Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan/Case Closed or D.N Angel.
Summary: When Prince Kaito Kuroba was told that he was to be engaged to the witch Akako, he only had one thought on his mind. No way in Hell. AU, KaiShin
Pairing(s): Kaito x Shinichi, Hakuba x Ran
WARNINGS: Shounan ai (boy/boy pairing), you have been warned
Midsummer Tales
By V. Shalyr
Chapter 2
Hattori Heiji often thought that he must have done something terrible in a past life and being assigned as the head of Prince Kuroba Kaito's personal guard was his punishment.
Standing before the closed door of the king's study, he gulped and squared his shoulders. There was really no point in delaying the inevitable; he just had to keep telling himself that.
"Come in."
Cautiously, Heiji pushed the door open and stepped inside, sweeping the man seated at the desk a low, formal bow. "Er, good morning, your Majesty. You asked to see his Highness, right?"
Lowering the document in his hands, Toichi raised his eyebrows. "Yes, I did. And I see that he has not accompanied you."
"Ah no, your Majesty. See, his Highness seems to have, uh, disappeared."
Again. Oh why, oh why had Heiji ever wanted to be in the royal guard?
Piercing, indigo eyes stared at him, prompting him to continue.
"He wasn't in his rooms this morning and we haven't been able to find him anywhere in the city. His horse is still in the stables, but…"
But that didn't mean very much where the crown prince was concerned. For all they could know, he had flown or just transported himself to wherever it was he had gone.
"We also found this on his table."
The scrap of white paper was handed over and the king glanced over its extremely brief message. Heiji had read it over several times himself that morning already, mostly in disbelief—just a note declaring that Kaito had not been abducted, and as far as Heiji was concerned, who would dare? Trying not to fidget, he waited nervously for his Majesty's response.
Whatever reaction he'd been expecting, it hadn't been for the king to throw back his head and laugh.
When his mirth finally subsided, Toichi shook his head and tucked the paper away into one of his desk's many drawers. "Good for him."
"Your Majesty?"
"No need to worry, Hattori. My son is doing exactly what he should be. Now, if you would be so kind as to go meet Lady Akako and bring her up here to see me. She should be arriving just about now."
Hattori dithered for a moment, glancing at the drawer into which the prince's note had vanished. Then he shrugged and sighed. There wasn't anything he could do about it so he'd better just let it go. As long as the king wasn't worried, he supposed his own concern was probably unnecessary.
"Right away, your Majesty." Bowing once more, Hattori excused himself from the room and started for the stairs.
Really, years serving the royal family and all he could say was that they were a damned confusing lot of individuals.
.
The problem with ensuring a perfect façade was that time had to be taken out of every day to devote to the act. Granted, he'd always loved magic and taking up the duties of a new court mage really wasn't that much trouble. The hard part was not picking up a reputation. Magic had always come so easily to him and he'd always held such passion for it that it was hard to step back and let his spells be just normal spells. The urge to tweak them, improve them, and improvise was just so great! Luckily, he had very important plans to lay out and they proved adequate in keeping him occupied. Well, that and his dear Shinichi had just been acting so strange lately.
Shinichi sneaking around spying on his sister's suitors was normal enough, it happened all the time. But Shinichi sneaking around trying—and an emphasis on the trying—to spy on Kaito was a different story entirely. The magician just raised an eyebrow behind his perfectly constructed mask and let him carry on, wondering what in Heaven's name his Princess was up to. He didn't mind the attention personally; he loved being in the spotlight and having the attention of his favorite person was certainly a plus. But he could see the people he spoke to throughout the day fidgeting uneasily whenever they noticed the intense, scrutinizing gaze of the local lord's son on them. And inevitably, they did notice, because as soon as Kaito started talking to someone, Shinichi would put on what Kaito liked to call his "thinking face" and completely forget that he was trying not to be seen. Actually, it was all rather funny, but Kaito would still have preferred to know why.
Well, he was going to find out. Whatever was on his Princess's mind, it seemed to be distressing him far more than anything should, especially anything concerning Kaito.
Sending the servant away to deliver a talisman requested by one of the court ladies, Kaito stepped into an empty room and cast a quick spell before backtracking and walking through the wall to appear behind his target. "Hey, Princess, looking for someone?"
Shinichi spun around, clutching his notebook to his chest like he was afraid that Kaito might try to steal it. "Er, no, not really. I was just, uh…"
He trailed off, floundering for a good, believable reason why he'd just been standing there. He'd never been all that good at lying. Whenever they'd gotten into trouble when they were younger, it was Kaito's silver tongue that usually got them out of it. Granted, that was only fair seeing as it was usually Kaito who had gotten them into said troubles to begin with.
