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Heiji isn’t sure why he’s doing this. Maybe he’s being paranoid after the distinctly gruesome homicide he had just solved. Maybe duking it out over battles of deduction for so long has led his brain and Kudo’s to fuse together and now they have some sort of cool mindlink going on, like in the movies. Maybe… maybe he just shouldn’t have eaten discount sushi for dinner and he’s being really weird about a recurring nightmare that’s been haunting him on and off for weeks and months. Who knows?
Whatever the reason, it doesn’t change the fact that he wakes up at 2 in the morning with dread in his gut and an urgent need to make sure Kudo is okay. Scrambled by panic, he doesn’t stop to consider the sensibility of his actions. His brain is shouting “Go! Go! Go!”, so he’s out the door as fast as he can, barely taking the time to sling on pants and shoes before running into the street.
It’s not until he stumbles to a halt in front of Kudo Manor that Heiji realizes: he should have used a little more brain before coming here. See, when he’d startled awake, the only thing in his head had been “Find Kudo”, but now that he’s mostly completed that task, he’s lost. He and Kudo are friends, sure, but even Heiji knows that it’s kind of weird to drop in for a visit without warning in the wee hours of the morning.
He shuffles on the sidewalk, caught by uncertainty. The sweat on the back of his neck is going clammy. He vaguely regrets not having grabbed a shirt to go with his pants as he rubs his arms to guard against the slice of the night breeze but, despite the chill, what’s most uncomfortable is trying to figure out what comes next.
What’s he supposed to say?
The question rattles around in his brain as his body autopilots its way to Kudo’s doorstep. He tosses a couple of options around in his head, but then he gets to the door and it opens and Kudo is there in front of him.
“You loitered long enough to set off the motion detectors," Kudo says, bleary-eyed. He doesn't bother to explain anything more. They both know that Heiji can deduce the rest: After the whole debacle with the Black Organization, it only makes sense for Kudo to be cautious about his home security. This soon after, he's probably primed to wake up if any of his alarms go off.
Any formulation of words that Heiji had been knocking around gets tossed out the window. He goes instead with the tried and tested strategy of “blurt out everything on your mind all at once, in the hopes that something intelligible will come out”.
"I got somethin’ to say and you're gonna sit here until I finish, you hear?"
Kudo stares at him.
"What is this, a confession?"
Heiji chokes on his own breath. "N-no! I just had a bad dream, that's all." The single functional brain cell that’s still firing in the depths of his skull is whispering that this was a bad idea. It’s too late, though. The words are out of his mouth, and he can’t take them back.
He caps off the long silence with a shrug and spreads his arms in a “what can you do?” gesture.
The pause stretches for long enough that Heiji ponders turning around and leaving, but then Kudo rolls his eyes.
“I’m going back to bed.”
Running a hand through his sleep-mussed hair, he turns around and heads back into his house. He doesn’t shut the door behind him though, so after a pause, Heiji takes that as an invitation to follow him in.
The two of them walk through the house in silence. There’s an eerie hush over the place as they pad through the halls in sock feet.
When Kudo pushes the door to a room open, it's somehow surprising to discover that he's taken them not to a sitting room, but to his bedroom. It's even more alarming when Kudo starts crawling under his covers.
"Kudo?"
He'd said he would, but Heiji hadn't actually expected his friend to literally go back to bed.
"What?" Kudo yawns, then shoots an irritated glare at Heiji. "I'm still listening. It’s warmer here."
"Uh…" Heiji looks down at himself, shirtless and rumpled, then looks back at Kudo, who sighs.
"Get in."
When his friend pats his blanket in invitation, Heiji perches on the bed beside him, sitting on top of the covers.
"Been a while since I had a sleepover," he says, with fond memories of kendo camp drifting through his mind.
"I'm kicking you out if you don't start talking," Kudo mutters.
"Yeah, okay," Heiji grumbles, because that's fair, but he's still not sure how to talk about what's bothering him.
"I dreamed about ya. Burnin’ up with fever at first, turning back into Conan again, and then you were actually burnin’ up, fire an’ all, and it was…. You were barely a meter away from me, close enough that I could feel the heat, but I couldn't do nothin' to help." Heiji shivers at the echoed memory that rises in his mind's eye. He's seen enough death to know how people look when they burn, and his brain had used that fodder to paint a picture that had been horribly real.
