I first met Kaito Kuroba when I was four.

I was obsessed with the Mission Impossible movie and Ethan Hunt; while waiting for my mom to finish her appointment with the herbalist, I was re-watching the movie again on my mom's phone, probably for the twentieth time.

A boy, older than me (two years? three years maybe?) came and sat down besides me with his father (I assumed so, they looked pretty similar except for the mustache on the man's face). They were both Japanese, like me; I could hear them through the background music of Mission Impossible pumping out my headphones.

The boy seemed to be angry with his father. The father didn't seem to care though, as he just patted the boy's head and smiled. The woman at the counter called for the dad- "Mr. Kuroba! Go to the second room!"- and the boy slumped down on the couch and covered his face with his hands.

Feeling like I wasn't going to be able to concentrate on the movie anyways, I pulled my headphones off and decided to talk to the guy.

"...Kuro..ba-san…?" I called, scooting closer to the guy. I figured his last name was probably Kuroba, or something along the lines, according to the counter woman, anyways.

The boy jumped up and stared at me. "Do you know me?" he demanded.

He was taller, bigger, stronger than me. I felt scared. "N, no, I just thought…"

Seeing me hang my head down, he sat down next to me. "if you're going to cry, don't do it here," he grumbled.

"I'm not going to cry! I'm not that weak!" I yelled, pouting. Thinking back, I bet I would have looked really funny to him.

Which is probably why he laughed and patted my head. "Oh, I'm sorry. What's your name?" he asked.

"Shinichi," I sniffed. "Shinichi Kudo. Like… like that famous detective, Shinichi!"

"Yeah, I don't know him," the guy waved me off. "I'm Kaito Kuroba, by the way."

"Did you fight with your dad?" I asked, then immediately clasped my hands over my mouth. It's rude to ask such things, Shin-chan! I could hear my mom shouting in my head.

Kaito probably saw me struggling. "No, no, it's fine. I don't really care," he said, and grinned. "I told my dad I wanted to be a magician, just like him, and he told me I should get a better job than that. I got mad at him for saying that his job is… well." He stopped here, and sighed. "My dad is someone I look up to a lot, you see? He's like my idol, my role model, someone I can't reach but will always work to reach. Oh, I don't even know why I'm angry," he said then, and sank into the couch.

I had no idea what he was saying. What did the words "idol" and "role model" mean? I could not understand him. I only managed to get out a small, helpless "Oh…"

Kaito chuckled, probably seeing my confused expression. "It would probably be hard for you to understand all of this," he said, laughing.

I stuck my bottom lip out. "No! I understand," I argued. "I understand Kuroba-san must have a lot in his mind."

"Yeah, but you don't know what that lot is," he refuted. "So, what do you want to be when you grow up?"

Because I had been obsessed with Ethan Hunt and the IMF at the time- "I want to work at the IMF!" was what I shouted.

Kaito looked legit confused. He probably did not understand why a person would want to work in a stupid monetary fund. I had meant the Impossible Missions Force. "O-kay, well, nice dream you have there."

Then my mother came out. "Shin-chan, let's go!" she called.

I quickly arranged my mother's phone and headphones and put them in my pocket. "See you later, Kuroba-san!" I yelled, and waved both hands at him.

"Kaito," Kaito corrected, and grinned, his teeth, with the exception of his left front tooth (I assume it had fallen out), showing as he did so.

I did not see his trademark grin for another two years.

I was getting bullied at school for looking like a girl by second-grade girls. Even though they were girls, they towered over me; I had been an exceptionally small kid for my age at the time.

"Look at his lips," one of the blonde girls said, pinching my bottom lip with his fingers. "And his eyes. Why are you prettier than us?" she demanded.

I did not know how to reply to that. All I felt was horror, humiliation and confusion.

Apparently the blonde wanted an answer. She moved on to pinch my cheeks. "Reply to me, boy!" she yelled. The frizzy-haired brunette next to her laughed.

"Don't be so hard on him, Suzanne," she said, laughing. "Or should I say her?"

They all broke out laughing. I broke out crying.

And then they suddenly broke out crying. I broke out laughing. A soccer ball had hit the blonde girl on the head, and she collapsed on the ground. Her other two friends were shocked and didn't know what to do, and they followed her down to the ground, crying at her to stay alive.

Which I found extremely stupid.

People don't die by getting hit on their heads by plastic balls filled in with air. I could tell from the sound that it had hit the girl's head that it wasn't a real soccer ball, but just a plastic balloon filled with air and colored to look like a soccer ball.

"Hey, little boy, can you pass me the ball?" somebody called. The voice seemed vaguely familiar, but I couldn't find out why. I yelled back a yes and kicked the "ball" back. "Oh, hey, little boy, you're really good at kicking!" the guy that had asked for the ball had jogged to me to thank me. "What's your name?"

"Shinichi Kudo," I replied, smiling.

The boy looked at me weirdly. "Shinichi? Oh, like that… detective, right?"

"Yeah! How did you know?"

"Just… Well. I'm Kaito Kuroba." He waited for a moment. Maybe he was waiting for the name to ring a bell or something. I did not reply. I did not get why he had hesitated at the time. "Oh, well then, do you want to come and play soccer with us?"

And then Kaito, without waiting for my response, grabbed my hand and dragged me into the field full of fourth graders.

We won the game. I scored a goal, and Kaito scored two. The other team scored one. I was so proud of myself.

Kaito offered to walk me home that day. "We've… met before, you know…?" he asked tentatively as we walked towards our huge family estate in Baker Street.

"Yeah, actually, I've heard your voice before. Though I'm not exactly sure where," I replied, turning the soccer-balloon on my hands as I walked by Kaito.

He was tall, tan, good-looking and athletic; I was sure I had seen some of the fourth graders peering at him while he played soccer. I was the exact opposite of him; short, skinny, sickly-pale.

His indigo eyes sparkled every time he looked down at me and talked about something he liked, whether it was soccer, school or magic. He really seemed to be into magic.

When we arrived in front of my house, I found my mom waiting for me outside of the mansion, looking tired. "Shinichi!" she exclaimed when she saw me. "What took you so long?"

"I found a new friend, mom! This is Kuroba-san, he's in fourth grade, and he's also Japanese," I told mom, gesturing towards Kaito.

"On just your fifth day, a new friend! My Shin-chan is so lucky!" she said, rubbing her cheeks against mine. Her tiredness seemed to have worn away. "Thank you for bringing Shinichi home, Kuroba-kun," my mom told Kaito, smiling at him.

Kaito just laughed and said something along the lines of "No problem, Kudo-san." and then turned to me. "I'll see you tomorrow, Shinichi," Kaito said, smiling brightly and offering me his hand.

I took his hand, at least two-folds bigger than mine, and shook it, smiling back at him.


A/N: First story! Yay! *dances around* Imma take this slow and... well, at least as slow as it goes for me. I hope you liked it.