Title: Red Spider Lilies

Summary: An ill-fated encounter causes for Edogawa Conan to discover his reason for his passion, his misfortune, and somehow end up on one of the biggest murder cases of the century: The Kira Case.

A/N: Mhm, it's been a while. Thank Carottal for this!

Apples

Perhaps if he didn't respond to the challenge he was given, Kudo Shinichi may have forever been in ignorance about the true nature of and in between the fragile gift of mortality, life, death, and his role in it.

But as it was, Edogawa Conan responded to the letter he received, and was none too pleased to find 'Shinichi-nii-chan' waiting for him in a bench by the large marble fountain in the middle of the park.

So Conan slowed in his approach by jumping off that special solar-powered skateboard that the professor made just for him, catching it in his hands as it gained some air before coming down by Newton's Law, and took the few footsteps he needed to take to reach his 'relative', none too happy to do so.

The chibi detective reached in his pocket and pulled out the answer to the riddle - a familiar, red symbolic fruit that may in fact not be as symbolic as most believe. He tossed the apple at the teen to grab his attention, which was stolen by the music he was listening to. "Can we finish playing these silly games?" Conan asked as Shinichi opened his eyes, pulled out the earbud headphones from his ears and managed to catch the apple without a fumble.

The older brunet blinked before he took a look at the answer that the child had given him. He nodded his head. "Ah. I wasn't sure if you would take the pomegranate route." He threw it back to the child, who caught it swiftly in his hands.

Conan snorted. "Too many seeds for my taste." He took a bite, having washed it beforehand, and tossed it back to Shinichi. "Now what?" But he already knew the answer to that.

Shinichi also took a bite before just tossing it in the nearby waste bin. "I say you let me treat you out for lunch," the older brunet said, getting up from his bench, pocketing his mp3 player and bringing the headphone wire around the back of his neck so he wouldn't have to roll it up. He pointed to a nearby shoppe. "There's this nice café that has some awesome parfaits."

"Parfaits aren't a meal." The child signed before looking away and towards the ground. "...Can you stop looking like him please?" Conan mumbled, blushing slightly. "What if Ran shows up?"

Shinichi laughed, bending down to pat Conan on the head. "But, Tantei-kun, you're the one who refuses to acknowledge my secret identity. Besides, it's so much fun to see you so embarrassed that I'm taking your cousin's appearance." He stuck out his tongue.

Conan looked back up and rolled his eyes. "You know what, Kid? I question why I would ever want to hang out with you outside of your heists."

Kid took Conan's hand and began to skip towards the cafe, pulling the child along for the ride. "That, Tantei-kun, is because you love me!"

Conan widened his eyes, blinking rapidly as he stood in his spot. "Excuse me?"

Unfazed, Kid continued to say, "But it's okay, I love you too!", before scooping Conan up in his arms and planting him a kiss on the cheek.

Conan widened his eyes even larger and ended up blushing hotly before flailing his arms around. "In a completely platonic way! Release me!" he demanded.

Kid sighed, shrugging a bit. "Fine, fine, but I'm still paying for whatever you'd like to eat." He twirled, placing Conan back down on the bricked walkway. The child smoothed out the ends of his blazer before just walking towards the café the impersonating thief wished to bring him to.

Conan was still pretty flustered. "Don't ever do that again," he muttered, waiting for the blush to die down. That Kaitou Kid was way too flirty with him! He knew he was a gentleman, but this was just too much. It...was almost like he was treating Conan like a lady, and Conan did not want that.

Someone passing by made Conan turn, the detective getting cold chills down his spine a sign to do so. By doing so, he found it to be a high school student from Daikoku Private Academy - based on the uniform - and Conan was surprised to actually recognize the student. It was Yagami Light, one of the top students in all of Japan.

Shinichi was upset when he wasn't number one, but apparently detective work affected that status, regardless of test scores. Two points. Two points away from perfect! Shinichi really didn't need to know that it was his school attendance that those points were based off of. Like how did that affect his intelligence? When there was a mystery of the criminalistic nature, he had to solve it! He...he just had to. Especially since most cases concerning him - but as Conan especially - were of murders. No one wants to let a murder case run cold. That was just too...cold.

Something...was off concerning Yagami Light though – just a vibe Conan was getting.

Suddenly, the teen turned and Conan, not wanting to be caught staring, looked away and found himself staring at the trash can.

Conan's blood ran cold and eyes widened behind his unnecessary lenses.

