A/N: I come with another chapter before a bit tough time at work, that may get me to slow down with writing. I'm not sure if the story is good enough to be posted, but I promised myself to finish it this time. Besides reading kaitothegreat is so inspiring, even if my writing is not even close to hers. As a form of update I can assure you that for now, there are 13 chapters of this story already written. Things are going slow for some moemnts and for some moments there are lot things happening in just one chapter. And if you didn't notice, lot of chapters are filed with dialogues. I'm trying to write better, but it's still a lot of talking going on. As this being said...

DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything, only the hope of Kaito and Aoko being the next ones to officialy become a couple in manga.

Chapter 4

Of Explanations and Advices

Kuroba Chikage heard her telephone ringing while still being in the corridor. She quickly unlocked the door, and slipped in. She carried a quite decent stack of money, she had just won, she didn't want anyone to notice where she was hiding those, before pulling down the curtains. Her plane had landed more than hour ago, but being in Vegas and not try to play at least a bit of Black Jack or Roulette before getting to sleep was… not something that could be found in Chikage's dictionary.

Her mobile phone kept ringing with Tōichi's favourite 'Hungarian Rhapsody', she knew that was Kaito.

Sometimes she liked to prolong with answering the call just to listen to the melody, that was bringing her so much memories of her husband form the day they were still young and life hadn't been that complicated. Right now she had taken sweet time to slide the money to her travelling luggage and with it, under the bed, pulling out the pack of cigarettes and making herself comfortable on one of the armchairs didn't take her as much time as she hoped. Her gaze brushed the set of earphones, and she decided to plug them. It would give her free hand to smoke.

She wasn't a smoker, to be fair. But on some occasion she really felt the need of nicotine and she was sure it would be this occasion. Fishing for a lighter, she finally answered the call.

"Mom, we need to talk." The horrible 'We need to talk' coming from her son made shivers run through Chikage's spine. She wondered if it was something else or if it really was closely related to the reason of her early departure. For now, she decided to play dumb.

"Kaito-chan. Haven't I always reminded you to use protection?" she joked, knowing pretty well that things between her son and his best friend didn't go past the blushing phase. The joke was innocent. As much as she was pleased with the thought of having Aoko-chan as a daughter-in-law, she didn't want to be a grandmother yet. Besides there were some other things that complicated this situation, not only two teenagers in denial.

"Mom, stop spitting nonsense." She heard in quiet reply, and considering he didn't sound embarrassed, he probably was in what Tōichi had been calling 'Kid mode'. "I don't have much time. Aoko is taking shower upstairs and I don't want her to hear me calling you."

She lit the cigarette, wondering if Kaito made it to sound like some kind of innuendo on purpose or if it was just a coincidence. With her son she never knew, he might wanted to have a little revenge for her joke. He had it after Tōichi as well. She decided to play along.

"And my dear son, what your underage childhood friend is doing in your shower?" she asked sweetly, inhaling the first shot of nicotine.

"Well, you tell me, mom." He sounded angry, which probably meant he was furious, and perhaps, scared. It wasn't like he was usually keeping his poker face around her, but whenever he was showing his emotions it was always muffled, like he was embarrassed for having them so intense. "Hasn't it ever come to your head that sending Aoko such emotional roller-coaster would made her to come to me to cry her soul?"

Chikage felt a prick of guilt. She let herself to smoke for a while, hoping the nicotine rush would bright her brain. She sighed. Obviously there had been a reason for her early departure. She hadn't even bothered to find the hat she had been so desperately searching for. Surely, she hadn't been putting that much thought in what Nakamori-chan might do with the knowledge she had been about to gain, but on the other hand, subconsciously she had been expecting that, being Aoko's closest friend, the girl had been seeking comfort and advice in his arms.

In such a similar situation her son had developed the stubborn conviction that he had to do it all alone and keep up his poker face. And Aoko... Well even though from very early age she had learnt to take care of herself, she was a girl after all, it was natural she was seeking the feeling of safety in her closest friend. Besides she was police officer's daughter, it was hard to expect from her she would pick up her mom's job without second thought. And no matter how strong she had been, Midoriko had never had a chance to taught her the poker face.

