SAGURU
Saguru awoke early the next morning feeling shaky and sluggish. There was a taste of bile in the back of his throat and he headed to his bathroom to wash out the taste. Shaking, he splashed water on his face and stared at trembling fingers, relieved to see them clean and not covered in blood like they had been in his nightmare. The scar on his right hand stood out in stark relief against his pale skin in the harsh bright lighting in his bathroom. He'd gotten it from the glass shard prank when Jack had only been trying to hurt him.
Jack…
Why had he told Kid about that? Saguru hadn't talked to anybody about what had happened with his old friend since the therapist cleared him from the grief counseling his mother had forced him to go through. Three years had passed since then, and he was finally starting to move past that. He was starting to open up again and found new friends in Akako, Sonoko, Aoko and her friends, and maybe even Kuroba. But he hadn't told any of them about Jack. Not even Akako, who was perhaps the closest thing he had to a best friend to these days. So why tell Kid? He could have just given a brief account of the event or, better yet, found something else to share. Now that he'd had time to think about it, there were a few other accounts he could have told Kid about instead, so why had he reopened that can of worms?
With a shake of his head, Saguru resigned himself to having a rare early morning and occupied himself with getting his things together for school and heading downstairs to make breakfast.
Baaya was surprised to see him up and asked him if he wanted an omelet for breakfast. Saguru wasn't feeling particularly hungry that morning, but that wasn't unusual. He usually skipped breakfast most weekdays. This morning, however, he figured he might as well try to eat something if only to pass the time. He got out a bowl and the box of Frosted Flakes. It was light, meaning that the cereal was nearly out, so he made a note of it on the grocery list on the side of the fridge. After setting the cereal box and his bowl on the table, he went to get the milk and a spoon. It was at this moment that his father walked into the kitchen.
"Saguru!" Akira Hakuba boomed. Saguru nearly dropped the milk carton. "I can't believe my eyes! I thought nothing could get you out of bed before six-thirty." The elder Hakuba chuckled merrily as he took a seat at the table next to the spot his son had claimed, waiting for Baaya to finish cooking his usual morning omelet.
"Good morning, Father," Saguru said, managing a smile as he took his seat.
"You're looking a bit pale. Are you alright?"
"I'm fine. Just had trouble sleeping, that's all. Nothing to worry about."
"Ah. Long night? There was a Kid heist, yes? Is Nakamori-keibu treating you well?"
"Yes to all of the above," Saguru nodded, pouring the last of the cereal into his bowl. There was a loud tink! He stared in surprise and then irritation at the sight of Ichikawa's Sapphire ring gleaming brightly in the bowl, despite a dusting of sugar and corn-flake powder from the cereal.
"What the devil?" his father said, blinking in surprise before bursting into laughter. "Is there something you need to tell me, son, about you and this thief of yours?"
"What? No!" Saguru cried, face turning pink. Damn it, Kid! He knew something like this would happen if he were given the ring to take back to the Task Force. And it had to happen in front of his father of all people.
"Why the instant denial?" his father smirked. "You and the Kaitou Kid aren't involved, are you? Oh, I should have seen this coming. The late nights, the obsessiveness, why you never date–"
"Father!" Saguru snapped. "You know perfectly well–!"
"All right, all right, take it easy," his father chuckled. "I'm only pulling your leg. Oh, wait until your mother hears about–"
"Don't you dare," Saguru growled. "She'll never leave me alone and go on and on about it. You know how she gets."
"Ah. Indeed," his father winced. "Very well, I won't tell her. And I'll take the ring back in for you on my way to work. It'll need to be cleaned before we return it to its owner, but I'm sure Nakamori-kun will take care of that."
"Thank you," Saguru scowled as he used a napkin to pick the ring out of his cereal.
After breakfast Saguru set out for school in a rather foul mood. He just knew that word would get out about how Kid had returned the ring. He could expect some light teasing from the Task Force about it along the same lines as his father's teasing. And Sonoko. God help him if she ever found out. Damn Kid. But at least he'd stopped thinking about Jack. That was something. Better to be mad with Kid than to be depressed over the past.
