Wo~oh. This story now as a life of it's own ^^
I have no idea how or when it's going to end. We shall see

All characters referenced are from DC episode 96/99
English Episode "Jimmy Kudo Revealed, Part 1"
Japanese Episode "Caught Up with the Great Detective! 2 Murder Cases!"

Chapter 21: Old Friends and Favors

"I thought you'd like it in here. Didn't know you'd like it that much though."

Kaito's voice woke him. Saguru stretched, feeling his side ache from where he'd been sleeping on the crook of the seat, uncompromising under such little weight. Saguru scratched his head, feeling how wild his hair had become. Last night's flight and his odd angle in the car explained that enough. For once, he didn't care how bad he looked.

Eyes still tired, though he had no reason to be, Saguru sat up, opening the car door and missing the sense of being in the warm darkness the room had provided him last night. He rubbed his eyes, seeing the magician come to light in a black outfit, the shirt being the one he'd sleep in last night. It took him only a second to realize that Kaito was wearing it in case the blood happened to seep through the bandages.

"Good morning," Saguru muttered on impulse.

There must have been something wrong with his words because Kaito's easy smile changed to concern the next time Saguru blinked. He'd never seen the magician so opened before, but Saguru was coming to realize that they were simply getting used to being in one another's company and knowing that there weren't any secrets to keep.

"Morning. Any reason you slept in the car?"

"Yeah, I didn't want to see you last night." There was no reason to lie about it. "I'm sorry for yelling at you."

"Doesn't really matter." Kaito reluctantly let his eyes wander around the room before falling back onto him. "Figured everything out, have you?"

"The minute you left." He couldn't smile. Saguru tried, but some part of him was too exhausted to keep it up for more than a moment. He'd never felt so defeated before and he couldn't shake the feeling. "I think I'm going to go back home. To England."

"What?" The magician hadn't been expecting this. The smile that had been on his face was one prepared to put up with the questions he'd assumed he'd have to try and avoid. Saguru wanted to ask them still, but that part of him was buried somewhere he couldn't get to. Asking required energy, and he didn't have any.

"I'll call my mom. It shouldn't be that hard for her to get on a plane and come get me. I'd go alone, but I know how difficult it is to go through customs, let alone when you're a child and everyone's watching you. I should be out of your hair in the next few hours."

"You don't have to leave." Kaito shook his head, looking confused and maybe a little hurt. Saguru wasn't as perceptive as he normally would be, so it was hard to identify the emotion. "I'm sorry. Did I say something last night? I'm sure I did." The magician thought to himself for a heartbeat before starting up again. "I know I told you not to go to my heists." There was some hesitancy in the word, Saguru equally new to the feeling of hearing the Kaito openly admit to what he did. "But I didn't—I'm not kicking you out or anything. Go to them if you want." Kaito shrugged. "Just make sure that they don't see you there all the time or you might be put in danger."

"It's not that." Saguru watched the magician, feeling a glaze over his eyes that blinking couldn't help dissipate. "There's nothing I can do. I don't want to get in your way."

"You're not. Damn it." Kaito ran his fingers though his hair, trying to collect his thoughts, "I was tired last night. If I said anything that gave you the wrong idea, I'm sorry. You're not in the way. I'm still going to find a way to help you. Ai-chan's doing the best she can too. You're not alone, and you don't have to leave."

"Thank you, but it's impossible." He'd reasoned it out himself, taking Shinichi's past actions into consideration. "Even if you find a cure, I've been on television. They'll try to kill me, and I have no way of fighting back. If I go home, it's highly unlikely I'll cross paths with them again. If you can, I'd like the antidote. If you can't, it won't trouble me much to leave things as they are."

"So, you're going to run away? That's you're plan? You've seen how Kudo-kun is fighting them, but you don't even want to try?"

