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

Pairing: KaitoxShinichi

Lure

Chapter 40 - Across the Sea

Based on the plane tickets they had sent, the elder Kudos had planned for Shinichi and his guest to spend the week of Thanksgiving in America. Kudo Yuusaku, Shinichi recalled, would be in San Francisco that week for a convention focused on mystery novels. More precisely, the convention was to take place the days before Thanksgiving, and it appeared from the two additional tickets his parents had sent that he and Kaito were being invited to that too. But though, under normal circumstances, Shinichi would have leapt at the opportunity to attend such a convention, he found himself seriously considering skipping it.

"Why though?" Kaito asked when they were finally seated side by side on the plane that would be taking them to California. They had arrived at the airport at different times via different routes. Kaito's mother had even covered for him by telling his friends that she and her son were taking a quick family vacation to the States to meet up with some old friends. That was when the boys had both come to the sudden realization that Kuroba Chikage would be flying to San Francisco with them. This didn't please Kaito one bit as the last thing he wanted now that he was finally getting to go on a real vacation somewhere with his Shinichi where they wouldn't have to hide or pretend not to know each other was a chaperon. But his mother had given him a knowing smirk that was definitely a Kuroba expression and promised that she had plenty of things she wanted to do on her own. She only expected to see them for Thanksgiving dinner. In matter of fact, the young couple was sitting together now because Chikage had offered to switch seats with Shinichi.

"When we have to talk to them, I'd rather we do it in private. I wouldn't want them making a scene. They're really good at that. And both my parents are well known enough that any news they generate might get back to Japan." He grimaced, letting Kaito draw his own conclusions.

"I've been meaning to ask you something."

The seriousness in Kaito's voice made Shinichi straighten, mind going on full alert.

"What is it?" he asked.

"I was just wondering, do you not want to see your parents? You've been on edge ever since they sent those tickets, and you don't even seem excited that there's going to be a bunch of mystery authors at the hotel." What went without saying was that anyone who knew anything at all about Kudo Shinichi knew that he could quite happily live off of mystery novels and coffee.

Shinichi sighed. "It's not that I don't want to see them. I just… My parents are a bit…" He waved a hand helplessly as he struggled to find the right words. "I never know what they're thinking."

"Are you worried that they won't approve of us?" Kaito prodded.

"No, I know they won't mind." If anything, Shinichi thought with a mixture of exasperation and the dread of impending craziness that haunted him whenever he suspected that his parents were up to something, he was pretty sure that his mother was going to love Kaito. "I just—keep wondering what they know and what they're up to."

"What could they be up to?"

Shinichi threw up his hands with a frustrated huff. "I have no idea! That's the point. I never have any idea what's going through their heads. I just know they're going to be embarrassing."

"Maybe they'll surprise you," Kaito suggested, catching Shinichi's hand with one of his and twining their fingers together.

"That's what I'm afraid of," Shinichi grumbled.

"Well, whatever happens, it's not going to change how I feel about you," the magician said firmly. "Trust me, it won't bother me one bit if your parents turn out to be completely bonkers."

Shinichi let out an involuntary snort of laughter and finally relaxed and gave Kaito's hand a reassuring squeeze in return. "Thanks. I guess I needed to hear that."

Kaito smiled softly. Noting that no one was paying any attention to them, he leaned over and dropped a quick kiss on Shinichi's lips. He was rewarded by a blush as the detective popped upright in his seat again and surreptitiously looked around, searching for spying eyes.

Kaito chuckled. "Calm down. You're starting to attract attention. I believe you said you wanted to avoid that."

Grumbling, Shinichi sank back against his chair and closed his eyes. "Seriously, Kai. Anyone could recognize either of us if we're not careful."

"I won't let that happen," Kaito promised. "I'm not letting months of careful planning go to waste, believe me. Though speaking of our plans, that does remind me. You mentioned not knowing what your parents knew. I assume you were referring to my, ah, night job?"

Shinichi's lips thinned as he nodded slowly. "I know my dad followed the KID case from the beginning. Now that I know both our parents kept in touch, well… I'm going to guess that he knew your dad was Kaitou KID, and that he's probably guessed by now that you're his successor."

It was Kaito's turn to frown. "Based on what you've told me about them, it sounds like they're interactions were fairly cordial. Nothing to indicate any serious motivation to arrest dad—or his successor. But he might change his mind if the thief in question is stealing his son…?"

Shinichi grimaced. He hadn't even thought of that possibility. That was the whole reason that meeting his parents on their terms made him uneasy though. He had always felt as though they were from a completely different planet than he was. And now he was dragging Kaito, the man he now knew without a doubt that he loved, into a potentially crazy, definitely complicated situation with no guidance and no idea what to expect.

Half of him was already planning to rent a room in a different hotel from the one his parents had chosen for them and staying as far away from the mystery writers convention as possible without incurring parental retribution.

Despite his anxieties and the myriad of dreadful scenarios swimming through his head, Shinichi managed to doze off a mere half hour into the flight.

He proceeded to dream an entire series of truly bizarre dreams, one of which involved their plane landing on an island made of marshmallows where they were told that the hot chocolate spring at the heart of the island that was the source of all nourishment for the many marshmallow animals and plants in residence had stopped running. He had volunteered to go solve the mystery of the spring, and he and Kaito had hiked through multicolored marshmallow forests and up a rocky sugar mountain to find that an enormous polar bear had built its den in a cave beside the spring and was drinking up all the hot chocolate. Then Kaito had performed magic tricks that made the bear laugh so hard that it exploded into a dozen much smaller, marshmallow bears who agreed to share the spring again.

Then he dreamed that they were disembarking at the San Francisco airport, where they were met by his parents—hundreds of them. Every single woman at the airport was a carbon copy of Kudo Yukiko, and every man was Kudo Yuusaku's identical twin. The horrifying sight had had Shinichi frozen in his steps and gaping.

This was hell, he thought numbly. There was no other explanation.

That was when the few hundred Yukikos spotted him, squealed and began to wave.

Blue eyes shot open as Shinichi sat bolt upright in his airplane seat, heart racing at a mile a minute and the sound of his mother exclaiming his name in multi-part chorus still ringing in his ears. His sudden movement startled Kaito, who had been working out a new trick on a stage diagram he'd drawn in a notebook. The magician immediately went on high alert, indigo eyes sweeping their surroundings for any signs of danger. All he saw, however, was rows of seats filled mostly with half dozing passengers. The few he could see who were awake were either listening to music, watching one of the in-flight movies, or so engrossed in their tablets or phones that they probably wouldn't have noticed if the plane caught fire. Puzzled, he turned back to Shinichi, who, though still pale, had calmed visibly.

"Nightmare," the detective said quietly before Kaito could ask.

The magician relaxed slightly. For a moment there, he'd been sure they were about to be dragged into another of the cases that his dear detective seemed destined to trip over around every corner. While a nightmare wasn't exactly a good thing, it was at least non-life-threatening.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked, settling back into his seat.

Shinichi grimaced. "You'd laugh."

Kaito quirked an eyebrow at that. "I thought you said it was a nightmare. Why would I laugh at your nightmare?"

Shinichi sighed but told him then watched with an extremely unimpressed scowl as the magician, true to his predictions, laughed.

-To Be Continued-