#because there's like one line in the epilogue side story that drops a bombshell and Helene just does not

[shidoukanae]

good afternoon the full posts for these pics are both far down in my queue atm but i wanna post snapshots of these fanart pieces a bit early because i adore how Paris and Helene look!!

I'm still new to this artstyle but gosh am i fangirling for these two!! i dont have the best grasp on their designs but my head is full of thoughts of them, both their manhwa interpretation and their light novel interpretation and im super excited to see how they interact next!!

[malisonquill]

Rebuild: Behind The Scenes

I thought just for some fun, I might post the plan I made for writing Rebuild. It has some silly alternate titles, some doodles I sketched out, and I thought some people might like to see how much the end product was different from the plan. 

I do also have a section of the plan just for ideas, but I haven’t included it here because it contains spoilers for the sequel(s). 

Hope you enjoy my ramblings below! (Obviously it contains major spoilers for all of Rebuild, so make sure you’re read all that before reading this!)

Rex Brickowski AU Outline

C1: Rexile (AKA Anikin Voice: "I hate Sand". AKA What to do when you're suddenly not dead)

Rex ends up back in his own original timeline in the outskirts of Syspocalypstar. He’s alone, no Rexcelsior, no velociraptors. That makes him sad. 

He looks to the city and thinks about everything.

Cat lady comes, he gets bricks and builds and awesome bike  and drives to the city. 

C2: Shattered (AKA Rex really likes bikes for some reason and also fucks shit up)

There, Lucy and the others are chillin in a park while Rex tears through the city exploring, turning heads. 

He goes up a ramp that sends him up over a building above the park. Whilst in the air he grabs his bike and does a flip. The others watch him. He lands on the road next to the park and spots Lucy, his eyes go wide. He does a skidding turn to pull up beside them. 

They say how awesome that was. They don’t recognise him and he plays along with that. He needs to get used to them and himself before he drops a bombshell on them. 

They show him around the city. He gets a black coffee from the shop. Freezes when he sees a laundromat (PTSD), he hallucinates the deafening roar of the Dryar of Undar until Unikitty distracts him and pulls him away and they continue the tour. 

At one point Everything is awesome plays, he acts aloof but taps his foot quietly and lucy notices. 

Eventually they get to the town square. There is a statue of Emmet. Rex is immediately taken aback and asks what it is (to gauge his friends reactions and also because he's genuinely surprised to see he's been acknowledged). 

Lucy says it honours the special, Emmet. That he was there friend. That they looked for him for a while, but eventually had to admit that he was gone, so they stopped looking. 

BIG ANGST TIME.

Rex snaps. He’s still bitter. He starts off vauge like “You gave up? Would he have given up on you?” but gets increasingly louder and madder. Revealing that he was trapped in Undar, how he feels abandoned and slowly revealing to the others that he’s Emmet. Lucy is like “Emmet…?” And he’s like “Emmet is gone! He’s dead!” 

He breaks the statue in one punch in anger. His friends are horrified. He looks between them and the statue, shocked and saddened by himself. “What have done?” (Internally). He drives off, leaving the others sad and confused. 

C3: Traces Of You (AKA Talking to your ex who you feel betrayed you, even though she thought you were dead… that's rough buddy)

Alternate titles, How can you stand there, a whisper from me? Gone But Not Forgotten

After a short while, giving everyone some time to breathe/ think, Lucy finds Rex in the outskirts. They talk. He explains how he toughened up, how he did some terrible things, how he wants to be better but doesn’t know how. How he’s ruined any chance he had with his friends because of the statue incident. Tears form in his eyes. Lucy goes to comfort him with a hand on his shoulder and says “Emmet...” Queue the “I’m not Emmet anymore and I dont know how to be” line.

Lucy convinces him to not be just one, be a combination. That his friends can help him through this and him to be happier again. He says he’s still can’t fully/ needs time to trust them again, but he’s willing to try. Oh and to call him Rex, cause he wants to be different from movie Emmet. 

C4: Building Blocks (AKA DON'T TOUCH ME WHEN I'M WRITING ABOUT SPACESHIPING!!!!)

Lucy and the others ask Rex to build something with them. He decides on a spaceship, they let him lead. Friend interactions. 

C5: Time Heals All Wounds (AKA So it turns out you based your entire new personality on your friends and also you finally acknowledge your PTSD)

Over a longer time period (make this clear), montage of helping with each individual. Them understanding Rex and who he is more, maybe after he tries to act exactly like Emmet would but it’s unnatural for him? Finding out about raptor training. Helping him cope with his PTSD (Dryar, paralyzation, loneliness) and abandonment issues.

(after writing half the chapter, i realised) His hand injury and recovery mirror emotional healing! )

https://askmarietheapprentice.tumblr.com/post/183050688583/meta-monday-rex-dangervest-based-his-persona-on 

Order: 

Fist, alone with Benny, flying spaceship they all built. (Who Rex developed his spaceship love from.) Emotional thing dealt with: ?

Unikitty. He learnt to harness/ weaponize rage from. Unikitty encouraging him to release some anger and destroy some rubble. Helps him get his anger feels out.

Metalbeard. About being a captain of pirates/ raptors. Talk about how he misses them.

Batman. Learnt how to be tough fighter and suppress deep emotional issues. See below for events. Then they talk about talking through things with others, stuff B learnt in Lego batman movie.

Maybe he’s left alone for ten mins whilst a friend goes to grab a brick or something and is terrified they wont come back. He’s relieved but visibly shaken when they do return. 

Maybe a change over between friends. One has to go and leaves Rex to meet the batman outside of a shop. As he waits his mind wanders thinking Batman has forgotten about him, doesn't want to meet with him, or even like him etc. As this happens he hallucinates hearing the dryer roar. He stands frozen in place, covering his ears as his vision gets darker. Maybe this causes him to glitch to the real world and back every few seconds. The roar gets louder and louder and louder. Batman comes, sees Rex, is concerned and tries to get his attention by touching his shoulder. Rex freaks out, snapping out of his hallucination shouting/ screaming and madly thrashing punches. He smashes a bin or lamppost or car to pieces before Batman can calm him and he realises he's fine. Rex apologies.

