The first thing Kaito was aware of after he finished righting the gravity of the room were the hands slamming onto his desk and a formerly blond now green haired detective fuming over him. Kaito hummed inquisitively and removed his feet from the desk to raise an eyebrow at Hakuba.

"How'd you do it?"

Kaito's smirk was overly innocent and equally mischievous at the same time. It was a look only he seemed to be able to pull off, yet Shinichi had learned it well in the past three months considering it was the same one he flashed before taking off with the jewel. Kaito was quite proud of his apprentice's progress. They'd make a proper phantom thief out of him yet.

"You're talking about me going head to head with KID, right?" Kaito clarified as if he didn't already know exactly what the brit was referring to. "Because that just takes actual creativity and a whoooooole lot of duct tape and glitter. So nothing that you detectives use."

Hakuba's growl was something bordering along deadly mixed with annoyance and his hands fisted, still firmly planted on the desk. "I meant being Kuroba and KID at the same time. What did you do? Was it projectors? An accomplice?" Hakuba wouldn't even admit to himself the theory of Kuroba possibly managing to clone himself that was floating around in his brain.

The look of dawning comprehension on Kaito's face melted into something more like pity. He stood and placed condescendingly comforting hands on the detective's shoulders. "You poor soul, still believing in that delusion that I'm KID. Things will get better. I'm sure the Task Force has a support group and-"

That was enough. Hakuba tore away from the grip and stormed out of the room. Kaito grinned triumphantly and fell back into his seat to pull out his phone.

The day hasn't even started and I've already broken him. -K

He didn't have to wait long for a reply.

Poor Hakuba. What'd you do to him this time? -S

Nothing~ He still thinks I'm KID and is demanding answers! I just think his dumb deerstalker is cutting off circulation to his brain. Shin-chan! Help me out here! -K

You got yourself into this mess. You called me Shin-chan. You're on your own. -S

Kaito was in the middle of typing out a betrayed response when he finally noticed Aoko hovering over his shoulder.

"Who's this "Shin-chan" Kaito's messaging?" she pried and for once, Kaito couldn't exactly place the look on her face. However, that didn't mean he was about to give up a chance to brag about his "newest" friend.

"An old kid friend of mine! His mom trained under Tou-san so we saw each other a lot when we were little," he grinned. "They stopped coming around after a while though…" The drop in tone left no question about what caused the shift but Kaito was quick to pick it all back up. "But I saw him in the paper and decided to make contact again!"

Aoko hummed inquisitively, "In the paper? He must be pretty famous then. Who is he?"

Kaito beamed as Hakuba finally stalked back into the room to catch the tail ends of the conversation.

"Kudo Shinichi."

Hakuba promptly left school for the day, claiming migraine.

Ran quietly observed her friend (because, yes, he was still her friend even if she was still mad and confused and hurt and everything else she currently felt when her thoughts strayed to the truth about him) from her desk as he tapped away at his phone with an ease that she hadn't seen in a while.

It had been rough, to say the least, this past year or so. She had been torn between wanting to do nothing more than make due on all her threats and push her childhood friend out of her life altogether and just wanting to hold him and make sure he never got into another dangerous situation again. It was conflicting, and it didn't help that Shinichi seemed more than willing to just take what she gave him believing—knowing—that he deserved it.

So, things ran their course. She checked up on him and brought over some food every other week leading to awkward and tense conversations while Shinichi only seemed to draw farther and farther away from her despite standing right there. What made it all worse was that Ran couldn't bring herself to try to stop it.

And then something began to change.

It started about three months ago when Shinichi decided to just up and go to Edoka on a whim, to "revisit that old clock tower" he had told her when she asked. The visits didn't stop afterwards. If anything, they grew more frequent and longer.

It was two weeks later when she saw Shinichi truly smile for the first time since the truth came out. He'd been puzzling over a case for a while before his text tone sounded in the middle of break. It wasn't the short snappy beeps he had assigned to anyone from the police force nor was it the buzz of his parents. It was the theme they always played on the news when talking about Kaito KID.

Even Shinichi seemed surprised at the sudden music playing from his phone and he rolled his eyes as he answered the text wondering aloud when "he" even put his contact information into his phone.

When asked by one of the other students, there it was, that smile that Ran had thought she would never see again.

"Just an old friend," he had replied. "We ran into each other at the clock tower and decided to catch up."

Thus, struck up a casual conversation about said old friend, and Ran couldn't help but eavesdrop.

Magician after his father, avid KID fan, prankster, and just a general troublemaker overall… At face value, it didn't seem like the two should get along at all, especially since Shinichi had taken up the role of the KID Killer after Edogawa Conan's return to America but it seemed they had grown decently close in such a short amount of time.

Yet Ran recalled Shinichi coming back from trips with his parents, bright eyed and excitable, talking about his friend, the son of his mother's instructor. They had shared riddles and puzzles. The boy tried to master his father's practice as a magician while Shinichi tried to deduce how all the tricks were done. A magician whose pranks seemed impossible… The descriptions of lined up.

Well, even if it wasn't the same boy, this mystery person was slowly bringing Shinichi back to them. Because he was smiling again, laughing again, solving cases with a smugness Ran swore she would never miss but now would never take for granted again. It was so much better than the grim resignation that had replaced it.

Yes, Shinichi still occasionally jumped at shadows and kept a back to a wall as often as he could. He still threw himself into his work with an almost unhealthy obsession but it was no longer as often as it was. It was progress and that was a start.

So now, as Shinichi chuckled over the latest KID article showcasing a picture of a disgruntled task force, a Sherlock cosplaying Hakuba, and an almost unmarked grinning boy holding a peace sign to the camera, pausing only to text the same boy, Ran saw that her friend and practically brother had come back and just maybe, given time, she could return to him too.

A/N: Technically, this could serve as the ending of The Other Side but I do have plans for a continuation that could happen here or in a sequel. If you guys have a preference, either PM me or let me know in the comments! Thank you guys for reading!

Also, on a completely unrelated note, I recently finished the Magic Kaito manga and never once actually saw Kaito dye Hakuba's hair. Does that happen in Detective Conan or is it just widely accepted fanon?