He blushed. He really didn’t know anything about wine. Oh Gods did he mess up? Was it a bad choice? He swallowed the bite he had just taken and felt his stomach churn. Then when he heard Hakuba had visited the Blue Parrot struggle not to vomit. The memories of Jii flashed through his mind and he had to really concentrate not to break into a sweat.
“Did you?” His voice fluxed and broke embarrassingly. What was the question? The wine? Right. He took a deep breath and put on an easy smile. His expression changed to one of ease and normalcy.
It was fake.
“I brought it from Blue. Is there something wrong with it?” He asked through the smile and the perfectly masked pain.
“Oh, no, no… it’s brilliant, actually. A very fine selection, good year from what I understand.” Hakuba reached for the bottle to look it over, giving himself an opportunity to continue to ignore the food in front of him. "I believe that I’ve had a taste of this before– a couple of years ago in England. I remember it being quite good and, ah…“
It was completely inappropriate to bring up the cost, but the detective didn’t think that he could drink it in good conscience while Kaito was blissfully unaware. Or, well, not blissfully – the pain, as well as it had been hidden, was shared in quiet empathy. The wine was just a convenient distraction.
"It’s quite expensive, too.” He paused, lips pursing. Not wanting to imply that Kaito were poor, or that even if he was in comparison that it was at all a problem, Hakuba quickly continued. “If we’re really to drink this, we must make certain to savor every last drop. Perhaps I’ll bring out a different wine for dinner, and we can share this one afterward?"