Chapter 12: Warmth in the Night
Aoko was at my house when I made it back. I unfortunately had to avoid her, since I still had some of the makeup on my face and the clothes I was wearing clearly weren't mine. The bandages were also showing through the cap and I didn't want to explain them to her.
I'd grown used to sneaking in my window since I didn't want to wake my mom up when I'd been out late. I wouldn't have been surprised though, if she told me she knew when I came in.
Once in my room I took off the clothes and exchanged them for a collared black shirt and a less formal pair of black pants than Kudo's. I took the cap off and rinsed the gel out of my hair again, and let it dry in my own wired fashion. The bandages would be harder. I thought for a while before deciding to just cover them with a wig and another hat, this cap black to match the outfit. My hair would still dry fine under it hopefully.
I had to leave out my window too, since Aoko knew I wasn't home and was already comfortably sitting in the main room. The trees in the yard helped me get down from the second story as easily as I'd gotten up. I went around and opened the front door at the same time my mom did from inside.
"Kaito, you know you really should have called. I was worried last night," she scolded me, dragging me into the house by my left arm.
"Sorry, I fell asleep before I remembered."
"Aoko-chan's here and she's been waiting for you with me since noon. It's three-thirty now." She laughed at my expression when she told me the time, aware that I hadn't looked at a clock for a while. "I told her you went out and said you wouldn't be back for a while but she wouldn't leave."
"It's fine, there's nothing bad hap... pen…ing..." I looked around the house to find it empty, "Where'd everyone go?"
"Oh, Jii-san said that there was somewhere safe he knew of that would be better than the house. I argued with him but couldn't win. He and the children went there this morning and he left a cell phone with a number in it for you to call."
Jii had a lot of contacts that I didn't know about, and if one of those people had somewhere safe for the kids to stay I wouldn't fight him on it. I'd complained to him earlier how I was putting mom in danger so he must have acted on it, and it did comfort me to know that my mom would be safe.
Aoko rushed in from another room as my mom was about to ask me something. She was obviously angry with me, judging by her stern expression, and before I knew what was happening she shoved a trout in my face.
"AH!" I took mom in front of me and hid behind her so I wouldn't have to see the fish.
"Serves you right Kaito! You said you were sick and I come over to find that you're off running around in this cold weather! Even if you got better Friday it doesn't mean you should go outside after you get over a cold." Aoko put her hands on her hips, still throwing the fish around.
"And so you choose to attack me with fish?"
Aoko peeked behind my mom and shoved the slimy thing back in my face. I jumped away and banged my head as I collided with the wall. The knock from earlier had left a soft spot so hitting it again hurt worse.
"Stop it you stupid girl!" I yelled at her more violently then I should have. Aoko just looked at me and sighed.
"Fine but you're still an idiot, Kaito, and don't call me stupid!" Instead of threatening me with the fish again, she kicked me lightly with her toe. "I don't like when you call me stupid just as much as you hate the fish."
She went back into the kitchen to do something with the sea abomination before coming over to me and offering her hand.
"Get up already you idiot. Why are you still sitting on the floor?"
I pushed her hand away and got up on my own.
"I don't want to touch your hand after you handled that thing." The hate in my voice was directed solely on the creature and not Aoko. She rolled her eyes at me.
"I'll go wash them." Aoko disappeared back into the kitchen again with a tired expression and my mom smiled.
"The two of you are so cute together."
"Let me try putting a dead possum in your face and see how you like it Okasan," I mumbled to her under my breath. She just laughed at me and looked around.
"What happened to Hakuba-kun? Wasn't he with you?"
"I don't know. He left a little before I did and we got on different buses. I don't think he's coming back." My mom shot me a strained look at what little explanation I gave her before Aoko returned. We shared glances that went over the girl's head as I tried to tell her nothing bad happened.
"Kaito," Aoko tapped me lightly on the side of the arm, forcing me to look at her. "I'm not doing anything today and I haven't seen you all week so will you go to the mall with me?"
