Ok. So in honor of Shinichi's birthday I decided to upload this (couldn't really think of a good title for it though) It's something I wrote after seeing the Kaitou Kid Christmas special last year. It draws from the both the special and movie 15, so if you haven't watched them this might not make too much sense.

Enjoy!

Conan stretched as he stood up from the dining room table. Genta, Ayumi, and Mitsuhika took off towards the exit at high speed.

"Where are you guys going?" Ran called after them.

"Outside! There's still a short while before the sun sets," Mitsuhiko explained as the group paused.

"We want to see which one of us can make the best snowman, and we might not have time tomorrow since we'll be busy with the festival!"

"Come on, hurry up!" Genta whined. "We've already lost too much time thanks to that old detective!"

Conan shook his head slightly when he heard Genta's continued complaints. 'Can't really blame Genta though,' Conan thought, 'That interview took forever to finish. I wonder how Watanabe's co-workers put up with such a slow-talking co-worker?'

As the (real) kids disappeared outside, Conan began to review the facts he had so far about Hikawa's murder (the medical examiner may not have confirmed it as a murder yet, but he had no doubt as to what would be found). 'I've already figured out the "how" but as for the "why" and "who" of the case…'

His thoughts were interrupted as the Shounen Tantei-dan ran back inside, their eyes wide.

"Hey guys! There's something going on over on the ski slope!" Genta announced loudly as they stopped in front of them.

"Yeah! There's a big crowd gathered at the bottom and a bunch of people were heading up on the lifts!" Mitsuhiko nodded.

"And the people on the lifts were all wearing costumes!" Ayumi finished, throwing her arms into the air for emphasis.

"On the ski slope?" Conan glanced out the window, at the orange sky. The sun was well on its way to setting, and there weren't any night lights on the slope – anyone going up would be skiing or boarding in complete darkness within the hour.

"Shall we go and check it out?" Ran smiled as she leaned down to their level.

"Can we?" The three asked simultaneously. At Ran's nod they cried out happily and took off running again.

"Oi oi…haven't we had enough excitement for one day?" Kogoro grumbled as he watched them go.

"It's exactly because of that 'excitement' that I think they should go!" Ran turned to him with a slight scowl. "Hopefully it'll help get their mind off of what happened…"

"Yeah," Sonoko nodded. "A little normalcy will do us all good."

"'Normalcy,' huh?" Ai, walked up to him with a smirk, speaking so only he could hear, "Around you, this pretty much is normal, isn't it, Shinigami-san?"

"Shut up…" Conan grumbled. "And anyway, how does 'people on ski lifts wearing costumes' count as normal anyway?"

Ai's only answer was a slight widening of her smirk.

Kogoro and Agasa both excused themselves and went back to their rooms, although the later received a stern warning from Ai against sneaking any junk food while she was away (with the accompanying glare promising hell if she was disobeyed). The others all decided to go see what was going on at the slope.

Conan arrived just in time to see a giant pink chicken and giant green octopus come skiing down the hill (or in the chicken's case, rolling).

A quick inquiry of surrounding crowd members produced the somewhat confusing explanation that it was a "Holy Night Masquerade Pair-skiing Contest" that was being held by a high school class from Tokyo's Ekoda High School on a school trip.

Conan looked back towards the slope with a raised eyebrow, wondering what the criteria were for pairing up the costumes. 'What exactly do dinosaurs and bugs have in common…?'

"Ah! It's Kamen Yaiba!" The Shounen Tantei-dan cried out and pointed happily at the next pair. A moment later, their smiles fell off their faces faster than their idol toppled backwards into the snow. As the crowd around them burst out laughing the three looked at one another with identical deadpan expressions.

"Or not," they pronounced together.

"Geez, if he was gonna dress up as Kamen Yaiba, the least he could do was be cool!" Genta added angrily while the other two nodded sagely. Conan couldn't decide whether to laugh, sweatdrop, or be happy they realized the truth (there was a time when they wouldn't have).

The crowd's laughter (and the low scores by the four judges) continued on for a while as the sky steadily grew darker.

"Entry number 18, Snow Queen and Yeti!"

The crowd, many of whom had tears in their eyes from laughing so hard, let out a gasp of awe as the pair skated over the crest. The judges' nearly perfect score told Conan that nobody else had noticed how long it had taken the pair to reach the bottom (suggesting that at least one or, more likely, both had crashed out of their sightline). He would admit though that the woman did seem to know how to ski and that her costume was quite beautiful, although he imagined it didn't provide much protection against the winter cold.

