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Summary: In which Heiji has been found out, Kaito and Shinichi grab the files and Aoko and Ran return to the police station.

"What th' hell is goin' on?"

Heiji takes a step back, drops the hand carrying his phone to his side and lets out a strangled gasp, breath constricting as he glances over at the girl he has been in love with since he was a child. It feels almost like his heart is attempting to squeeze through the gaps of his ribcage, the valves constricting in a way that brings him nothing but pain.

"Kazuha," he breathes, pressing his thumb against the touch screen of his phone, ending the call without glancing down at the screen.

He keeps his gaze on Kazuha, searching her face for any reaction other than shock. How is he going to explain this… how can he possibly explain what he's doing in a short enough time to be able to convince her to not only keep his secret, but to let him continue?

"What are ya doin' back…?" He asks, glancing down to Kazuha's empty hands. He'd been so certain, so completely sure that she'd be down at the coffee shop long enough for…

"I forgot my bag…" Kazuha says, stepping forward and closing the door behind her. She leans against it, almost as if she's attempting to barricade them both inside and keep any other police officers out. "Heiji… what's goin' on?"

Heiji bites at his lip, running a hand through his hair. "N-nothing."

"Tha's a load'a crap." Kazuha whispers, eyes narrowing as she stares him down. "You ain't a liar Heiji, when ya lie it always shows on yer face…"

Not good, Heiji thinks, not good at all.

"I don't know w-what yer talkin' abou'." He stumbles over the words, goes to take a step forward, but hesitates at the expression on Kazuha's face. For a second, there is just faint horror - that he's been lying to her, hiding more than she could have expected - and then, it shifts to distrust and shock, puzzle pieces clicking into place.

"Oh god," she lifts her hand up to her mouth, stifles a gasp and shakes her head. Heiji isn't sure whether she's blinking away tears of anger or horror, but her eyes are wet and she's looking at him as if she doesn't know him. "Tell me ya didn't…"

"Kazuha-"

"You were talkin' to those escaped criminals," she whispers from behind her hands. Then, tearing her gaze away to look at the ground, she adds, "you helped 'em, didn't ya? Heiji have ya gone mad?"

Heiji takes a step forward, frown forming across his face. "You wouldn't understand."

Hell, Heiji isn't even sure if he fully understands - he'd knows that there's at least a small element of insanity to his actions, he shouldn't have helped break Kudo out… but he was on death row for crying out loud…

"Then explain it to me." Kazuha says, raising her head. She takes a step away from the door, crosses the space between them and glances up at Heiji - her glare is overwhelming, like flames licking at his skin, the heat burning him from the inside out. "Explain how you ain't completely insane."

"Kudo didn't do it." Heiji says, "and they were gonna kill 'im. He was framed."

Kazuha throws her hands up. When she speaks, it's with a raised voice, the volume bordering on a shout. "Where's yer proof, Heiji?"

Heiji frowns, glares back. "I looked into th' case myself idiot, I know he's innocent."

"Then why didn't ya get a' appeal on th' case? If he's innocent, then why did ya need to break 'im out?"

He takes a step forward, tells Kazuha to quit yelling. It's… The evidence he's put together is circumstantial, nothing that would hold in a court of law against fingerprints and lacking alibis. But there had been clues at the scene that had gone overlooked - he wonders whether Hakuba and the others have picked up on them when overlooking the case…

"Quit yellin'," Heiji hisses, "and jus' trust me on this, okay?"

"No wonder yer dad refused to let ya visit this Kudo guy," Kazuha says, reaching forward to aim a punch at his arm, "he's manipulated ya into thinkin' he's a good guy, an' not a serial killer."

That's - that's not true, Heiji tells himself. He'd… there had been truth to the conversations he'd had. Maybe Kudo was a little bit odd, and maybe he'd been thrown into solitary confinement because he'd had to protect himself through violence but - but Kudo wasn't a killer.

"He's not a serial killer!" He cries, and it feels almost as if his anger is burning, provoked by Kazuha's own fiery glare. "I know tha' he isn't!"

"You wanna know why yer dad told you not to visit this guy?" Kazuha spits, "It's 'cause ya look fer puzzles where there ain't any - ya can't believe tha' a detective is responsible for those deaths right? So ya mind made this fake case to make 'im out to be innocent."

Heiji takes a step forward, glares and looking down his eyes at Kazuha, he growls, "Kudo is innocent."

Kazuha flinches away, and like that, any anger Heiji feels is extinguished.

She…

"I'm not lettin' ya do this," Kazuha says, shaking her head, "they're criminals."

His stomach twists. Heiji doesn't know what to do - Kazuha just doesn't understand, won't understand because she's too focused on murders and is trying to rationalise things. For someone who believes in the supernatural, sometimes he thinks she's a little too close minded.

