Uncle Ernest, and I think that's about it."
Kaito scratched his chin. "That's your Mum's side, right? What about your Father's?"
"I..." Saguru frowned. "I'm not sure. Holidays were usually spent here."
Great. "So... We still don't know what Mum does, but you've got an assassin and an art thief in your family. You really are the White Sheep of your family."
Saguru looked thoughtful for a moment. "Maybe I -should- become a thief."
"No."
-fin-
[Edit: Thanks to
edenfalling and marzipan_mikan for the grammar corrections!]