Sunshine
He didn't care for the existence of immortality, or the story of how Beauty changed the heart of the Beast. But he met her, and saw her smile that was similar to a ray of sunshine. And for that cause, he decided to believe in Happily Ever Afters.
His father promised him they would get some ice cream together after he'd finished doing his errands. Kaito didn't like waiting, but he liked ice cream, and so he obliged and stayed near the large clock tower in the middle of a busy afternoon alone and watched the people strolled by.
Chatters, faint horns and clacking of shoes echoed in his head. The life in town was busy and everything and everyone was constantly moving, except for this petite looking girl with dejected eyes that Kaito wasn't familiar to see. People was rarely sad around him when his father always had magic tricks to make their mood better.
Without thinking much, he skipped across the pavement, dodging a couple of surprised passers-by and appeared to her side.
In his vague memory, all Kaito recalled was asking something along the lines of why she was sad, pulled out a rose and introduced himself. He didn't have the amazing brain capability to exactly know what else he said, or what her response was after so many years, but he distinctly remembered the way her curled down lips turned into a smile that shone brighter than the sun.
He never knew his simple magic trick could ever create something so beautiful like that.
.o.
Kaito liked to be alone. But he liked it better when his father was with him.
Two months after his father's death, he was sitting on a lone swing located at the very corner of the neighbourhood, where parents didn't allow their kids to go because of how isolated it was. But the emptiness and quietness was exactly the reason why it made him like this playground more than others. And so, he lied to his mother with a smile that he would be playing with his friends, just because he didn't want to be at home.
But somehow, Aoko found him.
She tried pushing him off the swing, telling him that he should go home before it got too dark. He refused with silence, until he was too fed up.
"Can you leave me alone? Didn't you lost your mother? You should understand how I feel."
From the flash in Aoko's eyes, he knew that was a low blow. But he was too sad and tired to care. He didn't have the energy to make an effort to apologize, even when his father once told him to never bully girls. Screw that. His father wasn't around anymore. Nothing mattered.
But her anger never came. Instead of crying or shouting like what she always do when she was angry, she squatted a few feet away before Kaito and started building a mountain on the sandy playground. His curiosity piqued and he watched her quietly, the swings creaked occasionally.
After she was done, she gave the brightest smile that made him cringe a little, similar to how he reacted when he suddenly stepped out of his shady house and stood under the sun. One of her feet gave a mighty kick and the entire mountain of sand was destroyed.
"What are you doing?"
"When I'm sad about my mother, I'll do this. It makes me better!" She began building her mountain again. "You should try it too."
"That's stupid."
"No it's not. You didn't even try."
"You'll get sand in your shoes."
"But it's fun. And it makes me happy."
It was always easy to make Aoko happy. Just give her a cheap chocolate and she would smile just as sweet as the amount of sugar the chocolate contained. But he wasn't simple like her, so easy to be pleased. As if kicking some stupid sand could-
Aoko pulled him down with enough force to make him fall forward in surprise, causing him to land on the sandy pit on all fours. He growled and stood up quickly to chase after her around the playground.
The kicking-sand technique was long forgotten. The sadness he felt for missing his father was temporarily forgotten. But even after so many years, Kuroba Kaito could never forget the way her smile erupted into laughter.
Sun had set and dusk had fallen. But instead of chasing after shooting stars and the bright round moon, he chased after his sunshine.
.o.
Eating was a necessity to live. That was what Kaito realized after fainting in school once because he had forgotten to eat for the entire day. It wasn't like he could whip up a good meal in two second. His magic had its limits.
After Aoko found out about his unnatural eating habits, she made him come to her house every single night for dinner, and she wouldn't take no for an answer. He only bailed himself out on his heists' nights by claiming he wanted to go to Jii's bar to watch the show on the big screen. She let him quite easily for that simple excuse, and Kaito only realized why when his alter ego finally crossed path with the Inspector's feisty daughter one fateful night.
Today was one of the nights Kaito would come for dinner. Inspector Nakamori was still busy finishing up the report for yesterday's heist so he should be expecting some of his favourite dishes today. Aoko always made it fair to make sure the food she made fit to their taste alternatively.
Her house door was always unlocked for him to enter, but the creaking sound often gave his appearance away, something Kaito found it boring. So instead of getting in from her bedroom balcony, which was what he did the previous time, he tried another method and climbed through the living room's window and stepped in quietly.
Kaito sniffed the air, smiling at the fact that he wouldn't be eating burnt meat from scrapped metal and tiptoed his way past the living room. Aoko's back was facing him, the sound of knife chopping against a wooden board and her favourite humming tune filled the kitchen.
Stealthily, he approached towards her and playfully tugged at the hairband she always used while she was cooking. Her brown hair gracefully tumbled down, covering her nape and her back. He always preferred seeing her messy locks.
