"You're smiling," Kudo said. "And peppy. You looked like you were going to fall over when you got here."
"Am I?" Saguru tried to reign in his outward expression of happiness into something closer to his usual self, but it was hopeless; he couldn't wipe the smile off his face. "Kuroba wanted to know if there was anything left from his Kid costume to take home."
"Ai's giving him the green light?"
"I think he's more or less given himself permission," Saguru said, amused in spite of himself. "Aoko caught the person stalking home this morning."
"Huh." Kudo gave him a piercing look. "I hope he wasn't planning on leaving without saying goodbye."
"I'm sure he has every intention of saying goodbye in as grand a way as possible," Saguru said drily. Kuroba had enough mobility back that he could pull off something dramatic.
Kudo rolled his eyes. "Of course." He went over to his office safe, opening with a practiced flicker of fingers. "I put his things in here just in case. Since they had his blood on them I figured he probably would want to dispose of them himself..." He took out the shredded remains of Kid's white suit, slit up the sides from where they'd pried Kuroba out of it, the bulletproof vest, the blue shirt and red tie, shoes, and hat following. The glider material was there, jagged holes in Kid's cape where the poles had pierced through it, but the frame itself must have been dismantled and disposed of.
Saguru's happiness was dimmed by the bloodstains soaked into the white cloth. It told a story just as clearly as Kuroba's body did. "Thank you," Saguru said.
"No problem," Kudo said. He set a bag on top of the pile. "These are the contents of his pockets. Well, everything he hasn't taken back yet."
Of course Kuroba would have found the safe and opened it by now. It truly wouldn't be Kuroba if he hadn't. A glance showed a good number of sleeping gas and smoke pellets. "Hopefully he won't have a reason to use most of this anymore."
"Ugh," Kudo said, "I hope not. The number of times I've been gassed is ridiculous. He has to have been changing the formula over the years because we'd all be resistant to it by now."
"He would have to." Everything bundled up neatly and he gave Kudo a friendly nod. Funny how he went into things not liking the man very much, but was coming out something like friends with him. "I shouldn't have much reason to use your guest room anymore. I do plan to keep in touch though and updated with the case. Thank you for letting me stay as long as you have."
"It's not like there wasn't space," Kudo said with a lopsided smile. "It's always nice to have a second pair of eyes and someone to bounce ideas off of who can follow where my brain's at."
Saguru returned the smile. "Best of luck with the case."
"Good luck with looking after Kid. He's going to be bouncing off the walls from being stir crazy."
"I'll manage." He saw Kudo's eyes narrow just the slightest bit and knew he was drawing conclusions on where Saguru would be staying and the status of his and Kuroba's relationship. Oh well, it wasn't as if the majority of their acquaintances didn't already think something was going on already by this point. "And now I'm going to collect Kuroba before he overexerts himself out of sheer joy of freedom."
Kudo snorted. "Take care, Hakuba."
*o*o*
Saguru woke up for the first time in most of a month to the sounds of Kuroba moving about in his apartment. A television playing and the rush of running water. It was before his alarm was set to go off but Saguru didn't even mind. He levered himself to his feet and made two cups of tea before heading to Kuroba's door just because he could.
Kuroba answered his knock, grinning when he saw him. "Morning!"
"Good morning. Care for a cup of tea?"
"I'll take it. I just put rice and soup on for breakfast; it'll be ready in a bit." Kuroba gave him a peck on the cheek and took one cup from him like they did this every day. That...Saguru could get used to that. He could get used to having someone in the mornings to talk to and eating meals together regularly. Perhaps eventually he could get used to falling asleep next to someone again and having them there when he woke up in the morning. He hoped they could be that someday.
Kuroba couldn't have been awake for long, but the apartment was already showing signs of life again, Kid's hat resting on the coffee table next to some papers, the stack of books he'd had at Kudo's set on the bookshelf, and a month's worth of mail piled up on the kitchen table.
"Slipped my mind to ask you to get that," Kuroba said. "I'm going to be in trouble with a few bills being late, but eh, that's not too big a deal in the long run."
