Author's notes: Well, I originally made this to add as a one-shot onto my collection of KaiShin one-shots. I made it to celebrate getting 100 reviews, haha. Anyway, it turned out too long to be a one-shot, so I decided to post it as a stand-alone story.

So, that being said, this should be about two or three chapters by the end...I haven't finished writing it. Ah!

And I thought (although I began it a while ago) that I should go ahead and upload it for Kaito's and Gosho-sensei's birthday! At least chapter one.

Btw, this is not an AU story.

So without further ado... :)

Shinichi opened his eyes. Above him, Kaitou Kid smiled apologetically. Shinichi squeezed his eyes shut again, not wishing to know what the thief had done wrong, nor why he had just woken up on a rooftop.

"Tantei-kun," Kid said cautiously, "I know you're awake; I saw your eyes open! I can't leave, so get it over with."

Noticing that the criminal had said he "can't leave" made Shinichi curious. He groaned, sat up, and blinked his sleepy eyes. Kid reached up to brush the messy hair out of his eyes, and Shinichi's hand involuntarily was tugged up along with it. Shinichi stared at the handcuffs binding the two boys together.

With a glare, he said menacingly, "Take them off. Now."

The thief sighed. "But, Tantei-kun...if you remember what you told me before you were knocked—er, I mean, before you passed out—these are your indestructible handcuffs with a very intricate lock and the only key is hidden with someone you completely trust. I'm guessing it's your father."

Shinichi's face blanched as he remembered their predicament. The thief was wrong. The only key had been given to his mother. He never thought he'd need it, as the handcuffs were just threats to be used in emergencies; he had another pair that was entirely destructible and had an easily accessible key. However, his mother had once admitted that she had lost the key to these handcuffs. Shinichi, the oh-so-clever detective that he was, had brushed it off and forgotten, saying, "Well, I don't use them anyway!"

"Uhh..." he stuttered nervously. "I lied. They aren't invincible. They're easily broken."

Two chainsaws, one welding torch, eight hammers, and an extremely skilled thief later...

"These handcuffs are inde-freaking-structible!" Shinichi yelled as he dragged the thief behind him into his bedroom. They had finally decided to give up and go to sleep for the night. Shinichi tossed some clothes at Kid and they began a complicated chain of undressing through the handcuffs.

"I can't believe you gave the key to your irresponsible mother."

"I thought it would be less obvious than someone like my father, and I thought she'd be more careful with something this important."

"Well obviously," Kid smirked here, seeing Shinichi blush at the magician's naked body, "she wasn't."

After the two were done with awkwardly changing their clothes, they laid down in Shinichi's bed. Shinichi felt immediately relaxed, despite the fact that there was a coquettish, grabby thief beside him. Said thief, however, was not comfortable in the unfamiliar bed. Not in the slightest.

The next morning, Shinichi woke at his normal time: 7:30 AM. He glanced beside him at the other boy, sleeping peacefully, his face completely exposed. Turning the thief in was impossible, because he had threatened to act like Shinichi and say that Shinichi was the liar. It might work, too, because the police were gullible and the two had the same face. How childish of the damn criminal.

Think of the devil, and the devil shall awaken. Kid stretched and peeked his eyes open. He yawned, looking at Shinichi and then the clock on the wall. Then he mumbled, "Kudou-kun, go back to sleep."

Shinichi sat up slightly. "No, dude. It's time to get up."

The kaitou's chuckle was muffled, as he was face down in a pillow. "If you are unaware, it is only 7:30 in the morning. One would think that a great detective such as yourself would be able to read a clock."

Shinichi blushed faintly, and he told himself it was from anger and not from seeing the thief's shirt ride up slightly. "I have to go to school! We are getting up."

Kid turned over onto his back again, gazing at Shinichi with heavily-lidded eyes. "I regret to inform you, Kudou-kun, that I am not going anywhere. I'm not going to my school and I'm enjoying it. Why would I ever want to go to your school? Also, your face looks a little red. Maybe you have a fever." When Kaito reached up with his shackled hand to pat Shinichi's face gently, it became redder.

