Hakuba’s gloved knuckles wrapped against the door. It made a hallow knocking sound, at least to his own ears. It hadn’t been that loud either, he was hesitant, standing there with his fist hovering inches from the door for what felt like hours, but had probably only been minuets. His mother had come to town to visit, and he’d been happy about that, he missed his mother.
What he didn’t miss was the fighting.
He let his hand fall to his side, his other rising to ball into a fist in his suit sleeve. When his mother came to Japan, which wasn’t very often, or his father came to London – which was even less – his parents tried not to fight in front of him. They know how it made him feel. He knew they were never going to get back together, and he never acted otherwise, he never tried to make them love each other again.
That didn’t make it hurt any less.
The yelling had gotten loud, so loud he could hear it in his bedroom, his safe place; the place where nothing was supposed to touch him. He’d tried going for a walk in the garden, but the sound of doors slamming and shouts had drawn him away from the house, and towards the house of his classmate.
Normally when he got anxious like this, his mysophobia would get worse and he’d spend a few hours washing his hands, and then a few more in the shower. But for some reason today was the opposite. Instead of wanting to hide from the world, from everything; he wanted to be touched. He wanted to be held, for someone to hold his shaking body as he cried. He wanted to be weak, just for a few moments.
He was pulled from his thoughts as the door before him opened. He took a step back, a little bit surprised, and he could already feel his shoulder starting to shake, the tears welling up in his eyes. He let his head fall forward, the deerstalker casting a shadow over his face as he waited for the other to speak.
Kaito blinked when he heard a faint knocking sound, hands stilled over his laptop. He waited for a few seconds, but the sound didn’t return.
Did I just imagine that?
Another moment of hesitation and the magician pushed his chair back to stand and make his way over to the door. He wasn’t really expecting anyone…. Certainly not at this hour. But he undid the latch to check anyway, eyes widening when he saw Hakuba standing outside. And though the detective tried to hide under his cap, Kaito hadn’t missed the look in his eyes. Something was definitely wrong. Especially for the teen to have come at this time of night.
The magician realised he’d been standing in silence, mouth slightly open. He quickly closed it and reached up to scratch his cheek, looking off to the side. He hesitated again before stepping off to the side, holding the door open for the other.
“I won’t ask for now, but you might as well come in.” A small teasing smile appeared. “Just hope you didn’t come all this way hoping to see me wearing a white suit, because I’m afraid you’ll be a bit disappointed.”
Kaito guessed the other likely wasn’t here because of anything Kid related, though. It just felt safer to start off in familiar territory, with such an unusual situation.
Moonlight Archive 