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Caught on Camera

Photograph: Best Laid Plans

The following photo had an almost ethereal quality to it. Two figures stood on a balcony, the light spilling out from the glass doors behind them wrapping them in a soft, golden haze. The figures themselves had their arms around each other in an intimate embrace. They were leaning in close to each other, just on the verge of a kiss or perhaps caught up in some quiet conversation meant only for themselves.

Shinichi could feel a familiar heat climbing in his cheeks.

The angle of the image showed that the photographer had been at a lower elevation—probably a building opposite. That, at least, was a relief. Their parents had probably taken it while they were leaving for their own outings. He was fully prepared to throw the whole album at the four sneaks if the picture had indicated any possibility of further observation. He'd already been on tenterhooks, dreading certain…things their parents might have thought worth memorializing via photograph (after all, the first one had been their first kiss). Seriously, he'd never realized just how illusory privacy could be.

"Hey, wait," Kaito said suddenly. "Isn't that the same hotel where…"

He and Shinichi looked at their parents then at each other. The detective's eyes lit up in understanding.

"Do you want to get it or should I?" he asked.

"I'll get it." That said, the magician pushed the album fully onto his partner's lap and bounded out of the living room. The detective felt a certain degree of satisfaction at seeing their parents trading puzzled looks. Kaito was back a few minutes later.

"What was that about?" Yuusaku asked for the elder members of the gathering.

Their sons shared a smug look as Kaito dropped back into his seat and whipped out another photo. "We just wanted to add this, since it was the same evening and all. Save all the good memories, no?"

Four pairs of curious eyes turned from him to the picture now being inserted into the album. This photo didn't have either Kaito or Shinichi in it. What it did contain was their parents, a handful of police, and a hotel lobby…

. . . . . . . . .

Being dragged out on random vacations by their parents was, Shinichi mused, not always a bad thing, but that didn't mean he didn't wish they weren't back at school. He liked university. The classes were interesting but, more importantly, their parents stayed away for the most part (or so he believed). Being on vacation with their parents was generally much more tiring and this venture was no different. Thankfully, both sets of parents had decided to go out for private dinners, leaving him and Kaito to their own devices for the evening.

Standing on their room's tiny balcony, Shinichi inhaled deeply. This high up above the throngs of city traffic, the air was pleasantly cool and clear. Blue eyes gazed out across the city, drinking in the vast and glittering night.

Kaito stepped up behind him and pulled him back into his embrace, burying his nose in the detective's hair. "What are you looking at?"

"Nothing really," Shinichi admitted. "I was just thinking how strange it is that cities all around the world can look remarkably alike."

Kaito chuckled. "Well, people are people everywhere, even if they like to believe otherwise."

"It makes a person wonder though…"

"Wonder?"

"Why people can't just get along."

Kaito sighed, warm breath ghosting past Shinichi's ear. "Who knows?"

"I mean, it should be simple. Like you said, all people are people. It should be easy to just accept that and move on. Instead, everywhere you go, people insist on arguing. It's always about who's got what and who doesn't, who's better than who, you and me, us and them… It just seems really pointless."

"And I repeat, people are people everywhere. That goes for the good and the bad. Now that's enough of the serious talk," Kaito said firmly. He turned Shinichi around and dropped a kiss on the tip of his nose. "We're on vacation, and the peanut gallery is finally out of our hair. We should be enjoying ourselves."

Shinichi went cross-eyed trying to watch him, and he laughed. The detective rolled his eyes in response, but he was smiling, cheeks pink.

"You're right," he conceded, sliding his arms around Kaito's neck and allowing himself to simply enjoy the feeling of being held. "So what did you have in mind?"

The flicker of a smirk across the magician's face was all the warning he got before he was scooped right up off his feet. He let out an involuntary and rather undignified yelp and smacked Kaito on the shoulder.

"Put me down!"

Kaito ignored him. Instead, the magician pivoted on his heel and carried his protesting detective back into their room. He tossed Shinichi onto the bed and climbed on after him, trapping the still grumbling Shinichi beneath him before the detective could scramble away.

"Wait!" Shinichi squeaked, swatting at one of the magician's wandering hands. "Stop that. Are you crazy?"

"Depends on who you ask," Kaito replied with a laugh, but he backed off to give his partner a searching look. "What's the matter?"

"My parents' room is next door. What if they come back early?"

Kaito looked amused. "Shin-chan, you know as well as I do that if our parents wanted to see us, it wouldn't matter if they were in the next country, forget the next room."

Shinichi had to admit that that was probably true. Not reassuring but true. Toichi-san in particular could probably barge in on them despite the fact that Kaito and Shinichi had made sure that all the room keys were in their possession and the door was locked and bolted.

This did not make him feel reassured.

"Stop stressing out," Kaito ordered. "It isn't healthy."

Shinichi sighed, closing his eyes. "I know that. And it's not that easy."

With his eyes closed, he completely missed the wicked gleam that sprang into the magician's eyes. Therefore, he was caught completely off guard when Kaito pounced and started tickling him. He squawked and flailed between fits of laughter in an attempt to get the fiend off him. His efforts were in vain.

When those evil fingers finally ceased their assault, he collapsed, gasping for breath. He wanted to be annoyed but found he couldn't manage it. Maybe he just didn't have the energy. Either way, he had to admit that he felt more relaxed now.

"Which probably means I'm the one who's crazy," he mused out loud, earning a raised eyebrow from Kaito.

"Well that's not something you hear everyday." He made a show of leaning over Shinichi and pressing the back of his hand to the younger boy's forehead. "You feeling all right?"

"Oh be quiet," he said, though his tone was more affectionate than annoyed. "You know," he added, tilting his head on the pillow and peering sidelong up at the magician. "The tub has a Jacuzzi function."

