The Grey Zone: Seacouver
Will post to communitites later. M'tired and have to be at A-kon in about 6 hours. But it's done so we do the tired happy falling over dance of glee.
As always, please feel free to point out any errors in the fic.
Continued from 'Cascade'
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The first time Kaito drifted to consciousness, he was aware of being wrapped up in detective. Solid, warm, -breathing- detective.
Reassured that they were both among the world of the living, or at least not dead and somehow still together, he slipped back into slumber.
+++
There were voices the next time he gained consciousness. Saguru wasn't curled around him anymore, but was close enough that Kaito could feel the blond's warmth next to him. The timbre of the detective's voice seemed to be on guard, slightly strained, which worried Kaito.
The responding voices were vaguely familiar, tripping something in his brain. Heads. Swords. Lightning. These people were dangerous.
If they wanted Saguru's head, they were going to have to go through him first. The detective was -his-. He reached up, grabbing Saguru and wrapped himself around the blond's head, the two of them crashing onto the soft horizontal surface they were resting on. Saguru let out a muffled yelp, hands grabbing Kaito as the magician slipped back asleep, stubbornly refusing to let go of his partner.
+++
The third time he woke up, the room was quiet. Saguru was a peacefully slumbering hulk wrapped around him, his quiet breathing blowing air past Kaito's ear. He did a quick mental check list, hands, toes and limbs all attached. Although he currently wished his head -wasn't- attached, it felt like someone had completed their attempt to drive stakes through it at every possible angle. His right wrist hurt, a throbbing ache under the wrappings and a bone deep weariness lingered, seductively trying to pull him back to sleep. Other than that, everything was still intact.
They were alive.
Despite the hurt and the pain, he felt a brief surge of triumphant joy. Alive. As in 'Not Dead'. Hah.
"Ah, I see our thieving young magician is awake." A droll voice commented. Kaito opened his eye a slit, spotting a lanky thin man sitting in a chair next to where they were laying, a book cradled in his hands. "You're a long way from Paris, my friend."
Kaito paused as his brain spun, trying to place the man. Paris. Jazz bar. Freak lighting storm. Bouncing heads. "I assume that you're not taking our heads." He said. Or tried to say. He was vaguely surprised by how disused his voice and throat felt.
The man, --Pearson? Pierson, his sluggish brain reminded him. Something biblical Pierson-- smiled condescendingly at Kaito as he attempted to sit up, dislodging Saguru's limbs as he did so. "No, we are not interested in removing your head from your shoulders, you are currently in Seacouver, Washington, near the west coast of what people call the United States of America and you've been asleep for almost three days."
"Oh." Kaito cleared his throat. "'anks."
"Welcome. There's water next to you. Your friend Saguru has been keeping you hydrated as much as he can. If you need to pee, you are holding your own dick."
Kaito blinked. Okay... that was a mental image he didn't need. He reached over and started to pick up the half-filled glass. He froze as the pain from his injured wrist struck and he switched hands to pick up the vessel his currently good arm. He was startled by how badly he shook as he drank. But thankfully, he didn't spill any of the quenching liquid and safely returned the glass to where it had been.
"And that-" Pierson said airily, like he had all the experience of the world backing his words. "-Is why most magicians don't survive their first year. Doing idiotic things with abilities they don't understand. You're damn lucky you didn't end up in the middle of Mount Saint Helen."
Kaito gave him a limp shrug. He supposed he should be grateful for Pierson taking care of them --and he probably would be later-- but at the moment he was too tired to summon the energy. "I couldn't."
Pierson paused, waiting for him. Kaito's thoughts drifted and he startled slightly when Pierson gave him a small verbal nudge. "Couldn't what? Teleport into the middle of an active volcano?"
"No..." Kaito gave a small woozy shake of his head. "I couldn't leave him. To die."
The older man gave him an odd indescribable expression, like Kaito had just handed him a puzzle when he was expecting an apple. Kaito listed to the side, trying to find the words to explain.
"S'not that I can't live without 'im... I don't need him... An' he doesn't need me." Kaito mumbled, his energy already fading from just this little bit of exertion. "But... I want him. Around. I like him." He said with bare honesty.
Saguru was a stubborn, uptight, moralistic, sarcastic bastard who somehow had the bad grace to be attracted to an international thief. And Kaito was stupid enough to fall for him back. He was used to Saguru, his little twists and quirks. And if it took doing something stupid and irrational to try to keep Saguru healthy and breathing, well, he'd do it without a second thought and pay the consequences later.
He looked blearily up at Pierson. "...Does that make sense?"
"Yes." Pierson said quietly. "Go back to sleep. You're as safe here as one can be."
"Okay." Kaito agreed quietly. "'anks."
And with that, he listed to the side and fell asleep on Saguru's solid form.
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When Kaito drifted to consciousness again, he found himself curled around Saguru, instead of the other way around. The blond was sitting up on the bed reading a book, Kaito's arms wrapped around the leg he was using as a pillow. He was probably cutting off the circulation to Saguru's legs something fierce, but at the moment he was too lethargic and comfortable to move.
The tips of Saguru's fingers gently traced one eyebrow, then followed the curve of the eye, down the bridge of the nose, then traced the contours of Kaito's lips. The feather light touch went down to his chin, up the jaw-line and around the shell of his ear, making Kaito shiver slightly. The room was quiet, he couldn't hear anyone else in the vicinity.
"This okay?" Saguru asked quietly, fingers resting on the pulse point just behind the ear.
"Mmm." Kaito agreed, sleepily nuzzling Saguru's leg. Saguru made a pleased sound, fingers continuing their exploration down Kaito's neck, over one shoulder and down his spine. Kaito hummed slightly, vaguely amused by Saguru's actions, subtly checking that Kaito was here and whole.
Kaito shifted slightly so that he was looking up at the blond, Saguru's gentle touch sliding over the tee-shirt he was wearing, then down to the patch of bare skin on his hip this action prompted. Saguru absently traced small circles on the skin there, before tugging the shirt down to cover it and travelled northward, this time along Kaito's belly. He muffled a squeak as Saguru outlined his belly button, tickling the indentation. The blond smiled slightly, his eyes never leaving the book he was reading.
Saguru looked tired, Kaito mused, content for the moment just to let his thoughts wander. He couldn't hear anyone else and Saguru's gaze wasn't flickering around, tracking where other people were, so it was most likely just the two of them. And that was just fine with him. He hadn't had any quality time with his boyfriend since Las Vegas.
Not that he really had the energy to -do- much at the moment, which was a pity. And it still sounded weird to say that in his head, 'his boyfriend'. He smiled as Saguru's fingers paused, hand splayed and pressed across his chest as if he could feel Kaito's heart beating beneath his ribs. His boyfriend. His detective. His friend, his travelling companion, his rival, his lover, his Saguru.
That had a nice ring to it, 'His Saguru'.
The Kaitou portion of his brain cackled possessively over the one stolen golden treasure he didn't have to return, 'His Saguru'. Mwuahahahahaa.
Saguru's hand continued it's exploration, drifting over his collarbones, then up over his shoulder and down his arm. Kaito shifted slightly, contentedly watching Saguru's face with half lidded eyes. His boyfriend really was pretty. Saguru's features were an exotic blend of both his parents. Strong fine features from his British ancestry, rounded and gentled by his Japanese linage without leaning too far one way or another. The nose was a little on the long side, a gift from his mother, but he'd gotten her beautiful clear skin that blushed so well, so Kaito thought it was a fair trade. Especially when Saguru blushed.
He had kind eyes as well, Oh, they could be fierce when he was riled up, but most of the time Saguru had some of the gentlest eyes Kaito knew. And such an attractive colour as well, like the high quality polished tiger's eye that Chat Noir used to target, set under dark lashes. He had Japanese almond shaped eyes under the European eyelid, another striking blend of Western and Eastern.
Broad in the shoulder and narrow at the waist, Saguru had a nice figure, when he wasn't hiding it underneath an unflattering suit. His legs that went on forever, most of his height was in his lower limbs, unlike Kaito, who had the gymnast's short legs and flexible long torso. Saguru was broader than almost everyone their age that Kaito knew, save for maybe Hattori with his kendo-skills.
Strong hands, not nimble like Kaito's long fingers, but steady and considerate in their strength. He'd never be the thief Kaito was, but Kaito would never be the detective Saguru was.
He even smelled good, warm and musky and so very -male-. Well, okay, his feet didn't smell so great if he didn't change his socks every day, but then neither did Kaito's. They were guys, not romance novel leads with tragic pasts and few flaws.
"What are you thinking about?" Saguru questioned softly, interrupting his thoughts as his fingers ran over Kaito's eyebrows before brushing Kaito's dyed hair out of his face.
'You', Kaito almost said, then bit his tongue. He toyed briefly with commenting that he could see a booger up Saguru's noise, just to get one of detective's fond, exasperated smiles. "We need a shower." He finally commented ruefully. The last time they had bathed had been the day before the whole bomb thing, and he'd been drifting in and out of consciousness for days now. He probably reeked, although Saguru hadn't said anything about it.
