Don't own Detective Conan or Magic Kaito

Doves in Flight


Waiting for the next heist he'd scheduled turned out to be quite the challenge for Kaito. It also didn't help that a part of him now just wanted to punch Hakuba in the face every time he saw him – well, more than usual.

So Kaito spent a lot of time out of Ekoda, investigating Kudo's travels through the country.

And if he'd had any doubts about his detective actually running around doing random things throughout the country, they were assuaged immediately.

It started with him going to Tropical Land, the ticket person there glancing at him before doing a double take and brightening a little. "Shinichi!" They yelled, waving him over to their closed window, which they opened with a flick of the wrist. "We haven't seen you in a while! Here to work or play?"

Kaito looked at the teen's smile, thought about telling them the truth, and decided to hold off. "I've been working a bit too much recently," he admitted sheepishly, falling into his detective's voice pattern without issue and rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. As he did so he began to subtly smooth his hair into resembling Kudo's and shifting his body language as well.

The teen didn't seem to notice and cocked his head to the side. "Oh? I haven't seen anything in the papers." He stared at Kaito for another moment before his eyes lit up. "Ah! Your volunteer work you mean! Glad to hear you've found more stuff to do." And then, without bothering to ask for money, the guy printed out a ticket and handed it over. Kaito took it, hoping his staring wasn't too dumbfounded. "Have fun! And try and visit the hospital soon, yeah? I heard the kids are missing their mystery-niichan."

"They're still calling me that?" he asked, adding an embarrassed note to his voice that Kaito's only heard a few times, before accepting the ticket from the grinning teen.

Walking through Tropical Land while looking like Kudo was like stepping into a completely different world. The employees all waved at him, calling out greetings that he did his best to return, handing him items without asking for money and occasionally letting him cut in line if there was only one free seat left in a ride and everyone else was paired off. And the few complaints they got were waved away with a, "volunteer privileges," that made Kaito actually want to check if that was real or not.

Everyone called him Shinichi instead of Kudo, and Kaito couldn't help but wonder how deliberate that had been on his detective's part.

The next day he went to the nearby hospital, not dressed as Kudo this time, and couldn't help but wince every time a child ran up to him before realizing he wasn't their "mystery-niichan". He found pictures of the other teen, reading to the kids and playing with them, scattered with photos of other volunteers.

And so the entire month was spent traveling from place to place, trying to trace the trail of a teen who couldn't sit still. It took a week before Kaito realized that Shinichi had no logic behind his wandering beyond popping into some places more than once to say hi. A quick break in to the Kudo Manor confirmed that Shinichi had a calendar with every event that was taking place every day. He likely just picked one every day and went to it.

It took another week for Kaito to notice that he'd started calling Shinichi by his first name.

He brushed that off easily, though. After all, everywhere he went, everyone used Shinichi's first name, all of them smiling brightly at the thought of the teen detective that had watched their play/helped around the town/went with them to a cooking class despite not knowing them.

Kaito felt like he was learning something new about Shinichi every day he went out to a random city and poked around.

It was an exhilarating thought.


The benefit of working with a bunch of international jewel thieves, Shinichi has learned, is that they can steal quite a large number of gems in a short amount of time. The Griffin's Heart was a quick operation and Shinichi performed his role and walked out with the real gem while Lupin and his group led the police on a merry chase through the city.

Now Shinichi was lounging in a café in Italy, waiting a few more days before taking a plane to Russia to meet up with them again.

The former detective looked out on the Riviera and swirled the coffee he'd ordered before taking a sip and humming softly in pleasure at the taste. Shinichi thought idly about the gems that had passed through the group's hands with him along for the ride. None of them had been Pandora thus far, and Shinichi wasn't ashamed to admit he was rather impressed with Kid's determination if he felt the same curl of disappointment Shinichi did whenever a gem proved to not be Pandora.

Kid had been on his mind a lot recently, Shinichi realized. It wasn't a surprise, Shinichi was literally committing larceny to help the thief out, but it was more than that. It was what Jigen had said. "They must really be worth it." And Shinichi's response, soft and genuine, "I guess he is."

But what did that mean for Shinichi? Why was Kid worth going to all of this trouble? It was more than his mind, more than the banter, more than the games they played with each other.

It was everything underneath that, Shinichi realized with a start. It was the concern, the support, the vulnerability when Kid cried into his shoulder, the spark of electricity that had traced down his spine when Kid said "Then I guess you're never leaving."

It was the culmination of everything which made doing all of this worth it.

As Shinichi pondered this, in Japan, Kaito was getting ready for bed and having similar musings. He never thought that one day he'd be running around investigating someone like all of the detectives that have stood in his way over the years.

And yet here he was, chasing leads, talking to people about Shinichi when he was with them, trying to connect some kind of timeline to a map of Japan that traced Shinichi's path for the past year.

