Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan/Case Closed.

Pairings: eventually Kaito x Shinichi

WARNINGS: Eventual shounan ai (boy/boy pairing), you have been warned

Dark Side Chances

By V. Shalyr

File 2

Listening

Kaito liked to talk. It was a well established fact. He liked to talk and he was quite good at it, used his words to bend the truth, to diffuse a tense situation, to make people laugh or get someone to do what he wanted, believe what he wanted them to believe.

And because of that, people tended to forget that he was good at listening too.

After all, that was the point. People let their guard down when they didn't think you were paying attention.

But he knew that right now, what Tantei-kun needed was someone to listen, someone to pay attention to what he had to say so he could pay attention to them as well. People could only keep so many things bottled up inside and still remain sane.

Hmmm, Kaito wondered what that made him. Then again, he'd never deigned to claim he was sane. Sane people didn't run around stealing things, taunting law enforcement, and wearing white with snipers after them.

"How much do you know about me?" Conan asked curiously. He'd always wondered about that, ever since he'd found out that KID knew he and Shinichi were one and the same.

"Let me see," Kaito mused, placing a finger on his chin in an exaggerated gesture of deep contemplation. "I know a lot of things—the cases you've solved, a lot of the people you've met, your friends and family—,"

"Okay, I get it," Conan interrupted hurriedly. That was a bit too creepy for details.

KID chuckled, clearly amused by his discomfort. "What I don't know is how you got from being Shinichi to being Conan. Shaving ten years off one's life isn't exactly an everyday phenomenon, even for people like us."

Us, the word felt strangely suitable. Conan wondered what KID had been thinking about, wandering the streets at night alone as well.

Maybe that was why Conan decided to tell him what had happened. After all, if anyone could keep a secret, it would have to be Kaitou KID.

.

Understanding

"You could just walk away, you know."

The streetlights seemed so bright, set at regular intervals along the street and making the darkness of the night seem even darker somehow. Bright lights and sharp shadows, KID's ideal environment. It was the perfect cover and the perfect stage.

"What?"

KID didn't look at him, just kept his gaze focused upon the path ahead. Other people were beginning to fill the sidewalks as they made their way back towards a more populated area and he kept his voice low to mix in with the murmur of their laughter and conversations. "The people you're after—the Black Organization… You realize how dangerous it is to get involved with them. You, the people around you, they wouldn't hesitate to try and kill anyone who gets in their way. So far, you've been lucky. No one you care about has been hurt yet. You might not be your proper age, but so what? You could just walk away now and no one would blame you."

Conan couldn't say he had never entertained the thought of doing just that, but at the same time, "I can't."

"Why not?"

"Because… Because it just wouldn't be me. They're killing people, even if they aren't people I know. It doesn't change that fact. Someone has to stop them. I can't walk away."

"No, I suppose you couldn't. But is it worth the risk?"

"…I don't know."

"That's not a very good answer, Tantei-kun."

No, Conan agreed, it wasn't. But what answer could he give? When all was said and done, did he even really have the right to make this decision?

"Why do you seem to know so much about this?" he asked instead.

Beneath the shadow of his hat, KID's mouth twisted in a humorless kind of grin. "As I said before, I know a lot of things. Who's to say?"

.

Mystery

They had wandered around for what felt like hours before Conan looked up and found them standing only a little ways away from the Mouri Detective Agency. KID had walked him home.

"Are you ready to go back?"

Conan glanced up at the thief, wishing that he could see his face more clearly. Talking with the thief had calmed him down considerably, cleared his mind of his almost constant worries and replaced them with a whole lot of other questions, mostly about the thief himself. KID had always surrounded himself with so many mysteries. To most people, they were the mysteries of his magic and his identity, where he had come from and where he disappeared to when he was not on one of his heists or thwarting another of his imposters. Then there was the mystery of his reasons, his past. As a detective, he had wondered briefly about that before, but now it seemed somehow more important.

"Yeah, I suppose so. And…um, thank you."

KID tugged his hat down further, but Conan could make out his trademark smirk even in the dark. "You're welcome."

Inhaling deeply, Conan looked up the stairs at the agency's front door. Well, it was time to go back. He was done with being depressed and angry. It wasn't going to fix his problems. Right now, he was just confused.

By the time he looked back, KID had already gone.

.

History

The Kudou manor was silent as Conan slipped through the door, locking it securely behind him and standing for a moment in the dark to make sure he was alone. He wasn't sure what he was doing there except that it was somewhere where he could get some time to himself, where most people wouldn't know to look for him. Time to himself had become increasingly important over the years. Or perhaps it would have been more accurate to call it time away from everyone else. Time to read and think without the possibility of being interrupted or of seeming "off" for his age. He snorted at that thought.

