Trance

words: 375

"Going by the silence," Vermouth mused, cutting in before Kid could reply. "I would say that our dear interloper has managed to take down my partner?"

"Your friend suffered from sudden tiredness," Kid replied coolly. Conan could well imagine the razor grin on his face. So dangerous, but completely harmless.

Kid was all about the bluff, and he knew how to bluff the best of them.

Vermouth looked vaguely amused before waving a dismissive hand at the thief. "I suggest you leave. This has nothing to do with you and it's in your best interests to keep out of it."

Kid laughed a devil-may-care laugh. "I don't think so. Like I'm about to leave Tantei-kun and the damsel in the clutches of a vulture like you."

"She's right," Conan stared down at his hands, light on the lenses of his glasses and shadow from his bangs concealing his expression. All the while he remembered the feel of something colliding with the back of his head, and sick, slick, slide of a pill being forced down his throat with an almost surreal, trance-like quality. "You should leave. Forget this happened."

He heard, more than saw, Kid's twitch of surprise. "Don't go getting all noble on me, Tantei-kun," the thief growled.

Conan didn't quite know what to think of a response like that from Kid. Where were the thief's masks now? Like he was one to talk about being noble anyway, Conan wasn't stupid. He'd seen how often people had tried to take Kid down, and how the thief acted like some mythic paladin, just without the apparent noble cause.

"Suit yourself!" Vermouth jeered almost pleasantly. "So, ready to hear me out?"

He shifted uneasily, realizing that his response could essentially be adding another name to the tally of those in danger from the Organization. Looking up he studied Kid's tense posture, and the stubborn set of his shoulders and back beneath the thick folds of his cape.

"Start talking," he spat, finally. He'd accept the burden and hope Kid was as good at taking care of himself as he seemed to be. "If I don't like what I hear we're getting out of here."