Hey there again everybody!  Just got back from a crazy con in Vancouver where I was dressed as Subaru from Fushigi Yuugi the whole three days.  I now officially hate baby powder.  Anyway, I really wanted to get to the heist in this chapter, but it was getting ridiculously out of hand, so I decided to take pity on all of you and not make you read an over 10,000 word chapter, so I broke it off at the most logical point I could find.  Hope you like some of the back story I've set up!

Moonlight Shadow

Chapter 03:

Far Away on the Other Side

The night wind sighed happily as it slipped in the open bedroom window belonging to one Nakamori Aoko in order to tousle the hair of the boy sleeping peacefully there.  Whether you called him Kuroba Kaito or Kaitou Kid, the night wind and he were old, old friends.  She ran her ethereal fingers across his face, then that of Nakamori Aoko, sleeping next to him, encouraging her to cuddle closer for warmth and comfort, then with another satisfied sigh She slipped back out the window again.

Sometime around dawn, Kaito slowly woke up, feeling more rested than he had for days, even given his reduced amount of sleep that night.  He felt warm even though he was on top of the covers, and there was an unaccustomed weight on his chest.  Lifting his head just enough to look down, he sighed with somewhat guilty pleasure.  The warmth, the weight on his chest, it was Aoko - somehow as they slept, she had snuggled into his chest, wrapping her arms around him, and while he certainly wouldn't complain about such a state of affairs, she most definitely would if she woke up and found him there.  He toyed briefly with the idea of leaving now, before Nakamori Sr. woke up and wanted to...talk...to him, but decided against it.  It was going to be hard enough work listening to the story without letting on that he already knew much of it, it would simply be too suspicious if he took off without asking for some explanation, given as how he shouldn't have any idea of what was really going on with Aoko.  Moving very slowly and carefully, he unwrapped the arm she had thrown over him, then slid sideways, supporting her head until he could pull a pillow under it.  He felt a sharp sense of loss without her warmth against him and sighed. 

'Better forget any thought you ever had of making this a habit, Kuroba.' he mentally chided himself, 'I doubt this is more than a one-time thing.  You'll just have to protect her from the shadows, without letting on that anything's up.  After all, you told Nakamori that her protector would be the Kid, it would be awfully suspicious if you suddenly started acting protective too.'

He turned back one last time to drink in the sight of Aoko so peacefully asleep, peaceful being such a rare state for her, then silently closed the door most of the way and headed for the bathroom. 

Five minutes later, he was stretched out on the living room couch with his eyes closed, although he wasn't sleeping.  Instead, he was mentally preparing himself for the upcoming conversation.  It wasn't long before he heard Nakamori's heavy footsteps.  Kaito listened intently, tracing out his route by the floor-squeaks and the varying resonances as familiar to him in this house as his own.  Nakamori started in his own room, headed from there briefly into Aoko's room, then the bathroom, a couple of minutes later he headed down the hall, then he was in the living room.

Nakamori cleared his throat as he stood in front of the couch, and Kaito sat up immediately and shifted over so there was room for him to sit.

"I turned off Aoko's alarm clock," Nakamori said quietly, "she shouldn't wake up for another hour at least.  I suppose you want to know what's going on with her."

Kaito merely nodded, waiting for the older man to start his explanation.

"First, I have to ask:  How long have you known she's been having nightmares?"

Kaito counted back in his head.  "Since the night of the 24th of May, so four weeks less two days.  I had noticed she was really distracted that morning, so I decided to check in on her."

"Four weeks.  And you didn't say anything to me?"

"I got her calmed down easily enough," Kaito shrugged, "and you're a busy man."

Nakamori's glare said the topic was far from being dropped, and would be discussed again in detail at a later date.  "Alright, I know this will sound rather incredible to you, it certainly did to me when I first heard it, but Aoko's mother came from a long line of miko, and that power has been passed down to Aoko.  She is just now beginning to come into her power.  That's where the bad dreams are coming from."

"A miko?" Kaito frowned, "I thought a miko was something any girl might train to be.  Has she been getting lessons or something?  She never told me anything about them."

"No, she hasn't been getting lessons.  There are actually two kinds of miko, those who are trained as miko from a young age, and those who are born with power and have to wait for that power to blossom before they can be trained.  Aoko's mother, and her mother, and her mother, and so on back into antiquity, have all been miko, and their power is always primarily focused on healing.  Quite often they are also able to tell when someone close to them will be hurt through semi-prophetic dreams.  That is what I suspect is happening in this case.  Although Aoko hasn't awakened to her full miko power yet, her dreams are likely still pretty accurate.  Have you asked her what they're about?"

