Time went on, for better or for worse. The cases that kept finding their way into the detective station were obviously hand-picked by the main office, which meant that they were sent over by Kyoko herself, and Shuichi knew better than to question her judgment on what he could and couldn't accomplish. After his surprising success at solving the case of the robot thief, it seemed that he could do just about anything, and so he was beginning to break away from domestic disputes and small crimes and getting deeper into longer cases that touched on everything except gruesome murders. Sure, he was called in to investigate scenes of that nature every so often, but he was able to handle most other crimes while Kyoko did the homicides, and that was what worked best for them.

The case that he'd thought had been shelved and left to become cold due to his inability to get to the scene on time ended up having new entries made into its file, and he was able to redeem himself a few times over by going to investigate the new clues that had been discovered. They hadn't quite gotten to the part where suspects could be named, but after so long of having to watch those related crimes go on it was nice to have a better handle on the situation, and he was glad that he could get back into it after what had happened and work towards solving the whole thing. It was one less thing to rest on his mind, which was something he couldn't argue against because he had a lot else going on in the realm of his personal life.

At some point, whether he'd asked for it or not, Kokichi had decided that Shuichi wasn't meant for living on his own, and so he forced them to move in together, so that he could "keep an eye on him." Shuichi had argued that it wasn't necessary and that he could take care of himself just fine without the constant supervision, but Kokichi was not backing down from his stance and after getting the support of everyone else they knew, he made it happen. Of course, getting that support wasn't exactly the hardest thing, when they were all distracted with their own lives and couldn't devote a lot of time to Shuichi if he needed any sort of help.

That move had been difficult, because it was Shuichi leaving his comfort zone and getting pushed into a place that he wasn't nearly as comfortable, but because everyone thought it was the best thing to do he couldn't argue against it. He was allowed to keep his own bed, but the bedroom he had was much smaller than his previous one, and if he was anywhere in the apartment outside of his room he was constantly barraged with the smell of alcohol and sweat, not always because of Kokichi. There were so many strangers in and out of the place at all times, it became exhausting trying to know who was there at any given moment, and Shuichi found himself staying longer hours at work to stay out of that environment.

The longer hours drained on him physically and mentally, because he was getting a lot more done on cases he didn't necessarily have to investigate himself, but the days of that being possible came trickling down to none after he had a conversation with a one of his employees about them needing to leave their position. "So, uh, y'know that I love working with you and all, but you've known what my dream has been this whole time and I…kinda may have been always looking for a job to get myself closer to space." As Kaito spoke he had a sad smile on his face, trying to make the words have less of a serious air to them, but it wasn't going to work. "One of the companies working on missile launches offered me a position for starting next year, and I might've said yeah, I'll take it, because they said it'll get me an in for if they start sending men to space again."

"Kaito, I…I get it, and thank you for letting me know, but are you sure that chasing that dream is what you should be doing?" Shuichi couldn't help but be cynical about things, knowing that his best friend had health issues that would make anyone looking for a potential astronaut cringe, but at the same time he wanted to be supportive. "If you're going to do it, at least I don't need to worry about getting a replacement hired for you anytime soon, but I would prefer if you would stay."

"Trust me, I'd love to stay if I could, but this sorta thing doesn't just happen to ya every day, y'know? Me and Maki Roll have really been talkin' about it and she thinks it's what's best for me, and yeah, she knows that you're gonna make her take my job because she knows how to do it, so you don't haveta try dropping that on her." He exhaled, his smile growing slightly until he saw how tired and unamused Shuichi seemed at the statement. "I know, I know, it's gonna be super weird not having me and her both here anymore, but at least we'll still be friends, right? And I'll keep comin' by, you know I can't just stop seein' my Maki Roll all day every day like that."

Bringing his hands up to his face to rub at his temples, Shuichi said, "You've already moved in with her, Kaito. I don't think you having to work separate from her for a few hours each day is going to be the end of the world."

"I'd say you're right, but I don't wanna miss any time she ever smiles."

"Around here? Good luck seeing her smiling ever." If he was going to quit and work somewhere else within a few months, Shuichi didn't want Kaito to be intending on coming to impede their important work every moment he could. "Look, you can just focus on working at your missile place and we'll hold down the fort here, and you and Maki can discuss things over dinner every night. Coming by is not necessary."

"Well if you say so, guess that's how it's gonna be. But don't worry, I don't intend on slacking off in my last months before I get the new job!" His wink that he gave was worrisome, but it was low on the totem pole of things that Shuichi had to deal with right then. Now he was going to be losing his best friend at work, while being forced to live with someone who was already trying to wiggle his way into that role, and things didn't seem like they could get any worse for him.

The hypothetical "worse" came roaring about two years after the fateful trip out of town where he'd been flooded in a hotel with a strange woman, when that exact same strange woman called the station asking for a bit of support. Even though Kaede was famous, Shuichi hadn't heard anything about her since he'd last encountered her until Maki came into his office, a sticky note in her hand that she slammed down on his desk. "You've got a special task to take care of in a few days," she said, tapping the note a few times to get Shuichi to look at it, not at her face, "and I swear, if this gets you in any sort of trouble like it did last time you did this for her I'm going to strangle you both."

"Why in the world is Kaede asking for me to drive her somewhere again?" he asked, reading over the note several times to make sure that he hadn't completely misunderstood what it said. "Better yet, why did you tell her that I'd do it? You could've done it, Kokichi could've done it, hell, you could've asked Himiko to pull herself away from Tenko and Angie for five minutes to have her do it."

"You're doing it because maybe you'll fix things between yourself and her, you lovesick fool. I know how much you regret how you handled things with her, Kokichi's been very clear in telling us how you cry at night over being lonely." Even though she sounded serious, the corners of Maki's mouth were straining themselves to stay turned down and Shuichi knew that she was trying her best to make a joke. However, she had no idea that it would've been completely correct if Kokichi had said that sort of thing to her, because he'd spent many nights since that hospital missed connection lamenting the fact that he'd screwed things up with Kaede, and those episodes had only gotten worse in the year since he'd been forced to move in with Kokichi (in part to how the apartment often smelled like how Kaede had in their quick encounter).

