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Post by Mikauzoran on Dec 24, 2015 2:16:22 GMT
Good! I'm so glad you liked it! I was worried. ^.^; I always worry. But I love these two and exploring the different aspects of their relationship, so this was fun to do. Thanks for sending in your prompt!
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neonquincy1217
God
Note to self: Be kind to yourself. Be patient. Embrace the random. Life is not instant noodles. :))
Posts: 1,339
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Post by neonquincy1217 on Dec 24, 2015 9:56:37 GMT
HakuKai friendship!!! *awkwardly makes grabby hands, trying to join the cuddle fest* I really enjoy their dynamic, and you write them really well Mikau Kaito does seem like the type that forgets to eat if no one reminded him. So true, kk-chan... I can only imagine Keibu or Aoko or Hakuba coming over or calling or checking on him every so often so he doesn't unconsciously starve himself to death... *joins cuddle fest too*
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Post by Elirius on Dec 25, 2015 5:08:56 GMT
I loved it. Your characterization is spot on.
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Post by Mikauzoran on Dec 27, 2015 4:32:13 GMT
Thank you so much! ^o^
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Post by Mikauzoran on Jan 1, 2016 16:57:33 GMT
Okay! Last one! ...Of Prompt Exchange 1, anyway. Prompt Exchange 2 will be up next. Kaggami: I want a fic where Shinichi gets turned into Conan in front of Kaito, who doesn´t know Shinichi is Conan.
Kaito was an extremely loyal person. He had his detectives, and he didn’t take kindly to anyone coming in and invading their turf, stepping on their toes. Like that Doron…Dolon…whatever his name was…-keiji or Ruby Jones (except Auntie Kitty turned out to be okay) or the guys from Interpol (one of whom turned out to be the bad guy) for example. Kaito was loyal to Nakamori and Hakuba and Tantei-kun. So this Kudo Shinichi here tonight that was supposed to be some kind of cousin of Tantei-kun’s…Kaito wasn’t taking too kindly to him. He was an intruder. Kaito didn’t invite him; he had sent out that riddle especially for Tantei-kun, and he resented the fact that this Kudo loser was taking all of the credit for solving it after Tantei-kun had supposedly shown it to him. More like the bigger detective had bullied his little cousin, snatching the riddle and playing keep-away as Tantei-kun jumped and swiped at it until Tantei-kun finally agreed to tell Kudo the answer. And now Kudo was here while Tantei-kun wasn’t, and that kind of ticked Kaito off…so much so that Kid was going to be paying extra special attention to the newcomer, playing some of his favorite tricks. It was about fifteen minutes before the heist was officially set to start, and the guy hosting the party in honor of the unveiling of the Purity Stone was just beginning his speech when Kudo Shinichi started to look unwell. Clutching his chest, he snuck off to the janitor’s closet out in the hall, and, concerned, Kaito in disguise followed. He opened the closet door just in time to witness Kudo Shinichi groaning in agony and letting off steam—literally!—until…he turned into Edogawa Conan. Kaito stared in horror, mind completely blown at what he had just seen. Conan…Kudo…gawked right back, looking terrified at what appeared to be a rather curvaceous young blonde who had happened to stumble upon his transformation. Conan/Kudo’s fright quickly evaporated when Kaito exclaimed in a very Kid-like voice, “Holy shit! Tantei-kun?!” Recognizing his rival, Conan pulled Kaito into the closet with him and hissed, “Kid, you can’t tell anybody, understand? Not anyone!” “But…What…?” Kaito made vague hand gestures, seeming to indicate the entirety of Conan’s being. “How?” “Long story,” Conan sighed, burying his face in his hands. “I have fifteen minutes before my heist.” Kaito shrugged. Conan took a minute to bang his head against the wall, but after he finished, he began, “It all started when I went to an amusement park with my childhood friend Ran….”
