Shades of Grey: Crosswords and Lollipops

For Mel RedCap who jumped us in chat and demanded more snogging. Didn't -quite- work out that way. ^^;; Sorry.

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Shades of Grey: Crosswords and Lollipops
by Icka! M. Chif

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Hakuba stepped into his bedroom to be greeted by the singularly delectable sight of the Kid sprawled out on his bed, a book of crossword puzzles in his hands and sucking on a lollipop.

The lollipop was pulled out of the thief's mouth with audible 'pop'. "What's a four character word for 'leap'?"

Hakuba blinked. If that wasn't a welcome invitation to jump the Kid, he didn't know what was.

That thought was quickly reined in as he shut the door behind him, loosening the tie around his neck, revelling in the freedom to breathe. "Tobikomu." He commented dryly as he crossed the room, tugging off the tie as he did so. He wanted -out- of these restrictive clothing. "Make yourself at home."

He noted that the Kid had done so, taking the single light he'd left on in the bedroom as an invitation to come in and leaving his shoes underneath the window as if it were a door, ready to be slipped on at a moment's notice. That was a positive sign at least. Not that the thief ever left scuffmarks on the floor, his footsteps were too light for that.

Kid replaced the lollipop in his mouth and smiled cat-like at him, all fangs and smugness.

"You are entirely way too pleased." He retorted, hanging the tie up with the rest of them in the wardrobe and working on unbuttoning the cuffs. "I take it from your actions tonight that you were the one who mysteriously pinched my rear during the course of the heist?"

"I didn't pinch." Kid corrected lazily, the sweet stuffed in one cheek to speak. "I groped."

That was cause for a moment's hesitation.

"Wait..." He turned to stare at the still lounging thief, who was now doing something that could be considered illicit with his tongue to the lollipop. "You did that on PURPOSE?!"

"Yup." Kid flashed him another cat-like grin. "You squeak good too."

Hakuba returned to unbuttoning his shirt, partially turning his back on the not-quite snickering thief. "I do not squeak."

"Y'do too." Kid shifted, propping himself up on an elbow in what could have been easily considered a 'come hither' pose. "Like a girl."

There were times he cursed Mum for inheriting her pale skin. Especially when his skin felt warm and he just knew his face was turning red. "I do not." He growled, pulling the shirt out of his trousers without unbuckling the belt first.

A snicker answered him, the Kid deciding to take the high road as he rolled back onto his back again, lifting his right hand up to fill in another space in the crossword puzzle. "mane... ki... neko..."

Maneki Neko, a statue of a lucky cat, usually with a paw raised to beckon. Hakuba felt his lips twitch in amusement. Did this mean he had his very own lucky cat burglar?

... who was currently stretched out luxuriously on his bed...

Bad thought.

He pulled the shirt off and debated if it should be hung up again or if it required to be washed. He'd only worn it for a few hours, between getting off from school and chasing the Kid, but those tended to be rather hectic hours. It didn't smell-

"You look good like that." Kid's voice was thoughtful sounding. Hakuba looked up to find the thief suddenly scrutinizing the crossword puzzle with an almost nervous air. Kid cleared his throat, pointedly not looking at him as he continued. "Less starched, I mean. Casual."

"Um." He blinked, suddenly feeling conscious in his vest and trousers. "Thank you." He was unused to getting complements on his appearance. Too slight compared to his London schoolmates, too bulky compared to his Ekoda ones. Especially in contrast to the lithe kaitou.

One reason he favoured the lab coats and the inverness coat while working in public. Not only were they comfortable and provided pockets, but they were concealing as well.

They were both silent for a moment, not looking at each other. Then Kid scratched his head. "Two character word for wink?"

"Mabataku." Hakuba filled in automatically. He hung up the shirt on the hanger it had been on previously and pulled out his favourite pullover to wear. "You're in a playful mood tonight. Some sort of occasion?"

"Quiet heist." Kid commented, his attention focused on filling in the word. "It's a nice change of pace not to have the screaming crowds. Not that hundreds of screaming adulating fan girls isn't fun, but it's nice to just get back to basics sometimes."

"Yes, Nakamori-keibu appeared to be enjoying himself as well." Hakuba commented, pulling the jumper over his head, then smoothing out his hair.

That was another one of the shifts after Blue Birthday. Kid had stopped playing for the police quite as much and started playing for the general public, the crowds his heists garnered growing exponentially. A lot of it depending on if the heist was a challenge one, someone challenging the kaitou to steal something of theirs tended to draw larger crowds due to publicity than if the Kid announced it himself to the police.

