Keiu (Welcome Rain)
By Icka! M. Chif
"Footsteps are lightly taken, chao chao..." Kaito hummed to himself as he wandered down the rainy streets of the Shinjuku district of Tokyo. Rain days were not only a fact of life for living on an island, but also a lot of fun most of the time. Everything changed, turning into some sort of warped fantasy land. Surfaces turned shiny and reflective, lights seemed brighter, shadows darker and life got a staccato backbeat that changed with the breeze. "It's gonna rain..."
He deftly ducked and weaved between the shopping mobs, the mass of people un-deterred by the grey weather. Life still went on, no matter how much water fell from the sky.
Rain was also nostalgic. He remembered spending many a rainy afternoon, sitting around with Aoko and talking or playing games in her family's living room, watching the rain slide down the windows. Quiet moments, comfortable in the glow of friendship.
Speaking of Aoko, he hadn't seen her in what? Over a year now? Almost two? He'd last seen her briefly at a Christmas party at home, before her father had called her over to meet some new recruits. She'd looked fine, happy and content with her life.
For the most part, he was too. He had to be. After all, it was his choice to slowly fade from her life. That didn't mean that he still didn't miss her on occasion.
Okay, if he was being honest with himself, more than just occasionally. But it did no good to dwell on it.
They had been getting so close, so very very close towards the end of high school. Not quite dating, but nearly there. He'd always kept a bit of a cold barrier between the two of them to keep her from getting too close, but she'd been melting it faster than he could distance himself. And he didn't really want to distance himself when he got right down to it.
He liked dancing with the fire that was Aoko.
Then came the conversation one day about what everyone was going to do in the future. The choice for him was obvious, of course. He was going to follow in his father's footsteps and become a magician. Akako was going off to do what ever it is that witches do, and Hakuba was studying to be come a police inspector.
Aoko had laughed and said that maybe they'd end up working side by side. She'd already taken some tests to get into the police academy, and it looked like her chances were pretty high to get in.
Everyone had smiled and congratulated her. She had blushed and looked embarrassed, muttering that she'd been helping her Dad out for years, she might as well get paid to do it. And she enjoyed the work, and protecting people.
His blood had run cold. He'd always known intellectually that getting close to Aoko was a bad idea, but it hadn't really sunk in until she said that. And he couldn't do that, actually have her -there-, trying to capture the Kid on his escapades.
He wouldn't ask her to choose between her father and himself, especially when she didn't know the truth. And if she was an officer, he couldn't.
So he had kept it to himself, hiding everything behind his smiling jesters mask as he had done before. She'd never known, never realised that something was wrong, he'd made sure of that. They had graduated and ended up moving to separate parts of the large city. He loved his mother, and his Father's lab under the house, but he needed to be on his own for a while too. And it had been remarkably simple to simply fade from view.
Although Jii and 'Kaasan took great delight in baiting him with various snippets of information on how she was doing. Quite frankly, he thought that they took a near sadistic pleasure in watching him not-quite squirm over it.
He shook his head. It did no good to muse on missed chances and what not. He had a part time job to get to after all. He'd been very lucky that Jii had a friend who also ran a billiard shop in town that needed help in the evenings. It was frequently boring, keeping an eye on people playing billiards, but it was a good place to spend his evenings and it helped pay the bills.
Not to mention he'd thought up some of his best Kid heists there...
An absentminded step to the right to avoid running into a middle aged business man resulted in him crashing into someone else. They bounced off of each other, causing the other to drop their bag. Bringing his mind back to his surroundings, he kicked a foot out, flipping the purse back into the air to catch it before the rain soaked ground could drench it.
"Sorry about that." He murmured, holding the bag out.
"No, it's my fau-" Blue eyes looked at him with growing recognition. "Kaito?"
He blinked, recognising the curvy figure before him. Her wild hair was a little bit shorter than before, just brushing her shoulders, and she'd grown from a coltish teenager into a somewhat graceful young woman. But it was unmistakably the same person he'd just been musing about. "Aoko?"
"It is you! Kaito!" With that scant warning, she wrapped her arms around him, giving him a very warm, very tight, very enthusiastic hug.
He hesitated returning it, but when his ribs creaked in protest, he figured he'd better before she squeezed him in two.
Damn. He'd missed her more than he thought...
Aoko paused, as if catching herself. "Sorry." She slowly released him, her face bright red. "I didn't mean to... I just..." She nervously tucked a stray strand of hair behind an ear, obviously a newly acquired habit.
"It's okay." He grinned easily, handing her her bag again. This time she took it, the blush fading a bit. "How are you doing? I was just thinking about you." Quite literally as the case may be.
"Okay." She stammered, looking any where but directly at him. "I was just heading home from work. And you?"
"To work, actually." He chuckled. Aoko being shy was a new thing. He half wondered if she'd react the same if he flipped her skirt...
Nah. That was childish. Awfully tempting though.
"Can I walk with you?" She asked, stepping beside him. "I was just feeling homesick, then you appeared and..." She trailed off, beaming at him, obviously happy to see him.
He should say no. He should say no. He was trying to distance himself from her, remember? That was the whole point of fading from her life. He opened his mouth to tell her so. "Sure."
Stupid mouth. That wasn't it.
Aoko practically glowed, moving so that their umbrellas overlapped, creating a barrier from the water.
He gave a mental shrug, slapped a grin that wasn't a complete mask on his face and chatted amiably, catching up on bits and pieces of what she had been up to since they had graduated. The rain and the crowds didn't make it the best place to talk, but he'd take what he could get.
"We're here." He motioned down towards the small door that was the entrance. The only thing that marked it as a billiards shop was the small sign above the door. Not that the place needed much advertisement, it was more of a local hang out than anything else.
"Kuroba-kun!" One of the regulars waved as he walked up. "I see you brought a lady." He grinned.
"Not just 'a lady'." Kaito corrected with a fond smile. "'The Lady'. This is Nakamori Aoko, my best friend."
"Nice to meet you." He bowed. "We were starting to wonder if Kuroba-kun had any friends. Come in an introduce yourself or everyone will think I made you up!"
"Um, if it's okay with Kaito..."
"Sure!" He grinned. "Just so long as you don't try to flash me your underwear this time."
The last time they had played billiards at Jii's he had flipped her skirt, to discover that she was wearing panties with a fish pattern printed on them. Delighted by his reaction, she had ended up chasing him around the room threatening to show him her underwear with a near sadistic grin on her face.
He had just enough time to duck into the building before her brain and her fist caught up.
***
About a week later, a shoulder bumped his, causing him to spin around in a circle on the sidewalk. "Uh, sorry about that." He apologised, more to be polite than anything. It wasn't like the sidewalk was so congested that you couldn't walk without bumping into people.
A flash of gold eyes caused him to hesitate before moving on. There was only one person that he knew with gold eyes like that. "Hakuba?"
"You're treading on thin ice, Kuroba." Hakuba warned, his voice pitched low so as not to carry.
"What?"
