DCMKSS2022
Hey @sagurus !
Merry Christmas!
I was your @dcmksecretsanta this year! I had a bunch of fun writing all these for you! I think this is the highest overall wordcount of any of my DCMKSS’s in the past because I just had so many ideas!
Without further ado, here’s your Main Gift for this year’s DCMK Secret Santa Event!
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Hakuba Saguru remembers when his older cousin Miyano Shiho left. He was a few years younger than her, but they’d always gotten along well, and he couldn’t understand how she could just...leave. Run away from home one day and not tell anyone where she was, abandoning the family. Abandoning him. He’d waited for months, sure she’d send a letter to tell him where she was and what she was doing and explain why she’d left at all.
No letter ever came, and Saguru was left confused and hurt. Now, four years later, two months before his eighteenth birthday, Saguru was following in her footsteps. He didn’t know her exact reason for leaving and never interacting with any of the family, but he understood now that sometimes you just had to get out.
At thirteen, he’d believed that family was everything, and that his family was among the best.
At nearly eighteen, he’d had the rude awakening that family wasn’t always as great as people liked to pretend, and that his family was very good at pretending.
It was upsetting that his family would care more about his romantic preferences than the face that he was a Hakuba, that he was their son, but he couldn’t change that. And he certainly had no intention of entering an arranged marriage with the daughter of some noble family and spending the rest of his life playing at being the perfect son.
He didn’t know where he’d go, had only the vaguest of plans on how he was going to manage on his own, but he knew he’d figure it out. He would have to. He hastily packed a bag, focusing on essential items like clothes, whatever money he had on hand, and a couple small items he could sell for a decent amount. His fingers lingered over an old stuffed toy, soft fabric in the shape of a hawk, a gift from Shiho on his tenth birthday. He’d begged for a hawk that year, but the only bird he’d gotten then, or any year since, was this little plush one. Finally, Saguru made up his mind and tucked the toy carefully into the backpack.
“Going on a trip, are we?” Saguru whipped around to the door at the unexpected voice, fear creeping up his spine. In the doorway to his bedroom stood Baaya, watching him with ever-sharp eyes. Words caught in his throat, and Saguru stood frozen in surprise and fear as Baaya stepped into the room. She closed the door tightly behind her, and the next thing Saguru knew her hands were on either side of his face, “Oh, Saguru…” She pulled him into a hug, holding him there even when he failed to return it. “You look like Shiho did, the day she left.”
“Shiho?” Baaya finally pulled back to look him in the eyes, and Saguru caught the glimmer of mischief sparkling in hers.
“Your cousin knew that she had to get out while she could. She couldn’t be what the family asked of her.” There was a moment of silence as Saguru absorbed and processed this revelation, that Baaya had know why Shiho left. That she knew why he was leaving, too. She took his hands, holding them in hers. Before he could gather his thoughts enough to respond, Baaya gave him a wicked smile. “I think you two might just have a lot to talk about. Years worth.” Baaya pressed an envelope into his hand, which he accepted without thinking. And just like that, she’d let go of his hands and turned to leave. She paused at the door and looked over her shoulder at him. “Tell her that her Baaya says hello, won’t you?” The door opened and closed again, and Saguru was alone in his room once again. He slowly turned his attention to the envelope Baaya had handed him, opening it to find money, with a slip of parchment. Pulling the parchment free Saguru was shocked to find it was an address, in Baaya’s elegant script.
Miyano Shiho
|Haibara Ai|
Worlds’ End Cottage
Ardan Forest
Saguru dropped to sit on the edge of his bed before he collapsed in shock. This was Shiho’s address. Baaya knew Shiho’s address. Baaya had given him Shiho’s address.
...Well, he supposed that he knew where he’d be going now. Which was for the best. He imagined it was easier to run away from home when you had an idea of where you were running to.
He ought to finish packing.
___
Saguru was a reasonable person. He prided himself on his logical mind and cleverness. Which is why he was not lost, thank you very much.
Really, it wasn’t his fault that the damn carriage driver had refused to take him all the way to Worlds’ End Cottage, and had instead kicked him out onto the side of the road at the edge of Ardan Forest. Nor was it his fault that the road had become a narrow footpath, which quickly became near indistinguishable from the rest of the forest until it completely vanished and left him to wander, pathless, under the thick canopy of the trees around him.
But he wasn’t lost. He was simply...still finding his way.
“I wouldn’t go that way, if I were you.” Saguru startled badly at the voice behind him. He quickly turned on his heel to find himself face-to-face with a child. The boy had dark brown hair, with a white shirt under a simple blue doublet and brown shorts. He looked far too serious for his young age, mouth set in a slight frown and eyes narrowed and watching him suspiciously.
“Why not?”
“The Fae Folk don’t take kindly to trespassers.” Saguru blinked at the answer, watching the boy’s stern face for any sign that he wasn’t serious. “Why are you here?”
“I’m looking for Worlds’ End Cottage.”
“What business have you got there?”
“Nothing that concerns you, I’m sure.” The boy smirked at that.
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that. Worlds’ End Cottage is this way.” Without preamble, the child turned and began walking off into the woods. Saguru hesitated for a moment, acutely aware of the potential danger, before following after.
“I don’t suppose you’d give me your name, boy?” The child’s expression soured into something bitter and angry.
“Conan. Edogawa Conan,” came the reply, though he spat the name as if it had personally offended him. For a moment, Saguru marveled that the boy had answered at all, given how seriously he had spoken about the Fae being nearby in the woods. Everyone knew that you shouldn’t give your name to a Faery.
Neither of them mentioned that Saguru did not offer his own name in return.
They continued in silence, until a wooden cottage seemingly appeared out of nowhere ahead of them. Saguru had no idea how Conan had found his way here, with the way the building was unnoticeable until he was standing directly in front of it.
He spared a wary glance towards Conan, but the boy had already sauntered forward towards the cottage door. He opened it without knocking, stepping inside and calling out.
“Haibara! You’ve got a visitor!” The door closed behind Conan, blocking Saguru from hearing anything else that might have been said. He walked slowly towards the cottage, taking note of a sign marking that this was, indeed, the place Baaya had sent him. The door was pulled open again, and Saguru’s gaze snapped up at the movement, only for him to freeze. She was older, but her hair was the same red-brown, her features the same as he remembered from the last time he saw her. Wide hazel-gray eyes stared back at him in surprise. It was Shiho who broke the silence.
“Saguru?” He could only nod mutely. He’d expected it, of course. He trusted Baaya, and fully believed that the address she’d given him was his older cousin’s, but he suddenly found himself ill-prepared to actually see her again. “What are you doing here?” Her eyes had narrowed, tone sharp.
“I guess I take after you.” He wasn’t even sure where the words came from, but they slipped off his tongue before he could even think of how to respond. For a tense moment, the only sound was the general ambiance of the forest, bird song and the rustling of leaves in the wind.
“...You left?” Saguru nodded, and suddenly remembered Baaya’s request.
“Baaya says hi. She asked me to tell you.”
“Of course. Presumably that was after giving you this address?”
“Naturally.” Shiho shook her head, every inch of her radiating exasperation. Saguru knew better, knew her, and the affection and care shining through her actions filled his chest with warmth.
“Come inside, then. No use standing around out here.” Saguru smiled and followed her into the cottage. The door opened to a wide room, plush chairs and couch off to one side, with a kitchen on the other side of the space. Conan’s head peeked up over the back of the couch where the boy sat. He raised an eyebrow at seeing Saguru.
“Haibara?”
