Mikau: 'Lo everyone! First of all, I'd just like to say thank you, thank you so much to everyone who reviewed last chapter: ylvglo, athieisademon, Cyanide Flowers, Aniki-xvi, nightbreath, dontfindafuckingname, and Aoiyou. I was frankly shocked that so many people seemed to like it so much. I thought it might be a little boring, but a lot of people seemed to like it a great deal. I was actually slightly concerned that my writing was getting a tad lackluster lately because Change of Setting, Change of Mind and more recently Love at Long Distance didn't get/hasn't been getting very many reviews. So, anyway, thanks for setting my mind at ease. As a reward for all of you guys taking the time to send in your comments when it's tempting not to, I tried to get the second chapter out quickly. I felt that since you guys made time for me, I should make time for you, even though school's keeping me busy. I really do appreciate it, and I hope this story can live up to expectations. I think this chapter is so-so, but I'm looking forward to chapter three and four. I think they'll be amusing. Thanks again, and please enjoy.

Disclaimer: If I owned it, there would be more romance—romance EVERYWHERE. Though, did you see last week's Conan with Kazuha's confession? It kind of changed my mind about the HeijixKazuha pairing. I've kind of rolled my eyes at it in the past because it just never goes anywhere, but seeing Kazuha man up and confess like that (even though Heiji ran off before he could hear it) made me think, "Okay, maybe there is something to this pairing after all. Maybe when they both mature a little bit more." Although, part of me is still rooting for Heiji's unrequited love for Shinichi to be returned someday. Alright, go enjoy the chapter!

….

Running Into Each Other

"This is your room." Baaya pointed out the door at the end of the second floor hall. "I don't really go in much except to clean and bring you snacks and tea. You like your privacy."

Hakuba nodded. "Baaya, am I acting strangely?"

"Not really, Bocchama," she chuckled, reaching up to pat him on the head reassuringly. "The only thing strange is that you don't know certain things that you should, so sometimes you'll say things that are a little odd, but your personality hasn't changed. You're still you, even without the memories."

"Thanks, Baaya." He leaned in and placed a kiss on her forehead before turning to open the door.

"Let me know if you need anything or have any questions, Dear. I'll be just downstairs," she assured him before hesitantly leaving him to his own devices.

She'd been hovering over him like a mother hen ever since she'd learned that he'd lost his memories.

"I'll be fine," Saguru chuckled. "Thank you, Baaya."

Though he did feel uneasy once she was gone, he turned his attentions to studying his room and learning about himself.

The room seemed fairly normal. It was a mix between a bedroom and a study with a bed against one wall, a couch in the center of the room, and a desk, bookshelves, and a TV on the opposite side. There was also a sliding glass door out to a balcony with a nice maple tree just outside.

He wondered if he ever went out the balcony and climbed down the tree at night to sneak off with friends. From what Baaya had told him, he was a very well-behaved child, and they obviously had an extremely close relationship, but he had to wonder if he had a rebellious streak in him. He was seventeen after all.

The most surprising part of the room was the wall his bed was up against. It was covered in pictures, magazine articles, and news clippings about the Kaitou Kid.

He really was obsessed. Unhealthily so.

And then there was the part of the wall dedicated to stalker pictures of a teenage boy with incandescent indigo eyes and chocolate brown hair.

Saguru blinked.

Great. He was a creeper.

He added "obsessive" and "most probably queer" to his growing list of former personality traits.

Hakuba stared at the teen in the pictures for a good few minutes, trying to discern whether he was merely attracted to this boy, in love with him, or simply stalking out of interest.

He came to several conclusions: it was probably puppy love spurred on by Saguru's obsessive personality. He didn't think that he was a psychotic stalker. At least, he didn't feel like one. He deduced that he was probably viewing things from the lens of a detective, gathering as much information about the object of his affections as possible—profiling, doing recon. Being a detective and being a stalker were similar in methodology but different in intent. Saguru decided that he was simply studying his crush, not stalking him.

Saguru also decided that he had good taste in men.

