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Kaito stared at his makeshift bulletin board in irritation. Really, it was only a few pieces of printer paper taped together and tacked onto his wall, but it worked well enough when he stuck copious amounts of post-its on it. The few stray post-its that kept floating down onto the ground no matter how many times he re-stuck it were irrelevant.
He narrowed his eyes at the post-it note in the center of the makeshift bulletin, circled multiple times with bright red. It was the very phrase that started this whole thing, scratched onto it in a post confounded haste. Kaito never got around to rewriting it, because he was too busy scribbling other thoughts in a frenzy.
Thoughts like : ‘what the hell?’ and ‘what is happening?’ and ‘I’m dreaming???’ and ‘WHAT the HELL’.
He stumbled back and sank down heavily into his chair, bringing both of his hands up to palm roughly at his face, before reaching up to roughly ruffle his hair with an aggravated groan, messing up his already tangled bird’s nest.
When he could no longer run his fingers a single centimetre through his hair without threatening to pull off a piece of his scalp, he resolved to run his hands slowly down his face, glaring at another stray post-it note that was gliding gracefully to the floor.
“Stupid detective and his stupid phrases,” Kaito grumbled, before scooting his chair forward until he was at a good enough distance to ram his head into the wall. He hoped that doing so would stimulate the multitude of brain cells he reserved for child-turned-teen detectives and child-turned-teen detectives only.
He turned his cheek to the wall, ignoring the throbbing of his forehead that would no doubt form a bump tomorrow. He felt another post-it note drift down and land on his head, and he reached up to retrieve it with the indignation of a baby being woken up from a pleasant nap.
His eyes sharpened when he looked down at the post-it note. Specifically, what was written on the post-it note. His anger flared. Shooting out of his chair, he slammed the post-it note back onto the center of the board, causing all of the surrounding post-it notes to detach and flutter to the ground.
But Kaito could care less, because he was too busy hysterically staring at the messy handwriting.
“What does that even mean?!” He demanded at the ceiling. Of course, no one answered. Stupid.
—1—
“Hey.”
Kaito ignored the sound, focusing his eyes on the streak of light flooding through the gem. He sighed when he couldn’t see any trace of red, and lowered his hand to face the only person who could’ve caught up with him this early.
Well, early for someone who’s supposedly late.
But when he turned around, his eyes angled down to expectantly meet the eyes of a six year old child, they could only catch onto the sight of scuffed pants. With knees no doubt behind the fabric. Knees that would belong to—Kaito blinked owlishly, before trailing his eyes up.
Shinichi smirked across the rooftop at him, and Kaito was hit with an overwhelming sense of panic.
“Uh, you’ve,” Kaito trailed off, before clearing his throat in order to garner whatever sliver of the ‘cool and mysterious phantom thief’ facade was left. Wait no, not facade, he was cool and mysterious, and a phantom thief. “Grown.”
Shinichi stuffed his hands into his pockets, the smug smile never leaving his face. “So it seems.”
Kaito remained silent. Better to not say anything than make a fool of himself. That is, until his brain-to-mouth filter stopped working.
“So,” Kaito trailed off, again, but he managed to keep the calm and teasing lilt in his voice, this time along with his signature smirk. Sue him okay, he wasn’t really expecting this type of development until after he had accomplished his mission. “Come to catch me?”
Ohohohoh, smooth.
Shinichi shrugged, looking around the roof before taking something out of his pocket and dropping it on the floor.
Kaito kept his eyes trained on the tiny object, a million possibilities of what it could be running through his mind, before it expanded with a burst of air and he felt himself jumping out of his skin. Now the only million things running through his mind were the cries of alarm.
“Don’t take this personally KID!” He heard Shinichi cry out with glee, before Kaito snapped his eyes back up just in time to see Shinichi’s eyes glow with anticipation. The loud smack of synthetic leather was the only reaction time he was given.
Ah hell, he thought, before he narrowly dodged a soccer ball whizzing menacingly past his head, nearly a millimetre away from sheering half of his face off.
And Kaito supposes that’s where all his troubles started.
