Disclaimer: Aoyama-sensei's.

Thank you for the reviews/alerts/favorites! You guys are too nice to me *sniff* XD

So no one said outright "I'm bored." so thank you for that, really. *Heart* I'm still going to work on picking up the pace in this-time for action and fluff…*looks down at this chapter*… I'm working on it don't worry…

Thank you for reading!

Chapter Twenty:

Name

"Conan-kun!" The shrunken detective heard Ayumi call out to him. "What are you doing? Come on! You should play too!"

Conan turned and shouted back. "Okay! I'm coming!"

However, as he was about to join everyone, he saw a familiar figure walking past.

The person seemed to recognize him too because he stopped and waved at Conan. "Hello, you are that boy from the other day, aren't you?"

Conan changed his direction and walked up to the other man. "Yes, hello again, oji-san! Where are you headed to?"

The man was the middle aged man with blonde hair and green eyes. He had on a simple gray suit and had a suitcase in his hand.

"I was just on a simple errand for a friend of mine." The man smiled and looked up at the playing children, who had switched to playing ball. "Are those your friends?"

Conan shrugged. "Not really, I just met them today. What was your errand about?"

"Now, now. You shouldn't ask too many questions, boy. Besides, it's just adult things. Be glad you don't have to worry about things like that." The man ruffled Conan's head.

"Oohhhhh I see…" Conan hummed.

"Watch out!" Genta shouted over as a ball was headed towards their direction, but it stopped short at Conan's feet.

"Conan-kun! Pass the ball over here!" Mitsuhiko waved as if to clarify where 'here' was.

"Okay!" Conan waved back to show he understood then he pulled his foot back and kicked the ball. However, the ball went flying upwards and Conan fell to the ground. When the ball came back down, it hit the man's arm, making him drop his suitcase and its contents to spill onto the ground.

"Waahh! I'm so sorry, oji-san!" Conan rushed to the revealed contents. "Here, let me help you!" He quickly picked up the papers, however they were snatched out of his grasp by the man.

"Oh no. It's fine. I got it." The man smiled at the shrunken teen then swiftly picked up the rest.

Once done, he waved them goodbye. "Anyways, I should be going. Nice to talk to you again…Conan-kun."

Conan looked after him with a pensive face…before the papers were taken away, Conan was able to read one thing written across them.

His name.

"What was that about, earlier?" Kaito asked as he and Conan went back to the detective agency.

Conan shrugged. "I had an off kick."

The magician wasn't buying it. "Okay, that'll be our cover story. What's the real one?"

The small detective sighed. "Yesterday I ran into him with Hattori and Jodie-sensei. He acted kind of strangely and Jodie-sensei seemed to have recognized him from somewhere. I just wanted to see some more information about him."

"Want me to look into him?" Kaito offered.

Conan quickly shook his head and raised his hands. "Ah, no, no. It's fine. I already saw the papers he had in his briefcase. It's only some work papers. Normal things. I don't think he is a threat. Jodie-sensei might have been some old friend of his or something."

Kaito wasn't satisfied. "But what if he brought those papers on purpose in case you do see them? What if he was trying to throw you off his trail? Wouldn't it be better if I look into him?"

Conan shook his head again. "No, I don't think that is necessary. He seems harmless. It'll be fine. If something suspicious happens then we'll see." He stopped then because they were outside the detective agency. "Well, see you tomorrow…maybe. Since I played with them today, the Detective Boys should be happy for a few days…" Conan trailed off, uncertain.

Kaito laughed. "They are a couple of tough kids."

"Yeah…anyways, bye." The small teen waved and headed inside.

"Bye! I will see you tomorrow! I'll stop by your school again!" Kaito waved cheerfully.

Once Conan was insides however, the cheerful act was dropped and Kaito stood there looking up at the building with a contemplative expression.

Later that night, when everyone was asleep, Conan crept down to the office. He sat at Kogorou's desk chair, his back facing the windows. He couldn't sleep well, too many thoughts going around his mind.

If his name being on that paper was because that man was part of the Black Organization, well, things were getting really dangerous.

Conan chuckled dryly. 'As if they weren't dangerous before…' He took out the folded paper that he had put inside his pajama pants.

That small piece of paper that had exactly 29 letters, 7 words, printed on it. So short yet, it held more meaning behind it then the shrunken detective would have liked it to have.

It was a threat as much as a greeting…and Conan was worried. What had he done wrong? So far he hasn't been on the Black Organization's radar, excluding Vermouth. He was careful…he made sure that his name was kept out of the papers. Edogawa Conan's name was getting a bit frequent, probably mostly because of his interaction with Kaitou KID, but that itself wasn't enough to put him together with Kudou Shinichi.

Conan sighed and clutched the paper a bit tighter in his hands. What can he do?

"What's that you got there, Meitantei?"

Conan jumped a bit in his seat at the soft whisper. He then turned around slowly, already expecting who it was.

