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

Lure

Chapter 18 - Hooks and Fishes

Shinichi accepted a cup of coffee from one of the resort staff members with a grateful smile before settling back to watching the police cleaning up the scene. The case hadn't been a very difficult one, but the victim had been an important figure in some big shot company or other as well as a member of a wealthy family not unlike the Suzukis (though not quite of their league). Because of that, the scene was swarming with reporters already. Their presence was making it difficult for the police to get everything properly photographed and documented. The culprit was already in cuffs, but the officers in charge of getting him out of there were having a hard time shoving their way through the crowd of rubberneckers and reports, the latter of whom were trying to interview said culprit despite the officers' attempts to stop them. The culprit himself was still hollering loudly about how he hadn't actually done anything wrong and that the victim had had it coming.

All in all, it was a mess.

Shinichi sighed and took a large gulp of his coffee. And here he'd been hoping that this vacation would be crime free for once. Why did so many people find it so hard to just get along?

"Kudo-san, can I ask you a few questions?"

Shinichi almost groaned out loud, but he managed to stop himself. He'd already turned down three other reporters eager for an interview. It had not been easy to get them to leave him alone, and he was not looking forward to yet another repeat of the experience.

"I'm Tomoyama Anzu from Daikura Magazine," the newest journalist said, naming a magazine that Shinichi had never heard of before.

"I'm sorry," he said quickly. "But I need to get going just as soon as the police finish here."

"Then you have a few minutes," the woman concluded. "Don't worry, I'll keep it short."

"No, really. I—"

"So is it true that you and Kaitou KID are involved?"

Shinichi choked. "What?" So the woman wasn't here to talk about the case? And here he'd thought the fuss over that photo was finally beginning to die down.

The reporter sidled closer, expression sly. "You know, the rumor is that you've already spent the night with KID at least once."

Shinichi choked again. "What? Who said that?!"

"Everyone knows that you disappeared at his heist that time and didn't return until the following day."

Shinichi flushed, partly in horrified embarrassment and partly in memory of that particular night. "Being gone for a night doesn't mean anything."

"Oh?" The woman leaned forward. "So then where were you?"

Shinichi took a moment to recollect his wits then leveled the woman with an icy stare. "As I have already told the police—and many of your colleagues, KID knocked me out and stole the jewel."

"But, as I recall, you spent the night at a hotel."

"That's where I woke up," Shinichi replied stiffly.

"Come now. You can't honestly expect us to believe that nothing happened."

The snide tone in the woman's voice was starting to get on Shinichi's nerves. "I suppose you've slept with every random person you've ever spent the night in a room with," he said acidly.

The woman drew back a little. Color rose in her face. Then her eyes narrowed. "You can't blame the public for being curious. After all, KID did declare in no uncertain terms not so very long ago that he considered you to be his."

"If everything everyone said was true, the world wouldn't need detectives."

"So you're saying there's nothing between the two of you?" There was a mocking, amused note to Tomoyama's voice now that made it quite clear what she thought about the sentiment.

"What makes you so sure that there has to be something?" Shinichi shot back.

"Well, you do know what they say about opposites attracting."

Shinichi glared. "Are you implying that I would date someone because they're a criminal? That's the dumbest logic I have ever heard."

"KID has also kissed you—twice—in front of crowds of witnesses. What do you say to that?"

Shinichi rolled his eyes. "Well, let me see. He grabbed me the first time, and I was unconscious the second time. Is that supposed to prove something?" He never thought he'd be so glad that Kaito had knocked him out. It meant he wasn't lying at all.

Apparently deciding it was time to change tactics, the woman seized on the new opening. "So then why don't you tell us what kind of person you would have a romantic interest in? I'm sure our readers would love to know."

"I'm sorry," he said, not feeling sorry at all. "But I'm not interested in sharing my personal life with the public."

"Oh? And why's that?"

"Uh, obviously because it's private. And frankly it's none of your business."

"Oh come now. Just a word or two to describe your ideal partner."

The woman was persistent. He'd give her that much. He was seriously considering just getting up and walking away and apologizing to the police for the abrupt departure later. But he was saved the trouble when the officer in charge called out to him. Grateful for the rescue, he bid the disappointed reporter a curt farewell and headed over to the police.

The reporter watched him go with narrowed eyes. "Don't think I'm going to give up that easily."

-0-

"Shinichi?" Ran exclaimed in surprise. When she'd come to the gift shop, she had not anticipated running into her friend. Her surprise became confusion when her friend jumped and spun around like a cornered animal. "Uh, what's wrong?"

He blinked at her then relaxed and straightened from where he had been pretending to examine a shelf full of baseball hats. "Oh, uh, it's nothing. I've just been having this feeling that… Never mind."

"Feeling that what?" she persisted. Knowing Shinichi, any bad feelings he had were likely to come true. She wasn't about to just let him fudge over it. Not anymore. Besides, she intended to have a good vacation here. Anyone or anything that tried to get in the way of that was going to find themselves on the other end of every last one of her karate skills!

"It's nothing really," Shinichi insisted then sighed when he saw Ran cracking her knuckles. She'd become rather…touchy about being left in the dark on anything after the whole Conan incident. She still had a tendency to slip into 'big sister' mode more often than not. Shinichi found he didn't really mind—he'd gotten used to it too. But he was getting sidetracked here.

"I just feel a bit like someone's been watching me," he admitted. "But I don't feel like they mean any harm," he added quickly when he saw Ran's alarmed expression.

Ran frowned. "How can you be sure? Maybe you should tell the police. They are still here, right?"

