There was a lot that could be said about what happened over the course of six weeks, but the biggest thing about it all was that nothing really changed from how it had been before the rainstorm had hit. Shuichi was still focused altogether too much on his work, and he was still working with people who weren't quite cut out for his line of work-and the ine person who was had a whole list of other problems she was focusing on during that span of time.
As it turned out, Maki had managed to break several bones in her foot and ankle with that kick to the door in her anger, and because of being held captive as she was they had managed to heal incorrectly. That meant that she had to get them re-broken if she wanted any chance at walking correctly again, rather than with the limp she had gotten used to, and because walking with the limp was incredibly painful and humiliating (in her opinion), the decision was made that she would go through the process to fix it. But the first available appointment for that was six weeks after her visit to the doctor about the pain in the first place, and that meant six weeks of not being able to do her actual job.
She was too valuable of an asset to the station to let sit unused for so long, so Shuichi and Kyoko came up with a plan to keep her working but not doing her sneaking and investigating that she typically did. Of course, there was an alterior motive to the solution they arrived at, and the moment Maki realized she was going to be sharing a desk and a workspace with the very man that everyone accused her of having something for, she was beyond furious. But the truth always had been that she did feel something for Kaito, and so the arrangement worked out in her favor in that regard, even if she refused to admit it until she was getting a bit too close to him during a station meeting.
Things in Kibou may have managed to ultimately stay pretty close to the same over those six weeks, but for the country-traveling pianist it wasn't quite the case. Ever since she'd left the hotel in the flooded town, Kaede had found herself thinking over and over again about the detective who'd shown her such kindness and put up with so much nonsense in their time together, and she almost regretted not exchanging any information with him beyond his name. Sure, she knew where it was that he worked, but she couldn't exactly waltz into a police-owned detective office and demand to see their main investigator, not without causing some sort of trouble for herself or for him. Naturally she was more worried about her own image in the whole ordeal rather than his, but she couldn't afford to be accused of illegal things that led her to going to visit a detective.
The last thing Kaede really wanted, or needed, in her life was to be accused of doing things that warranted legal counsel, and that was what stopped her most from going to the station herself. She could handle the fans having a huge misconception in their minds, but if her father found out about her going there, much less the reason for it, she only feared the worst could happen. Her father's disdain for the police and anyone associated with them was justifiable enough, but it was clearly in the way of her getting done something she felt needed to happen in order for her life to move on. That, of course, was go talk to Shuichi and tell him all about how he hadn't left her mind in their time apart, how he seemed so interesting to her as soon as she didn't have unlimited access to him. He'd been a difficult nut to crack there at the hotel, so she felt maybe things would be different on his own home turf.
Six weeks was all it took for her to decide that she couldn't live with herself if she never took the leap and talked to him again, and so she was determined to get through to him the next time that she was back in Kibou. There were breaks in her touring schedule that gave her a chance to pop back home, to visit her parents and catch up with them, and it was on one of those return visits that she decided she was going to march into the station and not leave until she'd talked to the detective again.
There were many flaws to her plan, none that Kaede actually realized existed until she was trying to make things happen. She hadn't quite thought about how she'd get to the station, other than asking her parents for a ride, and she couldn't find anywhere near it that she could reasonably need to go. Just imagining the look of hatred and despair in her father's eyes at mentioning where she wanted to visit was not anything she was fond of doing, but she couldn't help the fact that she was smitten with a detective. And so she decided that she would call a taxi instead and have them discreetly drive her over to the station, to avoid having to bring up the topic with her father at all. It had never crossed her mind that he'd somehow hear about it through word of mouth, or from the media, given that she was as famous as she was, but her intentions were pure and she didn't mean to offend him.
What she did mean to have happen was a nice, long conversation with the man she'd shared a bed with for several nights without really getting to know him, even if it meant dropping in on him unannounced while at work. She was able to secure a ride easily and get to the station without any questions asked, but it was from the moment she walked inside the front door that things went very much against the plan she'd been hoping for. Sitting at the front desk of the building was an angry-looking woman who was giving her a no-nonsense look, and she assumed that she could just walk up to her, tell her she needed to talk to Shuichi, and get on with things.
Maki didn't play like that, though, not when she was doing a job she wasn't the most familiar with and was currently spending the most time up at the desk by herself she ever had in her life. "Sorry, but he's not in right now. He's doing real work," she said after Kaede asked to speak with the detective who typically would've been present. "Not like you know what real work is, huh? Being a pianist and all that, bet you don't have to do much more than press your keys and smile big and pretty."
"That's totally not all I have to do, I'll have you know!" It had been disheartening enough to hear that Shuichi wasn't there, but for this stranger to then rip into her unexpectedly was not anything that Kaede had wanted. "I get that he's got detective stuff to do, but I was really hoping that I could talk to him while I'm in town. It's not every day that I've got a break from touring, after all."
"Sounds like a personal problem to me," Maki replied without changing her expression at all, unable to feign even an ounce of sympathy for Kaede. "You can just come back like everyone else who comes in here looking for him while he's out. There's your only option, now do it."
Taking a sharp breath in at how rudely she was being treated, Kaede looked around to see if anyone else was present for the conversation, as a witness to this uncalled-for behavior. Finding that they seemed to be alone, she exhaled quickly and suggested, "Maybe you could do me a favor and give me his phone number, so that I can call him and talk to him? I know he has a phone, I saw him use it while we were together. That would get me out of here and…hey, why are you trying not to laugh at me?"
It was true, Maki's cheeks had slightly puffed out as she was attempting to hold in a laugh as long as she could. She swallowed it down and coughed before she could give any sort of a reply to the suggestion. "Uh, because I'm not going to give his phone number out to anyone, maybe? If you want a number, you get the station number, but I'll tell you right now that if you call it, you're going to be left talking to me, and you'll have the same conversation over the phone as you're having right now."
"This is incredibly unprofessional, how are you allowed to speak to me like this?" Kaede wasn't even thinking in terms of her level of fame, she was thinking merely about how this woman was being so rude to her for what she felt was an innocent request. "All I want is to be able to call Shuichi and have a private conversation with him, which means I need a phone number that you can't listen in on."
"And that's not happening, not right here from me. If you think I'm stupid enough to give his number out to someone who could sell it on the internet because of her 'fame', you're delusional." Maki had gone back to looking unamused and glaring in Kaede's direction, while the blonde was trying not to cry in frustration at how things were going. "I don't care if you're upset by me turning you down, but welcome to the real world, piano princess."
Somewhere else in the building they both heard a door slam shut, followed immediately by loud footsteps that culminated in someone else joining the conversation; while Kaede hoped it was Shuichi and that she'd been lied to about him not being present, it was instead some other man that gave her a once-over and immediately jumped to offer a hand to greet her. "Whoa there, Maki Roll, you didn't tell me that we were being visited by music royalty today! I've gotta stop leaving you up here alone for so long, you have all the cool stuff happen while I'm gone!"
"I wasn't planning on being visited by anyone," Maki replied matter-of-factly, looking at the man with the same glare she'd been using on Kaede. "Besides, she's not even here to see anyone but Shuichi, so does it even matter? All she's doing is wasting her time, and wasting my breath for making me tell her that."
Waving her negativity off, the man came closer towards Kaede, still offering her the hand that she hadn't even considered taking. "There's no reason for you to be so rude to our esteemed guest, you know! If she's here to see Shuichi, why aren't ya calling my sidekick up right now to bring him in?"
