All that mattered

Looking back at the years, Kaito couldn't find that exact point of time when he started to fall for Aoko.

Everyone in his neighborhood called Aoko a sensible child, a worthy daughter of a police inspector, a blessing to her future husband and the reason behind it must be because of Nakamori's good teaching.

Aoko's father accepted those praise for his daughter with a wave of his hand, saying that she inherited those traits from her mother before he cut those small talks and headed to the police headquarters for his work.

When Kaito overheard these conversations along the streets, he wondered if Aoko inherited her looks from her mother too since she looked nothing like her father.

He never meet Aoko's mother before, much less hearing Aoko speaking about her before. His father taught him that sometimes, there were things better left unknown and so he thought that maybe this was one of the unknown things he would ever know about Aoko.

On Mother's Day, his elementary school teacher gave them a plain card and asked everyone to write or draw something down to give it to their mother. Kaito pondered for a long while and began his task when he noted that his table partner wasn't doing anything at all. He stared down at his partner's blank piece of paper and he put his crayon down.

"What are you going to draw?" Kaito asked.

"I don't know." Aoko shrugged.

"What does your mom likes?"

She paused for a moment. "Sunflowers."

He handed her the brightest and newest yellow crayon he could find from his crayon set. "Then you can draw sunflowers. She'll love the card."

Aoko took the crayon from his hand and fiddled with it instead. "She won't be able to see it anyway."

"Why not?"

She turned and faced him with a sad smile. "My mom passed away a year before I moved here."

When Kaito reached home that day, he threw his schoolbag aside, rushed to his room and stuffed all the money he could find from his piggy bank in his pocket, with the image of Aoko's sad smile lingering in his mind as he did all of those things.

He hated the fact that he couldn't do anything about that wrong-looking smile of hers. So on the way back home, he thought of all sorts of plan and finally came up with one. It was a silly idea, but it was better than doing nothing. After he finished buying the thing he was painstakingly hunting for, he ran all the way to Aoko's house, his pocket now empty while his hands were stained with soil and dirt by what he was carrying.

The door opened after he rang the bell with his elbow.

"Kaito? And sunflowers?"

He poked his head from behind the huge flower. "This is the tallest sunflower I can find in all the shops." He kicked his shoes away and dashed to Aoko's backyard, knowing fully well that she would be following him.

"But what are you doing with a pot of sunflower?"

Once he was at her backyard, he turned to face her and carefully placed the pot on the palm of his hands, lifting his arms up. "Your mom should be able to see the sunflower now, right? It's closer to Heaven." He carefully bit his lips and tiptoed. "Maybe it's better like this?"

"If she really can see it, she's probably laughing at you too! You looked really silly."

He glanced up sharply, his two eyes staring at Aoko as she began chortling behind the back of her hand and clutching onto her stomach. While he watched her quietly for a moment, Kaito wondered how long had it been since he last heard her laughing genuinely like now.

Despite the fact that his arms were slowly aching and his toes were hurting, he didn't move from his position but laughed with her too.

.

.

A week after his father's funeral ended, Kaito didn't smile once. He worried his friends, his teachers and most importantly, his mother. He tried really hard not to cry after his father died, but that was the best he could do.

For that week, no one dared to approach or talk to him, in fear that he would just break instantly. He was grateful that everyone gave him the space he needed but something- everything, was killing him and he still didn't know what to do.

He briefly wondered how Aoko coped when she lost her mother way before he met her.

On the cue when Aoko flashed in his mind, his swing stopped. He glanced up in surprise and blinked at the culprit who stopped his swing, to realize it was none other than Aoko. He continued staring at her but didn't say a word.

Aoko didn't say a word either. Instead, she tentatively put a hand inside her jacket and pulled out a bundle of red roses, the red petals blown onto his face like feathers before floating onto his lap and the ground beneath his feet.

"This is for you!" She exclaimed, her grip tightened around the thorny stem and Kaito felt his hand sting for her; He knew exactly how painful it was when the thorn cut his palm. "Cheer up, Kaito!"

He gaped at her, at the roses, at the petals on his lap and then back at her. Slowly, he lifted his hand, slapping it over his forehead and broke into a fit of laughter. Aoko looked taken aback as she stared at him while he continued chuckling on the swing. A few seconds later, she joined in too.

Until this day, he still didn't know why he laughed at that point of time.

.

.

It was his summer break in middle school and Kaito was on his way to meet his classmates for a round of soccer. It wasn't a sport he was interested in but he needed a break from experimenting magic tricks so he didn't have any reasons to decline the offer.

When he was about to past the lone tree at the end of his neighborhood, he noted a person sitting on the branch of that tree and he quirked an eyebrow, jogging over to see what was happening. To his greater surprise, he didn't expect that person to be Aoko.

"What the hell are you doing?" Kaito squinted his eyes and used his hand to block the sun from shining on his face. "Did you decide to live like a monkey for a change?"

Aoko blinked and looked down at him. She stared for a second before giving a small huff, her surprised look immediately turned into a scowl and she rolled her eyes. "I might consider if you continue annoying me."

"No seriously. What are you doing?"

