For the record, still alive. Been busier than usual, and well enough to handle it for the most part, so. Taking advantage while I can. Also, more time out with the horses, yay! That aside, I took a moment or three to sit down and hammer this out on my keyboard, but my Office subscription ran out and my documents are locked until I do something about that. Which. Seriously, why are they making me pay multiple times for the same program? That a relatively new development and I heavily disapprove.

Which means this was typed in Wordpad and my spelling is iffy at best. I went through several times, but I may well have missed something, so feel free to point out. (Also, I no longer have my own internet, it wasn't worth paying for when some months I can't even look at a darkened screen, so. Updates only when I'm in town or at the neighbor's.)

Chapter 14

When a body fell from a stone balcony to land in front of Conan and his current 'minder', Hakuba (Kaito was in the lab again, doing the tediously careful work this particular antidote-stage required), Conan cursed in a mix of English and French.

Rather inventively, considering his apparent age.

"Conan!" Hakuba stared, scandalized, "You shouldn't use such language!"

In reply, Conan turned a very flat look on the British detective, ignoring the screaming coming from all other sides. "Okay, one: you have been spending way too much time around people with my kind of luck, and two: dead body from several stories up. I will bet you my entire Kaito Control Kit that Hattori is in town."

It truly said something about his life that Hakuba's first response to that wasn't 'dead body?' or 'what makes you think that Osakan's in town?' but rather: "You have a 'Kaito Control Kit'?"

Conan stared at him in something between disbelief and resignation. It probably had to happen eventually. Hakuba's sanity was just as questionable as his and Kaito's, now. "Hakuba. Dead body. From balcony. Work now, Kaito control methods later."

Hakuba stared back for a moment before covering his face with both hands, clearly horrified at himself. He took three deep breaths before lowering his hands. "All right. I'll call the police—please wait for me before looking around."

Definitely spending too much time around him. Conan would be more inclined to be sympathetic, except that he never got a break from himself, and Hakuba at least got to go home without Shinichi's curse trailing along.

(It was the butler. No, really, there was a butler in the apartment. Granted, there was a whole floor rented out to one couple, who had both a butler and a maid. Which. Shinichi would never understand the way some people's minds worked. Also, he always got the weird ones.)

Five minutes after the murderer was arrested, Kaito called with a "Conan? Hattori's here. You up for this?"

Conan sighed and glanced up at his minder of the moment, "I was right," he informed. "Hattori's in town."

Hakuba stared at him for several seconds before he apparently decided to ask, "... do I want to know how you knew that?"

"A body fell in front of me from several stories up," Conan informed, perfectly flat. "That usually happens when Hattori's around."

Hakuba covered his face again, although he only used one hand this time. "Your life," he sighed, somewhere between resigned and disbelieving. "I don't even... your life, Conan. Yours and Kudo-senpai's, both."

Conan only shrugged, "Anyway. You coming? Hattori'll be there, but you haven't been getting along so badly." Which probably had something to do with upsetting Hakuba's worldview so much. Hattori wouldn't seem like too much of a strain on his already somewhat relaxed sensibilities. (Also, Hakuba could hardly complain about not following protocol when he'd helped plan a Kid Heist.)

"Did we?" Hakuba asked curiously.

"Get along badly?" Conan shrugged, still keeping to English partly for the sake of possible watchers and partially just as a reminder that he was this time's 'Conan'. "You met at a case. I was there, too—Hattori damaged possible evidence getting to the body. It was a locked-room case, and we weren't entirely sure if the guy was dead or just unconscious, and Hattori will always sacrifice evidence if it might mean saving a life."

Hakuba frowned, "And I disliked him over it?"

"Picture the you of nine months ago and the knowledge that the guy had been dead for a while, and by breaking a window to get in, Hattori might have destroyed any chance of finding proof on who'd killed him."

A slight pause, and Hakuba grimaced. "Ah."

Conan grinned, pleased with the unspoken admission that Hakuba didn't like who he'd been nine months before. "He'll still annoy you, I'm sure. He's Hattori. But he's a good friend, even if he's a rash loudmouth."

Hakuba made a helpless sound that wasn't quite amusement, "Alright, I'll stay for a while. Let's get you home."

xxxx

"It's not..." Kaito sighed, frustrated. "Hattori. Just... wait, all right? He's alive and as safe as he can be, under the circumstances, but I do not have time for this. If you absolutely must follow me around, fine, but don't distract me."

He should have just ignored the door. Hopefully nothing had gone wrong in the minutes he'd been away from the still-finicky antidote. But it was Hattori, and he was worried. Even if Kaito did have to start the antidote over again, Shinichi wouldn't begrudge either of them it.

(But it would be another month, and Kaito worried, too. The longer Shinichi was Conan, the more chances for something to go wrong.)

