A/N: This went from self-indulgent venting about writers block to Shinichi and KID having a semi-sleep-deprived conversation. ...Enjoy the randomness.

Shinichi was exhausted.

More so than usual. He couldn't seem to get his mind to focus on anything for longer than a few moments. Which—was really not a good situation. He was supposed to be writing a paper (to make up for some of his missed schoolwork) and he could barely keep his attention on what the topic was supposed to be.

He needed to get this paper done, if he didn't make up the missed schoolwork he wouldn't be able to graduate and Shinichi doubted many people would be willing to hire a detective who dropped out of high school. Not really the impression he wanted to give potential clients.

Aaaand he was losing focus again. Shinichi rubbed his temples in a futile attempt to stave off his developing headache. He would go and make himself some coffee, but he'd already had several mugs today and Haibara had been very clear about warning him that if he didn't cut back on his caffeine intake it could cause him serious health issues. He really couldn't risk adding more problems on top of the lingering effects of the APTX. Which, unfortunately, meant he couldn't try to trick his brain into working by feeding it more coffee.

Ugh. He felt like he'd been staring at the blank document for hours, his lack of progress staring back in his face. Every time he would get his brain to actually think of something for the paper, it refused to remain in his thoughts for long enough to get it into words, and then he was left staring at nothing again. It was extremely tempting to just go back to reading cold-case files, but if he did that he definitely wouldn't end up doing any schoolwork tonight.

Knowing his luck tonight would be the only free time he got the entire week. True, he wasn't exactly on a deadline to finish anything, but if he didn't start it would never get done. There was an alarming pile of work he would need to do to make up his grades, and a large part of it would be this damn paper that he could not seem to start working on.

It was infuriating.

He was thinking more about his inability to work on the paper than what he actually needed to write and he couldn't stop doing it. It was like the moment he blinked his train of thought veered to something else. At this point he was only still sitting here out of sheer spite because he refused to give in to his stupid exhausted brain until he did something productive!

Unfortunately, he couldn't seem to make his thoughts stop careening off track.

"Meitantei?"

—aaand now he was hearing things as well, wonderful.

"Meitantei what are you doing?"

Shinichi dropped his head onto the desk with a groan. Had he fallen asleep without noticing or something? Why the hell was he imagining KID visiting him? He felt his head being lifted and blinked in surprise at the sight of the magician frowning at him.

"…KID?" Was he actually asleep? He didn't feel like he had been, but he'd been so tired before the fact that he still was didn't really indicate anything.

"Meitantei, were you asleep just now?"

Shinichi grimaced, "I don't think so, but then I've been staring at a blank page for much too long so I might have fallen asleep."

Kid blinked at him, looking bemused, "You were staring at blank paper? Why?"

"Because I couldn't write on it."

"What?"

Shinichi was too tired for this, "The paper was blank because I apparently am incapable of writing today."

"Something happened to your hands?" Kid questioned, letting go of Shinichi's face to examine his hands instead, and Shinichi just blinked as he realized he hadn't noticed that the magician had still been holding his face.

"My hands are fine, KID."

The magician frowned at him, "You said you were incapable of writing, Meitantei, and given your history and the fact that I don't think I've ever heard you say you can't do something, I think I can be forgiven for assuming that meant you'd been injured."

"Hmm," Shinichi reluctantly agreed with that logic, however, "Is that right? For some reason I thought you knew that there is definitely at least one thing I can't do."

"Oh?" Kid sounds amused now, "What is that, Meitantei?"

"I can't sing," Shinichi informed the thief blandly, "at all."

"You can't? Didn't you play violin?"

"Yes."

"But you can't sing?"

"I can hear pitches and recognize them, I just can't mimic them. Violin is much easier."

Kid snickered, "Meitantei, I think you're the first person who's told me playing violin is easy."

"Not easy, easier. There is a difference."

"Yes, yes. You haven't told me why you can't write by the way."