I had been ignoring her. It was unintentional but that didn't mean it wasn't happening. Hakuba made it clear that he didn't want me helping him anymore, even though I was still going to. Jii took the children somewhere safe, so I didn't have to worry about them or mom. I had time for Aoko.
"Sure but why do you want to go to the mall? It's cold out there."
"Well, you've already been outside so I don't think going back out will get you sick. Christmas is coming up soon and I wanted to look for presents before all the good ones were gone."
"Aoko it's just the start of November, I don't think they're going to be selling out of anything yet." I rubbed the back of my head where it was still sore, the clasp on the cap seemed to direct the pain to that particular spot.
"Which means I only have a month and I'm not going to do any last minute shopping." She pulled my sleeve and led me to the door. "Let's go."
"I guess I'm going. Bye mom!" I shouted, just snatching a jacket by the side of the door before Aoko pulled me through.
I turned to her after she dragged me out of my own house. I was going to yell at her but the smile on her face made me stop. Aoko really put up with a lot around me, not that I didn't have to put up with a lot of her stuff too, but after she yelled at me she seemed to be in a much happier mood. As long as I didn't antagonize her afterwards, she should stay that way for the rest of the day.
I subjected myself to following her after we got to the mall. She window-shopped before she saw something in a store selling porcelain figurines. When we entered the store my body relaxed, letting the heat wash over me. The air was cold in November and Aoko had good reason to be mad at me if she thought I'd been walking around in it.
Aoko moved down one of aisles where whatever it was had first caught her attention. She picked up an eight inch Halloween styled cat that was circling a clear ball, it's eyes yellow and it's back arched.
"Akako-chan would like this don't you think?" Aoko picked it up to examine the price tag on the bottom.
"Don't get that girl anything. You know she's not going to get anything for you."
"Don't say that when you don't know anything Kaito. Akako-chan hasn't been here for that long so you shouldn't expect the worst of people." Aoko crossed her arms and looked sad.
I don't expect the worst of people but I know she doesn't like you, I thought to myself. Akako was so strange some of the time that I didn't know whether it was because she wanted to help me or because she wanted to ruin my life. Aoko was in her way in either case.
Aoko picked up the cat and took in to the register. It rang up as 1900 Yen and I was tempted to talk her out of buying something so expensive. Akako would like it but that didn't mean she had to spend all her money on the witch.
Happy that she had gotten it, Aoko walked out of store and I sighed as I followed her. Well, I knew I was going to get Aoko something special this year. With how much of her money she spent on her friends and how much time she put into having the party I only caught the beginning of last year, I wanted to make sure that Kid didn't do anything this Christmas.
The frigid air outside wind made me shiver. I'd grabbed the jacket that had been lying by the front door on impulse, but it was thin and did little to fight the biting cold. I wrapped it around me as best I could as I followed Aoko. Her jacket looked like it didn't keep her warm either, but since she was smiling so much I didn't think she cared.
Cold or not the girl was infectious. I found myself smiling with her as I caught up to where she had stopped at a Christmas display of fake snow, polar bears, and an electronic train.
"How much do you think that is?" She asked me when she pointed to the train.
"Too much," I bent down to get a better look. "You can get some at a cheap price but the electronic trains can go for a lot of money sometimes. Who were you getting it for?"
"Hakuba-kun. I thought he'd like it." She pushed in the door and I heard a bell over head jingle. I watched her for a minute before following her in. Once I was inside I saw plastic mistletoe hung up with the bell. I smiled and kept going.
Aoko was at the counter asking the man about any of the cheaper train sets that he had. As I looked around the store I saw hanging airplane models like my dad had on the ceiling, over-sized balls that could knock you over if you were a kid and didn't catch them right, and a bunch of other miscellaneous things.
"Aoko I think Hakuba-kun may already have one of those since he's from England, so you can get him something cheaper."
"So what?" Aoko shot at me. "He doesn't have one from me and that makes it different. "
She paid the man an insane amount of money for one of the sets he had in the back. I shook my head and waited for him to put it in the bag.
