Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan/Case Closed.

Pairing: KaitoxShinichi

The Dragon's Curse

Chapter 15 - Verge

There was a storm coming.

Kaito opened his eyes. The room was dark, but he knew that dawn was just five minutes away. He didn't stop to wonder how he knew this.

Swinging his feet over the side of his bed, he stood up and crossed to the window in two quick strides. Throwing open the curtains, he gazed out into the graying darkness. The surrounding houses gave him a moment's pause as they blocked out the horizon, but then the sky to the east began to glow a soft gold. He stood there and watched the sky change from nearly black to gold then to blue. Then he turned and paced around his room. He felt restless, but he wasn't sure why.

He wished Shinichi was here. Maybe he should go see him. If he flew, he could be at Shinichi's place well before his detective's only class for the day. Knowing Shinichi, he was probably still in bed, fast asleep and dreaming about coffee and Sherlock Holmes.

Or maybe he was dreaming about Kaito. The corners of the thief's lips quirked up at the thought. He liked that idea.

He paced around the room again before pivoting abruptly and making a beeline for his father's portrait. Five minutes later, he was gliding silently through the sky over a city slowly waking from a long night.

Letting himself into Shinichi's bedroom through the window was child's play (he made a mental note to do something to fix that later. He didn't want just anyone having access to his mate's room). As he'd expected, he found Shinichi still fast asleep.

Leaving his shoes by the window and his hat and monocle on top of his neatly folded suit jacket and cape, Kaito slipped under the covers behind Shinichi and gathered the detective into his arms. He smiled when Shinichi instinctively moved closer to him, mumbling something in his sleep that Kaito fancied sounded like his name. His beloved really was adorable. All the more so because Shinichi himself seemed completely oblivious to the fact.

Feeling much more content now, Kaito buried his nose in Shinichi's soft hair and allowed himself to relax. He wasn't drowsy at all, but he was in no hurry to go anywhere anymore now that he had Shinichi cradled against his chest.

-0-

Shinichi woke to the feeling of strong arms around him and a warm, calloused hand resting on his stomach under his shirt. He blushed. He knew the feel of that hand against his skin quite well by now, which was probably why he hadn't freaked out when he'd woken up to find himself not as alone in his bed as he was supposed to be.

Honestly though, he would have appreciated a heads up. But he supposed that that was what he got for dating a phantom thief.

"Kaito?" he whispered just in case the magician was asleep.

"Yes?"

Apparently he wasn't.

"When did you get here?"

"About an hour ago."

"Is something wrong?"

"Wrong?" Kaito echoed, sounding puzzled. "What makes you think something's wrong?"

"Well, I…wasn't expecting you."

"I wanted to see you."

A pleased smile made its way onto Shinichi's lips. He buried his face in his pillow in a reflexive urge to hide it, but one of his hands moved to cover Kaito's, pressing the magician's palm more firmly against his bare stomach.

Kaito moved to press a kiss to the side of the detective's neck. His tongue flicked out, trailing across soft, sensitive skin. He smiled when he felt Shinichi shudder.

He shifted, rolling Shinichi onto his back and leaning over him to catch the detective's lips in a deep, passionate kiss. His other hand joined the first under Shinichi's pajama top. The detective moaned softly into the kiss, and he made no move to object when Kaito crawled on top of him.

When Shinichi's alarm clock went off half an hour later, neither of them noticed.

-0-

"Your heist is tonight, isn't it?" Shinichi asked. He was seated at his dining table while Kaito poured them both some coffee and popped some waffles into the toaster. The reason it was Kaito doing all this even though this was Shinichi's house was because the detective's legs were still rather wobbly after their morning…activities (which had started in bed but migrated into the bathroom when Shinichi failed to tell Kaito not to 'help' him into the bath. The detective was honestly surprised that he wasn't still in the shower, pinned between the wall and Kaito's strong, wet body). Shinichi blushed and shuddered at the memories. He should probably come up with an excuse now in case any of his classmates asked him why he was limping. And he would probably have to forget about actually participating in the heist later as anything more than a spectator.

"It is," Kaito agreed. He set two plates of waffles on the table and went to fetch the syrup. "I assume you know where."

"The university's exhibition center at ten," Shinichi said promptly. "They're hosting that traveling exhibition of jewels once owned by the half Japanese actress Nora Mikagami. She was known for collecting gemstones that were reputed to have mystical properties related to healing and fortunetelling. The pride of her collection was an enormous emerald that was said to be able to absorb diseases, curing them."

"They say the lady was never ill a day in her life," Kaito said. "Unfortunately, that drew her a lot of the wrong kind of attention, and she was killed in an armed robbery. The emerald was only recently recovered and restored to the collection. Her descendants are touring the collection around the world in her honor as it's the one hundredth anniversary of her birth."

"Does the weather change your plans?" Shinichi nodded towards the window, which was dark despite the hour because of the heavy rains pouring from the sky. The storm had blown in seemingly out of nowhere sometime while they had been in the shower. It was drumming on the windows so hard that the glass panes were rattling in their frames.

"Not at all," Kaito assured him. "The storm will clear by then."

