Archive of Our Own ^beta

It was supposed to be, Saguru thinks as he rubs his brow, a nice vacation. A vacation with friends and a side trip to a Holmes convention that not even Kuroba’s teasing could dim the excitement for. Saguru had genuinely been looking forward to this trip for months, not the least because he was excited to have actual friends to show around his mother’s family’s home before heading back through London. He should have known better than to bring Kuroba, bright, incurably curious Kuroba, to a place so close to the Fae.

“What,” Aoko says, her fingers clenched in the blue jacket she bought just yesterday on an outing to the village, “do you mean taken.”

“Taken,” Saguru repeats, tapping a finger along the wooden table. It’s his grandmother’s table. A table carved by his great-grandfather, who was not his grandmother’s father, as a wedding gift. It’s another piece of proof that he shouldn’t have brought Kuroba or Aoko here, though. The carvings along it are all of the Fae and their changing courts and seasons. “As in stolen or kidnapped. Whichever word is more suitable.”

“Why would anyone kidnap Kaito? Why would anyone want to kidnap a Japanese teenager in the middle of rural Ireland?” Aoko asks. She hasn’t touched her tea. Saguru didn’t really expect her to, but it would have made her a bit calmer.

“Why does anyone commit a crime?” Saguru hedges. He doesn’t know how to explain this. Aoko is human. Painfully, wonderfully human just like Saguru’s father and Baaya. Just like Saguru’s mother is not wholly human.

“Hakuba-kun,” Aoko says. “How do you know he’s not just… wandering around lost somewhere because he thought he’d go for a walk or something?”

“Kuroba has an excellent sense of direction,” Saguru points out. When that only gets him a glare, he slouches a bit in his seat. “And I perhaps found a trail looking for him that abruptly cut off.” Damn Kuroba’s curiosity. Saguru said not to go into the woods so of course Kuroba went into the woods. And probably tripped right into one of the fairy rings or a portal too. The barriers were a bit more permeable this close to Midsummer.

“Well then you have to have an idea where to start.” Aoko twists the hem of her jacket, pale blue wool stretching. “You’re a detective, we should be looking for him not sitting around drinking tea!”

If it were only Saguru he’d be off looking for a way already. But he isn’t alone, and Aoko is Aoko; a loyal, determined, very human girl who is just as impossible to contain as Kuroba can be when she puts her mind to it. She would never sit by if she was worried for Kuroba, and a worried Aoko charging off on her own is likely to end up just like Kuroba.

“It’s not that simple,” Saguru sighs.

“Then make it simple,” Aoko demands, one hand landing flat against the table. The teacups rattle ominously.

Thank goodness Saguru’s grandmother isn’t here at the moment. He would hate for her to watch him stumble through this explanation. “…What do you know about fairies?”

Aoko gives him a blank look. “Like Tinkerbell? What does that have to do with Kaito?”

Saguru grimaces. Taps the rim of his half-full teacup. Yet another thing with a fairy-themed design. Grandmother finds it hilarious. “I know that as a detective I have a tendency toward logic, science, and the thoroughly explainable, but there remains in the world things that do not have an explanation by scientific means. And in this instance, Kuroba’s disappearance is not by natural, human, or animal ways. And what I mean by things that don’t have a logical scientific explanation, I mean that there are, occasionally, things made of magic. Actual magic, not Kuroba’s brand of magic. What I mean to say,” Saguru says after that train wreck of an explanation that only has Aoko frowning more, “is that Kuroba appears to have been kidnapped by fairies.”

Aoko stares.

“The High Fae in particular, likely Unseelie as they’re more apt to random kidnappings, but it’s entirely possible a Seelie Fae took a liking to him considering it’s their time of power and—”

“Are you serious.”

Saguru fiddles with the cup handle. “Entirely serious unfortunately.” He wishes it were something so simple as a human kidnapping. Kuroba could easily save himself from that sort of thing. “Kuroba’s trail led right near a Waypoint. Even if he stumbled in on his own, there’s very little chance that something didn’t snatch him up on the other end. They don’t tend to like random people trespassing.”

“Fairies. You’re telling me a bunch of tiny glittery people with wings stole Kaito.”

“Oh, no. Most of the higher Fae tend to be human-size, excepting some of the lower members of a court. There are almost no fairies that have wings and even fewer that sparkle.”

“Hakuba-kun.”

“Aoko-san.”

“Saying hypothetically that they did exist, who would want Kaito?”

“Who wouldn’t,” Saguru mutters to himself, all the ways Kuroba would appeal to the Fae running through his mind. He is multitalented, incredibly smart, and shares a mischievous nature that would appeal to the Seelie court at the very least. The Fae love bright, shiny people that stand out—all the better for interesting ‘pets.’ “Look, Aoko-san, I am aware that this is hard to believe, but it isn’t something I would lie about. You know I am inclined to tell the truth even when it is inconvenient.” It’s one of the things that made him a good detective and also got him a lot of enemies.

“How would you even know though?” Aoko says, back to twisting her jacket, frustration and worry and disbelief warring on her face. “How would you know that it’s not just some human being extra careful to cover up?”

Ah, isn’t that the crux of it? “For anyone else, it might look that way,” Saguru admits. “But you see, I am… not entirely human as it were.”

“…Hakuba-kun are you saying you’re a fairy?”

“Part-Fae. My grandmother, you see,” Saguru says, folding his hands and waiting for the fallout. He’s only told someone once, when he was a small and foolish child and that had been a scarring experience all around. “She left the other realm to marry a human years ago.”

“We met your grandmother,” Aoko says a bit shell-shocked. “She’s…” No one could call her normal, not even Aoko could even when trying to be polite. “She seems perfectly human.”

“She’s had decades to pretend to be,” Saguru says.

“You seem perfectly human.”

“I’m more human than not,” Saguru counters.

“Right.” Aoko takes a breath and Saguru can see her shift, pushing that disbelief aside in favor of what truly mattered. “Say I believe you. How do we get Kaito back?”

And isn’t that the question?

o*o*o

There were things that discouraged the Fae. Cold iron. Sprigs of St. John’s wort. Rowan and red thread. Holy water. Bread—though that one is more for pacifying than actively discouraging. Good baked goods and sweet-cream were good for gaining passage from the lesser fairies. These were things Saguru had been raised knowing, but never put into practice. Why would he? He had no reason to go out and seek the Fae. He knew better than to think that would go well. The most Saguru had been involved in was leaving milk and slices of white bread for the brownies that lingered around Grandmother’s home. Well, and Grandmother herself though at times it felt like she didn’t count despite being full-blooded Fae. She had a soft spot for humanity in general and was considered a bit odd from what Saguru could understand.

Either way, Saguru knew they’d need to gather things if they were going to rescue Kuroba. He’d bundled Aoko up in an extra wool jumper, grabbed one of Grandfather’s hand-woven baskets and a small pen knife and they set out to gather ingredients.

His grandparents had chosen to set up their home in a small village. It was likely due to its proximity to easy entrances to the Fae realms, but it had always baffled Saguru at how different their way of life was from his city-loving mother. Having grown up being shuffled between London and Tokyo for most of his life, the bi-annual trips to the Irish countryside had been both jarring and wonderful. Saguru thought that perhaps his Fae blood called for this, the plants and trees and that little bit of wild land, still untouched by human hands.

Because it was a small village though, Saguru and Aoko inevitably stand out. Saguru at least has the benefit of being a known face. He gets a concerned pat to his cheek when he buys cold-iron nails, an extra loaf of bread slipped into his basket when he visits the bakery, a refusal of money when he visits the local apothecary for access to the St. John’s wort in the apothecary garden.

This is a small village on the border of realms. There is something knowing in the gazes of its residents as Saguru makes his rounds. They see Aoko with him and see the absence of Kaito and they know even without saying what must have happened. Many people here are part Fae too; superstition is fact here and there is no judgment in doing what must be done, just worry for it is easy to lose more to the Fae than what you intend to reclaim.

Aoko doesn’t say much, just watches the contents of the basket grow with confusion.

Saguru steps out of the small church with a vial of water he hopefully won’t need and the slight discomfort he always feels from religious places that is more mental than actual discomfort—he’s not near enough Fae for it to truly be a problem—when a villager approaches him instead of the other way around.

“Sheridan,” she says using his English name.

“Nessa,” Saguru says with a reflexive dip of his head that being in Japan the last year has ingrained in him. The name comes easily to mind; Nessa is someone Mother was friends with once when they were young, grown apart by years and world experiences even if they still greeted each other warmly whenever Mother visited.

“You’ve been gathering charms,” Nessa says, to the point. “I won’t ask if you’ve thought this through, just wanted to ask if you know anything about the guests at Eoin’s place.”

“Guests?”

“Foreigners, look to be similar Asian sort as your friend.” A tilt of her head toward Aoko. “There was a ruckus this morning. One of them gone missing.” There’s a pointed nuance to her words that make Saguru’s basket feel like it is full of stones, not bread and herbs.

Not one Fae kidnapping, but two then. This is troubling. “Have there been many people missing lately?”

“No more than the usual,” Nessa says. “But most people here know better than to go to the sort of places that get you taken. It’s always visitors that run into trouble.”

Saguru grimaces. “I’m surprised no one said anything sooner.”

“They probably thought you knew. It’s odd to have so many overseas travelers here at once.” Nessa sighs and plants her hands on her hips. She looks Saguru up and down, barely sparing Aoko a glance. “Now don’t you do anything that will have your Ma in tears. You’re the only child she has.”

The less said or thought about his Grandmother’s reaction the better. “I have claim on one of the people taken,” Saguru says calmly. Like it isn’t a daunting thought to go get Kuroba back. It’s even true that he has a claim; Kaito is his to chase and capture and has been since the first time he clapped a cuff around Kuroba’s wrist. Aoko has claim too as he’s her… well, love is a bit too blunt even if it is true that Kuroba and Aoko gravitate around each other. They haven’t quite reached being lovers. But the emotion is there and that along with resolve is something that Fae can respect.

“Step careful,” Nessa says and kisses his brow, a shockingly cool feeling on his skin. Magic, the kind that so many in this village have in bits and pieces. He doesn’t know what sort she placed on him, but he can feel it burn there for a moment before it takes. “The visitors should still be at Eoin’s place causing a ruckus.” A pause. “It’s a child that’s missing.”

Ah. Saguru feels his priorities expand. “I will see what I can do.” Nessa nods and backs away with a wave.

“Hakuba-kun,” Aoko says beyond frustrated at not understanding much of what is going on, her knowledge of English limited at best even without accents to muddle through. “What is going on?”

“Kuroba isn’t the only one taken,” Saguru says grimly. “There’s people at the pub who can tell us more.”

“Are we going to save this person too?”

Saguru can’t make any promises. He hums, neither a yes or a no, but Aoko seems to take it as the former, her determination deepening in her rooted stance. He has no doubt Aoko would fight the Fae herself if she thought it would get her Kuroba back. That would likely get her killed even if Saguru does appreciate the spirit of it all.

o*o*o

He’s not sure what he expects stepping into Eoin’s pub, but it isn’t what he finds.

Saguru walks into the pub to catch Hattori Heiji trying to force answers out of a pub worker with the worst accented English Saguru has had the misfortune of hearing from someone who seems to have grasped words and sentence structure well enough.

“A kid,” Hattori says. “Little kid, this tall. You have to have seen something. You’re the one who’s been down here since before the sun rose.”

“Please,” an equally distraught but much less rude Mouri Ran says. “He wasn’t supposed to even leave the building.”

If both Mouri and Hattori are here, then the child in question can’t be anyone but Edogawa Conan. Damn. Saguru feels a headache coming on. Kuroba is bad enough, but Saguru has experienced Edogawa’s specific brand of ‘luck’.

“I don’t know!” the poor pub worker says near tears. She’s exhausted looking, and she would be if she started in the early morning hours to take care of anyone sleeping in the attached rooms. Let alone having a missing child occur. “I was in the kitchen making breakfast, anyone could have come or gone!”

“Hattori,” Saguru cuts in before Hattori can harass the poor woman any more—she clearly isn’t at fault. It’s much more likely this is a case of Edogawa’s infamous ability to end up right in the middle of any mess in a mile radius. “She isn’t going to be able to help you.”

Hattori swears, whirling around. “Hakuba! What the hell are you doing here?” he demands in Japanese.

“I’m visiting my grandmother,” Saguru says drily. “With friends. It’s a better question on how on earth you and Mouri-san ended up here of all places.”

“There was… A case…” Hattori waves a hand. “It doesn’t matter, there’s bigger issues!”

“Edogawa-kun is missing, I presume?”

“Yes! So don’t just stand there looking smug, we gotta find him!” Hattori looks like he’d love to bite Saguru’s head off except that another pair of eyes are needed.

Saguru sighs. Is he honestly coming across as smug for the moment? Because he’s tired and more than a bit worried and stressed; pride is the furthest thing from his mind. He takes a moment to nod at Mouri and she nods back, her hands knotted together in front of her, unable to smooth the worry from her brow.

“Hakuba-san,” she says. “If this is where your grandmother lives, you surely know the area better than we do. Can you help us?”

“I fully intend to,” Saguru reassures them. “There’s only one problem.”

“What?” Hattori snaps. “No time to help?”

“My friend,” Saguru says icily, “has also gone missing. Though it’s possible both of them are missing in the same place.”

“Hakuba-kun, do you think…?” Aoko says, glancing between Mouri and Hattori and Saguru.

“It’s very likely,” Saguru says. Kuroba and Edogawa. In the Fae realm. Dear lord this is going to be a mess. The two combined surely have far more chaotic energy around them than is healthy for any place to hold. He almost feels sorry for their kidnapper. Almost. Except that Edogawa is a small child and in no way prepared for the sort of hidden verbal traps and cruelty that Fae casually wield.

Hattori’s eyes flick to Aoko like he’s only just noticing her. Knowing his bull-headedness he probably is.

“Hattori, Mouri-san, this is Nakamori Aoko. Aoko-san, Hattori Heiji and Mouri Ran.” Saguru waves a hand, rushing through the introductions. “The person missing from our group is my classmate, Kuroba Kaito.”

“Your friend,” Aoko corrects.

Saguru sighs again. “Yes, my friend.” It feels weird to call him friend even if they are on mostly good terms these days.

“Friend,” Hattori says like he’s skeptical that Saguru has any friends. He’d be insulted, but he hasn’t had very many friends in his lifetime. Still, it adds to the grating irritation of having to deal with Hattori at all. “Talk. What d’you have so far?”

Saguru glances at the pub worker, still watching them in a frazzled way, and the few lingering patrons clearly interested in seeing how the drama unfolds. More than one of them notices Saguru’s basket and connect the dots. “Not here. We can talk at Grandmother’s home.”

Aoko tugs on his sleeve. “Do we have everything…?”

“Hmm.” Do they? Either way, Saguru intended to make a stop at Grandmother’s before they acted. This is simply… more people than he expected. It’s a good thing he gathered more than he needed. Except the rowan. Well that is easily fixed. “Come,” he says to Hattori and Mouri, turning back the way he came. He hears Hattori sputter behind him. Saguru isn’t the one making a spectacle of himself.

