~CHAPTER START~

Kuroba almost felt bad abandoning little Hakuba-kun at the not-so random street bench. The poor guy was probably panicking to death right about now, trying to figure out what sublimal message the clear-as-daylight note had said. He snickered evilly at the thought.

At the moment, he was at home, at his desk, pencil in hand, paper in front of him. No, he wasn't doing homework, duh, he'd finished that hours ago. Nor was he planning his latest heist, though the blueprints hiding nearby were just about calling his name.

He was planning, no doubt about that. It was mostly precautions—

Of course the Organization would suspect something if their cameras were forever frozen on a still body. They'd probably expect the police to come by sometime. Or at least someone. There had to be somebody to find the body. He'd have to find an excuse.

Of course Hakuba had no social life whatsoever to speak of—what kind of person came by the tantei's house out of the blue? Okay, so there was that one person. He deflated in frustration. When it came down to it, he was likely the solitary human being who would willingly, even if just to prank/bother/annoy/pester the other teenager. And, he was sure, the majority of people who saw a dead body would call the police. So, put it all together, and, in order to not look suscpiscious, he would have to…first enable the cameras…then leave without being seen by said cameras…then enter again as Kuroba…then find Hakuba's dead body…and contact the police.

One kink in his evil plot: There was no such dead body. Hakuba was, by now, hopefully in the hands of the only other detective that he trusted. And no dummy he could ever pull off would last very long in the hands of a full on investigation. He ran a hand through his hair. This would take a while.

Conan hadn't been entirely sure what to do about Hakuba appearing at his (*cough* Mouri's) front door. Of course he'd recognized the blonde—given the scarce number living in Japan. And, thank goodness, Mouri-san had been completely and utterly drunk, and Ran was doing her homework. He'd quickly ushered Hakuba back out the door and to his own home, thinking some fairly colorful words throughout.

If Hakuba managed to get on the Black Org's hitlist, Conan—Shinichi—mused, and knowing a little about Hakuba's associations, he's there either for simply being a decent detective or having something to do with Kaitou KID. He tried to imagine how chasing a phantom thief could possible get someone on a list of Most Threatening for a huge, powerful crime syndicate, but by the time Agasa's house (and his) was in view, he still hadn't come up with anything.

Sometime along the way, some hunch simply told him not to tell Hakuba. He'd only willingly told someone his secret once—and that was when he'd only first shrunk and was scared to death. Everyone else who knew his secret had figured it out for themselves, in a matter of speaking. Ai had seemingly known from the start. Heiji really did figure it out. His parents…well, they tended to be an exception to everything. Agasa had told them.

It wasn't that he didn't want Hakuba to know, he simply had a…reluctance to say it outright. Call it paranoia.

If he had been totally against it, he probably wouldn't have shown him into his own home.

After Hakuba decided on his pseudonym, Conan thought for a little and looked at the other meitantei-turned-little-kid. "You know, you stick out like a sore thumb. You'll need some sort of disguise."

"Quite obviously," he agreed, fingering a lock of his blonde hair.

"We should dye it," suggested Conan, with next to no hesitation.

He could practically see Hakuba weighing the options, obviously having a preference to leave his hair color as is.

And, hardly seconds into this specific train of thought, a certain brown-haired little girl invited herself into the house. "Edogawa-kun, you left the gate open," she informed him, in a voice that clearly said that wasn't why she came. Her eyes flashed to the other guest and she promptly introduced herself, before walking (in a walk that seemed quite aggravated) to Conan and whispering to Conan.

"Kudo-kun, what's this about?" Her expression (even if appearing very blank), her voice, everything said that this wasn't exactly a first.

"Psssh! Later Haibara!" He quickly turned back to Akechi.

He coughed. "Well, yeah, this is Haibara-san, and she's the creator of the drug that shrank you." He could practically feel her evil glare latching itself onto his head the moment he said it. Well, Haibara-san, you'll just have to live with it for a little. After all, if he's a victim, then chances are he's not going to leak to them, right? He hoped.

And between that and Hakuba's suspiscious, questioning glance, he thought he could just crumble. What. An. Awkward. Situation. He coughed again. "Well, Haibara here is my source on the Organization. And why I…was…"

He could tell Haibara was glaring again. Geez, it hasn't helped the situation at all…

"…I was aware that people could shrink!" he concluded, chuckling nervously and completely evading the fact that he himself shrank long before he'd even met Haibara. He hoped the scientist would play along. Kami, how do I get myself into these situations…?

He probably sounded a lot like the little kid he was pretending to be. Was that a good thing…? He mentally shrugged.