He considered telling her to just do it herself, but the serious look that Maki was trying to maintain was peculiar, and Shuichi wanted to dig deeper into why she was insisting on wearing it. But as he was going to ask about that, a quick glance towards his busy calendar reminded him about something else important that was coming up, and he had to do a double-take to make sure that his eyes were not deceiving him, and that the date on the note was really as close to a circled date on the calendar as he thought. "I suppose you also want me to do it to try getting a plus-one to a certain event, hm?" he asked, hoping that he was completely off the mark about his hunch. "I doubt that Kaede would drop whatever she's doing to do that for me, though."

"You really are lovesick," Maki replied, flipping her long hair onto Shuichi's desk to disrupt some of the stacks of paper on it as she stormed out of the office, going back to the front desk she'd spent the past two years monitoring on top of doing her own investigations. As much as he wanted to follow her out, he had a solid idea as to why she was making him do it, and if it wasn't for that farfetched reason then it was for something somewhat related.

Slumping down so that he was able to stare at either the note or the calendar, Shuichi heaved a long sigh, running a hand through his days-unwashed hair and wishing that he wasn't being tasked with something of that level a second time. He really had screwed up when he'd turned down Kaede's request to talk, but so much time had passed since then that it was most likely that she'd forgotten all about the lowly detective she'd crossed paths with, other than his name and his occupation. It was tempting to rise from the desk and go meet Maki at hers and tell her that he couldn't do what was being asked of him, and to find someone else to do it, but he knew that in a battle of words Maki would easily wipe the floor with him; there wasn't really much he could do other than swallow his reservations about the situation and go through with things.

The request weighed on his mind for the rest of the day, long past when everyone had gone home and he'd been asked if he was going to make sure he made it back to his place that night by his overbearing roommate, a mischievous glint in his eyes as he spoke. As much as Shuichi didn't want to ever have to step foot in that place again, he knew that not going back would only cause problems and so he gave a non-committal noise and hoped that would be the end of things. "C'mon Shumai, I know all about what Maki told you you're going to have to do," Kokichi said with a grin forming on his lips, making it impossible to tell if he spoke the truth or not. "Overheard her telling Kaito when he came and picked her up, you'd think she'd be sneakier about sharing news like that."

"Or maybe she thought that people would have the decency to not listen in on her conversations," he replied, knowing that Maki would have done all she could to keep things remotely confidential, at least in regards to Kokichi hearing about them. "Just go home, I'll get there when I get there. I've got some work to do before I can leave, anyway."

Kokichi let out a whine, jutting out his lower lip for a split second before giving up the fight and turning away. "I'll try to have all the guys out before you get home, so let me know when you're on your way. And, well, sorry in advance if your room smells weird, we've got to have somewhere to test the stink bombs." He ran out of the building cackling, while Shuichi couldn't even bring himself to chase him down and question the validity of what he'd just been warned of.

There were much more important things on his mind than the potential presence of another strange odor in the house, anyway. He simply could not stop thinking about the idea of having to transport Kaede again, even though he'd worked out that it was just from wherever it was she was staying in town to the airport, with him as special security to get her safely into the building. They weren't going to be traveling out of town together, he'd be stuck with her for maybe half an hour at the most, and then their lives would separate once again, this time hopefully for good.

But something about the fact that he may never get to tie up all the loose ends between them didn't sit right in his heart, and that was why he couldn't stop thinking about things. He didn't necessarily want to be part of her life, and he definitely had zero interest in being a tagalong in her world, but he did want to know how she felt about him, especially after their ill-fated previous meeting. She had obviously wanted to say something to him, which he shut down when he realized that she wasn't in her right mind, but what if she was thinking clearly all along and he'd silenced her for nothing? He spent his life finding how to bring victims of crimes to justice, so it was only fair that he let her get whatever she'd been holding back out into the open.

Once again Shuichi's eyes tracked towards the calendar, which he'd already written the occasion on, jotting down nothing more than his role as transport, not mentioning who or why. From there, he looked at the other noted date, which fell in such close proximity that it was obvious that Kaede (or whoever had called on her behalf) hadn't actually requested he drive, but Maki had simply put him in the role anyway. He was going to have to give her a piece of his mind over that, or perhaps he'd let it slide and only address it if anything came of the occasion, but he was certain that the arrangement had her fingerprints all over it.

He ended up not going home that night, instead calling around to see if any friends had an open couch for him to crash on, the reason for his refusal to return home being that he really had no interest in dealing with Kokichi and his nonsense right then. Everyone was aware that giving him that space would merely invite Kokichi into their homes, given that he was incredibly overprotective of Shuichi to the point that it could become borderline stalkerish, but there was one person who'd always open up his home to his friend, no matter the situation. Of course, Shuichi did have to drive himself over, and by the time he was there dinner had long since passed and he was going to have to prepare his own meal if he was going to eat that night, but sleeping on Kaito's couch was much, much preferred to sleeping in his own bedroom.

Even if the last-minute arrangement ended with him waking up to the sound of his friend leaving for work, and the sight of an underwear-clad Maki walking around like she had no idea Shuichi was right there. He couldn't bring himself to announce his presence, but when Maki finally noticed him she let out a surprised scream, covering her barely-clothed chest with her arms and loudly threatening him with death if he didn't get out right then. His defense came out as a bunch of stammers, with her still yelling for him to leave, and so he grabbed the meager belongings he'd brought with him and headed out the door, going straight to the office where he knew he'd never hear the end of what had happened.

The complete silence he got from Maki the whole time she was there that day was telling, but for every word she wasn't saying to him he was hearing fifty from Kokichi, who kept putting off going out on his assignments to pester his roommate about why he hadn't come home. "I had somewhere else to be, sorry about that," Shuichi attempted to say as a bluff, but Kokichi immediately called him on it, laughing and reminding him that he knew what little social life he had. "Please, I really did need to be somewhere else! Just…believe me, please?"

