Disclaimer: I don't own the DCMK characters.

Moon Over Eventide

10: Of Rain and Shine

It was incredibly odd, walking through the streets when no one could see or hear you. It wasn't easy trying to dodge every passerby as he and Kaito wove their way through the crowded streets. Then a particularly large man with an armful of grocery bags had burst out of a convenience store and right through Shinichi, giving the detective the fright of his life. It was not at all pleasant having someone walk through you. For a moment, everything had gone dark, and he'd had a horrible moment when he wondered if he was actually looking at the man's guts. The experience had left Shinichi feeling sick to his stomach. On the bright side, he had learned that he really was insubstantial now. Kaito's left hand seemed to be the only thing that he didn't just pass through. He suspected it had something to do with whatever magic the magician had worked to allow them to communicate. The symbol on Kaito's hand was still glowing, though Shinichi was starting to think that he was the only one who could see it. None of the passersby were giving it a second look.

It didn't take long for Shinichi to realize that trying to dodge everyone who couldn't see him was a futile endeavor. Besides, he didn't actually seem to have to walk to move forward. So he decided to just close his eyes and let Kaito tow him along. The demon seemed to know exactly where he was going, though how he knew was beyond Shinichi.

He could feel the warmth of Kaito's hand holding his own. In the darkness behind his eyelids where nothing else was solid, the sensation was rather difficult to ignore. He wondered if disembodied souls could blush. Then he wondered why it was effecting him so much.

When Kaito's steps began to slow, Shinichi opened his eyes and looked up. His heart sank at the sight that lay before them.

Kaito too seemed to be wary. His brisk pace from before settled into a much more cautious gait.

They were in a cemetery.

Kaito's hand tightened around Shinichi's translucent one. He glanced sidelong at the detective's face, seeing that it had gone blank. Part of him wanted to ask, but he decided to keep silent. He would find his answer soon enough. No need to push.

As if summoned by his thoughts, a new figure appeared before them, seeming to fade into sight from the shadow of a tombstone. The figure sat with his back against the stone. His knees were pulled up to his chest and his arms were wrapped around them.

Shinichi gasped.

The person sitting before them was himself. Only this Shinichi looked a little younger. Shinichi recognized the uniform the other was wearing. It was the Teitan High School uniform.

The younger Shinichi looked up as they approached. Dull blue eyes looked Kaito over before dropping back to the ground he had been contemplating before.

"He can't see you," Kaito murmured to the Shinichi whose hand he was still holding. "Because he's from before your current time. Wait here."

Shinichi felt a flash of irrational fear when Kaito let go of his hand, but he kept quiet.

The magician approached the younger Shinichi, covering the distance between them with a mere three strides. Turning, he sat down beside the younger boy without a word. For several minutes, the two simply sat there side by side as the shadows lengthened across the cemetery grounds.

"He died because of me, you know," the ghostly detective said suddenly, breaking the silence.

"What do you mean?" Kaito asked, keeping his tone calm but encouraging with just a hint of curiosity. He could see his Shinichi drifting just out of earshot, looking rather forlorn.

"He was avenging his family's deaths," the detective murmured, looking away. The shadows in his eyes shifted, reflecting memories of another place. Another time. "It wasn't right, what he did. But he wasn't really a bad person. He saved me. He pushed me out the window. Then he went back into the fire and died."

"It wasn't your fault then. He made a choice."

"But I let it happen. I couldn't stop it. And that means I am responsible."

"You're being too hard on yourself, Shin-chan."

"You don't understand," the boy murmured into his knees, voice hoarse. "I was right there. It didn't have to end that way. It shouldn't have ended that way…"

"Things don't always go the way they should."

"I keep thinking, he could have done so much more with his life if he hadn't been so fixated on revenge. He was so caught up in the past that he couldn't move forward. It seems as though a lot of people are like that. It's all so…pointless."

"Perhaps," Kaito agreed amiably. "But there isn't any point to dwelling on it either."

"No. It won't change anything."

"Exactly. You can't change the past, but you can change the future. And hey, at least next time you find yourself facing a similar situation, you'll know how to fix it."

The high school detective let out a dry laugh but rose shakily to his feet. "I guess you could put it that way. I'd better get going. I can't help anyone by sitting here." As he walked away from them, he vanished like a shadow into the mist.

Kaito returned to where his Shinichi was still hovering, looking grim and sad and not at all the way Kaito liked him to look.

"Did that work?" the detective asked when he saw Kaito.

