Circle of Fate

12: I'll always loop back to you

From the beginning when Aoko pounced onto Kaito and feeling him under her skin, everything about that night felt like a dream, including the mystical moment when she first pressed her lips onto his.

Aoko could sense the great inconvenience of her sitting on him and the way he was distracted with more things that were out of her range of understanding, so she, or they, temporarily kept their feelings aside for the night and decided to simply talk, not on the floor anymore but sitting side by side on the edge of her hospital bed. There was no hurry in their conversation, like the night would always be there for them and the sun was just a myth. All the time, Aoko was intensely fighting back the temptation of sleep and managed to keep herself awake enough to remember bits of their conversation. She talked about Shinichi's vague future plans, and while the incident with Snake was a nightmare, and that she already roughly knew what happened to that nasty criminal, she choose to listen as he explained and told his story, just so she could hear his voice.

The day came too soon and Aoko attempted to make him stay even though the sound of footsteps and mutters outside the ward grew louder and frequent. For once and to her greatest relief, Kaito stayed as he was told and they enveloped into a silence that was as engaging enough as their talk.

But slowly and ultimately giving in to the drowsiness, she rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes, the last thing she saw was Kaito plucking a loose thread from his shirt and holding onto one of her fingers as gentle like a jewel...

The next thing that happened for Aoko was waking up with a sudden jolt and realizing she was tucked under the warm white sheets, the ceilings staring back at her in return.

Wait, what?

Like magic, the door slid open on the cue and she turned swiftly to see the visitor. Guiltily, she was mildly disappointed when it was Miyamoto who came in, though honestly, she didn't exactly know who to expect either. Aoko slowly positioned herself up on her bed as she watched Miyamoto set a tray of food on the bed table.

"Good afternoon." Miyamoto shook her head amusingly. "You've slept in till quite late today. I was about to wake you up or you'll miss your lunch and your scanning schedule."

"Was a little tired." She half-admitted the truth. For staying up all night and sleeping at what godly hour, Miyamoto would rant all day if she knew Aoko had messed up her body clock.

"Come, I'll help you to the bathroom to get yourself wash up for the day."

"Thanks." Aoko smiled sheepishly before pushing the white covers off her legs. At that sight of it, she instantaneously remembered how she'd kicked Kaito's shin and tackling him down and... So was everything just a dream? It couldn't be, right? But she didn't know what to believe when there was nothing-

"Eh, what's that on your finger?" Miyamoto suddenly blurted as Aoko stood up from her bed.

"Hm?" What could be on her finger? She raised her left hand that Miyamoto was pointing at and her eyes widened at the sight of a thread curling around her ring finger, a neat and perfect knot tied at the end to keep the string in place.

Could it be-

What a stupid dork. It was hard for Aoko to not laugh.

Detectives always liked evidence. And this was it. This was enough to prove he was here.

.o.

Though everyone was immersed in their furious typing of keyboards and glowering into the telephone because some witnesses were giving them trouble for the day, a sudden knock coming from the entrance of the office was loud enough to let everyone stop whatever they were doing for a second to see what it was all about.

"Is Nakamori-san in?"

"Yes?" Aoko stood up hastily from her desk. She broke into a sheepish smile once she understood why her name was called and skipped to the door.

It was the third time that week the receptionist came in, again, with a bouquet of flowers in her hand. After confirming the interruption and knowing the bouquet couldn't possibly be anything fancy or different with the seemingly common wrapper, everyone in the office returned to their current hectic and busy work again.

Aoko accepted the bouquet after a series of thanks before going back to her seat, mildly embarrassed to add the bulky flowers to her collection of gifts that were filling up her entire table. Though first thing first, she gazed down at the flowers, wondering who the sender could possibly be-

Carnation, tulips and roses.

The combination Aoko recognized.

"You're quite popular too, eh?" Sawako was the only one who expressed interest and dragged her roller chair over to Aoko, but the former's grin died away once she noticed the typical, common flowers. "Oh, another get-well-soon bouquet?"

Aoko smiled, her nose dipping low into the bouquet. The scent was as exquisite as how the flowers looked. "There's more to it than that."

Sawako raised an eyebrow. "Is it?"

There was a small card planted at the side of the bouquet and Aoko plucked it out and flipped it open to read. She would've rolled her eyes, but the sense of contentment reached to her first.