“Conan, meet Saguru, the least-annoying person in my entire family.” Saguru smirked and, in true younger cousin fashion, gave his cheekiest reply.
“I’m telling Baaya you said that.”
“If you so much as try I will murder you. See if I don’t.”
“I missed you too.” The annoyance immediately drained from Shiho’s face, softening her expression for a short moment before the bored indifference she wrapped around herself like a shield fell over her features.
“Yeah, sure. If that’s how you wanna interpret it.” With that out of the way, Saguru took the opportunity to ask a question that’d been burning in the back of his mind since he’d first laid eyes on the address Baaya had given him.
“Haibara Ai?” Shiho turned to look at him before shrugging.
“Had to lay low to avoid being dragged back by the family. Figured I could start by using a name that didn’t link me to them.”
“Reasonable. I’ll adjust accordingly.” Shi- Ai nodded, before waving for him to follow her further into the cottage. She led him down a short hallway opposite the front door. Four doors, two on each side, and Ai opened the last one on the left and stepped back to let him through. It was a simple bedroom, the only furnishings being a single bed in the back left corner, a wardrobe opposite it, and a small desk centered under the single window on the right side. Saguru placed his bags on the floor by his feet and turned back to face his cousin.
“Bathroom is the first door on the right. My room,” she pointed at the door directly across the hall from his, “is off limits. Conan’s in the last room.” Saguru nodded, feeling – for perhaps the first time in his life – at a loss for what to say to her. While it was not uncommon for him to struggle communicating with others (particularly with small talk and social pleasantries), he’d never had that problem with Ai. Growing up, she’d been his biggest, his only confidant. Talking with her was as easy as breathing.
That this was no longer the case saddened him beyond words. Before he could think of anything to say, much less open his mouth to say them, there was a knock at the door that pulled their attention away. They listened from a distance as Conan’s footsteps rang out and the door pulled open.
“What are you doing here?!” Saguru blinked and Ai was no longer standing in front of him, but nearly to the door already. Saguru blinked in surprise before slowly trailing after her into the living room, intrigued.
“Kaito-kun. What a surprise. We weren’t expecting you.” From where he was standing, Saguru couldn’t see the person at the door.
“Neesan! I just wanted to check in and see how the little Tantei-kun is doing.” Kaito cackled gleefully as Conan threw his head back and groaned.
“He’s fine, as you can see.”
“I’d be better if you’d undo this curse already.” At Conan’s grumbled words, Kaito’s laughing abruptly cut off, tone turning serious.
“I see someone still hasn’t learned their lesson, Tantei-kun.” Something about the way he said it gave Saguru a sense of danger. The man standing at the door was not to be trifled with, he was sure. Saguru shifted slightly to the right, looking around Ai to catch a glimpse of Kaito. There in the doorway stood a boy about his age, wild brown hair and indigo eyes glinting with mischief. As though sensing his gaze, the boy suddenly turned his attention to Saguru, making eye contact and holding it for an intense moment as a smile creeped slowly onto his face. “I don’t believe I’ve seen you around these parts before. Can I have your name, stranger?”
“Ah, I-” Ai cut him off before he could speak more than those two syllables.
“Kaito, this is my cousin. He’s visiting from out of town and will be staying with us a while. Cousin,” Ai turned to give him a pointed look, stressing the word oddly, “Meet Kaito-kun.”
Saguru wasn’t sure what, exactly, was going on, but Ai had very pointedly interrupted him before he could introduce himself. He stepped forward, walking to the door to shake Kaito’s hand, when he realized that Kaito’s was the only name anyone had spoken over the course of his interaction. Conan’s warning about Fae Territory echoed in his memory, along with the muttered comment about a curse. Kaito’s curse, that he’d placed on Conan. He reached the door, arm outstretched, and Kaito stared silently for half a moment before grasping his hand – and sweeping into a low bow and planting a kiss onto Saguru’s knuckles. Saguru could only stare, flustered, as Kaito straightened back up and dropped his hand.
“A pleasure to meet you, Kaito-san.”
“So formal~.” Was the only teasing reply. Saguru felt himself flush in embarrassment.
“I was of the understanding that proper manners were essential when one is speaking with one of the Fae Folk.” Kaito froze for a moment, though nothing else in his expression gave away his surprise.
“Another detective, Neesan? Starting a collection?” Before Ai could respond to the aside, Kaito had turned his focus fully back on Saguru. “I look forward to seeing what you get up to, Tantei-san.” Kaito winked at him, smirked at Conan, and gave Ai a pleasant smile, before turning on his heel and sauntering away towards the trees. Saguru stared after him until the door closing blocked his view of the empty trees.
“Damn thief.”
“Well maybe you shouldn’t go around pissing of the Fae, Kudo.”
“I didn’t know he was a Faery!” Ai clicked her tongue, but didn’t respond further.
“You just...get random visits from the Fae?”
“Of course not. Don’t be ridiculous.” Ai had her back turned to him as she filled a kettle with water, but he could hear the smirk she sported. “We get random visits from a Faery. Just Kaito.”
“And, Kaito randomly drops in because...of a curse?”
“If he didn’t want to be shrunk back to childhood, Kudo-kun here should’ve kept his mouth shut and not insulted a Faery to his face. It would seem that Kaito,” Ai paused dramatically, “is not fond of over-confident, egotistical detectives half his age.”
Saguru allowed himself a moment to process this information before turning to Conan. “You’re Kudo Shinichi?” Everyone this side of the mountains knew the name. Only son of famous storyteller Kudo Yusaku and famously beautiful Kudo Yukiko, who’d disappeared off the face of the earth several months ago. His family had used the disappearance as an excuse to keep Saguru on a short leash. In response to the question, Conan only grumbled under his breath, clearly disgruntled. It was answer enough, as far as Saguru was concerned. “Well then.” Ai turned back to him then, the corners of her mouth tilted up in a suppressed smile.
“Four years is a long time, Saguru. I’m certain you have as much to tell me as I do you.
“Get the teacups.”
___
Saguru woke, bleary and tired, to the sunlight burning through his window and the ceaseless chirping of birds in the woods around the Cabin. He and Ai had stayed up til the early hours of the morning, drinking tea and talking about their lives since they’d last seen each other. By the second cup, it had felt like when they were children, sneaking away from the rest of the family into some unused back room to catch up after weeks apart.
Ai had told him of her adventures, the hardships she faced after leaving the family home, fighting to carve out her own place in the world. She told him of Worlds’ End Cottage, aptly named for being near the edge of the invisible boundary that separated the mortal realm from the entrance to Underhill. Conan had, in fact, been very serious when he warned Saguru that he was going to wander into the realm of the Fae.
Saguru told her about his life in her absence, about the attempted arranged marriage, and why that had been the final straw. Ai had pointedly had a non-reaction to the revelation that he was interested in men the way he was meant to be interested in women, as though he’d told her about the weather or what he’d had for breakfast. He’d never told anyone, and Ai’s response was leagues better than even his most optimistic imaginings of the rest of their family’s response had they found out.
If Ai casually replied that she’d never been interested in anyone that way – that the thought of marriage to anyone was as pleasant a thought as marriage to a woman was for Saguru, well, that was normal for them. They’d always shared secrets with each other that they never dared to even dream of sharing with anyone else, and had often traded them one for another like bartering at Market. On particularly bad days, they’d make a competition of it; trying to outdo each other with increasingly more shocking secrets, winner being the one with the secret that would most horrify their relatives.
He could count on one hand how many times they’d actually declared a winner; they usually ended up laughing and hugging on the floor, simply glad to have a friend who really knew them, who they could truly know in turn.
