Parallels
Looking Glass

-

Katio was pretty sure he was in a nightmare.

The night before, he'd come back from a particularly horrible experience at a heist involving a hawk, rubber bands, and priceless nude statuary sore and tired. Not up to being more cautious than he should have been, he'd just dragged his sorry caped behind home, shed his hat, monocle, cape, jacket, and tie before collapsing onto his bed. He'd clean it up in the morning, he'd reasoned to himself. No one came into his room without his permission--though he wondered if his mother had peeks once in a while out of habit.

The next morning, he found that the world as he knew it did a turn-around while he was asleep.

"Kaito. Get up. You're going to be late." The teenager burrowed deeper into his pillow and blankets, muttering about Sundays and days off. "Kaito..." That was when his brow furrowed in confusion. That wasn't his mother. And since when did Hakuba--

Hakuba?!

He sat bolt up-right, nearly colliding head-to-head with a frowning Hakuba Saguru, detective who supposedly knew Kaitou Kid best. Kaito pointed at him, shouting, "What are you doing in my room?!"

The blond's brow furrowed. "Waking you up, idiot. And I would have gladly let you over-sleep if Shinichi hadn't asked."

Kaito spluttered in blatant confusion and bewilderment as Hakuba turned away, putting his hands on his hips as he looked at the other bed--

Since when do I have two beds...?

"Good morning, Heiji," Hakuba said as he pulled the blankets off the bed, revealing a boxer-clad Osaka-jin who merely curled up and grumbled at the loss of his warmth. "Come on," the half-British detective said primly while Kaito stared at the scene before him. "Heiji, you have a class at 8:30. It's already 8:15--"

That got the dark-skinned teenager shooting out of bed and rushing through his morning routine, shouting, "Why didncha tell me that before?!"

Hakuba tossed the blankets back onto the bed and sighed tiredly. "I told you that you should set your alarm last night--"

"Bidmot!" argued Hattori Heiji, his mouth full of toothpaste and toothbrush which he then spat out before diving to the ground and sticking his head under the bed. "Where th' hell did those shoes o'mine run offta--?

"I believe you already put them on," Hakuba informed him calmly.

Hattori froze, sweatdropped, and then stood up. "Oi," he said, a strained smile slowly appearing on his face after a moment as he eyed the blond suspiciously. "What time didya say it was?"

Hakuba crossed his arms. "8 o'clock."

"LIAR!" A finger jabbed into the calm teenager's face. "Ya said it was 8:15!"

"It got you up, didn't it?"

That made the anger quickly disappear. "Oh, well...yeah, guess it kinda did, didnit?" Hattori said, laughing a little in embarrassment.

Hakuba leaned to the left in order to look behind Hattori and at the other teenager still in bed. Kaito sat up a little straighter when the suspicious and stern gaze landed on him, feeling like he was being blamed for something he hadn't done...yet. "And why aren't you dressed, Kaito? You were the first to wake up."

Faced with two detectives' curious stares that early in the morning had Kaito poking his fingers together awkwardly. "Well...that is..." and then he was reminded of his situation with one glance back at the pair standing in front of him. "Wait a minute," he muttered before looking around the place. "This isn't my room!"

He then looked down at himself and gawked in disbelief. "And who took my clothes?"

Hakuba and Hattori shared confused and puzzled looks, making Kaito jump to his feet on his bed, clothed in nothing but a pair of blue boxers with rubber duckies which wasn't what he'd worn to the heist. He pointed at the two detectives and stated quite calmly, "This is an elaborate prank to get back at me for making you tantei look like idiots before you arrest me."

"Tantei?" Hattori asked, bewildered, at the same time Hakuba said, "Kaito, are you sick or something?"

That stopped the magician cold. No, he hadn't been imagining it. Hakuba had been calling him 'Kaito' almost as casually as the British accent came naturally. And Hattori just looked plain confused when he'd called them detectives...

Kaito lowered his arm to his side, staring at the two uncertainly before asking, his use of the Poker Face only keeping the most of his nervousness from showing, "Just where the hell am I and what is going on?"

