Holly came from Miami, FLA
Hitch-hiked her way across the USA
Plucked her eyebrows on the way
Shaved her legs and then he was a she
She says, Hey babe. Take a walk on the wild side
-Walk on the Wild Side, Lou Reed

♦ ♦ ♦

The Grey Zone: Miami
by Icka! M. Chif

♦ ♦ ♦

You just can't change old habits.

And Kaito should have expected something like this. The trip from Gotham to Florida had been reasonably quiet. They had by-passed Washington DC, just in case, caught a rest in a sleepy little town in South Carolina, given Conan's e-mail to the Chief of Police's son who had a memory like an Encyclopaedia in some place called 'Idaville', and spent a lovely week in Orlando playing Tourist.

Dressed like tourists too, much to Hakuba's relief. Black was not a good colour for either the Florida humidity or the water rides. They'd had a lot of fun. And there were no worries about possibly no blending in during their stay; tourists from every part of the world came to visit.

They were back in scruffy army surplus cast-offs as they left through Miami to avoid leaving an obvious trail. Their plane left in three hours, and seeing as neither of them were entirely fond of the snacks referred to as 'meals' on domestic flights, they were eating before hand.

Which was where the trouble had started. Literally. They'd been eating their meal, as pleased as could be as they discussed how to hide cross-dressers. They were getting some weird looks from the booths around them, mainly because Kaito -was- dressed as a red-headed girl today and suddenly no one was certain what gender he really was.

Saguru knew about the moving the hips while going up and down stairs --men's centre of balance was up towards their chests while women carried it in their hips-- and that the placement of the hands and elbows while walking were slightly different.

Women were generally built to carry things more then men were, one of the reasons why men and women caught things differently. A man held his palms up, parallel to their face while a woman would hold her arms outstretched, like one would when cradling an infant, catching it in their cupped hands. Or, if they dropped something, by closing their thighs quickly. Something no man could do without pinching vital bits. Ouch.

Eye-Hand co-ordinantion was also different between the genders. Threading a needle was a prime example. Men would hold either the thread or the needle still and move the other. Women, as Kaito demonstrated, moved both the thread and the needle at the same time.

Of course, what he hadn't told Saguru was that he'd had to practise for weeks before he'd been able to do that.

They had just moved on to the subject of Adam's apples when it happened. 'It' as in a in a drug deal turned homicide in the restaurant they had chosen to catch a quick bite in.

Which resulted in them being delayed as officers attempted to wrangle any and all details that they could out of the surrounding 'witnesses'.

Kaito thought the plan was simple. They just had to sit still, comment that they didn't see anything and they'd be home free.

Except that Saguru had obviously gotten fed up with the slow course that justice was taking and stood up, walked over to the closest examiner and announced that there had been four men who had been sitting at the table, the murderer and two others.

Saguru hadn't gotten a good look at the murderer, but the two men who had been at the table and chased the first man out had both been between five-foot nine and five-foot eleven, one was Caucasian, the other African American, possibly of mixed decent, both wearing pastel sports coats over tee-shirts and jeans and had driven off in a black Ferrari Testarossa.

He also believed they referred to each other as 'Sonny' and 'Rico', but wasn't entirely sure as the 80s style music had been too loud for him to hear clearly.

The police detective had stared at Saguru for a minute, the information obviously taking a moment to process, before turning to the side. "Hey, Horatio!!" The middle aged man shouted. "I got something here for you."

A man with sandy reddish hair turned towards them, slowly walking over. "What can I do for you gentlemen?" He asked, deliberately taking off his sunglasses.

"Repeat what you just told me, son." The detective requested.

Saguru did. Kaito resisted the urge to beat his head against the nearest hard surface. Great. Now not only had they drawn attention to themselves, --police attention-- but now they were probably going to miss their flight.

"Fascinating." 'Horatio' fiddled with his sunglasses. "What did you say your name was?"

"Ha-"

"Hobbit." Kaito quickly cut him off with a impatient feminine snap. "I'm Puck, 'e's Hobbit and we're gonna be late fer our flight." Silently, he gave a little mental note of thanks for dressing like a girl today. And the bright red hair was kind of fun. People tended to do a double take then give him a wide berth.

"Flight?" Horatio questioned. Kaito rolled his eyes, pulling their tickets out of the bag and holding them out. Horatio took them, scanning the information.

"Raymond de Saint-Veran." He said slowly, reading the names off the tickets. "And Roberta Goodfellow. Good name, Raymond. Although awful tall for a Hobbit, aren't you?" Horatio commented, handing the tickets back and putting his glasses back on.

"I'm the Earth's Tallest Hobbit." Saguru deadpanned, taking the tickets. "As well as the World's Smallest Giant."

"'E's a lit major." Kaito explained, taking the tickets from Saguru and putting them back in his bag. "Don't say much but s'real observant."

"And 'Puck'?" The original officer asked, looking vaguely mused.

"'Robin's short fer 'Robert'." Kaito squared his jaw, shifting his weight from hip to hip. "Robin Goodfellow."

"Puck." Horatio smiled. "Clever."

Kaito shrugged. "'e toldja wot yer lookin' for. Can we go now?"

Saguru gave him a look that could have almost been considered a glare. This was -justice-. One did not interrupt the pursuit of righting wrongs.

Kaito sighed and waved it off, rubbing his forehead with a long suffering sigh. They could catch a later flight.

You -really- couldn't change old habits.

-fin-
'Horatio' and the police officers are from from CSI: Mami
'Sonny' and 'Rico' are from Maimi Vice
'Idaville' and all it's characters are from the Encyclopaedia Brown series of books. All mysteries solved for 25 cents a day, plus expenses.


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