"We both got in separate bar fights downtown and now we're waiting in the ER comparing stories" au
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Please note that I am aware that ERs in Japan function rather differently from ERs in the US, but my research did not provide me anything concrete enough to adapt a story to, and, if I'm being honest, I was already letting this story rather do as it pleased somewhat recklessly so… let's roll with it! Maybe Beika's ERs are different anyway, just out of sheer overwork due to their resident trouble magnet ;)
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Alcohol-Based Code Names Do Not Make It a Bar Fight, Boys
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The ER waiting room was pretty crowded. For once, that had nothing to do with Shinichi. Weary and aching, he walked up to the desk. The nurse there raised his eyebrows at the messy cut and bruise spreading high across his cheekbone.
"Bar fight," Shinichi said without prompting. "Possible cracked ribs and concussion. I can fill out the forms, though."
The nurse seemed to hesitate, but he handed over a clipboard already loaded up with forms and a pen. "You're looking a little pale," he said. "Try to find a seat, all right?"
Shinichi nodded and did as he was told.
It was only a few minutes later that Kaito walked into the ER and up to the desk. The nurse looked at him, looked past him at Shinichi still sitting hunched over his forms, then looked back to Kaito again.
"Broken wrist," Kaito said, raising what was indeed a badly swollen wrist for the nurse to see. "Left one though," he added, keeping his right hand below the counter where it couldn't be seen. "I can still fill out the forms."
"You weren't, by any chance, in a–?"
"Bar fight," Kaito said, quick and flat.
"It wasn't with that guy, was it?" He was looking past Kaito again and Kaito glanced back.
"No," he said quickly, jerking back around to face the nurse.
"Hm." He handed over a clipboard and Kaito did his best to find a seat out of Shinichi's direct line of sight.
Ten minutes later Kaito had barely managed to fill in the first few lines of his forms, doing his best to write legibly and not smear blood onto the paper. It seemed his hasty wrapping of the cut across his right palm hadn't kept it from reopening as he tried to maneuver the pen.
Shinichi finished his forms and brought them up to the nurse. When he turned to sit down again, his eyes were drawn to a head of dark messy hair bent over a set of papers in determined concentration as a bloodied hand fumbled with a pen, a bruised and swollen wrist tucked carefully out of the way of the clipboard in the young man's lap. His steps stalled before they turned in his direction.
Kaito looked up, startled, when Shinichi sat down next to him.
"I'd… offer to help you with that," he said, very determinedly looking away. "But I'm sure you don't want to tell me what to write down."
Kaito looked down at his forms again, at the shaky handwriting and the wealth of personal information.
"Your right hand," Shinichi continued, voice quiet. "You hurt it. When you saved me."
No question then. He knows it's me. And, well, of course he does, when I'm sitting here with the same injuries KID had. "Too easy, Tantei-kun," Kaito agreed, continuing to write. "…Are you okay?"
"Okay enough to walk out of here before you turn that in and they call your name." Shinichi said softly. "And I will."
Kaito dropped the pen. "I can't ask you to do that," he said, a little fierce and a little affronted. "I'll–"
"You're a magician, KID," Shinichi hissed at him, still facing away. "I'll be damned if I let you walk out of here and make you put off treatment of injuries like those. You wouldn't have come to a hospital in the area and risked running into me if you thought it could wait, so if one of us has to leave for your identity to be protected, it should be me."
Kaito was openly staring at him now – staring at the side of Shinichi's face because the detective still refused to so much as glance in his direction while his hat and monocle were absent and his name was written in black and white right there in his lap. It afforded Kaito a good long look at the bruised and bloody cheek where a gun had struck the detective, sending him to the pavement hard enough to knock him out. KID's fist clenched and pain shot up his arm.
"Right," he said, and the word tasted as bitter as it sounded. "Or you could just stay because you could be concussed and you might not even remember any of this tomorrow." It turned his stomach to have to say those words and only be half-joking.
Shinichi's first instinct was to deny the claim, but KID was right. He did know that.
Before he could give the situation more consideration, he felt something pushed into his hands and looked down out of sheer surprise, scrambling to not drop the clipboard and pen he was suddenly holding. "KID–?"
"You live alone," KID said, and it wasn't a question. "Is there someone who can stay with you tonight?"
Shinichi stared, uncomprehending between his shock and the pain that was still throbbing through his head. This time it was KID who turned away and Shinichi could see for once the clear profile of his face, the cheek where the monocle always rested now bare under too-bright hospital lights. He looked down again. "I… No, there isn't," he answered quietly. He'd asked Agasa to take Haibara out of town before he'd sprung the trap that had landed him here – better to get her as far away as possible before provoking the Organization. The only other person he could ask was Ran, but he had no intention of doing so. She'd only make a bigger deal out of it than it was, and he didn't want to have to lie to her about what had happened (because there was no way he was telling her the truth of it). No. KID was right. There was no one.