"Because he's at an investigation, dumbass." Checking herself out of the conversation as she stood up from her chair, Maki hobbled in the direction from which the man had just come, the sound of the boot she had to wear on her broken foot knocking into the ground with every step she took.
By the time she was out of range of being heard, Kaede had decided she was going to take the man's hand and give it a delicate shake, but he tried squeezing it a bit harder than she expected and she was left yelping until he let go. "That hand is necessary for playing the piano, please don't hurt me like that!" she explained, wiggling her fingers to test their functionality. "Anyway, you know who I am, so who are you?"
"Ah, right, a gentleman should introduce himself before shaking hands with someone like you. The name's Kaito Momota, Luminary of the Stars…or, er, receptionist here at this station until I get a job with the space program." Kaito flashed a goofy grin that made Kaede laugh in return, all of the hurt feelings she'd experienced being there before his appearance beginning to melt away. "Now I've gotta know, was Maki Roll being serious when she said that you're here to see Shuichi? What's a guy like that doing getting someone famous like you wanting to talk to him?"
"I'm sure you're aware of what happened between me and him," she replied, him taking a second to pull up memories of whatever Shuichi had told him previously about their situation, before nodding eagerly to prompt her to continue. "Well, I've been thinking about all of it a lot lately, and I just want to get to have a conversation with him about some of the things that happened. It's mostly so I know that we're on good terms and he doesn't think of me as a high-maintenance diva or something like that."
"He doesn't think of you that way, I can tell ya that much," Kaito assured her, not actually sure at all if what he was saying was true or if he was merely being polite to someone he'd just met. "Shuichi's a hard one to crack, and honestly he meets so many people every day that I don't really know if he thinks too much about any of 'em."
If Kaede had let her spirits rise at all that day, they had severely deflated and gotten trampled on at that news. "Oh, so you're saying that we shared a bed for days and he doesn't remember who I am?" she asked to clarify, something that Kaito didn't know how to respond to, based on his one-shouldered shrug that left her just as wordless as he was. The whole time, she'd figured that Shuichi would be at least interested in talking to her, but now that she didn't know if he even remembered who she was, it added an interesting twist to the whole story. "I guess I wasted my time trying to come talk to him, huh? Thanks for letting me know that before I forced my way into his life again and came out with just as much closure about everything as I have now." She was trying not to let the sting of this revelation affect her too much, but based on how her voice was wavering, she was not doing a very good job of things.
Kaito noticed this, and without asking her if it was okay or if she wanted the contact he grabbed her in a hug, hearing her chirp in surprise at the sudden contact with his strong arms. "I'm sure that if you did get to talk to him, he'd be over the moon gettin' to spend time with you again! Even if he's pushed what happened between ya aside he'll still remember who you are, he'd be stupid to forget meeting someone famous like you!"
"He did more than meet me, you know." She knew that saying it like that could potentially open up a can of worms, but Kaito seemed to be too fixated on cheering her back up to notice the open-to-innuendo statement she'd made. Once he'd let go of her, and she was able to straighten out the sleeves on her shirt from where he'd crumpled them, she set off to explain herself about what she meant: "I mean, we shared a bed, we shared our whole lives there at that hotel for a few days. I don't think I've ever been so close with someone that isn't family in my whole life, and yet there we were, in that room, living together like we were supposed to be."
"There weren't any other options though, right? Like, that's what Shuichi told me about it all, that you guys were either sleeping in the car or in the same room, and you made it work how you had to in order to survive." It was somewhat obvious that Kaito hadn't been told much beyond surface-level things, and Kaede wasn't going to be the one to break him into the specific details of how they'd managed their stay, but he was trying his best to understand her perspective. "Here's what you've gotta do, if you really wanna come talk to my sidekick. You've just gotta keep at it, he's usually here and you just popped in at a bad time, so keep showing up and it'll work! I promise that's how it'll be!"
As much as she wanted to believe in him, Kaede knew how difficult it had been to convince herself to put in the effort to get to the station one time, she had no idea how she'd manage to do it again in the future. But at the same time, Kaito seemed so confident in his statement that she felt like she'd been foolish not to believe in his words, and so she nodded, looking at him with eyes filled with determination. "I'll be back every day while I'm on break if I have to, just to get to talk things through with Shuichi. Thanks for inspiring me, Kaito. I really appreciate it."
"Heh, it's all part of the job as Luminary of the Stars. Gotta be the bright, hopeful being that everyone looks to for direction, y'know," he told her with a grin, before opening his arms to hug her again. She politely declined the gesture by stepping away from him, back towards the front door to the building, and he dropped his arms back to his sides and let the grin do all of the work instead. "Hope to see ya again tomorrow, Kaede Akamatsu, pianist extraordinaire! And hopefully it'll end with ya talking to Shuichi!"
"I sure hope so!" she replied, bowing to him in thanks before taking her leave, her presence in the room almost instantly replaced with the returning one of Maki, who looked towards the closing door with a scowl, before asking what she'd missed when she'd stepped out for just a moment.
His eyes also looking at the door that Kaede had just walked out, Kaito opened his mouth to answer Maki's question but he ended up closing it, instead choosing to drape one of his arms over her shoulder instead of giving any sort of verbal response. He couldn't see the shocked, almost murderous look that came over her when she felt his touch, but he could feel the anger radiating off of her, and that made him only pull her closer. Some things were better off left unsaid, and he thought that if she knew he'd told Kaede to come back again and again until she got her way, there'd be more trouble than there already was.
In a way, he was right, but it wasn't the fist-fighting sort of trouble he'd been expecting, and that made all the difference.
Shuichi was tired of the investigation he was currently knee-deep in, one that he'd begged to see get sent somewhere else but had been more or less forced into by the powers above his head. He was thankful it wasn't a murder case, but theft was something else that he wasn't the biggest fan of, especially when the person who was being accused of the crime was someone he knew somewhat personally. That was actually why Kyoko had told him he needed to see the case through, because he needed to find the evidence to prove that someone else had stolen the robot pieces from the science lab, rather than the person that was being accused of it, but the issue of that came with the fact that he was being expected to lead a team of ragtag investigators in finding non-damning evidence against Miu Iruma, of all the people in the world.
And when she seemed hell-bent on insisting that she hadn't taken the robot, but that she would have gladly modified him to match the one the scientist had given her years before, complete with working genital parts, he didn't know if there was any way she could be proven innocent with their evidence. "Look, Miu, it would be a lot easier if you would keep quiet about what you would do if you were given the missing robot," he told her after several days of the dead-end investigation, which had scrubbed her personal laboratory completely clean and had found no sign of the robot that had disappeared. "You keep saying things like that, they keep going into the evidence record, we're going to not have anything the attorneys can use to defend you."
"I'm doing my job writing it all down," Himiko said, showing off the notebook she'd been given to document any and all findings in. "It's a lot of work because you say so much, but I made sure I didn't miss any words."
Red-faced and flustered once again, a common sight with so many people tearing up her beloved workspace, Miu had literal beads of sweat dripping down her face at the book that Himiko showed her. "You mean the attorneys get to see all of the vulgar stuff I've said while you've been here?" she asked, gulping when both Himiko and Shuichi nodded at her. "Oh damn, they're going to be soaking through all their layers at everything, and my name as an inventor is going to be soiled!"