Chikage moved up to look for an ashtray. Silence had loomed over a bit too long now, but Kaito's breath on the other side of the receiver hinted that he had been waiting patiently for her answer. He had that kind of stubborn patience, just like his father.

What actually she was going to do? She also had some promises to keep. No matter how complicated the situation had become now, she still intended to keep it.

"Kaito I made a promise to your father. And he had made a promise to his friend. What do you expected me to do? Break my promise? I would lost my reliability." she sighed.

"What about some hint in advance?" Kaito asked quietly, sounding more tired than angry. "You have no idea, how scared I was when I saw her crying her eyes out in our doormat." He huffed. And then he cleared his throat. "But we're not be pressing this matter right now. I want to know… No. I need to know, what was the relationship between Kaitō Kid and Phantom Lady? Did she really die during a heist in Osaka?"

"One question at a time, Kaito." She muttered and memories from her son's childhood flashed in her brain. Oh, how many times she had been keeping repeating this phrase.

"Fine. What was the relationship between Phantom Lady and Kaitō Kid?"

"Well, weren't you watching the tape?" She answered with a question.

"Were you?"

"I was." She nodded energetically not feeling obliged to inform her son that she had watched it just about sixteen hours ago. "This was also the first time I got a direct explanation what this thing was all about."

"Dad never told you?"

"He told me it was a secret between him and his childhood friend." she informed dryly, feeling the prick of jealousy. Even thought it had happened so long time ago and she honestly had had no right to still feel the jealousy, the film was still to vivid in her brain and it was impossible to not notice how beautiful Tōichi's childhood friend had been. She had forgotten about it already. And the way they had acted with each other had been giving her a massive headache. Certainly her husband had been loosing his poker face around his wife very often, but with that woman he had seemed to do it so natural. So many times she had wished to have that in relationship with her husband.

"Why dad decided to take such a burden on himself? He had a family." Kaito asked, deciding he wouldn't get anything better than that for his previous question.

"I also asked him about it once. He told me, that he didn't want his family to live in the world where people like those were acting high and mighty avoiding punishment. And either Phantom Lady or Phantom Thief were never actually to come with any other punishment than returning things to their previous owners."

"Aoko told me that taking justice in own hands was an act of cowardice." Kaito said even more quietly.

Chikage imagined how much this statement of his friend must hurt him. 'Way to kill young boy's spirit' she thought and laughed loudly. "It's so expected from Aoko-chan. If it was so simple… If we could be sure that judges are immune to corruption. If the evidences could be always shown and be believed. And the verdict of the court wouldn't be dependant on whose lawyer was a better performer… Oh sweet, innocent Aoko-chan."

"You cannot blame her for believing that." Kaito noticed.

"Obviously. She was risen by the police officer!"

"Okay, let's put Aoko aside…"

"You brought her." She reminded him and decided, that since she probably would have a lot of explanation before herself, she could have some fun at least from this conversation. "Certainly you cannot stop thinking about this girl." She chirped.

"Moooom…" he whined. "Really, even now?"

"All right…" She pretended to give up. "But promise me you'll take her to hanami." A flash of mischief glinted in her eyes.

"Mom…"

"Today, Kaito." She said stubbornly. "You said she had a hard night, wouldn't it be nice if you'll take her somewhere to cheer her up. Too bad that Aoko-chan doesn't share with me those exciting news from your meetings. It was such fun."

"Mom…"

"You want to take her, Kaito-chan." She'd seen through him. "Why are you so difficult? Keep it friendly if you want, but it would be such a waste if you wouldn't share this year's hanami together."

"Mom…"

"I can go on the whole day." She smiled light-heartedly, knowing that Kaito would definitely hear it in her voice. And understood that resistance was futile.

He did.