KID turned back, face set into an unreadable calm, and reached over to tap a finger against the top form on the clipboard in Shinichi's hands. "174 centimeters," he said, and Shinichi let out a small scoff.
"That one I already knew," he said, but he filled it in and allowed KID to guide him through the rest of the form.
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"You live alone?"
There probably wasn't any judgment in the words, but it sort of felt like there was, just because the disapproval was so strong.
"Yes," Shinichi answered. His brain caught up a little a few moments later and he abruptly recognized the judgment and disapproval for what it actually was. Concern.
"Honestly, I'd feel better if someone was with you for the next few hours at least," the doctor said. "Is there someone you could call?"
Shinichi barely hesitated. He nodded, just a little. "I'll have him take me home," he said, keeping it vague. The confidence in the words was strictly for the doctor's benefit.
It worked. The man looked relieved, and agreed to discharge him.
Shinichi went out into the waiting room a few minutes later. It was a little less full now. The sky was starting to grow lighter outside. With a glance, he took in the patients waiting. KID wasn't there – had surely been called back after Shinichi had been – and he considered for a moment that he might have been released already and gone home. He sat down and waited anyway.
Twenty minutes later, his body was not thanking him for the long (incredibly long) night and the uncomfortable waiting room chair. Kaito found him folded forward, head down and elbows braced on his legs to prop him up.
"Tantei-kun." His fingertips brushed Shinichi's shoulder, the pressure careful for both their sakes. "You want me to help you get home?" he guessed.
Shinichi looked up at him, noting the fresh, clean bandaging on KID's right hand and the short cast on his left forearm, but weariness dropped his head forward again after just a few seconds. "Please," he said softly.
Kaito was already helping him to his feet.
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Shinichi started nodding off the minute he and KID were settled into the back of the cab.
"Hey," KID said, touching his arm. "Are you okay to fall asleep?"
Shinichi nodded. "He said so, but he also… didn't want me alone." He shook his head a little. "I'll be fine," he murmured.
KID frowned and returned his eyes to the city lights crawling by.
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Outside the gate of the Kudou manor, Kaito woke Shinichi and helped him out of the cab, paying the driver and sending her on her way. Shinichi apparently didn't take note of that detail because when they made it to the front door he looked at KID like he didn't know what he was doing there.
"I'm not leaving, Tantei-kun," KID said, taking the key from Shinichi's hand and carefully unlocking the door. "I don't want you alone either."
"…What?" Shinichi murmured, staring after him. KID stopped short, one foot inside the house. He glanced back.
"You said in the taxi," Kaito explained, the words slow with building concern. "The doctor told you he didn't want you to be left alone."
"…Oh."
His eyes had moved off to the side, his eyebrows pulled down. It was clear he was trying to remember with little to no success. Kaito reached out and gently tipped Shinichi's chin up so he could see his eyes. "Hey," he said, firm but quiet. "Do you remember who I am?" At this point, he'd be perfectly happy if Shinichi identified him as Kuroba Kaito if it meant he could remember.
"KID…" Shinichi said. "I mean you've gotta be, cause I don't know you but you're… helping me. You look like him. You sound like him." His face scrunched a little more in concentration and Kaito reached out, resting his fingertips on Shinichi shoulders.
"Yes, I'm KID," he said quickly, hoping to stop him from thinking too hard about anything at this point. "Do you remember how we got here?"
"Taxi," Shinichi answered. "Just now."
"That's right. What about earlier. Last night. The trap you set for those Organization members."
Shinichi's eyes widened. "Oh. I… I can't remember. What happened?"
Kaito's jaw clenched. "Later for that," he decided. He stepped out of the doorway to push Shinichi inside ahead of him and stole his phone from his pocket even as he was guiding him upstairs.
"KID, I'm all right," Shinichi insisted.
"I know," KID said, but he walked him all the way to the bathroom and sat him down at Yukiko's vanity before vanishing down the hall. Shinichi didn't quite have it in him to get up.
"Here." KID returned just seconds later and handed over a set of Shinichi's pajamas. "Get cleaned up, okay?" Shinichi just sighed a little and nodded.
In the hallway, KID closed the door on the sounds of running water and carefully tapped in the hospital's number on Shinichi's phone. When they answered, he shifted his voice into Shinichi's speech patterns.
"Hello. I was just in a little while ago for a concussion… I fell asleep on the way home and now I… can't remember most of last night." They asked for his information and Kaito provided it and answered their questions about other symptoms, breathing out an inaudible sigh when they told him not to worry. Rest, they emphasized. No heavy physical or mental activity, and he'd be just fine. Kaito agreed on Shinichi's behalf and hung up just as the bathroom door opened again.
