Study in Romance

Disclaimer: The works of Detective Conan and Magic Kaito belongs to Gosho Aoyama-sensei.

Warning: KaiShin relationship.

A/N: For those who don't know, yes the final French phrase from last chapter was from Lupin. I had the urge so...yea. On other news, yes, another chapter without Kai-Shin interaction. They do have a life beyond each other. Also, this particular chapter was added after I wrote the ending so...maybe plot holes? If so, tell me and I'll try and fix it up (with the interludes...again...I use the interludes to answer reviewer queries).


Ch23: Instant karma?

Days dragged on, and on, and on for Kaito who seemed to have been lost in the stream of time. There was a constant feeling of dark cloud surrounding him, though he made an effort to hide it all during school to avoid Aoko's concerned gazes and Hakuba's invasive and annoying observations. Both had seem to take upon themselves to monitor Kaito's behaviour after the out-of-character display of friendliness. He was both touched and annoyed at this change but it was mostly his fault to raise concern.

After the revelation, Kaito was unsettled. He could barely keep still as the thought of needing to do something to repair the damage he made. However, he could not bring himself to visit the detective, knowing it was he who hurt the detective the most. Combining that with endangering the detective at the heist, Kaito felt he did not deserve to go see the detective.

Nevertheless, he still sent his doves to keep an eye on the detective, just in case. Thankfully, the detective stayed at home during his recovery, which made surveillance easy. However, Kaito often saw the faraway look on the detective's face through the video feeds, and even through the relatively low resolution of the image, he saw the beginnings of shadows appearing underneath the normally bright blue eyes. He knew this was his fault, yet Kaito was not sure what he could do to remove such an expression, to erase the shadows, or to replace the dullness.

"Kaito?" His mother called from downstairs. Kaito glanced at the bedside clock, startled that it was already after six. He had been sitting at the same position, staring out into nothing in particular, as the looped video played on the computer beside him.

"Kaito?" His mother's concerned voice was closer this time and Kaito finally turned his chair around. He saw his mother peeking through the doorway with a ladle in her hand. "Is everything ok? You've been rather quiet."

"I'm fine 'kaa-san. Just...thinking." He tapped several keys on the keyboard without looking, closing the video window to display a random webpage instead. His mother frowned, no doubt having seen what was on the screen.

"Anything you want to tell me?" Instead of retreating, his mother walked closer to Kaito. She reached across to the computer. Kaito was about to stop her but her stern gaze made him hesitate. Those precious seconds was all it took for his mother to bring the previous screen back up. "You were keeping an eye on Shinichi-kun?"

"I…um..." Kaito was not sure how to reply that. His actions does sound rather incriminating and stalker-ish coming from his mother.

"If you were that worried, it might be a good thing to visit him. I'm sure he would appreciate it." A soft smile appeared on his mother's face as she tries to encourage Kaito to act. But Kaito shook his head instead.

"I don't think so. I've...hurt him. Badly. I mean…" Shaking his head, Kaito tries to clear his mind from the dark clouds. "The things I've said...and how I've treated him. It's as though…"

"As though you don't appreciate him as a person right?"

Kaito winced but nodded.

"You were angry, sad even, at the disappearance of Shiina-chan. Shinichi-kun would understand." She tries to ruffle his hair but he backed away from the comforting touch, knowing he did not deserve it.

"I hurt him." He turned to look at the computer screen once more. It showed the still detective sitting on his bed with an open book on his lap but dull eyes staring out into the gardens, straight into the camera. The normally observant and paranoid detective did not seem to have noticed his dove sitting on the tree looking in through the window, another hint on the amount of hurt Kaito caused the detective. "I've deliberately caused harm despite my continuous preaching of no-harm policy."

"But do you regret it?"

"Of course I do!" Frustrated, Kaito smashed his hand on the keyboard, drawing error messages onto the screen. "But what can I do? I'm the one who caused this!"

A frown and a smack to the back of his head from his mother snapped Kaito out of his frustration.

"Don't vent your frustration like that." His mother rarely scolds him nowadays, knowing Kaito never really reacts well with anger. However, her soft tone more than makes up for angered shouting. "If you truly feel you are at wrong, it is up to you to fix it. No one else."

"I know but I can't." He sighed, sinking further into the seat.