"Fine." He gave up. And then snorted. "Keep it friendly." He quoted, but before he let his mom to come with any other ideas besides 'keeping it friendly', he quickly turned back to main subject. "Can you tell me now how Aoko's mom died? Wait..." Kaito muttered, a bit quieter this time. For a moment, he covered the receiver and he seemed to be talking with someone. Well probably the girl in question, since she was in their house. A little moment later his calm voice asked. "Well?"

Chikage sighed. It was the moment it wouldn't be pretty. She curled her legs on the armchair, looking for at least some physical comfort. The leather was nice in touch and soft filling was actually made her to feel quite comfortable. If not the phone call she was currently in, this moment would be nice to just think about some next gambling before going to sleep. She sighed one more time and decided to bent down towards the small fridge.

'Oh, what a choice!' she thought scanning labels on the bottles. She physically felt Kaito's impatience, but he had known better than to hurry her up.

She picked up the classic – cherry liquor. Dense, sweet and perfect for her dry throat…

"I don't know that many details, your father wasn't really that eager to share the details of their heists. And especially not that one." She finally answered feeling the soothing taste of cherries. "And you must understand him, he had just lost a person very close to him. They were cornered near the skylight. Someone must be hidden there from quite long time since, as he had told me, they had already checked the whole roof before the heist. He was waiting for them to show up and demanded the gem on the spot. It was not a mere villain, he wasn't making long speeches. When your father refused, he just shot towards him. Not even warning shot, just straight towards his head. Nakamori-san launched at Tōichi and pushed him off the bullet trajectory so they rolled off the roof, knowing their dark hang-glider wouldn't be spotted that easily as this fake one that attracted the police. It seemed that they managed to escape, but they weren't expecting another shooter. Just before their landing there was a series of shots they heard. Tōichi steered the glider into more chaotic flight, to make the aim harder, but it was already too late. Nakamori-san had been shot twice. Lungs and liver. She had died on his arms, and the only thing he could do was to take the message for her daughter and hide himself."

It wasn't her best memory. Her husband had been so hurt that on daily basis he had been treating her with his poker face. Almost all the time. She had wanted to be the part of his sorrow. To comfort him. To, at least, do something. And he hadn't been letting her. She had tried then to make him quit that job, those things had seemed to get so serious. She had yelled at him that there could have been two corpses in that alley and two orphaned children who would never again have seen their parents' faces. But Midoriko's death had made his reasoning and stubbornness harden in something she hadn't been able to reason with. "I threw to your father's face that his childhood friend had been always more important to him than me, his wife, and you, his own son. He was so furious that for a moment I was sure he would slap me."

Silence on the other side made Chikage to worry.

"Kaito…"

"Why do you let me do it, mom?" he quietly asked. Very, very calmly. "They killed Phantom Lady. They killed Kaitō Kid. Don't you think they will kill me?"

"Will you give it up if I told you about the danger?"

"No."

"I know my son, Kaito, I know you way better than you think. You were so focused on finding out what actually had happened to your father, you wouldn't listen to reason. And with your skills I bet there were no chains and cuffs to keep you in the safe place. The only thing I could do was supporting you with Jii and make sure everything possible would go the easiest way." She could do one more thing, but this was not the time for it. Not yet…

"You could tell me all you knew. That would be helpful. I've been doing it for some time already, and I'm gathering the information bit by bit. And now it turns out that there was also the other Thief, cooperating with dad…"

"It's not the secret knowledge, I thought you've checked everything about all of your father's previous heists. Newspaper articled were always covering most of the facts. There are still many archives in libraries."

"Well, it turns out that I've never gone that far enough." He growled. "I wanted to, but it's so difficult. I don't have so much time." He sighed with frustration. "Looking for targets, made plans, preparations, doing all researches about legends and myths it takes time. And I still have to go to school, do occasional performances, and I don't want to…" A pause. "Rob certain someone from the time I already had promised." He finished lamely.

"Like hanami." She couldn't help herself.

"Mom, how dad was even doing this? Day job, night job, being best dad in the world, keeping up his social life."

