Title: A Thousand Dollars and Fifty Cents

Rating: K+

Genre: Romance/Humour

Summary: When Shinichi begins avoiding Kaito, Kaito asks many people for advice, but not all of them have good consequences. Still, all's well that ends well, right? KaiShin

Disclaimer: Don't own.

"Hollywood is a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul. I know, because I turned down the first offer often enough and held out for the fifty cents."
― Marilyn Monroe

"If a person you're close to suddenly starts avoiding you, what would you do?" Kaito demanded, shooing away the original owner and plopping down in the seat in front of Ran, yanking down the book she had been reading. He fixed her with a ridiculously wide-eyed, expectant gaze. Saki, the original seat owner, gaped at him, shaking her head and making her pigtails sway outraged, before shrugging carelessly and invading her boyfriend's lap in the next column. Not that her boyfriend looked like he minded. Look, Kaito was doing the country a favour after all, raising the low birth rate! Ran jerked backwards, startled, raised a brow curiously but obligingly considered the query.

"Well, why did they start avoiding you?" she asked practically, with an accommodating little half smile and a patient look in her eyes. Kaito grinned. He knew she was the right person to approach! Ran was close to that person and was nice enough not to balk at any queries for help, and decent enough not to pry.

He shook his head and pulled a face. "I don't know. One day, everything was fine, then the next, he just refuses to talk or look or do anything with me." Kaito pouted. Just what had gotten into Shinichi's head anyway? If it was some unsavoury person who had planted bad ideas into Shinichi's head, he'd beat them up with a spork. Their relatives would have to get their remains in matchboxes, mark his words.

Ran frowned sympathetically. "Well, I don't mean to offend you-" Kaito just knew the next words out of her mouth would wound his ego. Why do people say it? It's like an ineffectual disclaimer. If you insult anyone enough, those six deadly words wouldn't save you from a gruesome fate. Just a waste of breath, really. "-But maybe you did something bad and made the other person angry with you, without realising it." She smiled at him apologetically.

His first impulse was to defend himself indignantly, but Kaito thought about it. It certainly wouldn't have been the first time he'd had said something tactlessly and infuriated someone. Also, Shinichi may be a terrifying brave person at work, facing down killers and criminals with nary a tremble, but when it came to personal matters, he generally disliked confrontations and arguments and avoided them like the plague, going out of his way to be nice, even at his expense.

Kaito recalled the way Shinichi had flinchingly dismissed the noisy troublemaker their previous housemate had been. It had been ridiculously long and filled with placations, 'It's not your fault's – altogether it completely was, it wasn't their fault that the moron had skin thicker than an elephant and refused to listen to their subtly, then later not-so-subtly dropped hints to quit lying to them about trivial matters. While they didn't care about the lifestyle of their housemates unless it was bothering them, it was galling that he kept doing it, as if they were cretins that would fall for tall tales. He could tell them to anyone, but Kaito personally didn't believe or care that he had a model beautiful girlfriend, who was tremendously rich and famous in Canada, of all places – and bolstering of the retard's ego. Kaito had listened with an ear pressed against the door in growing disbelief. He would have laughed the guy out of the doorway, instead of the tolerant babying Shinichi had jumped through hoops to do. Shinichi was too nice, really.

And never let it be said that he doesn't piss off someone at least daily by his actions. Shinichi said he had a death wish, but he preferred to call it a great appreciation for life. Certainly, he felt that every time Aoko's mop missed taking off his head by a few precious inches.

"So I just have to apologise to them?" Kaito belatedly realised he had slipped up in front of Ran, the first person he wouldn't want to know that he made Shinichi mad, and hurriedly tried to cover up. While Hakuba would just smirk at him, and Aoko would laugh at him, killing his pride, it was a toss-up whether Ran would sympathise with him and try to help him mend the friendship, or decapitate him with her karate without thinking twice. He was rather proficient in dodging Aoko's mop-fu out of necessity, if he could proudly say so, but Aoko wasn't a regional champion.

He felt a shiver run up his spine and resolved never to let Ran know. Behind that deceptively sweet, motherly façade lay a killer ready to strike, Kaito knew, from Shinichi's few and in-between childhood stories. While Shinichi wasn't secretive about them or had anything particularly traumatic happen to him as Kaito had once worriedly asked, he sometimes mixed up his first childhood and second childhood, and now rarely mentioned them in case he had overlapping details that may raise probing questions from the wrong audience.

