Edinburgh II: The Second Performance

Stand by your man
Give him two arms to cling to

Glenmore Manor was a stately property in the heart of Cheshire Falls. Originally spanning over 15 acres, the property was since subdivided by the township and its land was parceled out to independent contractors. The Glenmore District, thus, was vast and varied in its zoning; Glenmore Manor, an event venue now, was bordered by nothing less than a brownstone apartment building, a gothic marbled bank, a dog park, and an abandoned textile warehouse.

Kaito was camped out on the roof of the bank, binoculars pressed to his eyes as he scanned the manor's side windows.

Inside, a wedding party was carrying on. Stony-faced men in deep black suits were standing around, sipping at their glasses as they chatted with humorless voices to (not with) the other guests. It was funny – the bride, whoever she was, was nowhere to be seen. Kaito doubted he'd overlooked her; her big white outfit would have made her impossible to miss. He snickered at the idea of dropping into the manor in his own unmissable big white outfit.

Unfortunately, the bride wasn't the only thing he couldn't find. The jewel he was after – the Miracle Brooch, a multicolored agate relic from the reign of Queen Victoria – seemed to be nowhere at all. He sighed and put the binoculars down. If he couldn't see it from here, he'd just have to get closer.

Content with his observations for the moment, Kaito rose up and smoothed his black suit and tie out, before pulling a mask of thin latex over his face. He scaled down the side of the bank and crept to the front of the property, before taking a breath and sinking fully into the character of a simple wedding guest.

He strode into the mansion confidently, an air of leisure about him, never betraying the razor-sharp attention his eyes held on the party. His eyes darted about, seeking the obstacles he knew he needed to keep track of.

Agent Galambos; spotted, smoking a pipe against the left parlor wall.

The Viscount of Cawdor, owner of the Miracle Brooch; spotted, slapping a fellow guest on the shoulder after telling a particularly loud joke.

Hakuba, professional pain in the ass; not spotted?!

"So you decided to show, after all," a smooth voice slithered in his ear.

He whirled around to come face to face with the voice's owner.

Akako? Dammit, he should have expected her. He tried not to let the surprise show on his face – knowing full well the attempt was useless in the face of her all-knowing powers, but that was beside the point. "I'm sorry, miss, do I know you?"

"Don't treat me like a fool, Kuroba," Akako hissed. "Drop the act."

"Ku-ro-ba?" Kaito attempted, fumbling the Japanese syllables as much as possible in his perfect adopted English accent. "I believe you have me mistaken."

Akako's face turned cherry red. "You insufferable – obstinate - hellspawn demon! I will not repeat my warning: leave this place at once, Kuroba Kaito!"

"Akako, dear, where did you run off to?" Hakuba's sugary voice twinkled in announcement of his arrival as he approached from the side. He spared a snobbish glance at Kaito, before offering his hand in polite greeting. "I apologize for my wife. Saguru Hakuba, detective."

"Arthur Raffles, cricketer," Kaito replied in kind, just as Hakuba's hand latched onto his.

And Hakuba just kind of… stared blankly at him. "Cricketer," he repeated, not quite sounding like he believed it.

"Yes," Kaito said, sounding just as stupid as he felt. His stupid disguise was funny before in its sheer stupidity – but felt flimsy and reckless when put up to Hakuba's scrutiny. Kaito doubted any other guest would be familiar with the name, but Hakuba – Hakuba especially – would know the name of an 1800s English gentleman thief anywhere.

"Where is there to play cricket around here?" Hakuba asked suspiciously.

"Up in Lord's. I was there on invitation from the Gentlemen and Players."

"Oh? And for which side did you play?"

Kaito couldn't resist a wiggle of his eyebrows as he replied, "Both."

Hakuba ignored the eyebrows, deep in thought. "If I may ask, are the matches still ongoing?"

"Maybe – I mean, sure, I believe so, yes," Kaito said, taken aback by the rather odd question.

