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author note :)))
“I feel like my hand is gonna break :< I spent 3 days writing this chapter and it ended up being 6,603 words!”
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Shinichi waited in line at the cafe, mentally repeating everyone’s drink orders in his head. Sonoko would throw a fit if he got her order wrong again. ‘Though if she doesn’t want me to mess it up, she could try ordering something a little simpler,’ he mentally grumbled.

He finally made it to the front of the line and ordered his and Ran’s drinks first before he requested, “I would also like a Venti, half-caf, triple-shot, caramel, mocha, soy, no foam, extra whip, extra hot, upside-down, caramel drizzle, with seven pumps of caramel syrup and seven pumps of mocha syrup, double-blended Frappuccino.”

The barista blinked at him a few times before asking, “Sorry, your first two orders were so simple; I wasn’t prepared for such a complicated one. Could you repeat that?”

Shinichi mentally sighed and repeated the ridiculous beverage again, hoping he hadn’t messed anything up. Once he’d paid, he wandered over to the pickup area to wait, and let his eyes scan the small cafe to see if Ran and Sonoko had found seats yet.

He spotted them sitting in the deep cushioned chairs in the corner. He was pretty sure that when they’d entered, another group of girls had been eyeing that same spot, but he wasn’t surprised Sonoko had gotten her way.

He was pulled from his thoughts when he heard someone not so quietly whisper, “Hey, see those girls over there? They’re pretty cute, right?”

Someone else responded, “Huh? Oh, the ones in the corner? Yeah, they’re super cute. I think the one on the left is totally my type.”

The voices belonged to two teens to Shinichi’s side. He followed their gaze and saw that of course they were talking about Ran and Sonoko, with Ran being the one on left that the second guy had called ‘his type’.

“Ah, wait! I think I recognize that girl now. Isn’t she always hanging out with Kudo Shinichi?” The first one spoke up again.

“Who?” friend two asked.

“Seriously? You haven’t heard of Kudo Shinichi? He’s that teen detective that’s started appearing in the newspapers recently. He solved some cases that even the police couldn’t figure out!” friend one answered. Shinichi smirked to himself at the praise.

“Oh, that guy! He was in the paper last week for figuring out that supposedly unsolvable locked room murder. But what does he have to do with anything?” friend two asked.

“That girl is his girlfriend, dude! And apparently Kudo’s an alpha, so we don’t want to get caught hitting on his girl,” friend one said.

Friend two sounded skeptical when he asked, “An alpha? Didn’t the papers say Kudo was only 14 years old? Did he already present?”

“Well, no,” friend one admitted, but then continued more firmly, “But everyone knows he’s going to be an alpha. The papers always say so. Everyone who knows him says that he behaves just like an alpha.”

Shinichi scoffed to himself and began playing on his phone, wishing the two teens would learn how to actually whisper so that he could ignore them more easily. If they were going to have such a boring conversation, the least they could do was talk quieter so those around them wouldn’t have to be subjected to such a dull topic.

“Wait, isn’t that Kudo Shinichi over there? Oh shit, you don’t think he heard us do you?” friend one asked, sounding scared.

“Shh, I don’t think so. Actually, he might be glaring at us. He’s totally glaring at us. Forget the drinks, let’s just go,” friend two answered before leaving, the other close behind him.

Shinichi rolled his eyes and watched them walk out. The barista finally finished his order and handed it to him with a small apology for the wait, which he waved off with an apology of his own for the complicated order. Then he took the drinks in the cup carrier and made his way to the girls.

“Finally! Took you long enough,” Sonoko complained while reaching for her drink.

“If you don’t want it to take so long, you shouldn’t order something so complicated.” Shinichi retorted.

Sonoko gave a little shrug and changed tactics, “Well you better have gotten my order right this time.”

“If you’re just going to complain, you can order it yourself next time instead of making me always do it,” Shinichi shot back.

“Uh, there you go acting like such an alpha again, fighting with me about the drink order!”

Shinichi’s eyebrow twitched, “Why is everyone so obsessed with my secondary gender? We don’t even know if I’m going to be an alpha.”