"I dunno, it doesn’t have any real basis, but it felt. I needed to come and make sure you were okay. Tell you to watch yer back, maybe.” He huffs, struggling to find the right words. “This's stupid, I know. I worry about you too much, even when I'm not asleep. Back when we first met, you were so little, y'know? Every big bad guy comin' after you was three times yer size, an' all it would take was one asshole gettin’ a lucky kick in–"
"I'm not small anymore. I can take care of myself now," Kudo grumbles, and yeah, Heiji can get why he's annoyed by the reminder of how handicapped he was when he was shrunk down.
"Yeah, I know. You could handle ‘em even then, with yer fancy gadgets and all that. You never needed me around. Still don’t." Heiji flops onto his back, staring at the ceiling in the hopes that it will make the words come easier. "Now that yer all grown up again, I jus' thought it'd stop, is all. The worrying." He groans and covers his eyes with his arm, pissed off with himself. "Dunno why I thought so."
Kudo snorts. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means that even without the dreams, I’m always thinkin’ aboutcha! I’ll hit a crime scene and get stumped, then I’ll hear your voice in my head yellin’ about somethin’ or another’ from the last time we talked shop, y’know? Or I’ll see a Sherlock Holmes thing and think ‘Kudo’d be jazzed to see that’ because of how many times I’ve heard you ranting about it.” Heiji exhales hard and turns his head to glower at Kudo when he adds, “Hell, I‘m pretty sure you’ve been livin’ in my brain rent-free ever since I figured out you existed, period. Kazuha got on my case about that a lot, back in the day.”
“Heh. It’s hard to forget about her yelling at Ran about being the ‘Kudo girl’ from Tokyo who had stolen your heart.”
Even without looking over, Heiji can see Kudo’s smirk in his mind’s eye, and it makes him blush despite himself.
“Ugh. Guess she did do that, didn’t she?”
After a beat, he recovers, laughing under his breath. “C’mon, it wasn’t that weird, though, was it? I know it didn’t mean anything to you, but I spent all that time thinkin’ I was the only high school detective out there, when suddenly I find out that there’s another one out in Tokyo. Not only that, but when I hunted ya down and challenged ya to a deductive race, it turned out ya weren’t just a pretty face– you had the brains to go with the looks! If ya hadn’t disappeared to turn back into Conan, I prob’ly woulda kissed ya straight on the mouth, I was so excited to find a real rival!”
"You wanted to kiss me?" Kudo asks, and Heiji is about to snap at him for breaking his train of thought, but then he rewinds the last few sentences in his head and his face goes hot.
"I."
“And you said this wasn’t going to be a confession.” Kudo’s eyes glint in the low light of the room, narrowed in the way that says he’s figured out the solution to a mystery.
“Uh.”
Heiji's tongue is thick in his mouth. He wants to deny it. He should just laugh this off and move on. He and Kudo are bros, sure but they're not like that, right? Only, Heiji hadn’t thought about it like this before, but Kudo is one of the most brilliant detectives in Japan, and the best rival and friend a guy could have to boot, and yeah, he’s also pretty. Pretty enough that Heiji can't help but realize that if they’d met a little differently, if he hadn’t been Conan-shaped for so long, he might actually have thought less about going head to head as rivals, and more about going mouth to mouth as–
Well.
Now he can't stop thinking about kissing Kudo.
"Damnit." Heiji mutters, flushing red and knowing that Kudo can see it. "I'm an idiot. Sorry, Kudo. I shouldn'ta said all that. I’ll stop bein’ a creep an’ get outta yer room–"
Before Heiji can do more than start to get up, he finds himself flattened back onto the bed. While his eyes are hidden by the shadow of his bangs, Kudo's wicked grin is impossible to miss.
"I think it's unfair to climb into a person's bed and tell him that you’ve thought about kissing him, but then leave without giving him a chance to reply."
"Oh fuck off, Kudo. It's not like I came here plannin’ ta do any of this! I–" Heiji is ready to turn his embarrassment into an impressive tirade, but Kudo cuts him off by brushing his lips against the corner of Heiji's mouth.
Two steps ahead of me again, huh? He thinks, all of his defensive anger evaporating.
“For the record, Hattori,” Kudo says, breath whispering over Heiji’s cheek, “I like you too.”
And how is Heiji supposed to do anything other than grab Kudo’s face and turn him so that their mouths meet?
