20AN: so there will be extras/side stories for NLTSA ^_^ Hopefully people find them fun! Thanks to EverThePhantom for a comment that sparked this one.
*o*o*
"Try it one more time," Tou-san said, guiding Takumi's hands through the motions slowly before stepping back.
Takumi shuffled the cards a moment to get a feel for them and put his head in the right place before moving through a complex sequence of movements that allowed him to palms select cards and move them to key points in the deck. He flipped the top card over—Ace of clubs, just like he intended. Tou-san grinned, ruffling his hair. "Tou-san," Takumi complained, pushing him away. He was smiling too though. He'd been trying to get that right all night. "I think I'm finally getting the hang of that one."
"You think? You've got it down. Now the next step—"
Rapid pounding on the door. Takumi winced, looking at the clocks. Late. He knew it was getting later, but he'd just wanted to get a bit more done...
"That would be your mother," Tou-san muttered under his breath. "Okay, guess that's all we're getting done today."
"Open the damn door!" Kaa-san yelled from outside. Well, there went airing their life to the neighbors again. "Takumi was due back two hours ago! Don't make me get Tou-san!"
Blah. Takumi gathered up his deck of cards. "Kaa-san, just a minute! We lost track of time!"
"Don't give me that. You say that every week but you both know when you're supposed to be home. It's not the weekend, Takumi!"
No, it was just the last day of his spring break. Tou-san caught him in a half hug.
"Don't worry about it," he whispered. "We can work on the rest of the trick more later. In the meantime..." He dropped a few capsules into Takumi's hand. "Confetti bombs," he said with a slow wink. "To start out high school with a bit of fun."
Takumi tucked them into his pocket. Kaa-san would kill him if he used them in class, but they'd be perfect for his ongoing prank war with Shiemi. This year he'd get her for sure—they were finally in the same building again and that meant he had a chance to booby-trap her shoe locker. "Thanks."
"Don't mention it. Really."
Takumi snickered, gathering up his stuff. Kaa-san was still waiting. Shoes on, open the door—she was still lecturing—and that was a neighbor watching, wow that was embarrassing.
"—your responsibility if he stops by after class," Kaa-san said, still going strong.
Tou-san sighed behind him, leaning on the door. "Maa, Aoko..." Takumi felt him tense up and saw him staring at the neighbor.
"Don't you Aoko me, Kaito, I—what's wrong?" It took her a second longer, but she looked too and they were all staring at some half-foreigner butting in on their private life. "Ha...kuba?" Kaa-san asked.
The foreigner seemed to realize he was gaping at them because he shut his mouth. "Excuse me, I didn't mean to interrupt." Then he shut the door.
Takumi looked between his parents and the neighboring apartment. Did they know that guy?
"Well that was unexpected," Tou-san muttered.
Kaa-san shook herself and glared at Tou-san. All back to normal. Ugh. Takumi moved for the stairs as Kaa-san hissed something to Tou-san and it was probably just the usual 'pay attention to the time, don't corrupt our son, why do I have to interact with you every week?' sort of thing and he'd heard more than enough of that over the years. It was only a bit after eight o'clock. So it was dark out now, so what? He pulled the cards back out, trying out the movements again, but it wasn't the same without Tou-san giving tips. He loved his mother, really he did, but she consistently had the worst timing.
Kaa-san caught up with him before he could finish a second run through of the card exercise. She had the 'I'm done with the world' look on her face so he followed without a word as she marched down the stairs.
"Why do you have to do this all the time?" She said hallway down. "You know the time. It's not like you can't read a clock."
"I know..." It wasn't like he always meant to do it. This time though... "I just wanted to spend a bit more time. I was learning a new card trick." More petulantly, he added, "You're not even back home until after my curfew. And it's the last day of spring break, I wanted to make the most of it."
"You know I need to know where you are. What if you weren't at Kaito's?"