Sonoko snorted, “Yeah, as if you could be anything else. You fit the criteria for an alpha almost perfectly.”

Ran made a noise as if she was going to comment, then decided against it.

“You don’t agree?” Sonoko asked her friend in surprise.

“Well, I mean, I admit Shinichi has a lot of alpha traits, but I think he has traits of an omega too,” Ran offered.

Shinichi raised his eyebrows in surprise. This was the first time someone had said he acted like anything other than an alpha. “Really? Like what?”

“Well, some might argue that it’s submissive behavior to always get our drinks when Sonoko asks,” Ran started.

“That’s just a good alpha taking care of his pack,” Sonoko interrupted.

“Maybe,” Ran conceded before continuing, “but he’s also very patient. He’ll let Kaito show him the same magic trick over and over until he does it perfectly.”

“Yeah, but isn’t an omega also supposed to be sensitive to other people’s feelings? He’s always so blunt with Kaito when he’s explaining how he figured out his tricks,” Sonoko argued.

“Hmm, but somehow I don’t think that Kaito minds? In fact, I think it’s part of the fun for him. I think he likes the challenge,” Ran said.

“Maybe Kaito doesn’t mind, but the detective geek is pretty emotionally dense with everyone else too, not just Kaito.”

Ran chuckled, “I guess that’s true.”

“Could you guys please stop talking about me as if I’m not here?” Shinichi grumbled.

“Is all this talk about you being an omega upsetting your alpha pride?” Sonoko teased.

“No, I’m just tired of this conversation,” Shinichi answered.

Honestly, he was really starting to get tired of everyone’s obsession with his status as a supposed alpha. His increased appearance in the media due to his detective work had only made the problem worse. And he hadn’t even presented yet!

“Maybe we shouldn’t try to put labels on people based on assumptions from surface-level personality traits,” Shinichi grumbled.

“Shinichi, do you even want to be an alpha?” Ran asked curiously.

The question made him pause. Ever since he was a child, it seemed like everyone had always told him he was going to be an alpha, so much so that he had never thought about being anything else. He knew that they didn’t really know, a fact he was constantly reminding Sonoko of, but hearing someone ask him this for the first time made him realize that he might have started to believe it too.

Before he could answer, Sonoko interrupted. “Of course he wants to be an alpha. Every guy wants to be an alpha, and they want to meet and fall in love with a cute omega.” She gave Ran a meaningful look, telling Shinichi that she very much still believed he and Ran would get together.

Ran turned to him and directly asked, “Is that true?”

Shinichi, finding he wasn’t sure how to answer, could only shrug.

“Ugh, he’s totally useless. Let’s talk about something other than the detective geek,” Sonoko said with a large sigh.

“Please, by all means,” Shinichi grumbled, “ Please talk about something other than my secondary gender.”

Still, even as he tried to focus on the rest of the conversation, he found his mind kept drifting back to their previous one. Even days later, his thoughts kept circling back to it.

0-0-0-0-0

“So?” Kaito pressed.

“Huh? Oh, the ace of spades was hidden in your left shoe the entire time,” Shinichi answered distractedly.

“Actually, it was in my right shoe,” Kaito said triumphantly.

“Oh, my mistake,” Shinichi said with a shrug.

Kaito quirked a brow in surprise at his nonchalant answer, “Everything okay?”

Shinichi gave another shrug, looking indifferent, “Left shoe, right shoe, it doesn’t make that much of a difference. I still basically got it right.”

Kaito narrowed his eyes before turning and giving Shinichi his full attention, “Shin-chan, tell me what’s wrong.”

“Nothing is wrong, except you still keep insisting on calling me by that silly nickname.”

“Well too bad. You told me I could keep calling you Shin-chan; no take-backsies.”

“That was when we were kids! And you weren’t playing fair!” Shinichi said in disbelief.

“Doesn’t matter, you still said it,” Kaito said and stuck his tongue out at him.

“Ugh, you are unbelievable,” Shinichi huffed, though honestly he was complaining more on principle. He didn’t actually care if Kaito called him Shin-chan. Maybe he used to when he was a lot younger and was going through that phase all kids go through when they’re in a hurry to grow up, but those feelings of annoyance were long gone.

