Disclaimer: I don't own DCMK.

A Touch of Magic

4: The Choices We Make

Things changed after the kiss, but only a little. The pattern of their lives continued the way they always had—or at least the way they had been for the past six months. But the comfortable companionship they'd shared had shifted subtly. Kaito had made his intentions clear both to himself and to Shinichi that night, and he wasn't going to change his mind. He could tell Shinichi wasn't sure one way or the other, but Kaito didn't mind waiting. He could be patient when he needed to be, and he was fairly content with the way things were for the time being. In the meantime he would make sure Shinichi knew he meant to stay. And that his choice hadn't been a rash one as Shinichi seemed to think it was.

He had the feeling that Shinichi still disapproved of his decision not to inform his former household of his current mortal status, but the painter hadn't brought the matter up again since that night by the river. For his part the magician didn't intend to change his mind on that choice either. He was happy here after all. There wasn't really any point in dragging up the past.

And really, it was time he—no, they—made their own past.

X

After the midsummer festival the garden fountain hybrid they had all helped to make was set up in the middle of the village where its wheels were removed and additional flower beds were planted around it. Now it stood there, its waters bubbling away with all the good cheer that a fountain should have, proudly marked by a neatly painted sign with the names of everyone who had participated in its creation engraved on it. They hadn't won first place, but they had tied for second and everyone except for Sonoko was content with that. After all, it was the first time Sorgan had won any place at the parade contest.

With the fountain's strangely weaving waters on display for everyone to see, it wasn't long before Kaito was being stopped on the street by curious villagers with all sorts of questions. It was ironic, he thought, that he'd been living in the village for nearly seven months and it was only now that they were beginning to wonder who he was.

"Hey, Shinichi."

They were at the dining table again, this time eating dinner. The painter looked up from his meal and made a questioning sound since his mouth was full.

"You know how several people have asked me to teach them how to use magic?"

Shinichi blinked and swallowed. "I remember."

"Well, I was thinking of holding a four week class for beginners covering the basics of spell work. Would you mind if I did it here?"

Shinichi hesitated a moment, frowning. "I guess not, but how many people are you expecting? This isn't a big house, you know."

"I'd say about four or five, and since it'll be really basic stuff there shouldn't be any problems. We'll go outside if we try anything that could backfire."

"I guess that's all right then."

On the first day of class however the four or five turned out to be thirteen ranging in age from a ten year old girl to an old man in his fifties. Shinichi had never had so many people in his house before and he wasn't entirely sure what to do about it. For one, no one had much room to do anything but stand around awkwardly and apologize to whomever they happened to bump into next. Eventually the whole lot had been herded outside and class was held on the bank of the river.

Cleaning up the mess that thirteen strangers trouping in then out of his house had left, Shinichi paused by the window to watch the class in session. Kaito was an extremely animated speaker and even from here he could see the magician waving his arms around in expressive circles. The students sat arrayed on the ground before him, listening with a great deal more interest than most teachers ever got from their pupils. The sight made Shinichi smile as he went back to cleaning.

It was strange, he reflected, pushing the table back into its rightful place. He had lived in this house all his life and everything in it had been there for as long as he could remember. Nothing had been changed. And yet it felt…different now. When he looked into the rooms he no longer saw the phantom of his mother's laughing face or the solemn shadow of his father as he contemplated some piece of script. Instead he recalled the impromptu lightshow Kaito had put on the other night, making illusory pictures to accompany a story he'd been telling about one particularly memorable practitioners' convention he'd attended. The old memories were still there, lingering on the edges of his mind, but they were no longer the first things he saw when he looked back.

Fifteen minutes later an enormous plume of fire shot into the sky and two of the would-be-sorcerers leaped into the river, yelling all the way.

All in all, Kaito mused as he watched his new students leave and grinned to himself, it was a successful first day.

X

It was the quiet moments that had changed the most. In those moments when there was nothing they had to do, when they could simply talk or read and enjoy each other's company. In those moments Kaito wanted nothing more than to just pull Shinichi into his arms and kiss him again, but he didn't want to push too hard. He settled instead for letting his hand linger when he handed Shinichi a plate or when he leaned over the other's shoulder to read something or look at whatever he was drawing. A quick hug whenever they had to go their separate ways.

Shinichi seemed a bit jumpy when he noticed, turning red and looking away, but as the days passed he grew more accustomed to the magician's new habits and relaxed.

"This place feels like an island, you know."

"An island?"

"Yep. Hardly anyone new ever comes here and hardly anyone ever leaves."

"That's not true. People come and go all the time."

"But they're not new people. And people aren't leaving all the time. There aren't enough people here for them to be leaving all the time and this place to still exist after all. The number of people who leave permanently is actually quite limited."

"I guess that's true…"

"Don't you ever wonder what's out there?"

"I used to."

"Not anymore?"

"I…can't really imagine leaving this place. What about you though? It sounds to me like you've thought about this a lot."

"I did."

"Did? Not do?"

"I suppose you could say some things are sweeter than adventure."

A shake of the head. "Has anyone ever told you that you're strange?"

A grin. "You have no idea."

