DISCLAIMER: Magic Kaito is the respective creation and property of Gosho Aoyama.
AUTHOR: Melpomene-the-Tragic-Parody
MAIN CHARACTERS: Kaito Kuroba, Aoko Nakamori
CHAPTER: #14
TITLE: The Rock Show (a.k.a. The Kuroba Extraordinaires)
INSPIRED BY: ~ Rock Show, by Halestorm ~
~M.K~
"I know I left them in here somewhere…"
Aoko stumbled to a stop at their bedroom door on her way to the bathroom, bemused at the sight of her harried husband rifling through their closet, his lower half sticking out and—was that a unicorn sticker plastered to his butt? Balancing her laundry basket on her hip, she pressed one hand over her mouth to smother the daring laugh begging to be heard. Kaito was hardly the wiser; she heard him profess a few ingenious swear words she knew he had learned from her father.
"Kaito, what are you doing?" she asked steadily.
A loud thud erupted from somewhere from inside the closet and a bizarre assortment of clothes and gizmos tumbled down in a disarrayed avalanche over her poor husband. A small bouncing ball bobbed and rolled to her feet, serenaded by a flatulent squeaking.
From somewhere beneath the ominous heap, a low groan emitted through the cracks.
"Need me to call a doctor?" Aoko inquired gravely to the unmoving mess.
"Give me a minute," the heap replied ruefully.
A tiny thrilling giggle sounded from the doorway, and Aoko turned in time to see a dark mess of hair disappear down the hall. If anything, a wave of embarrassment expelled from the heap in response.
"Alright, Kaito, what are you up to?" With a little help of his wife, Kaito was disentangled from the miniature avalanche and settled on the nearby ottoman, looking distinctively embarrassed and disgruntled. "I thought you were rehearsing."
"I was!" Kaito protested. "But I had some equipment I needed for my show that wasn't in my workshop so I thought I left it in here…"
The giggling noise returned, soft and sweet as candy.
Aoko and Kaito exchanged repentant glances.
It was something to be said that, after a one Aoko Nakamori agreed to marry a one Kaito Kuroba, all means of interest in their lives would increase. With the removal of both Kid and Pandora from their worries, a new threat had toed its way into their hearts, a work of their own creation in the name of their daughter, Kasumi Kuroba. Also known as the Little Mischief Ball of Terror.
"Kasumi!" Kaito called to the 'invisible' child. "Did you take my orange toolkit."
There was a steady moment of silence before a shy, "No, Papa" was returned.
It was challenging to discern whether or not the young couple was bothered or amused by their daughter's obvious disposition. Aoko observed her husband's feline prowess in sneaking effortlessly and quietly to the door, pause for a momentary second, and then striking out so fast he was nothing but a blur. He swirled back to face her, radiating an air of smugness as the tiny, squealing child in his arms flailed around and pouted at her father.
"No fair!" she protested. Her wide cerulean eyes, so much like her mother's, blinked at Kaito and pouted cutely.
"Yes, fair," Kaito replied evenly. "I'm your father, so I say its fair."
But when he had settled down on the ottoman, Aoko flicked the side of his head.
"She gets this from you, you know," she grumbled as Kaito extracted the little toolkit from his daughter's pocket. "I don't want our daughter growing up to be a thief."
"Don't worry. With your ability to lie, she'd never get far," Kaito teased, tickling the little bundle encased in his grip.
Kasumi's bright blue eyes lit up with glee as the easy stance between her parents transformed. It was safe to say that once Aoko had rescued her daughter from Kaito's grip, she left her giggling in witness to the traditional hunt known as Throttle-the-Magician.
~M.K~
Playing cards flitted back and forth between Kaito's fingers while he listened to the speaker call of one of his sponsors. Perhaps 'attempted to listen' would have been a more accurate description. After all, a live, televised performance was extremely important. His fingers were enraptured in their dance of the deck and his eyes were fixed on the television screen, seemingly engrossed at whatever was on the cooking channel, but his interests were otherwise occupied.
From the corner of his eyes, he noticed a tiny little girl in her blue dress quietly tiptoe toward the couch. Humoring her, he prolonged his ignorance until a puff of colorful tulips showered his head in the form of his daughter's signature flower crown.
His fingers fumbled and the cards scattered to the ground. He heard Aoko snickering in the background.
