As promised, here's the next chapter. Things are still going somewhat slow for Kaito and Kudo-chan, but there's an exciting decision in the next chapter. Warning: This chapter is long. R&R please!
"Sorry if my mom was pushy." Kaito broke in on the uncomfortable silence. Dinner had been pleasant, at least for him, and had been followed with dessert and coffee, which, unsurprisingly, Kudo-chan loved with a passion.
"No, it was good." She hesitated. "The whole 'let's play dress-up' thing was embarrassing, but very familiar." She smiled faintly and looked down at the female clothes she was still wearing. Before heading out the door, Kaito's mom had argued that she should stay in girl clothing until arriving home. She had given up before even trying to fight back, knowing it was useless against that determined tone. Now, though, she felt awkward standing outside her house saying goodbye to Kaito, who was still seated inside the taxi.
"She always did wish she had a daughter."
"Mm. Thank your mom for the food." She paused again, shifting her weight subtly in her heels. "Thank you too. Good night." She turned heel and ran, feeling like a coward, a little scared to admit that she'd actually had fun eating with an international thief and his mother. Family friends, she reminded herself. She was allowed to enjoy the company of family friends.
She walked through her door, not yet mentally prepared for her parents' reaction to seeing her as a girl. What she didn't expect was to see her masculine self, face-to-face. She blinked.
"Hey, 'nii-san. Hollywood not dramatic enough for you?"
"My dear imouto-chan. How I miss your sarcastic wit." Shinichi wrapped her in his long arms and squeezed the living daylights out of her.
"Wait. Is that a dress? Are those 4-inch heels? I knew you didn't grow that tall in a few months. You look like a girl!" She almost rolled her eyes. For someone who shared her genes, her brother could be really slow sometimes.
"Don't tell mom. She'll go neurotic-mom-daughter-shopping-ohmigosh again." She choked out after getting some air. She slipped out of her heels and grabbed them with one hand and her brother's arm with the other, steering them both up the stairs to her third floor room.
"Speaking of which, where are our parents?"
"On a date. You know how they've been."
"So how long are you back for?"
"A week. My manager won't let me go for longer. I accepted an offer to play a role in an upcoming movie, and there's that clothing store that hired me for their spring campaign." He sat down on her cushioned window-seat.
"Have you seen Ran yet?" She asked from behind her slightly-ajar bathroom door.
"I just got here an hour ago. I'll go tomorrow. Should I go as Alaric Song or Shinichi Kudo? Or do you want to go too, otouto-chan?" The last sentence was said in a lilting, teasing tone.
The person in question emerged in a baseball tee and sweats, but with her girl's figure. Considering for a moment, she sighed.
"Go as Shinichi. I'll use a different disguise."
"As a girl? Please?"
"I'll think about it."
The next morning, Shinichi was sitting at the breakfast table with a cup of coffee (love for the drink seemed to run in the family) when his sister finally emerged. They'd woken early to run together, like they had when they were younger. He had finished showering and dressing fairly quickly, choosing to avoid new-found attention from the BO takedown in a t-shirt, jeans, and a baseball cap, Hattori-style, but she had taken nearly an hour. After sorting through the little female clothing she had, and thinking through disguises, she looked thoroughly exhausted. Still, Shinichi thought, her black off-the shoulder tee and tank over white skinny jeans was thoroughly her style, and she blended well into the crowd with highlighted long black hair and brown colored contacts.
With an approving glance, he proffered the extra mug of coffee.
"Is it how I like it?"
"2 spoons sweet hazelnut creamer. And you look great; don't worry." She smiled at him briefly, grateful that he could read her well enough to answer her unstated question, before finishing her warm coffee in a few long draughts. Armed with aviators and a white shoulder bag, she followed her brother out the door.
Ran, dressed in an entirely different ensemble – a short dress with a cardigan and flats - met them in the street beneath her house. Her father was an idiot, but not so much of one that he couldn't tell that Ran's guests both had Shinichi's face. Instead, the three headed to the amusement park – in fact, the same one where over a year ago, Shinichi had run off the pursue the men in black, only to get caught by his manager, and have his sister follow in his place. It had been fortunate, in a way, that she always carried a copy of exactly what her brother was wearing at the moment with her, including shoes with a three-inch hidden heel.