There is a rowan tree planted outside like expected; protection, or at least a deterrent to the Fae. Either it didn’t deter what took Edogawa enough, or Edogawa had snooped far beyond the range of its protection. Either way it would serve Saguru well now. He cuts a dozen small branches with his pen knife.

“Oh, so now yer doing pruning instead of anything useful?!” Hattori growls coming up behind him.

“Hattori.” Saguru’s going to lose his patience by the end of this isn’t he. “I am aware this seems irrelevant, but it is necessary to do this if we are going to help Kuroba and Edogawa.” He tucks the knife and branches away. Aoko grabs the basket from him like she needs to have something to do with her hands. He might as well let her carry it.

“Twigs are necessary.”

“Entirely. As is everything in that basket.”

“There’s bread and milk in that basket.”

“Hakuba-kun knows what he’s doing!” Aoko says leaping to his defense.

Oh, Saguru wishes he actually knew what he was doing instead of drawing on folklore knowledge and stubborn hope that they would make this work. He starts walking again and refuses to answer any of Hattori’s questions as they head back to Grandmother’s.

o*o*o

Grandmother is back when they get there and she takes one look at Saguru’s basket and her lips press together, flat and displeased. “They took one of my guests.”

“I intend to get him back,” Saguru says, equally unhappy for very different reasons.

“They can’t just keep their noses out of what’s mine,” Grandmother grumbles. “Come in, come in,” she adds absently to Hattori and Mouri. “Let me guess, more than your boy is missing?”

“He’s—he’s not my—!” Saguru flushes at Hattori’s raised eyebrows. “My friend, Grandmother.”

“Either way he’s yours,” she says, like the differences don’t matter. And he supposes it wouldn’t for something like this. Lover, rival, friend, thief he’s claimed to catch—each of these hold a certain amount of possessiveness. “And the others?”

“A boy. A very intelligent child who tends to run into death more than anyone should.”

“Hmm. They do like children. The more unique the better.” Grandmother shrugs and starts riffling through a drawer in her kitchen.

“What are you even talking about?” Hattori asks, patience reaching its short limit.

“You didn’t tell them?” Grandmother says, disapproving.

“I haven’t had a chance yet!” Saguru sets his basket on the counter well away from his grandmother and herds the others to just. Sit at the table for goodness’ sake. He definitely is getting a headache. “Grandmother…”

“It’s not that simple,” she says. “You know these things have rules. I can give you a boon on your quest. Anything more could be interfering.” Her nose scrunches, for a moment her face looks much less human, a flicker of black in her eyes, a tooth too sharp. A much less age-lined face. “I could definitely retrieve you, you’re my grandson, but I don’t have the same level of claim on your friend.”

“Talk,” Hattori cuts in. “Explanations now.”

“Fairies,” Grandmother says. And nothing else.

Saguru looks at Hattori’s confusion. “Fairies,” he echoes.

“Excuse me?” Hattori says. “As in… as in…?” He waves his hand like it explains anything.

Saguru realizes Hattori might not know that word in English. At least not in this context. For all that it’s a loan word in Japanese, it’s not exactly something expected. “As in yousei.”

“The hell, Hakuba, this is serious.”

“And I’m entirely serious,” Saguru snaps back.

Grandmother chuckles. “Another skeptic? I wonder if he’s as bad as your father?”

Urgh. “Grandmother,” Saguru says, embarrassed that his voice comes out pleading.

She finds whatever she’s looking for and comes around the counter to pat his cheek. “I can handle the proof, darling.”

A stone clacks on the kitchen table. It’s just big enough that it would fit comfortably in Saguru’s palm. There’s a round hole in its center and he understands all at once.

“I didn’t know you had one of those.”

“Of course I do,” Grandmother says with a wave of her hand. Her eyes are fixed on Hattori’s uncomfortable and somewhat hostile face. Beside him, Mouri looks worried. Aoko is looking at the rock like it might come alive, which is a fair enough feeling to have after everything that she’s seen today.

Grandmother slides the rock across the table.

Hattori picks it up. “It’s a rock.”

“It’s a tool,” Grandmother corrects. “Look through the hole.”

Hattori looks, skeptical, and immediately drops the rock, backpedaling away from Saguru’s grandmother. “What even—?!”

Aoko, curious, looks through the hole as well. “Oh.” She turns more toward Saguru. “You look the same,” she says like it’s a disappointment.

“Aoko-san, I’m only a quarter Fae,” Saguru says.

“He didn’t inherit much,” Grandmother says patting him on the head. She nods toward Mouri and Mouri hesitantly takes the stone to look.

Saguru knows what they are seeing. Grandmother’s true form is very beautiful, but terrifying. Tall, a bit too pointy, skin not quite a human shade and eyes dark without the white humans have. Ageless unlike her human glamour. Saguru has seen her true form twice but it imprinted itself on his mind and he can never forget the sharp teeth or long nails that could so easily haunt a child’s nightmares no matter how sweet a face they went with. Grandmother, when it comes down to it, is only harmless because she chooses to be. Which can be said of plenty of people, but it meant a bit more from a being going against her nature.

Mouri inhales sharply but handles the surprise better than Hattori. “So, fairies?” she asks, a bit shaken.

“Fairies,” Grandmother agrees with a too-wide smile. “Sheridan is going to have to help you get your prodigy-child back, but it will be both of you who will need to claim him.”

“Who?” Hattori asks, sitting back down, embarrassed to have reacted worse than either of the girls.

Saguru gives a sarcastic wave.

Hattori blinks rapidly before visibly setting Saguru’s English name aside in his head. “So. Uh. Fairies? What exactly do we have t’do to get the Kiddo back?”

“That,” Saguru says, “is where it gets complicated.”

“It’s about time one of my descendants had a Quest,” Grandmother says.

“I’d rather a Hunt than a Quest,” Saguru says with lightness he doesn’t feel, “but we’ll have to make do.” Where to start explaining? “The Fae are… generally capricious beings. They live in their own realm adjacent to this one, and historically speaking, humans can stumble through to the other side if they happen across the right place at the right time. And then sometimes people are taken.”

“But why take them?” Aoko asks. “Why come to the human realm at all?”

“Boredom, sport, curiosity?” Saguru shrugs. “There are many who would gladly trick a human into giving up what is precious to them, not excluding their own identity, but just as many who’d come just for a laugh from a harmless prank.” What constituted harmless to a fairy was… debatable. “But there are also Fae who keep humans as something like pets. Or they play with trespassers until they die.”

“Oh, great, so we have both torture, murder, and enslavement as possibilities!” Hattori says with a scowl.

“Lucky for us,” Saguru says archly, “it’s highly unlikely Kuroba or Edogawa will be killed. They’re both too unique and interesting human specimens to tire of quickly.”

“Are you sure they won’t just get mad at Kaito?” Aoko asks. “He can be really annoying.”

“Fairly sure.” Kuroba does have a sense of self preservation and Edogawa is a bright child. “Now there are two main courts, or, well, seats of power. Technically there are four but Summer and Winter courts trump the Spring and Autumn. The Summer court holds the Seelie and the Winter the Unseelie…”

“Do the differences matter?” Mouri asks. “Are they like… countries or more classifications?”

“Classifications in some ways.”

“It’s a temperament thing,” Grandmother cuts in. She’s been following the Japanese just fine, but of course she has. She has the gift of tongues. She keeps speaking in English because she’s petty that way. “Say you are a bit rude to a Seelie court member, they might leave you two counties over naked with no memory of how you got there. An Unseelie?” She pauses for proper dramatic effect. “There might not be any of you that shows up again.”

Everyone pales a bit at that.

“Er,” Hattori says hesitantly, “which sort are you?”

Grandmother smiles with too-sharp teeth.

“She’s unaffiliated,” Saguru says. Though that wasn’t always the case. “Trust that she at least likes humans or neither this house nor I would exist.”

“And what sort do you think took Conan-kun and Kuroba-san?” Mouri asks, her face arranged back into determined attention.

“That is the question isn’t it?” Saguru hopes it’s the Seelie. Kuroba has a much better chance of being found amusing and charming instead of offensive.

“It’s probably the Seelie,” Grandmother offers. “It is summer months.”

A good point. “We won’t know for sure until we can gather more information. And the only way to get more information is to go into the Fae realm. And that,” Saguru says giving them a pointed look, “is why I went shopping. And yes, the twigs are necessary. Some of what I got can be used to ward against Fae or cause harm should our lives be in danger. Granted I would hope none of it would be necessary.”

“Your grandmother’s right here less than a meter from the basket!” Hattori says.

“I haven’t made the charms yet!” Hattori should understand the principle behind this; he wears an omamori so clearly he is at least a little superstitious. “And they’re less ‘don’t come close’ wards so much as they are ‘don’t touch’ or ‘protect from harm’ wards.”

“The bread and milk?” Hattori asks, still skeptical.

“Bribes!” Saguru says throwing his hands in the air. “If all else fails a bribe is useful!” They are absolutely all going to die if they go to the other side, aren’t they? “Grandmother are you sure I can’t just go on my own?”

Three voices protest even as Grandmother laughs. “Your heart is in the right place, Sheridan, but you will need more than your own stubborn heart here.”

Saguru slumps. “Very well.” He might as well give them a crash course on what not to do before they go searching for a place where the world is thin. “There are things you must know before we start this, among them that Names are very important…”

o*o*o

Kaito keeps a smile on his face. A smile is a defense here in this glittering, deceptive place.  He is unfailingly polite to his captor, Kid persona out in full force, because he knows power when he sees it. Or perhaps more doesn’t see it; whatever pretty face the beings around him put on, he knows it’s not their true one. They’re just off enough from human, just a bit too perfect that it falls into uncanny valley.

He has been in this place for less than half a day and he already hates it. He hates the creature that has claimed to be his ‘owner’ even more, but he can’t show it. He made the mistake of lying once, just once, and the bruise along his jaw in the shape of fingers is still blooming into a dull purple. So it limits him to half-truths and side-talking, which is nothing he can’t handle.

A tall, ethereal female…elf? Kaito’s not sure exactly what to classify any of them… touches Kaito under his chin, right along the edge of the bruise. It aches, likely intentional. He can’t demand she let go, not when his ‘owner’ shows no displeasure at the action. “You found a pretty one,” she says, making him tip his head. He probably looks exotic to their eyes; they’re definitely drawing on Caucasian features in their appearance.

“Not as lovely as milady is,” Kaito says, using a bow to escape the touch. He palms a flower, one of the ones he’s seen around them, gathered for just this sort of thing. The delight on her face when he presents it to her is the same expression people get when a dog performs a surprising trick.

“Oh, it’s a talented one too.” She takes the flower.

“He uses human inventions to perform the appearance of illusions and magic,” his ‘owner’ says, puffing himself up. He looks like a gaudy pin cushion, all jewels and strange spikes from his clothing arching out like how beetle legs segment together. Normally Kaito likes purple, but he might lose his taste for the color after this.

“Impressive to make up for such a lack.”

As in lack of magic. Kaito’s going to have to beat into magic freaks that his brand of magic isn’t lesser just because it’s not arcane. Actually, he’d take Akako over these people. Kaito keeps smiling. They talk like he isn’t even there now that he’s done his bit to show off appropriately.

“I wonder,” the female creature says, “how his talents measure against the boy Amadriel found this morning.”

His ‘owner’s lips turned down. These creatures didn’t like being shown up. Kaito wonders who else had the bad luck to be taken. How much free time did they have to go kidnapping people—multiple people—a few hours apart?

“I’m sure my human is much more impressive than Amadriel’s,” the elf-man says. “Her human is only a child after all.”

“Ah but hers is said to be brilliant enough to pick out crimes from the smallest of clues.” The female elf twirls Kaito’s flower between her fingers, delighting at how the gossip digs into the other elf. “He is said to hold the aura of death.”

“He would be better suited in the Winter court, then,” the elf-man says with a sneer.

But Kaito is inwardly very still, caught on that description. It brings one very particular child to mind, but Edogawa should be in Japan, thousands of kilometers away from this place. How many kids could there be in the world like that? Surely more than one. …But this is just the kind of thing Edogawa’s weird bad luck would land him in.

Kaito gives the room a lazy sweep of attention, half-listening to the continued conversation beside him. There is a small knot of elf-people gathered in the far corner, at least one looking down. There isn’t a guarantee that it’s the child in question over there, but it’s likely.

“I need refreshments,” Kaito’s ‘owner’ says abruptly, a sour expression on his face. Kaito mentally replays the last few minutes and the subtle insults that had been thrown the elf’s way. Hmm. Good on the lady elf, Kaito supposes even though it doesn’t mean good things for Kaito. He tries to radiate calm as he’s tugged roughly in the direction the group of elves is congregated in. There’s a heaping table full of fantastic-looking food and drink a short way away from the group, all of it looking too good to be true.

“Eat something,” his ‘owner’ says with a careless wave of a hand, going for something golden and dripping in what looks like honey. He glares at the group of elves laughing nearby.

“I couldn’t possibly,” Kaito demurs. He has the vague recollection of reading somewhere that taking food from magical creatures is a bad idea, though he can’t remember where he read it. He’s hungry, and if he can’t get away in the next day or so, he’ll probably have to eat something whether he wants to or not, but he can hold off from food or drink for a little longer. “May I get something else for you though?”

That gets him another sour look and a dismissive wave. “Bring me a glass of mead.”

“Of course.” A bow, perfect and polite, and a chance to step away. Thank goodness. It’s a short leash, but he’ll take whatever slack he’s given and then some.

Kaito drifts closer to the knot of creatures and the fantastical looking punch bowl…thing (could it be called a bowl when it shouldn’t be capable of holding liquid at all with how many intricately carved holes made up its shape?) There are too many to see a face, but he does catch sight of a familiar red shoe. His tiny glimmer of hope that it was just a random Irish child dies a swift death. Edogawa, how do you always end up in so much trouble?

He ladles shimmery liquid into a cup as thin as eggshell and drifts closer still, pretending to be interested in some bright pink puffy things that were probably a food. Maybe. Or a decoration? Kaito spares a tiny bit of attention to the question as a tiny fairy—more what he’d think of fairies in media—lands on one of them. Maybe they’re just furniture then.

The elves nearby are laughing, and it’s a cruel-toned edge. “Amadriel, your pet is so quiet!”

“Ah, but human children are so fascinating. So moldable…”

“You didn’t exaggerate his aura. You’ll have to worry that the Winter court will steal him. He does have such a lovely stare too, surely a prize in a few years.”

“Not now? I believe I have the far better pet tonight than Runan.”

“Runan’s pet is polite.”

“Speak, child, we won’t bite you. Here, have a bite of this and speak. They say you have a clever mind.”

“Lilliana, you’re scaring it. It will never talk if you get so close to its face with those teeth of yours!”

