Disclaimer: I don't own the DCMK characters

Rating: T

Genre: Romance/Science Fiction

Pairing: KaiShin [KaitoxShinichi]

Racing Dreams

Part 3

They returned to Ekoda after leaving the desert behind. It was to be both a vacation and a period of preparation. Despite the tranquility, however, Shinichi found himself feeling restless. Half of him was still worried about the hover racer's condition. The other half… Well, the other half kept replaying that evening over the dunes and those three little words Kaito had said to him.

He took to taking long walks on his own, hoping that the peace and fresh air would help him clear his head. It helped a little, but it wasn't getting him anywhere. All he really managed to do was make a rapidly lengthening list of questions. Finally, he decided to call his mother.

"Oh it feels like it's been forever since you last called!" the voice on the other end of the line squealed before he could even finish his greeting. "How have you been?"

"I'm okay," he said.

"I remember you said you joined a team, right? How is it? Are they treating you well?"

"I—yeah. They're really dedicated. We'll be entering the Red Diamond this year."

"Already? That's amazing! I'm really happy for you."

"Thanks." He paused, taking a deep breath. "Mom, I…I had a question."

"You can ask me anything," she assured him.

"How…how do you know if you like someone?"

There was a long silence during which Shinichi waited anxiously for some kind of reaction. Then he heard a sniff. He frowned.

"Mom? Are you okay?"

It was like he'd stepped on a landmine. "Oh, my baby's growing up!" Kudo Yukiko gushed, sounding equal parts tearful and excited.

Shinichi suppressed the urge to groan as his mother went on to babble about how it felt like only yesterday that she had been changing his diapers. He flushed and wondered if there was any point in mentioning that he'd been grown up for years. Chances were that it wouldn't help. This was, he mused, why he preferred not to go to his parents when he had problems. They still treated him like he was a little kid even now.

"Mom," he interjected when the trip down memory lane showed no signs of ending almost a full ten minutes later. "I'm being serious."

"That's wonderful. So who is it?"

"…What? What are you talking about?"

"Come now, you can tell Mommy. You wouldn't be asking me about love if there wasn't someone on your mind. Is it someone from your team?"

"Mom!" he protested, face flushing crimson.

"Does this person make you happy?"

He froze. "I…I guess…"

"That's good then. Remember, trust is the most important part of any relationship. Just be honest, and be yourself, and if it's meant to be then it'll all work out."

Shinichi blinked slowly, both surprised and strangely relieved. "Thanks, Mom."

X

"Everything looks in order," Jii announced, coming around the hover racer to where Shinichi was waiting for his evaluation. "I'm sure you two have your own theories on the accident."

"We have a few," Shinichi agreed. Jii gestured for him to follow. A few minutes later, they were seated in the old man's dining room with cups of coffee in hand.

"Why don't you start with what happened that day," Jii advised. "What was the weather like? When was the race? Who was competing? Tell me everything."

Shinichi complied. The old mechanic listened intently, asking questions every now and then. When the story had come to an end, he sat back in his chair with a pensive frown.

"Your theory about some sort of disruptive broadcast does seem the most likely. I haven't heard of such a piece of technology either, but I'm afraid I must admit that my knowledge is a little outdated. I have a lot of friends in the industry though. I'll ask around and see if anything—or anyone—comes up. In the meantime, you two just remember to be careful. If anything seems off, anything at all, call me."

"We will. And thank you."

Jii chuckled. "You don't have to thank me. I'm just sorry I couldn't be of more help."

"You were helpful," Shinichi insisted before his gaze dropped to the depths of his own cup. "The truth is, I… I was wondering if you would consider coming with us to the Red Diamond. I know you're retired now, and it's a lot to ask, but there's still the possibility that the accident was caused by a problem within our hover racer. You've been working with these designs a lot longer than I have, so you might be able to see something I can't."

The old man didn't answer immediately, regarding Shinichi with a thoughtful gaze from over the rim of his cup. Eventually, he lowered said cup and shook his head. "I can tell you this much. There is nothing wrong with the racer. Not currently anyway. And you aren't giving yourself enough credit." Here, he smiled. "And I'm not saying that just to cheer you up. I've met hundreds of mechanics and wannabes in my time. I can recognize skill when I see it. You need to have a little more faith in yourself. I trust your judgment, and so does Kaito."

Trust. There was that word again. Kaito trusted him… Shinichi knew it was true, and he realized that that was exactly why the whole accident had terrified him. Before the crash, Shinichi had been completely confident in his own ability to repair and maintain the hover crafts in his charge. He had rescued vehicles that other mechanics insisted were fit for nothing but scrap, and he had been proud of that. But then he'd seen Kaito's hover racer go over in a way hover crafts were never meant to on a turn that should have been a piece of cake for Kaito—and he still didn't know why.

