3.
Hakuba always bites a little harder after a heist.
Kaito is all too aware of the sharp, blue eyes on him just a feet away as sharp teeth pierce through his skin to tap into his jugular, digging into his flesh in search of the vein. On any other day, Kaito would be kicking up a fuss about the pain just to annoy Hakuba, but he only stares up at the dark ceiling with watering eyes, biting back on the groan of pain that the bite elicits, and cards his fingers gently through soft blonde hair in an attempt to distract himself. He cannot help the sharp intake of air when teeth slide out from his flesh with a quiet sucking noise, and tightens his hold on the back of Hakuba's neck warningly, glancing towards Conan, who is still sucking impassively on his carton of strawberry milk, and doesn't seem to have noticed much yet.
Relaxing back into the cushions now that the worst of it is over, Kaito pets at Hakuba's hair absently while the vampire feeds from him. Conan is still young, highly impressionable the way children are, even though he is by far too mature for his age (Kaito blames that bit on Hakuba). It wouldn't be good if he somehow gets the impression by watching them that feeding from the neck hurts his provider. He is still feeding from the wrist, not having learned to latch on properly yet due to his age. Feeding doesn't have to hurt, but since it is Hakuba's way of getting back at him after a heist, Kaito allows him the small victories. It just isn't something that Kaito would want for Conan to pick up on, just saying.
Speaking of heists - last night had been hilarious. The Kid task force had put up a merry goose chase for him through the museum. Nakamori-keibu had even been sporting enough to try to trick a trickster, which he really appreciates, but saw through that one rather quickly. He had left them in a tangle of silly string and confetti while making off with the target on the fifth floor, and Hakuba he had personally left in the Glass Gallery with a giant expanding balloon that had held him stuck against the glass wall. The media had apparently found it hilarious, and had taped it all down until the task force came to the detective's rescue. Kaito made sure he's taped down the news recording of it, as well as bookmarking all the videos uploaded to youtube.
All in all, a great night for Kaito and a terribly humiliating one for Hakuba, even though the target did not turn out to be Pandora, but that was already expected.
Hakuba is lapping at his neck, tongue dragging over the puncture marks, so that means that he is probably done with his feeding. Kaito glances down at his watch. Ten minutes, so the detective was likely pretty hungry. He doesn't blame him - anyone would be after having to run up and down multiple flights of stairs for the night.
"How old until chibi learns to latch onto here?" Kaito taps a finger above the bite wound on his neck when Hakuba pulls away. "Geez, Hakuba, you hungry caterpillar."
"He's old enough to learn how to, as and when he wants," Hakuba glances at Conan, who turns away, making a show out of ignoring them before sliding off the armchair and making for the door. "I was thinking of maybe teaching him how next week, when Hattori comes by and he can practice."
"I see. Are we demonstrating?"
"If you are willing."
"I don't mind." Kaito sighs through his nose. The side of his neck was uncomfortably wet and cold. "Think I'm gonna rest for a bit. Still gotta get groceries after."
He's carefully maneuvering himself up into a sitting position when Conan returns, and dumps an armful of fresh fruit, juice boxes, and a collection of snacks into his lap, along with a soft blanket.
"Wow, not that I'm not grateful for the concern, but what is with all the food?" Kaito sits up, rescuing a box of pocky from falling off his lap onto the floor, closing his eyes against the initial faintness the movement causes. "I can't possibly eat all of this."
"You will if you don't want to faint again," Conan points at the small pile. "Rest before you leave. No running out the door."
"You're bossy for your age," Kaito grumbles, tearing the wrapper for the straw and sticking it into the juice box as Hakuba's gaze sharpens from the other end of the sofa.
"What is this about fainting, Kuroba?"
Conan, the little traitor, answers for him before he can get a word in.
"Kaito-nii san fainted in school during extra-curricular activities," Conan says, returning to his perch on Hakuba's armchair. "On Thursday."
Kaito can see when Hakuba makes the connection between his feeding on Wednesday night, right after his heist on Monday, and his little incident on Thursday, and quickly tears into a banana just for something to do.
"Why wasn't I notified?" Hakuba demands, turning onto Kuroba who immediately stuffs the fruit into his mouth.
