A/N:

Warnings:
Strange English, OOCness

Uploaded: 2012-05-10
Revised: 2014-09-15
Chapter rating: K+
Words: 2,300

Chap. 25
In Love and War

Shinichi sighed contently as he sipped on his coffee and glanced down to his open math books. The detective was sitting in a café dressed up as the male persona with brown hair, Conan's glasses and a plain face that people would quickly forget. He was still annoyed over the time it took him to put it on and he despised the feeling of it covering his face, but there was no helping it; he just had to get used to the feeling. Shinichi smiled as his target a block away made his classroom explode in different colours as school ended.

The detective was now entirely certain that he knew the identity of Kaitou KID; no one was as wild and free as him. Shinichi had been chasing the thief for enough time so that he immediately recognised his movements from the first time he saw how the other teenager laughing dodged the mop, which was swung at him by a girl looking a lot like Ran. Kuroba Kaito and Nakamori Aoko, childhood friends; they behaved a lot like he and Ran had done once, in what felt like an eternity ago and a completely different life. He found himself wondering from day to day if Ran would ever forgive him or even talk to him after what he'd done; it hadn't exactly been a nice 'break up'.

Shinichi became a bit downcast when he first saw how Kuroba and Nakamori interacted; he'd thought that they were together, until the girl had given the detective Hakuba Saguru a quick kiss, behind the magician's back, before entering the school grounds. He'd been delighted that Kaitou KID was still single; that would give him the opportunity to make the thief his. The Detective of the East had decided that if Kaitou KID wasn't, like him, he would still look after the crazy thief, for as long as his heart wanted him to. Shinichi had been holding the same place at the café day after day simply because it gave him the best vantage point over the school and the classrooms that the Ekoda High, class 3B used. It had almost been an entire week and he'd already become a regular at the café and the waiters brought him his coffee as soon as he entered at half past seven, half an hour after the café opened, and he immediately opened his books to study.

The magician entered the school some days before Shinichi came to the café to prepare a prank for the class; a magic show that Shinichi loved to watch, but he still understood the annoyance that the magician must cause his classmates with his pranks. Sometimes small ones, like picking locks and teasing the girls and sometimes big pranks, which was always interesting to the detective. Shinichi had seen the magician pretend to fall out of the window from the third floor, almost scaring his classmates to death, only to show up behind them laughing, but Shinichi wasn't sure if it actually had been a prank. The look on the magician's face when he jumped into the window and fell as he avoided the mop had been one of honest surprise. However, his classmates had been certain that it was one and it had been a bit too distasteful if it was one, which made his entire class turn on him.

Kuroba hadn't managed to run away before Nakamori had swatted him hard with a mop, making him stumble before he ran away followed by a horde of angry classmates. The teacher had even sent him to the principal where he'd received a harsh scolding, but the magician also did big harmless pranks, like when the entire classroom had become dark and was only lit up by thousands of small blue lights that soared through the air and the falling of what seemed like sparkling snow. Shinichi would love to see that particular trick closer; it must have been really beautiful from close up since it struck everyone with awe and even the teacher seemed to love it.

The detective was seated behind the booth that Nakamori, Hakuba and Kuroba usually visited so he could eavesdrop on their conversations and orders. Going by their conversations, Shinichi had deduced that Hakuba had figured out that Kuroba Kaito was Kaitou KID, since he sometimes hinted it to the magician. However, Kuroba had somehow managed to get some kind of alibi for a couple of heists, and Hakuba had no hard evidence, which was a relief to Shinichi.

The detective looked up as the bell on the door rang and he smiled as he watched a young man enter; the teenager which he was currently stalking. Shinichi kept an eye on the magician as he kept counting. Kuroba bowed for the waitress with a mischievous grin and conjured a flower in his hand, which he happily handed to her. The bell rang again and Shinichi glanced up; Nakamori and Hakuba had arrived, they were quietly chatting between themselves. Suddenly a pair of twinkling indigo eyes were in between his eyes and the couple, and Shinichi blinked.
"Hi!" the magician grinned as he leaned over the back of the padded seats, "you're here a lot, aren't you?" Shinichi smiled amused; he was going to have a conversation with Kaitou KID's real identity.
"Hi, yes, I am," Shinichi answered and loved how those eyes, for the moment, looked only at him. "My name's Anami Daichi, what's yours?"

"I'm Kuroba Kaito, it's nice to meet you Daichi-san!" the thief beamed and Shinichi felt his heart begin to beat faster; he didn't even want to look away from those mesmerising eyes. Kuroba Kaito was definitely Kaitou KID. "How come you're always here to study, and not in school or something?" Shinichi picked up a small ounce of suspicion from his eyes; that was bad, the thief was more paranoid than he was.
"I like it here," the detective shrugged and saw how the thief's company took their seats, "they have the best coffee." He saw that the suspicion disappeared as it was replaced by a sealed poker face.

"How come you are here Kuro-, Kaito-san?" Shinichi asked smiling and tried to hide his own nervousness from using the thief's first name.
"I love their chocolate cake!" the thief grinned widely and Shinichi wanted nothing else but to laugh; he knew how much Kuroba loved chocolate. The next Valentine's Day he would make him a cake with twice as much chocolate as the one they had at the café and leave it anonymously to the thief, although, he might not eat it if he thought it was poisoned.

Shinichi chuckled at the thought of Kaito's confused face when he received a cake anonymously and the thief looked bemused.
"What's so funny?" he asked and Shinichi shook his head.
"It's nothing that anyone else would understand; it's just funny to me," the detective sighed, still smiling, "you know, it's strange." Shinichi was content that he'd managed to catch the thief's full attention, even though most of the attention was given to him because the thief was cautious. "Even though people might know you, they wouldn't understand the actions you take to protect the ones you love." Shinichi watched how a flood of emotions flashed past the other's eyes and absentmindedly wondered if the thief was aware that his poker face broke, or this time wasn't sealed enough to deceive the sharp eyes of the detective.

