Chapter 32: One of Us

"Kaito!"

"Ah!" I yelled as someone tried to throw me off the edge of the bed I was laying on. I grabbed the side of it and winced as a new tightness around my waist became known.

I blinked a few times to try and figure out what was going on.

"You stupid idiot! How can you sleep for five days! Even if you were shot, most people wake up in a few hours!"

I looked at her as I tried to make sense out of what she was saying. I was sleeping. Check and emphasis on was. I had been shot. Check. All that I could understand without the background knowledge of how it had happened that I was missing.

"You really scared me."

When I looked over, I took the in the sight of the girl for the first time. She had soft brown hair that fell behind her shoulders and there were tears in her blue-violet eyes.

"Aoko," I said numbly. It took a while but memories started to come back, starting with the most recent.

I sat up fully and grabbed her by the wrist before dragging her onto the bed with me. I felt the tightness in my stomach again but ignored it and hugged her. "Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you." I felt a pull of something connected into the vain near my wrist.

"Kai-Kaito…" I felt her start crying onto my hospital shirt. It was warm and comforting to have her in my arms. I held her tighter at the thought that I'd almost lost that. We hadn't hugged since we were kids.

"You really scared me. I didn't – I didn't think that you were going to wake up." I rubbed her back as she sobbed, unable to hide anything behind a frown and cold-shoulder this time. "The doctors said that it was a miracle that you were even alive. They said you could have gone into a coma."

"Well I'm awake now, so quit crying." It was hard, but I pulled her away so that I could face her when I spoke. "You look ugly when you cry."

"Kaito!"

I smiled and let out of a small laugh. Her anger quickly died away and we were left smiling at each other.

"How are the others?" I asked out of curiosity.

"Ah, you mean Hakuba-kun?"

"Hakuba and Hattori-kun, or did he go back to Osaka?"

Aoko shook her head. "No, they're both here still. Hakuba-kun needs to stay for therapy. One of the bullets that hit him injured a major muscle so he can't move his arm very well. I'm not sure about the other guy."

"How are you?" I asked her. "Have you been here long?"

"Dad called me when he said you were hurt. I've been here since then. No one will tell me what happened, and they said that I shouldn't ask you."

"That would be five days then right?" I smirked. "You must stink!"

"Kaito, did you think I would be able to leave when I didn't know if – if …" Her words faded into her thoughts and I fell backwards onto the bed, leaving her sitting on one of my legs and looking down on me.

"You can go home now if you want to. I'm sure your dad's been missing you."

Aoko frowned. "He just saw me ten minutes ago, so I don't think that he's been lonely. We've both been staying across the street in case – in case something happened."

"Your dad's here?" I couldn't hide my surprise. He was a cop and he had his work at stake. Cops couldn't take leave as easily as most. "Why?"

"Because your dad couldn't be." Aoko smiled and placed her hand on my other leg since she couldn't reach me. She tried to slowly get out of my lap now that I wasn't holding her. She got as far as the edge of the bed and just sat there. "Your mom's been scared too."

I let my smile fall and closed my eyes. At least everyone made it out alive and was in fair condition.

For now.

I had to speak to Kudo when I got the chance. They could still go after me as Kid if they thought I had been involved and Hakuba was easy enough to find if they decided he'd seen too much after all. These people didn't seem the type to let sleeping dogs lie.

"Kaito?"

I twitched when Aoko reached up and touched the side of my stomach. I couldn't mask the reaction in the least and knew I'd have to desensitize myself so that I wouldn't respond if anyone touched me there in the future.

"What?" I asked sleepily.

"Nothing," she sighed with a sad smile. "It's just. You'll wake up again soon, won't you?"

"Who says I'm tired?" I opened my eyes fully. It was clear that Aoko had been emotionally stretched these last few days and I could stay awake if I had to. Now that I was set on staying up, my body told me it was hungry.

I sighed. "I can't eat anything good can I?"

"Nope!" Aoko replied with a satisfactory smile. "I'm sure you can't."

"Kuroba-kun?" Hakuba peeked in around the corner, through the curtain that separated my room from the rest of the hospital. "Finally awake, I see."

"Yeah and I'm hungry!" I proclaimed to him, throwing my arms over my head and seeing the bandages that were wrapped around my wrists for the first time. I got them half-way up before my collarbone hurt and I placed them behind my head, near my ears, so it wasn't obvious that I was being stupid and hurting myself.

