Shades of Grey: Balcony Scene

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Shades of Grey: Balcony Scene
By Icka! M. Chif

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It had not been a good night, Hakuba mused to himself as he wandered around the large empty house, doing a final check and locking up before retiring to the rooms upstairs. The heist had been its usual invigorating self, full of twists and turns, it was merely the get away where things had gotten tricky.

Hakuba was becoming increasingly less enamoured with guns as of late.

Especially ones aimed at the Kaitou Kid.

His thief.

The Task Force and the rest of Nakamori's officers had been exceedingly helpful in attempting to track down the perpetrators, for all the good it did. The Kid may not have been their favourite person, but no one certainly wanted the thief dead. At least not by someone else's hand.

At least the weather had been comfortable enough for it, he noted absently as he stepped out on to the library balcony. Not cold enough to call for the inverness coat, but not so hot that they all swam in their suits. And the breeze had been welcome, even if it had been to the Kid's benefit.

He paused, resting the cup of tea he'd been carrying with him on the balcony railing, the afore mentioned breeze brushing past his face and mussing the hair in the front of his face. He took a deep breath, enjoying the silence before letting it out again, relaxing in the night air.

Hakuba was just about to turn back to head inside when a patch of white out of the corner of his eye caught his attention.

"Kid."

Lounging on his back in the tree next to the balcony with his cape draped down like a white waterfall and much in a manner that reminded him of a giant white panther, was the Kid. If panthers held jeweled collars up the sky as if they held the mysteries of the world.

"My apologies for not coming inside." The Kid commented, never tearing his eyes away from the red brown jewel in the middle of the collar that his fingers were wrapped around, appearling like a bloodstain against the white fingertips. "I saw the upstairs light on, but at the moment it's a little too enclosed for my tastes."

The Kaitou Kid had been shot at inside the building before making to the freedom of both outside and the night sky.

"Understandable." He drifted closer, stopping under the tree branch resting his forearms against the railing, the Kid at his open back. "Are you unharmed?"

"They missed."

He had noticed that the thief usually had two main modes of conversation. Evasive or friendly. Evasive usually implied a fight, or more likely, flight was close.

"That is not what I asked." The bullets had been awfully close.

A paused followed, and for a moment he was afraid he might have pushed too far. Then a soft sound that might have been a sigh or a muted chuckle. "Yes." The Kid finally said, amusement colouring his tone, breaking it out of the cold professional kaitou's inflections. "I'll have to do a bit of sewing later, but they avoided actually hitting me."

Translation: The Kid had avoided them hitting him. He shot a flicker of a smile up at the lounging kaitou, who was still not looking at him, but appeared to be a little less tightly strung. Hakuba felt his own shoulders relax in return, a worry fading away. "Good." He breathed, turning back to the night sky and taking a sip of the warm tea.

He hated people taking pot-shots at his kaitou.

Time to change the subject before he grabbed the Kid to double check.

"Did you find what you were looking for?" He finally settled on. Maybe not the best of openers, but it worked. Since the theft of the Blue Birthday, a pattern in the heists had developed. Instead of random but expensive objects, such as statues or paintings, the kaitou had become exclusively a jewel thief.

A jewel thief running a search pattern.

This was about the same time that the heists suddenly became more dangerous as well...

The Kid's response was unexpected. Instead of answering, he dropped the elaborate gold collar with it's red-brown jewel in the centre down to Hakuba's view point and motioned for him to take it. Curious, he set the cup and saucer on the railing and grasped it, fingertips brushing the thief's white fabric covered fingers in the process. The Kid's hands were warm through the material before he released the jewels.

Hakuba held the necklace up to the moonlight as the Kid had, allowing the silver light to catch the cinnamon coloured stone set in the middle. It was something he had seen the Kid do on a few heists before dissappearing. Study the gem, not the settings, in the moonlight. Hakuba never understood the gesture.

Hessonite, he mental reviewed clinically. Also known as Gomedh, the stone of Rahu, the Hindu God of serpents, who that caused eclipses. A form of Garnet, the red-brown colouration due to the presence of manganese in the stone.