Kaito feels for Edogawa, truly. How can he step in…? His ‘owner,’ Runan, is looking around for him. Kaito glides back over with the promised drink. “Amadriel’s pet is refusing to talk,” Kaito says like it’s a juicy piece of gossip.

The elf looks satisfied with it. “Well it is a child. They can’t expect it to be impressive yet even if it is supposedly intelligent.”

Kaito keeps his neutral smile and ticks another box in a list of hatred. What’s one more?

The elf downs the drink Kaito gave him. If only Kaito knew if slipping him something would work, but he’s seen the creatures here blur the world. For all he knows not a thing here is real and those delicious looking dishes of food are nothing but acorns and dirt. “Perhaps,” his ‘owner’ says like it’s a brilliant thought and not what Kaito intends him to do, “you should show how much more charming you are…”

“If that is your desire, I will do it,” Kaito says, carefully picking his words.

“You seem to be one that likes mischief,” the elf says with a tilt of his head. “Go. Cause some.”

Kaito smiles, smiles, smiles and wishes he could pull a bit of truth into the expression. Another bow and he strides toward the group with purpose.

The gossips part like paper run along a sharp knife. Or perhaps more accurately shift to circle like sharks smelling blood in the water; they’re predators hungry for chaos and their next thrill at someone else’s expense.

Edogawa is dressed in some ridiculous robed monstrosity but his shoes are still the same. He’s pale and so tense it looks like he’d snap from a wrong tap, but it’s definitely Edogawa. His lips are pressed so tightly together that they’re just a thin white line on his face. He looks like he’s trying to pretend he’s anywhere else, like if he acknowledges this, he’ll end up dead. Maybe it’s the best route for him to take honestly. Still, he’s not entirely zoned out because he twitches when he notices the sudden shift in bodies around him.

Kaito meets Edogawa's eyes and is pleased to see his mouth drop open in shock; even under the circumstances it's nice to surprise the little detective. He doesn’t know if Edogawa thinks he’s just wearing Kudo Shinichi’s face again or he understands that this is Kaito, bared, but he definitely recognizes him as Kid. That might be a problem someday, but for now it’s a good thing. It means neither of them are alone in this.

With a sweeping bow, Kaito looks at the elf that stole Edogawa away. “Milady. I simply had to meet the human boy I’ve been hearing so much of this night.”

“Runan’s prize,” Amadriel says, lips curling above sharp incisors. The expression smooths away. “Well, let us settle the question of the hour; which of you is the better prize, Silver Tongue?”

Careful, Kaito thinks. Careful. “I could not say, Milady. I have no doubt that we have very different skillsets. Surely it is impossible to compare them fairly.”

It’s not an answer that satisfies her, but it does satisfy the others watching, and that will have to be enough.

“I cannot say which of us is the most talented or valuable,” Kaito says, “but if Milady is amenable, I can perform a show for her entertainment.”

Amadriel is not happy with this offer, but again, the others are pleased, and Kaito lets himself be swept into their request for a show.

Elves—or whatever they actually are; Kaito is going to have to extract an answer out of Hakuba later—are impressed in Kaito’s skills the same way they’d be impressed by a cat that walks on two legs or a dog playing piano. Kaito is surprising in his skill but patronizingly so to these creatures that can cast spells and pull glamours over their inhuman faces. He expects no different, but it stings all the same. The one shining grace in all of this is meeting Edogawa’s eye and seeing respect where he least expects to find it.  Respect for his skill and his ability to perform it now with so many cruel eyes on him. Kaito flashes him a brilliant showman’s smile, gives flowers to elves around him, flirts but doesn’t cross any lines of propriety that could get him ensnared. He asks no names, gives no promises, tells no lies, just smoke and mirror misdirection and sleight of hand until even these creatures are reluctantly charmed.

Amadriel simmers with anger. Runan is smiling like he won something in the background, poisonous and sharp as a snake’s fangs.

For Kaito’s final trick, he involves Edogawa. He makes sure to look like he’s explaining what Edogawa needs to do and breathes in his ear, almost inaudibly and without moving his lips at all, “Meet up with me later by the courtyard fountain, whenever you can get away. We’ll come up with a plan.”

Edogawa squeezes Kaito’s hand in answer, still refusing to open his mouth. Maybe he can’t. Maybe it’s been sealed but Kaito won’t know until they can talk alone.

They perform the last trick seamlessly and Kaito takes a bow.

His ‘owner’ sweeps him away before he can even hope to try to communicate with Edogawa more.

“Perfect,” Runan says, smiling, smiling. “I knew you would be the best to take.” He touches Kaito’s chin over the bruises like an affectionate lover and it’s all Kaito can do to keep from flinching away.

He keeps smiling. There are too many false smiles here, and things that lie to the eyes even if they aren’t lying with words. Kaito fetches Runan another drink and the spectacle whirls on.

o*o*o

Kaito tries to leave once, the party ended and his ‘owner’ drawing him back to his quarters to be left with a mat on the floor like a pet. Kaito gets out of the room, down the hall, out the building before he’s hit with a wave of vertigo and the next thing he knows, he’s walking back the way he came like he never left.

Runan’s eyes seem to glow as he looks at him from the bed where he is supposed to be sleeping.

Kaito realizes that this is going to be more complicated than he thought.

He still hasn’t eaten or drank in hours. Maybe even more than a day.

He pretends to sleep and slips an emergency hard candy between his lips; it isn’t enough to beat back hunger, but it’s better than nothing.

o*o*o

It’s the second or third—time is a nebulous concept here—night that Kaito loses his shiny interest a bit with his ‘owner’ and he slips away to the arranged meeting place. Somehow, by some miracle, Edogawa is there. The tight, anxious knot that’s been growing in Kaito’s chest relaxes a fraction. Not alone. He’s not alone in this and Edogawa is willing to be here. Kaito places a smile on his face—Kid almost always has a smile, and that’s who Edogawa will expect. Kid. Not Kaito, a stressed and currently overwhelmed teenager. He settles into the familiar character and approaches like it hasn’t taken longer than anticipated to meet up.

"Well. You're the last person I expected to see in a place full of magic," Kaito says, making Edogawa jump. The boy relaxes when he sees it is Kaito. He shouldn't; you couldn't trust your eyes here, but it was a pleasant difference than the usual reaction. "What are you doing in backwater Ireland, Tantei-kun?"

"I should be asking you that! Don't tell me you were planning a heist."

"Would you believe I'm actually on vacation?" Kaito says with a sigh. "With friends and everything. They probably think I ditched them."

Edogawa blinks at him like the concept of Kaito having a civilian life is bizarre. "I helped someone a while back and they gave us a voucher for a trip they weren't able to take anymore. Ran and Hattori are probably worried out of their minds."

Kaito nods. "It is you," because a missing Edogawa means trouble, always.

Edogawa scowls.

Kaito grins, bright for a moment with the banter, but he can't maintain it. The not-quite-right landscape around them keeps being weird and beautiful and threatening. “Sorry I’m late for our meeting. There were…complications getting away.”

Instead of disbelief or irritation, Edogawa grimaces in understanding. “I couldn’t get away before tonight either…”

Kaito gives him a humorless smile. “Well I suppose it’s good I didn’t make you wait long then. It’s not like this place is safe.”

There’s a flash of fear in Edogawa’s eyes and Kaito wonders what has happened to him since he got here. However long either of them have been here. Edogawa had had his lips pressed together like he was terrified of any words escaping his mouth. But maybe he’s reading into this too much; Edogawa’s not exactly someone who believes in magic, and yet here they are.

"How did you get here anyway?" Edogawa asks, distracting from the heavy threat of the unknown around them.

Kaito laughs dryly. "I took a walk. It's funny that with the dozens of things I was warned not to do on this trip, going for a walk wasn't one of them." But now that Kaito is thinking of it, it is kind of weird how many rules Hakuba gave them about staying at his grandmother's house.  Kaito thought she was going to be a hardass, but she'd been funny and nice, if a little creepy. ...Actually maybe that right there was an explanation. Kaito is going to have to smack Hakuba for not warning them that his grandmother isn't human.

“Just a walk?”

“It looked like I was following a path. I wasn’t exactly expecting that walking between a tree fork would mean I walked into a different world. Let me guess,” Kaito says leaning over Edogawa. “You stuck your nose into something you shouldn’t have.”

Edogawa’s cheeks puff slightly in indignation before he heaves a sigh. “I… Yes, a little bit. There was a weird noise so of course I went looking to see what it was. Then there were weird footprints that weren’t any animal or person I could identify, and, well…” He shrugs.

Kaito, who distinctly remembers a looming shape, then darkness, shrugs back. There isn’t much you can do to protect yourself from an unexpected attack by something you aren’t expecting to exist. Kaito should have been more careful. He at least knows magic is real. “To be fair, it’s not like we could expect weird elf people to kidnap us. Or whatever some of these things are. Have you seen the ones that would fit in at a Halloween themed furry convention?”

Edogawa gives him a look like he’s going to just pretend those words hadn’t come out of Kaito’s mouth. “Fae. The word you’re looking for is the Fae.”

“Oh?” Edogawa knows more about something magical than Kaito? That’s a surprise. “I wouldn’t think you’d know anything about our darling magical kidnappers, Tantei-kun. You’re not exactly the fairy tale type.”

“My—an author I know tried writing fantasy for a while. It never got published, but during that phase I was exposed to a lot of fairytales and folklore.” There is the shifty look of Edogawa telling half-truths. Nothing new there. Edogawa’s one hell of a mystery and a mess of contradictions. “Especially the darker ones.”

“Hm, dark fantasy would be what you’d end up reading. You don’t have the right sense of wonder to appreciate the fun ones.”

A glare, though it would be more intimidating if Edogawa was taller than Kaito’s hip. Even knowing how Edogawa can and has nearly taken his head off with random projectiles, his glare is still about as scary as a toy poodle’s. “Look, it means I have a bit of an idea of where we are. And the dangers. For example, I hope you haven’t eaten or drank anything since you got here.”

“I haven’t,” Kaito admits. “I read somewhere you shouldn’t but hell if I know where.”

“Good. It could trap you here. It could be interpreted as putting you in their debt too.”

“Debt. To my kidnapper.”

“Officially you’re more of a ‘guest’ and you don’t want to break the laws of hospitality.”

“No, wouldn’t want to do that. Not when they can just kill us.” Kaito frowns off at the dancing lights in the distance. Fairy lights or will-o-wisps, or who even knows. Probably something as dangerous as it is pretty. “We can’t not eat or drink forever,” he points out. He’s already feeling the strain and weakness of going without.

“…Water might be safe?” Edogawa looks dubiously at the nearby fountain. Who knew if that is safe to drink?

“Going to have to risk it,” Kaito mutters. “I don’t have any left on me.” He carries a small container of water—never knew when you needed a bit to deal with something water soluble or a quick drink—and a small can of energy drink, but he’d used both to keep functional. Edogawa’s probably worse off with his small body. “In all honesty, I should be feeling more dehydrated considering we’ve been here for… days? I think it’s days.”

“Time can be weird when fairies are involved.”

More things to think about. Great. If it feels like days here, does that mean weeks are passing outside or only hours? “So, try to find drinking water, don’t take anything from our kidnappers, be super polite; I think we’re doing okay so far.”

“Don’t make a deal,” Edogawa says. “Don’t say ‘thank you’ or ‘I’m sorry’ as they’re insulting. Don’t give your real name I think, though if you manage to get a fairy’s name, it gives you an upper hand.”

“Don’t lie,” Kaito says quietly. The bruises on his jaw are purple now and he sees Edogawa’s eyes flick up at them, something complicated closed behind his neutral expression.

“Yeah,” Edogawa says. “Don’t lie. That seems like it’ll be hard for you.”

Kaito snorts. “Ah, Tantei-kun, for every rule there are dozens of loopholes. I’m sure our ‘owners’ are going to exploit them mercilessly, so we might as well do the same back.”

Edogawa looks at him for a moment. “You know, you probably fit right in here.”

“I like my magic a bit less real.”

“There’s a story behind that.”

“And you’re not getting it.” Kaito finally lets a tiny bit of his exhaustion show through, slumping to a crouch. “You’re handling this a lot better than I thought you would being shoved into a magical place.”

“I’m completely terrified,” Edogawa says straight faced. “And I’m going to have a crisis whenever we get home. There’s no time to freak out at the moment.”

“No?” Kaito would love to freak out a bit. “Pity. I could use a little bit of hysteria.”

“Kid.”

“Just because I’ve dealt with magic before this doesn’t mean I’m comfortable with it,” Kaito mutters. Blah. They need to get out of here. But first… Kaito digs out one of his hard candies and gives it to Edogawa. “Here. To keep your energy up a bit and help your scary brain try to think of a way out of all of this.”

Edogawa takes it like he’s suddenly worried Kaito’s an imposter and everything is a trap. “…Where did we first meet?”

“You showed up on top of a building a child had no reason to be at,” Kaito says. “And then shot off fireworks to attract police attention because you’re evil that way.”

“I’m evil?” Edogawa says, but he relaxes a little.

“They’re strawberry,” Kaito offers. “I have raspberry somewhere too. Sometimes you need a bit of sugar.”

“You just have a sweet tooth don’t you?”

“That too.”

Edogawa places the candy in his mouth and wrinkles his nose. “Too sweet.”

“You’re a child, you’re supposed to like sweet things.”

“What’s your excuse?”

“Brat,” Kaito grumbles. “…So, in the stories you heard, how did people escape the Fae?”

“Most of them didn’t. They were rescued.”

Lovely. Even if Hakuba is coming, Kaito can’t bank on it. “And the ones that weren’t rescued?”

Edogawa hesitates. “Well, most of them weren’t already captured. But in general, the ones that got away from Fae unscathed were people who could out-think them, or trick them so their own rules worked against them.”

“Hmm…” Kaito doesn’t know the rules the fairies are playing by. But if Kaito is good at anything, it’s out-thinking people who want to hurt him. “Well,” he says with a slow smile, “that gives us a place to start.”

o*o*o

“Wait, so you can really just walk in?” Hattori asks as they trek through the woods. “Isn’t that… kinda weird?”

“It’s not quite that simple,” Saguru says, “but yes, essentially we should be able to walk right in. Provided we reach the correct place at the correct time.” The veil between worlds is a complicated thing and Saguru doesn’t even pretend to understand a fraction of it. He’s going off Grandmother’s directions and stubborn hope, and that will have to be enough.

They’re following a not-so-obvious trail of mushrooms that meanders here and there in clumps. Saguru is careful to avoid the rings; those could be traps. Hattori is the only one being skeptical, but then he is a detective. Saguru fully understands his skepticism for all that he’s currently finding it extra annoying.

“…I still can’t believe a few twigs and thread’re legit charms,” Hattori mumbles.

“You’re wearing a bit of cloth and thread, presumably with a prayer,” Saguru grumbles right back. “You have no room to talk.”

“It’s an omamori, that’s legit!”

“And I’m using legitimate Irish and British charms!” Saguru says. “Just because they don’t resemble what you consider—” He cuts off as the mound Grandmother mentioned seems to appear out of nowhere. “Ah.”

