Detective Conan and Magic Kaito characters, settings, and ideas do not belong to me but to Aoyama Gōshō.
TMPD Antics
By Taliya
LXX: Hattori and Kuroba
"Oi, Kuroba!"
Kaito turned at the familiar voice with the distinctive Kansai accent. "Hey there, Hattori," he greeted, shifting the duffle with his change of clothes on his shoulder. Bodies pressed around him in Ayase Station in Adachi, people hurrying to catch their trains. Kaito himself was on the way home from ninjutsu practice. The wearing of his han kote had left a rather distinctive pattern of calluses on the backs of his hands and knuckles, along with imprinted lines where the arm guard ties had lightly bitten into the fleshier sides and insides of his hands. He rubbed them somewhat self-consciously as he waited for Heiji to approach, surreptitiously tugging his apparently too-sleeves down to reach the base of his fingers. "Isn't this a little far from Chiyoda?"
"Murder case the local unit couldn't solve," Heiji replied as he jogged up. He grinned cockily. "They had to call in the resident expert," he declared with a wink. Kaito rolled his eyes at his friend's purposely overblown arrogance. The Osaka native glanced down at Kaito's hands, and there was a flash of recognition at the pattern of calluses scrawled across the backs of his hands, as Heiji wore kote in kendo practice as well. "You practice kendo?"
Why did it have to be Hattori, Kaito mentally bemoaned. Were it Hakuba or even Kudou, neither would have known exactly where these calluses are from… "Not kendo," he murmured as he shifted his duffle to his other shoulder and walked towards the platforms. Heiji easily paced him. "Ninpou."
Heiji's teal eyes studied him with unnerving intensity for several moments, and Kaito knew without a doubt he was thinking of his failed encounter with Kaitou KID several months ago, and his posture unconsciously gravitated towards defensive. "Would you stop doing that?" he snapped when Heiji's silent stare had passed the ten-second mark.
The homicide detective blinked. "What are you talking about?"
"This habit you've picked up of staring at me," Kaito answered with agitation apparent in his demeanor. "Please stop—it's stressing me out."
Heiji's eyebrows cranked upwards in surprise before an utterly salacious smirk graced his face. "Hey now, Kuroba, don't you know how easy on the eyes you are?"
Kaito blinked at the sudden change in Heiji's attitude before he batted his eyelashes coquettishly and played along. "Oh, you flatter me, Hattori," he cooed right as their transport back to Chiyoda slowed to a stop at their platform. Kaito daintily stepped on first with exaggerated swinging hips, and his voice drifted backwards to Heiji: "But unfortunately for you, I'm a married man!"
Heiji laughed, amused, as he followed his coworker onto the train carriage.
Author's Note: I swear, if Kaito ever managed to nab Heiji as his KID sidekick, the mayhem would increase exponentially. Kind of the same way it would probably work with Shinichi. Kote are armored sleeves worn to protect samurai's arms. Han kote are half-sleeves held in place with ties. I hope you enjoyed it.
Completed: 09.05.2016