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

To Light a Hearth

[Nature of Love series]

Part 8

Shinichi woke the following morning feeling refreshed and rather more like his usual self than he had in days. The heat was still there, but it was ebbing, and he could feel his mind not so much clearing as settling back into proper order.

Feeling relaxed and content, he snuggled closer to Kaito, tucking his head under the magician's chin.

"Someone's in a good mood," Kaito commented without opening his eyes, lips quirking into an amused smile.

"We do happen to be on vacation," Shinichi pointed out. "Shouldn't I be in a good mood?"

"Fair enough." Kaito chuckled, stroking a hand down the length of Shinichi's spine and enjoying the way the detective shivered. "I'm glad. I like seeing you happy."

Shinichi blushed. "You're a sap."

"Ah, but sap keeps the world together. Didn't you know?"

Shinichi snorted. Although he supposed that Kaito might have a point. A little more sap and a little less selfishness would go a long way in making the world a better place.

With a sigh and a stretch, Shinichi sat up and swung his feet over the edge of the bed. His toe quested around the cool floorboards until they located the pair of fluffy slippers he had left their the night before. He slipped them on and stood. "I want to finish the decorating today. It's mostly just the tree, but I also saw a few baubles and things that we can put up in other places to enhance the overall atmosphere."

He began picking up the clothes they had discarded all over the room in the heat of the moment the night before and began folding them into neat piles.

The entire time he was doing so, he could feel Kaito's gaze raking deliberately up and down the length of his exposed body. The weight of it made heat prickle across his skin and a blush rise to his cheeks. Tossing the last few more rumpled and soiled garments into the laundry hamper, he turned towards the bathroom.

"I'm going to take a shower first," he announced, keeping his face to the bathroom door so that his mate wouldn't be able to see his blush. "Did you…want to join me?"

Unseen by Shinichi, a slow, predatory grin spread across Kaito's face as he too rose from the bed. A few quick strides had him right behind Shinichi. His calloused hands smoothed over Shinichi's narrow shoulders then ghosted down to rest on his hips.

"I'd love to," he murmured into the omega's ear in a voice like dark velvet.

That voice alone had Shinichi's body twitching in growing arousal.

The bathroom door closed behind them with a soft click.

-0-

They decided to have brunch down in the main dining hall again. While in the kitchen, they discovered the ingredients and instructions for making gingerbread men and houses. The enormous quantity of materials suggested that Sonoko had planned to make an event of it, but they decided they could start off with a small batch of their own that they could both enjoy and welcome their friends with.

So they mixed up the dough (with Shinichi watching the mixture and everything that went into it like a hawk to make sure that Kaito didn't pull anything or decide to experiment as he so often did) and put it in to chill. Then they made their way to the living room to begin unpacking the Christmas tree baubles and lights.

There was, Shinichi reflected, always something rather warm and homey about the act of decorating a Christmas tree.

He supposed a lot of people would probably think him strange, but, as a child, the gifts hadn't been what made him like the Christmas holidays. His parents had always gone all out for Christmas, partly because they were used to it from all the time they spent in the States and partly because Yukiko liked any excuse to decorate and make a fuss. What this had also meant, however, was that Shinichi and his parents had always spent quite a lot of time in the days leading up to Christmas decorating the house together. Those hours were colored with warmth and light and laughter in Shinichi's memories.

"What are you thinking about?" Kaito asked suddenly, breaking Shinichi out of his reminiscing.

Shinichi looked up from where he'd been uncoiling the lights as Kaito wound them around the tree. "Huh?"

"I'm sensing some melancholy there," the alpha replied, casting him a mildly concerned look. "Is something bothering you?"

"Oh that." Shinichi smiled, touched by his thief's concern but also a little amused by the whole situation. "I was just remembering some things."

"Bad memories?"

"Good ones, actually."

Kaito's brows furrowed in mild confusion. "But they made you sad."

Shinichi shrugged and resumed unwinding the lights, indicating that Kaito too should resume twining them around the tree. "I was just remembering the time I used to spend decorating the house for Christmas with my parents. We used to do it every year back when I was just a little kid. It was one of the only times of year when all of us would all be home and working on something together without anything weird or embarrassing coming up. I…guess I kind of miss it sometimes. I'm not really sure when we stopped doing it. Though I'm guessing it was my fault. The older I got, the more crazy my parents often seemed to me. And you know my mom. She was always teasing. It made me start looking forward to the times they went off on their trips and I could just have the house to myself. Gradually, they stopped asking as often if I wanted to travel with them, and we just…well, became what we are now."

There were, he reflected, always things that you forgot to appreciate until they were gone.

"My parents used to make a big deal out of Christmas too," Kaito confided. "I think it's because they started dating in France and stayed there for a good long while. The presents and the fancy decor was definitely awesome, but what always got me was the food! There was always this insane array of colorful and imaginative candies and cakes in all shapes and sizes and flavors. This one year, Dad and I went to every store we could get to and put together a chocolate feast out of all the coolest chocolate treats we could find. Our house was like chocolate heaven! It was awesome!"

Shinichi laughed. "I imagine it was. Do you still have pictures."

"Of course we have pictures. But I'll do you one better. I'll set us up our own chocolate feast sometime. Really though," he added, tone musing. "I'd say the cool food and treats are the best part of most holidays."

"Only most?" Shinichi asked, one fine eyebrow raised in amusement. "Not all?"

