It started like so many other things: in a locked room. Except this one had no handle on the inside, and Kaito's least favorite tiny detective was grinning like the cat who'd caught the canary, having just shut the door. To be fair, Tantei-kun was the only one of his kind, so 'least favorite' didn't mean much, but still. It was the principle of the matter.

But it always came down to principles between the two of them, didn't it? Their similarities brought them together, ignited a rivalry, but their differences kept them firmly on opposite sides of the thin blue line.

"You really thought this was a good idea, didn't you." Kaito sighed, resigning himself to the fact that he'd be stuck here for a while, at least until his backup arrived.

Despite his hair being in wild disarray from the chase and missing his jacket, tantei-kun still managed to look smug as ever. "I've seen your prowess in picking locks, but locks are all designed to let people through under very specific circumstances. This room isn't."

"Ah, but I've gotten out of tighter situations." Kaito shrugged easily.

"Then why don't you escape right now?"

"Ah-ah, a magician never reveals his secrets!"

Tantei-kun's eyebrow twitched. "You can't."

"I never said I wanted to." He produced a white rose from his sleeve, twirling it idly. "See, the thing about detectives is that they draw major conclusions from minor details, and then make rash decisions based on those. That's how they fall into traps like this."

The detective recoiled, but still hadn't fully bought into it. "You couldn't have…?"

"Oh, I have quite a few contingency plans. Something is always bound to match up with one of them, which is why I always win."

Regaining some level of confidence, tantei-kun pushed up his glasses. "I seem to recall any of our clashes resulting in Pyrrhic victories for you at best . You may have planned for a lot of things, but you couldn't plan for me. So long as I'm here, I won't let you steal the Star Sapphire."

"Right, you're here too. Of course. I could just use you as a hostage when the police arrive. They're quite attached to you, you know, and putting up any resistance might blow your cover as a sweet and innocent little kid."

"You can try, but you might just end up with an entire division of police officers out for your blood."

"They can take a number. I've already got an entire task force hunting me!"

Tantei-kun gave him a Look that any mother would be proud of. "If I hadn't already used my tranquilizer dart..."

"You'd have better luck hurting me with that sharp tongue of yours. Honestly, you wound me. And here I thought we were rivals."

Ah. That had struck a nerve, although for what reason, it was hard to place. "It's my job to bring you down," tantei-kun said stiffly.

"I'd say take a number like everyone else, but you've already made your way up the list of people trying to catch me. You're up in the single digits, don't worry."

"Thank you?" Tantei-kun hesitated, trying to parse this information. His facial expressions shifted as he silently worked through it in his head, going from confused to offended to vaguely disgusted to tentatively hopeful, then settling on resolved. Really, someone needed to take a video of it and show it to him.

Oh, wait! He could do that right now!

Making a few subtle adjustments to his suit as he slid down into a cross legged position, Kaito smiled. "So, it looks like we're here for a while, I have a question. What is it between you and that girl, Ran?"

Now there was the reaction he was looking for. Tantei-kun cycled through a rather amusing kaleidoscope of emotions before settling on, "Stay away from her. She has nothing to do with this."

"Oh, I was planning to anyways. I just thought your reaction was amusing. You should have seen yourself!" With a flourish of his hat, Kaito presented him a small screen in which he could play back the video. "Look at all the fun expressions you make!"

"Is this some kind of joke to you?" he demanded. "Is mocking detectives your favorite pastime?"

"Oh, tantei-kun, that would be terribly petty of me."

"Coming from the man who has so little respect for authority that he regularly goes out of his way to make a mockery of trained police officers in the most childish way possible, I'm inclined to believe that pettiness is about par for the course."

"Maybe so. But I'm Kid; I'm allowed to be childish and petty. I suppose that makes you the more grown up one of the two of us."

Tantei-kun flinched, a rather interesting reaction that Kaito catalogued for later. Then, as if wearing a poker face of his own, switched to the cheerful and innocent tone he normally kept up around other people. "Well, I guess that's pretty pathetic that a second grader beats you out for maturity!"

Well, Kaito supposed he'd walked into that one. That was the best part of their clashes, really; Kaito could go all out against him, actually match wits with someone, and he was fairly certain the feeling was mutual. From what he'd observed, tantei-kun pretended to be a normal little kid around everyone else, but Kaito knew how taxing normalcy could be on a prodigy. Granted, he had his suspicions that something else was going on with tantei-kun, but those had been placed on the back burner for now. For all intents and purposes, they were equals on opposite sides of the law. It was really a shame that this kept them from being friends.