He swore to himself that he'd get Kid back at the next heist and that he wouldn't be caught again so easily. He'd been caught off guard last night when he'd been grabbed right after the lights went out. Saguru hadn't had time to adjust to the darkness and had been quickly disarmed. How Kid did it, Saguru wasn't sure, but it was clear that he might have to undergo more training in different lighting situations. It had been humiliating to be caught off guard like that. He should have expected a black out instead of Kid's usual smoke screen, especially when one factored in the delicate clothing and artifacts kept in the museum. Kid never damaged anything of value, so of course he wouldn't use a smokescreen. Saguru was becoming too relaxed around Kid. He couldn't let that happen outside of their meetings. He wouldn't.
The day started out pretty normal. Aoko had a good rant about Kid and the heist last night, chased Kuroba around the room, Keiko and Takumi asked Saguru about the heist, he got his own rant in, and traded insults and the usual banter with Kuroba all before the teacher arrived and started class. Everything had been normal. Until English class.
They were working on a group project and today they were supposed to be making posters depicting one of the assigned books they were reading to go along with a book report they'd be writing. It was just his cursed luck that Saguru would be paired to work with Kuroba. Their book was Of Mice and Men so Kuroba had sketched out a very detailed picture of two men sitting side by side on a grassy hill with what was sure to be a lovely sunset behind them once it was finished. Kuroba was asking for Saguru's opinion on how to go about coloring in the men when Aoko passed where they were working and tripped, spilling all of the little containers of paint she'd been carrying all over the place.
"Clumsy, Ahoko," Kuroba laughed as he and Saguru turned to help her pick up the materials she'd dropped. As they were giving the items back to her a paint container popped open and splashed all over Saguru's hands. It was red.
"Ah! Hakuba-kun! Aoko is so sorry," Aoko said helplessly as she adjusted the load in her arms.
"Good grief, you're hopeless. And stop freaking out. He's not hurt. It's just paint," Kaito scoffed. "Right, Hakuba? …Hakuba?"
Saguru hadn't heard either of them, attention fixed on the red substance that dripped off his hands and ran down his fingers to his wrists. He knew it was paint. The hue was too bright and it was too cold to be blood, but he couldn't help but feel sick and remember…
"Hakuba-kun!"
Saguru snapped out of it and quickly excused himself from the class, ignoring Kuroba, Aoko and Akako's worried and confused looks. He washed his hands furiously to get every speck of red off his hands and collected himself before returning to class and pretended as if nothing was wrong.
Aoko and the others kept shooting him concerned looks for the rest of the class period. They all looked like they wanted to talk to him and tried many times, but didn't manage to get any words out. Saguru knew he'd worried them, but continued to pretend he hadn't had a minor freak-out in front of their English class. He was relieved that when Keiko and Takumi had finally worked up the nerve to talk to him that it was about joining them on a trip with everyone Saturday to go out shopping. Saguru had given them his best smile and told them he would be delighted to join them.
This seemed to make them all relax and they no longer aimed worried and concerned looks in his direction. He was fine and determined to prove it to them. He accepted Aoko's invitation to join the gang for lunch, made sure to smile, and laughed at a few of Saiki's jokes. Everyone seemed to have forgotten about what had happened in English class by the end of the break, and Hakuba turned his focus on his studies and away from bloody hands and nightmares. And if he was a little more quiet than usual for the rest of the day so what? He was fine. Honestly.
xxxxxxXXXxxxxxx
KAITO
Kaito had worn enough masks to know that what had happened in English class wasn't just a case of an overzealous need for cleanliness. Apparently Kaito wasn't the only one who was still thinking about Hakuba's admission last night. Of all the colors to spill, it had to be red. Kuroba Kaito wasn't supposed to know about the incident, and Kaitou Kid wasn't supposed to be here, so he would have to be indirect if he wanted to cheer up the detective.
