Chapter Text
It's 5:00 p.m. when Kaito manages to wrench himself free from Aoko’s grip. It was her choice to help their teachers with carrying boxes, he doesn't understand why he had to be roped into it.
He trudges past the near-empty halls, the only sound he hears is distant chatter and one of Ekoda high’s many sport teams’ practice echoing throughout the school.
It's a shame that he left his bag in the classroom, or else he could've gone straight home. Of course when Aoko decides something, there's no time to stall. Kaito just thinks it's unfair that she already got her bag in her hands when she dragged him out.
Letting out the most displeased sigh he could muster and hoping his best friend hears it from wherever she is, Kaito swings his homeroom door open.
What greets him stops him in his tracks.
In the barren classroom of 3-B, sits Kudou Shinichi, in his seat near the window. He has a paperback novel open on his desk—no doubt a mystery and most likely in English—but the other student isn't paying much attention to it. His expression is almost dazed as he stares at the setting sun outside, his cheek propped on his open palm.
Something about the scene has Kaito's breath exit his lungs in a gentle exhale, as if any interference will make everything crumble.
Kudou looks so picturesque, like he's from a moment out of a painting. The way golden light falls on the strands of Kudou's hair, highlighting its brown color when it normally looks ebony and the way the June heat dusts his cheeks an endearing pink.
Kaito's stare must've been laid on heavy because while Kudou didn't startle at the sound of the door sliding open, now his eyes sweep delicately over to where Kaito's standing.
“Hey there Princey.” Kaito greets, shaking off his surprise in less than a second and stepping fully into the classroom.
Initially, Kaito himself refrained from using any of the usual nicknames he used for Conan or Kudou when the other suddenly stepped onto the grounds of Ekoda High. He'd only slipped once and the way it shut down all expressions on Kudou’s face and left a stone wall of impassivity made him not try again.
So ‘princey’ it was. It seemed to fit just fine.
“Kuroba,” Kudou greets back, letting his propped arm fall so both are folded in front of him. He tilts his head ever so slightly as Kaito stalks closer. “It's late, what are you still doing here?”
“I could say the same to you,” Kaito pulls out the chair in front of Kudou's—his chair in fact, and sits on it sideways. “Had to help Aoko with something. My bag is literally in front of you. You didn't see it?”
Kudou blinks slowly, like a cat and looks down at the hook beside Kaito's table. “Huh. I suppose I must've missed it.”
Silence fills the room again as Kudou's attention drifts out the window once more and Kaito doesn't make a move to continue the conversation, taking the time to observe him.
Kaito wouldn't claim he knows Kudou Shinichi that well, but he'd say he knows enough.
Kudou is a detective. (Was? He would get all silent at the mention of cases and Kaito hasn't seen him solve any since he first saw him at school.) He was confident, in himself, his deduction skills and his soccer capabilities.
Kudou publicly went missing over a year ago and only known to a chosen few, had shrunk down into the age of a grade schooler. He was still solving mysteries and cornering criminals, using the voice of his childhood best friend’s father.
And in his free time, he chased after white-clad phantom thieves under the moonlight.
Though all Kaito knows proves to be unhelpful. Since that day in April, after the ceremony, Kudou stepped into classroom 3-B of Ekoda High and didn't elaborate why he was here instead of his school in Beika.
Kudou barely spoke unless he was spoken to. Hakuba’s attempts to engage him in conversations about cases and sometimes Sherlock Holmes proved to be unfruitful. He wasn't a part of any clubs, despite the soccer club’s attempts and he regarded everyone with an absent gaze at most and a small smile at best.
His face looks miles better now, lips parted and brows relaxed. Kudou looks a lot more in bliss rather than empty and Kaito distantly decides he prefers this face.
Kudou's eyes are normally a bright blue, but as he watches the orange sky, the sunset’s rays make Kudou's eyes glow something otherworldly. Kaito swallows the fragile weight in his throat before he pulls a soft smirk on his lips.
“You're a mysterious guy Kudou,” Kaito breathed. Kudou turns to look back at him, inches away from that shut down expression of his. “What could you possibly be thinking?”
“I didn't think you'd be interested in my musings Kuroba.” To Kaito's surprise, the corners of Kudou's mouth quirks up in the smallest way.
“Well I'm always interested in you Kudou.” Kaito says, low. He feels his eyelids fall just a bit, and his body lounges in a manner more suited to a gallant role he had to play.
Kudou hums, unconvinced. “Is that so?”
Kaito grimaces inwardly. It's true, in an attempt to avoid handing evidence to use against him to Kudou, he kept him at arm’s length. He treated him similarly to how he treated Hakuba, with snide and childish contempt.
But then Kudou in turn barely regarded him, which left him internally dissatisfied. It just wasn't right for a rivalry like theirs, and this conversation is the closest they've gotten to that prior relationship in these past three months.
“Of course I am. And, I'm interested in why a detective like you—” Kaito keeps his voice steady as he surveys any change in Kudou's behavior. “—is keeping any mysteries.” He mimics tipping the brim of an imaginary top hat. “Mysteries are much more suited for a phantom thief, don't you think?”
It's a big enough risk for Kaito to insinuate anything, but it pays off as the beginnings of a smirk plays on Kudou's lips. “Well perhaps the tables have turned.”
Kudou's face lights up in challenge, the warm glimmer of the orange skies enveloping him like a halo. Kaito can't look away.
So instead he leans and basks in the weirdly charged atmosphere, filled with lingering remnants of their previous chases. Kudou angles his body to meet him, just an inch. “Do you think a thief can deduce a detective’s secrets?”
“We'll see.” Kaito conceded.
To keep Kudou on his toes, Kaito shot himself out of his seat and took a fraction of time to appreciate the other boy startling. Slinging his backpack over one shoulder, he reaches out a hand to Kudou with the widest grin he's put on in a while. “Pack your things Princey, I'm taking you out on a sweet treat!”
Kudou blinks, slack-jawed. “What—”
Kaito doesn't feel like waiting so in one quick motion he puts Kudou's book in one hand, and his bag in the other and takes a hold of one of his wrists. “I feel like celebrating today, let's go get ice cream!”
“Kuroba, what are you talking about—Wait!”
Kaito doesn't know Kudou Shinichi, not really. But what he does know is enough to tell him their current stoic behavior to each other isn't the one that fits them. So Kaito will move to change it, and figure out why his detective is here in the first place.
As Kaito pulls Kudou through the golden halls of their school, Kudou’s indignant chastising and Kaito’s carefree laughing trailing through them, he can't help but think that this is the start of something beautiful.