Not that he would tell Kaito that.

He was pretty sure his friend knew how he felt anyway. Kaito liked to tease and pull pranks, but he never hurt feelings.

“So…?” Kaito prompted when Shinichi remained quiet

“Nothing is wrong, Kaito,” Shinichi insisted.

Kaito stared at him for a moment, giving Shinichi a feeling of dread. He started to wonder if he should slowly back away from his friend, but it was too late. Kaito pounced on him, and Shinichi let out a very undignified squeak that he would deny later. In the next moment, Kaito was on top of him, tickling him mercilessly while Shinichi shrieked with giggles. He tried struggling, nearly throwing both of them off the couch in the process, but his efforts worked about as well as when they were children.

“Alright, fine! I give up! I give up!” Shinichi finally cried out between fits of laughter. Thankfully, those dastardly fingers retreated, and he took a moment to just catch his breath, eyes closed while he collected himself.

He opened his eyes and saw Kaito leaning over him, staring at him intently. Strangely, even though Shinichi had been the one subjected to Kaito’s tickle torture, Kaito’s face also appeared flushed. The sight of Kaito above him like that… they’d wrestled like this too many times to count in the past. Just boys being boys.

So why did it make him feel strange now?

“I said I give up. You can get off me now,” and he was proud of how he managed to keep his voice even, but also wondered why he was so nervous.

“Right,” Kaito said, but made no move to get off of him.

Shinichi watched him closely, wary of another prank. Kaito’s eyes flicked down, looking at his chin? No, it was higher than that. His lips. The attention made him realize how dry his mouth felt after their rather one-sided tussle, causing him to lick his lips. For some reason, this made Kaito flush more.

“Kai?” Shinichi finally asked in confusion.

Hearing his name seemed to finally break whatever spell he had been under, and Kaito climbed off him. He scooted over on the couch, giving Shinichi room to sit up.

“So what’s wrong?” Kaito asked.

Shinichi wasn’t sure how to answer at first. After a moment, he said, “I’ve been thinking about the second gender thing a lot lately. We’re going to be presenting soon, if we’re going to be anything other than a beta.”

Kaito leaned against the couch and let his head fall back, looking up at the ceiling in thought. “I guess it is coming up soon. Ran and Sonoko could present next year, since girls normally go through puberty earlier than boys. I also might present next year, since I’m older than you. But you probably have another two years, so why worry about it now?”

Shinichi shrugged, “It’s kinda hard not to think about it when everyone else seems so obsessed with it.”

Kaito winced in sympathy, “I did notice how often the newspapers like to label you an alpha.”

Shinichi nodded, “Right. I guess I just want them to not see me as Kudo Shinichi the alpha, but as Kudo Shinichi the detective.”

“I can understand that,” Kaito said with a nod, then he grinned mischievously, “I still think of you as Kudo Shinichi, the boy that made his entire third grade class cry when he explained his deductions on why Santa isn’t real.”

Shinichi turned away with a pout, “Ugh, Ran never should’ve told you that story. It’s not my fault all the other kids were pestering me on why I didn’t believe in Santa! I didn’t want to lie to them! But I do regret making them cry.”

His answer only made Kaito laugh. Shinichi pouted for a moment longer before he couldn’t help but join in, and then they were both laughing together. As he laughed and his worries seemed more distant, he couldn’t help but feel a swell of gratitude towards his friend.

0-0-0-0-0

Shinichi noticed a change between him and Kaito after that day. Well, that wasn’t completely true. Kaito was still the same. What he noticed was a change in himself whenever he was around Kaito.

He became aware of it first when he noticed a new feeling when Kaito would touch him. When they sat together and their knees brushed. When Kaito would throw an arm around his shoulder. When he would hold his hand so that they didn’t get separated in a crowd. Every touch between them would send little sparks of electricity tingling on his skin. Or sometimes instead of electricity, it was more like a warmth that spread through him. It made him feel strange, but not in a bad way. On the contrary, he found himself wanting Kaito to touch him more.

