The Apartment: Reunion (Fanfic100)
Nov. 7th, 2007 10:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
candyficsTitle: The Apartment: Reunion
Fandom: Detective Conan
Characters: Heiji/Kazuha (General series)
Prompt: #63—summer
Word Count: 4506 words
Rating: PG
Author's Notes: I do not own Detective Conan. It all belongs to Gosho Aoyama. I simply borrow the characters, tie them up, and dance them around like life-sized puppets. I do wish they’d stop complaining.
Summary: Someone’s come up for a visit…and reopening an old wound. Heiji/Kazuha
It had been a rainy spring night when Kazuha had returned to Japan.
Time had passed, as it tended to do, and it was now late summer. And she was quite sure that she had never been happier. She had a wonderful home, and she had Heiji in her life…things were pretty peachy, as far as she was concerned. Oh, there were rough moments—she and Heiji still bickered sometimes, and on rare occasions they outright fought. But the fights were quickly forgotten and even more quickly forgiven.
It was like a little oasis of sorts. She was on top of the world, and nothing could bring her down. Such was the state off affairs on one particular summer day. It was beautiful outside—the sun was shining and there was a pleasant breeze to keep it from being too hot. It was idyllic, and Kazuha was in a very good mood.
She was lounging around, waiting for Heiji to come home from a case (he owed her a rematch from a rather heated game of Go Fish from the previous evening), when there was a knock on the door. Figuring it was her father or perhaps Shizuka-san or someone to that effect, she bounced off the couch; humming to herself, she moved to the door and opened it…and her smile immediately morphed into wide-eyed shock. “What’re you doing here?”
The person at the door—a rather handsome young man her own age, and definitely not Japanese—grinned and spoke in flawless English. “Hey, babe! Long time, no see!” he walked right past her into the apartment without waiting for an invitation in, pausing only long enough to lean in and press a kiss to her cheek.
Kazuha was still a moment, torn between being stunned and being disgusted. Then she closed the door and walked after the guy, watching as he strolled around. He seemed to be checking the place out. Unconsciously, she pressed her fingers against the spot on her cheek. “Adam…what are you doing here?” she replied, also in English—she’d studied the language before going to America, and her grasp of the language had improved exponentially during her time living in the country.
“I was in the area, and figured I’d look you up,” he explained, examining a picture on a table. “Nice place you’ve got here! You living alone or what?” He straightened and wandered into the kitchen. “Got anything to drink?”
Kazuha almost asked how in the world he could have been in the area, but then remembered something—he had told her once that it was his dream to go to Japan someday. And he had always asked to hear what Japan was really like. So he had finally made it. Good for him. “Adam, you need to leave,” she tried to sound firm, but her voice wasn’t cooperating the way she wanted it to.
“This your bedroom?” he asked, walking into her room. “I guess you’ve got a roomie, huh? Is she hot?” He leered at her over his shoulder, and she felt slightly nauseous. “Nice, nice, very nice…” What was he doing? He was walking around like he owned the place, like he hadn’t just barged into her home. And then he added the kicker, “Is your roomie gonna be out for a while still?” His sneer grew more pronounced. “We could do some…catching up?”
Kazuha knew exactly what he was asking, though. He wanted to know how long they were going to be alone. What he didn’t realize was that she would have rather taken a bath in boiling bleach than indulge what he was actually suggesting—it would have felt a whole lot cleaner, at least. “I don’t think so,” she said coolly. “I want you to leave.”
“Whew, not a very good hostess, are you?” he walked back past her, not-so-subtly letting his hand brush against her.
“I would be if my so-called guest hadn’t decided to just invite himself to my home,” she replied. “Adam, leave.”
“You don’t mean that.”
“Get out.”
“Who’s the guy?” he asked suddenly, examining another photo.
She rolled her eyes. “That’s Heiji. I mentioned him before. Now leave.”
“What’s your problem?” Adam raised an eyebrow.
“…what’s my problem?” she stared at him in disbelief. “My problem is that you just barged into my home unannounced and uninvited, and your ‘conversation’ has been nothing but inappropriate comments and badly-disguised innuendos. I want nothing to do with you, Adam—get out.”
His green eyes flashed—that was a bad sign. “Liar.”
“Get out before I call the police. I know a lot of them.”
“You’re a liar,” he repeated. “You never did know what you wanted.”
Her eyes narrowed dangerously. “You’re wrong—I always knew what I wanted. I was just too scared to go and get it. But you know what? Things are different now. I know exactly what I want, and I have it. And I’m happy.” That was the biggest difference between then and now, really. Then, she had been “happy.” Now, she was happy.
He stared at her angrily for a moment. And then he moved—quickly.
His hands found her face, one on each side. The action startled her, and she tried to jump back. But he held on and pulled her forward…and kissed her hard on the lips. There was nothing even remotely loving about it, though. The kiss held nothing of caring and everything of power and possession, like a punishment. How dare she turn him away—it was his decision to make, not hers.
Kazuha felt her eyes go wide at the contact. For a moment, she just froze—she didn’t even know what to do or how to react. Should she push, should she bite him, what to do…? Her mind didn’t seem to want to work, she was too stunned to even think…
And then she heard a sound that sent her heart crashing into her slippered feet: the apartment’s front door opened, maybe two meters away. And Heiji’s voice speaking, trailing off. “Hey, I’m…home…”
Kazuha wanted to die.
-o-
Solving a case frequently put Heiji in a good mood. Coming home to Kazuha put him in an even better mood. He was pretty sure she was going to demand another round of Go Fish—it had rained the night before, a big summer storm, so they had made hot tea and played cards. And for some reason, she just couldn’t win at Go Fish. He’d creamed her six times in a row, and she had vowed vengeance and made him clean up.
