The Moriarty Gambit

by Kat Morning

What do you do when you find what you’re looking for and the finding paints an even larger target on your back? You find a way to do the impossible. And in the right company, impossible is just an illusion.

11. Until Proven Innocent

Chapter 11 – Until Proven Innocent

"If ever there is tomorrow when we're not together...
there is something you must always remember.
You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem,
and smarter than you think.
But the most important thing is,
even if we're apart… I'll always be with you."

~ A. A. Milne ~

.oOo.

"Kid! Kaito!"

A soccer ball launched towards Gin, rebounding against the far wall and shattering a potted plant as the phantasm vanished. Shinichi dashed forward, eyes widening and terror washing through him as Kaito staggered back and blood started blossoming across the white of Kid's cape and tuxedo jacket.

Lung shot, a clinical portion of Shinichi's mind noted, pushing aside a growing shock and panic. The stain was spreading, which meant Kaito's heart was still beating. All he had to do was keep it beating and cut off the flow long enough for help to arrive.

.oOo.

Aoko shoved against the silky wool miring her thoughts, struggling to think and feel despite the fuzziness that seemed determined to keep her in the dark. A child's voice cut through the haze, panic drenching it and forcing her to tense even if she couldn't understand the words. She wrenched her eyes open and her breath caught as Kaitou Kid sprawled before her like a discarded doll. His top hat had rolled away, fetching up unheeded against a chair, leaving messy brown hair sticking up at all angles, and eyes screwed shut, one still covered in polished glass. His gloved hand landed next to her, curling into a fist on the floor. Aoko's breath caught and the stench of the blood hit her full force.

A flurry of blue interposed itself between her and Kid, small hands reaching out to wrench the monocle away from his face and set it aside before pushing the blood-soaked shirt and jacket. Koizumi Akako dropped into view next, her hands fluttering towards the torn fabric only to be slapped away savagely by the strange little boy hunched protectively over the thief. He stripped off his jacket and folded it into a thick pad.

"Nakamori-san," Edogawa said, grabbing her hands and guiding them to press the jacket's fabric against the chest wound. "Hold it. Put pressure on the wound. You," his eyes crackled as they focused on the shell-shocked witch who knelt nearby. "Call an ambulance."

She shook her head, pale. "This shouldn't have happened."

"Damn right it shouldn't have," Edogawa snarled. "Now call an ambulance before he dies of blood loss!"

"Little late for that," Kaito coughed, opening his eyes halfway. "Told you magic was real."

Edogawa dropped his eyes into one hand, smearing streaks of red across his face. "Kaito …"

"Kuroba, it was only an illusion," Akako said suddenly, desperation coloring her voice.

"Feels real, Miss Witch," Kaito wheezed, a dangerous gurgle underlining the words.

"It wasn't!" Akako's nails left thin gouges in the floorboards. "Please, Kuroba. Your life depends on you believing me! It was just a spell. A distraction. It was supposed to manifest your greatest enemies. I thought it would be those silly detectives and the buffoon inspector."

"Our enemies are more deadly than law enforcement," Edogawa said quietly, getting to his feet. "And we don't believe you."

"And your fear … his belief in them made them real!" she snapped, eyes flashing.

Edogawa wordlessly held out a blood-drenched hand to her, glasses glinting in the light as he lowered his face. "Belief and hope don't make things real."

"Then where are they?" Akako rose to her feet, and threw her hand out. "Where is your enemy now, little one? Or does he vanish like your thief?"

.oOo.

Shinichi looked around and saw an abandoned soccer ball and a mortally wounded thief the only indication of any previous danger, now passed. Shinichi deflated, shaking his head trying to understand, until he abruptly still, and looked up, a sort of desperate hope lighting his eyes. "Koizumi, can the Philosopher's Stone heal? Kaito read up on it, but I wouldn't listen to him. Can it heal?"

"It ..." Koizumi hesitated then nodded briskly. "It can. Or it could if we had it, but we don't exactly have time for a treasure hunt, little one."

Shinichi glanced back looking at Kaito for a moment then plunged a hand into his pocket and pulling out a small, glittery object that flashed crimson in his palm. "Kaito said I'd never find it," he said as explanation. "What do I do with it?" An acquisitive glitter brightened Akako's eyes and Shinichi tensed, stepping out of reach when she reached for the Stone. "I'll do it. Just tell me what needs to be done."