"Well," Kaito said, putting the screen back where it belonged and deactivating the video camera, "Your perspective is enlightening as ever, tantei-kun. I do appreciate your audience participation."

"Doesn't that imply that you specifically called me up on stage to help with a trick?"

"Oh, you think too literally. All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players."

"Well, I do know you to be both a player and excessively dramatic, so I think that's an apt description."

"At least I can stay in character. You fling yourself between roles like a pinball, blurring the lines between your characters. What's your motivation? What's your backstory? Your alibi? What drives you that no one knows about? What skills do you need to learn or forget in order to make two distinct characters?"

"I— what?" That had cracked through his wit almost instantly.

"You know," Kaito said impatiently. "The way you act around me versus everyone else. You're clearly a lot smarter than you let on, but the adults won't listen to you because they're cowards who can't handle their pride taking a beating."

"A-ah. You noticed." He didn't seem particularly put out by that, though; if anything, he was surprised, but not unpleasantly so, and was adjusting quickly. If Kaito had to hazard a guess, he'd say that tantei-kun was just accepting the guess as a convenient cover. A cover for what, though? That was more difficult to figure out. Kaito was better with emotions than cold facts. Ugh, the real story was probably sciencey or something boring like that. Maybe tantei-kun was a clone who'd escaped captivity and vowed to uphold the law?

...wait a minute. Wait a minute.

"...since they never seem to save the drama for the stage," tantei-kun was saying by the time Kaito tuned back in.

"Well, some of us just naturally have a flair for it. Asking for less drama is like caging a beautiful bird, rather than letting it soar freely through the sky!"

"You climbed a building with that gem just to pose for pictures with the gemstone!" tantei-kun insisted. "At the top of a spire!"

"And yet not a single one of those photographers managed to get my good side, tsk." The incident in question had actually involved him trying to draw out the snipers and show them that the gem they were looking for wasn't Pandora, and to do so in the most eye catching way possible so that Kaito would be the only target.

"You're hopeless."

"That was my intention all along, tantei-kun." After all, destroying hope— the only thing left in Pandora's box— would keep the world safe.

"Are you even capable of change? If you were caught, could you even be reformed?"

Kaito leaned in. "I'll give you a little hint: under the moonlight, hope will bring destruction, but a bringer of peace can also carry destruction. And that brings another opportunity to find hope."

"Finding hope...a world without hope...destruction...the bringers of peace— they're your birds, aren't they?" His eyes widened as he spun towards the outside wall. "Doves!"

"Duck, actually. And stay down unless you want to catch a face full of concrete. No one's getting hurt tonight." Kaito threw his black cloak, the one he'd used for dramatic appearances, over tantei-kun's head, the weight of it knocking him to the floor. Hopefully it would serve a dual purpose of protecting him from the shrapnel and buying Kaito a few more precious seconds. At the very least, he didn't have to carry it around anymore.

Precisely two seconds later (ugh, he was turning into Hakuba), the blasting charges set by his doves went off, one explosion after another and gradually getting closer with rhythmic frequency. It was, Kaito decided, like the opening instrumental before his dramatic exit. Five, six seven, eight—

"See you next time!" He gave a salute that no one could see and practically skipped away, launching himself through each hole in the wall. It really wasn't that different from parkour.

He'd asked the doves to place each charge higher than a child would be able to reach, and had them shaped specifically to leave a hole big enough for him to leap through without enough rubble to use as a staircase.

That ought to give tantei-kun a run for his money. As smart as the kid was, he was still too physically small and weak to overcome basic obstacles like that easily. Kaito, on the other hand, was in fine physical condition from being ten years older and running from his problems on a regular basis. He really did have a lot of problems to run from, but finding Pandora would be worth it.

It was with this goal in mind that he took out the real Star Sapphire, not the (admittedly convincing) fake that had been kept in the glass, and held it up to the moonlight. Hm, it was a bit too cloudy to tell tonight. Maybe he should have rescheduled, after all. Well, at least he'd taken a little inspiration from Mother Nature with tonight's heist.

From the sound of things, tantei-kun was catching up faster than expected. He'd already thrown off the cloak, and a quick glance back revealed that he was climbing through the first wall, eyes gleaming with determination.

"Nice try, but I'm afraid you're too late." At the snap of Kaito's fingers, smoke began to pool in the air behind him, quickly filling in the gap in the wall. It was nearly opaque by the time he turned around, perfect for hiding in. His glider unfurled easily, and then he was off, reveling in the freedom of the air.

