In the days up to the release of her 4th book and even the days after were hectic to say the least, her previous books were all about mystery and crime and this was her first romance based book. Albeit with a small hint of mystery. That's why Aoko was very shocked to see the popularity of the book, she'd been to book signings, interview panels and was even on the morning news. She even got to meet some old friends at her book release party.

Apart from dodging questions about the inspiration for her character, especially the new fictional heart throb she'd created, she couldn't have been happier. Well apart from one other thing, Kaito hadn't turned up to any of them. She was pretty sure he wasn't dead, after all he'd hosted a heist the night before her book was released. She thought she saw him at the party, but the only person fitting the description at the party was Kudo Shinichi and as good as he is at disguises, she didn't think he'd be able to fool Ran for that long. If he'd come in disguise he didn't make himself known. Which in truth disappointed her, she was over the moon with the popularity of this book, but the person who'd inspired it wasn't there.

After the initial heat of popularity had cooled down, she suddenly had a lot of free time to spend with her friends and family. She'd been invited to the Shinichi and Ran's anniversary party, which was just so glamorous and elegant, she knew Kaito would have fit right in. He'd been invited apparently, she had arrived late due to a meeting, which meant they just missed each other, but the apologetic look on Kazuha's face said he had left because of her. However that couldn't stop her from having fun, especially since all her friends were there.

She caught up with her high school friends, Keiko was getting married so she was invited to their engagement party. Another was pregnant so she was invited to their baby shower. And another had found someone they wanted to spend the rest of their life with. Aoko felt like she should have been happier for them, their lives were all progressing, whilst she couldn't bring herself to get over Kaito.


She met up with Chikage when she got back to Japan and was showered with all sorts of gifts from America, they spent the day catching up and chatting. They were currently sitting in her living room, after dinner, sharing a bottle of wine Chikage had bought.

'Say Aoko-chan, what happened between you and my idiot of a son? The last time I asked about you, he wouldn't say, he had that look, you know the cute sulky one. And you know what? The last time he made that face was that time you two fought about that date you had with that guy from the cafe. Except he looked more exhausted this time.'

'Ah, we had a fight, and I haven't really seen him since.'

'A fight? You fight all the time right? What was so different that you're ignoring each other. It's clearly making the both of you sad.'

'It was about,' she took a sip of her wine, 'it was about Kaitou Kid.' Chikage shot her a confused look, from when they were in high school they had small fights about Kaito's alter ego, but most ended fine. Aoko glanced up and down a few time, opening her mouth to speak, but stopping each time. 'Oh that idiot,' Chikage sighed, it had finally clicked, her idiot son had divulged his deepest secret to someone he loved and it hadn't gone well. 'Well what did he tell you? Did he at least tell you why?'

'You knew?'

'Oh please give me some credit Aoko-chan, I'm his mother, he can't keep something like that from me. Well he did, I'm just smarter than he thinks.'

'I didn't figure it out though, all these years, every time I doubted him. Every time Hakuba or my father or even Akako said something about it, I shut them up. Every time. I made sure he was with me when the heists happened, I tried to keep myself away from the truth,' she took a deep breath in, she'd been avoiding talking to herself about this, or to anyone about this. 'When he told me, I was more upset at myself, you know? Upset that I basically tricked myself into this.'

Chikage slowly nodded in understanding, 'and Aoko-chan? It sounds like you're not angry at him?'

'No I am, just more at myself. But even an idiot like Kaito would have a reason to do something as dangerous as that. And that annoyed me, he didn't even want to tell me the reason. Put me in danger, yeah right, I wouldn't care about that if it was for him.'

Chikage chuckled lightly, 'so if he didn't tell you the reason, what did he even say?'

'He didn't say much really, but that's more my fault, after he refused to tell me the reason, I sort of didn't let him talk,' she took a long sip of her wine, nearly draining her glass. She looked back at the woman sat opposite her, 'I said so much I didn't mean, and he, that absolute idiot. He told me he loved me. Loved me enough to protect me from the truth.'

Chikage stared at her in disbelief for some time, her son had confessed he was in love with the girl. The one he had often said he could never express his feelings to yet. 'That was unexpected,' she watched as Aoko poured herself another glass and nodded to statement. 'And you haven't seen him since?'

She shrugged, 'well he's clearly alive, but he's steering clear away from me. I mean he left Ran and Shinichi's party early and he didn't even bother to make an appearance at my book release party. Even Hakuba-kun was there, Hakuba! He flew over from London for some business, but he came to congratulate me. Hell I never even got along with Akako-chan, but she was there.'

'At all? Not even for a few minutes?'

'None at all.'

Chikage sighed, she knew her son, he was definitely there at Aoko's party. No matter what she said would keep him from being there to see her proud and happy look as she announced her new book. Well he sure seemed excited for it's release whenever they'd talk, apparently the love interest was supposed to be as good looking as he was.

'But it's fine, I'm fine. I can't keep thinking about him,' she was definitely drinking too much wine, though not much could be done to stop her now. Heartbreak was best cured with alcohol, well not really, but since Aoko was clearly not going to tell the truth sober, Chikage decided she would see what a drunk Aoko would tell her.

And as expected drunk Aoko had so much to tell, she talked about all the things they did when they lived together. How he would buy flowers for her, just for fun or because they reminded him of her. Chikage couldn't help but smile, they really were in love, no matter how they denied it, just friends do not spend rainy days curled up together on the sofa.

Drunk Aoko also admitted to missing him, hoping he would turn up at parties or even to say congratulations. She had half wanted to go to his heist, hoping to catch a glimpse of him, of that smug smirk she'd secretly loved. Or maybe just leave flowers or a card that said something or the other, she missed him so much.

Chikage let her drift off to sleep, carefully moving her to a more comfortable position and placing a blanket over her. She then looked through Aoko's fridge to cook something she could heat up in the morning. She cleaned up a little before leaving, unlike the girl who was currently fast asleep, she'd only had about 2 glasses of wine, both of which were an hour ago. She tried to be as quiet as possible when leaving, but she doubted anyone could wake her up now.

She sighed to herself as she walked out of the building, she'd already called for a taxi which was already here, so as she headed back home she considered whether to call her son and tell the idiot to at least call. She eventually decided against it, she was seeing him tomorrow and she could always (very easily) make the conversation about Aoko.