Edited 8/15/2014
o-o-o-o-o-o
"For the last time, no. We are not going to the Tower of London." Kid pouted at Conan's expression, which was annoyance at the insistence of the thief.
"But come on, Tantei-kun. Please?" he begged for the fourteenth time that afternoon.
"No, and that is that." The child let out a sigh, but lighter than the one than the phantom thief was expecting. He knew that he was holding a heavy heart, and attempted to distract the detective from it.
It's what they've been doing since leaving the restaurant. Tantei-kun will tell him when he's ready.
"But I need to know the area if I want to steal the Carbuncle," Kid said, only to be ignored.
"I refuse to let you steal anything while I'm here. What kind of detective would I be if I let you get away with that?" Conan continued to study the map of the Tube as they maneuvered around the city through the famous transit system. "Besides, Nakamori-keibu would be upset if you were to suddenly appear in London. Not to mention Hakuba-nii-san."
Kid smirked. "Oh, don't want to share me, do you?"
Conan crumpled his pamphlet and wacked Kid with it. "Idiot! Don't put words in my mouth!"
Kid pulled on his cheeks. "Eh? What words do you want to say?" Conan flailed at the pulling of his face.
"Lemme go!" He managed to spit out. "Ah hahaha, t-that d-do-doesn't h-he-help!" He laughed as Kid released his face and tickled his stomach.
"Now why would I want to do that?" Kid smirked, happy that Tantei-kun was no longer depressed.
They got some strange looks from the random British people around them, making thessm stop their actions.
"... I think it's the fact that we're speaking Japanese," Kid whispered to Conan, who rolled his eyes in response.
"At least we're not covered in blood carrying a harpoon," Conan muttered to him quietly. Kid grew wide-eyed at the detective's statement.
"O… kay then," Kid replied, sitting back in his seat with Conan pocketing the map, and remained perfectly still while he let that statement sink in. He turned to the diminutive detective slowly, who was playing with his mobile. "Do I want to know?"
"Hmm?" Conan answered off-handedly as he continued to press buttons.
"Alrighty then." Kid whistled nervously as he watched Conan continue to play with the phone, mostly just playing around as in to not face the awkwardness between them.
"So what's going to happen now?" he asked, getting bored himself and willing to face the music.
"…. Well we did look at lots of the sights, now we just have to wait until 11:30." He looked at his watch. "It's almost six now. Besides looking at the Tower of London, where would you like to go?"
Kid looked through a pamphlet. "I'm good for anything, except an aquarium."
"Aquarium?" Conan raised an eyebrow.
"Aquarium." Kid froze, shaking his head furiously. "No. Never. Do you have any other ideas?"
"Well, I'm aching to look at some fish…"
"What did I just say!?" Kaito stood up, and the random bystanders started to stare at them again.
"Let's get out here." Conan stood up himself and walked out the doors, Kid in tow.
"You know, it's dangerous to go alone." Kid held out his hand. "Especially for a child. Take my hand."
Conan mumbled, "I know my way around here better than you," before taking the hand. He coughed. "Well come along then." He tugged the thief down a path, and they walked in silence for several minutes until they ended up in front of a building.
Kaito stared. "… Don't tell me."
Conan just shrugged. "We have a few more hours until the deadline, I can't think of anything else to do."
"But we don't -"
Conan shrugged. "It's alright, I got this." He dragged his chaperone along into the building of the Royal Opera House.
Kid grew wide-eyed at the sight of everyone in formal attire, men wearing suits and women dressed in elaborate dresses.
"B-but, I'm not properly dressed -"
The not-child rolled his eyes. "You're wearing a buttoned shirt and a tie. It's fine."
"You're not -"
"Please, look at me. I'm about as fancy as one can be at this age. Come on."
The thief was helpless as Conan brought him to the usher, tugging at the man's pants who leant down to listen to him.
After a short exchange, the usher left them. Conan gave out a sigh.
"What -"
"Never mind, just follow him." They followed the man at a short distance.
"… So what are we watching, exactly?"
Conan observed the beautiful, countless women dashing behind the curtain and backstage. "Don Giovanni?"
"Ooh, a classic!" Kid waved at the usher that brought them to the front hall, their seats beside the orchestra with an amazing view. Forget the questions as to how Tantei-kun was able to get them in, not dressed for the occasion, and front seats. He gave a look to Conan, who was seated with feet kicking in the air as he thought about what the general plot of the opera was. "Although, I'm a little iffy on it…" he commented as the curtain rose.
o-o-o-o-o-o
"I liked the part when the dude was dragged to hell."
