The first in a series of one-shots pairing Hattori Heiji with any and all other DC/MK characters. Kazuha's the canon love interest, so I thought I'd get her out of the way early since I'm not a big fan of the usually boring orthodox pairings. Has references to Movie 7, but doesn't really spoil anything.

Any and all characters will be featured from here on out.

I don't own any of these characters.

This time: Heiji/Kazuha. Destiny: Heiji makes a joke at a most inappropriate time.

Destiny

The mocking joviality of the face in front of her was enough to marshal her battered nerves into some sense of restored normality. Turbulent thoughts and emotions that had been out of control just seconds before coalesced, bending back to their owner's will. Her instinctive knee-jerk reaction, previously held at bay while she was stuck in mental anguish, emerged as the cycle was interrupted by the weasel-like false smile and well-concealed evil of the man in front of her. No longer a naïve teenager, she thought, she could see through such a flimsy disguise instantly. Despite her glee at having broken free from her depressingly self-perpetuating thoughts, there was no way the idiot who dared disrupt her at this crucial time would escape unscathed.

"No, ahou, I don't want it supersized!"

Any and all real intentions of the confused cashier in front of her mattered not, as he watched perplexedly her dismissive jerking of her tray away from the pick-up area. She left a trail of sweat-dropping, still-waiting customers in her wake, and she slammed the door to the patio with enough force to crack a few of the bricks on the exterior of the building. The door to the outdoor play area was crowded during this busy lunch hour next to the university in downtown Osaka, yet her mere presence and flaming angry aura was enough to clear the brightly-colored plastic jungle in seconds. Muttering angrily about the rudeness and incompetence of food servers, expanding that thought to men, then to people of the world in general, she proceeded to devour the greasy meal she'd ordered.

As the meal progressed, her anger receded, leading her back to the dangerous thoughts that had so incensed her in the first place. She was graduating from the university in mere weeks, yet still had no idea what she wanted to do with her life. By age 22, she'd always expected to be further along in her life, not still miserably alone and unsure of herself. Admittedly, the two problems were wrapped up in each other, and in the cause of both, one former teenage detective named Hattori Heiji.

They were both children of police officers, and had grown up as playmates. She had always felt a special fondness for the dark-skinned detective, and had thought he reciprocated that feeling. Yet recent events seemed to dictate otherwise.

After years of waiting, dating other people to make him jealous, watching him succeed and being unable to focus on her own situation since she was so inextricably caught up in his brilliance, the moment she'd been waiting for since her early teens had finally arrived.

Hattori Heiji had confessed to her.

So why was she so unhappy?

Having appeased her appetite, she deposited her trash in its appropriate bin and pulled out her cell phone. She decided to walk back to the university and make some decisions, damnit. First on the list was whether or not she'd forgive the ahou that she still loved, despite the inelegant and frankly insulting confession she'd received from him.

She furiously snapped the cell phone closed and turned to face the culprit and future victim of her ire. She paused as soon as she laid eyes on him. Her arm still raised accusingly in the air, her eyes grew large and her jaw dropped open. Was that really Heiji?

He was uncompromising in his principles, always putting comfort or practicality above manners or politeness. This extended to his bearing, speech, and more relevantly, his choice in clothing. His entire wardrobe consisted of worn jeans, loose shirts and suitably warm sweaters to pair with sensible sneakers; his one concession was a single plain suit for any and all special occasions. As he said, who knew when he'd have to chase down and bring the next lawbreaker to justice? Hell, he only changed out of jeans to practice kendo! Therefore, whoever was responsible for his current outfitting was deserving of a medal, and barring the possibility of that, her eternal gratitude. Spring was still crisp, yet he had a much tighter than normal short-sleeved polo with slacks and comfortable-looking dress shoes. He was looking very good, and as she let her arm fall back to her side she finally processed that one, he was dressed up, and two, he was meeting her. This required her to interact with him. Nursing her wounded pride behind a mask of false anger, she worked herself back up to reflect the mask truly, back to the state she'd been pre-biceps, err, pre-Heiji's arrival. He took in her reaction with amusement, smirking behind a hand raised to his mouth, as he reached the limits of his own tenable courtesy.

The gesture successfully seeped her back in the anger she'd so recently been shocked out of. Crossing her arms and turning her head up and away from him, she complained verbally while mentally she was torn between her righteous anger, his cleaned-up handsomeness, and confusion as to the current state of affairs. He never dressed up when she asked him to, after all.

"You're late again! Ahou! You were the one who invited me out and set the time! Where are we going that you have to look like that, anyway?"

Putting both his hands in his pockets, revealing his smirk to her one-eyed peeking, he turned his head to the side and responded in a fashion mockingly reminiscent of her earlier imperious tone.

"Can't figure it out, eh? Don't worry, I'll lead you to the evidence. First stop, the park."

They spent the next few hours walking around the city and revisiting places of significance. Where they'd played as kids, where Heiji'd lived before his father was promoted, where Heiji'd protected her after she'd twisted her ankle, where she'd almost admitted she liked him… All of a sudden, she was reeling with insight. Heiji had been constantly watching her, and definitely saw this realization show up on her face if his renewed smirk could be counted as evidence. She closed her eyes to avoid the spinning, but the persistent vertigo had her swooning until she felt warm arms support her waist before she could crash to the ground. Opening her eyes both in confusion and in anticipation, Heiji leaned close and said, "All right, time for the last stop."

