We've got a Mad, Mad Love
Love isn't something you find. Love is something that finds you.
1) star-gazing
Kaito was used to glinting diamonds and sparkles from city lights to be impressed about constellation and stars. So when Aoko asked him to go star-gazing with her one night, just the day after his bizarre and exhausting heist, he was hesitant. But when he saw her smile fading away, he quickly agreed.
She talked about how to use the Big Dipper to find the North Star, and pointed out one of the patterns was similarly shaped like a fish. He gave little inputs despite his vast knowledge from his research about myths and stones, because he enjoyed hearing her chuckles and smiles that lit up brighter than any stars in the sky.
.o.
2) dance
It took one minute for the clouds above the entire Ekoda district to turn grey, and two seconds for the sky to start crying like there was no tomorrow.
Being updated about the weather because of the upcoming heist he was preparing, Kaito readily brought an umbrella with him to school. But once he noticed a familiar figure running out of the school gates in the rain, he kept it inside his bag.
"That's unlike of you to be unprepared." Kaito said when he caught up with Aoko. She turned and gave a look of surprise, like she wasn't expecting him to be here, but her shock features soon turned into a form of annoyance.
"Dad lost his umbrella and took mine to work. There weren't any spares left." Aoko grumbled and kicked a puddle that was in their path, splashing the water over Kaito's feet, much to his dismay. He eagerly splashed one back, which she effectively return another too.
Before they knew it, they were completely drenched and dancing in the rain, with their embarrassing and awkward movements of trying to dodge the other's splash attacks
Their dances weren't as perfect or romantic like the ones in the movies, but it was okay. It was the sort of dance they enjoyed together, and that was all that mattered.
.o.
3) first
They had their first kiss when they were both eight, and Kaito still remembered it was all caused by one of their stupid boy classmate (He still knew his name and where he lived, and if he wanted, he could easily find him and egged his house, but the problem was he didn't mind the memory).
Cooties was easily the stupidest thing Kaito ever came to know to exist, or perhaps a close second after Pandora. And children, being childish and ignorant, liked to spread baseless and senseless rumours.
One example of which was claiming that Aoko got cooties. She was down with a flu that day, and that boy classmate (who Kaito suspected must have liked Aoko back then), started accusing her of having cooties. She was too sick to defend herself, and the boy didn't know Aoko well enough like Kaito to understand words hurt her more than scrapes and bruises.
So Kaito, without a second thought, stepped in and kissed Aoko on the lips before running after the boy classmate, yelling how he's going to kiss him to spread the so-called cooties to him. The class erupted into chaos in a split second, only leaving a stumped and drowsy Aoko sitting alone by her desk.
She took two days off from school before the weekends because of her flu, and by the time class resumed on Monday, everyone was already bored of teasing Kaito K-I-S-S-I-N-G Aoko and moved on to another interesting topic to talk about.
Kaito never bring this matter up ever since, and he guessed Aoko didn't remember it due to her sickness too.
It was alright, anyway (Because he's gonna do an even better kiss next time).
.o.
4) wrap
The darkness around Kaito put off the need to hide his yawn, even so, he didn't really care if anyone else knows he was bored.
His tired eyes only widened when he felt his right arm being squeezed, again.
"It's all made with CGI." He murmured over his shoulder.
"I know." Aoko hissed, but the strength of her grip didn't diminish.
The ghost gave a piercing shriek, and likewise, the audiences in the theatre did too. If there was a competition, Kaito was pretty sure Aoko was the loudest.
Their original planned trip to the zoo was cancelled due to the sudden downpour, but that wasn't enough to dampen their mood and call it a day. They made alternative plans and finally decided on watching a movie first. There wasn't many choices available at the time, but Aoko didn't contemplate long and pick the horror genre, just for the thrill (and also because it was still daytime so she wouldn't be that scared afterwards).
Kaito hated these cheap and tasteless plots the most, but considering that he had been spending his free times doing something she loathed, he thought he should just go with her idea.
His drifting thoughts were disrupted when he suddenly felt one side of his cheek tickled, followed by the familiar squeeze on his arm. Kaito glanced down, staring at Aoko snuggling her face into his sleeve and too nervous to afford a single squeak. He couldn't hide the smirk that spread across his face like split honey on a table.
"Let me stay like this for five more seconds." Aoko muffled embarrassingly, as though she knew he was looking at her with his cheeky-sort-of-teasing grin. He didn't say anything, and she took it as a sign that he allowed her to wrap her arm tighter around his.
Oh, if only she knew the real reason behind his smile….
Maybe picking this movie wasn't all that bad of an idea after all.
.o.
5) trust
"Do you trust me?"
"I don't think I have a choice now, do I?"
"You don't sound sure."
"Fine, Ahouko. I totally have my utmost, dedicated faith and trust in you."
"Good!"
With that, Aoko wrung her hand off Kaito's and he ended up doing an involuntary spin in his ice skates. He struggled for two more seconds before his knees gave up and he began to fall backwards-
She grabbed his arms in time before his body hit the cold, ice floor.
