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

Pairing: KaitoxShinichi

Heroes and Villains: Blue Moon Island

[Superpower Verse]

Part 4

It was, perhaps, a change in the sound of the waves that woke him. It was a gradual waking because Shinichi was frankly feeling far too comfortable to want to wake up. But ever so slowly, he found himself growing more and more aware of the liquid rush of each incoming wave and the sigh of its retreat.

Shinichi listened for a long time to that watery rhythm before, just as gradually, a new thought rose in the darkness behind his eyelids. This thought was one of puzzlement because the sound of the waves was all that he could hear. It was as though the entirety of the rest of the world had gone strangely, eerily still.

Somewhat perturbed, Shinichi opened his eyes. He had been curled up against Kaito's side with his head tucked under the magician's chin, but now, drawn by some inexplicable force, he turned so that he could gaze out the open balcony doors (had they forgotten to close them? He supposed they must have, but he couldn't remember). Kaito's arms tightened around his waist at the movement, but Shinichi barely noticed because the entirety of his half-asleep attention had been caught by movement out on the deceptively flat expanse of the sea.

It was a pale white flame dancing on the horizon where sky met sea.

No, wait. It wasn't a flame. It was a ship.

And it wasn't far out on the horizon. It was just off of the island's shore, albeit far enough out that it was in no danger of running aground.

What struck Shinichi as strange even in his sleepy, surreal haze, however, was that the ship was an extremely old-fashioned one. That, and the entire thing was a silvery white that almost seemed to be translucent. Except it really was translucent, he realized a moment later. He could see the ripple of the ocean waves right through its faintly luminous shape.

Sudden realization had Shinichi's dreamy thoughts snapping into sudden, sharp focus. He half expected the ship to vanish then and there and prove itself to be nothing but a figment of his imagination, but there it still was—sailing silent and serene across the tranquil sea.

"Kaito," he whispered, eyes still trained on that glowing shape on the water.

The magician stirred and murmured something Shinichi couldn't make out. One of his hands slid down over the curve of Shinichi's hip to cup his bare bottom—which it promptly squeezed.

Shinichi let out a yelp and wheeled about to snatch a pillow and smack the owner of said hand upside the head with it. "Kai! Now is not the time!"

Kaito let out a muffled noise of protest and grabbed the pillow from Shinichi as he sat up.

"What was that for?" he complained.

Shinichi glared at him, still blushing. "Don't pretend you don't know. You were groping me!"

Kaito managed a very convincing look of confusion. "You didn't complain about it last night—or rather earlier tonight," he amended after a glance at the night sky outside which was only just beginning to turn pale towards the east. "I don't know why you should start complaining about it now."

Shinichi's blush darkened tenfold as he spluttered, momentarily lost for words. But then he remembered why exactly he had woken Kaito up and jerked around to stare out the balcony window again.

The ship was gone.

What was more, the balcony doors were closed where he could have sworn they had been open earlier when he had seen the ghostly ship sailing by.

He stared. Had it all been in his imagination? But it had seemed so real…

Strong arms slid around him from behind, pulling him backwards onto Kaito's lap.

"What are you looking for?" the magician asked. His warm breaths tickled the shell of Shinichi's ear, making him shiver.

"I thought I saw a ship on the water earlier," Shinichi replied a touch uncertainly.

"Nothing strange about that," Kaito pointed out.

"It wasn't a normal ship. It was glowing," the detective explained, trying to ignore the way Kaito had begun nibbling on his ear. "And I could see right through it."

"Are you saying you actually saw the famous ghost ship?" the magician asked, amused.

Shinichi grimaced. "I…I don't know. It was really clear, so I know it wasn't a trick of the light."

"But?" Kaito prompted as one of his hands began tracing nonsense shapes on Shinichi's bare thigh.

"B—but the balcony doors were open when I saw it," the detective admitted.

"I see." Kaito mulled this over. "Well, there is a simple explanation."

"You're going to suggest that I was dreaming, aren't you?"

"Yep."

Shinichi frowned. Most of him was inclined to agree with Kaito's assessment, and yet… A small voice in the back of his mind insisted that that was not the case. If asked to explain why though, he couldn't have raised even one good reason.

He closed his eyes and brought the memory of that surreal moment back up in his mind, trying to figure out what about it was bothering him.

"You know," Kaito murmured into his ear, drawing his attention back to the present. "I had a pretty interesting dream too. Would you like me to tell you about it?"

Shinichi realized abruptly that, sometime while he'd been lost in thought, Kaito's hands had found their way to his inner thighs (which he had unconsciously parted). And he could feel the magician's arousal pressing against him from behind.

