Ladies and gentlemen! I humbly welcome you to the next chapter of this story.

The kaitou does survive, but not on his own and has yet to accept it.

Oh dear… and here I went again and didn't match the schedule – I really should stop promising that. Hope you guys don't mind all that much. Although I had general idea for this chapter, I ended up rewriting it all a couple of times and since I had limited time due to work, it turned out like this. This chapter will be a whole lot less exciting probably, since well Kaito is kind of tired xD But I do hope you will enjoy the result anyway~ This chapter was corrected by my lovely beta, so it should be better grammar wise :D

Just a side note – I posses very little medical knowledge (mainly only first-aid), so most presented here are snippets of what I found on the internet and made up the rest to make it sound reasonable – I seriously hope that if any of you possess wider knowledge, you will be able to accept my explanations.

That being said – let's get on to the review reply section~

Cerlinfia - Well~ I do love surprising you guys :D Thanks for adding the note that the review was from you - I would have missed you if you didn't~

HalfafanD - I honestly think it might be hard for them to explain why the police should hold off for a criminal's sake ;) But it is an interesting idea~ Unfortunately I don't get to reveal what happened while Kaito was out in this chapter - sorry - too much stuff happened again xD

Mists - Well - you know by now what a sucker for cliffhangers I am xD Fortunately you don't have to wait any longer :D Hope you'll like this chapter as well~

Dark Calamity of Princess - You do know that you're jumping in happiness because Kaito nearly died? xD But yeah - I was surprised how long it took me as well. I must admit this is totally not what I planned for when I wrote chapter 1 - I honestly thought that Kaito would start giving in before I reached ch10 xD I am glad you're not only able to withstand my slow pace, but enjoy it as well~ We'll see where the story will lead from now on ;)

Strawberry - I must admit that I am very pleased that I managed to make you this excited, so I don't mind in the least the exclamation points~ Hold on to your horses :D

bobbyneko - Why thank you~

Kensy Echo - Oh don't worry - I always find it worth the wait for your reviews :) I am very pleased you cherish my story so much~ I honestly didn't plan on those words at the end - more like they came up on their own.
I'm very happy that you do like my other characters as well :) I am often worried, if I will be able to get them right in their own unique ways ;) Yeah - I've snorted quite a few times myself while writing this - Kaito just wouldn't be himself if he stayed serious despite the situation xD
I'm glad that you don't mind all that much my crippling grammar ;) And you make me blush for praising my story so much! I hope you will keep on liking it :D
Well - even if he doesn't have any more tricks up in his sleeve, he can always try to come up with something, right? ;) And yeah - all the stuff from canon kind of encourage me to come up with stuff that might not be fully real ;)

Alice - Ah~ It's always surprising to get a review in another language :) I'm very pleased that you like my story so much~ Honestly speaking I have no idea how long it will still take me, so hold on tight~

So without further delay…

Please enjoy and review! :)


Chapter 33: Clipped wings


Kaito was slowly surfacing from the depths of his slumber, but his instincts were telling him to stay still and not open his eyes. It took him a considerably long time to grasp his surroundings and even longer to find his sluggishness bizarre. The first oddness that he became aware of was that the smell was different than the one he associated with any place he slept in usually. Thankfully it wasn't a stench he would expect from a prison cell, nor the strong odor of a hospital, though there was some specific fragrance of medicaments. Was he in some kind of a sickroom? The mattress underneath him wasn't familiar either, lacking the comfortable pits eroded by his body weight throughout countless nights. He could tell that it wasn't a futon and that this bed seemed rather new. He could hear also the faint sounds of people speaking and sometimes moving around, most likely muffled by a closed door. It seemed as if they were behaving specially quietly. Through his eyelids, he could tell that the place he was in was rather dark. Maybe it was night-time?

But the most worrisome was the unmistakable feeling of being watched. Somebody was with him in the same room and clearly did their best to act quietly. Whoever it was, they tried not to focus their gaze to the magician's motionless body, but it inevitably lured their attention and it happened rather often. But they weren't wary of the kaitou, like most of his pursuers were during a heist. No, they felt rather worried and a little restless, despite doing their best to keep calm. As time went by, the person would start pacing around silently, most likely to keep themselves distracted. Kaito could hear soft friction of cloth with cloth, which made him realize that the floor had to be covered with a rug and the person was most likely wearing only socks. Which would be strange for a guard, but there was no other explanation. It was clear that he got captured and was being held prisoner.

But this brought an avalanche of questions. The most urgent one being 'who was it'. Clearly not the police. The place felt wrong and he imagined that their sentry would be acting differently. Also there would be two of them at least, so unless the second managed to avoid his detection (which was… worryingly probable, given Kaito's current state), he could discard this possibility. His mind supplied him with the memory of what he was doing up until now. And how he was forced to rush his undercover mission's withdrawal. Did he make a mistake and they discovered it was him infiltrating their ranks? That was probably the worst case scenario. But why was he waking up so peacefully then? He focused his attention to himself. He felt slight spinning in his head, which most likely would get only worse once he opened his eyes, or tried to make a run for it. Unfortunately his sense of touch was dulled to the point that it was actually hard for him to say much about his body condition. If he added the apparent confusion, sluggishness and foggy memory to the equation, he figured only one answer. He was fed with some kind of drug to keep him asleep and for some reason they either stopped giving it to him, or his immunity developed enough to fight it off… Yeah, not very likely. Anyway, this without a doubt would make his escape hard, but hopefully not impossible. But something was nagging him: why were his captors being nice to him? To make him drop his guard? To coerce something from him? The possibility of haggling for his life like that again made him feel sick.

Suddenly his grim musings were cut short by the sound of a familiar voice.

"Kuroba? Are you awake?"

