One step at a time

Of all places in the world, Heiji had ended up in Kazuha's room, on her bed... and watching her preparing for the night with her fancy date. "Look at how revealing you are! Wear a damn coat." / "Heiji, we're in the middle of summer!"

A/N: "What? Heiji and Kazuha? Did I read that right?" Yeap, you read that right. So far I've only write one fic about this pair and the ending was such a horrible, tragic mess AHHAHAHA but I wanna dedicate this to CherelleHolmes for being SO GREAT AND WONDERFUL UGH (Please stop being so nice to me, I don't deserve this omg UGHHHHHHHHHH). There's still two months to your birthday month but there's no harm for an early (and extra) dedication fic for you! I know HeiKazu have always been your favourite, so... *Crosses fingers* Hope you'll like this :)

It was known in the neighbourhood, or the entire Osaka police department, or the entire world, that Hattori Heiji was the most considerate, open-minded and extremely patient man that everyone loved. This fact would be true if earth was plagued by some kind of zombie infection and everyone was dead, except for the man of the claim himself.

"Stop being so grumpy about it and help me out with choosing!" Kazuha twirled around in the mirror, trying to spot every inch of her pink blouse and black pants. She then glimpsed down at an angle to see Heiji's reflection in the mirror, lying across her bed and reading one of the books he'd got from her shelf. If one could sulk like a kid yet look like a perfect literate man at the same time, Heiji did it right then.

He glanced up wearily from the same page of the book he had been glaring for the past ten minutes, giving Kazuha a brief look from head to toe before going back to his blind reading. "It's ok."

"Ok? Only Ok?" Kazuha spun around to face him instead, her hands on her hips. "Come on, Heiji. Give me more comments!"

"What do ya want me to give when I have nothing to give?" He scoffed. There really was nothing to comment about when it was an OK. Her black pants were tight, yes, but it was an OK since it covered a good amount of her skin for Heiji to deem it as a pass if she was meeting other men. Her pink blouse was a little girly, yes, but it was an OK since it would probably put other men off by her childish appearance. All of it was an OK.

"I know you'd rather be somewhere else, like solving a murder or something, but this is important to me." Kazuha mumbled, a strange sort of sad expression flickered in her eyes, but before Heiji could register what it meant, it was already gone in a blink. She then continued, her voice slightly raised this time. "And you're free anyway! Will it hurt to use less than an hour of your life to help me out with this?"

"Well, I'm here right now, aren't I?" Heiji reproached in defence, though a resigned sigh came soon afterwards. He gave her a once over again and waved nonchalantly over her attire. "Don't wear pink and black. Though the colour combination might seem nice, it doesn't fit you."

"Oh." Kazuha began twisting around to check herself anxiously. "Really?"

"There's my comment." He muttered and shifted his position on the bed to face the wall. Yeap. The black pants didn't fit her at all; it wasn't about the colour but they were way too tight for her butt, making it much curvier than necessary. In case his implications weren't obvious enough, he added his final line. "Change it out."

"Alright. Thanks!" There was a sound of clothes rubbing against each other, an obvious sign that she was changing into her third outfit for the past fifteen minutes. His knuckles were striped red and white as he clutched tightly on the book. That was one of the reasons why he was still on the same bloody page since forever.

Not like I've never seen her in Bikinis before. Bra and Bikini are the same. He closed his eyes and began chanting in head. They are the same, for GOD'S SAKE.

"What about this?"

It was the cue for him to look again. His bored eyes glanced over the book and towards her direction, but they instantly lit up like fireworks sprouting in the dark sky on New Year.

"No." Heiji spat and tossed the book aside on the fluffy sheets, forgotten. He was now sitting up on the bed, wide awake and alert. "Are you insane or stupid?"

"What?!" Kazuha protested, looking utterly confused at his outrage. She tried to find the answers herself by surveying her perfectly fine-looking dress she had picked out. It was an emerald green sundress, the end of the skirt flared out from the hips and fell to just below the knees. She adjusted one of the straps unconsciously, her nice arm's muscles that came about from all the Aikido's training flexed for a moment. "What's wrong with it?"

"Everything. Every single thing." Heiji rose from the bed and for the first time in his life, he began rummaging through Kazuha's cabinet. It was never a territory he was interested or wanted to get into, but this was it.

"I don't understand why," she caressed the hem of her dress. "It's green by the way. It matches my eyes."

"Exactly," Heiji acted like he wanted to barf as he continued his search. "Don't you get it? That man will use some sickening line like, wow you look so beautiful today in that dress of yours. Just like your eyes. How gross is that?"

