It's been a year and a few days since I last updated. Whups?

I've also re-read the story up to this point. If you're still with me I'm glad, because I understand the complaint of the chapters not being long enough (I realize I was also not overly clear in a way with some details). Some chapters were written on tablet where I had issues with editing and I'd spend a good like, 3 hours on a 2 page document.

I hand wrote 5 pages worth of story and was starting to type it when I found that not only was I about to have Kaito take a second bath within a 12 hour time-span, but that I'd totally forgotten how I'd concluded the previous chapter due to how I was mentally deciding on how to write this chapter. I lost details, and hopefully this chapter is worth the wait. Especially since it's like writing two chapters in one night since I have to completely disregard what I wrote before, haha.

Kaito was at a complete loss as he watched Conan pace his living room, chin in his hand as he thought things through. Deciding drinks were in order he went and got a few glasses and poured some of the juice they'd bought at the convenience store into them before grabbing a few bags of chips and setting them on his front-room table. Sitting on the couch he continued to watch his house-guest threadbare his carpet with a bored look on his face, "So are you going to explain that comment or am I going to waste away into a skeleton while waiting?"

Conan stopped and looked at him with glazed eyes, not particularly seeing him until he snapped out of it, "...what?"

"Y'know," the magician waved a hand, "Those pictures with captions online that depicts waiting forever for something like the third installment of a video game series that's had too many sequels and prequels and it's a skeleton?"

Conan slowly raised an eyebrow, "What? I… yes. Sorry, I just…" The boy slumped in defeat, "I'm trying to figure out where to start."

Kaito tilted his head towards the seat next to him on the couch, "Take your juice and start talking. That's the whole point of you being here, right? It's already been an hour of silence, you could at least give me benefit of an hour of non-stop talking to make up for it."

Conan smirked before it quickly deflated. He trudged over and hopped onto the couch, Kaito placing his guest's cup in his hands. After a long drink Conan stared into it as if it had all the answers in the world, "You know about your father being my mother's teacher in the art of disguise and stuff, right?"

Kaito nodded, "Yeah, what of it?"

"There was another person he taught at the same time."

He leaned back and thought for a moment, "...Vineyard?"

"Sharon Vineyard to be exact. Who also happens to be Chris Vineyard."

A pause, a blink, "What?"

Conan shrugged, "Mom doesn't get it either, but somehow her friend Sharon has stopped aging or something and after 'killing off' Sharon Vineyard she became her own daughter Chris Vineyard."

Kaito gaped at him, "If it weren't for you sitting here next to me, Kudo Shinichi, I'd think you were absolutely insane."

Conan barked out a laugh before continuing, "That's not even the half of it."

The magician slumped and waved at him to continue, "Yeah, yeah, go on."

"That's how you're involved- well, the start of it anyway." He sighed, "Up until recently, it could really just be said that you had a very slim connection to my mess...but I pulled you into it. I had you help me during the Bell Tree Express to help protect my friend without much of an explanation. Considering who her teacher was and that he's your father, I'm sure she put two and two together if she saw your hang-glider."

Kaito nodded a bit before raising an eyebrow, "But how does that effect anything? What does that even mean?"

Closing his eyes as if in prayer for a moment, he re-gathered his thoughts before taking another sip of his drink and turning to him, "It all- for me, really started with a date to Tropical Land to congratulate Ran on winning her Regional Karate Championship. I'd promised her because I lost her cellphone in a sewage drain after a murder case in an aquarium."

Kaito stared at him incredulously, "Really Kudo?"

The shrunken teen shrugged helplessly and responded irritably, "It started raining and I forgot to take the phone out of her hood. She made me promise to replace it."

"But why was- y'know what? Nevermind." Aquarium, fish, eeaauchk. No thank you.

Slightly puzzled, yet nonplussed he continued, "So anyway. Tropical Land. The day went on as usual with nearly no incident until we got onto the Mystery Coaster. Everything kind of went to hell after that."

"...Someone got murdered didn't they."

"Yeah."

Kaito sighed, "Great date." Figures.

Conan smirked before going back into his story, "Yeah… so while waiting for the Police to finish their crime-scene analysis I noticed that two really shady guys in black who rode on the coaster with us kept harassing the cops to let them go because they had nothing to do with it."

"Once everything was solved Ran and I were walking around while she recovered from the murderer's sob-story. It was then that I noticed one of the guys in black run off into an unusual area that no normal patron would go to, so I told Ran not to wait up for me and go home while I ran off after the guy."

Kaito cringed, "I can only guess where this is going."

Conan nodded, "I took out my camera to take some photos for evidence while the guy made some deal and threats towards a nervous businessman. In my pursuit of Truth I stopped paying attention to my surroundings and the guy's partner came from behind and I got clubbed in the back on the head for my negligence. While trying to get my bearings I felt something being slipped into my mouth and some water and not-thinking I swallowed. After that I was on fire.

I was certain I was dieing.