But when he opened the door…
He’d started to call out to her with a cheery, “Hey, I’m home!” But the words had gotten lost when he actually saw what was going on: there was some strange guy standing in the middle of the living room…kissing Kazuha.
Heiji felt something deep inside him shatter. He froze in the open doorway and just gaped for a moment.
Not sure what to do or think, he turned away then. A thousand and one questions flitted through his mind, and none of them had answers. Who was he? Why was he kissing Kazuha? Did Kazuha want him to kiss her? Had she been…unfaithful? No, dammit—he wanted to punch himself for that last. She would never.
Never.
But Heiji was a detective—and he was as good as he was because he let the evidence lead, and he would follow it to the conclusion, no matter how unlikely the conclusion seemed. The clues told the story; he just read it. And right now, the clues were telling a story about betrayal. He closed his eyes…
And then he heard a loud crack, followed by a thud.
And Kazuha’s high-pitched shriek. “What the HELL are you doing??”
Heiji’s eyes flew open, and he whipped around to see the young man sitting on the floor, one hand clutching at his nose. Kazuha was standing over him, fists clenched at her sides; her face was flushed, and she looked absolutely FURIOUS. “What is wrong with you?” The guy stared at her in obvious shock, and when he didn’t reply, she pointed to the door and addressed him one final time through clenched teeth. “Get. Out. Right now.”
To his credit, the guy did as he was told. He was off the carpet in a heartbeat and rushing past Heiji to get out fast enough to break the sound barrier. Heiji turned his head slightly to watch the guy sprint off, then turned back to Kazuha, who was panting slightly. Unsure of what he should say, he just said the first thing that came to his mind. “So…he a friend of yours?” Immediately he gave himself a sharp mental kick in the arse and made a note to never, ever say the first thing that came to mind again.
But the damage was done: Kazuha’s face crumpled. She gestured helplessly with her hands, as though trying to convey something, then apparently gave up. She turned and walked to her bedroom, the first tear already making its way down her cheek.
Heiji stood there for a few seconds, then slipped off his shoes and followed her. She had left her door open; normally if she absolutely wanted to be left alone, she would shut her door and occasionally even lock it. An open bedroom door was an invitation to come in and check on her.
So he did.
When he walked in, she was curled up top of the comforter, her head pillowed on her arms and pointing towards the foot of the bed. She didn’t move when he came in, though he knew she had to have heard him. More importantly, there was no way she could have missed the shifting of the mattress when he sat down on the edge of the bed. She knew he was there; she just wasn’t acknowledging him…which wasn’t a total rejection. So he didn’t leave.
He also didn’t speak right away. But after a moment, he sighed. “What happened?”
She was facing away from him, and didn’t turn to look at him when she answered. “His name is Adam Knudsen. And he’s from America.” Her voice had a very slight hoarse quality to it, which he took to mean that she was close to crying, but not fully there yet. “He was in town, so he thought he’d look me up.”
“Was he a friend of yours?” Heiji asked.
“…you could say that.”
Something about the way she said it gave him pause. “Kazuha…?”
She was quiet a few seconds before she said, “He’s the reason I came back here in the first place.”
The penny dropped, and with it Heiji’s lower jaw. “That was—him?”
Kazuha nodded.
Silence lapsed while Heiji processed and Kazuha waited for the axe to fall.
Finally, he asked, “What exactly happened?”
“He knocked on the door—I figured it was one of our parents or something. And then he sort of barged in and started looking around and…making suggestions.” He saw her shudder, as though she didn’t want to remember whatever it was that this guy had suggested. “I told him to leave. I told him I didn’t want him here, and he called me a liar…we argued. And then he grabbed me and he kissed me. And that’s when you walked in,” her voice cracked on that last.
“I see…” Heiji said quietly.
Kazuha sighed shakily. “I feel like a whore.”
That surprised him. “Why?”
“I should have just punched him at the get-go,” she said. “Or thrown him or something…instead I just froze and let him do that. I’m not supposed to kiss anyone but you.” She almost seemed to curl up tighter, pulling into herself. “I’m sorry, Heiji…”
“It’s not your fault,” he said, scooting a little closer and reaching out with one hand to touch her hair. She was wearing it down today—which he not-so-secretly loved—and so he carefully threaded his fingers into it. He knew from experience that the simple gesture tended to have a very calming effect on her. “You told him to leave, and he didn’t. He’s the one who was trying to start something.”
“…it’s not just that,” she said. “It’s…everything.” Still, he could already see some of the tension leaving her shoulders as he combed her hair with his fingers.
He didn’t push that issue. He knew what had happened between Kazuha and…apparently his name was Adam. Up until that point, he had been simply the nameless, faceless ‘guy in America.’ He had never asked for details about that encounter—he knew enough to know that when she had come back, she had been in pieces. And it wasn’t something she talked about very often.
“Are you angry?” she asked. “And be honest.”
“…I was shocked when I came in and saw that because I didn’t know what to think. Now…I’m angry, but not at you,” he replied, and it was the truth. “I’m more angry at him…and at myself, for closing my eyes when I did. I didn’t get to see you deck him.” It was an attempt at a joke, and he hoped that it would work.
For a moment, she didn’t react. Then she chuckled ever so lightly. “That did feel pretty good…”
His hand dropped to her shoulder and pressed gently, encouraging her to roll over onto her back. “Kazuha, I’m not going to tell you to just forget about it—I know you can’t do that. And I’m not trying to make light of everything that’s happened between you and him. But you know what?” He propped himself up on one elbow and smiled at her. “He blew it. He’s an asshole, and he blew it, and you found something better. Or at least I hope it’s better…”
She smiled slightly. “Definitely better.” She reached up and brushed at his bangs.