—
Kaito banged his head against the wall again, deciding to leave the rest of the post-it notes on the floor, rather than going through the effort of picking them up. He figured he wouldn’t need them anyway. Most of them were just of him screaming.
He would have to burn them all later. They were too incriminating. And embarrassing. Mostly embarrassing. Stupid detective.
—2—
“You’re faster than you usually are,” Kaito tilted his head back, plastering a serene smile on his face as Shinichi climbed out of one of the window panes of the domed roof. He himself was seated on one the ledge of the roof, ready to jump off the second Shinichi took a step closer. “I’m impressed, great detective. You may come close to catching me yet.”
Shinichi slid the window pane back into place, all the while shooting a raised eyebrow at Kaito. “Your confidence is finally plummeting?”
Kaito chuckled, looking away to take in the expanse of the city, the lights of every single building glimmering underneath the ribbons of moonlight. He held the catch of the night up to the sky, watching as the light that filtered through the gem shine the exact same color as itself. A dark purple, not a single hint of red. “Not exactly.”
“Then you’re worried.”
Perceptive as always, even behind a dozen masks.
Kaito smiled bitterly, for the briefest second, before wiping away the bitterness from his expression to leave only the smile, one that gave away nothing. He stood up to face Shinichi. Shinichi, who was lightly scowling at him with his arms crossed. “I don’t have anything to be worried about.”
He tossed the gem in Shinichi’s direction, a slight sparkle glinting at the edge of his vision as it sailed through the air before it landed in Shinichi’s palm. A single palm. Confident jerk.
Shinichi frowned at him a moment further, before letting out a loud sigh. “Mysterious as ever.”
Kaito tilted his head, the smile crossing his face getting dangerously close to genuine. “Compliment?”
Shinichi smirked at him, before dropping the expression to shrug innocently. “Who knows. Well, I need to get this back to the owner. I’ll see you around.”
….Huh? He wasn’t going to chase him off the roof like he usually did?
Shinichi was partly turned away before he whirled back around with bright eyes. “Oh yeah, before I forget.”
Kaito barely reacted fast enough to snatch the object that was thrown at him out of the air. The plastic crinkled underneath his gloves, and when he opened his palm to look down at it, he saw that it was a piece of candy. From the banquet happening underneath this roof.
Kaito narrowed his eyes suspiciously. What was the great detective playing at?
“Consider it a trade,” Shinichi called out, forcing Kaito to refocus his attention on him. Shinichi waved the gem in his hand at Kaito. “For the gem. Don’t take this personally, KID.”
...What?
Shinichi turned around to pull open the window pane he had come up through. And Kaito watched as he lowered himself onto the edge in a sitting position, before he pushed himself off and dropped out of view. The window pane slid shut after him.
It wasn’t until three minutes later that Kaito came back to his senses, trying to make sense of what kind of interaction had just taken place. He gripped the piece of candy in his hand so hard, that he felt it digging into his skin through the fabric of his gloves.
Did. Did Kudou Shinichi, his rival, just try to comfort Kaitou KID, magician/criminal extraordinaire?
Oh, he thought as he tipped backwards off the roof, the world was ending.
—
Kaito breathed out another breath, before pushing himself up to stand, only to fall back onto the chair, his arms hanging limply from his sides.
Back to square one.
He titled his head back to stare at the ceiling. He could feel his eyebrow twitching again, just like it did every single time he thought about this. Tilting his body to the side just the slightest bit, he scrabbled around until his fingers brushed up against a lone post-it note.
Snatching it off the floor, he slammed the little piece of paper against his eyebrow. It didn’t help, but now he had a piece of yellow paper obstructing his vision, so he supposed that counted for something. Which was absolutely nothing.
He wanted to cry.
—3—
Kaito was going to leave. In fact, he had already left, falling off the ledge of the roof to deploy his glider. And he would have gotten away with it, if it hadn’t been for his meddling detective.
