Frostmelt

We appreciate this better
In the agony of others, nearly experienced,
Involving ourselves, than in our own.
For our own past is covered by the currents of action,
But the torment of others remains an experience
Unqualified, unworn by subsequent attrition.
People change, and smile: but the agony abides.
Time the destroyer is time the preserver
- Dry Salvages (II.61-68)

As Aoko thoroughly hugged the stuffing out of Kuroba, Saguru felt the tension in Kaito's frame abruptly lessen. He glanced down to see that much like Ran, who was curled up on the carpet and out like a light, the other teenager had fallen asleep. It wasn't much of an improvement, serving only to highlight the lines of fatigue in Kaito's face without his usual animation to draw attention away from them.

"It's okay, Kaito," Aoko murmured, bringing Saguru's attention back to the other trio. "We've got you, you're safe…"

"I… Oh, Kami-sama…"

Hakuba's arms wrapped around both of them, supporting Kuroba and leaning against Aoko as the purified magician trembled like a leaf in a thunderstorm. "You're all right, Kaito. It's over."

… It was odd, Saguru decided, to see Kuroba practically burrow into both of them for comfort, close and open on a level he'd never thought possible while the magician was still Kid, and possibly not even after the thief finally vanished again.

As Hakuba had said, a very alternate universe indeed.

Disturbing them seemed wrong, somehow, and so he simply shifted Kaito to rest beside him, head pillowed on the small side bag Saguru hadn't had time to take off amidst the previous chaos. Kaito hardly twitched at the movement. Saguru lightly rested a hand on Kaito's shoulder to monitor for a nightmare's restlessness—Please not now, not after this—and let his mind wander thoughtlessly for a bit.

He didn't want to start thinking again until his double was free to talk, lest he start to wonder about Kid's comment regarding raising the dead... He forced his mind to blank, not holding onto any thought long enough to process it.

Sooner than Saguru wanted, though, a small body sat down in the wedge of carpet between his outstretched legs and Kaito's sleeping form. Saguru flicked his gaze to check on the others, and found nothing had changed except that Ran had been supplied with a pillow and blanket. He looked back down to the pair of too-old blue eyes imprisoned behind glass.

"… Yes?"

Edogawa took a deep breath. "At heists, it's too easy to forget that even though he created the game—or at least restarted it—he's not playing. I won't ask you what he's looking for, because that would be cheating, but… it has to do with the people who murdered his father, right?"

"Yes." Saguru watched Edogawa's eyes narrow, half unable to believe that a person could lose ten years overnight, and half unable to believe that he hadn't seen the truth before. He'd been too focused on catching Kid's imposter the first time they'd met, and then on Kaito being missing, to associate the child's mannerisms with a detective he'd only heard of.

"I wonder," he murmured quietly, "if you could satisfy my curiosity about something." Edogawa raised an eyebrow, head cocking curiously, and Saguru continued, "I—we—know who you are, back home. However, I confess I can't seem to fathom how you were drawn into your current… situation."

And while asking the Kudou from the night before would have caused unnecessary pain, this Edogawa wouldn't be any worse off for the inquiry. In fact, he simply smiled wryly.

"I guess if you're not sticking around, and already know enough to get yourself killed, it doesn't matter so much if I tell you. I followed a suspicious man in black at an amusement park to an extortion meeting, and was careless enough that his partner got the drop on me. They gave me a poison that was supposed to be untraceable—it kills by triggering apoptosis and then breaking down in the bloodstream almost immediately—and left me for dead. Instead I woke up like this somehow."

"Regenerated." Saguru blamed Hakuba's earlier TARDIS quip for the terminology, but it really did fit. He absently tightening his grip as Kaito's shoulder shifted beneath his hand, trying to catch hold of a thought drifting just out of reach.

"Mmm," Edogawa agreed. "Turning back the stream of time. Hell of a lot harder to do for the living than making a revenant. What I've found points to them trying to find a way to do it."

"A… Hell. There are no undead where we come from, except in the horror genre of fiction. But trying to regain lost youth…" Saguru's eyes narrowed. Eternal rejuvenation was a classic enough approach to immortality. And if you looked at it that way… "It's strange, isn't it… Assassins in the shadows after a thief dancing in spotlight, and a mysteriously hidden mafia organization… and no turf wars at all."

Edogawa went pale, and let loose a quiet string of curses that had no place in the mouth child of his apparent age. He even included a few that Saguru had never heard before, despite extended exposure to Inspector Nakamori.

