Mikau: Hello everyone. Thank you very much for your continued readership. Thanks also to kakashikrazy256 for reviewing. Work is keeping me pretty busy during the week, but I'll try to update every couple days or so. The other day I was standing in front of one of my classes, and I thought, "Oh my god. This is how it feels to be on the other side of the desks." Teachers can see everything from up there in front.

Disclaimer: If I owned it, it would have ended years ago due to lack of new ways to creatively murder people.

….

Emptiness

It was around midnight when Saguru was roused from his sleep by a presence in his room.

His eyes snapped open, and they were meet by another pair—this one indigo.

"Kid," he breathed.

"Hakuba-san?" the thief returned with a chuckle.

"You're…in my room…again." Saguru's sleep-numbed mind was not processing very quickly.

"When I was following you discretely today, I heard you tell your cute little boyfriend that you wanted to meet me." Kid grinned like a certain fictitious feline.

"You were stalking me?" That woke the Brit's brain up.

"It's called 'research,' Pot-san," the phantom tittered, taking a seat at the foot of the detective's bed.

"Kuroba is not my boyfriend!" It was taking a while for the blonde to catch up in the conversation.

"Oh? Shame. He's good-looking." Kid leered at Kaito's pictures on the wall and chuckled. "Maybe I'll take a shot at him."

"Are you gay?" Hakuba's eyes narrowed as he took in the internationally-wanted criminal sitting on his bed.

The bandit laughed again. "I simply appreciate beauty—in all of its forms."

Saguru nodded, and there was silence.

"Oh! I almost forgot," the detective exclaimed a moment later. He stood and bowed to the thief. "Thank you so much for what you did for me. I wish there was some way I could repay you. It means a great deal to me."

"Sit down." Kid waved away his thanks with a warm chuckle. "Heists weren't as interesting before you. If I had to go back to straightforward, time-place-target heist notes, I think I'd die. I enjoy our riddles and cat and mouse game. I'd miss you terrible, if you went away, Tantei-san."

"Saguru," the detective whispered, entranced by the phantom's eyes. "Call me 'Saguru,' please."

"Only when we're in your bedroom, Saguru," Kid whispered, hiding his surprise at the detective's words behind his polished poker face. "I suppose you'll want to call me 'Kaitou' now too?"

"Kaito?" Saguru blinked, jumping slightly in shock. Had he finally admitted it?

"No. Long 'o' sound. 'Kaitou.'"

"Kaitou," the blonde repeated softly.

"So…what were you going to say about your father to your little stud-muffin?"

"My what?" Hakuba yelped.

"Your father," Kid clarified. "Today in the café."

The Brit blinked a few times, staring in disbelief at his guest. He shook his head, trying to get thoughts of 'stud-muffins' out. "Um…I don't remember."

"Then…tell me a little bit about him. What's your father like?" Kid made himself comfortable, as if he was settling in for a long chat.

"W-why?" This whole scenario seemed surreal to the detective. In fact, he was almost positive that he must be dreaming. Except, if he were indeed in a dream with the Kaitou Kid on his bed, why would they be talking about his father? Hakuba felt that Freud would have a field-day with the entire setup.

"Humor me. You owe me, don't you? Just comply with my wishes, okay? Tell me about your father." The firm command was softened by a smile.

Saguru opened his mouth, closed it, and frowned. "I don't really know. He's…" No words came to mind.

"Hmm…how about… Does he like sports? What's his favorite food? What kind of movies does he like? Can you tell me anything like that?" Kid suggested, trying to get the conversation started.

Hakuba bit his lip as he concentrated. What did he know about the man that had sired him? What did he know about that man who sometimes sat across from him at the breakfast table? Nothing. Absolutely nothing was coming to mind. He'd never really spoken with him. He'd been spoken at, but never with.

"I'm…not sure." It was humiliating to admit. "We don't have many heart-to-heart conversations."

"How many is 'not many'?" Kid quietly asked.

Hakuba bit the inside of his cheek. None. "Just…not many." His father was a stranger. He'd never realized it before, but now it hurt.

"How about…your mother? What's your mother like?" The thief sensed the detective's anxiety and decided to move on to a new subject.

"She's…" Saguru trailed off, terrified to find that he had a similar problem. He bit his lip and thought, really thought, searching his memories of his parents for anything he could grasp and hold onto.

"She goes to a lot of parties…she likes wine and dressing up and dancing. She likes shopping, and she's irresponsible with money. She's eccentric and naïve. Whimsical. She never learns from her mistakes because there's always someone to clean up after her."

Like with him. His mother had given birth to him, tired of him within a month, and left him for Baaya to take care of.

The kaitou nodded, getting the impression that family was not a good subject to discuss with his new acquaintance. "You don't have to talk about it if you don't wish to, but…can you tell me a little about your childhood?"

"Childhood?" Saguru sighed. "There's not much to tell. I was shuffled back and forth between England and Japan, and Baaya followed to take care of me. I simply drifted, not really forming any attachments one place or the other. It's difficult to maintain friendships with people when you're gone about as often as you're present. People move on without you, and it's hard to get close when you know you've only got a year with them."

"You don't have any close friends?" Kid was hesitant in asking.

"I have other things to occupy my time. I have my books, my cases…I have Baaya and Watson." God he sounded pathetic. "I've answered your questions, so please leave now, Kaitou. Come back some other time. I'm tired." He couldn't take anymore. He could feel pity radiating off of the thief, and he didn't want it.

"Goodnight, Saguru," Kid whispered, lightly patting the blonde on the head on his way to the balcony. He placed a white rose on the nightstand.

"Goodnight, Kaitou," the detective echoed, curling back up in his bed.

Why had he never noticed that his life was so empty?

…

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Mikau: It's a fox. If the formatting gets messed up, so help me…. So, most people pronounce 'Mikau' as 'Miku,' so I've just gotten used to being called 'Miku.' So when my roommate freshman year played Fatal Frame and shouted "Damn it, Miku!" I always jumped. Incidentally, you can write Miku as 39 (because of the way the numbers can be pronounced in Japanese), but 39 is also 'sankyu,' which is 'Thank you.' For those of you who read but don't review, if you have time, please let me know what you think of the story so far. I'd like to know what was good and what was bad so that I can improve my writing. Thanks for reading!