A/N: Other stories are poking at my brain, saying;
TEP: "Write me!"
Confused Identities: "No, me!"
EDC: "They'll love me!"
Runner 14: "But you've already written on me, write more!"
Twisted Path: "Write on me now!"
Ideas without names: "I wanna be written!"
In the Footsteps of Others: "You're stuck on me! You have to get unstuck!"
Me: "Please! One at the time!"
Last Time in Moonlight: "I feel left out..."
Halfblood: *suggestively* "Hey, I've got two chapters, why not publish one?"
Me: "No, I already have FoO and TP that I'm writing on!"
Secret Wishes: "Make a new OneShot collection with an M-rating and publish me!"
Intruder Alert: "I agree with SW!"
Me: "You're not even done!"

Warnings:
Strange English, OOCness

Uploaded: 2013-05-16
Chapter rating: K+
Words: 3,400

Chap. 5
On a Foundation of Lies

Dark didn't know what irked him most about the new thief; the fact that he smiled all the time or that he was dressed in the most brainless costume he'd ever seen; who used white when they went stealing? Not even Dark himself was stupid enough to do that! And why had he that impractical mantle, and why did he still seem to move quite comfortably in it?

Even though the strangeness of the other thief urged him to find out more information about him, the one thing he wondered most was what he'd done to The Whisperer of Peace. Dark had gone after that artwork because it was waking up and causing trouble with its magic; he needed to seal it away, but once the other thief had returned it, Dark had gone after it again without getting interrupted by the white-clad one, stealing it even though he could feel that it had no magic at all. What had KID done to it? Was he going to use the magic for his own goals? But the question that worried Dark the most was; was the thief a Hikari or was he working for them?

The phantom thief, now without his wings, grew annoyed as he ran through the corridor where officers dangled from the ceiling and felt how thoughts of using real magic against the thief was beginning to feel very appealing, but using active magic would hurt his host, Daisuke, and force him to break his own principles of never using violent magic against a human being, no matter how annoying they were, however, he wouldn't be opposed to preparing a magic-inbound feather for the next time so that he could put him to sleep.

The white-clad thief jumped up to the middle railing of the stairs, holding into the necklace he'd vouched to steal. The magician's grin grew more amused before he vanished in a puff of smoke, making Dark growl.
"Wiz," the purple-haired man called out as he got to the stairs and seemingly grew wings, watching how his challenger was travelling upwards in the hole between the stairs. With a few hard beats he was spiralling upwards, annoyed by the fact that the space between the stairs was too narrow for him to travel through while flying; KID had been lucky that he'd chosen those stairs because if he could've flown straight Dark would've caught up in no time.

Bursting through the door he saw that KID was standing by the far end of the roof, enlightened by the gigantic floodlights from below, and held the necklace towards the moon.
"What are you doing?" Dark smiled a bit as he made sure to be in between the thief and the door while he walked out to the roof and saw how the thief lowered his arm with his face in shadows caused by the lights came from behind him.
"Just remembering the past. Old habits die hard, I guess," KID grinned as he stood on the ledge of the roof, clearly used to heights.
"You had questions..." the young man reminded the white thief.
"And now, so do you," KID's grin changed into a confident smirk.
"Of course, what did you do with the power from The Whisperer of Peace?" Dark questioned and folded his wings to his back as he gave the thief an annoyed look.
"I simply... Stored it in a different form," KID answered with a tilt of his head, "now my turn; what are you? A wizard? Warlock? Witch? Sorcerer? Because those wings are not like my magic." The corners of Dark's mouth twitched in a smile; the thief was not related to the Hikaris if he didn't know that, but he could still be working for them.

