Ran worked happily in the kitchen that morning, cooking waffles. A recent burst of inspiration had come to her after watching some imported television last night, and she knew that Conan wasn't exactly averse to American-styled breakfasts anyway.

The small radio she had bought a few months ago sat on the kitchen counter. "This morning the police returned from their stake-out point in the Suruga Bay after staying there for the Kaitou KID's heist last night. No official reports of the incident have been released, but the police are admitting that Kaitou KID did not leave the area. Boats and homes around the coastline are being checked for the famous thief's presence. Kaitou KID is a world-class criminal mind who recently returned some years ago after an eight-year-long absence from the press..."

She turned down the volume as the female reporter went into KID's career. She'd heard it several times this week already. Listening to news of KID had been a common activity for the last few weeks, as influenced by Conan, who had taken an unusual interest in the thief. As in, he'd changed from a passing interest, in which he only smirked when the man was brought up in conversation and 'helped' her father decipher his tricks during any heists they were invited to, to a short-time obsession with him. The boy was always sat in Kogorou's chair when the evening news came on. The older man disliked that. Ôkino Youko was currently in a television drama afterwards, and the little boy was stealing his seat!

Although he always drifted off after the closing jingle...

She wondered for a brief second if KID had anything to do with Conan's recent bouts of narcolepsy, before returning to her job. Maybe he did. Maybe he didn't and it was just tiredness, but Ran had been making sure that Conan had been getting eight hours of sleep a night at least and a nap before going out with his friends. And still he ended up falling asleep in school... The day before yesterday it could have passed off as a cold, but last night he was completely fine. Completely fine... apart from the 'always falling asleep' part, of course.

A quiet shuffling behind her informed that Conan had woken up. "Ohayou, Conan-kun!" she said chirpily. "I'm making some waffles for you. Is that okay?"

The little boy nodded slowly. "Yes, Ran-nee-cha-" Suddenly, his mouth widened into the largest yawn that she'd ever heard from him. The boy stumbled back some steps onto his rear.

"Conan-kun!" Ran scooped him up from the floor and held him up. "Are you alright?"

"Yes," he said in a remarkably defensive fashion, although anybody who knew the boy would tell you that he often grew standoffish when hiding something. And, of course, the person who would tell you that first was Ran. Let us also not forget that Ran's motherly instincts had developed through caring for Conan.

"You were walking around last night, weren't you?" she accused, bringing him closer. "I heard you moving around some time after midnight."

The boy visibly gulped. "I had a bad dream last night, and I couldn't get back to sleep," he replied after some silence.

"Is that so?" Ran asked. A frown crossed her mouth, and she placed him on the floor. "I guess I can't blame you for that then." She turned back to the counter.

To be honest, it hadn't crossed her mind that Conan might be suffering from a long string of nightmares, in which case he couldn't exactly be blamed for the things that were worrying him. Still, nightmares were caused by, and often did feature, things worrying you in real life. If this concentration on everything Kaitou KID was getting into his head at night, then he could certainly kiss his news programs goodbye.

Conan knelt down on the floor. "Ran-nee-chan?" he mumbled. "About what we talked about yesterday morning..."

"?"

"You were right, I guess. I'm not Shin'ichi."

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Kaito stirred.

What the crap... he growled mentally, forcing his head up and blinking wildly as his vision adjusted to the light. It felt like somebody had struck him with a ton of bricks. Right, that was the last Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster he was having...

"I'm going out now, Kaito-kun, if you're awake now!" said the friendly voice of his mother from downstairs.

His eyes widened.

His mother had seen him dressed as Kaitou KID...

Cursing under his breath, he pushed himself up and looked at the clock. Eight twenty. That was right, his mother worked today, didn't she? Just to pick up some money or such for dinner. It bugged him that she'd taken so much time off lately to look after him, but of course, she was his mother and she had to look after him. There was also money sent by his relatives, and Jii also gave their family some of the income from the Blue Parrot. Though, why couldn't he just get a job himself, he'd never know.

He winced as he suddenly recalled the events of last night. How he'd been kidnapped by a mad doctor, how that blue alien had beaten a giant mecha, how he'd ruined his lovely hat trying to patch up his wound. He reached back and felt his neck, clenching his teeth. His mother must have performed some top-notch first aid. Normal people probably wouldn't have survived a stab in the neck.

Of course, it was all thanks to that Emerald that he'd gotten back. If those magic words – so much like Akako's magic, but it didn't feel that way – had really done it... amazing, wasn't it just? That other world, that jewel-

Wait a second.

Jewel.