"My brain keeps doing what this conversation just did and derailing, that's why."

"So…you can't focus."

"Exactly."

"Why haven't you just gone to sleep? It's late, Meitantei."

"I refuse to sleep until I've done something productive. Also, if I tried to sleep right now I'd just be staring at the ceiling and wishing my thoughts would shut up."

"How tired are you right now?"

"Very. Unfortunately that has no bearing on my actual ability to sleep. Kid, if it's late why are you here—even if it isn't late, what on earth are you doing in my library?"

Kid grinned at him, "Having a very informative conversation. It's quite fun to talk to you like this."

"…"

"No, don't stop talking to me, I swear I'm not teasing you, Meitantei, I'm just enjoying the lack of projectile weapons aimed at my person."

"Hmm… what did you come here for then?"

"Definitely not projectile weapons. I was planning to give you a heist notice."

Shinichi blinked in confusion, "Did you change your mind?"

"I'll give it to you before I leave, but as I said, I'm quite enjoying our conversation."

"Do you know how to fix writers block, by any chance?"

Kid looked startled, "Um…isn't your dad an author? That sounds more like a question for him."

Shinichi sighed in disappointment, "You don't then. Damn."

"Out of curiosity, have you asked your dad that question?"

"He would say something cryptic and utterly useless about traveling to escape his editors and probably tease me about it for good measure."

"…You seem very confident about that."

"That's just what he's like. Did you know he knew the first KID? Dad even named him."

The thief choked, "He what?"

"You didn't know? Huh. I guess it might not be a well-known story."

"Meitantei, please tell me."

Shinichi's eyes widened at Kid's pleading tone, "It's...not really that good a story. And it's pretty short."

"It's one story that I haven't heard before, Meitantei, please tell it anyways."

"Uh, sure. So…I think this was at a heist? Maybe some sort of media event. There were a lot of journalists there, and one of them was writing about your predecessor. My dad was there too, and he was reading this journalist's notes out loud. He misread the numbers in your wanted number, 1412, right? But I suppose this journalist either had bad handwriting or was writing in a hurry or my dad just wasn't paying close attention and read the numbers as the English word KID. And your predecessor basically declared on the spot that Kaitou KID would be his new name."

Kid laughed, although the sound came out strained, "Yeah, that sounds like him."

"Mmm. I'm actually pretty sure my dad knew his identity." The thief froze and Shinichi rolled his eyes, "Relax, stupid thief, I'm not about to cheat by asking him to tell me. I'd rather hear it from you."

Kid choked, "Wh—Meitantei, what?!"

"You heard me."

"But—you—you're a detective!"

Shinichi frowned, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You're trying to arrest me, why wouldn't you want to find out my identity if you could?"

"Firstly, I'm not, and honestly you should have figured that out on your own by now. Also, I'm way too tired for this conversation please ask something else."

Kid spluttered for a moment and huffed, "Why aren't you asleep yet if you're so tired?"

"Because I have to be productive first."

"You really don't."

"You're not helping."

"Meitantei, you will probably be much more productive after you've had some decent rest and recovery time."

"Recovery from what? I'm not injured, idiot."

"From solving bloody murder cases?" Kid suggested.

Shinichi scoffed, "Because sleeping will help with that?"

"I don't see how it could make it worse."

"Ugh. Please just let me go back to struggling to be productive."

"No."

"Kid—" Shinichi's argument cut off as the thief put his gloved hand over Shinichi's face.

"Close your eyes, Meitantei."

"What are you—"

"It's not a trick, Meitantei. Just for ten seconds, alright? I'll even count for you."

Shinichi sighed heavily, sensing that the thief wouldn't change his mind, and reluctantly closed his eyes. "They're closed."

"Good. One…two…" Kid counted the seconds softly, and Shinichi found himself unconsciously relaxing back into his chair, "three…four…" the detective's breathing slowed as he listened to the thief's voice.

By the time Kid reached six, Shinichi was already asleep.