Alas, another random idea has struck and resulted in this.

So let's see, shall we? I've made Kaito and Shinichi both twenty in here, seeing as, y'know, it's (mostly) set in a bar and they should probably be legal. Yep. Not particularly sure when Shinichi came back, but it's not really relevant.

Hope you enjoy! – Luna

Unconditionally

Kaito was so not brooding.

He might, you know, be sitting at the bar huddled over a glass of whiskey. And he might also be staring at a certain former Great Detective of the East and glowering very, very darkly at the other men who were laughing and throwing their arms around the said detective. It was also quite possible that he was giving off a black aura.

…Okay, so maybe he was brooding. But only a little, really.

Really.

But honestly, Kaito had good reasons for his, um, not-brooding. After all, it had been only two weeks since Kudou Shinichi had confessed to him – well, the Kaitou Kid – that he was in love with him.

To be fair, it had been after Kaito had been shot by one of Snake's subordinates, and Shinichi (wait, how long had Kaito been referring to him as "Shinichi" in his head?) was frantically trying to stop the bleeding. He'd started murmuring something, something low and desperate under his breath, and when Kaito had managed to catch his breath, he'd realized that Shinichi was saying, "I love you, dammit, I love you, don't die, don't you dare die, I love you, please…"

Unfortunately, though, Kaito hadn't actually been able to return his confession – because who didn't love a detective who claimed to hate you but nearly worked himself to death trying to save your life? – because he'd sort of passed out after that and had woken up a day later in the hospital, Aoko at his side sobbing that he'd somehow been shot and sans Kid suit (clearly Shinichi had something to do with that part).

Since he'd gotten out of the hospital, well… to say Kaito had been stalking Shinichi would be… um… somewhat accurate. Although he preferred the term "followed."

Shinichi hadn't done anything particularly of note – he went through his daily routine, talked to that childhood friend of his… nothing unexpected. Kaito had been planning to confess back to him tonight –

– Until Shinichi suddenly decided to go to a bar and get himself some male admirers.

That sort of put a damper on Kaito's idea of creating the right atmosphere and, you know, telling Shinichi he was in love with him.

The magician gave a muted growl when one of the men slung an arm around a laughing Shinichi's neck exceedingly casually, eliciting a concerned glance from the bartender standing a few feet away. She lifted an over penciled eyebrow at him. "You okay?"

"Fine," replied Kaito curtly, not exactly in the mood for conversation. Seeing as the love of his life was sort of hanging all over three other men, it made sense.

The bartender eyed him appraisingly, following his gaze to where it was riveted on Shinichi. "I see. You want some of that?" She grinned, leaning against the counter. "I can see why."

Kaito glared at her.

She took the hint and hurried away.

Sighing, Kaito narrowed his eyes at the men around Shinichi. Damn. Even from here he could tell that those men were trouble. Like, big trouble. He could almost see the yakuza tattoos underneath the sleeves of their shirts.

Seriously, what the hell was Shinichi doing? As far as Kaito knew, the man was the farthest from promiscuous an extremely attractive twenty-year-old man could be. He had morals and integrity and honor and all that. He also had superb deduction skills that probably would've alerted him to the fact that those guys weren't exactly innocent little librarians.

So why was he giggling shyly and handing out coy looks and accepting most likely drugged drinks and staring at them through his eyelashes?!

Kaito was vaguely away that he was about to break his whiskey glass. He loosened his grip and stared down into the depths with a morose sigh. Had he totally gotten Shinichi's character wrong…? But no, there just wasn't any way that Shinichi could actually… not the justice-loving, crime-stopping former high school detective…?

And even if Shinichi was, er, into this kind of thing, did that change how Kaito… felt about him? Certainly, he still thought the detective was painfully attractive, but that wasn't love, that was attraction. Kaito could be attracted to anyone, and it didn't mean anything.

The question was did he still love Shinichi? Did he still adore the twitch of Shinichi's lips when Shinichi was trying not to laugh? The way he exuded calm confidence while presenting his deductions? How he made snarky comments at Kaito that both of them knew he never really meant but never stopped making regardless? The first time Kaito had ever seen him lose his cool for real, pressing his jacket against Kaito's side and hissing swears and words of love all in the same breath?

Did Kaito still love all of that and every other bit of Shinichi to pieces? Did Shinichi's apparent promiscuity change that?

…No. No, it didn't. Kaito would still take a bullet – or worse – for the man.

"Oh God." Kaito dropped his forehead down onto the counter with a thunk. He was seriously, seriously in love with the detective.

This was either really good or really bad.

Something prodded his arm, and Kaito jerked upright to find that the bartender from before was watching him with a halfway amused expression.

"Did you want another whiskey?" she asked, and Kaito shook his head.

"I thought so." She paused, wiping a glass, before cracking a sharklike smile that was composed of far too much lipstick. "I also thought you might want to know that guy's leaving with his friends now."

"Huh? What guy?" Kaito blinked before following the bartender's gesture to where Shinichi was… standing up with the three men. As in, to leave.

It took a full minute of Kaito blinking in horror as Shinichi, blushing and laughing, allowed himself to be escorted out of the bar. One of the men's shirts rode up just enough to validate Kaito's suspicions of yakuza tattoos, and the other two were wearing matching predatory looks as they gazed at Shinichi.