That in mind, he set off up the stairs towards his favorite room in the overly big house—the library. This had become an almost daily routine: sneak away from the Shounen Tantei or the Mouris, slipping into the old manor unnoticed, and immersing himself in one of his favorite Sherlock Holmes books or just wandering around the many rooms with a soccer ball in tow. Today, however, as he reached to pull a random Holmes book from the shelf, his gaze landed upon the cabinet in the corner that contained a bunch of his father's research files on various criminals. Letting his arm drop back to his side, he moved over to it and pulled open one of the lower drawers.

He thumbed through the contents, pausing on a folder he'd never thought to look in before. The letters written on the label in his father's neat hand spelled out three very familiar letters: KID. Curious, he pulled the file from the cabinet and wandered over to the couch to peruse it. The folder was quite thick too; he hadn't known his father had collected this much information on the master thief.

Sorting through various newspaper clippings, Conan found himself scrutinizing a photograph of the phantom thief during his first appearances more than a decade ago in Paris. Despite their identical costumes and familiar smirk, it was easy to tell that the first KID had been a different man. Then again, Conan had known that already. The current KID was too young for them to be the same person. Though he had to wonder what had happened to the original. Just disappearing didn't seem like KID's style.

Eight years of silence and then the phantom thief's reappearance like he had never been gone.

He was a detective after all. He couldn't help but wonder what had happened, especially now having met the thief in a whole different setting. What was he hiding behind that enigmatic smile? What was he after really?

Reaching the end of the case files, Conan frowned. After an article speculating on the disappearance of KID, his father had included another article on a magician who had died during an accident on stage, a man named Kuroba Toichi. Could his father have believed this man to be the first Kaitou KID? Had he been right? What was the relationship between that first KID and the second one?

Giving his head a violent shake, Conan closed his eyes and leaned back in his seat. He wasn't even sure why he was thinking so much about this. Perhaps it was just curiosity. Or perhaps it was just because he'd found it strangely relaxing to talk to the thief and wanted… Wanted to understand.

Wanted to be understood.

And so it was that Conan found himself wandering the streets around where he had bumped into KID that other night, hoping to cross paths with the thief again. For once in his life, luck seemed to be on his side.

"Fancy running into you again here, Tantei-kun. Unless you were looking for me?"

KID definitely sounded amused. And was the hat—though a different one tonight he noted—a permanent part of his wardrobe? Or maybe the thief simply kept one on hand all the time in case of occasions like these. Conan wouldn't put it past him.

"You could say that."

"Really? May I inquire as to why? I'm afraid I've already had my fair share of nosy detectives today."

"I'm not here because I'm a detective." The reply slipped out before he'd had a chance to think about it, but Conan realized right away that it was true.

"Oh? So if you're not here as a detective, why are you here?"

Conan had to stop and consider this. His mind whirled with questions, true, but they were only part of the reason. He refused to call it an excuse.

"Because I like your company."

The thief paused then resumed his steady stride, surprised by the straightforward response, so simple and yet unexpected. "Well then, in that case, I'm sure I can spare an hour or two to walk with you."

.

Reasons

They talked about a lot of things, about justice and reality, magic and lies, detectives and criminals and dreams. It had been such a long time since either of them had really had anyone to just talk to like normal people. One night became another, and the magician mused at how he had begun to look forward to their walks, just meandering through the city together and watching the people go by.

Hakuba had asked Kaito more than a few times over the years why he did what he did—or rather why KID did what he did. It was just another straw to add to the bundle of things that frustrated him about the magician thief, and perhaps for that reason, Kaito had adamantly refused to let slip so much as a hint within his hearing. Hakuba was too "by the book", too black and white. Sometimes, Kaito wondered if he'd even understand if he tried to explain. It wasn't that Hakuba wasn't a good guy—well, at least as far as detectives went. But he didn't seem to really understand emotions and people the way Kaito did.

But Tantei-kun… Tantei-kun was different, perhaps changed by his recent experiences into a detective unlike any Kaito had ever met. And really, when he thought about it, their stories were ridiculously similar in many ways despite their personal differences. The Black Organization had permanently altered both of their lives, forcing them into the shadows in this war in which they had both been given and yet really had no choice but to fight. They had both fought alone up until now, coming to pursue the same ideas of justice albeit from different sides of the law.

They had learned how to differentiate in life between what was important and what wasn't. It might not have seemed like much when you thought about it at first, but in the end, that meant everything.

It made him wonder—dangerous things to wonder, he knew, but still. They had each fought alone until this point, but perhaps the future didn't have to be that way.

Perhaps that was why when Conan finally worked up the courage to ask him straight out, "Why do you steal things at all? You almost always give them back."

Kaito allowed himself, just this once, to give an honest answer.

TBC...

.