Chapter 100: Meeting with Fate

Aoko finished her homework and grabbed her phone. As she dialed Keiko's number, she grabbed a few of their favorite movies.

Keiko opened her eyes again, looking at the noise. There weren't that many people that knew her number. She reached over for her glasses again before grabbing the phone. She saw the name of the caller. "Hello."

"Hi Keiko. I heard you weren't feeling well and wondered if you were up for me coming over for a bit. I have some movies we can watch."

Keiko looked around her dark room. The light from the windows had made it a lot brighter than it had been but it was nothing compared to how bright it would be outside. Aoko had to know why she wasn't feeling good or she wouldn't have asked her to come over. She sighed over the line, her eyes half closed. Maybe that would be nice though. "Sure. I have to get dressed first though."

"You don't really have to. I don't mind." Aoko smiled a bit. "I'll be there shortly either way."

Oh, Aoko was coming over here. Keiko rubbed one of her eyes, looking over at her dresser. "No, I should have gotten dressed a lot time ago. It's nothing. Thanks for coming over." It still felt so numb but Aoko had a way of cheering her up. Maybe she could. Even now though, she could feel that she was just a bit jealous of them. Kaito-kun was right though. It was only a first hurt. Everyone had them. "I'll meet you downstairs. We can watch in my room. Maybe we can grab some snacks." She hadn't eaten all day.

"Sounds great. See you soon."

Keiko got out of bed and put a shirt and some shorts on. She wanted to wear a skit but she'd likely have her legs up and it was better to not have to worry about it. Her room was really messy but Aoko could be messy sometimes too so she didn't worry about it- and didn't really care. She waited downstairs on the couch, her mom watching TV down there already. She told her Aoko was coming over and waited with her for the bell, which came not much longer than that. Opening the door she realized she hadn't tried to fix her hair or anything. "Hi Aoko."

"Hey Keiko." Aoko smiled a bit but her friend did look like she wasn't doing that well. "Ready for some movies?"

Keiko smiled a little and nodded. "Yeah. I think we have some juice or water if you want some." She moved so Aoko could come in the house.

"Hi Aoko-chan." Megumi spoke up from the TV when her daughter's friend walked in.

"Hi, Kumiko-san." Aoko said as she removed her shoes.

Keiko nudged Aoko away from her mom. She wasn't going to bring up the fact that Aoko was forgetful enough that she wouldn't have brought her school work and she could tell her mom wanted to know if that was why she was over. "Let's go upstairs."

Aoko nodded to Keiko's mom before following Keiko upstairs. "Are you really feeling okay?" she asked once they were in her room.

Keiko looked at her friend, sitting down on the bed. She shrugged, shifting her gaze to the floor. "I don't know. I guess. It's not like magic so I guess it takes a while to feel okay. I'd just never really had a boyfriend before and he was so... calm about it." She sighed, her eyes never all the way open or she was afraid that she'd cry. "I was just taking things for more than they were. I know that. It's my fault so all I really need is time." She looked up at Aoko. "Don't worry about it, really. I'll be fine."

"Oh, Keiko." Aoko went over and sat next to her. "It's not your fault. We were the ones that set you up. It hurt you both and we didn't mean for it to happen." She sighed but smiled in a hopeful sort of way. "At least you know what to look for next time."

Keiko shook her head. "No. I think I'm done with guys for a while. I'm sure my mom won't be happy but the timing was just horrible." She looked over at her. "I hurt him too? I don't really know how but I'm sorry if I did." She shrugged a little. Even now she didn't hate Saguru-kun, just the situation. If he had no give in what he did, there was just nothing to be done.

"Kaito had to go search for him because he never went to bed and he was very distracted while we ate breakfast. I didn't know why until Kaito called me after school." She smiled sadly. "I know there have been times when I just wanted to cry and never stop. The pain is really bad but when you find the one, no matter how angry or sad or disappointed you get," Like when Kaito told her she was Kid. "It'll still be him you want to hold onto, even with the pain."

Keiko smiled, admittedly not knowing that same pull. She hadn't known Saguru-kun enough for her to know anything other than that it hurt and, right now, while she didn't hate him, she wasn't feeling anything close to what Aoko had. It didn't make the hurt any better though and Keiko grabbed the movie out of Aoko's hand and looked at her. "I know we're not supposed to but, to get over it, is there anyway we can go back there? I need to shower first but after? I didn't really pay attention to where it was."