"That's really rather disturbing to hear from someone your size, Edogawa-kun."

"Yeah, well." Edogawa massaged his temples briefly, then stopped and looked closer at Kaito. "Oi… that doesn't look good."

Saguru followed his gaze to see Kaito's brow furrowed in a dishearteningly familiar manner, and he quickly shook the other boy's shoulder. "Kuroba-kun! Come on, wake up."

Unlike the morning's quick awakening, Kaito didn't react. Saguru swore a great deal louder than Edogawa had done.

"Not again…" He swallowed, hard. "I'm going to regret this."

But I need to know if this is the same as before… and no one should face a nightmare they can't wake up from, alone.

Before Edogawa could ask what he meant by that, Saguru quickly pulled off a glove, gathered all the worry and frustration and concern he'd been ignoring for the last day and change, and dropped his hand against Kaito's neck.

When his vision finally returned to normal, Saguru spent a moment looking around in confusion. This wasn't the park, like before, but rather he could see the underside of a roller coaster, metal gleaming dully in the evening sunset.

Wait just a tick… an amusement park?

Movement caught his eye, and he turned in time for a bald businessman with sunglasses, a poor attempt at a mustache, and a look of panic on his face to run out from the shadows beneath the ride's supports and pass right through him.

Saguru shuddered. That was… horribly disconcerting, really. But there were more important things to worry about. Edogawa had followed a man in black at an amusement park at the start of his current predicament, and then the Kudou of the last dream had been described as blinded by an assassin for poking his nose where it didn't belong…

Suspicion growing, Saguru headed into the lengthening shadows beneath the roller coaster.

He stopped at the center of the crisscrossing metal as mocking laughter suddenly resounded from above and to the left. He looked up to see Kaito dressed all in black, perched on one of the coaster's support beams and grinning down at his audience of one: teenage detective Kudou Shinichi.

"How fast do you run, Detective of the East? Faster than flight? Faster than death?"

Kudou didn't bother to answer. He simply turned and ran in a flat-out sprint that would have put soccer legends to shame. In the same instant, Kaito dove off his perch into thin air—only to catch himself on one of the crossbars and flip in the same direction, sailing forward to land on an anchored support and do it again, as if the entire coaster framework were a gigantic gymnastics arena.

And as Saguru chased after them, fairly certain he was only keeping up because this was a dream, he could hear that the black-clad phantom was still bloody laughing, like hunting Kudou down was the best game in the world.

Somehow, despite the nature of his pursuit, Kaito closed the distance before Kudou could get out from under the roller coaster and dropped to land beside him. During the fall, he whipped out a blackjack from somewhere Saguru couldn't see, and brought it to bear on the back of Kudou's skull with all the additional force gravity could provide.

Kudou went down like he'd been hit by a ton of bricks.

Saguru continued to watch, heart in his throat, once more invisibly barred from approaching closer than a few yards' distance.

"You should have known better than to poke your nose where it didn't belong, detective," Kaito purred—and God, Kaito had been quoting before and he hadn't even dreamed this, then—as he knelt to check Kudou's pulse.

"But it's a 50-50 chance that someone might find you before you die..." Kaito's face stretched in grin mirroring the Darkling-Kaito's fanged smile, despite the fact that Kudou didn't even seem conscious. "We already beat the odds once, with our faces. Let's spin again, ne?"

He tapped Kudou on the cheek with a finger, wrapped the blackjack in a cloth and tucked it away, and then sauntered off into the twilit evening, whistling casually.

Then, blessedly, the world finally spun away into the dark.

Saguru's eyes snapped open. Beside him, Kaito bolted to his feet with a shuddering breath, and made an unsteady beeline for the agency bathroom, narrowly missing tripping over Ran and the other trio in his hurry.

"Kai—Kuroba-kun…" He let his arm drop, and then buried his face in a hand as they all heard the unmistakable sound of retching. "I need aspirin." Or perhaps something stronger.

Faint pressure slid down his bowed head, and his sunglasses dropped to hang awkwardly against his hand. With faint surprise, he realized that Kaito's strategy of bronze had worked even beyond their intended purpose. The sunglasses had blocked Kaito's reaction to the dreams from flooding him when they woke, but hadn't interfered with the projection-oddity that let Saguru enter the dreamstate in the first place.

… Not that his presence had helped much.

"Um…" Aoko finally responded, uncertainly.

"Here." Hakuba removed a small bottle from his pocket and tossed it gently across the room. Saguru caught it with a small rattle.