The other teen was very athletic, judging by the pictures of him bouncing around the classroom and showing off in PE. The brunette was handsome as well. Nice, soft features that leaned more towards the feminine side of the spectrum. He had a rather fetching smile. The boy was kind as well. There were several pictures of him playing with children and comforting them when they cried that attested to this quality. His crush was a charmer, too. In many pictures he was shown handing out flowers to the ladies.

Saguru sighed.

His love was probably unrequited, since his beloved seemed to be of a rather heterosexual persuasion.

He sighed again and started to rummage through his things.

Saguru had a lot of books on varied subjects. There was chemistry, biology, physics, ballistics, forensics, archeology, psychology, criminology, and several different types of math. He had reference books on poisons, alcohol, and other drugs as well as a good deal of detective fiction.

He also seemed to have a fondness for poetry in English and French. Upon opening these books in particular, he was quite pleased to find that he understood. Though being able to comprehend the earlier scientific texts had boosted his self-confidence, he found that discovering that he was proficient in several languages was particularly satisfying.

All-in-all, Saguru seemed like a very bright, talented young man.

…with horrible fashion sense, based on the outfits he had discovered in his closet.

"Baaya?" he called. "Who picks out my clothing?"

"You do, Young Master," Baaya called back.

"And you let me go out of the house wearing some of this stuff?" Hakuba cried, scandalized.

"You're very headstrong, Bocchama," his caretaker chuckled. "Would you like to go shopping for some new clothes?"

"Please," Saguru whimpered, rushing down the stairs.

000

"Baaya, what do I usually do for fun?" the blonde asked, turning around to examine the outfit he was trying on from all sides.

The first time he had seen his own reflection had been shocking. He knew that he was half English from what Baaya had told him of his mother, but…even to his own eyes, he looked like a foreigner.

"You work on cold cases," Baaya informed him, scrutinizing the outfit. "That one looks nice. It brings out the color of your eyes."

Saguru blinked. "I solve murders for fun?"

"You play chess too," she quickly added, hearing the dissatisfaction in his voice.

"Oh," Saguru chuckled, brightening up. Yes, there had been a marble chess set in his room. "Whom do I play chess with?"

Baaya blinked. "Yourself, mostly. You've tried to teach me a few times, though."

"Oh." By himself. "Well, what do I do with friends when they come over?"

She turned away, picking another outfit for him to change into. "Why don't you try this one on, Saguru?"

"Baaya?"

"Oh. This and that. The usual. You know." She made a show of laughing and smiling.

"No, I don't. That's why I'm asking." Saguru frowned, taking the outfit into the dressing room to change. "I don't have friends over much?"

"We're buying this one," Baaya decreed, fixing his collar for him. "Japanese people don't visit one another's houses very often. You're thinking of how things were in England. You spent most of your young life there. People visited you in England all the time." Mostly clients and the sons and daughters of people trying to get in good with his mother, but…

"Oh." Saguru nodded, a smile coming to his face. "So…I go out with friends, then. Do we have to get this one? It's a little stiff."

"It'll soften up a bit after it's washed. It looks good on you, Saguru." Baaya ignored the former statement.

"Do I go out with friends often?" He asked directly.

"Occasionally, Dear. You're very dedicated to your work and your schooling. You don't have a lot of free time."

"I see…." He changed back into his own clothes, and they headed for the register.

"Hakuba-kun!" a young woman's voice called out as they left the checkout counter.

He looked and saw a bushy-haired brunette girl racing towards him, dragging the man he was pretty sure he loved along behind her.

"Hakuba-kun, did they let you out of the hospital already? How are you feeling?" She bounced right up to him and started spewing questions.

"Geez, Aoko. Give the guy some space!" the other teen sighed, pulling his companion back. He then smiled at Baaya and pulled out a rose. "Sorry about her; she's been really worried. I'm Kuroba Kaito, and this is Nakamori Aoko. We're Hakuba's classmates." Kaito bowed, offering the rose to the older lady.

"Oh my!" Baaya giggled, accepting the flower. "Thank you very much, young man. I'm Saguru's housekeeper and caretaker. You can just call me Baaya. It's nice to meet you."

"The pleasure's all mine," Kaito replied pleasantly.