"I-I guess. Chikage-san took me home before school so...I could call her and ask if we can come back over."

Keiko nodded. "After, because I don't think this will be very fun, can we watch those movies?"

"Sure." Aoko pulled out her phone and called obasan's cell. After asking her if they could come over for a little while and where they were, she hung up. "She'll come get us in an hour."

That gave her plenty of time. She wanted to go down the street. "Here." Keiko handed Aoko the remote. "You can watch something while I shower." She made sure to grab her hairbrush this time, along with a few other garments, before leaving the room and taking a quick shower, liking it cold a lot better than she did hot.

Chikage didn't ask what was in the small box Keiko-chan was holding but picked them up and headed back to the house, taking a few detours just in case. She trusted the girls but she hadn't taken a direct route to or from the house. Pulling up to the large garage, she got out and held the keys out to the man there. "Still not a scratch." She smiled before heading into the house with the girls.

Keiko liked the numb feeling. It wanted to go away when she was outside and in the world and even more so when she was back in the house but if there was nothing to be done and she had some stilly crush interfering with other people's lives. It wasn't worth it and she could at least go back home felling a little better.

"Kaito said he'd be in watching TV and was in the room to the left last I saw." Chikage looked between the two girls, hoping they could talk it out.

Keiko looked over at Aoko. It was better if she went alone so she could go off and be with him. It would make things easier. "I'm fine." She looked over at Chikage-san after. "Where's Saguru-kun? Can you show me? This place is confusing."

Chikage nodded as Aoko-chan touched her friend's shoulder and headed off. "Sure, he's in his room. This way."

Keiko followed her just a little ways down, stopping at a room before walking away. She knew that that meant he was in there. She knocked on the door.

Saguru dismissed another possible culprit when the body size was wrong. "Come in."

Keiko walked in, seeing Saguru-kun typing something all by himself, a sketch on the screen and even more pictures. She walked over to him. "You're very devoted to your work, aren't you?" She put the box down on the desk next to him. "Hello."

Saguru looked up and stood at once. "Momoi-kun. Hello."

Keiko smiled a little and looked over at him. "You don't have to be jumpy. I'm not going to eat you." She hurt, but at least she knew she'd get over it in time. He looked fine. Good. In hindsight, her actions were kind of harsh and she was glad he hadn't fell into the same hole.

Saguru looked at her and nodded. "Kaito passed on your message. I had simply not expected you to come here."

"It's better to face you're problems in person. I would have guessed you would have been someone who did that if you were bothered but I guess not." Keiko took a step back so she could look up at him. "Aoko said you were off so I wanted to apologize too if it was something I did or said last night. I was just a little upset. I didn't mean it."

"I did not blame you in the least and knew you were upset. I had intended to speak to you, though I felt you wanted some time and was going to respect that." Saguru glanced away, thinking briefly of the last person whom he had attempted to speak to face to face about a 'problem'. His eyes fell on the box before looking back at her.

"That's for last night," Keiko answered the silent question. "I had my time. Thank you though then, I guess. What did you want to talk to me about?"

"I had hoped to clear up a few things." Saguru met her eye. "One was when you were upset and leaving, I feel I made it worse. A kiss to the cheek is used as a special form of good-bye. A father of the bride does it for his daughter before he gives her away. A release I suppose, for the other to go find love and happiness elsewhere."

Keiko shook her head. "I don't think of you anything like a father. Looking back, maybe you were more trying to be like that, or a teacher. I wouldn't be happy with it again but I am sorry for taking that the wrong way."

"I had intended the sentiment rather than the example and should not have expected you to be aware of it. It has been done either way." He looked at the box again. "Am I allowed to open this now or did you want me to wait?"

"It's not really a present, just a replacement." Keiko shrugged. "You can open it now if you want. Is that it? You just wanted to say you were sorry for kissing me?"

"The rest, honestly, were questions and to apologize for upsetting you in the first place. As Kaito told me you said you forgave me, and, in his own way, answered the questions I had, I felt there was no need to bring it up again."