"Thank you." There was no label on the bottle, but he opened it anyway to reveal a few dozen white pills that he didn't recognize. "No label?"

"They're painkillers, non-narcotic… my own creation."

"Ah, yes. Wood. Plants. I should have realized, sorry." He meticulously shook out and dry-swallowed two, closing the bottle and setting it aside before lightly pinching the bridge of his nose. "I should check on Kuroba-kun…"

"Of course." Hakuba nodded, squeezing the shoulder of his own Kuroba, who was giving Saguru a look of gleaming curiosity.

"They're dreams," Saguru explained shortly. "Of some other place that isn't home, and I hope to God doesn't exist anywhere. Don't ask." He pushed himself to his feet, feeling rather like a mouse that had been stooped by a hawk, and followed after Kaito.

He paused just inside the tiny room, gently closing the door behind him. It would provide only a veneer of privacy, given the thinness of the walls, but it was better than feeling exposed to an audience. He hadn't thought it possible for Kaito to look worse than the morning after Nightmare's heist, when the magician had actually broken down for however short a time.

He was wrong.

Kaito didn't acknowledge his presence, being rather preoccupied with losing the last of the un-metabolized coffee, and Saguru hesitated, unsure whether his presence would be welcome. Eventually deciding that if Kaito wanted him gone, he'd make it clear, Saguru crouched down close enough that his company could be sensed without Kaito feeling crowded and waited.

Finally, Kaito's stomach seemed to settle. Triggering the flush, he sat back and took a few slow, deep breaths, eyes closed.

Then, in a chillingly lifeless voice, he whispered, "I felt his skull give."

Saguru's stomach clenched. "Oh, God."

Kaito's near-non-existent Adam's apple bobbed in a convulsive little swallow. "I felt it give, and all I thought was, 'Two more feet would have finished him for sure.'"

To hell with propriety. Saguru scooted close enough to lay his hand on Kaito's shoulder, arm resting lightly across the other boy's back. Kaito shuddered violently, fists clenching, but his head dropped a little rather than attempting to pull away.

Saguru tightened his grip. "It's not you. Whatever this is, no matter how real it appears, it's not you," he promised softly. "Nor was that Kudou-kun. We'll get home, figure out what's going on, and fix this... And in the meantime, I'm going to ask them to warm up a cup of Solomon-san's tea for you."

It said a lot that Kaito didn't even offer a token protest. Instead, he continued to breathe deeply, face shifting in a dozen minute ways that Saguru didn't try to read as the younger teen slowly processed the dream—or given that this was Kaito, as he gradually locked the images away in a hundred little boxes, all tightly closed until something jarred them back open.

He eventually sighed, apparently as rebalanced as he was going to get for the moment. "...How's the other guy?"

"Recovering. Very upset, but... he and Edogawa-kun are likely at a point to have a conversation, while we wait for the tea to heat."

"Mmm. How is the miniature detective taking all this?" Kaito had never referred to Edogawa by his proper name, Saguru realized, not even as Kid. Always the title and only the title, which was just as accurately applied to Kudou as to Edogawa.

"He seems fine. A bit worried about you, though it can be difficult to tell with him. He's bloody ticked off by the attack, though, and Kuroba-san hasn't even explained how it happened yet."

Kaito nodded. "...Aoko knows, too. She doesn't seem to have maimed him."

Saguru shrugged at the free-association. "No, she doesn't. May possibly have hit him with a mop a time or two..."

"Mmm." Kaito sighed, and seemed to shelve the thought back into forbidden territory, because he changed the subject. "Even if this guy is apparently still Kid, I want to ask him about Pandora. Just in case."

"It certainly can't hurt. Shall we?"

Kaito nodded again, giving Saguru a poor attempt at a smile as they stood to head out. "Thanks."

"...Of course."

They rejoined the group in the main room in time to hear Aoko lightly scolding Kaito, "Only you would have the luck to find another feral Darkling in the city, and not be able to dodge fast enough…" She trailed off to look up at them.

Kuroba shook his head, waving an invitation for Saguru and Kaito to join their loose circle on the floor as he blandly declared, "Wasn't an accident."

The other three chorused, "What?", loud enough to wake Ran.

She pushed herself upright, blinking a bit. "What's going on?"

"I believe," Saguru interjected smoothly before anyone else could answer, "that a rather important discussion needs to be held, but for the sake of being civilized it ought to include tea. May I assist you in the kitchen?"

"Oh…" Ran politely covered a yawn. "All right."

