Fandom: Detective Conan/Case Closed
Disclaimer: They all belong to Gosho Aoyama. insert cry of desperation
Story Title: Planetarium
Chapter Title: The Prince and the Assassin
Notes: The ending has changed slightly, but it doesn't affect the plot. It just sounds prettier. 8D
Chapter Summary: The conclusions differ, and both will have choices to make. Shinichi dreams of Kid while talking to Kaito, and wants to see the thief again, beneath their constellation.
Chapter Quote: "I knew who you were...it was you all along."
There was that mischievous grin, an explosion of smoke, and Shinichi realized that Kaitou Kid was escaping toward the roof again. He immediately plunged through the smoke and dashed through the fire-stairs, coughing on the pink smoke, hoping for one more second as he shoved the door -
"Hey, Shinichi..."
- and to his surprise, Kaitou had not yet jumped from the ceiling. He was standing still in the glow of the night, his white cape brilliant against the shadows. His hang-glider was already prepared for a perfect escape, but Kid was looking at something in the distance and seemed oblivious to the fact that Shinichi could have caught him right then.
"Shinichi?"
And yet, the detective found himself unable to move.
He was only a few meters away from Kid, but Shinichi felt the air become thick and his legs become still, as if some part of him was forcing him not to capture Kaitou. The thief seemed to know what was happening; he was grinning again, and in the silence of the night, he opened his lips to ask -
"Shinichi!"
Suddenly, the darkness of the night swirled into a mélange of obnoxiously bright colors, and Shinichi felt himself falling...and colliding, very hard, on the ground. A roar of laughter erupted all around him, and Shinichi was dimly aware of Ran's amused face through his tears of pain.
"It's just like you to go out on a case the night before your birthday and then fall asleep at your party," said Ran dryly. She whacked him softly on his already abused head. "Wake up and have some more cake."
Shinichi groaned and pulled himself up. His head was still throbbing, but not with pain; he was still thinking of the thief's words last night on the rooftop. The memory was quickly pushed away, however, when Heiji popped up behind the counter and cheerily offered him an enormous slice of cake. "Get something in your stomach now," he said through a stuffed mouth (Kazuha rolled her eyes), "or else you'll regret it later."
"Why?" said Shinichi. He glanced at the messy white frosting; a cursive "20" was barely discernible in red gel on the side. The party had already lasted for what felt like hours, and somehow, there was still plenty of cake left. Ran had outdone herself with the baking - not that he particularly minded. "What's happening later?"
Heiji had a shifty look to his face, and bent to whisper conspiratorially in Shinichi's ear. "Kuroba's coming later. Can't explain now. Kazuha has ears -"
"- like a bat," Kazuha finished coldly. "Ahou. I know what you idiot men are up to."
Shinichi laughed at the injured expression on Heiji's face, and happily dug into his mountain of birthday cake, cheerful noise all around him. It was his birthday, he thought, so he might as well smile a bit more. For now, he would try to forget about the cases, the murders, and Kaito Kid's heists.
He had barely finished the first layer when the door to Shinichi's apartment suddenly burst open, and the noise of the party died down in confusion.
On instinct, Heiji grabbed the first weapon in his reach (the cake cutter with frosting still on it); Shinichi's hand flew toward his tranquilizer wristwatch (which was no longer there). The intruder took one step - two - and appeared from behind the wall.
"If that's your brilliant defense against simple trespassers, then I fear for the future of Japan."
The simple trespasser was Kaito, looking profoundly unimpressed by the two detectives' antics...and holding, as all the men in the room noticed, an enormous amount of beer. "Anyway, here are the drinks. A twentieth birthday isn't complete without them!" he said cheerfully, and grabbed one for himself. The rest of the party-goers quickly clamored for the beer, and left what Ran affectionately called "the three idiots" at the kitchen table.
"Where's your girlfriend?" asked Shinichi, popping open a beer.
"Couldn't come," said Kaito. And then, suspiciously, "Why?"
Shinichi shrugged, uncomfortable. "I just wanted to say hi, 'cause...I kinda owe her."
"For what?"
The detective flushed and fumbled with his perfectly fine tie. "I wouldn't have been friends with you if it weren't for Aoko...I mean, Aoko being childhood friends with Ran." He grinned sheepishly.
"Oh, how cute of you," said Heiji, scoffing. "But I thought what happened was that you were involved in that case about the elevator murder, and Kaito happened to be there and helped you prove who the culprit was."
"Yeah, but I was only there because Aoko had extra passes to the opening of a hotel. She invited me to the party and gave Ran two tickets. That woman has extra tickets to everything." Kaito took a swig of beer and tugged uncomfortably at his collar. "Damn, it's hot in here. Is the AC on?"
