And so the next chapter begins XD

I'm so happy so many has reviewed the first chapter, and followed it ^^ I really appreciate it guys :D

Okay, on with this weird story of mine X9

Chapter 1.

Ember, Hot And Red.

Conan sighed, dragging himself out of bed. It was Sunday, and no school today. And despite that, the kids he usually hung out with, were all busy so there was no one to talk to, except Ran and Haibara maybe. And Kogoro was suffering from a hangover for the second night so there was little to no chance there would be a case for them today. The shrunken teen opened the door while yawning. He had returned early last night after the antidote had reversed and he ended up a child again. Conan shuffled over to the bathroom and entered. He had, during the few hours he laid awake, been thinking about the reunion with Ran on Friday. Something had been off, ever since they met until they separated. Conan walked over to the sink and pulled his toothbrush out of his cup. Ran had been unusually serious and maybe a bit bored. And right before Conan fell asleep, he realized that maybe, just maybe she wasn't thinking so much about him anymore. It stung, Conan knew that, and getting depressed wasn't helping, but if he was right, then Kudou Shinichi was losing one of his last hopes in this world. Then he stopped when he remembered the note in the newspaper yesterday. The one he read while at Agasa's house, hiding. A new heist note from KID. Something sparked within Conan. There was something about that ever so indifferent thief that made him look forward to the heists, looking forward to the cat and mouse chase. And Conan knew that he was reading to much into it. But he had come to cherish the small moments when he could act like himself and just chase KID without any worries in the world.

"Annoying.." Conan muttered when he realized he was, once again, thinking too much about KID. And he had done that a lot lately he realized as he stuck his toothbrush into his mouth. It wasn't the thief himself that annoyed Conan, not much anymore anyway, but it was the fact that Conan found himself thinking about the thief whenever his mind wasn't preoccupied with a murder or the men in black.

"Good morning Conan-kun." Conan jumped at the cheerful voice and turned.

"Ah.. Ran-neechan! G-good morning.." he greeted her as she came in. The boy moved a bit to the side as the teen came over, checking her make up.

"I'll be heading out with Sonoko okay? Just wake up dad whenever you feel like it, it's not like he deserves to sleep in anyway." she sounded a bit grumpy at the last part, but Conan forced himself to smile, ignoring his wish to run and hide.

"Okay!" he said and before he could even ask her about dinner, she was gone. Conan sighed. Ran had been heading out a lot lately and Conan couldn't see why she would hang out with Sonoko almost each day, it was, after all, the start of the third year. Conan looked down. Kudou Shinichi was still absent from school, and no matter how much Conan wanted to return, it wasn't possible yet, not so soon. He might even never be able to finish high school, and that would hurt Shinichi's pride. Conan put the toothbrush away as he finished up, his thoughts going from his depressing life to the thief again. Conan slammed his head against the wall on purpose.

"Stop popping up into my head all the time, damn thief!" he groaned before he turned around. He knew there was only one way to fix this, do something about said thief so that he wouldn't have to find himself unconsciously thinking about the thief all the time. And he was lucky, today was KID's heist. Conan entered the living room, and noticed the breakfast on the table. His stomach rumbled and he wasn't using ages to reach the table. The shrunken teen grabbed the newspaper and saw the first page, then he chuckled.

"And again, KID has stolen first page.." he read the first page, the turned to the page within the paper so he could read it all.

"Oh yeah, it was Ember's Heart wasn't it? He really doesn't go for the low profiled ones.." Conan sighed as he turned to the food. It was no use thinking too much into it now, he had already deciphered the code and relayed the information to the police as Kudou Shinichi on early Friday, waiting for Haibara to give him the antidote, but told them he in person wouldn't appear since they even bothered asking.

"Well, it's still a lot of time until the heist, might as well just head over to Haibara or something to wait.." then he stopped, laying down the chopsticks he had been holding, then he grinned.

"But before that, I'll wake up Occhan." he stated, smirking to himself, but waited with it till after breakfast, because he wanted to make sure he was completely full before he got thrown out of the front door.

"Then, I can pick up the newly enhanced shoes from Hakase." he thought gleefully, already looking forward to Kaitou KID's nervous face when Conan kicked a soccer ball his way. Seeing that it was the only way KID usually got nervous, and Conan loved it.

Conan looked out over the sky. He was, as usual checking out KID's possible escape routes and right now, he kind of regretted going. The wind was a tad bit to hard, so even KID might have trouble with the escape by glider. And Conan was cold, really, really cold.

