"We're the only ones on campus who didn't go home for Christmas" au

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Christmas on Campus

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It had been unusually snowy for early winter in Japan. Kaito dug the toe of his boot into the snow beside the park bench and let out a foggy sigh. It was cold enough that he hadn't been in the mood for heists lately, but that just meant he was getting bored. And maybe a little lonely. Hakuba was in England for Christmas and Aoko and Akako were off doing whatever it was new couples did on a romantic night like Christmas Eve. He burrowed deeper into his scarf.

And then Kudou Shinichi walked by.

Kaito sat up a little straighter and watched him pass the bench without the slightest glance at Kaito. Shinichi had walked past that spot at some point in the early evening almost every weekday since classes had started, always with a paper coffee cup in his hand. This time the steam rising from the slotted lid was bright in the cold air and curled around him as he passed by. Kaito stared.

And then he knew what had made him come out to sit around in the freezing cold on a bench for no good reason. Why should they both be alone and bored on Christmas Eve? He dug into the snow with a gloved hand.

"Oi, Tantei-kun!"

Shinichi stopped mid-step a short way down the sidewalk. Then, in a fit of horrible timing, he slowly started to turn back. The snowball Kaito had lobbed at him collided perfectly with his arm and the coffee cup sloshed into a steaming, fragrant mess on the sidewalk. At the same time, Shinichi leapt back to avoid getting burned, slipped on ice, and landed flat on his back in a snowbank.

"Oh shit!" Kaito bolted forward and crouched over Shinichi with his hands on his knees. "I'm sorry, I didn't meant to do that. Are you okay?" He offered his hand but Shinichi just blinked up at him. There was a sprinkling of snowflakes in his hair and clinging to his coat and scarf and jeans.

"KID?"

"Er, yeah," Kaito said, pink-faced and hatless. "I was seriously about to ask you out on a Christmas Eve date but now I just sort of feel like an idiot."

Shinichi blinked again, still making no move to get up from the snow. "Why were you about to ask me out on a Christmas Eve date?"

"Well," Kaito said, giving up and sitting in the snow at Shinichi's side. "Because it's Christmas Eve and maybe neither of us has anything better to do. I thought it might be fun."

"Oh. That's a more reasonable answer than I was expecting." Shinichi sat up and looked over at Kaito. Kaito found that snow-dusted, windswept Kudou Shinichi was kind of appealing in a way he had never really considered before. "Well… I was just heading back to the dorm. I don't really have any plans."

"Then at least let me buy you another coffee. I do feel really bad about that," Kaito said, glancing at the brown puddle on the sidewalk. He stood and offered Shinichi his hand again. This time he took it.

"Maybe," Shinichi said as he made it to his feet, but there was suddenly something dangerous in his eyes that made Kaito's flight instincts spark violently. "But first–" He leaned down again and scooped up a generous heap of snow, pressing it together with both hands.

"You're not serious," Kaito said, staring.

Shinichi grinned. "An eye for an eye, KID."

"You expect me to just stand still and take it?" Kaito had already shifted to the balls of his feet, crouched just slightly with a smirk tugging firmly at the corners of his chapped lips.

"Definitely not," Shinichi answered and drew his arm back as if to throw. Kaito darted back toward the bench for some cover, ducking down behind it. Then a snowball landed solidly on the top of his head and he let out a yelp as snow slid under his scarf. Shinichi was laughing.

"I knew you'd go for the bench!" he said, already scooping up another ball. The first had been lobbed up in a high arc that had come down perfectly timed for when Kaito had reached the bench. Shinichi was beaming. Kaito's grin went sharp and he dug into the snow with both hands.

"Predictions aside, I'm still faster than you, Tantei-kun!" he warned, and flung another snowball. It hit Shinichi in the back as he turned to run, abandoning the sidewalk and tromping through the snow to the nearest tree. Even as he reached it, another snowball hit its branches and a thick flurry of snow dropped over his head.

"Hey!" He brushed the snow from his face and glared over at Kaito who was grinning from behind the bench. "I bet you think you're pretty clever."

"I know I'm clever~!"

Shinichi ducked behind the tree trunk as another snowball sailed his way. Hidden, he pressed some snow into a tightly packed, overlarge ball and waited.

"…Gotcha!" Shinichi stepped back from the tree and drop-kicked the snowball up into the branches above him. The kick loosened the snow and it exploded with a paff right in Kaito's face. Kaito spluttered and the snowball in his hand dropped pathetically at the base of the tree.

"You're horrible!" Kaito called down.

"Oh yeah?" Shinichi called back. "What kind of gentleman asks a guy on a date without even giving his name first?"

Kaito swung down from the branches, landing in a crouch in front of Shinichi. "The smart, thieving kind," he said with a grin. Shinichi dropped a loose handful of snow onto the top of his head just before Kaito straightened up.

"Yeah, okay," Shinichi laughed. "Then I guess I can accept."

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They walked back to the coffee shop Shinichi frequented as the streetlights came on. Kaito dutifully paid for their drinks and they stripped off their wet scarves and coats at a little corner table.

"I'm a little surprised," Kaito said, swiping a fingerful of whipped cream from the top of his mug. "I mean, I'm glad you agreed, but I wasn't really sure you would."

Shinichi had just taken a long drink from his own cup and Kaito thought the look on his face now was the kind you'd find on a cat that had just claimed the sunniest napping spot. "Well," Shinichi said. "Ran, Sonoko, and Makoto are out on a date, and Hattori and Kazuha are too. I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel a little left out."