Saguru could hear how angry Kaito was, and the magician not afraid to show it either now that he realized it was Saguru's own foolishness and not his own that was the cause of the sudden announcement. He didn't care. Let everyone be angry with him. Saguru wasn't any good. Even if he tried, Shinichi was a better detective than he. Shinichi had been at it longer and had a much better chance at rectifying their situation. What could he do? He'd already misjudged Kaito badly enough, made light of his own circumstances for far too long. It all showed him how amateurish he was in his execution.

"I'm not... good." He didn't know how else to word it. He wasn't cut out for this. Everything he did so far had been wrong. He was wrong. About absolutely everything. And, maybe he wasn't 'good' in the metaphorical sense of the word either.

"I still don't understand." Kaito shook his head sadly, expression torn between pity and anger. Saguru didn't favor either of them. The magician gave up deciding how he was supposed to feel and sat down on the floor where he bent forward and patted the spot in front of him, "Explain it to me."

"But I have. Kuroba-kun," Saguru took the few steps needed to put him in front of the magician but didn't sit. "I'm not like you. I can't help that. I can't take on trained killers when I, myself, have only a high school education to fight them with. You have talents that lay outside of the school yard, I don't. You know your enemies, I don't. If our positions were switched, you would have been smart enough from the beginning to start over and count your blessings. I was being a fool and thought that- I don't even know what I thought. Neither you nor the police can handle these people, and I knew that. I don't know what I was expecting, but it's clear now that being with you is doing neither of us any good. You can't help me and I can't do anything to help you."

"I never asked for your help, and I never will. Hakuba-kun, this isn't something you can help me with. And I have been helping you."

"With the antidote, yes." Saguru's eyes traveled the room because Kaito's were bothering him. The magician wouldn't look away from him, and it was annoying. He hated being watched. "You've never needed my help for that. According to Ai-kun, you're quite good in notions of advanced science. Ai-kun herself better than you, so really, no one needs me here."

"Okay." Kaito closed his eyes, letting Saguru take in a breath, relaxing his shoulders that he didn't know he'd been tensing. "I still don't understand why you have to leave. If they did find out who you were and went to check if you were still alive, your house would be the first place they would look."

"I know, but I'll have to risk it. It's not as if it would be impossible for them to assume I was someone else if they saw me as a child."

"Why?"

Saguru clenched his fist, the first trickling of some emotion coming to him now. Why did Kaito have to keep asking him for his reasons? It wasn't as if the magician was willing to give out his own. Why did it even matter 'why'? He was still going to go. Kaito knowing why he wanted to go would make no difference.

Kaito must have caught onto his thinking, because he folded his arms in front of him with a sigh, eyes burning into Saguru for a second time and making him wish the damn magician would keep his nosy self away from him.

"You want to know why then? I can't sit here and do nothing! I can't do anything to help you and I can't stop these bastards from ruining my life like they planned to do from the start. Watching you bleed in front of me doesn't help either, and even if I hadn't seen it, I'm not an idiot! I can't stand not being able to do anything..." Saguru shook his head, getting his voice back under control. He felt like crying, but now was not the place or time to do it. He was stronger than that, even if his body and his emotions seemed to be closer to that of his physical self at the moment. "I hate being so powerless. At least at home, I can pretend that everything is alright because even if it's not, there would be nothing I could do to stop it. For once, I wish I were you."

"Hakuba-kun," Kaito picked him but by the back of the shirt as Saguru tried to leave the room. He was placed non-too-gently onto the chair in the corner that had been housing several gadgets before the magician pulled it away. "I know the feeling. Trust me. Running away won't make it better. You're going to wish you didn't do it in time, if you leave now. We're fixing this. Together. Just give me and Ai-chan some time. After that, we'll talk with Kudo-kun. I'm sure that with my skills, we can pull something off to make sure you're safe."

"It's impossible." Saguru stared at the floor while Kaito stood over him. "You can't understand what it's like to be somewhere and not able to help."

"I can. It's happened to me a few times, and someone either has died or has almost died, each time. Hakuba-kun, everyone feels that way at some point. I'm sure you're going to be feeling it a lot more while you're like this, but that's life. Deal with it."

