A/N: Chapter three is up peoples! I had to go to the library and upload it through my iPad before I looked it back up using my account on the computer. Did you guys think I was gone? Well, hah! I'm back baby!

Enjoy the story!

Conan awoke to the best smell in the entire world.

Kaito's coffee.

It was one thing to have normal coffee, but when Kaito made it, it took on a whole new level of heavenly. He never understood how the thief could take the normal ingredients that he used everyday and somehow came up with the most perfect coffee that put any café, diner, or restaurant to shame.

He sat for a minute, letting the scent fill his nose, before finally deciding that if he wanted any, he would have to get up and actually go get it. Although if he waited long enough he was sure that Kaito would bring it to him, but seeing as how troubled he was by the Hattori situation, Conan decides that the least he could do was get his own coffee.

However, when he went to get out of the chair, his body was so stiff that he could barely move his arms down to his side before he winced. Since he had fallen asleep in an abnormal sleeping position against the desk while sitting in a chair, it made since.

Or at least he thought he had.

When Conan opened his eyes, he was no longer in the library and there weren't any pages on complicated math equations crushed or covered in saliva in front of him. When he took a closer look, he was positive that he was in his own bedroom wrapped in his comfortable blanket. Thankfully, he wasn't changed into pajamas, not like he had any here that fit his shrunken form anyway.

He almost allowed himself to wonder who had brought him here before the answer became quite obvious. Hattori wouldn't have brought him here because he would risk waking him up. When Hattori had woke him up before, Conan had kicked him in the head with a soccer ball that left him knocked out for most of the day.

That only left Kaito. Kaito had this soothing aura that made sure when he was handling Conan, he never woke up. As cliché and wrong as it sounds being used on a boy, Kaito had that motherly touch. The first time Conan had brought the magician to his house, he had been surprised to see how clean it was. Kaito had admitted, with a very charming blush, that he had been to the house several times as Shinichi to keep it it in top condition for when Conan got his body back.

Needless to say that when they had met up again a few days later, Conan had stocked his refrigerator with chocolate ice cream. The glow that had come over Kaito's face had been worth it.

But now, Conan had to find a way to say thank you to the thief once again. It was another thing that he had been doing a lot of when he had become friends with the younger teen.

Not to mention that he had to find a way to make up for the school fiasco that had happened yesterday. He understood where Hattori was coming from, but he wished that he hadn't snapped at Kaito like that.

However, Conan decided, these thoughts were best left alone until after Kaito's heavenly coffee.

By the time he got downstairs, through the foyer, and to the kitchen, he was met with a very surreal sight.

Kaito was standing in front of the stove, fully dressed with a pink apron on. His chocolate locks were covered in what looked like batter, as well as the apron and his forearms. He had a ridiculous smile on his face as he hummed a very upbeat and happy tune. Conan wondered for a second if he had ever heard the song somewhere before.

As if sensing something was off, Kaito perked up and turned around. However, the teen twirled too fast and slipped on some more batter that had fallen on the floor. With a yelp and a slightly funny (okay hilarious) face, the boy went crashing to the tiled floor. Conan ran around the island to check on the magician and was met with wide, startled indigo eyes.

For a second, they just stared at each other, stunned. Then the ice was broken as they broke out in laughter. When they had both calmed down Conan finally helped Kaito off of the ground. Kaito had an embarrassed flush dusted across his face, but his eyes were alight with humor and mirth.

"Thanks, Shin-chan."

Conan forced himself to not blush at the appellation, and nodded in return. In order to keep himself from slipping up like Hattori, Kaito had taken to calling him Co-chan instead of Shinichi or Shin-chan. But he still called him the latter when they were alone. It reminded Conan that Kaito knew who he really was and still wanted to be friends with him.

"What were you doing, Kai-chan? I've never seen you like this before." The boy seemed to practically take all of the energy of the sun into his smile at the sound of the nickname. Even though his precious Tantei-kun didn't seem to mind the affection, he was still pleasantly surprised to see him return it. They probably would have been raised together like cousins anyway, if the 'accident' hadn't happened.