Until he felt the familiar impact of a soccer ball colliding with his chest, and he was pretty sure something he felt rupture, leaving his chest feeling strangely empty of air and sticky with warm liquid.

He swerved, unsure how tantei-kun had managed to hit him when his visibility would have been much too low to even see, let alone target. His breath scraped in and out, labored but not unbearable. A lucky shot, sure, but he could manage it. At least, until a second shot ripped through the fog and shot past his face, tearing right through his hang glider and hitting something up ahead with the crash of breaking glass.

His glider flapped frantically, the wind tearing mercilessly through the torn fabric and screaming in his ears. It was all he could do to steer his uncooperative glider into a row of hedges and brace himself for impact. All that damage… from a soccer ball of all things. It couldn't be that bad, right?

Wrong.

Blasting charges? Seriously?

It was extra, even for Kid. And dangerous, too. Most people wouldn't trust a thief enough to stay protected from whatever he promised, but Conan had been to enough heists to know when things got serious and he needed to listen. He waited until he heard the fresh wind from the outside to throw off the cloak (Ugh, was it weighted? He hated his seven year old body) and gave chase.

A line of holes in the walls, like the sort left by a bullet that could be traced to its source using a laser pointer, lead to the open air, and Conan had to quickly grab a chair just to get up to the first one. Kid knew and deliberately played on Conan's physical disadvantages to buy himself time, didn't he? When he climbed to the top, standing on the crumbling and charred drywall, he saw the thief meeting his eyes with a smirk.

"Nice try, but I'm afraid you're too late," Kid said, unfolding his glider. In a step up from his usual escapes, a massive cloud of smoke billowed from around the window at the snap of his fingers.

And maybe he was right; Conan was too late to give chase, and he couldn't even see the thief through all the thick fog, but he had managed to stick a tracker on Kid.

And that meant he could target him.

The first soccer ball flew in a straight line and was a direct hit, judging by the muffled thud. Kid veered off his course, still in a controlled flight, until Conan used his second shot.

The tracker plummeted, and for a moment, Conan was sure he'd gone too far, until he realized that no one using a hang glider would make those motions. It must have fallen off, then. He couldn't track Kid back to his hideout, but at least he'd gotten in a few good hits.

And now was the hard part— trying to explain the situation to the adults. Acting like a little kid again, and being treated like one. Conan sighed, wondering if it said something about his life that he looked forward to these confrontations if only to get a little respect.

One of Kaito's ribs was probably cracked, and at least three more were bruised. And his torso was covered in glitter in a sunburst pattern, and some of it was on his right arm and hand, too. Which wouldn't normally be a problem, except for the fact that the solvent had been knocked out of his pocket by the same impact that had burst the glitter pouch. Meaning he was stuck being glittery until he could make more. And the chemicals he needed wouldn't be arriving until next week, and then he'd have to steal them from the delivery truck. Which would not be fun with his current injuries.

Oh. And he'd twisted his ankle from the rough landing, along with a few other scrapes and bruises. He'd actually had to go to the hospital for that one; the official story was that he'd been ice skating, which just added insult to injury. Sure, no one would question it, but it still rankled. He couldn't even get his ribs checked out for fear of revealing himself.

Ugh.

"What is— wrong with that child?" He complained that evening to Jii-chan, who'd insisted on coming to his house to take care of him. Kaito was surrounded by every pillow he owned and then a few of Aoko's, and it still felt like his ribcage was going to collapse.

"He still has faith in the law. It's a rather naive sort of trust, but it's not fair to hold it against him."

"Well, yeah, but—" A sharp pain shot through his chest as his lungs decided to throw a fit. "Agh! Did he have to— kick it so hard?"

"Do your breathing exercises, young man. It'll help."

"Yeah, yeah, reduce the— risk of infection. I know." He went through the motions, though, silently lamenting that this was all he could do. This was not going to be a fun month. "Have you noticed— anything unnatural about him?"

"Edogawa Conan?" Jii-chan took a moment to run a search for him on his laptop; just the basics, and then, judging by his frown, deeper. "That's strange. Officially, he doesn't seem to exist."

"Are you sure?" That didn't bode well. He'd meant it only half seriously, still hoping there was a less dramatic explanation. Sure, Kaito was prone to dramatics, but he was… well, tantei-kun had become a regular fixture in his life, for better or for worse. Perhaps for worse, he thought as another stabbing pain in his chest left his vision flickering.

"It may take time to verify, but there don't seem to be any records. What are you thinking?"

"Just— ow why is everything pain— he…" Kaito had to stop and catch his breath. "Remember... the robot incident?" It made his blood run cold just to mention it, but he… well, he had to be certain.

