It was just his luck. The day he finally came back to school, his class was going on a field trip to the aquarium. While the detective didn't relish the idea of any more probing questions from strangers, it could give him a chance to relax. He sat at his desk as the class patiently awaited the bus' arrival when he noticed something seemed a bit… off. Glancing over to Kaito's desk, he saw the usually social magician had slipped far down in his seat, almost at the point of falling out of it, his eyes staring into empty space. He seemed completely unaware of anything going on around him. Curiously, Shinichi approached him and gave him a small shake.

"Hey, Kaito-"

"Wah…!" The magician nearly jumped out of his seat, his eyes wide. "O-oh. Hi, Shinichi."

"Is everything alright? Never mind, stupid question. What's up with you today?"

Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Kaito hesitated a moment before speaking.

"I just… don't want to go today."

"Why, afraid you'll fall in?" Shinichi teased with a small laugh. But at the comment, Kaito looked absolutely horrified. Shinichi cut his laughter short and studied the other boy skeptically. "You mean you really are afraid of falling in? Don't worry, I'm sure you're so bad the sharks would spit you right back out, anyways," he said, making another feeble attempt at a joke. But to his surprise, Kaito leapt to his feet, his expression ranging somewhere between irritation and terror.

"I'm not going," he exclaimed loudly, slamming his hands down on the desk. Shinichi flinched at his reaction and looked around. The entire class was now eyeing the two with curiosity. The detective uttered a quick apology before turning back to his friend.

"What's up with you?" he asked again, anxious concern in his voice.

"I'm just fine," replied Kaito sulkily. Shinichi gave the magician a humorous laugh and shook a finger at him.

"Only one truth prevails," he said, trying to lighten the other boy's mood. Seeing him like this was… unnatural, and surprisingly disheartening. A slight blush rose in Shinichi's cheeks as an impossible thought drifted across his mind, but to his relief, Kaito seemed too absorbed in his own thoughts and worries to notice. His gaze was distant, staring out the window. Taking a deep breath, Kaito fidgeted a little and looked down at his hands.

"I… I just don't like f… fi…"

"Fish?" asked Shinichi. Kaito cringed at the mention of the word, then nodded slowly. "Icthiophobia. I'm surprised I didn't figure this out before," Shinichi continued incredulously. Kaito only sat down, slinking back under his desk.

"There's no way you're getting me in that place," he said with resolution, crossing his arms over his chest as if to make his statement final. A call echoed down the hallway, announcing the arrival of the bus, and people began to file eagerly out of the room. Before Kaito could lift a finger to object, Shinichi had grabbed him by his wrist and dragged him unwillingly from the room and out to the bus. But as Shinichi went to board the bus, he found his hand suddenly empty, and Kaito standing a few feet behind him.

"Come on, Kaito. The only way to overcome your fear is to face it," the detective exclaimed a little too enthusiastically.

"I already told you, I'm not going," stressed Kaito. But as he turned his back to leave he felt a reassuring hand on his shoulder. He spun around to find himself looking into the grinning face of Shinichi.

"Then at least keep me some company on the bus. You wouldn't deny me that, would you?"

"Alright, alright," Kaito replied with a sigh after a moment to consider the offer. "I'll go."

He knew he had to anyways. He'd glimpsed the blueprints of the building, but he'd never seen the inside of the hell-hole with his own eyes. The more familiar he was with his environment, the quicker he could get in and out of there.

They chose a seat together in the middle of the bus. It was easier for an audience to crowd around the magician as he performed impossible card and disappearing tricks. But it only lasted a few minutes before the teacher ordered everyone back to their seats to talk quietly and scolded Kaito for causing such a ruckus.

Shinichi held his head in one hand, staring blankly out the window while Kaito shuffled his cards nervously. The note he found by Kid taunted him. He wanted to tell Kaito about it, there was hardly anything he could keep a secret from the inquiring boy, but this was between Kid and himself. No need to drag Kaito into his problems. He wondered if Kid was going to contact him again or if he was expected to take some kind of initiative, although he couldn't imagine where to begin. Maybe there was something waiting for him at the aquarium, some clue. He'd been keeping an eye on the weather news- this coming Sunday was not only the new moon, but it was supposed to be cloudy, meaning any stars would be "consumed by darkness". It seemed to make sense. But no matter what he thought, it'd be Nakamori's final decision once the police were alerted, especially considering his current position with them. And on top of that, he hadn't known anything of real value to be kept there, especially a gem. Those were usually reserved for the museums.

