A/N: Short, even for a drabble. Kid's musings. Character-building/profiling for another story I'm in the midst of writing, even if it was intended to be more about Conan than Hakuba. He kind of hijacked my brain. As such, there might be KidHaku if you squint reallllly hard. Reviews always appreciated.
Madness is about leaping through holes and rifts in the realm of the mind, and genius is about making it translate to those less nimble. He wasn't quite a parallel kind of thinker. His world shook and moved in violent lurches, and if it ever stood too still for far too long, he would flee to somewhere else, and render chaos in his wake.
It's how he coped with the terrifying, binding, and straight path of the logical. How could anyone find happiness in such a dreadful and permanent way? The feeling was ephemeral at best, and as nonconformist as anything. His was just one human-shaped mirror to the color he saw splashing against his mental walls. Of course, he was obligated to share for those unable to so easily chase that shadow.
Setting aside madhouse hunts for mystical jewels, this was the crazy kind of unexpected, flamboyant act that was right up his alley. His father was amazing to do such a thing first. Even as a distant shade of a ghost, he felt the man guiding his hand haphazardly through life, and he felt nothing but immensely grateful. Confetti always seemed to be falling around him in shimmering waterfalls, and without hesitation, he dove into those multicolored waters time and time again.
But some, it seemed, just could not take the metaphorical plunge, even if they were well within mental capacity to do so.
One prime example stood before him, in a prim, argyle-patterned fashion disaster, in distinct homage to a non-existent idol of logic. It wasn't so much that the person lived by a model form of shrewd logic and calculation, it was that this person was able to very nearly catch up to his agile flips and mental gymnastics without so much as a few nanosecond's pause, navigating complex mental webs and mazes with alarming speed. His self-prided mad genius was toe-to-toe with the cold precision of a detective.
Rather, it seemed he had more than one hot on his heels, but he had a sneaking suspicion the seven-year old was more mad than he led others to believe, for his was a familiar kind of shocking and unpredictable flavor that belied not only his apparent age, but lent itself to pre-forged shortcuts, with neat little logical bridges sewn between the cracks. This was how he felt, if he had an inclination to ever try backtracking.
No. No safety harnesses for him. Those gaps determined everything in the end.
The blond however, was a persistent and assertive sort who, without fail, always kept his feet on the ground. Very proper in all the wrong ways.
He could feel the crystalline burn of the straight-laced cut close-by every damn time. So, of course, being as down-right terrified of the possibility of things actually making sense as he was, he did the appropriate thing, and made friends with the insistent bastard.
He wouldn't identify it as masochism. More… Contrary for contrary's sake. Well. That made a little more sense. Or not. More fractured and golden-hued. Yes. That was it. It glowed. Ephemerally. He would chase that bobbing, shimmering gold flicker through whatever murky waters his mind might have devised for him. Because he was a thief, and he liked sparkly things. Even if said golden-hued sparkles sizzled and burned tracks over his colorful and disarranged mental landscape. If he chased its tail, the head would circle around on him, and create chaos as he bit his own ass. That would be amusing to watch. It would be like defeating himself at his own game. Yes, that definitely sounded fun.
How close could he get to Hakuba Saguru before his wings melted?
Slipping his carefree slice of a grin back comfortably over his features he leered, just as curious and anticipatory as the next for what would happen next. Now, how would his show proceed tonight? Let's play, Tantei-san.
And after an impressive display of physical gymnastics that could rival that of his mind, Kaitou Kid called out with a clear and booming voice. "Ladies and Gentlemen! Welcome!"