You know what sucks? Writer's block. This took me, like, two weeks to write, and it's not even that long or that good. *sigh*

Well hope you enjoy? - Luna

Ink

"Kudou-kun has a tattoo."

Kaito wasn't surprised very often. He was usually the one who did the surprising, after all - surprise was a magician's best friend. And if someone did manage to catch him off guard, that was when the Poker Face slid on.

However, four words from Hakuba were enough to make him overturn his mug, spilling scalding hot coffee across his lap, and screech, "What?!" at a volume that had most of the café's other customers jerking in surprise and turning to cast him disdainful glares.

Across the table, Hakuba blinked. "Are you okay?" He looked pointedly at Kaito's lap, where the coffee was steaming weakly. "Do you need a towel? Or a – cold shower or something?"

Waving him (and the concerned waitress who'd fluttered over) off dismissively, Kaito assured, "I'll probably start screaming in a minute or two, once the shock wears off. But until then, what did you just say?!"

"Huh?" Hakuba stared, still clearly concerned, before meeting Kaito's eyes. "Oh, about how Kudou-kun has a tattoo?" He shrugged. "He does, but it's not really a big deal. I don't see why you're so worked up about it."

"Of course I'm worked up about it!" Kaito snapped, glaring. "I'm pretty sure I've made it clear that I'm, you know, kind of interested in him, so of course I'd want to know about something as important as that!"

"What?" Hakuba scowled. "What are you saying, the tattoo would change your perception of him? That you wouldn't want to date him if you knew he had a tattoo? Wow, Kuroba-kun, and here I was thinking that you were a halfway decent person."

"Hey." Kaito ground his teeth in frustration, resisting the growing urge to smash Hakuba's face into the table. "That's not what I meant, bastard. What I meant is that tattoos say a lot about someone's personality. Where is it? What is it? Why did that person get it? That's why it's a big deal, not because I'm that shallow. Good God."

"That's what you meant?" Hakuba sighed heavily, resting his face in his hands as he observed Kaito. "Well, if that's what you're concerned about, it's a pretty simple tattoo. It's in a place that's hard to see. He got it because of Hattori-kun."

"Wait, what? Because of –?" Kaito began, but the fact that there was hot coffee drenching his lap suddenly decided to make itself known, and Kaito let out a pained whimper, face going white.

"Oh, has it finally registered?" Hakuba wondered disinterestedly as Kaito frantically got to his feet and sprinted for the bathroom, attracting the attention of several waiters. He exhaled with a roll of his eyes. "Getting worked up over a tattoo – he's so obsessed with Kudou-kun."

Shinichi couldn't exactly say he was surprised when the window suddenly opened, a breeze blowing into his bedroom, and Kid dropped to the ground, ethereal white in the moonlight.

"Hey. Sorry I couldn't make it to the heist." Shinichi shut his book, drawing himself into a sitting position up against the wall by his bed. He set down his copy of A Scandal in Bohemia on his pillow. Kid offered him a nod as he shut the window behind him, his cape fluttering softly to still against his shoulders.

"It's fine," the phantom thief said by way of greeting, turning to meet Shinichi's gaze with a swish of fabric. It was hard to see his eyes, one hidden behind the infamous monocle and both thrown into shadow underneath the brim of his hat, and Shinichi squinted at him.

"Is it really necessary to wear the disguise all the way to my house?" the detective wondered. After all, he already knew Kaito was Kid – had known for a while – and it seemed somewhat pointless.

Kaito shrugged, leaning against Shinichi's desk. "Not really, I guess. I just… felt like it."

Shinichi openly considered himself to be an expert on body language. It was a skill required in his line of work, to be able to notice when a suspect was lying or nervous or uncomfortable.

He also (less openly) considered himself to be an expert on Kuroba Kaito. Mostly because he spent a ridiculous amount of time staring and observing every last thing he could about Kaito due to his slightly (only slightly!) unhealthy attraction to the magician, but that was beside the point.

So Shinichi could easily tell that there was something not quite right about Kaito. Was it the way his arms were folded tightly over his chest, standard closed-off body language, or was it the way his voice was too casual, too artificial, too crafted?

One eyebrow slowly creeping upwards, Shinichi carefully asked, "Hey, are you… I don't know, feeling okay?"

Visibly startling, Kaito blinked, mouth dropping slightly open. "Oh – uh, what?" The stutter was completely out of character for the suave, charming Magician Under the Moonlight, and that elicited some concern from Shinichi.

Slanting his head inquisitively at Kaito, Shinichi explained, "Well, ever since you got here, you've been acting kind of different. So I thought I'd ask. Are you feeling okay, or do I need to call an ambulance?"