"Of course it's different. He'd like anything that came from you so you didn't need to spend so much." I touched her shoulder and smiled at her. The detective seemed to show some interest in Aoko but he'd never said anything. The one time he'd asked her out turned into a contest between us and I was happy he hadn't tried anything afterwards.
"It's fine. If you don't give someone the present you want them to have, it doesn't mean as much." Aoko smiled at me. "For example if I was choosing between a red and blue pencil to give you and I thought you'd like the red one better, I'd be happier than if you told me later that you liked blue. In most ways gifts reflect how you feel towards the person you're giving them too as well."
"Yeah, yeah." I kept my arm on her shoulder to make sure that we walked out the door at the same time and kissed her on the cheek.
"Kaito why'd you do that?" She blushed a deep shade of red as her emotions played havoc on her.
"Mistletoe" I pointed up to it. "You can't go breaking long held traditions after all."
Aoko punched me lightly on the arm and looked away from me to try hid her face. I gave her an evil smile and snuck up behind her to tickle her.
"Kaito!" She yelled at me and swatted in my general direction with her only free hand. "Don't do that!"
"Aw, now I can't tell if you're blushing or just mad at me." I met her eyes and she glared at me while I grinned back. It was easier when neither of us thought too much about being close to one another. We were friends and had been for years. If that changed now, when I wasn't ready for it with everything I had going on in my life, I wouldn't know how to deal with it. She didn't seem to mind when I changed the mood, or she didn't seem to notice me doing it. Most of the time it was an unconscious act on both our parts.
"I don't have much money left so we can go home if you want to." Aoko spoke as we continued down the stores. I could see that she still wanted to stay. It wasn't hard with the way her eyes sparkled as we passed a few more storefronts.
"Nah, I've been looking for Christmas presents too and I still have money," I lied. I did have money but I wasn't going to be looking for gifts yet since I didn't know whether I was giving one to anyone besides Aoko. If Akako knew I didn't get her one, she could get mad enough to make my life Hell, so I'd have to find something for her too.
We passed a chocolate store and Aoko ran in.
"Stay out here Kaito, I'll be right back."
"Sure stay out here in the cold Kaito. I like to see what color the human body turns when it freezes," I growled to myself after she went in the doors. I shivered again and moved my feet to try and warm myself up.
Aoko was true to her word and came out after only a minute or two.
"Here," She handed me a chocolate bar and turned away. "Thanks for coming with me even though it's cold."
"Aoko," I sighed. "You don't have enough money to spend on stuff like this." Chocolate stores charged more money than if we'd gone to the convince store on the way home. I knew how good it was and how much a difference in taste there was, but I didn't want her to be spending her Christmas money on me.
"Of course I had to," she smiled and I saw the hint of the blush returning. "I spent in on you and that's different than if you bought it or if I got it somewhere else, right?"
"It's different." I opened the see-through wrapper it was in and broke off a piece. "What's one times a hundred?"
Aoko stopped to give me a confused look.
"Kaito you know the answer to that, why are you asking me?"
"Just answer it."
She gave me a look that said how much of an idiot I was being.
"One-" I cut her off by sticking some of the chocolate in her mouth. She blushed and took what was left of the big piece in her hand.
"Kaito the chocolate's for you."
"And I like to share, it makes it taste better. Chocolate also warms you up in the cold." It was late so the absence of the sun was helping the chill sink in. Aoko ate the chocolate in silence and I could see her breath fogging in front of her.
I looked aimlessly around for minute so she'd have a chance to look at the other shops that interested her. She stopped at one longer than the others that contained stuffed animals. I walked in so that she would be able to look around.
There was a mess of them. I didn't even know there were stores out there that focused entirely on stuffed animals. The food chain wasn't organized though and there were ducks sitting calmly next to sharks, dogs and cats snuggled up together, and so on. Aoko went over to the winter animals where there were seals, whales, and polar bears. She focused intently on one of the creatures before walking away.
I didn't like any of those kinds of animals and I knew her dad liked dogs so that meant the winter creatures had caught her attention. I picked up the one she had been looking at and took it to the counter while she was down the next aisle.