"Hm. Mouri-chan, Suzuki-chan, and the prince of kicks?" He scooped up more of his whipped cream and sucked thoughtfully on his finger. "I wonder how Suzuki-chan pulled that off. I wouldn't have thought Mouri-chan and Kyogoku-kun would be into that."

Shinichi shrugged. "The three of them are just a really good fit. Sometimes it takes more than two to balance each other out." He watched Kaito sip at the cocoa under the whipped cream, his nose and cheeks still pink from the cold. His own cheek landed on the heel of his hand. "What about you, KID? How'd you end up with nothing better to do tonight?"

"Well, you know…" Kaito said vaguely. "All my friends are either traveling or doing the couple thing too." He grinned at Shinichi. "But I'm glad you weren't~"

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They stayed at the coffee shop until it closed. The night had gotten colder and their clothes hadn't really dried so they walked close together and stepped quickly until they made it to the lobby of Shinichi's dorm.

"Now what?" Shinichi asked, shivering a little. "Should we call it a night?"

Kaito glanced at his watch. "I don't really want to," he admitted after a few moments. "It's still Christmas Eve. I kinda don't want to go back to my place and be alone."

Shinichi blinked at him. "Hey, KID. Just so I know, would you have taken just anybody on a date tonight?"

Kaito looked up. "What? No, of course not. I didn't even realize what I was doing when I left earlier today, but I ended up on that bench and when I saw you it just kinda made sense, you know? Do you ever get that? Where your brain is having ideas that you haven't caught up to yet?"

There was something delighted behind Shinichi's eyes when they widened at him. "Yeah. I do."

Kaito smiled. Then he sneezed and wrapped his arms around himself, shivering a little. "I'm not gonna lie. I also don't wanna go back outside just yet. I hate the cold."

"Well, if you want we can head up to my room and get some dry clothes." He started for the elevators without waiting for an answer. Kaito stared after him then ran to catch up.

"My, my, Tantei-kun~" he teased.

Shinichi rolled his eyes and jabbed the call button. "Shut up. The only reason I'm inviting you up and offering you clothes is because you're KID. You've already stolen my clothes any number of times before so it's not like it's weird at this point."

Kaito snickered as he followed Shinichi into the elevator. "I think most people would say that's even weirder that you know this and you're still inviting me up."

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They spent the next half hour in the communal laundry room, empty due to the holiday, just talking and playing cards while they ran their clothes through the dryer. And when they were done, Shinichi had the bemusing experience of Kaitou KID changing them both instantly into dryer-warm clothes and then curling up against Shinichi on a couch like he was some kind of reptile that needed to share body heat. After Shinichi got over the moment of surprise he smiled and hesitantly slipped an arm around Kaito's back. It was kind of nice, after all.

It got less nice when Kaito fell asleep on him.

"Oi!" Shinichi said, poking him in the ribs.

"Huh? What?" Kaito blinked up at him. "Did I fall asleep? Sorry, you're really comfortable."

Shinichi looked away, his cheeks going pink. "You sure you should be getting so comfortable around me, KID?"

"Hm? Why not?"

"Uh…"

Kaito was staring up at him and he honestly didn't seem to think there was anything wrong here. Shinichi couldn't bring himself to lie and say he felt any differently. "Never mind," he muttered.

"We should have brought a movie down," Kaito said, yawning and settling his head against Shinichi again. "And snacks. But I don't wanna move."

"We can't stay down here all night," Shinichi laughed. "We can't be the only ones who stayed on campus over the holiday. It's not like we have the place to ourselves."

"Mm. But what's the alternative?"

"We could go back up to my room. The TV's kinda small but we could still watch a movie if you want."

"Heh. You always bring first dates back to your room, Tantei-kun?"

"You seem trustworthy," Shinichi said, nose in the air, and Kaito laughed out loud.

"Well at least you can be really sure I'm not a murderer." He smiled up at Shinichi. "Yeah, okay. Let's head up."

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"Hey KID," Shinichi said as the credits slowly scrolled on the TV.

"Hm?"

"Was tonight just a one-time thing?"

Kaito grinned at him. "And how long has that been on your mind?"

"A while," Shinichi said like he was determined not to be embarrassed about it.

"Well," Kaito said. "That seems a little silly doesn't it? I mean, I had a good time tonight. Didn't you?"

"Well yeah," Shinichi muttered.

"Then let's do it again sometime!"

Shinichi let out a little laugh and slid over to drop his shoulder against Kaito where they were sitting side by side on Shinichi's bed. It was kind of nice the way KID could make things simple as easily as he could make them frustratingly complicated or impossible. "Right," Shinichi said, closing his eyes. "Sounds good."

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Somehow, without realizing it, Shinichi fell asleep there, leaning into Kaito. When he woke to bright winter sunlight through his window he was lying on his bed with his cell phone in his hand, and new name in his contacts list, and a text from Kuroba Kaito.

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Merry Christmas, Tantei-kun~! I'll see you again soon

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Author Note:

This one went unfinished for about a million years just because it has never stopped nagging me that the prompt says they're the only ones who didn't go home for Christmas and I kept trying to find a way to spin that. But now I need some fluff and I'm telling myself I don't care about that anymore. Snowball fights!

Anyway, this series is finally finished! And damn did I ever forget how tedious it is to post on this site. Now that this is done, I don't think I'll post anything more here. Maybe I'll drop the whole of the sequel to Fall into Flying after I'm done posting it on AO3 just to be fair. If you'd rather not wait, the first three chapters are already up over there ;) Farewell, loves.