Archive of Our Own ^omega

The first time it happened, Shinichi was confused. It was a Saturday morning in late April and the first day he was able to sleep in following his introduction week at Tokyo University. Shinichi had helped take down the Black Organization and consecutively regained his old body earlier last year just in time to take the necessary preparations to sign up for the university placement tests. To his relief he managed to pass allowing him to enrol into a five-year program in criminology.

He swung himself out of his bed towards the small kitchen counter on the opposite side of his student apartment where he kept, as Ran called it, his addiction evidence. Half a year of excessive coffee consumption necessary to follow up on two years of missed classes took its toll on him, leaving him unnecessarily tired in the mornings. Thus, when he found a small white package sporting a blue ribbon laying on top of his kitchen counter, he had to blink twice to make sure it wasn’t his imagination. Shinichi turned the coffee machine on before hoisting up the little package. It was extremely light, at least not a potential bomb, his slightly paranoid brain provided. Shinichi shook the package close to his ear, but no sound came from it. Something tightly packed then. Or empty. Only one way to find out.

He took his coffee once it was done and made his way over to the small table, mug in one hand, package in the other.

Shinichi took a large sip of coffee, the warmth spreading through his body, immediately waking him up.

He pinched the blue ribbon on both ends and opened up the bow it formed, before lifting the white lid from its box.

Squished inside was a small round plush, similar to the ones that he saw at Disney Sea earlier this year when Ran was very close to snapping and buying one for each character. Just that this was not a very cute, very round miniature version of Mickey Mouse, but instead a very round, and very much not as cute, his brain reminded him, plush version of Kaitou KID.

~~~~~~~~~~

The second time it happened, Shinichi checked the windows and doors to the apartment, but sure enough, they were all tightly locked. It was Sunday, only one day after he received the mysterious KID plush, which was now sitting next to a picture of Ran and him on his desk.

He spent the day with Ran walking through the bustling streets of Shibuya where people streamed outside to enjoy the warm spring weather.

They stopped by a small Café at Ueno park on their way home, neither of them wanting to end the day yet, enjoying the last sunshine of the day before both would start into what was likely to be extremely busy months ahead.

“I’m glad how it all panned out in the end, Shinichi. That you are able to go to Uni already this year with the number of classes you missed and all. And I don’t suppose a repetition of long division and learning to write kana helps much, either,” Ran smiled, dissecting the piece of layered cake in front of her.

He was glad they could talk about it all without any lingering resentment. Sure, there were tears and a good amount of yelling, primarily on Ran’s side, but Shinichi took yelling over silent treatments any day. After a while they fell back into their old patterns, except that Ran was dating Sera now.

“You got a thing for detectives, or something?” Shinichi asked when she told him, before ducking from one of Ran’s high kicks.

And without the feeling of ‘what are we doing about this weird thing in between us?’, their friendship only grew stronger.

Shinichi looked back at Ran with a fond smile.

“Me too, really. I think I would have wasted away in another two years of school. Just imagine having to do fourteen years of education before going to college, thank you, but no thank you.”

Shinichi picked at his lemon cheesecake when the little KID plush made its way back into the front of his thoughts.

“Ne, Ran, do you remember these little, tiny squishy plush toys we saw at Disney last month?”

Ran’s eyes lit up at the words.

“The TsumTsums? Of course, I still need to get more of them next time we go back! They are so cute!”

“Do they only make them for Disney characters? Or is that a general thing?”

Ran pondered on the question for a second, cake fork resting between her lips.

“I do believe I have seen these before in a small shop where you could buy merchandise, they had some from an anime that is popular right now.”

Shinichi thought about the information Ran gave him. So, there were likely some KID plushies out there somewhere, given the popularity KID had gained. He was very adamant not to lie to Ran anymore, though he didn’t feel like telling her about the gift, either.

“That makes sense. I saw one lately and it reminded me of the ones we saw. That was a good day, say, we should visit again this summer if we find the time.”

Not a lie, per se, but also not the whole truth.

____________

By the time Shinichi got home the plush was mostly forgotten and he was looking forward to slumping into his bed with the new instalment of the mystery book he bought earlier that day. That was until he saw a slightly bigger, white package on his desk, blue bow, and all.

“Really?” he muttered under his breath, throwing his keys onto the wooden surface.

When he opened it a key chain with a familiar caricature on it came into view, below the drawing it read I <3 KID.

The first thought Shinichi’s mind provided was ‘why was there so much KID merch?’

~~~~~~~~~~

One gift may have been a random occurrence. Two, unlikely so. Three definitely formed a pattern. When he woke this morning, a slightly bigger, yet familiar box was resting on Shinichi’s bedside table.

He groaned, deciding he wasn’t caffeinated enough for this mess, so he made himself an extra strong cup of coffee to deal with the third white box on the third day in a row, which held a T-shirt matching the keychain he received yesterday.

__________

‘Lunch after this?’

The text message popped up on top of his phone screen, and Shinichi shot a confused look to his right.

“You know you can just ask? There is at least 300 people in this class, nobody is going to mind, a lot of them are actually talking with each other. And besides that, it’s the first day, it’s not like we’re doing anything else than organizational stuff anyway.”

The corners of Hakuba’s mouth twitched slightly but he didn’t say anything. Instead, he continued typing on his phone before another message popped up on Shinichi’s screen.

‘You were already on your phone either way.’

And then

‘I also had to ask if a friend wanted to join as well.’

Shinichi just rolled his eyes and clicked on the last message before typing.

‘Sure.’

__________

After their class Hakuba and Shinichi made their way over to the cafeteria, excitedly talking about the book Shinichi had acquired in Shibuya the other day and promptly inhaled in one setting.

A minute after they sat down, Hakuba started waving over towards the food line.

“Kuroba-kun, over here!”

Shortly after, a boy with the worst bed hair Shinichi had ever seen trotted over and sat down across from them.

“Hey, Hakuba-kun!” the boy said with an excited grin, likely induced from the exhilaration of their first day at university.

Then he turned to Shinichi with a large grin on his face.

“Kuroba Kaito! It’s a pleasure to meet you!”

“Kudou Shinichi. Nice to meet you as well. I assume you are the friend Hakuba-kun knows from high school? Hakuba-kun and I attend the same classes, but we know each other from a few cases before.”

Kuroba wrinkled his nose.

“You’re another detective, then?”

Shinichi was slightly taken aback. What was wrong with detectives?

“You don’t like detectives? Doing a lot of illegal things, or?” Shinichi added jokingly.

In the corner of his eyes, he saw Hakuba trying to hide a small behind his cup of tea.

“It’s just that some detectives,” he pointedly looked at Hakuba, “tend to find a lot of fun in picking some people’s magic tricks apart.”

Shinichi’s eyebrows shot up.

“You’re a magician?”

Kuroba put down his chopsticks and made a single blue rose appear in front of Shinichi out of seemingly thin air.

“Kuroba Kaito. Magician Extraordinaire. Though I’m still practicing, it’s more of a hobby but one day I’d love to do it professionally.”

Shinichi took the rose from him and inspected it, a smile creeping up on his face. Blue Roses were extremely rare, he wondered if Kuroba was growing them somewhere.

“Thank you, Kuroba-kun.”

He put the rose down onto the table before grabbing a bottle of coffee out of his bag.

“Kudou-kun, how many coffees did you have today?” Hakuba inquired.

Shinichi mentally counted the coffees.

“This would be the third. Though I had to make the one this morning extra strong, so that might count double.”

Hakuba stared at him.

“It’s just past 12, you know that? How are you not buzzing away? And what did you need extra strong coffee for anyway, Uni hasn’t even properly started yet.”

Shinichi’s cheeks turned slightly pink. He considered coming up with an excuse for a moment, but what harm would it do if he mentioned the gifts? After all, Hakuba might have some ideas about the mystery sender.

“So, first of all, as you well know I had a book to finish. Secondly, uh… well, I’ve been waking up to gifts the last three mornings. Well, technically yesterday the gift appeared while I was out with Ran. But I haven’t yet figured out where they come from.”

Hakuba furrowed his brows.

“Mystery gifts? Is there anything special about them? Maybe a pattern in the items or the time when you are receiving them?”

Shinichi’s ears were positively red now. He looked pointedly at his plate but saw Kuroba from across the table looking interestedly over at him while shovelling rice into his mouth.

“Uh, they’re all KID merch.”

Hakuba let out a snort which he tried to cover up as a cough.

“Is that so?” he asked, his voice tinged with amusement. Of course, he’d make fun of him, Shinichi should have just come up with some ruddy excuse.

Hakuba looked bemusedly at a very excited Kuroba, which, Shinichi thought, might be Kuroba’s default mood.

“You got KID merch? What did you get? I have quite a bit of merch as well!”

Shinichi eyed him.

“I take it you are a KID-fan then?”

“Yes, of course! KID-sama is just such a great magician! I’m really looking up to him, maybe one day I’ll be as good as him. Though I have a lot to learn still.”

It was really hard not to smile, as Kuroba was just radiating with so much excitement, and Shinichi’s chest suddenly felt very warm. He put it off as being a reaction to all the coffee he’d been drinking that day.

“So, what did you get?”

“Uh, let’s see.”

Shinichi started counting on his fingers.

“So today it was a T-shirt that reads I love KID.”

“Oh, I have one of those as well!”

“Then yesterday I got a matching keychain. And Saturday I got one of these little round plushies that look like the ones you can get at Disney?”

“Eeeh? They’re limited edition! Whoa, you must be really lucky that somebody gets you one of those! I wish I had one as well!”

Kuroba looked so thrilled at the mention of the plushie, that Shinichi decided that the guy was probably better off with the thing than he was. He didn’t know where the gifts came from anyway, and he had a feeling Kuroba would be really, really happy, and for some reason Shinichi thought that was definitely worth the trade.

“You can have it if you want to. You seem to really be into KID, so I think you’d appreciate it more than me.”