Lucy. Made a super cool alias like Wyldstyle, and hides his insecurities under confident exterior like her. Maybe they talk on their way to her surprise. She asks why he changed his name and himself? He explains his thoughts on Undar, how at the time he thought his friends were right and so he toughened up. Made a cool name like she did. He realises a lot of his Rex traits are semi based on his friends. Maybe talk about how it's good to be confident but also not bad to be vulnerable/ talk about problems with others. He realises he's already been doing this with others? Or just have mostly fun not angst for them here!? Meh, idk yet.

Ends with Lucy giving him that cute little house he made for her, that he’d almost forgotten about. Says it’s just a basis and he can change it if he wants. Talk. Suggests they could be platonic (for now) roommates. She leaves him for the night, he’s now ok (ish) with being left alone. 

C6: True Colours (AKA Title made it sound like Rex would turn out evil but surprise! He actually just wanted to look pretty. AKA Rex stares in a mirror for an awkwardly long time)

When Lucy returns, Rex looks different. He briefly went to the Man Upstairs realm and used markers etc, to change his appearance. He wanted some brighter colours to look happier, and more like a combo of Emmet and Rex. He explains this, and decides he wants to be called Rex Brickowski to symbolise this combo of all his aspects. 

Basically this first bit is the man I used to be from count of Monte cristo musical.

(Rex and Lucy designs and also size comparison.)

Maybe some Rex and friends hanging out, it’s better than before. Group karaoke? Tries to warm up to Sweet Mayhem?

C7: Epilogue (AKA The end happens. Everything is awesome is still a bop)

Rex and CO are hopeful for the future. Rex knows who he is now and thinks he can be happy again and trust his friends. He’s a mix of mature and innocent/ sweet. He can now enjoy ‘childish’ things and tough things. He’s happy and thinks everything might be ok now. 

Maybe he goes to the coffee shop, orders Lucy something and a black coffee with 25 sugars for himself and returns home, listening to rock music on his headphones.

(End on poignant thing.)

Side Notes/ Reminders For Myself

“According to a draft from the first film's script, Emmet is 22 years of age in that film, thus making him 27 in the sequel if accepted.” My AU Rex spent 2 years on Undar, plus 5 getting tough before the movie happens. Making him 34 at the start of the AU.

Rex was in his past changing things. But when Emmet was saved, it was no longer his past/ his timeline. So he faded and was sent back to his original timeline. All the stuff he did in the movie timeline still happened, we see three raptors are still there with Ms Scratchen-Post at the end. So the raptors stay where they are in the movie timeline, because they aren’t like Rex who is being written out of the movie timeline’s future. Which is why Rex is alone at the start of this AU. 

Very important! Rex's trust of his friends. My take: friends are the most important thing to Emmet. With friends, he was happy even during the apocalypse. Without them, he becomes jaded, tough. Lucy is who he was closest to/ loved. None of his friends, but especially her not coming for him and moving on hurt him the most. As Rex, he was most mad at her (see him scowling at her during the movie). But then they all try to come back for movie Emmet. Lucy makes it through and saves him. She saved him. This changes post back to the futuring Rex's view. The fact the movie Lucy saved him plus the fact he loved her and cared for her the most before, means AU Rex is inclined to trust her most. 

Titles for 3 stories: Rebuild. Rekindle. Re-----. (I'm an idiot for planning 3 of these!!!!!)

Rebuild: Rex's relationships and himself up again. 

Rekindle: his and Lucy's love for each other. 

Re-----: ((REDACTED BECAUSE IT’S A SPOILER! You’re gonna have to wait to find out what it is!))

INFO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw-r_G7rfnU - Chris Pratt Singing

Dino facts:

https://www.psd1.org/cms/lib/WA01001055/Centricity/Domain/36/SS_How_Fast_Did_Trex_Grow.pdf

http://cycles.westinmathies.com/Info_Pages.asp?ptype=Velociraptor_Cycl

SPELLING = Armamageddon (according to the subs)

-----------------

And that’s it! This is the rambling mess that brought you Rebuild. Hope it was interesting to see.

As another note of my writing process, I did a lot of jumping around. If I had an idea for some lines of dialogue pop into my head, I wrote it down before I forgot and then slightly altered it and filled in the gaps later. In fact that whole bit between Lucy and Rex in chapter 3 was almost all dialogue (with a few notes like “He turned. She smiles” Etc in between) and then later after writing some of chapter 4, I went back and filled in all the gaps. 

I would really recommend writing down whatever pops into your head like this if you want to write things. You might think “Oh, i’ll remember to put this in when I get to writing here!”, that is a lie. You won’t. Or it’ll be different to that brilliant thing you came up with whilst day dreaming out a window. It’s definitely better to jot it down and have it, then decide to edit it later if you don’t like it, than lose it entirely. Just make sure when reading over your chapter/ story that everything flows together nicely. :)

This method also meant I wrote chapters 5, 6 and 7 simultaneously. I had about half of chapter 6 and 7 done whilst I was still making my way through 5. (Probably because 5 was so big!) But then when I was done with 5, I finished off 6, then 7. It also really helped when I came up with the idea to put the first line of the story as the last line too. It gave me a direction to go in for the last chapter (after Rex get’s back from the coffee shop) and also was a nice way to end it off. 

