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“ What are you doing, Tak? ”
Those words were among the worst sentences Yagami had ever heard. What was he doing? Something that, in the beginning, was just something he had to do for a case (even if it was "just" for the Mystery Research Club), but now that the Seiryo Rabbits had advanced to the final, Yagami couldn’t just show up to practice and half-ass the job. Not like he usually half-assed the jobs he got anyway, and this surely was not going to be his first. He had been spending his free nights (when he had made sure everyone else had something else to do) studying the dance books he had gotten from Nishizono and at this very moment he was, in fact, polishing up his dance moves.
Kaito-san was supposed to be out getting drinks with Higashi, Sugiura and Tsukumo were all the way in Ijincho, Hoshino-kun and Saori-san had no reason to barge into his office unannounced… So, why o’ why , o’ dear Lord, had his most vulnerable moment been outed like this?!
Yagami was frozen in place in the middle of the office floor where he had made room by moving the furniture to the edges of the small space. He had his back towards the door, so thank heavens Kaito-san couldn’t see his face. On the flipside though, he couldn’t see Kaito’s expression either. Yagami pinched his eyes shut tight and felt his posture deflate as he let out the breath he was subconsciously holding. If only he could sink through the floor and go straight to the afterlife.
“Tak?” Kaito-san asked again, pulling the door shut behind him as he entered the office-turned-dance-studio. Yagami tried to analyze his partner’s tone, but couldn’t really tell what the intruder was thinking. He would probably never hear the end of this, and he was pretty sure he could never show his face ever again to his friends. He would have to fake his death, change his name, leave the country. Maybe America would be a good place to lay low in, surely there would be enough cases there for one more private detective. Maybe go to Hawaii– at least the weather would be pretty nice. Anything rather than to stay here. Sorry, Amasawa, you’ll have to catch the Professor by yourself , Yagami thought one last thought before he would jump through the window and hope that the two-story fall would be enough to send him off to his next life. Maybe he would be reborn into a cat– or a bird. Anything, really.
Before he could finish those rather unpleasant thoughts Yagami felt a hand on his shoulder that snapped him out of it. Usually Kaito-san’s hands on his shoulders felt somewhat muffled by the leather jacket he had on, but for the sake of not dying of heatstroke Yagami had taken it off, leaving the thin fabric of his T-shirt the only material between him and Kaito-san. The gesture felt a lot more intimate that way, and the touch sent shocks down his back. Yagami shook Kaito’s hand off him and fell to a squatting position, hiding his face behind his forearms.
“Tak… Are you… okay?”
“No”, he groaned. He peeked through the little gap left between his arms and saw Kaito-san sitting on the floor facing him. At first Kaito’s tone had been amused, but after seeing Yagami’s reaction to the situation he probably thought it would be best to not tease him. Not yet, anyway.
The silence between them grew longer; Yagami not saying anything and Kaito-san not knowing what to say. Kaito started tracing the wood patterns on the floorboards while waiting for his partner to be ready to share just what the hell he had just walked into.
“Remember that high school girl I told you about, Amasawa–” Yagami finally mumbled into the skin on his forearms.
“The one who thought you were a creep?”
“Yeah, that’s right.” Yagami still couldn’t face Kaito-san, so he kept his face hidden behind his arms. “Well she has had me go undercover in these different places so we could figure out this one guy who’s been driving these Seiryo High students to crime…” Yagami had drawn some of the dots, hoping that Kaito could connect them without him having to say it.
“Don’t tell me you’re in a dance club or somethin’?” It had thankfully clicked in Kaito-san’s head.
“Yes.”
With that Yagami fell from his squat and knelt on the floor, still hiding his face from Kaito. His cheeks were still burning hot. Why was Kaito-san even here, when he was supposed to be getting drinks with Higashi? The universe had to be playing one of its cruelest pranks on Yagami. He had been supposed to be in the clear for at least this evening.
“Why are you even here? Weren’t you supposed to be out with Higashi?” Yagami asked. His voice sounded sad, defeated, embarrassed… Pretty much everything Yagami was hiding from Kaito from his face was clearly audible from his voice.
