Don't own Detective Conan or Magic Kaito

Happiest Together


A few days later Kaito sighed a little as his theory about Shinichi focusing on Europe was put into question. Apparently he'd run afoul of some people in Russia a bit ago but ended up uncovering a human trafficking ring when he was found by – wait.

His companions?

The magician frowned a little and that line and started skimming the rest of the article. Was Shinichi traveling with a group, or was it just some people that he befriended in Russia? It didn't mention them again, going on to talk about the human trafficking ring, but Kaito ignored that and brought up the articles he'd already read through. A quick search confirmed that Shinichi hadn't been seen with companions in any other country, and Kaito made a small note of that before continuing to look through recent news articles.

And immediately found a new one that detailed Shinichi catching a serial killer in Spain – Kaito checked the date of the report – a day after he busted the ring in Russia.

The magician groaned and let his head thump gently onto his desk. "Meitantei, why must you make my life difficult?" he whined into his table, arms wrapping around his head in frustration.

"Kaito? Are you okay?" He heard Aoko ask, but only made a sound back in answer.

When he talked to his mom that night, she looked at him over her cup of coffee and put it down to take a delicate bite of the mousse she'd ordered. "Did you find Shinichi-kun?"

"I found out he was in Russia a few days ago and Spain the day after that," he told her with a yawn, exhausted and frustrated and just a little bit impressed. When his detective didn't want to be followed, he sure knew how to move erratically.

His mom winced. "I'm sorry to hear that, sweetie. Maybe you'll find him in a paper before he plans to leave."

She sounded hopeful, but Kaito just waved at her. "It's fine if I don't find him right away." It really wasn't, but Kaito wouldn't tell her that. "Besides, it's all a part of the chase. It'll make when I catch him even more satisfying." Now that he meant every word of. He rolled his neck for a moment to stretch it after a day of digging through foreign news websites and, when he looked back, his mom looked deep in thought.

She snapped out of it soon and put down her fork. "Have you thought more about whether or not you want to stay in Japan, Kaito?"

"I have. And I have no intention of staying in Japan any longer than necessary." If staying in Japan only gave him access to some gems and meant he'd never see Shinichi again then what was the point? Besides that, Kaito thinks his mom might have been onto something when she said talking about it might make him more aware of it, because he'd noticed his feet itching and how he was getting bored in class even faster than usual (to the horror of his teachers and classmates).

His mom seemed to pick up on all of things he didn't say and gave him a small, sad smile. "I'm sorry dear. If you need to, once you've graduated you're more than welcome to travel with me."

That sounded…fine. But not ideal. So he kept his face neutral even as he said, "Thanks mom, I'll think about it."

She read him easily enough and leaned forward suddenly, like she wanted to share a secret, and he followed suit. "Consider something for me, Kaito."

"Sure."

"I was thinking about our last talk and wondered: would you stay in Japan if Shinichi wanted to go back and stay with you?"

Kaito blushed a little as he did what his mom asked and thought about it, imagining waking up to see Shinichi smiling at him, his hair messy like when Kaito had visited him two months ago. Shinichi swatting at him as he stole the book his detective would be reading while they ate breakfast. Just Shinichi, smiling quietly whenever Kaito looked at him and not glancing out the window like he would rather be somewhere else. "Of course."

"And what if Shinichi looked at you one day and said, "I need to get out of the house. I want to go to Bucharest"? What would you do?"

That seemed like a weird question, but Kaito tried to imagine it, imposing the Shinichi in his head with one that was fidgeting slightly, looking determined but nervous as he said that, one leg bouncing.

For a moment Kaito imagined simply letting Shinichi go there alone, asking him to come back when he was ready, and was nearly bowled over by the fear and the anxiety and the dissatisfaction the thought inspired.

"I'd go with him," he said, and hoped none of the negative emotions he'd just felt showed on his face. "I'd take him to Bucharest and go to shows and movies and concerts with him."

His mom hummed at him. "Kaito, your wanderlust, now that it's awake, might be tied to Shinichi-kun. You'll only be your happiest when you're with him, traveling or no."

He snorted a little. "I could have told you that, Mom." He's pretty certain he's been in love with Shinichi for at least a few months now. It didn't come as a shock to him that he might only be at his happiest around his detective.

His mom didn't say anything to that immediately, watching him for a moment through the laptop screen. "Well, I'm glad you're amenable to the idea. It looks like Shinichi-kun is also quite fond of travelling with people."

His attention snapped to her in an instant. "What do you mean? Did you find information on Shinichi?"

She frowned back at him. "Do you remember the news article that had him in Greece?"

Greece? Kaito hadn't seen anything about Shinichi in the Greek news sites. "How old is the report?" he asked her as he changed his searched parameters to only look at Greece pieces. "His parents said the first place he went after leaving was Greece, but I didn't think he'd be in the papers so soon after leaving."

"I don't think he intended to do so either," his mom said wryly. "It was kind of…against his will."

And as she said that Kaito stumbled across an article about a young Japanese man being held hostage by the international jewel thief Lupin the Third and screeched like a scalded cat.

"What's that guy doing there?!"

"Stealing a jewel and kidnapping a teenager by the look of things," his mom noted and Kaito spun around to point a finger at her.

"Why are you so calm about this? Lupin took Shinichi hostage! Why couldn't he take literally anyone else?!"

"I don't know why Lupin took Shinichi-kun in particular, but it's obvious that the two of them are traveling together," his mom said patiently, and Kaito felt his brain stall at the thought.

