Conan fumbled clumsily in his pockets for his phone, some part of his frantic mind remembering he was supposed to call—he loses focus for a bit as his thoughts whirl more crazily, and realizes as the phone rings he doesn't know who he just called.

"Moshi-moshi?"

"KID," he pants the response, half the tension draining away from his body even as his brain seems determined to send his thoughts in cartwheels.

There's a short pause, and then KID speaks up, "Tantei-kun, are you okay?"

"Um…" He thinks he's probably hyperventilating, and some unknown part of his brain decided that the sixth-or-so landing on a fire escape who-knew-where was a great place to sit so… "Not really?"

KID responds almost instantly, "Are you hurt? Where are you?"

"I'm fine." The response is instinctive, and Conan abruptly realizes that his hands are stinging. "Actually, I think I scraped my hands and knees a bit when I tripped, but," he pauses to switch the phone to his other hand, "My hands aren't bleeding," he focuses briefly on his knees, "and my pants don't look ripped, so it's probably fine."

"Can you tell me where you are?"

"Don't know. Too busy running to keep track." Conan probably should be worried by that, but his brain is still determined to spin in mostly useless circles.

"Running?"

"Needed to get away from them." He hears KID inhale sharply and belatedly realizes how bad that sounded. "Not like that. From my friends."

"Just to be clear; you ran away from the Shounen Tantei?" KID sounds more confused than worried, now.

"Yeah."

After a moment, KID questions gently, "Why?"

Because Haibara keeps watching me like she's waiting for me to fall apart, and the others are too chirpy and excited and happy. He couldn't tell KID that, KID still had no idea what was going on in Conan's head. Well, maybe not about Haibara, but… "I just, I couldn't—"

He takes a moment to try and force his thoughts into order. It doesn't work. "It sounds stupid."

"Tantei-kun, even you can't be logical all the time." Coming from KID, it sounded strangely reassuring.

"They're all so…happy and bright, all the time, and that's fine, but I couldn't…" he trails off, and then braces himself to admit it, "I ran away because I couldn't fake it, not today."

"It's okay to be stressed or sad or angry, Tantei-kun. You don't have to pretend to be happy."

He knew that, but…they were just kids (they were six)…he didn't want his issues to drag them down too; they didn't need to know how much of a mess he was right now. "I don't want them unhappy because of me."

"You could let them help—"

"No."

"Tantei-kun—"

"No way," they did not need to know how many problems he was having. "I'm not telling them any of this."

"Easy, Tantei-kun. I'm not making you talk to anyone. Just breathe for a minute, okay?" Conan hadn't even realized his breathing had sped up again.

He closed his eyes and let his head rest on his knees. "I hate feeling like this."

"Tantei-kun?"

He let some of the frustration out, "I can't think properly. Especially about—" Conan cut himself off. He was not about to tell KID he was a shrunken teenager who got poisoned and-no. Nope, not thinking about it. "Every time I try, it all just gets thrown around in tangles, and I end up thinking in circles because it stresses me out that I can't think straight and I know I can't just ignore it until it goes away, because it won't."

"I don't know what's bothering you, but you could try not to think about all of it at once, just start with one piece. Or you might try waiting to do your detective-y analysis until you're less stressed."

"I doubt that will be any time soon." Especially if Haibara keeps acting like I'm a bomb about to go off.

"If you keep thinking about things that stress you out, you'll be right."

"Not that simple, KID"

He heard the thief sigh, "Well, it's worth a try."

"Hmm." His limbs seem to be recovered from the run earlier, so he gets up and stretches before heading back towards street-level.

"So, you think you can get back to the agency from—where are you again?"

KID must have pretty good hearing if he can hear my footsteps through the phone.

"Climbing down a fire escape."

"…A fire escape, Tantei-kun?"

Conan makes sure to use the extra-chirpy voice as he responds, "Yep!"

"Please don't do that."

"…do what?" He's reached the ground and briefly wonders which way out of the alley he should take, before shrugging and walking to the left.

"Let's go with, don't climb tall buildings when you're stressed and not paying attention to where you are." Conan finds it oddly amusing that the thief who regularly jumps off buildings (with a hang-glider, but still) is telling him to stay away from heights.

"How is that supposed to work? If I'm not paying attention I can't really stop myself."

"Tantei-kun…" KID is groaning, and Conan wonders if he managed to accidentally transfer his stress to the thief. He does feel better, though he has no idea why. They didn't even talk about his major problem.

"Oh, I can see where I am now."

"Yeah?"

"It turns out the fire escape was on the side of the Haido City Hotel." Conan absently wonders if KID considered using the fire escape at all, or if the helicopters would have spotted him if he had.

"The Haido City Hotel," If he had to guess, KID sounds torn between laughter and another groan.

"Yep. Thanks for the talk, KID."

"Any time, Tantei-kun. I mean it."

"I know. Called you, didn't I?" Conan hangs up and heads back for the agency, hoping Ran won't scold him too much for staying out late after school without telling her about it.


Let me know what you thought!

Next chapter is planned to be the big confession about what drove Conan up to the roof.