A problem, he said. Kaito didn't quite know how to react to the straight forward, yet completely uninformative statement. He waited for the detective to elaborate, head tilted slightly, eyebrows raised, expectant. A problem could be any number of things, ranging in intensity from a bad grade on a test to Ran being in the hospital. Considering Shinichi even came home, Kaito didn't think it was the latter, yet the detective was far too serious to be speaking about something trivial.
Upon seeing Kaito's inquisitive expression the detective sighed, pulling off the towel and tossing it on the empty sofa. It landed in a heap, quivering when the detective plopped down next to it, "I don't know if it's the same people…but I was tailed from the school."
The amused curiosity dried up almost immediately, Kaito's face settling into a neutral disposition as he thought over the implications of the statement. While it was likely that the tail was Aoko or one of his other school friends—or god forbid Hakuba—he doubted the boy would be so serious about that. In the end it only left with two options. He clutched a little tighter to the binder still tucked under his shoulder, rubbing his thumb against the slightly sharp plastic edge. There was only one person who would be looking for him, and who would be dressed in a way that would cause such alarm to the detective. As far as Kaito knew his would-be assassins still believed him to be dead, which only left Snake.
But Snake wouldn't be sniffing around Kuroba Kaito. Not unless…
His blood ran cold.
What did I do to give it away?
While his mind worked to go over everything that he could have ever done to jeopardize his secret he remained his outwardly calm appearance. He noticed Shinichi watching too closely, probably because of his continued silence. As a diversion he asked, "Did you lose them?"
An incredulous look, morphing into an affronted scoff—mission accomplished, "Of course. I wouldn't have come home if I didn't."
"I'm just making sure!" Kaito responded, using a laugh to keep up his charade. He couldn't afford to warn Shinichi about Snake until he had some time to come up with an excuse. A believable excuse. Sure he trusted the detective, but Kaito knew him well enough to know that his law-abiding mindset would not hesitate to turn the thief in if he found out. Friends or not, Shinichi had a rather clear cut view of the law.
Even though he understood all that, he couldn't help the faint hurt that began to well up inside him at the thought that he couldn't trust the detective. It was the same situation as with Aoko, although on a different level. He had known Aoko longer, that was true, but Shinichi was the one who he'd grown close to since it happened, the one that allowed him to keep his identity since the entire world saw him as a child.
"Think they were the MiB?"
Shinichi shook his head, "I'm not certain. The dress-style was similar, but the body-type was all wrong." The detective paused, leveling Kaito a thoughtful look, "Is there anyone else who would be looking for you?"
Kaito grimaced, Shinichi had noticed his silence earlier, it was either that or he'd given his unease away on his face. He wouldn't be able to divert the topic again—once the detective sunk his teeth into something, he would never let it go. Let it lie, perhaps, but never gone. Maybe he could edit the truth, "…maybe."
Inwardly he grimaced, running through possible scenarios in his mind. It all ran down to a single statement, what could he tell without compromising himself? "Years ago…" Kaito began, outlining the rest of his story in his mind before continuing, "my father ran afoul a jewel thief. I don't know the details, but he's kept a grudge even after my father's death. I'm not sure if it was him following you, but I figured better warned and wary than ignorant."
The boy glanced down at the binders, still tucked securely under one arm. Shinichi followed his gaze, eyebrow drifting upwards—a questioning motion in an otherwise focused face. Kaito knew that face, the detective was in his element now, questioning, examining, taking the givin facts in an attempt to draw a viable conclusion. The thief sighed and slid one of the binders on to the coffee table, pushing it across the polished wood toward the detective, "I found this in your father's library. There's a file on Snake in there."
Kaito turned around, having said as much as he dared, not wanting to rouse the tiger behind Shinichi's eyes any more than he already had. The faint sound of plastic rubbing against wood told him that the detective had taken the file, and the sound of pages flipping followed him almost to the door.
"Kaito."
The voice stopped him a few steps from the hallway, gleaning a slightly curious 'yes?' in response.
"Why didn't you tell me sooner?"
His back still turned, Kaito suppressed a grimace. He knew the question had been coming, but he wasn't looking forward to it. He kept his voice even, adding in a bit of casual dismissal to the tone, "I just never thought of it. The guy was more of a nuisance than anything."
