AN: Blame the beauty and freshness of the spring day, because in other case I wouldn't have enough courage to put it here. It's the first part, but I'm not sure how much parts this story would contain. I'm still far away from the best authors as... (insert the well known names), but well at least I could make a try to be half as good as them...

Hugs for all of you who see that story (that part actually) before and tell me so many kind words about it – kisses for all of you. Special thanks for MyMelo-chan and Shadow-chan who interfered with that chapter almost from the beginning and thanks to them it's written in more English than it was before.

Any questions? I will try to answer them at the next chapter (I have an idea, so it's a chance that it will be written). From some technical point of view... The place where Aoko and Hakuba are working looks similar to that (yes, all the spaces have to be removed): http: / / epsrv . astro . uni . torun. pl / ~ep / praktyki / 2004 / holografia / zdjecia / seria7 / orig / dscf0011 . jpg

And the place where Kaito and Shinichi are working is (also all spaces need to be removed): http : // epsrv . astro .uni . torun . pl / ~ep / praktyki / 2004 / holografia / zdjecia / seria2 / orig / dscf0009 . jpg

And Aoko's telescope looks like that (yes, spaces aren't necessary): http : // www . optyczne . pl / tmp / 424_dsc06001 . jpg

I hope there wouldn't be any problems with those pictures.

I think that's all!

Oh, wait! I do not own Detective Conan and Magic Kaito. If I was, Kaito and Aoko would at least kiss at that school trip to the mountains.

Have a nice reading *smiles*

Observations

Chapter one – The taste of chocolate.

Cold air filled the room. A funny thing, because room was so small, that all three computers should warm it enough. They didn't. When the dome was opened, and telescope made its observations, cold air from the room above, pushed its way through the floor into the control room below. The truth was, that the most leaky was an installation of telescope, and especially the pillar, which was a heart of construction holding a telescope. And the pillar went through the control room as well.

It still was warmer than upstairs, in the room with telescope.

Aoko, who had just went into the control room from there, took off her gloves, hat and coat. She needed to move the telescope to set it in the other target. But now she was again in front of the computer, hoping she could be somewhere else.

Aoko loved her job. She loved spending her time in front of computer's screen, making lots of calculations, calibrating her observations and making graphs. She really did. But sometimes, in night like that she felt terribly alone. She would even appreciate a company of Kaitou KID, and that meant she really was desperate.

OK, maybe not so desperate.

Aoko sat on her chair and faced the screen. The last picture was saved and it was time to make a test picture on new coordinates. Aoko typed an appropriate command into the terminal, setting an exposition time of a picture. She remembered that at the beginning it was hard to use to the terminal. For most of her life, she was using windows' applications, with lots of useful buttons, which helped her to do what she wanted. And now the only communication between her and a computer was a small command line.

Aoko sighed. She really did love her job. Just today she was in a strange mood.

Or it would be better to say, that everything made her angry. Even that soft sounds of auto guider, which allowed the telescope to trace an object, according to its movement on a celestial sphere. Even that quiet buzzing of a fan in system unit. And it was all theirs fault. Well it was quite rare situation when Aoko blamed almost all of her friend for her bad mood. Usually it was his fault, but today he also was a victim.

And all problems had started in the morning when Ran had announced that Shinichi had proposed to her. Today's morning was one of the rarest occasion when all of them could meet. Aoko hadn't had any observations the night before because it had been snowing, so every part of the sky had been covered by clouds. She had been able to go to sleep earlier than usual and had got up today in the normal hour. And that had meant that all friends could eat breakfast in the canteen together. Ran and Shinichi immediately had used that situation to announce their engagement, and then it had started. No one had said anything in particular, but for all day Aoko had felt strange looks on her. Like everyone had expected a similar announcement from her.

And she and Kaito were only friends.

Aoko had no idea if Kaito felt that same pressure on him, as she felt on her, but even if he did, he wouldn't say a word about that.

She hoped that she would feel relieved when she finally got into the observatory. No more looks, no more pressure. But it wasn't true. For the whole day there was something in the atmosphere, which reminded her that she was alone. No dates, no boyfriends, just Aoko and her friends.

Well, maybe she should date with Saguru when he had asked her out. He was gentle and polite astrophysicist, and observer just like she was. And Aoko liked him, she really did. It was just... Well just "like", nothing more.

