At first, I put them at Tropical Land. But I thought about it, and I decided that some things could be better where I decided for them to go. Soooo I called my trusty-dusty Zachary-bo! (My fake Papa!) and asked him, "On a first date, where would you rather go…?" Haha he sounded kinda weirded out, considering. He prolly thought I was planning to ask him. Pshhhyeahh. Right. Don't flatter yourself.

ANYWAY. He was the deciding man. If a guy would rather go there, two guys would like it, right? Even though it's not a date per se haha.

Ohh yeah, and I went on good ol' Google and looked up 'restaurant name generator' and found one. It came up with, eventually, the Super Pepper, which made me laugh. Sooo yeeyahh.

Shinichi sighed. How did he get talked into this? Here he was, outside of a restaurant called "Super Pepper", in a casual outfit that Ran had picked out, waiting for some guy he didn't know at all. This guy, apparently, looked just like Shinichi, and his name was Kaito; that's all Ran had told him. But her intimidatingly threatening countenance and her twitching fist had kept him from asking any questions.

"Shinichi-kun?"

Shinichi looked up, almost certain for a moment that he was looking into a mirror. He blinked and realized that it was another person, looking at him expectantly. "Err…yeah. So you're Kaito…kun?" He tacked on the kun uncertainly, not sure if that was okay with the other teen.

Kaito beamed. "Yep. So, Aoko and your friend, Mouri-san, seem to think that we should bond, apparently."

"Ah. Is that what this is? Some sort of male bonding experience? Ran didn't tell me the details. What are you interested in?" Shinichi was kind of nervous, and he thought to himself that it was because he didn't know this strange guy.

"Hmm…magic!" To make his point, Kaito pulled out a white rose for Shinichi; he also snapped and a few doves flew out amidst some pink smoke. Shinichi didn't look as impressed a Kaito had hoped he would be, he just raised an eyebrow with a glance at the rose, as if saying, "You expect me to take that?" He looked back up at Kaito and was a little bit surprised to see a pout.

Shinichi sighed and accepted the rose. "Sorry, but I don't have anything to give you in return."

Kaito grinned goofily. "Don't worry, you're paying for my food!"

Twitch. Male bonding, my ass.

"So, shall we go in, Shinichi-kun?" asked Kaito, smiling and, without waiting for an answer, skipped forward and was swallowed by the huge wooden front door of the restaurant.

Shinichi had to think, What the hell did Ran get me into? But he followed his cheerful doppelganger into the restaurant.

The Super Pepper was a casual, good-sized restaurant which smelled always—as Shinichi realized on a later date—of root beer. Breakfast, lunch, dinner. Root beer. This restaurant had, like many others, some tables in the middle of a huge room, and off to the sides rested booths with red backs and fake glass tables which were very entertaining when you were bored and alone and wanted to see your own hand pressed up against something translucent. So far, though, Shinichi only knew the basics; such as what it looked like and the fact that it wasn't very crowded.

"Shinichi-kun! Come on, over here!" called Kaito from a small booth in a corner of the establishment. Shinichi's face heated up in embarrassment; the few people there were looking up from their plates, stopping their conversations, and turning to stare at the two identical boys. Shinichi walked briskly to the booth and slid in across from Kaito.

"God. Shut up! Do you have to be so loud?" he snapped, watching Kaito's smile fade into something that looked like a badly disguised pout. What was he, an eight-year-old? Why did he have to be so emotionally unstable? "H-hey…Uh, sorry. I didn't mean to upset you…" Shinichi didn't know exactly what to say to the sulking magician. "Here." He really didn't know what he was doing anymore; his hands moved of their own accord. He wouldn't allow this under normal circumstances…He was holding out the book he had been hiding just in case, offering it to Kaito.

But the other teen just looked at it. Then he looked up at Shinichi, still in pout mode, "What? I don't really like to read that much; I don't want your book." How had the two girls thought that Kaito would be a good friend for Shinichi? Really? He didn't even like books.