"Kaito?" Aoko asked softly when she noticed I wasn't behind her. I was next to her in a heartbeat, package safely paid for and tucked away elsewhere, where I could pick it up on the way out. She rolled her eyes at me. "What were you doing?"
"Nothing."
Aoko shook her head at me and smiled. "Most of the time when you're doing 'nothing' it turns out bad for somebody else."
"Don't worry. I wouldn't do anything in a store."
"Lair. You made the sprinkler system go off when we went to aquarium on that field trip last year."
"Hey, I only did that because the teacher wouldn't let me leave!" I defended myself. Last year when our class had gone on the field trip our teacher said that anyone who missed it would get a bad mark for participation. Mom wouldn't let me skip out since the teacher was serious so I had to… make sure that we wouldn't have to go.
"You know I had no idea why you did it back then." Aoko smiled at me, "Now I know it's because you were scared of the fish."
"I wasn't scared… I just didn't feel like going." I crossed my arms and Aoko laughed at me. She looked at the stuff animals some more and held up a porcupine.
"Look Kaito, it's you!"
I took it from her and put in back on the shelf. I was tempted to grab a pig and shout, 'look I found you too!' but stopped myself. Aoko was in a good mood and I wanted her to stay that way so she wouldn't need to barge in on me for the next few days.
We left the store and were in silent agreement that we should go home. The sky was dark and the wind chill was getting worse.
"Here." I pulled the stuffed animal out of thin air. It was a blue penguin with bright blue eyes.
"Kaito!" Aoko took it and hugged it to herself before turning and trying to appear mad at me through the smile. "You shouldn't be spending your money on things like this either."
"Well, it's a thank you present for taking me to the mall with you. I needed to get out of the house for a while." I really needed the time away from everything while I got myself back together and being with Aoko was fun. "And it's from me so it's different."
"Thank you." Aoko put her face into the birds and grinned like a child. I grinned back with just a little restraint. When a cold gust of wind blew towards us we both shivered.
"I wish I was like the penguin and the cold didn't bother me." She smiled and buried herself deeper in the animal. "But then I wouldn't be able to enjoy the summer."
I looked around and shivered to myself, debating whether to act on my thoughts or not. A few more gusts and the lack of people around gave me the courage to.
I took the side of my jacket in my good arm and wrapped in around Aoko. She looked startled and tried to back away but I held on.
"Come on, we're both cold and this will keep us warm."
Aoko's struggling stopped and she settled in my coat beside me. I felt her cold hand wrap slowly around my waist, trying to not be obvious.
"Thanks Kaito"
I position the inside of my arm so that it was warming her ear and tried to keep her as close to me as I could. The wind got at some of my open skin but Aoko's warmth keep the worst of it away. We walked to her house like that since neither of us wanted to separate and be cold.
"Thanks for going with me and for the penguin." She hugged it close to her when she went in the house. "Do you want to stay a while? Dad's not home yet."
"Nope I'm going home. Thanks for the chocolate." I waved goodbye to her and started back towards my house, I had to pass it to take her home.
Mom greeted me when I walked in the door.
"Kaito you should really call Jii-san and see if there's anything he needs. I'd call him but I think he wants to hear from you. If he does need anything, I could go to him and bring it."
"I'll call him later mom, I'm going to take a shower." I was already at the top of the stairs and taking off my clothes. The cold weather had left me frozen and a shower sounded like a good idea.
I left the wrappings on since I knew the one on my chest was open again and would bother me in the water. I let the warmth run over me and was content when there wasn't any pain to go along with it. The burns were scabbed over and the rest of my injuries were wrapped up. After a few minutes of soaking, I cleaned myself, making sure to get the remnants of gel and makeup off.
I took the bandages off, redid them, and got my clothes on just as the doorbell rang. My hair was still wet and I didn't have time to change the cloth around my head. I knew mom would be mad if she saw it but a wig and wet hair didn't go together. I sighed and went down the stairs.