"No, I didn't want to let her know I've been sneaking into her room while she was sleeping." Kaito said with an emphatic shake of his head.

Nakamori almost chuckled at that.  He knew his daughter well enough to be able to quite adequately picture her reaction to such news.  "That's understandable, I suppose." he admitted, "Still, I'd be careful for a while if I were you.  Especially since she was calling for you."

Kaito nodded.  Being careful wasn't always exactly easy given his night job, but he did try.

"And, Kaito-kun, I would like to ask a favour of you, if you would.  Being such a long-time friend of Aoko's, she wouldn't notice anything very strange if you started walking her to school from here.  I can't tell her what's going on with her being a miko yet, I was sworn to secrecy for her after her mother died, and I can't say anything to her about it until her power fully blossoms, but, well, let's just say there are certain people out there who would just love to get their hands on a true healing miko." 

The expression on Nakamori's face showed pain and fierce protectiveness, and for once Kaito was deeply grateful for the police inspector's dogged single-mindedness.

"And you want me to help protect her." Kaito finished for him.  Behind his mask of careful concern, the teen was doing mental backflips of elation.  He wasn't going to have to be circumspect about his concerns and protectiveness of Aoko, he had full parental permission to protect her.  "Don't worry Nakamori-san, I'll keep her safe."  He carefully adopted a thoughtful, concerned expression.  "Is that what happened to her mother?"

Nakamori nodded grimly, then looked sternly at Kaito.  "I want you to help protect Aoko, but keep in mind, if you take any further liberties than I approve, you will be spending time staked out over a large anthill covered in honey."

"Understood." Kaito shuddered, only partially for effect.  "Is there anything else you think I should know to help keep her safe?" he asked, privately quite glad now for this opportunity to get all the information he could.

For the next twenty minutes or so, they discussed what Nakamori knew about the men who had poisoned and killed his wife, and how best to keep Aoko safe from them.  Finally, Nakamori turned to Kaito.

"You'd better go home and change into your uniform before Aoko wakes up and wonders what you're doing here in your clothes from yesterday night." he pointed out, walking him to the door.

"Alright, I'll see you in a bit." Kaito said quietly and waved as he headed down the street.

Once he was sure Nakamori thought he was gone, he swiftly climbed the tree where he had stashed his backpack the night before.  It wouldn't do for Nakamori to find it there and open it to find a very incriminating set of clothes.  He grabbed the bag and jumped down, then headed off home, whistling all the way.

"Tadaima!"

Kuroba Meimi turned toward the front door as she heard her son come in.  "Okairi!  I'll make you some breakfast while you get changed." she called from the kitchen.

"Thanks, Kaachan!" he called back, "I'll be down to eat it in a minute."

Meimi smiled to herself as she listened to her son bustling around in his room.  Nakamori-keibu had explained very little on the phone last night, but it didn't surprise her at all that Kaito would be concerned and want to stay close by if Aoko-chan was feeling unwell.  He might think he was hiding his feelings expertly, but she had two advantages there.  First, of course, she was his mother, and as such she knew his every tiny unconscious gesture.  Above and beyond that, though, he was very much his father's son, and she remembered all too well what Toichi had been like around her at Kaito's age.  All the teasing, all the extra special tricks...  She really ought to take Aoko-chan aside one of these days and have a little "girl-talk" about magicians and feelings and such.  And as for that other secret of Kaito's, well, she'd leave that for him to explain to Aoko-chan, but, Meimi sighed, she was going to have to be a bit more...insistent...about him telling his dear mother things sometime soon.  She didn't let it bother her too much, though.  After all, he was a teenage boy now, so he couldn't be expected to tell her everything the way he had when he was five, and if he was out running around as Kid at least he wasn't getting into any real trouble. 

"So, how is Aoko-chan feeling?" she asked as Kaito sat down at the table, "Any better this morning?"

"She was still sleeping when I left, but I do hope so." Kaito said fervently.  "At least she slept through the rest of the night."

"Will she be going to school then?  She doesn't have a cold or some kind of flu does she?"

"Nakamori didn't tell you much, did he."