"No one else is to capture the Kid before I do, remember?" The gold detective pressed. "Stay away from Aoko-chan. It's only going to get you both in trouble."
"Even if I was the Kid, what business is it of yours who I hang out with?" He retorted. So what if Aoko had stopped by his work once or twice to chat and play billiards? It was bad enough that the detective had decided that he was going to be the one to capture him, he really didn't need him appearing out of the blue and giving him cryptic warnings.
Even if he had been helpful in the past.
Hakuba just gave him a cold stare for a moment, and he resisted the urge to squirm, returning it. "I just don't want to see either of you get hurt." The detective said, then continued walking on.
What the heck had that been about?!
***
"I can't believe how wet it got so fast!" Aoko exclaimed as he shut the door behind them. She had stopped by the Billiard Shop just in time for his shift to end and had been talking about getting a bite to eat together when the sky had opened up and started pouring. Neither of them had brought an umbrella with them, so they had made a mad dash to his house, by virtue of it being the closest.
"You're telling me!" He panted, pushing the soggy wet mass that was his bangs out of his face. "Give me a minute, I know I have some clean towels around here somewhere..."
"I don't think that's going to help." She said ruefully, looking at the puddle that was increasing under their feet. "Do you have some clothing I can borrow?"
"I think all I have that'll fit are some pyjamas." Actually, he had half a closet full of women's clothing for disguises, but he didn't really feel like trying to explain what he was doing with that many dresses and skirts.
To his relief, she didn't balk at the idea of wandering around his house in pyjamas. "That'll work. Thanks."
"Not a problem." He waved it off and headed back into his bedroom in search of towels and sleepwear. He used one towel for his hair, draping the extra towels and clothes over one arm.
Aoko was still waiting by the door, her clothes sticking to her in flattering ways. "Here you go." He handed her a couple of towels and the pyjamas, saving some to mop up the puddle on the floor. "Bathroom is down there, on the left."
"Thanks." She took the clothes and quickly scurried down the hall. He chuckled and wiped up the water, listening to the rain pour on the roof. It sounded like a pretty bad storm. Rain was always funny like that. Sometimes it would just suddenly pour and seem like it would never stop and other times it would build and build, then just do a small shower and fade away like a brief memory.
Aoko returned in less time than he would have thought possible, rubbing her hair vigorously with a towel.
He grinned, noticing that she had decided not to wear the pyjama pants in favour of just a pair of boxers that had accidentally gotten mixed into the pile of clothing. She noticed his perusal and blushed faintly. "The pants weren't comfortable." She muttered.
"That's fine." Legs were nice. He liked legs. "Feel better?"
"Like a new person." She sighed. "Um, I left the clothes hanging in the bathroom, if that's okay."
"It's fine." He assured her. "It doesn't look like the rain is going to stop any time soon, you might as well stay the night anyway."
She stared at him.
"In the living room." He clarified quickly, holding up his hands in a warding gesture. The last thing he needed as for her to think he was trying to make some sort of move on her. As far as either of them were concerned, they were friends. Just friends, regardless of what that little nagging voice in the back of his might say. "I have an extra futon you can use."
"Oh." The wariness left her posture. "Okay."
"You hungry?" He finished mopping up the worse of the water and stood up. "I'm no gourmet, but I'm a fairly decent cook. And I'm pretty sure there are leftovers in the fridge."
His strange hours meant that he had little opportunity to get to the stores before they closed, so he usually kept lots of leftovers so that when he got home he had something ready to eat.
"You go change, I'll pull out the leftovers." Aoko smiled. "I think I can figure it out."
He raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure? I am a lone male bachelor after all."
She laughed and playfully pushed him down the hall. "Go change, or you're going to turn into a fish."
A shudder ran down his spine. Aoko just had to say that, didn't she? "Dry sounds good." He agreed, quickly retreating down the hall as she giggled.
Even the mention of fish *shudder* couldn't wipe off the dopey grin he probably on his face, but he didn't really care.
It was amazing how much difference having a friend around made.
Kaito changed quickly, changing into the dry un-used pyjama bottoms and a tee-shirt and stepped back into the main room, towel drying his hair with one hand as he carried the spare folded futon from the closet under the other arm.
Aoko was sitting on the floor next to the kohan, the Chinese food open on the table as she attempted to make her wild still damp hair behave with her fingers. She was practically swimming in the shirt, and in his option, looked completely rumpled and adorable.
He could get used to this.
... that was a dangerous train of thought.
She noticed him and grinned. "Told you I'd figure it out."
"I stand corrected." He agreed, dropping the spare futon next to the wall then plopped down next to her and slipped his legs under the blanket that covered the table. "Any preferences in tonight's entertainment?"
"Anything but the news."
"Agreed." He found the remote and clicked it on, slowly changing channels until they found an old Godzilla movie.
They settled back and relaxed, chatting amiably throughout the movie, relaxing, enjoying each other's company and cheering on the big lizard every time he squashed a building.
Kaito smiled contently, somewhat at peace for the first time a long time. He really could get used to this...
****
Kaito woke up sometime later because he couldn't feel his arm. A slight tug also informed him that it was trapped, he couldn't move it either. Much like having closed doors locked behind him, any inability to move made him nervous so he opened an eye just a crack to see what was wrong.
Aoko had moved during the night, snuggled up as close to him as possible with a table leg firmly wedged between them. Her head was currently using his arm for a pillow, which accounted for why he wasn't able to move it.
He smiled. They hadn't fallen asleep together like this since elementary school, curled up around each other like puppies.
She really was so trusting, wasn't she. And she trusted -him-, out of all people.
A little annoying voice in the back of his head pointed out why this was a bad thing. Sooner or later, at the rate things were going, she was going to find out about him being the Phantom Thief. And she wouldn't trust him again like this, would she?
All the more reason to enjoy this while he could then, wasn't it? He retorted. Besides, it wasn't like they were children or even teenagers anymore. She was a grown woman now and as such was more than capable of making her own decisions, right?
Right?
His mind was mercifully silent of any witty retorts. He sighed and shifted his arm a bit to restore some circulation to it and closed his eyes, already drifting back to sleep, lulled by the sound of the rain on the rooftop and Aoko's peaceful breathing beside him.
And when the time came, all he could do was hope she made a good decision.
***
The low sound of growling caused Kaito to glance up from the desk at the billiard shop later the next week. Aoko had just walked in, slightly damp from the rain outside and looking like she wanted to strangle something. Several some things in fact. He found her new-found restraint interesting. "How has your day been?" He inquired mildly, folding the newspaper he had been reading down so that she could see him.
"Today... bit." She growled, practically vibrating with unused energy. "It bit in so many ways I didn't think were possible."
"Anything I can do to help?"
She mused it over. "Can I chase you around the room with a mop?" She inquired, looking hopeful.
He glanced around the room. It was mostly empty at the moment, the crowd wouldn't be in until later. "Well, we don't have any mops handy." He reached back and grabbed one of the older, warped cue sticks. "Will this do?"
She took it and gave it a few experimental swings. "Think so."
"Alright." He stood up and stretched. "Oi! Everyone! Mind your heads!"
