Mikau: TwT No one hated last chapter! I am so, so happy! Thank you very much to everyone who wrote in and supported me last time: Eve Of The Stars, LLL TengokuHana, oreioreo, Blue Waters 52, Lady Rosencrantz, Hebiaczek, Lil-Blizz, Shana-Fujioka, neonquincy1217 (times three), Ymc (Thanks so much!), and Kimmiko T. Sorry I haven't been updating this regularly. I still need to reply to literally 25 PMs too. -.-; Sorry. I'm feeling like emotional sludge lately, and I just can't seem to motivate myself to do anything. I feel bad for not getting around to it, but even thinking about editing/updating/replying to messages is draining. Hopefully I start feeling better soon. :I

Disclaimer: DCMK is the intellectual property of Aoyama Gosho, and the prompt for this chapter was sent in by silvercyanide on Poirot Café.

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silvercyanide: my prompt is an AU where Kaito is a girl and Shinichi is more than just a little interested.

Kuroba Kaito was the cutest girl at Beika University, and up until yesterday she had been dating the local big man on campus, that rich foreigner Hakuba Saguru.

But yesterday they had broken up. Or so rumor said, anyway, and Kudo Shinichi was just dying to be the first guy to sweep her off of her feet, ask her out, and heal her broken heart.

Shinichi had been tripping over himself for Kaito since the very first day they had met back in April at the opening ceremony. They'd somehow ended up next to each other, and Kaito had made a snide remark about the color of the welcome banners that she somehow managed to weave into a clever reference to The Great Gatsby followed by a criticism of literary critics always dwelling too much on the color of the curtains. "Sometimes the red curtains aren't actually a subconscious reference by the author to their incestuous feelings for their mother." Shinichi could barely contain his laughter and was thenceforth hopelessly in love.

But he'd always had a rival—Hakuba Saguru—who was also a detective. Kaito and Hakuba had gone to the same high school, so they'd come in already a couple. And what a couple they were! Hakuba was handsome, exotic, smart, and witty while Kaito was beautiful, brilliant, hilarious, and just plain fun to be around. They had such a good relationship too. They could have been a comic duo with their back and forth, and you could really tell that they both enjoyed the other's retorts. For them, verbal sparring matches were equivalent to foreplay. So long as Hakuba was in the picture, Shinichi knew that he never stood a chance.

And so Shinichi firmly established himself in Kaito's friend zone in order to gain unquestioned access to her even while she wasn't available. He wasn't her best friend—that honor belonged to Nakamori Aoko closely followed by Suzuki Sonoko and Sera Masumi respectively—but he was close. And while she was taken, he worked on building a strong relationship with her, trying to establish a solid base so that when the time came, he would be ready to step in.

He'd actually been contemplating confessing lately since it had been two whole years and Hakuba and Kaito still seemed to be going strong. Kaito had been showing some signs of interest when the two had been alone together, so Shinichi had been thinking that it might be worth a shot.

But then Shinichi had struck gold when Hakuba broke up with Kaito the previous evening. Shinichi heard about it from Sonoko during first period, and so he hustled after class to the little alcove courtyard between the two buildings comprising the library where he knew Kaito often went after the first class of the day.

He burst out into the courtyard, desperately hoping that, one, Kaito would actually be there, and, two, that Kaito had yet to accept anyone else's confession.

Kaito looked up as Shinichi flung open the door, her face red and splotchy, streaked with tears. "H-Hey, Shin-chan," she hiccupped.

This gave Shinichi pause because he'd been so happy when he'd heard the news. It had never occurred to him that for Kaito this was a tragedy. He had never thought he'd find her so absolutely distraught.

He sighed, all of the air going out of him along with his sense of triumph…because the woman he loved was seriously hurting.

Shinichi sat down on the bench beside her and put an arm around her. "Come here," he whispered, resting his head on top of hers and pulling her into a side hug. "It's okay, Kai-chan. It's gonna be okay."

She choked on a sob, tears coming with renewed vengeance.

"I'm here for you. And the rest of your friends too. We're all here, so just let us know what you need, okay?" He gave her a gentle squeeze, putting his romantic feelings aside and concentrating on his duty to her as a friend. "We're gonna get you through this."

"Thanks, Shin-chan," she whispered weakly, weeping openly into the side of his neck.

"That's what friends are for," he replied, honestly meaning the words.

Maybe once she was healed…maybe then they could be something more. If he truly loved her, he could do at least that much. She was worth the wait.

…

Mikau: Well, typically I don't like gender swaps (unless done for comic effect), but I think this worked pretty well. Of course, it would have been fine if Kaito were still a boy too, but the prompt was for fem!Kaito, so… Anyway! Next time is my attempt at SeRan, and I like it a whole lot better than my Aoko x Akako piece. I actually think it turned out really well, so I hope you'll look forward to it!