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

Lure

Chapter 35 - Long Noses

Though he had been expecting it, Shinichi still jumped when he turned away from the stove to find Kaito sitting at the dining table behind him. He hadn't heard the thief arrive. Not, he supposed, that that was a surprise. But considering the reason he'd called Kaito in the first place, would it have been too much to ask that the thief give him a little warning?

"Did you see them?" he asked, carrying two plates of curry and rice to the table and setting one down in front of Kaito.

The magician's expression was uncharacteristically grim as he nodded. "I have a dove on them now. There were two of them. A man and a woman. They were taking pictures of your house. They also spent a lot of time watching the skies and taking notes."

"So, paparazzi?" Shinichi theorized. "Or something else?"

"Both, I'd say." Picking up a spoon, Kaito dug into his curry and rice and made a sound of approval. The curry was a perfect blend of spicy and savory, and the rice had been cooked to perfection. "Wow, Shin-chan, you really know your curry."

Shinichi blushed. "I've had a lot of practice. We pretty much always made curry whenever Professor Agasa took us out camping."

"Ah, right. With those wannabe detective brats."

Shinichi rolled his eyes. "They've improved a great deal, you know."

"Thanks to you, I'm sure."

"Not just me," Shinichi replied, thinking of Haibara and the professor and the many police officers and others that the grade school detectives had spent the last few years around. "Real interest goes a long way in helping people learn."

"Well, that's true," Kaito conceded. "Hey, maybe we should go camping ourselves sometime. It might be a good way to get a few of our assorted friends to begin mingling more too. Help the plan along and all that."

"We can consider it," Shinichi agreed. "But I think we have more important matters to discuss right now." He looked pointedly towards the shuttered windows.

The magician sighed. "Right. Well, do you have a computer I can borrow? I got their license plate number. That should tell us something. But dinner first," he added when he saw Shinichi making to leave the kitchen. "Curry's definitely better when it's hot."

So they finished their dinner. Then Shinichi brought a laptop down to the living room, where they turned the news on, leaving the volume low enough that it wouldn't distract them from their research but loud enough that they could tune in to any more important news developments. Shinichi had made them both some hot tea with lemon and a touch of honey.

Shinichi sipped idly at his tea as he leaned against Kaito's side, letting his attention wander between what his magician was doing, the news, and thoughts of what sorts of people might be lurking outside. Admittedly, that last one was occupying most of his attention.

Though he was no stranger to being stalked (thanks in part to a certain phantom thief, he thought with no little exasperation), that didn't mean it didn't worry him. Though he tended to be more concerned for the friends and acquaintances that might be inadvertently dragged into something dangerous because of their involvement with him. With that thought in mind, he excused himself to go call Haibara and give her a heads up just in case. He returned to find Kaito laughing to himself in a frankly creepy way.

"Did something happen?" he asked.

Kaito waved him back over to the empty seat on the couch next to him. Once Shinichi was seated, he turned the laptop to show him a photograph of a rather ordinary looking man. It appeared to be a driver's license photo, but Shinichi didn't recognize the man.

"You don't recognize him?" Kaito asked.

Shinichi shook his head. "No. Should I?"

"I guess you probably didn't see him. But what about his boss here?" Kaito pulled up a different picture. This one was of a woman.

"She's that tabloid reporter who was at the resort!" the detective exclaimed in startled recognition. "Tomoyama."

"Yep. That's the one. The guy's her photographer. That car outside belongs to him, and I'll just bet she was the one with him out there."

Grimacing, Shinichi sagged back against the couch cushions with an audible groan. "Just what we needed."

There were two types of reporters in the world. There were the good, responsible reporters who cared about the truth and worked hard to uncover it, prove it, and share it in order to help society as a whole learn and grow. Those reporters, Shinichi respected even though he didn't always enjoy talking to them. They were another kind of detective, and the world needed more of them (even if they could be too nosy at times). The other kind of reporter, however, was the irresponsible sort that didn't bother to confirm their tales and cared only about drawing in an audience and creating sensation. Those so-called reporters were, in Shinichi's opinion, no better than criminals, spreading baseless lies and conspiracy theories like they were true to poison the minds of the gullible who couldn't be bothered to research reality for themselves.

This Tomoyama, he had realized within just a few minutes of knowing her, was the latter kind. Worse still, she was the sort who, he suspected, enjoyed gathering just enough facts to twist 'reality' to serve her stories.

"I guess that explains why they were watching the skies," he muttered. "They must have been hoping to see you coming here. They probably planted that rose too to see how I'd react."

"Most likely. She's garnered quite a lot of attention by promoting all sorts of weirdness like governments stealing babies to experiment on and other whacked out nonsense. I must say, her imagination is quite vivid."