"…cotton candy?"
"Sorry, what were you asking?" She roused herself.
"I was asking if you and Ran wanted any cotton candy."
"I'm good." Like Shinichi, she didn't really like sweets. Her brother ran off to buy some for Ran, who at the moment was in raptures enough to say yes to anything Shinichi asked. It was odd being the third wheel, she mused. Her brother obviously didn't mind her being there, and neither did Ran, but perhaps she would give them a little privacy…after a few rides, she decided.
It was 2PM, and they had been on a flurry of roller-coasters, swinging pirate ships, and other dizzying rides. They were all three enjoying themselves, sometimes all sitting together at the front, sometimes with Ran and Shinichi holding hands and screaming together at the back while the self-proclaimed third-wheel rode on a silent tide of adrenaline in the front.
Now said wheel was waiting with the bags while her brother and Ran went off for drinks and pizza for all three famished stomachs. Raking through the crowd, she suddenly spotted Kaito at a table close by. She proceeded to immediately begin ignoring him, deciding that she had been spending more time near him than was healthy. When Shinichi and Ran returned and they sat down to their late lunch, she snuck another peek at him, against the better part of her judgment.
He had started eating with a few friends. School friends, she decided, since they seemed to be engaging in gossip about a guy in class 3-B, as far as she could tell with her lip-reading skills. A girl sitting near Kaito, who was addressed as Nakamori-san and Aoko-chan by her schoolmates, was trying to conceal the crush she had on him. He clearly liked her as a friend but wasn't interested in anything else. As she finished her slice of pizza, she continued to watch them stealthily. They were childhood friends, as could be seen from their familiarity with each other. Kaito and Aoko were both well-liked enough, but by no means the most popular. She was too fierce, and he too much of a clown.
Trying not to slurp the last of her iced coffee, she looked up to realize Ran and Shinichi must have been in some emotionally deep conversation and were now as close to making out as they had ever been. Half-hugging, half-clutching each other, Ran was moving her hand over his chest, and was he kissing her hair? She looked away, and at Kaito on instinct. He met her gaze this time, and thinking quickly, she tapped an SOS beat against the back of her chair so that he could see.
Blinking once, the thief got up, taking his tray with him. As he came close to the table the three shared, he pretended to trip, dropping the tray and its contents, and slapping the ground loudly. Ran and Shinichi jumped apart, while Kaito picked himself and his tray (which still held all his trash) up and dusted his pants off. Then, looking and sounding for all the world as though he had only just noticed her, "Oh, meitantei-chan, what are you doing here?" She picked up the conversation.
"My brother is reuniting with his lov – childhood friend. He's been busy with that acting career I told you about, so we decided to take a break and come here to Tropical Land. Are you here with school friends?"
"Yeah." He gestured over his shoulder. "They wanted to take advantage of one of the last times they'll have a breather before some of them take the college admission tests in January." Here Shinichi coughed to interrupt.
"Right. Shinichi, you remember Kuroba Kaito. Kaito, you know my nii-san Shinichi."
"Kaito-kun? The one I used to play with as a kid, right?"
"The very same, at your service." So saying, Kaito gave a mock bow. "Of course, this is the beautiful Ran. Pleased to meet you." He pulled out a pink rose from nowhere and crossed his fingers. He really hoped that she wouldn't put two and two together and figure out that he was Kaitou Kid.
"Pleased to meet you too, Kuroba-san. I had no clue there was another Kudo Shinichi around here." Ran flashed him a gentle smile and took the flower, twirling the stem. He was pretty sure she didn't know.
"Call me by my first name, please. Any friend of meitantei-chan is a friend of mine." He gave the sentence a few seconds before continuing. "Could I join your little party? There was something I wanted to ask her." Ran and Shinichi both welcomed him, and he went back to his table to tell his friends. Nakamori Aoko seemed a little upset and untrusting, but didn't say so outright. Kaito rejoined the three.
"Shall we go? If you are ready that is." Dumping their napkins and paper trays, Kaito leaned over.
