author:@myfriendsarerealidiots artist:@lantaniel beta:@aerica13 rating: G warnings: Angst, minor gore summary: Shinichi is both himself, a great detective, and the famous violinist Edogawa Conan. Kaito is both himself, famous magician, and Kaitou KID, phatom thief. When all four of these identities collide, secrets will be revealed and the danger lurking in the shadows will come to light…
Here’s my secret santa gift for @oskidoodle :) thank you for mac @dcmkkaishinevents for arranging this event as per usual :)
No Need For That Poker Face
Tw: emotional breakdowns, kaito gets the apt , shins kinda weird here too
“Bakaito! Get out of your house! It’s been a month since I’ve last seen you! At least show your face!” Usually, Kaito would’ve stuck his head out the window, shout a few profanities, maybe even throw in a smoke bomb or two just to irritate Aoko more. However, for the last month, no one has seen hide or hair of the pesky magician who never seemed to shut up. All they’ve received from him was a short text telling them that he was unwell or in Aoko’s case, a sentence or two from a dark bedroom across the street. The lights were never on, no one ever left nor entered – it was like no one was even living there.
“I got it already! Stop shouting at me!” Kaito would occasionally shout back just to placate her yet even those few words seemed to be different from the usually confident, and maybe overbearing Kaito – they seemed frightened.
Aoko was at her wits end that day. She rang up Chikage and started shouting into her phone, nearly deafening the older lady. “Okay, okay, calm down Aoko-chan.” Chikage tried her best to calm down the girl she knew had the best interests at heart for Kaito. “I’m a bit busy right now but I’ll ask someone to check on him, don’t worry.”
“How am I not supposed to worry?” Aoko sniffed, tears starting to brim her eyes. “He doesn’t even let me inside the house. What if he’s living in a mess?” She gripped her phone tighter. The plastic casing warped beneath her grasp and would be lasting evidence of her suffering. She sniffed again, this time wiping away her tears with the sleeve of her shirt. “If he’s not letting anyone inside, how are we supposed to help him?”
“Maybe we just haven’t tried the right person and approach yet.” Chikage sounded like she was smiling. How could you smile at a moment like this? “Sorry Aoko-chan, I’ll hang up for now, expect someone to be at Kaito’s door either tomorrow or the next day.” There was a pause before she quickly added. “Hopefully.”
~
“Shin-chan~ can you do a favor for me?” Yukiko had called several times over the course of a single night. It nearly woke up Kogoro who was once again dead drunk after a night of pachinko and drinks which was saying something. Conan rubbed his eyes and reluctantly picked up the call in the bathroom.
“Do you know what time it is?” He didn’t try to hide the irritation in his voice. “Five. In. the. Morning.” Yukiko let out a squeak and started apologizing profusely. “Nevermind that, what did you need from me that is so important to need,” Conan opened up his call history, “one hundred missed calls. Those are international calls as well.” He pinched the bridge of his nose.
“You see, a friend asked me for a very important favor and I needed to tell you right away.” Yukiko clapped her hands together which didn’t sound that good over the phone and Conan’s morning grogginess. “She asked if you could check on her son. He hasn’t come out in a month and his friends are worried.”
“That’s it?” Conan deadpanned. This lady would really wake him up at three in the morning just for this? “I’m hanging u–”
“Wait! Wait! Wait! Shin-chan hold on. Here’s the thing, my friend suspects that he might have the same problem as you right now and that’s why he can’t go out.”
“You told her about me?” Conan said in the calmest way possible which came out more as frustrated than anything else.
“Well…yes and no…she found out by herself.”
“It’s too early for this,” Conan sighed, “I’ll ask you about this later, for now send me his address I’ll go tomorrow.”
“Yay! Thank you, Shin-chan. I knew you’d say yes.” Yukiko quickly sent him the address. It was some place in the residential area of Ekoda, near the local high school.
Conan let out a yawn. He looked at his watch and weighed the pros and cons of sleeping and decided to go to the living room instead. He sent Haibara a text telling her that he’ll be doing something tomorrow so she has to watch the kids. Very quickly after, she replied with two words, “Your treat.”
