Case 29 – Tradition
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"So, am I gonna get to kiss you at midnight this year?" Kaito asked. He was standing on his kitchen table, swiping a rag haphazardly around the light fixture on the ceiling.
"If you want," Shinichi answered with a shrug from where he was standing on the counter, dragging another rag across the top of the cabinets. "Not like you don't just kiss me whenever you want to regardless." He crouched down and hopped to the floor then glanced up at Kaito. He was still flailing ineffectually at the light. "You suck at this," Shinichi laughed, and Kaito threw the rag at him.
"If you're gonna complain about how I clean, you can do it instead," he said, hands on his hips. Shinichi rolled his eyes and stepped up onto one of the chairs before joining Kaito on the table.
"I'm just saying, you might want to get an actual ladder or something one of these days." He reached up and unscrewed the light cover, pulling it down and wiping it off. "Anyway, why are you so hung up on that western tradition?" Shinichi asked.
"I'm not really," Kaito said. He shifted his weight subtly, almost unconsciously, to balance the table as Shinichi reached back up to replace the light. "I only brought it up last year to get a rise out of you, but after you said no, well, now it's just the principle of the thing."
"We were at your mother's house," Shinichi pointed out, his tone flat. He sat down on the table and slid off of it.
"So what?" Kaito laughed, jumping down as well. "She wouldn't have cared."
"It's embarrassing, Kaito," Shinichi sighed. Or it was at the time, he thought. Things like that didn't bother him quite as much anymore – something he'd attributed to spending entirely too much time with somebody who had little to no respect for personal space – but at the time they hadn't been going out all that long, and it was his first time meeting Chikage. He wasn't about to do something like that in front of her then.
"Well how 'bout this year then?" Kaito persisted. "Kaa-san's in Paris and your parents are… still in Australia, right? It's just the two of us, so why not? Come on, Shinichi~! For me?" His eyes widened to match the pleading tone and he leaned in hopefully, his bottom lip just subtly puckered in a pout. Shinichi put his hand over Kaito's I'm-too-cute-to-say-no-to face and shoved him back lightly.
"Who else would it be for?" he laughed. He caught just a flash of Kaito's grin as he vanished and reappeared at Shinichi's other side.
"For you, of course," he purred, instantly switching from cute to seductive as he smirked and offered Shinichi a deep red rose from nowhere.
"Kaito,"
"Yes?"
"You're doing it again."
"Doing what?"
"You're turning up that phantom thief charm," Shinichi said, rolling his eyes despite the faint, traitorous smile pulling at his lips.
"Hmmm~? You only ever call me out on that when it's getting to you. So, will I be getting that kiss after all?" The grin returned and Shinichi folded his arms and shifted away slightly in an attempt to appear unfazed.
"Seems like a lot of effort when all you're angling for is a kiss."
"Maybe I intend to let the kiss do the rest of the convincing~" Kaito suggested.
Shinichi smirked at him. "You seem pretty sure this will go your way."
"With good reason, I think," he said with a smile, and it should have sounded arrogant but all Shinichi could pick up from him was an almost overwhelming sense of confidence. And somehow it was confidence in Shinichi. He was suddenly aware of just how warm his face felt, and how Kaito had never stopped meeting his eyes. He blinked and edged back slightly, turning to busy himself with shoving the chair he'd pulled out back under the table.
"Just help me with the cleaning or we won't even finish by midnight."
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"I hate this thing; the balance is completely messed up," Shinichi complained as Kaito devolved into fits of laughter again beside him. There was a target set up at the end of the upstairs hallway and a good number of cards were sticking haphazardly out from the edges, along with a few in the wall behind it.
"It's not messed up, it's just different!" Kaito stole the card gun from Shinichi's hand and fired off a shot in the same motion without so much as glancing at the target. The card struck dead center. Shinichi threw a dark glare in his direction.
