Chapter. Arg with the headache-spike again, so this one is short, but it felt like a decent, if perhaps not kind, place to leave off.

Chapter 5

Nakamori waited anxiously on the doorstep after ringing Kaito's doorbell, hoping that the teen and his new charge were home and hoping that he wouldn't see that dull, flat worry in his eyes if he answered.

The door opened to Hakuba Saguru, and Nakamori blinked.

"Nakamori-keibu?" Hakuba-kun (Nakamori wasn't sure when it had become '-kun', but it had, somewhere along the line) asked, startled. "Is there…?" he trailed off, a mix of worry and something else in his face, and Nakamori wasn't sure what the second was.

It almost looked like confusion, but Hakuba was always a little weird to read, so it could easily be hope. "No news on Kudo-kun," Nakamori sighed, hesitating. "Can I…?"

A blink, "Oh, right, of course. Kuroba's in the kitchen; I'll take over at the stove so you two can talk."

Nakamori had the somewhat inappropriately-timed thought that 'Kaito' and 'kitchen' were a scary combination before he remembered that Kudo-kun had been bullying him into better cooking.

He took off his shoes in the genkan while Hakuba went deeper into the house, then followed. He could hear Kaito's voice, but not make out the words, and then Kaito was coming into the hallway and waving him towards the living room with a tired smile, "Hey, Nakamori-keibu. Was there something you wanted to talk about, or were you just checking in?"

"Checking in," Nakamori admitted. "Kaito…" he looked tired, too, didn't just sound it. Tired and drawn, but there was more spark in him than there had been. There was still that worry in his eyes, but it wasn't the flatness of near-despair, and that was… something, at any rate.

"I'm okay, Keibu," Kaito smiled, and while it didn't look happy, it was at least genuine.

Nakamori shook himself, "I heard you had a house-guest for a while," he glanced around, wondering where the alleged child was.

"Conan's a bit under the weather. After just coming over from America, it isn't surprising."

No, it wasn't. Those few times Nakamori had attended seminars in other countries, he always got a cold within the first two weeks. A few times it had happened just for going to other cities. The kid would probably be outright ill soon, if he wasn't already. "You can always come to me if you need anything, Kaito," Nakamori reminded, eying the wry expression carefully.

Kaito's half-grimace softened to a grateful smile, "I know. Thank you, Nakamori-keibu. I… don't really know what I would do without you."

Nakamori smiled back, though he kind of wanted to frown. Or cry, maybe. There was a dark, bare kind of hollowness to that admission even though Kaito was smiling. It ached to see Kaito like this. In an attempt to lighten the mood, he tried, "Although, Hakuba-kun, Kaito? I thought you didn't like him."

Kaito, to his relief, made a face. "I don't like him!" a pause, then a reluctant, "… but he's alright, I guess. And Conan likes him well enough, and he speaks English, and… Shinichi likes it when I get along with him, so…"

Oh. Oh, that hurt—and Kaito was still hoping, still holding to present tense even though it had been long enough that the hope was likely futile.

But then, Nakamori still had a faint spark of hope, himself. It was shrinking every day, and soon, he knew, his own hope would die out entirely. But Kaito… but he couldn't be the one to try and take that away from Kaito, either. He just couldn't.

Kaito smiled at him, and it was a quiet little thing, not his usual rambunctious cheer but honest for all of that, "It's all right Nakamori-keibu. I understand. And… I can't explain it, but Shinichi's still alive. I know he's in some kind of trouble, or he'd be back already, but I know he's alive."

There was something about that faith—he couldn't deny it, and he found he felt a little better in the face of it. That dwindling spark of hope had just gotten a bit stronger. "I was supposed to be making you feel better," he half-complained with a smile.

Kaito laughed, not quite so carefree as usual but happy all the same. "Don't you know, Nakamori-keibu? It's a magician's job to make people smile!"

Yeah, maybe Kaito would be okay, so long as nothing broke his faith.

(He dreaded what might happen if something did, but for now—for now, it was enough.)

xxxx

Four days, two murders, and one meet-and-greet with Nakamori-keibu later, Kaito received some very interesting science equipment and started the distillation project in the Kid workshop, although getting the alcohols needed to do so took some disguise work.

