Kaito froze as Conan held up the small black bullet. Dammit… seriously? Now, of all times to appear…

Conan flipped the bullet around and narrowed his eyes, raising his eyes to meet Kaito's. "This bullet doesn't belong to the police." The boy calculated with eerie calm. So that's his poker face… That's right, I've got to keep my poker face. I can't lost it now, of all times. "They don't own this model of gun. I know some people who do, though… and they're not the types that you'd want to cross."

Kaito smirked. "What can I say? I seem to have a knack for angering brainless idiots… not my fault that I always outsmart them."

Conan's eyes narrowed even more, and showed Kaito the bullet. "This looks a lot like the model that an organization I'm hunting down is using. What did you do to make them try to kill you?"

Kaito smiled in response. "I would tell you, tantei-chan, but I don't think that now's the time." He responded coolly. "After all…" He shoved the seven year old's head down, gritting his teeth when a barrage of bullets shattered the glass. "…We're under attack at the moment."

"Tch." Conan's hand moved to his waist and he pulled out a small pistol. "There are roughly 10 people, and they're probably at the building opposite to this one… none of them are sniper specialists, though."

Kaito grinned in admiration despite himself. "You seem to know quite a bit about bullets and being shot at, tantei-chan. Did your earlier mysteries teach you about snipers and bullets?"

Conan scoffed. "Obviously. Unlike you, I'm actually competent at my job, you know. And like I said, the organization I'm targeting uses these…"

"Time's up to talk, brat." Snake's familiar growl cut into the conversation as the man smirked at them from the window. "Now, hand over the gem, Kid. Wouldn't want either you or the brat to get hurt, right?" The man smirked at them as he casually pointed the gun, his subordinates doing the same.

"My, my." Kaito smiled cheerily. "What a violent gesture, Snake. I didn't expect to see you here… usually you're too scared of me to show up, I think." His smile widened as he tossed Snake the gem, the man dropping it in surprise after fumbling around. "Don't worry, it's not Pandora… let's try again some other time, shall we?"

"Like I'm letting you run loose, and having that preposterous idea that we're afraid of a simple con man like you." Snake replied icily as he leveled his gun, only to let out a cry of shock as a bullet hit dead center on his hat and knocked it off.

"I wouldn't recommend that." Conan threatened coolly, his eyes dark. "I can shoot this in the middle of a target every time. Meguire-keibu showed me a while ago. What is it that you're looking for… Pandora? It seems that your organization has a lot of goals, doesn't it?"

Snake's eyes narrowed. "Brat… you know about our organization? Then I suppose that I'd have to get rid of you as well—" And was cut off by a soccer ball to the face.

Kaito pouted. "You know, you could have let me do something, tantei-chan. Just sitting around like this is seriously not cool, you know. In fact, it's pretty lame."

"Is this seriously the time for this?" Conan demanded and he pointed at the goons.

Kaito tilted his head to the side, pretending to be in deep thought, and then smiled widely. "Haha, I guess not. For now, I suppose that we need to run, tantei-chan."

"What a shocker." The boy replied dryly as Kaito picked him up and stepped on Snake's face, using the man as a lever as he leaped from the window, sailing over the stunned subordinates as he opened his hang glider. "Why are you carrying me, again?"

Kaito blinked down at Conan. "Ah, tantei-chan, why did you let me carry you? I can't exactly take you down to the ground, you know, and dropping you is obviously not an option either…" He frowned in deep concentration, and then laughed. "I'll just keep you around for a while, okay?"

Conan scowled. "Couldn't you do something more normal, like take me to my house?"

Kaito gasped in surprise. "You live near here, tantei-chan?" He asked in faux shock. "So that's how you always get where old man Jirokichi challenges me! You live near the area!"

Conan's eyebrow twitched. "I appreciate the sarcasm." He said dryly, sarcasm dripping from his own voice like honey from a beehive. "But kindly take me to that apartment building with 'Mouri Detective Agency' written on the roof."

"Hai, hai." Kaito pouted. "You never let me have any fun."

