Fandom: Detective Conan/Magic Kaitou
Title: As Tears Began to Fall...
Author: Jeva
Theme: #1 - Regret
Characters: Kuroba Kaito, Nakamori Aoko
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: I feel like being redundant so: Character Death
Disclaimer: All things Detective Conan/Magic Kaitou belong to one, Aoyama Gosho. I don't claim to have created any of these characters...just the tormenting situations I put them in. :D
Summary: But one phone call made him drop everything and come running home with the prayer that he hadn't been too late...
He could hear the whispers. They floated about the room in a listless yet coarse manner that made his shoulders start to tense. He needed to stay calm. They were there for the same reason he was. There wasn't a need to cause a scene. There wasn't a need to tell these people--strangers--to shut their cruel mouths about the gossip that was being spread.
Even though they knew nothing about what they were talking about. Even though he just wanted to knock out the teeth that were in a particular mouth that chose to mutter horribly crude things to him as he passed. But no--best to ignore them.
Ignore.
...Ignore.
Ignore.
He froze when he realized he was at that particular door. He was shaking with anticipation, with dear, with anger, with...so many things he just couldn't allow to be shown in any other way.
So he stood there, almost in a daze until the door opened.
Red, blood-shot eyes that spoke of hours of tears and smoke and alcohol met his clear but noticeably emotion-filled gaze. Those eyes--strange orbs he'd not seen in years--stared at him for a long time before lowering to the ground as a hand came up to clap onto his shoulder.
He cringed only slightly at the contact.
Then the older man spoke, gruffly and hoarse, but strong enough to carry on with the words he needed to say, "I've had my time alone. I think you'll need yours."
Those eyes then lifted again to glare at the others in the small house before meeting his again. It was accompanied with a squeeze from the hand and a nod from the head before the older man brushed passed him and left.
He continued to face the doorway.
He didn't want to go in there.
...he didn't want to see--
He shut his eyes tightly before inhaling deeply. He needed to do this. If anything...this was the one thing he needed to do. To see.
So he entered the room and slowly shut the door behind himself.
And he stood there, eyes still shut and hand still on the door.
Come on, he told himself with a shaky Poker Face-like inner-smile. You've been waiting ages for this, right? To see her again? Sure the circumstances--he firmly didn't think of that--they're not what you expected--
"Oh, just open your eyes already," he whispered to himself before pausing a moment without moving a muscle, waiting to see if he could gather the courage.
He exhaled slowly, shakily--he was shaking all over again and had to wrap both of his arms tightly around his middle in order to calm himself.
"Calm down," he said quietly to himself, eyes screwing even more tightly shut. "Calm down...calm down...just look. It's--she's the same as always--just...calm down."
But he couldn't help but think about the many ways it could have ended. He'd never bothered to hear how it'd come to pass--he hadn't wanted to hear those cruel voices, see those accusing eyes all directed at him--as if he'd been the one to take her from them all. How could he defend himself when he could feel everything just slipping away?
Since he'd heard those words...everything had been slipping away from him...
"Hello! Kuroba Kaito here! Who's calling?"
"Kaito?" "Mom? What's wrong?"
His hands clenched the black clothes covering every inch of him at that moment. He tried to focus on just...calming down and breathing, but...it was so silent. It wasn't how things should have been...
"...I'm afraid...I have some horrible news...Kai-chan..."
"Mom? Hey, what're you crying for? What happened? Are you okay? Is--?" "I'm fine, Kaito. but..." "But? Mom? Did someone get hurt?"
It was supposed to have been a quick trip. That was all. The availability of gems that could be the legendary Pandora was getting thinner and thinner. He couldn't just leave things at that. He had to reach out beyond the limits set upon him by his native country. So he'd gone for a month around Europe. But one month turned into two...and then three...then more...and all the while a certain half-British detective hounded his every footstep.
London, Paris, Versailles, Madrid, Marseille, Rome, Venice, Florence--each place he'd gone, he would give out a warning and then strike while everyone was in a rush at the appointed time. It had been tiring, of course. Almost every night a different location or a different gem--a different audience, always.
But one phone call made him drop everything and come running home with the prayer that he hadn't been too late...
"Kai-chan...i-it's Aoko-chan--"
"Aoko? Is she okay? Did she get hurt? Is she sick? Will she be all right? Wh--?" "It was an accident. She--was in an accident. A hit-and-run. The doctors don't think...Kaito? Kai--"
He'd literally dropped everything. His cell phone was some place in Germany, where he'd stood up a crowd of millions who were anxiously awaiting someone to take a prized relic, while his luggage got lost during a transfer in South Korea. He hadn't cared. With only the clothes on his back, he'd raced into the hospital his childhood friend had been placed in only to skid to a stop in the hall he'd been pointed to.
Doctors were leaving the room with the number he'd just barely remembered that the receptionist had shouted at his back.
None of them looked up.
He'd remained frozen...until that sound.
The horrible sound of a father mourning the death of his beloved only daughter.
...he'd been too late.
Just like then, Kaito sunk to his knees in the silent room, body almost bending double as he clenched his teeth as he struggled to keep that crushing feeling at bay. Too keep those precious thing from pricking at his eyes, demanding to be shed.
It hurt. It hurt being this afraid, this sad, this alone. he hadn't felt such a void in his own self since that time when he was almost ten--when he'd lost another person he had told he would see again soon.
What...was he supposed to do? Almost all of his life, she had been there. Always. Without question, she'd been there for him.
But...he hadn't.
Not even when it truly mattered.
It was so quiet...
It was so unlike her.
"...I can't open my eyes," he choked out, pulling an arm away from himself to place a trembling hand over his eyes, feeling the moisture there with some surprise. "If I do..."
What then?
It'd be real. His childhood friend--the woman he both loved and feared because she held his heart so easily in her own two hands was gone, and she'd taken that piece of himself with her--never to be returned until his own time came.
There wouldn't be anything he could do to change it. He'd been too late to make a difference even though he'd tried--and did he try. He had a sinking feeling that, one too many times during his rush to get home, he'd left evidence of his being an international felon.
...and there would be no where for Kuroba Kaito to turn when he'd need a good mop chase--such a silly little activity that he'd taken for granted. There was no more constants--they'd all been ripped out of his life by a simple act.
There was no one else to turn to.
Only...
"Aoko..." he breathed out before slowly sitting himself straight, eyes still closed though he lowered his hand. A flimsy half-smile came onto his face as he fought for control. "C-c'mon, Aoko..." he stuttered out before taking a deep breath and continuing, "Even if...even if I was too late...you forgive me, right? You know--I went through hell and high water--just to get there..."
The buzzing silence was his only response.
...it would be his only answer no matter how much he asked or pleaded.
The smile began to slip, and Poker Face was falling apart as tears started to fall.
Author's Note: Ah heh...yeah...so anyway, the rules of this challenge is that I can either A) kill Kaito, B) have Kaito kill someone, or C) kill someone with Kaito as a centralized character. And well...went with option C here.
...I have no excuse. -sweatdrops-