Heists, Kaito thought, really shouldn't be this level of bizarre without him planning it. Akako had approached him a few weeks ago, smiling, and mentioned a rather unusual curse on a gem, activated by rain apparently. He had nodded distractedly at the time, mildly freaked out, but still coherent enough to register what she said as important.

As the weeks passed, the warning faded into the background, and he became preoccupied with planning the heist. Blueprints and security layouts mingled with possibilities of themed traps for the task force, this was a small venue after all, so he'd need to slow the task force down somehow. He still had to keep on his toes though, the small hall was a perfect shot for snipers and the crows would be sure to take advantage of that.

The night of the heist arrived soon enough, and he found himself rather enjoying himself. Tantei-kun wasn't there, of course not, the heist began at eleven PM, after all. The task force busied themselves with guard rotas, protecting the lighting, checking visitors, and keeping the second floor inaccessible. Hakuba was watching all of this with an absent-minded detachment, but keeping a close eye on the Tierschatz gem. Kaito almost felt like laughing. They had completely missed him coming in, and had no preparations that would help, that he knew of at least.

The Tierschatz gem, plucked from an old run-down mansion in the mountains of Austria, was safely ensconced in an azure cushion, held in place by a bluebell metal frame. Stylized animal heads lay at the ends of the frame, one looking wistfully upwards, the other with its mouth open in a defiant roar. The jewel itself was a red ruby, about the height of a small bottle of water, and the width of two fists. An impressive find, no doubt, for any historian. Unfortunately, the collector was a middle-aged man, resembling a cross between halfway tenderised meat and a potato, who also had little care for the myths or history of the rocks he held. A pity, since the gem was so beautifully displayed in its bullet proof glass case.

Kaito shook his head once to clear his mind. Hakuba eyed his disguise carefully, then moved on to someone else. He checked his watch, just over three minutes left. Quickly, he loosened the buttons of his disguise outfit and readied a smoke bomb, (hypoallergenic and pink, safe and classy; what more could you ask for?) The seconds ticked onwards, and Hakuba's searching grew more intense.

Three

A grin snuck onto Kaito's face, and he melted into the crowd.

Two

Hakuba had managed to place himself on top of the case, and his greatcoat drooped over the edges like some lounging cat.

One

The lights went out, and Kaito made his way to the front of the crowd, stripping and changing with dexterous hands in the dark.

Zero

With a poof of smoke and a blinding light, the Kaitou Kid's voice reverberated around the small hall. "Ladies and Gentlemen, I hope you have all had a festive evening, for this show lives off your cheer!"

A pause to let the claps die down, as well as wait for the task force to converge into the area. When the smoke cleared and the lights regained normal function, he was revealed to be standing on the wall near the case, smiling into Hakuba's face. The teenage detective was staring at him with a rather uniquely, flabbergasted expression. Kid grinned, and whipped the Sherlockian greatcoat off. The detective sputtered indignantly, and Kid's grin widened. He placed a deerstalker hat on the blonde's head, and gestured for him to look at the case. A moment passed, and then Hakuba looked at the case. Empty. He looked at Kid's hand. Full. Kid smiled, tossed the surprisingly light object in the air like one would a tennis ball, caught it, then tipped his hat and disappeared in a swirl of smoke.

Outside the hall, within which all the task force scrambled, Kid sighed disappointedly as he held the gem to the moonlight. Hakuba joined him outside, but chose to remain silent. Suddenly, Kaito felt a wave of cold wash over himself, and he remembered Akako's warning. He looked up to the sky, and saw dark clouds gathering-what the heck? It had been clear skies all over not a moment ago. The gem seemed to vibrate happily, and he gave it a dirty look.

"Sorry, my Tierschatz, I don't want to deal with your curse, whatever it may be."

The vibrating seemed sad now, and the clouds grew darker. Kid yelped, and jumped under the eaves of the building for cover. Annoyed vibrating followed, and the wind picked up. Kid promptly donned a full-body Hakuba disguise, and the vibrating seemed both curious and satisfied now. It stopped, but the cold feeling remained.

The actual Hakuba chose this moment to tap Kid on the shoulder. "Kid? You were talking to the rock."

Kid gave Hakuba his own piercing detective glare, "I was indeed. Its not what I'm looking for, although it was talkative." Hakuba raised an eyebrow, and Kid did as well, before handing him the case and the gem. "Take them to the task force, and if it starts talking again you should avoid the rain."

As it turned out, Tierschatz talked to no one else, although Kaito could swear it smiled at him when he passed it on his way out. The storm lasted for three days, and Kaito didn't step outside for all of them, since the unnatural cold persisted. On the fourth, he came to school well prepared for pranking and avoiding rain drops.

