Why I Love You - ch1: Apples
"Oi, guys, shut up for a minute!" The familiar voice of the homeroom teacher interrupted his reading. He looked up, faintly annoyed at having been disturbed but curious about why the interruption was necessary. He could almost always read through homeroom. The last time his activities had been interrupted was when one of the staff had accidentally set off the smoke detector. Everyone had been forced to file outside until the firefighters had declared it safe for us to re-enter. "Today, we have a new student joining us. His name is Kuroba Kaito, and I want you all to help him out, got it?"
He placed a scrap of paper to mark his page and set the book aside, his curiosity getting the better of him. The classroom door opened and the new student stepped inside. The first thing Shinichi noticed was a mess of brown hair and gleaming indigo eyes. The next thing that registered was the positively evil smile that had overtaken his new classmate's face.
"He looks like Shinichi…" Ran's voice sounded loud in the sudden silence of the classroom. Everyone turned in their seats to see who had spoken. Ran flushed at the attention and sank back into her seat.
Kuroba, as if to take the attention off Ran, started to juggle… with apples. He stood there, juggling, acting as if it was the most normal thing in the world. The class stared, Ran's outburst long forgotten.
"Well Kudo can't do that." Shinichi aimed a dirty look at the offender and scowled. There had never been any need for him to juggle, therefore he had never learned. Why on earth would a detective need to learn to juggle anyways?
The juggler's smile widened into a grin as more apples appeared in the circle, via puffs of smoke. Soon there were twenty-six apples in the travelling circuit between Kuroba's two hands.
"Ladies and gentlemen," he announced in English, "please take a small item off your desk and throw it into the circle as I stop in front of you." Kuroba moved about the classroom, collecting items and exchanging polite greetings with his new classmates.
He rolled his eyes at the antics and opened his book again, intent on ignoring the fiasco. Our new resident mischief-maker however, would not allow that. He had gotten only gotten a few paragraphs into his current chapter when the book was snatched from his hands. The detective squawked indignantly and glared at Kuroba as his book joined the circuit.
"You know," Kuroba said thoughtfully, still juggling precariously. "It's awfully bad manners to ignore someone when they're putting on a show. I thought you might've known better… Shinichi." His eyes twinkled with delight as the detective bristled at the familiar calling of his name.
"I would appreciate you not using my name so easily." Shinichi said testily. Growing up with his parents, he'd grown used to invasions of his privacy but he hadn't been expecting it from a perfect stranger.
"Jeez Shin-chan, you're almost as uptight as Hakuba!" Shinichi stared as Kuroba casually muttered the dreaded nickname. The juggling wonder seemed almost disappointed. Curiosity once again reared its ugly head and Shinichi spent the rest of the performance wondering at it.
Finally, Kuroba returned to the front of the classroom, bowing to the teacher (no mean feat with 52 items up in the air) he smiled at the class and tossed all the items back into the air, as if to let them drop. Shinichi felt a pang for his precious book. The performer clapped once.
Smoke invaded the room. When it cleared, each student had their items back (along with a bright red apple), all given to the right student.
He's good, thought Shinichi as he reached for his newly replaced book. He opened it and checked that the bookmark was on the right page. It was, and it had a message scrawled on it in bright blue ink. "Lighten up!" He changed his mind. Kuroba Kaito was very good.
He turned his attention to the performance, pondering it. There was a trick there somewhere, something that had allowed the apples and items to travel across the room in a few mere seconds. They couldn't have been thrown (too precisely placed), and yet it wasn't physically possible for Kuroba to move that fast.
"Where should I sit?" An inquiring voice broke into the detective's thoughts. He looked up as Ms. Miyazaki checked the seat register.
"I believe the seat beside Kudo is empty." She said, gesturing at the seat and looking to the student in question for confirmation. Shinichi nodded, staring indifferently as Kuroba plunked down into the seat next to you.
"Nice to meet you." Kuroba whispered, far too cheerfully for Monday morning.
"Likewise." Shinichi muttered shortly, still a bit miffed about the name issue. Kuroba grinned, as if guessing his thoughts.
The jester seemed to find him positively fascinating, as he caught Kuroba's eyes on him several times before homeroom was over. When the bell rang, he snatched the chance and walked out of the room before Kuroba could catch up to him.
He was starting to hate Monday.
AN: Ah, well, that was fun. I hope there are some noticeable differences there in the way both Kaito and Shinichi behave. I'm not sure if I made it apparent enough. Anyways, hope you enjoyed it, and I'll see you soon with the third chapter (I hope)!
P.S I'm assuming that fire drills and safety procedures are similar all over the world. If it's not, then does anyone know what it is? I looked it up but I couldn't find anything.