The 2 men playing pool grunted and continued playing, easily tuning them out.
"Ready when you are." He grinned. "You want me to flip your skirt?"
"I think I can manage." She commented dryly. There was a slight pause as she checked the balance and weight on it, then nodded. "HRRAAAHHH!"
*Swish!* down came the stick.
*Flip!* Off went Kaito, back flipping out of reach. "Ha! Can't get me!"
"Wanna bet?!" She roared, chasing after him.
The pattern of ducking, dodging, jumping and flipping was easy enough to fall into, even without the year or so of practice. It was like an old dance that they never forgot. Even as they chased each other around the room, neither the pool players nor anything else in the room was disturbed. New people came in, stared for a while, then ignored them in favour of playing pool and socializing.
Finally, Aoko put down the cue stick and leaned against it, breathing heavily. "Thanks." She panted. "I needed that."
"You're welcome!" He grinned, only a bit winded. He was slightly out of practice, but nothing too bad. Yet another thing he had missed about her -the daily workout.
"Nice courtship dance!" One of the regulars called as the rest applauded.
"Courtship?" Both of them blushed.
"Oi." He motioned to Aoko. "You wanna dance with her too?"
She grinned nastily and hefted the cue stick again.
That pretty much ended that discussion. The smart-alecks suddenly found billiards a lot more interesting than it had been a minute ago.
"Soo..." He threw himself backwards into his chair, sprawling across it with his usual careless grace "What happened today to get you so wound up?"
Aoko growled darkly, then roughly handed him the cue stick. He quickly put it back, out of arms reach. Her new found control on her temper was welcome, but even he knew better than to push it.
"You wouldn't happen to know a cheap place to live nearby, would you?" She growled, pushing her hair out of her face.
"Want to move out of your Dad's house?"
"I moved out over a year ago." She informed him. "I've been living with some roommates, but the apartment is old and they need to fix it. So I need a place to live for a month or so while the repairs take place."
"Hmm..." He mused it over. The smart thing would be to refer her to the guy ran the shop, he knew more about the cheapest places to live and eat than anyone else Kaito knew.
That would be the -smart- thing to do.
"You could always move in with me. Temporarily, of course."
Stupid mouth. When was it going to learn?
She lit up, and he remembered just how pretty she was when she smiled. "Really?"
He shrugged. He'd already said it, might as well go along with it. "Unless you find someplace better, sure, why not? I've got the room and if you don't mind helping with the bills a bit, it'd be nice to actually save some money for a change."
"Okay!" Aoko beamed at him, waving a playful finger at him. "But only if I can't find something else first."
"Deal."
***
These jobs were getting crazier and crazier. Honestly. Who the heck let a -mountain lion- just wander around like that? Sheesh.
It was a pity he hadn't had time to set up a camera to see the owners reaction when they got back to find their lion dyed bright magenta...
But at least he didn't have to worry about the 'Pink Puma' getting stolen. If he had trouble dealing with an attack cat, then it was a good bet that the 'Mysterious' Organization was going to have trouble with it too.
And he had gotten the information he needed. Not a bad couple days work, all things considered.
Now all he wanted was to take care of these scratches the cat left him as a parting gift, maybe take a shower, then crash and sleep for a few years. He was tired.
And there was that niggling voice in the back of his head warning that he was forgetting something.
He shrugged it off, dismissing the notion as weariness on his part and took off the cape, inspecting it. The gashes from the panther were repairable. His coat on the other hand was a complete and total loss. The cat had seemed to take great delight in avoiding the cape in favour of trying to use him as a scratching post. Or a chew toy. Whatever.
His shirt might be repairable, if he could get the blood stains out. But he'd deal with that later. And it wasn't like blue button down shirts were that expensive or hard to find in the first place.
Now the scratches... He un-fastened the shoulder holster for his gun, setting the card weapon down on the counter and unbuttoned his shirt, peeling the fabric away from the thin lines on his chest. They weren't too bad now that he had a chance to look at them, probably wouldn't even scar. Between the shoulder holster and the gilder on his back, the cat hadn't been able to get anything there, but there were going to be at least a few bruises that he was going to feel in a few days.
A little bit of peroxide and a shower was all he needed, the scratches barely cut past the skin, just bled a bit more then they would have because he had been moving around a lot.
He had just reached into the medicine cabinet when the door opened.
Aoko, his room mate for the past 2 weeks, looking adorably rumbled in her bathrobe and a shirt she had stolen of his (which he was secretly thrilled about), stared at him.
Kaito stared back.
Oh, yeah.... THIS is why he should never ignore the niggling voice in the back of his head saying that he was forgetting something.
Aoko turned, and carefully shut the door behind her. "I'm dreaming." he could hear her say slowly and carefully from the other side of the door. "There's a half naked Kid in the bathroom... I'm going to pinch myself and wake up."
There was a slight pause, then a muffled yelp. "Okay... it's not a dream." She muttered.
There was another slight pause, then the sound of footsteps thudding towards the main room.
Shit.
Peroxide forgotten, he ran after her. He got into the main room just in time to see her hold her cell phone to her ear. "Tousan?!"
Mentally cursing, he quickly grabbed the phone from her, wrapping his other arm around her to press his hand against her mouth. Nakamori's sleepy voice answered the other end. "Aoko-chan?"
"Sorry Tousan." He apologised, changing his voice to sound like Aoko as her eyes widened to near comical proportions. "I hit the wrong button on the cell phone. Go back to sleep."
The police inspector mumbled something that may or may not have been printable, then "Good night."
The line went dead. Just in time for Aoko's elbow to find his gut.
"Would you relax?" He snapped, releasing her and rubbing his injured stomach. She stumbled forward a few steps, then turned towards him. Several emotions flashed across her face before settling on confusion as he casually turned off her phone and tossed it on the couch.
"Kaito?" She asked, sounding much like a little lost child. "Why are dressed like the Kid?"
It would be so easy, he realised, to make up some excuse and dismiss everything entirely. And she would probably accept even the lamest, most flimsiest excuse he could think of. Because deep down, she didn't want to believe that he was the Kid.
But he was so tired. Tired of it all. Been tired of it for a long time now really.
With a rueful sigh, he reached up and pulled the monocle off. "I'm not."
He expected anger. Anger he could deal with.
Tears were not.
She stood there, her back ramrod straight as crystalline tears tumbled from her blue eyes and down her cheeks without a sound. There was anger in her eyes and posture, yes, but it was mostly buried by other emotions. Grief most predominantly.
"Why?" Aoko demanded, strength still in her voice despite the fact that it trembled. "Why did you have to tell me? Why did you have to be honest with me NOW?!"
"Because..." He said softly "I wanted to know. Once and for all, I wanted to know."
"Know WHAT?"
"If we could possibly work, Undercover Police Officer Nakamori Aoko on assignment."
She froze, disbelief pouring from every limb in her body. "How did you-?