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Post by Mikauzoran on Jul 24, 2016 21:29:14 GMT
Because I haven't heard from akaisherry yet, and I have other things I have to do today, yet I want to make sure that the prompter has something at deadline. Sorry. I kind of just belted this out in about thirty/forty minutes. ^.^; I hope you like it. sgamer82: A mouse in the classroom.Ayumi’s scream was becoming sadly familiar to the other Tanteidan members, so when they first heard it before the start of homeroom that Tuesday morning, Genta, Mitsuhiko, and Haibara all thought that Ayumi had simply found yet another body. When they all whipped around to look at the screeching girl, they became confused, wondering if perhaps it were only a body part, as little Ayumi was looking at the inside of her desk and screaming her head off. Intermingled somewhere in the incoherent wails, tears, and panicked “Kyaaaaaa”s, seemed to be the word “mouse”. And then it leapt from the desk, into Ayumi’s lap, and no one was confused any longer. Pandemonium quickly spread throughout the classroom as Ayumi jumped to her feet, flailing and shrieking like a siren. Two thirds of the girls present joined her in her squeals of horror, tripping over one another as they fled, fearing that the intruder would next jump on them. Even some of the boys let out concerned yelps as they slowly backed away, afraid, but too aware of the expectations placed upon them as men to show that fear as openly as the girls. Once she’d shaken her attacker free, Ayumi’s knees gave out on her, and she sank to the ground, sobbing, too exhausted from her ordeal to do anything else. The shaken mouse scampered off in terror and confusion, only to have a shoe hurtled at it by the brave Genta. “Get it!” one of the girls yelled. “Kill it!” urged one of the boys. “Stop this instant!” shouted Haibara Ai, glaring at her fellow first graders. “You leave that mouse alone! Can’t you see how scared he is?” A hush fell over the children, and they all stared at Haibara, waiting for her to suggest an alternative to their behavior. She sounded so authoritative, though, and she had always acted so much more mature than the rest of them. They looked upon her as a leader on the few occasions she chose to speak up because, in those instances, like now, she seemed like one of the grownups who could be trusted and relied upon for instruction. Seeing that she had their attention, Haibara smiled softly and reassuringly as she cautiously crept towards where the trembling mouse had taken shelter in one of the cubby holes. “He’s much more afraid of us than we are of him,” she informed them. “And he won’t hurt us. Will you?” she addressed the little ball of white curled up on itself in the very back corner. “Come here, little one. Where did you come from? I promise I won’t hurt you.” “Here,” Conan’s soft voice came at her left, his breath tickling her ear as he put a hand on her shoulder and crouched down beside her. “Let me,” he offered, showing her a plastic cup he had grabbed from the arts and crafts supplies when he’d walked into a classroom of shrieking children and ascertained what had happened. Haibara was careful to hide the blush coloring her cheeks as she pulled back out of the way, letting him capture their uninvited guest. “Hey, little guy,” Conan called gently, carefully sliding the mouse out and holding him up to eye level. “It looks like somebody’s pet got loose. This is the kind of little white mouse you buy at the pet store,” he observed. “Then we should probably keep it and try to find its owner,” Mitsuhiko suggested, approaching warily. “Where are we gonna keep it?” Genta came to stare inquisitively at the squirming form under the clear plastic cup. “It’s…kind of cute,” Ayumi noted, getting up the courage to peek over Conan’s shoulder. “And that was so cool how you caught it, Conan-kun! You’re so brave!” she cooed, clinging to his arm. Haibara tried not to snicker as Conan smiled sheepishly, tolerating Ayumi’s girlish crush. “Haibara’s the cool one,” Conan corrected, catching Ai by surprise. He turned to Haibara and smiled. “It was really cool how you stood up for this little guy.” Haibara couldn’t turn away fast enough to keep him from seeing her cheeks turn scarlet that time, but she made a show of waving away his praise with almost inaudible protests of “It was nothing”, “It reminded me of the lab mice”, and “I couldn’t bear to see the poor thing terrified like that”. But Conan still smiled knowingly at her, and it made her ears burn. Because she knew he saw through her.
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Post by sgamer82 on Jul 25, 2016 0:05:47 GMT
Thanks Mikauzoran. This was one of those "I know what I'd do, but how would others interpret it" ideas and, for what it's worth, this was very close to what I had in mind, myself.
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Post by Mikauzoran on Jul 25, 2016 0:21:13 GMT
I figured. ^.^; I, however, have the advantage...or disadvantage of knowing my audience when I participate in these. It was either this or Sera saving the day from a mouse loose in Teitan class 2B, but I figured you'd prefer this one.
