Rated: T
Word count: 2,216
Chapter 11
- Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity -
Yes, it was definitely a weird sight to see a shirt and pants—both obviously too big for the one wearing them—to walk inside the living room. Kaito couldn't help but stare slightly as Shinichi stood in front of him, his body invisible, even under the clothes he wore, probably borrowed from his father.
The two of them had decided to spend the night inside the Kudo mansion since Shinichi had said that his parents were on a trip to America, so they could stay there and take the train back to Ekoda the next day. Kaito thought it would be alright if it was only one night. First of all, he had to get that stain out of the couch if he didn't want the Kudos to freak out upon their return. Second, he didn't want to risk bringing Shinichi all the way back to Ekoda, considering the severity of his wound. Kaito had somehow managed to stop the bleeding, but that didn't mean the wound had healed. He actually wanted to wait in the Kudo mansion for a few more days, but he didn't want to risk being found by the Kudos.
He saw the clothes move slightly as the detective fidgeted. "Ah, sorry," he said, grinning apologetically, knowing that he'd been staring wide-eyed at Shinichi. It really was a strange sight to see those clothes float in mid-air.
"It's okay," Shinichi whispered hoarsely. The magician stared for another ten seconds, before snapping out of his daze and looking back at the newspaper in his hands. Folding it up, he put it away.
"So how's your wound doing?" he asked as he stood up and moved towards the kitchen. The food Kaito had bought this morning stood on the stove, boiling. Continuing with the last preparations for breakfast, he waited for Shinichi to speak.
"It'll be fine," The detective said. He spoke up again when he saw the displeased look on the magician's face. "I just need some rest and it'll heal quickly." A pause. Kaito waited, feeling that the other was uncertain whether or not he should continue. "I seem to heal quickly when injured so, it'll probably be healed within a day or two."
"That's good." The magician said, finishing breakfast and putting it on the table. He sat down and waited for Shinichi to do the same, but the other didn't move. He kept standing in the doorway, body tense and uncertain.
What would it look like when Shinichi ate? Would the food float in the air as he chewed on it? Kaito thought curiously. He gestured for the detective to sit down. "I made some for you too, you know. It'll be a waste if you don't eat it. Besides, you've got to strengthen up if you want that wound to heal even faster." Slowly, the other moved to sit down on the chair on the opposite side of the table.
Kaito watched as a sleeve moved up and invisible hands picked up the chopsticks next to the board. They both muttered 'itadakimasu' before digging in. Indigo eyes fixated on the other's movements. One pair of chopsticks raised to where Kaito guessed were the lips and he almost held his breath in anticipation.
"Actually, I don't need to eat." The detective said, putting the food down.
"Ah! Wait!" Kaito called after Shinichi as he stood up and moved away from the table. He stopped in front of the wall and leaned with his back against it, arms seemingly crossed in front of his chest in a relaxed posture. That seemed to be a habit of his. Whenever he wasn't feeling comfortable or wanted to think, he stood with his back against a wall as if he wanted to blend with it.
"It's okay, just eat. I already told you I don't need food to stay alive." Kaito stood up, pout on his face, and walked towards the clothes seemingly floating in mid-air. He put his hands on one of the detective's shoulders and pulled him back towards the chair where he sat him down.
"That might be so, but one, you're injured. Two, it'll be good for you, and three, if you don't eat it, I'll have wasted time and money on food that no one is going to eat. So you sit down now and eat," the magician said firmly, and could only imagine the stunned look on Shinichi's face as he took one of the chopsticks, grabbed one of the pieces of food from the plate, and held it out for the invisible teen to eat.
Silence reigned for a minute as Shinichi hesitantly sat there. The shirt moved forward and suddenly, the piece of food disappeared with a section of the chopsticks. Kaito blinked, sure they'd been there not a second ago, then realized that Shinichi had taken a bite. As the shirt moved back, the chopsticks became whole again, but the food was gone.
Kaito waited patiently for the other to say something. "It's been a while since I've eaten anything," Shinichi muttered softly after a while.
The magician grinned. "See? Now go and finish your plate." He moved back to his own seat and continued eating. The rest of dinner was spent with small chitchat. Afterwards, Shinichi disappeared upstairs somewhere as Kaito did the dishes. When that was done, he moved upstairs as well, searching for the detective.
"Shinichi?" He called out, but received no answer. He walked through the hallway, looking in every room, but his invisible friend was nowhere in sight. Where could he have gone off to? Reaching the last door, he opened it, remembering that it led to the library.
As Kaito glanced around the room, he saw a teen standing in the middle of the room. He bathed in the sunlight coming through the two story high window. Raven black hair looked neat on top of his head, with a single cowlick. His body was slender and looked weak. He was also a little bit shorter than Kaito himself. He had pale skin and wore clothes that were obviously too big for him.
The whole picture almost seemed ethereal and the magician kept staring. Even as the teen turned around to look at him, the picture stayed in his mind like a photograph.
"Kaito?" Blinking, the picture disappeared and he came back to reality. At the place where the teen just now had been standing, there was Shinichi, looking his way. Shinichi. Invisible Shinichi. Not the beautiful and cute teen whose face he couldn't remember.
"Ah, sorry," he said, moving towards the other. "I was looking for you. What are you doing here?" The clothes indicated that the other turned back to the window.
"I was just thinking," was his reply.
"About what?" Kaito asked, coming to stand beside him and looking outside the window like the other was doing. The light coming through the glass blinded them slightly, but the magician could still make out the beautifully decorated garden. Flowers were blooming, the hedges perfectly cut, and the stones were covered with grass and moss like old ruins.
Shinichi kept silent for a while and Kaito found himself stealing a glance sideways, hoping that he would see the other's face. Had the teenager from just now been Shinichi? Was that what he really looked like? Or was it just his imagination?