Otherwise known as, Kudou Shinichi, who jumped off the roof after him and oh my god he’s going to die if Kaito doesn’t move to catch him riGHT THIS SECOND HOLY—
Kaito immediately spread his arms, his eyes widening as Shinichi barreled forward towards him. Once Shinichi managed to get a grip on Kaito’s suit lapel, he hauled himself forward to wrap his arms and legs around Kaito’s torso. Kaito immediately wrapped an arm around the other’s waist, desperately trying to maneuver them around so he could deploy his hang glider.
After pulling on the latch and successfully bruising at least four of his ribs due to the sudden deceleration of their bodies, they were flying in some random direction while the yells and cries of police officers trailed after them from the rooftop.
At least they were alive. Sure Kaito was wheezing pathetically, but at least they were alive.
“No this is the wrong direction! That way! That way!” Shinichi yelled urgently over the wind and into his ear, pointing west of their relative direction. But it just sounded petulant to Kaito’s ears, reminiscent of a certain six year old.
“Okay first of all,” Kaito ground out, but shifted in the direction Shinichi was pointing in, only because it wasn’t in the same direction as the Task Force. “What the hell were you thinking? Second of all, why? Third of all, how could you?”
There was also a fourth question: Do you have any regard for your personal safety? But Kaito already knew the answer to that question so he didn’t even need to ask.
Shinichi loosened his arms from around Kaito’s shoulders, and Kaito tightened his hold around Shinichi’s waist. “Don’t you dare loosen your hold now of all times!”
They were very high up in the air, and even though they were losing altitude quicker than normal, Kaito would very much appreciate it if the extra passenger would cooperate with him so that they would not become a human blood and bone pancake.
“Calm down, I was just trying to push my face away from your shoulder so I could actually breathe,” Shinichi explained. “And to answer your question, a family was caught up in an underground explosion just now, near the subway station, according to the text sent to me. And it wasn’t by natural causes. I need to go investigate.”
“‘I need to go investigate’,” Kaito grumbled under his breath, before clearing his throat. “And you couldn’t have gotten on a cab? When did I become your personal chauffeur?”
“This would’ve been faster.”
“You do realize I’ll have to drop you off farther than you intended from your destination right? This glider can’t support the weight of two people, two fully grown people. A child is different.”
“That’s fine,” Shinichi nodded. “Regardless of where you land, my travel time is still cut by a significant amount.”
“How the hell did you even know I would catch you? Especially when you're in this body?” Kaito demanded, maneuvering his way around an apartment building.
There was a pause.
“You wouldn’t have?” And Shinichi sounded so confused, as if Kaito catching him was some indisputable truth that Shinichi had full confidence in.
So forgive Kaito if they crashed into a nondescript alley when he finally processed that.
Kaito was so sad right now. Nothing made sense anymore. The world was just playing with him at this point. He just wanted to wallow in his sorrows.
His glider was decimated a few meters away, and his hat was tossed off his head, so the only thing preserving his identity was his exasperated arm thrown over his eyes, trying to block out whatever image of this wrecked world was trying to meet his retinas.
There was a rustle of fabric, before a jacket was thrown over his eyes. A jacket that smelled distinctly of someone he didn’t particularly want to perceive at the moment.
“Sorry to drive you off course for tonight, but thank you for the ride. You can wear the jacket home if you’re out of disguises.” Shinichi sounded like he was in a hurry, but Kaito would never know, because he was too busy happily pretending that he was still living in a world that he could still understand underneath the soft cotton. “Don’t take this personally KID.”
With one final pat against Kaito’s shoulder, Shinichi was off, if the fading footsteps around the corner were any indication.
—
He slapped his cheeks, and the post-it note that had stuck to his eyebrow fluttered off his face, floating back down its rightful place on the floor.
What he would give to have people witness him being dramatic right now. Over a boy no less. What would Aoko think? What would Hakuba think? The thought of it horrified and amused him at the same time. He would have to subject the both of them to it sometime, just to see their reactions.
He chuckled a bit, feeling his irritation bubble down for the first time that night. He nearly gave up the conductor seat to his horrid train of thought entirely. Before he titled his head down the slightest bit, and the post-it note that contained that phrase crossed his vision. And then he saw Shinichi’s smirk materialize right before his eyes and his anger roared all over again.
