Don't own Detective Conan or Magic Kaito
New Motivations
Kaito hoped his smile wasn't as dazed as he suspected it was as he looked down at the picture for the twentieth time in five minutes. Snake tied up.
Captured.
Arrested.
Gone.
Kaito felt like he was on top of the world, and it was no surprise to him that it was his favorite detective who had garnered such a reaction.
When Kudo had missed his heist, Kaito could admit that he'd felt…slighted wasn't the right word. Maybe stood up. The Kid heists were the only way they could meet with any consistency these days, what with Kudo no longer living with the Mouri family and not being a grade-schooler, so to have him miss one of their dates – shut up that's not what those are , a part of him hissed – had hurt.
When he'd gone to confront the detective, he hadn't expected him to already be asleep, but he would admit he had been slightly mollified when Kudo had literally startled out of bed in response to his windows blasting open.
And then, of course, he found out that his detective had caught Snake, and with Snake captured every pillar of the Organization had been destroyed, and the fallout would likely quash any attempt to rebuild.
He could now look for Pandora in peace, and the thought had Kaito smiling at his phone again. He'd saved the photos onto his phone the moment he could and deleted Kudo's email and contact information from his account to prevent any nosy blonds from asking too many questions.
Speaking of which…
"What has you smiling so much? Pleased your heist went so well?"
Kaito looked up to see Hakuba watching him warily and tried to affect a bored appearance, finger swiping his phone screen subtly to switch to the code Kudo had also taken a picture of. "I have no idea what you're talking about. I was just thinking about what I plan to do as my morning prank tomorrow."
Someone next to them shivered at the thought but they both ignored him to lock glares. "What do you have on your phone?" Hakuba asked, and Kaito flashed him a fake smile and waved the screen at him, fast enough that he could only make out a piece of paper in the picture.
"Someone sent me a riddle, it's fun to look at all of the implications on it." Hakuba's eyes narrowed on the photo and Kaito felt a surge of – something. Annoyance, maybe.
"Why is it so dark in the photo?"
"He's a bit of a night bird, likes to wander." Kaito would find out, months later, just how much of an understatement that one sentence had been. For the time being, he glowered at Hakuba a little longer before turning off his phone and stowing it away. He couldn't afford to look at the picture of Snake with the nuisance watching him so closely.
The rest of the day passed Kaito in a rush and when he got home he entered the Kid Cave and stared blankly at the suit. His father had been avenged. Pandora was still out there, and Kaito wouldn't rest until the gem was in his hands and destroyed, but now he didn't have to worry about death being around every corner, about a sniper taking him out as he's checking a gem in the moonlight.
It was a strange, freeing realization.
That night he emailed his mom the pictures as well, and they talked for hours about everything. She had cried for most of it, but he knew the feeling. He'd cried on his detective when he'd realized what it all meant as well.
He blushed faintly at the memory of Kudo holding him when he'd hugged the other man and then, when Kaito had calmed enough to be led to Kudo's bed, rubbing a thumb along his cheek and tugging his hair just hard enough to register as a distant, pleasant pressure.
After the roller coaster of emotions that had taken place, watching his detective pace around the room and check on his own items while he thought Kaito was still emailing those pictures to himself had been relaxing. It'd been clear that he had still been a bit blurry from waking up so abruptly, but Kudo hadn't complained about it as he rifled through a bag and contemplated the suspenders he'd found there with a cute – distracting – frown.
He shook the memory away and started planning his next heist. Now that the Organization was gone, there shouldn't be anything to distract his favorite detective from their chase.
It took him a few days to realize that he hadn't sent his surveillance doves back the Kudo manor yet. He kind…skipped over the night he went to talk to his detective. It was too emotional for him to bring up without having to make sure his Poker Face was firmly in place the entire time. He thought about sending them back before dismissing the thought. He would get too distracted if he sent them over there.
The weeks leading up to the next heist were a whirlwind of planning, preparation, and watching Inspector Nakamori grind his teeth nearly to dust. Hakuba was keeping a wary eye on him but Kaito found he couldn't care less.
He wondered if Kudo was as excited for the next heist as he was.
Shinichi was wondering how his life had led to this moment.
"Kudo, you're the replacement for Schmidt, yes?" The conductor looked at him with a calm wariness that would have been more fitting on a police inspector than the conductor of an orchestra, but Shinichi just lowered his head a touch and nodded.