Saguru's lips twitched in a muted laugh. "I took one already, but we can take one later." He assured Kaito, running his hands through Kaito's hair again. 'We' meant 'Together' and Kaito smiled lazily at that, silently cheering. Soap and water and naked Saguru. Yay.
He resisting the urge to purr as Saguru twined his fingers in Kaito's hair, massaging the scalp and drifted off again.
+++
The sun had shifted by the time Kaito rose to awareness again. Saguru was still reading, one hand holding the book up, the other loosely wrapped around Kaito's hand, fingers lightly pressed against the inside of his wrist.
Saguru seemed to have a wrist fetish, Kaito thought wryly. When they'd first started their clandestine meetings as Kaitou and Tantei, Saguru would usually kiss the inside of his wrist upon Kid's leaving, in the gap between his cuffs and his gloves. He'd once gotten Saguru to admit that it was one of the few places that was always bared, regardless if he was Kid or Kuroba. Privately, Kaito thought it was a Victorian thing, little bits of bare skin hiding and unhiding being more tantalising than the full monty.
And it was a pulse point, he usually had to repress the urge to shiver whenever Saguru kissed him there. But that was probably why Saguru was resting his hand there, tracking Kaito's heartbeats, assuring himself that Kaito was still alive. The sap.
He'd finished the other book and was silently moving his lips as he slowly read this one. He was obviously struggling with it. Kaito twisted his head slightly, peering at the title, unable to make out more than something about 'Mystere'.
A slight shift allowed him to see a similar stack of books on the table next to the detective, all of them in a similar vein. Magic, myths and histories from various times and places around the world. He should have been surprised, but wasn't. Seemed like everywhere he went, people shoved a stack of books at him, told him to read and that there'd be a practical life exam on it later.
"I feel like I am studying Shakespeare again." Saguru commented softly, fingers tracing small circles against Kaito's wrist. "Some of these books I do not think you will be able to read without several dictionaries and a massive painkiller for the headache. Olde English is not friends to many."
Kaito thought about it and decided that the half-briton was probably right. While mimicking an accent or a language wasn't a large problem, understanding what he was saying often was. And Saguru did tend to enjoy learning strange bits of esoteric knowledge. "Gimme the condensed version later?"
Saguru nodded, releasing Kaito's wrist to turn the page before putting his hand back down where it had been. Kaito smiled to himself, watching Saguru's eyes flicker across the page with an expression if intense concentration. Not only was his boyfriend really pretty --not that he'd admit that out loud-- and not only did he have a good personality, obsessions aside, but he was both smart and clever as well.
Smart because he learned stuff quickly and was able to remember it, and clever because he could then later on turn around and use that knowledge when it was needed. Or come up with a solution. All the knowledge in the world was useless unless you could apply it to practical purposes.
He shifted on to his side, nuzzling Saguru's leg and drifting off again, making plans. Reading later. Shower definitely first. Together. Mostly for practical reasons, falling asleep while in the middle of a shower and falling down sucked, but it was also a really good excuse to touch is boyfriend. Maybe an accidental grope or two to keep Saguru awake and on his toes. And blushing. And they could wash each other's backs. And stuff.
They could play 'Drop the Soap' later, when they were both feeling more energetic, but silly naked time was not to be overlooked. Especially not after the jacuzzi in Vegas.
Mmmm... jacuzzi....
Kaito fell asleep with a happy smile on his face.
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When he woke up the next day, after a pleasantly silly soapy falling-over-in-the-shower experience with Saguru, he discovered that the detective was gone. That side of the bed was cold.
However, he still had company of the British kind sitting on his other side. Pierson with a look akin to a smug satisfied cat, a beer in one hand and a book in the other. Kaito stared at him for a moment, then closed his eyes most of the way and debated how much energy he had.
Pierson turned a page in his book. It was a feat of marvellous agility, he did it one-handed, the beer never sloshing in the other hand. It was something that obviously required lots practise to get it right.
But then if one was immortal, one had time to perfect such manoeuvres.
"Your friend is downstairs with MacLeod." Pierson said quietly, not looking up from the book. "Mac heard he'd done some fencing in school and his teaching instincts came to the fore. From the look of things when I checked in earlier, your friend is going to be quite sore when MacLeod lets him go."
Poor Saguru. Ah well. More excuse to stay in bed then.
"What's it like?" He questioned, sitting up. Okay, that sucked. Kaito scooted back, leaning against the back of the bed to remain upright. "Being immortal?"
Pierson was silent for a moment, turning the page one handed again. "It has it's perks, and it's downsides." He said with dry charm. "Civilisations rise and fall, friends grow old and die, the quality of beer improves and drops. Life goes on."
Kaito snorted. An ambiguous answer if he ever heard one.
"Why?" Pierson flicked an eyebrow up in his direction. "Would you want to live forever?"
"Quite the opposite." Kaito gave him a tired smile. "I wish to destroy immortality."
Pierson did not move, but Kaito got the impression that he suddenly had the immortal's full attention.
"You have the means... to create immortality." Pierson said slowly, as if sounding out a land mine. "Men would kill for that."
"Men already have." He glanced down and realised that he was gripping the blanket tightly. He forced his hands to relax.
Pierson glanced down. "Amanda said that she knew your father. The first Kaitou Kid, I presume?"
"Yeah." Kaito closed his eyes, feeling weary to the bone again. "They killed Oyaji for trying to find it before they did."
"But you found it. A means to create immortality." It was not a question.
"The price is too high." Kaito shook his head tiredly, fingers twining in the blankets again. "It takes blood to fuel. The price of immorality is a never ending flow of blood."
"You make it sound like that would be a problem for some people." Pierson gave him a dry dark smile. One that made Kaito wonder just how old this immortal was and what he had done in his lifetimes.
Not everyone could live the life of a saint. He knew that lesson well.
Kaito gave him a wan smile in return. "For some."
Pierson laughed, a low dark ancient sound. One that made the hairs on the back of Kaito's neck stand up for a few seconds. The kind that said that this man was intimately familiar with Death. "A few lifetimes back, that would have been cheap, boy."
"And now?" Kaito ventured.
"Not anymore." And suddenly, Pierson was just a normal person again. One with a very whimsical morbid sense of humour. "-Too troublesome to hide the bodies."
Kaito nodded. "Of course." Made perfect sense.
Pierson smiled, looking pleased with himself. "So you want to destroy immortality." He said, returning the conversation back to the first subject. "Any luck on that?"
"Not yet." Kaito admitted ruefully. "I'm beginning to think finding it was easier." Fire, pressure, freezing, drowning, acid, at this point he was almost tempted to start looking for some way to launch the damn thing into the sun.
Or possibly throwing all the alchemists on their ears and creating alkahest, a solvent that could destroy anything, instead of creating the philosopher's stone. But then the question arose, just how would he store the alkahest?
"May I?" Pierson sat forward, shutting the book and setting it down next to him. Kaito inclined his head, partly out of curiosity, partly in acquiescence. The immortal reached across him and picked up Sir Stinky, cradling the plushie in his hands. "You kept it with you, even when you let your bags out of sight. And since you're a jewel thief, it only stands to reason that your loot is here."
Pierson made Sir Stinky's head nod at him. There was resemblance between the two in the length of their noses.
Kaito smirked. "Close, but not quite."
Both Pierson and Sir Stinky stared at him, heads tilting to the side to express confusion. Kaito reached into the air, twisting his hand as he did so, pulling a pale gem out of the ether.
Pierson's eyes went slightly wide, then flickered between the elephant and Kaito. "Okay, now I'm slightly impressed."
Kaito smiled wanly, feeling his energy drop dramatically. He'd removed the stone from the elephant just before they'd arrived in Cascade, just in case they end up losing the bags.
Although, if he was being brutally honest, it kind of itched, carrying the gem like that.
The immortal traded him the plushie for jewel. Pierson inspected the stone, rolling it over in his hand, holding it up to the light. "Mind if I do some research?" He finally queried, all business.
"She's called Pandora." Kaito yawned. "Supposedly drips tears of immortality every ten thousand years, when held up to the moonlight while the Volley Comet flies over head."
"Sounds like a good fairy tale." Pierson agreed.
"Oldest recorded legend of Pandora and her urn is from about seven hundred b.c." Kaito shrugged, feeling sleepy. "Ten thousand years ago is eight thousand b.c.... about the time Atlantis sank, according to Mr. Rudolf Steiner. Take your pick."
Kaito paused, looking at the immortal. Just how old was he-?
"I'm not -that- old." Pierson grumbled, rising from his chair. "But glad to see you've done some homework."
Kaito yawned, his jaw popping. How else was he supposed to figure out how to get rid of that blasted stone? Besides, the link to Pandora's red light and the Atlantis' mysterious red stone Orichalcum had been too tempting to ignore. "Bit of warning... Pandora'll heal any injuries, but it'll damage healthy flesh. Y'might wanna wear gloves."
