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

Pairing: KaitoxShinichi

In Other Shoes

Chapter 6 - Speculations of a Thief

The Iroyamura Center for the Performing Arts was a surprisingly spacious and well kept venue. It boasted not only a theater but also a ballroom, a gallery, and a small but lovely outdoor amphitheater. Their lighting and sound equipment, though not the most advanced, were decent and well maintained. Even the dressing rooms were decently sized, clean, and well furnished.

Standing before the full length mirror in the dressing room he had been given for the duration of the summer, Kaito adjusted his tie and looked himself over, making sure that none of his gadgets or tricks were visible. As he ran his last checks, his thoughts returned as they tended to these days to Fujimine Shinko who, he had to admit, he was beginning to think might actually be Kudo Shinichi in disguise. Why did he think this? There were a variety of reasons.

For one, when he had doubled back out of curiosity to see exactly who the old friend his mother was meeting up would turn out to be, he had seen none other than Kudo Yukiko. The two women had greeted one another like old friends indeed and then begun whispering and giggling like excited middle school girls. Considering Chikage had never been the giggly type as far as her son could remember, the sight of the two women like that had disturbed him enough to send him on his way.

His second reason, which perhaps should have been his first, was his gut instinct. And yes, he knows that isn't a very logical way to go about proving anything, but he's a thief after all. And thief's needed to hone their sixth sense in these matters every bit as much as detectives did—more so really as thieves had more to lose when they were wrong.

Another reason was that Kudo Shinichi had disappeared completely from the news right after his last university exam of the semester. He had disappeared so completely that none of his friends or neighbors knew where he might have gone or what he was up to, though the neighbor had received a cryptic message from Kudo Yukiko about a family vacation.

And now here was Kudo Yukiko, sans one son but plus one daughter who was Shinichi's spitting image with a few minor changes. Changes that, Kaito knew, were child's play for a woman who had been trained by Kuroba Toichi. His father had, after all, been the best.

The real clincher though had been their little meeting at the park. The girl's choice of reading materials, her mannerisms, the way she walked, the way she talked, the things she noticed—all of it screamed Tantei-kun to Kaito's well-trained eyes and ears. Especially since Shinichi did not appear to be putting much effort into creating a persona, merely a superficial disguise.

Why Shinichi was doing this, however, was the problem and the key to Kaito's own dilemma.

Was Shinichi here on an investigation that required him to pretend to be a girl and work at a maid café? Or was Shinichi trying to take a break from the crimes and criminals of his daily life by temporarily becoming someone else? If the former than Kaito should probably leave him alone. But if it was the latter… Well, it would open up oh so many new possibilities. Possibilities that Kaito had heretofore not allowed himself to entertain for various reasons that he would prefer not to go into in depth at this time.

In other words, to make a long story short, if Shinichi was here to get away from his life and just be someone else for a time then it was the perfect opening Kaito needed to finally insert his civilian identity into Shinichi's life. Yes, it would be to insert himself into Shinichi's life when the detective was in disguise as a young waitress, but every relationship had to start somewhere.

It was as he found himself thinking this that Kaito realized he didn't actually care if Shinichi was here on a case or just on vacation. He couldn't let this opportunity pass him by. Another one like it may never come again. And Kaito was not going to waste time regretting not taking advantage of a golden opportunity when it presented itself.

But first, he should probably confirm his theory.

If he had been a detective, Kaito would have set about gathering more clues. He would probably have questioned the staff at the café and possibly some of the regulars too. But Kaito was not a detective. He was the Kaitou KID.

And so, late that night, he scaled the café building and peeked through each window of the apartment above it. He had meant to examine the windows and plan a brief excursion inside the apartment in the future at a better time, but he got lucky today as he often did and the window to what turned out to be his quarry's bedroom happened to be open to allow in the warm, night breeze. Luckier still, the detective was still awake and reading in bed, which meant that A, there was light, and B, Shinichi was concentrating on a book—a state of mind from which he was impossible to rouse without drastic measures. That meant Kaito had both ample light and leisure with which to examine both the room and its occupant.

Kaito felt a thrill at having his hypothesis confirmed.

"Well, well, well," he murmured under his breath as he watched the detective turn another page in his book. "Me thinks this summer is going to be more interesting than I thought."

-To be Continued-

Note: Happy Thanksgiving!