"If that's it and you didn't want to ask me, I think I'm going to go home." Keiko held up her hand but, besides that first smile, she wasn't near happy enough to pull off another. She figured he liked his customs better then theirs. "Take care."

Saguru bowed, taking her hand but nothing more. "You take care as well."

Keiko let him go, walking out the door and going over to find Aoko again. She didn't want to bother them. There had been nothing there. Nothing. She was so stupid. She knocked. "Aoko, I want to go home."

Aoko looked over at the door. "I hope it went okay, but I promised to watch movies with her tonight." She looked at Kaito. "See you later."

"I'm still going to call you." Aoko leaned in and kissed him and Kaito held her for a moment, a bit possessively, and kissed her back. Whatever was wrong with Keiko, nothing was wrong with him. "Go watch your movies."

Aoko smiled and headed out the door to Keiko. "Okay, let's go."

Keiko nodded. This really was one sided and some movies and a bunch of junk food sounded really good right now.

Saguru watched her leave before looking again at the box. It was rather plain and picking it up told him it was fairly light. He opened it and looked in. 'A replacement… Fortunate I did not leave it for later.' He did not feel much like eating at the moment so he re-closed it and, with a glance at the computer screen, went downstairs to place it in the fridge.

Chikage woke up the next morning and slipped into her boys' room. Saguru had a cup of tea at the desk but Kaito was still asleep. "Morning. Can you leave that for a bit? I need to talk to both of you."

Saguru stood and walked over while their mother woke Kaito.

Kaito stirred when his mom woke him, yawning and stretching out on the bed he usually woke with full access too. "When are you going to learn to sleep in?" he said, more towards his brother than mom. He wiped his eyes, the light already on and mostly adjusted to it.

"When I do not have something else I can be doing."

"That doesn't make sense. If you don't have something else to do besides sleep in, then sleep in."

Saguru shook his head. "Still half asleep yourself. I do have something else to do, so I will not sleep in. Understand?"

"Yeah, well, you work too much. Hasn't anyone ever told you that? You're a teenager. Seriously. Detective or not that little guy isn't working on a case unless he's in the middle of it. You have no off button." Kaito sighed. "I don't know whether that sad or annoying. Oh, I guess you can still be annoying."

Saguru lowered the cup. "I am more in the middle of this case, finding the man that kidnapped me last week."

Kaito shrugged. "Even I don't work on things like that every second of my life. If I did I would have died of stress a long time ago. I'm still in the middle of something myself. A few something's." He lifted an eyebrow at his brother. "I think my reason for looking into things are better than yours too and if I can find time to take a break I think you can too."

"Okay you two. Work ethics aside." Chikage sat on the side of the bed and motioned for Saguru to join them. "We have a meeting this afternoon with Sharon and no, we can't blow it off."

Saguru took a sharp breath and set the cup on the bedside table. "What is she using this time?"

"Bugs in the house. She admitted some were hers, the rest belonged to others and warned against removing them. The back room was clean, they hadn't found it, but each of the other rooms had them. It already made sense to hide because of what happened but we need to very careful with what we say and do. She knows or suspects things about us and is trying to protect herself if they find out she knew and didn't do anything."

"I don't get why she wants to meet us though." Kaito folded his hands and put them behind his head, falling back on the bed. "It's only to get something from us and you know that. What other reason could she have?"

Saguru glanced down at Kaito. "You already knew about this."

"Yep. Remember when we went outside after I got you back?" Kaito looked over at him. "I found out then, but from mom."

Saguru nodded. He had wondered what they had been doing but the revelation that Kaito had exposed made him believe it concerned the kidnapping rather than an outside party listening in. "She expects us to be there, but for what purpose? She waited a week and her actions prove that she will have used that time. I can not have been for no reason or she would have had us meet the next day."

"I don't know how bad guys other than me think but I'd have to guess that as well." Kaito looked up at the ceiling. "So why should we go?"

Chikage looked up too. She hadn't told Kaito this and wasn't sure how he'd take it either. "She knows us, but she knows the others too. If I hadn't agreed to meet her, she hinted everyone in the house would be killed."