It had blistered Saguru's fingers, the one time Saguru had held it.
"Thanks." Pierson paused, Pandora in one hand, beer in the other. "I'll return it to you before you leave."
"M'not worried." Kaito smiled, sliding back down under the blankets. He grabbed the poor abused elephant and tucked him under the blankets next to himself.
Pierson paused. "... You're not?" He seemed confused by this. After all, they had just met.
"The guys who killed Oyaji are after us for the gem." Kaito mumbled, eyes already falling shut as his limbs went lax. "If you have the gem, they're after you instead." And he'd make damn sure everyone knew exactly who had Pandora if he didn't get the stone back. He'd make sky writing and forty piece brass bands look subtle.
"You may have a point." Pierson said decisively, as his footsteps turned and started to walk away. "I'll have this returned to you as quickly as possible."
Kaito smirked as he drifted off. He wasn't sure whom he would feel more sorry for in that instance... the immortal swordsman or the men in black...
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"God." Saguru fell onto the bed next to him. "Remind me not to do that again."
"Mmurph?" Kaito opened a eye. "Y'have fun?"
"I think I just learned more than I ever forgot in fencing class." Saguru mumbled. "Kill me now."
"Nah." Kaito reached out and patted his large rather warm boyfriend. He'd put too much work into keeping Saguru alive to kill him now.
"Good job, Saguru." MacLeod's voice commented. "Looking forward to sparring with you tomorrow."
Saguru waved a hand up in acknowledgement, then it flopped back down on the bed.
MacLeod and Pierson talked for a while, the subject of 'beer' coming up occasionally. Evidently they were out again, and it was 'the Old Man's fault.' Pierson won the verbal debate and MacLeod left to pick up more foodstuffs. And beer.
Saguru sat up with a groan, pulled out a book out of the stack and started reading. Pierson wandered by. "Aztec."
Blood sacrifices. If one needed large amounts of blood to fuel Pandora, it made sense. "Spanish invaded 1512." He pointed out. "Less than a thousand years old."
"Bering Land Bridge." Pierson said. "Could have brought it over then."
There were still debates about when the last people could have crossed the ice bridge between Siberia and Alaska. "Kon-Tiki." Kaito countered. "Pre-Columbian."
Pre-Columbian fit their time period nicely, starting about the time that people first arrived in the Americas and ending about the time the Cristóbal Colón landed in what was now South America. Kon-Tiki was the name of the balsa wood raft Thor Heyerdahl used in 1947 to prove that older cultures could have crossed the Pacific.
There was also that thing about the 'Bay of Jars', where a Roman vessel had sunk off the coast of Brazil before the Roman Empire had collapsed. That was a major oops in the navigation department.
"Viking." Pierson pointed out. "Greek to Roman to Celtic to the local Indians to Aztec."
Leif Ericson having possibly landed in North America around the year 1000. Romans invaded what was now Great Britian in the first century.
"China." Kaito offered. There were claims that the Chinese landed on the Americas anywhere from four thousand to one thousand five hundred years ago, depending on whether or not California was actually Fusang. Although those expeditions had been more interested in bringing things back -to- China, rather than bringing things from.
"Hmm." Pierson said, then wandered off again.
Saguru made a questioning noise. "History debate." Kaito mumbled and drifted off to sleep again.
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When he woke up again, it was the next day. Saguru was gone and there were the sounds of sword fighting from down below. It was Saguru's voice and a strong Scottish brogue shouting instructions, so he relaxed again. Poor Saguru. Although, despite the blond's grumbles, he did seem to be enjoying himself. What was that roman adage? Healthy body, healthy mind?
Speaking of healthy body... Kaito rolled out of bed with a groan, his body protesting the movement. He ignored it for the moment and staggered off into the bathroom to take care of business. He sat down on the toilet to take a leak, dismayed at just how little energy he really had. Just this tiny effort had his hands shaking from fatigue.
He finished up, pulled himself upright and got over to the sink to wash his hands. He glanced up in the mirror and grimaced at his reflection. He looked like he'd been sick for weeks, pale skin, dark circles under his eyes and he'd lost weight again, his collarbones sticking out in a way that Americans seemed to prefer their supermodels, but was unhealthy and unattractive on everyone else. Not even his Kid suit could make this look flattering. No wonder Saguru had been keeping track of his pulse, he looked almost like one of Kudo's corpses.
Kaito sighed. Okay, life lesson for using Magic like that. Yes, it gave him one hell of an ace up his sleeves if they needed it. But it also took a hell of a lot out of him.
The question was, was the price he paid worth it?
A shout came from downstairs, followed by a loud thump. Saguru's voice echoed up, alarm and worry. Evidently he'd scored an unexpected hit on his teacher.
Okay, yes. The price was worth it. He'd rather look like death for a little while than have to bury Saguru. This wasn't permanent.
He wobbled back to sofa-bed in the middle of the living room and collapsed on it. Amendment to previous statement: Yes, it was worth it. It still kind of sucked though. He hated not being having the ability to get up and -move-.
Pierson wandered by. "Have you read any of the books?" He inquired, a not so subtle hint.
"Not yet." Kaito admitted, closing his eyes. He really wasn't up for focusing on doodles on a page right now. "'Guru's reading them currently, what I don't read, he'll catch me up on."
The immortal snorted, pulling something, probably a beer, out of the refrigerator. Kaito listened to him open it, noting the pinging sound of metal striking somewhere and the sound of bubbles overflowing their container. Yup. Beer.
"Hey." Kaito called, a thought hitting him. "When was Amanda here?"
"Hmmm?" Pierson made an inquiring sound from the kitchen.
"You said Amanda had been here, and recognised me." That was how Pierson had known that he was the Kaitou Kid. And the first time he'd woken up, Pierson had referred to him as 'our thieving young magician'.
He still did NOT want to know what she and Oyaji had gotten up to that one night in Calais. Ew. Although at least, it seemed to have left a favourable impression on her. And the champagne thing might be fun to pull on Saguru sometime...
"A few hours after we found you." Pierson took a long sip of beer. "She dragged Macleod out after that and they spent half the night re-hiding all of her jewel stashes."
"I don't steal without a notice." He pointed out, tiredly rubbing his eyes. Where was the brain bleach when you needed it? "And I already found what I'm looking for, so I don't need to break in to see them anyway."
Pierson made a non-commental sound. "Doesn't really matter. You don't get to live to be as old as she is without a large healthy dose of paranoia."
Kaito thought about it for a minute. "And how old is Amanda-san?"
The immortal grinned cheerfully back. Right. Bastard wasn't going to say. Kaito rolled his eyes and plopped his head back down on the pillow. He should have known better than to inquire about a lady's age was anyway.
He drifted for a bit, comfortably half dozing while Pierson read and Saguru got his ass kicked downstairs.
"Where did you find the gem again?" Pierson inquired, speaking loudly enough to wake him.
Kaito yawned, covering his mouth part way, then scratching his nose. "Japan."
Pierson was unimpressed. "Care to be more specific?" He quipped dryly.
"You want the name of the museum?" Kaito questioned, shifting to grin lazily at the immortal. Pierson gave him a look like he was debating if it was worth the effort to bop Kaito on the head. "Kidding. It was in a supposedly cursed necklace from the 1700s, known for having an association with the undead and the occult. First recorded known location was Haiti."
"Which doesn't help much." Pierson mused. "Because in the 1700s, Haiti was a common port for both the Spanish and the French."
"Yup." The French, who were colonising the world like mad at that time --which was really just a polite way of saying that they were going out and fucking what no European had ever fucked before, they made wonderful colonists-- and the Spanish, who were active in South America, looking for gold. And killing or enslaving what no European had never killed or enslaved before.
Pierson made muttering noises as he started grabbing various books and flipping through their pages. Kaito watched him for a moment, then let his head drop down again. He drifted off, waking up again when someone's irregular clomping footsteps approached.
"Hey, Old Man." A rumbling voice called as the limping footsteps got closer.
"Hey, Joe." Pierson said quietly and Kaito relaxed slightly again as he placed the name with the footsteps and voice. Joe, the bartender in Paris. Who probably knew about the whole 'immortality' thing. Although he didn't have quite the same buzz as MacLeod or Pierson, which meant he probably wasn't an immortal as well.
The two talked quietly, the cadence of their conversation soothing as they bantered back and forth. He allowed his mind to drift, picking and poking at various puzzles as his body relaxed.
At least until Joe inquired as to the status of their guests. Then he opened his eyes and waved a lazy hand in greeting. "Oh, there you are." Joe said as he limped over and looked down at him with a guarded amused look on his face. "Fancy running into you here. Long way from Paris."
"Yes, we've gotten that a lot." Kaito agreed. "How are you doing?"
"Hanging in there." Joe agreed amiably, leaning on his cane. "Looking better than you, in any case."
"... Thanks." Kaito muttered as Pierson chuckled in the background. He closed his eyes again and Joe limped away to snark at Pierson some more.