"I've also had about enough of your attitude as I can take. Yes it's life, yes I know this, yes I am going home. I don't want to be here anymore."

"Then I'm going with you."

Saguru raised an eyebrow upward as Kaito watched him in all seriousness.

"People will wonder where you've gone. You can't up and leave here like I can."

"Why not? My dad did it. I'm sure I can come up with some kind of excuse. What? Don't want me coming? Oh yeah, that's right. You can't stand me now, even though before I couldn't get you to leave me alone. Well guess what, the shoes on the other foot now and, like it or not, I'm not letting you get away from me."

"Why?"

Kaito smiled, finally reverting back to the person Saguru knew him as. Kaito was never one to be serious for long, so there was still time to talk some sense into him. Saguru just wanted to be alone. His mother was fine, but Kaito wasn't someone content to let him have his space, even when he wasn't trying to provoke him.

"There. I'm used to being on the receiving end of the questions, not giving them. I'll give you a straight answer this time because I want you to know I'm telling the truth. You're not a bad person, Hakuba-kun, and for some reason I get the feeling that you think you are because you're not able to do some things now. Not having the ability to do something and not doing it are two very different things. Second of which, I hate it when people give up. It ticks me off beyond all reason. For someone like you who should know better, it ticks me off even more."

"Just leave me alone. As you said, it's my problem, and you stalking me will not help me deal with it."

"But having me near you will make it impossible to forget what you're running away from." Kaito folded his arms in front of him. "Deal with it. You can't run and I'll prove it to you."

"If you insist on coming, then watch me. I can go on with my life just fine." Saguru got off the chair, not caring whether the magician was going to be true to his word or not. Kaito didn't sound like he was lying, but he proved he could in the past. Maybe Saguru would get lucky.

Unfortunately, Kaito quickly discovered that his mother was awake and Saguru watched as he ran up the stairs, followed by some raised words and a grinning magician coming down less than fifteen minutes. Saguru took his last piece of toast and bit into it as Kaito's mother and Ai soon entered the kitchen as well.

"Might make things easier on your mom, anyway, now that I'm going." Kaito flipped in several new pieces of bread for himself as he took the chair and sat in it backwards to face him while the magician waited for them to be ready. "You can go with me now and she won't have to come back after just getting home again."

"I don't plan on returning here, so how do you think you'll be able to miss that much school?" Saguru asked off-handedly. "I'm sure your mother won't want to get in trouble along with you for your extended absence."

"I can make up the classes over summer vacation. I think I've already missed enough that they're going to force it on me anyway." Kaito shrugged. "I don't really care either way. I've taken summer classes before."

"Really?" Ai spoke up before Saguru could continue you argument. "For what? You're no idiot and I doubt you've been Kid for that long."

"Nah," Kaito waved a hand at her. "I wouldn't let that get in the way of going to school. It never has before. I had to take the summer classes because I owed an old friend of mine some help. He needed another magician in for one of his stage tricks and the guy he was working with bailed. I spent a good week or two in the United States working with him, so I missed some school. On top of that, Kazumi-san had me miss a week of school soon after that too. He kinda needed someone so," Kaito shrugged again. "I didn't care much."

"So you missed school and had to take summer classes because you were out having fun?" Saguru was surprised at the skepticism in Ai's voice. He didn't see a problem with it. If Kaito wanted to do something, he usually did.

"I had expected to miss it when I went out of the country. When he called me less than a month later and told me he needed me again, we were both surprised. The guy's almost ten years older than me, but mom and I had been close with his mentor because of my dad. The guy had suddenly died, and Kazumi-san had lost his parents at an early age, so he'd been living with him. They needed help. I helped. You can't really turn away from someone when... well, I had to go."

Saguru couldn't hold in a sympatric look. He may not be enjoying Kaito's over-zealous behavior at the moment, but he couldn't help feeling sorry for him again, as he had last night. If this other person had lost someone he considered a father, he had no doubt that Kaito would want to be there for them.