The magician nodded and held out his hand. On his palm sat a single tiny, translucent lily. "A gift from you to yourself," he said with a grin. Reaching over, he placed his free hand over Shinichi's right wrist. When he drew back, there was a thin loop of light around the detective's wrist like a luminous bracelet. Then the demon snapped his fingers. The ghostly lily rose and flew to the loop, attaching itself in the form of a miniature charm. "There. A keepsake that we can take this part of you home with us in."

Shinichi looked skeptical. "So now you're saying that part of me is inside that flower."

"Yep. Now, off to our second stop!"

X

It was a small and somewhat overgrown soccer field not too far from Beika Park. It was a little weedy, and some of the grass had been replaced by bald swaths of dry earth. There were goal posts on one end of the field, but other than that, the place was pretty much bare. It did have a nice screen of trees all around it though.

Standing in the middle of the yellowing and balding lawn was another Kudo Shinichi. This Shinichi, however, was even younger—but, according to his uniform, still in high school. The boy was bouncing a soccer ball on his knee. Every now and then he would punt it up and bounce it on his head then let it roll down an arm to be kicked up by a heel or redirected back to a knee.

"Did you win an important game here then?" Kaito asked teasingly.

Shinichi wondered again if souls could blush and shook his head. "I never joined the team in high school."

"So then what happened here?"

"Well… I guess it was the party for my seventeenth birthday…"

Kaito looked outraged. "But when I said I wanted to throw you a party when you turned eight, you said no!"

Shinichi blinked, taken aback by the magician's indignant outburst. "I did?"

"Yes, you did. You even said you'd stop speaking to me if I tried."

"O—oh, um…sorry…? It's just I don't really like parties, and…uh…"

"Well apparently you liked this one."

Yes, Shinichi concluded. Souls could blush. He could feel it.

"It wasn't like that…" Why did he feel like he had to explain himself anyway?

It really hadn't been the party that made this place important though. This place was important because it had been while he was standing here, watching Heiji and Saguru trying (and failing) to copy the way he juggle soccer balls that he had realized just how lucky he was. He'd made friends he could really trust—friends who cared for him just the way he was. He'd realized that he was happy. It was probably a strange thing for someone to take so long to discover about himself, but the fact was that he'd never stopped to think about it before then.

"I guess I can overlook it this once. But you owe me one." Declaration made, Kaito strode off towards the echo.

Shinichi watched him go, feeling utterly bewildered. How had he gone from not wanting a birthday party to owing the magician anything? It made no sense.

He was still puzzling over it when Kaito returned with the ghostly soccer ball in hand.

"I had no idea juggling these with your feet could be so difficult," he said. He shrank the soccer ball then sent it floating over to become the second charm on Shinichi's makeshift bracelet. Then he took Shinichi's hand again and resumed walking. "The next one's close."

X

They were making good time, Kaito thought approvingly as he jogged in the direction his divining spell was telling him to go. He'd only had to use a little magic to shorten their travel time. They had met a an adorable, seven-year-old Shinichi in the heart of Beika Park. The way the little boy's face had lit up at the sight of Kaito made the magician feel rather accomplished. Kaito himself had many fond memories of being with his Shin-chan in that park. It was gratifying to know that that time had been important to Shinichi too. And the way his detective had practically been glowing pink the whole time they were there had been cute. After that, they'd found a five-year-old Shinichi reading in the Kudo Manor's library. The somewhat grumpy child had refused to even look at Kaito until he'd finished the book he was reading (the book in question turned out to be a somewhat simplified version of some of the Sherlock Holmes short stories). Now a daisy and a book dangled alongside of the lily and the soccer ball on Shinichi's phantom bracelet.

Kaito laughed when he saw the building the spell had directed them to. It was the Teitan Elementary School library.

"Figures it's be another library."

"So what if it is?" Shinichi huffed. He glanced at the dark black windows and the gray evening sky. "They're closed. We'll have to come back tomorrow."

Kaito's steps didn't even falter. "You're kidding, right? A few little locks couldn't possibly stop me."

Shinichi opened his mouth to say that that was not the point. But it was already too late. Kaito was already opening the library door. Shinichi had little choice but to trail after him, glad for the first time that day that he was invisible to most of the world.

The elementary school library was just how Kaito remembered. Though not exceptionally large, it had been carefully sectioned off by artfully arranged shelves to form cozy little reading areas and somewhat labyrinthine aisles. It had been years since he had last walked amongst these shelves, but his feet still knew the way. Without conscious thought, he made his way to a corner of the library where the blue evening light spilled through a window upon a set of child-sized tables and chairs. Seated at the table closest to the window was Shinichi number five (or should that be six?). There was a ghostly chess set sitting on the table before him, the pieces already lined up and ready to go. But the boy himself didn't seem at all interested in the board. Instead, he was looking out the window, face solemn.