"I'll believe you've got anywhere to be that isn't here or home when I see it with my own two eyes," Kokichi replied with a harsh chuckle. "But until then, make sure you're home at a decent time, you really need to take better care of yourself."

"As if I need to hear that from you," he muttered in return, but when Kokichi cocked his head to the side, beckoning for him to repeat himself, he was resigned to the fact that this was a losing battle he'd gotten involved in. "I'll be home tonight, I promise. And every night after that, until I find somewhere better to go."

As he brought his head back straight, Kokichi waggled a finger slowly in Shuichi's direction. "Not so fast, Shumai, you know that if you find anywhere else, I'm going to be the one to make the decision if it's good enough or not for you! You need to be somewhere where you'll really be taken care of, after all, and if it's not with me, it's got to be somewhere fantastic."

Rather than continue trying to fight for himself, Shuichi knew he just had to give up and let Kokichi continue living the deluded life he was leading, so he shrugged and went into his office, closing the door and making it seem like he was going to be doing actual work. Eventually he got the courage to leave again, finding the station unmanned except for himself, and he let out a sigh when he saw that he was completely, truly alone once again. "I don't know how I'm going to get through the rest of this week, let alone the rest of my life," he admitted to himself, walking up to the front desk to see that Maki had left a note saying she was out on an investigation and would be back later, and that if anyone touched her things she would murder them for it. "Yeah, dealing with her is definitely part of how I don't think I'm surviving this week, especially since…"

Even though the note expressly forbade what he was going to do, he pushed it aside to see the laminated and taped-down invitation that was front and center on the desk, usually hidden by a keyboard if Maki was doing a lot of computer work, and he stared at it, trying to force a smile as he read over the words he was very familiar with. He was incredibly happy about his friends getting married—really, he was—but it was just an added layer of stress in his life that he was not thrilled with, and it was quickly approaching. That was why it was so strange to him that he'd been arranged to drive Kaede somewhere mere days before the ceremony, given what had happened the last time he had that role; if he missed the wedding he would be in more trouble than that morning's events had caused for him.

"We're just going to hope that everything works out exactly like it needs to, that I don't get killed or lost or something while driving Kaede and that I'm there at the wedding in one piece, or else…" Shuichi swallowed hard, not wanting to think about what else could happen to him, regardless of if he wanted it or not. Focusing on one thing at a time was what he needed to do right then, to not overwhelm himself, and in that moment he needed to think about going home and showering, then he could begin bracing himself for his second stint as a pianist's personal driver.

On paper, the task was beyond simple, only needing to pick Kaede up from where she was staying and drive her to the airport located on the outskirts of Kibou, so that she could catch her international flight and get on her way to some sort of show she was putting on. The day before he went to get her, Shuichi had to call a foreign police station, get in contact with the person there who was in charge of protecting Kaede once she was inside their border, and set up a plan for making sure she got where she needed to get, and safely. From there it was only a matter of not hitting traffic, of not coming across surprise weather, and not enduring a mob of reporters and photographers at the airport waiting to get a word and picture with the famous pianist herself, and then checking in with the foreign police hours later.

He knew he could do it, and do it well, but his nerves were almost unmanageable in regards to having to interact with Kaede again. Shuichi set off that morning from the station, having had to hear both Maki and Himiko tell him that he needed to grow up and handle things like an adult (although those words were definitely more Maki's than Himiko's), heading downtown to the high-rise hotel that he'd been given the address to. There he sat in his car and waited, memories of the last time he and Kaede had driven together flooding his mind as he watched the front doors for her familiar face to pop up. She'd arranged the time, and yet he was sitting there long after when he'd been told to arrive, and it was only after he'd called the station and told Maki he thought he'd been cancelled on that he saw her leave the building, making a determined beeline for his car and standing at the curb, waiting for him to get out and give her a hand.

She's definitely still acting like a clueless famous person, he thought, turning the car off and getting out, only to walk around the car for her to shove her suitcase at him and open her door herself. "I'm capable of doing things on my own, thanks," she snapped, not even looking towards him, and he was left having to put her suitcase in the trunk before getting back in, her eyes pointed out her window and her headphones already firmly in her ears before he'd even restarted the car.

Much like that ill-fated first drive, they were in their own worlds as they began going down the road, Shuichi trying his best to make up the time he'd spent waiting for her without breaking the law to make it happen. He'd not been told when her flight was departing, nor when she absolutely needed to be at the airport by, and he hoped that them hitting traffic along the way wouldn't derail things more than they'd already been. Still, when they pulled up on the airport's departure ramp, Kaede removed one of her headphones and turned to look at Shuichi, her face filled with disgust. "You're not just dropping me off, are you?" she asked, sounding every bit as annoyed as she looked. "I'm not getting out of your car and taking my suitcase in by myself."

"It would've been nice to have known you expected that much from me," he replied, keeping his calm and not even looking towards her as he spoke. "I'll find somewhere to park, but I would've appreciated knowing I was doing this beforehand."

"Well, sorry that my people didn't tell your people that! Do you think I planned any of this by myself?" Her snappish tone made Shuichi disinterested in continuing to talk to her, and she seemed to think the same about talking to him; within moments she was back to wholly listening to her music and he was able to breathe without feeling like she was staring holes into him.

It took a loop around the airport to be able to properly park without facing any extra fines, and once he found a spot and parked the car he was getting out to retrieve Kaede's bags, only for her to meet him at the trunk, looking less annoyed but still not thrilled. "I would've figured you wouldn't want to help me do this, given what you just said," he told her as he opened the trunk, her reaching in towards her bag only to freeze when his words sunk in. She stood up straight, looked over at him, and rolled her eyes as she walked away, him grabbing her bag and following her. "You're as confusing as ever, Kaede. Glad to see you haven't changed."