"Motoyasu-san and Kazumi-kun had been close with us for years. If I remember correctly, Kazumi-kun broke a few rules for you, didn't he Kaito?"

"That wasn't my fault." Kaito shot a sour look at his mother. "Kazumi-san didn't need to do that."

"I'm sure you wouldn't have figured it out on your own. You wouldn't be half the magician you are today if he hadn't come by and taught you as Motoyasu-san was teaching him. He was so young at the time. If you ask me, he still looks young. He's doing shows of his own still, isn't he?"

"Yeah. I haven't heard from him since he had that talk with me and I slipped him the idea of getting Nanae-san to contact Mouri-san. He didn't mention what happened so I'm sure Kudo-kun helped him figure out what had happened. I was going to ask about what had been happening with him, but he didn't bring it up, and he was having enough trouble at the funeral that I wasn't going to bother him."

"Kudo-kun?" Ai and Saguru both spoke up at the same time, voices level but reaching a louder pitch when spoken together. Kaito laughed.

"Yeah. I told you that Kazumi-san's mentor had died, but we knew he was killed. He asked me to help him so I told him to ask Mouri-san for help. I had to figure that Kudo-kun would be with him, and because Kazumi-san had helped me with a little favor last time, he knew who they were."

"Why in the world would you get an acquaintance of yours to meet with Kudo-kun?"

Kaito rolled his eyes. "They were magicians, not thieves, you idiot. What harm could it do? I made sure that Nanae-san had a reason to contact him anyway."

Saguru sat back, feeling foolish. Of course there shouldn't be a problem with Kaito seeking Shinichi's help, but that didn't change that fact that Saguru found it strange. For a second, he wondered if Shinichi knew if that particular case he worked on had been fed to him by the sneak.

"Out of curiosity," Ai spoke up again, seeming interesting in what the magician had to say. "What favor was it that you asked of this person?"

"You mean, did I turn him into a criminal because I needed help? Of course not. I just told him he needed to palm a card for me. A magician as skilled as him..." Kaito spoke his next works quietly with a dark look at his mother, "considering he taught me how to perfect it...he would have noticed when I acted. He just had to pretend to be surprised. I took care of the stealing. If it's any consolation, Kudo-kun found me out, and I had to give it back. Couldn't have been what I was looking for anyway."

Kaito's eyes widened, and he sat back as well, though the others in the room hadn't missed his words or his sudden shift in demeanor.

"What is it that you're looking for?" Saguru asked, trying to make the question sound light.

"Nothing. Forget I said anything. Anyway, you're going to need to get on the plane with me anyway. You're mom can't bring you home. A friend of a friend has agreed to come with us and let you borrow a passport. The thing is, like it or not, you're going to have to go as a girl. If you'd give me more time, I could fake one for you. As it stands, I'm sure you and Kudo-kun could find some way to sneak you back home if you run off to him, so this will have to do."

That successfully derailed Saguru's train of thought. "I am not going to be passing as a girl."

"You don't really have much choice in the matter. Ayano's a girl and it's not like we can change her passport. Nanae-san is actually going to come with us so that they don't have to check into the passport details. She's getting the tickets as we speak and Kazumi-san's going to watch Ayano so that we can go."

"Again, I am not going as a girl."

"Then how are you expecting to leave, your own passport?"

Saguru was about to speak up and say that he would try the drug again, but that was to be used only in cases of emergency, and this certainly didn't qualify. He was being selfish. Let him be though. Kaito would have to return sooner or later, and he could get used to life in England again, growing up if he must, if Ai couldn't find an antidote. That still didn't mean that he would be traveling as a female.

He thought for a little longer. He certainly wasn't going to wait. He had to guess it would take a while to get a fake passport made. It wasn't like an I.D. Even if it was, Saguru didn't think he was willing to go that far past the law in order to get home. So really, there wasn't any option.

"Very well, but I will not stand for any teasing while on the trip. I will not wear girl's clothes and I will be diligently ignoring you during the plane ride."

