When Kaito was young, his list of aspirations would had been meters long, if his grandparents would have written them down for him. Every day he seemed to want to do something else with his life, from the standard childish dreams to more specialized things, but once he found out that people were able to go out into space and be outside of the planet's atmosphere all of the other dreams he'd had were erased in place of wanting to become an astronaut. He loved to read about space, watch movies about space, and hear people talk about space; he quickly began to learn all he could about the stars and other planets, proudly proclaiming that he'd go to all of them someday, much to the amusement of anyone who was around him.

As he got older the dream became more refined, and he became focused on knowing all that he could so that he could someday get on a spaceship and soar through the universe, but reality struck him down time and time again. First it was his age, he was too young to be an astronaut and would need to wait a long time before he'd be considered old enough. Then it was his vision, falling just outside the range of what was acceptable without any form of corrective lenses. Finally it was his health, which had never been the greatest when he'd been growing up and would forever haunt his records as being a liability. Even with knowing that his dreams would not be achievable by normal means, Kaito was determined to stake his claim in the stars, and he was not going to take negative answers from anyone.

Medical records could be forged, as could documentation of age, and he could save up the money to get his eyesight corrected, but something about doing all of that made him feel uneasy at best. There had to be reasons for why those were all standards that he needed to meet that he was failing to do so, but was it like Kaito Momota to let people tell him that he wasn't good enough to achieve his dreams? Of course it wasn't! He'd done so much to put himself into the position of someday becoming an astronaut that he wasn't going to just give up because he wasn't going to make it. He was going to make it!

His grandparents, always the most supportive pair of their grandson's desires, had decided that they were going to take a hands-off approach when it came to his teenage recklessness, letting him learn things the hard way. So when he darted out of the home one day saying he'd found a way to cover at least one of his potential flaws, they let it happen without being too concerned about what nonsense he was going to get himself into.

He'd been told by a friend at school that there was someone in the neighborhood that had the ability to falsify medical records, and he was going to take that chance to get all of his childhood illnesses scrubbed from his history. He should've known right away that the whole situation was sketchy, but he was desperate to get to be an astronaut and he would leap through all the hoops to get there; when he got to the front door of the house where he'd been directed he felt like his heart was about to burst through his chest from the excitement of the whole arrangement. The guy that lived there seemed strangely confused about why a teenager was standing at his door, yammering on about medical records and changing them to have a clean bill of health, but he let him inside anyway.

When Kaito left it was in the custody of the police, who were just as surprised as the man was about the blatant disregard for legality that the kid was showing. He tried to fight and explain himself, despite the officers telling him it'd be best to keep his mouth shut, and he ended up cuffed and tossed in the back seat without any way to get himself free. "I'm tellin' you, I wasn't doing anything wrong!" he yelled, his face getting red from the exertion of all of the energy it took to be so angry. "I just wanna get to go to space! Don't you know what it's like to have a dream?"

Neither officer replied to him and he continued screaming at them about his goals in life and how he was only there to get that much closer to becoming an astronaut. When they got to the station he had calmed down, but when he had to get his mugshots taken ("as a standard procedure," the person doing them said, but he didn't believe it) he tried to kick up a fuss and argue to be let free.

"The longer you fight, the longer they'll keep you here," a female voice said, and Kaito, confused because the person with the mugshots was a guy, looked around until he saw a tiny girl with her hair hanging in two long braids. "It's pretty common knowledge."

"She's right," the photographer agreed, before doing a double-take and looking at the girl for himself. "Geez, again with you here? This is what, the third time this month?"

Kaito shut up as he listened to the girl nonchalantly explain that she couldn't help her problematic behavior, and when the photographer was done being distracted by her he got the mugshots done and sent him on his was. He figured that was the end of things, that he'd be sent to a cell and forced to eat soup and stale bread for the rest of his life, but when he was escorted into a room with actual furniture in it, he felt that maybe he was being forgiven after all. That changed moments later when the same girl was brought in, her hands in cuffs just like his still were, and when the door was closed behind them both she immediately went to sit in one of the chairs.

"You're a new face around here," she said, giving Kaito a once-over from toes to head, glaring at him when she got to his eyes. "You look like a jock bastard who tried scamming his way onto a sports team. That's not jail-worthy, so what did you do to get locked up?"

"Dreamt about being an astronaut," Kaito replied, letting his shoulders fall as he realized he wasn't getting to go home like he thought he was going to. The girl laughed at his blunt answer and it stung to be made fun of, causing him to snap, "Come on! It's a real dream, and I'm gonna make it happen!"

She didn't even flinch at his raised voice. "Dreams don't get someone handcuffs and mugshots. You had to have done something to deserve it."

"Yeah, well, you're not telling me what you did to get in here, so—"

"Beat a guy black and blue for failing to pay his rent," she cut in, not batting an eyelash at how brutal her crime was. "Not the first time I've done it, and it's definitely not the last. Have to do what I can to pay the bills, since the stupid orphanage kicked me out."

"—okay, fine, twist my arm, won't ya? I tried to get a guy to make me some fake medical records, because my health's not good enough for me to be an astronaut." Admitting to what he'd tried to do felt dirty on Kaito's tongue, and seeing the girl's smug face about it wasn't doing him any favors. "My dream means a lot to me, y'know!"