"Trust me now?" Aoko smirked, her strong hands helping to maintain Kaito's balance.
His scowl deepened as he half-glared at his saviour. "Trust you for what?"
"That I'll always catch you if you fall."
Kaito wouldn't bet on it if he was wearing his white costume now. But at the current moment, as Kuroba Kaito who couldn't do shit in skates, he would fully trust her on that.
.o.
6) permission
"Give me three more seconds!" Aoko yelled from her bedroom before the door slammed shut.
"I don't see her that excited when she went to the Prince Prince concert with me." Her father cleared his throat and looked hard at Kaito, though not in a manner of glaring.
Not knowing what the best answer was, Kaito only shrugged in response.
"Be back home early." The Inspector turned away to look at the television, trying to act nonchalant although Kaito begged to differ. "No later than midnight."
Kaito understood the Inspector's underlying implications, but he choose to feign slight ignorance. "We wouldn't want to miss the last train either."
The Inspector sighed before glancing past his shoulder and towards Aoko's bedroom. Her three seconds were up and she was still nowhere to be seen, but that was all the better. The Inspector straightened his posture on the couch, and Kaito mirrored the same, even though he was standing by the door the entire time.
"Keep an eye on her."
"Of course."
"Take good care of her."
"Definitely."
The Inspector paused, his features slightly softened. It might be a trick of light, Kaito wasn't sure. "Take good care of her in the future, too. If that's what she wants."
Kaito blinked.
"And if that's what you want, too.
"Um..." What came out at the end was a soft croak and he could feel the heat creeping up his neck. The Inspector was kind enough to look away, saving Kaito from further embarrassment.
Aoko, oblivious to the entire matter, suddenly burst out of her bedroom with a skip, her entrance instantly brought his composure back. "I'm good to go now!"
"Be back by 1." The Inspector grumbled from the sofa.
Kaito raised his eyebrows. He was sure the offer from before was midnight-
"Goodbye Dad!" Aoko made a dash to the door and slapped a hand over Kaito's shoulder, snapping him awake from his slight daze. "We're going to be late!"
"And you're blaming me?" Kaito sneered and rubbed his shoulder.
Their quibbles could still be heard even after Aoko closed the front door.
.o.
7) home
Due to the lack of furniture and unnecessary decorations, Kaito's house looked much bigger than Aoko's.
But despite how her house was smaller in size, he wondered abstractedly, why, did hers seem much more homely and comfortable?
.o.
8) anchor
Since the day Kaito donned himself in the white costume, he couldn't picture himself to do anything else, besides destroying Pandora and the evil organization into pieces.
He didn't have time to join clubs like normal students or hang out at the mall like normal teenagers. He wasn't normal, not with his talents and abilities. He couldn't be normal, for the things he was born to do.
He always dreaded being normal in the past, but normality now seemed like a miraculous blessing to him.
But there we have; Nakamori Aoko, defying those odds.
She made him remember he was just a mischievous teenage boy who had the ability to make everyone laughs. She made sure he has a hearty breakfast so he could participate in sports event and win trophies for the class. She made him realize he was a normal human, even though he favoured weird things like poker cards and dislikes extraordinary things like fishes.
She made him believe he could be normal in the future, one day (A magician for his career, most probably. And maybe... married? With two kids? It would be nice if the two kids inherited their mother's eyes. Eyes like Aoko's, perhaps).
Nakamori Aoko was his anchor.
And Kaito couldn't ask for anything more.
.o.
9) subtle
"Finals are coming, that's why." Kaito would explain whenever Aoko asked about his tired eyebags and draggy footsteps.
Instead of pressuring him to tell the truth, she would pretend she believed him and let the conversation come to an end. Because there was no point in continuing to ask if he didn't want to talk about it. It had always been this way since his father died.
So, in her own ways, she tried to ease whatever burden Kaito was carrying by himself. She made the portion of her bento lunch bigger so he could steal more of her side dishes away. She would occasionally volunteer to do class-cleaning duties when it was Kaito's name on the duty chart that day. She stopped using acronyms for her notes because she was afraid if she photocopied them for Kaito, he wouldn't understand.
As his childhood best friend, these were just the littlest things she could do for him.
.o.
10) melt
Kaito burnt his tongue while trying to blow a torch during his heist last night, and the fastest remedy he checked online was to constantly suck an ice pop wherever he goes. He would probably blend in well if it was in the middle of summer, but the winter season was just going to make him look like a weird, ice-obsessive fool.
But he didn't really care, to be honest. He wanted to be in a tip-top condition by the next heist, and what's more important was to get the surrounding of the museum he was going to steal the jewel from tattooed inside his brain. He had no needs to act impressive when his alter-ego had all the time to do that.
"Kaito? What are you doing here?"
He blinked, distracted, and turned to watch the bubbly girl he knew for more than a decade bouncing towards his direction. She was waving with a bag of groceries in her hands, probably just on her way back from the supermarket.