"Uh…" Kaito looked oddly stricken for a full moment before he uncrossed his arms, shifting so he was facing away from Shinichi. His gaze traveled fleeting up and down Shinichi's body – Shinichi felt a wave of incredulous heat rush through his veins – and then he gave a quiet cough. "It's nothing, just… about your…" The words came to an awkward stop, almost as if Kaito had bitten his tongue.

"Just about my…?" Both of Shinichi's eyebrows were reaching for his hairline as he eyed Kaito with slight bemusement.

Kaito met his gaze for exactly three seconds – one two three – and then his focus was on the wall behind Shinichi's head and there was the most irritatingly flawless smile on his face. "Never mind. It's really nothing, just me being stupid." His gloved fingers fiddled with the hem of his suit jacket. Shinichi's eyes narrowed. Typical sign of discomfort – what was up with Kaito today?

He was about to open his mouth and demand to know what was wrong when Kaito plowed on, "So I heard from Mouri-chan that we're going to have a dinner thing here next week. Did you volunteer for that, or did Mouri-chan break concrete in front of your face again?"

Sensing that Kaito really did not want to continue along that train of thought, Shinichi let out a bewildered sigh and smiled faintly. "I volunteered. Although Ran did happen to bend a telephone pole as I did it, so maybe I didn't quite volunteer out of my own free will."

"Figures." The ghost of a smile hesitated on Kaito's lips before he was striding across the room for the window.

"Hey, where are you going? You just got here." Shinichi blinked in confusion as Kaito pushed the window open, snapping open his hang glider.

"I – I'm tired from the heist," Kaito answered – again with that suspicious stammer – but before Shinichi could forcibly drag him back inside, he was off, soaring through the night sky, and Shinichi was left feeling unsettled and five kinds of confused.

It was truly pitiful how Kaito's entire mind had been taken over by the fact that Shinichi had a tattoo.

Kaito slouched where he was sitting on the couch, staring dismally out the window. There was a storm brewing, dark gray clouds congregating in a swirling mass, and Kaito wondered if the weather gods had decided to reflect his emotions or if it was just a coincidence.

Across the room, Hakuba was arguing with Hattori, who was growing redder and redder as Hakuba's smirk became more and more irritating. Ran, Aoko, and Kazuha were sitting on the couch, blatantly ignoring the casual insults and blatant death threats behind traded above their heads in favor of loudly and girlishly discussing the latest color of nail polish or something.

And in one corner, the master of the house and the source of all Kaito's problems, Kudou Shinichi, sat calmly in an armchair, diligently working through a mountain of case files at his side. Kaito hadn't had the nerve to approach him, and Shinichi apparently had assumed Kaito didn't want to be talked to, because he hadn't approached Kaito, either.

Frowning, Kaito let out a groan as he scanned Shinichi from head to foot. There wasn't any visible tattoos on him, from what Kaito could see – not on the graceful sculpt of his neck, not on the pale smoothness of his biceps, not on the tiny bit of ankle peeking out from underneath his sinfully form-fitting jeans…

Okay, Kaito was starting to lose his train of thought.

Rolling onto his stomach, Kaito propped his head up with his hands, letting his eyelids droop. He couldn't help it. He just kept on agonizing over the stupid tattoo. Probably because – well, because Shinichi hadn't said anything about it. Which was okay, Kaito supposed, but – but… but Kaito was supposed to be closest one to him. Or at least he wanted to be. And the fact that Shinichi had told Hakuba about the tattoo before ever bringing it up with Kaito stung, just a little.

There was also the additional fact that Hattori had influenced Shinichi's choice to get a tattoo, somehow (Kaito hadn't managed to wrangle the full story out of Hakuba). Hattori had been able to get Shinichi to do something as permanent as get a tattoo, and Kaito hadn't and still couldn't come that close.

It was more than a little disheartening.

Kaito's depressing thoughts were interrupted when Hattori stormed over, fuming violently. Over his shoulder, Kaito was just able to make out Hakuba's smug smirk as he pranced over to Shinichi, engaging the detective in conversation.

"Hey, Kuroba," Hattori grunted as Kaito sat up to make room for him on the couch. The tan Osakan dropped onto the sofa with a loud grumble, arms knotted tightly across his chest. "Stupid blond bastard. Who does he think he is, calling me hot-headed of all things…"

Kaito gave a dry laugh, wondering if there was an adjective that suited Hattori any better. Probably not, no.

Hattori tossed him an offhand glance as he got comfortable. "So I heard that Hakuba told you about Kudou's tattoo, right? And it's getting you all hot and bothered?"

