DCMK || KaiShin || DCMK || A Phantom Thief's Jealousy || DCMK || KaiShin || DCMK

Title: A Phantom Thief's Jealousy – And a Detective's Exasperation

Fandom: Detective Conan / Magic Kaito

Disclaimer: All rights reserved to Gosho Aoyama for he created the awesomeness that is Kaitou KID. Ah, and Detective Conan, too. This fanfiction on the other hand is entirely mine. No money is made with this, though reviews are more than welcomed.

Tags: m/m, jealousy, pranks, possessiveness

Main Pairing: Kaito/Shinichi

DC/MK Characters: Kuroba Kaito | Kaitou KID, Kudou Shinichi | Edogawa Conan, Furuya Rei | Amuro Tooru | Bourbon, Mouri Ran, Suzuki Sonoko

Summary: Amuro has been the victim of pranks lately. They seemed to increase whenever he spends time near Conan. Conan has a pretty good hunch who is responsible, but not why.

A Phantom Thief's Jealousy

And a Detective's Exasperation

"My, Amuro-san, your hair..." Ran blinked repeatedly. "What happened?"

"I'm quite honestly not sure," Amuro offered a thin-lipped smile, pulling on a strand of neon-pink hair. "I washed my hair yesterday and when I looked in the mirror, it was like this..."

"Ah, so not an accident at the hair salon?" Ran looked surprised by that.

And she wasn't the only one. Conan narrowed his eyes as he watched Amuro. Something had been off lately. There were scraps on the man lately, his clothes were mismatched. At first, Shinichi had attributed it to the man's busy four-fold life – being a member of the BO, being a member of the PSB, being a detective apprentice, being a waiter at Poirot. At one point, all of that had to catch up with him, exhaust him and cause him to not be as perfect as he was. But this? This wasn't something a person could just accidentally screw up on his own.

"How long?" asked Shinichi, his eyes catching Amuro's. "How long have you been pranked?"

Amuro blinked curiously at that. "Mh, I'm unsure. A few weeks, I suppose. It's not every day. But sometimes, it is... much more extreme than others. This happened after we got back from the case."

They'd been on a case with Mouri and returned yesterday. Peculiar. Something about this rubbed Conan the wrong way, like this was a mystery he really needed to solve.

/break\

"Do... Do you have... cake... in your hair, Amuro-san?" asked Sonoko reluctantly.

Amuro cussed beneath his breath and turned toward the large window-front to look at his reflection. "Yes. This morning, when I... I'm honestly not even entirely sure, but a cake flew right in my face when I headed in for work."

"So these strange pranks, they're still going on?" Ran sounded concerned.

Turning toward her, Amuro offered a kind smile. "It's okay. No physical harm has come to me yet. A bit of cake or hair-dye I can work around, you know."

He went back to work and the girls continued with their conversation. Conan's eyes trailed after the waiter though. Still? He had assumed it must have ended at this point. Figuring out who did it wasn't all too hard, after he gathered the evidence of when exactly the pranks had started. So Conan decided to wait until Ran and Sonoko left the café for the shopping trip they had planned.

"No, go without me! I still have a manga I wanted to read," Shinichi offered his most innocent Conan-smile to them both. "I'll head back upstairs when I finish my tea!"

"If... you say so, Conan-kun," Ran smiled at him before she left with Sonoko.

It took Amuro only a couple of moments to find Shinichi and sit down opposite him. The look on his face was torn somewhere between amusement and exhaustion as he rested his face in his hand.

"Well. I assume you wanted to say something to me," Amuro raised his eyebrows.

"The one who pranks you," Shinichi crossed his arms over his chest. "It's gotta be Kaitou KID. It started only a day after the Queen's Bangs Heist. I assumed he was miffed about the way you tricked him, because he isn't often tricked. But there has been another heist since then and you weren't there. So I'm unsure why he's still pranking you..."

Amuro's lips spread into a broad and partially amused grin. "It's because of you."

"W... What?" Shinichi sputtered in confusion. "What do I have to do with this?"

"I'm not entirely sure about that," admitted Amuro after a moment. "But I noticed that every time I interact with you, I end up pranked. The more time I spent with you, the more severe the prank."

Right, the pink hair had happened after they had spent a weekend away with Kogoro. And yesterday, Amuro had run into the Detective Boys and gone along with them to chaperon them as they went about solving a kidnapped puppy case. But... why? Shinichi frowned, grasping his own chin thoughtfully. What motif could the thief have to target Amuro because of Shinichi...?

"I've been thinking..." Amuro turned to look out the window. "His behavior, before the heist, it was odd, wasn't it? I've been reading up on Kaitou KID. He seems to take his magic very seriously. So for him to approach us and explain my magic trick... when a magician-"

"Never reveals his tricks," finished Shinichi with sharp eyes. "I thought it was about him challenging me, but I suppose it must have been about you then. Did you rub him the wrong way with your little card-trick? Did you wound his magician's pride?"

"That would still not explain why he is pranking me when I interact with you."

"True," Shinichi hummed thoughtfully, tilting his head.

"And I understand why you thought he was challenging you. He was talking to you, after all," Amuro continued after a moment. "He was criticizing my trick, toward you, before addressing you directly as the 'Great Detective' and then... dissolving into a flock of pigeons."