His brain wandered down various pathways until it got stuck on a problem he had been pondering for a while. Magic. He could do magic. Not the stuff Oyaji had taught him, the sleight of hand, but the really magical mystical freaky weird stuff.
The stuff that Kaito couldn't figure out and the Kaitou Kid took for granted.
Seeing as he was both Kaito and Kid, it was making his head hurt.
But he wasn't really the Kid anymore, he was supposed to be retired. He'd found Pandora after all. Now he just had to figure out how to get rid of it. Which hopefully Pierson would be some help with. If not, at least Pierson seemed to be having fun having a currently non-lethal puzzle to figure out.
And he had to get the Black Organisation off their backs for good. Without Saguru getting killed in the process. But to do that, he still needed the Kid's talents, not just Kaito's classroom antics. But at the same time, he was both, and they were crossing over more frequently lately.
Such as the magic as Kaito...
He rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands. Argh. His thoughts just kept going in circles. He was going to go crazy at this point, trying to make it make sense.
"Looks like someone's thinking too hard." Joe commented, startling him. Kaito opened his eyes to find the old man looking down at him with a fondly amused look on his face.
"Just trying to work things out logically." Kaito dismissed it. He paused, a stray thought hitting. "Hey, Pierson? You've had to change aliases, haven't you?"
Joe snickered. "Just a few times."
Pierson gave his friend a dark look.
"If you're lookin' for advice," Joe advised. "You're lookin' at the wrong guy. Adam doesn't do advice."
"While 'Uncle Joe' rarely ceases with his helpful hints." Pierson quipped dryly. "A regular fount of knowledge he is. Wisdom of the ages, even."
Kaito stared at them for a minute, then decided to let that one go. There was probably something there that he was missing, but he wasn't going to be able to figure it out at this very moment.
"Have you ever had troubles switching between names and personalities?" He questioned in their vague direction. "There's a carry over or a blending the two? Or have you ever started questioning which one you are?"
The last part was said very very quietly.
Pierson ignored the question, his nose stubbornly buried in a book. Joe chuckled. "Now see, that's where you're going wrong, kid." The grizzled man grinned at him. "You're thinking that this guy's actually sane."
Kaito stared at the barkeeper as suddenly several pieces clicked into a new, but strangely comfortable configuration in his head. "... Oh."
+++
"I am going to die." Saguru announced dramatically as he fell onto the bed next to Kaito after he finished being beaten up by MacLeod.
"No." Kaito glared at him. "You're not."
"You are right." Saguru agreed blandly. "Please kill me first."
Kaito briefly debated smothering his boyfriend with a pillow, but really, that would just accomplish what Saguru had just requested. So therefore it was out of the question.
"You're steadily starting to improve." MacLeod commented as he jauntily passed by. "We'll how much improvement you do tomorrow."
Saguru waved an acknowledging hand in the air and let it flop back down. Kaito smirked fondly at the blond. He would be up at it again tomorrow, unlike Kaito, who was just proud of being able to hobble to the bathroom and back on his own.
The blond looked at him from under his weary eyelashes. "Hey. Your eyes are violet. Something wrong?"
"No." Kaito shook his head, his smirk changing to a fond smile. "Just been figuring things out."
"Have some tea." Pierson interuppted, handing them each a cup of warm tea. "Mother's own milk, as it were. Makes everything better."
Kaito took the cup and gave it a dubious look. Pierson had been quite adamant about -not- fetching any sort of food or beverage for 'the invalid'. Saguru rolled over to sit up and took the cup with an eager look and grateful gratitude. Kaito peered at his drink, then glared suspiciously up at Pierson. Pierson looked back guilelessly.
"You're up to somethin', aren't you?" MacLeod commented. Pierson smiled innocently back at the Scotsman. Macleod rolled his eyes. "Never mind, stupid question."
Which really didn't make Kaito feel that much better. He poked at the tea with a fingertip, noticing the odd pearlescent sheen, almost a thin oily coating on the top of the tea.
The skin of the fingertip pinked slightly, like he'd touched something scalding hot instead of merely body temperature. Not just tea then. Next to him, Saguru happily drained his cup.
Kaito gave one last look at Pierson, quickly judged just how much he trusted Pierson, how much he valued his current life, the odds that this would kill them, then emptied the cup of tea in three gulps.
"I'll just go wash these." Pierson said, taking the cups back from them and heading towards the fireplace. Saguru plopped backwards on the bed and relaxed, happy to have some familiar comfort drink. Pierson threw the cups into the fireplace, grabbed a match, lit it and tossed the lit match into the fireplace as well. There was a large 'WHOOSH' and a small fireball as what ever was in the fireplace ignited.
Hmm... so maybe that was the best way to get rid of Pandora... Or at opened up a few ideas... Although the blowtorch hadn't worked.
"Hey!" MacLeod protested, realising what Pierson had just done. "Those were mine!"
"Absolutely hideous too." Pierson agreed without complaint. "I'm doing the world a favour, MacLeod."
"Ye bloody well are not!" MacLeod snarled, grabbing the tongs and fishing the cups out of the fire. They were a little sooty, but otherwise intact. Kaito laughed softly as the two bickered, feeling a warm lassitude slide through his body.
Saguru made a soft questioning sound as he also relaxed, apparently having the same trouble staying awake. Kaito rolled backwards, landing partially on Saguru. Saguru mumbled, reaching and wrapping an arm around him, pulling him close as they both fell asleep.
+++
When Kaito woke up yet again, the sun had set and risen again.
And Kaito, for the first time in over a week, woke up feeling refreshed.
More precisely, he woke up feeling like he had just downed several cups of Koizumi's coffee and was happily buzzed. He stretched, luxuriating in the feel of being able to move freely again. Enforced confinement, especially due to his own body sucked. He hated being sick.
"Your friend is downstairs with MacLeod." Pierson said. "MacLeod's starting to have to put a bit of effort into it now that he's got some energy. I imagine that you'll be on your way tomorrow."
"Tired of us already?" Kaito inquired with a grin as he started stretching his shoulders.
"Yes." Pierson said bluntly, tossing him something. Kaito caught it on reflex, slightly amused to discover that it was Pandora. "Now get out."
Kaito snickered, casually sliding the stone back through the plush fabric into Sir Stinky's head. The fabric sealed itself back up behind the stone as nothing had just passed through it. "That was a dangerous thing you did." He commented idly, leaning down and touching his toes.
"Curiosity." Pierson dismissed it. Kaito could admit to a similar curiosity, wondering just how well Pandora's elixir would work with the blood of someone who had lived for several mortal lives instead of just one. Pretty well as it turned out, although he wouldn't have tried it if he hadn't been drained and injured. Or if Pierson hadn't volunteered it. "It was your choice to drink it however. You could have just as easily died."
"True." Kaito admitted. He wasn't sure how long the affects would last, but it would at least be a temporary assist. "-But then we wouldn't have found out if it worked or not."
The immortal chuckled at that. "There is that."
Kaito smirked, stretching out his legs. "Anything we can do as a thank you for your hospitality?" They'd pretty much taken over MacLeod's living room, eaten their food and taken up their time.
"Yeah." Pierson nodded. "Don't take MacLeod with you. He's got a thing about causes."
"No problem." Kaito agreed, sliding out of the bed and pleased to discover he didn't wobble back and forth as he did so. "I've already got my white knight type to keep me on the straight and narrow. I'd go nuts with a second."
Or at least that was the reading he'd gotten off of MacLeod the few times he'd heard the man. Or overheard from Pierson and Joe.
"Boy scout, actually." Pierson smirked. "We have a deal then."
"Rather cheap, isn't it?" Kaito questioned.
"So survive this and pay us back later." Pierson waved it off. Kaito nodded. Another favour he owed. But it wasn't too bad of a price, as long as it was to people he didn't mind paying. And they seemed like decent folk, head slicing aside.
"All right." He agreed. Pierson grunted.
Saguru and MacLeod tromped up the stairs, both sweating and looking pleased with themselves. "You're up." Saguru greeted Kaito with a grin. "Feeling better?"
"Lots." Pierson agreed. "We may actually have some privacy around here again."
Kaito paused, a stray thought hitting as he glanced between Pierson and MacLeod. MacLeod was opening the refrigerator, bending over to grab a bottle of cold water and Pierson was....
Pierson appeared to be admiring the view.
... Oh.
Right.
Well, that would explain the lack of freaking to two boys constantly wrapped around in each other while in bed...
Although MacLeod didn't really seem to notice Pierson's attention. Kaito would have thought MacLeod would have been preening slightly under such an appreciative look.
"I think we should probably plan on heading out of here soon." Kaito said in a stage whisper as Saguru stopped next to him, wiping the sweat off his face with a sleeve.
Saguru nodded, as if he'd been expecting it. "After a shower." He paused, thoughts flickering past his amber eyes. "You look like you have a plan." He said softly, looking pleased.
Kaito smiled. He did, and Saguru wouldn't like it.