Heiji frowned. “Not that I had a lot of competition…” That time she laughed, and he felt vindicated.
-o-
Within a couple of days, Kazuha was back in her normal good spirits. She obviously hadn’t forgotten what had happened, but she didn’t seem to be letting it get to her. Beating Heiji at three games of Go Fish and several rounds of checkers might have helped—even though she knew he’d let her cheat at checkers. She had to—after all, he had conveniently looked away at some shiny object while she switched a couple pieces around, and then pretended that even being as observant as he was about details…he didn’t notice the change.
True love, right there.
She left around eleven to go meet her father for lunch, so Heiji had the place to himself. Unless he got a call about a case or something like that, he wasn’t planning on going anywhere. So he sprawled out on the couch with an Ellery Queen novel and a pillow. It was just going to be a nice, lazy day, it seemed.
He was about halfway through his favorite mystery when there was a knock on the door. Immediately, something heavy dropped into the pit of Heiji’s stomach—he had a bad feeling about this. Nevertheless, he got up and went to the door and answered it.
Sure enough, The Guy was standing there. Heiji still preferred to keep this person nameless. “What’re you doing here?” he asked in perfect English, not bothering with any sort of manners. He also made sure to keep himself squarely in the doorway so there would be no passing him into the apartment without a fight.
“I could ask you the same question,” The Guy (…okay, so his name was Adam) retorted.
So he didn’t know. Maybe enlightening him would drive home the fact that he had lost and get him to go away. “I’m here because I live here.” He took a small amount of pleasure in the way the guy’s eyes widened; he also noticed that Kazuha had been right—this guy did have dark green eyes, very similar to Heiji’s own. “Now I’m going to ask again. Why are you here?”
“Where’s Kazuha?” Adam demanded, shaking off his surprise.
“She’s not in right now, may I take a message?” Heiji replied, privately thinking that any message left would be written down just so he could take a katana to it and burn the remaining shreds…and then maybe scatter the ashes on the wind. Or something. Whatever the case, he wasn’t going to let this guy get near Kazuha again. He had done way too much damage already.
“…are you and her...?” Adam didn’t full ask the question, but Heiji knew what he meant.
“Kazuha and I are dating.”
“And living together?”
“Yes,” Heiji replied. “We’ve been best friends since we were kids. I wanted a roommate, and she wanted someone around while she was getting her feet back under her in Japan.” That was the truth—just not all of it. The only reason he was explaining anything to this guy was for Kazuha’s sake. He was pretty sure this guy was going to jump to all the wrong conclusions.
Sure enough… “You done her yet?” he asked, leaning against the wall and folding his arms.
Heiji reminded himself that murder was illegal and tended to make the nice policemen get very angry. “No.”
“Why the hell not?” Adam looked at him like he was crazy.
“Because that’s our choice,” he replied. “And it’s really none of your business either way.”
He certainly wasn’t going to tell this horrible man that the thought had crossed his mind on more than one occasion—that he’d wondered what it would be like to hold and touch. He knew a little of it—a kiss here and there that had just kept going, and one particular night on the couch. They’d been watching a movie, and gotten…a little distracted. That was the first time he’d dared let his hands wander, and she hadn’t protested.
He still didn’t know how that movie ended…but all things considered, it didn’t bother him. It truly was addictive, but that was as far as they’d gone. Sex wasn’t a part of their relationship, and probably wouldn’t be for a while. So Heiji kept his more adventurous thoughts to himself.
“Pfft,” Adam rolled his eyes and shook his head, as though he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “You should. She’s pretty hot. Doesn’t know much—can be a lot of fun.” He smirked, and it was borderline feral.
Enough was enough—he had let this conversation continue to try and see if there was anything about this guy that wasn’t despicable, and he was coming up completely empty. But no one talked about Kazuha like that. Heiji’s expression darkened. “I’m going to tell you something, and I want you to listen very, very carefully.” He took a deep breath and reminded himself to keep his temper in check. “You are an asshole. You are one of the most god-awful people I have ever encountered in my life, and I catch murderers for a living.”
Adam’s eyes had gone huge again—suddenly, this little “guy talk” had pulled a complete one-eighty.
“By all rights,” Heiji said evenly, “I should beat the hell out of you for what you did to Kazuha. She’s my best friend and my girlfriend, and I love her dearly. Always have, as a friend and as a woman. And you hurt her. When she came back, she was in pieces. I helped put her back together. And now you show up again and drag up something that we both really wanted to stay buried in the past. So I should really be dragging your ass out to the parking lot and beating the shit out of you and leaving you there to bleed.”
Adam took a step back.
“However,” Heiji continued, “in a very strange, very awful way…I owe you. So I’m going to punch you once in the nose, and then I am going to close this door. And you are going to leave. You are going to go crawl back into whatever little slimehole you came out of, and you are never going to come back here again. If you ever show up on our doorstep again, I will call the police. And it bears mentioning that I have some connections at the police department. You will be in deep shit. Do I make myself clear?”
Adam swallowed hard and nodded.
“Good.”
Heiji reached out, grabbed the front of Adam’s shirt, and let him have it—right across the face. And he didn’t pull the punch at all. The blow was strong enough to send The Guy flying backwards; he hit the opposite wall and slid down it to the floor, both hands clasped over his face.