"They notified me," Conan says, pulling the heavy textbook back onto his lap. "And I notified you."
"Sending me a text that says 'Go easier on Kaito-nii san' doesn't count as notification, Conan."
"Uh," Kaito cuts in, flinching when Hakuba immediately glares at him. "It wasn't as serious or as dramatic as it sounds like. Just a… couple of late nights playing video games and not enough sleep."
"Shut up, Kuroba," Hakuba says cheerfully, a terrifying fact when in their current context, before he turns back to the child vampire sitting across of him. "Conan, this is no laughing matter. I expect to be notified by phone immediately if something is the matter with Kuroba's health. He is my secondary, and it is my responsibility to take care of him, especially when my feeding will stress his body. Do you understand, Conan? Do not leave me out of the loop when it pertains to Kuroba's health condition."
"That's a little harsh, Hakuba… " Kaito immediately regrets opening his mouth when Hakuba rounds on him.
"And you," his classmate jabs a finger at him. "Strenuous exercise is not recommended after a blood donation, much less a feed. What were you thinking?"
"Look, I've always been fine with it after a feed, so long as I watch my fluid intake. I told you. It's nothing serious. Besides, I told Conan not to tell you specifically because it was just the way I was handling myself and not you. Not everything has to do with you, you arrogant bastard."
The expected anger never comes, Hakuba only gazing at him steadily until he has to look away. "It is never my intention to hurt you."
"It's the late nights and the video games," Kaito mutters mulishly. "Nothing to do with you at all."
"Even then, I am partially to blame, at least." Hakuba looks overly serious, eyes boring into Kaito. "I am sorry."
"Yeah, no," Kaito desperately wishes that he is currently elsewhere, made uneasy by how seriously Hakuba was taking all of this. True, he had fainted, but it was only because he had gotten light headed while looking up at the soccer ball the goalkeeper had sent going over his head, toppling over when his sense of balance suddenly went, and then the next thing he knew he was waking up in the infirmary. "I just need more sleep. You're not responsible for my bedtime hours."
The guilt on Hakuba's face eats at him, and Kaito sucks noisily on his juice box so he wouldn't have to look at him. He starts, when Hakuba reaches for him, only to shift the pile of food off his lap onto the tea table, unfolding the blanket and tucking it carefully around him with uncharacteristic gentleness. "I apologise, Kuroba. I will be more careful."
Kaito mumbles something about exams and fluid intake, wiping the drying saliva from his neck with a corner of the blanket. The wound has scabbed over by now, aided by the healing properties of Hakuba's saliva, though the edges of the puncture marks are still puffy and painful when Kaito brushes his fingers across them.
"You're staying for dinner," Hakuba says decisively, with no room for argument, and then dramatically sweeps out of the room.
"I don't drink blood, and you just had dinner," Kaito points out lamely to the vacated side of the sofa, and then turns to the child vampire who is calmly studying him. "He cooks?"
"It would have been terrible if you did not faint in school, but at a heist, instead," Conan says evenly, hands pressed together before him in a pose he's learned off of Hakuba. "Don't you think so?"
"I'm careful," Kaito grumbles, wriggling about for a comfortable position. "I wouldn't. And I'm not Kid."
"Whatever you say, Kid-sama," Conan agrees easily, and the last thing Kaito sees is his sly smile before he drops off to sleep.
It turns out that Hakuba does cook. As in, actual human food and kitchen knife plus cookbook cooking. With an apron.
Kaito hovers near the kitchen door as Hakuba effortlessly slices and dices up vegetables for a soup. There's something that smells like chicken in the oven, and there's a bowl of washed potatoes by his elbow.
"I'm surprised that you keep food in your kitchen," Kaito says eventually as Hakuba tips the sliced carrots into the bubbling pot. "I'm surprised that you can cook."
"Fiona taught me how to. It is only polite that I provide for her when she has done the same for me."
"You've never cooked for me," Kaito grumbles, slouching against the door frame and pulling a chocolate bar out of his pocket. Hakuba glances backward, stirring the pot of soup. "I feel… well, not offended. Missing out. Yes."