“That’s it?” Hattori says.

“Quit complaining,” Aoko says, stepping forward to be shoulder to shoulder with Hakuba. “So. We… crawl in?”

There’s a small, square hole leading to darkness that makes the hair on the back of Saguru’s neck rise. It looks like something a child had built rather than a legitimate entrance into the Fae realm. He does not want to know what’s on the other side. He’s going to find out anyway though.

Saguru goes first, shoving his bag of supplies ahead of him. One hand grips the knife Grandmother gave him, something long and plain and straight that Saguru has the feeling is a lot more valuable and deadly than it looks. It’s cramped and dark and smells like rich dirt, the sort that’s best for growing plants and full of potential for life, an irony that isn’t lost on him considering how many mounds are burial mounds as well as fairy homes. There’s a terrible feeling crawling along his skin, and Saguru can feel the exact moment that he slips from one realm to the next, like an oily film crossing over him followed by something wild and dangerous and breathtaking filling his lungs; the inherent power of the Fae realm calling for his diluted blood probably. He has no idea if the others will feel even a fraction of what he does.

Behind him are Aoko’s muffled swears, Hattori grumbling about claustrophobic spaces, and the scrape of bags and human limbs. He hears nothing from Mouri, but she has been largely silent and scarily focused the whole time. Saguru pities any creature that tries to stand between her and Edogawa.

There is the smell of fresh air, fresher than he breathed before crawling into the mound, air free from human pollutants and full of green, wild things. Saguru crawls up toward a square of light and comes out in a place that doesn’t look too different than where they entered except that the plants are healthier and the undergrowth is fuller. It looks untouched.

Hattori crawls out after him. “Okay, taking a sword through a hole in the ground sucks.”

“Just be glad you have it,” Saguru says. He doesn’t know why his grandmother had a Japanese style sword. He’s never going to ask either. He might be a detective, but there are some things you learn to accept rather than question when you grow up with a grandmother that isn’t even a bit human.

“Weirdly convenient,” Hattori says. “And that knife—”

“Hattori, don’t think too hard about it.”

“How can I not—”

“I expected this place to look weirder,” Aoko cuts in. “It just looks like an overgrown forest.” She clutches the rowan staff Saguru’d gathered like a lifeline.

“This is only the border,” Saguru says. He looks at the bushes around them dreading what might be beyond them or hiding there.

“Where,” Mouri says, stepping forward with her backpack returned to her shoulders, “do we go next?”

Saguru takes a breath of the clear, intoxicating air. They’re armed, he reminds himself. They’re armed and they have food and water and charms. Mouri could break a man in half with her bare fists and kicks alone, Aoko has always been good at hitting things with a stick, and Hattori is a nationally ranking kendo practitioner. They’re not helpless even if they’re human, and Saguru isn’t invulnerable just because he has a bit of Fae blood. This should be instinctual, he’d think, but it isn’t. He just has the feeling of power all around them without knowing what to do with that feeling.

He doesn’t feel anything close. There’s nothing here waiting to kidnap them, nothing here to challenge at the gate. But if Saguru were a member of the Fae with a recently kidnapped human, what would he do? Where would the legends take him?

The answer is obvious; the Court with its ever-roaming band of Fae gathered around their rulers. Please let it not be one of the royals that took them. Please, please.

Saguru has no idea how to navigate here. He doesn’t know if the sky is the same, if directions that apply to the human realm are the same here or if everything relies on the viewer’s perception as much as an actual reality. Saguru supposes it doesn’t really matter. He’ll have to adjust regardless.

Three pairs of eyes look to him for guidance and he can hardly say he doesn’t know what he’s doing any more than they do.

In his chest though, he feels a tug, a certainty and Saguru lets it guide him because he has nothing else to go off of. Maybe his thin Fae blood will shine through. Saguru points in the direction of the feeling. “There.”

Mouri lifts the hag-stone Grandmother gave them, looking to see if anything in that direction is different, but Saguru isn’t surprised when she lowers it again with a shake of her head. “They’re just trees.”

“Good.” Right. Saguru takes the first step forward. Someone has to lead. They all walk forward into the Fae land. Getting in is never the hard part. Getting out again… Saguru grips the knife, its leather-bound hilt fitting too well in his palm. They will tackle that problem when they reach it.

o*o*o

The dense forest gives way to airier ground, still wooded, but with trees reaching impossibly high, older than Saguru can fathom. They look like they might have been there since the dawn of time, or at least since the Fae realm came into being. Maybe this is how all old-growth forests look. There are very few of those left in the world.

The others are starting to relax, but the longer they go without seeing anything more than the occasional bird or rodent in the undergrowth, the more paranoid Saguru feels. Theoretically there should have been a fairy of some sort near the entrance. Usually those are guarded. There’s been nothing, just animals like he’d expect to find in the mortal realm and it’s unnerving. The realm of the Fae shouldn’t look so normal.

It’s not that Saguru is wishing for something to happen. Of course not. It’s just that he knows how these sorts of things archetypically go. A person is stolen by the Fae, their lover/sibling/friend/whatever goes after them with little more than wits and a prayer, and they stumble upon challenges along the way because there is no such thing as an easy route to take. And either they make it to their loved one and succeed or someone usually dies.

He’s hoping no one dies.

And that he’s not living one of the awful tales where it’s too late to save the one stolen away.

Saguru is so caught up in anxious thoughts that it is Mouri that notices the change first.

“Is that… music?” Mouri asks, tilting her head toward where the sound seems to be coming from.

“A flute?” Aoko says. Her hand grips tighter on the staff.

Saguru takes a step forward cautiously. It’s a debate on if they should avoid this altogether, but he’s well aware that it’s very easy to run into something dangerous no matter where they go and this is still the most direct path toward the feeling tugging at him. Hopefully just seeing whatever is making sound won’t get them killed.

He glances at Hattori. Hattori raises an eyebrow back and hefts his sword. Saguru thumbs the hilt of his knife. “Let’s keep going.”

“…Is it likely to be something dangerous?” Aoko whispers as they get closer to the music. As they go they can make out softer sounds of jingling like bells or a tambourine and something keeping some kind of a beat.

“Aoko-san, everything here is dangerous,” Saguru says. The air is dangerous. The water could kill them or entrance them. It makes risk assessment very annoying.

They step around an overhanging branch and there they are, small hairy creatures somewhere between small humans and carnivorous rodents. They have claws and fangs and long, tapered furry ears. They also play music very nicely. As they dance and play, there’s an offhanded feeling that he should join them.

Saguru knows better. He catches Aoko and Hattori’s hands when they step forward, unthinking. The music comes to a sudden stop. A dozen beady eyes turn their direction and Saguru feels the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.

He gives a hasty bow and behind him the others follow, a beat off. “My regrets for interrupting your revelry,” Saguru says praying they’re not too offended. “We are merely passing by.”

“Humans,” one of the small creatures, the flute player, says, “should not be wandering this realm at a whim.”

“Not a whim, but a quest for friends lost. We seek the Summer Court to appeal for their freedom.”

There are bared teeth at that, but he can’t tell if it’s in humor or anger. “You travel in the right direction then,” the flute player says. “But you have interrupted our celebration.”

Saguru reaches for his bag and pulls out a honey cake. “Please take this as recompense. We will move on and trouble you no more.”

The flute player jerks its head at one of the creatures that had been dancing and it creeps forward to take the cake. Its claws brush Saguru’s hand and he knows that it could easily slit his throat with them. There are at least twice as many fairies as there are humans; a fight would be very bad. They might be small, but he is sure they’d hurt them badly even if they did win.

The small fairy brings the cake to the musicians who take crumbs to taste. One hums with pleasure and the flute player looks less angry if no less dangerous.

“Very well,” the creature says. “This is adequate. A word of warning that not all would be satisfied with such a payment.”

“Understood,” Saguru says with another bow. He can feel the others all but holding their breaths behind him.

He doesn’t let himself start shaking until they get past the small clearing and the music starts up again far away enough that it’s faint and haunting. Then he has to pause and press his shaking hand against a tree and just breathe for a moment.

“Well,” Hattori says in a slightly less shaky way, “that just happened.”

“Remember, we cannot afford to insult any of them,” Saguru says. He pictures sharp teeth and claws coming at their throats. “No matter how small or harmless something might look.”

“Yeah, those didn’t look harmless,” Hattori says drily.

“They were kind of cute?” Aoko says.

“Not as cute looking through the stone,” Mouri murmurs, fingers tight around the hag-stone.

“Oh.”

“Right.” Saguru stands straight again, shoves all the fear into a little box in his head that he’ll open later after everything is over and have a breakdown then. “That went well for a first contact with the Fae. Let’s try to keep it this way.”

Mouri sets a hand on his arm and Saguru gives her a smile he hopes is convincing. He’s supposed to be in control. He’s rarely felt less in control than this situation is making him feel.

“I’ll walk first for a bit,” Mouri offers. “Just tell me where to go.”

“You don’t have to—”

“We’ll all take turns,” Hattori interrupts. “Not like it’s not dangerous no matter who’s wherever.”

Saguru grimaces. “Fine.” He waves an arm in the direction they need to travel. “After you.”

Mouri smiles and straightens her spine. Her presence sharpens and Saguru’s reminded that she’s one of the top-ranking karate practitioners in her age group in all of Japan. If anything comes at her in the front, it’s going to regret it.

Shamefully, it is a relief to let someone else take point for at least a little bit. He’s not used to having people relying on him to stay alive, not in this way.

They move on and the music fades away entirely, like the last wisps of fog at dawn.

o*o*o

“Someone died,” Edogawa says, curled up in Kaito’s arms. He’s shaking and it’s alarming as hell because Edogawa isn’t easily freaked out let alone freaked out by death. Kaito isn’t even sure how Edogawa found him, not when Kaito had just been wandering the gardens, enjoying the bit of slack in his leash as much as he could. It wasn’t time for another meet up to plan or anything.

Edogawa shakes and Kaito wonders how bad a death he witnessed. “I’m… not trying to be callous but people are always dying around you.” He pats Edogawa uncertainly.

“You don’t understand.” Edogawa shakes his head. “Someone died, murdered right in front of us and no one cared. It was… it was like they thought it was inconvenient. Someone even laughed. I can’t…” His eyes squeeze shut, but Kaito glimpses the horror in them. “There’s no justice. There’s no mourning or care or anything they watched someone walk up and murder someone and laughed and then just threw away the corpse.”

Oh. Kaito holds Edogawa tighter. Edogawa is no stranger to cruelty. He’s seen terrible people do terrible things, but at the end of all of that, he’s usually been able to get some sort of resolution for the victims. There’s police and other detectives to seek justice and care, and other innocents to protect. Here, things don’t work like that. Kaito’s sure that his ‘owner’ would kill him and think nothing of it an hour later if he got bored enough. It’s not maliciously cruel or full of hatred. It’s an apathetic kind of cruelty, and maybe a sadistic kind with some of the fairies here. It’s not in their nature to care about a stranger, and even less about someone they didn’t actively like.

Kaito isn’t surprised at all. Deep down, Edogawa probably isn’t either, but it’s the worst sort of grating against all his detective instincts to have to ignore it and not do anything.

“How can they do that?” Edogawa says. “Did they not even have a friend that would say something?”

“Mm. Maybe they did, but it would have gotten that friend the same fate. Self-preservation ranks higher than loyalty a lot of the time.”

Edogawa pulls himself out of Kaito’s arms. “It’s terrible.”

“Our morality isn’t their morality,” Kaito says. He’s still figuring out how power works here, how the hierarchy flows. Promises and barters are worth more than gold and a bit of entertainment can be worth more than a life.

“Kid, how are we going to get out of this? We can’t even reliably meet up let alone walk out of here.” They’ve tried. It never gets less annoying finding their feet walking back even though they never seem to turn around. They’ve drunk the water here now. Eaten. There was no way to avoid it any longer. In all the fairy stories they’ve cobbled together between their two memories, no one has ever rescued themselves.

“We’ll figure out something. Last ditch effort, I make a deal.” He’s Kaitou Kid. The impossible is something he lives and breathes and makes possible.

“That would be incredibly stupid,” Edogawa says. He looks calmer, like just seeing Kaito is enough, just touching is grounding. Maybe it is enough since they’re stuck in this together. “Fairies cheat and twist deals.”

“You just have to be specific,” Kaito says. “Besides, I’ve never lost a wager.”

“A bet’s even worse than a deal,” Edogawa says.

He looks so young, like he’s a normal, worried and homesick six-year-old instead of one of Kaito’s greatest rivals. This place is no place for a kid. Especially not someone with Edogawa’s strong sense of morals. Kaito can survive here. Mind games, manipulation and never being what you appear to be is his daily life. Edogawa’s bad at it. He’s seen him try to act and he’s never able to do it well when he’s caught off guard. Hell, Edogawa’s more than he pretends to be, even Kaito can tell that even if he’s never figured out what’s really going on with the tiny detective. This place could mess up Edogawa bad and Kaito’s not sure he’d forgive himself if he didn’t try to change that. He can’t just let a bunch of fairies mess with the head of a kid.

Even if Kaito can’t escape with him, he’s got to find a way to get Edogawa out of this. Kaito can escape later, or even await Hakuba who is probably coming. (Kaito hopes.) Or Kaito can wait out the Fae and hope they let the leash slip in boredom at some future point.

o*o*o

Kaito is a magician. His whole expertise is misdirection and making an audience believe what he wants them to believe and see what he wants them to see. Kaito is also a thief. The skillset there isn’t very different from his magician one except that where a magic act is practiced and polished until it shines, a thief has to get away with more improv and a lot more aggressive audience members. Kaito makes plans and backup plans and runs through worst case scenarios. He knows that as a thief, the odds are not in his favor. And so as a thief, he has to rig the system sometimes to come out on top.

Edogawa Conan is Kaito’s target, and these fairies are the obstacles from that target. They are masters of illusion and double-edged deals and twisting words.

Kaito combs through his words, looking for any loopholes and closing them tight. He knows these creatures will take the bargain even though he has no power to barter with. They’re semi-immortal beings of capriciousness and immortals have to get bored very easily. And so Kaito will put on a show.

And so Kaito will rig the system in his favor.

He plants the aids, makes backup plans, pretends he doesn’t see suspicion as well as stress in Edogawa’s gaze.

He walks up to the Fae woman who stole Edogawa away and bows. Opens his mouth and strikes a bargain. Steals from this woman knowing he makes an enemy of her in the process. He smiles, smiles, smiles, as Edogawa is released into his hands and knows that at least one of them is going to make it out of this place just fine.

o*o*o

“Is that a horse?” Aoko says, pointing.

And it is, a small, black horse with a stunning mane lingering between trees at the edge of the clearing. It tosses its head and looks at them with interest. It immediately tugs at some nagging feeling in the back of Saguru’s head.

Aoko steps forward, making soft sounds to attract it as Hattori looks similarly entranced. And yes, it is a beautiful animal. But… He frowns.

At Saguru’s side, Mouri Ran reaches for the stone in her pocket.