-

-

If there was one thing Kaito hated as much as fish--and that was a hard thing to level up to in Kaito's opinion--it would probably be doctors. So it was only natural that he'd put up a fierce fight as Hakuba and Hattori wrestled him into some clothes and dragged him out of the room, down the hall, and to the doctor's office. It was for his best interest, they said. Something had to be wrong with him if he couldn't remember the place he'd come to just last night, they said. Takagi-sensei was really nice, they assured him.

Isn't that Takagi guy supposed to be a detective-police guy?!

As it was, Hattori and Hakuba were both bigger than him and soon had Kaito sitting awkwardly on the examination bench, twitching whenever 'Takagi-sensei' touched him with his instruments and then doing things like checking his pulse via his wrist and--

"Well," Takagi-sensei said, stepping away while Kaito shuddered and muttered about 'heebeejeebees' and 'fish'. "He seems perfectly healthy. He doesn't seem to have any injuries that could be creating this kind of amnesia--"

"Amnesia?" Kaito asked confusedly. "You think I--"

Hakuba stepped between the doctor and Kaito and then pointed to the Osaka-jin standing a few yards away. "What's his name?"

The confused teenager answered hesitantly, "Hattori Heiji..."

"How long have you know each other?"

Kaito frowned, sweatdropping when he remembered past heists. "Didn't we just just meet today?" he asked, laughing nervously.

Hattori sweatdropped and scratched at his neck. "That's weird. Knowing my name'n'all but not when we met?"

"Ara?" Kaito blinked at him before narrowing his eyes suspiciously. "Oi...the way you say that makes it sound--"

"NOT LIKE THAT, AHOU!"

Takagi-sensei gave a defeated sigh. "In any case, you might want to see Satou-sensei about this." His face reddened as he smiled awkwardly. "It would be in her field of study. More so than it is for me, I mean. Though I could suggest adjusting to the sudden move being the reason for this partial amnesia."

"Stress?" Hakuba asked while Kaito pulled his feet up so that he was sitting cross-legged, thinking carefully.

"Maybe," Takagi-sensei answered uncertainly.

Doubt it. I can remember things, but none of it matches with what I'm seeing. Instead of Hattori and Hakuba acting their roles as detective after all suspicious people, they're treating me as if they've known me for ages. Not only that, but...my clothes, that room...they're not what I fell asleep in.

...NONE OF IT MAKES SENSE!!

"Headache?" Kaito jumped at Hattori's voice being so near to his ear before sweatdropping and leaning away, a blank expression coming onto his face. The other teenager blinked in surprise. "What's wrong?"

Kaito rose and eyebrow and then looked at their positioning. "And I thought Hakuba was the pervy fancier--geh!" He held his pained head while Hattori stood up straight, brushing his hands off. "What was that for?!"

Hakuba shook his head at the antics before turning to Takagi-sensei again. "You called Shinichi from class, right?"

"Ah, yes," the doctor answered. Kaito rolled his eyes to the ceiling at the reminder that there was still another detective running around. "I couldn't just confirm something was wrong with Kaito-kun and not tell his brother--"

Twitch.

"Hold it." Everyone turned to look at a very tense Kaito, whose eyes were closed in a manner that suggested he was restraining himself from unnecessary action. "Could you repeat that?"

Takagi-sensei shifted. "I called Shinichi-kun out of class--"

"Got that much," Kaito said calmly, though more confusion and bewilderment threatened to have him yelling out that it was all lies and he'd had enough of this April Fool's prank. "What was that last part?"

"Oi..." Hattori said carefully, "don't tell me you don't..."

Kaito opened his eyes carefully, almost as if he were afraid of what he would see. "Since when," he said with strained control, "was Kudo Shinichi and I brothers?"

The three of them stared at him.

"Kudo...?" began Hattori with the same expression he had when Kaito had called them 'tantei.'

The magician sweatdropped. "Off a bit...?" he asked uncertainly, realizing that a lot of things had changed over-night.