But really, that was part of the fun.
+fin+
As always, please feel free to point out any errors in the fic.
Continued from 'Cascade'
+++
+++
The first time Kaito drifted to consciousness, he was aware of being wrapped up in detective. Solid, warm, -breathing- detective.
Reassured that they were both among the world of the living, or at least not dead and somehow still together, he slipped back into slumber.
+++
There were voices the next time he gained consciousness. Saguru wasn't curled around him anymore, but was close enough that Kaito could feel the blond's warmth next to him. The timbre of the detective's voice seemed to be on guard, slightly strained, which worried Kaito.
The responding voices were vaguely familiar, tripping something in his brain. Heads. Swords. Lightning. These people were dangerous.
If they wanted Saguru's head, they were going to have to go through him first. The detective was -his-. He reached up, grabbing Saguru and wrapped himself around the blond's head, the two of them crashing onto the soft horizontal surface they were resting on. Saguru let out a muffled yelp, hands grabbing Kaito as the magician slipped back asleep, stubbornly refusing to let go of his partner.
+++
The third time he woke up, the room was quiet. Saguru was a peacefully slumbering hulk wrapped around him, his quiet breathing blowing air past Kaito's ear. He did a quick mental check list, hands, toes and limbs all attached. Although he currently wished his head -wasn't- attached, it felt like someone had completed their attempt to drive stakes through it at every possible angle. His right wrist hurt, a throbbing ache under the wrappings and a bone deep weariness lingered, seductively trying to pull him back to sleep. Other than that, everything was still intact.
They were alive.
Despite the hurt and the pain, he felt a brief surge of triumphant joy. Alive. As in 'Not Dead'. Hah.
"Ah, I see our thieving young magician is awake." A droll voice commented. Kaito opened his eye a slit, spotting a lanky thin man sitting in a chair next to where they were laying, a book cradled in his hands. "You're a long way from Paris, my friend."
Kaito paused as his brain spun, trying to place the man. Paris. Jazz bar. Freak lighting storm. Bouncing heads. "I assume that you're not taking our heads." He said. Or tried to say. He was vaguely surprised by how disused his voice and throat felt.
The man, --Pearson? Pierson, his sluggish brain reminded him. Something biblical Pierson-- smiled condescendingly at Kaito as he attempted to sit up, dislodging Saguru's limbs as he did so. "No, we are not interested in removing your head from your shoulders, you are currently in Seacouver, Washington, near the west coast of what people call the United States of America and you've been asleep for almost three days."
"Oh." Kaito cleared his throat. "'anks."
"Welcome. There's water next to you. Your friend Saguru has been keeping you hydrated as much as he can. If you need to pee, you are holding your own dick."
Kaito blinked. Okay... that was a mental image he didn't need. He reached over and started to pick up the half-filled glass. He froze as the pain from his injured wrist struck and he switched hands to pick up the vessel his currently good arm. He was startled by how badly he shook as he drank. But thankfully, he didn't spill any of the quenching liquid and safely returned the glass to where it had been.
"And that-" Pierson said airily, like he had all the experience of the world backing his words. "-Is why most magicians don't survive their first year. Doing idiotic things with abilities they don't understand. You're damn lucky you didn't end up in the middle of Mount Saint Helen."
Kaito gave him a limp shrug. He supposed he should be grateful for Pierson taking care of them --and he probably would be later-- but at the moment he was too tired to summon the energy. "I couldn't."
Pierson paused, waiting for him. Kaito's thoughts drifted and he startled slightly when Pierson gave him a small verbal nudge. "Couldn't what? Teleport into the middle of an active volcano?"
"No..." Kaito gave a small woozy shake of his head. "I couldn't leave him. To die."
The older man gave him an odd indescribable expression, like Kaito had just handed him a puzzle when he was expecting an apple. Kaito listed to the side, trying to find the words to explain.
"S'not that I can't live without 'im... I don't need him... An' he doesn't need me." Kaito mumbled, his energy already fading from just this little bit of exertion. "But... I want him. Around. I like him." He said with bare honesty.
Saguru was a stubborn, uptight, moralistic, sarcastic bastard who somehow had the bad grace to be attracted to an international thief. And Kaito was stupid enough to fall for him back. He was used to Saguru, his little twists and quirks. And if it took doing something stupid and irrational to try to keep Saguru healthy and breathing, well, he'd do it without a second thought and pay the consequences later.
He looked blearily up at Pierson. "...Does that make sense?"
"Yes." Pierson said quietly. "Go back to sleep. You're as safe here as one can be."
"Okay." Kaito agreed quietly. "'anks."
And with that, he listed to the side and fell asleep on Saguru's solid form.
+++
When Kaito drifted to consciousness again, he found himself curled around Saguru, instead of the other way around. The blond was sitting up on the bed reading a book, Kaito's arms wrapped around the leg he was using as a pillow. He was probably cutting off the circulation to Saguru's legs something fierce, but at the moment he was too lethargic and comfortable to move.
The tips of Saguru's fingers gently traced one eyebrow, then followed the curve of the eye, down the bridge of the nose, then traced the contours of Kaito's lips. The feather light touch went down to his chin, up the jaw-line and around the shell of his ear, making Kaito shiver slightly. The room was quiet, he couldn't hear anyone else in the vicinity.
"This okay?" Saguru asked quietly, fingers resting on the pulse point just behind the ear.
"Mmm." Kaito agreed, sleepily nuzzling Saguru's leg. Saguru made a pleased sound, fingers continuing their exploration down Kaito's neck, over one shoulder and down his spine. Kaito hummed slightly, vaguely amused by Saguru's actions, subtly checking that Kaito was here and whole.
Kaito shifted slightly so that he was looking up at the blond, Saguru's gentle touch sliding over the tee-shirt he was wearing, then down to the patch of bare skin on his hip this action prompted. Saguru absently traced small circles on the skin there, before tugging the shirt down to cover it and travelled northward, this time along Kaito's belly. He muffled a squeak as Saguru outlined his belly button, tickling the indentation. The blond smiled slightly, his eyes never leaving the book he was reading.
Saguru looked tired, Kaito mused, content for the moment just to let his thoughts wander. He couldn't hear anyone else and Saguru's gaze wasn't flickering around, tracking where other people were, so it was most likely just the two of them. And that was just fine with him. He hadn't had any quality time with his boyfriend since Las Vegas.
Not that he really had the energy to -do- much at the moment, which was a pity. And it still sounded weird to say that in his head, 'his boyfriend'. He smiled as Saguru's fingers paused, hand splayed and pressed across his chest as if he could feel Kaito's heart beating beneath his ribs. His boyfriend. His detective. His friend, his travelling companion, his rival, his lover, his Saguru.
That had a nice ring to it, 'His Saguru'.
The Kaitou portion of his brain cackled possessively over the one stolen golden treasure he didn't have to return, 'His Saguru'. Mwuahahahahaa.
Saguru's hand continued it's exploration, drifting over his collarbones, then up over his shoulder and down his arm. Kaito shifted slightly, contentedly watching Saguru's face with half lidded eyes. His boyfriend really was pretty. Saguru's features were an exotic blend of both his parents. Strong fine features from his British ancestry, rounded and gentled by his Japanese linage without leaning too far one way or another. The nose was a little on the long side, a gift from his mother, but he'd gotten her beautiful clear skin that blushed so well, so Kaito thought it was a fair trade. Especially when Saguru blushed.
He had kind eyes as well, Oh, they could be fierce when he was riled up, but most of the time Saguru had some of the gentlest eyes Kaito knew. And such an attractive colour as well, like the high quality polished tiger's eye that Chat Noir used to target, set under dark lashes. He had Japanese almond shaped eyes under the European eyelid, another striking blend of Western and Eastern.
Broad in the shoulder and narrow at the waist, Saguru had a nice figure, when he wasn't hiding it underneath an unflattering suit. His legs that went on forever, most of his height was in his lower limbs, unlike Kaito, who had the gymnast's short legs and flexible long torso. Saguru was broader than almost everyone their age that Kaito knew, save for maybe Hattori with his kendo-skills.
Strong hands, not nimble like Kaito's long fingers, but steady and considerate in their strength. He'd never be the thief Kaito was, but Kaito would never be the detective Saguru was.
He even smelled good, warm and musky and so very -male-. Well, okay, his feet didn't smell so great if he didn't change his socks every day, but then neither did Kaito's. They were guys, not romance novel leads with tragic pasts and few flaws.
"What are you thinking about?" Saguru questioned softly, interrupting his thoughts as his fingers ran over Kaito's eyebrows before brushing Kaito's dyed hair out of his face.
'You', Kaito almost said, then bit his tongue. He toyed briefly with commenting that he could see a booger up Saguru's noise, just to get one of detective's fond, exasperated smiles. "We need a shower." He finally commented ruefully. The last time they had bathed had been the day before the whole bomb thing, and he'd been drifting in and out of consciousness for days now. He probably reeked, although Saguru hadn't said anything about it.