Sure enough, there was Kaito casually sitting on the window sill.

'How did I not hear the window opening?' Then again, Conan wasn't really surprised considering it was Kaito. "Umm…hi. I thought you said you'll see me tomorrow…"

Kaito's face was blank of emotion, but the detective could practically see the waves of disapproval from him. The magician got off the window sill and walked around the desk and sat at the table between the two couches. Now he was partly covered by the shadows. Only the flat line his mouth made was seen of his face.

Conan was able to see the magician's shoulder move up then down once. "I came a bit earlier than planned…You never answered me. What's that you got there?" The voice was short and clipped.

Conan sighed. "Look-"

"No YOU look." Kaito's suddenly angry voice was louder than the quite whispers they were talking in, but not loud enough to wake the sleeping people upstairs. The voice then calmed some, but suppressed anger seeped through. "I don't get it. Why would you keep this to yourself? Do you think I'm not capable? I can HELP you, damn it. I've been involved with them longer than you have. I may not have gotten as far, but I was able to keep my head on my shoulders and I deserve some credit. Didn't you say you would tell us as soon as something new came up? Why have you been hiding this?"

Conan couldn't see the magician's eyes, but he still avoided looking in Kaito's direction. "You don't get it. You may have been handling them okay, but this time it is just between me and them. They don't know you are Kaitou KID, but they know who I am. This proves it." Conan thrust the piece of paper onto the table. It didn't go very far from the detective, and it landed face down, but Kaito already knew what was written so it didn't matter. "And it wasn't like I was never going to tell you. Once I figured more of it out, then I would have. I just wanted more leverage on who exactly sent this to me."

There was silence for a long time. Conan slowly relaxed a bit, believing Kaito understood what he was trying to say.

*smack*

Conan was suddenly looking at the table, feeling a sudden sting on the back of his skull. His head was forced down with sudden force and the smacking sound echoed slightly throughout the office.

Another silence before Kaito spoke. "You are an idiot."

Conan didn't move despite the awkward position he was in. He just stayed there, head bowed, barely hearing the magician's carefully controlled voice.

"You think it's all about you. It isn't. You've helped me when it was just between them and me. Why can't you let me do the same?" Kaito's voice was slowly rising in volume, anger and betrayal became easier to identify. "We are supposed to be a team. I thought that when I found out about you and ghosts that we would work together. But we aren't. You going off and hiding important things because they are dangerous and because you 'want to find out more' isn't teamwork. It's you being stupid. You think everyone needs to be shielded? Do you think you can take on everything by yourself? You aren't so different then the rest of us! You can be hurt too!" Kaito took a deep breath; his voice was suddenly much quieter and Conan could barely hear him. "Can't you see I'm worried about you? You are reckless. And you don't know your limitations…and I already lost someone to them…I don't want to lose you too." Kaito's hand brought the detective's head up to look at him.

Conan met eyes that were full of determination.

"I'm not going to let you go off on your own anymore. I'm here to stay and you better get used to it." Kaito's eyes dared the detective to argue.

Conan blinked a few times…then a small and wry smile appeared on his lips. "You're right…I'm sorry, my bad."

Kaito dropped his hand from Conan's face and smiled back. "Next time I won't go easy on you. You'll get something much worse than a light smack to the head."

"You call that light?" Conan joked. He picked up the piece of paper that laid on top of the desk and put it back in his pocket.

"Well, it couldn't have been too light…then it wouldn't have penetrated that thick skull of yours."

Conan smirked. "I guess I deserved that one…"

Kaito raised an eyebrow. "You guess?"

"…fine. I was an idiot."

"Yeah. You really were…by the way you are the one that is going to tell Hakuba and Hattori." Kaito stuck his tongue out at the small teen.

"Hattori is going to kill me…" Conan sweat dropped.

"So is Hakuba. He gets pretty miffed when things don't go his way…make sure I'm there when you tell him," Kaito joked as he went to the window sill and looked up at the moon.

Another small silence covered the room; this one was shorter than the others.

"Hey…Shinichi?" Kaito's voice was soft again and almost timid.

Conan looked up at the magician. Kaito was still staring up at the moon and if the detective looked carefully, he was able to make out a small blush that adorned the magician's face. The light wind gently played with Kaito's hair as his voice was carried over to Conan. "I really mean it…you better tell me these types of things from now on…I'll find out eventually, but I rather be able to trust you to notify me…and that way I can worry and plan with you…"

The small teen was slightly shocked, but a small smile made its way onto his lips. "Yeah…I got it…thanks, Kaito."

Kaito blinked then looked over to the detective, wondering if he really heard correctly.

The mini smile and steady, certain, blue eyes told the magician that Conan was very much aware of what he had called him by.

Author's Note:

Sorry if Kaito and Shinichi were too OOC like...I really tried to keep them in character, but this was the best I could do.

I'm going to try to update around once a week like I was before, but no promises…

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