Chapter 6

Saguru wasn't sure how he was functioning. In the last forty-eight hours he had only managed to sleep roughly five hours and his headache hadn't abated at all. Tuesday's classes were a blur of pain and automatic teaching. It was a good thing that he knew his lesson plan inside and out, otherwise he was sure he would have lapsed into English his students couldn't understand at all. The home visits were similar blurs of polite conversation, smatterings of details, and thankfulness for the warmth of the tea he was given that helped at least a little bit with his head.

Today's class had passed much the same, though he was aware of a few more questions and hesitations in answering than the day before. Whether it was due to being less coherent in his explanations or actually having greater awareness than the day before, he wasn't sure. The two home visits before Takumi's had gone without problem (although he couldn't remember when he had been handed the white bean jelly). He had Aoko to visit, then Kuroba, and then just maybe he would be too exhausted to do anything but sleep.

Saguru squinted at the address on the list he had printed out. The words blurred on the page, but his reading glasses were at home on the kitchen table with a backlog of papers to grade and his favorite pen. He was vaguely sure that it was a street or two away from where she and Kuroba had grown up. It was a rent-house district with two families per home, one per half a building, and a shared bath. He'd looked it up last week when he was familiarizing himself with the addresses of all the students in his homeroom. Of course it was the second furthest home on the list from the subways. Thankfully the bus system could get him a bit closer to save his leg a bit. There was a lot more walking in Japan than he had dealt with in London, perhaps because in London he had owned a car and had had the convenience of living not far from his job. While his leg felt worse than ever, he supposed that it was getting more exercise than it had in years which wasn't entirely a bad thing.

He took the next right. It was only a quarter of the way down the street to the correct house. There was a name plate with Kuroba on it. It felt strange to think of Aoko as a Kuroba instead of a Nakamori. It was probably significant that she hadn't changed her name back after the divorce. Saguru wasn't in the state of mind to fully appreciate the possibilities though. He rang the doorbell.

It took a minute for the door to open. Saguru stared blankly at the name plate, the one that marked the right-hand door as the Kuroba residence, not the Yamaguchi residence. The name plate was scratched. The name was scored through the way someone might key a car, but only the last name, not Aoko's first name. The door opened. Takumi stood in the doorway, tense and unhappy.

"Good evening," Saguru said, manners on autopilot.

Takumi stepped aside stiffly. "Come in."

Saguru entered and swapped his shoes for the guest slippers set out for him. The house smelled like coffee, oil from frying something, and the starchiness of rice. It wasn't a fresh scent, more a lingering one from the last meal, but it made the place feel lived in immediately where at one of his earlier home visits, the house had felt sterile. Saguru left his things with his shoes.

"Kaa-san," Takumi called, walking further into the house without a backward glance to see if Saguru was following. "Hakuba-sensei's here."

"Ah, Hakuba-san, welcome," Aoko said from further in the house. Her head poked around the doorway of a room Saguru guessed was the kitchen-dining space. "I was just putting tea on to boil."

For a moment he felt inexplicably shy. She and Takumi were present in little details all around him; the pictures on the walls, the scuffs on the door frames, smudges on the paint at different levels showing different stains left by Takumi as a child, the way he could see patches of dust among clean bits where things had been hastily tidied. In a home so full of its occupants' presences, he felt like an intruder. Like if he stepped wrong and made his own marks, they would stand out rather than blending in and it was a strangely upsetting thought.

He pushed it aside. Aoko was still smiling at him, and he bowed to her politely. "Pardon the intrusion."

She laughed. "No intrusion at all! Come to the kitchen. Ignore Takumi; he told me he'd rather not be around if he doesn't have to be. He doesn't have to, does he?"

"No," Saguru said. He let her usher him into the kitchen to a seat at the table. A tea cup was set at his elbow, currently empty. An electric kettle was bubbling on the counter, maybe half a minute away from being ready. "If I hadn't already observed you interacting with him, I might have him stay, but from what I have seen you two appear to have a fairly stable and healthy relationship."

Aoko nodded, getting her own cup and a can of loose leaf tea from the cupboard. A strainer joined it from a drawer. "You'd have to check, I understand. I imagine it's more difficult when students have broken families."

