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The Grey Zone: Mid-West Snippets
by Icka! M. Chif

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"Where are we now?" Kaito yawned and stretched, then hastily fixed his wig. Gods, it felt good to get off the bus and move around for a minute.

Saguru ran a hand over his hair, wincing at the gel in it. "Someplace called South Park. We're in Colorado."

"Ah." He paused in mid-stretch, luxuriating in the feeling of some of his bones and tendons finally sliding into alignment again as he watched some grade school kids, bundled up in winter clothes cross the street. "Seems like a quiet place." At least the bus depot was a lot quieter than some of the other places they'd visited.

Then a car ploughed through one of the kids, leaving him laying there in a pile of mangled orange fabric and blood.

"Oh my god!" One of the kids screamed. "You killed Kenny! You Bastards!!!"

"Oh, give it a fuckin' rest." The largest kid of the group snarled as the rest of them continued on their way without any apparent shock at the indent.

"Yeah, Kyle." The other member agreed as first kid joined him. "It's like, what? The third time this week? Give it a rest already."

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

The kids wandered off.

Kaito and Saguru stared.

Kaito dropped his arms, nudging Saguru. "Hey. Aren't you-?" Dead body. Detective thing.

Saguru shook himself out of his slight stupor, closing his mouth. "No." He decided as a dog wandered up and sniffed the carcass. "I don't think I will. I'll be on the bus if you need me." And with that, he turned and got back on the bus.

Kaito glanced at the dead body again, now being dragged of by the dog. No screaming and the people around acted as if it was normal. He shivered and got back on the bus.

This place was -creepy-.

+++

"Where are we going NOW?" Kaito groaned as he peered out from under his arm, which he had slung over his eyes to block the light. The bus jolted him from side to side as it travelled down the road, occasionally jostling him into Saguru.

"Not sure yet." Saguru commented blandly. He looked tired too.

"Just so long as the people look reasonably normal this time." Kaito groused, sliding his arm back down and covering his vision. "If I see another duck..."

"I would have thought you would have liked that Darkwing character in St. Canard." Saguru commented mildly. "Same fashion sense."

"Oh ha bloody ha." He had to stop saying that. Britian had not been good for his speach pattersn. "Did you see his gun? And the opening speach? And what was up with 'Suck Gas, Evildoers'?"

"Or the pilot and the two small children that followed him around." Although the term 'pilot' was used loosely in this case.

"I just wondered where he got all that gas from." Kaito shifted in his seat, trying to keep his legs from fallling asleep. "Eat a lot of beans? And besides, he had a cape."

"No capes." Saguru agreed.

"No capes." Kaito paused. "Well, except Kid's. But that's actually a hangglider, so it doesn't count."

Saguru wisely changed the subject. They'd had that arguement many times before. "So what about that hero in Duckburg?"

"He was more obnixious than the Darkwing guy." Kaito muttered.

"You're just mad that when he got flustered and starting pushing his buttons and randomly began throwing fish." There was just a touch of smugness in Saguru's tone.

Kaito swung the hand that wasn't covering his face out, smacking Saguru in the chest. The blond chuckled. "But yes, the posturing and blathering was rather annoying. What was his name again? Roboduck?"

"Gizmoduck." Kaito supplied. "Guards Scrooge McDuck's money bin. He's the Wealthiest Duck in the World."

"Don't tell me you-"

"No."

"Good."

They lapsed into silence again. "Ducks?" Saguru questioned, as if he couldn't quite believe it himself.

"Whole towns of them." Kaito agreed. "Where are we going now?"

There was some rustling as Saguru pulled a map out of his pocket and looked at it. "Mouseton."

Kaito lifted his arm up again to peer at Saguru. "You're kidding."

"Nope." Saguru put the map back in his pocket. "We're stopping at Spoonerville first."

"Spoonerville?"

The bus rumbled to a stop, the bus driver shouting for Spoonerville.

