Mikau: Hello and welcome to all of you, newcomers and old friends alike! Thanks ever so much for coming to take a look at my story. I hope you like it. Please enjoy!

Disclaimer: If I owned it, I'd include more Heiji. I've become enamored of his voice after living in Kyoto for six months. I miss kansai-ben terribly! Everyone in the Japanese program at my school speaks Tokyo standard. Well, there are some girls that studied abroad in Nagoya that can do a little bit of the accent, but…still. It's still not kansai-ben. My sensei's from the Osaka area, though, but she mostly speaks the standard dialect too.

….

Accidents and Aftereffects

It had been an accident.

Kid had fled on foot from the scene, dashing across the street and running towards the mouth of a dark alley with Tantei-san right on his tail.

Kid didn't even have time to look back to check his adversary's position until he heard the squeal of brakes and a sickening thud. He whipped around to catch sight of the number plate and Hakuba Saguru's body lying on the pavement.

Without a second thought, the thief raced to his fallen rival's side, checking desperately for signs of life.

The blonde was breathing, but he was out cold, and there was a nasty-looking wound on his forehead.

Tantei-kun rounded the corner a minute later and darted through the legs of the gawkers surrounding the thief and fallen detective. He stopped in his tracks upon seeing the grim scene, but a second later, after his brain had processed, he sprinted towards the kaitou.

"Not now, Tantei-kun," the thief growled like a mother protecting her young. "Catch me later."

"Do what you need to do," the shrunken sleuth replied, tearing his shirt into thin strips to use as bandages. "I've got my priorities straight."

Kid wasted no time in calling for an ambulance and the rest of the taskforce. He gave the plate number to the nice lady on the phone and then attempted to help the older teen with the first aid treatment.

"You should get out of here," Conan sighed, wiping blood from his hands onto his shorts absentmindedly. "There's nothing else you can do."

"I can't just leave him!" Kaito exclaimed.

"He wouldn't want you to get caught like this…. I don't want you to get caught like this," the boy insisted, looking back the way from which he had come.

Kid beat a hasty retreat when he saw the good Inspector Nakamori and his men on their way, barreling towards him like a herd of wild capybaras.

"Thanks," he whispered to his rival as he fled.

The gentleman thief escaped but kept close by until the detective was in stable condition. After he was sure, he changed out of the nurse's uniform and called his witness statement in to Megure-keibu before calling it a night.

Kaito went home to fret and assign blame as he lay awake in bed, tossing and turning until it was time to get up for school.

000

When he opened his eyes, the sun was just starting to sink below the horizon, painting the world a fuzzy orange color with its glow.

He blinked and wondered what time it was.

This triggered the instinct to reach into his pocket and pull out…something. He couldn't remember, but he didn't have pockets anyway, so it was pointless.

He blinked and took stock of the situation. He was lying in a hospital bed—judging by the sterile décor and all of the beeping machines he was hooked up to—and he was alone.

He had a private room, so he must be someone important or know someone important.

He slowly sat up, noting that his body felt like it had been put through a meat tenderizing machine. He probably had some bruised ribs, but nothing was broken. Nothing felt broken, and he wasn't wearing a cast, so…

Beside his bed was a little table filled with a flower arrangement and cards.

Slowly, carefully, he reached out and took one off of the table, trying his hardest to move as little as possible.

There was a card from his class—Ekoda High 2B. He was approximately seventeen years old, then. There was also one from the Kaitou Kid Taskforce—whatever the bloody hell that was—and others from various divisions of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police. He was a police officer? No. Too young to merit attention and respect from so many ranked officers. It was more likely he had a parent or relative high up in the force.

Most of the messages read: "Get well soon, Hakuba-kun," "Feel better, Hakuba-kun," or "Hakuba-kun, we miss you!" Logically, then, he was Hakuba.

What was his first name?

None of the cards mentioned his first name.

He knew that if he could just get up to look at his charts or peek at the nameplate just outside the door, but…ah. There it was. The flowers had come with a tiny card that read, "Saguru-bocchama, please get well soon. I'll make you anything you like once you get home. Feel better, Dear. –Baaya."

This told him several things: one, his family was well enough off for him to have a caretaker that called him "Young Master." Two, with a name like that, he was most probably of Japanese descent. Three, with a name like that, his parents were either nitwits or didn't love him very much.

Hakuba took another look around the room, but there was nothing more to investigate from where he sat in bed. He pushed the nurse call button.

It was several hours later that he was finally left alone after having been poked and prodded and tested and examined.

He had just finished eating dinner when a little old woman with spectacles on a chain around her neck tentatively entered his room.

"Saguru-bocchama?" She swallowed hard.

Saguru blinked and smiled.

That would be his caretaker. She looked strict but caring.

"Hello, Baaya. It's good to see you," he replied pleasantly.

"Oh, Bocchama!" the old woman sighed, wrapping an arm around him and gently applying pressure. She was very careful not to treat him too roughly, despite her enthusiasm. "You have no idea how worried I was! Worried sick! Absolutely ill! Praise the lord that that thief stopped to patch you up and call for help."

"Thief?" The hospitalized boy blinked.

"The Kaitou Kid," she informed him.

There that name was again.

"Don't you remember, Young Master?"

