+++

Title: The Grey Agency: La Maison Rouge
Author: Icka! M. Chif
Rating: General
Word Count: 1,150
Author's Note: Many thanks to the people who have read and offered encouragement on this fic. #^^#
Summary: Kaito looked up at the building with a mixed feeling of trepidation and what he could only describe as a sense of inevitability.

+++

Kaito looked up at the building again with a mixed feeling of trepidation and what he could only describe as a sense of inevitability.

He'd been at loose ends for a couple of weeks now, uncertain what to do with his life now that the immediate threat of a gory death was no longer hanging over their heads. He'd made it through their mad-cap chase through the States thinking he'd take up his father's other mantle, become a World Famous Magician if he survived. But now that he was here, he found that he couldn't quite find the joy he'd once had in sleight of hand tricks.

He couldn't talk to Saguru about it, the blond had been locked up at his family's house as his father drilled him on everything that happened, then fielding phone-calls from Uncle Dorian and Uncle Klaus. Since it had already been leaked that Uncle Dorian was planning on making Saguru his heir, Uncle Dorian had decided to go ahead and make it official.

'Guru was slated to be the next 'Viscount Gloria'. A little daunting, really. Suddenly people were crawling out of the woodwork, attempting to gain favour with the new title in town. And Saguru was having to take advice from Uncle -Dorian-.

So when Koizumi called to ask him to look at something, he'd, well, not -quite- jumped at the chance, but had done so with a lot less suspicion than he should have.

"What do you think of Great-Aunt Rose's house?" Koizumi's voice questioned from his mobile phone. She'd called him not minutes after he'd finished looking over the building.

"I think it needs a lot of work." Kaito said, choosing his words carefully. Frankly, he was amazed that it hadn't been bulldozed by now. Usually houses were torn down and new houses built every generation or so, but this one seemed to have avoided that fate. "I'm not an expert or anything, but it didn't make any funny sounds when I walked through it so I think it still might be stable. The plumbing needs some work and the electricity is ancient."

Koizumi made a thoughtful noise like she was running through a mental checklist. "Anything else?"

Kaito sighed. "You mean besides the glowing animal in the backyard?"

"Oh! You can see him! Good." Koizumi sounded positively delighted over this.

"Not quite." Kaito admitted. "Just out of the corner of my eye sometimes."

"That's Great-Aunt Rose's familiar, either a cat or some sort of fox, we never were able to figure it out." Koizumi sighed. "She always was more into Western Magic, which is why the house is Western style. First Western Style house built in the area, it's a bit of a landmark from what I hear. But that's probably the reason why I can't rent the place out, people keep saying it's haunted and then... well."

"Buildings fall apart when not used." Kaito finished for her.

"Exactly."

Kaito rubbed the bridge of his nose, where glasses would rest if he wore them. Stupid habit he'd picked up from Saguru. "Koizumi?"

"You want to know why I asked you to look the place over."

"Yes." He agreed. It wasn't a huge house, the opposite really. Squeezed in on the sides and the back by much taller buildings, it was barely three stories tall with a small tower on the roof. Toilet and bath were on the second story, kitchen was on the first story and the two rooms on the ground floor were empty. Saguru might say that it was an Edwardian or Victorian style building, it had a sense of old grace in disrepair.

But in disrepair, it was.

"Do you think you can fix it up?" Koizumi asked, sounding hopeful.

"I'm not a builder or a carpenter or anything like that." Kaito sighed, looking at the building. To say it was going to need a lot of work was an understatement.

"No." Koizumi agreed. "But you could be."

The refusal was on his lips when he realised that Koizumi was correct. Kaito's... 'skill' was to become someone else. There was nothing that said this couldn't be used to create something useful instead of for subterfuge purposes.

Koizumi took his silence as assent. "I'll pay for the supplies, I'd like to restore the house as much to the original condition as possible instead of tearing it down and building something new there. Like most of the people who are interested in the property are. In exchange for labour, you could live there rent free."

It would be good to do something constructive with his hands while he got his head back together and figured out where he was going from here. And it would be a stable, steady location as well, not traipsing off to a new location every few days.

A new place, away from the ghosts of his father's house and laboratory.

"It'll take me a few weeks to learn what I need to in order to start work." Kaito warned her, looking at the house again, as a new start. Saguru would probably like the place as well, it would appeal to his old-fashion sense. The spare room at the base of the tower or one of the rooms on the ground floor could be turned into a second bedroom if Saguru wanted to move in once he got the place cleaned up a bit.

He glanced around the neighbourhood. There was a convenience store on the corner and a couple of restaurants near by. There was also a park the next block over, a green breathing space since the house didn't have much room between it and it's neighbours, barely enough for him to walk between the walls. There was also a subway station nearby, for when he did have to travel.

"That's fine." Koizumi said, sounding pleased. "It's not going anywhere."

That was for sure. He saw the reddish-orange flicker of Great-Aunt Rose's familiar walking up to the front door, curling up in the stray sunbeam there. There was a patch of grass growing next to the front walk and the remains of what had probably been a small cheerful garden. Roses, he could grow roses there.

"It will probably take a few years to fix up, you do realise." Kaito commented, feeling a sense of peace spread through him as he started plotting things out. "It's not going to be easy." Especially if the house was as old as she said it was.

"I know." He could see her smile in his mind's eye. "But I trust it will be in good hands. La Maison Rouge deserves nothing less."

The Red House.

Bright red roses against a dark red wall, Kaito decided. White trim for the ornate scroll work that trimmed the house, some of it missing. Flower boxes. He could see it in his head, something to strive for. Something permanent and lasting that he could create.

"You have a deal."

-fin-

Back?