Chikage smiled softly. It was cute how her boy was avoiding talking about Aoko, since he had just gotten mad at her for talking about his girl. She was worried though. Kaito sounded so tired. And she also put the normal chores on his shoulder, cooking for himself, cleaning, laundry. For a moment she felt a little bit of guilt.

"Ease down, Kaito." she advised softly, with a bit of worry. "Tōichi wasn't doing all of those things in one day. You wouldn't be able to keep up with such a pace. I know you want to find it first, and finish it as quickly as possible, but this pressure will kill you itself, no villains would be necessary."

"I've made a stupid thing today, mom."

Chikage inhaled for the last time and squished the cigarette in the ashtray, noticing her hands were trembling. "What was it, son?" she tried to sound supportive.

"I advised Aoko to contact Kid."

"Poor boy." Chikage mentally chuckled, it seemed that with Kaito really almost everything was bringing him back to his girl. "Why did you do that?"

"I don't want to pull Aoko in this mess. And after seeing the contents of your gift, she wants to discover the truth. I advised her to contact Kid to ask about everything. I was thinking, that if she confide Kid with all of this, Kid can promise her to take care of everything in exchange of her promise to let him handle it all by himself."

"So despite of what you've told me, you want to take another burden on your shoulders." She summarised, considering if another cigarette would help her thinking or maybe it would be better to look for something stronger than just cherry liquor.

"Do you think I should let Aoko handle it?" Her son's voice sounded irritated.

"I bet you would not." She decided to go for a wine instead and pushed the mute button before she picked up the receiver of the landline phone. In her opinion it looked quite classy. She ordered a bottle of wine and some midday snack. She wasn't sure how long it would take to talk to her son and she started feeling hungry. Listening his fiery arguments why he could not allow his girl to be dragged into the whole Kid issue, she decided to take the chicken sandwich and some old Pinot Blanc. "But do you consider Kaitō Kid joining back the forces with Phantom Lady?" She shot and got ready for yell.

It didn't come.

Instead, she heard the sound like he was choking himself, it made her worry.

"Kaito-chan, breath."

"Are you nuts?!" And then came a yell. She needed to pull away her mobile phone and still she was hearing his disbelieved curses.

"You'll wake up Aoko-chan." She chirped, when he stopped to take a breath and she could slip a word. He was almost breathing another set of courses but her statement stopped him before he started. "Besides, don't forget that you're talking to your mother." She reprimanded. "Watch your language, young man."

"Mom, the whole point of this is to keep Aoko away." He now sounded really tired. Like the person on the brink of giving up.

"I don't know if you can. Wait..." Chikage heard the knocking to her room. She put her mobile on the coffee table and went to the door to get her order. She let the bellboy in and he arranged pretty nice setting on her coffee table, he let her smell the wine cork and she thanked him for the service with quite generous tip. All in all she got quite a lucky Black Jack game.

The sandwich smelled terrific yet before deciding to take a bite, Chikage wanted to finish her thought. She could be eating when Kaito would be pouring out his fears and emotions.

"Don't you forget that those guys had found out your fathers real name." She said. "Maybe after killing him they weren't following his family, but can you be sure of it now, when Kaitō Kid is back and working against them? You think they're idiots who couldn't connect the dots that this shot lady in Osaka was the Phantom Lady they had shot? Do you really think that they weren't able to find the real data of that shot woman?"

"Now, mom, this is what you don't understand. I'm pretty sure the real Phantom Lady name was known for them. But she's dead and no threat for them. If she showed up on Kid's heist they probably would be more than interested to find out the connection between that Phantom Lady and the original Phantom Lady family. They must be sure Phantom Lady was dead, I can't let Aoko to take that part. She must be out of any suspicions, anything related to Kid."

Chikage sadly thought that it was already too late to that. Since those people had known Tōichi's real name, they probably had already checked the whole affiliations with Kuroba family. And Kaito's relationship with inspector's dear daughter was obvious. Whether Kaito wanted it or not, Nakamori-chan was already involved. Now, how to tell him that?