Kaito waited for a moment when the teacher was facing the class – calling on Takumi to read a passage from their history textbook – and struck. After two minutes Takumi fell silent as whispers began to overtake the class, some pointing up at the blackboard or nudging each other. Kaito watched as Hakuba finally look up from his notebook to see what had gotten everyone so worked up. The other teen blinked, and a mixture of surprise, confusion, and amusement colored his expression at the sight of the English words written in a large empty space at the top of the black board:
THE BAKER WORKS EVERYDAY BECAUSE HE KNEADS THE DOUGH.
The teacher noticed the direction of her students' attention and made what sounded like a cut off exclamation, throwing a mild glare in Kaito's direction before erasing it off the board. Kaito looked on innocently, not appearing to react to the erasure even though it was obviously written in his handwriting.
Giggles broke out again a few minutes later:
I DON'T TRUST STAIRS BECAUSE THEY'RE ALWAYS UP TO SOMETHING.
Hakuba twisted to look at Kaito, head tilted questioningly. Kaito raised an eyebrow back as if to say "What are you looking at, Hakuba-kun?" The detective rolled his eyes and turned back to face the board. The teacher noticed the second English pun on her board, flushed with frustration, and erased the writing again.
Kaito waited ten minutes before allowing the third to appear. He was going for literary humor this time:
WHY IS A RAVEN LIKE A WRITING DESK?
BECAUSE IT CAN PRODUCE A FEW NOTES, THOUGH THEY ARE VERY FLAT; AND IT IS NEVAR PUT WITH THE WRONG END IN FRONT.
Like the first one, the students who weren't fluent in English didn't laugh, though they certainly noticed it. The corners of Hakuba's mouth turned up at this one, and though Hakuba didn't laugh outright, his lips quirked up into an amused smile and his shoulders shook with contained mirth. When he settled back into the rhythm of work, he seemed less gloomy, so Kaito considered his mission accomplished.
Kaito immersed himself in plans for his next heist and ideas for Hakuba's little scavenger hunt until Saturday, when he'd promised to go out with the group to the mall. However, He got a text from Hayashi saying that he'd caught a cold and wouldn't be able to make it. That meant his girlfriend wasn't coming either. When Kaito arrived at the meeting spot about ten minutes late, he was surprised to see that only Aoko, Akako, and Hakuba were there.
"Huh, I thought I'd be the last one here. Oh, Raito-kun's sick, by the way."
"Saiki-kun had family plans that he didn't know about," Aoko explained, "and Takumi-chan has to study for a make-up test because of that day she was out last week. Keiko couldn't come either. So Aoko supposes that it's just us four."
"'Kay. Where are we going first?"
Aoko smiled. "Aoko is out of perfume, actually."
"I am not setting foot in that store again, Aoko. It gave me a killer headache last time, remember? And then they almost banned me because that store clerk thought she could –"
"Yeah, Aoko knows, and you got off with a 'warning'. Akako-chan and Aoko can go there first, along with any other icky girl places you'd turn your nose up at, and we'll call to meet up with you later."
"Wait, you're leaving me alone with him?" That wasn't exactly preferable. Kaito exchanged a look with the detective, who didn't look thrilled at the prospect either.
"Go to the arcade or something. Do guy stuff. And don't forget that Hakuba-kun probably knows how to get away with murder." She chuckled and held out her arm to Akako. The witch took it and smiled wickedly back at Kaito, waving regally. Kaito made a rude hand gesture and she laughed.
The two classmates stood motionless for a very long sixty seconds after the girls had sauntered off. Hakuba coughed uncomfortably. "Unless there's somewhere in particular you'd like to go, perhaps we should take Aoko-kun's suggestion. I'm at a loss to come up with an alternate activity."
"Do you like arcade games?"
"I'm indifferent."
"Hmm. No games. Trying on clothes together would be weird –"
"Agreed."
"– even though you've got nice legs."
"I beg your pardon?"
"Oh, please, Hakuba, it's not like I've forgotten our run-in at Tokyo Tower."
