Author's note:
Authors' note: (very, very, very tired author looks around the room littered with remnants of two-days-long party, pops a cookie escaped from the massacre into her mouth, and sits back at the computer.) Sooo… what was this story about again?
Disclaimer: Me don't own. You don't sue. Simple, yes?
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Tenet
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"What got you into entering the Task Force?"
Kuroba pops up the question at the bar where all the members of the force gathered up after a long, hard-working day at the office. You stare at him through your glass; the golden reflection of his grin oddly deformed. A twist of the wrist and the silky surface of the alcohol ripples delicately away.
"… I dunno," you admit. "With my father and me always coming down at the office after school… it was, er, natural. Oh, and alcohol, too. We drink alcohol here. Alcohol's good…" You catch his sideways leer and exclaim loudly, "Hey, don't you think I'm drunk!" which sends him into a fit of giggles. At least, you suppose these are giggles.
"Nah, it's a good reason," he finally says. He sounds perfectly sober, of course, although he's had about twice as much alcohol as you did. He drains down his glass of brandy right now, and takes the bottle to fill it again.
"What about you?" you cut him off, and his hand holding the bottle stills a second before resuming the pouring.
"… I guess it just sorta… happened. One day I though, hey, why not? then came over and asked for a job. I wouldn't care to be a regular policeman. But here at least we're having fun." A little drunk. Maybe.
You pour, not pleased. "Whaaaat, no hidden brotherhood with KID and life-long rivalry?"
He laughs a little. "No, no really."
"It would explain the magic tricks, at least," you mumble as he extracts a rose out of your hair again. Several policemen behind you wolf-whistle at the gesture. "Drunks," you sneer at them, and then stick out your tongue (definitely not drunk) and turn away back to Kaito, who's grinning a rather soft grin.
"And you're happy with it?"
"Kaito and Ao-ko, sitting in a tree," half the Task Force (most obviously drunk) bellow behind you before he can even answer. You swirl round on your chair on glower. "Would you lot shut up?"
"Kee-ee-ess-ess-ee-en-geee!"
"Fools," Kaito laughs, and lifts his glass into the light, clinking the ice to the side.
For some reason, the gesture reminds you of KID.
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I dunno if the while 'Kaito and Aoko sitting in a tree' is some kind of well-known riddle in English. So far as I'm concerned, it comes right off Calvin and Hobbes. Because it rocks. And the line 'I wonder which kind of cookies she brought' became one of my favourite quotes. Oh, and it taught me English, too.
Cookies?