"It was soiled long before this, if you think everyone learning how overly sexual you are is going to change a thing." Shuichi had put up with Miu and her specific brand of vulgarities long enough to know that everyone was very much aware of the dirty mouth and body she had in her possession, and no amount of evidence regarding that would change anyone's perspective on things. "The problem is, you keep talking about wanting to, uh, service robots, and that doesn't help clear your name in regards to the crime we're here to investigate, if that makes sense."
"If that makes sense? Of course it makes sense, do I look like a fuckin' moron over here? I know that me telling you I'd peg myself silly on a robo-dick will make me look bad, but it's the truth, and it also clears my name because the robot that's missing specifically does not have a dick, because I never touched it." That was the defense that Miu had kept stating over and over, that she couldn't have stolen the robot because it was missing pieces that she would have installed on its frame if it belonged to her. It wasn't a very good way of trying to clear her name from the suspect list, however, and that was why Shuichi was still there after days of going through the investigation.
He pinched the bridge of his nose and took a few short breaths, while Himiko did what she did best and jotted a couple more notes down on her paper. "We can't prove that the missing robot doesn't have those, ahem, enhancements if we don't know where it is, and unfortunately your word on the matter doesn't exactly prove your innocence on the matter. We have to know where the robot is, or have some idea where that might be, we can't just give them the evidence that you swear you didn't take it. They'll laugh and lock you up."
"Except I really didn't take it, and I can prove it!" Grabbing her hair and tugging on it, making her look panicked on top of her already-flustered state, Miu began bouncing around the room, looking for something in particular that wouldn't have possibly been anything that Shuichi hadn't already seen in his time investigating. She came back moments later with the panic mostly eased from her face, although she was still covered in her own sweat. "He'll come in here any second now and show how I'm innocent, and then you'll be sorry for wasting all your time here, you stupid virgin!"
"That's not a very nice thing to say to Shuichi," Himiko mumbled, writing down the exact words that Miu had just used, in case they turned out to be important evidence. The delivery of Miu's statement had caught him by surprise, so he was thankful that Himiko was able to say something about it, but right as Shuichi found the words to calmly retort, he was interrupted by the clanking sound that let them all know a robot was among them.
Everyone's eyes looked to the doorway from which the robot was coming, his eyes lit up to look friendly and approachable, even though he was the one doing the approaching. "Someone pressed my call button and I came as soon as I could," he said, his voice sounding surprisingly natural for being a robot. "Is something the matter? Miu, are these people bothering you? Is that why you called?"
"They're bothering me, but it's either them or the real cops, and I'd rather them than someone who'd throw me to the ground and handcuff me in a non-sexy way any day." Miu waved off the robot's concern, walking to his side and beginning to fiddle with the strings of the apron he was wearing. "Why do you have this dumb thing on, you're a damn robot, you don't need an apron while you're cooking!"
"I figured my circuitry would not appreciate being splashed with cooking oil."
"Fuck your circuitry, you look like a dumbass wearing an apron!" Getting one of the strings untied, Miu quickly moved onto the other set, and once it was untied she threw the whole thing aside, leaving the robot standing before the detective duo in his metal clothing. "See, you're already dressed, there's no point in having something over it! Now take your pants off, I need to show them why I couldn't have stolen that other robot!"
Looking between each other with wide eyes, it was Shuichi who jumped to say something before Himiko could, because she was going back to writing what was happening down. "I don't think that's necessary, Miu, you don't have to ask him to get undressed to show us your modifications of his body. We believe you about it, I promise."
"If you believe me about that, why can't you believe me when I say I didn't steal the robot from the professor? I wouldn't lie to you about that either." Miu huffed, leaning against the side of the robot she did have, who was looking rather confused at what was happening around him. "What else is there that I can do for you to prove I didn't take it?"
"I do not mean to interrupt, but when did this heist take place? Perhaps I can be of use in clearing Miu's name on the matter." Her robot spoke calmly, even though he wasn't filled in on what was happening, and it was then that Shuichi realized that perhaps her dragging this robot into the whole situation may have been more helpful than she'd realized. That, or it would lead to him innocently broadcasting graphic images of what, exactly, Miu had been up to on the night of the crime she was a suspect for, images that neither Shuichi nor Himiko wanted to see, needed to see, or could stop thinking about even after they'd left for the day.
Their ride back to the station was in complete silence, unable to so much as look in the other person's direction without thinking about the pornographic images they'd seen of their friend and person they were trying to protect. Once they'd gotten back to the station, Himiko handed him her notebook and left without another word, but he had to go inside, write up a report on what had happened, and check on any other investigations he may have been invited to while he was out. At that time of day, it was typical for there to be no one still at the station, so he was caught by surprise when he saw both Kaito and Maki inside, sitting at the front desk in the middle of conversation, and he was so surprised at their presence that he greeted them by saying, "I was just shown twenty minutes of robot porn," before scurrying off to his office, leaving them just as confused and surprised as he was at them still being there.
The knock that came at his door was unmistakably from Kaito, who usually knocked a few times before barreling in anyway, yet when the door opened it was Maki who came inside first. "What in the world was that introduction about?" she snapped, hobbling right up to his desk and taking a seat, not caring that Shuichi was busy distracting himself with his report. "I have known you for how long, and you've never come in here with that sort of thing."
"It was Miu's fault, she brought Kiibo into the investigation and that was his contribution to matters. It certainly helps clear her name, but it doesn't help us figure out who took the missing robot in the first place." He was speaking hurriedly, as if he didn't want to have to spend more time thinking about what had happened at the lab than he needed to. "That's what happened with me, now why are you two still here? Please tell me that nothing bad happened to the two of you as well, I can't afford losing either one of you longer than I'm already going to be."
"Nah, nothing bad happened, but we had a fun visitor today!" Clasping his hands together, Kaito came to stand right behind where Maki had seated herself, leaning forward until his goatee hairs were brushing against the top of her head. "C'mon, you've gotta be interested in who came to visit us while you weren't here."
With all of the other things that were actively on his mind, not to mention the fact that he was trying to forget about the images he'd endured, Shuichi did not seem as interested as Kaito was hoping, and that was just how things were going to be. "Is now really an appropriate time for this conversation?" he asked, not even looking at the two. "I have work to finish and neither of you really need to be here, so perhaps we could talk later?"
"No way, we're talking about this now!" This time the hands came together not in a clasp, but in one punching the other's open palm, and the noise of the impact was enough not to just get Shuichi's attention off of his work, but to make Maki nearly jump out of her seat, as the noise was right behind her head. "The person who came to visit us is someone you're super familiar with, and she came here to see you and only you!"
"And you told her that I'm unavailable and that she can come back, I assume?" Shuichi could make some guesses as to who it was that had stopped by, typical visitors to the station whenever he was around, but none of them warranted this kind of confrontation. "If that's the case, then I fail to see why you're in here bothering me about it."
"It's not a normal someone, idiot," Maki said, rolling her eyes as she settled back into the chair, her heart having stopped pounding so hard from the scare she'd just endured. "It's someone that's only around for a little while, and she thought that she was more important than anything else in the world."
None of that matched with the idea of who it was that had wormed its way into Shuichi's mind, and he tilted his head slightly to the side as he looked at Maki's no-nonsense expression, trying to judge how serious she was being. "Oh yeah? Would you mind not being so vague and just telling me who it was, then?"