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Post by sgamer82 on Jul 25, 2016 0:22:07 GMT
I figured. ^.^; I, however, have the advantage...or disadvantage of knowing my audience when I participate in these. It was either this or Sera saving the day from a mouse loose in Teitan class 2B, but I figured you'd prefer this one. Something like that (or, at least the mouse getting loose in Ran's classroom) was my secondary choice, too.
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neonquincy1217
God
Note to self: Be kind to yourself. Be patient. Embrace the random. Life is not instant noodles. :))
Posts: 1,339
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Post by neonquincy1217 on Aug 21, 2016 13:36:16 GMT
THIS IS SUPER CUTE <3
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Post by Mikauzoran on May 21, 2017 22:10:21 GMT
Mikau: So, I don't think this is anything like what you were thinking when you submitted this prompt, but... ^.^; I hope you like it anyway?
Rating: T
Word Count: 2,268
Summary: Inspector Takagi Wataru knows more than he lets on but not as much as he thinks. In which Takagi learns more about two of his subordinates' personal lives than he bargained for. “Kudo-kun, I’m not exactly sure I want to know why the Kaitou KID is wearing Hakuba-kun’s boxers in your living-room.”
Addy01: Takagi Wataru knows more than he lets on...Inspector Takagi Wataru knew a lot more than he let on. For instance, that young man Kuroba…Takagi knew a thing or two about Kuroba. Kuroba Kaito frequently dropped in to interrupt Takagi’s two best detectives. He often looked over Kudo-kun and Hakuba-kun’s shoulders at casefiles, offering his two cents and facilitating an impromptu brainstorming session. This usually ended in one or both of the police detectives having a breakthrough. Sometimes Kuroba—formerly a magician, presently a security consultant—stopped by to drop off bentou, quality coffee, or changes of clothing when either Kudo or Hakuba had been working long, hard hours on a particularly grueling case. More often than not, Kuroba came just to cause trouble, pestering the detectives, riling them up, and, in the process, making them lighten up a little. Both Hakuba and Kudo took their work personally, and it seemed to Takagi that Kuroba visited just at the point in time when the job was starting to get to his star team. Takagi knew a thing or two about Kuroba. Kuroba Kaito was the former Kaitou KID, retired just two years previously, right before Hakuba and Kudo had joined Division One. Of course, Takagi had no concrete proof. He had circumstantial evidence at best, and it wasn’t particularly good circumstantial evidence, even. Mostly it was gut instinct. Not that he was interested in pursuing the matter. Very few people were actually interested in pressing charges for KID’s crimes, and after the thief had helped to take down a far-reaching crime syndicate right before his retirement, public opinion was even more on his side than when he had just been a daredevil performer, showing off his thieving skills, exposing bigger crooks, and then returning whatever he had stolen. If the police tried to go after KID—a national hero—now, with only Takagi’s gut instinct as evidence, it would be a disaster. The people would no doubt take the side of the thief, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department would be the laughingstock of Japan. In addition to the logistics of actually trying to charge Kuroba as KID, there was the matter of Kudo-kun and Hakuba-kun. Takagi knew that they knew—he could tell from the fiery look in the young men’s eyes as they interacted and the way they joked, teased, and bullied one another. There was the same intensity of rivals about them as there had been between KID and Conan-kun back in the day. Hakuba and Kudo knew, and yet the young detectives did nothing. There had to be a very, very good reason for this. Takagi suspected that it had something to do with the whole takedown of the Organization that KID had assisted Conan-kun and the FBI with. Besides, it was obvious that the three were close friends, and Kuroba was more of a help than a hindrance, as far as Takagi was concerned. The ex-con helped with cases and looked after the detectives’ mental and physical wellbeing. Takagi was willing to let a little vigilantism in Kuroba’s teenage years slide. Especially since Miwako would never forgive him if he had their babysitter arrested. The kids were used to Kuroba, and Kuroba was oddly spectacular with children. And then there was the fact that the Takagis couldn’t really be picky when their triplets had systematically scared off every other babysitter they’d ever had in one week or less, so if Kuroba were imprisoned, the Takagis would be out of luck…and Takagi Wataru would be sleeping