Disclaimer: I do not own any of the character used in this story. All rights are reserved for Gosho-sensei and I could do the characters justice the way he does.

N/A: This is my fourth fanfiction story! Keep it going! In this fic, Hakuba and Kaito have been friends for four years and all the Gosho Boys are twenty years old. Shinichi and Heiji are both friends of Hakuba (although Heiji usually fights with him than get along and only remains friends with him because of Shinichi). Neither of them know that Kaito is KID, but both have shown signs of not holding as much animosity towards the thief as when they first faced him.

Hakuba has been trying to introduce them to Kaito for a while now, but can never really bring himself to do it because of his worry for Kaito. He has long since stopped trying to arrest the other teen ever since the Nightmare Incident when he found Kaito as an emotional wreck in his room. Kaito has also told him all about his mission to destroy Pandora after a close shave with the Organization that left him with a gunshot wound in his side.

Needless to say that Hakuba is very protective of Kaito after he found out about everything the younger boy has been through.

And now, on with the story!

A Hectic Magic Debut

Hakuba Saguru gave a sigh of exasperation. His vice grip on his cellphone loosened to the point that he almost dropped it. The deed was done.

He had finally invited Kudou and Hattori to meet Kaito.

The blonde let a sardonic smile come to his distressed features at the thought. It was funny how close he and Kaito had become that the half-brit was npw calling him by first name. If anyone had ever asked him four years ago if he would have ever gotten along with Kuroba Kaito - the pranking king of Ekoda High, Saguru would have barked out an unamused laugh and told them it would never happen.

Funny how that worked out as well.

It was still clear in his head, the day that he had found Kaito after his forced heist with Nightmare. The man had blackmailed the brunette into doing a heist with him by threatening the life of the boy's assisstant, caretaker, and family friend, Konousuke Jii. After the prize of the night was in the elder thief's hands, he had turned on KID and had almost shot him when the sound of his own son's voice had startled him and made him stumble. However, before the man could plumet to his death, Kaito had dove forward to save him. But Kaito's pleas with the man to let go of the jewel, to grab his hand, had gone unanswered and the man's weight soon become too much for the teen's arm.

The man slipped through his fingers.

While escorting the man's son, a young child named Kenta, to the Nakamori's house, he remembered the white glove he had hidden in his pocket. He hadn't understood at the time why he had done it, taken a crucial piece of evidence from a crime scene. And to this very day, the detective still didn't really know. But he knew he had made the right choice when he had found Kaito alone in his pitch black house curled into fetal position by his bed crying his eyes out. He was still wearing the KID suit.

Not knowing what else to do in such an unrealistic scene, Saguru had only sat next to the sobbing mess of a thief and pulled him into a fierce hug.

As predicted, Kaito had fought with all his strength - no matter how little he had left. He had pushed with shaky arms and kicked at the larger boy's legs with his own sets of jelly-fied limbs. In the end he hadn't put up as much of a fight as he had hoped. After only a moment, the thief went limp in the detective's hold and continued to cry. He had cried until he finally fell into a fitfull, yet dreamless sleep.

Needless to say that Hakuba had ended up spending the night.

He let out another sigh at the memory. It was almost as bad as the time that Kaito had held another heist and gotten himself shot by a sniper. That day will forever haunt Hakuba's nightmares.

It had been a pretty calm night, although signs of storm were present in the form of clouds that hid the stars. The target this time was a large doublet that belonged to a rather stuck up middle age man who believed he could outsmart the 'Almighty KID-sama'. He had spewn insult after insult at the thief and the Saguru was just greatful that Kaito hadn't come in his civilian form and heard any of it. However, if there was one thing that made the half-brit act his age it was when he was petifully vengful.

By the time KID had appeared, Saguru had 'accidently' poured his coffee on the man's suit (and smirked when the man had screamed in pain), tripped him so that he had fallen flat on his face on his way to the bathroom, and let the man activate several KID traps that always ended in his outfit being ruined. It was a really good start to a heist.

And then everything went straight to hell.

The heist itself had gone freakishly well. KID had appeared to take the gem, but had stopped to look at the prostated form of the owner. He had looked bewildered for a split second before looking directly at Hakuba. His suspicians were confirmed when the detective only looked away with a smug grin. To the Task Force's surprise, KID had lost it and had almost collapsed in his fit of laughter. It had been a long time since Saguru had heard the younger boy laugh like that and treasured the sound before the other finally recovered enough to flee the scene.

