SaguShin || DCMK || SaguShin || Haibara Arthur || SaguShin || DCMK || SaguShin

Title: Haibara Arthur – Chasing Spiders, Finding Love

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, fluff, deaged Saguru, falling in love, hurt/comfort

Main Pairing: Saguru/Shinichi

DC/MK Characters: Kudou Shinichi | Edogawa Conan, Hakuba Saguru, Agasa Hiroshi, Haibara Ai, Yoshida Ayumi, Tsuburaya Mitsuhiko, Kojima Genta, Mouri Ran

Summary: One day, a blonde boy Conan's age is standing in front of the Kudou Mansion and Conan is stunned to learn the child is Hakuba Saguru, deaged by the same drug as him after a run-in with the Black Organization during a KID heist.

Haibara Arthur

Chasing Spiders, Finding Love

Shinichi wasn't entirely sure what he had expected when Haibara called him to come to the professor's urgently. With her, that could be a variety of things. A blonde boy was not one of them.

"Who... is this?" asked Shinichi, looking from the kid over to Haibara.

"We've met before," replied the blonde boy. "I was... taller back then. I'm Hakuba Saguru. And I think I need your help, Edogawa-kun. Or should I say Kudou-kun?"

Shinichi stared in surprise. Those honey eyes, the blonde hair. Ten years younger, yes, but now that he heard the name, he couldn't deny the parallels. But how was this possible...? Well, he knew how it was possible – him and Haibara were evidence of that – but why Hakuba?

"Tell him what you told me, Hakuba-kun," prompted Haibara in a calm voice.

"There is this internationally wanted assassin that I've been chasing for many months now," started Hakuba, hands folded in his lap, staring at them – probably disturbed and mesmerized by how young and small they were now; Shinichi had been there in the past. "His code-name is Spider. He is working with men dressed in black, who are trying to kill Kaitou KID. I... got too close, saved KID's life one too many times I suppose. They tried to poison me. When I woke up... well..."

Hakuba motioned at himself, a joyless half-smile on his lips. Men in black trying to kill KID? That was new. Shinichi frowned tensely first at Hakuba and then turned toward Haibara, who gave a shrug that indicated she didn't know this Spider character personally.

"How did you..." Shinichi trailed off, motioning around.

"I knew you were... special when we first met at the Sunset Mansion. A child prodigy, I accepted that back then. But the Detective Koushin tipped me off that something about you was very off. And when I woke up, ten years younger than I should be, it sort of... clicked. Your behavior as well as Hattori-kun's behavior about Kudou Shinichi had bothered me back then, but with this new information and a quick internet search to childhood pictures of Kudou Shinichi... I put one and one together, Kudou-kun, and came to the conclusion that what happened to me must have happened to you too. I'm unsure why or how though. I came to the Kudou Mansion to talk to you, but after an hour of waiting, this young lady... cornered and threatened me. We talked."

"What... do we do with this?" asked Shinichi, this time turning toward Haibara.

"Well, we can't let him go back home again," Haibara sighed, her eyes on Hakuba. "But having another random child pop up like that will raise suspicion. I suppose... you could pass."

"Pass as what?" asked Hakuba with furrowed brows.

"My brother," Haibara tugged on her own blonde hair. "We're both blonde, roughly the same shade too even. Considering facial structure... Mh. I think that could work."

/break\

"Wha—at. Ai-chan has a brother?" Ayumi stared at him in awe as she circled him.

Haibara and Kudou had prepared him for this. The Detective Boys were an important part of their cover and if he was going to pretend to be Haibara's twin-brother, he would be spending time with them too. There had also been a threatening undertone to her voice though; she was clearly attached to the children and would not allow him to hurt or disappoint them.

"Yes!" Saguru forced his best child-like smile. "I have been at a boarding school in England until now, but I missed Japan! So I came to live with my precious sister."

There was something akin to jealousy in Mitsuhiko and Genta's eyes as they watched him warily. He turned toward them, smiling as best as he could in this overall situation.

"Thank you for having me and thank you for watching over my sister all this time," he bowed a little. "She speaks so much about you all and how important you are to her!"

That seemed to appease the boys and especially Genta puffed out his chest at that. Adorable. Saguru didn't have much experience with children and he didn't know how well he'd fare with these, but according to Kudou and Haibara, they were alright and a good way of gaining access too – the group of kids called themselves the Detective Boys and more often than not did the local police humor the kids by letting them tag along (which sounded horrific to Saguru, if he was being frank. Homicide detectives letting actual children onto crime-scenes with murder victims).

"We're happy to have you, Arthur-kun," offered Kudou with an amused smile.

The other Holmes geek had given him a pointed look at his choice of name and Saguru had simply countered it with a pointed glare, stating that he too had a right to claim Sir Doyle. Haibara had rolled her eyes and groaned about there now being 'two of those'.

"Do you like mysteries too?" asked Mitsuhiko. "Because we're detectives!"

"I love it. I consider myself a detective too, you know," Saguru chuckled at his own words.

