Kikonote: Pleasantly shocked at all the interest! I think this should run 25-30 chapters or so, so yes, I will definitely be continuing it (for a long while).

Kaito leaned forward onto his hand, his eyes slipping closed as he rested against the desk. It wasn't that he wasn't a morning person, he just got bored waiting for the shop to open. He'd opted out of continued schooling in favor of a part time job. He wanted his time to be flexible so that he could put his all into finding Pandora and taking down those murderers. Plus, who needed a degree to do magic? Especially someone as talented as him? And with a charisma that could win any interviewer over? No, he wasn't too worried about all that.

His concerns were instead focused on a certain little Tantei-kun. Kaito tended to get attached to usual figures in his life anyway - he would even go out of his way for Hakuba, if it came to that - but Tantei-kun was special. Other than the fact that his brainpower ran circles around any of those other chumps, Tantei-kun was a literal impossibility. Kaito had no inclination to start detective work, but he had a healthy sense of curiosity in him, and Tantei-kun piqued his like no other. It was rather shallow when he thought about it, and at first he'd decided he didn't care...

But he did. That kid lingered in his mind like a scorned spirit. Over time, it had only gotten worse until it had hit the point where, to his horror, he'd started to idolize the guy in a way. Kaito had a very detailed record of the life of Shinichi Kudo, as such that Kaito felt like he knew him. Sure, some psychoanalyst type might consider it escapism, since he always had to be on his guard around his own friends. He didn't need labels like that, though, to admit he was interested in someone he just knew could have been his best friend in different circumstances. Sure, Shinichi may not have approved, but Kaito was a master at getting his way.

Friends though they weren't they had some similar interests. At least, they'd had. It bothered him that Tantei-kun wasn't really into his heists anymore. Heists were the only time Kaito got Tantei-kun to himself, even if for just a moment. Heists were the only time Kaito got to see Tantei-kun's maddening smirk and determined sharp eyes. It was like playing tag, only with thousands of screaming fans beneath them. But if Tantei-kun wasn't having fun anymore, neither was he.

Maybe Tantei-kun was lonely. There were definitely others who knew who he was, but from what Kaito had seen, the Mouris definitely didn't know, so Tantei-kun had to put on his kid act most of the time. Kaito liked it; whether or not Tantei-kun knew it, he had been adorable as a kid. He assumed Tantei-kun wasn't happy about it, though, just as he'd always hated having to think up lies or excuses when what he really wanted to talk about was his real self. Not that he saw them too much anymore. Hakuba and Aoko had a long-distance relationship and were doing their own things, Akako visited the store to pester him sometimes. It just wasn't the same as having honest-to-goodness friends. Would it have been sad for him to say that his best friends were his mom, his doves, and a detective who wanted nothing more than to arrest him?

And that the last one didn't even know who he was? It got depressing to think about. Kaito had no shame about his sneaky creeper tendencies. It was the fact that the object of his obsession was nine. Was he such a predator if he was interested in a nine year old, when he knew Conan was really nineteen? He told himself he wasn't; he just wouldn't try to explain that to anyone else. Not like anyone listened to him anyway.

"Kaito!" someone growled behind them.

Kaito broke free of his thinkdreaming to turn around with an innocent face. "Yamamoto-san?" The man, and Kaito's boss, was red with anger.

"Get this thing off me!" Yamamoto bellowed. "And get rid of these monsters! They'll destroy the merchandise!"

Kaito smiled down at the little kitty whose claws were digging into his boss' leg. "Wow, Yamamoto-san, you really don't like cats. Awww... Come on little guy." Kaito gave the cat a scratch behind the ears. He walked across the store, whose floor was currently a field of grass. There were cats everywhere. They followed Kaito's tail as he moved to the door. When he switched it open, they walked right out.

"See? They aren't so much trouble." With another snap of the fingers, the convenience store floor was back.

Yamamoto grumbled, turned around, and went straight into the back.

Shinichi sat crouched in the corner of Ran's room. He was using it on the basis that he minimize his presence in the room so Ran could use it whenever she came home from school. Shinichi only kept the essentials - in particular, the things he didn't want Kogoro finding in their room. This included his journal. It wasn't where he shared his innermost thoughts and feelings (those were quite locked away). It was something that his mom would be too proud over if she ever saw.

Shinichi didn't take himself for a writer, but for some reason, he'd taken to writing his every encounter with Kaitou KID in story form. In the back was a profile on KID with what information Shinichi knew as well as speculation. It wasn't so strange, he supposed, to keep a record of a criminal one was trying to capture. The problem was that capture wasn't quite Shinichi's top priority. Above all, Shinichi was a mystery nut, and Kaitou KID was an unsolved mystery.

For the first time, Shinichi had wondered if some criminals deserved worse than others. Never had he thought it worth discerning, but things changed when he compared the theatric heist shows to Black Organization crimes, or even crimes he saw on a near-daily basis. Despite turning the idea over in his head countless times, Shinichi hadn't come to a conclusion. Instead, he'd just gotten frustrated at being affected by KID's charms, because there really was no evidence that Kaito was better than anyone else. There was nothing to prove he didn't selfishly want to screw with authorities, or that he wasn't acting purely in self-interest, or that he would continue to always return what he stole.

KID was looking for something. Shinichi had heard him say things like "This isn't it" or "Wrong one again." That meant that one day, KID wasn't going to give the jewel back. Worth didn't seem to be the motivating factor. Unfortunately, Shinichi had no other leads on this matter.

Except that shot. It kept replaying in his mind in the silence, nagging at his mind. He needed to figure out who they were - these were snipers they were dealing with. But who? Why? Why KID? He sloppily scrawled notes about it in the back of the journal. The next step was to find out if it was a pattern.

Shinichi started when the alarm on his watch went off. He sighed, pushing his hair back, and shoved his journal back into the hidden compartment in Ran's bed - Kogoro didn't need to know about that little alteration he'd made. With Ran gone, Shinichi had taken on some of the brunt of Kogoro's inability to take care of himself. Kogoro tried to be nice about it compared to usual - he probably just felt bad about taking advantage of a nine-year-old, especially after that crack Eri had made.

When Shinichi got to the kitchen, Kogoro's feet were on the table. Kogoro lowered his newspaper and glanced at the boy. "So you are home."

Shinichi nodded and stuck his head in the fridge to get food ready. He'd been ignoring his own stomach for a good part of the afternoon. It was easy to get caught up in his messy little journal though, because after all, mysteries were his weakness.