Saguru's lips twitched in a muted laugh. "I took one already, but we can take one later." He assured Kaito, running his hands through Kaito's hair again. 'We' meant 'Together' and Kaito smiled lazily at that, silently cheering. Soap and water and naked Saguru. Yay.
He resisting the urge to purr as Saguru twined his fingers in Kaito's hair, massaging the scalp and drifted off again.
+++
The sun had shifted by the time Kaito rose to awareness again. Saguru was still reading, one hand holding the book up, the other loosely wrapped around Kaito's hand, fingers lightly pressed against the inside of his wrist.
Saguru seemed to have a wrist fetish, Kaito thought wryly. When they'd first started their clandestine meetings as Kaitou and Tantei, Saguru would usually kiss the inside of his wrist upon Kid's leaving, in the gap between his cuffs and his gloves. He'd once gotten Saguru to admit that it was one of the few places that was always bared, regardless if he was Kid or Kuroba. Privately, Kaito thought it was a Victorian thing, little bits of bare skin hiding and unhiding being more tantalising than the full monty.
And it was a pulse point, he usually had to repress the urge to shiver whenever Saguru kissed him there. But that was probably why Saguru was resting his hand there, tracking Kaito's heartbeats, assuring himself that Kaito was still alive. The sap.
He'd finished the other book and was silently moving his lips as he slowly read this one. He was obviously struggling with it. Kaito twisted his head slightly, peering at the title, unable to make out more than something about 'Mystere'.
A slight shift allowed him to see a similar stack of books on the table next to the detective, all of them in a similar vein. Magic, myths and histories from various times and places around the world. He should have been surprised, but wasn't. Seemed like everywhere he went, people shoved a stack of books at him, told him to read and that there'd be a practical life exam on it later.
"I feel like I am studying Shakespeare again." Saguru commented softly, fingers tracing small circles against Kaito's wrist. "Some of these books I do not think you will be able to read without several dictionaries and a massive painkiller for the headache. Olde English is not friends to many."
Kaito thought about it and decided that the half-briton was probably right. While mimicking an accent or a language wasn't a large problem, understanding what he was saying often was. And Saguru did tend to enjoy learning strange bits of esoteric knowledge. "Gimme the condensed version later?"
Saguru nodded, releasing Kaito's wrist to turn the page before putting his hand back down where it had been. Kaito smiled to himself, watching Saguru's eyes flicker across the page with an expression if intense concentration. Not only was his boyfriend really pretty --not that he'd admit that out loud-- and not only did he have a good personality, obsessions aside, but he was both smart and clever as well.
Smart because he learned stuff quickly and was able to remember it, and clever because he could then later on turn around and use that knowledge when it was needed. Or come up with a solution. All the knowledge in the world was useless unless you could apply it to practical purposes.
He shifted on to his side, nuzzling Saguru's leg and drifting off again, making plans. Reading later. Shower definitely first. Together. Mostly for practical reasons, falling asleep while in the middle of a shower and falling down sucked, but it was also a really good excuse to touch is boyfriend. Maybe an accidental grope or two to keep Saguru awake and on his toes. And blushing. And they could wash each other's backs. And stuff.
They could play 'Drop the Soap' later, when they were both feeling more energetic, but silly naked time was not to be overlooked. Especially not after the jacuzzi in Vegas.
Mmmm... jacuzzi....
Kaito fell asleep with a happy smile on his face.
+++
When he woke up the next day, after a pleasantly silly soapy falling-over-in-the-shower experience with Saguru, he discovered that the detective was gone. That side of the bed was cold.
However, he still had company of the British kind sitting on his other side. Pierson with a look akin to a smug satisfied cat, a beer in one hand and a book in the other. Kaito stared at him for a moment, then closed his eyes most of the way and debated how much energy he had.
Pierson turned a page in his book. It was a feat of marvellous agility, he did it one-handed, the beer never sloshing in the other hand. It was something that obviously required lots practise to get it right.
But then if one was immortal, one had time to perfect such manoeuvres.
"Your friend is downstairs with MacLeod." Pierson said quietly, not looking up from the book. "Mac heard he'd done some fencing in school and his teaching instincts came to the fore. From the look of things when I checked in earlier, your friend is going to be quite sore when MacLeod lets him go."
Poor Saguru. Ah well. More excuse to stay in bed then.
"What's it like?" He questioned, sitting up. Okay, that sucked. Kaito scooted back, leaning against the back of the bed to remain upright. "Being immortal?"
Pierson was silent for a moment, turning the page one handed again. "It has it's perks, and it's downsides." He said with dry charm. "Civilisations rise and fall, friends grow old and die, the quality of beer improves and drops. Life goes on."
Kaito snorted. An ambiguous answer if he ever heard one.
"Why?" Pierson flicked an eyebrow up in his direction. "Would you want to live forever?"
"Quite the opposite." Kaito gave him a tired smile. "I wish to destroy immortality."
Pierson did not move, but Kaito got the impression that he suddenly had the immortal's full attention.
"You have the means... to create immortality." Pierson said slowly, as if sounding out a land mine. "Men would kill for that."
"Men already have." He glanced down and realised that he was gripping the blanket tightly. He forced his hands to relax.
Pierson glanced down. "Amanda said that she knew your father. The first Kaitou Kid, I presume?"
"Yeah." Kaito closed his eyes, feeling weary to the bone again. "They killed Oyaji for trying to find it before they did."
"But you found it. A means to create immortality." It was not a question.
"The price is too high." Kaito shook his head tiredly, fingers twining in the blankets again. "It takes blood to fuel. The price of immorality is a never ending flow of blood."
"You make it sound like that would be a problem for some people." Pierson gave him a dry dark smile. One that made Kaito wonder just how old this immortal was and what he had done in his lifetimes.
Not everyone could live the life of a saint. He knew that lesson well.
Kaito gave him a wan smile in return. "For some."
Pierson laughed, a low dark ancient sound. One that made the hairs on the back of Kaito's neck stand up for a few seconds. The kind that said that this man was intimately familiar with Death. "A few lifetimes back, that would have been cheap, boy."
"And now?" Kaito ventured.
"Not anymore." And suddenly, Pierson was just a normal person again. One with a very whimsical morbid sense of humour. "-Too troublesome to hide the bodies."
Kaito nodded. "Of course." Made perfect sense.
Pierson smiled, looking pleased with himself. "So you want to destroy immortality." He said, returning the conversation back to the first subject. "Any luck on that?"
"Not yet." Kaito admitted ruefully. "I'm beginning to think finding it was easier." Fire, pressure, freezing, drowning, acid, at this point he was almost tempted to start looking for some way to launch the damn thing into the sun.
Or possibly throwing all the alchemists on their ears and creating alkahest, a solvent that could destroy anything, instead of creating the philosopher's stone. But then the question arose, just how would he store the alkahest?
"May I?" Pierson sat forward, shutting the book and setting it down next to him. Kaito inclined his head, partly out of curiosity, partly in acquiescence. The immortal reached across him and picked up Sir Stinky, cradling the plushie in his hands. "You kept it with you, even when you let your bags out of sight. And since you're a jewel thief, it only stands to reason that your loot is here."
Pierson made Sir Stinky's head nod at him. There was resemblance between the two in the length of their noses.
Kaito smirked. "Close, but not quite."
Both Pierson and Sir Stinky stared at him, heads tilting to the side to express confusion. Kaito reached into the air, twisting his hand as he did so, pulling a pale gem out of the ether.
Pierson's eyes went slightly wide, then flickered between the elephant and Kaito. "Okay, now I'm slightly impressed."
Kaito smiled wanly, feeling his energy drop dramatically. He'd removed the stone from the elephant just before they'd arrived in Cascade, just in case they end up losing the bags.
Although, if he was being brutally honest, it kind of itched, carrying the gem like that.
The immortal traded him the plushie for jewel. Pierson inspected the stone, rolling it over in his hand, holding it up to the light. "Mind if I do some research?" He finally queried, all business.
"She's called Pandora." Kaito yawned. "Supposedly drips tears of immortality every ten thousand years, when held up to the moonlight while the Volley Comet flies over head."
"Sounds like a good fairy tale." Pierson agreed.
"Oldest recorded legend of Pandora and her urn is from about seven hundred b.c." Kaito shrugged, feeling sleepy. "Ten thousand years ago is eight thousand b.c.... about the time Atlantis sank, according to Mr. Rudolf Steiner. Take your pick."
Kaito paused, looking at the immortal. Just how old was he-?
"I'm not -that- old." Pierson grumbled, rising from his chair. "But glad to see you've done some homework."
Kaito yawned, his jaw popping. How else was he supposed to figure out how to get rid of that blasted stone? Besides, the link to Pandora's red light and the Atlantis' mysterious red stone Orichalcum had been too tempting to ignore. "Bit of warning... Pandora'll heal any injuries, but it'll damage healthy flesh. Y'might wanna wear gloves."
