A/N: Okay, general announcement time: real life is officially kicking my butt. I am trying to keep to a regular update schedule, and I will continue trying to do so. That said, if an update seems late, I would ask you to check my tumblr to see if I've posted a "no update today it's time for the Community pizza gif" type message. It's not unlikely that this will happen again, unfortunately.
Warnings are in the end note. I was able to get the first half of this chapter to miladyRanger for betaing but she's not seen the second half and it may have issues.
Chapter 41
Heiji more ran than stepped off of the bullet train at Osaka station. It had been quiet enough, but with how nervous he was right now, every noise had grated. He'd just about shouted at some older man to stop turning the pages of his newspaper so loudly before he remembered himself.
He'd said goodbye to the others at the station, but he couldn't help worrying about them. If their plan went wrong...well, if it went wrong, he might not even find out.
Heiji was about to be grounded beyond his wildest dreams. He'd figured out that was what he was bringing on himself sometime around when they left out the Tokyo airport. And he was mostly okay with it.
In the end, it came down to this: his father couldn't know anything about where they were or what they were doing. His father didn't get angry quietly, and he didn't keep his arguments with Heiji between them. He'd end up yelling to Otaki-han or Kazuha's dad about Heiji traipsing off to London while he was down at the precinct, not realizing that saying that in range of the wrong ears could get Hakuba killed. Or worse, he'd just insist on getting involved in the case himself, which Heiji couldn't allow. His dad was too high-profile. He'd throw everything into chaos just by entering the investigation, and possibly even get himself killed in the bargain. Heiji wasn't good enough to lie about this, so his only way out of this situation was coming home and refusing to tell his dad a thing about where he'd been.
His father wasn't going to take this well, and he knew that. Everything he'd ever been taught about respect ran directly contrary to what he'd been doing and what he was planning to do. But his parents had also taught him about loyalty, and protecting people who couldn't protect themselves. And in the end, no matter how terrible he felt about it, Heiji was a homicide detective. His first duty was keeping people alive.
His father couldn't know why he was doing this, and so he wasn't going to understand, but if he did, he'd probably say Heiji was choosing right. He could tell himself that, for now.
He still had his cell phone-he'd brought it along, both so he could text from the airport and so no one would suspect he was trying to pull the same stunt as Hakuba-but it had been off until now. He turned it on, found Otaki's contact entry, and made the call.
"Hey, Otaki-han?"
"Hei-chan?" Otaki asked. "Your father is not happy."
"I kinda figured," Heiji said dryly. "Hey, I'm at the train station. Could ya give me a lift back ta my house?"
"Sorry, no can do," Otaki said. "Your dad's furious. If it looks like there's even a chance I had somethin' to do with you runnin' off, he might actually sack me this time."
"That bad?" Heiji asked.
"He's gonna ground you until ya go ta college," Otaki said. "At best. Good luck; you'll need it."
"Real encouragin', Otaki-han," Heiji muttered. "Talk to ya later, assumin' I'm allowed ta."
"Glad you're back safe," Otaki replied, hanging up.
Well, that counted out Heiji's preferred method of getting home. A cab driver wasn't such a good idea-he'd spent enough on this trip that his savings were starting to feel it. He only got paid for some of his cases, after all. About half of them he took on for free, or for tiny amounts that were more for the sake of his customers' pride as paying customers rather than charity cases. Mouri Kogoro and his family were evidence of the fact that being a private detective, particularly one with any particular moral code, wasn't a lucrative pursuit.
Normally, if he needed extra money for something important, he could just ask his parents, but that wasn't happening. Better to hold on to what savings he had for the moment, especially as he didn't know if he'd even be taking any cases for a while.
That really only left him with one option.
Kazuha picked up almost immediately, and practically screamed his ear off. "HEIJI what the h***?"
"S***, Kazuha, why don't ya scream a little louder, maybe somebody in Tokyo'll hear ya," Heiji replied, annoyed.