"Actually, I've been thinking about it a lot lately." Shinichi said in a soft voice. Without having to look, Kaito could feel that the teen had lowered his head, invisible bangs covering his eyes, and a nagging feeling crawled its way inside his stomach.
He turned to the side, looking at where he knew Shinichi was standing. "Shinichi? What's wr-" He was unable to finish his question as he felt something cover his mouth. He could see the clothes practically floating against his body and feel the warmth of the other.
Shinichi moved back and the warmth against his mouth disappeared with it, leaving a dazed magician to stare at nothing. "It's nothing. Don't mind me." Shinichi muttered, as though nothing had happened. What had Shinichi done to elicit that kind of reaction? He'd been standing really, really close just now. It was almost as if…as if….
"You... Did you just…kiss me?" The magician stuttered, unsure if he should ask. What if he was wrong? Shinichi would laugh at him for sure. Shinichi seemed to be looking up, before turning away. The clothes shook slightly as he chuckled.
"What? No, you idiot," Shinichi said, laugh evident in his voice, "That would be stupid, right? We're both guys." Something was off about his voice. There was an undertone in it that the magician couldn't really place. It was as if the detective was trying to convince himself instead of Kaito.
The latter was still deep in thoughts as Shinichi walked towards the door. "I think we should go back to your house tonight. I'm not really sure when mom and dad will be back," he said as he left the room. Kaito was left looking at the open door, questions plaguing his mind.
That night, the two did as Shinichi planned. He'd put on some of Kaito's spare clothes, covering his whole body and together they left the mansion behind, leaving everything the way it was before either of them went inside. The walk to the station went by in silence, both of them lost in their own thoughts.
Casting a glance to the side, Kaito looked at the other, but he let his eyes flick back to the ground in front of him, knowing that if he looked too long, he would draw the other's attention. What should he do? He wanted to ask Shinichi about this morning. Kaito was almost certain that Shinichi had kissed him, but why would he deny it? Should he ask the detective? How?
"Knock, knock," Somebody whispered against his ear and he jumped. "There are people waiting, you know." It took a moment to recognize the voice. He felt Shinichi's body pressing slightly against his and blood seemed to rush to his cheeks. He coughed and quickly took the last few steps towards the ticket machine in front of him, ignoring the growls from the people who stood behind him in the line.
He bought two tickets and jogged away, dragging Shinichi behind him. The latter chuckled just loud enough for Kaito to hear and his cheeks grew even redder in slight embarrassment for dozing off like that. The train took them back to Ekoda and none too soon did they reach the house. Taking off the hat and wig Kaito had given him, Shinichi put them on the cabinet.
Kaito stared at him. He was debating with himself how and if he should question Shinichi more about this morning. He didn't notice as the detective called out to him. He didn't notice him move forward, not until he saw a pair of concerned, azure eyes temptingly close to his own…
His hands moved on auto-pilot as they reached out, cupping Shinichi's face and bringing it closer to his own until their lips met. He closed his eyes and moved instinctively. He was a bit off, kissing the corner of the other's mouth instead, but quickly made up for that with a passionate kiss full on the lips.
A surprised cry escaped Shinichi and he tried to pull away, but Kaito didn't let him. Catching the upper lip, he slowly sucked and nibbled on it. Shudders went through the other's body as one hand lingered over his neck and trailed down over his abdomen, where it moved to wrap around the detective.
Kaito pulled him closer until he could once again feel his body press against his own. Just as he licked the detective's lower lip, Shinichi pulled away too quickly for the magician to react. With Kaito's arm still around his waist, though Shinichi couldn't do anything else than turn his head to the side.
"Don't… We can't, Kaito." Shinichi stumbled over his words.
Kaito laid his head down on the invisible shoulder. "Stupid," he whispered, cutting off the other's weak protests, "You don't get it, do you? Why can't we? What is so wrong about this?"
"Everything is wrong about this…" Shinichi said and tried to get out of the magician's grip, but he just tightened it.
"Then why did you kiss me this morning?" He hadn't wanted to say it so roughly; it sounded more like an accusation than a question, but for some reason…it hurt to hear all that. It hurt this morning when he had heard Shinichi's denial. It hurt to hear that it wasn't right.
"Do you seriously not get what is going on?" Shinichi didn't give an answer to Kaito's question. He sighed. Tightening his grip even more, he raised his head until he felt an ear against his lips, then he whispered those three words that had been lying on the tip of his tongue long before he'd known they were there.
"I love you."
Oh my god, I'm so sorry! I kept waiting for Moku-chan to sent me the chapter after she beta-read it, but I hadn't realized that she had already done that ages ago TT^TT I've only been back for a few days after going on vacation to France ^^ It was amazing, two weeks doing nothing but reading and bathing in the sun :) Though there was a family who had brought their dog along and that dog...my mom and I thought of multiple was to kill it...it kept barking for reason I can't understand and the family did nothing! Gaaah, well luckily he was silent during the night so we only had to listen to his yapping during the day -.-
Still it was awesome ^^ Again, my apologies for the late chapter, I hope everyone liked it ^^ Next chapter will be the last one!
As always, big thanks to Moku-chan!
Also thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, namely: killuanatsume, treasure family, JelpHasNails, CrescentMoonTenshi, Bunnyz-chan, ILoveFanfiction-AnimeAdik, Sirastar, mochiusagi, Nythierian, lumiere, Mokuren no Ken!
Answer to lumiere: hehe, well it won't be that spectacular ^^ Kaito probably would XD It won't be in the story though, maybe if I decide to write a continuation, but I haven't made any plans for one :/
Thank you all for your support especially the ones who write reviews to pretty much every chapter ^^ It's always nice to know people like your story!
