Author Notes: Yeah, I wanted more dialogue and stuff, but Kaito got bit by the introspective bug this time around. After Shinichi's chapter, he was like "It's my turn!" and I was just like "ugh". So yeah, about three-fourths of this is Kaito being all thinking and shit. Romance is moving at a snail pace, because I want it firmly entrenched for the boys before it becomes truly active, but I enjoy the little steps and signs it's working. However, after this all the goddamn introspection is out of the way, so due to the end, the plot will start picking up more starting next chapter. Say hi to a new, or rather old, face! Enjoy!

Chapter Eleven

Memory Highway

When Kaito's eyes snapped open, he lied still for a minute, holding his breath as he tried to figure out what had woken him. There was the muffled sounds of machinery and voices downstairs, and he tensed, before relaxing and letting his breath out with a whoosh.

Right. Different world, now living in the Mouri apartment, publishing company downstairs. Those usually got an early start, didn't they? After all, it was – Kaito grabbed for the pile he'd made of his stuff last night before going sleep and pulled out his watch – four in the morning. Awesome.

Sighing, because now he was up, Kaito pulled himself out of the roll of blanket he'd made himself into sometime during the night. Normally he woke up early anyways, and what with how uneasy a sleeper he was in unfamiliar surroundings he would have probably been up soon of his own accord anyways like yesterday, but that didn't mean he couldn't be irritated about it.

A quick trip to the bathroom reminded him that this place obviously hadn't been lived in for months at least, and Kaito would have to clean it before they had to shower. As it was, he'd probably get more dirty trying to take one now.

The noise had faded towards the bathroom and bedrooms, though, which was nice. That meant he probably wouldn't be woken up every day at the time the publishing company happened to start their daily business. That fact was enough to shake off the grumpiness, and Kaito now felt more ready to face the day with his usual cheer. And after all, it was really due to being Kid that he'd freaked out about being woken up by unfamiliar noise, so he couldn't blame the company, could he? Right.

Kudou was still dead to the world, which wasn't that surprising. He was still curled up in much the same position he'd laid down in last night, so still he almost looked dead if it weren't for the soft rise and fall of his chest. Kudou, although he wasn't a heavy sleeper – making coffee and soft humming had apparently woken him up yesterday, after all – was so obviously not a morning person, unlike Kaito, so Kaito left him to it and grabbed the bathroom cleaning supplies. They didn't have coffee here yet, so Kudou would just have to be content with a clean bathroom when he woke up.

Eying the bathroom, Kaito flipped a bottle in one hand and went to work.

The next two hours rather reminded Kaito of when he'd had to clean out the secret room Kid used, only with less tricks randomly going off and more mold. Eugh. Still, not deterred and armed with many chemical cleaners, eventually Kaito worked the bathroom into sparkling order.

Dropping the rag he'd been using on the bathtub, Kaito groaned as he straightened from his knees and stretched out, trying to work out the kinks in his back. For this, Kudou was so getting to clean the bedrooms. Good thing they'd knocked out the living room and kitchen when Mouri had been over last night. Perhaps Kaito should have thought ahead and done the bathroom then, but, well, hindsight was twenty-twenty and all that.

However, now the bathroom was clean, and Kaito wouldn't feel like he was collecting more dirt than he was washing off if he showered. Which was good, because by now he really needed one.

Returning the cleaning supplies to the hall closet, he was rather amused that Kudou still hadn't woken up. The sun was now up, and the other teen had finally moved in his sleep, rolling over and pulling a corner of blanket over his head to block out the sun. Who knew Kudou loved his sleep so much? It was actually amusing, especially since the other detective Kaito knew woke even earlier than Kaito did, and of which Kaito had a sneaking suspicion that he actually didn't need to sleep as he was a humorless robot.

Well, Kaito didn't want to spoil a good morning by thinking about Hakuba, so he just grabbed one of the towels and the little containers of bathroom supplies and headed for that shower. Despite his dislike of the blond, Kaito had to admit he was grateful for this. And hey, maybe Kudou was right, maybe if he didn't antagonize him, this Hakuba might actually be likeable. Right, and Kaito's dream vacation was an aquarium. Still, he was going out with Mouri in this universe, so he had to have some redeeming qualities here, even if the girl had beaten them into him.

