I'm sorry for disappearing like that all of a sudden. But don't worry, I'm back for a little while again. Whenever inspiration strikes, you know?

Chapter name: Watashitachi to Onaji Sekai

Normal POV

KID left him alone soon enough after that, leaving his obviously distracted detective to his own devices. Conan's eyes were wide, his entire face still scarlet red as he covered his hands with his face. He was in embarrassed shock... and possibly denial. He checked over and over again, spreading his senses/awareness and retracing KID's string of fate back to him.

The answer was the same each time.

Shinichi rubbed his face furiously, as though attempting to rub the blood red blush that seemed to make itself at home in his cheeks. Then he rubbed his arms, suddenly feeling the room temperature drop considerably. This earth shattering, world stopping, out-of-this-universe-because-it-can't-be-possible discovery was addling his brain. His thoughts ran so quickly that he could only hear himself think a few words at a time. Each little point he made in his brilliant mind branched off into another subject/point, like fire spreading through gasoline. Frankly, he just wanted to put his thoughts on pause and slow motion to prevent the oncoming migraine he was already feeling.

How could this be possible?

Why?

What was the point of throwing him together with an internationally wanted, moonlight magician?

This had to be some cruel joke.

Conan backed into the wall behind him, a hand still covering his mouth as he slid down into a ball form. This was utterly ridiculous. Ludicrous. Preposterous. The Kaitou KID was the person he was going to spend the rest of his life with?

No. Way.

Suddenly, the lights were out, and Conan snapped back into reality. It was imperative that he push his thoughts away and focus on the heist. If he didn't manage to force KID to relinquish the "big jewel" to him, his reputation as the "KID Killer" would be hurt, and Nakamori-keibu would have even more of a reason to keep him away from heists.

Conan frowned as a single spotlight shone on the front door of the room. Smoke began billowing from the cracks between the double doors and walls. A few guards shouted in alarm and jumped away from the smoke. Nakamori-keibu was on the megaphone faster than Shinichi could say "Shinjitsu wa itsumo hitotsu."

"Stand your ground men!" He commanded in a screeching voice.

Conan clapped his hands to his ears and winced. The keibu was already loud enough; did he really need a megaphone too?

Suddenly, an officer let out an undignified squawk. "K-Keibu," He yelled. "It's the floor! We're stuck!" The officer reported, moving around his body weight and finding his boots glued down to the floor.

Nakamori let out a frustrated roar, but before he could even say anything, the doors were flung open. There was a long pause as the entire room held its breath and the smoke cleared away.

Suddenly, the Kaitou KID walked in through the entrance slowly, tauntingly, and quietly. The one part insane, two parts excited, and all parts cocky grin was plastered over his shadowed face.

It wasn't until he was a safe distance away from the Keibu's reach that he spoke.

"Good evening, Keibu." he drawled out in English, teasing the man in front of him. "You seem to be a little stuck there." The thief's toothy smirk grew wider, and impossibly more pleased.

The man released a snarl, attempting to lunge for the white clad magician, but instead found that his feet had been rooted to the floor too.

"KID!" He screeched.

The thief made a falsely worried and pained face, plugging an index finger into one of his ears. "Oi, oi, no need to yell; I'm right here."

"Argh!" He let out a frustrated scream. "When I get my hands on you, I'll-"

The magician thief snapped his fingers and duct tape in the form of an "x" appeared on the man's mouth. "Careful now, Keibu, there are children present~!" He wagged an index finger in front of the man's face and continued on past him.

The thief cheerfully-

Wait a second, is he skipping?!

Conan made a shocked sound in the back of his throat.

He observed the scene before him with sharp eyes, taking in every detail before letting his eyes rest on the thief.

The gaze did not go unnoticed. The magician merely grinned at him wider than earlier.

He snapped his fingers once more and the spotlight from earlier shined on the glass case that held tonight's beautiful statue. KID knelt in front of the case and worked at the lock until the case popped open for him. He held the case closed with a gloved hand before turning to his growling audience.

"And now, the reason why I have glued you down earlier than usual today is," The man's grin returned and he lifted his hand up. The case opened automatically and the spotlight had full aim at the jewel inside.

Abruptly, the room was stained in a sapphire light, with other rainbow colors glinting off of the jewel in the silver statue.

KID smiled and held up three fingers. "Three," The room grew silent. "Two," Several officers sucked in a breath. "One~!"