"In some ways it is," Saguru agreed, thinking of how he had to make two separate home visits. "But often those homes aren't the ones having problems." Many of the problems were remnants from old ones, but at least they tended to be acknowledged problems. It was the seemingly perfect homes that had the worst secrets and it made him upset when he had to sit in a room and pretend nothing was wrong. He could imagine how much worse it was for the child in those situations.

The kettle rumbled with steam and Aoko took it and poured tea for Saguru first, then herself. "It's caffeinated," she said. "You look dead on your feet."

"Thank you." Saguru breathed in the tea's scent. It was dark and with almost floral undertones.

"Long week?" Aoko asked.

"You have no idea."

"Have you even been sleeping?"

"Not enough." He rubbed his eyes, letting himself slip from his professional mode for a moment. "The weekend cannot come soon enough."

Aoko hummed sympathetically. "Funny how we used to think the same thing when we were in high school, but when you get down to it, we were never as bone tired them, hmm?"

"True." He breathed in the tea again, taking strength from it. He just had Kuroba after this and then he could sleep. "I hope you are doing well?"

"Well enough." Aoko stirred a small spoonful of sugar into her tea, something Saguru could remember Kaito doing when they were younger that he didn't seem to do anymore. She wore her wedding ring. She hadn't worn it at the store or when she picked up Takumi, granted his memory of that wasn't very clear. Kuroba didn't wear his ring. Was he overthinking things?

There were dishes in the dish rack. A rice cooker tucked back against the wall. The kitchen table had dents all along the edge closest to the stove, but not the other side, like it had been hit with pots or plates when its owners were in a rush but was rarely moved. For the life of him, Saguru wasn't sure what to say.

He opened his mouth and the same automatic teacher mode that had gotten him through the day came tumbling out. "Takumi-kun is doing well in his classes. He is a hard worker. Occasionally prone to day dreaming, but he picks up on concepts quickly and remembers them well."

"Has he given you any more trouble?" Aoko asked.

Saguru shook his head. "Nothing much. He still pranks me on occasion, but it is non-disruptive. Nothing I cannot handle. Of late he seems to have stopped."

Aoko frowned. "He shouldn't be doing it at all."

"I believe there are reasons behind it, and eventually Takumi-kun will be upfront with those reasons, but until then it is not a problem." Saguru drank his tea and felt warmth sink through him. He relaxed fractionally. "He does well in my class despite this. He hasn't had much experience with proper pronunciations, but he can hear and repeat them better than many of his classmates once given the chance. He also picks up and retains vocabulary well. Grammar, on the other hand, is something he needs improvement on, but I have full confidence that he can do well there also." He turned the cup around in his hand. Iris patterned, like Kuroba's teacup had been, but this one was Japanese styled without a handle where Kuroba's had been Western. "His other teachers have only good things to say, except that he could participate more as he usually knows answers."

"He's a lot like Kaito," Aoko said, "smart and has a great memory. He isn't as fond of being the center of attention though."

Saguru nodded. Kuroba had described his son as a flirt, Saguru remembered, but in school Saguru hadn't seen any sign of that. Takumi had stood out on occasion, but he hasn't seemed comfortable with attention for long. He had the skill, but not the temperament of a showman. "I've noticed that he prefers to let Momoi-san take that role."

Aoko smiled. "Shiemi-chan has a strong presence, doesn't she?"

"That is one way of putting it."

Aoko laughed. "She's a good person, just intense. I'm glad Takumi has her for a friend. He has a lot of friends, but not many people he can open up to."

That was a feeling Saguru knew too well, that Kuroba and Aoko likely also knew. Aoko had always been a bit better about it than he or Kuroba though. He wondered who Kuroba was friends with these days. Coworkers? The hypothetical Kid partner? "I don't think there's anything to worry about academically with him. He'll adjust to anything new he learns quickly."

"I never had a doubt in my mind that he'd do well," Aoko said. They finished the dregs of their tea. "I only worry about how he's doing emotionally. He…doesn't talk about things with me as often as he used to."

"No doubt part of growing up." Saguru had his doubts though. The answer was in the reason for Takumi's actions against Saguru.

Aoko hummed, neither assent nor dismissal. "I can't help but wonder how things with Kaito have affected him. We aren't calm people and we're worse when we have to interact."

