Love Brought to Light

It all started when he met her.

They were only fourteen years old, but his heart hammered in his chest like he had known her all his life. She was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen, and she was a detective like him.

Her name: Hikari.

It was a complete coincidence as to how they first met. Saguru had entered his favorite café after solving a difficult serial murder and approached the counter to order black coffee. However, there was someone that entered at that moment, and they seemed to be in a hurry.

She's beautiful. Those were the first words to come to Saguru's mind as he stepped away from the counter. "You can order first," he spoke up, "since you seem to be in a hurry."

The girl nodded in gratitude and ordered a small black coffee. "Please be quick with it," she told the cashier. "I have to be at the station in three minutes and twelve-point-fourteen seconds, and they don't like it when I'm late."

Saguru almost fainted. She knows time like I do… and she's needed at the station? "Pardon my asking, ojou-sama, but why are you needed at the station? Were you a witness to something?"

The girl shook her head, making her long, wavy blonde hair bounce on her shoulders. "I'm somewhat of an amateur detective. My dad's an officer, so he takes me to some of the crime scenes if they're getting stumped." She beamed. "I'm happy to say I've already solved 26 cases!"

Saguru felt heat radiate from his face, and he averted his gaze. "Well, I guess… I'm the same as you. I've solved 102 cases as of today, but that's because my father's a high enough officer to allow me a part-time job working on cold cases." He nervously laughed. "I don't mind them though—to me, those are the most interesting to investigate since no one else has been able to solve them."

The girl hummed thoughtfully. "Now that I think about it, you remind me of someone… I've seen your face in the newspaper a few times." She placed a finger to her lips and closed her sparkling green eyes. After a moment, they popped open, and she gasped. "Hakuba Saguru! You're that middle school detective that dresses like Holmes!"

Saguru shyly nodded, feeling something strange settle in his chest when seeing her smile. "I am. However, I am not in the paper as much as that Kudou Shinichi due to my… traveling."

The girl tilted her head and sipped the coffee she soon received. "Do you have cases overseas too? That's unusual."

Saguru bit his lip. "Well, yes, you could say that… You see, I only live in Japan for five months out of the year. For the remaining seven, I live in Britain with my mother." He forced a smile when seeing the girl's surprise. "It's fine though; I've adjusted."

The girl's expression saddened. "So that means your parents divorced. It must have been hard on you… and just think, you have to adjust to completely different languages and cultures!" She placed a hand over her mouth. "Do you… have any friends?"

Saguru's fake smile slipped away, and he lowered his head. "Not… not really, no. I can't stay in one place long enough to establish a lasting connection with someone." He shrugged. "But that's fine with me. I have my Holmes books to read if I ever want something to do."

The girl's eyes darted to the door, for she knew she had to leave soon. Coming to a quick decision, she whipped out a notebook and began writing something down. "Here's my number. Maybe since we're both half-British, we can become friends!" She tore out the piece of paper and handed it to the surprised detective. Almost at the door, she stopped to say, "Oh, the name's Hikari! Like my name says, I always bring the truth to light!"

X

Saguru had fought a hard battle to stay in Japan during high school.

His mother wanted him to stay in England the entire time to learn from what she believed to be the world's best, but she didn't know what his true reason was:

He wanted to find Hikari. They had texted and called occasionally, but he wanted to see her. During the times he had visited his father, he had never been able to find her. Now that he was in high school, he realized two things.

First was that he needed more than just Hikari. He wanted friends that he could keep throughout his life… that he could depend on in times of trouble. He was tired of facing the world alone and wanted to see the hands of his friends leading him out of the darkness.

There was also the fact that he may never see Hikari again. She may study abroad after graduating high school, and he would never know. Judging by how he never saw articles with her name, she was the type of detective to stay anonymous. That way, in case someone wanted their revenge against her, they would never know who to look for.

So he kept bringing it up to his mother, almost to the point of begging, and finally received his wish one week before class started.

"Alright, Saguru, you can go. Promise to call me every once in a while though, okay? And let me know exactly what happens, good or bad. Be sure to keep perfect grades, and don't let friendships get the best of you." Without so much as a farewell hug or wave, she turned from her son and left the airport lobby.

Saguru wasn't surprised by this, however. His mother had never been one for showing affection, and now would be no different. He quickly made his way onto the plane and texted Hikari.