"Hmph," a voice commented from the door. Kaito looked over and blinked at the sight of a non-chibified not-Kudo Shinichi standing in the doorway, an exasperated expression grazing his visage a moment before he gave a wry smirk. "Figures you'd remember Heiji over me." The meitantei's eyes darkened then before he dropped the final bomb in a single word, "Niisan."

"...GEH?!" Kaito strangled out, eyes bugged out in shock. He pointed at his look-a-like before looking to Hakuba for confirmation. "He's my LITTLE BROTHER?!"

Kudo made a derisive sound at that. "By six minutes," he muttered sourly.

"Kaito," Hakuba cut in before the thief could shout anymore. "are you saying you don't even remember your own twin brother?"

Kaito looked around the room, from face to face, before closing his eyes. Against all efforts, a small, timid noise and pained looked escaped his control. "I'm gonna be sick" he moaned.

"Gee," Kudo said somewhat sarcastically, "love you too, niisan. Let's hug and go back cookies with Kaachan now!"

"Oi," Hattori said in a reprimanding manner, "Dun be that way 'bout it, Shinichi. Kaito's just a bit confused, that's all."

"And I had to be called out of my class because my moronic brother can't take big changes like this in life?" Kaito twitched. Okay, Kudo was starting to touch on sensitive subjects there. Spoiled brat. "It's a bit pathetic, don't you think? I don't see why the Dean had him come here in the first place--"

"All right already!" Kaito cried, running a hand through his hair and giving Kudo a mild glare. "Man, do you ever go on and on! Especially when your 'niisan's' not feeling well--"

Kudo took on a more blank expression. "Since when have you ever been 'well?' "

"Since I didn't have to see your face, apparently," Kaito retorted with a similar expression.

"Hey now--" Hattori tried to interject but was stopped with a look from Hakuba.

"Oh, so you haven't looked in a mirror lately, idiot?"

"I don't see what that has to do with your face, smartass--"

"We're identical, dumbass."

"I don't see the resemblence. And anyway, spoiled brats like you are too little to stand up against a person like me."

Kudo looked as if someone had thrown a brick to the back of his head. "What did you just say?"

Kaito smirked at his supposed younger twin brother. "I called you a spoiled brat." When Kudo's expression closed again, he continued to mock in a childish manner, "Spoiled brat. Spoiled brat Spoiled brat Spoiled--Hey! No kicking objects at the amnesiac!"

Kudo was pulled back at the shoulder by Hattori so that he couldn't get near a chair that was standing near the doorway. For all the seemingly leathal intent behind his actions, the meitantei looked oddly composed. Said detective shoved the Osaka-jin away from himself before giving his older brother a cool, calculating stare and then leaving.

Kaito paused for a moment.

That was the look Hakuba and Hattori are missing. Could that mean...?

He paused that train of thought to stick his tongue out in the direction Kudo had gone. "Nyu! Stupid little brother!"

Hattori sweatdropped. "Well, they still act like brothers," he muttered.

"Hm," Hakuba hummed thoughtfully, "but was it just me or did Shinichi seem a lot more...volatile than normal?"

Kaito blinked. "What?" he asked in surprise. "You mean he's not always such a tight-ass?"

Everyone gave him an odd look.

Kaito tossed up his hands. "I don't think I ever did anything wrong! And why is it always my fault whenever he's involved?" He crossed his arms and grunted with a sour look on his face. "Why can't I be a single-child again? I was a lot happier and more relaxed that way--"

"Want me ta go checkup on Shinichi?" Hattori asked the blond detective, ignoring the magician's woes.

Hakuba sighed. "Please do. You seem to be able to deal with him better when he's in this sort of mood."

"--and what's with the insults and the running away routine? That's my job, thanks--"

"A'ight, then," the Osaka-jin said before leaving the room with a puzzled look being shot at Kaito who was finishing with, "--and I mean, I knew we looked alike but isn't this taking it a bit far?"