In the clearing the horse walks closer, ears pricked forward, eyes fixed on Aoko’s hand.

“Aoko,” Saguru calls, “we don’t know if that’s safe.”

“It’s a horse,” Aoko says, glancing back. “Horses are herbivores, right?”

And horses can cave in a man’s skull with a kick of their back legs, Saguru thinks grimly. Beside him, Mouri’s breath hisses through her teeth and she shoots forward.

“Wha—?” Aoko starts to say, horse a foot away from her hand, right before Mouri’s foot plants squarely between the creature’s eyes.

It reels back with a shriek that should never come from a horse’s throat. Its mouth opens to show razor teeth and for a second Saguru can see it as it really is, oil-slick smooth and mane like pond weed, fangs and slitted eyes and only horse-like in the broadest of ways.

“Oh god.” Saguru jolts forward to drag Aoko away as Mouri lands another blow on the creature’s throat. It chokes before snapping at her, but Mouri is a seasoned fighter and it misses by a long ways. It’s a kelpie, and kelpies are water creatures. On land it’s at its weakest and it’s most reliant on illusions and charms to lure its prey back to water. Mouri is anything but passive and charmed.

Aoko shakes against him as Mouri, and then Hattori joining in a beat late, batter the thing enough that it decides they’re not worth eating after all. It hisses and shrieks and gallops away back toward its water home.

“God,” Saguru repeats again, horrified. That was too close. “Mouri-san, thank you.”

Mouri dusts off her hands, fierce expression fading back into her usual friendly one. “Not a problem. But maybe let me check before approaching strange animals next time?” she says, holding up the stone Grandmother gave them.

“Oh,” Aoko says. “…What was that?”

“Kelpie,” Saguru says. “A water-horse. They usually drown children.”

Aoko looks sick. “Ah.”

“Yes.”

“Right,” Hattori says. “Question any friendlier-than-normal wildlife. Got it. Though shouldn’t you’ve warned us, Hakuba?”

“Apologies,” Saguru says, annoyed, “but I’m not an automatic encyclopedia of fairy knowledge. It takes a moment to recognize things when I’m seeing them for the first time.”

Hattori huffs and looks away.

“We’re all fine,” Mouri says, keeping the peace. “That’s what matters, right?”

“Right,” Aoko agrees shakily. “…Does everything want to kill you here?”

“…Pretty close, probably,” Saguru mumbles, mostly to himself.

They give the direction the kelpie ran off in a wide berth at any rate. No need to run right back into it.

o*o*o

Night comes. Or at least it appears to be night. Saguru’s watch isn’t keeping time right, and that’s alarming enough without realizing that he has no idea how long they have been in the Fae realm. They have stopped to eat twice, and the sky turned red and gold and purple as night rolled in. Now, in a small camp in a dry overhang, the stars peek through the trees. There is no light pollution here, the stars glow in all their glory, a swathe of white specks that live up to the descriptions of the milky way Saguru has heard.

For all that this place is actively hazardous it’s also beautiful and soothing. Saguru had never realized how much some part of himself longed to be surrounded by nature. It explains why those weeks as a child at Grandmother’s home with her trips through the woods—for she knew the safest places to go—were some of his favorite memories of his childhood. So much of the rest of his life is spent shuttled from city to city.

Saguru can hear Aoko and Mouri talking softly around their small camp fire. It sounds like they’re bonding. Good, Aoko could use more female friends. Keiko is a good friend but Aoko is more on the fringes of Keiko’s friend group than that friend group is Aoko’s.

In the dark, Saguru sees a faint light. Like a firefly only blue and larger. It blinks and reappears a bit away and again and again before repeating the pattern.

“That’s pretty,” Hattori says sitting down nearby without invitation.

Saguru huffs, a bit annoyed that his peace is being interrupted. “They’re will-o-wisps. They’re trying to lure us out there to kill us.”

“Is there anything that isn’t both pretty and deadly here?” Hattori asks with a bit of humor.

“I’m fairly sure the stars are too far away to drain the life from us, but perhaps the sky isn’t the sky at all,” Saguru says, dry and on the edge of sarcastic.

Hattori surprises him by almost laughing. “Yeah, I thought as much. Think it’s a hunting thing? Like, they’re mostly carnivores, right? So it’s all…” He waves a hand. “Like an angler fish. Look at the pretty shiny, oops, you’re dead.”

Saguru snorts. “That sounds about right.” He glances at Hattori. Hattori has held up rather well through all of this. They all have so far. He thought that the fairies they ran into or the strange plants like the flower forest they walked through after lunch, or any of the many other tiny things that marked this place as unnatural would wear on their nerves. Saguru’s not sure if he’s not doing worse than them actually despite how much he’s been exposed to this sort of thing in his life. Maybe it’s because he knows more that it’s wearing on him more.

Hattori looks relaxed except for the sword he keeps close at hand. Good. Not completely trusting of this calm then.

Saguru turns his eyes back up at the stars. They’re so bright he could probably see as well as if it was a full moon back home. “I think in part they like pretty things though. It’s not just to lure others in. They like perfection and beauty wherever they can find it, and if they can’t find it naturally they’ll make it appear to be lovely to better suit their taste.” Grandmother is an oddity in that she revels in the imperfections of the human realm. He remembers her comparing it to how each piece of pottery fires with slightly different glaze and that makes each piece uniquely valuable. He knows she values it all the more for how none of it is an illusion at all. Well, besides her appearance. That she’s chosen on her own and lets herself look imperfect and human with time wearing on her face. “There are definitely those who use it as bait though.”

“Like the horse.”

“Yes, like the horse.”

“Huh.” Hattori leans back looking at the sky. “What do you think we’re gonna find when we get there?”

Saguru doesn’t answer at first. He has too many thoughts of how things could turn out, most of them bad. He pictures Kuroba in thrall. He pictures Kuroba on the arm of some seemingly beautiful creature with Aoko blurred from his mind entirely. He pictures Kuroba defiant and in chains. He pictures him injured. He doesn’t let himself go down the path of finding him dead. “We’ll find our friends,” Saguru says.

“You know that’s not what I meant.”

“Do you really want me catastrophizing and painting a picture of what could be when we have no proof of if anything bad has happened at all?”

“So you think we’ll find ‘em hurt or worse.” Hattori closes off a bit and Saguru realizes this was the most unguarded he’s been with Saguru ever.

“I hope we won’t,” Saguru says. “But you have to understand that there are a lot of stories and records of bad things happening when Fae take humans.”

“But they’re not all like that right? Like your Grandma.”

“I wouldn’t necessarily say Grandmother doesn’t have a cruel streak,” Saguru says.

“Well she must have a kind streak too or she woudn’t’ve married your gramps or give a shit if you ran in here and died.”

“Hm.” Grandmother could be very kind. Grandmother could also be very terrible and careless when things didn’t align with her interests or desires. Grandmother’s morality is not human morality no matter how easy it is to forget that sometimes when she brings out baked goods and starts fawning over how Saguru’s grown in body and mind.

Behind them there’s the dull sound of flesh meeting flesh. Saguru cranes around and sees Mouri guiding Aoko in another punch for her bare hand. Well, at least they’re having a good time. Aoko could already hit hard; she’s going to be scary if she learns to punch with Mouri’s level of proficiency.

“The Fae prioritize themselves and their interests, Hattori,” Saguru says. “That includes my grandmother. I’m family and that makes me hers on some level, and it extends to all of you as you are people I know and hold a level of care for. The Fae that took Kuroba and Edogawa are going to care about them in the same way as a person would their property or a pet. And some people cherish what is theirs and others get delight in destroying. We don’t know which sort took them.”

Hattori’s quiet a moment tense all over. There’s frustration in his eyes echoing Saguru’s own but he lets it go. Saguru would have expected him to lash out. Maybe he’s maturing. Hattori shakes his head and deliberately releases the tension in his shoulders. “So. Are ya saying you give a shit about me on some level?” he asks with a needling smile.

Saguru rolls his eyes. “Not wanting you to suffer or die is rather a low bar extended to most of humanity.”

“Ouch.” Hattori laughs though instead of taking offense.

Saguru still doesn’t know what to make of him. He still doesn’t really like him, but that’s fine. They don’t need to be friends. “We should try to rest.”

“I’ll take first watch,” Hattori says with a lazy wave of a hand. “You go curl up with the girls.”

“…”

“I didn’t mean for that to come out suggestive!”

“I’d hope not.” Saguru rolls his eyes and joins Mouri and Aoko at the fire. Aoko smiles, open and honest even though he can see the worry lingering behind it. Saguru smiles back. He’s glad he didn’t have to come here alone.

o*o*o

“Why would you do that?!” Edogawa growls, back in Kaito’s room. Kaito’s room because he’s Kaito’s now according to the Fae. “They could have killed you instead of finding you amusing, are you insane?”

“Don’t most people think I’m insane?” Kaito asks. He’s let his smile drop. He’s exhausted mentally and emotionally. He stares at the fruit bowl left to tempt him and gives in because he’s already eaten, so might as well eat when he’s hungry. After a hesitation he deliberately hands a piece of fruit to Edogawa. “I’m giving you that,” he says, “because it’s now mine to give, not anyone else’s.” He says it like a challenge to any potentially listening ears, but the principle feels sound. It’s Kaito’s hospitality to give now that he’s in charge of Edogawa, so Edogawa isn’t indebted again to any fairy.

Edogawa looks like he wants to hurl the peach back in Kaito’s face.

Kaito takes a bite of his own peach, letting the juices drip without care. It’s the best peach he’s ever eaten and he hates that because eating things here have ruined him for certain human foods.

“Kid,” Edogawa says, sharp and biting and too mature.

Kaito looks at him and feels simultaneously hollow and triumphant. “Look. Between the two of us, we both know I’m more suited for the kinds of games they play. They could still choose to kill us at any time, but now you at least have the option to run and no one has the right to stop you. Also, we have no way of knowing if anyone is coming for you. Now if they aren’t you have the option to leave.”

“Do you even know if anyone’s coming for you?” Edogawa shoots back. His fingers bruise the soft skin of his peach, but he still isn’t eating it. Kaito should insist but whatever. He’ll eat when he’s hungry.

Kaito licks juice off his wrist and flops back on the tangle of pillows and blankets that’s been serving as his bed. “I can make an educated guess that yes, they’re coming for me. At least one person is coming for me.” Because Hakuba can’t be completely human so he must have an idea what happened. And he probably has an idea on how to get Kaito back too. It’s weird to be banking on Hakuba’s goodwill to survive this, but hey if it turns out he’s wrong there, he can figure something else out. Probably.

“Would they even know where to look?” Edogawa says skeptically.

“If his grandmother is as inhuman as I think she probably is, yes.”

“You think. You guess. You’re betting an awful lot on a maybe, Kid.”

Kaito grins and finishes the peach, sucking sweet flesh from the pit before tossing it back in the bowl it came from. “Edogawa, the odds here are better than half my heist odds.” It’s a lie, or not the whole truth. He doesn’t have enough information to properly calculate the odds.

Edogawa huffs, and his anger cracks enough to give a glimpse at the worry driving it. Kaito pats a nearby pillow. Edogawa frowns at him before deciding he might as well sit. Of course he chooses a pillow far away from the one Kaito indicated. “…What was that crap about humans wanting to protect their young?”

“Mm, it’s not false,” Kaito says. “Humans naturally want to protect children. I just didn’t say that was my motivation for making the deal. Thankfully they don’t seem to know all that much about humans.”

“…If it was some other person would you have made the same deal?” Edogawa asks.

“Of course,” Kaito says in an instant. He can picture a different child in the same place, terrified eyes and crying instead of stubborn silence. “It’s not that I don’t think you can handle yourself,” Kaito says, trading his relaxed façade for something more serious and closer to the truth. “It’s that I think the odds are stacked against us, and I want at least one of us to make it out. And the odds were stacked worse against you.”

“You’ve gone and made things worse for yourself,” Edogawa says.

Kaito shrugs. “You know you could just say thank you.”

“Like hell am I going to thank you for something I didn’t ask for,” Edogawa grumbles. He finally takes a bite of the peach.

Kaito closes his eyes and sinks back into the soft embrace of the pillows. “We’ll wait a little longer and if no one shows up for me, you’re getting yourself out of here. Maybe they just haven’t figured it out yet.”

“I’m not going to leave you alone,” Edogawa says. When Kaito slits an eye his direction, he has that scary-intense look he gets that makes him look at least three times his age. “When I leave, you’re coming too.”

“Can’t guarantee that’ll be possible,” Kaito says.

“Kid,” Edogawa says, “you’re a pain in the ass and a public nuisance, but I wouldn’t leave my worst enemies in this sort of place, and you’re a long way away from being an enemy.” A pause. “Maybe a rival.”

“Aww, you have rivalry feelings for me, Edogawa?” Kaito coos. The peach stone smacks into his chin cleaving a sticky bruise. “Ow!”

“Shut up, thief.” Edogawa tugs a blanket around himself and turns away.

He still doesn’t say thank you. Kaito’s not bothered by it though; he didn’t do it for thanks.

“Hakuba,” he mutters to himself. “You better get here quickly.”

o*o*o

They’re in the second stretch of woodland after an unnerving expanse of grass and flowers that had felt as cursed as it looked beautiful. Hattori—taking point for the moment—pushes through a particularly dense curtain of wild grape vines and freezes. Saguru, right behind him, walks straight into his back.

“Ow.” Saguru rubs his nose where it smacked into the back of Hattori’s head. “What.”

“Uh.” Hattori parts the vines. Saguru and Aoko crane around him, leaving Mouri to guard their backs.

Near a thin trickle of a stream and a narrow-worn path through the growth is a red fox, caught in a snare that looks to have been set more for a rabbit than a canid. It had been caught around its paw, but it must have tried to bite its way free because its lower jaw is caught in the snare too, stuck awkwardly on its hind legs and unable to free itself.

“Oh,” Aoko gasps. “Oh, Hakuba-kun…” She’s distressed.

Saguru would feel the same if he wasn’t a bit more skeptic in general and hadn’t been hunting before. Still, he’s not comfortable with seeing an animal suffer.

“We can’t leave it like that,” Aoko says. She moves forward before Saguru can grab her.

“Aoko!” They don’t even know if it’s actually a fox! Saguru moves to run after her but Mouri grabs his wrist, stone to her eye. “Mouri-san?”

“It doesn’t look like anything but an animal.”

“That doesn’t mean it’s harmless,” Saguru protests. Aoko approaches the fox, something gleaming in her hand and Saguru realizes she took his knife. Damn it Aoko.

“It’s okay,” Aoko says, voice calm and level. “I can do this. I can’t leave it here, but I won’t let it hurt me either.”

The fox watches her with eyes bright with pain and understanding that it can’t escape if she chooses to harm it. It doesn’t lash out though and maybe it understands what’s going on. Maybe it’s just a fox or maybe it’s something more.

Hattori inches forward too, and the fox’s eyes snap to him. It growls.

“Shit,” Hattori says.