"If I let you have fun, the country would be in mortal danger and chaos." Conan replied with a scowl. "Not quite how I'd like Japan to be."

"You wound me, tantei-chan." Kaito replied, placing a hand over his heart, before dropping to the ground, impressed when Conan didn't so much as scream at the sudden 90 degree plummet to the earth.

"Do you get a kick out of dangerous stunts?" The child wondered out loud as he raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Kaito replied dismissively as he turned his back to the kid. "I'm off, brat. See ya."

"Wait—!" The boy yelled, only for the cry to be lost in the wind as Kaito flew off. Conan kicked the roof's door. "And now I'm back to square one." He gave the bullet in his hands one last, irritated look, and scowled. All this makes is more and more mysteries piling up…

But that was alright. Because that just meant that there was more truth, even if he had to find it and dig it up from where it was hidden in the lies.

0o0o0o0o0

Thump, thump, thump.

This. Was. The. Most. Boring. Thing. That. Had. Ever. Happened. To. Him.

Thump, thump, BONK!

"I'm… so… bored…" Kaito moaned as he held out a hand, trying to reach out of the metaphorical hole that he had dug himself into. The hole was the boring bus ride of the student transfer program, and he had dug it by accepting and going onto this trip.

"Just let me diiie already…" Kaito moaned wearily as he lay his head on Aoko's shoulder. "I'm too tired to even do magic tricks…"

Aoko raised an eyebrow as she placed her hands on her hips. "And too tired for your usual perverted mischief, I hope." She retorted angrily, in refusal to feel pity even for… well, maybe especially for Kaito. "No skirt flipping?"

"Why would I need to flip your skirt?" Kaito mumbled into her shoulder, voice curious in confusion. "I already know that they're pink with lace and a white bow. Really, Aoko, little bows on underwear? At your age? And you brought the ones with the teddy bears on them, too… are you secretly a five year old, and that's why you've got no development on your chest?"

Killer intent began to thicken in the air as Aoko raised her broom, eyes narrowing in anger. "KAITO YOU PERVERT!" She screamed angrily, cheeks bright red as she brought the broom down. "Get ready to die—!"

The broom was stopped mid swing as Kaito grabbed it, a small smile on his lips. "I'd rather stay alive, thank you very much." He replied curtly, as a small puff of smoke ignited at the end of the broom, travelling up the broom until it completely covered it. There was a loud POP! sound, and Kaito smiled cheerily at Aoko as the broom turned into a blue rose. "There, isn't that much prettier?" He asked, satisfied and arrogant as ever. "It much more fits a beauty like you."

Aoko turned bright red. "Kaito, if this is some kind of trick…"

"Why would I trick someone as sweet as this dear mademoiselle before me?" Kaito asked innocent as he handed Aoko a bouquet of red roses.

Startled, Aoko accepted them and buried the lower half of her face in them as she inhaled deeply, a light smile finding it's way to her features. "Thank you, Kaito." She mumbled.

Kaito grinned in response. "You're welcome, Aoko." He replied with an exaggerated bow as he kissed her hand.

A hand tapped at his shoulder.

"Hate to break the sweet moment between you two and all, kiddos." The bus driver informed him, not looking the least bit sorry. "But this is the last stop that the bus goes to and—"

"OH CRAP, WE MISSED OUR STATION!"

"BAKA KAITO! THIS IS YOUR FAULT FOR DISTRACTING ME AND TAKING UP MY ATTENTION WHEN WE WERE SUPPOSED TO GET OFF!"

"IT WAS YOUR OWN FAULT FOR BEING SO STUPID AND INTO IT, BAKAKO!"

"ARE YOU BLAMING ME, KAITROLL!? BECAUSE IF YOU ARE GET READY FOR REALITY TO SMACK YOU IN THE FACE BECAUSE IT WAS YOUR FAULT FOR HAVING THAT STUPID MAGIC SHOW IN THE FIRST PLACE!"

"OH YEAH? WHATEVER. I'M MATURE, SO I DON'T CARE!" Kaito 'hmph!'ed as he turned from Aoko, expression set in stubbornness as he turned to the poor bus driver, eyes narrowed in determination. "Hey! You!"