"It's not a matter of can't but a matter of won't. You just don't want to act." She huffed with slight anger. "I didn't raise you to be a coward."

"I'm not a coward!" He muttered, "just that I don't know what I could do…"

Sighing, his mother pulled Kaito out of the chair, tugging him out of the room with force. The hand around his wrist was borderlining on hurt but Kaito did not dare to voice out. Once in the dining room, his mother pushed him towards the table and forced him into a seat.

"Dinner's going to be ready soon."

Obediently, and slightly afraid at what his mother was going to do (he dearly hoped his mother was not preparing fish, or sashimi, or sushi, or...well just fish in general) he sat quietly at his seat. Despite the need (or want) to fidget, he kept his hands and arm on the table as he watchied his mother. After ten minutes, Kaito was rather bored but his nerves were shot. He could not help but ask "is there a point to this?"

"You need to be away from that computer, to clear your head." She stated plainly, grabbing two bowls from the cupboard. "Rice." She pointed towards the rice cooker and Kaito helped with the servings.

Dinner was passed in a rather tense atmosphere, with his mother not wanting to talk and him lost in his own thoughts. It was only when all the food was finished that his mother decided to speak.

"Kaito." She addressed in a rather serious tone. "I'm not going to say whether your actions were right or wrong. You're more than old enough to determine that yourself. However, I will say that you shouldn't leave things as it is."

"What can I do?" Kaito took the cup of tea offered by his mother, a seemingly comforting drink with barely any steam rising from its surface. "Say even if I visited him, I'd only aggravate the situation and I don't know what to say...I'm not sure if I could hold myself back when he wouldn't admit to anything…"

"What would you want to do? Do you want to go back to the time before everything happened?" It was a simple question, one that Kaito had asked himself many times over.

"'Kaa-san, despite my belief in Pandora, even I know time travelling is impossible." Even if Kaito went to look for his witch classmate, he doubted she could help with the task. Though she might have a spell or two that could help, if Kaito was willing to sell his soul to the witch (it would be a moot point to sell his soul to her if Kaito wanted to give his soul to the detective as compensation for trampling on his emotions).

"Then? What do you want to do?"

"Apologise...maybe? I mean, I don't think he'd accept it." Taking a careful sip of his drink, he stared down at the brownish liquid. "I know I wouldn't accept an apology from someone who would just accuse me…"

"Shinichi-kun is not you. He's a detective."

"And that's supposed to mean something?" Kaito glanced up at his mother with expectant eyes, hoping she was going somewhere with this.

"Detectives can always tell whether you mean your words or whether you're lying. And with someone as good as Shinichi-kun, he'd be able to tell if your apologies were sincere."

That meal had left Kaito with a lot more to think about. The very next day, Kaito decided to change tactics. Instead of keeping a careful eye on the detective, he began gathering information. The detective's likes, dislikes, patterns, chores, anything that he could get his hands on. Though, a normal person would call this excessive stalking and an invasion of privacy. But Kaito considered it to be reconnaissance. Although he impersonated the detective before, he still needed (wanted) to know more about the detective.

"You do realise," Hakuba approached him one afternoon during lunch as Kaito was engrossed in an old news article, "that you're developing an obsessive compulsive behaviour don't you?"

"Whatever do you mean?" He had gone through three years worth of newspaper and selected out all those that had a passing mention of the detective. Kaito could not believe his eyes when he read the print. It seems the detective was better than good, he was excellent, having solved every single crime he was presented with.

"You've been reading articles on Kudo Shinichi for the pass week or so. You've only pulled pranks when either myself or Aoko-san mentions it to you. Even then, they were all themed to include something blue. A very specific blue in fact. If I don't know any better…"

"Stop." Kaito clicked his fingers together and a puff of teal blue smoke appeared in front of Hakuba. When the smoke cleared, the blond's mouth was carefully taped together with sapphire blue duct tape. "Don't even say a single word."

With a wince, Hakuba removed the offending tape from his mouth, leaving behind a red imprint. "Kuroba-kun, what has gotten into you? Your behaviour is more erratic than usual." Hakuba said in an accusatory tone similar to the one used when accusing Kaito to be KID.

"And? That's bothered you how? I haven't focused my attention on you lately so that must be good right? Why are you so eager to return me to normal?" Kaito knew he was lashing out and it was quite an illogical action (not that he had ever been logical to begin with). Still, he felt slightly guilty when Hakuba widened his eyes a fraction at Kaito's outlash.