"I'm not giving it to you. If I insult you again during this dinner, you can…you can…" His breath became a little bit unsteady. "…burn it."

Kaito's face brightened infinitesimally. Or maybe Shinichi imagined it. Whatever the case, Kaito slowly reached out and clasped the mystery novel. Shinichi was sorry to see it go, and when he let go thoroughly he was contemplating pouncing on Kaito just to get it back. No, he would just be a good boy.

Soon, the waitress came and took their orders. It annoyed Shinichi to the end of the earth when Kaito started flirting with the girl, whose name was Mio, they found out. Kaito gave her a rose—yellow, he noted with mild interest—when she was walking off to fulfill their orders.

"Are you shameless?" Shinichi asked, shaking his head disapprovingly when they were again alone.

Kaito chuckled. "Yeah, I've heard that before."

Waiting for their food and nibbling on bread rolls that were a little bit softer than was normal, the two conversed about many different topics, from Kaitou Kid to the economy to music to different types of people. When their entrées came, they ate and talked between mouthfuls of either cheeseburger and chicken alfredo. Shinichi sat back, content, when he finished his last noodle. Kaito, however, grinned for the last time that night at the waitress and asked her for a slice of "triple chocolate cream fudge cake with double chocolate frosting and chocolate shavings on top." And to that, Shinichi almost vomited.

By the time his death-inducing cake came to him, Kaito wouldn't rip his gaze away from Shinichi for anything. He felt around for his fork and dug it into the cake, all the while watching as Shinichi looked away from him and surveyed the room with observant bright blue eyes. Shinichi was becoming somewhat more fascinating, and at the same time a little bit less of a mystery, with every second that ticked away. Kaito knew him from heists, but he didn't know him like this. Like a friend.

Kaito looked down at his cake, finally away from Shinichi, and beheaded it with his fork. He smiled and leaned over the table, holding out his arm and offering Shinichi the cake on his fork.

"Are you crazy?" Shinichi asked. "That is way too unhealthy!" But Kaito kept shoving, closer and closer…

Shinichi swears forever that he did not blush. He simply opened his mouth and, with it, grabbed the small piece of cake. It was chocolatey, too sweet. That was the first thing that he tasted. Then, after a few seconds of contemplation, he realized that it was good. Damn good, actually. Not that he'd ever admit that to the bouncy, unhealthy magician.

He made a show of smacking his mouth and swigging his coffee to wash the cake down. "Sorry, Kaito-kun, but sweet stuff like that is not for me." He smiled slightly though, showing that he wasn't angry with the other boy.

"Well," he said, stretching, as the two walked down the road, at the end of which Kaito would turn one way and Shinichi the other. "That was almost fun."

"Haha! Yeah it was! Let's do it again, Shinichi-kun!" Kaito said, dancing ahead in the road, the dusk light glinting off of his hair and dimly illuminating his face. He is entirely too energetic, Shinichi thought as he watched.

"Okay, let's exchange phone numbers." Kaito and Shinichi held up their phones, simultaneously, and clicked pictures of each other taking pictures of each other, there in the middle of the road. They both set that picture to the contact, and recited their numbers. At the end of the long road, they said their farewells.

Shinichi hurried home, thinking about the creeps that might attempt to knock him out in order to steal his money. Which reminded him that Kaito had, in fact, allowed (more like forced) Shinichi to pay for the whole meal—including cake, which was a five dollar piece! But, the food was pretty good.

Ring…Ring…Shinichi flipped open his phone without checking to see who it was first, and answered into it, "Hello?"

"Shinichi-kun!" Kaito's voice all but shouted across the distance. Shinichi sighed and turned the volume down on his phone; he knew he'd be sorry later if he didn't now.

"Kaito-kun, we just separated! What do you want?" The annoyance was prominent in Shinichi's voice, only because he knew already that, at times, Kaito could be clingy.

