#but this one will probably become something else other than oko

[caramel-mousse]

If gif icons are like Actually A New Feature (again) Now im so changing both this and art acct icon again

[akirameta84]

Warning: This is VERY LONG. i got carried away.

"hey don't you have a wip fic for another au?" yeah shush i have a new idea that's not as fleshed out (after writing that turned out to be a lie) as the chunibyo one but i had to share it.

its in every fandom, but Saiki K Pokemon Au time. it's always cliche but who cares its amazing.

Kaido is the mc. for sure. he chooses a froakie because the professor (its kusuke, he's totally it) said it was a dark and mysterious as him. at first he's disappointed by the frog but once it evolves he starts loving it. him and greninja wear matching outfits. he tied red wrist wraps on its arms and he wears a pink scarf.

nendo is his rival lmao. he met him when kaido left with his first pokemon and challenged him to a battle, immediatly. he said loser has to buy the other persons ramen. "but i dont even know you??" "oh. well lets be friends, runt!" "you just asked to fight me???" nendo uses an eevee because his mom gave it to him when he was young. kaido wins because nendo didnt use a single attacking move. he just used sand attack and growl. the battle lasted 10 minutes because kaido kept missing.

now with his newly self proclaimed rival, after going to eat ramen, kaido sets out on his journey. i like to imagine a region with just every pokemon cause its cool that way. kaido mainly looks for fighting type pokemon, and a few dark types, and it takes him a bit to realize that this is probably a bad strategy and that he isnt finding anything, as cool as they are. he catches a shroomish, not knowing it became a type he wanted, because he was impressed with it's "battle capabilities" because it survived an attack that had fainted others. he names it doomslayer cause he's such an edgelord.

somewhere along the way nendo finds him and says that he's going to challenge a gym, and that kaido should join him. kaido agrees because "oh yeah, thats why im on this journey" and they go to the first gym.

The first gym is ghost type, run by toritsuka. why is he first? cause he's prolly not very good at battling and he knows it. the gym itself would be very foggy, and kaido has to traverse it to get to toritsuka. along the way toritsuka has spirits tell him where kaido is, and he'll release a pokemon near there for him to battle, and this happens 2 times. Torisuka himself uses 2 pokemon, a Litwick and a Galarian Yanmask. both are female, obviously. kaido absolutely demolishes these two pokemon, with his water and grass type, seeing as they're part fire and ground. first badge complete.

surpsingly, nendo also beats this gym, mainly because eevee can use bite. guess he figured out how to use attacking moves lmao. also yes ik bite is learned at 25, and rn they're at like lv 12 but shh. he found a tm or smt. it also helps thst toritsuka could barely hit nendos eevee due to the ghost and normal type thing.

nendo tries to travel with kaido, but kaido usually manages to worm his way away from him. he usually gets away whenever nendo challenges someone else and they have to tell him that he can't catch someone else's pokemon.

second gym is chiyo's gym. she uses grass types, and her gym is covered in flowers, trees, and it looks like a forest. the puzzle itself is rather simple. the floor is covered in large flowers, and you have to step on the correct ones or get sent back to the start. i like to imagine a giant vine yeeting kaido. chiyo also forgot to write clues over which ones are correct and ends up helping kaido, and winds being endeared by his determination. chiyo uses a Fomantis and a Petilil, because she thinks they're cute. kaido actually struggles quite a bit because he brings a water type and a grsss type. he wins in the end though, because chiyo ends up lovestruck and forgets to attack. she daydreams about inviting him to run the gym with her because he's so talented in her eyes, but he leaves before she can ask, grass badge in hand.

after chiyo's gym, kaido's froakie evolves into Frogadier, and he cries. in-between gyms again, kaido catches a rockruff because it was cute and it whined when he tried to walk away after battle. again, kaido catching types he likes without even knowing, provided his rockruff evolves at nightime. he names it Decimator. at this point i place kaido's levels at 19-21 ish, and close to rockruff and shroomish evolving.