"I do actually want to talk to you." He bent his arm, and edged it in her direction. She debated the pros and cons as well as she could in the space of one second before deciding to put her hand on the crook of his arm. It was innocent enough, and it was one of the most gentlemanly gestures anyone had ever made toward her. They followed a little behind Ran and Shinichi. She felt inclined to break the ice first.
"Thanks for coming over and saving me from another awkward moment." She made sure her voice was a low enough murmur to avoid her brother and his sweetheart overhearing. Kaito smiled.
"Anytime."She smiled and gently pushed on his arm while quickening her pace to walk abreast of Shinichi and Ran, who were holding hands and staring soulfully into each other's eyes. It was a miracle they didn't walk into anyone or anything. She cleared her throat to warn them of her interruption.
"Where are we headed, Shinichi?" Her brother was silent. He was clearly dazed by love and had no idea. She smiled.
"What do you think of bumper cars?" Kaito seemed to intuitively know best. The action and concentration necessary for bumper cars would get Shinichi and Ran out of lala-land back into the land of the living.
"I think it would be fun." She made sure to sound supportive but not overly pushy.
"Why not?" Ran looked at Shinichi, who shrugged as if to tacitly agree. Kaito looked down past his arm at her. She glanced up at him, as if to encourage him to go ahead. He walked a little ahead of the rest of them, steering them onto another path.
"You sure you're alright?" Kaito sounded concerned, but his head was turned to look out the thirty-feet-high-and-rising window to avoid seeing her abdomen as he applied pressure to the gauze on her knife wound. The bumper cars had gone very well...until they had found a dead boy in one of the cars. She hadn't had time to change into her Shinichi disguise, but the case had been simple enough for her brother to solve partially. She had given him the missing pieces, and he had convinced the police of who the killer was. Desperate, he had tried to take her hostage. Before she knocked the razor-like knife out of his hand, the culprit had managed a lucky slash to her left. She had managed to hide the wound from her brother but she realized that Kaito had noticed immediately. He had recommended they get on the Ferris wheel, which was largely deserted nearly three hours before dusk.
She bit back a gasp as she applied disinfectant to the bloody 4-inch gash. Kaito had finally hazarded a look out of the corner of his eye, and after noticing that she had a positively tiny waist (and several scars), winced empathetically. She barely batted an eyelash as she finished up with tape and another gauze square. The cut had been shallow but bloody, and felt much worse than it was.
"We'll head back after this." Kaito decided. She didn't answer, choosing instead to focus on taping the rip in her shirt together from the inside. She sighed. If she was to dress up like a girl any more, she would need more than four shirts. Dumping everything back in her deceptively small bag, she hoisted herself back up on the seat, accidentally letting out a tiny groan in the process. Kaito was instantly on her right. He placed his arm around her and his hand rested lightly on her shoulder, all while keeping a safe distance.
A dull silence passed, in which they admired the view from the top of the ferris wheel and began their descent. Kaito cleared his throat delicately.
"Does that happen often?" She blinked. She took a breath.
"No. I wasn't on guard today. Usually I disarm them in under 10 seconds." Kaito smiled at this, imagining his resilient little meitantei-chan (did he really just think that?) kicking ass.
She had texted her brother and told him to go on ahead with his almost-girlfriend, knowing that he would notice that something was wrong soon enough if she stayed with them. Kaito had offered to walk her home, obviously not trusting her to be completely alright.
They had just stepped off the bus. Kaito looked around a little, then glanced at her with his "I'm concerned so hurry up and say something dammit" look.
"I'm alright." Kaito did not look at all convinced, and she wished for a moment he wasn't a good enough people-reader to have caught that little wince when she jumped off the bus. Her wound was still bleeding, and it still hurt like a thousand paper cuts.
As if reading her mind again, Kaito gestured at a familiar green and white mermaid sign. "What say you to some coffee? I'll buy." She glanced at him before deciding he was being ridiculously nice. She shouldn't shoot him down, she reasoned, even if this was becoming more and more like a date.
Oh well, she thought, as a waft of coffee-scented wind blew at her. It was nice having someone understand her so well.
"No, I'll buy, as thanks for helping me. And because then, you'll owe me." She gave him a devious lopsided grin.
Kaito stepped in front of her for a second to hold the door open for her before following. It was nice having someone treat her like a girl sometimes too.