She pulled her hand back and folded them both in front of her. "Put it under his tongue. That should get the Elixir into his blood stream quickly. Not for long, though," she cautioned, as Shinichi knelt next to Kaito and signaled Aoko to help him, which she did woodenly, eyes flickering a bit wildly. "And don't let him swallow it! The Philosopher's Stone reverses time. Too much, and the resemblance between you really will be striking."

"Let's not shrink you, thief," Shinichi snorted, slipping the Stone under Kaito's tongue. "We're not that close to a cure yet." Kaito had lost consciousness again at some point, and his shallow breathing wasn't encouraging, and the blood flow had slowed in its inexorable creep through Shinichi's blazer.

Then his breathing stopped.

The moment was terrifying, watching as Kaito's body settled into an alien stillness enhanced by the lack of color in his skin. Shinichi crept forward and tentatively pressed his fingers to Kaito's throat, feeling for a pulse. He shut his eyes, shaking his head and rocking back onto his heels when no movement fluttered beneath his fingertips. "It …"

"Worked," Aoko finished for him as her hand – the one that still lay against Kaito's chest – moved. "It worked."

The next breath was deeper, and completely free of the gurgle of drowning in his own blood. He took two more unlabored breaths before summoning the strength to roll over, face against the floor, spit out Pandora, and stay that way, panting. "What … happened?" he gasped.

"You died," Shinichi told him, helping him roll back over and sit up. Aoko let the blood-soaked blazer fall to Kaito's lap and reached out like she wanted to hug him, but held back. His shredded and stained dress shirt hung open, the ragged hole in his chest had scabbed over, and the bruising was starting to show up vividly.

"'m not now?" Kaito asked woozily, and Shinichi snorted a relieved laugh. He reached over to scoop up the clear Stone, watching red swirl through it for an instant before shifting to tuck it back into a pocket, away from the avaricious gaze of the witch. A stained white glove clamped around his wrist with surprising strength before he could, and Shinichi found Kaito's abruptly more lucid eyes on him. "Why is Pandora here?" Shinichi yanked his wrist out of Kaito's grip and finished stowing the gem in his shirt pocket. "I hid that stone, Shinichi."

"You hid it. I found it," Shinichi told him succinctly. "And I'm glad I did. Maybe you should start wearing a flak vest under that silly jacket of yours. If you're feeling good enough to argue with me, then it's time for us to go. Nakamori-san? Would you help? You've got a better reach than I do."

"I can stand." Kaito flopped forward and struggled to get his hands beneath himself, clinging to a chair when that didn't work to haul his body more or less upright.

"But you can't walk," Aoko informed him, slipping her head and a shoulder underneath one of his arms and shifting their combined weight so he fell against her so she could push them both to their feet. "Idiot. This is the most bungled rescue ever, Kaito."

"Oh, I don't know," Kaito panted, trying to sound conversational and at ease even though he was visibly trembling. "I'm not in handcuffs yet. And Miss Witch is letting us go."

The witch in question was being watched with laser focus by a faux-seven-year-old and not being allowed closer than five paces. She watched Aoko shoulder most of her friend's weight silently, looking almost contrite … or as contrite as they had ever seen her anyway until she momentarily ignored her diminutive guard and smiled. "We'll say you've won this round. You're my favorite challenge, Kuroba-kun, and that pretty bauble you have is good for far more than its elixir. However," she held up a hand to curtail Shinichi's growl and Aoko's sudden glare, "for now all I ask is that you don't get yourselves killed in whatever you've become embroiled in. It's …" she looked away suddenly and took a steadying breath, "I didn't mean for you to be hurt."

Kaito looked at her for a long moment before he leaned a bit more heavily against Aoko and smiled softly. "Apology accepted, Miss Witch."

.oOo.

They stumbled away, leaving magic and blood behind with the witch, and moved as quickly as they could while keeping to the shadows. Police patrols, undoubtedly called up by Nakamori to search for his missing daughter drove past a handful of times, sending them stumbling into cover. Aoko said nothing each time Shinichi ordered them into an alley or skittering down the shoulder of the road, she just bit her lip and nudged Kaito along.

