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Kaito yawned.
Right now, he did not care whether power was equal to voltage times current, nor what the names of the seven major crustal plates were, and he most certainly did not care whether the derivative of tangent x was secant squared x… or was it cosine… x…
There was a fly buzzing in his ear.
"Kuroba-kun."
Distantly, Kaito noted that – and wondered why – the fly sounded oddly like a certain British detective he knew.
"Class is over, Kuroba-kun. Unless you plan to camp in school tonight?"
Ignoring the annoying sounds, Kaito relaxed further into the cloth of the bag he was using as a makeshift pillow.
The buzzing was getting louder now, more insistent. "Kuroba. If you don't get up at this very moment, I'll – "
"Do what, Hakuba? Colour my hair green?" Kaito's head popped up like a jack-in-the-box – except with a wide, near maniacal grin as a small spray can of dye appeared in his hand with a small puff of smoke. "Despite how fun it may be to match each other, I must admit that pink is more my colour! And given that you didn't even have the decency to wake me up, you have no right to threaten me, do you?" he asked with a mischievous grin.
"To the contrary, Kuroba-kun. I did try." The detective sighed, straightening haughtily. "However, I saw no point in wasting the energy on an idiotic moron like you."
"Oh – is that so?" Poker Face hid Kaito's surprise at the statement – he had in fact been tired after a continuous week of nonstop preparations and practice, but to have stayed asleep even when woken…
"What British gallantry, my dear gentlemanly Hakuba! Should I… eh, thank you by colouring your hair pink to match those beautiful green stripes you already have?" he added, waving the spray can in his hand to accentuate the words.
"I – " the British detective spluttered, an infuriated flush reddening his face to contrast sharply with his once-blonde hair, still streaked green with dye from last night's heist. "Kuroba – you – ugh!" he finished inarticulately as he stormed off, exiting the classroom in an annoyed huff.
"Love you too, Hakuba!" Kaito called out after him, tones cheesy enough to raise goosebumps.
Even on his own arms.
Okay, he might have overdone it – ow!
Without warning, his jaw slammed almost painfully into the plastic surface of his desk, sending reverberating echoes throughout his skull.
Kaito looked up at his assailant pitifully, tears in his eyes. "What was that for, Ahoko? I was good, I resisted from colouring his hair even though I really wanted to, and it would've looked so good–"
To his mild surprise, his teasing didn't gain the usual reactions of annoyance – instead, he could see a spark of something approaching true fury glinting in Aoko's eyes. "What you did, Bakaito, was to be completely" – another whack – "and totally ungrateful and rude!"
"Wha –" Kaito slanted a glance at where Hakuba had been moments before, before turning back to his friend. "What do I need to thank Hakuba for?"
"He covered for you, you idiot!" Aoko was beyond irritated now – he swore her eyes were spitting little sparks of fire from their blue depths. "He told Aoyama-sensei you were ill from running through the rain during the – that – Kid's heist yesterday, even though he didn't have to!" She spat the thief's name out fiercely, in near imitation of her father. "Otherwise, do you really think you'd be sitting here right now instead of being in detention or the discipline master's office?"
Kaito blinked. Hakuba did… what?
With this new piece of information, he reconsidered the situation; Hakuba must have guessed just how much work Kid had to have put in for yesterday's heist. It had run into the wee hours of the morning, and the sheer amount of reconnaissance and work he'd needed beforehand had really taken its toll, not to mention the fact that stealing and evading capture in general wasn't a walk in the park, no matter how much he made it seem to be.
His thoughts were interrupted rather abruptly by a sudden spike in the volume of Aoko's voice. "–and you had better go apologise to Hakuba-kun right now, or I swear on my mop that I'll–"
"Yeah, I think I will."
She stopped speaking abruptly, staring at him wide-eyed. "What... what did you say?"
"Going deaf, Aoko?" He grinned, swinging his bag onto his shoulder as he stood. "Gotta dash – detectives to meet and all that. See you tomorrow!"
She was still staring at him in shock as he waved jauntily before dropping out of the classroom window.
He settled down to sit on the lowest branch, leaning against the solid trunk. By his estimation, Hakuba would be coming through the gates in three minutes. Plenty of time.
Absently, he stroked the pigeon that had fluttered down to perch on his leg. Its white feathers were streaked with grey, nothing like the snowy doves Kid used for his tricks. "You're such a beautiful thing, aren't you?"
The pigeon gave a soft croon in response, preening under the attention.
Kaito laughed softly, some of the exhaustion fading away. "So vain. You're just like Hakuba."
He got a nip on his finger for that.
"Great, now I'm getting scolded by a bird too?" His baleful glare was ignored by the pigeon, who nestled more comfortably into the fabric of his uniform.
Kaito sighed, thinking over the mystery that was the British detective.
His relationship – friendship? rivalry? Whatever – his thing with Hakuba had changed recently, and he still wasn't quite used to it. The detective had gone from accusing him of being Kid at every turn to being practically possessive towards him, and now... Hakuba still did his very best to catch Kid at every single heist he attended, of course, but he'd almost become helpful recently.
Like today.
It was simply frustrating. Hakuba was supposed to be boring, predictable – sure, he was still far less interesting than the midget Tantei-kun, but this was new, and Kaito wasn't quite sure what to do about it. Somehow, he had accepted that he couldn't prove that Kaito was Kid, and was content to leave it as such, an unspoken truce between them.
Kaito couldn't help but wonder why.
Then a spot of blonde caught his eye, and he looked over to see Hakuba walking out of the gates, punctual as always. The pigeon squawked in protest as he shifted, and he grinned, running a hand over its feathers one more time.
"Come on, let's go fetch our detective."
Dropping lightly from the branch, he watched as Hakuba stretched out an arm to intercept the pigeon automatically, a longtime habit from raising his hawk. It landed obligingly, regarding the detective with beady eyes.
Kaito spoke from behind the detective, startling him slightly. "I think it likes you."
The pigeon cooed.
"I've always wondered how you get them to do these things," Hakuba said quietly, looking in wonder at the bird that stood tamely on his extended hand.
And there it was again, a subtle reference to Kid if you knew where to look. He'd never done much tricks with birds as Kaito before, because the classroom was far too enclosed and he didn't want to tire his doves out, but primarily because of their strong association with Kid.
He shrugged, walking to stand beside Hakuba. "Getting them to stay still is easy. Tricks are a bit more difficult. They just... listen to me, I guess."
As he spoke, the pigeon had trotted up Hakuba's arm to perch on his shoulder, and now it leaned over to peck at a few stray strands of Kaito's hair, earning a half-hearted scowl from the magician.
"It definitely likes me." The detective seemed to be stifling a laugh at the bird's antics. "You wanted to talk to me about something, Kuroba-kun?"
"Oh, about that! Come with me to Beika." Kaito's expression brightened abruptly as he began herding Hakuba towards the train station. "I know some people you'd like to meet."