"No, just that Aoko-chan wasn't feeling well and since she seemed to be calmer with you there you would be spending the night."

"Not feeling well...  Yeah, you could say that.  She's been having nightmares for the past month, and calling for me in her sleep."

"I thought she looked a little tired the last time she was here.  So that's where you've been sneaking off to so many more nights than usual this month."

Kaito nearly choked on his mouthful of rice.  "Yeah, I've been... checking up on Aoko.  And I gotta run.  I promised her dad I'd walk her to school from her house starting today." he managed not to splutter too badly as he drained his juice glass.

"Alright, have a good day at school then, dear." Meimi smiled at her son, "And tell Aoko-chan I hope she feels better soon."

"I will!  Ittekimasu!"

Aoko woke around 7:30, feeling strange.  She felt as though there should be someone else in the bed with her, although who that would be she couldn't guess, and she felt a now-insistent urge to share her dream last night with someone.

"Morning Aoko" her dad said when she got to the kitchen.

"Morning Tousan.  What are you doing up so early?"

"I've had a lot on my mind." he shrugged.

"Yeah, me too.  Um...Tousan, I know this is gonna sound weird, but... I've been having these strange dreams lately about the Kaitou Kid.  I meet him at one his heists or something, and he gives me some kind of moonstone, and sometimes his monocle as well, and then...he gets shot.  It's been making it really hard for me to sleep, and I just... I had to tell someone.  I don't know why, I just had too."

Nakamori nodded.  "Your mother used to have bad dreams too sometimes, she always said it helped to talk them over.  I knew something must be wrong, I heard you calling out in your sleep last night.  I thought you were calling for the Kuroba boy, but I guess "Kaito" and "Kaitou" do sound awfully similar."

Aoko blushed brightly.  "I was calling out in my sleep?" she asked, chagrinned.  Somehow even with the compulsion she had to talk about her dreams, she emphatically did not want to do anything or say anything which might bring suspicion to her friend, even if it was only a weird dream, so she didn't mention the little fact that in her dream the two had been one and the same.

"Come to think of it, isn't the Kid's next heist a moonstone?" Aoko asked, "That's kindof a weird coincidence, isn't it?"

Nakamori merely shrugged and grunted noncommittally. 

Aoko was fairly used to her father being uncommunicative at times, so she didn't think much about his lack of an answer, and fell to her breakfast with as much gusto as she could muster.  With the dreams and her interrupted sleep and odd dreams lately, she found she didn't have much of an appetite in the morning.  Once she had managed enough breakfast to keep her going for at least a little while, she hurried back to her room to get ready for school.  She still had a kindof frantic feeling.  Just telling her father the dream wasn't going to be enough, she could feel it, but who else could she talk to about it?  Certainly not Kaito, he would just tease her... Of course!  With a smile and feeling better about things already, she ran her brush one last time through her hair, grabbed her bookbag and headed to the door.

"Ja, Tousan!" she called as she slipped on her shoes and stepped out the door.

"Morning Aoko!" she heard Kaito's cheerful voice sing out as she stepped onto the front porch.

She looked around, but at first she didn't see him.  Then she looked down, and there he was, sprawled bonelessly on the front steps, leaning his head back to view her upside down.  The morning sun gilded his features, making him gleam like some kind of heavenly being and it momentarily took her breath away.  Then, just as quickly, the spell was broken.  He casually wiggled his fingers at her in greeting, then, in one smooth motion, flipped to his feet.

"I thought I'd come and collect you, since you've been kinda out-of-it lately," Kaito shrugged.  "C'mon, let's get going, school waits for noone, you know!"

"I know, I know, sheesh, you're always so pushy!

"Pushy?  Me?  Perish the thought!  I am merely concerned with your educational welfare." he said, perfectly imitating Hakuba's phrasing and intonation, and doing a pretty decent job on the young detective's most common facial expression as well.

Aoko laughed briefly, then yawned.

"Geez Aoko, it wasn't that bad of a joke." Kaito complained, turning around to walk backward in front of her.

"Sorry, I just haven't been sleeping too well lately." she apologized with another yawn.

"Why?  Having too much coffee or something?  I'd ask if you were getting into your dad's stash again, but then you wouldn't have a problem sleeping so much as getting up, ne?" he winked at her.  He was playing the facts about what he knew and how he knew it very close to his chest.  Life with all his assorted body parts intact greatly appealed to him, and he wasn't sure how she would take his concern for her, especially since it had involved him taking what might be seen by her as unwelcome liberties with her person.

