Shinichi thought he was going to die.

The blood in his veins was on fire. Every inch of his body was on fire. He felt like he was being roasted inside the core of the sun, a fat marshmallow on a stick and melting down into nothing.

His hand shrunk, his feet shrunk, every part of him shrunk and when the heat and pain in his chest and head were gone, Conan finally could breathe. He peeled open his eyes and licked his dry and bleeding lips, which was caused for biting them too hard while he was suppressing a scream.

Gasping for air, he threw the thick suit aside and poked his tiny head out from the pile of Kaitou Kid's costume. The ropes and chair that bound him down was toppled over the ground, forgotten. He glanced around and heaved another sigh of relief when he noted the room was still empty like before.

His shrinking process happened a while after the kidnappers bailed themselves out and left him all alone in the dark room after they got a tip off that the police came. Shinichi tried to struggle himself out of the rope, but his efforts were pointless. All he could do was to wait for the pain to come and at the same time, pray the police wouldn't come this way.

Now what was left of him was the costume and his naked body and his butt sitting on the cold ground. He perked up his ears and pulled himself to his feet, only taking the white suit with him as he wrapped it around his body.

He noted the soft sounds of shouts were coming from the other side of the building, far from where he was. Conan tapped on his ear. It seemed either his or Kaito's Bluetooth wasn't working.

"Shit. Now what?" Conan growled. He didn't have anything that Conan always wore. His multi-purpose spectacles, belt, enhance-kicking shoes... Conan shook his head and tightened his clutch on the suit. First, he need to get out of here.

He quickly skipped over to the door and looked out of the dark corridor. Empty, like what he hoped. Conan then hopped to start of the steps down the floor and stared at the couple of levels he had to go to reach the first floor. He sighed.

It was that moment when he felt something behind him. Conan froze and watched the shadow walking closer and closer to him. He tightly grabbed onto the white suit and rubbed his bare feet together. Inwardly counting to three, he turned and gave a swift kick, but the intruder was faster and Conan missed his shin.

He clicked his tongue and was about to attempt another embarrassed weak kick when he felt both his shoulders were squeezed by two hands.

"Oi." The man with the scar spoke in a voice which Conan thought was familiar.

"Kinosuke-"

"Kaitou Kid." Kaito hushed.

Conan widened his eyes. "Why are you here? Where's the hostages?!"

"Safe."

"Safe?"

"The police managed to find the transmitter device that I've left on Aoko." Kaito then wrapped the suit even tighter around Conan, as if he was a small baby before picking Conan from the ground and the latter couldn't help but gave a small surprise yelp. Kaito then tugged the bundle under his arm.

Conan's mind was no longer on anything or anyone else, other than himself and the situation he was currently in. He tried to wiggle his arms out of the cocoon and at least gave a punch to Kaito's face, but to no avail. The only thing he could move was just the tip of his toes and his head.

"What the hell are you doing?!"

"Getting out of here, what do you think? This place is surrounded and half of the members were already captured." In a swift, Kaito's disguise was being replaced with the old and usual Kaito Kid's getup. Without saying anything, Kaitou Kid ran up a level and threw something onto the window that was lined on the wall of the stairs, instantly shattering the glass before jumping right through it without a moment of hesitation.

Conan winced and shut his eyes, and only after a few seconds, he managed to muster enough courage to peel open his eye to see he was still in one piece. He tilted his head up, to find himself already tightly strapped onto Kaito's chest as they glide through the night. Conan glanced down quickly and noted dozen of police cars and an ambulance parked outside the building, with policemen scattered all over the place.

Height wasn't something Conan feared. He had tried using a hang glider once when he was in Hawaii with his father, but this was a different circumstances. He was basically wrapped like a dumpling, and it was not comfortable at all. The worst part was, he couldn't move to adjust himself too.

"Where the hell are we going?" Conan grumbled.

On the cue, Conan felt the glider tilted and was making a movement for landing. Apparently, they had descended at a roof top, not far from where the abandoned building was.

Kaito unbuckled the safety strap away from Conan and set him down on the ground. He retracted his glider as Conan watched grumpily.

"And what the hell are we doing now?" He spat.

Kaito loosened the tightness of the suit around Conan's body before pulling out his old and small clothes from his own white jacket, with the spectacles neatly placed on it.

"Your clothes."

When Conan finally managed to pull one of his arms out, he grabbed his clothes and scowled. "Turn around."

