Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan/Case Closed.

Pairing: KaitoxShinichi

Rating: T

Genre: Romance/Humor

Summary: Since Shinichi's return, he has been the unwilling subject of Sonoko's matchmaking schemes. Now she's set him up on a blind date.

Note: This story is going to be the first of my new "Nature of Love" series. It doesn't matter much in this installment, but this series will use the ABO set up.

The Long Way Round

[Nature of Love Series]

Kudo Shinichi, former high school detective turned college student detective, couldn't believe his ears.

"You let Sonoko set me up on a blind date?!" His voice rose despite his best efforts, and who could blame him? Mouri Ran, the girl who was supposed to be his best friend, had just given him some of the most terrifying news he had ever had the misfortune to receive.

This was not a claim Shinichi made lightly. He had faced many difficult trials in his relatively short nineteen years of life, from being poisoned and shrunk into a six year old child by an evil organization to taking down said organization and enduring the grueling transformation back into a teenager and subsequent rehabilitation. And that didn't even include the run-of-the-mill murderers and random psychos he dealt with on a nearly daily basis. But, in all those cases, Shinichi had known where he stood. He was a detective. He looked for hidden truths, unraveled mysteries, sought justice for the dead, and did what he could to help make the world a better place.

This, on the other hand, was an entirely different breed of trial altogether.

On the other side of the café table, Ran raised her hands in a placating manner. "Calm down. It's just one date."

Shinichi groaned, dropping his head into his hands. "Can't you tell them I'm busy?"

"I'm afraid Sonoko checked your schedule ahead of time," Ran said apologetically. "And she made the reservation for the both of you. It's at that new French restaurant that her family is sponsoring."

Shinichi very nearly groaned again. Super fancy restaurants were an ordeal all their own, but a super fancy restaurant with a blind date? Somebody up there must really despise him.

Silently, he wished for the days when Sonoko had been busy hunting for her own perfect mate. She'd always been obsessed with romance, but, back then, she had been able to pour her considerable energy into seeking out her own partner. Then she had met Makoto. Once their relationship had stabilized, she had turned her attention to finding someone for Ran. Then, shortly after they'd started university, Ran had hit it off with a medical student, and suddenly the only person in their immediate circle who didn't have a significant other was Shinichi.

Personally, Shinichi did not see his single status as the great tragedy that Sonoko thought it was. He had only 'returned' recently, and he had spent the first few months of that return buried up to the eyeballs in schoolwork and exams. He barely managed to get Teitan High to agree to let him graduate. Fortunately, his college entrance exams had also gone well, and so he had entered university alongside Ran and the others, but now he was juggling college level classes along with a case load that always seemed to be growing. So frankly, he felt he was too busy to be looking for a mate.

He had explained all this to Sonoko. Her response? Since he was too busy to look for a mate himself, she'd look for him.

"Again, it's just one date," Ran reminded him. "What could it hurt? Besides, you might even like him. Even if you don't, you know the food will be good, and you have to eat dinner either way." Her tone grew stern then. "Don't think we haven't noticed you've started skipping meals again."

Shinichi winced and hastily tried to divert Ran's attention. "So what exactly did Sonoko say about this guy? How did she meet him?"

"Well actually, she hasn't met him yet either."

Shinichi's jaw dropped. "She set me up with someone she's never even met?!"

Ran backtracked hastily. "It's not like that. You see, she and Makoto went to the grand opening of a new bakery at the mall. They met another couple while they were waiting in line, and they got to talking. At some point, it just sort of came up that Sonoko had a friend who was looking for an alpha."

"I'll just bet it did," Shinichi grumbled. More likely, Sonoko had simply said it was so. "And I am not looking. Dating is for people who have nothing better to do. I happen to have real work."

Ran rolled her eyes and pretended she hadn't heard. "Anyway, Sonoko also told her that you were stubborn and too picky—"

"Hey!"

"—because you wanted someone super smart."