He sorted through the bottles with a snort, as Hakuba still was a perfectionist neat-freak, as he'd brought bottles of every personal hygiene product under the sun. Shampoo, conditioner, facial cleanser, body wash, toothpaste, mouthwash, floss, shaving cream, aftershave, deodorant, and was that contact lens cleanser? Kaito squinted at the bottle. Yes, yes it was. Okay then. Maybe less neat-freak and more 'grab one of everything in the little baskets of travel-sized things'. Make that obsessive completionist side, then. Shame he didn't even have any of his contacts on him at the time, as he'd already ditched the disguise for his heist before the little gem issue.

Still, he shrugged and lined the little bottles up. Maybe they'd need it for something, and all this would have to last them until their first paycheck, after all.

The shower was nice and hot, and Kaito spent probably longer than he should have enjoying it. He would have loved a hot bath after the scrubbing, but that was probably best saved for the evening. Fully clean and wrapped in a towel, Kaito snatched the rest of the hygiene products and moved to the sink partition. He was about to choose the white and blue toothbrush on automatic when a thought hit him. He looked between the two toothbrushes – generic things you picked up for a few yen, the aforementioned white-and-blue one and another white one, but with yellow accents – before smirking and opening the yellow one. Kudou probably wouldn't even notice, but it would be a good private joke for Kaito, having the famous detective brush his teeth with the Kid-colored toothbrush. Heh heh.

Teeth brushed and humming to himself at his little bit of subtle triumph over law enforcement, Kaito strode back into the living room to be greeted by Kudou awake and sitting up, blinking blearily at the windows like he'd never seen it before. Definitely not a morning person.

Making sure his smirk looked more like a simple smile, Kaito greeted the sleepy detective. "Good morning!"

"Mmnnnghfff." That might have possibly been 'good morning'. Or at least an attempt at one. Kudou looked at him, rubbing at his eyes, before suddenly he looked a lot more awake. And mortified. "Where are your clothes?"

Kaito blinked. Right, still in the towel. Raising one eyebrow, Kaito looked down at himself, then back up at the detective, a little unsure why this seemed a huge issue. He pointed towards the neat pile next to the mess he'd left his blanket in. "...Over there?"

"Why are they over there and not on you!" Was Kudou blushing? Yes, so he was. Kaito let himself really smirk this time. Hmmn, so Hakuba wasn't the only easily-flustered detective, nice to know. He'd thought Kudou's reaction to that little stunt with the bra on the ship had been because he thought Mouri had been left naked in a lifeboat, and it probably had been, but maybe he would get the same reaction if he implied, say, Hattori from Osaka was naked. Interesting.

"Really, Tantei-kun, you've played sports, surely you're not embarrassed by this? This even covers enough to be publicly legal," – one of the laws not relating to thievery that he knew by heart, due to an incident with Aoko, a public swimming pool, and an inflatable scaly horror – "And this is my, well, our own living room at the moment. I doubt anyone cares."

Kudou just went redder, mumbling something as he grabbed his own towel and, pointedly, his own clothes for the day. "I'm going to take a shower." Kudou announced rather pointlessly as he stood up and strode for the bathroom. The door slammed shut after him, and Kaito gave into his giggles, snickering as he strode over to his "area" and picked up the outfit for today. Kudou was just so fun when he was off-balance, bright red and sputtering, in a way much like Aoko was, although he doubted Kudou would ever follow up outraged mortification with attempts to relocate his head by mop. It was nice to be reminded of home, though. He'd rather laid off the teasing on Aoko since his revelation, and he admittedly missed the relationship they'd once had.

It took less than a minute to dress, and as Kaito wandered into the kitchen, grabbing one of the remaining sandwich halves for breakfast, he let his mind drift. That talk with Kudou yesterday had been enlightening. To hear that someone had the same problems he was currently having was something of a relief, enough to get him to open up a little bit and even share something like his own problems with the other teen. He'd never planned on ever talking about it, mainly because the reason was due to him being Kid and thus he couldn't talk about it to anyone in his regular life, and the chance of Kid sitting down with someone and having a talk about feelings was minimal. But he was Kid, basically, to Kudou, and that minimal chance had arisen, and it had felt a little lifting talking about and knowing that someone was in the same boat, although they had boarded the boat due to entirely different reasons. Unlike Kudou, he doubted he could ever really talk about the event that had made him aware Aoko and him weren't ever going to happen. Partially because it would reveal too much about who his best friend was, and therefore who he had to be, but more because he didn't like remembering it himself.

