Conan was sure if he just kept ignoring the problem, it would eventually be arrested and he'd be free to point and laugh. He glared down at the thief, who was crouched in the mouth of the alley across the street from the Mouri detective agency. Kid waved, disguising the gesture by pretending to shake a hat for change.

Conan made a gesture that Ran who have punished him for if she'd caught him.

Kid mimed clutching his heart and weeping.

Conan stalked away from the window before he did something to get himself grounded.

-X-

Kid was still there.

It had been going on for three days and as soon as Conan was back from school, Kid was crouched in the same alley, sometimes disguised as a beggar, sometimes as a street merchant, and even once as a street performer, putting on sleight of hand tricks for a small audience. He didn't try to call attention to Conan, all of his waves and nods disguised as gestures to the crowd around him.

But he wasn't leaving.

Conan was going to have to take some drastic measures.

-X-

Kid's alley was empty.

Day five, Conan noted, and the rain was enough to scare off the thief.

-X-

As if to make up for missing the previous day, Kid's disguise of choice was as a very eye-catching female performance artist, wearing something mechanical and feathery and graphic and posing for pictures with pedestrians.

An enterprising group of students cajoled "her" into a dance competition, recording it on their phones as the costume's wings fluttered and moved.

Kid struck a dramatic pose, wings arched high and arms raised even higher, and Conan deliberately turned his back on the thief to hide his smirk.

-X-

Kid had company on day seven. A pretty girl with red hair, dressed in an Egyptian-inspired costume with snake heads on her shoulders, was stationed at the table they had set up at the mouth of the alley. Kid had dressed down, wearing a gakuran he didn't recognize.

They were spreading cards for passers-by, a mix of several decks, what looked like western tarot cards, pink Clow cards, and casino cards. From the crowd around their table, whatever tricks they were doing were impressive. Conan, seated at Mouri's desk and kicking his feet as he completed his homework assignments, watched them from the corner of his eye.

Every so often Kid would look up, a weak smile on his face that always shuttered under a familiar smirk. The girl with him would look up, too, but whatever she was thinking, he had a harder time discovering.

He found The Mirror Clow card stuck in the mail box after Kid and his friend left.

It defied explanation and showed no sign of tampering.

It wasn't until Ayumi spotted it in his maths book, bookmarking the end of this week's lessons, and explained the card's ability to create a doppelganger that it made anything like sense.

He contemplated shredding it on principle.

-X-

Days eight and nine marked the return of the homeless beggar disguise, though there was a dog, scruffy and well-behaved, but an absolute behemoth of scraggly black fur.

The dog approached him on his way up to the Mouri agency, lingering away from the Poirot cafe because on day eight the manager had come out to chase off the dog when it tried to get closer.

There was a note clipped to its collar.

It simply read: 'I'm sorry.'

-X-

Day ten, and Conan opened one of the windows just as midnight rolled around.

Kid lit down on the sill of the window, crouched to keep his balance and one hand brought up to grip the brim of his hat.

It put his face in the shadows, only the gleam of the monocle visible in the dark.

"If you'd tried to say sorry earlier, you wouldn't have had to waste all your time stalking me." Conan turned away from the thief and settled on the couch. He picked up the Clow card and tossed it back at Kid. "And you didn't reveal anything I hadn't figured out already."

"But seeing the truth and knowing the truth can be two very different things." Kid settled more comfortably, legs dangling outside the window and his upper body turned towards Conan. He rolled the Clow card between the fingers of his left hand. "You could find out my name, my address, school records, everything."

"So?" Conan asked, blunt and frowning at the thief. "Why does it matter?"

"You could make my life incredibly difficult," Kid said, huffing a laugh that made his shoulders shake.

"You're too good to get caught by the police just because of some circumstantial evidence." And it was true, if annoying, that the only way anyone could ever be sure that they were capturing the true Kaitou Kid would be to snag him at a heist. Anywhere else and there couldn't be any guarantee.

"There's quite a big pile of circumstantial evidence in tantei-san's hands." Kid gestured with the Clow card. "If Kudou Shinichi said so, I might as well offer up my wrists for the handcuffs."

That brought him up short. He didn't know Hakuba had so much evidence ready. Even if it was just a trail of circumstantial evidence, with more detectives and additional evidence, it might as well be a noose for Kid.

"You'd leave. If we try to go after your civilian identity, you'd just leave. What you're after is too important to ignore for your own safety." Considering the thief was always being shot at these days, Conan was sure he valued his prize above his life. And Kid had a high regard for life with his No One Gets Hurt Policy.

"I would." Kid nodded. "That's why I wanted to apologize. I placed you in a difficult position when I showed you my face."

"You didn't need to apologize," Conan admitted, gesturing at Kid with one hand. "I was angry at the situation."

"I know," Kid said, making the Clow card disappear. "So I can expect to see you at the next heist?"

"If I catch you there, it's fair. But I won't try when you're not on the job." Conan stood up and crossed the room to the thief. He jabbed a finger at Kid. "So stop stalking me."

Kid laughed, bracing one hand on the sill of the window and leaning into the room. He pressed a kiss to Conan's forehead before Conan could even think of backing away and pushed off the window. He vanished into the night, his laugh still echoing in the quiet.

Conan slammed the window shut.