Hakuba sighed. "Please stop bothering me about that, Kuroba-kun. I already said that I'm not going to tell you why I was doing it, and you promised not to bring it up again." The detective was turning red, though whether it was from frustration or embarrassment (or both), Kaito couldn't say.
"I promised no such thing. I said I would never bring it up in front of other people. I'm curious, Hakuba, not cruel."
"My motives are none of your business," Hakuba ground out. The magician bit back a smirk. Kaito knew very well why Hakuba had done it, and Hakuba knew that Kaito knew why, or at least heavily suspected he knew why, so it was a great subject for ticking off the detective.
"There's this enormous store that sells movies, music, and video games," Kaito offered, feeling better now that the atmosphere was less awkward between them.
"That sounds perfect. Which floor?"
"Third." Once they were in the store, Kaito followed as Hakuba breezed past the new releases and made a beeline for the foreign film aisles. "Are you looking for anything in particular?"
"Mmm, yes. I'm looking to see if a particular film has been translated into Japanese. I'd like to show it to everyone in our group of friends, but my copy is from England so there aren't Japanese subtitles. What about you?"
"Nothing specific. Which movie is it you want?"
"It's called The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and is based on a comic book."
"Huh. Is it a personal favorite?"
"It's up there on my list. Ah! They do have it here." Hakuba's face broke into a wide, genuine smile without sarcasm or wry humor as he pulled the DVD case off the shelf. He seemed so untroubled, so happy. There was something magnetic about it, and Kaito's heart jumped.
Huh?
Kaito frowned and looked closer at his classmate, but the smile settled back into a more normal expression for Hakuba. All of the magician's internal organs were functioning normally now. Hmm. That anomaly was probably the result of his surprise at seeing Hakuba smile like that in person. He'd seen it before in the pictures from Benoit-chan's Halloween album, but it was shocking to find it here. Hakuba had let his guard down around Kaito, whom the detective believed to be an international thief.
The blonde was looking at him expectantly and Kaito realized that he had missed whatever question Hakuba asked. "Hmm?" His mind was a little fuzzy at the moment. From the, you know, surprise.
xxxxxxXXXxxxxxx
SAGURU
Saguru rolled his eyes.
"I asked you if there was anything in this store you wanted to look through." His classmate still looked a bit out of it. "Are you alright, Kuroba-kun?"
"No, I'm fine!" the other teen exclaimed with a wide grin, a faint flush spreading across his cheeks, and bounced a few steps away to peruse the comedies aisles. Odd.
Well, since Kuroba was apparently not done looking through this store, Saguru allowed himself to linger in the foreign films section a bit longer, wrinkling his nose at some of the American imports. For every good film that country seemed to put out, ten atrocities were released as well. Bored after another few minutes of perusal, Saguru decided to see what Kuroba was up to. He wasn't surprised to find Kuroba in the anime aisles, but his classmate didn't appear to be looking for anything in particular, though he was snickering at some of the titles.
The mischievous look on the magician's face made Saguru a little nervous, so he was relieved when Kuroba headed over to the gaming section and started looking at the new releases. With a sigh, Saguru followed, wondering what the magician was up to now. Saguru ignored most of the shoot-'em-up games that seemed to take up a majority of the shelves - honestly, what was with today's generation's obsession with violence? - and half-heartedly glanced at the back of some of the fantasy based games.
When Kuroba was finished looking around the electronics store the two of them paid for their purchases and then proceeded to wander a bit aimlessly through the next few floors window shopping. Saguru paused outside a music store where they sold instruments (mostly guitars and keyboards) and a variety of related items from sheet music to CDs, tuners, metronomes, reeds, strings and cleaning supplies.
"Do you want to go in?" Kuroba asked.
"Why not?" Saguru shrugged.
"What do you play? A violin like your beloved Holmes?" Kuroba snickered.
"I do," Saguru nodded. "But I also play a variety of other instruments, mainly piano, cello, and bass. What about you, Kuroba? Do you know how to play an instrument?"
