Yeah I don't really know, it's late over here and this plot happened and I couldn't stop writing. I have hand cramps now. Be proud, children. I made this for you.
Warnings: Spelling/grammar mistakes, headcanon with Kaito's panic attacks, angst, Slenderman.
Enjoy.
Unexpected Help
This was not good.
This was the phrase that was running through the Kaitou Kid's mind as he tried his hardest not to trip over tree roots.
Maybe he was getting way too cocky for his own good.
Tonight's heist had been relatively easy. But the way Jirokichi was smiling even after the thief had taken the prize should have been some sort of warning to Kid.
Well, now he knew to always trust his spidey senses instead of ignoring them.
Jiorkichi's plan was pretty good. The man had put an invisible coat over the jewel that secreted a scent that attracted DOGS.
Big, mean, hungry dogs out for a cute, innocent, poor little thief's blood.
He would've gotten rid of the jewel LONG ago but the film had prevented moonlight to properly shine through it. He would need to get rid of it carefully before being able to check for Pandora.
However, with a dozen crazy dogs only several meters behind, how the hell can one find the time to do such a delicate task?
His hang glider was currently at Jii's place for repair so his cape was just ordinary fabric. His wings were clipped.
"You're not escaping me this time, Kid! It's my victory!" He could hear the crazy old man laughing as he and his bodyguards ran with the dogs.
Bastard
Kid cursed under his breath when he stumbled. Shit, he was getting tired. Running through the woods at one in the morning while wearing a white suit and cape was not working out for him.
He blinked rapidly, annoyed with how his vision was getting all messed up. The trees never seemed to end. They all stood so tall and crooked. The scariest part was how unbelievably thin they were. The trunks were more like sticks and he was getting the morbid thought of getting skewered by them. Joyful.
The branches stuck out at awkward angles like bony arms grabbing at his suit and his cape was getting snagged constantly. He cursed loudly and unclasped the cape, tucking it in a secret pocket, his fingers twitched in pain as he did so. He looked down and saw droplets of blood seep through the gloves where they had encountered deadly branches. He surveyed the rest of his body, noticing small cuts and tears everywhere.
Fucking nature and her trees. He cursed and continued running.
The trees were starting to confuse him. When did which tree start? Did that branch belong to that birch or that oak...or was that a maple?
He swallowed painfully and shook his head, monocle charm whacking his cheek. He stopped momentarily, leaning against the trunk of a tree, gloved hand wiping his brow. He could feel the cold sweat seep through the fabric.
Why was his vision blurring so god damn much? He felt fine all day, was it just the forest that was confusing him?
He flinched when he heard barking in the distance. The ground spun and his legs tripped over each other as he started sprinting again. This continuous vertigo was making him want to vomit.
He squinted at the dull light the moon was gracing him with. Clouds were in the skies, creeping closer and closer, before the moon was completely hidden. He looked straight ahead and mentally sighed in relief when he saw a small clearing ahead. Maybe he could hide in the clearing and rid himself of the jewel's coating.
Or maybe even just dropping the fucking thing off a cliff. He was at the end of his rope, searching for Pandora can wait. He wanted to go home.
Damn it...I can't...hold on...much...longer. He thought to himself as he stumbled over a hidden root. His shaking legs buckled abruptly under him and he began to sway forward with no way to stop. He felt too numb to stop the fall.
He had just cleared a part of the forest and reached a small stream rather than a meadow like he had hoped.
He tried to skid to a stop, but his legs wouldn't coordinate. He clumsily stumbled and he felt the ground tip, his feet touching nothing.
He saw a river of clear water coming closer and closer to his face.
The barking of the dogs became a blur as he closed his eyes, prepared to feel the sudden shock of freezing water.
It never came.
Instead, he felt something wrap around his waist and pull him away from stream at record speed, giving him another reason for wanting to throw up.
He was taking deep breaths to control his urge to vomit as something pulled him behind a thin tree. How was that going to help him hide? The tree was thinner than his waist.