Yup. Spoonerville.

Just so long as it was anything but ducks. Not that he had anything against ducks. It was just kinda creepy to be like giant ape-faced creatures surrounded by cities filled with ducks. Even if they were friendly ducks. Mostly, anyway.

"C'mon, Maxie!" A cheerful called, voice cracking slightly on the last syllable. "We're gonna be late for Mickey's picnic! A-Hyuck!"

"Coming Dad." A much younger voice called. "Of all the days for the car to break down..."

"Dogs?" Saguru mused out loud. "Beagles?"

Kaito firmly put his arm back over his eyes. "I'm not looking, I'm not looking, I'm not looking..."

Well, at least it wasn't ducks.

+++

If he wanted to be honest --and really, where was the fun in that?-- Kaito started it. There was only so much 'safe' conversation that could be tolerated before you could start to feel your brain dribble out of your ears in rotten oozing green masses.

Without consulting the other, they had each gotten a chocolate bar from what passed as the local convenience stores and smuggled it on to the bus. After the ride had started they'd each casually handed the other the sweet, only to be pleasantly surprised to receive one in return.

For two guys on the run, that had actually been pretty impressive of themselves.

After some quiet snickering and eating of said chocolate bars, the debate had started.

"I think I should get two chocolates." He commented in Japanese. Partly to hear his native language again --Americans had different accents and dialects depending on where they went, but in general it was a more staccato sound than the British he'd gotten used to-- partly for security reasons. They were dressed as Japanese students currently anyway.

One of Saguru's eyebrows had almost touched his hairline. "-Two- chocolates?"

"One for me, one for my other half." He announced loftily.

Saguru frowned, peering at him suspiciously. Except for a slight twitching of his lips, Kaito had kept a pretty straight face. "In that case..." Saguru said slowly. "I should get two chocolates too. One from each half."

"You did." Kaito pointed to the chocolate wrapper that was the remains of Saguru's chocolate. "It came in two pieces."

The former blond pulled out the wrapper and held it up, like he was holding a snake by the tail about to bite him at any moment. "That doesn't count."

"Why not?"

"It has coconut in it." Saguru pointed under the word 'Mounds' on the red and white wrapper to where it said 'coconut'. "Therefore it doesn't count as Valentine's Day chocolate."

It was Kaito's turn to look sceptical. "Since when does coconut have anything to do with it?" At least he hadn't gotten the one with the nuts in it.

He got a smug smirk in return. "Coconut's White. So it's for White Day."

Okay, so the detective had a point. "But there's chocolate. So it's for Valentine's Day." He'd chosen it because it had dark chocolate, unlike the rest of the chocolate bars at the store. "Would you prefer if I had gotten you the one with nuts?"

Saguru given him a sour look. The former blond was mildly allergic to nuts. Hence, the comment.

"So you still got two pieces of chocolate and I only got one." Kaito continued. Still, his had been a solid chocolate bar. Not quite as creamy as the Meiji chocolate bars back home, but still, chocolate was chocolate.

"Do you want to check the weights and see if they're equal too?" Saguru snarked. The tone might have been bitter sounding, but his expression was amused.

Kaito grinned back, warming up to the friendly dispute.

It was St. Valentine's Day and they were arguing about chocolate.

No flowers, red hearts and soppy romance for Valentine's Day for them, thanks. They'd continue on as they had began.

+++

Kaito stretched as they got off the bus, making a surreptitious glance around the bus depot. Both he and Saguru were tired, stiff and sore from travelling on the bus for hours. Fortunately, so was everyone else, so they fit in perfectly.

Next stop, a nice hotel room and hopefully a good night's sleep.

"Keystone City." Saguru read a pamphlet that had been floating around, one of those supposedly informative ones that most cities had, stating the big attractions in hopes of drumming some tourist business. "Home of the Flash and the Flash Museum."

