In The Eyes Of The Beholder

Chapter 2

By Shyro Foxfeather

Kaito furiously rang the doorbell of his 'doppelganger's' house. Shinichi was home. He knew Shinichi was home. He knew this because a few noticeable thoughts ran through his head that certainly did not belong to him. This was about the time he started playing 'Deck The Halls' with the doorbell.

-Who on earth is THAT? Whoever it is their going to pay for making me lose that game of Twister. I was winning dammit-

Kaito blinked. Oh…kay. That was…new. Oh well, he shrugged, weirder things have happened lately.

-He he he. I'll have ta thank that doorbell guy for makin' Kudo-kun trip over his foot like that.-

…Heiji was here too? Kaito idly wondered how one was to play twister with only two people. 'Not that I couldn't do it, of course. I wonder who would play with me? Probably Hakuba…'

His thoughts were interrupted by the teenage figure of one Shinichi Kudo looming in the open doorway while scowling at him.

(Imperative Author's Notice: As this is a sequel to 'Do Not Mess With Funky Gems' and in that story Kudo was still stuck as Conan; Chaos, Logic, and I have declared that he had merely used an AP pill to shrink down so he could do some undercover work. They were made to only last 24 hours like the prototype antidote pills. Seriously, in the Conan VS Kid VS Yaiba OVA he uses some type of medicine to transform three times in a row. I'm pretty sure it won't kill 'im.)

"Kuroba-kun…?" Kudo's annoyance faded to confusion. "What are you doing here?"

"Is it a crime to visit my cousin? Sheesh!" Kaito huffed dramatically.

"Oi, Kudo-kun! Who's at the door?" A voice from the depths of the house called out. It belonged to the 'Detective Of The West' Hattori Heiji, of course.

"Just Kaito-ku," Before he could finish his sentence Heiji came racing out of the darkness.

"Kuroba-kun! How are you?" He asked happily. Heiji had a very odd fondness for Kaito that used to confuse Kaito immensely. It turned out to be because they shared an equally strange and disturbing sense of humor that not many could lay claim to.

Sometimes Kaito wondered if those two were gay. However, Shinichi was too in love with Ran and Heiji was too in denial about Kazuha to ever swing that certain direction. Although, if Ran and Kazuha weren't around he would've been a lot more alarmed by them playing 'Twister'.

"Well," Kaito began knowing that telling them his problem would ruin a lot of potential pranks. "I have a problem."

Inside…

"So," Heiji began, "You can basically read minds?" Heiji asked in a mixture of awe and disbelief. He may have been a comical person, but he wasn't dim-witted.

"Yup." Kaito sighed ruefully. "It's driving me up the wall. I don't want to know these things but I can't filter what goes in my head nowadays."

"Well… It does explain the ice cream incident now doesn't?" Shinichi murmured, hand on chin.

"Right. Okay mister hotshot phantom thief. What am I thinking of now?" Heiji asked in a wry tone. Kaito was, after all, known to pull pranks. It was even in his job description!

"Erm." Kaito paused a second. "You're wondering where Kazuha buys her hair ribbons seeing as you keep stealing them from her."

Heiji froze eyes wide and mouth sputtering.

Shinichi snickered. "Wow. I officially have a knew respect for you Kaito-kun." Shinichi praised. "I've never seen him ever shut up so quickly!"

Outside…

The pulling sensation driving Hakuba forward was beginning to recede into the back of his mind again. It had begun to do so right after it led them to the iron gate of the house he had somehow envisioned.

Akako leaned toward Hakuba with an all-knowing smirk on her face. "Now Hakuba-kun. How on earth did we end up here? This seems to be," She paused making an obvious job of reading the address plaque, "Kudo-kun's house, is it not? Why on earth would he be here?"

"I don't know." Hakuba grumped. "He just is!"

Aoko looked back and forth between the two. "Is there something I'm missing here? I feel kind of out of the loop."

"Nothing dear Aoko-chan. Nothing at all. It's just that Hakuba-kun seems to have developed some kind of telepathic link with our dear Kaito-kun."

"I have not!" Hakuba hollered defensively.

"Yeah, Akako-chan, that weird psychic stuff doesn't exist. It's just for the mentally unstable!" Aoko berated.

Hakuba paled and Akako had to physically keep herself from cracking up.

Aoko huffed. "Fine then! I'll prove it to you both!" She then proceeded to drag them both forward by their hand to the front doors of the house. Akako was laughing so hard by now that she could scarcely catch her breath.

Aoko's finger angrily slammed the doorbell, which in turn made the current occupants of the house jump.

A few seconds later the door was opened by none other than Hattori Heiji. Not that they knew whom he was save for Hakuba who made a muffled yelp of surprise from behind Aoko.

"Sorry to bother you," Aoko began in a much politer tone, "but is there a black spiky haired idiot with dark blue eyes here?" Aoko asked slowly becoming a little more than irate.

Heiji blinked. "Erm yeah." At the answer Aoko took on a surprised look. "We've got two of 'em. Why don't'cha come on in and take your pick?"

With that he opened the door wider and waited until everyone had filed in before shutting it again.

"They're in the library." Heiji motioned to the door at the end of the hall as the walked.

Aoko and Akako were spending a good deal of time gawking at the mere size of the house. Meanwhile, Hakuba vaguely wondered if Kuroba was cheating on him. The he had to promptly reprimand himself for such thoughts.

The door to the library swung open with a creaky groan.

"Kaito!" Aoko bellowed as she spotted and charged the boy who had been innocently sitting on the couch and eating a muffin. Needless to say she had gotten the wrong person, as Kaito never did anything innocently.

Or ate muffins.

Hakuba blinked as the boy jumped from his seat—dropping the poor muffin (dutifully named Harold by Heiji) in the process—and scurried away from the mad female.

Kaito watched enthusiastically from his spot on the ledge of the bookshelf that lined the walls all the way around. They were mighty tall after all. "Yay Aoko! Get Kudo! Huzzah! Huzzah!" He cheered absently wishing he had some popcorn.

Akako and Hakuba now peered up at him, as did Aoko. She gave an embarrassed yelp and jumped away from the twitching and hyperventilating look a like.

"If-if… You're you then…" Aoko murmured. "Who's he?"

Kaito laughed and hopped down from his elevated hiding place. He walked over, pulled the boy up, and announced.

"This here be my dear cousin Shinichi Kudo! Who narrowly missed having a book implanted in his head, ne?" Kaito beamed.

This really seemed to break Hakuba's brain. Shinichi Kudo, the famous detective, was the cousin to Kaito Kuroba, the famous thief!

The day's events finally took a tool on the poor detective. The next thing he saw was the carpet and then darkness.

"Wow!" Kaito applauded. "He really is British! He fainted just like a one of them!"

Pause.

"Well… A female one anyway…"

TBC…

Disclaimer: Nor my minions or I are the caretakers of the animes we engrave stories in paper—or word processor—about. Though soon we will be and you will know when that day has come.

Even though I dislike putting author's notes in stories I thought it would be appropriate to put it there seeing as a good amount of people don't read the ones at the bottom (or top) anymore.

Also, I really needed to end the chapter there seeing as it was approaching a place in the plot that has no possible ending points. Heh.

As you may have noticed it is blatantly obvious Hakuba -likes- Kaito. It's still in debate whether Aoko does too. And it is not obvious whom Kaito likes but I like to lean more towards a Hakuba/Kaito pairing.

Hope you continue reading!