Hello there! After a shameless 6 months break (for no real reason, too... -_-), I'm back!! :) This fic is posted here thanks to all the support given by s2lou-chan (first chaptered fic, too), so it's more than natural that I shall give this first chapter to her. Thanks again! *glomp* The story circles around Aoko, KID, and Kaito (and Nakamori's real important here). Not much to say, except that I hope you'll enjoy it, and I'll try to update regularly. I had fun writing the first chapter (thanks again, s2lou! :D), and generally what I have enjoyed writing doesn't suck too much... Anyway, you judje! :) I hope there are not too much grammar mistakes (my 's' pad and my keypad isn't feeling well lately...)! And I'm afraid Sara-chan, that your writing might have influenced me a bit... (What with reading Falling Down and all...) I hope it doesn't show too much in this chapter!

Oh, and I'm thrilled to be able to begin all my title names with 'In which'. Go figure.

Merry Christmas to you all!*ami-chan off in a daze*

Disclaimer: Me girl. Gosho Aoyama man. Me not Detective Conan's owner.

A Detective's Dilemma, or A Thief's Challenge.

Chapter 1 – In Which A Detective Is Troubled.

Kaito looked down at the crowd, the night's breeze ruffling quietly through his hair. He could still hear voices, sirens, and the sound of the Nichiuri T.V. helicopter flying away as if in a far, dreamlike universe. The height of the clock tower –he was at the moment on the top of said building- somewhat separated him from the world below. People were now slowly discarding, and the last police cars had now disappeared in the dark of the night.

'Toward the police headquarters.' Kaito thought, observing the street one last time before turning to his watch. 1:53. The heist had lasted longer than he'd thought. He sighed. That would mean yet another short night for a very long school day. And a grumpy Aoko. Aoko was always in the worst mood after a heist.

Thinking of Aoko, Nakamori-keibu had seemed quite out of it (Kaito could swear he hadn't insulted him with more than twenty different curses. And that was saying something.). He'd have to look into it later. He didn't want his major opponent –and his friend's father, too- to be feeling down. That would make the heists much less interesting, and Aoko would without doubt be saddened if her father didn't feel well.

Kaito looked at the jewel in his hand. It wasn't the right one, of course –it never seemed to be. He'd already put it in the moonlight's glow, hoping for it to shine red, but the diamond had kept his original transparent, colourless shape. He hadn't been surprised –he would have been more surprised if it had been this one. He was starting to doubt he would ever find the gem. Yet another useless night. The clock stroke 2:00 AM –he really ought to start his heists at an earlier hour-, shaking Kaito from his thoughts. 'Time to go home.'

With a last look at the full moon, Kaito, still in his KID outfit, jumped off the roof and silently soared into the night, the wind gently pulling his hand-glider.

*

The first rays of sunlight were beginning to come in through the window when Nakamori Ginzo first realised that dawn had come. He looked at the files stacked on his desk in a complete mess. He clumsily got up from his chair –he'd been seated there for about four hours now- and, fumbling through the mountain of papers, managed to find his cigarettes and matches.

Opening his window, the inspector let out a smoked-filled breath, and sighing, watched as the sun rose over the Tokyo skyscrapers. He felt grateful for the fresh air and light, after such a long night, of which he'd spent half in a dark and packed room. Holding back a yawn, Nakamori returned to his desk and began to put some order in his files. To say the night had been unproductive would have been kind. It seemed as if he hadn't written a single correct word –the few words he had managed to put down on paper were complete rubbish.

Enough. He was too tired to keep working, he knew that. He wasn't as fit as he used to be, when he was younger. Back then he would have chased KID for hours, and then spent more to write a correct report. Now he just wanted to be in his bed. Yes, how long had it been since he'd first started chasing the thief? He counted. Eighteen years. He'd been there, in France, at his very first heist. Hadn't missed one since.