"I'll scream all I want, where the h***'ve ya been?" she demanded.
"Can't tell ya, but I need a ride home," Heiji said.
"Oh, I don't think so, Mr. Great Detective," Kazuha said. "You do not get ta waltz back here like nothin' happened and ask for favors without explainin' yourself."
"Well, I don't get ta explain myself, either, so deal wit' it," Heiji replied, temper fraying. "It has been a h*** of a week, Kazuha, an' I'm about ta go home an' get myself grounded. Cut me a break here?"
"Maybe if ya earned yourself one!" Kazuha snapped. "Ya can't jus' go tearin' off without even tellin' anybody where yer goin' or who yer gonna be with-s***, Heiji, I know how dangerous yer cases get, what if you died? Would we have even found out?"
A sudden spike of guilt piled up on top of all the anxiety and stress Heiji already had built up, and he found himself sitting down on his luggage. "S***, sorry, Kazuha, I didn't mean ta scare ya like that. I wasn't alone. If anything had gone that wrong, someone woulda told you."
"Yer not tellin' me things like, 'I wasn't in danger,'" Kazuha said.
"I'm a crap liar, Kazuha," Heiji said.
Kazuha groaned. "Why do you gotta do this stuff, Heiji? If it's the mental challenge, there are safer cases that're just as hard-"
"It ain't jus' that, an' you know it," Heiji replied. "I wanna help people. Sometimes it gets kinda hairy, tryin' ta do that. I'm sorry it scares ya, but I ain't sorry ta do it."
"Ya still coulda told me where you were goin'," Kazuha grumbled. "Ya used ta tell me everything, Heiji."
Heiji's throat felt dry. "Yeah, I'm sorry. But my dad couldn't find out, and I knew he'd have a while ta try an' get it out of ya. I didn't wanna put you in that kinda position."
"Maybe let me decide that, next time?" Kazuha said. "Yer dad's the superintendent general of police, sure, but I don't work for 'im."
"If that's what you really want...hey, could ya do somethin' else?" Heiji asked. "I was callin' ta see if yer dad could drive me home, but this is more important."
"What is it?" Kazuha asked, immediately suspicious.
"If my dad takes my cell phone or somethin', I need ya ta text Conan-kun and let 'im know," Heiji said.
"He mixed up in all of this?"
"I really can't talk about it."
"What the h***, did you actually find something classified this time?" Kazuha demanded.
"Close enough," Heiji said. "Look, just, text 'im, if I can't, an' also tell him ta text you if anything goes wrong over in Tokyo."
"Goes wrong how?" Kazuha asked.
"He'll know what I mean," Heiji said.
"If ya say so," Kazuha said. "I'll do it, but this is weird and I want ya to explain."
"I really can't, an' stop askin' me to, okay?" Heiji said.
"Fine, fine," Kazuha sighed. "I'll ask Dad to go down to the station an' get ya."
"Thanks, Kazuha," Heiji said. "Didn't mean ta scare ya."
"Think o' that before ya take off without any warnin', next time, 'kay?"
"I'll try," Heiji said.
Kazuha sighed, and then hung up on him, but her dad did show up not that long afterward, so she clearly wasn't completely furious with him.
"Your father's goin' ta ground you for the rest o' yer nat'ral life," Toyama Ginshirou informed him.
"Yeah, I know," Heiji said.
"The heck were you thinkin', kid?"
"If I don't tell you, you don't know, and you can't get in trouble fer knowin'," Heiji said.
Ginshirou just stared at him.
"I really can't explain to you how long a week I've had," Heiji said. "I want to sleep, fer, like, days, but I gotta go get yelled at. Can we jus' go?"
"You okay, Heiji-kun?"
"Don't think so, but things could be worse," Heiji said. "C'mon, best ta get this over with."
"The h*** were you up to?"
"Really can't tell you that," Heiji said.