"That's nothing new." Hakuba searched around before sitting in the chair that Aoko had been in. I watched as his left arm hung motionless at his side.

"How's the arm?" I asked.

"I can move my fingers, but that's it. The doctors say that with some treatment, I'll be able to have the full motion of it back in two or three months. The way I see it, it's a good excuse not to participate in gym for a while. It will give my time to catch up on my schoolwork."

"Oh yeah, I've still got homework to do too!" I moved one of my hands to cover my face. If saving people's lives wasn't enough, I had to take the educational systems preordained curriculum into account when I was done. They should give a guy some slack.

"You'll be stuck sitting still for a while anyway so it will give you something to do to pass the time. Your collarbone won't heal for at least two months and I'm sure that stomach wound is going to need special care was well. It would be a shame if you started with your antics again too soon and hurt yourself. You should rest for now."

There was almost a threat in his last words.

"I don't plan on doing anything like that." Then again, when had things gone according to plan recently? I smiled and Hakuba caught my malicious thoughts, even though he couldn't pinpoint what they were.

"At least keep them at a minimum then. Heaven knows the staff at the hospital will soon want you gone when you're well enough to cause trouble. I doubt they'd want you here for repeated visits."

"What a shame. I was really starting to like the atmosphere here. Just the right touch of gloomy and hopeful."

"Kaito! DO NOT go putting yourself in the hospital again!" Aoko tightened her grip painfully on my leg.

"Ow! I was kidding. Kidding! Let go!"

I pulled my leg away from her and was getting used to the foreign numbness in my middle that accompanied most of my movements. "You know I hate being forced to sit still!"

Aoko looked at me coldly. "I can never tell when you're serious or not."

"That's not my fault that you're a klutzy and unobservant girl."

"Kaito!" Aoko got up and walked to the door. "I'll let my dad know you're awake. Maybe – if I feel like it – I'll ask them to bring you something to drink." She vanished out of the curtain and I heard a door close.

"You got her mad on purpose." Hakuba crossed his arms and looked at me. "Why?"

"I wanted to know a few things. Starting with our story on why we were there and how we all were injured."

"The FBI took care of that. I talked with one of them, a man in his later years, though he didn't give me his real name. He assured me that he'd keep everything away from the police. They didn't ask about the rest of you but I had to tell them about the case and the children." Hakuba smiled. "They think you and Hattori-kun are just a bunch of idiots in the wrong place, at the wrong time. So don't worry, they don't know anything about you."

"I didn't think you would tell them even if they had asked." I let my head fall back again. "Maybe I trust you more than I thought."

"Or maybe you didn't care about the consequences of helping me."

"That could have been part of it. You know how I don't like to think things through." I heard the detective sigh and winked at him. "So, what happened to the kids?"

"Hisa-chan was sent to her family. The FBI has taken all of them under their care but I've sent Kei-chan to my house. Kei told me that you said you'd bring her to her father and I haven't been able to contact him so Baaya's been watching her in secret."

"What do you mean you can't contact him?"

Hakuba brushed through his hair as he thought about another way to word whatever it was he was trying to tell me. "I spoke with Conan-kun. The man, Narawari Kousuke, has been missing for three days now. We don't think –"

The detective didn't have to finish. They thought the man was dead.

"Why would they kill him?" My words were whisper quiet but held such anger that I was amazed to hear my own voice come out so low.

"We think he was trying to get at the organization while we were keeping Kei safe. He wanted to protect her. Maybe he got too close. There's no way of knowing but the chances of him being alive are almost zero."

"But there's a chance?"

Hakuba's expression told me everything. No, there wasn't. He was a detective so he had to go by facts and state probabilities but we both knew better.

"So what do we do with Kei-chan then? I don't want to take her back to her mother." I felt for the girl. That woman didn't care about her and she deserved someone who did.

"You have to take her back. As Kid and when you're feeling up to it, so that you don't implicate anyone." I was about to fight him on it when Hakuba held up his hand. "I know how you feel about doing this. I feel the same way. There's no other option."

I nodded. If Hakuba hadn't found any legal loopholes I wasn't about to use illegal means if it meant Kei's life would be harder.