By the time they’d finished catching up on four years of adventures and mishaps, Saguru was beyond exhausted and dragged himself off to bed with a mumbled goodnight before collapsing fully-clothed on top of his bed-sheets and promptly passing out.
That is, until the sun had the audacity to wake him with its incessant shining, far earlier than he would have liked to have gotten up. After several sleepless minutes laying in bed and willing the sun away and the birds silent, Saguru gave up and dragged himself out of bed to stumble to the kitchen in search of food.
“Good, you’re up,” it took Saguru a moment for his sleep-addled brain to process that Conan was speaking to him, “Go bring in some firewood from the shed, would you?”
“Why me?”
“The latch on the door is too high for me to reach. Haibara’s still asleep or she’d have done it.”
“Oh.” Saguru rubbed at his eyes, trying to clear the fog of sleep from his mind, and shuffled out the front door. He didn’t know where the shed was, but given that he hadn’t seen it from the front of the house yesterday, he assumed it was around back. Sure enough, once he turned the corner he found a sturdy wooden shed standing a dozen feet back from the wall of the house. The door latch was about chest-height, much too far up for Conan to reach on his own. Saguru shook his head, urging his mind to focus, and went inside the small construction. A pile of firewood was on his immediate right upon stepping through the doorway, so he grabbed an armful to bring inside. He wasn’t sure how much was needed, but he figured he’d rather not have to come back for more, tired as he was. Arms loaded with dry wood, Saguru exited the shed and faced his first obstacle. He needed to latch the door. He glared at the metal latch, willing it to close on its own and spare him having to set the wood down and pick it back up again. It wasn’t working. He glared harder.
“I don’t know what the door did to offend you, but I imagine it’s very sorry.” Saguru yelped, startled into dropping the pile of firewood. For a moment, Saguru couldn’t muster up the energy to do anything more than stare at the wood scattered across the grass and sigh. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you, Tantei-san.” Ah, well. There was only one person who called him that, so Saguru didn’t bother turning to see who was there.
“It’s fine, Kaito-kun.” Saguru latched the shed door and knelt to begin gathering the wood again. Kaito dropped to the ground several feet away, gathering up the ones that had scattered further away. Saguru was surprised at the help, but didn’t deign to comment.
“So, what’s the wood for?”
“I don’t know. Co-” Saguru cut off, belatedly remembering that Kaito was a Faery and under no circumstances should be given someone’s name. “Tantei-kun said to get some. Couldn’t reach the door latch.” Saguru tilted his head in a vague gesture at the shed door, and Kaito snickered. “I suppose you’ve come to check in on him, as you put it?”
“Nope!” Kaito didn’t elaborate, bouncing up to his feet with a half-pile of wood gathered in his arms. Saguru looked up at him from where he knelt, raising an eyebrow. Kaito just grinned down at him.
“Very well then.” Saguru stood and began making his way back around the cottage to the door. Kaito quickly fell in step beside him.
“You’re not going to ask, Tantei-san?”
“You don’t seem inclined to tell me, Kaito-kun. I get the sense you don’t reveal anything to anyone unless you want to.” Saguru pushed the door open with his shoulder, about to step inside when he noticed Kaito has stopped several paces back. He gave the brunet a quizzical look, and Kaito jolted a little before another grin broke across his face. Less manic and mischievous, this was the first grin Saguru had seen on him that didn’t feel at all forced.
“I came to see you, Tantei-san.” Before Saguru could respond, Conan stepped into the open doorway and froze at the sight of the Fae. Kaito bounded forward, quick as can be, and dropped his pile of wood into the detective’s arms. The next moment, he was gone, his farewell still ringing out in the air. “Bye bye~~!”
Conan blinked, scowled, and turned to stomp back inside. Saguru lingered a moment before trudging his way after him.
___
Weeks passed in a blur for the inhabitants of Worlds’ End Cottage. The days were a blur of household chores, writing letters to Baaya, and visits from a dangerous Fae. Kaito continued to stop by nearly every day. More often than not, to Conan’s relief, he hung around Saguru and mostly left Conan and Ai alone.
For the first two weeks, Saguru was wary of the Faery and spent more focus on how to handle the interaction and get out scot-free than the interactions themselves. During the third week, he slipped up.
Saguru and Kaito had always hung out outside the cottage, talking on the lawn or sometimes walking the circumference of the clearance along the treeline. Conan and Ai had made sure, the morning after he’d moved in, to go over the known rules of interacting with one of the Fae Folk. Never give them your name, don’t ever lie, nothing ever comes without a price, even if they claim it to be a gift. Don’t invite a Fae into your home.
Saguru and Kaito had been out by the shed, leaning up against the outer wall. Saguru straightened up from where he was leaning, only for the fabric of his shirtsleeve to catch on the rough wood and tear. Both boys winced, and Saguru sighed.
“Do you want to go change, Tantei-san?”
“Yes, I’d better. I’ll have to see if I can mend it at a later date.” Saguru turned towards the house, gesturing over his shoulder for Kaito to follow. They reached the front door, and Saguru, in his distraction, wasn’t paying attention. “Wait here in the parlor, if you don’t mind. I’ll be but a moment.” He was already on his way to his bedroom to get a clean shirt, and didn’t notice the way Kaito froze at the threshold, staring wide-eyed at Saguru’s retreating back. Once the blond was shut in his room, Kaito grinned and stepped inside. He made sure to close the door firmly behind him, and walked over to the couch before throwing himself down to splay dramatically over the length of it. He hung one arm over the back of the couch and rested the other one under his head; he planted his left foot firmly to the ground, bent at the knee while his right foot stretched out over the cushions of the plush couch. He smiled to himself as he stared up at the ceiling and waited for Saguru to finish changing.
Before that could happen, the front door opened to admit the other two occupants of the cottage in. Ai and Conan had been out in the nearby town, Ai being a well-renowned doctor. It had been her skill in mixing and blending natural ingredients gathered from the forest into effective remedies and medicines that had first attracted Kaito’s attention to the girl.
“Welcome home, Neesan, Tantei-kun! Have a good day?” Both visibly startled at his voice, and turned to look at him with matching looks of horror. He snickered, reveling in the chance to cause mischief.
“Kaito-kun. What a surprise.” Ai monotoned. “What are you up to today?”
“Just waiting on Tantei-san. Tore his shirt, the poor dear.” Kaito could feel the hastily-repressed outburst in reaction. Conan swore under his breath and glared in the direction of Saguru’s door as much as at Kaito.
The sound of a door opening down the hall, out of Kaito’s line of sight, and everyone turned to look at the detective as he approached.
“Ai, Conan. Welcome back. Everything went well, I trust? No issues?”
“No issues with the visit. Providing the Professor takes the tincture as I instructed, he should be right as rain soon enough. Have the two of you had a pleasant afternoon in our absence?” Saguru looked confused at her tone for a moment before Ai glanced pointedly to the side and Saguru followed her gaze. He himself froze at the sight of Kaito, now sitting up with both arms folded over top the back of the couch and chin resting on his arms, smiling at him.
“Ah. I…” Saguru looked at a loss of how to respond, instead giving his cousin a lost, panicked look. A sudden hard breeze rustled through the trees outside, and Kaito turned to stare out the window for a thoughtful moment.
“I should get home. It’s getting late.” Kaito flipped over the back of the couch, landing in a crouch and immediately hopping up. He strode over to Saguru, taking his hand and sweeping into a bow to kiss his knuckles, as he had every day before leaving. “See you next time, Tantei-san.”