"Nice to meet you," Aoko chorused. "Aoko's father is Inspector Nakamori. He works on the Kaitou Kid taskforce with Hakuba-kun."

While Baaya and Aoko chitchatted about life being left at home while their loved ones chased thieves, Kuroba cautiously approached Saguru.

"Hey, Hakuba," the handsome brunette greeted, giving a nod of acknowledgement.

"H-Hello…Kuroba," Saguru gulped, mentally crossing his fingers.

The tricky thing about pretending not to have amnesia in Japanese was knowing how to address people with or without honorifics or by their first rather than their last name, but 'Kuroba' didn't bat an eye, so Hakuba assumed he'd gotten the appellation correct.

"Look, don't read too much into this," the indigo-eyed god sighed, looking away awkwardly. "…but I'm sorry about what happened…you know…the accident." He shifted, obviously uncomfortable. "And…I'm really glad that you're okay. How're you feeling, by the way? Sore anywhere?"

Saguru blinked.

Kuroba knew about his crush. Furthermore, he didn't want to encourage Hakuba's feelings for him, so he didn't want the detective to 'read into' the brunette's kindness and concern.

Well, that was unfortunate. His love really was unrequited after all…and just when they'd met in person too. Kuroba Kaito was even more attractive up close in the flesh with that angelic face and lean body. The stalker pictures hadn't done him justice.

"Uh…right. Thank you. I appreciate your sympathies, Kuroba." Saguru swallowed and tried to smile softly.

Kuroba Kaito. What a beautiful name. He wanted to test it out—roll it around on his tongue, press his lips against it, and caress it with his mouth. Kaito. Kaito. Unfortunately, they didn't seem to be on such intimate terms, and Kuroba had already clearly turned down his advances, so…

"I feel just fine, thank you. My head hurts from time to time, but my body's healing nicely."

"Good. I'm glad," Kuroba sighed in relief. "So you'll be coming back to school soon? We switched desks, but you're still behind me to the side, so you'll still be able to stare at me all day. Good for you, right?"

Saguru blinked, his face turning beet red. "I-I don't stare."

"Yes you do," the beautiful brunette rolled his eyes and chuckled. "You started doing it the week after you transferred from London Bridge whatever-your-last-school-was-called, and you haven't stopped even though I've yelled at you several times. Don't insult me, Hakuba. I'm not oblivious enough not to notice you staring at me and writing in your little notebook."

Yes, Kuroba Kaito was quite aware of Saguru's little crush.

What Hakuba couldn't believe was the fact that he had been so obvious.

"Anyway, school hasn't been the same without you to annoy me, so come back soon, okay?" Kaito chuckled as he placed a hand on his companion's arm, saying, "Let's go, Aoko. See ya, Hakuba. It was a pleasure to meet you, Baaya." With a kiss of the older woman's hand and a sharp salute, Kaito was off, dragging Aoko behind him.

"Bye, bye, Baaya!" the mousy girl called. "Feel better, Hakuba-kun!"

Saguru waved, but he felt the urge to go home and die of embarrassment. How could he have been so obvious? At least Kaito hadn't seemed to mind Saguru's affections.

….

^^(6.6)^^

Mikau: So, I tried to make a crab with little pincers, but I couldn't come up with anything that looked like feet. Oh well. They're doing sound tests for the concert that's going to be held in the gym of my dorm tonight (it's a rec center with dorm rooms surrounding the gym that's in the center of the building), and it's LOUD. I can't imagine what it's going to sound like when the actual concert's going on. I have a feeling I'm not getting any work done tonight. Oh well. Free concert. I looked out the window in the hall and watched them set up. The band was on stage not two hundred feet away. It was kind of cool; supposedly they're really famous, but I don't know them. My friends just shook their heads at me. Hey, I went and saw Relient K when they came to our campus last year; what more do you want from me, guys? I say, call me when UVERworld comes. I wish we could have a Vocaloid concert, but hardly anyone's heard of them here. I can hear who I suspect to be the lead singer talking now, and it is, indeed, very loud. I can't wait until the crowd of screaming fans comes. Yikes. Thanks for reading, guys. I hope it lived up to your expectations. Have a nice, peaceful night, 'cause I sure won't.