Chapter 11

So yeah, I went on a short vacation last week and I was completely planning on updating before I left but I got distracted (I lost my license and various other irritations...) and I forgot aaah! Sorry! Haha. Here 'tis!

"Shin-chan!"

"Hello, mother," Shinichi sighed. He gave Kaito an apologetic look, but Kaito just smiled. On the phone, Shinichi's mother was babbling about some big production she was in. Shinichi's mind switched to autopilot, not really listening but inputting a word here or there when needed. He clasped Kaito's hand. Then something his mother said alerted him.

"What? What did you just say?"

"Your father is mad at me. He decided to take a trip to visit you."

"Oh, great," Shinichi groaned. At least his mother wasn't coming as well; he decided not to question as to why he was angry with her. "So when should he be here?"

"Uh...well, that's..." Yukiko sounded a little bit nervous at this point. "See, he apparently left this afternoon while I was at rehearsal, and he left me a note. Because of the time difference, that was this morning for you, Shin-chan. He could be there at any time now; he's probably already off the plane and on his way to our house."

"Oh. Great. And did you just get home from your rehearsal?" Shinichi asked, his eyes narrowing. It would be just like his mother to procrastinate on telling him, but he needed to get home quickly to ensure he could see his father and tidy the house.

"W-well, yes," Yukiko stuttered. "This is why I was nervous about telling you! Don't you go blaming me for this, now. Don't be angry, okay? Go bond with your father."

"Did you ever think that I actually have things to do?" Shinichi asked, his hand twitching in Kaito's grip.

"Are these things more important than your father?"

"I—no...sorry. That was irrational of me. Goodbye mother." Shinichi hung up and sighed. Turning to Kaito, who had been fairly patient this whole time, he forced a smile.

"Shinichi-kun, don't pretend you're happy. You need to work a bit more on your poker face," Kaito said with a smirk. "What's wrong?"

Shinichi let his facade fall. "My father's coming to visit today."

"Oh..." Kaito looked away for a moment. "That's fine. I've never met your father, but I absolutely loved your mother!"

"Uh, okay. But just to warn you, maybe you shouldn't tell him that we're dating, okay?"

Shinichi felt extremely uneasy with the impending presence of his father. He wasn't quite sure if his father was homophobic, but he surely didn't run around screaming "I love gays." Shinichi ran through in his head any situations where he might've given his opinion. He couldn't think of any. All he knew was that his father wasn't likely to think incredibly highly of a homosexual relationship, especially not when it involved his own son.

Kaito's face looked a bit hurt for a moment, but it quickly passed and he said, "Sure. I'll be on my best behaviour! I guess we should go back to your house soon, right?"

Shinichi nodded in agreement and they walked hand-in-hand back to the Kudo mansion. Shinichi felt strained, wondering if his father would guess that they were dating. He liked his father, but sometimes it was too much to have to stop and suddenly accompany him during a visit.

Reaching the house, the two found that they were still alone: Yusaku hadn't arrived yet. As Kaito stretched and bounced down onto the couch, Shinichi quickly tidied up a few messes left (mostly by Kaito). He washed a dish, threw away some trash, and organized the misplaced books in the library. Still, Yusaku hadn't appeared, so Shinichi decided to crash on the couch next to his high-spirited boyfriend.

"Shinichi-kun, is your father a neat-freak?" Kaito asked with a chuckle when Shinichi sat down.

Shinichi quirked an eyebrow and replied, "No, but it's always nice to make sure things are clean when you have visitors. And I probably would have had to clean your trash up soon anyway; it's not like you would do it." He let out an amiable laugh at Kaito's fake-pouting face.

"Don't pout, Kaito-kun!" Shinichi teased. He gave Kaito a quick peck on the cheek, brightening Kaito's visage immediately.

Of course, the moment he took part in suggestive activities, his father would walk in.

"Shinichi..." Yusaku greeted hesitantly as Shinichi turned around to see the man clutching a small suitcase. Eyebrows raised slightly, he slid his gaze to Kaito and nodded in acknowledgement.

Kaito, true to form, hopped giddily over to Yusaku. He held out his hand to shake, and Yusaku accepted it. They shook hands for a moment while Kaito introduced himself. "Hello, sir. You're Shinichi-kun's father, right? You look just like him! The resemblance is uncanny, really. I'm Kuroba Kaito. Pleased to meet you!"

Yusaku blinked in what seemed to be surprise when he was told the name of this strange boy who had just received a kiss from Shinichi. Did he recognize the name? If he did, he didn't say anything about it. He introduced himself as well, followed by asking, "May I please have a moment alone with my son?"

Kaito nodded politely. "Of course, sir. I'll just go sit in the library and read a book or something."

Once he was out of sight, Yusaku stared at Shinichi. For a long while, he was silent. Then he simply asked, "You're gay?"

Shinichi's heart sank. I knew it, he thought. He's unhappy with that. "I—" he started. He swallowed, then began again. "I'm not gay, per se. I like this guy a lot..." he trailed off, but felt nervous enough to continue his own defense. "I like who I like, whether it's a guy or a girl. I don't want to put these labels on my sexuality. I just want to lo—like who I like." Did I almost say love?

Thankfully, Yusaku didn't seem to catch that last slip of the tongue. He looked out the window almost wistfully. He sighed a few times, then said, "Well, son...I'm not exactly thrilled about this, but you can do what you want and I won't bother you about it. Just remember to make the right choice in the end."

"I get it, Dad."

"Good. Now that's settled, I suppose I should tell you. Although you've already guessed, I'm staying here for a few days."

"You're getting her a present, aren't you?" Shinichi asked, smirking.

