Ok, so I know I said that the next chapter I'd be posting would be chapter 15 for Parent Worries, but I've had the idea for this fic circling around in my head for a year now and decided that I needed to post it in honor and celebration of my favorite Gosho Boy - Hakuba Saguru's birthday, which is today: August 29! I hope you enjoy! :)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAGURU HAKUBA!
Chapter 1: It Started Like Any Other Day
Saguru groaned tiredly as he plopped down face first into the merciful softness that was his bed. Gods tonight had sucked. The Kaitou Kid had had way too much fun running him and the Task Force around in circles on the night's heist. He was sore all over from all the running and quick maneuvering he'd had to do. He didn't want to move even if it meant suffocating with his face pressed into the pillows. Nope. He wasn't moving for anything.
"…Daddy?"
…Except for her.
Saguru held back another groan as he levered himself up onto his elbows and looked over towards the cracked open door where his four year old daughter Annabeth Itoshii* Hakuba was peeking into his room.
"What is it, Princess?" he asked.
The little girl slipped into the room and shut the door behind her without a sound before she scurried over to join him on the bed.
"I heard you come home," she smiled.
"It's almost midnight. You're supposed to be asleep," Saguru reprimanded sternly, but gathered her up in his arms all the same before plopping back down onto the bed on his back. His little girl giggled as she squirmed in his embrace so that she could lie down on top of him on her stomach.
"But your school starts earlier than mine does, Daddy," she pouted – or tired to. Her lips kept twitching into a smile.
"Yes, but little munchkins need their sleep more than grumpy teenagers do," Saguru sighed. "I can at least drink coffee to stay awake."
"But we get naps in Youchien (kindergarten). High Schoolers don't," she grinned.
"All right, Wise Girl, you asked for it," Saguru growled, rolling them over so that he could pin her better while he tickled her.
His little girl burst into a fit of giggles as she tried to wiggle out of his grasp.
"D-D-Daddy! Stop i-i-it!" she squealed. "I'll go to b-b-bed! I-I-I promise!"
Saguru chuckled as he stopped tickling her and rolled them back over with a heavy sigh.
"Long heist?" she asked.
"Yup," he nodded, popping the 'p' and making her giggle again.
"Daddy should get dressed for bed," she nodded, working his tie loose and slipping it off. "Baaya-obaasan says it's bad for you to sleep in a suit. Ojiisan will be mad too."
Saguru sighed again, but sat up and began unbuttoning his shirt. While he undressed, he watched his little girl slide off the bed and scurry over to his dresser. She pulled over his desk chair and used it to reach the second to top drawer where he kept his nightwear. A couple minutes later he was stripped down to only his boxer shorts and she was skipping back with a pair of sweatpants and an old T-shirt for him to wear.
"Thanks, Annie," he sighed as he slipped on the articles of clothing.
Once he was properly dressed for the night, he plopped back down on the bed hard enough to bounce the little girl into the air. She giggled again before climbing back on top of him as he pulled up the sheets.
"Goodnight, Daddy," she yawned as she snuggled close.
"Goodnight, sweetie," he smiled, falling asleep a minute later.
The next morning Saguru got himself up, easing carefully out of bed to allow his daughter a few more minutes of sleep before she had to get up for Youchien. He quickly showered, got dressed in his gakuran uniform, and was on his third cup of coffee with breakfast ready before heading back to his room to wake Annie. His little girl grumbled in protest, but woke up when he told her he made pancakes with Mickey Mouse ears. She practically flew from the bed with glee, racing downstairs to eat. He followed at a more sedate pace, marveling at her energy.
After breakfast Annie went back upstairs to get ready and dressed in her own school uniform while Saguru put together lunch bentos and made sure he had everything for both of them packed and ready for school. Just as he finished packing their bags, Annie jumped down the last couple of steps and hurried to his side with a hairbrush and hair tie.
"Daddy! Can you do my hair? Please?!"
Saguru glanced at his pocket watch before nodding. They had a couple minutes to spare.
"How do you want it?" he asked.
