Host AU inspired by 'Club Aphrodite' by Luna Darkside. If you haven't read it then you should, along with all of Luna's other fics! They're all fantastic fics!
The only similarities between this fic and 'Club Aphrodite' is that some of the DC male characters are working in a host club and the plot will lead to eventual KaiShin/ShinKai - can be viewed either way.
Also, in this fic Shinichi is in his Conan form as in canon, added some more hosts, some have different host names and there could be some character identification spoilers if you're not up to recent manga chapters (at least the really major events that include the Black Organisation...)
There will be references to canon events in the manga (such as Kaitou KID's heists, Black Organisation arcs, etc) but may not be in chronological order for the sake of the story.
As stated before, this fic is an AU fic so it will not have a definite set time in the canon storyline as to 'when' this happens.
On with the story!
Prologue
It was a normal day. Or so it seemed to one Kudou Shinichi, aka Edogawa Conan. He woke up that morning as usual in Occhan's room, had his cup of morning coffee without Ran's knowledge, and proceeded to text Hattori. Until he had to work at his holiday job, that is.
No matter how much Conan tried to find out what job the other detective had, all he could deduce was that it was well paying, would embarrass Hattori if friends and family knew, and was in Tokyo. It was strange since nothing had ever stopped Conan from finding out the one truth, and considering Hattori was usually a wide open book, it had puzzled the shrunken detective to no end.
However, what Hattori, a teenager, did in his spare time wasn't a child's business - in the eyes of other people at least. With nothing better to do, Conan switched aimlessly through all the channels available in the TV, going through them over and over again.
That is, until his ears tuned into the hour long conversation Ran had with Sonoko on the phone.
"...me to come with you to a host club? Don't you already have Kyougoku-san? ... EHHHH? He works there?! ... You're going as his client? ... What? ... Well...Fine. I'll go with you ok? But I can't leave Conan-kun at home by himself ... Okay then we'll meet you there at 5. See you soon."
Conan's eyes widened as he filled in the missing gaps from what he could hear. 'Ran's going to a host club? … Wait WHAT!? SHE'S TAKING ME WITH HER!? NO, IT CAN'T BE! I MUST'VE DEDUCED WRONG!'
Contrary to what Conan wanted to believe, he was spot on, as usual.
"Conan-kun! Get ready to go out! We're meeting Sonoko at the Haido Town Shopping Mall by 5!"
"W-Why?" Conan tilted his head to one side, faking curiosity and innocence, and burying his hysteria deep underground.
The question made Ran pause in the middle of checking the contents of her handbag.
"Well… We're gonna go to a place called a host club."
"Host club? What's that?" 'Damn, this is hard when you're asking about a HOST club of all things…'
"Uh... um..." Ran blushed slightly at having to explain what a host club was. And to Conan-kun no less! "Sonoko will explain that to you when we meet her, ok? For now, go put your shoes on. I'll be ready in five minutes."
"Yes, Ran-neechan!" he piped. Then he turned his head so Ran couldn't see and let out a breathless sigh. He couldn't say he didn't want to go since he supposedly didn't know what it was. Dammit.
As promised, the two met the Suzuki heir in front of the shopping mall at five o' clock.
Sonoko mumbled under her breath but Conan could hear her perfectly. "Che, here I was trying to get Ran to have a better taste in men and the pipsqueak tags along..."
'Oi, oi. Sorry for being a party pooper,' thought Conan sarcastically as an eyebrow twitched.
"I hope bringing Conan-kun is alright, Sonoko."
Suddenly brightening, Sonoko exclaimed "No need to be sorry! We're going to a host club after all! Might as well ignore the bad things and focus on the good!"
'What, I've degraded from a pipsqueak to a thing now?'
Conan decided to act the 'innocent younger brother' role and asked the question Ran had not answered.
"Sonoko-neechan? What's a host club?"
Turning her attention to him for only a split second, Sonoko shot off on a tangent and began a long rant about cool, handsome, hot and cute guys who were there to serve a girl – to talk to her and ease her worries, to be her prince charming, to be the perfect man in her world, etc.
As soon as she began, Conan tuned her out.
The trio continued on their walk to the host club Sonoko's boyfriend, Kyougoku Makoto, worked at. The place was called 'L'Amour Club Cyprus' and sounded familiar to Conan but he dismissed it, seeing as he'd never been to or had a reason to go near a host club before, he deduced that it sounded 'familiar' because of the foreign words.
Since the Detective of the East knew some words from French and also knew a quite a bit about Greek mythology, it didn't seem odd to him at all that he knew immediately what the name meant although literally it didn't make sense. L'Amour meant love and Cyprus was the supposed birthplace of Aphrodite.
So basically it was a club dealing with love, situated where the goddess of love was born – a love filled place?
Conan wanted to go home more and more as they walked and wished he wasn't being dragged by the hand – it felt like he was on a dog leash, forced to follow his owner.
"Ne, Sonoko. Is this really a good idea?"
"Of course it is! I can meet Makoto-san and see him as a host and help him by paying as his client! And I can take away some of the time he would have to spend on some random other girl besides me!"
"I...see..." Both Ran and Conan sweat dropped at the blonde's logic.
Her logic did make sense but at the same time it was absurd. Then again, this was Sonoko they were talking about. Her logic was always so skewed – demanding a boy with the physical age of 7 to catch an internationally wanted phantom thief for her was one out of her million crazy ideas.
"Come on, Conan-kun."
'Oh, God.' They were here. They were really HERE. They were facing the gold framed double doors which was the entranceway to the place a man should never go through willingly – unless for justifiable reasons (non-personal reasons that usually had something to do with either work and/or money).
Sonoko pulled one of the doors open and Ran followed behind her only to turn around and call him from where he was rooted.
'Oh my God, oh my God, oh my GOD!'
Kudou Shinichi, age 17, was not, definitely NOT going to set foot in THAT place.
A hand waving in his face startled him out of his self-induced stupor.
"Are you alright, Conan-kun?"
Ran had come back to stand in front of him, leaning down to see his face better.
"Ah, hahaha... E-E-Everything's fine, Ran-neechan…ahahahahaha…"
Ran frowned slightly, but then smiled. "If you say so. Come on. We don't want to keep Sonoko waiting, do we?"
Both Ran and Conan looked back towards the entranceway of 'that' place. There she was, the Suzuki heir, tapping her foot impatiently while glaring daggers at him.
"N…No…?"
"Then let's go!"
Kudou Shinichi, age 17, was forced to take his words from earlier back as he entered (read: was forced) into THAT place by his childhood friend.
TBC