"Akako, dear," Hakuba pulled his wife aside, speaking in rushed Japanese for her sake. "He says the Gentlemen and Players are still having matches! I thought for sure it was too late in the season. But what luck! We must go see them play! This week! Before we leave!"

Akako stared at her husband's face with as much shock as Kaito felt. "Darling," she said slowly, "don't you realize who he is?"

"A cricketer! And a bloody good one at that, if he was invited to play at Lord's! Oh, Akako, dear, we absolutely must go!"

Kaito chose that moment to excuse himself from the conversation, letting Hakuba blather on about cricket for as long as possible before Akako inevitably got enough words in to make him realize Kaito's true identity. He'd have to work quick before then.

He stalked himself into the next room, a large dining hall where the Viscount of Cawdor was currently alone and picking at a plate of calamari. Kaito let a single shiver run down his spine before he approached the man.

"The calamari is exquisite," Kaito said, making conversation but feeling his insides revolt at the words.

"I'm glad someone thinks so. I can't stand it," the Viscount said, shrugging sheepishly. "I've never liked seafood."

"Then why…?" Kaito found himself saying before thinking better of it.

The Viscount caught his words, though, and simply laughed. "My wife adored it. I thought I'd give it a try, just this once, for her."

"That's nice," Kaito said. The Viscount finally turned towards him, and Kaito's eyes flew across his lapels. No Miracle Brooch pinned anywhere. His mind did some mental gymnastics. Perhaps the Viscount's wife had the brooch? That would make sense, right? Because a brooch was a piece of lady's jewelry? "Is your wife here?"

The Viscount gave Kaito an odd look, before gesturing across the hall. "She's in there."

Kaito excused himself soon after in pursuit of the Viscountess, hoping against all hopes that the brooch would be with her. He stepped through the throng of guests – who had for some reason chosen to congregate in this one room, of course – and finally caught sight of her.

His first thought was that the Viscountess was a very beautiful lady, and that the brooch pinned to her dress matched her hair very well.

His second, and third, and fourth thoughts were all the same: DEAD PERSON, I REPEAT, DEAD PERSON. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.

Kudo "Corpse Magnet" Shinichi was not in attendance at this party, so it was safe to say nobody had been murdered, thankfully. But, Kaito realized with a dry swallow, that in the future he should take more care to scout his heists more properly, because this wasn't a wedding party at all.

This was a funeral. And the Viscountess was the lady of honor.

He forced himself to approach the casket and gaze at the woman's calm face, a peaceful expression set on her features. She must have been young, he realized, as he noted the lack of lines on her face and the soft golden hair that framed her head.

"We were just children when we met," a voice said from beside Kaito, startling him. He glanced over to see that the Viscount had followed him and was now peering down at the Viscountess's body with all the adoration in the world. Kaito examined the Viscount – and realized the man could hardly be older than himself. The Viscount placed a hand on the single red rose the Viscountess had clutched in her hands. "She was my one and only love."

"She was so young," Kaito breathed, unable to stop himself. "What happened?"

"What else?" The Viscount wiped a tear from his eye. "Cancer, the great divider."

Kaito's spine froze.

Cancer.

He eyed the Viscountess, dead in her lovely box.

Cancer.

No. He wouldn't even permit the thought. Aoko was going to be fine.

In the midst of Kaito's internal crisis, the Viscount bent and touched his lips to the Viscountess's forehead. "My sweet angel. Be at peace." He backed away and fell back into the throng of the crowd, leaving Kaito alone to gaze at the unfortunate woman.

The brooch was right there. So close he could already feel it in his pocket. He could grab it and run away without anyone being the wiser.

But it was clipped to her dress. He'd be stealing from the dead. Dare he stoop that low?

He shrugged, attempting to toss away his ethics. He'd come this far already. Ethics be damned. But showmanship, on the other hand…

Showmanship be not damned!