Anyway! Hopefully I see you all again for Rekindle! Which by the way, if there is anything involving the characters from this story that you might want to see, please let me know! I might just fit it in somewhere! :D

[lisatelramor]

Not Left To Stand Alone: Epilogue

AN: Done in the style of the extras more or less ^_^; Thank you to everyone who’s read this and commented/liked/kudos’d it along the way. It’s made working on this story that much more worth it <3

Takumi’s Birthday

The table was filled with people; Takumi had been sure to invite his friends, Aoko and Kurenai from the police force, Chikage, and Saguru on his birthday outing with Kaito. Which could have been a horribly awkward scenario despite how Aoko and Kaito were trying to get along. But Takumi chose a sushi restaurant for his birthday dinner, and Kaito looked like he was having a very quiet meltdown in the corner. Saguru, sitting across from him, discreetly leaned closer.

“Do you need to leave?” Saguru whispered. The rest of the table was having a wonderful time, sharing sushi platters that were coming from Kaito’s tab and generally falling into the celebratory mood. Anywhere else and Kaito would be in the middle of it.

Takumi had made a point of ordering shirasu, tiny whole young anchovies staring from the pieces of sushi more than enough to keep Kaito quiet and picking at his decidedly vegetarian selection in the corner.

“I can’t,” Kaito said, prodding a piece of omelet with his chopsticks. “I have to stay. If I can make it through a day at an aquarium, I can make it through a meal at a sushi place.”

A pair of chopsticks grabbed one of the shirasu pieces and Kaito shuddered. He’d kept his head down as soon as he’d noticed the chef in the corner carefully slicing meat from whole fish.

“Would it help to have your back to the room—”

“I appreciate the concern, but it’s not helping.” Kaito stuffed a piece of inarizushi into his mouth to end the conversation.

Saguru sighed. At the other end of the table, Aoko caught his eye and shrugged. There was no helping Kaito’s phobia. Shiemi also glanced Kaito’s way a few times as the meal went on before leaning over to Takumi to whisper something.

Takumi glanced around and said, “After we should get dessert.”

Kaito’s eyes glazed over a bit like he was seeing something terrible and long in his future.

Takumi looked at Kaito. “At the ice cream place down the street.”

Kaito slumped. “Oh thank goodness.”

“I’m not that mad at you,” Takumi said. He took the last piece of shirasu, removing fish staring at Kaito at any rate.

Saguru reached across the table to pat Kaito’s shoulder. He’d be forgiven eventually. At this point Takumi was mostly seeing how far he could push the boundaries of guilt.

“That better be some good ice cream to make up for this,” Kaito muttered to himself.

Saguru finished off another sushi roll and stayed out of the drama.

 So that’s ALL the Secrets, Right?

Saguru lounged on Kaito’s living room sofa, lukewarm tea in hand as Kaito finished explaining how he’d become Kid at his side. Takumi, who had long since abandoned his own tea, had spent most of the explanation tucked up in the couch across from them with his arms crossed like if it wasn’t a good enough story he’d take personal offense. By the end of it though, he was watching Kaito as intently as Saguru was. It was fascinating to finally hear the whole story instead of just what Kaito had implied and Saguru pieced together.

“Once I knew what I was looking for, that helped some, but it’s pretty clear that knowing you’re looking for a gem that might or might not be mythological doesn’t really narrow things down a lot in the long run.” Kaito shrugged, more relaxed now than he’d been at the start of the explanation. His socked feet were almost in Saguru’s lap as Kaito commandeered the other half of the sofa. “At the time, it seemed like it wouldn’t be too hard. Make a spectacle, draw out the people who killed Oyaji and keep them from getting what they wanted. I didn’t realize how big a group they were then or how hard a gem could be to find.”

“And so Kid stuck around,” Takumi said. He’d hugged a throw pillow to his chest at some point—around when Kaito mentioned being shot at the first time—and he didn’t look like he’d be letting go of it any time soon. “You know it doesn’t really make any of this less crazy, right?”

“I know. But I come by crazy honestly,” Kaito said with a wry smile. He was trying to invite Takumi to smile with him, but they weren’t there yet. “I mean, Oyaji saw Kaa-san when she was a thief and just up and became a thief himself, so they started the crazy.”

“I still can’t believe Obaa-san is a thief.” Takumi grimaced. “Is still kind of a thief. How the heck did I even get born, a family of thieves marrying a family of police officers.”

“Opposites attracts?” Kaito said lightly.

“Or something.” He flicked a glance at Saguru, probably thinking something along the lines that Kaito was predictable in his taste if he went for a detective as well as a police officer. Saguru could admit to the irony of it. “So.” Takumi reached for his tea, took a sip and immediately put it back with a disgusted expression. “Um. That’s all the secrets, right? No more bombshells you’re waiting to drop?”

Kaito opened his mouth, hesitated. “Um.”

Takumi slumped. “What. What did you do?”

Kaito glanced at Saguru. Saguru raised an eyebrow. Even though he was here listening, he was mostly staying out of it. This was Kaito mending bridges, not Saguru having a field day with possibly getting to ask his own questions and have them answered.

“I know you’re dating Hakuba-sensei, and that’s...a little weird still, but that’s not really a secret,” Takumi cut in, misinterpreting the look. “To be honest you guys were already giving off dating vibes so it’s actually less awkward and I’ve mostly gotten over that.”

“No, it’s not about Hakuba.” Kaito ran a hand through his hair, looking up at the ceiling like it had answers written on it. Or maybe wishing it would fall and erase how tense this conversation had been so far. “How do I say this?”

“Please tell me you didn’t kill someone.”

Kaito scowled. “Why do you go straight to that?”

“Because what darker route is there to go?”

“I’ve never killed anyone, for goodness sake. I’ve seen more people die than I’d like, but no, no killing. Do I really seem that capable of murder—don’t answer that. I’d like to keep thinking that I don’t seem that cut-throat.”

“I don’t know what to think of you,” Takumi said. “You hide a lot so...”

“You have sisters,” Kaito said, blurting it out before it could go further down the path of him hypothetically murdering someone. “Two half-sisters. Don’t freak out, it was after Aoko and I were divorced. They’re six years old.”

“What?” Whatever Takumi’d had in mind for further secrets, possible siblings hadn’t been on the list. He stared, something between horror and incredulity on his face. “With who? How?”