Kaito laughed, but didn't comment. Instead, he obeyed his instructions and turned, much to Conan's surprise. The detective quickly gathered his clothes and hurriedly fitted them in after dumping his temporary attire aside.

"Thought I'll abandon you?"

Conan glanced up and stared at Kaitou Kid's back before scoffing to himself while buttoning up his shirt. "Pretty sure."

"I'm not as heartless as you think, you know."

"You've proved me wrong." Conan cleared his throat. "But the way you bundled me up was totally unnecessary and..."

Kaito understood Conan's signal well and turned his head before his whole body. "And?"

Conan just growled under his breath. He didn't have the motivation to show his anger. There was not point to it after all. He choose to switch the conversation. "So we're done. And the enemy wasn't what we thought."

"Yeah." Kaito scratched his cheeks and chuckled. "Unexpected, to be honest. At least that's for the better."

"Is Nakamori-san and the child fine?"

"Unhurt, from what I can tell." Kaito glanced away. "But they must have been traumatized."

"No doubt." Conan crossed his arms as he took a step closer to the railing of the roof and stared out at the distant. "Time can heal, I suppose."

"I know."

"If you know, then you should start treasuring Nakamori-san."

"Instead of being a detective or a fake jewel maker, you're considering becoming a love guru?"

At that moment, Conan felt as if he had won a lottery. He cast a mocking gaze at Kaito. "Ah, I never did mention love, did I?"

Kaito was still, but the tense movement from his shoulder didn't go unnoticed. Conan's smirk grew bigger. He was expecting the brief silence so he decided to carry on instead of letting Kaito get his brain to react fast enough to say some useless excuse.

"Don't regret the things you have yet to do when you still can. Appreciate what you have, and your chances."

Kaito sighed. "I do."

Conan was surprised. Was Kaito this exhausted to not even bother cooking up a witty comeback and mock him like he always did? Instead of taunting Kaito any further, Conan continued.

"Does she know?"

"Know what?"

"That you treasure her."

There was a pause. "She often underestimated her worth."

Conan cocked his head to a side. "I assume that's a no?"

"I assume you should stop assuming." Kaito turned and gave a slightly irritated look over at Conan. The latter smirked inwardly. He guess he just crossed the line where he shouldn't have crossed. After all, Conan did calculated; this was usually the limit and the most Kaito was willing to divulge his feelings.

"Anyway, the current problem now lies with you, not me anymore." Kaito scorned. "Your girlfriend's birthday is coming."

"I know."

"And your choice? I can act as you if you allow me to."

"No way."

Kaito frowned. "Why not? It seems like the best idea to me."

"Best idea for you." Conan lowered his gaze and let the gentle breeze to settle in between them before he continued. "I would rather if I tell her things myself, as Kudo Shinichi."

"I'm sorry."

Conan blinked and in a robotic movement, he turned his head to Kaito. "Did you just said something?"

"I said I'm sorry." There was no sigh, no rolling of eyes, no teasing smirk. Nothing. Kaito glanced over at Conan with his typical poker face. "Honestly, I really am sorry." He repeated.

"It's weird for me to hear that from you." Conan admitted softly.

"I caused a havoc to your plans, and that's a fact I can't change." Kaito muttered. "I should be sorry."

"Actually, I should be grateful."

"What?"

Conan managed a small smile. "I thought about it when I was held captive. Appearing as a temporary Kudo Shinichi isn't going to make things better actually, but worse."

Kaito quirked an eyebrow. "Wouldn't she be happy if you appear?"

Conan would trade everything in the world to make her happy. But that happiness was not worth the sadness she would feel after he left her. He knew from the disappointed look, her quivering lips and the tears Ran always held back. Conan knew all of it, and seen them before. He tucked both hands into his pocket and continued the silence.

"Fine. If you really don't want my help, I won't force you." Kaito added. "But the offer is open as long as you want, just so you know."

"... Got it."

.o.

Darkness.

Tied-up hands.

Grinding teeth. Slamming of fists. Shaking of guns. Waving of knifes.

Aoko flung open her eyes and watched the ceiling above her. Cold sweat drenching her hair and pillow, like she was swimming in a calm pool when she had been drowning and gasping for air the entire time.

Her door swung open and a familiar figure stomped into her room, one that she had been seeing for the past three days since she returned safely to her home. Her father approached to her bed and caressed her forehead, pushing the sticky hair to the back of her ears.

"Nightmares again?" He whispered.

She would hide the fact if it wasn't so obvious. "Did I wake you up with my shouts?"

"It's morning anyway." He glanced towards the curtains hung by her balcony.