"I-It's none of your business." She pouted and slightly moved her body to the other side, her legs dangling on the large branch as she hugged the trunk like a koala bear.

Kaito tilted his head and gave a bored look. "Whatever. I'm going to play soccer with the rest." He gave her one last chance to speak up as he gave a sidelong glance, but she didn't say anything to stop him from leaving. Scratching the side of his cheek, he shook his head to himself and wondered why did he bother to understand girls and their sanity.

He gave her another last chance and mentally counted to three before walking towards the field just a couple of blocks away when she still choose to be silent.

Just an hour in the game, Kaito was too distracted to continue and he gave a stupid excuse before running back to the tree. Aoko was no longer at the spot he last saw her. More worried than curious, he hopped over the big roots that were protruding from the ground and rushed to the bottom of the tree.

For the past one hour, it seemed Aoko managed to advance two branches further up. He smirked. Pretty impressive for a scaredy-cat like her.

Now he was more curious than worried.

"Aoko!"

"Wah!" The girl yelped and glared down, her hands hugging tightly onto the trunk. "Are you trying to scare me?!"

"Apparently, yes." His smirk grew bigger.

"Aren't you playing soccer? What are you doing here?"

"Soccer's boring." He placed a foot on the trunk, applying pressure and began climbing.

"What are you doing?!"

"Doing exactly what it looks like." He bit his lips and grabbed hold of a convenient branch and proceeded further up.

"Don't come up here!" She waved around in a flustered manner before she hugged the tree again for balance.

In a few minutes, he was already beside her.

"What's up?"

Aoko gritted her teeth. "You're so... frustrating!" She exclaimed.

Kaito showed her his clean set of teeth and glanced above them. "So what got stuck here? Some girly kite of yours?"

She pouted, her eyes briefly looked at one direction and Kaito immediately caught it. He followed her gaze and stared at the mini and familiar looking airplane hanging among the tree leaves.

"Isn't that the airplane I made for you on your birthday, like two or three years ago?"

"Y-yeah. Three years to be exact."

He glanced over at her, his eyes widened unconsciously. "Why didn't you say so just now?"

"I really cherish the present and I didn't want you to think otherwise."

Kaito blinked. Really, he could never understand how girl's mind worked. "Do you have the remote?"

She nodded and showed it to him. "But it isn't working. The batteries are fine."

"Maybe it's broken."

"Serious?!"

"Gah, you're loud. I just said maybe." Kaito pressed onto the remote for a few times but nothing happened. He passed the remote back to her. "I guess we have to get it back using the hard way."

Kaito crawled over the trunk and swung himself towards the direction of the airplane. He noticed Aoko's concern gaze directed to him and he scoffed amusingly at her. Sometimes, she worried too much about other people more than herself.

The task was done within the next few minutes and he carefully peeled the leaves away from the plane and took it before anything else happened. Taking his own sweet time to spite Aoko along the way, he took the chance to stare at her birthday present.

He remembered telling Aoko it wasn't some airplane that could be bought from store when he handed her the gift, but honestly, he couldn't remember what was so special about the plane he made. Was it related to a magic trick? Could it burst into pink smoke or shoot out cotton candy or something? He had invented too much ridiculous tricks and things to remember all of them anyway.

But even after all these years, the fact that Aoko still kept it in such a condition surprised him a little and it made him feel rather appreciated that his effort wasn't all wasted back then. Kaito clutched the plane to his chest and steadily moved back to Aoko's side.

When he handed it over to her, she released her grip from the trunk and took the plane from his grasp hastily but with care. That image was exactly the same as the one when he surprised her at her 11th birthday party and presented her the airplane as a gift.

"Luckily it's still in one piece!" She heaved a sigh of relief and she broke into a smile.

"Never knew you like airplanes this much."

She glanced up at him in surprise before looking down in embarrassment and never say a word. All he could do at that moment was to wonder even more about what he had exactly done to this airplane to make it seem so special to Aoko.

But before he could ever find an answer to it, he felt that someone was wrong with him when the only thing he spent doing for the rest of his afternoon was staying up in the tall tree, suffering from the terrible summer heat and watching Aoko scrutinizing the airplane with those relief eyes of hers.

.

.

"-the hell! Are you wearing fish panties?!"

"Damn hell you're right!"

And Aoko took the chance when he was still being disgusted by the image of fishes and gave a kick to his nose.

.

.

Kaitou Kid had two choices.

The first choice would be to give up this entire mission and send another heist note.

The second one would be to continue, even when the odds were against him. Like really, really against him.

Those worthless crystals on the clock's hands were not what he was looking for. He wanted the clock tower for another purpose, and among the thousands of people who were at the parade square watching his performance, he could confirm that only one girl out of all would share the same reason as him too.

"And besides... that clock tower is..."

He scoffed to himself as he continued crawling through the tiny vent, glancing back grudgingly when he realized one of the policeman was still chasing (crawling) behind him at a fast and steady rate.

Since Aoko regarded the clock tower's importance as much as he thought she would, of course he; Kuroba Kaito, had no reason to choose the first choice at all.

With that sole motivation in mind, he climbed out of the vent and prepared his sleeping gas.

.

.