"I want a braid! Like Queen Elsa's!" Annie grinned, hopping on the tips of her toes.
"All right, settle down."
"Yay!"
Saguru sat her up high on the counter so that he wouldn't have to bend over. She stilled instantly when he began to brush her hair. It was a brighter and more golden shade of blonde than his dark tea-blond hair. He hadn't known how to braid hair when Annie had been born. When she'd gotten old enough to start asking if he could braid her hair, he'd been horrible at it until one of his neighbors back in England had taken pity on him and showed him how to do it better and how to do an assortment of hairstyles and braids (she'd been a hairstylist). He'd practiced the different styles on Annie's dolls before doing it on her. Now doing his daughter's hair came naturally and didn't take long for him to do unless he got fancy with the style or something. Thankfully the braid Annie wanted this morning wasn't that difficult and he was done in 2.56 minutes. He even slipped a few snowflake clips into her hair from the miscellaneous drawer in the kitchen island. He'd been meaning to transfer them to the upstairs bathroom where the rest of Annie's hair stuff should have been, but a lot of these little things kept finding their way into the drawer and left there. This morning he was grateful that he'd forgotten. It really couldn't be a true Elsa braid without the little snowflakes.
"Done," he announced, tossing the end of the braid over his daughter's shoulder. "Let's go."
Annie giggled in delight, hopping off the counter and dashed towards the front entry where they put on their shoes. Saguru walked her a couple of doors down to one of Annie's schoolmate's. The Yagami family was very nice to allow Annie to stay with them most mornings and gave her a ride to Youchien with their own daughter, Hikari.
Few knew this, but Saguru Hakuba and his daughter didn't live in the Hakuba mansion in the upper class neighborhoods of Ekoda. Rather, they lived in a simple two-story, four-unit townhouse closer to the local businesses. Saguru often wondered what his classmates, Nakamori Aoko and Kuroba Kaito would think if they knew that Saguru actually lived only a few blocks away from them, instead of on the other side of Ekoda prefecture.
"Ohayou, Saguru-kun," Mrs. Yagami greeted him as she opened her door and allowed Annie inside.
"Ohayou," Saguru said, bowing back. "Thank you for taking care of Annie again this morning."
"It's no bother. Annie-chan and Hikari get along so well," Mrs. Yagami said, looking fondly over at the two girls as they squealed and giggled over something. "Would you like to come inside for a cup of tea?"
"I'm afraid I have to get to school," Saguru said, smiling politely back. "Thank you again."
Mrs. Yagami nodded and shut the door behind her after Saguru left her front stoop.
It was a 15.34-minute walk to Ekoda High and Saguru took his seat in the far back right corner of his homeroom classroom next to the windows, pulling out a book to read while waiting for class to start. Not long after he sat down, Aoko and Kuroba entered the room with their usual boisterous laughter and yelling.
"Kid did it again!" Kuroba was crowing.
"Tou-san will get him next time!" Aoko scowled. "Just you wait! That thief will be caught yet! Won't he, Hakuba-kun?"
Saguru glanced up from his newspaper and smiled amiably. He really doubted it these days. Even though he hadn't lost interest in chasing the Moonlight Magician, catching Kid was no longer something he really considered a priority. Kid had been an excuse to come to Japan. He was an enigma and Saguru would always want to try to solve his puzzles and tricks, but he had no real desire to catch a thief that wasn't really hurting anyone (that and Annie was a big fan of Kid's). It had been Spider that he'd really been keen on catching when he'd arrived in Japan over a year ago. He'd known who Spider was, but hadn't had any proof against Gunter Von Goldberg II. With Kuroba, he had at least been able to figure out enough of a motive and some of the reasons as to why his classmate had become a thief, but Goldberg had been a complete mystery. A dangerous mystery.
When Saguru had assisted Kid and two of his fellow detectives – Hattori Heiji and Kudo Shinichi – in taking down the criminal organization that Spider had belonged to, he'd gotten most of his answers. Kid was only still active today because he hadn't found the jewel he was looking for. Hakuba doubted that Pandora really existed, but knew that if it did, it was better if Kid were the one to find and destroy it. So while he still chased Kid, knowing the thief's motives and reasons behind it, he didn't feel so bad in letting Kuroba be the one that got away each time. Heists were more of a stress release and fun puzzles for him to solve these days.