"It's not on?"
"Oh, this idiot's been confused lately," said Heiji, jumping up to turn on the fan. "It is my expert and honest opinion that every time Kid has a heist," - Kaito coughed delicately - "Kudo's IQ drops ten points."
The detective began to vehemently protest, but Heiji hushed him with a stern look. "Seriously, Shinichi. You've been really close to catching him lately, but you're still making strange mistakes that you normally don't make. Like, miscalculating the time he'd escape, or not noticing a really obvious double - rubber, Shinichi, rubber!...You're overworking yourself when it comes to Kid."
"I completely agree," said Kaito flatly, raising his beer for a toast.
"And," continued Heiji, "we've all noticed that every time you go off on a wild goose chase for Kaitou Kid, you're not - you're not quite normal afterwards."
"Oh yeah?" said Shinichi archly, faintly annoyed at Heiji's voice. "And I've noticed that every time you and Kazuha go off for innocent "nature walks" during a case, you're not quite normal afterwards either."
"Hey!"
A sudden foreboding aura of evil pervaded the kitchen, and Heiji's eyes widened when he saw Kazuha looking sour and testily drumming her fingers on the table. "I heard my name," she said coldly. "What did you say about me, Heiji?"
Considering that Kazuha had been known to destroy doors when provoked, and that Heiji was terrible at clarifying things, and that the three could feel hot waves of irritation rolling from her, Heiji did the only reasonable thing a man could have done in that situation:
He bolted.
Kaito and Shinichi stayed silent, though decidedly red-faced from holding their laughter in, until Kaito glanced at his watch. "Well, it's been half a minute already and I hear no tortured screams. He should be fine."
"How would you know?"
"Personal experience," said Kaito shiftily. Shinichi thought he heard him mutter "mops" under his breath. "And God, it's still seriously hot in here, and alcohol isn't helping. Is there anywhere we can go before the AC cools things down?"
Shinichi wouldn't have admitted it to Ran at that moment, but he had been feeling an overwhelming need to be alone - or at least, away from a big crowd - since the beginning of the party. He hadn't wanted to disappoint his girlfriend, so he hadn't told her since the beginning of the party. Now was a good opportunity to escape.
He and Kaito found themselves clutching cold beers and sitting on the rooftop of the apartment building. The sky was a little foggy, but was still clear enough to expose the moon's glow and the small, distant stars. A light breeze cooled Shinichi's sweaty forehead, and he sighed, remembering the night before.
"What happened?"
"Eh?" said Shinichi, jolted out of his reverie.
Kaito was frowning pensively. "I know something happened between you and Kid. It's written all over your face. You can be dead tired, but if anybody mentions his name, you're the most alert of all of us. You're beyond the point of obsession."
Shinichi felt the wind being forcefully knocked out of him. "Say that again?"
"Eh...you're beyond the point of obsession?"
Shinichi sighed. "That's the same thing he said to me. Kid, I mean. I was chasing him during the carbuncle heist two years ago and I was locked behind a glass screen before Kid made his escape. And when he was ready to fly away, he turned around, and - damn, I can hear that mocking voice..."Something's different about you, tantei-kun. You're beyond obsession now." He said that."
Kaito faltered. "He...he did?"
Shinichi realized that he had clenched his hands so tightly that his fingernails were making white crescent marks on his hands. Crescents. The moon. The moon, glowing off Kid's white cape. Shit. The thief was right, he was obsessed.
"Er...have some more beer," said Kaito uneasily. "And calm down. I'm sorry. I didn't know you were that pissed off about the whole thing."
"Forget it," said Shinichi, feeling exhausted. "I don't want to think about him anymore."
The alcohol was beginning to take effect; he could feel his face flushing and his thoughts swimming in meaningless circles. The sky twisted in front of him and he thought he could see a laughing face on the moon; always him, always the moon. He blinked a few times and pushed his dark hair away from his forehead, trying to stabilize himself and clear his mind. "Damn. Heiji was right. I'm going to get something to eat before I get tipsy on an empty stomach. I can't let Ran see me drunk."
He hurried down the stairs, hoping that nobody would see him sneak out a slice of pizza. His head was still throbbing and he didn't feel like being shoved into the chaotic hubbub of noise; there seemed to be some noisy drinking game that the men were playing in one corner; the girls seemed to be gossiping over sunflower seeds and watermelon. Nobody seemed to notice he was gone - or was it that they knew that he wanted to be alone? A pang of guilt shot through him; he shouldn't be skipping out on his own birthday party, but his headache overpowered his guilt and he found himself heading back to the roof.
