maskormenacelogs | Bringing the zoo home

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Bringing the zoo home

WHO: Heiji Hattori and Kaito Kuroba
WHERE: Heiji's new digs
WHEN: backdated to not long after this
WHAT: Kaito's welcoming Heiji back. Plus the boys have to talk.
WARNINGS: None at the moment. If anything pops, I'll edit

Leave the door unlocked.

Kaito scoffed at that, even as he opened the door to Hattori's place, kicking the door closed behind himself, even as he started bending to put the cat carrier down and reaching out to unlock the leash from the dog's collar. He gave the dog a scratch behind the ears before letting him go further into the residence before opening the door on the carrier and letting the cat out to explore. The cat cast a look back at the chick before slinking off, Kaito shaking his head before looking down at the peeping mutant chick (chicken? He wasn't even sure anymore but it wasn't like he was about to let that stop him).

But seriously? Leave the door unlocked? He knew damn well Hattori knew exactly who he was talking to here.

"Think I should hang out until Hattori gets back?" He asked, laughing as the chick responded in rapid fire peeps. “Yeah. I guess I should. Knowing how detectives get, I'm sure he'll have questions about something.” He gently rubbed the feathers on the chick's head before straightening and heading further into the house. "Let's see if he's got anything interesting around here. I'm bored and hungry and who knows how long it'll be before he gets back."

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It's pretty spartan so far. He hadn't owned that much before he got ported out, and so the new house is pretty basic and boring. The biggest sign that someone is living here is the paperwork mess that is the kitchen table. His new folder is half open, notes scribbled onto one of the pages, next to a new notebook just starting to fill up with his messy scrawl.

Should Kaito be nosey, most of the notes pertain to things Heiji's been remembering since he got back. There's a half-assed timeline with conflicting events. Things he remembers on a certain day here, plus what happened on that same day back home. It looks like he was trying to get in sorted reasonably, but it's clearly frustrating work. An amount of time is circled at the top of the page.

Kaito isn't mentioned, but Kid is once, followed by lazy ???s. That line of thought doesn't go anywhere yet.

Having not really thought about actually stocking up on...anything, there actually isn't much food, and only a couple not water selections to drink in the fridge. Which coincidentally is why he'd gone out. So that he could return shortly, triumphant with groceries.

He has no idea yet how to navigate the upcoming conversation. It's been, what, months since he made that emergency goodbye message? He remembers, now that he's actively thinking about it, but...

He huffs a breath and tries to hurry. It wouldn't do to leave Kuroba alone too long in his house.

Kaito decides to wander the place, tsking softly as he notices the lack of, well, anything, to be honest. Someone clearly hasn't settled in and gone shopping. Especially since all his fridge seemed to contained was random drinks. He glanced down at the chick who was still following him around the place. "I really hope he's shopping for you guy too, or otherwise you're gonna starve." He had, of course, bought everything he had had at his place for them with him, figuring that he wasn't going to need any of it any longer (sadly, too, since if he was honest with himself, he didn't mind having the small zoo following him around).

Having finished his exploration of the rest of the residence, Kaito took a seat at the table, drumming his fingers along the tabletop impatiently. His eyes wandered its contents, pausing as he spied random characters written on the papers. He chuckled softly as he spied the scribbled "KID" with question marks. It was nice to know that he still made the best critics question either themselves or their sanity.

It meant he was succeeding in life.

Heiji finally returns, juggling an armful of bags. Not all of it was food, since he needed some clothes and probably some pet supplies (god, trying to remember what his chicken eats is an alarming venture), but most of what he needs can be gotten over the next few days.

Ellery had settled to lay at Kaito's feet while they waited, but his ears perk up at the sound of the door, and with a low woof, he jumps up to investigate.

Not expecting the rush of relief at seeing his dog, Heiji dumps his bags on the floor as he kneels, wrapping his arms around the elkhound's neck. He laughs as Ellery tries to climb into his lap, excited. "Easy, boy! Kuroba been feedin' you right?"