"I've been meaning to ask, but how is your work taking your leave of absence?"
"Remarkably ok. It helps that Haibara wrote up a doctor letter to give me a legitimate leave of absence. I should be okay to go in by Monday though."
"Do you think the museum is under watch?"
Kuroba shrugged. "If it is, not much I can do about it. I am a legitimate employee there though, so it isn't weird for me to be coming and going. Now getting Pandora from its hiding place at the Beika museum on the other hand might take a bit of planning. But it isn't time sensitive."
"And then Kid retires."
"And then Kid retires," Kuroba echoed, lifting his tea in a mock toast. "Although I'll probably have to negotiate something with Aoko on testifying in court. I'm pretty sure that someone could argue amnesty with the proof I brought up and considering everything I steal is usually returned. I bet it could be whittled down to a fine if they're really trying."
"So you will testify?"
"If I have to," Kuroba said, dead serious. "I'll take jail time if it means I've truly wiped out the people who killed my dad."
It was a bit too heavy to think about over breakfast, especially with the new, fluttery reality of what was growing between them. Saguru sipped at his tea. "I hope you don't have to," he said finally.
"Same." Kuroba waved a hand, pushing the gloom away. "Buuuut, there's always that witness protection angle. Either way, won't be an issue until they go from making arrests to putting people on trial. For now I'm going to enjoy the peace."
"What on earth are you going to do with your free time?" Saguru asked, both joking and truly wondering.
"Hell if I know. Maybe I'll get a new hobby."
There were so many things Kuroba dabbled in already that it would be interesting to see what that new hobby might be. "I'm sure you'll find something."
"Mm." Kuroba smirked over the rim of his mug. "Although I do know one thing I'd like to do."
"And that is?" Saguru asked, eyeing Kuroba's expression warily.
"Take you on a date."
Saguru took too big a mouthful of tea and almost choked on it, face hot. "I have no objections," he said after swallowing.
"Any preferences?"
"So long as I'm with you I think I'll enjoy it."
Kuroba kept up the salacious smirk a moment longer before he cracked up. "That's the cheesiest thing you've ever said."
"I meant it," Saguru mumbled, ears red.
"I know." Kuroba's socked foot brushed his leg under the table. "It's cute."
"Are you going to do this all the time?" Saguru asked, still blushing. He wouldn't be this easily flustered for long, not once the newness of it had passed, but he couldn't really see Kuroba purposely flustering him all the time either.
"Not all the time. I just want to see you blush right now." The miso soup was done and the rice cooker had finished its cycle. Kuroba rose to get bowls and Saguru stood to help him. The help wasn't really needed; the brace on Kuroba's leg supported it well enough, but Kuroba didn't seem to mind it. He passed bowls of soup to Saguru before carrying the rice over himself. A dish of pickles and cold marinated tofu joined it on the table. "I was feeling something more traditional today," Kuroba said.
"And of course you aren't going to eat braised fish," Saguru said.
Kuroba gave him a dirty look.
Saguru grinned back. Finding out how much Kuroba disliked fish was forever an amusing discovery that he intended to keep in mind in case he ever needed to keep something from Kuroba's natural curiosity. All it would take would be a fish printed box.
They talked a bit more over breakfast, nothing important for once, just light conversation about Saguru's work or the books they'd both read, and by the time they were done and Saguru was helping clean the dishes, he knew they needed to do this again.
"Come over for dinner," Kuroba said at almost the same moment Saguru said, "Tomorrow I'll make breakfast."
They looked at each other a second before Kuroba laughed. "Sure, breakfast at your place tomorrow."
"And I'd love to have dinner with you."
"Good." Kuroba cupped his cheek with a sudsy hand and pulled him in for a light kiss. It was just as dizzying as their first kiss had been. "Now, based off the time, you have just enough time to get your things and get dressed before work."
"Damn work," Saguru said, but he pulled back. "Thank you for breakfast."
"Any time. If you have a chance, tell Takumi I'm home and almost on the mend."