With the touching came the next thing he noticed, which was how often his face would heat up when he was around Kaito. It always seemed to happen at the strangest times too. His face always seemed to heat when Kaito would touch him, making him wonder if it was something to do with his friend’s body heat warming him up. But it also happened at other random times, like if Kaito smiled at him or praised him.

Things came to a head when one day Kaito hugged him before leaving. The hug itself wasn’t unusual. Kaito had always been a physically affectionate person. They didn’t hug every time they parted, but it happened often enough. Shinichi should be very used to it. But that day, when Kaito hugged him, a feeling of warmth spread through him, giving him a great feeling of comfort, and to his embarrassment, he found he’d all but melted into the embrace without realizing it.

Kaito chuckled and asked with a teasing grin, “Are you going to miss me that much? Don’t worry, you’ll see me again this weekend.”

Shinichi blurted out, “This weekend? What about tomorrow?”

“Can’t tomorrow. I promised Aoko I would go with her to get ice cream.”

“Oh right, I forgot,” Shinichi answered, trying not to let his disappointment show.

Kaito reached forward and ruffled his hair. He ignored the glare Shinichi shot him while smoothing his hair back into place. “Aw, don’t be jealous. I have to spend time with Aoko too, otherwise I wouldn’t be a good friend, would I?”

“I’m not jealous,” Shinichi lied. It was another change he had noticed when he was around Kaito, these new feelings of jealousy.

“Sure you aren’t,” Kaito said, seeing right through him. “Well, I’m off. See you, Shinichi! Try not to miss me too much!” As he walked towards the door, he blew Shinichi a kiss, causing his face to heat in what he was going to call anger at his friend’s mocking behavior.

“Bye Ran, see you next time,” Kaito said with a little wave before closing the door behind him.

Shinichi jolted in surprise. He’d completely forgotten about Ran.

He turned and saw his friend watching him with interest. She’d obviously witnessed the hug and everything that came after, to Shinichi’s embarrassment. After Kaito left, she gathered her books in silence, putting away the homework the three of them had been working on together. Shinichi put his own books away as well, hoping that Ran wouldn’t bring up the hug but also knowing he was never that lucky. He was proven correct when Ran spoke up a moment later.

“Shinichi, are you in love with Kaito?” she asked him.

Shinichi, who had wandered into the kitchen to refill his coffee cup, almost dropped his mug in surprise. He turned and gave Ran wide eyes. He opened and closed his mouth several times, unsure how to respond. Him? In love with Kaito? But the more he thought about it…

“I’m not sure,” he lied.

He could tell she didn't believe him. She opened her mouth and he mentally braced himself.

“Okay,” she simply said, her voice soft.

Some of the tension left his shoulders. Was that it?

“Okay?”

She nodded. “Just remember I’m always here for you if you want someone to talk to.”He felt himself relax more and gave her a small smile. “Okay.”

She let the subject drop after that, but before she left, she pulled him into a hug. He squeezed her back. He wasn’t sure if he would take her up on her offer, and he wasn’t even sure what there was to talk about, but it made him feel better knowing that he could always go to her if he wanted.

0-0-0-0-0

Shinichi stood in his doorway with the door cracked open, looking at the person on his doorstep in annoyance. “Where’s Ran?” he finally asked.

Sonoko gave him an equally annoyed look and shoved past him, heading inside. It was unusual to see the girl at his house by herself. Usually she and Ran walked from the Mouri detective agency to Shinichi’s house before they all walked to school together. “She texted me that she was running a little late this morning and to meet her here,” the young heiress replied.

“Is it something to do with her dad? Maybe he was up all night drinking again.”

“You already know as much as I do. Now get over here, I know how to pass the time while we wait for her to arrive,” Sonoko said while taking a seat at his table. She pulled from her bag what looked like a magazine, the cover being one Shinichi recognized from how often she read it. It was the type of magazine aimed at teen girls.

“What’s that?” he asked, sitting across from her, curious despite himself.

“It’s a personality test to determine if you’re going to be an alpha or omega!” she proclaimed excitedly.

“What about betas?” Shinichi asked.

Sonoko snorted at him, “Of course betas aren’t included. That would be boring!”

Shinichi rolled his eyes but decided not to argue. “I don’t suppose this is a quiz you plan on taking yourself while we wait for Ran?”