Kaito dropped to join the makeshift circle while Saguru retrieved the thermos out of the magician's bag. As he followed Ran into the kitchen and briefly explained the purpose of the tea, he heard Hakuba crisply demand,

"How, exactly, was this not an accident?"

Saguru kept half an ear on the conversation as he danced around Ran in the tiny kitchen. Kuroba replied, tiredly, "Heist two days ago… bastard named Snake said They wanted me to work for Them. I said no. A feral Darkling found me today and didn't even notice anyone else. Just hunted me."

The amount of cursing the declaration engendered was impressive, with Aoko's voice rising above the others.

"Is that kind of hunting not normal?" Kaito inquired.

"No," Edogawa answered darkly. "Feral, non-sentient Darklings can track people by psychic scent, but they normally go after whatever prey is in reach. Going after Kuroba in particular is highly suspicious… and might mean these bastards have someone who can control feral ones."

Saguru shook his head. He did not need something worse than sniper's bullets to fill his nightmares.

Kaito hmm'd. "So if they failed this time… are they likely to try again?"

"They damn well better not," Edogawa growled. "But…" he paused, and Saguru assumed he turned to look at Kuroba before continuing, "if they do, you can come here. And whether or not my bastards in black are the same as your assassins, count me in for taking them down."

Saguru smirked slightly to himself in the patch of silence.

"You know, chibi," Kuroba said finally, a gleeful tone creeping into his voice, "this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

"My God, what have we done?" Hakuba snarked, immediately followed by the sound of tandem headslaps. "Ow!"

"I think I like him," Saguru confided to Ran with a faint smile, and was rewarded with a giggle as she finished preparing the tea.

He quickly poured a mug of Solomon's tea for Kaito, a much smaller one for himself, and the leftovers back into the thermos. After helping Ran load the drink tray, he insisted on carrying such a heavy setup himself—for the sake of his honor as a gentleman. She gave him an amusedly tolerant smile and gave in, carrying a smaller platter with snacks instead as they returned to the main room.

Both Kaito and Kuroba mimed applause at their entrance, then caught each other's eye and shared a lopsided grin.

"So… question for you," Kaito said as Saguru and Ran put the snacks in the middle and distributed the tea. "Did you find it yet?"

Saguru chuckled softly at the bluntness of the question, and the way Edogawa's eyes snapped up from his tea to the pair of them. Kuroba smiled ruefully. "Unfortunately, no."

Kaito shrugged, wrapping his hands around his cup and inhaling the steam.

"It was worth a shot to ask, at least. Since you haven't, I can't guarantee anything, but it might be worth checking out anyway, here… Long story, but where we just came from, Kudou Shinichi-kun found it." Kaito grinned evilly as Edogawa coughed on his tea, and Kuroba's eyes went wide.

"No way."

"I did say it was a long story." Kaito took a slow sip of tea, reveling in the moment of showmanship. Saguru privately rolled his eyes. Kaito might be his idiot magician, but he was still a twit sometimes.

"Well?" Edogawa demanded, impatiently.

Kaito chuckled, and met Kuroba's eyes. "Try the Hope."

"Oh, bloody—That's going to be a logistical nightmare," Hakuba groaned.

Saguru blinked a little at the realization that Hakuba was apparently accustomed to being a part of the heists even from their planning stages. As if Hakuba wasn't...

... As if Hakuba wasn't really chasing Kid at all. Just putting on a show of his own, for anyone else who might be watching and expected the detective to try and catch the thief.

Well. That was certainly one way to go about things.

Saguru gave Hakuba another long look, and then set his mug aside, untouched, as he let his mind return to the subject he'd been trying to ignore ever since Kid had walked through the apartment door.

"I had a question as well," he murmured quietly, and his tone was apparently sufficient to cause Kaito to sit up straighter, and to catch and hold Hakuba's gaze as he tried to get his mind around the words.

"Back… earlier. Kuroba-san said… he wondered if I was related to you." Saguru looked away as Hakuba's fists clenched, only to see Kuroba paling slightly.

"Kami, Saguru," Kuroba blurted, "I'm sorry—I didn't—I wasn't—"

"It wasn't you," Hakuba responded shortly.

"My apologies, as well," Saguru added. "I wouldn't ask, it's just… I… a short while ago, a mental block over my memories previous to age six broke. So far there's still nothing more than fragments, bits and pieces… but I dreamed last night of a boy named Eishu." He dragged his eyes back up to Hakuba's face, forcing his voice steady. "I don't even know if he's real. None of my memories contain him. But I… I can't help feeling that I lost something… someone… important."

