#balancingdietwrites

----- It was a normal day. A normal prerequisite briefing before the bigger one with more stakeholders. They met at the cafe behind the Police HQ, Shinichi sipping onto his coffee while Kaito’s ice chocolate was left on the table, temporarily forgotten as he busied himself reading what Shinichi had brought. But there was something different about this assignment. And when Shinichi realised Kaito had taken around ten seconds longer than usual to finish reading, he figured something could be wrong. Something must be wrong, anyway.

“I understand this could be uncomfortable.” Shinichi placed his mug on the table, watching as Kaito continued scanning the brief in his hand. To bring such important documents out in public would be insane, so all the papers were in codes, one that wouldn’t be easily derived except for people who had worked with Shinichi for years.

Kaito glanced up from the rim of the paper. “Uncomfortable?” 

Even though they had already made sure nobody was near to eavesdrop on their conversation, Shinichi leaned forward and lowered his voice. “The location.”

Kaito’s eyes were still locked into Shinichi’s. “The gay bar?” he said without even checking. “What about it?”

Does that not answer it? Shinichi cleared his throat. “You will be infiltrating in there and…” Shinichi looked away. “I don’t want you to do anything that could make you uncomfortable.”

The long silence tempted Shinichi to glance at Kaito again, and when he did, Kaito barked a laugh, shocking Shinichi to jump in his seat.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Shinichi scowled.

Kaito’s chuckles had died down, but he was still grinning. “There's no way in hell I’d enjoy hanging out with these douchebags. But if you’re worrying about the other thing, it’s fine.”

“What—”

“I’m bi.”

A flap of wings and a dove landed on the armrest. Being the most intrusive and shameless dove Kaito ever owned, he knew it was Tamago before he had to look.

“You just had your breakfast,” Kaito reminded.

Tamago didn’t answer. It continued to look at him, its red, beady eyes emitting a sense of curiousness that only Kaito would recognise.

Ignoring his companion, Kaito slowly clenched his fists, willing them to stop shaking. For consolation, at least Kaito's situation didn't get worse and had been improving over the months; comparing to the first few weeks when he returned as a volunteer, it wasn’t just his hands but his whole body that would be shaking, and there were a few times when the mere thoughts of going to the hospital could set his lungs on fire.

Fire—

Tamago cooed.

Kaito sighed and leaned back to lay his head on the couch. “I’m fine.”

If it was even possible, Kaito would’ve thought he saw Tamago rolled its eyes.

Kaito glanced at his clenched fists. They were still trembling, but luckily there were still a couple of hours to go before he had to leave his house. Maybe by then, he should be—

Kaito’s ear twitched as he straightened on his couch and glanced towards the direction of his kitchen. He swore he heard the faint sound of a door opening.

And now there was the sound of the door closed.

Kaito sprinted towards his kitchen and peered through his windows that faced his backyard. If only the previous owner of the house had constructed an extra window pane on the right, Kaito would have a perfect view of Shinichi’s backyard too. Instead, Kaito had to press his face near the glass and crane his neck out, just barely catching a glimpse of Shinichi’s empty-looking backyard. But it wasn’t empty, per se.

Shinichi was there.

“Huh?” Kaito raised an eyebrow. “What is he doing?” he wondered aloud. Kaito would rather believe Shinichi was there to bury a dead body than to take care of his tragically, overcrowding plants.

Kaito had no plans to be a detective, so he grabbed a watering-can under the sink as a disguise and headed out to get the direct answer he wanted.

Shinichi turned at the exact second Kaito stepped onto his backyard.

Now from a better angle, Kaito could see what Shinichi was really up to: He was holding a mug, which Kaito dared to bet his precious card gun that it was filled with coffee. So he was drinking with a perfect view of his dying plants. Truly a wonderful experience it must be.

“Good morning, neighbour.” Kaito put up a hand. “What coincidental timing.” He pointed down at his watering can, hoping Shinichi would buy his excuse for his appearance.

It seemed Shinichi did. “...Morning,” he muttered.

Maybe Kaito should have waited a minute later before coming out, just so the caffeine would kick in for Shinichi or something— Hah, would that have mattered to Kaito anyway? He answered his own thoughts by strolling towards the fence and closing their distance, feeling carefree indeed.

