45: Soul Marked

(I recently read an interesting idea on the whole 'soul mark' thing, aka: the first words your 'soul mate' say to you are tattooed on your body somewhere. Well, the story was called 'The Trouble with Soulmarks' by ChosenChild, wherein Kaito and Shinichi are soul mates, but alas… Kudo doesn't believe in it while Kuroba does… so sad. As KID, Kaito is constantly trying to get Conan to realize they are mates, but the detective remains oblivious. In addition, Ran and Kazuha highly support the idea that Conan and Heiji are platonically mated. So… despite not really being into writing boy/boy, I was entertained by this story and pictured the way Conan would finally figure out KID/Kuroba Kaito is his mate. Mwahahahahaha!)

Conan dodged back as quickly as he could; Gin's bullet barely missing his foot and sending up sparks in the darkness. Unfortunately, his endurance in a child's body was not as great as he needed.

The detective couldn't hold out much longer.

Hopefully, however, he could hold off the assassin long enough for Heiji to get the girls away. Of course, with Ran, it would be difficult to keep her away while she thought her little ward was in danger.

Another bullet, grazing his arm, jerked Conan from his worries. Right here, right now, he needed to worry about himself and trust Heiji to get help later.

In the corner of his eye, the shrunken detective could see another man dressed in black appear and his heart sank. Against only Gin he could have held out for maybe a minute more. With two of them there was no way that aid would arrive in time.

To Conan's confusion, Gin paused in his rapid fire to assess the newcomer. The moment the detective tried to take advantage of the lull, however, another bullet flying near his feet tripped him, preventing him from getting far.

"You cannot escape" Gin intoned coldly, "resistance is futile." He leveled his gun for the finishing shot.

Conan's eyes widened, his heart picking up in fear as he stared, not at the barrel of the gun, but into Gin's cold eyes. The assassin's finger tightened on the trigger… only to loosen as Gin was tackled from behind.

The person in black whom Conan had thought marked his doom was wrestling desperately with the silver-haired killer. Gin's face was fixed in a hateful snarl as he struggled to get his gun pointed at Conan. The other figure's face was turned away from Conan, but it was obvious that this new person was smaller and lighter-weight than the tall assassin.

Gin had the advantage.

Upon realizing this, Conan began glancing around for anything that could be used as a weapon. His ball-dispensing belt and anesthetic-dart watch were both empty and useless. His glasses and suspenders had been lost hours ago. His shoes… were useless unless he could get close, but with the way the two were rolling around there was no way he could be sure to hit Gin in a way that would knock him out.

BANG!

Gin's gun went off once and Conan's temporary savior froze long enough for Gin to land a hard blow to his temple, knocking him sideways where he lay unmoving.

Gin growled, turning back to Conan in a rage. His lip had been split somewhere during the fight, but Gin was somehow even more terrifying without his usual stoic expression. "Brat!" He growled, and pulled the trigger on his gun only a few feet away from Conan's face.

There was a whooshing sound, and then a flash of light that illuminated the assassin's gob smacked face.

Rather than a bullet, his weapon had ejected a small flag with the word 'BANG' written in brightly colored balloon letters. Both detective and murderer stood frozen in shock, both having expected one of them to be dead.

With a solid 'thud' Gin collapsed bonelessly, revealing Heiji standing with a dented aluminum bat in hand.

"H-hattori…" Conan stuttered.

The other detective dropped his makeshift weapon, "Ku-Conan! You're alive!" He exclaimed while Ran and Kazuha stepped up behind him.

Abruptly, Conan remembered the unknown person in black and cursed, turning to the still body. "Call an ambulance!" He shouted, jumping over Gin to get to the stranger's side more quickly.

Kazuha automatically reached for her phone to call an ambulance and the police, and Ran went to call her father.

Heiji followed the shrunken detective's lead and helped roll the other darkly clad man over. "He was shot while protecting me!" Conan exclaimed, ripping open the buttons on the long black trench coat without even bothering to look at the person's face. "We have to find the – " he broke off as his actions uncovered, not the black shirt he'd been expecting, but a blue dress shirt and a bloodstained white vest.

Heiji took over, pressing the removed trench coat into the wound.

Conan frowned, hesitantly moving to touch the man's face.

His breath caught when his fingers encountered rubber instead of warm flesh. Dreading the result of the action, Conan tugged at the latex mask and peeled it away. The face underneath was bruised, covered in blood, and far younger than Conan had hoped.

"KID!" He called.

Sluggishly, KID opened his eyes. For a moment there was no recognition, then he smiled genuinely at Conan. "Hey… boy…" he rasped painfully.

