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

Pairings: Kaito x Shinichi

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

Dark Side Chances

By V. Shalyr

File 13

Cliffs

"I don't think this kind of mountain climbing falls under "normal" experiences."

Shinichi looked down at the almost sheer cliff face stretching out below him and thanked the heavens that he wasn't afraid of heights. All the same, he pressed himself closer to the wall of rock and focused on the next handhold.

"I used to come here all the time in high school," Kaito said, sounding as cheerful and unruffled as if they were going for a relaxing, morning stroll. "Just for practice. Although I usually came here at night, and I may not have always used safety ropes."

It was currently late afternoon.

"That's really dangerous, you know."

"I have other ways to deal with potential falls, and I'll have you know that I've never had to use them."

Right. Of course. Hundred-story skyscrapers probably weren't a whole lot safer.

Shinichi turned his head to wipe the sweat from his forehead on his sleeve before it could drip into his eyes. He took a few deep breaths, steeled himself, and started up again. It had been years since he'd participated in any outdoors activities that were this strenuous, and he was very glad indeed that Kaito was the one who was with him. It was hard to imagine safer company.

When the magician finally helped him onto the cliff top, however, Shinichi let out a sigh of relief. Ai had told him to try and keep it easy for awhile, but she hadn't said for how long. She'd given him a black look when he'd told her about enrolling in police training and would be starting next Monday though, so a few weeks probably wasn't her idea of long enough.

"Don't blame me if you collapse," she'd told him flatly, and even though Shinichi insisted that he felt fine, her disapproval made him wonder if he should worry.

Perhaps Kaito had just thought of the same thing, because he gave Shinichi a critical onceover and asked, "Are you feeling all right?"

"I think so."

Kaito pulled a water bottle from his pack and handed it to him. He'd insisted that Shinichi not carry anything too heavy.

The detective accepted the bottle gratefully and turned around before sitting down. The bottle paused partway to his lips and he blinked, staring, mouth slightly open.

"Breathtaking, isn't it?" Kaito said, sitting down beside him. "It's even more spectacular at sunrise, but I didn't think you'd want to make that climb in the dark."

"And the climb back down later?"

"There won't be one. I brought a glider."

Slowly, Shinichi lifted the water bottle the rest of the way and sipped at its contents, not taking his eyes from the view. Far below them, the sprawling cityscape glittered, making him think of the photographs on postcards.

"You... used to come here by yourself?"

Kaito shrugged and took a swig from his own water bottle. "Well, I wasn't going to bring any of my classmates, and Jii's not as young as he used to be."

Shinichi nodded. The magician didn't have to say any more.

.

Cake

It was supposed to be the best pastry shop in the city.

It was supposed to serve guava cupcakes and brownies to make even the mouths of people who didn't like dessert water.

Kaito had been looking forward to it.

"There should be a law against poisoning people with cake."

"There is a law," Shinichi pointed out. "You're not allowed to poison people with anything. Cake's included."

The body of the dead young man had been taken away, as had the murderer—in this case, an ex-girlfriend.

The chocolate cupcake in question had been taken away as evidence of the crime, and amazingly—at least in Shinichi's point of view—customers were already beginning to queue up once more before the counter. For his part, the detective was no longer in the mood to try any of the shop's offerings, except perhaps the coffee. Even with a mountain of whipped cream on top, coffee was coffee.

"Ran asked us to get her half a dozen cupcakes when I told her we were thinking about coming here," Shinichi said slowly. "Do you think... she'll still want them?"

The case would no doubt be in the news by tomorrow morning, possibly even sooner.

Kaito looked pointedly at the line. "Well, the cake didn't do anything wrong. Just don't tell her when we bought them."

For themselves though, they got pizza from the restaurant across the street and brought it home to eat where the only murders that would interrupt them happened on the other side of the television screen.

.

Dense

Ran wasn't interested in when he'd bought the cupcakes.

"You and Kuroba-kun spend a lot of time together, don't you?"

"Well, we are living together," Shinichi said. "That's usually what happens."

He and Ran moved about the Mouri Detective Agency's small kitchen, putting away the groceries. He'd arrived just as she was getting back from the store, and he still remembered where everything belonged in the cupboards. He wasn't sure if it was comforting or disconcerting how little the place had changed.

"I don't know about that," Ran said. "I had a roommate my freshman year that I almost never saw."

The detective shrugged. "He's... fun to be around."

Ran glanced thoughtfully over at him over the top of the open refrigerator door. "Is there something you're not telling me?"

Shinichi frowned, glancing up from the package of instant coffee he'd been examining. "Huh? What are you talking about?"