in a motel until he could get his wife to let him back in the house…which would probably entail forking over the bail money and then clearing Kuroba’s name. Takagi Wataru was comfortably certain that he understood the nature of Hakuba-kun and Kudo-kun’s relationship with Kuroba Kaito until one night in June. In his rush to get home, Kudo-kun had missed a signature page on a document that had to be turned into the court first thing the next morning. Takagi didn’t catch the slip until nearly eleven o’clock when he was reviewing the materials for the case one last time. He called Kudo’s mobile, but to no avail. After several tries with similar results, he finally resigned himself to heading over to the Kudo Manor and banging on the door until he woke the detective up. After he’d been knocking a mere two minutes, the door opened, but to Takagi’s immense surprise, the person who answered was not Kudo-kun but Kuroba Kaito…wearing only a pair of Union Jack boxers that appeared to be a size or two too big for him. The former magician’s hair was even more of a mess than usual, and telltale bruises accompanied by fingernail marks were beginning to make themselves known on Kuroba’s neck, chest, and shoulders. Kaito and Takagi started at one another for a good, long minute until Kaito smiled sheepishly and broke the stalemate. “Good evening, Takagi-keibu. Is there something we can help with? Not a new case, I hope?” Takagi was just getting over the shock of what a mussed and marked Kuroba Kaito standing in the Kudo Manor doorway at this time of night in boxers that were clearly not his own meant when a voice called out from upstairs. “Kai, who is it?” Takagi’s mind melted yet again as he tried to understand what Hakuba Saguru was doing in Kudo Shinichi’s house this late at night at the same time that Kuroba Kaito was standing in the doorway in someone else’s boxers. Union Jack boxers. Takagi wondered if it was prejudice of him to assume that the patriotic boxers belonged to the Brit. He then wondered if maybe someone had bought the boxers as a gag gift for Hakuba…maybe the someone currently sporting them. Takagi’s reverie was cut short as Kaito bellowed, “It’s your boss!” Takagi could hear Kudo cursing amid the sudden bustle of movement coming from the upper floor, and the inspector thought he heard some English obscenities mixed in as well. “I didn’t know that Hakuba-kun cursed,” Takagi muttered, still in a daze. “That’s Shinichi,” Kaito corrected. “Ru curses in French and only when he’s really angry.” And then a thought occurred to him. “Uh, why don’t you come in?” “Huh? Oh.” Takagi blinked, and then the reason for his visit recurred to him. He slid into the guest slippers and followed Kaito to the living-room. “Sorry the house is trashed,” Kaito added as an afterthought, picking up discarded pieces of clothing with one hand and holding his borrowed boxers up with the other. Takagi raised an eyebrow at the ransacked state of the room. “Trashed” was not an exaggeration. Socks and belts were strewn about haphazardly, and a bunch of playing cards and candy wrappers covered the coffee table. It wasn’t hard to imagine an innocuous game of poker played for candy pieces turning into strip poker as the night wore on and the alcohol took effect. There were two empty bottles of wine accompanied by a half-eaten box of chocolate-covered strawberries lying forgotten near the sofa. Meanwhile, two pair of wrist restraints hung unapologetically off the arm of one of the chairs, and Takagi decided not to understand their presence. He turned his attention instead to the scraps of giftwrap and confetti littering the floor and the flecks of popcorn kernels scattered about with the abandon of a food-fight. Takagi tried not to notice as Kaito discretely picked up a mature toy still in its packaging from one of the armchairs and spirited it away. “Won’t you have a seat?” Kaito offered cordially, seemingly unaffected by the current situation. Takagi wondered if he were the only one feeling mortified at the moment. He soon received his answer as his two subordinates slunk into the room, red-faced and in cobbled-together outfits, pointedly avoiding eye contact with their boss. A tense silence fell as Shinichi and Hakuba both bowed and took a seat on the couch across from Takagi. “Good evening, Keibu.” No one was quite sure what to say after that. They all shifted awkwardly and cleared their throats until Shinichi summoned up the courage to say, “Takagi-keibu, I can explain.” Takagi bashfully waved his arms to signal Shinichi to stop. “Kudo-kun, I’m not exactly sure I want to know why the Kaitou KID is wearing Hakuba-kun’s boxers in your living-room.” “It’s not as bad as you think,” Kaito snorted. “A man’s allowed to go around in boxers in his own home, isn’t he? Well, this