Surprise.
-Kaito

"Yeah," Aoko answered and pressed the card near her chest before turning to her side to stare at the empty desk and seat next to hers.

Bakaito.

.o.

Once Aoko exited the small forest and walked out to a clearing, the shadows of the dense leaves disappeared and what welcomed her was the sun that instantly lit up her view and it took her some time to accustom to the sudden brightness.

She crushed the paper that Hakuba had written the specific geographical location on and stuffed it into her pocket once she knew she'd got to where she wanted. Though the up-slope gave her quite a bit of a difficulty during her little adventure, her goal of getting to the hilltop was much more important than her still-recuperating health and weakened stamina. The white clouds were hanging low that late afternoon, a perfect time and weather for a nice little picnic if she was in the mood, which she was obviously not. Because the only reason she was here was for the house situated at the far end, right at the edge of the hill that faced the city.

Her perception of a safe house was something similar to a dungeon cell, or a lair hidden on a secretive island that wasn't found on the map or some sort. Even as a police detective, she got quite the creative cells to think of all these. She guessed that was what Kaito would probably say to her if he heard her aloud.

There was something about the exterior of the house that made her feel at ease. Maybe she'd picked the right choice to come in the day as the light did enough justice to make the pale peach walls and shaded glass windows oddly welcoming rather than the opposite. She crept across the out-of-place yet neat clean cut grass and stood before the wooden door, her face set with determination.

After all the climbing, Aoko wasn't going to go back down for nothing.

There was no bell, of course, so she raised a fist and knocked with her knuckles twice. She couldn't hear a sound so she tried again, and then again, until the door suddenly whipped open right at the second when she was considering to bang her fist instead.

Kaito was there, standing dumbly like he had been pinned back by a gust of air. His hand slowly left the doorknob and he used his fingers to brush his wild hair, a defeated sigh following afterwards.

Aoko waited for another second for him to say something, which he didn't. It was a conflicting battle, but her agitated annoyance won over the flutters of her heart just by a point. "Are you not going to invite the guest in?"

He quirked an eyebrow skeptically. "I'm pretty sure I didn't send out any invitation to begin with."

"Surprise." She feigned an innocent wide-eyed look that was also equivalent to I dare you to repeat that again. He ought to get the reference too.

He supplied a faint scowl that didn't last any more than a second and walked back into the house with the door left open for her. She skipped in before taking her own sweet time to shut the door, saving herself some extra seconds to glimpse around the house while his back was still facing her. All the walls were surprisingly white and bright, but the furniture was sparse and little, which was unbelievably less cozy than the pantry area at the office (Aoko couldn't believe she was comparing a house to a pantry area. This was a record). What she felt outside of the house was the complete opposite feeling of what she saw inside, and right at that moment, a sense of emptiness started to pull her heart down to her stomach. It suddenly occurred to her that this house could've perfectly described Kaito as a person. Maybe she was reading in between the lines too much or her job habit was taking over her life, but deep inside her heart, she thought it was probably true.

Wait- Where's Kaito?

She spun around in the middle of the supposedly living room, her eyes darting to one corner and then another until Kaito quietly appeared again, from somewhere she didn't notice with a cup of hot and steaming coffee in his hand. He carefully twisted the mug so she could take the handle and avoid burning her fingers, which he ended up becoming the victim because of it. It was always the little things he did, like this, that made her heart skip a beat and she couldn't explain why. Something to do with love, probably. Her cheeks turned warm at the thought.

Love was still quite of a foreign thing to her.

"Maybe it's too late to ask but I guess you don't mind coffee?" He said when she didn't seem to respond to the drink in her hand.

"I don't mind at all," she took a whiff of the aroma and smiled. There was a faint recognition of it and this was more than enough to make her awake and happy, even better than the effect of caffeine. "Thanks."

Kaito nodded and gestured to the two single couches and the coffee table in the middle of the chairs. "Do you want to take a seat?"

She didn't miss the overly-polite tone he was using. It was always one of the games he played. "Are you seriously going to treat me like a guest?"

"You did say you are one." He rebuked perfectly.

Aoko huffed. "We can spend the whole day throwing grenades at each other like this but I don't want to." She took a small sip of coffee as a sign of appreciation before setting it on the round table.

He looked like he wanted to say something but after thinking otherwise, he stopped and swallowed the words back. It was unlike of him if those words he wanted to say were mean and insensitive things, so it must be something important, at least to her if he thought it wasn't important enough to say anymore. His own feelings were always placed at the near bottom of his list of things he cared about to share, ironically.