They kept moving until Kaito couldn't anymore. Healed or not, the blood loss and adrenalin were taking their toll. He was breathing heavily before they left, and wheezing before they finally stopped in drain way slightly off the road. Aoko handed him his monocle, rescued and tucked in her clothes before she turned away. Kaito looked after her, then down at the smudged bit of glass and ivory in his hand before closing his eyes and sagging against the cement wall.

Shinichi had vanished the moment they arrived, but a soft step sounded off to his left, heralding the other's return. A moment later Kaito felt Shinichi's warmth settled beside him and heard the click of a closing cell phone. He'd been using the screen light as in impromptu flashlight, Kaito realized idly. Easy enough for eyes adjusted to darkness to follow, but much harder to spot from the road than the stronger flashlight built into his omni-watch.

"I called dad," Shinichi said, sounding tired. "I think Mom's driving."

"They'll be here soon then," Kaito said. "Think I'm going to pass out for a while, Shinichi. Is that okay with you?" He didn't wait for an answer.

.oOo.

Shinichi's cell phone beeped and he held it up, checking the number that flashed across the screen before climbing to his feet and waving Aoko back down when she noticed and started to rise. "The cavalry's here. I'm just going to go meet them."

Her eyes alone followed him out of their hideaway, watching as the odd child vanished into the darkness, focusing on that spot to keep her eyes from wandering to … other things. Out of edge of her vision, the boy she had always regarded as her best friend slumped against the wall. He was still unnaturally pale, but he was breathing and that's what she forced herself to focus on.

Kaito was breathing, and he was alive. Even though his blood was still on her hands – dried and largely flaked off now – and the ragged once-white blanket that covered him was really a normally-pristine cape she had snarled imprecations at as she watched it vanish into the night too many times to count … he was alive.

"Well, you three look a mess," a new voice said, drawing Aoko out of her thoughts as a man stepped out of the darkness with Edogawa trailing at his heels. Aoko blinked, trying to clear away the memory that surfaced as she looked at the newcomer. A bushier mustache bristled under his nose, and his hair had found a comb at some point, but Aoko felt her eyes widening, and began wondering if the breath she had felt Kaito take under her hand had been only because she had been shot as well. Did the dead breathe?

"Kuroba-san?" she asked tremulously, breath hitching in her throat as she spoke. "Kaito's … father?"

"Eh?" the man looked over to her, confused, until his face softened and he shook his head. "Kudou. My name is Kudou Yuusaku. You've mistaken me for my brother, Toichi. Kaito is my nephew. Shinichi," he laid a hand on the small boy's head, "is my son." He knelt down in front of the unconscious thief and laying a hand against his forehead to check the boy's temperature, relaxing almost imperceptibly after he did, then started to prod the teenager awake. "Kaito? Can you wake up enough to stand?"

"He's lost a lot of blood," Aoko offered quietly. "And he's been out of it since Edoga … Shinichi-san called you."

"I'm okay," Kaito said, finally opening his eyes and shifting against the concrete of the wall. "'M not out of it. Was just …resting my eyes. It's been a long night." Yuusaku moved closer so he could drag on of Kaito's arms over his shoulder and looked over the messy brown head of hair as Aoko stepped forward to sling Kaito's free arm over her shoulders.

"Let's get you all out of here and into the car where it's warmer. We could use some better light, Shinichi, and I think we can chance it for now."

Shinichi nodded and pocketed his phone before pressing a button on the side of his watch and igniting a thin beam of light for them to follow as he led the way back up to the road. Soon, all slid into the backseat of the Kudou's dark-colored car with Aoko going first so she could steady the silent but still-woozy Kaito as he was gingerly helped in, and Shinichi clambering in last. The door shut behind them, and the car was silent until the driver's side front door opened and Yuusaku climbed in as well and started the engine.

He glanced up into the review mirror, both to check for traffic and on his passengers in the backseat. Shinichi had his knees pulled up to his chest. His ever-present glasses were tucked in his shirt pocket safely away from scratches or cracks, and he was sitting just close enough that he brushed up against Kaito's uninjured right side.

Aoko looked like she was forcing herself to stay awake, not giving in to the warmth of the heated car, and pointedly not looking at the young man beside her. She finally settled on leaning against the door and staring out the front window. In all, the faces that he saw behind him were upset, blank, and ragged by turns, exhausted by whatever bramble thicket life had pulled them through backwards, so Yuusaku drove silently.