"Yup, yup," Ran beamed at him, like a mother would at her child who scored well in a test. "But it'd be good if you tried to remember what you did," she called out after him as he scrambled away out of the seat. Saki pouted as her excuse went away but continued residing where she was, until a teacher screamed her back, eyes bulging. The teacher muttered something disgustedly about crazy, hormonal teenagers, and continued the lecture. Kaito quite disagreed. Unless the teacher found himself very very lost, he was instructing college students. Teenage hormones were just an easy label for horny young people. "If you don't know what you did wrong, apologizing has like… only 50% effectiveness in making his mood better again." Her smile was uncomfortably knowing for Kaito, who reassured himself that Ran didn't exactly have any proof of it, even if she suspected. Not that that would stop Ran in defenestrating Kaito if she really wanted to.

Kaito nodded as he headed back to his chair, but frowned. He didn't know why he was apologizing, since he didn't know what made Shinichi mad.

Ah well, if you don't know, you just have to increase the magnitude of the apology then, Kaito happily decided. After all, Ran said 50%, didn't she? If the apology was of a large enough scale, 50% would be big enough to hopefully swamp Shinichi with forgiveness, and Shinichi would stop ignoring Kaito and be best friends with him again. He mentally congratulated himself for excellent plans and started to plan the mechanics of setting it in action.

The teacher passed by his desk while lecturing, and froze, eyes on the accurately-scaled construction sketched out on Kaito's notebook and multitudes of calculations. And… was that a balloon castle? The size of the school yard? He shook himself out of it, aware of the students' questioning looks, and went on. After all, ignorance was bliss, and he still had years ahead of him. Being run into retirement would ruin his saving plans.

But when all Shinichi did was gape at him stupidly after he presented Shinichi with a bouquet of purple hyacinths, even Kaito realised that something was wrong with the reaction.

"What are you doing?" Shinichi looked increasingly bewildered. "… Have you finally gone crazy?"

Kaito was affronted. And he thought he had made it obvious enough with that personal serenade over the announcement system! He knew he should have said Shinichi's name, but the consequence wasn't worth it, he thought at that time. But it would be a waste if Shinichi didn't know all the doings, including the hot air balloon bearing the banner, was for him.

Wait. He squinted at Shinichi. Maybe Shinichi was doing that thing where he pretended he wasn't mad, but he really was. His eyes widened in realization. The last time he had ignored the signs – he hadn't been experienced in the art of telling Shinichi's capricious moods! Give him some slack! – things had swelled up to the point Shinichi, in a fit of vengeance, donated his video games collection to Salvation Army, cupboard and all. He had no wish to lose something like, oh, his underwear drawer maybe, this time.

Time to up his game. "You're mad at me, aren't you?" He clutched onto Shinichi's shoulders like a particularly whiny and troublesome toddler. Shinichi staggered slightly under the dead weight, but held up admirably under the weight of two men. If he was sporting an annoyed, twitching eyebrow, no one could blame him. Kaito blubbered out, "Don't be mad at meeee-"

"I'm not! Though I might change my mind any second," Shinichi muttered darkly. Kaito blinked and turned his head to look at Shinichi, instead of mashing his face into Shinichi's furry coat. "Can you stop leaning on me? This is a pain." Indeed, Shinichi was starting to turn red, flushing lightly across his cheeks, ears and even his neck from Kaito's very nice vantage point not two inches away from Shinichi's nose.

"Oh." Kaito moved away awkwardly. He must have had been creating trouble for Shinichi again. Supporting two people's weight wasn't exactly fun after all. He waved a hand at the exciting crowd in the hall. People were leaning out of the building, trying to pluck the balloons affixed outside the windows, spelling out, 'I'M SORRY'. "Uh, you didn't like this at all?"

Shinichi said blankly, "Should I have?" He was looking at a girl near them who was doing everything that pamphlets about window cleaning safety said they shouldn't. Shinichi seized the girl by her collar, choking her, and suavely leant over, reached into Kaito's jacket – Hey! What was he doing! Kaito squirmed and Shinichi, without looking at him, withdrew his hand with a long metal wire that he looped and secured a balloon easily with. Oh. He handed it to the girl, who had a starry look in her eyes. She babbled out a thanks and ran off, blushing wildly.