“He was busy with something urgent, shooed me away straight from the door.”
“And you didn’t think to give me a heads up before barging back?!”
Suddenly something ignited inside him, and Yagami was angry. The change in his tone scared even himself a bit, and it made Kaito flinch. Yagami lifted his face, finally meeting Kaito-san’s eyes. His cheeks felt still a little flushed, but suddenly he was so angry. Maybe at himself, maybe at Kaito, he couldn’t tell. He bounced up from the floor and marched over to one of the couches he had pushed against the wall and grabbed his jacket. While forcing his hands through the sleeves he stomped his way to the door and slammed it shut behind him, leaving Kaito-san to sit alone on the floor, stunned by the sudden outburst of emotions.
“Maybe he spends way too much time with the kids…” he mumbled to himself, while rubbing the back of his neck.
Yagami had marched all the way to Children’s Park when he finally calmed down. He sat on the swingset with his hands stuffed deep in the pockets of his jacket. With his unexpected rage subsided, the only emotions left inside him were embarrassment and shame. From both getting walked in on and his reaction afterwards. Kaito-san had done absolutely nothing wrong, and still Yagami blew up from his own embarrassment. He pulled his hand from his pocket holding his cigarettes, putting one between his lips and lighting it.
Dance like nobody's watching, the Seiryo Rabbits slogan echoed in his head. What a ridiculous phrase. Well, not if you were a teenager in high school, but in this situation Yagami couldn’t help but to feel stupid. The cold air and being left alone calmed him down, at least enough that he could think about the situation. Kaito-san wouldn’t make fun of him– well at least not too much. He wouldn’t bring it up in front of others before long enough had passed that it wouldn’t be that embarrassing anymore. Worst case scenario was that Kaito-san would be hurt after the way Yagami stormed out. He really should apologize for that. Maybe Kaito would still be at the office.
The walk back felt a lot longer than it had felt heading out. Still, much too soon Yagami turned the familiar corner to the side alley his Agency was located in, dreading the walk up those stairs and opening the door. Yagami stood on the street, looking up to the window. Light shone from it, meaning either that Kaito-san was still there, or that he had left the lights on on his way out. Yagami wanted to stall even longer, but the night was truly chilly, and he was starting to get cold in his leather jacket. He gathered his lungs full of the crisp air, and opened the door.
Too few stairs later he was standing behind the Agency door. Through the window in the door he could see that Kaito-san was still here, sitting on the couch which was still pushed against the wall. His arms were crossed and his brow was furrowed, clearly deep in thought. Yagami decided to just bite the bullet and open the door.
“Kaito-san…” he began while sitting on the couch next to Kaito. He sat sideways facing his friend, grabbing his ankles and sighing.
“I’m sorry for blowing up like that… You just… caught me at the worst possible time.”
“Nah Tak, I’m sorry.”
“Huh?” Yagami’s eyes flickered up to Kaito, who was suddenly looking straight at him.
“I should’ve given you a heads up, this is your home after all.” Yagami looked back down to his hands. He didn’t know what to say.
“And from what I could see, I think you were pretty good”, Kaito-san continued, making Yagami’s cheeks burn again.
“You think so?” All the Rabbits kept gushing to him about how good he was, but Yagami had always taken it as teenage girls’ nonsense. He had overheard the high schoolers talking about him on a few occasions, usually the girls gushing about how cool he was and how hot he looked. It had made him a bit uncomfortable, but he guessed it was normal teenage girl behavior.
“Hell yeah, didn’t know you could do that.”
“Me neither”, Yagami admitted.
“I mean, I should’ve guessed after half the shit you pull, jumpin’ ‘round like gravity doesn’t affect you and sometimes you flow like water…” Kaito-san went on and rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. “I really need to keep an eye on you not to lose track of you when we are in a fight.” Yagami exhaled sharply through his nose as a response.
“You’re giving me way too much credit here, Kaito-san.”
