Author Notes: Just a cute little thing I felt like writing. Look forward to a new chapter of Infinite Loop sometime this week!

Five Days

The first day had started as nothing special.

He had a heist that night, but nothing particularly fancy or foreboding aside from the possibility of the newly-returned Kudou Shinichi showing up. The thought that he might get to face off against his most brilliant rival in his true form had made Kaito grin to himself all day.

He, in fact, would have put no more thought in the matter if Koizumi hadn't appeared.

"Don't go."

Kaito stared at her blankly. He had a pretty good idea of where she didn't want him to go, but that was impossible, and besides for all he knew maybe she was talking about the ice cream parlor he was planning on visiting beforehand. "...Don't go where?"

"Don't go." She repeated. "You'll be caught."

Ah, so it was that. Kaito snorted, crossing his arms behind his head as he leaned back in his chair. "Caught by what? Do you mean Kid's heist tonight? I'm flattered you still insist he's me, but I'm not Kid. Besides, Kid's never caught."

"It won't be by the police." The creepy girl warned. "In fact, it will be a cage that you will waltz into gladly and stay there of your own violation, perfectly content to be a caged little songbird for the rest of your days."

"I have no idea what the hell you're talking about." Kaito said bluntly and, quite frankly, truthfully. He had no intention of being in any cage, police or no, and what was she babbling about songbirds for?

"If you go, you will understand, but you will also be caught. You shouldn't." She looked to the side, almost...sad? How odd. "That's all I can say."

With that, she turned gracefully, timed just right to make her hair flow beautifully, and Kaito was left to frown at her back. What the hell was she on about this time?

Well, he wasn't about to hold up his heists for some psycho-babble. He'd never been caught despite any of her vague warnings before – in fact he rather prided himself on disproving them all.

He let his Kid smirk spread over his features. No way would the legend of Kid be stopped by a such a silly thing as magic warnings. There was no cage he couldn't escape from.

Then Aoko kicked his chair out from under him in payback for flipping her skirt earlier and he ended up in a pained sprawl on the floor, and life resumed as normal.

The heist itself was also normal – Nakamori and his men went down fairly early, Hakuba was now lovingly rendered as a museum statue with a lovely mix of glitter and plaster so he couldn't move until someone dissolved it off of him with some water, and he'd ended up alone with Kudou on the roof, who had indeed made an appearance.

They exchanged the usual sarcastic banter, Kaito reveling in the fact that his favorite detective had come to play, when suddenly Kudou's eyes changed from the normal lighthearted sparkle they acquired during his heists to surprise and then a sort of panicked, deadly seriousness, and before he knew it Kudou had lunged at him.

"Get down!"

It was only due to being tackled by the other teen that Kaito narrowly avoided the bullet through his head. Damn, they were getting smart and starting to aim for someplace with a higher chance of certain fatality than his heart.

So now Kaito found himself flat on his back on the roof, Kudou sprawled over him as they huddled behind the small barricade the walled edge of the roof offered. One part of Kaito's mind absently noted the bullet hole now adorning the roof access's walls right at head height, it had come from behind so he wouldn't see it. Damn, they really were learning. The hole would probably baffle the police for a while.

The rest of his mind was taken up with gibbering about how he had a detective on top of him, practically plastered to him in fact, and this was bad, and something about the intense expression on Kudou's face was making it hard to really focus on anything else. Was this what Koizumi had meant? Not that Kaito probably couldn't get out of this situation, but the sniper was probably still out there and wouldn't leave until the police showed up, so for once Kaito was really hoping that Nakamori was on the ball and would be there faster than the minute he had allotted for.

He also couldn't seem to get his body under control. His heart was hammering in his chest for reasons that didn't seem to be entirely related to nearly gaining new aeration in his head but more due to the boy currently on top of him and that focused look Kudou was currently sporting made it really hard to look away. His eyes were dark and flashing and had one of the little gibbering voices in Kaito's head going off about gems and colors and which one, exactly, would be the shade of Kudou's eyes and why the hell was he worrying about that?

All of these sensations made the minute it took for the police to arrive seem like forever, a forever of hard rooftop under his back, cool night breezes, and the moon behind Kudou's head casting a strange silvery aura around the boy.