But what he liked even better was when she turned her head with an angry scowl, about to demand who the hell just messed up my hair! (Although seriously, who else but him could have done it?) He would then see the same surprised face, blue eyes widening and a little blush tinting her cheeks, as if this was the first time she met him. And then everything disappeared, to be replaced by her big, bright smile.
He couldn't help but to smile with her.
"Yo."
"Bakaito."
.o.
Kaitou Kid was holding onto a gem, but it wasn't Pandora, the thing Snake always wanted.
Snake was holding onto a hostage, and it was Nakamori Aoko, the person that he couldn't lose.
"Release the girl, and I'll give you the gem." He muttered, showing the diamond lying safely on the palm of his hand. They didn't know he had checked, but that wasn't important. It would be better if they believe it could be Pandora, and they would just let her go-
"You give me the gem, and I'll release the girl." Snake jabbed the barrel of the pistol in Aoko's temple and she winced, tears continuously pouring down her face.
He obliged instantly and placed the hard stone onto the floor and give a swift kick. Snake's men then scrambled over to take the diamond, but it was also the moment when the roof door flung open and dozens of policemen rushed in with guns in their hands.
Gunshots began firing without any aim.
Everything happened too hectically and fast, almost impossible for even the almighty Kaitou Kid to catch with his eyes. Red began pooling on his arm, and his hat toppled to the ground. There was a lot of red, but it wasn't just from his white suit.
Snake fell. Aoko fell. Inspector Nakamori was screaming. Kaitou Kid couldn't breathe.
He felt his back hit the cold hard ground, his face staring into the black vast emptiness above him. He had been too busy all these while to care, but now, he could finally appreciate the beautiful white snow littering from the sky, a resemblance to his own tears that were frozen because it had been kept inside his cold and empty heart.
Wait. Why would he be crying?
Then he felt himself being pulled away. It was Jii. Jii was calling out for him.
The world turned black.
.o.
Kaito woke up and was welcomed by a pain in his arm. It wouldn't have hurt so much if he didn't abruptly jolt himself out of bed with sweat drenching his entire head. He gradually closed his eyes and rested his face into the palm of a hand, trying to collect his composure. It was a typical routine he had been going through ever since he became Kaitou Kid, and he would wake up just fine and proceed to live his life like every other day. It had always been like this, and today was not going to be any different.
So it's just another nightmare. Thank God-
"Kaito-botchama! You're finally awake!"
His eyes flung open, entire body froze. Wasn't this his bedroom? Why was Jii's voice here? He slowly turned his head to the old man who was looking down at him with a happy and teary gaze. His vision then focused on the surroundings behind Jii, and then his right, his left, his front, his back.
This wasn't his bedroom.
Why was he in the hospital?
"Jii-chan." He muttered, eyes lowered to the sheets over his feet. He wasn't satisfied with his own answer. Or simply put, he didn't want to believe what he was seeing. "Where am I?"
"In the hospital." Jii spoke in a heavy tone.
If this wasn't a nightmare...
Kaito raised his head and stared at the blank wall in front of his bed. "Where's Aoko?"
"Hold on, I'll go and get a doct-"
"Where's. Aoko." He turned and their eyes met. Jii no longer held the eyes of a relief man. Kaito recognized those eyes. It was the same kind of eyes he saw in the mirror every night, ones that were hollow despite all the secrets that were kept and hidden behind.
"Kaito-botchama..."
He grabbed onto Jii's shirt and tugged them down. The old man stood firmly on his feet even with Kaito's strength. "Please. Tell me. Where's she? She must have been hurt, but she's alright. Where is her ward? I need to go and see-"
"Too much... blood loss..." Jii shut his eyes and looked away. "I'm so sorry Kaito-botchama. Everyone tried. Everyone did their part to save her."
No.
Kaito didn't do his part to save her. He didn't even have the chance to try. All he did was to dumbly watch her struggle under Snake's grip, watch her fall, watch her...
"You're kidding me." He laughed, his arms fell lifelessly to his side. "This is a prank, right? Aoko must have set this up because she wants to make a fool out of me. What a joke. This is too much. She's going to get it from me after this."
Jii let him finished his rambles before he quietly spoke again. "Aoko-san is really dead, Kaito-botchama."
No... It should be just a nightmare...
Numbness began crawling all over his feet and legs and his hands shot up to his chest. His breathing slowly became deeper and rapid until he looked like he was out of breath, even though he was taking in much more air than normal.
Heavy panting, heavy eyelids...
Kaito collapsed back onto the bed, body curled into a ball as he continued to hyperventilate. He didn't hear Jii's concerned shouts and the door frantically being pushed open. He didn't hear the sound of fast footsteps and the doctors trying to call out to him. He didn't hear anything. He couldn't feel anything. He could only see the pool of redness in the snow.