And God, what a path. If Kaito weren't as stubborn as he was and had the calendar he'd found in Shinichi's house he might have called it quits days after he'd started. Shinichi traveled distances based entirely on his whims, decided when he got there whether he wanted to be a tourist or a volunteer. He moved so erratically Kaito was certain he could drop a tail if he ever wanted to. The only things that gave away each place he visited were the photos taken.

Kaito laid on his bed that night, staring at his ceiling, and thought, I wonder if Shinichi would be impressed with my investigation.

Right as he thought this, Shinichi's head snapped to the side as he heard a flurry of wing beats, and watched as a flock of doves were startled into flight in the afternoon sky.

A rush of affection hit them both at the exact same time, along with a kind of breathless disbelief as the last clue slotted into place. Oh my God, I'm in love with him, they both realized.

Shinichi quickly got up, tipping his chair over in the process, and rushed off, not wanting to make too big of a scene as he tried to process that.

Kaito had no such issue and screamed directly into a pillow.


After going back to his bedroom, where he hyperventilated for several minutes before his logical side kicked in and reminded him that, not only was he in love with Kid, he had been for several months, and realizing it now did not change anything about his emotions, his objective, or what intended to do in the immediate future, Shinichi managed bring himself back under control and spent the rest of the day in a daze very reminiscent to the ones he'd get after a particularly draining case.

Once the day had come to an end and he'd slept off that revelation he took a flight to Russia and caught up with Lupin and his crew just in time to participate in their newest heist.

Holding The Artica up to the nearly full moon, Shinichi held his breath for a second before releasing it in a disappointed sigh as newly acquired sapphire glimmered but didn't glow red in the center. He gently lowered it onto his lap and leaned his head on a window inside the car. "No luck," he told them, to the discontented grumble of the group and the excited whooping of Lupin.

"More money for me~!" he said cheerfully, before twisting around in his seat and making grabby hands at the gem. "Now give it here! I need to start thinking about what the sucker's worth on the market!"

Shinichi squawked and cradled the gem closer to himself. "You can think about selling it back to the museum when we arrive at the airport, now return to steering the car!"

Lupin whined at him and stretched to try and reach further towards the jewel but Jigen smacked him on the head. "Lupin," he growled a little and Lupin pouted at all of them before returning his attention to the road.

"So where are you guys thinking to go next?" Shinichi asked, and Jigen turned to him with a smile.

"How does Spain sound?"

Shinichi blinked. "That's a bit far."

"Exactly! To-chan won't see it coming! We'll steal something quick over there and head over to Paris."

Shinichi scowled as the dots abruptly connected at Lupin's words. "You're not even going there for a Pandora candidate? Then why am I going?!"

"It's a family trip, kid! You gotta come with, learn to appreciate the culture of the people you steal from. It'll be informative." Lupin grinned at him through the rearview mirror and Shinichi resisted the urge to kick his seat. "Besides," he added, "I asked your Papa, and he gave me permission." And gestured over to the grinning Jigen.

With that Shinichi gave in to his previous urge and slammed his feet into the back of Lupin's chair.

"Honestly, you're the worst," he muttered at the man as he complained about having "such a bratty nephew" and turned to look out the window again. Tomorrow will likely be another Kid heist, he thought. I'll have to see if I can find live footage of it.

Hopefully it would be an entertaining watch.


Kaito knew tonight's performance was a bit of a shit show, but he honestly couldn't bring himself to care.

With the realization that he was in love with Shinichi, the fact that Hakuba had been the reason he'd been banned from heists had only incensed Kaito further, and he was sure it showed tonight. He'd stolen the gem with only the barest flare for the dramatic and ran circles around the Task Force.

He'd also placed traps in locations he knew the Task Force wouldn't check in their fervor to catch him but a detective would, based mostly on what he'd seen Shinichi step around before.

He arrived on the roof in near record time and waved briefly at the cheering crowd below before checking the gem under the full moon. Another failure, he noted with indifference as he pocketed the stone. That was fine, tonight wasn't about Pandora.

No.

He turned back to the entrance to the roof as Hakuba ran through, looking rather harried but no worse for wear.

Tonight was about "chatting" with an interfering detective.

"Tantei-san," Kaito greeted, feeling a less-than-kind grin spread across his face. Hakuba took a step back, apprehensive, before steeling himself and walking firmly to the center of the roof. Kaito hoped his grin didn't get even more sinister at that. Perfect. He quickly threw down a smoke grenade and relocated himself next to the door to the roof, closing and securing it into place.

No pesky police to interfere.

Hakuba spun around at the sound of the door slamming closed but Kaito had already moved again and relished a little in the blonde's expression when he saw that Kaito had put his face inches from the other, expression tucked away.

Hakuba flinched back at the close proximity and narrowed his eyes, now wary of what Kaito could be up to. "What are you doing, Kid?"

Oh, good. He wasn't trying to press his luck now.