Then the dull thunder of regulation shoes running up the stairs made time click into place, and Kaito was moving before he knew it. One hand to cover his own mouth and nose, another to grab his can of sleeping gas, spraying it into the detective's rather resigned-looking face – he'd been expecting the gas as soon as he heard the footsteps, bastard – and one foot to push off the ground and slide out from under Kudou, who slumped into unconsciousness onto the concrete. Kaito had to sit for a minute, taking a deep gasp of air to regain the Poker Face he'd lost somewhere between gunshot and blue eyes, and by the time a Nakamori covered in tinfoil burst onto the roof, Kaito was already on the ledge, customary smirk in place.

A quick glance to ensure the sniper had booked it as soon as the police arrived, a jaunty farewell, and Kaito launched off the roof to Nakamori's enraged yells.

He flew home to curl up in his bed and try to ease the gibbering mess that whole thing had left him in and to try to put the detective out of his mind.

The next day, the second, found Kaito preoccupied in class as he tried to understand just why, exactly, he'd reacted like that.

It was like this, with him pondering how much of his reaction had been instinctual detective bad! and how much seemed to be that strange fluttery feeling he'd gotten when he looked into the other's eyes, absently arcing a deck of cards between his hands as he thought, that Koizumi appeared, giving him a look that was both knowing and amusedly resigned.

"I see you ignored my warning and got yourself caught like a good little songbird."

He stopped his automatic shuffling of his cards as he looked at the girl, and then down at himself. He was here in class, not jail, police weren't bursting down the doors to his house or classroom. He was sitting here rather not-caught, if he said so himself. He then looked back at her, hoping his facial expression conveyed the proper feeling about how much bullshit he thought that statement was.

Koizumi wasn't impressed, instead just snorting at him. "Not all cages are concrete and metal, little songbird."

"I really have no idea what you're talking about. And what's with the songbird deal? Last I checked, you had some fascination with me being a dove or something." Really, Kaito was tired of this cryptic shit. Was there some magical binding law that required her to speak in riddles?

She chuckled. "Yes, a dove. A dove who is trying so hard to learn how to sing the tune his new master will be most pleased with."

"Last I checked, doves didn't exactly sing. At least, it's not something I've ever gotten mine to do."

"I'm sure one as talented as you can pick up a few new tricks." She replied, still strangely amused for how sad she had looked yesterday about him being 'caught'. "How odd, though, that you would choose this particular cage. I was sure that you would share it with the little bluebird, or if I had my way, continue to fly free so that one day the cage would be mine. But it seems you've picked a far different destiny with a clever raven."

"...Right." Kaito was really fucking lost by now. What was with her and bird metaphors? "I don't particularly like ravens."

"No, you don't like crows. There is a difference between them and the wise ravens. Crows flock, squabble, fight ugly wars, but the stately raven is poised, always watching from above with a wise eye. They remember everything, you know. Collect knowledge like a magpie collects bits of light. A raven understands and appreciates tricks, but they look so similar so many people confuse them." She paused, looking out the window. "And this raven is far more clever than most."

Rubbing at his temples – the action was not entirely faked, this shit was giving him a headache – Kaito just sighed. "What do ravens have anything to do with this? Would a straight answer kill you? And stop with the cages thing, I'm not caged."

Koizumi laughed, a tinkling sound that always gave Kaito a faint case of the creeps. "Not yet, perhaps, but you're inside it, inspecting it to see if it's to your liking, and soon you'll latch it shut behind you and live there quite happily. Ah, as it's already started however, there is little I can do to alter it. You had best learn to sing fast, little dove, or your raven will get bored and settle for a different cage mate. Ravens are very particular about the songs they like, so it's best to find the one he likes the most as quickly as you can. Take care, my aspiring songbird."

With that, Koizumi turned and walked towards her desk, waving lazily over her shoulder, and Kaito was left trying to figure out what the hell that had been.

Well, perhaps best just chalked up to Koizumi being...Koizumi and leaving it at that. If he tried too hard he just got headaches.

The distraction had helped him with the Kudou problem, though. He was no longer thinking in circles about that. Though, now that he thought about it, he'd better do some lurking around the other teen to see if it had just been that particular night that had affected him so oddly.

He flicked his hand, making the cards disappear, and settled into the school routine with more ease. He had a detective to stalk after school.

The third day found him once again stalking the detective after school.