Kid rolled his eyes. "Of course you do." He thought about it. "Hmm, since we're being honest," At least that was what he was assuming, "My favorite part was with Leporello singing about Giovanni's achievements." He snickered. "Imagine? 2163 women!"
Conan rolled his eyes. "No comment."
Kid pouted. "Better than when Giovanni was dragged to the Underworld." Conan stuck out his tongue while Kid vaguely questioned the child's sanity before looking at his watch. "Can we go inside yet?"
"No, give it another minute." The magician counted off the seconds in his head, only getting half-way before Conan grabbed his wrist. "Alright, half a minute. Let's go."
They stepped out of their cab and into the Italian restaurant for the second time that day, and took the same seat as before.
"Should I just order the same stuff too? Keep a pattern?" Kid asked sarcastically as Conan watched his watch.
"11:35. Get me the fish."
"Not. Funny." Kid was tempted to throw the menu at the child. "I'm going to get you the chicken."
Conan just waved him away. "Do what you will." Kid ordered the food, knowing that he was being tuned out. If it makes Tantei-kun feel better.
But there was only as much patience as he had, and threatening to summon fish was going too far.
"I expect to be told of everything," he said, "when Dr. Watson arrives."
"No doubt." Conan's eyes were glued on the cab that had just stopped across the street. "He's here," he breathed, eyes wide as the limping man exited the cab and began walking to their location.
They only had to wait momentarily as the door flipped open, causing the bell above it to ring. Both moved their eyes to the door to see the doctor limping over towards them, waving away a server as he took the same seat he took that morning.
Conan gave Kid a look before getting up from the table and moving to where the man sat, motioning for the thief to follow. Kid rolled his eyes but nonetheless followed the detective as he took a seat across from the Brit, causing for him to pull over a chair. The doctor looked up to face his companions, looking somewhat dead in the eyes, Kid noted.
"So," he started. "How are you feeling?"
"Fine," the man curtly replied.
"You're lying," Conan stated, causing the two to stare at the child. "Meeting me disturbed you so much that you have been unable to concentrate on anything else. Your hands are still shaking, eyes darting around, leg shaking too…" Conan frowned.
"You're scared of me, aren't you?"
"I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about… Where did you get that assumption?" asked John watching this Japanese detective suspiciously, who was still frowning.
"… I'm not him," Conan confirmed, as reading the doctor's mind. "Trust me, I'm not. If I was him, I would not have approached you in such a way. He's not heartless." He looked into Watson's eyes and smiled softly. "But you know that more than anyone, don't you?"
That had stolen the doctor's full attention. "Who the hell are you?" he asked again, this time much more interested than this morning.
"Conan Edogawa, detective." He was about to introduce the phantom thief, when he faltered as John gave a dubious look. His smile turned into a frown and weakly, he pointed to Kid. "And, uh, th-this i-is…"
"Kaito Kuroba," Kaito frowned internally at the loss of confidence that Tantei-kun suddenly had but externally smirked at his admittance of identity without Hakuba to hear it. And that they were in England when he did it. Oh the irony. "Just a chaperone."
"Japanese?" John raised an eyebrow. "It was international? I didn't think he was that well known…"
Conan shook his head, confidence slowly returning to him. "D-Dr. Watson, I've been following Mr. Holmes for a long, long time. Before… before all the fame that you brought him. But I've been paying very close attention after the Study in Pink." Conan looked at John in the eye, who gave him a curious look, one with piqued interest.
The shrunken detective's face turned all red before he exclaimed his dream to the doctor without any regards to the thief, shocking the both of them. "I want to be just like him!"
Kaito was taken back. "T-Tantei-kun?" Now all the nervousness as well as the false bravado made sense.
"N-not just me…" John breathed out a sign of belief. "It's not just me!"
Conan let out a shaky laugh. "I've… always wanted to meet you," he breathed, "But I didn't want to seem like a fan boy or anything." He flinched. "The crazies."
"You're the only one who actually sees him as a hero instead of just the recent fad," John comforted, sounding relieved. "Never met one like you before. It's refreshing." He smiled.
Conan blushed. "Th-thanks… That means a lot, coming from you."
"Wow, Tantei-kun. I never saw you as a fanboy."