“Obviously the quiz is for you,” Sonoko answered while giving him a look like he was slow.

“Right, how silly of me,” Shinichi responded blandly.

“Alright, first question: you’re walking down the street when you see a purse snatcher in front of you. Do you, A) beat them to a pulp, B) look around for someone else to help while crying, C) ignore it, it’s not your problem, or D) wait for the robber to leave, then go and console the person that was robbed,” Sonoko asked.

Shinichi gave her an incredulous look, “None of those? I would instruct the nearest person to call the police, then chase after the purse snatcher so they don’t get away. Once I caught them, I would put them in handcuffs and hold them until the police arrived.”

Sonoko gave him a look before sighing, “I’m just going to circle A. On to question two: which of these emojis do you most frequently use?”

Shinichi didn’t even bother looking at the options, “I don’t use emojis.”

“Oh right, I guess you don’t. Hmm, I’ll just pick this one because it's the face you make the most in real life. Oh look, you’re making it right now!” She said in delight while circling something on the page. Shinichi couldn’t see which emoji she’d selected, and he wasn’t sure what his face looked like right now, but he was pretty sure he should feel insulted.

The other twenty three questions went similarly. Once Shinichi answered all of them, Sonoko began to total up the score. After she was done, she let out a triumphant, “Ah-ha! See, I told you you were an alpha.”

She shoved the magazine in his face, causing him to go cross-eyed trying to look. He leaned back in his chair so he could properly see the results. “These results say I’m 55% alpha, 45% omega. That doesn’t exactly sound like an inarguable conclusion. Not to mention that this quiz doesn’t even include betas.”

Sonoko shrugged, “Well the percentages are going to be a little off because someone kept making up their own answers and forcing me to pick the option that was most similar. But still, this proves that I was right and you’re totally an alpha.”

Shinichi never got a chance to reply because at that moment, they heard the front door open and Ran’s voice call out, “Guys! I’m here! Stop whatever argument you’re having so we can get to school, or we’re going to be late!”

They both jumped up from the table and moved to join her, but stopped once she was in sight. There was something different about her. Was she wearing a new perfume?

“Oh my god, Ran ! Are you an alpha?” Sonoko shouted in disbelief.

Ran scratched her cheek, looking embarrassed, “I guess I am. I presented this morning.”

“But, but…” for once Sonoko was at a complete loss for words.

Shinichi offered his friend a smile, “Congrats, Ran. I’m happy for you. So, shall we get going?”

Ran returned his smile and the three of them exited his house and began to walk to school together. They had the same conversations they always had; nothing was different between them. Ran complained about her father drinking too much, Shinichi told her about the latest case he’d run into while walking home the other day, and Sonoko gossiped about who was dating whom at school.

The only thing that had changed was that Sonoko didn’t make any more comments shipping Ran and Shinichi.

0-0-0-0-0

After Ran presented as an alpha, Sonoko wasn’t the only one who stopped taking interest in their relationship.

“Excuse me, Kudo-kun?” a boy asked timidly.

“Yes?” Shinichi looked up and recognized him as someone from his class, Reiji, he thinks. It was lunch period, and Ran and Sonoko had gone to the cafeteria to get them something to eat while Shinichi had been tasked with getting their drinks. He’d already gone to the vending machine and come back, and now he was waiting in the classroom at his desk for the girls to return.

“I was wondering, well… since you and Mouri-san are no longer dating, if you would mind if I asked her out?” When Shinichi just stared at him in confusion, he continued, “I’m going to be a beta, you see. But I’ve always had an attraction to strong women. And now that Mouri-san has presented as an alpha, well… I guess I’ve started to see her in a new light?”

Shinichi frowned, “Ran has always been strong. Her presenting as an alpha has nothing to do with that. She placed second in her karate championship just last week, and she hadn’t even presented as an alpha then.”

“Right! Right, it’s just that now that she’s an alpha, everyone knows she’s strong. I think people would think she makes a good match for a beta like me,” Possibly-Reiji explained.