The bus driver gulped at Kaito's intensity and pointed a quavering finger at himself. "M-me?" He repeated with a small, nervous chuckle. "What would you like me to—"

"Drive us to our station." Kaito commanded.

"S-sir, that's an unreasonable—"

"DO IT."

The man gulped. My job's going to get the heck of a beating when I get back… But for some odd reason, he found it hard to deny this teenager what he wanted. And didn't this technically count as bus hijacking? He could just report the brat to the police. "Y-yes sir." He quickly nodded and dashed to the steering wheel, wiping quickly at the beads of sweat littering his brow.

Aoko sweat dropped. "Isn't this illegal?" She wondered out loud.

Kaito shrugged as he lazily sat down in his seat. "Does it matter?" He asked in reply. "We're getting to our spot."

The bus driver started crying. Why did I want to be a bus driver again?

0o0o0o0o0o0

Aoko was slightly directionally challenged.

Oh, wait, no she wasn't.

She had no sense of direction, couldn't even tell when she was holding the map upside down, and this was the 10th time that they had walked around the SAME BLOCK with her not-so-helpful attempts at deciphering the simple instructions pointing them to the Mouri's apartment.

"You suck." Kaito noted as he continued juggling five colorful balls that he had pulled out around the 4th time that they had circled the block.

Aoko turned bright red. "Well, I don't see you helping!" She answered accusingly.

Kaito acted shocked. "Me? Help?" He echoed. "Banish that very thought from your head, Aoko! I, the great Kaito-sama, doesn't help." He paused. "Unless I'm in charge." He added. "In which case, I totally help."

Aoko scowled. "So I suppose you do want to keep getting lost?" She demanded.

Kaito shrugged as he pulled a sketchbook out of his sleeve and eased a pencil from Aoko's ear. "Doesn't make a difference to me." He answered as he started doodling Nakamori in Kaito Kid's costume, chasing himself in circles. "I wanted to work on my amazing art skills anyways."

Aoko rolled her eyes, but continued her vain attempt to find the Mouri's home.

Kaito consented around the 48th time they circled the block, having found that he was running out of magic tricks that he could do while walking. And besides, it was getting dark.

They eventually discovered that it had been on that block the entire time, and the reason why they hadn't found it was because they respectively only looked at the map and the tricks they were going through, and had forgotten to actually look at the street itself.

Aoko blamed Kaito, and Kaito blamed Aoko, then Aoko pulled out a mop and somehow they managed to get into the Mouri's apartment, where they rock-paper-scissor-ed for an almost depressing amount of time to decide who got to knock on the door (if they hadn't been so busy rock-paper-scissor-ing, they might have realized that there was a doorbell).

Tap, tap, tap.

Aoko had won, so Kaito sulked in the corner while she rapped on the door. Only a few seconds later, it opened, and a weary face peeked out. "…clients?" A mirror image of Aoko muttered in confusion. "At this hour?" With a slightly exasperated sigh, as though she were used to it, she pulled open the door. "Come on in." She called out wearily over her shoulder. "I'll go call otou-san for you."

"Ah, that won't be necessary." Aoko quickly answered. "We're Aoko and Kaito, the students on exchange? I'm supposed to live here with you, I believe."

The girl paused, and stared at Aoko in surprise, "I could have sworn you wouldn't be here until tomorrow!" She squeaked, before hurriedly pushing together some things on a coffee table. "I hope you don't mind the mess… oh, I knew I should have cleaned up today, but things got so busy with that other case and—"

She turned bright red mid-rant and turned to Aoko again. "I—uh—sorry for the mess. Anyways, I'm Mouri Ran." The girl held out a hand with a sigh. "And uh—where's this Kaito-san that you're speaking of?"

"Here!" Kaito's head popped in the door and Ran turned pale, as though she'd been punched. "Nice to meetcha, miss Mouri Ran-chan! I am the awesome Kuroba Kaito-sama, but I'll let you call me Kaito because you're beautiful." At this, he winked and pulled out a yellow flower.