"Am I bothering you?" She tried to head for this direction. Maybe it sounded better if she phrased it this way.

"No," Kaito clarified almost immediately, much to her surprise. He dug both hands into his pockets and glanced at the wall that suddenly seemed very suspicious to Aoko when he looked at it that way. He continued before she could say any word. "It's just that time's a little bit tight. There's some stuff I need to do."

"Would that explain the reason why you hadn't or didn't return back to the force?"

Kaito turned back to her and grinned. "Why? You missed me?"

She purposely rolled her eyes in the rowdiest manner, but the flare that was rising from the back of her neck to her face couldn't be controlled. "You're not replying my question."

His cheeky smile faded, just a little. "Yeah, sort of. Maybe."

"If I'm allowed to know," she paused and bit her lips hesitantly. "If, like I've said. Can you tell me?"

He looked vaguely distant, as if remembering something rather than seeing what was in front of him. "Magic props. Tools. Everything valuable in the line of trade that I have in possession... I'm currently gathering them for an interested dealer."

Aoko gaped, her jaws slowly dropped. "W-What? Why? I don't know but-" She was suddenly at a loss for words and it took her a great measure till she found back her voice. "But didn't you gr-grow up with it? With magic? It's your life!"

"And then I became a police detective and fought crimes and met you." His eyes twinkled, but there was a faint hint of dullness somewhere that Aoko thought she couldn't have imagined. "How weird could my life's timeline get?"

She narrowed her eyes. "You're avoiding the question again."

"I'm still figuring some things out," he shrugged impassively. "Somehow and some way."

Everyone else in the world would've missed the beat in his monotonous voice, except for her. She heard it before; she recognized it, under the rain and on a particular roof. But this time was a bit different. It was all too clear for her. She braced herself first for the answer to the question she hadn't yet asked.

"So you're leaving?"

The sharp alarm in her voice was too obvious for him, which she was glad it was because it was her greatest intention. Kaito stared at her with a poker face before it cracked into a guilty smile, one that sent her temper automatically rising to the top.

"You've left me and came back for two seconds and you're going to leave again?" She growled, her hands turning numb from squeezing it into a fist too tightly. "I'm not a pit stop."

He let out a sharp breath that resembled a laugh. "It's an interesting comparison but no, you're not a pit stop. I've thought of something better."

"This isn't some kind of word game-!"

Kaito took a step closer and put his lips cautiously to hers, like he knew he shouldn't be doing what he was doing yet couldn't really help himself. His mouth was urgent, but once she moved her lips, she felt him soften, as if despite himself and the depth of his feelings, he couldn't be hard to her. That was what she believed. After the sparks and the pleasure of their silent conversation that would last, indeed, lasted, he pulled away from her, which was a great deal to do so for him and her.

"You're my home," Kaito whispered and dragged his hands that were originally clutching onto her shoulders and let it swing back to his side. "But one that I'm afraid to live in."

This caught her attention other than his lips. "Why?"

"There's many things that can destroy a home." He lowered his gaze. "I can't afford that to happen."

"Then what are you going to do?" Her throat tightened but she willed herself to continue. "Are you letting someone else who has the sense of responsibility to come and occupy it? Or are you going to abandon the house till it turns dusty and old and damage beyond repair?"

Kaito pinched the bridge of his nose, not in annoyance, but more in amusement. She could see the corner of his lips tugged upwards, a little gesture that made her undeniably a little bit less unhappy even if she forced herself to be upset at her maximum potential for this moment. Why must her feelings mess her up in such a way?

He finally looked up at her, his full smile showing. "I can't believe we're conversing in metaphors."

"Don't change the subject." Aoko jabbed a finger at his chest. "Tell me what you're going to do."

And then to her mild surprise, his hand engulfed the hand she was using to poke him and aimed it a little bit more to his left. She glanced up at his face sharply, wrong-footed by the change of mood.

"I've locked the keys here. No one is getting in unless it's me and only me," Kaito said with a bulk of confidence as his thumb teasingly caressed the skin on the back of her palm, freezing her entire body still and unable to interrupt his dumb cheesiness that she couldn't stand. He continued suavely. "And you're the only house that accepts all my shit. I should be the one worrying if you'll abandon me, not the other way."