"I text you if I'm going to be somewhere else..." Sometimes he really envied Shiemi. Her mom didn't give her a curfew and make her text where she went all the time. Kaa-san was practically paranoid and she had been for years. She used to have to walk him places when he was in elementary school like he couldn't just walk with friends and be fine. ...Blah, but she loved him and he loved her, so he never could get too angry about it. It just got frustrating because it always led to reasons to get him back home away from Tou-san. "You know I could have gone to school from there. It's the same distance as home from school."
"Nice try," Kaa-san said, "but your uniform is at home."
And if his uniform was at the apartment, she'd still come up with some other reason. He scowled at cracks in the pavement. Everything always led back to her and Tou-san fighting. At least Tou-san was fun. Guilt followed that thought, familiar and seeping through him because Kaa-san worked hard and raised him and Tou-san could get away with doing fun things because he didn't take anything seriously half the time. It was Kaa-san who had the important job, Kaa-san working on the police force and trying to keep people safe and catch Kid, and Kaa-san who read his stories every night growing up no matter how tired she was and always sent him off to school with a healthy lunch and breakfast. Guilt was an unpleasant, squirmy feeling and he hated how it always wormed in between all his other feelings like a sticky mess.
He latched onto the oddity of the night, anything to shove that mess of emotions away again. "So, who was that back there?"
"Hm?" Kaa-san glanced back at him, her scowl smoothing away. "Oh, that was an old classmate from high school."
Takumi waited for more. And waited. As usual she wasn't letting anything spill about high school. "A friend?" he prompted.
Kaa-san snorted. "Friend? Well, he wasn't not a friend, I guess. I'd have liked to be friends, but he kept to himself unless it involved Kai—" She stopped, cleared her throat. Of course. "He was a detective that transferred to chase after Kid. He stayed for a little over a year and left."
A little over a year...a year he'd have known Kaa-san and Tou-san...
"He asked me out once," Kaa-san said, sounding distracted, "but I don't think he really meant it."
Scratch being a friend, this was someone who actively got involved in his parents' relationship. Did Kaa-san turn him down? Did Tou-san get angry? Were they even dating at that point? And wouldn't chasing Kid make Kaa-san like this guy more?
"So he transferred to chase Kid...?" Takumi asked.
Kaa-san gave him a Look, like she did every time he brought up Kid instead of her and Takumi winced internally because oops, wrong topic to focus on. "He did. It's not important now though. That was a long time ago."
"Do you think he's back to chase Kid again?"
She frowned so deeply, Takumi almost felt bad for this mysterious guy. Almost. Mostly he was kind of jealous which was stupid because he was jealous of some guy for happening to know his parents. It wasn't like he felt like that toward Keiko-ba-san.
"He better not be," Kaa-san said finally. "Well, hopefully it's not anything that will affect you. He's just someone I knew a long time ago and he might not be that person anymore by now."
"Right..." And the topic would never be brought up again, of course.
It was a familiar bitterness that had him dragging his feet again. He bet Tou-san would tell him something even if it would be some empty anecdote about how the foreigner had a weird way of sharpening pencils or something equally avoiding anything he actually wanted to know.
By the time he went to bed that night, he had a thousand questions, no answers, and a mild dislike for this new stranger already.
*o*o*
Takumi was halfway through sneaking a confetti bomb into Shiemi's locker when she snuck up on him and scared him first.
Her hand smacked into his back with a loud slap. "Wow, you're going to have to try a heck of a lot harder than that to prank me."
"Gah!" Ow. "How did you even get here so fast?"
"One, I didn't need to figure out where my own locker was. Two, I'm a second year. You firsties take longer to leave the opening ceremonies. And three, you think I wouldn't check my shoe locker for traps immediately? Shame on you."
Urgh, he should have expected that. Of course she wouldn't think he'd given up on their pranks just because they went to different schools for a year. They pranked each other enough on their free time after all. "So you were lying in wait?"