Shock, horror, worry, pain, sadness, suspicion, loneliness, understanding and then ultimately Shinichi could see the darker wisdom of the path he'd been forced to take; the same kind of gleam that he'd seen that police officers could get in their eyes once they'd seen much of the criminal world. The thief wasn't as pure and innocent as he once was, or which he wanted to go back to. The magician had seen the terror and pain people put each other through; not to the extent the detective had, but still enough to change him, and Shinichi understood.
"It's a strange world we live in, and it's amazing that some people have the ability to make it brighter," Shinichi folded his books and readied himself to leave, knowing that he'd ruined that disguise.

Kaito was listening to the man's voice; he recognised it, and those warm, dark blue eyes were like a burning ray that kept him locked in place. The man before him was familiar in some strange way and he watched in silence as Daichi placed money on the table. The teenager was smiling at him as he walked up to their table.
"The world consists of more than just black and white," Daichi said as he snapped his fingers and was holding one black and one white rose, "it's full of interesting gray shapes and shades." The student twirled the stems together as he spoke and then placed the flowers in front of him. Daichi gave him a last sad smile and left. Kaito gaped as he watched Daichi walk towards the restrooms just outside the café; that was one of the strangest encounters he'd ever had with another person, including Snake, and he recognised the particular phrasing from somewhere.

"Who was that?" Aoko said and blinked; equally as confused as both Kaito and Hakuba. "He was a magician, right?" she asked and Kaito shook his head befuddled.
"The world consists of more than just black and white. It's full of interesting gray shapes and shades," Hakuba mumbled with a frown and stared at the magician, who stared back.
"Say that again," Kaito demanded when he glanced to Daichi as the student entered the restrooms and Hakuba reluctantly did as he was told. Kaito twirled the roses in his hand and stared at them as he listened to the phrase again. A memory flashed past his mind; he was holding two roses, one white and one black, they were twirled together. A cold breeze told him that the summer had ended and the winter was approaching; it was in the beginning of September. He was standing in his Kaitou KID regalia on a rooftop somewhere in Tokyo.

He could suddenly see Tantei-kun standing in front of him. The child turned to him with wise blue eyes; he looked much older with those eyes, almost ancient, like he'd experienced more of the world than anyone could ever dream of. He had a black rose in his chest pocket and one hand was gripping into the railing.

"The world consists of more than just black and white, it's full of interesting gray shapes and shades," Kaito had nodded at the child's words.
"That's very wise for a child, Tantei-kun." The small child had smiled a bit sadly at his comment.
"I'm more different than you think I am, and I am definitely not what you think I am."

"Ah!" Kaito cried out loudly, making his company jump and flew up from the seat like he'd been shot out of a cannon. Hakuba stared after him as he disappeared into the restrooms after almost crashing into someone who looked a lot like the magician himself. The Kuroba-look-alike had a facemask covering his mouth and nose and he glanced at the restroom door before walking away, a little too fast to not be suspicious in the eyes of the blond detective.
"He'll come back," Hakuba sighed as he glanced down to the untouched cake.
"I wonder what that was all about," Aoko mumbled worriedly and stared at her friend's empty seat; it wasn't like Kaito to not notice chocolate just in front of his nose.

Shinichi swallowed nervously as he glanced to the door; he had barely made it away from the thief and wasn't ready to answer the many questions that Kaito had quite yet. He had to prepare answers for him, like he'd done when he 'broke up' with Ran, but better this time and more thoroughly. Shinichi frowned as he walked away; what he'd done was stupid and dangerous. Why did he do something that dangerous? What would have happened if KID had remembered exactly from where that phrase was? The detective felt bad as the magician exited the restroom with a thoughtful expression and then glanced around.

Kaito was pouting as he took his seat and dug into the chocolate cake.
"Didn't find him," Hakuba stated and Kaito shook his head.
"Who was that? Did you know him?" Aoko asked and the magician shook his head again, just before he swallowed the hot chocolate in one gulp.
"Daichi is so mean!" he complained as he slammed the empty cup hard into the table and continued to eat his cake with an impressive speed. "What he told me; 'gray shapes and shades'. That was told to me in private by a friend long ago, and now that friend is gone. He even had the same kind of glasses," Kaito pouted and Hakuba raised a confused eyebrow. The detective wasn't stupid; he understood that Kaito was talking about his Kaitou KID persona, and if that in itself wasn't strange he didn't know what was.
"Was that friend a bit younger than you?" he asked avoiding and the thief nodded. Hakuba smiled; he'd found a way to get Kaito to talk about Kaitou KID, assuming that the 'friend' was Edogawa Conan.

Shinichi sat in the middle of the café and watched how a frustrated Kuroba Kaito entered and asked the waitress about Daichi. The detective was dressed as a woman by the name of Fujimine Mizuki. He drank the horrible herbal tea that they said was good for his 'soar' throat and watched the thief through his lightly tinted sun glasses. He felt bad about upsetting Kaitou KID, but it only confirmed his suspicion and he got to watch the thief one last time before he would have to leave the café permanently. The thief had finally sent out a heist note and after the fake heist the real Kudou Shinichi would come back.
'One day, Kaito,' the detective thought and watched how the thief ordered a chocolate cake with ice cream to ease his mood, 'one day we'll speak. You and the real me and I'll show you that you can like me. If not as a partner, then as a friend.'