It had been just a little while ago, maybe a month, at Aoko's birthday. It had fallen on a Sunday this year, and Inspector Nakamori actually had had the day off for once. Aoko had been ecstatic, and he'd listened to her chatter about it for weeks beforehand. She had been thrilled that, for once, her dad wouldn't be working on her birthday, and apparently they were planning a big father-daughter dinner night at some fancy restaurant. Kaito had been happy for her, and had held off delivering his latest heist notice. The full moon had been on Aoko's birthday, so he couldn't pass it up, but as she wasn't having her party at night this time, he knew he'd be able to make it this time. So, since Inspector Nakamori wasn't going to be in the office, he figured he could deliver it after her party, just a few hours before the actual heist. That way, even if he got called in, the man would have time to have that dinner with his daughter. He'd even made the riddle exceptionally easy due to this, only needing to solve what, exactly, the target was, as he'd even written the time and place clearly on the notice. He probably wouldn't have the huge audience he liked, but he figured that could be part of his present to Aoko, depriving Kid of his beloved audience would make her happy.

He'd been in an exceptionally good mood due to his plan all day, and so had been surprisingly nice to Aoko, and she'd been having a wonderful day when he left to deliver his notice and get ready. He hadn't been too surprised when Nakamori showed up, but he figured that they'd probably had that dinner or at least enjoyed a few hours together, so he hadn't been concerned.

So, of course, when he turned up at school tomorrow to find Aoko in a horrific mood, he'd been honestly surprised. Her day had been wonderful yesterday, hadn't it? Why was she so upset today? She wasn't even talking to him, hadn't waited to walk to school with him, and he was worried. He got even more worried when she actually came home with him after school, despite still not really talking to him. Only when they finally got into the privacy of his own room had he learned the reason. Of course, it still took a while, but that was because he had to calm down Aoko who had, as soon as they were in his room, suddenly clung to him and burst into tears.

He managed to string the reasons together through the choked words she managed to get out during her tears. It seemed that just when he'd left his notice, Nakamori had gone to the office just for a brief check-in to deliver some paperwork from a different case. Upon hearing about the freshly-delivered heist notice, of course the man had set to working on it immediately and directing the preparations. So caught up had Nakamori been that he'd forgotten it was his day off and, indeed, forgotten about his dinner with Aoko. She had been in fact left waiting for hours at the restaurant, and, as the heist had been at a rather late time, Nakamori hadn't gone home until around two in the morning. While the man had been home for her party, that had been mainly for friends and Kaito knew it wasn't the same to Aoko. She had been really looking forward to that dinner. When the inspector finally returned home, he'd found a very irate Aoko, and, apparently, the two had had a very large fight about Kid, which had ended in both stomping off to their rooms and not speaking to each other yet. If Kaito knew anything about the Nakamoris, he knew that they'd probably make up tonight, as both father and daughter had the same fierce temper that exploded violently but at the same time vanished just as quickly.

But what mattered was that Aoko was hurt, and it Kid who did it. Even if he'd originally felt a flash of irritation at her father, it had subsided because he knew it was still his fault. Kaitou Kid drove the man into a frenzy, it was his life to capture the thief that had eluded him for two decades now, and it was that obsession that made him forget something so important. So, once again, Kid had hurt Aoko.

Many chalked up Aoko's dislike of the thief due to her father's indoctrination, and that was some of it. Another part was, as a police officer's daughter, Aoko held the law in very high regard and despised anyone who defiled it. But the biggest reason, the one Kaito knew to be the real reason she so hated the thief, was because of how much Kid hurt her and her family. She hated how her father came home so tired, hated how he was so irritable all of the time because of Kid's continued freedom, hated Kid for causing these kinds of arguments. Aoko wanted Kid behind bars so her father would be happy again. And Kaito just couldn't give her that.

It was then, petting her hair as she whispered how much she hated the thief, sounding so bitter, that Kaito had realized that he could never be with her. Even if he explained, even if she understood, she wouldn't be able to accept the fact that he couldn't stop, couldn't hang up the cape. Even if the bastards who killed his father were now behind bars, Pandora was still out there, and Kaito couldn't, wouldn't rest until he found it. He wouldn't allow the chance for some idiot with more money and ambition than morals to decide they rather liked the idea of immortality. He couldn't allow anyone else to be killed over it, couldn't allow someone to lose their world as he had. Even if it took him the rest of his life, he would always be searching. Because this mission was more important than anything. Kaitou Kid was more important. More important than Aoko, more important than Kuroba Kaito, even. No matter how much of his own personal happiness he had to sacrifice, Kaito wouldn't stop. And Aoko would never understand that.