"Yup!" She grinned. She always looked kind of like she was going to kill something when she smiled like that, her braids jutting forward like ram horns kind of adding to that impression. Takumi pitied the person who ever thought they could get away with trying to mess with her. She'd pop up where they least expected like some kind of sadistic demon that specialized in mind games. "So, you're joining the literature club."
"What? I'm joining lacrosse."
"You promised you'd join the literature club with me."
"That was before I started getting serious about sports, Shiemi."
"Literature club only has real meetings once a week."
"Lacrosse meets pretty much every day."
"Correction; they meet every day but Thursdays and Sundays." Shiemi pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. "So...if I change the discussion days to Thursdays, you can come."
"Do you even have the power to do that?"
"Takumi, do you think I would be in a club for a year and not be ruling it from the shadows?"
Fair point. And he had made a promise. It wasn't like he hated reading or anything and it would be an excuse to spend time with Shiemi in school... "Fine, I'll make sure to sign up."
"Ha! Great!" She gave him a side hug that had some students looking in their direction. There were going to be rumors later he was sure. Hello start of high school.
"Get to class, lovebirds!" someone called. Takumi was pretty sure it was Jin from Shiemi's middle school class and Jin was an ass.
"Get to class yourself!" Shiemi called after him. "And no offense, but I'm way out of Takumi's league." She tossed her head dramatically before elbowing Takumi. "This is where you debate that."
"Why would I? You are way out of my league." Her face twitched toward a smile and he finished with, "And sorry, but you're too old for me."
"You shit, I'm half a year older than you!"
"So ancient. How horrible," Takumi said, laughing as she tried to catch him in a headlock. Wow he'd missed hanging out with Shiemi in the mornings.
The bell sounded, letting them know they had to get to their classroom, and Takumi broke away.
"We'll settle this later, Kuroba!" Shiemi said, mock threatening.
"Back at you, Momoi!"
Everything was fine until he stepped into his classroom. Then there was the same foreigner from last night, standing at the front of the room, and Takumi realized he was a teacher. Not just a teacher, but the homeroom teacher. His good mood plummeted.
The guy—did Kaa-san say his name? Hakuba?—was old enough to be going gray a bit and had a cane that he must need to get around since he was using it to stand. He was hard to get any kind of read on, which was the most annoying thing of all. He looked at Takumi and there was that awkward moment of recognition there, but he didn't say a word about it. No nod, no embarrassment about last night, nothing. Not even surprise. Takumi stared, and then the teacher was staring back. Was that a challenge?
Takumi wasn't normally a confrontational person, but he kind of wanted to confront something at the moment. Who was this guy? The more he talked and didn't react to being stared at—the whole class was staring though they were just the usual curious—the more it annoyed him. Takumi couldn't put his finger on what exactly he didn't like about Hakuba, but there was something. Maybe it was the crisp, formal way he spoke or how something in his posture screamed upper-class even though he was just a teacher. Maybe it was his mother's voice saying 'he asked me out once' that bothered him in the back of his mind.
Either way, it made him want to do something. To wipe the bland, professional expression off his face and get an emotional response like his surprise yesterday. Takumi rolled one of the confetti bombs between his fingers. He wasn't supposed to use them in class but...
Tou-san would approve. But Tou-san did stupid things sometimes. Kaa-san would be pissed. But it would kind of be worth it.
He waited until partway through class when Hakuba was distracted with the lecture to set the bomb off. His classmates reacted with the expected surprised shrieks and laughter. Hakuba didn't react at all, just brushed off the confetti and gave a lecture on how his disciplinary system worked. Then he met Takumi's eyes and Takumi knew that Hakuba knew he was the one who did it. Of course he did; Tou-san was a prankster in school and he'd have experienced it firsthand. He'd know anything Takumi pulled from Tou-san's book.
Hakuba made him read out loud, as close to calling him out for the prank as he could get without proof. That cemented the seed of dislike. After that, Takumi decided he might just follow in Tou-san's footsteps a bit more after all.
