Work Text:
The shouts and screams were just white noise at this point. KID's eyes flit erratically over the still surface of the lake in front of him, his bottom lip worried between his teeth. He didn't even notice how he stepped closer to the edge of the shore, uncaring if the others would notice him. They were staring transfixed on the water anyway, begging for a sign of movement. When ripples appeared on the surface the white noise got louder, hopeful shouts begging for the little detective's appearance.
"Come on...", he mumbled, stepping even closer to the shore. Just a few more steps and he would be in full view of everyone.
The object breaking the surface of the water was the painting they had tried to save, followed by stillness again. He registered in the back of his mind that there was a happy voice in the mid of the worried shouts. How could they sound happy when his little detective was still missing?
A few more breathless moments passed when the surface threw another bout of ripples. KID swallowed, his eyes never leaving the constantly growing circles of moving water. Too big. The circles were growing too big to be made by an elementary school kid. Then, the object broke through the surface, bouncing out of the water and then floating on top of it. Stillness again.
The screams grew even louder but before KID was aware what he was doing he loosened the cape from his suit and jumped head-first into the freezing water. It took him only a few seconds to orient himself before he recognized his biggest critic floating barely two meters under the surface.
It took him another few moments to reach him and then break the surface with him.
"Please! Please! Please!", he mumbled while he swam to the shore, his eyes never leaving the limp body in his arms. He climbed out of the water and lay the boy on his back, immediately checked his breath. Nothing. The next minutes were just a blur, his only thought being that he had to save his detective while he applied resuscitation procedures. He didn't realize his top-hat was long gone, didn't hear the others shouting and approaching, didn't care for anything but breathing oxygen down the younger ones lips, followed by chest compressions, and again mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. His thoughts were a constant circle of 'Come on!', 'Breath!', and 'Don't leave me!'. Everything took a sudden stop when loud coughing interrupted his moves, when the young detective rolled to his side and heaved out all the water he had inhaled.
KID held him up, unwilling to leave his side. Only when the small body leaned back against KIDs chest and mumbled a barely audible "Hide..." did he realize that there were only seconds for him to disguise himself before the group of people running towards him and the younger boy were able to clearly see his face. He turned around just in time for Ran to fall to her knees in front of them and pull the small body into a tight embrace.
KID used the commotion of relieved cries and too-tight hugs to reluctantly leave the side of his detective and step far enough into the woods where no one could see him, but he was able to see everything. It took only a few minutes for the paramedics to arrive and the detective to loose consciousness again. He watched until the ambulance was out of sight before he turned around and left as well. He had to finish what he started and then there was a detective he had to check up on.
The room was dark when KID creeped in. It was after midnight already, but he had waited to make sure that Ran and everyone else had arrived back home so that no one would show up out of the blue. The young detective looked even smaller lying in the huge white bed than he did anyway. The smell of sickness and antiseptic permeating the air didn't help either with the eerie feeling hospitals invoke in KID.
"You can come closer. No one else is here."
KID watched his critic slowly sit up before he rushed to his side to help him lean against a propped up pillow. "How are you feeling, Meitante-kun?", he mumbled, his brows furrowed under hit top-hat.
"I'm alive, thanks to you. You saved my life. Thank you.", he weakly answered, a small smile barely there on his lips. KID shook his head and sat on the chair provided for visitors, scooted closer so that he could comfortably put his fingers on the inside of the younger ones wrist. Feeling the comforting pulsing underneath the thin skin there. "Don't thank me. You did most of the work, I just had to finish it. You tried to use the inflated football as some kind of rescue float, didn't you?" A small nod was the answer. "That was the plan. I was barely conscious though when I got the idea and I think I pushed the wrong button and detached the football from the belt. It floated up without me." "But it showed the exact location where you were so that I could get you out."
They kept silent for some time, KID's fingers still a calming pressure on the thin wrist. "They told me you applied resuscitation procedures. Why? You endangered revealing your identity. Had I not woken up before they reached us they could have easily apprehended you and everything would have been over." The older one hummed thoughtfully, then he slowly raised his unoccupied hand and took off his top-hat. It was too dark in the room for them to see anything but silhouettes in the shadows but the occupant of the hospital bed understood nonetheless.
"As long as you trust me to keep your secret secure I trust you to not reveal mine. And maybe, at some point, we won't have to keep secrets for each other anymore."
"I hope so. Until then, please be safe." A cloud of smoke spread through the room, making the voice seem bodyless. "You too, Meitante-kun. Be safe."
When the smoke evaporated there was a single red rose left lying on the bedside table.