Title: Rest
Theme: Cradle,Good Night
Pairing: Kaito x Aoko
Genre: Friendship, Comfort
Note: This was supposed to be a fic under my 30 hugs but I thought it just didn't fit there so it's a one-shot now! So it's a try on the time period when Kaito's father died.
Kaito Kuroba was the happiest kid Aoko had ever met. He seemed to have a constant grin plastered on his young face.
Right now, Aoko wasn't quite sure if the boy beside her was her best friend. Granted, something devastating had just occurred and she wasn't really expecting him to be cheerful.
But still… Aoko sighed as she glanced at Kaito again.
--
Toichi Kuroba had passed away.
It was already a week since that horrible day.
She and Kaito were going home together, like always. It was when Kaito's mother opened the door that they both felt that something was quite wrong. The older woman's eyes were red and puffy, blotches stained her usually flawless cheeks and she looked so tired as if she hadn't slept for a long time.
She let them in. Aoko saw her father in the living room, his expression solemn. A couple of police officers were there too, both of them had that sympathetic expression on their faces. Kaito, being the perceptive child that he was, asked what was wrong. At that moment, his mother fell onto her knees beside him and started to cry. She hugged him tightly, Ginzo Nakamori went to Aoko. He laid his hand on her head and held her to him closely.
Then it came.
The ominous news that had blanketed the room came out. She could remember the way Kaito's mother trembled, her voice coming in controlled sobs.
"Your father's dead."
She had seen Kaito stiffen when he heard the news. Mrs. Kuroba had let go of her son and stood up. Aoko craned to get a look at Kaito's face and what she saw gave her shivers.
She had never seen him with that expression. She wasn't sure if it was an expression. His face was set into…nothing. He was impassive, emotionless. Neither anger nor sadness was present, just nothingness. His gaze was empty.
It wasn't something Aoko was used to seeing on Kaito's face. He was usually all smiles and grins. He always laughed. When he was yelled at, he looked guilty or sad. Aoko was used to seeing so many emotions on Kaito's face, in his eyes, that she wondered if the Kaito she was seeing now was the same.
Mrs. Kuroba had gone to talk to the pair of police officers Ginzo assisted her, leaving the two children by themselves.
Aoko went over to Kaito's side and fell completely quiet. Silence had reigned in the room and only the ticking of the mantel clock on top of the fireplace was breaking it. She saw him clenching and unclenching his fists but his face was the same. She wasn't sure if he was angry or sad.
He had stayed like that for most of the afternoon until she left to go home with her father. He hadn't talked to anyone, actually snubbed everyone around him and locked himself in his room. Aoko had felt crestfallen when she tried to comfort him but he shrugged her away.
The next days weren't any better. Kaito was absent from classes that week and that made Aoko worry. On Friday after school, she went to the Kuroba residence to visit him, Mrs. Kuroba opened the door for her looking considerably better than she was last Saturday. Her eyes still had that tiredness but along with it now was some sort of strength she acquired.
"Thank you for coming Aoko, Kaito's up in his room. He's been in there since Sunday. He wouldn't even go down to eat." She had told her, sighing and smiling sadly at the child beside her. "I want to be there for him but I don't think I'm strong enough. I think he needs you Aoko. Can you go up to him?"
Aoko nodded and headed to the stairs, before she started to climb up she turned to the older lady and told her, "I'm sure you're strong enough Mrs. Kuroba. You just need some time to gather your strength."
Aoko knocked at the familiar door before opening it. Inside was quiet. It was dark and gloomy. The curtains were drawn together and the only light was coming from outside through the opening of the door.
"Kaito?" Aoko called, she reached to the walled beside the door and fumbled in the darkness for the light switch. Once she found it she flipped it on, the lights flickered before it lighted.
The lump next to the bed was no doubt her best friend. Aoko crossed the seven steps to the place beside Kaito and sat down.
"Kaito?" she tried but got no response from him. She sighed and waited in silence then tried again..
"How are you feeling?"
Silence. And again.
"What have you been doing up here?"
Silence. And again.
"Your mother said you haven't eaten."
Silence. And again.
"It's not good for you to starve yourself…or to sulk in the dark."
Kaito had remained detached to the world around him and Aoko was starting to get annoyed. She crawled up to face him and she saw the same thing on his face.
