82Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan/Case Closed.
Pairing: KaitoxShinichi
Warning: Mentions of adult situations
The Dragon's Curse
Chapter 13 - Anticipation
Sighing, Kaito leaned back against the wall of the dove aerie, arms folded across his chest, gaze fixed on the doves, who were all happily pecking away at their breakfasts. Normally, he found caring for his birds to be a relaxing way to take his mind off things, but today it wasn't working.
He felt like there was an anvil hanging over his head. Koizumi had said that there would be some kind of…of final confrontation, he supposed was the best way to put it, but she hadn't been able to tell them what exactly that would be or when it would happen. All she had said was that it would be soon, which wasn't exactly comforting.
Was he really supposed to just go about his business and wait for the proverbial bomb to explode?
He snorted. That was totally not his style.
He was the Kaitou KID. He didn't sit around hoping that things worked out. He was a man of action! Always had been, always would be. And that meant making plans and backup plans.
Planning, however, required information.
His thoughts drifted back to that Christmas night. The incident after that heist was his clearest memory of one of those odd moments where he had been both himself and this other self that was slowly creeping into his psyche. Looking at it, he knew that the trigger had been anger and fear—fear for Shinichi's safety and anger at the people trying to hurt his detective.
He had never had much tolerance for bullies of any kind and he had even less patience for killers. He had lost one person he loved to such scum. He wasn't going to lose another. Not ever.
Outside of such situations, however, he'd always considered himself to be quite a laid back sort. He didn't get angry often because, well, what was the point? Anger bred only more anger, not to mention it clouded the mind and led to bad decisions. In the long run, it just wasn't worth the effort.
Lately though, he'd noticed that his own mood was becoming more volatile. That had to be connected.
Indigo eyes drifted from the burbling doves to the window and the blue, blue sky beyond.
Blue like Shinichi's eyes. The corner of Kaito's mouth quirked up as a feeling of warmth swelled in his chest. It was heartening to know that he had the detective's support no matter what came of this. At the same time, Shinichi's presence gave him another reason to win this battle.
A somewhat goofy grin crept its way onto Kaito's face.
That night might have had a rough start, but it had certainly unfolded beautifully. Not only had Shinichi not been mad at him or put off by his recent behavior, he had told Kaito that he loved him.
That alone had made all the turmoil of this debacle worthwhile.
The kisses and subsequent activities had just been the icing on the cake. The very delectable icing on the already splendid cake.
And once again Kaito found his thoughts derailing. Though he would admit that he may have had plans of a risqué nature for the after-heist party with Shinichi, he had been fully prepared to ditch all of that when he'd had his little moment of insanity (of the not so harmless variety). The last thing he wanted to do was to force Shinichi into anything he wasn't ready for. But it had turned out that Shinichi was more ready than he'd thought.
Kaito remembered all too well the way Shinichi had looked spread out on the hotel bed beneath him, bare and trembling with need. He could still feel Shinichi's blunt fingernails scraping down his back as the detective's lithe body writhed under him, legs wrapped around Kaito's waist like his life depended on it—could hear the way Shinichi cried out his name, his real name, in breathless pleasure.
Kaito gave himself a shake, becoming abruptly and painfully aware that his pants had become extremely uncomfortable.
He tried thinking about something else for a moment, but he knew a lost cause when he saw (felt?) one. Seeing as his doves really didn't need his supervision to finish their meal, he made a beeline for the shower where he could finish getting ready for the day. And if he allowed himself some time to indulge in a little fantasy of pinning Shinichi to his shower wall, well, he was still on vacation and didn't strictly have to be anywhere just yet.
His plans for the day involved mostly the refining of a few new magic trick ideas and the planning of his next heist. He already had a target in mind, and he was thinking of taking a casual stroll over to the museum in question for a look see before heading over to the university's new year's party. He had been asked to give a short magic show as part of the night's entertainment. Never one to pass up an opportunity to show off—er, perform, he had agreed. He had pretty much everything prepared, but he wanted to double check everything before the party. Since he would be kicking things off, there would be plenty of time for food and mingling afterward.
Aoko had said that she wanted to introduce him to some people.
A small smirk made its way onto Kaito's face. He had a feeling he knew who she was talking about.
Shinichi had told him that he'd be at the party too. For his part, he was simply being dragged there by Ran and Sonoko, as per usual.
Well, they might as well enjoy themselves while they had the chance.
Once he'd finished taking care of his birds and his own morning ablutions, Kaito made his way downstairs to the kitchen in search of breakfast. His mother had left early for a reunion with some of her old friends. She had asked him repeatedly if he wanted to accompany her, but he had declined with the excuse that he had his own New Year's party to go to. He felt a little bad about it because he could tell that she had wanted him to go with her. They hadn't been spending much time together as a family as of late. But he simply had too much on his mind, and he knew that she would see that if he spent too much time with her. She'd always been able to read him like a book if given the opportunity. He supposed it was a mother thing.