Dear God, heist, heist, where are you? On top of the cabinet. Bad. In full view of the window. Damn it, okaa-san, that's not where you put extremely valuable things your son might be killed for. He shoved himself up, found that he was now in his pyjamas and that his KID suit must have gone into the wash (he crossed his fingers and hoped that his mother had taken the reds out first. She was an attentive mother and the smartest homemaker he'd ever known, but even monkeys fell from trees), walked downstairs and prepared himself a cup of coffee.

What followed was a pretty healthy drinking session filled with nothing interesting. I could go into vigorous detail, but that'd be filler.

What I will go on to detail, however, is the very entertaining phone call to the school.

"...Hello? *sniff* It's Kuroba. I'm really sorry, but I'm not coming into school this morning either. *hack, cough* Yeah, this cold's really tight on my throat this morning. *sniff, sneeze, coughing fit* Sore throat, sniffles, the works... Yeah, I didn't know there was a cold bug going round either. Okay, okay... I'll call my doctor, I know. This still might clear up in a few days, anyway; I've felt this bad before. Uh-huh... Poor Hakuba-kun, I really didn't know about that. Uh-huh. Thanks. Goodbye."

He put down the phone, and then suddenly picked it back up again, scanning his phone book. Then, he dialled the number he thought he'd never dial in his life.

"Yes?" The clipped voice sent shivers down his spine. Hakuba was not a nice phone voice. "This is Saguru; I'm a bit tired if you don't mind."

"Oh," said Kaito, switching to his KID persona, "should I call back later when you're rested and ready, tantei-san?"

A long pause. "I'm listening."

"Did the farmers shoot at you last night, or did you hide in the den like I asked you to?" he asked, crossing his arms.

"No need. I'm currently reviewing the video that you gave me."

MKMKMKMKMK

And indeed, Hakuba was. He was curled up in the leather cushions, laptop resting on his thigh while he grabbed almost lazily at the toast sitting on the sofa's arm. Currently he had taken one headphone out to speak. "It's intriguing to say the least," he concluded, after rolling the film back to a certain moment and recording. "Is this really what you saw and heard on the other side?"

"Indeed it is, but there's a point where he knocks out the tape. He might have also damaged the microphone, although I'm not sure. By any chance, was it, and can you find the part where I wake up?"

"No, it wasn't, and I'm currently looking for the part you're talking about," the young man admitted. "You've recorded two hours of complete inactivity and what do you mean by 'h- oh, that's very explanatory..." The screen had just shown a moustached man as he knocked out the camera; Hakuba flicked forward, checking the timer on the bar below. "...There are two hours, thirteen minutes and eight-point-one-two seconds of inactivity. I'm listening now."

"...Hit the pause button, please." Hakuba complied. "Nakamori-keibu mustn't see this tape. Neither should Stonewall-gunshou, nor anybody. Except, of course..."

Hakuba stared at his telephone. "Of course, who?"

"...No, sorry, it's not worth telling you. It could get you killed if you're not careful enough." KID muttered something under his breath; however, the telephone wasn't the best machine to hear this through, and Hakuba strained to hear it. "Anyway. Watch the tape. I'll come to you. You tell me what you think of it."

"What is the heist you've stolen, anyway?" the snide ainoko asked, smirking. "Did you end up losing it?"

"..." The dial tone rang. Hakuba was left toying with the pitiably incorrect assumption that maybe the KID hadn't gotten his jewel after all.

MKMKMKMKMK

That day, Ms Kobayashi found Edogawa Conan in class, seated at his desk in the middle of the lesson, thankfully wide awake but putting on a very unusual frown at the question on the board. Conan was a very good student who excelled in most subjects. He was the kind that got every question correct without a second thought; hence why he often slept through the easier lessons. Ms Kobayashi felt rather proud to be teaching him, as if his intelligence were all her own work. Plus, it helped that Conan's high scores upped the average grade of the class and kept her in her position. So a Conan confused was not good for her job.

She walked over to him as the other students dutifully did the work on the board and knelt by his desk. "Are you alright, Edogawa-kun?" she asked.

He started in his seat, and turned to look at her. There seemed to be something wrong about his eyes but, whatever that was, it was hidden by his glasses.

"Ha-hai, I'm alright, Kobayashi-sensei," he said, turning his pencil over in his fingers.

"Are you having any trouble with the question?" she asked. Some of the students near Conan, Ai included, turned and looked over at the little confrontation.

Conan shook his head. "Of course not!" he exclaimed quickly, covering up his book. All eyes, minus those of the Shounen Tantei and Ai, removed themselves and were focused back on their own workbooks. Hey, it took a lot of concentration to write kanji in the correct order, and even more so to do mathematics at the exact same time. Learning one to ten in kanji was just as useful as learning Arabic numerals. "I'm just..."

"You're just..." The woman took the workbook from under his arm and scanned over it for a few seconds. "...trying to work, right?"

Conan grabbed at the air, a look of absolute concentration on his face. "Give it back."