“I got this,” Aoko says, and the fox doesn’t growl at her. Not even as she gets close enough that she could stab it. Saguru’s heart beats against his ribs as she weighs down the sapling, easing the strain on the line. “It’s okay,” Aoko says, soothing the fox as it reflexively tries to jerk free again. The line has cut into it though and its fur and mouth have blood staining them. Aoko brings the knife down against the line and it cuts.

The fox pants, holding very still.

After a moment when neither of them move, Aoko reaches out toward its mouth and trapped paw. Saguru flinches harder than the fox does when Aoko works the line free from its flesh.

The whole forest seems to hold still as the line is removed. Aoko goes a step further and cuts the hem off her over-shirt and wraps it around the fox’s paw. It watches with eyes that definitely hold more than the eyes of a normal animal.

“There,” Aoko says, letting go. “I can’t help your mouth, but you should be okay now.”

The fox doesn’t move until suddenly it does, surging to its paws and crowding Aoko’s space. Saguru has just enough time to vividly imagine it ending that motion with its fangs in Aoko’s throat, but instead it presses its nose to Aoko’s forehead before turning tail and fleeing into the brush.

Aoko touches the place its nose brushed with something like wonder on her face.

“Aoko?” Saguru says, hurrying over.

“I’m fine,” she says. Then, “I don’t think that was a normal fox.”

“No shit,” Hattori says. “No way it’d’ve stayed still like that if it was.”

“Did it do something?” Saguru demands.

“I…don’t know?” Aoko rubs her forehead. “It felt tingly?”

“Well, it’s probably not a curse,” Mouri says optimistically. “You did just save its life.”

Saguru brushes his fingertips against Aoko’s forehead and for perhaps the first time in his life wishes he got more than a tiny bit of magical sensitivity from his fairy genetics. It just feels like normal skin.

“It’s fine,” Aoko says. “I feel fine. And it didn’t bite me so it’s all good okay?”

Saguru presses his lips in a line.

“Hakuba-kun. If I start feeling weird at any point I’ll tell you.”

“Please do.”

o*o*o

Saguru feels like they’re getting close. He’s not sure why he has that feeling, just that there is a certainty in his gut about it and he’s decided to classify all the strange gut feelings as whatever bit of him is Fae and leave it at that. They’ve left the forest behind and there are cultivated fields now, and the occasional space that could be called a garden, though it’s much wilder than any cultivated garden Saguru would typically see.

So of course something would go wrong.

An arrow narrowly misses his ear and hoofbeats come out of nowhere. A Fae lord—for he has to be a lord with his more human appearance and fine clothing, let alone his terrifying steed—clatters onto the road they were following, bow in hand.

“You,” he says, “humans, have committed a crime against me.”

Saguru draws himself into a low bow, mind racing because what could they have possibly done?! Unless this is because they’re trespassing, though how would anyone know this is a certain lord’s lands? “Begging your pardon, milord, but we are unaware of what offense you speak of.”

“My hunt,” the lord says, face in a snarl. “You released my prey, a vile fox that has stolen something dear to me. And for that you will pay.”

Oh damn. Saguru looks at Aoko and she’s just as wide-eyed. “We were unaware that this creature was your intended prey, milord,” Saguru tries. “The trap it was caught in appeared to be for smaller prey.”

“It’s too smart to catch in conventional means,” the Fae says. “I have hunted it for the last moon, and now you’ve cost me its hide. So you shall have to pay in blood.” He releases another arrow and Saguru would be dead if Hattori hadn’t stepped forward to deflect it with his sword.

Saguru is never going to admit that this was a truly impressive feat of swordsmanship to do that.

“Oi,” Hattori says. “If your prey was so important, you shoulda been quicker to take care of it. It could’ve escaped by the time you got there for all you know.”

“The line was cut,” is the scathing reply. “And the fox could not have escaped alone. The line was enchanted not to break.”

…How had Saguru’s knife cut it then? Actually, what is the knife Grandmother gave him in that case? Unless it could be cut just fine, just not break under the force of an animal? As the bow rises again, Saguru drags his brain away from unimportant things to focus on the threat to his life. Because clearly that is where his brain should be focusing. Terror, it seems, is not good for focus.

“Clearly not too strong an enchantment,” Hattori retorts.

Naturally, this pisses the Fae lord off.

Damn it Hattori, did you listen to nothing I said about not enraging the Fae we encounter? Saguru is going to give Hattori a piece of his mind later.

The horse paws at the ground, its rider’s tension transferring to it. In a flash, the bow is set aside and a sword drawn, the horse charging them.

Saguru, Aoko and Mouri dive out of the way. Hattori, showing his bull-headedness, stands his ground, moving only so much as to not get trampled. He redirects the sword aimed at his throat in a deceptively elegant parry.

“You wanna sword fight?” Hattori says. “C’mon. I got a lotta pissed off feelings that could use an outlet.”

Two spots of red appear on the lord’s cheeks. “Insolent mortal!” The horse rears, aiming its hooves at Hattori’s skull.

Hattori dodges at last moment and cuts the saddle cinch in the same move. It cuts the horse, not enough to seriously injure it, but more than enough to make it side-step and jerk violently away from the pain. The saddle rolls. Hattori couldn’t have embarrassed the lord more if he’d cut his robes. The Fae slides off his mount’s back, landing on his feet through the preternatural grace that all Fae have. If looks could kill, Hattori would already be dead.

“I am going to skewer you and bleed you out slowly.”

“Feel free ta try.”

“Perhaps don’t egg on a magical being of unknown power,” Saguru says a bit hysterically.

“Oh, shut it Hakuba. This is a duel now. Stay out of it.”

Fine. If Hattori wants to go head to head with a supernatural being with inhuman reflexes, have at it. Saguru’s not going to stop him. If he gets injured or worse it’s his own damn fault. Saguru throws his hands up and goes to help Aoko calm the horse. A horse that upon closer inspection has eyes that may or may not be on fire.

“Is this a demonic horse?” Saguru asks no one in particular.

Steel screeches against steel and the Fae lord hisses threats and expletives.

Aoko pats the horse’s nose and it looks a bit less like it’s going break Saguru’s foot on principle. “He seems too nice to be demonic.”

The horse chomps at its bit revealing fangs. Sure. Why not? “Still glad you saved the fox?” Saguru mutters.

“Yes,” Aoko says frowning at him, “even more glad because clearly this guy is a jerk.”

There’s a thud as the Fae’s sword goes flying. Mouri goes and picks it up just in case as Hattori stands triumphant, barely winded with his blade at the lord’s throat. The lord looks like he wants to murder Hattori with his bare fingers.

“Looks like I win,” Hattori says. “Let’s call this whole thing even and I’ll let you live.”

It’s highly doubtful that Hattori would kill, but the lord doesn’t know that. And Hattori’s hand is steady and his eyes hard. The lord clenches his fist.

“I concede to your victory,” he spits, “but I do not forgive you for stealing my prey.”

“No?” Hattori slides the edge of his sword just the slightest bit closer. A drop of blood slides down its edge and the Fae stops breathing.

Then his hand clenches and Saguru doesn’t even think before he grabs not his knife, but the iron nail in his pocket. Hattori’s eyes go wide as an invisible force pushes his sword back and the Fae raises his hand, teeth gritted and hate in his eyes.

“Hattori!” Saguru yells.

Hattori drops, just in time to avoid being decapitated by a wave of magical energy. A split second later Saguru slams his iron nail straight through the Fae’s hand.

The lord gives an unholy shriek nowhere near a human vocal range. The smell of scorched flesh and blood fills the air as his blood all but boils around the iron in his hand.

Thank goodness for Mouri because she follows up with a firm kick to the Fae’s jaw. He turns twice with the force before face planting in the dirt, his hand still blistering and smoldering.

“Holy shit,” Hattori says.

Saguru looks at the cold iron nail and the damage it’s causing, debating pulling it out or leaving it. It could kill this creature if left too long. On the other hand, the Fae had tried to kill them at least three times in under fifteen minutes. All because they rescued another living creature. Saguru looked at the horse still happily letting Aoko pet it.

The Fae lord could stand to lose a bit of dignity and maybe a hand. (Saguru is well aware that this is a level of vindictive and petty that he normally doesn’t let himself stoop to because it generally goes against his concept of justice. There’s no justice in this place though, and he’s going to indulge just the tiniest bit in the cruel side of his heart that longs to see harm come to those that hurt those that are his. Yes, this is probably his Fae blood shining through. Too bad.)

“You’re just leaving him?” Aoko asks as Mouri eyes the undignified heap of expensive clothing and thin-limbed fairy to confirm that he’s unconscious.

“He tried to kill us,” Saguru says.

“Yeah but his hand is boiling.”

“Too bad. He should have surrendered and let us go.”

“Hakuba-kun,” Aoko says with a frown.

“Well can you think of any other way to keep him from coming after us?”

“Obviously we steal his horse as a prize for our win,” Aoko says, patting the demon horse. It snuffles her happily. Saguru has a horrified vision of it taking a bite out of her shoulder, but it just nibbles at the ends of her hair.

“Yeah, the nail’s a little… eh.” Hattori bends down and pulls the nail out of the Fae’s palm. “We don’t want ta actually kill anyone. And you said these’re poison.”

“It wouldn’t kill him immediately,” Saguru mutters.

“Eh, not saying we have to bandage him or anything.” Hattori leaves the heap of Fae where he lies and gives Saguru back the nail. It’s unpleasantly bloody.

Saguru grimaces. Well at least he knows that it’s effective. If disturbing.

“Good teamwork,” Hattori says cheerfully to Mouri. “That was actually kinda fun.”

“Adrenaline junky,” Saguru mutters. He wipes the nail on his pants and puts it back in his pocket.

“Please don’t challenge everyone to a duel,” Mouri says to Hattori.

“I’m not crazy, I just needed to hit something. I probably won’t get ta hit the ones that took the kiddo.” Hattori stretches and puts his sword away. “Oh and, eh good save I guess, Hakuba.”

“Next time save yourself,” Saguru says, not meaning a word.

“Ready?” Aoko asks, now on the demon horse. It still is far too calm about her touching it.

Saguru eyes the horse and then its unconscious master. “Sure.”

o*o*o

Kaito is being arm candy with a bland smile and a side-step for any wandering hands with Edogawa close at his side—because he can’t let him out of his sight yet, not before they have a clear way to get Edogawa out and not recaptured—when there is a stir from the edge of the ever-ongoing party that is the Summer court.

He doesn’t notice at first because there seems to always be some kind of drama going on, and usually it’s not him causing it. But the murmurs get closer and louder and even in his half-dazed, zoned-out state snaps to attention at that.

The first thing Kaito sees is a horse. Or maybe a demon? Horses don’t usually have fangs or eyes of fire, but that one does. Then he sees who’s riding it and Kaito feels simultaneous relief and horror. “Aoko.” The word is barely a breath of air from his lungs but he feels Edogawa’s eyes on him. Kaito can’t look away from her and the horse as the crowd parts for her. Then he notices that she’s not alone.

“Hakuba’s there too.” Oh good, he’d have had to kill Hakuba if he let Aoko come after him alone. (And oh thank goodness they were here. They were here and Kaito might get out of here in one piece.)

“I can’t see,” Edogawa says gripping Kaito’s wrist.

Kaito hauls him up without a word.

Edogawa gasps. “Ran.”

“And Hattori Heiji. You have some loyal friends,” Kaito says.

“…Is that Hakuba Saguru?”

“I have some loyal friends too,” Kaito says warmth growing in his chest. He can’t look away. Aoko’s riding a huge demon-horse-thing bareback with a wooden staff in one hand and the reigns in the other. Hakuba’s leading the way with a backpack on and a knife on his belt. He has the stone-faced look he gets when he’s trying to appear confident instead of worried. And Mouri Ran and Hattori Heiji are flanking him, Mouri standing tall and steady, and Hattori with a hand on a sword like he’s going to use it at the slightest threat. They look like they’ve been camping, dirt-scuffed and disheveled. Kaito’s never been happier to see Hakuba in his life.

“How is Hakuba your friend?” Edogawa hisses.

“The same way you are kind of sort of my friend,” Kaito retorts.

“We’re not friends!”

“…If you can’t consider us friends after this I’m going to be concerned.”

“We’re rivals!”

“Actual rivals share a goal, Tantei-kun.”

Edogawa huffs and squirms in Kaito’s arms trying to get a better view. Kaito swears as he almost gets kneed in the face.

“Just. Hold still!”

“Be a better prop!”

Kaito’s not going to punt the child detective into a crowd of fairies just because he’s being a brat. Really. He’s just going to imagine it with vivid detail. Kaito gets Edogawa on his shoulders. “There. Now stop squirming.”

Kaito’s ‘owner’ gives him a disgusted side-eye, but fuck that guy. He keeps messing up Kaito’s attempts to leave this glimmering hell hole.

Hakuba steps up to the Queen, the Fae parting without a fight, probably because they were expecting a show. Semi-immortal life must be boring enough that anything unusual counted as entertainment. Kaito should look at him, but his eyes keep straying to Aoko on the horse looking like some kind of wild goddess with her hair snarled and frizzy and fierce like it got whenever she didn’t have hair products to keep it in a semblance of tame. It’s an Aoko he’s seen on late nights and early mornings, after crazy races and sleepovers. The Aoko then never had quite so fierce an expression though. It’s not even a proper weapon in her hand, just a plain branch, but she holds it like it’s something between a scepter and a glaive and it could kill with a touch. It’s an uncomfortably attractive look. …Yeah, he should look at Hakuba now before he gets too worked up at all the emotional layers going on there.

“How did they find us?” Edogawa murmurs in Kaito’s ear.

“Hakuba, probably.”

“Mm?”

“He’s probably not completely human.”

Kaito feels Edogawa tense and pats his knee absently. “It’s fine. He wouldn’t be here if he didn’t plan to help. And Hattori-san wouldn’t be willingly following along. I’m surprised they haven’t killed each other.”

Edogawa huffs, as close to a laugh as he can manage with all the pressure in the air.

Hakuba approaches the Queen’s throne and bows low and formal. Behind him the others bow too, not as low, and Aoko on the horse, but they bow. It makes his gut twist because these Fae don’t deserve this kind of respect. If they didn’t bow, the Queen could decide to gut them rather than listen at all.

“Humans,” the Queen says. “It has been a long while since your kind have sought out my court willingly. What brings you here, mortals?”

“We come seeking those who have been stolen from our realm, companions dear to us,” Hakuba says in careful, formal English. The words feel heavy in the air, everyone suddenly unnaturally silent and still. “We would have them returned to us.”

There is steel in his voice. As he straightens, Kaito has a new appreciation for the piercing stare Hakuba has, like when he’s cornering a criminal or, as it appears here, staring down a fairy queen.

“And what,” the Queen says indulgently, “claim do you have on one in Our hospitality?”

Hakuba’s eyes flick away from her, searching and Kaito realizes he’s looking for him. For Kaito. Their eyes meet and for a moment all Kaito can feel is his heart pounding in his chest and the weight of all the space between them.