Kaito wanted to sigh in relief. Hakuba… It was just Hakuba. He wasn't in any danger- Wait. What? Rewind… Why was Tantei-san watching him sleep?! The question made a memory of getting cornered by Tantei-han and hearing Tantei-kun's voice surface. He definitely talked to them, although he couldn't make out any details. What's worse, he didn't remember anything else afterwards. So that was it? They caught him? He couldn't help but to feel disappointed. He also wasn't sure what to do next and how to act around them. Should he keep up the goofy magician's attitude? Or maybe he should slip in more of the elusive kaitou?

He failed to fully hold back a twitch, as suddenly he felt a touch on his right wrist. Saguru pulled back immediately and Kaito slowly opened his eyes, still unsure how to act, but determined to not show any of his perplexities on his expression.

"H-ey-" he started, but cut himself off, only now noticing how dry his throat felt.

Out of reflex, he wanted to reach to it, but couldn't. Casting a glance downwards, he noticed to his surprise that his hands were restrained by cloth bindings, with one on his right wrist and two on his left hand – one on his arm and one on his wrist. He felt cold sweat as he noticed a needle digging into his crook of his elbow and a dripping IV hanging above it. His heart sped up, despite him trying to force himself to calm down. He felt stabbing pain his chest, but he ignored it.

"It's alright, calm down. I'm sorry about this Kuroba, but-" Saguru started talking and reached to the magician's right wrist, but retreated again, as the teen somehow slipped his hand free and launched himself to undo the knot holding his arm.

The kaitou didn't really pay any attention to the blonde. It was his instinctive reaction to break free, so he automatically slipped his hand out of the restraints, not even noticing Hakuba's attempt to help and reached to his left arm. He just barely managed to hold himself back from getting rid of the unknown IV, forcing the thought that his detectives wouldn't hurt him and that they had to have a good reason to prick a needle in him.

The knot was in a problematic spot - underneath the mattress. Normally it shouldn't be a problem, even in the slightest. But this time, it was... It shouldn't have taken him more than a second, but his fingers were trembling too violently. He tried to lock them around the knot, but he couldn't tighten his grip and the cloth kept slipping out. He couldn't understand what caused it – the IV? No… his detectives wouldn't cripple him like this, would they? He had a flash of memory of the heist, how he's gotten weak… gotten drugged! He recalled that his body shuddered as he ran. Was that what broke his hands? Would it stay like this?! He refused to acknowledge it and kept on trying, pushing away the memory snippets of his conversations with Chizo-chan, before her voice was taken away from her. When he tried to help her accept it… But he wasn't going to lose his hands, not yet, not like this!

"What?!" he hissed at Saguru, who was apparently trying to get his attention.

He vaguely recalled that the Brit was saying something, but... He couldn't remember the words. Nothing! What was more worrying was that the detective was now crouching at his left and he failed to notice him moving there. He had to get a grip over himself.

"Sorry... I wasn't paying attention. What did you want Hakuba?" he asked apologetically with a whisper, to not strain his voice and doing his best to keep it calm.

The Brit sighed and offered softly. "I could help you with that, you know..."

Kaito held back a wince and nearly forcibly moved his hand away, curling his fingers to hide their tremor that seemed to be spreading under his skin. Stupid knot... "Yeah, thanks. I'd appreciate that." He shifted his legs, confirming that at least his ankles were free.

Saguru made an acknowledging hum and reached to the cloth.

The magician refused to close his eyes, because it would make him look even more defeated, but he couldn't look at the detective either. He allowed his gaze to look around the room, but he didn't register a lot of his surroundings anyway. He reflected that he didn't know the dim room with peach colored walls he was in. His gaze lingered for a short moment on the curtains that allowed only a few rays of warm sunlight to seep inside. So clearly not nighttime as he thought before, huh? Automatically he wondered what time it really was. He faintly registered that his classmate was talking in the meantime.

"As I was saying - my apologies for tying you up in the first place. Unfortunately you started trashing around, when the dormitive started to wear off and we didn't want you to hurt yourself..."

Kuroba didn't answer and only made a confirming noise, but stopped listening to the blonde, his focus drifting back on the more pressing matter. He definitely had to get a grip over himself. So what if he wouldn't be able to count on his steady hands anymore? It's not like he lost them completely. And besides... He's already done quite a few heists where he didn't need to pick any locks or pockets. The big tricks didn't require such hand precision anyway. He could cover for it. He only had to adjust his way of thinking. That's right. This wouldn't change anything. He could still search for Pandora and make a big show out of it. Just a different approach was required. He could nail it. In the end, making miracles was his specialty~

But he wouldn't be able to pull tiny pranks on Aoko anymore, nor do random tricks for passers... But that was alright, he could easily find explanation to it, so nobody would find it surprising. No big deal... But that also meant no more roses out of his sleeve. He refused to acknowledge the heavy lump in his throat, telling himself that the first trick he mastered, for which his father used to praise him so much, wasn't important anymore. That he was ready for sacrifices.

"... permanent..." was a word spoken by Saguru, which nearly threw Kaito from his composure and turned his attention back to reality.

Well, it was going to hurt a bit until he got used to it, no biggie. "Hum? You were saying?" he croaked out, trying to sound casual and noticed that the binding around his arm was already gone.

