Disclaimer: I don't own DCMK

Sky Colored Eyes

16: It Never Rains

The first thought that crossed Hakuba's mind when he walked into the coffee shop after swinging by his house for his case files was that he really should have expected this to happen sooner or later. The fact that he should have expected it, however, didn't make it any less of an unpleasant surprise. Making his way past the other customers, he fetched up next to the corner table. He greeted Shinichi before turning his gaze to the table's other occupant.

"I presume it would be pointless for me to inquire as to why you are here, Kuroba?"

"Utterly useless," the magician in question agreed with a lazy smile.

"We were reviewing for the exams," Shinichi explained, hoping to avert a repeat of the rather inane argument he'd had to suffer through that time they'd visited Chishima's mother. "I should have picked a bigger table. I'll go get another chair."

Hakuba stopped him with a hand on the shoulder. "Don't trouble yourself on my account. I can get one myself." He turned and scanned the shop. It wasn't a big place and the seats were very limited. There were only two empty seats, and a woman sat down in one of them even as he spotted it. Knowing he'd have to move fast, he made a beeline for the last empty chair. It was a little irritating that he was the one who had to hunt for spare chairs when Kuroba was the one who'd shown up uninvited, but Hakuba refused to be reduced to bickering about such a miniscule thing as who had the right to the first chair. He'd be playing right into that damned thief's hands if he did and making himself look like a fool in front of Shinichi, a detective he had come to respect. Honestly, the thief's behavior had been nonsensical enough before. Hakuba had thought it impossible for Kuroba to get any more baffling, but somehow he had. And it had something to do with Kudo. Perhaps it was time he told Shinichi about his theories regarding Kaitou KID. Odd, he'd thought that before too, but somehow something always got in the way… Was it a coincidence?

He had just reached the last empty chair when his phone rang. Sighing, he took hold of the back of the chair with one hand to show his intentions to use it and raised his phone to his ear with the other. "This is Hakuba speaking."

Back at the corner table, Shinichi turned to give Kaito an exasperated look. "I hope you didn't come here just to usurp Hakuba-san's chair."

Kaito drew himself up in righteous indignation. "Of course I didn't. I came because you've only been at our school for so long and a lot of the materials in our chem. exam are going to be from before you arrived. I thought I could give you a hand." Although, he added to himself, inconveniencing Hakuba had been a close second as far as reasons went.

"Oh." Shinichi blinked, slightly taken aback by the sudden revelation. It was a rather thoughtful gesture that Kaito was making. Shinichi looked down into his coffee before looking up once again to meet Kaito's expectant, indigo orbs.

"Thank you," he said softly, feeling that traitorous blush rising in his face. Why did talking to Kaito lately always make him want to blush? "I did notice that there was a lot of material on the study guide that I hadn't seen before. I would greatly appreciate it if you could let me borrow your notes."

"Borrow my notes?" Kaito laughed. "Forget that! Who needs notes? Just call me teacher! I'll make sure you know everything we did before you transferred in less than two weeks!"

"Don't make promises you can't keep, Kuroba," Hakuba said as he reappeared by their table. "No one can thoroughly cover that much information in two weeks."

"Just because you can't do it doesn't mean I can't."

"You didn't find a chair?" Shinichi cut in, seeing that the blonde had returned chair-less.

"No, yes, no, I mean, I'm very sorry, but I have to take my leave." The blonde's usually calm demeanor was frazzled and his shoulders tense. "I'm heading over to the hospital."

"What?" Shinichi rose from his seat, confused and concerned. "Did someone get hurt? What's going on?"

"I just got a call from Aoko." Hakuba's words were quick and level. "She and Keiko were at Hasagawa Ren's house when Ren's mother pushed her down the stairs. They don't know what her condition is yet. She and the police are headed to the hospital as well. I'm going to meet her there."