Saguru remembered Aoko yelling at Kuroba's door. No, he didn't need to imagine what kind of explosive interactions Takumi had witnessed over the years. He had enough memories of their interactions to make educated guesses. "I am sure he cares for both of you," Saguru said, thinking of how Takumi had stood between Saguru and his mother because he was afraid Saguru would make her cry again. How he'd leaned into Kuroba's hug before he pretended to be embarrassed by it. "As someone who lived most of my life traveling between two households, it isn't easy even when your parents get along well." His mother and father had split more for Saguru's sake and their careers than anything else and had never stopped caring for each other. That they lived together in Japan now was testament to that. "Seeing Takumi-kun, I feel you have done well raising him. He is a good kid."

Aoko looked at him, smiling sadly. He wasn't sure his words had hit their mark, but he'd tried. "Thank you for saying so. Even with all the trouble he's caused you."

"If I disliked trouble, I wouldn't be teaching." Or be interacting with Kuroba.

"Just another outlet for it since you're no longer facing down criminals."

"Facing down delinquents doesn't have quite the same flair."

Aoko smiled like he'd meant for her to. She looked down at her hands, at the ring there. She was working up to saying something and Saguru closed his eyes knowing he'd rather she didn't say whatever she planned to. "I apologize," she said, "for what I said at the grocery store. I overstepped your boundaries and invaded your privacy."

Weariness swept through him. The lingering warmth from the tea was gone, as was the brief moment of connection. He didn't want to talk about this. "Aoko-san. Please. The apology is appreciated, but…"

"It's too soon to think about," she finished with understanding.

"A year isn't much compared to almost twelve years." Aoko's pot holder next to the stove was scarred and fraying with scorch marks along its side. Aoko had had trouble with cooking once. Did she still? Did Kuroba? Saguru still couldn't cook well but that was because—.

He realized he was sitting too stiffly and his right hand was gripping his knee so hard that it was going numb rather than shooting out pain like it usually did. There was a sound on the edge of his hearing, off to his right, toward the doorway. Takumi? Possibly. Aoko's hand on his elbow made him flinch.

She looked worried and frustrated. "I seem to only make things worse, don't I?"

"I make them worse on myself," Saguru admitted. There were a hundred things he could add to that, but even if he once knew Nakamori Aoko, they had never been close, and he was not close to this Aoko. "I should be going. I still have Kuroba to speak to before the night is out."

"Of course." Her shoulders slumped the slightest bit before squaring. "I know we weren't close friends back in high school, but if you ever need an ear to listen, I'm here."

"Thank you," Saguru said. He stood up, braced on his cane to steady himself, and waited for her to walk him to the door. "If there are any concerns with Takumi-kun, I will call as well," he said, pushing back for professionalism.

"Of course." Aoko stood and looked at him uncertainly for a moment. "…do you see Kaito often?"

"We're neighbors."

It was a non-answer and she knew it, but she didn't press. "It was good seeing you," she said when they reached the door. "Take care, okay?"

"And you as well." There was Takumi lurking in the background, watching but not approaching. He turned away when he saw Saguru looking, retreating back to what was probably his bedroom. Saguru slid his shoes on, bowed, and walked out the door.

*o*o*

Kuroba answered the door on the first knock, took one look, and stood aside to let Saguru in. "I'd offer you something with alcohol, but you don't drink," he said as Saguru struggled out of his shoes.

Saguru laughed weakly. "I'm sorely tempted and that is exactly why I have to refuse."

Kuroba nodded, looking worried at how heavily Saguru was leaning on his cane.

"Too much walking," Saguru explained. "And movement in general in addition to mental stress."

"It's part psychosomatic?"

"Yes. It has always given me physical trouble, but it only hurts this badly when I'm strained in other ways."

"Sit," Kuroba said, nodding past the entryway. "And don't bother with slippers; sock feet are good enough."

