To Hold a Dove

Food for Thought

Chapter Twelve:

Food for Thought

KID POV

Kaito Kuroba banged his head against the desk in front of him, exhaustion and excitement from last night's endeavors had made it impossible to sleep. He still couldn't believe he had kissed Shinara Kudo. Of course he had liked Shin as soon as he had met her, but at the time he hadn't realized she had been the famous detective of the east, a detective who far outshined almost any detective or inspector, Kid had ever known.

"What's wrong Kaito?" asked Aoko from where she sat beside him in the classroom.

He glanced up at her and sighed.

"Nothing, just tired", he said, but a blush came onto his face when he once again pictured her surprised look right before he had kissed those pink, soft lips. He didn't know why he did it, only that when he saw her staring at him so intently, he couldn't help the urge to just reach forward and truly capture her.

"Your face is really red, are you sick?" asked Aoko, the concern in her voice bringing him from his thoughts.

He shook his head.

"Nah", he said with a yawn as he noticed Hakuba staring off into space.

"Oi, Hakuba", he hollered to the teen in front of Aoko, "You awake over there?"

Hakuba turned to him with a glare as he stared at Kaito, the annoyance and anger in his face apparent to both him and Aoko.

"Hakuba-kun, what's wrong?" asked Aoko in concern.

Hakuba glanced at Aoko before sighing and shaking his head.

"Last night, Kaitou Kid took advantage of one of our detectives and kissed her against her will."

"Kid did?" asked Aoko.

Kaito paused and tipped his head.

"Did the detective say that?" he asked curiously.

Hakuba glared at him again but shook his head no, the expression on his face showing that he clearly wanted to say yes.

"No, if anything, she seemed almost..." Hakuba paused and shook his head, as though disgusted by the very thought he had just thunk.

"Seemed?" Kaito pushed.

Hakuba glanced up and noticed even Aoko was curious about what else he was going to say about the detective.

"Well, she seemed...happy, I guess", he said with a shake of the head, trying to clear the very idea from his mind, "I doubt it though. If anything, I think she was happy because she saw under his hat. She left the scene pretty fast and it seemed as though she was pretty confident about something. Maybe she gained a clue...still, if she had, I wish she would have told me."

"Worried someone else will catch Kid first?" Kaito joked with a grin.

Hakuba narrowed his eyes but shook his head.

"She is welcome to him if she can catch him, but maybe..." he froze as though just realizing he was saying his words out loud in spoken thought. He just glared at Kaito again before turning back to the board where the teacher was now beginning the lesson.

Kaito and Aoko just glanced at each other and shrugged, as they also began to prepare for the day of classes.

DCDCDCDCDC

"Kaito, wait up!" yelled Aoko as she ran to catch up with her friend who was walking home down the sidewalk.

"What is it now Aoko?" Kaito asked with mock irritation, but he grinned when she glared at him.

"D-do you have anything going next weekend?" she asked, a bit hesitantly.

Kaito paused in his steps and stared at her. "Why?" he asked.

She blushed a deep red as she kept her attention on everything but him.

"W-well, next weekend is the policeman ball and I was wondering if you would like to go with me?"

Kaito stared at her a moment before a realization dawned on him.

"Who all has been invited?" he asked.

"Well, the different regents of course, including Ekoda, and their families, as well as I heard Hakuba and a few other detectives are being asked to attend."

"Hmm", he hummed, "Do you know if a detective named Shinara Kudo is going?"

Aoko thought for a moment before nodding.

"Yeah actually, I think there was a girl by that name on the invite list. I remember now, I only paid attention to her because her name was listed right under Harley Hattori. Remember the girl we met at the Kid heist?"

Kaito grinned.

"Yeah I remember. I bet you Shinara Kudo is Shin-chan", he said with a smile as he glanced at Aoko from the corner of his eye.

Aoko's face showed her realization as she nodded in agreement, "I wonder why she didn't mention it before?"

"Who knows...maybe she was embarrassed about her health problems at the time?"

"Could be I guess", said Aoko.

"What health problems?" asked Hakuba who appeared out of nowhere.

Aoko jumped, but Kaito barely even twitched at the interruption.

"Geez Hakuba-Kun! Don't scare me like that!" Aoko yelled.

"Sorry, sorry", he apologized with a smile, "I didn't know Shinara Kudo had health reasons. Although that does explain her appearance at the last heist. She looked pretty pale."

"She said she had gotten out of the hospital recently. I wonder what happened", Aoko muttered.

Kaito frowned. He also was very curious about how that had happened. She was definitely the same girl from that night, but as to what occurred between then and the time he had first met her...he wanted to know, badly. The image of her falling to her death still haunted him in his dreams, even if she did live, she had very nearly made him at least partially responsible for her death. It didn't make him happy, but the idea of someone poisoning her after that, made him even angrier.

"Yeah Aoko", he said as they walked along the street, "I will join you, at the policemen's' ball."