He looks up when Hakuba confiscates his chocolate, protesting when the blonde vampire shuts the candy into the fridge. "I'm remedying that now. If you can bring yourself to stay in my presence voluntarily after a feeding, then I will happily cook for you. No spoiling your appetite before dinner."
"I keep separate stomachs for food and dessert. Don't be mean, I need to get my blood sugar back up."
"You mean you're hoping to give yourself diabetes." Hakuba snorts. "Why don't you go entertain yourself with Conan? Dinner will take at least another twenty five minutes, if nothing burns."
Kaito watches Hakuba cook, the silence comfortable with just the sound of bubbling pots and sizzling food. Clearly Hakuba has expected him to have gone back to the living room, because his knife slips when Kaito next speaks again, Hakuba letting loose a rapid string of expletives in English.
"Wow, Hakuba," Kaito whistles, raising an eyebrow. "I had no idea that you had that in you."
"There are many things that you are not familiar with in regards to me," Hakuba sucks in air between his teeth. "That was nearly my finger. Pardon me, what did you just say?"
"I said," Kaito says, carefully not looking at Hakuba, instead off to the side down the empty corridor. "Is that the general impression that I give you?"
"Aside from you being annoying? Stop itching at your bandage, Kuroba."
Kaito manages to pull his hand away with some difficulty and reluctance, jamming it into his pocket so he wouldn't try to peel the bandage off next. "I'm wounded," he sighs, more to himself than to Hakuba.
"What? Kuroba, you have to stop mumbling to yourself over there. I can't hear you." There's a clatter as Hakuba rinses the dirty pans and ingredient bowls in the sink. "Speak louder."
Kaito sighs again, a long exhale of air through his nose, and then slouches off back in search of Conan, whom he finds sitting in the middle of a haphazard pile of books on the floor, all of them evidently having been pulled out from the bottom shelf of Hakuba's bookshelf.
"Hey, chibi." Conan spares him a disinterested glance when he joins him on the floor, settling down cross-legged next to a pile of magazines. "Are you treasure hunting?"
"Shinichi-nii san wants me to look for an old article for him," comes the absent reply, the kid riffling quickly through a book before setting it aside. "Hakuba-nii san is busy right now."
Kaito spots Hakuba's phone lying buried under a stack, and retrieves it. "You shouldn't snoop into Hakuba's phone, Conan. That's a violation of personal privacy."
"Like what you are doing now, you mean?" Conan beams at him, and Kaito carefully locks the phone again, setting it aside. Damn perceptive kid. "I won't tell!"
"No, I'm not."
"Liar." The kid's grin is startlingly bright, and Kaito finds himself reluctantly returning it, a wave of affection for the boy sweeping through him. Conan is often distant, spacey and cold until he gets his teeth into something spine-chillingly morbid and gruesome (exhibit a: a murder), and then he is all chirpy bright and happy. He's a little genius, no doubt, and as annoying as he can be sometimes, standoffish and sarcastic (he doesn't realise that children can learn sarcasm at Conan's age, but then again he could have just been a special case), Kaito has a giant soft spot for him.
"Tidy up your mess when you're done." He pats Conan on the head, slowly getting to his feet to make for the sofa, wrapping the blanket on it around his shoulders.
"Okay," Conan agrees.
He does, but it is out of the order that Hakuba had originally shelved them in, so Kaito takes it upon himself to reshelf them, the little twerp running off to send an email to his brother with the old, cut-out article that Conan's found slipped between the pages of a book. Some of the books are dusty, and he gives them a wipe before shelving them again.
When there is nothing else for him to do, he presses the heels of his hands to his eyes, sighing loudly to the empty room. "It's just a job," he says aloud. "Shit."
A.N: I really enjoy writing Conan and Kaito's interactions - mostly because Conan is young enough to get away with his cheek without any repercussions, and Kaito has a soft spot for him, like, the size of a to-scale accurate Africa, so he just lets him (and so do I). And that Kaito is getting attached despite himself to their little family even though he's probably promised himself he won't and he's like 'no not this why the human heart is traitorous and I wanna sue' wwww. I also entertain fantasies of Shinichi being one of the prestigious lines, but that gets us nowhere (and boosts Conan's ego too much). Hope you enjoyed that!