X

The summer heat was beginning to fade as autumn sought to spread her wings over the land. This particular morning found Kaito and Shinichi back in Beika, having just brought some of the latter's paintings to the small shop whose owner had asked for them. The painter, Kaito had found, gave away about as many pieces as he sold, but there were a couple dealers in town who were glad to add his work to their stock.

"How about we find somewhere around here to eat breakfast before we head back?" he suggested as they exited the shop.

They found a restaurant which claimed to have some of the 'Best food anywhere!" and got a table by the window. There weren't a lot of customers in the place at this time of day, but neither of them was going to complain about that. It was peaceful there and while the food that arrived wasn't exactly the "Best food anywhere!" it was still pretty good.

They had almost finished their meal when two men in dusty, travel worn coats came tramping into the restaurant and sat down at the table behind them. Kaito wouldn't have paid them much heed (he much preferred watching his companion) but his keen ears caught a familiar name.

"—Nakamori and his damned meddling," one man was grumbling. "What gives them the right to decide what kinds of magic artifacts the rest of us get to use?"

"Damned high-minded bastards," the second man agreed, slouching down in his seat. Kaito snorted, rolling his eyes at Shinichi. He'd heard plenty of people talk that way about the Nakamori school's self appointed mission to find and contain dangerous artifacts. Most of the time those people were second rate sorcerers who thought a magical artifact would make up for their own lack of skill. The rest of the time they were the very nutcases from whom Uncle Ginzo aimed to keep those artifacts—a.k.a. the wrong hands. Anyone with any real understanding of the workings of power knew that the danger in those artifacts was too real to ignore.

"Yeah, well, they won't be doing any more of that after today," the first man laughed, sounding suddenly gleeful.

His friend gave him a rather dour look. "Yeah? Why? They all caught sick or something? Because I doubt any of 'em will be changing their tunes any time soon. And unfortunately for the rest of us they've got the most talented sorcerers in these parts on their side."

"They may have talent, but that's not gonna help 'em. You see," he lowered his voice, leaning forward with a conspiratorial grin, "I heard from my brother that his master came up with a new technique. A binding that traps all of a practitioner's power inside them so they can't cast spells."

"Really? Is that even possible?"

"Yep. He showed it to me yesterday."

"Okay, so let's say I believe you," his friend relented. "What does that have to do with that Nakamori's school?"

"Well, they're going over there today, left just a bit ago in fact," he replied, voice growing even quieter and forcing Kaito to turn his head slightly in order to hear better. Across the table he could see that Shinichi's eyes had gone wide in realization. "All they have to do is get rid of those self righteous bastards and then we'll have access to all that stuff they've got tucked away in that school."

"Sounds risky to me."

"Not with that binding. They won't stand a chance. And as long as none of 'em get away no one will ever know what happened."

"It certainly would make the rest of our lives easier. You know, some of those artifacts are worth a hell of a lot of money…"

Kaito stood up abruptly, glancing across the table to see that Shinichi had done the same. They left the money for their meal on the table and slipped outside. The morning air didn't feel quite as crisp as it had before they'd gone inside, Kaito noted a tad bitterly. And it had been such a promising day too.

"They keep messenger birds at the post office, right?" he asked, turning to Shinichi. "Which way?"

"Do you think that'll be enough?"

"It should be." The magician's hands clenched reflexively at his sides as his eyes narrowed in thought. "No one's ever created a binding like the one they mentioned that couldn't be broken yet, and the old man's no slouch. He's got a lot of tricks up his sleeves to have lived this long with so many enemies."

"But what about the rest of the students?"

"The advanced students should be able to handle it. If it was a seal that would be a bit different, though even then there should be ways around it. But if they really did come up with a new spell…" He paused, mind racing and cursing fate for suddenly dropping this into his lap. On the one hand truly new spells were rare. Most of the time people came up with 'new' spells only to find that they'd rediscovered an old one. On top of that spells aimed at similar results often had similar weaves by default. Being well aware that he had enemies, Uncle Ginzo had naturally studied up on anti-magic bindings. They wouldn't be able to do more than inconvenience him. On the other hand, if this spell really was new and not just piggybacking off of old ideas, it could take even an experienced sorcerer a lot of time to figure out how to unravel it.

"Give me the address. I'll go to the post office. There's a livery stable on the north side of town. You can borrow a horse from them."

"Right. Here." A paper appeared out of thin air in the painter's hand as the magician let out a frustrated breath and turned, then hesitated and glanced back at Shinichi.

"What are you waiting for?" he asked, frowning. "They weren't talking about just locking up people's powers in there. If you don't go now, you might not make it in time—they might already be there—and you'll regret it for the rest of your life. Didn't you tell me the purpose of magic was to protect life?"

"I…" Letting out a short puff of air, Kaito turned all the way back around and placed his hands on Shinichi's shoulders, staring him straight in the eyes. "I'll be back."

The other's gaze softened but he shook his head, gently removing Kaito's hands from his shoulders. "You're running out of time."

Kaito frowned, part of him wanting to stay and argue—though what about he wasn't entirely sure. He just knew this felt a lot more like a goodbye than it had any right to. But Shinichi had already set off at a run and he had no choice but to go the other way.

Of all the times for something like this to happen, why did it have to be now?

TBC

A.N: Kaito seems to be having quite a lot of bad luck in this story. ^^ Well, this story's almost done. Kind of makes me sad. See you next time!