A/N: Hmm. Last chapter was high on Plot. Let's give a shot at Romance. They need it. Though this might disappoint some–it started out really fluffy in my head and ended up bittersweet on paper–I mean, computer. I think it gives out quite a good view of their relationship, though.

Warnings–… for two responsible adults drinking some wine together? nothing more, really.

Disclaimer–no owning on my part, no suing on yours, all is well with the world.

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1.7

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It so happened that the next motel they stopped at had a very fine cave.

They sat in the almost-deserted dining-room, watching television from over the bar and sipping wine. It had started snowing again in the afternoon, but the storm had lessened to leave definitely that day they had started to travel by bus, and the white flakes were, if thick, less so than before, and allowed for decent sight.

They swayed quietly behind the dark pane of the window, rubbing off the lines of the parking and the roar of the roads, bright as the dim lights of the room the two of them sat in gleamed off them like silk. The dining room was eerie calm but for the delicate clinks of their glasses and the hushed whispers of the television.

They had been watching it all evening, waiting for news of some inexplicable occurrence or of another murder to be added in the series. Nothing. Nothing.

"It means we're not late yet," Aoko said around mid-evening, just as the last costumers, bar them, left the waiter a tip and resorted to their rooms for the night. Kaito had a quick, negative jerk of the head.

"Not necessarily." He was calm, much calmer than he had been the day before. But the traces remained; in tired lines cornering his mouth, black curves under his eyes. "It might just mean they haven't discovered it yet." He exhaled in a sigh, took a gulp of wine, and appeared to relax a little. His eyes were darkened by the dim shades of the room and its subdued lights. "We don't have much choice but to stay here tonight, anyway."

It was the second time he said this since they had checked in the motel. Their bus did not leave till eight the next morning.

They lapsed again in companionable silence. It was slightly strange, she reflected, that they should sit opposite each other without fights or harsh words, without threats or jeers on either side. Just sitting and drinking wine. It was slightly strange–but it felt good. It felt natural. Meant to be.

"What will you do when it's all over?" he asked, startling her out of her thoughts. He was looking at her from over his glass, and though his lips were curved it was not in the usual cheer. It was thin and hardly even a smile, but that, too, felt right in its own place.

"When what is over?" she retorted, and it was easy to leave out all the bitterness of past years. So damn easy. "When you've caught up with… whoever they are–"

Another quick jerk of the head. "I meant when the prescription is up."

She scowled at him, cold in the chest suddenly. "That's five years away. I'll catch you first and you know it." But it was not true, and that she knew. He was sitting right in front of her, and she was positive he would not resist overmuch if she closed the handcuffs around his wrists now and called Hakuba.

He knew that, too. Worse, he knew she was thinking it, and was waiting for her to come to the inevitable conclusion. "… it doesn't matter," he said softly, after a little while. "It was just a thought. You don't have to worry yourself over it."

"No-no." She shook her head, still frowning at her glass. "It does matter." A shaky laugh escaped her lips. "That's funny. I don't know. I honestly don't… know." Eyes lifted to meet his, blue echoing blue. "What would you do?"

His lips twitched again. "As a child, I wanted to be a magician. Like my father."

She remembered Kuroba Touichi. As a bounty hunter after his son, she was bound to know who the greatest magician of the nineties had been, especially as he had been KID before Kaito; but she had gone to his show as a little girl, too. Her father had brought her. She did not remember much, except loving it. She had been nine.

She downed the last of her wine; the bitter taste ran hot down her throat. "… you'll have to send me a place." He cocked his head a little to the side, with the confused air of a kitten, and she smiled thinly at this as much as to her own words. "For the premiere."

"I will," he said, quite seriously despite the amusement she read in the quirk of his mouth. Best seat I can find."

They sealed it with another glass.

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Woah! more hints. I'm curious to see whether you'll pick them up, though xD Here, whether you spotted them or not, take some cookies.