Her eyes pointed forward, she didn't seem to notice what he'd said to her and kept walking at a faster pace than he could, not bothering to make sure he was behind her until they were inside the building. The occasional person would look towards her and try to recall where they recognized her from, but no one approached her until she was at the security checkpoint and she stopped, turning around to wait for her luggage. Shuichi was several steps behind her and gotten beaten to her by a curious mother with her children, who were overly excited to talk to the pianist and get her autograph before leaving the airport.

He stopped to let them have their interaction, and found himself watching the Kaede he remembered so clearly from their time together in the waterlogged hotel, how she was pleasant and eager to talk to the people around her. She was laughing, signing shirts and talking about her musical process, and watching it almost made him wish that she wasn't a different person completely when they were together. If he could spend time with the blissful Kaede in front of him, rather than the brash one he'd had to endure, he'd be much more open to being around her, but that wasn't his choice to make. Her behavior was entirely her choice, and he was merely a witness to how she acted.

When the family walked away, he was left in full view of Kaede, who smiled at him for a second before approaching him, taking her suitcase into her own hand before bowing her head, calmly saying, "Thanks for bringing me here, Shuichi. It was good to see you again."

The peacefulness of her speech caught him off-guard, but he was too stunned to say anything before she walked away, ready to get on her flight and leave the country for a while. He was shocked, his breath ripped from his lungs at how she'd been so kind there in her last words, that he found himself winded right outside the airport's front doors, and he stumbled over to the closest bench, clutching his chest to collect himself. "What in the world was that?" a voice asked him, confusing him further because that was the exact thought he had running through his mind.

Then came a hand touching his shoulder and he looked up to see a sunglasses-wearing woman looking down at him with a scowl on her lips. "You heard me, didn't you, Detective Saihara? I asked you, what in the world was that?"

"I…I'm afraid I don't know what you're looking for me to say," he replied, seeing the woman grow frustrated at his response and expecting her to lash out at him. "Who are you, anyway? You know who I am, but I don't seem to recognize you."

Her response was to sit down next to him, collecting her long blue hair and pulling it over one shoulder so that she could twirl the ends of it as she spoke. "If I tell you who I am, I'll cause more of a scene than Kaede did inside the airport, people will flock over to us and it'll be the end of this discussion, and I don't want that quite yet. Just trust that I'm here for you and only you, and that I mean no harm."

"Hard to trust that, but…" Shuichi sighed, shrugging and leaning back against the wall behind the bench. "I'll give it my best shot. So why are you here 'for me', as you put it? Certainly I haven't done anything to deserve being cornered."

The woman's twirling intensified for a moment before she explained herself with, "You haven't, of course. This is all Kaede's fault, if we're being quite honest. I watched how she treated you the whole ride over here, only to change her whole tune once she was in the presence of fans."

"You…watched us?"

"Yes, of course. Kaede had me on the phone with her the entire time, so that I could listen in on how she spoke with you, and she had us following you to keep a visual." The woman smiled, and Shuichi found himself unable to argue with what she'd said, because it sounded just unreal enough than it was completely plausible. Never mind the fact that Kaede's friends had been available to bring her to the airport, they'd had some reason for arranging the whole thing in the first place and he waited patiently to hear it. "Kaede has not stopped talking about you with us in the time since you met, and we wanted to give her the chance to admit the truth to you."

"What truth is there for her to admit?" Shuichi wasn't stupid, he knew what the woman meant, but he needed to hear it for himself before he would even begin to consider that it was possible. "She hates me, right?"

"It's actually the opposite, she's…quite enamored with you. And when given the chance to admit it she treated you horribly, as if she doesn't want to let you know." The woman saw the disbelief in Shuichi's eyes (even if he was expecting this sort of explanation), and she continued with, "Ibuki and I were expecting this, which is why I'm here."

The name that the woman used caught Shuichi's ear and he audibly gasped. "As in, Ibuki Mioda, the musician? She's around here?" The woman nodded, gesturing back with one shoulder towards the parking lot. "Makes sense. But if she's with you, that makes you—"

He was cut off by the woman putting a finger across his lips. "Don't say it, I've already faced that I can't hide my identity forever, but give me at least a little bit of time without inciting a mob to meet me."

"—right, sorry," he apologized, once her finger was off of his lips, "I guess I got a bit excited about being in the presence of another musician, especially one who's actually kind to me. Maybe if Kaede was…you know, nicer, I wouldn't be quite so starstruck."

"No, I understand your situation, and you're going to set her straight. I…I have spoken with Ibuki about this many times and we decided that if Kaede didn't get her act together before now, we'd take it fully into our hands. That meaning, if you're interested in speaking to her on neutral ground, we're willing to pay for it." The hair twirling stopped, and the woman brought her hands together underneath her chin, closing her eyes and beaming at Shuichi, who also understood what that implied and wasn't going to believe in it quite as easily. "However, we are both heading out on tours here within the next day and, because I know that Kaede is going to be out of the country off and on for a while, time is not exactly on our side here."

"If I'm going to solve this, you're expecting me to chase her, huh?" Shuichi's heart panged at the idea of following Kaede out of the country to sort out everything between them, but he immediately stopped himself from getting too attached to the idea when he remembered what going as soon as possible would entail. "I…can't do this, my friends are getting married in a few days and if I miss the wedding…"

The woman's smile only grew larger at the mention of a conflict of interest. "No, you'll be fine to slip out and chase her down, come back, and attend the wedding without them ever knowing. Besides, wouldn't you be more interested in your own happy ending than theirs?"

When she laughed, followed by her standing up to take her leave, he hesitated on saying anything else but knew that his silence here would result in no loose ends being tied up. "I'll have to think about this," he said, standing up as well now that he had his breath and his mind back in order. "How long do I have to make my decision?"

"We leave tonight, and if you have hopes of being back for that wedding I would assume that you'd want to do the same. If I've not heard anything from you in six hours I'm going to revoke the offer, so act quickly." Brushing all of her hair over her shoulder so it hung lightly curled down her back, she smiled at Shuichi and added, "Before you worry too much, your darling receptionist has my number somewhere at her desk, and you can get it from her to contact me. I'll be waiting, Detective Saihara. Don't let yourself or Kaede down."

