Find out who the cake Saguru made was for.
The benefit of having insomnia, was that you end up having more hours in the day to do things, compared to other people.
It was not uncommon for Saguru's day to start before the sky wakes. While he doesn't enjoy having to suffer from chronic insomnia, Saguru was glad to reap its benefits on days like these.
Closing his eyes, Saguru listened to the sound of his footsteps against the gravel, loud against the the quiet of the slumbering world. He breathed deeply, enjoying the sensation of a slight breeze against his face, ruffling his hair. While the snow seemed to have stopped since January, it was still winter, and there was still a bite to the wind that Saguru always appreciated.
He smiled.
Opening his eyes, Saguru tilted his head up to look at the dark sky above him. Having grown up in the countryside, he couldn't help but feel a slight pang of disappointment when he could only find a few stars in the sky. But night was night, and it has been Saguru's friend and constant companion for a long time. Something familiar that he could always rely on.
He refocused his sight to look ahead, and continued on his way to his destination: the police station.
Of course it hadn't escape Saguru's notice that while he was cooking and entertaining Aoko-san, his father never returned home. He wished he could say that this was an uncommon occurrence, but it was his father's workload that led Saguru on to the path of becoming a detective in the first place.
He sighed.
He really hoped that it was simply a case of mismanagement and his father was staying over to clean up the mess, not an increase in work or a particularly difficult case. Of course, if it was just the matter of case work, Saguru could probably assist his father in closing the case. However, his father had been more resistant to the idea of letting him help recently. Saguru knows that it was because his father didn't want him to spend all his time working and doing detective work. But really, he had more than enough time to spare some hours with his old man and help him solve whichever case had stumped the officers at the station.
Stepping into the station, Saguru adjusted his grip on the boxes he had with him. He bowed slightly to the officer manning the front, saying a quiet greeting to her. Her eye sparkled brightly as she smiled and greeted him.
"Here to see the Superintenden- General, Hakuba-kun?"
"Yes, Inoue-san." Saguru didn't know her that well, but she had always been friendly whenever they interacted. He should probably thank the officers that had known him since the time before he moved to England. They were probably the ones to tell the new faces that he has a habit of visiting his father. Especially when it's very late at night or very early in the morning. That, or they were all used to Aoko-san visiting Inspector Nakamori regularly. "Shall I assume that he's still in his office?"
"Oh you know it!" She laughed quietly.
"Thank you, Inoue-san. Have a good day." He said as he moved further into the building.
"You have a good Valentine's Day too, Hakuba-kun!" She giggled. Probably because she remembered the mountain of chocolate he received last year and how he turned most of them into snacks and desserts for the station.
As he made his way through the bullpen, he greeted some of the officers still at the station who were awake enough to notice him. Some of them were there for the night shift, and some of them, not of the night shift, were passed out at their desks. Saguru sighed. He really hoped his father wasn't one of them.
Saguru paused in front of his father's office, the door was closed. That could be good or bad. He knocked on the door before twisted the knob and opening it slightly to peek in. Ah, so he's still here and still awake.
"Daddy? Are you busy?" Saguru asked. Not that his father would be one to turn him away, he never does, even when he's truly busy. But it didn't hurt to ask, and Saguru wanted to make sure that this interruption didn't result in his father staying here even longer.
His father startled at the sound of his voice before looking up to see him there.
"Ah! Saguru, come in!"
Definitely busy, Saguru thought to himself, seeing as his father avoided answering the question. He went in anyways. They both missed each other, and Saguru was just following their usual routine. He smiled at his father.
"I've got something for you," he lifted the box slightly so his father sees what he was talking about. His father looked at the box before letting out his belly laugh. Saguru smiled wider.
He knows people at the station wondered how they could ever be father and son, and not just because of his appearance, but also due to their vastly different disposition. He knows they wondered how they could even get along. But it was exactly due to their contrasting disposition and their shared passion for justice that they got along so well.
"You know you don't have to bring me food everytime I stay over at the station, right?" His father teased. Saguru chuckled quietly, placing the bigger box on the space that his father just cleared up. He put the other palm sized-box to the side carefully, as to not disturb the blue ribbon that he had tied around it.
