britishhsdetectivehakuba:

Hakuba clenched his eyes shut tight, his chest squeezing, his body aching and screaming and demanding for things he couldn’t give it. It hurt, it hurt so badly, made his fingers tense, clench and unclench. It felt like he couldn’t breath, he realized he was starting to hyperventilate; and then it all stopped. His head instantly lifted and there might be some tears rolling down his cheeks. He half wondered if he’d done anything to Kuroba, he’d been so out of it, maybe he’d grabbed him.

But no, he was just kneeling there, looking worried.

Hakuba brought a gloved hand to his face and quickly worked on removing the tears.

“I apologize, I simple saw some dirt on my clothes, I should go change.” Hakuba moved to stand up.

After seeing what had just happened, Kaito wasn’t letting him go off that easily. He’d been watching when the other had come over with the board. There hadn’t been any sign of him focusing on a section of his clothes at any point. After setting up the pieces, he’d just been staring until he started to curl in on himself.

This wasn’t about a speck of dirt.

“No.”

If the other was going to lie, he’d have to make it something more believable. Because the excuse he’d just used wasn’t going to cut it. But he was very limited in what he could do right now, if he wanted to continue following Hakuba’s rules…

The magician glanced at the board for a moment. Then, he turned it to where white was on his side, pushing one of the pawns forward a space. He didn’t look closely at which one, nor did he care if it was even a good move. It wasn’t about the game, just that he’d started one.

His head turned back to the detective, looking him in the eyes. Since the other was British, he hoped he’d get the meaning, since he had very few word options right now.

“Check. Mate,” He said, purposefully taking a pause between the two syllables. Stretching the rules? Yes. It was something he tended to like doing, after all.