"Sherlock." Was the first name Kaito suggested to the small blond boy sitting on his couch. Saguru looked up from studying his now much smaller hands, his brown eyes narrowed. A look of annoyance crossed his face. "For your new name, you know? Saguru is not exactly a common name, now is it? Those people probably think you're dead, so it wouldn't be good to flash your identity around."
"Do you think I'd be that stupid to choose such an obvious name? It would be like you calling yourself Lupin if you ended up like this. No one's that dumb to not notice." Kaito begged to differ, knowing that a name like Edogawa Conan should have stood out, not just to the public, but to the people who wanted the other mini detective dead, but alas, no.
"How about James?" It was a common enough name in the English speaking world, right?
After receiving a very detailed rant on Professor Moriarty, it was decided that, no, he wouldn't be known as James.
"Irene?" Kaito asked, holding up a dress that had been on sale. Saguru's face immediately afterwards was worth the kick to the shin that he received, and being banned from the clothing store after knocking down multiple displays.
But, Kaito realised, Saguru hadn't actually said no.
.
.
.
That is, until Kaito brought it up again, and Saguru had said 'no' in several languages Kaito knew, and even some he didn't, just to get the point across. Funny, since he was sure the blond boy was only fluent in Japanese, English, and French. Swiping his cell phone and checking the internet history proved that Saguru had looked the others up. It seemed like he'd expected Kaito would bring it up again.
"Takara?" It was not Kaito who said this, but an older woman. Saguru turned around, and the woman's face fell. "Sorry. I thought you could be someone else." If Saguru hadn't had a hood on to hide his hair, there probably wouldn't have been the same confusion.
"Takara." Kaito repeated, with a half smile.
"No. Try again."
"But it means treasure! It's perfect. I did take you from my heist, after all. Only, you're one treasure I can't return. It would be a bit of a pain explaining to everyone how you're so small." He squinted. "You might even be smaller than Tantei-kun."
"Okay, I've got it! Sachiko!" Saguru checked that Kaito couldn't be hiding that dress behind his back, before sighing.
"No. Why must you suggest female names? Yes, I do need to go undercover, but not that undercover. Posing as a female would be more trouble than it's worth."
"Well, who says you have to be a girl? You can be a boy named Sachiko." Kaito reasoned, mostly to get a rise out of the boy. He was getting really tired of this naming game, and Saguru was not being helpful at all.
"I'd never-"
Kaito cut in. "You named your female hawk Watson. I don't see your problem with you, a boy, using a girl's name."
Saguru shut up after that, but later they came to the agreement that Sachiko was not the name he'd use.
"Tobias." Kaito was back with another English name. Saguru actually perked up at this one.
"Tobias. That one is reasonably appealing. It's the name of a character in a book series I enjoyed as a child. More so, I enjoyed the character." Saguru admitted with a small smile. It was actually quite cute. But Kaito ruined it.
"Cool! I could call you Toby."
"Well, that's an entirely differ-"
"Toby or not Toby? That is the question!" Kaito exclaimed in English.
"Not Toby."
Kaito was so sure that Saguru wouldn't say no for once.
"Hiro?"
"Only if you can find a Baymax doll for me to carry around."
This went no where, since Kaito spent the rest of the night contemplating the fact that Hakuba Saguru of all people had watched that movie.
"Michi!" Kaito was on a recon mission for his next KID heist, and he had to bring Saguru with him. They were posing as a mother and her daughter, the most unassuming pair up Kaito could think of. "Keep up!"
Saguru looked very annoyed, wearing the very dress that Kaito had bought on sale. If and when he got back to his normal age, being polite and gentlemanly be damned, Kaito was getting a black eye. For now, he simply gave the thief a two-fingered salute.
"Samuel." Saguru said, holding out his hand to the other shrunken detective. "I'm from France." Kaito watched with wide eyes as Saguru formed an entire backstory. He was even adding in a proper accent. Unbelievable. A month of Kaito's effort, and this was where he was left.
"I'm Conan. What are you doing here? Are you here with your parents?" Conan looked at Samuel with a slight look of suspicion.
"No. Kaito-niisan brought me here, but then he ditched me. He's KID's biggest fan, apparently. I don't get why KID even has fans. He's not fictional like Arsene Lupin is, and being fictional is what makes him better than KID. I love Arsene Lupin!"
"I'm more of a Sherlock Holmes fan. The Arsene Lupin books are alright though."
Kaito very well near had a heart attack, which would have blown his cover, when Saguru replied with "I don't like Sherlock Holmes."
Seriously, he told the guy to lie about his intrests, but this was ridiculous.
"Hakuba?" Kaito asked, when he found the detective sitting outside alone. "Are you alright?"
"No, I'm not." He said quietly.
"Why not? You were fine this morning. Is it because you were found by Aoko during the heist? I don't think she meant to get that affectionate with you. She thought you were actually eight." Kaito sat down beside him.
"It's not that. I could be stuck like this for a long time, and that does upset me, Kuroba-kun. Childhood was not fun for me, and it's not something I'd like to repeat." Kaito didn't know what to say. "So please, just don't make this worse than it already is." He looked up at Kaito. "Please, call me Saguru."