#kaikei

I love them your honor, i genuinely miss this series sm </3

Kei's favorite animal is the Rockhopper penguin. He never questioned why, but this animal evoked a nostalgic melancholy that made him remember better times.

On the other hand, Kaito never feared the stealthy and cunning nature of snakes, harboring a deep fascination for them in spite of their perceived danger.

But, when she was close to the gym, she heard some noises. With a frown, she approached enough to identify it as the sounds of someone training. Was a student still there?

She quietly opened the door and took a peek inside.

It was Kaito.

She slide in the gym and stared. He had took more or less everything that was around and had arranged it in a sort of obstacle race; it seemed to use all the place, including the stands, the hall and the ceiling.

With awe, she saw him roll down the stands, run to a wall, jump, take three steps on the wall and jump to the top of a —unstable— pile of three chairs, from what he jumped to the rope and scaled to the ceiling; then he started to run in the steel beams.

Keiko frowned; something was wrong.

Kaito's movements were sharp, precise, perfect… boring. He wasn't doing unnecessary flips or silly things; he was just training, not having fun.

He took his card gun out of his pocket and started shooting at different marks that were around the whole gym; when he turned around to shot at something that was closer to Keiko, she could finally see his face, and her stomach drooped.

There was no smile; only serious determination.

Kaito was furious; Keiko probably had seen him like that only once or twice in their lives.

Keiko must have made a sound, because a moment after a card was flying to her. She stood in the place without moving, against all her instincts; Kaito never pointed directly at someone, but his cards might fly really close and if she move she could be hit.

The card passed right next to her ear; Keiko let go the air she didn't realize she was holding.

Kaito widened his eyes in surprise, recognizing her. "Keiko!" He jumped off the beams and ran to her. "Are you okay? I didn't hit you, did I?"

"No, I'm fine. Are you okay?"

"Why wouldn't I?"

"I don't know, but you're angry."

"What? No, I'm not." He was smiling now, and with his usual energy.

But she couldn't be fooled.

"You didn't have your poker-face when you thought you were alone." Kaito sighed and let go his smile, but didn't talk. "What happened?"

"I… I found out something about someone. Don't worry about that."

Keiko nodded only because she didn't think Kaito would tell her even if she insisted, but she was really curious; it must be something big if he needed to let go all his frustration like that.

"Okay. Are you staying here? It's kinda late, school's about to close."

Kaito looked at his watch, and then around the gym. He sighed. "I guess I should start to return all this."

"Do you want help? We can also walk home together afterwards."

"Sure."

It wasn't easy to return the gym to a descent state; it seemed that Kaito had took out everything he had found. For when they finished and approached the exit, the fence was closed, so they had to jump it.

Which is pretty difficult when you have a skirt; Keiko needed an embarrassing amount of help from Kaito.

After being free, they walked together; Kaito even accompanied her to her home instead of parting ways where they usually did.

The next day Keiko took all her study things and started walking towards the library… and stopped.

It was late enough that most of the people had already left; so Kaito might be on the gym again.

When she arrived there, he startled and then relaxed when he recognized her; then he continued moving around the furniture. Keiko left him alone and sat on the stands, took off all her study stuff and started to revise.

After a while, Kaito was running and jumping around.

They spent hours like that, being a silent company for the other. When it was late, they left and walked together again, talking about light themes; but in front of Keiko's house, she turned to him.

"Do you feel better? After all that training I mean."

"I… Yeah. It was nice. We should do it again sometime."

The third day after Kaito learned that, Keiko appeared again when he was going to start the exercise; but this time it was different. Instead of the typical uniform, she had a jumper and sweatpants.

"Do you mind if I join you?"

Kaito blinked. "Uh… No, go ahead."

Keiko walked to the stands and jumped over them; Kaito followed her. In the top, she walked to the end and looked apprehensively at the rope hanging a couple of meters away.

"What? Too far away for you?"

Keiko sent him a frown, took two steps running and jumped; she caught the rope with a scream. Then smiled. "I did it!"

"Now you have to go up."

"Really?" Keiko looked at the beams in the ceiling and shook her head. "Impossible."

"Come on, when we were kids you could scale a wall."

"Yeah, you know how many years ago was that?"

Despite her complaints, she started scaling, and Kaito noticed that she did pretty good. When she reached the safety of the beam (and hugged a pillar for more security), Kaito used the rope himself to go up too.

"Now how do we go down?" Kaito smiled, an idea forming in his mind. "Oh, no. Whatever you're thinking to do, dooo-" her words became a scream when Kaito put his arm around her waist and jumped.

He took out his gun and shoot a grapple, stopping the fall and swinging until they reached the floor softly. Keiko's knees bucked and she fell; she lay spreaded in the floor. Then laughed.

"I can't believe yo did that."

Kaito sat next to her. "I can't believe you did that. You're crazy."

Keiko sat up and looked at him with her head tilted, a lock of wet hair glued to her forehead. "But I made you smile."

Kaito blinked. That was her goal all along?

"Can I kiss you?" he said without thinking.

She widened her eyes and leaned back, a blush forming in her face. "Wha…? Now!?"

That wasn't a no.

Kaito leaned closer and stroked her cheek with his fingers. "Can I?"

Keiko held her breath and nodded lightly. He closed his eyes and moved forward.

Their lips brushed one, two times.

Keiko leaned back and looked away with a tiny smile.

"So…"

"There's the premiere of a film this weekend, I think you might like it," Kaito spoke hurriedly. "Do you... want to go?"

Keiko looked at him out of the corner of her eye; her smile grew. "Sure. It's a date."