A car pulled up beside them, horn blaring, and both of them looked towards it, the woman briskly approaching it while Shuichi stared in minor disbelief at who he saw behind the wheel, the other musician they'd spoken of waiting for her friend to join her. "I won't let you down, miss Maizono, I promise," he mumbled under his breath, watching Sayaka get into the car with Ibuki and drive off for their last few hours of work-free life. He walked slowly back to where he'd parked his car, knowing that he had what could be the choice of a lifetime to make in such a short period of time, and every second wasted was another second he could've spent getting ready to chase Kaede down, once and for all.

The entire drive back to work was spent with him debating the pros and cons of flying overseas to potentially face rejection from a famous woman who had all but made her true feelings towards him clear time and time again. It felt dangerous to actually consider taking that jump, given the massive time constraints facing him from all sides, but he still had hours to make his final decision and nothing was actually set in stone yet, so he couldn't force himself to feel anything more than anxiety for what could happen. When he got to the station's parking lot he sat in his car for a while, working to calm his nerves before going inside to face whoever was there, hoping with all of his might that if it was anyone, it was only Himiko.

As luck would have it, Maki was sitting up at the front desk upon his entry, her eyes immediately locking on his paled face. "Just what do you think you're doing, coming in here looking like you're about to pass out over something? All you were supposed to do was drive her to the airport, not fool around with her for an hour longer than you needed to be gone."

"W-whoa there, Maki! I did just drop her off there, that's not what's got me all…oh, not like you actually care about what's wrong with me, you're still angry about the other morning." Bringing up the incident there at her home wasn't exactly necessary, but getting Maki to remember her disgust about that scene was crucial to getting her off of his back for a little while. Exactly as he figured, she shut down completely, going back to looking at her computer rather than caring about what it was that he was doing, and that gave him the chance to enter his office—and find someone else sitting in his seat, waiting for his arrival with gleeful eyes. "Who said you could be in here, Kokichi? Get out, you're probably messing with all of my work!"

"I would never do anything like that, Shumai!" Pressing his hands against his cheeks in surprise at the accusation, Kokichi could see that Shuichi meant business by what he said, and yet he didn't fully follow directions; he may have stood up to leave, but he lingered in the doorway, attempting to remain looking cherubic and innocent. "I was only waiting for you to get back, Maki said you should've been back like an hour ago and I really needed to talk to you…"

"Well, talk now, I'm here," Shuichi replied, sitting down and looking at the mess of casefiles that covered his desk, obscuring every inch of the workspace minus the calendar that he was trying his hardest not to glance towards. "If it's anything about something irrelevant to work, though, I'm not interested."

Kokichi's mouth opened, then closed, then opened again after a moment's pause. "It's about the apartment. The DICE guys are gonna be over again tonight, just in case you're out late and wondering what on earth I've got going on in there. We're having an important meeting and we need a kitchen to make it happen."

"That's fine, it's your place after all." Another reason to just take up the offer that Sayaka had given him and leave the country for the night, although Shuichi wasn't quite sure why he should be trusting someone who he'd only seen and heard on advertisements before. "I'll manage, no matter what it is you end up doing with those guys."

"Thanks, you're such a great roommate!" Nearly bouncing with joy at the approval, Kokichi left the office quickly, giving Shuichi the chance to lay his head down on his desk and sigh, all of the thoughts about what he'd been thrust into colliding at once. If he went, he'd get to talk to Kaede and sort things out, plus he'd miss whatever nonsense Kokichi was getting up to with his non-violent criminal friends, but he'd also potentially incur the unrelenting wrath of Maki (and Kaito, if he felt strongly enough) if anything dared go wrong. He didn't exactly feel like what had happened between him and Kaede needed proper closure, but from what he heard it was fairly obvious that it actually did, and if he chose not to pursue her for it then that was his call, not hers.

But could he live with himself, knowing that there was a lead to investigate, if he decided against following her into a foreign country? That was the question that fixed itself most prominently in his mind, and as he lay there on his desk, he couldn't come up with any other answer than no, no he wouldn't be able to live with himself in that instance. He was a detective, his life's calling was to solve mysteries and put things together, and the whole situation with Kaede fell squarely into the category of a mystery to be solved—and that was when he decided that he was going to be about as spontaneous as he could be, playing right into someone else's premade plans.

First, he had to cover himself and make sure that he wasn't going to be too terribly missed while he was away, and that meant a call over to the main detective office there in Kibou, leaving a message for Kyoko letting her know she'd need to keep tabs on his station for a little longer than he'd originally told her, because something came up and he was going to be gone sooner. He somewhat wished he would've been able to tell her that personally, but he was familiar with everyone she worked with and he knew his message would be delivered whenever possible.

Next, he needed to get Sayaka's number from Maki's desk, so that he could tell her that he was taking her up on her offer. The moment he approached the front desk, however, Maki seemed unwilling to speak with him, much less listen to him make any requests. "Stop ignoring me so you know why I'm up here," he said, sounding somewhat timid but not in the mood to deal with someone being rude for no reason. "I'll be out of your hair in ten seconds if you'll just let me talk to you!"

"I'm sorry, I'm not going to do whatever you want me to do for you, since you can't bother to be a decent human for once in your life." Maki's eyes fixated on Shuichi, narrowed into the sternest glare anyone could possibly create without closing their eyes, and when she saw him standing there, unflinching, she didn't back down from her assertions. "You're going to blow us off for Kaede, I already know that. But if you even dare ruin this wedding that Kaito and I want to see go perfectly, you're dead to us, Shuichi Saihara. Absolutely dead."

"Not even getting into how you already know that's why I'm here, I'm surprised you weren't told that there's a plan to all of this. I won't ruin anything, I'll be back right on time." He cracked a smile, trying to get her glare to soften, but it was to no avail. "I wouldn't miss this for the world, not when he's my best friend and you're…well, you're my right-hand woman, aren't you?"