At least Aoko had distracted Toyama-san. Hattori, even this younger one that Kaito hardly knew (Hattori had always been Shinichi's friend, really, but Shinichi's accounts were never anything but accurate and the one young one he knew of was brash, loud-spoken, quick with mind and kendo both, and loyal above all) would not endanger a friend intentionally, and once he understood the situation, Kaito wouldn't need to worry about him talking.

Well. Not on purpose, anyway. Shinichi's main complaint about the Osakan had been that he had often called him 'Kudo' in front of others when he was Conan.

So getting called 'Kuroba' while being Kid was a possibility—although maybe explaining the tulpa theory would prevent that. And Conan was better at not being Shinichi when he needed to be Conan than he ever had been early on the last time around, and the Black didn't have any clue about Shinichi this time.

Maybe it would be fine. (Or at least not disastrous.)

He ignored Hattori as the detective followed him to the workshop, besides giving a quick "I know you're a detective and therefore curious, but I warn you that many things in this room will explode if mishandled and what I'm working on is literally a matter of life or death, so don't touch anything."

"Righ'," Hattori agreed, deliberately tucking his hands into his pockets.

That had always been something Kaito had appreciated about the good detectives. Even the old Hakuba had taken any possibility of causing future harm very seriously, and Hattori had always cared more than most.

A light flicked green near the back of his worktable as he shifted the antidote off of the heat-coil and added a tiny, careful measure of powdered foxglove (and he hated that he had to use the actual plant, but Haibara's attempts at using the extracts and synthesized digitalis had failed spectacularly) before switching it to the second heat-coil, already heated to the lower temperature needed for the next stage.

He ignored the soft beep alerting to the front door opening upstairs, the earlier green light having already proved it was Shinichi and possibly Hakuba, if he'd brought the Brit in with him.

Shinichi would know better than to distract him, too, but he only needed a few more minutes to verify whether the last step had completed successfully. If any sediment started forming in the antidote, he'd have to start over. If not, they were safe for another two days.

For now, there were only a few more tense minutes to wait, but there was nothing he more he could do either way.

x

Heiji noted the way Kuroba's shoulders slumped—not at ease, but in waiting resignation. Whatever he was doing, he was at a lull-stage.

Carefully, quietly enough that it would be easy to ignore him if he'd read the situation wrong, he voiced a question. "What are you working on?"

Kuroba sighed, "An antidote. It's... finicky."

Alarm sparked up, "Antidote?" Heiji could only think of one reason for the use of that word, "Who's it for?" Because 'antidote' usually meant 'poison', and the only person that had dropped out of sight...

"... I think you already know," Kuroba sighed, rubbing his face. "If I get it right this time, it'll reduce the risk of permanent damage."

Reduce. This time—whatever it was, it had happened before? Damn, that was either bad luck or something unavoidable.

He opened his mouth to ask which, and he heard a soft thump behind him, immediately followed by a much louder one and an irritated curse in English.

"Tadaima," a child's voice said quietly.

Kuroba sighed, turning away from his beakers, "Okaeri," he greeted in return before glancing back at the faintly purple liquid, "I think we're safe for now," he decided. "Also, language, Hakuba! You shouldn't say such things in front of impressionable children!"

Heiji turned to blink a the two who had literally just dropped in, only vaguely hearing the half-British detective's dry return upon seeing a mini Kudo-copy in glasses picking his way across the floor. "... Kudo?"

"At the moment," the mini-Kudo replied, barely giving him more than a glance as he moved towards Kuroba.

Kuroba met him halfway, picking him up and propping him on a hip like an actual child while moving back over to the work-space with the lab setup. Mini-Kudo eyed the glass slightly less intently than Kuroba had been a minute before, then nodded once.

Kuroba put him down.

Heiji wasn't quite sure what to say.

Mini-Kudo sighed sharply, glanced to Hakuba and Kuroba in turn, and then turned those too-sharp eyes on Heiji. "Explanations down here. Kaito, blast shield?"

Blast shield?

Kuroba must have done something in response to the half-question, because there was a grinding sound and a blast shield dropped from the ceiling, shutting the little lab-space away from the rest of the underground workshop that Heiji was absolutely certain belonged to Kaitou Kid.

He wasn't going to ask. Or mention it.

Ever.

(Already he knew that here was more at stake here than pride and Kid's catch-and-release jewel thieving ways. Time travel aside, Kudo was tiny and the 'life or death' and 'antidote' comments were enough to warn that the size wasn't indefinitely sustainable. The mention of 'permanent damage' all but said Kudo was dying.

Heiji barely knew the guy, but that feeling of long-standing friendship was more than enough to have worry coiling in his gut. He didn't want Kudo to die.)

xxxx