A New Beginning?

Chapter 4

It was in the afternoon of a perfect summer's day when they landed in England after refuelling in Paris. The sun was shining down from a light blue sky that was clear of clouds and unlike back in Japan the temperature and humidity were mild and bearable.

Once they had arrived at Hakuba's stately manor house and deposited their luggage in the spacious entry hall, he insisted on giving them a tour despite the fact that they were all still quite tired from the flight and their jet lag would be keeping them up all night. Jet lag and lack of sleep didn't seem to have any effect on the detective; in fact he seemed more energetic that he had been on the plane. He led them around a dizzying array of room, making explanatory comments as he did so:

"This is the old Smoking Room; of course it isn't used anymore. This is the Billiards Room- I had in converted into a Games Room."

"Did you inherit this place?" Kaito enquired interestedly as they sat down outside on the terrace to admire the rose garden and eat a snack.

"My father bought it off the National Trust- the organisation that owns most of the stately homes in this country, for an extortionate price in return for my services to the Japanese Police. I don't get paid you see," Hakuba explained as he set the tea ray down on the wrought iron table.

Kaito perked up at the sight of cake and then was disillusioned by the sight of a non-chocolate cake, Aoko, on the other hand was uninterested in the conversation was intently watching a cat chasing a bird through the rose bushes.

Hakuba caught Kaito's disappointed look. "Sorry Kuroba, I do not eat chocolate cake; it is one of the most fattening cakes. This is a British Victoria Sponge. Have 5 sugars in your tea to make up for the loss of chocolate."

"How did you know that I like chocolate cake?" Kaito grumbled, piling the contents on the sugar bowl into his teacup.

"Your file."

Kaito pouted. "I swear I'm going to get my hands on it and see that it actually says in there."

Aoko giggled suddenly making the two males jump. Kaito turned and followed her gaze to see that the cat that she had been watching had climbed a tree only to become stuck by its collar catching on a branch. He didn't find it particularly interesting to look at, but it was the fact that she had found it funny piqued his interest.

"Is that your cat?" she asked, turning around in her seat as Hakuba deposited a slice of cake onto her plate.

"No," Hakuba shook his head. "It belongs to the little boy who is staying with me. I have a hawk called Watson though."

Kaito stifled a laugh at hearing the name and dug into his cake to avoid seeing Hakuba's glares. That cake wasn't that bad: the combination of a vanilla sponge, cream and strawberry jam was a pleasant change to chocolate cake which was what he had eaten to keep him awake when he had pulled all nighters to research the Organisation.

"Who is the boy?" Kaito asked after a few minutes of nothing but the sound of birds twittering and the clink of china.

Hakuba looked uncomfortable and unwilling to talk all of a sudden.

"You will meet him later at dinner. He is Japanese like you," he said firmly. "Aoko-chan, if you want you can have a cat in your new house." He swiftly changed the subject.

Aoko brightened a little and once again Kaito was reminded of the girl he had met under the clock tower. He caught Hakuba's eye and realised that he had been staring at Aoko with a goofy grin on his face. He sat up straighter and coughed. Hakuba smirked in amusement; he was going to have some fun messing with Kaito Kuroba.

Opening his old pocket watch that had been passed down through his family he checked the time.

"2 seconds, 3 minutes past 5 o'clock in the afternoon. Why don't you two unpack in your bedroom until dinner which is at exactly half past 6. Don't bother unpacking too much- you will be moving to your cottage tomorrow."

Kaito wasn't sure that he had heard right. "Did you say bedroom? Or bedrooms?"

Hakuba smiled at him innocently. "You will have to get used to it- after all you are husband and wife," he smirked. "Think of tonight as a test run."

Kaito blushed a tomato red and noted out of the corner of his eye that Aoko's cheeks were pink too an she was looking down at her teacup. Making a quick decision he stood up and grabbed her hand.

"Come on Aoko. Let's go and bounce on the bed and have a pillow fight," he suggested, pulling her gently with him into the house.

Rolling his eyes, Hakuba collected the teacups and plates. That bed was an antique. He knew that Kaito just wanted to make Aoko a little happier, but he should think things logically before diving in. If he over did his cheerfulness then he was going to scare Aoko away as she was still very shy.