Hakuba gave him a tired look. "I would appreciate it if you paid more attention to me, Kuroba," he mumbled, while loosening the loop around the magician's wrist, allowing the kaitou to pull the hand closer to himself, which he did. "And I was saying that it's not permanent. I mean the trembling of your hands." Kaito's shock and relief must have slipped to his expression, since Saguru's softened. "At least not at this magnitude. Try relaxing your muscles. If there was something wrong with your nervous system, you would experience involuntary movement even while resting, or would have trouble coordinating what you're doing. And neither is the case here. You didn't have trouble with reaching the knot, you were just unable to hold adequate tension, since your muscles are too weak. It's mostly because you're famished. You've really neglected yourself lately, haven't you? The IV is supplying you with basic elements, besides the medicine, but it can't fully substitute to a meal. More so, unfortunately we had to keep the drip on a high ratio, which I believe only worsened what you're experiencing right now." He sighed as he sat on a chair next to the bed before continuing. "To make it short - your blood is too thin at the moment and doesn't carry enough nutrients, or oxygen. This makes your muscles too weak to work properly and causes temporarily trembling, when you try to use them, but otherwise they should be fine. So unless your nerves were damaged before, which is doubtful, it is completely reversible." He smiled softly, noticing the poorly camouflaged relief on his classmate's expression.

The relief that flew through him was too big to contain, but Kaito didn't really mind it slipping a bit. Hakuba's explanation caused Kuroba to have more questions than before, but he wanted to sort them out and recall as much as he could before he would decide on voicing any of them. In the meantime, he complied with the detective's request and focused more on him, while Saguru reached to the magician to help him sit up. The motion caused the spinning in his head to strengthen, but he did his best to suppress it. Meanwhile, Hakuba pulled out a few more pillows from somewhere underneath the bed and placed them behind the kaitou.

Up close, Kuroba noticed that the detective seemed surprisingly tired, but that didn't explain the carefulness in his movements and gestures. Nor the calm act, clearly aimed to hide his overwhelming worry and wariness. As if he was dealing with an injured critter. Damn it… He swallowed to ensure that his voice wouldn't break.

"Hakuba…" He paused to get the blonde's attention, as he gratefully sank into the pillows behind him. "I'm not afraid of you, you know." he said, looking him straight in the eyes, which widened significantly in response to his words.

"I'm- I didn't…" Saguru stuttered, before sighing, when he realized that hiding it was meaningless. "I'm sorry, Kuroba, I didn't mean to unnerve you. I was worried that, concerning the situation and what you were given, you could have panicked and I wanted to avoid that."

Kaito's lips twitched in annoyance. So whatever he was fed with messed with his anxiety level? That would explain why he had such a hard time containing it… "It's fine, just stop it already, ok? But thanks for your concern anyway…" he added awkwardly.

The detective smiled softly. "You're welcome. Well, anyway… I'd like to check your vitals now, if you don't mind." He took out a small, oblong item from his pocket. A flashlight.

The magician's reaction was immediate, as he backed out, shielding himself with the quilt and made a shocked expression, but didn't try holding back hints of amusement in his otherwise serious stage tone. "Tantei-san, while I do like you, I don't think I would really want to play doctor with you~ You should consider taking me out on a date first at least!" He fluttered his eyelashes.

Saguru flinched, completely thrown off, and groaned tiredly. "Kuroba..."

Kaito chuckled, dropping his act completely. "Sorry, but you were just asking for it~"

He wanted to add another snarky comment about a more personal approach during possible examination, but then realized that he was most likely unconscious for some time and what that meant. He brought his attention to what he was dressed in. He noticed that the shirt was unfamiliar and that from what he felt, he had no pants on, only underwear. He looked away from the detective. Talk about embarrassing. He definitely had no place to joke like this now. He rubbed his throat to ease the stinging he felt after talking.

The hints of annoyance dropped from the Brit's presence, as he reached for a glass, half-filled with water and placed a straw in it. "Well, I probably should have explained you the situation first anyway… So do you know where we are?" he asked with light tone, while passing the glass to the kaitou.

Kaito gave him a glance and accepted the water. He focused his gaze on the straw, before taking a sip to buy a little time, holding the glass in both of his hands to prevent dropping it. He did realize that Saguru asked the question, instead of just providing the information because he wanted to test how comprehensive the magician was. Well, he surely didn't feel like admitting to his current sluggishness.

"I obviously don't, but I do have a good idea about it," he lied cheekily with a smirk, not averting his gaze from the glass. In the end, he had all the dots, right? If only his mind could connect them...

"Oh, is that so? Care to elaborate?" Hakuba asked, relaxing on a chair next to the bed.

Kuroba didn't have the answer, but maybe he could force his mind to do some work and come up with one finally? And his detectives always made a show of their deductions. He could mimic them, humoring Saguru and buying some time to find the solution. He started speaking with a calm, balanced tone.

"Well, this is obviously not my place, nor yours. I can also exclude you taking me all the way to Osaka or the Mouris' place. I mean, even baka-Tantei isn't that blind to not find me suspicious." And he wasn't somebody who could be trusted, so unless this was a cruel trap and there was police waiting outside of the door, they had to be really careful about where they hid him. And they worked far too hard to gain Kaito's trust to just throw it away like that.

He took a sip to ease his throat and buy a moment. Huh? He frowned, noticing that it seemed there was something mixed in the water? He dismissed it as irrelevant and focused back on the topic.

He knew that he failed to mention one other possibility – the Kudo manor. But… the place had a problematic resident at the moment. Kaito had no idea how much Tantei-kun told his fellow detectives about the guy, or how much he himself knew for that matter. He was nearly positive that the shrunken sleuth wouldn't rent his family house to someone he didn't run a full check on, especially given how suspicious the guy was. Whatever it was that Shinichi knew, he had a feeling that the boy didn't trust the man, so it was thankfully doubtful that they would have taken him there. Because somehow Kuroba didn't feel like confronting him, unless he had no other choice.