Shinichi made no move to go closer to the fence, though he didn’t make any move to go back into his house too. But the most shocking thing of all was that Shinichi spoke first when Kaito finally reached the fence. “I never knew you’re a morning person,” the detective said, sounding stumped as if this was a case he was trying to solve.

“You’re right, I’m not.” Kaito propped an elbow over the fence. “It’s just that I have something on later so I woke up early for it.”

Shinichi raised an eyebrow. It was either Kaito’s words or the caffeine had finally kicked in; he looked much more awake now. “What do you have?”

Funny enough, Kaito didn’t realise his hands had stopped shaking until they started again. He was glad that Shinichi could only see his elbow from his view; Kaito’s hand was hanging over the side of his own fence. 

Really, Kaito should have expected Shinichi’s question...

Ah, the feeling of regret. How nostalgic.

Kaito could lie, no doubt; it was one of his many talents to make his answer turn out to be a joke without trying. But this time he knew there was no point to lie. Not because Shinichi was smart enough to call him out, Kaito believed Shinichi couldn’t care less about the truth too.

“I have a performance at a hospital,” Kaito said.

“Oh.”

“Feel free to come visit. No entry fee, obviously,” Kaito smirked. And it was like he was blabbering—from the ironic nervousness of hoping his anxiety wasn’t going to be triggered—as he told Shinichi the time and which hospital it was before the detective could even say if he want to come or not.

Shinichi simply hummed to the information and went on to drink his coffee silently, which Kaito didn’t know what it exactly meant, but it wasn’t until ten seconds later than Kaito realised Shinichi wasn’t going to speak anymore. As expected.

And stupidly, at the eleventh second, it somehow occurred to Kaito and made him wonder why he even approached Shinichi in the first place. To annoy the detective early in the morning? Like... a distraction? Yeah, that seemed like the only plausible reason. And if so, Kaito should start to think of his exit to end this; this was dragging a little too much.

Luckily, it was also one of his many talents in making it seemed effortless like a joke, too.

“Eh, detective. Can you hear that?”

Shinichi glanced up from his mug and stared at Kaito. “Hear what?”

“The cries from your plants because they’re dying.” Kaito pointed at Shinichi’s pots before hiding his hand back behind the fence (they weren’t shaking again, but just in case).

Shinichi rolled his eyes. “Like I’ve said, they’re still well and growing.”

“Like I’ve said, it’s actually overcrowding and that means bad.” Kaito shook his head.

“...Hey, did you hear something?”

Kaito blinked. Was Shinichi trying to play some kind of Uno reverse-card ploy at him? “What?” Kaito asked warily.

Shinichi snorted. “It’s the sound of your roses crying because they're dying from thirst and not growing, thanks to you.”

Kaito had heard and withstood many kind of insults (courtesy of Hakuba for fulfilling some on the list), but no one had yet to mock about his roses before. Now that Shinichi was the first to check that box, Kaito finally knew what it was like, and indeed, it was ridiculously funny.

Not true, but funny.

Kaito made a show by laughing and wiping an invisible tear off his eye. “You’re hilarious, detective.”

Shinichi watched in disdain. “I’m done with you," he said, briefly checking his watch before chugging the remaining coffee. "I'm going to work."

“Yes, justice and murder awaits.” Kaito waved with the watering can in his hand. "Goodbye."

Shinichi didn’t return the farewell, as per usual, and left for the door to his kitchen before closing it behind him. Kaito could see Shinichi’s shadow moving back and forth in the kitchen from his window, but only until Kaito heard the sound of Shinichi’s car starting in front, he finally dared to allow his face to relax and his plastered smile fell.

Leaning against the fence, Kaito braced himself and looked at his hands.

For now, they weren’t trembling anymore.

// “You came,” (Kuroba) said, his statement sounded more like a question. It wouldn’t be as absurd if it wasn’t Kuroba that invited him to come in the first place.

“You asked me to,” Shinichi muttered, clearly remembering the exact moment when Kuroba did: With a propped elbow over their fence, he'd disturbed Shinichi’s quiet morning and told him he was free to come to today's event. //