Soon enough, morning came. Ran whipped up a quick breakfast for the both of them and scolded Conan for drinking coffee again. “You’re just like Shinichi! Both of you never listen to me!” She exclaimed, putting down her chopsticks to glare at Conan whose only response was to shrink in his seat and look away.
“Ran..Ran-neechan, I might come home late today.” He gently poked a piece of egg sitting on his plate. Ran crossed her arms and didn’t meet his gaze.
“Why bother telling me, it’s not like you listen to what I say.”
“I’ll be going now.” Conan hesitantly yet swiftly grabbed his things and left the Mouri home. As he was about to exit the flight of stairs connecting the building to the streets, a loud bang along with muffled shouting started to come from the third floor. Conan swallowed down a mouthful of saliva and ran towards the nearest train station.
It was a twenty-some minute trip from the Mouri’s all the way to the address Yukiko texted him. Thankfully it was early in the morning and the business people and students haven’t started their daily commutes. The streets were mostly empty aside from a few shopkeepers who were opening up. They must’ve wondered what such a small child was doing on his own.
The address was for a normal looking residential home at the corner of the street. It was in a pretty well-off area although that was to be expected if they were a friend of Yukiko. The lights were off and the gates and windows were closed shut. Was someone really living here?
As Conan was about to ring the doorbell, the sound of a door opening and footsteps frantically running out interrupted him. He turned to the neighboring house and saw a girl who from afar looked identical to Ran but as she came closer, several differences showed themselves. She was in her pajamas and her hair was messy, clearly she just woke up or it was a pajama day at school. She supported herself on the fence surrounding her home and caught her breath.
“Did Chikage-san send you?”
“Yes?” Conan was unsure of what to say in this situation. On one hand this could accidentally reveal himself, on the other, how would he make a reasonable explanation as to why he was here? “Neechan, who are you?” At that question, the girl raised her head and looked Conan in the eye.
“Eh? Conan-kun?” She shook her head. “Sorry, I’m Nakamori Aoko.” She extended a hand towards Conan and bashfully added, “I’ve heard my father complain about you before.”
“Nice to meet you, Aoko-neechan.” Conan took her outstretched hand. He pondered for a second before asking, “are you friends with the person who lives next door?”
Aoko nodded her head. “We’ve been friends since we were around your age. His name is Kuroba Kaito.”
“Do you mind if I asked a few questions about him?”
“Did Chikage-san not tell you anything?” Aoko’s head drooped as she let out a sigh. “Those two are similar in all the wrong ways.” She grumbled under her breath. “Do you want to come inside? We can talk there.” Aoko gestured to her still-opened front door and Conan mutely followed after her. His gaze focused on the dark, almost abandoned looking home and for a second he could see a sliver of white appear in one of the windows. “Take a seat.”
The Nakamori’s house was simply designed. It contained everything you’d expect in a modern home as well as a few images of Aoko and her father plastered on the wall. There was also one featuring a slim yet tall man standing next to Aoko with a goofy looking grin displayed in the entryway.
“Is this him?” Conan pointed at the aforementioned photo. If he didn’t know any better this man could’ve passed as himself.
Aoko poked her head in from the kitchen. “Yep, looks like a troublemaker doesn’t he?” Her words sounded both like a tease and a sad realization. Similar to how realizing a faithful dog was no longer faithful. It was an acknowledgement of a sad fact.
Conan took a seat on the corner of the couch that faced the television. He was handed a cup of warm tea while Aoko sat on the other end of the couch. “Let’s see, Kaito is a magician, he likes pranking people, is very much a pervert no matter how you look at it,” Aoko raised a finger for each point she made and as she reached her last ones, tears started forming on the edges of her eyes. “He may be a jerk but he cares a lot.” She sniffed. “I really don’t know what happened to him.”
“Do you know when he stopped going out?” Conan tried to sound as sincere as possible. He reached out and placed a hand on top of Aoko’s.
