Note: Written partially to the background music of 'I'm the Only Gay Eskimo I know" ~_~ So sorry. *wanders off*

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Shades of Grey: Pillow Talks
by Icka! M. Chif

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"So lacking opportunity to use the hang glider, you decided to -rappel- down the side of the building." Hakuba rubbed his forehead just above the bridge of his glasses as he sensed a headache coming on. He truly cared for Kid, really he did, but sometimes he really really really had to question the kaitou's sense of self-preservation.

The object of his concern looked completely unrepentant, casually spread out on Hakuba's bed like a pleased over sized housecat. Hakuba had yet to figure out how someone that much smaller than him could take up that much room, especially sans cape and hat. "Yup."

"On rope held up by a suction cup."

"A very -large- suction cup."

"And if it had managed to unstick from the window it was attached?"

Kid shrugged. "Then I would have fallen." He stated matter of factly.

Hakuba pinched his eyes shut. "Kid?"

"Yes?"

Hakuba reached behind himself, grabbed a pillow and hit the Kid over the head with it. It was fairly satisfying. So he did it again. Oh, yes. Much better.

"Hey!" The pillow was snatched out of his hands, the Kid scrambling to his knees as he shot an irritated look at him. "You shalt pay for that! Arm thyself, knave!"

"You have been reading those historical romances again." Hakuba chided, allowed himself to smirk as he grabbed his other pillow, avoiding a blow from Kid.

The thief muttered darkly about various females in his acquaintance leaving their books out in the open where anyone could read them.

Hakuba declined to retort in favour of attacking the theif with his pillow. Kid dodged, a small laugh escaping him as he rolled off the bed and attacked Hakuba from the bedside. Hakuba followed, brandishing his pillow like a battle-axe as they proceeded to chase each other around the room, whacking each other with their weapons. Hakuba's glasses quickly fell victim to their attacks, being knocked off his face and sent flying. They found, placed on a nightstand and promptly ignored in favour of retaliation.

He honestly couldn't remember when the last time he had done something so idiotic and juvenile as scampering all over the room, jumping on the bed and making a general mess of things as the pillows lost the occasional feather. This included the occasional wrestling spat as they attempted to remove pillows from each other's grasp.

That usually was ineffectual. He had both judo and wrestling experience from his old school and Kid was a master of escape. This did not make the attempts any less entertaining.

At least until he knocked Kid in the head with a pillow and saw a white blur go flying. The distinctive ping of glass hitting wood echoed through the room like a knell of doom.

He had knocked the Kid's monocle off.

Kid was unmasked.

They both tensed, an eerie silence descending on the room.

Shit.

Shit. Shit.Shitshitshitshitshit.

A fleeting thought running through his head that this destroyed any creditability for to say that he'd never seen what the Kid looked like without the monocle.

Mainly his brain had ceased up with the fact that he'd just crossed a boundary into what felt like deeply uncharted territory. He -knew- that Kid was Kuroba, but now he had the -proof-, he could see it with his own -eyes-...

Any second now, Kid was going to run. Poof, right out the window.

Kid was going to run.

Any second now...

Kid was not running.

Why wasn't he running?

"You can't see a thing, can you?" Kid's tone was lightly amused.

Hakuba blinked, feeling rather moronic and highly lacking in brainpower. Without his glasses, Kid was just a big multicolour smudge. Well, maybe not quite a smudge, but definitely blurred. There were shadows for the eyes and fuzzy colours for the clothing, but definitely lacking in features. He'd have to be across the room before he was far enough away to make out any details.

"Nope."

Kid fell over laughing.

Hakuba sighed and decided he wasn't going to take this laying down. So he sat on the Kid.

This only caused Kid to laugh harder. "Ba-bastard!" He gasped between snickers.

"I assure you," Hakuba shifted to use his larger mass to pin the wiggling thief to the carpet. "My parents were quite happily married when I was conceived."

"Still a bastard." Kid snickered in response, not quite passively allowing Hakuba to hold him down as he struggled to catch his breath. "Told you I knew you wanted to be on top."

"Really now?" He allowed himself a grin as he grabbed Kid and rolled so that Kid was sprawled out on top of Hakuba, his hands resting on the thief's hips. "If you would prefer be on top, that is certainly feasible as well."

The laughter faded as the Kid went still. Hakuba mentally cursed the fact that he didn't have his glasses on at the moment, he wasn't entirely confident, but it sure looked like the thief was blushing.

"You're serious." It wasn't quite a question.

Hakuba shrugged in return. "Whatever works."

Kid made a thoughtful sound, reaching over Hakuba to pick up the monocle and place it back over his eye. He then shifted back, so that he was straddling Hakuba's waist. "Tell me... when this started last spring... what were you hoping to gain from it?" The tone was -almost- puzzled.

"You asked me this before." He reminded the kaitou. He'd answered the question, but Kid had never answered his. Why the Kid kept coming back.

"You said that you 'did not come to Japan from London because of your ability to do the splits. I came because I hoped to find an intellectual rival.'" It took a moment to recognise the voice the Kid was mimicking as his own. It was distinctly unusual and vaguely unsettling to hear it outside of his own head.

"The answer still stands." He replied evenly.

Kid appeared hesitant. "Even if things have changed?"

It took a moment to realise that Kid was referring to his blossoming friendship with Kuroba. Kuroba and Kid were the same person, but even at the same time they weren't. Even his reactions were different. There was a familiarity and physical closeness when dealing with the Kid that was lacking around Kuroba. By the same token, it was easier to discuss more mundane things with Kuroba that were impossible around the Kid without the theif revealing who he really was.

It was probably confusing the violet-eyed trickster.

"Even more so now." He admitted, internally bracing himself. "I want... to be friends. With your other half as well. That doesn't mean I'm any less attracted... just..."

"Trying to figure things out. Going slow." Kid leaned forward, resting his arms on Hakuba's chest and distributing some of the weight off of his abdomen. Hakuba's bladder thanked him for this. "We're both pretty new to this, aren't we?"

"I am certainly not in the habit of inviting many phantom thieves into my bedroom." He commented dryly. This earned him a chuckle.

They lay there in silence for a moment, Hakuba's fingers moving in small circles against the blue cotton of Kid's shirt, the warm muscles underneath the fabric tense. The atmosphere was still slightly awkward and charged but was slowly returning to the comfortable ambience it had lost.

Kid broke the silence, voice soft. "You know who I am."

"Yes." He and Kuroba would most likely be having a serious discussion sometime soon.

"Hm."

He rapped the back of the Kid's head with his knuckles. "You never did answer my question."

Kid startled. "Which question?"

"The one at the chess match. Why you keep coming back."

"Ah." Like a cat, Kid suddenly went boneless on him, resting his head on Hakuba's shoulder as he sprawled over him once more. A living kaitou blanket. "I'd like to learn be friends too. Even if we're new to this."

"Heh." Hakuba grinned, relaxing. He reached out and snagged a pillow, tucking it under his head so that he had something soft to rest his skull on other than the rug.

"And." Kid added loftily. "You make a pretty good pillow."

It was a pity the other pillows were out of reach, or he would have thwapped Kid with one.

-fin-

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