"Thank you." While sliding his feet into slippers wouldn't have taken much effort, it was easier to move without trying to keep something on his feet for the moment. Saguru stepped into the apartment proper, taking in the differences in layout from his own apartment in a glance. There were more tatami, leading to perhaps a half again as wide room. The kitchens were similarly placed opposite the washroom and bath, but the extra space allowed for a kitchen table with three chares across from the stove, and for one corner to be used as a living room. Kuroba had an arm chair and a small couch forming a square around a television set. There were shelves set against the walls with books and board games and puzzles that Saguru could picture a younger Takumi playing with. Somehow there managed to be a clock along every wall, most blinking with red LED numerals, and one an elegant analogue clock on a thin strip of wall between two doors that Saguru assumed led to bedrooms. It felt lived in the same way Aoko's home had felt lived in, with Kuroba's personality coming out in the eclectic mix of book topics, or magician's tools set alongside a traditional beckoning cat.

Kuroba watched him take in the details, unreadable. "I did say sit," he said mildly.

Saguru blinked at him. He had been living next to Kuroba for over a month now and this was the first time he'd seen the inside of his apartment. The curiosity almost pushed aside his exhaustion. Kuroba lifted an eyebrow and pulled out a kitchen chair. Saguru eased himself onto it. "Thank you."

"You can look around," Kuroba said, setting a cup of tea in front of Saguru—pre-prepared? From the scent it was the genmaicha he had shared once before. Grounding and warm. "I keep anything incriminating in my bedroom."

It was said like a joke, but it was truth. Saguru sighed. "I wasn't looking for signs of Kid in your home, Kuroba. I was looking to see what sort of space you call home."

"And what's it telling you?" Kuroba leaned against his sink and sipped a cup of tea. Saguru hadn't seen where he pulled the cup from, but it hadn't involved opening any of the cupboards.

"You have a wide range of interests. You are proficient in at least two languages other than Japanese. You and Takumi-kun used to spend a good deal of time together in this room playing games and learning sleight of hand." Saguru lingered over the dull and faded game boxes—dull from a layer of dust? "You do not spend as much time doing such activities as you used to together. And you overwater your plant," Saguru added, indicating the potted lady palm's yellow-edged leaves.

Kuroba relaxed, laughing, and it was true relaxation as his shoulders drooped and he actually put his weight against the counter rather than balancing against it. "I overwater my plant."

"Yes. It's rather unfortunate; it's such a well-proportioned plant."

"I never knew you had interest in horticulture, Hakuba."

"I don't. My mother, however, filled our home with a myriad of plants growing up."

"You don't say." Kuroba smiled before it returned to the worried expression he'd had when he opened the door. "You look like shit."

"I will sleep better once home visits are completed," Saguru said. It was one of the reasons he was sleeping poorly at any rate.

"I was surprised that they had home visits; a lot of schools aren't doing them anymore, and usually it's more of an elementary and middle school thing than a high school one. They didn't do home visits when we went there."

"I wouldn't know. I joined in second year. In England, home visits aren't a thing." Saguru rolled his shoulders to let some of the tension from them. The genmaicha was refreshing on his tongue. It was the seventh cup of tea he had had that day. Sometimes he felt all he drank was tea. He supposed there were worse drinks to be swimming in. "I am uncertain if I am even doing home visits correctly."

"See the house and parents, talk about the kid to get to know them a bit, try and see what their future plans are," Kuroba shrugged. "It's not too difficult."

"I was treating it more like a parent-teacher conference with a chance to view each student's living environment," Saguru said. "Mostly looking at what their strengths are and what things they are struggling with and discussing any behavioral issues that have cropped up as well. I had forgotten the career support aspects."

"It's only first year. Most students probably aren't even thinking that far ahead this early in the year."

"True." The tension that had been lingering in Saguru since he left Aoko's home finally released him. It was odd to think that Kuroba of all people was a calming force in his life. Yet here he was, relaxing after just a few minutes of being in his presence. His earlier headache was even fading. Saguru's high school self would have been horrified.

"What's funny?" Kuroba asked.

Saguru shook his head, unable to remove the smile from his face. "Merely thinking at how things change."

"Hm. How's Aoko?"

"Tired but in good health. I do not think she has been sleeping well lately." He frowned. "I do hope that I am not part of the reason."

"Why would you be?"

"The few conversations I have had with Aoko-san since I have returned have not gone well," Saguru admitted. "In part because Aoko-san now has the curiosity of a detective paired with her past straightforwardness which has led to her referring to my reasons for being in Japan."

"Ah." Kuroba moved to sit next to Saguru. "So basically making you think about things you don't want to think about with no warning."