"I will." He kissed Kuroba one more time. He had a feeling that was going to become something of a habit.
*o*o*
Aoko's home was the same as Saguru remembered from his other visits, down to the worn nameplate with 'Kuroba' etched on it. The only difference Saguru saw was a wilted-looking pot of flowers set next to the doorstep in what had probably been an attempt to brighten the place up. He had been moving about life in somewhat of a happy daze the last week or so since he spoke to Kuroba, but he was coming back down from it and knew there were still a few things to take care of before he could truly relax, the ongoing arrests, trials, and investigations aside.
Aoko answered his second knock. There were hints of dark circles under her eyes and her flyaway hair was even more untamable than usual, fighting to escape the ponytail she'd forced it into. She didn't look surprised to see him though. Saguru was surprised when she gave him a tired smile instead of the frown he expected.
"Hakuba," she said, leaning on the door frame.
"Aoko-san," Saguru returned. He gripped his cane in both hands, rocking back on his heels. "I thought we should talk."
Aoko snorted, finding something about the situation funny. She gave him a once over before stepping aside. "Come on in then."
There were a pair of men's shoes already lined up next to Aoko and Takumi's shoes indicating that she already had a guest. They weren't the right size for Nakamori.
"Don't bother with guest slippers," Aoko said with a wave of a hand as Saguru took off his shoes. "I don't mind. I was just having some tea with Kintaro."
Kintaro? A memory clicked as Saguru rounded the corner, recognizing an officer from the Kid heist who had worked closely with Aoko. He was perhaps a few years younger than them at most, with a serious looking face. He was relaxed at the moment, one of Aoko's heavy mugs in his hands.
"Kurenai Kintaro," Aoko said, nodding at him. "My second in command for the task force. We were partners for a while before I got my promotion. Kintaro, Hakuba Saguru. He was my classmate in high school."
"A pleasure to formally meet you," Kintaro said. "I've heard quite a bit about you."
Between Aoko and Nakamori, Saguru didn't want to know what sort of stories had been told. He nodded politely and gave pleasantries in return. Aoko hadn't mentioned him, but then Saguru only spoke to Aoko about very specific things. Takumi, on the other hand, had mentioned him a few times if Saguru remembered correctly. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything...?" Saguru ventured.
Aoko gave another small snort of laughter. "No. It's the first day off we've had in weeks and all we could think to do with it is sit and have tea."
"To be fair, we haven't been doing much sitting," Kintaro said with dry humor.
"Or drinking tea. I think I've drank so much coffee the last few weeks my soul left my body for a while there."
"That would be called almost passing out from lack of sleep."
"I went and took a nap after."
"Next time I'll intervene before it gets to that point."
"Damn, there had better not be a next time of that week from hell."
Saguru watched the back and forth, the humor at the stress shared between them, and had a stirring of understanding. He was interrupting a bit. But it wasn't an interruption that would ruin anything, much like Mum showing up wouldn't ruin the back and forth with him and Kuroba. "I take it that was during the worst of the fall out," Saguru said.
"Ugh," Aoko groaned. "It's been hell. And it's going to drag on for months until everyone's had every last thing they've done in the last decade turned inside out and upside-down to be sure the corruption's gone. But on the bright side, now that the hype is fading, the media's not ringing the phones off the hook and for the moment no one's breathing down my neck."
"Small blessings," Kintaro murmured, straight faced into his mug. Aoko elbowed him and poured Saguru a cup of tea.
"So," she said. "I figure you want to talk about Kaito."
Kintaro had a professional blank face. Aoko's frankness meant he had to know about Kid. How they would manage to cover up that they both knew the identity of Kaitou Kid while the whole of the police were being investigated for anything they were hiding, Saguru didn't care to know. He didn't think Aoko would sell Kuroba out, and she wouldn't have told anyone if she thought they would either.