Shinichi sighed one of his great whooshing sighs that made him sound like ninety, not nineteen. "Really… This'll make a big mess later." He gazed out of the window at the carpet of roses with look that proclaimed just how very unimpressed he was. "I guess you're always like that though," he mumbled under his breath, smiling ruefully at the delicate arrangement of pink roses crowning the flag poles.

"What? What did you say?" Kaito leant in. "I can't think of incredibly awesome replies if you don't say how wonderful I am louder."

"Then he kind of punched me and stalked away," Kaito complained. He winced and rubbed his arm at the memory. Shinichi was better known for his infamous, game-breaking kicks, but what also required a warning label was that he had a fantastic right-hook. Hattori only looked amused, though for some reason, he tended to sport that good-natured expression whenever Kaito talked to him. He decided it was one of Hattori's moods. It was better than the butter-won't-melt-in-my-mouth one that Hattori had whenever Hakuba was around, so it was fine. (Usually the expression disappeared quickly, and was followed by nasty verbal jabs) Kaito sympathised really. Hattori was a kindred soul: liking Shinichi, disliking Hakuba and not thinking that Sherlock Holmes was the be-all-end-all. He approved.

"I don't think it worked," Kaito lamented, dropping his head into his hands. "He's still upset with me."

"Well, maybe he didn't like the way you went about it," Hattori said, after he stopped laughing. Kaito narrowed his eyes at him. It was a little hard to tell when Hattori was smiling at his misfortune and when he was just being friendly, because he always had that agreeable look on his face. "Why don't you try smaller things?"

Kaito thought about it. Shinichi did grouse about the mess, and how troublesome the whole matter had been the last time. It wasn't worth taking Ran's advice and scaling up his apology if all it did was anger Shinichi.

Right. Small it was then.

Kaito fell into step with Shinichi in the one of the out-of-way side routes that he had taken to weaving through to avoid Kaito. Shinichi cast him a wide-eyed look, like a deer caught in headlights, and sped up. Kaito followed easily, chattering at top speed all the while.

"You wake up so early in the mornings nowadays; it's killing me! I had to set my alarm clock back by a whole hour to catch you, I nearly rolled over and crushed the row of safety pins that I stuck into the bed to prevent me from rolling over and ignoring my alarm clock so that was good, because I think I might have poked out an eye, or at least have a liberally perforated arm, so I got up and staggered into the bathroom and ran into the door, so sadly, my face wasn't spared in the end – See the black eye? It's where I hit my face on the knob when I fell and I think I took a grand total of three minutes in the shower, though half the time was because I kind of forgot where I put my towel and stood in the bathroom screaming my mum awake for her to get a towel for me. I'd just go out stark naked, but it was so cold, I think I'd freeze my balls off and that would be horrid, do you think there's a surgery to fix this-"

Shinichi stopped suddenly and Kaito shot over by a few meters before he realised he was charging down the road alone and stopped too. He looked at Shinichi questioningly.

"Uh, I'm going to buy coffee." Shinichi still wasn't looking at Kaito, much to his dismay. "You can go ahead first."

Uh, no, Kaito couldn't. It would completely ruin the point of waking up early if he didn't get some Shinichi-time. "I'll get some hot chocolate too!" He cheerfully bounced into the café on Shinichi's heels.

"They're out," Shinichi shot back.

"It's the start of the day." Kaito raised an eyebrow.

"They're out anyway, right?" He glowered at the counter staff. The poor girl nodded stiffly, looking terrified.

Kaito frowned and trailed his eyes over the menu. He paused over the pastries. Hmmm…

"None too," Shinichi pushed the menu out from under Kaito's hands, nudging him away relentlessly. "None for whatever you want. Just go away."

"What?" Kaito eyed Shinichi suspiciously. Something was going on here. He could smell it. He took in a whiff. He advanced on Shinichi, who was gaining a trapped look on his face, and dropped a heavy hand on his shoulder. "What are you hiding from me?" He stared at Shinichi, brows lowered.

"Nothing!" Shinichi's panic rapidly changed into defensiveness, and Kaito grew wary. Shinichi's defensiveness was typically characterised by not only the rudest barbs he had, but also violence. He sniffed the air once again. "You're just being delusional," he scoffed, crossing his arms. "Please don't burden what's left of your overtaxed, miniscule sanity with paranoia now-"

"I knew it!" Kaito crowed. He whirled around to point an accusatory finger at the quivering counter staff. The tag proclaimed that she was new and her name was Rei. She was switching her stare between his outstretched finger and his face. He preened. Kaito knew he was irresistible. "You're hiding it! I can smell the heavenly aroma of baked goodness. I want a chicken pie please." He slapped down a few dollars. After a second thought, he pushed the money at the cashier and nodded at her. "I'll pay for his food too," He jabbed a finger at Shinichi. The girl nodded relieved, rattled out the order easily and started to prepare it.