"No!  Baka.  I've been having weird dreams, okay?  I sleep lots, but I just don't feel that rested."

"Weird dreams, ne?" he leered at her.

"I don't want to talk about them.  And they're not ecchi, so you just stop thinking that right now!" she snarled, and elbowed him hard in the ribs as she pushed past him.

It was a good thing she wasn't looking at him just then, because his ample imagination had suddenly provided a brand new interpretation of her moaning his name and writhing on the bed, and his face actually went bright red for a second until he was able to bring himself back under control.  She had gotten a couple of steps ahead of him by then, and he increased his pace to catch up, then walked alongside her.

"So if they're not ecchi, what are they about?"  he asked.

"I told you, I don't want to talk about them."

"You're the one who brought up the topic," Kaito shrugged.  'You're the one who's been calling for me in her sleep.  You're the one who's had me so worried.' he said silently behind his cheerful but indifferent mask.

"And now I'm sorry I did." Aoko grumped, "You never could take a hint on when not to ask about things."

"Hey!" Kaito almost snapped at her, "What's with you?  Am I not allowed to be a little concerned about my childhood friend when she's been looking worn out for almost a month and I haven't asked her a thing about it that whole time?!"

Aoko stopped dead in her tracks and turned to look at him.  He stopped as well and met her gaze clearly.  She felt herself almost back in one of her dreams again, falling into those deep pools of blue, and suddenly she felt quite faint.

Kaito was silently congratulating himself on having gotten her to at least look at him face to face, when she abruptly went pale.

"Um, Aoko, are you sure you're feeling okay?"  The concern was clear in Kaito's voice.

"I'm...not sure." she said shakily, "I know I had enough breakfast this morning... I just feel all...woozy all of a sudden."

And with that, her eyes rolled back and she fainted.

Kaito caught her before she could hit the ground, then, muttering a few of Nakamori's choicest phrases, cradled her close in his arms and headed for his house, since it was the closest.

"Kaito?  What are you doing back here?" his mother asked from the living room as she heard him come in, "Aren't you supposed to be at school in a few..."  She broke off as he came into the room carrying an unconscious Aoko who was just beginning to show signs of coming round.

With the air of a collector handling a delicate china doll, he set her down on the couch.

"What happened?" Meimi asked softly.

"I don't know, she just went pale all of a sudden, said she was feeling woozy, and passed out."  Kaito explained, and even if he wasn't letting himself show it, she could tell it worried him.

"Ooo...that was new." Aoko whispered as she opened her eyes.

"Okay, now that you're awake, I have to ask:  What happened back there?" Kaito asked.

"I'm not sure... I just... Suddenly I felt like I was back in one of my dreams, then I felt like I was falling, then I woke up here."

"You looked like you were getting all set to glare at me, then you went white as a sheet and passed right out, so I brought you here."

Aoko propped herself up on her elbows, then sat up.  "Well, whatever happened, I feel lots better now, and if we don't get going we'll be late for school."

"Oh no you don't." Kaito shook his head, "You're not going anywhere.  We're calling to school to excuse ourselves from class, and you're staying right here and getting some more rest, and I'm making sure you get that rest."

"Almost right Kaito," his mother corrected, "except that you will be going to school, and I will be making sure Aoko-chan gets her rest."

"But..."  In his concern he had nearly forgotten the parental presence entirely.

"I won't hear any more excuses." she interrupted him before he could protest, "You miss enough school as it is, I won't have you missing any more."

"But Kaachan..."  he pleaded with his eyes.

"No Kaito, I'm going to have to be firm on this.  I can keep an eye on Aoko-chan just as well as you can, and I didn't have plans to go anywhere in particular today anyway."

"Hello...  I feel just fine, I'm sure I can go to school." Aoko interjected.  "I don't want to be a burden on you, Meimi-bachan."

"Now don't be ridiculous Aoko-chan.  You know perfectly well that you're like a daughter to me.  I won't let you push yourself when you're obviously not feeling well.  You just sit there and rest."  Meimi patted her on the shoulder, then took her son by the arm.  "Come now Kaito, off you go to school.  Now.  And I'll know if you hide out here, and you'll know about it later from me if you do, since I'll be expecting you to bring Aoko-chan's notes to her." she glared at him.

