Archive of Our Own ^beta

Heiji was good at a lot of things, but lying wasn’t one of them.

Kazuha used to think it was a special skill she had because of their bond, being able to tell when Heiji was trying to be deceptive. Of course, by now she understood that it really wasn’t all that impressive. He was just painfully bad at keeping the truth to himself, to the point where any lies seemed almost comical.

So of course she knew that something wasn’t adding up here.

It seemed like ever since meeting Kudo, Heiji had been spending as much time with him as he possibly could. He spent every other weekend in Tokyo just to see him, and Kudo came to visit Osaka just as often. When the two weren’t together, Heiji would talk about him near constantly, and any time Kazuha looked over his shoulder while he was on his phone, she was bound to catch a glimpse of their texts.

Each time Heiji heard the name Kudo, his face would instantly light up—but through it all, he consistently referred to him as a friend and nothing more.

That was the part that tripped Kazuha up. Honestly, she had been glad in the beginning that he finally found a friend who was just as much of a detective freak as he was, but as time went by it just became clearer that there was a whole lot more than friendship going on. The question was, why the hell hadn’t Heiji told her the truth yet?

They were best friends, after all, had been for most of their lives. Did he think she wouldn’t be supportive? He had never spoken much about crushes or dating in the past, and Kazuha had just assumed it wasn’t something he was interested in—had he been hiding all that, all this time, because he was afraid of what she would think?

When one of the rare weekends that Heiji wasn’t meeting up with Kudo came, Kazuha took the chance to invite him out for lunch, resolving to ask him about it then. She spent half the meal trying to find the right entry point, but Heiji barely gave her room to talk, too busy explaining how Kudo took him to this exact restaurant last weekend and telling her how their lunch went in painstaking detail.

“Ya wouldn’t think it, but he’s the messiest eater,” Heiji said. “Kept gettin’ sauce on his cheek, and I had to keep wiping it off for him-”

“My uncle is gay,” Kazuha blurted out, a little too loudly. Heiji stared at her for a second, finally leaving room to speak, and she rushed to continue. “I just mean, y’know, his partner is a man, and the two of them are great. Like, I love ‘em. And it’s really cool that they’re gay. Really.”

Heiji continued to stare her down, before nodding slowly. “Right. Anyway-”

“All I’m sayin’ is that I wouldn’t mind if like, someone I knew happened to be gay. And if they got a boyfriend, I’d be really happy for ‘em. Y’know?”

“... Good for you?”

Kazuha gave him an expectant stare. “So, d’ya have anything to tell me?”

Once again, Heiji looked back at her with complete confusion. “No?”

“Look, Heiji. I know you and Kudo are dating, and I think it’s totally cool, okay?”

She wasn’t sure what reaction she had been hoping for, but it wasn’t for him to break out into a laugh. “Ya think we’re dating?”

“You aren’t?” she asked, which only sparked further laughter from Heiji as he shook his head.

“Of course not,” he answered, and to her surprise, it sounded completely truthful. “What the hell gave ya that idea?”

“You’re together all the time! And he’s all ya talk about!”

“We’re just friends, Kazuha. Close friends, sure, but not that close.”

“... So you don’t have feelings for him? Like, not at all?”

Heiji took a moment of silence before speaking. “No,” he said finally, “I don’t.”

And there was the lie, one that Kazuha could pick out easily.

—

Shinichi had never been exactly easy to get along with. He never cared about being considerate, always told the truth even when it hurt, and was obsessive to a fault about his stupid mystery novels and detective work. Ran was used to all that, of course.

But this—this was new.

It wasn’t that Shinichi had changed, exactly; It was more that the focus of his fixations had shifted. He still gushed about Holmes and his casework, but there was something new filling his mind, to the point where he just had to share every thought about it to anyone who would listen.

That something new was a boy named Hattori Heiji.

Ran couldn’t say exactly when the obsession started, but it wasn’t too long after Hattori and Shinichi began to spend time together. Shinichi wasn’t particularly good at keeping his interests to himself no matter what they were, but his talkativeness had never really extended to a specific person before. At least, not someone they actually knew.

Maybe it was ignorance, but she assumed in the beginning that it was all about admiration. Shinichi had finally found someone to connect with on his truest passions, and in the process had also gotten a rival—someone who not only understood him, but was capable of keeping up with him. She understood the importance of that kind of bond, and did her best to keep from getting in the way of his rants and monologues about Hattori.