"Give me today," Heiji whispers, "give me today ta convince ya he's innocent. After tha', if you don't believe me… I'll turn 'im in myself."

They don't slam the door behind them, but it almost sounds like it when Kaito closes the archive door behind them, holding his breath as they wait to see whether anyone has seen them enter the room. Opposite him, Shinichi lowers the phone from his ear, glancing down at the screen with wide eyes.

"What…?" Kaito breathes, as Shinichi passes the phone over to him. The screen glows amongst the shadows, and he leans over to press the light switch.

Light illuminates the room, and for a moment, Kaito glances at the rows of bookshelves, each containing files from various old cases. There are four rows, roughly fifteen foot long, and it leaves him wide-eyed wondering how they'll be able to find Shinichi's case files within the thousands of files.

"Hattori hung up," Shinichi says, and he makes his way down the aisle on the far left, eyes skimming over the labelling system, never once stopping to examine anything. "It looks like we're on our own right now until he can call us back."

Kaito slips the phone into a pocket, racing after the ex-detective, escape plans spurring into life as they make their way to the end of the row.

"I see now what you meant when you told me you had to come along to find those files," Kaito says, falling into step beside Shinichi, "a simple search around would take too long."

Shinichi nods, "exactly," before dropping down to his feet, nails digging into the gaps between one of the tiles - he exhales, lifting it up, tile scraping the edge another.

Inside the gap, there is an aluminium case, a padlock sealing it, keeping it shut. Shinichi pulls it out, placing it in front of Kaito.

"Can you pick it?" he asks.

"I really don't think we have the time-" Kaito mutters. The look he receives however, forces him to glance down at the padlock, pointing it upward. He's always been quick with padlocks, and this one doesn't look like it's rusted at all. It shouldn't take any longer than ten seconds. "Yeah, sure, whatever."

Shinichi mutters a thank you, watches Kaito as he pushes his picks back into the lock, feeling the pins with the top pick, jiggling the lock until they're all firmly up. It takes five seconds, and then, he's pulling the lock off, passing the box back over for Shinichi to open.

Inside, there is a mobile phone, a case file and a set of keys. Shinichi pockets the phone and the keys, offers Kaito a sharp smile that begs him not to ask right now, before placing the case file - it's thick, at least a centimeter thick - on the inside of his suit, inside the pocket Kaito had incorporated into the disguise.

"Okay," Shinichi says, as he closes the box, placing the lock back on. "We need to get out of here."

"That would be nice," Kaito responds as the other teen places the box back into the hole, putting the tile back into place. "I do think maybe we're pushing our luck inside a police station."

"This was your entire idea!"

"I know that," Kaito says, standing back up and glancing over at the door, "and I'm not saying this isn't a good idea, but we're still pushing the limits and as fun as it is, I don't think we'd survive the ridicule of being caught the day after we've escaped prison."

"They'd probably throw us in solitary confinement forever," Shinichi sighs, "not that I'd complain."

Kaito shudders, remembers the image of Aoko staring across at him, her voice ringing in his ears. The movement is visible, shows in the quake of his shoulders and for a moment, Shinichi stops, offering him a small smile. It's meant to be reassuring, but it seems more like pity.

"Let's avoid being locked up again," Kaito says after a while, dragging himself to his feet. "Especially if it means no solitary."

At the door, Shinichi and Kaito share a look, offer sharp nods, before forcing themselves back outside into the corridor. Excitement curdles away into nervousness, and Kaito forces the door closed behind him, glancing up and down the corridor.

If there's anything he's learnt from his heists, it's that it is always easier to get inside a location, than out of it.

"Ran-chan!" Aoko shouts, climbing the steps from Kudanshita station to the street above, where Ran is waiting. "Aoko's so sorry for running late!"

The fact that they've still got over an hour until they're meant to all meet at the police station, leaves Ran wondering whether Aoko notices the irony of her own statement. Instead, she smiles, tells the girl that it's alright and they start their walk towards the police station.

Aoko had called her, asking if they could go to the station earlier today, before either Saguru or Hattori could arrive. Ran knows that she and Saguru have promised not to keep secrets, but she's accepted without telling him about it - she doesn't want to give Aoko any reason not to help them find Shinichi and KID.

"Come on!" Aoko says, offers a grin, and grabs onto Ran's wrist, pulling her along the street until they reach a taxi. And then, Aoko pushes Ran inside, offers another quirked smile and demands for the driver to take them to the police station.

The urgency makes Ran feel nervous.

As the taxi pulls away, Ran crosses her legs, turns to Aoko with a question in her voice. She says, "you never explained why you wanted to go to the station earlier."

