kuroba-k:

The emotions on Hakuba’s face were impressive. He hadn’t ever seen the detective going through so many. He hadn’t really seen him show much besides annoyance and surprise. But Kaito just let him, having feelings and expressing them was good.
The small voice answering him did show him though that he has clearly pushed the limit. Now it was time to hold back, before he would scare Hakuba away. So his answer was a simple smile. Then he carefully lowered his hands to the scar and started working it, very gentle at first.
“Stop fretting, Hakuba-san, close your eyes if you want to. You can worry again later.” He kept working gently, leaving out the most intense techniques and watching his patient’s face, so he could immediately lighten his touch again if he saw so much as a twitch. Then he kept his mouth shut for a few minutes and continued working calmly. About five minutes later he opened the bottle and put a few drops onto his fingertips and finally started stroking it into the skin, really just stroking now.

“You know… you said that you’ll be moving back to Ekoda…” He gave a loopsided grin and looked almost a little embarassed. “I still live there, too. And I’ve got a car. I suppose if you ever need some help with boxes or anything. I could offer.” He was aware of the fact that not many citizen of Tokyo owned a vehicle, especially not those living close to the centre. “Just let me know.” Then he got up and wahsed his hands, before he took Hakubas trousers to put them into his hands. “You can get dressed again and if there are any questions, fire away.”

Hakuba did close his eyes when it was offered, and tried, desperately, to not let his thoughts get the best of him. His leg hurt, he was tired and embarrassed, and stressed beyond belief. But Kaito did seem to recognize all of this, and his touch was, admittedly very soothing. Gradually, he did relax, so by the time he left to wash his hands, the detective was a little surprised that it was over.

Even moreso that he’d just been offered help. 

Flushed, Hakuba took his trousers back and nodded, carefully scooting to the edge of the table so that he could, indeed, get dressed again. “Thank you,” he said at first, voice quiet, sort of somber. Not depressed, really, but just not sure what to say. “If you’re really willing to help, that would be… well, that would be a great relief, really. I’m planning on hiring some movers, but I won’t be able to supervise them and Akira-kun very well." 

What followed was a long and weary sigh. "Is it even a good idea to move back in with my father? God, I hated it there… but then there’d be enough room… people to look after him…" 

kuroba-k:

At first Kaito simply listened, watching Hakuba’s face while doing so and letting his hands rest on the injured leg, one slightly below the knee, the other a little off the scar. He clearly registered the anxiousness his patient was showing and together with the words started forming a hypothesis.
“Mhh”, he answered noncommitally at first, more to let Hakuba know that he’d heard. Then he focussed on the brown eyes before him. “It is more pain than I would have expected from what I’ve seen on your file and on your skin. But Hakuba-san, there is no norm you’re supposed to meet. There is no exact manual for a human body, each and everyone is different and reactions can vary. You’re not bound to feel anything but what your body tells you.” He took another short look at the leg and then leaned back, removing his hands to lean back a little.

“Let me humour you with some of my thoughts,” he began. “This incident has clearly shaken you up, as it would anybody and the person I’ve got to know in you is someone who prefers to have some control over himself and the situation around him. Injuries like this one though are things we can’t control by our will. They happen suddenly and then they’re there, confining you to medical attention where you are dependant, limiting your movement against your will. They force you to change your life around them.
"It is frustrating and sometimes it feels like you’ll never get anywhere, because no one will have the guts to assert you that it will be alright again, preferrably even give you a date for your full recovery. I assume you’ve always given your hardest and probably already experienced how it feels like when you push too hard. I daresay you pushed it too far more than just once and remember very clearly that it had hurt and felt like you were walking backwards within your recovery.
"I can see that you’re anxious, Hakuba-san. I guess you fear to fall or already have fallen behind on some given recovery schedule or that your case just won’t get any better. That I might say that there’s nothing I can do.”

Taking a short break, Kaito got up to remove a bottle from a shelf and sat back down with it.