“Around a month ago, he just stopped appearing and the next day we–my entire class–got a message from him saying that he’s sick and won’t be coming to class for a while.” Aoko gripped the hem of her shirt. “I tried checking in on him but whenever I came over, there was no response and I couldn’t find him anywhere. The next day, all the locks in the house were changed so I couldn’t get in with my spare key.”
“Thank you, Aoko-neechan. I think I got it now.” Conan stood up. “I’ll take my leave now.” He left the cup of tea next to the sink and headed to the house next door.
Conan rang the doorbell once – no response. Twice – no response. A third time – no response.
At this rate the easiest way in would be to climb into the chimney and pretend to be Santa Claus. He was small enough to fit. However, that would prove to be quite a difficult task since getting onto the roof would be difficult with his current height. A compromise would be to sit outside the gate until the occupant inside has to come out to take out the trash and buy groceries but that would also pose the threat of questions being asked like ‘who told an eight-year-old kid to sit outside in the cold?’
Eventually, Conan decided on climbing over the gate and sitting in front of the front door until Kaito opened it. That way he’d have shelter and direct access to the problem child without having to answer too many questions. He knocked on the door once. “Kuroba-niichan are you there? Chikage-san sent me to check on you!” Conan paused for a moment. “It’s me, Edogawa Conan!”
If his guess was correct then Kaito was KID. Chikage wouldn’t have been able to know who he was unless it was a slip of the tongue by Yukiko which was unlikely or that pesky phantom thief spilled it to his mom who is also one – the Phantom Lady. The time of their disappearances also match up. KID’s last known appearance was a month ago. The gem was never returned that day and the elusive thief finally entered the wanted list for an actual gem and not just for his shows that stun crowds. It would also explain how Kaito–a seemingly ordinary member of the public managed to get a dose of the apotoxin that was only in the hands of the Black Organization.
Conan let out a sigh. He should really scold Yukiko about the people she makes friends with. First a murderer and member of the organization, now a somewhat wanted phantom thief. Really, that woman’s eccentricness holds no bounds.
A shuffle came close to the door along with a stumble. “Kuroba-niichan, is that you?” Conan kept his voice level and calm. There was no way to confirm any of his suspicions yet. He sat at the foot of the step and leaned against the door. No response. It was expected however, Conan couldn’t help but let out a sigh. Was it really that bad to turn into a kid again?
Gloomy clouds filled the skies. They threatened to bring rain with them and they did. Not long after Conan sat down, rain poured in torrents. “Now I really can’t go anywhere!” Conan exclaimed, stretching his legs, barely reaching the edge of the dry portion of pavement.
Conan’s stomach gave a loud reminder that it had been a while since he had breakfast. He placed his backpack on his lap and took out a sandwich he made earlier. “Will the rain stop anytime soon?” He knocked on the door. “Oii Kuroba-niichan aren’t you hungry? I have food.” Conan waited a while before his back slumped.
Several hours passed, the rain had lessened in strength and the sun was about to set. While this hour of day was pretty to most people, it was an hour full of pain for Conan. Time to thank Haibara for the amazing antidote again. He snuck to the back of the house and hid amongst the greenery. Conan bit his lip as scorching pains went through his entire body. Truly, he should be used to it now after a month of pain but really nothing could keep himself from screaming. How could he? Every time the sun set and rose his body grew and shrunk each time. Thankfully, Haibara realized the inconvenience of ripping through clothes each time this happened and fashioned a few sets that would grow and shrink with him. Some sort of rubber and cotton hybrid as far as Shinichi was aware.
“Well at least now I can reach the roof.” Shinichi picked up his backpack and took out a length of rope. He looped it around the chimney and began climbing up. However, once he reached the roof, he heard the door opening. Shinichi leaned over the lip of the roof to see a small child take a cautious step outside. The child looked around. “Conan-kun?” His voice was barely audible from where Shinichi was. “Are you still here?”
“You know, if you opened the door sooner I wouldn’t have needed to climb onto the roof.” Shinichi propped up his head on the roof tiles. He had a look of boredom and a small bit of annoyance beneath his expression.
The kid became frantic like his limbs became disconnected to his body. “You-you…why are you on my roof?” He pointed an accusing finger at Shinichi who casually waved at him.