Aoko leans back, rests her head against her seat. When she speaks, her previous smile has faded, leaving behind a blank expression not unlike the one's that Ran has read about in KID's case file. "Aoko wants to rewatch the psych files with Ran-chan, just with the two of us."

"Why?"

"She wants to rewatch the first interview, the one where Kudo-kun said working the case from two sides was exhausting," Aoko says, and she leans forward, her gaze meeting Ran's. Her irises dance with conviction - Ran purses her lips in response. "Aoko thinks that Kudo-kun was telling the truth."

Ran narrows her eyes, "Shinichi isn't a criminal."

"Aoko hasn't decided on that yet," she admits, shaking her head. "No, Aoko means that the case was exhausting to him. Aoko wants to rewatch the videos to see if he drops any hints as to why - Kudo-kun said it himself, he's leaving the case for whoever watches the recording."

A frown, Ran feels something fluttering in her stomach, although she's not sure whether it's nervousness or relief. In thinking that Shinichi was fully innocent… has she overlooked what he's been saying? Had he been leaving messages behind for people to look into…

"But… Surely he's leaving it up to the psychologist who was studying him… not for whoever was watching the video recording…?

Aoko bites her bottom lip, shakes her head. "He didn't keep full eye contact with the psychologist. Aoko noticed that he looked at the camera more often that he looked at her."

Ran hadn't notices that - in fact, she's pretty sure that none of them did. She and Hakuba had been so certain he was innocent, that they'd been focusing more on his words and overall body language. How they'd overlooked Shinichi's eye contact…

"Good find," Ran mutters, as the taxi pulls up to the pavement, the police station looming over them. "Let's head up to the computer then, shall we?"

"I thought ya said they were meeting ya at 10 o'clock," Kazuha asks, leaning forward over at the CCTV cameras. Heiji watches her from the corner of her eye, considers the sudden calmness in her voice, and turns to face the monitors. "But those two are here early."

Heiji watches, nervous, as Aoko and Ran walk in through reception, holding his breath. Then, his eyes flicker over to another camera, the outlines of Kuroba and Kudo in their disguises walking down the corridor.

Despite showing no outward signs of being on guard, Heiji can practically feel the paranoia they must be emitting.

"Yeah," Heiji says, pulling at the collar of his shirt - is it hot in here? Or is he just starting to feel the pressure?

"And this is Kudo an' Kuroba?" Kazuha asks, moving her finger to point up at the two criminals, as they take a left down the corridor, towards the staircase.

Heiji mutters a 'yes', and she frowns. "That's gonna be troubling. Tell 'em to stay away from tha' stairwell."

Heiji sends the text without thinking, before asking why.

Kazuha moves her finger down to another screen, the real Takagi and Sato standing in the entrance to the first floor's stairwell, talking to a twin-tailed traffic officer. Heiji feels his heart leap up his throat, tries to reach up to drag it back into his ribcage, and fails.

"Oh shit," Heiji mutters. "I need to tell them."

"Ya can't," Kazuha says, "'cause Nakamori-chan, and Mouri-chan, are on their way. They'll chase after 'em as soon as they can, an' it'll look weird if ya don't go with 'em."

The groan that seeps from his throat, is nothing short of helpless.

"Gimme ya phone," Kazuha says, leaning down to her bag and pulling out a pair of headphones. Placing them in her ears, she glares until the mobile is in her phone. She plugs them into Heiji's phone, unlocks it - she's known the passcode since before he'd even set it, somehow - and turns back to the CCTV footage. "Go help with th' search."

"Kazuha?"

"I promised I'd hear ya out didn't I?" Kazuha mutters, pulling up the records of his most recent calls. "I can't do tha' if yer in jail for abetting criminals. So… jus' for now, I'm on yer side."

The text message, Kaito thinks, offers no explanation, but since it's from Hattori, he accepts it and turns around before they can even set foot in the stairwell.

Minutes later, he overhears the outburst of 'they're in the what?', assumes the worst and realises that things aren't going as well as they could be. Glancing over at Shinichi, he offers his best poker face, a calm exterior to the worried paranoia he now feels.

And then, the phone goes off.

Kaito picks up, relief spreading through his bones as they rush down the corridor, back in the direction of the archives. How did they wake up so quickly - and even then, how have the detectives been discovered so early?

"Oh thank God," Kaito breathes, pulling Shinichi left, rather than right like the ex-convict seems to want to go, "you can get us out of here right?"

"I'll try."

The voice is not Hattori's.

Unless Hattori has suddenly learned how to mimic voices, Kaito is extremely certain that the voice does not belong to the detective. The accent is still Osakan, but that doesn't mean anything to him - in fact, it only makes him feel more confused. His friend Kazuha then…? But why would Hattori-

"Heiji ain't available," Toyama Kazuha says, and her tone is quiet, "but I ain't a bad alternative. Turn right."

