Mikau: Hello and welcome! Thanks so much for checking this fic out. It's…an interesting one. I plan on it being about two chapters. Hopefully you'll enjoy it.

Disclaimer: If I owned it, updates on Magic Kaito would be more regular than Detective Conan. Because heists and mayhem are easier to write than murders.

…

Labyrinth of Nightmares

It wasn't real. It simply wasn't real. It couldn't be.

Kuroba Kaito was trapped like a rat in a maze…and he didn't like mazes. He wasn't particularly fond of rats either. He'd been wondering around for hours, but he couldn't find the exit. He couldn't even remember how he had come to be in this labyrinth.

"It's just a dream," he snorted. "A freaking annoying dream that's probably supposed to be an allegory for my life or something."

He gazed up at the full moon above him, beyond the thorny maze's walls, and shouted, "I'm not learning anything from this, so you can go ahead and let me out now, Subconscious!"

"Maybe you're not trying hard enough," an obnoxiously smug voice sniggered from behind him.

Kaito whipped around and came face to face with Hakuba Saguru, not a foot away. Kaito jumped, tripping backwards and landing on his rump. "Geez! Dammit, Hakuba! Give a guy a heart attack, why don't ya?"

"Sorry," the Brit chuckled, picking a rose off of the surrounding topiary maze's wall. He took a long, appreciative sniff before turning back to Kaito. "That was never my intention." He held out his hand to assist Kaito.

Kaito snorted, ignoring the hand and getting to his feet on his own. "This dream has officially downgraded to nightmare status. Get out of my head, Hakuba."

"How rude," the blonde snickered, falling in step beside Kaito as the magician began to walk away. "I am your guide, Kuroba. You need me."

Kaito stopped to glare at the dream Hakuba…who was now wearing a rather fetching jade suit. When had he changed clothes? Hn.

"I don't need you," Kaito snapped.

Hakuba rolled his eyes…one of which had turned a pretty pale blue color while the other retained its stunning shade of saffron. "If you think you can find your way out of here, be my guest. I've only let you wonder around for…oh, let's just call it three hours, twenty-six minutes, and eighteen point twelve seconds."

Kaito stared blankly at his nemesis.

Hakuba smiled and held out the rose.

"I don't need you," Kaito repeated, taking the proffered flower. "…but it appears my subconscious wants me to go with you, so I'll go, if just to save time, but, for the record, I don't need you, and I could have made it out of here on my own."

"Perhaps." Hakuba reached out and took Kaito's hand. "But then you wouldn't have learned anything."

The next thing Kaito knew, they were in a moonlit courtyard in what appeared to be a convergence of the pathways in the maze. A fountain was bubbling away happily in the center, and Hakuba had changed clothes again.

Kaito was surprised to find the detective in a black tuxedo and himself in a red ball gown. And the blonde git was still holding his hand.

"I must say, you look stunning in red. It matches your lipstick."

Kaito blinked, hand going to his lips. He rubbed them together to find that there was, indeed, some kind of lipstick on them. That wasn't the only thing that had changed. He appeared to be in full drag with a long brown wig and breasts to go along with the sexy little dress.

He looked up at his rival and hissed, "What the hell, Hakuba? What gives with the cross-dressing?"

The blonde shrugged, playing innocent. "Don't ask me. Ask your subconscious. I'm not the one that put you in that dress. You did."

Kaito opened his mouth to protest, but no valid argument came out. "What? Am I trying to tell myself that I'm really a woman trapped in a man's body?"

Saguru shrugged again. "You tell me. In the meantime, let's dance."

Before Kaito could object, Hakuba had him in a dance hold, and they were waltzing around the courtyard.

"Why are we doing this?" Kaito sighed, resigned to the bullying of his subconscious.

"I've always wanted to dance with you," Hakuba quietly admitted, averting his eyes.

"W-Why?" Kaito was afraid to ask. Part of him knew the answer.

"You already know why," Hakuba whispered, a bright pink blush highlighting his cheeks as he tightened his hold around Kaito's waist, pulling the startled magician closer.

"I…have no idea what you're talking about," Kaito stuttered as their bodies pressed together, thighs brushing, separated only by fabric.

"You're cruel, Kuroba," Hakuba replied quietly, looking his dance partner sorrowfully in the eye. "I called you from Paris, you know. I stole evidence for you. I took Kid's glove out of Nightmare's cold, dead hand so that they couldn't get your fingerprints from it."

