A/N: The Detective Conan cast will start appearing in earnest this chapter! In other important news, I have a job which may or may not affect my posting schedule. I should be able to tell you by next chapter. Finally, please check out my pixiv or Tumblr (both ninthfeather) if you'd like to see some of the sketches I did for this fic! (There are direct links in the Chapter 2 endnote on AO3, as well.)

As always, the disclaimer is that this fic runs on headcanon. There's also an element of character perspective at play-this fic is strictly gen, but some characters narrating definitely think that romances are happening, and discuss them. That doesn't mean the fic is going to turn into shipfic. It won't. I don't ship any of the teenagers, I just like exploiting their feelings about each other for angst. (Yes I am a horrible person, no I won't stop.)

Thanks again to miladyRanger for beta-ing!

Chapter 3

That afternoon found Chikage and Ginzou supervising a predictably chaotic sickroom visit.

"Oh my gosh, Kaito!" Aoko gushed, visibly holding herself back from embracing her 'not-her-boyfriend' as she stood at his bedside, chocolates in hand. "Dad was right, you look terrible!"

"Gee, thanks, Ahou-ko," Kaito replied flatly. Chikage glared at him, and he ignored it.

"B-but, Dad said you fell down a staircase!" Aoko said. "So of course you'd look terrible! It wasn't meant as an insult!"

"Sorry, Aoko, I'm just a little grumpy right now," Kaito said.

"'Cause you hurt, right?" Aoko asked.

"Aw, it doesn't hurt that much," Kaito said, waving his hand, hiding a wince at the movement, and then beaming at her.

"DON'T PRETEND TO BE FINE!" Aoko shouted.

"I WILL IF I WANT!" Kaito shouted back—and then winced visibly, because shouting moved his lungs, pulling at his shoulder wound and shifting bruised skin.

"Don't yell if it hurts, Ba-Kaito!" Aoko snapped.

"Well, he seems to be getting energy back," Ginzou remarked.

"I'm convinced that he and Aoko feed off of each other," Chikage replied.

"So, the story going around the station, about Hakuba and the staircase—is that really what happened?" Ginzou asked.

"Yep, unless it picked up embellishments," Chikage said. "KID wasn't involved, no matter what anyone says." If I'm lying already, might as well go for broke…

"He'd better not have been," Ginzou half-snarled.

"Kaito's recovering slowly, but he's here where I can watch over him," Chikage said. At Ginzou's not-too-subtle surprised expression, she added, "And I am staying here until he recovers. He could've died."

When, exactly, did I start thinking my teenage son was invincible? She wondered. I thought he was the one who was supposed to be thinking that way.

"Yeah," Ginzou said, subdued. "I guess even a workaholic like me would take some time off, if something like that happened to Aoko."

"Don't say that too loudly," Chikage said, raising an eyebrow. "She might try it."

"She's grown out of trying ridiculous things to get me to stay home from work," Ginzou said, shaking his head. "And I'm d*** grateful, too. I still remember the time she and Kaito got together and nearly convinced me she actually had dengue fever."

"I locked up the effects makeup better after that," Chikage said, with a small smile. And she may have outgrown the stunts, but you haven't outgrown forgetting about her. Kaito told me about her last birthday.

"Anyhow, we're both lucky, compared to the superintendent-general," Chikage said.

"Still can't believe Hakuba-kun just ran off," Ginzou said, with another shake of his head. "Also, that his father didn't know all that s***. How's that even happen?"

"The superintendent-general mentioned that Hakuba was adopted while you were telling him all of that, remember?"

"Yeah, and that's a whole different kinda weird," Ginzou said. "Only thing that ever felt off about him was those skills of his. He…fit, as someone who grew up in a family like the superintendent-general's, you know? Old money, lots of rules, a ton of etiquette lessons but maybe not as much time to play with friends his age as he shoulda had."

Chikage nodded. Toichi was always good at crafting covers, but Kaito's never really had any experience with anything more elaborate than a made-up police officer that has to last a few hours, to my knowledge. I wonder when Saguru picked up that particular skill set. I certainly never taught him it.

"It did explain some of his quirks rather neatly," Chikage said aloud. "Not all, though."

"And that's the other thing!" Ginzou said. "I always assumed Superintendent-General Hakuba knew about all of the kid's weird skills. I didn't want to poke into my boss's kid's privacy, so I never said anything—but did you see him? He was about grey by the time I finished."

Chikage grimaced. "It isn't pleasant, the idea that your child might not trust you," she said, thinking of Saguru's cold tone and a face that was an older version of Kaito's.

"I guess not," Ginzou said, frowning a little to himself. "I hope he finds the kid and gets an explanation outta him. I know I'd like one."

