Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan/Case Closed.

Summary: Ever since Shinichi had arrived for his first day of university classes, rumors had been flying about his "mysterious boyfriend". KaiShin, follow-up to On Wings of White

Pairings: Kaito x Shinichi

In Shades of Gray

By V. Shalyr

"A study abroad program?" Shinichi glanced at the paper his classmate had placed upon his desk with raised eyebrows. "I don't know. I never really thought about it."

"But it's practically made for you," Haruka pointed out, running her finger down the list of program details. "They're targeting people interested in law enforcement. I would have thought you'd jump at the chance to study crimes on the international stage." She paused then grinned slyly. "Unless you don't want to leave because of that boyfriend of yours—whom, I may add, you still haven't introduced us to."

The detective grimaced and looked away.

Ever since Shinichi had arrived for his first day of university classes, rumors had been flying about his "mysterious boyfriend". Some of the other students had caught sight of Kaito's goodbye kiss when he'd dropped Shinichi off and, well, no one could resist such good gossip material. The fact that Kudou Shinichi was famous enough to appear more or less regularly in the papers despite his best efforts didn't help and there was much speculation over what kind of person his boyfriend could be. What school did he go to? Was he even still in school? Where was he from? Was he also interested in law enforcement? Was he famous too?

If they only knew.

"I'm sure you'll meet him eventually," Shinichi said instead, choosing to avoid the inevitable as long as he could. It wasn't really that he was embarrassed because, honestly, he wasn't. He'd been with the magician too long and loved him too much for that. But it bothered him now more than before to have people too close to his personal life. He couldn't change the fact that he was famous, but that didn't mean he liked people knowing so much about him. It just served as the root for too many potential problems, and he wasn't all that keen on dealing with that kind of stress anymore if he could help it.

Haruka rolled her eyes, swinging her backpack over her shoulder. "That's what you always say and it's been months! I don't even know how he manages never to give anyone a good look at him despite being here like every single day. Oh well, guess it's none of my business. I still think you should consider it though." She inclined her head towards the flyer and started for the lecture room exit. "See you next week."

"Have a good weekend."

"You too."

Watching her go, Shinichi wondered what his classmates would think if they knew they'd actually probably all already met Kaito in person at least once—like during the spring festival a few weeks ago where the magician had been invited to give a live performance. Of course he'd met up with Shinichi afterwards. Somehow, it just never seemed to occur to his fellow students that he and the energetic, rising professional magician Kuroba Kaito were together. Then again, all of the few people who knew about their relationship had been surprised when they'd first found out, unaware as they were of the pair's rather complicated history together.

The fact that Kaito had, true to custom, given all the girls flowers probably hadn't helped their thinking processes.

Finally left alone in the medium sized auditorium, Shinichi looked back at the flyer uncertainly. "So what do you think?"

For a moment no one answered. And then abruptly, he was no longer alone in the room. A shadow detached itself from a dark corner and joined him at his desk, indigo eyes bright with amusement and curiosity. Shinichi wasn't sure why the magician was always sneaking into his classes. To see you, he could just imagine Kaito saying if he'd actually asked him, or maybe "for practice" or "to see what kinds of things you're learning". The only thing you could ever be sure of was that Kaito had his reasons, whether or not he chose to share with you the real ones.

Kaito glanced briefly over the program description and smirked. "Apply. She's right, it seems custom made for you. I'm sure you'd enjoy it and getting in should be no problem. And when you go, I'll go with you."

"Huh?"

"My dear Tantei-kun, I am an international thief after all."

"Ah, right." How could he forget? Even after all this time, it felt a little surreal to be discussing Kaito's night job so openly with one another.

"It'll be fun. It's been awhile since I've been out of the country. I can leave early, have a heist or two before you arrive so it doesn't come across as too coincidental. I was planning a country-hopping magic show tour anyway."

"And that wouldn't be coincidental?"

"I'll manage." He always did. It was one of the things that made KID who he was, a quality that Shinichi had secretly admitted to himself that he found…reassuring. It was kind of strange how confidence could be infectious. To some people, to Inspector Nakamouri and the many other officers assigned to chase him certainly, it could be a decidedly annoying quality. But to others, it was part of his appeal—part of the charisma that drew so many fans to him, though he would probably always be a bit too secretive, a bit too calculating and mischievous and careless of the rules. Someone that you could admire or despise, love or hate—but always from a distance.