"Done now?" the half-Brit asked before turning to listen to previously silent Takagi-sensei for a moment.

Kaito sighed, putting his hands behind his head, elbows in the air, as he looked at the ceiling. He shrugged. "Sure. Why not? Unlike what Stickupmyass-san stated, I can adapt to my situations and settings really well if need be."

Takagi-sensei cleared his throat for a moment before hesitantly speaking up, "Well, I've suggested to Saguru-kun that maybe taking you on a small tour would help you with your problem."

The kaitou grinned. "Cool." He hopped down from the examination bench and started off. "Let's go, then--"

"Actually, once Heiji calms him down some, Shinichi will come back and be your guide--"

Kaito fell against the doorway, eyes shedding crocodile tears as he said pitifully, "Hakuba's trying to keeeeeeel me!"

Not amused, said detective continued, "Hattori and I will not be caught in another Kuroba feud, so you two had better grow up and get over whatever it is that you two are fighting about--"

"He started it!" Kaito objected childishly, turning to face the blond while pointing a finger down the hall.

An eyebrow rose. "You think I care who started it? Be the older brother you are and don't rise to the bait."

The magician pouted. "Why couldn't I be the younger brother?"

"Apparently," Hakuba said wryly in response, "you have bad karma--"

"Or life, God, or whatever hates me," Kaito muttered.

"In any case," Takagi-sensei put in, looking somewhat nervous and wary of Hakuba's idea of putting the Kuroba brothers together again, "maybe if you have a tour of the campus with someone who knows you well, your memory will jog itself to its rightful...remembrance."

Kaito, who'd grabbed the chair that would have been Kudo's make-shift soccer ball and perched atop it, watched the doctor thoughtfully. "Uh huh..." he said slowly. "And if it doesn't?"

"Trip to Satou-sensei."

"Ah..." the thief bent his head upward and saw Kudo looking down at him with a frown. The older twin blinked. "Wow, you recover fast."

Without any warning or change in expression, the younger brother kicked the legs of the chair. Kaito only had time for an 'oh shit' look before--

Bang!

"Shinichi..." Hattori said carefully, walking in just as the chair tipped over, slamming Kaito against the ground. He watched the fallen teen then grab at the back of his head in pain.

Hakuba pinched the bridge of his nose as he sighed in exasperation.

Kaito looked up at his supposed brother again, wincing and eyes prickling with tears as the pain dulled to an ache. "Big bully..." he muttered.

Kudo squatted down, looking down at the other teenager with a smirk. "I thought you said I was 'too little to stand up against a person like' you."

"Cruel, big bully," Kaito amended with a slight pout as he hid his true elation.

It's all an act. He was playing the role as little brother and left so quickly because he realized that I knew and that means he's the chibi meitantei I knew and--

...shit.

Without warning, Kudo pulled him to his feet and then wrapped an arm around his neck, smiling with gritted teeth at the others. "We should be at the cafeteria for dinner," the detective said, ignoring the thief's prostest that little brothers weren't supposed to do this to older brothers. "Usual table."

Hattori sweatdropped at the scene but answered, "Sure. Ran an' Aoko will be happy ta see Kaito's sumwhut normal again."

Kaito blinked, but because of Kudo's hold on him, all he could manage was a garbled, "Ackoho?"

"Cool," Kudo said before tightening his arm around his brother's neck. "Come on, Kaito-niisan, let's go see the sights."

Kaito gagged in response but allowed himself to be pulled away.

Nothing good can come from this. Kudo knows! It's obvious he knows! Damn it!

Kaito could only wish that he was in a nightmare.

Author's Notes: Okay. So... should be writing stories that I haven't finished yet, but hey, this thing has been hidden away for about a year now. Not only that but I've been feeling a bit pitiful so I decided to post this in order to cheer myself up some. Heh. This is a fun story which I have no real idea where it will go. HOWEVER... I do have more of an idea with this fic than with some of my others. -snickers- So yeah. Funness

More fics to come later Hopefully, that is. Until then--Ciao!