"Hey, we're here," said Kaito, shaking his friend's shoulder. Immediately the detective was snapped away from his thoughts. Nodding, he joined the rest of the class gathering before the glass doors.

Kaito examined the building with a practiced intensity. The front seemed to be made mostly of glass panels held in place by tall cement columns. The building was three stories tall. The rainforest exhibit was supposed to be located on the third floor, guaranteeing skylights. But the Eye of Neptune was somewhere on the second floor, wherever the Underwater Mysteries display was. He'd have to take a look at the ventilation system.

The teacher shouted something to the noisy mass of students before leading them in. Immediately people began to break off in every direction.

"Now don't forget to take notes. You will have an essay to write!" the teacher called out to deaf ears. Shinichi looked over at his friend who was peering about anxiously. A blush rose once again in his face as be began thinking rather fondly of Kaito, and cleared his throat in embarrassment as his mind compared him to Ran. There was no way.

"Hey, Kaito? You holding up so far?" asked Shinichi.

"Uh… yeah… As 'alright' as I'm going to get in a place like this," he added with a nervous laugh. "I head there's some kind of new exhibit on the second floor. You want to check it out?" he suggested. Shinichi shrugged.

"I wasn't told exactly, but it's supposed to be good," he lied. He almost told the truth. He didn't know why. It was almost like he wanted Shinichi to know. But there was no way he was going to risk that. Friend or not, Kaito knew how emotionally detached the detective could become while working on a case. He could never find out.

They made their way up the spiraling staircase behind a number of chatty girl students. When they emerged onto the second floor, the girls ran ahead to join the crowd they were confronted with, gathered in the middle of a the room.

"That must be it," pointed out Shinichi, but that wasn't what Kaito was looking at. The walls of the room were lined with tanks built right into them, stretching from the ceiling almost all the way down to the floor, brightly colored tropical fish flitting every which way. The magician was horrified. Without thinking, Shinichi reached over and grabbed his friend's hand - almost. Catching himself at the last minute, his hand rested on Kaito's forearm. Composing himself quickly, Kaito lowered his eyes, deciding his shoes were better to look at than those f-f… animals.

"Er… let's go look at whatever's over there," suggested Shinichi, leading his friend towards the display table in the middle of the room. The crowd was dissolving, moving on to the next room. A gold stand rested in the center of a wooden table, ornate designs carved into its sides and legs. In the cradle of the stand's arms rested a crystal sphere, about twice the size of a fist, with a shard of royal blue stuck in it's center, giving the entire thing a bluish glow; the Eye of Neptune. Thoughts of the terror surrounding him vanished from the magician's mind as he carefully studied his target. It didn't appear to be guarded by anything other than the single uniformed security guard that stood erect to the right side of the display, mimicking a statue. There were two air vents, on located in each back corner of the room, fairly large. Perfect. Worst case scenario- a bullet hitting the glass and all the animals pouring out. But that risk was unavoidable given the circumstances. There was a door opposite the one they had entered through, leading into a darkened room.

"That must be it!" exclaimed Shinichi quietly to himself. So he must have solved the riddle, Kaito thought.

"Eh? What's what?" he asked with an innocent air, always holding the poker face he'd been trained to have in such situations.

"Nothing important," he replied quickly. "I've just read a little on the Eye of Neptune before." Good thing he'd managed to catch a quick glimpse of the name on a silver plaque attached to the stand.

"Then you'd know if was found off an Alaskan coast over 60 years ago. After being displayed for the first time in a museum for seven years it disappeared, presumably stolen, then reappeared in Ireland three years later. And for the past two years it's been traveling the world, last displayed in an aquarium in Germany. This is it's 15th stop."

Shinichi eyed Kaito in surprise.

"How'd you know all that?" He couldn't have gotten all that from the short description on the table already.

"It's a hobby," replied Kaito with a shrug. A stupid excuse, and even less intelligent of him to tell Shinichi all of that, but it just slipped. He promised himself such a slip wouldn't happen again. Shinichi nodded with a polite reply, but took Conan's recent suspicions into consideration, only to quickly discard them. It was impossible. They'd have solid evidence that it was him by this point if it really was, wouldn't they?