He was just glad that he was really friends with Shinichi, his would-be twin.

"Oh! I was just baking something. You know, to show my appreciation." This was said almost quietly as Kaito turned his head slightly away in embarrassment. Conan was shell shocked. After everything the teen did for him, he thought that he was indebted to him, in some weird twisted way?! Before he could stop himself, the words just flew out of his mouth.

"I should be the one telling you that!" Kaito looked stunned. What was Shinichi even saying? Ignoring the nonplussed look his counterpart was giving him, the shrunken detective carried on, "Do you even know what you do?! You always know just what to say to cheer me up! You're always there for me! You know how to calm me down when I'm about to have a panic attack. You even help me take care of my house and go get my homework for me! Don't think for a minute that you are indebted to me because, if anything, it's the other way around!"

By now Kaito could only watch in silence as Shinichi, not Conan, poured out his frustration in that one tangent. This was how he felt? These were Shinichi's true feelings? A stupid grin made its way onto Kaito's face. He couldn't help how happy it had made him feel to hear those words. But he also couldn't let one of his favorite detectives outdo him like that.

"What about you, Shin-chan?" he found himself saying. "You don't owe me anything either. You do a lot more for me than I do for you." At Shinichi's adorable confused child impression, he gave a short laugh. "Don't tell me you've forgotten! You help me relieve stress when I'm with you. Thanks to you, I have someone other than Jii to talk to about the heists and the Crows. I could never tell Aoko, she'd hate me forever if she found out I was KID. I'm not so sure about telling my mom, although I have some suspicion that she knows anyway. And I don't want to get Hakuba-kun involved. He's too nosy for his own good.

Spending time with you is amazing! I guess that dealing with Mouri-chan believing I'm you is a bit of a downside, but it's worth a lot to see how happy it makes you just to see how much she seems to be calming down. Just knowing that I'm helping you, as both a family member and a fellow victim of the Organization is more than enough payment." He gave a sardonic smile as he finished. "The way I see it, we keep each other sane, so why not call it even?"

Conan couldn't help but smirk at that. While the thief had been right on multiple accounts, the sane part was still under investigation. Half of the things the boy did drove the detective crazy and quite possibly put his sanity at risk.

"Last time I checked detectives were supposed to be the ones making deductions, you crazy thief." he laughed.

"I am doing detective work in a way, you know."

"Dressing in a white suit and running around at night trying to lure out your father's killers does not count as detective work, barou!"

Kaito only gave a hearty laugh in reply as Shinichi soon joined him. In a short few moments, they both sat at the island with fresh coffee. Well Shinichi was drinking coffee. Kaito had poured so much sugar and creamer into his that it probably no longer counted as coffee.

Almost thirty minutes later, the oven dinged. When Kaito had taken the object out of the oven, Conan was struck by the sheer size of it. It was a large cake that almost looked like something from that movie that Kaito had brought over last week (it was called Lilo and something).

How had the cake even fit in the oven?!

"What the heck is that?!"

Kaito looked slightly offended. "What does it look like, Shin-chan? It's a cake!" He smiled as he took in his masterpiece. It was beautiful in his opinion.

"That is not a cake. That is a freakin' miniature house!"

At the child's quickly growing disbelief as he eyed the monstrosity in Kaito's hands, the magician broke out into a series of deranged giggles. Just wait till he tasted it!

They were both startled by the sound of something heavy falling over. Conan gave a quick scan of the hallway before turning back to Kaito. The teen had sat down the cake, taken off the apron, and somehow cleared all the still wet batter out of his hair, all in the few seconds that he had his back turned from him. He could admit that he was pretty impressed.

Conan made his way down the hall first, making sure that Kaito was following right behind him. When they once again entered the library, he found himself just letting out a sigh. He should of known better than to get so suspicious so quickly when he remembered the other person who had spent the night yesterday.