So, now that he discarded the easiest solutions, what other clues did he have? Think! "But you wouldn't want to hold me in a random place either." Too many variables, unless you are able to secure a place there is always something that could go wrong. It would be suspicious if anybody saw them dragging in an unconscious figure. So either a place where nobody asked questions, or a house rather than an apartment. And since his detectives weren't as sneaky as he was, the latter was more probable. So a house of a friend it is.

"Furthermore, I got drugged to the point of passing out." He vaguely recalled how frantic his detectives felt. He still couldn't make out the words from the haze in his mind, but it was obvious that they were scared. For him. "So, you'd want somebody to take a look at me. And this is clearly not a hospital." He took another sip. This was tricky. He didn't know all of acquaintances to Hakuba family, maybe they had some people to trust? No... even if that was the case, it was doubtful that Saguru could use them for his own needs and keep it a secret. You can buy silence of a private doctor, sure - Kaito did it himself, but that would be too risky for the detectives to try. It had to be somebody else, who could be trusted with a secret and who they could turn to without a doubt. But since he ruled out Saguru and Heiji who had too few connections here, it left only Shinichi's contacts. And then it clicked.

"Meaning this has to be Agasa-san's house." He finished his deduction with a confident smirk, internally glad for finally being able to make the obvious connections.

The shrunken girl wasn't likely to sell the kaitou out and she was a drug specialist. As for the old man, Tantei-kun trusted him with his own secret, so he probably trusted him with Kaito's as well.

Saguru chuckled. "I can't say I expected to hear a full deduction~"

The magician shrugged and gave him an innocent smile. "Well, you did ask me to elaborate~" He wasn't really happy to have his secret blown to two other people, but it's not like they had any other choice. And from all the other possibilities, this actually was the one he had the least against.

"So I did~ But I must admit, it was a very nice deduction. And a correct one, of course. You should consider a change of profession."

The kaitou snorted, rolling his eyes. "That would be such a waste of my talents, you know~ Besides... who would be left there to challenge you guys~?" he replied with a grin. He wasn't sure if they wanted to allow him to continue his search, but he had no intention of stopping anyway.

The detective shook his head with amusement, surprisingly not trying to oppose to the magician's words. "True~ Well, anyway, do you remember what happened?"

Kuroba gave him an annoyed glare, before softening it, when he realized that the blonde wasn't mocking him. After all, it was a reasonable question towards someone who fainted. He shouldn't take it as a boast about capturing him. Something like that was more expected from Hattori anyway.

"In short? I got drugged and Tantei-han with Tantei-kun caught up with me," he replied bitterly.

In reality, it was most of what he knew. He was slowly recalling his plans for the heist and what happened before it, but from some point of the ball, things began to turn a bit foggy. He was quite positive that it was because of what that Kakita-bastard was drugging him with, but… That was it. He could only guess that he passed out on his detectives and Hattori dragged, or rather carried him here then. Not something he liked to imagine…

"Well, that does summarize it, I guess." Hakuba agreed with a conciliatory tone and rubbed his face. "The thing is…" he hesitated, before finally saying it. "That Kakita-san didn't try to just drug you. He gave you a poison that was meant to kill his wife, Kuroba. You would have died if Hattori and Kudo didn't manage to catch you." He paused to allow his words to sink in.

"Oh…" Well, that certainly explained a lot.

Saguru raised an eyebrow. "You sound disappointed rather than upset."

Kaito smirked and turned the now empty glass in his hands. "Well, I figured that you guys caught him, so justice will be most likely served to him. I'm obviously not happy with what he did, but look on the bright side~ Nobody died." He grinned cheerfully at the blonde.

"True…" the detective admitted grimly, recalling their conclusion, that most likely if KID didn't impersonate the woman, she would have died without anybody noticing that she was in peril. But despite that, he was still conflicted about it. He took the glass from his classmate and filled it again, before returning it.

"Anyway, how long was I out?" Kaito asked, collecting the glass with both hands.

"Well, I'm not sure about the precise time when you passed out, but it would be around 39 hours now. It's already Sunday, 24 minutes after 1 PM." He sighed and raised his gaze to meet his classmate's. "You lost consciousness on your way here. Unfortunately it took some time to synthesize the antidote, so at first you were given saline to slow the poison's effect down. By the time the cure was ready, your internal organs already sustained some damage. As you might expect, your liver took most of it. Haibara-san is positive that you haven't suffered any permanent damage, like I said before, but your blood samples still show signs of the poison lingering in your system. As long as you are getting the antidote, it is dormant, so there's not much to worry about, but you're not out of the woods yet. Not even close, to be honest. This is why you still need to be hooked up to the IV. The antidote is gradually decomposing the poison and flushing out the remains, but it will take time. Since you are no longer in immediate danger, we decided that it would be better to cut the dormitive. Moderate activity shouldn't hurt you anymore and frankly speaking your body would benefit if you started eating regularly. As it is, the presence of the dormitive would only disturb and slow the decomposition process. But by 'moderate activity' I mean resting, Kuroba. You are in no condition to be moving around. You are still on painkillers, so you could hurt yourself, if you tried straining yourself. It would be best if you didn't get up from the bed at all, until you no longer need the drip. Also, after that, you will need to take it easy for a while. Do you understand?" he asked seeing a bizarre expression on Kuroba's face.

What Saguru said was overwhelming to be honest, so Kaito's mind supplied him with a way to fix it – at least superficially and distract both of them from the grim mood. "I can't believe you managed to call the tiny scientist 'Haibara-san' with a straight face…" the magician mumbled in awe. "I mean, she is so tiny! It's like trying to call Tantei-kun 'Edogawa-san'." he snorted, amused by how it sounded.

"Kuroba!" Hakuba cried out, biting back a curse. He was nearly devastated with Kaito's oblivious act, although he probably should have expected something like that. "Is that really all you understood from my explanation?"