Kaito snorted. "They celebrate their streakers here?"

Wooooosh! A red blur passed by them, the breeze that followed blowing stray papers around, flipping skirts up and knocking hats off of people's heads.

Kid pulled his white cape off of his head and blinked, watching his silk hat merrily bounce down the street.

Saguru blinked. Kid blinked. Everyone else when on with their business.

Woooooosh! A red and white blur stopped in front of them, forming into a lanky young teen in red and white spandex and the wildest mop of brown hair he'd ever seen. The teen grinned, holding Kid's white top hat out to him. "Hereyago,youdroppedyourhat."

Wooooosh! The boy was gone again, moving faster than the speed of sight.

Kaito blinked again, dressed again in his normal clothing, backpack over his shoulder.

"-Now opening the Impulse Wing." Saguru continued reading the pamphlet.

Kaito scratched his head, then shrugged. "No capes." He offered gamely.

Saguru gave him a dry look before turning around and walking away. "How soon before the next bus leaving for -anywhere-?"

+++

"Oh, shut up." Saguru snapped.

Kaito sniffed. "-I- didn't say anything."

"You don't have to." Saguru grumped. "After long periods of close exposure of how you think, I can now read your MIND."

Considering Kaito was trying to remember what pair of underwear he was wearing currently, if any, and when was the last time they stopped for breakfast, he sure hoped that Saguru couldn't. So they missed the bus. Big deal. Wasn't like they were in a hurry to get anywhere, they didn't exactly have a schedule that they were following.

"We could always hitch-hike." He said cheerfully, sticking out his thumb, half in jest. "You do have your towel, right?"

"Oh, Ha bloody, Ha...a.... uh?" Saguru blinked as a slick looking black sports car pulled up to a stop in front of them.

"Are you in need of a ride?" A slightly mechanical voice inquired as the red light on the front of the car moved back and forth with a small swooshing noise.

"Um... yes?" Kaito blinked. There didn't appear to be any driver in the car...

Both doors opened. "Hop in. Where are you going?"

Saguru paused. "Kai?"

Kaito blinked, debated a moment then switched over to Kid. Kid looked at the car. Yup, black car, wooshing red light, no driver, offering them a ride. It didn't seem to be overly hostile, if nothing else it seemed to have a sort of dry patient aura around it.

"No where in particular." Kid shrugged, wandering over to the driver's seat. "We're just travelling the country. Tantei-san? You coming?"

Saguru gaped a moment more, then clambered into the passenger's seat. The doors closed behind them as they fastened their seatbelts. "I am KITT by the way." The car announced, smoothly pulling away from the kerb. "My usual driver is making an ass of himself with a woman, so I decided to go for a drive."

"Fair enough." Kid agreed. Hirokini made a chirping sound in his ear, signalling that the either the cell phone battery was dead or they weren't getting a connection. Kid disconnected the camera and the speaker he wore to save those small batteries. "This is Hobbit and I'm Puck. We're travelling the country before school starts up again in England."

"Excellent." KITT commented. "If you would not mind telling me of some of your adventures, I am in need of intellectual conversation. Consider it a trade for the ride?"

Saguru's shell shock wore off as he smiled slightly. "That, I think we can do."

++++

There were pros and cons to riding both the buses and the trains.

Buses got you places reasonably around on time, but were on the cramped, noisy, jostling side.

Trains were late. Not just minutes late, like you would occasionally get warnings for in Japan or Europe where the trains ran like clockwork, but up to half a day late. And no one seemed to care.

On the other hand, they didn't have any set plans or destinations and the trains had an Observation Lounge. Which was a central area for people to sit, talk, occasionally watch movies and catch an over priced bite to eat in the cafe downstairs or the diner car, the next car up.

But with windows that took up the side and the roof of the car, the Lounge car was the least claustrophobic place on the train, which is why Kaito liked it. Saguru didn't seem to mind keeping him company up there either, reading or talking to train aficionados.

