The Apartment: Moving Day (Fanfic100)
Title: The Apartment: Moving Day
Fandom: Detective Conan
Characters: Heiji/Kazuha (General series)
Prompt: #16-purple
Word Count: 2135 words
Rating: PG
Author's Notes: I do not own Detective Conan. It all belongs to Gosho Aoyama. I simply borrow the characters, tie them up, and dance them around like life-sized puppets. I do wish they’d stop complaining.
Summary: A heavy couch, a few walks down Memory Lane, and a dash of Murphy’s Law. Heiji/Kazuha
“Careful, careful, careful!” Kazuha half-yelped as she was nearly bowled over by a couch. Or rather, the person on the other end of the couch was pushing just a little too fast, given that she had taken the crappy side and was walking backwards.
“Sorry!” Heiji’s voice replied from the other end of the couch.
It was turning into quite a hectic day, to say the least. But neither had really expected everything to be all smooth sailing. After all, moving was never an easy task, and the best-laid plans of mice and men did tend to go awry here and there.
Upon Kazuha’s abrupt return from America and final decision to stay, Heiji had suggested that they be roomies and get an apartment together. At first, Kazuha had been a bit resistant to the idea, once she had realized that he was completely serious. They couldn’t share an apartment! For starters, they would kill each other. And then there was the old-fashioned fact that he was a ‘he’ and she was a ‘she’ and that could present a LOT of problems, even though they’d been best friends forever. Nuh-uh, no way.
But more importantly, things were beginning to develop between them, slowly but surely. An admission of feelings, a desire to stay together, an interest in seeing where they would end up if they let things happen…she didn’t want anything to jeopardize their budding relationship.
In the end, however, he had convinced her. For one thing, it would cheaper for them both in terms of rent, which would help her get her feet back under her in Japan. And they were both adults-they were perfectly capable of coexisting without incident, if they so chose.
Plus, he admitted during a quiet moment, he felt better having her nearby so he knew she was safe. In the end, that was the reason that ultimately decided her. She agreed to give the roommate status a try. If things didn’t work out, they could just move, right?
But Heiji seemed to be taking this whole thing very seriously. When she went back to the States to gather her things and get her affairs in order there, he had insisted on going with her. He said it was just to help her with her things, but she wondered if he was worried that she might get cold feet or something like that.
Not that there was really any chance of that happening…
And now here they were, after all was said and done, moving into their brand new two-bedroom apartment. Hence, the attempting to maneuver a rather heavy couch through a doorway that seemed far too small for it. But finally, they managed to shove the awkward piece of furniture into the apartment. They set it down carefully…and promptly dropped to sit on it.
“…well, I’m ready to be done,” Kazuha joked after a moment of sitting and catching their breath.
Heiji gave her a puppy-dog look. “Wanna push it the rest of the way? I don’t wanna get up.”
She rolled her eyes at him. “Ahou.”
Now he chuckled. “But seriously, I think this is the heaviest thing we’ve got. Once it’s in, the rest should be smooth sailing. So come on, lazy, let’s get this done.”
With only a slight groan of protest, Kazuha shoved herself off the couch and helped him push it the rest of the way into place. Falling over onto that couch again was an almost irresistible temptation, but they headed out to get the rest of their stuff instead. Furniture first-then the boxes and suitcases.
After the couch was securely in place, the rest of the living room furniture followed with relative ease: a chair, a coffee table, and the entertainment center. No assembly required-just hooking a few things up and plugging things in. She did find a moment to tease him, though, about how proud she was that he had managed all of this without electrocuting himself. He was not amused.
The kitchen stuff came next-a relatively easy round. Kazuha took charge of telling him exactly where to put things. He could cook, but it was nothing compared to the magic she could work in a saucepan. So things were organized according to her wishes, since it was to be primarily her domain.
“I’ll cook. You can do everything else,” she teased him as she put the plates away in an upper cupboard. Again, Heiji did not seem terribly amused. But they managed to get it all put away without anything getting broken or destroyed.
Having done all that AND hauled in two sets of bedroom furniture (without actually setting anything up in the bedrooms yet), they decided it was time for a lunch break. They both plopped down onto the couch they had wrestled into place not long before and dove into a pile of sandwiches.
“So,” Heiji asked around a mouthful, “tell me again how you got your father to agree to this arrangement? I figured he’d be a bit leery of us living together.”
Kazuha swallowed her own bite. “Actually, he was surprisingly open to the idea. If anything, he sort of seemed…supportive of the notion. Offered to help us move and everything.”
