Despite being late in the evening, the sun beat mercilessly down upon the concrete streets of Beika, although the heat had noticeably lessened in intensity compared to that afternoon.
As Shinichi brought his chilled bottle of Genmai tea up to his forehead, he seriously considered turning right back around and leaving from the train station to return to his nice and comfortable apartment. Just the thought of tumbling listlessly back onto his bed, turning the AC on to the max, and picking up where he left off on reading a thrilling novel made the anxious little voice screaming at him from the back of his mind all the more compelling to obey.
"Kudo-san! Were you waiting long?"
Fuck. Shooting a wide-eyed look at the approaching man, he lowered the drink and replied, "Oh, Hello. No, not really..."
He fidgeted a little as he saw Kaito flash an iconic lopsided smile that just oozed charm.
"So you were waiting?" he sang and gestured with his wrist in mock naiveté, "for little 'ol me? Thank you Kudo-chan~"
Laughing, he slung his arm around Shinichi's and dragged him off towards the culinary classroom.
The two entered an out-of-the-way five story building and onto the third floor where there was a large and well lit room with multiple sparkling clean counters lined neatly throughout. A couple people were already situated behind a few of the counters, mostly working in pairs, and in the middle of the far end of the room stood a young woman with a kind smile on her face. Her European features set her apart from the rest of the people in the room but she didn't shy away from their gazes and continued to watch the room with a smile as the two young men situated themselves behind the far left counter.
She walked over to the front of her counter and clapped her hands before she began speaking, "Bonjour tout le monde et bienvenue, I hope you all had a good weekend. Today we will be making meringues to test your abilities with beating eggs."
After the hustle and bustle of giving out instructions and passing out the required ingredients to all the students, she walked over to Shinichi with her hands clasped behind her back.
"Bonjour~, this is the first time you have taken my class, yes?"
Shinichi looked up from reading the instructions and smoothed out the creases that had formed between his eyebrows,"Ah, yes, Hello. Pleasure to meet you."
"I am Lilia and I teach this class. You may have noticed but my japanese isn't the best but please bare with me and thank you for your cooperation"
"No, no, your Japanese is clear and easy to understand! Have you been in Japan long?"
She nodded, "I've been in Japan teaching this class for 11 years now, but Japanese is still difficult to master."
Kaito swung an arm around Shinichi's shoulders. "You should hear him speak English, Mdsl~"
With a scoff, Shinichi swatted the other's hand away and straightened his shirt. "Says the man who can't even speak English."
Kaito stuck out his tongue. "Just because I can't speak it doesn't mean I can't tell when someone's accent is So. Thick. that it's practically indecipherable."
Shinichi furrowed his eyebrows. "What's wrong with my accent?"
Chuckling softly, Lilia let the two be and went off to check in with her other students.
Several minutes later, the duo were squatting in front of the oven and watching their meringues bake intently.
"Shin-chan~," Kaito called sweetly.
He made a non-committal noise.
Kaito shifted so that his head rested on Shinichi's shoulder.
"He has your eyes darling," he cooed.
Shinichi made another non-committal noise. After a few moments of silence, however, he stumbled backwards and stared round-eyed and red faced at a Kaito who was smiling sweetly and may or may not have been batting his eyelashes.
Shinichi harrumphed and threw a handful of powdered sugar from a nearby bowl at Kaito's face before turning around and rubbing his face.
Not soon after, he felt Kaito turn him around with a smirk and hold his face still.
"Don't move, Meitantei" he muttered as he wiped off the streaks of powdered sugar on his face.
The warmth of his hand against Shinichi's skin was… nice… to say the least. He felt himself lean into the soft touch as his eyelids fluttered a little.
After a moment of silence, save for the sound of cups pans clinking and clanking in the background, Kaito took a step closer. Shinichi's heart leapt from his chest at the sheer warmth of the other's presence. Unfortunately, Kaito drew away moments later with a cough and resumed squatting in front of the oven.
Once the meringues were taken out of the oven, Lilia walked over to inspect their handiwork.
Shinichi watched her evaluate their work with a keen eye and bit his upper lip nervously.
"Very good! Some of these seem to be made a little too large and aren't cooked all the way through, but overall you two did very well for your first times!"
Kaito beamed, "I know, right!? Kudo-chan here only messed up the batch once! He's come a long way from almost burning the kitchen down every time he steps into it!"
Shinichi rolled his eyes.
Lilia only chuckled however and gave Kaito a questioning look, "Msr. Kaito, est-il ton copain?"
Kaito laughed and shook his head. "Non, madame, c'est pas comme ça. Nous sommes amis."
"C'est dommage, vous auriez un bon match"
Sighing, he looked over at Shinichi and shook his head. "Je le sais."
The man in question, however, narrowed his eyes and pointed a finger at Kaito, "You better not be saying bad things about me"
He just shook his head disapprovingly again, "Je ne peux pas croire que tu es aussi stupide."
…
By the time they stepped out into the cool night air, there were barely any people out and about in the streets and even the train stations were quiet.
"Shit, what time is it? Didn't the last train to Beika already leave?"
"It's 22:15"
Shinichi sighed and pulled out his phone. "Guess I'll just have to call a cab then."
"Wait, uh," stepping closer to him, Kaito lowered his voice and continued, "My place is just around the corner. Do you want to spend the night instead?"