"Step right up, Ladies and Gents, try your hand." A young voice called, interrupting his musings. "Poker! Place your bets here."

Kaito spotted the origin of the voice, a boy, pre-teens with spiky blond hair and wearing a red shirt. The boy had attracted several of the other train's children and a few adults. Kaito grinned to himself, rising. Saguru gave him a dry glance, silently admonishing him not to do anything stupid. Kaito patted him on the shoulder as he passed by, joining the crowd.

He watched a few games, waiting until people started to realise that the house always won before offering himself as an opponent. The boy sized him up, decided that he was probably an easy target and went with it.

Kaito won the first hand.

The boy frowned and offered another game.

Kaito won that game too. And the third and the fourth as well.

In the middle of the fifth game, a woman in a green dress and the tallest blue gravity defying hair interrupted them. "Bart! I can't believe it! You're trying to con these nice people! What have I told you about doing this?!"

"But Mom!! You don't understand!" The boy didn't have enough time to let out a proper whinge before his Mother had him by the ear and was marching him down the aisle. "The deck was stacked in MY favour!!! And he won every hand! Hey, Mister! Let me be your disciple! Teach me your tricks! Teach meee-"

The doors slid shut on the boy's pleading.

A spiky blond haired girl wearing a red dress who'd been sitting near by, sighed gustily. "Sorry about that." She said, folding up the thick tome she'd been reading. "My brother is a real idiot sometimes."

"No problem." Kaito smiled, setting down the hand he'd been holding to show off five aces. "We all meet someone better than us sometime or another."

The real trick was making it -later-.

+++

Kaito wasn't even aware that Amtrak had steam engine trains. But the conductor had taken their tickets without hesitation, so on a steam train they were riding.

Saguru was happy as a geek with a new toy. He hadn't quite been -bouncing-, the half-Briton had too much dignity for that, but it had been damn close as the detective looked around.

Kaito had trailed behind, feeling fondly indulgent as he made a mental note to try to find more historic things for them to visit. American didn't have quite the same depth of history that Europe did, but there had to be some things that Saguru would enjoy.

So they explored the train, getting funny looks from the people as they passed --for once, Saguru's really retro style would have blended in nicely-- until they reached the baggage car.

Where Kaito's sort of luck came into play and they found a poker game. Which, after being sized up as a suitable sucker, they were invited to join by a guy with silver hair and a strange tattoo over his left eye. A spiky redhead with an eye-patch over his right eye had tried to wave them away, but Kaito had grinned and taken the challenge.

He wasn't quite sure if he was pleased that he had or not. It was rare that he ran across someone who was -good- at cheating at poker. Most of the guy's tricks were so subtle Kaito barely caught them.

It was even rarer to meet someone of his same skill level.

Exact. Same. Skill. Level.

He and the silver haired guy who had introduced himself as 'Allen Walker' grinned at each other, like sharks frustrated at the lack of a kill. On the table were their cards, Kaito's hand hold two aces, two kings and a two. Allen also had two aces, two kings and a two.

The previous hand, Kaito had held a royal flush, all hearts. Allen had also had a royal flush, all clubs.

This.... was getting ridiculous.

"You're pretty good." Allen drawled pleasantly, his voice all daggers-sheathed-in-velvet while is friend, Rabi, looked on worriedly.

"Thanks." Kaito drawled back. "So are you." In the background, Saguru flinched. Both he and Rabi were nervously pressed up against each other, ready to flee or grab their respective friend at a moment's notice.

Allen leaned forward. "Teach me some of your tricks and I'll teach you some of mine."

Kaito held his hand out, the silver-haired boy taking it and they shook on it. "Deal."

Ah, the joys of learning.

+++

Saguru stared at the large suit of armour sitting on the seats across from them. Kaito gaved Saguru a worried look and tried to ignore the intense gaze of the golden-eyed blond sitting protectively next to the giant suit of armour.