Shinichi’s frown shifted into a glare and he stood up, resting his weight on the palms of his hands on the desk between them. Possibly-Reiji gulped. “I think Ran deserves to be with someone who likes her for who she is, not for her status as an alpha. So if this conversation is supposed to be asking for my permission for you to date her, my first answer is that Ran can date whoever she wants without needing my permission. My second answer is, like hell would I let someone like you ever date her.”

Possibly-Reiji yelped and scrambled away, yelling something about “alpha Kudo being possessive of his ex-girlfriend.”

“And for the record, we were never even dating!” Shinichi yelled after him.

He noticed people staring at him and realized he’d made a scene. He hurriedly sat back down and suddenly became very interested in his book.

“Hey detective geek, we’re back! You better have gotten me the peach soda, not the strawberry,” Sonoko called out with Ran following behind her.

Shinichi’s eyes flicked to the two strawberry sodas sitting next to his coffee. It wasn’t his fault the vending machine was out, but he knew that she wouldn’t accept that answer. Maybe he could distract her. “Hey Sonoko, remember that bag you had the other day? I overheard Sakura-chan admiring it. I think she wanted to know where you bought it.”

“Really? I better go find her and tell her! And maybe she can tell me where she bought her nail polish. I adore that color she’s wearing! Ran, I’ll be right back,” Sonoko said with a little wave.

Ran watched her walk away before taking a seat across from Shinichi, turning her chair so that they were sharing his desk as a table between them. She opened her strawberry soda and shot Shinichi a look that said he hadn’t fooled her. But instead of commenting, she asked, “So, are you hanging out with Kaito today?”

Shinichi’s face instantly brightened, and he nodded, “He said he has a new trick he wants to show me. He seemed pretty confident I won’t figure it out, but we’ll see.”

“Shinichi,” Ran said softly, as if he was a stray cat who she didn’t want to scare off, “I wanted to let you do things on your own time, but it’s been months, and you’ve only become even more obvious. When are you going to admit your feelings to him?”

Shinichi flinched, then hurriedly told her, “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about. Kaito’s just my friend!”

“No, Shinichi, I’m just your friend. Sonoko, even if neither of you will admit it, is your friend. But Kaito is the person you love,” Ran said, her tone soft yet firm, leaving no room for argument.

Shinichi’s shoulders drooped, “It’s just… what if he doesn’t like me back? And then things get all weird between us, and I ruin our friendship, and the awkwardness grows between us until we can’t take it anymore and I move somewhere far away like Liverpool.”

“Shinichi, breathe. You’re spiraling,” Ran said in concern. Then she seemed to process what he’d said and asked, “Wait, why Liverpool? I would have expected you to say London at least. You know, for Holmes and all.”

Shinichi shrugged, “Liverpool is considered the soccer capital of the world, and it’s close enough to London that I could visit whenever I wanted. Or maybe I’ll get a flat in both London and Liverpool and split my time between them. That’s not the point!”

Ran nodded solemnly, “No, you’re right. But don’t you think you might be catastrophizing a bit? I’m pretty sure Kaito would never be happy with you moving away, even if he didn’t return your feelings. Which I’m pretty sure he does, by the way.”

Shinichi looked away, “You don’t know that for sure.”

Ran sighed. She reached across the desk and rested her hand on top of his, trying to give him some comfort. Shinichi mentally noted that her hand felt nice, warm and not clammy at all, but it didn’t provide the same jolt of excitement or the same comfort that Kaito’s hands brought him. “Just think about it, okay?”

Shinichi swallowed thickly and nodded.

0-0-0-0-0

True to his word, Shinichi thought it over. At first, he tried to imagine what might happen if he confessed to Kaito, but he gave up on that pretty quickly. Theorizing wouldn’t get him anywhere. He was a detective, he should be looking for evidence.

Except what kind of evidence should he be looking for?

“I told Sakura-chan that Tsubaki-kun was obviously in love with her, and she should just confess to him already. And you know what? She did! And now they’ve been going out for three solid weeks. All thanks to yours truly! Are you listening to me, detective otaku?” Sonoko asked in annoyance.

“Unfortunately, I was actually,” Shinichi responded dryly, then his eyes widened as an idea came to him. A terrible idea. One he should discard immediately.

