He’d been sleeping at his desk when the visitor arrived. Case files, papers, and letters were piled and pushed to make room for the detective when he’d finally given in to exhaustion. Were it not for the working lamp attached to the desk’s canopy, the room would have been nearly dark. Shadows stretched out from the large, bay window panes above the cushioned window seat, spilling moonlight across the carpeted floors and the padded arm chairs by the fireplace.
The rap-tap-tapping against the glass hadn’t been enough to wake Hakuba at first. Uneasy dreams clawed after shreds of sinewy confidence, begging him to give in to the oblivion of sleep. But, as he’d become a light-sleeper as of late, it only took a few more tries before he stirred.
The detective lifted his head, spilling more papers in the process, and got to his feet. Visitors after eight o’clock were typically discouraged, but never before had he heard of someone trying to come to his window, much less in the dead of night.
Briefly, the thought crossed his mind that it could be one of the many vengeful criminals that he’d put away, but he felt foolish for entertaining such a ridiculous notion. If someone wanted revenge, coming to his window and calling for his attention was probably not the most subtle or useful one.
Still, even while he kept those thoughts repeating in his tired mind, making his way from the writing desk toward the window, he couldn’t help but draw parallels the haunting dreams he’d just been pulled away from.
Probably just the hedges or bit of ivy scraping and tapping against the shutters…
Thought changed, however, from Poe to Barrie when an all-too familiar silhouette took shape on the other side of the glass. The cape and top hat that had caused him plenty of grief in the past, now relaxed him and filed him with curiosity.
He put one knee on the window box and unlocked the latches for the window, swinging it inward, quiet and bewildered.
“Kaitou-san?” Hakuba asked, unable to stop the slow smile that spread across his lips. Whether the thief were here for business or a social call, he really couldn’t be sure. Either way, since it was KID, it was bound to be interesting.
The kiss, gentle though it was, stunned the detective to silence. Once parted, Hakuba let go of the breath he’d been holding since KID approached, quiet and soft, as if the very air between them were only a paper-thin, delicate work of woven lies.
Wide eyed, and with a decidedly rosy tint to his cheeks, the detective swallowed hard. Question after question rose to his mind but, just as his body seemed to be stuck still, the words would not come.
What fantasy world had the disheveled detective just stepped into?