"What do you mean, traveling together? Shinichi may be fine with some types of criminals, but he wouldn't just…let them steal gems without a good reason." With the exception of Kid, but Kaito didn't ransom the gems back to the owners for money.

His mom shrugged a little and sent him a bunch of links through the chat room. "This is a bunch of the reports about the gems Lupin has been stealing, the timeline he creates across Europe matches Shinichi's whenever he appears in the news."

"It would explain why Tantei-han and his parents haven't been able to predict him," Kaito agreed begrudgingly, thinking back on the Osakan detective that had thrown himself into looking for Shinichi like a man possessed. He checked through the links his mom had sent him to confirm that they lined up with what he'd seen of Shinichi's traveling and felt something click into place. "Wait…" he turned to his other laptop and started searching the gems Lupin had stolen and frowned. "Nearly all of these are Pandora candidates."

His mom leaned forward then, her interest further caught. "Oh?"

"Yeah, I researched all of them to see if they would be coming to Japan. The Griffin's Heart and the Artica were definitely on the list." Kaito narrowed his eyes at the news reports, considering. Lupin had never gone explicitly after the Big Jewels before, preferring easier targets for comparable sums of money. But he started going after them once he started "traveling" with Shinichi. His mind flicked back to the coded message his detective had found and it was like a lightbulb had flicked on. "Shinichi knows about Pandora and is looking for it," he breathed.

"What?" his mom asked, surprised, before her eyes also narrowed in thought. "It would make sense timeline-wise, why Lupin started targeting the candidates so close together. And…that says quite a bit about what Shinichi-kun is doing." She said that with a tiny smile, like she knew a secret, and Kaito looked at her curiously.

"What do you mean? And why would Shinichi be looking for Pandora?"

"Well the most obvious answer is he wants to ensure whatever Pandora is doesn't end up in the Organization's hands if they ever find a way out of prison."

"That's true," Kaito agreed, but that also didn't sound like Shinichi, not completely. He could have just found a way to inform his FBI friends about Pandora's existence if his primary concern was getting it away from public access. So he had to have a reason for why he wanted to get a hold of it himself.

If he knew about Pandora and also knew Snake had been after it while targeting Kaito Kid, maybe he knew Kaito was looking for it, a part of him suggested, and a warmth bloomed in his chest.

Was Shinichi looking for Pandora for Kaito?

He hastily shoved the thought away and prayed his mom hadn't seen anything. The tiny smirk she shot him did not fill him with confidence. He cleared his throat awkwardly and looked at the gems they'd gone through and crossed them off his own list. "They've gone through a lot of them," he noted.

Luckily she decided to go along with his distraction. "They don't have to worry about maintaining a school schedule, and steal at least one gem a week. Hopefully they'd be moving at a faster pace than you."

Kaito hummed and looked back over at her, resting his chin on his hand. "Once I graduate I can just skip looking for Pandora and go straight to Shinichi, then. If he's looking for it too, we can work together to find it."

"Sounds like a dream come true," his mom teased with a wink, and he whined a little back at her to try and stop his blush from making a reappearance.

"No! Honestly the best thing would be finding them in the same place."

He could just imagine it now: Shinichi and him on a balcony somewhere, Shinichi leaning against the railing and holding up a gem to the moonlight, which filtered through it…


…only to reveal nothing within it.

Shinichi felt all of the air leave his lungs in a sigh as he looked on, disheartened once again to see nothing. "No luck, you guys," he said, and Lupin's crew all groaned behind him. He tossed it over to Lupin, who snatched it and jostled him gently on the shoulder.

"Tott-san's gonna think we skipped town again, so we're targeting another one in the area in two weeks," he told him, and Shinichi pinched the bridge of his nose to stave off the flash of heat he felt building behind his eyes for a second before turning to Lupin.

"Why two weeks? Since it's already in the area…" he trailed off in confusion, and Lupin suddenly started to look shifty-eyed, glancing over at a suspicious Jigen and moving so that Shinichi was positioned between the two of them.

"Well the one I'm after now isn't actually in Paris yet. It's being moved here from a vault in Greece. Called Anesidora's Last Gift."

"How do you know it's being moved here?" Jigen asking, a scowl beginning to form.

"Umm," Lupin drew out nervously, and Shinichi twisted around to watch him back up. "A pretty little bird told me?"

"Why are you trusting that woman again, Lupin!?" Jigen shouted then as Goemon and Shinichi both groaned and started massaging their foreheads to offset the oncoming headaches.

"Fuji-chan won't betray me this time, Jigen! I just know it!" Lupin cried out near fanatically, and Jigen let out a growl and tried to get to Lupin only for the other man to dance around Shinichi to keep the teen between them. "Besides, I looked into it myself! Anesidora's Last Gift is definitely coming to Paris in two weeks and I don't want to miss out cause we're stuck somewhere! We'll strike while the exhibit's still being set up!"

Whatever Shinichi had thought of the situation was dashed as Jigen picked him up. He squawked indignantly as he was moved out of the way so that Jigen could lunge at Lupin again. Now that he was out of the line of fire Shinichi rested his chin in his hand and hummed thoughtfully. So the gem would be arriving a little after Christmas. Ideally that would minimize security and people being out and about outside of the venue.

Hopefully Lupin was right and Fujiko wasn't going to stab them in the back on this.


Thanks for reading and please review.