[Feb 29] [Magic Kaitou] Cupid's Arrow

[fyliwionvilyaer.livejournal.com]

Title: Cupids Arrows
Author: Fyliwion
Fandom: Magic Kaitou
Pairing: Aoko/Kaito
Theme: Feb 29th- “Come give me my soul again!”
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Gosho owns it, and the line is from Marlow.



The knock on his door surprised him as he looked up from his book. He hadn’t been expecting any callers, at least not that late in the evening. As he set down his book and approached the door he heard someone curse on the other side, and allowed a smile to form on his face.

Probably a fan then, one of those rare ones who managed to discover his address and appear on his doorstep blushing and stumbling with words. Harmless and cute, even if he did send them on there way and consider them a bit… well stalkerish.

But it still made him chuckle, and there were worse people who could appear at his door after all- like the task force deciding they did want to prosecute him, or perhaps a straggler of the organization.

All in all a few crazy fans were just a daily amusement.

So he opened the door to peer out curiously, and was a bit surprised when he saw no one directly on his step. He looked around and called out, “Hello?” Before he noticed someone turn just a little ways from the door. It came to a bit of surprise when he saw Nakamori Aoko clutching a purse and staring at him a ways, with a fierce expression on her face, and all done up for what he presumed was a date.

It wasn’t as though he saw her much these days, but…

She spoke first, “Oh… I… I thought you weren’t home-”

He grinned, “Well you know- it usually takes the person a bit to get from their couch to the door. You have to give them more than thirty seconds.” There was a pause and he tried not to let his eyes wander to much, “To what do I owe this honor?”

A blush spread over her cheeks, “What? Can’t I visit a friend?”

He smirked, “Well… I don’t know.” He crossed his arms and leaned against the doorframe, “Last time I saw you I thought you said you we were no longer talking. You sounded quite vehement about that too-” It was still fun to tease her, even as her face scrunched up into another frown.

She really was adorable.

“If that’s how you’re going to be,” she was pouting at this point and turned to go, “Forget it- I knew I shouldn’t have come…” She started to walk away again, and at a much faster pace headed for the stairs.

“Crap…” he muttered to himself as he walked swiftly to close the difference between them. He hadn’t meant to scare her away, just poke a little fun like they use to. It was suppose to ease the tension, not increase it, and definitely not make her run from him. He grabbed her arm just before she reached the stairs, and she swerved back to meet him.

He was a little more than surprised to see tears welling up in her eyes. That wasn’t suppose to have happened, after all she had been angry not upset. There was a difference, and Kaito had never been particularly good with crying women.

Alright… so maybe that was a lie, but he wasn’t positive a rose was going to do the trick this time around.

He tried it anyway.

“Come on-” he said holding out the flower to her, with a handkerchief along with it. “Come inside, you should know me well enough to know I didn’t meant that-” the icy glare she tossed at him made him wince, “Ouch. Alright so maybe not, but I didn’t honestly. I’m glad to see you, it was just unexpected.”

“Are you sure? If I’m intruding-” she blew her nose, and he saw her tears were stopping though there was a red rim around them.

He shook his head, “Nope. I was reading some Lupin, trying to practice my French for when I take my show over there in a couple months. Honestly I thought you were going to be another of my crazed fans, I wasn’t expecting something as nice as you.” He placed an arm around her shoulder and lead her into the living room. She seemed to be satisfied for the moment thankfully.

By the time he had cleared off the table, and fetched them some tea he would never have considered that the young woman had been on his door step tearing up a moment before. He still wasn’t positive what she was doing there, or what had upset her so badly. It wasn’t really like Aoko, she was always so practical. One of the things he loved about her.

Not that he was going to let his thoughts stray there, after all that whole mess had been dealt with ages ago and he didn’t need more complications then they already had.

Just be glad she’s even here he thought to himself as he poured them both a cup of tea.

“So… er… how are you doing?” He threw her a glance as he let his tea cool. “I mean… is everything good at home? Work? Looks like you had a date earlier, some new detective courting you?”

She blushed and shook her head, “No.. it’s not like that- Well it was but..” she bit her lip. “Things are fine…”

Of course. Vague. Well he wasn’t going to complain precisely, at least they were sort of talking again, even if he was the one doing most of the talking.

“Ah.. Fine.. That’s good…” he tried sipping his tea and then scowled at it as it burned his lip. “….vile stuff…” he muttered. “Should’ve made hot chocolate or something-”

Aoko raised an eyebrow, “I was wondering. I mean I think it’s good but I didn’t think you were particularly fond of this type, especially without sugar.”

He let out a dramatic sigh, “Oh for when people come over. Figured I should at least pretend to be an adult… still don’t like it.” Shook his head, “Only good part is it has caffeine.”

The girl laughed at that at least, “Most people would argue that’s the good part…”

“Yes well.. I’ve always prided myself on nonconformity.”

With that they went back to the awkward silence. Kaito was edgy in bringing up subjects, after all she might run off again if he screwed something else up. Yet with Aoko being such an elaborate conversationalist…

And he was still trying to figure out why she was there-

“So er…”

Surprisingly she cut him off as she set down her tea, “You probably want to know why I’m here-”

He grinned sheepishly at her, “Well I do admit to some confusion. I mean I was curious, but I’m not very well about to turn down an invitation for tea from a lovely lady now am I? Especially when I know she’s neither crazed stalker, nor a possible assassin out for my head,” he sipped his tea before he remembered to was still boiling. He set it down with another scowl and pushed it away.