"I'm not missing school because of you!" Shinichi hissed, attempting to climb over Kid, who had already closed his eyes again, and out of bed. He would drag the stupid boy if he had to! It took a lot, but Shinichi finally got far enough that the thief thudded to the floor. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, pouting up at Shinichi.

"Tantei-kuuuuun..." he whined. "I want to sleep!"

It occurred to Shinichi, as he watched Kid complain and try to crawl back into bed, that he probably wasn't a morning person. He was learning new things about this criminal by the second. "Hey," he said suddenly. "What's your name, anyway?"

He looked back at Shinichi and laughed. "Do you think I'm stupid enough to tell you my full name? Just call me Kaito until this thing is over. I guess you can't go around calling me Kid."

"Kaito, that...is that your first name?" Shinichi asked, trying not to get too excited and trying to stay polite as well.

"No, that is not my first name. I made it up. Anyway, don't worry. I'll call you by your first name too, so we're even. Okay, Shinichi-kun?"

Shinichi sighed. Not really, he thought in annoyance. I'd rather not be on a first-name basis with a criminal. But he decided to let it go.

Kaito yawned yet again, stretching from his position on the floor. Standing up, he said, "In any case, we can't go to school because we need to figure out how to get out of these things." He shook his hand at Shinichi. "Did you forget?"

"How could I ever forget that I'm chained to a moronic thief," Shinichi muttered under his breath.

"What, honey?" Kaito asked sweetly.

"Nothing, idiot," Shinichi said louder, swatting Kaito on the back of the head. "But anyway, I've had so many cases and other unexcused absences that I really can't afford another one this semester, so..."

Downstairs, the doorbell of the Kudou mansion rang, interrupting Shinichi. Shinichi looked at the clock again. "Oh no," he said. "It's Ran. Come on, or she'll burst through the door." Rolling his eyes, he led Kaito downstairs and to the front door. Opening it just enough to allow Ran to see most of Shinichi and none of Kaito, he said, "Hey Ran."

"Shinichi!" Ran scolded. "You're not even dressed yet? Did you just wake up? Ugh, and look at your messy hair!" Kaito glanced up at his own hair, flattening it a bit with his free hand.

"Um, Ran," Shinichi started, but didn't continue as he spluttered into a short coughing fit. After a few moments of this, earning concerned looks from both Ran and Kaito on their respective sides of the door, he cleared his throat. "Sorry. As I was saying, I'm not feeling well so I'm not going to school this morning."

Kaito blinked and then shook his head, laughing silently at himself for actually being concerned about Shinichi's health. Shinichi suppressed a smirk at being able to fool the intelligent magician.

It did fool Ran, however. She looked worried. "Oh, no! Should I stay with you? You never miss school for sickness, so this must be bad!"

Shinichi was almost too quick to reject her offer. "No! Ahem, no. No. I, um..." he glanced at Kaito, who was smirking as if saying What are you going to do now, Mr. Clever? "I don't want to get you sick. Yeah. And I can take care of myself. Anyway, I'm going to go make some toast and I will talk to you tomorrow or maybe even the day after. Yup. Bye!" Before Ran could respond—and she looked like she wanted to—Shinichi shut the door, sighing in relief.

Kaito led him to the kitchen, snickering. "You had me fooled for a moment, but then you got pretty bad. Not so good at lying to your wife, are you?"

Shinichi glared at him. "Shut up. She is not my wife."

Kaito raised his eyebrows and grabbed some bread, taking it (and Shinichi) over to the toaster. "So what are you gonna do when she inevitably comes back after school to see you, smart one?"

"Well I already thought about that," Shinichi bragged. "It's easy! I'll just put a note on the door that says I went out to buy some food and medicine."

Kaito thought it over for a moment, and when his toast popped he said, "That's not too bad. But what if she waits for you?"

Shinichi shrugged. "There's not much I can do about that. I guess I could say there was a crime committed and I was tugged in by my love of mysteries, so I had to help and that's why I didn't come home in time."

Kaito nodded. "Interesting...May I pose another solution?" Shinichi nodded for him to go ahead, taking a bite out of his toast and leaning against the counter. "If we can't get these wretched things off by tomorrow, since you can't miss any more school, we can sort of tell the truth..."

