Work Text:
“Ne, ne!” Girl #1 excitedly slammed her hands on her friend’s desk. “Have you seen the new issue of CamCam?”
“Ahh, that one with the group of new models?” Girl #2 rested her chin on a fist. “I bought a copy this morning, but I haven’t looked through it.”
“They’re at the front page though, you’d have seen it!”
“You’re right, they’re so cute!” Boy #1 burst out from where he was huddled with a few more guys. “Do you think any of them has a boyfriend?”
An eyebrow twitched as the other boys echoed the sentiment with longing.
“The photo spread from page 4 looked really good.” Girl #3 from a different group of females said. “I think that’s my favorite. The one where they’re wearing silk evening gowns and posing to play poker.”
“Roulette?” Girl #4 pondered. “Well, Sayaka-chan looked to be in her element there, but Taira-chan’s apparent hotheadedness doesn’t really suit poker. Personally, I think the Tea Time one was the best. Sakei-chan and Makoto-chan really fit the garden setting, all prim and proper-like with the frills and flowers and kya~! They’re so beautiful.”
Girl #5 entered the scene like a hound of the underworld. “No, you’re both wrong! It’s this!” She held up the magazine.
The image of four girls spanned across two pages, each wearing elaborate kimonos with sleeves and ends that trailed slightly to the ground, leaving a pool of fabric that attracted eyes towards the way the garment fit the body it was wrapped around. Each pattern and accessories were carefully chosen to complement the girls’ features.
One girl, whose wavy brown-blonde hair was left to cascade down her back, had on a golden kimono with fading green ends, trails of pinkish butterflies and white roses were hand painted at the bottom, only to grow sparser as it went up. The obi she wore was cream in color, embroidered with gentle patterns of leafy, golden vines that shone even through the magazine print.
She posed with her back to the camera, chest slightly turned to front, enough so that when she tilted her head, a hint of a sharp, brown gaze pierced through the shadows cast by the orange colored wagasa she cradled in her hands.
Another girl, whose black hair was tied up in a high ponytail, wore a dark green kimono that had faint patterns of bamboo leaves embroidered over the silk. A light colored obi with warm-colored leaves wrapped around her waist, complementing her dark skin and making it seem like she glowed.
Her stance was rather confrontational; legs a bit too parted to be proper, one hand holding her black colored wagasa aloft by the top of its handle, the other fisted and propped up her hips.
The two that were left, unlike the others, posed together. It made sense since they had some similarities with their features, and their attire reflected that as well.
One had her dark hair in an elaborate updo, but bits and pieces of hair escaped the hold, though instead of making her look unkempt, it added to her charm. Her kimono was white with ends that faded from an indigo to lighter blues as it reached the top. Faint hexagonal lines shone in the lighting of the photograph, the painted patterns consisting of birds in flight interspersed with bursts of softly colored flowers. Her obi was a silvery white with simple embroidery.
Instead of a wagasa, she had a fan held up, the mischievous smirk on her face clear even if the camera only caught her profile. She had her back plastered against her companion, one leg bent and raised provocatively.
The other, whose hair was far neater but also a bit lighter in color, wore a kimono that was a mirror of her companion. The colors, however, were inverted, ending up with her wearing a kimono that was a blue that matched her sharp, blue gaze, its ends trailing into white, with birds at rest to reflect her calmer countenance.
She held her wagasa in a way that covered both her and her companion, her posture perfectly straight and elegant.
Overall, they made a stunning picture, and the admiring gazes of Girls #3 and #4 were soon joined by the rest of the male population. To Girl #5’s smug delight.
Hakuba Saguru abandoned his dignity—if he hadn’t already done so before this—and buried his head into his arms.
Just how in the bloody hell did it end up like this?
It was, like many other woes in his recent life, Kuroba Kaito’s fault.
Saguru often wondered why he let himself fall for the many tricks and manipulations done by Kuroba. They’ve known each other for years, and if anything, Kuroba had only become an even worse health hazard after graduating high school.
Gaining a significant other in the form of the newly returned Kudō Shin'ichi hadn’t mellowed the magician down at all. In fact, Saguru sometimes worried that Kuroba was becoming a bad influence to the other detective, what with how Kudō-kun stood back to watch many of Kuroba’s schemes unfold with nothing more than an eyeroll. Saguru suspected bribery in the form of constant supply of coffee.
Did Kudō-kun not recognize the lunatic that was his boyfriend???
But Saguru digressed.
For better or worse, that lunatic was someone he reluctantly labeled as a friend(ly rival). Along with Kudō-kun and, to his usual chagrin, the hot headed Osakan detective, Hattori Heiji. The four of them attending the same university was either some form of misfortune or divine intervention.