He suddenly felt really tired. Not tired because of his long night –no, he was used to these. It was more like disillusionment. Eighteen years. He'd spent that much time looking for a thief he'd never caught. And now, well… he was older. Not as fast. Not as vigorous as once. He still had some dynamism –no one could deny it-, but whereas he was getting on in years, KID didn't seem to age one bit. And the difference of strength, power between them would eventually start to grow, and he couldn't stop it. Maybe he had to wake up. To accept, that never he would catch him, that bloody burglar.

He could resign, start anew as a private detective. It had worked for watsisname, that bloody Mouri or something, the one that had recently been coming to the heists with the four-eyed brat. But could he really? He doubted he could just forget about his job in a fortnight and go on as an independent worker.

Nakamori gathered his coat, keys, picked some files and started for his door, when he sighted a picture of Aoko on his desk. He hadn't seen his daughter much in a while. She'd been alone all night, hadn't she? It seemed that he was now starting to remember about the world around him, after the heist had snatched it away entirely. He hurried up a little, locked his door and began to walk rapidly. A clock indicated 7:00 AM. He might just be able to catch her before she went to school.

*

Surprisingly, when Kaito entered the classroom, he didn't find Aoko in her usual enraged post-heist state –well, she did chase him with a mop a few times, and insult him quite a bit, but through the day she remained quite calm. 'Odd.' She seemed quite thoughtful –and, was she a bit down? - , however, and by the end of the day, she had yet to fight with Keiko about whether KID had been godlike as usual at his heist, or an abject moron thief like always. 'Odder still.'

As the last bell rang, Aoko quickly packed her stuff, and after a hasty goodbye to Keiko, she went out of the class room, making Kaito almost run to catch up with her.

"Thanks for waiting!" blurted Kaito, though not unkindly, when he reached her.

Aoko turned toward him and smiled slightly (a quiet, tired –and almost sad, too- kind of smile), before she spoke a little "sorry". 'Uh-oh. Worse than expected.' Something told Kaito it wasn't quite the moment to play some prank. Likewise, if he was going to get Aoko to talk about what was troubling her, he'd have to do so with delicacy. Thinking, Kaito snapped his fingers in an almost automatic way, and an instant later a red, fully bloomed rose had appeared in his hand. He made it spin absent-mindedly for a moment, still deep in thoughts, before presenting it to his best friend.

"A flower for the lady." , he said, a grin plastered on his face as he made a quick bow. Aoko took it, and as her smile seemed somehow more genuine, Kaito dared to question her.

"… I take it your father was out for the whole night?" he began, quite hesitantly. Aoko was now the one to play with the rose distractedly. She was watching it as she twirled it delicately in her fingers –left to right, right to left-, and didn't answer before a few moments.

"… Mmh. He came back for breakfast, though." Her deep, blue eyes seemed to tense at the notion, and Kaito thought he detected some worry there for an instant. There was something there. He knew his best friend too well to let such a sign pass. He'd probably been right, then. Either Aoko had had a fight or a problem of some sort with her father, or the man had indeed been bothered by something and Aoko had realised it, just as Kaito had known something was odd with her today.

"Is that when it happened, then -what's bothering you?" Tricky question. Either Aoko would answer honestly, or she'd try to hide the truth and Kaito would have to start again, forcing his way through the barriers she'd built to keep him –and everybody else- out. Left to right, right to left. The flower was still spinning in her hand.

"Something's bothering me? How can you tell?" A question. Dismissal, or an invitation to keep going? Her tone had been more curious than defensive. She was looking at him with her full attention, and the rose had stopped turning in her hand.

"You didn't yell at me when I arrived in class -with much style, I have to say-, just as the bell rang, or when I turned Hakuba's hair the loveliest shade of pink, because he'd declared me late –I must have been a millisecond late on his precious watch, if you ask me. I would never be late. You barely chased me trice –post-heist days come with at least ten chases, usually –regular ones with five-, and you didn't object when Keiko declared KID was a god as well as the most amazing person on earth. Which is quite true, by the way. In the end, you were quite like a normal school girl, opposed to the shrew you usually are." 'But much more boring.' Kaito dodged easily as Aoko's school bag came flying toward his face, and he caught it swiftly before it touched the ground, letting out a hearty laugh. Aoko was glaring at him quite strongly, though Kaito saw she was having trouble repressing a smile. 'A real smile.' He'd found long ago he liked this semi, falsely angry smile of hers. Maybe that was why he teased her so often. It gave Aoko's eyes a gleam that sparkled more in her deep, blue, ocean-like eyes than anything he'd ever seen –more than any jewel he'd ever stolen. (Scratch that. More than any jewel he'd ever borrowed.)