Neither of them have much experience with kissing, but it’s not bad. It’s good, actually, how their lips move messily against each other, teeth clicking as they figure out how to fit themselves together, because Heiji knows that if Kudo had ever done this before, he’d be more polished. The fact that he’s so clumsy means that this is his first time, his first kiss, and somehow he’s decided to share it with Heiji.
It leaves Heiji feeling more than a little breathless. He brings his hands down to rest on the small of Kudo’s back, running them over the soft fabric of his pajama top, then letting them wander lower, brushing against the slice of exposed skin where his shirt rides up. It shouldn’t be sexy, just touching Kudo’s back, but there’s something about spreading his palms out on Kudo’s bare skin that makes Heiji feel like his heart is going to beat right out of his chest.
Kudo shifts, rising up a little, and it’s only natural for Heiji’s hands to drift just a little further down, coming to rest on the curve of Kudo's ass. Kudo flexes when Heiji squeezes down, then moans into their kiss, arching back into Heiji’s touch like he likes it. Heiji’s pretty sure he would commit actual crimes to hear Kudo make that sound again.
Thank you football, he thinks incoherently, kneading the muscle beneath his fingers.
He wants to stay here forever, just let Kudo keep him close and kiss him slow and sweet. Then Kudo shifts and his leg slides between Heiji’s knees, rubbing perfectly against his dick, and holy crap, he’d forgotten that was an option. He sucks in a sharp breath, eyes slamming shut as sparks light up inside his body from how good it feels.
“Hey. Open your eyes.”
A kiss skims over his cheekbone. Heiji looks up and the only thing he sees is Kudo, gorgeous Kudo braced above him, all flash-fire eyes and lightning-white skin, sweat dripping down the silver line of his throat. He’s beautiful and terrifying, a battle-hymn brought to life.
“There you are. Don’t stop looking at me.”
What else Heiji would look at, he’s got no idea. He’d try to figure it out, but Kudo’s smile is sharp as he clenches his legs tight, and fuck, Kudo’s hard too, and he’s not trying to hide it, dick heavy and hot as he rides Heiji’s thigh.
It feels like Heiji’s veins have suddenly filled with lava, like his head is full of boiling steam. The soft slide of Kudo’s mouth against his, his breath puffing over Heiji’s cheeks, his weight holding Heiji down, his dick grinding against Heiji, so wet that it’s soaking through both of their pants – Each new detail that Heiji commits to memory is another chain wrapping around his heart, squeezing tighter and tighter. He can hardly breathe through it, this feeling that he’s found the place where he belongs: right here, under Kudo, holding him. They’re pressed together so close that there’s no room for air or thought between them as they chase their pleasure together, and he's so in love he could die.
“Heiji,” Kudo gasps, then he bites his lip and makes this high whine of a noise as he stills, shoulders hunched and shivering. His eyes are shut, and his body is tense against Heiji’s, and oh. Oh. He just came, didn’t he? Kudo just came and– No one’s ever wanted Heiji so much that they–
Some last thread holding Heiji together snaps. He clutches at Kudo’s hips and bucks up into him, shaking, overheating, unravelled. Black spots dance along the edges of his vision. His chest convulses. He burns.
When Heiji catches his breath, Kudo is looking down at him with the kind of focus he usually reserves for crime scenes.
“Did I get somethin’ on my face?” Heiji asks, smearing the back of his hand over his cheek, just in case.
“No.” Kudo runs his knuckles down the angle of Heiji’s jaw with unexpected tenderness. “I just like looking at you.”
This, of all things, is what makes Heiji blush.
“Stop lyin’. I know you see better in the mirror every day.” He looks away, and the movement reminds him that he just came in his pants. Suddenly horribly aware of how unsexy it is to have a wet mess in his underwear, now that he’s not turned on, he squirms and makes a face. “Aw hell.”
“Hmm?”
“Don’t wanna wake up glued to my pants, but also don’t wanna let you go.”
“Just kick your pants off. It’s fine.” Kudo yawns and tucks his face into Heiji’s neck. “I’m going to do the same.”
“We’re gonna mess up your sheets,” Heiji mutters, but Kudo’s already got his own bottoms halfway off, so he follows suit. It’s not like he really wants to get up either, not with Kudo cuddled up on top of him, using his chest as a pillow.
“Figure it out in the morning,” Kudo hums, already half asleep. Heiji curls an arm around his back and kisses the crown of his head, then closes his eyes too, warm and wanted.