When he opened the door, Kaito was standing up and leaning against the roof's railing, not seeming to notice that he was no longer alone. He had an odd expression on his face; a peculiar mixture of both regret and relief, and Shinichi halted at the doorway. It all seemed familiar somehow, this scene...
"What're you looking at?"
Kaito started, but smiled sheepishly when he saw Shinichi. "Just the stars. That constellation over there...I forgot what it's called, but my dad told me a story about it before he - yeah. You know. The one about the prince and the rebel."
Shinichi plopped down beside Kaito's feet and squinted up at the sky. He was still a little confused from the alcohol, so he couldn't quite see the constellation his friend was pointing at. "What's the story?"
Kaito coughed delicately. "Ahem. Well, there were was a crown prince of some state in...a place. Sorry. I'm really bad at telling stories."
"And yet you're really good at telling lies," said Shinichi wryly, lying back on the roof.
Kaito rolled his eyes. "That's because lying's about concealing the truth, while stories are complete fabrications."
"Okay, go on."
"Anyway, there were also a group of rebels who wanted to take over. One of them was given the job of killing the crown prince. If he succeeded, he would be given a lot of money and a special spot in government once the planned revolution took place. If he didn't succeed, the group would have to kill him to prevent the plans from leaking out."
Shinichi closed his eyes. Kaito's voice was soft, oddly nostalgic, and it had a calming effect on Shinichi's mind. Nobody else - except for Ran - could make him let go of his frustrations so quickly. He wished he could stay on the rooftop with the breeze, the stars, and Kaito's story until the party was over.
"The prince was very fond of plays, so the rebel group took advantage of that and sent the assassin in disguise to a play that the prince was going to. The assassin sat close to the prince and began to make small talk - you know, just trying to get a little close to him. He kept frequenting the plays that the prince went to, until they eventually became friends."
"I think I remember this story," said Shinichi, looking up at the constellations. He recalled hearing it during a trip to a planetarium with Ran a year ago, after he had finally returned to his normal body. He had looked at the faintly glowing points on the ceiling and thought that he was finally in the sky with them now, free from the clutches of the Black Organization. But he hadn't expected another enemy to come from the moon and stars themselves.
"The revolution was beginning, and the assassin was running out of time. He had to kill the prince soon, but hadn't before because in the process of trying to befriend the prince, he hadn't been able to keep his emotions out of it. The rebel group told him that he only had one chance, so the assassin chose his life over his friendship. But before he got the opportunity, the prince figured out what was going on and banished him. The rebel was killed for failing the revolution, and another assassin took up his job and killed the prince. "
Shinichi frowned. "That's not the same ending I heard."
"What's your version?"
"The prince knew he was being targeted for a while, and figured out that his friend was really his assassin. He invited the assassin to his home so that later, the guardsmen could kill the rebel for treason. But at the last moment, the prince couldn't carry out the orders it, because even though he knew his life was in danger, he still felt a friendship with his assassin, and ended up letting his emotions rule over his life."
"Well, that was fatal of him," remarked Kaito dryly.
"Wait," said Shinichi, slightly impatient. "That's not the end. The prince did it because he knew that the assassin would be killed if the job wasn't done, so he walked into the trap. He let the assassin kill him."
"You know, if the assassin was a girl, this would be a sappy soap opera that our girlfriends would force us to watch."
"Ha-ha; very funny." Shinichi looked to the stars thoughtfully. "But the assassin didn't kill him without regrets, of course. His heart had shattered when he tore through the prince's, so he bent over to catch his friend's last words. And he heard the prince say in a sad voice, "I knew who you were...it was you all along"."
Kaito, strangely, was silent. Shinichi waited for his normally quick-witted friend to make a funny remark about the last words, but nothing escaped Kaito's lips. In fact - unless the moon was deceiving him - Kaito looked pained. But the emotion was gone in a second, and Kaito's face became completely unreadable. A poker face. Well, the good thing about having an excellent mask was that nobody can tell what you're feeling, thought Shinichi. But the bad thing is that it makes it all the more obvious that you're hiding something.
But Shinichi didn't want to think about that. Detective as he was, there were still things that he didn't want to consider, and he waited quietly underneath the night sky.
The moon, the stars, and the myth. Two bright stars in a constellation glimmered in the night, and all was silent.
A/N: To my dearest, most wonderful, most holycrapshewillpwnyourass friend, 30Kyu, for her birthday. She is my muse, my inspiration, MY SOUL. 8D If all goes well, the last chapter will be up on the ninth. Anyway, 30Kyu's got a Harry Potter fic up. It's beautiful, deep, and will make you think. Go read it and wish her a happy birthday.
...I just re-read my A/N. I sound like an effing stalker. XD