"Tsk tsk tsk! Shinichi-kun, I'd think before I speak if I were you. I still have your book, remember? …Which is honestly why I decided to call you!"

"Ah! I completely forgot about it. Augh, what will I do without it…" Shinichi sighed and face palmed.

"…" Over the phone, the magician stayed silent.

"Kaito-kun?" Shinichi asked after a few moments.

"Yes?"

The voice came from directly behind him, breath billowing out to meet his neck, which was why Shinichi jumped three feet into the air with a squeal. He calmed himself and breathed evenly—not without effort. His heart was pounding and his face was hot.

Shinichi turned around and glared at Kaito, trying to regain some of his dignity. "What'd you do that for!"

"I'll walk with you!" Kaito said cheerfully, ignoring the question, and started walking.

"Why did you sneak up on me?" Shinichi asked.

"It was fun, now come on!"

Shinichi hurried to catch up with the other boy and they walked with only the sound of footsteps, until Shinichi stopped. "Uh…Kaito-kun, this is my house, soo…" Shinichi felt slightly stupid saying this, especially when he pointed pointlessly at the dark house with the nameplate Kudou.

"Oooh! Well then, you wouldn't make me walk all the way back to the train station now, would you? In the dark?" Kaito's grin was the only flash of light Shinichi could see, besides the outline of the boy. When Shinichi didn't answer, Kaito added, "Someone might try to take advantage of a vulnerable cutie like me."

Shinichi sighed and walked through the iron gates and into his house. "C'mon, or I'll leave you."

Kaito hopped inside behind Shinichi. "Thanks for letting me stay over!" he called.

"Yeah, yeah. There is enough room, anyway. So I'll show you where you can sleep." Shinichi beckoned for Kaito to follow him up the stairs and into a big room. There was a bed against the far wall, a dresser on the other side, and a lamp, but other than that it looked pretty empty; obviously not somewhere anyone spent time. Kaito walked in, saying, "Oooh, nice." He glanced toward the wall beside the door that he had come into and shrieked, followed by a yell of, "I'M NOT STAYING IN HERE!"

"What, Kaito-kun? What are you yelling at?" Shinichi stepped inside, looking around wildly for an assassin, a bear, a ghost…but all he saw was the framed picture that his father had put there years before. It was a school of fish swimming through the ocean, and his father had gotten it from one of his friends. He hated it, but to be polite he kept it and put it in this otherwise barren guest room.

Kaito, meanwhile, was huddled in a corner, pressing up against the wall hard, as if trying to mold himself into it. His eyes were shut tightly.

"Kaito-kun?" Shinichi asked, kneeling beside him. "It's just a picture."

Kaito shivered and replied in a raspy voice, "It's a picture of hatred." Just the way he said it made Shinichi want to laugh, but he first wanted to get to the bottom of this case.

"Fish, Kaito-kun. What's-"

Kaito interrupted him with a tremble and a screamed, "Shinichi-kun you are the most insensitive person I've ever met!" He stood and ran out of the room and turned left. Shinichi sighed and didn't bother going to look for him, not knowing where he would have gone in this colossal house. All Shinichi knew was that Kaito was worse than a girl.

"You're already upsetting him that much?"

Shinichi glanced up and spotted Ran in the doorway where Kaito had disappeared. She looked curious.

"What are you doing here?"

"Well, you didn't call me or anything after your d-d- uh, outing with Kaito-kun." Shinichi was very suspicious of the way she had stuttered and of her cheeks growing pink. He had the acute suspicion that she had been about to say date, and he was glad she didn't.

"There is something seriously wrong with that guy," Shinichi said, his voice low. "He walked into the room and then went berserk!"

Ran blinked. "Oh, maybe he was afraid!"

Shinichi raised an eyebrow at the girl's lack of explanation. "Of…?"

"I don't know. But when I met Nakamori-san, she had said that Kaito-kun was afraid of something they saw in the park." Ran entered the room. "But could he have seen the same thing here?"