True to his word, Heiji took only a second to admire his handiwork. Then he stepped back into the apartment and closed the door. He locked it, just for good measure. He waited about ten minutes, then opened the door a crack to see. And he was pleased to see that Adam had vanished. Still, he was a tiny bit concerned. So he did a quick walk around the building to make sure that he wasn’t hanging around waiting for her. But he saw nothing—apparently this guy did have a brain, and had taken Heiji at his word.
He really did deserve a cookie.
Now satisfied, Heiji went back to the apartment and his book.
-o-
Kazuha came home about three hours later; the sky outside was starting to get dark. “Sorry I’m so late,” she apologized as she slipped off her shoes. “Dad mentioned during lunch that the washing machine at home was dying, so I went with him to find a new one. And then we got stuck in traffic.”
Heiji was sitting on the couch, watching TV; he turned to smile at her. “I was wondering where you were.”
She dropped her purse on the table. “I called your cell phone, but you didn’t answer. Guess you didn’t see my message. Did you take a nap or something?”
“When did you call?” he frowned.
“Around two, I think.”
That lined up pretty well with the only time when he would have been out of earshot for his cell phone. And he grinned, “Oh. No, I didn’t take a nap—but I know why I didn’t hear it ring. I was out of the apartment for about five minutes around that time.”
“Oh?” Kazuha came to stand over him. “Where did you go?”
He decided to be honest—no reason to hide it from her. “Adam stopped by for a little chat, and I chased him off. I wanted to make sure he had actually left the building. So I walked around and checked.”
Her eyes widened. “Heiji…what happened? What did you do?”
“He came over—was looking for you,” he said calmly. “And he started asking questions. He seemed pretty surprised when he realized that I lived here.” He chuckled, remembering the poleaxed look on That Guy’s face. “Guy’s a real ass, Kazuha.”
“You don’t have to tell me that,” she replied coolly. “I learned that firsthand.”
Heiji took her hand and tugged on it, pulling her down to sit sideways in his lap; she looped her arms around his neck and let her cheek rest against his temple. “Well, he asked a few very inappropriate questions. So I told him to get lost and never come back, and then I punched him. Once.”
“Heiji!” Kazuha gasped, straightening up to look right at him. Still, what he could see of her face said that she was torn between being appalled…and being completely delighted. He couldn’t blame her for that, though—needless violence was bad, but the guy really did have it coming. And she had to have wanted Adam to feel at least some degree of pain for his sins—which was reasonable. She was only human, after all.
“I only punched him once,” he said defiantly. “I really should have beat the crap out of him. But…I didn’t.”
“Should I even ask why you didn’t?” she asked. “Or is it just this newly developed self-control of yours?”
“That too,” he grinned, sliding his arms loosely around her waist. “But…the reason I didn’t kick his ass is because in a really weird, awful, twisted little way…I think I owe him one. So I let him walk away with just a black eye and a bloody nose. We’re even.”
Now she looked completely bewildered. “You owe him…Heiji, what in the world could you possibly owe him?”
Heiji smiled. “Why did you come back to Japan?”
Kazuha frowned. “Because I was lonely.”
“What was the straw that broke the camel’s back?”
“When he…oh…” she trailed off as comprehension dawned.
“Exactly,” Heiji said. “He used you and he dumped you. That started the chain reaction that put you on my doorstep, and brought you home. So it’s probably horrible to think like this, but…he’s the reason that I can finally see you.”
She recognized that line. He had said it once before after the incident in Kyoto with the Genzihotaru and the missing Buddha statue, but refused to explain what it meant. It wasn’t until recently that he’d told her what exactly it meant: it was a reference to her, when he had seen her outside the temple at Sannouzi and, not recognizing her, fell hard. That line had almost become an inside joke of sorts between them—it was almost like a secret code-phrase, a way to say ‘I love you.’
“…I never really thought about it like that,” she admitted. “But you’re right. In a really roundabout way…he’s the reason we wound up together.” She leaned her cheek against his hair. “So to say thank you for that…you let him keep his limbs?”
“And I didn’t break any bones, and the only blood he lost was from his nose,” Heiji said, almost proudly. Then he muttered, “…I really did let him off. Maybe I should have kicked him or something…”
Kazuha laughed. “No, no…you did just fine. So you’re sure he won’t come back?”
“Very sure,” he replied. “I think I scared about ten years off his life.”
“…part of me wishes I could have seen it, and part of me wishes I had been here to do it myself,” she sighed.
“Aww, come on, Miss Aikido Champ,” he teased. “I know you can defend yourself when push comes to shove. But let me be your knight in shining armor and protect you once in a while!”
She sat back. “Oh, all right. And here’s my knight’s reward.” She tilted her head down and kissed him.
When she pulled back, Heiji opened his eyes grinned wickedly. “If I’m going to get rewards like that…got any other ex-boyfriends I can beat up?”
Kazuha gave him a Look and swatted him on the head. “Way to ruin the moment.”
“I try.”
PS. Hehe…and so we finally meet The Guy. I decided I was going to make him as unlikeable as possible, just because assholes can be extremely fun characters to write dialogue for. And he was. Sad part is that I have actually met guys like this—a friend of mine was even engaged to one (she dumped his ass, thank God). So they DO exist. Which kind of sucks. So any guys out there, please—don’t be an Adam. Or Kazuha and Heiji will each punch you in the face. And I might have to hate you, which would make a kitten sad.
This message has been brought to you by the Please Don’t Be An Asshat Foundation.
I’m rather falling in love with my little mini-universe here. There are just so many possibilities for these two when they’re living together! And for some reason, the ones about the apartment-verse tend to turn into small epics O.O L’anyhoodle, I hope you enjoyed. And the next one will be the halfway point. NUMBAH FIFTY, WHEE!! Thanks for reading, all! Much love!
