Chapter Text
While cleaning Kaito had found a book Aoko had leant him in 1991 and he never returned. He only knew it was 1991 because it had been a new release and he vaguely remembered her gushing about it enough for him to just ask for the damn book itself, and the printing date was on the first pages. He didn't recall if he had ever gotten around to reading it, but after over 30 years he doubted he ever would so it was only fair to return it to her.
He and Aoko weren't on great terms, but they had made so much more progress in just the last few months than they had in decades so this was probably a win.
Kaito took the keys out of the ignition and stepped off his motorcycle, staring up at Aoko’s apartment complex. Aoko had focused wholly on her career, never getting married or anything. In a way they were a lot alike, although Aoko was probably happier.
He approached the door and for a moment he considered asking to be buzzed in but laughed a little to himself at the very idea and had the door to the lobby open with basically no issue.
Something else hung deeper. The very thing that they'd been dancing around for other thirty years.
He wasn't gonna tell her.
Not that there was no way she didn't already know. But she needed to hear from his lips that he was Kaitou 1412, and he didn't think he'd ever have the nerve to do it.
When he reached her floor he knocked like he belonged there. There was nothing for a second, but then the door opened to-
“Hey old man,” Hakuba August (without the e, he’d never stop teasing Saguru for that, that either he’d been misspelling his son's name over text for 12 years or August himself had thought the e was stupid and dropped it) gave him a curt wave, coffee mug in hand and in lounge wear. Aoko had been looking after August for the last few months, after the kid had apparently started getting bitchy about Saguru’s frequent vacations. This gave him just a little more stability. He cursed that the kid was home schooled or else he might have actually had some alone time with Aoko.
“August. Is Aoko home?”
August checked his watch “In about twenty minutes. Why?”
“I was hoping to…” just return a book? He could hand it off to August. See her? Would she really want to see him? “...look, just let me inside.”
“Yeah, sure. You’ll break in later if I don't anyways.” August obnoxiously sipped his drink, and grabbed Kaito’s hand to drag him inside and towards the living room.
Kaito fished out his phone to send an annoyed text to Saguru.
Kaito: Does your son have an actual reason to be such a prick and a weirdo…
The dots of a reply popped up instantly.
Saguru: Not at all, he's just like that.
Not helpful but maybe that was another reason Saguru hadn't introduced the boy sooner despite the frequent mentions of him over the years. Waited until he was at his peak annoying-ness to personally torture Kaito.
“Is Jack here too?” Kaito asked, hoping for a miracle. August tended to be slightly more reserved and reasonable when his cousin was around.
August released Kaito's hand finally. “No.” August’s tone dropped just as he did on the couch. “Uncle Kenta actually remembered he had a kid for once and took him back.”
“Well, hopefully he's having fun.” Kaito sat down on the chair furthest from August.
“Oh he is most certainly not.” August looked away from him, and then to the pile of papers and a math text book sitting on the coffee table, and then to the TV, with some documentary looking show paused on the screen.
Silence settled in. Would Kaito be able to handle twenty minutes of silence? He wasn't sure. He could just leave. It would be easier he could-
August broke the tension. “Do you want to play Mario Kart until Aoko gets back?”
Kaito briefly paused on the lack of a honorific attached to Aoko's name, but easily brushed it off as typical August weirdness.
“Yeah…I could go for a round.”
Twenty minutes. He could do this.