Shinichi snorted. "I'll bet."

"She's been writing lately about us and how you've been helping me at my heists and that that's why the police can't stop me."

Shinichi winced. He hoped people didn't take any of those rumors seriously. He'd never helped Kaito with his heists before—honestly, his magician didn't need his help. Kaito was a master thief in his own right. But being accused of being a thief's accomplice would make his own work as a detective more difficult (and he'd be lucky if that was all).

At the same time that he was irritated at the tabloid reporter for spreading rumors about his professional ethics, he also felt a pang of guilt. After all, though he wasn't assisting Kaito with his crimes, he wasn't stopping the thief either. And he was actively withholding information from the police. He reasoned that Kaito had quite an impressive record of public service for a thief, having used his unique skills to help the police uncover and capture everything from conmen to murderers. And of course he tended to return his loot (even if it was only because he had yet to find the jewel he wanted). But that didn't change the fact that Kaito regularly broke laws.

"Something's bothering you."

Drawn out of his thoughts by the unusually serious tone of Kaito's voice, Shinichi looked up to find said thief regarding him with intense, indigo eyes. The concern in those eyes made the detective smile. Suddenly, his worries seemed rather ridiculous. Kaito was a good man who had chosen the path he'd chosen because it was the path he felt he needed to walk to protect the people he loved, find justice, and make the world just that much brighter for everyone. If the thief enjoyed making mischief a little more than he should, well, that was a rather small problem in the grand scheme of things.

"Hello~, Earth to Shin-chan~." The magician waved a hand in front of his detective's face then snapped his fingers. Shinichi jerked back at the sharp sound, going cross-eyed as he tried to focus on the hand gesticulating too close to his face. He ended up toppling backwards to bounce against the couch cushions. Grinning, Kaito leaned over him to drop a chaste kiss on his lips. But his smile fell quickly to be replaced by that same serious look from earlier as he peered intently down into Shinichi's face. "You don't have to worry about Tomoyama and her sidekick. I can deal with them."

Shinichi smiled but shook his head. "I think we should just watch them for now."

The magician frowned. "Why?"

"You'll only provide them with more ammunition for their stories if you retaliate. They're bound to use it as proof for all their theories."

"So, what, we just let them stalk you indefinitely?"

"They'll get bored eventually if they don't find anything," Shinichi reasoned.

Kaito looked skeptical. "And if they don't get bored? These sorts of people can be pretty persistent sometimes. And I am not putting off our plans even more just to accommodate them. We have more than enough long noses to deal with already."

Shinichi couldn't deny that Kaito had a point. He sighed, closing his eyes. "What do you suggest then?"

Kaito hummed thoughtfully. "We can wait a little to see if they're actually planning something. In the meantime, we can do a little digging of our own, maybe plant some leads to send them elsewhere." He smirked as ideas began popping into his head. "Just leave everything to me."

Shinichi cracked open one eye to peer a little warily up at the thief. That decidedly wicked gleam in Kaito's indigo eyes did not bode well for the sneaky duo outside. But he couldn't say he felt particularly sorry for them. Whatever Kaito ended up doing to them, they had brought it on themselves.

"Just try not to go overboard," he said. "We want them to lose interest, not get even more stirred up and determined."

"I'll keep that in mind," Kaito promised. Then he leaned down to bump noses with Shinichi, trading his earlier scheming smirk for a more lighthearted, mischievous smile. "You know what this means though."

"What?" Shinichi replied, confused and more than a little distracted by the thief's proximity. The hand Kaito wasn't using to prop himself up had found its way to Shinichi's hip. A thumb traced the skin just above the waist of Shinichi's jeans. He squirmed a little at the ticklish sensation.

"It means we're going to have to be even more careful for a while," Kaito replied. "I won't be able to visit you as often."

"It's never stopped you before," Shinichi pointed out, tilting his head to give Kaito better access as the thief trailed light kisses down his neck.

Kaito laughed, the sound more a vibration through their bodies than an actual sound. "Ah, but this situation is more delicate."

"Is it?" Shinichi asked, amused. He had a feeling he knew where this was going.

"Indeed," said Kaito, smirking against the soft skin of Shinichi's throat. "Which is why we should take advantage of any time we have."

"You mean like now?"

Kaito pulled back a little to grin down at his detective, noting with pleasure the soft blush staining Shinichi's cheeks. "I mean tonight." He leaned down for another kiss, this one much less chaste. He pushed Shinichi further up on the couch and shifted to settle himself between his detective's legs.

"You realize they're probably still outside," Shinichi murmured into the kiss, though he made no move to push Kaito away. Rather, he slid his arms around the thief's neck to pull him closer.

The gleam in Kaito's eyes said that that was half the fun.

-To be Continued-