When she got him to the door, Kaito stopped her and pulled her close to whisper in her ear. 

"You have to call Nakamori and let him know what's happened, but don't let Aoko know you're calling him.  He'll explain more, but there's more going on than I've told you yet, okay?"

"Okay Kai-chan.  I would have called him anyway, you know.  I'll take good care of her for you, I promise." Meimi patted his head and winked, then physically pushed him out the door.

Kaito was internally churning with emotions the whole way to school, but he forced it down before class started.  He didn't want to give Akako any fuel for comments...or inferences...or... anything, really.  He allowed himself one deep breath before sliding his "happy face" into place, his cheerful, slightly bored expression projecting to the world the impression that it was a day just like any other day, that nothing at all was amiss.  He got a few odd looks from Akako, and a full-out glare from Hakuba, although that was probably more to do with the heist coming up tomorrow night than him noticing Aoko's absence or any change in Kaito's emotional state.  Keiko, of all people, was the one who gave him a knowing look when he explained that Aoko was sick and staying at his house today, where his mother could keep an eye on her, since her father had to work.  He studiously ignored all three of them, and bent to his work.

After she had sent her son off to school, Meimi Kuroba headed back to the living room to look after the needs of the girl she privately liked to think of as her future daughter-in-law.  She had such spirit...always had since childhood, really...and Meimi wondered if that wasn't what had attracted Kaito to her in the first place.  She grabbed one of the spare pillows and a blanket from the hall closet and brought them to Aoko, who was still sitting on the couch.

"There you go my dear, make yourself comfortable while I call the school to let them know where you are and that you won't be in today." Meimi reassured her.

"Okay, Meimi-bachan" Aoko sighed, resigned to the couch, at least for the time being.  She curled up with the pillow and flicked on the TV, although she despaired of actually finding anything all that interesting to watch.  With an air of boredom, she began flipping channels.

The call to school was made without any difficulties, just a quick bit of explanation, and the assurance that there was no need for them to call Nakamori-keibu, she would let him know what was going on, and it was all taken care of.  She hung up cheerfully, then took a deep breath and dialed Nakamori's cel number.

"Nakamori here." he answered somewhat curtly.

"Ginzo-san?  This is Meimi."

"Meimi-san?  Why are you calling?  Tomorrow is a Kid heist, you know.  Although I'm still enroute, so I suppose I have a minute or two."

"I'm sorry to interrupt your busy day, but Kaito insisted I call you.  It seems Aoko-chan wasn't feeling as well as she thought.  She passed out on the way to school, and Kaito brought her here to rest."

Nakamori swore fervently, then caught himself.  "I apologize, Meimi-san."

"I've heard worse and you know it, Ginzo-san, no need to apologize.  It's obvious that you would be worried about your daughter's health." Meimi assured him.

"It's not so much her physical health, that's only a temporary side-effect, it's her emotional health I'm worried about." he said with a sigh.  He went on to explain to her a very concise version of what was going on with Aoko, omitting only the bulk of his conversation with the Kaitou Kid.

"Not to worry, Ginzo-san, I'll keep an eye on Aoko-chan here, and send her home with Kaito when he gets back from school." she reassured him.

Aoko still hadn't found anything worth watching by the time Meimi came back, so she turned the TV off and shifted so there was room for Meimi on the couch.

"You know, Meimi-bachan, I'm actually kindof glad I'm here with you instead of sitting at home alone." Aoko admitted.

Meimi laughed gently.  "You know you're always welcome here.  Anytime you're sick at home, you just come right on over.  Or call me and I'll go over there."  she looked over at Aoko.  "You look tired, Aoko-chan, have you not been sleeping well?"

"Actually, I haven't.  I've been having the weirdest dreams..."

Nakamori Ginzo, Tokyo Police Inspector in charge of the taskforce to catch the elusive Kaitou Kid, was feeling very... conflicted.  He was carefully going over a warehouse belonging to an import company called Tama Industries, listed owner one Takage Daisuke, in which was being temporarily stored the target of Kaitou Kid's latest heist, a moonstone known as the Angel's Tear, on its way to its new owner, one Hirano Takahiro.  He was, in fact, closely examining the very vault in which said moonstone was being stored for the duration of its time here.  It would be so damned easy to just slip the two-inch-long gem into his pocket right now.  He could have simply brought the replacement along, waited for an opportune moment - when he was testing the security system shut-off, for example - and done a simple one-for-one switch.  It was even something he knew how to do.  His old friend Kuroba Toichi had, after a fair amount of pestering on Ginzo's part, taught him a few slight-of-hand tricks, back in the days when he was still alive, and their children were young.  All he had to do was hide the fake in his shirt cuff, then trade them places when he picked the gem up, put the fake back on the pedestal, and slip the real stone into his pocket later and walk right out with it. 