Kuroba suddenly didn’t look as excited anymore, much to Shinichi’s confusion.

“But… somebody gave these to you. They are gifts and those shouldn’t get regifted,” he brought out slowly, brows furrowed.

“That may be true, but I don’t really know where they are coming from and you seemed very excited about the plushie, so it’s all the same for me. From what I gathered, the whole thing is either some elaborate joke or eh- well, I used to get quite a few gifts from girls in high school, so maybe it’s something similar to that.”

Shinichi’s ears returned to their earlier state of too-red-for-comfort.

Kuroba shot him a look.

“It’s okay, Casanova, not everyone can be as popular as you, we get it.”

Through it all Hakuba looked like he was watching an extremely amusing show.

~~~~~~~~~~

The next day, sure enough, there was a larger and flatter box laying on his desk, and how did they get into his flat anyway? It was quite creepy, after all. Another, less strong than yesterday, mug of coffee was standing on his desk when he opened the fourth box. In it was a neatly folded towel, of course the front showed a half-body shot of KID, sharklike grin and all. Plastered around him were playing cards and he was holding a diamond sceptre, the one he stole last year, his brain provided somewhat helpfully.

Shinichi stared down at the towel. As if he’d ever use that and dry his body with a picture of KID. His face took a dark shade of crimson. Definitely not.

__________

He followed Hakuba from the cafeteria outside to the sitting area, where Kuroba had reserved a table under a tree for them.

Shinichi put his tray down and rummaged in his bag for another bottle of coffee and

“Here is the little guy. Please take him.”

Kuroba looked down at the plush in Shinichis hand and then back up to him with a questioning look.

“Are you sure..?”

“Yes of course. I’d rather you have him than if he was just collecting dust on my desk.”

Kuroba looked back down onto the plush before the general excitement came back and, before Shinichi could react, Kuroba jumped over to him and hugged him.

“Thank you Kudou-kun! I’ll take good care of him. Say, as a thank you how about I’ll invite you out for coffee some time, seeing as it must have replaced half of the blood in your veins by now?”

Shinichi stared up at Kuroba with pink cheeks.

“That sounds really nice, a good trade, really. Would you be free on Thursday? I have classes until 16 but we could go after? It’s never too late for coffee, after all.”

Kuroba’s face lit up even more, how that was humanly possible was beyond Shinichi.

“That works!”

“We can meet outside at the Sanchirou Pond?”

Shinichi could have sworn uncertainty flashed across Kuroba’s face but it was gone as fast as it arrived.

“Pond. Yes, sure, let’s do that!”

Kuroba went back to sit down on the bench across him, and Shinichi suddenly realized that Hakuba watched the exchange between them intently; his two friends who just decided to meet up after classes together without him. Shinichi wanted to go have coffee with Kuroba, preferably alone, but he also felt like asking was the polite thing to do. And after all, there wasn't really any reason for them to go without Hakuba.

“Do you want to tag along, Hakuba-kun?”

The blond’s eyebrows shot up.

“Really?” his tone was unbelieving, in a way as if Shinichi had just done something utterly stupid.

“Unfortunately, I am already occupied otherwise. Though I’m certain you two can enjoy a hot beverage without parental supervision.”

Shinichi knitted his brows, but before he could form a reply, Hakuba already changed the topic.

“So did you get any more of these ominous gifts you mentioned?”

“Yes.”

And there it was again, and Shinichi felt the renewed regret about mentioning the gifts yesterday. Maybe if he didn’t give a proper answer, Hakuba would get the hint to change the topic to something that didn’t make him uncomfortable for once. Like football, or Holmes. Or the novel they were talking about so intently yesterday, what happened to that?

“And? Any more KID related presents?”

Hakuba looked between him and Kuroba, who watched the conversation curiously, likely wondering if Shinichi had gotten any more limited-edition goodies from his mystery sender.

“Yes.”

“Oh, come one. It can’t be that bad.”

“That’s what you’d think,” Shinichi muttered, but he was certain nobody heard it.

“It’s a towel, okay? With like a proper half-body shot of KID and a bunch of playing cards flying around. Though that one cannot be super high quality I'm afraid, they got the eyes all wrong.”

Kuroba stopped eating his chocolate pudding, a spoonful halfway up to his mouth.

Hakuba just gaped at him, and oh God, what did Shinichi do, he should learn to keep his stupid mouth shut. Now Hakuba, and probably Kuroba as well, likely thought he had the hots for Kaitou KID, and they weren’t even wrong.

“They… got the eyes all wrong?” Hakuba asked with a bemused voice.

If there was a God out there, this would be the exact moment to open a portal beneath him that could teleport him back to his dorm room and not have his uncomfortably burning face be gaped at by his table-mates. Naturally, nothing happened.

Shinichi tried to come up with something that didn’t make him look like his favourite past-time activity was staring into KIDs eyes, because it obviously wasn’t, but in the end, what came out of his mouth just made it worse.

“The eye colour on the towel is very cerulean. KID’s eyes are much darker, more like the calm sea after a storm.”

Kuroba stared at him, his eyes grown impossibly wide. Hakuba suddenly started coughing, which turned into fit of laughter with such force that he had issues grasping for air.

~~~~~~~~~~

Come Thursday, Shinichi found himself with another two gifts. Wednesday brought him a little KID figurine that could sit on the end of an elevated surface, like a bookshelf, where Shinichi currently kept it. Today’s present lay untouched on his nightstand. He had established a little routine after getting up now. Coffee first, then after at least one sip to mentally prepare himself for the madness he called his life nowadays, he opened the box.

Thus, he found himself back on his way towards the bedroom, armed with a steaming mug of deliciously smelling dark brown liquid. By now he was certain that the presents were from KID himself, though he found the thought slightly alarming. Twice now, gifts had shown up on his bedside table, while he was sleeping, with no trace of anyone even entering the dorm. The windows were locked, the door was bolted, and as far as Shinichi was aware, he was a very light sleeper. And yet, he found himself with a new parcel every morning. Just a few days ago, his first thought about somebody entering his apartment while he was sleeping was along the lines of ‘this is extremely creepy’. The suspicion that KID was the one behind the gifts changed them into something more of ‘I hope I don’t drool when I sleep’. And if that wasn't an issue, he didn't know what was.

His suspicion about the sender got reinforced when he opened today’s box. Within was a somewhat life-sized, plush version of a dove, fully equipped with plush monocle and a plush top hat, all KID-coloured of course. Attached to the dove’s leg was a non-plushy and definitely proper looking heist note.

“When the last brightness fades on this peaceful day,

After two strikes I will come from the stars to land among their cousins,

where I will make the dragon’s scale my own.

-Kaitou KID”

__________

When Shinichi found himself across Kuroba in a café they found close to campus, he’d cracked less than half the code in the heist note. A skipped lunch was just enough to get past the first line of the code, and he’d seriously considered skipping his afternoon classes to continue working on it, but it was just the first week of University, and he couldn’t start his degree like that.

Kuroba was chatting happily about his classes. He was wearing a pair of black pants and an oversized blue hoodie. He looked nice, Shinichi noticed, the blue hoodie bringing out the indigo in Kuroba’s eyes, all bright behind long lashes. Shinichi wondered for a second if he had a thing for blue eyes and realized his track record was definitely against him in that case. Ran’s eyes were a shade of blue, though with a hint of grey in them. KID’s eyes were, as he had so freely elaborated the other day, a dark shade of blue, very similar to Kuroba’s. And Shinichi couldn’t stop staring at Kuroba thinking how utterly pretty his eyes were.

Oh God, he had a type.

At least concerning eye colour, whatever that meant, as Ran, KID and Kuroba couldn’t be further away from each other personality-wise. He wasn’t certain when his brain decided to add Kuroba to the list of people-that-may-or-may-not-be-his-type, anyway.

Sure, Shinichi thought he had pretty eyes, but that didn’t mean anything now, did it? With Ran it was at least obvious, everybody figured it out at some point how much he had liked her over the years. Then, several years of sharing a room, pretending to be nothing more than her little adoptive brother, made them drift apart. In the end he was surprised he felt no jealousy at all when Ran started dating Sera. He was happy for her, even.

Then there was KID, and that was a different thing altogether. He was exhilarated by the relationship they had, the constant chase, the clash of wits. They were equals in a way, sometimes one being half a step ahead of the other, and the way KID could outwit Shinichi every once in a while made him excited about KID's heists like a child on Christmas morning. He also couldn’t deny how extremely attractive KID was, all long legs and body control and that utter self-confidence that had definitely crossed the border towards arrogance on several occasions.

“Oi, Kudou-kun are you there? You’ve been zoning out a lot since we got here.”

Shinichi winced. They’ve been here for not more than ten minutes and his mind had been drifting off for most of it. He suddenly felt incredibly rude.

“I’m sorry, Kuroba-kun. I’m not sure if you saw, but KID announced another heist this morning and I’ve been trying to figure out what the note meant, but I cannot get behind it.”

Kuroba fell back into his usual excitement regarding all things KID-related.

“I saw! I also saw the police has been having issues figuring out what the note means. Have you figured anything out so far?”

Shinichi lifted his small bag from the basket on the floor and drew out the heist note from the side pocket, before putting it in front of Kuroba on the table.

“Ehh? You have the heist note? How did you get that one?”

Shinichi covered half his face with his hand, trying to come up with a suitable explanation but drawing a blank.

“Uh, this might sound a bit weird, but I think the gifts I’m getting are from KID himself. I’d have no idea how somebody could enter my bedroom every night without leaving anything behind otherwise. It’s a bit creepy if you think about it. But the note was attached to the gift this morning, so I'm certain that confirms my theory.”

Kuroba gaped at him.

“KID-sama is sending you personalized heist notes? Woah, what on earth did you do to get these, are you two close?”

And what was he going to say to that? He couldn’t just let Kuroba know how KID saved him falling out of an airship. How they worked together solving cases on several occasions. How they shared a bed in Singapore. When he was six, mind you.

