Mikau: Hey guys! This one is…interesting. I hope you enjoy it; it's a little longer than the others. One note: Charles Dodgson (aka: Lewis Carroll) was said to have a stutter; therefore, I named the clock Charles after him, and the clock stutters. You'll see. Thanks a bunch to everyone that reviewed last time: Bunnyz-chan, MeitanteiRose, patternleap, and MercheGlee!

Disclaimer: If I owned it, I'd do a backstory episode about poor Hakuba to flesh out his character a little. On one hand, it's nice to have the creative liberty to interpret the character and make him your own, but…it'd be nice if Aoyama-sensei gave him a little more attention.

…

The Clock Winked

The clock winked.

Now, Saguru had a lot of experience with clocks of all kinds, but never before had one winked at him.

Somehow this was all Kuroba's fault.

"H-H-Hello there." Great. Now it was talking too.

"G-Good afternoon," Saguru greeted civilly from where he was seated in a wingback chair by the fireplace.

The little clock was standing on the side table to his left. "Wha-What brings you two here?"

"Two?" Saguru looked around until he found Kuroba asleep or otherwise unconscious on the couch. "I knew it. I knew he had to be involved somehow. Sorry to intrude, but…would you mind telling me where exactly 'here' is? And of whom do I have the pleasure of making the acquaintance? I am Hakuba Saguru, and my…companion…is Kuroba Kaito."

The little clock nodded and the hands on its face started going backward. "I am Ch-Ch-Charles, and you are in Looking Glass Country…the Looking Glass House to b-be more specific."

Saguru's mouth formed a small 'o' shape. "As in…'Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There'? Am I dreaming?"

"Yes, the s-same, and no, I can assure you that you're quite awake." Charles seemed to smile.

Saguru frowned, going over to Kuroba's prone form and shaking the magician gently. "Kuroba? Kuroba, are you alright? Wake up."

Kaito eyes fluttered open, and he jumped, letting out a little yelp, when he found Hakuba's face so close to his own.

"Good. Now you can do something to get the both of us out of here," Saguru sighed in relief.

The brunette whipped his head back and forth, frantically trying to determine where he was. "Where the hell is 'here'?!" Kaito was a little freaked out by the moving toys and household objects. The game of chess was playing itself.

"Looking Glass House," Saguru announced, turning back to the clock. "Charles, do you have any idea how we can get home? I mean…we don't have to slay a jabberwock or anything, do we?"

"I should think n-n-not!" Charles cried in astonishment. He was obviously taken aback by the very idea. "Jabberwocky are an endangered species nowadays…and the one that used to stalk the woods around these p-p-parts was slain a long time ago by a young g-g-girl."

"Hakuba, the clock's talking." Kaito pointed and stared.

"This is Charles." Saguru rolled his eyes at the other boy, taking the talking timepiece in stride. "Don't be rude, Kuroba." He batted Kaito's hand down.

"Sure. Because stuff like this happens all the time," Kaito sighed, getting up and stretching. "How'd we get here?"

"Not sure, really. The last thing I remember is…wanting to punch your lights out," Hakuba confessed.

Kaito pouted. "Gee. Thanks. Do you remember why?"

The detective shrugged, beginning to look around and investigate the room, careful not to step on anything…anyone. "Not a clue. I'm afraid it's a rather common occurrence. I couldn't tell you what made me want to deck you this time in particular."

Kaito snorted. "Well. I appreciate your impressive self-control…. The last thing I remember…it was after the heist. Kid-sama had slipped the gem in your pocket, and we…we were fighting about something, right?"

Realization dawned upon Saguru. "In the wing of the museum with all of the furniture…. In front of that mirror. I was…accusing you of being Kid again. I confronted you…took you by the arm and—"

"—tripped on the Persian rug," Kaito concluded. "…knocking me backwards right into…"

"…the mirror," Saguru sighed. "There was some kind of flash of light, and then I woke up here."

"Th-That sounds like the work of the Jabberwock's Eye," Charles piped up. "Normally only special people can come here freely. All o-others require the help of the Jabberwock's Eye."

"Just to be clear, but…that's a gemstone that's only called the Jabberwock's Eye, right? It's not actually a real jabberwock's eye…right?" Kaito grimaced.

Charles cocked his head to the side. "No. It really is a fossilized eyeball."

Kaito made a mental note to wash his hands as soon as possible. "And…how does the eyeball work?"

"It allows the user to p-p-pass through the gateways between their world and ours."

"The gateways being the mirrors, yes?" Saguru presumed.

"Y-Yes," Charles confirmed.

"Then maybe we can get home through the mirror above the fireplace," Kaito suggested, looking back at Saguru. "Do you still have the gem?"

Saguru checked his pockets and produced the amber stone.

The two teens smiled in relief.

"T-That's the Eye alright," Charles cheerfully informed.

"Let's try it out," Kaito suggested, going to stand in front of the mirror. "Take my hand."

"W-Why?" Saguru blushed, shying away.

Kaito glared. "Oh, come on. I don't have cooties or anything. It's so we don't get separated. I don't want to be lost between dimensions all by myself, and you'd miss me if you lost me, so take my hand."

Saguru reached out tentatively and laced his fingers through Kaito's. He knew he was blushing, but he couldn't do much about it. He could only hope that his palms weren't sweaty. He was surprised when Kuroba pulled Saguru's arm close, hugging it to his body.