The kaitou chuckled and waved a hand. "Man, you're so grumpy..." He rolled his eyes at how the Brit glared at him. "Sheesh... I got it all, alright? I'm going to give my best impression of a bedridden pancake, all fun excluded. Happy?" The detective closed his eyes and made a confirming grumble, pressing his nose bridge to ease the headache. Kaito sighed and asked more seriously. "So how long do you think it will take?" Gods… this was going to be a mind-numbing torture! He wasn't made to sit still!

Saguru sighed as well, deciding that he wouldn't get anything better from the magician. "Hard to say precisely, but I'd say that at most, we should be able to put away the IV after a week. Something wrong?" he asked, hearing the kaitou hum thoughtfully.

"Uhm... no, not really. I'm just wondering how will I keep myself and thus you guys from going insane~" Kuroba answered with a wicked grin. It wasn't a lie, not really.

He didn't expect the period to be this long, but then again it could have been longer. He could have been also dead… So he couldn't complain that there was anything really 'wrong'. But there was just something bothering him about it... Did he forget about something? He could recall some little stuff. Like showing his face here and there, but thankfully he was busy lately so he didn't have any particular appointments planned, so it was doubtful that anybody would notice his absence. So what was it..?

"If you say so..." The detective apparently decided to leave the topic. "Anyway, if you'll need anything, just say so and we'll see what we can do about it, alright? But as for now, I'd really like to examine you, so you could finally eat something. Afterwards Haibara-san will want to take a blood sample from you." He gave Kaito an unimpressed stare, as the magician snorted. "Also, I believe Kudo and Hattori can't wait to see you back in the world of the living."

'And interrogate me, while they're at it…' the kaitou added in his mind, but didn't voice it and held back a sigh. "Well in that case, don't let me stop you, doc~" he answered instead with a playful smirk on his face, before his expression softened. "But Hakuba? Thanks. I mean it. I owe you guys big time." he added with a sincere smile.

The blond smiled back, but shook his head, before flashing a stark light in the magician's eyes, efficiently obstructing his vision. "You're welcome, but you don't owe us anything, Kuroba. And I didn't do much to begin with."

The kaitou snorted, holding back his reflex to jerk away from the flashlight. He wasn't sure what role did either of the detectives played in his rescue, but it was obvious that at the very least, his classmate watched over him and did his best to care for him. Worrying sick in the process. And besides that, he also helped to keep his secret safe. And if that wasn't a big deal, Kaito wasn't sure what was. But he didn't say anything, sparing Saguru further abashment. Instead, he allowed the detective to examine him, complying with any requests and answering his questions. In the meantime, he focused on his own body, carefully studying his current limitations.


After finishing, Saguru sighed with what sounded like relief, although Kaito wasn't as happy with his inspection. The sluggishness of his mind, which burdened him so heavily after he woke up, was still there, but it was subsiding rather fast, making it bearable. It was good news, but since it was caused by the dormitive they gave him, it wasn't really an important factor to focus on. Same went for the trembling in his hands, that unsurprisingly applied to his whole body, when he tried applying pressure to his muscles. Unfortunately, as expected, it only seemed to strengthen as time went by and he grew more weary. It might not have been a worrying symptom, but it was still unnerving for the kaitou, as it made him feel weak and defenseless.

There was also the matter of how long it took him to get his sight back to normal, after Hakuba flashed him in the eyes. He wasn't sure what to make of it and Saguru confirmed that it seemed to take his pupils longer to grow than it took them to narrow. For the time being they decided to observe it, hopefully it would go away. Thankfully, aside from that, his eyesight seemed more or less normal, maybe slightly blurry, but it wasn't surprising now.

As expected, the dizziness intensified with movement, but again that was most likely due to the IV drip with painkillers. More worrying was that his reaction time was slower and he had less control over his reflexes than usual, but for now he could probably also blame that on the dormitive, or the IV, or both. Fortunately his pain and joint reactions were intact, so his nervous system must have been fine, like Saguru predicted. Also his memory, aside from the haze covering what happened after the heist, seemed fine with both recalling past events as well as short term memories.

As he moved his body for the examination, he noticed that he was in overall pain. Mostly he could identify it as afterimage pain, but it was still worrying. What concerned him more was that his breath was significantly shallower and it hurt him when he tried to deepen it, forcing coughs out of him. He also noticed that his heart stung, as it beat faster. After taking off his shirt, he was highly alarmed by how swollen his abdomen seemed, but Hakuba assured him that organ edema was a common post poisoning symptom and should pass after up to 5 days. Thankfully, lung auscultation didn't reveal liquid lingering inside of them, so there was no immediate threat. He just had to be careful.

He was surprised to notice a few white patches on his chest, but Saguru informed him that it was a part of the wireless heart monitor and asked Kaito to not toy with it. It was somewhat amusing to play guinea pig for a new invention and he wondered what other functions the crazy professor added to the device. He was just itching to test it. He didn't really want to prank anyone with this, but some ideas still started popping into his head anyway~

The detective got up to unveil and open the window to let the sunlight and fresh air inside, while the magician sunk into the pillows behind him. It was annoying how tired he was feeling already.

"Are you alright, Kuroba?" the blonde asked with apparent worry in his tone, as he turned back from the window.

"Yeah… Just tired and hungry," he replied with a small smirk.

And it was true, from the time Hakuba first mentioned food, his stomach started waking up and reminding how much the kaitou neglected it lately. At least it had the decency to do it in silence…

Saguru snorted with amusement. "Alright then. I'll bring you something to eat and ask Kudo and Hattori to keep you company, so you don't get any stupid ideas."

Kaito blinked innocently at his classmate. "Why would you think that I might get any stupid ideas?"