"What!? You lost him?" He blinked dazedly when he heard Jirokichi's loud voice.
"W-we suddenly lost his scent, sir."
"How is that possible! Where's the jewel?"
"T-the jewel's scent also disappeared..."
"Maybe he jumped into the river?"
"Find him!"
The thief blinked as the old man continued bellowing out orders. The jewel's scent is...gone? But...he glanced at the hand where he had the gem in a tight grasp.
His hand was wrapped up tightly by the same material that had grabbed his waist before.
To be honest, Kid had no idea what the hell it was. It looked dark and twisted. Like a snake, it slithered and constantly moved.
Was he hallucinating? M-maybe he fell into the stream and died? No, he didn't want to die with the f-fish! No no no no, they'd eat up his awesome body and then his mom and Aoko would find him half decomposed in the bottom of the ocean and then the organization would steal his body away before they got to hold his funeral service and then they'll dissect his body and and-
Suddenly, another branchy arm struck out and wrapped itself around his mouth. It was only then did he realized that he had been hyperventilating loudly, limbs shaking, chest quivering. Cursing himself for being such an idiot, he took silent breaths through his nose.
"We have to find that sneaky thief! There's no way he had the tools to get that film off the jewel in that short amount of time! Search the river"
"Y-yes sir!"
Footsteps began to scatter and spread out.
The branchy arm over his mouth retreated and the thief took a shaky breath, nearly collapsing.
What the hell was that anywa- He turned around and froze in place.
Whoever his savior was, was pretty damn tall.
Kid, at his full height, only reached up to right below it's chest. He slowly craned his neck upwards, trembling slightly.
The redoubtable aura surrounding the two was suffocating.
Who...what is this?
Before he could see the face of his savior, another branchy tentacle brushed pass his shoulder, lightly caressing the side of his head.
The world swirled and the thief swayed slightly. Wha...his head felt submerged in a sea of calm, all sounds muffled. His eyes dropped without his permission.
The stick-like trees began to blur together and he fell forward into cold, long arms.
Sleep, he heard a whisper in the wind.
So he did.
He woke up to the soft sound of rain pattering.
The thief sat up slowly, hands immediately rose to grasp his hair as his head ached.
The light was faint but enough to make the world explode in pain and he groaned softly.
Immediately his eyes darted around, trying to analyze his escape route as quickly as he can.
He was in a small cabin that was barely able to keep the rain out. Water droplets dripped down occasionally with a loud plop that echoed.
He was sitting on a small cot of some sort that smelled like mildew and grass, a blanket pooling around his waist. He shivered, his suit jacket was gone.
His eyes fell onto a figure in the corner of the room and he flinched back on instinct.
Tall and thin.
It was the one that rescued him.
And just as he observed before he lost consciousness, his savior was unbelievably tall. It seemed like the figure was bending in order to not bump into the ceiling.
The dim light in the room obscured the face, annoying Kid greatly.
"...You treated my wounds...?" He whispered after glancing down at the bandages on his fingers and legs. He lifted a hand to caress the bandage on his cheek. His gloves were missing.
He saw the figure in the corner nod slightly and he mumbled a word of appreciation in return, fingering the fraying threads of the old blanket.
"Why?" He mumbled after a moment, looking up at the figure briefly before his gaze fell back to the cot.
His rescuer continue to stay silent. And he fidgeted uncomfortably. He saw his Kid equipment lying on the floor next to the figure's feet.
"T-those shoes look nice." He smiled nervously, glancing at the black dress shoes complimented by black dress pants. His gaze trailed up and he could feel the other's gaze on him as well. He still couldn't make out the figure's facial features but the broad chest he saw allowed him to deduce it was a male.
He glanced appraisingly, noticing the stylish suit adorned with a tie.
Business man? Office worker? Lawyer? Police detective? One of them?
"You look so formal, what kind of job do you have?" He smiled innocently, his hands twitching in apprehension.
The figure tilted his head but did not speak.
