Ok, I managed to write SOMETHING for HakuKai Week. Woo! I have a little more for other days, but gosh I wasn't sure if I'd be able to get anything considering how writing has been this year. Anyway, enjoy? They didn't want to come out super shippy annoyingly enough, but it's something -_-;;
Saguru, without a doubt, was not meant for the stage.
Kaito studied him critically as Saguru adjusted the sad-looking Holmes costume their classmates had cobbled together. Even the wannabe cosplay Saguru came to Japan in would have looked better. Plus, he was holding himself too stiffly. To think, here Saguru was getting to live his fanboy dream of being Holmes for a day and he wasn't even having fun with it.
"Okay, stop," Kaito said. "This is a travesty."
Saguru glowered at him. "The costume," he said stiffly, his shoulders forced too tight by poorly made sleeves, "doesn't fit right."
"That's only part of the problem," Kaito said. "You should be able to embody Holmes even wearing a paper bag. Why are you moving like the stage is full of land mines?"
"Acting is….different," Saguru said. A lame excuse for a man that had the public eye on the regular. "There's lines and an audience," Saguru mumbled, unable to meet Kaito's eyes.
"So? You deduct in front of people all the time." Saguru treated solving a case like a stage in its own right with him performing a monologue. It really shouldn't be this complicated.
Saguru shook his head, a pinched furrow in his brow. "But that isn't acting."
"It's a role!" Kaito said rolling his eyes. "You're a 'detective' so you act like one. Just be 'Saguru the detective' for a bit and add in some Holmes flair."
"But—"
Kaito raised a hand. "Look. How would you enter this room if it was a case?" He watched expectantly as Saguru gave him a blank stare. An eyebrow lifted impatiently.
Hesitantly, Saguru walked to the edge of the stage. If this was a crime scene… He stepped forward, eyes sweeping the area like he would when searching for clues, back straight and ready for anything.
"Okay, good," Kaito said. "Now how would Holmes enter the same room?"
"…Oh," Saguru said like something was finally connecting.
"Exactly." Took long enough. "The audience doesn't exist. You're here, you're Holmes, and you have a case to solve and people to see through. Now give me that cape and hat thingy." He made grabby hands in Saguru's direction. "This is embarrassing."
Saguru shrugged off his costume pieces, careful not to rip any seams. "You sew?" he asked as Kaito pulled out needle and thread, seemingly from nowhere.
"Yeah," Kaito said, grabbing the cape first. "A bit. Enough to fix the fit of things. I can't believe they gave the girls costuming just because they assumed they could sew."
"Statistically speaking, they are more likely to know."
"Okay but realistically speaking, most people these days do one tiny project in elementary school—if they're lucky enough for that—and never pick up a needle again."
"And yet," Saguru said, sitting down across from Kaito with a searching look, "you know how to do a fair bit more than that."
"It's useful." Kaito snipped a thread, mentally going through Saguru's numbers for shoulder width and neck, readjusting plans. Hakuba's eyes narrowed at him. Kaito could all but feel him skirting around accusing him of being Kid in his mind. "I'm a magician," Kaito said, because it was true and he had legitimate reasons for learning to sew. "Sometimes you need to make pockets in things that don't have pockets. And sometimes off-the-rack clothes fit like shit and you just want them to sit right."
He was good at sewing fast, and even better at sewing fast for temporary things. It didn't have to be perfect; it was a crappy stage play. It just had to fit better and stay in one piece for the whole play.
"Try that on," Kaito said after a few silent minutes of work.
Saguru obliged, settling the silly-looking cape on his shoulders again. Not perfect, Kaito reflected, seeing all the tiny flaws in his work and the original stitching, but it was much better than before and Saguru could actually move his arms now without threatening to rip it.
"Great. Now the hat." The hat was too big, so all Kaito had to do was take in the seams a bit and readjust the brim, which, ok, was basically taking the thing apart and remaking it all over again. Details.
"Why do you care if I have a fitting costume or can act?" Saguru asked bluntly.
Kaito glanced up from dismantling the hat, brows high. "One, you're representing the class. Two, I'm acting too and I don't want to hold it together if you choke."
"I still can't believe they cast you as Watson," Saguru said, sounding tired. Kaito didn't check his expression, the hat taking priority, but he could all but picture Saguru pinching the bridge of his nose.
"I can act," Kaito said just as blunt. "They're counting on me to carry the show if you trip up."
"…Such a convenient array of skills you have," Saguru said leadingly. "Acting, sleight of hand, making clothing fit, makeup…"
"What makes you think I know makeup?" Kaito asked.
"I overheard you giving tips about blending to Nakamori."
Kaito sighed. "Stage makeup can be important, and if you're going to learn stage makeup, might as well learn how to do regular makeup too. And stop implying I'm Kid. No matter how much you insinuate, I'm not going to confess."
"Not confessing isn't the same as not being Kid," Saguru pointed out.
Kaito gave him a flat look before tossing the half-sewn hat in his face. "You know what? You can finish that yourself."
Saguru blinked at him. "It's genuinely annoying you to be accused."
"It's always annoyed me," Kaito said sourly.
"You are generally tolerantly-annoyed. Or at least willing to argue." He turned the hat pieces around in his lap. "I thought…"
"You thought what, Hakuba?"
"We had an… understanding? Dynamic?"
"I don't mind some banter, but it gets tiring to be accused all the time. You make having a conversation into a minefield."
"…Apologies," Saguru said stiffly.
Kaito let him feel uncomfortable for a moment before holding out his hand with a heavy sigh. "I'll finish the hat. Then you're running through a scene with me until you can be Holmes to my Watson convincingly."
Saguru handed the hat back slowly. Kaito pretended to not notice how he continued to stare a hole in Kaito's head as Kaito bent back over his sewing. "Kuroba."
"Hm?"
"Thank you." Saguru sounded so stiff, Kaito could think he never thanked anyone before.
Kaito waved the thanks away. "I already said it's not for you personally or anything."
"All the same. You did not have to help, and you are helping."
"Just act properly on stage and we'll call it even," Kaito said.
Hakuba actually smiled at him. A proper smile, not the smug ones he got when he thought he knew more than Kaito or that he had Kaito cornered with some stretch of logic. It was a lot nicer than the usual smiles. "I'll do my best."
Kaito finished up the hat as fast as possible. They would act. Saguru would get better at it. And they could go back to their usual circling each other like wary cats some other time. Kaito tried not to let the thought of returning to normal disappoint him.
"Your hat, Holmes," Kaito said, affecting his Watson persona.
Saguru took it with more gravity than the action deserved. "Thank you, Watson." As he put on the hat, Kaito could finally see a bit of Holmes in him.