Ran returned to rearranging things in the fridge while she spoke. "Well, you told me you two went to the movies last week, and there was watching the sunset together. And what about that dinner for two at the Cove—that's a very good restaurant, you know. It's almost impossible to get reservations..."

"Um, yeah? Kaito could probably help you get a reservation too if you wanted to go."

Shinichi wasn't sure what she was getting at.

"Although," he added upon reflection, "Sonoko could probably get you in too. I think we saw her and Makoto there."

"I didn't bring it up because I wanted to eat there." Ran made a face at the bags of fresh vegetables she was placing into one of the fridge drawers. "Are you sure there isn't something you want to tell me? About you and Kuroba-kun?"

"Uh, no? We haven't had the time to do much else."

Ran gave up. Obviously, her friend was choosing to be dense, but he'd figure it out eventually.

.

Staring

They were staring at him again—and whispering. Shinichi was trying hard not to let it get to him, but he couldn't help feeling a little uncomfortable.

He busied himself placing the books on current criminal laws and legal procedures into his backpack. Technically, he already knew most of the material and could probably have asked the instructor to waive the course. But he'd already missed out on so many school experiences, and he'd found that these days, he was no longer in such a rush to get to his detective work.

As he slung his backpack onto his shoulders, one of the group of other police trainees stepped away from his companions and made his way cautiously towards him.

"Um, excuse me."

Shinichi looked at him, surprised. The other students were all watching them too.

The other trainee cleared his throat. If Shinichi remembered correctly, his name was Kagami Yuuta.

"We, all of us," he gestured vaguely at the students gathered by the classroom door, "were wondering if you wanted to have dinner with us. We're all going to this new ramen place nearby that we've heard is quite good... If you're not busy, of course. If you are, we completely understand..."

He trailed off.

Shinichi had the slightly unsettling feeling that the other trainees were all holding their breaths and straining to hear his reply.

This was strangely awkward, but then... this had been part of the point of enrolling here, hadn't it?

"Um, sure. I didn't have any other plans."

A grin broke out across Yuuta's face, and he turned to call out to the others, "He agreed!"

Encouraged by this, the rest of the students crowded over, eager to talk to the famous detective that maybe wasn't so unapproachable after all.

.

Karaoke

Shinichi thought he'd moved past the need for secret phone calls in the bathroom.

Oh well.

Kaito picked up on the second ring. He'd said that he'd be at home preparing for his heist next week.

"I need you to come rescue me."

Kaito sounded intrigued when he asked, "From what?"

The detective made a face even though the magician on the other end of the line couldn't see it. "From having to show them all how terrible I am at singing. They decided to go to karaoke after dinner. That's where we are now, and it's almost my turn."

"I've never heard you sing."

"Trust me. You don't want to."

"Why don't you just tell them that you're bad at it?"

"They don't believe me, and I don't want it to get awkward..."

Shinichi didn't want to ruin the atmosphere of good humor.

"So what did you want me to do?"

Kaito was definitely amused now.

Shinichi paused when he heard someone else enter the restroom.

After the door had finally swung shut again behind whoever it was, he said, "Well, I was hoping you'd come pick me up for one, and give me an excuse to leave without making it seem like they shouldn't invite me again..."

Half an hour later, Kuroba Kaito invited himself into the private room at the karaoke house reserved by the police trainees and introduced himself as a close and longtime friend of Shinichi's. The detective expected him to explain that they had other plans and had to go. Instead, the magician laughed and volunteered to sing in his friend's stead when Shinichi's turn at the mike came around.

"It's been forever since I've had the chance to do karaoke," Kaito confided, eyes gleaming in a way that made the detective wonder what he had up his sleeve and whether he was lying to Shinichi's classmates. "And I love to sing."

Shinichi could feel a shift in the atmosphere the moment Kaito moved to the front of the room and took the microphone. This was an official performance now, and the magician approached all his performances with the utmost care and seriousness. As the opening stanzas poured forth from the speakers, he swept his audience a small bow before beginning to sing. Within seconds, all conversation around the room had ceased.

For the next four minutes, Shinichi forgot about everyone else in the room. If he had ever stopped to consider it, he would have guessed that Kaito would be an excellent singer, and that proved absolutely true. The magician caught and held Shinichi's gaze, and his eyes burned with an intensity that sent an inexplicable shiver down the detective's spine.

When the song finally drew to a close, several long seconds ticked by before anyone spoke.

"That was amazing," Yuuta said. "You could probably become a professional if you wanted."

His words seemed to break the spell, and the other trainees crowded around to request an encore.

Shinichi hung back, feeling a little off—although he couldn't have explained why. He'd felt... as though the magician was singing to him specifically. Then again, perhaps all the audience members had felt that way. And sure, Kaito had chosen to sing a love song, but a lot of popular songs were love songs. It didn't mean anything, right?