By now, Kid was shivering, disconcerted.
He knew he shouldn't be so scared. Because damn it, he was the great Kaitou Kid. And Kaitou Kid is always confident. Not scared. And this man hadn't harmed him at all. Hell, this man SAVED him. He should be on his knees, promising to repay the debt in any way possible, not trembling like he was facing a serial killer.
But the suffocatingly tense atmosphere gave him anxiety.
He was hurt. His hands stung and he was sure he sprained his ankle. He felt cold and hot at the same time, unable to stop shivering. He must've gotten a fever overnight.
"W-what time is it? How long was I out?" He tried to keep his voice steady as he forced a small smile on his face.
The figure tilted his head again but this time in the direction of a window next to the door.
Kid took this as a good sign and glanced out.
The moon was high in the sky but at a slightly different position than what he remembered before he fell asleep.
"Oh...has it been...an entire day?" He whispered.
The man nodded.
Kid swallowed and nodded back. The heist was on a Friday so he didn't have to worry about school. Aoko would've gone shopping with Keiko or some other gaggle of girls so he was safe from her unless he had made plans with her (Which he was fairly sure he hadn't). Edogawa couldn't care less about what happened to him after the heist. He faintly remembered seeing the boy hang around the mansion but what happened afterwards was a complete blur. Hakuba on the other hand...
He tensed, his hands twitching as a wave of thoughts washed over him.
Would the detective search for him?
Did he come over to his house to gloat but found him missing?
Did he call the police?
Does Nakamori-keibu know?
Did Hakuba reveal his identity?
Was he going to jail?
Is the organization on the move?
Is everyone in danger?
Mom. Aoko. Jii. Akako. Hakuba. Nakamori. His classmates. His teachers. Edogawa. The police force. His magician friends.
Everyone. No one was safe. They're all get hunted down. They'll all die. They'll die. Die die die die die die DIE
He paused in midst the storm of paranoid thoughts when he felt the strong grip on his left wrist.
He had been scratching at his right arm relentlessly in his panicked state and he could feel the stinging of his shredded skin.
His skin was clammy, covered in cold sweat and his chest was heaving erratically as his heart pounded loudly in his ears.
He had started hyperventilating again.
Damn it, he cursed and shuddered. He hadn't had so many consecutive attacks since the months following his father's death.
And that period of time had been absolute hell.
He glanced down at his hand, expecting his rescuer's bony hand clamped around his wrist tightly.
He visibly paled when he looked down at a long, twisting tendril of darkness. The figure was standing right besides the cot he was sitting on.
"O-oh my g-god." He managed to let out as he tilted his head to look up.
White.
Blank.
No features.
No face.
He wasn't able to comprehend what went through his mind after that.
He only realized he was out of the cabin and stumbling through the woods moments later, an attack already in motion.
No face no face no face no face no face.
Those two words kept circling in his head in a nonstop mantra as he ran from...he didn't even know what. Was it a Noppera-bō? He vaguely remembered his mother telling scary stories of faceless demons to keep him from wandering out of bed at night when he was younger. Did these things really exist?
He swallowed and shook his head, dodging several large branches that were aiming to impale him in the eyes.
He had to calm down. He NEEDED to calm down. He knew he had to or else-
The thief stumbled over a root, his throat seemed to be closing in on itself and he struggled to take a breath.
He had to handle this situation confidently.
Like Kaitou Kid would.
But he wasn't Kaitou Kid right now.
He had left behind all his equipment. Monocle, card gun, smoke bombs, cape, suit jacket, everything.
He wasn't Kaitou Kid anymore.
He was just Kaito.
Plain, defenseless Kuroba Kaito.
The moon was high in the sky and the rain was soft, mist obscuring his vision.
But even if it was a demon, why did it help him? He looked down at his trembling bandaged fingers and clenched them into fists, feeling some cuts reopen.
He tripped, collapsing to his knees, breathing hard as nausea overcame him.
