“I know and thank you for that.” He said and winced. As the door open he gave Hakuba a brief look and stepped inside. He did a full circle taking in everything that he could see before turning back to him.
It felt strange, watching Kaito walk into his room. There had been so few people inside, and it only struck him then how intensely odd and nerve-wracking that was. He’d practically lived in the space since returning to Japan, holed up working when he wasn’t at school or on a case, and he wondered if it was obvious. Not that the room wasn’t clean; it was very neat, very tidy, but it felt like a separate apartment compared to the rest of the mansion.
Er, aside from the opened moving boxes on the floor, anyway.
Hakuba let the door close behind him and hesitated over the deadbolt for a moment before deciding not to lock it like he normally did when home. Instead, he walked past Kaito and to the large window, pulling back the curtains to glance out at the yard beyond. The hedges below his window were neatly maintained, as were the trees just beyond, and the koi pond, but it was the sky that he looked at – nearing sunset – before settling down to a kneel in front of the window seat bench.
“You’ll be the only one to know about this…” he explained, trying to keep his voice light and casual as he reached under the lip of the bench, searching… and pulled the lock out of place that let him raise it up, revealing a hidden storage space underneath. Worn quilts were piled on one side, and the other had a handful of boxes, including a heavy-duty lockbox. This he pulled out, settling back to sit on his heels, quickly dialing in the code which he hoped Kaito wouldn’t pick out.