Phantom Thief
1/2

My name is Shinichi Kudo. Well actually, right now its Conan Edagawa, and I'm currently in love. Falling in love is a strange feeling. Its a sudden realization that you'd been headed in a direction you weren't really conscious of until right then. Really, you'd think I'd have been more observant, especially to my own feelings. After all, I had had a crush on my best friend practically since I was born and I don't believe there was ever a time when I denied it.

I always put it off though. Confessing to her I mean. Though I knew I loved her, I was clueless to how she saw me. I never acted with her though, like how a boy would act with his crush. Through our lives I've been comfortable being myself around her, and I think that was one of the things I really liked about her. The warm fluttering in my stomach, the thought that she'd always be there; I think those are the things I appreciated most when around her. I know now that whatever I felt towards Ran, It wasn't romantic love. No, when I fell in love, that day I compared my feelings for both parties evenly.

With Ran it was a safe love, an expected love after spending our lives together. I've been under her care while in a child's body (A situation I'd rather not talk about as it would deter us from the actual conversation.) and I've found out a lot in my time here, but only when I stopped to think about it which usually isn't often with all the murders around me. But I did think about it, about her. Before I actually fell in love, I thought I already was, and I thought it was with her. She told me while I was in this body that she loved Shinichi...me. I remember the butterflies that attacked my stomach, the rush of warmth to my face, I even remember debating telling her everything. But I didn't. That should have been my first clue.

No matter the trouble I was in with the Black Org. I should have told her. If I had loved her romantically like she had loved me, then I would have. I would have taken one look at the pain I'm causing her and crumbled in the weight of my feelings. Even my protective instinct wouldn't have stopped me from bringing her comfort that I was still alive and by her side. But it didn't. I never told her. Even now only a few people know of my time as a child and that is including the one I love. Don't get me wrong, they figured it out themselves, but I think that was one of the reasons I fell for them anyways, so I'm not really angry.

I'm an only child, so I wouldn't really know anything about family love, but two years in Conan's body under the care of my best friend/first love and her father, I have actually felt it. The love of a father, however rude and ungrateful he is, and the love of a sister who really couldn't hate you if she tried. The two years I've spent in this body, only a few months at a time did I look at Ran and see the girl I 'loved' other than the big sister I'd gotten to know. That should have been my second clue.

Still, I've been told that its not really my fault that I fell into a comfortable relationship with her. I've been told to not feel guilty for loving someone, even if its not her. So I listened.

Now I'll tell you about the day I realized my feelings. It was on the night of a heist, something I'd been taking up on a regular basis as of eight or so months prier to the day I realized my own feelings. To tell you the truth, I was obsessed with attending them. They were the games, the puzzles that I couldn't get enough of, without the weight of murder added on. They were a challenge, a goal. When I attend, I always get so close to accomplishing my goal that I needed to come again, try again, just to see if I really could. If in this body, I could even catch the famous thief.

Another thing I've never told anyone was that the thief himself was a reason for my interest in the heists. I don't exactly know when or how, but the thief knew who I was; who I really was. He knew it and he saw me, behind the child he saw Shinichi Kudo. He looked at me as an equal, as a challenge. And I couldn't help but enjoy that feeling. The thief was also considerate and almost...FUN.

He had one rule: 'No one gets hurt' and he did his best to uphold it. He was a show off, but after eight months I had realized he actually gives his fans some of his attention at some point during his heists. He also steals things only to give them back the next morning. He was a criminal that I didn't exactly want behind bars. Don't get me wrong, I wanted to catch him, just once I wanted to catch him and gloat, but I didn't want him to be unable to try and redeem himself. I wanted the challenge. It had first started as a deep desire to put the thief in jail, now its just about putting the cocky idiot in his place. Funny really now that I think about it.

Still he gave me things that no one else did. A challenge. A goal. A rival. All of that and more, and that was one of the reasons I fell in love with him.

Yes, I love the thief. Now back to the actual point.

The day of the heist had been like all the others before it, the only difference had been in the end.

When he and I were up against each other on the roof, that had been when something changed. It had come with the ring of a shot.

My vision shifter and in seconds I was on my back with him over me, his eyes wild and worried as he looking around us, trying to locate the shot and keep my small body safe. I was floored by the closeness of his body and the sudden feeling in my stomach and heart, but he didn't notice as he dodged another bullet, rolling us out of its path.

"It seems my surprise guest is not about to halt the entertainment. It seems I have to take you with me Tantei-kun. I'm sure you aren't very afraid of heights, but hold on tightly just in case." When he'd spoken I had heard the voice but not the words, yet when he had jumped off the roof with me in his arms, I clung instinctively.

My mind had been racing just as much as my pulse as he flew across the night sky, listening to Inspector Nakamouri's yelling and cursing as we went.

I could smell him. I could feel him, and I was holding him tightly as he wrapped one arm around me and used the other to stir us.

A/N: This is a Two-shot. I'll post the other half tomorrow after I finish reviewing it! Comment!