Mikau: Hi there! I survived Valentine's Day! Just barely. I remind you that I'm a florist. It was hellish. Anyway, this is just a little drabble that I messed over over the weekend when I had some writer's block. It's unpolished and kind of choppy, but hopefully you'll find it amusing. It's stuff like this that helps me get the guck out so I can write my other stuff. In other news, thank you so much to the reviewers from last chapter: patternleap, MeitanteiRose, and Windying!

Disclaimer: If I owned it, I'd be vacationing on some tropical island with the proceeds right about now. This winter has been a little ridiculous, and I'd really like some warmth right about now.

…

Be My Valentine

"Don't you have a girlfriend you're supposed to be spending the evening with?" Hakuba's eyebrow arched up over the rim of his reading glasses. "Today is Valentine's Day, isn't it?"

Kaito gave his best friend a wilting smile. "Long story. Let me in and I'll explain?"

Saguru shrugged, stepping to the side to let Kaito pass. "Are you ever going to learn to use the front door like a normal human being?"

Kaito rolled his eyes with a smirk. "That's so boring. Besides, why bother pretending to be normal? We both know I'm secretly a space alien; there's no need to put up the pretense for you."

"Quite," Hakuba snorted lightly, going over to his little mini-fridge/microwave setup to fetch a mug of hot chocolate for his guest. "But you do know that people will start talking if they find out about you sneaking into my bedroom like that. Did you want marshmallows?"

"Oh, I can just see the steamy tabloid headings now," Kaito snickered, making himself at home, sitting on the arm of Hakuba's couch. "Let them talk. We've been doing this whole climbing up the tree, entering from the balcony bit for…three years now? No one seems to have noticed yet…besides Baaya….Yes, please to the marshmallows."

"So…" Saguru raised an eyebrow once more as he handed Kaito's mug over. "You were going to explain."

Kaito grimaced. "So, I told you that Aoko had invited me over to her place tonight for dinner because she said we needed to talk about our relationship and where it was going. I said cool because I had wanted to talk about our relationship too, and I kind of thought we were on the same page. So, I get there, and it's all candle-lit and romantic stuff, and she comes down the stairs wearing…well…little, itty-bitty swatches of see-through lace."

Saguru's eyes went wide as he nodded slowly in understanding, his face cherry tomato red at the mental picture. "She had intended for the two of you to take your relationship to the next level." Saguru's heart sunk. No use clinging to false hope any longer. "…Hold on. Why aren't you with her now? It's only ten o'clock. Kuroba, you don't just…just…make love to a woman and then leave!"

"We broke up," Kaito replied softly, gazing down into his chocolate drink, watching the marshmallows float.

"I'm not following you." Saguru set down his own cup of tea and took a seat on the coffee table beside it. "She broke up with you afterwards? Are you no good in bed or something? I mean…what? What did she say?"

Kaito shook his head. "Hakuba, nothing happened between us. I took one look at her, put my coat around her shoulders, kissed her on the forehead, and told her I wasn't worthy of her. I told her she deserved a real man…a real gentleman, and that was it. I mean, she cried and swore like her father and threw things and demanded an explanation, so I told her I loved her too much to let her end up with a slug like me, and then I left."

Saguru moved to the couch, sitting at Kaito's side and patting the brunette on the knee in a feeble attempt to comfort his friend. "That…must have been extremely difficult for you."

Kaito nodded, appreciating Saguru's kind gesture. "I couldn't lie to her anymore. I couldn't…I have no right to be in a relationship with her like that. I couldn't hurt her like that. If we took it any further and she found out my secret…she'd be devastated. It's bad enough as is. I…I'm a cruel, heartless, selfish jerk, but I care about her too much to hurt her like that, so…we broke up."

"I'm sorry," Saguru whispered, only partly sincere. He truly felt sorry for Kaito's loss, and he would never wish such suffering on his dearest friend, but…on the other hand, the one obstacle that Saguru thought he could never hope to overcome in his quest to win Kaito's affections—Aoko—was now no longer an issue.

Kaito shook his head. "It was bound to happen sooner or later. We were never going to work out."

"You two seemed like the perfect couple to me, but what do I know about romance?" Hakuba shrugged.

"There have been some pretty big hurdles between me and Aoko for years now," Kaito confessed. "Other than just Kid, I mean. We've been growing apart, and things have…people have…someone, actually, has come between us."

Saguru's eyes narrowed in confusion. "Was there…someone else that Aoko-kun was interested in?"

Kaito chuckled softly, shaking his head. "She had a thing for you for a while there, but that's not what I'm talking about. Me. I meant me."

This time those honeycomb-colored eyes narrowed in a slow-simmering fury. "Kudo Shinichi," he hissed. "It's that Kudo Shinichi, isn't it? You're always on and on about him. It's him, isn't it?"

This brought on a full-blown fit of laughter. "No!" Kaito giggled, scooting down off of the arm of the couch and coming to sit beside his friend. He smiled, looking up into Saguru's eyes. "It's not Shin-chan."

Saguru blinked a little stupidly while his brain attempted to recalculate. "…Koizumi-san? She's…pretty…. Strange. I mean…eccentric."

"No, Saguru," Kaito corrected, taking the detective's cheeks in his hands and forcing the blonde to look him in the eye.

Saguru was struck silent for a good half a minute before he finally replied, "Well? Who is it then? Because you can't possibly be insinuating that it's me."

Kaito sighed, head dropping down in defeat. He took a deep breath before quickly going in for the kill, pulling Saguru's lips to his own before he lost his nerve. He kissed the blonde feverishly, but Saguru didn't respond.

Kaito's lips gradually slowed to a halt, and he pulled back in utter mortification.

Saguru, who had been absolutely stunned by Kaito's sudden actions, finally found his voice. "Though, you know, I wouldn't say no, if you insisted that you truly were insinuating that it's me."

Kaito's gaze flew up to meet Saguru's. "Seriously?"

The detective nodded, cheeks quickly turning pink. "Yes. In fact…I've quite fancied you for a while myself."

Kaito's eye began to twitch. "Then what was up with the complete lack of a reaction when I started sucking on your lips?" he grumbled.

"Honestly, I thought I was merely daydreaming…. It happens sometimes. I…I'm frankly having a hard time believing that this is real," Hakuba explained sheepishly.

"Well, give me an hour or two." Kaito smiled coyly. "I'll see if I can convince you."

"Like I said before: I won't protest…if you insist," Saguru flirted back, squirming in embarrassment.

"I insist," Kaito purred, pressing his lips to Saguru's once more as he laid the blonde down on the couch.