Well, he would make it up to her later when all of this was over. He could introduce her to Shinichi. He had the feeling she would enjoy that.
With his mother gone, however, he had to cook for himself—or rather, in most cases, swing over to Aoko's for a bite to eat. But he had caught a glimpse of Hakuba entering the Nakamori house earlier that morning when he'd gone to pick up his morning newspaper. And if the blond was over there having breakfast then Kaito would much prefer to deal with whatever he could scrape together himself.
Food tasted better in good company. But that worked both ways.
He should have invited Shinichi over. They were still on holiday after all. But he supposed that would have been inviting trouble too with Aoko and Hakuba just next door. Better wait until the introductions were made at the party, as Kaito was almost positive they would be.
Opening the cupboards and refrigerator, Kaito surveyed his options. Eventually, he picked up two eggs, two slices of bread, and some butter.
He'd seen his mother make scrambled egg sandwiches before, and it hadn't looked too hard. She had let him try it once, and he would have gotten it done perfectly that time if he hadn't gotten impatient and turned the heat up too high and…uh, well, let's forget about that escapade and the poor pan that would never be the same again. But he was pretty sure he knew what not to do this time.
There was something almost magical about the way the liquid eggs fluffed up and broke apart as it was stirred. The heat from the stove wafted up in tangible waves. It didn't smell as good as when his mother was cooking it though. He supposed that meant he'd forgotten an ingredient or something, but it was a bit late now to be wondering what was missing. It would just have to do.
He popped two slices of toast into the toaster. Leaning against the counter, he drummed his fingers, eyes wandering idly around the kitchen as he waited. His thoughts wandered to his plans for the show that evening. He had had everything worked out, but now that he knew Shinichi would be in the audience, he found himself wanting to make it more elaborate. There wasn't much time though. Well, he could at least expand on the finale. He'd orchestrated a small, indoors (emulated) fireworks show because it was New Year's and what was New Year's without fireworks. But now that he knew Shinichi was here, he wanted to make the show ten times more spectacular. No, he wasn't going to settle for anything less than a full blown fireworks parade!
And he knew he could do it too. It was just the small problem of safety measures. After all, fireworks were not meant for the indoors. He had toyed around with methods to simulate the visual effect of fireworks without the real things, but they still required a little bit of real fire. So how to keep that under control if he upped the scale…
The toast popped up and he turned, raising a hand to pluck one slice from the toaster. He froze.
There were flickers of flame dancing about his hand. He touched the toast, and the crust became just that bit more black and crispy. Turning away again, Kaito held up both his hands.
Fire danced around both his hands. But they weren't hot. It didn't burn. Instead, it felt like he was holding feathery warmth whirling about in a soft wind.
This was real fire, he knew. They were his.
Experimentally, he held up a finger. A tongue of red flame twined up his finger to dance at the tip like a candle flame. Then, at his thought, it turned blue then white then yellow then orange.
A slow grin spread across the phantom thief's face.
His fireworks show was just about to become the most exciting fireworks show anyone at the college New Year's party would ever have seen and ever would see again, indoors or not.
-0-
"That was incredible!" Sonoko gushed, face aglow with genuine wonder.
It was that honest amazement and not her words that made Kaito grin. "Thank you."
"Especially those fireworks," Ran agreed, just as excited as her petit friend. "How did you manage to do that?"
Kaito laughed. "It's magic, of course."
Aoko let out a loud snort, though he could tell that even she was impressed. "I was afraid for a moment there that you'd burn this whole place down around our ears."
The magician rolled his eyes. "Gee, so glad to know you have such faith in me."
Aoko only shrugged. "There's a reason children are taught not to play with fire. It's not really something people can control."
"Then clearly you do not know just how awesome I am. What a shame. I mean, we grew up together. You should know by now that there is nothing in the world that I can't do."
"Except being humble," Hakuba grunted from where he was standing on Aoko's other side with a cup of tea. Everyone ignored him.
Ran was excited to meet this strange but brilliant magician who looked like her best friend's crazy cousin—or should that be evil twin? In any case, she had a lot of questions, and she could tell that Sonoko did too. Yet though Kaito answered them all with a smile and a joke or three, she couldn't help but notice that he appeared distracted.
"So Ran-san," he said finally, turning to her. "Where's that detective friend of yours? Did he leave already? I kinda wanted to know what he thought about my show."
"He went out onto the balcony," Ran replied. "I'm afraid he's a bit…cynical about magic. So I wouldn't take anything he says too seriously."
"Now I have to hear it," Kaito laughed. "I threw together that entire last part to see if I could surprise the great Detective of the East. It'd be pretty pointless if he doesn't at least tell me what he thought."