“No, I mean it. It’s amazing what those legs of yours can do…” Kaito’s sentence trailed off as he probably noticed how that sounded. Yagami looked at Kaito, whose turn it was to be completely red in the face.
“Is that so?” he teased with a raised eyebrow.
“You know what I meant!” Kaito-san huffed a response. “Besides, you can’t do that after I so kindly didn’t pester you over this.”
“Oh you are so considerate, Kaito-san.”
“You know what, Tak? I think I need to see the whole routine now.”
“You what?”
Yeah, there was no, and he meant seriously zero way Yagami would do that.
“Nuh uh” Yagami crossed his arms against his chest. “Absolutely no way.” He made the mistake of looking at Kaito, who was pulling his absolute best puppy eyes he could possibly muster.
“C’mon Tak… I gotta see it now.” Kaito-san’s voice was little more than just a low rumble, stupid brown eyes blinking like a stray puppy not eaten in days. “You know I’m not gonna stop bothering ya about this before you show me.” And that Yagami was certain would 100% be the case. So essentially the choice boiled down to do this now , or be pestered about it for some time and then do it. Yagami sighed, and Kaito-san knew he had won.
“You have to promise what you are going to see does not leave this room, alright Kaito-san?”
Kaito sat on the couch, with a stupid massive grin on his stupid face. He had thrown one of his arms over the back of the couch and he had one leg crossed over the other.
“Absolutely”, Kaito answered and threw a thumbs up. Yagami had once again discarded his jacket, and was gathering all of the courage he possibly could muster in this time and place. Somehow dancing to a dozen teenage strangers was less terrifying than dancing to his best friend of over twenty years.
“Well, here goes nothing.”
By the time the song finished Yagami had almost forgotten he wasn’t in the Seiryo High basement, rather than his own office in Kamurocho. Somewhere in the middle of the routine he had forgotten just who was watching the show, and he had completely been immersed in the dance. So that’s what ‘dance like nobody’s watching’ felt like . He was a little out of breath, and was sure he had messed up a few times, but looking at Kaito-san’s face Yagami realized it didn’t matter. The man was looking– starstruck? No, that couldn’t be right.
“Kaito-san?” Yagami asked, and as if that broke Kaito out of a trance he started clapping. Yagami could feel his cheeks get flushed again as he rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment, turning his eyes to the roof.
“That was amazing, Tak! Do you know any others?” And sure, he did know the three other songs by now, but should he really tell that to Kaito-san?
“C’mon Tak!”
“The deal was that you see just the rest of the routine, wasn’t it?”
“So there is more!” Poor choice of wording, it seemed, and it hadn’t slipped by Kaito unnoticed. “Please, Tak!” Ah, what the hell , Yagami thought. No way it’s going to be any worse than the first one.
And then Yagami showed Kaito-san all of the three other routines he knew, or what he could remember of them at least. Sometimes he messed it up a bit, but that much was expected from an almost complete beginner. No matter though, as Kaito-san didn’t seem to notice the little mistakes and Yagami falling a little behind rhythm sometimes. After each song Kaito-san erupted into applause, and each time Yagami could feel his face burn up. By the end of the fourth song, Yagami was so exhausted he just laid on the floor on his back. How he could beat up dozens of guys armed with weapons or run through the town without so much as breaking a sweat, but dancing was the thing that took him out, he couldn’t tell. He really didn’t have the right breath control for this, or something.
“Wow, Tak! Are you sure you just started?” Kaito-san asked.
“Yeah…”
“I guess those dancer legs really came through for you.”
“Shut up, Kaito-san.”
“You know, I only know how to slow dance… Not very impressive.” Yagami propped himself up and supported his torso with his forearms as he looked at Kaito-san.
“And I know four high school level dance routines.”
“They looked super hard though! Couldn’t really tell that they were made for teenagers.”
“How would you know?”
“Tch, just take the compliment, Tak”, Kaito-san huffed and swung his arm like he was swatting away an invisible fly.
“So, are you going to show me your slow dancing skills or not?” Yagami teased. “Or am I the only one getting embarrassed here?”