That was the part that weighed on his mind, dragging at his thoughts and chiseling away his belief in his own knowledge. He had always believed that machines worked or didn't depending entirely on how well put together and cared for they were. Unlike living creatures, hover crafts didn't crash because they'd been having a bad day. There had to be a logical, technical reason that could be found.

So the fact that they still had only theories about the cause of the crash was making him edgy. The fear of a repeat incident grew every time he thought about how the Red Diamond was the largest race of all the circuits. There were going to be dozens of rounds, hundreds of participants, thousands of possible issues…

"You know, Master Toichi and I were sitting right at this table the day we decided we were going to challenge the circuits."

Shinichi blinked, coming out of his thoughts to see the old man wearing a reminiscing smile. "We were both young and excited, and of course there was Chikage. Toichi wanted to impress her. They met at a tech academy, you know. He decided that he would ask her out when he had gotten his first medal with a craft he built himself. We were at it for months. Got a lot of complaints about the noise with all the hammering and the buzzing and the clanging and all that. Then it was done. Not a pretty sight back then, but it flew, and Toichi entered the local Cherry Blossom Festival race. He won, and that was when he and Chikage started dating. It was all bright and fun back then. The sport's gotten a lot more intense over the years though. Now you have to watch your back everywhere you go and trust as few people as you can. Keep everyone at arm's length. That's how people work now. But personally, I feel that it isn't an improvement."

"Why…are you telling me all this?" Shinichi asked. He was curious to know more about Kaito's family history, they all sounded like such fascinating people, but it felt a little off topic.

The old man only laughed. "Perhaps I'm just rambling in my old age. But I suppose I wanted to say that you two have something special that very few of the other teams out there have right now. You both have a passion for what you do, and you trust each other to be able to handle their part of the work for the team. You care about the team as a team, and your goals really are goals that you share. Hang on to that, and I think you two will be fine."

Shinichi wasn't sure if the advice was going to be helpful, but there was certainly a lot in those words that he would have to spend some time digesting. He just wished someone would give him a straight answer about what he should do or could do to prevent another accident. But it seemed no one wanted to answer that particular question for him. Or maybe they just couldn't.

"Hey Jii, is that him? Kuroba Toichi?" Shinichi pointed to one of the many framed photographs scattered about the kitchen walls. This particular photograph was larger than the rest. It showed Jii standing next to a tall man who bore an incredible resemblance to Kaito. He had Kaito's mischievous, arrogant smirk and Kaito's indigo eyes. The angles of his face and the dignified yet simultaneously casual way he carried himself—they were all Kaito. Except for the mustache. Shinichi found himself hoping that his friend didn't decide to grow one when he approached his old man's age. Then Shinichi wondered why he should care. It wasn't any of his business after all.

Shaking away the mindboggling and ridiculous thoughts that his brain seemed intent on throwing at him, he returned his attention back to the photo. Chikage was in the picture too. She was much younger than she was now, face bright and vibrant with energy, dressed in neat but grease-smeared garments. The two men in the photo were a bit dusty as well, and none of them would have been allowed into a formal restaurant. But they were all smiling and laughing as they stood in front of what Shinichi recognized as his and Kaito's hover racer back before they had started to make their own modifications to it.

"We took that picture eleven years ago. Everything was looking up at the time, I'll tell you. We were the favorites, in fact. But then the finals came and…" The old man shook his head slowly. "We never did figure out what happened that time either. From the tapes, it looked like Toichi overcorrected on one of the turns to avoid hitting another craft, but something must've gone wrong because the next thing we knew both crafts were on fire. The medical crews rushed to the scene, but neither of the pilots could be rescued." The old man's voice grew hoarse with the memory of intense grief. "We salvaged the crafts, but there wasn't much in them to tell us what happened."

Shinichi opened his mouth then closed it again, feeling awkward. It was clearly a painful memory for Jii, and Shinichi could sympathize. It was a tragedy that many family and friends of racers had had to face. He never knew what to say about it though. He didn't know if it made it better that the deceased had died doing something they truly loved. He would like to think it helped a little, but he really didn't know.

Still staring at the photo in its little window into happier, simpler times, Shinichi found a tiny scribble near the bottom corner of the picture. It was a date. Jii had mentioned the photo was from eleven years ago. The little black words gazed blankly back at him. He felt…like they were important. But why? What had happened eleven years—

Shinichi leapt to his feet. "How do I get from here to the library?"

Jii blinked at him. "The library? Well, if you go out through the front and turn right then just keep walking forward until you see these two really tall trees. You can't miss them. They mark the entrance to the library parking lot. But you want to go there now?"

"Yes. There's something I need to check."

"But I thought You and Kaito agreed to be honored guests at Chikage's new bakery's opening night."