In an explosion of grey glory, a quick blast of mist filled the room. The crowd around him began to cough and chatter nervously, obviously wondering what was happening.

As he donned his white suit and leapt to position, he let himself ponder the curious case of his international thefts. Although he had been sending advance notices of his heists, law enforcement rarely had a large showing at his chosen locations. He chalked it up to his notices being too difficult for ordinary law enforcement to decode. Perhaps he'd have to work on that. Not every country had a Kudo Shinichi or Hakuba Saguru (or Nakamori Ginzo, in all honesty – that man was getting good) at their disposal, after all.

The mist dissipated, revealing the state of the room. At first, everything seemed quite the same. Until –

"Look!" A suit pointed at the ceiling. "It's that thief from the news!"

Dozens of faces looked upwards at the ceiling to find Kaitou KID perched on the chandelier, brooch in hand.

Kaito held a strained smile on his face, trying not to feel too bummed about being relegated as That Thief From The News.

"Ladies and Gentlemen!" Kaito called out, voice booming around the room. "I apologize for disrupting this important event, but it is with dire need that I shall be taking ownership of this jewel for the time being."

"For God's sake! Cease this torment!" The Viscount shouted from below. "My wife is dead, you horrible demon!"

At that, Hakuba and Galambos came running in, pistols at the ready.

"We will not shoot," Hakuba shouted quickly, having seen Kaito bristle in reflex. "But we have permission from the embassy if need be! Don't test us, KID!"

Kaito's blood ran cold. Hakuba sounded nervous. Surely he'd held a gun before, so it couldn't be that…

Hakuba's eyes twitched over to Galambos's gun.

Ah. So it was that. Hakuba was nervous about Galambos. Kaito couldn't blame him – he was nervous about that guy, too.

He took that as a sign that it was his time to leave. Waving a quick Pip-Pip-Cheerio to the funeral party, he disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Weaving through the crowds, winding from room to room, he broke through the front door and started sprinting for his life down the street, the Miracle Brooch safely pinned to his suit lapel. Like hell he was trusting his pockets with the gem this time. Hakuba was hot on his heels, shouting over his shoulder at Akako not to wait up for him.

Kaito rounded a corner, eyes not quite adjusted to the dark, and nearly ran into a wall. Shit. A dead end…

A whisper startled him from above.

"Over here!"

He threw his head up to see Aoko's arms reaching out to him. Without a second thought, he grabbed them and let her pull him up into the building, swinging his body through the window with rusty ease.

He knelt before her, catching his breath. "What are you doing here. Ahoko?"

"You told me your planned escape route, so I just… camped out here for the past hour. I figured you'd need my help," Aoko said. "You seemed pretty rattled by that Galambos guy earlier."

"I'm not rattled -" Kaito whined, before thinking better of it. This was Aoko, for crying out loud – he could be honest with her. "Okay, he's pretty intimidating. He was at the last heist, too."

"You mean the one back in Mazenderan? St. Dominic's Rosary? He was there?"

"Yeah, and the sick fucking bastard locked me in a torture chamber as his way of saying Hi, Nice to Meet You. Not exactly my favorite person, Aoko!"

"Wait - a torture chamber?!"

"We can talk about it later." Kaito's eyes trailed the room around them. "Right now, I have to get out of here before either that freak or Hakuba catch me. So - thanks for coming in clutch but you need to get out of here before they catch you, too. I'll stay here for a few minutes in case I need to keep them distracted while you leave."

"I'll see you at home, Kaito," Aoko said after a moment of reluctance, before giving him a quick kiss. "Be safe!"

Kaito let his breaths even out as he felt a swell of something in his chest as he watched Aoko leave. Something nameless that he'd never felt before.

Something something companionship.

His breath caught.

Was this how it felt? To have a partner - a companion? To be understood, wholly and completely? He had merely asked Aoko to leave. And she had done it, without a fight and without asking for an explanation – not just because he ordered her to, but because she understood. She trusted his judgement. She trusted him. The feeling made his heart soar.