"You're just jealous," Kaito called to her from over his shoulder.
Kasumi grinned and collected the fallen playing cards. "I've been practicing!" she announced, holding the cards up for him to see. "Show you?"
Who could resist those pleading eyes? Certain not the father of an eager six-year-old daughter. He was willing to bear the consequences for cutting the call short and focus his undivided attention on his precious protegee.
Year upon passing year, it had grown exceedingly obvious that little Kasumi was one after Kaito's own heart. Though she was essentially a miniature model of her mother, and perhaps properly spoiled with love by both her Mama and Papa, from the moment her father had dazzled her with his magical wonders, she had fallen in love with the art herself and played with magic tricks easily as any young child would play with toys. The results varied in her growing practices, it had never ceased to amaze Kaito at how brilliant she was at the art, rivaling his own talents when he had been her age.
'What else did you expect?' his mother Chikage would respond to his voiced option. 'She's her parents' daughter!'
To a professional eye, it was natural to unravel the quirks of his daughter's playtime, but it warmed his heart to her eagerness to perform and impress her parents with any of the tricks he either taught her or she saw him make. Aoko (though she loved Kasumi as any mother could) never failed to notice that Kasumi had also inherited her paternal attributes of theft and sneaking around, a third-generation to a spiel she'd rather not encourage.
Not to mention that Kaito knew better than to laugh at the affronted expressions of his wife and father-in-law when Kasumi declared that being a police officer was boring and uninteresting to her.
The cards danced around in his daughter's fingers, somewhat slower than her father's skilled hand, but deftly enough that the astonishment radiating from Aoko's, still standing on the sidelines, was well-deserved.
"Tada!" With a neat flip, the cards cascaded into the air in a four suit explosion, momentarily distracting Kaito from the bolting impact that was Kasumi's hug around his midriff. "Surprise, Papa!"
Kaito buried the amusement of his laughter in Kasumi's dark mess of hair, his tulip flower crown tipping onto his forehead. In turn, he almost missed with his pocket felt questionably looser when she finally pulled away.
"You are a little rascal, you know that?" he remarked, fighting a grin as a tiny flash of her hand concealed his lighter in her pocket. He glanced at Aoko who clearly hadn't noticed. She hardly did when he was the one up to those shenanigans. "And may I ask what your plans are for that."
Kasumi blinked up at him, entirely innocent.
"What do you mean, Papa?" she asked, swaying sweetly on the spot. She was a little imp in angel's clothing.
"You know what I mean, Flower," he replied. "Now, before your mother whips out the mop on me…"
Aoko folded her arms. "Excuse me?" Her eyes widened disbelievingly when Kasumi dug the lighter out of her pocket and dropped it on her father's outstretched hand. Her incredulity heightened when caught her husband winking playfully at Kasumi's demeanor, obviously pleased.
She turned on her heel and declared to the gods, "See, this is why she thinks she can get away with anything!"
Kaito knew better than to comment.
"Are you rehearsing?" Kasumi curled up on the couch beside him. "Can I help?"
"Hmm…" Kaito considered her offer. "Helping me practice for tomorrow night's show or driving your mother up a wall?"
Kasumi considered her options carefully before solemnly declaring, "Both."
It was without further ado that Kaito snickered at the chorus of clanging pots in the kitchen.
~M.K~
Aoko patiently fitted her squirming child into the blue-green dress her grandmother had gifted her for her birthday. Her pinks lips pulled into a pout as her hair was neatly tied back in two pigtails held together with blue-white ribbons. In hindsight, she appeared as disgruntled as her father did when her mother dragged him out to dinner with her Uncle Saguru.
"It's an important day for your father. Can you at least try to smile?" Aoko asked encouragingly.
"I wanna be on stage with Papa!" Kasumi exclaimed insistently.
Aoko's heart thudded haphazardly.
She had caught Kasumi helping Kaito with his performance routines yesterday, which would not have been too big a deal had she not walked in on her daughter balancing precariously on her father's shoulders, juggling shimmering marbles high in the air interchangeably with him while he waltzed around the room. After the near heart-failure and a sound scolding of her husband that might have worried the neighbors, she had decidedly removed her daughter from any other potentially worrisome tricks.
This included Kasumi remaining home while her father left for stage rehearsals.
This had greatly displeased Kasumi.
"Maybe when you're older," Aoko replied.