“Give me a second.” Shinichi got up and climbed down. As he reached the ground, he dusted off the mess that came with the roof. He stood face to face with the kid – Kaito. After a moment of hesitation, Shinichi crouched down and looked Kaito in the eye. “Do you know how many people you’ve made worry about you?” He said in the calmest and least accusing voice he could muster while gently flicking Kaito on the forehead.
“Wai–wait can we talk inside?” Kaito grabbed the edge of Shinichi’s shirt. “Aoko might see.”
“Okay.” Shinichi followed Kaito inside. Similar to the Nakamori house, the Kuroba’s house also had the basic necessities and was covered in framed photos. A child Conan’s age in the middle of his parents was the feature of many of these photos. In the photos where the child was older, the father disappeared and it was just the mother tenderly hugging her son.
Shinichi let out a soft sigh. What an unfortunate circumstance. “Kuroba, can you tell me what happened? Normally, someone like you wouldn’t encounter a situation like this would they?” He raised an eyebrow. Whatever was going on, it was affecting Kaito in a bizarre way.
Kaito took in a breath. “You probably have guessed by now that I’m KID right?” He looked helplessly at Shinichi who was slightly taken aback but nodded nonetheless. “As expected from the great detective,” Kaito gave a meek smile before continuing, “you guessed it even after I tried to keep it on the downlow. Anyways, as I was obtaining a certain gemstone, I was ambushed by some….unfortunate fellows. I’m sure you know how it went from there.”
“They gave you the apotoxin.” Shinichi crossed his arms across his chest. “A different one from mine, it would appear.” He leaned against the wall and looked at Kaito who sat on the couch.
“What makes you say that?”
“You haven’t been wearing that infamous poker face of yours this entire time while we’ve been talking.” Kaito let out a yelp. “So I’m right.” Shinichi gently tapped his elbow. “That’s quite a shame. I’ll really miss that poker face of yours.”
“Shut up!” Kaito threw a couch pillow at Shinichi. Small beads of tears started forming at the corner of his eyes. “You’re not helping.” He quickly wiped them away.
Shinichi calmly caught the pillow and threw it back at Kaito. “Your emotions aside, we need to get you out of the house somehow.”
“Can’t you pose as me? We look similar enough.” Kaito hugged the pillow close to himself almost as if he wanted to melt into it. Shinichi gave him a dumbfounded look.
“Excuse me, can you repeat that?”
“You’re you right now aren’t you? And your acting skills aren’t too bad…just enough to pass in a small conversation.” Kaito didn’t meet Shinichi in the eye. Apparently, he found the small stain on the couch a lot more interesting right now.
Shinichi laughed. He pinched the bridge of his nose which slightly skewed his glasses. “How do I explain this to you.” He sat down next to Kaito on the couch, keeping a certain amount of distance between them. “I’m only like this at night.” Shinichi pointed at himself with a lopsided smile on his face.
Kaito narrowed his eyes and looked Shinichi up and down. A small smile appeared on his face followed by thunderous laughter. “What is that?” he said in between laughs, “are you a vampire?” He wrapped his hands around his stomach as he kept on laughing and gasping for air.
“Was it really that funny?” Shinichi stood up and got a glass of water and waited for Kaito to finish. “Are you ok?” He handed him the glass of water which was instantly finished.
“Part of the package I guess?” Kaito kept his gaze to the ground. “My emotions got doubled – maybe even tripled. Truly quite annoying.” He said in a self-mocking tone. “Great Detective, what should I do in this situation?” His hands shook as he hugged the pillow closer to the chest.
Shinichi inched closer to Kaito and wrapped an arm around the smaller man’s shoulders. “For now, I can stay in this house with you so Nakamori-chan won’t worry.” He added jokingly, “besides, wouldn’t it be nice to have someone who can reach the top cabinets.”
Kaito gently punched him. “Don’t kid with me, you’re also short during the day.” The corners of his lips were upturned and several laughs escaped from them. “You better get used to a noisy roommate.”