With that, Kaito turned and walked out, stopping only once to turn and wave before closing the door behind him and disappearing into the woods.
“Saguru. What did you do.”
“I don’t know!” The two gave him matching flat looks. “I really don’t. I just…I don’t know, I wasn’t thinking…”
“Clearly not,” came Conan’s scathing input. Saguru winced.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know what I was doing, letting him inside.” Ai sighed heavily, giving Saguru a sharp look.
“It’s too late to change it now. We’ll just have to deal with whatever fallout comes. There’s nothing else we can do.”
___
The rest of the week passed as normal. Kaito showed up out of the blue to drag Saguru out to talk, remarking on the weather or the plants or tell stories about his friend Aoko, who he’s known since he was born, and her friend Akako, who gave him the creeps. By the sixth day since he’d invited Kaito inside the cottage, the complete lack of negative consequences settled Saguru into relaxing the constant stress and anxiety that something was going to go horribly wrong, as well as relaxing around Kaito more in general. He started to be a more active participant in their conversations, matching Kaito story for story and telling him about his day, his hobbies, his favourite things and the ones he absolutely hates.
The first time Kaito had asked his thoughts on the local birds, Saguru had launched into a monologue about the various species lives near his family’s home, their personalities and habits and calls, things they did and didn’t like. He lit up when he told Kaito how he’d found out that ravens were highly intelligent with vast social networks, with excellent memories and a tendency to hold grudges, even going so far as to spread the word about people that had offended them to the point where birds in whole other towns would recognize and attack or bother the person.
Kaito listened attentively as Saguru told him how, at seven years old, he had conducted an experiment of his own to see how well this worked in the reverse. He’d sit in his yard and mimic raven calls until he attracted one. He did nothing more than talk back and forth until they’d gotten comfortable, then offered a scrap of shiny silver-colored fabric he’d nicked from his mothers seamstress when she’d been over to fit the dress. He’d gathered a stash of shiny objects he kept hidden in the back of a drawer at his desk to offer to the birds. Before much longer, the birds brought him things to exchange. One day, on an outing with his father, he’d been approached by a raven who offered him an interesting rock, but had nothing to give the bird in return. He’d apologized while his dad wasn’t paying attention, taking the offered rock and promising he’d get them something later.
His father had seen the interaction from the corner of his eye, ripped the rock from Saguru’s hand and thrown it into the grass before shooing the bird away. Distraught, Saguru had rushed to his room as soon as they got home and gathered a handful of things from his drawer. He’d stuffed the items in his pockets and snuck outside, whistling in a way he saved for talking to the ravens. Several of the birds gathered in the trees above him, even a few on the ground a dozen feet away, but none came anywhere near as close as they usually did. Finally, a raven came down carrying the same rock from earlier and landed just a couple feet in front of him on the grass. He whispered an apology and slowly, cautiously, pulled out a candy wrapper, a bit of glass that’d been glued to something and made up to look like a small diamond, and a small scrap of metal he’d pulled from the garbage pile outside the blacksmith’s. He laid the items in his palm and slowly held it out towards the bird, keeping back so as not to startle it. He knew that he couldn’t force the bird to accept it, and could only hope that they, with all their intelligence, would recognize the apology for what it was.
The bird only stared at the offered items, flicking its gaze up to his face and back down to his hand for a long minute. Finally, the bird hopped over to stand right in front of where his hand was hovering just above the grass, dropped the rock into his palm, and grabbed the wrapper. Saguru expected the bird to fly off, as they usually did after getting a gift from him. He figured they kept them in their nests, and usually went to tuck them safely away as soon as they had them. This time, the bird moved closer, until it was standing right next to his other hand and tilted its head, dropping the wrapper to the grass. Confused but hopeful, Saguru lifted his other hand and held it out to the raven. It was a great surprise when the bird gently butted the top of its head against his fingers, then held still for Saguru to gently reach out and run one finger over its feathers for a short moment. Halfway through the stroke, the bird grabbed its wrapper from the ground and flew off. Saguru had sat outside in the grass, smiling at the sky at the realization that he’d been allowed to pet one of the ravens.
He’d started keeping a small stash of shiny things in his pockets, so he’d never be caught without a gift for them again.
He noticed, in those following weeks, that while the birds didn’t hesitate to approach him when he was in town or out for a walk, they never came around when he was with his father. Or anyone else, for that matter.
Eventually, he was able to sneak away from a fancy ball with his cousin. They’d sat on the grass in the semi-darkness of twilight while Saguru whistled until two ravens hesitantly landed on a nearby bench. They cawed at him, and he cawed back, pulling two gifts from his pocket to hold out to them. When they only stared at him, he whistled and cawed again. Finally, the birds darted forward to accept the presents, but didn’t stay close for more than the second it took to grab them from his palm. He was ecstatic that they’d come at all. He’d wanted, Saguru told Kaito, to show the birds his favourite cousin. Favourite person, even, and the only family member he could stand besides his Baaya. This admittance came with a sad sort of smile.
He smiled brightly, though, as he continued on to explain how she’d asked him to whistle again and see if any more came. When a single bird showed up, before Saguru could reach into his pocket, she was holding her hand out, flat and palm up, with a shiny gold earring resting in the center of her palm, just like Saguru had held out his gifts. The bird had stared between the offering, her, and Saguru, evaluating. Saguru cawed, trying to sound reassuring. They weren’t convinced, but she’d clicked her tongue at them softly, and Saguru whistled again and laid his hand underneath hers. The bird had hesitated a moment longer before grabbing the little earring and disappearing into the night sky.
When he’d asked about the earring, she said that ever since he’d told her about his ravens, she’d taken to bringing a thing or two with her anytime she knew he’d be around in case she ever got the chance to meet them. She’d sneered some excuse about science and learning everything she could, because she had a hard time admitting to liking anything at all, a fact which he’d started to suspect was caused by their family in general and her parents in specific about the same time he’d started to realize that he couldn’t be a part of that family, that he didn’t want to. He knew her, though, and knew that she’d been hoping to meet his feathered friends, who kept him company when she wasn’t around. He’d even suspected she’d hoped to form her own bond with them, so she had someone other than him that she didn’t have to dread interacting with.
Saguru paused in his monologue, suddenly realizing how much he’d been talking. Kaito hadn’t gotten a word in edgewise for several long minutes. A glance out of the corner of his eye showed the Faery to be staring at him with a blank look.
“Sorry.” He winced, correcting himself. He certainly couldn’t address Kaito with the same level of informality as he did Ai. “My apologies. I fear I’ve talked for far too long.”
“No! Not at all! I like listening to stories about your life. Trust me,” Saguru noticed a blush creeping on to Kaito’s cheeks before he turned away in an attempt to hide it. “I could listen to you talk like this forever.”
He recognized the embarrassment the other was displaying, though he wasn’t entirely sure why. After a moment’s thought, it occurred to him that Underhill must be very different from here, and Kaito had lived a very different life. Perhaps the Faery was embarrassed at admitting his curiosity about the mortal realm, and what life is like outside this forest.
He was Kaito’s only real link to the world beyond Ardan Forest. He was, after all, the only one of the three who lived in Worlds’ End Cottage who would talk to him like this.
“Then I suppose you’d be interested in knowing where my cousin got that earring she gave away?” Kaito looked back at Saguru, who smirked. “She still had both her earrings in, and I’d never seen Auntie wear a gold pair with that design. I asked, and she told me she’d stolen it right off one of the women at the ball who’d a bit more than a little too much wine.” Saguru watched as Kaito’s eyes widened and he doubled over laughing as though in slow motion. He smirked to himself at making the other laugh. For all his smiles, he got the sense that Kaito wasn’t always as happy and carefree as he acted.