"Kaede Akamatsu, the famous pianist you shared a room with during the flood!" Kaito seemed way too excited to make that announcement, and just hearing her name was enough to make Shuichi wish he hadn't asked for the delivery to be in plain terms. He'd not quite forgotten that they'd been forced to share a bed for those nights, but he had pushed past the fact that she'd wanted nothing to do with him then—and now for her to come to his workplace looking for him, it simply didn't make sense. The confusion he was experiencing must have made itself obvious on his face, because Kaito followed his statement up with, "She really seemed to want to talk to you, and I told her to come back to try again so you've gotta make her dreams happen, okay? Push aside the investigation for a day and stick around here to talk to Kaede."
"I'm really afraid that can't happen, not when we've got to find the robot and who stole it, before the courts disregard Miu's sex tape with her own robot and arrest her anyway." While the idea of having to talk to Kaede and see how her attitude towards him had changed over six weeks was interesting, Shuichi couldn't push aside his work for her, not when she'd already caused him to lose footing in one case he'd been interested in. "If she wants to talk to me she's going to have to wait until I'm off of this case, and that's just how it is."
"Ooh, or she could stick around until you get off for the night, I bet that would—"
"Kaito, if I get back tomorrow and she is sitting here I am getting you suspended without pay for at least a week." Cue Kaito's jaw dropping at how serious Shuichi sounded, but he wasn't done with the threats. "And don't think you'll get off free as well, Maki. If she's here when I get here tomorrow, you're not getting paid while you're out recovering from getting your foot fixed. Am I making myself clear?"
Neither of them wanted to say it, but they knew that Shuichi was most likely lying through his teeth to get them to not do what Kaito had suggested, no matter how serious he sounded about things. "We'll think about not going against those wishes," Maki replied after a couple moments, where Kaito dramatically picked his jaw up and closed it, before shaking his head and heading out of the office. She didn't follow him out right away, waiting until he was gone to lean closer to Shuichi's desk to say, "I don't know what she sees in you, or what you don't see in her, but I think not talking to her is your best choice here. You can do better than a famous broad like her."
"I'm not exactly taking relationship advice from someone who's romantically linked with Kaito, but thanks for trying." That was what got Maki's jaw to drop, just like Kaito's had before, and she was stunned speechless at how he'd called her out like that. With her boot on her foot she couldn't dramatically leave the office like she wanted to, but she could cause a bit of scene stomping out, leaving Shuichi there to finish his work in silence.
When he packed up for the night, he was definitely the only person still there, the other two having left at some point while he'd worked without even a goodbye, but he deserved that from them after what he'd said. He was aware that Kaito would be over it by morning, but Maki would take longer to forgive him for things, and even that was fine by him. Being in the station by himself always felt weird, and so he made sure that he left as quickly as he could once he'd started turning lights off; when he locked the front door he felt something around him and he nearly dropped his keys in his haste of getting out of the area. The drive home was boring, but he couldn't shake the feeling that he was still being watched, and when he got to his apartment he made sure that every deadbolt on the door was fastened to ensure his safety.
But safety measures didn't matter when he turned around to see Kokichi lounging on his sofa, feet kicked up on one of the armrests and his arms crossed behind his head. "It's about time you got here, Shumai," he said with a wink, ignoring the fact that Shuichi was clutching at his chest due to the shock of having someone waiting for him in his own home. "I've been here for hours, rather than working with you and Himiko, or being stuck at the station with those lovebirds. Why do you even keep them around, all they do is yell and cause trouble for others, mostly you."
"H-how did you get a key to get in here?" Shuichi asked, having no idea how Kokichi could have gotten in without a key, not with how careful he was to lock things down. That, and he hadn't noticed him inside when he'd first opened the door, so how had he been hiding in such plain sight? "Answer me, Kokichi, before I call the cops to get you out of here!"
"You wouldn't really do that to me, would you?" Putting on a pout as he sat up, Kokichi looked like he was genuinely offended at the suggestion that Shuichi had made in his threat, but he knew that there was never going to be any action behind those words. "I got a spare key from your dear best friend, way back when I got his cell key, and I might've made a copy for this very moment." He batted his eyelashes, an act that made Shuichi curl one hand into a fist and wish he had the strength to do something with it. "I'm worried about you, Shumai. All of this investigating stuff is getting to your head, and it's ruining all your friendships. Like with me. We're friends, aren't we?"
"Last time I checked, friends don't illegally make copies of keys to sneak into their apartment, but sure, we're friends." It was honestly hard for Shuichi to give his relationship with Kokichi any sort of label, because they went through so many emotions on a daily basis that it was hard to know where they stood any given moment. "You know why Kaito has one of those, don't you? And why you weren't asked to have one as well?"
Kokichi shrugged, before jutting his lower lip out. "Are you telling me that I'm not a good enough friend to be trusted with a key to check in on you with? Am I that bad of a friend?"
"You're not exactly the person I want to see in here if I'm having a down day, if that's what you're asking." That statement, a completely true answer from Shuichi's point of view, was enough to set Kokichi off on a minute-long crying fit, only for him to stop, shrug it off, and act like nothing had happened at all. It was strange, but it was completely expected coming from him and wasn't anything that Shuichi didn't know how to handle. "Look, Kaito has that key so that if he thinks I'm in any sort of trouble, he can come by and make sure I'm alive and taking care of myself. What good does you having the key do for me?"
"That's easy, since he's got himself a girlfriend that's taking up all of his time and brainpower, I can step into his role and show you that I'm twice the friend that he ever has been. In fact," Kokichi stood up, walking slowly towards Shuichi with his arms opening up for a hug, "I'll do what Kaito's a fool for not doing and make you mine, that way you don't have to worry about 'check-ins' because you'll have someone living with you full-time."
This was a topic they'd discussed before, many times, and it was one that Shuichi always tried to get out of whenever other people were around. Sure, he wasn't exactly fond of how Kokichi could behave at times, but he wasn't as put off by him as so many others he knew were, even though it was nothing he wanted to deal with all the time. They'd discussed attempting to date before, never coming to anything beyond an agreement that it could happen, and this was clearly another attempt at getting past that point. The idea of having someone there at the apartment to help him through all of his times, good and bad, was tempting to Shuichi, but he hesitated to get on-board with the idea that Kokichi was the best fit for that role. "Maybe we can try it as a friend thing?" he suggested, seeing Kokichi's arms and face fall at the rejection of his potentially-romantic advances. "I know, you want to date someone and show them how great of a person you are, but I don't think I'm the one you want or need right now."
"And who else do you expect me to ask? Himiko? No thanks, she's too boring for me. Maki and Kaito can't get off of each other, so they're out of the question, and that really just leaves you, and I'm not going to start hitting bars and clubs looking for people to replace you, Shumai. Just…go with it, please." There was genuine—or at least what sounded like genuine—desperation in Kokichi's voice, but Shuichi wasn't going to give in to his request, not right there and then.
Something didn't seem to sit right in his heart whenever he told himself he needed to be open-minded and give it a chance, but Shuichi had no idea what it could be. "I'm sorry, Kokichi, but I'm really only looking to be friends with you right now. There's too much going on in my life right now for me to want or need anything else."
"I get it, you just don't want to get into workplace romance, it's as easy as saying that. Not like I'm really into you either, I just wanted to see what you'd say if I tried asking you out." The grin that appeared on Kokichi's face was clearly masking some real emotions, but Shuichi was not about to open that can of worms. "I'll get out of your hair now, I bet you've had a long day getting harassed by Miu that I'm just making everything wa-a-a-ay worse than it needs to be, huh?"