And why the hell they gave her to understand that she and Kaito should date. They were friends. Just friends. And there was nothing in their relationship, which could remind that what was between Shinichi and Ran, or Heiji and Kazuha.

"Stupid Ran and Kazuha." Aoko muttered under her breath, thinking about a few stupid suggestions which both her friends had given to her on last girls' party. And the suggestion to "seduce Kaito", which had been very graphically described by Kazuha, still made her blush.

Aoko sighed and looked at the picture on the screen. Nothing special, just an ordinary galaxy. She decided to increase an exposition time a little, and typed a command to take a picture. It didn't take long to wait for a result. Aoko looked at the picture for a long while, studying ever piece of it. Just to be sure, if exposition time wasn't too short or too long.

No, everything seemed to be fine. She sighed and reached for her coat.

It was even more freezing upstairs then it had been before. Aoko felt like her breath would turn into crystals just after leaving her lungs. She should take a hat with her... And gloves...

Aoko unlocked the telescope, and began to shift it in the new position. A cold metal almost burned her fingers. She swore few times that she had missed her gloves downstairs. Holding a telescope firmly, she moved it slowly. Despite its weight it wasn't hard to lead it. "God blesses the new technology." Aoko muttered, looking at coordinates on the scale. She looked up, to be sure, that she didn't have to move the dome more, and a big tube of the telescope almost slipped from her grip.

A figure clad in white was sitting on the top of the dome. His insolent smirk made Aoko's blood to boil. She would throw a telescope at him, if it wasn't so heavy. In a blink of an eye she thought about throwing the small telescope which was mounted aside. But she resigned, knowing that if she did that, she would have to mount it by herself again. And her abilities to use a screwdriver were far from perfection.

"What a lovely evening we had, don't we?" KID commented calmly, looking at her with big, annoying grin.

Aoko ground her teeth, while she was immobilizing the telescope. It was three in the morning, that was really hard to call this 'evening'. Not to mention that evenings usually were warmer than that.

Aoko glared at KID, wrapping her coat tighter around her. KID's cape was fluttering in the wind. Wasn't he felt cold?

"What are you doing here?" she hissed angrily.

"I cheer my favourite astrophysicist." KID answered, bowing.

"Really? I can't see how." Aoko said, looking back. She began to scan the surroundings in the presence of a mop. She was sure she had seen it when she had been here last time.

"Oh, I did it successfully." KID said, landing in the floor gracefully. "And now I'm here."

Aoko's eyes turned on him in a second. "Are you suggested I'm not your favourite astrophysicist?" she asked angrily, taking his comment as an insult.

KID's grin grew even wider. "I didn't know you care." he answered with amusement.

Aoko saw a flash of red, and before she knew it, she was swinging something stiff into the thief's direction. She didn't even remember when did she pull the steel element of the dome construction out. Fortunately that rod wasn't so important and the dome stood still.

A look at the thief, and the chase began.

Aoko forgot that she felt cold. After a few minutes of chasing that damned thief, she was bathed in perspiration. Her coat was lying on the floor, and she wasn't even sure when she felt that warm, to pull it off. Not to mention that she even stumbled on it few times.

KID was a lot faster than she was. And he seemed to predict her every movement. Well... It was harder than it seemed. True, the room was round, and there was a telescope in the middle, but the room wasn't empty at all. There was a quite big, box shaped device, to control movements of the dome. And a low ladder... and few chairs... and a small desk... and four round, wooden boxes, with the diameter about 70 centimetres, which contained prisms to the telescope.

Praying that KID wouldn't touch the boxes with prism, Aoko chased the thief from one obstacle, to another.

For her luck, KID left the prisms alone, but her heart stopped for a moment when she saw him jumping into the direction of the telescope.

She squeaked, feelings a strange weakness in her knees. This telescope was a very expensive toy. Did he lose his mind?

Aoko froze. Her fingers clutched the rod tightly. She didn't event want to imagine what would happen if KID made just a scratch on the tube. And loosing her job was the less unpleasant thing.

But when a laugh filled the air, Aoko began to breath again, and numbness in her fingers was vanishing slowly. KID was sitting on a counterweight, and with that annoying grin he was swaying his legs. That was enough. Aoko took a big swing and run towards him.

It looked like he didn't care. He still was sitting on his place, and he was even leaned his elbow in the higher part of the counterweight, to feel more comfortable. His grin was still at its place.