"Noted," Kaito laughed. "Thought that a little insult to your pride would get you back to normal. I don't know what happened, like I said several times already, but you've been acting weird. I apologized, didn't I? It's the same as it was before."

"Yeah, well." Saguru spoke his next words softer. "Maybe I was being a fool before. Tell your friend that I'll pay her back for the tickets."

"She's got... maybe you can pay her back for yours. I'll pay for hers and mine."

"Kuroba-kun. You don't have much money. I've seen some of the stuff you buy to get through heists. You're riding on little more than pocket change to me. I can pay. If it eases your guilt, you can remain behind and this won't be an issue."

"Or you can just shut-up and go along with it. I said I'd pay for myself and Nanae-san, so don't worry about it. I have some money still."

"I've been living in this house for weeks now. Your mother works afternoons on the weekdays and you go to school. What money could you have to spare for a plane trip? It's not cheep, especially last minute flights. I am the one going home and, if I can't shake you, you then are my responsibility. I can at least pay for your ticket to repay your mother for letting me stay."

Saguru bowed his head to the woman. She smiled back with a small bow of her own. Saguru would miss her, but he had his own mother to go home to. This house and this family weren't his to intrude upon anymore. It wasn't so much that he wanted to get away from Kaito, more like he wanted to stop owing the magician and his family so much. He disliked it. That, and he couldn't stand Kaito any longer. The teen didn't follow logic. Kaito didn't run from danger. He went against the police only to get shot at by those worse than Kid was. He helped him out even though Saguru was on the side of those police officers that he was so fixated on, as Kid, to have running in circles. For heaven's sake, Kaito and Aoko were best friends. The idiot went over to the Inspector's house on a weekly bases before he'd come along. That wasn't how someone spending their nights as a thief was supposed to act, and trying to figuring out why left Saguru with more questions than before he'd started.

He just wanted a break from it all. Just a small one. He'd been dealing with enough over the past weeks that something was bound to tear him apart if he didn't do something that he could control.

Before Kaito could fight back his claim, Ai grabbed onto his shirt and shook her head when the magician turned to face her. "His family has the money for it and yours doesn't. This isn't something that needs to be repaid and you haven't asked for it. I know it's hard for you to except something like this, but put up and deal with it. You." Ai waited until he was facing her and the magician had turned to sulk. "As much as you want to run away, distance can never separate you from them. You'd better watch yourself when you go home. If either of you are caught, I'm sure they wouldn't have a hard time covering up the death of a child and a known fugitive."

"As if I'd get caught," Kaito growled under his breath. Saguru nodded at Ai. He'd already come to understand that these people were dangerous and it was all too possible that they knew who he was and were watching his house in England. It was also possible that they weren't. If he hadn't gotten a good look at them, they didn't know his face well either. He held onto her warning anyway. He was not going to misjudge his situation any longer.

Ai pushed herself away from the table to where Kaito's mother had already started cooking. She moved the chair over to the stove where he could smell unions cooking.

"She'll be here after breakfast, just so you know. I'm sure you don't have much to get ready before we leave." Saguru wasn't at all disappointed that Kaito's words sounded just as disheartened as his own.

He sat back and waited while the girls cooked, watching Ai out of the corner of his vision every now and then. She either didn't know he was looking at her or didn't care. As much as he'd heard from her about who she was, he was surprised to find her so happy here. Ai didn't seem the type of person to let people in. She'd pushed him away enough to get her point across. Yet she'd accepted Kaito nearly on sight, and his mother even sooner. For a while, he thought it was because they were both criminals, in a way. They both had secrets. But then, why befriend him after all this time? Ai hadn't spoken harshly to him, even though he'd spoken against Kaito. She's struck back at him in the past for that reason alone, but now she seemed to accept him. He couldn't understand how it was that someone, so like himself in heritage and attitude, could be so attached to the idiot who was currently playing - by the sound of the beeping - Tetris on his phone.

After the food, they all sat at the table. Saguru watched Kaito for a second before giving in.

