Chapter Text
“One, two, three, four…”
She stared down at the long carpet, completely unaware of his approach behind her.
The room was empty except for the two of them, soft sunlight gleaming through the stained glass. The veil of her dress hung loose around her shoulders, pale and transparent even more than she currently was.
“Five, six, seven –“
“What are you doing?”
She shrieked, startled, and spun around. “Kaito!” Her face was bright red; an extremely adorable sight.
He laughed and flicked her nose. “Not getting cold feet, are we?”
“Of course not,” she huffed, crossing her arms and looking away.
“Then…?”
“…”
Kaito wrapped one arm around her waist, landing a quick kiss on her cheek. She made a shrill noise, but made no move to pull away. “It’s gonna sound really stupid…” Aoko muttered.
“Try me.”
“…I was counting the steps.”
He gave her a quizzical stare.
“How many I’d have to take until I reached the altar,” she whispered. “Until this part of my life is over.”
She seemed oddly glum – the Aoko he knew had never really been one for reflection or introspection; but then, he supposed, he never really knew her at all.
Mentally shaking off that thought, he chuckled. She threw him an annoyed glance. “Excuse me?”
“You think too much sometimes, stupid,” Kaito replied. “This is supposed to be a happy day! Our big day, y’know, so I’d rather not ruin it before it starts.”
She opened her mouth, but whatever she was going to say was cut off by the arrival of the eldest Nakamori. Reluctantly going, as he called out to her, but not without rolling her eyes at her soon to be husband first.
He just grinned. He knew that she knew that he was right.
∞
His mother embraced him wholeheartedly before she was even all the way out of the taxi, which was sure to be an awkward sight for anyone unfortunate enough to be around at that moment.
She thankfully released him after only a few seconds, if just to harass the driver out of handling her luggage. “Kaito, dear, it’s been too long,” she said once she had ushered him inside. “Five years, and you can’t even be bothered to call little old me?”
Now it was his turn to roll his eyes. “Mom,” he pleaded. “I’m twenty six now. I have a full time job and I’m about to get married – forgive me if I’ve been a little too busy to ‘catch up’.”
“Always the excuses with you,” she replied, only half serious. “Oh, I can’t believe you’re that old now.” He internally groaned – that look had come over her face. “Did I ever tell you that I was your age when your father and I met?”
“Yes, Mom, only about a billion times.”
She ignored him, launching into the tale even as he effortlessly tuned it out.
Luckily, Aoko was soon there to relieve him of his despair. She laughed at his expense, looping an arm through his as she easily interrupted Chikage’s story to greet her. The two women hugged tightly, and Aoko may have cried a little.
(She would deny this forever, so don’t even ask).
“I can’t believe my baby boy is all grown up now,” Chikage wept later. “Your father would be so proud of you. …I am proud of you.”
Despite it all, he couldn’t help but feel a bit touched by his mother’s words. He hugged her again, closing his eyes and hiding his face in the crook of her neck. (If his face was perhaps a bit blotchy afterwards, he would also deny this forever).
“Now I expect to see grandchildren soon, you hear me?” she joked, and they all laughed.
∞
Strangely enough, time seemed to move faster the closer they got to the actual ceremony. He barely remembered waiting there, at the altar; watching Aoko walk timidly down the aisle, or saying his vows, but he remembered the kiss.
God, that kiss.
Aoko initiated it first, wrapping her arms around his neck and almost hitching her legs up; perhaps as a reminder to which one of them moved first on that night almost seven years ago, as the rain poured down around them and he held her arm so tightly that he worried it would break. She had yelled and screamed at him, assailing him with her fists, but he couldn’t let go. He was too afraid of what would happen if he did.
He would never let himself regret telling her about his other life.
When they finally separated, the cheers from the people watching barely registered in his mind. All he could focus on was her.
“Do you know how long I’ve been wanting to do that?” she whispered to him.
“Do you know how long I have?” he echoed.
The rest of the night was as much a blur as the day before it; speeches and drinks and gifts coming up to be a total blank in his mind. But in the end, he found that he really didn’t care.