"S-shit." He whimpered, curling in on himself as he tried to will himself to breathe normally. His chest pounded so hard, he thought it was pushing against his ribs. Sweat was gathering in beads on his forehead, mixing with the rainwater. His fringe was plastered to his face and he shivered in earnest.
I'm dying...I'm dying. I'm lying in a forest and dying. Dying...no...no...dying...I don't want to die...
He felt tears leak from his eyes and seep into the soil, indistinguishable from the other droplets of water raining from the skies.
He hated this so damn much.
He was so fucking weak.
He laid there for a while, listening to his heart race abnormally, feeling like it would stop at any given moment. His throat and chest constricting painfully.
Air...air...air! He gasped as he gulped in breath after breath.
"Kaito-kun. You have to take breaths slower...yes yes I know, you feel like you can't breathe at all right? But your body is just tricking you. You're getting enough air, I promise. But if you take too much air too quickly, things will get blurry and- calm down calm down! Things will get blurry and scary again, right? We don't want that so take slower breaths. Okay? Listen to my voice, slow, deep breaths...that's right, slowly... Now if this ever happens again, just remember my voice, okay Kaito-kun? Slow deep breaths."
Kaito listened to the advice of the nice doctor from the hospital eight years ago. He concentrated on the voice in his head and he felt a twinge of relief when he heard his heartbeat slow down to a calmer rhythm, no longer pounding in his head like a stereo system.
He couldn't stop crying though. He scrubbed at his eyes furiously with his dirtied hands, not caring about hygiene. But the warm droplets continued falling and he couldn't stop them. He gave up after the twentieth try when his eyes started to sting from the mud.
The magician swallowed and shivered, allowing his body to take a rest after the painful exertion.
If he didn't get up soon, he would freeze to death or drown in a puddle of mud water. The teen tried to reasoned to himself.
Using that logic, he tried to get up or at least crawl to civilization.
"F-f-fuck..." His shaking limbs failed to abide by his wishes and he collapsed face first into a puddle. The rain fell at a much more violent pace now.
He spat out dirty water and choked on a sob.
Why couldn't he do anything?
He didn't know what the hell triggered such a attack. He hadn't experienced one in so long, he had long forgotten the taste of such excruciating terror.
He stiffened when he heard a branch snap.
"No...no...no." He muttered, turning to look back with wide eyes.
There it was.
His rescuer.
The faceless monster.
Danger.
His heart started to pounded furiously again and he found the adrenaline to push himself against a tree trunk.
"Please...d-don't." He bit his lips and took an extra deep breath with his eyes clenched shut. He needed to stay calm. He needed to show the creature that he was a friend.
"...Thank you..." He started after a moment. He watched the creature tilt it's faceless head to the side.
"F-for s-saving me last night. I was in q-quite a pinch." His teeth were chattering against his will but he continued over the roar of the storm.
He glanced up at the tall creature, wondering if it understood his words at all.
"So...I-if you want to..." He swallowed, more tears streaming from his eyes.
"I-if y-you want t-to-"
He couldn't finish that sentence.
"Go ahead. I'm prepared t-to-"
No. No he wasn't. He was not prepared to die at all.
He listened to the creature's movements, he did not have to strength to look up at it anymore.
He flinched when he heard the tendrils of dark matter reach out for him and could not stop himself from whimpering in horrific anticipation.
He hoped it would be painless enough.
To his surprise, the tendrils wrapped around his waist gently and pulled him to a much more comfortable position.
He looked up with questions shining in his lilac eyes.
The faceless face stared down at him through the showers of water.
By then, his mind was absolutely too fried to come up with intelligent words.
He vaguely remembered babbling some nonsense as his vision clouded and the creature pulled him up closer until it stared at him face to face.
The thing was going to eat him, Kaito decided in sleepy defeat.
I hope I taste good.
That was his last thought before falling unconscious yet again.
"What the bloody fuck, Kuroba!?" That was the first thing Kaito heard when he awoke.