“And Neesan just admitted it? Just like that?”
“She was rather smug about it. I imagine she had been hoping I’d ask.” Kaito stayed there, doubled over and laughing uncontrollably, for several minutes before straightening up.
“So are raven’s your favourite bird, then?”
“Actually,” Saguru shifted and fidgeted with his fingers, “Red-tailed hawks.” Saguru didn’t elaborate further, and an awkward silence fell over them. Kaito broke it.
“That’s all? No personal anecdote, no evaluation of the species habits and diets and traits?” Saguru opened his mouth, but closed it without speaking and just shook his head. Another silent moment passed.
“I begged my parents for one,” Saguru blurted, like the words would choke him if he didn’t get them out. “When I turned ten, I told them the only thing I wanted was a red-tailed hawk, and to start practicing falconry.”
“But...you didn’t?” Kaito’s voice was gentle, relaxing the anxiety that Saguru always felt at the mention of the birds, of falconry in general.
“No. Sh-uh. My cousin got me a plush toy of a red-tailed hawk that year. My parents...they never said no, but they always got really upset when I mentioned anything about it. I asked for years. It was the one thing I really wanted, but…” Saguru trailed off, no longer sure what to say. Kaito was silent beside him, and Saguru glanced over. A shiver ran down his spine at the look on Kaito’s face, the unnatural sense of cold that surrounded him, the anger seething out.
“May I have their names?” Unlike when Kaito had asked for his name when they first met, the question held power, and there was the unmistakable knowledge in his bones that Kaito would not hesitate to take their names and use it against them.
“No. I cannot give you their names.”
“Tantei-san-”
“Please, Kaito.” The very air seemed frozen for a moment, as though time itself had come to a halt, and Saguru realized he’d addressed the Fae familiarly.
“Okay.” The word came out a sigh, and the world returned to normal. Time had thawed, and the world continued to spin on. “Okay. I won’t do anything, if you don’t want me to.” Kaito turned and met Saguru’s gaze. “Whatever you want, Tantei-san.” The words felt heavy, but not in a bad way. There was weight to them, but it wasn’t crushing, wasn’t a burden. Saguru wasn’t sure what Kaito had, metaphorically, handed him in those words, and didn’t know how to respond.
Unfortunately, while his conscious mind was blanking out, some impulsive part of his brain piped up without the input of his higher thinking.
“Sagu.” He felt his cheeks start to warm the instant he realized what he’d said.
“Hm?”
“You can call me Sagu. If, if you want.” The heat, now more intense than it had been, spread all the way to his ears. He didn’t dare look at Kaito.
“Sagu.”
As if that had been a turning point, Saguru started referring to Kaito as just that, and Kaito called him Sagu as often as Tantei-san. He started to mention Kaito in his letters to Baaya, only every referring to him as “a friend”. He didn’t want to worry Baaya by telling her Kaito was a Faery.
The third time Saguru went off on a monologue at the mention of some topics, and after Kaito had listened to each one with rapt attention and assured him that by no means was he bored or annoyed, please keep going, Saguru found himself slowly ceasing to worry. He still froze mid-sentence sometimes, worried that he was annoying Kaito by talking, or hearing all the times he’d been told he talks too much or to shut up. Now, though, he handled those moments by glancing over and seeing how invested in the tale Kaito was, and reminding himself that Kaito was interested in hearing about not only the mortal realm, but life as a mortal.
Once, when he paused in the middle of an angry rant about people feeding birds old bread, Kaito immediately spoke up, agreeing with him and saying how awful it was for the birds, subtly prompting Saguru to continue. For the first time, no part of Saguru doubted that Kaito wanted him to keep talking. He wasn’t just saying it to be polite, he wasn’t pretending to be interested, he was actually interested, actually listening, and it mattered to him too.
Saguru was used to being told he was too obsessed with his interests, and that no one cared or wanted to talk about things this often, or for this long.
It was a pleasant change, talking with Kaito.
___
Before he knew what had happened, it’d been five months since he’d left and moved to Worlds’ End. He’d spent more time with Kaito than he had with Conan, though the two had formed a tentative kind of friendship over a mutual dislike for things that were overly-sweet and a shared love of detective work. Conan was much more interested in the actual detective side of it, which was expected given he was really the famous teen detective Kudo Shinichi, whereas Saguru cared more about the observation and deduction side of things, crimes notwithstanding. He didn’t mind the thought of using his skills to help catch criminals or solve crimes, but he wasn’t set on becoming a world-famous detective, much less the best detective to ever live. He and Ai were still close, and often stayed up late talking. He even helped her with gathering ingredients from the forest, or mixing salves and tinctures and medicines in her lab, which he’d learned was in the cellar and was what the door in the back corner of the main room in the cottage led to. Sometimes, when she was particularly busy, she’d give Saguru a list of things she needed, and he and Kaito would walk the forest gathering it while they talked. They’d even taken to going into the woods just to enjoy the view, talking and wandering in no particular direction, sometimes stopping in a clearing or a fallen log to sit and relax.
Kaito had, in Saguru’s fourth month at Worlds’ End, jokingly called him Sagu-chan. Saguru had immediately hated the nickname, so naturally Kaito took to calling him that as often as anything else. It was horribly embarrassing, and yet Saguru found himself more fondly exasperated than actually annoyed with the address.
It was well into the night in mid-December when Saguru was shaken awake. He opened his eyes to find Kaito staring back at him from mere inches away. He flinched back in surprise at having someone that close to his face, only for the back of his head to connect with something cold and hard and definitely not his pillow.
“Good morning, sleepyhead!” Kaito had backed off to stand over him, and Saguru sat up from where he was apparently on the floor.
“Kaito!” Saguru growled, intending to scold him. A feminine giggle cut him off from continuing. Saguru turned to find a pretty brunette standing of to one side, hand over her mouth and smiling. She waved, and Saguru lifted a hand to wave back. He wasn’t sure what else to do. “Hello.”
“Hi! Aoko’s so excited to finally get to meet you, Sagu-kun!”
“Likewise. Kaito’s told me a lot about you, Aoko-kun.” Aoko rounded on Kaito, lifting a finger to point harshly.
“BaKaito better not have said anything mean or embarrassing about Aoko!”
“Ahoko!”
“All good things, I assure you.” Saguru figured he wouldn’t get an explanation to anything if the two were mid-fight. Better to put the brakes on early. “He speaks of you fondly.” Aoko blushed, humphed, and lifted her nose dramatically.
“Good!”
“If I may ask, what’s going on?”
“You didn’t tell him?!? BaKaito!!” Kaito jumped back as Aoko swung at him, moving to keep Saguru in between the two of them as Aoko brandished-
“Is that a mop?”
“That, Sagu, is a deadly weapon. Ahoko is terrifying.”
“Okay, fair enough.” Saguru glanced over his shoulder, staring up at Kaito. “Will someone tell me what’s going on, now? Please?”
“It’s the solstice!” Was Kaito’s chipper reply.
“...Okay. And…?” Kaito and Aoko both blinked down at him.
“The solstice is a big celebration! BaKaito and I stay up all night to set up a bunch of pranks over the whole sector before everyone wakes up!”
Saguru blinked, took a moment to look around the room for the first time since waking up, and paled.
“Kaito.”
“Yeah?”
“Am I in Underhill?!?”