.oOo.

People waited on the path when he pulled up to the house, familiar even in silhouette. Chikage stood there, the long, practical lines of her adjusted lab coat white in the thin light escaping the house, and her hair permanently taking on a well-tamed look; not as mercilessly tamed as when she had been Absinthe, but tamer than the wild disarray of the magician's artist wife.

Beside her fidgeted Professor Agasa, watching each car expectantly as it passed, and taking a step forward when the correct one finally arrived. The old scientist was the first at the car door, offering a hand to Aoko as she half fell out. She looked around, unsure, until her eyes fell on the familiar form of Kaito's mother and gasped. Chikage came forward then, placing a hand on Aoko's shoulder and smiling sadly. She leaned closer, speaking quietly to Aoko, whose face schooled itself into an unreadable expression. Aoko managed a nod before walking stiffly towards the front door.

Kaito crawled out next, stumbling as his feet met solid ground, and Yuusaku darted forward to catch him. Kaito breathed out a thank you as his uncle helped him upright. He was better now than when the small group had been huddled beside the road, and one assistant was enough. He was either getting better, Yuusaku acknowledged, or just being grimly stubborn.

"Kaito, do I want to know who that young lady is?"

"Shinichi didn't tell you?" Kaito asked, his voice curiously flat and emotionless.

"Shinichi refused to go into details over the phone," Yuusaku told him. "And none of you looked up to an interrogation in the car."

"Her name is Nakamori Aoko," Kaito said, voice quieting. "She's … or well, she was my best friend."

They stepped into the brightness of the Kudou home, and Kaito slid heavily off his uncle's shoulder to the floor where he could wrestle off his scuffed and stained dress shoes. The cape they'd tucked around his shoulders as a makeshift blanket fell away revealing the shiny pink of a newly-healed scar amidst the wreckage of his gore-stained suit. Kaito looked down at his chest and poked gingerly at a bit of dress shirt that had adhered to his skin, pulling it away with a wince. "I need a shower," Kaito said, reaching above his head to find purchase enough to haul himself to his feet. He teetered for a moment once he was on his feet before stabilizing and took a step.

"Still dizzy?"

"Lost a lot of blood back there," Kaito answered.

"Died back there," Shinichi corrected. "You stopped breathing, and I couldn't find a pulse."

"I'm feeling pretty lively for a dead guy," Kaito snorted, a tired grin stretching across his mouth. "Which reminds me … you, Kudou Shinichi, are a thief."

"I …" Shinichi started then broke off blushing and looked away, scuffing at the floor in embarrassment. It earned him a look of curiosity from his father. Shinichi sighed and reached into his pocket, pulling out Pandora and handing it back to Kaito. Kaito's gloved fingers curled around it and he waved off Yuusaku when the older man moved to help him.

"You are a mess," Haibara pronounced, as she appeared in the doorway, drawn by the voices and noise. Kaito looked at her, not sure if she was speaking to him or the diminutive detective. "How are you still standing after losing that much blood?"

Kaito held Pandora balanced in his hand, clear against the spotted white fabric of his gloves. "Shinichi decided to see if that elixir of immortality actually worked after a phantasm in a black coat put a bullet through my lung."

"You were found by the Organization?!" the cry was heard from three separate voices in unison and the boys winced.

"It was an illusion," Shinichi piped up, holding up his hands defensively and looking wildly to Kaito. "Probably some form of mass hypnosis. That's why Aoko-san didn't even notice us until you got shot."

"Or magic," Kaito added, hand slipping from where he had it braced against a wall. "You know what, Shinichi? You're on. You tell them the details. I'm going to clean the blood off and collapse on your bed."

Haibara's eyes narrowed at the thief, and she fell into step behind him. "Kudou can fill me in later," she said, when he looked back and down at his blonde shadow. "If you've taken anything from the jewel, I want to examine you."

Kaito sighed and waved for her to precede him. "No needles, though. You don't get any of my blood until I have some to give. And all vampires need not apply."

.oOo.

Shinichi watched Kaito until he was halfway up the stairs to the second floor, clinging to the rail with one hand and moving at a normal pace. A normal pace for anyone else was decidedly abnormal for the hyperkinetic thief, though, and to Shinichi's eyes Kaito still looked ragged. A warm hand on the crown of his head drew Shinichi's attention away and refocused it on his father, who was looking at him with concern.