is our home, all three of us. We bought it from Shinichi’s parents a few years ago.” “Oh,” Takagi laughed nervously. “Is that all?” “It could be, if you want to leave things there,” Kaito sighed with a shrug. “Whatever gets your business done and you out of here the fastest. It’s my birthday, and I’d kind of like to get back to bed, if you don’t mind, Keibu, no disrespect meant to you.” Takagi’s eyes widened as things began to make more sense: Hakuba-kun had requested the day off far in advance; Kudo-kun had taken off early, practically running out the door; the mess that was the Kudo Manor with the confetti, giftwrap, and food… Shinichi pinched Kaito. “Aren’t you going to deny being KID? Did you hear what Takagi-keibu said, Kai?” Kaito shrugged again. “Why? He’s not stupid. He’s known for months now, and he’s obviously not going to do anything about it. I mean, I babysit his kids. You don’t let people that you plan on arresting watch your kids for hours and hours out of the week.” “Dove, why don’t you go put some clothes on?” Saguru gently suggested, trying to diffuse the situation. “Because I don’t feel like it,” Kaito grumbled, irritated at the constant interruptions to his time with his loved ones, especially on the one day of the year they had agreed that Kaito would come first. “It’s a waste of effort since I’m only going to be taking them back off once he leaves.” Shinichi and Saguru both paled. “Kaito,” Shinichi lightly scolded under his breath. Kaito rolled his eyes. “What? We’re clearly caught red-handed. The guy has three kids. It’s an insult to his intelligence to pretend he can’t see what’s going on. Isn’t it better to just tell him instead of leaving him to think we’re a bunch of kinky weirdoes who do these kinds of things with just anyone?” “Point,” Saguru muttered, covering his face with one hand. “Keibu, we—” He indicated himself, Kaito, and Shinichi. “—are married.” “As close to married as any three men can get in a country that doesn’t recognize polygamous or same-sex marriages,” Shinichi added, giving up and averting his eyes. “Ru and I got legally married in England, though, the year before last,” Kaito explained. “So…it may be a little unusual, but nothing funky is going on, so please don’t think any differently about my husbands, okay, Keibu?” It took Takagi a full minute to process, comprehend, and accept what he had just heard, but when he had, he managed to nod. “I don’t…I mean…it is…pecul—uh—unusual, but…Hakuba-kun and Kudo-kun are my best detectives. I’ve known them since…I do admit it’s a bit of a shock to learn that…but…” He managed to meet Shinichi and Saguru’s hesitant, questioning gazes and smile awkwardly. “I suppose I’ll get used to the idea.” “So I’m not fired?” Kaito inquired tentatively, scratching at his cheek. “Of course not. Miwako wouldn’t let me fire you, even if I wanted to,” Takagi chuckled, starting to sweat as he thought about how outraged his wife would be if he ever tried to dismiss their sitter. “She’s a lot more open-minded than I am too, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t bat an eye if I told her.” “Good,” Kaito laughed in relief. “I’d miss the kids to death if I couldn’t take care of them anymore.” Takagi gave the magician an appraising look, considering him as he hummed, “So you’re Hakuba-kun and Kudo-kun’s wife, huh?” Realizing that “wife” might not be the right term, he backpedaled. “Or! Uh…I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you. You’re their—” “—Wife is fine.” Kaito waved away his concern. “Somehow I have ended up in more of a stereotypical wife role…or something like that. Someone has to take care of these mystery geeks or else they’d never remember to eat and sleep. They’d work themselves into the ground.” Takagi nodded, suddenly seeing Kaito’s regular visits to the station to drop off food or clothes, distract the two detectives, and get them to bounce ideas off of him in a new light. “You’re a good caretaker.” He managed a genuine smile, gradually feeling less awkward. “You’re doing a good job.” Just then, the whole reason for his visit came back to him. “Oh! Kudo-kun! The papers! You were in such a hurry to get home today that you missed a signature page.” He grabbed his briefcase and began to dig for the document in question. The signing took all of thirty seconds, and then Takagi was on his way out the door, wishing Kuroba-kun a happy birthday and apologizing for imposing upon the trio. On the train ride home, when he finally had time to consider recent events without the pressure of the presence of the three young men in question, Takagi Wataru realized that while he did know far more than he let on, he didn’t know nearly half as much as he had believed he did. He began to wonder what else he’d been missing out on over the years.