Saguru cleared his throat. It was technically still the Kudo family’s secret but with clearing the air... “Three, maybe.”

“Three?” Takumi parroted blankly.

“Three?” Kaito said. “Wha—no. They’d have said.”

“I didn’t confirm it, but...Chikage-san’s eyes.” Saguru met Kaito’s eyes, noting all the little facial details that lined up. Kaito wasn’t exactly like Kudo no matter how close they looked.

“Yukiko-san’s got maybe a quarter—”

“You’d know the timing better than I would.”

Kaito twitched. “That’s... That’s...damn. Probable. What the hell?”

“So I could have three half-siblings,” Takumi cut in, horror rapidly edging toward disgust. “Tou-san, what the hell?”

“Okay, before you get too angry, the twins were IVF babies; I’m just the sperm donor. A...friend wanted a child and asked if I’d be the other half of the genetics.” Saguru snorted. That was one way of putting it. Kaito dug his heel into Saguru’s thigh in retaliation. “And clearly I had no idea of...of a maybe third either, what the heck? How did you notice that if I didn’t?”

“You weren’t looking for it,” Saguru said, patting Kaito’s ankle.

“You were looking to see if I had possible illegitimate children?”

“No, I was looking for answers to a question and that was a possible explanation.”

“Wouldn’t they tell me?”

“Would they have been able to?”

Kaito opened his mouth. Closed it. “Hm. Maybe not at first. But there would have been chances. Were chances.”

“Can we get back to the whole three half-sisters bit?” Takumi hissed. “Seriously, what the hell?” He threw the pillow at Kaito’s head. “Self-control?”

“Oi.” Kaito tossed the pillow back. “I just said that two of those siblings were because a friend asked. The third was... an accident. I don’t go sleeping around left and right, you know that.”

“Apparently I don’t know much, so why not that too! Just because you don’t date doesn’t mean you don’t sleep around!”

“Well I don’t! I’ve been with maybe five people since I got divorced, Takumi, and two of them were men! I didn’t exactly have time or energy to throw myself at people!”

Takumi gestured at Saguru. Saguru raised both hands defensively. “Please leave me out of this portion of the discussion.”

“That was different!” Good lord, Kaito was blushing. Saguru stared. “That was overtures of friendship to bridge a rocky past. Not. Throwing myself at anyone.”

“Wow. So convincing.” Takumi ran his hand through his hair just like Kaito did, his hair a wild mess. “Okay. So do I get to meet them or are they just...out there?”

“The twins aren’t interested in a family relationship,” Kaito said. “That was part of the whole...thing. She didn’t want me involved closely, and I respected that and I’ve met them, and they know who I am, but for now at least they don’t want anything more than that and I’m not going to pressure anyone about that because they’re not obligated to care about a genetic donor.”

Takumi made a face somewhere between a grimace and a scowl. “Okay.”

“The third...”

“You’ve met,” Saguru said, taking pity on them. “Kudo Midori.”

A bunch of expressions flashed across Takumi’s face. Shock, confusion, anger, disbelief. “Tou-san, she’s married.”

“You say that like I went behind her husband’s back!”

“...you didn’t?”

“No!” Kaito threw up his hands. “I respect Kudo! And Ran-san. It was all very open except they didn’t know my real name and face.”

Takumi stared at him for one long moment before smothering a frustrated sound into his hands. “Well I guess that explains everything in why they had no problem taking in Kaitou Kid.”

“We still don’t know for sure that Midori’s mine instead of Kudo’s,” Kaito pointed out.

“But there’s enough chance that I’m just going to...accept that as fact,” Takumi grumbled. “Better than being in denial. Tou-san, Shiemi is going to have words with you later because she’s going to be so disillusioned.”

“Do you have to tell her?”

“Would you rather I talk this through with Kaa-san?” Takumi asked, pointedly.

Kaito paled. “Go ahead. Tell Shiemi.”

“Kaa-san will find out eventually. She always does.”

“Yeah, but I like living.”

“At least you waited until you were divorced,” Takumi muttered. “She doesn’t actually have a reason to be pissed off since you weren’t with her. It’s just shitty that you didn’t take responsibility for them.”

“How?? How could I when one doesn’t want me involved and I didn’t know about the other?”

“Make up for it now?”

Kaito flopped into Saguru’s side, all the tension starting to unfurl as Takumi didn’t out and out explode at Kaito or storm out. “Maybe Kudo wouldn’t mind with Midori. I’ll leave the twins to make their own choices though.”

“You don’t want to be involved?” Takumi asked. That was the sticking point, it seemed. That Kaito wasn’t involved with them, perhaps especially because of how much effort Kaito put in staying involved with Takumi’s life.

“What I want doesn’t matter because that’s not my call.”

“So you do want to.”

Kaito shrugged. “I knew what I was agreeing to.” He sighed. “Kudo’s family is different though. I think I would like to be involved. Maybe as a sort of uncle figure. If they’d let me.”

“...Do you think they’d mind if I got to know Midori-chan more?” Takumi asked, so quietly Saguru almost didn’t hear him.

“I think they wouldn’t say no to a babysitter-slash-brother-figure in their children’s lives,” Kaito said.

“I think I might want that.” Takumi uncurled from his spot on the couch, looking tired. “The heck, I’m an older brother. Younger me would be so jealous.”

“You wanted siblings?” Saguru asked.

“Once upon a time, yeah. That was a long time ago though.” Takumi sighed. “This is so weird. I mean, this is a lot more normal of a shock than finding out your dad’s Japan’s most notorious thief. But still.”

“On the upside, I don’t think there are any more secrets that I can think of that even hold a candle to those.”

“So there are more secrets,” Takumi grumbled. He looked like he was trying to merge with the couch, limp against its cushions.