*o*o*
"I don't like him," Takumi muttered, sprawled out on Shiemi's floor.
"Who?" Shiemi was on her bed, absently shuffling cards.
"My homeroom teacher."
"Hm." The cards stopped. "He's the one that replaced Yumi-sensei, right?"
"I think so. He knew my parents."
"Really?"
"Yeah." Takumi propped himself up on an elbow. "He's just so... Rgh. I don't even know. I've had two classes with him and he just bothers me for some reason."
"Well, I did hear he's kind of a hard ass. But so far it sounds like he's not a jerk according to class rumors." Shiemi tapped the deck of cards on her palm. "If he's Yumi-sensei's replacement he might end up the literature club adviser too."
"Great, one more place for him to pop up."
"One more place to try to figure him out," Shiemi corrected. "You're curious, right? About what he knew about your parents?"
"Well...yeah, I guess." It was more than idle curiosity. It was closer to a need; he needed to know what they were like. He just didn't like that it would come from some stranger if he learned anything at all. "I pranked him."
"You did?" Shiemi glance his way, too knowing in a way that made him uncomfortable. She'd probably already heard through her rumor mill. "And?"
"I'm going to prank him again."
"Not what I meant, but okay. That will probably remind him of your dad and how he reacts could give insight about what he thinks about Kuroba-ji."
"Considering he barely reacted at all, maybe he looks down on him."
"Or he's a teacher trying to keep a level head for his class," Shiemi said drily. "Pranks aren't going to be able to get you into his headspace. You have to actually think."
"Yeah, yeah." Who knew where that guy was coming from? Maye Takumi could get more information out of Tou-san later. "He was a detective who went after Kid once according to Kaa-san. But she cut off when she started to mention Tou-san."
"Ooh, bet Hakuba-sensei and Kuroba-ji hated each other. Kid's fanboy meet teen detective."
"Probably." Maybe that was all that had been, Kaa-san not wanting to go into Kid related things like usual, not her Tou-san related issues at all. Or maybe the two of them combined? He was probably overthinking this. "He's Tou-san's neighbor, this is going to be so weird."
"You never know. Could be a chance to finally get your parents to open up."
"Mm." Or get stories from another source. But Hakuba would have to give some kind of sign he wasn't an asshole first. "He totally knew I set off the confetti bomb. Then he made me read in front of everyone."
"Embarrassing, but really, who else would a confetti bomb have been?"
"Point..." Takumi shook his head. Enough of his problems. "So, how'd asking your crush out go? You said you were gonna do it before the end of break."
"Bad," Shiemi said. "So bad. I think I lost a friend bad."
"Damn."
"Yeah. On a lighter note, guess that means she really wasn't worthy of my heart. There's a whole big world out there for me to find someone else in."
"Good luck with that." She was brave to try, Takumi thought. If he ever liked someone, he wasn't sure he'd have the guts to do it.
"I make my own luck," Shiemi said. She sat up. "So. Want help coming up with prank ideas?"
"Sure." That was more fun than staring at the ceiling complaining about their lives. A great distraction from their troubles too.
*o*o*
"So," Takumi said after the literature club and its adviser had cleared out. "Hostile much?"
"I thought you'd appreciate the solidarity," Shiemi said. She was still shuffling her deck of cards absently, the sharp expression faded from her face now that there was just the two of them.
"Impressions?"
"Eh." She shrugged. "I can see why he bothers you. Hard guy to get a read on and serious. But." She stopped shuffling. "Not as much of a hard ass as he first appears I think. One, he didn't call me out on my aggression. Two, he totally played along with our rules—not half bad at poker either. Three, well, you saw how he reacted when I insulted Holmes." She grinned. "He's a total dorky Holmes otaku under that...whatever it is. Is it offensive to say British-ness? Is that racist? Er, some...other ism?"
Takumi shrugged. "Reserve?"