"Not really," Kuroba shrugged. "My parents signed me up for piano lessons when I was younger and I liked it alright, but I stopped playing some time before I finished elementary school. My mom sent back a flute from India once and I taught myself how to play it. I got good too, but I kinda stopped playing regularly around the time I entered high school."
"Pity," Saguru mused, running his hand appreciatively along the side of a grand piano on display in the middle of the store. "Playing a musical instrument is a relaxing hobby. I often play accompaniments with my mother and her side of the family back home in England. Especially around Christmas. We'll spend hours singing and playing our favorite carols and tunes. Mum's already sent out some new sheet music from America that she wants us all to try. She's become a big Lori Line fan recently."
"Oh?" Kuroba asked with a teasing glint in his eye, but looked curious all the same. "You? Sing? Or do you just play along in the background?"
"I sing," Saguru scowled, a tad bit on the defensive. "I'm quite good actually, if I do say so myself."
"Tenor or bass?"
"Tenor usually, but I have been working on my bass in recent years and am able to sing a lot of the lower range now without sounding like a bullfrog."
That last bit was said in jest and got Kuroba to laugh. It was a more genuine expression, and looked nice on Kuroba. His classmate should smile like that more often.
"Mommy, can we go now?" a little girl's voice sighed. "I want to get the new Elsa doll!"
Kuroba and Saguru looked up and spotted a little girl with twin braids. She look as if she were a little older than Kyou and was tugging at her mother's pants leg.
"We have to wait a few more minutes, Hana," her mother said. "They're still putting together my order in the back room." The girl, Hana, pouted and turned away, coming a little closer to Saguru and Kuroba's position by the piano, staring at a selection of metronomes. Kuroba turned and rose an eyebrow at Saguru. Saguru stared right back at him, mirroring his expression. Seriously, what? Was Kuroba waiting for him to do something? Kuroba glanced back at the little girl and then back at Saguru with a curious expression.
Rolling his eyes, Saguru turned away from Kuroba and little Hana and instead examined the piano. A store clerk came over then and asked Saguru if he was interested in the instrument.
"Perhaps," Saguru mused, ignoring Kuroba, who… did he look disappointed? Had he expected to see Saguru do something? For the girl? If so, what? "It is a fine looking instrument."
"Do you play? Or are you just looking around," the clerk asked, looking mildly irritated. The store probably got a lot of lookers, but not a lot of serious customers since it was in a large department building.
"Occasionally," Saguru answered, before indicating the seat-bench. "May, I?" The clerk just shrugged and waved at him to go ahead.
Kuroba had turned away from him and was now crouched down at the little girl's level, talking to her quietly. She, like many little girls around the world this year, were obsessed with Disney's Frozen.
Saguru played a couple scales to test out the piano's tuning and found that it was decent. It could use some finer tuning, but it was adequate for a store floor model. After another glance up at Kuroba and the girl he allowed himself a satisfied smile before wiping the expression away entirely. He started playing the opening to Frozen's "Let It Go", stored away in his photographic memory from the sheet music that his mother had sent him that was composed by Lori Line.
The little girl's head snapped up instantly, eyes round and wide. Keeping his expression composed, Saguru began to sing in a middle range bass, not wanting to go too deep without a decent warm up first. After the low note about halfway through the first verse, Saguru popped up into the tenor range to sing the higher notes. By now Kuroba and Hana had joined him by the piano, and the few customers in the store and all the clerks were watching. Some were even poking their heads out from the back room.
Saguru almost startled in surprise when Kuroba suddenly jumped in, singing a harmony on the chorus, the little girl staring between with a delighted expression on her face. He dropped out of the song for the second verse and let Kuroba have a go, solo, watching in admiration as Kuroba really got into the song, his eyes sparking with glee, hamming his performance up for their little audience. Show off. When Kuroba got to "I'm free~" he looked positively radiant.
Saguru joined back in for the chorus, sharing a wide grin with Kuroba as they both began to belt out the tune, the little girl joining in with them. He pounded at the piano keys, his fingers flying as he hit the rifts, adding in a little flourish with his wrist movements for show that he didn't normally add when playing, but, what the hell? If Kuroba was embellishing a little, why shouldn't he? He was the one playing the piano and had started this after all.