Saguru held his breath as Hakuba briefly closed his eyes, containing a wave of emotion, before his lips quirked in a bittersweet smile. "Six, huh? Maybe I was lucky… I had until we were seventeen."

Saguru's heart stopped. "Then…"

"My twin. Older by five minutes." Hakuba's eyes had gone distant, beyond where Saguru could follow. "Eric and Steven, never Eishu and Saguru. We only spoke Japanese with mother, and each other, growing up in England… if Grandmother'd had her way, we wouldn't have had Japanese names at all."

Saguru laughed, without much humor. "I shouldn't be surprised that Grandmother being an insufferable old biddy is a universal constant." It was easier to focus on her than everything else. Samantha Harcourt was the undisputed matriarch of the England Harcourt clan, and had no qualms about making any displeasure known. Saguru didn't even want to think about the arguments he was slated to have if he decided to stay in Japan on a more permanent basis again once they made it home.

"Mmm. Eric… traveled a lot, as we got older. Just after New Year's, he went to Japan… he never came home. I felt…" Hakuba shuddered. "I felt him die, in the cold and the dark, empty where there used to be light…"

He favored Aoko with a sad smile as she and Kuroba effectively sandwiched him in support. "I came… to see if I could find what was left of him, as much to chase Kid. I never did… but I found something worth staying for."

Saguru swallowed, gloved finger tracing a seam along his other hand. "Thank you." He'd have to ask someone about it once back home, to be certain, but… it felt right.

Ten years. Would they have been any different? Any better? … It didn't seem likely it could have been any worse. Except in the losing.

He opened his mouth to ask another question, family still heavy on his mind, then stopped. If Aidan had been there, still was there, Hakuba probably would have mentioned him already. And Saguru could already testify that it still hurt to suddenly lose someone you'd never known you'd had.

Instead, he commented, "You rather failed to catch Kid, I have to say. It seems more like he caught you, instead."

"Damn straight," Kuroba confirmed with a grin, lightly mussing Hakuba's hair.

The mood lightened considerably with several chuckles, and Kaito raised his mug of tea. "Good luck working together, then."

Kuroba grinned and clinked his cup against Kaito's. "You, too."

As Kuroba took a drink, Kaito raised the cup to his lips and then paused. "Um…" He looked at Ran. "I hate to impose, but is there somewhere we can crash for tonight? We can't really get out of here until I've gotten some sleep, and I'm going to be down for the count once I'm done with this."

Ran cocked her head thoughtfully. "Well, dad's out playing mahjong and won't get home until late, so there's the couch downstairs and a spare futon for the floor..."

"He won't even know you were here unless you're still asleep down there at noon," Edogawa added dryly.

"That would be best," Saguru remarked. "The less our presence is felt, the better. Barring special circumstances," he allowed with a smirk, nodding at Kuroba.

"I'll get it for you, then." Ran stood and retrieved the futon, blankets, and two pillows as Kaito blew one last time on his warm, but no longer steaming, tea.

"I call the couch." He smirked at Saguru, then tipped his head back and downed the drink in one go.

Saguru reached out and caught the mug before it could slip through Kaito's fingers. "You couldn't have waited until we were downstairs?" he inquired dryly.

Kaito shook his head, smiling brightly as the tea's herbs and brandy blurred whatever raw state of mind he was trying to ignore. "The sooner I can not think right now, the better."

Saguru sighed, not denying it. "Come on, then. I'm afraid I can't help you carry the bed things, Mouri-kun," he added as he pulled Kaito to his feet and wrapped a stabilizing arm around the magician's waist.

…He felt slighter than before. How much energy had he been burning on top of his typical insane metabolism with how sporadically had he been eating?

"I'll help," Aoko offered, moving to relieve Ran of half the load. She followed behind Saguru as he steered Kaito in Ran's wake. The magician made it as far as the door before he slumped sideways and let out a snore, which left Saguru rolling his eyes again.

"Sheesh, what was in that?" Saguru paused in the doorway and looked over his shoulder as Edogawa picked up his mug and sniffed at the untouched tea. "Woah."

"Green tea, herbs, and alcohol," Saguru responded with some amusement. "It blocks out nightmares."

"Seriously?" Kuroba leaned towards Edogawa and the mug. "Can I get hold of that recipe?"

"Try the kitchen. It's on the outside of the thermos on the counter."

"Sold."