Kaito's eyebrows shot up. "Is that an invitation I hear?"

Shinichi did his best to look nonchalant, though he wasn't able to prevent the faint blush from climbing into his cheeks. "Maybe."

Not about to let the opportunity escape, Kaito bounced to his feet and scooped Shinichi off the bed.

"Hey! Stop doing that! I can walk."

"I know you can. Now be a good detective and stop struggling before I drop you."

Much later, warm, clean and much more relaxed than they had been since their parents dragged them off on this trip, they curled up together on the bed and put their heads together over the room service menu. There were quite a few items to choose from, including a lengthy list of desserts, too many of which sounded attractive. Eventually though, they had their meals picked out, and Kaito picked up the phone to call room service.

That was when things got strange.

The phone had barely begun to ring when it was picked up, but rather than a greeting from a member of the staff, all the two college students heard was a series of thumps and rustles that sounded a lot like drawers being searched.

"Hello?" Kaito asked.

Another long second of thumps and blurred murmurs answered. He was just about to hang up when, finally, a woman's voice came through the receiver.

"There's trouble," she said in a barely audible whisper.

Kaito and Shinichi traded looks, both abruptly alert. Then they both bent their heads towards the phone.

"What is it?" Kaito asked, making sure to keep his voice down as well just in case.

"They've got guns," the woman whispered quickly, clearly relieved that they hadn't simply dismissed her. "Please, you need to call the police."

Kaito glanced at Shinichi. The detective already had his phone in hand.

"We're calling them now," the magician told the woman on the other end of the line in his best soothing voice. "We need to know what to tell them."

"They want access to the vault. We have stuff in there from the jewelry show that starts tomorrow. We don't know how they found—"

"Hey! Who're you talking to?" an angry male voice cut in suddenly. "We told you not to touch the phones!"

"I—I didn't," the woman stammered. "The receiver just got knocked off the stand earlier when—"

"Damn, it's connected!" another voice snarled.

"Who'd you call?" the first man roared. "Is it the police?"

"They can hear us!" the second man snapped. "Hang it up!"

"Damn it!"

There was a snap and crack that both Kaito and Shinichi recognized instantly as a gunshot and a scream followed by a lot more screaming by a myriad of other voices. Then another shot rang out, and the line went dead.

"They hit the phone," Kaito concluded, dropping the handset back into its cradle and turning to sit cross-legged on the bed as he watched Shinichi relaying everything they had heard to the local police. The officer on the other end of the line had been a little skeptical at first when he heard what sounded like a teenage prank call to him, but the honest worry and urgency in Shinichi's voice (and the detective's surprisingly clear understanding of these sorts of situations and how they should be handled) eventually won him over. So Shinichi rattled off the name and address of their hotel then emphasized once again that shots had already been fired. The police had better act fast.

"We'll be there in three," the officer assured him. "You two just stay in your room. If you can, I'd also ask you to call anyone you can who might be in their rooms to tell them to stay put."

"We can do that," Shinichi promised.

Back by the nightstand, Kaito was already dialing in the number for a random room on their floor. Since their parents were out, they didn't have to worry about calling them. So instead he had decided to call every room in order. If someone picked up, he would relay the message that the police were dealing with an incident downstairs and wanted all the guests to stay in their rooms for their own safety.

Shinichi stayed hovering over his phone, waiting for the officer to call him back when things were under control.

In the distance, sirens wailed.

As the minutes dragged on, they supplemented their activity with monitoring the news both via the muted television and online news sites. It wasn't long before they caught their first glimpse of what was going on downstairs through a reporter's camera lens.

Two pairs of eyes blinked in confusion.

"Aren't those our parents?" Shinichi wondered aloud, staring at the screen.

Kaito squinted. "It…certainly looks like them."

"But why does it look like they're being arrested?" Shinichi started to ask then stopped. "Wait. You don't think…? Surely even they wouldn't…"

The detective and the magician turned to stare at each other, minds whirring.

"Nah, that can't be it," Kaito said eventually. "There's got to be an explanation."

"You're right," Shinichi said quickly, sounding like he was trying to convince himself. "They know better. And it's not like they need to steal to get jewelry."

"Exactly," Kaito agreed. "Besides, if our parents were going to steal something, they wouldn't be caught. Dad could certainly be in and out before anyone even knew anything had been stolen."

"…" Shinichi groaned and flopped backwards onto the bed. "The fact that that is the best reason that it can't have been them does not make me happy. What are you doing?"

Kaito smirked. "I'm saving the moment for posterity."

. . . . . . . . .

…Later, they learned that their parents had been in the lobby when the robbers' plans had gone awry. The gunshots had naturally caused a panic, which had led to the robbers escalating their crimes by endeavoring to hold everyone downstairs hostage. Unfortunately for the robbers, their hostages had included a certain Kuroba Toichi, not to mention an author who specialized in mysteries and an award-winning actress.

The robbers hadn't stood a chance.

Of course, then the police had made their appearance.

With the lack of communication and general confusion, the police hadn't known anything when they'd arrived except that the thin man with the glasses was holding a gun and facing a lobby full of other guests as his three accomplices finished tying up five fallen men and women. Fearing the worst, they had swarmed in as quickly as possible and arrested all four 'perpetrators'. It wasn't until the commotion died down and it was explained that the four had caught the actual criminals that they were all released with a heartfelt and embarrassed apology.

Considering the sheer number of people present at the incident, however, plenty of pictures and videos had made it into the news and onto the web. Among these images was one of a certain four people being arrested which was now situated nicely in the album alongside the one of Kaito and Shinichi on the balcony. The Toichi in the photo already had his cuffs half off, but that didn't make the picture any less amusing to the boys.

Finally, score one for the younger generation!

TBC