"No—I mean, yes, the police are still here, but there's no need to get them involved." It wasn't a malicious gaze. He was fairly certain of that. Though it wasn't exactly a friendly one either. He'd wondered for a moment if it was Kaito stalking him again, but the thief wouldn't be so obvious. Who did that leave? A fan maybe? Or possibly… The reporter's face flashed through his mind. With her persistence when she'd been questioning him, he wouldn't put it past her to be following him now. Damn. That might be a problem. He would have to let Kaito know as soon as possible. He made a mental note to send the magician a text when Ran wasn't looking.

"Shinichi! Are you even listening to me?"

"Huh?"

Ran sighed. "Honestly, you've been spacing out a lot lately. Are you sure there's nothing you need to tell me?"

He had to work hard to keep the guilty expression off his face. "I'm sorry. What were you saying?"

"I was just saying that it was too bad you missed the boat race. It was fun."

"Did your dad go with you then?"

"No, I teamed up with Aoko's friend. You know, the one she mentioned when we had dinner the other day."

"You mean the magician?"

"Yep. His name is Kuroba Kaito."

"So…what was he like?" Shinichi asked. He was curious to see what Ran's impression of Kaito had been.

"I thought he was nice," she said after a moment's thought. "We won the boat race, but he gave me both the coupons for the free full course meals."

Shinichi sweat-dropped. Yeah, Kaito definitely hadn't done that out of altruism. Knowing what he did about Kaito, he was a hundred and ten percent certain that the magician had seen the opportunity as the perfect way to ditch a coupon he would never use and make a good impression at the same time.

"And I'm not sure why Aoko said he was crazy. He seemed pretty normal to me."

Clearly, Ran had not yet interacted much with Kaito at all. They had probably been too busy with the race.

"I didn't really get to see him perform any magic tricks though. I would have liked to. Maybe we should go to one of his shows. He told me there was one coming up soon."

"I guess if you really want to, we can."

Ran beamed. "It's settled then." She glanced around at the souvenir shop merchandise arrayed around them then back at Shinichi. "Well, if you're planning on hiding out here a bit longer, you can help me pick out gifts for Sonoko, Kazuha, and Heiji."

-0-

"Hey, look what I borrowed from the front desk."

Shinichi stared at the machine hooked up to the TV. "Is that a karaoke machine?"

"Yep. It's quite popular though, so we only get it for two hours. Which means we have to make good use of it!"

"Um, I feel like I should have mentioned this before, but just in case I haven't, I can't sing." And really, he'd expected someone with an information network as good as Kaito's to know that already even if it wasn't exactly common knowledge.

"Karaoke's about having fun," Kaito said with a laugh. "No one cares if you're really good at it. Plenty of people stink, actually. Doesn't mean they don't enjoy it anyway."

"I'm being serious."

"So am I. Here, I'll go first." Picking up one of the two microphones that had come with the machine, Kaito scrolled through the list before picking a song. Shinichi wasn't at all surprised to discover that the thief could sing like a pro. After all, someone who could do perfect imitations of any voice he heard should have no problem hitting all the right notes in a song. Kaito could probably have sung in the original artists' voices if he'd wanted to.

This did not make Shinichi any more eager to sing when Kaito handed him the second microphone. In fact, it very much made him want to keep his mouth shut. But Kaito was still looking at him expectantly, and he knew that he wasn't going to get out of this. Not without a demonstration of his terrible singing anyway. This wasn't the first time someone had pushed him to try karaoke. However, no one had ever asked him to do karaoke a second time.

So he took a deep breath and sang the next song.

The look of incredulity that grew on Kaito's face would have been comical if Shinichi wasn't feeling so embarrassed. By the time the song ended, Shinichi's cheeks were flushed with humiliation. The way Kaito was just sitting there dumbfounded wasn't helping. In some ways, the whole thing would have been easier to bear of the magician had laughed. Was it really that weird to hear someone who couldn't sing attempt to do so and fail miserably?

"It's not my fault I don't have a good voice," Shinichi said a bit sulkily, setting the microphone down on the table so that he could cross his arms. It wasn't like he wanted to suck at singing. He loved music, although his tastes lay more towards the classical. He was pretty good with the violin. He just couldn't make his vocal cords cooperate with him.

"That's not true. You have a beautiful voice," Kaito objected. His expression morphed into a smirk as he wrapped an arm around Shinichi's shoulders, pulling him closer so he could murmur into the detective's ear. "You always sound wonderful when we're in bed. I especially like the way you scream my name~."

Shinichi blushed bright red and elbowed him. He scrambled to get out of the now laughing magician's grasp. "Pervert! I can't believe you can say things like that."

Kaito only laughed and held on tighter. "Really though. If you want, I think I might be able to teach you," he offered.

Shinichi eyed him warily. "Teach me what?"

"How to sing, duh. It's not that hard."

The detective looked uncertain. "I've tried learning before."

"But you've never tried learning with me as your teacher."

It was hard to argue with that. Shinichi laughed. "Well, I guess it would be nice to be able to sing, but you have to promise not to laugh if I can't get it."

"Thief's honor."

"That makes no sense."

"You wound me! Are you implying that I'm not trustworthy?"

Shinichi rolled his eyes. "You know what I mean."

"I vow to you, I will not laugh at your singing no matter how tempting it is."

"…Was that supposed to make me feel better?" But despite the sarcasm in his voice, Shinichi retrieved the second microphone again. "Uh, so… How should I start?"

When their time was up, Kaito went to return the karaoke machine before coming back to resume the lesson. They spent another two hours trying and failing to get Shinichi to sing a complete song in tune.

That was about how long it took for Kaito to decide that his ears really couldn't bear any more of this abuse today, and his Shin-chan's vocal talents were simply better put to use elsewhere (like in the bedroom). He informed Shinichi of his conclusion. He wasn't sure why the detective reacted by smacking him with a couch cushion. But hey, a pillow fight sounded like an awesome way to end the night.

-TBC-