It wasn't until he was alone, with a flight of stairs, the floor, and several walls between him and the detective that Kaito allowed himself to worry, gazing out into the darkness that night had cast upon his room. He sat cross-legged on his bed, ignoring the view that the window offered, deliberately ignoring the image of the moon that danced out in the blackened sky. Instead he watched the shadows play across the wall, thrown through the window by the soft illumination the heavenly body offered.
"How…"
It was more of a whisper than a word, a spoken thought. He could not understand what he had done to give away Kuroba Kaito to Snake. It seemed almost impossible that the obsessive thief had finally gotten over his delusion—after it lasting for months Kaito had decided it would never fade away. Not unless hit by something obvious. An obvious mistake on Kid's part.
A mistake he could not remember making.
His thoughts deviated from the reason, traveling the down the path of what ifs to the future. Just what would this development mean for him? For the detective? For his family?
"Mom…" The stray thought hit him like a ton of bricks. No matter who was looking for him—Snake, the MiB, or someone else—there was one place they'd look when all else failed.
True fear welled up inside the former thief, not for himself, but for his mother. He never worried about the enemies' Kid gathered, because he knew that they could not connect Kid the thief to the people he loved. That didn't seem the case anymore. If Snake knew…if Snake realized…
He let out a soft groan of frustration and fell backwards, arms sprawling out on the mattress as he stared up at the dull ceiling. If they knew…his mother, and even Aoko could possibly become targets. It depended on how badly the pursuers wanted to find Kaito. There wouldn't be an easier way to draw him out of hiding than to threaten to hurt those that he loved.
"I'll talk to Mom." Kaito muttered to himself, rolling over on his side to see the shadows again, still dancing in sync to the windblown leaves outside, "Don't worry Dad…I'll try my best to keep her safe."
-
He stood in front of the gates; his bag slung over his shoulder and baseball cap turned half-around on his head, looking out over the large lawn and at the house that stood like a sentinel at the end of the long driveway. Chocolate brown eyes flicked away from the sight, lingering on the metal nameplate next to the mail-slot.
"Kudou, huh?" He rolled the name around, testing it in his distinctive dialect. A small grin found its place, holding barely contained anticipation upon the dark face, "Looks like I've found the right place."
The gate was ajar, recently opened to admit someone or other, so the visitor found no qualms in pushing it open far enough for him to pass through comfortably. He closed it thoughtfully behind him, sauntering down the path and taking in the surrounding landscape. For the most part it was pretty well maintained—something that seemed slightly odd for a person of Kudou's profile. With the amount of cases that he'd reportedly solved, along with school-work he should not have to time to regularly upkeep such a large lawn. Of course, having a gardener would throw his entire deduction out the window, but it just wouldn't mesh with what he'd heard and learned about the high school detective.
Pondering the state of the grounds proved a mild distraction, sufficient to keep him entertained until he reached the front door. As with the gate, the youth found the door ajar once more, dark eyebrows shooting up into the similarly shaded bangs as he took in the development. It was very, very odd. Out of place. A detective, one well acquainted with the nuances of burglary and plunder knew better than to just leave both the gate and the door open for any to enter. Leaving it unlocked was acceptable, especially when someone was home—but leaving them both open was just foolishness. It wasn't just opened slightly either, but wide, more than wide enough to admit his tall, but well-built frame without even brushing the edge of the frame.
Taking the obvious invitation, the visitor stepped inside, moving as quietly as he could. A manic grin managed to slip onto his face in anticipation, he was about to meet the person he considered his greatest rival in his trade. In the dim foyer, only lit by the sunlight streaming in through the open door, he could hear voices wafting from one of the adjoining rooms.
The source was easily identified by the artificial yellow light, shining faintly through the space between the bottom of the door and the floor. The occupied room wasn't that far in, and the visitor's ingrained sense of curiosity pushed him even closer in order to hear what was being said. He soon recognized one of the voiceprints—he had heard Kudou Shinichi interviewed countless of times—but the other was completely unfamiliar. "It's too soon." He managed to make out, halting his forward momentum once he could easily make out the words through the door, "If you go today—it's just too soon! They'll notice!"
Kudou's voice. From the sounds of it he was quite rattled over something. A recent event probably, or maybe even a development in a major case the other detective had been working on. He couldn't recall hearing that Kudou was working on anything major, but the general rule of thumb was to keep such cases as under wraps as possible.