Kaito observed the echo for a few moments before turning to the Shinichi beside him. "Any idea what's going on here?"

Shinichi looked away. He knew perfectly well why his younger self was there.

He was waiting. Waiting for someone he knew would never come.

He remembered those long hours sitting alone and mulling over his own thoughts, unable to bring himself to leave. It had been a time of discovery, but the road to enlightenment had been a slow and painful one. That was the thing about truth—especially truths about yourself. Truth was not gentle or kind, but it wasn't cruel either. It was just what it was: irrefutable and unyielding but reliable.

"Shin-chan, help me with this won't you?"

Coming back to the present, Shinichi found that Kaito had returned empty-handed. "Huh?"

"You won't talk or move or anything."

"…What? What are you talking about?"

Kaito jerked a thumb at the much younger Shinichi by the window. "Do you have any idea what you're waiting for over there?"

"N—no one," Shinichi said, not meeting Kaito's eyes. "Did you try playing the game?"

The magician arched an eyebrow. No one, huh? Shinichi really wasn't built for lying. You didn't have to be waiting for a person after all. If Kaito had to guess, he'd say that that Shinichi by the window was indeed waiting for someone. Waiting for someone to play chess with…?

"I'll try that," Kaito murmured, heading back across the little reading area. Pulling out the chair across from the younger Shinichi, he sat down. The chair was far too small for him. It creaked alarmingly under his weight. Rising again, he pushed the chair back and sat down on the floor.

"Hey, would you like to play a game?" he asked.

Little Shinichi didn't even look his way.

Okay. This called for a more direct approach. Kaito looked down at the board before him. The white pieces were set up on his side of the board. Perfect. White always moved first in chess. He picked up a piece.

Now, finally, he got a reaction. Little Shinichi's head whipped around, and two bright blue eyes glared at him. He smiled blandly back and set the piece down in a new position.

The game had begun.

Little Shinichi only continued to glare.

"Well?" Kaito prompted. "Are you going to play? Or are you going to forfeit?"

The boy turned away. For a moment, Kaito thought the little Shinichi was going to tell him to leave, but then the boy heaved a silent sigh and moved a game piece of his own.

It was a very silent game, and Kaito could tell that Shinichi's mind was elsewhere. That, combined with the fact that this Shinichi was still a fairly inexperienced chess player, meant that Kaito's thoughts had time to wander as well. This entire situation felt off to him. He'd played chess with Shinichi many a time when they were younger, and the boy had never been this listless during a game. He'd always been very focused. But now he seemed distant.

There was a sadness in those eyes. It was different from the deep-seated regret and grief that he had seen in the Shinichi at the cemetery. It was more resigned: softer but just as deep.

And this Shinichi didn't recognize him even though the boy couldn't have been much older than the echo in the park had been. Shinichi couldn't have forgotten him that fast.

When the game ended, the little Shinichi packed up the game board and pieces, nodded to Kaito, then left—all without a word. A single pawn lay forgotten on the table as he left. Kaito summoned it to his hand with a crook of a finger and walked back to where his Shinichi was pretending to peruse the shelves. As he drew closer, he saw Shinichi's right hand go up to his neck then drop again. It seemed to be an unconscious habit that the detective had picked up. The little Shinichi had done it a few times during their game as well.

Kaito paused, mouth about to open and call out. His eye had caught the glimmer of a thin, silver chain around Shinichi's neck. And suddenly he remembered that that was where Shinichi had kept the glass pendant Kaito had given to him.

"Hey Shinichi," he said softly. The detective jumped and whirled around. He drifted back a little at the serious expression the magician was aiming his way and almost disappeared into the shelf behind him. "Were you waiting for me?"

Shinichi swallowed, glancing across at the empty table by the window before meeting Kaito's gaze. There was defiance in those blue eyes. "Yes."

"But you—the little one back there—you didn't recognize me."

Shinichi shrugged, turning back to face the shelves. "Seems logical to me. We all knew you'd moved. It wasn't like you were going to just come popping back out of nowhere."

"I see." Kaito looked down at the pawn sitting alone and sad on the palm of his hand. "I… Were you mad? At me, I mean, for leaving?"

Shinichi let out a snort of laughter. 'Of course not. That would have been stupid. But… I might have…been a little mad at myself, I guess."

"At yourself?" Kaito had to admit that he was now very confused. That was the last thing he'd expected to hear. "Why would you have been mad at yourself?"