So, Kaito had closed his eyes, said goodbye to yet another slice of himself that he had to sacrifice for Kid, and had done his best from then on to comfort Aoko as the best best friend he could be, the only thing left he could give her.

And so, Kaito had found himself suddenly adrift in the emotional aspect, just like Kudou was. Kudou, too, had had to let his love for his childhood friend die, although probably not as consciously as Kaito had done. But it had died just like Kaito's had, under the weight of too many lies meant to protect himself and others, and a secret, second identity that was more important than life itself.

Of course, there were differences. Kudou couldn't reveal who he really was under pain of death, literally, as if Kudou Shinichi ever returned while the Organization was still around, he would be killed with something more permanent than untested poison, along with all he knew. Kaito could have hung up Kid's cape even while they were around and returned to being Kuroba Kaito full-time at any time and suffered nothing for it except the bitterness knowing his father's killers were still free. Kuroba Kaito had been, still was, perfectly safe and comfy in his real life, with no death threats hanging over his head, as Snake and his lot had never been very bright about connecting the dots that the Kid they killed years ago just happened to have a magic-practicing son, who was large enough to possibly fit into a certain white suit eight years later.

And Kudou had told his girl his secret, after that threat was gone, and she had accepted it. Kaito couldn't help but admit jealousy at that. Kudou had had someone who would have understood even if he'd told her while he was still shrunk. Of course, it helped that as soon as the Organization was gone and an antidote made, there was no reason to lie anymore. Kaito couldn't stop lying until Kid really was retired forever, and he was nowhere near close to that unless he got lucky the next heist. But still, she had accepted Kudou for it. Aoko never would have, especially as he couldn't stop.

So Kaito's situation still was a little different. He knew now that he would never make a move unless he found someone who would accept Kid too, which meant that the best options were the ones he met as the thief. That came with its own depressing problems, as the only people he met as Kid were other criminals, law enforcement, or crazed fangirls. Criminals Kaito himself rather disliked, as he had never liked people who were willing to hurt others for their own gain, law enforcement was an obvious ha, no, and quite frankly the crazier of Kid's fangirls just scared Kaito. Fans were fine, fans were great, Kaito loved having fans, but fanatics scared him worse than if the entire Task Force sprouted fins and huge, glassy, soulless eyes and gaping mouths meant to drag you to a dank, dark underworld...okay, not thinking about that anymore.

Kaito drew himself out of the whimpering ball he'd curled himself into – he now knew the shape of his future nightmares and oh god, he was never sleeping again – and sighed, rubbing at his forehead. His good mood had rather vanished at the depressing turn his thoughts had taken, and he couldn't have that. He was going to be starting work in – he checked his watch – two and a half hours, he had to be chipper! Not to mention that if he acted even a little off-kilter, Kudou would pick up on it, detective he was, and might even worry about him. While hilarious in his own right, because who would have thought that Kudou would ever worry about a thief, but the other day had proved that he would, and worried detectives were such a pain. Always hanging close, not really asking, but giving you those knowing, asking looks...damn them for being able to interrogate without even using words, because those kinds of looks always made Kaito want to spill his guts just to get them to stop.

His mother was terribly good at them too. Strange, that, he was pretty sure she wasn't a detective.

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Kaito finished off the sandwich that he'd left off eating somewhere during his introspection. Standing and dusting off his hands of crumbs, he glanced around. Nothing like a little cleaning to take his mind off things.

He collected the blankets and his clothes from yesterday, going to the little alcove between the hall closet and bathroom. Like he remembered, it was the laundry room, and thankfully still equipped with washer and dryer. They didn't have any detergent yet, but that could be remedied soon, hopefully. If all else failed, they could beg Mouri tonight to bring some, it was one of the few things Hakuba hadn't thought to bring.