"I know, I know. But it is Valentine's day, and Kaa-san wanted to give you something." Saguru bit his lip to keep himself from laughing too loudly at the surprised and pleased look on his father's face. He then turned to look at this gift, eyes wide with wonder, hands reaching out tentatively.
"Really? I mean, of course really."
Saguru knew it was a good idea to help Kaa-san with Valentine's this year. His father had always been a good natured man, always with a smile on his face and very easily pleased. But that didn't mean that efforts in making him happy meant any less to them. They both felt good putting a smile on his face.
"Oh Irene..." His father opened the box and, "oh... Saguru, you shouldn't have." he said in quiet awe as he looked at the chocolate cake in the box, surrounded by pieces of chocolates.
"I wanted to," he told his father. Saguru really couldn't stop smiling right now.
Maybe it was silly, but he's always filled with joy whenever he had the chance to make his parents happy.
It's a warmth that fills up his chest and spread out to the rest of his body, all the way to his finger tips. A warmth better than any that a fireplace or a heater could provide. The warmth of knowing that you are loved and seeing the happiness on his parents face when they can see that love returned.
He put an elbow on his father's desk and pressed his chin on the palm of his hand, leaning forward slightly.
"Well? Aren't you going to have a piece?" He urged his father. Eager to see how he likes the cake that Saguru had made for him. "I do have to report back to Kaa-san if you liked it or not," he teased his father.
His father laughed as he stood up to grab some plates, knives and forks, popping one of the chocolates into his mouth as he moved.
"This is delicious!"
Saguru laughed. It wasn't often that his father would slip back to Japanese when it was just the two of them hanging out, but it does happen on occasions when he's caught of guard.
Saguru would be lying if he didn't say that he liked those moments.
Of course, it might seem odd to outsiders. That they chose to converse in English rather than Japanese. Even odder so, when they find out that it's the same with Kaa-san. Saguru's excuse was that he grew up doing this, and this was simply what he's used to doing. His parents' excuse? They wanted to maintain their language skills in the other language, and decided that they were going to do so through him.
"I'm glad you like the chocolate." Saguru said as his father settled back down with the utensils. "Those were my gifts."
"They're really good, Saguru!" His father began lifting a piece of cake on to one of the plates, before pushing it towards Saguru.
"Daddy, it's your chocolate. I'm not going to eat your chocolate." He tried to slide the plate back towards his father. Tried, because his father's hand was still on the other side of the plate, holding it in place.
"Pssshaw," his father rolled his eyes. "It's my chocolate. I can do what I want with it. And if I want to give it to you, then I'm going to give it to you." He said, using his other hand to place a fork on the plate.
"Daddy, it's 3 in the morning."
"That's your fault. You chose to come visit me at 3 in the morning. Now have a piece of cake."
Saguru laughed and accepted the piece that his father has been pushing towards him.
His father took the other piece out of the box and Saguru dug into his piece. He closed his eyes as he savored the taste and texture of the cake.
He really should thank Kaa-san for giving him the recipe, even if it was meant to be a Valentine's Day gift for his father.
The cake had the perfect balance of richness, fluffiness, and moistness. The addition of the coffee into the batter really helped to intensify the chocolate flavors within the cake as well as adding its own flavor and aroma. Saguru was also grateful that Kaa-san chose the ganache over a buttercream frosting. He preferred the richness of the ganache over the fluffy, creaminess of a buttercream frosting.
"This is so good," his father said around his mouthful of cake.
Saguru laughed at his father's antics.
"Oh wait! Let's take a picture for Kaa-san," he suggested, taking out his phone.
His father hummed in agreement as they both posed for the picture. As he composed a caption to accompany the photo, his father went back to eating the cake. Sending the picture to Kaa-san, he watched as his father ate his piece, pausing at every bite to savor the flavors.
Saguru was pleased.
He's glad that his father liked the cake, that he could create the cake as his mother envisioned it. He smiled as he continued to eat his piece of cake, chuckling as his father made a joke about having to go on a diet again.
Saguru knew that the warmth currently filling up every part of his body had nothing to do with the coat he's wearing.
shout out to papa Hakuba, you showed up in canon exactly once and i will never forget you sir, thank you for using nepotism to bring your son across the world into Kaito's life
(2 more omakes to go, still editing those, keep an eye out for updates! as usual, i yell in my twitter sometimes, mostly about my writing process on Onnoffwrites)