"That's one way to put it. Thanks for being understanding about things, Kokichi, I just…have a lot on my mind right now." Even with that agreement having been reached, once Shuichi had escorted his unwanted guest out and had the door properly locked once more, the apartment all to himself, he couldn't help but think that wasn't the end of that. But he really couldn't bring himself to be open to Kokichi's advances for some reason, and he needed to know why that was. It wasn't like there was anyone else he wanted to date, so why couldn't he give him a shot?
Over the next couple of days, Kaede would find her way over to the detective station, hoping that she'd finally get to speak with Shuichi like she so desperately needed to, but every time she entered the building it was one of the same two people there waiting for her. She liked it more when it was the man over the woman, but neither of them were who she wanted so even when it was her preferred outcome there it was still hollow. "Can't I just wait around until he shows up?" she asked after a few days of the same result, a question that was answered by a panicked-sounding "no!" that made her curious as to why she got that kind of response, but she didn't dare question further.
When she was down to only three days before she was back on tour, she was beginning to grow desperate about getting to see him, but just like all the days before he wasn't there when she arrived, and she was told she couldn't stick around to see him. "I'd say he's avoiding you, but we all know why he's not here and it's nothing to do with you," Maki said, in the kindest voice she'd used when speaking with Kaede. "Damn missing robot and everything attached to it, he's having to tear up the city to find any leads and it's wasting all of his time and yours."
"I know, I just want to see him and it's not really working." That was the day that Kaede had shown up with tear-stained cheeks, not from crying over the potential of another missed connection but rather from the lashing she'd received from her father when she'd had to accept that she needed to ask him for a ride, rather than continuing using the taxi service in the city. The fact that she'd walked in already emotionally distraught must have had something to do with why Maki was being nice to her, but she wasn't going to argue against the change in treatment. "I just want to have a real conversation with him, about the things that went down between us there in that hotel, and it doesn't look like it's going to happen anytime soon."
"Oh, it'll happen, and I know exactly how to make it work." There was a sympathetic tone in Maki's voice, and yet Kaede wasn't sure if she could trust it right away. It took until they'd stared each other down for a few seconds, which culminated in Kaede's eyes beginning to brim with tears, that she decided she could place her faith in whatever it was that Maki was going to tell her. "Tomorrow evening, Shuichi has somewhere he's going to be that you can just happen to meet him at. He can't get upset, since it's a public place, and you'll get to have your conversation with him."
"Where is this?" she asked, trying not to start crying at how this break had fallen for her. "I'll definitely meet him there, you've just got to tell me where it is!"
Maki held a finger to her lips, trying to get Kaede to lower her volume so that anyone else currently at the station (which was just Kaito, somewhere in the back) wouldn't hear what was being said. "Tomorrow's when they're finally rebreaking my foot to fix it, so naturally that'll be at the hospital. Just sit down in the lobby, Shuichi knows he's supposed to show up at a certain time and he's not going to be late, so you won't miss him."
"You're…using something personal to you to help me?"
"Look, I'm tired of seeing you come in every day looking like a lost dog searching for your owner, I'm doing what I can to make things work." The sympathy had already, suddenly, been replaced with the icy coldness that Maki had always spoken with, but Kaede knew that she was just putting her face back on. "It'll work, as long as you're there before he is. If you're the one to show up late, that's on you."
Shaking her head at a vibrating pace, Kaede quickly said, "I won't be late, I've got to talk to him and this looks like my only chance! Now give me the details so I'm sure to be at the right place at the right time!"
"It'd be easier if you show up here, Kaito and I can swing by on our way to get you over there, and then we'll take you home if you need it." She could see that Kaede's optimism on the situation was faltering at mention of needing to come to the station again, but Maki wasn't going to suggest making two house calls in one day. "Just…be here no later noon tomorrow, we'll take care of everything else."
"I'm really going to trust you on this," sniffled Kaede, as she brought a hand to wipe the now-falling tears from one of her eyes. This wasn't crying due to the kindness she was being shown, but rather because of a different part of what had been suggested that she was not looking forward to needing. She almost opened her mouth to ask another favor, but she stopped herself from considering it when the phone rang, and Maki completed her switch from kindness to coldness, answering the call and waving Kaede away at the same time.
As she walked outside, grabbing her cellphone out of her purse that she'd been carrying on her arm, Kaede remembered the ride she'd endured over to the station and froze thinking about how she either needed to call her father, or pay for yet another cab ride back to her family's home. But going back there didn't sit right within her heart, not at that moment, and that was when she decided to call some friends to see if they were around and available, to go spend some time with. It was a long process, but she was able to get through to one of them, get where she was currently staying, and order a ride over there, just to avoid going home and having to deal with that drama.
The hotel she was dropped off outside of was incredibly fancy, but that was to be expected when it was located in the swanky part of town, where the concert halls and the business buildings all met. She was able to get inside without so much as a second glance, because everyone around there recognized Kaede Akamatsu, she'd been selling out shows in the area since before she was even a teenager, and once she'd entered the lobby her mind flashed back to the hotel she'd been in with Shuichi. There'd been that lovely piano there, that she'd spent so much time playing, and she almost wished she could go back to play it again—but that wasn't what she needed to do with her time. Instead, she got in the elevator and rode it all the way up to the top floor, stepping out into another world; this was the typical life of famous musicians, and it was one that she tried to stay out of if it was her own choice.
"Kaede! Glad to see you stop by!" The voice was loud, and cheerful, and it was followed with a softer one also calling out a greeting, and Kaede smiled when she saw the two ladies sitting surrounded by crates and trunks full of show costumes. "Sayaka just got here too, so it's perfect timing! Now Ibuki gets to have all her favorite collaborators with her at once! Yay!"
"If I had known that there was something going on here, I would have been over sooner," Kaede said, knowing that she could have reworked her day to make arriving at the penthouse suite at that hotel happen earlier. It would have drastically altered the course of her day, meaning she would've been at the station at a different time, but more importantly it may have been able to save her from the conversation she'd had with her father. But everything had happened the way it did for a reason, she couldn't take any of it back, and so she needed to work with what she now had. "What's with all of the clothes, Ibuki? I thought you just changed up your wardrobe for your new tour."
"I did, but there's so many other cute things I could wear that I decided I'd pick some new things to go with the fishnets and bright colors! No one's going to complain if the Ibuki Mioda has a costume change during her concert! They're just gonna hope for a nip slip or two, you know!" Giggling to herself, even though neither of the others present found what she said to be funny (and Sayaka was actually blushing at the idea of that happening to someone), Ibuki got to her feet and gestured to everything she had sprawled out on the floor. "Take a look for yourself, see if there's anything you'd be interested in borrowing!"
Swallowing down the fears that she always had crop up whenever clothing was mentioned, Kaede took a chance and reached into the first trunk that she got close enough to, pulling out a leather minidress that looked like it would burst before she even managed to get it halfway on. It wasn't even that she was large, it was rather that Ibuki was so tiny that they were vastly different sizes, with Sayaka somewhere in the middle of them. "I don't think that borrowing anything of yours will really work for me," Kaede admitted, putting the dress back down where she'd gotten it from. "But if we ever get to have a show together, I'll definitely wear something more your style!"