His determination and heart was hard and cold, like ice.
But her presence… melts him every time.
.o.
11) dream
Late night thoughts were things Aoko dreaded the most.
She would spend her night sitting on her bed, wrinkling her sheets with her clenched fists and fidgety legs. The thoughts wouldn't end unless something could disrupt her, and there was nothing in her room that was capable of doing so. She only found an answer when her eyes laid on her phone on her bedside table.
The dial-tone rang for the first five seconds before someone picked up. She cleared her throat, making sure it wouldn't sound hoarse before starting the greeting.
"Hey."
"Hmm-mmh... Aoko?"
"Kaito?" Her voice cracked, guilt washing over her when she noted the obvious drowsiness in Kaito's tone. "Sorry. Did I wake you up?"
He didn't answer. Instead, there was a faint shuffling sound before Aoko heard something sliding. She wasn't sure if her guess was right, but she rolled off her bed and trudged towards her balcony window to confirm it.
Through the glass and past a couple of houses, Kaito was standing on his balcony and lazily waving back at her.
"What's up?" He gave a bored chuckle.
She pushed past the sliding door and stepped onto her balcony, the light breeze instantly whipped her hair to one side. "I didn't know you'll sleep so early today." It wasn't a question or a statement, but just enough to express her unsaid gratitude for her best friend who always proclaim his love of sleep over anything else (besides magic and his dad).
The opportunity was right in his hands, but he didn't complain or whine about her disturbance, much to her slight surprise. "What about you? Can't sleep?" He leaned forward and rest his arms on the railings.
"... Yeah." It would be stupid if she even try to lie.
"That's bad." She could almost hear him smirk. "I need my table-partner to be fully awake tomorrow at school so I don't have to."
Aoko rolled her eyes. "You're an idiot."
She could tell he was putting an effort to hide the weariness in his voice even though he insisted he was fine. But after half an hour of conversation, Aoko finally coerced him to go back in to his house to sleep. She didn't tell him her mood had grown tremendously better, but he seemed to sense it nonetheless (That was probably one of the reason why he was so easily persuaded to end the call anyway).
"Don't dream too much about me." Kaito mocked before the phone ended with a disconnected tone. Aoko waved a fist in the air and decided to ask him tomorrow if he saw her sticking out her tongue grossly at him.
She slept the moment she hit her mattress, dreaming about roses and doves with a smile on her lips.
.o.
12) altruism
Kaito noticed the graze marks on Aoko's hands since a few days ago.
She was in the midst of rummaging her pencil case when she finally gave up her search and decided to borrow an eraser from him. He tossed it over before asking her about how she got those weird scratches on her palm. She flushed and furiously erased her wrong answers on her homework sheets, ignoring him to the point of forgetting to reply her thanks. He gave a mocking snort, to cover up his true concern for her and began to sharpen his pencil.
It was only on the day she showed up outside his doorsteps with a bundle of roses in her hands then he realized why.
"Happy Birthday Kaito!" She chirped before throwing the bouquet in the air and clapped her hands (which he noted was a little off-beat). The flowers disappeared, and in an instant, rose petals started showering over Kaito's head, as if it was endless.
He gaped, eyes wide in shock before looking at Aoko, who was chortling to herself, perhaps at her show or how she had succeeded in surprising the hell out of him so early in the morning.
But instead of being fascinated by the impressive trick from an amateur, or being fussy about the horrible mess at his doorsteps, his eyes lowered to Aoko's scraped palms that were almost hidden under the raining red petals.
His chest squeezed.
"Why are you crying?" Aoko's pursed lips parted to let out a chorus of giggles. "Oh, Kaito! Are you touched?"
"Don't be stupid." He spat and wiped his eyes. They were, indeed, a little wet, much to his disbelief. "It's because I just woken up from my sleep." It was the half truth.
"I'm not going to let you sleep in on your birthday." Aoko grabbed his wrist, pulling him down the steps and towards the gates.
"Hold on a second-!" Kaito exclaimed.
She waved an arm exaggeratedly at the sky. "We're not wasting any more time!"
After his father died two years ago, no one performed magic tricks for him anymore. He wasn't going to tell Aoko that, because he knew she would end up feeling horrible for many reasons that came up due to her senseless, wild imagination. He didn't need it. He didn't want it too.
All he wanted, besides going out to celebrate his birthday with Aoko, was to at least wear his shoes. He only managed to tell her that after they stopped at the traffic lights two blocks away.
.o.
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A/n: for those who followed my tumblr, you must have realized some parts of this fic looked very familiar (opps). And again, sorry to disappoint if anyone was expecting to read a long one-shot fic or some sort. I could only afford some 'drabble-ish' prompts out of my busy schedule, although I really wanted to write something for Kaito's birthday too (UGH happy birthday u dork )
Anyway, thanks for reading! By any chance, and if you're willing, let me know which prompt is your favourite :)