Taking pity on him, Kaito broke the awkward silence with a shrug. "Never mind. I've got a few things I need to do in the city. If you're not busy, why don't you come with me? We can start with lunch."
Ran watched the pair depart from the crack between the door and doorframe of a sitting room further down the hall and crossed her fingers, hoping for the best. She'd practically watched the two fall in love over the years, and really, she rather believed she'd noticed before either of them had realized it. It was almost baffling how much they seemed to balance one another out, how much they fit together. It wasn't even that they were completely different because they weren't. They had a lot of things in common, which was really where any lasting relationship had to start. But they were different in all the right ways. Perhaps that was why people called it having "chemistry".
Kaito rushing about the grounds with Shinichi in tow had been such a common sight when they were little and the royal family was visiting Beika. It didn't matter where they had each started out during the day. You could count on the fact that eventually, they would end up in the same place. Even as a child Ran had thought it was adorable, especially when her baby brother would pout and complain whenever the prince gave him a flower. She couldn't even begin to count just how many flowers Shinichi had received from the magician over the past decade, but she could remember when Shinichi had stopped complaining and then started blushing instead. She clearly remembered noting it down in her diary. She'd been—what? Twelve at the time? Which meant Shinichi had been ten.
"So have they gone?"
Easing the door shut, Ran turned to give Hakuba a triumphant smile. "Yes, they are. I told you it would happen sooner or later. They've always been like that. Neither of them ever likes to say anything when something's bothering them but the other one always knows. And if you just wait long enough, they'll do something about it."
The knight's eyebrows rose at that. "I thought the court magician was new here."
Ran blinked then covered her mouth with her hand, her eyes going momentarily wide. Oh, she'd been so caught up in her contemplations that she'd forgotten. But then again, she was seriously considering marrying this man. She'd better be able to trust him. "You can keep a secret, right?"
"Of course," Hakuba said firmly, but then hesitated and coughed, "however… If whatever the secret is may put someone at risk, I may feel compelled to do something about it."
Ran giggled. Yes, she definitely liked this one. "No, I wouldn't ask you to keep a secret like that either. Anyways, his Highness and my brother have been pretty close since we were kids."
"His Highness?" Hakuba repeated, his brow furrowed. She could see the realization dawn in his eyes and he gaped for a moment, turning his stare to the closed door then back to her. "You mean that was the prince?"
"In disguise," Ran agreed, "but don't tell anyone. He doesn't want people to know yet. He's got plans and you know how he hates people messing with his plans."
The blond knight shuddered. He knew all right. Anyone who had ever been part of the Royal Guard knew you didn't mess with Kuroba Kaito if you wanted to stay sane. "But why is he here? Does the king know?"
Tapping her chin thoughtfully, Ran leaned back against the door. "Probably not seeing as it's his father he's hiding from. But his Majesty hasn't earnestly started searching for him yet either, which if you ask me probably means that he knows something."
Sometimes, Hakuba wondered if the people of other kingdoms had to spend so much time wondering just what exactly was running through the minds of their monarchs.
"And the prince?"
Ran's smile widened again. "I'm pretty sure he's going to ask my brother to marry him. I mean, we've all been expecting him to eventually. The biggest mystery is why he hasn't done anything before now."
Even their parents had noticed. Ran always thought that was why they'd never even talked about looking for a possible match for their son, even though he was only two years away from being considered ready for marriage.
Hakuba opened his mouth then shut it again, the expression on his face warring between confusion, shock, and horror. His mind knew that practically all the ladies in the kingdom found the prince irresistibly charming, but his imagination couldn't handle the idea of anyone wanting to marry the man.
Perhaps reading his mind—well, honestly you didn't have to, it was written clearly enough across his face—Ran sighed. "It's not that strange, you know. His Highness is a very good person when you get to know him and he's always been very caring with Shinichi. He's probably the only person I know that Kaito will tell the truth and get into trouble for."
That wasn't exactly Hakuba's idea of caring, but he supposed he could see why that was unusual where Kuroba was concerned.
There was a moment of silence during which the two occupants of the sitting room just looked at one another before Hakuba straightened up and gave Ran a polite bow.
"So shall we visit the falconry?"
.
Kaito loved Beika city. There wasn't anything particularly special about the place itself per say but it held so many memories. Shinichi could see the reminiscent smile on his friend's lips, which was why it surprised him when Kaito led them to a restaurant they had never been to before for lunch.