The Moonlight Magician was suddenly engulfed in a smoke screen and within a moment, butterflies fluttered away from the smoke and across the room. Their wings sparkled in the sapphire light bathing the room and something that looked like blue pixie dust fell from their small forms.

Conan watched in true awe as the butterflies caught aflame and burned away in midair.

Then, the thief was at the glass case once more, his arms thrown open. "Thank you for taking the time to watch my magic show~!" He bowed humbly.

Abruptly, all hell broke loose as the officers snapped out of their stupefied states and broke free from the floor.

"GET HIM!" Nakamori-keibu roared, and the thief shot his grappling hook upwards. He waved to the officers charging at him with a large grin as the string pulled him upwards.

Conan frowned.

Something was wrong.

This was not an original heist.

The escape method was the same as the time when they were on the hijacked blimp, and the magic show... Conan was certain that he had read about it a while back in the newspaper from another heist.

Luckily, the magician spiced things up a bit with different traps. Some of them were brand new ideas that immediately caught the officers and slowed them down. Conan waited until the thief had left the room to begin the chase. The magician disappeared from his line of sight, and suddenly, he was off.

The new traps were tricky to figure out in the moment he ran into them, and even ended up literally sliding through one. That time, the floor had been completely iced up.

Now that's more like it! Conan though excitedly, feeling adrenaline begin to race through his veins. He grinned as he ran freely through the long corridors and up flights of stairs. The building was quite a large one, with confusing twists and turns and dead ends; a lot like a labyrinth. For some reason, this only made Conan grin wider. The concept of a difficult chase seemed to excite him even further.

Suddenly, he caught of glimpse of what he assumed was the corner of a cape billowing around a corner. With a new found burst of energy, the miniature detective ran even faster, recklessly pushing his body harder.

From what he could deduce as of right now, the thief was going to use his favorite method of escape; his hang glider.

In no time at all, the faux child burst through the heavy metal door to the rooftops.

Before him was Kaitou KID, hat pulled down low and cape billowing in the slightly brisk, early May wind. The thief smirked widely when he saw his miniature rival.

"Yo, Tantei-kun~!" The thief cheered. "It's been awhile hasn't it?"

The child frowned. It really had been a while. They had grown much closer during the times that he had supported him and vice versa. However, they usually didn't keep in touch, even though the thief had his number from the Bell Tree Express case.

Conan blinked owlishly. "Huh." He let out after catching his breath. "It actually has. But you're talking to me like you're meeting me for the first time today." The detective pointed out.

KID chuckled. "I just thought I'd make this meeting more dramatic. You know, two rivals meeting on a rooftop, the full moon shining down on them..." He let the sentence hang in the air for a moment. "Well, you had to go and ruin it, but that's okay."

Conan deadpanned. "Sorry for not being as poetic as you are."

"Why thank you. I'm honored by your compliment." The magician grinned cheekily before the familiar psh and thunk reached his ears. That wiped the grin clear off his face, and the magician nervously took a step back. Another familiar sound resounded in the air as Conan knelt, a dark aura around him. Tick tick tick.

"M-Maa, maa, Tantei-kun, let's not get violent, okay? That type of thing is not a healthy habit for youngsters like you." The thief tried and teased.

Shinichi ground his teeth. Even though he knew the man was simply joking, a comment like that stung a bit.

He took in a deep breath and felt the tension leave his shoulders. The tingling feeling in his right foot faded away as the shoe's affect wore off. Conan kicked the ball up with the tip of his shoe and began bouncing it on his knee.

"Ne, KID," he began.

The thief, surprised that he had actually managed to tame his miniature rival, answered with a, "Hmm?"

Conan began bouncing the ball on his head. "What's up..." He asked quietly. It was not a question. "There's something wrong." The detective stuffed his hands in his pockets and bounced the ball off the heel of his foot. "This heist was... different."

KID tilted his head. "How so?" He asked. The teen noted the slight changes in the boy's behavior as he admired the soccer show being given to him.

Conan pursed his lips. "First, you invited Hattori, even though I know you don't really seem to like him too much. Second, your magic show had those flame catching butterflies again, though this time, there was a small twist with the light from the jewel. Third, you glued all of the officers to the floor before you even entered the room with that smoke. Fourth," Shinichi held up four fingers as the ball fell to the floor. He held it still under his foot. "Your escape method with the grappling hook was the same as the time on that blimp."

He frowned. "Should I go on, or are you going to tell me what's wrong?" He stared at the thief who stood with relax shoulders and hand stuffed in his pocket, out of the corner of his eye.

