Critic

words: 378


Arms tossed up, his hands clasped behind his head, Kaito tuned out the sounds of Keiko and Aoko arguing over the heist that had just happened. He thought it was immensely ironic that Aoko had conned him into holding her Anti-Kid signs while she waved her arms to make her point. He did his best to hide the message by angling the signs so that the side with the writing was toward his back.

No one had managed to catch up with him, and he'd even loitered a bit. He just couldn't understand why not. Kudou hadn't even been stuck, or tied down after all. It just didn't make any sense at all!

Absently scanning the crowd with half lidded eyes, and a pout firmly in place, Kaito decided that being part of the crowd was just plain boring. Particularly when he was being ignored. He was just beginning to consider the idea of causing a little chaos when a knot of teenage girls moved aside and his gaze locked on the image of his current most baffling rival.

Kudou Shinichi stood among the faceless crowd, beside Mouri Ran and Suzuki Sonoko, shoulders slumped as he glared at the ground, looking sulky. The Mouri girl elbowed him, a mischievous light in every inch of her expression. Even Suzuki was looking amused, her hands clamped over her mouth to stifle her giggles while her eyes danced.

The Mouri girl said something, and Kudou's scowl deepened arms lifting as he shrugged her off in a huff that only made her laugh more. Kaito didn't think, even in the past couple of weeks he'd spent observing the other teenager, that he'd seen Kudou looking so unlike the consummate critic. It was surreal to say the least.

Then, sharp blue eyes jerked up to scan the crowd. Kaito froze for a second as Kudou's gaze landed right on him for several heartbeats then skipped away again. A sudden tugging on his arm brought him back out of the strange little moment.

"Kaito!"

"What? Sorry, Aoko, I spaced off."

"I noticed! Now come on, I want to go see Tou-chan, and make sure that stupid thief didn't do anything horrible to him!"

"Alright, alright! Don't yank my arm off!"