Kaito gulped. "Yeah. I know. I just didn't want to think about it. Is this what this dream is supposed to be about?"

"No." Hakuba looked away once more as they turned fluidly. "…I just thought…you're truly cruel, Kuroba, knowing how I feel about you and then still flirting so shamelessly with me, even though you're not serious."

"I don't flirt—"

"—Yes, Kuroba, you do. What else, pray tell, would you call leaving me suggestive, playful notes before and after heists and all of the teasing and back-and-forth you do during the heists themselves? Didn't you blow me a kiss and wink at me the other day after you'd trapped me, hanging upside-down by my ankles?" Hakuba reminded.

"I didn't…I wasn't…" Kaito bit his lip, letting his head hang in shame. He had, hadn't he?

"You weren't serious," the detective completed the sentence gravely.

They waltzed in silence for a good five minutes thereafter, Kaito seriously evaluating his past interactions with the blonde.

"I really have been leading you on, haven't I?"

"You have," Hakuba replied emotionlessly. "Then again, false hope is better than no hope at all. I'd rather continue on the present course of our relationship than have you suddenly retreat from me. I have a feeling that I'd miss the intimacy greatly. Even if it's all a lie, I like feeling close to you…like we have a connection. I'd rather be delusional than alone."

"You're not alone, Hakuba," Kaito declared firmly.

Saguru's eyes snapped back to look into Kaito's.

"I may not feel the same way you do, but that doesn't mean I feel absolutely nothing for you. I may snap at you and prank the hell out of you, call you names and pretend that I find your mere existence to be like a thorn in my side, but take a hint, idiot: I treat Aoko the same way, and she's my best friend. What does that make you?" Kaito grumbled, a faint blush rising up on his cheeks.

Hakuba blinked. "Your…friend. I'm your friend."

"Bingo," Kaito muttered as the music came to an end.

With a smile, Hakuba released his hold, stepping back and bowing. "I shall do well to remember it, if you promise not to forget as well once you wake."

"Uh…sure." Kaito shifted awkwardly, brushing a strand of his long, silky hair behind his ear. "So…what next, Guide-san?"

"I'm afraid your time with me has come to an end." Hakuba smiled sadly, motioning to one of the paths through the bramble. "He will guide you now. Do make sure to come home to me, Kuroba."

"He?" Kaito peered down the path that Hakuba had indicated, but Kaito couldn't see anyone. When he turned around to ask for clarification, Saguru was gone, and in his place stood a young boy in a blue suit and red bowtie. "T-Tantei-kun."

"Good evening, Kid-san," the shrunken detective greeted with a bow, offering the thief a blood red rose. "You look mesmerizing. Why is it you always dress up as women? Could it be that you're trying to attract a man?"

"Is that what this is about?" Kaito snorted, putting his hands on his hips. "Are you trying to insinuate that I'm gay? Maybe I just look damn good in a dress. Maybe I'm just showing off what a master of disguise I am."

"I never said you were gay," Conan laughed weakly, putting his hands up defensively. "This is your dream, Kid. You're the one literally putting words in my mouth."

Kaito softly growled as he tried to rationally review the implications of his dream. Pushing it all aside, he rolled his eyes, heading towards the path that Hakuba had pointed out. "Whatever. Let's just go so that I can learn some life lesson and wake up already."

"You have to take the rose first," Conan informed, obviously resolved to not move even a step from his spot by the fountain until this task was accomplished.

Kaito frowned. "Why? Come to think of it, Hakuba gave me a yellow one with red tips too. What's up with the roses?"

Conan shook his head. "You won't find out until the end. You have to take the rose first."

Kaito sighed, pushing his hair out of his face yet again. "Fine. While we're at it, you got a ponytail holder or something? Long hair isn't agreeing with me."

"No." The child grinned cheekily. "I like you with your hair down like that. You're really pretty, Kid-san. You should take better care of yourself."

Kaito pursed his lips, holding in a snarky comment as he bent over to take the rose.

The courtyard was gone, leaving the two of them standing in the middle of the maze once more, tall walls of thorns and roses to either side with cold moonlight shinning down on them.

"What now?" Kaito sighed.

"We walk." Conan shrugged, leading the way.