"I can't possibly explain what I am to someone that hasn't even got that basic knowledge," the young man stated, trying to see if the other would get irritated by his refusal to answer, but KID didn't show anything other than the same smile.
"A lot of things have happened in my life, a life that must seem so short to someone as old as you," KID chuckled as he started to shuffle a deck of cards, "try me, oh, immortal one." Dark's eyes narrowed as he got annoyed by the obvious taunt in the voice as KID said the last words, letting the winded thief know that the magician was well aware that it was always the same Dark that went stealing.
"No, not before you've told me what you did with the magic."
"A stalemate..." KID sighed as he threw the cards into the air and made them transform into blue burning butterflies that soared through the air around him.
'Woa, so beautiful!' Daisuke's voice gasped in awe in Dark's head.
'Not the time Daisuke,' the man thought with a sigh, trying to ignore the scene, 'do not admire the enemy when he's doing it do distract you to get an opening to attack.'
'It's really beautiful! Why is he a thief? He should be on stage to amaze his crowd,' the teenager's words got the thief's mind whirling with questions without answers.

Kaito mentally frowned and studied Dark, seeing the same kind of expression as when Shinichi spoke with Pandora; it was very faint, but spending enough time with Shinichi had taught him to see when the detective was listening and when he was not. He opened his mouth, but before he could ask the thief about it officers poured out into the rooftop, pointing their guns at the two thieves.

"KID! Dark! You are both under arrest! Put your hands up!" Saehara called out, making Dark raise his hands with a deadpanned expression as he turned his back to the other thief and backed away from the police; there were no restraints that they had that could hold him. KID hummed and tilted his head as he let his grin return, making some of the officers frown and look at him with a suspicious expression.
"KID, get off that ledge!" Saehara barked and saw the thief raise an eyebrow.
"Since you feel so strongly about it, I guess I have no other choice," KID grinned wildly and shifted backwards, making every officer on the roof gasp in shock. The white-clad thief took a step off the building, falling with the same smile on his lips and made Dark's eyes widen as he spun around to see him disappear over the edge. With a low growl the purple-haired phantom thief ran the few meters to the edge and threw himself over it as he dove for the thief, intent on beating him to a pulp when he was done saving his stupid life; he should probably have him locked up somewhere, there was obviously something mentally wrong with him.

"You idiot!" Dark snarled as he gripped into the thief's waist, feeling that he was rather light for this size. Turning him around the seemingly young man faced a head with count down, seeing it change from four to three. He threw the doll down and beat his wings to get away from whatever it was, but soon after he was covered in smoke from the explosion, swerving to his right in case the thief was aiming something at him. Bursting out of the smoke he spun around in the air, looking everywhere for the magician, but the only thing he saw was an open window at the highest floor.
'He's really good,' the voice of his host stated inside Dark's head as he flew up to the window, knowing that he'd only missed it because he was too concentrated on saving the other's life. He struck the floor a bit hard as he landed inside and saw how a cloud fell from him, making him look down to his hands and arms. Pink; the other thief had turned him pink. After only a moment's hesitation Dark ran, trying to find the other, but little did he know that the officers on the roof were now one more than what they had been before.

Kaito had pulled out the inflatable doll as soon as the line of sight had been broken, covering himself from the crowd with the mantle and then pulled the mirrored clothes over himself as he dropped the doll. He shot the grappling hook to a small spire by the corner and swung around it, seeing that Dark jumped over the edge and tried to save the doll. He trembled a bit as his body protested against the strain he'd put on it during the last weeks and forced him to cling to the wall so that he wouldn't actually fall, but he quickly changed his clothes and then climbed up, seeing that the officers were looking over the edge.

"He's insane," Saehara stared down at the ground as he leaned over the ledge, "we need to capture him before he throws himself off a building thinking that he can fly when Dark isn't around."
"I couldn't agree more, Saehara-keibu," an officer in front of the thief stated and walked up to his superior, "but next time you might want to specify your orders to him."
"Yea, Tamotsu, I know. Well, he's gone now. They both are. Let's pack up, and show me the mess KID caused," the inspector ordered as he walked past his men.
"Yes, sir," Kaito coursed with the others, feeling a bit degraded; he hadn't even caused a mess, it was just a few ropes and a single smoke trap, but then again, the officers had no idea how things were going to escalate once he found a way to get more supplies, but supplies required money, so for now he would have to use things sparsely and make everything the police got their hands on disappear into thin air.