"Where is Conan-kun? And Hattori-kun for that matter as well."

"They're both at Mouri-san's house right now. Hattori-kun only stayed because Conan-kun had the misfortune of getting himself involved in another case the day after we were all treated. He should be leaving soon."

"He gets all the bad luck, so it doesn't surprise me."

"Kuroba-kun."

"Yeah?" I asked after a few seconds of the detective's silence.

"Conan-kun he… he's not normal is he?"

"I don't think any of us are normal," I laughed.

"That's not what I mean." Hakuba was silent. This time it stretched out so long that I wasn't sure if I was supposed to agree with him or not.

"Just because something seems impossible, doesn't mean that it is. I've seen that enough with you." He rested his hand on the arm rest and stared down at the floor. "The only difference is that I can find out how your tricks are done, I can find your props and vantage points and deception. His aren't as transparent."

"Magic isn't real Hakuba." I'd said the same thing to Nakamori once too.

"I know that." He stood up to take the place Aoko had on the edge of my bed so that he could see me better. "I'm as certain of that truth as I am the fact that the earth is round and that rain is wet. I'm also fairly certain of the fact that, somehow, Conan-kun and Kudo-kun are the same person."

Remaining silent in front of that accusation would have been a dead giveaway but I couldn't say anything on the contrary without lying to Hakuba, which I'd promised myself not to do. Kudo was going to kill me.

"What makes you so sure?"

Hakuba raised an eyebrow. "Besides the fact that, not only do Hattori-kun and I treat him as our equal, but so does the notorious thief who's so keen on keeping everyone out of his life and yet he calls this boy in the middle of the night for help?"

"Yeah, besides all that," I smiled.

"The rest of the pieces were obvious. The boy is too intelligent and too calm in the face of danger; as if he's seen it all before. He knows too much and has ties to too many that normal people wouldn't have. I don't know exactly what is going on with him but I'm certain that he is Kudo-kun." Hakuba shrugged partially with how much he could move of his arm. "The fact that Hattori-kun kept shouting his name helped solidify everything."

"Did you confront him?"

"Of course. I'm a very curious person." Hakuba laughed. "I asked if he was Kudo-kun and he ran to hide behind Ran-san."

"And you left it at that?" I asked. "You didn't go back up to him and demand an answer?"

"It's something that I once held with you. The ability to deny the truth, as obvious as it is, as long as I have no proof. I know what I know. I don't need him to admit to it."

"He never will." I had never gotten Kudo to admit to anything more than replying whenever I called his name. Again, he would be able to deny it by making some excuse or another. I'd pieced everything together the same way Hakuba had so I didn't have any proof either.

"I'm hungry!"

The detective jumped when I sat upright in a heartbeat and slammed my hands onto the bed.

"Damn it Kuroba! With how much we've been through, I'm not too fond of sudden movements at the moment."

"Sorry," I grinned. "I wasn't really trying to scare you. I'm hungry."

"Yes, I heard."

"I'll handle Kei-chan when I get out then. We'll have to talk to Conan-kun too, just to make sure… we're safe. In the meantime," I sighed. "I guess we'll both have to work on all those stupid class assignments that have been piling up this last week or so."

"That doesn't sound like fun to you? A nice, straightforward pastime sounds like heaven."

"Only you could find fun in homework."

"Kaito!" My mom drew back the curtain and I jumped, not hearing her open the door. She walked swiftly over to my bedside and sat down. Hakuba attempted to get up and out of the way but, as one hand hugged me, the other held the detective firmly in place. "I'm so happy you're awake."

"Well, I'd say 'me too' but I too tired," I laughed.

My mom messed up my hair and I felt as it started sticking back up like it should have been. Being asleep for so long had made bits and pieces lay flat while the rest tried to stay disobedient. It felt nice to have my hair back that way. Natural.

"So?" I asked Hakuba, now that the question had come to me. "How did you get the contacts out?"

I actually saw him blush. Mom laughed and messed up his hair just like she had mine. Hakuba had more if it though, and it looked like someone wacked him with a pillow a few times when she was done. He sheepishly straightened the sides out.

"I helped him with that." Mom's easy laugh made me smile. "So, how are you Kaito?"

"I'm fine, just hungry," I told her in a groan.

