25: Clutter

The first time Hakuba Saguru had been invited into Kaito's home, he was unsurprised by the unorganized and disastrous state of the magician's room. Books and stacks of paper were scattered about the floor, and the materials for magic tricks covered the tabletops and shelves. It was just as Hakuba would have expected from somebody like Kuroba.

The thought gave the blond detective pause. The clutter was exactly what he would have expected from Kaito, but Kaito was also Kaitou KID. While it would have been entirely in character for Kaito to be a mess, it was entirely out of character for KID to be anything less than meticulous. Besides, since when did either of Kuroba's personas ever confirm to the expected.

With this in mind, Hakuba gave the room a less cursory glance.

Everything had been recently dusted, the floor vacuumed, and the large portrait of whom Hakuba suspected was Kaito's father, wiped down. The magician had also obviously done his laundry recently. The entire room was clean, yet Kaito's belongings were all over.

The papers on the floor, while messy, left plenty of clear floor space for walking and were written in a strange code or short-hand that seemed based from French, but had Japanese and… German (?) mixed in. It was probable that other languages were mixed in as well. The result was a mishmash that would be near impossible for someone unversed in languages to translate. As far as Hakuba could tell, the papers were also in chronological order. He couldn't help, but be impressed at the number of languages this indicated Kaito knew. A large binder was open on the bed, hinting that Kaito was in the middle of putting the papers away.

The books that were stacked, precariously in some cases, were also actually organized. It was difficult to see at a first glance due to the books being in multiple languages as well, but a stack of chemistry books were stacked by Kaito's desk, anatomy and medical by the bathroom, and engineering at the foot of his bed. To Hakuba's immense amusement, schoolbooks were left forgotten under the magician's bed and the only books actually shelved were books on magic tricks and a large number of books written by a Maurice Leblanc. The shelved books were well worn and lovingly cared for.

Beginning to get a feel for Kaito's haphazard sorting methods, Saguru applied the same reasoning to the items on his classmate's desk and shelves and was rewarded. Chemicals for dyes and smoke, as well as a few less innocent and more explosive mixtures, were carefully separated to prevent any accidents if one were to bump into the supporting surfaces. The small metal pieces and other materials that Kaito had been tinkering with were similarly organized by intended gadget rather than shape or use.

In short, the mess of Kaito's room was a meticulously fabricated lie. It hid his genius from the casual observer and gave no evidence that the magician was secretly the phantom thief KID. That was when it struck the detective, Kaito was KID and therefore far to meticulous to ever give himself up, there was no way he'd ever prove that the magician and thief were one and the same because there would never be concrete evidence that could over-rule the magician's ironclad alibis.

"You said you like tea?" Kaito said, entering the room and plopping down on his bed with a platter decked with tea and cookies. Hakuba watched on blankly. In a quick and efficient manner, Kaito had mixed a cup of tea and pushed it into the detective's hands. Dumbfounded Saguru took a sip and discovered it was exactly the way he liked it.

Kaito smirked as he made his own tea, "so you've been accusing me of being Kaitou KID without proof for ages, I finally let you into my room and what do you do?" Kaito took a sip of his hot beverage, frowned, and added a bit more sugar. "You stand around like a statue and don't even try to find evidence of less than legal activities!"

Hakuba grinned in bemusement as he found his voice. "I am only here so that we can plan the party for Christmas because Aoko-san isn't able to. As a guest it would be quite rude for me to insult my host's hospitality in such a manner." Kaito laughed, "yeah, sure… you may not have actively gone snooping, but you probably dissected my room several times over." The detective coughed in embarrassment and Kaito grinned, knowing he'd been right.

Taking another sip of his tea, Hakuba pushed aside thoughts of Kaito's room. "I would be willing to… host the party. My house is certainly big enough." Kaito grinned, "brilliant!" The blond detective grimaced, "just try not to make too big of a mess with your usual shenanigans." "Of course…" the magician purred, "or… at the very least, it won't be permanent." Saguru rolled his eyes; "I'll hold you to that, Kuroba."

Kaito eyed him strangely, "you know Hakuba, you're not as big a stick in the mud as you were when you first came here." The detective straightened his coat, "I've had certain people ensure that change I suppose", he stated loftily. Kaito snorted, "more modest too." Hakuba smiled softly, "modest enough to here admit…" he paused nervously and Kaito watched him curiously. "Modest enough to admit defeat; I doubt I'll ever find evidence that you are secretly Kaitou KID."

Kaito chuckled, "is this some new tactic to get me to lower my guard?"

"Not at all." Hakuba retorted, his face serious. "KID isn't much a criminal in actuality. The only things he might be charged with are property damage and trespassing, and even hardly that because everyone practically invites him in! I suppose there's also impersonating a police officer…. Still, I have seen that thief save lives and even try to save his enemies, who would have otherwise killed him. I can't prove you are KID, so… I was thinking… I'd let it go."

"You're getting all sentimental on me." Kaito said, but his joking tone was gone and his face gave nothing away. "Perhaps" Saguru said, "but I've been finding that I much prefer having Kuroba Kaito as a friend, to having Kaitou KID as an enemy. Besides, there are far worse criminals I could and should be going after, than a thief who returns what he steals."

"I will still never admit to being KID." Kaito said. Hakuba smiled, "I know and I'm fine with that, just don't ever get yourself killed." Kaito smirked, "who would want to kill me? I'm just an innocent high school magician!" His tone was sickly sweet and didn't match his mischievous expression at all. The two, detective and magician, grinned at each other as though sharing a private joke.

"Um… we should probably get back to planning or Nakamori-san will kill us." Hakuba muttered. Kaito gave an exaggerated squeak of terror, "death by mop! Maybe there is someone who would want to kill me!" Saguru laughed and finished his tea. "After this you should clean your room, it's a mess", Saguru said off-handedly. Kaito stuck out his tongue, "I know where everything is." "I figured as much" Saguru muttered, though his eyes were bright in amusement. Together, they turned back to planning and both knew that this would be the greatest Christmas party ever.

(I just randomly decided it would be Christmas, don't ask me why… it just happened.)