Shinichi stared at him. "I can pay for myself," Shinichi argued fervently. "I can even pay for you."

Kaito blinked at him and picked up the pastry. The paper bag crinkled as he folded it down and squeezed the gently steaming chicken pie upwards so he could take a satisfied bite out of it. "Go ahead then," he said agreeably, through a mouthful of chicken pie.

Shinichi seemed ready to call the girl back, then stopped short and gaped at him. "Alright. I get it. You're trying to psyche me into paying for this so you can ride off me – Well, you can just forget about it! Miss, could you add a curry puff to the order? And an apple pie, and yes, I want a topping of whipped cream after all…" He smiled smugly at Kaito.

Kaito looked completely nonchalant. He dug through his wallet for more change and dropped them onto the counter to pay for the additional orders. Shinichi looked slightly disappointed as they left the café, much to the relief of the bewildered staff.

Kaito checked his wallet. "You're going to have to buy me lunch later," he told Shinichi.

"That's what you get for trying to con me," Shinichi said happily, concentrating on juggling his many bags and not spilling his drink. Kaito took the coffee. "Thanks."

"No problem." The scent of the coffee was tempting him. It wasn't as good as hot chocolate of course – hot chocolate beat everything hands down – but Shinichi had good taste in food. He stole a sip from it. "I should have charmed the girl into giving me another pastry too. Did you see the way she was looking at me? Well, it can't be helped; I'm the most awesome, magnificent-"

"Please, she was awestruck at your magnificent black eye," Shinichi snorted. He leaned over and Kaito obligingly tipped the cup so Shinichi could drink from it. "I can't believe you bruised yourself on a doorknob."

"It's because I wanted to see you," Kaito complained. Shinichi blinked and couldn't help the tiny, flattered smile that crept over his face. Kaito counted it as a win. "You keep doing these things nowadays… If you're mad at me, you should just say so. How will I know otherwise?"

Shinichi looked taken aback. "I'm not mad at you. Are you still on it? I'm just…" He brought up a hand as if to shield the growing blush on his face, before dropping it to rub at the back of his neck absently. "Never mind."

Kaito stared at him, and demanded, "Are you sick?"

"Did he buy you lunch later?" Aoko grinned.

"Yeah," Kaito said grumpily. "But he dragged along everyone and their mums and sat on the other side of the table from me so I couldn't even get a word off to him." He ran a hand through his hair frustrated. "Ahh… I can't believe I forgot to say sorry to him the last time! But everything seemed so normal I thought it was fine. Only that the episode taught him to vary his habits so that it would be harder to catch him." He pouted. Why was Shinichi going hot and cold like that to him? It didn't make any sense at all.

Aoko only snickered. Kaito instantly regretted telling her the going-ons. He just knew that Aoko would mock him relentlessly! But he really didn't know what to do, and women did these kinds of things better, didn't they? Or at least that's what Aoko and her cronies had drilled into him.

"Stop that, you're supposed to be useful," Kaito whined.

Aoko restrained her chuckles and tilted her head cutely at Kaito. Kaito wasn't taken in. "Dumbass, maybe it's cause he's not mad at you. He keeps saying he's not, isn't he?"

Kaito looked confused. "But that's just him denying it. You know he never likes to tell people when he has a problem."

"Yeah, well, that trait of his is sort of working against him now, isn't it? He's not mad, but you keep insisting that he is, so he gets angry at you, and when he shows he's mad, you think that you're right and he's hiding his anger… Rinse and repeat." She grinned manically. Kaito still looked unconvinced. "Alright, just think of it as a theory. I think there's probably something that's really bothering him since he's behaving like this… But it's not harm considering it, is it? Since your methods aren't really working."

Kaito admitted that made sense. "So what am I supposed to do about it?"

"Cheer him up," Aoko said brightly. "Be supportive for him! Be a good friend!" She patted Kaito's back and gave him a toothy smile and a thumbs-up. "You can do it! Just don't do anything stupid!" She added as an afterthought, but Kaito had already stopped listening at that point. Cheer someone up? Making someone smile? That was his specialty! He grinned broadly. This'd be the easiest thing ever.