"...Huh?" He croaked, cringing at the soreness of his throat. God, his entire body burned. He shivered against his will as the heat disappeared as quickly as it came. His body now felt like it had been dumped into the Artic waters.
"Oh damn it Kuroba, stay awake okay? Nakamori-keibu is getting an ambulance right now. Don't you dare fall asleep." Hakuba looked down at him in concern and he was utterly confused.
"Where...what..." His head did not grace him with comprehensive sentences and he blubbered like a three year old for several minutes, his body trembling nonstop.
Hakuba didn't stop him though. In fact, the Brit seemed happy he was prating about nothing yet everything and even encouraged him to continue.
He vaguely caught sight of Nakamori pacing in the background, screaming into his cellphone while glancing at him every now and then with worry in his eyes.
The ambulance arrived a while later, it's loud sirens wailing as the sun slowly rose into the pale sky.
"Can I sleep now...'Kuba?" He mumbled tiredly, unable to keep his eyes open any longer.
He heard the detective sigh as a medic put an oxygen mask over his face.
"Of course, Kuroba."
He didn't need to be told twice.
Kuroba stayed in the hospital for several days.
He had been running a dangerously high fever when he arrived at the hospital. The doctor had told Hakuba and Nakamori that the teen had suffered several panic attacks of different severities and was both physically and mentally exhausted.
Nakamori received the news with a grim demeanor but Hakuba was surprised. He hadn't taken Kuroba as someone that would suffer from something like that.
Nakamori told him that the teen had suffered from them after his father's death. It had happened so suddenly that he caught them all off guard when they found him in his room, struggling to breathe, hands clenched around Toichi's old deck of poker cards. He had to be taken to the hospital several times over the course of the years. But he hadn't had an attack in so long, Nakamori thought he was completely fine now.
Apparently not.
The hospital decided to keep Kuroba here for a few more days until he was deemed stable enough to go home.
Hakuba smiled wryly as he walked into the task force department of the police headquarters.
Of course Kuroba had immensely good luck.
They had found him lying at the entrance of Ekoda Woods early Sunday morning. Hakuba had stopped by his house Saturday morning, readying to ask the thief about his wondrous adventures escaping from Jirokichi's dogs.
He was surprised to find the house empty and wondered if Kuroba had made it back home at all.
He had shrugged and left, telling himself repeatedly the idiot was probably fine.
But night time came and Aoko had called him, saying that Kuroba promised to have dinner with her and her father and didn't show.
They sent out a search party then.
He was one hundred and two percent sure that he had searched the immediate areas around the woods several times over the course of the night and Kuroba had been no where near that area. But in the morning, just when Hakuba was about to give up, he glanced at the entrance path and saw the teen lying there.
He was covered in mud and soggy bandages. He was also dreadfully pale and cold. When he had reached the thief, he almost thought the teen was dead.
It shook him to the core.
"Hakuba-kun!" He looked up to see Nakamori waving him over to his desk.
"Is something wrong, keibu?" The British detective frowned when he got closer and saw the object on the inspector's desk.
"This showed up on our doorsteps this morning." The man frowned, glaring at the thing as if it would suddenly grow wings and fly out the window like a certain thief he knew.
"What is it?" Hakuba raised an eyebrow.
"Some sort of ball made from branches." Nakamori scoffed, picking it up.
"But the real surprise is..." He ripped the ball in half and pulled out...
"The heist gem!" Hakuba gaped, staring at the jewel in disbelief.
Kuroba was still in the hospital recuperating and shot up with drugs. There's no way he could've sent this.
But then again...Hakuba frowned, contemplating in silence. The only reason Kuroba was not caught was because parts of his Kid uniform were missing and the parts that weren't were dirtied beyond recognition. He thought about the bandages on the thief's fingers that were soaked in mud water.
Who...
"This was sent to the task force this morning."
Kaito looked up from his position on the bed warily to stare up the British teen.
"I'm lying down and you're holding a photograph, I can't see that shit." He scowled, not willing to move his aching body to catch a glimpse of the picture the detective was waggling in the air.
