Work Text:
Kaito is in trouble.
And not his usual kind of trouble either. There are no traps to be dismantled, detectives to outsmart or even gunshots to be dodged.
No, all that is, hopefully, going to come later tonight. If he actually manages to fix this in a timely manner.
Kaito checks his watch, he only has a couple of hours before he’s supposed to be at the hotel old man Suzuki has chosen as their playground and he really should get there early to do some prepping before the heist starts. The smoke bombs are not going to plant themselves!
But he can’t go, not when his suit is in this condition.
It’s not that bad, really, he just forgot to hang it up correctly after washing it the last time.
In his defense, he had actual bullet wounds impeding his movements and he’d gotten those after he was done fighting with the Suzuki princess’ crazy boyfriend for a while. He’d been exhausted, okay? So he can be forgiven for going to take a nap and forgetting the clothes in the washing machine for like two full days.
It usually wouldn’t be a problem, not with Jii-chan having taken on most of his chores, but Jii-chan has come down with a cold and Kaito is not about to wake him up for this, when he’s finally gotten the old butler to lay down. The man would try to work with a broken leg and Kaito is not about to allow it.
But it’s fine. It’s fine. Kaito used to do his own ironing before Jii-chan came around. He has lived alone for a good chunk of his life, after all.
It’s just that he’s never actually ironed the Kaitou Kid suit before? He’d found it on a hanger and without any wrinkles (though there had been a healthy amount of dust if he’s being honest). There hadn’t been a need to take out the iron! And afterwards, well, as he said, afterwards he’d had Jii-chan doing this sort of thing for him.
But he’s sure it cannot be that hard. It won’t be much different from ironing his uniform dress shirt and he’s done that plenty of times before (even if he’s slightly out of practice).
He lays out his suit and tries to remember what uncle had taught him, back in the day. The inspector wasn’t very good at housechores either, but he’d tried to teach both him and Aoko the basics so they would be able to survive when he had to do overtime while working on particularly hard cases.
It had almost been fun! He’d shared all types of neat tricks with them, like how to fold things so you wouldn’t need to iron them later or how putting the hang clothes on the bathroom while taking a shower made the wrinkles go away like magic thanks to the steam.
But neither of those tricks actually help him with his current problem.
Come to think of it, the only times he actually got his shirt ironed was for the annual entrance and graduation ceremonies and uncle usually just told him to bring the shirts to his place on those occasions because ‘he had to iron his and Aoko’s clothes anyway so what was one more shirt’.
Kaito had never complained because, well, free ironing . Also, they usually invited him for dinner when he came to drop the clothes and asked him whether his mom would be there tomorrow. The answer tended to be no which prompted them to invite him to their own celebratory lunch the next day. It was nice even if Kaito didn’t like the pity he could see on uncle’s face nor the anger that shone in Aoko’s eyes.
He’s half tempted to call uncle now, or maybe even Aoko, and asks for advice with this stupid situation. Maybe they know some tricks about ironing that Kaito has forgotten?
But he can’t do that, can he?
Aoko will call him an idiot and insist on coming to help him.
Uncle will tell him to bring the suit to him and that he’ll figure it out when he’s done ‘arresting that miscreant’. Kaito laughs quietly to himself at his imaginings, like he’d give the old man the satisfaction.
But yeah, calling them for help isn’t an option because, one way or another, he’d have to end up showing them his suit. Even if he managed to hide it from them, and that’s a big if, they are both extremely noisy people, they would pester him for months asking him why he even needs a suit and, as necessary as it usually is, Kaito doesn’t actually like having to lie to their faces.
Hakuba would also not be an option even if he was in the country. He’d basically treat this like a confession and, besides, there’s no way in hell that rich kid knows how to iron. His grandma probably takes care of his washing for him.
Akako would probably suggest a spell or something equally crazy.
As for his mother, she is an even more laughable alternative. She’d just tell him to hire someone, because throwing money at people always solves the problem in her experience.
So Kaito’s on his own.
It’s fine, he’s used to it.
(He really should show Jii-chan more appreciation from now on).
Kaito sighs, and starts looking online what the best way to iron a suit is.
An hour later he’s still got a wrinkled suit but now it’s a bit charred in some places.
Kaito wants to yell in frustration but he doesn’t have the time, his heist starts in 90 minutes and he cannot be late without risking his reputation.
So he puts on the suit, trying to use the cape to hide the worst of the damage, and starts brainstorming how he can change his plans to ensure he’s in the spotlight for as little as possible. Those smoke bombs are really going to come in handy this time.
He really hopes Kudo doesn’t come out tonight. He’d never live this down.
(Wait, should he have asked Kudo for help? He always wears those suits, even in kid form, and he can’t expose Kaito without also risking exposing himself. Huh, maybe it would not have been the worst idea. Then again, there’s always the possibility that the great detective uses the ‘I’m only a little kid’ card to get out of doing his chores. Kaito honestly wouldn’t put it past him.)