next gym is hairo's and surprise surprise, it's a fire type gym. his gym his very, very intense. he has actual jets of fire lining his gym. there's no puzzle because he believes in just battling for victory or whatever, kaido didn't catch it behind the roar of the fire jets. kaido just walks along a pathway and gets challenged to battle by 3 randoms. i like to imagine one of them is nendo, and its never discussed. he has a fire type and everything, and its just not brought up. he's back to his single eevee after this too. kaido also wins with relative ease, considering he has a water type and rock type, although he makes the mistake of sending shroomish out at some point, but makes a clutch switch after it survives a flamethrower. fire badge obtained.

right after this, his shroomish evolves into breloom and he cries again. he gets very happy when his pokemon evolve. and also, after a few random encounters, his rockruff also evolves. its day form because kaido is a clueless baby. he still loves it all the same. at some point nendo challenges kaido with a single pokemon again, but this time it's a leafeon. kaido asks how he knew to evolve it, and he just says he battled next to some funny looking rock and it changed. of course. it actually manages to oko Frogadier because kaido wasnt expecting anything other than an eevee, but his breloom deals with it easily, because nendo kept using not very effective grass moves because it worked once. how does he have 3 badges again? nobody knows. level 25-27 now.

next gym is saiko's, and he uses normal types because all the other types were "too needy for someone like him." he's got 2 Persians and a Toucannon. he tried to use 3 persians but he was told that he needed something else just in case someone brought a fighting type by his dad. so he grabbed the first wild bird he found and evolved it. saiko doesnt have a puzzle, and instead just has an elevator that you can pay 5000 Pokedollars to use, otherwise you have to take the stairs like a pleb. Kaido takes the stairs because he's keeping his money dammit. its only 3 stories until saiko's floor, so it's really not much. Kaido sweeps easily with breloom until toucannon comes out. breloom gets slaughtered by a flying type move, and he sends out lycanroc to finish it. normal badge complete.

when he next sees nendo, he has a meowth with his leafeon. kaido asks where he got it, and nendo says he found it near the rich looking gym. kaido concludes that nendo accidently stole a pokemon and they go to return it. saiko says that the plebs can have it as a reward for defeating him, and dismisses them. levels 30-33.

5th gym! mera runs this one, and there isn't a type. she has an Alcremie, Appletun, Cherubi, and a Vannilish. what can i say, girl loves her food. kaido is genuinely concerned that she is gonna eat her pokemon though. the challenge is cooking. kaido has to cook curry, and if its bad, he fights a trainer, up to 3 times. if its good he gives it to mera and moves on the next curry. the actual battle goes okay, but its fairly difficult due to not having a single type, and being unpredictable. obviously he wins in the end, and the badge is a bowl of curry.

frogadier evolves into greninja finally, and they have the matching outfits going on. nendo laughs at it. somewhere nendo also got an applin. kaido is fairly sure he took this one from mera as well, but he decides to let it go, and tell nendo how he can evolve it. he doesn't think nendo understood, but he tried. kaido also realizes he only has 3 pokemon, and decides to find two more. he finds a braixen, which he evolves into delphox. her name is Lucifer's Eternal Flames. Lucy for short. he also catches a noibat. the noibat was caught because he got lost in a cave, and the noibat was leading him out, so he decided he couldn't just leave it there. he names it the Jet Bat Wings. yes im doing that and yes its hilarious. levels 37-39.

gym 6. fighting type, and its kuboyasu. he tried to leave behind his violent days behind him, and become a poison type gym, but eventually gave in and did fighting instead. after he had already dyed his hair purple for the colorscheme. he kept the fighting gym purple because he already commited dammit. 4 pokemon, and hes got Toxicroak (yes ik the irony), Lucario, Grapploct, and Pangoro. greninja faints quickly, and so does lycanroc, but after some paralysis tricks with breloom and delphox sweeping the rest, pangoro comes in and ko's delphox. noibat pulls through in the end, with flying type moves. fighting badge earned.