"Right…. I see that my dress has changed color," Kaito observed, kind of digging the gorgeous shade of Persian blue.

"It goes with my suit." Conan shrugged, taking Kaito's now gloved hand. "Come on!"

The midget started to run, and it was all Kaito could do to avoid tripping over the hem of his new mermaid-style dress.

"Hey, what's the rush?" Kaito squawked.

"They're coming!" Conan hissed, pulling Kaito around the corner and to his knees as Conan readied his tranquilizer dart watch.

"W-Who's coming?" Kaito gulped, afraid of what exactly his mind could conjure up.

"Kaa!" came his answer.

The cry was taken up by another bird…then two…then three until a veritable murder of crows was screaming bloody murder.

It was so loud that Kaito reached up to cover his ears, but then the cries suddenly abated into an unsettling silence.

The wind picked up, and all at once the sky was filled with crows, their jet black wings blotting out the silver light of the moon.

"Get down!" Conan shouted, pouncing on Kaito and forcing the larger teen to the ground as the flock swooped like a pelican on an unsuspecting fish.

Conan shielded Kaito with his own body, but Kaito could feel the violent gust of wind as the crows flew past them, their wings slicing through the air like paper-cuts, making an audible noise.

Eventually it passed and a natural silence fell over them.

Sighing, Conan sat up and smiled weakly down at Kaito. "You okay, Kid-san?"

"I should be the one asking you! Tantei-kun, your arms are bleeding!" Kaito shrieked, scrambling to sit up and inspect the wounds.

Conan's eyes grew as wide as salad plates, catching sight of an approaching threat. "Kid-san, behind you!"

Kaito scampered to his feet and whipped around only to be paralyzed in fear. "Holy sh…" he trailed off as an enormous cobra rose up, not fifteen feet away, spreading its hood and sticking out its forked tongue.

He swept Conan off of his feet, tucking the boy unceremoniously under his arm like a football as he hiked up his dress and ran like an African track star. "Snake! Why'd it have to be Snake?!"

"Kid-san, it's gaining on us!" Conan shrieked.

"We'll gain some time rounding this corner," Kaito assured, making a sharp turn as the maze turned, doubling back the direction they had come from.

Kaito barely managed to skid to a stop as the monstrous cobra crashed through the topiary, cutting them off.

It hissed, flaring its hood menacingly and sending Kaito slowly inching backwards, a yelp of terror dying in his throat.

"Back, foul beast!" an indignant cry rang out from beyond the snake.

There was a flash of metal, and the snake's head went flying, reminding Kaito of depictions of the hydra of Greek legend. He sincerely hoped that the cobra wasn't going to regrow three heads for the one it had lost.

"Are you okay, fair maiden? …small child?" their rescuer in a blue cape and armor stepped indifferently over the cobra corpse, removing his helmet with one hand and then balancing it on his hip.

Kaito held back an offended growl at the "maiden" comment.

Conan squirmed to get free. "Shinichi-niichan!"

"I see that I've left you shocked speechless." The detective smiled charmingly, reminding Kaito of a toothpaste commercial. He held out a hot pink rose. "My name is Kudo Shinichi."

Kaito's eyebrow started to twitch. He reached out and swiped the rose out of the knight's hand. "Yeah, I'm a little shocked. I mean, I did almost just get turned into snake chow. I'm a guy. Don't get an inflated ego thinking it's because of you."

"You being a guy doesn't matter." Shinichi shrugged, taking Kaito by the hand and guiding him around the snake carcass. "I don't discriminate…. You look amazing in a dress, by the way."

Kaito grumbled curses under his breath.

His gown was now violet, halter-top style with a giant slit up the left side.

"It matches your eyes," Shinichi chuckled, giving Kaito's hand a squeeze.

"So…I learned that Hakuba's got a thing for me from my first guide…what was I supposed to learn from Tantei-kun?" Kaito inquired as he was led by the hand through the maze.

"That you should take better care of yourself," Shinichi reported, taking out his sword and hacking through the overgrowth that was the labyrinth wall. "That he'd gladly throw himself in harm's way for you."

"He…He's you, right?" Kaito sought to confirm.

"In a way." Shinichi shrugged. "We share a certain past, but…we're different now. If he ever returns to being 'Kudo Shinichi', he won't be me anymore. He's changed…he's had to change since becoming 'Edogawa Conan'."