The End
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Addy01
Senior Member
When you can't write angst to save your life but all your plunnies are angsty
Posts: 355
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Post by Addy01 on May 22, 2017 0:58:14 GMT
OMG OMG this is brilliant and this cldnt turn out better! I was actually scratching my head to think of an idea for the prompt so i wasnt expecting anything!
And this line is GOLD: Especially since Miwako would never forgive him if he had their babysitter arrested.
Love love this!
Edit: yes i was too exicted writing this comment....changed some spelling errors. I swear phone keyboards are not made for thumbs
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Post by Mikauzoran on May 22, 2017 2:46:55 GMT
Oh good! I'm so glad! ^o^ I was a little worried since it was such a huge departure from the usual lines of Takagi knowing more than he lets on in the fandom. I really am glad you got a kick out of it.
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Post by Mikauzoran on May 26, 2018 21:54:58 GMT
Mikau: So, I ended up pinch-hitting for this one. I feel bad, sgamer, that I usually seem to end up writing your prompts. Hopefully you'll get someone new and fresh next time. As always, I'm not really sure if this is what you had in mind (in fact, I'm positive it isn't), but I had fun writing it. My understanding of the noir genre is based completely on my limited reading and viewing of Raymond Chandler, Humphrey Bogart films such as The Maltese Falcon, and Alfred Hitchcock. Hopefully this at least gets a chuckle out of you. (Note: I'm heading out of town tomorrow, and didn't do the best job of proofing this. Sorry for the glaring mistakes!)
Word Count: 2,133
Rating: T
Summary: Kaito goes snooping in Hakuba's room and finds a disturbingly familiar story written in the detective's notebook.
sgamer82: Exposing Shinichi to detectives other than Holmes. Alternatively: One of the high school detectives gets into Detective Noir.The Woman of Mystery and the Cursed Gem “Saguru-bocchama!” Baaya called from the foot of the steps. In Hakuba’s bedroom on the second floor, both boys froze, listening with dread to the sound of footsteps ascending the stairs. “I thought you said no one would be home tonight,” Kaito hissed, arching his back almost like an angered cat. “She was supposed to be at the theatre until late,” Saguru groaned, scrambling to his feet as Baaya slowly advanced down the hall to his room. “I don’t want her implicated in this. She can’t know I have an internationally wanted criminal in my room.” “Do I look like a criminal to you?” Kaito rolled his eyes and indicated his red plaid pants and cream-colored pullover. Saguru paused in his mad dash to the door to bite his lip and snort, “The fashion police might have something to say about your ensemble, but—” “—You, of all people, do not get to invoke the fashion police,” Kaito scoffed with a piqued glare. “Can’t we just say I’m over for a class project?” Saguru frowned. “This late?” Kaito’s eye twitched. “Okay. How about you’re just having a friend over?” “I’ve never had friends over. She knows I don’t have any,” Saguru muttered, coloring slightly at the admission. Kaito drummed his fingers impatiently on the coffee table. “Fine. Tell her I’m secretly your lover. I guarantee she’ll never bother us again.” Saguru’s entire face flushed magenta, and he nearly tripped as he turned for the door. “J-Just…stay here,” he stuttered. “I’ll deal with it. Stay quiet, and don’t. Touch. Anything.” “Touch everything?” Kaito snickered. “Kuroba,” Saguru intoned through clenched teeth, a warning note in his voice as his pitch rose on the second syllable. Kaito shrugged in a “suit yourself” fashion, even though the door was already being pulled closed behind the detective. He waited patiently for nearly a full minute as he listened to Hakuba and Baaya’s exchange. He noted the fake, soft quality that entered his classmate’s voice when he talked to his caretaker. It took Kaito almost the same amount of time to consider the possibility that maybe this was real and the person Hakuba presented to the rest of the world was the imposter. After all, how well did Kaito know Hakuba in the first place? Two minutes later, the sounds of Baaya and Hakuba’s voices faded down the hall as the two made their way downstairs for some reason Kaito hadn’t caught. That left him all alone in his former rival, now confidant’s room with nothing to occupy himself. To his credit, it was another two minutes before he got up and started snooping around. Too many bookshelves filled with nerdy classics, a library of DVDs, and video games still in their