Shinichi would be lying if he said that he didn't feel just a little bit pleased about being the only person who had ever been able to breach that distance. Though sometimes… Sometimes, he still wondered why or how it had happened.

"Do you have work today?" Kaito asked as he rolled his motorcycle away from the spot where he had parked it and handed him a helmet.

"No. I have a big test tomorrow so I'm taking the day off." Unless an emergency came up, but that went without saying.

"Hmm, does that mean we're eating at home tonight?"

"Most likely. Is there a problem?"

"Not at all. Just making plans."

Plans? What plans? But before Shinichi could voice the question, they were speeding down the street and the wind whipping into their faces stole any further conversation for the time being.

.

"Kaito…?"

"Hmm?"

Kaito glanced up from where he was reading the newspapers on the living room couch. The detective chose to ignore how he was reading the papers upside down. The magician was prone to doing strange things like that. The passage of time only seemed to make the thief more eccentric.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Of course, though I can't promise to answer. What's on your mind?"

Whatever it was, it had obviously been on his detective's mind for awhile. Kaito had noticed the brooding look on his face when he'd picked him up from school, but hadn't said anything. If he waited long enough, Shinichi would tell him—once he'd sorted whatever it was out enough to put it into words. The detective wasn't all that good with words, he'd noticed. And really, neither was Kaito, or maybe it was more the truth that Kaito wasn't good with seeing as he'd always been dreadfully good at telling lies. It was a skill he knew he probably shouldn't have been proud of but was anyway.

Shinichi frowned pensively down at his open textbook, fiddling with the pen in his hands. "You know when you used to take me flying back when I was still Conan… Why did you do it? I mean, I'm sure you had better things to do than take me grocery shopping."

Especially when he hadn't really needed to go grocery shopping, a fact he was almost sure both of them knew even then.

Kaito blinked in surprise and lowered the newspapers onto his lap. "You mean other than the fact that I was growing fond of you?"

At Shinichi's hesitant nod, Kaito propped his elbows on his knees and rested his chin on his clasped hands. Indigo eyes wandered from the detective on the other side of the living room table to the window beside them, the approaching evening just beginning to be dotted with stars. So much between them had happened at nighttime, he mused. Maybe there was magic in the moonlight after all, the kind of magic that made it possible for a thief and a detective to come together, to find common ground, to work together, to trust one another…to fall in love.

"Frankly, I've never given it that much thought." He paused then smiled, a gentler smile than his usual that he only ever gave Shinichi. "I suppose because it meant that you were there." With me.

Because when he'd taken his mini detective flying, he hadn't felt lonely. He hadn't really minded being alone in the beginning. It was better that way, after all, seeing as being associated with his less than legal activities could put people at risk. There had always been his assistant of course, but somehow, it just wasn't the same.

He was a magician, and even more than that, he was a thief. His trade was in illusions and shadows. It wasn't often that he had anything real to hold on to.

Being KID had done far more than just hone Kaito's skills at deception. It had taught him things—things about living and life and what really mattered to him in the end. It had taught him an almost reckless kind of independence, given him confidence and trained him to plan and think ahead and yet always, always keep adapting. Yet at the same time, it had taught him a lot about loneliness too. True loneliness, he had discovered, wasn't about not having friends or being by yourself. True loneliness was the kind of alone that you could only feel in a crowd. It was the kind of "alone" that followed you into parties and sat beside you wherever you went, the kind of "alone" that meant having secrets so important that telling the wrong person could mean not living to see another day. It would probably have shocked many of his friends to learn just how little trust he had had for anyone. But then trust had been a luxury he couldn't really afford.

And then he and Shinichi had found themselves fighting together against the Black Organization and everything had changed, albeit slowly at first. He hadn't really expected it to be a lasting relationship, seeing as it wasn't the first time they had worked together to accomplish their own goals and they had always gone their separate ways before. But maybe that was just it. It had always been their individual goals before, but with the Black Organization it had been their goal. And because of that and of course the incident with Snake on that dark rooftop where Kaito had chosen to take "Conan" and run rather than fight lest they both be shot, they had begun to see each other in a slightly different light.

Perhaps that was why detectives found the truth so valuable.