It was actually Sonoko who made her first put the pieces together. She had never been patient about Shinichi’s ability to wax poetic on whatever topic caught his interest that day, so it was odd to Ran when she suddenly became delighted by the stories about Hattori. She even started to worry that Sonoko had a crush on the guy, before the truth came to light.

It started as an off-hand comment, of course. “Hey, Shinichi,” Sonoko said one day during lunch, “do you have a date with that boy of yours this weekend?”

Ran couldn’t even stop her slight laughter before she caught Shinichi nodding. “Yeah, he’s coming to town,” he said, and she scanned his face for any sign of teasing, but all he wore was a genuine smile.

He and Sonoko began to discuss details, and Ran tried very hard to quickly process what had just happened.

“Wait,” she said, “you don’t mean, like, a romantic date, do you?” She couldn’t help yet another laugh, expecting there to be immediate denial, but Shinichi just stared back.

“What else would i mean?”

“I don’t know, a friend thing? Aren’t you guys friends?”

He shrugged one shoulder, before propping up his other arm on the table and settling his chin in his hand. “Well, not just that. Do you have a problem with it?”

Ran’s eyes went wide, and she instantly realized how her words could’ve sounded. Of course, Shinichi didn’t seem actually offended; If anything, he was amused by Ran’s disbelief.

“No, that’s not—It’s just, you never told me!” She paused, head whipping to look at the third party. “Wait, how does Sonoko know about this?”

“Well, it’s not like I explicitly told anyone. Sonoko just assumes everything is about romance, and this time she was right. It’s not that important that I tell you about it, though, is it?”

“It’s super important! You’ve had a boyfriend and you didn’t tell me!”

“We’re not official or anything. We’re just seeing how things go, I think. It’s hard, with the distance and all.”

Sonoko saw that as the perfect opportunity to chime in.

“Shinichi is it love for the first time, y’know,” she said, which seemed to be the first thing to get a visible reaction out of him. “You can see it on his face. His heart aches with every beat-”

“Will you cut it out? It’s not love, we’re 17.”

His protests didn’t stop her, of course, especially not with the way his face was turning red. “Puppy love is still love,” she said, voice in a singsong, and Ran could visibly see Shinichi fight between embarrassment and annoyance.

“We haven’t even kissed or anything, I think love requires a certain intimacy-”

“Poor, poor Shin-chan, so in love with someone so far away, and he doesn’t even have the nerve to kiss the guy.”

At some point, Ran began to tune them out, taking the welcome refuge in her phone with a new notification. She paused, though, when she saw the name at the top of her screen—Toyama Kazuha, someone whose contact seemed to only fill space in her phone so far.

Her surprise only grew at the message’s contents.

—

Heiji was not freaking out.

Detectives weren’t supposed to panic, after all. And yeah, this wasn’t exactly a crime scene, but it still wasn’t good practice to lose your cool outside of work. He was totally just thinking rationally about this, and absolutely hadn’t been staring at his bedroom ceiling for 4 hours trying to parse it all.

It was Kazuha’s fault, anyway. She was the one who put the dumb idea in his head in the first place, back when they got lunch a few days ago. He never would’ve even considered the possibility of being attracted to Kudo like that. They were just friends! If anything, Kazuha was weird for assuming otherwise.

Sure, maybe they went out of their way to see each other sometimes. He supposed that to some onlooker who didn’t know them, it might’ve looked like they were on a date. But really, that could happen to any two people going out together. Maybe Heiji was a little more touchy than was typical of friendships, and maybe Kudo reciprocated that, but it didn’t make their relationship romantic.

And yeah, Heiji knew he talked about the guy a lot. In hindsight, that probably gave the wrong impression. But he was just excited about having a detective buddy! That’s exactly what they were—detective buddies, and nothing more.

After all, Heiji was straight. Well, it wasn’t exactly something he considered much—he had never really felt that strongly about anyone in that way, and especially after dedicating himself to the whole detective thing, it wasn’t much of a priority.

In that way, he supposed being in a relationship with Kudo would actually be pretty great. They had the same focus for what they did, so there wouldn’t be any hard feelings about the priorities both of them had set. And neither would be getting grossed out or annoyed by work talk.