Shinichi glanced back at KID as the thief followed him into his bedroom. "I have a concussion. I know," he sighed. Then, hesitantly, he added, "Sorry KID, but… would you mind staying?"
"Heh."
"…Did I already ask you that?" Shinichi said with a slight scowl, his eyebrows creasing again.
"You didn't," KID answered. "But I was planning to stay anyway. It's just nice to know you're not too stupid or proud to ask for help here. Do you mind if I borrow some clothes?"
Shinichi laughed a little but a wince flickered across his face and cut it short, his arm wrapping loosely around his ribs. "How nice of you to ask for once," he said anyway. KID smirked and went to the closet. "Pajamas are in the drawer there," Shinichi added a moment before it occurred to him that of course KID must know that. But KID hadn't gone for them. His lips twitched down again. "More comfortable," he said pointedly.
KID glanced back at where Shinichi was getting into his bed and rather deliberately shifting to one side of it. His surprise apparently made it to his face because Shinichi raised an eyebrow at him. "I asked you to stay as a favor," Shinichi explained. "From the look of it, we've both had a pretty rough night. I'm not going to make you sit up in a chair at my bedside. This is better for both of us."
"…Okay," Kaito agreed. He took a set of pajamas from the drawer and managed to change his pants, but the movement required for removing his shirt was enough to make him flinch, his whole body sore. He brought his arms back down quickly and was going to just skip changing his shirt, regardless of how much it smelled like hospital, when he heard Shinichi's voice, quiet right behind him.
"Here," he said, and Kaito felt hands at his waist, helping guide the shirt up. Kaito went along with the movement again, mostly because he knew Shinichi just wanted to help. He clenched his teeth against the pain of it, but it only took a moment with Shinichi's assistance eliminating the need for precise motor skills from Kaito's injured hands.
Shinichi carefully eased the shirt free from the cast and set it on the desk chair with Kaito's pants. Then he froze, taking in a sharp, silent breath when KID turned to pick up the pajama shirt, displaying the mottled bruising across his upper back.
"KID…"
KID glanced over his shoulder to see Shinichi staring. "What?"
"Your back…"
"Oh. Yeah." It probably looked pretty bad. He wouldn't be surprised. "Rough night," he agreed. "You're probably worse."
Shinichi didn't need telling. He'd seen it for himself when he'd changed his clothes in the bathroom. "Sorry," he said without thinking.
"Huh?"
"I… The trap. Everything last night. I'm not sure, but this is probably my fault–"
KID laughed. "It's really not, Tantei-kun." He was smiling at him, his eyes warm. "Come on." He unfolded the pajama shirt with his fingertips and Shinichi helped him wriggle into it before crawling back into the bed. Kaito turned out the lights and slid in next to him.
For a few minutes, they both lay quiet in the dark, both suddenly too awake. Eventually KID whispered into the silence, "My name's Kuroba Kaito."
Shinichi's eyes opened. "…Are you only telling me because I might not remember?"
Kaito breathed out a laugh. "No. I'll tell you as many times as it takes for it to stick. I'd already made that decision. I'm not going to take it back just because I can. And… I'll tell you everything that happened tonight, if you trust me to. I'll do whatever I can to not make this one more thing they took away from you."
"KID…" Shinichi rolled onto his side to look at him, but his ribs didn't like that much. He made a soft sound of discomfort, shifting onto his back again and settling for just turning his head. He could just make out KID's face in the faint light from behind his curtains. KID met his eyes.
"You can call me Kaito. If you want."
"…Kaito," Shinichi said, testing it out. "Why–?"
"Get some rest, Tantei-kun," Kaito said, settling himself a little more deeply into Shinichi's pillows and drawing in a deep breath that was more like a suppressed yawn. "You're not supposed to be thinking too hard. You'll scramble that big brain of yours."
Shinichi smiled and turned his head back to stare up at the ceiling. "…'Shinichi'," he said.
"You sure?" KID answered. "You don't have to just because I–"
"No," Shinichi said. "I'd like it if you used my name."
Kaito smiled. "Okay Shinichi. Thanks."
They both fell quiet again and Kaito actually started to doze off, finally relaxing – something he'd never imagined he'd be able to do while lying beside a genius detective and sworn KID-catcher before the events of that night. And he wasn't sure if he was dreaming or not, but he felt Shinichi's fingers wrap around his, carefully gentle.
Shinichi let out a soft sigh of relief at the returned pressure of Kaito's fingertips under the blanket they were sharing.
Kuroba Kaito, he thought as he started to drift off. I hope I get to know you better.
He was smiling too as he finally fell asleep.
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Author Note:
Hey, would you look at that; I straight-up ignored the prompt again! lol I regret nothing.