He chuckled, suddenly feeling awkward. He shuffled his feet, scratching the back of his neck. "I knew something was up the first time we ran into each other, you've never been nervous around me. About me, yes. Around me, no. And then you never talked about your job, or mentioned the Kid even when reading the newspaper... just a lot of little things that no one would probably notice. But they all added up."
The fact that he was a habitual pick-pocket and had picked her pockets at the pool hall, finding her ID had been a major sign as well, not that he was going to tell her that. The listening devices he had found in the house had just backed up the theory. They were similar to the ones he used on his pigeons, and were easy enough to re-wire.
And everyone liked Malice Maizer, right?
"You knew... the entire time? Even when you invited me to live with you?"
"Yeah." He'd been keeping an eye on her since their first meeting, and had known her apartment really had to close for repairs, even before she'd walked in the door.
"Idiot!" She roared. "I was trying to prove that you aren't the Kid!"
"You always did try too hard."
"You... you... argh!" She stamped her foot, visibly restraining herself from lashing out at him as she began to curse. Not just at him, but at the world in general, including several anatomical feats he didn't think were possible unless one had the spine of a jelly fish.
... Maybe not even then.
He waited until she calmed down before talking again. Over all, he had to admit that he preferred the cursing instead of attempting to beat him to a bloody pulp. It was probably the same reason why her father had picked it up. "You done?"
"For the moment." She growled. "Is this why you disappeared after High School?"
"I didn't want to force you to choose between your father and me at the time." He said softly.
"And now?"
He shrugged a shoulder. "I'd rather live my life not asking what could have been, no regrets. This way I at least get a chance to be honest about it, no matter what else happens."
Aoko looked at him intently, and he felt like he was at the edge of a precipice. The slightest push, and he would fall. And he wasn't sure where he would land. They'd been friends longer than he'd been the Kid. And he'd been the Kid longer than she'd been an officer. All he could do was hope it was enough.
She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. "I can't turn my back on the force." She said slowly, showing more restraint and maturity that he'd ever seen from her before.
"I know." He whispered. "Just like I can't give up the Kid just yet."
They stared at each other, a noticeable gulf between the 2 of them, even if they were just standing a few feet apart.
"So... what do we do now?"
*** Several years later ***
Officer Nakamori Aoko cursed at the white phantom as he skipped merrily across the rooftop above them, out of reach of both her and the rest of the police task force. He still was a pain in the police's backside even after all these years, and hadn't gotten any better since they had put her on the Task Force to capture the Kid. If anything, he had gotten worse, taking great delight in flirting with her.
On the other hand, he also become more helpful since then as well, occasionally dropping clues and much needed information about other cases at un-likely times.
"You're looking even radiant by the glow of the moon tonight than usual, Officer!" The thief called to her, grinning suggestively.
"Stop flirting with me, you nit!" She roared back, shaking her fist. "I'm a happily married woman!"
"I know." The thief sighed dramatically. "I'm SO jealous."
She shouted at him a string of curse words that she had picked up from her father and embellished over the years.
"Do you kiss your husband with that mouth?" The Kid inquired.
She grinned nastily at him. "Frequently."
That got snickers from the rest of the task force, and one of them marked a point for Aoko in the air.
"Speaking of which," The Phantom Thief vaulted from the rooftop, landing in a crouch in front of her. He quickly but carefully pressed an ear against the Aoko's rounded stomach. The officers stared in shock as Aoko first blushed red, then veins started to pop on her forehead. The Kid let out a whoop, dodging the blow that she aimed for his head as he suddenly stood up. "She kicked me!" He beamed, looking like he had just gotten the best present in the world.
"It's got good taste." Aoko snapped, wrapping a protective arm around her pregnant belly. "And we don't know what the baby is yet!"
"It'll be a strong, healthy girl, just like her Mama." The Kid assured her, giving her a quick peck on the cheek.
The officers, being highly protective of their female co-worker, took offence to this and attempted an old fashion 'Dog Pile on the Bandit'. The thief disappeared in a poof of smoke, leaving a bouquet behind that promptly got squashed.
Aoko sighed, muttering impolite things about the thief as she helped the men up. One of them sheepishly handed her the flattened bouquet. "There's a card on it for you." He apologised.
She took it and quickly skimmed the note. She paused, then re-read it. And read it again, starting to giggle.
Still giggling madly, she passed on the note for the men to read.
***
"I'm home." Aoko called, slipping her shoes off at the door. "Sheesh, it's pouring rain outside."
"Welcome back!" Her husband called, walking into the room. She shot him an amused grin, noting the frilly pink apron he was wearing as he wiped his hands off on a dish towel. "Dinner will be ready shortly." He explained with a slight grin.
"It smells good." She commented, walking over to wrap her arms around him. "Come here, you."
With a grin, she pulled him down for a very satisfying kiss.
"What did I do to deserve that?" He grinned.
"That's for your note today." She grinned back, giving him a hug. "One year free of the Kid due to his favourite officer's upcoming child. I think we're going to need it."
Kaito smiled back. "Well, the baby's not due for another 3 months, and then there's the late night feedings and all that... I don't think either of us will be up for gallivanting around on the rooftops on Kid heists for about a year."
"Too true." She said ruefully.
There had been stranger marriages in the past, but theirs had to have been up there as far as strangest. Kid the Phantom Thief and a Police Detective assigned to capture him. It was often hard, and required many compromises on both sides, but when it came right down to it, neither was willing to let the other one go.
Jobs were left at the door, and while their arguments may have been frequent and heated, they were brief and quickly both forgiven and forgotten.
"I still say that it's going to be a girl." Kaito piped up.
She mock punched him in arm. "You would. Just so long as we don't end up naming it something about stealing, that's all I ask."
"What about 'Keiu'?"
-Fin-
***
Yes, 'Keiu' means 'Welcome Rain'. Duuno why Rain dominated the fic, was orginally called 'Playing with Fire'.
kohan: that low table in the middle of the room.
The song Kaito sings at the beginning is a Rurouni Kenshin ending song, "It's gonna rain." Seemed appropriate, especially the last chorus:
"The rain calls people and makes them disappear--
A magician stronger than anyone.
The two of us had merely been fooling each other;
And didn't everything start in the rain?
It's gonna rain!"
Hakuba shows up because he knows what's going on, and doesn't want to see either Aoko or Kaito hurt. It's not really necessary to the story, but he wanted to show up.
Malice Maizer: a J-rock band. One of my favourite comments about them was someone commenting on what a pretty girl Mana was.
Then Mana his mouth and began to sing.
Find out more about them here: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Studios/3507/malice.html
"Legs were nice. He liked legs"
This is thanks to Magik's birthday picture for Aoko. Short blue dress and niiiiiice legs.
'Pink Puma' - a sub-conscious nod to the Pink Panther series.
Um... Aoko and Kaito may seem more touchy/feely than they should, sorry about that. In this case, I'm drawing off of my family and friends, where we often drape ourselves over each other and have impromptu contests to see how many we can crowd together on a piece of furniture. (Snuggles and glomps, glomps and snuggles!)