"Look," Kaito said, handing the gun back. "You're trying to brace for a kick this gun doesn't have. It's throwing off your aim."
Shinichi looked down at the card gun skeptically. It had always felt extremely strange in his hand – the weight and balance and trigger resistance all just off to him. He raised it again, not really sure why he was bothering, and Kaito let out a quiet groan.
"Would you stop?" he said, tapping the back of his hand against Shinichi's two-handed grip on the weapon. "You're so serious; I think that's the real problem." Another second and Kaito had the gun again, spinning it in his hand before firing off another three shots, all one-handed and fluidly casual. He tossed the gun back to Shinichi.
"Hm," Shinichi murmured. "Now that I think about it… I don't think I've ever seen you fire this thing two-handed." He shifted his grip, and raised the gun again, letting his left hand rest at his side. It felt even stranger, but with a resigned sigh he aimed and pulled the trigger. The card clipped a corner of the target then fell pathetically to the floor. Shinichi's free hand came up to meet his face with an embarrassed sort of whine.
Kaito was laughing again and Shinichi shoved the gun into his hands. "That's it; I'm done," he said firmly.
"Maybe you should stick to soccer balls, huh?" Kaito snickered as the gun vanished in a puff of smoke. He glanced at his watch. "Oops. Hold that thought."
Shinichi looked over at him, eyebrows creased in confusion, and saw Kaito eyeing him with a sidelong, scheming look. "What–?" he managed, but the words fell away when Kaito stepped up to him, close enough that their bodies brushed together, and Shinichi very suddenly remembered Kaito's request from earlier in the day.
A bell tolled somewhere and Shinichi was certain Kaito had never had a clock that tolled like that before, and equally sure he'd set it up for dramatic emphasis at some point, and that he had purposely distracted him until this moment so that it would be all the more effective. And that was as far as his brain got before Kaito's hand was resting lightly on his cheek and his lips were warm and soft against his, gentle and careful and just enough that Shinichi wanted more. And he knew with that same certainty that Kaito had calculated that as well, but he didn't even care because, as proud as Shinichi was, he wanted Kaito, and that want was enough to block out anything else until he was lying on his back in Kaito's bed, Kaito draped over him, and both of them breathless.
"That was an amazing way to start the new year," he murmured, grinning as he ran a lazy hand down Kaito's back.
"Think we should make it a tradition?" Kaito breathed, smirking with his cheek pressed to Shinichi's chest, his eyes just barely open.
"Yes," Shinichi answered firmly and Kaito laughed, his breath warm on Shinichi's skin.
"You know, they say what you do on New Year's is supposed to set the trend for your whole year."
"God, I hope so."
Kaito suddenly pulled himself up, easily finding space on the mattress between Shinichi's limbs for his hands and knees, and he looked down at Shinichi with an all too familiar, energized smile. "Let's go to the clock tower, Shinichi. We can watch the first sunrise!"
"You're crazy," Shinichi laughed, just lying under him and rather content not to move.
"Of course I'm not; there's still plenty of time to make it there before sunrise," Kaito reasoned.
"How do you still have so much energy?"
Kaito shrugged a little. "I can't help it. I just feel good, y'know? Come on," He shifted over carefully and slid off of the bed, holding his hand out to help Shinichi up. "Let's take a shower at least."
Shinichi gave in with a sigh and a small smile, taking Kaito's hand and dragging a sheet along with him to cover himself as he was pulled out into the hallway and into the bathroom.
Admittedly, the warmth under the stream of the shower did feel good, and Shinichi closed his eyes, letting the water run over his face. A little shiver ran through him when Kaito's fingers trailed feather-light over his hips.
"Geez, I'm sorry. I didn't even realize–"
"Huh?" Shinichi looked down and saw the faint red marks on his own skin matching up with Kaito's fingertips where they rested on his hips. The smile that came to his lips at the sight was entirely too smug. "I'll take it as a compliment," he said. "It's good to know that even you can… lose yourself a little sometimes."