"More or less." Saguru sipped his tea. "From how she attempted to apologize today, she feels guilty for my reaction and for looking into my personal business."

"Well, she shouldn't have."

"So you expect me to believe you haven't looked into my life since I returned?" Saguru asked skeptically. Kuroba had always been meticulous in his research. If he thought for a moment that Saguru would be a threat, he would look for any information to better understand Saguru, and to perhaps better copy him if need be. As for Aoko…Saguru could understand why she would look into a man who had once been a detective set on capturing Kid.

"I looked into surface things, but I didn't dig." Kuroba leaned, seemingly casual, on one hand. Saguru knew better. He was bracing for an angry response. "I figured after our first conversation that if you wanted me to know you'd talk about it, and if you didn't, I'd know just enough to know what not to bring up."

"That is more restraint than I was expecting," Saguru said. He sighed. "Truly, it isn't a secret. There is nothing wrong with my past being looked into; I merely have no desire to dwell on it more than I already do, and do not like being blindsided by it."

"Understandable." Kuroba stretched, his back and neck making a series of soft cricks and pops. "So. Feeling any better?"

"…Yes actually." Saguru glanced at his half-empty cup of tea. Kuroba wouldn't spike it would he?

"Relax, there's nothing in it but tea," Kuroba said.

"Good. Or else next time I would have refused any drink you offered and I quite like your taste in teas."

Kuroba laughed. Saguru sipped at his tea.

"You likely know better than Aoko-san how Takumi-kun is doing in school," Saguru said, reminding himself of the reason he was visiting.

"Pretty much," Kuroba said. "I keep close tabs on how he's doing in his classes so I can be helpful if he needs it."

Saguru nodded. He hadn't expected any less. "And how is Takumi-kun emotionally?" Saguru asked. It was easier to ask Kuroba than it would have been to ask Aoko despite her being the primary caregiver.

"So far as I can tell, he seems to be adjusting to high school fine. He's glad to be around Shiemi-chan again since they're a year apart. He's becoming a teenager," Kuroba said. "He is less open about what he's thinking or feeling, would rather be on his own more, and his interests are changing. He used to be invested in Aoko's police work, but lately he's been reading books on anatomy and kinesiology. That made me think he might be interested in medical or physical therapy, but he doesn't talk about it. He's stopped by less often, but he has club activities."

"…Does he resent you or Aoko?" Saguru asked cautiously.

"Resent?" Kuroba shrugged. "Not so far as I can tell. He respects Aoko more than he does me, but tests her boundaries more. He comes to me when he's fighting with her or just to escape." He set the cup down. "This is about him acting out."

"Pondering over theories," Saguru said. "He's never tried to get the two of you back together?"

"He'd try and get us to do things together when he was little, and we'd sometimes go places or out to dinner. We'd keep it civil. But that stopped early on in elementary school, and now we usually only do some sort of outing about one day a year." Kuroba shrugged, looking a little sad. "It couldn't have been comfortable to watch Aoko and I interact back then. It's still probably not comfortable."

Saguru nodded and tucked the matter away again to investigate another time.

"What are your plans for Golden Week?" Kuroba asked, changing the topic.

Sleep, Saguru thought, but no, he had actual plans. "I am visiting my parents for a few days. I haven't taken the time to do so since they helped me move in."

"Considering how close they live…"

"Exactly." Saguru quirked a smile. "Mum is a bit annoyed." More worried than annoyed based on some of her messages. Saguru supposed he should reply to more than one of every three of them, but sometimes Mum was stifling. His father tended to be far more hands off and if he had concerns, he tended not to voice them, or showed them in roundabout ways. He was the one that made sure Saguru's apartment was furnished with everything Saguru would need. It felt odd to be a grown man and yet still fall back on his parents.

"The last thing you want to do is annoy mothers," Kuroba said laughing. "They know all your weaknesses." The wall clock chimed the hour, a sound he'd heard through the walls faintly but had never really placed. "Takumi's staying with me for a few days, but he's spending Children's Day with Aoko."

"Do you plan on going anywhere?"

"No." Kuroba shook his head. "Hell, travel is the last thing I'd want to do for Golden Week; it's way too crowded. If I wanted a vacation, I'd use my hoarded time off during one of Takumi's breaks."