Also, the fact that an alcohol and the general physical effects of a cold virus negated a body-destroying poison was a bit ridiculous. Granted, the actual chemical formula for the permanent version had little in common with the base alcohols, but still. He wondered if the cure could also act as a preventative.

Probably not a good thing to experiment with, but carrying a few of the 'cure' pills on them after they'd been made might not be a bad idea—if they could get one down someone's throat before the APTX killed them, they might be able to save a life or two. Not likely, but it was possible.

So many steps took time, though. He sighed, set the appropriate timers, and made his way back up to the house proper to check on tiny-Shinichi. It really wasn't surprising that he'd gotten sick; his immune system was always even worse than usual immediately following a transformation, and the initial poisoning had been the worst of all. He'd caught a short-term bug already, and this cold was looking closer to flu.

Shinichi will be fine, Kaito told himself. He didn't entirely believe it, memories of those times after Shinichi's immune system was all but gone insidiously terrifying. But… that had taken years and many, many reversions both ways.

And Shinichi was fine, or close to it. He had a fever, sure, but it wasn't bad and he swatted Kaito's hands away from his forehead with a grumpy huff, which he never did if he was feeling terrible. "I'm fine. Let me read this, will you? I think it has something to do with what Akemi's been up to, and pretty soon she's going to need help. 'I'm' not here to provide it."

Ah. Right. He'd almost forgotten about that—they'd have to keep their own eyes out, since Akemi hadn't been given Kaito's name. While he had no doubt she could find it if she wanted to, the fact that Shinichi was missing might get someone so kind to try and keep him out of it.

Thinking of things like that… "I need to set up a heist, too, or at least return the book—damn it, we haven't even talked to Togano, yet."

Shinichi nodded slightly, "Conan might be the best choice there. It's a little weird how people listen to me like this."

"It's because you're terrifying and come off like a mind-reader. You're also six, which is a pretty common horror-movie theme these days—the psychic kid's always right and whenever you don't listen to them, everything starts going wrong."

"Huh," Shinichi blinked. "I don't watch a lot of horror," he admitted. "I always kind of thought my life has enough of it as it is. How many of those movies are the sort that even people who don't like the genre end up seeing?"

"Probably at least two or three," Kaito hummed thoughtfully. "And there was one where the kid was the enemy, but no one knew it except whoever she lived with."

Shinichi grimaced, "That's creepy even just to hear."

"Well, she wasn't a kid, she just looked like one. Not like you and Haibara, either, more like 'akuma'*."

"Right…" Shinichi eyed him dubiously, "Well, anyway. Do we know where Togano-san lives?"

Kaito drew himself up, exaggeratedly affronted, "Who," he looked down his nose in his best 'snobby rich lord' impersonation, "do you think you're speaking to?"

Shinichi laughed, "Right, right. Get his schedule while you're at it, will you? We can just intercept him somewhere, I can tell him something appropriately Sherlockian anti-murder, and then we can keep an eye on him for a couple days. Return the book the same day I talk to him."

Kaito grinned, "That sounds fun. Prank someone into giving up on murder!"

xxxx

Miyano Akemi kept her calm, pleasant expression on her face as she made her way back to her apartment, affecting an obliviousness she didn't have. She was being stalked, and she knew it.

She also knew who it was that was doing the stalking. There were wire-taps and sound bugs all over her apartment. She was going to be killed.

She'd hoped to at least save her sister, but without Kudo-san… and that it was unrelated to the Organization was unbelievable. She was certain Kudo-san had been found out and silenced.

But… Shiho. She had to try. Kudo-kun had been with a brightly cheerful lookalike—she'd looked on a library computer one day, when she was sure she wasn't being followed and had been given a research assignment by the bank she had then been working for.

That one had been Kudo-san's husband and had to know what Kudo-san had been offering her. He'd helped to set up the 'meeting', after all.

She hated that she was risking the cheerful boy's life, but for Shiho, she would risk anything.

xxxx

*Most of the time 'youkai' gets translated into English as 'demon', but really a more accurate translation would be 'spirit with power'. Just because they're dangerous and can be malicious doesn't make them evil as a whole. D. Gray-Man uses the term 'akuma' which also gets translated as demon, but means something more along the lines of 'malicious spirit' or 'evil spirit' and is far closer to what the English word means.