Chapter Text
Kaito had been dreading this moment ever since Mouri Kogoro had pushed Conan at him after the murder case at the Blue Parrot and said ”He’s your problem now.”
The night before his throat had been scratchy but he had brushed it off as dry air. He woke up feeling sick to his stomach, his head feeling like cotton balls when it wasn’t outright hurting, and with the world’s worst cough. It took more effort to get out of bed than he would have liked.
He stood on unsteady feet and swiped his glasses from the side table, and grunted when that did little to clear his vision. A quick glance at his alarm clock told him he had gotten more sleep than usual, already pushing well past 10am, but he certainly didn’t feel that well rested.
Yesterday, he had agreed to babysit. That was where his problems had likely started. At least it wasn’t Conan’s friends. Kaito would have sooner fled the country than look after the entire junior detective league in his own home.
Still. One of the kids that was currently here had gotten him sick. Just his luck.
When Kaito had agreed to cover for Yusaku and claim Conan was his own son, he should have asked for money too. Well, he got a nice monthly payment for Conan’s needs, but a little extra on the side for himself would be nice. The worst part about all this Yukiko seemed to adore Conan, and Kaito hoped she would never find out that he was covering for Yusaku cheating.
That, Kaito hadn’t gotten official confirmation on, but what other reason would there be for Yusaku to need him to fake the parentage of a child that looked like a mini Kudo?
Kaito took a quick shower. It did very little to help, and it was only the potential embarrassment of dying from slipping in the tub after all his other near death experiences that allowed him to stay steady. He even forewent putting in more hair dye just to get out of the shower faster, and instead accepted that he would have more white hairs on display then he was comfortable with and there was little he could do about that.
Once he was dried off and dressed into day clothes, he passed over to the former storage room that had been turned back into the apartment’s second bedroom, swaying as he walked. He peeked in to see the kids still asleep. Hinata and Conan were curled up on separate mats on the floor, while Jack and August were on the bed, August taking up most of the space with Jack curled up next to him using August’s stomach like a pillow.
Kaito looked at them accusingly even though they weren’t awake to feel his ire. Which one of the little bastards got him sick anyways? None of them had seemed sick yesterday.
Young children were plague rats so while Conan had seemed fine it could have been from him. But none of the others were off the hook just yet. Hinata could have brought it into his home but be symptomless since he was sure Akako would have never let her granddaughter experience the common flu, and Kaito wasn’t even sure where Jack was even from. Only that he had trailed behind August one day and seemed to rarely leave his side.
August would get Kaito sick out of spite.
Kaito scoffed and closed the door.
Akako, Keiko, and Aoko had wanted to have a ‘girl’s weekend’ between the three of them, which made Kaito feel a little excluded even though he couldn’t have gone to the retreat with them anyways. Especially since it seemed like they just needed someone to watch the kids. Which was stupid. Keiko and Akako’s granddaughter Hinata was already thirteen and could probably spend a weekend alone or join her brothers at her maternal grandparents, or even hang out with her aunt and uncle, yet apparently Hinata had insisted on spending time with Kaito. Then since he was already taking Hinata, August had invited himself over, and Jack was just a package deal with August.
It also seemed very oddly timed with his upcoming heist, as if they were trying to see what bright idea he’d come up with to conveniently ditch the kids for the same hours that 1412 was supposed to steal the Liberty Ark Ruby this Sunday.
Kaito was sure he would beat this flu in a day and be right and ready for the heist so he wasn’t worried too much. As for how he would sneak away for the heist without the kids snitching on him, he would figure that out once his head wasn’t having an invisible hammer slammed against it in a repeated cycle.
His next mistake would be assuming his nausea wasn’t actually that bad, and preparing himself eggs. He had sat himself down at the table and was halfway through the plate when he started hearing sounds in the apartment that indicated the kids were waking up from all the noise Kaito was making.
August was the first to pad into the kitchen, rubbing his eyes of sleep and going towards the coffee maker like a zombie, keeping a hand over one of his eyes to block out the light. Kaito checked. It was two minutes past the hour now, and accounting for time to fully wake up and make it out of the room, that meant that August was as punctual as his father with time. If Saguru had woken up before a 15 minute interval, he would roll over and fall back asleep for those few precious minutes left, and that seemed to have passed onto his son.
The boy didn’t linger long, putting a pod into the machine and a cup under it, letting it fill as he wandered back towards the washroom. He didn’t even acknowledge Kaito.
It seemed that their brief affair during the Sunset Manor case had been the push Saguru had needed to tell him the 'Auguste' he had mentioned throughout the years was not a pampered cat but actually a human person. August, without the e apparently, had quickly slotted himself into Kaito's life and ruined what little peace Kaito did have. It unfortunately was not socially acceptable to pick fights with children when you're in your 50s, even if Kaito was in denial about his age.
Kaito didn't know who August's other parent was, so until Saguru coughed up that information, Kaito chose to believe August was either made in a lab or was of the fae.
When August returned, his head was already buried in his Switch, eyes only leaving the screen to add sugar and milk to his coffee. Still zero acknowledgement. Kaito was trying to play nice with August. If things went well, this would be his stepson one day. August made that incredibly hard.
Taking a sip of his coffee, August snorted as he looked Kaito over. He seemed to clue into Kaito’s state, but simply regarded him with a simple “Mornin’”
Kaito was about to respond with a snide but polite comment in return--
…Right before his meager eggs made a surprise return. It was going to be a long weekend, wasn't it?