Ugh, I have to go out and sit on top of my car now to get a wireless connection since the one that I got in my room, my brother's room, and the kitchen is now gone and dead. I need proper internet badly, but without a job (which I'm hopefully getting soon), that doesn't look so likely. Anyway, I'll shut up about my internet issues, and let you enjoy!
Polaris18: But Eyes is fun and easy to pick on. And Ayumu's not an idiot, he's cute and sexy. Thanks for reviewing!
Kenbu: Well, there's plenty of Kousuke in this chapter, so no worries there! Thanks for reviewing!
Solo Maxwell-Yamato: XD, well, as long as I haven't lost you for good, you little lurker. XD, I'll just write more yuri, that'll get you reviewing. And yes, EyesHiyono. It was very random and seemed very appropriate. I don't know why, but I actually... like it... in this fic. Like you said, cute and disturbing. XD, thanks for reviewing!
misydidi: Sure enough, there is a bit in here for you. Just enough for you to want more XD, thanks for reviewing!
"It seems like forever since we've been back," Madoka commented, stepping into the airport lobby and looking around at all the travelers. She glanced over her shoulder at her husband, who was picking through luggage to find his own.
"It's only been a few months," he reminded her, finally grabbing a leather briefcase.
"The rest of our stuff is already being sent home," she confirmed as they headed out to the busy city street and waited for a taxi to pick them up. After a moment of silence between the couple, Madoka spoke again, "So do you think it's really him?"
"He's been eluding me for quite some time," Kiyotaka murmured, half to himself, "If he knows who I am, and who Ayumu is..."
"Why would he approach him?" she concluded.
He nodded and held the door open for her as a cab slowed down in front of them. Once inside, he took to looking out the window as the busy street passed them by. "Unless it's a test," he thought, leaving Madoka out of his internal conversation, "He has always been one for games. Perhaps he's gotten bored and decided to play with fire." He wondered idly if the thief thought Ayumu wouldn't call Kiyotaka about the incident. "Regardless, if he's in Osaka, then perhaps he wants to end it." Things like this always tended to come full circle.
---
"Close now, but not close enough," the redheaded thief muttered.
"Are you talking to yourself again?" a voice behind him asked. Kaitou turned to see his partner in crime, so to speak, leaning against the doorway of their current apartment.
He rolled his eyes, "Kiyotaka's come back to Osaka."
"The younger brother ratted, just like I said he would," Ryoko told him, "Kousuke, you really should be more careful."
"Careful? I'm a thief, I have to be careful." He sighed and looked back out the large bay window, "But this game of cat and mouse has grown a bit dull."
"So you're trying to mix it up by getting involved with his family?" Ryoko asked, frowning slightly, "Ayumu's looking to follow in his brother's footsteps, he'll turn you in the minute he has the chance."
"He should," Kousuke agreed, nodding, "but you forget one thing."
"And what's that?" the female thief asked, skeptically.
Kousuke chuckled and turned his back to her, watching the sun sink over the skyscrapers, "I'm Kousuke Asazuki, I never lose."
Ryoko sighed and rolled her eyes, "You can think that all you want, but you're up against more than a mere detective here." Kiyotaka Narumi was not one to be trifled with.
---
"I wonder when Kiyotaka will be home," Ayumu wondered, walking along the now-deserted streets of his city. It was late at night once more, and it never occurred to Ayumu that walking alone at night without any real means of defense might be a bad idea. But he'd done it so many times, who was to say tonight would be any different? And it wasn't like anything strange had ever happened before, not other than in that alley, and things there just didn't mix with reality.
He made his way to said alley and paused at its entrance. Clear as day, he could see the other side of the narrow way, even as dark as it was. All-night stores and their neon signs lit up the opposite street perfectly well, and there were even a few nighttime walkers like himself passing by the alley. There was nothing special about it until he took that first step in, and then it seemed as if the whole world was whisked away. The previous events with the strange thief only proved to strengthen his belief that odd things happened in that alley.
Tonight, though, he turned and walked past. He could have easily taken the shortcut like he did so many other nights, but that red-haired playboy had been on his mind too long. If he lived around here, perhaps he would see Ayumu and confront him. If the brunette wasn't in the alley when that happened, then perhaps he could believe such a breath-taking stranger really existed. Sure, Kiyotaka had been chasing that exact boy for months on end (if, indeed, it was the same thief), but who was to say his kaitou and his brother's were the same. Maybe he was being chased by the cops for a completely different reason.
"Well, well, what do we have here?" A chilling voice from the shadows asked, surrounding Ayumu and making him jump.
Chocolate eyes were now alert and the teen was swerving his head in every direction, trying to find the source, "Who's there?" he asked, boldly, hoping it was who he knew it wasn't. This voice was much deeper and less friendly, nearly sinister.
"Don't look so frightened, I won't hurt you," the voice assured him, an evil chuckle following the words, "Well, much, anyway."