"Point." Saguru had traveled in Golden Week before. He'd gotten a headache from the crush of people, and that had been before he had trouble with his right leg.

"Thankfully I'm not needed at the museum in Golden Week. If I wasn't someone behind the scenes they'd need me."

Another good point; Saguru hadn't considered that Kuroba would need to work, but with so many people on vacation, there would have to be even more people not working to keep up with the demands of vacationers. "Aoko-san isn't working?"

"Aoko's Kid task force. And Kid isn't going to hold a heist this Golden Week."

"One would think with all the chaos it would be the perfect time."

Kuroba shrugged. "It would be. But sometimes family is more important."

There was a flatness in how he said it that indicated family was always important, but that it wasn't always possible to show it. Kuroba worked around his life to fit in Kid, and he'd made one too many sacrifices for his alter ego already. "Well, here's to a week of family time," Saguru said, raising his cup of tea in a mock toast.

"I should talk Takumi into a day with my mom. She always says she doesn't see him enough."

"Is she well?" Saguru had never met Kuroba Chikage. He imagined any woman who had raised Kuroba would have to be formidable though.

"Fine," Kuroba said. "Getting gray hairs which she hates—I swear, she uses stage makeup skills to keep herself looking a decade younger than she is, but she's as hale as ever. I visit about once a week when she's in town."

"I imagine she still has the same home as when you were a child?" Saguru imagined that was where the majority of Kid's supplies stayed these days. No amount of creative squirreling away could contain all of Kuroba's tools in such a small apartment.

"Yes." Kuroba looked unimpressed. "You're doing the detective thing, aren't you?"

"It doesn't turn itself off," Saguru said. "I really would if I could."

Kuroba scoffed. "You'd miss it. You're not you without noticing more than the average person."

Saguru smiled and privately thought Kuroba would not be Kuroba without that trait either.

"To answer your line of thought, yes, Kaa-san's place is my home base even if I don't live there. I can't even keep my doves here," Kuroba sighed.

"So you do still keep doves?"

"Of course. A well trained bird is invaluable. And what kind of showman would I be without my birds?"

"Presumably a retired one."

Kuroba rolled his eyes. "When I said being a magician didn't work out, I didn't mean I was bad at it or retired. It…brought on a few too many flashbacks in the end. Working with big crowds anyway. You'd think the whole Kid thing would mean I'd be fine, but..."

"Oh." Kuroba didn't look troubled about admitting that. In fact his shoulders were relaxed. He'd told the truth and something personal and it hadn't bothered him to admit it to Saguru. "That is a pity. You always had a gift for it."

"I had a lot of hard work put into it," Kuroba corrected, "but I guess I had a decent amount of talent too. I still do birthday parties for coworker's kids and things like that. Nothing on stage. It's probably safer that way too."

Kuroba's father had died in a stage accident, Saguru remembered. Or it had nominally been an accident. There were enough parallels with Kuroba and his father already that he supposed it was best that that particular one was being avoided.

"I like the doves though. I smuggle one or two here sometimes, but we're not really supposed to keep pets here."

"How terrible of you," Saguru joked drily. "Smuggling birds into this bird free zone."

"Speaking of bird smuggling, how did you get that hawk of yours through customs?"

"Watson had all her papers filed and health tests receive positive feedback." Saguru smiled. It had been years since he thought about her. "I will admit that it helped to have a father who was police commissioner."

Kuroba laughed.

Saguru relaxed further into his seat and barely noticed the evening tipping into night as he and Kuroba exchanged stories about the care and keeping of birds at the opposite ends of the predator-prey spectrum.

*o*o*

Saguru celebrated the end of home visits by sleeping twelve hours straight. He woke with a crick in his neck and the woozy exhaustion of too much rest and considered it an achievement because he was sure he hadn't slept so long so soundly in months. He hadn't had a single nightmare either. The blinking digital clock informed him that it was after noon, and the sun was angled past the window by this point. There was a television on in both neighboring apartments—the unknown neighbor on his opposite side was home for once, likely off on vacation for the holiday week. Saguru helped himself to leftover takeaway and a cup of black tea to chase away the lingering fog of sleep.