“When you’ve shared a room with Ran’s dad for over a year, you can talk to me about noisy roommates.” Shinichi took out his Conan phone and voice changer. “The old man isn’t even discreet when he enters the room late.”
“How do you get away with–” Kaito was hushed by Shinichi pressing a finger to his lips. He pushed a button and the phone was on speaker.
“Hey Ran-neechan, my parent’s friend said that I can stay over with them for a while so I won’t be coming home for a while.” Shinichi held the bowtie and his phone with one hand and raised three fingers on the other. Three became two and two became one. The moment he lowered the last finger, Ran on the other end of the line started exploding.
“Conan-kun! Don’t just say one thing in the morning and a different thing at night! You should think of the problems you cause for other people too you know? I really don’t know what to do with you! Can you tell me where you’re staying so I can bring your stuff there or will you come pick it up?”
Shinichi’s head was lowered in defeat while Kaito was trying to laugh but was chewing on the pillow to muffle the sound. Shinichi held the phone at an arm’s distance away and lowered the voice changer. “Conan-kun give me the phone.” At this point Kaito was tumbling all over the couch in laughter.
“Shinichi?”
“Hi, Conan-kun will stay with me for a while so don’t worry.”
“It’s because it’s you I worry even more now.” Shinichi almost wanted to drop the call. Ran was really unstoppable when she was mad. He just had to leave her in a bad mood this morning as well. “Come on, tell me where you are, I’ll give Conan-kun his stuff and drag you back to school while I’m at it.”
“I can’t tell you.” He glanced at Kaito who had somehow tumbled over onto the floor and was rolling around like a three year old child on sugar. “The owner of the house likes his privacy and I’m just here to babysit his kid so I invited Conan over since they’re the same age.” Shinichi picked Kaito up by the collar and put him back onto the couch. “Hey don’t you know the floor’s dirty? Sorry Ran, I gotta go.” He abruptly ended the call before Ran could say something.
“Using me as an excuse, did your year of living undercover make you more cunning, great detective?” Kaito wiped away the tears in his eyes. “You’re a fantastic actor. You should try playing me next.” He smiled and threw the pillow at Shinichi.
“Ran is after my head now.”
“Did she ever stop?”
Shinichi took a moment to think. “Fair point but now she’s going to do everything she can to find your house.” He stood up and picked up the pillow that limply fell to the floor. “You don’t mind, do you? Unless you’re hiding your lair here?”
Kaito’s hair stood up. “Actually…”
“Really?” Shinichi narrowed his eyes. “You can’t keep secrets now either?”
Kaito shrugged, “apparently not. Do you want to see it?”
“You…really what will you do if I report you to the police?”
“If you really wanted to, Inspector Nakamori is next door, feel free to give me to him at any time and see if he’ll believe you.” Kaito crossed his arms across his chest. “You found out this much plus you’re here as a favor for my mom right? So it wouldn’t be right if you announced the imprisonment of her son.”
“Do you want to take over as the detective, Kuroba?” Shinichi chuckled. “Lead the way.” He gestured for Kaito to take the lead.
As Kaito led him through the house, it wasn’t as messy as Shinichi assumed. With how Aoko was acting earlier made him assume Kaito was in an absolute mess right now yet he wasn’t. Maybe his mind was a little more messy than usual but the kid in front of him was still the trickster he had come to love and respect.
Kaito stopped at a door and opened it. Inside was a bed, a desk, a couple books on shelves but most eye catchingly of all was a life-sized portrait of the man in the family photos. “Kuroba Toichi, have you heard of him?” Kaito was also staring at the portrait as if it was the first time he saw it yet this was clearly his room.
“He was my mother’s mentor in disguises if I’m not mistaken.” Shinichi crossed his arms across his chest. “I’ve heard her mention him in passing before so he was your father.” That explains how Yukiko knew Chikage.
“Detective, I don’t tell anyone what’s behind this door, okay?” Kaito pressed a finger to his lips and winked. He kept an hand on the portrait. “It’s really important to me.”
Shinichi couldn’t help but pat Kaito on the head. “How many times do you have to make sure I won’t call the cops on you before you’ll believe me?” He placed his hands in his pockets. “I’ve already gone this far, how much worse can it get?”
