#knkd asks

(Aahhh thank you very much!! Your message certainly made my day better~ -w- Also so sorry for such a late reply, truth be told I kind of forgot about this ask… OTL Anon, blink twice if you’re reading this (?))

This is hard question tbh, because to this day I still don’t know at what exact point I actually started shipping kanokido, I only remembered that it happened during me reading fifth novel. Having that in mind I selected three possible suspects for what could be the first thing that caught my eye about them and originally even kinda wanted to turn this ask into the analysis of their relationship from the lack of clear answer *cough* (sorry about that). But after giving it more retrospective thought, even though I still can’t be certain, I think I can finally tell what that was.

One of the first things that drew me into kanokido (and I mentioned before how it’s still one of my favorite things about them) must’ve been how casually in love they are.

It’s something that is established very early on in the series- they’re the best friends, partners, they understand each other without words (just look at them communicating through simple glances in Kisaragi Attention as well as in the manga

) and go everywhere together, they basically don’t leave each other’s side (honestly what’s up with that, are they glued or something? Never forget they decided to go separately from the group to the amusement park in both novel and manga for no apparent reason

)

That’s how I said before it’s the “perfect balance between casually being in love and and en epic love story”. Their “love story” isn’t something ordinary and they’re bound to fall in love again for another thousands of times before they get a happy ending (if Jin will allow them that at all that is), but their feelings alone for each other are just… so simple. They just always are there for each other, support each other and make each other happier and they don’t need any big romantic gestures to show their love and even though conflicts in their relationship sometimes occure, there is no drama to it.

I think it really manifests itself in the way Jin writes and develops this ship. As we learn about their past, we learn how big influences they had on each other, how important they are to each other, how big parts in each other’s lives they play and from current events we see how close they grew, how close they are and all the while their romantic relationship wasn’t something that was primarily focused on (which is in some part also because Kano is a huge idiot who didn’t realize his feelings until the love of his life died, but that aside) from neither of their perspectives. It has its own pace and gets its time to be developed.

Their “love story” is really more just… “their story”. They’re deeply in love with each other, but it’s the kind of pure love that makes them better together, yet not defines them.

They’re more important to each other than the feeling between them after all.

(*cough* Those of course aren’t exactly my thoughts when more than four years ago I began to ship them, in the end I let myself do a little analysis on their relationship as well as a retrospective analysis of sorts on what made me notice this particural aspect of their relationship that drew me to them ^^; But I think it’s alright if I still managed to answer the quesion somewhat directly, right…?)

Yesss. Oh boy, you know how weak I am for it.

(But first I’d like to apologize in advance for them being westernized and not accurate… Full disclosure, I didn’t do the research and everything I know about police work is from tv shows which shows… But with that being said please enjoy!)

 - they 👏 are 👏 partners 👏  - Kano is a laid-back kind of cop that follows rules as pleased, but it doesn’t mean he’s not reliable! Even considering his past… When he was a child his mother was murdered by a burglar and he was then taken in by one of his relatives who, to be straightforward, didn’t care much about him. As a teenager he ended up getting into bad companyand many troubles. His skills and his background (+ some of his old contacts) make him the best for undercover missions.

 - Kido unlike her partner is a more serious detective that always sticks to the rules. (Listen, I always call herpunk, but that’s because she treats being gang leader seriously. And she would take her job as cop just as seriously.) She is great in the field as she can kick butts when needed, but she’s also very subtle in her actions, she can unnoticeably sneak on anyone. When there’s an important arrest or maybe task force to lead she’s the first choice.    

 - Their peculiar set of skills makes them perfect for infiltration missions. Y'know if you need someone to pretend to go on a date 👀

 - They went to the same police academy together with Seto!

 - Kano’s heart stops every time Kido kicks out door, just saying.

 - Whenever Kano goes on the undercover mission Kido is especially worried because he contacts her way too often than necessary. He is really good at them though, so he never gets caught.

 - Kano is often making inappropriate jokes about handcuffs. Like Kido would be cuffing up some perp and he’d be like “Aw lucky~”. Kido would then just continue with a procidure and say to perp, but really at Kano, “You have the right to remain silent.” (Those jokes would eventually pay off *cough* >.>)

 - (… I really shouldn’t drag this on, one last I swear) Kano: “Does it still count as roleplay if we’re actual cops?”