The Brit rolled his eyes, still smiling. "Why indeed…" he muttered more to himself, while exiting the room and leaving the door open.

The magician guessed that Saguru would want to share what he found out with the others, at least briefly, meaning he had a few moments for himself. He dropped his smile and slumped in the bed. Even if he could, there was no point in running away. He lost and that was it. Besides, one couldn't escape from gratitude and he owed his life to the detectives. And what was worse, it wouldn't end with a one-time event. He hated the idea of burdening them with caring for him, but arguing about it would be even more humiliating, since this was the best solution now anyway…

This all just sucked big time. He wasn't bitter about getting caught, not really. He knew that he wouldn't manage to avoid it forever, but it wasn't supposed to happen like this! But he always expected that it would happen either because he slipped, or his detectives would finally outwit him. However it would happen, it was supposed to be grand! And this was just sad... He got caught, because he skipped a bit of sleep and they had to save his sorry ass. And he didn't even remember most of it! He felt so cheated out of his finale... Yeah, so it might be childish of him. Screw it. There wasn't much he was actually looking forward to lately, so this did make him feel terribly disappointed.

He could of course try blaming others for it. He could even try blaming Lady Luck... But it depends on how one looked at it, right? In the end, despite how much he screwed up, he did survive, because that one time he failed to run away. So he rather should thank Lady Luck instead. Although... he had a nasty feeling that the whole occurrence had something to do with his detectives' apparent curse. Because seriously, if a regular person, living outside of particularly dangerous areas, encountered two murders in their whole life time, it was considered a lot. And as far as he knew, Tantei-kun could feel lucky, if he encountered only two murders a month! That was insane... He sighed heavily. Not like he would tell them about his suspicions. That would be too mean, even for him. And he certainly didn't want them to think that they weren't welcome on his events. Especially since he knew how much fun it gave them.

His gaze fell on the empty glass between his palms and he picked it up with one hand. It was pointless to struggle with it, until he dealt with the trembling, but he just had to distract himself from the grim thoughts about the possible outcome and physical activity always was the best for it. He focused on balancing out the involuntary movements with his tardy reflexes, while drawing back successive fingers. It was horribly hard in his current state, but after few attempts he managed to somehow keep it up on just two fingers, when a sudden knock on the door broke his focus and the glass fell on the quilt. Damn it... He wasn't even able to catch it.


Kaito raised his gaze, concealing his annoyance behind his Poker Face and noticed the two expected detectives stepping inside.

"Hey KID~ How are you feeling~?" Heiji asked teasingly with a mischievous smirk on his lips.

Of course Tantei-han wouldn't miss the opportunity to boast his victory. The bed-ridden kaitou snorted and replied airily. "Oh you know~ Just peachy~ But I want you to know that I'm not acknowledging this. This clearly wasn't fair. I demand a rematch!" he added with a pout and crossed his arms.

The Osakan laughed at that. "Oh yeah? Well, nobody told you to go and get yourself poisoned, you ahou. We won fair and square, so deal with it!"

"Oh come on, cut me some slack-"

Heiji snorted and cut in, before the magician could finish. "No go. Maybe this will teach you to take better care of yourself, or at least ask for help when you're in a tight spot!"

Kaito waved the matter off and replied with a dismissive tone. "Hai, hai..." He didn't think it would work, but it was still a bit of fun to try.

The Osakan glared at him, apparently not pleased with his attitude. "Oi! I'm serious here!"

He sighed heavily. "Yeah, I know." He raised his sincere gaze and looked from one detective to the other. "And I am grateful to you guys. Really. I will make it up to you somehow."

Heiji rolled his eyes and looked away, abashed. "Ahou. Just stop avoiding us and acting like nothing is going on, and we'll be square, alright?"

In the meantime, Conan managed to climb on the chair next to the bed and now he spoke up with serious expression. "Kuroba. We would have saved anyone, even if we didn't consider them our friend. And you might have your flaws, but you are a good guy. And despite all odds, we do like you. So there's no need for you to feel obliged to do anything in return. Besides…" He smirked. "You've done already quite a lot of favors to us. Especially me."

"Heh…" Kaito turned away his gaze. The problem was that this wasn't the truth and he was quite sure all of them knew it. They were going to want him to pay the debt - even if they preferred to call it differently.

To prevent the awkward silence, Heiji decided to change the topic. "You thirsty?" He gave a pointed look at the glass, undoubtedly noticing the wet droplet stains on the cover.

"Not unless you want to turn me into a camel~ Hakuba made sure I had enough." He explained with a smirk.

"Somehow I don't feel like apologizing for it." Saguru spoke up with slight amusement, walking into the room with a tray in his hands. He placed it before Kaito. "I hope you don't mind that we didn't ask you for your preferences beforehand, but this should help-" he was saying, while uncovering the plate, when suddenly he got startled by a shriek.

Kaito was about to make a snarky comment about eating in the detectives' presence when the thought evaporated from his head in an instant he saw… IT staring at him with those dead-dead eyes. He got caught completely off guard and before he could get a hold of himself, he shrieked, and jerked violently in his defensive reaction, to get away from the fried finny monster. Seriously! Why people thought it was a good idea to prepare them whole?! It was disgusting and creepy as hell! He kicked the tray by accident, making it fly up and while gustily pulling away, he ripped the needle out of his arm and collided with the wall behind him, painfully hitting his head. He would have fallen out of the bed, if Conan didn't support him from the side. The pain sobered Kaito enough. He clapped a hand over his wound to stop the bleeding and shifted his weight to lean over the wall, doing his best to hold back the trembles shaking his whole body. He closed his eyes and pressed his injured arm to himself, as could barely catch his breath from pain and accelerated heart rate. He tried his best to conceal the signs of his panic as fast as he could, but the usually helpful adrenaline running in his veins wasn't doing him any favors now. His body cried for more oxygen, but he wasn't able to take a deep breath to fulfill the need!

