Disclaimer: I don't own DCMK

Sky Colored Eyes

14: Coffee and Tea

"Ah, so many choices," Kaito mused, casting a critical eye over the bakery's vast selection of goods. This bakery was one of the biggest in Ekoda, and they had the pastry variety to go with their sizeable premises. His mother had asked him to bring a batch home, but she'd left the choice of which pastries up to Kaito. Whistling a cheery little tune, he grabbed a tray and a pair of tongs and began picking pastries off of their brightly lit shelves. Oh, and here came a fresh tray of the bakery's Chocolate Moon Special!

Today was a good day.

He grinned to himself. He had spent his last few afternoons and this morning researching the exotic collection that had caught his attention the other night. He'd visited five different libraries in as many disguises to scour both the shelves and the net. As he had predicted, he had found no shortage of possible targets. If anything, the dilemma was narrowing the list down to one, though perhaps he could allow himself up to two gems this time. He was still debating over that one. Unlike the pastries, the jewels weren't quite so easy to choose between.

The first jewel that had cropped up on his list was a tanzanite pendant said to house the soul of its first owner. The woman who had commissioned its creation was said to have been a great beauty who lived over three centuries ago. Rumor had it that, terrified by the idea of aging, she had made a deal with evil spirits in order to retain her good looks. According to those stories, the contract she made was bound into her pendant—which was why she refused to ever take it off. It was said that even at the age of eighty she had looked much the same as she had in her youth. However, the day a thief stole her pendant from her, she had died, her body withering away to dust. And yet despite it all, the lady's life had still been one misery after another. Burdened with this grim little tale, the gem had been dubbed the Empty Promise.

The second jewel on his list was a pink amethyst. Not a particularly valuable stone to be sure, but it had once belonged to a notorious pirate. Purportedly given to him by a mermaid and thus named the Mermaid's Heart, it guided him to untold treasures through terrible storms and treacherous seas. When he'd read that myth, Kaito had wondered idly if the thing could lead him to Pandora. The thought had made him laugh. Whether it had such powers or not, he was still the type of person who would prefer to rely upon his own abilities rather than some mystical power with an unknown price.

The third gem he'd had his eye on was a star ruby. It wasn't quite as large as his usual targets, but it had a whole history rather than just one tale attached to it. Known as the Lady's Blessing, it was a jewel that was said to herald the coming of good fortune. The first owner received it as a gift from her mother. She went on to lead a prosperous life as one of the world's most famous singers. When she retired, she had gifted her star ruby to a girl who'd worked for her. That girl had wished to become a fashion designer. The story went that once the jewel had been given to her, her own career began to skyrocket. Soon she not only had an entire line of her own clothes but a name in the accessories industries as well. It was at one of her biggest shows that the ruby was stolen. For years no one knew where the thing had gone. The thief had never been caught. It wasn't until almost a decade later that a young man bought a ruby pendant for his sweetheart. Once in her hands, the jewel's mysterious powers once again bloomed as she and her young man began their own business selling flowers. They grew beautiful blossoms of all types and arranged them into amazing bouquets and decorative artworks that people could buy and send to their loved ones to congratulate them or simply express their love or, in some cases, apologies. They refined the art of flower language combined with gift giving and were now one of the largest companies in the world dealing in floral arrangements. So it was said that this particular star ruby brought good fortune to its owners, but only when the owners received it as a gift. The thief who stole it did not prosper (at least not to anyone's knowledge), and the man who'd bought it didn't either until he gifted it to his sweetheart. So it was a jewel that needed to be given freely and from the heart—or so the legend went.

"Is that everything you're getting today, Kuroba-kun?" the girl at the counter asked as she piled his chosen pastries neatly into a brown and ivory box. "No cake today?"

"Unfortunately, no. Mom said anything but cake. Guess she thought the last one was a bit excessive."

"Was that the time you bought the triple-decker chocolate cake?"

"Yeah. She didn't appreciate having to eat all that chocolate when what she really wanted was bread. So I've been banned from buying whole cakes."

"Here, you can have a slice of this black forest cake then. It's on the house."

"Really? Wow, thanks. You guys are the best!"

The girl laughed. "And you're one of our best customers, so it's only fair. Did you need a bag?"

"Sure."

The girl took the cardboard box back behind the counter to get it a suitable bag, leaving Kaito to cast his gaze around the rest of the bakery. He'd always loved the bright atmosphere in here. Combined with the delicious aromas of baking bread and the murmur of happy voices, it was the kind of place that could feel festive even when the holidays were nowhere near.

Turning, he paused as his eyes landed on a person seated at one of the small tables by the bakery window. He would know that hairstyle anywhere. It had to be Shinichi. His face split into a grin and he was about to head over and say hello when he spotted the person seated across from the blue-eyed teen. Was that Hakuba? What the hell was he doing here? Shouldn't he be taking Aoko to the movies or something? After all, it was a Saturday afternoon. For a while now, those two had been spending Saturday afternoons together.