"It's complicated…" Shinichi traced a finger over the books in their orderly line, pretending to read their titles. "You…taught me a lot of things, and I thank you for that. You showed me that I could…make more of myself, I guess. That I didn't have to just be what everyone expected me to be: the brat kid with famous parents or whatever it was they used to say when they thought I couldn't hear them. And I realized that, things like that, they work both ways, don't they? I never expected very much from them, and I guess they could sense that too, whether they realized it or not. You have to believe in people if you want them to believe in you."

Kaito placed his left hand on Shinichi's transparent shoulder, indigo eyes softening. Part of him wanted to say something—to offer words of comfort or encouragement. But he didn't. For the first time since this little trip had begun, he felt like an intruder. Here he was, barging into Shinichi's past without an invitation. Sure, it was necessary, and at the beginning he had seen this operation as a golden opportunity to learn more about the things that had happened to Shinichi in the years since they'd last parted. But though he couldn't regret having glimpsed into Shinichi's thoughts, he found himself thinking that he would have preferred it if Shinichi had shared them with him voluntarily instead of being forced to by some spell.

"Why don't we move on?" he suggested when Shinichi showed no signs of detaching himself from the bookshelves. "We've only got one left. My divining spell says it's outside the city. I can teleport us to it if you're ready."

Shinichi took a deep breath. "All right. I'm ready."

Kaito's grip on his shoulder tightened.

Light surged, and the air crackle with energy. Then suddenly they were standing on a rocky outcropping high up on a mountainside. An icy wind cut straight through their city clothes like knives of ice trying to cut away all the warmth in their bodies. The trees here were almost all bent sideways by the wind. The cold and the wind and the rough, unwelcoming ridges of rock were all worth it though for the view.

The sky was a vast stretch of creamy purple and blue with soft, peach trimming. Beneath it, the mountains fell away in frozen waves of green, gray, and brown accented by threads of silver flecked with gold from the dying sun.

"I know this place," Kaito said in mild surprise.

"You should, seeing as you brought us here." Picking his way across the rocks, Shinichi spotted what he was looking for almost immediately. There, perched on a wide, flat rock, was a small, transparent figure. The little boy sat with his arms around his knees, serene gaze fixed on the skyline. Shinichi sat down on the far end of the same rock. He had the feeling that they were going to be here a while.

Kaito came up behind him. The magician glanced from one Shinichi to the other before taking a seat between them. The younger of the two ghostly figures looked over at him, but he didn't appear to be surprised. The child only smiled and turned back to the horizon.

For a long time, they sat in companionable silence. The peach hue clinging to the edges of the world drained away. A sleepy, blue-gray haze settled in its wake. Then, gradually, night fanned out across the sky like a black velvet banner sewn with all the pearls from the depths of the sea.

"Kaito?"

The word had been uttered so tentatively that it was almost instantly swallowed whole by the mountain wind. But demons had good hearing, and Kaito had been waiting for someone to say something. He'd thought it would be the echo, but instead it was his Shinichi who had called to him.

"Yeah?" he said so Shinichi would know he was listening.

There was a breath of silence before Shinichi spoke again, words a little clearer this time. "Did you…mean what you said? When you…when you asked me to go out with you?"

Kaito considered the question for a moment, weighing his options. He was pretty sure that what he'd actually asked Shinichi was not quite the same thing that Shinichi was saying he had asked. On the other hand, according to his readings, the two were not unrelated. So he nodded.

"I did. I wouldn't have asked if I didn't."

"But…why?"

"Why?" Kaito repeated the question as though it were a word in a foreign tongue. "I don't understand. Is that not what you're supposed to do when you like someone?"

"I guess so, but, well, only in certain kinds of circumstances," Shinichi tried to explain. He was no expert on relationships, and Sonoko would laugh him out of the building if she ever heard him trying to explain the mechanics of romance to anyone else, but he needed to clear things up. For the both of them.

A warm, calloused hand shifted, laying itself over Shinichi's where it was resting on the rock. Suddenly the wind didn't feel so cold. Was it magic? Shinichi wondered.

"You see, there are different kinds of…" he started then stopped. "What I mean is—"

"Shin-chan."

Shinichi inhaled deeply before turning to look up into Kaito's face. His breath hitched in his throat, and he almost pulled away except that he couldn't pull away. His body had decided to freeze on him. Kaito was so close. His indigo eyes were dark and full of something that Shinichi didn't understand but which sent shudders up his spine.

"I knew what I was talking about, Shin-chan. My world isn't that different. And I meant every word."

Shinichi bit his lip, looking away. "But aren't you from some kind of noble family?"

Kaito paused then shrugged. "I guess so. The Great Houses do get referred to as nobility on occasion."

"So…shouldn't you be trying to find someone from one of the other Great Houses?"