And he just wanted to die.
.o.
Everyone was present at the funeral, except for Kaito.
He wasn't going to join the massive echoes of weeping and mourning. And even if Aoko's body was in the casket, she was not there. Her rambling chatters, her sunshine smile, her eccentric antics... She was not there.
The only place that would remind him of her true presence was her bedroom. Kaito did ask Inspector Nakamori's permission before he went. He had taken everything away from the poor man, this was the least he could do out of respect.
Kaito couldn't describe the smell of her bedroom, but it was just the Aoko smell, the smell he was so comfortable in. He came through the door and the first thing he did was to sit on the edge of the neat bed, his fingers dug deep into the sheets. He closed his eyes, remembering those times when Aoko laid on her tummy on her bed, her hand flipping through some childish magazine. She would talk about her horoscope and do the quizzes that described her personality. He always told her how stupid it was, and she would stick out her tongue and ask him to take the quiz too. He bluntly refused.
If he was given a chance again, he would've took the magazine away and told her all the little traits he knew and loved about her. There wasn't a need for some shit crappy chunks of paragraphs to determine who she was. She was Aoko. Nakamori Aoko. The one he loved. The one who was always by his side no matter what.
But when he opened his eyes, she wasn't there.
His eyes moved away and to a flashy looking calendar hanging on the wall before her desk, many plans already filled in each little rectangular boxes for almost every day of the month. He approached the desk, fingers smoothing around the corners until he spotted a new calendar for the next year on the table, all prepared to be used after December ended. It was clean. And probably forever would be.
He pinned his fist onto the wall. His whole arm hurts. His head hurts. His heart hurts.
Why was everything so painful?
His legs gave way as he slumped onto the bedroom floor, back hunched over. Why couldn't he run faster? Why couldn't he handle the situation in another way? Why couldn't he save Aoko? Why? Why? There was so many whys running through his head, but there wasn't any answer. He didn't know how to deal with this pain. He didn't train himself for it. He didn't sign up as Kaitou Kid for this. He didn't want it. He didn't want this.
A paper bag placed by her desk suddenly toppled onto his foot and he glanced up, ghastly eyes staring at the content that spilled out. He shifted himself closer and picked up the two knitted gloves on the floor. The patterns and weird swirls on the gloves were used with the worst colour combination threads he had ever seen.
There was a card too.
Merry Christmas Kaito!
Hope you'll like these ugly gloves.
She was right.
It was really ugly.
And hell, he must have been crazy to love it, to the point where he began choking onto his tears that rolled down his cheeks. It was as though a dam finally broken behind his pathetic facade, and not once had he suspected there would be so much water behind the wall.
And there he sat on the cold floor, crying into the pair of gloves till the sun sets and everything in the room turned dark. He had already lost his sunshine a few days ago, so there wasn't any difference anyway.
.o.
Kuroba Kaito sets the monocle on his eye and gazed at the lights of the building from a tall roof just south of the Touto tower. Years after Aoko's death, he still hadn't found Pandora, or brought the entire criminal organization to justice. His heart had died long ago to think about revenge. He just wanted to finish the thing he sought out to do from the start, and he wasn't going to let all the sacrifices come to a waste.
He still didn't believe in the myths behind Pandora, or miracles, or the story of how Beauty changed the heart of the Beast. He didn't believe in a lot of things, because even the magic he created himself were a pack of lies and illusion.
Except for one thing.
Whenever a meteor shower happened, Aoko would always inwardly speak to the stars, just because she was silly enough to believe in some Greek's legend about how wishes were granted like that. He was so used to it, till it became a habit because he was too bored to wait for her to finish whatever she was wishing to the stars.
After she was gone, he still did the same thing too. And he would imagine her standing beside him with closed eyes and clasped hands to her chest.
He always made the same, stupid and impossible wish, that in another world, a boy named Kuroba Kaito would meet a girl called Nakamori Aoko, but Kaitou Kid and Pandora never exist. Her smile would still be like a ray of sunshine and his pranks would never be lenient towards her. They would bicker all day, laugh all night and share about things that no normal people would talk about. He would probably still stick to his doubtful and nonchalant behaviour towards her fantasy about fairy tales and its perfect happily ever after, but he knew he would eventually come to terms with the three make-believe words soon.
Because if she had remained by his side, he believed that their ending could have been the same too.
.end.
haPPILY EVER AFTERS?! *SNORTS*
It's getting harder and harder to write one-shots without reusing those typical, overused scenes similar to my previous fics. And I'm starting to get desperate here hahah. Anyway, hope you've enjoyed till the end (or not) and reviews are always appreciated :)