"Yes," Saguru said. He'd thought about how to approach this many times, from a roundabout discussion on Kid and Saguru's past investment in him to attempting to talk through his mental state of recent months. In the end he'd decided to go with the most direct conversation because Aoko was a direct sort of person. Admittedly, he hadn't expected to have someone else present for this. "You're no doubt more than aware that I hold more than friendly feelings for Kuroba by this point," he said, feeling uncomfortably open. He didn't try to get out of it though, meeting Aoko's gaze despite the faint warmth of his cheeks. "Recently I became aware that it was not one sided, and now we are dating. I hope that this won't make things awkward going forward."
Aoko didn't look annoyed, just a slightly exasperated smile on her face and a complete lack of surprise. "No more awkward than it's ever going to be interacting with Kaito." Her smile went a bit more wistful. "I mean, it does feel a bit weird. Especially thinking back to high school. But it's been years since then and years since the divorce, so..." She sighed. "Damn well time to let go of all that."
Kintaro was pretending to be engrossed in his cup of tea.
Saguru cleared his throat. "Right. Thank you for understanding."
"Anytime. Though if he ever hurts you like he did me, I'll be glad to smack some sense in him."
"Thank you," Saguru repeated. Looking at her, she still had the same fire in her that she had in high school. The same fierce glint in her eye she'd have when wielding a mop or protecting a friend. It seemed he still counted as something of a friend to her. Perhaps here, too, he had a chance of building and repairing a relationship into something new. He hoped so. He liked Aoko even if he didn't like Aoko as she was around Kuroba. "Hopefully that will never be necessary."
"It had better not be," she said with a toss of her head. "And I guess you better not hurt him either. Bakaito's fucked up enough as it is."
"I'll try my best." He let his eyes drop to his tea and drank a long swallow in hope that it would make the embarrassment a bit less prevalent. Mostly it just scalded his tongue. "Is Takumi-kun in?"
"He's still grounded for the most part," Aoko said, "so yes. He's in his room. How has he been in class?"
"Quiet."
"He's been pretty quiet here too..." She glanced toward the stairs with pursed lips.
"There was an incident with someone popping a balloon in homeroom recently..."
"Ah." Both Kintaro and Aoko winced, having their own bad experiences with sudden loud noises in the aftermath of trauma. "He didn't mention it..."
"Would you mind if I talked with him?" Saguru asked. "There hasn't been a chance to at school."
"Go ahead," Aoko said. She rubbed the back of her neck, back to looking exhausted and every one of her thirty-four years of age. "He certainly hasn't wanted to talk to me lately." The difficulty of being the parent who was responsible for discipline, Saguru reflected, and the ongoing tension of Takumi almost dying paired with Aoko having to work even more overtime than normal.
Saguru left his tea on the table. He caught a glimpse of Kintaro putting a hand on Aoko's shoulder as he rounded the corner for the stairs, but he didn't linger. Let them have their privacy. He'd almost assuredly interrupted a heart to heart. Maybe Aoko's decision to move on wasn't just for Saguru's ears.
Takumi's room was right at the top of the stairs, identifiable by the whiteboard stuck on it. It had a little doodle of a dragon munching on a lacrosse stick with Shiemi's handwriting indicating that the stick was intended to be the losing team. The door was closed, but Takumi opened it when he knocked.
"Hakuba-sensei?" Takumi looked tired, though not as tired as Aoko. More like high school Kuroba the week before a heist, meaning he hadn't been getting enough sleep.
"Takumi-kun. I wanted to see how you were doing. A lot happened in the last month, and there hasn't been much time to ask."
"Oh." Takumi blinked and scrubbed a hand over his eyes. "Sure. I guess we can talk. Uh. Come in I guess?" He waved a hand at the desk tucked against one wall. "Pull up a chair."
Takumi's room couldn't be more different from the room at Kuroba's apartment. That room had minimal personal touches, but here there were posters on the walls and casual clutter, homework and books and bits and bobs of magician paraphernalia here and there in an organized looking sort of mess. Takumi slumped back over to his bed where he must have been sitting as there was the latest novel from the literature club there face down to save the page.
"Sorry," Takumi mumbled. "It's kind of a mess. I haven't felt like cleaning lately."
