Hello there, darlings. Here's a (slightly strange) bit of fluff to hopefully sate your Shinichi/Kaito desires until the next Gem of a Person/A Sonata and a Smile/Once Upon a Time/(hopefully) Semantics update~! Hope you like it & full A/N at the bottom. - Luna

Jelly Beans

Kudou Shinichi was perched pristinely at his desk, typing up a case report that had been requested by Inspector Megure, when he heard the chime of his doorbell. Glancing up from the open file sprawled in front of him and wrinkling his brow in confusion, Shinichi rolled back his chair and started down the hall and stairs towards his entry, stretching all the while.

He arrived at his front door a moment later, unlocked it, and opened it, wearing a dismissive expression in hopes of warding off his unexpected visitor – but it morphed into one of surprise when he recognized the intruder. "Kaito?"

Indeed, Kuroba Kaito – Shinichi's best friend of one year – stood on his doorstep, toting a large jar filled with what appeared to be a large variety of jelly beans and a rather ecstatic expression. "Hey, Shinichi!"

Shinichi had met Kaito while he had still been Edogawa Conan, attending Kaito's heists as Kid. Once Shinichi had finally returned, he had spotted Kaito at a Kid heist and instantly recognized him as Kid. But rather than turn him in, Shinichi had curiously ventured to make friends with the eccentric gentleman thief, getting to know him and spending time with him.

Quite surprisingly, Kaito had turned out to be tremendously engaging company, and Shinichi was quite glad that he'd made the decision to not turn him in. He loved the way he and Kaito could always pick up from wherever they'd left off, how he could always make Shinichi forget a particularly awful case, how his days seemed to have brightened whenever Kaito was involved, he just loved… he just everything about the magician.

Mentally cringing, Shinichi forced back a blush at the exact implications of that, preferring to leave certain thoughts unthought. After all, he didn't want to make things awkward between them…

Leaning against the doorframe, Shinichi raked back his bangs as he asked, "So, is there any particular reason for this lovely meeting?" His gaze dipped down to the jar in the magician's hands. "If you're going to challenge me to some sort of… competition…" he started suspiciously, but Kaito only laughed and waved a hand glibly.

"Don't worry, these are all for me," Kaito beamed. "I know you don't like sweets. Anyway, I won these at the supermarket and I wanted to come over to celebrate!"

Shinichi quirked an eyebrow. "Wait, what? The supermarket has contests for jelly beans?"

Kaito shrugged. "It was one of those 'guess how many jelly beans are in the jar' contests that are popular in the States. For some reason, the supermarket down the street decided to hold one. And I won." He glanced past Shinichi tentatively. "Are your parents in?"

Shaking his head, Shinichi explained, "They're not due back from the Caribbean cruise until Sunday. I'm the only one home right now." Opening the door further, Shinichi slanted his head to one side quizzically. "Want to come in?"

"I'd love to," sang Kaito, skipping past Shinichi and making him smile. "What're you up to?"

"Making a report to the inspector about the last case. Did you hear about it?" Shinichi replied as he shut the door and started up the stairs, Kaito trailing after him.

Tapping an index finger against his lip pensively and cradling the jar of jelly beans with the other hand, Kaito nodded vaguely as they climbed the staircase. "Was it the one about the painters or the one with the vampire theme?"

"Vampire," Shinichi told him as he reentered his room, dropping back into his desk chair. "It's not very pleasant writing, let me tell you."

"I bet," snorted Kaito, plopping down onto Shinichi's bed and unscrewing the lid off of the jar. "What was it, again? The killer used a syringe to extract blood from two points to make it look like a vampire bite?"

"And then put the blood in some of the public baths," added Shinichi, shivering. This particular murderer was horrifyingly sadistic, and writing the report was not pleasant in the least.

Kaito grimaced. "Ick. Good luck writing about that."

"I'm going to need it." Swiveling around, Shinichi tapped a few more keys, adding in the details of the third murder. He made it to the fourth and particularly gruesome killing when he was forced to draw to a halt, unsure of exactly how to describe what the killer had done without freaking himself out.

Shinichi was sitting and watching his cursor blink as he searched for the correct words when he suddenly realized that it had been completely silent behind him. While silence was appreciated while he was typing a case report, it was never a good sign when Kuroba Kaito was involved. When he got quiet, bad things seemed to magically happen.

Slowly turning around, Shinichi's jaw dropped when he saw what exactly had hit made Kaito go mute. The thief had pulled out a handful of jelly beans and was lining them up on Shinichi's nightstand, carefully straightening them into a perfect column with the utmost concentration. They appeared to be arranged by color, with the oranges, yellows, and lighter greens nearer to the front of the line and the darker reds and browns at the end.