It was a small but very well decorated place near one of the quieter neighborhoods. Small tables had been placed about its mostly outdoor seating area amidst a whole lot of roses. Shinichi had never seen so many roses in one place except for in the gardens of the royal palace in the capitol.
"Do you know if this place is any good?" he asked quietly. He couldn't even tell what kind of food the place sold.
"Do I ever take you anywhere that isn't?" Kaito asked back.
"Well, there was that exotic foods place two years ago. Half the food was unidentifiable and the other half tried to crawl off my plate."
Kaito grimaced. "That was only once in ten years. I'd say I've done pretty well. Besides, this place has a very good reputation."
And really, the food did turn out to be pretty good, if not quite as good as the chefs had made them look with their careful arrangements and flower patterns. Out of the corner of his eye, Shinichi noticed that all the tables in the restaurant seemed to be designed for only two people and those pairs all seemed to be couples. It made him feel rather uncomfortable, but then Kaito started talking and he forgot that they were surrounded by other people or that anyone might be watching them.
"Do you remember the first Midsummer Festival we went to together?"
Carefully removing the cream rose on top of his cake—he didn't really like sweets but it seemed like such a shame to ruin the art—Shinichi thought back. The first time—oh, he remembered now. "How could I forget? I was so upset because you'd promised to take me but then you went and got yourself grounded by your mother for that stunt with the fire."
"Well, I got us there in the end anyway," Kaito mused, deftly stealing the cream flower from Shinichi's plate. No point letting perfectly good sugar go to waste.
"At the cost of having an extra week added to your sentence," Shinichi pointed out. That had meant that for the rest of that visit, Kaito had been stuck indoors. Shinichi remembered it vividly since he'd ended up spending all that time indoors with him, trying to make sure his friend didn't go crazy—or more crazy than he already was.
Across the table, Kaito just smiled, one of those rare, completely genuine smiles that Shinichi fancied he got to see more often than anyone else. "Yes, but it was worth it."
Going slightly pink, Shinichi averted his eyes. "Thanks."
He couldn't remember if he'd ever told Kaito how much that particular incident had meant to him, though he was almost positive the prince knew and that that was why he'd tried so hard to make sure they'd been able to go. His parents had always insisted that he stay with them before that during the festival. Festivals were, after all, noisy and chaotic places not always the safest for children by themselves, especially children belonging to influential people like the lord and lady of the area. So when his parents had told him that he could go explore the festival without them as long as he stayed with the older boy, he'd been so excited.
Reaching across the table, Kaito took his hand and pulled it up to brush a kiss across the back. "You're always welcome. Now come on, I did say I had some business that needs attending to."
At least his Princess was a lot more relaxed now. Perhaps he'd just needed a healthy dose of attention. That was certainly something Kaito could understand and the solution was simple enough. He was never too busy to make time for Shinichi.
.
So it was that instead of just heading straight from the fireworks maker to the lantern shop, Kaito had them stop in one of the city squares that had a water fountain in it and got them each a cup of coffee. His Shinichi loved coffee. He himself… Not so much, but with enough hot chocolate mixed in, it had managed to become an acquired taste.
And instead of heading straight from the lantern shop to the jewelry store, they stopped by the art museum and visited their newest exhibit. Some of their exhibits changed from month to month and it was really hit or miss whether they were interesting or not, but finding out was half the adventure. By the time they left that, Shinichi had almost forgotten that he'd been losing sleep trying to discover just who it was Kaito intended on asking to marry him.
Almost.
The Suzuki jewelry store was the largest in Beika, owned by the incredibly wealthy Suzuki merchant family. The moment its gold-rimmed glass doors came into view, Shinichi braced himself. Ran was great friends with the daughter of the family who had started working in the store more often since returning home from school, but she and Shinichi had never quite seen eye to eye.
Kaito had been fifteen and Shinichi thirteen when they'd first met Sonoko Suzuki. She'd just started classes at the magic academy and had stood in complete awe and adoration of Kaito, already at the top of his year and even giving most of the older students a run for their money. Even Kaito had been shocked speechless—quite a feat for sure—when he had arrived in the academy courtyard to meet Shinichi only to have the girl throw herself at him with an ear-splitting squeal. Luckily for Sonoko, not having known her yet for the hazard that she was, the prince had caught her out of instinct instead of stepping out of the way and steadied her before stepping away from her. She hadn't even noticed Shinichi watching the scene play out from beside his horse as she launched into what sounded like the story of her life, the words spilling from her at a mile a minute. Kaito had listened politely for a very long minute before deciding the girl wasn't going to stop anytime soon and excused himself to bound over and pull Shinichi into a bone-breaking hug. It wasn't every day that his Princess was able to visit him at school.