—4—
First three times? Understandable. Those first three times didn’t indicate anything that translated past ‘I tolerate you’.
This however, this was jumping through several hoops of fire and missing the target completely. What was the target exactly? Glad it was asked. The target was being perfectly acceptable rivals.
What the hell was this? Kaito didn’t know. So he asked.
“What the hell is this?”
Hakuba crossed his arms and scowled at him. “Chocolate, obviously.”
“Oh I know that,” Kaito growled out, gripping the bag in his hand tighter, “I’m asking what the hell this is supposed to be.”
“Chocolate,” Hakuba repeated. “For KID.”
And before Kaito could leap over the desk to throttle him so he could defend himself of not being KID for the fifth time this week, Hakuba gave a resigned sigh.
“Kudou won’t be able to make your heist this weekend—,” Kaito tried not to visibly deflate at that, but he could already feel his heart plummeting, “—so he asked me to give this to you as a consolation gift, seeing as I’m attending. And I thought, why wait until this weekend when I can see you in class today?”
Kaito wanted to punch that smug smile off his face, but then Aoko would punch him in return, so he settled for giving the other a tight grin. “As much as I admire your good intentions, which I don’t, ever, I’m not KID. So take your chocolates and leave.”
Hakuba raised an eyebrow.
“What,” Kaito snapped, “you want me to say ‘please’?”
“Well in order to take back the chocolates,” Hakuba said, his tone painfully sardonic, “you would have to let go of the bag first.”
Kaito blinked, and looked down to see that yes, his hands were still clasped tightly around the handle of the bag. A pretty shade of blue, with white tissue paper sticking out from the top. There was no way Kudou Shinichi wrapped this himself, much less thought of it himself.
“Kuro—”
Kaito threw the bag at Hakuba’s face, watching in satisfaction as the other cried out and frantically tried to catch it before it fell on the floor. The chasing he got from Aoko right as lunch ended was worth it.
(So were the chocolates he officially got when the weekend came, but he’s never going to say that out loud. Even though his mood was still slightly dampened when a certain detective really didn’t show up.
Note: Nothing personal KID. )
—
There was no way. The more Kaito thought about it, there just had to be no way.
Shinichi, who was as blunt as a rusted kitchen knife. Who, to everyone’s (read: Kaito’s limited) knowledge, was enamored by his childhood friend. There was no possible way he would walk around and actually flir-
Kaito couldn’t even say it, couldn’t even think it. It was just that impossible.
Not to mention, Kaito was a criminal. A criminal that, time and time again, Shinichi declared he would catch.
He was just thinking too much. He should just do as he’s told and not, not take it personally.
But.
—5—
“Surely you’re joking.”
Shinichi shook his head. “I’m really not.”
Kaito pursed his lips. “You have to be.”
“Well,” Shinichi shrugged, “you don’t have to if you really don’t want to.”
Let it be known that Shinichi was mean, because Shinichi obviously knew Kaito wanted to. No way was he not going to go out and watch the stars in a romantic setting with his quote-on-quote rival. He just needed reassurance okay?
“I came here to crash an exhibition party,” Kaito said instead, as a matter-of-factly. “I came here to crash an exhibition party and steal the coordinator’s family heirloom. I am dressed as one of the key gem inspectors, and you’re asking me whether or not I want to leave for a bit to go stargazing with you?”
“Yup!” Shinichi chirped. “So.”
Shinichi braced a palm beside Kaito’s head, leaning in until they were nose to nose and Kaito could feel his breath against his lips. Wow did his brain really feel the need to blank out right now? He kind of needed it.
“What do you say?” Shinichi asked, voice hopeful.
No brain needed, only heart.
Kaito smiled, making it as enigmatic as possible (he doesn’t need to know how badly he failed), and titled his head. Their eyes stayed (painfully, in Kaito’s case) on each other.
“Lead the way,” Kaito said, already feeling his stomach drop out from under him.