While Ibuki pumped her fists excitedly at the idea, Sayaka let out a long sigh, propping her head against her palm and leaning into it. "I wish I had that sort of control over what I get to wear during concerts, but the entire idol group has to agree on any wardrobe changes, even when we're doing solo shows. And since they hate when we try to outshine others, I'll have to stick with the schoolgirl-themed uniform if we ever collaborate."
"That's okay, Ibuki has a lot of school clothes she can wear to match!" The fist-pumping came to a slow halt, as Ibuki watched Kaede going through some of the other trunks of clothing, her eyes searching for something she wasn't finding. "Uh, Piano Princess? What's got you looking so sour? Is it that I don't have any long dresses like you always wear? Miniskirts and cutoff shorts are the way of the future, you know!"
"Oh, I didn't realize I was looking sour, I guess I just got kind of lost in my own thoughts. You know how things get, one moment you're looking at clothing, the next you're thinking about how you knew someone who used to always talk about dressing like this when she got famous." Those were words that spilled out of Kaede's mouth faster than she could stop them, and she brought a silence to the room once she'd said her bit. Ibuki immediately ran over to her and grabbed her in a hug, and Sayaka was not far behind her, and the three of them stood in their embrace amongst the clothing for quite some time. When they broke apart, the vibes between them weren't quite the same, even when Ibuki switched the topic from clothing to music, and then from music to what their plans for the upcoming weeks were, and none of it was her own fault.
Eventually she gave up on trying to fix things and set out to address the issue as it was, even though she was the least-qualified person to have a serious conversation with someone. "Kaede, I don't like you looking so sad. Cheer up, 'cause do you really think she likes looking down at you being like this? Ibuki doesn't like seeing it, and she's right here!"
"Ibuki, I think you could have handled that—"
"At this point, I don't think there's anything she can look down on me doing and appreciate, aside from playing piano." One of Kaede's hands had absentmindedly grabbed a pleated skirt from inside of a trunk, and she was playing with the plaid fabric, memories coming back to her that she hated dwelling on, but that had been on her mind since her father had brought them to the forefront earlier in the day. "I've gone against everything my parents told me she'd have wanted after what happened, and it's all because of a cute detective I met."
"—see, you could've handled it better, now Kaede's going to talk to us about boy problems." Sayaka put on a knowing smile, flipping her long blue hair off of her shoulder so that she could have it out of her way. "We know how this one goes, your father doesn't approve because he's a detective, but you want to pursue him anyway, right?"
"He told me that Kotone would be disappointed in me if she knew I was trying to interact with the people responsible for us never getting justice for her death." The second that Kaede had said her sister's name she'd gotten choked up, but she couldn't stop herself from getting everything off of her chest. "And I know that, but it's not like this detective had anything to do with it! He can't be any older than me, and since this happened in high school, there's no way that we can blame him for a crime that happened before he was a detective!"
"It's part of your father's grief process to blame the institution, not just individual people, for that lapse in justice," Sayaka pointed out, before adding, "I heard all about that from Kyoko in the weeks after the murder, because she was brought to the scene a few times to try to find any clues and she always came up empty-handed, which then had to be relayed to your father, even though he shouldn't have had to hear it."
This was all familiar to Kaede, as she'd been having conversations like this about the crime that had been committed against her family ever since it had happened, but she was so wrapped up in her emotions that she didn't bother asking for it to stop. "He's never forgiven anyone for what happened, not the school, not the guards, not the police, and especially not the detectives who couldn't find who did it. My sister, killed in broad daylight after being harassed for not being 'good' enough to be like me." Memories of the day that she'd learned of the murder pushed into Kaede's mind, and she fell victim to them, remembering that she'd been out of the country with their mother on a school trip when her father had called them to tell them they needed to get back, that her sister had been killed by some unknown assailant after reporting persistent harassment about not being quite as talented as her younger twin. "Our family broke that day, and it shattered more today when my father found out about my interest in this detective."
"He'll get over it," Ibuki said, not realizing how rude her statement sounded, but it was what Kaede needed to hear in the moment. "You can't always live your life trying to please your dad, it won't end well for you. That's why you've gotta just do what you wanna do with your life, and not care what he thinks!"
"Or you can sit down and have a proper conversation with him on the matter, so that you make it clear that this detective you're talking to is in no way related to your sister's murder. Maybe that will help him come to terms with it." Sayaka's approach was a lot gentler, even though it was something that Kaede knew would be impossible to do given the anger her father had shown her on the matter. "I wish I could say more than that, but I've never been in your shoes. My parents have had no issue with anything I've done."
Kaede sighed, throwing her shoulders forward to show how dramatic she was acting. "That's the thing, this is the first time he's been upset with me like this. I knew it was coming the moment I realized I had loose ends with the detective, but I didn't know it was going to happen quite like this."
They continued talking for a while, both Ibuki and Sayaka trying to give advice that they themselves would follow in such a situation, but when it came down to it, all of their ideas weren't going to work for what Kaede was dealing with. They'd be perfect if she'd come home with a piercing, or an extreme haircut, or a desire to change her life's course, but this involved something that was a great burden on her family, and it wasn't going to be quite so easy to work past that. She was still thankful for their time and suggestions, though, and when evening was in full swing she made her thankfulness clear before letting them know that she was going to leave. "Oh, it is getting later than I realized, I should go as well," Sayaka said, taking Kaede's hand after she'd caught up to her friend trying to head out. "We'll go together, so you know we're both being safe. See you next time, Ibuki."
On the ride down in the elevator, Kaede was able to wrestle her hand out of Sayaka's grip, looking at her with a solemn expression. "You're doing this to make sure I don't have to call my dad to come get me, aren't you?" she asked, to which Sayaka gave a quick nod. "I figured about as much, you really know how to read someone's problems."
"More like, I paid attention to what you were saying and came up with a plan. My ride will take you home, and then any time you need to get out while you're still here, I'll be right over to save you. That's a promise between friends, and if we meet at my studio perhaps you can play some music to complement my vocals." Sayaka's eyes crinkled as she smiled, and Kaede returned the gesture, thankful to have someone so nice in her corner that night.
Their ride over to her house came in the form of a vehicle with deeply tinted windows, to keep people from ogling them while they sat in the backseat, talking about music and the tours they were in the middle of. For one being a classical pianist and the other being part of a huge pop sensation girl group, they had a lot of things in common, and it was nice for them to be able to talk about them just between them. As they approached the house, Kaede's whole body began to tense up, at which Sayaka took her by the hand once more and gently stroked it, assuring her that everything was going to be okay when she went inside.
Her friend was right, but only because there was no one there when she got to the front door. Instead, a note was attached to the door, taped on hastily and addressed "to my maple leaf," which Kaede cringed at seeing. She ripped it off the door, waved for Sayaka and her driver to head off, and began reading what it said—and found that her mother had heard what had happened earlier that day and had decided that it would be fitting for an impromptu date night to happen. She was told where the spare key was (and she didn't need to ask what the password to the lockbox was because it was her own birthday), and what food there was to cook if she wanted to make her own dinner.
It wasn't necessary, because Kaede went inside, made sure everything was relocked and made to look like she wasn't there, and she went up to her childhood bedroom where she stayed every time she came back home, throwing herself onto the bed and crying until she fell asleep, still fully dressed and without having eaten anything since that morning. When she woke up to the sunrise, her eyes felt heavy and her stomach growled at her, but she didn't want to open the door and see the closed one across the hall, marked with a sign in bubbly letters that it was Kotone's room. She'd dreamt all night about things relating to her sister, always ending in a knife fight that left her dead on the sidewalk, and she knew she couldn't handle seeing the evidence of the real person she knew who'd died that way.