"My power flurries through the air into the ground~," Kuroba sang, nodding at Saguru to take up the next line.
"My soul is spiraling in frozen fractals all around~" Saguru replied, then both of them jumped in, finishing the song together. Saguru dropped back down into bass again to sing the harmony this time. Their voices blended surprisingly well considering they were singing in two differing ranges and that this was a completely improvised and spontaneous performance. Or perhaps Kuroba was just that good and had perfect pitch.
It was both funny and strange how their voices harmonized that ending line with Saguru deep down in the bass range and Kaito floating up in the tenor, but it somehow worked and blended, sounding pretty good. Saguru played out the ending bars of the song, and, caught up in the moment, for the heck of it played a few bars from "Do You Want To Build A Snowman?" before playing the final end notes of "Let it Go."
Saguru and Kuroba grinned at each other for a bit before being startled by the sudden burst of cheers and applause. Saguru flushed in embarrassment when he realized that their little performance had gathered quite an audience from other departments, many of which had phones out and had been recording and taking pictures. Even Aoko and Akako were there, Aoko clapping enthusiastically while Akako smirked at him.
"So you can Let It Go," Kuroba grinned. "You really are quite good."
"You're not so bad yourself," Saguru smiled, blushing a bit at the praise. "You sing a wonderful harmony."
"I try~," Kaito trilled.
"You two were fantastic!" Aoko squealed when she and Akako managed to make their way over. "Hakuba-kun! Why didn't you tell Aoko you knew how to play piano?"
"It never really came up, I suppose," Saguru shrugged, starting to feel a little uncomfortable with all of the sudden praise.
xxxxxxXXXxxxxxx
KAITO
Aaaaand now it was time to move on. Kaito was still feeling a little jumpy from the exhilaration that their unplanned concert had brought on. He just wanted to be everywhere at once which, if he mentioned out loud, would undoubtedly be met with an exasperated sigh from Hakuba and a lecture about matter and how blah, blah, blah, the effects of time meant that a single body couldn't be in multiple places at the same moment.
Almost appropriate, given his next challenge.
Wait, no Kaito, not thinking about that yet. Scheming was not to be done at the mall with Hakuba around. That was just asking for trouble. If Kaito's gaze lingered too long on something that inspired an idea for his heist, Hakuba would notice and remember. Their meetings were dangerous enough.
God, why was Kaito even still doing this? Curiosity? Was that something he could even justify to himself as a reason to risk his father's legacy and Kid's mission? What would happen if he just stopped showing up to meetings? It was a strange thought, but Kaito's reactions to Hakuba had been strange all day. He mentally sat back and folded his hands, imagining it like it was a game or a film. What choices would the detective protagonist be presented with? Which would he follow? How would it affect his behavior at future Kid heists?
Would he lose respect for Kid? That felt very wrong to Kaito, the same way anxiety twisted him up. He didn't like that idea.
But how long could this go on? Either Kaito would find Pandora and destroy it, thus losing the impetus for heists and ending their conversations, or Hakuba would finally use the data he gathered on Kid to corner Kaito. Other options…? It could just keep continuing, on and on until one of them had had enough.
"Kaito, are you okay?" Kaito snapped back to the present and looking around. Somehow, while he had been on a mental tangent, they'd left the music store and gone to the food court. He was sitting in a booth with ice cream in front of him. Strawberry ice cream. He didn't even like strawberry ice cream. "Kaito," Aoko repeated. "Are you sick?"
"No," he finally responded.
Koizumi sniffed incredulously. "You've been practically catatonic for the last five minutes. I had to order for you." Fuck, that's why he had strawberry. The witch probably knew he hated it.
"Sorry. I was thinking."
"Don't strain yourself," Hakuba quipped. Kaito stuck his tongue out at him. "Juvenile."