It had blistered Saguru's fingers, the one time Saguru had held it.
"Thanks." Pierson paused, Pandora in one hand, beer in the other. "I'll return it to you before you leave."
"M'not worried." Kaito smiled, sliding back down under the blankets. He grabbed the poor abused elephant and tucked him under the blankets next to himself.
Pierson paused. "... You're not?" He seemed confused by this. After all, they had just met.
"The guys who killed Oyaji are after us for the gem." Kaito mumbled, eyes already falling shut as his limbs went lax. "If you have the gem, they're after you instead." And he'd make damn sure everyone knew exactly who had Pandora if he didn't get the stone back. He'd make sky writing and forty piece brass bands look subtle.
"You may have a point." Pierson said decisively, as his footsteps turned and started to walk away. "I'll have this returned to you as quickly as possible."
Kaito smirked as he drifted off. He wasn't sure whom he would feel more sorry for in that instance... the immortal swordsman or the men in black...
+++
+++
"God." Saguru fell onto the bed next to him. "Remind me not to do that again."
"Mmurph?" Kaito opened a eye. "Y'have fun?"
"I think I just learned more than I ever forgot in fencing class." Saguru mumbled. "Kill me now."
"Nah." Kaito reached out and patted his large rather warm boyfriend. He'd put too much work into keeping Saguru alive to kill him now.
"Good job, Saguru." MacLeod's voice commented. "Looking forward to sparring with you tomorrow."
Saguru waved a hand up in acknowledgement, then it flopped back down on the bed.
MacLeod and Pierson talked for a while, the subject of 'beer' coming up occasionally. Evidently they were out again, and it was 'the Old Man's fault.' Pierson won the verbal debate and MacLeod left to pick up more foodstuffs. And beer.
Saguru sat up with a groan, pulled out a book out of the stack and started reading. Pierson wandered by. "Aztec."
Blood sacrifices. If one needed large amounts of blood to fuel Pandora, it made sense. "Spanish invaded 1512." He pointed out. "Less than a thousand years old."
"Bering Land Bridge." Pierson said. "Could have brought it over then."
There were still debates about when the last people could have crossed the ice bridge between Siberia and Alaska. "Kon-Tiki." Kaito countered. "Pre-Columbian."
Pre-Columbian fit their time period nicely, starting about the time that people first arrived in the Americas and ending about the time the Cristóbal Colón landed in what was now South America. Kon-Tiki was the name of the balsa wood raft Thor Heyerdahl used in 1947 to prove that older cultures could have crossed the Pacific.
There was also that thing about the 'Bay of Jars', where a Roman vessel had sunk off the coast of Brazil before the Roman Empire had collapsed. That was a major oops in the navigation department.
"Viking." Pierson pointed out. "Greek to Roman to Celtic to the local Indians to Aztec."
Leif Ericson having possibly landed in North America around the year 1000. Romans invaded what was now Great Britian in the first century.
"China." Kaito offered. There were claims that the Chinese landed on the Americas anywhere from four thousand to one thousand five hundred years ago, depending on whether or not California was actually Fusang. Although those expeditions had been more interested in bringing things back -to- China, rather than bringing things from.
"Hmm." Pierson said, then wandered off again.
Saguru made a questioning noise. "History debate." Kaito mumbled and drifted off to sleep again.
+++
+++
When he woke up again, it was the next day. Saguru was gone and there were the sounds of sword fighting from down below. It was Saguru's voice and a strong Scottish brogue shouting instructions, so he relaxed again. Poor Saguru. Although, despite the blond's grumbles, he did seem to be enjoying himself. What was that roman adage? Healthy body, healthy mind?
Speaking of healthy body... Kaito rolled out of bed with a groan, his body protesting the movement. He ignored it for the moment and staggered off into the bathroom to take care of business. He sat down on the toilet to take a leak, dismayed at just how little energy he really had. Just this tiny effort had his hands shaking from fatigue.
He finished up, pulled himself upright and got over to the sink to wash his hands. He glanced up in the mirror and grimaced at his reflection. He looked like he'd been sick for weeks, pale skin, dark circles under his eyes and he'd lost weight again, his collarbones sticking out in a way that Americans seemed to prefer their supermodels, but was unhealthy and unattractive on everyone else. Not even his Kid suit could make this look flattering. No wonder Saguru had been keeping track of his pulse, he looked almost like one of Kudo's corpses.
Kaito sighed. Okay, life lesson for using Magic like that. Yes, it gave him one hell of an ace up his sleeves if they needed it. But it also took a hell of a lot out of him.
The question was, was the price he paid worth it?
A shout came from downstairs, followed by a loud thump. Saguru's voice echoed up, alarm and worry. Evidently he'd scored an unexpected hit on his teacher.
Okay, yes. The price was worth it. He'd rather look like death for a little while than have to bury Saguru. This wasn't permanent.
He wobbled back to sofa-bed in the middle of the living room and collapsed on it. Amendment to previous statement: Yes, it was worth it. It still kind of sucked though. He hated not being having the ability to get up and -move-.
Pierson wandered by. "Have you read any of the books?" He inquired, a not so subtle hint.
"Not yet." Kaito admitted, closing his eyes. He really wasn't up for focusing on doodles on a page right now. "'Guru's reading them currently, what I don't read, he'll catch me up on."
The immortal snorted, pulling something, probably a beer, out of the refrigerator. Kaito listened to him open it, noting the pinging sound of metal striking somewhere and the sound of bubbles overflowing their container. Yup. Beer.
"Hey." Kaito called, a thought hitting him. "When was Amanda here?"
"Hmmm?" Pierson made an inquiring sound from the kitchen.
"You said Amanda had been here, and recognised me." That was how Pierson had known that he was the Kaitou Kid. And the first time he'd woken up, Pierson had referred to him as 'our thieving young magician'.
He still did NOT want to know what she and Oyaji had gotten up to that one night in Calais. Ew. Although at least, it seemed to have left a favourable impression on her. And the champagne thing might be fun to pull on Saguru sometime...
"A few hours after we found you." Pierson took a long sip of beer. "She dragged Macleod out after that and they spent half the night re-hiding all of her jewel stashes."
"I don't steal without a notice." He pointed out, tiredly rubbing his eyes. Where was the brain bleach when you needed it? "And I already found what I'm looking for, so I don't need to break in to see them anyway."
Pierson made a non-commental sound. "Doesn't really matter. You don't get to live to be as old as she is without a large healthy dose of paranoia."
Kaito thought about it for a minute. "And how old is Amanda-san?"
The immortal grinned cheerfully back. Right. Bastard wasn't going to say. Kaito rolled his eyes and plopped his head back down on the pillow. He should have known better than to inquire about a lady's age was anyway.
He drifted for a bit, comfortably half dozing while Pierson read and Saguru got his ass kicked downstairs.
"Where did you find the gem again?" Pierson inquired, speaking loudly enough to wake him.
Kaito yawned, covering his mouth part way, then scratching his nose. "Japan."
Pierson was unimpressed. "Care to be more specific?" He quipped dryly.
"You want the name of the museum?" Kaito questioned, shifting to grin lazily at the immortal. Pierson gave him a look like he was debating if it was worth the effort to bop Kaito on the head. "Kidding. It was in a supposedly cursed necklace from the 1700s, known for having an association with the undead and the occult. First recorded known location was Haiti."
"Which doesn't help much." Pierson mused. "Because in the 1700s, Haiti was a common port for both the Spanish and the French."
"Yup." The French, who were colonising the world like mad at that time --which was really just a polite way of saying that they were going out and fucking what no European had ever fucked before, they made wonderful colonists-- and the Spanish, who were active in South America, looking for gold. And killing or enslaving what no European had never killed or enslaved before.
Pierson made muttering noises as he started grabbing various books and flipping through their pages. Kaito watched him for a moment, then let his head drop down again. He drifted off, waking up again when someone's irregular clomping footsteps approached.
"Hey, Old Man." A rumbling voice called as the limping footsteps got closer.
"Hey, Joe." Pierson said quietly and Kaito relaxed slightly again as he placed the name with the footsteps and voice. Joe, the bartender in Paris. Who probably knew about the whole 'immortality' thing. Although he didn't have quite the same buzz as MacLeod or Pierson, which meant he probably wasn't an immortal as well.
The two talked quietly, the cadence of their conversation soothing as they bantered back and forth. He allowed his mind to drift, picking and poking at various puzzles as his body relaxed.
At least until Joe inquired as to the status of their guests. Then he opened his eyes and waved a lazy hand in greeting. "Oh, there you are." Joe said as he limped over and looked down at him with a guarded amused look on his face. "Fancy running into you here. Long way from Paris."
"Yes, we've gotten that a lot." Kaito agreed. "How are you doing?"
"Hanging in there." Joe agreed amiably, leaning on his cane. "Looking better than you, in any case."
"... Thanks." Kaito muttered as Pierson chuckled in the background. He closed his eyes again and Joe limped away to snark at Pierson some more.
