42: High as a Hang-glider

The world blurred as the words on the pages took up all interest and thought.

"Hakuba-san?"

Saguru jerked away from his Arthur Conan Doyle and blinked a moment before he recognized the two detectives in front of him.

Conan was watching him with some curiosity while Heiji was snickering openly at his lack of awareness while reading.

"Edogawa-kun, Hattori-san", Saguru greeted politely.

"In't this a bi' far fur ya?" Heiji asked, "I though' ya lived in Ekoda."

The half-brit nodded, "I do, I was expecting company." He glanced at his pocket watch and frowned. "He should have been here half an hour ago." Saguru stood up dropping money on the café table to pay for his tea.

"You're going to see if something held him up?" Conan asked, childishly.

Saguru nodded, tucking his Holmes volume under an arm.

The door opened with a jingle of bells and all three detectives flinched as a person suddenly appeared, draping himself over Hakuba's shoulders. Both Conan and Heiji were wide-eyed at his appearance; his hair was messier and his manner too casual, but he could have been Kudo Shinichi's twin!

Hakuba sighed long-sufferingly. "I thought you of all people would be punctual Kuroba-kun."

Kaito laughed giddily, leaning heavily on the blond detective, "I don't have a clock, kikiki!" He slurred, holding up Hakuba's pocket watch before the detective could even realize it was missing from his pocket. The magician squinted at the timepiece, and then seemed to give up on actually divining any meaning from the small hands. "A magician is never late!" He announced instead, "he arrives precisely when he means too!"

Heiji snorted.

Conan was amused.

Saguru was frowning.

Grabbing the magician by his shoulders, he pushed him out to arms length and observed the messy-haired teen's dopey grin and dilated eyes. There was also an odd smell clinging to his clothes that made Saguru slightly dizzy.

"Kuroba… what the hell have you done to yourself."

Kaito giggled, "myself… Ku… ro… ba… Kaito!" He cheered, "that's me!" His voice lowered, "how did you know?"

Saguru slapped one hand over his face and gave a shallow bow to his fellow detectives. "Excuse me. I must deal with… my friend."

"Are ya kiddin'?" Heiji chuckled, "ya have frien's?"

Saguru scowled and had to grab Kaito's arm to stop him from falling over.

Conan also grabbed one of the magician's hands to help, which unfortunately drew the… intoxicated… magician's attention.

Kaito squealed and scooped the shrunken detective up into his arms. "Look! It's a mini-me!" He crowed, messing up Conan's normal hairdo to look more like his own (to the detective's displeasure). "But I don't need glasses", he whispered conspiringly, tapping on the fake lenses.

Seeing that they were drawing unwanted attention, Saguru grimaced and started pushing Kaito (still hugging Conan) back out of the café. Heiji followed behind, laughing at his miniaturized friend's expense.

They kept leading, sometimes dragging, the magician along until they reached the park. Forcing Kaito to sit in a more secluded area, Hakuba stared at him sternly while the other detectives watched on. "Kaito." He snapped to get the other teen's attention.

"Saga- Suguru- ru-rah!" Kaito sing-songed, meeting the half-brit's eyes.

"What happened?" Saguru demanded.

Kaito's smile grew and he giggled, hugging himself with his arms, "Batman." He managed to say, though it came out in a gravely voice not at all his own. New peals of laughter sent the magician falling backwards in the grass.

"Ba'man?" Heiji asked.

Conan looked bored, absently patting his hair down, "it's an American comic and animated show."

"You've watched it?" Hakuba asked in surprise.

Conan shrugged, "not really, but I heard about it while in America a while back. Supposedly he also counts as a detective."

Saguru sighed and pulled Kaito back upright, "what about Batman?" He growled.

Kaito snickered, "you're Batman. Pick a card." He held out a fan of playing cards that hadn't been there before.

"No." Hakuba snapped, "what does Batman have to do with you being drugged?"

Kaito started poking him with the edge of the cards, shaking from silent giggles.

Heiji rolled his eyes and grabbed one, "jus' play along", he muttered and turned over the card. "Joker."

Conan groaned.

"What?" Hakuba asked, "is that a clue of some kind?"

Conan rubbed his temples. "The Joker is a character from Batman who frequently uses something known as Joker gas. Just think of it as laughing gas."

Hakuba gaped, turning back to his classmate, who was now quite happily trying to build a card pyramid on the grass. "You tried to make your own joke gas or something, didn't you?" He asked, sounding resigned.

Kaito laughed and the deck of cards scattered. A number of small green capsules appeared between his fingers, "funny, done-y, sunny, honey, punny, runny, gunny, bunny…" he paused for a breath, "money, won-ey, junny, nunny…" he dissolved into helpless giggles, almost dropping the capsules of laughing gas.

"I think… we'll just confiscate these…" Conan said, carefully taking each marble-sized orb from the unresisting magician.

"'e acciden'ly se' one off?" Heiji proposed.

Hakuba shook his head, sitting down when the magician pulled petulantly on his pant leg. "More likely he used himself as a test subject expecting to be back to normal before coming to meet with me. His usual gimmicks are more temporary when they don't include sparkles or hair-dye. I assume he dosed it in an amount he thought would wear off after about twenty minutes, but it worked better than he'd thought."

Kaito leaned over to softly bump Saguru's shoulder with his head, suddenly seeming far more subdued and tired. A few soft hiccups made him shake, then his eyes slowly closed.

Saguru smirked fondly at teen, "he's probably been bouncing around for hours under that stuff's influence."

Heiji crossed his arms, smirking, "if tha''s all, I guess we're goin'."

Conan carefully slipped the handful of laughing gas capsules into the blond detective's breast pocket. "Warn him away from ever actually using these." He explained.

Kaito's drooping eyes suddenly shot open and he looked around in groggy confusion. "Weren't we going to meet at a café?" He asked Saguru seriously.

The three detectives laughed.

Blinking at them blankly and with increasing bleariness, the magician's face fell lax as he passed out against Hakuba's shoulder.

(Yay! More Kaito and Saguru friendship! I thought I was writing enough with them as the main characters… weirdly I seem unable to write anything other than fluffy scenes, which really aren't like me… honestly though… I get tired of Hakuba's smug face in the anime and manga and his weird way of drifting back and forth between hunting and helping Kaito/KID. If they dropped their attitudes I think the two would be great friends.)