Disclaimer: I make no claims as to the ownership of DCMK or the accuracy of my knowledge of dating. You have been warned.
Thursday.
*Bzzt!* *Bzzt!*
A high school student with bed head rushed to his cell phone from the kitchen, a grin stretching from one side of his mouth to the other.
"Good morning, Kaito!"
"Oh, you're already up...?" asked a voice on the other end, slightly surprised.
"I do attend the same school as you."
Honestly, what was with people being surprised that he knew when school started? It wasn't his fault that crime didn't sleep, take hiatuses for school, or adjust for early schedules... really!
"No... but you're usually still asleep... Sonoko-sempai told me you tend to sleep in late due to cases..."
Sonoko... that could really only mean one thing...
"Hey, she didn't decide to...?"
"Corner me and pour me a deluge of love advice? With a 'break his heart and Ran will break your arm' thrown in? Yeah..."
...a "maiden's romantic heart would bloom", as Sonoko often put it. Or, in Shinichi's words, she was going to act any way she say fit so long as there was a sufficiently "romantic" cause. Apparently, this meant anything from setting up her friends and playing matchmaker to attending KID heists and binge-watching K-dramas, shoujo anime, and romcoms.
"She'll do that a lot. Anyway, I've already eaten breakfast, shall we go to school together?"
A fumbling noise and a pause came from the other end.
"...I'd love to...!"
*Ding-dong!* *Ding-dong!*
The doorbell rang and Shinichi knew it was Ran and Sonoko with his gift. Darn it, Sonoko would be sure to say something incriminating!
"Meet you at your house. Bye!"
*Ding-dong!* *Ding-dong!*
Shinichi hung up, cutting Kaito short. He felt a bit bad about that, but Sonoko's loquacious habits were not to be underestimated. Especially when it came to keeping a secret. She was always super-obvious about it and usually gave it away the first chance she could. Everyone always knew what she was getting for their birthday and the only reason Makoto didn't know about Christmas and Valentine's Day too was because they were going long-distance.
"Good morning," he said, opening the door, perfectly ready for Sonoko's usual teasing.
"Oh what a lovely day for newlyweds, isn't it? Goodness, you've really got yourself a steady... someone who loves puzzles as much as you do...! Puzzle candy of all things!" she exclaimed, smirking.
"Have fun and brush your teeth!" Ran said, effectively cutting her off from any more embarrassing comments.
"When do I forget to brush my teeth?" the detective asked, before realizing the explanation for any odd behaviour, "When I'm not on a case, I mean."
"Not that I know of, if you're not on a case. But you're on a case often enough to make that point," Ran replied.
"Plus, it's simply horirble to have bad breath if you're going to kiss!" Sonoko exclaimed.
"Thanks..." Shinichi replied, nodding awkwardly in agreement although he was pretty sure nobody in the room had ever kissed someone with morning breath before.
"Let's just hope that we're not stopped by a case or something on the way to school," Ran declared and the three made way to school, a few cherry blossom petals tumbling in the wind.
Class dragged on for what seemed like days before lunch, every second agonizingly taking its sweet time until lunch. Goodness, he was starting to sound like Heiji... that non-Holmes-fan of a detective.
Down the hall, the sounds of an explosion could be heard. Their teacher sighed in relief. And one Kaito Kuroba ran out of a classroom for life.
"I swear I'm not planning anything!" he shrieked.
"Not planning anything? You haven't done anything for a month to the day! Why else would you have taken such a long hiatus!?" a higher voice, female, yelled back. It sounded an awful lot like Nakamouri Aoko.
"But I swear! C-can't you wait until tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow!?" she exclaims, stopping in her tracks seemingly in the sheer confusion blooming on her face.
"Yes, you know, when it's not White Day!"
"Oh so that's why you were giving me that chocolate! You booby-trapped it, didn't you?"
"No, I didn't! Please, just wait until tomorrow?"
Class had come to a grinding halt as students, teachers, and administrators alike peered nervously out of their doors at the sight. Shinichi briefly wondered why he hadn't ever noticed this before until he remembered that he was falling asleep from late-night cases, reading mystery novels, or doing homework when there was a pause.
Lunch came soon, classrooms buzzing with activity and gossip among the witnesses there. Who, why, when, where, and how dominated their small talk.
Shinichi climbed to the roof to find Kaito already there, a somewhat panicked expression still on his face.
"Are you hungry? I bought some bread from the cafeteria..." the detective said, sitting next to him.
"...I brought lunch for both of us today," Kaito replied and the two burst into laughter.
"Does that usually happen a lot?" Shinichi asked, curious.
Kaito looks at him in a mixture of awe and concern, "The... thing... with Aoko? Most days, yeah..."
The detective dead-pans, "I was busy."
"...busy...?"
"You know, catching up on sleep from late-night cases, reading mystery novels, catching up on homework... don't look at me like that, I'm sure that a lot of people do it... well, sure not everyone, but I'm not the only one, right? I'm pretty sure that I know at least someone else that does the same thing..."
"It's another detective, right?"
Shinichi gives a huge mock sigh, raising his arms in defeat.
"Yeah."
Kaito smiles, his face lighting up.
"To be honest, though... I was k-kind of glad at the beginning... you know, without my reputation preceeding me and everything..."
"You're perfect just the way you are," Shinichi insists.
They dig into their heart-shaped onigiri and vegetables in companionable silence. Lunch ends all too soon after that, a spring breeze blowing through their hair and Kaito reaching up to brush his bangs away.
Afternoon comes and goes like molasses, cherry blossoms plucked down by the slight breeze. The start of allergy season is upon them.
They go to Poirot after school, holding hands and grinning like maniacs all the way. The waitress smiles and gives them a slice of couples' cake.
Cherry blossoms beacon from every park, tumbling and falling and sweetly blooming like a mass of silky down pillows high above them. Street vendors sell sweets and goodies whose smell wafts through the air, infusing it with life. There will be a festival this weekend.
Kaito tries to buy one of everything (that didn't look like a f-f-finny thing!) and Shinichi insists on paying for them all while lecturing the magician-thief on how he will get sick later. They banter about it until Kaito really does become sick and then they watch a Gomera movie at a local theatre.
They laugh about their childhood blunders quietly in the back.
There isn't any murder in the teatre or anywhere else.
It is twilight when the movie ends, the two of them unwilling to part.
"See you!" Kaito exclaims, not yet releasing Shinichi's hand.
Shinichi kisses him softly on the lips, warm and heavenly.
"See you tomorrow!"
Kaito pulls him in to kiss him back, the rest of the world suddenly very irrelevent.
They smile; truly, genuinly, happy.
And roses flourish, blooming and glowing under the moonlight, the air barely stirring in the calm night.
AN: I really hope you all enjoyed! Thanks to anyone reading, to anyone who reviewed, favourited, or followed! I cannot express how sorry I am this took so long... but I really wanted it to be wonderful. I hope you liked it!
My own White Day was freezing, but who wants to write snow when you've got cherry blossoms? I know that they didn't bloom in Tokyo until a few weeks later, but they're always so pretty and romantic! I've never actually gone on a date or listen to people talk about dating convention so this is what I'd imagine a great date to be like (according to shoujo manga...).
Happy (very) belated White Day (though, to be honest, it's not really celebrated where I live)!
As was usual back in Feburary, I am up way too late.