"She's my mother Kudou. I need to let her know." The response was quieter, far more controlled than Kudou's voice.
"If they follow you back? If they figure it out? What then?"
"They won't." The confidence and determination was obvious even without seeing the speaker's expression, or his body language (He supposed it was male, sounded closer to male than female at any rate). Having heard enough, and sensing that the argument would wind down soon, the as of yet unnoticed visitor scampered back to the entrance. He didn't need to be accused of snooping before he was able to introduce himself.
It didn't take more than a few minutes for his prediction to come true, the door he'd been hovering by was pulled open and one of the two figures stepped into the foyer. Dark eyebrows vanished into his hairline as he took in the origin of the second voice (he knew Kudou well enough via news articles and TV reports, and this shrimp was not the high school detective.) clearly his image of the confident client clearly not meshing with what his eyes were showing him.
The kid was half-turned, halfway through responding to something Kudou had said when he spotted the waiting dark-skinned, dark haired visitor leaning against the open door frame. Something in his eyes flashed, something akin to wariness, as his words abruptly shifted, speech patterns completely changing as he cut off whatever he had been saying, "Shin-niichan! There's someone at the door for you!"
"Kai—what?" The tall, lean form of the high school detective soon followed, the teenager's height putting him on par with the visitor, maybe even slightly taller (although he wouldn't admit it outside of his brain). Eyes narrowed upon alighting on the dark-figure, the anticipatory grin doing nothing to reassure him, "I recognize you."
"Hattori Heiji." The Osaka dialect rang clear and true in his voice as the dark visitor introduced himself, drawing himself up to his full height and locking gazes with Shinichi, "I'm here to challenge you, Kudou. West versus East."
The two stared at each other, leaving the boy to look uncomfortably between the two. Kudou's eyes shifted away, looking over to the kid before nodding slightly at his questioning look. Heiji frowned, confused before the other detective returned his attention to him, "I refuse. I'm in the middle of another case."
Heiji wasn't the only one dumbfounded by the famously competitive Kudou Shinichi turning down a challenge. The kid's jaw nearly dropped, his eyes widening in surprise. Kudou just shook his head when Heiji nearly demanded he reconsider, or let them use his current case as the challenge.
"This is important Hattori. Another time." He grabbed the boy's hand, "Come on Kai, lets get going."
Heiji grumbled a bit more as the detective ushered him out of the house, standing on the sidewalk as the two headed down to the bus stop. He ran through all that he'd seen and heard, his deductive reasoning running on full speed as he thought back over the entire conversation he'd overheard, along with the resulting aftermath. In the end he couldn't see anything else besides what Kudou had told him—it seemed to be some sort of case, and it involved the kid—Kai he said.
But…something didn't sit right with him. Something about the kid bothered him. The mannerisms that did not match a child that he'd heard through the door, along with the sudden, noticeable shift to unmistakably childish. It reminded him of something, no, of someone.
An idea popped into his head, the proverbial light bulb going on in the attic as hr whipped out his phone. He went into his speed-dial and selected a number, placing the speaker to his ear and waited for it to pick-up.. He didn't wait for the customary "hello" to greet him, or the growled "what do you want" as was more likely the case, instead he popped the question as soon as the line connected.
"What are the chances of there being more like you out there?"
"One out of everyone in the country." An annoyed female voice threw back, "You woke me up to ask that?"
"Ma, ma, calm down" Heiji scratched the back of his head, even though he knew she wasn't here to see it. "I think…I found something you should know about. Can you call Kazuha and tell her I asked if you guys could come up for a few days?"
"Call her yourself."
"Can't, my cute little Ai-chan, I have some research to do."
A/N: Don't kill me…or my fickle muse. While it is the muse's fault, I'm rather attached to the rare bouts of true inspiration I get from it.
I know I promised someone I'd get Ai in there…and I did :D If anyone's confused as to why and they are impatient…review and tell me and I'll explain in the reply. Otherwise…be patient and I'll reveal the answer…hopefully. No idea where the plot'll shift again .-.
Anyways…hope you all liked and can find it in your hearts not to give up on meh and my erratic updating-ness. Leave a comment telling me what you think, or what I can do better(except regular updating…I don't think that'll ever happen). Caio!
R&R please!