Kaito wrinkled his nose. "Heavens no! How would we keep the Great Houses separate if we started intermingling with each other? It'd make no sense."

Shinichi blinked. "I guess that makes sense. I hadn't thought of that."

"It's customary to choose mates from a different tier of power than your own. Though I do seem to recall that you humans tended to the opposite."

"But like you just said, I'm human. Won't that be a problem for you?"

"Well, I admit it isn't usual, but I'm sure we can work out the details." Turning, he clasped both of Shinichi's hands in both of his own, though he had to be careful because his right hand passed right through Shinichi's body. "I love you, Shin-chan. I was being serious. I want you to come back to my world with me. It'll be amazing! I promise."

"Kaito…"

Kaito paused in his tirade about all the places he wanted Shinichi to see and all the things they simply had to do together someday. "Yes?"

"I'm flattered, I really am, but… Going to another world? I don't know if I can do that… I can't just agree or disagree on something so—so drastic just like that. It's not just about how we feel…"

Kaito grinned. "So you do feel something for me then."

Shinichi blushed. "What? I—I didn't… I mean, I guess, maybe… I'm not really sure." His words ended in a mumble.

The magician chuckled and ruffled Shinichi's hair. "It's okay. We've still got university to finish. That means you have a few years to think about it. And remember, it's not like you'd never be able to come back. I'm good at translocation magic. We could come back here for a visit anytime you want. In the meantime, I would be honored if you would go out with me."

It would not have been possible for Shinichi to turn any redder if he'd tried, but he nodded. Maybe it was the decrease in oxygen at this altitude, but he was feeling a little giddy and lightheaded. Never mind that he didn't currently have real lungs.

If Shinichi had been solid at that moment, Kaito would have kissed him. Instead, Kaito settled for intertwining their fingers. Sensing movement on his other side, the magician glanced over to see that the child Shinichi had stood up. The boy stretched a hand out towards the sky as though he were trying to touch the stars. Then he turned to Kaito and smiled. As he did so, he faded away, leaving behind a single white feather.

Kaito scooped the feather up with care and turned to offer it to Shinichi. "Looks like it's time to go."

"I assume you can transport us back?"

"I have a better idea." Kaito got to his feet and offered Shinichi a hand. "Here."

Shinichi let the magician pull him to his feet. Without letting go, Kaito turned back to face the cliff's edge and raised his free hand. Shinichi felt a sudden rush of warmth flood through him along with a sense of weightlessness. Disoriented, it was a moment before he realized that Kaito had changed.

The magician seemed a little taller. Or was it just Shinichi's imagination? The darkness seemed to shift around them. Shinichi gasped, blue eyes going wide. They were hard to make out in this land of sylvan shadows, but he would swear that Kaito now had wings. Large black ones. The moonlight glanced off of night black feathers.

"You have wings," he gasped. He immediately wanted to smack himself for pointing out the obvious.

"Well yeah. Dad didn't choose the kanji for our family name just because the sounds were right. It was more poetic than that."

"O—oh…" Shinichi blinked.

"Now let's get you home."

Shinichi had the sudden feeling that he knew what was about to happen. But it was too late. The night wind whistled in his ears as Kaito took a running leap off the cliff, dragging Shinichi with him.

Shinichi might have screamed. He wasn't sure. If he had, he would have been justified. It didn't matter that he was only a spirit right now and probably couldn't crash to his death. He still felt very much alive, and he fully expected to go plummeting to the rocks below—or, at best, end up dangling by one hand. Not the best mode of travel under any circumstances.

Instead, he found himself floating beside Kaito (like a very light piece of cloth floating on the wind, he thought). Together, they swept down towards the foothills. Shinichi's breath caught in his throat, and he stared wide-eyed as the earth rushed up to meet them. But then they had leveled out, and Shinichi's breath caught for an entirely different reason. The landscape was an indistinct sea of darkness dotted with a myriad of tiny lights that flowed by beneath them like a stream of shooting stars. It was as though they were flying over a second night sky.

It was breathtaking, like something out of a dream. And maybe he really was dreaming. It certainly felt like he was.

If this was a dream though, he didn't want to wake up. Not yet.

Let this moment last forever.

It was the one thought that had whispered in his mind that night oh so many years ago when he had found himself sitting on a cliff in the middle of nowhere with only a certain magician for company. He'd had no idea where they were or how they were going to get home, and he should have been afraid. Terrified even. But he hadn't been because he'd known that Kaito would never let him get hurt. He had never felt so content or secure again as he had back then.

But now, here in this impossible moment, he remembered exactly how it had felt. And he heard that little whisper again: wistful and bittersweet.

Please, let this moment last forever.

TBC