"Sure, go with that." She shrugged again. "Anyway, as far as advisors go, I think we could have done worse. It seems like he wants to be involved and he clearly knows some decent range of literature even if it skews toward old-fashioned taste. That will mesh great with some of the members, and he might even make discussions more interesting if he takes it serious. And given his personality, he'll take it serious. As far as how he fits with your parents? Who knows, inconclusive data."
Takumi slumped.
"Sorry, but you got to give me more to work with. I can quiz your dad on him if you want, see where he stands in all this."
"Pretty sure I have an idea of that," Takumi mumbled.
"Try speaking clearly," Shiemi said, poking Takumi in the side. He didn't even try to evade it.
"I said, I think I have an idea," he repeated louder. "Tou-san mentioned him like, three times in the last week. I've only been over there twice. Shiemi, you know Tou-san maybe talks about Miyuki-san at work. Sometimes. He doesn't talk about people he knows. But he's talking about Hakuba-sensei."
"So...they're maybe friends?"
"I don't know!" He threw his hands up and flopped back on an unused desk. "It's like he's invading my life."
"A little dramatic," Shiemi said, "but okay."
"He lives next door. It's weird." Takumi knew he was whining and probably making a fool of himself in the process, but it was Shiemi. She wasn't going to judge him for it. She'd seen him cry. Heck she'd made him cry with her terrifying doll collection on more than one occasion, it wasn't like he had anything resembling dignity with her.
Shiemi sighed. "I'll chat up Kuroba-ji, see what I can learn. If he talks at all that's something you know?"
"Yeah." Shiemi never had any better time getting his parents to talk about the past than Takumi. "I still want to get him to react."
"Pull out the big pranks?"
"Yeah. I think I have an idea."
"Your funeral."
Takumi halfheartedly kicked in her direction. Shiemi laughed at him before shoving the fanned out deck of cards in his face.
"Pick a card, Takumi."
"Ugh, no, I'm done with cards for the day."
"Nope, you have to pick a card. Then you have to make sure I did the trick right."
"You can probably do it better than I can," Takumi grumbled. Still, he picked a card.
*o*o*
"So I'm grounded for the week, got lectured by both parents, and have extra homework," Takumi reported over the phone.
Shiemi cradled her phone between her chin and shoulder, finishing up painting her nails dark, sparkling blue for the hell of it. "Yeah, I heard you busted out that makeup prank. Rumor also has it that Hakuba-sensei has nerves of steel and barely even blinked."
"Oh my god, Shiemi, what do you have to do to get a reaction from this guy?! He looked more surprised running into us at the grocery store than he did getting a face-full of makeup."
Shiemi grinned to herself. Takumi was probably working himself into a state on the other end. He didn't do it in public, but get him alone with someone he was comfortable with? It was always kind of funny to watch his face get red with emotion and his reserve get tossed out the window. "You know, he did go to school with Kruoba-ji. If your parents have shared anything about their high school days, it's that Kuroba-ji was the biggest class disruption our high school has ever seen. Hakuba-sensei probably expects anything you throw at him because he's lived through it all."
"Gah, that just makes it that much more annoying!" There was a rustling sound and a whump—Takumi tossing himself on his bed probably. "Kaa-san says I have to do the extra work. English is hard, help me, Shiemi."
"It's your punishment you dork. You knew what you were getting into."
"I thought I'd, I don't know, have to scrub toilets or write lines or something. Who foists off English homework as a punishment?"
"Hmm, I don't know, an English teacher?"
"Ha ha. So funny." He sighed. "On the plus side, Tou-san said he was impressed that I got the prank to work. After the lecture of course."
"Of course."
"Nowhere near his level, but it's something I guess. ...he asked why I did it though. I didn't know what to tell him."
"That Hakuba-sensei annoys you?" Shiemi capped her nail polish, fingers now sparkly and dark like some sort of witch. New aesthetic, mental note to see if she could get some thrift store finds cheap to build on that.
"I panicked when Hakuba-sensei asked and said it was because he was different."