"I'm tellin' yer mom I'm worried," Ginshirou replied.
"Ya do that," Heiji said. "Talk loud. Maybe she'll be able ta hear ya over Dad yellin'."
Ginshirou sighed and opened the trunk. "Get your luggage loaded up, okay?"
Heiji actually fell asleep in the car, somehow. He was pretty sure he'd passed anxiety and moved on to some sort of state of vague, detached apathy. Things weren't going to get much worse for him unless the Black Organization actually showed up, and if the others were in danger, he couldn't do a single thing about it. Everything was out of his hands at this point.
He woke up when they stopped at his house, thanked Ginshirou for the ride, and unloaded his suitcase. He took a few seconds on the sidewalk to brace himself, then hefted his suitcase and walked up to the door.
He didn't even have to knock-Ginshirou must have texted before he left.
The door swung open, revealing his dad, face already reddening with anger.
"WHERE WERE YOU?" he demanded.
Heiji stood his ground and kept his mouth shut.
Oh, yeah, this is gonna be fun, he thought, in mild despair.
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"This is ridiculous, and we're going to be seen," Hakuba said, shoving his hands even deeper into the pockets of a pair of borrowed jeans.
Those aren't the ones he borrowed from me, Kaito thought. Hope they're at least Heiji's; sending something back to Eisuke is gonna get expensive.
Kaito's plan of immediately returning Hakuba home had been delayed by a very inconvenient piece of logistics. Hakuba had passed as himself to Inspector Yamato by borrowing one of Kaito's wigs and styling it closely enough to his normal appearance that a man who was more his father's friend than his own wouldn't notice the difference. But he couldn't just go home like that-wigs weren't a long-term solution. He was stuck with his hair cut short, but it needed to be dyed back to blond, at least, or people were going to get rightfully suspicious about his natural hair color.
Obviously, he couldn't do that at home, as he apparently normally did. And he'd categorically refused to so much as approach Kaito's house if there was even a chance his mother would be inside of it. So somehow, things had come to this.
"I don't think the professor's home," Shinichi announced, turning away from the intercom button on his childhood neighbor's front gate, still perched on tip-toe. "If he is, he's not answering the door, and neither is Haibara."
"Okay, what now?" Kaito asked. "I remember you said we can't go over to your place-"
"Definitely not," Hakuba agreed.
Shinichi gave him a sharp glance. "And how, exactly, do you know about that?"
"It's really better you don't ask," Hakuba said, looking more uncomfortable than ever.
Shinichi just shook his head. "We don't have to go over there; I know how to get into the professor's house."
"And he's fine with that?" Kaito asked.
"He'd rather I was able to get in there if something went really wrong with one of his inventions," Shinichi said. He paused for a second. "You know, it might be for the best that he's not here. I think we're all a little too stressed out to be dealing with the possibility of random explosions."
He pressed a few buttons below the intercom, then gestured to Kaito. "Guests first?"
Kaito raised an eyebrow.
Shinichi wilted. "The gate's weighted. Usually if it's just the kids we let Genta push it open because he's got more leverage…"
Kaito beamed at him.
"Not another word!" Shinichi growled.
"You two can bicker inside the house while I'm dyeing my hair," Hakuba said primly, pushing past Shinichi and slipping through the gate.
Shinichi sighed and followed him, leaving Kaito to scramble to catch up before the gate closed on him and he had to climb over. No need to make Shinichi's paranoia worse than it already was.
The house was about how he'd expected, given what Shinichi had mentioned about the professor over the past few weeks. There were bits and bobs of inventions scattered across most of the flat surfaces, mixed up with manga and toys and other bits of evidence that three young children practically lived here and another pretend-child did. There were bits of the wall that had obviously been repaired more than once, and some bits of charring that peeked out from behind extra coats of paint.