"I should make breakfast."

"Sleep more if you can." He pat her down. "I'll make them."

Aoko held back her retorts. To be honest, she didn't have the energy to argue and make breakfast anyway. Nodding her head, she sunk back onto her bed and pulled the covers to her neck. "Thanks dad."

"That's nothing." He stood up from her bedside and headed for the door, but stopped mid-way and turned back towards her again. "I should make an appointment with a counsellor for you."

She tried not to roll her eyes. "I'm perfectly fine. It's just nightmares."

"It's not just nightmares."

"I don't need counselling." Aoko sighed. "I just need, maybe... more sleep?"

Her father stared at her and she stared back, hoping her firm gaze would be able to change his mind, but her eye bags were even bigger than her eyes itself and it was just bringing her to a disadvantage.

"We'll see if you'll have a nightmare again tonight." He pursed his lips. "If not, that's settled."

She knew it was this was the furthest her father was willing to give in, and maybe that was enough. She smiled a little and nodded. "Okay, we'll see."

It had been getting better. Her nightmares were becoming shorter and less frequent, she could tell. From waking up in the middle of the night to morning like this, it was an improvement. There was a need to spend money for these counselling sessions. It was a waste of money.

He closed the door behind him and began making breakfast. Aoko closed her eyes, perking her ears to hear the light clanking of pans and pots and the sound of water rushing. And then she opened her eyes again.

If sleeping back was as easy as it sounded, life would have been great. She pushed her covers aside and lifted herself up from her bed. I need some sun, she decided. She had been staying at home in her room for as long as she could remember after all. Aoko dragged herself to the balcony and drew the curtains. Her hair couldn't be anymore messy than before, she realized as she stared at her faint reflection on the glass.

Pushing the balcony window aside, she stepped out at the small open space and took in a deep breath. She felt refreshed instantly. But the tiredness came back as quickly as it went. She took in another deep breath, hoping to find the relax feeling again.

When Aoko stopped her weird breathing exercise she came up on her own, her eyes set upon on her neighbourhood.

The houses, the trees, the familiar residence walking down the streets. She recognized all of it like it was part of the map in her brain. This was the exact scene she saw every time she stood at this spot, one she wished she could see back in that hellhole. And now she did, it couldn't be anything better.

Her eyes slowly lingered over the calm and quiet district until it laid onto the lone house not far from hers.

Aoko knew Kaito knew she was kidnapped. She asked her father and he told her everything, about how he instructed Kaito to stay out of this since it was the police's responsibility. Aoko never blame him, neither of them. It was indeed something Kaito had no chance in taking part after all, right?

"Kaitou Kid? Why was he there?"

"They didn't want any money, they want him."

"Then what happened to Kaitou Kid?"

"Gone. But safe. We'd seen him flying away."

She lowered her gaze before returning back into her room.

Her father mentioned Kaito visited her twice, right at the moment when she was sleeping. Was it the work of fate? Maybe. She wished Kaito could have just called her up, or even text her and told her he visited or something. Either was fine, as long as she got something from him. She only knew about it because her father told her so.

Why am I always thinking about pointless things?

That was the moment when her phone lit up on her table. She trudged towards it and picked it up, expecting some reminder about her library book loan or something else when her eyes widened.

It was a message from Kaito.

Aoko wondered if this was one of Kaito's magic too. Able to read her mind even when he was not with her. The way his brain worked, it scared her sometimes.

She opened the message.

'Wanna hang out later at noon?'

Her fingers hovered over her phone pad for a very long while, not sure of what to say. Of course she wanted to hang out-! She cringed inwardly at how enthusiastic she was right now. She then self-proclaimed it was because she really need to step out of her house instead of sleeping all day.

Tapping her chin, Aoko sat on her bed, still unsure of what to reply. Would 'Yes' be too direct? 'Okay sure!' sounded too girly for her.

Finally, her fingers acted on their own.

'Same place?'

She decided replying with another question would lessen her a whole bunch of awkwardness needed.

'Yeah. The late one's treating.'

Aoko scoffed.

.o.

"Ice coffee." Aoko shut the menu.

The waitress looked over at Kaito.

"Oh- Erm. Same as her."

The waitress departed with their orders and Aoko set the menu back onto its stand.

"You're drinking Ice coffee?" Kaito gave a skeptical look.

"The caffeine is stronger than my Ice latte."

"What's with the change?"