This had been going on for a while and it was starting to make him uncomfortable.

And he was sure that Amtrak didn't have any steam engine trains. He'd checked after the ride on the last one.

Finally Saguru cleared his throat. "You.... look familiar." He hesitantly, oh-so-politely, broached the topic. "Have we met before?"

The suit of armour turned and looked towards him. "I don't know... I was thinking you seemed familar to me too." The polite voice coming from the armour was smaller than expected, as well as much much younger.

Kaito resisted the urge to pound his head against the back of his seat. What was somone in a giant suit of armour doing on a train anyway?

... well, aside from the fact that there was no way in hell someone in a giant suit of armour would make it through airport security....

"Have you ever been to New York?" Saguru inquired.

"No." The armour seemed to think it over. "Are you from Amestris?"

"No." Saguru shook his head. "Frankfurt?"

"No... Xing?"

"No... Paris?"

Kaito sighed and pulled out a chocolate bar. After a moment's deliberation, he broke it in half and offered the other blond kid half. The boy took half, giving him a slight smile in return as he motioned to the large suit of armour and Saguru as if to say 'What about those two, eh?'.

"No... Aerugo?"

Kaito grinned back, rolling his eyes as he settled back in his seat. They'd probably be at this for a while.

-Politely, of course.

+++

"Where's New Zealand?" Saguru muttered, peering out the window. "I don't see New Zealand."

Kaito rolled his eyes. Figured. Something interesting happened and the detective was worried about Geography.

"So. Um." He raised an eyebrow at their hosts, who had picked up them up somewhere in New Mexico. "Anal probes? What's up with that?"

The two grey figures with the wide black oval shaped eyes glanced at each other. ~We don't know.~ The one with the more triangular face responded.

~We where hoping you could tell us.~ The other one, who was a slightly more pale shade of grey added.

It was kind of weird hearing their voices without them actually moving their lips, or hearing it with his ears, but they were nice enough to give them a ride, so Kaito was willing to overlook what might be considered oddities.

Even if it took them -really- off the beaten track.

+++

Stormclouds gathered ominously in the background, the occasional dramatic lightening strike illuminating the footpath to the hotel.

Kaito looked up at the run down sign advertising the motel with it's flickering light and the crows flying around it. "Oh, Bleep no."

Saguru looked at him suspiciously, eyes squinting slightly to focus in the dark. "Did you just say 'bleep no'?"

"Yes." Kaito said firmly. "And I meant it."

He pointed up to the sign.

'Bates Motel".

Saguru blinked. "Oh, bleep no."

"That's what I said." Kaito shrugged. The curtains of the upstairs window flickered.

"Right." Saguru squared his shoulders. "Keep walking. Maybe there's a 'Dewdrop Inn' up ahead or something. Someplace a little less psycho."

++++

Kaito grabbed Saguru's arm, pulling them around the corner of the building, then peered around the wall suspiciously.

"What's wrong?" Saguru queried.

"There's some guys out there." Kaito frowned. "With suspicious bulges under their coats."

Saguru glanced down at the bulge in his pants. ".... Don't most guys?"

Kaito gave him a un-amused glare. The detective always picked the weirdest times to have a sense of humour. "Black suits, carrying guns clear enough for you?"

"Oh." Saguru paused. "Ohhh..." There was a quiet unspoken 'shit' on the end of that sentence.

"Yeah." His first instinct was to flee, head for the rooftops. It was his usual instinct, but it was slowly being sublimated by the one to protect... He could get away, of course, but it would mean leaving Saguru behind, which he wasn't going to do.

So. No running. Second choice. Bluff it out. He glanced around, noting the mass of high school students --probably just freed from the hallowed halls of learning-- meandering down the streets of the small town in a screaming, laughing talking tangle.