Next thing I know there's the beam of a flashlight in my face, a security officer asking if I'm ok and calling over his radio about an injured child in the back of the park.

I ran, confused and in pain. Ran and ran until I could no longer breath only to realize in the reflection of a store-glass window that I was a child. Poison doesn't change you into a child, it kills you! It made no sense! So I ran to Agasa-hakase to get help because he was the first one I thought of that might be able to cure me of whatever scientific madness had happened. After that I ended up in Ran's care when she came over to my house to check on me."

Kaito nodded, leaning back into the couch as he stared at the ceiling, a hand drumming his fingers on his knee as he absorbed this information. "So do you know who poisoned you?"

"Gin and Vodka."

He squinted and turned his attention back to his house-guest, "Alcohol?"

"The shady guys in black were part of a much larger organization. The Black Organization, who's members are codenamed by kinds of alcohol."

His neck prickled, "So how does any of this relate to my dad's student?"

"Sharon… Chris Vineyard is Vermouth."

Ice settled into Kaito's gut, "Oh... and I had that conversation with that other agent on the train… uh…"

"Bourbon, Vermouth's underling."

"Lovely, doesn't he work at the Poirot Cafe underneath the agency?"

"Yup- Wait, how do you know about-"

He quickly cut him off, "What about that guy living in your house?"

Conan rose an eyebrow, "Do you honestly want to know?"

"You know what? No. Nevermind." Kaito waved his arms in a moment of surrender, "I don't think I need to know much more than that right now. So in short, you started having a panic attack because I was relatively safe and ignorant of everything until you dragged me in on the Bell Tree Express to protect your friend. She seems to have been pretty involved with the Organization. Was she a member too?"

The boy was silent, taking another drink from his juice as he meditated on it, "...She was the one who made the poison that shrunk me… us. It's not really your business to know but… Haibara was known as Sherry while in the Organization until she took the poison herself and ended up like me. She's my main hope in getting back to...myself."

"I knew you were way too deep into something, considering I had to escape from an exploding train car. I told myself I'd have absolutely nothing to do with it again, and here we are. You owe me so bad it's not funny."

Conan smirked in a depreciating manner, "You're right."

Kaito sat up straight, crossing his arms, "Darn right you- wait no, that was too easy." he looked at him skeptically, "What's the catch?"

"Knowing puts you in danger. You, your family, even your neighbor's best friend's pet parrot in danger." He paused, "Secrecy. I know you have no problem with secrets considering your moonlighting, but Kuroba. I've dragged you into it- you're now stuck with me. I'll think it's my fault if anything were to happen to you… you or you as KID."

Kaito looked at him, analysing him for a long moment, "I think you take too much onto yourself. You can't save everyone, you certainly haven't done that good of a job of it for yourself."

Conan looked him in the eyes with a hard look, "I'll be damned if I don't at least try my best to stop innocent people from dieing. I'm no savior, but I won't sit idly by either. That's why I'm a detective. It's to give clarity to the truth covered in darkness."

Kaito sighed. He appreciated Kudo's tenacious pursuit of truth when it came to murderer's, considering how his own father. However, sometimes detectives were both a little too unimaginative while being overly dramatic. Hakuba came to mind for a moment before turning his attention back to Conan, "So why are you here? Why did you need to escape from your girlfriend?"

Conan opened his mouth to retort with a blush in denial before he simply smirked and ignored his jibe, "She figured me out."

"...So you're losing sleep over that?"

Conan shook his head sobered, "I've seen how the Black Organization wipes out any trace of themselves. They will not only kill anyone they think might know, but they will destroy any and all evidence. Burning down a house with the family inside is not out of their scope of probability. They've used explosives in a restaurant in broad daylight to cover their tracks. How would you feel if telling Aoko about KID put her life in danger?"

Kaito eyebrows narrowed as he answered immediately with grave seriousness, "I'd leave before that."

"And yet here I am, living with the person I love and want to protect most, who's ignorance was her only shield for safety. She knows who I am and hasn't asked for answers. It was hurting us both before when she didn't know… when she didn't have her absolute truth, yet now she needs to know so that she can properly protect herself. It's eating me to leave her without an explanation, and she is fine with not asking."

It was with this that Kaito understood. He'd lost sleep plenty of times trying to decide whether or not to tell Aoko about his double life, his identity as KID. The possibilities of her hating him for it... Suddenly the idea struck him with terror that she would actually listen and forgive him for it. To still love him (as a friend of course) and understand his reasoning for becoming KID and hurting her.

It was unfathomable.

It was exactly what Ran had done for Conan… for Kudo.

He'd received forgiveness, and it was killing him inside from his guilt.

"I'm going to call Mouri-chan and have her brought over in the morning."

Conan jumped, spilling the remains of his juice on the floor, "You can't!"

He stared the shrunken teen down, "I can, and I will, because you need to talk to her and this house is the furthest away from anyone you've made contact with."

Conan surrendered.

Please let me know what you think or the chapter! See you next time!