... and as those of you I've chatted with on-line have probably realised, I'm very big fan of glomps! ^^;;
By Icka! M. Chif
"Footsteps are lightly taken, chao chao..." Kaito hummed to himself as he wandered down the rainy streets of the Shinjuku district of Tokyo. Rain days were not only a fact of life for living on an island, but also a lot of fun most of the time. Everything changed, turning into some sort of warped fantasy land. Surfaces turned shiny and reflective, lights seemed brighter, shadows darker and life got a staccato backbeat that changed with the breeze. "It's gonna rain..."
He deftly ducked and weaved between the shopping mobs, the mass of people un-deterred by the grey weather. Life still went on, no matter how much water fell from the sky.
Rain was also nostalgic. He remembered spending many a rainy afternoon, sitting around with Aoko and talking or playing games in her family's living room, watching the rain slide down the windows. Quiet moments, comfortable in the glow of friendship.
Speaking of Aoko, he hadn't seen her in what? Over a year now? Almost two? He'd last seen her briefly at a Christmas party at home, before her father had called her over to meet some new recruits. She'd looked fine, happy and content with her life.
For the most part, he was too. He had to be. After all, it was his choice to slowly fade from her life. That didn't mean that he still didn't miss her on occasion.
Okay, if he was being honest with himself, more than just occasionally. But it did no good to dwell on it.
They had been getting so close, so very very close towards the end of high school. Not quite dating, but nearly there. He'd always kept a bit of a cold barrier between the two of them to keep her from getting too close, but she'd been melting it faster than he could distance himself. And he didn't really want to distance himself when he got right down to it.
He liked dancing with the fire that was Aoko.
Then came the conversation one day about what everyone was going to do in the future. The choice for him was obvious, of course. He was going to follow in his father's footsteps and become a magician. Akako was going off to do what ever it is that witches do, and Hakuba was studying to be come a police inspector.
Aoko had laughed and said that maybe they'd end up working side by side. She'd already taken some tests to get into the police academy, and it looked like her chances were pretty high to get in.
Everyone had smiled and congratulated her. She had blushed and looked embarrassed, muttering that she'd been helping her Dad out for years, she might as well get paid to do it. And she enjoyed the work, and protecting people.
His blood had run cold. He'd always known intellectually that getting close to Aoko was a bad idea, but it hadn't really sunk in until she said that. And he couldn't do that, actually have her -there-, trying to capture the Kid on his escapades.
He wouldn't ask her to choose between her father and himself, especially when she didn't know the truth. And if she was an officer, he couldn't.
So he had kept it to himself, hiding everything behind his smiling jesters mask as he had done before. She'd never known, never realised that something was wrong, he'd made sure of that. They had graduated and ended up moving to separate parts of the large city. He loved his mother, and his Father's lab under the house, but he needed to be on his own for a while too. And it had been remarkably simple to simply fade from view.
Although Jii and 'Kaasan took great delight in baiting him with various snippets of information on how she was doing. Quite frankly, he thought that they took a near sadistic pleasure in watching him not-quite squirm over it.
He shook his head. It did no good to muse on missed chances and what not. He had a part time job to get to after all. He'd been very lucky that Jii had a friend who also ran a billiard shop in town that needed help in the evenings. It was frequently boring, keeping an eye on people playing billiards, but it was a good place to spend his evenings and it helped pay the bills.
Not to mention he'd thought up some of his best Kid heists there...
An absentminded step to the right to avoid running into a middle aged business man resulted in him crashing into someone else. They bounced off of each other, causing the other to drop their bag. Bringing his mind back to his surroundings, he kicked a foot out, flipping the purse back into the air to catch it before the rain soaked ground could drench it.
"Sorry about that." He murmured, holding the bag out.
"No, it's my fau-" Blue eyes looked at him with growing recognition. "Kaito?"
He blinked, recognising the curvy figure before him. Her wild hair was a little bit shorter than before, just brushing her shoulders, and she'd grown from a coltish teenager into a somewhat graceful young woman. But it was unmistakably the same person he'd just been musing about. "Aoko?"
"It is you! Kaito!" With that scant warning, she wrapped her arms around him, giving him a very warm, very tight, very enthusiastic hug.
He hesitated returning it, but when his ribs creaked in protest, he figured he'd better before she squeezed him in two.
Damn. He'd missed her more than he thought...
Aoko paused, as if catching herself. "Sorry." She slowly released him, her face bright red. "I didn't mean to... I just..." She nervously tucked a stray strand of hair behind an ear, obviously a newly acquired habit.
"It's okay." He grinned easily, handing her her bag again. This time she took it, the blush fading a bit. "How are you doing? I was just thinking about you." Quite literally as the case may be.
"Okay." She stammered, looking any where but directly at him. "I was just heading home from work. And you?"
"To work, actually." He chuckled. Aoko being shy was a new thing. He half wondered if she'd react the same if he flipped her skirt...
Nah. That was childish. Awfully tempting though.
"Can I walk with you?" She asked, stepping beside him. "I was just feeling homesick, then you appeared and..." She trailed off, beaming at him, obviously happy to see him.
He should say no. He should say no. He was trying to distance himself from her, remember? That was the whole point of fading from her life. He opened his mouth to tell her so. "Sure."
Stupid mouth. That wasn't it.
Aoko practically glowed, moving so that their umbrellas overlapped, creating a barrier from the water.
He gave a mental shrug, slapped a grin that wasn't a complete mask on his face and chatted amiably, catching up on bits and pieces of what she had been up to since they had graduated. The rain and the crowds didn't make it the best place to talk, but he'd take what he could get.
"We're here." He motioned down towards the small door that was the entrance. The only thing that marked it as a billiards shop was the small sign above the door. Not that the place needed much advertisement, it was more of a local hang out than anything else.
"Kuroba-kun!" One of the regulars waved as he walked up. "I see you brought a lady." He grinned.
"Not just 'a lady'." Kaito corrected with a fond smile. "'The Lady'. This is Nakamori Aoko, my best friend."
"Nice to meet you." He bowed. "We were starting to wonder if Kuroba-kun had any friends. Come in an introduce yourself or everyone will think I made you up!"
"Um, if it's okay with Kaito..."
"Sure!" He grinned. "Just so long as you don't try to flash me your underwear this time."
The last time they had played billiards at Jii's he had flipped her skirt, to discover that she was wearing panties with a fish pattern printed on them. Delighted by his reaction, she had ended up chasing him around the room threatening to show him her underwear with a near sadistic grin on her face.
He had just enough time to duck into the building before her brain and her fist caught up.
***
About a week later, a shoulder bumped his, causing him to spin around in a circle on the sidewalk. "Uh, sorry about that." He apologised, more to be polite than anything. It wasn't like the sidewalk was so congested that you couldn't walk without bumping into people.
A flash of gold eyes caused him to hesitate before moving on. There was only one person that he knew with gold eyes like that. "Hakuba?"
"You're treading on thin ice, Kuroba." Hakuba warned, his voice pitched low so as not to carry.
"What?"
"No one else is to capture the Kid before I do, remember?" The gold detective pressed. "Stay away from Aoko-chan. It's only going to get you both in trouble."