It was there where he saw something he could not believe, or understand, with his eyes.

A...humanoid creature...was reaching inside the trashcan with its long arms and, after an exclamation of, "Found it!", pulled out the apple that he and Kid tossed a few short minutes ago. ...It...had bluish skin, black feathered wings, and bulging yellow eyes glistened as...it...munched on the apple, even eating the core. "Why humans would waste a perfectly good apple is something that baffles me," it said before it took another bite.

Conan didn't know who it was talking to but he hoped beyond hoped it was not him.

But what attracted Conan's attention most were the red irises, which slowly turned to the shrunken teen. The detective's heart stopped as he found himself paralyzed and he locked gazes with the creature.

It froze mid-chew, staring at Conan, and widened its eyes. It then raised a pointed finger to the shrunken child. "You..."

And then Conan could hear the creature's crude laughter, its cruel portrayal of its amusement at the current situation before finishing the apple, core and all. And it may have said more, it may have said nothing at all. All the shrunken teen knew was that he could feel himself about to collapse to the floor from being so weak in the knees.

Someone grabbed Conan's shoulder, and spun Conan around to get face to face with him.

"Conan-kun?"

Conan took a sharp intake of breath; he didn't know he had stopped breathing. "K-Kid..." He didn't realize he was trembling as he continued to feel the gaze of the creature and another on his small frame. Bringing his hands to rub his cold arms, his arms were still quivering, unnerved from the stares he could feel.

Kid, still looking like Shinichi, frowned. He bent down to the diminutive detective, who was shaking like a leaf, and reached out to touch his face. Conan didn't even swat him away as he usually would - not even flinching. It was as if the thief wasn't even there, which concerned him. When Conan began to hyperventilate, Kid realized it marked the beginnings of a panic attack. He took his shoulders and shook him a bit. "Are you alright? It looks like you've seen a ghost." The teen widened his eyes. He lowered his voice. "You can't see ghosts...can you?"

Conan finally pushed Kid away before he shook his head madly. "N-no, I cannot see ghosts."

But the statement was shaky, as if the speaker was starting to have doubts on the fact himself.

Conan grabbed onto Kid's jeans, tugging for dear life and in the opposite direction of the thing by the trash. "I-I... Le-let's just go. Pl-please..."

Kid raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. However, he did pick up Conan by the underarms, and adjusted him as such so that he could sit on his arm. The chibi detective's arms could and would wrap around Kid's neck, Conan closing his eyes as he rested his head on it as well, before Kid started walking in the opposite way, even if the café wasn't in that direction.

Conan hasn't stopped shivering.

"Excuse me for a moment."

Kid paused, and turned to the voice, which luckily was at a 45 degree angle, and found the national honors student who has been silent but there the whole time. Kid knew he was there, that Conan accidentally bumped into him before staring at the trashcan. Kid took a quick peek at the waste bin, but saw nothing that would be so frightening to his young rival.

Kid didn't know whether or not the real Shinichi would've stayed to talk with this other person, but he doubt he would've if his cousin was so freaked out over something. He lowered Conan's head before he tried to continue walking. "I'm sorry, I'm rather busy at the moment." He managed to take about four steps, but the student grabbed hold of his free shoulder, causing for Kid to spin around back towards him and towards the trashcan. Conan gave a faint whimper and closed his eyes tightly.

The other teen continued to say, "You're Kudo Shinichi, aren't you? That famous high school detective?"

Kid laughed nervously; he should have switched back to Kuroba Kaito when he had the chance. "Y-yeah, thanks, but -"

"But you haven't been in the news lately." He shook his head. "A shame, I was such a huge fan of your work. Please, let me introduce myself." The brunet smiled warmly. "I'm Yagami Light. It's an honor to meet you in person."

Now why was that name so familiar? "Yagami Light?" Kid widened his eyes; he has heard of that name. "Aren't you one of the top students in all of Japan?"

Light shrugged. "I try." He looked over to Conan in Kid's arms. "Is he okay?"

Conan refused to look up, twitching slightly, causing for Kid to furry his eyebrows. The detective really wanted to leave. "Actually, I don't think so. I'm going to take him home. It was nice meeting you, Yagami-kun." Kid began walking again.

Light quickly stepped forward before Kid could go two steps, which caused for Kid to stay back a little longer as to not tarnish Shinichi's reputation. He asked, "Would it be possible to get together some time? I myself would like to become a detective and would like to know some tips from a specialist out on the field. He can come too..."