Kaito can't do anything but grin as Hattori is reunited with his dog. It was kinda heartwarming in a way, like those old school afternoon specials he sometimes caught on TV.

After a moment, he pushes the chair back and rises, crossing the home as he hears what Hattori says. "Oi, of course I have! We even went an visited Winry-san too. This dog as a better social life then I do." He jerked a finger over his shoulder. "I also brought everything I had left over, since I figured I wouldn't be needing it anymore."

Heiji grins, not yet willing enough to let go. "Thanks, Kuroba. I'm glad they had somewhere t'go while I was gone."

Kaito gives a one shouldered shrug. "No problem. It wasn't so bad once we figured out how to keep the cat and the birds separate."

He glances down at the dog with a fond look before turning his attention back on Hattori. "So what have you been up to since you've gotten back?"

Where the hell is Waffles anyway? Heiji gives a cursory glance around the front hall, but doesn't see the hairball. He does, however, hear Osito cluck at him from the kitchen and feels a shiver of dread as he looks towards it. He'd forgotten.

Did his chick get bigger??

"Uh..." Right, conversation. "Just tryin' to get caught up. Got back in the middle of Heropa bein' a forest, and there're a ton of missin' kids here still. Gotta readjust to th' powers, too." It feels like his body is too fast for his brain again, reflexes making him act and play catch up before he realizes something's happened.

Hei stands, finally, smiling as Ellery bumps into his legs to stay close. If Kaito looks close enough he's free to notice faint spots on Heiji's neck, and clustered on his temples at his hairline.

Waffles was off somewhere, probably sniffing around new surrounds. Or making territory.

"Did the porter screw them up or something?" Kaito asked, sounding confused. Then again, he hadn't experienced the sensation of leaving and coming back. He had been here for about a year here, the only one of their group actually (since everyone else had left him. At least Hattori came back).

He pauses for a second, eyes narrowing as he takes in Heiji's appearance. "... did it give you a skin disease or something?"

"Nah, I'd just been home for months. It felt like this when I first got here, too. No big deal."

Except for the second question, which has Heiji looking confused at him for a moment. "Huh? What are ya talkin' about?"

"Anything happen?" Translated from KID-speak, that sentence could be constructed to mean anything, but it's mostly implied as a 'Tantei-kun didn't do anything really stupid again, did he?' did he? Or a 'everyone is still alive and kicking, right?'

Kaito leaned closer, raising a hand and pointing at Heiji's neck. "You some weird spot thing going on there. On your temples too."

"Nothing too important." There's a low mutter of zombies, but Heiji doesn't elaborate, his hand going to his neck where Kaito pointed. It takes a second before understanding hits.

"Ah, yeah." He shrugs out of his jacket, hanging it up and holding up one arm. The pattern is still faint, but the spots are larger. None of them are a single, uniform shape, but very reminiscent of a large cat's markings. "They're all over." He sounds disgruntled about it. "They didn't add anythin' to my file, but I know damn well I didn't have them last time I was here."

".... the Porter didn't make you an actual cat did it?" Kaito kept himself from mentioning the eyes, that was something KID had seen, not Kaito. At least not to the point of drawing attention to it. And since they were still playing the "we'll just make subtle allusions to his other identity" game, Kaito was loathe to end it so soon.

"Of course not! What are ya, stupid?" Eyes which may be unnaturally green for him but, at the moment, seem human and are rolling towards the ceiling in exasperation at what is clearly a dumb idea. It's unnerving to think the porter is trying to actually turn him into a cat. Normally he'd be all over denying that it COULD happen, but the things he's seen here... he's not going to put it past it. And his power does seem to be progressing.

Kuroba better not laugh if it ever does, though. Heiji will bring down all his feline wrath on him.

He didn't just think that.

