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Kaito had to admit that he hadn't been his usual self, this heist. His tricks had held a sharper edge- more petty and vindictive than the usual smoke and glitter bombs. He had put the task force through the wringer, all in a misguided attempt to inflict one of his little pranks on the newly returned Detective of the East.
He shouldn't feel like this. Jealous. Bitter. Angry.
So what if Meitantei had sorted out his business with the men in black? That he had returned to his original body after a measly year and a half of meticulous countermeasures and subterfuge? That had been the goal, hadn't it?
Hell, he'd even assisted with the final takedown! Tantei-kun had asked for his help, and he had gladly played his part. It didn't matter that he was only one of many. That the shrunken genius had so many allies on his side. That even Tantei-kun's wayward parents had come home long enough to lend him their support and expertise.
Those were all good things.
The bad guys were behind bars. The remnants of the organization were being tracked by his allies and actively dismantled across the globe. The illustrious detective had managed to make his triumphant return- just in time for college entrance exams.
So why did it make him want to break something?
The rooftop door opened with a loud bang, announcing the detective's arrival. Kaito stood there, backlit against the waxing moon, taking in the other man's rather haggard appearance. His breathing was heavy, stilted after barrelling his way up six flights of stairs. His tousled hair was sticky with a mix of glitter spray and half-melted paper confetti.
A vicious smirk twitched on his lips before he smoothed it over with practiced grace. "Good evening, Meitantei. You look... tired."
Shinichi swallowed, wiping the sweat from his brow. "I could say the same for you, thief.”
'I could say the same for you, thief.'
KID didn't rise to the bait, if it was bait. He simply smiled his gentleman's smile, tossing the gem of the night to the detective. He was a little disappointed that he didn't fumble it at all.
"Tired? Moi? I assure you, I am quite energetic today," he answered, slamming all those vile emotions into the vault of his mind. No need for his greatest critic to see him crack. "Was my show not one of my best?"
Meitantei frowned, but he pocketed the gem like a good detective. His sharp eyes flashed in the night.
"That's not what I mean," he said and then, in a confusing motion, held out his hand. "Aren't you tired, KID? I know you're looking for something, something specific, something that has people shooting at you. Let me help."
KID's face went blank. “You think you have me all figured out."
Meitantei's reflexes were sharp, sharper than little Tantei-kun in a way Kaito hadn't thought possible—but KID was always faster. He knew the exact range on that little needle of his and the charge time for his soccer balls. With the wind in his favour, KID could be gliding off on the roof before Meitantei could reach for either.
But both Kaito and Shinichi knew that he wouldn't leave this little dance of detective and thief so soon.
Thief. Liar. Criminal.
That was what he still was. What he will forever be for as long as this vain search continued.
What he was damned to be by his birth and heritage.
Both of them were scarred by their double lives. Returning to who they once were was never an option. But Kudou Shinichi had gotten away with admitting to being little Edogawa Conan, he had a chance to rebuild what was lost. Nothing like the actual prison time awaiting Kuroba Kaito if he ever confessed to being Kaitou KID.
"You don't need to worry about your… uninvited regulars. Akai-san dealt with them."
When he wasn't fronting his Meitantei persona, Shinichi had a horrible poker face. The fondness was as blatant in his eyes as one of Tantei-han's cries of "Kudou!"
Yet Kaito felt cornered rather than comforted. "Didn't think detectives were in the business of colluding with thieves."
"We're more than that now, aren't we?”
Kaito licked his lips, eyes darting around in an attempt to take in every variable, every twitch and microexpression spelled out on the other's face. He'd mentioned Akai- that was the intimidating man who had masqueraded as a college student and threatened him in a bathroom stall once. A double agent and unparalleled sniper, if he remembered correctly. Which meant that he'd been telling the truth when he said Snake's men had been dealt with for the night. That meant he had no distractions for when he trained his sights on KID instead.
Looking to throw the detective off, he adopted an amused, flirtatious tone. “I mean, I thought you were too shy to mention that time on the airship but we’ve been past third base for a while now, haven't we?”