“Not really, no. But I have this cousin I really like, we’re really close, you know? You may have seen him if you were at heists before, small boy, has large glasses, wears a bow tie. Runs around places he probably isn’t allowed at. He used to go to every heist, and he was challenging KID a lot. So, after his favourite little detective had to leave the country, I assume I’ve been getting all the attention instead.”

Which made sense because KID knew. He knew he was Conan, but Kuroba didn’t, so he had to tread more careful there or he'd get into serious trouble.

Kuroba’s eyes widened.

“The Kid Killer is your cousin? Oh, wow, I did not expect that, but it makes an awful lot of sense! I haven’t seen him at heists though lately, is he alright?”

“Yes, he just had to move back in with his parents in America, you know? He was staying with the Mouris for the time he was here, his parents were awfully busy.”

Thankfully that explanation seemed to be enough for Kuroba.

“That makes sense! Okay, can you show me what you figured out so far? I’m really curious.”

Shinichi moved the note closer to him.

“Alright, see here? The first line is easy, which makes it more problematic if I can’t figure out the rest fast enough. ‘When the last brightness fades on this peaceful day’ obviously refers to Shouwa no hi, the holiday tomorrow. The Kanji in Shouwa mean bright and peace, so KID will likely come tomorrow around 20:30, that is 2 hours after the sun sets. Though where he will appear and for what I cannot tell you yet. ‘I will come for the stars’ could of course mean that he comes from the roof or from above in general, though I have a feeling that won’t be it. Then the part about the cousins makes no sense as well. As long as I haven’t figured that out, I don’t think I have good chances at understanding the third line, either.”

Which was no good at all. At this rate Shinichi had likely less than 24 hours to crack the code, inform Division 2 and have them set up before KID arrived. He wondered what would happen if nobody cracked the code? KID did back down from a heist once when the crowds weren’t allowed to watch, he did live for the applause after all. Shinichi knew that was not an option, he had to solve the note, rather sooner than later.

“I wish I could help you, but I am definitely not as good at these things, so I’d probably be no help at all.”

Kuroba looked at him with an excusing smile, and all Shinichi could think of in that moment was how outright cute he looked.

Shinichi grabbed the heist note and put it back into his bag. As much as he wanted to work on the note at that moment, it would be incredibly disrespectful.

“No worries, I’ll get to it tonight, there hasn’t been a single heist note I haven’t been able to crack so far, so I’m sure this one is just a matter of time, as well.”

If there was enough time, that is.

Kuroba looked at him with furrowed brows.

“Hakuba said you only started attending heists a few months ago, so there can’t be more than what, two notes or so you’ve looked at? Or were you there more often before? I have heard you were on a case outside the country for a while.”

Shinichi stared back at him. So much for treading more carefully.

“Eh, no, not really. But again Conan-kun went to a lot of heists and often told me about them. He also sometimes asked for help on the heist notes, so I started solving them myself. Anyway, what were you talking about before I zoned out?”

The less they were talking about Conan, the fewer opportunities he had to say something contradicting. He knew Kuroba was smart, if he messed up somehow Shinichi was sure he’d see right through it.

“I was talking about the physics classes! We have to take a lot of different courses for aeronautical engineering, really. Physics, chemistry, materials, some programming, and simulations as well. We’re of course doing very basic mechanics right now, a lot of Newton’s laws and simple forces but I think we’ll start on Kepler’s laws and orbital mechanics soon. I am really looking forward to that!”

Shinichi stared at Kuroba, his eyes widening. That could be it, couldn’t it? He grabbed the heist note out of his bag and held it up in front of him, heartbeat speeding up from the thrill of getting closer to the answer.

“I’m sorry, Kuroba-kun but I just had an idea.”

He read the last part of the note again.

‘After two strikes I will come from the stars to land among their cousins,

where I will make the dragon’s scale my own.’

Yes, of course. The stars weren’t meant to indicate the sky at all but were meant quite literal, indeed. 

“Where was that sample again?” he mumbled, taking out his phone and putting ‘asteroid sample exhibition Japan’ into the search bar of his browser. A cocky grin formed on his face when he saw the results. It fit perfectly. He started laughing.

“Got’cha again, stupid thief.”

“Did you solve it?” Kuroba asked, his excitement now matching Shinichi's. In the last three days Shinichi had come to ask himself several times how a single person could have so much energy to be so elated on a constant basis, but in the current moment he knew exactly how he felt.

“Yes, I got it. Okay, okay let me explain. Once you stop thinking about the obvious, it gets easier. It actually helped when you talked about your physics classes. Look over here. The sentence with the stars and the cousins. The stars quite literally mean the stars, not the night sky or anything they stand for. Then we have the part with the cousins. The word cousin sometimes doesn’t imply a family member but rather something that is very close to a concept, but not quite the same. It is implying there is a likeness there. So, we are looking at something that is like a star, but not quite. There is a term in ancient Greek that means star-like, and we usually use that name in our language as well.”

“Asteroids,” Kuroba whispered.

Shinichi shot him an acknowledging look. Kuroba sometimes surprised Shinichi with small things he knew, his intelligence was definitely far above average, and Shinichi was a sucker for intelligence, so there was that. He nodded.

“Exactly. Asteroids. Now there is only the last thing about the dragon’s scale. That one is a play on words as well. There is a piece of asteroid that started being displayed at the Space Education Center at JAXA’s campus in Sagamihara this week. They usually have a small sample on display that you can look at through a microscope, but they started displaying a much larger sample size this week, much more the usual size of the items KID has been going for. The sample has been collected from the asteroid Ryugu, which shares a name with a temple in old Japanese tales, the dragon temple. So, I am fairly certain KID will show up at that center in Sagamihara tomorrow evening.”

Kuroba looked like he got his Christmas presents eight months early.

“KID is going to steal a piece of an asteroid? How cool is that? Are you going to the heist? Do you want to go together by any chance, I’ve been wanting to go look at the exhibition anyway while it lasted, it would be so much fun! Did you know the train station there has Gundam themed space manhole covers? And the departure melody for the trains is the theme song for Galaxy Train 999, I mean how amazing is that?”

Kuroba’s excitement was absolutely contagious, the way he bopped up and down in his chair left Shinichi grinning widely back at him.

“Alright, let’s go together. I’d be there anyway, we can come early and tour the museum?”