With a curse on his lips, Heiji darted to him and helped Shinichi secure the magician on the bed. "What was that all about? Are you fine-?"

"That's what I would like to know. I thought you promised to keep him from jumping around the room once he woke…" a very unimpressed an annoyed voice said from the entrance.

Kaito cracked his eyes open and his gaze fell on the little girl, staring at the mess inside and his gasping self. She was dressed in a lab coat and was holding a small monitor in her hand, which she slipped back into her pocket. The aura of cold rage around her made the kaitou suppress a different kind of shudder. It was of course unnecessarily, since even if something slipped, nobody would distinguish it from the trembles from his strained muscles. But it definitely wasn't amusing how such a small person could be so intimidating. And it didn't help him gather his racing thoughts to make a believable excuse either. Fortunately Tantei-kun didn't seem to have such predicament, as he smiled sheepishly and replied.

"Sorry about that, Haibara. It appears that our guest has a severe fish allergy."

She raised an eyebrow, clearly disbelieving. "An allergy?" She turned her evaluating gaze at the thief, who was still struggling with getting a grip over himself and his breath.

"Yeah, a really bad one. Deadly even," he gasped out hastily and cleared his throat recalling that he shouldn't be acting like that. "Um- My apologies, Ojou-san?" he added, trying to slip on his KID-persona. But it shouldn't sound like a question. Gods… this was so humiliating! He wished the ground would swallow him up…

She narrowed her calculating gaze and hummed. Kaito's lungs burned like they were on fire, as he nearly stopped breathing. His mind was a mess and he wasn't sure if he wouldn't have jumped out of the window, if not for the two detectives standing on both of his sides.

Finally she sighed with annoyance and stuffed her hands in her pockets. "Whatever. Any other allergies or other predicaments I should take into account, Magician in the Moonlight-san?"

Oh man, how he hated his life at the moment. This had to be a nightmare… Despite it, he managed to smile and relax his posture somewhat on the bed. "Not that I know of. Thank you for your concern. I'm truly sorry for causing such turmoil."

"Well, it does seem to be your specialty, anyway," she replied with a smirk and turned to exit the room. "I'll bring another cannula. Kudo-kun, go ask the Professor to heat up yesterday's vegetable stew, meanwhile you two handle the mess, will you?" She added with one last glance at the two remaining detectives and left the room.

"I hate it when she acts like this…" Shinichi commented with dry amusement. "I'll be right back," he added with a compassionate smile and stepped to the door as well.

Saguru sighed, wiping off some rice off his cheek. "Well, anyway, this at least explains some of the inside jokes Aoko-kun has seemed to be annoying you with… Are you sure you're alright now?" He asked, casting a glance at his classmate, who only replied with a nod, apparently focused on getting his body under his control again. "I'll go fetch the first aid kit then. Would you take care of the sheets, Hattori?" he asked, picking up most of the dish and covering it again, so that the magician wouldn't see it anymore.

Heiji smirked. "Yeah, sure~" he replied and walked over to remove the stained quilt, after he confirmed with a quick glance that the kaitou wouldn't bleed out in the meantime.

Hakuba left the room, taking the tray with the fish away with him, much to Kaito's relief. The magician closed his eyes and did his best to relax and get the racing heartbeat under control again.

Heiji raised his gaze after Saguru and smirked. He turned to the magician, who was already breathing peacefully, apparently having recollected from the shock already. Not that he'd expect less. A grin formed on his lips. A little tease wouldn't hurt and could nicely improve the mood~

"But I'd never guess that the Great Kaitou KID was afraid of fish~"

Kaito's heart fastened again, before it could calm down after the first attack and he visibly tensed, shooting a glare at the detective. "Didn't you hear the Heisei Holmes, Tantei-han? It's an allergy…"

The tanned teen glared back, but otherwise ignored his comment, clearly taking satisfaction in how the kaitou reacted to the forbidden word. "But why fish? I do get sharks, but I don't think there is anything intimidating in a trout."

His body didn't have the time to recover from the previous adrenaline strike, when he was stabbed with pain again. It made the magician struggle harder to hide it from the teasing detective. But the burning in his lungs was getting too much to bear. There was just no way this day could turn out any worse! Now his nightmare about getting chased by his pursuers armed with the slimy monsters seemed so probable!

"Jeez! Alright, I admit I have ichthyophobia. Happy now? Could you drop it already?" he growled out with anger.

This was the last thing he would want to admit, but Tantei-han wasn't stopping and talking was getting too hard for Kaito. He just couldn't slow down his heart and had no way of supplying it with enough air. His mind unhelpfully supplied him with an image of the Osakan bringing in the finny monster, in case he kept on denying. He felt another pang of adrenaline and his vision started darkening.

Heiji blinked in surprise and raised his arms. "Oi, oi. You ok? Sorry man. Just wanted to lighten the mood a bit. I didn't think it's so bad for you."

Kaito shook his head and gasped out, clenching his eyelids. "It's not- I can't..." He couldn't hold back his frantic gasps anymore.

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't force himself to take a deeper breath. Like his lungs were just too small. So he was limited to shallow, frantic gasps, which only worsened both his pain and oxygen deprivation. He curled on his left side and barely registered Hattori grabbing his arm and suppressing the wound, which he could no longer hold himself. What was worse, his body was reacting to the emotions shifts around him, increasing his already abnormal anxiety. He tried to say something to calm, or at least chase the sources away, but there was no way he could do it.