Well… he supposed Shinichi had no skirt to flip and would take it personally if he announced his underwear colour to the class, but there were other ways around that…

"Forgive him already," a classmate begged Shinichi, looking deeply traumatised. The remnants of the confetti burst littered over his clothes and hair.

"I already said I'm not mad," Shinichi roared. An angry pulsing vein at his temple said otherwise. He spotted Kaito trying to sneak out of the debris-scattered classroom and lunged for him.

"It's not my fault your sense of humour is broken," Kaito wailed as his collar was seized and Shinichi attempted strangulation with his tie. "Didn't you find it funny at all?" He pursed his lips, thinking mournfully about his carefully planned pranks. He couldn't believe none of them elicited even a smile out of Shinichi.

"Pun-ners should be taken out to the yard and shot," Shinichi declared. "And boiled in mercury and dismembered and buried without a tomb."

Kaito hastily raised his hands. "Alright, alright, I got it," he said quickly, should Shinichi be tempted to carry out his threat. "No puns. Right."

A huge-eyed, somewhat disheveled classmate piped up, "I don't know; I liked them. It seems as though he tried really hard." She smiled at Kaito. Kaito teared up. Oh, there were angels on Earth…

Shinichi sighed and let go of Kaito's collar. Kaito's knees buckled slightly at the unexpected loss of support and he stumbled slightly before he straightened up. Shinichi rubbed the back of his neck wearily. "This is getting out of hand. Look, believe me when I say I'm not mad at you. Well, I'm mad at you now for creating all that chaos for nothing-" Kaito opened his mouth to protest, but Shinichi cut him off with a stern look. "-But I do believe you have good intentions. You mean well, and I'm honestly thankful, if not happy with the way you go about it. Just that your good intentions are tempered by… Ah, I can't do it." He hit his head against the wall.

"What?" Kaito didn't understand what was said at all.

"You're stupid and you don't get obvious clues," Shinichi said loudly, then cleared his throat. "Okay, now we got that out of the way, let's clean up."

"Wait!" Kaito grabbed onto Shinichi's elbow. Shinichi leapt away but was stopped by Kaito's hold and stared at his arm as if questioning why the limb had to belong to him. "That doesn't explain anything." He fixed Shinichi with fierce eyes. "So why are you avoiding me?"

Shinichi flushed and struggled to repossess his arm. "I'm not."

"Liar, liar, pants on fire," Kaito chanted. "I'm not letting go until you explain it."

Shinichi groaned. "Stop inflicting chick flick logic on me," he complained. "Alright, how's this for you: This is all your fault."

Kaito frowned. "Yeah, I'm the one who pranked the classroom." Then, "Wait, so you're blaming me? So you're mad at me after all?"

Shinichi groaned and wrenched his arm away. Kaito thought he was going to run away, but he just slumped over on a still standing desk and covered his eyes, mumbling under his breath, I can't believe this idiot. Kaito thought about protesting, but Shinichi sounded more parts fond than exasperated, so he let it slide.

Keiko ran up to him, breathing heavily. Kaito perked up.

"Hey, Kaito!" She chirped. She recited obligingly, "So I heard from Yumi, who heard from Masaki, who heard from Mikoto who heard from Hana," she gasped in a deep breath, "that Hakuba doesn't know if there's any case that's been especially troubling lately. But he says that you shouldn't take his word for it, because he doesn't work in the homicide department. He also says, 'Tell that dumbass Kuroba to open his eyes to see the reason why and that he shouldn't take things so literally.'"

Kaito looked outraged. "How'd he know that I was the one who asked?" And he'd purposely sent the question along so many people too!

When Shinichi had said clues, his first thought was Hakuba. While immensely irritating, no one could doubt his ability as a detective. But he hadn't wanted to ask Hakuba for help. Not only would that be utterly humiliating, he had his pride. And his pride protested against Hakuba's involvement, or even worse taking advice or getting favours from Hakuba. He wrinkled his nose in disgust.

Keiko shrugged. "It's Hakuba," she pointed out, like Hakuba had the status equivalent of a god. Kaito wasn't satisfied with the answer.

Well, that wasn't helpful at all. "Tell me that you at least have something else more useful," he begged. "I didn't tell you the whole affair for no reason, did I?"

Keiko only laughed, which didn't do anything to reassure him. "Hakuba says that 'Kaito should stop living up to expectations and grow smarter.'"