plastic. A desk, a minifridge, a Western-style twin bed, a couch, coffee table, and nightstand filled the room, but it all looked staged except for the desk. Kaito started out innocently skimming the titles lining the shelves on either side of the flat screen affixed to the wall, but once he’d finished snickering over the fact that Hakuba was into nearly every geeky fandom possible, he moved on to the various piles of folders stacked neatly on the detective’s desk. Kaito bit his lip, tempted to open one up and flip through. The fear that they were case files full of gruesome crime scenes kept the temptation at bay. He was turning to go back to the couch when an open notebook full of Hakuba’s neat handwriting caught Kaito’s eye. The top of the page read “The Beautiful Jewel Thief” with a neat line through it, and, below that, “The Woman of Mystery and the Cursed Gem”. Kaito frowned, spinning the desk chair around and taking a seat. He picked up the notebook and gave it a cursory skim. When it became apparent that this was the beginnings of a short story, Kaito chuckled fondly, “You write, Tantei-san?” and then wondered, “Are you any good?” Kaito looked up from the notebook and listened closely for any sign of Hakuba’s return. After thirty seconds of nothing but the usual old house sounds, he shrugged and began to read:The Beautiful Jewel Thief
The Woman of Mystery and the Cursed Gem It was a sweltering July night, so hot the glue on the wallpaper was melting, oozing like marshmallow fluff, and settling in half-congealed globs on the oak wood floors. I was at the office late, wrapping up a case, when a dame walked through the door. I knew she was trouble the moment I set eyes on her because: one, she moved so softly, not even my trained ears had heard her come in. Two, I was certain that that door had been locked. Three, she was resplendent in the moonlight, and beauty that bewitching always spelled trouble. “Sorry for dropping in so late,” she hummed with a soft chuckle, her voice deep and luscious like honey. She wasn’t sorry in the least. “The trains were delayed on account of the weather. Is this the office of Detective White?” I took in her long, white evening dress, clinging to her skin as if it were painted on. Her red lips stretched into a mischievous smile, looking like cloudy rubies against the bright backdrop of her stark white teeth. She knew I was sizing her up, and this amused her. Her grin brought to mind a vampire, lips stained with the remnants of a recent feast. The thing that most struck me was the way her hat tilted so that the brim cast a shadow over her features, obscuring them. I couldn’t get a good look at her eyes. “I’m Detective White,” I answered cautiously. “What can I do for you, Doll?” “I don’t know if you can do anything,” she chuckled ironically, tossing her long, chestnut hair over her shoulder as she sauntered toward me. “But I’m desperate at this point, so I’m willing to try anything.” She sat with a sigh on the edge of my desk, facing away from me with the brim of her hat still blocking my line of vision. “I need to find a certain gemstone before some men who are also looking for it.” Her fingers drummed repeatedly on the mahogany, like she was slowly picking out the same three notes on a piano again and again. “It could be very dangerous if that jewel falls into the wrong hands,” she added in an undertone, seemingly half to herself. “Why?” I frowned, leaning forward, getting pulled into her tale, the air of mystery surrounding her. She was silent a moment before snorting softly. “This is the hard part to explain, and I don’t think you’ll believe me. Sometimes even I have a hard time believing.” “Try me,” I urged. She turned and looked me full in the face, so that I finally saw she was a classic Asian beauty with a bit of a French spin. Her sensuous, purple-blue eyes shimmered like tanzanite in the moonlight, and she smirked with the confidence of Artemis on the hunt. “Do you believe in magic?” she challenged. “All right. Where were we?” Hakuba sighed, closing the bedroom door behind him. Kaito jumped, fumbling the notebook. He hadn’t heard the detective come in. In an attempt to hide the fact that Hakuba had surprised him, Kaito shrugged nonchalantly and quickly replied, “I think we were about to discuss strategy concerning the search for Pandora—likely candidates, how to check gems while simultaneously decreasing the number of heists necessary to do so.” Saguru caught sight of the notebook in Kaito’s hand halfway through Kaito’s reply and stopped listening as his face drained of color and blood began to rush in his ears. “Sorry. Is that my notebook?” He asked in a strangled, pinched