Kaito stuck his hand in his pocket, a natural gesture, lightly tucking the small note 'Kid' had scribbled into the sleeve of his shirt. He circled the stand, giving the guard a smile and nod, nosing the distraction to remove his hand from his pocket and give his wrist a small flick, sending the neatly folded note flying towards the display, then coming to a rest leaning against the side of the stand opposite of the guard.

Shinichi followed his friend, admiring the fish in the tanks. But when he looked back down at the jewel, a small piece of paper caught his attention. He looked up at the guard opposite him, who didn't seem to be paying much attention. Slowly he reached for the note, but when he had a finger on it, the guard glimpsed him out of the corner of his eye.

"No touching!" he barked gruffly. Shinichi quickly pulled his hand away, feigning guilt. He backed away slowly, muttering an apology, and started towards the darker room, beckoning Kaito to follow, which he did.

Only some of the tanks in this room where dimly illuminated, just enough to see the deep-sea fish hiding in crevases of coral. It was a long room, more like a wide corridor, and rows of tanks divided it into three walkways to the spot of light which must have been the other exit.

Shinichi led Kaito, beginning to feel the anxiety returning, to the far left, out of the view of anyone in the rooms at either end. Opening his hand a little, Shinichi looked at the note that had been left for him. He'd managed to catch it between his fingers just before pulling away. While he'd been careful enough to avoid any further suspicion from the guard, it hadn't escaped the trained eye of the magician who smiled to himself, but otherwise was becoming too preoccupied with his phobia. It felt like all the warmth was draining from him, and his usually steady hands began to shake, just a little at first, then more violently. His feet glued themselves to the floor, refusing to move, and he stared wide-eyed straight ahead into the blackness. For the first time in his life he felt the helplessness of having no control over a situation, and it felt like the threads of the universe itself were writhing out of his grasp as his mind began to spin until he wasn't even aware of the cause of this fright or the clamminess of his hands.

Suddenly, as if out of nowhere, he felt some of the warmth seeping back into his body. The trembling slowly ceased and though his breaths came shakily, he was able to control them. Closing his eyes for a moment, he cleared his head, suddenly recognizing this sensation. His blue eyes snapped open in surprise and his previously numb face became hot.

"Calm down, Kaito. It's alright," said Shinichi in a cool, calming voice, tightening his arms around Kaito. The magician relaxed in his arms, putting all other thoughts aside.

It seemed like a long time they stood there caught in the embrace until quiet muttering from the nearby room caused them to jump apart. Kaito studied Shinichi with a sort of awe, in disbelief, as Shinichi looked down at the floor, his lips moving as if to speak but nothing came out. Kaito took a step forward, causing Shinichi to look up, appearing alarmed, afraid the magician might be angry with him, but before he could do or say anything else, Kaito had pulled him close. In one swift movement the magician had pressed his lips softly to the detective's own, an action that seemed to have surprised even himself to some extent. After a moment, Shinichi pulled himself away from the kiss, but still found himself trapped in Kaito's arms.

"K-Kaito… you…?" he stuttered quietly. A characteristic smirk crept onto Kaito's face, but it seemed to have an unusual softness to it that was reflected in his gaze.

"Brilliant deduction, detective," he replied, releasing his friend. Shinichi smiled wearily, his relief shining through, no longer having to live in such controlled secrecy that was beginning to take its toll on him mentally and even physically when he sat up many sleepless nights thinking on it. Honestly, that had bothered him more than the public's view of him. Compared to Kaito, none of them mattered.

As Shinichi reached out, Kaito caught the gesture and grabbed the hand, giving it a tight squeeze.

"You going to be alright?" asked Shinichi, looking around. Despite the sudden scene, the fish appeared to be going about their own business.

"Yeah, as long as we get out of here quickly," replied Kaito nervously, never moving his gaze from the detective's face. "How about we go see the rainforest upstairs?"

Shinichi nodded in agreement and began leading Kaito, hand in hand.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx to be continued…

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OMFG I LIVE!
Anyways, I feel SO BAD about not updating in SO FREAKIN' LONG. I've had the ideas in my head, just never really had the motivation to type it up. Then BAM, it hit me like a brick wall (I can truthfully use that metaphore literally. I'd know).
So here's chapter 7. I've actually begun working on chapter 8, so no worries, I'll try to get this last chapters up at a good pace!

Thank you sooo much to those of you who give me feedback and have the patience to keep up with me XP
I give you love and cookies.