Aoko wanted to peel her hand away from his, but there was this invisible magnetic force that made her fail (In all honesty, she actually barely tried). Her pointing finger curled back to its place and she placed her flat hand on his chest, a wave of familiarity soaking her from head to toe. It didn't take her long before she could feel the strong rhythm thumping against her palm and easing her back to the point of calamity, though she thought her heart was probably beating equally as fast and hard as his.

"You're stupid." She broke the silence first.

His features softened, only the twinkle of his eyes remained. "I love you too."

She was going to get fever sooner or later with the amount of heat her face was getting for the past ten minutes. "I'm not going to abandon you, stupid." Aoko blurted out with a good force to hide her possible stuttering tone. "I'm staying as long as you come back. But there must be a promise to it."

"Promise?"

Aoko stuck out her little finger with the other hand that wasn't on his chest. She watched him fervently, his face slowly crumpling into a form that she recognized as his brink of bursting out laughing like always. After a long while, she cut him off once his melodic chortles stopped echoing in the house. "No matter how far you go, I'll be here when you return." She finished solemnly.

Kaito heaved a sigh that sounded more carefree than his big smile was showing. "Promise." He wrapped his little finger around hers and gave a firm shake.

Their fingers were stuck together, feet barely inches apart and her hand was still on his chest, feeling his soothing heartbeat. It was the weirdest posture she'd ever been with a man, yet the thought of moving away never appear in her mind.

Don't leave so soon. "Do what you think is right for you," she muttered into his chest. "You know I'll support you."

"I love you too." He said softly.

Remember to come back. "I believe in you."

"I love you too."

Her first confession wasn't a good memory, but the same man that scar her healed it the same. And even though Aoko knew he knew how she felt, he deserved to hear the words once and many more times she could ever say to him.

"I love you, too." She finally breathed. It sounded a lot easier to say than she thought.

He broke into a grin and she swore for a moment, she felt his heart beat twice as fast under her palm. "So will you be my home?" He asked, a faint tone of serenity flowing in his voice. It was something peaceful and charming that she wished she'd recorded to play it every night before her sleep because no alcohol could ever bring that effect on her.

Aoko scoffed at his silly question, but a smile crept in afterwards. "You've got the keys long ago."

Without a word, he embraced her with a tight hug that was sheltered and comfortable, cancelling out all the little bits of cold and desolation she felt when she first stepped into the house. Her hands moved up to his back and she tiptoed just a little to dig her face further into the crook of his warm neck.

She was his home, but he was the same to her too. And if this was what home felt like, Aoko wished she could stay like this forever.

.end.

.

.

.

Shinichi flapped the two tickets near his cheeks, trying to dispel the heat in the humid air. He'd just missed the red light and it'd probably take around a minute before he could cross the road, much to his slight annoyance. The watch that his brilliant inventor neighbour specially gave to him showed a little past seven in the evening.

Shit. He's late.

As if it would help, Shinichi pressed the pedestrian crossing button a little harder than intended and decided to put his mind elsewhere for better distraction and keep his cool. He gazed down at the tickets in his hand.

Kuroba Kaito presents
WALLFLOWER
The Grand Illusionist

For some odd reason Shinichi didn't understand, he would scowl at the word illusionist, though in the end, one side of his lips unconsciously tugged, just a little. He caressed the tip of his tickets and kept it back into his breast pocket safely to avoid any more wrinkles from the waving and flapping he had been doing for a while. First thing first, he was already late. The last thing he wanted was to ruin the evening even more by presenting Ran the terrible state of the entrance ticket he was in-charge of keeping.

"Your fate spells disaster very soon."

A voice suddenly whispered beside his ears and he turned, his eyes staring dazedly at a model-like woman standing next to him. A group of people were slowly gathering at the edge of the road like him, waiting for the red man to turn green, yet the first thing he caught sight out of the crowd was this particular woman. There was this weird aura she was giving off-

"You've already met your destiny," she spoke again before shaking her head sadly at him. "But the child in you will bring about an unforeseen predicament you'll never expect in your life."

Shinichi blinked.

"...What the hell are you talking about?"

...or not?

A/N:
Yes. It's the end.
... or not?
Okay, just joking. It's over.
Here's the ending! (I'm actually suffocating at the number of times the word love appeared ahaha) Hope you guys liked it the same as I do...? AHHH anyway, thank YOU all for reading till the end and all of YOUR support means a lot to me! :') Hope to see you around again soon!