As the crowd cheered, the last rays of the sun began to fade, but Conan overheard a few people in the crowd talking about another student who hadn't gone yet.

'This "Aoko" isn't still planning to go is she? It'll be almost pitch black at the top by now!' Conan looked up towards the crest worriedly, only to blink in surprise. Pairs of white lights were descending from the top of the slope, creating a runway in the snow.

"It's Kaito! Kaito's magic!" Someone in the crowd cried out.

"What magic?" Conan muttered quietly as he rolled his eyes, "it's just lights buried beneath the snow." 'Although the time and effort it must have taken to set this up…' He shook his head slightly. This "Kaito" guy was dedicated, he'd give him that.

The final pair came over the crest and into sight and Conan nearly groaned when he realized what the pair was dressed as. 'Kaitou Kid and a bride? Seriously? I bet the girl's another Kid fan like Sonoko. Speaking of – '

"Kid-sama!?" Conan winced at Sonoko shocked high-pitched-yet-quiet squeal. Ran quickly reminded her that this was a costume contest, at which point Sonoko began to shift towards outrage ("How dare he dress up like my Kid-sama!").

Conan pointedly ignored Sonoko and re-focused on the skiing pair just as the bride, Aoko, shifted too much of her weight and began to fall backwards only to be caught by "Kid" and carried, appropriately, bridal-style. Then, with a sudden burst of speed, Kid bent his knees and shifted both his and the Aoko's weight, flipping them both high into the air in a dramatic back flip. He landed perfectly, and then slid to a halt in front of the wildly clapping crowd as the announcer, the class's teacher apparently, enthusiastically announced the pair's winning perfect score.

Conan barely heard any of this however. He was too focused on studying Kuroba Kaito as he took off his hat and bowed to the crowd. He looked familiar – and he didn't mean the resemblance to his true form.

'He wouldn't…would he…? Oh hell, who am I kidding? This is Kid! Dressing up as himself for a costume contest is just the sort of crazy stunt he'd get a kick out of!'

He shook his head in irritated exasperation as he maneuvered through the crowd towards the makeshift podium that had been set up.

He reached the podium just as the victorious pair stepped down and the crowd began to disperse. Conan took the opportunity to jump up onto vacated podium so he would be more-or-less at eye-level with the caped teen.

"You're pretty amazing, aren't you, nii-san?" Conan called out once he was in place. The comment was completely innocent – no one would even know who he was talking to unless they saw who he was looking at and those who did see would just assume he was talking about the magician's skiing. There was nothing about the comment itself that should be alarming, and yet, for just a moment, white shoulders stiffened. The tension was just barely perceptible by a crease in his jacket between his shoulder blades, and it was gone instantly – if Conan hadn't been looking for it, he'd have missed it altogether. But he had been looking and he had noticed it.

Conan let a lightly ironic smirk settle on his lips. 'Nobody can maintain a perfect poker face twenty-four, seven, Kid.' He knew that fact better than most.

The teen turned to look at him with an innocently curious look on his face. The look was so sincere that Conan almost doubted what he'd seen. Almost.

"Are you talking to me, boya?" The teen, Kuroba Kaito, asked with a slight tilt of his head. At Conan's nod, he turned to his classmates with a grin, "Looks like I made another fan! You guys go on ahead while I sign autographs!" He waived at the various affirmative responses then turned back towards Conan with an easy smile on his face.

'There's not a hint of visible tension on him,' Conan observed with a bit of admiration. Outwardly, he cocked an eyebrow. "An autograph, huh? Will you sign it as Kuroba Kaito or Kaitou Kid? If I get a choice, I'd prefer the later – it'll probably be a bit more useful." 'At the very least it would be a potential bribe for Sonoko…'

"Sorry to disappoint you, boya," Kuroba chuckled, "but I'm just dressing up as Kid for my class's event."

"And that's why I said you're amazing – it takes a special kind of insanity to wear that in public as yourself, Kid," Conan smirked.

"Didn't I just say –"

"Don't bother," Conan interrupted. "Have you forgotten? I've seen your face before. You weren't wearing a mask when you disguised as me for the play with the Jewel of Destiny. We're not identical, it's true. Your hair is much wilder, and your face a bit more rounded; the eyes aren't quite right either – but hair gel, make-up, and contacts would fix that easily."

He paused for a moment, but when Kuroba remained silent he continued. "Your reaction to my initial call to you was the last bit of proof I needed. For just a split second your shoulders tensed. There was nothing in my words that would have caused that, which meant you were reacting to my voice. 'Kuroba Kaito' has never met 'Edogawa Conan,' but Kaitou Kid has," he shrugged. "It's not enough for an actual conviction, but it's more than enough to convince me."