He calculated that there was maybe three hours at most before a car was sent to pick him up to visit his family. It was tempting to leave in his old, worn out jeans and the holey t-shirt he'd put on since his pajamas were in need of a wash, but Mum would give her disapproving look and Otou-san would pretend he didn't notice while silently judging. He'd change into slacks and a button down after breakfast. At least he didn't need to pack for his stay; the majority of Saguru's belongings from England were being stored at his parents' home.

He both looked forward to and dreaded going home. He cared for his parents and got along with them fairly well the majority of the time. But they disagreed on some of Saguru's life choices and were a bit over-protective at the moment.

The takeaway container went into recyclables and the mug of tea was refilled with a fresh cup. He had a stack of papers to make headway on in the time he had, and grading papers was a wonderful way to focus on small problems, like how many of his students failed to conjugate simple sentences. Clearly he needed to review some things. And do sentence diagrams again because subject-object confusion was happening in a high percentage of homework. Saguru loathed sentence diagrams. While he acknowledged that pictorial representations of sentences could be useful in determining their structure to many people, he personally found them distracting and overly complex. He much preferred deconstruction to diagramming, but clearly deconstruction method was failing to get the point across.

He graded a dozen more papers before there was a crash next door—Kuroba's apartment, of course—and Saguru jumped, pen dragging across the page he was grading. He looked at the line sourly. The crash wasn't repeated. Instead there was muffled laughter—young, so Takumi then. A prank? A magic trick gone wrong?

More time had passed than Saguru had thought when he glanced at the clock. He was still dressed in the clothing he'd slept in and had half a cup of cold tea at his elbow.

He had just changed into slacks when his phone lit up with a text informing him that his ride had arrived. Saguru finished buttoning his shirt, placed his tea mug in the sink to wash properly when he returned, and pulled on his shoes. Tying them was a pain, as usual, but a familiar one he had dealt with for decades now despite concerned individuals suggesting footwear that didn't involve bending over to get on or off. He admitted to vanity with the choice to keep shoes with laces—shoes without them simply did not retain the same level of professionalism that Saguru preferred to have.

Kuroba's door opened ten seconds before Saguru finished tying his shoes, and when he opened his own door, he was greeted by the sight of Kuroba herding Takumi out the door, his son's arms full with a picnic basket and blanket. Kuroba grinned at Saguru.

"Hey, Hakuba."

"One would think going on a picnic would be the last thing to do during Golden Week," Saguru observed mildly. It was too late for cherry blossom viewing, but parks would likely be as crowded as any public space.

"Kaa-san wants to have a picnic on the roof," Kuroba said, rolling his eyes.

"You have a sloped roof, if I remember correctly."

"There's a flat section for the dovecote, but it isn't really a great spot for rooftop picnics."

"Tou-san!" Takumi grunted, looking a strange mixture of defensive and irritated at Kuroba's relaxed interaction with the English teacher he barely tolerated.

Kuroba ruffled his hair, making Takumi jerk backward like a scalded cat. "I think he actually forgot you were my neighbor," Kuroba said in a stage whisper. Takumi turned pink and he thrust the picnic items at Kuroba before stomping back in the apartment and shutting the door behind them.

"Are you getting back at him for something?" Saguru asked. That had been more than obligatory parental embarrassment.

"He swapped the beckoning cat with a f-fish. I dropped a pile of reference books I was moving from the bookshelf in my room." Kuroba grinned unpleasantly. "I'm not above starting a prank war with my son."

"There's something in the picnic dinner, isn't there."

"Now that would be telling," Kuroba said lightly. "But no, Kaa-san would be disappointed in me if I was that obvious."

"Don't damage anything permanently," Saguru said, feeling amused. It was nice to not be the target of either Kuroba's capriciousness.

Kuroba nodded, setting the picnic basket aside. "You're headed out?"

"My ride is waiting," Saguru said. It came out apologetic rather than factual; he did enjoy talking to Kuroba these days.

"Have a good Golden Week, Hakuba," Kuroba said.

"You as well." Saguru headed for the stairs. He added over his shoulder, "Good luck with the prank war. You are aware that you left him unobserved in your apartment after embarrassing him, correct?"

Kuroba turned hastily to his apartment and Saguru smiled all the way down the stairs.