She huffed, looking down and shaking her head at what she'd just heard. "Sure, if that's what you want to call me. I'll give you miss Maizono's number, since obviously you and I both know she's been the one pulling the strings on this." While Maki wrote down the number to pass it along, Shuichi could hear her muttering about how it was ridiculous that a famous singer had gotten involved in the situation, and that she was helping try to set someone up with a person that should have been involved herself. He wanted to cut in and tell her that he knew why Kaede wasn't doing things on her own, but he didn't want to draw more of Maki's anger for actively listening in to her private rumblings.

When she handed him the note with Sayaka's number written on it, he immediately was drawn to the angered message that followed the digits—Don't you dare decide you're staying with Kaede rather than coming home, or I'll fly there and murder you myself. "There's really no reason to worry," he assured her, laughing awkwardly as he began side-stepping towards his office. "I'll be gone and home before you know it, I don't even know why I'd stay with her, it's not like we're going to be anything after this. It's just clearing the air before things get worse, that's all this is."

Maki certainly didn't believe him, and by the time he'd made it back to his office and had dialed in Sayaka's number into his desk phone, Shuichi didn't believe himself much either. That phone conversation went by quickly, him not needing to explain why he was calling before Sayaka was telling him what his flight number was, where to check in, and when he needed to be at the airport. The one thing that stuck out to him about their brief call was how well-prepared she was for this, as if she'd been planning it a lot longer than since they'd spoken that morning. Naturally, it made him think that Maki knew more than she was letting on, but when he insinuated that for a second Sayaka made sure to shut it down, clearly stating that her other half in the matter was her perfect intuition, not an actual person of any kind.

But there wasn't going to be time to dwell on that until he was on his plane, he realized, because now that he knew when he was leaving he could safely say he had just over an hour until he needed to be at the airport, and Sayaka had made zero mention of handling anything overseas for him, just the flights there and back. Thankfully, because of having been arranging police escorts and the like for Kaede's trip, he knew exactly who to call to try and get himself taken care of, and the moment he was done talking to Sayaka he was calling the station in the city where the flights were landing, hoping to have a quick talk with the person in charge of the whole situation there before he had to leave.

Instead, he got a voice that wasn't the one he'd spoken to before, happily greeting him with, "Thank you for calling the Ylisstol Police, is this an emergency?" He had to say that no, it wasn't an emergency in any sense of the word, but he needed to speak with the investigator at the station right away. The man on the other side, on another continent, must have seen the phone number he was talking with and recognized it as being foreign, but his cheerfulness didn't wane even slightly. "Of course, I can do that for you. Lucky that you called when you did, he just got here not too long ago."

"He'd told me when he would be around the last time we spoke, I guess I didn't realize it was so close to when he said he'd arrive. Thank you for transferring me to him, though, I greatly appreciate it." It was clear that this man was given his job for his personality, because he thanked Shuichi for calling and being level-headed before putting him on hold, presumably to transfer his call over to the investigator.

When the line came back to life, it was a different voice speaking, the one that Shuichi had been expecting at first. "This is Robin speaking, what can I do for you now, Detective Saihara?" the main investigator for the Ylisstol Police said, having been clued in to who was calling him. "If this is about miss Akamatsu, her flight still isn't landing for quite some time and we still have everything sorted out to take care of her while she's here, don't worry so much about her."

"It's not about her, not directly, anyway." He didn't want to have to explain his whole reason to this poor man, who was already having to work extra to accommodate for Kaede's arrival in the first place, and so he went in a direction he hoped would spare him from that action. "I was wondering, could you run through the whole plan with me one more time? I thought I'd written it down but if I did, I've misplaced the notes and…"

"No worries, it's not like there's anything going on right now. Slow night here in Ylisstol, up until she arrives and things get interesting." When Robin laughed it sounded slightly hollow, but not enough to make it feel forced, and Shuichi was thankful that he was so easy-going about the whole thing. "I'll be at the airport to pick her up and take her to her hotel room, where she'll remain until just before check-out tomorrow morning. Then, the police chief is going to pick her up and take her to the festival she's performing at, because he and his sister are attending it anyway and he offered a spot in his car."

Shuichi nodded, keeping the phone pressed against his ear as he did. "That sounds like I remembered it being. What time's check-out, by the way?"

"Curious, are we? It's at eleven, but she should be picked up before then, so they can start the four-hour drive to the festival before the general traffic does." Robin paused, before lowering his voice to ask, "Is there a particular reason you're asking me about this right now, Detective Saihara? You can feel free to be honest with me."

It was natural that his attempt at being sly with finding details was thwarted as it was, given that the man he was speaking with was one of the best investigators in the world, always mentioned in the same breath as Kyoko (and himself, depending on the situation), but Shuichi didn't know how to react other than to keep trying to deceive. "I, you know, got a little curious about what was going to happen and couldn't check my notes, so I had to ask you about it. Nothing big."

Robin gave a deep breath, saying, "You're still not being honest, but if you want to insist it was mere curiosity, I'll pretend like I can't tell you're lying and end this call. Is that what you want from me?"

"No, that's wrong! I don't want that from you!" The panic of losing his opportunity to set things straight overtook Shuichi and he was almost instantly breaking into a full explanation about what was happening, Robin occasionally chuckling about it all on the other side. By the time he was done speaking, Shuichi felt slightly out of breath and he knew his face was alight from the embarrassment of sharing that sort of news, but he'd gotten his words out and now he could properly explain why he'd called. "So now that you know I need to see Kaede before she gets focused on her concert, is there any way you can help me out and get me where I need to go?"

"I think I might be able to make that work for you. Just tell me when you land here in Ylisstol and I'll figure out a game plan."

Kaede had been on some boring flights in her life, but the one from Kibou to Ylisstol was easily one of the worst simply because it was long, the plane was mostly empty, and she didn't have much to entertain herself with beyond her music. That meant there was little to distract her mind from dwelling on the way she'd acted before she'd dashed through security at the airport, treating Shuichi with such disdain that he really had to hate her for it. She was just unsure of how to proceed with interacting with him, knowing that she felt something towards him once upon a time and he'd never really left her thoughts, even when she was repenting for the behaviors she'd partaken in because of him.