Hattori Heiji was sprawled across the floor from where he had fallen off of the couch against the far wall. He was hanging half way off the couch, his upper body bent on the floor while his lower body stuck upwards against back of the furniture. It was quite the humorous sight and Conan found himself hanging off of the doorway, in a scarily similar way that he had in Kaito's room two months ago, as he tried to contain his laughter. He was conscious of the fact that his body was shaking with the effort it took to suppress his urge to break out in giggles.

Hattori Heiji was having a crappy week. Most of the week had been spent arguing with Kazuha about a case involving a serial killer that had been targeting young detectives. Heiji had volunteered to be the bait for the killer while Kazuha had expressively forbidden it. He couldn't really understand why she had been so against it and had ended up doing it anyway when another detective turned up dead two days later.

Catching the killer had been extremely easy. In fact, it had been so painfully easy that Heiji was beginning to question just how competent the Osakan force was. How could the entire police force not catch a single man when all Heiji had done was punch the guy in the face one to knock him out. He hadn't even needed his trusty kendo sword.

However, by the time that the police force had shown up to pick up the man, Kazuha had shown up and had been chewing his head off for 'pulling such a stupid stunt, ahou'. She could use some pretty colorful words when she wanted to.

The, two days ago, he decided to give his buddy Kudou a visit, only to find what looked like him being molested or even kidnapped by himself! It had been so bizarre that his brain had almost shut down completely before he registered that some weirdo who looked like Kudou was in Kudou's house and looked freakishly similar to the grown version of Kudou and possibly trying to cause harm to the shrunken Kudou.

He had jumped to the only conclusion he could come up with.

But then Kudou had defended the guy! The weirdo had introduced himself as Kuroba and had tried to shake his hand, but Heiji had been too enraged by the discovery he had made. Kuroba had definitely been KID. It had been obvious. The smile, the eyes, and the slight shadow caused on his face by the setting sun coming through the window had helped confirm his suspicions. And Kudou had said that he had no intention of turning him in! Then Kuroba had gone full Creeper Mode and had the nerve to bury his face in his buddy's hair!

They had spent the night at Kudou's house and had gone to Teitan High the next day (yesterday). When he had seen how Kuroba had been acting like Kudou's classmates were his own, he couldn't help the frustration, that had begun to build ever since he had seen the teen, from making itself known as he kept cutting all of the conversations short. But the last straw had been when the thief had blatantly said those damned words as if he were Kudou himself. Right to his face! It was as if he was bragging that he knew Kudou better than he did! He couldn't have stopped himself from growling if he had wanted to.

Then had come the incident during their leave from the school. He had been walking ahead and stopped to wait so that Kudou and Kuroba could catch up. He hadn't felt like leaving Kudou alone with the teen aged thief for longer than absolutely necessary. But, then that guy had come out of no where. He had grabbed the thief by the arm and had slammed him into the lockers. The force of a surprise shove had caused Kuroba to drop Kudou, who looked rather stunned at the sudden fall.

Heiji had put the boy to the ground immediately. He was furious! If that idiot had been any rougher, he could have seriously hurt his best friend! That wasn't something that the Osakan took too kindly to. But when he had taken in the sight of Kudou's concerned face as he fretted over KID, something in him shifted. He couldn't help but wonder what the thief had done to get himself injured in such a way.

On their way back Kudou's house, Kuroba hadn't picked Kudou up once. He even started holding the child's hand with his left had instead of his right, the hand he'd used all day. Was the thief seriously injured from some kind of heist related injury? It would make since. Especially with the worried glances he kept getting from Kudou.

By the time they had returned to the Kudou Manor, Kudou hadn't left Kuroba's side even once. During the bus ride back, he had refused to let him sit between them, insisting that he just had to sit next to 'Kaito'. While Heiji had been miffed that they were on a first name basis, he allowed Kudou to usher Kaito into the window seat, claiming that it was safer for him. Heiji had only stared in confusion.

Kuroba's blush didn't help him understand any faster.

