A very short chapter for you. Hopefully the next one will both be longer and not so long in coming...

Chapter 11: Budding Relationships

The masquerade ball had brought out the rich and the famous, all draped in the finest of formal dress. It was like walking into a fairytale palace during the happily ever-after.

But if this was a fairytale, then she was the princess with her artfully arranged golden locks, her perfect skin and her brilliantly blue eyes. For a moment he wondered if he was looking at Cinderella at the ball, before he recalled who she was from his files.

Jeanne Vasser, only child of the very man he was here to kill that night. He had thought she was lovely from the file photo, but seeing her in real life was something else. He found himself wondering if she knew of her father's business practices, and what she might think of his partners.

Almost idly he considered mixing business with pleasure for once. With a little maneuvering he could potentially secure both a dance and an introduction to the father.

Movement towards a door that no one should have been going through caught his eye. Speaking of Monsieur Vasser ...

Completely unnoticed Dimitri slipped into a room connected to the one which his target was now occupying.

Later as his plunged a long, thin knife through the back of Monsieur Vasser's neck and into his brain, Dimitri found himself wondering if it might still be possible to secure that dance.

The reigning silence was extremely uncomfortable. At least it was for Kaito. He had a suspicion that Shinichi was not in any way uncomfortable. The detective sat there looking for all the world like he hadn't just dropped a bomb-shell of a question on his . . . His what? Kaito's own mind mocked him with the question. What was he to Shinichi? What was Shinichi to him?

"Who says it couldn't have been a little of all of them, tantei-kun?" Kaito replied, falling back on the jesting tones of Kaitou Kid.

Shinichi cocked his head slightly, his gaze narrow and measuring. Kaito desperately held onto his poker face, fiercely unnerved but not willing to show it.

"I suppose that's likely," Shinichi acknowledged. "So, all of the above it is."

Kaito relaxed a notch, thinking that would be as far as this conversation would go.

"Still, I can't help but wonder. Surely you had other options for escape, you always do. Thinking back on it I can think of several myself. Especially given my physical condition at the time."

"I'm shocked, tantei-kun. I believe that's the first time I've heard you admit to a weakness."

Shinichi shrugged, "Neither of us is stupid, you've almost certainly figured out that much. Now, stop trying to change the topic."

Maybe it's time for just a little honesty. "It was the first thing I thought of," Kaito admitted, dismissing the seriousness of the situation with an idle hand gesture and his tone. "Quick thought, quick action. Often my first thought is the one I go with. Sometimes that leads to strange solutions."

Shinichi grinned at that, "You might say that. I've been known to come up with a strange solution or two."

Tension broken Kaito handed back Shinichi's homework. "As fun as this has been, tantei-kun, I should get going."

Both of them got up, Kaito debating the best way to leave without being seen. He eyed the window for a moment. "Tantei-kun, what do you think . . ." His voice dropped off mid-sentence.

"Shinichi?" he asked, alarmed at how pale the detective had gotten abruptly.

Blue eyes looked at him, vague confusion showing, "Just a dizzy spell," Shinichi murmured swaying slightly.

"Are you sure?" Kaito managed to ask before letting out a curse as the detective dropped in a dead faint.

Ran had been enjoying a quiet evening at home when her cell phone began to ring. She considered ignoring it altogether in favor of the novel she was reading, but on the fourth ring it began to be annoying.

"Hello," she answered, annoyance making her tone a little sharp.

"Mouri-san?" A panicked male voice sounded over the phone.

"Yes," she replied cautiously, only vaguely recognizing the voice and wondering who knew her number that would call her Mouri-san.

"Oh thank god," the voice muttered in relief. "Please, I'm at Kudo's house. We were talking and he suddenly fainted. I called an ambulance, but I can't be here when it arrives."

Her abrupt awareness of just who the caller was didn't matter at all in the face of his news. Ran just managed to tell the thief that she was coming before she broke into a run.