"Even if I was the Kid, what business is it of yours who I hang out with?" He retorted. So what if Aoko had stopped by his work once or twice to chat and play billiards? It was bad enough that the detective had decided that he was going to be the one to capture him, he really didn't need him appearing out of the blue and giving him cryptic warnings.
Even if he had been helpful in the past.
Hakuba just gave him a cold stare for a moment, and he resisted the urge to squirm, returning it. "I just don't want to see either of you get hurt." The detective said, then continued walking on.
What the heck had that been about?!
***
"I can't believe how wet it got so fast!" Aoko exclaimed as he shut the door behind them. She had stopped by the Billiard Shop just in time for his shift to end and had been talking about getting a bite to eat together when the sky had opened up and started pouring. Neither of them had brought an umbrella with them, so they had made a mad dash to his house, by virtue of it being the closest.
"You're telling me!" He panted, pushing the soggy wet mass that was his bangs out of his face. "Give me a minute, I know I have some clean towels around here somewhere..."
"I don't think that's going to help." She said ruefully, looking at the puddle that was increasing under their feet. "Do you have some clothing I can borrow?"
"I think all I have that'll fit are some pyjamas." Actually, he had half a closet full of women's clothing for disguises, but he didn't really feel like trying to explain what he was doing with that many dresses and skirts.
To his relief, she didn't balk at the idea of wandering around his house in pyjamas. "That'll work. Thanks."
"Not a problem." He waved it off and headed back into his bedroom in search of towels and sleepwear. He used one towel for his hair, draping the extra towels and clothes over one arm.
Aoko was still waiting by the door, her clothes sticking to her in flattering ways. "Here you go." He handed her a couple of towels and the pyjamas, saving some to mop up the puddle on the floor. "Bathroom is down there, on the left."
"Thanks." She took the clothes and quickly scurried down the hall. He chuckled and wiped up the water, listening to the rain pour on the roof. It sounded like a pretty bad storm. Rain was always funny like that. Sometimes it would just suddenly pour and seem like it would never stop and other times it would build and build, then just do a small shower and fade away like a brief memory.
Aoko returned in less time than he would have thought possible, rubbing her hair vigorously with a towel.
He grinned, noticing that she had decided not to wear the pyjama pants in favour of just a pair of boxers that had accidentally gotten mixed into the pile of clothing. She noticed his perusal and blushed faintly. "The pants weren't comfortable." She muttered.
"That's fine." Legs were nice. He liked legs. "Feel better?"
"Like a new person." She sighed. "Um, I left the clothes hanging in the bathroom, if that's okay."
"It's fine." He assured her. "It doesn't look like the rain is going to stop any time soon, you might as well stay the night anyway."
She stared at him.
"In the living room." He clarified quickly, holding up his hands in a warding gesture. The last thing he needed as for her to think he was trying to make some sort of move on her. As far as either of them were concerned, they were friends. Just friends, regardless of what that little nagging voice in the back of his might say. "I have an extra futon you can use."
"Oh." The wariness left her posture. "Okay."
"You hungry?" He finished mopping up the worse of the water and stood up. "I'm no gourmet, but I'm a fairly decent cook. And I'm pretty sure there are leftovers in the fridge."
His strange hours meant that he had little opportunity to get to the stores before they closed, so he usually kept lots of leftovers so that when he got home he had something ready to eat.
"You go change, I'll pull out the leftovers." Aoko smiled. "I think I can figure it out."
He raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure? I am a lone male bachelor after all."
She laughed and playfully pushed him down the hall. "Go change, or you're going to turn into a fish."
A shudder ran down his spine. Aoko just had to say that, didn't she? "Dry sounds good." He agreed, quickly retreating down the hall as she giggled.
Even the mention of fish *shudder* couldn't wipe off the dopey grin he probably on his face, but he didn't really care.
It was amazing how much difference having a friend around made.
Kaito changed quickly, changing into the dry un-used pyjama bottoms and a tee-shirt and stepped back into the main room, towel drying his hair with one hand as he carried the spare folded futon from the closet under the other arm.
Aoko was sitting on the floor next to the kohan, the Chinese food open on the table as she attempted to make her wild still damp hair behave with her fingers. She was practically swimming in the shirt, and in his option, looked completely rumpled and adorable.
He could get used to this.
... that was a dangerous train of thought.
She noticed him and grinned. "Told you I'd figure it out."
"I stand corrected." He agreed, dropping the spare futon next to the wall then plopped down next to her and slipped his legs under the blanket that covered the table. "Any preferences in tonight's entertainment?"
"Anything but the news."
"Agreed." He found the remote and clicked it on, slowly changing channels until they found an old Godzilla movie.
They settled back and relaxed, chatting amiably throughout the movie, relaxing, enjoying each other's company and cheering on the big lizard every time he squashed a building.
Kaito smiled contently, somewhat at peace for the first time a long time. He really could get used to this...
****
Kaito woke up sometime later because he couldn't feel his arm. A slight tug also informed him that it was trapped, he couldn't move it either. Much like having closed doors locked behind him, any inability to move made him nervous so he opened an eye just a crack to see what was wrong.
Aoko had moved during the night, snuggled up as close to him as possible with a table leg firmly wedged between them. Her head was currently using his arm for a pillow, which accounted for why he wasn't able to move it.
He smiled. They hadn't fallen asleep together like this since elementary school, curled up around each other like puppies.
She really was so trusting, wasn't she. And she trusted -him-, out of all people.
A little annoying voice in the back of his head pointed out why this was a bad thing. Sooner or later, at the rate things were going, she was going to find out about him being the Phantom Thief. And she wouldn't trust him again like this, would she?
All the more reason to enjoy this while he could then, wasn't it? He retorted. Besides, it wasn't like they were children or even teenagers anymore. She was a grown woman now and as such was more than capable of making her own decisions, right?
Right?
His mind was mercifully silent of any witty retorts. He sighed and shifted his arm a bit to restore some circulation to it and closed his eyes, already drifting back to sleep, lulled by the sound of the rain on the rooftop and Aoko's peaceful breathing beside him.
And when the time came, all he could do was hope she made a good decision.
***
The low sound of growling caused Kaito to glance up from the desk at the billiard shop later the next week. Aoko had just walked in, slightly damp from the rain outside and looking like she wanted to strangle something. Several some things in fact. He found her new-found restraint interesting. "How has your day been?" He inquired mildly, folding the newspaper he had been reading down so that she could see him.
"Today... bit." She growled, practically vibrating with unused energy. "It bit in so many ways I didn't think were possible."
"Anything I can do to help?"
She mused it over. "Can I chase you around the room with a mop?" She inquired, looking hopeful.
He glanced around the room. It was mostly empty at the moment, the crowd wouldn't be in until later. "Well, we don't have any mops handy." He reached back and grabbed one of the older, warped cue sticks. "Will this do?"
She took it and gave it a few experimental swings. "Think so."
"Alright." He stood up and stretched. "Oi! Everyone! Mind your heads!"