"I'll come too," Shinichi said. He swept his papers quickly into a folder and slipped them into his backpack. Then he grabbed his coffee and downed the rest of it in a single gulp. "So which hospital is it?"

"Ekoda General."

"Oi," Kaito called from where he'd suddenly appeared by the coffee shop door. "You two, hurry up! I got us a taxi."

X

How had a day that began so normally ended up like this? When she'd gotten up that morning, the last place Aoko had expected to find herself that evening was sitting at the hospital, waiting to hear the doctors' verdict about one of her friend's conditions. A friend whose own mother had pushed her down the stairs. Stepmother or not, it was not a normal way to behave, she thought angrily. Everyone had problems. So why couldn't they solve them by having a nice chat? It wasn't like they'd always been at odds. Aoko still remembered a time when they'd been a happy family despite not being blood relatives. She used to admire that about them. A confrontation between the two could have gone any number of other ways, couldn't it? They could have sat down and had tea and talked about the older woman's odd behavior of late and her discontentment with Ren. It wasn't like it was hard to sit and talk. So why had it happened this way instead? With Hasagawa-san sobbing quietly on a chair in the corner of the room flanked by a pair of policemen and Ren still in the ER, Aoko could do nothing but stew over the wrongness of it all.

Her life seemed to have gone all out of whack lately. First there had been that poor Sakuno girl. Of course it had been a freak accident, but it had still been creepy and sad and just wrong in so many ways. Then there was that Chishima guy still unconscious in the hospital—maybe even this hospital, come to think of it. And now this… It was just one thing after another, like the first drops of rain heralding the impending storm.

"Aoko!"

Looking up at the familiar voice, the inspector's daughter was mildly surprised to see not only Hakuba but also Kaito and Shinichi making their way across the waiting room towards her.

"Kaito? What are you doing here?"

Her childhood friend gave her an incredulous look and snorted. "What kind of question is that to ask? We came to make sure you and Hasagawa-san are all right, duh. We're not heartless."

She flushed slightly. "I didn't mean it like that. I was just—surprised is all."

"Hakuba here spilled the beans," the magician replied with a dismissive wave. Behind his Poker Face, however, he was just a little bit annoyed. He'd expected Aoko to call him after she'd called Hakuba, but she hadn't. "So what happened?"

Aoko's gaze flickered automatically to the closed doors leading into the emergency room before her shoulders sagged slightly. "It's a long story." Waving the three boys into empty chairs, she resumed her own seat. Her hands rested in loose fists on her knees. "It started a few weeks ago…"

She outlined the situation in the Hasagawa household as she knew it. Part of her felt a little guilty about sharing what was supposed to be private information about her friend without the other girl's permission, but with everything that had happened she just couldn't stay silent. Silence had never been her strong point. And by this point all she really wanted was for someone to make it all make sense for her because she sure as hell couldn't make sense of it herself.

"Did Hasagawa-san say anything to the police?" Shinichi asked when she had finished.

Aoko shook her head. "She's been quiet since we left the house, though every now and then she starts muttering Kosuke's name."

"That would be her son?" Hakuba asked.

"Yeah. He passed away three years ago in a climbing accident, but recently Ren says she hears her talking to him like he's still alive."

"Well that's a bit weird," Kaito mused.

"That's certainly something coming from you," Hakuba muttered. "Strange or not, however, that hardly seems relevant to the problem at hand."

"I don't know…" Shinichi frowned. "It sounds like it might be part of why Miss Ren's been having problems with her stepmother."

"Exactly!" Kaito agreed. "The woman starts getting delusional, thinking she can talk to her dead son, then starts comparing him and her stepdaughter. It would be a wonder for something like that not to adversely affect a relationship."

"But Hasagawa-san used to be so nice…" Aoko trailed off as she heard the swish of the emergency room doors opening. She looked around quickly. A nurse had just stepped out. She had a clipboard in her hands and was scanning the room as though searching for someone. Her attention eventually landed on the officers and the gaunt form of Hasagawa-san.

