Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan/Case Closed.
Pairing: KaitoxShinichi
Lure
Chapter 42 - On Looking Back
The meet and greet was a semi-formal affair being held in an enormous room scattered with numerous tables offering a variety of foods and drinks to a background of live music. The atmosphere was relaxed as people young and old moved about the room, chatting and laughing and asking for the occasional autograph.
In other words, it was a pretty ordinary affair with decent food, too many people, and not much to do if you weren't a fan or in the biz.
It would have been easy to be bored, Kaito thought. But he was a Kuroba, and Kurobas knew how to keep themselves entertained. He watched faces and walks, little gestures and whispers, noted quirks and potential connections. And, through it all, he watched his detective flutter about like an excited little sparrow to collect autographs from authors Kaito had never heard of.
Really, his detective was too adorable sometimes. It kind of made Kaito want to scoop him up and cuddle him in a big armchair with some novel they could read together and two cups of hot chocolate. But alas, such dreams would have to wait.
And to think Shinichi had been talking about skipping the event, he thought wryly. On the other hand, it was good to see Shinichi having fun instead of stressing out about where and when his parents might jump out at him. It was a far cry from how tense he had been when they had first arrived in the room.
But Shinichi's bright-eyed child-in-a-candy-store cuteness was beginning to earn him rather more attention from a large man in a dark suit than Kaito would have liked. The intensity with which the stranger was studying Shinichi was, Kaito felt, not at all normal. His detective, however, seemed oblivious to the attention. He was talking to another author about how ingenious he had thought the ending of her story was and how he had read the entire book twice the night he got it.
The woman blushed, embarrassed but pleased, and was more than willing to sign an autograph for the excited Japanese boy. At that point, she noted that the name Kudo Shinichi sounded familiar to her.
That was when the big man that Kaito had been watching watch Shinichi stepped over. He placed one companionable hand on the detective's narrow shoulder and told the author, "This young man here is actually something of a celebrity. He's a detective from Japan. Isn't that right?"
Surprised, Shinichi glanced up at the man, but, seeing no reason to lie, he nodded. "I am. Though I'm still in school."
"Kudo Shinichi…" The woman mouthed the name for a moment then lit up. "Oh, I remember now! I read a few articles about you online. They said you're Japan's best high school detective. Is that true?"
Shinichi shifted his weight uncomfortably. "Actually, I'm in college now. And we have a lot of great detectives—several of them my age. We've all worked on a few big cases."
"Don't be so modest," the big man said with a laugh, giving the shoulder he was still holding a squeeze. "Be proud of everything you've accomplished."
Shinichi bit his tongue. Proud, eh? He almost laughed at that. He had spent three years fixing an amateur mistake that had nearly cost him his life. And in his pursuit of those responsible and trying to set things right, he had lost people. People he had promised to protect.
He still had nightmares about those people sometimes, and he knew that he would carry their memories and the weight of their lives with him for the rest of his.
True, in the end, he had set things right in the end insofar as they could be set right, and he had grown, both as a detective and as a person. But he had succeeded because he had somehow, through dumb luck really, found real friends and allies who would stand by him and who trusted in the decisions he made.
So no, proud was not the word he would choose to describe the way he felt about everything he had accomplished in these last few years. Rather, e would say that he was grateful. He was grateful that everything had turned out all right and that an organization responsible for so many crimes had been brought down. He was grateful for the new friends he'd made and for everything he had learned along the way. But, more than anything else, he was grateful that he hadn't lost any of the people he loved. That alone was worth more than any praise or reward he could ever earn.
Really, when he looked at it all that way, he realized that he really had nothing to complain about. Instead, he had everything to be thankful for, and he vowed that he would be. For all that his life had not gone the way he had once believed it would, it had turned out better too in many ways than he had any right to ask for. And he would cherish it—all of it—because he more than anyone understood the fragility of life.
"I have a proposition for you," the big man said, pulling Shinichi from his thoughts and back into the present. The man offered him a business card. He took it on autopilot and blinked. According to the card, the stranger was a representative of a television studio.
The man turned slightly at that point to face Shinichi more directly, so Kaito could no longer read his lips, but he didn't miss the way Shinichi suddenly blanched. Concerned, Kaito set his empty glass on one of the tables set up for that purpose then made his way over. He snagged a cup of coffee on his way.
"Hey Shinichi," he said as he arrived by the detective. "Got you that coffee you wanted. Now come on. We have to meet up with your parents." He nodded to the big man. "Sorry to interrupt, but we have to go."