Fandom: Detective Conan
Characters: Heiji/Kazuha (General series)
Prompt: #63—summer
Word Count: 4506 words
Rating: PG
Author's Notes: I do not own Detective Conan. It all belongs to Gosho Aoyama. I simply borrow the characters, tie them up, and dance them around like life-sized puppets. I do wish they’d stop complaining.
Summary: Someone’s come up for a visit…and reopening an old wound. Heiji/Kazuha
It had been a rainy spring night when Kazuha had returned to Japan.
Time had passed, as it tended to do, and it was now late summer. And she was quite sure that she had never been happier. She had a wonderful home, and she had Heiji in her life…things were pretty peachy, as far as she was concerned. Oh, there were rough moments—she and Heiji still bickered sometimes, and on rare occasions they outright fought. But the fights were quickly forgotten and even more quickly forgiven.
It was like a little oasis of sorts. She was on top of the world, and nothing could bring her down. Such was the state off affairs on one particular summer day. It was beautiful outside—the sun was shining and there was a pleasant breeze to keep it from being too hot. It was idyllic, and Kazuha was in a very good mood.
She was lounging around, waiting for Heiji to come home from a case (he owed her a rematch from a rather heated game of Go Fish from the previous evening), when there was a knock on the door. Figuring it was her father or perhaps Shizuka-san or someone to that effect, she bounced off the couch; humming to herself, she moved to the door and opened it…and her smile immediately morphed into wide-eyed shock. “What’re you doing here?”
The person at the door—a rather handsome young man her own age, and definitely not Japanese—grinned and spoke in flawless English. “Hey, babe! Long time, no see!” he walked right past her into the apartment without waiting for an invitation in, pausing only long enough to lean in and press a kiss to her cheek.
Kazuha was still a moment, torn between being stunned and being disgusted. Then she closed the door and walked after the guy, watching as he strolled around. He seemed to be checking the place out. Unconsciously, she pressed her fingers against the spot on her cheek. “Adam…what are you doing here?” she replied, also in English—she’d studied the language before going to America, and her grasp of the language had improved exponentially during her time living in the country.
“I was in the area, and figured I’d look you up,” he explained, examining a picture on a table. “Nice place you’ve got here! You living alone or what?” He straightened and wandered into the kitchen. “Got anything to drink?”
Kazuha almost asked how in the world he could have been in the area, but then remembered something—he had told her once that it was his dream to go to Japan someday. And he had always asked to hear what Japan was really like. So he had finally made it. Good for him. “Adam, you need to leave,” she tried to sound firm, but her voice wasn’t cooperating the way she wanted it to.
“This your bedroom?” he asked, walking into her room. “I guess you’ve got a roomie, huh? Is she hot?” He leered at her over his shoulder, and she felt slightly nauseous. “Nice, nice, very nice…” What was he doing? He was walking around like he owned the place, like he hadn’t just barged into her home. And then he added the kicker, “Is your roomie gonna be out for a while still?” His sneer grew more pronounced. “We could do some…catching up?”
Kazuha knew exactly what he was asking, though. He wanted to know how long they were going to be alone. What he didn’t realize was that she would have rather taken a bath in boiling bleach than indulge what he was actually suggesting—it would have felt a whole lot cleaner, at least. “I don’t think so,” she said coolly. “I want you to leave.”
“Whew, not a very good hostess, are you?” he walked back past her, not-so-subtly letting his hand brush against her.
“I would be if my so-called guest hadn’t decided to just invite himself to my home,” she replied. “Adam, leave.”
“You don’t mean that.”
“Get out.”
“Who’s the guy?” he asked suddenly, examining another photo.
She rolled her eyes. “That’s Heiji. I mentioned him before. Now leave.”
“What’s your problem?” Adam raised an eyebrow.
“…what’s my problem?” she stared at him in disbelief. “My problem is that you just barged into my home unannounced and uninvited, and your ‘conversation’ has been nothing but inappropriate comments and badly-disguised innuendos. I want nothing to do with you, Adam—get out.”
His green eyes flashed—that was a bad sign. “Liar.”
“Get out before I call the police. I know a lot of them.”
“You’re a liar,” he repeated. “You never did know what you wanted.”
Her eyes narrowed dangerously. “You’re wrong—I always knew what I wanted. I was just too scared to go and get it. But you know what? Things are different now. I know exactly what I want, and I have it. And I’m happy.” That was the biggest difference between then and now, really. Then, she had been “happy.” Now, she was happy.
He stared at her angrily for a moment. And then he moved—quickly.
His hands found her face, one on each side. The action startled her, and she tried to jump back. But he held on and pulled her forward…and kissed her hard on the lips. There was nothing even remotely loving about it, though. The kiss held nothing of caring and everything of power and possession, like a punishment. How dare she turn him away—it was his decision to make, not hers.
Kazuha felt her eyes go wide at the contact. For a moment, she just froze—she didn’t even know what to do or how to react. Should she push, should she bite him, what to do…? Her mind didn’t seem to want to work, she was too stunned to even think…
And then she heard a sound that sent her heart crashing into her slippered feet: the apartment’s front door opened, maybe two meters away. And Heiji’s voice speaking, trailing off. “Hey, I’m…home…”
Kazuha wanted to die.
Solving a case frequently put Heiji in a good mood. Coming home to Kazuha put him in an even better mood. He was pretty sure she was going to demand another round of Go Fish—it had rained the night before, a big summer storm, so they had made hot tea and played cards. And for some reason, she just couldn’t win at Go Fish. He’d creamed her six times in a row, and she had vowed vengeance and made him clean up.
