"Why," Rikuou Himura started, facing a metal door at the top of a flight of stairs. "Did you not take a key with you?"

Kazahaya Kudo gave a 'humph' and crossed his arms over his chest, "It's not like you have a key either and aren't you always saying that you're the more responsible and smarter one?"

Rikuou sighed, "I am.." He started carefully.

"Then isn't it more your fault that we're locked out of our own apartment?"

"I could always break the lock." An attempt to steer the conversation in another direction.

"Kakei-san would kill us and then make us pay for it. And it's not exactly cheap to reinstall new locks."

Damn him.

A silence reigned for a few minutes until Kazahaya sighed and sat on the top stair. "Guess there's nothing else to do, save wait for Kakei-san and Saiga-san to come back."

Rikuou sat down next to his partner. "They'll kill us for ruining the end of their date like that."

The lighter teen bristled, "Well what else can we do? We can't exactly break into our—" He cut himself off abruptly and tea-coloured eyes got a faraway look in them.

Green eyes narrowed at this. "What's wrong?"

"I just – break in…" Large eyes blinked back into focus. "We can break in." Kazahaya stood up in excitement and started down the stairs.

"What about the money to fix the lock, idiot?" Rikuou, always the voice of reason shouted after him.

The other teen turned, but wasn't sporting a look of defeat, rather he had an uncharacteristic smirk on his face. "Oh, we're not going to break anything." The smirk turned to a sheepish grin, "Remember how you always tell me off for leaving the windows unlocked?"

Realisation lit up dark green eyes, "You left the bedroom window unlocked again?"

Kazahaya blushed lightly, though still smiling, "Yeah and I figured that if we could somehow climb up there, we can get in without breaking anything. But…" His face suddenly fell, realising that the window was quite high up.

Rikuou seemed to realise this, too, though he continued down the stairs, past his stationary partner. "There might be a way…" He muttered, continuing around the stairs and to the side of the store and apartment.

"Hey! Wait up, you big jerk!"

Kazahaya rounded the corner, expecting Rikuou to be staring at the seemingly impossibly high window, but found his partner further away from the building, moving a large, though empty, blue barrel. The sandy-haired teen crept closer in interest, his eyes widened as he saw what his darker partner was getting at.

"Rikuou! You can't take those! They're not ours!"

Cold eyes glared at him in annoyance, "I'm not stealing them, just borrowing. The construction guys won't mind, not that they'll even know." He finally removed the last of the junk that was on top of a long ladder, left behind for the night by a group of med fixing the building next to theirs. He lifted it and carried it to their apartment wall, mounting it against the wall and giving it a shake to ensure its sturdiness.

Expectant dark eyes turned to look into lighter ones, "Well up you go."

"What?! Why me? Why can't you do it?"

"Because you're smaller and like a cat, so you shouldn't be afraid of heights." He smirked, "Or are you afraid to go up there?"

As Rikuou had predicted, indignation turned into annoyance and Kazahaya stepped up to the ladder. It wasn't exactly the sturdiest, but would most likely support his weight – at least his better than the huge bear's.

Rikuou noticed his slight apprehension. "I'll hold it steady and be ready to catch you if you do decide to fall."

Kazahaya shot him a nasty look, "I won't fall, thank you very much." And with that he was climbing the ladder.

Rikuou followed his every movement, ready to spring into action if there was even the slightest wobble on Kazahaya's part. But true to his feline nature, Kazahaya had absolutely no trouble ascending the flimsy ladder. Rikuou watched as he reached the top, pushed open the window and hoisted himself onto the ledge.

There was a pause.

"Um…"

"What's wrong now?"

Kazahaya was straddling the window sill, right leg inside, left outside. "There is a considerable drop…"

"The window's above your bed, idiot! Just drop yourself down and let me in already!" Rikuou was already moving the ladder away, seeing as his lighter partner no longer needed it.

Kazahaya just huffed to himself, removing his shoes, tossing them inside, and then edged through the small opening. Another good reason for him to be up there; the window wasn't massive. He kept hold of the ledge, until he was dangling with straight arms and then let go. The bed gave a loud creak, but did not break or show any other form of discomfort.

He looked up at the small window, closed it with a triumphant smile and strutted to the front door. He did have to wait a few minutes until Rikuou came up. The two stood at the open door and shared rare genuine smiles, before Kazahaya stepped back and let Rikuou inside.

Later on, at the dinner table, Rikuou looked up at his partner with a look halfway between a smirk and amused smile. "Guess your spazziness really does come in handy occasionally."

Kazahaya narrowed his eyes at that, but refrained from saying anything, unsure if that was an insult or not.

Rikuou returned his attention to his food, "Next time I tell you off for leaving windows unlocked, remind me of this, ok?"

The other almost chocked on his food. Was Rikuou being serious?

"O-ok."

The rest of dinner passed by in comfortable silence.

-o-o-o-o-o-

First thing I've posted in AGES! Inspiration: I locked myself out today and had to climb in through my window… xD