The man let out a little sigh as he sat down on a ledge of the building's rooftop. After a moment, Conan was resting his back against the thief's, both of them staring at the city lights far below them.

"It's not really anything that important." KID frowned, trying to steer his detective away from the topic. He never talked to his detectives like this. It bothered him, but he found himself easily opening up to the miniature detective.

It was most likely because he was a child.

"It is if you're not being original and pulling off a lame chase." Conan deadpanned. "I'm disappointed." He sighed. "I was going to use this to take my mind off things." The faux child said quietly.

KID felt his eyes widen behind his monocle. "'Take your mind off things?'" The thief quoted, prompting an explanation from his friend.

The detective let out a long, tired breath, as though some sort of weight on his shoulders was finally getting to him. "I lost her." He murmured. "My most important person."

KID swallowed thickly, but remained silent.

Suddenly, the detective let out a small laugh that immediately died. As he spoke, underlying bitterness was evident in his tone. "And you told me to keep an eye on her too..." Shinichi was silent for a moment. "You know what's really ironic?"

"Hmm?" KID hummed gently.

"That someone like me never even thought of the possibility that she would want to just... move on. To just... forget it all, you know?" Conan sighed. "And there were so many different things I could say to take her back, but there was no way I could just..." He trailed off for a moment. "Just make her think that what she wants is all a lie. That she was lying to herself to get away from the pain."

KID took in a deep breath and exhaled. "Same here." he said quietly. "I lost her." The thief quoted. "My most important person."

Conan's eyes widened. "Eh?" Was all he could manage.

The magician shifted around a bit, tracing the lights of the city below them with his eyes. "I never confessed to her all this time because of her hatred for KID. I couldn't tell her my feelings when I knew she'd be hurt because of what I'm doing now."

Conan let out a small, ironic chuckle. "I can only think of one person who hates KID like that."

KID ignored this and plowed on. "Because I never confessed, she decided to move on. Now she's dating this new kid that just moved into the neighborhood. He's supposed to be a really sweet guy, but I just don't see it." He commented distastefully.

The smaller of the two chuckled again. "You know, Hattori once told me, 'Humans are suspicious and jealous creatures. When they see something perfect, they wanna find a flaw.' But he said it with his accent and everything, of course."

"That's mean of you, Tantei-kun." KID whined. "I'm not jealous, I just genuinely don't like-" The rumbling sound of many feet pattering and slapping the stairway that led to the roof echoed around them. "Well, that's our cue, Tantei-kun~!" KID stood up at the same time as the miniature detective. "Here," He said, slipping Artemis' Wisdom into his hands.

Conan looked up at him with a frown. "Done with it already?"

"Made sure to get it out of the way before you arrived." KID agreed cheekily, just as the rooftop door slammed open.

Nakamori-keibu stood first, huffing and puffing in an attempt to catch his breath. "KID!" He screamed, pointing accusingly at him. "You won't get away this time!"

KID did a stage bow. "I must thank you for allowing me time with this heist's beautiful maidens, Keibu." He straightened. "But I'm afraid I'll have to take my leave here." The magician sighed almost wistfully, backing up until he was at the ledge of the rooftop.

"Get him!" Nakamori cried, and all forces charged forward.

KID merely grinned before opening his arms wide and falling backwards for a freefall down the museum building's side.

"KID!" Several officers cried in fury and frustration, leaning over the edge to watch as the phantom thief activated his hang glider.

"All squad cars!" Nakamori roared into his walkie talkie. "KID is heading north! Chase him down at all costs!"

Conan looked down at the silvery marble statue of Artemis. She had her arms wrapped around her body, which leaned at an almost 'C' shape. She looked as though she were turning back to see something in the sky with her head tilted upwards, her face a picture of sorrow, and the glowing sapphire in her forehead.

It reminded him of the Blue Wonder KID had taken from Jirokichi a while back.

That evening, after returning the jewel and going home, Conan found a rose and little note attached on the windowsill in 'his' room.

For listening to me.

It was a deep pink rose.

Again, almost 700 words over 2,000 but I don't really mind. XD Really, I'm sorry for disappearing like that for a while. *smiles sheepishly* I'm a bit of a fandom jumper.

Also, I went back and edited the chapters for mistakes, so I guess only the end half of this will have mistakes since I just wrote it. I've also translated all the chapter names in the little drop down box that lets you chose which chapter to read. ;)

Deep pink rose: Appreciation, gratitude, "Thank you for being in my life"

~Crescent T.