Kaito laughed. "I can think of a few holiday traditions I'd rank higher. So yeah, only most."

"Okay. Now I'm curious," the detective declared. "Which traditions do you like more?"

"Can't you guess?"

Though he knew Kaito was teasing, Shinichi gave the question some serious thought. "Would one of them be the pranks and dressing up on Halloween?"

Kaito flashed him a grin. "Bingo! Hey, hit the light switch will you? I want to check if we have a good distribution of bulbs."

Shinichi plugged in and switched on the lights as Kaito pulled the common room curtains closed to block out the noonday sun.

Standing tall by the massive but currently unlit fireplace, the tree came to sparkling life. Both boys gazed at it for a long moment, simply admiring it. Eventually, Kaito made a satisfied noise and opened the curtains again.

"Right. Now for the ornaments. Let's see what we've got to work with."

They opened up the boxes that had been labeled as tree ornaments. There were six of them, each rather large and packed to the brim with shiny, colorful orbs of all different colors and patterns."

"If we hang all of these up, we won't be ale to see any of the actual tree."

"We don't have to use them all." Kaito reached into one box and pulled out two tubes of frosted, silver baubles with delicate snowflake patterns. "Let's start with these." He handed one tube to Shinichi.

"They are pretty," the detective noted. Opening the tube, he pulled out a bauble and turned to the tree. He studied the bristling branches sprinkled with lights and chose a dark patch to insert his bauble into. The paleness of the orb was a lovely contrast against those dark green needles.

Since Kaito handed him a new tube of ornaments every time the one he was using emptied, Shinichi didn't pay too much attention to which patterns they were using. So it wasn't until he stepped back to examine their handiwork some time later that he realized that the entire tree was dressed in blue, white and silver baubles. Some were patterned, others textured, and the shades ranged all over the place, but they had definitely created a very Kaitou KID-themed Christmas tree.

Shinichi laughed. "You did that on purpose."

Kaito didn't even bother to pretend that he didn't know what Shinichi was talking about. "It simply makes more sense to color coordinate. And you gotta admit, the effect is striking."

"Well, yeah," Shinichi conceded, though he personally thought that any properly dressed Christmas tree would be striking regardless of its color scheme. "But don't you think red and gold would be more Christmas? Or red and silver? Possibly even red, silver and green."

"Not at all. What matters is that we have a beautiful tree that speaks to the wonderful times we've spent together on moonlit nights both past and present." Smiling, he looped an arm around Shinichi and pulled the smaller boy right up against his side so that they could admire the splendor of their tree together.

"I was thinking," he continued in a much quieter voice, "of all the nights we danced on the rooftops. The times I followed you home from a distance so I could make sure you made it home in one piece. I can see the street lights in the glitter of baubles like these." He reached out and touched a dark, metallic blue ornament with a pattern of matte and glossy polygons wrapped over its curving surface. "I can't tell you how many times I imagined just swooping down and carrying you off to one of my safe houses, where we would talk, and I would tell you how I felt, and you would say you loved me back. And we'd kiss and make love until the sun rose."

"…I'm not sure if that's supposed to be sweet or creepy. I have to tell you that I'm leaning towards creepy."

Kaito burst out laughing. Next to him, Shinichi rolled his eyes.

"Now it's your turn," the magician said once he'd gotten his mirth under control. "Pick an ornament and tell me something it reminds you of."

Shinichi considered the tree for a long moment then reached out to touch a translucent, blue ornament in whose glossy depths a pair of ghostly, winged figures danced. "This one. It reminds me of your teleportation trick. I think that one is still your best show as KID."

"That one was good, wasn't it?" Kaito agreed then leaned in towards the detective with a sly grin. "Is that when you started falling for me?"

Shinichi blushed. "What? No! I mean, it's not like that sort of thing can actually have a definite starting point or whatever," he spluttered. For the most part, it was true too. Although he had to admit that it may have been around then that he started to recognize the trajectory of his own developing feelings. Really, it had all been thanks to Ai and her comment about how happy he looked after KID's initial demonstration that heist. It was after the heist, however, sitting there on the rooftop and watching the thief fly away, that he admitted that he might, just might, be growing rather more than passingly fond of the crazy thief and his antics.

"The pattern on this one looks just like the pattern on the plates at that restaurant where we had our first date," Kaito said, tapping a pearl-colored ornament sporting a pattern of silver leaves and flowers.

Ah yes, the blind date that had changed everything, Shinichi thought. Looking back, he found that there was actually quite a lot that he needed to thank Sonoko for.

"I've always meant to ask," he said. "Did you know that I was the person you'd be meeting?"

"Of course," the alpha said simply. "That's why I agreed to go."

The statement made the detective feel rather warm and fuzzy inside. He had never believed in things like fate or destiny before. But when he was with Kaito, he found that he couldn't help but begin believing that some things could simply be meant to be.

"I suppose that would be our first kiss then?" he asked, glancing at the very first snowflake bauble he'd hung on the tree.

"At first snow," Kaito agreed, smile softening.

They continued trading memories until Kaito pointed at a sparkle-encrusted silver ornament and said, "Oh! That one's the exact same color as that pretty little dress you wore for me that time we—"

"The cookie dough!" Shinichi exclaimed hastily before the magician could finish. "It should be ready now."

That said, he sped away into the kitchen, leaving behind a greatly amused magician.

-To Be Continued-

Note: Merry Christmas!