“If by secrets you mean the kind where you overheard things you weren’t supposed to or didn’t tell people that it was you who borrowed that shirt they were missing and ate the last chocolate in the cupboard, then yes,” Kaito said, “I still have secrets. The ordinary, non-life-changing kind of secrets.”

“Oh. Okay then. I don’t want to know all those kinds of secrets. Not unless they impact me.”

Saguru sipped at his now-cold tea. That could have gone a lot worse.

“So do you have the Kudo’s phone number or should I just show up one day since that’s what they’ve come to expect from our family?” Takumi asked after a few moments.

“I’ll give you their phone number.”

“Cool.” Another pause. “You’d better not have any more random children in the future.”

“I don’t plan on it.”

Saguru patted Kaito’s shoulder. “Now that that is settled, I was thinking we might order in for dinner. Suggestions?”

“Pizza,” Takumi said immediately. “I need something horrible for me to counteract how the world has shifted under my feet again.”

“Pizza’s good,” Kaito said.

Since neither of them seemed inclined to move, Saguru pulled out his phone. “Pizza it is.” This had definitely gone better than anticipated. No screaming, tears, or accusations of betrayal. Takumi was halfway toward accepting it already and hadn’t left the room at any point. Good. They’d figure things out from there. There was no shortage on time so long as Takumi was still giving Kaito a chance.

 Saguru’s Trade

The first time Saguru ran across a random mugging, he didn’t think twice about it; sometimes these things happened, and in this case he was at the right place at the right time to do something about it. He hadn’t even thought twice about disabling the attacker with his cane before calling the police.

Being at the combini as it was being held up less than a week later was...well, not improbable, but it was a bit surprising to run into trouble so soon after the mugging. Saguru’d been in Japan months and these were the most criminal activities he’d run into outside of Kuroba’s shadow organization.

Catching a purse snatcher on the train on his way to work two days later had Saguru feeling suspicious, and by the fourth time he’d called the police that month for an attempted break in across the street, Saguru was sure there was a pattern.

It was like crime illogically was attracted to wherever Saguru was. Or perhaps it was the other way around; Saguru was drawn to wherever the crime was about to occur—it wasn’t as if he ordinarily got meals from the convenience store or took a train an hour later than his usual time.

It was only when Saguru found his face plastered in the news a few days before November for talking down an armed robbery attempt when he and Kuroba happened to stop by the bank that Saguru really started to feel concerned.

“I think I’m cursed,” he said to Kaito, patching up a few scrapes from where one of the robbers had smacked him into a teller station in a moment of desperation. “Is this what Kudo feels all the time running into murders? Because this is unpleasant.”

“Well it definitely resembles Kudo’s brand of luck,” Kaito said, holding bandages at the ready. “When did it start?”

“Hmm, not long after the first wave of arrests following the events at Hiroto’s workplace. It started with finding a slew of lost objects over the course of a week and a half, actually. Or maybe before that?” Saguru hadn’t thought much about finding a purse or wallet on the train to turn into the station staff in hopes of finding its owner before it became a daily occurrence. “Then that got rarer and more criminals started popping up.” It was going steady with at least one crime a week at this rate. Saguru was going to end up on first name basis with the local officers if it continued like this.

“Huh.” Kaito put a bandage over a scrape on Saguru’s arm, tsking over the bruise near his elbow joint. “That’s going to be bad.”

“It will heal,” Saguru said, resigned. He’d had an uptick in bruises and other minor injuries as the crime rate ticked higher as well. An unpleasant correlation, but not exactly surprising. “I’ve never run into cases this often. I mean as a detective, cases appear a lot more often than they would for the average person, but even then I had to actively seek most of them out. This is different.”

“At least you don’t have corpses falling from the sky like Kudo,” Kaito said. They both winced at a recent case Kudo had involving a man who’d fallen from the top of a skyscraper. It hadn’t been a pleasant crime scene. If any crime scene could be considered pleasant.

“I hope there isn’t a ‘yet’ in that statement.” He could do without corpses and bloodshed.

Kaito hummed. “Hey, Saguru, what exactly was your deal with Akako-hime again?”

Saguru froze. “Oh.” The timing would fit, wouldn’t it? He’d traded for Kaito’s safety, traded in metaphysical and impossible—improbable?—levels beyond his comprehension. So far Kaito was unscathed and...and Saguru was having more and more run ins with random criminals while Kaito had none with the organization that he’d screwed over.

“Saguru?” Kaito looked worried now. “What did you trade her? Because it might technically be fair on some cosmic level but that doesn’t mean it won’t screw you over in the process.”

“According to Koizumi-san, I traded...essentially my quiet, unobtrusive life I believe. Her exact words were that I wouldn’t be able to go unnoticed again.”

“Oh.” Kaito looked...sad? Regretful? “You gave away your peace. Why would you...?” Kaito knew exactly how much the spotlight wasn’t comfortable to Saguru these days. And yet Saguru would take having his face in the papers again, take all the random encounters, if it meant Kaito was safe.

“It’s worth it,” Saguru said.

“...I gave up ever becoming a stage magician to her,” Kaito revealed after a moment.

“What did you trade it for?”

“Healing. The healing when I most needed it because I didn’t think I’d live through it otherwise.”

Kaito gave up his dream. He didn’t look regretful though, merely thoughtful.

“I thought being on stage brought too many flashbacks,” Saguru said.

“It does.” Kaito shrugged. “I think part of Akako-hime’s magic works with what’s already there to make things slide into place and costs take effect. I always had a bit of fear and unpleasant memories attached to being onstage. It just...ensured I can’t compartmentalize it or easily overcome it like with everything else. I can’t pursue it because my own brain won’t let me, therefor fulfilling the cost or some bullshit.”

“The path of least resistance.”

“Pretty much.”

“That is good to know.” Still, it was going to be annoying in the long run. How did Kudo stand it?

“Hey, do you think that’s what happened with Kudo?” Kaito mused. “Some deal with a death god or something? Or maybe one of his ancestors made a deal and cursed his whole family line.”