"Oh…" Ran's features regained some of their color and she shook Kaito's head with a faint, confused smile. "It's nice to meet you… Kaito-kun?"

"That's me!" Kaito agreed cheerfully.

Ran's smile seemed frozen on her lips. "So, are you staying here too?"

"He's not." Aoko cut in. "Do you happen to know where 'Kudo Shinichi' lives?"

Ran's smile dropped. "I—" She faltered. "Actually, I…"

She was cut off as a blur of blue and white flashed into the room and barreled into her, knocking her over.

"Ran-nee-chan! Ojichan is snoring again and I can't sleep so I saw the lights on and are you alright with sleeping or is Ojichan's snoring so loud that you could hear it in your room? I checked but you weren't there so I came here and I'm kind of hungry, is there any candy left in the—"

At this point the blur gasped for breath, and Aoko and Kaito had already realized that it was actually a little boy. Ran laughed and the tension that had built up seemed to disappear with the appearance of the little boy. "Hi, Conan-kun. I see that you're not asleep like I told you to." She tweaked his nose at little as she spoke.

Conan pouted. "But Ran-nee-chaaaan!" He whined. "I already told you, Ojichan is snoring like crazy! It's famous, you know, because everyone calls Ojichan Snoring Kogoro, ne, ne, ne?"

Ran laughed again. "No, Conan-kun, it's not Snoring Kogoro, it's sleeping Kogoro. And it's not because his snoring's famous, it's because he sleeps when he solves a mystery case."

"Ooooh." Conan nodded in understanding. "So, who are the nee-chan and the nii-chan standing there?"

Aoko smiled warmly. "I'm Nakamori Aoko, and he's Kuroba Kaito. I'll be staying here with you for a while, and he'll be living with Kudo Shinichi. It's nice to meet you…" She trailed off.

"Conan!" Conan chirped his name. "And this nii-chan is staying with Shinichi-nii-chan? Wow! So you know where he is? Or are you staying at his house with Subaru-nii-chan? Either way, that's so cool! Now I have two nee-chans, right?"

While Aoko squealed about how cute Conan was, Kaito's eyes narrowed. There are way too many things that are wrong with this picture. He decided. First of all, this is Sleeping Kogoro's place? That's insane! Second of all…

"What do you mean 'so I know where he is'?" Kaito asked. "Isn't Kudo-san here?"

Ran straightened, and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear with a slight frown. "You really don't know?" She asked in a regretful voice.

Kaito frowned. "No." He answered. "What's going on?"

Ran bit her lip and looked away. "Shinichi disappeared a few months ago." She offered softly. "His house is currently occupied by a man named Subaru… if you want, you can stay here with us, or we can make arrangements with Subaru-san, if that's preferable."

"Oh—uh—" Kaito swallowed.

There was a slight tug on his pant leg. When he looked down, Conan smiled brightly at him. "Are you going to stay with us, Kaito-nii-chan?" He wondered out loud. "That'd be so cool! Now I'll get another nii-chan to play with me more!" He paused, added in a wistful voice, "Or you can go to Subaru-nii-chan's place, I guess. I always go to Doc's house anyways, so I can still play with you even if you're there." And he brightened again. "So it's a win-win, right, Kaito-nii-chan?"

"I… uh…" Kaito looked pleadingly at Ran. "Is he always like this?"

Ran nodded, a slight smile on her features. "He seems to like you." She offered.

"Great." Kaito answered sarcastically. "Well, why don't I meet this Subaru-san of yours, and then we'll see what to do next?"

"Great!" Ran agreed brightly. "But tomorrow. For now, you can stay here." She rummaged through a closet and tossed him and Aoko two futons. "Aoko-chan can stay with me. You and Conan can sleep together, alright?"

Great. Kaito squinted at Conan. I'm stuck with a kid that has a bipolar personality. Just great.

And as everyone's back was turned, and Conan's face become more serious, Kaito wondered if Conan might've been thinking the exact same thing as him.