My muse apparently enjoys hurting poor Conan.

WARNING: for those of you who dislike blood, I avoided describing Conan's injury in detail, but there are definite mentions of blood, as it is a serious injury.

As a side note, this refused to be written in one POV, so the ~~~ indicates a switch. It's back and forth between Conan and KID, so hopefully not too difficult to follow.

Conan frowned at the display case containing Kid's target for tonight, a large blue sapphire called Niobe's Tear. He'd been getting an odd feeling since he'd seen the gem's owner arguing with Nakamori-keibu. It wasn't an unusual sight at heists (especially when the owner was Suzuki Jirokichi) but something about the way Takahashi-san had looked set off warning bells in Conan's head. The man was planning something, and although it was probably a plan to catch Kid, Conan couldn't see any signs of a trap, other than what he'd overheard Nakamori-keibu describing. Hoping to find it before the heist, he started making his way around the display room.

There didn't seem to be anything in the room, aside from a few small devices that looked like Kid's smoke bombs. Glancing over the room again, he paused. The jewel Kid was after was displayed prominently in the center of the room, but the arrangement of display cases around it was strange. There was an odd look to the room, as if some of the displays had been moved slightly. Walking over to one of the suspicious displays, he noted that it had indeed been moved. The floor around it showed faint scuffmarks where the case had originally stood. Nothing on or around the case itself gave a hint as to the reason the display was moved…and he didn't have enough time before the heist would start to investigate the others. He stepped back from the odd display, examining the room and trying to find the reason for his unease.

The blackout came before he managed to reach a conclusion, and he mentally cursed, hoping the trick wouldn't be too difficult to deal with. Under the cursing and shout from the task force, Conan heard an odd sound. Was something rattling? He ducked instinctively, hoping to avoid the prank. It sounded metallic. And the sound was rapidly getting closer. Conan rolled away from the sound, failing to choke back his shout of pain when something heavy pinned his left arm to the floor.

~K~

Moving swiftly during the blackout, KID easily removed his target from the display case, only to fumble and nearly drop the gem when he heard Tantei-kun yelling in pain. Stashing the sapphire in a hidden pocket, he closed the case and straightened, just in time for the lights to return. KID blinked in surprise as the lights revealed a large cage-like structure centered on the case he was standing next to. Tantei-kun was not in his line of sight; however several Taskforce members were inside the cage with him. They appeared even more startled by the cage than KID was, so he was unlikely to need to dodge for a while. Searching, he spotted Tantei-kun on the ground just inside edge of the cage, opposite side of the display from KID, which explained not seeing him sooner—was that blood?

~C~

Thankful that his eyes finally adjusted to the return of light, Conan looked at his arm (why did it hurt so much did the case he'd been looking at fall on him?) and blinked at the large bar of metal. No wonder it hurts, he thought hazily, my arm could be crushed. Looking around, he saw that the metal pinning his arm appeared to be the base of a cage. Probably meant to trap Kid. Twisting in an attempt to see the rest of the cage proved to be a bad idea, as the slight motion of his body made the pain in his arm flare. Right, moving is bad, idiot, don't make it worse.

~K~

KID was moving before his brain completed the thought (Tantei-kun in pain, on the floor,bleeding, too much blood) and he thought his poker face had probably shattered, but that was unimportant. Also unimportant was Nakamori-keibu yelling and the owner (it sounded like Takahashi's voice) yelling back. Tantei-kun however, was not yelling, which either meant he was passed out (possibly from too much blood loss), or had insane pain tolerance (which was potentially better medically, but worrying in a seven-year-old).

~C~

"Tantei-kun!" Conan blinked in surprise, he hadn't even seen the thief move, but Kid was kneeling next to him, looking frantic, and Conan realized distantly that the shouts from the taskforce had abruptly ceased. "Are you with me, Tantei-kun?"

"Kid?" He blinked again as relief crossed the thief's face.

"Can you tell me what happened?"

Conan stopped himself before he could nod, and hummed in agreement. "Blackout. Thought I heard rattling." He tried to focus on Kid's face (it was strange to see him so expressive) to keep from thinking about his arm, "Thought you set something, so I ducked."

Kid gave him a pained-looking smile, "Smart plan, Tantei-kun. What next?"

"Too much noise. The rattling was closer, so I tried to roll. Too slow." Kid looked away for a moment, looking angry, and Conan heard Nakamori-keibu start shouting again. The pain was making it difficult to focus on the words.