And Shinichi leaned back and gave him a blinding smile.
(Turns out, Shinichi was on distracting duty, and nearly took Kaito’s head off with a soccer ball once he managed to steal the gem off the heavily armored pedestal. Kaito got a strange sense of déjà vu when Shinichi yelled, “Don’t take this personally KID!”, with unbridled glee as the ball sailed dangerously close to his cheek. Needless to say, he was kind of bitter after that.)
(But he was less bitter once he found out that Shinichi wasn’t even supposed to be on distracting duty, because there was no such thing in the first place, when he was trying to blend in with the other officers on the scene so he could make a seamless escape.)
—
He really shouldn’t. He really, really shouldn’t. He knows he shouldn’t.
But it was starting to grate on his sanity. His sanity was so thin by now, he could hold it up against a dark surface and still see through it to the other side. So, theoretically, he should.
But on the other hand, he really shouldn’t. Shinichi had told him not to. So he won’t, because he was better than that.
He was so much better. Much, much bette—he’s going to take it personally.
Next time, the next time he saw Shinichi, he was going to demand answers. He was going to keep the great detective captive until he answered every single one of his questions. And by every single one, he meant only a single one : WHAT WAS HAPPENING BETWEEN THEM????
That’s right, Kaito was going to finally confront his demons. He was going to confront the one person who had taken up nearly the entirety of his head space, even though he already had a predesignated section of his brain dedicated to the detective. Because he wasn’t a coward.
—
Kuroba Kaito was a coward.
Which was why he was stalking—it was not stalking for legal reasons—Shinichi instead of confronting him. It’s not like confronting him would have been that hard anyways, because Shinichi seemed to have a penchant for knowing who he was no matter what disguises he wore. He could just walk up to him, and Shinichi would greet him with an air of smugness, and then Kaito would pull some slick maneuver to capture him and bring him into a random alley. And then he would ask.
Except that he couldn’t because he was a coward.
Peeking his head out from the corner of the building, he watched as Shinichi stopped by a shop window beside his childhood friend, nodding with a smile when she pointed at one of the displays.
Hm. There. That was his excuse.
Shinichi wasn’t alone, and even though Kaito had spent the entire train ride to Beika coming up with ways to immobilize him, he supposed that he would have to do so at another time.
With a (relieved) shrug and a tug of his cap further down his face, he stepped away from the wall and turned in the other direction. Maybe he could grab a cake from a nearby bakery before he took the train home, their selection of chocolate mousse looked—
A hand suddenly clasped around his bicep and he froze mid-step.
“Ah just a second Ran, you can go ahead, I need to attend to something first,” a voice that definitely did not cause him to sweat several liters in the last two seconds said.
“Oh uh, if you’re sure Shinichi. I’ll,” there was an uncertain pause, no doubt because Ran was eyeing him with a suspicious yet concerned expression, “I’ll see you at the cafe.”
“Don’t worry,” Shinichi reassured, and Kaito’s eyes slitted. “This won’t take long.”
Oh he was dead dead okay.
Several seconds passed, encompassed by the sound of Shinichi’s childhood friend’s fading footsteps. The other people stepping around them were irrelevant, because his only excuse for not confronting Shinichi, the only set of footsteps that actually mattered, was walking away. Kaito felt a strong sense of betrayal, and he would definitely be putting this on his ‘Top 10 Anime Be—
“So?” Shinichi asked, and Kaito swore he ascended.
Kaito laughed nervously, switching his voice to one of his classmate’s. “I think you might be misunderstanding something. Did I do something wrong?”
Wow he sounded so suspicious. If Shinichi didn’t arrest him right then and there, Kaito would’ve turned himself in. Not really. But the sentiment was there.
The silence that followed his question sounded really unimpressed. Impressive, since silence couldn’t really be heard.
There was a sigh, and the hand on his bicep tightened.
“I could call you by your moniker, and expose you right now in public, or you could turn around and face me.”
