Disclaimer: DCMK are not mine.
7 Days of Madness
Day 7: And Then it was Over, Sort Of
Waking up to a kiss was a nice change. It was also rather surprising that when he opened his eyes he could see bright sunlight flooding in through the window. He'd been expecting pallid, predawn gray as per the trend of the week and his life in general. He blinked at the magician hovering over him.
"Good morning~," Kaito greeted him with a grin that was half a smirk before leaning down to kiss him again.
And of course that was when the door opened.
"Hey, you two up yet? The others'll be here soo—" Heiji cut himself off mid inquiry and turned dark red. "S—sorry, just, uh, cametotellyouthatthey'llbeheresoon." Message delivered he bolted from the room, jerking the door shut behind himself with a bang that rattled the frame.
Shinichi groaned, fighting and failing to hold back the color he knew was rising in his own face. "I thought the door was locked," he mumbled, horrified dismay still evident.
Kaito shrugged, making no move to get up. "Guess it wasn't."
Shinichi waited a moment then cleared his throat. "….Are you going to let me up?"
"Let me see…" The magician pulled on a thoughtful face and pretended to ponder the query for several seconds. "Nope. I don't think I want to."
"But Hattori said—"
"They're supposed to get here at one. That's still hours away."
Downstairs, Hakuba looked around from his place at the kitchen table when Hattori came crashing down the stairs.
"Are they still sleeping?" he asked, noting that the Osakan had come down alone.
Heiji turned even redder and coughed. "Uh, no, they're—busy. I think I'm gonna make myself a sandwich. Do you want one? You know what, I'll just go ahead and make a couple. Maybe the girls will want some when they get here."
Hakuba watched in bemused silence as the other detective yanked open the refrigerator door and stuck his head inside in the manner of an ostrich sticking its head in the ground. This behavior was odd even for Hattori (whom he was inclined to feel did a lot of illogical things), but it didn't take a genius to figure out what might have happened. Personally, Hakuba couldn't understand how Shinichi could survive Life with Kuroba (even if they did seem to understand each other, hard as it was to imagine anyone coming remotely close to being able to claim they understood Kuroba Kaito), but as long as it meant Kuroba occupied himself elsewhere he would be grateful. Picking up his mug, he poured himself another cup of tea.
X
When the sound of an engine coming up the driveway ceased and the doorbell rang, Hattori leapt from his seat like a man off hot coals and made a dive for the door. It opened to reveal Kazuha, Aoko, and Ran all dressed in winter coats and scarves.
"Kazuha!" the Oasakan detective exclaimed in what might have been considered joy if it hadn't also sounded like blissful relief. Kazuha looked slightly taken aback when she found herself the subject of a relieved hug not unlike the embrace of the stranded being rescued at last from certain doom. But, well, stranger things had happened, so she patted Heiji on the back and waited patiently for whatever fit had come over him to pass.
"What happened to him?" Aoko asked curiously as she and Ran edged around the pair in the doorway to venture rather warily farther into the bowels of the house. Hakuba, who had come to greet them with his mug still attached to his hand, coughed lightly.
"A lot has happened," he said a bit vaguely. "Would you like a sandwich?"
"I certainly wouldn't mind," Ran agreed.
"I'm pretty hungry too," Aoko admitted, smiling in thanks as Hakuba took her bag. "By the way, where's Kaito?" She'd been expecting to be bombarded by tricks the moment they walked through the door. It was just the way the magician said hello.
"He and Kudo-san are feeding the doves in the living room. If you will follow me, the kitchen is this way."
"The doves?" Aoko repeated before frowning and poking her head into the living room. Sure enough, Shinichi and Kaito were sitting on the couch surrounded by a flock of eagerly shuffling white birds. "Kaito! This vacation house doesn't allow pets! I know I told you that before you left!"
Both boys glanced up and the magician grinned. "Don't worry Aoko, no one will ever know they were here."
"That's not the point!"
"Come on Aoko," Ran said, peering over the other girl's shoulder and smiling at the sight of all the doves lined up on various pieces of furniture. They really were rather cute. It was hard to believe that so many birds could be so well behaved. "I'm sure it'll be fine. Besides, they've already been here six days. Making Kaito-kun send them home now wouldn't really change anything."
"I suppose you're right," Aoko sighed before shooting Kaito one last, irate glare. "But if we get charged extra because they find bird feathers everywhere when they inspect this place you're paying." Warning delivered, she retreated back to the kitchen.
Ran turned to follow her but paused for a moment to pull out her phone and snap a quick picture of the living room's many occupants. The dove sitting on top of Shinichi's head was a definite bonus. It was hilarious the way he'd been absently handing bits of food up to it throughout Aoko and Kaito's exchange but she refrained from bursting into laughter because she didn't want to scare the birds. But oh she was definitely sending a copy of this one to his parents.
By the time the doves had all been fed Heiji had also recollected his wits and all seven vacationers gathered in the kitchen.
"Did you guys see this yet?" Kazuha asked, holding up a flyer she'd found taped to the outside of the front door. "They're having a last minute Christmas tree sale not too far from here."
"Doesn't it seem a bit too last minute?" Heiji asked dubiously. "I mean, we wouldn't even have time to decorate it or anything."
"Nonsense," Kaito interjected. "It'll be a sad time indeed when seven people can't decorate one tree when they have a whole day to do it. I say we go get one."