"Don't be such a baby, Kaito. If you think you're old enough to take on that many skilled killers then you shouldn't have any problem waiting to eat."

I narrowed my eyes at the detective and Hakuba looked down as the white bedding caught his attention.

"And how did you know what I was doing?" I asked mom. She looked between the two of us before shaking her head.

"My other son had to tell me because one of them was being stupid."

Both of us were taken aback by her wording and she laughed. "Hakuba-kun, I heard from Kaito that you're not living with your father. If you ever want to visit us, feel free. We can always use the extra company and you know how easily my son gets bored."

"Hey!" I complained. "How am I supposed to work with Hakuba over?"

"Oh!" Hakuba raised his head now. "I didn't tell you, did I? I don't plan on working with the police anymore. I'll assist division one but division two is all in Nakamori-keibu's hands now."

Hakuba was going to stop chasing me? That wouldn't be any fun.

But it meant I wouldn't have to hide from him anymore either. So many new tricks for the classroom came to me now that I wouldn't be implicated as Kid if I pulled them off.

"Kaito-kun stop smiling like that." Hakuba put a hand up to his mouth as he realized he called me by my first name. "Sorry! Your mother was just speaking and I – I apologize."

My mom and I started laughing at how flushed the detective was. It was funny. I never thought that Hakuba would make a mistake like that and I hadn't even caught it until a few seconds later.

"There's nothing to worry about," I batted my eyes. "I don't mind if you call me Kaito."

"Kuroba-kun if you tell anyone I did that I'm going to kill you."

We laughed again because he didn't get that I was joking with him. He turned his face away so we couldn't see how flushed he was.

"You're both crazy," Hakuba said. One of the truest facts out there about the Kuroba family – we were all crazy, to an extent at least.

"Well, mom just initiated you as one of our family so that makes you crazy too!" I laughed.

Hakuba had nothing to say back to that so we let ourselves calm down, me and my mom finished laughing and the detective got some of his composed detachment back.

"What did I miss?" Aoko asked, coming in the room with her dad. Mom wasn't fast enough to catch Hakuba before he ran away this time and he took a position against the wall in front of us.

"You seem lively. Good thing too or we'd have to pay that hotel an insane amount of money again for such a small room. Damn greedy pigs." Nakamori remained behind Aoko as they both came over. "It's good to see you awake. I haven't been around you while you were quiet since-" Nakamori paused as he thought. "You know, I don't think I've ever seen you quiet before now."

"And with good reason," I declared. "I bet being here was really boring while I was asleep. Now that I'm up, let's get out of here."

There was an outburst of 'oh, no you don't', 'not so fast;' and several other versions that came from each person in the room at once.

Everyone was silent for a moment before they started laughing.

"Okay, well you won't be getting out for at least four days. The doctors want you to stay until you're able to eat solid foods before they send you home," the Inspector informed me.

"Four days?" I moaned out loud. They expected me to sit in this bed for four days? "Give me food now, then! I'll eat it!" I waved my hands. "Then I can go home."

"Oh no Kaito! You're going to listen to the doctors!" Aoko shoved a container of juice into my hand. "You've got to drink first before you get food or you'll get sick!"

"Says who? They just say that so that so that they can keep you longer!" I opened the juice anyway. I was thirsty.

"Oh Kaito, by the way," my mom reached over to get something she had in a bag. "I'm only warning you once"

I spat out the little juice I had in my mouth, and backed up as fast as I could, being confined to the bed and having nowhere to go. The juice packet in my hand remained intact but my mind went out the window.

"Do not do anything like that again!" mom waved a realistic looking flounder in my face. I could see the plastic shine to it but damn if it didn't look like a real fish. Stuffed toys I could handle, most of the time, but why the hell did companies want to make their toys look so real? Who wants to play with something like that?

She rested it against my nose when I couldn't back further into the headrest. I could feel the sweat running down my face and I tried to lower my nose so it wouldn't touch me.

"Gotcha mom. Won't happen again."

"Good." She tapped me on the head with it and a shudder ran through my body before she put it back in the bag where its fishiness could do no harm.

"Why are you so afraid of fish?" The detective looked down at me. No one else in the room was surprised by the fact. I'd had the phobia ever since I was a child and Nakamori knew from past dinners. Aoko, thank whomever was looking out for me, hadn't learned of it until recently since I'd hidden it from her.