He plopped his casual clothes and the blankets in a pile in front of the washer. Kid's undershirt was taken out, and Kaito carefully divested it off all the little trick supplies it had been holding before adding it to the pile, nudging it under an edge of blanket. The tie, gloves and socks were also all carefully cleaned of trick supplies – amazing the things one could hide in a tie – and found their way into the pile next to the shirt. Now no one would find the incriminating bits of his Kid uniform unless they dug through the laundry, and he doubted even Hakuba was that nosy without suspicion.

He brought out the pants and suit jacket. The jacket could be left out, as Shinichi had been wearing it yesterday, and it being missing from their wardrobe would be suspicious. Since it was already missing its supplies as Kaito had taken them before giving it to the detective, he merely hung it off the back of the door. A quick resewing of the shoulder seams and it was back to being his Kid suit jacket. It would have to wait to be cleaned until he got his hands on some of those home dry-cleaning kits, though. The pants joined their incriminating mates under the blanket. He'd have to remember to pick them out later and give them the same dry-cleaning treatment as his jacket, but he couldn't separate them now, as neither of them had been wearing white pants yesterday and Hakuba hadn't brought any, so they couldn't be explained away.

Laundry taken care of, Kaito headed back out. Kudou was done, as he water had shut off, although he hadn't appeared yet. Dressing, then. Kaito smirked to himself, detectives and their modesty.

The living room and kitchen were easy to pick up, as they hadn't gotten anything out since last night. The last sandwich half was left out for Kudou to eat, and Kaito made a short trip outside to dispose of their trash. When he came back, Kudou was out of the bathroom, brushing his teeth. Despite being big on him due to Hakuba's lanky frame, Kaito had to admit the detective looked stylish. Something about his bearing always made him look extra-snappy in formal clothes, probably the prim and proper attitude. He always did seem to spend a good of time in suits, too, even if it was just his school uniform. Which was good, as from what he'd seen, Kudou had a great wardrobe – his first raid on the other's closet had revealed a lot of brand name clothes, expensive brand names clothes, clothes seemed to be Kudou Yukiko's other hobby besides cameras – but apparently put no more thought into clothes than to grab the first things that fit. It led to some...interesting fashion choices.

He waited until the detective was done with his morning toiletries before speaking. "I left out breakfast for you. We have about two hours until work, I figure it might be good to do some neighborhood scoping, maybe beg coffee of Masutaka-san."

Which, in Kaito's terms, meant strategic placement of bugs, although Kudou probably expected he'd already done it. Well, he had, but it was time to bug more than the living room. He really didn't like permanent bugs like this, but without his doves he couldn't have mobile surveillance. Pity he'd brought none on this particular heist, but perhaps a blessing. He wasn't quite sure how to explain away why he'd need birdseed. It was funny how much the detective brightened at the mention of coffee, though.

"All right." Kudou grabbed the sandwich off of the kitchen counter, and they headed out. Kaito locked the door behind them with the key they'd been given last night – Kaito made a note to get a few copies made on the mental list of things to get on first paycheck, a list that was growing rather fast – and they spent the next hour or so just, well, walking around.

They had dropped into Poirot first, Kaito managing to wheedle out a coffee and a hot chocolate to go. The manager had gruffly reminded them to be back in time to start, although he'd noticeably hid a few chuckles at the way Kudou had looked at him like he was saving him from a deserted island shipwreck when he'd agreed to give them the coffee. Sipping his hot chocolate, Kaito enjoyed the crisp fall morning and let it chase away the depressing feelings he'd fallen into earlier. Nothing like a nice day to cheer one up, and once Kudou had gotten enough caffeine to be amiable, nice company too. Kaito managed to get the detective started on soccer, and the hour passed rather pleasantly as the discussed sports, moved onto physics, and then into a debate about magic.

It was rather enlightening to learn that Kudou could sit back and appreciate a magic show, but that he also found his own fun in deciphering the tricks and to him that was just as entertaining. Explained why he always seemed to enjoy himself so much debunking Kaito's tricks at heists. Kaito was torn between being annoyed that Kudou didn't just sit back and let the magic work on him, but he also had to grudgingly admit that there was merit in Kudou's views, too. Kudou didn't see the fun in believing in it, but he did admire magicians for being so skilled at what they did, and the more difficult a trick, the more he was pleased with solving it, and impressed with the magician. Kaito supposed that magicians seemed like a big box of puzzles to a riddle-loving person like Kudou, and honestly it made him pleased when Kudou, lit up with the enjoyment of the debate, had honestly told him that Kaito was the best magician he'd ever seen, even if "there are better ways to ply your trade than thievery".