Or camouflage. Camouflage was good. "C'mon." He grabbed Saguru's hand and pulled him across the street, blithely dodging the cars speeding joyously from the local high school, terrifying Saguru in the process. He was dressed as a girl, so he took the opportunity to thread his fingers through Saguru's and walk down the street while holding hands.

"Hey." He greeted a slip of a blond girl who was chattering excitedly at a couple of guys with long-suffering expressions. "You wouldn't happen to know a good place to get a cup of coffee, would you?"

"You're obviously not from around here." The shorter of the guys deadpanned.

"You would be correct." Saguru said dryly in his cultured British tones. That got a chuckle from the teenagers, their body language relaxing as they mentally classified them as 'way out of town'.

"There's only one place -to- get coffee around here," The taller guy explained, smiled shyly. "The Talon. We're headed there now, if you want to follow us." The two nodded in agreement.

"Ta." Kaito smiled warmly back, purposely keeping his body language casual as he kept an eye on the two men in black suits who were looking around the crowd, watching the smaller groups of people suspiciously.

Saguru was explaining to the girl that no, the Loch Ness monster was in Scotland, he was ENGLISH and no, he'd never seen the damn Scot's mythical monster when the rumbling noise started.

Kaito was taken back; he was quite sure that Kansas did not have earthquakes. The men in black, pausing in the middle of the street, were surprised as well.

Especially when a rampaging herd of glowing green mutant sheep trampled them during a head-long dash down the town's main street, taking out a few of the cars that didn't speed out of the way in time.

The local teenagers didn't appear to be surprised, much less impressed by the freaky sheep.

"'Nother one for the Wall of Weird." The girl commented as the last of the sheep disappeared.

The tall guy shrugged. "Welcome to Smallville."

"And another thing." Saguru ranted, still in the middle of a good proper British snit-fit. "We don't do funny things to our sheep!"

+++

"Should be safe, you said! Not risk other people, you said!"

Kaito sighed, idly playing with a stick while Saguru paced the boulder they were currently hiding on and ranted. When he'd first met the stoic British detective, Kaito thought he'd never get a reaction out of Saguru other than determination or smug arrogance. And while he was pleased that Saguru was comfortable enough with him now not to always show his public face, he sort of missed the silence.

"You were the one who said that they didn't believe in Grabiods." Kaito growled back, poking at a few rocks that fell off the boulder, hitting the desert sand below with heavy thuds. He would have thought after the Roswell Grey Aliens and the Mutant Sheep Saguru would know better than to say things like that.

"I said I didn't believe in giant man eating worms!" Saguru waved his arms around. "THAT thing is not a giant worm! Worms are something that you use for bait for FIS-"

Thankfully the rest of Saguru's tirade was cut off before he could finish the accused word. Unfortunately, it was cut off by the humongous white THING that rose out of the red desert soil, it's beak like maw open as it's wiggling serpent like tongues searched the boulder's sides to see if it could grab them. Kaito watched as one of them almost touched his shoe before the creature sunk back into the earth with what sounded like a disappointed groan.

The earth around the boulder rippled a surprisingly little amount as something the size of several elephants put together moved through it.

"Well." Kaito mused thoughtfully, tapping the boulder with the stick again. "It -could- be worse."

"Do NOT say it could be worse!" Saguru ranted. "Bad things ALWAYS happen when someone says it could be worse so don't... don't... Okay, HOW could it be worse?" The detective finished the sentence with a defeated groan.

"Well..." Kaito drawled, pointing with the stick to a clump of boulders several hundred metres --out of bullet range-- where two men in black were currently being harassed by the giant white monstrosity. "We could be over there."

+++

There were various advantages of buses over trains and trains over buses.

The buses made frequent breaks at truck stops, where you could rent a shower and catch a meal. Quite a few of the drivers seemed to love their job, telling stories and on one instance, the driver with a lovely Mississippi accent taught them trucker's lingo. Just simple things, but you never knew when the strangest things could come in handy. And the buses tended to be on time, therefore faster. Unless there was a new driver who got lost.