Picking up his bags, Heiji makes his way into the kitchen to start unloading. Despite being an actual adult with an actual job and everything in this world, he is still clearly a teenage boy and his grocery options reflect that. All easily cooked foods that remind him as much of Japan as possible.

"So fill me in. Aside from Neverland, what've I missed?"

Kaito would totally laugh. Then buy him some catnip toys and a scratching post. Because seriously, does Hattori think he'd let a trolling opportunity like that pass him by?

"Ah, not much, really. Winry-san and I were planning some sort of road trip to see the rest of the country. Someone else did it last year and it looked fun, so we figured why not? It'll make for some good bonding time if anything else."

Kaito will follow him into the kitchen but keep his distance once he realizes that Hattori tried to go for Japanese food. Or as close as he could get. Especially if he spies anything that might be those blasted finny things.

Heiji had forgotten his phobia, like everything else, but Kuroba's distance is pretty noteworthy when there's chairs right there to sit at, and after a moment's thought at his groceries the memories come back to him.

It's still...uncomfortable trying to organize everything in his head. He almost misses the instant recall he had before.

He casually digs the sliced fish out from under the other stuff and shoves it in the freezer, then moves to heat up a package of rice.

"Bonding time, eh?" Heiji grins pointedly at Kuroba, eyebrow arching. "Just the two of ya?"

Kaito won't relax or even approach until the fish is safely away in the freezer. Even then, he'll keep a distance from the fridge, because just knowing those horrid things are in there is enough to set him on edge.

"NO. Not like that!" Kaito make a noise of disbelief in the back of his throat. "We were going to invite others along too, sort of like a bonding trip. I mean, her friend and Aoko had left when we were talking about it, so..."

Drama Queen.

It's sobering to remember just how quickly they can all leave. He still smirks at Kuroba's denial, but waves a hand in the air. "Alright, alright. Were ya plannin' on a summer trip, or somethin' sooner?"

Nu-uh. He is totally NOT a drama queen, thank you very much. He just doesn't like this evil, deplorable finny things.

"We talked about... what was it that they called it here? Spring Break or something? Since I still have school to finish and all that." Since he had shown up as a second year, he had just gone with the American Equivalent. He probably could have tested out if he had wanted to, but eh. He had no idea how long he was supposed to be here for so why not learn everything he could?

Son, you are an entire opera of drama.

Heiji tested and blew threw the credits they said he needed to graduate. Too much was happening to be caught up in school all day, what with the extended case Maurtia had ended up being. It was just another of those weird adjustments of porting through time, getting used to not having to go over the last week.

Eh, wasn't as fun without all his friends here, anyway.

"That'd be... in two months?" He sits down to rub Ellery behind the ears, grinning. "Yer gonna visit the world's biggest ball o' twine, right? America's supposed t'be full o'fun tourist spots."

No, he's pretty sure that's Kudo, actually.

"Something like that, I think. Either March or April, I'll actually have to look at the calendar." Kaito responded with a shrug of the shoulder. "I don't know if we've set anything in concrete yet and... there's a biggest ball of twine? Really?"

"Yup. Kansas. America's full o' ritzy tourist attractions. Like the office buildin' that looks like a basket, or giant statues. Supposedly the London Bridge is in Arizona, but I dunno if it is in this word or not." How does he know this? The world may never know how bored he was.

".... huh. Well, now you have to come with us, if only to make sure we don't miss anything good." Kaito shakes his head in disbelief. "And people think Japan is weird."

"Tell me about it. America's clearly weirder.

I'll see if I can get th' time off work. If nothin' else I can make ya a list of stuff to see." It'd be the weirdest list of things he can find.

He gets up to check the rice.

It's amazing how easy it is to pretend this is all normal. Sure, he's gone through and gotten past the whole 'this isn't possible, it can't be real' stage, and doesn't plan on running through it again, but with home only a couple weeks in the past again, instead of months... he lets out a sigh. He misses it.

