Written for this universe by the ever-talented juncici-chan! Shower her with praise!
Invisible as it was, the wind was there. It moved silently between the leaves of a tree, *rustle, rustle*, curving under a metal pipe on the ground until itwhistled, *sh, sh*, over the building and it's flags, *hwah, hwahh*, lowering to the bells that hung simply from a store door, *ting-a-ling-a-ling, ting-a-ling-a-ling*.
A little girl; seven, maybe, eight, maybe, swung gently on a swing. Her hands don't grasp the metal chains nearly as tight as she should because they aretoo large and she is too little. Her little body hurled forward, stubby legs straight out infront of her, a little pink dress trailing behind her... Then the movement stops abruptly, and she pulls back to swing forward again.
He watches this, silently, beside her. It wasn't like she was going to see him, or care. It had been six months since he had fallen asleep in school and woken up disoriented. Five months since he's pieced it all together. Two months since he's given up on anyone noticing.
She was pretty, all soft strands of hair and big, unearthly blue eyes. He wondered what her name was, how old she was, why was she alone in this deserted park anyways?
"Are you lonely, Onii-san?"
She turned to look at him, still swinging in a jerky, seven-maybe-eight manner that she did before. He stared at her, mouth gaping wide. What the...
"Are you, Onii-san?" She repeated.
He found himself nodding (because that was the truth, he was lonely, lonely, agonizingly alone) and the little girl gave him a wide, toothy smile, except one tooth ride in the middle was gone. He remembered that's where he lost his first tooth too.
(*"Honey! Let's take a picture, take a picture! Our son's all grown up now!"
Kuroba Toichi's gone the next day"*)
"Hi!" She shouted out enthusiastically, perfectly applying the child-like belief that louder means better. He found that it did--his ears might still beringing, but that least now they rung. "My name is Ao-ko! And what's yours?"
He wondered if he should say Kuroba Kaito, that's my name, here's a rose, nice to meet you. But it seems like such a useless sentimentality now, his last name. Something wholly human that he needn't participate in.
That scared him more then anything else.
He held out a rose--Kaitou KID's still a magician, dead or alive--smiling sweetly, murmuring, "Here. I'm Kuroba Kaito. Nice to meet you."
The little girl beamed, accepting the rose and promptly pushing her face right against it, sniffing exaggeratedly at the flower. "Mm! Nice to meet you too!"
He watched this all in awe. He couldn't even begin how grateful he was to be seen by her. He...
A man, tall, burly, the type that could mix into a crowd but come right out of it again, walked through. Kaito's eyes widened. It was Nakamouri-keibu.
"Aoko!" Nakamouri-keibu shouted angrily, "How many times do I have to tell you not to come to this park? It's dangerous! Go play by the clock tower instead!"
"But Daddy~ I've met a new friend, see?" Aoko pointed at the swing-set next to her, still swaying gently. Kaito looked for any sign of recognition from Nakamouri-keibu. "His name's Kaito-nii-san! He gave me this pretty flower, see?" She thrust out her hand, her fist still grasping on to the stem. Kaito was glad he had smoothed out the thorns before.
Nakamouri-keibu stared at his daughter, then at the empty swing swaying eerily in the wing (*ching, ching*, the old, too-big-for-Aoko's-little-hands-chain rang, *ching, ching*), then at the pretty bundle of air in her out-stretched fist. He wondered if he should be worried, then decided against it. Aoko was seven and a half. These things were normal, right? (He wished he still had a wife to report these matters to)
"Well, come along then, Aoko, we have to go to dance class."
He held her hand and pulled gently, but she wouldn't let go the wing.
"Say hello to Kaito-nii-chan!" She demanded shrilly, "See? He's waiting for you to say hi!"
Kaito stared at her in surprise. He was, but not in the way she thought. It was obviously the man did not care about him.
Nakamouri-keibu turned to the empty swing in exasperation.
"Hello, Kaito-nii-chan."
Aoko hopped off the swing, satisfied. She followed her father away...
"Wait, will you be back?" Kaito asked. Maybe the wind heard his plea, because it stopped for a moment to deliver his words and brought her words back to him. Aoko turned and smiled over her shoulders. A toothy smile that reminded Kaito of his last photograph with his dad.
"`Course, Kaito-nii-chan! Because I'm lonely too."
Invisible as it was, the wind was there. It moved silently between the leaves of a tree, *rustle, rustle*, curving under a metal pipe on the ground until it whistled, *sh, sh*, over the building and it's flags, *hwah, wahh*, lowering to the bells that hung simply from a store door, *ting-a-ling-a-ling, ting-a-ling-a-ling*.
Invisible as he was, Kaito felt like shouting to the world.