Ladies and gentlemen! I humbly welcome you to the second chapter of this story!
Please enjoy and review!
After Kaito entered his classroom, he simply zeroed in on his desk and pretty much face planted on it. He didn't really have the energy to make a grand entrance or any sort of other pranks. Which was uncommon, not to say worrisome. He was the Kaitou KID, pushing himself to the limit was nothing new or particularly hard for him. Heck, even before he donned the cape, he was pretty much always active (or as others might argue - hyperactive). He was not a stranger to having muscle sores but one could think that he was in good enough shape not to be suffering from any after a small jog to school, even after holding a heist the previous night. His back was the worst, which considering he didn't do any major acrobatics last night, made even less sense.
"Kaito? You sure that you're alright?" Aoko voiced her concerns, as she walked over and touched his forehead. That felt nice, not that he would admit it.
"Yeah… just sleepy," he lied easily. He didn't feel like he was getting sick and he didn't want to worry her more.
He got a slap on the back of his head for his efforts. "Jeez idiot, just how many nights did you skip? Save it for the weekend, Bakaito!"
He turned his head to the side and pouted at her. "And here I thought that you were finally turning into a caring woman. Guess once a brute, always a brute?" he added with a snicker.
She glared at him at first and then her lips stretched a bit in a mischievous smirk"Oh? Then I guess, you don't need notes of a brute, hm~?"
She leaned down towards his bag, but he was faster to snatch it away. "Oi, don't add being a meanie on top of brutality!"
"Tch, then why not appreciate my kindness and actually get to work?" she stuck her tongue at him and turned around to walk over to Keiko and complain about him.
To be fair, she wasn't wrong… With a heavy sigh, Kaito straightened and took out the notes to skim through them along with the store bought bento to munch on. He was present during most of the lessons, so he figured that given his memory reading Aoko's summary should be enough for him to pass the test.
Honestly, he wasn't that concerned about his grades anymore. He doubted that he would finish his goal as KID before he graduated highschool, so after weighing all pros and cons, he decided against going to a university, despite having planned to do so before. School just took too much of his time and made traveling abroad without it being noticed pretty much impossible. If he wanted KID to go international again, he had to have a more flexible schedule. It was somewhat a shame, since he definitely had the brains for higher education but there were other ways of gaining more knowledge if he wanted to, so university wasn't a must.
At least that was what he told himself…
In the meantime, however, he wanted to keep his grades from falling, so that he wouldn't appear more suspicious than he already was.
He was going through the notes and devouring his second onigiri, when he was interrupted by a very pleased looking Saguru.
"Kuroba-kun! I'd like to talk with you in private, if that's alright."
Kaito looked up at him from the notes with a glare. "What do you want..?" he grumbled and then recalled that he actually wanted to talk with him, so he sighed and added "Can't it wait till lunch break? I'm busy right now."
Saguru glanced at what he was reading and nodded, clearly not bothered by his initial tone. "Of course, anything I can help you with? I could give you my notes as well."
Kaito raised an eyebrow. Since when was the guy so helpful and nice to him? "Nah, just leave me alone."
"Alright then, talk to you later," he said with a smile and walked back to his desk, not bothering to hide his good mood.
Just what was the guy so happy about? It's not like Kaito was nice or anything, he should be at least slightly annoyed. Kaito couldn't help and glanced after Saguru. He felt like he missed something in their short exchange, but figured it was just him being weird. He shook his head and got back to reading the notes with the little time he had left.
By the time lunch break came, Kaito wasn't so sure anymore that he wanted to speak with Saguru in private. The guy kept on staring at the magician pretty much all the time, but unlike before he was positively beaming at him, especially when Kaito glanced back at him. Suffice to say, he was creeped out at this point but the problem was that he was also just too curious for his own good.
So when the bell rang, Kaito got up with a heavy heart, stretched out a bit to ease his aching back and followed Saguru to the rooftop. On the way there, he glanced longingly towards the cafeteria, since the bento he got in the store was long gone and he still felt kinda hungry. Oh well, he just had to bear with it till the last lesson.
As soon as they got to the roof, Saguru closed the door behind them and Kaito took a look around to make sure they were alone, in case whatever the guy had to tell him was anything KID related.
"You have no idea how happy I am~" Saguru blurted out before Kaito finished his search.
"You don't say…" he grumbled back, but it didn't seem to deter the detective at all as he continued.
"Though, I guess I should apologize for yesterday." Kaito held back the urge to raise an eyebrow as he didn't really remember the guy doing anything offensive. "I admit that I did want to give you a scare, though I had not anticipated you detaching yourself from the glider!" he chuckled.