But he was desperate.

He was going to ask Sonoko for advice.

It was one of the few times that he and Sonoko were alone together, both waiting for Ran while she was out on an errand for one of their teachers. If he was going to ask, now was the time to do it.

“Say Sonoko, how can you tell when someone is in love with someone else?” He made his tone as light and nonchalant as he could.

Sonoko’s eyes glinted, “Oh ho? Is the genius detective actually admitting I know something he doesn’t?”

“Forget it, this was a mistake.”

“Nuh-uh, I’m not letting you out of this one, not when you’re finally speaking my language. But I’ll share a little secret with you, detective. Everything I’ve learned, I owe to this,” she said, holding up a magazine.

Shinichi raised an eyebrow skeptically, “Another magazine?” Memories of the last time she had pulled out one of her magazines and the quiz he’d subsequently been subjected to, came back to him. He really had made a mistake asking her for help. What had he been thinking?

“Yes, another magazine. You might have your doubts now, but you’ll see. So who do you think is in love with you?” Sonoko asked, eager for gossip.

“Nobody. I’m asking about a case,” Shinichi lied, thinking quickly.

“Psh, that’s boring. I should’ve guessed,” the girl answered while flipping through the pages, “Now this quiz is much simpler than the last one: you answer either true or false. Now where was it? Ah, found it. First question: they have fun with you, even if the task is not fun, per se.”

Sonoko looked at him expectantly, and Shinichi thought it over. It was a hard question to answer because Kaito was a master at creating his own fun. Even something as simple as house chores Kaito could make interesting. He remembered the last time he’d done any cleaning, and Kaito had joined him to help. Shinichi had been leery to accept at first; usually when Kaito tried to help, his help constituted ridiculous acrobatic stunts like walking on his hands while using his feet to clean, or performing magic tricks like making the furniture levitate while vacuuming under it. But against his better judgment, Shinichi had accepted the amateur magician’s offered help. Then Kaito summoned his doves, and to Shinichi’s amazement, they’d flown around the library with dusters and cleaning cloths, making short work of the dusting. It must’ve taken Kaito weeks to train them, and some would argue it would’ve been a better use of his time to train them to do something else. But Shinichi couldn’t help but be secretly glad Kaito had trained his doves for such a mundane task. It was amazing to watch them.

After the doves finished, the room was free of dust but was also littered with stray feathers. Kaito had trained his birds to dust the room but not to clean up after themselves, so in the end, both boys still had to clean the room anyway. Realizing this, Kaito had cried exaggerated tears of disappointment, and Shinichi had laughed so hard his sides hurt. Kaito, always quick to smile again, had soon joined in, and both boys had laughed together while cleaning up the feathers.

Did it really count if Kaito was entertaining himself? Presumably Kaito would have done the same thing if he’d been cleaning with someone else instead. For some reason, that thought made Shinichi feel a little sad.

Shinichi shrugged in lieu of answering.

Sonoko raised an eyebrow at him, “Okay, not exactly helpful. We’ll just skip that one for now, but I’m going to need true or false answers for the rest of these if you actually want an answer. Next question: they often show off in front of you.”

Shinichi snorted. Kaito was always showing off, but it wasn’t exclusive to when he and Shinichi were together. Since it wasn’t special behavior reserved just for him, “False,” he answered.

“They message you often,” Sonoko continued.

Kaito was always messaging him, but it was mostly memes Shinichi barely followed or maybe a riddle if he was lucky.

“True?”

Sonoko rolled her eyes, “No need to sound so certain.”

“I’m answering the best I can,” Shinichi huffed.

The quiz continued until finally they made it to the end. Sonoko tallied up his score then told him, “Well, according to the results, the person from your case does not appear to be in love.”

Shinichi tried not to feel disappointed, questioning the validity of a quiz found in a teen girl magazine, but it was hard. But what was worse was when Shinichi mentally tallied up his own answers and realized he’d answered true to most of the questions.

It was one thing to admit to himself that he was in love with Kaito; it was another to have the quiz rub in his face just how far gone he was for his friend.

“Oh but there’s one last thing, and it’s pretty important. Honestly, I’m surprised the magazine didn’t lead with this,” Sonoko said.