"Clearly. You could go away for a long time for that, but you won't." She rolled her eyes, watching as he was steadily growing uneasy about being in the room with her. "They'll let us both go soon enough, it's just a slap on the wrist being in here like this. The cops, they know what I do for a living, they forgive my crimes whenever I get caught because I'm at least not killing the guys anymore. And you…first crime, I assume?"

"Yeah," he replied, not sure how he was supposed to take any of what she was saying. "I'm a good kid, I swear. My grandparents are always proud of me, but this time they're gonna wonder what I was thinking and…"

"Huh, grandparents. Wonder what it's like to have those." She began to look past where Kaito was still standing, checking the doorway for any movement on the other side. "Not like it matters, I'm sure my family would be super pleased if they knew I chase human scum to make ends meet. At least I'm not too proud to admit I'm not good enough for other things."

That was a direct blow to Kaito and he knew it, and he charged towards her, stopping just out of the reach of her short legs. "It's my dream, I'm not givin' it up just because of one stupid reason! Haven't you ever had a dream before?"

"Of course I have. To not die. To find a family that wants me. To get to stay at the orphanage once I turn sixteen. To not get murdered on a hit gone wrong." Everything she was saying sounded so foreign to Kaito that he almost didn't believe she was saying actual dreams, but they checked out when compared to the rest of the story she'd told him. He'd been acting selfish and got in trouble for it, while she found herself in hot water trying to survive.

The door to the room opened and an officer stood in the doorway. "Harukawa," he announced, the girl jumping to her feet and narrowly missing hitting Kaito with her braids as she stood. "Your ride's here to get you back where you belong. Try not to be back so soon, will you?"

"No promises on that," she replied, before giving Kaito a nod. "See you around, astronaut."

He was speechless about how to reply to her farewell, knowing that seeing her again would most likely mean he was in some sort of trouble, and he wanted to keep himself on the straight and narrow for the rest of his life. His grandparents were there soon after and he got to leave without any further punishment, and he was given a stern talking-to on the way home, but ultimately the experience changed his life in ways that no one would have expected. Sure, he wasn't going to try getting records changed anymore, but he was always fearful of what would happen if he ended back in the jail and crossed paths with the girl a second time.

When their paths did cross again it was slightly more innocent, years later after he'd stopped dreaming about being an astronaut and instead became more level-headed about life in general, choosing instead to use that supposedly jock physique to do bodyguard work here and there. He was standing outside a nightclub just before close, watching the street for any unruly people who might have tried coming inside, when he saw a pair of familiar long braids rush past him. Instinct took over, and he yelled, "Harukawa! Get over here!"

The girl—now a woman that looked mostly the same as she had as a teen, minus the intense expression upon her face—froze at the sound of her name and turned around, seeing Kaito standing in the doorway. "Astronaut! Funny seeing you around here! A bit more down to Earth, are we now?"

"Guess we could say it that way," he replied, scuffing his work boot up against the brick wall of the building as she approached him. "What's got you runnin' around down these streets? Jerks that need to be beat up for not paying their rent?" He wished he hadn't remembered exactly what had happened to get her in jail that time with him, but the way she'd said it had stuck with him every day since their first meeting.

Her expression soured more than it already had been. "I wish it was that simple, but I'm supposed to be going to…" She trailed off and lowered her voice to say, "I'm supposed to break up a bit of a mafia party a few blocks over. You wouldn't understand, it's the name of the game that I call life."

"Well, why don't ya decide not to do it tonight and come back to it another time?" Cue her laughing and explaining that it was time sensitive, and that if she didn't do it then, it could come back to haunt her by way of her bosses. "Just tell 'em that you couldn't make it, and that you'll get them next time. I'm sure they'll understand!"

"Look, I get that you want to talk to me, but it has to wait. Next time you see me, don't scream out my last name, by the way, it gets the assholes on my case faster." She flashed him a grin and charged off, leaving him stunned in her wake because the only name he'd known for her was the one he'd used.

Their third meeting came days later, in the same spot, but instead of running by the doorway she walked right up to him with an identification card in hand. "Here, since you're acting like a guard, you can check this and let me in," she said to him, as he took the card from her and began checking it. "It's the only thing I've got with my name and information on it."

"Maki Harukawa," he read, looking from her name to her face and back. "It's pretty, kinda like you."

"Of course it is, now tell me what your name is, so I can stop calling you 'Astronaut' when I'm dreaming about you." She spoke with a deadpan, but Kaito was fairly certain she was joking with the statement, and after he'd given her his name she snatched her ID back and stared up at him. "Are you kidding me? I've been dreaming about you for years and your name is something dumb like Kaito?" A pause, followed by, "Eh, I guess it fits the dumb jock thing you've still got going for you."

"I don't think that's supposed to be a compliment," he deduced, watching her try not to laugh at his statement. "Can't let you in, but the club's closing soon and I'll be able to go, why don't ya hang around and we can go get drinks or something somewhere else? Unless, of course, you've got mafia stuff to deal with."

Maki cracked a smile, taking a seat up against the wall near his legs, the smell of spilled alcohol and discarded cigarettes enveloping her. "Would you look at that, I happen to be free tonight," she remarked, staring up at him with eyes that seemed to be sizing him up. "And for you, I think I'd try to be free forever."

A/N: this one just makes me feel good. prompt was dreams