She had been stunned at how her father had reacted to everything. For starters, he hadn’t seemed as surprised as he should have been when his daughter had appeared on his doorstep without warning after a year of living overseas. And he had seemed even less surprised when she told him that she was moving back to Japan. It was almost like he had expected this…
She didn’t tell him everything, though. There was no way she could tell her father what had happened with the young man in America-even if it was because of that guy and the way he’d treated her that she had come back to Japan in the first place. Or more specifically, it had sent her back to Heiji, prompting her decision to stay. She had skirted the whole issue, saying simply that she was lonely.
She wondered if her father knew or suspected that there was more to the story than that. He certainly wasn’t a stupid man…but if he had any inklings, he did not voice them. Instead, he had simply asked where she was planning to go-was she moving home, or looking for an apartment, or staying with a friend?
That was the moment of truth, in some ways. Kazuha took a deep breath and told him of her decision to find a place with Heiji and be roommates.
Her father had gone quiet for a moment-just long enough for her to get worried. But then he simply asked a question: “What exactly is going on between you two?”
Now it was Kazuha’s turn to be silent for a moment before replying, “I’m not a hundred percent sure where Heiji and I are going. There’s something starting, but…it might be too soon to say.” She actually had a little bit better grasp on their situation than she let on, but she didn’t know how exactly her father would take that news. Best to take things slowly.
He seemed…concerned, but not entirely concerned, if such a thing made sense. “Just be careful, “ was all he said. And the topic shifted to actual plans for the impending move: dates, locations, etc.
And now here they were, wolfing down sandwiches as they sat on a couch that seemed far too heavy.
Life was good.
Hot and tired and sweaty and still with a ton to do…but good.
Once the last sandwich bite had been policed off and washed down with swigs of juice, they got back to work. It was time to get the bedroom furniture put together and arranged to their individual satisfactions. Kazuha was somewhat surprised when Heiji failed to make even a single lewd remark about the bedroom thing or her bed or any such topic.
…to be honest, he’d been skirting certain issues ever since she’d returned, and anything even remotely sexual seemed to top his unwritten list of taboo topics. She figured he was tiptoeing around the subject because it could be touchy-which left her wondering when exactly he had developed this considerate streak, and why it hadn’t developed earlier.
Sheesh-only Hattori Heiji could be so irritating while being so wonderful.
But it hadn’t stopped him from (shyly) catching her in the kitchen of his old apartment…in the living room of her place in America…at random times and random places…and stealing a little kiss here and there.
Sighing, she shook herself from her giddy reveries and refocused on helping Heiji get her bed frame put together and attached to the headboard. Her bedroom went together with relative ease. They put everything into its place with few problems, save for Kazuha banging her knee when a dresser drawer decided to jump out at her; she let loose a few curses and hopped around for a bit. But overall, thus far there had been almost no hitches in the apartment set-up.
Then they went to get Heiji’s furniture arranged in his bedroom. And finally, Murphy’s Law decided to get off its ass and actually do something.
They were getting his bed frame put together when they hit a snag: the collapsible metal frame had gotten stuck, and wouldn’t unfold like it was supposed to. So they did the logical thing, and started pulling. And finally, it popped open.
Without warning.
Right onto Heiji’s forehead.
The narrow metal pole came down and nailed Heiji directly between the eyes. He let out a squawk, flew backwards to the carpet…and didn’t move.
Kazuha blinked owlishly. “Uh-oh…”
-o-
When Heiji opened his eyes, he was on the couch. His head was throbbing, and he would soon discover that he was now the proud owner of a large purple bruise, marked across his forehead. And Kazuha was nowhere in sight, though he could hear movement and banging in the next room.
While he busied himself with trying to sit up and remember what had happened, she reappeared. She looked tired and winded, but very pleased with herself. “Good morning!” she half-wheezed. “You have a bed now, and I hope you’re grateful for it!”
He stared at her. “You put it together? By yourself?”
“I sure did!” she beamed. Then her expression softened. “How’s your head? Do you need anything?”
“Nah, I’ll be fine,” he replied, ignoring the fact that wrecking balls seemed to be smashing incessantly at the inside of his skull. He swung his legs off the couch and ginger got to his feet…and immediately sat back down again.
Kazuha raised an eyebrow. “You’re fine, huh?” She crossed the room and reached out a hand to brush his hair back from his forehead. “You’ve got one hell of a shiner. That’s a lovely shade of purple.”