 - secret 👏 dating 👏

 - basically fake dating -> secret dating lol

 - There’s a rule against dating. Don’t blame me, blame their captain, Azami.

 - I’m just so weak for scenarios where they have to keep their relationship secret, but it interferes with their police work.

 - Like, imagine them having a case they can solve by simply using camera footage that (probably) captured the culprit. But oops it’s not the only thing the camera ~probably~ captured, as they were kissing in the same place (minutes) before. So now they have to solve it without using the footage in a certain time interval (before someone else from the precinct notices the camera/they get warrantor whatever).

 - “Dammit, Shuuya, I told you not to show affection in public!”

 - Bonus points if it’s Seto who leads the case. (He’s their closest friend, but ironically that’s why they don’t want him to know about it the most.)

 - Maybe they’d ask their IT specialist, Takane, for help with covering up their kiss. (Another thing Takane learns about first huh.)

 - Another story like that (that I would like to write someday, wouldn’t it be for my disability to write two coherent sentences, let alone story with criminal undertone) is them having a date (maybe even the fisrt (un)official one?) in some fancy restaurant that, what a bummer, changes into hostage situation when some group of bad guys barges in to rob the restaurant and costumers.  

 - Of course their top priority is to keep civilians safe and to help their friends from the precinct resolve the situation from the inside, buuuuut it’s also importat to them to keep their relationship secret.

 - “We have a couple of cops here-” “COUPLE AS IN TWO. TWO COPS.” “Nice safe, Kido.”

 - Like seriously, I need to say it again, I love these scenarios so much and one of the reasons is that Kido, who normally always is rightous cop that never breaks any rules, in these scenarios is desperate to keep her relationship with Kano secret so they can continue being together in both work and private life and for the sake of it she makes an exaption and, well not exactly breakes them (as she says) but sliiightly bends them (not that dating a coworker is breaking the rule itself).

 - Ugh, but imagine them being secretly dating and then they get another case for the sake of which they have to “pretend” they’re a couple again. On the one hand it’s nice because they get to freely show their feeling for the other, but on another they need to be careful to not get too carried away and still look like they’re just faking.

 - But back to other headcanons, I imagine Kano to smoke in this au and I imagine Kido to not be happy about it.She tries to make him quit and he tries to hide him smoking from her, but in th end she mostly succeeds.

 - You know how sometimes when they’re in the field they would use hand signals to communicate? Kano probably adds some sweet and unnecessary things at the end, like make hearts or something.

 - *translated series of signals from one of their actions*“Seto- right. Momo- left. Kido- me, dinner, tonight.”(yup, this is post-reveal-and-everything-working-out-just-fine-in-the-end)  

 - bonus (because every pair of helplessly in love detectives deserves their Boyle): Kano to Mary (who is medical examiner in this au): “Do you have the results yet?” Mary: “Yes, here’s my diagnosis.” *hands Kano a piece of paper* *there’s “you and Kido should bang” written on it*

(Soooo *cough* I wrote these headcanons as part of my so called MCPD AU that I created like, I don’t even remember, three years ago, but never really shared before… I wrote once a fic from it for kanokido week though, if anyone’s interested~)

owo

Kido would definitely get a flower (flower that appears in Shissou Word specifically) and as for where she would get it (ok that wasn’t in the question but imma just add it) I like to imagine her having it on her back~

When it comes to Kano, in all honesty I can’t think of aything not angsty and I refuse to give him angsty tattoo so for now I will not-so-smoothly avoid answering that (happy Kano song please come through with happy Kano-associated symbolism 🙏), but I can say I’d like him to have it near collarbone 👀

I can also see them getting their member numbers since they are probably fixated on them more than I am plus they’re big nerds. Which rises the headcanon that when they showed them to the rest of the Dan they (except for Shintaro) were angy at them for not telling them they were getting those tattoos (even more than they were about them not telling about getting married lol).

Bonus: Whatever they get Kano designs them~