Candy Corn

Disclaimer: Magic Kaito belongs to Gosho Aoyama. Not mine.

"Hakuba-kun."

And the fair-haired detective startled, almost colliding head-on with a tree in his haste to react. Silently berating himself for the blatant loss of self-composure, Hakuba Saguru turned, almost with a vengeance, the trauma of yesterday still fresh in his mind, and was on the verge of snarling back a retort when he met two of the biggest, brightest, and bluer-than-blue eyes he had ever seen.

His instinctive reaction was to drop everything and run. Then his eyes (in the next millisecond) swept over the hem of the navy blue skirt, the gently rustled brown hair, and eventually settled on the familiar, slightly childish arc of her face.

The snarl gone and immediately swapped for an innocuous smile, the British detective tilted his head amiably,

"Good morning, Aoko-kun."

A gust of cool October wind breezed by, swirling the crisp puddles of brown, yellow, and red into pillars by their feet. Nakamori Aoko beamed, her innocently open face lit up by a million fragments of light, shattered by the scarce foliage waving lazily in the pallid sun. For a moment Hakuba felt lost - drowned in her deep blue pools of eyes. He had always been on friendly terms with the girl - perhaps not as close as she and that monkey Kuroba, but friends, nevertheless. But he had never noticed (not that he had given much thought in that area in the first place) that Aoko had a sort of subtle charm to her that was endearing in its innocence and...

Around them, students of Ekoda high passed by, some hurrying along while others strolled, chatting lively about anything and everything in their wake. Hakuba blinked, the distant sounds of their surroundings clicking in once more.

For a second Aoko looked a little confused, then her face broke into a cheerful smile once more. Sheepishly tucking a fallen chocolate lock behind her ear, the schoolgirl edged a step closer to the blonde, "I hope I didn't startle you, Hakuba-kun," she apologized, a hint of worry in her voice.

"No, of course not," he dismissed, perhaps a heartbeat too hasty. He winced inwardly. What was the matter with him today?

Aoko grinned. "Oh, great. For a second there you looked as if you had seen a ghost." Her eyebrows crinkled. "I hope it's not from yester-"

"I'm perfectly fine, Aoko-kun," he interrupted, now with an edge to his voice. Aoko looked taken aback. Then, instantly regretting his curtness, he apologized, "I'm sorry, Aoko-kun, I didn't mean to snap."

Aoko's face bloomed into a bright smile once more. "It's all right," she chirped happily. "I know Hakuba-kun is a good guy."

Hakuba didn't know what to expect from that. Aoko took another step forward and, to his surprise, reached into his hair and plucked something from the golden trusses. Bewildered, he felt her nimble fingers lingered in his hair for a moment before holding up a crinkled leaf. "Something in your hair," the officer's daughter grinned, letting the crimson leaf drift away with the wind.

"Thank you." For a second he was at a loss for words. Still beaming, Aoko gave his elbow a little tug before skipping off toward the general direction of the school. He followed, feeling an unfamiliar sensation tinting his cheeks.

Aoko was sort of bouncing on the sidewalk, leading by a few paces ahead, but he quickly caught up with his longer strides. A few strange looks were tossed their way. Conversation faded to a deliberate din. Feeling slightly out of place, he turned toward the jocular girl by his side, "Aoko-kun, I thought Kuroba-kun usually accompanies you to school?"

At the sound of his name, Aoko did a little "uumph" with her nose. "That idiot? Not after what happened yesterday." She cast a sideway glance his way and stifled a small chuckle. "Hakuba-kun?"

"Yes?"

"You're blushing."

Was he? His hand quickly shot up his face. His cheeks were feeling unusually warm.... and getting warmer.

What the hell was happening?

"Kuroba-kun's childish tactics are lost on me," he said coolly. There was a subtle crack to his usually smooth, calm voice.

Aoko crossed her arms, her eyebrows creasing into a knot. "Well, I think it was terrible what Kaito did! He's such an idiot – always doing stupid things to get attention. But don't take it personally. He does that to everyone – one time he made all the girls' gym shorts disappear so we all had to wear school skirts to play tennis." Aoko sighed deeply. But Hakuba detected no real anger in her voice. There was even a hint of... nostalgia?

Even that didn't prove the bond of childhood friendship excuses everything, Hakuba didn't know what does.

"Well, there certainly wouldn't a repeat performance of yesterday."

Aoko's smile wavered slightly. "Oh, really?"

"Absolutely. And there's no need to apologize for that unrefined buffoon," he said firmly. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he willed the wild-haired girl NOT to recall the out-of-character high-pitched screaming, the (failed) hurdling over desks, and the pathetic attempts at Kaito-murdering that occurred yesterday, which had probably single-handedly cost him half of his Hakuba fan club in that thirty-minute chase in the hallway. (Damn the thief and his agile limbs!) The chase had came to an abrupt end as he tripped down a flight of stairs and crashed right into the girls' changing room, giving them a premium view of his newly dyed pink –

Shut up, Hakuba, he silently reminded himself.

"Well, he's really not that bad," Aoko said defiantly. "He's actually a good guy, you know, deep inside. He just likes playing pranks."

He felt the corners of his mouth twitch. "The man poofed away my pants and dyed my... well, you saw."

Aoko stifled a snicker. "Well… it was pretty funny - " then, seeing the look on Hakuba's face, she hastily burst into a coughing fit. "Ahem- hem, I- I meant - it was totally uncalled for. Stupid thing to do, definitely. Uh-huh."

They had reached the school's main entrance. Aoko suddenly jumped. "Oh, gosh, that's Keiko - better run! Talk to you later!" Without even bothering to wave goodbye, the wild-haired girl practically tore through the doors and fled into the bustling crowd, her dark brown vanishing in a sea of heads a second later.

Hakuba frowned. He hadn't spotted the pig-tailed girl in sight. Shrugging it off, he was about to head toward the staircase when something - or someone - rammed right into him, hard. Feeling as if his spine might have just broken into two, the British detective turned, this time more than annoyed -

Shock.

"Oh, I - I'm so sorry - Hakuba-kun!"

"Aoko-kun?"

He blinked back surprise. Aoko was dressed in a grey, simple tracksuit, cheeks red and looking out of breath. Her sleeves were rolled up, and in one hand rested a heavy-duty mop. "I didn't see where I was going - I thought I saw Kaito for a minute... that idiot took my uniform - you wouldn't happen to see... him..." her voice, which had been rattling angry words like a machine-gun firing, soon trailed off. Her blue eyes widened; Hakuba saw them tilt up. "Oh, Hakuba-kun," she breathed.

"What happened to your hair?"

And he didn't even bother to reach up, simple as the action would be, and run his fingers through his hair to check this time. Because he was a detective - duped as he may be that morning - and as a detective he had spotted - seen the crinkled leaf Aoko plucked forth with his hair - the leaf that wasn't exactly the right shade of red - rather, a deep crimson-purple that one would have associated more closely with... magenta.

And so he didn't even bother to swear - neither in a gentlemen nor a sailor's way - didn't even bother to plot out how the elusive thief had duped and escaped him this time - instead, he turned to the Inspector's daughter, and asked - in a voice so soft and light they might as well had been conversing over a candlelit dinner,

"Aoko-kun... that mop of yours, I don't suppose you have one to spare?"

a/n: Just a short drabble of Kaito/Hakuba/(sort of) Aoko. Halloween's coming up and I just thought - hmm... what would Kaito do when the holiday of mischief rolls around? Anyways, reviews are much appreciated, as always! ^^