"Damn, it just had to be a cold day.." he muttered. The child turned towards the door and made his way over there when he suddenly stopped, feeling watched and spun around, just barely seeing the glimpse of a dark figure.

"KID? No.. that wasn't KID.. that was someone else, someone who isn't supposed to be there.." he murmured before he quickly walked over to the door and entered. He wasn't risking his life out there, but he didn't want to the thief to risk his either so he pulled out one of KID's cards he had in his pockets, for some reason Conan always kept the cards KID shot at him. The child found a pen in the inner pocket of his jacket and wrote something down, and then somehow fastening it to the door.

"I'm going to look forward to the aftermath of the heist KID.." he thought, smirking.

Conan eyed the gem in the casing, then the officer standing by it's side, ranting into the tiny microphone that was hanging from his right ear. It was obvious they were failing, and it seemed that today, was another one of those days Conan regretted not taking with him some popcorn, because there was no way KID would be caught. At least that's what Conan thought, not unlike Nakamori, who obviously had his mind set on only capturing KID.

"Like he can do much anyway.." Conan thought, musing over how KID would do it today, it wasn't like it was any harder than usual, even Conan could steal the gem if he wanted to, but he wasn't a criminal, and nowhere near aiding one. Nakamori suddenly yelled a new order, and a few more before he stopped himself to take a breath. How he became so breathless from yelling orders, Conan didn't know, nor did he want to know, it wasn't interesting trying to figure out how the officer's brain worked, because most times, it didn't seem to even be plugged in. Like now, for example.

"Get me his location!" Nakamori yelled, followed by a string of curses. Conan itched closer, and he could clearly hear what the underlings, or as Conan called them, 'Nakamori's puppies', was saying. Conan inwardly slapped himself for even giving them a name, it was like KID, who gave a nickname to everyone, and that was a kick to the shrunken detective's pride.

"He's in the main lobby!"

"No, he's in the South corridor!"

"But he is in the North corridor as well!"

"KID has appeared in the Northwest lobby!"

"The thief has entered the west corridor and is running towards the innermost chamber!" Nakamori was going crazy, his task force officers was all reporting the sight of the thief, but there was no way he could be everywhere at once, he wasn't that good. So, where was he?

"Damn it KID!" he yelled. Then he grabbed a random officer.

"Find out what the hell is going on! Find out where KID is!" he growled. The officer nodded, running away, more out of fear than for his work. After a while, there was still no chance of locating the ever so slippery phantom thief. Conan's lips twitched upwards.

"Of course, only Nakamori-keibu wouldn't realize by now where KID really is.." Conan mused mentally, waiting patiently as he powered up his sneakers.

"Where the hell are you KID?" Nakamori roared after another five minutes, having had enough. Conan couldn't help but watch amused as a grin appeared out of nowhere, hovering over the glass casing of the gem.

"Right behind you." said a soft voice. Nakamori spun around, and gaped. KID was floating right above the showcase for the gem he had said he was after.

"What the- KID!" Nakamori yelled. KID just smirked.

"Your getting slower keibu-san, I've been here the whole time." he said, shaking his finger at the officer. Nakamori's face went red in anger before he growled and lunged for the thief, who just disappeared into the air, making the officer stop. There was no trace of the thief ever being there, so where was he? Then he stopped.

"THE GEM IS GONE!" he roared, starting to jump around furiously. KID's laughter made the officer turn towards the windows as Conan grabbed his belt, smirking at the thief. The child let the ball fall to the floor before he calculated speed, object and impact, then he kicked the ball, aiming to take off that smirk. KID's eyes widened for just a millisecond before the thief not so elegantly ducked.

"Now now Meitantei-kun, you shouldn't be kicking soccer in a room like this." he said, placing a hand on his hip, while using the other to shake a finger at him, acting like a scolding mother. However, Conan could see that the thief had this nervousness in his eyes, one barely visible. Conan's eyes narrowed.

"I don't want to hear that from you." he stated. Instead of kicking a new ball in the general direction of said, annoying thief, he just smiled sweetly, sickly sweet.

"But you know, Agasa Hakase power them up for me, aren't they strong?" he asked innocently. KID's eyes was still holding some of the fear from the earlier kick, because it was obvious he had noticed.

"Such things should have been confiscated, Nakamori-keibu, you're going to easy on little Meitantei-kun." he said, smirking a bit. Conan's left eye twitched at the heavy undertone of the word little. It wasn't his fault he was shorter than average children his age. And then there was the fact that he wasn't a child, he was already eighteen.

