Sorry it's been so long, I've been really busy with other stuff and this just kinda got placed on the back burner again. I'm trying to get better at balancing this out but with as many ongoing stories as I have the one's that I don't have any kind of plan for wind up getting the least attention. Plus I saved it with the word count at 1412 and couldn't bring myself to add any me for a while.

I'm sure y'all have realized it by now but I'm going to continue to refer to Kaito/Toichi as Kaito and Conan/Shinichi/Kaito as Conan in the narration because it's easier to tell who I'm talking about that way... figured I should say it to avoid confusing anyone who assumed that now that Kaito had accepted being Toichi and Conan had accepted being Kaito that they'd be going by their proper names. The only exception is in dialogue where names are honestly anything goes (just try to pay attention to who's speaking, and who it's directed at).

Geez, my sense of humor seems to be lacking lately... maybe I need to read more gag manga. This just feels way too serious... but maybe that's okay cause it's kinda a serious matter... whatever let's just go with it, ne?

As usual I thank everyone for reading, and ask that you'd please review. ^v^

Having regained his memory Conan figured it'd be a good idea to let his dad know, even though he had trouble thinking of Kaito/Toichi being his dad... really he had trouble thinking of him as anything other than Kaitou Kid, and it'd likely be quite a while before that changed. Regardless of how he perceived the magician the detective still found himself wanting to call him to tell him the good news, and so that's exactly what he did.

"Hello, Kai-chan," Kaito answered the phone cheerfully, no doubt glad to be hearing from his son, what other reason would he need to be cheerful?

"Hello, Kid," Conan greeted in turn, regretting having called upon hearing the childish nickname by which his father had called him. Conan kind of wished that even though the truth was now known that it didn't mean that anything would change... but maybe nothing had really changed, and it was just the impression that such a thing would change things that would inevitably cause things to wind up changing anyway.

Kaito seemed to be able to sense that his son had been a little bit hesitant to call him anyway and figured that it'd be best to cut right to the chase, "So was there anything in particular that you wanted to talk to me about?"

After a moment's hesitation Conan replied, "I've regained my memories…"

"You have?!" Kaito exclaimed loud enough that Conan had to pull the cellphone from his ear before his father continued, "That's great! I was so worried that you might have misplaced your memories for good!"

"Apparently, it was hypnosis…" Conan reported dryly, figuring that it would be the sort of thing the magician would find amusing, "Okaa-san –I mean Yukiko-oneechan hypnotized me so that I would actually think I was 'Kudo Shinichi' and wouldn't risk my cover being discovered."

Conan's thoughts were proven correct when Kaito let out a little laugh.

"Oh, so that's how it was. That definitely sounds like something she would do," He sounded almost nostalgic as he spoke, which caught Conan off guard because as far as Conan was aware his real-father should have had no recollection of having ever met his fake-mother despite their being master and pupil, though apparently he did.

"You remember her?"

"She's a very difficult person to forget, Kai-chan," he mused.

Conan couldn't find any grounds to argue with that and wound up laughing along with his teenaged father long enough that the Kudo couple began to look concerned.

"So, you're at the professor's house right?" Kaito suddenly asked.

"Er, yes? Why do you ask?"

"Well you wouldn't be able to talk freely at Ran-chan's house and you've got Subaru-san at the Kudo house so I just figured that was where you'd be," Kaito replied with a completely casual tone. It was perfectly logical but it didn't really seem relevant at all that Kaito should know Conan's current location.

Then suddenly there was a knock on the door and Conan had a sneaking suspicion as to why his father may have wanted to know where he was. Of course the person whom the professor soon let in was none other that Kuroba Kaito/Toichi.

He had a much more mature air about him than he'd had the last time that Conan had seen him, but it was still difficult to see him as anything more than an immature teen or a mischievous thief when he walked in with such a broad smile on his face like he'd just pulled a prank and everyone had all fallen right into his trap.

He then lifted Conan up into his arms and hugged him tightly –though not nearly so tightly as Yukiko had- for just long enough to make Conan slightly uncomfortable before setting him back down.

"It's been a while since I was able to do things like that," Kaito attempted to explain.

Conan knew it was true, how long had it been since the two of them had actually had a chance to act like father and son? How long had it been since they'd taken that chance? Eight years, apparently. Though it hadn't seemed to be that long until they realized what they were missing.

If it hadn't been for their unfortunate situations the two of them might have actually been a proper father and son... Conan would have aspired to become a magician like his father and Kaito would have taught his son the ins and outs of magic and would eventually tell him of his secret identity as Kaitou Kid, he might've even given his son the chance to become his successor. But that was just a dream, something that could have been, and might be in some parallel reality.

"I've regained most of my memories too -not quite all- but most, in case you were wondering," Kaito mentioned as he put his son back on the ground.

"You have?" Conan replied, his tone betraying his surprise.

"Of course… you didn't notice?" Kaito asked in response, only slightly disappointed that his manner had apparently not changed enough for his detective son to realize that he was any different than when he was for the most part mentally a teenager.