"How'd you know that?" Yusaku asked.

"Mom called and told me that you were mad at her. However...it's close to your anniversary and you only brought one suitcase. That suitcase can hold just a few changes of clothes. That means you're not staying long, and you didn't bring anything extra just in case. You have something in mind, don't you?"

Yusaku chuckled. "That's my boy. Yes, I'm planning an extravagant gift for her, and I can't have her overhearing my plans."

"Ah. Okay. Well then, I'm going to go get Kaito-kun and take him to—"

Shinichi's father sighed, interrupting his son. "You don't have to leave the house, you know. Maybe you don't have to, er, make out and all that, but you can stay here. I won't bother you."

Shinichi looked at his feet. He didn't want to be with both his excitable boyfriend and his busy father. "No, I think we'll just go. Um, we were gonna go out anyway." His father shrugged, picked up his suitcase, and made his way out of the living room. He stopped on his way out and said, "Just...be careful with him. Don't be shocked if he's not what you think he is." Shinichi blinked in confusion. What did he mean? Figuring it was just something meant to deter him from his relationship, Shinichi followed him out of the room, then veered off to the library. He opened the door a crack and found Kaito crouching in a chair. He wasn't reading. He wasn't doing anything. He looked...nauseous. Was he worried about their relationship?

Shinichi opened the door wider, strolling in as if he hadn't witnessed the almost scared look in Kaito's eyes. Kaito looked up, the expression on his face suddenly transforming into a pleasant visage. "Oh, Shinichi-kun, there you are! Hello! I was thinking about taking a little nap here in this chair...I guess now that you're back, I don't need to...Unless you want me to leave so you can spend time with your father."

Shinichi looked at Kaito. What a liar. How often does he lie so easily to me? He thought dejectedly. Of course, he must have his reasons. So Shinichi, instead of interrogating him, stepped over to him and enveloped him in a tight, warm, comforting hug.

Kaito reciprocated the hug automatically, but whispered a confused noise into Shinichi's ear. Shinichi rubbed Kaito's back comfortingly. "Let's go," he suggested. Kaito nodded and followed Shinichi out of the house. They walked down the street hand in hand, having earlier planned to spend time in the city and perhaps watch a movie. Dusk was falling upon them, and they discussed where they would go since it had gotten so late. In the end, they merely sat in a nearby park, not doing much but basking in each other's company. However, Shinichi knew that Kaito was patiently waiting for at least a little bit of what his father thought. He thought again of the last warning his father had given. He quickly pushed it away, convincing himself that his father meant to do just what he had: confuse him.

"My father...he's okay with us," Shinichi started, startling Kaito from their previous silence. Kaito's eyes now bored into him. "Not exactly comfortable," Shinichi added, "but okay."

"I..." Shinichi waited for Kaito to finally reveal his true feelings, to remove his mask. "I'M SO HAPPY!" He squeezed Shinichi's hand.

"W-what?" Shinichi stuttered. "Shouldn't you be..." He stopped. Maybe Kaito was deeper than he'd imagined; maybe he wasn't as relaxed with Shinichi as the detective had previously thought. Maybe he just needed time...and Shinichi vowed to give him that time that he needed.

"What were you saying, Shinichi-kun?" Kaito asked curiously.

"Nothing, I just...nothing." Shinichi shook his head. "Hey, you can just call me 'Shinichi' if you want." There wasn't much he could do at this point, but he could at least ease Kaito's unhappiness. He knew that, to the overly emotional magician, allowing such familiarity would please him.

Kaito was silent. Shinichi noticed that the world around them was darkening fast. He looked at Kaito, wondering why he'd been so quiet. "Me too," he murmured. "You can call me just 'Kaito', Shinichi."

Shinichi sprang off the bench they had been sitting on. He looked down at Kaito incredulously. "WHAT DID YOU JUST DO?!" he demanded.

Kaito, eyes wide, stuttered, "I—I don't know...I said you could call me by my name if you want! What did I do?!"

Shinichi opened and closed his mouth a few times without saying anything. Then he finally got his voice back. "You're such a freak, Kaito! You...you say these things...and I don't know how you do it, but the things you say always make me blush, and...and...sometimes they make me feel so weird inside. I mean, this time you said some weird thing that made my heart race and...What are you doing to me?"

They stared at one another for a moment. Kaito blinked, and his bewildered expression gradually became amused. His lips upturned into a smile. Then, simultaneously, the two burst out laughing.

"Shinichi, you're the weird one!" Kaito choked out amongst a fit of giggles. "You're so incredibly cute!"

They laughed for a moment more before Shinichi pulled Kaito to a stand beside him. They embraced, breathing each other in, then kissed sweetly. "Kaito, let's go home, okay?" Kaito nodded.

The two had only been dating for a week now. This had been their first official date; it was supposed to consist of merely spending time together and then sleeping at Shinichi's house—not much different than they had been doing—but instead it'd turned out this way. Now they walked together back to the Kudo residence. Their week-long romance combined with their already strong bond of friendship was sure to be fun.

I don't actually feel like Shinichi's dad would react badly...I don't think he would have too much much of a negative opinion, haha. I didn't have anything specific in mind for this chapter. Just a bit of filler and whatnot? Oh yeah and I re-wrote like half of this one cause I didn't like the way I had done it, haha.

And also...the fact that Kaito had planned to spend the night was not, in any way, I promise, supposed to turn out dirty. Even without Shinichi's dad. Bahh! I feel like someone's gonna perceive that wrong /

I don't want them to move fast at all. They're supposed to be cautiously proceeding at this point...It's something pretty new to both of them. So it's not like they're having steamy sex anytime soon ^_^