Thinking back though, he did seem to recall Aoko saying something about wanting to spend more time with her female friends. Something about a girl having family trouble? Yeah, that was it. Okay, so that would mean Hakuba wouldn't be with her. And those were definitely case files lying spread across the table around their cups of coffee and tea.

Leave it to detectives to spend their free time voluntarily adding to their own work load. Although perhaps Kaito shouldn't be pointing fingers in this particular regard considering his own busy schedule what with heists and shows and school all to deal with. He wasn't making his own life any less busy by plotting to make this next heist a real earth shaker. On the other hand, since it was fun, he didn't feel like it strictly qualified as work. But he digressed.

With those two meeting up for cases, there was one issue that was bound to come up eventually. He couldn't just ignore this.

X

"Kudo-san, I have some information about Takamura Sakuno. If you have time, we can go over it after class."

One cup of coffee and one cup of tea. Each sat on a saucer at opposite corners of a table strewn with folders, photographs, notes, and police reports.

It was now a familiar sight to Shinichi.

He had started meeting up with Hakuba after school to work on cases. It had started out simply as a way to compare notes from their individually conducted research into the people connected to Takamura and Ogata. But they were both well-connected detectives with a penchant for running into, tripping over, and sometimes even falling on cases. It was only natural that their discussions expanded to include those other cases.

It was a new kind of experience for Shinichi. While he'd worked alongside many detectives from all across the experience spectrum, it was usually at the scene of the crime or at least in the midst of the chase. In those times there was rarely any time for idle speculation or casual conversation. On top of that, his years as Conan had forced him to keep most of his thoughts to himself. Even around Hattori, there had always been that sense that he needed to be careful—to watch his words lest they be overheard by undesirable parties. He might still have things he couldn't say, but at least he no longer had to pretend he knew less than he did or try to find excuses for his own deductions.

"You are hopeless," Ai had told him when she'd learned of these meetings—which he thought was a little unfair considering she was the one who kept telling him that he needed to make an effort to get back in touch with the outside world (personally, Shinichi didn't think he was out of touch, just not very socially inclined. There was a difference).

"Kudo-san?"

Blue eyes blinked as they refocused on his companion. "Oh, uh, right. I was just wondering, did you notice how both Takamura Sakuno and Ogata Yuji's acquaintances all seemed to have the same kinds of things to say about them?"

"It seemed to me that none of them had very much to say at all."

"But that's exactly it. They were both people that other people thought were nice but distant. None of their peers knew them well, and they tended to keep to themselves."

"I suppose that is a connection of a sort, if not a very striking one," said the blond detective. "I've been wondering, why are you so determined to find a connection between them?"

Shinichi hesitated. "I…guess I just have a bad feeling about it."

He flushed slightly under the blonde's mildly incredulous stare. He knew it wasn't a very logical reason, but it was the truth. He opened his mouth to say more but stiffened abruptly and turned to look back over his shoulder.

On the other side of the table, Hakuba raised an eyebrow. "Is something the matter?"

Shinichi frowned, scanning the faces at the other tables. For a moment there he had felt that oh so familiar prickling sensation that said he was being watched. It wasn't the first time either. There had been several occasions over the past few days when he had had the same feeling. Yet every time he tried to find the source, he inevitably came up blank. This time was no exception. Eventually he turned back to the other detective. "No, it's nothing."

X

Nakamori Aoko frowned as she stared across the bakery table at her childhood friend. She had been spending most of her time the last week or so with Keiko as they tried to keep Hasagawa's spirits up through the other girl's continued struggles with her stepmother so she wasn't entirely up to date on what Kaito and the others had been up to. Therefore she had been rather confused when just that morning Kaito had shown up at her door and demanded that she have lunch with him.

Taken aback and slightly worried at her friend's odd behavior, she'd agreed. So that was why she was now sitting at a corner table in the bakery café with a mug of hot tea on the table in front of her and a distracted magician in the seat opposite.

"Why are you spying on Kudo-kun and Saguru?" she asked finally because it was impossible for her not to notice the way her tablemate's eyes kept flickering towards the window. There wasn't anything at the window that he could be looking at, but through the window they could both make out the table outside of the coffee shop opposite where Kudo-kun and Saguru just happened to be sitting. Aoko had been surprised to see them when she'd first arrived at the bakery. Now, however, she had decided that it was not a surprise after all because clearly they were the reason she herself was here. She couldn't help but notice that the position of her own chair set it up so that she conveniently screened the magician from any casual glances that the two detectives might send their way. Kaito was using her both to get into this café (which required that everyone who wished to have a table come in at least a party of two) and for cover as he did his spying. Aoko didn't know what she was supposed to think about that, so she didn't. Instead she turned her attention back to studying her old friend's face.