It was harder than it looked, as Kudou seemed to have eyes in the back of his head when it came to being watched. Kaito had known this from Conan, but it still made it damn hard to not set the teen off into a paranoid frenzy. He wanted to observe Kudou casually, and he couldn't do that if the teen was convinced he was being followed.

He hadn't been able to learn much yesterday – Kudou had run into a murder, and spent most of the afternoon in the police department doing paperwork for it. By the time he got out, the sun had set and Kudou had gone straight home.

Today, however, he seemed to have plans, hopefully ones that did not involve grisly crime scenes – yesterday had been...ugh. How did Kudou stand it? He hadn't looked bothered at all – and so Kaito hoped to have a better chance today.

Kudou checked his watch and came to halt outside a small cafe. Kaito meandered over to a knickknack store across the street to keep an eye on the teen. Was he meeting someone? It looked like it.

Ah, there. Kudou had turned and spotted someone, obviously someone he knew if the small but sincere smile that stretched across his face was any indication. Kaito followed his gaze.

Ah. Mouri. The girlfriend.

She was waving her arm as she jogged up to the detective, pretty face bright and open with a smile. Kaito wasn't close enough to hear her words, but he managed to catch the gist of it from her lips – an apology for keeping him waiting. Odd, wasn't Kudou the one that usually ran late? He could swear he'd heard her complain about it in one of his surveillance runs...ah, her karate uniform was hanging from her hand with her school bag. Club practice, then, that was why she was later.

But that wasn't the problem. The problem was the strange and altogether unexpected swirl of feelings that hit him seeing Kudou standing there with the girl, looking so happy. There were so many, from the urge to walk over and drag Kudou away from the girl and recapture his attention as fully as he did on his heists, to the wonder that Kudou could smile like that and not just that hunting, knowing smirk, and the one rather close to despair at how he was ever going to complete with someone like Mouri, beautiful, bright, perfect Mouri that Kudou had known forever.

It left him reeling, confused, and feeling a little sick as he realized with a sinking feeling what those feelings meant.

It was as clear a case of jealousy as you could ask for. And he was jealous of Mouri, because of Kudou.

It made everything make so much more sense now. Why he loved having the detective on his heists. The thrill that Kudou gave him, not entirely from just a meeting of equal minds. It also explained that strange reaction he'd had when Kudou had tackled him to the roof the other night.

And he could do nothing about it, since he was a freaking thief, someone Kudou chased to put in jail, and Kudou had that pretty, perfect girl right in front of him.

The only highlight of this situation was that at least he had solved his little mystery, but now he wasn't sure it was such a blessing.

Not really wanting to watch Kudou and Mouri have their little date, not now, when he'd finally realized so much, Kaito turned, walking back towards the train station.

It took most of the fourth day for Kaito to realize that he was sulking.

After his nasty little shock yesterday, he'd gone straight home and proceeded to stay under the covers the rest of the day. He'd worried his mom sick, however, so he'd forced himself out of bed the next morning and to act cheerful even if he didn't really want to.

It was lunchtime when Aoko tentatively approached him – funny, he hadn't talked to her all day, he only just realized – and when she hesitantly asked him if anything was wrong, Kaito managed to snap out of the depressed funk he'd worked himself into. He hadn't pulled a prank all day, done a trick, hell he hadn't even juggled or shuffled cards or any of the minor exercises he always did when his hands were free and his mind elsewhere. It was, apparently, eerie enough for Aoko to act concerned and delicate around him, which was just weird.

Still, he really didn't feel like talking about it with Aoko. Maybe it was a holdover of keeping Kid secret from her, but he always found it hard to talk to her about sensitive subjects lately.

Not that he really had anyone else to talk to about them, which was maybe a part of his problem, but he couldn't regret his sacrifices now.

He sent Aoko off with a cleverly-timed insult and skirt flip, and sure enough she stomped off shrieking about how she didn't know why she worried about him because he was such an idiot anyways and Kaito was left to continue his funk in peace, except now he realized he was sulking and that wasn't good. Kuroba Kaito didn't sulk!

Of course, this just left him open to other intruders. He stretched, leaning back in his chair, and yelped in surprise when he opened his eyes to Koizumi leaning over him, smirking at him. "Koizumi! Don't scare me like that!"

She just gave him a mysterious smile. "It looks like you've finally seen your cage."