“Yes, I’d like that!”

~~~~~~~~~~

The next morning when Shinichi got up, he found yet another package on his bedside table. He wondered if he’d be getting gifts for all eternity now. He’d make sure to ask KID about the issue later. Unpacking it, he found a rather smallish blue mug with KIDs face on it. Again, several playing cards were decorating the sides of the mug, and it spelled Kaitou KID around the opposite side.

Who was going to use that mug? It didn’t even fit a single sized portion of coffee. Head shaking, he placed it into one of his kitchen cupboards and got ready to meet Kuroba. They exchanged trains several times before coming to Fuchinobe station, where indeed the Galaxy Express 999 theme was playing when they exited the train.

“See, this is so cool! The manholes must be somewhere here, too! Maybe we can find them all?”

They moved up the escalator into the station hall.

“There is a Galaxy Express 999 poster! And the Gundam poster, and look! There are the locations of all manholes listed! Let’s go Kudou-kun!”

Kuroba was sprinting down the staircases on his way towards the first manhole, a colourful one that showed what Shinichi identified as a satellite-like spacecraft in front of a planet.

“That’s Hayabusa2! That’s the spacecraft that went to Ryugu to bring back the sample! Okay, let me take a picture, then we can look for the other ones.”

And so, they went around the station on a scavenger hunt to take pictures of the different manhole covers before heading to the JAXA campus.

Once they got to the area, they toured around briefly, but most areas were not accessible. The shop and cafeteria were closed due to the public holiday and the main building required special access cards. With nothing left to do, they went into the Space Education Centre instead.

“Just fill out this form, one is enough per group. You can have one of these binders here and collect the information leaflets that you can find around the exhibition. Also please wear one of these stickers visibly on your clothing so we know you have been granted access,” the lady at the counter told them.

Shinichi started filling out the entry form, while Kuroba removed the backings from the sticker and attached one on his own shirt and then one on Shinichi’s when he was done with the form.

“Look how cute it is! It’s a little Hayabusa2 sticker with a face! And look it has arms and legs as well! You think I can take another one with me to put on my university binder when we leave? That would be so-“

But Shinichi never found out what it would be.

“They have a life-sized rocket model!”

Shinichi barely registered that Kuroba grabbed his hand before he was dragged along the museum, completely skipping the first part of the exhibit, and making their way towards the probably ten-meter-tall rocket propped up in a corner of the hall.

“Woah! It’s the S-520 rocket series, it’s one of the sounding rockets they have, I think the second biggest? They use it to probe the atmosphere, you know? Gather data from the ionosphere and things like that. One day it would be cool to work with one of these! Or maybe build instruments for a spacecraft, it doesn’t really matter!”

Kaito was still holding Shinichi’s hand while reading the information posters next to the rocket model, but Shinichi wasn’t able to read anything at all. The only thing his brain was able to focus on at that moment was that he was holding Kaito’s hand. He was hyperaware of how sweaty his hand was starting to become and how he just stood there, face burning, eyes focused on the poster but not actually looking at it.

A moment later a hand waved in front of him, and Shinichi snapped out of his focus.

“Huh? Sorry, I-uh. Was reading?”

It came out more as a question than an actual answer. Shinichi was looking over at Kaito with his burning face, who, at that moment, must have realised what was going on as he jumped back and started apologising several times in a row, leaving Shinichi feeling seriously bereft with his now empty hand.

“It’s alright,” Shinichi mumbled, but Kaito was buzzing with excitement again. Obviously conflicted about the hand holding, he pointed at the satellite in the middle of the hall.

“Can we go over there?”

Shinichi nodded, before they moved over to the life-sized satellite in the middle of the exhibition, Shinichi’s heartbeat still too fast for his liking. Kaito gaped at the display above him before rambling on about the mission as if he was completely unfazed by the fact that he held Shinichi’s hand 10 seconds ago.

“The mission was first launched in 2014, but it took four years until it reached the target asteroid. The spacecraft stayed close to the asteroid for a year before deciding how to connect the lander with the surface. They then basically shot a hole into the asteroid and sucked up whatever debris got ejected from the surface and that went back to earth in a return capsule in late 2020. Isn’t that absolutely amazing? I love science so much. And- oh wow.“

Shinichi’s gaze followed Kaito’s to a little glass container underneath the satellite where the asteroid sample was being displayed, the very same one that was the target of KID’s heist tonight.

“That is so cool,” Kaito whispered, and Shinichi had to agree. The sample was roughly an inch in all directions, and it was a very dark grey, but slightly shiny, like graphite.

“That little piece of rock has been floating around in our universe for probably billions of years,” Kaito said with awe in his voice.

“Technically, all the rocks on earth have been floating around the universe for several billion years,” Shinichi countered.

Kaito shot him an annoyed look.

“Boring detectives. Allow a little bit of wonder into your life now, would you?”

Shinichi just smiled at him.

“You want to continue going?”

Shinichi nodded before they walked along the rest of the museum’s exhibition. Kaito gave the occasional comment, but without his overall bursts of enthusiasm until,

“Oh, is that a model of the earth’s magnetic field? That is so awesome! They actually labelled all the regions as well!”

Shinichi looked down at the model in front of him. Sure enough, there was a little earth with a bunch of features extruding from it, with little descriptions that read things he’d never heard before like ‘Van-Allen-Belt’ and ‘Cusp’.

He had no idea what he was looking at.

Kaito eyed him shyly.

“Would you mind if I explain? I’m really into this stuff.”

And why was he asking now? He didn’t think to do so the last couple times he randomly erupted in excited explanations. Shinichi furrowed his brows when it hit him. It was his comment, his apparently very lame comment about how all rocks were just like the asteroid, floating around the Universe for billions of years. And that was absolutely not what he wanted to imply but that was probably what it had sounded like to Kaito. And now Kaito must be thinking he was annoying Shinichi, when in fact Kaito was everything else but annoying.

Shinichi smiled back at him in the most encouraging way he could manage.

“Go ahead. I don’t really know what it’s showing, so it would be nice to learn.”

Kaito grinned at him, his usual state of exhilaration making a fast comeback.

“Okay, so this is the earth, right? And the things coming out of it is the earth’s magnetic field lines. Now they look a bit crooked, but that is the sun’s fault. Because the sun has these eruptions of particles and when they reach the earth, they interact with the magnetic field instead of the earth directly, you know? If we didn’t have that field, we’d be all long dead. Anyway, the particles can then join the magnetic field and kind of follow into the earth’s atmosphere. That’s how the northern lights are made, and there are several colours of northern lights because the particles have different energies and all. Isn’t that just so cool? I always wanted to see the northern lights. Say, have you seen them before?”

But Shinichi didn’t answer. He just gaped at Kaito, who probably had absolutely no idea how utterly attractive he was like that, rambling down physics knowledge like he inhaled it for breakfast. Shinichi’s chest was all too hot, a feeling of static protruding between it and the pit of his stomach and he knew that feeling well enough. He had it for a long time whenever Ran did something cute or he looked at her for too long. But with Kaito looking at him like that and the sheer happiness Shinichi felt just watching the other being so into the whole rocket science stuff, he was afraid to think about the implication that it held for too long. Not here. Not now. And when did Kuroba become Kaito anyway? Everything felt suddenly too warm and too close at once.

“I- I haven’t seen them,” Shinichi brought out through his entirely too dry throat, “But I would love to one day. Say, would you mind grabbing a bite to eat? I think we can come back with these stickers here and I need some fresh air.”

Kaito shot him a worried look.

“You do look like you could use some air. Come on.”

They left the building and went back onto the square that served as the centre of the campus.

“You want to go to the cafeteria? Or we could try to find a place to eat?” Kaito inquired.

Shinichi felt much better immediately, the sun feeling warm, but not too hot, on his skin with a small breeze coming in between the buildings.

“I found a park adjacent to here earlier. We could just grab some food and sit on a bench there? But of course, we can also have lunch in the cafeteria if you want to.”

“Park it is!”

They grabbed a Bento each at the Konbini on campus and then moved over to the park behind it. Shinichi looked around for a bench and finally spotted one next to the playground, which wasn’t too full either.

“Oh, there is a climbing frame! Can we eat on top? I don’t think there is anyone on it, anyway, look it has all these slides, and some monkey bars!”

Shinichi eyed him with amusement.

“How old are you, six?”

“Mentally? Absolutely. Let’s go!”

Before Shinichi could say anything, Kaito sprinted ahead, but instead of taking the stairs, or even the climbing ropes, he jumped onto one of the bars, hoisted himself on top of it and jumped down onto the wooden platform.

Shinichi stopped in his tracks for a second, before continuing taking the stairs up like the civilized human being that he was.

“That was…” Bragging, his brain provided, “intense. You have been doing acrobatics for a while, have you not?”

Kaito looked slightly alarmed at the statement.

“How did you know? I don’t think I’ve told you?” Kaito asked slowly.

“Earlier when you, uh… held my hand," Shinichi felt his face heat up yet again. He hated how little composure he had around Kaito, and he seriously had to do something about it, "I could feel how calloused yours was. That leaves other options of course like tennis, but with that display right now it was the most plausible one.”

Kaito seemed to relax a little at that and opened the bento he bought.

“I started when I was around four or five, maybe? I haven’t really stopped since then, it’s a good workout, keeps you in shape and the flexibility isn’t bad either.”

Shinichi’s mind went to all the wrong places at the last statement, and it took all his willpower to keep his breathing in a range that would be considered normal.

They ate their bento mostly in silence. Shinichi could have sworn when he bought it there was a piece of salmon in it, but once he opened the box he couldn’t find it anymore, so he concluded he probably grabbed the wrong container.

“Shall we head back, Kaito? Uh-I mean Kuroba. Kuroba-kun.”

Shinichi mentally slapped himself for his absolute stupidity and inability to speak properly.

Kaito looked up at him, face unreadable before he broke out into a grin.

“Kaito is fine, really.”

“Alright.”

Shinichi stared towards the floor, fidgeting with his fingers in his lap.

“Can I call you Shinichi, then?”

“Alright.”

Shinichi did not expect his stomach to do flips due to a simple mention of his name. But in the way Kaito said it, it was rapidly destroying any sense of self-preservation he had left.

“You’re cute when you’re embarrassed.”

He was so utterly done for.

__________

When they went back to the museum, Division 2’s task force had already arrived and set up security in the otherwise very lightly secured place.

Shinichi spotted Hakuba in the corner next to the giant Hayabusa spacecraft, eyeing the asteroid piece that was lying under the glass frame.

“Oi, Hakuba-kun!” Shinichi waved over at him.

Hakuba looked over at them and promptly made his way towards them past the task force setting up a contraption around KID’s heist target.

“I see you have one of these little stickers as well,” Hakuba pointed at his shirt, “Have you been here long?”

But before Shinichi could answer, Nakamori-keibu came over to them.

“Of course, you are here, too. For once a KID heist is far enough outside of Tokyo, but still a bunch of high school detectives show up planning to take over my job. I cannot kick you out, obviously, as this is a museum, but just stay back and let us do the work, you got me?”

Shinichi leaned closer to Hakuba before whispering, “Did anyone tell him we’re not actually attending high school anymore?”

“Give him a minute.”

The inspector was about to turn around when he spotted Kaito.

“Kaito-kun? What are you doing here?”

“Hey, Nakamori-san. I know Hakuba-kun and Kudou-kun from university, we started last week, so we decided to come here together.”

Hakuba pressed a button on his watch, and Shinichi had to hide a grin.

“17 seconds and 48 milliseconds. There you go.”

“Well, whatever it is. Then you can keep an eye on these two here. I got to go back to prepare.”

He gestured at Hakuba and Shinichi before running off.

It was 20:17, about 2 minutes before the start of the heist, according to Shinichi’s calculations, when Kaito got up from the wall he was leaning against on the side of the exhibition.

“I gotta run off to the bathroom really quick. I’ll be back before the heist!"

Shinichi looked at his watch to double check the time.

“Then hurry up, Kaito. You have less than five minutes.”

“Ehh? You said 20:30 yesterday, that is nearly 15 minutes away?”

“That… well that was a general estimate, the sun sets at 18:19 today.”

Kaito looked visibly panicked now.

“That’s okay, I’ll hurry!”

And with that he sprinted off.

“So, when did that happen?”

Hakuba looked at him with a raised eyebrow, but Shinichi didn’t get what he was talking about. The bathroom? That made no sense. Also, Hakuba knew that they hung out yesterday, so that couldn’t be it, either.

“When did what happen?”

“You calling him Kaito?”

There it was again, the warm feeling creeping up into his face. He wondered briefly if other people had so many issues with that as well, or if it was just a bunch of built up hormones from when he stuck in the body of a six-year-old.

“Oh. Uh, earlier today. We had a nice chat in the park. It was cozy.”

“A nice chat in the park, huh? Did he tell you anything interesting?”

Shinichi eyed him suspiciously.

“Depends on what you qualify as interesting. He talks a lot about physics and all the space stuff that is going on here, but that is about the scope of it.”

“Alright. That-“

But Hakuba was cut off by the sudden blackout, it was 20:19 on the dot and Kaito still hadn’t returned.

“Ladies and Gentlemen!” KID’s voice boomed over the museum speakers. Apparently not all power was cut off or the speakers were running over a different power line.

“Thank you for coming to my show tonight!”

When the light came back on, KID was hovering next to the Hayabusa2 model, seemingly in thin air. How on earth?

“I’ve already taken the asteroid, so I have to bid you goodbye for tonight, but I will see you next time!”

And with that he vanished in a flash of light, the cushion on which the asteroid laid now empty.

“For fucks sake.”

Shinichi blinked around but KID was nowhere to be seen.

“Hakuba, this building only has one floor. I don’t think he’s going up to the roof here, though I have no idea what he’s planning.”

Hakuba’s gaze panned down towards Shinichi’s chest.

“What’s that thing around your neck?”

Shinichi looked down and sure enough there was a plastic card attached to a string hanging around his neck.

He did not. Shinichi rolled his eyes.

“I know where he’s going, can you stay here in case he comes back?”

Shinichi didn’t wait for a reply before bolting out of the museum across the campus square and into the administrative building, adrenaline pumping through his veins. Inside he scanned the card on the door, and the security door opened instantly. Without a second thought Shinichi bolted up the nine flights of stairs and came out panting through the roof door.

“My, my, Tantei-kun, it’s good to see you.”

“I’m honestly more surprised to see you here. Since when are you interested in asteroids, what happened to shiny gemstones?”

Though Shinichi was perfectly well aware that KID sometimes stole other items as well, an actual relic from space was something new, though likely not less appealing.

“You should know that graphite is just a diamond with a slightly different crystalline structure, Meitantei.”

And why was everyone into science now?

“Seriously, KID? Anyway, who else did you give one of these? Are you aware you broke into a high security government building?”

Shinichi held the card up in front of his chest, trying to get his breathing under control.

“Oh, just you. And Nakamori-keibu has one in his suit pocket, but it probably takes a while until he realises. For your little concern about the security, don’t you think they should hide their visitor access cards a tad bit better if they don't want anyone in the building?”

Shinichi rolled his eyes. Of course, badly hidden goods were free to take, he should have expected as much. Though to his own dismay, Shinichi didn’t even inquire where they kept the passes before the heist, just assuming they were properly protected. Then the question was why did KID give Shinichi a card in a way he’d spot it immediately, but nobody else got that advantage?

“You want to talk. Is that it?”

KID hopped down from the ledge towards him, hands in his pockets.

“Not bad. But have you figured out about what, as well?”

“The gifts. You know I’d figure out they’re from you, given that you attached an actual copy of the note to that dove.”

“Very good. So do you like them?”

“What would make you think I’d actually want merchandise from you? Especially the one today KID, how do you think I’d fit even a medium sized portion of coffee into that? It’s simply too small.”

Before Shinichi could react, KID was in front of him lifting Shinichi’s chin with his fingers. His breath got caught in his throat.
“Tsk, tsk, Tantei-kun. Ever so ungrateful. You’re my favourite critic, after all. I thought it was about time you had some of my merch. I think you’d look good with my face on your clothes.”

“Stupid narcissist,” Shinichi muttered, his heart hammering heavily in his chest.

KID shot him a sharklike grin and backed off.

“Guilty as charged. Though I must say I was correct as always.”

Something on the thief's arm caught Shinichi's attention before he made it out as his own shirt and suit jacket. After a moment of horror, he looked down on himself, and realised with relief that he was in fact not half naked. Though the alternative wasn’t much better, as he wore a white T-shirt very similar to the one he got out of the gift box a few days ago.

“Oioi, KID, give those back!”

KID flashed him another grin and raised an eyebrow.

“Make me.”

The thief moved swiftly towards the edge of the roof, so Shinichi kicked the dial on his shoes and inflated one of the footballs from his belt. He put his best effort at kicking it towards KID, and Shinichi was sure it would have connected, but the thief just ducked while walking.

“That’s a no, then. Such a shame, really. You’ll get these back eventually, don’t worry. Oh, and there is my cue, have a good night, Tantei-kun, it was a pleasure as always. You should look forward to Tuesday’s gift. It is definitely my favourite!~”

“KID!” Nakamori-keibu shouted, emerging from the roof door.

With that KID hopped off the ledge into the night, another football missing him by inches.

When Shinichi made his way back down, Kaito and Hakuba were waiting next to the museum’s entrance door.

“Oi, Shinichi! Over here!” Kaito waved at him, “I didn’t know you had your KID shirt on under that shirt of yours! You could have told me, I would have worn mine as well!”

“I didn’t,” Shinichi got out through gritted teeth, “That stupid thief stole half my clothes and now I’m wearing this abomination,” he gestured along his torso.

“You met KID-sama? Hakuba mentioned you ran off after him, but did you actually meet him?”

Kaito looked at him in awe, eyes wide. When Shinichi nodded together with a grumbling sound, Kaito just added, “Man, that’s so cool, maybe I can join next time!”

Hakuba let out a cough, that sounded suspiciously like ‘Sure’.

“I think the shirt suits you, by the way, Shinichi!”

Hakuba, Kaito and Shinichi took the train back to university, and, when he entered his dorm, his stolen clothes were neatly folded on his desk.