But when he opened the door…
He’d started to call out to her with a cheery, “Hey, I’m home!” But the words had gotten lost when he actually saw what was going on: there was some strange guy standing in the middle of the living room…kissing Kazuha.
Heiji felt something deep inside him shatter. He froze in the open doorway and just gaped for a moment.
Not sure what to do or think, he turned away then. A thousand and one questions flitted through his mind, and none of them had answers. Who was he? Why was he kissing Kazuha? Did Kazuha want him to kiss her? Had she been…unfaithful? No, dammit—he wanted to punch himself for that last. She would never.
Never.
But Heiji was a detective—and he was as good as he was because he let the evidence lead, and he would follow it to the conclusion, no matter how unlikely the conclusion seemed. The clues told the story; he just read it. And right now, the clues were telling a story about betrayal. He closed his eyes…
And then he heard a loud crack, followed by a thud.
And Kazuha’s high-pitched shriek. “What the HELL are you doing??”
Heiji’s eyes flew open, and he whipped around to see the young man sitting on the floor, one hand clutching at his nose. Kazuha was standing over him, fists clenched at her sides; her face was flushed, and she looked absolutely FURIOUS. “What is wrong with you?” The guy stared at her in obvious shock, and when he didn’t reply, she pointed to the door and addressed him one final time through clenched teeth. “Get. Out. Right now.”
To his credit, the guy did as he was told. He was off the carpet in a heartbeat and rushing past Heiji to get out fast enough to break the sound barrier. Heiji turned his head slightly to watch the guy sprint off, then turned back to Kazuha, who was panting slightly. Unsure of what he should say, he just said the first thing that came to his mind. “So…he a friend of yours?” Immediately he gave himself a sharp mental kick in the arse and made a note to never, ever say the first thing that came to mind again.
But the damage was done: Kazuha’s face crumpled. She gestured helplessly with her hands, as though trying to convey something, then apparently gave up. She turned and walked to her bedroom, the first tear already making its way down her cheek.
Heiji stood there for a few seconds, then slipped off his shoes and followed her. She had left her door open; normally if she absolutely wanted to be left alone, she would shut her door and occasionally even lock it. An open bedroom door was an invitation to come in and check on her.
So he did.
When he walked in, she was curled up top of the comforter, her head pillowed on her arms and pointing towards the foot of the bed. She didn’t move when he came in, though he knew she had to have heard him. More importantly, there was no way she could have missed the shifting of the mattress when he sat down on the edge of the bed. She knew he was there; she just wasn’t acknowledging him…which wasn’t a total rejection. So he didn’t leave.
He also didn’t speak right away. But after a moment, he sighed. “What happened?”
She was facing away from him, and didn’t turn to look at him when she answered. “His name is Adam Knudsen. And he’s from America.” Her voice had a very slight hoarse quality to it, which he took to mean that she was close to crying, but not fully there yet. “He was in town, so he thought he’d look me up.”
“Was he a friend of yours?” Heiji asked.
“…you could say that.”
Something about the way she said it gave him pause. “Kazuha…?”
She was quiet a few seconds before she said, “He’s the reason I came back here in the first place.”
The penny dropped, and with it Heiji’s lower jaw. “That was—him?”
Kazuha nodded.
Silence lapsed while Heiji processed and Kazuha waited for the axe to fall.
Finally, he asked, “What exactly happened?”
“He knocked on the door—I figured it was one of our parents or something. And then he sort of barged in and started looking around and…making suggestions.” He saw her shudder, as though she didn’t want to remember whatever it was that this guy had suggested. “I told him to leave. I told him I didn’t want him here, and he called me a liar…we argued. And then he grabbed me and he kissed me. And that’s when you walked in,” her voice cracked on that last.
“I see…” Heiji said quietly.
Kazuha sighed shakily. “I feel like a whore.”
That surprised him. “Why?”
“I should have just punched him at the get-go,” she said. “Or thrown him or something…instead I just froze and let him do that. I’m not supposed to kiss anyone but you.” She almost seemed to curl up tighter, pulling into herself. “I’m sorry, Heiji…”
“It’s not your fault,” he said, scooting a little closer and reaching out with one hand to touch her hair. She was wearing it down today—which he not-so-secretly loved—and so he carefully threaded his fingers into it. He knew from experience that the simple gesture tended to have a very calming effect on her. “You told him to leave, and he didn’t. He’s the one who was trying to start something.”
“…it’s not just that,” she said. “It’s…everything.” Still, he could already see some of the tension leaving her shoulders as he combed her hair with his fingers.
He didn’t push that issue. He knew what had happened between Kazuha and…apparently his name was Adam. Up until that point, he had been simply the nameless, faceless ‘guy in America.’ He had never asked for details about that encounter—he knew enough to know that when she had come back, she had been in pieces. And it wasn’t something she talked about very often.
“Are you angry?” she asked. “And be honest.”
“…I was shocked when I came in and saw that because I didn’t know what to think. Now…I’m angry, but not at you,” he replied, and it was the truth. “I’m more angry at him…and at myself, for closing my eyes when I did. I didn’t get to see you deck him.” It was an attempt at a joke, and he hoped that it would work.
For a moment, she didn’t react. Then she chuckled ever so lightly. “That did feel pretty good…”
His hand dropped to her shoulder and pressed gently, encouraging her to roll over onto her back. “Kazuha, I’m not going to tell you to just forget about it—I know you can’t do that. And I’m not trying to make light of everything that’s happened between you and him. But you know what?” He propped himself up on one elbow and smiled at her. “He blew it. He’s an asshole, and he blew it, and you found something better. Or at least I hope it’s better…”
She smiled slightly. “Definitely better.” She reached up and brushed at his bangs.