"Did you tell him everything?" Kaito looked at her in horror.

"Only what you told me," Keiko assured him.

"I told you everything!" He slumped over, wallowing in dismay that Hakuba knew about his relationship problems. Maybe there was some moral to the Broken Telephone games after all…

"I'm sorry!" Keiko didn't look the part. "But I think that you should listen to Hakuba."

"He didn't say anything except insult me," Kaito grumbled.

"Don't ask people for help and not listen to them," Keiko scolded. "He told to pay more attention, and honestly, I agree with him. It's very obvious; I don't know why you haven't gotten it yet."

Kaito paused and looked over at Keiko. "Wait. You know why Shinichi is behaving oddly?" He lunged for Keiko and loomed ominously over her. "Tell meee."

"No way!" Keiko shook her head frantically. "It doesn't have its value if you don't figure it out yourself. Besides, it's none of our business," she was quick to tack on, before citing class and fleeing. "Good luck!" she called out merrily. Hah. Normally he said he didn't need luck, he made it, but...

Kaito frowned and let her go. So, this is like a video game, he mused. His objective is to… corner Shinichi and force a confession out of him. His reward could be like, an upgrade in relationship with Shinichi. Kaito was underequipped, but that was alright. He had his awesomesauce status and he'd pick up the rest on the way. He nodded, a determined look on his face.

Go Team Kaito!

The first step Kaito made to mission accomplishment was to sit down in the seat opposite Shinichi's and seize him before he ran away with his tray.

Shinichi snatched his arm back. "Stop that; can you not be such a barbarian, we're amongst civilised society." He frowned at Kaito. "What do you want?"

"Just to talk to you." Kaito watched Shinichi carefully for any cues warning him of Shinichi's imminent escape. He burst out, "If you're not mad at me, why are you avoiding me? Do you hate me-" He choked himself off before he could say something stupid and whiny. But he thought he already lost a lot of Man points for engaging in such a girly emotional talk, why not making things worse? So he said, "You can tell me anything, I'll listen," with an appropriately keen look on his face. Unfortunately, the bustle and noise of the cafeteria detracted from his earnestness, but it was so hard to ambush Shinichi, so beggars can't be choosers.

"What?" Shinichi looked satisfyingly shocked. "I don't hate you. Where did you get the idea from?"

Kaito just looked at Shinichi. Shinichi winced and rubbed his temples. He sighed. "Look, I'm really sorry. It's not your fault. It's just been a rough time for me and you… remind me of things. I'm so sorry; I didn't mean to ignore you-"

Oh. Now Kaito felt like a bastard. He wondered if he should pick up his tray and leave Shinichi alone, like Shinichi probably wanted. Kaito scowled at his wishy-washiness and gazed at Shinichi, who looked thoroughly miserable, although it was all Kaito's fault, like Shinichi said so. He bit into his beef, suddenly not as hungry as he was before. Well. He really made a mess of it, didn't he?

Luckily, he wasn't one to sit around when he knew what he could do to make things better. He jumped up, circled around the table and bumped Shinichi inwards the bench with his hip. Kaito wrapped his arms around Shinichi, pulling and arranging awkward limbs and the curve of his spine more comfortably before Kaito curled close, nuzzling into soft, fine hair. He breathed in the faint scent of Shinichi's shampoo - a fruity one that Kaito bought as a joke, but Shinichi stoically used because he declared it would be wasteful if left to languish under the sink - and absorbed the warmth of a body pressed intimately close.

Shinichi stiffened up. Kaito rested his cheek against Shinichi's left temple, looking quizzically at the cowlick popping out of the neatly combed strands, before peering down curiously. Was Shinichi not enjoying the hug? But everyone loves comforting hugs, don't they?

It didn't seem like Shinichi was enjoying the hug, much to his disappointment. He had bitten his lip so hard that it turned a soft dusky red, matching the dark wine-red of his cheeks and neck. His eyes were fixed on an arbitrary point in the distance and were heavily lidded. His hands were frozen in crab-like positions at his sides, and it really wasn't appealing at all.

Then Kaito thought about Hakuba's disgusting advice – if he had to pay in pride for Hakuba's advice, he was jolly well going to milk all the use out of it! – and looked more closely.

Oh.

