There was murmuring behind the door. There were at least two men were speaking in hurried whispers about something, completely unaware of the danger that would befall them in only a moment. Of course, they had been under the assumption that they had picked a hideout too remote for anyone to find. Kaito took a second to survey the hallway one more time. He was fairly sure that only two people had been involved in the museum robbery, but he didn't want didn't want to risk any surprises.
Deciding that the coast was clear, he threw the door open.
The sudden noise caught the two thieves by surprise. He watched as their eyes widened and their jaws dropped. His eyes scanned the room, and over in the corner, he found the unconscious body of a seven year old boy laying on his side with his arm falling his back. Kaito noticed an emerging purple bruise on the child's forehead, and one could swear his eyes burned with anger for a second before becoming dangerously calm once more. Even the two adult men in the room felt some apprehension. Clearly their sense of self preservation wasn't as strong as it should have been though, because one of the men found the courage to speak.
"H-how did you find this place?!" The shorter of the two jewel thieves demanded with only a hint of hesitation.
Kaito's grim expression didn't falter as he turned his head slightly in their direction. Sure he was only a seventeen year old kid, but the vibe he gave off was very intimidating to the two grown men. A shiver went down both of their spines as he looked them dead in the eyes and answered, "Unimportant."
With a fluid movement, Kaito drew his card gun and pointed it at the two men. They looked at each other with urgency, and then they heard Kaito say, "Don't move unless you want to lose an arm. I brought some special ammo today." They could only only nod wordlessly as Kaito continued, "I must say, you two really do have a lot of nerve to schedule a museum robbery during one of my heists. To blend in with the task force to sneak in was a clever little tactic that I've used plenty of times myself, but I can't say you two were clever about your escape. Especially not considering your little captive over there." He spared another quick glance to the corner of the room.
"Wait!" The taller one blurted out. He pointed at Kaito in disbelief and stuttered, "You're K-K-Kaito Kid?!"
"In the flesh and in disguise." He wasn't in disguise, but they didn't need to know that. "But I did say don't move, didn't I?" Kaito fired a shot that sliced deep into the man's hand and caused him to cry out before burying itself in the wall behind him. As the taller jewel thief cradled his bloodied hand and bit back more cries of pain, Kaito shifted his card gun to point at his accomplice. "Would you like to see how that feels? These cards are made from especially sharpened steel. I could take your hand off, if you don't think I'm serious."
The shorter jewel thief swallowed hard and said his next words carefully. "P-please... Don't hurt us any more... We can give let you have the rock from the museum, and we'll give you the kid over there without a fuss. Can't we just let bygones be bygones?" His voice was was a level mix of desperate and panicked. "As a fellow thief, you must know how it is when someone accidentally walks in on a job, right? We weren't planning to grab the ki-..."
Two consecutive shots were fired to the shorter jewel thief's legs and the steel cards lodged themselves in the floor as the jewel thief crumpled to the ground in agony.
"I may be a thief, but I'd rather not be lumped in with people like you. I won't deny I'm a criminal, but there's no way in hell I'm letting you get away with kidnapping and hitting a child. And at my own heist of all places! What kind of low life bastard do you take me for?"
Suddenly the shorter man smirked. "A dead one."
Both of the jewel thieves were staring a point over Kaito's shoulder and looking a little too happy for people with freshly cut wounds. He spun around quickly to see a hulking guy with a long piece of wood held over his head. Kaito tried to move, but the man was already bringing his makeshift club down and Kaito could only bring his arm up a little in attempt to defend himself before-
BAM
Kaito's eyes widened his he registered the sight of the man's gigantic figure on the ground, out cold. He looked up, and sure enough, there were the bright blue eyes that he had come to know so well. The child who had been unconscious just a second ago was now sitting upright with his tranquilizer watch still in position.
"Shi-Conan! You're awake!" Kaito wanted nothing more than to go over and check to see if Shinichi had suffered a concussion or any other head injuries, but of course the two jewel thieves were still watching. He was about to say something else, but then a loud voice amplified by a bullhorn resounded throughout the walls of the hideout.
"KID! We have the building surrounded! Exit the building calmly and surrender yourself, or else we'll be forced to use other methods of drawing you out!" It was unmistakably Nakamori's voice. Kaito smirked and put his card gun back in his belt.
"Well gentlemen, it's been fun, but I believe that's my cue to leave! Buh-bye!" With that, Kaito scooped Shinichi into his arms and ran out the door.
...
"I still cannot believe you got yourself kidnapped!"
"Hey, I found their hideout, didn't I? Those guys have been convicted of stealing multiple from museums and jewelry stores for the past three years, and now we can finally return all the things they've stolen."
"No, actually, I found the hideout, you had your sorry ass knocked unconscious and dragged in."
"Well I knew you would know what to do when I 'accidentally' shook my tracker glasses onto the floor." Shinichi glanced at Kaito haughtily from the side as he finished his tea.