The sound of the bell over the door finally snapped Kaito out of it.

He jolted to his feet, almost upsetting his barstool. They were – this – Shinichi was going to be – ew, like seriously, ew – there was no way Kaito was letting this go, not when –

Barely ignoring the twinge in his side (damn bullet wound, this was not the time to be acting up), Kaito flung down a couple thousand yen on the bar and limped for the door. The bartender snickered behind him.

Kaito was panting as he burst out of the bar, looking from side to side frantically as he tried to locate Shinichi and the three men.

Suddenly there was the sound of a body hitting something and a muted grunt of pain from Kaito's right, where there was an alley between the bar and the neighboring host club. He instantly stiffened. "Oh hell no," he snarled under his breath, swinging around to march towards the sound. His injury was burning now, but the thought of Shinichi –

He rounded the corner, reading to send some people into the hospital (or at least try), but was greeted by the sight of Shinichi leaning against one of the walls, calmly holding his cell phone to his ear, with the three men lying in groaning heaps at his feet…?

Drawing up short, Kaito just stared blankly at the scene before him. "Um."

Shinichi didn't seem to notice him. "Inspector Megure – oh, Officer Takagi? I got the three yakuza members involved in the murder. You should come get them. I know I wasn't supposed to go without protection, but you have to know that I can handle three of them. And they probably would've realized there were police if you guys had come." He dragged a hand through his fringe resignedly as whoever was on the other side scolded him. "Yes, yes. Next time I'll get permission. But I've got them anyway. You'll come? Okay. Good. See you soon."

Snapping his phone shut, Shinichi glanced up to see Kaito gawking at him. A look of surprise flitted over his face momentarily, but only momentarily. "Oh. Kid. What are you doing out here?" he asked conversationally.

"How did you…" Oh right, this was a super genius detective. Of course he'd be recognized even as a civilian. "I was concerned about you, tantei-kun."

One eyebrow went up. "So you followed me into a bar?"

"Um." Kaito shuffled. "Yes."

"I see." Shinichi stepped over the three prone bodies. "Well, I've been working a case that involves the murder of a yakuza leader, so we think these three might be involved. There were also a couple rumors going around that implied that they liked men, too, so I located where they were most likely to be and set this up."

"And here I was ready to accept you being a stripper," Kaito muttered under his breath.

Shinichi looked at him strangely. "Did you just say something?"

"Nothing."

Sending him one last confused glance, Shinichi smiled nonchalantly before his expression turned worried. "But anyway, why are you out of bed? It's only been, what, two weeks since you were shot? A few days since you got out of the hospital?"

"Four days. And don't worry about me," managed Kaito, although his side was getting a little bit more than achy. "I was just confused when I saw you flirting with a bunch of men."

"Yes, well." Shinichi didn't seem as if he wanted to elaborate past there. "But how did you know where I was going?"

"Oh. Er…" Kaito faltered. What, exactly, was the best way to phrase "I've been following you around ever since I was discharged because I wanted to return your not-really confession"?

Shinichi blinked owlishly at him, eyes wide. Kaito suddenly realized that he had asked that aloud.

"My 'not-really confession'?"

"I mean…" Kaito wondered if he could somehow rewind time and erase the last three seconds. "You know. The whole thing when I got shot. You said…"

He was suddenly very aware of Shinichi watching him, eyes flickering in the moonlight and expression thoughtful. "What part of you getting shot?" the detective asked, voice like steel underneath silk. "The part that made me more desperate than I'd ever been before in my life, where I was begging you not to die because I'm in love with you?" Even now, there were traces of that petrifying desperation.

"Uh… that part, yes," Kaito answered, feeling incredibly lame. He was holding his side, he realized, a fact that did not go unnoticed by Shinichi. "I love you, too?" he managed weakly, offering a feeble smile.

"You… Dammit, Kid, I can't…" Shinichi trailed off, exasperated as he hurried over and braced Kaito's shoulder. He glanced up and down the street impatiently. "When is Officer Takagi going to get here, for the love of God? I need to get you somewhere and check on your wound."

"If you wanted to take me home, you could've just asked," Kaito said cheekily, and Shinichi gave him a supremely unimpressed stare.

Behind them, one of the men groaned, stirring. Shinichi let go of Kaito for a second – the magician sagged against the wall – and kicked him back into unconsciousness, the epitome of serenity, before grabbing Kaito once again. He resumed staring up and down the street as if nothing had happened.

Kaito wondered why he'd ever thought Shinichi needed help to fend off anyone.

He grinned despite the fact that he was sort of falling over. "I'd love you even if you were a stripper, you know."

Shinichi blinked before he smirked back. "And I'd love you even if you were an insufferable phantom thief who stalked me for four days and needlessly tried to save me from three yakuza and instead just agitated his bullet wound."

"Fair trade." Kaito beamed blindingly at him before he passed out.

I started this with the idea of "Kaito needlessly worries about Shinichi being assaulted by a bunch of guys but finds out that Shinichi is perfectly capable of taking care of himself" stuck in my head.

Yeah. I don't quite know how I ended up with this, but. Not the point.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed! Drop this poor, depressed authoress a review if you feel like it~! - Luna