~~~~~~~~~~

Sunday morning rolled around, and Shinichi’s KID collection now featured a plush top hat holding a single red rose. Today’s newest accession was a big KID plush, roughly the size of a pillow, laying on his stomach with his limbs stretched out. It was really cute, but Shinichi would never admit to that out loud.

He put the top hat and the plush KID onto his desk next to the rose that was displayed together with Kaito's blue one in a glass of water. The desk started to overflow with little KID gimmicks, and he seriously had to figure something out about that, before he had to start working on the floor.

He was about to get ready to meet Ran for their weekly Sunday Café date when he heard a knock on the door.

Whatever Shinichi expected, it wasn’t Kaito leaning against the door frame.

“Hey, uh, I asked Hakuba about your room number, I hope that’s alright?”

Kaito gave him a sheepish smile, making Shinichi’s stomach flutter.

“Right. Sure. Do you want to come in?”

Shinichi moved aside and closed the door behind Kaito, who made his way towards the small living area.

“Oh, you got more KID merch! Look at the plushie, it’s so cute!”

Kaito hoisted up the pillow-sized KID and squeezed it.

“He’s so soft! Does that mean the gifts are still arriving?”

“Yup, every morning.”

“At one point you can make a little KID-shrine!”

Shinichi snorted at the suggestion.

“As if that’s ever going to happen. Ne, can I get you something to drink?”

“Actually, about that,” Kaito started playing with the hem of his oversized hoodie and he looked so cute.

“I was wondering if you’d want to go out for like another coffee or something?”

Was he-? The way he was fidgeting with his hoodie and the general unsureness in his voice.

Shinichi was very aware how dense he could be, but now he was afraid he was reading too much into the situation. Wishful thinking and all that.

“I can’t. I mean today. I can’t today. Ran and I have coffee dates every Sunday.”

“Oh.”

Kaito’s gaze fell down to his still fidgeting hands and Shinichi realized what he’d said.

“Not like that. I mean, we meet for coffee every Sunday, so I can’t have coffee with you today. But we could go tomorrow?”

Shinichi just wanted Kaito to stop looking like a kicked puppy, worst case he’d have to drink more coffee at nine tonight, who’d even care?

A moment later Kaito looked up at him, the sheepish smile back on his face.

“I’d like that. 16, like last time? We can meet at the pond again? Though, I suppose I see you at lunch tomorrow anyway.”

They looked at each other for a long moment, before Kaito turned around.

“Well, I'll let you get ready. See you tomorrow!”

And with that he was gone, and Shinichi had to find support from the wall behind him.

He was going out with Kaito. Potentially, his brain added, because he had actually no idea if that was a proper date? They never called it one, but the way Kaito had acted, and- oh God, he was going on a date with Kaito. Stupidly nerdy and hot-and-definitely-not-aware-of-it Kaito with his bright indigo eyes and his cute little freckles, and Shinichi was so high on adrenaline, he could run a mile. Or ten.

So he did. He sprinted the whole distance from his dorms over to the café where Ran and he usually met. When he arrived, he let himself fall into a chair across from his childhood friend.

“Hello to you, too, Shinichi? You look surprisingly smiley today, anything noteworthy that happened? Or is it just a lack of murders lately?”

“I- Let me get something to drink first.”

Shinichi ordered a large iced coffee, black of course, and a piece of the lemon cheesecake, the same he had last week. He took a large sip, the cold liquid instantly cooling him down from his run.

“So?”

Shinichi took a deep breath. He knew he could trust Ran with these things, but that still didn’t make it any easier to actually talk about them.

“I think… I might have a date? Tomorrow?”

Ran’s eyes lit up at Shinichi’s words with excitement that would have been a hard match for Kaito’s.

“I’m really happy for you, Shinichi! You want to tell me about her?”

Shinichi looked at her sheepishly.

“Him.”

Ran hid a small chuckle.

“You know that’s okay. I’m dating Sera after all, I’d be in no position to judge you.”

“I know. That’s why I’m telling you. And because you’re the first person I meet to tell.

“And because you’re my best friend, idiot,” he added after Ran eyed him with a raised eyebrow.

“You know I’m taking the same studies as Hakuba-kun? He has a friend from high school who is taking a degree in aerospace engineering. His name is Kuroba Kaito. Well, we started hanging out a bit and we went to the KID heist, the one on Friday?”

“Did you drag him to a KID heist? Shinichi, seriously?”

“Idiot, I didn’t drag him there. He wanted to go, remember it was at that space campus? We went to the museum before. He’s also quite a big KID fan.”

At that Ran snorted into her coffee.

“Kudou Shinichi, the Heisei Holmes, the regrown Kid Killer, going on a date with a KID fan?”

“Oh, shut it. May I remind you that you are best friends with Sonoko-chan? She’s likely worse.” Though on second thought Shinichi wasn’t really sure about that, Kaito could probably beat Sonoko in a battle for best KID-fan.

“Yet I haven’t been trying to catch KID for the last two years,” Ran retorted.

“Touché.”

“You said you think you have a date? Aren’t you sure? Well, of course you aren’t sure, it’s you. Tell me what happened.”