next battle with nendo, and it turns out he actually evolved applin, and now he's got a flapple. kaido is midly impressed. kaido catches his 6th and final pokemon, an absol. he was overjoyed when he finally got another dark type. he names it Fluffy. yes, the dark type doesnt get an edgy name. levels 44-46, there was a longer gap in between the 6th and 7th gyms. oh also, you may be wondering about an evil team in this au. and my answer is....¯\_(ツ)_/¯

gym 7. Fairy type. Teruhashi. you knew she'd be coming eventually. and yes i saved the characters people prolly wanna know about until last haha. and because i think they fit the more difficult gyms. girl's got 5 pokemon, Mimikyu (i think it fits her fake perfect girl personality), Slyveon, Gardevoir, Florges, and Magearna. how does she have a legendary? prolly cause she's perfect and just asked for it, and someone actually found one. No puzzle here, but having to find his way through the mobs of teruhashi fans is prolly hard enough. Kaido actually has to try this gym several times due to him lacking anything good againist fairies. he gets it eventually though, and teruhashi has to reassure her fans that it's okay that she lost before they murder kaido. fairy badge down.

at this point kaido has no clue how nendo keeps getting gym badges. he has 3 pokemon, and one isn't even evolved. especially considering how easily Kaido himself can beat him. kaido I shrug it off as the plothole it usually is in pokemon games. levels 47-50. Noibat evolves into Noivern, and kaido has himself a pretty strong team. Greninja, Delphox, Absol, Lycanroc, Noivern, Breloom. although he has just been choosing based on personal preference, it turnes out nicely. and yes I'm padding this out cause y'all know what gym is next.

Gym number 8. The psychic type gym, run by Saiki and Aiura. It doesn't get more cliche than this. The challenge in this one is a maze. There's no extra trainers here, instead Kaido fights Aiura everytime he encounters her. She only uses 1 Pokemon in these battles because they happen a lot. Kaido wonders how she keeps finding him, let alone getting through the maze so easily when there's walls everywhere. He brushes it off as her just knowing the layout. battle itself happens, and it's a double battle. they each have 3 pokemon. Saiki has a ditto, espeon, and an alolan raichu (because he thought it was cute) Aiura mainly runs the support side of the team, and she's got a female meowstic, alakazam, and reuniclus, and wishes she had a cuter team, but she makes it work. This is prolly Kaido's second hardest gym. not harder than teruhashi's because he had no advantages, unlike this one where he's got several dark types. the battle is hard because they know exactly what kaido is gonna do. the minute he sends out his breloom to get a cheap paralysis, out comes ditto. the breloom ditto nearly wipes out both dark types, but noivern takes care of it, only to meet a sad demise at the hands of raichu, despite the dragon advantage. he's able to win on his second try, after he refused to send out breloom due to the fact that they just seem to know his next move. it creeped him out. Psychic badge done.

nendo tries to take saiki out for ramen with him and kaido after his gym fight, declaring him his best buddy, and it's not explained why nendo decided this. nendo eventually wins the argument and they get ramen. kaido notices saiki looks disturbed everytime he looks at nendo, but brushes it off as "yeah he disturbs me too." they part ways and onto victory road because im still mourning how there wasn't one in sword and shield. after victory road, kaido is nearing level 60 on everyone.

elite four? eheh i don't know who'd make it up. prolly 4 previous gym leaders with fully evolved teams and more pokemon. not tlo worries about them tho.

Kaido bests the elite four, and marches on to the champion.

Champion Akechi. Full team of 6 Pokemon, and he's a formidable opponent. He's able to easily predict what moves are going to be used next, and always has type advantage. Although, unlike before, while difficult to do, it is possible to do something unpredictable to trip him up, which is the only way Kaido is able to win. His team consists of Serperior, Glaceon, Gyrados, Ninetales, Togekiss (it's just there to be annoying, it can barely attack, and akechi did this to be a nuisance so he can't be clean sweeped), and Mew. Again, I love unexplained lengendaries on teams okay. To Kaido, it seems like with enough switching, he could easily defeat Akechi, but Akechi is very good at predicting. So againist Akechi, it's like the team as been catered specifically to beat Kaido. But, knowing him, it likely was. It takes him ages to beat Akechi. Like literal ages. The only saving grace is Akechi can get tripped up if Kaido is unpredictable enough. It's likely a mixture of that and para hscks that lets him win, and Kaido is champion. Nendo did try to challenge him (somehow beating the elite four) but was beaten. I love how the rivals always beat everything but then get horribly beaten by you.