Shinichi's eyes were staring off into the distance, but perhaps not so steadily after all. His eyes did little, infinitesimal flicks towards Kaito, and more precisely, the bright red dash he was sure his mouth was after eating the spicy stir-fry. The downturned eyelids didn't manage to mask a burning interest, and his hands were fisted uncertainly, nails digging into the sensitive, pink underside of his palm.

On the contrary, now he thought that the interest in Shinichi's eyes was very worth reciprocating.

Funnily enough, it was Shinichi who leant in first and kissed him.

When they parted, Kaito said in an embarrassingly breathy voice, "Oh." Then again, "Oh."

Shinichi just looked aghast for giving in to temptation. Kaito ignored this in favour of more important matters. Like the kiss and its implications.

He thought about it, then asked frankly, "So you love me?"

Shinichi dropped his flustered pretence of Kaito's non-existence and The Kiss That Did Not Just Happen and snapped his gaze back at Kaito, utterly appalled. "No," Shinichi asserted, hunching his shoulders. "Well, I don't know. Maybe I just like kissing you," he said defensively.

Kaito preened, but realised something vital contradicting this logic. "It's the first time you kissed me," Kaito had to point out sensibly. Shinichi's face and upper body didn't twitch at all, but Kaito felt a jarring kick in his shin. "Ouch!" Shinichi was so mean sometimes, but he'll forgive him because the blush painting his ears now was very cute. "I like kissing you too," he said generously, and happily watched the blush darken. Shinichi hunched over even more, like a cocoon.

"We should talk about this," Shinichi looked utterly mortified, but determined to thrash the issue out. Kaito reconsidered his earlier opinion about Shinichi being non-confrontational about emotions. But then again, seeing that Shinichi avoided him for weeks just because of his sudden sexual awareness… Nah.

"I'd rather kiss you again," Kaito opinioned. Shinichi ignored him unfairly.

Hakuba strolled by. "Oh, good. I see you're getting along again." He nodded in amiable greeting to Shinichi, who refused to meet his eye, smirked at Kaito and mouthed, You owe me. Kaito sneered and mouthed back, Once a bastard, always a bastard. He felt a sudden pang of inexplicable guilt. It was Hakuba's advice that made him break through to the epiphany after all, as galling as the truth was.

He struggled with himself, before snapping out in a strangled tone, "Hey." The call stopped Hakuba in his tracks and he turned around, an inquisitive eyebrow arched. "Thanks," Kaito said grudgingly.

The other eyebrow rose in surprise, but Hakuba took it gracefully, instead of mocking Kaito incessantly like he feared. But then again, he wouldn't have wanted to show his ugly side in front of Shinichi. Not that Shinichi would have seen it, since he had looked completely stunned and horrorstruck at the first sign that Hakuba was in the loop about Shinichi's feelings. "Don't mention it," Hakuba said dryly. "I mean it, don't. I don't want to know. And next time you're in hot water, go find someone else. I am not your marriage counselor." He raised a hand in farewell as he sauntered off. Kaito eyed his back disgruntled. Hakuba might be an enemy, but he sure knew how to leave a parting shot in style.

He turned back to look at Shinichi, who had pushed his tray aside to bury his head in his arms. "I'm never going to be able to look at Hakuba in the eye ever again," Shinichi moaned.

Kaito patted Shinichi's back. Some days, he felt like that too, though it was more along the lines of, 'I never want to see Hakuba again' rather than the dejected little utterance Shinichi produced. He waited for a little while, then asked, not too eagerly, "If I get rid of Hakuba for you, will I get another kiss?"

"If you get rid of Hakuba for me, you're going to jail or the doorstep, depending on the severity of your actions," Shinichi promised, looking up. His eyes were firm and told him, I'll lock you out of the house, I will. He coughed and said, feigning nonchalance, "If you want a kiss, you can just ask for it."

Kaito thought this was reasonable, then revised his judgment. He'd never heard of anyone asking for a kiss before. So he followed everyone else's examples and just took it.

Shinichi didn't protest and even curled a hand around his neck encouragingly, so Kaito thought he was allowed to stamp this, Mission Accomplished.

AN: I actually just wanted to warn readers that I'll be busy for a while, but I know people don't read profiles, so I told myself to write something so I can tack on a note at the end of it and this brainless piece of fluff came out. [/laughs] It was much longer than I thought it would be; my original plans was for it to be at most 3k words...

Also, was trying out a different style of scene changing here. How'd you find it?

Hope you enjoyed! And Happy Chinese New Year for those who celebrate. Thank you very much :D