The 2 men playing pool grunted and continued playing, easily tuning them out.
"Ready when you are." He grinned. "You want me to flip your skirt?"
"I think I can manage." She commented dryly. There was a slight pause as she checked the balance and weight on it, then nodded. "HRRAAAHHH!"
*Swish!* down came the stick.
*Flip!* Off went Kaito, back flipping out of reach. "Ha! Can't get me!"
"Wanna bet?!" She roared, chasing after him.
The pattern of ducking, dodging, jumping and flipping was easy enough to fall into, even without the year or so of practice. It was like an old dance that they never forgot. Even as they chased each other around the room, neither the pool players nor anything else in the room was disturbed. New people came in, stared for a while, then ignored them in favour of playing pool and socializing.
Finally, Aoko put down the cue stick and leaned against it, breathing heavily. "Thanks." She panted. "I needed that."
"You're welcome!" He grinned, only a bit winded. He was slightly out of practice, but nothing too bad. Yet another thing he had missed about her -the daily workout.
"Nice courtship dance!" One of the regulars called as the rest applauded.
"Courtship?" Both of them blushed.
"Oi." He motioned to Aoko. "You wanna dance with her too?"
She grinned nastily and hefted the cue stick again.
That pretty much ended that discussion. The smart-alecks suddenly found billiards a lot more interesting than it had been a minute ago.
"Soo..." He threw himself backwards into his chair, sprawling across it with his usual careless grace "What happened today to get you so wound up?"
Aoko growled darkly, then roughly handed him the cue stick. He quickly put it back, out of arms reach. Her new found control on her temper was welcome, but even he knew better than to push it.
"You wouldn't happen to know a cheap place to live nearby, would you?" She growled, pushing her hair out of her face.
"Want to move out of your Dad's house?"
"I moved out over a year ago." She informed him. "I've been living with some roommates, but the apartment is old and they need to fix it. So I need a place to live for a month or so while the repairs take place."
"Hmm..." He mused it over. The smart thing would be to refer her to the guy ran the shop, he knew more about the cheapest places to live and eat than anyone else Kaito knew.
That would be the -smart- thing to do.
"You could always move in with me. Temporarily, of course."
Stupid mouth. When was it going to learn?
She lit up, and he remembered just how pretty she was when she smiled. "Really?"
He shrugged. He'd already said it, might as well go along with it. "Unless you find someplace better, sure, why not? I've got the room and if you don't mind helping with the bills a bit, it'd be nice to actually save some money for a change."
"Okay!" Aoko beamed at him, waving a playful finger at him. "But only if I can't find something else first."
"Deal."
***
These jobs were getting crazier and crazier. Honestly. Who the heck let a -mountain lion- just wander around like that? Sheesh.
It was a pity he hadn't had time to set up a camera to see the owners reaction when they got back to find their lion dyed bright magenta...
But at least he didn't have to worry about the 'Pink Puma' getting stolen. If he had trouble dealing with an attack cat, then it was a good bet that the 'Mysterious' Organization was going to have trouble with it too.
And he had gotten the information he needed. Not a bad couple days work, all things considered.
Now all he wanted was to take care of these scratches the cat left him as a parting gift, maybe take a shower, then crash and sleep for a few years. He was tired.
And there was that niggling voice in the back of his head warning that he was forgetting something.
He shrugged it off, dismissing the notion as weariness on his part and took off the cape, inspecting it. The gashes from the panther were repairable. His coat on the other hand was a complete and total loss. The cat had seemed to take great delight in avoiding the cape in favour of trying to use him as a scratching post. Or a chew toy. Whatever.
His shirt might be repairable, if he could get the blood stains out. But he'd deal with that later. And it wasn't like blue button down shirts were that expensive or hard to find in the first place.
Now the scratches... He un-fastened the shoulder holster for his gun, setting the card weapon down on the counter and unbuttoned his shirt, peeling the fabric away from the thin lines on his chest. They weren't too bad now that he had a chance to look at them, probably wouldn't even scar. Between the shoulder holster and the gilder on his back, the cat hadn't been able to get anything there, but there were going to be at least a few bruises that he was going to feel in a few days.
A little bit of peroxide and a shower was all he needed, the scratches barely cut past the skin, just bled a bit more then they would have because he had been moving around a lot.
He had just reached into the medicine cabinet when the door opened.
Aoko, his room mate for the past 2 weeks, looking adorably rumbled in her bathrobe and a shirt she had stolen of his (which he was secretly thrilled about), stared at him.
Kaito stared back.
Oh, yeah.... THIS is why he should never ignore the niggling voice in the back of his head saying that he was forgetting something.
Aoko turned, and carefully shut the door behind her. "I'm dreaming." he could hear her say slowly and carefully from the other side of the door. "There's a half naked Kid in the bathroom... I'm going to pinch myself and wake up."
There was a slight pause, then a muffled yelp. "Okay... it's not a dream." She muttered.
There was another slight pause, then the sound of footsteps thudding towards the main room.
Shit.
Peroxide forgotten, he ran after her. He got into the main room just in time to see her hold her cell phone to her ear. "Tousan?!"
Mentally cursing, he quickly grabbed the phone from her, wrapping his other arm around her to press his hand against her mouth. Nakamori's sleepy voice answered the other end. "Aoko-chan?"
"Sorry Tousan." He apologised, changing his voice to sound like Aoko as her eyes widened to near comical proportions. "I hit the wrong button on the cell phone. Go back to sleep."
The police inspector mumbled something that may or may not have been printable, then "Good night."
The line went dead. Just in time for Aoko's elbow to find his gut.
"Would you relax?" He snapped, releasing her and rubbing his injured stomach. She stumbled forward a few steps, then turned towards him. Several emotions flashed across her face before settling on confusion as he casually turned off her phone and tossed it on the couch.
"Kaito?" She asked, sounding much like a little lost child. "Why are dressed like the Kid?"
It would be so easy, he realised, to make up some excuse and dismiss everything entirely. And she would probably accept even the lamest, most flimsiest excuse he could think of. Because deep down, she didn't want to believe that he was the Kid.
But he was so tired. Tired of it all. Been tired of it for a long time now really.
With a rueful sigh, he reached up and pulled the monocle off. "I'm not."
He expected anger. Anger he could deal with.
Tears were not.
She stood there, her back ramrod straight as crystalline tears tumbled from her blue eyes and down her cheeks without a sound. There was anger in her eyes and posture, yes, but it was mostly buried by other emotions. Grief most predominantly.
"Why?" Aoko demanded, strength still in her voice despite the fact that it trembled. "Why did you have to tell me? Why did you have to be honest with me NOW?!"
"Because..." He said softly "I wanted to know. Once and for all, I wanted to know."
"Know WHAT?"
"If we could possibly work, Undercover Police Officer Nakamori Aoko on assignment."
She froze, disbelief pouring from every limb in her body. "How did you-?