"If you're going with me, don't you need to pack?"

"I'm always packed" Kaito mumbled, still sounding defeated even though he was getting what he wanted. "With what I do, I've always got a bag stashed away if I need it. You should go get your stuff though."

"I have clothes at home. I don't need to bring anything. If my mother gave them away, I can easily get new ones."

"Hm."

No one said anything after that. There wasn't much to say. Saguru was the one leaving them. He was the one breaking apart the click they had made together, through whatever circumstances had come about. It was like leaving behind his own family, this one closer to him than most of his actual blood relatives. When Kaito finally went back home, Saguru would lose his last ties to them. Secretly, he wished that if he got himself back together, Kaito would bring him back. But that was selfish. He couldn't do that. Not to them. Not again. If he were to come back, he'd do it to help Shinichi. If he were to be killed... he didn't even want to think about that. Not now, when most of his confidence was gone and all he could think about were the worse possible outcomes.

There was a knock at the door that made him jump. Whoever it was didn't wait for one of the Kurobas to answer it before they came in of their own accord. There was some chatter between at least two people, one male and one female, before a man in his twenties walked into the kitchen, hair in Kaito's own fashion but cut short enough to mark an obvious difference.

"Been a while." The man leaned against the door and started at them. "I see you've been busy."

"As if you'd need to come here to know that." Kaito did what he usually did, and his mood changed significantly. He stood up and shook the man's hand. "Kazumi-san, I didn't think you'd come along. I thought you were going to stay home and watch Ayano-chan."

"Alas, I couldn't. Staying in that big house alone with only Ayano is too boring. I thought I'd spend some time here until Nanae-san came back. Also heard you were heading out of the country again." The man raised an eyebrow and Kaito shook his hand.

"I told you I won't. That was a one-time-only thing, and that was only because I had a keen friend of mine there. Besides, it has nothing to do with that."

Saguru's eyes widened. This man knew. After Kaito had shot down the idea of Kazumi being a criminal, he had come to think of the man as another person used by Kaito in his games with the police. But this man knew that Kaito was Kid, though he didn't use as many words. He had just offered his help to the younger magician too.

"I thought you'd ask if you needed me. I just had to be sure." Kazumi turned to the others in the kitchen with a funny look on his face. "I'm not going to have to help watch the other children as well, am I?"

"No, the boy's coming with me. Ai-chan," Kaito nodded at the girl. "Will be staying here. Don't treat her like a child, neither of us like that very much."

"Got it." Kazumi didn't even ask why. Saguru couldn't understand it. This man was so much older than Kaito and yet he was taking orders from his as if it were the opposite. Looking at the two of them next to each other, it was almost like seeing Kaito years from now when he was an adult.

Kazumi noticed his glances and smiled. "Yeah, we look alike, don't we? That's why I used him in my show a few months ago as my double. He needed a little make-up, but that was the easy part. Having sensei help was impossible and Yuji-kun was too inexperienced to do the performance, even if he hadn't canceled on me."

Kaito grinned though Saguru couldn't get a good look at it because of the angle he was at. "That was fun."

"Yes, it was. Again though, if you had stuck to the script, I wouldn't have had to worry about those very irate patrons in the front row."

"The rest of them liked it."

Kazumi laughed, finding Kaito's lighthearted recollection of his actions entertaining. Saguru found it quite the opposite. If he'd gone to a magic show, which he never had, though he'd been meaning to after Kid came along, he'd want to enjoy it, not be victim to one of Kaito's practical jokes.

"Enough reminiscing." An older woman with short brunette hair parted off to the side and large blue eyes walked in, purse dangling down her arm. "You caught me at a good time for now, but I have to be back by tomorrow night for a performance. If you'd given me some warning, I may have been able to get better tickets." The woman handed two slips of paper to Kaito as he looked them over.

"Nine o'clock. We have some time."

"It's not a good habit to arrive late. And a lousy one if you plan on making a flight out. Hello, Chikage-chan." Kaito's mother and this new woman nodded to one another.

