Work Text:
The bar was dimly lit heavily contrasting the bright dining hall. Ran and Sera were getting married. As per tradition, the day before the wedding the happy couple went their separate ways as a last celebration apart. Shinichi had not been allowed to go with Ran’s party due to his bother figure status. And that would be a “buzz kill” according to Sonoko.
While unsure of what Ran was planning, Sera was going bar hopping. Their friend group had split in 2. Hattori had made it into Sera’s group as well as a couple of her friends from school.
This was the 4th bar they had gone to and everyone was starting to look very sloshed. Shinichi was trying his best to celebrate. They had reached the sentimental part of the night. Hattori had almost talked about Conan at least twice. Sera was retelling how Ran and her first got together. Shinichi really was trying.
Bitterness filled him and he was bad at lying. He was horrible at it before Conan. After Conan he gained new expressions making it even easier to tell when he was lying.
So, Shinichi slipped away before one of the 2 detectives could see how frozen and forced his expression had gotten. Sitting heavily at the bar he ordered a dirty martini. Grimacing at the names of the liqueurs in front of him. Too many memories. He never did like bars.
Shinichi took a sip of the martini and let out the sigh that had been building all night. Laughter from the group trickled over. A bright tendril of emotion snaking around his dark mood. He was happy for Ran, for Sera, for them. He just felt so alone in the face of it.
He was never alone until after Conan. Ran and him had always been together in an odd mix of friendship and romance. Circling each other but never truly meeting. After Conan the romance of it was crushed mercilessly under lies and deceit. The friendship took ages to heal properly. Now his one true place of warmth and comfort was getting married.
Speaking of people who had been circling each other. A presence took a set at his side. Shinichi could always feel him before seeing him.
“What are you doing here, KID?” Shinichi said not looking away from the glass in front of him.
“I wanted to check up on you. Make sure you aren't going to drown yourself in a martini.” Shinichi looked over at that. It wasn’t like KID to just say what he was doing or confirm his identity so soon. The man sitting next to him had reddish brown hair and a strong jaw line. The eyes that looked at him from the disguised face were all KID. Blue-purple even in the dim lighting. Worry shining through unmasked. Shinichi hated that expression on KID’s face.
“Don’t worry too hard or you might break something.” Shinichi said, trying to avoid the topic and lighten the worry in his eyes.
He both succeeded and failed because his expression was assuaged but he responded with, “It’s okay to feel odd right now, you know?”
“Is it? I don’t own Ran. She’s her own person. With her own life. I shouldn’t feel this way.” Shinichi said giving up on not having this conversation. He wanted to speak about it. To have someone tell him that his feelings were wrong or right.
“You may not own her but you shared your life with her. She was a lighthouse in your most trying moments. It makes sense it would be hard to see that change.”
“I wouldn’t call it a lighthouse more of a warm rock. A hidden place. A lighthouse is too guiding to describe what we had, too bright. A lighthouse would be more like…” Shinichi cut himself off abruptly, his eyes skittered over to KID. Suddenly and violently aware of his feelings, he said “I’m drunk, sorry for rambling.”
KID watched the expression change on Shinichi’s face, whatever he had just realized was important. “No, no, please continue. Who was like a lighthouse in your life?” He said hope flaring in his chest.
Shinichi stared at him clearly overthinking “I’m way too drunk for this conversation." He paused, then said in a whisper, “Maybe it's because I’m drunk, I can have it.” Determination and shyness creeping into his voice in equal measure. “It’s you. It’s always been you.” Shinichi put his head in his hands and groaned “I cannot believe I just realized I like you while sitting at a dingy bar mopping.” His head slipped further down his hands, “Then I had to confess in the worst manner ever.”
While this sequence happened KID’s eyebrows were rising, slowly creeping off of his forehead. Smile lighting on his face he started to laugh.
Shinichi groaned harder and looked at him starting, “KID-,”
KID put a finger to Shinichi’s lip and leaned in close to his ear whispering, “Kaito, Call me Kaito.”
Shinichi breathed out, his name falling from his lips like dew, “Kaito.”
“You and I have a lot to talk about, Shinichi.” Kaito captured one of Shinichi’s hands and brought it to his lips, kissing it. Shinichi rolled his eyes and used the hand that was by Kaito’s face to bring him closer for a real kiss. Their lips touched.
Loudly a cheer erupted from the group behind them. The wedding party was facing them and had been watching for some time. Kaito hopped off the bar stool bringing Shinichi with him. “I hope you don’t mind me stealing this for one night.” He said addressing the party in a very different voice from the one he was using before.
There was a wolf whistle and various “Take him.” “We don’t need him.”s yelled out as they left the bar.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Hattori, Ran, Sera, and Kazuha all sat around the kitchen table at Sera and Ran’s apartment. Sera's eyes drifted between each of them. Gravely she started to speak, “It has come to my attention that we may have unsealed a demon last month.”