“Excellent deduction, Tantei-san,” Kaito snickered.
“Kaito!”
“BaKaito!” Saguru and Aoko spoke in unison, matching down to the offended tone. They blinked at each other for a moment.
“You can’t just kidnap people, BaKaito!”
“Since when?” Damn the smug bastard.
“Since always, Kaito. You can’t just...sneak into my room in the middle of the night and drag me of!”
“I am offended! Drag you. How could you think so little of me, Sagu-chan!”
“That’s not the point!”
“BaKaito, be nice!”
“I’m always nice, Ahoko!”
“Alright! Just. Hang on a second.” Saguru rubbed at his temples, overwhelmed and struggling to process. “Give me a second here.”
The room was mercifully silent.
“Okay. Let me get this straight. I’m in Underhill, because tomorrow is this big celebration for the winter solstice, which you two go around laying traps to prank people during?”
“Yep!”
“And I’m here because?”
“Because you’re going to help us set it all up! It’ll be fun!”
“...You realize you could have just invited me to hang out with you two, right?”
“But this way, I get to prank you!” Saguru groaned.
“Kidnapping someone out of their bed to wake up in a completely different realm is not a prank, Kaito. It’s a crime. At least, it is in the mortal realm. Kidnapping, and all.” Kaito just snickered. Saguru, exasperated, turned to Aoko. “Please tell me we’re playing at least one prank on him.”
Aoko smirked at him, which was somehow both all the answer he needed and not an answer at all. He was mildly concerned about what, precisely, he’d gotten himself into here.
“Good luck, Tantei-san. I am the king of pranks.”
“I’ll believe it when I see it.”
___
The rest of the night was a blur. Saguru followed Kaito and Aoko as they led him through the neighborhood, helping them set up what were, by far, the most elaborate tricks and traps he’d ever seen. The two of them walked him through setting up equipment, and by the time they were finished every other square foot of the area was rigged with everything from jump-scares to dropping water or flour or other substances that Saguru had decided not to ask about after his two Faery cohorts pointedly and firmly edged him away from touching any of them. “Just in case,” Aoko had said, which did not make him feel better.
The night was made even more interesting by the pranks they pulled on each other while they set up the rest. Every couple minutes throughout the entire night, some part of Aoko’s clothing would get caught on something (door handles, tree branches, rough bricks of houses, and even on a perfectly smooth section of an interior wall once.) Kaito would snicker every time she found herself caught, and Aoko would only barely remember to keep her voice down so as not to wake the whole block yelling at him.
More often than not, getting her clothes unstuck ended up tearing holes in them. Saguru had been very concerned the first time, before the fabric seemingly mended itself with nothing more than a glare from Aoko. After that, he spent the night flipping between laughing with Kaito and scolding him with Aoko for causing trouble while they were sneaking around.
Kaito had caused his shoelaces to completely untie exactly once, at which point Saguru tripped over them and face planted into the sidewalk and got a bloody nose. The bleeding hadn’t stopped for several minutes, during which both Aoko and Kaito were panicking. It wasn’t until the bleeding stopped that Saguru managed to fully convince them that he was going to be fine, it wasn’t going to kill him, they absolutely did not need to go get help or rush him home. When the bleeding had finally stopped, his tan shirt was covered in bloodstains, and it wasn’t until he had to lean down and manually retie both shoes that the two remembered that he did not have the benefit of mysterious Fae-magick to instantly repair things like Aoko had been doing all night.
Any pranks directed at him were, he noticed, done in such a way that he wouldn’t hit anything if he startled or fell, and his clothing was left alone. Aoko had even been nice enough to clear all traces of blood from his clothes as if it’d never been there.
The two saved their more elaborate or potentially-dangerous-for-human pranks for each other and their sleeping victims.
At the end of the night, Aoko had made a hedge or bush of some kind suddenly lash out and tangle Kaito in a mess of sturdy brambles, grabbed Saguru’s hand, and pulled him along behind her as she ran back in the direction of her house.
“Aoko-kun, what-?” Saguru let the question hang unfinished, focused on keeping up with Aoko's ridiculously fast pace. He was fairly certain her hold on his arm was the only thing allowing him to keep up, and only cause she was half-dragging him.
“We’re going to get BaKaito.” Saguru grinned and made sure not to trip and fall as Aoko led them back.
At her house, the two of them rushed to put up one last elaborate and well-hidden series of mechanisms before Kaito got free and made his way back. They managed to place a large blue pail of water above the slightly-open door of the library where they settled and get onto the couch just in time to hear the front door open and close. Aoko leaned close to whisper in his ear.
“Remember, when he steps out of the way of the bucket, make sure to distract him so he stays in place for a few seconds.”
“You never explained how I’m supposed to do that!” Was Saguru’s hissed reply. Too late for an answer now, Kaito burst through the door and immediately took a single long step to his right, smirking at them as the bucket, and water, splashed down onto the floor.
“King of Pranks.” Saguru could see Aoko giving him an annoyed look out of the corner of his eye. He had to think fast.
“You didn’t let either of us prank you even once! You’re so mean, Kai-chan!”
Kaito froze, standing so unnaturally still that he might as well have been a statue, with no need to breath or a heartbeat. He just stopped, staring at Saguru with wide eyes and lips slightly parted. The complaint and nickname both had been spur-of-the-moment, completely unplanned. Kaito was still standing shocked when their timer-based trap sprung, unleashing an ungodly amount of mixed confetti and glitter onto him and causing him to stumble sideways into an invisible trip wire to send him crashing into a raised bed of golden paint. Saguru had worriedly checked with Aoko that the paint was non-toxic, and while her assurance that the paint wouldn’t hurt them at all, no matter what, Saguru couldn’t help but notice that she hadn’t actually answered his question. When Kaito just sat upright in the paint and stared at him, Saguru worried.
“Are..are you okay, Kaito?” Aoko cackled away in the background, having fallen off the couch in her mirth to curl up on the floor laughing. Kaito didn’t respond, or react to the question at all, and Saguru got off the couch and approached. “Kaito?” Saguru got close enough reach out to touch him, when Kaito suddenly jolted and flailed about, not coincidentally drawing away from Saguru’s extended hand.
“I’m fine, Tantei-san! Absolutely perfect! Nothing wrong here!” Kaito was obviously not being truthful, or at least not telling the whole truth. Still, Saguru didn’t push it, letting his arm fall and backing up several steps.
“Well then. That’s good to hear.” He couldn’t help himself from smirking down at him, though. “We win.”
“You do not win! You got one prank! One!! That is not winning!”
“Ah, but you directly implied that Aoko and I wouldn’t be able to pull even a single prank on you successfully. Which we did. Ergo, we win.” Saguru used his Reasonable Deduction Voice, which usually managed to silence any further attempts at argument. Granted, half the time they didn’t argue because they didn’t think there was any point when he’d laid out his argument for why he was right in that voice, and the other half they were too angry and annoyed that he would dare talk to him that way to speak. When Kaito gaped at him like a fish, Saguru wasn’t entirely sure which reason applied here. The two of them stood there for an uncomfortable moment before Saguru cleared his throat. “Alright, get out of there and go clean up. You do still have to take me home, you know.”
“Right, yeah. Of course. Totally.” Kaito scrambled to his feet and stared at Saguru for another long moment before stepping out of the paint and walking, dripping, out of the library, much to Aoko’s displeasure.
“BaKaito!”
“Your mess, Ahoko!” Aoko scowled at the line of paint on the floor and sighed. A smile lit up her face as she turned to Saguru.