He was interested in the fact she seemed embarrassed. Her eyes kept glancing at his face before she finally said, “I… I was curious to know if your invitation was still open-”

He looked at her blankly. For the life of him he couldn’t remember exactly what invitation she was talking about. Did she mean- “Err… huh?” Of course he never claimed he had the best of memories… and…

She blushed, “Oh… never mind. It’s silly for me to even-”

“No… That’s where you’re wrong. It is not silly- I’m just not sure I gather what your telling me.” It was true. On one hand he was hoping that she was about to say she was deeply, madly, and irrevocably in love with him. He was hoping that she’d suddenly tell him she- what? Wanted to travel the world with him? Except… well that was just silly. Aoko was too level headed to actually agree with him, especially how she responded after that incident.

She let out a sigh and took another deep swig of her tea, “Well… I was talking to Hakuba-” He almost tuned her out right there. Hakuba usually didn’t mean good things. He wondered if she was actually there to, to haul him off to jail? To make a public statement concerning KID?

Instead all he could say was, “Ah- Hakuba?”

Her cheeks were red again, and he saw her pick up the rose he’d pulled for her earlier. She was fingering it thoughtfully, “Yes. Hakuba. He actually doesn’t hate you, you know? It’s more like a rival thing. But… I was talking to him because, well… I think he was getting a little fed up of me honestly… or maybe Dad asked him to-”

Kaito raised an eyebrow a little more confused then he was before, “Errr.. I’m not following…”

“Well see Hakuba’s the reason I’m here… I mean.. not like that… It’s just I’ve missed you so much, and I wasn’t sure what you’d do when you saw me-” she looked ready to take off again and he thought she was going to ring the poor rose to death. “I guess I haven’t really been myself since I left…”

Kaito leaned back a little observing her, “So… uh… you decided to come ask my advice about something? I mean if it is a guy or something Aoko, I dunno how much I can help. I haven’t exactly been out in the market much myself, and while I might get those groupies following me-”

She set down the rose and looked up at him, “You’re not really that dense are you Kaito?”

He let his masks drop just slightly as he smiled at her weakly. In some ways he was terrified of letting himself go in front of her again but, “No… Though I do admit I’m a bit of a coward. I just don’t really want to get my hopes up-” he let his hand slide across the table to cover hers. Blue eyes met blue eyes, and they found themselves both smiling.

“I’ve missed you-” she almost whispered, “Something dreadful. That’s why Hakuba- why Hakuba thought I should come talk to you. He threatened that he’d call you himself if I didn’t come see you. I… I wasn’t sure you really wanted to see me-”

“Now whose being dense?” He gave her hand a squeezed, “I told you I loved you didn’t I? It’s not like I can exactly pick and choose who I feel that my soul mate is… I’m a phantom- not cupid you know…” He winked at her and was pleased to see that she was blushing all the more.

“I mean… honestly? Why else would a bachelor be in his flat, reading a book in a language they barely speak, on a Friday night?” He chuckled and shook his head, “If a person could simply fall out of love, well I would have done that years ago, and we probably wouldn’t be having this talk seeing how you would never have found out I was KID-” he told her softly.

He was pleased to discover Aoko gave his hand a squeeze back and she nodded just a fraction, “I know… I tried to tell myself I could. I thought maybe if I was angry enough, or if I was pragmatic enough…. I wasn’t suppose to fall in love with you!”

Kaito wanted to laugh harder. How many times had he told himself that? But here she was, sitting in his apartment and now he thought he might actually have a chance with her. It was like she’d given him back a piece of his soul the night he’d thought for sure he’d lost her. It was something he knew quite well he could live without, but it seemed much nicer not to have to.

“Fall in love with me?”

“Oh don’t play stupid Kaito, what else do you think I’m talking about? Do I look like I’m here to arrest you?” she sighed and shook her head. “You’re right… I was on a date because I wanted to prove Hakuba he was wrong- but…” she didn’t meet his eye. “I… I don’t know. I was just walking back afterwards, and I saw your apartment and-”

He smirked, “You just couldn’t resist seeing my sexy body one more time?”

He was replied with a resounding smack, which he knew quite well he deserved. Her eyes were laughing at him though, and he knew she wasn’t mad at him.

“So you wanted to know if I was still interested?” He replied after nursing his poor abused head.

“…Not originally, but… I mean…”

He got up from his seat and slowly took both of her hands as he pulled her to her feet. With probably the most honest smile he’d had in a long time he told her, “Aoko… I’d say yes if you sixty years old and had five children. Do you honestly think a person confesses all that to the daughter of the man in charge of catching them if they aren’t willing to trade their soul in return?”

“…Now you’re being dramatic.”

“…Well yes… but I would’ve thought you’d known that much after putting up with me for over a decade.” He grinned at her as he took a risk and brushed a kiss along her jaw line.

He was pleased as he heard a soft sigh escape from her lips, and felt her tremble slightly in his arms. He hadn’t had a chance before, “Am I allowed?” He asked still not sure if she was going to run from the room any moment now.

He was greeted with two arms around his neck, and a very eager Inspector’s daughter attacking his lips a moment later. He assumed that was a yes.

With a laugh he wrapped his arms around her waist and jokingly said, as he drew her down to the couch, “Well then mi’lady, come… give me my soul again!”

And in the far back of his mind, he wondered if he’d just gotten his soul back, only to have it indebted to that damn Brit…

Oh well… For this? He might just be willing-