She followed him dazedly as he walked to the nearest train station and bought them tickets to Kyoto. She couldn't decide whether this development was good or not, as the only connections they had to Kyoto were his first love and her cousins, and chances were that he was going to confirm the identity of the former rather than unexpectedly drop in on the latter. This caused the churning in her to move from her head to her stomach. Though she'd always wondered about the identity of the child who'd left such a strong impression on Heiji, she was more afraid to actually know. She'd pestered him about it endlessly since he'd admitted to knowing, but his stubbornness ensured that these attempts were failures. Now, she hadn't demanded it of him, but he was going to reveal it to her anyway.

These thoughts kept her mood downcast through the entire almost two hour ride. Heiji himself stayed suspiciously quiet, excusing himself only once to take a quick walk. She barely noticed, as dark thoughts pervaded her mind, literally creating her own personal raincloud, as they fed her overactive imagination. The train eventually reached their station. Just as she suspected, the doors opened and he led her to the temple where he'd met his first love.

Nervous and uncharacteristically shy, she clasped her hands together and looked down at the sakura petal-covered ground. Heiji leaned against the tree that had spawned the petals and was silent. When she finally gathered the courage to look at him, she was surprised to see that he was gazing at her. What had she been so worried about before? Here was peace, here was calm, here was Heiji and his lovely eyes that drowned out the past and her apprehension. They continued to stare into each others' eyes for a few silent moments, understanding flowing between them as the petals continued to swirl and dance around them on the light breeze. It also caught her hair, causing her to reach up to sweep her bangs out of her eyes. Their gaze broke, and Heiji looked up at the tree's branches quickly, only to tense up. He seemed to come to a decision, and she realized he had been preparing himself to say something there at the tree, and perhaps had been preparing all day long.

He turned to her and she broke out into a grin, because she knew that her deduction was flawless.

"I love you, Kazuha. You were meant for me."

He'd finally done it! And in such a perfect, romantic way! She'd never have believed it to be possible of him. That's right, she thought absently, his friend Kudou Shinichi just got engaged to Ran-chan, maybe he had helped out.

Leaving those thoughts to ponder at a more appropriate time, she noted with excitement that the gap between them was lessening. She hadn't even realized she was moving until she had closed half of the distance still separating them. That was when he decided to finish his already perfect confession. He put the opposite charge on the mood by uttering four simple, devastating, damning words.

"Perhaps as a punishment."

He even had the nerve to chuckle as he said them.

Color rose in her face and her ecstatic joy changed instantly into burning resentment. She shook her head, and when she looked back up at him, her eyes were glowing red and she'd somehow acquired demonic horns. He seemed to realize that she was now very dangerous, but was unable to pull away in time to avoid his just punishment. She launched herself across the remaining distance between them and smacked him resoundingly across his left cheek.

"That's my line, you unmitigated jerk!" The anger drained away as fast as it had appeared, flowing down her face in the form of tears due to the abrupt reversal in emotions. She added, "Heiji no baka!" and tore off back to the train station. She had managed to escape on a train back to Osaka and successfully avoid him for the indeterminate future.

Now, the day after, the anger had mostly left her and she considered her own reactions. She gripped her cell phone in her hand as she entered the university grounds. It was, yet again, her pride that kept her from admitting that she'd overreacted a little. Well, more than a little. A lot. Fine, she'd overreacted a hell of a lot! But she'd been anxious at the tree, after everything else he'd subjected her to that day. They'd barely even bantered, that's how out of it she had been! But that was all beside the point.

The point... was if she going to let her split-second decision to be selfish and grudging keep her from the man she loved?

Deciding anew to correct her mistake, and better late than never, she thought, she headed back out of the university towards the park, the site of their first excursion on that fateful day, which was incidentally the previous day.

She still had a lot to decide about her future, but she would like to do that with her most important person helping her decide. She didn't have to be alone anymore. As she pulled out her cell phone to reach out the olive branch out to the idiot who'd got up the guts to tell her that he loved her, she figured the least she could do was tell him that she loved him, too.

Endnotes: My first work, and it was the drudge work. I'm not sure that either of them have any character at all, since I perceive Kazuha as mostly Oni-Kazuha as I'm sure you could see: indignation and bickering wrapped up in one neat, jealous almost-girlfriend. Yeah, Heiji wasn't even really in this. Sigh. I'm sure I'll enjoy other pairings to come better. Next up, I'm working on Jodie-sensei. Heheh.

This was spawned from an image in my head of Shinichi coaching Heiji on how to confess. I ended up writing it from Kazuha's point of view, otherwise you'd have seen Heiji's thought-bubble with Shinichi's Kuroba-esque grin and thumbs-up running through Heiji's mind at the tree. I'd planned to hide Shinichi in the bushes, with Ran behind him to keep him in line, of course, smacking his palm to his head at Heiji's unnecessary final statement, but decided the Detective of the East would consider that too intrusive. Though I did keep his bolstering phone call on the train, if you were wondering about that.

Heiji's confession is courtesy of Despair dot com as much as I'd love to claim it.