"Yeah, that could be touch, considering that you just took a several month vacation." Kaito says loftily, shooting a smirk in Hattori's general direction. "That would be cool though, 'cause I'm sure Winry-san and I missed some stuff with all those brochures."

Then again, maybe not with Kaito's memory, but if it distances himself from any preconceived notions on KID, all the better.

Heiji's sigh causes Kaito raise an eyebrow at him. "You okay?"

Heiji doesn't turn at first. The homesickness is strong enough that he's not sure he can open his mouth without ranting, but he draws in another breath and as he divvies up rice between a couple bowls he grins over his shoulder.

"I'm prolly not gonna be able to take so much as a sick day until Christmas. I mean, what if ya stumble across a body while yer out on th' road? Who's gonna help catch the person who did it?"

See how totally okay he is?

Yeah, okay, no. He's the master of Poker Face, not you, Hattori.

Nice try though.

Kaito mouth turns slightly as he watches the other. "I suppose we might need one of those hotshot teenage detectives to come along with us, to make sure that no one gets away with it." He offers after a moment.

"I'll just have t'call up Kudo and see if he can make it." Here, Kuroba, have a bowl. Heiji sits back down across from him with the food and a package of seasoning. "He can cover for me while I make sure neither of ya get framed for murder."

And here's Waffles, enticed by the conversation and bored with the emptiness of the rest of the house, jumping up onto the table to say hello. Heiji points at the cat with his chopsticks. "Yer not supposed t'be up here. Did Kuroba just let ya get away with anythin'?"

"Is Kudo even here?" Kaito takes the bowl from him. Okay, either Heiji is screwing with him or something else is going on. He's not entirely sure. "I mean, as far as I knew, he was missing. Has he shown up here or something?" Did either Conan or Shinichi come back through the Porter again? He was pretty sure he would have known, since he doubted that the other wouldn't try to see if either Hattori or KID was still around. "Framed for murder? Really."

Kaito laughs at Heiji's reaction to Waffles. "I didn't, no. I can't speak of the housemates when I wasn't around though."

A long sigh. "No, he didn't seem t'come in with me, and if yer sayin' that, then I guess he didn't come back while I was gone." He gently nudges the cat, then harder when Waffles plants itself in place, trying to stick its nose in the bowl.

"I haven't seen him, no. I've heard that we look alike, though, so I think I'd know if there's another me running around." Kaito shook his head. "As far as I know, I was the only one here from home from when you left until you came back."

Which kind of sucked, although he managed to get through it. Poker Face was wonderful for things like that. Bottle his emotions and then he wouldn't have to deal with them.

His lips curled as he watched the cat, "You know, Waffles was never like that with me."

There's a snort as Kaito says they look alike. It's a massive understatement. If it weren't for the hair and expression, they could be twins. Good thing their personalities were so different.

Heiji tried again to gently shove the cat away, another complete failure before finally picking the creature up to set it on the floor. He gives it about two minutes before it's back on the table.

"What, is 'animal charmer' one o'yer superpowers?"

And at no time at all has Kaito used that to his advantage, nope. Never.

Kaito smirks as he watches Heiji drop Waffles to the floor. He wouldn't even give the cat two minutes, more like one, before she was back. And that one was pushing it.

"Nope! The only thing I got from the thing was the ability to poof roses into existence." He replies with a shrug. "Which, honestly, was kind of useless, considering that I was doing that already."

He shakes his head, pointing his chopsticks at him. "That's gotta be the most useless power I've heard of yet. Even th'kid who can sneeze kittens into existence has it better."

He doesn't believe for a moment that that's Kaito's only power but shhh, that's a secret.

"... there's a kid that can sneeze kittens into existence? Why couldn't I get something like that?" Kaito pouted, because honestly, who wouldn't want cute kittens running around.

And there was no way he was trying to figure out ways he could troll with that as KID.

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Bringing the zoo home

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