Sure, he'd noticed some difference in the way the magician carried himself but for whatever reason he hadn't thought that the change was related to his memory, he'd just assumed that his dad had finally decided to act more mature as he and Nakamori-keibu had both insisted he should. Some detective he turned out to be, maybe he should have another go at becoming a magician instead.

"I noticed but… I guess I was a bit preoccupied by my own memories," The small detective replied.

Kaito could understand that, it was difficult to focus on much else after obtaining memories; they were all that seemed to stick in his head for a while until he managed to sort out what goes when chronologically –which in his case was rather difficult to do.

"It's nice to see you Toichi," Yusaku said, interrupting the moment only a little.

Kaito perked up a bit, running over to shake his old friend's hand, "Ah, Yusaku! Thank you for taking care of Kaito while I was gone."

Yusaku smiled, "It's been no trouble."

Which was -of course- true. It had been no trouble for Yukiko and Yusaku to take care of Shinichi, they'd enjoyed every moment of it. Even if the truth was out the two of them still intended to treat Conan as though he were their own son.

"Less trouble than if Chikage had asked you to take care of me instead of him at least," Kaito laughed, "I was almost as bad this time around as my first."

"That's probably true," Yukiko chimed in, adding a little giggle as she remembered a few instances of 'Shinichi' finding his own ways to get into trouble.

"Still, things probably would have turned out rather... interesting if Chikage-san had decided to let us take care of you instead of Shin- I mean Kaito," Yusaku added.

It felt sad that Yusaku had needed to correct the name, but it was true, now that the truth was out it was better not to continue as they had been that would only complicate things more. The boy didn't need two sets of parents, and the Kudo couple had only been asked to take care of him until the situation was fixed anyway, they were never his real family even if they had become like one. The casual conversation continued in spite of these stirring emotions.

"She probably just kept me because she thought it'd increase the chances of me regaining my memory," Kaito said with a shrug, hitting on the true reason.

"Makes sense," Yusaku replied, "If you had been left with us you would have to fake an identity on top of your fake memories of being Kaito, we probably wouldn't have risked the hypnosis though as that would have all but guaranteed you would never get your original memories back... Still even without the hypnosis you probably wouldn't have remembered who you really are."

That much was true as well... if it had been Kaito instead of Conan who'd gone to live with the Kudo's everything likely would have turned out exponentially different than it has, still it's probably for the best that it all went the way it has especially where Apotoxin4869 is concerned.

Suddenly Kaito's phone rang, disturbing the flow of the conversation.

"Ah, excuse me a moment," Kaito said looking at the phone a moment before putting it against his ear, "Hello Aoko, how are you today?"

Kaito had been more surprised by the call then he'd let on as ever since he'd rejected Aoko's confession she had avoided him as best she could. What reason could she have to call him now of all times? He couldn't help but worry that something may have happened.

"Oh me? I'm fine... what? Uh, he's busy with..." Kaito paused for a moment, presumably because Aoko had interrupted him, "Fine, I'll try to set something up, but I can't garuntee anything."

After another brief pause he hung up.

"What was that about?" Conan asked curiously, uncertain what it could possibly be that Aoko could want Kaito to set up for her.

"Aoko want's to meet you," Kaito responded casually.

This confused Conan a little bit, "But we've already met..."

Kaito thought for a moment about his wording before saying, "She met Edogawa Conan, the person she wants to meet is Kudo Shinichi, or Kuroba Kaito... she wasn't really sure which to call you."

Conan couldn't help but wonder why someone he hadn't seen for more than eight years (not counting seeing her as Conan) would suddenly want to see him now. Maybe she wanted to see the real Kaito after learning that the one she'd fallen in love with was a fake, or perhaps she was trying to replace the fake with the genuine article, or maybe... she just wanted some closure on this whole ordeal. Not that it mattered, it wasn't as if he could meet her as Shinichi/Kaito when he was still stuck as a primary schooler.

"But I can't meet her," Conan replied.

"I tried to tell her you were busy with an important case but she just wouldn't hear it," Kaito replied, adding partly as a joke, "You could always just reveal your identity to her, she hasn't given mine away to anyone yet."

"No way, doing that would just put her in danger," Conan retorted, knowing that it wasn't as if her knowing his identity would put her in any more danger than knowing that Toichi was alive as well as the true identity of Kaitou Kid, but he still didn't like the idea of intentionally telling anyone who he was after keeping it a secret for so long.

"Then why not use one of those temporary antidotes?" Kaito asked, "That Haibara girl probably has one lying around here somewhere."

"That could work," Conan replied noncommittally. He had to admit that it was a pretty good idea, the antidote would definitely work. He could go meet with Aoko then he would probably still have some time in his real body left over to talk to Ran, maybe he could even finally tell her the truth about himself.

"Alright, then you handle getting your hands on the antidote, I'll pick 'Conan' up after school tomorrow so that Ran won't be suspicious of your disappearance," Kaito said with his usual air of mischievousness, making the plan concrete.

Yukiko giggled to herself, "What could possibly go wrong?