Shinichi bit his lips hard. The dissolving into pigeons brought back memories and had made him feel warm and fond. KID had done that back when Shinichi first started to believe in KID as an ally and as more than just a thief. During the Imperial Easter Egg Heist. The first time KID had protected him – had saved Shinichi's life when the assassin had tried to kill him in the burning castle and then had protected Shinichi's secret from Ran by pretending to be Shinichi.

"I'm more confused than before," Shinichi heaved a frustrated sigh.

He loathed not understanding. KID often gave him that feeling, but with a fun riddle that Shinichi could look forward to solving. Not with strange and untypically hostile behavior like this. Suddenly, Amuro started chuckling, a nearly mischievous look on his face.

"I think the Phantom Thief wasn't wounded in his magician's pride by my trick, but rather by... you," Amuro tilted his head as he regarded Shinichi. "The last thing to happen before he intervened was for you to compliment my trick and claim that I could challenge KID with it. You wounded his magician's pride, not me. But I was the cause of it. I think the Phantom Thief is jealous."

Jealous? Jealous made it sound—Conan's ears turned ruby-red. Jealous sounded romantic, like a lover scorned. As though Shinichi was cheating on Kaitou KID with another magician. The blush spread the more he thought about it and he hated that, if looked at the evidence, this deduction made sense, because aside from that, it made no sense at all. Why would KID be jealous just because Shinichi complimented someone else's trick? And why be this obsessive, weeks after...?

/break\

"Tantei-kun! I'm so glad you could make it to the heist! And without any... bothersome guest stars."

The grin on KID's lips nearly split his face. The next second, the thief ducked quickly as a soccer ball hit the wall behind him, cracking it. The moonlight reflected in Conan's glasses before he tilted his head up to glare at the thief in utter irritation. KID laughed, an unsure and nervous sound.

"Oi," Shinichi approached slowly. "Are you jealous of Amuro-san, stupid thief?"

He'd thought about how to say it but couldn't decide, so he went with the most direct approach. KID seemed to pale just a bit, before his cheeks flushed. Shinichi blinked. Well, that was strange. The next moment, KID pouted, crossing his arms like a stubborn child and turning slightly away.

"You complimented his stupid trick when it wasn't even impressive," argued KID, a certain whine to his voice. "You never compliment my magic! I created the illusion to walk on air, just for you! And you go around complimenting some random amateur's card-trick!"

"...What do you mean 'just for me'?" Shinichi blinked slowly, startled.

"Well, I didn't go all-out for the old man, that's for sure," KID's blush returned, even stronger than before, and the thief huffed. "I don't like this new man in your life, tantei-kun. I don't trust him – he aimed a gun at me and tried to explode me – and his card-tricks aren't impressive at all."

"New man in my life?" Conan's voice pitched high at that phrasing. "Y... You really are jealous!"

"So what if I am?" KID ducked his head, glaring at a point above Conan's head, not looking at him.

"Why?" Shinichi threw his hands up in the air in exasperation.

"Why?" KID repeated the word with a baffled look on his face before also throwing his hands up in the air. "You were paying attention to him and not to me! During my heist! And when I looked into this guy, I noticed that you're spending an awful lot of time with this 'apprentice' of Mouri-san's. You two keep whispering secretively with each other!"

New man in Shinichi's life. Jealous. Attention. Kaitou KID was jealous, not jealous like a pouting child who wanted to be paid attention to, but indeed like a scorned lover who had to see the one he loved with someone else? Was... Did Kaitou KID have romantic feelings for him?

"Are you... Are you in love with me, KID?" Shinichi kept his voice even and gentle.

"Have been for over a year, thanks for noticing!" Kaitou KID threw his head back and groaned. "For such a brilliant detective, you are impressively dense when it comes to these things. I have not been subtle in my flirting, tantei-kun! Look at me, waiting on rooftops instead of flying off, just so I can have a chat with you! Working with you, even though you're a detective. Protecting your secret, even though I don't entirely understand it. I design so many of my heists, the heists surrounding Suzuki, the ones I know you will attend, to be special and extravagant and amazing for you."

Color filled Shinichi's cheeks, darkening more and more with every word from his thief. With a heavy sigh did he cover his eyes, wishing to just be swallowed up by the darkness. This was so embarrassing. Being confessed to and in a manner like this – having the thief point out all the evidence for his feelings that Shinichi should have seen, because he was a detective!

"...Great Detective?" KID sounded unusually unsure and nervous.

"Stop pranking Amuro-san," demanded Shinichi as he lowered his hand to properly look at KID. "He is a strong ally in the battle I am fighting. That is what we're whispering about."

"Ah," KID nodded slowly, a sheepish look on his face.

After a beat, Shinichi continued. "And I complimented his simple trick because his girlfriend was there too and I wanted to make him look good in front of her."

"Oh," KID visibly perked up at that, looking strangely pleased.

"Besides... I don't care about magic," KID deflated at his words. "Just like I don't care about thieves. You are an exception. To both of those. There is no one you have to be jealous of, KID."

While Shinichi blushed, KID beamed at him, happier than Shinichi had ever seen him before.

~*~ The End ~*~

Author's note: So I caught up with the manga and I swear the Queen's Bangs Heist is just... WHY would KID, a magician, reveal how a card-trick works, and he didn't just do it to the broad audience, he specifically did it just for Shinichi, ending with that "Great Detective" and the dove trick and I just. I can't read this as anything but KID being pettily jealous because Shinichi paid attention to someone else but him. I will now desperately cling onto my "Kaito is super jealous of Amuro" headcanon, thanks~