Hello readers! I want to clear up some confusion before the story, so if you aren't confused or haven't asked me a question in the reviews, please feel free to skip ahead.
Firstly, Shinichi is back to being Shinichi and is now mates with Kaito and Saguru. The reviewer who asked if I stole the plot line from another fanfiction, I'd like to explain something. Every author is inspired by and 'steals' ideas from each other. Stories always have a basis from which they build. I personally have read all of Takara Phoenix's HakuKaiShin stories, and enjoyed them immensely. I have, at the beginning of this fanfiction, said that this was inspired by The Dove, The Falcon and The Sparrow and have encouraged people to read it. The only things I have taken from that story would be; shipping, shifters, and Shinichi being a submissive and the keeper of Pandora. In this, Shinichi isn't as submissive nor as confused, I have added other shifters, the confrontation will be more indepth, and this isn't a onshot. If you have any other concerns, let me know and I'll try to explain it to the best of my ability without spoiling the story.
Anyway, now that that's out of the way, on with the story!
Shinichi opened the door to the professors, not even bothering to knock. He toed off his shoes, exchanging them for slippers as he entered the silent abode. Saguru and Kaito did the same, but made sure to follow and behave. This was essentially Shinichi's surrogate father/grandfather and little older sister's home, and they didn't want to leave a bad impression. Kaito shuddered, he could only imagine what the scary little née-chan and the old man would do if either of them harmed their favourite trouble magnet.
"Hakase! Haibara!" Shinichi called out, glancing around the room that was suspiciously empty. He looked around the place finding no one, even when he went down into the lab where Haibara would normally be holed up if she wasn't upstairs. Frowning, he pulled out his Shinichi phone and dialled. He nervously chewed on his lip as it rung. Behind him, Kaito and Saguru exchanged worried glances, before moving behind him, resting an arm each around his waist. He sent them both a quick grateful look before frowning at the ground. His heart did a worried little flip when the out of range or unavailable message came through. It should be fine, they were probably busy or just out of range. There was absolutely no reason for him to work up into a frenzy about this. He tried dialling again, only to receive the same message.
"They must be camping with the kids." Shinichi said, sounding non to sure if he was trying to convince himself or them. That had to be it, right? Why else would they be out of range or unavailable? His eyes widened, that couldn't be it, right?
"What, what'd you think of?" Kaito inquired, tilting Shinichi's head up to look into his eyes.
"The crows... They couldn't, shouldn't know she was here more or less alive, so it can't be them. They couldn't have taken Hakase and Haibara, right?" He asked, desperate. His eyes wide and hopeful that someone would tell him he was wrong. It took a moment to sink in, but when it did Saguru and Kaito exchanged a mix of worried and angry looks. Saguru clenched his jaw, a mix of wanting to reassure Shinichi but not reject the potential truth. Kaito glanced at him before setting his jaw.
"It's not their style." Kaito murmured, feeling more confident by the second. It couldn't be them, they didn't or shouldn't know, and even if they did, they would've kept eyes on the place and sniped them the moment they stepped into the area.
"You're right. They'd have made sure no one would find it for a while, if anything they'd make sure it looked like an accident, like an explosion from one of the Hakase's inventions. He's known for causing explosions at all hours of the morning." Shinichi muttered, reassuring himself.
"Ara, three birds have snuck in while we were gone." All three of them jumped and whirled around when the front door opened behind them. Kaito had smoke bombs in his left hand while sleeping pellets in his right, ready to throw. Saguru instinctively reached for his hand gun that he kept on him ever since he'd found out about the organisation, both of them shielding Shinichi who had reached for his football belt only to realise he didn't have it with him. They fought their instinctive reactions to flare their wings up, just in case it was someone of non-Shifter origin.
"Well, that is certainly an interesting greeting." The bone dry tone quipped. Shinichi immediately relaxed, moving to the voice. He gave the not child a smile, and stopped himself from hugging her knowing her response to open affection.
"Haibara." He breathed, relief evident. She gave him wry quirk of lips, before jerking her head towards the door. He raised an eyebrow before trying to hear what she was gesturing to. He felt a mix of fondness, relief, and dread fill him at the sound of three particularly familiar voices.
"Ah! Shinichi-niisan!" Three voices trilled as they came into the room. Shinichi gave a smile at his little fiends who raced up to him.
"Hey guys." He greeted, glad that they at least knew and recognised Shinichi, and he wouldn't have to start back at the beginning. Though, the way Ayumi was blinking in confusion might mean her genes had also awakened, and she was recognising his scent. Which meant some very messy explanations and trying to get her to keep quiet.
"When did you get back?"
"Did you defeat the bad guys?"
" Are you going to stay?" The children bombarded him with questions that made him smile. He reached out and let the three of them hug him. Despite the fact that they knew Conan better, they at least still knew Shinichi. Behind him, he could hear Kaito suppress a coo. Shinichi sent a brief half-hearted glare at him before releasing the kids.
"Welcome back Kudo-kun." Haibara whispered softly, Shinichi barely catching her words. He smiled, it felt like they'd made a victory against the crows. Finally, they had gotten a strike against them, one step closer to taking those bastards down.
Haibara walked into the kitchen pulling down glasses and mugs for all of the guests, Shinichi noticing, went to help her only to be shooed out. He huffed at her and gave her baleful glare only to receive an icy one in return. Deciding to cut his losses, he sat with the kids, answering and dodging questions they fired at him. Saguru and Kaito watched in amusement and fondness as their mate interacted with his tiny flock. Saguru had his arm slung around Kaito who'd curled up beside him.
