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Title: The Forest Ax Murder Case – Writer's Month 2022

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, getting together

Main Pairing: Saguru/Shinichi

DC/MK Characters: Kudou Shinichi, Hakuba Saguru, Nakamori Aoko, Kuroba Kaito

Summary: Writer's Month Prompts: forest + horror AU. There was an ax murderer on the loose. Shinichi was investigating it and runs into Hakuba Saguru.

The Forest Ax Murder Case

Writer's Month 2022

There was an ax murderer loose in the forest. It read like the tag-line of some cheesy horror flick that Sonoko and Ran would force him to watch with them, alas it was actually happening because that was just Shinichi's life. He had rented a cabin in the woods with Sera, Ran and Sonoko and the weekend had started off nice enough. And then the murder happened.

Him and Sera had gone out to investigate together, but it was late at night and storming so violently, he had gotten separated from her. Now all he could do was hope Sera was safe, wherever she was. Shinichi, for his part, had just slipped into the nearest cabin, for safety.

"Uh... I think you have the wrong cabin, this is ours."

Wiping the wet hair out of his face, he turned toward the person who'd spoken to him. For a second, he was startled, because she looked so much like Ran, just with very messy hair. Then he schooled his features because the person sitting next to her looked suspiciously much like him. And he also looked like he'd gotten caught with his hand in the cookie jar, before quickly schooling his features. Each of these on their own would be one thing, but together? Suspicious.

"Kudou-kun," a statement, not a question. "What are you doing here?"

At that, Shinichi froze up. The third in the little cabin was no other but Hakuba Saguru. The two had worked together in the past, back when Shinichi had still been Conan. And ever since his return to his own body, Shinichi had also on occasion worked with Saguru during KID heists.

"Hakuba-kun," Shinichi blinked repeatedly. "I'm here on a... a vacation that turned into a case."

"Oh," the girl's eyes widened in excitement. "That's the Kudou-kun?"

She looked at Hakuba inquisitively, giggling a little bit. Well, that was strange. But at least Shinichi hadn't accidentally locked himself in with the ax murderer; he highly doubted Hakuba spent time with an ax murderer. Suddenly, Hakuba got up and quickly left the room, just to return moments later with a fluffy towel, offering it to Shinichi with a concerned look.

"You're soaking wet, Kudou-kun," Hakuba pointed out.

"If you'd like, you could use our shower," offered the girl. "I'm Nakamori Aoko, by the way. And this is Kuroba Kaito. We're Hakuba-kun's classmates."

"Nakamori, like...?" Shinichi trailed off, just to receive confirming nods from all other parties.

Ah. All the more reason not to think this an ax murderer. Accepting the towel, he let Hakuba lead him upstairs to the bathroom. The layout of the cabin was the same as the one he was sharing with the girls. At least he didn't have to worry about Ran; any ax murderer trying something with her actually should be pitied because she could snap them in half.

"Thank you, for the generous offer. I'm sorry for barging in like that. I was on the run from a serial killer. Which, I would advise you to lock the doors and windows and be careful of strangers."

Hakuba nodded solemnly. "I'll take care of it, you go and take a shower."

And that Shinichi did. He enjoyed the hot water, after how long he'd tumbled through the cold rain. When he felt warmed up and clean, he got out of the shower, just to find a set of clothes waiting on the toilet seat for him. After putting them on, he could smell that they were Hakuba's. They smelt like him. His laundry detergent. And it was probably weird that Shinichi recognized it, or that he was sniffing the collar of the shirt and blushing. So perhaps maybe he had a slight crush on the other Holmes geek. They'd bonded over their favorite fictional detective and they had worked quite well together during heists. The other was also quite attractive, on top of his good taste and high intellect. But now was not the right time to focus on any of that. Taking a deep breath, he left the bathroom and headed back downstairs, where he found Aoko whispering and giggling, just to stop dead in her tracks when she saw him. Again with the strange behavior. And the other one, Kuroba, he seemed to be trying to hide behind Aoko. Very odd friends Hakuba had there.

/break\

Hakuba had only accompanied Kuroba and Aoko because Aoko's friend had bailed and they already did the down-payment on the cabin. If he'd known it would lead to him seeing his crush wearing his clothes? He may have been more enthusiastic. If he had also known it would lead to him having Shinichi pinned to the ground in a mud-slide after they barely escaped an ax murderer? Well, he'd have to weight up the pros and cons of that and Shinichi would probably still win out. Especially since it ended with the ax murderer kicked between the legs by Sera. Wins all around.

"It was... interesting working with you on this one, Kudou-kun."

"That's one way to put it," Shinichi chuckled, wiping some mud off his face.

They were waiting to be interviewed by the cops, now that those had made their way up the hill. Both sat together, relaxing a bit after the long chase. Shinichi's eyes trailed toward where Kuroba and Aoko stood, giving an interview of their own.

"He's been behaving shifty around you because he's Kaitou KID. But I'm guessing you already put that together on your own," offered Saguru after a beat.

"Oh yeah, took me less than a minute," Shinichi grinned amused, tilting his head. "What I couldn't figure out was why Nakamori-san was behaving so suspiciously around me though. Does she know about Kuroba-kun and was concerned about me finding out his secret...?"

"From what I can tell, I doubt that she knows," Saguru furrowed his brows, unable to suppress his blush. "It is... It's that she knows I might have a... crush on you and she was very excited to meet you in person. She only means well, but I can see how suspicious her behavior must have seemed."

"A crush?" Shinichi blinked a couple times. "On me?"

"Mh," Saguru tilted his head curiously. "You're such a great detective, I was sure you had figured that out on your own by now. I... wouldn't have said that... if I had known you didn't know."

"Wait, what? Why?" Shinichi looked even more confused now.

"I think we have a nice... friendship developing and I wouldn't want to jeopardize that."

"I have a crush on you too," Shinichi blinked a few times. "I thought you had figured that out, because you're quite the talented detective yourself... I thought you weren't speaking up to be polite and let me down gently. Are you telling me we both... failed to put obvious clues together?"

"Yes, you did," Kaito called out. "Maybe KID-sama needs to look for new, more qualified rivals."

"I'm going to kiss you now," Shinichi looked at Saguru. "And make his life hell next heist."

"And I approve of both of those," Saguru smiled at him.

~*~ The End ~*~

Author's note: I don't do horror. I find the horror genre insanely boring. But I figured taking the "ax murderer in the forest, people being chased in the dark" trope on its own, it'd work with DCMK :D