Reluctant Hero

10. Kaito's reply

Kaito was experienced enough—thanks to Snake and his men and their stalking game—to strategically lure the owner and his underlings to run around the factory three times before shaking them off when he took off his disguise and blended in with the workers inside. It was chaos everywhere because he reactivated the fire alarm again, but while he was with the crowd, he did try his best to spot any girl he could find with bright blue eyes and wild brown hair.

He wasn't sure if he should be relieved or disappointed to not find her anywhere.

But after he escaped out of the factory and ran to the bushes just a distance away, he knew what he felt was definitely relief when he only found his clothes in the hiding spot.

Good. She must have gotten out safely.

Gathering his clothes, Kaito quickly changed out of the uniform. This was a hotspot for many criminal activities and transaction, so it wouldn't do good if Snake or anyone related to him were to find him here, especially after he had ditched his disguise and his face was exposed in plain sight.

Afterwards, he went home.

.o.

When Kaito wasn't busy plotting to steal, doing the stealing, returning favours or cleaning his beautiful cars, he would be spending his time in his secret room fixing his tools or making new ones. If it wasn't for those interesting meetings and thrilling moments, his life was actually pretty routine in general.

He was sitting on a high stool by his work table and staring into blank space while twirling with the card gun in his hand. The radio he had been listening to for the past fifteen minutes had moved on to a short commercial break and started talking about a shampoo advertisement, so Kaito tuned it down, having heard enough news about the busted factory and the possible trials the owner was going to face anyway.

All seemed well, like what Aoko had hoped.

The corner of his lips tugged at the thought.

Now, back to what was supposed to be his routine. Kaito straightened, placing his gun aside and picked his other tools that needed work.

There was so much configurations that could be done for his card gun; making its compartments smaller or changing the grip to a better one, but even after all these years, he never once did any changes to it. He couldn't, in fact, when it contained his first memory of inventing something under his father's guidance.

If he changed anything, wouldn't the memory be gone too?

Not just for the card gun, it was the same for his other magic inventions. Some were created when his dad was still alive. Some were created using his dad's old props. Some were created because he was inspired by his dad's past performances. Every magic inventions Kaito done were all related to his dad.

Besides Kaito and his mother, those memories were the only thing his dad left behind, and he could never, ever change them—

Kaito's phone on his work table suddenly buzzed, surprising him out of his trance. It was a good distraction (Kaito got to admit), but he frowned, wondering what notification it was.

He unlocked his phone.

One new message.

'I hope you're okay.' - phone #37 (Nakamori. A)

Kaito blinked, and then flung himself up from his stool.

"W-What?" He blurted out and read the message a couple more times (twelve, to be exact), and started to walk around the room.

Crap. Kaito groaned and rubbed a hand over his neck. He hadn't told Aoko about lifting the text ban, which he did after their meeting at the cinema. Ever since Snake voiced out his opinion about his business, he felt uneasy about his contacts with Aoko. And he thought, if, just if, that Snake ever found her, and harm her (god forbids), he wouldn't be able to know just by her pressing the number one keypad for six seconds.

But everything just slipped out of his mind when they met this morning, and she was looking so pumped up about her new case and he was busy being intrigued by her enthusiasm... Whatever the reason was, it was a fact that he'd forgotten to tell her.

Now what? Kaito sighed. He continued to wander around in circles, until he absently walked towards the hidden wall, flipped it, stepped into his bedroom and slumped onto the corner of his bed, still looking at his phone helplessly.

He tried to process the message again and made a checklist in his head.

One, Aoko was concerned about him.

Two, Aoko didn't know she could send texts now.

Three, her concern was not intended for him to know

Shit.

Kaito tapped his leg against the bed, giving himself only five seconds to decide between sending a fake text message or admitting the truth.

Then, finally having the answer in mind, Kaito crafted a reply:

'Hi. i'm fine. No worries.'

Deleted.

'Awww, i can't believe u actually cared for me!'

No.

'Wow thanks for the concern lol i'm okay i'm not dead yet.'

Kaito cringed at the text.

Still… passable.

He pressed send.

Right. Okay. Time for the quick explanation.

He cracked his neck and created another new message:

'In case u r wondering, yes, I've lifted the text ban, and yes, I should have told u about it, but I didn't expect u to text me at all. I guess this is for the better because I get to kno that u're actually concerned 0ver me? I'm actually quite(…)'

Kaito groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. Why was he so fixated at the fact that she was concerned for him? And this almost looked like he had ripped off a page from his diary. What was with all these unnecessary explanations and emotional weight to it? Sighing, he deleted the whole chunk of words and typed again.

'In case u r wondering, I've lifted the text ban. Should have told u about it but I guess in life u got to learn things the hard way lmao. K. nite.'

Kaito nodded. Now it sounded much better. And more like him—The Kaitou Kid.

Pressing send, Kaito hastily chucked the phone under his pillow and laid his head over it, blocking it out from his vision.

He had disarmed bombs and even created many of them, but why was his heart still thumping so fast just because he sent out two text messages? He kicked against his sheet and sighed, again, for the thousand time that night.

Sleep. Yes. He must be tired. A quick nap would be good before fixing his tools again.

Kaito closed his eyes.

One minute passed, three minutes passed… the anticipation was rousing him, unable to let his brain to rest. He tried to sleep again, but failed, tried again, but failed, until he sat up on his bed and decided to solve the problem than trying something he knew was futile.

He reached out for the phone under his pillow and lit up the screen—

On the cue, his phone buzzed in his hand.

Kaito held his breath.

He opened the new message.

'You're an idiot.' - phone #37 (Nakamori. A)

Besides his infamous name Kaitou Kid, Kaito had been called many other different things. Asshole. Crazy. Dipstick… He had heard them all, and could even compile them into a dictionary and sell them for profits, but for some strange reason, he was fascinated with the word idiot.

Maybe because he might really be one; who the hell actually smiles after getting insulted?

Cheeks still aching from the grin, Kaito slumped back on his bed (the phone loose in his hand), and finally fell asleep.

A/n: Really happy that you guys liked it (and are still liking it, perhaps)! Hope you guys enjoyed the two chapters :')Reviews are appreciated hahah