Getting such an honest compliment from the reserved Kudou made Kaito feel rather like he'd won an exclusive reward. Kudou had a habit of knocking people down pegs instead of complimenting them, so to receive one was like a rare treat. It definitely broke whatever lingering depression he'd had, and he'd spent most of the walk back towards Poirot beaming brightly even though they had now moved into a minor argument over the merits of explaining magic tricks to others versus just keeping his deductions to himself. While Kaito would back down and allow Kudou to find his own enjoyment in his tricks – as a magician it was his job to make people smile, and if solving his tricks made Kudou smile, really smile, well that was one way of doing it he supposed – he wasn't about to let the detective turn other's enjoyment of the impossible into just an easily-solved trick. That just wouldn't do.

The debate had ended as they entered Poirot. They were early, but that was fine as it allowed them to observe the cafe at work. Kaito, having pulled off short stints in every working position this place offered, wasn't too worried, but Kudou looked strangely...well, not worried, but apprehensive perhaps? From what he knew the detective had never had plans to get any sort of job like this, and with his record, he was set to become a well-rewarded detective from the start. Knowing Kudou, though, he wasn't finding this demeaning, but...

As he watched Kudou, who seemed to be nervously watching groups of people, it dawned on Kaito. Kudou was nervous about the customers. He'd never been much of a people person from what Kaito had researched. A genius at understanding motives, and perhaps more of an actor like his mother than obvious at first glance from the way he played the police and public with his demeanor at cases, but when it came to direct contact, he'd always been awkward and overly-direct. Now, for however long they were here, Kudou would have to act polite, accommodating, and – god forbid – cheery. Even as Conan his "cheery" always seemed just this side of "creepy little soul-sucker" to Kaito – although maybe some bias was slipping into that, Kudou loved pulling the "I'm a cute innocent little boy" act on him when he'd figured out his disguise, and so Kaito had sort of come to dread whenever Conan acted extra-chipper as it usually morphed into that damned shark-like hunting smirk soon after.

So, Kudou seemed to be getting stage fright about being a common waiter. Kaito would have laughed, but then Kudou would sulk for the rest of the day at him, and that would put a damper on things. Kudou, he'd found, was far more pleasant and fun when he wasn't grumping at you, which was rather opposite Hakuba. Hakuba grumpy was the funniest thing ever, Kudou grumpy just kind of made Kaito feel like he should be apologizing.

He eyed the cafe, then the counter. For those just wanting a drink, there was a coffee counter alongside the left of the cafe, lined with stools. The barista was a part-time job too, it seemed. Maybe, if he worked some charm, he could get the manager to train Kudou there instead. There was less personal interaction there and baristas tended to be expected to be calm and aloof anyways. It would suit the other teen, really.

Kaito blinked, then realized he'd just planned to help Kudou fit into his new job more comfortably with no plan of receiving something in return for it, then snickered quietly to himself which earned him a confused look from said person. A thief, going out of his way to help a detective, just to be nice. Koizumi would probably find it hilarious. Or a herald of the apocalypse. Knowing Koizumi, there would be a high chance of both.

It soon was just a few minutes to ten, and the manager waved them into the kitchen. It was easy enough to say he had previous waiting experience – which he did, just not...legally – and so he was waved off to follow someone for the day. A pretty girl, although not the same one as yesterday. Before he left, he did manage to put in a word about the coffee thing, causing him a confused look from Kudou and a thoughtful one from the manager. As he followed his assigned waiter, he noted out of the corner of his eyes that the manager had moved and was now talking to Kudou and the barista of the day.

Smirking to himself at a well-executed plan, Kaito then launched his attention fully into his own job, or well, what attention it required. There was no need to act chipper, because he was, and even if he wasn't faking it would be child's play with his skills, and remembering the orders he was given was so trivial he didn't need to write them down, though he did just to cover bases. Give him an hour and the menu would be memorized too.

The waitress was pleased with how "quick" he was picking everything up, and so around lunchtime the manager saw that he was obviously having no problems and sent him off on his own, obviously happy he'd secured good work. Kudou looked to be doing fine as well, apparently mostly just learning different coffee blends and mixes today, his job apparently required more memorization that Kaito's did, though he doubted it would be any more work for Kudou than waiting was for Kaito.