It was pretty, he had to admit that. Even if it was kind of strange, looking at a gem like this, especially since he had seen it mere hours ago, secure inside a plexi-glass enclosed case. This was... more personal. Intimate. Like it was more than a piece of shiny cut rock in an elaborately crafted setting.

The Kid's voice, when he finally spoke was soft. "Does it glow red?"

"... No." Little silver with the light, but not red.

A gusty sigh followed. Sad almost. Tired. "Then it's not what I'm looking for." Was the simple answer.

A piece fell into place in the back of Hakuba's head. A stone that glowed red in the moonlight. That was what the Kid was looking for. Hence the search pattern and switch to exclusively jewels.

Wait. Back up. Gems did NOT glow red in the moonlight.

... And thieves weren't magical.

Right.

He raised his hand to return it and the thief waved him away. "Consider it returned." Was the mild comment.

"Thank you." He hesitated a moment, then slipped it into his shirt pocket. It was ungainly large for the small pocket, but it was better than trying to fit it in the pocket of his slacks. Professional clothing was not much for practicality sometimes.

Hakuba reached out to take a sip of tea again when he realised the cup was missing. The saucer was there, but no cup. Blast... Lifting up the glasses he peered down past the balcony, trying to see where it might have landed in the grass below. There wasn't enough light for him to see much though.

"Geh." He glanced back up at the Kid, glasses sliding back down on his face. The Kid had his tongue sticking out, parody of a grimace on his face as he peered into the teacup, which was safely cradled in his hand. "Haven't you ever heard of sugar?"

"I prefer my tea with out." He commented drolly. Which was much better than his first thought, being 'wait, was that an indirect kiss?'

If it was an indirect kiss, the Kid certainly didn't seem to mind, seeing as he was taking a second sip. "To each their own." The thief shrugged casually, leaning back in the tree again having presumably taken ownership of the black currant tea.

Hakuba raised an eyebrow. "Thief."

The Kid didn't deign that with a response. Hakuba couldn't blame him. It was a rather daft observation.

"Why did not you sneak out the side door?" He asked instead, settling back on to somewhat familiar grounds. "The bastards with guns were expecting you to glide."

The Kid shrugged, pointedly looking away, tensing back up into flight mode. "Your plan." Was all he said.

Of course. A shaky sigh escaped Hakuba's lungs as he gripped the rail with his hands, focusing on the saucer still resting there. Hakuba had been the first one to point it out. If the Kid had changed his pattern, heading down instead of up, Hakuba would have figured it out in an instant and been there to intersect him.

A less logical part of his mind pointed out that the Kid might have felt the suggestion had been a trap. That it had been offered in order to capture him.

"I would appreciate that in the future, should you find yourself choosing between something I might point out and being shot at, you would be so kind as to follow the former." He finally ground out, aware he was speaking in a sharp clipped tone. "I do not wish you dead."

A surprised catch of breath caught his attention. Turning his head slightly, he found the Kid with one hand clasped over his mouth, shoulders shaking as if he were either trying hard not to laugh, or if he had gotten some liquid down the wrong pipe.

"You all right?" He asked, straightening in alarm. Kid got it under control, removing the hand covering his mouth and waving him away.

"I'm fine, I'm fine." It was then he was aware of the large grin on Kid's face. He relaxed again, watching as Kid got both is mirth and his breathing under control. "Thank you." The thief finally got out, his tone warm.

"You are welcome."

They lapsed back into silence again, Hakuba shifting to press his hip against the side railing instead of leaning forward. This time the silence was more companionable, distinctly less tense.

In a lot of ways, this... it wasn't quite a relationship or a friendship, not yet, but the process reminded him of taming and raising Watson. Lots of patience and offerings of food, real or metaphorically intellectual, greeted with masked casual indifference. Even then, there was no guarantee that either Watson or the Kid wouldn't simply choose to exercise their wings and fly away.

Perhaps one day, the Kid would consent to fly by his hand.

Light touches, little more than a gentle brush across the top of his head caught his attention, startling him out of his musings. A white blur passed outside of the glasses range of vision, one that was becoming increasingly familiar.

Kid's gloved hand.