Saguru smiled. "I'll return shortly to collect the thermos, then, if you care to copy it first. I'd offer you that cup, but I don't think Hakuba-san is up to carrying you home."

Kuroba chuffed. "It would figure that we're both sensitive to alcohol, on top of all the other parallels. Still think I'm going shopping on the way home, though. I do notwant dreams tonight."

"You're not legally able to buy alcohol," Edogawa pointed out.

"Since when has 'legal' ever stopped me?"

"…Point," Edogawa conceded, as Saguru turned with a chuckle and maneuvered Kaito down the flight of steps to the Agency office.

With Ran and Aoko's help the sleeping arrangements were quickly set up, and Saguru headed back upstairs to collect the rest of their things. Upon entering, he found Hakuba examining his staff with interest, working up to a small lecture for the other three teenagers regarding the nature of its workmanship.

"With no external decorations, it's entirely pragmatic, but it's extremely well made. You can't see it, but there's copper wire running through the oak between the endcaps, more flexible than a rod…" He paused, giving Saguru a rueful smile. "My apologies. You know how poor I am at resisting a mystery."

Saguru smiled back. "Indeed. It's quite useful, though a bit of a pain to drag around."

"Mmm, I would imagine… particularly when you have a touch component to your empathy." Hakuba smiled again, more wryly, as Saguru's eyes flared slightly in surprise. "When we hit the floor earlier, you were projecting, and my hand came close enough to your face to be inside your aura. Putting that together with the posture of a hand-to-hand fighter and that you're wearing gloves, well..."

"…I'm far too accustomed to doing that to other people. It's rather disconcerting to be on the receiving end."

"So what's the copper wire for?" Edogawa asked. "Wood makes sense as an insulator, but metal is conductive…"

Saguru's smile was not entirely nice. "Long-range projection, if I care to try."

"What it lacks in subtlety, it makes up for with smackdown," Kuroba snickered.

"I did say it can be a pain to drag around. I haven't tried yet anywhere with an audience, and I'm not particularly looking forward to it."

Hakuba gave the staff a thoughtful look, then met Edogawa's eyes. "I wonder…"

Saguru raised an eyebrow. "Are you proposing to make alterations?"

"Well, you'd be toting around a very dense oak-and-copper rod, but… I believe Edogawa-kun and I might be able to manage something."

Edogawa grinned. "Sounds like fun."

Hakuba smiled up at Saguru. "Consider it a thank you present."

"If you're going to offer… I certainly won't say no. Thank you very much."

The ensuing swift exchange of half-sentences between Hakuba and Edogawa went mostly over Saguru's head, but he watched in complete fascination when they seemed to reach an agreement, and then carefully transformed the six-foot-long pole into a ten-by-four inch cylinder.

"There's an internal catch, here," Hakuba explained when they were done, indicated a spot near the middle of the cylinder. "When you squeeze it in the right spot, it opens—" he demonstrated, careful to not hit anyone in the process, "—and twisting pressure applied to the right spots on one end or the other will trigger a spiral-collapse back inward, like so."

"That's…" Saguru shook his head. "Incredible."

"You should see him in a thunderstorm," Kuroba offered with a smile, coming out of the kitchen with the thermos in his hands. "But you look pretty done in, and we ought to be going, too. The specialty markets aren't going to be open late, and the 24-hour mart isn't going to carry some of this stuff." He waved the copied recipe for emphasis.

"Mmm." Hakuba handed Saguru the staff and stood, stretching a bit, before turning to Ran. "Thank you, Mouri-kun, for everything."

Aoko and Kuroba echoed the sentiment as Saguru gathered the thermos, both bags, and figured out how to fit the diminished staff inside his coat without fear of tearing the pocket. He exchanged his own round of goodbyes and goodnights, and headed back downstairs as Edogawa and Kuroba hammered out a time and place to meet that weekend.

It was nice to have some sort of silver lining, at least. And the morning was plenty early enough to worry about everything else that needed to be worried about.

Dropping their belongings at the foot of the couch, Saguru drank the tepid cup of tea he'd carried down from the apartment in one long, slow, faint burn down his throat, and then slid between the blanket and futon and closed his eyes.

…He just wished there weren't quite so much to worry about.

It should be noted that, sadly, the Magicverse does not exist in written form at the present time, other than this glimpse in The Way Home. With any luck, it might show up on Ellen's profile sometime in the next ten years.

Saguru's England family is entirely fanon, formulated in collaboration with Ellen. Please ask if you want to play with them too.

12/09