Well, okay, Shinichi had to admit that Sonoko was right about that. If he was going to date anyone, it would have to be someone he could hold interesting, intellectual conversations with. He wasn't sure whether he should be pleased that she had apparently put some thought into this or horrified that she had put some thought into this.

"Then Nakamori-san said that she knew someone who just might fit the bill. He's a close friend of hers. She said he's a genius and really good with people, but he's also really stubborn and picky, so he's stayed single despite being really popular. They compared notes about you two, and they both decided you'd be a good match."

"So, on the basis of one conversation with a girl she'd just met for the first time, she set me up on a blind date with someone she's never met at all," Shinichi summarized.

"Nakamori-san did show her his picture. Sonoko says he's hot—"

"Which is what matters, obviously," Shinichi said sarcastically.

"—and he has nice friends, so he can't be too bad a person."

"That," Shinichi said flatly, "is not sound logic." Then he let out a loud groan of and let his head drop to the table. "Do me a favor."

"What?"

"Shoot me."

"Shinichi," Ran said disapprovingly. "You're being ridiculous. I'm not saying you have to find a mate right now if you're not ready, but Sonoko is right about one thing. You need to get out and meet more people."

"I meet plenty of people," Shinichi objected.

"Normal people," Ran amended. "People your own age who aren't criminals. You've been doing nothing but working since you got back. It isn't healthy. If you don't want to find a mate, fine. Think about it as finding a friend."

Shinichi opened his mouth then shut it again. He could see Ran's honest concern for him in her eyes, and it made any protests he might have had die on his tongue before it could form. And really, he supposed she was right. One date wouldn't kill him. And it was a small price to pay to understand that his friends were just trying to look out for him—however misguided their attempts at doing so might be.

So, with one last sigh, he surrendered. "Fine. I'll go."

Ran beamed.

Despite his agreement to go on the blind date, Shinichi spent the week leading up to the event mentally turning over a myriad of excuses for getting out of it. In the end, he didn't end up using any of them though because he'd given his word to Ran. That, and he knew Sonoko would find a way to make him meet this guy she'd found for him one way or another, and, if he didn't go this time, she would do so in addition to nagging him endlessly. He was choosing the lesser of two evils.

That didn't stop him from dreading the meeting even as he put on the outfit Sonoko had shown up at his door with and demanded that he wear for his date. Honestly, she was becoming even worse than his mom. At least Yukiko spent most of the time in another country where she couldn't check whether he actually wore any of the ridiculous outfits she sent him through the mail. If he had said anything about it, Ran or Sonoko would have assumed he was expecting to dislike his date or simply having an adverse reaction to being forced to have a fancy dinner alone with a total stranger who might want more than he was willing to give. And they would have been partly right. But the truth—the truth that he would die before admitting to either of them—was that he already had someone else he was interested in.

Yes, you heard that right. Kudo Shinichi, the teenage omega who had always said that he didn't need a mate to be happy no matter what anyone said, had a crush. More embarrassing still, that crush was a criminal.

Shinichi sighed, pausing by the window to gaze out and up at the slowly darkening sky.

Though he had briefly attended a KID heist near the beginning of his detective career, he hadn't actually met the thief face to face until after he had been force fed poison and turned into a child. As Edogawa Conan, the elementary school detective, however, he had come to know the elusive magician thief quite well. They had even worked together on more than one occasion to help the police capture an assorted array of villains.

Shinichi had admired KID's genius from the very beginning—it was why he had wanted to meet the man to begin with. But it was only after numerous encounters and escapades that he had realized that he was beginning to get attached. By the time the realization dawned, it had been too late to turn back.

The thief wasn't just insanely intelligent. He was fun and kind, and he cared about justice even if he went about pursuing it in his own weird ways. He might have a wicked and often twisty sense of humor, but he went out of his way to help keep people safe. He had certainly saved Shinichi's life on more than one occasion.

And he always seemed to know how to make Shinichi smile.

Really, it was no surprise that the detective had found himself developing feelings for KID in spite of how unwise it was—and it was unwise. After all, he didn't even know the thief's true identity.

