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 8

Style

By the end of the year, they had worked out an investigative style for Yamada Keigo and his young charge. He was unpresumptuous, quick on his feet and personable, someone who honestly cared about the people involved. His stories as a journalist focused more on the people that were left behind and the effects of the crime as opposed to the criminal or the victim. His ward was the perfect assistant, maybe a bit young for murder scenes but observant, level-headed, and intelligent.

With the reputation they were rapidly building for themselves, Conan should have expected that they'd run into familiar faces sooner or later. He just hadn't expected it to be quite this soon, or in quite this way.

They'd been invited to an old mansion by an elderly couple who had been receiving odd, threatening letters on their door—pinned to the wood with stylized throwing knives. Stories of a ghost horse had caused some strain in the area as well, along with a series of recent burglaries. Kaito liked weird cases like these, and Conan just hoped the source of the threats would come to light without anyone dying.

The last thing Conan had expected was to run into Mouri Ran and her father in the main living room.

The moment he saw them, he froze in the doorway. What should he say? Would they recognize him? What excuse could he possibly give?

Then Ran looked up and smiled at him. "Oh, hi. I didn't know there were any children living here."

And Conan unfroze. After all, she had no reason to suspect anything, and the disguises Kaito created were flawless. "I don't live here. I'm here with Keigo-kun."

"That new detective?" Ran turned to her father excitedly. "See, Dad? I told you they invited him."

"Several times," Kogoro grumbled, adding something about young upstart detectives under his breath and not being sure why they bothered dragging him here if they were just going to hire someone else too. Conan thought he heard some complaint about missing Yoko's concert as well, which certainly explained the man's ill humor.

Ran ignored the muttering and turned back to Conan. "My name's Ran, and this is my father. He's a pretty famous detective too, you know. What's your name?"

Conan forced a shy smile when what he really wanted to do was get out of there before she or her father noticed anything strange about him. "My name's Erika. It's nice to meet you. I've read all sorts of things about Mouri-san in the papers."

Some of them good and some of them bad. With Conan gone, the man's detective career had turned a little unstable. Conan just hoped that he'd learned something from the many cases that they had solved while he'd still been living with them. Mouri Kogoro may have acted like quite an idiot most of the time, but he was still more observant than the average man on the street. His one major flaw was a tendency to jump to conclusions and then not want to let go of them.

Then again, maybe it would have been better if Kogoro had been just an average idiot, because as the whole group of them stood to greet the owner of the house, he looked at Conan and frowned.

"You know, you sort of remind me of someone. Have I seen you around before?"

Conan laughed nervously, trying not to fidget. "I doubt it. I only just moved to this city not that long ago."

"Hmmm. I guess you're probably right."

And then Kaito was there, offering Ran his charming smile and shaking Kogoro's hand, and Conan could finally relax. If anything went wrong with their cover, the magician was more than capable of setting things back on track. Still, he had to admit that it felt disorienting after all this time to once again become a stranger to these people who he had known most of his life.

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Disorientation

"How do you do it?"

"Hmmm?" Kaito glanced up from his heist plans and quirked a questioning eyebrow in Conan's direction. Just because he now had a second life to manage on top of his own life didn't mean KID stopped appearing. Sometimes, even Kaito himself wondered how he dealt with it all. He chalked it up to his many talents, good time management, and a certain lack of need for regular sleep.

The mini detective was sitting in his usual chair in the magician's workroom, though the book he had been reading now lay forgotten on his lap. "How can you act so... so normal all the time when you're pretending to be someone you're not? Around people that you know? I'm not talking about your Poker Face. I know you well enough to know that you're at ease with it all even behind that mask you like to wear."

The magician shrugged, leaning back in his chair and folding his arms behind his head. "Isn't that what it means to be an actor? A good actor has to be able to become someone else, especially to the people who know him."

"I suppose so, but don't you ever wish that they'd notice?" Conan paused, hearing the words that had just come out of his mouth, then sighed. "Never mind, that's a stupid question to be asking you of all people."

Kaito watched the boy pick up his book once more, but made no move to return to the museum blueprints. He had a feeling he knew what Conan was really trying to ask about. He'd noticed the look in his eyes that other day when they'd run into the Mouris, a little dazed and unsettled and upset. To someone like KID, deception was practically a way of life. But for Conan, it was a painful necessity, especially when it came to his friends.

"Don't let it bother you too much," Kaito said finally after he'd watched Conan staring at the same page for more than five minutes. "You won't have to hide forever. Just remember that. And besides," he added with a wink when the detective looked up at him, "I'll always know who you are."

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Flattery

Before working with KID, Conan had never fully appreciated the power of flattery. In Kaito's hands, words could make veteran officers forget their places and cause infamous misers to part with their most precious of possessions. And Conan would never understand the power KID seemed to hold over pretty much the entire female population. He could charm even the grouchiest of old women into smiles and gushing infatuation, and the effect he could have on the young ones didn't need to be said. For a criminal, he had a disgustingly huge fan base—at least as far as the police were concerned.

It sure came in handy though when they needed to get access to a crime scene or some other area off limits to the public for one reason or another. Though Conan was never sure if he should be unnerved by the ease with which Kaito got them into such places. It certainly didn't say good things about general security. Though Kaito was a master at his art, so maybe that meant he didn't have to worry... too much.

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Notice

"Looks like we've caught the big one this time, Erika-chan."

Conan glanced at the folders in Kaito's hands, but even though the magician was looking at them, he had the feeling he wasn't referring to their new job offers. Letting his gaze wander casually around them, Conan's heart jumped when he caught a flash of black.