“Shut up,” he winced. “God, my head hurts…”
“That’s not surprising,” she said. “So can you stand? The sooner we get the rest of the stuff in, the sooner you can go to bed and collapse properly.”
“Pushy, pushy, pushy…” he muttered. But he acquiesced and hauled himself off the couch again to help with the final pieces of furniture. He made sure that it took as little time as possible-his head was throbbing like mad by the time he was finally able to curl up on the unmade bed.
A few minutes later, he felt something cold press against the sore spot on his forehead. He cracked an eye open to see Kazuha hold a can of soda to his face. “We don’t have ice yet,” she said apologetically. “But I put this in the fridge earlier, so at least it’s cold. Hopefully it’ll help.”
In spite of the headache, he offered up a weak smile and took the can. “Thanks.”
He was surprised when she didn’t leave, but instead sprawled out across the other side of the bed. She lay beside him without moving or speaking for a while-long enough for him to wonder if she’d dozed off. But that notion was dashed when she spoke. “There are still a ton of boxes piled up in the living room.”
“Hmm…don’t care…” he sighed in reply. “Finish later.”
She chuckled. “Or do you just want to lay here and let me baby you, oh injured one?”
“Ooh, I like that idea,” he teased; it trailed off into a yawn. “Or a nap would be nice…”
“Nap, then unpack, then dinner?” Kazuha suggested.
“Brilliant.”
“Then it’s settled,” she replied. She was quiet a moment, then sighed. “It’s hard to believe, isn’t it? This is home now.” As she spoke, her fingers found his. “Our home.”
Heiji gave her hand a squeeze. “Our home.”
PS. Okay, this might not make as much sense if you haven’t read the last fic in my series of 30_hugs for these two. Basic run-down: Kazuha goes to America after graduation, gets her heart broken by a real jackass, and comes back. She and Heiji have it out, and she decides to stay. At the end of the story, Heiji suggests that they get a place together. From there, the plunnies began to mutate.
So this is the first in a little series of ficlets about Heiji and Kazuha and all the fun stuff that happens between them in their apartment. If you’ve got a suggestion or a thought, feel free to share. I’ve got three or four other ideas for them m’self.
This is also sort of “art representing life,” as I myself am preparing to move into my first apartment. This also means I’ll be on hiatus from the internet for a while. Boo hiss!
L’anyhoodle, thanks for reading, all! Much love!
Fandom: Detective Conan
Characters: Heiji/Kazuha (General series)
Prompt: #16-purple
Word Count: 2135 words
Rating: PG
Author's Notes: I do not own Detective Conan. It all belongs to Gosho Aoyama. I simply borrow the characters, tie them up, and dance them around like life-sized puppets. I do wish they’d stop complaining.
Summary: A heavy couch, a few walks down Memory Lane, and a dash of Murphy’s Law. Heiji/Kazuha
“Careful, careful, careful!” Kazuha half-yelped as she was nearly bowled over by a couch. Or rather, the person on the other end of the couch was pushing just a little too fast, given that she had taken the crappy side and was walking backwards.
“Sorry!” Heiji’s voice replied from the other end of the couch.
It was turning into quite a hectic day, to say the least. But neither had really expected everything to be all smooth sailing. After all, moving was never an easy task, and the best-laid plans of mice and men did tend to go awry here and there.
Upon Kazuha’s abrupt return from America and final decision to stay, Heiji had suggested that they be roomies and get an apartment together. At first, Kazuha had been a bit resistant to the idea, once she had realized that he was completely serious. They couldn’t share an apartment! For starters, they would kill each other. And then there was the old-fashioned fact that he was a ‘he’ and she was a ‘she’ and that could present a LOT of problems, even though they’d been best friends forever. Nuh-uh, no way.
But more importantly, things were beginning to develop between them, slowly but surely. An admission of feelings, a desire to stay together, an interest in seeing where they would end up if they let things happen…she didn’t want anything to jeopardize their budding relationship.
In the end, however, he had convinced her. For one thing, it would cheaper for them both in terms of rent, which would help her get her feet back under her in Japan. And they were both adults-they were perfectly capable of coexisting without incident, if they so chose.
Plus, he admitted during a quiet moment, he felt better having her nearby so he knew she was safe. In the end, that was the reason that ultimately decided her. She agreed to give the roommate status a try. If things didn’t work out, they could just move, right?
But Heiji seemed to be taking this whole thing very seriously. When she went back to the States to gather her things and get her affairs in order there, he had insisted on going with her. He said it was just to help her with her things, but she wondered if he was worried that she might get cold feet or something like that.