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Kaito wasn't exactly sure why he hurt this much, which was, on the balance, more frustrating than anything—he landed on his front, and he'd gotten shot in the shoulder, but none of that explained why his lower back was hurting. But it had been four full days, now, and he still felt like a car—no, that wasn't right, a car wasn't personal enough—he felt like Tantei-kun ran into him on his skateboard at full speed. More than once.

Up until now, he'd had some bruised ribs and a broken leg; compared to this, those were nothing.

Being injured sucks, he thought.

And then, he thought back to bleary memories of sitting in the interrogation room with his mom—never again, that was too creepy—and watching a tired-eyed superintendent-general wilt as Nakamori stammered through a list of things neither he nor Kaito knew about Hakuba.

"I guess I didn't really start wondering about him until after I saw that scar of his," Nakamori had said. When Hakuba's father had looked confused, Nakamori had traced a line along the side of his neck and elaborated, "Y'know, that big ol' jagged pink one he's got on his neck? I don't know where he got it, but it's not shaped right to be from a surgery. He said it was why he wore collared shirts."

Absently, Kaito fingered the side of his own neck, along the line Nakamori had indicated. Sinew shifted under his fingers, stirred by the faint thrum of his pulse, and he wondered how Hakuba had survived whatever left that mark behind.

According to his mom's account of her conversation with Hakuba—he'd gotten her to give him a word-by-word recount—they were already past the point in time that Hakuba had travelled back from. So Kaito wasn't going to get a scar like that, not unless he got it in a different way.

And the only reason he wasn't going to get a scar like that was that Hakuba had interfered.

I can't just sit around like this, he thought, frustrated. If I hadn't nearly gotten killed, he wouldn't have had to rescue me, he wouldn't have had to talk to Mom, and he wouldn't have gotten spooked enough to leave. Now he's somewhere out there, probably convinced Mom's spilling all of his secrets.

I have to find him.

That would be a much easier thing to do if I could, y'know, move, he reflected. Chasing someone involved forward motion, usually, he knew that much from watching the critics, and he wasn't exactly up to forward motion—or any motion, really—at the moment. But the longer he waited to go after Hakuba, the harder he'd get to find.

If the Task Force gives me a ten minute head start, the heist is mine unless they pull off something really good, he reflected. If I give Hakuba as many weeks as it'll take me to get back to full strength—I'll never see him again. Or if I do, he'll be wearing a completely different face and I won't recognize him at all. I have to act quickly, somehow.

Mom has contacts, he thought. I wish I had—wait. Chat Noir!

His phone was on the floor by the bed. Carefully, he propped himself on the elbow not attached to the shoulder with a hole in it. Unfortunately, that shoulder was still black and blue, but he managed at least to get his back onto the pillows instead of his head. From there, he could dangle his arm off the side of the bed to reach the phone.

Ah, bedrest, I am so sick of you already, he thought, his arm aching a little as his fingers closed around the phone. He scrolled through the contacts, finding "Ruby Jones" and then hitting the "call" button.

"Ruby Jones," came Chat Noir's crisp tones. "I'm sorry, I'm with a client, can I call you back?"

"I would prefer not, milady," Kaito replied, his effort at shifting completely into KID's vocal range somewhat stymied by the fact that he was horizontal and bruised badly enough that filling his lungs to get to the deep part of his range was…unpleasant.

"Ah, I see," Ruby said. "I'm sorry, this is a co-worker on a particularly vital project, I'm afraid I can't ignore their call. Please excuse me." A few seconds later, she'd switched to French, and the harshness of her tone had turned teasing but still sharp-edged. "And what do you want now, KID?"

"You're lucky I speak French, you know," Kaito replied, keeping irritation from his tone. And that Mom fixed the pain medication dosage, because I haven't been practicing French enough since she started travelling all the time.

"Hmph, your accent is atrocious," Ruby replied. "But, your reason for calling? I do have to get back to that client. Was the information I gave you not good?"

"What information?" Kaito asked.

"Now you pretend forgetfulness?" Ruby asked. "If this is a game, I'm not interested in playing. Though…you don't sound well. Did something happen?"

"I got injured a few days ago," Kaito said. "Nothing you need to be concerned about."

"That is what you get, when you take such risks," Ruby replied, tone severe.

"We both have reasons to be in, ah, our line of work," Kaito pointed out. "Surely that is worth some measure of risk. Apart from that, what risks do I take that you do not?" Aside from the snipers you aren't supposed to know about, that is?

"I don't go asking about the locations of the most dangerous criminals in Paris, with the intention of seeking them out," Ruby practically hissed. "You're lucky not to be dead, with the stories I've heard—"

"W-when did I do this?" Kaito stammered, his stomach churning.