"You.. are so dead.." Conan muttered as he 'magically' pulled out another soccer ball and sent it in the thief's direction, now making sure to calculate where the thief would escape to. The thief obviously hadn't planned for it to go that way as the ball just barely touched the thief's nose and Kaitou abruptly stopped, frozen to the spot. Oh yes, the thief was not liking the outcome of this. Conan smirked.

"It seems I missed.. by inches." he mused. Kaitou gave him a faked, teary-eyed look.

"How horrible of you, are you trying to kill me?" he asked in a patheticly, dramatic, hurt voice. Conan seemed to think about it, then he grinned.

"Well, I did aim for your head, and with the strenght, and speed I calculated, I could've taken your head of, but I knew you'd manage to dodge anyway." Conan said, shrugging his shoulders. The task force eyed the child with some fear. They'd never met a child that could stand up to KID and nearly decapitate him at the same time. It was almost more frightening that Nakamori when he was on his worst. KID sniffed in a faked, heartbroken way.

"You, Meitantei-kun, shouldn't be allowed to hold such items, I think I need to talk with your guardian.. or should I call her your girlfriend?" KID teased, though he still seemed wary of Conan's newer shoes. Conan glared.

"Don't you dare, and she's not my girlfriend damnit!" he answered in an irritated tone. KID just smirked before he picked up the gem he had in his inner pocket.

"Well, I still have what I came for, so I'll say my farewell for today." he said before he bowed, then disappearing in a poff of smoke as most of the members of the task force ran forward, throwing themselves into the smoke. Conan raised an eyebrow. There was no way to catch him now, the moment KID made his escape he would be gone. However, there was something off. That much Conan knew, because KID used to show off, make everything into a magic show, today however, KID had come, taken the gem, avoided his soccer balls and then left.

"The fuck is up with that?" Conan asked himself, but couldn't find an answer.

"You'll never catch me!" KID's laughing voice filled the room, and seemingly the whole building. Outside, it seemed the crowds of cheering KID-fans had heard it as well.

"KID!" the man roared, starting to yell orders at the other task force members as well as cursing in between. The thief had done it again, and now he was gone. Conan sighed, deciding that he might as well leave now before Nakamori realized that Conan had set off soccer balls after the thief, that could have wrecked the place, and also killed the thief while at it. Non of them was prepared for the window to shatter as a gun shoot rang through the whole room. Conan looked up, having realized just why KID seemed to act so differently. What he saw, shocked him. KID was however from a thing thread, but he looked like he was in pain, if the blood on his jacket was any indication.

"KID!" Conan yelled as the thief suddenly realized he was hanging right in line for more bullets so he grabbed the thing thread and climbed up with surprisingly easiness and no difficulty, then he was gone in another poff of smoke. Conan stood there, half in shock, half in disgust. Someone had fired at the thief again, and they had hit home. It looked horrible, and the look on his face still haunted Conan. The look of absolute terror and pain. Nakamori threw himself over the phone and barked at the police to get their asses over here to find out who fired at KID.

"It's obvious they're not there anymore.." Conan thought to himself as he turned and left. There was only one thing on his mind, and that was the thief's pained expression and his welfare. However, if Nakamori had looked a bit closer or a nearby case, he would have seen that the gem there, had been replaced with a fake one.

Conan muttered to himself. There wasn't even a chase today. The thief wasn't acting like his usual self, that much the detective had noticed, and strangely enough, it worried him more than he wanted to admit. The child was sitting in the garden at the back of his house, well, Kudou Shinichi's house. Thinking back to the blood, the pained expression and the hold on the thread that just barely loosened.

"And he just had to go and disappear like that, and left me to retrieve the damn card before Hakuba found it.. and then he had to get himself shot too.. what an idiot!" he muttered, then he cursed.

"A child shouldn't curse." a voice stated and Conan jumped, spinning around.

"K-KID?" he asked. Before the child, stood the white clad, smirking like usually, however, something seemed off. Maybe it was the bloodstains on his usually pristine white jacket that gave it away. However, there was more than when he left.

"Y-you're hurt.. again, what happened? You got shot on the way out as well?" Conan commented, a bit shocked. The thief never showed up after a heist, at least not when he was hurt.