“There is no schedule and you haven’t fallen behind anything. You are exactly where you are supposed to be. I ain’t going to tell you that I’ll stop before I even tried. I see no reason not to work with you.
 It’s not bad if it hurts, because we are going to do something against it. And pain is not an enemy, pain is just one way of your body talking to you.
"I have changed my mind about testing the hell out of you today. What I’m planning now is having you relax for the ten minutes we have left, while I’m giving your scar a little massage helping it keep recover so well. What do you say?”

Although he really didn’t want to, Hakuba let the fear show in his eyes as he listened to Kaito speak, practically hanging on every word while holding his breath. Gradually, his cheeks colored with embarrassment and he let his gaze drop down to his leg again, head hanging in shame, guilt, and growing anxiety.

Kaito was right. Of course he was right. He hated feeling so weak and useless. He hated not being able to work, that he couldn’t get around without considerable time and effort, and that it hurt so god damned much all the time. He’d followed doctors’ and therapists’ orders to the letter, but had pushed himself harder than was probably necessary. 

Was it over, then? Was he ruined? He wondered, fretting as Kaito walked away from him, chewing on his lower lip. How was he supposed to take care of Akira if he couldn’t even walk properly? 

Gulping, he reached for the pocket watch that he kept, running fingers over the engraved surface while he waited for Kaito to return, dreading the worst. What he said, though, surprised him, and Hakuba looked back up with a single spark of hope in his otherwise troubled face. 

“Ah…” He stammered, blinking, and gave a small, submissive nod. “All right, then… yes, I think that’d be fine. Thank you.”

He was no less embarrassed, but the relief he felt was palpable. Honestly, if he could get out of the office without having to admit his failings out loud, and without much more pain, the detective would be satisfied to go home and ignore the world for the rest of the day. 

kuroba-k:

It was rather obvious that Hakuba had trouble undressing, which made the therapist wonder slightly. Did he still get help from someone? Or was it because of the awkward situation here and perhaps more pain than usual today? It sure caused him to go perhaps a little more easy for today than he usually would. If things were this irritating.

While Hakuba scooted back onto the table, Kaito bent over, grabbing the trousers and casually folded them in half before he placed them on an extra chair. The brace followed right after and he disinfected his hands once more, rolling right next to the table, taking a good look. The skin seemed to have healed back together properly, no open wounds or complications he could see. What he did see though was that the injured thigh was distinctly slimmer than the other one, as to be expected after six weeks of not using the muscles.
“From the looks of it, I would say superficially the healing’s going well. The scar’s a good red which means circulation’s working properly. The haematoma is receding nicely as well. Your muscles are a little atrophied, but that was to be expected and we’ll be working on that.” He didn’t bother to colorfully describe common terminology, in Hakuba’s like of work they were just just the same.

“I’m going to put my hands on your leg now.” He warned quietly before he gently, yet very assured, slid both of his hands onto the skin next to the scar. “If it hurts or the pressure’s getting uncomfortable, please tell me.” After another second of letting Hakuba become acustomed to his touch, he moved his hands along around the scars, feeling for temperature differences and changes in humidity. Then he used a little more pressure to feel the muscles beneath. “I’ll need some comparison.” Again, just a short warning before he moved one hand towards the other leg, doing the same things over.
“How’s this for you? Feeling any differences?” His gaze slid up to Hakuba’s face as it had been every now and then, judging the other male’s expression.

It hurt, that much was clear, and Hakuba did his best to stay calm and focused despite. His expression betrayed him, though– brows furrowed, face pinched in a grimace, and his fingers clenched and unclenched in anxious fervor. 

“My right leg isn’t really in any pain at all,” he said, looking to his uninjured limb. “Just a little sore, though I expect that’s from putting so much weight on it all of the time these days… ah, the left one, though…”

The detective looked down at his offending leg again which, as Kaito had said, was healing remarkably well. Even so, the pain was the deep sort, and Hakuba bit his lip before attempting to explain it. “After all, the femur was fractured by the bullet… that’s… bound to cause some long-lasting pain, isn’t it? It’s normal… … … right?" 

kuroba-k:

“Well, you won’t be full-body tackling any criminals for a while now. Even though with your height I imagine it to be rather productive here in Japan.” The corners of his mouth twiched upwards again. He was being considered tall, but Hakuba was at least another half a head taller, so he really did have some advantages. Although the side of it he imagined not to be that much fun was, that it made the detective’s ‘Hafu’ heritage a little more visible.

