Author's note: I own nothing. NOTHING. And I can't do anything about it, nor can you, so read the story and stop getting bothered by my fairly silly disclaimers…

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High school reunion

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"Keiko, I don't know… I've got a lot of work. I don't know if I'll have time enough to…"

"Nonsense!" Keiko snapped on the other end of the line. "It's two in the afternoon. You've got plenty of time. Where are you now?"

"In the shopping centre. But…"

"That's only ten minutes away! You can come here and just drop by for an hour before going to work tonight. Come on, Aoko! There's only one high school reunion a year. You wouldn't miss such an occasion to see the old friends!"

That's exactly what I want to avoid, Aoko thought, sliding between two desks displaying stuffy red and green Santas. Although she knew there was little chance Kaito would there, too – he'd never been fond of this kind of things – she wouldn't take the risk.

"I'll bet you haven't even seen Akako-chan and Hakuba-kun since they've returned to Japan," Keiko was saying excitedly.

"I have…"

"And Kuroba-kun won't be there, okay, but that's no reason for you to stay away too!"

Oh, he wouldn't come? If Keiko said that then it meant she'd called him and pressed him to come, and he'd shoved her away. Aoko's convictions of not going were melting rapidly.

"Huh… Keiko… look, I'll try to come. I could find time to peep in. Just don't wait for me, right?"

She hung up without waiting for her friend's answer, and gazed emptily at the large, rainy alleyways of the shopping centre. Well, why not, after all? It'd been a while since she hadn't seen anybody – except Akako and Saguru… her work was taking the upper hand upon her leisure… and the school was always nice on this period of the year, with Christmas approaching… anyway she wasn't finding anything here, was she?

-

"Aoko!" Keiko shouted as she was advancing in her high school's hall, shaking the snow away from her coat. "I'm so glad you came! It's been ages since I haven't seen you, too – you're always working. Everyone will be so happy!"

Keiko hadn't changed, Aoko thought, following her in the staircase. Hopping, exuberant and talkative. The school's buildings hadn't much changed either – only the paint on the walls and a few doors which didn't use to be where they were now. They advanced in the corridor, heading for their previous classroom, Keiko still talking.

"Everyone will be so happy you managed to come eventually! Akako and Saguru were waiting impatiently for you. And Kuroba…"

"Kaito?" Aoko stopped cold in front of their class' door. "He's here, too? I thought… you said…"

"Oh yeah, he didn't mean to come – but Miyoshi-kun went and fetched him when I told him you'd come. He didn't want to, but he brought him there anyway…" Keiko was beaming at her, convinced this was a delightful surprise. She had no idea Aoko had just been stabbed to the heart. He was there, just behind this door – and she wanted to flee.

"Wait…"

But Keiko opened the door and dragged her in before she could say anything more.

"Aoko!" about thirty people cheered as she dazzlingly gazed around, still confused. There was no escape now – they all surrounded her, talking and laughing loudly. There were some faces she didn't even remember – they did remember her of course. She was always in the papers.

She didn't even have to look – she knew he was there, in the back of the classroom, along with Akako and Saguru. Above everybody's voice, above everybody's presence, the voice and presence she sensed most of all was his and his only. After having been chasing him for a countless numbers of nights, that was only fair.

"So, Nakamori-san," a girl she vaguely recognised as a member of Kid's fan club, back in high school classes, "what is he like?

"Who?" she asked, still a little dizzy.

"Kid, of course! You fight him every night! You must know what he's like!"

Everyone was now earnestly waiting for her answer. She backed in the alley, towards Akako and Saguru, and ran into a chest–

"Sorry–"

"Careful–"

They stopped, confused. Aoko sat on a table for protection, trying not to look too strongly at Kaito as she answered.

"The thief's nothing special, really. He's just smug and arrogant; a self-concentrated criminal with a super-developed ego and a strong tendency to underestimate everybody else."

She saw Kaito's smile as he turned away and walked to the window. Then Akako and Saguru came to greet her, and, when she looked again, he was already somewhere else, talking with a guy whose name she didn't even remember.