tone. Kaito looked at the book in his hand like he was seeing it for the first time and wasn’t sure how it had gotten there. “Um…yes. Yeah, it is. Funny. I don’t—” “—Did you read it?” Saguru practically squeaked in mortification. Kaito averted his eyes, trying to keep his blush down. “…No.” “Oh my God, you did.” Saguru ran a hand through his hair, stopping midway to pull at it. He put his hand in a fist over his mouth, biting his index finger as he began to pace. “I can explain.” “I really don’t want you to,” Kaito groaned, letting the notebook drop into place on the desk where it belonged. “No, Kuroba. It’s really not what it looks like,” Hakuba insisted, persisting in his attempts to clear up the matter. “I was never going to try to get it published. It’s just an exercise that my therapist has me do to process events by fictionalizing them. She doesn’t even get to read my entries, so you don’t have to worry. Your secrets are safe. I haven’t told anyone.” Kaito blinked, studying Saguru skeptically. “Okay, that makes everything worse.” “Pardon?” Saguru frowned. “It didn’t even occur to me to be freaked out that people might find out about me and Pandora,” Kaito grumbled, still doing his best to avoid eye contact. “What’s concerning is that that is you processing things, and I come out as some sexualized, bombshell, eye candy damsel in distress. Do my eyes really shimmer like tanzanite in the moonlight? Is that something you’ve actually noticed and spent time thinking about?” “I…” Saguru pursed his lips, trying to discern the correct answer. This felt like a trick question. “…No?” Unimpressed with Hakuba’s ability to lie, Kaito rolled his eyes and sighed. “Great. Now, in the film version, am I played by Mary Astor or Ingrid Bergman? Lauren Bacall? You’re obviously Humphrey Bogart. Do we end up together in the end?” Saguru put a hand over his eyes and shook his head. “Kuroba, it’s not like that. In fact, in the end, I imagine that she gets Detective White’s partner killed and eventually stabs him in the back—not literally—but this isn’t real. This in no way is a representation of how I view reality.” “Yeah,” Kaito snorted. “I remember the whole event playing out much differently now that you mention it. I never came to you to ask for help. You’re the one who dragged the story out of me when I was weak from blood loss and elbowed your way into my business. I never asked for your help.” “Yes, yes.” Saguru dropped onto the couch, all the air having gone out of him. “Don’t remind me. Finding you bleeding out in an alley has been making an appearance in my nightmares often enough these past two weeks.” The wounded, sore tone in Saguru’s voice was enough to give Kaito pause. Hakuba sounded genuinely disturbed by the event, as if he really cared about what happened to Kaito. The thought struck Kaito that maybe Hakuba really did. Kaito took a deep breath and studied his classmate for a few moments as Hakuba composed himself. Eventually he broke the silence to ask, “So…why do I come through your filter as a hot chick in distress?” Saguru winced but met Kaito’s gaze. “The whole situation with Pandora and the syndicate and you fighting them…” He paused, trying to word it right. “It’s all a very fitting background for some film noir. At least, I thought so. I, of course, cast myself as the detective, and that left you to be ‘A dame walked into my office’. Nothing personal, Kuroba. I meant no offense.” “So you’re not secretly crushing on me and coming up with fictional scenarios in which you ingratiate yourself to me so that I fall into your arms and sigh ‘My hero!’, right?” Kaito snickered, hackles lowering. Saguru put his face in his palm and groaned. “No, Kuroba. You’re a very attractive human being, but utterly not my type, thank you. It’s all a trope, a parody. Besides, you cross-dress enough, that the roll of ‘dame’ wasn’t that much of a mental leap. If you like, later on, I can include in the story that you were merely crossdressing when you met with Detective White and you’re really male. Would that placate you?” Kaito gave a snort. “I’d love to see the look on Detective White’s face when he realizes the hot chick in his offices is really a guy.” “I don’t think I’ve seen that done before. It could be an interesting twist,” Saguru remarked, beginning to consider the idea in earnest. “Perfect.” Kaito smirked, rolling his eyes as the detective made a note on the pad on the coffee table in front of him. “Now that that’s settled, can we get back down to business, Sherlock?” “Unless you want to help me map out chapter two.” Saguru returned the grin, only half joking.
The End
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