Although with the next topic it seemed Kaito had found the sore spot Hakuba had been avoiding a few times already. So he focused a little more, watching his patients body language a tad more attentive.

Small apartment in Tokyo, floor?, lift – planning to move into house, he noted quickly. Then he nodded when Hakuba mentioned the boy, he already talked about before.

“So he’s most likely pretty lively”, Kaito supplied during the little pause and wrote down that there was a small boy with custody in the question and trying to organise a nanny. “Sounds like a fine young man and a very reasonable thing you’ve planned there.” He looked up again with a warm smile and finally put his papers and the pen aside.

“As for us, the first thing I’d like to do is take a look at your leg and the scars. For today they’re my first priority. I want to make sure the tissue stays as functional as possible so you won’t have any long term restrictions due to the fact that the skin won’t strech. Also, I want to know how much pain may come from them. As for the rest of the time I will most likely be a little mean, because I’d like to try and slightly irritate some pain to test the waters. Which is the next thing I plan tackling with you. My feeling so far is that the aches currently bother you most, so I’d like to try and optimise your pain management with you. What do you think?”

“Oh, I used to be very good at tackling people and… yes, he’s quite the handful,” Hakuba said, pouting as he considered the next part of Kaito’s plan for him. He was used to pain, but he didn’t really enjoy it. He knew very few people that did, though, and that fact forced him to keep a tight jaw and a grim smile on his face. 

Really, all things considered, he was lucky that he hadn’t completely lost his leg. Or his life. He very well could have at so many points during the confrontation and the ensuing trauma. It had been a mess. “Go ahead, Kuroba-san, do whatever you need to do and I’ll do my very best to avoid making too much noise.”

He laughed, tilting his head at him with a broader sort of smile. “Or am I supposed to be completely honest about the pain? I try not to complain nearly as often as I’d like to…”  

kuroba-k:

Kaito on the other hand did not have that much trouble with this part, because Hakuba tried to be as scientific as possible. He only reminded the detective once in a while that it didn’t matter if it wasn’t standardised unless he asked for it and gave him the standarised scale to pick from.

Oops, well there he messed something up in his head. A slightly embarassed face looked back at Hakuba, when he smirked about the Judo question. Finally grinning back a little askew he explained:

“I’m sorry. I thought I remember that you’ve said something like that because Sherlock did so as well. I must have confused it with something else. I haven’t read any of the books for years either and I’ve never read all of them…” He truly wondered where his brain pulled that one out, usually his memory was very accurate. But it hadn’t hurt anyone and he still got the answers he wanted and scribbled them down.

Noticing the little hesitation, he pretended not to and smiled slightly at the KID comment. “As I said I suppose KID would actually pay attention to that. I can imagine he’d be the only criminal to scold you for being so unreasonable and chase after him instead of resting.” Chuckling, because he would indeed just do that. Let Hakuba catch up with him to give him an earful for neglecting his health and doing stupid and dangerous stunts.

“There’s one thing left for me to ask and then I’d like to get over to the hands on part. I would like to know how you currently live. Is it small or big and do you have any stairs you have to take to get home? Is anyone living with you and are they capable and available of helping you when you need help?”

“I tried to box in high school. In England,” Hakuba said off-handedly, rubbing the side of his face as he, too, attempted to figure out where judo might have come from. He could have said something about that in school. He did like to talk about Sherlock Holmes a lot, after all… even more so when he was younger. “But I’ve never been good at fighting, just… full-body tackling criminals… aha. Ahem.”

He internalized the comment about KID, taking it as a warning from the physical therapist himself, whom he was STILL convinced was the thief, even after all these years. Would Kaito really do that to him during a heist? Somehow, Hakuba couldn’t put it past him. With a derisive snort, he turned to the matter at hand and hesitated yet again.