Holy shit this is longer than i thought it would be. I have been writing this for literal hours. Hope you enjoyed. This is what my brain had inspiration for today apparently, instesd of the fic im working on.

Hadn't seen too much Pokemon stuff for saiki k yet, so tada. and yes, i came up with most of this while writing. the only idea i had before i started writing was the saiki and aiura gym

[mintchocolateleaves]

On The Fantasies of Moonlight (4/4)

Summary: Aoko deserves someone who won’t lie to her, who won’t be selfish with her. And Kaito…? Kaito is selfish.

[Part One]  [Part Two]  [Part Three]

Kaito can’t believe he’s doing this.

But at the same time, he’s always known himself to be the type to do stupid, insane things, so – at the same time, he does believe it. It’s a conflict of belief, one that forces him forward.

He waits until the following morning, of course. When he’s sober and his blood has a lower alcohol content inside, the aftermath of drinking at the blue parrot brushed away with a good night’s sleep and a few painkillers to erase the impending hangover.

Now, he stands outside of Aoko’s front door, early enough that he’d managed to catch the sun rising as he’d left his own apartment behind. The sky had been a mixture of coral and lavender as light peered through the clouds, illuminating his face as he’d gotten onto his bike.

“You’re procrastinating,” Kaito tells himself, and he wills himself to rid the tension from his voice, to roll out the ache in his shoulders, where the muscles are so bunched up. The plastic carrier bag that he’s brought with him rustles as he moves, swinging back and forth. “Stop that.”

Okay, he just needs to go for it.

Kaito isn’t a coward, he knows he can do it. Just bridge the gap and hope that Aoko is as much of an early riser as she always claims that she is. He balls his hand into a fist and for the first time in years, he knocks.

And he waits.

In fact, Kaito waits for long enough that he’s beginning to think that Aoko either isn’t in, or she’s just not an early riser. Which kind of sucks, because Kaito doesn’t really want to wait on her doorstep, waiting for the moment she becomes available for him to talk to again.

He’ll do it, because he’s trying to prove a point, but that doesn’t mean he really wants to. Even if it’s light outside, there’s still a chill to the morning that he doesn’t usually see at midday.

Part of him considers lifting the pick set from his back pocket and just entering the house, but that’s probably not the best idea when he’s trying to even things out. Trying to make sure that Aoko sees him on her terms.

Well–

Okay, maybe it’s not so much her terms, since he’s the one initiating the contact, but… well, he’s trying to make her feel comfortable, in her own space. Somewhere she can kick him out of whenever she wants to stop looking at his face.

The door swings open and Kaito, pulled from his thoughts, jumps back, almost tripping over the curb and back into the street.

Aoko, still dressed in her pyjamas – a long baby-blue shirt with the words ‘I am enough’ printed across them, and small white kitten shorts – stares out, barely awake.

He kind of gets the impression that either Aoko has only been up a little while, or, he’s the one responsible for her leaving the warmth of bed blankets behind.

“Ka–” Her expression shifts from sleepy to annoyed in a way that Kaito is all too used to. “What are you doing here?”

Kaito takes the second to lift the carrier bag, lets his lips twist upward in an attempt at something apologetic. He’s never been good at saying the words ‘sorry’, but he’ll try to, for her. “I thought I’d bring breakfast.”

Aoko blinks. She lowers her chin, staring at the bag as if it holds more answers than he does. “Wha- Kaito, it’s six in the morning.”

“Breakfast starts from five-thirty,” he says. And then, quieter, “I wanted to talk, and I’m impatient.”