The trampling of footsteps on the wooden floor brought him back to reality. From the other room, he could hear voices.

"Bloody hell, which way did he go?" Hakuba was asking, trying to catch his breath.

"Tsk, tsk," Galambos' low voice rumbled out. "You're going to scare the cat away with all that noise."

Kaito's eyes flicked around the room, searching for a different exit. The window was obviously no good, as there were officers there now, having followed him up to that point. The only exit path appeared to be the door on the other side of the room, but Hakuba and his Interpol friend were both there.

Speaking of which -

"Detective Hakuba, you have been an excellent host to me," Galambos suddenly said. "Please do not take this personally."

"Take what -?"

Hakuba's words died on themselves as the unmistakable sound of a gunshot rang through the air, followed by the loud thud as something with the weight of a human body fell to the floor.

Kaito suddenly felt very faint.

"Come out, come out, Kuroba Kaito!" Galambos's voice thundered through the empty warehouse. "I know you are here!"

Kaito looked out the window. The officers had departed; the coast was clear. It'd be an easy escape from here. But that would mean leaving Hakuba… in whatever state he was in. Was he –

No. Don't think about it, Kaito urged himself. Get out of here, NOW.

He couldn't bring himself to climb out the window. Instead, he crept across the room, careful not to press on any particularly squeaky wood planks, and peeked through the door that had been left ajar by Aoko's exit.

Galambos was standing tall above a crumpled form of argyle and tweed, a puddle of red slowly leaking out around him. He looked like a conqueror standing victorious over his slain enemy.

Kaito would have to face Galambos again. He knew that. Dammit. He still remembered the first time. He felt his throat tighten. Yes, he certainly still remembered his first encounter with Galambos.

The torture chamber…

… the ice-cold gurney…

… the writhing, burning flames…

Fucking sick bastard.

Kaito took a breath, and then threw down a smoke bomb.

Showtime.

"Kuroba Kaito, how nice of you to finally join us!" Galambos called as the smoke started filling the room with its thick grey cloud. "But cowardly hiding behind smoke screens? I thought you better than that!"

Kaito dashed through the room, safely hidden under the cover of the smoke, and grabbed Hakuba's wrist, thumbing around for a pulse.

Come on, come on…!

A faint flutter. Kaito couldn't help but let out a small sigh of relief.

"I heard that," he could hear Galambos grin from where he stood, less than a foot away. "You are close."

Kaito felt his heart leap out of his chest.

He shuffled backwards, silent as possible, dodging the man's blind swinging arms as they sought contact with his form. By the time the fog thinned, he was standing across the room from the Interpol agent, card-gun in hand. Not raised, not lowered, just hovering. Just in case.

"Why?" Kaito spat out at Galambos.

Galambos shrugged. "Will you surrender?"

"So that's what this is?" Kaito's voice was venom. "Some tactical gambit to force my hand? To use the detective as a pawn -?"

"Devil take the hindmost, my thief," Galambos said with terrible ease. "Need I remind you there are worse things than a slaughtered foe? Tonight, you might even consider I've done you a favor – but next time you might not feel so lucky."

Ice flew through Kaito's veins. What? Next time?! Who was it going to be next time? His mom? Aoko? Shinju? "You can't be serious…"

"I am only ever being serious."

"You'll have to answer to Interpol for this," Kaito said, finding enough of his voice to make the declaration bravely. "This is cold-blooded attempted murder. You won't get away with this."

"I told you before that 'we have our methods.' Who did you think 'we' were?" Galambos leveled his gun at Kaito. "I was tasked with arresting you no matter the cost. I swear that I shall do my duty fully and completely."

Kaito raised his own gun, for the first time wishing he stocked it with real bullets. "You're crazy."

"Name-calling? Isn't that a little juvenile, even for you, Phantom Thief KID?" Galambos chuckled.