Hattori nodded severely. “We had no idea this would happen.” Ran looked resigned.
Kazuha looked between all of them confused, “What happened exactly?”
Sera pursed her lips and said, “I have seen Kudo with no less than 10 different people this past month.”
“I counted 12.” Hattori said morosely. “There’s no guarantee that these are the same 10 people you saw.”
“He meets a lot of people for cases maybe you're getting confused.” Kazuha said, playing devil’s advocate.
“Does he often hold his clients hands and spirit them away to dark corners to…” Hattori threw his arms around trying to come up with a word, “canoodle!” he landed on.
“Maybe if we share what happened it will make more sense?” Ran said, trying to be rational.
They started describing each and every person they had seen him with.
“She was the same height as Kudo, blue-purple eyed, brown hair”
“He had to be over 50. I thought it was a client at first but then Kudo was groped and the man wasn’t kicked into smithereens.”
“Pink hair and the biggest chest you’ve ever seen!”
“...20 something, a scar running down the middle of his face.”
“...Bubbly personality, practically skipping as they walked.”
A cork board was dug out of a closet Sera started taking notes and pinning them to it. A pattern had started to form.
Most of them seemed to have blue-purple eyes. Over half were male and most of the females all had small chests. The same height or taller than Kudo. Bright teasing personalities.
“At least he has a type?” Kazuha said thoughtfully.
“Is he about to become a serial killer?” Sera said, concerned.
“There is no way he’s going to become a serial killer.” Ran said shutting that thought down.
“Maybe he’s just feeling himself out. He did spend a lot of time not dating?” Hattori added.
“If he was feeling himself out, wouldn’t the people be more varied?” Sera said back.
“Is he doing it for money?” Kazuha weakly said.
“That has the same issue.” Sera said back shaking her head.
“He also doesn’t need money that bad. His business is thriving and his parents have his back financially." Hattori added.
They got nowhere that night. Everyone went back home with more questions than answers. Sera surreptitiously was on the look out for disappearances centered around blue-purple eyes and 174cm.
~~~~~~~~~~
2 months later
The cork board had only grown. They added exactly what they had seen them do to make them think that they were dating. Any pictures they dared to take were also added. The pattern remained steady. People started to repeat. How was Kudo in this many relationships?
Hattori, Kazuha, Ran, and Sera had met up to add more to it. There was a meet up tonight here. They absolutely needed to hide the cork board before anyone else got there.
Sera sighed. “We should just move it into our room. No one should go there.”
Ran grimaced, “I don’t want to sleep next to Shinichi’s board of infidelity.”
“We could stuff it in the closet and cover it with a sheet.” Sera added.
“Fine! Do it! people are going to start showing up soon.”
In a team effort they got the board up stairs and into the closet with minimal papers falling off. Throwing a sheet over it, they called it done.
People had begun to arrive. Old high school friends and new college friends. All getting together to hopefully merge some friend groups and make meeting less of a hassle. Ran greeted Aoko as she came through the door followed closely by Hakuba. They had met in college and really hit it off.
Being basically the last person to arrive, Shinichi walked through the door with a man. Ran blinked as the entire content of the adultery board flew through her head. She was being introduced to Kuroba Kaito, magician extraordinaire. And the ideal victim type a voice that sounded like Sera whispered in her head.
But there was something odd. She shook her head and looked past the blue-purple eyes, same height as Shinichi, and excitable personality. She had met this person before. On a blimp, bathed in moonlight. All at once the last few months made sense. The people were all similar because it was the same person. Feeling immensely relieved she greeted him back and moved on.
Behind her Sera and Hattori were going through something very different. “Sera, Hattori, this is Kuroba Kaito. We’ve been dating for a bit now and I thought this get together was a good opportunity to introduce him.” Shinichi said, wondering how many times he was going to introduce Kaito today.
“When did you start dating?” Sera said probingly after introductions were over. Kaito had already wandered off seeing someone he knew.
“A little after the wedding.” Shinichi said, looking embarrassed. Hattori went pale. “I’ll finish catching up in a bit.” Shinichi went over to where Kaito was with Aoko.
After that interaction Sera and Hattori quickly left to discuss.
Kaito leaned over to Shinichi as he saw them leave together, “Are they…”
“They better not be. Both Kazuha and Ran will rip them apart.” Shinichi said back.
“Sera, shortly after the wedding.” Hattori said in absolute despair. “That’s like 40 people. At least.”
“It means something that he introduced this one, right?”
“What should we do? I saw him kissing someone yesterday!” Hattori was gripping his head.
“We have to confront him.” Sera said with absolute certainty. “If he has been cheating with god knows how many people. Kuroba needs to know.”
“That goes against bro code.” Hattori countered pitifully.
“That’s why we'll confront him. Maybe there’s something we don’t know. Maybe we can convince him to come clean.”