Saguru had told her that Kaito had been following the detectives on their investigations as well. Which was odd. Since when had Kaito taken an interest in detective work of all things? …No, that didn't sound like Kaito at all. He liked making mysteries, not solving them. But maybe she was thinking about this from the wrong angle. Maybe it wasn't detective work he was developing an interest in but the detectives—or rather detective.

"Did you ask me something?"

Aoko blinked, coming out of her thoughts to find Kaito watching her intently. "What?"

"You just asked me something earlier. What was it?"

"Oh, right. Um, I was just…well, wondering why you're spying on Kudo-kun and Saguru."

"Oh that." Kaito waved a dismissive hand. "I'm not spying on them," he lied. "I'm just keeping an eye out for them, you know, considering the sorts of things that have happened lately. That last casualty would have landed right on top of Shinichi if I hadn't pulled him out of the way in time."

Aoko looked dubious. "So you're…keeping watch."

"Exactly."

The inspector's daughter wasn't sure if she believed the declaration or not, but she could tell it was the only reason Kaito was going to give her. The magician did love his secrets.

Aoko might have been surprised to learn that Kaito was only half kidding. He really did want to keep an eye on Shinichi. Even with the limited amount of time in which they had known each other, it was impossible not to notice how the boy's affinity for running into cases was phenomenal. Kind of like Tantei-kun, come to think of it. As was the case with most of the things he did however, Kaito had many reasons for his current spate of spying. The first was that he wanted to know how the Takamura, Chishima, and Ogata investigations were going. It was only natural, he'd reasoned, considering he had been there at the beginning of each of those cases. Finding out more about the other crimes currently plaguing the Tokyo streets was just a useful side effect.

His second reason was that he wanted to be up to date on anything the blonde took it into his head to tell Shinichi. With the two spending more time working on cases together, the subject of KID was bound to come up sooner or later. It was only a matter of time. Forewarned was forearmed after all. He needed to know if Shinichi was going to start buying into Hakuba's theories and nosiness.

This was about self preservation!

But there was another reason too. One that Kaito wasn't sure he understood himself. It was just this feeling in his gut.

Taking another sip from his hot chocolate, he glanced again at the detectives across the street.

It just—bothered him, seeing them being all friendly. He just knew Hakuba was corrupting Shinichi against him, he just knew! Nosy blond nuisance.

Kaito scowled and took a particularly large swallow of his chocolate. What he needed was to coax Shinichi into spending more time with him. That was it. He could straighten out whatever misguided notions Hakuba might be planting that way.

For her part, Aoko was starting to form a certain idea in her head. It was a very vague and very tentative idea, but seeing the way Kaito was glaring and thinking back over the way he'd been acting both back during their trip to Chiba and since they had returned… Hadn't she just been thinking a moment ago how it might not be the detective work but the detective that had caught her friend's attention?

"Kaito," she began then stopped.

He raised his eyebrows at her. "What?"

For some reason, she blushed and looked away. "Nothing. It's nothing."

"…Okay." He didn't buy that for a second. Aoko sure was acting strange today. She was generally a very forthright person, especially when she had a question. On the other hand, if Aoko wasn't going to elaborate, there wasn't much point in pushing her. Not right now anyway. Instead, he turned his attention back to the detectives.

They were talking about Sherlock Holmes again. Kaito could tell because over the course of his observations he'd learned that Shinichi always lit up whenever the topic came up. It was the only time, in fact, that the detective ever looked that happy—like an inner switch had been flipped. He would grow animated as his eyes all but sparkled with excitement. Then there was that smile. A real, open, happy smile that temporarily chased away all the melancholy that never otherwise left his face.

It made him look—beautiful.

Kaito blinked.

That was not exactly the thought he had thought he would think. The fact that he had thought it…

Well, perhaps it wasn't really that strange. Smiles were good. Most people looked better when they smiled than when they scowled. It was the same as how your impressions of a person and their personality could color the way they looked to you be it for better or for worse. It was all quite natural.

Except…except that for a moment there he had caught himself thinking that he wanted Shinichi to smile like that for him.

Okay, so it seemed he might like Shinichi a little more than he'd originally thought. Well, this was going to make things interesting.

If he had been someone else, Kaito might have spent some time arguing with himself about why and how he had to be wrong—that he couldn't be interested in Shinichi like that. The boy was a detective of all things after all. But Kaito wasn't much given to second guessing himself. While he had no qualms about lying to other people, he didn't make a habit of doing it to himself. If you couldn't believe your own thoughts, you were setting yourself up for a seriously overcomplicated life.

So rather than waste time trying to figure out ways to overthrow his own conclusion, Kaito took another sip of his hot chocolate and filed the information away to ponder later.

TBC

A.N: A little early, but I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving. ^_^