Shinichi blinked. He looked from the raging storm outside to Kaito then back again. It certainly didn't look like it would be clearing anytime soon. And when he'd checked the weather forecast, it hadn't predicted that the storm would clear until after midnight.

"You might want to make some backup plans in case it doesn't," he said.

Kaito smirked. "Aww, are you worried? Well, don't be. I always have backup plans. But I tell you, I'm not going to need them."

Shinichi looked again at the downpour. "If you say so."

"You'll see. You will be there, won't you?"

"As long as no cases come up today," Shinichi promised. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to referee between Sonoko and Aoko-san."

Kaito laughed. "You might at that."

The rain was still coming down in torrents when Shinichi had to leave for class. With the wind too strong for an umbrella, he pulled on a raincoat and asked Kaito to lock up when he left. Then he set out into the downpour.

Kaito double checked that all the doors and windows were secure (in some cases, he took a few minutes to make them more secure) before setting out himself.

-0-

It was a truly spectacular collection of jewelry. It wasn't just its monetary value or the glittering beauty of its many large and colorful gems though. It was the richness of the stories attached to them. The Life's Blessing emerald was the most famous, but it was only one of more than three dozen jewels said to be able to heal ailments, bring happiness, attract good fortune, sustain health, and even stave off the signs of aging. In all honesty, it had taken Kaito quite a long time to select just one target out of the lot. He had landed on the emerald because it was one of the smaller number of jewels in the collection that were as large as he imagined Pandora had to be. But this was one collection he felt he may very well revisit in the future.

But that was only a minor thought on his mind today.

Kaito ambled around the exhibit in the guise of, well, himself (he was a student at this university after all), making a show of admiring the collection while he checked in on the various surprises he had set up all over the building in preparation for the night's heist. The police were in a mad scramble since they had only cracked his riddle late last night. Now they were trying to check and secure the building without interfering with the lawful visitors streaming in and out.

Considering the raging storm outside, the number of visitors was far below what it could have been. That being said, there were more guests than Kaito had expected this early in the afternoon. It was only two even though you wouldn't know it from the roiling black skies outside. He supposed they could be trying to avoid the crowds who were bound to show up for his heist even though the exact time and location had only been announced in the papers this morning.

Or maybe something else was going on here.

Kaito found himself looking more closely at the men—all much too old to be college students—coming in out of the storm for a look around the exhibit. All of them were wearing long raincoats, though they were not all coats of the same style. Older men in raincoats wandering into a jewelry exhibit normally would not have struck Kaito as overly strange. Men liked art and history and movie stars just like women did. But these men were barely glancing at any of the exhibits. Instead, they were gradually distributing themselves around the exhibition hall.

Kaito hid a frown behind his Poker Face. Now that he thought about it, those long raincoats could hide any number of things including weapons. The police were still in the process of setting up the metal detectors at the door since they weren't expecting KID until much later today. They were planning to empty the building of unrelated visitors shortly before the heist. And the officers themselves were all busy right now trying to figure out where KID might make his entrance. None of them were paying any attention to the current visitors.

Kaito supposed he could just find an officer and point the strange men out. After all, he had no proof that they were here for no good. It was just that, having been around detectives and police for so long (and being a phantom thief himself), he had developed a healthy suspicion for odd people doing odd things that didn't make sense.

It was as he was looking around for an officer to talk to, however, that he noticed the number of police in this part of the exhibit had greatly diminished. All senses going on high alert, Kaito scanned the hall again then slipped into the shadows behind a pillar, exercising his skills as a master thief to erase his presence and simply melt into the plays of shadows cast across the exhibition by the bright displays in the dimly lit hall.

He stopped by the men's restroom first and made a few quick adjustments to his appearance. It was a good thing that he always kept a few tricks and quick disguises on hand. As a slightly older man with paler hair partially hidden beneath a baseball cap, he reemerged and set off to check out the rest of the building.

-0-

Stepping out of the lecture hall where he'd had his only class of the day, Shinichi was startled to see that the rain had stopped. The ground was still sopping wet and dominated by expansive and deep puddles, and the sky was still nearly black with storm clouds, but the air was crisp, cold, and clear.

Kaito had been right after all.

Shinichi shook his head, amazed despite himself. How had the magician known? Or were his instincts just that accurate?

Hefting his backpack higher up on his shoulders, he started off across the campus, mind wandering to what he should get for dinner. He hadn't gone grocery shopping recently, so he didn't have many ingredients to work with if he wanted to cook. He could pick some groceries up on his way home, but there was the KID heist tonight. It would be faster to just get takeout and go grocery shopping tomorrow.

He wondered if Kaito would join him for dinner or if the thief would be too busy making arrangements for his heist. He should call and ask.

Shinichi fished his phone from his pocket and dialed Kaito's number. To his confusion, the call went straight to voicemail without ringing. He left a message asking about dinner, but he was frowning as he hung up.

Kaito could be making some last minute preparations at the exhibit, but why would he completely shut off his phone? He'd asked Shinichi to call him when he got out of class after all.

Frown deepening, Shinichi turned his steps towards the exhibition hall.

-To be Continued-

Notes: I am having some trouble with the next part, so it may be a while before it's up, but I'm working on it. Happy Thanksgiving!