Heiji frowned. “Not that I had a lot of competition…” That time she laughed, and he felt vindicated.
Within a couple of days, Kazuha was back in her normal good spirits. She obviously hadn’t forgotten what had happened, but she didn’t seem to be letting it get to her. Beating Heiji at three games of Go Fish and several rounds of checkers might have helped—even though she knew he’d let her cheat at checkers. She had to—after all, he had conveniently looked away at some shiny object while she switched a couple pieces around, and then pretended that even being as observant as he was about details…he didn’t notice the change.
True love, right there.
She left around eleven to go meet her father for lunch, so Heiji had the place to himself. Unless he got a call about a case or something like that, he wasn’t planning on going anywhere. So he sprawled out on the couch with an Ellery Queen novel and a pillow. It was just going to be a nice, lazy day, it seemed.
He was about halfway through his favorite mystery when there was a knock on the door. Immediately, something heavy dropped into the pit of Heiji’s stomach—he had a bad feeling about this. Nevertheless, he got up and went to the door and answered it.
Sure enough, The Guy was standing there. Heiji still preferred to keep this person nameless. “What’re you doing here?” he asked in perfect English, not bothering with any sort of manners. He also made sure to keep himself squarely in the doorway so there would be no passing him into the apartment without a fight.
“I could ask you the same question,” The Guy (…okay, so his name was Adam) retorted.
So he didn’t know. Maybe enlightening him would drive home the fact that he had lost and get him to go away. “I’m here because I live here.” He took a small amount of pleasure in the way the guy’s eyes widened; he also noticed that Kazuha had been right—this guy did have dark green eyes, very similar to Heiji’s own. “Now I’m going to ask again. Why are you here?”
“Where’s Kazuha?” Adam demanded, shaking off his surprise.
“She’s not in right now, may I take a message?” Heiji replied, privately thinking that any message left would be written down just so he could take a katana to it and burn the remaining shreds…and then maybe scatter the ashes on the wind. Or something. Whatever the case, he wasn’t going to let this guy get near Kazuha again. He had done way too much damage already.
“…are you and her...?” Adam didn’t full ask the question, but Heiji knew what he meant.
“Kazuha and I are dating.”
“And living together?”
“Yes,” Heiji replied. “We’ve been best friends since we were kids. I wanted a roommate, and she wanted someone around while she was getting her feet back under her in Japan.” That was the truth—just not all of it. The only reason he was explaining anything to this guy was for Kazuha’s sake. He was pretty sure this guy was going to jump to all the wrong conclusions.
Sure enough… “You done her yet?” he asked, leaning against the wall and folding his arms.
Heiji reminded himself that murder was illegal and tended to make the nice policemen get very angry. “No.”
“Why the hell not?” Adam looked at him like he was crazy.
“Because that’s our choice,” he replied. “And it’s really none of your business either way.”
He certainly wasn’t going to tell this horrible man that the thought had crossed his mind on more than one occasion—that he’d wondered what it would be like to hold and touch. He knew a little of it—a kiss here and there that had just kept going, and one particular night on the couch. They’d been watching a movie, and gotten…a little distracted. That was the first time he’d dared let his hands wander, and she hadn’t protested.
He still didn’t know how that movie ended…but all things considered, it didn’t bother him. It truly was addictive, but that was as far as they’d gone. Sex wasn’t a part of their relationship, and probably wouldn’t be for a while. So Heiji kept his more adventurous thoughts to himself.
“Pfft,” Adam rolled his eyes and shook his head, as though he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “You should. She’s pretty hot. Doesn’t know much—can be a lot of fun.” He smirked, and it was borderline feral.
Enough was enough—he had let this conversation continue to try and see if there was anything about this guy that wasn’t despicable, and he was coming up completely empty. But no one talked about Kazuha like that. Heiji’s expression darkened. “I’m going to tell you something, and I want you to listen very, very carefully.” He took a deep breath and reminded himself to keep his temper in check. “You are an asshole. You are one of the most god-awful people I have ever encountered in my life, and I catch murderers for a living.”
Adam’s eyes had gone huge again—suddenly, this little “guy talk” had pulled a complete one-eighty.
“By all rights,” Heiji said evenly, “I should beat the hell out of you for what you did to Kazuha. She’s my best friend and my girlfriend, and I love her dearly. Always have, as a friend and as a woman. And you hurt her. When she came back, she was in pieces. I helped put her back together. And now you show up again and drag up something that we both really wanted to stay buried in the past. So I should really be dragging your ass out to the parking lot and beating the shit out of you and leaving you there to bleed.”
Adam took a step back.
“However,” Heiji continued, “in a very strange, very awful way…I owe you. So I’m going to punch you once in the nose, and then I am going to close this door. And you are going to leave. You are going to go crawl back into whatever little slimehole you came out of, and you are never going to come back here again. If you ever show up on our doorstep again, I will call the police. And it bears mentioning that I have some connections at the police department. You will be in deep shit. Do I make myself clear?”
Adam swallowed hard and nodded.
“Good.”
Heiji reached out, grabbed the front of Adam’s shirt, and let him have it—right across the face. And he didn’t pull the punch at all. The blow was strong enough to send The Guy flying backwards; he hit the opposite wall and slid down it to the floor, both hands clasped over his face.
True to his word, Heiji took only a second to admire his handiwork. Then he stepped back into the apartment and closed the door. He locked it, just for good measure. He waited about ten minutes, then opened the door a crack to see. And he was pleased to see that Adam had vanished. Still, he was a tiny bit concerned. So he did a quick walk around the building to make sure that he wasn’t hanging around waiting for her. But he saw nothing—apparently this guy did have a brain, and had taken Heiji at his word.