What had Shinichi feeling suddenly off balance had to be something else.

He continued to tell himself this until one of his female classmates nudged him with her elbow and whispered, "I'm so jealous!"

.

Performer

Shinichi had to admit that there was something just a tad bit magical about speeding along a street at night on a motorcycle with the streetlights passing by on either side of them one after another. There were other cars and scooters around them, but somehow, it still felt as though they were in their own world, a world that was both small and vast at the same time with the night a sea of darkness stretching out in all directions and glimmering with brightly lit windows and the moving lights of other vehicles.

It was the kind of scene that might show up in a romance novel, and Shinichi tried not to think about that. Even the suggestion in the back of his mind made his stomach turn over in nervous uncertainty.

"You've been very quiet," Kaito remarked, slowing as they came up to a red light.

Shinichi wasn't ready to ask him about... about his choice of songs, so he voiced the other thought that had been nagging at him since earlier that evening instead.

"We caught the snipers at that KID heist, and the Organization's not around anymore."

"So?"

Shinichi took a deep breath. "So you don't have to focus on just being KID anymore. If you wanted, you could start performing for real—as a professional."

He could become a professional stage magician like his father had been.

The traffic lights changed, and they were off again. Kaito veered off onto a less used road and slowed so that the wind wouldn't steal their voices. Shinichi didn't remark on the fact that they were going in the opposite direction from home.

"I haven't found Pandora," Kaito pointed out.

"I know, but it's not like you have to stop being KID entirely. You can take your time planning heists and official performances—make sure they're different enough. I'm sure you could do it."

Because Kaito would always be a performer at heart, and Shinichi couldn't even begin to imagine him as anything else. Kaito had looked so incredibly alive when he was on that stage tonight, and it wasn't the same as when he was KID. There was always this undertone of darkness to KID for those who knew what to look for, born from the tragedies attached to the identity's history and purpose. It wasn't just about thrilling the audience and filling them with wonder. It was about crime and justice and revenge.

Yes, Shinichi loved the mystery and excitement of KID and KID heists, but... he was discovering that perhaps he liked the Kaito that had sung to him at the karaoke house and mesmerized his fellow trainees even more.

When Kaito finally broke the silence, he sounded thoughtful. "You're right. I guess I could, couldn't I? And it's better late than never."

Shinichi smiled even though his companion couldn't see it. "It is. We can send Kazuha tickets to your first official performance. She loves magic shows."

Of course, Hattori might be less happy about that, but... Shinichi was certain he would get over it.

.

Realizations

It took Shinichi a whole week to scrape up the nerve to talk to someone about his new dilemma.

The first person he'd thought to consult was his mother. She'd already implied that she thought Kaito was his boyfriend, and she'd be thrilled to give him relationship advice. But... upon further reflection, he didn't think she'd give him the kind of advice he'd actually want to follow. That left the one other person who had hinted to him that she thought there was something more going on between them.

"Ran, I... think that... I might like someone..."

The noise in the cafeteria effectively prevented even the students at the next table from hearing their conversation, for which Shinichi was eternally grateful. When he'd mentioned needing advice, she'd suggested they meet at one of her university's dining commons. The food was good and cheap, which made it quite popular and the kind of place that people ought to try at least once.

"Is it Kuroba-kun?"

Shinichi looked down at his bowl, which was really answer enough in itself. He'd ordered what Ran had ordered, and she'd chosen a spicy ramen.

The young woman across from him propped an elbow on the table and scrutinized his face. "So what did you want my advice about?"

The detective took a bite of the noodles to give himself some time to think. "I guess... I'm not sure what I should do about it, or if I should do anything. I mean, I don't even know if he's interested."

Ran rolled her eyes. She wanted to laugh, but he looked so hunted that she didn't have the heart to do so.

Instead, she said, "As far as I can tell, he's been wooing you for weeks. You were just too dense to notice."

"Hey, I'm not dense."

"Stubborn then." Ran shook her head. "You might be an amazing detective, Shinichi, but sometimes, I think you don't look at yourself and your own feelings as clearly or as often as you should. You seem to think everything in the world works in a logical way that will make sense as long as you're observant, but you know, it's hard to observe yourself."

"I know that, but..." Shinichi sighed. "Never mind. You're right. I suppose I just didn't think of it as a possibility. But that still doesn't solve the problem of what I should do."

Ran gave him a smile at that. "I only have one piece of advice for you. Don't over think it. He's already shown that he's interested. Just go with it, and let him know that you're open to the idea. I'm sure he'll get the message."

Don't over think it.

Easier said than done, but as far as advice went, it was probably a pretty good suggestion.

TBC...

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