Not that there was really any chance of that happening…
And now here they were, after all was said and done, moving into their brand new two-bedroom apartment. Hence, the attempting to maneuver a rather heavy couch through a doorway that seemed far too small for it. But finally, they managed to shove the awkward piece of furniture into the apartment. They set it down carefully…and promptly dropped to sit on it.
“…well, I’m ready to be done,” Kazuha joked after a moment of sitting and catching their breath.
Heiji gave her a puppy-dog look. “Wanna push it the rest of the way? I don’t wanna get up.”
She rolled her eyes at him. “Ahou.”
Now he chuckled. “But seriously, I think this is the heaviest thing we’ve got. Once it’s in, the rest should be smooth sailing. So come on, lazy, let’s get this done.”
With only a slight groan of protest, Kazuha shoved herself off the couch and helped him push it the rest of the way into place. Falling over onto that couch again was an almost irresistible temptation, but they headed out to get the rest of their stuff instead. Furniture first-then the boxes and suitcases.
After the couch was securely in place, the rest of the living room furniture followed with relative ease: a chair, a coffee table, and the entertainment center. No assembly required-just hooking a few things up and plugging things in. She did find a moment to tease him, though, about how proud she was that he had managed all of this without electrocuting himself. He was not amused.
The kitchen stuff came next-a relatively easy round. Kazuha took charge of telling him exactly where to put things. He could cook, but it was nothing compared to the magic she could work in a saucepan. So things were organized according to her wishes, since it was to be primarily her domain.
“I’ll cook. You can do everything else,” she teased him as she put the plates away in an upper cupboard. Again, Heiji did not seem terribly amused. But they managed to get it all put away without anything getting broken or destroyed.
Having done all that AND hauled in two sets of bedroom furniture (without actually setting anything up in the bedrooms yet), they decided it was time for a lunch break. They both plopped down onto the couch they had wrestled into place not long before and dove into a pile of sandwiches.
“So,” Heiji asked around a mouthful, “tell me again how you got your father to agree to this arrangement? I figured he’d be a bit leery of us living together.”
Kazuha swallowed her own bite. “Actually, he was surprisingly open to the idea. If anything, he sort of seemed…supportive of the notion. Offered to help us move and everything.”
She had been stunned at how her father had reacted to everything. For starters, he hadn’t seemed as surprised as he should have been when his daughter had appeared on his doorstep without warning after a year of living overseas. And he had seemed even less surprised when she told him that she was moving back to Japan. It was almost like he had expected this…
She didn’t tell him everything, though. There was no way she could tell her father what had happened with the young man in America-even if it was because of that guy and the way he’d treated her that she had come back to Japan in the first place. Or more specifically, it had sent her back to Heiji, prompting her decision to stay. She had skirted the whole issue, saying simply that she was lonely.
She wondered if her father knew or suspected that there was more to the story than that. He certainly wasn’t a stupid man…but if he had any inklings, he did not voice them. Instead, he had simply asked where she was planning to go-was she moving home, or looking for an apartment, or staying with a friend?
That was the moment of truth, in some ways. Kazuha took a deep breath and told him of her decision to find a place with Heiji and be roommates.
Her father had gone quiet for a moment-just long enough for her to get worried. But then he simply asked a question: “What exactly is going on between you two?”
Now it was Kazuha’s turn to be silent for a moment before replying, “I’m not a hundred percent sure where Heiji and I are going. There’s something starting, but…it might be too soon to say.” She actually had a little bit better grasp on their situation than she let on, but she didn’t know how exactly her father would take that news. Best to take things slowly.
He seemed…concerned, but not entirely concerned, if such a thing made sense. “Just be careful, “ was all he said. And the topic shifted to actual plans for the impending move: dates, locations, etc.
And now here they were, wolfing down sandwiches as they sat on a couch that seemed far too heavy.
Life was good.
Hot and tired and sweaty and still with a ton to do…but good.
Once the last sandwich bite had been policed off and washed down with swigs of juice, they got back to work. It was time to get the bedroom furniture put together and arranged to their individual satisfactions. Kazuha was somewhat surprised when Heiji failed to make even a single lewd remark about the bedroom thing or her bed or any such topic.
…to be honest, he’d been skirting certain issues ever since she’d returned, and anything even remotely sexual seemed to top his unwritten list of taboo topics. She figured he was tiptoeing around the subject because it could be touchy-which left her wondering when exactly he had developed this considerate streak, and why it hadn’t developed earlier.
Sheesh-only Hattori Heiji could be so irritating while being so wonderful.