(While Saguru didn’t usually subscribe to the thought of the latter, it was one of the only things that made sense. It was beyond probability, nevermind that Toudai accepted the best of Japan and all four of them could pass the exams in their sleep.)
So, as friends, they do tend to go on outings together.
With Kuroba’s luck, the group that included three detectives didn’t stumble into criminal activities as often, which all four agreed was enough of a reason to hang out despite the arguments that are likely to erupt.
The unfortunate side effect was to tolerate Kuroba’s antics for a prolonged amount of time.
Which was how they ended up at a studio with Kuroba grinning over them as the talent agency staff—apparently a friend of Kuroba’s—explained the situation. They had scheduled a photoshoot for a fashion magazine, but all the models ended up with food poisoning after eating one of the staff’s home cooked meals.
“Terumi-san loves cooking, but she’s never been good at it,” Setsuko Yumi-san, the talent agency staff, said. “Most of the senior staff know not to accept anything she made herself, but we wanted to introduce new talents in this issue. No one was able to warn them in time, and now… well, we’re in need of models.”
“But wouldn’t it be fine to just reschedule the shoot?” Hattori asked, scratching his head.
It wasn’t like any one of them were strangers to a camera’s lens, with being celebrities in their own right, but modeling was quite different from posing for simple pictures for the newspaper. They were famous detectives, after all, not performers like Kuroba was.
Setsuko-san shook her head, “Unfortunately we’ve had to reschedule it twice already, and this is the last opportunity we have to make it to the deadline.”
“And that’s why we’re going to help them!” Kuroba proclaimed, beaming at his three friends.
Kudō-kun frowned, seemingly wanting to argue, but Saguru knew with absolute certainty that the other detective found it hard to say no to Kuroba’s whims, especially if they were harmless and phrased as something helpful. And he knew Hattori-kun would just follow Kudō-kun’s lead.
So with a sigh, Saguru turned to Setsuko-san. “So what do you need us to do?”
The smile and uncanny glint in her eyes really should have been something he paid more attention to.
Needless to say, there was a lot of cursing and grumbling involved.
“Don’t we all look beautiful?”
Saguru flinched at the voice that interrupted his musings. He slowly turned his head, hoping that it was only his imagination that that person was here, but it was immediately dashed as he saw his current seatmate.
Kuroba hummed as he flipped a page of the CamCam magazine, grinning with something self-satisfied as his eyes roved over the prints. “But my Shin-chan definitely rocked that bodice for Dynamite. He’s the best.”
Saguru tried to count to ten, and when it didn’t work, tried again in French, German, and then Latin. While he did this, Kuroba prattled on about how much he appreciated Kudō-kun’s assets.
Finally, when he realized his blood pressure was better off if he just ignored it, Saguru asked, “So why are you here, Kuroba? Don’t you have class with Kudō-kun?”
“Ah, see,” And by god, was that a hint of sheepishness in Kuroba’s grin? “Shin-chan might be a teensy tiny bit annoyed with me.”
Saguru made some sort of noise at the back of his throat, “And you came here because?”
Kuroba was silent for a moment, which in itself was odd, before asking nonchalantly, “Can I sleep over at your place?”
Instead of the immediate no that Saguru was tempted to say, he went with a suspicious, “Why?”
Here, Kuroba hugged the magazine to his chest, sniffling what were obviously crocodile tears. “Shin-chan redecorated the apartment with f-finny things.”
“Ah,” was all Saguru could say. Inwardly, he was cheering for Kudō-kun. It wasn’t that Kuroba had gone too far because in the end, all three had consented to everything. It was just nice to know his fellow detective could and would do something to let his displeasure known to his magician boyfriend.
Seeing him lost in thought, Kuroba widened his teary eyes. “Please?”
“No.” Saguru didn’t even need to think about it. “Man up and apologize to Kudō-kun, Kuroba. I don’t think he’s actually angry enough at you to drive you out overnight.”
Which, unfortunately, was right. The spats he’d witnessed the two have were incredibly short, and usually ended with someone saying something sappy. It was, quite frankly, embarrassing to have to be around them whenever that happened.
At his words, Kuroba brightened and his tears miraculously disappeared. “You’re right!” And then he was off.
Saguru stared at the magician’s vacated spot before sighing.
His eyes caught another one of those cursed magazines. With a wry smile, Saguru shook his head.
Well, it wasn’t really a bad experience. They actually had fun during that shoot. It’s the aftermath of the pictures being released to the public that was annoying.
One thing was for sure. Saguru would never do anything like that ever again.
(They did.)