"Anything I should know about tonight before we go into the living room and you explain what happened?"

Shinichi winced. "You know how I don't want Ran to find out about Conan?" Shinichi asked. "Kaito didn't want Aoko finding out about Kid. She hates Kid."

"We'll talk to her about that too," Yuusaku assured him, herding him forward towards the warm glow of the living room.

.oOo.

Aoko sat curled in a chair, clutching a steaming mug of coffee between her hands like it was the last source of warmth on earth. She looked up as Shinichi and his father filed in, and sent a nervous glance toward Kaito's mother, who was sitting between the girl and the door with a remarkable sense of calm about her.

"Nakamori-san?" Yuusaku started.

"I thought it would be better to give Aoko time to pull herself back together," Chikage answered. "It's been a harrowing night."

Yuusaku ran a hand through his hair, tousling it so it stuck out at all angles, and nodded. Aoko caught herself staring at him with pained familiarity before looking away, and not watching as he continued. "I've heard most of it from Shinichi, but perhaps you should tell us what happened from your point of view, Aoko-san"

"I'd rather just go home, Kudou-san," Aoko answered, still not looking at him, her knuckles going white with the pressure she strangled her coffee mug with. "I've told Kuroba-san what I remember, and it wasn't much. I went to the restroom, and got lost. Hattori-kun found me … except it wasn't Hattori Heiji that found me, it was Kuroba Kaito. Who isn't even supposed to be in the country, and now I find he's been gallivanting around Japan with a cousin no one knew about!" Aoko's voice sharpened as she spoke until it was quiet, snarling, and cold. And she hadn't looked at any of them, preferring to stare out the window into the dark night beyond.

"You realize how insane that sounds?" Aoko set her coffee mug on the end table next to her and folded her arms while pinning Shinichi with a piercing look. "And considering that my … well, considering that I've grown up with Kaito – and all of the random insanity involved there – and what we just came from … I shouldn't find anything crazy in comparison."

"Aoko-san ..." Shinichi started, but she cut him off.

"I don't want to hear you say you understand, Edogawa-kun – or Kudou-san, or whatever you've decided to call yourself this time. My best friend is the one person I've ever hated and by all rights I should tell my father the moment I next see him." She levered herself out of her seat and took several steps away from it, fists clenched at her sides, and Shinichi could see the shine of tears at the corner of her eyes . "Never mind. I'll find my own way home," she said.

Shinichi lunged forward and placed himself directly into her path before she'd taken more than a few steps toward the door and spread his arms to bar her from leaving. "You're right. I don't understand, Aoko-san," Shinichi's voice was somber, his eyes serious and much older than the face that held them. "But you need to talk to Kaito. If he was your best friend, he deserves a chance to explain some of it even if you decide not to trust him after this. He can give you the rest of the explanation, and you deserve to hear it even if you don't agree with why he did any of it." A sharp, calculating light sparked in Shinichi's eyes as he dropped his arms and stepped aside. "Or you can leave right now, and wonder about it for the rest of your life."

.oOo.

The door opened, throwing a slice of hallway light into the room and bisecting the dark room beyond. Aoko slid furtively through the opening and reached behind her, shutting the door to close out the light and stood there, a slightly darker specter against the shadows. It took several minutes before her eyes adjusted, etching shapes out of the shadows and subtle movement on the bed. There was enough light coming in through the windows – cast from the moon above, the streetlamps below and the omnipresent glow of the metropolis around them – that she could even make out some details of the room's other occupant.

"You can turn a light on if you want," Kaito said from the bed, not opening his eyes and not moving. Aoko stilled, hesitating, and Kaito moved, shifting so he was propped up on his elbows then sliding backward so he was sitting against the headboard. "Or does the darkness make saying goodbye easier?"

Aoko started, then sighed and looked away. "It doesn't make it easier."

"Would anything?"

"Kaito, I …"

He cut her off. "Aoko. Why are you still here?"

