Chapter Text
After the cookies came the pancakes…
. . . . . . . . .
"Okay. Here are the rules," Shinichi said sternly like a concerned teacher about to deliver important lab safety instructions. He felt very much like that concerned teacher. "I will be the one measuring and adding all the ingredients. You absolutely will not put anything into the mixing bowl."
"Sure," Kaito agreed amiably. "You manage the ingredients. I'll manage the mixing."
"Without doing tricks with the batter," Shinichi went on.
"Having a little fun with the batter won't affect the taste."
"You said you wanted to help," Shinichi reminded the magician. "If you're looking for entertainment, I don't mind if you want to go find something else to do."
"No. I do want to help," Kaito hastened to assure him, leaning over to drop a quick kiss on the detective's cheek. He grinned as said cheek immediately flushed a fetching pink. "So are there more rules or should we get started?"
Still clearly flustered, Shinichi ducked his head to rummage through the cupboards for the measuring cups. "Let's start. I'm sure the others will be up soon."
As predicted, it wasn't long before their friends started trickling downstairs and into the dining room. Hakuba and Aoko were first, both being natural early risers and having done little to wear themselves out the previous day. Heiji and Kazuha had arrived late the previous night after a day of packing then travel, so they had been rather more exhausted. But the sound and sense of everyone else being up and about had them following soon after, even if they both still looked a little worn around the edges.
"You should have let me make breakfast," Aoko said as Shinichi set plates of pancakes down in front of each of them. "I mean, you've already opened your home to us. You shouldn't have to do the cooking too."
Shinichi smiled. "We can take turns if you'd like, but really, I didn't mind. And I did have help."
"You did?" Aoko cast a puzzled look in the direction of the kitchen (from which they could hear the sizzle of more batter hitting the hot oil in a frying pan). "Is Ran-san here already?"
"No. She and Sera-san won't be getting here until after lunch," Shinichi explained. "Kaito helped me."
Aoko froze. "Wait. You…mean Bakaito made these?" She stared at the stack of fluffy pancakes on her plate like they had suddenly turned into coiled snakes. She was not the only one.
Next to her, Hakuba had frozen with his knife and fork in hand. Across the table, the initially bleary-eyed Heiji and Kazuha abruptly looked wide awake.
Heiji gulped, seemingly having forgotten that he had a syrup bottle upended over his plate (the amber liquid had long spilled over the sides of his pancakes and begun pooling around them). "Are they…safe?"
"I handled the ingredients," Shinichi hastened to assure them all. "Kaito didn't add anything. He just handled the mixing and frying."
The magician had—perhaps unsurprisingly, all considered—proven incredibly skilled at flipping pancakes. As a result, all the pancakes were not only exactly the same size but also perfectly round and evenly browned.
"I promise they won't explode," Shinichi added.
"Did you check?" Hakuba asked, clearly still wary.
"Well, no," Shinichi admitted (reluctantly, seeing as he really just wanted to start their holiday with a nice breakfast together. But he couldn't lie to his friends. On the one hand, he was fairly certain Kaito hadn't tampered with the food—not because the magician couldn't have snuck past his watchful eyes but because he knew that Kaito knew how much Shinichi wanted this first breakfast to be a pleasant beginning for everyone, and he trusted Kaito to respect that. But on the other hand, he couldn't begrudge the others their reservations. After all, last time Kaito had passed out cookies, several of them had indeed exploded in showers of—edible but messy—glitter and goo upon being bitten into). "But I'm sure it's fine."
"You don't have to eat it if you're scared," Kaito said tauntingly as he popped out of the kitchen, an amused smirk on his face and the final two plates in his hands. He paused upon catching sight of the table though, eyebrows shooting up. "Whoa there Tantei-han, I realize syrup is awesome, but if you were craving it that badly, you should have asked for a cup."
"Huh?" Heiji blinked then looked down. Seeing the sea of syrup that now occupied his plate, he yelped and righted the bottle just before the sweet, amber liquid could overflow onto the table. He grimaced, his free hand going to the back of his neck. "Uh, hehe. Oops?"
Shinichi's breath left him in a short huff that lay halfway between a sigh and a laugh. "Hold on. I'll get another plate and some chopsticks. Once you fish your pancakes out, we should be able to just pour the extra syrup over everyone else's."
The tension in the room broke as people chuckled and settled in to eat (though Hakuba at least cut into his pancakes with great care). Shinichi could hear chatter and the clink of cutlery as he moved to fetch the aforementioned items from the kitchen. When he returned, it was to find everyone seated and waiting for him.
"Here, let me take those," Kazuha said brightly, rising to take the extra plate and chopsticks from Shinichi before he could say anything.
Shinichi thanked her and took the empty seat next to Kaito. It was only then that he took note of the fact that there were only five plates of pancakes on the table—six if you included the new plate he'd brought for Heiji.
"Oh right. Here's yours," Kaito said as though he'd read Shinichi's mind. With a flourish, he produced a new plate—one covered with a domed lid—and set it down in front of Shinichi.
Shinichi blinked. "…Why is it covered up?"
"It's a surprise," Kaito non-answered with a winning smile that made Shinichi's stomach do flip-flops.
Realizing that that was all the answer he was going to get, Shinichi braced himself and lifted the cover from his plate (acutely aware that everyone else was watching him).
Sapphire blue eyes widened in surprise. Then the detective's lips curled of their own accord into a mildly exasperated but incredibly fond smile.
Across the table, Aoko lifted the phone she'd been hiding under the table and snapped a photo, beaming.
. . . . . . . . .
…Before Shinichi sat a plate of pancakes identical to those sitting before his friends—or rather, identical except for one detail. Where everyone else's pancakes were perfectly round, Shinichi's were perfectly heart-shaped.