"Kuroba!" Heiji cursed out loud and pressed his palm to the magician's forehead. "It's ok, you're going to be ok, you hear? You're not feverish, so it's not a relapse, you just need to calm down. Take a deep breath. Hyperventilating is not helping you, man-!" He tried frantically to reassure the kaitou, on edge of panic himself.

"Hattori!" Saguru gasped out as he rushed to the room, with a first aid kit, a few steps ahead of the two shrunken teens. "What happened?" he urged, as he pressed a finger to his classmate's neck to check the pulse. He cursed under his breath.

The Osakan shook his head, his gaze still focused on Kaito, desperate to find a way to help him. "I don't know! He was fine, so we teased a little and then-"

"You WHAT?! You hopeless fool! When will you learn that just because he looks fine, it doesn't mean that he is fine! How-"

"Shut up and leave. Both of you." The stoic, cold as steel tone of the tiny girl cut through the Brit's rant. "Kudo-kun..." She turned to the boy who came in behind her. "Dart him."

"On it," Shinichi mumbled, taking out from his pocket the tranquilizer watch and firing the dart at the gasping kaitou.

Kaito flinched after getting struck with the needle, making his gasps more irregular, staining each exhale with a pined whine.

Heiji cursed again. "It's not working on him!"

"It is. But his adrenaline is fighting the effect. But as it is, we can't give him anything stronger that would knock him out faster. No need anyway. He will pass out from this, if you stop freaking out like this around him and finally allow him to calm down." Haibara explained calmly. "This is why I told you to leave," she added with a heavy glare.

"But-" the Osakan mumbled, wanting to argue and stay, but got cut off by Conan's calm voice.

"Guys, come on, don't make it any harder. There's nothing you can help anyway. Arguing over him won't help. He needs quiet to sleep. So just leave and calm down, please. I'll dress his wound."

Reluctantly the two teens stepped away and walked towards the entrance, casting worried glances, until the door closed behind them. Shinichi replaced Hattori at the magician's side and placed a Band-Aid on his injury. Not applying pressure on it would leave a nasty bruise, but it was more important to give Kaito space now. He noticed that the kaitou's eyelids were cracked open. Conan wasn't sure if he was seeing him, but he still patted the magician's hand and murmured.

"It's ok, just sleep. You'll be fine once you rest."

He stepped away to make place for Haibara, who calmly pressed the stethoscope's handset to the thief's chest. Shinichi hid a soft smirk, noticing the small heart monitor weighting her coat pocket. She obviously preferred to confirm her patient's state directly. Conan knew how much stress this whole situation had cost her. At first, she didn't want to help at all, apparently scared that her skills weren't good enough to save KID. That because of this, she would witness the man who saved her first die in front of her eyes. He wasn't sure how much she slept, spending the majority of her time first developing and then improving the cure for him. She wanted not only to keep him alive, but to also repair any damage caused by the poison.

After a few moments, Ai retracted her hand from KID and took off the stethoscope, taking out a cannula from a sterile packaging. "He's sleeping now, apparently the drug worked. I'll have to ask Hakase how long will it take for him to finish with the ultrasound device."

Shinichi raised an eyebrow and focused his gaze on the kaitou. He was still gasping, but did seem to be calming down now. The detective noticed that the blood started sipping from under the too small Band-Aid, so he searched the kit for a gauze and bandage. "Did you hear something worrying?" he whispered softly as well, to not disturb the sleeping teen.

Ai shook her head, while securing the needle in magician's right arm. "No, but I'm not an expert. I'd rather take a look to make sure. But he will still need to see a real doctor after we'll finish the treatment." She added for what felt like a hundred time.

Conan held back a snort and moved his gaze towards her. "I know and we will arrange that. But try not to worry. He is strong. I'm sure his heart is in top condition, from all the training he does. You saw him, despite his state now, he clearly doesn't have a habit of neglecting himself. He'll be fine, you'll see."

She huffed and stepped around the bed to get to the other side. "Pass me the IV, will you? It should be at this side now, if we don't want him to rip it again."

"Sure." The boy climbed on to the bed. "Should we roll him on his back?" he asked, passing the medicine drip.

"No, we better not disturb him. Could you stay with him?" she asked while securing the IV over the bed. "I have to get back to the lab and it would be bad if he fell out of the bed, or stopped breathing. Hakuba-san mentioned that his anxiety level is still unnaturally high, I should do something about it. I'm also worried by his slow pupil reaction… And if he'll start eating, I could lower the glycan. Although… Maybe it would be better to consider the feeding tube."

"Oi, oi… you know that's unnecessarily intrusive and is always avoided by the doctors, unless there's no other choice. And you said it yourself that it is better to cut the dormitive anyway. So if he can eat, we should let him, instead of risking hurting his throat as well. This now was an accident, we had no way of knowing about his phobia. Before that, he wasn't trying to run or pull any tricks. It'll be fine now. He isn't that stupid to risk his life unless he can't help it."

She glared at him, not believing his words, but huffed. "Fine. Just make sure he stays in bed this time," she grumbled and walked towards the door.

Shinichi smirked, quietly watching her leave. He turned his gaze towards his sleeping rival-friend, whose breath wasn't as frantic anymore. The detective carefully pushed away his bangs and checked the temperature on his forehead. He sighed with relief and gave him a gentle stroke on his hair, before retracting his hand.

"Sheesh, idiot… Could you just give up on scaring us like this?" he mumbled fondly and got off the bed to wrap the magician's injury, wondering where Agasa kept a spare blanket.


Shinichi can be sweet sometimes as well, right~?

I did originally plan to pull this chapter a bit further, but first of all, I didn't want to rush it or make a longer time slip. So the next chapter will start immediately after this. Besides – I do think it is a nice ending~ (and surprisingly without a cliffhanger this time xD)

See you next chapter *grins*