"I'm not saying you have to dress her up in Phantom Lady attire, and boy she could have some cool clothes, bet lot of women were watching those heists not because Kaitō Kid was cool and charming but to see the Phantom Lady fashion choice…" She said after taking a bite, the sandwich was not only smelling good it was also way too delicious to be healthy. "What I'm saying is, I don't think you should let Aoko dress up as Phantom Lady and do all those flip – flops along with Kaitō Kid, but she can help you with researches. It was her mom." She added though instead of sounding sincerely, she still had some reservations.

"Oh, boy." He muttered with slight amusement. "You really didn't like Nakamori-san."

"I'm not seeing you being best friends with Hakuba-kun either." She muttered in return.

She almost see him wincing.

"I do understand that she wants to know, mom. I think, that I have pretty good knowledge what she could feel. And from the both sides. I've been in her shoes not that long time ago after finding dad's secret room. Also I've seen her this night, and believe me she got me more scared than ever."

"I'm sorry Kaito-chan, but I needed to give her this package." Chikage sighed. "She deserves to know."

"I know. But even though she really is determined to learn everything she needed to know about this Phantom Lady stuff, and certainly about her mother's death, she really doesn't have to become a target."

Poor boy… He was so delusional that she wasn't already a target. Just minor one for now. She wished some work could be fastened, but it was not in her power to do such thing. And not in Kaito's to be precise.

"You've never told me how she reacted to your offer to contact Kaitō Kid."

"She told me I was mental." He admitted. "I was hoping to convince her to talk to Kid, because the other options were more disturbing. Well obviously, she could just forget about everything, but…"

"She's Aoko." Chikage interjected.

"Right. And excluding contacting Kid, she could either become Phantom Lady herself or told her dad. Both would make my live extremely difficult, as it wasn't already." He growled.

"So what she decided?"

"Well, she didn't say. Before she was able to make a choice, her dad was storming our door and almost murdered me for, how did he put it… 'My daughter's precious reputation, how could you Kuroba-kun!' As I would do something like that." he growled.

'Oh, you would, Kaito-chan, you would. If only Aoko-chan let you, you'd throw all cautions and prejudiced to the wind and go with the flow.' she decided to not say that loud, though.

"I think, she still need some time to decide. I'll try to convince her to to my solution." Kaito added.

"All right, put that aside for now. You watched the tape, Kaito. How do you feel about it?"

And now it came a moment of long silence, and what came after it was an expression of pure love and devotion a son could feel to his father. Well it was a motor of her son's doings after all. Prick of guild made her wince.

"I was astounded about the way he was talking about me." Kaito finished. "Well. Mom, I got to go." Kaito said calmly, she almost physically feel how much must it cost him to calm back. "School starts in less than two hours and I need to take a shower at least. I haven't sleep a wink tonight, and yesterday was also not necessarily my day."

"Want me to call to your school and excuse you?"

"Nah. I can handle some Math and Science. I need to call Nakamori-keibu though. Aoko had really rough night, I could almost feel her emotions, and they were not pretty. I hope she took those sleeping pills I left for her, she really need to sleep it off. I know I would."

"You're a good friend Kaito." Chikage smiled emphasizing the word 'friend', yet she felt kind of proud of her son for being so empathetical and supportive. Usually it was Aoko's role.

"She'd so the same to me." She almost saw him shrugged. "Now, I really got to go. But mom… If there is anything you think I need to know, or you remember anything about that Phantom Lady, please call me."

Inspector Nakamori woke up at the sound of his phone. He noticed that Kuroba boy was calling and immediately picked up the phone, worrying.

The call started short and very informative. Ginzō would appreciate it if not that horrible feeling of hangover building in his head. The half empty bottle was standing on his end table like an embarrassing reminder of his weakness. 'Alcohol is not a solution for problems.' He mechanically thought, listening to boy's polite greetings. 'But neither is milk.'