And before Aoko's weapon hit his thick scull, taking a revenge for every time he had annoyed her, KID smiled to her. "It's dawn already." he noticed, matter-of-factly.

Aoko immediately turned her gaze from him to the sky, and cursed.

He was right. The skies began to change from deep black, to the navy blue on the west and purple on the east. She didn't do a part of her observations. How she was going to tell that to Hakuba. They divided the observations between themselves, and it looked that she didn't finish her half.

"Damn you, KID!" Aoko cursed, turning her gaze at the thief, just to see that the counterweight was empty. She looked around, but there were no trace of white fabric anymore. She sighed and put the rod on the desk. She needed to set the telescope into the vertical position, and then she had to close the dome. After that, she could get back to the worker's hostel.

Aoko checked if she had all protocols with her. It looked like there wasn't anything left. Computers were turned off, there wasn't anything to do here anymore. She put her coat up, took her cap in one hand, and the keys in the other. She opened the door and found herself face to face with her best friend.

"Kaito...?" she asked with surprise in her voice.

He grinned. "How's your observations tonight?" he asked politely.

"That was very lame." Aoko noticed coldly. "Sneaking as KID and interrupting my work." she added. "You know that your protocol from tonight's observations is as empty as mine in the morning hours?"

"Yup!" Kaito answered. It seemed that he wasn't worried because of that. Aoko only shook her head. She could expect that he reacted that way.

"Did you really had to get here to annoy me?" she asked with a little trace of anger in her voice.

"Hey, I wanted to warm you a little." he said, smiling.

An indignation made her speechless. Kaito still smiling, took the cap from her hand. He brushed her hair, and put the cap over her ears, to make sure she wouldn't catch a cold. It was something soft and so gentle in his motions, that Aoko felt her cheeks blushing.

She looked at her feet intensively. Even if a while before she was freezing again, now she would feel hot. She wished she could open few buttons of her coat, but she knew that if she did that, Kaito would tease her.

"You know, you could always bring to me a cup of hot chocolate." she noticed, trying to sound calmer than she felt.

He was so close to her.

"That would be boring." he answered, taking her hand.

She blushed even more, but Kaito began to walk, pulling her with him.

"But if you insist." he said. There was a puff and Kaito handed her a cup.

She looked inside suspiciously, but smell of chocolate and vanilla, eased her suspicions. And it tasted like chocolate. It was so sweet. And a trace of vanilla, she felt on her tongue, made her smile. She didn't even remember how many times they were arguing about vanilla in hot chocolate. Kaito always wanted just a pure chocolate taste, while she liked to add vanilla in her own cup. It balanced the spicy sweetness of the chocolate.

"How did you keep it hot?" she asked, looking from a cup, to her best friend.

He smiled. It was a soft smile filled with something she couldn't recognise, but she like it. She like that in his smile and in his eyes, even if it was hard for her to call that emotion. It made him look... happier.

"It's a secret." he answered with a wink.

"Obviously." Aoko muttered, drinking her chocolate, before it would cool. "You want a sip?" she asked.

He grinned, and Aoko handed him the cup, without asking any more questions. He was drinking with his eyes closed, like he wanted to feel the taste even more intensively.

"Vanilla." he complained, giving back her cup.

"So why did you add vanilla there? You knew that you would drink it, didn't you?"

"Yes I knew." he confirmed, and smile to her. "But it was made for you."

"How that suppose to happened?" Saguru asked the next day, pointing at the blank places in the protocols.

Aoko felt like she got a reprimand. Hakuba was her supervisor, and she felt like a small child who just broke a very expensive vase.

And it was all this baka's fault! Aoko groaned inside.

"I fell asleep." she lied, timidly with a little embarrassment. "I'm sorry."

She was sure, Hakuba could see through that little lie, but he wasn't able to prove it. Or that was she thought.

"Has that something in common with blank places on Kuroba's report?" he asked, taping his finger on the empty column.

"How do you know?" Aoko was too surprised to denied.

Hakuba and Aoko ware the astrophysicists, but Kaito was a radio astronomer, that meant Hakuba couldn't see his protocol just by a coincident. He had to see it because he wanted to.

"It was too obvious to not check that possibility Aoko." he said matter-of-factly. "You can do whatever you want in your private time, but observations aren't your private time." he reminded.