"You say it's not enough for a conviction, even if I was Kid," Kuroba said after a brief silence, and Conan could tell he was choosing his words carefully, "if that's so, then why are you here? What do you plan to do?"

"Nothing," Conan smiled and shook his head slightly.

"What?"

Conan looked up at the sky, where he could just make out the first stars of the night, as he fought back a grin. The dumbstruck look the other's face was hilarious.

"I said I'm not going to do anything," Conan repeated softly. "I have no intention of revealing who you are to anyone else."

"But why? You're a detective aren't you!?"

"I am," Conan nodded then glanced back at Kaito with small grin, "which is something I've never told 'Kuroba,' by the way," he held a hand up as the other teen opened his mouth to respond, "as for why…for one, I can't say anything – not without revealing myself, anyway. But, even more than that…I don't want to."

"'Don't want to'?" Kuroba repeated softly, his head tilted to the side.

Conan shrugged, "You've known who I am for a while now, yet you haven't told anyone or used the information for any kind of leverage over me. You've even helped me keep my secret from Ran. I'm not so crass that I would forget all of that and turn you in the moment I discover your identity –especially since it was by a complete fluke."

"If that's so, then why confront me like this?"

"To confirm my suspicions, for one thing," he might have also wanted to see if he could shake the unshakable Kaitou Kid a little, but he'd keep that bit to himself. "Also, I guess…to even the playing field? I know that you know about me, so…" Conan shrugged again.

"I…see."

Kuroba's comment was followed by several minutes of silence. They had long since been the only ones still in the area – everyone else had gone back indoors. The conversation didn't feel over yet, but neither of the two quite knew what to say next.

"There's something I want to ask you," Conan said, finally breaking the silence as he gave in to the desire to ask something he'd been wondering about since he'd first heard the other's name.

"What's that?"

"You're name…Kuroba," Conan turned to look at the sky again as he started awkwardly, somewhat unsure of how best to phrase his question, "are you…related to Kuroba Toichi?"

He felt more than saw Kuroba turn to face him more, "Yeah, he's my father."

Conan nodded as his suspicions were confirmed, although he continued to stare at the stars above, "I thought so." 'A world-renowned magician who died around the same time the original Kaitou Kid disappeared from public eye.' He was a bit surprised nobody had made the connection – then again, considering his successor, even if they had, they most likely wouldn't have been able to find any proof.

"Did you…know him?" Kuroba's voice had changed subtly. Conan glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, but chose to ignore the change and instead focused on his question.

"My mother did. Kuroba Toichi was the magician who taught her the art of disguise." 'And he's also one of her "seven knights,"' but he wasn't about to go into that. "Can't say I'm too thankful for that, though."

"Why's that?" Kuroba quirked an eyebrow at him. "Hasn't it given you an edge in seeing through Kid's disguises?"

"I'd have been able to spot you regardless," Conan scoffed. "Even if had helped though, it wouldn't be worth the number of times she's used her disguises to mess with me."

"Something tells me there are some interesting stories behind that sentence," Kuroba grinned after a moment.

"You have no idea," Conan rolled his eyes. Kuroba opened his mouth to reply when a distant shout reached them.

"Conan-kun! What are you still doing over there! It's time to come in!" Ran waved at him from the distance.

"I guess that's my cue," Conan jumped down from the podium and started to walk away but after a few steps he paused and glanced back with a smirk. "Don't think this means that I've given up on catching Kaitou Kid, Kuroba Kaito."

"I wouldn't dream of it, Tantei-kun," the thief answered with his own signature smirk before letting it smooth out into a normal smile "In the meantime, perhaps I'll see you around."

Conan smiled back, "yeah, maybe."

I have an idea of a continuation for this which incorporates the movie a lot more. Let me know if you guys want me to write it. Maybe I'll upload on Kaito's Birthday? :D

Also, there's something I need to say. For those who don't know, in every Magic Kaito episode (or Kaitou Kid Special as they call them) they have a cameo of Conan appear, but Conan has NEVER appeared in the manga – although Shinichi did in Volume 4 with the clock tower heist. Up until now, these cameos have slightly annoyed me since they really throw off the time line established in the manga series if viewers take them seriously (and yes, this part of the note is basically a rant by me to set people straight :P) The most recent episode, however, is actually an anime-original - I scanned through Magic Kaito when I first saw the special. So...yeah. Just had to say that.

Please review! Thanks for reading!

Happy Birthday Shinichi!