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Kaito pushed the door and went through. The painting switched. Before, it was an image of Toichi performing magic on stage and now it was an image of Kaitou KID – the original Kaitou KID. Perhaps he was the one who gave Shinichi that difficult riddle in the past. It would make sense as well since Kaito is around his age.
Shinichi followed Kaito through the picture and was greeted by a wide room. It was larger than Kaito’s room by almost double. In front of the door was a large work station covered with all sorts of tools and half-made gizmos. Kaito was on top of a stool and was tinkering with a small tool in his hand. To his right was a white car. How it could get out of here was beyond Shinichi’s imagination. Perhaps Kaito just liked it for aesthetic purposes. Nearer to Kaito was a flight of stairs, presumably leading to the attic and his wind glider was displayed next to it along with that terrifying blower attachment.
“You really have your priorities in line here.” Shinichi approached Kaito, “this place must be twice the size of your room or even bigger.”
“I didn’t build the room. It was here before I even took over as KID.” Kaito screwed something in then placed the piece of metal down. “You might want to back off.” He ran behind the car, only slightly sticking his head out. A beep went off before Shinichi could move and the small gizmo exploded into a cloud of pink.
Shinichi sneezed and attempted to wave off the stubborn pigment. “Kuroba what on earth did you make this ou–achoo!” He gingerly rubbed the tip of his nose but it wouldn’t stop his urge to sneeze. “Are you trying to trigger someone’s asthma?”
“Do you have asthma, Detective?” Kaito turned on the blower and started to cycle the pigment out of the room.
“Thankfully, no.” Shinichi sneezed again. “What did you make this for?”
“To tease Hakuba!” Kaito sounded so proud of himself and his current voice of a eight-year-old didn’t help it one bit. “He keeps accusing me of being KID so I like making fun of him.” A massive smile was on Kaito’s face.
“He’s not wrong though.” Shinichi shook off the pink pigment that had settled on his clothes. “Maybe I should go call him over here to confirm his suspicions. What’s with that look on your face?” He raised an eyebrow.
“You–” Kaito was on the verge of laughter. “You should go look in a mirror. There’s one down the hall.” Shinichi left the room without another word then very quickly came storming back. “Shin-chan why are you so angry now?” Kaito rested his head on his arms on top of the hood of the car. A large smile was on his face.
“It’s nice to see that you’re in a good mood but can I not be the butt of the joke here?” Shinichi puffed and rested his hands on his waist. “Can I borrow your shower and some extra…ah shoot.”
“What’s the problem?”
Shinichi pinched the bridge of his nose. “I only have this one pair of ‘grow clothes’ so unless you want me running around your home with a shirt larger than myself later, we’re going to have a bit of a problem.”
“Just get clothes from my cabinet outside for now. Your shrinking can wait.” Kaito waved a dismissive hand at the detective who looked like he was going to turn as pink as the pigment in his hair. “You still have until sunrise right?” He called after Shinichi who had just left the room. Kaito took a glance at the clock on the wall and let out a small screech. When did it turn four o’clock?
Kaito sprinted out of the KID cave and headed towards the nearest bathroom. He stopped several steps away and tiptoed the rest of the space between himself and the door. He cautiously knocked against the door, expecting some sort of explosive anger to come up from inside but much to Kaito’s surprise, there was nothing. Kaito knocked again and this time was received by a small whimper. “Detective, are you okay in there?” Panic was filling every inch of Kaito’s body. His limbs wouldn’t follow his whims and were either frantic or static. His legs were planted into the ground as if they had grown roots while his hand wouldn’t stop knocking on the door. His breaths were quick and shallow, if it weren’t for the adrenaline in his veins, Kaito wasn’t sure how he hadn’t passed out due to lack of breath.
After a minute or two, a freshly shrunken Shinichi opened the door slightly to glare Kaito in the eye. “Would you quit knocking you dim–” Kaito fell to his knees and his hands were shaking. “Oi are you okay?” Ignoring public decency, Shinichi ran out of the bathroom and pressed two fingers on Kaito’s wrist. His eyes widened as he felt the latter’s pulse which was too fast to be even near the range of normal.