Guess what? I'm going to be staying in Japan! What school do you go to? Maybe we'll be in the same one.

The flight was unexpectedly short due to Saguru sleeping through most of it, and he was upset to find he had no new messages on his phone. Perhaps she is asleep. It is five-forty-three A.M., after all. Yawning a bit, he left the plane and began his life in Ekoda.

X

Kuroba Kaito was certainly something.

He couldn't go five minutes without changing someone's hair color.

He was even the suspected identity to the phantom thief Kaitou KID.

But he was also Saguru's best friend. The Brit could go to Kaito whenever he had a problem, no matter what time it was or what they were doing, and get the comfort he needed. Kaito forced Saguru to explain his childhood since the blonde had suddenly broken down to tears. Upon asking what was wrong, Saguru stated it was because he never had anyone to comfort him… and then Kaito squeezed Saguru and cried for five minutes about how sad it was.

"Why are you crying about this, Kuroba-kun?" Saguru asked in surprise as he eased the magician from the tight embrace he found himself in. "You aren't even remotely involved in it, and it's not that bad."

"Oh, but it is bad, Hakuba! How could you stand being alone for so long? You didn't even have any friends before now!"

Surprised, Saguru's chocolate-brown eyes met Kaito's indigo ones. "What do you mean? I still don't have any…" He gasped. "No, you… you're not serious… are you? You actually want to be friends… with me?"

Kaito gave a watery grin. "'Course I do, silly! You're fun to be around, and you don't have anyone else to hang out with! So chin up because we're going to the amusement park!"

That was how the last year had been. Saguru could never determine things in his schedule, for Kaito would randomly announce their going somewhere. He couldn't say no, of course… partly because he didn't want to. He liked being around the cheerful prankster and got him to open up a bit too.

It started late one night when Saguru had called Kaito. He had been depressed about many things and wanted someone to talk to…

Only to realize Kaito was crying.

"Kuroba-kun, is something wrong? Why are you crying?" It took almost two hours of coaxing to get Kaito to finally answer the questions.

"I just can't do this anymore… I hate lying to everyone and being stuck behind a poker face… I just want to be me and not worry about anything besides college or winning Aoko's heart." He choked out a sob upon speaking the girl's name. "But she won't love me anymore…"

Kaito finally explained that he was actually KID. He was searching for a certain jewel called Pandora so he could destroy it before evil men found it. Said group of men were also the ones that murdered his father.

Saguru managed to calm down Kaito by bringing up simple things like the last prank pulled at school that day and the rumors of chocolate being hidden around the school to lure the trickster into traps. Once he was sure Kaito's laugh was genuine, he lowered his phone to check the messages. None. This made him sigh, and Kaito's laughter stopped.

"Oh, I forgot to ask. Is something up, Hakuba? It's not like you to be awake at this hour."

Saguru mumbled a denial. "I'm fine, Kuroba-kun. We should both be getting to bed since we have class tomorrow, so…" He hung up before the teen could ask any more questions and fell back onto his bed, tremors passing through his body as he sobbed.

I knew it… Hikari lied to me when she said we'd be friends.

It took many hours for Saguru to finally relax enough to slip into sleep, but he was quickly plagued with a nightmare that sent him awake and screaming. He began to hyperventilate and buried himself under his blankets, tears streaming down his cheeks.

"Hakuba…? Oh gosh, Hakuba, are you okay?" A voice spoke from the doorway as a figure quickly enveloped itself around Saguru's trembling form. After a moment of soft whispers and rubbing his back, the blanket was eased off of Saguru's head, revealing a frowning Kaito. "That was most certainly a new one. Care to explain why you had a nightmare?"

Saguru gulped. There was no way he could get out of this one. Snatching the blanket back, he sunk onto his pillow with a shaky sigh. "She lied to me," he replied, his voice cracking. "She said we would be friends… That's why I fought to live in Japan in the first place. But she lied to me… just like everyone else!"

Kaito could see his friend starting to panic again and placed a hand over his mouth. "Stop it, Hakuba; you're going to pass out at this rate. Take a deep breath, and tell me what happened. I can't help you until I know what's going on."