"I'm not a shrew!" she replied, quite childishly. This only made Kaito smirk amusedly as he returned her bag to her –"Would the lady accept this back?"-, so she resigned herself, and with a small sigh, she resumed to talking, her eyes on her rose once again. "You're right. Something is wrong. But not with me. It's…"

"…Your father?" Kaito finished her sentence, and he smiled gently as Aoko looked surprised. "I know you", he replied simply, and with a quick bow of the head, he encouraged his friend to continue.

"Yeah. My father. He came home for breakfast, as I told you, and we ate together. Which was really nice, because you know, after heists nights, he's so tired that he usually goes to sleep immediately, but no, this time he ate with me." She was speaking quite hurriedly, as if she'd wanted to speak about it since the very beginning –she probably had-, the rose Kaito had given her earlier spinning faster than ever in her hand. She was watching it steadily, as if it helped her to think – right to left, left to right. She went on. "But the thing is, he was always away in his thoughts during the meal, and he barely spoke, and he must have said two words about the heist, but he always goes about it for hours, and he insults KID too, normally, except today he didn't…" She seemed to somewhat calm down, but her eyes didn't leave the rose. "After breakfast, he went to his study and didn't go out. I thought he'd go to sleep after eating, but…" A small pause. Then the sadness disappeared from her eyes –so, so beautiful-, and some sort of resolution seemed to build up in her. "I just want to know what he's thinking."

Kaito stayed silent as he thought, searching for some words to cheer Aoko up and trying to find out what Nakamori was thinking. What was going through the old man, really? It hadn't been more humiliating a defeat for the detective than any other. No, it had been the usual deal – gem stolen, useless chase, and easy escape. What had happened, then? The thought of Nakamori having crossed ways with Snake and his peers crossed his mind, but he shrugged it off almost immediately –the man wouldn't be breathing at the moment if he had.

"Hmm. Don't worry," he began, after a minute or so of reflection, "your father's probably just planning some tactic or another for the next heist already!" He smiled a reassuring, carefree smile at her, which he hoped to be perfect and persuasive. No need to worry Aoko just yet with it. It could have been anything –nothing, really- that was bothering the old guy. His friend, however, didn't seem to be quite convinced.

"But why would he plan something after the heist? Shouldn't he do so before?"

"Well, he might have mixed up his days." Aoko shot her amused-angry stare and smile at him -bliss-, so that Kaito finished his sentence with a grin. "Or he might have finally realised that he had no chance against KID, and decided to plan for the next heist right after this one so he could try to catch him –which would be useless, of course, because KID is as skilled, or almost, as Arsène Lupin, but your father wouldn't-"

BAM. The bag hit its target this time. And through his fake tears and laments, Kaito saw that Aoko was smiling again –this smile that was worth more than anything else-, the rose gently held between her fingers. He had to fight the urge to place it in her hair.

*

In his study – his home's was roomier and sunnier than the one he had at work-, Nakamori Ginzo was sitting at his desk, in a comfortable armchair. In front of him were his files and his newly written report. He'd managed to write a correct account of the heist through the day, and he was now thinking -again. He'd reached some conclusion, at last: he couldn't give up his job –he'd basically spent more than half his working-life chasing after the thief, that wasn't something one could erase so easily-, but he doubted he could go on much longer without any proof, any sign that maybe he wasn't doing all of this for nothing.

Now all he needed was to find a way to get his proof. And he thought he had just the idea.

Seizing his pen and a piece of paper, Nakamori began to write actively as the sun started to set.

So... Something's starting to happen here. I added the KaiAo bits a little after, and I hope it doesn't seem too odd... Thanks for reading, and would-you-please-give-me-a-review-for-Christmas? xD

See you soon!