Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan/Case Closed.

Pairing: KaitoxShinichi

To Light a Hearth

[Nature of Love series]

Part 3

"What is this?"

"What's what?" Kaito asked, stepping out of the shower behind Shinichi and snagging one of the towels from the rack attached to the bathroom wall.

Shinichi was standing in front of the bathroom counter with a towel wrapped around his waist and staring at his reflection in the enormous mirror that stretched across the wall there over the sinks.

"This," the detective said, pointing at himself even as he shifted and squinted at his reflection to try to get a better look at whatever it was that had caught his attention.

Kaito finished toweling off his hair then draped said towel around his neck before wandering up behind Shinichi. Catching his eye in the mirror, the detective scowled and pointed at a spot in the crook between his neck and shoulder.

"Well?" Shinichi prompted.

Kaito blinked innocently. "I don't see anything wrong."

Shinichi folded his arms. "You bit me."

The evidence was there for all to see. Shinichi should have noticed it himself earlier, but he had been rather…preoccupied. Being pinned to a shower wall while his alpha thrust into him again and again was not a position conducive to thinking.

As injuries went, it was superficial and already healing (due, he knew, to certain enzymes in the saliva that alpha's produced during mating), but that wasn't the point.

"It was instinct," Kaito replied with a totally unrepentant shrug. "It's just part of the bonding process. You know that."

"Actually, according to Ran's textbooks, it's not part of bonding at all," Shinichi grumbled, running a finger lightly over the area. "It's been scientifically proven that it's just a side effect of an alpha's possessive urges. It's not actually necessary in any way to bonding."

"Does it bother you?" Kaito asked curiously, slipping his arms around Shinichi's waist and burying his nose in the detective's damp hair.

Shinichi frowned. "It's just people might see it."

Kaito put on a wounded look that Shinichi didn't buy for a moment. "Are you saying you don't want people to know about me?"

"It's not that," Shinichi replied, unconsciously leaning back against his alpha's bare chest. "I just don't like having to answer a million annoying questions about my personal life for nosy strangers with too much time on their hands."

Kaito laughed, and the sound vibrated through the both of them as his arms tightened around Shinichi, pulling the omega flush against him, warm, slightly damp skin to warm, slightly damp skin.

Shinichi shuddered involuntarily. His body was remembering how it had felt to be sandwiched between the warm, wet tiles of the shower wall and Kaito's hot, wet body as the thief's erect member pushed up into him until Shinichi was fully impaled on that hot, hard length. His pulse quickened as he recalled the way Kaito had moved inside him, steady and unyielding.

"I do believe," Kaito purred into Shinichi's ear. "I would like very much to know what you are thinking about. Care to share?"

"I'd rather not," Shinichi replied, fighting down a blush.

"Then how about I guess instead?" the magician suggested, sliding one hand down to cup Shinichi through the rough fabric of the towel around his waist. The omega detective's breath hitched, and Kaito smirked. "You can tell me when I guess right."

It was some time before the thief and his omega finally emerged from the bathroom in a waft of scented steam, the former looking like the cat who had gotten the canary and the latter visibly wobbly on his feet.

They ended up cuddled together back in the nest of blankets and pillows Shinichi had built for them earlier that morning what felt like years ago. The soiled top sheets had been stripped off and tossed into the laundry hamper for later, leaving them with a nice warm and still clean nest of soft and fluffy things.

So there, wrapped in each other's arms, the two mates managed to catch at least a few hours of sleep.

"The sun's rising," Kaito murmured, his voice the only sound in the perfect silence of the early morning. "Look."

Mumbling incoherently, Shinichi nonetheless shifted and peeled his eyes open just a fraction to watch as the sun's rays sent orange and pink veils undulating across the sky.

"It's beautiful," he murmured, leaning back against Kaito's chest as they watched the sky grow slowly brighter and the colors shift from those of dreams to those of true morning.

"You know, this means we'll be living together from now on," Kaito said, running his fingers through Shinichi's soft, black hair and watching in amusement as the cowlick popped up again and again no matter how many times he smoothed it down.

"I sort of thought we already were," Shinichi murmured back, sounding amused despite the sleepy slur to his words. "You already sleep over more often than you don't."

"Yeah, well, it's different though, making it official."

Shinichi hummed in quiet agreement.

"Since that's settled, I thought we should discuss where we wanted to live."

Shinichi's brows furrowed in confusion. "Where?"

"You know, if we should get our own place or continue living at one of our parents' homes."

"Well, I sort of thought we'd just continue staying at my parents' place," Shinichi admitted. "Since they're almost never there, and it just doesn't make sense to let it sit empty all the time for no reason. Mom's been dropping hints ever since she learned about you that you should move in full time. She keeps telling me that we should feel free to redecorate if we need to and that sort of thing. Although if you want to find somewhere else, I wouldn't mind that either," he added.

Kaito considered the question for a moment. "Maybe in the future," he decided finally. "But, for now, I'd say things are good the way they are. Speaking of mothers though, my Mom made us a cake to celebrate. I put it in the fridge."

Shinichi blushed and buried his face in the crook of Kaito's neck. "My mom sent a bunch of stuff too."

"Really?" Kaito asked, interest piqued. "What did she send?"

"…I don't want to talk about it."

"You realize that just makes me want to know more."

"Then look at it yourself when we get home."

"I'll do that," Kaito said, smile broadening at the word 'home'.

That word. It was such a simple word, and yet it held within it more than could ever be expressed in any human language.

"You're wrong about one thing though," he murmured, fingers carding through Shinichi's silky black hair then trailing down the curve of his spine, making the boy shudder and gasp.

"About what?" the omega murmured, thoughts already beginning to fuzz out on the edges as the heat inside his body hummed.

Shifting, Kaito lifted Shinichi's chin and caught his lips in a deep, passionate kiss that sent fire lancing all the way to both their fingers and toes. When the kiss broke, it left Shinichi clinging to his alpha, half wrapped around him and aching for more.

Kaito's grin was warmth and mischief and feral satisfaction—it was faith and future and promise and claim.

"We're already home," he said with a steady certainty that brook no argument. "Like they say, home is where the heart is. And mine, my dear, will always be with you."

-End for now, but I will be adding the rest of their vacation together later-