–

The note that the boys put on the front door of the large house seemed to work, as Ran didn't call Shinichi or come kicking the door down or anything. However, they had less luck with the handcuffs. Kaito'd tried his lock-picking skills yet again, but they didn't work in the slightest. They had also used a number of tools—saws, drills, hammers, et cetera—before finally slouching on the couch and bemoaning their pathetic existences, seemingly eternally chained together.

Shinichi even called a few people he thought might be able to help: firstly his mother, secondly a friendly locksmith he had once solved a case for, and thirdly the son of the late genius who had crafted the absolutely wonderful cuffs. For now there was no positive response; the locksmith informed him that he would visit the house the next day in order to examine the cuffs and try his best to figure out a way to unlock them or fashion a key. It really would be a shame, he had said, if they had to be cut off by the chain between them.

Yeah, Shinichi thought, watching as Kaito burped a dove out of his mouth, a real freaking shame.

It was about five o'clock and the boys were amiably arguing over some trivial factoid written in the book they had each been reading. Shinichi, always literarily-prepared, owned two copies of said book. Their arguing was abruptly interrupted when Kaito's cell phone beeped with a chipper tone. Kaito slid it out of his pants pocket and looked at the caller id. The master of poker faces, Kaito quickly had composure of his expression, but Shinichi knew he had seen a flicker of unhappiness...maybe even dread?

Kaito said to Shinichi quickly, "Hang on, I have to answer." Then he answered cheerily, "Hello?" Shinichi heard what sounded like a woman practically screaming on the other line. "Kaito what the hell is wrong with you?! And did you even..." here Kaito winced and turned the volume down on his phone, so Shinichi could hear no more. Nonetheless, he had heard something interesting. Smirking, he reveled in the fact that the thief's real name did indeed seem to be Kaito.

"Sorry, sorry, Aoko!" he said, sounding completely insincere. "I spent the night at a friend's house and he's sick so I'm helping take care of him." There was a pause while this Aoko spoke again, and Kaito shook his head and rolled his eyes—letting off steam nonverbally. "No, I don't think I'll be back at school tomorrow either...yeah...okay well I have to go cause he's coughing up a storm over here...Okay, sure. Bye." He hung up the phone and wrinkled his nose, then turned to Shinichi. "It was one of my friends," he explained.

Shinichi nodded and filed away all the information he had just learned into his brain. "I wasn't aware that you had friends," he teased. "Just accomplices."

Kaito laughed. "I know it's surprising. How could a criminal like me have any actual friends, right?"

Shinichi was suddenly serious for a moment. "Why are you a criminal? You seem perfectly normal and nice and...it just doesn't make sense." He shook his head, unable to fathom the reasoning behind this.

Kaito kept a tight poker face and, although it was a clever mask, Shinichi could easily see that it was fake. He surveyed Shinichi for a few long moments (undoubtedly thinking over whether he could trust him) and carefully began his tale. Shinichi felt like Kaito was definitely keeping information out, leaving gaps, where he didn't want to extrapolate on details. He mentioned his father, but not his name nor his profession. He said only that his father was the former Kaitou Kid and that he was looking for a certain gem...There were a few pauses while Kaito must have been thinking about how to word things; he knew that Shinichi was clever too, so he couldn't be trusted to keep much information to himself.

When Kaito was done, Shinichi blinked slowly and then began nodding. "Interesting," he murmured, "you really aren't so bad after all." The two smiled at each other briefly.

It was a strange feeling. Their relationship had grown in the hours spent cuffed together. It went from rival, to somewhat friendly rival, and now, somehow...they felt like friends. It was unexpected, and yet not a bad thing. When Kaito realized this, he knew that if there were to truly be something such as friendship between them—which, if he were to be honest with himself, he really wanted to happen—he would need to be truthful.

"Kaito Kuroba," he said simply. He watched as Shinichi's face went from confusion to understanding to surprise. He could do with it what he wanted, but Kaito thought he could trust him.