"Wow. That doesn't make you sound like an asshole or anything." Considering Takumi was someone on the fringes of a bunch of different social groups and only close friends with a couple people, he could be considered 'different.' Shiemi was definitely 'different' so of all the stupid things to blurt out... "On the other hand, it's not wrong, it's just 'different' makes you think of the obvious physical traits Hakuba-sensei has. But when you say 'different'..."
"It's because he's different than the rest of the people in my life, yeah. Tou-san was...not happy."
"I'll bet." Kuroba-ji wasn't the best parent sometimes—Shiemi loved the man, but objectively speaking, he made a better crazy-fun uncle than a father. But he tried, and he had always tried to be a good role model in how they interacted with people. Takumi's answer had to be irritating the heck out of him.
"At least he wasn't a hypocrite telling me I wasn't allowed to pull pranks ever again. Kaa-san yelled about disrupting class and stuff and I know she used to disrupt class with Tou-san. I mean, Tou-san said she used to chase him with a mop once, how is that not disruptive? Even outside of class, that's disruptive and damages school property? I'm not damaging any school property at least."
"So back to small pranks?"
"Yeah. Ugh, you sure you can't help me with my homework?"
"I have my own work to do. You can handle an extra worksheet. You're not that bad at English."
"You're better at it."
"And you're better at athletics and science; tough shit."
"I hate you."
"Uh huh. Go do your work you dork. Next time don't get caught."
"Night, Shiemi."
"Night." Shiemi tossed her phone to the side with a snort of laughter. The things they got involved in. She kind of wondered what Kuroba-ji thought of it all. He was friends—had to be friends, Kuroba-ji mentioned sharing dinner with Hakuba-sensei and he was the most extroverted recluse ever—with Hakuba-sensei. So would he be on Hakuba's side or Takumi's with all of this? Eh, probably Hakuba's since he was an adult. If Kuroba-ji was someone you could talk to, maybe he'd be on Takumi's but he was like that. Deflective and pushing away even while he tried to draw you in close. He was the closest to a father figure Shiemi had, but she could see his flaws easily enough.
So busy being the 'fun' parent that when he did try to be an authority figure it didn't really work too well. Not that she could blame him. He really did try to do family bonding as much as possible. He was great and showed Takumi all sorts of new things and taught her and Takumi how to do magic tricks and he loved them both, she knew. But Kuroba-ji wore masks and didn't share how he really felt. When Aoko-basan got angry at him, he just shut down, locked everything away. Shiemi didn't think she'd ever seen him actually angry. Annoyed, yes. Worried. Not angry, never angry no matter how much Aoko-basan yelled or if Takumi was in one of his moods and decided to be a brat or if some stranger was rude.
She'd seen Aoko-basan and Takumi display every emotion known to man more or less. It was a little weird how little Kuroba-ji showed sometimes. Takumi picked up that habit at some point, wearing masks in public. So did Shiemi too, but where Takumi's masks were mild-mannered, Shiemi's were confidence and control.
Maybe that was how it worked for Hakuba too, a professional mask or reserve...
She still didn't know what to make of Kuroba-ji getting along with him so quickly. He'd asked how students and teachers reacted to Hakuba. The same way he asked about Takumi's life and Shiemi's own. Like it mattered and he cared. It was weird.
The only other adult he asked that sort of thing about was...Aoko-basan.
Huh.
A possible theory was starting to pull together. She still needed a bit more data before she could form a hypothesis on what was going on with Hakuba-sensei and Kuroba-ji. Her instincts were usually pretty good with this sort of thing though.
Interesting.
*o*o*
Takumi hadn't exactly forgot that Hakuba was coming for a home visit, but it had slipped his mind what day. He was texting with Yuuto about an anime when the doorbell rang.
"Takumi, go get that!"
"Yeah, yeah!" He set the phone down. Kaa-san had been cleaning the kitchen ever since dinner ended. She usually left cleaning to weekends, and left other weekly chores to him during the week, but he wasn't complaining about not doing dishes for once.