"Hakuba-kun?"
"Ah, apologies," Saguru smiled tiredly up at Aoko. "I must still be tired from last night's heist."
Aoko stared at him worriedly, while Kuroba hid a yawn behind her back.
"I'm sure we'll get him next time, Aoko-san," Saguru told her.
Aoko beamed before taking her seat two rows in front of him. Kuroba took the seat between them. The cheeky bastard had the gall to actually wink conspiratorially at him when Aoko wasn't looking.
The morning went by as it usually did and after school was over, Saguru allowed himself to be dragged along by Aoko to a café she wanted him and Kuroba to try out. It was an English style café and had good tea. Saguru made a mental note to bring Annie with him there some time. They were going their separate ways, Saguru crossing the street to take a roundabout way home, when he heard the squeal of tires and felt himself get knocked over by somebody. He landed in a tangle of limbs by the curb with that someone while a car shot by, dangerously close to where he now lay.
"Hakuba-kun! Kaito!" he heard Aoko scream.
Saguru grunted before sitting himself up and found that it had been Kuroba that had knocked him out of the path of the car.
"Are you ok?" Kuroba asked, jumping to his feet and stared after the car with narrowed eyes.
"A bit sore, bruised and scraped up, but I'll live," Saguru grunted as he stood.
"Aoko, did you happen to catch the license plate number?" Kuroba asked Aoko after she hurried across the street when it was safe to cross. A sizable crowd had gathered by then, asking Saguru and Kuroba if they were all right.
"No, I didn't. Sorry," Aoko said, looking shaken.
"Aoko! Kaito-kun! Hakuba-kun!"
The trio looked up in time to see Inspector Nakamori Ginzo running up to them.
"What happened?" the Inspector demanded when he got close enough.
"Someone tried to make Hakuba a street pizza," Kuroba told him.
It was an hour before an incident report was filed and security footage from a nearby ATM captured the car that had nearly ran Saguru over on camera. The car had been reported stolen earlier that same day and was later found abandoned a few blocks away. Division Two's forensics team was going over it, but the car had been wiped down and cleaned out.
Saguru returned home to his daughter shaken, but put on a brave face and made her favorite meal: spaghetti and meatballs.
The next day was a Saturday and it was his birthday, but Saguru found himself getting involved in a case in Beika while running errands in preparation for spending the night with his little girl. He should have just let it be for once, but the case hit a little too close to home for him to simply walk away.
It was obviously a legitimate case of self-defense on the killer's part, but no one could get the poor young woman to talk and give her statement. Most were saying she was in shock. The man she'd killed was an ex-boyfriend that had raped her after she broke up with him two months previously. He'd confronted her in her apartment in the early afternoon, but she'd been prepared to defend herself this time and had armed herself with a knife from her kitchen.
Saguru wasn't surprised to see that Kudo was on the scene already with Hattori in tow. It made sense that the Osakan was there due to the next week being a vacation week. Those two were trouble magnets on their own, but together odds of running into a case increased exponentially. If Saguru were ever bored enough, he was sure that he could create a formula that would be able to predict the probability of the two detectives running into cases together. They had probably been at the bakery downstairs that the woman owned. Neither detective had been successful in getting her to talk, but as far as the police were concerned, the case was solved. Even without her statement, it was clearly self-defense. All that was going on right now was the clean up.
Saguru looked over at the woman – a Miss Fuji Mai – who looked to be in her mid-twenties and went to sit next to her on her couch. She cast him a vacant glance before staring at the carpet again.
"I'm sorry for what has happened to you," Saguru said, "but I doubt anything that the others or I say will make you feel any better right now."
"…No," she whispered. "It won't. None of you can possibly know what I'm going through."
"Most here probably can't. But I at least can sympathize."
"Oh?" She shot him a barely curious glance.