“Ah… living arrangements…” Hakuba ran a hand over his injured leg again. “I have a little apartment in Tokyo, not too far from the police station. There are stairs, but there’s also an elevator, fortunately. I may be moving back to Ekoda, though… to my father’s home. It’s all sort of in the air at the moment, though. You see, ah…" 

Deep breath, slow release.

"I’ve… well, the boy that I rescued– Miyu’s son? He’s living with me, now. Or will be, soon. Paperwork is still going through on that end, and his aunt has him for part of the time while I’m getting things worked out. He’s, ah, a four year-old, so he’s…” Hakuba lifted his hand to scratch at his neck again, nervously. “Not exactly the most helpful, though he tries. If I manage to arrange things with my father, though, I may be able to convince Baaya to fly out to stay with us…" 

kuroba-k:

Kaito hadn’t expected a reaction to his condolences. He was well aware that some people preferred not to talk about it. He himself had kept it that way for a very, very long time. So he moved on as well, without trying to pry any further information about the woman out of the blonde. He reacted again on the note of the tunnel vision and nodded.
“It’s not unusual for people to underestimate their own injuries. The adrenaline and panik in situations as such surpress the pain. Nature’s way of ‘better worse off than all dead’.”

He then scribbled down a few things Hakuba used to describe the pain as well as the fact he couldn’t put much weight on it, the stiff feeling and finally he also scribbled a note along the frame to reread the files from the previous therapy. Mainly to avoid the same techniques if they didn’t help. He lightly frowned at the words that it apparently got even worse. But he showed no sign of disbelief, it rather made him curious what could have lead to that.
PAIN MANAGEMENT he wrote down in capital letters at the bottom frame of the sheet, then he looked up again grinning right back. “I could imagine KID would be considerate enough not to overexert you.” Then he laughed. “That would be a heist I’d love to see. I haven’t been to any in a while.”
“But on with this for now, I’d like to talk about the pain a little more detailed.” And with that the questions became a little less open. Showing Hakuba the body chart as well, he made sure to draw in every injury he had and especially still felt, asking for older ones, too. Then he reached for details such as how the pain would feel, how close to the surface or deep it was, if it was constant or movement related or both and how severe he would rate each painful spot and if they showed any relation to each other. He’d also ask which activities Hakuba tried to decrease the pain, which worked and when it would increase, how it changed throughout the day and the week and he let Hakuba repeat which medication he really took and how regularly. During all this Kaito kept writing it down in short notes, abbreviations and symbols.

Finally though, he turned the sheet back over. “Alright, that has been a lot of technical information now. Let’s ease it off with a bit social talk again. Have you still been doing Judo or have you been into any other hobbies that might have been stopped or gotten difficult due to the injury?”

It was difficult to answer the questions as vaguely as it seemed required. Hakuba wanted to give specific answers with a statistical analysis, but he simply didn’t have the data. So much had happened in such a short period of time that he felt fairly helpless as he supplied what information he could: It ached, the pain radiated, he could feel it all the way up and down his leg, into his hip. Despite his knee not actually sustaining direct injury, he had difficulty bending or flexing it, and it felt an awful lot like the kneecap, he thought, were being pulled apart from the inside out. 

He pointed out his other points of injury on the chart, as well. Cracked ribs that had more or less healed, but still hurt from time to time; a small concussion at his temple that had only left a faint mark. Bruises here and there, road rash on his back, on his opposite thigh. 

“Judo?” Hakuba asked, smirking at Kaito with a tilt of his head. “God, I’ve never been good at martial arts, no. I always did fencing, jogging, tennis… that sort of thing. But I can’t do any of that now, no.” He laughed, shifting a little on the table as if just talking about it were making the pain worse. “I mostly hobble around on these crutches and sit in a recliner to work… So, everything has become more difficult.”

Then he hesitated, wondering if he should bring up the other factor, biting his lip. It would come out eventually, wouldn’t it? No. Not yet. He went back to KID instead of the kid. “I certainly hope Kaitou-san plays nicely… though I sincerely doubt I’ll be able to attend any heists any time soon. Can you just imagine…? Crutches and all… god, it would be so ridiculous.”

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?”