She was still asked quite often about Kid and his heists from then on, but she refused to answer anything but that she would catch him one day or the other – until a very smart guy thought it clever to say noisily, "Yeah, your father used to say, too. Now he's dead because of Kid."

Kaito, Aoko remarked, repressed a twitching move of the hand, as though he'd wanted to grasp the guy's throat. "Let me show you an aikido hold they teach you at the police exam," she said very calmly, casting him a warning glance.

After that nobody bothered her about Kid anymore.

About half an hour after she'd arrived, Aoko sat, quite alone, by the window, thinking the last months over and over, when Hakuba startled her by joining in.

"Are you okay?" he asked worriedly.

"Yeah… " she spared him a half-smile, rather forced. "I feel nostalgic, that's all. So many things happened in this class. We used to have a lot of fun here, all of us."

"The mop chases?" Saguru suggested, raising an eyebrow.

"Among other things," she admitted.

They fell into a long silence, until Hakuba began hesitantly, "About the other day, Aoko, we really didn't…"

"I know," Aoko cut in without looking at him. Her glance wandered on Keiko, who was going over an article about Kid in one corner of the classroom. "I was angry on the spot, but I understand now. Of course you couldn't tell me. I'm sorry I made a row in that restaurant, but all of this has just… lasted too long." She paused, then added, "I shouldn't have come today."

Hakuba sighed. "As a matter of fact, I didn't expect you to come. Is it Kuroba…"

"Hmm… well, I didn't want to meet him – not here. But I just think that coming back here…" she cast a panoramic gaze over the whole room, from the door to the blackboard, "after so much time, wasn't a good idea. What I mean is… when I see all of them," she nodded at the ex-students, excitedly rehearsing the small events of their scholarship together, "I feel that they're just adults pretending to be children again. It's kinda disgusting. They haven't understood that we have changed, over the years, and just coming back to those days, be it only for a few hours, is impossible. I'm not the child I used to be – I've grown to like things and hate others – I can't simply pretend I haven't grown up. The teenage I was used to laugh naively at what happened to her. I can't." She gave him a small, bitter smile. "I guess I'm not as innocent as I was back then."

"I think I see what you mean." Hakuba looked down. "In high school classes, my relationship towards you and Kuroba was… interested. I mean…" he looked up to meet her wide, blue gaze, "I said you were my type of girl because I knew you were a police officer's daughter, and therefore likely to become a police officer yourself, so that dating you would cause no disturbance in my own, small life. As for Kaito, well, he's Kid. I was only waiting for an opportunity to catch him. I didn't even consider him like a human being, rather like a winning prize."

Aoko opened her mouth.

Before she could say anything, however, a shrilling voice at the back of the classroom asked high-pitchedly, "What? Akako-chan, you're pregnant?"

"Oh, that would happen," Hakuba groaned and, sliding off from the windowsill, went in rescue of his wife. Aoko followed him, though at a slower pace. She thought about all that had been said between them, everything they'd confessed although they had no idea why, him probably as much as herself. It was odd enough, but she felt as though a weigh was off her shoulders. Maybe, she thought as she joined the throng, because she knew she could rely on her friends at last.

As she arrived, the questions were at the 'Will it be a boy or a girl?' point. Akako was caressing her stomach and answering, "We don't know yet. It's only been three months."

"That's wonderful!" Keiko was piping.

"You'll have a hell of a time," Kaito, who was sitting on a table with his arm pityingly wrapped around Saguru's shoulders, commented.

"You must be very happy, both of you," Aoko congratulated them. An weird jolt at her stomach made her wince, though, as the Hakuba couple looked at one another with tenderness. Her high school friends were going to have a baby – they were married, well used to the couple life – while she'd strolled behind, keeping with her dreams.

"Who'll be the godfather and godmother?" she asked to hide her emotion.

"Well, we thought about that," Akako said seriously. "Obviously Lucifer and Lilith couldn't fit in. So we thought… Aoko, would you like to be the godmother?"