One of the officers guarding the elder Hasagawa stood and intercepted her. "How is she?"

The nurse smiled, and it was like the whole room breathed a sigh of relief. "Ren is going to be fine. She has a bit of a concussion, but it's nothing too threatening. We're moving her into a room right now." She paused, eyes darting to the sobbing woman back on the chairs, then she lowered her voice. "We were wondering if you might have contact information for the poor girl's father."

"I have Ren's phone here," Aoko volunteered, stepping up to the nurse and holding out a silver cell phone. "Her dad's number is in here."

"Thank you. Just let me write it down."

"If everything is in order, we need to take Hasagawa-san down to the station," the officer continued, expression serious.

The nurse nodded. "We understand. Don't worry about Ren. We'll take good care of her."

"I know it might be a bit hard on her, but we will need to speak to her as soon as possible as well."

"Please give her a few days to rest first."

After the nurse bid them goodnight and left, the officer turned to Aoko. "I think it would be best if you and your friends went home," he said kindly. "It's starting to get late. You can come back tomorrow during visiting hours if you want to check on Ren."

"O—oh, I…guess you're right."

Seeming to sense her uncertainty, the officer smiled. "Don't worry. We'll let you know if anything changes. You're Nakamori-keibu's daughter, right? I'll make sure he passes any news along."

This time Aoko's smile was much more genuine than it had been all day. "Thank you."

The sky was heavy with clouds as the four teenagers left Ekoda General Hospital. A sharp wind had picked up while they'd been tucked away indoors, sweeping through the streets and filling the air with the scent of rain and frost. Headlights blazed through the gloom like the eyes of strange, monstrous beasts whose low growls blended together into a constant rumble in the background punctuated by the occasional honk. Shinichi shivered and pulled his jacket closer about himself.

"Here."

There was a puff of smoke before a hand appeared in front of his face, dangling a blue and white scarf. It flopped softly against his face as the wind tugged at it. Shinichi reached up automatically to catch hold of it as he bit back a sneeze. He blinked down at the warm bundle then glanced up to see Kaito pulling a second scarf out of thin air. The magician turned around, mouth already opening, paused, then faced forward again, looping the scarf around his own neck. Curious, Shinichi cast a quick peek back over his shoulder. He was just in time to see Hakuba draping his jacket over Aoko's shoulders. The two were walking awfully close. Embarrassed, Shinichi turned away quickly.

"You know, I didn't give you that scarf so you could carry it for me."

Blue eyes flickered up to find Kaito watching him with an amused quirk to the corners of his lips. Before he could respond, the magician had snagged the aforementioned scarf and wrapped it deftly around his neck.

"Hey!" Shinichi batted his hands away, blushing faintly. "I can do that by myself."

Kaito chuckled and ruffled his hair. "At the pace you were moving at, you were going to catch a cold first."

Shinichi sighed. By now he'd given up on protesting against the hair-ruffling. He had finally accepted that trying to stop the magician was futile. So instead he reached up to smooth down the hair that Kaito had mussed and muttered a thank you because his jacket really wasn't thick enough for this biting wind and the scarf had been thoughtful even if the teasing had not.

"Don't mention it," Kaito replied with an offhanded gesture and a fond grin that made Shinichi feel strange—a little warm, a little nervous, and very much confused. "I just realized none of us have eaten anything since lunch. There's a good restaurant just a block from here. Wanna go?"

"All right," Shinichi agreed before turning to the couple walking behind them. "Are you two hungry? Kaito says there's a good restaurant here. We thought we could go get dinner there."

"A bowl of hot soup sounds heavenly right now," Aoko agreed with a slightly rueful smile. "Let's go."

Soon the four of them were seated in a booth by the window inside a small but comfortable restaurant. Aoko had gotten her bowl of hot soup, and Hakuba ordered a grilled sandwich. Shinichi had immediately asked for coffee and only after prodding ordered a bowl of soup as well. Kaito went for the house special: a shrimp pasta that came with two slices of fresh garlic bread as well as a chocolate ice cream sundae dessert.