"Not two days ago," Ruby said. "Which also begs the question of why you're calling me again. You still haven't answered."

"I'm looking for someone, and I think you've seen him," Kaito said, as realization and pain joined to make him short of breath. "Mademoiselle Chat Noir, the KID you spoke to two days ago wasn't me. It was…a friend, a very talented friend who I'm currently trying to find."

"The hesitation before you said 'friend' speaks volumes to the depth of your relationship," Ruby said flatly. "As does his choice to impersonate you, and lie to me. It may be better for you to attempt to stop caring for this person. I doubt you'll find him."

"Why do you say that?" Kaito asked slowly, carefully holding his tone in check.

"I told you, he was asking about the truly dangerous criminals," Ruby said. "I doubt he'll survive finding them."

"These criminals….I would guess there's a group of them, in dark clothing?" Kaito asked, an ugly suspicion forming in his mind.

"That's correct," Ruby said. "They're to be avoided."

"Unless you've already caught their eye," Kaito muttered.

"What?" Ruby asked.

"Nothing," Kaito said. "Where did you send him? It's very important that I find him—no matter how dangerous what he attempted was."

"I met with him in Paris, but they aren't common there," Ruby said. "I mentioned a few cities. Berlin, Omsk, Reims...those are all places where I've found a few too many people in dark trenchcoats for my taste. I'm afraid I don't know which one he left for."

"Did you give him any other information?" Kaito pressed.

"I told him what I'm telling you," Ruby said. "Those men and women in dark clothing—those of us who have limits to what we are willing to do avoid them. If they take notice of you, it won't end well."

"Noted," Kaito said. "Thank you."

"I would normally demand a favor in return, but you owe me nothing for such bad news," Ruby said. "I told you. You won't see him again."

"Don't underestimate him, or me, Chat Noir," Kaito said. "But I'll accept your offer of free information!"

"Why, you insolent little—"

Kaito hung up. He was getting the feeling that the trick to remaining on good terms with Chat Noir was, in fact, not being on too good of terms with her—she'd just get suspicious if he were too civil with her.

Well, at least he had a lead now. Even if it was not an encouraging one.

What the h*** do you think you're doing, Hakuba? he wondered.

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Kudou Shinichi was having trouble concentrating on his schoolwork—not that he especially needed to, mind, because his so-called schoolwork was coloring in pictures of different animals.

Not only can I color it in, I can tell you it's taxonomic rank, though maybe not down to species since it's a cartoon cat—though if I added appropriate markings, maybe…

"Conan-kun's so good at staying in the lines!" Ayumi exclaimed, startling him out of his bitter thoughts.

"Hah, he's so good at it he didn't even notice that school ended," Genta said, unimpressed.

Shinichi blinked, and looked around, noticing the children around him gathering their school supplies. Unease prickled at the back of his neck, like it always did nowadays when he realized he'd gotten so absorbed in a case that he'd completely forgotten about his surroundings.

Before becoming Conan, he'd felt safe in losing himself in cases, burying himself so deeply that he'd even forget to eat until Ran reminded him. Now, he knew better. Anything could happen at any moment, and he had to be paying attention and ready to deal with it.

Hakuba's sudden disappearing act, which also happened to be his current preoccupation, was also just another demonstration of how true that was.

Shinichi had only absently paid attention to the boy—despite the fact that they were technically peers (shrinking drugs notwithstanding) and in more-or-less the same line of work, they didn't often cross paths. He was still a bit unsettled by the fact that he simply couldn't remember when he'd first heard the boy's voice, particularly by the part of mind that insisted it had been while he was transforming from Shinichi to Conan. And he couldn't completely discount Hattori's suspicions of Hakuba, either, but he couldn't act on them when all Hattori really had was a few scattered observations and a sense of wrongness. So he'd stuck to avoiding the physically-older boy, as a precaution.

Maybe if I had, I would have seen this coming, Shinichi thought, as he gathered his belongings into his schoolbag.

Everyone he spoke to agreed that Hakuba had left of his own will. If he hadn't, someone had gone through a lot of trouble to convince everyone, all the way up to KID, that he had. But something about it was making his instincts shriek in protest, and he'd been trying to put a finger on it all day.

There were reasons that Hakuba could've run off. He was apparently adopted, and no doubt his father wasn't often home. He was half-English, and Japan wasn't as kind to hafu as people liked to pretend it was. Being a teenage detective itself could wear on a person, mind and soul, Shinichi knew that much firsthand. All of that could've easily built up to the desire to leave.