This tensed Ayumu even more and he suddenly felt very vulnerable, stuck in the middle of a street, no walls on any side. He slid his hand into his jacket pocket, fingers scrambling for a cell phone, but just as they brushed up against the device, different fingers (much colder and stronger than his) clamped around his wrist.
Ayumu jumped and looked up into menacing and deranged golden eyes. A twisted grin was spread across the man's face and his messy green hair served only to emphasize his animalistic appearance. He was tall, a bit taller than Ayumu, and had to be in at least his late thirties. He smelled strongly of liquor and if Ayumu had to guess, he'd say the stranger was one a few too many drugs that shouldn't be mixed with alcohol.
"Get off of me," the younger boy insisted, trying to wrench the stranger's hand off of his own.
"I don't think I will," the green-haired man hissed, drawing something out of his pocket. Ayumu saw a glint of silver one moment and was staring cross-eyed at the barrel of a gun the next. "You're just too cute to pass up."
The man's intentions were becoming more and more obscene as Ayumu let the meaning of his words sink in. "No," he stated firmly, though not sure what he could do to back it up, "Leave me alone."
"Aw, now, now," the stranger chided, cupping Ayumu's cheek and pressing the gun into his forehead when he flinched away, "Be a good little boy, and-"
"Just say no," yet another, slightly more familiar voice finished.
The stranger frowned and looked around, "Who's there?" he demanded, whipping his gun away from Ayumu and pointing it in a random direction that he assumed the mystery speaker was located.
"Not so fun now, is it?" the voice asked again, this time from clear down the other side of the street, "When you're the mouse being hunted by the cat?"
The man growled in the back of his throat and Ayumu edged away from him. Seeing the brunette's attempted escape, he pointed the gun back at him, "Show yourself or I waste the kid!"
"Patience, patience is a virtue, waste it not or it'll kill you," the voice sang out.
"Shut up, stop talking!" the stranger shouted, his wild eyes darting every which way every time the voice spoke again from another location.
"Isn't that how a conversation is held?" the disembodied voice wondered, now from behind Ayumu, "I talk," now from the nearby building, "and then you talk," behind the crazed drunk, "and then I talk again." Once again at the far end of the alley. His voice was firing off the walls so rapidly it became like an echo.
"Leave... leave me alone!" the gun-toting man demanded.
"I'm not doing a thing," the voice insisted, now sounding much closer and much more real. It was coming from behind Ayumu and he froze, almost sure he could feel the stranger's breath on the back of his beck, "Perhaps you should be the one to leave."
Looking around, much like a trapped animal would, the strange man edged away from the shadows and kept his gun locked on Ayumu as he backed away. Once he was far enough down the street, he turned tail and fled.
Ayumu sighed a breath of relief, and noticed that the presence he had felt behind him a moment ago was no longer there. "Wait," he called into the darkness, "Kaitou!"
"You remember me, I'm flattered." Then again, not many forgot Kousuke once he worked his way into their lives.
Brown eyes glanced around, the voice now further away again, "Where are you? I want to see you."
"Isn't that the oldest trick in the book?" he asked, amused, "Trust me, I won't do anything, I just want to talk."
"But," Ayumu frowned, a little taken back by the comment, "I do just want to talk." He might have been a detective-in-training, and this might be the most notorious thief in ages, but his head seemed to let his heart take over for the meantime.
"Say I believe you," Kousuke spoke again, his voice now on ground level, but still distanced, "Why do you need to see my face? We're talking right now aren't we?"
"Because I want to see you again," Ayumu confessed, glad that it was darkened around him as he thought he might be blushing faintly. How had this guy gotten to him so quickly, when no one else did?
"How endearing," the redhead chuckled, half-mocking, "Have I got the great Detective Narumi's little brother wrapped around my finger?"
The blush faded and Ayumu narrowed his eyes slightly, "I'm not wrapped around your finger," he stated firmly, "and if you're going to continue mocking me, then perhaps I don't want to see you that badly."
"Too soon," Kousuke thought, sighing slightly, "Alright, alright," he conceded, "I didn't mean it, don't get all flustered."
"I'm not getting flustered." If anyone else had been this rude and condescending, Ayumu would have turned and left the disembodied voice to remain without a face. However, the thief had just saved his life, the most he could do was talk with him a bit. That, and he still had an underlying desire to see his sparkling green eyes again and that cocky little smirk.
"Fair enough."
And there he was, only a meter or two away from Ayumu, dressed all in black as usual, but not even trying to hide his face or brightly-colored hair this time. As suspected, he wore a confident smirk along his lips and his arms crossed over his chest only served to boost his image of a cocky bastard.
Ayumu took him in as a whole, as a slightly-taller-then-him redheaded man dressed in black. Then, he broke each feature down piece by piece: The soft-looking texture of his spiky hair, the mischievous glint in his emerald eyes, the confident posture, and those eyes again, holding a secret that Ayumu knew he wanted to find out. Someone that could earn the name Kaitou and be taken seriously about it must have a story.
"Well," Kousuke finally spoke, "here I am."