That said, he made his way out onto the balcony, leaving Ran to hope that her friend kept his tongue in check and wasn't too mean to the cheerful, friendly magician.
Outside, the night air was cool if not exactly clear. There were still cars rumbling by below, and they couldn't see much of the stars with the city lights all around them. Still, at least it was quieter than it had been inside. Almost everyone had gone into the main ballroom for more dancing and food.
Shinichi alone stood by the railing, cup of warm coffee in hand, gazing out at something only he could see.
Lost in his thoughts, he almost jumped when strong arms slid around his waist and pulled him back against a familiar chest. He relaxed a little now that he recognized who it was.
"Hey," he said softly, still looking up at the night sky.
"Hey," Kaito said back, brushing a chaste kiss across Shinichi's cheek before leaning down to trail kisses down his neck. "Did you watch the show?"
"Of course I did," Shinichi replied, chuckling. "It was incredible, as always. You really outdid yourself."
He could feel the thief's smirk against the sensitive skin of his neck. "I thought so too."
"I'm still not sure how you did those flames."
"Well~, I may have cheated a little."
"Hmm? How so?" He closed his eyes, letting his head loll back against Kaito's shoulder. He could feel Kaito's smirk against his neck. He shivered.
"Like this." Kaito unwound one arm from around his detective's waist and held it up so that Shinichi could see the three balls of fire that suddenly sprang to life above his fingertips.
Shinichi started. "How did you do that?"
"Magic."
"A new trick?"
"No. This time, it's real." When Shinichi didn't immediately respond, Kaito explained what had happened that morning in the kitchen. AS he did so, he flicked his wrist, demonstrating how he could pull flames right out of the air, shape them, change their colors, then send them back into oblivion.
"Cool, right?" he asked when he was done. Letting his arm fall back to rest comfortably around the smaller boy's waist, he turned to burry his nose in Shinichi's hair.
"Is that all?" Shinichi asked, voice a little unsteady.
Confused, Kaito blinked. "All what?"
"I just…doesn't it bother you?"
"Why should it? It's pretty cool if you ask me. Think of all the fun I can have!"
"But this means you're changing."
Kaito froze. Did it? Probably. Now that he thought about it, he should really have been surprised by the development of these new powers, sudden as they'd come. But all he had felt about it was a certain sense of rightness. He'd been pleased and not the least bit confused as to why these powers were rightfully his. They just were.
"I guess you're right," he murmured finally, warm breath ghosting past Shinichi's ear.
They stood there for a long moment, the mood from the party suddenly dimmed by the new realization. It was Shinichi who finally broke it—surprising even himself.
"It's New Year's Eve," he said, tilting his head to the side so he could look up at the magician hugging him from behind. "We shouldn't begin the year on a sour note. Let's forget about the curse for now and just have fun."
Kaito blinked again then chuckled. "Well, if even a workaholic like yourself is saying we should have fun then clearly we must."
Shinichi rolled his eyes, but he was smiling. "So what would you like to do then? Have you eaten yet? We could go get something to eat."
Kaito's smile turned into a smirk. "Nah. I'd rather begin the new year making love to you." His smirk grew at the way Shinichi's face instantly turned red.
"D—don't say things like that," the detective spluttered. "It's weird."
"But it's true~."
"That doesn't make it less weird," Shinichi grumbled. "Anyway, the others will notice if we disappear."
"Ah, so you like my idea."
"What? No! I didn't mean—argh, just…whatever. Anyway, you should eat something. You're always telling me not to skip meals. Don't be a hypocrite."
"Actually, I ate before my show. I knew I'd be swamped with adoring fans afterward, so I planned ahead."
"…"
Kaito laughed. "Come on. The staff were kind enough to give me a suite so I could prepare my props and things in peace. I know you don't really want to go back into the crowds. And if we head up separately, I doubt our friends would make a connection. You just go back and say your goodbyes and head up first. I'll go grace my fans with my presence for another fifteen minutes or so then bring us up some refreshments. How about it?"
Shinichi hesitated. He would be lying if he said the suggestion wasn't appealing.
"The suite's got a Jacuzzi~."
Shinichi surrendered. He would probably end up going with Kaito sooner or later anyway, he reasoned. Besides, it was New Year's Eve. Everyone else was enjoying themselves. Why shouldn't he?
"Um, so…what room was it?" he asked, cursing the blush he could feel returning.
"It's on the keycard," Kaito murmured into his ear as he slipped the plastic card into Shinichi's back pocket. The detective let out a squeak when the magician's hand gave his bottom a playful squeeze. He didn't have time to say anything however as Kaito spun him around and kissed him full on the lips before stepping back.
"I'll see you soon then." With that, Kaito ducked back into the ballroom, leaving a red-faced Shinichi on the balcony.
-To be Continued-