"They … he said I should hear the explanation. From you. Even if I didn't agree with it, I should hear it." She paused and looked up. Kaito was sitting up, arms wrapped around his blanket-shrouded legs, and watching her with his chin on his knees. "Your cousin said you should get the chance to tell me what's going on." She took a few steps forward, words rushing on heedlessly. "I've tried so hard to prove you weren't Kid! Dad suspected you … Hakuba suspected you … Akako apparently knew… and they were right! But I'm not stupid, Kaito, and I can see there's a lot more going on here than making my dad look stupid just because you can. So all I want to know is why? You … your cousin … all of it. Why?"

"My cousin," he answered, sounding a bit grumpy, "has been avoiding this very conversation with Mouri Ran. And it's patently not fair that you found out when she won't."

"Who is Mouri Ran?" Aoko asked, voice dropping dangerously, folding her arms and glaring through the darkness at him with a look that promised death if he was changing the subject to avoid her question.

"It's … Aoko, you're not the only one we haven't saddled with all these secrets. Ran is Shinichi's best friend; from before he was Edogawa Conan, in case you were wondering. They've been friends their entire lives and she's the girl he's completely ass over teacups in love with. She doesn't know either. He hasn't told her."

"Will he?"

"That is completely up to him," Kaito answered. "It's not a secret I'm going to bring her in on, and I'll keep it if he wants me to. I've been pretending to be Shinichi since mom and I went 'on holiday.' I thought it was safer to be someone they wouldn't think to look for. This isn't a new identity being slipped into the system, and they've already ruled Kudou Shinichi as taken care of. I'm stuck being him until we get everything figured out. As angry as you are with me, Shinichi needs me. Kaitou Kid is retired, but I can't turn myself in; not yet. That's your why, Aoko."

"You're not giving your last heist back, then, are you?" she asked, and watched as Kaito shook his head and looked down. She understood: he couldn't. "It's the stone from earlier? The one you almost swallowed?" She received a silent nod in confirmation and she felt like she could almost see the secrets swirling around her childhood friend, binding him more securely than handcuffs or a cell ever could. Aoko moved another step closer, her knees bumping against the end of the bed. "Were you ever really out of the country?"

"Mom was," he answered. "I was here. Hiding various places the first week while I got everything stored away, and then here in this house the second."

"When you started pretending to be your cousin."

"I didn't know that at the time." She could hear a weak smile in his voice and the rasp of fabric as he shifted around in the bed. "I needed a detective. Kudou just had more I could hold over his head. Hattori's too far away. Hakuba would have tried to cuff me and bring them in himself."

Aoko took up a spot at the end of the bed, but stayed silent, watching and listening. "Did they tell you any of this? My dad was the first Kaitou Kid, the one your dad chased when we were younger."

"Your mom knew," Aoko supplied. "She told me about his death … murder."

"I became Kid because I wanted them to think maybe they missed. I wanted them to be curious, to show up and try again. It was the only lead I had, and I thought maybe your dad would be able to catch them."

Kaito didn't really look up as he lapsed into silence, he was busy studying the wall he probably couldn't even see somewhere beyond her right shoulder. She mulled over his explanation, fitting it together with the other parts of the story his family had related to her downstairs and turning the emerging narrative over in her mind.

Her best friend had made himself bait for known murderers. Good cause or not, she boggled that he hadn't told anyone. Not even his mother, and certainly not her father. Her father could have had the investigation into Kuroba Toichi's death reopened, right? And he would have, Kaitou Kid or not, if he'd had any solid evidence to say the magician's death hadn't been a stage accident.

"Kaito … why didn't you tell anyone? Dad could help you look if he knew! He …"

"Wouldn't have wanted me to help," Kaito said flatly. "Or he'd have expected me to go to the academy and have a badge before I did. He'd never have allowed a sixteen-year-old to dance across the rooftops in white formal wear trying to be shot at. It's crazy, and your dad's not. You asked me why: because it's my problem, and my dad's legacy … my case, as the detective would call it. And it's not going to just go away if I ignore it long enough. My aunt and uncle tried that, and look what happened to Shinichi."

"The same people?" Aoko questioned. "You're sure of that?"

"We are now," he nodded. "I remember him, you know that? I remember the Kudous at dad's funeral. I even knew Kudou Yukiko because I'd followed dad one time when he went to meet her. But I just thought they were friends of my parents, and Shinichi stood with his mom the entire time and I wouldn't go over and talk to him, even when mom asked me to. I didn't want to. Funny how we both ended up tangled in the same mess anyway."