“That was brilliant, Sagu-kun! The look on BaKaito’s face!”
“Ah, thank you.”
“Tonight was fun. You should definitely come around again!”
“I had a great time as well. Although,” Saguru mused, “I’m going to give my cousin a heart attack explaining where I’ve been all night and why I didn’t sleep. She’s going to be very upset.” Aoko returned the smirk Saguru wore, and the two settled back onto the couch to wait for Kaito to get back.
Saguru didn’t remember falling asleep, but next thing he knew he opened his eyes to the ceiling of his room, and the sound of someone knocking on his door.
“Come in.” Ai opened the door, looking him over where he laid in bed.
“You’re not sick, are you? You don’t usually sleep this late.”
“Not sick. Didn’t get much sleep last night, is all.” Ai nodded and turned to leave, but stopped before she even crossed the threshold.
“Saguru. Why is there an apology for hurting you pinned to the inside of your door? Signed by Kaito-kun?”
Saguru supposed this was revenge for covering him in paint. He took a deep breath to try and steel himself to face Ai’s wrath.
“About that...”
___
Ai had been very displeased to learn that Saguru had spent the night in Underhill, and when Kaito showed up the next day she turned him away and refused to let the two see each other. Neither boy had been willing to risk her wrath further by objecting. Three days after the Solstice, the two were finally allowed to talk again, much to their relief. They decided was a walk-in-the-woods sort of day, and took off into the trees. They wandered side by side for a while, Kaito filling Saguru in on how everything had gone over the morning of the Solstice. Saguru had laughed with him at the tales, and a cloud he hadn’t even realized had been hovering over his mind lifted at the easy companionship.
Half an hour into their walk, having run out of things to talk about and just enjoying a peaceful silence, Kaito suddenly froze in place, looking tense.
“Kaito?”
“What are you doing here, Akako?” Saguru recognized the name from the many rants Kaito had gone on, and tensed himself. A laugh rang out through the trees and a woman their age with dark red hair stepped out from behind a tree.
“Prickly as ever, Kuroba.” She looked the both of them over, a sharp grin promising danger. “I came to congratulate the two of you. The stars have aligned to your union.” Kaito stiffened further, glaring at Akako. Saguru looked quizzically between the two.
“Pardon, Akako-san, but I’m afraid I don’t quite understand your meaning.”
“Oh?” Akako stared at him a long moment before turning to Kaito. “You’re boyfriend is as hopeless with decoding prophecies as you are, it seems.”
“I’m not his boyfriend.” Akako looked to Saguru again, and he continued. “Kaito and I are just friends. That’s all our relationship will ever be.”
It wasn’t a lie. As much as Saguru liked Kaito; enjoyed his company and yes, thought the other was good-looking, Kaito was a Faery and Saguru was human. They could never be anything more than friends. A human lifespan was but the blink of an eye compared to how long the Fae Folk lived. Saguru knew this, he knew Kaito was not actually eighteen, regardless of his appearance.
“Is that so. My mistake then.” Akako gave Kaito a significant look before vanishing in a flash of red light. Saguru relaxed, shoulders slumping in relief that the other was gone. Kaito was still as stiff as he’d ever seen the usually relaxed teen be, and pale.
“Kaito? Are you alright? You look unwell.”
“Yeah, don’t worry about it. Sorry.”
“You’ve no need to apologize. As long as you’re alright.”
“Sure. Why wouldn’t I be.” Kaito was acting unlike his usual self, and Saguru wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. Before he could say anything else, Kaito turned to walk back the way they’d come. “I should get going. Goodbye, Tantei-san.”
Kaito disappeared in a swirl of white, like fog on an early winter morning.
It was the first time Kaito had left without pressing a kiss to Saguru’s hand. It was the first time he’d ever said goodbye. Somehow, it felt more permanent than the usual ‘see you next time’. Saguru couldn’t have explained why, he felt as though he’d never see Kaito again.
Saguru didn’t know what to do. It’s not like he could very well go after him, Kaito had most certainly gone back to Underhill. Saguru didn’t know how to get there, much less how he would find Kaito if he did get into the Fae Realm.
After several minutes of staring blankly at the place Kaito had been standing, Saguru figured there was nothing he could do, except go back home and wait for Kaito to return.
___
Kaito did not return. Three days passed without any sign of the brown haired Fae, and Saguru was beyond worried. Finally, on the fifth day, near insane with worry, Saguru pulled on his shoes and trekked out into the forest. He wasn’t sure where he was going or what he planned to do, the only thought in his mind was to find Kaito and make sure he was okay. He headed the same way he’d been going all those months ago, trying to find Worlds’ End Cottage that first day, before Conan stopped him and led him home.
It was his only lead. He didn’t have anything else to go off.
Finally, after half an hour of walking, Saguru’s search turned up fruitful. In the space of a blink, Aoko was standing in front of him with hands planted on her hips. She was scowling, but Saguru was too relieved to care or think on it.
“Aoko-san! Have you seen Kaito? I haven’t seen him in days.”
“Don’t act like you care, Sagu. Kaito told Aoko what you said!” Saguru was stunned. He had no idea what Aoko was talking about.
“Aoko-san?”
“You made it pretty clear that you don’t care about Kaito at all.”
“What are you saying, Aoko-san? Of course I care!” Saguru paused, taking a deep breath. He hadn’t meant to raise his voice at her like that. He didn’t want to be rude to Aoko. Not because she was a Faery, but because she was Aoko. He needed to get hold of himself. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Aoko-san. Did I do something wrong? Is Kaito mad at me?” Saguru fidgeted with his fingers, worried for entirely new reasons. The silence that followed while Aoko stared him down was suffocating, and Saguru wished he could turn invisible.
“You...really don’t know, do you?” Saguru shook his head.
“The last time I saw Kaito, he started to look really pale, and then he just...left. He hasn’t come back around since. I’m really worried about him, Aoko-san.” Aoko sighed, and Saguru felt himself tense, expecting to be turned away.
“BaKaito’s such a dummy.” Aoko’s smile was fond, but sad. “Sorry for being mean, Sagu-san. Aoko thought Kaito had told you.”
“Told me what?” Aoko opened her mouth, closed it, shook her head, and reach forward to grab Saguru by the wrist. When she started walking the same direction Saguru had been heading, he was reminded of when she’d dragged him this same way, through town to set up the prank they played on Kaito. That day felt simultaneously a million years ago and like it was yesterday.
“Faeries didn’t always live in Underhill. We used to live here in the mortal realm, but we had to leave, for our own protection.
“When a Faery falls in love, we give our hearts to that person. Which means it can be really dangerous to love the wrong people. Humans don’t have the same thing, so they didn’t take relationships as seriously. When a Faery falls in love with a human, and that human does something to hurt or reject them…”
“When you say you give them your heart, you mean that...more than metaphorically.” Saguru himself wasn’t sure if it was a question or a statement. Aoko nodded solemnly. “Aoko. Is Kaito okay?” She didn’t turn around to look at him, and didn’t answer. Saguru heard her sniffle quietly. Realization struck him like a brick to the head.
“Kaito’s dying. He had his heart broken and now he’s dying.” Aoko lifted her free hand to wipe at her cheeks. Her hand was wet when she dropped it to clench at her side. Saguru replayed Aoko’s words in his mind, struggling to process that his friend was dying.