"Right." Kaito placed the tickets in his pocket and quickly kissed his mother on the cheek. "I'll see you when I see you."

"Take care of yourself Kaito, and call me if you need anything."

"Will do." Kaito saluted her with two fingers and a wink. "Ai-chan, I've got Yakamoto's number in my room. Call him if you need to get in."

"You assume I'm still going to try and help even with you gone?"

"You were helping before I told you that I knew what you were doing and had time to help you, weren't you? It's not any different now."

"As long as your mother can drive me back, I have no problem with it." Ai sighed, looking unhappy now that Kaito was leaving. "Try not to be gone too long. As much as you think it won't, your absence will cause problems here. Be gone too long and the school will take action. Not to mention that little friend of yours will have her daddy snooping around."

"I know. Oh, right, Aoko." Kaito smacked his forehead. "I forgot to call her."

"I'll inform them that you're on a trip out of town for some reason or another," Kaito's mother assured him. "Don't worry about it."

"Thanks." Kaito went back and kissed her again. "You're the best, Mom. Really."

"If that's true, why do you keep lying to her?" The words stumbled out of his mouth before Saguru had time to comprehend them. Kaito scowled, placing a hand on his mother's shoulder.

"I'm not anymore, thanks to you. I talked to her last night, but you wouldn't know that because you wanted to do things your own way. Well, I'm not letting you do that anymore." Kaito placed a hand on Ai's head as she gave him a dirty look that didn't hold any anger. "Ai-chan knows too. Does it really matter?"

"I guess not." Saguru got off his chair and headed out of the room, turning the corning and spotting a young girl, maybe a year younger than he was, with brunette hair lighter than her mother's, held back by a headband. She was currently leaning against the wall and looking as if she were going to fall asleep. When Saguru faced her, her eyes shot open and she back away from him before smiling and offering her hand.

"Hi," she said enthusiastically, more so egged on by lack of sleep than any excitement. Saguru nodded his head in reply. She smiled more before leaning back against the wall and letting her legs collapse below her so that she could sleep. Kazumi turned and picked her up in his arms.

"I'll make sure she gets some sleep."

"Thank you Kazumi-san. I should return in a few hours."

Kaito walked out and he saw the magician shoot the older one a smile.

"What?" Saguru asked, curious.

Kaito shook his head. "Ayano-chan had been kidnapped and nearly murdered. I was wondering how Nanae-san was dealing with it. Seems she thinks of you like a son, just like you think of her as a mother."

"Yes," Kazumi's smile matched Kaito's. "And I appreciate it. If you need anything again, feel free to ask. After what you've done for me, I feel my little look-the-other-way trick wasn't much of a repentance. Then again. I know you hate it if someone feels indebted to you, so let's just say I'm a friend offering my help again if you need it in the future."

"I'll think about it."

"Meaning this will be the last time I hear from you for a while, at least for business. You're going to need help sooner or later, and when the time comes, I hope you don't fear of asking for it. Everyone needs help sometimes, even you."

Kaito shook his head again, smile more strained. "No."

"Very well. Any reason then, Kaito-kun. I don't see much of you these days. There were times when I couldn't shake you before, as we were growing up. Don't let your duties get in the way of your friendship, if you can help it. You have so little of them."

"Here we go again." Kaito rolled his eyes. "Who cares if I don't want to be friends with the whole world? I'll come to you if I need you. What has gotten you so worried? You weren't nagging me like this before."

"I don't know." Kazumi's eyes became vicious, easing up seconds later. "I'm just worried about you."

"Don't be. I have... I have people who know. I'll be fine. You worry about taking care of Nanae-san and Ayano-chan."

They nodded to one other in terse agreement. Both of them smiling at the same time as Kaito turned and headed out the door with Saguru following close behind, Nanae having already headed towards a small car waiting outside.

"What was that about?" Saguru asked, once Kazumi was no longer in sight.

"Nothing, just a friend giving some good advice. Maybe one day I'll learn to listen."