His blush from before came surging back with a vengeance, and Shinichi tried to scramble off of his lover's lap. His attempt to flee was thwarted when one of Kaito's arms immediately wrapped tight around his waist, trapping him where he was.

"Now, now," Kaito admonished. "I promise it was a good dream. You're going to enjoy hearing about it."

-0-

They didn't return to the topic of the ghost ship that Shinichi may or may not have dreamed until breakfast that morning. They had chosen to take their breakfast at the Blue Moon Rose—a decision they had reason to celebrate as the food was every bit as delicious as they had heard.

Kaito had found a website dedicated to the Blue Moon Island ghost ship, otherwise known as the Ghost Ship of Half Moon Cove, and the cursed treasure supposedly responsible for the haunting. He was now surfing through its colorful and questionable contents on his phone with a bemused expression.

"Man, half this stuff sounds straight out made up," he said. "Like this one guy claims he actually swam up to the ghost ship and was invited to stay for a meal by skeletons, except he freaked and ran off without eating because he was sure that eating any food there would mean he would end up being forced to become an eternal member of the crew. He also claims they wanted him because he's the reincarnation of an ancient king with the power to take over the world, yada, yada."

"That's…" Shinichi started to say then trailed off because he really didn't know how to respond to something like that. So instead he changed the subject. "Is there anything on there that looks useful?"

"Well, it may be of some interest to us that the majority of the ghost ship sightings have been at this place called Half Moon Cove," Kaito replied. "All the sightings have been after nightfall, generally between midnight and four in the morning. The people who reported these sightings also generally claim that they saw the ghost ship sail into the cove, where it subsequently vanished. However, no one's said anything about seeing the actual vanishing moment."

"Do they say anything about what direction the ship usually sails from?"

"Apparently, it varies." Kaito perused a few more pages. "None of the sightings reported here have been from around our part of the island though. Oh, and other than the skeleton guy, no one reports having seen anyone on the ship. There have also been several attempts to photograph the vessel, but none of them have panned out."

"Has it, I don't know, done anything?" Shinichi asked.

"Not unless you believe the skeleton guy. If anything, it's become quite the tourist trap. There's even a nightly hiking tour for people who want to catch a glimpse of it. Of course they don't promise that you'll see the ship, but you get half off the fee of any subsequent attempts if you don't see the ship. Presumably, that lasts until you finally do."

"Ran would probably pay to get to sit out on that particular trip," Shinichi noted, thinking of his childhood friend's excessive (and extremely irrational) fear of ghosts and curses and other such occult things.

Kaito chuckled. "Funny you should mention that. They actually include an extra stop after the hike at an exorcist's place for anyone who'd like to be rid of any potential negative influences they might attract by seeing the ghost ship."

Shinichi shook his head, half amused and half dismayed by the funny little ways people's minds worked sometimes. Seriously, if you were going to be worried enough about potential curses to see an exorcist, why go searching for a sight of the thing that might curse you to begin with? It simply made no sense. And yet it didn't surprise him at all that some people did it anyway.

"Do you want to take the ghost ship hiking tour?" asked Kaito.

Shinichi considered the suggestion then nodded. "All right. But let's skip the exorcist."

Kaito's lips quirked into a wry grin. "You sure? It could be an interesting experience."

"I'd say we run into more than enough in the way of interesting experiences in our daily lives as it is," the younger agent replied dryly. "When's the tour?"

"It sets out at half past nine from a place called The Landing. From beginning to end, it's a four hour trip with stops at several scenic sites—or so their website says. Oh, it looks like there are only three spots left in tonight's tour. Shall I sign us up?"

Shinichi nodded, and Kaito set about filling out the registration form for them. That done, he returned his phone to his pocket.

"Now that that's settled, let's decide what else we're going to do today."

"We could start with the museum," Shinichi suggested.

"Oh, if you two are headed for the museum, you should also stop by the Blue Moon Sculpture Garden," the girl who had been the receptionist when hey had checked in told them as she passed their table with an armful of fresh flowers which she was distributing among the vases on the various tables. "It's beautiful and very nice at this time of year. There are also a lot of caricature artists in that area that do some really cool and funny work."

"That sounds fun," Kaito agreed.

"It is. There are a lot of great shops in that area too. One of them is the biggest bookstore on the island."

Kaito could actually see Shinichi perking up at the word "bookstore", and he had to laugh. "Looks like we've got our itinerary for the day."

-To Be Continued-