It made perfect, logical sense, Shinichi reflected as he followed Ayumi and the other Detective Boys out of the school, but it didn't fit the Hakuba Saguru Shinichi had met. He was too…focused. Obsessive, really. Even after only meeting him a few times, Shinichi couldn't imagine him leaving his work behind. He could barely imagine Hakuba taking a voluntary break, for that matter. So the idea that he'd abandon his life in Tokyo, all the work he'd put into catching KID and building up credibility with the police, just because of routine stresses, however severe…Shinichi couldn't quite buy it.

Something happened, Shinichi thought with certainty as they walked outside, into a crowd of increasingly loud elementary-schoolers.

"Can we go to the Professor's today?" Genta asked. "I want to see if he has any—"

"The Professor isn't going to have any eel, Genta," Ai interrupted, dour as always. "But I think Conan-kun is getting picked up by his big sister today."

"Well, we could go without him!" Mitsuhiko suggested, a little shrilly.

Shinichi winced inwardly. It was awkward enough when Genta and Mitsuhiko had been jealous over all the attention that Ayumi gave him, but now Mitsuhiko was starting to get upset over how much attention he got from Ai, too.

He'd been bad enough at elementary school social dynamics the first time through.

"Conan-kun!" Ran's voice called, picking her way through the crowd of children.

Shinichi ran to meet her, absently waving back at the Detective Boys as he went.

"Hi, Ran-nee-chan!" Shinichi said, mixing his own relief with a level of enthusiasm appropriate to a kid his supposed age.

"Hi, Conan-kun," Ran said. "How was your day at school?"

Shinichi launched into an account of the day's activities, all babbling and excited gestures, Ran nodding at all the right places as they walked home.

It was the easiest way to avoid contemplating how normal looking up at her had become, or the way the last year had aged her compared to that one picture they had of the two of them at Tropical Land. When he'd started lying to her like this, he'd expected his time as Conan to last a month or so at most—despite the near-death situation, reality hadn't set in.

Now that it was clear that this was a long-term situation, though, he was still lying and she was still missing the person right next to her, and it was all so impossibly messed up that he couldn't even begin to think of how to fix it.

Best to focus on immediate issues, he decided, as they arrived at the detective agency. Like making sure my homework's more-or-less on grade level—and that.

His eyes narrowed as he noticed a dove perched on the edge of the Mouri Detective Agency's windowsill, partially obscuring one of the kanji. It could be a loose pet, or an albino pigeon, except that Shinichi remembered keeping one of KID's doves in a box right by that exact window while it recovered from an injury.

He took the stairs two at a time, ignoring Ran when she shouted after him and nearly tripping over one of Mouri's beer bottles in his race for the window.

"What do you think you're doing, brat?" Mouri demanded, startled out of sleep.

Shinichi ignored him too and tugged open the window—a massive effort, at this size—then gently scooped up the dove from the windowsill.

Carefully, he held onto the bird with one hand, and ran the other along its legs, feeling until his fingers brushed rolled-up paper. He carefully removed it and slipped it into his pocket, then held the dove out to open air. He thought he felt the feathers brush his fingers when it took off, but that might have been his imagination.

Tugging the window closed, he turned to face a grumpy Mouri and a confused-looking Ran.

"What the heck was that all about?" Mouri asked.

Shinichi let out a nervous laugh without thinking. "I just thought it smelled a little stale in here," he said, scratching at the back of his neck.

"So you had to run up the stairs?" Ran asked, hands on her hips. "I told you before that you shouldn't do that! What if you'd tripped?"

"I'll be more careful on the stairs," Shinichi promised. "Can I go to my room now?"

Ran smiled at him a little reluctantly. "Okay, but do some homework while you're there," she said.

Shinichi nodded and dashed off, the note from KID weighing in his pocket.

Maybe he should've told Mouri. Probably, he should have. But was it really so much to ask for him to have this one thing to himself? If it was important, he'd tell the police. But…if it wasn't something urgent, maybe he'd handle it himself.

He was really getting to miss his autonomy these days, after all.

He plopped down on his futon, glasses askew, and took out the note. It was short, typed, and for once not cryptic at all.

A date, a time, an address, and a KID doodle, Shinichi thought, intrigued. Why does KID want to meet?

Well, there was really only one way to find out.

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A/N: In case anyone is wondering, Kaito is going to be at least somewhat realistically injured. I'm definitely no doctor, thus the "somewhat," but this is not a fic where he's going to be back to action in three days. It's more realistic and better for my purposes if the physical effects of the last fic's heist last.

For anyone who wasn't aware, 'ahou' and 'baka' are both ways of saying 'idiot'-and much harsher, depending on context-and the puns with the insults and the character's names are used in-canon. I could translate them but I like them like this; they're fun.

Things are starting to move forward, and next chapter will be Shinichi and Kaito's first planned meeting (excepting last chapter's near-disaster as the unplanned one). Please look forward to it!