"Then you will fit right in with us," declared Genta.

/break\

"You are an absolutely brilliant man, Agasa-hakase," praised Saguru in wonder.

He turned his wrist over, looking at his watch. The same kind as Shinichi's; a secret tranquilizer gun. It came in handy to take out criminals, had Shinichi offered. He also got a Detective Boy batch that worked as a communicator among the group. Very handy, all of that.

"Ahahaha, thank you, Saguru-kun," the professor puffed his chest out proudly.

He was an incredibly kind man. For the past month now, Saguru had been living with him and Haibara. Sharing meals, conversation and routines with them. It was surprisingly easy to live with these strangers and he quickly came to consider them close friends.

Shinichi was the one he didn't know what to think of. The Heisei Holmes truly lived up to that nickname, he was a force to be reckoned with and Saguru found himself in awe every time he got to see Shinichi come to a deduction, see the way he worked around the police, how he could even give his deductions thanks to the professor's gadgets. The Sleeping Mouri. Saguru had been suspicious about that since the first time he read about it. Now, it all made perfect sense. As much sense as anything could make, in this world where drugs shrank people. But Shinichi. Shinichi. Saguru didn't know what he was supposed to think. Most of his time, he spent with the other detective. They worked together on taking down the Black Organization, now that they shared all of their information. But they also solved cases together, or would simply... talk about Holmes, really. Saguru had never felt this connected with anyone else before in his life. He might have a crush.

/break\

"Arthur-kun, don't you have to go home soon? Won't the professor be waiting with dinner?"

Ran stood in the doorway of Conan's room, smiling to herself. At first, Haibara Arthur had just been one of the Detective Boys, but in recent weeks, Ran had come to wonder. The two boys were practically inseparable, doing everything together. Even whispering secretively with each other. They also stayed physically close a lot, like right now. Both were laying sprawled out on the ground, their noses in the same Holmes book that they were reading together. It was adorable.

"Ah, is it already that late, Ran-nee-chan?" Conan looked upset at that.

It really was adorable. Conan had his first crush. And here Ran always thought Conan might like Ai, but apparently she had been wrong with that. Reluctantly did Arthur get up and bid his goodbye. After the boy was gone, Ran approached Conan to sit down with him.

"You and Arthur-kun are very close," noted Ran innocently, smiling to herself.

"We're good friends," replied Conan with a bright smile. "Also, he loves Sherlock Holmes nearly as much as I do! Which, I didn't think was possible. And he's a great detective."

"You know," Ran's expression turned a little sad. "That's something Shinichi used to say. That his future wife really had to appreciate Holmes, otherwise that marriage would never work."

"...Why are you bringing Shinichi-nii-chan up?" asked Conan confused. "And... this?"

"I'm just wondering if Conan-kun has realized..." Ran trailed off for a moment. "I just want you to know that what you're feeling is okay and that I will not let anyone judge you for it, okay? Sometimes, children can be cruel. Sometimes, adults can be cruel. And if anyone gives you a hard time about liking Arthur-kun, you tell me and I will break them, okay?"

Conan blinked with the largest eyes at him, looking surprised. "I... I... Okay, Ran-nee-chan."

/break\

Shinichi was balancing a ball on his knee, frowning at it. He was aware that Saguru was watching him, curious. The blonde could probably tell that Shinichi was being anxious about something. After all these months of them working together, being friends, Saguru had become incredibly good at reading Shinichi. And for some reason, that thought made his heart skip a beat.

"So, Ran thinks that you and I are dating," stated Shinichi after a beat.

"...Mh?" Saguru blinked repeatedly, looking surprised.

"She... She told me that it's okay to feel the way we do and she basically threatened to use her karate skills on any homophobic bullies who might give us a hard time."

Saguru narrowed his eyes in that thoughtful way, like he was deducing something. "Interesting."

"Interesting? That... That's the only thing you have to say about that?" asked Shinichi surprised.

"Well, yes, seeing as Mouri-chan must have seen something from you too," commented Saguru. "So I'm wondering if... Do you have feelings for me too, Kudou-kun?"

Shinichi flushed brightly, even dropping his ball. "I... suppose so. I'm... I enjoy spending time with you. There are others who know my secret and Haibara even knows what it's like, but... it's different with you... It feels different to spend time with you. I... think I might..."

"Good," Saguru smiled and tilted his head. "Because I like you too."

He stepped up to Shinichi and kissed his cheek, causing Shinichi's blush to darken even more. Who would have thought the Black Organization would hand-deliver Shinichi a boyfriend...?

~*~ The End ~*~

Author's note: I love the anime angle of Saguru obsessing over Spider, who is associated with Kaito's men in black, and the angle that those men in black are a branch of the Black Organization. And the resulting possibility of Shinichi and Saguru working together to take the BO out. BUT then I thought "wait wait wait what if same organization could mean they try and poison Saguru the same way they did Shinichi and he gets deaged too-?" and I HAD TO WRITE THAT :3