But it hadn’t stopped him from (shyly) catching her in the kitchen of his old apartment…in the living room of her place in America…at random times and random places…and stealing a little kiss here and there.
Sighing, she shook herself from her giddy reveries and refocused on helping Heiji get her bed frame put together and attached to the headboard. Her bedroom went together with relative ease. They put everything into its place with few problems, save for Kazuha banging her knee when a dresser drawer decided to jump out at her; she let loose a few curses and hopped around for a bit. But overall, thus far there had been almost no hitches in the apartment set-up.
Then they went to get Heiji’s furniture arranged in his bedroom. And finally, Murphy’s Law decided to get off its ass and actually do something.
They were getting his bed frame put together when they hit a snag: the collapsible metal frame had gotten stuck, and wouldn’t unfold like it was supposed to. So they did the logical thing, and started pulling. And finally, it popped open.
Without warning.
Right onto Heiji’s forehead.
The narrow metal pole came down and nailed Heiji directly between the eyes. He let out a squawk, flew backwards to the carpet…and didn’t move.
Kazuha blinked owlishly. “Uh-oh…”
-o-
When Heiji opened his eyes, he was on the couch. His head was throbbing, and he would soon discover that he was now the proud owner of a large purple bruise, marked across his forehead. And Kazuha was nowhere in sight, though he could hear movement and banging in the next room.
While he busied himself with trying to sit up and remember what had happened, she reappeared. She looked tired and winded, but very pleased with herself. “Good morning!” she half-wheezed. “You have a bed now, and I hope you’re grateful for it!”
He stared at her. “You put it together? By yourself?”
“I sure did!” she beamed. Then her expression softened. “How’s your head? Do you need anything?”
“Nah, I’ll be fine,” he replied, ignoring the fact that wrecking balls seemed to be smashing incessantly at the inside of his skull. He swung his legs off the couch and ginger got to his feet…and immediately sat back down again.
Kazuha raised an eyebrow. “You’re fine, huh?” She crossed the room and reached out a hand to brush his hair back from his forehead. “You’ve got one hell of a shiner. That’s a lovely shade of purple.”
“Shut up,” he winced. “God, my head hurts…”
“That’s not surprising,” she said. “So can you stand? The sooner we get the rest of the stuff in, the sooner you can go to bed and collapse properly.”
“Pushy, pushy, pushy…” he muttered. But he acquiesced and hauled himself off the couch again to help with the final pieces of furniture. He made sure that it took as little time as possible-his head was throbbing like mad by the time he was finally able to curl up on the unmade bed.
A few minutes later, he felt something cold press against the sore spot on his forehead. He cracked an eye open to see Kazuha hold a can of soda to his face. “We don’t have ice yet,” she said apologetically. “But I put this in the fridge earlier, so at least it’s cold. Hopefully it’ll help.”
In spite of the headache, he offered up a weak smile and took the can. “Thanks.”
He was surprised when she didn’t leave, but instead sprawled out across the other side of the bed. She lay beside him without moving or speaking for a while-long enough for him to wonder if she’d dozed off. But that notion was dashed when she spoke. “There are still a ton of boxes piled up in the living room.”
“Hmm…don’t care…” he sighed in reply. “Finish later.”
She chuckled. “Or do you just want to lay here and let me baby you, oh injured one?”
“Ooh, I like that idea,” he teased; it trailed off into a yawn. “Or a nap would be nice…”
“Nap, then unpack, then dinner?” Kazuha suggested.
“Brilliant.”
“Then it’s settled,” she replied. She was quiet a moment, then sighed. “It’s hard to believe, isn’t it? This is home now.” As she spoke, her fingers found his. “Our home.”
Heiji gave her hand a squeeze. “Our home.”
PS. Okay, this might not make as much sense if you haven’t read the last fic in my series of 30_hugs for these two. Basic run-down: Kazuha goes to America after graduation, gets her heart broken by a real jackass, and comes back. She and Heiji have it out, and she decides to stay. At the end of the story, Heiji suggests that they get a place together. From there, the plunnies began to mutate.
So this is the first in a little series of ficlets about Heiji and Kazuha and all the fun stuff that happens between them in their apartment. If you’ve got a suggestion or a thought, feel free to share. I’ve got three or four other ideas for them m’self.
This is also sort of “art representing life,” as I myself am preparing to move into my first apartment. This also means I’ll be on hiatus from the internet for a while. Boo hiss!
L’anyhoodle, thanks for reading, all! Much love!