"Only if you come outside for a second," Ms Kobayashi replied, winking. "I'll be there in a moment, okay?"

The little boy sighed, before getting out of his seat and heading towards the door, pencil-case in hand. She glanced at him as he left the room. He was bending forward a little more than usual, looking at his feet as he walked, and his gait had become unusually stumbling for him. It wasn't only that, but the normally light grip on his pencil-case was tight and heavy-handed. She wouldn't be surprised if the thing exploded in his hands.

She checked his work, and wasn't as surprised to see that he'd drawn the 'go' and the 'hachi' wrong.

"I think he's stressed," said Ai, curling her pencil around her fingers.

The elder woman frowned. "You think so?"

"Something's really wrong with Conan-kun, though!" Yoshida Ayumi cried from her position a few desks away. "This morning he wouldn't talk to any of us!" The sweet little girl was twisting her own wrists in worry.

Her two friends Tsubaraya Mitsuhiko and Kojima Genta nodded. "He just sat on the bench outside waiting for the bell to ring," Genta continued. "He didn't come near any of us."

"He was suddenly aloof. None of us understand why," said Mitsuhiko, crossing his arms. "It didn't seem like he was stressed. It was more like he was scared of us."

Kobayashi took all of this in. The boy's behaviour didn't add up. His falling asleep in class, the bad kanji in his book, not talking to his friends, and a complete change in demeanour... It was like one of her favourite mystery novels, except the focus was on the kid detective club rather than Akechi Kogorou (she'd always sniggered when she thought about it. Kogorou the great detective and a bunch of children who saw him as their mentor, not to mention how Kobayashi was also the leader of the Boy Detective Club while she was the sponsor of the Shounen Tantei . A great coincidence). And this time, they weren't hunting mysteries; they already had one right under their nose. She bit her lip, not knowing what to expect as she walked out and closed the door.

And Conan wasn't anywhere to be seen.

MKMKMKMKMK

Conan-kun, are you okay? Shin'ichi asked. The feeling of a warm embrace enveloped the small boy as he leaned against the wall of the boys' toilets. He'd legged it as soon as he'd walked out of the door, heading straight out of the room. Currently he was panting heavily; although the journey was short, so were his legs.

"How do you talk to them?" he asked. "How can you stand walking into a room with hundreds of people and just be able to talk in front of them? Do your work in front of them?"

Conan-kun, there weren't hundreds of people in there. It was only our class.

"But it really felt like there were a thousand eyes on me..." the little boy muttered, closing his eyes. "You're really brave, Shin'ichi-nii-chan."

Shin'ichi was left speechless. I... I am? he mumbled.

"I like watching you, you know," Conan said, sliding down the wall to a seated position. "You always confront the danger with a courageous look on your face. You go up against vicious murderers all the time. Just the fact that you've stayed as me for so long is enough to tell me just how brave you are. And you're fading away, and yet you still don't throw a fit. And I can't even talk to Ayumi-chan, Mitsuhiko-kun or Genta-kun on my own. How do you do that when I can't even sit in a room full of people my apparent age?"

The most that the older tantei could do was sighing and trying to offer condolence. I have no idea. Maybe you're my negative or something. That would make sense. A soft touch where I'm sharp, dark where I'm light and vice versa. But even if that's not true, if you're going to have to be the same Edogawa Conan-kun that I created as a personality, then I'll help you face your fears. So we're going to go back there, confront our sensei and sit back in our seat and learn to write our one-to-ten in correct stroke order... not that I ever bothered. Seriously, this has absolutely nothing to do with real life. If we haven't got freaking brush pens then how can we call it stroke order anyway?

Conan giggled.

Never thought that sound would exit my mouth.

MKMKMKMKMK

Hakuba blinked at the screen. Or, rather, at the audio.

"Chaos Control..." he whispered to himself. The strange words had been given to Kaito by that energetic-sounding voice, which he could only assume was that of an alien. He didn't know any people around here who spoke in perfect English with an American accent, or who spoke in that particular tone. And that was where the audio had ended: when Kaitou KID had yelled out the words in a rather archaic pronunciation and every noise in that room had just stopped. Every single one - the metallic carnage, the thumps, the footsteps, a gun cocking just feet away from the camera and the yell issuing from the mouth of another alien who could only have been directly in front of him – had quite simply stopped.

Like a mute button.

Except it was more of the 'skip chapter' button, because the next sound he'd heard was Nakamori's voice from over in his side of the anomaly. Add that to the flash of light and the complete disappearance of KID until this morning, and one had a theory.

"Chaos Control... means 'teleport'."

"Exactly what I was thinking."

A/N: Conan is devoted to Shin'ichi. Conan loves Shin'ichi. Shin'ichi is devoted to Conan. But does Shin'ichi love Conan?