"I don't know where you put all that food," said Aoko, ogling the massive cup in which the sundae had made its glorious appearance.

"Didn't you know? People have a second stomach just for desserts."

"That's a figure of speech, it's not real."

"Are you sure? It would explain a lot."

"Ugh, I can't think about this right now," the girl groaned, dropping her head into her hands. "Today's just been way too long. I feel like this morning was a year ago!"

Hakuba patted her comfortingly on the shoulder. "At least it's over now. We'll go home, get a good night's sleep, and everything will be clearer in the morning."

"Do you think so?"

"I do," he said in all seriousness. "Good rest is essential to having a clear mind with which to accurately examine the issues at hand."

"Man, everything that comes out of your mouth is boring," Kaito complained, flicking a paper crane folded from straw paper across the table at the blond detective. "You know, without dear Shinichi here, I'd still believe that all detectives were boring sticks in the mud like you. You should thank him."

"Why should I care what your misguided notion of detectives is like?"

"You guys," Aoko groaned again. "Please. Not now."

Her plea was followed by an awkward silence during which all four of them returned to communing with their meals. The silence was broken a few minutes later by the ringing of a cell phone.

"It's mine." Shinichi gave his companions an apologetic look as he fished his phone from his pocket and turned to face the window. "Hello?"

"Kudo-kun!" a familiar, excited voice blared across the line.

"Takagi-keiji? What—"

"She has one too!"

"…Huh? Who has what too?"

"The Hasagawa woman! I heard you were there when her stepdaughter was taken to the hospital. She's from your school, right?"

Shinichi's brows furrowed as he gazed unseeing through his own reflection. Outside, the night air was beginning to grow hazy with soft drizzling curtains of rain. "Hasagawa Ren? Yes, she's from my school. But what were you saying about her mother?"

"The brand! The one we found on Takamura and Ogata! The officers who brought her in just contacted Megure-keibu about it. She has the same brand."

Blue eyes widened then narrowed in concentration, thoughts beginning to race. "Did she say where she got it?"

"Er, well, not really," Takagi admitted, his voice morphing from excited to sheepish in the span of a heartbeat. "From what I heard, she seems to be a bit…uh…" The officer hesitated as he struggled to find a more diplomatic word. "Strange," he finished finally. "She just keeps going on about her son. The records say he passed away some time ago, but the officers who spoke with her said she seems to think he's still around. She keeps going on about how she has to show him that she still loves him. That she didn't forget about him when he left and that he's still the most important person to her or something like that… They said sometimes she actually seemed to think she was talking to him—like he was in the room with her. It all sounded a bit creepy to be honest."

"It certainly is a bit unusual."

"Yeah. They're bringing her from the Ekoda station to Beika right now to see if she'll talk to us about the brand and the other people who had it."

"Should I come too?"

"What? No, that's okay," the officer said hurriedly. "It's a school night, right? Don't worry yourself over this. We'll talk to Hasagawa-san and let you know if anything interesting comes up."

"Oh…well, if you're sure."

"Megure-keibu says you should focus on your studies—"

Takagi cut himself off as a hubbub broke out in the background. There was a thump then some shouting, though Shinichi couldn't make any of it out through the sudden buzz across the line. Then there was a wooden scraping sound as Takagi grabbed the phone he'd just dropped and slapped it back to his ear. "She got away!"

"What?"

"They were getting her into a car to bring her down to the Beika station, but she kneed her guard and ran away!"

"Hold on, you're still talking about Hasagawa-san, right?"

"Yes, yes, her." Takagi was babbling, thoughts clearly elsewhere.

Shinichi cleared his throat to try and recapture his attention. "And she was leaving the Ekoda station—"

"And ran. Ah, I have to go—I'm sorry Kudo-kun, I'll call you back!"