“Or maybe it’s uniquely Kudo.”

“Or that.” Kaito packed the first aid kit away as Saguru put one last bandage on a scrape.

“Now that that mystery is solved,” Saguru said, “let me say that this is going to be inconvenient at best. Why do you think there was a delay?”

“Best bet?” Kaito stood on tip toe to slot the kit on top of the bathroom cupboard. “Most of the cost was going into your effort to help catch the organization. You are less involved with that, the universe starts throwing other problems at you to solve.”

“Very inconvenient,” Saguru muttered again. “I was almost late to work the other day. I probably will be late as this goes on. They’re not going to be very sympathetic in the long run.”

“You’re planning to teach next year right?”

“I was going to. Now I have to wonder if it’s the best idea. Yumi-sensei is planning to return from maternity leave this spring after all. I was planning to apply for the science teacher position opening up, but if this continues they might not even give me a second glance, no matter how many recommendations people put forth.”

“Maybe you could be a substitute teacher? You have the credentials to teach more than English. And it would let you have an irregular schedule.”

“Maybe.” Saguru sighed.

Kuroba nudged him until he could get at Saguru’s back, his skilled hands easing tension from Saguru’s neck and shoulders easily. “”You have time to think about it. And hey, it will even out. There is a point where it will stop getting worse and just be a constant level. It just looks like it hasn’t found it yet.”

“At least I’m not Kudo.” If it were bodies dropping into his life at random, he’d go off in a bad way, surely. A thought occurred. What would happen if his and Kudo’s odd fortunes crossed paths? Would one cancel out the other or would they feed off each other until something truly catastrophic happened? “Kaito, remind me not to spend a good deal of time around Kudo in the future. Or not anywhere in public.”

“Huh.” Kaito paused his massage. His fingers drummed absently on Saguru’s neck. “Yeah, that would be interesting. In that case would it go from theft related things to murder, or would you just end up with a killer thief? Assuming your luck is theft related, it’s too soon to say for sure.”

“So long as it doesn’t end with a death count I believe we can call ourselves lucky.”

 Second Chance

Saguru stood in front of pre-packaged cereals, debating what was a rather dismal and overpriced selection. While he had a craving for bran flakes, nothing in stock matched anything like what he was used to in London, and he was beginning to wonder if satisfying an urge to eat half-soggy carbohydrates swimming in milk was worth the hefty price tag that went with them.

“Is granola that interesting?” a familiar voice said behind him.

Saguru blinked, tearing his eyes away from an odd rendition of Tony the Tiger. “Aoko-san.”

Aoko smiled at him and looked at the cereal selection as well. “There’s so much sugar in these,” she said, picking up a box that had “Sugar Pon” written right across the top. “Kaito used to get that one with the monkey on it—Koko?” She nodded at a box toward the bottom. “Get those when he had an exam because he said the sugar gave him a boost. I always would point out that he’d just end up crashing halfway through, but that didn’t stop him from eating it.” Aoko set the box back with a little shrug. “He’s still a sugar addict so clearly he hasn’t learned. Were you looking for something in particular?”

“Bran flakes,” Saguru said. “Raisin bran, perhaps. Something not sugar coated.” The smiling tiger looked down on him from the box of frosted cornflakes. “I was hoping for something different for breakfasts this week.”

“Hmm, most of what they have here is for children or to put on ice cream,” Aoko said. “There’s a larger store a train stop away that might have them.”

“Thank you,” Saguru said, though he doubted he’d go the extra distance for a whim. Perhaps he would have jam and toast for a change up instead. Or maybe, since Kaito had been making him breakfasts every few days, Saguru should find ingredients for a proper British breakfast and return the favor. It was all a bit more effort than he generally had energy for first thing in the morning though. Saguru eyed the box of chocolate cereal Aoko had pointed out. Or he could get a cereal Kaito liked and endure excess sugar because Kaito would enjoy it.

Beside him, Aoko let out a soft laugh and reached past him. “This is the one Kaito occasionally got when he wasn’t trying to get a sugar high,” she said, guessing Saguru’s train of thought.

“Oh, lovely. That’s marginally less sweet.” It looked like a rip-off of honey Cheerios, in a thick flake form, but that was infinitely preferable to chocolate sugar coma.

“Doing both your and Kaito’s shopping, then?” Aoko asked.

“Not exactly.” They’d been sharing a lot lately, their apartments interchangeable where they ended up, and consequently, a lot of their kitchens’ contents were blurring the lines. Saguru had Kaito’s favorite biscuits in his cupboard and Kaito had managed to find Saguru’s favorite British tea somewhere and had a tin of it tucked in with his own tea selection. “We’ve been sharing breakfast a lot recently.”

Aoko had a small, amused smile on her face. She looked better than the last time they had run into each other shopping here. Calmer. Less like she was skirting the edge of a breakdown and more like life was finally starting to reach a balance. Her hair was pulled back today, showing off earrings that had to be new; she brushed them twice in the last minute like she would a loose strand of hair. It was a nice look for her. Altogether, she looked the most relaxed Saguru had seen her since he returned to Japan.

“It always surprised me that Kaito was capable of cooking when he put his mind to it,” Aoko said, “considering how often he’d bum meals from me in high school. He’s not bad at it though. You look happier.”

Saguru smiled back, a bit self-conscious because so many people had said that lately. He hadn’t realized he looked so unhappy before. “I am happier. The last few months have been nice. You look better as well.”

Aoko snorted. “I’ve finally got a week’s worth of good sleep. Work might be hell with the investigations going on, but it’s amazing how much less stressful it’s been now that Kid retired. Everything else seems so much simpler in comparison.” She grinned suddenly. “Of course it also helps that I’ve been making more time for myself. And to go on a date or two.”

“Did you ask Kurenai-san out or did he ask you?”

“Which do you think?”

“I think that once you decide on something, you do your best to make it happen.”

