The bar had closed up for the night, Kaito stood outside the back door, trying to warm his frozen stiff fingers, while waiting for Meiko. Despite the fact that Meiko's house was a ways off from his, he waited and walked her home every night after work. He propped himself against the wall, staring up at the sky. The night appeared dark and dusky blue with a few clouds scattered over the stars. It was going to snow, and Kaito hoped it would be sometime soon.

Meiko stepped out the backdoor, panting. "Sorry… Kaito. I… just had to clean up a bit before I left." She had been in a hurry to clean up so as not to keep him waiting too long. Her breath drew out in clouds of white mist with every word.

"It's alright." Kaito replied, smiling. "Let's go." He motioned as he began walking.

Meiko followed, walking by him for a moment, watching as he attempted to warm his hands with his breath. She reached over and took one of them in hers suddenly, stopping him. "I told you, you don't need to wait for me. ESPECIALLY if it's so cold outside!" she huffed.

Kaito stood stiff for a moment, blushing bright pink as the sudden warmth from her hands enveloped both of his. He nearly laughed from delight. He bent down and rested his head on her shoulder, stifling his laughter and keeping his hands entwined with hers. "It's okay. Really, I'm not cold anymore, Meiko." He murmured into her shoulder. He reluctantly lifted his head, noticing a rosy glow on her cheeks.

"Whatever." She grumbled, turning away from him and letting go of his hands. "Fine then, come on."

He chuckled and took her hand again "On second thought, this hand is still cold."

The two continued walking. Houses slipped in and out of their view in silence. They were nearing Kaito's house, though he normally walked with Meiko all the way to her house, he had noticed something. "Look at all those clouds." Kaito pointed out using his empty hand.

They examined the cluster of dark clouds gathering where Kaito's house was, then both turned to each other and came to the realization at the same time, "Smoke!" The two broke out into a run toward the thick smoldering clouds and stopped directly in front of a burning building; Kaito's home. Bright red flames swirled upwards, leaping off the roof and up into the dark blue night sky, interrupting the stillness. There stood a few firefighters attempting to contain the fire and a crowd of curious spectators.

Kaito stared at the building, his mouth agape. It was a small house, and he didn't keep many belongings in there, but it was his home and he wasn't sure what to feel about it being burned down. He also didn't know how it could have started. He thought through exactly what he had done that afternoon, before leaving to work, and quickly came to the realization

"I… I left the oven on." He whispered, staring wide-eyed at the building, the fire now beginning to quell.

Then snowflakes came down, soft white powder helping extinguish the persistent flames, and covering the dark ashes in pure white.

One of the firefighters walked over to Kaito, "You live here, kid?" he questioned motioning his head toward the charred building. Kaito nodded. "I'm sorry. We couldn't do much about it." He added removing his hat out of courtesy.

Kaito merely sighed, "It's alright. I don't blame any of you. And I don't mind, really, other than the fact that I have nowhere else to stay." He shrugged but sudden tears spiked his eyes as he gazed down at the sidewalk. "…And I guess I had a few important things that are gone now." He quickly rubbed them off.

Meiko looked at Kaito, registering the hurt in his eyes. She hated seeing him this way, she preferred his usual idiocy to seeing sadness overcome him (not that she'd ever admit to it.) She grabbed his hand and pulled him away from the gawking crowd, the firefighters and the charred building and kept walking.

"Wait - Where are we going?" Kaito asked hesitantly, allowing himself to be pulled along, but looking back at the remains of his home.

"To my house." Meiko replied.

Kaito looked surprised "What for? I need to go back there and get things settled…" he trailed off, uncertain as to how he would even do that.

"Do that later."

"Bu-but, I also need to figure out where I'm going to stay."

"You are so dense, you know that?"

"I am no- Oh!" Kaito looked over at Meiko for a moment, smiling. "Would it be okay for me to stay with you, Meiko?"

"What do you think?" she said sarcastically, narrowing her eyes at him, while still pulling him by the hand toward her house.

I wanted to incorporate some funny into this chapter, but it just wasn't the place for it. Oh, well, maybe next one. They're going to be living together now! Hooray! I'm going to have to work hard to include both their lives at home and their lives at work from now on, seems kind of tough.

Well, til next time.