“No one would believe you,” Kaito squawked indignantly, dropping his classmate’s voice and turning around to, to—Shinichi leaned in close with a self satisfied smirk, and Kaito couldn’t even find it within himself to lean back. Not with his heart deciding that, yup, the supersonic rate at which his heart was thudding was perfectly acceptable.
It wasn’t until he felt Shinichi’s nose brush against his that he felt his face explode in a fountain of red, and he jumped back as much as he could with Shinichi’s hand still clamped tightly around his bicep.
“What!” Kaito screeched, drawing in multiple disgruntled stares.
Shinichi quickly shushed him, before dragging him off to the side, so that they no longer obstructed anyone’s paths.
“What’s your deal?” Shinichi hissed.
“My deal? What’s your deal?” Kaito hissed harder, because if this was going to be hissing contest, Kaito deserved to be the more disgruntled cat, after everything Shinichi’s pulled.
Shinichi only raised an eyebrow in confusion. “What do you mean?”
Kaito cackled hysterically inside his head. Look at this man trying to play innocent, Kaito wanted to wring his neck.
It took all of his willpower to not burst out on the spot, whether it was bursting out crying or yelling, he didn’t know. Kaito would just have to leave that up to the gods that governed his mood.
“You, you keep,” Kaito garbled, poking his finger into Shinichi’s chest and forcing him to back up against the wall, Kaito stalking menacingly after him. Shinichi's eyebrow still had not lowered. “You keep-!”
Kaito let out a frustrated growl. He couldn’t just outright say what he thought Shinichi was doing. If he was wrong, then he would look stupid. If he was right, then he would look stupid for a completely different set of reasons. He tugged nonsensically at his hair, glaring at Shinichi’s shoes.
“You know,” Shinichi started carefully, pulling all of Kaito’s thoughts to a screeching halt, “you’re a lot more expressive outside of the costume.”
Ah, okay, that wasn’t bad.
“It’s cute,” Shinichi smiled, scratching at his cheek with a flustered expression.
Scratch that, Kaito was going to wring his neck. After he bursts his eardrums.
“That’s exactly what I mean!” Kaito shouted, feeling the blood rush to his face. He honestly couldn’t tell if it was from anger or embarrassment, and at this point, he didn’t want to know. “You keep saying and doing these things as if you were-as if-!”
He trailed off into incoherent blurbs, and he would’ve continued until the sun set if Shinichi hadn’t interrupted.
“As if?” Shinichi trailed off slowly, once again lifting an eyebrow and leaning into Kaito’s personal space.
Kaito wanted to yell at him. He had planned to, but what came out was a small squeak that he couldn’t even identify to be his own voice. “Flirting.”
He buried his face into his hands, ready to wring his own neck, because what had he just said. Did he just say that? He couldn’t have. Because Shinichi was Shinichi, and there was no way that he would do anything remotely close to what Kaito had just said. He was going to—
“That,” Shinichi swallowed, “would make a lot of sense.”
What?
Kaito peeked through an opening between his fingers, only to find Shinichi pulling at his collar with bright pink dusting his cheeks. He wasn’t looking at Kaito, but had his eyes nervously trained on a random spot on the sidewalk.
“What?” Kaito choked out.
Shinichi only cleared his throat, and tilted his head to stare up at the sky, the flustered expression never leaving his face. “That, would make sense. Ran, said something similar. Hakuba, too. I just didn't realize, until, until now. Even Hattori, Hattori,” Shinichi trailed off. The red slowly drained from his face, before he turned around to lean his forehead against the arm he had propped against the wall. He suddenly looked so sad. “I can’t believe I lost to Hattori in perceiving emotions. Hattori.”
Kaito turned Shinichi back around frantically. He could have his existential crisis later, when Kaito was no longer doubting if he needed a new ear transplant.
“Are you serious?” Kaito demanded, rocking Shinichi violently back and forth by the shoulders.
“I’m—,” Shinichi reached up to grasp Kaito’s wrists so he would stop rocking him, earnestly meeting Kaito’s eyes, “—I’m serious.”
“Oh my god,” Kaito breathed out. And then he kissed him.