Jii-chan paused in his work. "The one in which you were abducted on your way to school?"

"Yeah." He didn't know exactly what Jii-chan was doing while he went missing, just that he looked tired and haggard and so relieved to have Kaito back. As for the other matter,;. Kaito never asked and Jii-chan never told. Still, it was a sign of genuine concern— maybe too much. He didn't want to worry one of the people he cared about over what might have been nothing.

But judging by the expression on Jii-chan's face, it might be too late.

"Bocchama, it doesn't do well to dwell on such things. It's over now. Have you been thinking about it lately? I don't mind taking over as Kaitou Kid for a while, and I've got some lavender—"

"It's not about that, okay? I'm over— agh. The bad dreams were just— a side effect of whatever weird device that scientist used on my memories. It's probably fine."

"Was it?"

"Yes," Kaito insisted. He didn't want a repeat of last time, not on the basis of some half baked theory. "I just— need you to research tantei-kun. Some things aren't lining up."

"You know if you ever need anything, I'm here, don't you?" Jii-chan said seriously.

"Yeah, 'course I do." He closed his eyes, fingers clenched around the sheets. "Hey, isn't it time— for the pain meds?"

"Nine more minutes, technically, but I can fetch them for you now if you need it."

"Mkay. Thanks." Normally he hated anything that dulled his senses, but if it dulled the pain as well, maybe he could get to sleep tonight. It had been a long day, but hopefully he'd be able to process everything in the morning.

This would be so much easier if he could just steal a cure for his injuries or something.

Jii-chan set down the pill bottle and water with a soft tap. "Here you are. Please take care of yourself, will you? I wasn't able to protect your father, but I'll do whatever I can to keep you safe."

There wasn't anything for Kaito to say, except, "I know."

The next week of school was frustrating, to say the least. Aoko made fun of him for trying to ice skate, Hakuba implied that maybe Kaitou Kid hadn't announced any more heists because he'd been injured on the last one, and Akako just offered to heal his ribs in exchange for his immortal soul. Which he had to admit was tempting, but only because of some irrational consequence blindness. At least she didn't seem terribly surprised when he turned her down.

He still harbored a petty grudge towards tantei-kun for his injuries and the glitter, but that was buried under a deeper worry that maybe not all was as it seemed.

People said Kaito Kid had a rule: no one got hurt at his heists. The truth was, he'd never set out with any sort of rule like that in mind, but he just hated seeing others in pain. He hated losing people.

Magicians were supposed to transport their audience into a fantastical world, one where time stood still and reality stepped aside for the illusion. That meant no one died on stage, or anywhere else. Just for one night at a time, Kaito could grant that to others.

And yes, he knew that tantei-kun didn't play by his rules, but that was fine. Kaito wanted to believe that they had a rivalry, something exciting, something special . Well, not that sort of special, since the ten year age gap shut that option down pretty firmly for Kaito, but still. Something about tantei-kun made him feel like he'd found his equal in a child who refused to believe in magic. Yet he couldn't help but remember his earlier thought, about the way a child who seemed so firmly grounded in the world of logic had time and time again exceeded the realms of human plausibility without him noticing.

Was it possible that he'd ignored the signs and seen what he wanted to see? That he'd bent reality until the reflections showed him his perfect illusion? He wanted to think otherwise, but his last heist… what tantei-kun did shouldn't have been possible for a detective. A skilled magician, maybe, but tantei-kun was anything but that.

Something about him had always seemed profoundly logical, the antithesis to magic, but that wasn't it, was it? Tantei-kun was a magnet for trouble, and had a way of being in just the right place at just the right time. He also had that tranquilizer watch, which was more than any responsible adult would give to a seven year old— actually, where were the responsible adults in his life?

Up until now, tantei-kun had only seemed to exist during heists, but where did he go? What did he do? The fact that Jii-chan had confirmed his official nonexistence with several of his contacts seemed like a cruel mockery of that belief. It was so easy to forget that while he was tantei-kun, he was also Conan Edogawa. Kaito wasn't sure what to think or do, but he would figure it out.

Still... if his half-formed suspicions were right, that would mean losing his favorite tiny detective, in a way. And Kaito hated losing people.

It started off small; just a few strategically placed bugs and a pair of binoculars. It was by far the easiest surveillance operation Kaito had ever done, minus the hiking. His ribs still ached a bit from that, and Jii-chan had to help him walk near the end, but he reached his vantage point with an hour to spare.