Her exasperation flees her face, chased away by regret and a frown. Aoko says, “right, whatever, close the door behind you, I’m gonna go get dressed.”

Kaito barely has his foot in the door before she’s disappeared down the corridor, practically storming away. He deposits his shoes, mutters ‘sorry for intruding’ under his breath, and closes the door behind him.

-

When Aoko comes back downstairs, into the kitchen, she is more presentable.

The knots are brushed out from her hair, the tiredness is gone from her eyes and she’s dressed in jeans and a jumper. The jumper, with stripes, is one that Kaito has mentioned being too big for her in the past.

It kind of makes him imagine her wearing his clothes, because the fabric is baggy and sort of swallows her up.

Which is something he shouldn’t be thinking of at the moment, there’s a reason he’s here, and thoughts like that can come later, if everything goes well. God, Kaito hopes it goes well.

“Breakfast at six a.m.,” Aoko mutters as she glances at the food Kaito has prepared, warmed up on the table. “Breakfast at fucking six a.m., with KID, who just so happens to be Kaito.”

Okay, so maybe six a.m. breakfast has the beginnings of a mental breakdown in it. He probably should have expected this.

“Yeah,” Kaito says, “come sit down. It’s your favourite!”

Aoko squints. She says, “I’m pretty sure pancakes are your favourite.”

“We’re sharing,” Kaito says, waving a hand past the pancakes on their plates, to the other food on the table. “There’s also egg omelette, and rice porridge here, isn’t there?”

“You never make porridge,” Aoko says, slowly. She pulls out a chair, hesitating. Kaito doesn’t blame her for it.

“I made it today,” he shrugs his shoulders. “I make it sometimes.”

Having her sit down shouldn’t feel so satisfying, but honestly, it warms him slightly when Aoko pulls her chair in behind her. She grabs one of the porridge bowls, settles it in front of her, and grabs a spoon.

“You used the setting for it on the rice cooker, didn’t you?” She says, raising an eyebrow. “I doubt you even know how to cook it properly.”

“I can cook.”

“Doubtful.”

Kaito opens his mouth, retort on the tip of his tongue, and pauses. Are they really going to act like yesterday didn’t happen, just fall back into a routine that feels almost foreign now.

Even if Aoko had mentioned his being KID, she’d given in too easily, hadn’t said anything about it further. Not denying it, but not exactly accepting it either.

His expression falls, and Kaito frowns at his pancakes. He hadn’t really felt like eating before arriving, nor when he’d been setting the food out, but he’d convinced himself that he’d have some food anyway. For an attempt at normalcy.

Now, he doesn’t really feel like there’s even a slither of appetite left.

“Right,” Kaito pauses, pokes his chopsticks into his pancake. “Aoko – I think we need to talk.”

“About how you need to learn how to cook?” Her voice sounds almost strained as she says it, and she fills her mouth with porridge so she doesn’t have to say anything else.

“About me being KID.” Kaito says. Quiet. His voice barely above a whisper.

“I don’t want–” Aoko’s expression darkens. For a moment, it seems like the reminder steals the light from her eyes. “I just want to have breakfast, and not… talk about that.”

He can’t deny that the idea of skirting around it forever, neither of them mentioning it, sounds… like it would be a lot easier. But Kaito can’t do that. He can’t leave this hanging, not when this could have all been avoided if he’d just been… open from the beginning.

Again, he pokes at his pancake, before placing his chopsticks down and looking her in the eye.

“I don’t really think we can avoid it,” Kaito says. “Well, we can, but I don’t really think that we should.”

Aoko settles her spoon on the table.

“Well, what do you want me to say?” Her voice is weak, the words wavering, not nervous, but pained. It hurts to know that he caused that. “You lied to me for years, and the only reason you told me was because you wanted to hurt me.”

“Aoko, I–”

“Because that’s it, isn’t it?” She cuts him off, and it’s not hard to realise that she’s been sitting on these words since she left yesterday, letting them stew, designing just what exactly she wants to say. “You get upset and rather than explain things rationally, you lash out instead.”