When a Faery falls in love with a human, and that human rejects them…
“I told Akako we were friends. That we would only ever be just friends.” Saguru felt like he was going to be sick. “That’s not what I meant. I wasn’t...it wasn’t a rejection! I didn’t even know…
“Aoko.” She didn’t look at him, didn’t even slow down. “Aoko!” Saguru pulled his arm out of her grip, forcing her to stop and look at him. “Aoko...is Kaito in love with me?”
The whole world seemed to fall silent around them for an agonizing heartbeat.
“Aoko thought he told you. She thought you knew and had done it anyway.”
“Never.” Saguru had to take a moment to swallow past the lump in his throat. “What can I do? There has to be something I can do to fix this, Aoko. Please.” Aoko was already nodding before he’d finished speaking.
“We have to hurry, though. Kaito’s not doing well, and you have to tell him.” Saguru nodded and the two set off, jogging now. Aoko led the way.
“I still don’t know what to do, Aoko. What am I supposed to tell him?”
“The truth. That it wasn’t a rejection. That you don’t reject him.”
“I can do that.” Saguru paused, but given what keeping his feelings hidden had caused already, he didn’t want to risk the same thing again. “I would do anything for him.” Aoko didn’t respond, but he imagined that her presence felt warmer, less sad.
Saguru kept an eye out for the boundary where they’d travel from the mortal world to Underhill, but instead he and Aoko took a single step and suddenly the forest had retreated and they were running through the neighborhood he remembered from the pranking spree. He bit back the urge to ask questions, to pester and needle until he understood the how. There were more important things to focus on. Aoko dragged them up her street, and Saguru expected them to go to her house, but instead she led him to the one next door. She threw open the door without knocking and walked right in.
“KAITO!”
A sound that might have been an attempt to shout her name devolved into a rather violent coughing fit, and Aoko kicked her shoes off before heading towards the stairs. Saguru forced himself to pause long enough to do the same, despite how desperately he wanted to see Kaito and fix this whole mess. He followed Aoko up the stairs and into a room. Kaito was laid out on the bed, blanket pulled to his waist. Saguru didn’t have any attention to spare for the room itself, because Kaito was here, he was alive, and he looked awful.
“Kaito!” Saguru rushed forward, collapsing to his knees at the bedside. Kaito’s eyes widened when he saw him, before his face screwed up as though he’d eaten a lemon.
“Tant-” The word dissolved into more coughing. His lungs sounded wet, and Saguru was horrified. That was never good. He reached out and grabbed Kaito’s hand, easily keeping hold of it even when the sick boy tried to pull away.
“You idiot! Do you have any idea how worried I’ve been?” Saguru took a shaky breath, trying to blink back the wetness trying to gather in his eyes. “I wasn’t sure I’d ever see you again! And then Aoko tells me you’re dying, because of a stupid misunderstanding we could have avoided if you’d just told me.”
“Sagu…” Kaito managed to get the name out without triggering another bout of coughs, but Saguru just shook his head, vision blurry from tears.
“You could have just asked, and I would have explained. It wasn’t a rejection, Kaito. It was never a rejection. I would have to be absolutely mad to ever even think of rejecting you. Kaito, I…” Saguru stopped to take a much-needed breath, ignoring the wet trails tears carved down his cheeks. “I love you, you ridiculous, impossible nut. I love you, Kaito.”
Kaito was still staring at him with wide eyes, but it was an entirely different kind of shock covering his features this time. His own eyes were shining with unshed tears, and regardless of the mess they were in, Saguru felt every bit as happy and relaxed as he always did around Kaito.
He was too busy relishing in seeing Kaito to notice when a hand reached up to grab him by the collar. Kaito yanked him down with all the strength he’d lacked earlier, straight into a kiss.
Saguru took a half-second to be frozen in shock before his eyes slid closed and he kissed back. Kaito was the first to pull away, panting for breath,
“You said…”
“We were only friends. As far as the rest of it...I didn’t think we could ever be anything else. Regardless of what I wanted. You...Kaito, I’m going to grow old, to die, long before you do. I didn’t think I had any other option except to convince myself being friends was enough.”
“And you never considered that all that flirting meant something?”
“When did you ever flirt with me!?”
“I was always flirting with you!!” They both burst out laughing a moment later, the extent of their idiocy sinking in.
“We’re a mess.”
“Life’s more interesting that way.”
“Life’s more interesting because you’re a menace. I never want to be bored ever again.” A blush stained Kaito’s cheeks pink, and the sheer adorableness took Saguru’s breath away.
“So...boyfriends?”
“Is that really how you’re going to ask me out?” Saguru smirked for a moment before flicking Kaito’s forehead. “Of course. There’s nothing I’d like more.”
“Is Kaito going to leave Underhill?” Both boys jolted at the sound of Aoko’s voice, having forgotten she was there.
“I...Don’t know. Maybe.”
“Oh.” Aoko looked at the ground for a moment. “BaKaito better visit, still. Aoko will find you if you don’t!”
“Of course I’d visit, Ahoko. You won’t get rid of me that easily.”
“...Do I even want to know what you two are talking about?” Kaito blushed.
“I could...leave Underhill. Forever.” Kaito swallowed nervously. “Become human.”
“You...Kaito, I can’t ask you to do that!”
“You’re not asking, Sagu. I want to be with you. No matter what.”
“Even if that means becoming human? Giving up your magic, your immortality?”
“One, we are very much not immortal. And two, I’d rather live sixty years with you than a hundred without you. As for magic…” Kaito smirked and leaned forward until they’re foreheads were touching. “This is all the magic I need.”
“I doubt you’ll still feel that way when you get your first nosebleed.” Kaito’s eyes widened and he drew back.
“Eugh. Don’t remind me of that! I thought you were going to bleed out!” Saguru and Aoko laughed, Kaito joining in a second later.
“But you looked so cute, all panicked.” Saguru pulled Kaito in for a short kiss. “Whatever you want, Kaito.”
___
Saguru and Kaito set their bags down to wave a final goodbye to Ai, Shinichi, and Aoko. The three stood on the steps of Worlds’ End Cottage, along with Shinichi’s friend Hattori Heiji and his Faery-turned-Human fiance Kazuha. The two had been staying in a hotel in town this last month, helping Kaito adjust to life as a human. Now, the two were going away to visit Baaya. Saguru had been eager to introduce his boyfriend to her, and she had been interested in meeting the “friend” Saguru had told her so much about in his letters. They would have to carry their luggage to the edge of the forest, where the carriage they had requested and paid for two days ago would be waiting to take them away.
It was going to be a long trip, but they didn’t mind.
___
Saguru knocked on the heavy wooden door, bags resting on the step at his feet and Kaito fidgeting where he stood just behind him.
“Relax, Kaito. She’s going to love you.”
“Obviously. Everyone loves me. I’m too awesome to be disliked.” Saguru rolled his eyes with a fond smile. Kaito wasn’t as good at hiding his worrying as he thought he was. Or maybe Saguru had learned to read him better.
The door swung open, Baaya taking one glance at Saguru before pulling him into a hug.
“It’s so good to see you, Saguru! It’s been too long!”
“I missed you too, Baaya. Ai says hi.” Baaya pulled back out of the hug, and caught sight of Kaito. Saguru turned and caught the badly-suppressed smile just in time for Baaya to say the very last thing he would have expected.
“Kaito. It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen you. You’ve hardly aged a day.”
“Be aging a lot faster from now on. Comes with the territory. Ex-Fae and all.”
“You two know each other?!”
“I lived at Worlds’ End Cottage for summer as a girl. Used to sneak away to play in the forest.”
“Saguru didn’t tell me you were the famous Baaya. I think he still doesn’t trust me with people’s names.”
“...I hate you both.”