~K~

KID glared at Takahashi in fury, not sure he believed his own ears. Not only had the bastard failed to warn even the taskforce that a heavy metal structure would be falling from above if KID triggered a blackout, he was sounding smug about it. Had the man seriously just refused to trigger the cage release because KID was still inside? At least Nakamori-keibu had morals, arguing that a child needing help was more important than catching even an internationally wanted criminal. And then Takahashi said that Conan wasn't actually injured and KID was using the illusion of an injury to escape. Not only was it insulting to KID, the idiot was planning to prove his idea right by pulling on Tantei-kun's arm.

~C~

Kid's furious hiss gave Conan a distraction, even if confusion wasn't much help with ignoring his arm. "Kid?"

"Sorry about that, Tantei-kun. The idiot being yelled at by our Keibu-san refused to be remotely helpful and has decided that you aren't really injured." Conan stared at the thief in pure disbelief as he failed to process the idea that he would fake an injury to help Kid escape, even unwillingly.

"What."

"I know, Tantei-kun, but I will get you out of this. Keibu-san just got a report saying the ambulance will be here soon."

"How is this thing supposed to be removed?" Conan hoped it was something the Taskforce could take and/or figure out.

"From the sound of things, a code entered on the remote he's waving around." Kid appeared an odd combination of curious, worried and furious as he said, "You thinking of anything specific?"

"It rattled. Probably means shoddy construction or the mechanism to pull it up, and nothing holding it down except itself. Maybe the right amount of force could lift it without the code?" Kid's grin was sharp and slightly terrifying, Conan was glad the thief was on his side right now.

~K~

KID felt his face stretch into a grin as a plan formed in his head. First obstacle: get the rich idiot out of the way.

"Keibu-san," KID looked over at Nakamori-keibu and felt the grin widen as alarm crossed the man's face, "You don't really think a cage like this could possibly hold me, do you?"

As predicted, the idiot jewel owner shoved through the Taskforce members who had been between him and Tantei-kun, intent on proving that KID couldn't escape. It only took half a minute of bragging before Takahashi stepped close enough. KID held the spray can out of the idiot's view for another moment before he struck. In one swift motion he stood and reached his left arm through the bars, giving Takahashi a full dose of knockout gas directly to the face. Interestingly, none of the policemen inside the cage with him had even moved as if to stop him. Well, in that case—

"Keibu-san, I would appreciate your men's assistance in rescuing Tantei-kun."

~C~

Conan listened in amazed disbelief as Kid proceeded to give orders to the Taskforce, all of which were followed without even a token protest. By the time they'd finished assembling an improvised pulley/lever system with whatever odd supplies they'd been ordered to find, Conan thought they might have forgotten who Kid actually was. He was barely surprised when after the contraption worked, none of the Taskforce even tried to grab the thief. It briefly occurred to him that it looked like Kid might reconsider his no-harm policy toward anyone who decided to move him away from Conan, but his consciousness faded before he could properly consider the thought.

~K~

KID was pleased when the paramedics didn't object when he followed them out of the building, or when he joined Tantei-kun in the ambulance. It was probably an indication of how far behind he'd left his poker face, but KID didn't care at the moment. Tantei-kun was unconscious, and may or may not ever be able to use his arm after it being nearly crushed. When they reached the hospital and rushed Tantei-kun inside, one of the nurses was kind enough to assure him that Tantei-kun would survive, and that it didn't look like Tantei-kun would have trouble regaining use of his arm.

KID stayed in the hospital anyway. Slumped worriedly in the nearest chair to where the nurses had refused to let him go any farther, waiting for someone to tell him Tantei-kun was out of the operating room. When a nurse finally appeared to tell him that Tantei-kun would really be fine, and that he should go home and get some rest, it was all KID could do to manage a polite smile. He pretended to follow her directions, checked a computer at a nursing station for Tantei-kun's room number, left only long enough to change into his recon outfit, and snuck into Tantei-kun's room through the window. KID checked to make sure he was unlikely to be discovered before sitting next to the bed. The child-detective was sleeping peacefully, a neat bandage around his left arm and an IV (presumably pain medication) hooked up to the other. Relief flooded through him, and as the adrenaline and worry finally left, his eyes slid closed.

The grin refused to leave his face all of the next morning, as Tantei-kun complained about being stuck in a hospital with nothing to do and threatened to call the police if KID wouldn't leave him alone. They both knew it was an empty threat.

So...how was it? Did you like the ending?