"Huh?" Kaito blinked, before everything she'd been cryptic about for the past two days snapped into place. "You were talking about that?"

She giggled softly at him. "Of course. What else would I be talking about, songbird?"

Kaito scowled at her, righting his chair. "If you didn't speak in some weird moon language maybe I would have understood. Besides, no cage is permanent."

"It will be if you let it." She tilted her head. "...Although you're not trying very hard. I thought I told you to practice harder? You'll never win him over like this."

"I doubt you see such things in your crystal ball, but he's rather taken." Kaito sniped, not in the mood to really deny all of this.

The witch just tilted her head, putting a finger to her lips. "Is he?"

"Of course he is..." But even as he said, Kaito trailed off. Was Kudou really dating Mouri? Come to think of it, while he was sure they were a pair, he'd never heard or seen anything official between them after Kudou returned from being Conan. No kissing, no hand-holding, no gossip even, and that would have flown all the way to even his school. But if they weren't dating, then...?

Koizumi resumed smirking at him. "Perhaps you should look a little closer next time. But even losing one day isn't too much, you'll just have to fly over there and make up for lost time. You'll just have to be your usual clever self and I'm sure you'll think of something." She turned and starting walking off, waving over her shoulder like last time. "Oh, and reassure the bluebird, will you? You're not a mourning dove."

Kaito rolled his eyes at her, because that was just a lame pun, but even so he felt his mood brightening. Even if she was creepy, Koizumi wasn't all that bad. Maybe even a friend, if he thought about it. Still creepy, though.

But she had been right. Maybe he had hurried off a little fast yesterday. After all, if nothing said Kudou and Mouri were officially dating...well then, that meant he was open, didn't it? And yes, he was a thief, and Kudou a detective, but he was a phantom thief above all, and Kaitou Kid just didn't back down from any challenge.

No matter how much he had to cajole, worry, or otherwise charm his newest target, he'd get what he wanted, in the end.

Kaito let a grin spread across his lips, and with a flick of his wrist, coated the room in feathers, making Aoko squawk in outrage. Time to make some plans.

The fifth day had him hovering outside Kudou's school as the bell signaling the end of classes rang. It was Friday, so he had the whole weekend to launch his newest plan he'd spent all afternoon yesterday thinking up. It was a little different than usual, and harder, but then again Kaito didn't really have any experience in planning romance after all.

He leaned against the gate, watching as students started filing out of Teitan High. Hands in his pockets, he couldn't help the nervous jiggling of one of his legs. He wanted to fidget with his hands too, maybe pull a few tricks, but that would draw too much attention. He knew Kudou got embarrassed easily, so he didn't want to drive the boy off before he latched on.

Still, he was nervous, and it was such an odd, foreign feeling that he'd had to move somehow to get rid of the energy, so the leg-jiggling. And he was usually extremely patient – even if he didn't look it – but man Kudou was taking forever.

After what seemed like an eternity – his watch had to be lying, no way it was only two and a half minutes – he finally saw Kudou appear, the little distinctive cowlick catching his attention first. He was walking out with Mouri, and Kaito had to once suppress the urge to walk up and just drag Kudou off. No, first impressions were important, no dragging him off like a psycho on the first meeting! Afterwards, however...

However, the two split before even reaching the gates, Mouri moving to walk with another teen – a boy, Hondou was it? He'd come back to Japan it seemed – and Kaito couldn't explain the feeling he had when he saw her smile and blush prettily at her new companion. Hondou, for his part, looked elated, and Kudou was waving them off with a casual smile. It felt a lot like elation and triumph mixed into one big, happy ball in his chest.

Koizumi had been right, he had wandered off too fast that day. If he had any talent at reading people, and he liked to think he did, than Mouri and Hondou, if not already, were probably going to be an item very soon. Which left the path to Kudou wide and clear.

Letting his customary grin spread across his face, unable to fully suppress it really, Kaito snapped to attention as Kudou neared the gates. Showtime.

He stepped forward – maybe bouncing just a little – and the movement caught Kudou's attention just like he planned, the detective giving him a glance, then a confused look as Kaito came right up to him.

Steeling his nerves and keeping the grin on his face, Kaito swept into his best showman's bow, producing a red rose for the detective.

"I'm Kuroba Kaito, nice to meet you!"

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