Trains couldn't get lost nearly as easily, but were often having to pull over to allow for the freight trains to go by so therefore did not adhere to any sort of schedule. On the up side, you could stand up and walk around on a train, or hang out in the observation lounge and talk with people. Especially the old guys who tended to be train freaks. Or occasionally catch an over priced snack in the lounge or a meal in the dining car.

The walking around was a bonus for Kaito, who didn't like enclosed places. Saguru had once commented after Kaito had managed to rope some kids into cheer-leading routines that if he was that eager to burn off calories, he should try beating his head against the wall, it burned one hundred and twenty calories per hour. Maybe more if he was really active.

Kaito wanted to know how Saguru knew that. And who thought of finding out how many calories an hour it burned. Or how they tested it and what was the size of the pain killer the test subject needed afterwards. Saguru had merely smirked back and gone back to his book.

Saguru read a lot of books. It was funny, how it seemed like all they did was sit around and eat, and yet he was always tired and hungry. Saguru said it was a factor of things, their bodies constantly adjusting their balance to moving at high speeds and their brains having to deal with a constant influx of new information.

Kaito thought Saguru was full of it and it was the sheer boredom.

On the other hand, with the bus drivers, they tended not to put up with loud riotous music. The American train conductors, for the most part, appeared not to give a flying flip about most things that went on. Such as the current musical duel between the hip hopper on one end of the train car with his bitches, hos and sexy mamas and the heavy metal guy on the other end of the car with his loud indecipherable emo wailing.

And there was a baby wailing.

Kaito didn't blame the baby. Next to him, Saguru was making little wincing noises while he rubbed his eyes. The half-briton was looking like he had an eyestrain headache. Kaito glanced around.

"One... Two... Three." He whispered quietly.

The entire train car went dim for a moment, then the dim lights went out again. Except for the thin high wail of the baby, silence descended. Wails came from the owners of instruments of musical torture. Several people stirred and someone clapped a few times.

"And the baby?" Saguru whispered back, looking amused.

He'd heard the infant's parents trying to quiet their noisy child. It wasn't hungry or needing a nappy change, which meant that it probably would quiet down now that its eardrums weren't being assaulted. "I'm a Magician, not a Miracle Worker." Kaito grumbled back, settling down to try to get some sleep.

+++

"'Guru?" Kaito mumbled as Saguru shook him awake. He could feel the train slowing down around them.

"Come on." Saguru pulled their bags from the overhead bin. "Let's go."

"Huh?" Kaito glanced around him. People were already gathering bags and lining up to disembark the train. He scratched his head, stretched and joined Saguru. He'd primarily switched over to a nocturnal existence, sleeping during the day when Saguru was awake, then staying awake while Saguru slept. But it meant that it took a little while to adjust when woken up unless it was an emergency.

They trudged in line down the small stairs, then into the bright outside. Kaito grimaced and put on a pair of sunglasses. "Where are we?" He questioned. The tickets they had went to Los Angeles.

"Tucson, Arizona. I have a friend here who's invited us to crash on her futon for a few days." Saguru said, pulling out his own pair of sunglasses and putting them on. "Met her via on a Mystery internet community. I already gave her a call before the train stopped, look for a short bouncing red-headed woman."

"'Kay." Kaito yawned. "What's her name?"

"Ysabet."

+++ Fin +++

(the 'Where's New Zealand' is a joke from the Star Trek: First Contact movie, where when Picard shows Lily the view of earth from space, New Zealand is missing.
-Nothing to do with the fact that we live here currently, I swear.)

Please don't kill me for the last part, had that in mind for -ages-. It's a bit of an in-joke, since I wouldn't have met her, or many of my friends if it hadn't been for the Detective Conan fandom.

-If you don't know who Ysabet is, head over to her site and read the Windfall series. You won't be sorry.

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