Hakuba grunted in annoyance and dropped the paper on the other teen's face.
He noted that thief looked much healthier and full of energy than he did that Sunday morning.
"Why aren't you in school?" Kaito muttered, raising his arms with a hiss to lift the paper off his face.
"I had to do some investigation work with the inspector."
"Ah." Kaito simply acknowledged as he blinked at the photo.
"Is that the jewel Kid stole the other night?" He asked after a moment. He watched Hakuba roll his eyes.
"Yes, the jewel, Kid stole. It was returned this morning in a ball of branches."
"Ooo~ creative. Just as expected from Kid-sama!" Kaito grinned, nodding at the picture without a hint of recognition in his eyes. He sure as hell didn't send it. He hadn't seen the jewel since the night of the heist.
Hakuba sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose with his hand.
"How do you feel, Kuroba?" He asked quietly.
The official story they got out of him was not unbelievable. Kaito thought it made enough sense. Because after the heist happened, everything else became a blur of events that he could barely recall.
Believe it or not, the day after the heist was the anniversary of Kuroba Toichi's death.
Kaito had simply told the police that he had left his house early in the morning to go for a walk before visiting his father's grave. But then he ended up in the woods and had an attack, leaving him too weak to get back home until he managed to crawled his way to the entrance path of Ekoda Woods on Sunday morning.
Nakamori and the police accepted his story without question. Because it was hard not to. But they had not seen the muddy bandages on Kaito's hands like Hakuba did.
"Yeah, I'm feeling better now. The doc said it would be best if I got some therapy or something like that. But I told him it was fine. This was a one time thing. It won't happen even again." He said with a solemn tone of conviction.
"...Right." Hakuba cleared his throat and took out another piece of paper.
"This note was also inside that ball of branches." He handed it to Kaito and he took it with bandaged fingers.
"What's this?" Kaito smiled at the picture of a note.
It was a simple note on a simple piece of crumpled white paper. The handwriting was sketchy, almost eerie in a way. But it was very stick figure-like and childish. Almost even cute. Kaito thought with a smile.
Nothing Done For Thanks.
Interesting Kid
Help Free
The sentences weren't really sentences but Kaito got the gist of it.
Whoever wrote this definitely worked hard to please the recipient of the note.
"So who's it for?" Kaito grinned, handing the papers back to the detective.
Hakuba only raised an eyebrow, staring at the thief in disbelief.
"You...don't...know?"
Kaito raised an eyebrow as well.
"No...?" Should he? He racked his brains a bit, wondering if he had ever seen such handwriting in his life before.
Nope. His mind drew a blank.
"...I see...Well I only came to show you these and make sure you were still alive. I've done both tasks so I'll take my leave." Hakuba cleared his throat and turned to leave.
"Thanks for visiting, Hakuba!" Kaito grinned, waving his hand. He truly was grateful to the detective for hiding him. He was even more grateful that the Brit had kept questions to a minimum. Maybe he would make his super special deluxe pudding-filled balloon trap less embarrassing next heist, just for Hakuba.
"Get well soon, Kuroba." The detective gave a small smile with a nod and left.
There was true confusion and no recognition in Kuroba's eyes.
So he'll leave it at that.
Kaito watched the other teen leave and contemplated the note.
Should he had recognized the note? Was it from someone he knew?
He sighed and thought back to a few days ago. He only remembered blurs, rain and mud.
But also the gentle touch of something warm and caring.
His head pounded slightly and he twitched with a scoff as he settled back down on the hospital bed.
Don't look a gift horse in the mouth. He told himself with a smile as he drifted off to sleep.
Unexpected indeed.
And that is the conclusion of this lovely piece. *clapclapclap*
I hope I was realistically able to portray a panic attack. If I was inaccurate, I apologize if I offended readers with attacks. *Offers cookies and warm milk*
Reviews are appreciated. You're all precious babies, MUCH LOVE~