A twitch of movement in Kaito's peripheral vision had his eyes flickering back to Hakuba.

Hakuba had a focused grimace splashed on his face, his hand grasping at his jacket – no, not at his jacket, but in it. The shine of silver poked through the folds in his crumpled coat, and finally Kaito felt the tables turn in his favor.

Good, Hakuba, he thought. Let's take this psycho down together!

"I thought you didn't like calling me that," Kaito responded, feeling a surge of confidence swell up inside of him, just as Hakuba fully extended the gun and fired… at Kaito.

Kaito felt the bullet whiz past his head, scraping his scalp as it blew over his temple. His hat jumped from his head in surprise, falling somewhere behind him.

"Hakuba, what are you doing?!" Kaito shouted. "It's me!"

"I'm trying to catch a bloody thief, thank you very much," Hakuba bit back, a hint of dazedness in his tone.

Hakuba isn't in his right mind, Kaito realized. It must be the blood loss. It had to be that.

(It was a better thought than thinking that Hakuba truly valued bringing Kaito to justice more than his own damn life.)

Blood was falling into Kaito's eyes, obscuring his vision with a thick river of terrible-smelling scarlet. He wiped his eyes with his sleeve, watching Galambos take a single step forward, gun still trained on him.

Galambos locked his steel eyes on Kaito's. "Give up."

Give up.

The words resounded in his head.

Give up.

All the times, before, when he'd been so close to giving up. The time in the police station when he'd had an actual pair of iron handcuffs locked around his wrists. The time in the elevator, after Aoko had just shot him and was about to finish the job. The thousands of times he performed for an empty bar.

The night at The Roses, when he'd finally – actually - given up, and told Aoko the one thing that he regretted most of all.

("I want a divorce.")

No more.

He'd stand his ground tonight.

Without a second thought, Kaito fired two iron-tipped cards, which found themselves scraping past Galambos' arms to no avail.

"Not enough for you, huh? Well, how about this!"

Kaito reached into his coat and pulled out a sparkler. Normally, he reserved the usage of such tools for outside areas… but this situation was desperate. This situation called for a big boom.

A really big boom.

(Perhaps he should have thought about it a bit more, but there was no time to think right now – not with Hakuba bleeding out on the floor and his head screaming from a giant bullet-sized gash in his scalp and Galambos scowling down the barrel of a gun at him and -)

Without a single rational thought, he lit the sparkler and hurled it at Galambos, its pink light spinning through the air before crashing against Galambos with an explosive light.

It was a showy piece, an old one from Jii's collection. It wasn't supposed to be dangerous.

But explosives sometimes get volatile with age.

Galambos screamed with pain as the sparkler exploded into a blaze of fire, swallowing him in its consuming crimson heat. Tongues of fire sprang out to lick the dry wooden floor and walls, and it was the perfect storm as the entire warehouse sprang to life, ablaze in hellfire.

It was hard to see anything as the room filled with dark grey smoke, but Kaito was nothing if not a professional. Moving around under the cover of mist was his specialty, and one advantage he realized he had over Galambos, who from the sounds of things was wildly and blindly running around the room. Kaito dashed to where he remembered Hakuba to be, and with some surge of strength he scooped him up and carried him to the other room, and then out through the window he had entered through.

As he laid Hakuba down on the ground outside, his eyes tried to wander back to see the burning warehouse. Galambos was still in there, burning alive. He commanded himself not to turn around. Instead, he focused on Hakuba.

"Hakuba!" Kaito said, slapping Hakuba's cheek hard. "Wake up!"

Hakuba's eyes fluttered open, tawny brown eyes squinting back up at him. "Bloody hell… Kuroba… what did you do to me… that I'm in this much pain?"

"What did I do? It was that crazy Interpol agent of yours! He shot you!"

"Well, then… you've best be… getting me to a hospital then," Hakuba stated in that patronizing manner of his.