Aoko laughed. “You’re right. Kintaro’s not pushy enough to ask. But he was more than happy to comply when I said I was interested in dating him. It’s been nice.” Her smile was soft, fond and warm as she thought about her partner. “He’s nice.”

“I’m glad. You deserve to be happy.”

“I don’t know about deserve, but I’m not going to chase this chance away,” she said.

Saguru felt the same way. He was lucky once with Mel and he was lucky again now with Kaito. It was the sort of thing you didn’t take for granted when you found it again.

“Hey,” Aoko said, “would you like to get dinner sometime and catch up?”

They’d missed each other the other times they tried to connect so far, but Saguru was glad for another chance to keep trying. “I’d like that.” If nothing else, they had Takumi and more positive past memories of Kaito to share.

“Great!” Aoko grinned. “I’ll message you later and we can find some time when we’re both free. Right now I’d better finish up shopping.”

“Of course.”

“Oh,” Aoko said, before she took more than a step away, “Kaito also likes kuri dorayaki and persimmon mochi if you were looking for something seasonal. And weirdly corn KitKat, though that’s not really something you could get here.” Her nose scrunched. “He has strange taste sometimes.”

Saguru laughed. That last one wasn’t something he would have expected. “Thank you, Aoko-san.”

Aoko waved the thanks away. “Might as well pass on some of the random things I know about him. More use to you than me. See you later, Hakuba-san.”

Saguru watched her go, light inside. Another chance to be her friend, and perhaps a sign that Aoko’s small steps back toward friendship with Kaito were actually going someplace. He made a mental note of her suggestions before moving on with his shopping. Kaito surprised him often enough; it was nice for a chance to possibly surprise him with something he would like.

 Christmastime

There was a knock on the door. Saguru paused in his teenage bedroom, one more box of his things from London open among many. “Come in!” he said, brushing dust off his hands—this box held Mel’s collection of playbooks for performances he’d been in up through college. It had probably just been dumped into the box, dust and all, and hadn’t been touched otherwise since they’d been put on the living room shelf a decade ago.

Kaito poked his head around the door. “Hey, just checking in. You’re missing out on all the holiday baking. We’re doing gingerbread men right now.”

“Sorry, I just wanted to go through a few things while we were here but...” Saguru waved to the mess of his room. All of the boxes had been moved in there about a month ago when he decided he might be able to go through his old things without feeling like he was either reliving or throwing away memories.

“I get it. I probably still have a box somewhere from when I moved out of Aoko’s house stashed at my mom’s place.” Kaito had a dusting of flour in his hair and a smudge of batter on his cheek. Saguru reached out to brush it off absently.

“Yes, well, I don’t want to put it off indefinitely. It’s just amazing how much stuff you can amass in a decade. I don’t even want to think about how much it cost to ship all of this here instead of leaving it in London to go through later.”

“Do you still have a London home?”

“Technically yes, though I suppose the flat Mel and I shared is probably desperately in need of upkeep by now. I’ve been making payments for it this whole time and someone checks in once a month but....” One more thing that he would need to take care of eventually, though it still wasn’t pressing. He could afford to pay for a flat he didn’t use a bit longer. The boxes in his room were maybe half of what he and Mel had owned so he’d have to go back and clean the rest out eventually.

“We’ll have to go come spring,” Kaito said, hooking him into a hug. “I’ll be moral support while you take care of things.”

“Thank you. I’d like that.” It would be a bit bittersweet, but he would like to show Kaito all the things that had been important to him during his years with Mel. It might not be what was in his life now, but it had been part of most of his adult life. “Now, did Mum kick you out of the kitchen or were you just being nice coming to get me?”

Kaito grinned. “I may have started making some unconventional gingerbread men. Takumi was too, but apparently he can get away with it and I can’t.”

“Naturally,” Saguru said like gingerbread men were a serious thing indeed.

Kaito nudged him with an elbow. “C’mon. Come bake with us. Put that perfectionism to use and made some top-tier, uniform baked goods.”

“I’m coming, I’m coming.” Saguru dusted his hands off again, glancing back at the boxes. He’d found more pictures and a collection of tickets and programs from Mel’s plays. It would be a shame to leave all these in boxes. Maybe he’d take a bit of time and make a scrapbook of them or something. Kaito’s fingers slotted between his in a loose grip. Kaito tilted his head, an invitation to talk if he needed it. Saguru shook his head, smiling. “I’m fine. Just thinking that I should do something to preserve the memories I had rather than leaving everything to molder in boxes.”

“That’s an idea.” Kaito smiled. “I was kind of thinking about doing something similar with Tou-san’s stuff. Maybe write a book about how he did his tricks. To keep in the family of course,” he added.

“Of course.” Kaito, like many magicians, took the methods of his craft very seriously and their secrecy most of all.

“Maybe I’ll do one for Kid too,” Kaito continued. “A scrapbook of all the heists and their coverage with methodology of how we pulled it off... For posterity’s sake.”

Saguru squeezed Kaito’s hand gently and Kaito squeezed back. He’d been a bit lost without Kid in his life, but he seemed to be finding himself lately. He’d been doing small performances at parks on weekends, rediscovering his love for being a magician. Kaito didn’t talk about it much, but with each new wave of arrests trickling in through their police contacts, he relaxed a bit more. One day he might actually feel safe again.

Aoko was on her way to a promotion lately between leading internal investigations and the positions opening up when corruption was found. Meanwhile Chikage seemed to be done traveling for the moment now that her goal of exposing the global level of the organization had been completed. There was a woman living with her who Saguru swore he remembered from a movie. Whoever she was, she made Kudo incredibly uncomfortable. Saguru hadn’t been able to get the story from him yet, but it wasn’t for lack of trying.

And Mel’s case was officially closed. With the documents Hiroto had found, they’d been able to track down the assassin and arrest him and quite a few others. There were still months of work left for the police, but for Saguru at least, everything he had hoped for had been reached. It was the closest he’d been to at peace in over a year.