"Yes sir," he answered, and for a second he wondered how the hell Lupin and his group had set this up. He showed the man the violin he'd bought a few days ago and let him inspect it as he wished. "I couldn't bring my instrument from home but acquired a new one recently and practiced to become familiar with its quirks."
The man hummed critically but relaxed a hair, and Shinichi did the same; it was clear the man could see he was being honest and his admittance to his practice ethics had been a point in his favor. "Well, here's hoping you don't ruin tonight's performance, or no pay will be the least of your worries if you ever plan to pursue a career in Europe."
Shinichi swallowed a little at the threat, playing his part, and gave a quiet, "yes sir."
As the man nodded and motioned him to the other musicians, Shinichi saw Lupin give him a thumbs up and signal the rest of the group. Hopefully they'll get one of the jewels on display tonight without much issue.
Shinichi looked out of one of the windows and took in the way the garden was softly highlight by the setting sun, and frowned at the dissatisfaction he felt turning in his stomach.
He hoped Kid was having fun.
Linebreak
Kudo missed another one of his heists.
Kaito breathed out a little to try and stifle his irritation. As with what usually happened whenever his detective didn't attend a heist, he had the jewel in hand and had gotten away with little issue.
Maybe Kudo had been detained again? Kaito really hoped not; the last time, while incredibly rewarding in the end, was terrifying to think about in hindsight. Kaito didn't know how many people had been there when Kudo encountered the member of the Organization, but knowing his detective he probably hadn't had a lot of people helping him with it.
He pulled the same maneuver he had last month, landing on his window sill and blasting the window open. But he didn't hear his detective respond at all; he didn't roll out of the bed, sit up, shout, anything in response. Before Kaito could do more than hop off of the window sill and into the room there was a pounding of footsteps going up to the door, which slammed open just after.
It was the other man who lived in the house, Akai, looking around frantically before locking eyes onto Kaito and stopping short. "Kid-san," he greeted warily.
Kaito didn't say anything back only dipping his head for a moment. After a beat of silence as they sized each other up, Kaito lifted his arms to gesture at the bed. "Where's Meitantei? He wasn't at my heist tonight, and I'm feeling rather insulted."
The freeloader leaned against the doorway and there was an exhaustion in the move that surprised Kaito. "I was rather hoping you could tell me," he said. "Kudo-kun has been missing for a few weeks."
And suddenly his detective missing from his heist was the least of his concerns.
The professor, little miss, and Kudo's best friend were both downstairs when he and the freeloader went there, the little miss hunched up in a recliner with one of Kudo's jackets around her shoulders while Hattori paced a hole into the ground. While she didn't look as panicky as she might have were there any remaining Organization members on the loose, she looked like she was barely able to remain relaxed as she typed on the computer.
The Osakan detective on the other hand looked like he hadn't been sleeping. There were deep shadows under his eyes and stress lines were creasing his forehead. His jaw looked clenched. Both of their heads snapped up when the freeloader entered the room.
"It was Kid," he told them and Kaito followed him in. He couldn't stop looking around, taking in the library. His dove spies had revealed before that this was the room in the house Kudo most frequented, and it showed in little ways, like the blankets draped over the back of almost all of the furniture and the scattering of books around the room.
The little miss' shoulders dropped for a second before she regained her composure. "Kid-san," she greeted.
The detective didn't say anything, just grunted something and returned to his pacing.
"How long has he been gone?" Kaito asked, done playing these formality games.
Fortunately the little miss appeared to be of a similar mind. "We aren't sure," she admitted, before turning to type on the laptop balanced on her legs. "He wasn't present when the professor and I came home. I'm trying to get in contact with his parents now. It's possible he told them of his plans."
"I was called a week after they couldn't find Kudo," the detective admitted, and Kaito grimaced at the envy he felt for a heartbeat. He wished there was a simple way for them to have contacted him, he could have helped them look for his detective. "It doesn't help that the idiot apparently left his phone," he then added, holding up a familiar device, and Kaito shot it a mild frown, trying to convey all of the anxiety growing in him toward it.
The little miss continued with her typing and Kaito rocked on his heels for a minute before moving to look at the books that had been scattered on the desk and tables, ignoring the wary way the Osakan eyed him. The Sign of Four was in what looked to be a place of honor, on the side table of the chair Kudo frequented the most, but on other tables was Poe, Christie, Allingham, Sayers, Crofts; it was a crime novelist's dream room, Kaito was sure.