Kaito was dialing the number already.

"Kuroba."

Kaito glanced at Hakuba. His eyes were piercing, full of condescending deductions, but his face was as white as a sheet.

"Don't call Akako…. until the morning. I… don't want her to worry…"

"Hakuba, I'm not doing that. For fuck's sake, you could bleed out by then."

"Bloody hell… bleed out, what a lump of -" Hakuba moved before hissing in pain. He frowned further. "Fine. Then at least… talk to me until the ambulance… arrives. After that… call her. But… talk until then. I want this to be… worth something."

"What, you think I'm going to spill my guts to you because that lunatic shot you a little bit? Big deal, asshole, you're not the only person who's ever been shot." Kaito nearly pointed at his own temple, still oozing with rivulets of blood.

Hakuba closed his eyes.

"Hakuba?" Kaito asked nervously, prodding at Hakuba's face and getting a hrmph in reply. That was something, at least. "Hakuba, I was kidding. I'll talk to you. What do you want to know?"

Hakuba's mouth moved before his voice could catch up. "…does it feel like?"

"Stealing?"

"No… not stealing… " Hakuba's lips formed a circle, a sorry substitute for his normal haughty laugh. Why did he seem so much more tired all of a sudden? "Why…? Are you… thinking about it? A thief's… Freudian slip?"

Kaito let himself smile a little bit, despite himself. "I've never heard you make a joke before, you bastard."

"Hardly… joking," Hakuba huffed.

"So… not stealing," Kaito said. "Then what does what feel like?"

Hakuba took a few breaths. "Aoko-chan… is sick, isn't she? I'd guess… cancer?"

Kaito nodded wordlessly.

"I could never… have the strength... to put up with… you… like she can…"

"She's a strong woman."

"She must be… tired." Hakuba breathed. "I am… tired." His foggy eyes opened, just to glare up at Kaito. "Stop… making me… talk so much… Kuroba…"

"Alright," Kaito leaned against the alley wall, keeping an eye out for the ambulance and an ear out for the police. He hated to admit it, but he'd have to scram the second any sort of first responder arrived. "You want to know what it's like to – to -" Kaito scrambled for the words to finish Hakuba's question. What was he asking, after all?

"To be… loved," Hakuba finished.

Kaito gaped at him. "I'm sure Akako loves you."

"I'm sure she… does, too," Hakuba said. "This… isn't about me…"

"Hakuba -"

"Just… tell me… please…"

"Fine," Kaito said. "Fine. How does it feel to be loved? It feels -" Amazing. Powerful. Wonderful. "- undeserved. Aoko hurts so much these days. And I only add to her pain sometimes. I don't deserve her."

"Oh… so you do have… a brain, after all…"

"And you're an asshole, after all," Kaito rolled his eyes, before continuing. It was nice to talk about Aoko. "Aoko makes me a better person. When we were broken up, it destroyed me. Now that we're togetherish – don't give me that look, Hakuba, it's fucking complicated – I don't ever want to lose her again."

"You'd do… anything… to keep her… with you…?" Hakuba sounded far-away and sad for some reason.

Kaito cringed at the wording. "Well, that sounds super possessive and creepy… but yeah. I guess I would. I like being with her, and I hope she likes being with me. We've had our fair shares of arguments, but at the end of the day I'm a better man with her than without her. We've spent too much time apart in this lifetime… my life without her was the worst thing I've ever experienced. It was like I fell in a hole and didn't know how to get back up – and then when she forgave me and took me back, I felt like I'd been given a second chance at life. I swore I'd change for her. I don't think I've been doing too good of a job at it, but I'm trying my damned hardest to be that man she knew so long ago. I need to be that man again. I don't have another choice - I don't think I could ever bring myself to let her leave me again. I'd do anything for her. That's what love is. I mean - don't you think so, Hakuba?"

Hakuba didn't respond.