Instead of following the goose chase, Hakuba had headed straight for the roof. He already knew that KID wasn't going to escape by glider, but he did know that Kaito was going to come here anyway, if only to give himself a safe place to wait the Task Force out.

His suspicions were confirmed when the door creaked open and the thief in question strolled onto the roof calmly. His gaze met Saguru's and, to the boy's surprise, a warm smile had spread across his face.

"Good evening, Tantei-san. Wonderful weather we're having isn't it?"

His voice was light, pure amusement showing in his tone. It was completely different from the Kaito he remembered that almost cried himself into a coma after what seemed so long ago. He found himself smiling dopily back and Kaito's grin seemed to brighten. Kaito began to make his way across the concrete floor toward the other -

- and promptly took a bullet to the side.

Hakuba had given a shout of horror before shooting forward and catching his friend before he could hit the ground. The bullet had gone straight through leaving a hole in the younger teen's side. He only watched in silent helplessness as Kaito whimpered in pain. He was slightly shocked that he wasn't screaming in agony. It was like he had fallen off of the monkey bars at the playground instead of getting shot on a rooftop by a mystery shooter.

He snapped out of his panicked thoughts and pulled out his phone from his pocket while whispering comforting words to the possibly fatally injured teen that shook in his arms. He quickly pushed the speed dial number for Baaya and barely remembered anything other than his own hardly kept together voice begging his seragate grandmother to 'please hurry' before turning all his attention back to the other boy. He said some very colorful words that may have made Nakamori blush if the inspector had been present. The thief's white suit was slowly becoming dyed a deep crimson as the blood flowed out of the wound.

The rest of the night became a blur. He didn't remember when Baaya had shown up nor how they had managed to get the Kaitou KID past the security without anyone asking questions. His attention had been on Kaito. Only Kaito mattered. His best friend had been shot and he hadn't been able to do anything.

He was still by Kaito's side when the teen had woken up in the hospital the next day. He hadn't wasted much time when it came to questions. The Kuroba had been very reluctant to tell the blonde anything, but had eventually relented when he couldn't take the look of worry and dejection on the older boy's face. He hadn't known that Hakuba had a secret weapon and he doubted that he would ever be able to defeat it.

And to say that Saguru was shocked about what he found out that day would be the understatement of the millenium. He was a little reluctant to accept the thought of magical gems, but the determined look on Kaito's face only proved that the brunette truly believed it. He was a little less surprised to find out that Akako was a witch. She did seem to be a little off her rocker and seemed to always know what would happen at a KID heist before any of them.

It took almost a year before the detective stopped following Kaito everywhere. After the shooting, the hawk had made sure to never let the dove out of his sight. Kaito had started coming over for sleepovers just to stop the older teen from having a heart attack while worrying if his friend would be alive the next morning.

It was during this year that Saguru and Kaito together found and destroyed Pandora. It was a little strange how it had happened. They had been relaxing on the roof of the Hakuba manor after another successful heist and Kaito had been showing Saguru how to do the Moon Check. The second Kaito had held it up, though, the jewel - Trident's Pearl - had flared to life. Kaito had let out a shriek of fear and froze in place. Saguru had jumped into action and had taken the Gem of Immortality from the thief before smashing it against the hard tile of the roof, shattering it into shards.

It had taken both of them a moment to realize what had happened, before Hakuba was startled by the sound of Kaito letting out a sound that crossed somewhere between a laugh and a broken sob. He turned to look at the other to see that the thief had fallen to his knees and had a kind of smile on his face that was hard to describe. It looked both happy and remorseful while it was mostly just relief.

He understood instantly how the boy must have felt. The jewel that his father had been killed over was now gone. The main reason for him being Kaitou KID was gone. The expresssion was heartbreaking to look upon. They spent the rest of the night on the roof, just staring up at the stars with a new sense of appreciation.