He smiled as he closed the door at the hospital, knowing that he was actually breaking the rules by doing so, but he couldn't possibly care about it; the nurses didn't know what was wrong, but he did.
"Please, Song of Luck," the thief whispered as he stood beside his comatose boyfriend, "bring my love to me." Kaito bit lightly into his tongue as he made the wish over and over in his head, distressed by the fact that nothing was happening. "Please," he moved the necklace closer, not wanting it to touch Shinichi, but still nothing happened, "pretty please?" He sighed as he sat down in the chair, feeling a bit crestfallen. He had known that not all objects would be magical, but the wish for it to be so had been so strong that he'd almost started to believe it himself.
"So Dark knows what objects are magical, but I can't possibly wait for him to strike," the thief sighed and looked down on the necklace, knowing that the thief sometimes was out once or twice a week and could then disappear for weeks or months; there was no kind of structure to Dark, and that annoyed Kaito, because without a set rule to follow he would just have to strike randomly in hope of finding a magical object. "Lady Luck, grant me my wish, help me choose an object that will help Shinichi..."

Kaito had frowned unhappily at the newspaper's headline the next day; it seemed like people hated the fact that he had beaten Dark twice in a row, calling him an irresponsible maniac and a few other not-so-nice-things, but he'd decided that he wouldn't let it deter him. He was going to show them that he wasn't violent and that he was a gentleman. The next heist he'd found the perfect object to go after; a painting that Dark had targeted, but the granddaughter of the painter had begged the thief to not take it so he had just left it, and if Dark had targeted it Kaito was going after it.

The thief placed a heist note in the inspector's jacket and a bug on the collar of the shirt as he 'accidently' rounded a corner when he did, making both of them end up on the floor groaning from pain. With a quick excuse in a female voice Kaito picked up the dropped files and continued into an archive room where he placed the listening device in his ear and then left the station through the window.

He listened intently to the inspector as he made his examination of the gallery that held his target, waiting for the golden moment when the man discovered the heist note in his coat pocket. With a smile he finished looking over the place and left the building from the same window that he'd entered, pulled out a map and headed towards the next museum.

After sneaking inside he walked around and accidently overheard a phone call through the small crack in an opened door, and from what he heard had to be an employee to his boss.
"You have to fire him!" the man hissed irritated, and judging by his clothes he was a cleaner, "why? I've told you why! He's always showing up drunk, and falls asleep in a corner, forcing me to do his tasks, and you're not paying me for that, so either you double my pay or I'm not working a day more... I know that it's against regulations to work 200%! That's why I'm telling you to fire him and hire someone else! I've been dealing with this shit for three months already! He's received God knows how many warnings. Can't I get a single decent person to work with? I refuse to clean up after him anymore. If I wanted to dry someone's ass I'd work with babies or elderly people! ... Yea yea yea, you know what, bullshit. And I don't care if you went to the same class as him in high school. You either deal with this until tomorrow or I will quit!" The man hung up and seemed like he wanted to crush his phone, but instead he took a few deep breaths.

Kaito smiled and left the museum; how hard could it be to work as a cleaner, really? All he would have to do was recognise what mixture of fluid was best to clean with and on what surface. He quickly made his way to a library and wrote down a cover letter and created a completely made up résumé and a last employer that could vouch for him. After a bit of tinkering with his mobile he made it able to accept calls from a telephone booth close to his sleeping bag by drawing a line from it, so as soon as he'd snuck in and placed the letter containing his information in a pile of newly delivered mail he sat down to wait in the park, annoyed by the fact that the inspector hadn't found the heist note in his pocket yet, but as he made himself a small lunch he heard a shocked gasp of his name.