"Yes, it's kind of obvious.." and with that, the thief collapsed on the grass. Conan's mind screamed for him to cuff the thief, but his heart told him otherwise. The child ran over, starting to unbutton the thief's jacket. But was stopped by a hand, covered by a bloody glove.

"Wouldn't go there if I were you.." KID murmured, his face contorted in pain.

"Look, you're hurt, badly too in seems, there's no way I can leave you like this." Conan stated. The thief seemed a bit perplexed at that sentence, but didn't say anything, and let the child continue to undress KID, in more innocent way that Kaitou thought it was. Conan gently moved his hands towards the blue, and bloody red shirt, just then, not only one, but two gems fell out of the inner pocket of KID's jacket. Conan frowned.

"I thought you only went after Ember's Heart?" he asked as he gently opened the shirt, still a bit wary of the possible traps within the thief's jacket and even shirt.

"It was at the spur of moment really.." the thief murmured, now laying against that grass, breathing heavily. Conan never once took his eyes off the card gun on the thief's hand, because it was obvious that Kaitou hadn't let his guard down, so Conan wouldn't either. There was a moment of silence before Conan cursed.

"You've been shot in the chest KID, you could have a bullet pressed against you're heart and you still continued to fly and run away?" Conan asked.

"Got no choice, I couldn't let them have it.." the thief whispered, seemingly unable to speak louder at the moment. Conan straightened up.

"It? The gems?" he asked. Kaitou groaned as he other hand went for the one he had stolen without a notice. It was a complete see-through, but there seemed to be a second gem within it or something, because it had a darker core. Then he picked it up and held it up towards the moon as the clouds removed themselves. Then Conan found himself, as well as the thief bathed in red light. Conan gaped.

"What the-" then he stopped, becoming mesmerized by the beauty of the gem.

"So beautiful.. what is that?" he asked. Kaitou chuckled, then gave a pained groan.

"It's name is Pandora, it's a gem I've been searching for.. and.. want to destroy.." Conan gasped.

"That's the first.. why? Why are you risking you're life to destroy a gem like that?" he asked.

"Because it is the cause.. it's what got my father killed." the thief said, then he groaned. Conan placed his hand on Kaitou's, closing his hand over the gem and hiding it from the moonlight.

"Don't speak, you're hurt, I have a friend that can remove the bullet and you wont need to go the hospital.. to the hos.." he sentence faded out, confused when he noticed the light around them was still red, so he looked up. The moon was colored red, the same color as the gem. And it didn't seem to be letting up any time soon.

"KID? Is there a reason why the moon is red?" he asked. Kaitou cracked an eye open, then he sighed.

"I don't know.. might be because of Pandora.." he muttered.

"So.. if you destroy it, the moon wont shine red?" Conan asked. KID stared at him.

"You want it to continue to shine like that?" he asked, or more teased, despite his obvious injury.

"No, that's not what I meant.." Conan sighed. Suddenly the light grew stronger and the two looked up, seeing a smaller object flying fast across the sky. Conan gaped.

"A meteor? Now? There was no meteors mentioned on the news!" Conan stated.

"Run.." he turned to KID, who had just whispered.

"What?" he asked, shocked.

"Run.. now.." KID whispered again. Conan shook his head frantically.

"No way, I'm not letting you die in my back yard!" Conan protested, then he pulled a bit at his hand, letting some of the moon shine at the gem again. Just as suddenly as the night grew lighter, the gem grew hot. Conan removed his hand, wincing.

"What the-" and he stopped. KID had also let the gem go, and it fell to the ground. The gem was glowing, and it was steaming, so it was probably very hot. Kaitou managed to sit up, staring at the gem in just as much of confusion, shock and nervousness as Conan. Then there was this loud, cracking noise before pain sparked in both boys. Conan and Kaitou both fell back, crying out in pain. Conan, who was more used to pain than the thief, recovered faster and soon realized the gem had exploded, sending a shard into his right eye, which was now bleeding. One look at the thief and Conan realized the other was in the same situation, only he was covering his left eye. Then Conan gasped and froze. His body was hot and he heart was racing, and his eye wasn't hurting anymore, despite just receiving a shard of a diamond in it.

"W-what's happening?" he barely managed to think before the darkness of his mind took him.

Pfaaaaah! Cliffhangers :D I just love them XD

Well, yeah, it's only the second chapter and it's already suspense.. I don't mind but..

Kaito: ... *runs around* I have Pandora! :D

Me: *knocks unconscious* well, leave it be for now! And remember to review okay? *smiles* I need more motivation ;)