Saguru slowed down his breathing, causing a yawn to slip out. "Her name is Hikari," he said sleepily. "I met her a few years back at a café. She was a detective like me, and we started talking. For some reason, I mentioned how I had no friends, and she gave me her number. We talked a bit during the time I lived in Britain, but I could never find her when I came here to visit. I fought against my mother to come here, but she hasn't responded to me since I arrived a year ago." Tears began to form again, and he placed an arm over his eyes. "That would mean she lied to me about being friends. She took advantage of me."

Kaito didn't respond right away. Instead, he stood up and began typing something on Saguru's computer. The owner of said computer sat up and rubbed at his bloodshot eyes. "What are you doing, Kuroba-kun? Is now really the time?"

Kaito merely waved off the questions and continued searching before finally finding what he was looking for. "Come here, Hakuba. Is this the girl you were talking about?"

Saguru trudged to the desk and plopped in the chair. On the computer was an article, with the headline reading "High School Detective Willingly Takes Huge Risk to Save Hostage." The picture beside the rest of the article was one of a young woman with long, wavy blonde hair and sparkling green eyes. The same features that he remembered so well from Hikari. Quickly scanning through the article, he realized many things that he hadn't taken into account:

First and foremost, Hikari was currently in a coma. She had remained that way for the past year due to her injuries, and it was approaching the time she was to be unplugged. It wasn't that she wouldn't answer his text… she was physically unable to.

She had also made a sacrifice to save this young boy from being killed. He didn't realize how much her work meant to her or that she cared for justice so much. It pained him to read about how everyone else had been on stand-still hoping she would wake. No one had ever told him what happened; he was foolish enough to think she threw away their friendship.

He had made a mistake. A huge one. How had he not realized this sooner? She was on the brink of death, and he didn't do a thing about it. If he were her true friend, he would have come rushing from England as soon as it happened and been at her side through it all. He would have been there when the doctors hooked her up to life support. He would have been the one crying over her limp form, praying she would wake.

But he was never there. She had to suffer through it all alone. Both her parents had died soon after her birth, and she was raised by a housekeeper that cared deeply for her. It was a similar situation with Saguru, but he did nothing to help her.

He jumped to his feet and began to leave the room, but something caught his wrist. Whirling around, he saw Kaito with a panicked expression. "I have to go, Kuroba-kun. It's been long enough, and I need to be there beside her."

"But… you at least need to eat something and change first, right? You don't want to go there looking like that, even if she's still asleep." He hesitated. "I have… something to ask you too. If you don't mind, of course."

Saguru returned to his chair, for Kaito was already rummaging through his closet for clothes. "Alright, I don't mind. What do you want to ask me?"

Kaito held up an outfit but quickly shook his head. "No, that's not it… Ah-ha!" What he pulled out was a black tux, and that surprised Saguru.

"I'm not… Kuroba-kun, why would I go in that? This is a hospital, not a party!" He buried his face in his hands and turned his chair away. "If you're going to keep joking like this, you can just leave. I have to get to Hikari-chan as soon as possible."

Kaito's amusement faded, and he placed a hand on Saguru's shoulder. "Sorry, Hakuba, I didn't realize you would be this sensitive about it. Let me explain then, and you'll see why I picked this particular outfit." Waiting for the detective to meet his gaze, the magician tapped the other boy's nose. "You like her, don't you~?"

Saguru blushed, his gaze quickly moving to something that wasn't Kaito's eyes. "O-Of course not, Kuroba-kun, she is my friend. Why would I involve myself with love anyway? There's nothing good out of it."

Kaito's jaw dropped, and he lowered himself to his knees so he was at eye-level with the Brit. "You… you don't even know what love is, do you?" He spoke in such a weak tone that Saguru couldn't help but turn back to the thief. Tears glistened from the corners of his indigo eyes, and he wore a sad smile. "You're a person worthy of being called the modern-day Holmes, yet you don't even know what love is.

"Love is kinda like how I am with Aoko. We tease each other about absolutely everything but don't actually mean it. We get concerned if something is bothering the other and talk with them until they're okay. She becomes my top priority in a dangerous situation, and I have to make sure she's safe."

Saguru frowned. "But… isn't that just friendship?"

Kaito laughed. "Let me try again by asking you some questions. If you answer yes to most of them, you're in love. Ready?" Seeing Saguru's hesitant nod, he began a barrage of questions. "Does your pulse increase when you see her or hear her voice? Do you get that feeling like you're going to faint when she approaches you? Does she seem like the only girl in the world when you two speak? Do her eyes seem like pools so deep you're afraid you'll drown in them? Do her words just seem absolutely perfect to you, even if what she's saying is incorrect? Do you get butterflies in your stomach just thinking about her? Are you always thinking about her and wondering what she thinks of you? Now, tell me, Hakuba Saguru… do you love Hikari-chan?"

