smokebombsandmirrors:

For the second time that morning Kaito felt his brow lift. He aloud Hakuba pass before closing the door. Out of habit he click the lock closed then quickly opened it again. “Sorry habit. You can place your shoes in here. Do you want a pair of slippers?” He said with a small grin and crouched next to the shoe cupboard. With a soft slide of the door he waited for the shoes and an answer. 

It took a little bit of effort to remove his stupidly expensive shoes, but Hakuba did so as quickly as he could, practiced movements still a little bit awkward at the impracticality of it all. “Ah, yes, please,” he said in regard to the slippers, stepping out of his shoes and offered them to him. It was so… odd to see Kuroba there, serving him. It was only polite, of course, but… even so… he felt somehow guilty. 

He knew that he was being ridiculous; Kuroba had invited him in, had been more or less cordial in class before aside from the pranks… there was really no reason for him to be afraid. Well, other than the uncertainty of addressing the topic, anyway. 

“Thank you…" 

smokebombsandmirrors:

Now this was a change and a confusing one. Kaito shift on the balls of his feet to his heels, a sign of relaxation in his book. His curiosity was piqued but he was also conflicted. His self protection as KID and the longing for a person to simple be near, even if it was Hakuba, were waging war. Slipping his hands out of his pockets he rested one on the door lightly then looked back to the man. He wonder if Hakuba knew how apparent his thoughts and feelings were at the moment. 

Shifting to the side he held the door open and offered a pass inside. “We’ll talk inside.”

Of all of the responses that he’d considered for Kuroba to give, that was near the bottom of the list. At least, of the responses that made any sort of logical sense whatsoever. Hakuba blinked, confused, and it took a few seconds for it to process before he nodded. 

“Oh! If that’s really all right, Kuroba-kun…” That was a politeness convention of Japanese culture, for certain. All the same, he managed a bow and took the opportunity to step inside, shock and awe readily apparent on his face. He laughed in spite of himself, shaking his head. “God, I never expected you to…”

He cut himself off abruptly, grimacing. Bad slip. 

“Ah… Shoes off here…?" 

smokebombsandmirrors:

A soft laugh escaped the master thief then morphed into something a bit stronger. It wasn’t blusterous; it wasn’t even loud but it did make Kaito’s sides hurt from the strain. Struggling to right himself he straightened and took a deep breath.

“I’m doing fine. I’ve picked up a part time job and sent in some applications and got a few replies.” He said quietly and watched the sky.

It was a strange sort of calm for him. A weird, very weird feeling seemed to shift and settled in him.  Looking back to his former classmate he moved his hands away from the door to his hoodie’s pockets.

“I wasn’t expecting you to ever swing by here. Except with another claim that I’m KID. So why are you here, Hakuba?”

Of course Kaito would immediately assume… why wouldn’t he?!  God, accuse a person for the same crime half a dozen times and suddenly that’s all that ever seems to stick.

“It wasn’t to accuse you of anything, Kuroba-kun, if that’s what you’re insinuating…” Hakuba said, immediately on the defensive, though he halted the worst of it quickly. “Ah, no, I… I actually wanted to talk. If you had time. I…” He sighed. “What I mean to say is…” There were plenty of things that he could list – he was lonely, he needed a friend, he missed him, he wanted to find out how the whole stealing precious stones thing was going… 

In the end, what he decided was a quiet and apologetic request.

“…I need some advice." 

smokebombsandmirrors:

A neatly groomed eyebrow winged up at the detective’s flustered speech  and complete out of character nerves. Awkward smile. He thought then opened the door a bit wider to get a good swing shut in case he had to bolt. “Huh?" 

That… wasn’t quite the response he’d been expecting. What was the protocol for that sort of thing in Japanese culture? Smile fading, Hakuba strained to remember, desperately recalling what he’d learned from textbooks and Baaya, but returned no results. Perhaps he needed to restate the question in way that was more direct? That felt wrong, somehow, for both Japanese and British culture, but he really couldn’t think of anything else. 

"We graduated fifteen days ago, Kuroba-kun… I wanted to see how you were holding up without your classmates to tease. Are… things going well for you?" 

It wasn’t the real reason he came, but he was genuinely interested in Kaito’s well-being.