“So, eh, basically Kaito came to my dorm this morning, and he was all fiddly and stuff, he usually isn’t like that. Though I’ve only known him for about a week, really. It sometimes feels like it’s been much longer than that, is that weird? I mean, it probably is. Anyway, he asked if I wanted to go have coffee with him today, but I told him I couldn’t as I already had my weekly coffee date with you- Don’t look at me like that, I realised I fucked up. So I explained that we are in fact not dating, and Kaito and I are going to have coffee tomorrow instead.”

“That, my dear Shinichi, is definitely a date.”

Shinichi took a ragged breath.

“It is, isn’t it?”

“You are happy about it, aren’t you?”

Shinichi was. He really was, but then there was the other issue. So he tried to explain.

“I am. Of course, I am, Ran. But- I’m not quite sure how I am going to explain that problem to you.”

He took a sip from his coffee in order to collect his thoughts, which he realised was a mistake as soon as Ran spoke.

“You have a crush on Kaitou KID.”

The coffee was snorted back out, half through his nose, which led him into a terrible coughing fit.

“I what?”

“Shinichi, I’ve known you for years,” she started while handing him her second napkin, “The way you get all funny about KID and the way you talk about him, and all. It’s okay, really. People have celebrity crushes, it’s nothing bad.”

Shinichi wondered if he was really that easy to read, though at least he didn’t have to come up with a way to breach the topic to Ran that he likely had an infatuation with KID.

“You know it’s not like that, though. This isn’t like some person on TV that I’ll never meet, KID and I we… have history, it’s weird to explain, but you have been there for a large part of it. And he’s been flirting with me ever since I got my body back,- Ran would you stop looking at me like that, even I can’t miss that, he is extremely forward with the whole thing. He’s been sending me gifts for over a week now, a bunch of KID plushies and T-shirts and stuff.”

“KID has been courting you?”

“Don’t say it like that, you make it sound weird.”

“But isn’t it? You have a crush on a person you don’t even know the real name of, an internationally wanted jewel thief, mind you. And I get that there is this weird thing going on between you, but I think you need to make a decision here, Shinichi. Either try to talk to KID, and see where it gets you, or go out with Kuroba-kun, who apparently seems to like you. Do you like Kuroba-kun?”

Shinichi didn’t get any words out, so he just nodded.

“Then maybe give that a try? Though I cannot make a decision for you. But if you go out with Kuroba-kun, maybe talk to him about that?”

It took a while until Shinichi had found the words to reply.

“I hate it when you’re right. But how am I going to talk to him about that? You know I have issues talking about my feelings-“

“Oh, believe me, I’ve noticed.”

“Yes, of course you have. But that doesn’t make it any easier.”

“It’s never all that easy, Shinichi. But a good relationship is built on trust and the ability to talk to each other even if it is not always easy. So, it might be a good idea to start with that.”