"You still feel him, don't you?" Saguru asked. "His touch. The pain he caused. That feeling of helplessness and being dirty. Broken. Of being used. Like he's still inside you. That you'll never wash away his scent or his touch from your skin no matter how hard or how many times your scrub your body until your skin is raw."
"…Were you…?" she asked, eyes wide and looking him over anew, probably noting how much younger he was than her.
"Yeah. …I was twelve." Saguru said softly, looking over the scene and noting that Kudo and Hattori were watching them with a mixture of suspicion and curiosity now that the woman was talking.
"Twelve," Miss Fuji breathed. "…I'm sorry. Now I just kind of feel pathetic."
"Don't do that to yourself," Saguru said softly. "The circumstances and our experiences are different and shouldn't be compared. Neither of our assaults are worse or less painful than the other. Sure, I was young, but you… you're pregnant, aren't you?"
She nodded. "How'd you know?"
"You are cradling your stomach protectively in an unconscious gesture and look as if you've been sick recently. There's a trace of vomit on the cuff of your shirtsleeve from where you wiped your mouth. No vomit was found on the scene in the vicinity of your kitchen and you haven't wandered off to use the bathroom, so I can only assume that it got there after a bout of morning sickness shortly before he attacked you."
She nodded again.
"It's his, isn't it?" Saguru asked after a moment of silence.
"…Yes."
"Are you going to keep the child?"
"I… don't know."
"You are afraid that they are going to turn out like him."
She nodded again.
"I'm sure that if you raise the child right, they won't. Mine hasn't so far."
"…Yours?" She stared at him with wide eyes again.
"She'll be five next month." Saguru smiled. "Her name is Annabeth, but I call her Annie. And she is nothing like the woman who gave birth to her."
"And you were only twelve?" she asked.
"I was thirteen by the time she was born. I just turned eighteen today."
"…Happy Birthday."
"Thank you."
They sat quietly for a moment longer, watching the police file out with the last of the evidence bags.
"It really will help to talk about it, you know," Saguru told her, handing her a few cards from his wallet. "I know a few people that you can talk to if you need it. The top card is for a psychologist I still see on occasion. She was once a rape victim too, so she'll understand what you're going through. The second card is for a Kisaki Eri-san who is a very good defense lawyer, if you need one for court. Just tell her I sent you. We've worked a few domestic cases together."
"And this last one?" she asked, taking and flipping over the third card he'd given her.
"That has my contact information. If you ever need to see a friendly face or just want to talk, give me a call. You don't have to be alone in this." Saguru smiled at her one last time before getting up and walking away.
"…Thank you!" she called after him, and then waved over to the nearest police officer – Sato Miwako-keiji – and informed her that she was ready to give her statement.
Saguru nodded, walking past a bewildered looking Kudo and Hattori.
"Oi! Hakuba!" Hattori shouted after him. "What'd ya say ta her ta get her ta talk?"
"Not much," Saguru admitted. "I merely told her that she's not alone in what happened to her."
"Alone in what?" Kudo frowned, but Saguru merely waved them off and left.
When he got home he pulled his little girl into a hug and simply held her. She remained quiet, hugging him back without question.
"What do you want to watch tonight, Princess?" Saguru asked her after pulling away.
"Frozen!" she cried, bouncing excitedly, her twin braids – like Princess Anna's this time – bouncing off her shoulders.
Saguru smiled, patted her head, and put in his daughter's most recent favorite Disney movie, humming along with the Frozen Heart song as he prepared dinner from the kitchen.
And that's chapter one. Did anyone catch the hidden cameo characters? I tried not to make it obvious, but did anyone realize that I slipped the Yagami family (Kamiya in the English Dub) from Digimon Adventure/02 in here? If not, no biggie, if so, SWEET! See! I wrote some Digimon! XD
I haven't decided if I want this to be an eventual KaiHaku fic or a KaiHakuAo threesome fic. I'm kinda leaning more towards the later, but I haven't decided. Let me know what you guys think. Please leave a comment in a review or PM and let me know if you'd like to read more. :)
And FYI, *Itoshii (Annabeth's middle name) means lovely; dear; beloved; darling.