When they finally entered the house, he couldn't help but feel uneasy as he tried to understand everything he discovered that day. Kudou had apparently known Kuroba for a while before Heiji had arrived two days ago. They had probably became acquainted after an event at a heist, since Kudou knew about his shoulder injury. It also explained the weird protective instincts that Kudou was showing around the thief.

He also used this time to mull over what he knew about KID. Even though Heiji has been sure that the thief was up to no good, he hadn't shown any ill intentions towards Kudou or himself. He had actually been pretty nice. He caught the looks that the boy sent him sometimes. It wasn't a disdainful look or one of someone was afraid of being caught in the act. It had been one of curiosity and nervousness. Like he had wanted to talk to him and get to know him better, but something was mentally telling him that it was a bad idea.

He practically did a mental face palm as he remembered how he had treated the teen. He had acted so coldly. He had given Kuroba an attitude that he hadn't deserved. He had accused, snapped at, and insulted the magician. He still remembered the rejected look that had come to his face when he had growled at him yesterday.

Now that he'd calmed down a little, Heiji realized just how much of an ass he had been acting around Kuroba for a good two days now. Needless to say, he felt like a jerk. But he couldn't just drop the idea of putting Kuroba through the test. It would be suspicious if he suddenly acted all friendly with him.

As the thoughts whirled around in the Osakan's head, he felt himself getting more and more confused and aggravated. He lifted his hands to his hair and pulled, hoping the pain would help him clear his thoughts. However, no matter how much he pulled on his dark hair, he only remained very confused as to what to do about his current debacle.

He was so focused on his inner struggle that he didn't notice he had begun to fall of the couch until his head collided with the floor.

While he was currently swearing to himself in some very colorful words of his own, Kudou entered the room. He found a dark glare coming onto his face when Kudou had the gall to make a very poor attempt to hide his laughter. The little runt.

That was also when he noticed the figure partially hidden behind the door frame. He only had a split second to register Kuroba's presence before his gaze was suddenly filled with a worried indigo.

"Are you all right, Hattori-kun?! Does your head hurt?!"

He was completely thrown off by the concern shown by the thief and could only shake his head no. He watched as the boy seemed to deflate in relief before grabbing the covers (when had those gotten there, he slept without one) before his vision was slowly turned right side up once more. It only made him feel worse than he already did. How could Kuroba be so forgiving?!

"If you're really okay, there's a cake in the kitchen." the teen said kindly. "Feel free to have some if you want."

He was interrupted by a scoff from the shrunken detective. "That still doesn't count as a cake, Kaito! You didn't have to make it so huge!" Despite his reprimanding words, amusement was laced throughout his tone and written all over his face.

He watched as Kuroba seemed to pout at the words and the two began to argue about the proper size for a cake. He was dumbfounded at how domestic it was, like two brothers who were total opposites. Although, Heiji was beginning to have trouble guessing which one was the younger brother with how the two were acting. Kudou was smirking and making matter of fact statements about how a normal sized cake was fine while Kuroba pouted and whined about how 'the bigger the better' was the only way to enjoy cake. It was like their ages had switched bodies.

Then a thought struck him.

"If ya don' have it in ya to eat such a big cake, Kudou, why not jus' go ta the bakery? It's not tha' far away."

The two seemed to freeze at the sudden input before turning towards him. Kudou looked slightly surprised that he hadn't said an insult about being left out or cake being a stupid thing to fight over. Kuroba looked like he wanted to hug Heiji and quite possibly spin him around.

"There's really a bakery nearby?!"

Heiji almost felt the urge to run away and hide as Kuroba continued to beam at him. The look on Kudou's face suggested that he was probably praying for something akin to mercy.

What could possibly go wrong at a bakery?

So, how was that? Was it too wacky? If you guys want, I can get rid of this story if it's not making any since. I'll delete if you never want to see it again.

Although, the good news is that the first challenge is in the next chapter is in the next chapter as well as Hakuba's appearance! Should I have him show up during the challenge? After? Will he be Kaito's enemy? Or a worried friend?

For now, the curtains close in preparation for the next act.

Look forward to it! See you next chapter!