The line went dead.

Shinichi set down his phone and turned to find Kaito, Hakuba, and Aoko all looking expectantly at him from their seats around the table. From their expressions, they had probably been listening very hard to his end of the conversation and trying to piece it all together.

It was Kaito who spoke first. "What happened to Hasagawa-san?"

"She ran away from the police when they were trying to get her into a car so that they could take her down to the Beika station. They're still trying to track her down."

"Couldn't she have gone home?" Aoko suggested. "That's where I'd go if I felt like I was in trouble and didn't know what to do."

"But perhaps not if your home was where the trouble started," Hakuba pointed out, his hand rising to his chin in an unconscious imitation of Shinichi across the table. "But more importantly, why is she running? She can't escape her crime. Accidental or intentional, she pushed her stepdaughter down the stairs. And Aoko saw it happen. She can't do anything to cover it up. There's no way she can get away from that."

"Maybe she's just scared," the inspector's daughter murmured, looking down as her fingers twined and untwined upon the tabletop. "I don't believe she wanted that to happen either. Maybe she's feeling guilty now and just doesn't know how things are going to turn out. She could be charged for assault and all that kind of stuff, right? For someone who's not very familiar with the legal mumbo jumbo, it all just looks like a frightening mess.."

"But in that case the best step to take would have been to go along with the police and let the professionals explain everything to her then do her utmost best to play off how it was an accident," Kaito reasoned. "Running off is the worst thing she can do right now if she wants to get a better hold on the situation at hand. Unless, of course, she ran off for a reason. If she'd planned all this, she might have had an escape plan in order. Or maybe there's some last thing she wants to do before going along with the system. One last wish she wants to fulfill before she turns herself over to her fate."

"Hasagawa Ren!" Shinichi leapt to his feet. He nearly fell onto Kaito's lap in his rush to leave the booth. "We have to get back to the hospital right now!"

Kaito caught and steadied him, somehow managing to rise from his own seat and set Shinichi lightly on his feet at the same time. "Breathe, Tantei-kun. Then tell us what you're thinking. We can't help you if you don't."

"It's just that they said she was talking about proving to her son that she still loves him—that he's the one she cares about most."

Hakuba arched one pale eyebrow. "Peculiar, but all it really tells us is that the woman is delusional."

"But she believes it. And if she really feels that she has to prove herself, there's a chance she might do something to Ren. That's where all the trouble started, right? When she began comparing them all the time."

"That's ridiculous!" Aoko exclaimed, torn between shock and a strange sense of indignation that anyone could behave so poorly for such an illogical reason. Then again, she thought angrily, even if it was true it would still be a bad reason for the way the woman had been treating her stepdaughter! Nothing gave a person the right to hurt another like that.

Shinichi gave her a strange, wan look that made her think that he understood exactly what she was thinking.

"It's only a guess," he said, closing his eyes briefly. "But, to be safe, I'd like to go back to the hospital and keep an eye on Ren-san until the police find her stepmother."

"Right." Nodding briskly, Kaito snapped his fingers. There was a puff of smoke and a collapsible umbrella appeared. "I'm afraid I only have one though. I doubt all four of us are going to fit."

"I brought mine," Hakuba replied. "The weather forecast predicted rain, so I thought I should be prepared."

The magician rolled his eyes. "Right, well, Shinichi and I will go ahead then." Without another word, he grabbed Shinichi's arm and pulled him towards the door. There was a gust of cold, damp air and a sprinkling of rain before the door swung shut behind them.

There was a moment of silence during which Aoko and Hakuba blinked at the empty space where their friends had been a moment ago. Then Aoko let out a yelp of sudden realization.

"Bakaito! He left us with the bill!"

TBC

A.N: Er, I guess it's a bit of a grim note to go into the holidays on, but anyhow, thanks for reading. ^_^ I'll be away for a while. I hope you all have a great holiday!