KID's eyes were so open and hopeful.

And… finally Conan understood.

Conan understood why the magician had worked so hard to make miracles at the heists the detective had attended. He understood why the thief had followed him around emitting a safe presence. He understood why KID was now lying there covered in his own blood, all for Conan's sake.

Conan – Shinichi – could doubt the reality of soulmarks as much as he wanted to, but KID – a magician – would naturally believe in it: in magic.

Slowly, Conan reached to move KID's shirt away from his collar. Revealed, tattooed over KID's heart, was the first word Conan had spoken to the thief.

"Fireworks." Conan whispered.

KID's face relaxed and he sighed in contentment, eyes closing.

~o0o~

(I like breaking hearts, so if I were rolling with this, Kaito would have died right there, leaving Conan with the guilt of ignoring his soul mate and then being the reason why he died. Mwahahaha! But if that's not an ending you agree with… here's an alternate.)

Ran and Kazuha shared a guilty glance. They'd been wrong. Heiji hadn't been Conan's soul mate, meaning they'd actively tried to keep Conan from KID. If KID was so willing to sacrifice himself for the child detective, they'd also been wrong when judging his character. Anxiously, the two moved to keep a look out for the emergency personnel who should be answering their calls while also keeping an eye on the unconscious assassin in case he should wake up.

"Don't go to sleep, KID!" Conan begged, lightly slapping the magician's cheeks until his violet-blue eyes fluttered open again.

KID groaned, sending the detectives a sad and confused glare when they held him down.

"Yer pro'bly in shock, so ya can't really feel it", Heiji said, "but ya've been shot an' are losin' a lot o' blood. If ya sleep, yer chances o' wakin' up decrease… an' don'' move."

KID blinked slowly before lifting his chin in a weak mockery of a nod. His eyes turned back to Conan before he tensed. "Hos… p… l" he gasped, shaking his head as emphatically as he could. "more… bla…ck" he turned to stare at Gin.

Conan nodded in understanding; "okay… then we need a different identity for you." He paused, inspecting KID's face, "you could be Shinichi, but… if your blood type is not the same, then that's a problem."

KID grinned, barely following Conan's words. He just felt so tired, but he could hear sirens approaching and knew they would need a name. "Kuro… ba" he paused to inhale, feeling light-headed, "Kaito" he managed to finish in one breath.

Everyone stared at him.

"You're name's Kuroba Kaito." Conan said softly.

Heiji laughed, "it suits ya!"

Kaito smiled at the compliment, relaxing again, though feeling slightly unnerved at how dark everything seemed. He closed his eyes, intending to blink away the shadows, but he just couldn't seem to open his eyes again.

~o0o~

Conan sat slumped over the white sheets with his head resting on his forearms. It had been too close.

Shortly after passing out from blood loss, an ambulance and the police arrived at the scene. Within minutes, they had Kaito loaded into the back of the vehicle with a jury-rigged blood transfusion between Ran and Kaito. It turned out that all three of them: Ran, Kaito, and Conan had the same blood type. It likely saved Kaito's life.

After a several hours long emergency surgery to remove the bullet and repair the damage, Kaito was set in the long-term ward under close observation. His emergency contacts were called and, to Conan's surprise, Nakamori-keibu and his daughter appeared. It was ironic to see the head of the Kaitou KID task force unknowingly worrying over that very same thief. There was also an older man with glasses, but he only flitted around worriedly in the background and left upon hearing that Kaito would make a full recovery. The next day Hakuba Saguru and another teenage girl with red hair visited. They were both subdued and quiet and left soon after.

Nearly a week had passed with Kaito in the hospital.

Conan hadn't left his side. No one complained though, not after Ran 'secretly' informed them that Conan and Kaito were soul mates.

It's strange, Conan reflected, how seriously everyone takes this fairytale. And yet, now that he had realized that he found his mate, Conan couldn't deny that he did feel oddly protective of the magician. He, who had been so skeptical, now found himself unable to even comprehend a life without him in it. It was something that needed to be explored. He wanted to know Kaito. He wanted to understand him and why he was moonlighting as a thief.

First though, Kaito would need to wake up.

Conan sighed, closing his eyes. He needed the sleep.

…

A vibrating hum woke Conan up. He shifted subtly to stretch and the soothing noise ceased. "It's no wonder you're sore tantei-kun."

Conan jerked wide-awake and gazed up at the laughing eyes of the one who held him.

"Sleeping in that kind of a position isn't very comfortable" Kaito remarked with a bright smile.

Conan beamed.

His soul mate was awake.

(Hehehehe! Now they can become best friends!)