Aoko thought Kaito was smart enough to know, still, she decided to entertain his question just to satisfy him. "I'm tired." She stated bluntly. There was no point in sugar-coating her words.

He silently watched her, in a way that made Aoko's spine to shiver.

"And I'd rather keep myself fully awake for now. In case you turn my hair into another blob of candy floss or something." Aoko added when she realized he wasn't going to say anything. For some reason, she didn't want the conversation to lead back to that three days and nights. She just wanted to see Kaito, there was no need to reminisce about those days, not even the last day when Kaitou Kid-

Kaito chuckled. "Let me be honest with you, there's a cost for doing that trick. And right now, I'm on a tight budget."

"So I should be grateful, huh?"

He shrugged and added a playful smile. "You can say so." Kaito then straightened his posture. "Anyway, I want to bring you to a place."

"A place?" She echoed dumbly.

"Yeah."

Like some weird magic, his voice gave the power to switch her mind blank. At that instant, the only image she could see was Kaitou Kid's portrait in his room and her chest cringed so hard she thought her lungs were going to burst. She jerked a little in her position, trying to regain her composure and erase that picture from her head and it earned her a weird look from Kaito.

"You okay?"

'Why did I...' She nodded, her weary eyes looking over at Kaito before mustering a smile. "What place are you talking about?"

Kaito glanced down at his watch. "The park. But not for another eight hours. Before that, we should drop by somewhere first."

"Park? Eight hours?" That totally didn't explain anything to Aoko. When their drinks came, she got distracted by her coffee and the soothing icy feeling that ran down her throat after taking a sip, but her attention was quickly back at Kaito again. "Why are we going to the park?"

"There's meteor shower today. I've got a great place to see it."

Aoko realized his words kept her more awake than the coffee before her. Her eyes widened. Her butt was already at the edge of her seat. When it was her lucky day, she could see the sky filled with a dozen or two stars. But meteor showers?! It was a dream she never think that simply Japan or her neighbourhood could fulfill.

"Me-Meteor showers? Are you serious?"

"Why would I lie about this?"

"How do you know about it? The news never say it, as far as I know."

Kaito chuckled proudly. "I happened to see it when I was researching something. And I knew you like these kind of things, so I thought I'll bring you to see it."

Aoko snorted. "What kind of your research makes you chance upon in knowing a meteor shower is going to happen today?"

He shrugged and began his new distraction by asking how her coffee tasted and she just answered him her opinion. She knew he wouldn't answer her question, not directly even if she tried. Aoko was used to these kind of distraction technique.

Still, she decided not to press on. His answers wouldn't do anything to her anyway. Besides, she was a little busy trying to suppress that fluttering feeling in the pit of her stomach; to think he thought of her even without her being his side. A simple, yet utterly stupid feeling. Aoko shook her head inwardly.

"Then for the next eight hours, what are we going to do?"

"Want to watch a movie?"

Aoko straightened her posture. "Okay. But not the latest horror one."

.o.

After crossing a small river bank and passing through a couple of fences and gardens, they reached the place where Kaito wanted to show to Aoko. It wasn't anything secretive or a place where nobody should trespass, it was just too out of a way in the park for anyone to notice, that was why.

Once they stood in the middle of the grounds, they both faced the sky in sync and watched the stars surrounding the large crescent moon, like kids dancing around their mother. Kaito noted a couple of constellations he recognized from his research but he held his tongue. This girl was probably too distracted by all the stars to even know which stars he was referring to anyway.

"Why haven't I found this place before?" Aoko pouted as she waved her arms around. "This is the best place to see stars!"

"You sound like a kid." Kaito shook his head. "No, you look like a kid."

Aoko crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes. "You should have expected my reaction to be like this when you showed me this place, don't act like you're surprise about it." She placed her arms to her side, her anger gone like the wind as she continued skipping around the field. "This place is amazing!"

"I wouldn't show off this place if it isn't."

Kaito rubbed his nose and smirked under his hand. He always knew Aoko was easy to please. This was the only time when Aoko finally looked like the Aoko he knew. All the other time, she looked so worn out that it scared Kaito a little and he even considered if he should just sent Aoko back home to rest. Now, he knew this moment was worth it.

"Since when did you know this place existed?"

He shrugged nonchalantly. "Not long after the park renovated a year ago."

Her bright smile was wiped off and was replaced with a teasing look. "Did you bring other girls here for a date?"

"I don't bring anyone here, except for you." Kaito raised an eyebrow. "So is this a date?"

