A/N: Sometimes I look at my tumblr oneshots and think it might be fun to transfer them over here. So please enjoy this particular oneshot.
"Hey Hakuba," Shinichi says one day when they sit down for lunch, "you want to see this magic trick I've been working on?"
Opposite the seat Shinichi is sat at, Kaito lets out a small snicker, leaning forward on the table to glance between the detectives.
"You can't do magic tricks," the magician claims, resting his chin on his hand, "you don't have the imagination. Detectives can't perform magic."
Shinichi gives him the look, grins and shakes his head, turning back to look at Saguru. The other detective nods, waits expectantly for Shinichi to begin, watching as Shinichi pulls a pack of playing cards from his pocket - Kaito's pretty sure that they're his cards, not Shinichi's own, but well, it doesn't exactly matter.
"Just watch," Shinichi says, "I'll blow your mind with this trick."
Kaito scoffs.
Pulling out the playing cards from the pack, and shuffling them, Shinichi takes the deck and spreads them out face down. He then prompts Saguru to pick out a card, asks him to memorise it before asking the Brit to place it back into the deck.
"Kaito… Can you shuffle the cards for me?" Shinichi asks then, and the magician, watching the trick carefully, does as the detective asks. After he's satisfied with the level of shuffling, Shinichi grins, taking back the playing cards.
He pauses. "Your birthday is the 29th of August, right Hakuba?"
Saguru nods, his brows drawn into a frown.
"Okay. That means twenty-nine. Adding the digits together, makes eleven, and then adding those together is two… Add that to August being the 8th month and we've got ten. That means ten cards."
He places nine cards onto the table, moving slower with each card, dragging the moment out until he lifts the tenth card, showing it to Saguru. He asks, "is this your card?"
Saguru takes the card and lets out a small laugh. It's a mixture of astonishment and surprise, his eyes widening slightly as he takes the card from Shinichi's hand. "How?"
Shinichi taps the side of his nose and smiles. He says, "a magician never tells, do they Kaito?"
He glances at the magician, revels in the expression he notices - Kaito's lips are pursed, his own face furrowed into a frown as he tries to discover the trick, staring at the card in Saguru's hands.
"That's right…" Kaito admits.
Later, as their apartment, as Kaito is preparing tea for their guest, Shinichi shows Heiji the same trick.
"Is this your card?" Shinichi asks, holding up the seven of clubs. Heiji grins and nods.
"How'd ya know?"
Shinichi smirks, shrugs his shoulders and places the cards down onto the table. Then, taking the tea Kaito has poured, he takes a sip, flashing Kaito a smug smile.
"Am I creative yet Kaito?" He asks, "do I have an imagination now?"
After a short pause, Kaito turns to Shinichi, a bitter expression marring his usually jovial expression. He looks visibly pained as he claims that Shinichi has always been an exception to the rule, is his favourite detective for a reason, and that means he's certainly got an imagination.
"Oi, Kudo - I think tha' I got it." Heiji says, and leans in to whisper his deduction to his best friend.
"I haven't figured it out yet," Kaito mutters, "there's no way a detective could get it before me."
Shinichi leans back, smiles and nods. He says, "that's how you do it Hattori!"
He's pretty sure that he notices Kaito's eye twitching.
(Later, when Shinichi is fading into sleep beside Kaito, the magician having fallen asleep hours before, when Shinichi had been overlooking details for a case, he hears Kaito spring up, opens sleepy eyes to notice that the magician is awake, wide-eyed and alert.
"The cards are marked, right Shinichi? That's how you did it?" Kaito trips on his way out of the room, falls flat on his face as he races to get to the cards.
Shinichi grins. He falls asleep with laughter on his lips.)
"Okay," Shinichi says three days later when they all sit down at lunch. "I've got another magic trick."
Kaito lets out a groan. He bangs his head against the table as he buries his forehead in the gap between his folded arms. "No. I still haven't figured out the last one yet."
Saguru raises an eyebrow. "Really? I figured it out two days ago."
Kaito mutters swears under his breath. "Even Hakuba beat me, what-"
"Yeah, yeah," Shinichi waves the comments away. "Hakuba, the trick, want to see it?"
Saguru nods, and waits as the detective pulls out a brand new pack of cards, undoing the plastic wrapping and passing the playing cards to Kaito to shuffle again. It's a new defense, the cards, to keep Kaito from claiming that they are marked somehow. Hell - Shinichi hasn't even been holding them for any more than five seconds.
"Thanks," he says when Kaito passes them back. Like with his previous trick, he spreads the cards face down on the table, asks Saguru to pick any card he wants.
Saguru does.
Opposite him, Shinichi rubs at his temples, hesitates before asking, "Jack of clubs?"
Hakuba pales, throws the card down and asks, "How are you doing this? Is the magic spreading from Kuroba to you…?"
Kaito shakes his head. "No. No that's not possible, no-"
Shinichi shrugs, collects the cards and shuffles them again. "It's a trick Kaito, of course it's possible."
"Do it again."
Shinichi shuffles the cards, mutters 'whatever will make you sleep at night', before redoing the trick. He tells Saguru to pick another card, before Kaito stops the trick, picking his own card instead. Apparently, the magician suspects foul play, wants to do it himself to ensure that there's no 'funny business' going on.
For a moment, Shinichi hesitates.
Then, out of the corner of his eye, he watches Hakuba raise his hand to his chest, putting four fingers up.
Shinichi grins, "four of hearts?"
Kait swears, throws the card back on top of the deck, before storming out of the cafeteria. He cries, "unacceptable, they're detectives," as the door slams behind him.
Saguru glances at Shinichi, raises an eyebrow as his fellow detective collects the playing cards from the table, shimmying them back into the deck.
"How long until you tell Kuroba-kun that we've just been tricking him?" He asks.
Shinichi grins, "only until is stops being funny."
"So… never?"
A smile. "Yeah, pretty much."
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