"Things are a little fuzzy, I'm afraid," Saguru chuckled sheepishly. "What exactly happened to me?"

"You were chasing that thief across the street when a car hit you. Didn't even stop to see if you were dead or alive!" the matronly woman huffed. "Thank goodness for that thief. He called in the plate number and everything. They caught the criminal, and the police aren't being too kind, what with you being the Superintendent's son—"

—Superintendent? He'd been correct. He was someone very important—the prince of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police.

"—granted you should have been watching where you were going, but he should have stopped. It's all because you're so obsessed with catching that thief, Saguru. I sometimes wonder if you think of anything else." His caregiver sighed. "But…do look both ways before crossing the street next time, Dear. I thought I taught you that when you were young."

"Yes, Baaya," Hakuba chuckled softly. He liked this woman; she was very practical but also kind.

"Incidentally, Baaya, do you know if my parents are around? When will they be coming to visit?"

"Your mother's still in England, even though I called and told her about what happened a few days ago. Your father is busy with work, like always, but he may come to visit tomorrow or the following day. It really depends upon how long they keep you here—you're basically all better, but they want to keep you for observation. It's a miracle your body didn't sustain any more damage than it did. You should be grateful!" She wagged her finger at him.

Saguru smiled. "Yes, Baaya."

This woman truly cared for him.

"And…when will my mother come home from England?" he prodded. She must be a very busy businesswoman, for he seemed to have been raised by Baaya.

Baaya blinked. "Come home?"

Saguru blinked. "Yes. When does she plan to return to Japan?"

The elderly woman's brow creased.

Had he gotten something wrong? Certainly he had a mother, for Baaya had said that she'd just talked with her, so she couldn't be dead, though that would explain the presence of Baaya in his life.

Baaya's eyes narrowed. "Bocchama, how old are you?"

"Seventeen," Saguru responded, trying not to look nervous.

"And when is your birthday?"

"August twenty-ninth." His sheet had told him so.

She proceeded to ask questions about height, weight, and blood type that could all be answered based on the information on his charts. And then: "What school do you go to?"

"Ekoda High." He shrugged. "Baaya, why are you asking me all of this?

"What class are you in?" She continued the grilling session.

"Two B. Baaya—"

"—What's your boyfriend's name?" she asked with a straight face.

He paused. Blinked. Now how was he supposed to know that? Wait.

"I don't have a boyfriend," he stated with certainty.

"Are you sure?" Baaya pushed.

"I'm positive. I don't have a boyfriend."

There was no card, no flowers, no evidence of anyone except Baaya waiting at his bedside for him to wake up, therefore there was no boyfriend.

"What happened to that boy you were dating?" She asked, and it sounded like she was in earnest. "You were just going on and on about him not two weeks ago. Did you two break up?"

Well bollox. Maybe? All he knew was that there was no evidence telling him that he currently had a boyfriend, so…

"He said that I never had time for him because of my obsession with the Kaitou Kid." Why the hell not? Based upon what he knew of himself thus far, it sounded reasonable. "He broke up with me shortly before the accident. Maybe that was why I wasn't being as careful as I should have." Sure. That sounded believable, and it gave him an excuse for getting run over by a car like an idiot.

Baaya blinked. "Saguru, did you really have a boyfriend?"

Hakuba blinked. "What do you mean?"

"I just made that up to try to catch you off guard. Did you really have a boyfriend?"

Bloody hell, woman!

He sighed in resignation. "Baaya, how am I supposed to know when I didn't even remember my own name when I woke up?"

"You do have amnesia!" she exclaimed.

"Yes, but I think I did a rather bang up job of pretending that I didn't, don't you think?" Saguru shrugged.

"Then how did you know all that? Do you remember who I am, Bocchama?" Baaya exclaimed.

"No. I don't remember anything. I deduced everything from the cards on the table, the private room, the way you spoke to me…things like that. Though, I did look on the charts for my birthday and blood type and all that." Saguru smiled sheepishly.

Baaya sighed. "I wouldn't expect anything less from you, Young Master. You're still a detective, even when you don't remember that you're a detective."

Hakuba nodded. "A detective, am I? Hmm…I can see myself as a detective. Oh. Baaya, what's the verdict? Am I actually gay, or were you just making that up?"

His caretaker laughed. "I'm actually not sure, Bocchama. You could, feasibly be bisexual. You've never really shown a strong interest in women, though you're always courteous—a real gentleman because I raised you right, naturally. However, you do have this alarming fascination with the Kaitou Kid. I've often wondered if you didn't have feelings of a romantic nature towards him."

"Great," Saguru sighed.

….

:}i{:

Mikau: The butterfly emot is my favorite, so here it is again for those that have seen it before. So, I've decided that sometimes I want to smack Kaito and yell, "Annunciate!" I'm translating Magic Kaito for my Japanese 499 Independent Study, and Kaito mumbles and slurs something terrible. One time he said "Waateru" when it was supposed to be "Wakatteiru." That's actually not bad at all, but sometimes I have to ask Sensei, "What the heck is that supposed to say?" Well, I hope you liked the chapter. Thanks so much for reading; I'd appreciate it if you sent in some feedback, if you have the time. Thanks in advance! Have a great day!