Aoko wasn't just easy to please, she was easy to tease too. Even under dim light, Kaito could see her face turned pink at that instant. She turned away before glaring back at him and shouted a No! and stomped a few more feet away from him. He pretended to not see her blush and just followed her.

"Stop walking around and sit down, you'll miss the meteor shower." Kaito glanced down at his watch.

Aoko bounced back to his side and sat on the ground before Kaito even did. He inwardly shook his head and sat down. Many of their classmates always claimed that Aoko was the only one who could chill his playful pranks down, but they spoke too soon when they never seen them this way. In such situations, Aoko was often the bubbly one out of the two of them.

"We should lie down." Aoko suggested and she laid on the grass even before Kaito could say anything. "It's easier to see it this way."

Without a word said, Kaito followed suit. In the big field, only the two of them existed. Compared to the vast sky, they weren't even worth the size of a dust. But here on the ground, Kaito felt like this was his world. Unknowingly, his lips tugged a little, not until when he felt a jerk on his arm and he jolted from his thoughts.

"It's really here!" Aoko gasped and Kaito blinked as his eyes focused of the dazzling fallen sky running across the sky. "Look at them! They're gorgeous!"

"Yeah." It was indeed beautiful.

"Oh! They say if you make a wish and count to seven, it will come true!"

Kaito gave a dry laugh. "You believe that? And what's with the counting of seven?"

Aoko rolled her eyes. "You won't ever understand such things." She quickly clasped her hands together and brought them close to her chest.

One

Wishes. Pandora. Volley Comet. Immortality... such things weren't proofed to have exist, and also because they weren't proofed to not exist, people cling onto these beliefs and believe what they want to believe.

Two

Kaito pursed his lips and tilted his head, feeling the grass tickling the side of his cheeks. He stared at Aoko who was still mumbling incoherently to herself.

Three

Miracles doesn't happen. He believed things happened because people acted on them. Like a normal teenager able to shrink into a child; that wasn't a miracle, it was because people create pills and the side effects caused such a thing to happen.

Four

Same for the moment right now. Both Aoko and him were lying in this piece of grass field wasn't because it just happened. It was because ten years ago, he decided to present that rose to a girl under the clock tower. And they were neighbors. And they were friends. And they were here.

Five

Kaito closed his eyes and moved just a little bit closer to Aoko. She no longer smelt like strawberry shampoo or lemon soap. It was just the Aoko smell.

Six

He opened his eyes again. Her smooth and bouncy cheeks was just an inch away from his lips. Kaito couldn't smell the Aoko smell anymore; he wasn't even breathing. His composure, his breath, those things that made him complete his perfect poker face were all engulfed by her.

This closeness, ironically created by him, was driving him insane.

Seven.

Not just his movements stopped, his heart stopped too. The time stood still on its own and the flash of stars and sparkle of diamonds that littered all over the sky weren't even there anymore. All his eyes could see was what was before him; the love of his life, he decided in his mind. It wasn't too late to realize that, right?

When the seven seconds was up, he rolled to his back and released the air he was holding inside him. He didn't know how long he took to regain back his composure, but it was definitely long enough for Aoko to finish her wish and began blabbering about the stars again. Kaito turned his head towards the quiet girl beside him.

"Aoko...?" He raised himself off the ground and sat up. There was no response. Kaito frowned, his hand lightly touched her shoulder. "Hey, Aoko-?"

Sleepovers happened ages ago, when they were still young and innocent, and when his father was still around too. But even after so long, he still remembered her default sleeping face as clear as the song of ABC. Her soft, slow breathing and the rise and fall of her chest; that was when he knew nothing bad happened, but this situation wasn't really good either.

Kaito set a hand on the grass and leaned his weight onto his arm as he scoffed to himself. So Aoko was asleep, when his heart was about to burst into flames all the time. Great, just great. What the heck am I doing, and about to do? He used his other hand and brushed it across his messy hair before glancing back at Aoko.

Her lips were now parted and her hands weren't clutched together as tightly as before. She looked exactly like an angel.

He shook his head and gritted his teeth. What was wrong with his mind today?

Slowly, he laid back on the soft grass field again and decided to stay like this for a while more before deciding what he should do to this sleeping beauty. Just when he thought the meteor shower was long over, one last shooting star finally made its way and flashed across the vast sky.

He closed his eyes and made a silly wish before counting to seven too.

My tests are finally over! So sorry for the sudden disappearance, but you can say I'm kinda back. Updates' pace should be back to normal too.
Also, thanks for reading! Reviews are appreciated again!