Which had found his hair and was proceeding to gently comb the gel out of it. The pressure went from teasing brushes to a more sedate scratch, gently massaging the scalp under his blond hair, much like one would pet a cat or a dog. Which he might have protested if it didn't feel so blasted good. He could feel a tension headache that had been hovering at the edge of his senses fading away.

"You're farsighted, aren't you?" The Kid commented lazily, more of an observation than a insult.

"Hmmm... Long-sighted, yes." He agreed sleepily, finding his eyes sliding shut in contentment as he subtly shifted closer. "I wear contacts when not at home." He had yet to find a good set of contacts that didn't itch after several hours. It was often a relief to get home and switch over to the glasses. Outside out of house, he was often too active to wear the glasses.

"That would explain why your eyes kept changing colours." Kid's voice was soft. "I was wondering why sometimes they were blue, other times brown."

"They are usually blue when I am coming back from London or Europe." Hakuba admitted. "Brown when home."

He could practically feel Kid puzzling that out. "Camouflage?" The thief finally ventured.

"You could say that." He felt his head tilt forward and decided not to fight it, the magician's fingers switching from scratching up and down to small round circles at the back of his head. "I do not exactly 'blend in' to the crowd, my taste in fashion aside."

He'd gotten his height and colouration from his Mum, the pale skin and blond hair that set him apart from the native Japanese. The broad shoulders and solid build he'd gotten from his Father, along with the almond shaped eyes with just a hint of the eyelid that set him apart from the Europeans.

A foreigner to both sides of his family.

The intelligence that came with both was yet another a blessing-curse that set him apart from the people around him.

The Kid's fingers tightened, tugging on his hair, not enough to hurt, but enough to remind him that he wasn't alone in the not being able to blend in part. The Kid, or Kuroba, was too fiercely wild and intelligent to blend in easily as well. Like a wolf among the sheep.

He changed the subject. This was getting a little bit too close. "You said you saw the light on?"

"Mmm. Yeah." Kid's voice had the hazy burr of sleep thickening it. The sound was punctuated by a small yawn. "If all the lights are off, I figure you've gone to bed. If a several lights are on, there's usually more than one person around."

Hakuba blinked. "Oh." That made sense. The previous time the Kid had stopped by, there had just been the lone light on... more shadows for the thief to hide in. Same with the first time as well.

... Same with now, actually. It seemed as if a pattern had already been set down, of them meeting in-between light and the dark.

In between the shades of grey.

Of course, now he felt stupid. He could have talked with the kaitou several times now if he had just been a bit more alert to their surroundings.

The Kid yawned again, his gloved hand moving from Hakuba's head, leaving a cold spot as the thief stretched. "I'm afraid that is it time for all good kaitou - and tantei - to be in bed."

"Kaitou are good?" Hakuba couldn't resist the jab.

"If we were bad, we'd be caught." The Kid informed him primly, swinging a leg over the branch he was reclining on to stand on top of the railing as if he had just dismounted from a motorcycle to the sidewalk.

"True." The Kid crouched down, leaning forward slightly so that they were face to face, his dark eyes peering into Hakuba's. Hakuba blinked, slightly uncomfortable by the close scrutiny. "Is something wrong?"

"Golden brown." Kid commented, reaching up to run the pad of his thumb across the arch of Hakuba's eyebrow, gently cradling the side of his face at the same time. "Your eyes. Like your hawk's."

"Hazel." He corrected. "That is what they call it in Europe. Golden Hazel."

"It's very unique. I like it." The Kid smiled at him before taking advantage of their positions to lean forward slightly and kissing his cheek. "Good night, Tantei-san."

He caught the Kid's hand in one of his own, trapping it against his face long enough to press a kiss of his own on the thief's un-covered wrist. "Sleep well, Kaitou-san." He replied, releasing the Kid.

"Hup!" With an acrobatic twist, the Kid leapt upwards, disappearing into the tree branches. A rustle of leaves followed, then faded away.

Hakuba smiled to himself, pushing himself off the rail. The teacup was now sitting on the saucer, which hadn't left the railing. He picked it up, surprised to find some tea left in the cup, still warm.

It tasted sweeter than before.

-fin-