"Well yeah, but you could've gotten seriously hurt!"
"But I didn't," Shinichi offered gently. "Besides that wasn't the first time I've ever been drugged with chloroform, and they only hit me once for being an annoying seven year old." Kaito opened his mouth say some thing, but Shinichi held up a hand and continued, "If anything, I should be worried about you. I woke up to a guy screaming, you know. And I heard you threatening the other guy while I was untying my hands. Do you know how terrifying that was? You know you didn't actually have to hurt them."
"Hey, I stalled long enough for the police, didn't I? Besides," Kaito said as he drew Shinichi into his arms and onto his lap, "they hurt you. I couldn't let them get away without scaring them a little."
"Well, I'll say mission accomplished. I swear they were both about to pee themselves." Shinichi turned around to face Kaito. He took the ice pack set it on the table next to his teacup before burying his face in Kaito's chest. Kaito wrapped his arms around Shinichi's significantly smaller frame and squeezed him tight as he leaned back on his sofa. He didn't even mind the way the water in Shinichi's slightly wet hair soaked into his shirt. "Speaking of scary, you know I practically had a heart attack when that third guy came in and almost hit you? It reminded me of that night at Tropical Land... I almost thought the tranquilizer wouldn't get there in time..." Kaito smiled softly and planted a soft kiss on Shinichi's forehead.
"But it was in time, so you can just relax and let it go now. I'm still here, and so are you. Honestly it's pretty awesome how we have each other's backs, don't you think?"
Shinichi simply looked at Kaito with a face that was both exasperated and endearing. Without saying anything, he reached up and kissed Kaito on the cheek.
"Aww, did Shin-chan just initiate something?"
"I'll initiate a fight if you don't stop right there."
"Fine, fine, I'll stop. But only because you just suffered a from a psychologically traumatic event."
"Psychologically traumatic? You and I both know that I've seen way worse than-"
"Long term psychological trauma." Kaito punctuated his sentence by leaning back to cross his arms in a gesture of mock stubbornness.
Shinichi wanted to argue further, but in spite of his childish insistence, he saw Kaito's sincere expression and sighed. "... Fine. Only because you nearly got your skull crushed by a giant guy with a big stick." He leaned forward onto Kaito's arms, which made their way back around Shinichi's small frame.
"Haha, that's the spirit!" Kaito said with a squeeze. "Now how about we get ready for bed? Neechan was pretty clear about your curfew when I called her."
"I'd be genuinely annoyed i if it were any other day, but sleep sounds like a great idea... I'm exhausted..." Shinichi made a movement to slide off Kaito's lap. "You've still got my tooth- whoa!" Kaito suddenly swept Shinichi into his arms and bounced him a couple times to get a better grip.
"Don't worry, your toothbrush is still in the cup next to the sink, and you've got a couple extra sets of pajamas here from last week's movie night. You're lucky Neechan over-packs."
"Thank goodness for Ran... Alright, let's go brush our teeth before I fall asleep here. It's too comfy," Shinichi said as he snuggled into Kaito's arms.
In turn, Kaito gave a light chuckle. "With pleasure, milady."
He had to dodge the punch that was aimed at his head, but it was easy since Shinichi was quickly drifting into unconsciousness. He wondered if Shinichi had known about the pinch of sleeping powder he had slipped into the tea when he drank it, but Kaito certainly wouldn't be the one to bring it up. Besides, it was for Shinichi's own good, the way he overworked himself sometimes... As far as Kaito was concerned, Shinichi deserved as much rest as he could get. There was nothing wrong with giving him a little push every now and then.
Shinichi managed to stay awake enough to brush his teeth and get changed but he did end up falling asleep in Kaito's arms on their way to his room. Kaito got him settled, and he pulled on a t shirt and some shorts before hopping into bed himself. He enveloped both of them in his thick blanket before pulling Shinichi close to him. They slept peacefully like that until the morning sun.
A/N: So, this is an alternate version of the canon!verse, in which Kaito figured out Conan's identity and they formed a friendship after spending some time together. The idea is that they've confirmed that they both like each other romantically, but they've agreed to hold off on officially dating until Shinichi find the APTX cure. Can this be considered KaitoxConan? I put it down anyway XD This was written for Kikakakika to demonstrate my somewhat existent writing skills. I'm hoping to be able to claim that I can write a story? At any rate, thanks for stopping by to read~
Edit: so, a reviewer was kind enough to point out an anatomical (? Medical? Cranial?) inaccuracy in the original version of this story. Kaito was originally insistent on the idea that Shinichi had had a concussion because it was originally implied that Shinichi had been knocked out with a hard blow to the head when the jewel thieves kidnapped him. Apparently you can die from falling asleep with a concussion though, so I made some minor changes to the story, for anyone who saw this story in the first ten hours it was published ^_^;