That hour was mainly spent going through all his snacks (he wasn't sure how Jii-chan had brought an entire tub of chocolate ice cream without it melting, but it was fantastic ) and doing some actual birdwatching. Sure, there were some larger, more exotic birds at the park, but the best sort were the blackbirds who would fight each other over dropped Cheetos and steal shiny things from unsuspecting hikers. They screamed raucously to the sky, flapped their wings to make themselves appear larger, and shamelessly divebombed to take whatever caught their fancy.

Birds after Kaito's own heart, really

About ten minutes before tantei-kun was due to show up, Kaito did his breathing exercises to clear his lungs, put away the snacks, and asked Jii-chan to set up the receiver, which would be strong enough to pick up the signal but looked like an ordinary cooler.

For all intents and purposes, the two of them looked like average hikers: a college student who was listening to music and watching the birds, and an older relative who was reading a book on the history of the park. No reason for tantei-kun to suspect anything at all.

And really, why would he? He and his friends were just out on a hike, enjoying nature, and they were teasing him about how much he stayed inside and read his mystery novels or watched documentary specials on TV. Tantei-kun didn't deny it, just stuttered out something about wanting to be informed, and changed the subject.

The group of them were really adorable together. It was clear tantei-kun's act hadn't fooled them completely, since they all clearly looked up to him, but he seemed to have accepted this. Maybe this was what it was like to have real friends rather than a childhood friend/crush that he constantly lied to, a tsundere witch who tried to enslave his heart as often as she helped, and a pompous detective who was extremely easy to tease on account of his habit of bringing handcuffs everywhere to try and prove the 'Kaito is Kid' theory. Last time, Kaito had informed him as politely as possible that no, he wasn't into this sort of thing, but he might be open to experimentation if Hakuba bought him dinner first, and then Kaito Kid had gone sailing over him, (thanks, mom) and he'd surreptitiously filmed Hakuba's reaction.

Fun times, fun times, but it wasn't anywhere near the sort of wholesome friendship tantei-kun had.

And then they found a dead body, and things got a whole lot weirder.

Someone— someone was dead. A mom who wasn't coming home, and the group she'd been hiking with— her husband, her sister, her brother-in-law, her friend from middle school— well. Tantei-kun said it had to be one of them, and his deductions were almost never wrong.

"I think I'm going to be sick," he muttered.

"Have you been drinking enough water? I told you this was a bad idea, young man. Your injuries still haven't fully healed, and you shouldn't aggravate them."

"No, not like that." He slipped off his headset and set down the binoculars. "He just… someone was murdered down there. I know tantei-kun is— well, he's a detective, it's even in his nickname, but I thought he'd care more!"

"This is concerning indeed. What sort of action would you like to take?"

"None yet. I need to hear more." Maybe that would explain something, right? Except it didn't.

It got even worse, when tantei-kun and all of his friends started investigating together. Like there was nothing wrong, like this happened to him every day. And from the discussion he had with his friends, maybe it did. None of them seemed particularly fazed; at least, not nearly as much as they should be.

Most of them reacted with some degree of surprise or horror at first, but quickly got over it and helped to search for clues. Like this was some sort of game to them. And the Professor just hovered on the sidelines and gave general encouragement.

Kaito thought things would improve when the police arrived, but all of them seemed to be on very good terms with tantei-kun, and continued to let him poke around the crime scene. There was a dead body, for crying out loud! Why was Kaito the only one who was bothered by this?

Yes, he knew he wasn't the most responsible person. He was flighty and chaotic and committed crimes on a regular basis with no regrets. He blamed his parents for that, honestly. But really, if even Kaito thought something was irresponsible, there were some problems that needed to be addressed.

Was it really— Kaito flinched so hard he nearly dropped the binoculars. His gaze had drifted to the body again. These things had been happening more and more lately, little lapses in the façade he liked to put up. This was going to make his acting harder if he didn't get it under control.

"Are you all right?"

"Not terribly—" His ribs twinged again, a not-so-subtle reminder of what tantei-kun was capable of. It was strange; they hurt less than before, but felt more malicious somehow.

"Bocchama?"

"I'm not— terribly used to watching murder cases." Through his headset, he could hear tantei-kun practically interrogating one of the suspects, all without dropping his childlike act. It really was disturbing.

And that didn't even begin to describe when he used some sort of electronic means to imitate the Professor's voice and explain his deductions.

Yes, Kaito decided, there was something about tantei-kun that he'd been blind to. And he couldn't help but remember another pair of eyes so much like his own that stared blankly into the face of death and did not understand it.

A/N: This can also be read at archive of our own under the same username. It probably should; the notes will be longer, and the tags far more entertaining.