"No problem," the man assured him, waving away his apology. "Please just think about what I said, Mr. Kudo. And call me if you change your mind."
Kaito waited until they were out of earshot to ask Shinichi, "So what did he want? You looked like he force fed you a lemon."
Shinichi grimaced, but his shoulders finally relaxed. "Apparently he's heard some things about my last big case. You know, the one involving Them. He wanted to know if I was interested in working with his studio to turn the incident into a movie. Said people would be interested in my story." Shinichi shuddered. The whole ordeal was still very personal for him, and the thought of sharing about it for other people's entertainment just didn't sit right with him. Not to mention the more practical reasons that telling the story to the world was a bad idea, at least anytime in the near future. "I told him I wasn't interested, but he was persistent. Thanks for getting me out of there."
"I'll always have your back," Kaito promised. "He's probably right though," the magician added, looking thoughtful. "It would be one hell of a story if you ever want to tell it."
Shinichi grimaced. "Maybe. But there were a lot of people involved—people whose lives would be put in danger if certain things ever got out."
"Things like where you really were while you were away?"
Blue eyes grew melancholy. "Yes. Things like that. You've said it yourself, people kill for secrets like that."
Kaito sighed. "Too true."
"Besides," the detective added. "I got the feeling that what he really wanted to film was some kind of sensational drama. If it ever comes time to share the story, it should be done with cold, hard facts. No dramatization. No glorification. Just the unvarnished truth."
Kaito blinked before his expression softened into a fond smile. He gave Shinichi's shoulders an affectionate squeeze then gestured towards the dessert table. "Come on. I want to try that black forest cake. Then we really should go find your parents."
Shinichi resisted the urge to whine something childish like "Do we have to?" and just nodded. "I want to try the espresso cake."
When they finally found the elder Kudos, it was purely by accident.
Several men and women dressed in the convention's staff livery had started wandering the ballroom, offering raffle tickets for sale. A large table stacked with various prizes had been unveiled at one end of the room, and a sign pronounced that half the proceeds would be going towards supplies for local schools and the other half would be helping to fund an upcoming workshop for young writers. The raffle prizes included several boxed sets of popular mystery television series and novels as well as mystery-themed board games, puzzles and videogames.
Rather enamored with the prizes and figuring that, even if they didn't get anything, it didn't hurt to contribute to the improving of education, Shinichi waved over one of the ticket sellers to buy a few. Kaito decided to pitch in as well. They were informed that the raffle would be drawn near the end of the day's event, and so they were preparing to go check out some of the other attractions that had been set up around the ballroom when a pretty woman with honey-colored hair and eyes the same brilliant blue as Shinichi's bounded past them.
"I'd like to buy four raffle tickets," she announced and beamed as the ticket seller counted them out for her.
Kaito leaned over slightly to whisper into a frozen Shinichi's ear, "Isn't that your mother?"
Before Shinichi could respond, Kudo Yukiko had turned away from the ticket seller and was now striding straight towards them, beaming. She immediately pulled Shinichi into a tight hug that had the detective flushing with embarrassment and lack of oxygen. Kaito was seriously beginning to worry that his beloved might suffocate when Yukiko finally let him go.
"Oh Shin-chan. It's wonderful to see you," she said, still smiling. "You're looking well. How's college been going?"
Shinichi blinked. "Oh, uh, it's been going well. The classes are interesting."
"Is that why you've been too busy to call your poor mother to tell her that you've started dating?"
Shinichi's blush returned, but Yukiko flew on before he could say anything.
"Well, in any case, I'm glad you're getting out more. A healthy social life is important, you know. And this must be Kaito-kun! It's been such a long time, hasn't it?" she said, beaming at the magician. "You certainly take after your father. But I don't suppose you remember me."
"I would never forget such a beautiful lady," the magician assured her, sweeping into a bow and offering her a pink rose. "You haven't changed at all."
It was Yukiko's turn to blush as she took the rose, giggling. "My, such a charmer. Like father, like son indeed."
The woman looped an arm through one of each young man's, and she began towing them through the chattering crowd. "Come on. Now that you're here, we can form our own team. But we have to hurry or we won't be able to sign up."
"Team?" Shinichi echoed, confused. "What team? And what do you mean sign up?"
"They're about to start a game of trivia," his mother explained. "There's an author team. Yuusaku's with them. The rest of us non-authors can challenge them in teams of three. The question catagories include classic mysteries, genre history, science and fiction, adaptations, and tricks of the trade. I'm sure those topics are right up both your alleys. We're going to kick your father's butt!"
-To Be Continued-