"It's fine." Saguru took a seat at the desk chair. Takumi's window looked out at a tree, green leaves heavy and full on the branches. "You look tired."
Takumi shrugged. "How's Tou-san?"
"Home." Saguru smiled as Takumi sat up straighter, relief clear on his face. Kuroba had been much better when Takumi last saw him, but far from well. "He will be back to work any day now and it looks like he will regain the full range of mobility he had before."
"Thank goodness." Takumi tucked his legs to his chest, curled around them in an act of self-comforting that Saguru was well acquainted with.
"Are you okay?" Saguru asked directly.
Takumi shrugged again. "I'm not hurt."
"That wasn't what I asked." He looked so young. So young, and he was young, younger than Kuroba was when Saguru first met him, barely older than Saguru was when he ran into his first murder case. So much younger than it felt like when you were that age, something that only hindsight revealed. It was easy to try to live up to some skewed concept of adulthood. Easy to tell yourself to grow up and move on. It was what Saguru had done once. He wished he hadn't, grown up too fast and pushed down too many emotions before he realized what it did to a person. Saguru sighed and looked past Takumi, to the tree, giving him the illusion of space. "Kuroba hasn't been sleeping well," Saguru said softly. "He hides it well, but he's awake before I am and asleep after." Saguru stayed one night since Kuroba was back in the apartment, and he'd woken halfway through the night to find Kuroba staring out at the dark streets with no expression at all. "I have had nightmares almost every night since Kid's glider went down. It isn't a weakness to acknowledge that the events of the last month haunt you."
Takumi's shoulders hunched, his face pressed into his knees. He had a pretty close imitation of Kuroba's blank face on. "I didn't get hurt," Takumi repeated.
"It doesn't have to be a physical wound to hurt."
"I know that. Just." He hid the rest of his face. "Hakuba-sensei, I only wore the Kid costume once. Tou-san wore it for seventeen years. I keep having nightmares and Tou-san's always had a smile when I need one. Always."
"He's a remarkably good actor," Saguru acknowledged.
"Kaa-san is a police officer and she's been shot at and she's still going on with life, and Tou-san became Kid around my age, probably got shot at and kept going and I can't even get over a few bullets and blood."
Takumi's voice cracked and Saguru hurt both because Takumi couldn't help but compare himself to his parents and because he was viewing it from the wrong angle entirely. Saguru crossed the room to Takumi's side and red-rimmed eyes glanced up at him.
"And you haven't kept going?" Saguru asked softly. He didn't reach out because Takumi looked like the last thing he wanted was to be touched, but he stood close, supportive. "Takumi-kun, you have gotten up in the morning and gone to school and proceeded with your life even with things weighing on you. You didn't hide away after Kid was shot down, but helped save his life and then turned around and did what you thought was the best option even though you were terrified to do it. Bravery isn't a lack of fear, it's acting in spite of it." Takumi looked at him like every word might be the one to snap the world into some sort of order where fear wasn't the forefront of his life and Takumi wasn't full of internal conflict over emotional reactions he couldn't control. "Nightmares don't make you weak, and just because your parents have had more trauma in their life than you, it doesn't negate that what happened to you was traumatic."
"I should be able to just be myself. Move on," Takumi murmured.
"Takumi, the only reason your mother and Kuroba and I appear to be functioning better is because we've had a lifetime of compartmentalizing and learning how and when to deal with the emotions traumatic events bring up. In the first week after Kid was shot, I had to check on Kuroba in the middle of the night half a dozen times, and probably would have stayed the whole night some of those times if Kuroba hadn't woken up and called me out for watching him sleep." Saguru sighed. "What I'm trying to say is that your response is normal. You watched a man—your father—almost die and you were shot at. Those are both extremely upsetting things."
Takumi uncurled a little, still listening.