He hid his smirk behind his normal cheerful smile. Really, easiest job ever. Luck really did like him to land him something so pleasantly easy.

Unfortunately, he rather had this thought turned upside-down once noon rolled around.

He had been in the kitchen at the time, fetching a refill for his current table, when the waitress – the manager's daughter Masutaka Kiyoko, apparently – poked her head in, addressing Kaito.

"New customer at table seven, he's yours, Kuroba-kun. He's a regular too, so take good care of him!"

"Of course!" He trilled at the girl, who smiled and ducked out hurriedly, as it was currently in the middle of the rush for lunch. Grabbing the refilled sodas, Kaito left the kitchen, first dropping off the drinks at their intended destination, before heading for his new customer.

Table seven was in the corner, right behind the one that apparently Mouri liked to sit at. Someone about that tugged at his attention, but as it wasn't immediately apparent he just filed it away for future examination. The "regular" appeared to be a middle-aged man, with short black hair that, although swept into a controlled style, was obviously still a bit wild and not fully tamed.

Something about it was also screaming at him, but he just didn't know what. Now feeling a bit more wary, he schooled himself into blank cheerfulness and walked over to the table with the same light, bouncy step he'd used all morning. Coming to halt next to the table, he drew up his best bubbly voice and smile. "Hello! What may I get you today?"

The man looked up at him from the menu, and only long years of a memory of a quiet, deep voice rumbling the words "Poker Face" in his mind kept the smile on his face and not, say, abject shock. Which was certainly what he was feeling instead. Along with perhaps gibbering hysteria and a feeling like he'd rather seen a ghost. Or, well, the next best thing.

Sitting there, giving him a faintly-curious but oh-so-schooled perfectly pleasant face much like the one that had to be Kaito's face right now, was Kuroba Toichi.

The face was older than he remembered it, ten years older of course, but it was still so close to what he knew and, oh god, now was not the time for a hysterical meltdown in the cafe! No matter how much he wanted to have one! Poker Face, Poker Face, the man that taught him that was sitting right there, and oh god, Poker Face.

Then Toichi's eyes flickered towards Kaito's name tag, eyes widening just slightly that in anyone else would have been a full-body double take, and Kaito suddenly felt like the world was dropping out from under him. Or he was having that dream again where his hang-glider's struts snapped, that was never a good one.

He'd used his name here, for this job, his goddamn real name, and now he was wearing the name tag that the manager had handed him this morning with its little incriminating kanji for "black" and "wing" written on it and he'd cheerfully put it on without a second thought and here he was, standing in front of the man that he knew had no young male relatives in all of Japan and there was no one else with the rather unusual name because he'd goddamn looked and the only one was him but he was freaking dead here. Do not have a meltdown!

"...Ah, yes. I believe I will have a coffee to start. Cream, no sugar." Came that deep voice that he was replaying right now just to keep his composure, and it almost made him lose it again. He blinked – not time to start crying, cry in the bathroom! – and smiled, hoping it was as vapid as it appeared. Vapid, cheery waiter, that is all he was, had to project that...

"Coming right up!" He chirped, still smiling, and turned, moving away perhaps a bit too fast for politeness, but if he wasn't called on it he didn't care. Oh god, he was sitting right there, his father was there, and Kaito couldn't do any one of the things right now he really wanted, like have a hysterical meltdown, run far away because Toichi had to be suspicious of him now, or just run back and hug the man and never let go because he thought he'd never have this again, a chance to see his father alive, and he really couldn't cry here, he just couldn't.

Making a beeline for the kitchen, he missed the concerned look he got from Kudou.

He also missed Toichi sitting back in his seat and flipping out a phone.

Reviews always appreciated.

Fun fact for the day: The "black" and "wing" are the literal readings for Kaito's last name, "Kuro" being black and "ba", short for hane, being wing/feather (these terms are interchangeable with this particular word). His first name is "pleasant" (kai) and "star" (to, an older kanji that is now only used in names like Kaito and Hokuto (the North Star)). For the curious, Kudou is something along the lines of "crafted wisteria" ("ku" is the crafted part, I'm speculating on this, and "tou" is wisteria, changed to "dou" due to the u in front of it), and Shinichi is "new one" (shin = new, ichi = one). Not "One Truth", sadly, which is a very common misperception.