"This is torture."

"This is heaven!"

Aoko chuckled and skated around the fallen Kaito. All parts of his body hurts and he was seriously considering wearing arm and knee guards, though he choose not to in the end, just to save that remaining pride within him.

If he wanted to save his pride, he wouldn't have agreed to come skating with Aoko in the first place. But Kaito knew that he had spent too much time on his night job and even when he tried to juggle his time wisely, the two of them were still spending lesser and lesser time together. Even when Aoko didn't say it, he always noticed that disappointed look she gave when she thought he wasn't looking.

So after the millions of times he rejected her, he finally accepted her offer to just go out one day and have fun. And now that he agreed, he couldn't back out when she choose the ice rink. He tried changing her mind but the more he tried, the more firm she was in her decision.

"Let's try again!" Aoko reached out for his hand. Kaito thought of slapping it away but he knew he would regret it if he did. Grudgingly, he grabbed hold of her hand and an evil yet wondrous thought flashed through his mind.

With a tug, Kaito pulled her down and she fell forward before she could react.

"You jerk!" Aoko screamed at him after she fell next to him.

He laughed and she gave a punch to his face but he dodged it easily, even when he was immobile in his position.

Aoko stood up in an instant and Kaito knew he was in deep shit. With his butt still stuck on the ice, he raised his hand towards Aoko who was brushing her slightly grazed knee. "I promise I won't do that again."

"Oh really?" She stuck out her tongue. "Now that I think about it, helping you up isn't teaching you anything."

"Wait, no-"

"Good luck, Kaito!" Aoko waved goodbye.

"Aoko!"

.

.

Kaitou Kid raised his arms.

Kuroba Kaito smashed the hammer right at the heart of the burning and glowing red jewel.

He smashed again, and again, and again until he was hitting the ground instead. His anger increased with every hit and he wanted to hit more but he stopped as he threw the hammer to the side of the room before he lay flat on his back and trying to catch his breath.

Kaito removed the monocle from his face and stared at his glinted reflection on the glass. Three years was taken away from his life. Three years, he lived as the ghost of his father and roamed the cities at night. Three years, he lied to his one and only best friend and broke her heart into pieces, just like the Pandora he just destroyed.

He tightened his clutch and the glass cracked under the pressure.

But now, he was free and there was only one thing he knew he had to do.

Kaito threw his hat aside and abandoned his white suit along with his red tie onto the floor, all forgotten along with the smashed pieces of jewel that were scattered everywhere. In only his blue shirt and white pants, he dashed out of his house and into the streets and headed to the place he known like his second home.

Once he reached, he rushed through the gates and to the door. Inspector Nakamori was probably still at that museum, clearing up Kaitou Kid's mess like usual. But Kaito knew his daughter would be at home, watching the news, silently hating and cursing Kaitou Kid with all her might.

He pressed the doorbell once, twice, thrice and a million of times and stopped only when the door finally swung open.

"Why are you here." She glowered. It wasn't a question.

"To tell you the truth."

"What truth?" Aoko pointed at his white boots, pants and blue shirt. "What truth do you want to tell?"

"The truth behind the mess I made, the millions of hours less spent with your father and with Kuroba Kaito, the reason why I couldn't tell you anything back then."

Her hand balled into a fist as she punched his firm chest. For the first time, he let her hit him without dodging. "I was always waiting for your explanation!" She sobbed, eyes lowered. "I always knew there's a reason behind all of those lies. But you never explain why."

"Now I am going to." Kaito grabbed her shoulders desperately but not too hard to hurt her. "Please give me a chance and hear me out."

"Why now?"

"Because I'm free." He said hoarsely.

Aoko continued glaring at him and he couldn't blame her, not after when he hurt her so much that day, leaving her at the roof after his identity was exposed to her and yet no reason, no explanations were given to her.

Kaito could have told her then and make things easier, but he choose not to. He didn't want to pin her down with him, making her wait on him until he found the Pandora. What if the jewel couldn't be found in the next twenty years? He couldn't possibly let her wait for him for so long. That was why he choose to hurtful way, a way that would hurt her and him; letting her go.

He would rather let her hate him rather than putting her in danger. There was no need for anyone else to get involve, much less a person he couldn't lose.

But now, he was free and the only way he could bring everything back was for her to give him a second chance. Just one more and it would be enough.

She grabbed his blue shirt and he widened his eyes in shock, his grip on her shoulder loosened.

"I'm giving you one time to explain." Her lips quivered.

His eyes softened. "One time is all I need."

.

.

Looking back at the years, Kaito still couldn't find that exact point of time when he started to fall for Aoko.

Kaito watched Aoko snuggled soundly into his chest, her eyes closed and lips parted. He carefully stroked her messy hair to the side of her face and smiled.

But even if he knew or never know when that exact point was, the fact that he would continue to love, cherish and protect her for the rest of his life wouldn't change.

And that, Kaito thought as he closed his eyes and pulled Aoko further into his arms, was all that mattered.

.

.

end

A/N:
Here's a (first) happy fic with Kaito's POV. It was fun and interesting to write though.
Just wondering, which POV do you guys prefer?
Reviews are appreciated!