Kaito felt his face flush and he swung his head to look at the detective. Miffed that he wasn’t being taken seriously. “You think I’m joking.”
Far more insulted than he should have been he crossed over to him and shoved the wine into his hands. “Do you think of me as a fool? That I can’t be serious? Hakuba …of course I’m a romantic. I’m a magician for gods”
He sighed and ran a hand threw his hair. He had to stop what he was saying before he said something he was going to regret.
“I like you.” He said it as clearly and as serious as he could with his face burning as bad as it was.
Uh.
Hakuba fumbled, setting plate back, holding onto the wine with wide eyes, and stared at Kaito. Flustered didn’t even quite cover what he was or how he felt, struggling to set the plate and the wine down without losing either, panicked. “W-wait, Kuroba-kun, I… no, I…”
God! He was so bad at this! Where was all of that charm and allure that he had when courting others? Dammit, he was so frustrated!
“I know you’re a romantic, I was joking. Trying to lighten the air again… I… I suppose I should really stop trying to do that, because all that I’ve managed so far is to upset you.” The detective ran his hands through his hair as he spoke, then down his neck, hanging his head afterward. Then he peeked up at Kaito afterward, biting his lip, pleading.
“I didn’t mean to insult you. I believe you. I know you can be just as serious and romantic and whatever else as you like, and… aha, I’m just not certain what to do with all of the attention. Wine. Wine and then… then I’ll be all right, you’ll see!”
Digging a hole for himself, Hakuba looked back at the bottle and gestured to it, almost knocking it over in the process, flailing, righting it. “Bloody hell!”