They left the kitchen scanning the room. Sera split off to see if Ran wanted to join. Hattori spotted Shinichi over with Hakuba. Rolling his eyes, of course he was getting along with Hakuba. He casually made his way across the room. Sera made her way to Shinichi from the other side.
Hattori made it there first. He clamped a hand down on Shinichi’s shoulder. “Hey, Kudo, We have to talk to you for a minute.” Hattori said, interrupting their conversation about Sherlock Holmes.
Shinichi looked up at him confused, “Can it wait? Hakuba was just say-.”
“Nope!” Sera said, clamping down on the other side. Her smile was sharp.
As Shinichi was frog marched out of the room Hattori caught the calculating look on Kaito’s face. Hattori thought to himself, ‘I really hope Shinichi doesn’t screw this up. This one has potential.’
It was silent in the group after Shinichi left, then Aoko said, “What do you think he did?”
“I don’t know.” Kaito said unsure if he should get involved.
Ran airily padded over to them. Settling beside Aoko. “You know,” She started clearly talking to Kaito, “I am still angry for what you did to me in that blimp.” Kaito opened his mouth to deny all involvement. Ran cut him off with a glare. “Shinichi is currently getting interrogated for something you caused. 2 detectives are currently needling your detective, who is horrible at lying, with evidence. You should figure out a good excuse if you don’t want found out.”
Kaito visibly paled and ran off toward the stairs.
Shinichi was terrified as he was manhandled up the steps and unceremoniously dumped on Sera’s bed. He became increasingly more concerned as Hattori locked the door behind them.
“What’s going on?” Shinichi said, eyes darting around the room.
“That’s what I want to know!” Hattori said, sounding frustrated.
Sera glared at Hattori then looked back at Shinichi, “We need to confront you about your apparent infidelity.”
“What are you talking about?” Shinichi said looking between them like he was missing something.
“Hattori, get the board out.” Sera said imposingly. Hattori grumbled behind her but moved into the closet.
As he was getting the board Sera continued, “You said that you had been dating Kuroba since shortly after the wedding. When exactly was that?”
“Um, the day after?” Shinichi said, still trying to figure out what was happening.
A huge board covered with a white cloth was wheeled out of the closet.
Hattori was carefully pulling the cloth off. “We have seen you with no less than 50 different people since the wedding.” The board was unveiled completely.
The board was littered with mostly hand written text profiling many different people. Dates were attached to all of them. Some of them had photos. A red string was running connecting people seemingly at random. There was an open space in the middle that all of the strings ran to. Only housing a question mark.
Shinichi felt a sinking feeling as he recognised Kaito’s disguises from the photos.
“Now you’ve come here today and introduced Kuroba! Stating that you have been dating him this entire time.” She gestured to the board. Shinichi cringed into himself.
On a roll she continued, “We have noticed a pattern in who you decide to take out. Young people with blue-purple eyes, 174 cm or taller, male or flat chested. Cheerful personality.” She began to list off what they have noticed. “Now you introduce Kuroba the quintessential victim.” She pulled out a photo of Kaito that was definitely taken less than 15 minutes ago. She pinned it directly over the question mark in the middle of the board.
“Another interesting thing is that we cannot find any of these people as if they just existed for one day just to date you then vanish. Or every single one of them is from out of town and have no online presence. This was so disconcerting that I honestly entertained that you were somehow--.”
“Sera!” Hattori said, cutting her off and speaking up. “That theory is too far and you know it!” She looked moderately cowed at the reminder. Hattori huffed, then said, “We just want to know what’s going on. You dating 50 people in the course of 3 months is very weird.”
The light flickered, turning too dark then far too bright. Blinking spots out of their eyes they heard an impressed whistle. Kaito was now standing in front of the cork board. “This is the best conspiracy board I’ve ever seen about me.” He was taking photos of it. “Shinichi look! They even have the 50 year old on here. You guys are good.” Kaito said appreciatively.
They were looking at him like he was a key piece of a mystery. A chill ran down his back. They were definitely Detectives. Sera’s eyes slide over to Hattori, “You locked the door?”
“Definitely” Hattori said without looking away from Kaito. “So, what’s the story?” Hattori said slowly. Clearly trying to get more information.
Feeling like a bug pinned to a board Kaito revealed none of that emotion and said, “I just like dressing up. It’s fun.”
The facts spun in Hattori’s head. A lock picking magician that likes to disguise as other people. Having spent a significantly longer time around Kaitou KID, Hattori sighed as he put it together. Then he grew frustrated, “You should have just told us! Months of wasted effort! Only you, Kudo, would end up dating Him.” He finished the statement with a finger jab at Kaito. “I’m going to go rejoin the party.” With that he spun around and left.
Sera was staring at them then said, “Well, this is frustrating. But it's relieving to know that you’re not a serial killer, Kudo. Now get out of my bedroom.” They scrambled out of the room.