"I almost forgot about that." Shinichi paused, frowning. Then he resumed gathering up his things. "This shouldn't take that long. I should be done by five."

"I'll tell Kaito he can pick you up at the library at five then."

A pink blush spread across Shinichi's face at the comment, but he nodded. "Okay. Thank you again."

X

The local library had only three old computers available to guests, but Shinichi had come at a good time and only one was occupied. He took the second computer and popped in one of the recordings of the accident that he'd absently taken to carrying around with him lest there be spare time to do some more examination.

Those images he had come to know like the back of his hand began to play. This time, however, he was really looking.

He hadn't consciously noted it before when he'd been so focused on figuring out where the hover racer had gone wrong. His subconscious, however, had noticed, and that was why the video continued to bother him. Now that he was looking at the rest of the video rather than the bits that gleamed silver, he saw her.

She was there in the audience on the other side of the finish line from where he had been sitting. Blond hair and icy eyes set in a coldly beautiful face. It was Chris Vineyard, the woman who had come to invite them to join the Noir Foundation. Her appearance in the audience wasn't the thing that bothered him though. No, it was the fact that there was no surprise on her face at any point during the recording. Even when the people around her were screaming and pointing at the accident, her face remained calm.

Was she just good at hiding her emotions? Or was it possible that she had known the accident was coming?

Her organization hadn't had any teams in the race. But then again, maybe it wasn't so much about helping a particular team win as stopping one from doing so.

Shifting in his seat, blue eyes gazed at the pile of newspapers stacked beside his terminal.

Ten years ago, the Noir Foundation had been penalized for being suspected of cheating at the Red Diamond. Also ten years ago, Kaito's father had lost his life in an accident—at the same competition. Of course, there didn't have to be a connection, but the suspicion had kindled in the back of his mind when he'd been talking to Jii. He'd known since the beginning that Kaito's father had died in a crash at the Red Diamond, but he hadn't known when until just now. Digging a little further into the matter, he'd unearthed several other worrying facts as well.

The first was that there had been four major accidents at the Red Diamond that year including Kuroba Toichi's. Accidents weren't uncommon at such large and long-term events. However, one of the other accidents stuck out to Shinichi. It had happened to one of the other favorites. The man had missed a turn and run headlong into a cliff. What was odd, however, was that the length of track leading up to the turn had been straight for almost five hundred meters, and the turn itself had been considered only moderately difficult. No one was sure what the exact circumstances had been as too little of the craft could be recovered for a good analysis of the equipment and he had been alone on that stretch of track. Maybe it was just Shinichi, but there were some awfully coincidental similarities between that accident and the one Kaito had had.

The second thing that bothered Shinichi was the Noir Foundation. He'd already known that they had been accused of cheating, but what he hadn't known was that the accusations had included sabotage. The problem was that no one had had any proof, so the foundation had never been convicted. If they had been, they would have gotten a lifelong ban instead of a temporary one. The woman who had leveled the accusation of sabotage at them, named in the article he'd read only as Jodie, had claimed that she had seen the foundation's representatives speaking to each of the pilots who had crashed shortly before the races in which those crashes had occurred. The foundation had denied ever sending anyone to meet the pilots though, and the pilots themselves had been unable to answer questions for themselves by then. Then there was the fact that no one could figure out how anyone could cause the accidents in question. So the charge had been dropped.

Breath leaving him in a drawn out sigh, Shinichi slumped in his chair. Was he jumping to conclusions here? But so many coincidences had to mean something, right?

A pair of strong arms wrapped around him from behind as a voice whispered into his ear, "Guess who~."

Shinichi jerked violently in his seat. "Kaito!" he half squeaked, half shrieked. "Don't do that!"

Laughing, Kaito released him and straightened. "So are you ready to go?"

"Go? Go where?"

"Opening night? My mom's new bakery? Don't tell me you forgot already. We agreed to go just this morning."

"O—oh, right. Sorry." Shutting down the computer, Shinichi hurried to gather up the newspapers and take them back to the library cabinets they had come out of. Kaito trailed after him, offering to help, but Shinichi shook his head.

"Those were some really old papers you were reading," the taller teen observed as they left the library. He opened the car door for Shinichi before sliding into the driver's seat himself. "What were you researching?"

For several seconds, all that could be heard was the rumble of the car engine. When Shinichi spoke, it was with a certain degree of reluctance.

"I…found out a few things that could be related to what happened with our hover racer."

"You mean the crash?"

Shinichi nodded. He took a deep breath to give himself a little more time to think before launching into a summary of what he had read and the conclusions he had drawn. Kaito listened in silence, his expression unreadable. When Shinichi was done, he waited anxiously for his companion to respond. Every additional second of silence found him growing more and more uncomfortable.