Takumi remembered the home visit all at once when he glimpsed who it was through the door. Great.
"Good evening," Hakuba said, all stiff and awkward. Takumi'd seen him relax during literature club, he could tell the difference now. He was uncomfortable. He should be because this was awkward as heck for Takumi too.
He had to let him into his home. "Come in."
Hakuba's eyes were flicking all over, taking in everything and who the hell knew what he was getting from it. There was a moment where it looked like he had a bit of trouble getting his shoes off to put on guest slippers. Takumi'd kind of forgotten the whole bum leg thing; it was the kind of thing you tuned out after a while because most of the time Hakuba didn't draw attention to it when he was teaching.
Takumi looked away. "Kaa-san, Hakuba-sensei's here." He was not sticking around to sit in a room while his mother and teacher exchanged small talk. Or talked about him. Nope. Not happening. He skipped upstairs, hearing them talk back and forth. It sounded friendly enough. He paused at the top of the stairs. Wait, there was a chance they'd talk about the past right? Should he listen for the small possibility that he'd hear something interesting? Worth the awkward or not?
He chewed on his lip for a moment before sending a quick text to Yuuto telling him he'd talk more later.
Takumi knew exactly which steps creaked worst, so at least it was easy enough to get back downstairs again without anyone hearing.
Awkward small talk, jeeze, did Hakuba ever socialize or did he just not know how to interact with Takumi's mom? And right into school talk... He winced at the frank opinion of his English skills. Yeah, he wasn't the greatest with English, he knew he had a lot to work on with grammar... And why were they comparing him to Shiemi?
And then his mother started talking about how they didn't really talk anymore and...Takumi shifted, full of guilt. Hakuba was encouraging her, but the fact that he needed to felt like Takumi had messed up somewhere. Things hadn't been...that bad lately, had they? Yeah, Kaa-san worked more and they didn't always eat together some days, and yeah, he'd been spending more time with Shiemi or Yuuto or over at Tou-san's place rather than come home to an empty house...
"He's a good kid," Hakuba said and what did he have to base that off of? Some pranks in a classroom and a couple glimpses into Takumi's home life. Why was he being so...so nice about it? He didn't sound like the pranks bothered him or impacted his judgment at all. Was it because he talked to Tou-san all the time or was he just that blind to Takumi being an ass specifically to him?
Takumi tuned back in as Hakuba's voice went sharp.
"The apology is appreciated but..."
"It's too soon to think about," Kaa-san finished, sounding like she understood whatever he was referring to.
"A year isn't much compared to twelve years."
There was tense silence in the next room and for the life of him Takumi wasn't sure what had set it off. One second they were both on the same page, Hakuba sympathizing with Takumi's mother, then...this. He shifted, wondering if he could get a peek around the corner to get a better idea about what was going on.
His mother said something, too low to make out the words, but the tone was apologetic.
"I make things worse on myself," Hakuba said, and there was a sound of a chair scraping back, like they were getting up, Hakuba probably planning on leaving since there wasn't much more to say about school.
Takumi moved back up the stairs, unwilling to quite go back to his room just yet.
"Do you see Kaito often?" Kaa-san asked as they passed into the hallway.
"We're neighbors," Hakuba said, a non-answer if Takumi ever heard one. They did see each other often; Tou-san bringing him up and what Shiemi mentioned meant they had to, so why didn't he want to answer that?
Hakuba's eyes met his for a brief second as he put on his shoes and exchanged parting pleasantries with Kaa-san in the entryway, but he didn't say anything about Takumi watching or address him in his goodbye.
Kaa-san stood in front of the door after in closed for a long moment, shoulders slumped and looking almost old. She sighed and locked the door with a decisive click before turning around. She jumped when she saw Takumi on the stairs.
"Oh. I didn't hear you there." She smiled and it didn't reach her eyes.