He couldn't really have done it, though.  For one thing, the Kid would be coming for the Angel's Tear tomorrow, and had already agreed to give it to Aoko, and for another thing he was a policeman, dammit, he shouldn't even be thinking of stealing things! 

And thus the conflicting feelings.  As an officer of the law, he was bound by that law just as surely as any citizen.  Was bound even more closely, in fact, since there were extra laws specifically governing his conduct as a part of his job, but there was a part of him which longed to escape those bindings.  As the widower of a woman who had been killed over this very jewel, that part wanted to take the gem right now, wanted to use his power and position to bring whatever charges he could dig up or create against the very suspicious-seeming Hirano-san and equally cagey Takage-san and damn the evidence, but he couldn't do that!  The mere fact that he was cooperating with his sworn enemy, just this once, was disturbing enough.  He couldn't even imagine how he would live with himself if he allowed his baser instincts to take over him in such a way.  It didn't stop him from thinking it, though.

"So, Nakamori-keibu, what's your impression of the Kid's chances?" Takage-san asked as the inspector stood out of the crouch he had been in while examining the pedestal and stretched.

"You won't be able to keep him from getting in, or getting his hands on the Angel's Tear, you just don't have the time to make the necessary structural changes to the building itself, but my men should be able to keep him from getting away, with a little luck.  To be quite frank, there aren't many places which could keep him out, the best we can hope for most of the time is to get him to drop the object of his heist before he makes his escape." Nakamori said with a frustrated sigh.  "We just never have enough time between getting his notice and the date of the heist to set up an elaborate enough trap to detain him."

"Well, I can promise you we'll do everything in our power to help you get the Kid tomorrow night." Takage-san said with a smile. 

Something about that smile sent a chill right through Nakamori.  Especially when he remembered what his daughter had told him of her dreams that morning.

"There's no need to put yourself at any risk, certainly, but we do appreciate whatever resources you are willing to make available to us." Nakamori said guardedly.

"Not at all, not at all," Takage-san cheerfully waved him off, "I'm only too happy to help in any way I can, of course you will be provided with all the security forces we have on hand as backup for your own men."

"Once again, I thank you for your help and cooperation.  I'll be back tomorrow to help set up the final countermeasures, in the meantime, just keep an eye out for anything or anyone unusual."

"Understood."

Nakamori could have sworn the man was leering at him.

"... So you see, even though I know they're just dreams, just my subconscious creating bizarre situations and making them seem real, and of course they can't be real, I still keep getting this really bad feeling about tomorrow night... like Kaito's going to do something really dangerous.  And I meant to say 'the Kid'...again." Aoko concluded with a deep sigh.

"I can see how that could be worrisome, the two have become so entwined in the world of your dreams that even when you're awake you're still mixing them up." Meimi nodded.  "Let me get your mind off it.  I'll tell you a story, how's that."

Aoko grinned and nodded.  She had always loved Meimi-bachan's stories.

"Some years ago there was a somewhat shy young woman.  She was in highschool, like you are now, and mostly she was happy.  Except for one thing.  There was this boy in her class, he fancied himself a magician...wasn't all that bad really, truth be told, and he never left her alone!  Sure they were friends, had been almost from the moment they met, but she couldn't understand why it was he felt it necessary to use all his craziest, most disruptive magic tricks exclusively on her..."

"This is sounding awfully familiar, Meimi-bachan." Aoko pointed out.