From that day onward, they had seen Sonoko around every corner. Shinichi stayed for several months on that particular visit, having deemed it worthwhile to at least understand how magic fundamentally worked, and the girl found every excuse she could to intrude and attempt to attract Kaito's attention. And every time he saw her at it, Shinichi would find a strange, unpleasant feeling welling up in his chest.
It had taken Shinichi a month to finally identify the feeling as jealousy. He'd never experienced it before and he hadn't liked it. It wasn't even like he had any reason to envy her, except perhaps for the fact that his stay at the academy was temporary and she'd still be there with Kaito when he left. For inexplicable reasons, that thought had been depressing, at least until Kaito had extracted the cause of his unhappiness from him and proceeded to laugh and reassure him that he wouldn't be able to get rid of him that easily.
What else had Kaito said then? Shinichi frowned, following the prince through the glass doors and into an almost dazzlingly bright showroom full of display cases. Now that he was thinking about the incident, something about it felt important. It had also had something to do with the Midsummer Festival, he was sure of it. But what was it?
Shinichi hung back as Kaito resumed his persona as the court magician helping out with the festival preparations, glancing idly at the rings, necklaces, and bracelets laid out upon platforms of satin behind the glass. What had happened at that Midsummer Festival?
"You!"
Jerked out of his thoughts by the shriek, Shinichi glanced around in panic for a moment before spotting Sonoko hurtling towards him. She screeched to a halt in front of him, her eyes gleaming as she jabbed a finger in Kaito's direction.
"Who is that? You arrived with him, didn't you? Well? Tell me! I'm sure I would have noticed him around town before."
Shinichi recognized the light of speculative obsession creeping onto her face and scowled in return. "Don't get any ideas. He's off limits."
Sonoko's eyebrow shot up at that and she folded her arms across her chest. "Why so hostile, Kudou? You've already got a boyfriend."
"What? I don't know what you're talking about."
"Oh please," the young woman rolled her eyes. "I'm talking about his Highness, duh. I mean, you were the one he took to that school dance last year, weren't you?"
"Um, yes?" Shinichi wasn't sure where this was going. That had been one damned awkward dance. The entire female population of the school seemed to have been out to get him and would shoot him rather venomous glares whenever they thought Kaito wasn't looking. They'd left the moment they could get away without seeming discourteous.
"And the one he ditched exams for to visit that time you got sick? Ran told me all about it. He was lucky the teachers let him retake them. I don't think they wanted to fail him and risk having to deal with him for an extra semester."
Oh, Shinichi hadn't known about that. And now that he did, he couldn't help but feel a bit guilty.
Sonoko stared at him for a long moment as though waiting for something then let out an exasperated sigh. "Never mind."
And with that, she stomped off muttering under her breath about how Shinichi was "utterly hopeless" and how "unfair" it was that he was the one who got the man. And what was she doing wrong anyway? The world was so full of injustice when a perfectly wonderful girl like herself was still single.
Listening to her fading rant, Shinichi wondered about the boyfriend he could have sworn Ran had told him that the girl had. Whoever he was, he felt rather sorry for him with how the girl seemed to forget he existed half the time.
What he really needed though was some quiet, undisturbed thinking time. Whatever her reasons, Sonoko's words had finally jarred something in his mind.
Kaito did spend an awful lot of time with him. Thinking back, it had almost always been that way and maybe that was why he'd started to take it all for granted—that that was how the relationship between them would always be. It was frightening to think that things could be different. But at the same time, just because things changed didn't mean they would have to change for the worse. Whatever decisions Kaito had made or were making, he should just relax and trust him. After all, his prince had never failed him before and if there was one thing he could be sure about it was that Kaito cared for him, whatever kind of care that might be.
"Amazing, you actually look calmer after talking to Miss Suzuki," Kaito observed, returning to his side with a slight question in the crimson eyes of his illusionary self. "I never thought I'd see such a day."
Shinichi just smiled. "So are you done here?"
Letting the matter drop, the magician put on a lopsided grin. "For today, yes. It's getting close to dinner time. The store owner has just informed me that the new restaurant down by the lake has been making quite a name for itself."
"Down by the lake?" Shinichi blinked, his smile turning into a small frown. "But their whole theme is food from the lake. You hate fish."
"Yes, I know. Which is why we're not eating fish. But I hear that their roast duck is quite good."
TBC…
.