Even as Hakuba went into the bathroom with the hair dye they'd purchased on the way from the station, he couldn't help glancing around in curiosity, cataloging the evidence of repair.
"How often do his inventions go wrong?" he asked, half-aghast.
"Might as well ask how often he invents things," Shinichi muttered. He paused, then said. "Okay, that's unfair. He's good with mechanics-great, even. He just has weird ideas, and he keeps making jet-powered things even though he's really bad at calculating fuel amounts."
"Okay, that makes sense," Kaito said, appreciating the dents in the ceiling with new eyes. "Still stupid of him, but it makes sense."
"Half of your tricks are potentially fatal if you get them wrong," Shinichi pointed out. "You're not in much of a position to judge."
"I practice those, so I don't die," Kaito said. "He could at least try testing things that are likely to burn the walls in the basement, or something!"
"He tried, but it's Haibara's lab now, and one of the rocket-powered roller skates almost went through the monitor of her computer," Shinichi said. "She kicked him out after that."
"I don't-" Kaito stopped short. "Did you say rocket-powered roller skates?"
"Yes?"
"Does Professor Agasa have any old friends who run bars, by any chance?"
"I think he mentioned someone, once…" Shinichi said, looking thoughtful. "Why?"
The same person that was responsible for the freakin' soccer ball makes all those weird gadgets Jii's always bringing out before heists, Kaito thought numbly. I can never tell Shinichi.
"That's a weird facial expression…" Shinichi remarked. "What did you figure out?"
"It's nothing you would care about, I promise!" Kaito lied.
"You're lying!"
Kaito laughed nervously. "Now, why would I do a thing like that?"
He managed to keep Kudou off of that particular scent, just barely, until Hakuba finally emerged from the bathroom. His hair was still wet and appeared almost brown, but it was already starting to dry to the familiar shade of blond Kaito was used to at the tips.
He'd redone his facial makeup, and the combination was startling. Kaito hadn't realized until now, but for the last few days, Hakuba hadn't looked quite like himself. Some of it was probably hastily done makeup work, the rest, likely, the change in hair color and length, which changed both the apparent tone and shape of his face. Now, while his face still looked more angular than it did when his hair was long, his skin tone no longer contrasted quite as sharply with his hair. Additionally, his eyes were dark again. Kaito wasn't sure where he'd gotten colored contacts, or if he'd had them all along. But he hadn't been wearing them on the train ride, and he wasn't precisely sure if he'd worn them in Nagano.
The borrowed jeans still didn't quite fit right, and his shirt, borrowed from Kaito, was far more wrinkled than anything Kaito had ever seen him wear. But he still looked more like himself than he had since the last time Kaito had seen him at school.
"You ready?" Kaito asked.
"As I ever will be, I suppose," Hakuba replied, tugging a bit at the hem of the shirt.
"Get him home safe, okay?" Shinichi said, making brief eye contact with Kaito.
"I will," Kaito promised. "You okay to get home? Do you need any relatives impersonated?"
"Nah, I'm just gonna call Ran as Professor Agasa and tell her my parents dropped me off here," Shinichi said. "Either I'll walk home or she'll pick me up."
Kaito nodded. "Thanks again for your help." He wasn't just talking about Shinichi getting them into Agasa's house to dye Hakuba's hair, and he was pretty sure Shinichi would picku up on that.
Shinichi grinned, small and pleased. "You're very welcome."
He grinned back, then turned his attention to Hakuba. "Shall we?"
Hakuba didn't look too certain, but he followed Kaito when he walked out the door, so Kaito figured that was some kind of "yes."
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A/N: Warning for: Small description of sensory overload, teenagers in peril, discussion of unreasonable punishments, emotional distress, unhealthy stress reactions
If I were awake I might put a detailed opinion about the Hattoris here. I'm not. Basically, I think they're a little complicated in ways that are different than the other families from DCMK in this fic and I've written Heizou to reflect that.
I will catch up to the FFN reviews eventually.