"Alright Kuroba-kun, stay moody for all I care." Hakuba stalked off with softly muttered words of "this is the last time I try being nice."

Kaito wondered if he should reach out, call the blond detective back and make an apology of some sort. That drew a mental wince as he realised he had been quite rude to detectives lately. He could blame it on the fact that he was a part-time thief and detectives were his eternal enemies thus inducing such defensive words. But he would be kidding himself. He had considered the blond detective as a friend but Kaito doubted he could actually confide in him. Kaito let his outstretched hand fall back to hold his tablet computer once more, eyes focusing on the words.

It seems his actions were caught by the blond detective who heaved a rather noisy sigh.

"Just know that both Aoko-san and I are here for you if you needed someone to talk to." With a shake of his head, Hakuba returned to his seat and pulled out a book.

Kaito could not help but be surprised.

Before returning to his reading, Kaito made several mental amendments to further exempt the blond from his pranks for at least another week. He deserved that for the strange show of compassion.

The following afternoon lessons were tense, where Hakuba would constantly glance at Kaito's seat and Kaito would pretend not to have noticed (a rather difficult feat seeing as Hakuba's glances were none too inconspicuous). And Kaito was exceptionally glad when the day finally ended and he could leave.

Only, to be waylaid by his mother at the school gates.

She had been drawing quite a lot of attention to herself with the parked red convertible and dark green kimono with tiny white flowers littered along the hemline. An odd combination but somehow his mother managed to pull it off. She waved enthusiastically the moment their eyes met and Kaito could not help but heave a sigh.

"'Kaa-san, what's the special occasion?" He eyed the seats wearily, noting the paper bag placed in the passenger side.

"Do I need a reason to dress up?" She reached back and pulled the bag from its position, pushing it into Kaito's arms. "Go change. You have 10 minutes before I change you myself."

Knowing full well his mother would have stripped him in public if he did not comply, Kaito hurried back into the school building to locate the bathroom. The bag held some of his more formal clothes, consisting of a pair of dark trousers, a dark blue long sleeved tee and a white short sleeved shirt with twin breast pockets. Kaito had been surprised to see his mother did not pull out something from her special collection or decided to dress Kaito up as something else (namely female, or more embarrassingly cosplaying as a kitten which had happened before leaving a rather traumatic memory in its place). Ensuring he was well put together, Kaito approached his mother once more. Her approving gaze told her that yes, she approved of his current look (thankfully, else they would be going on an emergency shopping trip to dress Kaito up to the correct standard for whatever even his mother had planned).

The way Kaito took to this sudden change in normalcy should say quite a lot about the type of life Kaito is living in. Not even batting an eyelid when his mother sped down the highway, but still taking a scenic route to downtown Tokyo, and arrived at a rather posh looking Japanese residence. The small wooden plaque on the doorframe and the noran indicated the place to be a restaurant.

"Are you setting me up for a blind date?" Kaito could not help but ask as they were greeted by the entrance. Looking at his watch, he found that he had spaced out for the duration of the long ride and already two hours had passed. 'No wonder the sky looks a lot darker.' Although some part of him questioned whether his mother had drugged him at some point during the ride for him to lose such a large chunk of time.

"I'm doing you a special favour. It would serve you well to be thankful." She handed the keys to the concierge, who quickly motioned for the valet. They were led to a private chamber, quite a ways away from the main entrance hall. On the way, they passed by a rather aesthetic Japanese garden, complete with the scenic landscape, trimmed hedges, smalls stream, and a rather large willow overlooking the waters. Kaito shivered at the possibilities hiding within the waters and had to wonder whether his mother would insist him walking with this possible date into the garden to know one-another.

The private room was set up for four people and Kaito knew that he had to somehow make his escape. Especially since he doubted any date his mother set up could match up to the various times he spent with a certain blue-eyed individual. No matter how beautiful his possible date could be, they would not be able to hold a candle to the one currently taking place in his heart. Although a certain pang sprung forth when his memories wandered back to the rather abrupt end to the relationship. Shaking his head to clear the sudden onslaught of negativity, he excused himself to the bathroom, all the while plotting how to escape this predicament.

-TBC-