When Akako saw him, she looked him up and down and huffed in a good-naturedly yet annoyed way. Kaito was immediately on guard, and she laughed at him. "Kaito, if so much as a drop of rain touches you before the next solstice, I would be after using you as a new carpet, not a slave, so relax." Needless to say, Kaito did not relax for the whole day.

Unusual storms kept cropping up around Ekoda and anywhere else he went, so he came prepared. And well wrapped up, of course. Time passed, and the nerves faded, although the paranoia of rain remained (with good cause).

It was a sunny day in Autumn, and the breeze was just right. Snow lined the pathway edges, and the park was decorated with orange leaves and fading blossoms. Kaito decided to take a guarded walk through the woods. All the preparations had been made. Russian style hat and greatcoat, thick trousers tucked into boots not letting a single molecule of air in, and a scarf covering the gaps between his neck and, of course, his face mask. No way was Kaito Kuroba walking in plain site like this like this, even if he would have to hide with a 'cold' until nearly christmas!

And so he walked for a while, until he spotted Tantei-Kun, Tantei-han, and Tantei-san, along with quite a few other kids and adults in the midst of one of the greatest snowball fights he had ever witnessed. It was chaos incarnate. Screams and soggy splashes mingled together into a cacophony of joyous sounds. He paused, and watched them with a smile.

Kaito was just beginning to work up the courage to join in, when suddenly a snowball strayed from its intended path, heading straight for him. Then the weather did a 180 in the meter surrounding him, and the snowball melted enough to splash him on the gap between his mask and his neck. Suddenly the cold feeling was being slowly replaced by a warm feeling. Kaito gulped, and decided to run for cover under some massive bushes before whatever was happening finished. The little abnormal weather circle went back to normal very fast, and no-one noticed the disappearance of the well wrapped up observer.

Kaito felt the warmth creeping to the edges of his extremities, and closed his eyes in preparation for what was to come. He expected pain, but that's not how the world works. A pleasant sensation, like a continuous massage, rolled across him. He dimly recognised his clothes collapsing in on themselves, and the face mask being pushed off, but all sensations paled in comparison to the unbelievable experience. Eventually, he felt himself being lulled to sleep by it.

Warmth was the first thing he noticed, and his first thought was to snuggle deeper into it. His second thought was a lot less child friendly, when he realized that he was warm. It had been weeks- no- months of just tolerable cold since the gem had cursed him and tried to rain on his parade every day! His third thought was to find out what was keeping him warm, because either he was inside the sun, or the curse had changed and/or lifted. Hopefully the latter.

With a sigh, he reluctantly peeled open his eyes and saw orange and yellow. Kaito blinked. That wasn't normal. The colours shifted hypnotically, and he blinked again. That was fire. He moved his head away from the fire, wary as to why he was so close to it. As more came into his view he recognized that there were dark brown and red furred legs in front of him, likely belonging to a fox of some description, peeking out from under tthe oversized greatcoat. Kaito frowned to himself, even for this weather, wasn't it a little mean to chuck a coat on a fox?

Mind made up, he tried to stand up. The foxes legs disappeared under the coat as he did so. Kaito paused in surprise, then relaxed. The legs slipped back out. Tense. Disappear. Relax. Reappear. Oh dear. He stood up fully, making sure to remain on all fours just in case. The greatcoat promptly disappeared, revealing a fox's body all the way up to his face, which could be assumed to be foxy as well. He looked around and saw some ashes. Oh yes, there was fire when he woke up, wasn't there? Speaking of which, it seemed to have disappeared- oh wait, there it was. Right behind him. He turned around, and it disappeared in the other direction. He ended up running in circles trying to catch it before his brain caught up. He was apparently a fox with a tail made of fire now.

Deep Joy.

As it turned out, the universe wasn't quite done with him, it seemed, as a rainstorm decided to roll in while he was wandering about, trying to find someone he knew. Raindrops on fur felt weird, but nice. Raindrops on his fire-tail however? Whole different story. Kaito was currently running toward a large mansion with some promising looking hidey holes when he smacked straight into someone's legs.

"Damn it- What the bloody hell was that?"

Said the person, in English. Kaito looked up, and blue eyes met brown. He meeped, before trying to abort mission and run away. Unfortunately for him, Hakuba was faster, picking him up easily- since when was he so small? "Aren't you a little young to be out of the den, fox?" No reply from Kaito. "Oh well, I should probably take it back home anyway, give it a checkover and some food maybe…" Kaito found himself suddenly very grateful for his red fur.