Downstairs, she could hear her parents bustling around, their voices soft but still able to be heard off and on. If she waited long enough, they'd forget she was there and go about their business, and then she'd be able to sneak off into the day to do her own thing, and go anywhere that wasn't home after that. It made her feel guilty to think about it, but she almost hoped that she would be able to get to go home with someone else that night, rather than have to ever return to face her father and his disappointment.
Noontime came a lot quicker than Kaede realized, but she knew from her experience that week that it was only a ten-minute drive over to the detective station where she needed to get, so she scheduled a ride over and got herself ready for the inevitable. She could still hear her parents downstairs but she couldn't avoid them forever, not when she needed to leave, and as soon as she was dressed and presentable she grabbed everything she felt she needed for the day and bounded down the stairs, dashing towards the door before she heard a stern voice call out her name, and her blood froze in her veins as she turned to face her father. "And just where do you think you're going, without telling us you're even alive? Is that any way a child should act in her parents' home?"
"I'm not a child, and I'm going out. I'll be back later, if that's fine with you." She tried to put on a smile but all that came was the corners of her mouth turning up ever-so-slightly, coming off more like a smirk than anything else. That was not what she needed to do, not when her father was already upset with her, and his shaky finger pointing towards the door behind her and telling her to get out of his sight was the reasonable, if not completely painful, natural response to that sort of thing.
She ran to the waiting taxi crying, not knowing how else she could handle that treatment without making things worse. Thankfully part of ordering the ride had been to tell the driver the destination, so she was able to sit and cry without having to say a word to the quiet man in the front seat, but when they'd hit traffic on their way he did give her a small apology. If she'd been heading anywhere else, she wouldn't have minded the slight disruption, but she'd been told to be there at noon, and showing up five minutes past was not what was agreed upon. The parking lot was empty and yet she was still dropped off, and she went to the door to see if maybe Maki, or even Kaito, was inside waiting for her.
Staring back at her when she peered inside was an unfamiliar set of eyes that made her jump back in shock, and when the person opened the door to let her in she didn't know how to react to them. They were small, with purple hair and a wicked grin on their face, and when she stepped inside they cupped their face with their hands and called out, "Oh my god, it's Kaede Akamatsu! What's a pianist like you doing in a place like this? Surely not looking for a detective to romance, hm?"
"Wh-what would give you that kind of idea?" she asked, stepping away from the person in shock at how on the nose their accusation was, if this had been any other day. "I'm here to talk to one of the reception people. Maki told me to meet her here at noon, and—"
"Aw, you're the one she was blabbering about? Talking about how she couldn't trust you to keep your word and that she wasn't surprised that you bailed out on her? Yeah, she's already long gone. Kaito too, he was kissing her hand and telling her everything was fine, because you really disappointed her with whatever you didn't do." The person snorted, before taking a big jump to stand right in front of Kaede, looking up at her with that devious grin still prominent on their lips. "You're going to be in big trouble next time you see her."
"There's probably not going to be a next time, this is definitely going to be my last time over here for a while, if not ever." The stress of everything that had happened on this visit home had finally broken Kaede, with this missed connection being the last straw. "All I wanted," she sobbed, bending over and covering her eyes with her hands, catching all of her falling tears, "was to talk to Shuichi again, and I couldn't make that happen!"
The person tilted their head, their grin fading for a moment as gears turned within their mind. "You're here to see Shumai? Well, why didn't you say so sooner! I know just the guy who can help you with that!" They dropped one hand from their cheek and thrust it into their pocket, pulling out a key that they brandished proudly. "And that guy happens to be me, how fun is that?"
"You can help me get to talk to Shuichi?" Kaede lifted her head to look at the man, as he nodded rather eagerly. "Tell me how you can do it, the only idea Maki had was ruined by me not getting here on time so I'm all ears!"
"I don't know if you're really interested in what I've got for you," he replied, jangling the keys that were attached to the one he so proudly held. "It involves a little trespassing, a little going into somewhere we shouldn't be without permission, a little bit of a rude wake-up call for a sleepyhead on his day off…but if you're up to it, I can get you right to Shumai's bedside in, like, an hour at most."
"Hold on, I don't want to go into his home!" For a moment, Kaede had thought that maybe this guy was Shuichi's roommate, or perhaps someone that he trusted with a key to his place, but after what he'd said there was no doubt that he should not have been holding what he was. "I was going to talk to him over at the hospital, because that's where Maki knew he was going to be later today, so if you could manage to get me over there, I'd appreciate that a lot more than breaking into his home!"
As he put the keys away, the man sniffled and said, "Aw man, here I was thinking that I was suggesting the best thing to do about all of this. Why would you want to meet him at the hospital to have a talk, are you going to tell him you're dying? Shouldn't you pick a happier place to do that?"
"No, I…" Kaede sighed, feeling frustrated with how this was unfolding in front of her. "I just didn't know where else to do it, and that was the place that Maki suggested, because she could get me there and know that he'd show up. Now will you take me there, or do I need to find someone else to do it?"
The grin came back onto the man's face, followed by him putting a finger across his lips as his eyes honed in on Kaede's. "Good luck finding someone else around here willing to do that for you. I guess I can make it work, but you've got to promise me something before I agree to do it. I don't just do favors for my own health."
"Whatever it is, it can't be that bad, so go for it."
Kaede was expecting a request for a specific topic to be brought up, or even something mean-spirited, but all the man did was cackle. "I'm gonna drop you off at a place down the street, rather than at the hospital, since I know Shumai isn't supposed to be there for a few hours. While you're there, you tell them that you're getting treated under Kokichi's tab, and they'll hook you up. Can you do that for me?" It seemed innocent enough, even with the maintained grin and creepy expression, and so she agreed to it without a second thought, something that she regretted the moment she was dropped off in front of a run-down bar, Kokichi waving for her to have fun before he peeled off into the afternoon sun.
"I bet he'll ask whatever contact he's got here if I actually showed up, so I guess I've got no choice but to actually do it," she said to herself, taking a deep breath before walking inside the side of the door that didn't have a board in place of its glass. Inside the bar was a lot more friendly-looking than outside, and they even had a piano sitting in the dining area, but Kaede knew what she'd been told she needed to do and so she approached the man at the counter, telling him that she was there to put her things under a tab, and the way the man smiled at her at the sound let her know that she was in for some trouble.
On the plus side, Kaede was able to spend quite some time playing piano music to an empty dining room and bar, the only audience she found being the employees who were running her drinks left and right. Not everything she received was alcoholic, but after the first couple drinks she was assured that she'd be treated well and that she didn't need to place any orders, and she'd had just enough alcohol to not really care that she was being used as a way to make someone who worked with law enforcement have to pay a hefty bill. She was giving them music and they were giving her drinks, and it was a lovely agreement she'd stumbled her way into, until it was time for her to head across the street and wait for the detective to show up at the agreed meeting place.