"You know, when you called me that first time after the Organization business was finally done with, I was actually kind of relieved. I'd been trying to figure out if I should approach you but I wasn't sure… Well, if I'd be welcome. You saved me the bother of having to set up some elaborate plan."

"You were making plans?" Shinichi asked, bemused. It was just kind of ironic considering those calls had been Shinichi's excuses to see the magician in question. He couldn't help but wonder what Kaito would have done if things had gone differently.

"Aren't I always?" Then Kaito's grin faded and he frowned down at his newspapers. "I just couldn't let you go."

And yet it had been such a hard decision to make in its way, not knowing if he was making the right decision because this was his life he was talking about, not being sure about the thoughts running through the head of the mini detective in his arms, not knowing what road lay ahead for the both of them. Kaito had never been one to worry about the future, but everything changed when there were people you cared so much about. It made him wonder sometimes what his own father had been thinking. Or maybe he'd just been like Kaito, and decided that some things in life were too important to give up despite the risks and the uncertainties. And when you found those things, you held on to them no matter what.

"When Conan disappeared and Shinichi came back, I thought I'd better give you some time to think about everything. I was pretty sure you had feelings for me too, but I couldn't be sure how much. And then you stopped coming to my heists…"

Shinichi looked away. "I wasn't sure if you'd still want to see me. I mean, you never said anything. And you know you're not an easy person to read."

"No, I suppose I'm not," Kaito agreed ruefully. "But I guess I just sort of expected you to know. We never really needed to talk to understand each other when we were making plans before."

"That was because we were working on a case."

Shinichi always thought more clearly when he was working on a case. The feelings of strangers were easy. It was his own feelings and the feelings of the people closest to him that were the real mysteries.

Kaito chuckled. "I know that now but I couldn't be a hundred percent sure then. And I had to be completely sure. I've told you before. I'm a thief. I never give back what's precious to me." He paused then added, "So are you done with that?"

Startled out of his thoughts, Shinichi blinked down at his homework. He wasn't even sure when he'd finished it. Glancing over his answers, he was half surprised to find that they were correct. Maybe this class was a bit too easy.

"Uh, yeah, I guess I am."

"Good, then come on. Dinner is waiting."

"You cooked?"

Kaito rolled his eyes at the horror in Shinichi's voice. Cooking had proved to be one of the few things the magician simply had no talent for whatsoever.

"No, I ordered out. But everything else is mine."

He didn't give the detective time to wonder what he meant, ushering him into the second bedroom of their apartment which had been converted into the magician's workroom. The first thing Shinichi noticed, especially when Kaito shut the door behind them, was that all the lights were off. He couldn't see a thing.

"Er, Kaito?"

He stopped when a finger was pressed to his lips. Taking his hand, Kaito led him across the floor—which felt oddly smooth and slippery beneath his socks—and sat him down in a cushioned chair Shinichi suspected he had appropriated from their kitchen. He could feel the brush of fabric on his knees, most probably a tablecloth since they were supposed to be having dinner. Across from him, he could hear a second chair being shifted about and he assumed that his companion was also taking a seat.

Three, Two… One.

And then the lights came on, hundreds of them scattered overhead like stars and reflected over and over again in the polished black of the walls and ceiling and floor. Briefly, Shinichi wondered where all the original furniture in the room had gone and what exactly Kaito had done to the white paint and wooden floorboards, but none of that was really important. What was important was that when all the effects were put together, it felt like they were sitting at a table surrounded by the glittering ocean of a nighttime sky. It wasn't the same as actually being up there with the white of KID's glider like a ghost in the moonlight, but it was probably as close as you could get indoors and on the ground.

Shinichi couldn't help but smile both pleased and embarrassed when he finally took his gaze away from their surroundings and looked back on Kaito, watching him expectantly from across the candles he'd placed upon the white table-top between them. "I've forgotten something important again, haven't I?"

Kaito snorted, though he didn't bother to keep the satisfied smile off his face. "Only the anniversary of us getting together, but hey, what do I expect from someone who forgets his own birthday?" The smile morphed into KID's familiar shark's grin. "Luckily for you," or unluckily depending on the situation, "I never forget anything."

END

AN: I wasn't originally planning on writing a sequel, but someone asked what Kaito's thoughts were during the events of "On Wings of White" and I thought it might be interesting to write something for it. In any case, happy New Year everyone!

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