Kaito tugged on their joined hands, pulling him toward the door. “Come on. Mum said we’re going to be decorating the Christmas cake next.”

“Oh dear.” That always meant the alcohol was going to come out and that baking was going to get significantly sloppier from there. He’d already decided that Mum’s Christmas cake was the only deviation from not allowing himself anything alcoholic that he would make, and even then it was more of an...acquired taste for people who hadn’t grown up with it.

“What all goes into a British Christmas cake anyway?”

“It’s nothing like the ones you have in Japan, that’s for sure. It’s a fruitcake for one, and a heavily alcoholic one at that.”

“You give that to children?”

“Not usually? Depends on the parents. I think we had sticky toffee pudding more when I was young, but Mum likes fruitcake and the alcohol bit was excused once I was a teenager.”

“Huh. Sounds different.”

“If you don’t like it, we won’t be offended.”

Kuroba shrugged. “Well, it’s rare I’ve met a drink I didn’t like, why not a cake?”

In the kitchen, Mum was making marzipan, the cake tin already opened up on one counter and most of the rest of the available flat surfaces covered with bowls of colored icing and armies of gingerbread men and tree-shaped biscuits. Takumi was squeezing blue icing on a small army of gingerbread men that were shaped suspiciously like Kaitou Kid. Mum had to behind that. They were too uniformly shaped to not be from a special pastry-cutter.

Surprisingly, Otou-san was there too, patiently decorating trees. It felt a bit surreal as he’d never been a part of Saguru and Mum’s baking rituals growing up, but maybe it was a recent thing since Mum moved in with him; the years she spent the holiday in Japan, Saguru hadn’t been there to bake with her.

“Good, you found him,” Mum said. “Saguru, wash up and give me a hand mixing up the frosting for the cake while I finish up the marzipan.”

Saguru obediently got to work.

“Question,” Takumi said as he watched Mum pause in her work to dribble a bit more brandy over the cake. “Do I get to have any of this cake?”

“That’s up to your father,” Mum said, plopping the marzipan onto the counter to roll.

“A small slice,” Kaito said. “And maybe one to take to your mother.”

“Cool.” Takumi held up one of the Kid biscuits. “So, what do you think? Did I get a good likeness?”

Kid’s caricature grin took up most of the head with a jaunty white-icing hat. Its hands had tiny dollops of icing in gem-bright colors like Kid had stolen the contents of someone’s jewelry box and made off into the night.

“Very funny,” Kaito said. He held up one of the ones he’d done earlier. It also had a caricature face, but it was much more precise and detailed. “I think mine has more dignity.”

“What dignity? Kid runs around in a suit like he was rejected from a wedding magazine.”

“You’re thinking of Tuxedo Mask.”

“Tuxedo Mask, Kaitou Kid, same difference.”

Kaito stuck out his tongue. Takumi stuck his out in return and deliberately drew a ridiculous face on the next one. Saguru’s father was clearly pretending he wasn’t hearing anything, as he had whenever Kid came up. Saguru loved his family.

“Both are all well and good,” Saguru said, joining in the spirit of it, “but they’re both a bit lacking in holiday cheer.” He took a bag of icing and decorated a Kid of his own. This wasn’t something he did often, but...it seemed he still had the touch. His Kid got a tiny sprig of holly in his hat, a red and green tie, and candy-cane striping for the hat band. As an afterthought, he added a white Father Christmas beard to the mix. “There, now this is a holiday Kid.”

“Now that just looks silly,” Kaito said.

“That’s the point.”

Takumi snickered. “Ok, if you made the suit red....”

“Nooooo,” Kaito groaned, “that would look even weirder. It’s not even Kid then.”

Takumi looked his father in the eye and squeezed a glob of red icing onto the next Kid-shaped biscuit.

“Saguru?” Mum said. He hurried over to help her lift the marzipan into place. She smoothed it with a practiced hand and gave him the bowl of icing. “Just between you and me,” she said, “I went a bit lighter on the brandy this year. Since we will be having a minor eat some.”

“I’m sure it’s appreciated.”

“And if anyone wants more alcohol it’s not like we don’t have more,” Mum said pragmatically. “It’s worth the good peach brandy.”

Saguru snorted; Mum did love an excuse to bring out good alcohol. While Saguru spread icing on the cake, Mum took the time to roll marzipan scraps into tiny shapes—cardinals that she would paint red, and a snowman that Saguru would add icing to, to make it more convincingly snowy. Mum hummed as she worked, Christmas carols that they both knew the tune for but always mixed up the words.

Saguru hummed along with her out of habit; the number of times they’d done this together had him falling into the pattern easily enough. Part of him half expected Mel to come out of nowhere with a tin of his grandmother’s toffee and singing the words to the songs Saguru and Mum never remembered. It was a bittersweet feeling, a mix of nostalgia and regret despite the warmth of the room and the people filling it, but when Kaito’s voice joined theirs, actually singing in smooth, practiced English, the feeling melted away.

Kaito grinned cheekily when Saguru looked his way. There was a smear of blue icing on his cheek and Takumi looked like he was recreating the Grinch story with Kid-shaped ginger biscuits hoarding all the gift shaped ones beside him. “I only know a few songs,” Kaito said when he finished to Mum’s applause. “So don’t expect me to sing that many.”

“I’m surprised you memorized any English Christmas songs at all.”

“Well they do play everywhere, even in Japan this time of year.”

Fair point.

“I should have put on music,” Mum said. “Then we could sing along.”

She always said that and they never remembered, too caught up in baking and making to think to put something on.

Takumi held up his phone. “I have you covered.”

Music filled the room and they went back to finishing their tasks. It wasn’t the same as years before; there was no Mel and Otou-san was there and there were more people. But it was just as warm and Saguru knew that this too would become a tradition. It was nice.

When Kaito pulled him away from smoothing the icing one last time to dance around the room just because they could, Saguru went with a laugh.