"That's...your name?" Shinichi asked. Kaito nodded. All of Shinichi's past mental files of information cleared—not that the information was gone, but now it was stored in a different way. If this thief could trust him with this kind of information, he should show that he was capable of being trusted. And besides, he wasn't a regular criminal. He had good intentions. Shinichi smiled again. "Thank you."

Kaito popped a red rose into Shinichi's reluctant face. "You're welcome, cutiepie!" he sang.

Shinichi blushed slightly and looked away. "Just because we're on good terms now doesn't mean you can call me these weird names! Jeez."

While Shinichi was looking in the other direction, Kaito gazed at him and smiled fondly. The detective may not know the thief very well, but this thief definitely knew his detective. Kaito found Shinichi quite fascinating, and he had since the moment he met him. And every single time since then, his interest had just grown and grown...

Kaito had never classified himself as straight or gay or anything else; he had had a crush once on Aoko, but not anymore. He found recently, however, that his actions seemed to point to a new source of affection. He often thought about this person; he had even gone as far as to do some research, and follow him to school in disguise. When he had finally realized what he was doing, he had to think about why, and the shocking result was that he, Kaito Kuroba, had a huge crush on Shinichi Kudou. Which, he had always thought to himself, would never ever work out! Kaito was a thief and Shinichi was a detective—plus, they were both guys. It was always just one more secret to keep from the world.

But now it almost seemed plausible that they could be not just friends, but maybe even more. If Kaito could just flirt enough and convince Shinichi to like him, then maybe he could actually do this. It's not like Shinichi could run away at this point.

–

Stretching from his cramped position in a large armchair and looking up from his book, Shinichi glanced at Kaito next to him. He was about to make a comment when he noticed that the magician was asleep, holding his book loosely on his lap.

With a smirk and a shake of his head, Shinichi realized that Kaito's attention span, especially concerning books, was shorter than the average person's—or at least shorter than Shinichi's. Craning his neck to get a better view of the boy's face, which was turned away, the detective found himself not analyzing, but admiring. Looking at the raw, naked face of the sleeping boy reminded Shinichi of a small kid instead of an internationally wanted thief. The innocence of the open mouth, the long eyelashes, the drool...okay, that was kind of gross.

As Shinichi stared for a few more moments and his speculative face turned upward into a smile, Kaito's eyes fluttered and finally opened fully. He turned his head to face Shinichi, his eyes widening slightly when he noticed Shinichi staring back. Shinichi quickly tried to look back down at his book, but Kaito cracked a smile.

Chuckling and sitting up, Kaito said, "What's up, Tantei-kun? Was I drooling in my sleep or something?"

Shinichi laughed slightly. "Actually..." he wiped his finger on his own cheek, implying for Kaito to do the same. Kaito smeared his entire hand down his face, not quite as elegantly as Shinichi.

"Oh," he replied with a grin. "I really was drooling...ahh, that was a nice nap...So what do we do now? Were you waiting for me to awaken?"

Shinichi shook his head. "I just thought we could make dinner or order food or something. What do you want?"

"Uh...what kind of food do you have?"

Shinichi shrugged. "Let's go see."

The rest of the night was spent eating and watching a movie until they went to sleep. Shinichi was strangely satisfied with finding out more about the gentlemanly thief throughout the night. Such as that, when presented with the idea of eating fish, he vehemently yelled "No!" and then pretended that his outburst had been a result of seeing an axe murderer appear behind Shinichi's head—he also seemed to be a compulsive liar. Also, he ate. A lot. After dinner, he ate popcorn and still more snacks during the movie.

Kaito was now much higher on the "happy" spectrum. After the fun night of bonding with his favorite critic, he felt like he was floating on air. Of course, he only showed Shinichi his normal cool demeanor, but glancing sideways to see the small smile or the questioning gaze of the other boy made Kaito feel like he knew even more than he had before—even more than the research had taught him. Kaito stretched and yawned, smiling to himself as he thought about spending another night with the detective.

Hi again! Heh, I hope you liked it! Please review! It would make me oh-so-happeh!

I should add another chapter soon I guess...it'll probably be two chapters, but definitely no more than three. Next chapter will start the next day.

Thanks for reading!