Aoko sighed. "I know." she agreed. "Look, I'm sorry. He just come to warm me up and we lost..." she cut off when she saw Hakuba's face. He wasn't angry, he looked disgusted.

"What?" she asked. "We just..."

"I'm not very willing to hear about the details." he said coldly.

She then realised that Hakuba thought that she and Kaito were... What? Why? Were he nuts?

Fine! If he was going to think that, she wouldn't care. She was tired of explaining for everyone that she and Kaito were just friends. Kaito was greatest best friend ever, she knew she could always count on him, and she also do everything she could to help him if he needed it. But she knew well, that he didn't care about her that way.

No matter how much she would want it.

After saying what he had to say, Hakuba left Aoko with guilt and confusion written all over her face.

And little annoyance.

It wasn't her fault, after all. Well not entirely.

And obviously Shinichi wouldn't be mad at Kaito, that he didn't do his part of observations. Well both of them were radio astronomers, but Shinichi wasn't so pedantic with keeping to a schedule. If some observations were missing, then they shifted them to a next day.

At least Aoko was sure, Hakuba wasn't share his conclusions with anyone. He wasn't the gossip type. So there was still a hope that Shinichi had no idea that she didn't complete her observations either. So maybe he didn't associate her with Kaito's lack of observations...

She sighed and made her way towards the canteen. She wasn't hungry, but she needed a coffee.

And the whistles from their usual table convinced her, that Hakuba wasn't the only one who got the wrong conclusion. She ordered her coffee, and went to her friends.

Shinichi and Heiji had large grins on their faces, and Kaito was pouting. Ran and Kazuha were nowhere to be seen, so Aoko stopped for a moment. At least girls were great with making the boys to stop teasing. On the other hand it was Kazuha who had suggested her "to seduce" Kaito. One look at the boys and Aoko wasn't even sure if it wouldn't be better for her, if she ran away.

The whistles sounded even louder, and Aoko knew, that if she ran away, they would tease her forever. She got to the table, and put her cup on.

"Sorry for them." Kaito said as first. "They are idiots."

"I know that." she said.

"But I bet you have no idea who is the biggest idiot." He said and pouted.

"You?" she asked sarcastically.

"Hakuba." Kaito answered, still pouting.

Aoko watched him with bewilderment. "What?"

He blushed slightly which make Shinichi and Heiji laugh. It looked that Kaito didn't hurry with explanations, so Heiji shifted and moved towards Aoko.

"Hakuba was here a second before you. And he hissed that he absolutely forbade to have sex with his coworker during the observations."

Aoko opened her mouth to say something, but she found herself lacking of words. Hakuba really thought they had sex? And even if he did, she was so sure he would kept his mouth shut, that Heiji's words was like a little earthquake. She could swear she knew Hakuba well enough, to net expect that things from him.

"You're joking, right?" she had to ask. She couldn't believe that Saguru really did that.

"Come one, Aoko, look at his face." said Shinichi pointing on Kaito. "Would he look like that if Hakuba didn't say it?"

He got a point. Kaito was blushing, and it wasn't his normal act. So that meant, Hakuba really...

Heiji grinned. "You didn't hear the best part yet." he said.

Kaito stood up, and grabbed her arm. "Come on, I think it will be better if we just live now..."

But Heiji wasn't going to allow her just go. He took her other arm, and kept her firmly on her place.

"The best part." he began, looking at Kaito. "Was when Kuroba suggested that if you two was really having sex, he wouldn't get his reports so early."

Aoko turned around. She was now so close to Kaito, that she could felt his breath on her lips.

She wanted to be angry, because his reply didn't help at all. But again, Hakuba wasn't act fair, and to be honest, it was really amusing... Besides, he did tell Hakuba, that they didn't do anything, message was clear. And even if she really did want to be mad at Kaito for his stupid comment, she couldn't. His small blush was still visible and it looked somehow cute that all her anger went away in a second. One look at Heiji's face and she couldn't hold it, she burst into laughter.

She sat back on her seat, and wrapped her palms on her cup, still smiling.

All in all live wasn't that bad. She doubted that Saguru would have more claims regarding to her work, so even if she wouldn't make every observations she planned, world wouldn't end.

AN2: The next chapter will contain a few flashbacks... And view will be mentioned at the beginning: http : / / epsrv . astro . uni . torun . pl / ~ep / praktyki / 2004 / holografia / zdjecia / seria4 / orig / dscf0023 . jpg