"KID?" the inspector asked, unaware that the thief was listening in on the conversation.
"What about him, Keibu?" a second voice asked, much weaker as he was further away from the listening device.
"That damn thief has sent out another notice," Saehara sighed and ate a bit of his lunch.
"Doesn't he have any cooling-down period? He stole only three days ago, and two days before that! Not even Dark goes out as often as he does."
"I'm aware, Yutaka, but it's better for us," the inspector reasoned with a smile in his tone, "he's more prone to making a mistake if he continues this way, and when we catch him we can get him the help he needs, if he hasn't ended up as a wet spot on the ground."

The thief was taken back by the way the inspector spoke about him; he was so used to hearing Nakamori yelling angrily that he had just assumed that Saehara was exactly the same, but it sounded like the inspector was genuinely worried about his mental and physical wellbeing, but that might change after Saehara got to know him as well as Nakamori did.

"Is it another weird riddle?" Yutaka wondered and groaned, making Kaito believe that the inspector had handed him the note, "why does he do that?"
"Probably because he finds it amusing," Saehara answered and drank from his drink, "he probably likes making them and then have us solve them. He's asking us to play a game, but we won't be playing this time. Whatever he's going after we're moving it. Do you understand anything of what he's written?"
"No... Not really... He's going after something tomorrow? Or tonight?"
"I'll hand it to Shoji-kun as soon as he gets back from lunch; at least he seems to be excited over these heist notes. Who knew that he had a knack for solving riddles..."

The thief grinned as he sat in the forest; Nakamori had tried to move things often, and this time would be just as easy, especially since the police and Dark were unaware of his ability to disguise and fly. Kaito stayed in the park the entire day and evening, hoping that the phone would call as he counted and rearranged the supplies that he had. Food, clothes, gadgets; he was beginning to run low on everything but the criminal resources, even though he'd used a few of Shinichi's shirts, and washed them in the ocean. Later that day, while the thief was wondering if he should find a house of a family that was away to wash his clothes, his phone buzzed and he cleared his throat as he recognised the number on the display.

"Yes, this is Maeda Akira," Kaito answered in a much deeper voice.
"Hello, Maeda-san, I'm Kimura Manabu, I'm calling about one of your previous workers, Kuroba Kaito, he left you as a reference," the manager of the museum informed in a formal voice, making the thief grin; he'd almost given up hope that the man would call.
"Oh? Kaito-kun? Is he already searching for a job?" he asked in a surprised voice.
"Eh? Yes, shouldn't he?" Kimura wondered.
"Oh, you see, it was such a tragic accident. Poor boy, both of his parents died in a car crash last year, and he left the city with his brother after he quit. To travel the world to find a new home, he said. I guess he finally found one, I'm happy for him. Where are you calling from? If you don't mind me asking," the thief wondered with a grin, making sure to keep his voice solemn.
"Tokyo."
"Aah, I've heard that it's a beautiful city. I actually recommended Tokyo to him, I thought that it would fit him perfectly; the sea so close, but you're probably wondering what he's like to work with..." Kaito made it seem like his last employer was a bit talkative.
"Yes, how is he as an employee?"
"The best. Very pleasant to deal with, and he does his job well. A good co-worker, now, we're just a small company so I get to know every one of my employees. I really wish for him back, but last time we spoke it seemed as if he couldn't put a foot here without falling into mourning. If you chooses him you'll get one great person to deal with, was there anything more? I'm kind of swamped in paperwork; one of my new employees decided to call in and quit without any notice."
"Ah, no, that would be everything I need to know. Thank you for taking the time."
"Very well, have a good evening," Kaito smiled as he hung up and then carefully removed the small wire, effectively cutting the number to Maeda. With a fishing line he tied a small, parabolic device to his phone that would allow Kuroba Kaito to be able to pick up on a different number and glared at the battery in the mobile. He'd turned it off after he'd realised that it wasn't the same world as he was from, but it was not far from dying; he'd have to find a way to recharge it. Not long after the thief had fixed the mobile it started ringing and he picked up.

"Kuroba Kaito speaking," the thief greeted happily and smiled as he heard the manager introduce himself. He answered questions and then was told to come in for an interview the next day, laughing at the 'coincidence' that he'd posted his letter so that it had arrived when Kimura needed it the most.