Overcoming his momentary surprise, Shinichi managed to get out a perplexed, "What are you doing?"

The sound of his voice seemed to startle Kaito, and Kaito swore as he jumped, fingers inadvertently twitching and knocking a few jelly beans out of line. Scowling, Kaito looked up. "What?"

"Are you lining up your jelly beans before you eat them?" stammered Shinichi incredulously.

The magician glanced down at his work, straightening the few crooked candies before peering back up. "Yes. Do you mind?" he wondered, blinking confusedly.

"Well… I'm just kind of wondering why you're doing it," Shinichi stated, mildly affronted.

Kaito gave him an are you okay sort of look. "I put the flavors I don't like as much towards the front of the line so I eat them first, and then I have the flavors I like the most at the end so I save them for last." He blinked some more. "Is that strange?"

Shinichi only stared owlishly at him.

Growing somewhat agitated, Kaito flared, "It's really not that strange. Seriously, Shinichi, I don't know why you're flipping out over this of all things." He turned his attention back to his jelly beans, huffing as he dug out another handful to start a second row.

Kaito was probably right, Shinichi reflected as he watched Kaito sort through the jelly beans. It was weird that he was reacting this oddly – after knowing Kuroba Kaito for a year, Shinichi should probably expect strange habits. God knew how many of Kaito's idiosyncrasies Shinichi still hadn't discovered after this long.

Shinichi had to admit he was being completely ridiculous (this is jelly beans we're talking about, after all) – and he also had to admit his over-the-top irritation was most likely born out of a desire to know everything about Kaito, to monopolize him. Shinichi clenched his bottom lip between his teeth, annoyed with himself.

Even from across the room, he could see the tightness of Kaito's shoulders, showcasing his confusion and minor insecurity. Shinichi's heart dropped at the thought that maybe Kaito was feeling the slightest bit unaccepted and judged.

And that wouldn't do.

That wouldn't do at all.

Swallowing dryly, Shinichi stood up and strode across the room, crouching beside his bedside table and garnering Kaito's attention. "Hey," he called softly, forcing Kaito to let out a sigh and turn his indigo gaze on Shinichi.

"What?"

Motioning at the columns of neatly-arranged jelly beans, Shinichi asked, "Can I have some?"

Lifting an eyebrow, Kaito nodded, looking unsure of where exactly this was going. Shinichi scooped up a good number from the front of the first line, popping them into his mouth.

The sharp taste of citrus exploded in his mouth, a little too sweet and tangy to be natural. He drew his tongue across his lips quickly before diving forward and catching Kaito in a kiss.

Shinichi felt the magician let out a startled "mmpgh!" and tense underneath him, and he took the opportunity to gently wind his arms around Kaito and pull him down. He barely noticed the feeling of fingers hesitantly tangling in his hair, dragging him further into the contact.

All Shinichi could taste was sweetoranges and the even sweeter taste belonging solely to Kuroba Kaito, and it was more perfect than imaginable…

He finally pulled back, realizing that he was running out of air. Kaito was watching him with flushed cheeks and slightly unfocused indigo eyes that made Shinichi's own face heat up.

Heart plummeting as he wondered if he had done the right thing – seriously, what kind of apology was an unwanted surprise kiss?! – Shinichi swallowed the mass of dissolving sugar in his mouth and slowly rose to return to his spot in front of his computer. He only made it a few steps before the sound of jelly beans shuffling around behind him made him stop.

Looking over his shoulder, he raised an eyebrow as Kaito completely reorganized his collection of jelly beans, rummaging around in the jar for more. What exactly was he doing?

Feeling extremely awkward, Shinichi haltingly questioned, "Uh… what are you doing?"

Kaito looked up at him, a grin splitting his face. "Reordering these."

Perplexed, Shinichi asked, "Why?"

"I think orange might be my new favorite flavor."

*pokes head out of corner of shame* Uh, hi?

So... basically this was born out of my own strange habit of lining up jelly beans in order of least favorite to favorite...? I realized that I did that earlier today, and I was like "OOOO SOUNDS LIKE AN IDEA FOR POINTLESS FLUFF YAYZZZZ LET'S DO IT." And then I wrote this in less than an hour to happy character themes while thinking of rainbows and unicorns.

Wait. What am I even talking about.

In unrelated news, I finally got a LJ! My username is glassesandroses (you know, Shinichi = glasses and Kaito = roses), and my URL is posted in my profile. Let me just warn you: I act kind of... strange on there. Like... really strange. I guess it's a chance for you to see the "real" me (which is probably a bad thing for your sanity).

ANYWAY! Back to the topic at hand!

Sorry to deliver such plotless, over-dramatized fluff, I guess - but maybe you liked it & perhaps you'll consider dropping me a review? *hopeful eyes*

See you around! - Luna