God, Kaito doesn’t know what to say now.

“I mean, you’ve had over eight years to tell me you were KID,” Aoko says, “but you chose yesterday to tell me. You lied to me, and you used the truth to punish me for loving you?”

No. No Kaito hadn’t meant to – that’s not –

“I don’t want to punish you,” Kaito says, “I wanted you to realise you deserve better.”

“Did you ever think that maybe it’s not up to you to decide who I deserve?” Her voice is sharp, loud. It echoes in his ears. “You think there’s some goddamned hierarchy deciding who deserves who? Of course not!”

“You hate KID!”

Aoko leans forward, pressing against the table as she pitches herself up, standing, staring down at him. As if she’s incapable of sitting still, of remaining sat in place. “Well, I love Kaito!”

Brain short-circuiting, Kaito blinks. He’s never known how to deal with this, with the vivid ferocity in which Aoko feels things, and as such, he feels his brain scramble, frying as he tries to keep up.

“That doesn’t change things,” Kaito says, finally. “You hate KID. You can’t pretend that loving me doesn’t mean you hate me too.”

She stiffens. Drops back into her seat almost as if her legs have given up on her, the muscles weak as she collapses down. Kaito almost wants to ask if she’s okay – but that would be stupid? Wouldn’t it?

How could she be, right now?

“Of course, I hate you,” Aoko says and Kaito can’t hurt the stab of pain that runs through him, slicing him open, making him feel like he’s bleeding out at the kitchen table. “You can’t expect me not to.”

Kaito closes his eyes, reminds himself to breathe.

“I mean,” Aoko continues, and her voice is softer now, “I’ve hated KID for… Pretty much a third of my life, I can’t just will that away in a day.”

…What?

“There’s always going to be residual anger there,” Aoko says, and when he reopens his eyes, she’s watching him, trying to read his expressions. Kaito, used to hiding emotions away, finds that it’s not too unsettling to let her. “But I think we should both be expecting that, shouldn’t we?”

“It’s only natural,” he murmurs.

“And honestly,” Aoko continues, “I think it might take me a while to figure all this stuff out. I mean, you lied to me for years, you – it was your heists my dad was always ditching me for. And I mean, Dad always told me KID was in danger, so that means you were running into danger.”

“…I was.”

“I’m not going to lie and say that I don’t hate you a little bit for that,” Aoko says. “That you put yourself in danger, that dad focused more on you, that I was alone because of it. But – some of that anger is irrational, and I know that.”

She leans forward, snaking her hand around the plates and bowls, grabbing hold of Kaito’s hand. He tenses, an unconscious response, but she pays the movement no mind.

“You’re allowed to feel angry,” Kaito sighs, “anger isn’t irrational.”

“And I’ll let myself feel that,” Aoko agrees, “but I know when I need to admit some things are irrational. Like – my anger at dad choosing to go to all the heists and not come home. It was always easier to place it on KID, than on him, so I did. That wasn’t you.”

It is easier, after all, to place the blame on someone who isn’t present, isn’t a part of her life with any immediate relationships. Easier for Aoko to shift the blame and to avoid being angry at those she’s closest too.

“Okay,” – his voice sounds hollow to his own ears – “yeah, that’s understandable.”

A pause.

“So, what happens now?”

Her lips part, eyes widening. Aoko asks, “what do you mean?”

“I mean – with this. With KID. Me.” Kaito’s foot taps against the floor, his shoes clacking, a fast rhythm that isn’t enough to alleviate the sudden anxiety. “I mean, I’m a criminal, a thief – and your division catches them. So, what next?”

The fact that Aoko pauses, considering, her eyes glancing away as she thinks, shouldn’t be as nerve-wracking as it is. But Kaito can’t deny that it’s sobering, watching her.

“Well, it’s not like I can arrest you,” Aoko says. “I don’t have any evidence that KID is you. Well, I have a confession, but there’s no recording of it, so it would just be my word against yours.”

Kaito takes in a deep breath. Holds it for five seconds, and then exhales for eight.