"Kaito there's-" Mom looked and me and shook her head. "What happened?"
"Nothing, if I got shot in the head I wouldn't be here talking to you. It just scraped me."
Mom went up to me and messed up my still wet hair on top.
"You know your hair looks like a weed garden when you hide your bangs."
"Thanks a lot." I faced the door where someone was still knocking. "Who's there?"
"I don't know. I didn't think it was for me and I was coming up to tell you that I made some dinner if you wanted it." My stomach growled when she mentioned the food. I hadn't eaten all day except for a few non-perishable stuff I'd found when I'd rummaged through Kudo's house. The chocolate had reminded my stomach how little was in it when I was with Aoko.
"Get the door first and I'll be in the kitchen." She laughed at me before messing up my hair again.
I rolled my eyes at her and went to the front door. I slammed it shut again.
"I did not just see that" I told myself. It wouldn't make it true but I could doubt it for a second or two with the door closed.
"Hey that was rude!" The other teen yelled loudly. "I came all the way here ta talk to ya and this is how ya act!"
I was tempted to plug my ears and pretend I couldn't hear him either. My mom heard me slam the door and came back to check.
"Kaito what's wrong."
"Nothing." I leaned against the door and was still debating with myself what I was going to do with the people on the other side. Hakuba was back, which was a good thing, it meant the detective had enough time to calm down and was going to tell me why he went off on me. The bad thing was he'd brought Hattori with him. To my house.
"Come on, let us in! Or at least come out here with us." It couldn't have been any more obvious that the detective had told Hattori more than enough incriminating things against me. It was cold outside and I was still wet, so I didn't feel like doing that.
I opened the door reluctantly and Hattori patted me on the head the same way my mom had just done.
"See, wasn't that hard ta open the door, was it?"
I went and messed up his hair as well, though it came out funnier because he couldn't really mess mine up. "Nope."
"Hey!" He flattened out the ends I'd made stick up. "I'm used to people just scowlin' at me when I do it. I never had anyone muss up my hair."
"There's a first time for everything." I grinned, giving up on trying to keep anything secret. There wasn't anything I could do about it so why worry. The consequences would come whether I wanted them to or not. "Why exactly are you here?"
"I decided to follow him and it's a good thing I did. I woulda never known where to look fer him otherwise. He said he couldn't go to his house." Hakuba fidgeted when I stared at him but wouldn't meet my eyes. "Can we come in or not?"
"Sorry." I got out of the way and my mom was able to see them.
"Who else have you brought over?" She looked at Hattori before politely greeting him.
He greeted mom back a little less formally before turning back to me. "I gotta talk to ya. So does he." Hattori pointed his finger in Hakuba's direction.
"Sounds like and intervention," my mom giggled.
"It kinda is." Hattori joined in with her and Hakuba colored a little before going back to looking angry.
"I hope there's no liquor involved." My mom kept the joke running.
"I wish, it'd make things easier. Too bad most of us are underage."
"You think that matters in this house?" She messed up my hair some more and I was getting tired of everyone touching my head. "Of course I'd never let you have any. I wouldn't want to see what you'd get up to running around drunk."
Everyone laughed at me, Hakuba tried not to but he couldn't help it.
"We'd wake up in the morning ta a world a polka dotted trees an' the city would be pink," Hattori provided.
"Hey, I wouldn't do that" I shot at them.
"Well, maybe not polka dots…"
"No, I wouldn't use pink…maybe blue or something." They started laughing again when they noticed I was serious.
"Well good fer ya. I don't like the color of the buildin's anyway." Hattori started moving towards the main room. "Sorry fer getting us off track but I really do gotta talk to you."
"Ok. Mom what are you going to do?" I turned back to her and she smiled.
"I think I'm going to sit in on this intervention. I have a few things I'd like to find out and you always need a good woman's opinion."
We all sat down in the main room; Hakuba and Hattori sat on the couch and I gave mom the one other chair that was in the room. I went back to the kitchen to grab a wooden one for myself.
"So what happened with you today?" I asked Hakuba when we were all seated. He crossed his arms and looked away from me.