"Shinichi-niichan, why're they curled up like that?" Ayumi asked, a slight blush in her cheeks. Haibara, evil, evil, evil Haibara walked in with the drinks and snickered at him. Shinichi bit his lip wondering how to phrase it so that the kids wouldn't get any weird ideas.
"When you get along with someone, your comfortable with being around them aren't you? So you'll be more inclined to be near them." Shinichi explained as best as he could. Kaito coughed to cover his laughter at how awkward Shin-chan seemed with the question. Shinichi huffed, if the thief had any better ideas he could damn well help out.
"You guys like magic?" Kaito, seemingly picking up on this thought, interrupted before the interrogation could go any further. All three kids perked up at the mention of it, eager to try and figure out the tricks. He started off with basic coin tricks, gradually progressing to bigger and better ones, more often involving his doves. At some point in the mini show, Ayumi had walked up to Shinichi, tugging on his hand. He glanced down at the girl and watched how she shifted uneasily.
"What's the matter Ayumi-chan?" Shinichi asked gently, already guessing what this was going to be about. She bit her lip and looked up at him with big doe eyes.
"Can I ask you something in private?" She asked softly. He gave her a fond smile before nodding gently. Saguru went to follow them as Shinichi began to walk off with Ayumi, but a sharp pulse on his mating mark warned him against it. He let out a huff before settling back down to watch Kaito's magic.
The duo walked out of ear shot, even shifters wouldn't be able to hear them from where they stood. Shinichi crouched down so that he was level with the girl, he didn't want her to have to feel intimidated by him.
"Shinichi-niisan, umm... are you a-" She started off nervously. He closed his eyes for a brief second, when he opened them again he could see through the shifter illusions. He smiled at her wings, they were stunning.
"They're beautiful." He told her honestly, confirming her suspicions that he was a shifter. She gasped before flushing bashfully. She smiled at him, her cheeks rosy and happy.
"Are you and Conan-kun related?" She asked, smiling up at him. He gave her a soft smile, he was actually surprised she hadn't asked if he was Conan.
"How'd you know?" He asked softly, giving her a gentle smile.
"Well, um. You and him, your scents. Their similar, but just a little bit different." She explained. Shinichi blinked at he in slight confusion. He'd obviously missed something. He tilted his head to the side and she blushed before stifling a giggle. Oh, right, women. He'd never understand them. When she noticed him looking confused she shyly pointed her own neck. His hand immediately slapped to his neck were his mating marks were.
"I won't tell." She giggled. That's it, females, no matter how young, old, sweet or adorable, were just pain devious and evil. He huffed a laugh before reaching out to ruffle her hair. So that's why she hadn't figured out that he was Conan, he smelt different to what she remembered, and the only plausible reason for that would be either his submissive genes or the mating marks.
"Your a good girl Ayumi-chan." Shinichi praised, smiling as she practically glowed at his compliment. He dropped his illusion over his wings, quickly showing her his own. She gasped and tentatively reached out to his wings, glancing at him for permission. He moved them so that she could reach out and touch them, awe dancing across her face. She gently petted them, it was completely different to when Kai and Ru touched them, this was a familiar contact, a simple touch between flock.
"Sparrow and Raven." He murmured, smiling when she looked confused.
"I have a mixed heritage and some special circumstances that made my shifter genes go haywire, what about you Ayumi-chan?" He explained, she nodded in acceptance, thankfully leaving everything else be.
"A humming bird." She mumbled making Shinichi smile. A rare shifter type indeed, they were almost instinct last he'd checked.
"Lucky girl, but we better get back to everyone else before they get curious." He winked at her before recovering his wings in an illusion. She nodded enthusiastically before trailing behind him. When he walked into the room with her behind him, Saguru and Kaito both looked at them, half making to stand walk over to him. He huffed a breath at them before gesturing for them to sit down again. Ayumi behind him giggled, making him flush. Oh, well, okay then. Apparently she was more mature for her age then previously thought. He glared at Haibara accusingly but she just blinked innocently at him. Kaito snickered before gripping his hand and giving it a tug. Shinichi gave him a half smile before shaking his head. Maybe later, when they didn't have four pairs of eyes watching them so closely.
A knock in the door had Shinichi moving away from the group to answer it. He glanced over his shoulder one last time before calling out that he was coming to get the door. He turned the lock and opened it, completely unprepared for what he'd find on the other side.
"Shi...ni...chi?" The woman in the other side of the door chocked out, her eyes wide and face pale.
"Ran!"
Ooh, looky a longer than normal chapter! I was seriously inspired for this one, and I have a clear direction of where I want to go with this (Yay! Finally!). Oh, and I have questions for you guys!
1. I'm tossing up on who to ship Ran with, so I wanted to hear what you guys think (I'm okay with shipping her with literally anyone except obviously Kaito, Shinichi and Saguru. I'm even okay with shipping her with Sonoko, Sera or Kazuha, or any guys you can think of, or maybe an OC?).
2. Any other authors who are reading this, can someone explain to me how you get the line break thingy's? I'm totally vexed on how to do so.
3. Should I introduce other species? E.g. Empathes, other type of shifters etc.
4. Should I up the rating on this, considering the Lemon chapter(and I'm tempted to have another one *grins*)?
Anway, I look foreward to hearing from you guys, and I hope to have another chapter up by the end of next week (trying to stick to updating every three days or so.) Well, bye for now, Love ShySecret-chan!