He couldn't tell if the man was watching them, but even from this distance he could sense the chilling air that seemed to cling to all the members of the Black Org. His heartbeat sped up and he forced himself to look away and pretend he hadn't noticed anything. This was no time to be getting excited or anxious. They'd been waiting for this. It was only the beginning of what promised to be a very long battle. The Organization didn't know yet that they were even fighting this battle, but they would soon, and thief and detective would be ready when they did.

"So what cases have we got?" he asked quietly, thankful for the noise of the many people moving around them.

"Hmmm, all sorts of things—a couple murders, an odd burglary where nothing was stolen, and what appears to be a blackmail case. I say we start with the blackmail and work our way down. The recipient seems quite unusual, a scientist of some kind."

Tucking the folder back into his bag, Kaito started towards the police station with Conan falling into step at his side, having to move more quickly to keep up with the magician.

"If it's because of these new cases, we should keep a close eye on everyone who gets involved," Conan said, thinking aloud, "especially the people on the force."

The magician gave a slight nod of agreement, and that was the end of the conversation. At least for the time being.

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Sharp

"I refuse to eat out again tonight," Conan said flatly, tugging Kaito towards the grocery store. "It's getting expensive."

"It's not like we're not making enough to more than cover for it all," Kaito pointed out.

"Maybe, but it's not healthy. And why are you arguing anyway? I'm the one doing all the cooking."

"I'm not arguing," Kaito protested. "I was just saying that you don't have to cook if you don't want to. You know I love your cooking."

Conan ducked his head, the words making him feel oddly pleased for no particular reason. It wasn't like it mattered if Kaito liked his cooking, right? Quite honestly, he wasn't even that great a cook. He could get by, obviously, having lived on his own since he was fourteen, but he'd always had better things to do than to bother with fancy meals.

"I'll look for the canned and ready-made stuff," Kaito said as they stepped through the grocery store's front doors. "You handle the meat and vegetables, okay?"

Their tasks decided, they headed off on their individual errands, intent on getting this done as quickly as possible. A quiet evening at home with just the two of them sounded rather pleasant. Home, how oddly fitting the word was. Conan wasn't exactly sure when Kaito's apartment had started to feel like home to him too, but it had. And home was one of the few places where he didn't have to be anyone but himself.

Bagging a few tomatoes and moving on to the broccoli section, Conan bumped into someone walking the other way and hurried to apologize—but the words stuck in his throat when he met the person's eyes. Those eyes were extremely familiar, at his own height, and bright with intelligence far beyond that of a normal child.

Of all the people he could have met at the store, this seemed like the worst. The mini scientist looked him very intently up and down then fixed him with a penetrating stare.

"So, who might you be?"

She knows, Conan thought, his cheeks turning bright red with embarrassment at being caught masquerading as a girl by Haibara Ai. She'd always been sharp.

"E—Erika," he finally managed to stutter out. "What about you? I've never seen you around here before."

That was true. He'd been keeping an eye out around this neighborhood for anyone who might know him.

"I see." The girl who was really a young woman considered his words in silence. And then she smiled just a tiny bit, an all too knowing smile, and nodded towards an old man—Doctor Agasa, Conan knew—who was just rounding the corner into their aisle. "I was just visiting the area with my grandfather. I suppose you can call me Haibara."

She made no further comments, didn't ask what he was doing there or why he was pretending to be someone else, just gave him a knowing look that told him she knew but wouldn't say anything if he didn't. Conan was grateful for that. He wouldn't have known what to say, and there were things he didn't have the right to tell her about—like Kaito and exactly what they'd been up to. Still, before she left the store with her elderly guardian, Haibara slipped a badge into his hand. It looked a lot like the communicator badges that Agasa had made for the Shounen Tantei, and scribbled on a piece of paper tucked around it was 'just in case'.

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Subconscious

"What are you drawing?" Nina asked curiously, leaning over to peer at the notebook on her classmate's desk.

"Huh?" Erika started, jerked from her thoughts by the question. She blinked and stared down at her own work, apparently not having realized that she'd been doodling.

"Is it for your art class?" Nina asked, impressed by the detail although she couldn't quite tell what the drawing was since she was looking at it upside down.

"No, I was just... thinking."

About what, Nina wondered. Before Erika could protest, she picked up the notebook and turned it around so she could get a better look. The lines and careful shading finally clicked together in her head—a billowing cape, the glint of a monocle, and a smirk under the shadow of a magician's top hat—and she smiled. "Are you a Kaitou KID fan then?"

"What? No I'm not," Erika protested, but her face had turned beet red in spite of it.

"You're blushing," Nina pointed out, dropping back into her own chair with a giggle. "Don't worry, you don't have to be embarrassed. I know lots of girls who like KID. He is a pretty amazing magician, isn't he?"

"Erika" was saved from answering by the sound of the teacher recalling their attention to the front of the room. He stared at the notebook which Nina had returned to him, wondering what in the world had been going on in his subconscious for him to sketch a picture of KID. Kaito would have a field day if he saw it. And she thought that he—that he liked him?

Conan considered erasing the picture, but for some reason, he couldn't quite bring himself to do it. Well, it wasn't like Kaito ever had to see it. He had no reason to go looking through Conan's elementary school books anyway, and the boy certainly wasn't going to show it to him.

And besides, his art teacher had shown signs of being a Kaitou KID fan. As far as he could tell, the woman found "Erika" a little strange. Maybe a few sketches of KID would put him in her good graces.

TBC...

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