Lost and Found

Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan and Magic Kaito or any of the characters in either of those series. All rights reserved to Goshou Aoyama. The only thing I own is the plot of this fanfiction and any original characters that just might happen to worm their way in here.

Note: This is a slightly AU fanfiction in the fact that Kaito and Shinichi were best friends when they were younger. For more full details, read my fanfiction entitled Moving.

Chapter 1

The first weekend after Kaito had moved away, Shinichi had begged his mother to take him to visit his best friend, but she had refused. Both she and Yuusaku had a benefit to attend, so they were too busy to take him. Undeterred, Shinichi had continued his tearful pleading the next week until he'd extracted a promise from Yukiko to take him over on the following Sunday. But then, she'd been contacted by an old friend from the film industry, and since she had been unable to refuse an invitation from said friend, Shinichi's trip to see his friend had to be postponed again.

And so it went, Shinichi continued to beg his parents to take him, but they were always too busy for some reason or another. The weeks turned to months, and it had been so long since he'd seen his almost twin that young little Shinichi could no longer remember exactly who he wanted to see and why he wanted to see them. But something in him still compelled the young boy to ask, the feeling that there was something missing in his life.

But then he had met Ran Mouri, and their friendship had taken off like a rocket. Within a few days, Shinichi had a new best friend, one who he saw and played with every day during the week. Slowly but surely, he stopped asking so ardently to visit that one friend and started hanging out with Ran by default. Eventually, the young boy forgot to ask for a ride to visit his other friend at all. It was just understood that Shinichi and Ran would get together to play, and the two children would get up to whatever trouble Shinichi drew them into.

As time passed, Shinichi became numb to the feeling that there was something missing in his life until one certain Saturday. He had woken up early that morning because nature waits for no one and after doing his business, Shinichi had stared at himself sleepily in the mirror. He was just standing there, waiting for his body to wake up, when that feeling returned. He vaguely remembered that there was someone other than Ran who he wanted to see, someone he had known before she came into his life, someone who had maybe been his friend.

All of a sudden, he wanted to see this person more than anything, and luck was with him that morning. Yukiko had been complaining earlier in the week that there was nothing for her to do that weekend, and he'd never made any official plans with Ran. Surely, this would be the perfect time for his mother to take him to see that person.

Armed with those thoughts, Shinichi had approached his mother and asked, "Kaa-san, can you drive me to my friend's house since you're not busy?"

"Oh, there's no need for that Shin-chan," his mother had told him with a smile. "Eri called and said she'd bring Ran-chan over after they were done with family brunch. Don't worry, she'll be here by noon."

"But," Shinichi started, not sure how to ask to go see someone he couldn't remember.

"Now, now, Shin-chan," Yukiko chided gently. "We can't interrupt their family time. I know how much you like her, but you'll just have to patient." He opened his mouth again to try to explain, but his mother just shook her head. Knowing there was nothing else to be done, Shinichi averted his gaze and quietly walked away.

But when he was out of the room, the young boy began to run as fast as his little legs could take him across the mansion, up the stairs, and to his bedroom. Once there, Shinichi threw himself onto his bed and cried into his pillow. He sobbed as his heart ached with the loss he couldn't understand caused by the person he couldn't remember. From that day onward, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't remember the person he had forgotten, but he never forgot the day he remembered. And eventually, Shinichi learned to live with the dull ache of loss in his heart. Every once in a while, it would throb painfully, but he got used to that too.

He grew up to become a famous high school detective like he had always dreamed, and he greatly enjoyed the spotlight that came with being known as the "Savior of the Japanese Police Force". But despite the hundreds (maybe thousands) of fan letters and Ran's obvious feeling for him, Shinichi couldn't bring himself to choose a significant other. That dull ache of loss scared him from letting anyone get too close. He didn't want to lose anyone again, so he covered it up with a mask of ignorance and innocent obliviousness. The arrogance tempered by kindness, the genius-enhanced recklessness, all that was real. But he wasn't so blind to romantic intentions as he pretended.

And then, the Conan thing had happened. His simple mask had instantly become increasingly complex, and he lost his dream, had to give up the spotlight to Ran's useless father. But lucky him, the dull ache remained. It seemed that no matter what happened in his life, no matter how much everything changed, he could count on those feelings of loss caused by a person whose he couldn't even begin to picture to stick with him.

As Conan, he continued his work to put as many murderers behind bars as he possibly could while doing his best to fight the large, evil crime syndicate that had returned him to the body of a child. And it was during that time, the one time in his life that he was so overwhelmed that he managed to forget the dull ache every once in a great while, he finally encountered the one person that lessened the feelings of loss. It was a time he least expected it, on the rooftop of the Hyde City Hotel on that chilly, fateful April Fool's night. The first time he had seen the thief in white with that fearless smile o his face, Conan had felt that constant dull ache of loss twinge with a very small strum of relief.

He hadn't noticed it at first, so caught up the chase, but when he had returned home in the very early morning after the confrontation had ended, Conan had recognized the relief for what it was. Unfortunately, it did not last long, because he was no closer to finding that person. After all, he had no idea Kid's true identity, nor did he have any way to figure it out.

Well, Conan did have one idea on how he might find the thief, but it didn't pan out. After meeting the thief, he recalled that the person he was missing had once been his friend, which meant his mother had probably taken pictures of them together. If nothing else, the pictures would give him a face and at least, a first name. True, he could have asked his mother, but after years of dealing with her insanity, he really didn't want to go down that road.

It had never occurred to him in his first childhood to look for such pictures, but now, it did. So at the first opportunity, Conan had snuck away to the Kudo mansion and looked through every single photo album he could find. But even though he found pictures that were catastrophically embarrassing, mentally scarring, and everything in between, there was not a single picture of him with any friends before he'd met Ran. And although that didn't make sense with his mother's tendency to document every second of his life that she could, he'd been forced to accept that pictures of him and his friend did not exist. To find the thief, he must catch the thief.

Thus, the rivalry between a shrunken high school detective and mysterious moonlight thief began.

Through their meetings, Conan slowly realized that entangling himself in the thief's heist gave him more than a chance to finally be free from the dull, throbbing ache of loss. It also granted him a chance for the thrill of a chase and a challenge with a mind as intelligent as his free from the looming darkness of death – Kid gave Conan these gifts, never knowing how important they were to the bespectacled boy.

At the vast majority of their meetings, he didn't have to worry about murder victims, and

every time they met, for that short time, Conan's heart was offered that small dose of relief. Whenever the thief and detective engaged in their usual banter, that wall that kept the small boy from ever letting get truly close to him felt like it disappeared. And for that reason, more than any other, the shrunken detective was determined to catch the thief, to obtain what both thief and detective highly valued: freedom.

A/N: So, I really need to learn how to write one-shots. But no, once again what I planned to be a one-shot has turned into a multi-chaptered fanfic. Yes, I wrote at the end of Moving that the sequel could be pretty much anything, but my first plan was a one-shot. Well, my imagination once again ran away to go on a long, crazy adventure.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter and will read the next one whenever I get the magical time to write it. And sorry about the short length, but this chapter was mostly set-up. And as always…

I love reviewers, but I do have a request. I would really love for someone to seriously critique my work. It doesn't have to stop at constructive criticism. I'd love for someone to really pick apart my work and tell me every little thing they hated, what needs to be improved, and what parts of my writing they liked best. Believe me when I say I love all reviews, and it's really nice to know people appreciate my work. However, I'm a far cry from being perfect, and there's always room to improve. Also, if I can get better, I can give better fan fiction to my readers. Anyway, thanks again for reading this fan fiction and hopefully you seriously considered my request.