Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan/Case Closed.

Pairing: KaitoxShinichi

Note: Sorry this is taking so long to update.

In Other Shoes

Chapter 7 - Eyes On You

KID—no, Kaito, Shinichi reminded himself—was back again. The magician had been coming to the café on a regular basis ever since he and Shinichi had run into each other that day at the park.

He typically came into the shop early before the first rush in for breakfast. He always sat at the same table by the window—a table in Shinichi's seating area, and he always ordered a hot latte and a chocolate croissant. More often than not, he would have the day's newspaper with him.

He was polite and—unsurprisingly, considering who he was—charming to a fault. It wasn't long before he had won the admiration of everyone who worked at the café as well as all the other regulars who typically visited the café at the same time he did.

Shinichi couldn't help wondering what the thief was up to. Of course, it was possible that the thief wasn't up to anything. He could just be here for his day job—and doing quite well at it, obviously. But Shinichi couldn't shake the feeling that the thief had been watching him.

"Or maybe you're just being paranoid," he muttered to himself as he snuck a glance across the café at the thief in question. He was a little startled to be met squarely by a pair of sharp, indigo eyes.

The thief flashed him a cheery grin and a wink.

Embarrassed at having been caught staring, Shinichi ducked his head and turned away.

He wasn't here as a detective, he reminded himself. He wasn't even here as Kudo Shinichi. He was here precisely to be none of those things (a state which he was finding disturbingly pleasant), and therefore what KID—er, Kaito—was or was not up to was none of his concern. After all, it was KID, so he knew no one was going to turn up dead. As long as that held true, Shinichi felt somewhat justified in hanging onto this long, long overdue vacation.

Determined not to let KID's presence keep on bothering him, Shinichi threw himself fully into his serving maid role, greeting guests, making small talk, refilling their cups and bringing them their orders.

He had just about managed to sort of forget about KID in so far as that was possible with the man in question being one of his customers when Shizuka stopped him near the kitchen.

"Hey Shinko-chan, will you be taking your break soon?"

Startled, Shinichi glanced over at the clock on the wall then took in the much slower pace of activity all around the café. KID—Kaito was still there, he noted and quickly looked away again. "I guess so. Why?"

Shizuka beamed. "Oh. That's perfect. I wanted to introduce you to someone."

-0-

Kuroba Kaito hummed to himself as he finished off the last of his drink. He had long finished his food, and the plate had already been taken away—by a waitress who wasn't his Tantei-kun, signaling that the disguised detective had gone on his break. It seemed a little earlier than Shinichi usually took his break, but Kaito supposed that something must have come up. It was a shame because Kaito himself had the whole day free today, and he had been hoping to catch Shinichi on his way out. But it seemed his detective had given him the slip.

Ah well. Another time then. From what Kaito had been able to gather from conversations with the staff and regulars, Shinko would be here all summer. Since Kaito planned to be here all summer too, he had plenty of time to work with.

Granted, he was still trying to work out exactly what he wanted to do. He knew he wanted to, well, close the distance between his civilian identity and Shinichi, but he was still very foggy on the details.

But that was okay. It was a little like planning a heist, he decided. The target was one Kudo Shinichi's attention (and friendship. Then, well…he would have to see how things went). And the first step to any heist was to scope out the lay of the land.

In this case, that meant more than just familiarizing himself with Shinichi's current workplace and schedule. It also meant getting to know the rest of the town and what it had to offer to a scheming phantom thief.

Kaito nodded to himself and folded up the newspaper he'd been perusing. Seeing his waitress and the patrons from some of the other tables glance his way, he continued to fold the newspaper smaller and smaller until it was a tiny square of paper resting on his palm. Then he closed his fingers over it. When he opened his hand again, the paper was entirely gone. Several gasps reached his ears, and he grinned. There was nothing like an appreciative audience.

A few minutes later, Kaito was outside, hands stuffed into his pockets as he strolled down the street and simply let the town wash over him. He hadn't been here long, but he was already growing quite fond of Iroyamura. The place had a quiet charm, and everyone here seemed to be full of stories to share.

Quite a lot of those stories, he'd found, revolved around the arts and tales of romance.

There had been his mother's friends, who told him tales of a ghost girl who liked to play the lute on the performance center stage when the venue was deserted and not a soul could hear her mournful song. They had also claimed that the harp in the storage room had belonged to the mistress of a great lord, and she had played it for him every night because the loveliness of her music on those strings had been all that could keep the lord's terrible nightmares at bay.

He'd been told that the spirit of an ancient samurai wandered the streets at night, searching for his lady love, who, in turn, was said to sometimes be seen sleeping at the foot of a cherry blossom tree in the park where she had passed away from heartache after learning that her beloved had been killed in battle. A fountain in that same park was said to be home to a water spirit who had fallen in love with a human musician who used to live near the area. It was said that she would bless with good fortune anyone who would sing for her the song that musician had written for her.