"I have a few questions, Tantei-san. Questions I've been told only you can answer." He slunk back a little, but only so that he could begin to circle the detective, trying to tamper down his need to move.

Hakuba was watching him carefully – probably trying to figure out just what kind of questions he alone could answer. And why Kaito looked like a wolf circling a lame deer. "I'm listening."

Kaito hummed a little and cocked his head to the side so that the moonlight reflected off of his monocle. "My performances recently haven't been as well-attended as I was hoping."

"Oh? Is your ego hurt?" Hakuba asked with a smirk, and Kaito had to tamp down a flare of irritation at the expression.

"It was," he admitted candidly, and Hakuba blinked at him in surprise. "That is, it was until I found out that the person I'd been hoping would attend was actually banned from heists. So tell me, Tantei-san," here Kaito let the smile drop and felt the wind blow his cape some to the side, the fabric making a cracking sound with the force of the movement, "Why did you propose to ban Kudo Shinichi from my heists?"

He watched the blonde's face twitch in surprise before he managed to hide it. "How did you learn about that?" He had likely guessed that Kaito had heard about it from the Inspector, which was true.

But.

Nakamori wasn't the only one who knew about it.

"I heard some of the Task Force talking about it," he said lightly. "They miss Meitantei, almost more than I do." A lie on both accounts, but not completely. Kaito had noticed that some of the Task Force looked down ever since Shinichi had been banned from the heists. It wasn't uncommon for his detective to talk casually with the members before a heist, asking after their families and days. He remembered a time Shinichi had started asking after the wife and daughter of the man Kaito had disguised himself as, rolled his eyes when Kaito had hesitated too long to answer, and started the chase early. It had been quite the change in pace.

Hakuba narrowed his eyes. "I see," he said, clearly not believing him. "I recommended Nakamori-keibu ban Kudo-kun due to his resemblance to you. It would be child's play for you to detain Kudo-kun and disguise yourself as him."

Kaito already knew all of this, but had wanted to hear Hakuba admit it himself. With the confirmation, Kaito felt his face shift, frowning slightly now.

But Hakuba wasn't done.

The other teen gave him a look that bordered on patronizing as he said, "You're being rather childish about this. When I informed Kudo-kun that his presence was no longer wanted nor needed and the reasoning why he accepted with good grace and left while you're simply throwing a tantrum like a child whose favorite toy was taken away."

But Kaito couldn't hear him anymore, a ringing had filled his ears halfway through.

He thought back to that night on the roof, when his heart had nearly stopped when Shinichi talked casually about going somewhere, leaving he'd thought, the relief at learning he was just trying to find a way to spend the weekend.

"I decided years ago that I'd be gone the moment I wasn't needed anymore."

Suddenly the urge to punch Hakuba in the face got exponentially worse.

"It would appear, Hakuba-san," Kaito heard himself say, but it sounded far away, like at the other end of a tunnel. "That you have broken one of the few rules I uphold in my heists."

Hakuba looked confused, and Kaito kind of hated him for it. "I haven't hurt anyone."

Yes you have.

"There is a rule that no one discusses," Kaito said instead. "A rule I know Nakamori-keibu does not care for but is in accordance with. Or at least, I presumed he understood." Kaito took a step closer to the detective again, but Hakuba remained rooted in his spot. "I decide who attends my heists. I call the shots regarding who is banned and who is welcome. I make the rules."

The blond bristled at that. "We don't have to follow your rules, Kid. We aren't here to entertain you."

"Yes, you are," Kaito hissed, and something about the way he said that made Hakuba flinch. "The reason I publicized my heists has been resolved, Hakuba-san. I no longer have to send out notices. I continued to do so because I wanted to see Meitantei again, but he's been banned. The only reason I continued to release notices was because he improved the quality of my heists, and you have taken that away from me."

"Your fans –" Hakuba started to say, but Kaito gave a flagrant, exaggerated shrug.

"Hacked security footage, recording myself, releasing notices with only just enough time to decipher but not enough for a coordinated police stakeout. It would be easy to keep the fans entertained without the police being involved."

And I would give up all of my fans if it meant I saw Shinichi again.

Hakuba watched him for a minute, trying to see if he would falter perhaps, but Kaito met his gaze without any sign of capitulating. The detective eventually sighed. "We can invite Kudo-kun back, then," he finally capitulated, and Kaito would have been pleased if he hadn't known the truth.

"Unfortunately, that is no longer possible," he told the other, and felt a kind of bitter satisfaction at the confusion he saw on Hakuba's face. "Meitantei left Japan the day after you banned him from my heists. No one in the country has heard from him since." Kaito smiled and hoped Hakuba felt every drop of resentment Kaito was nursing as he walked past him to the edge of the roof and engaged his hang glider.

"Sleep well, Hakuba-san," he bade the blond who was watching him like he'd never seen Kaito before. "This might have been the last time you ever face me."

And then he was gone.


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