He took a while to go over the information Ran offered him. In the end, he realised there wasn’t really any choice at all, as he made it before he even got here.

~~~~~~~~~~

Monday morning crept along slowly, how time usually does when one was looking forward to something. He finished up his third coffee right before Shinichi's forensics professor sent them out.

“So, Kudou-kun, I was thinking,” Hakuba started when they were sitting outside again having lunch.

Shinichi was seated, as always next to Hakuba with Kaito across from him and it took all his willpower to not excessively stare at him. So he was basically not acknowledging him at all, which was likely worse.

“These gifts you’re getting are they still showing up?”

“Uhuh, every morning. I’m getting used to them though, it's a disaster.”

“Really, what did you get the last days? We haven’t really talked since Friday!” Kaito cut in before Hakuba could say anything. For the first time since they sat down a few minutes ago, Shinichi properly looked at Kaito and he immediately had to smile. Maybe after the last two-or-what years with his life being in shambles and all, it wasn’t looking so dim after all.

“Uh, so Friday I got a mug, I am not sure I told you, we talked little that day, except at the heist. Though I feel like KID doesn’t appreciate how much coffee is in a normal portion, that thing fits two espresso shots, max.”

“Not everybody drinks a litre of battery acid on a daily basis,” Kaito mumbled across from him.

“Oh, excuse me Mr. I-only-drink-hot-chocolate-with-sprinkles,” Shinichi retorted with feigned annoyance, though there was no malice in his words. Kaito shot him a grin.

“Anyway, yesterday I got a big plushie, like the size of a pillow approximately, like this,” Shinichi gestured a roughly KID-plush sized ball with his hands, “It’s the one you held up yesterday, Kaito.”

Hakuba's eyes flicked between them curiously.

“You met.”

It wasn’t a question, and Shinichi tried to come up with an explanation why Kaito was indeed in his dorm room. They were friends after all, it wasn’t that unlikely that they’d meet outside of lunch, but he suddenly felt very aware that they started hanging out a lot without Hakuba. Kaito must have sensed his inner turmoil, as he came up with a perfectly passable lie.

“Oh, I bumped into Shinichi on the way back from the laundry room. I took two laundry pods with me from home, but forgot about getting my own afterwards. So I was on my way back up from the laundry room, and Shinichi offered me some of his detergent, so we were in his room briefly.”

Shinichi shot a thankful look at Kaito, though he was surprised how he’d manage to come up with a perfectly good lie within a second and then told it without hesitation.

“I see,” Hakuba just said, before adding, “Anyway, I assume you still got a gift today?”

“Uh, yes, it was a tie. Dark blue with a white KID caricature on.”
For a second this morning he was considering wearing it to the date later. Kaito would probably think it was the coolest thing since sliced bread, but then Shinichi realized as how rude that would come across when he’d have to tell Kaito he had indeed a crush on KID. Naturally, he crammed the tie in the very back of his tie collection.

“Dark blue, you say? So more the colour of KID’s eyes, or?”

Shinichi kicked Hakuba under the table, before shooting him a murderous look for good measure. At least he’d learned something useful from his mother. Kaito just snickered.

“Okay, so as you’ve been getting more and more elaborate gifts, I was thinking that maybe something is about to come up? Like an anniversary of sorts, perhaps?”

“No, that one already passed.”

Shinichi furrowed his brows. April 1^st was already long gone, and he couldn’t quite remember having anything KID-related in early May.

“That… already passed?”

Hakuba eyed him with amusement, “You remember the first time you met KID? Or are we talking about some other anniversary?” Hakuba’s eyes briefly flicked to Kaito for reasons Shinichi didn’t understand, but then there were several years of friendship between them and Shinichi definitely didn’t get all the little interactions they had. Hakuba’s gaze landed back on him with a raised eyebrow.

“As if you don’t remember every single date that involves KID. If I recall correctly, you let your pocket watch be altered so it could show milliseconds, seriously, who does that? But to answer your question, there is no anniversary coming up. I don’t think there is anything-“

Shinichi’s eyes widened, and it was so painfully obvious he wondered how he didn’t see it before.

“It’s my birthday. My birthday is coming up on Wednesday.”

“Ehh? It’s your birthday on Wednesday? Shinichi how am I going to get you anything in time, that’s not fair! Maybe we can throw a party?”

Shinichi groaned.

“Please, no more parties, I’m already very certain Ran and Sera are throwing me a surprise party, anyway. I never have any choice in the matter. And you don’t need to get me anything, Kaito, it’s fine.”

Kaito just pouted, but before Shinichi could say anything, Hakuba picked up their original conversation.

“So, I think that strengthens my suspicions. I believe whoever sent you these may just want to give you a very elaborate birthday present.”

“Whoever…? Didn’t I tell you? The gifts come from KID. I realised when he send a personalised heist note with one of them.”

Hakuba raised his eyebrows and gave him a look. “Of course he did. Well, that is certainly amusing.”

“Guys, I gotta go a bit early, I promised Asamura-kun to help him with the math homework. I’ll see you later, Shinichi. Jaa, Hakuba!”

And with that he was gone.

“He didn’t actually forget his laundry detergent, did he?”

“Ehh? Of course he did.”

“If you say so. I actually know that he has enough detergent left, I helped him move some things into his room when he moved in. And you’re apparently meeting later, didn’t care to invite me this time, Kudou-kun?”

Shinichi stared at him. Did Hakuba actually feel left out as Kaito and him were starting to do things on their own? But he couldn’t invite Hakuba to the date, either.

“Well, I’m glad you’re not completely resistant to learning, Kudou-kun. Though I am at a loss at how you’re so smart when you’re so dense at the same time.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Exactly.”

__________

After the last class of the day, Shinichi went back to the dorms with Hakuba to store his bag. Hakuba left him halfway up the stairs to go his own room, and Shinichi was halfway up another flight of stairs when Hakuba called after him, “Well, enjoy your date!”

Shinichi stopped in his tracks for a second but willed his legs to continue up the stairs, pretending he didn’t hear anything.

When he arrived to the pond five minutes later, Kaito was already leaning against a tree relatively far from the lake, his usual oversized hoodie swapped for a striped blue shirt. Shinichi suddenly felt glad he decided to drop the suit jacket and tie in prevention of a heat stroke, or he’d feel severely overdressed.

“Oi, Shinichi, over here!”

Kaito waved at him and removed himself from the tree.

“Hey,” Shinichi answered shyly. He had absolutely no idea what to say. When he thought about it, he’d probably never been on a date before in his life that didn’t end in disaster. Like the countless ones he had with Ran over the years, where he ended up having to make excuses as Conan after every single one. At least that was an unlikely occurrence today.

“You look cute,” he tried and immediately winced at how stupid it sounded.

Kaito smiled at him awkwardly.

“You look pretty hot, actually.”

“You can’t just say something like that!” Shinichi stammered, his face turning impossibly hot.

“Why not, it’s the truth.”

“Yes, but like- I don’t know what to say when you say something like that!”

“Oh it’s easy really. You could say ‘Thank you’, that’s the easiest of course. That way you don’t really have to say anything and just take the compliment. Then there is the option of just acknowledging it, really. Just say ‘I know’. Don’t look at me like that, I know you’d never say that. But it is an option all the same. I’d probably go for something like ‘oh, I feel plenty hot, it’s the weather you know’.”

“I didn’t know you were much of a smooth talker, really.”

“There‘a a lot of things you don’t know about me, but that’s the fun part, isn’t it? Finding out about them, I think that’s why we’re here.”

“Yeah.”

Shinichi eyed Kaito curiously. He had to try.

“Well, I think you’re pretty hot then.”

Kaito’s cheeks turned pink.

“Thank you.”

“So much for smooth taking.”

“Oh, shut it.

"Say, Shinichi, I thought that maybe we could just stay here? The nature is so petty. We can of course always go to the café, it’s the same for me.”

“Ah, so much for my fifth coffee today.”

Kaito just smiled at him and starting fumbling with the bag he brought.

“Don’t underestimate me.”

Out of the bag came two bottles, one with iced coffee and one with chocolate milk.

“Why am I not surprised? You want to move to the bench over there?”

Shinichi pointed towards the bench closest to the pond. It was unoccupied and definitely had the prettiest view.

Kaito followed his pointing finger and halted.

“Maybe not that one? I don’t know it’s, uh- maybe we can take that one instead? The one over there?”

He gestured over at a bench on the other side of the park. And honestly, Shinichi didn’t mind a single bit which bench they were taking as long as Kaito was on that bench with him.

“Sure, let’s go.”

Kaito grabbed his hand and they walked over towards the wooden bench. Shinichi was sure he’d make less of a fuss about Kaito’s hand in his this time, this was a date after all, but that didn’t leave him any less flustered.

They sat down on the bench, and Kaito didn’t let go of him, even when he handed the bottle of coffee over with his free hand.

Shinichi stared down at his coffee. Well, there was no other way. He put the bottle between his legs and tried to twist the cap off with his free left hand but to no avail. The lid was stuck.

Kaito eyed him with a small smile.

“Can I see that back for a second?”

Here he was, a grown up university student unable to open a bottle on his own. With one hand, and his weak hand at that, mind you, but still. He gave a small sigh.

“Be my guest.”

Kaito took the bottle behind his back and handed it back without a lid a second later, all without letting go of Shinichi’s hand.

“How did you do that?”

“Magician’s secret.”

Shinichi took the bottle back with a smile.

“And the lid?”

Kaito’s face moved closer to his and for a hot second Shinichi thought he might kiss him, but in the next moment Kaito reached up with his free hand and pulled the lid from behind his ear.

“Here you go.”

Shinichi stared down at the lid in Kaito’s hand, then back up into his eyes, his way too pretty, indigo eyes which reminded him just as much of the sea after a storm as KID’s did. And for a long moment he got lost in them, before he broke the moment and took the lid from Kaito, trying to save the little bit of self-preservation he had left. He had to talk to Kaito first, however the hell he would manage to do that.

“You, Kuroba Kaito, are full of wonders.”

Shinichi took a sip of his iced coffee before looking back over the park.

“Finally letting some of that into your life?”

Shinichi smiled.

“Yes, I think I might.”

They sat there in silence for a while, not an uncomfortable one, but enjoying the sun that fell through the trees, all while holding hands, of course.

“You know I’d still get you something for your birthday?”

“Kaito, seriously you don’t have to. I mean it. I usually halfway forget about it every year, if it wasn’t for Ran, and now Sera as well, throwing surprise parties for me. And I’m certain this one is going to be huge, most likely, as it’s the first one since I- since I came back from that case,” he finished lamely. If this was actually going to work out he was very aware he had to tell Kaito about the whole Conan thing, but now was definitely not the time for that. Kaito would most likely think he was insane.

“I thought it was funny, really. Your birthday, I mean. The day Sherlock Holmes seemingly vanishes from the face of the earth, you are born. It has a certain irony to it.”

Shinichi blinked at him. How did he know the date Holmes fell down the Reichenbach falls? Hakuba, likely. From what Shinichi gathered, they hung out a lot and Hakuba was a walking Holmes Encyclopaedia.

“I’m more surprised Hakuba didn’t actually figure out on what day my birthday falls.”

“Oh, he most likely did, he was probably just wounded that he doesn’t have a Holmes related birthday. He probably sulked some in his room as well. Did you know he has a Watson body pillow?”

Shinichi snorted.

“No, but I can picture it. On second thought, forget what I said. I really don’t want to.”

Kaito laughed heartily, which Shinichi thought really suited him.

“I don’t think he knows that I’ve seen it. So better not mention it to him.”

“I see you’re a charm at keeping secrets.”

“Oh, I most certainly am. But it’s not really a secret he gave me, is it?”, he shot him a mischievous grin, “So, is the birthday the only thing? Or are you actually some sort of Sherlock Holmes reincarnation?”

Shinichi scoffed at him.

“You ask my parents. My name literally means ‘one truth’. They have a weird sense of humour, I tell you.”

Kaito sighed.

“I can relate to that.”

And Shinichi had no idea what he meant but Kaito also gave him no time to dissect the statement.

“Anything else? You play the violin, or something? Maybe are the next great Japanese fencing champion?”

Shinichi stared at him. That was probably Kaito’s way of figuring out what he was doing in his free time, like normal people do on dates, but that was not what he decided to focus on.

“The first time when you mentioned the birthday, I thought you just hang out with Hakuba too much, but… have you actually read Sherlock Holmes? I didn’t think that’d be something up your alley?”

Kaito grinned at him.

“No man burdens his mind with small matters unless he has some very good reason for doing so.”

And whatever he implied, Shinichi didn’t quite understand but right at that moment he also didn’t care the tiniest bit. Whatever bit of caution he had left, vanished from his brain in an instant. He grabbed Kaito’s shirt and pulled him closer, before pushing their lips together.

Kaito froze, and for a second Shinichi thought he overstepped a line, but then Kaito’s hand appeared on Shinichi’s neck and he pulled him closer. Kaito’s lips were soft and he tasted like chocolate and something else he couldn’t quite pinpoint. Before he knew what he was doing, Shinichi moved his hands up and threaded them into Kaito’s hair, and whatever he expected, it wasn’t this, because despite looking like a birds nest, it felt so unbelievably soft.

They broke apart after a moment, foreheads still resting together, their breaths slightly heavy.

“That was unexpected. Not that I minded it,” Kaito said after a while, breathing back under control, “So did the Sherlock Holmes quote bring that on, by any chance? Asking for future reference.”

Shinichi took a moment to answer, thoughts still slightly diverted as Kaito was still too close for his brain to form a coherent thought.

“Probably. But it’s not not just that. It was the same in the museum the other day, it’s… you don’t how how attractive you are when you know things I don’t expect you to know. But yes, that it was Holmes certainly helped.”

Shinichi laughed quietly but stopped abruptly when he realised there were actually plans made to talk to Kaito before they should be doing anything else and he managed to fuck up the actual order of things in the worst way possible.

Shinichi sat back up, hands grabbing Kaito’s before he could remove them from Shinichi’s neck.

“Kaito, listen. I need to tell you something.”

Kaito looked alarmed for a second, before his features smoothed out.

“Okay. It can’t be that bad right?”

“That’s what you’d think,” Shinichi mumbled.

“As long as you’re not telling me you’re in reality a wanted murderer and you’re only doing the detective work so people don’t get suspicious.”

“Wait, what?”

Shinichi shot him a confused look but Kaito just laughed.

“See, it can’t be that bad. I’m certain whatever it is, it’s fine. I- I trust you, Shinichi.”

And oh God, what if Shinichi immediately lost the little bit of trust he had gained over the last week and a half?

He took a deep breath and immediately let it out raggedly.

“I’m not sure how to explain, really. I’m afraid it’s going to be a bit of an issue. I really like you. If- if that wasn’t obvious by now. It’s just that- I think I- God, why is this so stupidly hard?”

“You don’t want to date another guy? Is that it?”

Shinichi blinked at him.

“No, that’s not it. Really, I didn’t think I’d want to but I've also never really thought much about it and, well, I'd actually like to. Date you, that is. So that’s not the problem. It’s a bit of the opposite really. I’ll just get it over with okay? Otherwise we’ll still sit here tomorrow.”

Here goes nothing.

“Ihaveabitofacrushonkaitoukid.”

Kaito blinked at him.

“What?”

“Please don’t make me say it again.”

“I- okay. You… have a bit of a crush on Kaitou KID?” he reconstructed slowly.

Shinichi just nodded.

For a moment there was silence, and for a moment Shinichi considered just jumping up and telling Kaito it was all a joke. Then Kaito started laughing.

“Hey, that’s okay. People have celebrity crushes, it’s not a big deal really. KID is really hot, not gonna lie.”

Shinichi groaned. Kaito sounded just like Ran, why did nobody get how much of an issue this was?

“That’s not it. I wouldn’t mind if this was some random celebrity I saw on TV, you know? But that isn’t it. I know it’s hard to understand, but KID and I, we have quite a lot of baggage. I don’t know how to tell you all the details without sounding completely insane, but I’ve been basically chasing him for the last two years. And I know this all will make very little sense to you now. I promise to explain one day, but I can’t do it right now. I hate to ask this, but I just need you to believe me right now. Every single heist I’ve been following him up on rooftops and we’ve been working together on cases on several occasions and… God, Kaito we shared a bed, okay? Obviously nothing happened, but I need you to understand that this is not your average celebrity crush. And you must have figured out how dense I can be, but I know he’s been flirting with me. Even I can see that. And I know KID flirts with everyone who can’t hide fast enough but he obviously has been sending me birthday presents or whatever Hakuba-kun thinks this is. I just needed you to know. Preferably before we kissed, but I kinda messed up the order there. And I need you to understand, as I have no idea if that will ever go away and if so, how long it takes.”

They sat in silence for a minute, before Shinichi groaned and hid his face in his hands.

"God, I'm sorry, I am acting like a right asshole right now. First I'm kissing you, then I tell you I have a crush on somebody else and then just ask you if you're okay with that. Honestly, you don't deserve that."

Shinichi felt Kaito’s hands on his, slowly pulling them back down away from his face.

“Hey, Shinichi, listen to me. It’s alright. I- see how the whole thing might be an issue, but I really like you, so can we please try this?"

Shinichi blinked at him.

"Why? Why doesn't this bother you more?"

“Because I trust you.”

“Oh."

And in that moment, Shinichi didn't feel like he'd deserve that trust at all.