This last one had been one of the latter, the owner of the intended target finding the whole thing amusing as they carried a Shih Tzu named 'Kichou' in his arms. To Hakuba it appeared that the owner was carrying a very irritable rag mop, not a dog. A rag mop with fangs, as one officer discovered.

"Did you already returned the heist?" He questioned, heading towards the bathroom.

A muted snicker answered that one neatly enough as he removed a contact and put it in its container, adding cleaning solution. "Put it around the rag mop's neck. With as much attention as that guy pays the dog, he should find it in a couple of hours." There was a slight pause. "And I checked it before I returned it, -Mom-."

He stuck his head out the bathroom door, the world in sort of a half-focused, half blur with one contact in and one out. "I am not your Mum."

Kid snerked at him, sitting up to roll forward so that he was now on his stomach, his feet towards the pillows. "Better than asking 'Who's yer Daddy' I suppose..."

Hakuba frowned slightly, never having understood that bit of American slang. He ducked back into the bathroom, removing the other contact and cleaning it as well.

"Hey, that mutt's name is in here." Kid grinned. "Kichou. My precioussssss..."

It was rather disturbing to hear Gollum from the Lord of the Ring's voice suddenly coming from the direction from his bed. It was easy to forget that Kid required no assistance in changing voices.

And to be rather honest, he could have lived without the mental image of Gollum sprawled out across his bed...

Shaking his head, he wandered back out into the bedroom, picking up his glasses and slipping them on. Kid was focused on the crossword puzzle, the lollipop slowly being sucked in and out of his mouth.

That was completely unfair.

He got a little of his own back, throwing himself on the bed so that he was pressed up against the Kid at the shoulder, elbow, hip and leg. "Keeping yourself entertained?" He questioned, pausing a moment to unpin the cape from under his limbs and toss it on top of him like a shared blanket.

Kid's response was to press something thin round and narrow against his lips. It wasn't the lollipop Kid had been sucking on, seeing as the stick was still held between the thief's teeth. And eyebrow came up in grinning invitation and with a mental shrug, Hakuba opened his mouth.

Sweetness. Not sugary sweet, but sweet with a slightly bitter herbal edge to it, one that bit back. It was a familiar flavour, the name escaping his mind as he sucked on the candy stick.

"Old fashion Horehound candy." Kid explained. "Found a candy store that had odd stuff from around the world, thought you might like it. It is from Britain, right?"

"Um, yes." He took the candy from Kid's hand, examining it. Dark brown, almost blue black, smelling almost of herbal cough medicine. Horehound was a component in several cough medicines, but it was good on its own. He stuck it back in his mouth. "Thank you."

Kid shrugged, dismissing it. "You share your tea often enough, its only fair to return the favour."

Hakuba paused, the candy stick pressed between his lips as several stray thoughts connected in his head. He began to snicker, feeling better than he had in a while about this arrangement with the thief.

"Huh?" Kid made a confused sound.

"Gropes, compliments, candy..." He grinned, propping his head up on one hand. "So you are courting me tonight?"

He had thought it would be impossible to get the Kid to blush. He was wrong. Kid gave him a surly look, which was just amusing with the pink high in his cheeks, then tapped Hakuba on the head with the pencil he was using to fill in the crossword.

*PON!* A light weight settled itself in his hair. Kid smiled, the amused cat expression returning.

It was a flower. He knew it was a flower. He reached up and pulled it off his head, looking at it anyway.

A white rose. Meanings varied from 'worthiness' to 'purity' to 'secrecy'. He smiled. "Clever." Count on Kid to speak in actions and not words.

"Thank you." Kid looked pleased, but not overly so.

Hakuba smiled back, leaning over to look at the crossword puzzle that Kid had been working on all evening. He paused, blinking. "Kid... this crossword puzzle is in English..."

"Yup."

"... but you're filling in the answers in Japanese..."

"Yup."

He attempted to puzzle this one out and came up blank. Although in retrospect, this probably meant that the one officer who had been wandering around with a crossword puzzle book during the heist had been the Kid.

"I got bored." Kid explained matter-of-factly as he pulled the lollipop out of his mouth. "Wanna do something else?"

Hakuba glanced down at the lollipop the Kid was licking, then up at the thief's face, feeling a smirk streach across his own face in amusement.

"Have you ever wanted to learn how to french kiss?"

-fin-

Translations for the japanese words are included in the text. Many thanks to Mati for answering our random 'Hey, name the first word off the top of your head!!' comments in chat.