Seeing Green
Drabble 4: Windows to the Soul

Notes: Takes place about a year prior to the series. BEWARE THE POINTLESS FLUFF!

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As a kid, Heiji had always loved solving puzzles and riddles. He was always told by his teachers that although he had an attitude, he had the brains to make it in the world and be successful. Ellery Queen was his idol growing up, and critical thinking and analysis became some of his favorite pastimes.

In other words, Heiji was a weird child. At least, that was Kazuha's opinion.

So on the day of her sixteenth birthday, she and Heiji were going shopping in downtown, when lo and behold, Otaki-san came out of nowhere and dragged Heiji off to God-knows-where to help him figure out a murder case. He'd known about the boy's affinity for analysis and knowledge of kendo, which came in quite handy when Heiji pointed out something strange about the man's kendo stance in the video provided as evidence.

After that, it all went kind of downhill.

When Heiji wasn't in school or a kendo tournament, he spent his days scouring Osaka and solving mysteries, quickly becoming known as the great high school detective of the West. Along with his fame, he had earned a few new fangirls, who claimed that Hattori-kun was not only "so good at kendo" but also "so cool" and "so smart!" To this, Heiji had often scratched his head and smiled in reply, saying, "Nahh, it was nothing," in false modesty.

Kazuha wanted to gag. No, as the daughter of the inspector who worked closely with Hattori Heizo, she knew how the son of Osaka's police head was really like. Brash, rude, always calling her an idiot – it really made her wonder why she stuck by him so closely. And no, as she told her doting father many times, it was not because she was trying to scare off the fangirls. It was because – well… she wasn't sure how to explain it. It was confusing; a raw emotion that she'd never felt before, something she couldn't exactly put into words... But there were a few instances that she could cite in reference to that feeling.

It was around 4:30 on a rainy Tuesday afternoon. They were walking home after kendo and aikido club when Otaki-san came to fetch him to help out with a crime scene that was located nearby. That was the first time she saw him display his powerful skills of deduction. And – as damaging to her pride as it was – she did admit that he looked rather cool when inspecting all the evidence and clues that were left behind.

Then there was the time that she had lost a bet to him – she forgot what the wager was, really – but she remembered that she had to take over his afternoon duty for the week. After scrubbing meticulously at every smudge, stain, and dirt clod that she could find, the classroom was cleaner than ever by the end of her cleaning. That Saturday afternoon, after she finally came out of the classroom with the smell of cleaning solvent on her clothing, he was waiting for her outside of the school gate with the widest grin she'd ever seen him wear. He treated her out to her favorite okonomiyaki place after they took a long walk through the park.

Most importantly, there was the time that she and her father had gotten into the car accident. Her father was in the middle of crossing an intersection when a sports car came running the red light from the left, smashing into her side of the car and causing them to spin out of control, crashing into a nearby pole. Luckily her father had only retained minor whiplash and she'd gotten away with a broken leg and a very small concussion. But when she came to, Heiji sat at her bedside wearing the most self-hating, miserable expression – mixed with a fringe of hope for a strange combination.

"You could've died," he said in a harsh whisper, though there was no anger behind the words. Just concern, she could tell. "You could've died, and you'd be gone, and I'd never – we'd never – God, 'Zuha, don't do that."

The comment itself sounded ludicrous, as if she could have done anything about the accident, really… But seeing Heiji so quiet for once was a welcome change. For a while they just sat, her fingers laced in his.

Then she met his eyes for two seconds and was lost in them.

His eyes – his stormy, passionate eyes – they epitomized the very emotion she had sought to name.

Eyes never lie.

And his eyes brimmed with nothing more and nothing less than love.

End