"Kaito?" he asked finally, unable to stand the silence any longer.

"I knew."

"…What?"

"I knew. Remember when that blond lady came to talk to us? You told me then that her organization got banned from the Red Diamond ten years ago. The date seemed a bit coincidental to me, so I looked it up."

"I…what? But then why didn't you tell me?"

"At the time, it didn't seem necessary. You told me that they weren't competing. And since they were trying to recruit us, there wasn't anything for them to gain from interfering with us."

"But what about after the accident? Why didn't you say something then?"

"Two reasons," Kaito said evenly. "One, we had no reason to think it was them and not some other unfriendly party. I didn't know about that Vineyard woman being there that day until you told me just now. It was wiser—and still is—for us to treat everyone with caution rather than focusing all our wariness on one possible enemy. Secondly, you were already overstressing yourself about the hover racer having problems. I didn't want to add to that when it wouldn't actually change anything."

"What do you mean it wouldn't have changed anything?" The mechanic's voice shook slightly despite his best efforts. Inside, his emotions were in turmoil. He was touched that Kaito worried about his health. At the same time, he was frustrated and hurt that Kaito hadn't shared the information with him sooner. The way the older teen had explained his thoughts…well, it was just such a—a calculated answer. Didn't Kaito trust him? They were supposed to be teammates! This was the kind of thing you were supposed to share with your teammates, wasn't it? You weren't supposed to evaluate everything yourself and then share only what you deemed was necessary at the time. "It would have changed everything!"

"Oh? Like what?"

Shinichi opened his mouth then closed it again. What would it have changed? He wanted to say that they could have been more careful, but…well, they'd already been about as careful as they could be without knowing exactly what they were dealing with. Knowing what direction the threat might have come from wouldn't have and still hadn't unraveled the mystery of the how and why the crash may have been caused. Looking at it logically, he had to admit that Kaito was right. The only obvious difference Shinichi could come up with was that he would have been even more worried.

Unable to argue, Shinichi slumped lower in his seat. "So I guess my research was pretty pointless then."

"I wouldn't say that. You found out that the foundation really was there, and their rep seemed to have expected the accident. That sounds important to me." Pulling into a parking space in the shopping center where their destination was located, Kaito turned off the engine. Reaching over, he grabbed Shinichi's wrist before the smaller boy could open the car door. Startled blue eyes turned towards him as he clasped Shinichi's captured hand in both of his own. He caught that sapphire gaze with his own. "This doesn't change anything. You know that, right?"

Shinichi looked down. "How can you say that?" The question emerged barely above a whisper.

"Because it's true," Kaito said firmly. "You and I are the same. Our goals are unchanged. We will have to be alert and ready for anything, but that's nothing new."

"But someone tried to kill you!"

"All the more reason not to lose my head. No point making it easy for them."

"Kaito! This isn't some kind of game."

The grip on Shinichi's hand tightened as Kaito's voice hardened. "Shinichi, these people may have been responsible for my father's death. Believe me, I am taking this seriously."

"I—I'm sorry. I didn't mean—"

"I know." Now the pilot's tone softened. "The thing is, we can't change the past, no matter how much we want to. But now that we know about this, it's all the more reason why we have to win."

Shinichi let out a quiet sigh. "You're right. But I just… This isn't right. Hover racing is a sport. It's not supposed to be—like this."

"No, it's not supposed to be like this," he agreed wholeheartedly. "It's supposed to be something pure and amazing, but you get spoilsports everywhere. It would be a shame to let them ruin things for the rest of us."

Shinichi closed his eyes for a moment, inhaled deeply, then opened them again with a rueful smile. "Just promise me that you'll tell me next time you figure something out."

"I promise."

"And I… I want you to promise me that you won't take any risks that you don't have to. I wouldn't know what to do if…if something happened to you…" Blushing, he looked away again.

More than anything right then, Kaito wanted to pull Shinichi closer and kiss him, but he restrained himself (he had a race to win first). Instead, he raised Shinichi's hand and brushed his lips lightly over the knuckles. "I promise I won't leave you."

Blue eyes widened as Shinichi's blush darkened tenfold. "What? Tha—that's not what I—"

"Now, now, we'd better get moving," Kaito interrupted him with a manic grin. Unlocking the car door, he hopped out and stretched. "The cakes are waiting for us!"

Shinichi stared at the empty driver's seat where Kaito had been for a moment before heaving yet another sigh and following him out of the vehicle. "Don't you mean your mom is waiting for us?"

"Oh yeah, her too."

TBC

A.N: On a random side note, I don't know if there are any Pokemon fans out there, but if there are, I recently put a DCMK x Poke picture up on DeviantArt with Kaito and Shinichi in it. ^_^ You're welcome to swing by and see. My DA link is on my profile. Thanks for reading!