"No!" Conan denied, greatly offended. "I'm not one of those idiots who are so wishy-washy." He looked up at John. "Mr. Holmes and Dr. Watson are people who deserve the upmost respect." He lowered his head. "I apologize for all the disrespect that everyone has troubled you with."
John was shocked. "Uh, no, it's… fine." He pat him on the head awkwardly. Conan looked up and smiled, happy to be comforted by one of his role models.
"So," Kaito said as they were served food, "What's the plan?" All three of them picked up a fork and began to twirl it in the pasta dish.
"What?" John asked, about to eat.
"The plan. You know." He looked at Conan, who was still very shy. He rolled his eyes. "To find Sherlock Holmes?"
John froze, dropping the fork back on the plate.
"Kaito is right," said Conan, regaining his confidence as he took a tessellation of pasta into his mouth. He chewed for a few moments before swallowing. "Sherlock is alive. He couldn't be dead." He narrowed his eyes at a loose strand hanging from his fork. "I can't accept it."
"… I've been to the grave. I've seen the corpse. He's gone..." John answered hollowly, even more dead than before.
"Yes well, I'm pretty sure that Mrs. Wilder's alive too. Somewhere low-key to avoid getting caught," Conan commented off-handedly. "With Mr. Holmes' help, of course. She just didn't have the confidence to do it herself."
"Please don't speak about that woman." John placed his hand to his forehead as he arched into the table. "She makes my head hurt. Besides, Mycroft told me that she's dead."
"You forget, Mr. Holmes helped her escape. I'm pretty sure that he would have been able to trick his brother. And anyone else if he wanted to fake his death."
"I suppose… Hey, how did you know that?" John raised an eyebrow at the child, who jumped.
"E-eh, it's, uh, because..." Conan started to tremble.
"Hey, we started to stray from the main point," Kid interjected, needing to draw attention away from the mini-detective, who looked grateful at his efforts. "The question is, where could Mr. Holmes be?"
"Dunno about that. It's already been about two months," John replied, willing to move back to the main reason as to why they were there in the first place.
"Well, do you think that we could possibly visit your home and any places that you have been to with Mr. Holmes?" Kid asked, trying to help to the best of his ability.
"I s'ppose." John shrugged.
"Could it possibly wait until morning?" the thief asked, checking the time. It was a little past midnight and they were the only people left in the restaurant.
"B-but!" Conan slammed his hands on the table, "We're right in the middle of it!" He let out a yawn that didn't help his argument.
"Yes, it's rather late, isn't it?" John stood from his seat, leaving a few pounds to cover the bill.
"Ah, wait, let me - " Conan took out his wallet.
"Too late, I already did," John said, "Let's continue this at the park tomorrow. It's pretty late."
"But -" Conan started, but was interrupted when Kid grabbed his hand and the three left the restaurant.
"No buts, Conan-kun!" The chaperone winked. "It's pretty late, we should pick this up tomorrow. As your guardian, I concur."
Conan raised an eyebrow. "Concur?"
Kid nodded. "Concur."
"At the park, I'll let you know about in the morning. Noon," he said as he scribbled something down and handed it to Kaito, who glanced at the paper and quickly pocketed it. "It's been a while since I've actually been on a case," John mused as he left.
"And hopefully this one won't be your last, Dr. Watson," Conan quietly replied as he and Kid watched the doctor summon a cab and leave.
He was about to turn to Kid to question what was written to him when he couldn't help yawning again, but let out a yelp when Kid suddenly scooped him up from the ground. "Wah! Kid? What are you doing? I - "
Kid tapped his nose, smiling. "For the rest of this trip, you can call me Kaito. It's the main disguise I'll be using. As for what I'm doing, you must be exhausted. I know we've been avoiding the hotel so that you didn't have to explain to me what exactly we're doing here in London. Don't worry, I'm a patient guy. I can wait until later." He balanced so that the child leaned into his chest and shoulder as he raised his now free hand into the air to call for a cab.
"'Later' might last a while," Conan whispered, closing his eyes with a small frown.
Kaito looked away before frowning himself. "I'm not that patient," he replied faintly.
When he finally caught one, he wasn't surprised to find the detective in his arm sleeping. He told the cab where to go and gently placed the sleeping child in the cab carefully before getting in himself. With the cab on the way back to the hotel, he parted the bangs on Conan's face before smiling sadly.
Seeing the child so depressed to a point where he was hiding it hurt Kaito in a way he couldn't explain, like his heart ached with pain.
But why would that be?