"Holding it in and pretending it didn't happen will not help. Talk to someone. Write out what you feel or think or everything the nightmares stir up. It will get better. I won't lie and say it will go away, because these sort of things leave scars even if they're not visible. And Takumi?" Saguru crouched until he was eye level. "Kuroba is better at compartmentalizing than most of the world's population, and if you strip all his acts away and make him be honest to himself, even he has scars that will never heal and things that will haunt him for the rest of his life. This is the first time you've had something traumatic like this happen. It's a good thing you're able to feel what you are. Some of us who've gone through it time and again can get so numb that we can't even tell when we're hurting and hurt ourselves worse. Your mind still has the instincts to try and work through and heal."
"It sucks," Takumi said after a few seconds.
"Royally," Saguru agreed with a twitch of a smile. "Nightmares get old fast. I've found that trying to clear my mind before I go to sleep helps sometimes."
"Only sometimes, huh?"
"As much as we try, the subconscious is unfortunately out of our control."
That got him another tiny smile. Takumi uncurled from his ball. "It would have been better if I could have gone to lacrosse, but I kinda blew that. At least Kaa-san's letting me do club activities so long as they're right after school again."
"Exercise in moderation can help," Saguru agreed. "Don't overdo it though."
"I know my limits there," Takumi said.
The tension that had filled the room dissipated as Takumi let out a small sigh.
"So is Tou-san retired?"
"More or less." Saguru returned to the chair, giving him space again. "He does not intend to do any more serious heists, certainly."
"Good." A pause then, "Does that mean Kaa-san's out of a job?"
Saguru tilted his head, considering. "No, because while Kid might be retired, he's certainly left plenty of messes to clean up that Kid's task force is uniquely qualified to deal with. And even if he hadn't, I'm sure Aoko could easily gain a position working theft or specialized cases. The years of experience have given her and her men a wide range of practical experience that transfers broadly."
"Ok. That's good then." Takumi glanced out the window, eyes distant. "You think it will make things less awkward with them? Kaa-san and Tou-san?"
"I hope so." When he let himself dwell on it, Saguru couldn't help but feel sad at the state of Kuroba and Aoko's relationship. They'd been best friends once, weaved in and around each other with a closeness that he'd envied a bit. It was hard to say if more than a decade of lies and secrets and broken hearts could heal at this point.
"At the very least he won't be rubbing Kid in Kaa-san's face," Takumi muttered. "Or getting shot at."
"True."
"Pass on a message for me to Tou-san?" Takumi asked, focusing back on Saguru again. Saguru nodded. "Tell him I expect him to take me to get sushi for my birthday this year."
Saguru raised an eyebrow. Between the fact that Takumi was grounded and that Kuroba hated fish, it was an outing that didn't seem very likely. He took it to mean that Takumi was still a bit angry at Kuroba after all. "I'll pass it along."
"And...tell him that I'm glad he's better. And I'll visit as soon as I can."
"I will."
"Thanks, Hakuba-sensei."
Saguru asked him about lacrosse and how he liked the book from literature club, chatting a bit longer and bringing up Takumi's spirits until he looked almost himself again. When he left, Aoko showed him to the door with a smile and managed to get a promise from him to keep in touch, not just for case reasons.
Life was settling. Saguru thought he was finally ready to settle with it.
OMAKE
Saguru took all of three steps into the literature club meeting before Momoi Shiemi turned to the other members and said, "Ha! Pay up."
"Pardon?" Saguru froze just inside the door, absent smile on his face frozen in light of all the stares in his direction.
"Aw man..." Honda Jirou reached into a pocket for his wallet.
"Seriously?" Mizumachi Kou said.
Watanabe Emi turned around in her seat. "You couldn't have waited a few more weeks?"
"I was betting on that cute guy Takata-sensei mentioned," Honda sighed. He pressed several folded bills into Momoi's hand.
Saguru blinked at them as they went on with...whatever this was. "Were you betting on me?"
"It's not bad for you guys," Nishijima Yuutaro grumbled. "I bet he wasn't gay."
"You suck at this," Momoi said, collecting money from everyone there. Even a shamefaced Takumi.
"To be fair, statistically speaking—"
"Literally everyone else changed their bets after we read Confessions of a Mask," Momoi said. "Let alone the news articles."
"I didn't want to assume!"
"So you assumed he was straight?" Momoi quipped.