"But what about ornaments? We didn't bring any," Shinichi pointed out. "And it really would take too long if we had to get the tree and drive all the way into town for decorations."
"We do have two cars," Ran replied. "Why don't we split into two groups? Half of us can go for the tree and the rest can go for decorations."
"I get the tree!" Kaito declared. "And Shin-chan's coming too."
Shinichi shot him a look at being volunteered but was ignored.
"Ornaments," both Hattori and Hakuba said in unison. They paused for a moment as they realized they had just volunteered to do something together when they didn't have to, but apparently the opportunity to get away from the magician was far too appealing to pass up.
The girls traded looks with raised eyebrows before Kazuha and Aoko announced that they'd go with their boyfriends "since someone with an eye for art should be there". No one needed to mention that they were also going along to make sure the tenuous truce the two detectives seemed to have come to lasted the duration of the venture. Or at least that the ornaments arrived in whole pieces.
X
"So how did the Parent Project go?" Shinichi asked as he and Ran trudged after Kaito into the yard where the trees were being sold.
To his surprise Ran actually smiled. "They were actually pretty civil all the way up to the last day. Of course then dad had to go and say something stupid but, well, it's been a while since they've spent so much time together without fighting. I think maybe they're finally coming around."
"That's—" Shinichi caught the 'unexpected' before it could escape his mouth, "good."
"Yep. And Eisuke met up with us the day before we left and Mom likes him."
Shinichi wondered if this was because her father didn't, but, well, he should probably keep that thought to himself too.
"What about you guys?" Ran asked suddenly. "Did anything interesting happen?"
"Well…" The last six days flashed before his eyes and he wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry at the sheer lunacy that was most of it. "I…guess you could call it interesting…"
"Kaito-kun said he had funny photos and some footage he was going to share later."
"Ah yes, that…"
Ran turned to give him a puzzled look but they were interrupted by the magician himself before she could ask any more questions.
"Hey, how about this one?"
Shinichi turned at Kaito's shout and looked up—and up and up some more. "Kaito, that one wouldn't even fit through the front door. And even if you did manage to squeeze it inside the ceiling would be too low for you to stand it up."
"Hmm, I guess that's true. Ah well, more's the pity. It would've made one hell of a Christmas tree!"
X
The Ornament Hunters trooped into the house nearly an hour and a half after Kaito, Shinichi, and Ran had gotten the Christmas tree set up in the living room. Paper crinkled as bags were dumped onto the floor in the middle of the room.
"Did you guys find anything good?" Kaito asked. Not waiting for an answer, he bounded over to the pile and began rooting through it.
Kazuha let out a disgruntled sigh. "Hakuba-san wanted all plain colored balls. But Heiji wanted to go with ornaments that had shapes instead of the traditional spheres. It took forever to get them to compromise and get the patterned balls. Have they been like this the whole week?"
Shinichi grimaced. "You have no idea."
"Hey, we're right here you know," Heiji grumbled, slouching onto the sofa. "You don't have to talk like we're not here."
Aoko picked up two boxes of ornaments and threw one at each of the disgruntled detectives. "Well, make yourselves useful then and start helping us with the tree."
"I'll get started on dinner," Ran announced, turning towards the kitchen. "Any requests?"
X
Overall, Shinichi mused, it had been a good Christmas Eve. With Ran as head chef dinner was spectacular, and even the tree decorating had gone well. There had been a bit of an argument when Kaito put the top hat on the angel (it looked an awful lot like a miniature of KID's, which Hakuba had been quick to notice), but they now had a beautifully dressed tree which glittered faintly with reflected firelight as the ornaments tried to outdo each other in their renditions of the hearth fire. Hot chocolate had been passed around and everyone had settled down to simply chat and catch up. Somewhere between the chocolate and the photos of the gingerbread incident (when they'd been developed, no one but Kaito would ever know), Kaito grabbed Shinichi and dragged him upstairs where he proceeded to climb out the window and up onto the roof.
"I don't think this roof was designed for people to climb around on top of it," Shinichi said a bit uneasily. The slope of said roof wasn't particularly steep, but it still gave him the disconcerting feeling that he was going to go sliding right off over the edge.
"It's fine," Kaito assured him, pulling Shinichi onto his lap where he sat near the highest point of the roof and wrapping his arms securely around his middle. "I won't let you fall. Now just relax and enjoy the show."
The detective relaxed despite himself. "Show?" he repeated curiously. "What—"
The rest of his question was drowned out by a deafening explosion. He stiffened and might have jumped if Kaito hadn't been holding onto him. The fact that the magician himself seemed totally unconcerned however assuaged his initial urge to duck for cover. Instead his gaze followed Kaito's upward as the night sky suddenly filled with colors.
"Fireworks," he breathed, staring up at the spectacular play of lights in awe. "When did you—"
"Shhh, stop asking questions for a moment and just watch," Kaito murmured into his ear. He could hear the magician's smile even if he couldn't see it. "Merry Christmas."
Owari
A.N: I know light travels faster than sound, but if they go off nearby I'm pretty sure you hear fireworks before you see them. And there we go! Well, I've had fun writing this, hope you guys enjoyed it too. Thanks for reading and special thanks to everyone who reviewed. I guess I should be going back to focusing on Travelers. Oh, and I've reorganized the status updates on my profile so they're alphabetical and easier to find now for anyone who might care (admittedly, it's irrelevant for this story now, hehe). I've got to run now. Have a nice weekend everyone! ^_^
