AN: Guys this one's a sad one watch out

Aoko sat on her rooftop, counting the stars.

She counted one star, two stars, three stars, on and on and on forever.

There was a star in the sky for each person that died, each person that left behind others to grieve. Aoko felt like every single one of those stars was leaving her behind, and she was the only one left alive to count. She leaned against her chimney and kept counting. Four, five, six...

.

"Aoko-chan," Sensei said, "your father's in the hallway."

And so she left the classroom, left what remaining normality she had left in her life, and went out to the hallway. Her father was there, as Sensei had said, and he was crying and crying like a lost child and suddenly she was scared. Her father never cried, not even when her mom had a miscarriage two years ago. Her father never cried, not even when he lost his job. Her father never cried, not even when his parents were finally laid to rest.

But here he was, Nakamori Ginzo, newly-appointed officer of Ekoda, weeping his eyes out in front of his seven year old daughter who didn't have clue about what was going on. He led her out of the school, to their car, didn't say a word the whole time, but Aoko had a deep feeling what everything was about as she followed him out. She tried to ignore the knowing, apologetic looks the world was giving her, the knowing looks that would tell her that nothing was a lie and that this was her life.

"Tou-san, where's Kaa-san?" She whimpered, once they got into the car.

Ginzo stared at the steering wheel and didn't say a word. He gripped onto it and turned his knuckles white, and then he took a couple breaths. Finally, he closed his eyes and wiped away some of his tears. "There was a car accident, Aoko."

Wide eyes to fill her heart. She was crying, too, now but she didn't realize it or care.

"Kaa-san was in it, Aoko," Ginzo said, more for himself than for her. "She isn't coming back home."

.

Aoko glared at the moon, kicked at the shingles on her house. She wanted to scream but her voice was gone.

It wasn't fair.

It just wasn't.

But - but when was life fair, ever?

.

"And now for Kuroba Toichi's next trick," Konosuke Jii announced.

Aoko knew it was supposed to be an easy trick. She had seen him practice it a million times, when she had come in to his rehearsals with Kaito after school was over. She didn't know the trick but she knew it was easy. Her eyes traveled to Kaito, who was leaned back casually in his chair. He noticed her gaze and smiled at her, pointing at the stage. "That's my dad!"

"Bakaito! I know that already!" She harrumphed. He frowned at her and resumed watching the show. She knew he was proud. After all, who wouldn't be? Everyone was proud of their parents... just like she was proud of her Tou-san for being promoted to Inspector of the Kaitou Kid Task Force! But Kaito didn't have to be so annoying about it, anyway. He didn't have to go rub it into her face that his dad was some famous man while her dad was a nobody...

BANG

Her attention to the performance returned. Horror was everywhere, flames were everywhere, death was everywhere. A second of inattention, look where that had brought her. Her mind refused to acknowledge facts and her body refused to cooperate. From every direction there were people fleeing the theater, and all the way in the front there were orange flames and dark gray smoke licking the ceiling and marching towards her. Kaito, to her left, was not responding.

Kuroba Chikage was the one who rushed in and saved them both. Scooped both them up and ran away. Ran away from her husband, who she had vowed to never leave, through thick and thin, through sickness and health...

Nothing was the same after that.

.

Some clouds passed by overhead and blocked out the moon. Aoko, of course, was damn fine with that, but it suddenly was too dark for anything now.

She stood up and turned around to face the chimney. It had crumbled bricks as its defining features, and a sad cement lining that was outlined in the darkness of the night. She hugged it and pressed her cheek up to the cold brick.

A gust of wind blew through. It was fall.

Chills went through her body, tingles went up her spine.

.

"KID!" She called out to the empty roof. Her voice echoed around her.

Her face, her voice, her world was furious. KID had done it now. Five nights in a row, he had held a heist. Five nights in a row, neither her nor her dad had had any sleep. Five nights in a row, her father had failed to do his job. Finally, on this last night, he had received the call from his Superintendent. He was being let go.

This was two times, now, that he had lost his job.

Two whole times.

And they didn't even have enough money to fall back on.

Nothing would be okay.

"KID COME OUT RIGHT NOW," because she needed to yell at him and show him how it felt to have someone ruin your life.

She heard a groan, or a whimper. Something. It sounded like "Aoko."

And that was when she saw him, a crumpled, red mess, laying in the corner of the roof. He was clutching his chest, his legs were curled up in fetus position, and just everything about him was distinctly un-KID like. But she wouldn't feel bad for him, not now, not ever, because this was what it felt like for the past ten years of her life. She approached him, confidently and not at all cautiously, because she knew now that she was the Big Bad Wolf and he was Little Red Riding Hood. Somehow, in a literal sense.

"What the hell did you do to yourself?"

"...he foun ou..."

And then she saw the whole big picture, saw the whole little tiny person that was KID, and saw the even tinier whole little holes that he had in him. She backed away a bit. "Are - are you okay?"

His face turned towards her. She could see it all. Could see the broken monocle stuck in his eye, could see the blood falling out of his mouth, could see his eyebrows furrowed in pain, could see it all. His eyes weren't focused, one looking wherever and the other hidden and bloody and pierced with glass. She involuntarily fell to her knees.

She couldn't find the breath to scream.

He was gurgling on blood now and he reached his shaky hand out to grab hers. Even through the glove she could feel that he was cold. So cold. She dropped his hand out of fear, and gasped at the blood that had now transferred over to her palm.

Her head couldn't think but through experience her body knew what to do. She reached for her radio and spoke to everyone on the frequency that KID's been shot, KID's been shot a million times and that he looked like death, and that she was absolutely freaking out and that he probably needed an ambulance or something. Even before she finished her sentence she heard sirens approaching. Which was admittedly not a good thing, because that meant that they weren't there yet. Like she said before, KID looked like absolute death.

KID's hand was resting in front of her. It didn't move from where she dropped it. She looked at him, somehow, and mumbled out, "Sorry."

"s kay," He replied softly. He wasn't crying but she was. It seemed strange, since he was the one dying. He looked at her and choked out one last word. "Jii."

She didn't know what that meant, but she picked his hand back up and held it tightly. Because it felt like the right thing to do. She didn't stop looking into his eyes, even when he started blinking slowly, like a drowsy teenager going to sleep, and then finally closed his eyes for the last time.

She knew when he closed his eyes that he didn't die immediately, but she knew it happened soon after.

His hand was stone cold by the time the paramedics got there.

.

The moon seemed to have died as well, she noted as she made her way to the side of the roof.

She stared down at the ground below her.

Wondered what she was doing all the way up here, three floors and six feet above everyone she knew.

There was only one way to change that, wasn't there?

She jumped.