This scenario, he felt, left him quite clueless. Had any normal person come up to him and asked if he was Kudo or even suspected him, he would have immediately dropped into oh-goodness-I-gotta-find-some-way-to-get-out-of-this mode. It was…his default. He'd even avoided Haibara at first, but she really knew everything. And Hattori eventually figured it out and blackmailed him into telling.

And now here was Hakuba, completely clueless, but easily not in Shinichi's dictionary definition of "normal people." Gah, after running his head in circles, he'd finally gone back to default.

Hakuba wasn't quite sure how to react. Or, rather, what his reaction was. He was definitely stunned, perhaps a little angry—after all, wasn't the cause of his problem standing right in front of him? But then again, the other detective was standing there, clearly having a great deal of trust in the girl. Wait—girl?

"So how old is she?" he reasoned. He couldn't fathom a little girl creating a poison that could de-age people, albeit painfully. Thus, he deduced, she too was not the age she appeared.

Conan sighed in relief—mentally, that is—Hakuba had bought his little story. And Haibara was still silent.

Hakuba, completely unaware of the silent war raging under actual conversation, looked at this Haibara for the answer to his question.

"Eighteen." Her answer was clear and simple. Conan was amused—had Ai really answered with her actual age the first time—when she'd told him, she'd joked around.

Hakuba shook his head. It was still pretty hard to believe that someone that young could create something like that…

"I was part of said organization. I created the poison, though that wasn't its original intention, and they started using it as an untraceable, lethal poison. They then decided to kill my sister, who was also a part of the org and was at the time trying to buy my freedom. They kill her, then imprison me. I took one of the pills as an attempt at suicide, but instead I shrank and escaped." Conan's eyes bugged. Not only had Haibara remembered to leave out Kudo Shinichi entirely, but she'd just told her entire story.

They'd already come this far, so he decided to play along. "We've been trying to uncover the organization for months now. But it's a little hard; she has to hide her identity and I'm still only seven." This is…embarassing… "So to everyone else, we're just little kids, no matter what we do." Hopefully Hakuba would simply accept this too…

Hakuba nodded. "Makes sense." It was logical enough…then again, de-aging ten years defied pretty much all logic…

Just then, Conan's cellphone started ringing, startling all three "children." He quickly pulled it out of his pocket. "Ran," he muttered, before flipping it open. "Moshi-moshi?"

"CONAN-KUN!" The other two could hear the high-pitched whining from the phone.

"H-hai, Ran-neechan?"

"I told you to be home by dinner! Have you checked the time?!"

"Eh?"

"IT'S NEARLY EIGHT!! Dinner'll be cold if you don't come home quickly!"

Conan nodded, forgetting that Ran couldn't see. "I'll be home in a bit, Ran-neechan!" He hung up.

"Hakuba-kun," Conan started. It felt so good to call someone –kun that was actually his own age to begin with... "You can stay here for the night at least. Okiya-san's out of town for the week, and he's the only one living here. There's probably some food in the fridge. You can talk to Agasa-hakase if you need anything. I'll call him to let him know." He gestured upstairs. "Nobody's here for now, so all the bedrooms are available."

Kudo Shinichi isn't here? And he won't mind? thought Hakuba absentmindedly, before reminding himself that Kudo Shinichi was currently missing. Conan seemed to be caretaker of the house or something along those lines.

Haibara simply turned and left, quietly. It was almost eerie, seeing that calm coolness in a little girl. It was easy to forget that she, too, was a teenager. Eyes can be decieving.

And Conan, too, started to walk out the door. "Well, Ha—Hirai-kun, I better get going. Ran-neechan's a karate expert! I don't wanna be late," he said in his little kid voice. He closed the door behind him, leaving Hirai Akechi surrounded by nothing but books.

~CHAPTER END~

AN://

Okay, so looking around (on Wikipedia), I realized that Akechi is actually the family name, not the first name. Oh well, we'll just pretend that it's suitable for a first name. I'm not Japanese nor do I have any knowledge of the language (except some of the honorifics and various words picked up from anime. XD)

Thanks for all the reviews, guys, it's really, really encouraging. :3 I know I've already replied to a few….but I can't remembe which, so I'll just reply to a few here. Bleh.

BakaAkki—XD Yes, Conan is very good. And Hakuba's too stunned to say anything.

Sunny Lighter—Thanks a lot. I've been trying to figure it out…half the pictures he's in have him with blue eyes or turquoise or even red. And I was a bit too lazy to check the actual anime for the episodes he's in.

And to those who were saying update soon…well, I'll be typing. :3

Disclaimer://

I don't own Detective Conan, Magic Kaito, or…well…anything. I do own this computer I'm typing on though. Wait—technically this is my hand-me-down from my older brother. And Dad probably paid for it anyways. I suppose I don't own all this then either.