• • •

Shades of Grey: Hot
by Icka! M. Chif

• • •

It was hot.

Scorching.

Sweltering.

And a whole bunch of other names that Hakuba was sure he would think of once his brain cooled down enough to work properly.

And the incessant drone of the cicadas was irritating.

Mainly it was just hot. Hot. Hot. Hot. Hot. Hot. Even stripped down to a vest and boxers with the air conditioner on, it was hot.

Maybe he should have stayed in England a few more days.

No, then he would have missed the heist.

It was also humid. He wasn't quite sure which was worse, the heat or the humidity. Maybe if it would rain, it would help.

But it wouldn't rain, no. The moisture was content to hang in the air, wrapping around everything like a muggy cloud, suffocating the energy out of everything.

Except for the Kid. While everyone else had been sweating and gasping and panting in the heat and the humidity which stuck around long after the sun had set, dressed in their in their uniforms and their dress shirt and their ties, the thief had been bouncing around like a super active ping-pong ball on crack. Laughing.

There were times when he loathed the Kaitou Kid.

This was one of them.

That was it, he wasn't going to move. If the Kid wanted to talk to him tonight about the case, he was going to have to track Hakuba down himself, cause there was no way he was going to get up from his bed.

A thud from the library balcony blew that thought out of the water.

"Hakuba?" Kid's voice called, muffled by the walls. "Could you give me a hand here?"

Still feeling rather apathetic, he raised his hands and clapped a few times.

Silence followed.

"If you give me a hand," Kid's voice changed to an amused purr. "I have something -long- and -hard- for you to wrap your mouth around."

"Wanker." Hakuba muttered, rolling out of bed and dragging himself into the library. The insufferable git. Sure, just flush his mind right into the gutter. Wasn't like he wasn't sweating already. His glasses wouldn't even stay where they were supposed to; they kept sliding down his nose. Geh. His skin felt sticky too.

The library was warmer than his room too. Blech. He opened up the library balcony doors, half wondering why Kid couldn't do it himself. Locked windows weren't a problem, why should a normal unlocked door require a hand?

The question was answered as a plastic wrapped popsicle was shoved in his direction.

Ooo... ice.

"You're forgiven." He said magnanimously as he took the blue ice treat from the Kid's hand. The thief snickered as he used his now-free hand to hit a button, the framework of the hang glider folding itself up and returning once more into a cape, thus unhooking Kid from the balcony railing.

"Love you too." Kid smirked, opening his jacket and began working on loosening his tie with one hand, baring sweat-slicked neck to the air. "Can we get inside where it's cool?"

Okay, so maybe there were some upsides to the heat...

"Enter of your own accord." Hakuba shrugged, opening the wrapper to the popsicle, quickly catching the melted drips with his tongue before they could make a mess as he walked into the library. Would not be a good idea to get sticky sugar residue all over the room of books.

"Thank you." Kid said gratefully, following him in, shutting the door behind them. Compared to the outside, the room was cooler, but not by much. It was still bloody hot. The popsicle was cold in his mouth, a blessed contrast. It tasted somewhere between grape and blueberry, that taste that someone somewhere had decided to label as 'blue'.

Feeling much more charitable, he motioned Kid towards his room. "It's cooler in my room, though not by much." He said by way of apology.

"Excellent." The weariness in the thief's voice made him cast a second glance at his guest. Kid looked like heat was affecting him as well and Hakuba found himself mildly surprised that he wasn't swimming in the suit. "Mind if lose a few layers while I'm at it?"

He waved a hand in response, plopping down on the nice cool cotton sheets of the bed with a grateful sigh. Much better. Never leaving the bed again. Never ever.

Kid made a similar sound, still wrapped popsicle held in his mouth as he set the hat down on the desk chair, running a hand through the sweat drenched locks, turning them into a mass of even smaller spikes. The cape and jacket followed, folded over the back of the chair. A leather gunholster/braces was wiggled out of and set on top before gloved fingers untucked the blue shirt from the white trousers and began unbuttoning it.

Hakuba raised an eyebrow. One advantage of the heat he hadn't even considered. Inadvertent strip show. Excellent.

Kid shucked out of the socks and shoes and plopped backwards on the bed, unbuttoned shirt flaring around him. "Aaaah." The thief let out a deep breath, eyes half lidded. "Niiiiiiiiiiice."

Hakuba snickered, his mouth still full of popsicle.

The thief made a vague half-hearted rude gesture in his direction and began unwrapping his popsicle, melted blue ice running over the white gloves even as Kid quickly attempted to lap it up before it made a mess. He managed to avoid getting it all over his chest and the bed, but the white gloves were now splotched with vibrant blue.

Popsicle in his mouth, Kid looked at the usually pristine gloves with something like dismay. Hakuba chuckled again, lacking the urge to make a verbal comment about it. Kid raised an eyebrow in his direction, then pointedly began taking his gloves off.

Hakuba's eyebrows rose.

Kid took the popsicle out of his mouth with an ungloved hand. "If you take my prints off the popsicle stick, then I'm a moron."

With that sullen remark, Kid stuck the ice back in his mouth and half-heartedly tossed the gloves in the direction of the rest of his clothing, as if challenging Hakuba to make something out of the display of trust.

"If I was going to get your fingerprints, I'd take it off the plastic wrapper." Hakuba corrected mildly. There was very little chance of Kid having bought the popsicle while in Kid clothing, therefore that meant bare hands. And plastic was easier to get the prints off of than rough wood.

The comment earned him a calculating side-ways stare.

Hakuba idly shrugged, going back to slurping the melting popsicle. Kid said nothing, keeping a suspicious eye on him.

Silence fell over them, as hot and muggy as the weather. Finally Hakuba allowed a small smirk to escape. "But it is hot outside." He drawled.

Kid looked up at the ceiling, thoughtfully sucking on his popsicle. "Too hot to move." He ventured.

"Exactly."

Muscles suddenly relaxing, Kid melted into the bed in a weary sprawl. Water. They should both be probably drinking lots of water right now, especially after all the exertion they had done. "I am never doing a heist in this kind of heat again." Kid swore, eyes now half lidded in exhaustion.

Hakuba raised his popsicle in salute. "I will personally kick your arse if you do."

Kid tapped the upraised popsicle with his own. "Here, here."

Satisfied with the agreement, with a companionable air they returned to the important all-consuming task of lying on the cool sheets and decimating the frozen blue ice on a stick.

"Welcome back." Kid said after a while.

Hakuba smiled. "Thanks."

-fin-

back?