He could admit that Kudo was attractive, too. It was kind of in an annoying way—probably those actress genes, making his beauty so in-your-face—but he was definitely handsome. He worked out, and he was smart, and he dedicated himself fully to the things he cared about, which all culminated in a pretty well-rounded guy. So yeah, objectively, he was dateable.

That didn’t mean Heiji had feelings for him, though.

Besides, Kudo probably had as little experience in that department as Heiji did, so neither of them would even know what to do. He probably hadn’t even kissed anyone before. Heiji hadn’t, anyway, and he just assumed Kudo was the same.

Of course, there was a chance he wasn’t. Heiji found himself a little too focused, for a moment, on imagining Kudo kissing someone else in the past. He forced himself to stop almost as soon as he started, feeling some kind of dread in his stomach at the image.

Whatever. The point was, it would never work.

In the middle of all this thinking, Heiji was absentmindedly searching up an “am I gay” quiz—just to dispel any leftover doubts—when a message from Kudo appeared on his screen. He opened it out of habit, even though he very much did not need to talk to the guy right now, especially considering it was 2 in the morning and they both should’ve been asleep.

(The implication that Kudo had been staying up thinking about him too, in some capacity, was at least lukewarm comfort.)

The message was just confirming that Heiji would be coming that weekend, and he said yes, because it would be stupid to cancel over this. He really did enjoy being around Kudo. He wouldn’t give up that kind of time for the world.

“Great,” Kudo replied, “there’s something we need to talk about when you come. See you then.”

A smiley face at the end did nothing to quell Heiji’s sudden anxiety.

—

To say that Shinichi was thrilled about this meeting would be, simply put, a lie.

Really, he had been dreading it ever since hearing from Kazuha. It was a weird feeling, to not be completely buzzing with excitement over Hattori coming to visit. But of course, something had shifted since then.

The first message Kazuha sent to Ran was pretty innocuous; “Do you think Kudo and Heiji are dating?” Considering Ran’s reaction just before, it was almost comically timed.

After Ran clarified that they were, in fact, at least going on dates, Kazuha called her right away and demanded that she give the phone to Shinichi.

(Shinichi gathered from the general atmosphere of the call that Kazuha was hiding in a bathroom stall, presumably avoiding Hattori while she talked to him. As soon as he made the deduction, he wished he hadn’t, both because he felt bad for the other people in the bathroom listening to her talk on the phone, and because he really didn’t like the fact that Hattori apparently couldn’t be allowed to hear this conversation.)

“Kudo, you’re serious when ya say you’re dating, right?”

He leaned back in his chair, trying to seem nonchalant while also making distance from Ran and Sonoko. “I mean, we’re not official, but there’s definitely something going on.”

“D’ya think Heiji knows that?”

That caused Shinichi to pause. Considering both of their professions, it seemed unlikely that Heiji wouldn’t pick up on that kind of thing, especially when he had been reciprocating it. On the other hand, he was known to be a bit dense in certain areas that didn’t involve criminal activity.

“I guess I haven’t spelled it out for him? But I thought he-”

“Kudo,” she said, and the repetition of his name almost made him flinch. There was something about when people did that, placing a name at the beginning of a sentence, that made it seem like they were trying to soften the blow while also keeping your attention. It was the way people spoke to dogs when they did something wrong.

Which begged the question, what had Shinichi done wrong this time?

Kazuha continued, of course. “I really think ya gotta talk to Heiji about this. He has absolutely no clue, and I think he’s kinda in denial. Which I know is typical for you two, but-”

“I get it,” he interrupted, because he had gotten enough rants about his own lack of emotional intelligence in the past. It was actually surreal, that he seemed to be the one picking up on things this time. “I’ll bring it up this weekend, ok? Don’t worry about it.”

Before she could say another word, he was handing the phone off to Ran and finishing his lunch.

That was how he got here, waiting at the train station with absolutely no idea where this was headed. He knew Hattori wasn’t cruel, at least. If Shinichi explained that it was a misunderstanding, he would get it. He wouldn’t end the friendship just because Shinichi had assumed things were going somewhere else, right?

It was stupid to worry about it. There wasn’t any other option than telling him, anyway.