"Oh." Kaito chewed nervously on the inside of his cheek. "So…what do you think will happen with him and Mouri-chan?"

Shinichi shook his head. "Regardless…I'm not the man she's been waiting for anymore. I'm not the knight in shining armor she's expecting to come back to her."

"I kind of know what you mean," Kaito mumbled, thinking of Aoko. "…So…what are you here to teach me, Meitantei?"

"Only that your life is precious and that people care about you." Shinichi stopped and turned to face Kaito. "Also…that you're not alone. You don't have to slay your dragons by yourself. I'd gladly defeat them for you, if you'd only let me." Shinichi leaned in and pressed a butterfly kiss to Kaito's cheek.

When Kaito opened his eyes, Shinichi was gone, and Aoko was standing in front of him, looking away and begrudgingly holding out a blue rose.

"Aoko?"

"Just take the rose already," she snorted. "Aoko hates you, you know. You lied, Kaito. The whole time you pretended to be Aoko's friend, but you were really laughing at her behind her back."

Kaito took the rose and then found himself in uniform complete with top hat and monocle. "And what am I supposed to learn from this? That I'm a backstabbing liar?"

"That Aoko still cares about you regardless," she muttered, turning and walking away. "Aoko doesn't want you to die."

"Aoko, I'm not gonna die," Kaito sighed, trailing along behind.

"That's not what the doctors say," she sniffled. "The doctors say you've lost too much blood. They say you're not going to make it."

"What doctors?" Kaito's brow furrowed deeply, and he came to a stop.

"Outside the labyrinth," Aoko clarified, picking up the pace.

"Aoko, wait!" Kaito called as she began to run.

He chased after her, catching sight of her skirt disappearing as she rounded a corner. He lost her after the third turn. The path diverged into three routes, leaving Kaito at a loss as to which one to travel.

"Aoko!" he shouted. "Aoko, come back!"

"She's gone," Kuroba Chikage informed him sadly, peeking her head around the corner of the path to the far right. "Come this way, Honey." She held out an orange rose.

With a sigh, Kaito stepped forward and took it, changing back into his street clothes. "Hey, Mom."

"Hey, Honey." She smiled dimly at him, looking like she was about to cry.

"What's the matter?" He frowned, immediately picking up on the fact that something was terribly wrong.

She shook her head and did her best to smile. "Come along, Honey. We don't have much further to go." She linked her arm with his and guided him down the path. "You've come a long way, haven't you, Kaito?"

"Y-Yeah," he replied uneasily. "There's been a lot of craziness going on around here. You wouldn't be able to explain any of it, would you?"

She nodded, swallowing down a sob. "Sorry. Sorry, Honey, I'm just…I'm sorry I couldn't do more for you, you know? I could never help. I was never there for you."

"Mom, it's fine," Kaito assured, giving her arm a reassuring squeeze. "This is something I have to do myself."

"No, Kaito. You needed help, and I was never there, and now it's…" she closed her eyes, sinking to her knees as she began to weep.

"Mom! Mom, what's wrong?!" Kaito knelt by her side, tugging at her arm, begging her to explain.

She shook her head and pointed further down the path. "Just ahead. Go on, Kaito."

He looked, and by the time he looked back, she was gone.

"Great," he sighed, reluctantly forging on ahead.

He reached a clearing, and on the other side he could see a large, black, wrought-iron gate, leading out of the maze. Kaito heaved a sigh of relief.

"Not so fast."

There was a young woman sitting in the middle of the clearing, in front of her a large, rectangular swath of freshly tilled soil. Kaito couldn't see the chair she was sitting on because it was blocked by the large skirt of her gothic-style dress.

"Kiku-chan," he breathed, recognizing his sometimes accomplice. She had helped him on many a heist, securing parts, blueprints, and occasionally going so far as to be his body double.

"Kiddo." She nodded grimly in greeting.

"So…have you got a rose for me?" He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, looking around the bare clearing.

"No," she replied simply, sadly shaking her heavy head.

"That's a nice dress you've got there." Kaito attempted to strike up a conversation. Chrisy Monroe usually had more personality than this. "I can't say that black's really your color, though."

"It's suitable for the occasion." She shrugged, standing. "You can place the roses here." She pointed down at the ground where a white rose already lay.

"O…kay." Nothing in this dream made any sense, so he just went with it, approaching and setting the roses at her feet.