Then, with a quick flourish of his wrist, a magic trick he’ll give no explanation for, he places KID’s monocle on the table. Aoko lets out a small gasp as it clinks against the wood, staring at the eyewear as if it’s going to disappear if she doesn’t watch it.

“There’s your evidence,” Kaito whispers. He lets out a shaky breath. “Aoko… You’ve wanted to catch KID for a very long time… so… if you want to catch me, then the evidence is yours.”

Conflict.

That’s the only word Kaito can think to explain what flashes across her face, pained conflict that threads her brows together, her lips pursued.

“I guess this is the part where you plead your case to me. Why I shouldn’t arrest you?”

Kaito shakes his head. “No.”

“Okay then,” Aoko says. She brushes hair from her eyes, looping it around her ear. “Then answer a question for me. KID has been gone for a while now, you left that moniker behind… Do you think your reformed?”

It’s a question that honestly, Kaito has been asking himself for years now. Something he’d never really wanted to get into, because he’s always been nervous what the answer would be.

But now, he kind of knows what that answer is.

“Honest?” He glances away, “I don’t think so.”

Aoko’s smile tightens, and it’s all Kaito can do to force himself to look back at her. To try and read her eyes, no matter how difficult that is.

“I can’t deny that I enjoyed it, being KID. That there isn’t a part of me that looks back on my heists and wants to host another. In a way, I don’t think I’ll ever be reformed, because there’s always going to be a part of me that loves being that person.”

“Then why stop?”

Truthfully? Because there’d been no way to justify it after he’d found Pandora. Because there was no need to keep risking his life once he’d gained his justice – his revenge – and he’d known that. Because his mother had been worried that one day he’d end up like his father, dead, leaving her even more alone.

So many reasons. All of them mingling together. Only one of them to do with Aoko.

“I found what I was looking for,” he answers. “There was no need to do it anymore.”

“Okay,” Aoko says, “that was then. What stops you now?”

The answers are fluid, readily available without even needing to be thought out. Almost as if for years he’d been dying to say them, except, no one had ever thought to ask because they either didn’t know to or didn’t think the question was necessary.

“I want to be better. I don’t want my own personal history to always be defined by KID. I don’t want to be a thief forever.”

“I don’t know what reformed means in your head,” Aoko says, “but to me, it sounds like your well on your way.”

She lets go of his hand, collects the monocle in her hands. And then, just as quickly as picking it up, so presses it into Kaito’s hand.

“This is yours. Not mine.”

Kaito blinks. “You– Aoko are you–”

“I’m sure.” Her eyes light up, and for a moment, all Kaito can do is watch her. The curve of her lips, not a full smile, but the beginnings of one. Something that can be built upon, with so many different expressions that it’s shocking to think that it’s not overwhelmingly expressive in its own right.

He puts the monocle away, dropping it into his pocket. He hardly feels the weight of it.

“…So, what else is stopping you?”

Kaito frowns, “excuse me?”

Aoko smiles. The first full smile during their conversation. Brightening, reminding him of sunshine. Sometimes, it’s shocking to remember that she has dimples, like he should have known that, like it’s something he should never have overlooked.

She’s as she usually is.

Beautiful.

“Well, you said that you would ruin me. And I would ruin you.” Kaito’s lips part, but no words come out. “But I don’t feel altogether ruined. So, tell me, what else is stopping you?”

“Nothing,” Kaito says. “Nothing at all.”

-

*Notes on the ending:

Because I know that some people might be wondering why I decided not to go with a traditional, overly romantic ending: Well, because Aoko has only just found out the truth about KID. It would be unnatural and frankly, a little unhealthy if they just ended things on an overly romantic note. Did I want kisses and hugs? Sure? But in this fic, it would be unrealistic.

The fact that they both admit at the end that nothing is holding them back - Aoko is not ruined, and nothing is stopping Kaito - shows that they're still prepared to give things a shot and that their feelings are still present. In the end, they choose each other, and that's it. And honestly, I think that this is a more realistic and fitting end to this fic.