Kid looked to Conan to see if he was going to introduce himself, but it seemed highly unlikely. "He's my cousin."

"Cousin...?"

Kid knew what it was. Light really wanted a name, but Kid didn't know if he should give it.

"Edogawa Conan," came the faint whisper that Kid and Light barely heard, but the speaker still refused to look up.

Light widened his eyes very slightly before nodding. "Ah, I've seen his name a few times in the paper as well, for the Kaitou Kid cases. Yes, Edogawa-kun can come along," said Light, looking at the child, causing for Conan to shiver.

"Uh," Kid started, not really wanting to meet up with this person. He felt a vibration from his phone and quickly knew what to do. He pulled it out and took a quick peek - it was from Aoko asking where he was since he didn't answer his front door. "When I'm available. It was great meeting up with you, Yagami-kun. Now if you would excuse me, I really have to get going..." Kid quickly walked away, knowing that now he had an excuse to leave and left without exchanging any contact information, even if incorrect.

Light coughed rather loudly, causing for Kid to pause and he knew he should've have done so. "Uh, contact information?"

Kid mentally cursed. It was worth a shot. He had no choice now. "Sure." He gave his own cell phone number, not knowing what else to give, and just took down Light's own.

After exchanging information, Light said, "Edogawa-kun can come too; in fact I think it would be best since he must be about ten years younger than me and already has a reputation. Would that be okay?"

Conan didn't reply, and so Kid said, "Maybe, if I'm allowed to. Depends if Ran lets me. Anyway, I need to get going. Bye!" He quickly left Light standing there with the chibi detective in his arms.

After they had gone a safe distance, Kid asked, "He's gone now. Tantei-kun, are you okay?"

"I don't want to see him again."

Kid blinked, the detective's voice was so firm when previously he was so shaken. "What's wrong?"

Conan looked up and shook his head. "Let's just go get some smoothies or something."

Kid said nothing, just carried on maneuvering around so that they wouldn't see Yagami Light again.

Conan's body felt so cold, and he didn't know why he was so scared. But he felt as if he had just witnessed something unnatural, something that he wasn't supposed to see.

And it was going to change everything.

L stared intently on the screen, watching the footage of Light in the park with two other individuals. He pressed his hand to his ear to listen to the headphone bud of the recording audio from the wire he had placed on Light's clothing. "Watari, try to get into contact with Kudo Shinichi I suppose."

Watari looked up from pouring the tea. "Ryuzaki?"

L bit his thumbnail as he unwrapped the sugar cubes to place in his tea. "Light-kun seemed particularly interested in Conan-kun. This is most curious." He typed away on the computer and pulled up some files on Kudo Shinichi and began scrolling with one hand and put more sugar cubes in his tea with the other. "Shinichi-kun hasn't been in the news lately…and we haven't been in contact with him but if Conan-kun is his cousin, he must also be involved." He clicked away on his mouse and began to open and read some more files and documents he opened up of Edogawa Conan, pushing away the cup of tea and just grabbing an unwrapped sugar cube and popping it in his mouth. "Not much on Conan-kun, he's mostly just seen barely in the snapshots with the Great Sleeping Kurogo…hm. Looks like he really is sleeping."

"Isn't that where he gets his name?" Watari asked as he handed L a berry trifle along with a spoon to eat it with.

"But it looks like he really is sleeping." Without taking his eyes off the screen, he took the handed treat as he scrolled down some more, stopping at a picture of Conan taken during the Blue Wonder Heist of Kaitou Kid. He began reading the article with much interest, even pulling up some articles on Kaitou Kid for some back interest, but mostly just skimmed for Conan's involvement in them, which majorly was the case.

L sucked on the spoon that was used for the trifle. "What makes you so interesting, Conan-kun?"

A/N: Doing notes at the end of the chapters now. My fandoms muses are weird. I see all the stuff I should finish and I don't…

Thank Carottal for this because of the PM she sent me. She made me so happy when I was depressed about life and this was she had chosen for me to post as a thank you to her. I'll probably work on DP when I go home this weekend.

I caution you, my Death Note knowledge is very rusty and I'm too lazy to brush back on it. This fic will probably focus on the DC aspect anyway.

This story probably won't be too long. Probably.

I know that everyone is busy but…feedback of any kind would be really great, lets me know whether or not this should continue and what you think.

Would you like for it to?