Translation: Only when you're no longer living under my roof.
Only later did Aoko realize this sounded more like a challenge to her daughter than a reprieve, and later regretted ever uttering the words. Once properly dressed for the occasion, the Kuroba ladies ventured to the venue of Kaito's latest performance where Jii was waiting to greet them. With quick kisses to their Magician for luck, Aoko and Kasumi took their front-row seats beside Aoko's father, Ginzo, and Kaito's mother, Chikage.
"Ah! I remember Toichi's first televised show when we were courting," Chikage commented wistfully as the audience settled into their seats. "We were in Paris then, and…"
Ginzo and Aoko shared patiently exasperated glances. One way or another, the Kuroba matriarch had a bizarre habit of reminiscing over anything Kaito did that reminded her of his late father. It was no wonder that Kaito often fell asleep when she was around, prompting her to retell the story for him to hear, even if he knew every single one by heart. In addition to marrying into his family, it had become something Mrs. Kuroba the younger and her father had to endure as well.
"Oh, look! It's starting!" Ginzo exclaimed hurriedly as the lights began to dim, cutting Chikage off somewhere between a 'show of fiery wonder' and 'a charming venture of romance'. He nervously overlooked her side-eyed glare.
Beside Aoko, Kasumi bobbed excitedly in her seat as her father made a dazzling entrance that resonated exclaims of awe and wonder throughout the entire audience. It was with that exact wonderment that kept Kasumi glued to her seat, enraptured with the brilliance of her father's tricks, wits, and charms. Incorporating subtle humor kept his audience's spirits high, and he spared a quick wink to his family when the camera's turned to his assistant.
It was Aoko's bewitchment which distracted her from the unwanted disappearing act halfway through the performance.
In the midst of the applause, Kaito had spared a moment to seek the family table, and to the untrained eye, the lack of expression would have been overlooked as indifference by anyone who did not understand the significance of its jaunty stillness. But Aoko wasn't just anyone and knew that something had gone wrong. She caught Kaito's gaze directed at the seat beside her belonging to Kasumi and then at her. She turned her head and almost yelped out loud.
Kasumi's chair was absent of the little rascal.
"Kuroba Kasumi!" Aoko hissed under her breath. How long had she been gone? She turned to her father and mother-in-law, both of whom had heard her over the dying clapping as Kaito commenced his next act.
"Where did she go?" Ginzo whispered roughly.
"Nowhere far. I'll be right back!" Aoko quietly slid out of her chair and wove as stealthily as Kid. Kasumi knew better than to bother her father's audience. Where she had vanished to had more to do with Kaito more than anything else, Aoko was sure of it.
~M.K~
'Aoko can handle this. Aoko can handle this….'
Beyond the determination to keep the ball rolling, that was the mantra mentally recited by Kaito Kuroba from the moment he discovered a particular absence of his daughter. Already he could see his father-in-law flagging down nearby staff for aid, half out of his seat to follow Aoko's search party of one. Beside him, Chikage Kuroba was fighting laughter.
Calming his breath, Kaito plowed through the beginning of his next act, summoning up a stool for his assistant, a young woman called Suzu. It had been necessary once Jii's health outweighed the odds. Still, Jii opted to be his manager for the time being, and from the sidelines backstage, it was clear that he, too, had picked up on their conundrum.
Kasumi was simply too mischievous for her own good.
As Kaito was about to speak, he noticed something peculiar. Twittering chuckles and murmurs had erupted across his shadowy crowd. Normally, this would have fared well had he already carried out his trick, but the growing sound wasn't highlighted with awe, but with confusion and outright amusement.
His ears detected a hiss to his left, a familiar high-pitched sound that usually accompanied a spoon to the head when he tried to sneak a bite out of Aoko's cooking before mealtimes. He peeked to the side to see Jii and Aoko concealed behind the curtain, looking past him toward the other end of the stage. Aoko's voice carried this time, and the twittering and laughter of the crowd grew louder.
Kaito blinked in surprise. Was there something he was missing?
Tilting his head to the side, briefly nonplussed at the growing humor of his audience, Kaito finally had the common sense to turn and face the spot on the stage that had caught their attention. He almost had a heart-failure.