“Kuroba, I need you to take deep breaths with me, okay?” Shinichi said calmly and without pause. Kaito slowly nodded and matched his breathing to the detective in front of him. Eventually, everything slowed back down and went back to normal. “Are you feeling better now?”
Kaito took in a deep breath before responding. “Yeah, thanks.” His eyes were downcast and were glued to the floor. As if looking at Shinichi would give him an unnameable illnes– “Ah! Detective…” Kaito diverted his gaze even more as a light pink flush tinted his cheeks. “Clothes…” he pointed at Shinichi who was still stark naked in the middle of the hallway.
Shinichi froze in place for a second before scurrying back to the bathroom like a mouse then came back in a shirt that was ten times too big for his current self. “Can you walk?”
“I’m a child, not a cripple of course I can” Kaito attempted to support himself with one arm propping him against the ground but it gave way and he fell back to the ground. “Get up…” he let out a dejected sigh and tears tickled the edges of his eyes. He bit his lip to prevent the sobs from escaping which caused a small trail of blood to stain his pale skin.
“Luckily for us, you’re quite light.” As Shinichi said that, he picked Kaito up and supported the latter on the back and under the knees. Kaito leaned against Shinichi’s shoulder and his tears and blood began to soak into the shirt. Sobs shook his entire body and made him seem even more frail than he already did.
Shinichi carried Kaito down the stairs and made sure to look where he was stepping in fear of activating some sort of device which could end with him majestically falling down the stairs which thankfully didn’t happen. He carefully placed Kaito, who had fallen asleep, onto the couch and draped a blanket over him. He took a set of children’s clothes from Kaito’s wardrobe and had a quick shower to get rid of the remainder of the pink that was now all over the house due to the magician’s incident.
While Kaito slept, Shinichi vacuumed up the pigment and ordered take-out. The delivery man at the door was quite shocked to see a seven-year-old get the package at the door but it was a one-off thing that hopefully wouldn’t repeat itself. He placed the food on the countertop in the kitchen and proceeded to text Haibara.
“Can you come over? I want you to meet him. I think he got a different batch from us.”
In the amount of time it takes to brew coffee, Haibara responded. “Should the kids come along?”
“Next time. For now come alone.” Shinichi typed quickly and glanced over the couch to see Kaito calmly snoring away. Deeming it was safe enough to sleep, Shinichi climbed onto the side opposite of the magician and closed his eyes.
As Shinichi was about to completely doze off, he was woken up by a dull thud. He rubbed what little sleep managed to get into his eyes and looked around. Kaito was tangled in his blanket in a half-awake, half-asleep state. His head hung low but occasionally would jot up as if he woke himself up but would then return to its former position, indicating otherwise.
Shinichi recalled Kaito’s terrible sleeping position from their unfortunate trip to Singapore and could only let out something in between a sigh and laughter. He pushed away his blanket and crouched down onto his knees next to the magician, proceeding to gently poke Kaito’s shoulder while saying his name softly.
Eventually, Kaito began to wake up. However, at that point, several hours had passed and the sun was long up in the sky. The doorbell rang which was the final thing that woke Kaito up. He scrambled to his feet which ended with him being more entangled with it than before. He tried untying the blanket that knotted around his legs until he realized Shinichi was at the door looking through the peephole.
“Detective! Wait! Don’t open the door!” Kaito shouted, his entire being frustrated by the fact that he – the great Kaitou KID – was defeated by a blanket.
“You can calm down.” Shinichi had already opened the door while Kaito was shouting and let Haibara inside. He gestured to the girl with tea-colored hair next to him. “It’s just Haibara. You’ve met her before.” Shinichi walked over to Kaito and began helping him untangle himself. “Haibara, this is um.” He paused, giving Kaito a questioning look as if to ask him ‘can I tell her?’ to which Kaito merely deadpanned and laid limp in Shinichi’s arms. “Kuroba Kaito.”
“I know.” Haibara crossed her arms across her chest. “Nice to meet you.”
