"Yo, Chibi," Kaito greeted cheerily as he answered his phone, "What's up?"
"Leaves," was the deadpan reply.
Kaito felt his lips twitch in amusement, "What, like tree leaves? Wait—did you climb a tree again?"
"Yup," Conan responded.
"Where?" Kaito asked, wondering if he had time to go coax the brat out of the tree before he fell.
"In a park," was the (entirely unhelpful) answer.
"Tantei-kun," he groaned, frowning as the detective laughed at him.
"Hey, at least I told Ran-neechan I was going out this time," Conan attempted to placate him, "Also, this tree isn't even that tall."
"Uh-huh. And how high up are you?" Kaito asked skeptically.
"Hmmm…probably five meters," the detective said thoughtfully.
Kaito spluttered, "Tantei-kun, that's like five times your height!"
"Relax, KID, I'm not gonna fall."
"I don't believe you," he said flatly.
"I'll stay on the phone with you until I get out of the tree, does that help?"
He sighed and responded, "I suppose that will have to do. Dare I ask what drove you into tree-climbing this time?"
There was a long silence, and Kaito was about to change the subject when Conan answered, "I got in a fight."
Tantei-kun got in a fight and then climbed a tree afterward?! "What?! Are you injured?"
"Why would—oh, no, it wasn't a physical fight, I meant like an argument."
Kaito relaxed as relief surged through him, "Tantei-kun, I swear you try to give me heart attacks on purpose."
"It's really not intentional," Conan protested.
"That doesn't make it better." Kaito said dryly.
"…sorry?"
Kaito sighed heavily into the phone, "Just…try not to do it again, yeah?"
"I'll try."
"Good," that settled, Kaito asked, "So…do you want to talk about it?"
"I…maybe? I don't know," the detective responded hesitantly.
Kaito hummed in thought, decided that Tantei-kun wasn't the type to be pressured into talking if it turned out he actually didn't want to, and questioned gently, "Were you arguing with your friends?"
"One of them, yeah. She's…" Conan made an irritated noise, "She keeps acting like she expects me to be angry with her or something."
"Why would she think that? Did she do something to you?"
"No, she didn't do anything wrong, really, that's why I was so frustrated—she just keeps acting like she thinks I'm suddenly going to hate her, it was—" Conan exhaled a frustrated sigh, "I was more upset at her for avoiding me than for what she said in the first place."
"Your friend was trying to avoid you because she thought you were upset, but her doing that only made you more upset?"
"Pretty much, yeah," Conan agreed.
"Remind me again what you said she thought you were upset over?"
There was another long silence before Conan replied, "That…I got some bad news, and she was the one who told me about it." Kaito could hear the faintly hurt tone as the detective continued, "Honestly I'm kind of offended that she thinks I'd hate her just for telling me something I needed to hear."
Kaito felt a flash of amusement remembering Conan's attempt to reaffirm their friendship, "So you got in an argument to try to convince her that you're still friends?"
"It's not funny, KID."
"Was it as interesting as our debate about arrest attempts?"
"I hate you," Tantei-kun said petulantly. (Kaito could practically see the pout on the detective's face.)
"Hate you too, Chibi," Kaito teased.
"Ugh."
A series of oddly muffled noises from the other end of the phone had Kaito frowning slightly as he asked, "You okay over there, Tantei-kun?"
The strange noises continued, and Kaito repeated, "Oi, Tantei-kun, can you hear me?"
"What was that?"
"I asked if something happened."
"Oh, sorry, I had to put the phone in my pocket to climb down," Conan said, sounding vaguely sheepish.
Kaito huffed, "Right, well, at least you're no longer at risk of falling five times your height."
"I was fine!"
"Yeah, sure you were. Now that you no longer need to prevent me from launching a rescue mission; you willing to tell me where you are?"
"Across the park from a clock tower," Conan responded, paused for a moment and added, "you know, that one that you decided to steal?"
Kaito blinked, startled that Tantei-kun had heard of that particular heist. As far as he was aware the Ekoda Clock Tower heist was actually one of his least famous heists because the jeweled hands hadn't been that valuable (by KID standards) and the building owner had been quietly arrested instead of advertising the way some owners did with their 'recovered' gems. Had Tantei-kun researched him?
"I thought that was before you moved here?" Kaito asked curiously.
"It was still in the newspapers," the detective pointed out dryly. (Oh? So Tantei-kun had looked him up at some point; Kaito was tempted to ask if the detective had discovered anything interesting from the news coverage.)
"Also, I think you talked about it that night you gave me your number. Something about getting shot at?" Conan questioned.
Grinning at the memory of his close escape and all the improvised plan-changes during the heist itself, Kaito responded, "It was one of my more memorable heists."
"You," Conan deadpanned, "are insane."
Kaito gasped theatrically, "You wound me, Tantei-kun."
"Bullets would too, but you seemed happy about those."
Indignant, Kaito retorted, "It was memorable for the challenge, Tantei-kun! I don't enjoy dodging projectile weapons."
"So I should bring more soccer balls next heist."
"Oi!" Kaito objected, "Tantei-kun, if that's your idea of a thank-you, I don't want it."
"But soccer is fun, KID-san!" Conan chirped 'innocently'.
Kaito repressed a shudder; hearing that childish voice coming from Tantei-kun was eerie, especially when the brat was talking about attacking him with super-powered sports equipment. "No, it really isn't," Kaito protested.
"I have to go now, KID-san, see you next heist!" The detective hung up without giving him a chance to respond.
Kaito huffed in fond amusement, "Brat."
A/N: I have arbitrarily decided that Conan is 106cm tall (42 inches, or 3'6"). It's on the short side according to what I looked up, but Conan is a short kid.
This is chapter 2 from NaNoWriMo, although it was actually written fourth… perils of getting ahead of my story while writing. (I may decide to write out an idea I had for another chapter before I post the next 2 from NaNo…we'll see how it goes.)