"Let's go," Kaito urged, taking a hesitant step towards the mirror.

"Thank you for your assistance, Charles," Saguru called back over his shoulder.

"It was a p-pleasure!" the clock assured.

"We should probably think of home or something when we go through," Kaito muttered, obviously nervous. "You know. So the mirror and the Eye know where to send us."

"Good point." It was kind of intriguing to see Kuroba so out of sorts. It was so cute it was making Saguru forget to be scared. "That being said, we should probably think of the same place so as not to confuse it."

"Your house." Kaito shrugged.

"My house," Saguru agreed. "Ready?"

Kaito nodded, and they climbed up on the mantelpiece and went through hand-in-hand.

The next thing they knew, they had landed rather roughly on the bed in one of the Hakuba guestrooms. It was a four-poster bed with a mirror lining the top.

They both groaned, the air knocked out of them by the less than smooth landing. Saguru was the first to get his wits about him, seeing as he was the one who had landed on top…sprawled out on top of Kaito, albeit, but…

"Sorry," the Brit mumbled, pushing himself up to all fours so as to alleviate the pressure and weight on the magician.

"'S fine," Kaito grumbled.

"That didn't actually happen…did it?" Saguru gulped.

Kaito shrugged.

"Can we pretend that it didn't? I think my brain is about to explode—talking clocks, Kuroba!" Saguru was just short of panicking.

Kaito shrugged again. It had freaked him out while it had been his reality in the here and now, but now that Kaito was back in his own world, he wasn't really bothered by their brief sojourn in another dimension. After all, he'd dealt with witches and robots and all sorts of bizarre crap before.

"If you can come up with a reason for me being in your bed right now, I'd be willing to pretend that the talking clock incident never happened. Deal?" Whatever kept the nerdy detective sane.

"Momentary lapse of judgment?" Saguru suggested, coming down from his frenzied state and suddenly noticing that Kuroba Kaito was sort of attractive up close with their bodies like this.

Kaito rolled his violet eyes. "I might be a little loose, Hakuba, but I'd have to be slobbering drunk or drugged to end up underneath you, so—"

"—What if I told you I was a very experience lover? That I could make your breath hitch and your toes curl?"

Kaito's eyes widened, and his jaw went slack in utter shock.

Seeing Kuroba's expression and taking it as a bad sign, Saguru began to backpedal. "O-Or maybe…maybe I'm not very experienced at all. Maybe you're my first love. Perhaps I awkwardly confessed to you and you're here because you took pity on me. Maybe you came to show me the ropes."

Saguru bit his lip and looked away when Kaito didn't respond for nearly two minutes (one minute and fifty-four point six seconds).

"How experienced is 'experienced lover' would you say?" Kaito inquired cautiously, interest piqued.

"I ran with a different crowd back in London," Saguru hinted coyly. "I'm sure you can imagine what kind of trouble a very rich, sheltered, rebellious young man could get into."

"Hmm," Kaito hummed in interest, sitting up and sliding out from under Saguru with a smirk. "You know what I think? I think we started arguing back at the museum…a really heated argument, both of us getting pretty riled up. You reached out and grabbed my arm, tripped on the Persian rug, and sent us both to the ground in a jumble of limbs. And then I kissed you."

Kaito leaned in, taking Saguru's jaw in his hand and extracting a fervent, lusty, open-mouthed kiss from the blonde. After two and a half (and some change) minutes, Kaito pulled back and whispered, "And it was hot, so we came back here and made out for a little while."

"That sounds perfectly agreeable to me," Saguru panted, leaning back in, desperate for another taste of those sugary lips, that tantalizing tongue.

Kaito held up a hand to Saguru's lips, stopping the advance. "But then I decided that I value our…weird, twisted friendship too much to throw a no-strings-attached physical relationship into that mess…. So I went home and saw you again on Monday at school."

Saguru grabbed Kaito's arm as the magician started to get up to leave. He couldn't face the other teen as he whispered, "It sounds like we need to uncomplicated our friendship first before anything even remotely physical could be possible…. Would you maybe want to hang out tomorrow? Get to know each other a little better?"

Kaito chuckled, taking Saguru by the jaw again, this time forcing the blonde to look at him. "Yeah, actually. So long as you leave your little detective badge at home. I find you fascinating, so…yeah. You've got my interest. I'll swing by at one?"

"Y-Yes. I'll see you then, Kuroba." Saguru held back a giddy laugh.

"Awesome." Kaito gave him a playful salute. "I'll let myself out. See ya then!"

Kaito hummed in thought as he made his way back home that night. Truly there was more to the straight-laced, dorky Hakuba Saguru than there appeared to be, and Kaito was enticed. He was anxious to tear the blonde's walls down and see just what was beyond that mask the detective wore.

"Experienced lover"? Huh.

Kaito was looking forward to getting to know his rival better…maybe even to the point of learning a little bit about Hakuba's supposed experience firsthand.

Saguru, on the other hand, was in a bit of a daze. Kuroba Kaito was more than just an obnoxious, bratty thorn in Saguru's side. Kuroba Kaito was hot. He'd seen a whole new side to his adversary tonight, and Saguru was smitten. It might take some hard work and a long time, but Saguru was confident that he could get his rival to feel the same way. Saguru was determined.