This made Kaito feel cold sweat running down his spine. There was no way, right? He struggled to keep his poker face intact and only crossed his arms, waiting for further explanation, unable to figure out what to answer.
Saguru didn't seem to notice his distress thankfully and just continued on. "To think that i had already lost all hope about finding anyone from your kind~"
Kaito refused to try and understand that. "What the hell are you talking about, Hakubaka?"
This made Saguru pause and actually look at Kaito. And then he sighed heavily, pinching his nose bridge. "Seriously..? Could we please get past the whole 'I'm not KID charade'? Do you honestly believe I would want to turn you to the police now?"
"I have no idea-" Kaito started, pretty much out of reflex by now, but Saguru was having none of it and cut him off before he could finish.
"Just stop already, please! Look, I'm sorry I've been chasing and pushing you all this time, alright? I do admit that initially I did come here intending to catch KID. It seemed like an acceptable excuse for me to move back to Japan and do research. I never really cared whether I caught you or not." That actually stung Kaito's pride. He was what, a side goal? "But then I started finding the chase entertaining." Saguru smiled, blissfully unaware of Kaito's inner turmoil. "It's been over two years since I came here and I accepted that I wouldn't be finding who I was actually searching for. But I didn't want to just leave. I'm not sure when but I grew to like you as a person and lost interest in actually catching you altogether. So, after giving it much thought, I decided to put my trust in you. Which is why yesterday I attempted to end your little charade once and for all, and catch you, without the police knowing - giving you my secret in return and see what happens. I was worried that you wouldn't accept my true self and freak out, or try to out me, but I just had to give it a try." As he spoke he grew more and more agitated, closing in on Kaito, while the other grew more confused and scared, unconsciously edging away, until his back touched the chain link fence. "Never, in my wildest dreams did I anticipate you were actually who I was looking for all along. I have no idea how I missed it for so long."
"What the hell are you talking about?" he barked out, not caring how panicked his voice sounded. It couldn't have been that his dream was true and if it was… what was Saguru implying he was?!
"Oh for Pete's sake, Kuroba! Just how long do you intend to-" he suddenly trailed off and frowned at Kaito. Then, unexpectedly, Saguru grabbed him by the collar and put his face closer smelling him.
Kaito cursed, not so quietly and tried to push him away, but Saguru turned out to be surprisingly strong. Without much thinking he leaned on the fence behind him and raised both his feet kicking the other off. Holding onto the fence, he prevented himself from falling when Saguru let go of him and fell backwards to the ground. Once he was free, Kaito jumped to the side, ready to bolt if the other tried to get near him again.
"What's wrong with you, Hakuba?!"
Saguru was sitting on the ground, supporting himself with one hand and staring at the other. "You're not KID…" he raised his gaze at him, with an aghast expression. "You're really not KID..?"
What the..? "That's what I've been telling you all this time!" This made no sense at all. "What the hell happened at the heist? What did you do? Grople KID or something?" he added jokingly, though he was freaking out rather than laughing right now.
It's not like Kaito wore any special perfume during his heists, so if anything he would have smelled exactly the same as now. He knew that but it didn't matter. He wanted to irk Saguru and get him to explain what happened. But there was no reaction, the guy was just sitting there, as if shell shocked.
Kaito narrowed his eyes. "What secret did you want to tell me yesterday?"
Saguru twitched and looked up at Kaito, as if only now noticing the other was still there, making the other edge away a little more and grab onto the fence in case he did need to run.
"God, Kuroba-kun, I'm so sorry about this… I- I don't think I've ever been so mistaken in my life…" He rubbed his face, messing up his hair. "I was so sure that…" he cut himself off and sighed.
Kaito had enough, "That, what? Hakuba, what is it? What happened with KID yesterday?" What the hell happened with me? He wanted to scream but wasn't going to blow his unexpected alibi.
Saguru shook his head and got up, looking towards the roof exit. "I'm sorry. For everything. I need a moment to think now. I promise I'll explain later… Just, please…" he motioned with his hand, unable to find the right words.
Kaito opened and closed his mouth. He wanted to stop him from leaving and force him to tell him everything, but at the same time he couldn't make himself move closer. He was terrified, he realized. More than when he faced gunmen aiming at him, more than when he first got shot at. And worst was - he didn't know why. What in the world was going on..?
"Yeah… you better…" he mumbled and just watched Saguru leave the roof.
One thing was certain… From now on Kaito definitely would be wearing a strong cologne during heists - just in case.
Hope to see you next chapter *bows*