"Hakuba-kun! Kaito! You were getting along a few minutes ago. What happened?" Aoko sighed heavily, as if a friend's job was never done.
"Nothing's wrong, Ahoko," he lied. "I was trying to remember the last time I sang that wasn't in a school choir or something."
"Stupid Kaito, you sing to your doves all the time. Aoko hears you when you leave the window open."
Kaito felt his face heat up as both Koizumi and Hakuba turned their eyes on him. "I meant really with someone and with other people around. I think it was with - with Dad."
"You sing to me on my birthday."
"The birthday song doesn't count!"
"What about Christmas carols?" she accused. "You sing those."
"I hum those, which is not the same thing."
"Ah. But you definitely sang at karaoke with the girls." Aoko looked like she'd won something.
"Only because you made me. Are we done talking about this?" He was still thinking about the challenge exchange and his good mood from earlier was gone. Kid should stop going. There was too much to lose: what if, in planning for a showy heist, he overlooked safety precautions? Snake had been mysteriously absent lately, which made him both relieved and nervous, but why now?
Were they planning something big, or was Kid just picking bad targets? Kaito wouldn't be the only one in danger if they reappeared and Kid was caught unprepared. The snipers probably wouldn't have a problem picking off the odd task force officer who wandered too close to where they were concealed, and any shots fired at Kaito had the potential to go awry and hit bystanders.
It made him sick to his stomach. "Does anyone want strawberry ice cream?"
"Oh, I'd love it," Koizumi replied with a huge smile, sliding his dish across to where she'd finished her own. "Thank you, Kuroba."
"Mmm." Kaito was left to mull over his thoughts until Aoko left for the ladies' room and Koizumi broke off her conversation with Hakuba to address him:
"Silence is a bit unnerving, coming from you. Cat got your tongue?"
"No."
"Then you're working on a magic trick?" she hazarded.
"Nah."
"Hmm, you've been a bit lack-luster as of late."
Kaito's head snapped up. "Are you trying to pick a fight?"
"A lady never picks a fight."
"I can repeat the question if you'd like." Koizumi's face darkened ominously at the implied insult. "In point of fact you were the one who started things off on the wrong foot, pointing out that witches and magicians don't get along well."
"I was just trying to start a conversation here. And I thought we had tacitly decided to set aside those incidents from shortly after I transferred in."
"And I have. That doesn't mean we're close friends now, or that I like you."
Hakuba bumped Kaito's shoulder. "Kuroba, it's none of my business why you and Akako-kun don't like each other, but if you're planning to start something, do it somewhere else."
"I like Kuroba-kun just fine," Koizumi answered smoothly, a serene smile in place. "I'd be pleased if we could get along better, in fact."
"A desire that might be aided if you refrained from mentioning private speculations in public places."
Koizumi's smile widened and Kaito suddenly felt like a cornered mouse as she purred, "If that's what you wish. I expect we'll be having an extensive chat later, hmm?"
xxxxxxXXXxxxxxx
SR: Sorry guys! College finals and writers block has stalled us in getting this latest chapter out to you. Hopefully it was worth the wait. :)
MG: My apologies also. And hopefully you're intrigued: what does Akako want to talk to Kaito about? Why is Kaito being especially cranky with her? Find out in the next chapter! Also, I still have no idea how Kaito's going to steal two gems at the same time, but it should be fun figuring it out ;)
SR: Considering it's the holidays and everything, I think getting a chapter out at all before Christmas is great! I know I've been busy since Thanksgiving between finals and holiday preparations. I actually went and saw Lori Line live in Concert the Sunday after Thanksgiving when she was in Sioux Falls South Dakota. That's where the music store scene and Hakuba and Kaito's impromptu concert came from. The idea hit me as I watched Lori Line play that particular number. XD I even bought a copy of her Let It Go piano sheet music (though I don't play piano, but I play flute!). I also look forward to writing Hakuba's scavenger hunt and see how that's going to go! ;)
MG: Thanks for reading, everyone, and please leave a review! We appreciate every bit of feedback :D Happy holidays from both of us!