Shinichi's eyes were again drawn to the picture on the wall. "Hey, Ran, are there fish at the park?"

"Fish?" she asked, confusion lacing her tone. "Well, yeah, there's a little pond with fish in it."

Shinichi looked at her and said, "Fish…" He pondered it and started chuckling. It turned into a full-fledged laugh, and then, finally, hysteria.

Ran was surprised, to say the least. She looked at him, up against the wall with his mouth open in a loud, out of breath laugh and his arms clutching his sides, as if to hold them together. Ran's eyes were wide, and then she smiled and giggled slightly at Shinichi. Kaito already was good for him. She made a mental note to tell Aoko.

"Shinichi-kun?" a tentative whisper asked from outside the room. Shinichi took a few moments to quell his emotions, but he ultimately ceased his laughing.

"Kaito-kun?" Shinichi asked patiently, not moving from his position.

"What's so funny in there?"

Shinichi chuckled and peered around the doorway at Kaito, who was crouching on the ground. "Are you afraid of fish, Kaito-kun?"

Kaito swallowed visibly and nodded slightly. "They're horrible little devilish creatures." Shinichi smiled again.

"Okay, don't worry then. I'll take you to a room that's completely fish-free." Shinichi reached his hand out to help Kaito back onto his feet, and Kaito squeezed it, not letting go even when he was able to walk; scared. Like a kid. Oh, the torture Shinichi could inflict upon this boy. They walked down the hall, with Ran forgotten behind them, watching.

Shinichi poked his head through a door and then looked back at Kaito. "Alright, it's clear!" Kaito looked hesitant, but stepped inside nonetheless.

"Thanks, Shinichi-kun!" he said, smiling widely again. How the hell did he do that?

"Shinichi!" Ran called. "I need to go home and make Otou-san dinner!"

"Oh. Okay!" Shinichi went to see her out. "Be careful walking out there; when you're scared you don't think enough to use your karate moves." Maybe he shouldn't have said that, for said karate champ was glaring at him. But she relaxed and made her way out.

Shinichi glanced at the clock. It was 8:24 PM. Okay, so what did guys do during sleepovers? He'd never had a real one, truthfully. Well, he thought. A movie could be appropriate, right?

Kaito was suddenly in front of him, coming out of a puff of pink smoke. "So, Shinichi-kun, what are we going to do?"

Shinichi waved his hand like a fan, coughing, at the smoke. "Uh, do you want to watch a movie?"

"Oh! Sure!" Kaito smiled and walked straight to the tv room. Shinichi didn't really want to think about how he knew where it was. By the time he got in there, however, Kaito was already huddled up on the couch, engrossed in the previews as if they were the actual movie. "I don't want anything to eat or drink, don't be all polite and I know you were about to ask don't deny it just sit your ass down and if I want anything I'll ask you." That was said in sort of a rush, just one long run-on sentence which Shinichi didn't approve of.

They watched the movie, a pretty good mystery-horror, commenting on it occasionally. When it was over, Kaito stretched, yawned, and cuddled with the blanket that he had halfway through produced with a snap.

"Kaito-kun," Shinichi groaned. "Don't fall asleep on the couch, please. I really don't want to carry you back upstairs…"

Kaito mumbled tiredly, "Ya don' have tah carry me, I'll stay here."

"It'll be uncomfortable," Shinichi warned.

"Mmm…" Kaito was drifting off. Dammit. For some reason, Shinichi was really against the magician sleeping on the couch. He stood there for another moment, and then swirled and stalked off.

"Whatever! Don't you dare complain to me when your back hurts in the morning, idiot." Shinichi slammed his door.

Kaito then proceeded to walk sleepily back to his guest room, dragging his blanket behind him.

Yayy, chapter two!

*hides in embarrassment from really old writing that's not very good*

Anyway you peeps should review D:

I'm so sad cause I got all these notifications about followers and whatnot but hardly any reviews :'(

Also thanks for reading! Bye!