#baaya

In all the chaos, it wasn’t surprising Kuroba was the first to notice his late arrival to class. The magician was in the middle of a handstand on top of a desk when he caught sight of the British Detective standing in the doorway, and Saguru had the pleasure of seeing the briefest of cracks in his mask. 

A slight widening of his eyes, the tiniest of wobbles in his balance, showed his surprise  at his appearance before Kuroba twisted, landing upright on the floor, his usual smirk in place. He snapped his fingers, covering Saguru briefly in a cloud of smoke before he could react.

“Hakuba.” He gleefully stated, giving a performer’s bow as the smoke cleared and Saguru glanced down to see what the magician had done to him this time. 

A wave of relief washed through him upon seeing that only his white shirt had been switched out for a blue one. 

He had honestly expected him to do worse considering the state of the rest of their class.

Kuroba raised an eyebrow, spreading his hands. “I didn’t know you were feeling blue--”

“BAKAITO!!” Aoko yelled, her usual uniform replaced with a bright pink dress that perfectly matched her dyed hair as she swung her mop at him. “What did you do to Hakuba-kun?” 

Kuroba snickered, dodging the mop with ease. “Same thing as everyone else in case you hadn’t noticed, Ahoko. Now his outward appearance matches his damp personality.” He back-flipped as she stabbed the mop at him, somehow ending up in the corner on the ceiling out of her reach. 

Wait. 

Saguru quickly smoothed out his features to hide his surprise as he moved to sit at his desk. 

Was Kuroba actually taking credit for his blue state? 

Why--why would he do tha--Kuroba had nothing to do with him being blue! 

After all, he had come straight to school from the airport. A delay in his flight meaning that Saguru had arrived almost two hours later than he’d originally planned--and no one in Japan had been aware he’d be returning today, especially since he’d ended his vacation earlier than expected.

So why would Kuroba choose to pretend that he had just barely dyed him? Why not point out to the rest of the class that Saguru had somehow turned himself blue without Kuroba’s or, he supposed, KID’s interference?

It didn’t make sense. 

Sure, he didn't expect his classmates to know what had happened in London as somehow Saguru had managed to avoid being noticed by the press in London thanks in part to the efforts of the police department in keeping his involvement in the case on the down low so no one knew what had happened at the Factory beyond the thief getting caught. And yet--

“Is that why you didn’t use Pink this time around?” Saguru asked offhandedly as he pulled his books from his bag and placed them on the desk, cautiously testing to see if Kuroba was actually choosing to take the blame for his blue skin and hair.

Usually his classmate favored that bright color when it came to him. So it would have made more sense for him to use that rather than blue.

Saguru tensed in his seat as Kuroba landed on top of his desk, grinning like the Cheshire Cat as he met his eyes. 

Crap. 

Had he just given the magician the idea to turn him Pink?! It was bad enough he was dyed blue in the first place, but if Kuroba decided to use his own dyes on him--Saguru couldn’t imagine what the end result of that would be. Well, beyond likely never looking normal ever again. 

“I thought I’d branch out a bit today. I do that every blue moon or so.” Kuroba winked and vanished to his own seat two rows over as Aoko’s mop slammed down on the spot he’d just been crouching on. “Mah mah, Aoko,” he complained, waving a hand around vaguely, ignoring how half the class flinched at the movement. “You’re so violent today, you don’t need to beat me black and blue over this.” 

“Kaito.” She growled, staring daggers at her childhood friend. “Undye Hakuba-kun! He just returned from London. Give him a break before you start pranking him again.” 

Kuroba lazily stretched in his seat before flipping over his desk to the aisle as Aoko advanced. “Why should he? Hakuba had plenty of prank-free time there.” 

The glimmer in his eyes as he raised an eyebrow to Saguru suggested he knew otherwise. And while it wasn’t surprising that Kuroba may have kept tabs on him while he was out of the country and therefore unavailable for any KID heists...it seemed rather unusual for his KID suspect to know of this particular situation considering the circumstances.

“Hakubaka could use a bit of color in his life. I mean.” The magician gestured to him. “At least people can see him coming now when he’s going to rain on their parades.” 

Saguru shook his head. While it hadn’t been a result of a prank, his blue complexion hardly meant he’d been relaxing while back in London. “Aoko-san, it’s fine.” He said, drawing her attention back to him. “It’s not like I haven’t experienced this particular issue from Kuroba-kun before.” Seventy-eight times before to be exact, though not all of those had been in class. Some had been at KID’s heists as well. He ran a hand through his blue hair, his shoulders tensing again. “It will wash out easily enough once I return home.” 

If only that was true. Kuroba’s colors faded after a week if he was unable to find the right solution to the dye. Neither his or KID’s concoctions were meant to be permanent.

However, this particular job wasn’t either’s doing and his skin had stayed this same shade of blue after multiple showers in every solution Saguru could think of. At this point, he was nearly certain he’d scrubbed his skin raw for nothing.

He looked up in time to see Kuroba erasing the traces of concern from his face, instead choosing to grin back at the detective. “Maybe, maybe not.” He teased. “Perhaps this time it will be permanent.” 

Saguru flinched despite himself and Kuroba’s eyes grew more piercing

“That…” Saguru drew a steadying breath, aiming for a more neutral tone. “That would make further pranks rather boring if I’m always the same color, Kuroba-kun.” He managed to retort.  

“True, true.” Kuroba mused aloud, dancing away from Aoko once more. “It would limit my options.” 

“How about you make the choice to return us all to normal?” Aoko demanded, lowering her mop in favor of pulling her pink hair out of it’s bun. It had already half fallen out anyways. “That would be different.” 

Kuroba pouted. “But Hakuba just got here!” he whined. 

“And he’s probably tired, Bakaito.” 

Kuroba rolled his eyes. “Blue hair doesn’t affect his ability to sleep, Ahoko.” 

“Nor my ability to learn.” Saguru cut in. It wouldn’t do any good anyways. Kuroba would be able to undo his own prank, but that would still leave him fully blue. With everyone else colored like the rainbow...it did help him feel a bit more at ease here. He flipped open his book to the chapter they were covering today and froze, barely masking his surprise at seeing a single slip of paper laying there.

After School. My Place. 

Simple. Concise. No way to directly implicate Kuroba had been the one to place it there--Saguru barely stopped himself from looking to his KID suspect. How had--it had to have been when the magician jumped on his desk, but how had he known exactly where in the book to slip his message so Saguru would see it? 

He swallowed, looking to Aoko instead and offered her a placating smile as he slipped the strip of paper into his pocket. “I’m fine Aoko-san. I promise.” 

“See!” Kuroba grinned in a near echo of KID’s smile. “No need to make yourself blue in the face over something you can’t change, Aoko. Hakuba’s already done it for you.”

Saguru drew in a shaky breath, unclenching his fingers from around his pen as he forced himself to look at the board where their teacher, dressed all in yellow, was attempting to draw the classes’ attention back to the topic at hand.

If only Kuroba knew just how permanent his blue state was--was that why the magician wanted to meet with him after school? To find out? Saguru pursed his lips together, daring to glance at his classmate from the corner of his eye. 

What exactly was Kuroba plotting?