Hakuba walked quickly, but steadily, in the direction of the mansion. Kaito gulped- had he really just been about to hide in Hakuba's house, of all places? The interior was simple, a small hallway with a shoe rack and slippers, with doors and a staircase leading off of it. Hakuba headed straight to the back of the house, and pulled a thick blanket from on top of a massive ironing pile, and folded it on the dining room's floor one-handedly. Kaito was confused, until Hakuba placed him onto it. He was initially worried about starting a fire, but that didn't seem to be happening. Weird.

Although everything that had been happening was strange, Kaito was able to take it into his stride easily enough. What happened next, however, did surprise him. Hakuba turned around with a plate of cooked chicken (smelling amazing), and knelt down to look him in the eyes with a kind smile. Kaito scrambled backwards, in surprise, and Hakuba kept smiling. "Where're your parents, little one?"

Kaito blinked, "I don't know." It came out as something like: "Yap yap!" though.

Hakuba sighed, and placed the chicken in front of him. "Guess its too young to speak yet, still… Call me if you need anything, ok?" Hakuba placed a cup of water on the ground near the blanket, and moved out of the room.

Kaito grimaced, how was he supposed to drink from a cup with no thumbs anyway? He picked his paw up, holding it up to the light with a sigh. Wait. It looked like the paw resembled a human's hand enough to be functional, somehow. He stood up, and took a more coherent stock of his body. He had initially assumed that he had somehow been forced into the body of a normal fox, but that didn't seem to be the case. He had opposable thumbs, a shorter muzzle than a normal fox, and could (after a little practice) walk digitigrade on his hind legs. And let's not forget the fire tail, the most not foxy thing about him. How Hakuba had recognised that he wasn't a normal fox wasn't hard to understand. The leap of logic required to assume that he could talk however… Slightly less logical.

While the chicken was surprisingly tasty it wasn't satisfying, neither was the water. Quickly, he grew bored. Hakuba had nothing interesting in the dining room (where he had locked him in! Him- Kaitou Kid!) whatsoever. No cutlery, no cards, no coins. Just some empty, clean cupboards, and a table and chairs. That was it. They weren't even nice colours, just bleached white with pale brown for lowlights. With nothing else to do- and unpickable locks, Kaito resorted to practicing 'human' sounds, and had just gotten the vowels down when Hakuba came back. Consonants were difficult to string together, as he couldn't think of many ways to practice beyond reading out the hiragana base sets, and that was too simple to do any real good.

The detective looked drenched to the bone, and very frustrated. Rushing to the door, strangely thankful for his return, Kaito tried to ask him what was wrong, but once again he got a garbled, but thankfully more clear, mess, "Waas ouh?"

He grimaced, and moved back to let him past when Hakuba barely acknowledged his feeble attempt at speech. Hakuba moved through to the kitchen, and grabbed a blanket to wrap around himself before dropping into a chair with a heavy sigh.

"Sorry, little one. No-one seems to know any kitsune around here with a missing kit, so it looks like until I find your parents you'll be staying with me."

He ran a hand through his thick blonde hair, and Kaito sighed. This was so frustrating! If only he could just tell him to stop- because he wasn't a fox in the first place… If he focused his limited speech- maybe he could make a coherent sentence saying just that. He jumped onto the table, so that he would be at eye level with Hakuba. With a deep breath he said, "I… Ahh m… Noht… A socks."

Goddamnit, consonants, now Hakuba was giving him a very odd look. If he can just get a few more words out well… "A fokks! Not a fox."

Hakuba raised his eyebrows. "You're not a fox. Right... OK, I'll bite, what are you?"

"Cursed. I sink. Think." Kaito was very frustrated at this point, voices were practically his lifeline in his night job so being handicapped to this degree was practically deadly. Not that it mattered though, given his situation right now.

Hakuba, thankfully, seemed to be understanding. "Do you remember your name? It might be an identity drain curse, and that would be the first step."

Kaito nodded enthusiastically, "I am yip!" He grimaced, then tried again. "My name is woof. Ah great."

Hakuba smiled sympathetically, "Have you got any nicknames? Those might work better."

"Kaito" Yap

"Kai-kun" Bark

"Bakaito" Growl

"Kaitou" Whine

"Kid, 1412" ...

Kaito looked up, surprised, to meet Hakuba's equally shocked eyes.

Draaa Duuuun!

And there we have the first chapter of my latest plunny. This will probably be either a 3 shot or a continuing thing. Hope you enjoyed, but if you have questions or comments, please leave a review!

This is BCoH signing out,

See you next Illusion

LOOK AT THIS EVERYONE \|/

4th August 2017 EDIT:

Many thanks to Disconsolate Mist, an avid reader of this story who has both encouraged me and betaed this chapter for me. I am eternally greatful, as they have done brilliant work in fixing my mistakes where I was blind. Can we get three cheers for her?