“They aren’t really solo dances, you know.”
“C’mon, you could just pretend.” Yagami heaved himself off the floor, and fell onto the couch. Damn, all of them in a row was really taxing. “The floor is yours, maestro.” He hid his face behind the bend of his elbow as he was trying to get his breathing steady.
Suddenly he felt a hand grabbing him by the wrist and pulling him to his feet. Feet, which felt like boiled noodles when he was forced on them.
“Woah!” he yelped as he lost his balance. Luckily, (well, kind of) there was someone immovable as a brick house there to catch him against their chest. Yagami somehow found himself against the silk of Kaito-san’s shirt, still trying to process just what the hell had happened.
“What are you doing?” he asked, pushing himself off Kaito’s chest.
“Showing you.” As if that answered anything. Kaito reached over to the record player, and swapped the disc to one of the smooth jazz records Yagami had gotten from the Poppo record campaign a few years back. As the first song started, Kaito-san moved Yagami’s arms over his own shoulders, guiding them to link behind his neck. Yagami’s cheeks were as red as the detailing on Kaito’s stupid silk shirt. Yagami had to lower his face when Kaito placed his hands over Yagami’s hips, suddenly very self-conscious. He was probably super sweaty after all that dancing, and to be honest he was feeling a little naked without his trusted jacket to shield him. After all that dancing and marching around Kamurocho, he just didn’t have the energy to fight back though. And, the way Kaito-san’s hands slotted over his waist was… tantalizing. But there was just no way that he would end up being the one who ended up a clown over this too.
As Yagami was trying to pull away from Kaito-san, he felt himself being tugged by the waist even closer.
“Just… Play along, alright Tak?” Kaito-san mumbled against Yagami’s neck. The sensation of the words against the skin on his neck sent shivers down his back. As Kaito started to slowly sway back and forth, Yagami could hear the blood rushing behind his eardrums. Kaito’s face was still buried against the crook of Yagami’s neck, being yet another reason Yagami could feel the bottom of his stomach flip. As he felt the low rumbling of Kaito humming along the song against his neck, he was sure Kaito-san could hear how his pulse was like thunder hammering inside him.
“Just relax. You’re fine.” Those words made Yagami’s already weak and wobbly legs almost give out under him. He didn’t know where else to hide his blushing face, so he planted his face against Kaito’s shoulder.
“I’ve got you.” They swayed back and forth with no words spoken for a while. The song changed on the record, but neither of them made any effort to let go. Yagami was still as stiff as a steel pole, as he was almost certain he was a gross sweaty mess and–
“Nobody’s watching us, Tak. Stop worrying for a second, please .” And to really drive his point home, Kaito-san rubbed little circles on Yagami’s waist with his thumbs. That made all air escape from his lungs, as he melted against Kaito’s touch. He leaned against his chest, turning his hands in a way that he was holding the back of Kaito’s head. Then, without any warning, Kaito planted his lips on the most sensitive part of Yagami’s neck, just below his ear.
As a response Yagami sucked in a sharp inhale through his teeth.
“Sorry”, Kaito-san murmured against Yagami.
“Mhmmh”, was all Yagami could come up with. Somewhere deep inside Yagami’s brain one coherent thought formed; this isn’t really dancing, is it? Somehow that was the final nail in his coffin, the one thing that tipped the boat, the straw that broke the camel’s back. Yagami could feel laughter bubbling up from deep inside his chest, and before he could bite it back he was chuckling against Kaito’s shoulder.
“What’s so funny, Tak?” Kaito asked, his voice a little– offended?
“It’s just… This isn’t really dancing, is it?” Yagami said in between laughing. “We’re just standing here.”
“I guess you’re right, Mr. Dance-sensei”, Kaito chuckled back, and kissed Yagami’s neck again. It made Yagami’s breathing hitch again, but this time he leaned into the touch. Kaito gave his skin a little suck between his teeth.
“C’mon Kaito-san, you’re going to leave a mark.”
“That a problem?”
“I guess not.”
Nobody was watching, after all.