Aoko remained speechless for a few seconds – she had not expected it, after all. "I'd love to," she said eventually, "but you know I work a lot. Do you think I'd suit the job anyways?"

"Of course you would," Saguru said. "Kuroba…" Aoko's stomach dropped a few inches as he said that – was she really that stupid? "We thought about you for the godmother – godfather, I mean. Do you object?"

Should have known, Aoko and Kaito thought togther, but before he could answer he phone rang.

"Hello? Hi, Kudo-kun! … Fine. How's… Great. Why do you call? … Yeah, I'm home tonight… of course! a tantei's stories would be much appreciated. Same for Ran-chan's karate."

She laughed.

"I'm joking. … now? I'm on a high school reunion… No, you're not bothering… don't worry, it's fine… what?" There was a pause. "Yeah, he's here, too."

Kaito looked at her from his table.

"What? can't you just call him? … right. Here." She handed the phone over to Kaito. "'Wants to talk to you."

He took the phone with an annoyed look, taking great care, she remarked, not to touch her. As the mere brushing of his fingers would have sent her heart racing, it was probably just as well.

"Kudo? What is it now? … what, tonight? Is this some kind of joke? … Hattori as well? … well, don't come crying afterwards. Her cooking's terrible. … Ha, ha! No. Right, see ya."

He handed the phone back and grabbed his bag.

"You're leaving, Kuroba?" a random guy asked.

"Yeah. I've got a lot of work tonight." He was grinning. Aoko looked up, frowning.

"Where is it you're working?"

"Hum…" he murmured thoughtfully, playing with her nerves as though they were puppets. "Well, there's the Beika museum…"

Aoko's eyes widened. "WHAT?"

"Bye, everyone!"

He opened the door.

And was effectively knocked away and against a desk by the man who dashed into the classroom then.

He wore long hair and a three-days old beard. And a very nice-looking gun in one hand. Aoko recognised him instantly. A photofit of his face was stuck on the walls of every police station in town. He was a drug dealer who'd recently escaped from jail. He'd already shot two people, one of whom had died in hospital. A dangerous guy, who'd found refuge in a high school, where no one could possibly arrest him…

He grabbed the wrist of the first weak-looking girl around him and pointed his gun at her, evidently meaning to use her as an hostage. Everyone was looking at them right now, so no one saw where had come from the ace of spades which suddenly flew his gun away; and afterwards no one cared to look. Anyone, he was weaponless now.

And unfortunately, the weak-looking hostage wasn't actually that weak.

Well… nobody would dare teasing Aoko again after that. Her aikido holds really were terrible.

As the dealer lay snoring on the ground, she handcuffed him to a table before dialling a number on her cell. Hakuba, she remarked with amusement as the tone rang out in the earpiece, was stating the time of arrest from his pocket watch – old habits die hard.

"Hello… Miyoshi-san? yeah, it's me. You know that drug dealer… that's the one. Well, he's handcuffed too a table next to me. … if you could ask for some officers to be sent… thanks. I am…"

Everybody else was stone-struck, except for Akako, who was smiling broadly – being both a witch and Hakuba's wife must have compelled her to see worst things – and Kaito, as calm as Aoko was.

"As I said," he hoisted his bag back on his shoulder, "I'm leaving."

"Oh, and Miyoshi-san? Tell out men to get ready. I guess Kid will be on the move tonight."

-

"Aoko, did you and Kaito have an argument?"

"Why do you ask?" Aoko frowned. Keiko had called her on her way to work.

"Well, it was obvious you wouldn't talk to each other if you could avoid it."

Aoko stepped out of her car locked it, and went into the police station, nodding at the officers she met on her way to her desk. "We're kinda… fallen out with each other."

"I thought so," Keiko said on the other end, while she was settling at her computer and checking the e-mails. As expected, one of Kid was shining lightly on the plain background. Another enigma, without doubt.

"The two of you were talking and laughing as usual… but you also seemed lonelier."

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At first, this was supposed to be a mere high school reunion with a few jokes and some memories of mop chases. It turned out to be more angsty than I thought. Every one of those chapters turns out to be more angsty than I thought…