smokebombsandmirrors:

He tilted his head in confusion but replied eager. “Don’t worry about it. Let’s watch it.”

Although something tugged at the detective with guilt, Hakuba did as requested and got it set up. “I’ll warn you ahead of time,” he said, glancing over to Kaito while biting his lip. “But I hope it’ll be worth it. It’s all about, well, stealing as I previously mentioned, and magic. It’s one of my favorites in this genre." 

Almost giddy, he adjusted his position on the couch again to get comfortable, then tucked into his slice of chocolate cake which, somehow, went very well with the particular selection of wine. What better way to spend the evening? Dinner be damned, dessert forever!

smokebombsandmirrors:

“The door will always be open at anytime.” He smiled and chased away the demons. “The drinks will be free. The owner won’t mind." 

He laughed and finished off the wine in his glasses. Setting it down on the table he leaned back against the back of it and sighed content with life at the moment.

Chuckling, Hakuba gave him a look, then nodded, leaning back into the corner of the couch. "That’s very generous of him. I’ll definitely have to drop by when I can. Perhaps challenge him to a round or two of cards or…” He laughed again, shaking his head. 

“God I can just see that ending in disaster. Perhaps I ought to save my pride and change topics, hm? I was thinking we could watch a heist film. I’ve one in mind, even… I think you’ll like it, though it is American…" 

Carefully balancing the plate of cake on his knee, Hakuba leaned forward to take the remote in his hand, turning on the TV and flipping through the digital movie catalog. "Actually, you might have seen it, given the subject matter… Now You See Me is the title.” A pause.

“…there is a brief scene with… well, it may be a little frightening, but I can skip over that part. If you’re interested." 

smokebombsandmirrors:

Kaito watched him then looked to the ground and smiled sadly. “He never would. That was Jii, eternally loyal. He was in fact very much involved in my moonlighting because of that …. “

He fell silent again. The image of Jii’s broken body flashed painfully in front of his face. He shook he head and took another long swallow of wine. “I inherited the Blue Parrot after he passed.” 

“…does that mean that I can still come to visit?” Hakuba asked, tilting his head with a lopsided smile. It didn’t surprise him that Jii had been involved with the KID stuff. After all, no one that good at cards and sleight of hand was completely innocent of trickery. Always beating him. Dammit. The detective missed him very much.

He took another sip of wine. “You don’t have to give me drinks if you insist, but the atmosphere was quite nice." 

smokebombsandmirrors:

“Sounds great.” He chirped and crossed to where the plates were. Performing a balancing act he moved them and him self to the couch. Once the plates were settled on the table he sat.

Kaito stared into the wine for a moment before taking a long pull. It was good far better than anything he could have bought. He sighed and felt the tears pool behind his eyes.

“It was Jii. He picked it out. There was a note underneath the bottle saying: ‘Kai-bocsama, this wine is for you and the person who you find in this life that you can’t live with out. I hope you can find your happiness. Forever Loyal, Jii.’.” He said softly lost in the memories. Turning he looked back up to Hakuba. “Relationship aside, even if we remained as friends this bottle still applies. I hope you don’t mind the forwardness of it.”

Hakuba resisted the urge to call Kaito out for being a showoff with the plates, and instead just brought his glass to the couch, carefully pulling himself up onto it in one corner, legs and all. With one hand against the arm, he braced himself enough to fold his legs under him, knees out, and settled, watching his companion, letting him finish before leaning forward to take one of the plates. 

“No, not at all,” he said after a moment, voice quiet in respect for the man. “I’m touched… both that you consider me that way, and by your relationship with him. I only knew him as a patron, really, but he was a good man. Billiards, cards…” The detective sighed, looking down at the glass in his hand. “The occasional drink despite being underage…" 

His gaze went back to Kaito and he smiled. It was sad, but there was still plenty of warmth behind it. "I liked him quite a bit.” A pause. “And if he was involved with your moonlighting, he never betrayed you to me, despite my nosing around. Not even once.”