Saguru decided he should have just come to the meeting late. Or not at all. Now that their bet was done they were ignoring him altogether. He sat in a chair and watched with something akin to morbid fascination.
"Nishijima-kun, twenty percent of the population isn't straight," Honda pointed out.
"The numbers are inflated!" Nishijima waved a hand in emphasis. "There's over thirty people in my home room alone and none of them are gay."
"First," Takumi said, sounding tired, "not straight does not automatically equal gay. Second, how would you even know? Most people are closeted."
"Third," Momoi chimed in, "you're wrong—you do have someone in your class who's gay. Me."
The whole literature club went briefly silent. Half the members looked at Momoi wide eyed. Nishijima looked like he wanted to swallow all the words he'd just said. Takumi looked like he couldn't be more proud of Momoi in that moment.
"Oh," Nishijima said awkwardly. He glanced around, lingering on Saguru and Takumi who hadn't been surprised in the least. "You knew?"
"Shiemi told me ages ago," Takumi said.
"I overheard certain things," Saguru said diplomatically.
"Oh." He cleared his throat. "Anyone else gay that I should know about?"
Honda raised a hand. No one except Nishijima looked even a bit surprised.
"Seriously?"
"He chose the gay book," Momoi said. "He isn't even trying to hide it."
"So," Saguru cut in, "all of you had nothing better to do over summer break than make bets over your teacher's sexuality?"
"We've been making bets since the start of the school year and this one was on your relationship status," Momoi said with a false innocent look one her face.
Ever diplomatic, Takumi shrugged apologetically. "From the sound of it, last year they bet whether or not Yumi-sensei was pregnant."
"Nishijima-kun bet she wasn't," Mizumachi snickered.
"You have terrible luck," Watanabe said. "Never gamble."
Saguru rolled his eyes at the lot of them. "How many people were even in on this?"
"Mm, the lit club," Momoi said, "a couple teachers led by Takata-sensei, some lacrosse team members including Yuuto-kun—"
"We only met once," Saguru muttered. "He's not even in my classes."
"Five people from your homeroom," Momoi continued without missing a beat, "a guy I know on the police force, and one of the maintenance men who can never turn down a bet." She grinned at Saguru. "For the record, I made a lot of money."
"I feel like I should be discouraging this gambling habit of yours." First the card games at the start of the year, now she was the bookie of a bet. They were lucky he was mostly exasperated and embarrassed than annoyed by the speculations. "Also, how do you know you won anything?"
Momoi snorted. "Please. You and Kuroba-ji have been dancing around each other since you moved here. You have to be as blind as Nishijima to miss it."
"I take offense to that," Nishijima grumbled.
"Also," Momoi said ignoring Nishijima's commentary, "besides your totally sappy look coming in here, Takumi totally witnessed you two kissing and if you aren't dating after that, I have questions about how you draw lines in your relationships."
Takumi didn't meet anyone's eyes, flipping through the novel they were supposed to be discussing. The tips of his ears were red with embarrassment. He'd handed over money with everyone else, so clearly he had been betting on this too. Honestly, at this point the only thing Saguru was surprised about was that Takumi never confronted him about seeing them kiss at all.
Saguru sighed, rubbing at his forehead.
"So," Momoi said, "are you dating?"
Saguru held up his copy of that week's novel. "So. This is literature club. Where we discuss literature. Form a gossip club on your own time."
"Spoilsport." She had a predatory sort of smile that promised nagging questions later and Saguru resigned himself to trying to ignore that for the rest of the day. If she wanted confirmation on anything, she could drag it out of Takumi or Kuroba, not Saguru.
o*O*o
AN:Just the epilogue left guys! Thanks for sticking with this fic so long ^_^ And thank you for all your awesome comments every chapter. They always make me smile. (Promise I'll go answer them eventually! Haven't been in the right head space to do so, but they're still very appreciated ^_~ )
There's going to be more extras and a prequel fic for this universe at some point, but I think I'll be taking a bit of a break after posting the last chapter before posting them all. Thank you for reading! 3