Saguru did a fast mental count and came to a conclusion he never thought he would reach. I'm in love. There is a woman that I want to spend the rest of my life with. Sherlock Holmes was always against love since it clouded judgment, but… he secretly loved Irene Adler, did he not? She was the only woman able to best him, and she had a style he had never before seen. To him, she wasn't just the woman… she was perfection.

Kaito snickered when seeing his friend's distant gaze. "Well, I'll just let you think while I make you something to eat!" Setting the tux on the bed beside a bouquet of red roses and a note explaining what he was to do, the trickster snuck from the room to start the coffee maker and turn on the burner.

Breakfast was completed half an hour later, and Saguru's bedroom door was now shut and locked. "Hakuba, you know you have to eat something, right?" Kaito knocked on the door, which opened seconds later by a flushing Saguru.

"Does this… look good enough?" He was now wearing the suit, the roses in one hand and note in the other. He gave a slow spin for Kaito to see, but the other teen was laughing. "It's… not very good, is it? I knew it would look stupid."

Kaito cut himself off and shook his head. "No, it—it looks great! I'm just wondering how it will actually go when you see her. If she happens to wake up today, will you be able to say how you truly feel~?"

Saguru dropped his gaze to his feet and shifted uncomfortably. "Um… I can't be sure. What if she laughs at me or rejects me? It's impossible for her to actually feel the same as me."

Kaito crossed his arms before leading Saguru to the kitchen. "You should know better than to say it's impossible, Hakuba. Doesn't Holmes say to never eliminate what's improbable? Because there is most certainly a chance she feels the same way as you!" After forcing Saguru to eat two servings of breakfast, he literally pushed him out the door of his home. "Now go get 'er!"

Saguru straightened his tie with a huff. "Gee, thanks, Kuroba-kun… I have no idea how to actually tell her all of these thoughts going through my head." He glanced down at the note and noticed there was a post-script.

P.S. You don't really need a plan to tell her how you feel—just wait for the right moment and let the words flow!

Saguru rolled his eyes with a chuckle. "Like that's supposed to help." But he did feel a bit less overwhelmed as he walked the few blocks to the hospital, where he was shocked to discover Hikari had indeed awoken.

"Are you a relative?" the nurse at the front desk asked.

Saguru shook his head. "I'm not, but we… we're friends." He held up the roses. "I need to ask her something too."

The nurse, seeing the truth behind the flowers, giggled. "Alright, I suppose you can stay for a short while. Her room number is 221."

Heavily thanking her, Saguru dashed down the halls before finding the room. Taking a moment to calm his racing heart, he slowly opened the door to find the girl sitting up in her bed… alone.

Her gaze slowly turned upon hearing the door open, and she smiled when seeing who it was. "It's Saguru-kun. I was worried you wouldn't come. They say it's been a whole year since the incident."

Saguru sat in the chair at her bedside with a sigh. "To be honest, Hikari-chan, I had no idea this happened to you. While I did move permanently to Japan last year, I was never told of what happened. It took Kuroba-kun—he's my best friend from school—and a newspaper article online to realize what had happened, and by then I…" He hesitated and brought his hand forward, revealing the bouquet of roses. "The truth had been brought to light for me."

Hikari placed a hand over her mouth, for she had counted twelve red roses. In flower language, that meant "I love you." The flowers were placed in her lap, and she tightly wrapped her arms around Saguru before he could sit back down.

"You're not just a Sherlock Holmes after all… you really do feel the same way I do…"

END

Author's Note: A reviewer by the name of "Hoytti" pointed this out to me, so I'll add a note here: twelve red roses have a different meaning in Japan. Apparently, having an even number of roses means death. I feel that since both of them have spent quite a while in the U.K., they would believe twelve red roses to signify "I love you" as opposed to death. XD Unless they have a different meaning in the U.K.? I can't be sure. All this reviewer said was that it's a "western tradition." To me, the U.K. is in the Western Hemisphere, so...

I digress though. Thank you, everyone, for reading and giving support! Have a great day, and good luck in whatever life brings you!