There was a small museum of calligraphy where you could see the inkstone and brushes left behind by a great poet that was said to bestow good penmanship to children who paid their respects. There was also a gallery of handcrafted masks that was supposed to contain a mask that was possessed, although whether it was possessed by its creator or the actor who had worn it seemed to be an issue under constant debate by the gallery's two caretakers. There was supposed to be a mirror in the oldest restaurant in the town that was said to show you the face of your soul mate on the night of a new moon, although, again, there was some dispute over which restaurant exactly was the oldest in town. The three main candidates all had huge, ornate mirrors somewhere as part of their décor.

With a tale attached to every nook and cranny, the place was certainly a source of inspiration, Kaito thought. He had already worked several of the local tales into his shows and was in the process of incorporating several more.

Kaito had just turned onto a winding street lined with small, craftsmen's stores said to be one of the most picturesque streets in town when he spotted a familiar cowlick. The magician's moment of delighted surprise, however, gave way to confusion when he drew closer and realized that Shinichi was not alone.

The detective was standing in front of a vendor's stall selling hand woven rope charms with a lanky young man wearing a strange T-shirt sporting what looked like an accurate blueprint to an old shrine of all things. Said young man had just bought a pair of charms from the vendor and handed one to Shinichi.

Kaito stared. His thoughts whirled.

Was Shinichi on a date?

The thought was…extremely upsetting, actually.

Was this why Shinichi had left the café early?

Who was that guy anyway? And how had he and Shinichi met? Kaito had never seen him at Miyako's Maid Café, so he was unlikely to be a regular. But wait…

Indigo eyes narrowed as the young man in question turned his head. His ear… Kaito had a superhuman memory for physical features and mannerisms, and so, though he knew that he had never seen this man before, he also knew that he had seen the guy's ear before. One of the waitresses that Shinichi worked with had the same ear. A relative of hers then? It seemed more than likely. And now that he thought back, he was pretty sure he saw that very waitress talking to Shinichi just before the detective had gone on break.

The realization that this date had probably been arranged by one of Shinichi's coworkers did not make Kaito feel any better.

It wasn't until he saw Shinichi stiffen and beginning turning in his direction that Kaito realized he had been staring at the pair. He ducked hastily into the nearest store—and nearly leapt right back out of it again when he realized that it was filled with fish-themed glass ornaments.

-0-

The feeling of being watched was back again.

Shinichi twitched and glanced back over his shoulder. The street behind him was bustling just as it had been the last few times he'd looked, and he couldn't see anything out of place.

He was still sure they were being watched, and it was making him jumpy. It didn't help that he was already a bit uncomfortable with the situation he was in.

When Shizuka had said she wanted to introduce him to someone, he had not been expecting to be sent out on what was essentially a blind date. He thought ruefuly that, if he had known this was what was going to happen, he would have come up with some kind of excuse.

This was not a comment on Shizuka's cousin. The architecture student was, as far as Shinichi could tell, a decent enough guy. He had a tendency to start rambling about the architecture at the slightest provocation. This wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Shinichi was learning a lot about architecture, and he generally approved of people with passions for things as long as they didn't involve hurting people. The problem here, however, was that A, the budding architect kept looking at him in a shy, hopeful way that was making Shinichi feel extremely guilty and B, the guy kept trying to hold Shinichi's hand.

He tried it again now as they left a local art gallery currently exhibiting watercolors by local artists, and he suggested that they stop by the tea shop across the street.

"I've been told that their specialty teas are all excellent."

Shinichi pretended he hadn't noticed the proffered hand by exclaiming that the tea sounded great and hurrying off towards the tea shop.

The budding architect made another more discreet attempt to take Shinichi's hand while they were waiting in line at the tea shop, but someone jostled past between them before he could complete the move, and then it was too late because it was their turn to order.

The aspiring architect proved persistant however, and he made yet another attempt as they were walking along the street with their drinks in hand.

One of the many people also walking along the street, however, bumped into him at just the wrong (right?) time to cause him to spill his drink all over himself.

The culprit, a man wearing a baseball cap, apologized hastily, shoved a bottle of detergent into the startled architect's hands, and ran off.

"Uh, that was weird," Shizuka's cousin said, looking helplessly from the departing stranger to the detergent to his mostly empty cup then to Shinichi.

"It was," Shinichi agreed slowly. He had a sudden suspicion about who might have been watching them, but he shook the thought away for now in favor of offying to help his, for lack of a better word, date.

To Shinichi's private relief, the soaking by tea put an effective end to the outing, especially since it was getting close to the time when his evening shift at the café would start, and most people soaked in tea could really only think about finding a change of clothes.

Shinichi did feel somewhat guilty though, so he offered to give the budding architect his drink as a replacement. He proceeded to be very glad to say goodbye because the silly grin that his perfectly innocuous offer earned him was really weirding him out.

-To Be Continued-