"At least someone takes the effort to say such nice things about me!" Kazuha exclaimed back, her brows nearly merging together and behind the glare consisted of the underlying and horrendous truth that Heiji had been trying to pretend to not see. Unlike you, you stupid detective freak.

Within the next miraculous three seconds, Heiji had found something worthy in his treasure hunt. He pulled out a hanger that held a brown, thick coat that was purposefully meant for the winter and congratulated himself inwardly for such a great search. "If you are going to wear that dress, you have to wear this as well."

"I've greatly overestimated your taste in fashion," Kazuha scorned and waved her hand exaggeratedly at the coat. "How is this compatible?!"

"It isn't about compatible anymore," he shoved the coat into her chest, covering the slight cleavage that he was trying to ignore the entire time. "Look at how revealing you are! Wear a damn coat."

"Heiji, we're in the middle of summer!" She spat, with a heavy drip of exasperation.

"Does it matter? Aren't you girls more on the fashion over comfort, the sort of thing?"

Kazuha snatched the hanger from his hand to hang the coat and placed it back inside the cabinet. "Don't put me in the same category as all the girls you've interacted with."

Aren't you talking about yourself, Ahou. Heiji muttered in his head and slumped back on the bed. He stared at her bare, fair and smooth back that her dress didn't cover as she continuously whipped out more clothes and dumped them on the bed when it didn't fit her taste for the night.

In the middle of the little mess, he noticed and picked up a plain shirt he often saw her wearing on a routine basis, which she also matched it with a couple of jeans; the Kazuha style. Maybe he was wrong, for once; she was a girl who valued comfort over fashion. But then again, he wasn't entirely wrong as well. She did look nice in it, he remembered.

"Ugh. I should have agreed to go shopping with Ran-chan last week. I don't have enough clothes!" Kazuha groaned, abruptly breaking out of his thoughts.

He stared down at the shirt in his hand one last time before putting it back onto the pile of clothes that were in the process of its mountain-building challenge. "Who's that guy anyway? Until now, you haven't told me about it." He grumbled the last sentence out in annoyance. It never occurred to him to think about the man that indirectly caused him to spend his evening helping Kazuha to pick out her clothes when he could be, yes, in Tokyo, solving possible murders with Kudo Shinichi, the famed silver bullet who had destroyed the Black Organization. It never occurred to him to think that his growing irritation after he received a call from Kazuha for this request would be in correspond to that man. It never occurred to him until now when he suddenly felt like going home to get his katana and meet that man and-

"That's because you didn't ask." She turned away from the darkness of her cabinet and towards him before rolling her eyes.

"Well now I've asked!" He retaliated and his voice automatically turned low as he continued. "Does your Dad even know about your date?"

"Nope, he doesn't." She returned her attention back to her clothes. "What, are you going to rat on me?"

Heiji crossed his arms. "I certainly am if he's a scumbag. So who the hell is he?"

Kazuha shrugged like she didn't give a care and he clicked his tongue in reply. It sucked to feel like he was showing more concern over this matter than she was. Damn it. But luckily, she didn't let the silence to prolong long enough before he burst out in frustration for the suspense. "You know him too."

"I know him?" Heiji narrowed his eyes and a list of suspects began filling his head. They had quite a bit of mutual connections, from their old high school classmates, to the police department, to neighbours and even to this particular cashier boy from their local supermarket that Kazuha once called cute, like, four years ago. How was he supposed to derive anything from that pointless clue when there were so many bloody people?

"Can't you just give me the name?" Heiji scowled.

Kazuha gave a sidelong glance and narrowed her eyes. "Why do I have a feeling like you want to slice something open with your katana?"

Because hell, you're right. He simply showed his nice set of white teeth. "I'm being concerned for you. If your Dad isn't going to evaluate him, I'll have to step in to do something."

"Right." She drawled in a tone that sounded like she was not convinced at all. "But anyway, I'm pretty sure my Dad is going to pass him, with or without your evaluation."

"Wow." That was all he could say before he pursed his lips and felt like something in his chest sank. Something, like, a muscle that pumped blood and beat at an average rate of 70 times a minute. It was just that particular moment when he didn't expect to hear such a fast response from Kazuha. There was no sign of contemplation or doubt and the confidence in her tone made it much worse... Worse of what? He didn't quite understand, yet.

Kazuha pulled out a white button up shirt and showed it to him. "How is this? Maybe it'll go well with a skirt."

It didn't take him long to blurt out his opinion. "The green dress you're wearing is better." What the hell? He quickly corrected himself. "With the coat."