Oh he could probably find out if he really put his mind to searching. The thief had given him more than enough hints about himself (did he maybe want Shinichi to find him?). On top of that, though the thief often worse others' scents or used scent maskers, Shinichi had spent more than enough time close to the thief (literally being carried in said thief's arms, even) that he thought he had picked out the thief's real scent (even while stuck in a child's body, he had found KID's scent comforting. It made him feel safe). Granted, scents weren't an easy clue to use since he wasn't going to go about pressing his nose against random people (people's scents were only really strong when they were either under the influence of a strong emotion or in season, and scent maskers were common. It was a privacy thing), but all the clues he had together would be telling. But Shinichi couldn't bring himself to look. Part of him felt like searching for the thief outside a heist would be breaking the tenuous trust they had built. He didn't want that. The other part of him was afraid of what he might find. The charismatic thief probably already had someone. And even if he didn't yet, he must certainly have no end of hopeful admirers to pick from.

On top of that, Shinichi knew that he was danger prone. It wasn't just that he was a detective who dealt regularly with murderers. He just seemed to have been ordained by fate to be a trouble magnet. Anyone who got close to him would inevitably be dragged into the mess that was eighty percent of his life. Everyone who had ever spent any amount of time with him could attest to that. So, in some ways, Shinichi felt that it would be better for everyone if he stayed single.

He supposed Sonoko would say he was being a coward, but Shinichi called it being practical. He had caused more than enough worry for his friends and family for a lifetime already. And, though he liked to think that he had learned some caution in his three years as Conan, he knew he would inevitably worry them again in the future. Adding a mate to the picture would just make things that much more complicated.

Well, might as well get this disaster over with.

Bracing himself for the worst, Shinichi made his way outside to where Sonoko had her car waiting for him. Apparently she didn't trust him not to run away en route and so had decided to personally deliver him to the restaurant. Frankly, her behavior was beginning to make him feel very uncomfortable, but he knew better than to say as much.

The restaurant that Sonoko had picked was a lovely place targeted at couples. All the tables were for two, and the décor had certainly been chosen to create a romantic ambience. Real candles glittered like stars in the silverware and upon the spotless surfaces of fluting glasses and fine china.

Shinichi gave the receptionist his name and was told that his date had already arrived. Not sure if he was relieved or dismayed, he trailed after the impeccably dressed waiter towards what turned out to be a private booth.

Then he got his first good look at the alpha Sonoko had set him up with, and his mind went blank with shock.

No way. There was just no way. But that mess of dark hair, that easy grin, those sharp, mischievous indigo eyes…

It was Kaitou KID. It had to be. It just couldn't possibly be anyone else.

Shinichi's thoughts whirled. He wasn't sure what to do.

"Kudo-san?" the waiter asked when he noticed that Shinichi had frozen. "Are you all right?"

Shinichi said he was fine on autopilot. Moving like a sleepwalker, he sat down across from KID. His heart was racing, and the distant corner of his mind that wasn't gibbering wondered if KID could hear it.

Was he dreaming? He'd fallen asleep on the car. That had to be it.

He pinched himself under the table.

Nope. He wasn't dreaming.

"Well," KID said, catching Shinichi's gaze and holding it as that oh so familiar grin spread across his face. "This is certainly a pleasant surprise. Aoko didn't mention I'd be meeting a celebrity." Then, before Shinichi could decide whether he should blurt out what he knew and explain that he hadn't planned any of this or pretend that he knew nothing, the thief flicked his wrist and produced a red rose, which he offered to Shinichi with a smile so knowing Shinichi realized that he had nothing to explain. "My name is Kuroba Kaito. It's a pleasure to meet you."

The sincerity in the thief's voice and eyes made Shinichi's heart skip a beat. Feeling a blush rising in his cheeks despite his best efforts to suppress it, he accepted the proffered rose. Then he smiled. It was a small and rather hesitant but ever so slightly hopeful smile.

"I'm pleased to meet you too."

-End-

Note: There will be other stories in this universe, so stay tuned. Thanks for reading!