Standing on the stool, without a single care in the world, was Kasumi, mimicking his gestures and antics and grinning up at him like a little angel. From the corner of his eye, he saw Aoko gesturing for Kasumi to come off the stage right now and that she was in so much trouble. In turn, Ginzo and his mother remained amongst the audience, the former entirely flabbergasted and the latter highly entertained.
'Poker face, poker face,' Kaito chanted to himself, on the verge of nervous laughter.
Of all the things for his rascally daughter to do, she put down her hands and gave him that look, the one in which she was the purest kitten in the world who deserved absolutely no punishment for interrupting a show in front of a live audience, televised to all of Japan to see.
She looked just like her mother with those wide, cerulean eyes. It wasn't a fair game. He couldn't resist that look and she knew it!
Still frozen, the audience's laughter grew at the sight of the awkward stance between father and daughter. There was no shyness from his baby girl, just playful glee. Kaito's heart melted. Oh, Aoko was going to kill him for this.
"Well, ladies and gentlemen," he finally said, turning back to the crowd with an embarrassed but cheerful grin. "It seems as though we have ourselves a lovely guest assistant for the evening."
Yes, he confirmed to himself from the intensity of ire piercing his skull from the sidelines. Aoko was definitely going to kill him.
~M.K~
There were many facts about Kaito that had astounded Aoko beyond words: discovering he was Kid, his chase for Pandora, the truth behind his father's death, that Akako was a witch (that was still hard to swallow), or that Kaito could even fall in love with her.
But allowing their tiny daughter to get away with her most startling of shenanigans in front of Japan took the cake. This man was so lucky that she loved him!
The curtains drew to a close on Kaito's explosive finale, and she was sure the sound of the crowd's commendation would resonate with her for the rest of the night. The magical duo must have sensed trouble brewing as they departed the stage together, Kasumi safely tucked away in her father's arms and brimming with joviality. She snuggled closer to Kaito as they came to stand in front of a very peeved mother.
"You are in so much trouble!" Aoko said, hands on her hips as she glared down at her less-than-bashful daughter. "I turn around for five seconds and you-you-"
"She wasn't harming anyone!" Kaito protested, still chuckling to himself. "Besides, they all loved her! You saw what she did out there! Magician extraordinaire! A few years of training and—" He faltered under Aoko's weathering gaze. "—And we'll talk about that later."
Kissing her forehead, Kaito lowered Kasumi to the floor, where she gazed back up at the two adults with unfiltered sweetness. Laying that on thick, was she? Aoko raised her eyebrows at the little girl swaying gently in front of her, eyes bright and a cheeky grin befitting her father brightly displayed on her little pink lips. She looked just like her father and it was so difficult to stay mad at her.
"This is your fault," Aoko finally said to Kaito, who jumped in alarm.
"I'm not the one who lost track of her!" he protested.
"She inherited all that mischief from you!" she snapped.
"I should hope so," Kaito said, mockingly serious. He perched his hands on his hips. "Unless there's something you want to tell me..."
The teasing implication had Aoko red as beets. What had begun as a swat atop her husband's head quickly transformed into an embarrassing display of affection when Kaito grabbed her around the waist and planted a fervent kiss on her lips.
Blushing to the shade of the rose in his lapel, Aoko squeaked, "Kaito!" as he lifted her in his arms and twirled them in spirals. "Jeez, you're so ridiculous!"
"But you love me anyway?" he guessed, grinning when Aoko's eyes sparkled in response.
"Don't think either of you is off the hook," she grumbled, folding her arms at an awkward position while still encased in her husband's grip.
Kasumi burst into giggles at her parents' antics, a signature mark of just another day in their rambunctious lives.
~M.K~
FURTHER NOTES:
The name Kasumi can mean both 'mist' and a combination of 'flower/blossom' and 'clean/pure'. Since Kaito has a specialty for using roses in his acts and has teased white as pure on Aoko (we all know what I'm talking about), I thought it would be a sweet name for their daughter.
I know it's not entirely a Kaito x Aoko centric plot, but it was a funny concept I could not resist. I wish I could develop it more, but that would require its own separate story from these one-shot wonders.
I apologize for my delayed update. I had a little mishap cooking a few days ago and got painful burns that prevented me from using my hands properly for a while. My typing was marginally slower for that.
Thanks are in order for Akrim and DCSR392 for reviewing the previous chapter!
Reviews and criticisms are welcome.
—MELPOMENE-THE-TRAGIC-PARODY, signing out.