Even in two years' time, she hadn't been able to make amends with her parents over her insistent association with a detective, but they were at least on speaking terms. That didn't mean that their conversations were much more than them chiding her for her feelings, claiming that she was doing her sister a disservice, and then leaving her to feel sorry for what she'd done. But Kaede had spent a lot of time sitting at her sister's grave, tracing her fingers over Kotone's name and apologizing for who she'd fallen for and what she'd done to try having a chance with him, hoping her eternally-young twin would forgive her more easily than their parents had.

She closed her eyes and sighed, leaning forward until the top of her head touched the back of the seat in front of her, before propping her hand underneath her chin. "I just want this all to be over with," she murmured, visions of Shuichi and his face, his quiet nature and almost invisible presence prominent behind her eyelids. It was hard to stop thinking about him when she was so awkward about talking out her feelings, to the point that she'd chosen to alienate him rather than try to make things work. They were from completely different walks of life, they weren't meant to understand one another—or, at least, that was what she was trying to convince herself, to dubious success.

After the plane landed and her belongings were all back in her possession, she was in the presence of a man slightly taller than her, with silvery-white hair and a smile that felt welcoming and warm. He introduced himself as Robin, declining to give a last name for reasons that he didn't want to explain, before giving her the rundown as to what would be happening in her short time in town. She nodded along as he explained she'd be staying alone in one of the nicest hotels in the city, and that she'd be picked up after breakfast by the chief of police himself, so that she didn't need to worry about arranging any further escorts or anything of the sort. "That all sounds about right," she said, stifling a yawn even though it was much earlier in the day back home than it was in Ylisstol. "I'm looking forward to trying to sleep and get all of this travel over with."

"I figured about as much," he replied, and from there their conversation became about her and her music, a typical topic in her mind, until she abruptly forced the spotlight onto him and he was left explaining that he was an investigator with the police, relatively new in his position but still very good at it. When he started talking about his wife, who he'd gotten married to the previous spring, she wanted to know more about her but he refused to say anything else but that she was lovely, and Kaede couldn't pester him for more about her.

While they were on their way to her hotel, he tried pointing out some of the more notable areas of town, but due to the dark night sky everything was dim, making it hard for her to see anything. She didn't mind, even after he told her that the city was beautiful and that she'd be able to see it in the morning from her room, because she wasn't there to do any sightseeing. This place was a mere one-night stop in the grand scheme of her life, and she couldn't bring herself to care too much about what it looked like. But if the hotel she was dropped off at was any indication of what the rest of the city was like, it was bound to be as good as Robin made it sound, because the place was much nicer than the hotel she'd been staying in back in Kibou. That was a thought she kept to herself, in case the man would take her complimenting the place as a desire to stay longer, but once she was in her room by herself with the door securely locked, she took the time to at least research the area a bit more, in case it was appealing.

She fell asleep without realizing that she had, waking up on top of the covers in the large bed with the clothes she'd worn on the plane still on, having forgotten to even change into her pajamas. The sun was already beginning to peek its way through the curtains as she sat up, her phone next to her flashing that it needed to be charged, and as she stretched and yawned she looked at the clock in the spacious room, finding that it was much earlier than she usually woke up back home. "Guess that makes sense," she remarked, running her fingers through her hair to untangle some of the knots in the waves. "Travel does weird things to people, I'm not really any exception."

Finding her charging cord in her suitcase, Kaede plugged her phone in to give it a good charge before the day's adventures, setting it on the room's desk and heading towards the window, looking out onto the city and finding it to be not quite as amazing as Robin had made it sound but still better than some of the places that she'd been. Her first thought was about how it was multiple times better than the town she'd been stuck in with Shuichi, and to remember that in the moment was enough to get her to close the curtains once more and go get in the shower, needing to cleanse herself before she could move on. After her shower, it was a decent enough time to order breakfast to be delivered to her room, and while she waited for that she got on her phone and looked at all of the things that Ylisstol had to offer, in case for some reason she ended up stranded there.

Nothing really struck her fancy, which felt like a good thing, and so she was able to eat her breakfast without any distractions once she had it. The food was delicious, which came as little surprise given the quality of the hotel, but still her mind drifted back to when she would eat with Shuichi there in their hotel room, with their tiny bed and lack of space to do much of anything. She couldn't keep thinking about him, though, and she knew she needed to distract herself while she waited for the chief of police to come pick her up, so she laid back down and attempted to nap for a little while, figuring that more sleep would clear her mind and get her fully focused on what she was there for.

Her nap was interrupted not long after it started by a knock at her door, enough to get her to jolt awake and go see who it was. She gave the visitor a quick glance through the peephole, but she couldn't see their face, and when she was about to turn around and go back to the bed they knocked again. This time when she looked, she could see that they had a badge of some sort held up into her line of sight, and while she didn't recognize the badge she assumed it belonged to the chief she was waiting on, and she opened the door without a second thought.

The silence that filled the air as she stared at a dark-haired, tired-eyed man who was looking back at her with his mouth somewhat hanging open was thick enough that it felt suffocating to her. "S-Shuichi?" she asked, his name feeling strange for her mouth to be saying out loud in a foreign place. "Is that really you?"

"Yeah, it's me, and I'm so sorry that I followed you like this," he replied, stepping back to the point that he was pressing himself against the wall behind him. "It wasn't my idea, I promise you that much, but I went for it anyway and now here I am and I don't know what I really should do now."

"You're here, in Ylisse, in front of me." She mouthed a few half-words, unable to put a voice to any further thoughts other than the one she'd said. This was the man who kept intruding in on her thoughts, who wouldn't leave her alone in moments of silence, standing in front of her so far from home.

He noticed that she was trying to speak, and so he stammered, "I already said this wasn't my idea, didn't I? I-I don't know why I went through with it, it was a bad idea and you probably hate me for it and I…probably should just go. Sorry to bother you, Kaede."