"Aoko is sleeping in the guest room." Kuroba boy informed, sounding pretty worried. "I think you could call to school and excuse her. After all those crying, she was really exhausted and emotionally drained, I think it would be better not to wake her up and let her sleep."

"You sound pretty tired too, boy." Nakamori couldn't decide if it was just a mere observation or just effect of him feeling guilty for leaving Aoko alone for the night but he worried about Aoko's friend.

Yet he had his job and he had obligations.

Yet he also had a teenage daughter who hated to be lonely.

He had tried to remember about all of those important things for her... Like her birthday, he way too often was forgetting about… Or days she had been taking exams, so he could ask how had it gone, usually messing with the subjects... Or names of all of her friends, but those girls had always sounded the same and he couldn't keep track of which friend had done what… Or to call her whenever he was going to stay late at work, which usually he had reminded while already heading home…

Hangover was getting worse and the inspector massaged his temples.

"Thank you for taking care of her, Kaito-kun." he mumbled miserably to the receiver. "I would pick her up today, but yesterday the patrol had caught a sight of Kaitō Kid sneaking to…" He stopped remembering that this information was confident. "Somewhere." he finished. "Kid's heist note didn't come yet, but we need to make as much preparations as we could, I probably will have to stay late."

"Don't worry, Nakamori-keibu, I'll take care of her when I'll be back from school."

Kuroba boy sounded honest… On the other hand, Nakamori Ginzō might not be the Father of the Year, but even he had to notice how much his daughter was attached to this boy, and something that had awaken in him yesterday, when he had seen Aoko's note, was hitting him back in the head.

"Kaito-kun..." His voice sounded seriously dangerous. "I hope that I don't have to remind you to treat my daughter properly. No funny business."

"Sir…?" The boy sounded confused.

"You got your warning yesterday and I still mean it." Inspector's voice could cut steel.

"Yes, sir." The boy gulped. 'Serves him right' Nakamori thought.

"So how are you going to take care of my Aoko?"

"Uhm… I let her sleep as long as she needs." He responded quietly. "I'll take her to some lunch and maybe…" He paused. "We can just go and see some cherry blossom. It might be last chance for it this year and I think it may cheer her up. And then I'll help her with today's homework."

"Remember, try anything funny and you'll get yourself a furious head of Kaitō Kid's task force chasing after you."

"Yes, sir."

"Good, as long as you understands."

"Yes, sir." The boy uttered another confirmation.

"Then have fun on hanami." He let his voice to soften a little. All in all, his daughter really needed something to cheer her up.

"Thank you. And Nakamori-keibu, please don't miss your lunch, Aoko-chan would be worrying about you."

Nakamori rolled his eyes and finished the call. There was no time to think about lunch yet, but a breakfast would be welcome, if not that feeling of horde of mice in his mouth.

Hangovers were a bitch.

And to make the matter worse, yesterday's Johnny Walker hadn't bring any solution either. Neither it cheered him up. It only had let him to forget that he was a lousy father.

How much he needed Midoriko to be here.

He sighed and pulled out the pack of cigarettes. He got up and heard the springs of his bed scrunching when he shifted his weight. He needed to find some lighter and painkillers.

'Why, why did you left me with a teenage daughter, Mi-chan?' he was thinking, rummaging through his yesterday's jacket. 'Why didn't we adopt a dog instead… It would be so much easier.'

In the back of his mind there was a feeling of relief, that all those puberty-related feminine stuff Kuroba Chikage had taken on her shoulders. She had gone through a talk with his daughter, she also had done a talk to her son. But one day inspector had invited the boy to his study and very shortly and very clearly he had informed him what would have happened to the teenage boy who had not been respecting ladies, especially his daughter. And had reminded him that as a police officer he had known a lot of methods to hide the body.

He found the lighter in a cabinet in the bathroom. Inhaling the wakening gulf of nicotine Ginzō thought that it actually was good that the Kuroba boy had called him so early. He could take a shower, shave and eat some proper breakfast, not just some quick coffee like he usually did. But his priority were painkillers.