His thoughts were interrupted as he heard a female voice resound from the laptop. "Shin-chan? Oh, Ai-chan! How have you been?"
"…Not well, Kudo-san," the little miss admitted, and Kudo's mom seemed to finally notice the jacket around her shoulders.
"Ai-chan, what's going on?"
"Have you heard from Kudo-kun?" she asked, and there was a pause from the other side of the computer. Kaito crept forward, curious about the hesitation.
"Not explicitly, no. Did something happen?"
The little miss curled up more into Kudo's jacket. "Kudo-kun is gone. We haven't seen him in weeks. We were hoping…" her eyes flicked over to Kaito for a second. "We were hoping that it was Kaitou Kid related and he would return after the heist, but Kid-san appeared tonight because Kudo-kun hadn't attended."
"I see." There was a thoughtful pause on the other end of the call. "Yu-chan, can you check the account?"
Kaito crept closer and could finally see Kudo's parents on the screen, his mom frowning slightly as his dad got another laptop out and started to type on it. "He's withdrawn from it," Kudo's dad confirmed, and his mom sighed.
"Ai-chan, I'm sorry Shin-chan has worried you so badly, he likely didn't know how to properly say goodbye."
"He left?" The question sounded hurt, and it took Kaito a second to realize that he had been the one to ask.
Kudo's mom looked surprised as she took him in, his dad's eyes narrowed and analytical as he too stared at him. "Yes, I'm afraid Shin-chan left some time ago. He flew to…" she trailed off and peeked at the other laptop, "Greece four weeks ago."
The little miss looked ill. "He must have left right after Agasa-hakase and I went camping with the Detective Boys."
The freeloader grimaced, hinting that he too had left around that time.
"Damn it, I should have called him more!" Hattori growled, and Kaito turned to see the teen's hands clenched into fists and shaking. "Every time I called him he said everything was fine! And with the way Kazuha was railing at me for siding with Kudo all the time I thought Kudo could hear her over the phone and it was just making him feel worse! I…" His shoulders slumped.
But Kaito couldn't bring himself to care, not right then, not about that. "Why would he leave?" He demanded, and Kudo's parents exchanged a glance.
"Shin-chan has wanted to leave Japan for years," Kudo's mom said gently. She held up her hand when Kaito moved to ask her more questions. "He traveled with us for years before we settled in Japan. When he was twelve we were all getting tired of Japan, and when he turned fourteen we offered to take him with us when we left."
She looked resigned. "He'd gotten attached to Ran-chan, and she wasn't in the best state at the time and really needed Shinichi to be there for her, so he stayed. Someone – something – in Japan has needed him this entire time, and that was enough for him to stay."
"'I decided years ago that I'd be gone the moment I wasn't needed anymore'," Kaito said, mimicking Kudo's voice as he repeated the words that had almost stopped his heart months ago. He remembers seeing Kudo on that roof, on top of the world and all the lonelier for it. He remembered telling Kudo that he would never leave then, not if Kaito could help it he'd added silently, and having to look away so that Kudo wouldn't see his Poker Face break just enough for a blush to rise on his cheeks.
He still wasn't quite sure why he'd said it that way.
"Yes, that sounds like Shin-chan," Kudo's mom confirmed. "Whatever has been keeping him there must have finally been resolved."
"He caught the last member of the Organization that has been a thorn in my and Meitantei's side," he offered, but the little miss surprised him when she shook her head.
"We didn't know he was in the area when Kudo-kun apprehended him. We were…" she looked uncertain all of a sudden. "We were attending your heist, Kid-san. He had gone to speak with Nakamori-keibu and came back instead of finding a defensive position near the gem. He hadn't looked good. After that I sensed the Organization member and alerted him."
Kaito hid his tension behind his Poker Face as his brain whirled. His detective had gone to the heist? Why hadn't he said anything? He'd spoken with the inspector before the heist and came back to the little miss. Had the man turned Kudo away? Why would he do that? Nakamori was at his most successful whenever the detective attended his heists. Was that what Shinichi had meant when he said he'd been detained?
Kaito didn't know, but he intended to find out.
Thanks for reading and please review.