"Hold on, you followed me here and you're going to just leave like that?" She could see him fidgeting with his pocket as he walked away, probably where he was storing his badge, but when he pulled out his beat-up flip phone she audibly gasped, stepping outside the room just enough that she could reach towards him. "Shuichi, no, don't go, we need to talk about this!" That got him to stop and turn around, but he just stared at her blankly. "I know, I know, funny that I want to talk to you now, right? But you're here for a reason, so share it."

"It doesn't matter, I have more important things to do." He waved his phone at her, signaling that what he was referring to was something to do with it, which felt strange to her given that he still had such out-of-date technology in his possession. "I got off the plane to a bunch of missed calls and messages, telling me 'if you're late getting home I'll murder you' and 'come on man, couldn't you chase down a girl some other time?' and I shouldn't have ever come here so I'm going to make my friends happy and just…go back."

"Can't you at least tell me why you're here before you leave?"

"So that you can treat me like dirt all over again? No thanks, it was a bad idea letting myself get talked into coming out here, I'm not letting you make decisions for me right now." Even though he spoke like he was leaving, Shuichi didn't move, his eyes cast downward until he gave a long sigh and walked back towards Kaede, her unable to leave the doorway unless she wanted to lock her belongings in the room without a way to retrieve them. "What am I even saying right now, if I leave I'm just doing to you what you apparently did to me."

Her eyebrows raised as she watched him take a position a few steps away from her, putting his phone back in his pocket and lacing his hands together in front of his face, almost as if he was in prayer. "I…like you, Kaede," he said after a few tense moments of them staring each other down, and her hearing those words made her melt inside. "I don't know why I like you, or when it hit me that I did, but your friend gave me the opportunity to come tell you and I jumped on it because—"

"Because you wanted to hear me say I like you back, because Sayaka knows that and she wants what's best for me?" Kaede suggested as an ending to his explanation, not knowing that he would give a small nod in agreement. "Well then you're in luck, aren't you? Because I like you too, Shuichi, even though I thought I shouldn't."

"So there's that then, huh? We've admitted how we feel, now you go back to your world and I go back to mine, and we end things just like that." His hands may have been laced, but it was clear that Shuichi was trembling, his fingers shaking as he held them together. "You're famous, you have all your famous friends and all the press and the concerts and everything in your life that you love, and I'm…just a detective, I'm not anything close to what you are. We may like each other, but it'd never work between us."

"You flew to a different country to admit you like me, I don't think you're going to let it stop right there." Closing her eyes and seeing the ghostly image of her sister flash before her, giving her an encouraging smile, Kaede found the strength within herself to lay her feelings bare and exposed to Shuichi, as payment for his journey. She invited him into her room, him awkwardly accepting with a few sputters and a blush beginning, and once they were inside everything that she kept so secret from the world became shared between them. Within minutes he knew about her dead sister, about how her family had raised her to blame the law for what had happened, about how she'd felt so much shame for feeling anything towards him. It was all hard to swallow, but seeing her so vulnerable made him realize that she wanted him just as much as he'd been told she did, and she wouldn't simply divulge this with anyone.

They spent what felt like hours talking, even though Shuichi knew it only felt that way because of how tired he was, and Kaede knew that she was just living in the moment of finally getting to talk things out with him that she was savoring every second. They never got around to labeling what they were, or what they could become, but they did talk a lot about what they wanted out of life, whether the other was in it or not; when another knock came at the door it was almost painful to stop their conversation, but it had to be done. "That's got to be my ride out of here," Kaede said, tinges of sadness in her voice as she went to look through the peephole. "I guess I'm riding to this festival with some people who are attending for themselves, which'll be fun but…"

"Not as fun as if you were riding with me?" Shuichi suggested, not expecting Kaede to light up in response to it. They both laughed, before she finished explaining that it wasn't going to be fun because riding places with people who knew her music was never quite fun. "I can't say I get it, but it gives me an understanding for why you like riding places with me."

She nodded, giving him a grin before working to open the door. "Maybe I'll get to do it again in the future. I-if you're okay with it, that is."

"I might be," he replied, grinning back at her. He wanted to suggest her ditching the concert and flying home with him, because he knew him ditching his commitments was out of the question, but he knew that it would not be a suggestion well-received. "You'll have to let me know when you make it back to Kibou, so we can, uh, go out sometime?"

"It sounds like a date!" After that was when she opened the door, and the chief of police in Ylisstol came inside, bringing with him his younger sister who looked between the two people who'd been in the room, clearly wanting an explanation for the unexpected man who was present. Figuring he could leave that up to Kaede, he gave her a quick farewell before ducking out, running down the hall to escape any potential awkwardness that could have been created there in the room. He wasn't quite fast enough to escape hearing her explain that the person who'd just bolted was her boyfriend—and hearing himself referred to in such a way, in Kaede's voice, made the entire trip feel worth it.

He wasn't sure when she'd be getting home, or if they'd get to talk until after she was back, but he was looking forward to when he'd be able to once again speak to her face-to-face, see her long hair and her bright eyes and feel the warmth of the personality she'd been keeping hidden from him. It felt strange knowing that he was waiting on seeing someone he'd never thought he'd truly like again, but stranger things had happened in stranger places.

A/N: okay so there's some things I should say about the ending of this fic.

1) in some stages of planning this wasn't the ending, but rather the third of four parts (as a reference to another notably four-parted fic of mine) but I decided against it because I didn't want to get too caught up in details that would, uh, need detailing.

2) the entire fic from the start had been a loving reference to my NaNo fic series of the previous four years, so I knew almost right away in planning that I would work those stories into this somehow. of course, I didn't want to refer to any plot points of those fics in this, hence why this takes place before any of those stories do. but if you wanna see why the opening scene of this fic has such an immersive, descriptive moment, or why there's a lot of missed connections, Snowed In!/Summer Days' Nightmares/Season's Snowflakes can explain that (note: they are fics for a different fandom).

3) I really wish I could've elaborated more but I didn't wanna have to mark this as a crossover, oops.

4) I hope you all enjoyed this!