“We lay claims of love, family, brotherhood, and the hunt,” Saguru says to the Queen.

o*o*o

Saguru’s heart is going to beat out of his chest but he keeps his face composed as he bows to the Queen of the Summer court. She’s too beautiful to look too closely at, which is for the best because he knows under that beauty is probably something terrifying and he’s terrified enough. He’s glad for Mouri and Hattori at his heels, and even Aoko on her giant demon horse because they lend him the strength to keep his voice from wavering as he states his intentions.

He doesn’t expect this to be easy.

Saguru glances away from the Queen despite how poor a choice that is. The crowd is faceless, glimmering, a glamour over them and he can’t see Kaito, can’t see Edogawa, except his forehead is suddenly burning and he can see faces after all.

Thank you, Nessa.

Saguru’s eyes are drawn like iron fillings to a magnet to Kuroba. Like he’s gravity and Saguru can’t resist the pull. Edogawa is with him and they’re looking at Saguru’s group with hope. Saguru hopes that he’s worthy of that. He swallows and looks back at the Queen as she speaks.

“We lay claims of love, family, brotherhood, and the hunt.”

“Do you now.” Her head tilts. “Of your claims, the ones on the child are no matter to Us. He has been claimed by the human Magician. He is free to come or go as the Magician dictates, but the Magician is fairly claimed by the Lord who caught him on his lands. Can you provide stronger claim?”

Edogawa is free? Saguru flicks a look toward Kuroba again and wonders how on earth Kuroba managed that. Something stupid and dangerous probably. He hears Hattori let out a breath. One less person than they thought they’d have to bargain for. But there is still Kuroba to save.

“I believe we can.”

Aoko slides from the horse and steps forward, back straight and steeled with determination. “I make a claim of love and friendship over Kuroba Kaito,” Aoko says as they had rehearsed. Her English is clear if a bit stilted, practiced. Thankfully when the Fae have been speaking it’s been in that indeterminable language that their brains translate to one more familiar. “I have claimed him as a friend for the last decade, and claim his love and love of him now. I will not relinquish this claim.”

“Will you perform a task of proof?” the Queen says.

Saguru thinks of shape changing, hot iron and serpents.

Aoko swallows. “I will,” she says refusing to back down. There was no way to prepare her for this. They didn’t know what might be demanded of them.

The Queen smiles and waves a hand. The crowd around them is suddenly a flock of panicky birds, fluttering and scattering and grouping as much as weakened wings will allow.

“If you truly love this boy, you will find him out of a group of creatures. Choose correctly and I will acknowledge the veracity of your claim.”

Aoko looks at the birds—doves, of course they are doves, it’s Kuroba—and hesitates.

“You only have one choice,” the Queen says.

Aoko’s shoulders shake once before she squares them. She strides forward into the mass of birds. They swirl and flutter around her in a cacophony of wings and coos. Feathers spiral and fall. “Oh for the love of—” Aoko holds up an arm as birds fly at her face. “Settle down!” she commands, and in the biggest surprise of all, they actually do.

Saguru blinks and sees Aoko’s forehead glow briefly and realizes it’s the Fox’s gift.

The birds still, but there are still hundreds, white and gray and cream and brown. Aoko’s eyes sweep across them, searching. Her eyes catch on one in the mess of them and she steps forward. With each step the doves shuffle back, giving her space. Her hands reach for a pure white dove and the creature flutters, somehow managing to fly half down Aoko’s shirt before she gets her hands around it.

Aoko stands up with a familiar expression of annoyed fondness on her face. “This is him,” she says. The bird sits content in her hands, not struggling or fussing.

The Queen’s lips tip down for a fraction of a second. “You’re certain?”

“Yes. This is definitely Kaito.”

The Queen’s hand lifts again and Aoko is back in front of her, the crowd of Fae are back, and Kuroba is standing startled at the Queen’s right. He looks down at his body and then up at Aoko. Aoko is barely restraining herself for running toward him.

“You chose correctly,” the Queen says. “I will consider the weight of your claim.”

That’s not a ‘yes, he can go,’ but they didn’t expect one claim to be enough. The Queen turns her attention to Saguru as he steps forward and Aoko steps back to her horse.

“And you?” the Queen says. “What is your claim over this boy?”

Saguru takes a breath. “I make a claim of the hunt. For the last two years, I have spent many hours tracking and chasing Kuroba Kaito as one Kaitou Kid. He was mine to hunt and catch before he was Taken and remains mine to chase now.”

There’s a soft gasp behind him and his hands sweat. They spoke of it, him and Aoko, and she hadn’t been happy. She hadn’t fully believed him either, but it’s hard to not believe when Kuroba is white with panic across from him and staring at Saguru like he just murdered someone in front of him.

Saguru thought it out carefully though, and his claim of friendship is weaker than a claim of hunt. He has been friends less time with less intensity, and he still is chasing Kid to this day even know Kid is Kuroba.

“Can you give proof of this?” the Queen says.

Saguru reaches into his pocket and brings out his watch. It dangles from its chain, swinging like a pendulum as he holds it out. “To substantiate my claim, I offer this watch, an object I hold dear, with which I have logged my time of hunting Kid from our first meeting to our last clash less than a month ago. It has been with me through my whole career as a detective and has been a tool for many hunts.”

There is a spark of curiosity, Saguru thinks, in the Queen’s eyes as she waves for a member of her court to bring the watch to her.

Saguru lets go of it without hesitation even as his heart aches to see it change hands. He isn’t lying; it’s one of his most prized possessions. It’s more than worth giving it up if it will return Kuroba.

Kuroba looks at the watch with disbelief. He knows he told Kuroba once how the watch had been a gift from his grandfather. How it is accurate to the fraction of a second and somehow has never lost time so long as Saguru winds it once every week. For Kuroba who knows the value of things given by family members lost to time, he understands the enormity of the action.

The Queen weighs the watch in her hand, evaluating its worth. It is more than the value of the physical object, but the magnitude of what the object is to Saguru.

“Your claim,” she says, “is valid.” Saguru’s shoulders relax a fraction. “But,” she adds and he tenses up all over again, “the price is not yet enough. It would have been except he has accrued a debt in Our care.”

Food eaten, Saguru thinks. Or perhaps it is Edogawa, however he has freed him. His mind blanks for a moment, hope crushed. Mouri, Hattori, they likely have no significant level of claim for Kuroba. They’re acquaintances of Kid at best.

“Wait!” a voice calls above the rising murmur of the Fae around them. “I make a claim!”

Saguru’s head whips toward the sound, toward where Edogawa pushes through the press of fancy dress and long-limbed bodies.

“Tantei-kun!” Kuroba hisses, probably worried Edogawa will end up right back in the Fae’s grasp.

Edogawa glares at him before turning his gaze up at the Queen. “I make a claim on Kaitou Kid, Kuroba Kaito.”

“Conan-kun!” Mouri says, taking a step forward. Saguru catches her arm. They can’t. Even if they want to, they can’t break their composure.

Edogawa doesn’t look at her. He stares up at the Queen and she stares back with interest like things have taken an amusing turn.

“Oh? And what is your claim, child?”

“I claim rivalry. He and I have pitted our skills against each other and come out at a draw more often than not.”

“That is close to a claim of hunt, child.” Her head tilts. “Are you claiming you have greater right to him than him?” One finger flicks lazily at Saguru.

“No,” Edogawa says, fearless. “Rivalry, not the hunt. I rarely try to catch him, merely test my mind against his and prove myself equal. In return he has created challenges with my skills in mind. We have pushed each other to further our skills and continually sharpened them against each other. Is that not a rivalry?”

“And what do you offer in proof or exchange?”

Edogawa’s posture stiffens. He licks his lips and looks at Kuroba. “I am aware of his secret. He is aware of mine even if he isn’t conscious of it.” There’s something meaningful in how he’s looking at Kuroba and Kuroba’s brow furrows, clearly not on the same page. Behind Saguru, Hattori swears under his breath. Well, whatever the secret, apparently Hattori is in on it, and despite Edogawa’s words, Kuroba is not.

“May I request a test?” Edogawa asks.

“An unusual request,” the Queen says. “Suggest it.”

“The one who took me learned some of who I am. I will ask three questions, and she will answer. Kuroba will also answer and if Kuroba’s answer is different and correct, it will prove that we are properly rivals.”

“And how,” the Queen asks, “will you prove that his answers are correct if they are different?”

“You can hear lies,” Edogawa says. “I’ll confirm or deny.”

“Very well. Amadriel.”

A willowy female Fae strides forward from the crowd. Her eyes fix on Edogawa. Possessive and unhappy. A glance at Kuroba is full of spite.

Edogawa smiles, sharp like he does at criminals, and gives a half-bow.

o*o*o

Kaito has no idea what the hell Edogawa is pulling. He appreciates Tantei-kun’s sharp mind, but he wishes he knew what the plan was here because it’s kind of his freedom on the balance here. Edogawa is banking on Kaito knowing him, which… Okay, Kaito does know him fairly well. He’s very smart, kind of a jerk sometimes, sarcastic and biting sense of humor, willing to do a lot of vaguely morally grey things to work toward his goals. Kaito can appreciate that. He can appreciate how Edogawa can unbend enough to have fun at heists unlike Hakuba even if Edogawa’s sense of fun straddles the edge of self-harm as much as Kaito’s does. He doesn’t seem to have fear, throwing himself into things whole-heartedly, sometimes whole-bodiedly as well. He’s eerily perceptive, knowing things a child shouldn’t even one who ends up on crime scenes as often as Edogawa does. Sometimes he seems a decade older, looking out at the world with weary, bitter eyes. He’s got a crush on Mouri Ran and has some sort of connection to Kudo Shinichi.

And apparently he thinks Kaito has figured out his secrets. Apparently Edogawa has a deep secret.

Kaito stares at Edogawa like he can magically read his mind. Mind reading would be abso-frigging-lutely lovely right now.

“Where is my parent’s home?” Edogawa asks.

His parents. Edogawa isn’t even living with his parents, he’s Mouri Kogoro’s ward. His parents are… Shit has Kaito have heard anything about them? Edogawa meets his eyes, perfectly calm and Kaito doesn’t let his panic show on his face.

The Fae huffs. “They said that in the village,” she says. “You are good at speaking English because your parents live in America.”

Edogawa doesn’t change expression. Shit. Ok, so this is…probably a lie. Actually, Kaito’s willing to bet everything that is going to come out of her mouth isn’t true. So if that isn’t true… “Your parents live in Japan.”

“My parents’ home is in Japan,” Edogawa confirms.

“Truth,” the Queen says.

“How old am I?” Edogawa asks.

“Seven,” the Fae says. “Human ages are difficult to judge, but you told the police officer that you were seven.”

Kaito frowns. Edogawa lifts an eyebrow to Kaito, a challenge. ‘Well?’ it seems to say. ‘What is your guess?’ Edogawa isn’t seven. Maybe he’s actually a year older or younger, but why lie about that? An impossible thought occurs. Edogawa doesn’t feel like a child, he never has. The second Kaito saw him with his masks down, he’s felt like an equal, not a child chasing after him. Maybe Edogawa isn’t actually a child. Maybe something fantastic and impossible happened. Maybe Edogawa doesn’t age. Maybe Edogawa has had a brush with magic like Kaito has in the past.

Maybe Edogawa feels a decade older than he looks sometimes because he is a decade older than he looks. “Seventeen,” Kaito says, making himself sound confident in the answer.

“I am seventeen,” Edogawa says. There’s a sound, someone, Kaito doesn’t catch if it’s Mouri Ran or maybe it’s Hakuba; Hattori Heiji looks tense but not confused by any of this so he’s probably in on whatever it is. And hasn’t Hattori always treated Edogawa like he’s an equal instead of an annoying kid?

“Truth,” says the Queen.

The Fae looks flustered and confused, then angry. “You can’t possibly be—”

“He speaks the truth,” the Queen says. “By means of man or magic, he is older than he appears. Your last question, child.”

“What is my name?” Edogawa says.

Oh. Kaito’s eyes go wide out of his control. OH. Seventeen, incredibly smart detective, in love with Mouri Ran, friends with Agasa-hakase, equal to Hattori Heiji, wide range of knowledge including things a child can’t have learned this young in Japan. Somehow connected to Kudo Shinichi.

Oh.

“…Edogawa Conan is the name he was called by people around him.” The Fae sounds bitter. “I assume that too is a lie.”

“It is,” Edogawa says. He takes a breath and keeps his back stiff and definitely doesn’t look at Mouri.

Aww. He’s going to get yelled at later isn’t he? Mouri is his Aoko. Heck, both of them are going to get yelled at. Kaito feels a pang of empathy for Edogawa. Or should he say… “Kudo Shinichi. You’re Kudo Shinichi.”

There’s definitely a sound from Mouri this time, but she’s biting her lip knowing this isn’t the time.

Edogawa smiles, crooked and not happy, but there’s triumph mixed with the regret there. He’s won. “I’m Kudo Shinichi.”

“Truth,” the Queen says.

“We’ve both shown our deepest secrets. Is this price and proof enough?”

“Hmm. Well played.” She nods once, regal. “You have won the freedom of Kuroba Kaito, Magician. The prices and claims are enough.”

Edogawa’s tension drains from his shoulders. He still hasn’t looked away from Kaito’s face. Kaito wonders if he owes him for this or if this makes them even. Well, it’s not like there isn’t plenty of time in the future to figure that out.

Kaito hurries across the space, joining the group of his and Edogawa’s friends. Thank goodness. He lightly elbows Edogawa and gets a bony elbow to the kidney in return. Oof. A glance and nod for Hakuba and Aoko… Kaito gives Aoko a lopsided, honest smile and hopes she’ll be forgiving. She looks like she wants to hug him and hit him at the same time but there’s the height and breadth of a horse stopping her.

“Fancy meeting you here,” Kaito says.

“Save it for later, Kuroba,” Hakuba says.

He bows to the Queen. “We are grateful for the return of our friend. We will take our leave from your Court and trouble you no more.”

Hakuba takes a step back, then another, and the others follow. Kaito feels his blood chill as the Queen raises her hand again and the Fae around them come to attention like a pack of hunting dogs waiting for a command.

o*o*o

“And where do you think you are going?” Saguru feels a bolt of fear dissolve any relief he’d managed as several armed Fae strode forward.

“We’ve won,” Edogawa says—Kudo Shinichi, Saguru will have to process this properly later—tension through his tiny frame. “You have to let us go.”

The Queen smiles, a facsimile of pity on her face. “Oh, you and your Magician may leave, but the others must stay. They are trespassers in this realm.”

Damn. Saguru pales. He’d thought that entering would be enough, that following Grandmother’s directions would be enough and the challenge would be freeing Kaito. He never thought that in simply coming into the realm he’d damned them all.

“So please,” the Queen continues. “Go. But your gallant rescuers must pay the price for their crimes.”