"For the last time, Heiji, I'm not going to wear a coat!" Kazuha grimaced.

Heiji, prior to many experiences (especially with Kazuha, no doubt, the only woman who he'd spent his lifetime fighting for- FIGHTING WITH. WITH), knew he could never sit down in an argument if he wanted to get his points straight. He flung up to his feet from the bed, head towering over Kazuha, but much to his reluctance to admit, he'd got a perfect view of her cleavage again. "You're going to ignite wrong intentions from that guy! So what if you think he'd pass your Dad's evaluation or whatsoever, you'll never know, Ahou!"

"He's not like that!" Kazuha argued, but Heiji swore he thought he just saw a fleeting smile that was beautifully matched with her pink lip gloss. "Because he's a block of wood sometimes."

His anger was shelved aside as a tinge of confusion bugged him instead. "… Is that suppose to be an insult or a compliment?"

She simply shrugged and hung the white button-up shirt back into the cabinet.

Having more clues on hand, he began cancelling and shifting names around in his head and what came in conclusion was that 98 percent of the list were eradicated because those people they knew were pretty much sick in the head. But among the leftovers, there was still the bloody cute cashier boy Kazuha commented about four years ago… Still, it couldn't have been him, right? It had been four years, Kazuha should have forgotten about him! And that suddenly marked another problem. Why did he remember that stupid encounter when it happened so long ago? Maybe, somehow, it'd got to do with the way Kazuha was so giggly about someone else, which vastly annoyed him- Oh God, he'd been living a really petty, four years all these while.

"I'm not going to wear a coat," Kazuha suddenly spoke and Heiji blinked in mild surprise, wondering why she was repeating her words when he didn't say anything. She pulled out a white lightweight scarf from nowhere and hooked it smoothly around her neck, allowing the light linen to stroke across her shiny shoulders. "But is this better?"

It was a pretty combination, but the green dress on itself was still the best. Nonetheless, it was a good compromise. Heiji nodded satisfyingly and walked around Kazuha just to double confirm. "Better."

"Finally." Kazuha heaved a sigh and looked into the mirror to check on herself. She smiled, content with how she dressed as well and glanced at the clock hanging on the wall. "Lucky! Just in time."

Heiji crossed his arms and observed the way the dress stuck perfectly to her slender waist as she walked across the room and began rummaging through the bag she left on her desk. His eyes softened on its will and finally, defeated by nothing, he sighed. "You're pretty serious about the date, aren't you?"

"Of course." She replied, with the similar confidence she used before. "This is important to me."

"I'm pretty serious myself too, about my question." Heiji run a hand through his hair and coughed out loud, at the same time to dispel the tightness at the back of his throat. "Who's that guy-? No, I'm not going to slash him with my katana." He quickly added when Kazuha glanced over her shoulder to give him a look. "I just want to make sure he's good enough for you. Like mentally sane. And not a potential murderer. Or something like that." Damn. He did try, but he really couldn't speak nicely without adding redundant words along the way and ruining everything

(But he was smart enough to avoid using the word follower even though it was the only thing he thought he could say in order to meddle in her life. Because the last time he used the word on her, she ignored him for nearly a week. He wasn't going to risk it now)

Her stern gaze vanished and a light chuckle was replaced. "You'll pass him if you're only evaluating on that."

"How do you know?" Heiji frowned in displeasure. "Oi, I'm being all serious here and you're mocking me."

"I'm not mocking you." Kazuha turned to face him, and what was in her hands; the thing she was searching inside her bag, was two tickets to a movie. He blinked incredulously and before he knew it, one of the tickets was shoved to his face.

"What-"

"Hattori Heiji!" Kazuha blabbered, her make-up failed to camouflage her reddened cheeks. "G-go out on a date with me!"

He would rather dab some girly blushers onto his cheeks than to admit his face was flushing like mad right now. The only thing he could do was to make a poor attempt of covering half of his face with his hand, but his body unconsciously betrayed him even further when a squeak came out from his mouth. "W-What the heck? What the heck?!"

"Do you w-want it o-or not?" She wailed and waved the ticket over his face again. "The movie is going to start in half an hour."

"I'm, you-" He was trying to work out what just happened, and it was taking him really and pathetically long when he could think of the murder weapon at a crime scene in a millisecond, yet he couldn't think of an answer for her question when seven seconds had already passed. All he could do was to snatch the ticket from her hand and hoped it sort of depicted what he meant, though nothing was making any sense in his head.

