Chapter Text
Heiji was looking at Shinichi with a nervous smile, laughter tumbling out as he stepped inside. “Uh, hi-“
“Catch the door,” Shinichi started, but of course it was too late; It was already latched shut behind Heiji. Still, he scrambled to try it.
Shinichi could feel Heiji hovering over him, no doubt a little confused by the urgency. “You don’t have to freak out. They don’t actually lock the doors in escape rooms.”
And sure, maybe that was true in normal circumstances—no self respecting business owner would actually lock their clients inside. But what Kaito Kuroba lacked in self respect, he made up for in an uncanny ability to make Shinichi’s existence a living hell.
Radio fuzz came over the intercom before it was replaced by the voice of yet another of Shinichi’s terrors. “Welcome,” she said, with the natural Sonoko Suzuki flair, “to the locked room of love!”
The doorknob didn’t budge. Shinichi could only hope his death would be a swift one.
He swung to look around the room, searching for whatever camera was masquerading as part of the set. “This is so far beyond a prank,” he snapped, “did you really have to get a stranger involved?”
Heiji’s hand tapped him tentatively on the shoulder. “Uh, what’s going on?”
“My friends decided to get you involved in their stupid attempts to make me miserable.”
“We’re not trying to make you miserable! And it’s not a prank!” Sonoko didn’t sound shameful in the slightest; Shinichi doubted any amount of anger from him at this point would actually get either of them to feel bad. “You needed a kick in the ass to actually start talking about your feelings, is all! There’s no way you’d ever work things out if I didn’t force you to.”
Shinichi pinched the bridge of his nose, in a failed attempt to find any way to ground himself through this awful situation. “Alright, what do you want, then?”
“The rules are simple! You talk about your feelings, and you’re free!”
Kaito must’ve been next to her, because Shinichi could hear him clear his throat over the microphone before he started to speak. “I wasn’t lying about testing the room, though. If you could solve the escape room in the process, I’d really appreciate it.”
Shinichi shuddered out a sigh, before looking back at Heiji. “Alright. Let’s solve the room and get out of here.”
“... Wouldn’t it be easier to just talk?”
“There’s nothing to talk about.” Shinichi stepped away, looking at the time table and trying to recover his train of thought. “We’re total strangers. What would be have to discuss?”
Even the brief silence that Heiji let hang in the air felt uneasy; When he stepped closer, Shinichi knew any hope at getting through this without a word was doomed.
“Okay, look. I agreed to come here because I wanted to work this out. I know you think I’m a creep, but-”
Shinichi turned to face him. “Why would I think you were a creep? Obnoxious, maybe, but a creep?” If anything, Shinichi was pretty sure that their last interaction placed himself squarely in the creep category, while Heiji remained the confused bystander.
“I mean, for what I was doing with the checkout cards. That’s why you freaked out on me, right?”
“... And what was it you were you doing with the checkout cards?”
The laugh Heiji gave was nervous, stunted. “Y'don’t have to play dumb, okay? I know it was… I mean, I should’ve just talked to you. It’s not like I didn’t try to, though! You just always got so focused on those books, and I only ever saw you at the library. I didn’t want to disturb you while you were reading—I even sat right next to you a few times, just trying to get your attention, but you never looked up at me!”
Heiji was worrying at the rim of his hat with his fingers, avoiding any eye contact. “So yeah, I started checking out all those books, the kind you’re always reading. I figured you might notice my name on the cards, at least. And you did—so I thought I might actually have a chance. I guess I just never got around to actually telling you who I was, though… I did it all backwards, but I never meant to freak y’out.”
“... So the checkout cards were on purpose?”
Heiji’s eyes snapped to meet Shinichi’s, wide with a far too late realization. “... You weren’t playing dumb.”
It was the panic in Heiji’s eyes that finally got Shinichi, the absurdity hitting him like a train car—he doubled over in a laugh, and for once, it was Heiji’s turn to be indignant.
“Hey, don’t laugh at a guy for trying, alright?”
But Shinichi laughed until he felt lightheaded; Maybe he was finally going delirious. “Of course I wasn’t playing dumb! You expected me to just put all that together? No one does all that to talk to a guy, that’s insane!”
“That’s not my fault! You’re really pretty, and smart, and fun to talk to, and you read all those smart books—anyone would go crazy trying to get your attention!”
Finally, Shinichi caught his breath enough to look back up at Heiji—Heiji, who practically had his cheeks puffed out in his blend of embarrassment and determination, who had just given Shinichi the greatest confession of attraction he’d received in his life, without even seeming to realize it.
Maybe he lived up to the name after all.
“We’re both crazy,” he said, finally, when Heiji was starting to look like he was about to implode. “I freaked out for weeks over a name on some checkout cards. I got so excited about someone reading the same books as me, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. And then I made a fool of myself, when I thought it was just some stranger messing around.”
“I read ‘em,” Heiji said, a little too quick. “All the way through. Even the boring ones. I didn’t just check ‘em out. I wasn't messing with you.”
“Yeah?” Shinichi straightened up. If Heiji Hattori the name had been so entertaining—Shinichi wondered what Heiji Hattori, the man who stood right in front of him, who looked at him with his eyes wide and fingers twitching at his sides to betray all his restlessness, could do.
The intercom came alive once again.
“Alright,” Kaito said, “I unlocked the door, like, five minutes ago, and I’m gonna need you two out of there before you start making out-”
He was cut off with a yelp, and Shinichi could almost picture the power struggle going on behind the scenes—a muffled protest of “It was just getting good!” from Sonoko was enough of a hint.
Heiji cleared his throat. “Your friends are…”
“A pain in my ass,” Shinichi snapped, and he scooped up Heiji’s hand, ready to get out while they still could. “Come on, we can talk at the library.”