He really did deserve a cookie.
Now satisfied, Heiji went back to the apartment and his book.
Kazuha came home about three hours later; the sky outside was starting to get dark. “Sorry I’m so late,” she apologized as she slipped off her shoes. “Dad mentioned during lunch that the washing machine at home was dying, so I went with him to find a new one. And then we got stuck in traffic.”
Heiji was sitting on the couch, watching TV; he turned to smile at her. “I was wondering where you were.”
She dropped her purse on the table. “I called your cell phone, but you didn’t answer. Guess you didn’t see my message. Did you take a nap or something?”
“When did you call?” he frowned.
“Around two, I think.”
That lined up pretty well with the only time when he would have been out of earshot for his cell phone. And he grinned, “Oh. No, I didn’t take a nap—but I know why I didn’t hear it ring. I was out of the apartment for about five minutes around that time.”
“Oh?” Kazuha came to stand over him. “Where did you go?”
He decided to be honest—no reason to hide it from her. “Adam stopped by for a little chat, and I chased him off. I wanted to make sure he had actually left the building. So I walked around and checked.”
Her eyes widened. “Heiji…what happened? What did you do?”
“He came over—was looking for you,” he said calmly. “And he started asking questions. He seemed pretty surprised when he realized that I lived here.” He chuckled, remembering the poleaxed look on That Guy’s face. “Guy’s a real ass, Kazuha.”
“You don’t have to tell me that,” she replied coolly. “I learned that firsthand.”
Heiji took her hand and tugged on it, pulling her down to sit sideways in his lap; she looped her arms around his neck and let her cheek rest against his temple. “Well, he asked a few very inappropriate questions. So I told him to get lost and never come back, and then I punched him. Once.”
“Heiji!” Kazuha gasped, straightening up to look right at him. Still, what he could see of her face said that she was torn between being appalled…and being completely delighted. He couldn’t blame her for that, though—needless violence was bad, but the guy really did have it coming. And she had to have wanted Adam to feel at least some degree of pain for his sins—which was reasonable. She was only human, after all.
“I only punched him once,” he said defiantly. “I really should have beat the crap out of him. But…I didn’t.”
“Should I even ask why you didn’t?” she asked. “Or is it just this newly developed self-control of yours?”
“That too,” he grinned, sliding his arms loosely around her waist. “But…the reason I didn’t kick his ass is because in a really weird, awful, twisted little way…I think I owe him one. So I let him walk away with just a black eye and a bloody nose. We’re even.”
Now she looked completely bewildered. “You owe him…Heiji, what in the world could you possibly owe him?”
Heiji smiled. “Why did you come back to Japan?”
Kazuha frowned. “Because I was lonely.”
“What was the straw that broke the camel’s back?”
“When he…oh…” she trailed off as comprehension dawned.
“Exactly,” Heiji said. “He used you and he dumped you. That started the chain reaction that put you on my doorstep, and brought you home. So it’s probably horrible to think like this, but…he’s the reason that I can finally see you.”
She recognized that line. He had said it once before after the incident in Kyoto with the Genzihotaru and the missing Buddha statue, but refused to explain what it meant. It wasn’t until recently that he’d told her what exactly it meant: it was a reference to her, when he had seen her outside the temple at Sannouzi and, not recognizing her, fell hard. That line had almost become an inside joke of sorts between them—it was almost like a secret code-phrase, a way to say ‘I love you.’
“…I never really thought about it like that,” she admitted. “But you’re right. In a really roundabout way…he’s the reason we wound up together.” She leaned her cheek against his hair. “So to say thank you for that…you let him keep his limbs?”
“And I didn’t break any bones, and the only blood he lost was from his nose,” Heiji said, almost proudly. Then he muttered, “…I really did let him off. Maybe I should have kicked him or something…”
Kazuha laughed. “No, no…you did just fine. So you’re sure he won’t come back?”
“Very sure,” he replied. “I think I scared about ten years off his life.”
“…part of me wishes I could have seen it, and part of me wishes I had been here to do it myself,” she sighed.
“Aww, come on, Miss Aikido Champ,” he teased. “I know you can defend yourself when push comes to shove. But let me be your knight in shining armor and protect you once in a while!”
She sat back. “Oh, all right. And here’s my knight’s reward.” She tilted her head down and kissed him.
When she pulled back, Heiji opened his eyes grinned wickedly. “If I’m going to get rewards like that…got any other ex-boyfriends I can beat up?”
Kazuha gave him a Look and swatted him on the head. “Way to ruin the moment.”
“I try.”
PS. Hehe…and so we finally meet The Guy. I decided I was going to make him as unlikeable as possible, just because assholes can be extremely fun characters to write dialogue for. And he was. Sad part is that I have actually met guys like this—a friend of mine was even engaged to one (she dumped his ass, thank God). So they DO exist. Which kind of sucks. So any guys out there, please—don’t be an Adam. Or Kazuha and Heiji will each punch you in the face. And I might have to hate you, which would make a kitten sad.
This message has been brought to you by the Please Don’t Be An Asshat Foundation.
I’m rather falling in love with my little mini-universe here. There are just so many possibilities for these two when they’re living together! And for some reason, the ones about the apartment-verse tend to turn into small epics O.O L’anyhoodle, I hope you enjoyed. And the next one will be the halfway point. NUMBAH FIFTY, WHEE!! Thanks for reading, all! Much love!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-11-11 02:44 am (UTC)Thanks hon! *glomps* Glad you enjoyed!