~~~~~~~~~~

The first thing Shinichi did on his birthday was check the bedside table, but against his expectations, he found nothing there. Yesterday was likely the end of the gifts, he decided, because it couldn’t possibly get any worse. When he got up there was a big square box on his nightstand, taking up more space than the nightstand even offered. After carefully inspecting it, like he’d done before with each of the gift boxes, he opened it, but was definitely not prepared for what he found inside.

His thoughts went from ‘Oh God’ to ‘He did not’ to ‘If Hakuba knew. Oh God, Hakuba could never know’, in rapid succession, before drawing a KID body pillow out of the box. It was a drawn anime-style version of KID, but Shinichi assumed that was the norm for these, anyway. It showed KID laying on what seemed like a bed, dressed in his usual white suit, with his sharklike grin and a somewhat inviting pose.

Deciding he’d deal with the thing later, he threw it onto his desk chair from afar, but it slightly missed and toppled to the floor, and, oh God these things had back sides?

Shinichi nearly spit the sip of coffee he took back out when he saw a very much naked KID, though still sporting his monocle, in the same pose as the front side, covering his crotch with his top hat. This was it. The worst. He put the coffee down on his desk, rolled the pillow back together with the decent side out, of course, and crammed it into a bag. When he showed up at Kaito’s room, he threw the bag at him.

“You can have this. This is getting absolutely out of hand.”

Kaito shot him a weird look, then opened the bag and broke out into a fit of laughter, that only got worse when he took the pillow out and turned it around.

“This is hilarious!” he wheezed, “I especially like the top hat part. Very sexy.”

Shinichi shot him a pointed look.

“Alright, alright. I’ll keep this for you. Would be a shame if you’d throw it out. Hey, maybe Hakuba would want a second one? I think they even got the eyes right!”

They shared a short look before busting into laughter. Shinichi was just glad that Kaito was so easy going about the whole KID thing, though he still very much believed he didn't deserve Kaito's trust. Or Kaito in general, for that matter.

They decided to put on a movie and got some takeout pizza that they ate on Kaito’s bed, but as soon as the pizza was gone, the movie was nothing more than background noise, because they spent the rest of the evening making out.

The memory sent shocks through Shinichi's body and he hid his burning face behind his hands. God, how was he ever going to get anything productive done in his life again when Kaito was living on the other end of the hallway?

It was no use. He'd like to stay in bed, replaying the last evening in his head over and over again, but he’d have to get up and ready if he wanted to be on time for whatever Ran had Sera had planned today. Maybe he could ask Kaito if he’d like to come with him.

Scanning the room a last time to make sure there was definitely no white box hidden, he made his way out of his bedroom but stopped dead in his tracks when he entered the main room.

“Good morning, Meitantei.”

KID lounged in his desk chair with crossed legs, reading what was clearly the book Shinichi bought last week.

“You- what are…,” Shinichi was rubbing at his face, “You know what? I’m not caffeinated enough to be dealing with you right now.”

So without another word he shuffled past KID to the kitchen counter and turned on the coffee machine. He was hyper aware that KID was sitting less than two metres away from him and so he put all his focus on the liquid slowly dripping into the pot in what seemed like the longest five minutes of his life.

When the coffee was done brewing, he opened the cupboard above him and got his usual coffee mug out.

“That’s not a mug, that’s a bowl, Tantei-kun.”

“It fits a decently sized cup of coffee. I told you your shot glass wasn’t any good. Now if you don’t mind can I continue here in peace, because if you talk much more I might actually murder you.”

Shinichi poured the coffee from the pot into his mug, mentally preparing himself for whatever reason KID saw it fit to show up in his living room on an otherwise perfectly fine Wednesday morning.

He grabbed his mug, and sat down on his kitchen chair before taking a long sip.

“So, to what do I owe the visit?”

“I just wanted to wish my favourite detective a happy birthday.”

“And you couldn’t have done that with a card or something? Clearly I got all of your little presents, a card on my nightstand would have been very sufficient, thankyouverymuch.”

KID put the book down on the desk before picking up the pillow sized KID plushie.

"As you turned your desk into a memorabilia site, I assume you enjoyed them very much? How did you like yesterday's gift? I thought it was just simply an amazing idea on my side."

Shinichi was very close to kick something over at the thief.

"I actually gave it away."

"Naw, Tantei-kun, you wound me. Isn't it rude to regift presents?"

Shinichi rolled his eyes.

"Maybe you should gift something actually useful then. What is today's gift? Your presence? I think that even tops whatever idiotic thought you had about that body pillow."

"But, Tantei-kun, my company is the highest gift."

Oioi.

Shinichi pressed a hand against his face, before taking another large sip of his coffee. He definitely wasn't awake enough for whatever madness the universe decided to send his way.

"So that's it? You grant me a couple of minutes in your ever so delightful company, before you hop out the window again? Be happy I don't have my watch on me."

KID grinned at him, his tongue grazing one of his canines.

"I know you wouldn't do that, you have been having all the possibilities to do so since you realised I was here. See, I actually had something else planned for today. But after the recent developments I decided a change of plans was needed. You may get the actual present next year. Or later, we'll see."

Next year, or-

"KID, stop sending me presents of yourself, will you? Also you make no sense."

"Ah, I'm likely not. Well, happy birthday, Shinichi."

And, what? When Shinichi realised what was happening, he nearly toppled over the table with the mug on top of it by jumping out of his chair at too high speed. But despite that, he reached KID to late, who had already removed his monocle and top hat, and-

"That isn't funny, KID."

Shinichi shot an unimpressed look at what now looked like Kaito dressed in KID's clothes.

KID just sighed.

"I should have seen that coming. What do you want me to do so you know it's actually me?"

Shinichi was starting to feel a mixture of very angry, very confused and very nervous, and overall, that wasn't a very welcoming mix.

"I don't know. Like, I really don't. I don't understand why you’re here and what you’re doing."

He pressed his hands against his eyelids, trying to fight what was likely a headache creeping up. The more he thought about KID and Kaito, the more it made sense, much to Shinichi's bewilderment. Kaito, the magician, who had been doing acrobatics for years, who just conveniently left the heist area minutes before the start and didn't show up again until after it was over. Kaito, whom Shinichi felt he'd known for much longer than it was possible, because he actually did, with bright stupid indigo eyes, that looked so very much like KID's, because they were the same eyes.

He let out a groan.

"I am such an idiot," Shinichi muttered, before hearing a relieved sigh from the direction of the desk.

Wait.

Shinichi's head snapped up and he glared at Kaito.

"Did I seriously have a conversation with you about how I had a crush on... you? And you didn't say anything?"

Kaito flinched.

"What was I supposed to say? I honestly considered telling you right then and there, but I didn't know how. I'm sorry."

Shinichi downed the rest of his coffee, but it wasn't enough so he got up and turned the coffee machine back on. Kaito shot him a wild look.

"You may as well get used to it." 

They stood there in silence for a minute, the only sound coming from the dripping of coffee into the pot.

Shinichi wasn't angry, at least not at Kaito. He was, however, very annoyed with himself for not seeing the obvious similarities earlier. Suddenly, a lot of the conversations they had made so much more sense, and- oh, of course.

"Hakuba-kun knows." It wasn't a question, Shinichi was certain of that assessment.

"Basically. It's a case of plausible deniability, really. He knows, and I know it doesn't matter what I say or do, he won't stop being certain about this. But he also knows that he's correct. So we have a weird friendship, really. But he is the same as you, what happens outside of a heist stays there. He's a good friend. Not that I’d ever tell him that."

Shinichi thought about that for a while.

"Does anyone else know? If that's okay to ask?"

"Akako-chan, one of my former classmates. She got told by one of her enchanted mirrors on the wall, or something"

Shinichi shot him a bewildered look.

"Don't ask me, she's a witch, in any case. But she's the same as Hakuba. She knows, and I know, but I keep denying it. She helped me out quite a few times, though. Then Jii-chan, my partner, you've met him at heists several times, actually, though you've never actually seen his face. And Kaa-san, of course."

"Your mom knows that you are an internationally wanted thief?" Shinichi asked taken aback by the statement, but Kaito just laughed.

"Figures. You'd be surprised about my family."

Shinichi shook his head, the realisation finally hitting him at full tilt, and he just busted out laughing at how unhinged the situation was.

"Oh God. I'm dating Kaitou KID. I cannot believe this. Ran would have a field day if she knew. And oh my goodness, Sonoko-chan."

This was all way too much, he felt like he was proper mad, but at the same time there was such a relief that flooded over him. He was so worried the last days that he'd hurt Kaito with his infatuation with KID, and now he didn't have to think about that anymore. 

When he came down from his high, he poured the coffee over into his perfectly sized mug and sat back down at the kitchen table.

"So, got any plans today?" Shinichi asked, before taking another well needed sip of coffee. This was probably the weirdest birthday he'd have so far, and it wasn't even 10.

"Not that I know of. Got anything planned?"

"Well, if you'd like you could come with me to meet Ran and Sera? And probably whoever else they invited? I think they'd be delighted to meet my boyfriend."

"I'd love to," Kaito replied, a big smile on his face.

Shinichi put his mug down, before positioning himself over Kaito and lifting his chin up. It took all his willpower to not lose his last nerve at what he was doing, but the way Kaito sat there in KID's clothes did things to his brain. Before he could ask what he wanted, however, he got lost in Kaito's eyes.

"I can't believe I didn't make the connection that you have the same eyes. They're-"

"Like the calm sea after a storm?"

"Oh, shut it," Shinichi mumbled before closing the distance between them.