Hattori seemed stiff as he got off the train, though Shinichi couldn’t say he was doing much better himself. There was no reaching out for a hug, though, the way Hattori always did. It made him wonder if Kazuha had explained the whole thing to him. Not that he had any right to be mad about that, seeing as he didn’t tell her not to, but he did like to have all the information on what everybody knew. Deductions were hard with incomplete evidence.

They didn't move to touch, but as soon as he was off the train Hattori was shooting him a grin, nervous but still wide. “So, what was it ya wanted to talk about?”

Well, they might as well get right into it.

Shinichi always liked to cover his bases, and he knew that the slightest potential for a big scene in the middle of the train station wasn’t ideal. So he grabbed Hattori’s hand and began to lead him out without another word, almost afraid of what his tone would reveal alone. Not that the silence revealed any less; It really was hard doing this stuff with another detective.

He didn’t make it too far, with the way Hattori kept shooting him anxious looks, no longer even trying to hide his stress at the situation. They made it to a park, and Shinichi deemed it secluded enough to let go of Hattori’s hand once they were standing under the trees. He thought briefly about making him sit down for this, but it wasn't like he was going to tell him about a death in the family. Surely being told that your friend thought you were dating was less dire than that.

Shinichi faced him, and took in Hattori’s nervous expression, which was serious enough to make him smile. “You have got to calm down,” he said, reaching up to pull down his hat by the brim so it covered his face. Hattori made some noise of annoyance and swatted his hand away, swinging the hat around so it was backwards and giving Shinichi a glare. There, that was the Hattori he knew.

He couldn’t stop himself from taking a deep breath, just to prepare. “Hattori,” he started—and look, now he was doing the name thing, as if he didn’t already have the guy’s full attention. “According to Kazuha, there’s been a misunderstanding.”

Hattori’s breath seemed to catch. So, it seemed like he did have some idea of what was happening.

It was funny; Shinichi never once had trouble looking murderers and criminals in the face when he exposed them, but now that he was facing Hattori, he could barely maintain eye contact. He forced himself to, anyway.

“I don’t know where I got the idea from, honestly,” he began, which was definitely downplaying things, but Hattori didn’t have to know that. “I just assumed that we were going somewhere here? As in, not the way friends do. I mean—I know this is silly, and I probably should’ve confirmed it with you, but I got it in my head that we’ve been going on dates all this time, like, romantically, which is totally not your fault, I should’ve make sure of the situation. So I just wanted to put us on the same page, and say I’m absolutely ok with being just friends, alright?”

Shinichi started to trail off near the end there, as Hattori stepped closer, the movement awkward and seemingly without purpose. He could piece things together, though, when Hattori’s hand came a little shakily to the back of Shinichi’s neck, the other taking a gentle grip just above his hip.

For the first time that day, Shinichi was sure there was a mutual understanding, as they both leaned closer and met in the middle.

It wasn’t as if Shinichi had a lot of data to work on, as far as kisses went. Actually, this would be the first physical experience he had, which was probably why it seemed to make his chest tighten with something between joy and disbelief. It was clumsy, he knew that much, and it didn’t last long, which he saw as a blessing—too much more probably would’ve killed him, somehow. Maybe that was the kind of thing you got a tolerance for, that stupid giddiness.

Hattori seemed to feel it too, from the way his lips spread into a dumb grin as he pulled back, although something serious flickered across his expression soon after.

“Have ya ever done that before?” he asked, strangely solemn once again, and Shinichi just shook his head. Hattori sighed, seemingly in relief, and let that cheerful idiot look retake his face. “Me neither,” he said, “I got myself all worried that ya were like, super experienced, since you’re the pretty soccer star or whatever, but I guess-”

He paused as Shinichi began to lean forward, on his own this time, one of his hands settling on Hattori’s waist while he balled the other up in the front of his shirt to tug him closer. Not that he needed to, with the way Hattori pulled him in just the same, equally eager.

When they both pulled back, almost just as in sync—maybe some things never really changed—Shinichi allowed himself a smile that was just as dopey as Hattori’s. “So,” he said, “I assume we’re on the same page this time?”

Hattori laughed and pulled back, putting one hand in his pocket, though he held the other out for Shinichi to take. “You’re a better detective than that, Kudo,” he said, “ya know we’re never supposed to assume anything.”

Shinichi rolled his eyes and took his hand, beginning to lead him to someplace they could hopefully sit comfortably. “Fine, then. Let’s start from the beginning.”