"I know dear, now don't interrupt.  In any case, the girl and the magician fell into a pattern.  He would taunt and tease her, or show her his latest trick at the most disruptive and inopportune moment, she would scream bloody murder at him, then studiously ignore him in revenge until he apologized so sweetly and sincerely that she couldn't help but forgive him.  Things went on like this almost until the end of their graduating year.  It was then that the girl happened to be in just the wrong place at the wrong time.  On a dare from two of her best girlfriends she was to sneak into the National Library after dark and leave a keychain they had given her on the roof so she could prove to them she had been there.  What the girls hadn't taken into account, hadn't even realized, actually, was that on that same night a thief the newspapers had dubbed "The White Bandit" had broken into a museum and escaped with a valuable artifact.  After all, what had such a thief to do with them?  Now, the girl had lots of practice sneaking in and out of places - her parents were a little strange, and had taught her things such as how to pick a simple lock "just in case she ever got locked out" - so sneaking into the library was no real trouble.  She quickly made it to the roof and placed the keychain in the agreed-upon spot, then she made an almost fatal error: she went over near the edge of the roof to look at the amazing view of the city all lit up at night.  Suddenly she heard a whoosh of air, followed by the sound of scuttling footsteps on the roof behind her.  She spun around, thinking a guard had realized she was there, and saw what she thought was a ghost standing not three feet from her.  In the rush of adrenaline and fear she forgot that she was at the edge of the roof, and backed up.  She barely had time to realize she was falling when she felt arms come around her, and then she was flying.  Even being so close in his arms, she wasn't able to get a very good look at her rescuer.  She knew he wasn't a ghost, though, she could feel his heart beating almost as fast as hers.  He never said a thing to her, just flew her carefully to the ground then disappeared into the night, it wasn't until she read in the paper the next day about the White Bandit that she realized who her rescuer actually was, and after that she kept him a secret locked inside her heart, for she had fallen into what she thought must be love.  She was always going to places the thief was reported to be planning to steal from, trying to catch a glimpse of him, but she was always very circumspect about it.  The only one who really noticed the difference in her was her friend the magician.  She still yelled at him when he teased her, still pointedly ignored him afterwards, but her heart just wasn't in it the way it had been.  The loss of her undivided attention made him upset and more than a little jealous, and also made him realize that he would have to change his tactics if he wanted to keep her close to him forever, the way he was coming to realize he needed, so one day he cornered her on the roof of the school and told her the truth.  And with the truth now before her, the girl came to see that what she felt for the White Bandit was merely attraction and admiration, and it was with the magician that her heart truly lay.  She flung herself into his arms and he kissed her, then they went back to class.  And although he still teased her, and she still screamed at him, each now knew where the other stood, and they were never after apart, even when they were far from each other.  Even though she did still think that White Bandit was awfully cute."  Meimi smiled as she finished her story.

"It was the Kid, wasn't it?  The one you had a crush on?  The one who saved you?" Aoko asked.

Meimi laughed.  "I never said the story was about me," she protested, "but yes, he was the thief who came to be named Kaitou Kid.  You have to remember, now, that was right at the beginning of his career, before he was the international Kaitou 1412, so he wasn't called "Kid" in those days."

"I can't believe he saved you like that!"

"Kaitou Kid is a bit of a different kind of thief from the norm.  He greatly values human life, and it was, after all, mostly his fault that I fell off the roof in the first place."

"Did you ever still go to watch the Kid after you and Toichi-jichan got together?"

Meimi laughed gaily.  "I most certainly did, but that is a story for another day," she admonished.  "Right now it is time for you to see if you can't get a little more sleep."

Aoko pouted cutely.

Meimi chuckled.  "You should try that one on Kai-chan sometime.  He'd probably fall all over himself to do whatever you asked of him.  Especially with your present pose."  She indicated the way Aoko was lounging on the couch with her head propped on one hand, her elbow resting on the arm of the couch and the other arm trailing across her belly to pick at the fluffballs on the fabric.  Add to that the fact that her legs were curled beside her in a most relaxed manner, the very becoming fullness of her lower lip, and her beseeching expression, and she was the very image of innocent sensuality.

Aoko blushed brightly, then laughed.  "No need for cute pouting when I have my handy dandy mop!" she grinned.

"To each their own, I suppose." Meimi agreed.  "Now it's time for sleep."

Aoko sighed, then stretched out on the couch with a yawn, and Meimi tucked her in.

"Oyasumi, Aoko-chan."

And just maybe someday I'll actually write that story…depends on how soon I get this one done.  I have all kinds of ideas for it sketched out, had to in order to come up with Meimi's bedtime story.  Oh yeah, and speaking of Meimi…. GOMEN! I couldn't resist!  It's just to perfect a name to not put it in!

And on a final note, as a famous young man once said in one of my favourite plays (the One Man Star Wars Trilogy) "Exposition, exposition, exposition!"