"Hot and –?" Face instantly going thirteen shades of red (what the hell was Hakuba doing, spreading that kind of information around?), Kaito spluttered something he hoped made sense. It came out more as, "I – not – I'm just – it's – owls."

"…Owls?"

"Yes – no, I meant I'm not hot and bothered about Shinichi's tattoo. Just… bothered. Not hot. At all." Kaito sank down on the couch. He was fairly certain he was going to spontaneously combust, and Hattori's amused, shit-eating smile was not helping in the slightest. "Shut up," he grumbled weakly.

"Mm," Hattori smirked, but he did tone down the smugness as he beamed, "So? What do you think of Kudou's tattoo?"

Looking at him askance, Kaito said disbelievingly, "I haven't seen it. If I had, I doubt I'd still be this – er – irritated over it."

Humming in a way that made Kaito want to throw him out of a fifth-story window, Hattori reclined, stretching his arms above his head. "I don't know about that. I mean, it's a pretty interesting tattoo, y'know. And it's in a pretty hard to see place, if you know what I mean. But I've seen it, of course. He got it for me, after all." He waggled his eyebrows lecherously.

Kaito stared, feeling slightly nauseous. "Never do that again."

"Sorry. But you know what I mean." Hattori's stupid smirk was back in full force as he stood up, oozing good cheer. "Well, I'm going to go see if Kazuha's ready to leave yet. Good luck getting to see Kudou's tattoo, Kuroba~!"

"I despise you," Kaito muttered as Hattori fluttered off, shamelessly interrupting Ran, Aoko, and Kazuha's conversation on gothic lolita and earning a smack on the head from his girlfriend.

Sighing, Kaito threw himself across the couch, hating how he instantly began wondering where Shinichi's tattoo was, what is it was, why Shinichi had gotten a tattoo because of Hattori, and why Hakuba had seen it before him.

It was going to be a long night.

Across the room from where Kaito now appeared to be attempting to become one with the couch, Shinichi scowled at a broadly smiling Hakuba. He drew hard circles into his temples with his fingertips, feeling both mystified and somewhat alarmed by this whole situation. Was Hakuba serious, or was he trying to pull an elaborate prank with Kaito's help?

Meeting Hakuba's eyes, Shinichi slowly began, "Let me get this straight. You're telling me that the reason Kaito has been acting so weird is because you told him about my tattoo and he's overthinking it?"

"Exactly. An excellent deduction. As expected of Kudou-kun." There was something very – sadistic, almost, about the way Hakuba was grinning at him.

"Right." Shinichi groaned into his hands, shutting the manila folder in his lap and returning it back to the stack at his elbow. "This is your fault, isn't it? You said something weird to him, and now he thinks I've got a naked girl tattooed on my inner thigh or something, doesn't he?"

"Oh, I don't know," Hakuba said, doing this eye-twitch-inducing thing where he half-sang, half-giggled, and Shinichi desperately wanted to bash either Hakuba's or his own head against the nearest wall. The blond twirled his hand nonchalantly through the air, smile growing by several molars. "I just told him that the tattoo was in a hard to see place, that's all. And that you got it because of Hattori. Both true statements, you have to admit."

Shinichi stared at him blankly for a full three seconds before a deep sigh escaped him and he placed his face in his hands. "Why am I even friends with you?"

Hakuba paused to think about it. "Because no one else likes marathoning Sherlock Holmes on a Friday night with orange jelly beans?"

"I really don't understand why nobody likes the orange jelly beans. They taste perfectly fine," Shinichi mumbled to himself before he nodded, acquiescing the point. "But did you have to phrase it like that? Now it sounds like I have Hattori's name tattooed in some – indecent place." He glanced over at Kaito, who was still face down on the couch. Great, just what he needed, the guy he liked thinking that he liked Hattori, of all people –

The other detective just smiled, most irritatingly, and threw a wave over his shoulder as he started for the couch. "Well, I'm going to go see if Aoko-kun's ready to leave," he fairly chirped, and Shinichi loathed him.

He also needed to have a very long conversation with Kaito, he decided, as Kaito gripped the armrest of the couch and appeared to try to hug it to his chest.

Kaito had almost managed to escape when Shinichi stopped him in the entry, eyebrows raised as he shut the door on Ran's last calls of goodbye.

"I want to talk to you," the detective stated flatly, back pressed against the door, and Kaito tried not to stare too hard at him as he calculated his chances of getting out of here alive. They were close to 0.249%.

Swallowing, Kaito wondered if Shinichi would let him write one last letter to his mother. Shinichi had a heart, right?

"You've been acting weird," Shinichi cut in, breaking Kaito's musings, and Kaito blinked, lips parting dryly.