“What’s that?” Shinichi asked.

“How compatible their secondary genders are. People can date and marry whoever they want, but there’s no question that omega/omega and alpha/alpha relationships are the exception, not the norm,” Sonoko explained, “It’s not uncommon for alphas to simply not be attracted to other alphas, and the same can be true for omegas. Or maybe an omega will only date alphas but have no interest in betas. The importance of secondary gender compatibility cannot be overlooked! So the two people in question from your case, are their secondary genders compatible?”

And with that, Shinichi realized he’d never put much thought into Kaito’s secondary gender.

“I have no idea.”

0-0-0-0-0

Kaito’s 17th birthday had already passed a few months prior. If he was going to present as anything other than a beta, it would happen soon. That was Shinich’s justification for why he should put on hold any thoughts about telling Kaito how he felt. Ran could accuse him of stalling all she wanted, but really it only made sense to wait.

It finally happened one day after Shinichi got home from school. He was about 2 hours late, as per his usual, so Kaito was already waiting for him in the library.

“Shin-chan! You’re home, welcome back!” Kaito said while throwing his arms around Shinichi and hugging him from behind. He asked without letting go, “Any trouble with today’s case?”

Shinichi, who was trying his best not to think too much about how good it felt to be in Kaito’s arms, was thankfully distracted by his friend’s question. “How did you know there was a case?”

“Why else would you be late getting home from school? Well, it was either that or the soccer club begged you to sub for them again, but usually you remember to send me a text when that happens. No text meant it was a case,” Kaito explained.

Shinichi winced, “Sorry, I’ll try to remember to text you in the future. The case went well. And it was only an attempted murder this time. I was able to figure out what the culprit used for their poison, so we were able to counteract it in time to save the victim’s life.”

“That’s my Shin-chan,” Kaito praised while nuzzling Shinichi’s hair with his cheek.

Shinichi’s face warmed at his friend’s words and actions. Feeling his friend holding him like this also emphasized the new height difference between them. For nearly their whole childhood, the two of them had looked very similar, almost identical even. This included their height as well. But over the past year, Kaito seemed to have hit a growth spurt, shooting up past Shinichi. As Kaito held him, he noticed yet another change. Kaito wasn’t just taller, he was bigger too, his shoulders more broad. The young detective was suddenly overcome with the urge to turn around and burrow himself into his friend’s chest.

He mentally shook off the feeling while chastising himself.

He should pull himself out of Kaito’s arms. Being held by his friend like this was beginning to fog up his brain. But before he could take action, he was once again distracted by the taller man.

“Kaito, are you… rumbling?”

“Hmm? Oh, I suppose I am,” Kaito answered.

“But only alphas rumble like that,” Shinichi pointed out. It was one of the first things taught during sex ed class. Omegas purred, and alphas made a deeper, more rumbling noise when they were happy. It was an action they had little control over, some more or less than others.

Kaito didn’t answer at first, seeming content to continue holding him and rubbing his cheek into Shinichi’s hair. Almost like he was scent marking him. Shinichi was suddenly thankful he couldn’t do any purring or rumbling of his own.

“Well, I suppose I can do that now because I presented as an alpha this morning,” Kaito said.

Even though he’d known it from the moment Kaito started rumbling, hearing Kaito say it still caught him off guard. And now that he was looking for it, he thought he could faintly smell the spicy scent that alphas emitted, though the smell didn’t come across as strong as it would be if he were an alpha or omega. Kaito’s smelled a bit like mahogany and teakwood with a bit of a citrusy note, like oranges.

Shinichi pulled himself out of Kaito’s arms, “I’m surprised you didn’t tell me right away. Why do you sound so disinterested?”

Kaito shrugged, “It doesn’t change anything. I’m still me.”

“It changes…” Shinichi started to argue, then cut himself off. Kaito was still Kaito. He was still his best friend. “It changes nothing, you’re absolutely right.”

And Kaito would always be his friend. Shinichi didn’t need to tell him about his feelings. Because nothing would change between them.

Because compatibility between an alpha/alpha relationship was the exception, not the rule.