Almost another year later, Kudou Shinichi had made his reappearance and had taken down the Black Organization. This what had lead to Hakuba befriending Kudou. Wether the Detective of the East had realized it or not, he had rescued Saguru's best friend from a terrible fate if they had ever discovered who had really been behind the monocle. He had been sure to show his gratitude to Kudou by telling him a vague version of the truth. His best friend had gotten in trouble with the Organization and had been the victim of multiple assassination attempts since then. Kudou had been surprised and had told him that even though he had been fighting the Crows for only a year, he was a bit surprised that his 'friend' had survived two.

He had almost taken Kudou to see Kuroba almost immediately, but had decided against it when Hattori had shown up and had made a remark about Kudou 'being able to focus on catching that damn thief'. He had noticed the slight hesitance in Shinichi's affirmative response, but decided to play it safe for a while. Eventually, the two of them did indeed end up becoming good friends, although Kuroba's place of best friend would never be replaced.

Ever.

Which was why he had consulted Kaito about it the next day. Kaito had admitted that he was a little uneasy about meeting Kudou face to face considering that the last time they had met as teens, Kudou had shot at him during the Clocktower Heist. Hearing that lovely piece of information had kept Hakuba from introducing the three to each other for fear of Kaito's safety.

Two years later, he had finally changed his mind.

After Hakuba was certain that Kaito wouldn't have another relapse of depression, he finally called Kudou and arranged the meeting. God knew that Kaito needed a distraction.

That was what led to the biggest disaster and best decision that Hakuba would ever make.

The entire park was packed with people who were eager to see what the commotion was about. It wasn't a very large park, but the people had filled it to capacity and even went into the street.

After all, it wasn't often that a magician would make his debut in a park and not in a stadium.

Everyone was waiting in nervous hum of whispers and inquisitive conversation as they tried to figure out who had the 'new magician' was. Hakuba couldn't help the chuckle that escaped his mouth. Kuroba hadn't even come onto the stage yet and the hyper man already had a fanbase forming.

The next moment smoke suddenly exploded from the stage. The crowd gasped as the smoke pooled off the stage like a misty waterfall. As the smoke cleared, the crowd cheered at what they saw.

Kuroba Kaito stood alone, tall and proud, on the stage in a pressed black vest and white long sleeved button up shirt. His black pants were ironed to perfection and his shoes polished to the point that they almost acted as a mirror. Instead of the standard top hat, however, Kaito wore a black fadora and wore an earing on his right ear with a clover charm hanging by a short chain. He definately didn't look like a traditional magician.

Hakuba watched as Kaito kept his face hidden from the crowd behind the brim of his new hat. He had decided to keep the KID-like behavior in an effort to preserve his father's memory in some way. He had gotten the fedora as an inside joke between the two of them.

With a quick slight of hand, a staff appeared in Kaito's gloved hand from up his sleeve. Hakuba was impressed by how many things the magician could hide in his suit even without the jacket to go with it.

Then began the show.

It hadn't even taken ten minutes before the crowd was enthralled. There was no way that the audience could look away as Kaito did trick after trick. He also stepped up his game by adding gymnastics to his show as it helped to be able to move freely and kept the ex-thief from bouncing on his toes or twitching too much. The crowd broke into laughter everytime Kaito 'tripped' or 'fumbled' with his cards. They were completely enchanted by the spell that a magician without a single ounce of real magic had cast.

Girls were swooning if Kaito looked in their direction, men couldn't help but admire his talent, and children were squealing in delight.

Everyone was happy. Including Saguru.

With a grand finale that involved roses and doves, the show finally came to an end. The magician gave a low bow and gracefully exited the stage. Hakuba pulled himself from his relaxed position against the side of the stage and

Suddenly, the blonde detective felt a tap on his shoulder. Spinning almost on his heels, he twirled around and was slightly surprised at what he saw. Standing in front of him were Kudou Shinichi and Hattori Heiji. Kudou had an easy grin on his face thatmade him look almost like a certain ex-con and Hattori didn't exactly look happy. The Detective of the West looked very close to ticked off, much to Hakuab's slight amusement. Kudou probably dragged him here so that he could meet Kaito as well and not seem rude to the young man they had yet to meet. At least not outside of heists.

"Good evening, Hakuba. It's good to see you again." Kudou greeted warmly. "We would have shown up sooner, but this crowd is crazy!" His expression was free of any signs of stress and he had a very healthy glow to his smile. Apparently, Haibara had kept good on her promise of making sure Kudou stayed in good shape. He would have found it strange had Kudou not admitted who he had been during his own two years of shrunken hell.

