Kaito and Saguru made it in about a week.

First, there had been the accidental detour to a local Anime Convention. They'd been hitchhiking and ran into a couple of girls from Iowa heading in that direction and they'd got dragged along. The fact that they could both speak Japanese and English was proven to be an asset. The girls requested doujinshi translations in stead of gas money, which worked in their favour.

And then they got to the Convention and Kaito discovered Cosplay.

Actually, it was more along the lines that he realised that with a little bit of adjustment to their coloration and a quick trip to the thrift store for suits and trench-coats, they could pass for Muraki and Tsuzuki from some of the Doujinshi they had read in the car.

Since this meant that since Saguru was Muraki to Kaito's Tsuzuki and therefore got to grope him in public, Saguru -liked- this idea.

The Convention ended much too quickly in a flurry of colourful exhausted con-goers that resembled nothing more than either sprawled corpses or ex-animate zombies, no one wanting to return quite yet to reality.

From there, they made it to San Francisco and had a rather bizarre time of it involving a neurotic detective and a lost princess. Or an even more neurotic than usual detective. They never did get to see the Golden Gate bridge however.

From San Francisco, they made it through central California, stopping to take a photograph in front of a billboard that said 'Welcome to California - The Land of Fruits and Nuts'. It was probably referring to the Nut Groves on one side of the road and the Orchards on the other. Probably. They snickered over it anyway.

Los Angeles was larger than anticipated and they got lost looking for the only people they knew how lived in LA. The fact that it was an unlisted address did not help matters. However, after a run in with some vampires, some vampire hunters and a vampire who was a vampire hunter and happened to moonlight as a private investigator, they finally managed to track down Kudo Yusaku and Yukiko.

The author and actress were a bit wary at their sudden appearance, despite their friendly invitation to stay a while, which Saguru and Kaito agreed to, just for a few days.

Kaito had learned the Art of Disguise through what his father had left behind and his own innate talents, but there were holes in his education. Holes, that Yukiko, having learned the Art first hand from his father, knew how to fill. Which was something that Yukiko was more than happy to have someone else to play with and teach.

So while Yukiko and Kaito played with make-up, Saguru went and wandered around Venice Beach, figuring that it didn't matter what he wore, he'd blend in. The detective had run into a group of relaxing scientists and had wonderful time in the sun and the sand, at least until the leader's very large kid showed up.

'Large' as '50 metres tall', reptilian, green, spiky, and breathed radioactive fire.

That had been weird. Evidently they were on vacation from New York. Kaito was privately glad they hadn't stayed in New York longer than they had, no capes or not.

Then he'd gone to kiss Saguru and found someone else in his boyfriend's body. At least 'Sam' , the person in Saguru's body, had been contrite about it, after he stopped screaming and the funky patterned person that followed him around stopped laughing. Kaito really couldn't see 'Al' very clearly, he'd just see badly patterned clothing out of the corner of his eye and some laughter, but it was enough for him to believe Sam's story about him stepping into other people's bodies to make things right.

According to 'Al' and Sam, it wasn't quite general knowledge just yet, but Kudo Yuusaku wrote what he knew in the Night Baron books. Murders, robberies, assassinations. He'd retired from that world when he'd met Yukiko, but the mystery novelist constant travel wasn't just to hide from his editors... it was to hide from those who thought he wrote a little too much into that dark world.

Together, they'd warned Yuusaku and Yukiko, and the four of them had fled to Hawai'i. Well, technically five, but Al and Sam had left mid-flight, leaving a very befuddled Saguru behind. And Kaito hadn't minded leaning against a slightly possessive Saguru up as he brought his partner up to date.

Hawai'i was fun. It rained a lot more there than anywhere else in the country, but over all it was warm and friendly, except for the one island where their left shoes were stolen by a furry blue thing that jabbered gibberish at them as it did so. The little girl who travelled with the blue thing had been very apologetic about that, apparently it was something they were working on.

Kaito insisted on visiting Kilauea, one of the most active volcanos in the world while they were there, idly taking Sir Stinky along with them. He removed Pandora from the stuffed elephant while they watched the explosions and tossed the annoying stone down one of the lava tubes, into the volcano, an offering to the Goddess Pele who resided there.

Pele hadn't been happy. Kilauea threw up a large amount of lava, spewing molten rock everywhere. One of which, against most odds, landed in front of their hotel room, a glinting stone sticking out from the side of it. A very annoyed Kaito had retrieved Pandora from the warm rock, wondering why after searching so long and hard to find the damn thing why he couldn't get rid of it. First it didn't want to be found, then it didn't want to leave.

He'd bought five wooden tiki at the airport gift shop after they'd said farewell to Yukiko and Yuusaku and shipped them to various people they'd met on the trip around the world. Saguru had watched him do it with a curious expression, but hadn't pushed him on it, for which he was grateful.

They used the last of their fake passports to leave the United States of America to fly home to Japan. The flight attendant gave them amused looks when 'Rosie Krantz' and 'Guiles Stern' checked in to fly out and asked if they were dead.

Kaito hadn't gotten it.

Saguru told him that he'd explain it on the way home.

+++Fin+++

Thanks to Candy-chan and Socchan for agreeing to be the fangirls.
Thanks to Ytak for writing their adventures in San Francisco.

Crossovers: Yami no Matsuei, Monk, The Princess Diaries Movie, Angel, Godzilla, Quantam Leap, Lilo and Stitch, Shakespeare.
All characters belong to their respective owners, using them without permission, no money being made.