kuroba-k:

Kaito pretendet not to notice the awkwardness and instead gave off the impression that this was exactly what he expected Hakuba to do. He had a body model on his form and simply sketched in the part the detective had pointed at on himself. He put a little one next to it and circled a few lines of writing he already jotted down on the form before and wrote a small one next to that as well.

“I’m very sorry for your loss, Hakuba-san.” He said quietly after hearing that the detective was close to the victim. And he nodded with a small smile after hearing that the son was saved.

“Actually you may skip the whole medical diagnoses they told you. I’ve read them already. I’d rather want to know how you experienced it and how you felt. Because for my line of work the medical terms may be nice to know, but I don’t want to treat a diagnosis. I’m planning to treat you and help you to get back to daily business. Ailments don’t know what make you feel comfortable.”

“Ah, right…”  Hakuba didn’t want to thank him for the apology – didn’t even want to think about it – so he moved on. Every time he’d had to explain the situation, it brought up far too many vivid memories, and feeling that loss all over again wasn’t something that he wanted to do. Not ever, really, much less in front of his former classmate and rival.

Swallowing, he attempted to concentrate on the task at hand. “Well, ah, at the time of the injury I was really only thinking about the case. Tunnel vision, you know… we detectives are so predictable that way. I think I must have made it worse, though, by moving despite the injury, but it was necessary. Ah…”

He tried to remember what sort of relevant information he could provide, teeth gritting. “Pain, obviously. Surgery. Er, though, when it happened it was sort of like… well, the imagery I can come up with is like chopping wood, I suppose? Only, once you first get the axe in, you use dynamite to finish the job.”  Hakuba coughed. “I still can’t put any weight on it, and it aches quite often. Almost constantly, actually.”

Glancing back down at his leg, Hakuba made a face as if to chastise the injury, then heaved a helpless sigh. “Stiff, too. I followed the last therapist’s recommendations to the letter, I think, but it’s to the point where I can hardly sleep, and crutches are terribly inconvenient, and… I just… How am I supposed to chase Kaitou Kid like this?”

It was meant to be a joke to ease the tension, but even so, he couldn’t help the sly little grin and challenging glance at Kaito immediately after. 

kuroba-k:

The last comment had Kaito laughing as well and then he gave him a cheeky grin. “I could be goofing off right now, but I don’t think it would be good for my position and it does kind of ruin the professional impression I should be having.”

The brunette knew he’d barely shown this side of him at school and in all honesty he had been a little more uncontrolled back then. Teenage hormones and all that and as much as he liked to deny, he had matured a bit. Which didn’t mean he couldn’t have fun though, but the feeling of approprietness has become much, much better.

“So I hope you’re not too weirded out by me and we can make some good use of our time. What I’d like to know now is how you’ve been doing with your leg, what happened exactly? I mean I read the paper, but I’d like to hear from you, how did it go after surgery and what had bothered you since then. Don’t try to rate things for importance, I’d like to hear the silly and stupid bits as well.” His smile was back to being friendly and warm, eyes directed at Hakuba’s face but not stairing, showing him his interest.

It was admittedly strange receiving such positive attention from Kuroba; he was used to being teased or antagonized, not cared for. Certainly not like this. The detective wondered just how much had changed for him. Could it have been as much for himself? Somehow he doubted it, but then, Kuroba Kaito had always been the unpredictable sort. He never would have pegged the infamous class clown as a future physical therapist– the thief that he was convinced he was, well… Actually, he was a lot like this, as far as he could remember.

Interesting.

“No, no, it really is fine. Honestly, it’s nice that I don’t have to explain myself too much… and it’s not as though you’re going to treat me like some foreigner; just a pesky detective.” Hakuba laughed, but he quickly sobered, rubbing the side of his neck as he tried to decide how to describe the situation in a way that wouldn’t provide too many details. 

So much of it was still in the air, after all.

“As for the incident, a… well… Obviously, I was shot in the leg, here…” Hakuba pointed, feeling a silly as he did so. “Fracturing the femur, tearing up the muscle, that sort of thing. Very close range, very messy. God, and it hurt like absolute hell. The culprit was the ex husband of a dear friend of mine… Oshiro Miyu, the victim. She was, ah… murdered. I…" 

He hesitated, chewing on his lower lip for a moment, offering a small, pained smile, glancing up at the ceiling. "I didn’t get to her in time. She was still alive when I got to the scene, but I… couldn’t save her.”

Not willing to let that hang there, he grimaced and continued. “But I did manage to save… her son, who had been kidnapped by the culprit. It was during that confrontation that I was injured. Other injuries, too, though my leg was certainly the worst of it, and has been ever since. Ah, what, specifically… did you need to know about it, post-op?”