"Let's go!" She hurled her bag around her shoulder and was about to stomp out of her room when Heiji finally mustered enough courage to grab her arm, stopping her on her tracks.

"A-Are you serious?" He finally untied the knot on his tongue and managed to speak. "Is this real?"

"What do you think?" Kazuha sighed and pulled a face. "I mean, I guess I have to put in some effort or we'll never work out."

Heiji could feel his jaws tightened. "What-"

Kazuha stared straight into his eyes. "I knew you were trying to confess back then-"

"Back when?!" Heiji burst out in a fake laugher and ended up choking onto his saliva.

She cast a dry look, though her face was too pretty to look anything else, in Heiji's opinion. "Back then, soooo long ago at the Yadori Village, before the Japan air defence force came and ruined your plan, perhaps."

"Wait- That-" Heiji pressed the back of his hand firmly on his nose, not like it made a difference since he wasn't even breathing in the first place. "You-"

"I can't blame you for being the only dense one," Kazuha scratched the side of her ears sheepishly, her voice trailing off to a meek, raspy voice that made Heiji's stomach flop upside down. "I was pretty blind to not notice your odd behaviour. Like, why would ya bring me to such a beautiful lake, to only comment that you like my secret recipe for some pot-boiled chicken?"

"That wasn't a lie though," Heiji muttered. "It does taste best when you stirred the egg with the rice."

"Besides that point," Kazuha gulped and shut her eyes nervously. "I think we're way past the stage and age of needing a confession to deal with our relationship too...-"

It was the perfect moment for Heiji to give one special glance over her features that he couldn't admire without being deemed as weird for staring at her. Her closed lids, her long eyelashes, her rosy cheeks, her everything, and especially the softness of her lips.

The softness of her lips?

He didn't even realize he was kissing her until he realized he was kissing her. At the same time, he didn't realize he was running out of air until he was running out of air as they broke apart, and he breathed, the scent of Kazuha filling his lungs.

"I-I suppose I'm also agreeing to your statement." Heiji nodded dumbly and tried not to focus too much on her lips but at her chin, or maybe her jaw- he was back to her lips again.

Kazuha unconsciously helped his problem by plunging her heavy head straight into the crook of his neck and he froze, feeling the strong sensation of her fast heartbeat thumping against his chest.

"H-Hey?" She couldn't have possibly... fainted, right?

"You're st-stupid." Kazuha muffled into his shirt.

"... I'm allowing you to call me one this time."

"It's all your fault." He could feel her face pressing deep into his chest and for some reason, it was making him positively comfortable. "I'm dizzy right now, thanks to you."

Heiji considered for a moment. "I can carry you to the movie theatre if you want."

"The movie-"! Kazuha straightened her posture in sudden alert and pointed at the door. "We need to hurry!"

"Wait, what about your dizzy spells?"

She glanced away, her lips puckered out into a small pout. "I'm alright now. I was also just trying to hide my blush, if you want me to put it so obviously."

To cut Heiji some slack, he was still a beginner at this after all.

"Let's go." Kazuha regained her composure in no time and pulled his hand towards the door. Her warmth of her hand distracted him for a moment, be he halted in his steps just in time before they were out of her room. Kazuha turned and quirked an eyebrow, silently conveying her confusion.

"Uh," Heiji swallowed before daring himself to continue to speak. He'd already started it, might as well get on with it. "The scarf. Take it off."

Kazuha's lips tugged down. "We're going to be late for the movie if you're going to complain about my dressing now."

"No, it's just that-" Heiji heavily took in a deep breath to register his thoughts properly before speaking. He wasn't going to repeat his mistake and spoil the words he intended to say to her again. "You look better without it. Nicer, with just the dress itself."

Her lips slowly parted as she stared at him for a long while, long enough to make him feel embarrassed. That was a record. Before he could demand what was wrong, Kazuha snickered, unwrapping the scarf around her neck as she rolled her eyes in an appeasing way that made her eyes twinkle even without the help of any light. "Really?"

"Yeah." Heiji praised himself for not stuttering out the truthful compliment he'd never thought he would ever say.

Kazuha gave a sly smirk as she let the scarf slip off her fingers and slung it over at the side of her bed, her collarbone exposed and God-damn seductive in a way Heiji never imagined before. "What about the coat? You don't want me to wear it anymore?"

He simply complied his life-time worth of happiness into his grin. "Never."

They could've skipped the whole movie date thing and jumped to do what was even better, but as Kazuha hopped out of her room, her happy strides reflecting how he felt as well, Heiji thought he wouldn't mind doing things one step at a time.

.end.