Written February 1 2022
Posted on Wattpad February 12 2022
Posted here August 22 2022
NEXT UPDATE is on September 5 2022
Kaito used the bus to get home. Thankfully it hadn't been too busy so he'd ended up having lots of room for himself. He absolutely hated taking the bus during morning and afternoon rush, they were just so crowded and not fun at all when he had his wheelchair. It made him take up more room than the average person since seats needed to be flipped for him to fit.
Ginzo was at work, so Kaito had the house to himself until Aoko and Lapin came back, hopefully with Saguru in tow. At the thought of the blond, a happy smile made its way onto Kaito's face. Saguru had grown up well and was very smart, he couldn't wait to become friends with him. He hadn't attempted to initiate actual friendship during their occasional correspondences, mainly because the other hadn't known the full truth so it wouldn't feel right.
Since he's spent so much of his life alone and telling lies just to survive, Kaito hated lying to people. If he was to get close to someone, then he'd tell them about his past. Being truthful and open was something vital for him, sure small lies and tricks were fine, but he didn't want to keep important stuff from those he cared about. He did his best to be as honest as he could, or at least make it obvious that he wasn't telling them everything.
School sucked. A lot of things were factored into his opinion of it, but the biggest reason was that people wanted to befriend him. To be friends, he'd have to tell them his past. That was dangerous, teenagers liked to gossip and betrayal was something all too likely to happen even if by accident. While he could just stay silent about his past, Kaito preferred to be genuine with people who were important to him. Friends were supposed to be important.
Saguru was a detective, and a very good one at that. He was also already somewhat involved due to his father's involvement. He was a safe entity to befriend, and he seemed to be a decent person too which was a bonus.
Kaito flopped onto his bed, or at least he did the best that he could while maneuvering himself out of his wheelchair. Tomorrow was going to suck, but today's afternoon had promise of being interesting. He really really hoped that Saguru would accept his invite. Lapin and Saguru were fans of Sherlock Holmes just like he was, probably even bigger fans if rumours and Danashi were to be believed. The three of them could bond over the newest Sherlock Holmes series. That was a friendship thing for people their ages right? Even if the series sucked, they could make fun of it or watch an older one. Aoko might even join in, but she wasn't that much of a fan.
He was excited. Kaito messaged Danashi, asking about Saguru's taste in food. Snacks were often involved when friends hung out, and he wasn't sure what Saguru liked besides tea. Danashi was surprisingly quick to answer him, stating that Saguru liked most foods, but disliked sour things. Kaito grinned, baked goods were apparently something Saguru was quite fond of. Kaito was good at baking.
Despite knowing that he was probably getting ahead of himself, Kaito got out of his bed and started to make his way downstairs. He would make cupcakes. He'll make a bunch for everyone because leftovers were fun. There would be chocolate, coffee, lemon, vanilla, and strawberry flavoured cupcakes. Everyone would be able to eat something that they loved or at least didn't hate.
Kaito loved baking. Ginzo didn't like when he baked, or at least when he baked without supervision. The inspector was paranoid that he might fall in the oven, which had almost happened just one time. Aoko had yanked him away and then snitched on him about the incident to her dad. He was better practiced with his crutches now and his wheelchair didn't tip easily so he could bend over a good amount in it. The odds of him falling into the oven were now very slim.
Making the many batches of cupcakes would take a fair amount of time, thankfully he had a good amount of time until they were due back. Kaito already knew the perfect recipes to use, so prep time shouldn't take too long.
He was quick to get to work on the cupcakes, only really having difficulty with reaching the oven mitts. Ginzo had obviously put them out of reach, which was rude. He'd been forced to drag himself up onto the counter then lean over to get them from the top of the fridge. Since he was already up there, he grabbed his chocolate milk powder too since the inspector hadn't retrieved it for him. He'd gone to school like he'd been asked to, so he got to have his chocolate milk powder.
Kaito worked on the next batch while the one was in the oven, then retrieved each cooked batch, popped the nest one in, then started on another batch. Was he making too many cupcakes? Yeah, probably. It was fine though, he'd eat any leftovers that the others didn't want so nothing would be wasted. Baked goods also made him feel happy so the leftovers would be good for tomorrow.
Once the cupcakes were cooled down enough, Kaito put icing on them. He used cream cheese icing for the lemon cupcakes, vanilla for the coffee and vanilla cupcakes, chocolate for the chocolate cupcakes, and half of the strawberry cupcakes had vanilla icing while the other half had chocolate icing. He used pre-made stuff, so he'd had to work with what was on hand since he hadn't been sure if there'd be enough time for him to make a bunch of different icing from scratch.
Seeing all the cupcakes made it very tempting for him to snag a few to eat right then. He didn't, but it was a close call. The house smelt amazing, making Kaito feel hungry. He couldn't eat any yet, he needed to wait for Aoko to come home with hopefully both Lapin and Saguru.