Also he was aware that the pair had probably crossed paths before as they had spent their in the same district and Aoko's father, Inspector Nakamori had been the head of the Task Force against Kaito's father, Kaito kid. So the chances of them having crossed paths before were quite high.

It would be interesting to see how things developed once they had started properly living together. It was clear that Aoko Nakamori liked Kaito Kuroba much more than she had liked anyone in the past few months and that Kuroba himself was not opposed to her as much as he wanted him to think. He would have to visit them in their new house regularly to observe their progress.

As he was thinking his plans over a pillow fell down and hit him squarely on the head. With a certain suspicion as to where it came from he raised his head to look up. Kaito's head was sticking out of the window above him.

"Sorry Hakuba," Kaito apologised, not looking particularly sincere. "I have a very bad aim. Right, Aoko?"

He didn't hear reply, but he wondered what Kaito would be like at night when he had to sleep in the same bed as Aoko. He would love to see the cocky grin wiped off his face then. It was a shame he would not be able to see it.

An hour later Kaito and Aoko arrived downstairs in the dining room for dinner. Kaito looked very exhausted and tired with some stray feathers still in his hair and Aoko actually had some colour in her pale cheeks.

Hakuba took in all of the details and absorbed them carefully, exchanging glances with the 7 year old boy sitting opposite him. If Kuroba planned to keep up the hyper idiotic facade for Aoko then he would have to tone it down otherwise he would be drain his energy and he might have to deal with agents that the Organisation sent after him. However he did acknowledge that Aoko did look a little more like the happier photos he had seen of her from her schooldays.

"Kuroba, Aoko-chan," he started as they took their designated places that had been set out for them using name cards at the polished oak table. "This is the little boy I mentioned earlier; Conan Edogawa."

In response Kaito nodded his head and observed the boy's appearance. He was somewhat unusually attired for his young age- he was wearing a navy blue suit jacket and a red bowtie. He wore large black rimmed glasses over his piercing blue eyes. The boy smiled sweetly at Kaito.

"Nice to meet you, Kuroba-san."

There was something familiar about the boy that Kaito couldn't put his finger on. For some reason he found himself thinking of the very person he was going to be impersonating: Shinichi Kudo.

"How old are you?" Kaito asked bluntly, whilst looking as closely as he could from across the table at the glasses the boy was wearing. They were bothering him as well as the resemblance.

"Kuroba, he is 7. Leave him alone and eat," Hakuba sighed. He had not expected him to become suspicious of Conan Edogawa so quickly. Hopefully he would not guess the exact truth. He exchanged a significant look with Conan to warn him to be careful.

Taking Hakuba's advice, Kaito backed off and started eating.

After dinner they migrated to the Games room. Kaito entered a of Poker against Hakuba as he was incapable of playing Snooker and Aoko played Snap against Conan and talked to him about his cat.

"So what is your cat's name?" she asked subduedly as she was quite tired out from Kaito earlier.

Conan twitched. "It's called Baka."

In reality he had called it Ran Mori to remind himself of his wife, but if he told her the name it would only heighten Kuroba's suspicion which was the last thing he needed at the moment.

"That's a nice name," Aoko commented politely, laying a card down. "Are you a relation of Hakuba-san?"

With his blonde hair and my black hair? I don't think so, Conan thought in his head. Then he remembered that Aoko's intelligence had depleted since her ordeal and she probably wouldn't be able to regain most of it. At least she still retained her ability to speak foreign languages.

"No, my parents are friends with him," he lied, keeping to his cover story.

"Oh. I thought you reminded me of someone… If it wasn't Hakuba-san, who was it?" Aoko pondered out loud.

She failed to notice Hakuba and Conan suddenly tensing, but Kaito didn't and he waited for Aoko to join the dots together about who he resembled so he could observe their reactions. Fortunately he didn't have to wait long.

"I've got it; you look a little like Shinichi Kudo."

Thank you 66ButterflyOfDarkness99 for you regular reviews and in answer to your comment about Gin I only used him because I couldn't use Hakuba and according to Gin fans, he is attractive.