She could walk in a relatively straight line, and when she thanked the employees for their kindness she could talk without slurring her words, but Kaede's mind felt jumbled as she tried getting over to the lobby of the hospital. It may have been because she had barely eaten during all of that, and with how many different drinks she'd been given she probably should have been eating a lot more, but she wasn't too inebriated to be able to get where she needed to go. People stopped, pointed, and stared at her as she passed them, taking her time making sure she didn't make any missteps as she walked, and when she finally got into the lobby all she wanted was a glass of water and somewhere to sit.
Now she needed to hope that she would recognize Shuichi whenever he came inside—something that she realized someone who didn't want her talking to him would make difficult for her to do. "Aw man, that Kokichi guy wasn't being nice to me after all," she said to herself, speaking much louder than she would have if she was completely sober. "He's probably Shuichi's boyfriend or something, and he doesn't want me talking to him because of it. Now I'm just ruining everyone's lives by trying to do this, aren't I?"
She collapsed into one of the plush chairs in the lobby, her eyes pointed towards the front doors, and waited for something to happen. Mentally she was trying to convince herself that this was pointless and that she was doing the wrong thing by sitting there waiting for him, and yet when employees came over to check on her she would happily tell them she was fine, she was just waiting for someone. At one point her phone vibrated in her pocket and she pulled it out, seeing that it was Sayaka messaging her asking if everything was going okay, and she didn't respond because she wasn't sure how to. All of her hopes had been raised so high about things working out that they'd fallen harder than she had when she'd sat down, and she was working through keeping faith while trying to piece everything together.
Finally, after some amount of time she couldn't even quantify, she saw a familiar face come into the building, looking around like a man on a mission. She got to her feet, wobbling slightly from how fast she'd stood, before she walked towards him, intercepting him on what she assumed was his way to the elevators. "Hey there, Shuichi," she greeted, trying to grab his arms to stop him but watching him freeze mid-step, looking at her and instinctively backing away. "Oh, that's the greeting I get?"
"What in the world are you doing here, Kaede?" His response was quick, almost as if he had been anticipating seeing her at some point but not knowing where or when to expect it. "Who told you that I was going to be here? Better yet, why did you listen to them?"
She blinked a few times, confused because she knew that the person who'd arranged this meeting was the same person that he was there to see. "I listened to her because she seemed like she could be trusted," she said, throwing her head side to side as she thought of any other things she could tack onto her statement. "And she was, because now I get to talk to you! Come on, come sit with me, I've got things to say to you."
"You've been drinking, I can smell it on your breath." It didn't help that Kaede had progressively gotten closer and closer to Shuichi as she'd been talking, and he didn't want to keep backing away and cause a scene that the hospital employees would want to step into the middle of. "Whatever you've got to say to me, certainly it should be said when you've sobered up, right?"
What Kaede wanted to tell him was that she couldn't wait any longer to talk to him, not when she'd caused so much trouble in getting to the point she was at, but he seemed so convincing with his almost concerned tone that she didn't want to argue. "Yeah, probably should wait," she replied with a nod, backing away. "Sorry to take up your time right here, I'll try to catch you some other time when you're not so busy and I'm not so…like this."
"Sounds like a plan. Good to see you again, but next time make sure you don't smell like a bar when you try talking to me. Reminds me of people I'd rather not think of." The way he scowled when he said that, followed by walking away from her without another word, made Kaede fully understand that she'd been set up from the moment she'd shown up at the station and met with Kokichi, and yet she couldn't bring herself to follow him and let him know what had led to her being the way she was.
With heavy feet she walked back to the chair she'd been sitting in before, grabbing her phone again and finally replying to Sayaka's message that things hadn't gone so well and that she needed someone she trusted to come get her. Until she knew her ride was there she sat there, trying her hardest not to cry over how things had seemed so promising and yet had fallen apart in the blink of an eye. She'd ruined her chance at talking to Shuichi, and just finding that chance had made her ruin her relationship with her parents, and that was because she'd failed the memory of her sister.
"I shouldn't have even tried this, Kotone," she mumbled, tears bubbling at the corners of her eyes. "If you were here you would've told me to stay away from him, and I should've done it, but I…but he…" Whatever words were meant to follow she swallowed down hard, replacing them with a promise to herself. "I'm not going to worry about him anymore. This was my chance, and I blew it, and that's that. The detective is going to be far from my mind, from here until the end of time."
Meanwhile, by that point Shuichi had already made it up to the room he was there to visit, and he was standing right outside the door, his face reddening with every word that he was being told by the man he was speaking with. "I can't believe she got to talk to you and you pushed her away like that, so what if she might've been drinking? Do you know how hard it was for me to get Maki Roll to accept that she wasn't making our meeting this afternoon, and she still ended up showing up here anyway?" Kaito was talking with his hands, moving them around wildly and trying his hardest not to grab Shuichi's shoulders to shake them, knowing that he was flustering his friend enough as it was. "And then what did she get outta all of this, you tellin' her to talk to you some other time! Do you think that's fair?"
"Look, she wasn't sober and I wasn't going to listen to her say something she didn't mean to tell me because she'd been drinking. What would you have done in that situation?" Shuichi braced himself for getting another earful, but what he got was Kaito looking pensive for a moment, before shrugging. "That's my point, you would've done what I did."
"Nah man, I'm still thinking about what I'd do if I had a famous pianist wantin' to talk to me about feelings and junk. I've had plenty of conversations like that with Maki Roll lately, when she'd take too much pain medication and get way outta her mind." Once again Kaito shrugged, before leaning backwards to peer into the room they were standing outside. "Betcha when we go back in there, she's gonna be like that for us, and you'll see how easy it is to talk to her."
"Hold on, repeat what you just said."
Standing back tall, Kaito obliged the best he could. "About Maki Roll? She's gonna be like that when we go in there." Cue Shuichi telling him to repeat the first part, not the part about his basically-girlfriend. "Ah, yeah, that Kaede's got feelings of some kind for ya? Wasn't that obvious by her wanting to talk to you? You can't tell me you didn't know that, if even I knew it."
"No, I…didn't know that. I never would have assumed that, because she's rich and famous and I'm a detective who solves small crimes for a living." Deep down in his heart Shuichi didn't believe what he was hearing, but he had no way to argue against it. The facts lined up to make the assumption that Kaito was right about what Kaede had wanted to talk about, and if that was the case he needed to fix things, and fast. "I'm going to see if she's still downstairs, I'll be back up once I've sorted all of this out. If you go inside without me, please don't let Maki know what I did."
"Not like she'd remember it if I did, but you got it." Kaito offered a shoulder clasp for good luck but Shuichi shook it off, choosing instead to head straight back to the elevator to get down to the hospital lobby to see if Kaede was still around. He wasn't upstairs for too long, and yet when he got downstairs there was no sight of her anywhere, not standing where he'd left her or sitting in any of the available seats. She was gone, and he'd pushed her away when she wanted him most, and there was nothing he could do about it except hope that she'd make good on her word that they'd see each other again.
In six weeks Kaede had realized that she had unfinished business to sort out with Shuichi, and he'd ruined that for her in a matter of seconds; it took dashing her hopes for Shuichi himself to realize that he needed the same kind of closure as well, and he didn't have quite the same position she did to try and make things work. It was out of his hands and squarely in hers once again, and so he went back upstairs and pretended like nothing was wrong, like nothing of note had happened and that he was fine missing that connection with her. But every night for the foreseeable future he lay in bed, lamenting the fact that he could've sorted things out if only he'd known the truth of why she was seeking him out—and wherever she was in the world, Kaede was strengthening her promise to her sister's spirit that she was done with the detective.