"No, I've been acting perfectly…" At Shinichi's I'm a detective, not a trained monkey expression, Kaito breathed out harshly. His voice faltered as he corrected, "…okay, yes, I've been kind of weird. But it's just because… uh…" He winced as Shinichi's eyebrows managed to climb impossibly higher up his forehead. This was going poorly. "Because of… you know."

It was hard to read Shinichi's expression – somewhere between curiosity and apathy – and Kaito had no idea how to interpret it correctly. He looked away, feeling immensely uncomfortable.

Shinichi finally broke the silence. "According to Hakuba, it's because you're getting all worked up over my tattoo." He leaned against the door, tilting his head inquiringly at Kaito. "But I wanted to hear it from you."

Kaito's breath caught in his throat, heart nearly stopping. Damn that Hakuba. He forced his jaw open and managed a, "I… that's... yes."

Something lit in Shinichi's eyes, something that Shinichi covered as he rubbed his eyes in amusement. "Oh my God."

Feeling the urge to defend himself, Kaito explained, "I mean, both Hakuba and Hattori have seen it, right? You told both of them – or you told Hakuba, at least. And maybe it's just because I'm selfish. I just can't stand the thought of someone knowing more about you, because that's all I want. To know." His throat was dry. "I want to know everything about you."

Luminous. That was the only way Kaito could describe the way Shinichi looked – luminous, and beautiful, and surprised, and Kaito desperately wanted to remember this moment, everything about it, keep it tucked in his heart to admire later.

Before Kaito could fully memorize every eyelashes, every angle, Shinichi did the unexpected. He reached down, pulled off his slipper, and lifted his foot. "This is it."

Kaito blinked.

There, on the arch of Shinichi's foot, 221B was written, in black, half-centimeter-tall letters.

Kaito blinked again.

And then nearly fell over, gripping the wall to keep himself upright. "Seriously?" He'd been working himself up over four letters on Shinichi's foot?

Tugging his slipper back on, Shinichi shrugged. "There was this time that I made this bet with Hattori about whether he'd actually work up the nerve to ask out Kazuha. He did. My punishment was that I had to get a tattoo, so I picked this one and put it on my foot so most people wouldn't be able to see it." He smirked, though, and reached out to touch Kaito's cheek. His fingertips were distractingly warm and soft, his voice even more so as he whispered, "I appreciate the sentiment, though. Wanting to know everything about me, I mean."

Every last bit of annoyance drained from Kaito. His shoulders relaxed as Shinichi's eyes softened, melting from sharp tanzanite to fuzzy azure, and then, before it registered that either of them had moved, Shinichi's bottom lip was between his and both of Shinichi's fingers were splayed across his jaw and his hands were full of Shinichi's hair and if this wasn't perfect, Kaito didn't know what perfect was and he didn't want to.

Shinichi's teeth latched onto Kaito's lip, and Kaito made a surprised (but not unhappy) sound, instinctively pulling back. His head felt pleasantly hazy, and, judging by the way Shinichi's face was flushed a pale pink, Shinichi was feeling the same.

Kaito let his head drop forward, pressing his forehead against Shinichi's as their breath overlapped in the air between them. "I want to know everything about you. From stupid bets to tattoos to everything. I want it all," he got out, his voice barely half a whisper, and Shinichi smiled.

"I understand," he murmured, the words gentle but firm against Kaito's lips. "I'll give you everything."

Omake

"Deductions, maybe. Kendo, maybe. But something serious like matchmatching?" Hakuba shook his head, placing a condescending hand on Hattori's shoulder. "No, no. There's no way someone as hotheaded and irrational as you would be able to do it."

Hattori glared at him, narrowing his eyes sharply. "Watch me," he ground out before whirling around to stalk over to where Kaito was sprawled out on Shinichi's couch, muttering something about blond bastards and he could totally get Kuroba and Kudou together, just you wait.

Hakuba smiled to himself. Hattori was so unbelievably easy to manipulate.

Humming, he turned to skip towards Shinichi. Now, to let Shinichi know that he'd told Kaito about the tattoo...

Er... yeah.

On an unrelated note, I've been getting a surprising number of PMs with more prompts/requests, and I just want to remind everyone that I'm NO LONGER TAKING REQUESTS. If you have something you'd like to see written, I'd advise you to perhaps try a different writer or try to write it yourself (I'd be willing to read it over if you went with the latter option). Sorry, guys. I'm just so exhausted from writing all those requests at the moment. I understand that some of you were just trying to cure my writer's block (thank you for your efforts!), but I think I need to come up with my own ideas to really conquer it.

Well, I think that's it for now. Hope you enjoyed that terrible fic (I apologize, really) and I'll try to get something up within a week! Love you all! - Luna