Kaito hummed his agreement, a quiet smile on his face, and his hands moved slow and soothing to the small of Shinichi's back and up across his back and shoulders. Shinichi's eyes quickly closed again and he took an unconscious step back. Kaito was there to meet him, supporting him as he continued to rub gentle circles into Shinichi's skin.
"I'm not gonna make it to the tower if you keep that up," Shinichi murmured distantly, sinking into the feeling.
"We don't really have to go to the clock tower if you don't want to," Kaito laughed. He was surprised when Shinichi turned to face him, meeting his eyes, strangely earnest, and said, "No, we should go."
A brighter smile crept onto Kaito's face. "You sure?" he asked.
Shinichi turned again to duck his head back under the water. "I'll probably fall asleep in the car." He pushed his hair back with both hands and glanced back at Kaito again. "But I'm up for it if you're sure you're awake enough to drive."
"Who do you think you're talking to?" Kaito laughed.
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Shinichi and Kaito were bundled up, tucked close against each other on the ledge of the clock tower as the sky began to lighten to grey.
"Hm, looks like we won't be able to see the sun come up after all with this cloud cover," Shinichi murmured. He was pretty sure he was too tired to really care though.
"That's all right," Kaito said. "It's enough that we're here." Shinichi glanced over and was surprised to see Kaito grinning at him. "After all," he added. "It was here that we first clashed as thief and detective. And it was right here, waiting for the sunrise, that you first kissed me."
"D-Don't bring up stupid stuff like that!" Shinichi stammered, looking away to hide the blush all across his face.
"It's not stupid!" Kaito replied. "I waited forever for you to make the first move for once. That night is one of my favorite memories."
"Y-You never said anything about waiting for–"
"Of course not; that would defeat the whole point. It had to be your decision after all, not something I pressured you into," Kaito said with a shrug.
"…What?" Shinichi's eyebrows pulled down, skeptical. "But you would kiss me all the time! And you hardly ever ask. How is that different?"
"It's different," Kaito stated. "I'm pretty good at reading people, Shinichi–"
Shinichi scoffed.
"But it's not the same as knowing... how you really felt. Until that night… I don't know; I guess I always wondered a little if you were still undecided."
"Then why didn't you just ask?" Shinichi said with all his adorably clueless reasoning.
Kaito smirked. "I guess I'm just a coward. You don't ask questions you don't want to know the answer to, right?"
Shinichi stared for a few moments as Kaito returned his eyes to the grey sky laid out before them. Then something clicked. "No way… You're actually bad at this, aren't you?" he said.
Kaito looked back at him. "What?"
"Dating. You're actually bad at dating like everyone else, but you just blind people with charm and confidence so they can't tell." Shinichi grinned, the expression fairly impish, and Kaito's face turned a faint pink.
"Maybe keep that deduction to yourself, huh?" he muttered with definite petulance and Shinichi shifted smoothly from impish to haughty.
"It's none of anybody else's business," he said. "Unless you plan on dating anybody else any time soon."
Kaito laughed out loud. "I think I'll stick to what I'm good at," he conceded, and he reached a hand up to Shinichi's cheek to guide him gently into a kiss.
The sun broke the clouds shortly after and the white light of morning fell onto the water in the distance, sparkling across the surface.
"There, see?" Kaito murmured smugly. "Some things are worth waiting for, even if you're uncertain."
Shinichi just rolled his eyes. "Happy new year, Kaito," he sighed with a smile, and he pulled him a little closer to his side as the first light of the new year washed over them both.
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Author Note
Off-season New Year's fluff whooooo!
This would have been posted much earlier, but between work wiping me out and my computer waking itself up in the middle of the night to "upgrade" (read: "destroy all of my setting with vindictive glee") it just didn't happen. Foo.
Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed the fluffy interlude. Next week, things get a bit more intense again~ The next chapter is called "Responsibility". Please look forward to it~!