Aoko rubbed at her eyes and pulled her feet up onto the bed so she was resting against the footboard. The position forced her to look straight at him, slumped over and ragged, exhaustion etched in every line of his body matching the low ache she felt in her own. Or worse, she thought, as Kaito and Shinichi hadn't had the benefit of being unconscious for part of the tumultuous night. "You've been having a rough time of it lately, haven't you?"

Kaito blinked at her, staring as though she'd sprouted a second head, or informed him it was okay he was Kaitou Kid because she was from a highly advanced society based on a planet orbiting Albiero.

"I'm mad at you," she informed him. "It's going to be a good long time before I forgive you for the lies. You should have told me, Kaito, but I hate Kid so much I can see why you didn't. However, you really should have told dad. They were friends, and he deserved to know."

Kaito nodded silently, acknowledging her and looking tentatively hopeful because she wasn't screaming, crying, or walking out the door yet. "Are you going to tell your dad?"

"And get you arrested you mean? It wouldn't work," she pointed out grumpily, folding her arms across her chest. "You've got a house full of people that are really good at dealing with the police, and they'll probably all swear up, down, and sideways that you're Shinichi. You could probably come right out and say you're not and they'll just say you hit your head and scrambled something. Even Conan-kun, I think, because I saw how worried he was when you got hurt."

"Shinichi hates seeing people get hurt," Kaito told her. "Unless it's me and he's blowing the motorcycle I'm riding up or drop kicking me out the window, he takes injury to others personally. Jerk."

Aoko coughed at the images, then sobered and shook her head. "He cares about you, you dink. He was terrified when you got shot and … well, he needs you. It's obvious. What I hated most about Kid was how he kept stealing my family away, and he couldn't give back the time like he gave back the jewels. By the way, did you have to enjoy humiliating dad as much as you did?" She glared at him and Kaito ducked his head, looking embarrassed.

"He's the only one tenacious enough to put up with my antics without trying to put a bullet through me," Kaito admitted. "And …well, he's really gifted at cursing, Aoko. The more I wound him up the more educational ... and entertaining …the heist was. Ow! Aoko!" he protested, wincing as she reached out and swatted him. "Brat! Have a little sympathy, would you? I got shot!"

"It's amazing you're as healed as you are," Aoko told him. "Anyone else would be still unconscious in intensive care."

"Or dead," Kaito shrugged. "I'm glad the universe likes to break my way sometimes. I have to wonder though …" he trailed off speculatively, and rested his chin on his knees, face half –buried in his woven fingers.

"What?" Aoko asked, tilting her head in curiosity.

"We thought that maybe Pandora's tears was what shrank Shinichi. It was supposed to be a poison, but it just made him really young. The tears can make people young … turn back time somehow, but I'm still the same age. Maybe it's not Pandora and we're looking in the wrong direction. Or maybe I just didn't swallow enough of it." Kaito sighed and freed one hand, flattening the hand then turning his palm up, revealing Pandora resting there.

Aoko uncurled herself and leaned forward, balancing on a hand next to him as she switched on the bedside lamp. They both squinted at the relatively bright light. Then she felt Kaito stiffen beside her. The new illumination brought color to the world and the stone flashed in the light of the bedside lamp. "Move a bit, Aoko," Kaito ordered pushing at her shoulder with his free hand. She pulled away, dropping back to the end of the bed and looked at him to see if she could see what the problem was. Kaito held the jewel up to the light, watching tendrils of crimson swirl through it. "Mom's downstairs, right?" he demanded, struggling his way out of the bed.

Aoko bolted forward and pushed him back into the mattress, snorting when he gave up after only a token struggle and stayed put. "You are an idiot," she informed him. "Whatever it is you just figured out, just stay put and keep replicating blood cells, oh anemic one. I'll go get your mom."

Kaito looked ready to protest, but Aoko shifted and put a hand over his mouth first. "Look, I'm not going to vanish on you completely, and I'm not running away. Not that you could stop me if I was, but I promise I'll be right back." He didn't look convinced, but she swung her feet to the floor and took her hand away from his mouth, flicking his nose before standing up. "It's also not like you have any choice in the matter."

Kaito stared after Aoko as she left, pulling the door closed behind her, and he continued listening as her footsteps walked away from the room, leaving him alone with the stone, a lamp, and the moon.