He chuckled, suddenly feeling awkward. He shuffled his feet, scratching the back of his neck. "I knew something was up the first time we ran into each other, you've never been nervous around me. About me, yes. Around me, no. And then you never talked about your job, or mentioned the Kid even when reading the newspaper... just a lot of little things that no one would probably notice. But they all added up."
The fact that he was a habitual pick-pocket and had picked her pockets at the pool hall, finding her ID had been a major sign as well, not that he was going to tell her that. The listening devices he had found in the house had just backed up the theory. They were similar to the ones he used on his pigeons, and were easy enough to re-wire.
And everyone liked Malice Maizer, right?
"You knew... the entire time? Even when you invited me to live with you?"
"Yeah." He'd been keeping an eye on her since their first meeting, and had known her apartment really had to close for repairs, even before she'd walked in the door.
"Idiot!" She roared. "I was trying to prove that you aren't the Kid!"
"You always did try too hard."
"You... you... argh!" She stamped her foot, visibly restraining herself from lashing out at him as she began to curse. Not just at him, but at the world in general, including several anatomical feats he didn't think were possible unless one had the spine of a jelly fish.
... Maybe not even then.
He waited until she calmed down before talking again. Over all, he had to admit that he preferred the cursing instead of attempting to beat him to a bloody pulp. It was probably the same reason why her father had picked it up. "You done?"
"For the moment." She growled. "Is this why you disappeared after High School?"
"I didn't want to force you to choose between your father and me at the time." He said softly.
"And now?"
He shrugged a shoulder. "I'd rather live my life not asking what could have been, no regrets. This way I at least get a chance to be honest about it, no matter what else happens."
Aoko looked at him intently, and he felt like he was at the edge of a precipice. The slightest push, and he would fall. And he wasn't sure where he would land. They'd been friends longer than he'd been the Kid. And he'd been the Kid longer than she'd been an officer. All he could do was hope it was enough.
She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. "I can't turn my back on the force." She said slowly, showing more restraint and maturity that he'd ever seen from her before.
"I know." He whispered. "Just like I can't give up the Kid just yet."
They stared at each other, a noticeable gulf between the 2 of them, even if they were just standing a few feet apart.
"So... what do we do now?"
*** Several years later ***
Officer Nakamori Aoko cursed at the white phantom as he skipped merrily across the rooftop above them, out of reach of both her and the rest of the police task force. He still was a pain in the police's backside even after all these years, and hadn't gotten any better since they had put her on the Task Force to capture the Kid. If anything, he had gotten worse, taking great delight in flirting with her.
On the other hand, he also become more helpful since then as well, occasionally dropping clues and much needed information about other cases at un-likely times.
"You're looking even radiant by the glow of the moon tonight than usual, Officer!" The thief called to her, grinning suggestively.
"Stop flirting with me, you nit!" She roared back, shaking her fist. "I'm a happily married woman!"
"I know." The thief sighed dramatically. "I'm SO jealous."
She shouted at him a string of curse words that she had picked up from her father and embellished over the years.
"Do you kiss your husband with that mouth?" The Kid inquired.
She grinned nastily at him. "Frequently."
That got snickers from the rest of the task force, and one of them marked a point for Aoko in the air.
"Speaking of which," The Phantom Thief vaulted from the rooftop, landing in a crouch in front of her. He quickly but carefully pressed an ear against the Aoko's rounded stomach. The officers stared in shock as Aoko first blushed red, then veins started to pop on her forehead. The Kid let out a whoop, dodging the blow that she aimed for his head as he suddenly stood up. "She kicked me!" He beamed, looking like he had just gotten the best present in the world.
"It's got good taste." Aoko snapped, wrapping a protective arm around her pregnant belly. "And we don't know what the baby is yet!"
"It'll be a strong, healthy girl, just like her Mama." The Kid assured her, giving her a quick peck on the cheek.
The officers, being highly protective of their female co-worker, took offence to this and attempted an old fashion 'Dog Pile on the Bandit'. The thief disappeared in a poof of smoke, leaving a bouquet behind that promptly got squashed.
Aoko sighed, muttering impolite things about the thief as she helped the men up. One of them sheepishly handed her the flattened bouquet. "There's a card on it for you." He apologised.
She took it and quickly skimmed the note. She paused, then re-read it. And read it again, starting to giggle.
Still giggling madly, she passed on the note for the men to read.
***
"I'm home." Aoko called, slipping her shoes off at the door. "Sheesh, it's pouring rain outside."
"Welcome back!" Her husband called, walking into the room. She shot him an amused grin, noting the frilly pink apron he was wearing as he wiped his hands off on a dish towel. "Dinner will be ready shortly." He explained with a slight grin.
"It smells good." She commented, walking over to wrap her arms around him. "Come here, you."
With a grin, she pulled him down for a very satisfying kiss.
"What did I do to deserve that?" He grinned.
"That's for your note today." She grinned back, giving him a hug. "One year free of the Kid due to his favourite officer's upcoming child. I think we're going to need it."
Kaito smiled back. "Well, the baby's not due for another 3 months, and then there's the late night feedings and all that... I don't think either of us will be up for gallivanting around on the rooftops on Kid heists for about a year."
"Too true." She said ruefully.
There had been stranger marriages in the past, but theirs had to have been up there as far as strangest. Kid the Phantom Thief and a Police Detective assigned to capture him. It was often hard, and required many compromises on both sides, but when it came right down to it, neither was willing to let the other one go.
Jobs were left at the door, and while their arguments may have been frequent and heated, they were brief and quickly both forgiven and forgotten.
"I still say that it's going to be a girl." Kaito piped up.
She mock punched him in arm. "You would. Just so long as we don't end up naming it something about stealing, that's all I ask."
"What about 'Keiu'?"
-Fin-
***
Yes, 'Keiu' means 'Welcome Rain'. Duuno why Rain dominated the fic, was orginally called 'Playing with Fire'.
kohan: that low table in the middle of the room.
The song Kaito sings at the beginning is a Rurouni Kenshin ending song, "It's gonna rain." Seemed appropriate, especially the last chorus:
"The rain calls people and makes them disappear--
A magician stronger than anyone.
The two of us had merely been fooling each other;
And didn't everything start in the rain?
It's gonna rain!"
Hakuba shows up because he knows what's going on, and doesn't want to see either Aoko or Kaito hurt. It's not really necessary to the story, but he wanted to show up.
Malice Maizer: a J-rock band. One of my favourite comments about them was someone commenting on what a pretty girl Mana was.
Then Mana his mouth and began to sing.
Find out more about them here: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Studios/3507/malice.html
"Legs were nice. He liked legs"
This is thanks to Magik's birthday picture for Aoko. Short blue dress and niiiiiice legs.
'Pink Puma' - a sub-conscious nod to the Pink Panther series.
Um... Aoko and Kaito may seem more touchy/feely than they should, sorry about that. In this case, I'm drawing off of my family and friends, where we often drape ourselves over each other and have impromptu contests to see how many we can crowd together on a piece of furniture. (Snuggles and glomps, glomps and snuggles!)
... and as those of you I've chatted with on-line have probably realised, I'm very big fan of glomps! ^^;;