She didn’t, either.
The one thing he recalled with clarity was Ginzo coming up to him, at some point during the after party, and sharing a few quiet words with him. He hadn’t had much of a chance to talk to the older man yet, so he agreed.
“Kaito, I…” the man paused, searching for the right thing to say. “I know I’ve not always been there for Aoko, or for you, and I just wanted to say that I’m sorry.” He glanced off to the side, watching the other guests mingle and laugh in the distance. “Well, I’m not sorry about trying to bust your sorry ass, but to be fair that was all on you.”
Kaito laughed despite himself. “Wouldn’t change a moment of that.”
“I know you wouldn’t,” Ginzo replied. The two men fell quiet, soaking in the atmosphere for a brief moment. “To be honest, though…I never thought you were any good for Aoko. Beyond being more than friends. So when she came to me, all excited, and yelled in my ear that you two were dating, I thought for sure that it wouldn’t last. But then nineteen turned into twenty, then twenty one and twenty three, and before I knew it you had graduated college and were moving in together. And…now we’re here.”
“So it seems,” Kaito murmured, hiding his face behind his glass. “It all seems like a blur to me too, honestly. I…when I first came clean that night, I was…” scared anxious upset “not wanting her to leave. She was the one thing in my life that I couldn’t live without. But she never did. She never even entertained the thought.” He chuckled bitterly. “Shows how stupid I was back then.”
“Don’t sell yourself so short, kid,” Ginzo lectured. “Or did you think that just anybody could pull off daredevil heists while still being in high school?”
If Kaito choked up at that sentiment, no he didn’t.
“Thanks,” he said.
“Don’t mention it.”
He fiddled with the cuff of his sleeves for a minute. “I’d say that I’m honored to have you as an in law, but the truth is…you’ve always been like a dad to me. We’re just making it official, now.”
Ginzo held no shame in crying.
∞
Hakuba, surprisingly, turned up at the end. He was dressed rather simply for the occasion, though excused it by claiming that he had come straight from the airport and hadn’t had time to change.
“I know we haven’t always been on the best of terms,” he said, “but I’d like to think we’ve moved past such petty rivalries.”
Kaito laughed out of disbelief. “Hakuba, we haven’t talked since graduation. Of high school. And now you just want to show up out of the blue and talk about rivalries? Where have you even been?”
The blonde detective seemed a bit ruffled by the dismissal, but he did his best to overlook it. “Well, Koizumi and I have been –“
Kaito held up a hand. “Nope, never mind. Forget I asked.”
Aoko guffawed at the Brit’s face, though her own was more than a bit red from the shameless drinking she had partaken in earlier. “S’nice to see you, though,” she said once she had calmed down.
Hakuba nodded a bit stiffly. “Likewise.” He gave them a once over. “I hope you don’t mind accepting one more gift?”
The box was a rather elegant one, though Kaito knew better than to assume that about whatever was inside. “Thanks,” Aoko said as she claimed it, only to pass it off to Chikage.
“I suppose I’ll be seeing you again,” Hakuba said hesitantly, waving them on. “I wish you happiness in your new life.”
Aoko exchanged a few more words with him before he finally left. Still as British as ever, Kaito joked to himself.
---
“Hey, Kaito.”
“Hm?”
Aoko moved in closer to him, burying her head against his side. “Do you think we’ll ever have kids?”
He took a second to process her words. “You mean about what my mom said? She was just kidding.”
“I know that, but still – what if we did?”
He looked down to look at her, brown hair going out in waves and oh so beautiful. “We literally just got married, Aoko. Kids are still a long ways off.” He rolled over to drape his arm over her. “I just wanna enjoy the time I have with you now.”
“Mm…” she hummed in response. “I guess that’s a pretty good reason.”
They laid there in silence, listening to the steady beat of the other’s heart.
“I love you,” he whispered suddenly, holding her closer. “I love you so much.”
“Stupid,” she whispered back, a teasing lilt to her voice. “I wouldn’t have married you if you didn’t.”