She nodded. "Goldilocks was wrong. Red's not your color. Look, it's getting all over your nice white…I have to go. I can't watch."

"What?" He looked down at his stomach and shrieked in horror when he found his white suit stained with blood. He gripped his stomach and fell to his knees. He was kneeling on a grave.

Kiku-chan hadn't been sitting on a chair; she had been using a gravestone as a seat. Using HIS gravestone as a seat now that he actually looked at the inscription!

Kuroba Kaito June 21 to November 13.

November thirteenth. What had happened November thirteenth? That's right. He'd had his Friday the Thirteenth heist! Hakuba and Tantei-kun had been there. There'd been tons of media coverage. He'd gotten away. Well, he'd gotten as far as the roof. He'd held up the gem to the moon and…everything had gone red.

Kaito remembered now. He'd been shot.

"Go," a voice whispered. "Go on, Kaito."

The world came back into focus, and his father was standing there beside the tombstone.

"D-Dad?" he stumbled over the word, stumbling equally to his feet.

The sage magician smiled, taking his son by the hand. "This world of shadows and illusions isn't for you, Kaito. Stay here no longer. Go home. Tell Chikage I love her."

"Dad?" He looked curiously between the gate and his father, holding onto the wound in his side with one hand while gripping Touichi's hand tightly with the other.

Touichi nodded. "They're waiting for you…your guides. Go to them. You belong with them, not here among dead things. Go, Kaito. Run!"

Touichi was gone, and the world was crumbling, falling apart around Kaito. A giant crack appeared in the sky, ripping the moon in half and rendering a jagged tear in the field of stars. The ground was shaking, giving way into a void of nothingness.

Suddenly Kaito found the strength to spring forward, running for his life towards the gate.

…

"We're losing him!" one of the doctors shouted.

"Clear!" another announced before sending another jolt of electricity coursing through the teen's body.

"It's no use," a third sighed. "Time?"

"November thirteenth, eleven fifty-nine and forty-one point twenty seconds," Hakuba Saguru supplied, eyes glazing over in shock. He let go of Nakamori Aoko's hand, and the girl beside him burst into tears, throwing her arms around Kuroba Chikage's neck and weeping bitterly into the bereft mother's chest.

"He can't be," Edogawa Conan whispered.

Before the blow had really even had the opportunity to sink in, a clock began to toll midnight, and the screech of the machines stopped. There was a beep. Just one, but that one slowly turned into a stream of steady beeps, the flatline on the monitor transforming into a consistent string of peaks and valleys.

"He's alive," Saguru muttered.

"He's alive!" Conan echoed.

"He's alive?" Chikage choked.

With a deep intake of breath, a yawn, and a stretch, Kuroba Kaito opened his eyes and sat up, much to the amazement of everyone in the room. He looked around curiously at all of the people gaping at him. He blinked, cocking his head to the side. "Hey."

"H-Hey yourself," Saguru stuttered, tears beginning to collect at the corners of his eyes.

Chikage fainted, and Aoko burst into tears anew.

A third of the medical staff saw to Chikage while the rest marveled over Kaito's miraculous recovery.

"The wound's…gone."

Hakuba and Conan hesitantly approached the bed once the doctors and nurses were done scratching their heads.

"You were dead, you know," Hakuba started, having regained control over his tear ducts but not all of his composure. "What was that like, being dead?"

Kaito shrugged. "Weird. There was this topiary maze. You were all there. My dad was there. I don't think I want to go to purgatory or whatever that was again anytime soon."

"We were there?" Conan queried, pulling himself up to sit on the foot of the bed.

"Yeah." Kaito frowned. "Both of you, Tantei-kun."

Conan's eyebrows shot straight up.

"Kuroba…do you feel quite alright? Your eyes are…well…" Hakuba bit his lip.

"Red," Conan finished.

…

Mikau: Don't ask where this came from. I was doing writing exercises from prompts, and one of them was about a dream you couldn't wake up from, and then this happened. Please let me know what you think! In other news, I'm super stoked because I found Detective Conan subbed in Spanish! Truthfully, 95% of the time, I don't even look at the subtitles, but now when I don't know a word in Japanese, I can look at the Spanish and keep up on my Japanese and Spanish at the same time! I love being able to tell my mother that I'm studying whenever she asks what I'm doing when I'm watching anime. Have a great day, guys!