Chapter Text
Kaito came to with a jolt, instant regret coursing through him alongside a throbbing pain in his side. He hissed and reached towards the source of the pain, but a small hand stopped his arm.
“Careful Kaito nii-san. You shouldn’t move so fast when you’re tired.”
Kaito’s blood ran cold, turning to lock eyes with the first grade eldritch horror that was one Edogawa Conan. He was sitting next to him on a wooden bench, big blue eyes blinking up at him in the picture of innocence. But Kaito didn’t know how they got here. He was wearing the white undershirt he used with KID’s costume, but the pants and shoes weren’t his. The sky was completely dark and the street empty. Where had he come from?
Heist. The heist in the shopping center by Tokyo central station. The owner, Masaki Touya-san, had recently acquired a ruby from overseas and wanted to show it off. Kaito hadn’t planned anything fancy for this one, just a few distraction tricks and remote locking doors. His hopes of actually finding Pandora had never been high, but it was getting harder to find the motivation for it. Aoko continued to lament KID’s existence, the lies burning in his throat more than ever. Nakamori looked more tired, spending less time with Aoko than ever. Hakuba wouldn’t stop staring at him, pushing him to sneak off during lunch break now. Anything to get away from that incessant detective gaze. School had become more performance than real life, his heists feeling no different.
And Snake had been there tonight.
Conan kept staring up at him, swinging his legs off the edge of the bench. Was this some kind of test? Did Edogawa have the police hiding in the bushes, just waiting for some kind of confession? How the hell did he get here? Kaito certainly hadn’t seen or heard a hint of Tantei-kun at the heist.
“Kaito nii-san?” Conan asked, widening his eyes and tipping his head to the side. God, he was adorable. Utterly terrifying. He reached up to put the back of his hand to Kaito’s forehead, having to stand up on the bench to reach. “Are you sick? You feel a little warm.”
“What.” Oh no, his poker face was gone. His whole abdomen was on fire with pain from the bullet wound, his eyes felt like they had knives in them, and he could not compute through all of that with Edogawa freaking Conan chirping worry at him like a particularly cruel yokai.
“We should get you home to rest, Kaito nii-san,” Conan nodded firmly, hopping down from the bench. Wait. Conan was using his name. Kuroba Kaito didn’t know this kid. That was a safe question.
“Wh-who are you?” Ha! He didn’t even have to fake the bewilderment in his voice! Flawless recovery!
Conan frowned, finally looking a little more like his actual self. “Kaito nii-san, you really haven’t been sleeping well, have you?”
Kaito blinked.
“I’m Edogawa Conan,” he said slowly. “Your cousin. You came to pick me up at the station, but I missed the first train so I was late.”
Kaito’s unchanged expression must have been enough prompt for Conan to go on because he sighed and started talking even slower.
“I’m staying with you for a little while until Mouri-san is back from his special trip to Hawai’i. My parents are still traveling, so they asked Chikage obaa-san if I could stay with you. We were walking home, but you got so tired we stopped here for a bit. But you should really sleep in your bed. Ran nee-chan always yells at Kogoro ji-san if he falls asleep at his desk.”
Conan grabbed his hand and gently tugged. Kaito… couldn’t really process that. The slow and confident way Conan explained himself was soothing somehow. The story was so normal. And everything hurt. He wanted to go home. Even if the kid led him straight into a police van, maybe that wouldn’t be so bad. He could sleep in a cell just as well as his bed. Some internal autopilot made him stand, his legs like gelatin. Conan beamed and led them slowly down the street.
The kid started up a stream of mindless chatter about his friends, quiet enough that it didn’t hurt Kaito’s head. He couldn’t follow any of the words, meaning slipping apart as soon as he reached for it, but the sound washed over him, distracting him from his body until they began to pass familiar houses. The chatter stopped outside a door Kaito recognized. His door. To his house. Conan had brought him home.
“Eh, Kaito-kun?” a gruff voice called out.
Numbly, he turned, hand still firmly grasped in Conan’s. A blurry man came closer, a bushy worm on his face. Ha. He looked funny.
“Good evening, Nakamori-keibu,” Conan said.
“Edogawa-kun?!” the fuzzy man exclaimed, staring down at Conan in surprise. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m staying with Kaito nii-san!”
“Bu- but why?”
“He’s my cousin! And Mouri ji-san won a free trip to Hawai’i so he and Ran nee-chan are going to be gone for a while. Sorry I made Kaito nii-san stay up so late,” he bowed his head in apology. “I missed my train and didn’t get to Ekoda station on time and then Kaito nii-san was so tired we had to take a break.”
“I see,” the fuzzy man hummed. “Kaito-kun, you should go to bed. Edogawa-kun, can you make sure he gets some rest?”
“Un! Of course!” Kaito flinched at the high pitched noise, but then he was being tugged again. He kind of liked the tugging. He didn’t have to think anymore, he could just follow the current like a paper boat in a stream. He liked paper boats. They were fun. Shin-chan made good boats. He always laughed at Kaito’s. Meanie.
Paper boat Kaito bobbed along with the current, lights flickering by and river grass brushing past him. Briefly, he bobbed in place, spinning in his own little whirlpool. That was what caught Kaito’s little boat, sucking it down under the water. Shin-chan laughed and laughed until his boat got sucked down too.
Then Kaito felt himself getting sucked under, warmth wrapping around him and his cheek sinking into the soft riverbed. Good. Safe. And he finally stopped thinking altogether.