"She's always threatening us." Kaito looked over at his mom. "No matter what we do we can't shake her. I don't know why she's bothering us so much. Even if we go there's just next time and just going there is dangerous too. I guess if we ignored her though we won't see it coming the next time."

"Keep your friends close and your enemies closer."

"No thank you."

"I was going to continue with, 'scary thought though, considering it worked in a way with you'."

Kaito looked over at him. "Worked with me how? I've never let my enemies that close."

"Me."

Kaito laughed. "You weren't an enemy any more than Tantei-kun."

"But you still learned how to read each other from opposite sides." Chikage smiled. "Going at least gives us an idea, but we go carefully."

"I always go in carefully." Kaito was looking at the ceiling again and thinking. Tsh. He could have himself ready but there wasn't much back up Jii-chan could be. He wasn't that scared though. She might have learned from his dad but he had too and his mother was no pushover. Saguru could also think faster than a bullet so together- that was a pretty good combination. He had to unhide some of his stuff. "Did she give you a time?"

"No, so I thought we could have a look around."

"Kay. I guess it can't hurt." Kaito sat up. "Going together though would make us a target and I'm sure she'd be looking for us. I don't know if it'd be more dangerous to look or not to."

"We at least have a good reason to be disguised. There's a crazy man on the loose that everybody already knows about. She demanded this meeting, I'm just making sure my boys are safe. Nothing suspicious about that."

"We really shouldn't do that here though- anything more than a hat and some different clothes anyway. I have no idea how the old man will react when we're all gone."

"He mentioned going to oversee some installations so I do not believe he will notice our absence unless we fail to turn up at dinner." Saguru glanced at Kaito, refraining from saying more.

"Really?" Kaito looked at his mom. "Hey, I have to go get some stuff that I've got around then if I want to be ready."

"Okay. Go. We can meet downstairs."

Kaito slipped out, grabbing a few things he'd been too worried to leave in the room but wouldn't put far. No one touched those rooms and he needed them safe- if only from his brother. He wasn't going to pass up this chance though and made one more stop, checking for cameras before visiting one more room and then returning to his own. He was bringing his outfit too, just incase, and he was armed. "Ready."

Saguru adjusted the hat as they waited by the door for Kaito to come down. He had no idea what he was getting but had to think it was items of 'Kid's' that would have raised questions. He looked over when he caught sight of him out of the corner of his eye.

Kaito came out with a hat, looking up, much like his brothers. His was backwards though and his hair was black, some of it sticking through the front. He was also wearing a jersey. "Thanks for waiting."

Chikage smiled. "Like you wouldn't have got there anyway."

"I wouldn't. That would leave me vulnerable alone." Kaito tapped the side of his head. "I'm thinking now."

Saguru settled in the backseat as their mother took, quite obviously, more than a few side streets before parking on one and nodding.

"I've never been to this place." Kaito put on a pair of dark sunglasses. "How are we doing this?"

Chikage looked over. "We keep an eye on each other and for her or anyone else that appears out of place. But don't look too out of place yourself." She glanced at Saguru. "No rash actions this time. No matter what's happening."

"He stays between us." Kaito tipped his sunglasses so Saguru could see his eyes. "Not to be mean but your a newbie when it comes to this kind of thing. I've never seen you do anything but stand out as much as I do at night."

Chikage nodded after Saguru did. "Kaito, you want to lead? I have no idea if she's in disguise or not so just be ready."

"Sure." Kaito got out of the car, smiling up and bright and sunglasses back in place. He walked to the sidewalk. He took out his phone, fake calling and putting it to his ear. Blend in. If she was watching them it would be closer and before then it was better to not stand out. "Sure... later, I'm busy right now... eating."

Chikage waited before following after Kaito, looking at the buildings and storefronts. She had to admit, it worked as far as being a tourist either lost or just looking around. She followed, nearly catching up before stopping in front of a store and looking at the glass for a bit before moving again.

"No, no... I said tomorrow." Nothing. He didn't see anything out of place on the way. He wasn't too sure he would but anything that could be some sort of trap or anyone that could be a lookout was important. Still nothing. He went past the café that held the same address he'd seen on the note before stopping and hanging up. "So are we eating there?" He hadn't seen her but a lot of the seats were blocked from view. It looked like the lighting was low. Perfect place to be at a disadvantage.