"I'm not sure I understand what's going on," Kaito asks. He takes her direction anyway, making his way down the corridor with a quick gait, steps like thunder across the floor. "Where is…?"

"He's searchin' for ya, like th' others," Kazuha says. "I found out he was helpin' ya when I came back fer my bag, and he still owes me an explanation, but this once I'll help."

Kaito exhales. He still feels nervous, energy building in him at the sight of danger and the unknown, but there's also a source of comfort there - even if it's not Hattori, there's someone on the other side of the phone willing to help them. He still doesn't know whether he can trust Kazuha, but for now, they don't really have a better alternative.

"Left," Kazuha orders, and then, another left. A right and then the two of them falter when Kazuha tells them to take a right here.

"But that's a dead end," Shinichi mutters. "We can't go down this way."

"Yes ya can-" Kazuha breaks off, and there's muffled conversation, "this room has th' best wifi, I'm watchin' videos while I wait for Heiji… look, do ya want a headphone - ya look stressed, I've got th' best cat video- no… okay…" another pause, "head down that corridor."

Kaito does, and as they're walking down the door, he realises why she's sending him down a corridor with no stairwells or obvious exits.

"What was that about cat videos, miss?" Kaito asks, as they come to a stop at the end of the corridor. He taps his hand against the window, glances at the lock at the bottom and nods his head. It's a fairly low window, almost seems like a hidden fire exit for police officers who need it.

"I'm playin' on my phone, while talkin' to ya on Heiji's. If anyone asks, these headphones are for videos I'm watchin', not talkin' to you guys."

"I almost feel like you need an award." Kaito mutters, glancing at the window, Shinichi keeps guard opposite him, looks over at him as he works on the lock, phone balanced between his shoulder and ear. "That's downright devious."

"Heiji told me ta get ya there," Kazuha says, "an' he's on his way with Kudo's girlfriend… an' yours. Don't take it by surprise, when they notice ya, get out."

She doesn't offer anything else, the line going dead.

Kaito doesn't understand why they need to see him - wait… it clicks almost instantly. If Hattori is seen openly trying to catch Shinichi and Kaito, he loses any suspicion that might fall upon him - it's almost genius. He wonders who came up with it, Hattori, or his protector Kazuha.

It seems almost odd to think that Hattori, supposed kendo champion needs to be protected, but looking at his decision to work with two escaped criminals, breaking laws to help them, it almost makes sense.

"I get it," Kaito says, turning to Shinichi and offering him a small smile. It's weak, worried. "Shinichi, we're gonna get company pretty soon."

"Shit…"

Kaito agrees wholeheartedly, but keeps his mouth shut. The sound of footsteps leaves him moving away from the unlocked window, pulling Shinichi backwards so that he's standing nearer to him.

Hattori comes into view, and then Shinichi's girlfriend, Ran-chan, and then, finally - Aoko.

He offers a wave, a smirk that seems to satisfy the growing hysteria building in his stomach as she faces him. Kaito doesn't even know why it unnerves him to see her face, to watch the wide-eyed stare she gives him, watching it slowly transform into a frown.

"Ran-" Shinichi breathes from beside him, and he takes a step forward, as if to walk towards her.

"Shinichi!" Ran calls, and she's moving forward, in front of Hattori who's frozen, in front of Aoko who is simply staring. "Shinichi?"

More footsteps - it seems that Hattori has brought a legion of police officers along with him, steps sounding more like a death march leading him back to prison.

The sound brings him to life again, forces his attention away from Aoko, the curve of her eyebrows as she frowns, the openness of her body language, the way her expression is shuttered, a blankness not even he can read.

"Shinichi," Kaito says, raising his hand so that the teen can't move forward, "do you trust me?"

Shinichi glances at him, shakes his head ever so slightly, and responds, "with your mental state, not particularly."

He pushes Kaito's hand down, stares past him to Ran. Kaito feels a fleck of irritation throb at his forehead, wonders whether he can get them out before Shinichi's own love-sickness can get him caught, and decides that there is only really one thing to do.

"That's the spirit," he chirps, and pushes Shinichi from the window.

Ran surges forward, and Kaito uses this moment, to pull a piece of paper from his pocket, tossing it to the ground by her feet.

"Sorry to cut all the reunions short," he says, offers a quick, small bow, "but we've got somewhere to be."

As he throws himself from the window himself, Kaito tries to ignore Aoko's call of 'don't leave.'

(Like with everything else she ever seems to say, it's completely impossible.)

The author very much so enjoys comments.