Blinking, Shinichi looked up from his phone.
Kaito rolled his eyes and cleared his throat. "Do you want to spend the night at my apartment?"
Shinichi raised an eyebrow but didn't object when Kaito looked up in annoyance before proceeding to drag him off to his apartment.
His apartment, of course, was cluttered and chaotic but it was surprisingly clean. There may have been millions of books, notes, and half-finished projects littering every available surface but there was nary a speck of dust or loose hair to be seen.
"You can go ahead and take a bath first," Kaito called out without even looking back, "I'll go get your futon ready."
"No, it's okay. I'll just sleep on the couch or something," he shrugged.
Kaito turned around slowly and looked him straight in the eye, "You can go ahead and take a bath first. I'll. go. get. your. futon. Ready."
Letting out a huff of laughter, Shinichi obediently acquiesced and entered what he presumed to be the bathroom.
Several hours later, the two were sitting on the floor in front of the couch, drinking, and mindlessly taking in the random variety show that was playing in the background.
"You used to live back in Ekoda with your mom, didn't you? Why'd you move?"
Kaito shrugged and took a sip of his drink. "We were planning our takedown of the organization, and it wasn't like my mom had spent the night in that house ever since… I was spending most of my time in safe houses anyway, so it was just inconvenient y'know?"
The two of them stared at the TV for several minutes as a heavy silence settled between them. Shinichi reached out and turned off the TV before turning to face the other.
"You could've called."
Kaito slowly set down his drink and sighed.
"You disappeared from public view after we took them down, nobody knew where you were, we were all worried! I was worried! Why didn't you say anything?"
"..."
Shinichi grumbled a little and ran a hand through his hair. "As your quote-unquote 'favorite critic,' I think I deserved at the very least a single fucking calling card with your signature and a farewell scribbled onto it."
He looked over at Kaito who was staring into his drink. His lips were curved upwards into a smile but his eyes were uncharacteristically hollow.
"I… I know. And I'm sorry." He looked away. Despite his calm and steady voice, Shinichi could see that his hands were shaking ever-so slightly and that his shoulders were tense.
Looking down, Shinichi bit his upper lip pensievely. After several moments of deliberation, he scooted closer and laid his head on Kaito's shoulder.
"I'm not mad. I just... What happened?" he asked softly.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"I-," Kaito choked up and shook his head.
Shinichi remained silent. He merely rubbed small circles into his back and waited patiently. Eventually, Kaito relaxed his shoulders and let out a short self deprecating laugh before speaking in a shaky voice.
"It's so stupid."
"It's not."
"I'm cursed."
Shinichi was taken aback. He furrowed his brows but remained silent still.
"I'm cursed," he repeated. "Everyone always leaves me eventually. No one really cares. I thought that if I just quietly disappeared, then it would be better for everyone. That way, if the organization ever comes back or some lower-level thug comes after me, no one would get hurt. I'd stop burdening everyone. Everyone would be happy."
Shinichi stared at this man's shoulders curl into themselves and were now visibly shaking as he choked back a sob.
"Wha… What made you think that? I'm sure your mother and Nakamori-san care deeply for you and would never think of you as a burden. "
Another bout of silence plagued the two of them. Eventually, Kaito sighed and leaned back into the couch.
"Aoko doesn't know anything about this world or what I do. She would have a heart attack if she did. And She moved far away so I barely see her anyway. I made sure Hakubastard would keep her safe. And my mom is never there. She's always outside the country doing her own thing, she doesn't actually care. Now it's just that she lives overseas permanently."
Shinichi grabbed Kaito by the shoulders and turned him so that they were facing each other. He searched Kaito's face intently. For what, he didn't really know.
"You're pushing them away. If you opened yourself to them, they would gladly be by your side."
Kaito wouldn't look him in the eye. He shook his head. "What's the point?"
"You deserve to be happy too," Shinichi enunciated.
He snorted, "Who, me? The good-for-nothing criminal? The menace to society that lies to everyone near and dear to him? The one that brings harm and misfortune to everyone around him? The annoyance that no one in their right minds would willingly tolerate? Nice one."
Kaito lowered his face and made no further movements to respond, but that bitter smile stayed glued to his face.
Shinichi pinched Kaito's cheeks and started pulling them out of frustration. "I'll have you know that people drop like flies whenever I leave the house. I'm basically a Shinigami, while you never let anyone die during your heists and you fiercely protect everyone around you. And you succeed each time, so shut up about that 'I bring misfortune to everyone around me' bullcrap, alright? I do that shit before breakfast. And I won't leave your side, ever. Even If I become a pest and wan't to get rid of me, you won't. I won't let you push me away and I won't let you be lonely. And you should know by now just how capable I am of keeping that promise. You're not alone, I promise."
Blinking, Kaito stared at him for a few moments before cracking into a big goofy grin and hot tears started streaming down his cheeks.
"That so fucking gay," he croaked, before shoving his face into Shinichi's neck who encircled his arms protectively around the crying man.
"No u," he whispered.
A/N: IM SO SORRY FOR THE LONG WAIT, I had a much longer story in mind but this will be how I end this fic because I've honestly lost interest in this fandom and have a new obsession - /\ - ||
I also decided to upload this two years late holy shit because this draft was sitting in my files and I might as well finish this finally :333
I hope it was enjoyable and thank you for sticking with me m( _ _ )m