"Uh...yeah," Ayumu muttered, feeling foolish. Why had he asked to see the thief again? Why was turning him in the last thing from his mind at the moment? Why did he feel the burning desire to get to know more about this person in front of him?
The redhead grinned, "You still look flustered," he pointed out.
"I'm... I'm not," the brunette insisted, locking his gaze with Kousuke's. For one, intense moment, the two were equals. Not detectives and thieves, but men and humans. Then time began again and Ayumu glanced away, unable to stop the chill running down his spine.
"You called your brother," Kousuke noted, chuckling at the younger man's shocked expression, "I expected as much, and it's why I chose you to show myself to."
"Because of Kiyotaka," Ayumu whispered, his stomach plummeting. Kaitou had no interest in him, he was just a pawn in their game of chase, something to make the odds a little higher and the game a little more fun.
"Of course, after all, you're not one for conversation." At Ayumu's defeated expression, Kousuke strode over to him so that there was only a foot or less in between them, "But make no mistake, the crazy drunk was right, you are kind of cute."
The blush was back and then his words sunk in, "You've been watching me." Then everything hit him like a tidal wave. He had been so caught up in the thief's appearance that he had forgotten his earlier thoughts; thoughts that if he possibly met this man again, that he could be real, that he really was here and Ayumu really was talking to him. The fact that Kousuke had saved him from the crazy drunk was enough of a reality check to clarify his existence. He had mentioned Kiyotaka, Ayumu had felt his breath on the back on his neck: He was real.
"Just a little," Kousuke confessed.
"Why? If I'm nothing more than a pawn in your game, then why would you..." Ayumu trailed off, staring intently at Kousuke, "Kiyotaka's back."
The redhead chuckled, "He is," he confirmed, "but that's not why I've been following you."
"Then why?" The joy of his brother returning didn't even have time to sink in, he had to know this answer. More than anything he had ever wanted or needed to know, the next words to come out of the thief's mouth would be the most important he had ever heard.
"I, Kaitou, have no interest in you," Kousuke stated, leaning in and brushing his cheek against Ayumu's to whisper in his ear, "but I, Kousuke, do."
Ayumu froze for a moment, registering the words very clearly. The mystery thief's real name was Kousuke. No, that wasn't what was important. What was important is that he had an interest in him, beyond using him to get to Kiyotaka. Ayumu ran the words through his head again and again to make sure that he couldn't have misunderstood what the mysterious man was trying to say, but he couldn't think of any other way he could interest the guy.
The warmth that the other body had brought was gone, and the brunette looked up to see that Kousuke had disappeared once again into the darkness. He let out a long breath that he had been holding in his absence from reality and shoved his hands in his pockets for lack of something better to do with them. His fingers brushed against his cell phone and he pulled it out. Without a second thought, and with no real idea of what he was doing, he dialed Kiyotaka's number.
"What?" the voice on the other end of the line answered, slightly annoyed but definitely his brother.
"Hey," Ayumu greeted, staring at the ground, rooted in place. He wasn't sure why (perhaps the shock of recent events hadn't worn off yet), but he couldn't bring himself to walk quite yet.
"Where are you?" Kiyotaka demanded, sighing as something that sounded like glass broke in the background.
"I'm on my way home, you?"
"At home." He didn't sound pleased to be so, "Whoever decided that liquor should be involved in welcome home parties needs to be slaughtered."
Ayumu chuckled-- he knew how Madoka and Hiyono drunk were. The thought of them together was a nightmarish reality that stirred him from the pleasant dream he had been having. Finding himself able to walk again, he slowly started down the street.
"Why did you call?" Kiyotaka asked after a short silence.
Ayumu's mind raced-- why had he called? He kicked a pebble down the street, "Um..."
"Did you see Kaitou again?"
All thoughts came to a screeching halt. That would be the obvious reason why he would call his brother so late at night, but was it really? Ayumu shook his head, "No, I... just wanted to know when you'd be back."
"We took the first flight out," the elder brother informed him, "We've been back long enough for these two to get annoyingly drunk."
"At least Eyes doesn't drink," Ayumu thought. He wasn't quite sure how the normally-stoic boy would handle alcohol, "I'll be back in a few minutes, try not to kill them."
"I'll try, but no promises," Kiyotaka answered. Madoka was heard shouting about something or another in the background before the line went dead.
Ayumu chuckled and hung up, slipping his phone back into his pocket. He paused and glanced down a certain alleyway he had already passed that night. In his daze, he must have gotten turned around, and headed back the way he came. He looked down the alley for a long moment before once more retracing his steps away from it. He'd already had enough odd yet wonderful things happen to him tonight.
I think I got inspired to write by my font. o.o, it's called OldDreadfulNo7 BT and it's fun. Though, it did take some getting used to. Much better than that Franklin Gothic Book I was using before, it kind of reminds me of Comic Sans, but...more messy-looking. I'll shut up since I'm ranting about fonts now, but fonts are awesome. Hope you enjoyed!