Takumi went down the stairs and offered her a hug. She looked surprised. Dang, had it been that long since he gave her a hug just because? Now he felt even guiltier. Kaa-san hugged back tight.
"So," Takumi said, "any glaring complaints about my school performance?"
"No," Kaa-san said. "Surprisingly. You could participate a bit more. Prank less."
"I know," Takumi said. Pranking Hakuba wasn't really as satisfying as it originally had been. The class reaction was still pretty nice but... He'd lay off for a while. Maybe. He was missing some sort of information about what was going on anyway. If he paid attention, maybe he'd figure it out.
Kaa-san pulled back. "It's been a long day. What do you feel about watching a movie tonight?"
Takumi blinked, smiling slowly. Kaa-san not working from home for an evening? "Yeah. Can I choose the movie?"
"Nothing scary," Kaa-san said. "I'll get snacks."
Takumi ran to get his laptop. Guilt and visit worth it if it meant spending some time doing something fun with Kaa-san for once.
*o*o*
Hours after class, after practice, after making his way home, Takumi still wasn't quite sure what to make of Hakuba. He said he'd talk about Takumi's parents. He wasn't angry about the pranks at all. He'd pranked Takumi right back. The trick pen was a bit too heavy now that Takumi was paying attention to it. He tapped the clicker on top and got a tiny jolt to his finger just like earlier. What the heck.
Ok, maybe Hakuba wasn't quite as much of a hard ass as first impressions made him out to be. Or as boring. Takumi had to wonder what sort of pranks his teacher was capable of. Probably not too big of ones if his idea of a prank was a trick pen. Still. He'd been a detective once and had attended Kid heists, and they'd apparently been pretty wild from the tiny bit he'd mentioned. Kaa-san glossed over everything. What she did mention pointed to a very different atmosphere at heists than one that would lead to Hakuba in a dress. He'd have to see if there were any good stories his teacher would be willing to share.
Shiemi was going to be surprised when Takumi told her about this. Then again, she seemed to have warmed up to the guy a lot more lately. Maybe because he took part in the lit club talks. Or maybe whatever she'd gotten from Tou-san on him. She hadn't really shared much of how that went. Just that they were friends.
He was still kind of conflicted. On one hand, Hakuba still was squeezing into his family's life little by little and that was...weird. Different. It was weird to think of Tou-san having a friend. On the other...well, it might be nice to talk. That Hakuba would be willing to talk. That left him with a thousand questions that might actually get answered. Where did he start? Well, no there was one question he really wanted an answer to...
Takumi grimaced. Probably still wouldn't get an answer to because Hakuba hadn't exactly been around when his parents got a divorce.
He'd thought a lot after the home visit. How Kaa-san was sad after the talk. How Hakuba had looked sad when he left, and how he was living in crappy tiny apartments just like Tou-san. How Takumi didn't really know anything about the situation of any of the things going on. He knew Hakuba used to be a detective and wasn't now. He knew he had a bad leg but didn't back when his parents knew him. He knew his parents had been in love once but weren't now, or what love was left was too broken to be fixed. He knew that something bad must have happened to all of them for things to end up this way. What happened with his parents happened all but overnight, hazy memories of happy mornings in the new house, now Kaa-san's house, turning into confusing tense ones all at once before Tou-san was gone back to Obaasan's house. Hearing his parents fight when they thought he wasn't listening when they only used to pretend to before. Something happened to all of them, and Takumi didn't know what. But maybe Hakuba did, and maybe learning more about him or from him would clear up Takumi's mysteries.
Maybe the way the bad thing affected Hakuba, it made it easier to get along with Tou-san and less easy to get along with Kaa-san. Or maybe it was the other way around, his parents' issues leading to how they approached Hakuba. Who knew? All Takumi knew was that he'd probably been a bit too quick to pick a fight even if it had been satisfying in the moment.
He pulled up a message to Shiemi, then changed his mind and connected a call. "Hey, got time to talk?"