Saguru wants to protest but he knows from stories she has every right to demand this. This is the double-edged blade of dealing with the Fae. Get what you want but face the consequences. Or get what you want but not the way you want it. He feels the others looking at him, looking for guidance on what to do and is frozen, looking up at that beautiful, terrible face and the triumph in her eyes as she knows she’s won something over them.

The Fae can be very cruel.

“Our intentions,” Saguru starts, keeping the waver out of his voice, “were not to invade your lands, but to right where we had been wronged.”

“And in doing do you wronged Us in another way,” the Queen says.

Saguru licks his lips, mind racing to find the right words to get them out of this and coming up blank. He opens his mouth to let something come out, he isn’t even sure what, when a familiar voice says, “Actually, they weren’t trespassing.”

Saguru’s mouth falls open wider in shock as his grandmother strides out of the crowd of Fae, her glamour gone and her head held high. Her plain cardigan and trousers look terribly out of place in this gem-filled court, but she has just as much grace as the Queen as she stares the other Fae down.

“Grandmother?” Saguru asks faintly.

Grandmother doesn’t spare him a look from her staring contest.

“You,” the Queen says. “You left the Courts.”

“And I could have returned at any time,” Grandmother says. “No need to look so surprised, surely you knew that.”

The Queen’s gaze shutters, drawing back into regal-and-impersonal. “Are you back then?”

“I came to get what is mine,” Grandmother says, “because I knew you would cheat an honest boy like my grandson.” The Queen’s eyes flick to Saguru and back to Grandmother, connection made.

“Is it cheating to ask that they pay for a crime committed?”

“It is when a crime has not passed. These children entered through my portal under my permission, making them my guests in this realm. To claim them is to raise a claim against me,” Grandmother says. “And we both know you do not want to cross swords with me.” Her eyes seem to glow.

The Queen’s lip curls, the edge of a snarl that she’s too refined to show. “You forfeited what power you had when you left this place for the human realm.”

“Power,” Grandmother says, “is not only tied up in names and land and titles. Act against me. You will see what I mean.”

This could all be an elaborate bluff because as far as Saguru is aware Grandmother was just a Fae from outside the Courts. He doesn’t even know if she’d consider herself Seelie or Unseelie or otherwise aligned. But it seems she must have held some significant power before she married a human because the Queen actually hesitates.

“The quest was sanctioned and they made their way safely and paid their price all on their own.” Grandmother stands regal as any statue, queenlier than the Queen even in her humble clothing. “Your people were the ones to trespass first, stealing a guest of my home. We will leave, and the balance between us will be even.”

The Fae Queen bites back a grimace. Instead she waves a hand and tries to appear like she doesn’t care at all. “Fine. Take them. We do not need our revelry tarnished with humanity anyway. Keep them from crossing again.”

“I doubt they’ll make the same mistake twice,” Grandmother says sardonically.

“Hakuba who the hell is your grandmother?” Hattori hisses at Saguru’s shoulder.

“Believe me I am also questioning,” Saguru breathes back, barely daring to move his lips.

Grandmother turns and offers Saguru an arm. Saguru loops his through it on automatic, like they’re going to go for a stroll around Grandmother’s garden, not walk out of one of the Courts of Faerie. “Come along, Sheridan. I am sure you’ve had enough of this place, and your friends even more so.”

“Of course, Grandmother,” Saguru says, still on autopilot.

And then they’re just… walking out of the crowd of Fae. Unharmed. And Aoko’s still got the demon horse and everything. Saguru shoots Kuroba a panicked, confused look.

Kuroba, ever unhelpful, shrugs, looking a bit like he’s been hit with a two-by-four himself. Well, he was just unmasked as Kid. And Edogawa isn’t Edogawa at all. And they’ve spent the last… however long in a realm of semi-mortal beings of magic, so perhaps feeling stunned, confused, and drained are exactly the emotions they should have at the moment.

“Hmm,” Grandmother says as they leave the glimmering jewel-bright crowd behind. She looks up at the sky. “We should get back just in time for afternoon tea.”

“It took us almost two full days to get here,” Saguru says.

Grandmother pats his arm. “A journey is always faster on the way home than it is reaching the goal, Sheri.”

“Is it.”

“I’m sorry about your watch,” Grandmother says. “But you have your boy.”

“Woah, wait, I’m not his anything,” Kuroba protests behind them.

“Obviously you’re his something or he couldn’t have a claim on you,” Grandmother says patiently.

“Uh, Ma’am?” Aoko says in halting English. “Thank you for helping.”

Grandmother smiles with too sharp teeth. “It is my pleasure. It’s always enjoyable to see such self-righteous assholes get caught off guard.”

Kuroba chokes on a laugh.

“Besides, I couldn’t let them steal my grandson, and Sheridan would be distraught if he lost you,” Grandmother says to Kuroba. “Unlike some Fae, I do hold blood ties close.”

Saguru is going to have to get the story of how Grandmother knows the Summer Queen from her someday. There definitely is a story there.

True to Grandmother’s predictions, it takes less than twenty minutes for the rolling plains to become forest, to become a familiar path Saguru has walked many times with Grandmother or his mother in his visits. He barely notices the feeling of transitioning from one realm to the next.

“Oh!” Aoko says, surprised as the village is suddenly visible through the trees.

“See, home in time for tea,” Grandmother says, pleased. “Aoko, darling, please do keep a hold on your horse. We don’t need it accidentally eating someone’s chickens.”

“Oh. Um. I didn’t think…” That it would be able to come with them? Because Saguru is equally surprised.

“He was won fairly,” Grandmother says. “I’m not sure what use I’ll have of him around here, but I will care for him.”

“Thank you, Ma’am,” Aoko says.

“I think after all this you may call me Grandmother as well.”

Aoko flushes. The horse happily sets its chin on her shoulder. It’s a good thing whatever animal charm ability the Fae fox seems to have given her wasn’t a one-time thing or Saguru would be worried about it biting her. But then perhaps it’s all Aoko’s personal charm. She does have just as much as Kuroba even if it’s in different ways.

“…So how long were we actually in there?” Mouri asks.

“Oh, only a bit more than a day,” Grandmother says. “Time is a bit odd there. Thankfully for you, it was more time there than the other way around. It’s always a bit tricky to cover up the other way.”

“Great, don’t even have to rework our plane tickets,” Hattori jokes.

And Saguru will still be able to make the Holmes convention. It feels a lot less important after all of that and yet he could use something relaxing even more now. Perhaps Edogawa’s group could be convinced to join.

“So only a day and a half or so for us?” Edogawa says.

“Give or take a bit,” Grandmother says.

“Weird,” Kaito says. “We were there for… maybe a week? I’ll be honest it was really hard to tell when the glamours kept mixing us up.”

A week. Saguru’s stomach turns. “Are you…” Okay? Harmed? Mentally well after that long?

Kuroba gives him an enigmatic smile that tells him absolutely nothing. “I’m fine, Hakuba. Nothing worse than a few bruises.”

Ah yes, bruises. Like the ones on his face. Saguru frowns. Those are definitely finger shaped. It’s tempting to go back and punch the Fae that did that. From Aoko’s equally angry scowl, she feels the exact same way.

“Hey, nothing too bad happened, it was a lot of talking around people and being entertaining. I’m good at that.”

“And not lying,” Edogawa says pointedly. “You’re very bad at that.”

“Oi.”

Edogawa snorts, cold and dangerous anger held close there too.

They’ve all had a bit of a terrible time of this.

“We’ll be talking about the lying thing,” Aoko says with too much calm.

Kuroba looks like he just got told they were going to an aquarium. “Ahaha… Aoko…” She just Looks at him, not even frowning, but he holds his hands up in surrender immediately. “Right. Sure. Talk, we’re definitely doing that.” Kaito looks at Saguru with puppy-eyes.

Saguru lifts an eyebrow. Kuroba dug the hole, he can face the mess it’s made.

“It’s weird seeing you have friends. And a personality,” Hattori says at Saguru.

“I always have had a personality. Yours is just too impulsive to recognize refinement.”

“Wow, hate you too,” Hattori says without heat.

“When did you two start getting along?” Edogawa wonders.

“About the same time Ran-chan showed me how to throw a better punch,” Aoko says. Kuroba gets a little paler in the background.

“Sheridan,” Grandmother says, “Can you please put Aoko’s horse behind the shed? Tied to the fence of course.” And there is Grandmother’s home with its wild gardens and lack of any warding trees. One of her neighbor’s chickens sees the horse and goes squawking back toward its yard in instinctive terror.

“Of course.”

“Aoko, help me with tea?”

“Sure, G-grandmother,” Aoko says, only stumbling a little over the familiar term of address.

“I am going to have to excuse us for a bit,” Mouri says, hand tight around Edogawa’s. “We need a bit of a talk.”

Edogawa’s eyes are terrified and hopeful all at once as he looks up at her like she’s the most important person in the world.

“Good luck,” Hattori mutters.

“Oh, you were included in that too,” Mouri says with a tight smile.

Hattori grimaces. “Why isn’t Nakamori-chan mad at you for knowing Kuroba’s secret?” Hattori complains to Saguru.

“Because I was very open about when I figured it out, only no one believed me when I said it,” Saguru says with no sympathy at all. “Have a nice talk.”

“Bastard.”

Mouri won’t murder them. She cares too deeply for them both. She will have a proper discussion and hopefully instill more honesty in them for the future. Saguru takes the horse from Aoko and Kuroba hovers between Saguru and Aoko like he’s not sure who to follow.

“I’m not yelling at you until later,” Aoko says helpfully.

“Oh. Great. I guess I’ll… help with tea then?”

Grandmother smiles. “That would be lovely, Kaito.”

Which leaves Saguru with the horse. He eyes it. It blinks at him and miraculously doesn’t decide he’s its next snack. It’s almost as complacent as a normal horse. He leaves it tied to Grandmother’s fence extra carefully, gives it an egg the neighbor’s hen had laid in one of grandmother’s flower boxes as a treat, and tries not to think too hard about the crunching sounds behind him as he rejoins Aoko and Kuroba in Grandmother’s kitchen.

Grandmother is pulling out home-baked scones and biscuits from her baked-good tins and Aoko is slicing fruit and soft white cheese. Kuroba places the good china around the table with an absentminded attention for artistic placement that Saguru can appreciate. Saguru starts brewing the tea without being asked. He avoids the fairy-themed set on principle.

Grandmother pats his arm and goes for the thick homemade brambleberry jam she only brings out for special occasions or guests. It goes next to a small jar of dark, golden brown honey. A lovely spread even if it isn’t as glamorous as the tables of food Saguru glimpsed in the Court. He thinks Grandmother must prefer that because she looks satisfied as she turns the vase of fresh flowers she’d grown herself just-so.

“You know, I just realized I never said thank you yet?” Kaito says. He fiddles with getting the silverware exactly parallel to each other. “So thanks for coming to get me from a bunch of scary fairies.”

“Like we’d leave you there, Bakaito,” Aoko says.

“Life would get awfully boring,” Saguru says.

Kaito rolls his eyes. “Thank you, Aoko, for having pure reasons for coming to get me.”

Saguru smiles. “And I suppose I’d miss you. Just a bit.”

“Mm-hmm. You can just call me a friend, Hakuba.”

“Of course, Kuroba.”

Grandmother snorts. “Talk a bit more openly, dears, you aren’t immortal.”

“I thought my actions spoke for themselves,” Saguru says.

“Words hold power, Sheri.”

“Well then, Kuroba, I’m glad to have my friend back.”

Kuroba blinks like he can’t quite believe Saguru’s saying they’re friends out loud. Like Saguru didn’t go into the Fae realm and hadn’t been prepared to sacrifice much more than his pocket watch for him. “Yeah. Glad to be back.”

The door rattles as Mouri returns with Hattori and Edogawa. Edogawa looks a little shell shocked, but in a good way. However that talk went, it ended better than he was expecting.

Grandmother holds up the teapot. “Tea and biscuits?”

“That sounds lovely,” Mouri says.

o*o*o

Later, much later, Saguru sits with his grandmother in the dark, looking up at the night sky that is bright with stars, but not quite as amazingly bright as the starts in the Fae realm.

“Could you have gotten Kuroba free at any time?” Saguru asks, soothing herbal tea slowly cooling in the mug in his hands.

“There are ways things must play out,” Grandmother says, though that’s not actually a ‘no.’

“You could have claimed Kuroba as a guest. It wouldn’t have even been false.”

“If I did that, what would have happened to Conan?” Grandmother points out. She sips at her own tea. Saguru saw her spike it with blackberry brandy before they came and sat on the porch.

“Then we could have gotten him.”

“Sometimes, Sheridan, life follows well-trodden paths of stories for a reason.”

“Did you know we’d come out of it whole?”

Grandmother drinks her tea and doesn’t answer.

Saguru sighs. His own tea is sour and sweet from tart rose hips and old man Marley’s sage and buckwheat honey. “I can see why Mother chooses not to engage with that side of her heritage.”

“Just because she rejects it doesn’t mean it doesn’t affect her.” And in extension affect Saguru.

“I can’t see how that applies.”

Grandmother raises an eyebrow, pointed.

“I don’t have magic. I can’t even see through glamours.”

“You have abnormally good awareness, memory, and a tendency to be right where you need to be, dear.”

“So do Kuroba, Edogawa and Hattori and they’re perfectly human.”

“Are they?”

Saguru twitches.

“They might be, but more often than not, there’s something else in the background of people like that.” Grandmother sets down her tea. “I do promise you that I wouldn’t have left Kaito there indefinitely. You had to try first though. That is how these sort of things go. Don’t think it means I don’t care.”

Saguru sighs again. He knows she cares. But Grandmother is not human and how she cares about the world is different from how Saguru cares. Still, she is his grandmother. He can’t hold her nature against her.

“Next year you should bring your friends again. Perhaps we can find if you have a bit of magic in you after all.”

It’s a peace offering and a promise that is not a promise. “I can’t be sure they would want to visit again,” Saguru says, dry. “One of them did get kidnapped.”

“Your boy has faced worse than kidnappings from what you’ve said of his alter ego,” Grandmother says.

“All the more reason to keep him from more dangers.”

“With people like that, danger finds them.”

“Mm.” He knows this only too well. For both Kuroba and Edogawa. “I’d like to keep the few people I care about safe.”

“Don’t we all,” Grandmother says with a fond ruffle of his hair. “I’ll send you home with some books and ingredients. You can see if you have any talent for charm craft.”

“…You’ve never offered before.”

“You never showed an interest.”

Fair enough. Saguru finishes his tea. Above them the moon is rising, half-full and bright. It tugs at him a bit, and he wonders if it always has or if he’s only noticing because he was in the Fae realm so recently. “…What Court were you part of before you left it?”

Grandmother smiles and doesn’t answer. From the corner of his eye, she shines, inhuman in the moonlight, but when he looks at her she is the grandmother he knows. A bit worn, pretty, with a warm smile and eyes that never quite show everything she’s feeling. She isn’t going to tell him.

Saguru smiles wryly. Very well; she can keep some of her secrets.

Grandmother takes their empty mugs indoors and Saguru watches the moon rise, the tug of magic in his bones.