His brain wandered down various pathways until it got stuck on a problem he had been pondering for a while. Magic. He could do magic. Not the stuff Oyaji had taught him, the sleight of hand, but the really magical mystical freaky weird stuff.
The stuff that Kaito couldn't figure out and the Kaitou Kid took for granted.
Seeing as he was both Kaito and Kid, it was making his head hurt.
But he wasn't really the Kid anymore, he was supposed to be retired. He'd found Pandora after all. Now he just had to figure out how to get rid of it. Which hopefully Pierson would be some help with. If not, at least Pierson seemed to be having fun having a currently non-lethal puzzle to figure out.
And he had to get the Black Organisation off their backs for good. Without Saguru getting killed in the process. But to do that, he still needed the Kid's talents, not just Kaito's classroom antics. But at the same time, he was both, and they were crossing over more frequently lately.
Such as the magic as Kaito...
He rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands. Argh. His thoughts just kept going in circles. He was going to go crazy at this point, trying to make it make sense.
"Looks like someone's thinking too hard." Joe commented, startling him. Kaito opened his eyes to find the old man looking down at him with a fondly amused look on his face.
"Just trying to work things out logically." Kaito dismissed it. He paused, a stray thought hitting. "Hey, Pierson? You've had to change aliases, haven't you?"
Joe snickered. "Just a few times."
Pierson gave his friend a dark look.
"If you're lookin' for advice," Joe advised. "You're lookin' at the wrong guy. Adam doesn't do advice."
"While 'Uncle Joe' rarely ceases with his helpful hints." Pierson quipped dryly. "A regular fount of knowledge he is. Wisdom of the ages, even."
Kaito stared at them for a minute, then decided to let that one go. There was probably something there that he was missing, but he wasn't going to be able to figure it out at this very moment.
"Have you ever had troubles switching between names and personalities?" He questioned in their vague direction. "There's a carry over or a blending the two? Or have you ever started questioning which one you are?"
The last part was said very very quietly.
Pierson ignored the question, his nose stubbornly buried in a book. Joe chuckled. "Now see, that's where you're going wrong, kid." The grizzled man grinned at him. "You're thinking that this guy's actually sane."
Kaito stared at the barkeeper as suddenly several pieces clicked into a new, but strangely comfortable configuration in his head. "... Oh."
+++
"I am going to die." Saguru announced dramatically as he fell onto the bed next to Kaito after he finished being beaten up by MacLeod.
"No." Kaito glared at him. "You're not."
"You are right." Saguru agreed blandly. "Please kill me first."
Kaito briefly debated smothering his boyfriend with a pillow, but really, that would just accomplish what Saguru had just requested. So therefore it was out of the question.
"You're steadily starting to improve." MacLeod commented as he jauntily passed by. "We'll how much improvement you do tomorrow."
Saguru waved an acknowledging hand in the air and let it flop back down. Kaito smirked fondly at the blond. He would be up at it again tomorrow, unlike Kaito, who was just proud of being able to hobble to the bathroom and back on his own.
The blond looked at him from under his weary eyelashes. "Hey. Your eyes are violet. Something wrong?"
"No." Kaito shook his head, his smirk changing to a fond smile. "Just been figuring things out."
"Have some tea." Pierson interuppted, handing them each a cup of warm tea. "Mother's own milk, as it were. Makes everything better."
Kaito took the cup and gave it a dubious look. Pierson had been quite adamant about -not- fetching any sort of food or beverage for 'the invalid'. Saguru rolled over to sit up and took the cup with an eager look and grateful gratitude. Kaito peered at his drink, then glared suspiciously up at Pierson. Pierson looked back guilelessly.
"You're up to somethin', aren't you?" MacLeod commented. Pierson smiled innocently back at the Scotsman. Macleod rolled his eyes. "Never mind, stupid question."
Which really didn't make Kaito feel that much better. He poked at the tea with a fingertip, noticing the odd pearlescent sheen, almost a thin oily coating on the top of the tea.
The skin of the fingertip pinked slightly, like he'd touched something scalding hot instead of merely body temperature. Not just tea then. Next to him, Saguru happily drained his cup.
Kaito gave one last look at Pierson, quickly judged just how much he trusted Pierson, how much he valued his current life, the odds that this would kill them, then emptied the cup of tea in three gulps.
"I'll just go wash these." Pierson said, taking the cups back from them and heading towards the fireplace. Saguru plopped backwards on the bed and relaxed, happy to have some familiar comfort drink. Pierson threw the cups into the fireplace, grabbed a match, lit it and tossed the lit match into the fireplace as well. There was a large 'WHOOSH' and a small fireball as what ever was in the fireplace ignited.
Hmm... so maybe that was the best way to get rid of Pandora... Or at opened up a few ideas... Although the blowtorch hadn't worked.
"Hey!" MacLeod protested, realising what Pierson had just done. "Those were mine!"
"Absolutely hideous too." Pierson agreed without complaint. "I'm doing the world a favour, MacLeod."
"Ye bloody well are not!" MacLeod snarled, grabbing the tongs and fishing the cups out of the fire. They were a little sooty, but otherwise intact. Kaito laughed softly as the two bickered, feeling a warm lassitude slide through his body.
Saguru made a soft questioning sound as he also relaxed, apparently having the same trouble staying awake. Kaito rolled backwards, landing partially on Saguru. Saguru mumbled, reaching and wrapping an arm around him, pulling him close as they both fell asleep.
+++
When Kaito woke up yet again, the sun had set and risen again.
And Kaito, for the first time in over a week, woke up feeling refreshed.
More precisely, he woke up feeling like he had just downed several cups of Koizumi's coffee and was happily buzzed. He stretched, luxuriating in the feel of being able to move freely again. Enforced confinement, especially due to his own body sucked. He hated being sick.
"Your friend is downstairs with MacLeod." Pierson said. "MacLeod's starting to have to put a bit of effort into it now that he's got some energy. I imagine that you'll be on your way tomorrow."
"Tired of us already?" Kaito inquired with a grin as he started stretching his shoulders.
"Yes." Pierson said bluntly, tossing him something. Kaito caught it on reflex, slightly amused to discover that it was Pandora. "Now get out."
Kaito snickered, casually sliding the stone back through the plush fabric into Sir Stinky's head. The fabric sealed itself back up behind the stone as nothing had just passed through it. "That was a dangerous thing you did." He commented idly, leaning down and touching his toes.
"Curiosity." Pierson dismissed it. Kaito could admit to a similar curiosity, wondering just how well Pandora's elixir would work with the blood of someone who had lived for several mortal lives instead of just one. Pretty well as it turned out, although he wouldn't have tried it if he hadn't been drained and injured. Or if Pierson hadn't volunteered it. "It was your choice to drink it however. You could have just as easily died."
"True." Kaito admitted. He wasn't sure how long the affects would last, but it would at least be a temporary assist. "-But then we wouldn't have found out if it worked or not."
The immortal chuckled at that. "There is that."
Kaito smirked, stretching out his legs. "Anything we can do as a thank you for your hospitality?" They'd pretty much taken over MacLeod's living room, eaten their food and taken up their time.
"Yeah." Pierson nodded. "Don't take MacLeod with you. He's got a thing about causes."
"No problem." Kaito agreed, sliding out of the bed and pleased to discover he didn't wobble back and forth as he did so. "I've already got my white knight type to keep me on the straight and narrow. I'd go nuts with a second."
Or at least that was the reading he'd gotten off of MacLeod the few times he'd heard the man. Or overheard from Pierson and Joe.
"Boy scout, actually." Pierson smirked. "We have a deal then."
"Rather cheap, isn't it?" Kaito questioned.
"So survive this and pay us back later." Pierson waved it off. Kaito nodded. Another favour he owed. But it wasn't too bad of a price, as long as it was to people he didn't mind paying. And they seemed like decent folk, head slicing aside.
"All right." He agreed. Pierson grunted.
Saguru and MacLeod tromped up the stairs, both sweating and looking pleased with themselves. "You're up." Saguru greeted Kaito with a grin. "Feeling better?"
"Lots." Pierson agreed. "We may actually have some privacy around here again."
Kaito paused, a stray thought hitting as he glanced between Pierson and MacLeod. MacLeod was opening the refrigerator, bending over to grab a bottle of cold water and Pierson was....
Pierson appeared to be admiring the view.
... Oh.
Right.
Well, that would explain the lack of freaking to two boys constantly wrapped around in each other while in bed...
Although MacLeod didn't really seem to notice Pierson's attention. Kaito would have thought MacLeod would have been preening slightly under such an appreciative look.
"I think we should probably plan on heading out of here soon." Kaito said in a stage whisper as Saguru stopped next to him, wiping the sweat off his face with a sleeve.
Saguru nodded, as if he'd been expecting it. "After a shower." He paused, thoughts flickering past his amber eyes. "You look like you have a plan." He said softly, looking pleased.
Kaito smiled. He did, and Saguru wouldn't like it.
But really, that was part of the fun.
+fin+