"How should I know? They're gross, so it's not like it's strange if I don't want to be near them," or their likeness, or their smell, or those deep pitiless eyes.

"Come to think of it, I didn't notice you were afraid of them until sometime after your fifth birthday." My mom drummed her leg as she thought. "I don't think you were scared of them before that. We used to go to the ocean all the time while your father traveled."

"It not like you can see the f-fish when you're swimming. Maybe I didn't realize I was afraid of them until you tried to feed me one," I suggested. My memory was good but it didn't go that far back.

Mom shook her head. "I think it was around the time when Yukiko-san and Sharon-san kept visiting us. I can't think of what would have scared you so much though."

"I don't want to think about it, Mom. You go remember on your own time. I'm firmly putting all thoughts of – those things – out of my mind!"

Neither of the names my mom mentioned to me sounded familiar anyway and if I'd been five, I wouldn't be able to recall them.

"Kuroba-kun you look tired. If you need to get more sleep we could leave."

Hakuba's voice stunned everyone for a moment since he'd been standing in the back and out of sight. I was almost to the point where I was so exhausted I was no longer tired but I knew if I closed my eyes I would be out in seconds.

I didn't try to hide the fact from everyone else in the room. I was tried and I did want them to let me sleep.

"Okay, Kaito. I'll be here when you wake up." My mom put a hand on my shoulder and got off the bed. Aoko smiled and waved to me as she followed my mom out of the room.

Nakamori stayed back and Hakuba took a hesitant step towards the door before stopping and remaining in the room with us.

"Kaito-kun." The Inspector looked to the side as he thought, before looking back to meet my eyes. "I've been hustled around as it is and kept in the dark about everything that happened, but I'd like to know what you could tell me. The only thing I know it I get this mysterious phone call from the Kid and the next thing I know I find you bleeding in my arms. If we-" he huffed out a breath "If I had gotten there sooner, went in, I could have made a difference. Both your and Hakuba-kun's wounds were fresh. Why the hell did I listen to him and stay outside?" The Inspector clenched his fists together so hard he could have bent steel.

"You would have only made things worse. You did the right thing." I made sure he was looking at me to see I was telling the truth. "I can't tell you why, but being there, outside, was the best thing you could have done."

"So if I had sent my men in you would have still been hurt?" I heard the doubt in her voice just under the anger.

"No, we wouldn't have been hurt," I said steadily, "We would have been killed. As you, or any of your men, would have as well."

"Killed? Why would someone want to kill a bunch of kids?"

I shook my head and smiled. "I can't tell you."

"Well-" he scratched the back of his neck. "As long as I know it would have been a bad thing to go in. I was starting to think –" Nakamori shook his head. "Nothing. Get some sleep."

"Thank you," I called to him as he pushed the curtain aside. Even if I hadn't given him the answers he wanted, the man had still stayed here, must have risked a pay cut at the very least, to make sure I was all right.

"Any time, Kaito-kun. Just make sure that next time you don't scare Aoko so badly."

Then he was gone and I was left feeling strangely happy. He wasn't my dad but he didn't seem to mind taking up the role when he needed to.

"I didn't envision the two of you being so close," Hakuba told me as he walked beside my bed.

"I knew Nakamori-keibu's before I knew Kaitou Kid, or at least before I was aware of him. He's a good guy."

"Yes, he is."

"Are you sure you're not going to chase me anymore?" I asked him.

"Maybe just for the fun of it but nothing serious." He smirked, "I still do like a challenge and there are some of your tricks that I haven't quite figured out yet."

"As if you'll be able to," I snorted. "I'm so good you'll never see me coming."

"I hope that I'm not the only one you'll remain invisible to. Kaitou Kid had made a lot of very deadly enemies now." The somber change in conversation made me remember everything that had happened. I hadn't even been able to get justice for those who had killed Kane. In fact, I'd let one of them off scot-free, on purpose.

That would be bothering me for a while but I would have done it over and over if given the chance. That woman was cold-blooded but there was fragility there, a fear that was almost completely hidden away. I'd only caught a glace of it, but not enough to tell what her intentions were.

"I've got so much to do when I get out!" I moaned and closed my eyes.

"Then get some sleep, you'll need it."

There are (technically) only two chapters left! Thanks to everyone for reading!