Emptiness.
That had effectively extinguished her growing annoyance. She felt the corner of her lips going with gravity and a heavy weight pulling her down. He was so pale and he had bags under his eyes. She returned to her previous place feeling gloomy and more worried about her friend's physical and mental well-being.
"I can understand you Kaito. It hurts and it's confusing."
She had lost her mother too but she guessed it was different. Her mother died when she was still a baby and thus she couldn't remember much about the woman. Nevertheless, that didn't make it any less painful when she grew up wondering why she didn't have a mommy.
"But you have to accept it. You have to move on. It's going to be hard, I know but there will be people there to help you, to sympathize."
Aoko felt her heart constrict. She remembered the first time she went to school. They had an activity were they had to bring their mothers to school. Aoko took the photo of her mother. Everyone was staring at her when she showed them the picture, they asked where her mother was. She had answered them that her mom was in heaven. She was up there somewhere, looking after on her. The children hadn't understood but the adults did.
"Your father wouldn't have wanted you to be like this."
That seemed to have snapped him. Aoko was going to be there for Kaito because he was the one who was always there for her, even if this was a one-chance thing, she would be the one to be there for him.
She just hadn't expected him to grab her wrist and face her full on. She hadn't expected him to yell at her. On the other hand, she hadn't expected him to look so angry.
"He wouldn't want me to be like this? So what? What can he do? He's gone. Wait—he's not just gone, he's dead! Aoko, he's dead. My father's dead! He's not just gone. He's dead. And those people, they think they can sympathize? They don't know what they're talking about! None of them knows. They don't know how much it hurts."
Kaito had started to ramble, tears began to gather at the corner of his eyes and his hands clenched into tight fists, so tight that his knuckles were white.
His control finally snapped.
No more was the emotionless mask, in place was the grief, the disbelief, the pain.
"They don't know how I feel Aoko! Even if they say they do, they don't! I love him, Aoko. I looked up to him. My father, Dad was—was the best…" Kaito hiccupped and angrily rubbed the tears away. "He was the best magician in the world. How could he have died like that? It's—I just can't believe it! I didn't want to say it before…"
Aoko felt tears well up in her eyes too as she scooted closer to Kaito, her arm slung across his shaking shoulders.
"I didn't want to say that he was dead before because maybe…maybe if I didn't say it, if I didn't believe it then it wouldn't be true. Maybe dad would come back. Maybe all they would have said was fake or wrong and then Dad would come back and tell us it was one of his jokes."
Kaito had unconsciously shifted, he was already leaning on Aoko, his head resting on the crook of her neck. She had her arms wrapped around him loosely.
"He didn't. It wasn't a joke. I waited but Dad didn't come back. He's really gone, Aoko. He's not coming back. He's—" Kaito hiccupped and gave a choked sob as he clung onto Aoko for dear life.
"He's dead." The finality of his words struck him and Aoko.
Aoko hugged Kaito closer; she rocked him gently and murmured reassurances to him. She had thought that she could empathize with him when she could only sympathize, his grief was bigger, the pain he was experiencing hurt more than she had thought.
In the course of their friendship, Kaito hadn't cried. He was always the one comforting or cheering up. This, his father's death, had so much impact on him that a dam of tears opened. This knocked down all of his guards, his so-called Poker Face. This made him vulnerable.
"It's going to be okay." She whispered against his forehead as she placed a gentle kiss on it. "I'm here. I won't leave."
Aoko had no idea how long she held Kaito but he had already fallen asleep, so she moved him so that his head rested on her lap when his mother came up to check on them.
She had come to ask her if she wanted to sleepover, Aoko looked at the slumbering Kaito being before nodding her agreement to Mrs. Kuroba.
After a while, Aoko had ended falling asleep too.
She woke up some time in the dark of the night. She was already tucked in bed with Kaito beside her, his head close to her shoulder. She sat up carefully as to not disturb her best friend.
She smiled at the peaceful sleep his seemed to be in, when she saw the bag under his eyes earlier, she had the notion that he wasn't sleeping well.
She sighed and brushed a lock of brown hair away from his eyes. After the pent-up feelings he had released, surely tomorrow he would feel better.
A/n: So how was it? Good? Bad? Should be deleted? No? Yes? I'd love to hear from you! Review! Please and thank you!