Hattori gave a sort of grunt as his form of greeting. Hakuba would have been irritated if he were still the teen he had been four years ago. Now he just irratated the other man for the fun of it and acted upset to appease their mutual friend when he thought they were going too far (like that time with the hairdryer and baby powder - Kaito was rubbing off on him, okay?). He just settled for a content smile.

It was better than actually trying to pick a fight with the tanned detective. Kaito was probably going to feel left out since it was three detectives and only one magician, not that Kaito couldn't be a detective if he wanted to (he had been trying to solve a robbery-homicide case when Kaito had gotten curious and peaked over his shoulder. He had gone green at the sight of the dead body, but had solved the case in two minutes when Hakuba had been slaving over it for three hours.).

Before he could answer his collegue's greeting, Hattori had made a sound that almost gave the impression of a wet cat or a dog that had it's bone taken away. When he spoke, the drawl in his tone was slightly faster than usual and he looked like he wanted to leave as soon as possible.

"So, where's this Kuroba ya wanted us ta meet so badly, Hakuba-san."

His name was said like it was the filthiest word in the dictionary. The detective in question only gave a resigned sigh at the use of it. Mr. Hot Blooded was probably never going to like him. Not that he realy minded anymore.

Just to watch the other man twitch, Hakuba let out a dramatic sigh. "Oh, how you wound me, Hattori-san. I thought we were friends." Okay, now he was acting too much like Kaito. Time to tone it down. Not that it didn't work in making the Osakan red in the face with indignation.

Shinichi just shook his head in fond exasperation. Why was he friends with these two idiots?

Not waiting for the two men to really say anything else, Hakuab walked towards the entrance to the back stage. Looking back, he noticed the other two had bewildered expressions. He grinned and made a motion with his free hand, beckoning the two of them closer. They followed as Kudou began to ask questions.

"Does your friend work with the new magician that was on stage?" he inquired. Hakuba gave a short laugh and replied, "You'll have to ask him yourself when we get there." His reponse obviously startled the young man and he couldn't help but let another chuckle slip through. It had become easier to laugh ever since he befriended Kaito. He also could see how surprising people had its charms.

He lead the other two behind him as he made his way towards Kaito's dressing room. By the time they had reached the door, Shinichi looked like he was beginning to understand where this was going while Hattori continued to look lost. He almost gave another laugh, but was able to hold it down in favor of slamming the door open and shouting -

"I'm back, Kaito!"

The effect happened immediately. One second, Kaito had his back to them while taking off his vest, then the next, Hakuba's back hit the floor as he was pounced on by an overly-sugared child in a man's body.

"Welcome back, Sagu-chan!"

Hakuba looked up, slightly dazed to see Kaito grinning down at him from his perch on the man's stomach. An unbelievably ecstatic smile was splitting the young man's face in half as he positively beamed down at the stunned detective.

The man looked like he had eaten several metric tons of sugar and was almost shaking with the poorly concealed excitement that his performance had given him.

Then he seemed to notice that the blonde had brought company and suddenly became the epitome of shyness. In a blur that almost made Saguru dizzy, he was brought back to his feet while facing his other two acquatences. They had matching looks of surprise on there faces.

They were probably thrown off by both the bubbly personality and the sudden shift in character. It was understandable since Hakuba had been thrown off by the shyness that Kaito had let him see when they first became friends. No one thought that someone as escentric as Kaito could ever be shy.

But with Kaito using him as a kind of buffer between the new members of their party, he looked like the character in manga that looks harmless but will end up helping the most. Like that princess from the manga about dimension travelers or something that Kaito introduced him to. What had been her name? Since it wasn't case-related, he couldn't remember.

He knew, however, that after the teen's got to know the man a little more, they would soon discover just how hyperactive the man could be. He couldn't wait to see the look on Hattori's face. He let out a chuckle at the thought. He must look pretty demented with the smirk that made it's way onto his face.

The mirroring looks of horror on Shinichi and Heiji's faces only confirmed his suspicions.

The End

And so the curtain closes on another fic. To all my lovely readers, please drop a review and tell me what you think. So until the next time...

See you next illusion.

(KID Doodle)