“Likewise.” Kaito grumbled into Shinichi’s shirt. “Detective, what are you doing?” he nestled his head into the corner in between the other’s arm and chest.
“What do you think?” Without a care about Kaito’s wellbeing, Shinichi pulled on the corner of the blanket he managed to wiggle free. Kaito shouted in response as he felt the circulation leading to his limbs being cut off.
“Stop! Stop! Stop! I’ll do it myself.” Kaito huffed, startling Shinichi who dropped him on the floor and took a step back. Kaito wiggled around and managed to free one of his hands. “Detective, why did you tell her to come here?” He asked while pushing the blanket towards his knees.
Haibara calmly sat on the couch next to Kaito’s struggles and crossed her legs. Shinichi stood across from her with his hands in his pockets. “She made the apotoxin.” He said without restraint.
Eventually, Kaito managed to untangle himself from the blanket while talking to Shinichi and Haibara. “So you’re saying that she can maybe create a cure for me as well?” He lay on the couch with beads of sweat dotting his hairline. “Sounds fantastic, why didn’t my mom call you over here sooner.”
“If they modified the formula from the time that I left it’s going to take some time to reverse engineer a cure. In Kudo-kun’s case I still remembered some portion of the original recipe so it easier to make a cure.”
“And yet I’m stuck like this.” Shinichi rolled his eyes. “Maybe you remembered wrong.”
“Or maybe someone took the antidote that wasn’t tested yet and ate it.” She stared daggers at the detective standing across from her. “Your stubbornness will be the death of the both of us.” Haibara turned to Kaito. “In your case, I think it’s best you don’t try to hide your emotions. It might just be the pent up parts of yourself that got triggered by it.”
Kaito looked at Haibara weakly as if asking her not to say that. “You heard her.” Shinichi interjected. “That means no more KID action.” He added, wiggling his eyebrows. “Speaking of which, what did you do with the last gemstone?”
“It’s gone.” Kaito said beneath his breath.
“Excuse me?”
“I destroyed it.” He paused for a moment, “it was the one I was looking for.” Kaito raised his gaze to Shinichi and smiled sadly. “Kaitou KID retired that night. Too bad those guys caught up and turned me into this.”
“At least one of us got his business dealt with.” Shinichi crossed his arms behind his head. “I’d love to finish this whole double life thing, get back to Ran and live as ‘Kudo Shinichi’ again.”
“Don’t get me wrong Detective, I’m glad it’s over but I’ll miss the attention.”
Shinichi walked towards Kaito and hit him lightly on the head. “When did attention become synonymous with wasting police resources?”
“It wasn’t as if I did it on purpose!” Kaito looked up and was met with Shinichi narrowing his eyes. “Maybe a little bit…” he recoiled into the nook of the couch.
The detective tore his gaze away from Kaito and focused on Haibara. “Thanks for coming. Please fix him asap. I don’t think I can handle him like this any longer.”
“I’ll try my best.”
After a while, Haibara left. She warned Kaito to mind his emotions again and told Shinichi to take care of himself. Shinichi pushed her out the door as she continued nagging and let out a sigh of relief once she was finally gone.
“What do you want to eat tonight?” Shinichi let out a soft chuckle.
Their days passed without much incident and eventually, Shinichi and Kaito became codependent on each other. They split the chores between each other; Shinichi doing the more laborious ones when he’s big.
On normal days, Shinichi would go to elementary school in the next city over. Maybe he’d drag Kaito along for a field trip. The magician met the detective boys and immediately added to the noise Shinichi and Haibara endure on a daily basis.
“Give him this when you get home.” Haibara sneaked him a small glass vial containing a familiar looking pill.
Shinichi narrowed his eyes. “You managed to fix him an antidote but what about me?”
“You can stay as a child for a bit longer, can’t you, Edogawa-kun?” Haibara tucked her hands behind her back and gave him an innocent smile.
“You—“
“Conan-kun, try to figure my trick out?” Kaito waved him over with a big smile on his face. It was a smile that reached ‘til the corners of his eyes.
Shinichi couldn’t help but share his smile. “Coming!”