"I've been trying to go over that answer with myself as well. I don't know if I can work with you the way things are Kuroba-kun, and if I do I don't know how I'll be able to deal with you when this is over. I didn't think I'd have a problem with it before but when you're with someone for so long and in the types of situations we've been in… I'm just a little confused at the moment and I took it out on you. I'm sorry about that."
"Trust me, I'm confused about the same things you are-"
"You're not."
I stayed quiet to let him explain. Hakuba sighed and brushed his hair with one of his hands, a habit he'd seemed to have developed recently.
"It's easy for you. You already know what you want and how you're going to get it by the time that I'm just becoming aware of anything. You know on instinct what you will and won't do and what you'll do anyway. You hide things and reveal things based on the results you want. And you always get good results." He sighed and put one of his hands on the arm of the couch to hold his head. "I've never had to make these kinds of snap decisions and I've never had the opportunity or need to throw away what I believe and uphold for what I think is right. Right now you're sitting here calmly with me, not worried about what I'll do. I won't do anything, but that doesn't mean some part of me doesn't want to. Some part of me later on might decide that, for whatever your reasons, stealing is wrong and… This is where I am right now. I'm confused."
"Don't worry about me, I don't have the same problems that he does. I ain't gonna make any rash decisions about ya so don't think I'm gonna turn ya in or anythin'."
"I didn't think you would" I smiled at Hattori. "I wouldn't have let you in the house if I did."
I turned back to Hakuba. "If you think at any point that it's necessary, that upholding the law is appropriate at the time, come here. Talk to me. If you don't find a reason that makes you believe otherwise then go to the police."
"And then we're right back to where we used to be and I feel like I'm using you again instead of dealing with my own confusions."
"Hakuba-kun quit being an idiot! You're smarter than this. Do what you think is right all the time and then you'll never have a problem with your conscience. If you think that not accepting my help is best, you shouldn't feel bad if I decide to go about it on my own. I know you need your reasons for everything that happens, I knew the minute you asked me questions instead of trying to arrest me. Sometimes you can't have all the answers. No matter how much it seems like I do, I don't. You just have to do what you think is right."
"Yer better at putting it into word than I am. I've been trying to tell him the like all day." Hattori smiled at Hakuba who was staring at nothing in particular while he thought. The dark-skinned boy turned to me after.
"That's his problem taken care of. You have yers too."
"What do I have a problem with?" I asked, honestly confused.
"Ya don't trust people. I'm not sure if that's how I should say it but I don't have any other words fer it. We didn't tell Hakuba-kun anything when ya left cause ya didn't want us to, which we shouldn't have. You shoulda told him what ya were up to and maybe he wouldn't have reacted that way."
"I trust him. I just didn't want him to get hurt."
"Exactly, because ya didn't trust his judgment. I've had this fight with Ku-u- uh… someone, in the beginnin' to. You can't hide things from the people yer helpin' or the people tryin' ta help you. It doesn't work like that and it ain't trust. I'm not sayin' you've got to tell everyone everythin' but ya can't hide the important stuff."
"Wow, I like this one. Can we keep him?" My mom chimed in and went over to give Hattori a hug. The teen blushed at her touch and cleared his throat.
He was right in every aspect that he could have been. Of course I never trusted anyone completely before, so maybe it was harder for me not to hide things that I didn't need to. I could get past it. Hakuba was never going to learn about Snake but I didn't need to hide anything else.
But I'd be truly putting my trust in the detective then. I was surprised he'd accepted the level of common ground we'd already created but to tell him everything that didn't have to do with Snake would be opening a door I wouldn't be able to shut.
Who was I kidding? I'd already opened that door as easily, and without thought, as I had just let both detectives into the house.
"Sorry, I won't do it again." I crossed my heart with my finger. Hakuba glanced at me before letting himself smile in my presence.
"I apologize as well. I'll figure things out."
"Now." Hattori interrupted us. "That doesn't mean I'm gonna let ya guys have all the fun. What's been going on?"