Predictably, the prim and proper detective immediately flushed an adorable red—almost as cute as teasing Tantei-kun about his neechan. "Y-you—!"
Kaito took a step back, closer to the edge of the roof. He could make his escape now but he was only human and Shinichi was too fun to tease, especially now all fully grown (a pitiful way of indulging in a fruit he could never eat —as if a detective and thief could go any further than this).
"Aww, your idol may be from the Victorian era but I didn't think that your sensibilities were stuck there as well."
The detective was more than flustered enough to create an opening. Kaito should have taken flight on his glider or at least thrown down a smoke bomb to ensure he would be pursued. But he paused. Hesitated.
(If the search never ended, things would only end with his death or arrest-that-was-as-good-as-death — and there was only one person he would ever hand himself over too.)
Kaito's hesitance was Shinichi's opportunity. Still beet red, he strode forward until they were within arms length. Not touching yet close enough for the detective to grab him if he chose to flee.
"Rich of you to be talking about bases since you've flung your underwear at me since day two." Shinichi glared at him with single fiery determination — icy blue eyes boring straight into his soul despite his luminescent blush.
The great detective who had gotten everything he had wanted. That Kaito wanted.
Shinichi stuck out his hand again, just a hairsbreadth from jabbing Kaito in the chest.
"Let me help," he repeated. "You don't have to do this alone."
The offer was tempting. With the man's global network, he could search for Pandora candidates at a monumental pace, even outsourcing some of it to others. He would be backed by actual agencies, no longer at risk of being thrown in jail before his task was completed. The likelihood of success in his endeavors- of rounding up his father's enemies and hanging up his cape for good- would increase exponentially.
But what about Pandora?
He wasn't stupid. Even with the revelation that true magic did exist in the world, he was fairly certain that finding the stone was impossible in his lifetime. His parents hadn't found it- even when his father had faked his death and gone underground. Honestly, finding the damned thing wasn't the problem- it was the fact that as long as people believed in the myth, people would go to any means to get their hands on it. Even if he did manage to find the true stone and destroy it, the myth would live on, regardless.
There was no end to this story.
"It's not that simple." He sighed, tugging the brim of his hat lower to hide his expression. "I'm not like you, Meitantei.”
"No. You're not."
The blunt response caught Kaito off guard — leaving him open for Shinichi to close the distance between them with three great strides. With Kaito's obvious hesitance, it would have been so easy for the detective to slap a pair of cuffs on him (not that they would hold him for long) — but instead he took Kaito's hands into his, cradling them as he would a skittish injured dove.
"KID was your choice where Conan wasn't mine—but walking willingly into a cage doesn't make you any less trapped." Shinichi's voice was steady and confident.
If Kaito was to boil down impersonating the detective to one word, it would be that—confidence that everything he spoke was the sole indefeasible truth.
“You sought answers and justice only to find a tangled web bigger than you could have imagined."
"You contradict yourself, Meitantei." Kaito said with faux bravado. What a weak man he was not to pull his hands away from such a gentle shackle. "Aren't you supposed to prove how we're different?"
But instead of getting miffed about his deduction being interrupted, Shinichi smirked. "And that is exactly where we're different. There are limits to what a child can do, so I was forced to reach out and seek help. Conan forced me to expand my network, to make connections that I never thought I would, to find friends that I didn't think I needed. But becoming KID… it forced you to isolate yourself. To cut off lifelong connections and become entirely self-reliant, waging a one-man war on two fronts because you couldn't risk the people you care about getting hurt."
He gave a sardonic laugh. "That doesn't work, you know."
Kaito gave a knowing grin. "Speaking from experience?"
He may not have witnessed the reveal, but Miss Mouri's presence at the takedown led by Conan said more than words ever could.
"Extensive." Shinichi said with a matching grin.
The thief's smile dimmed, not quite reaching his eyes. “Although help would undoubtedly make things easier, it's not the only issue. Your problem had a definitive end- once the baddies had been rounded up, it was over. Mine…”
He sighed, turning his gaze to the stars. “...Where do you even begin to neutralize something that lives on forever? Even if I do manage to find it and destroy it somehow, dismantle the ones looking for it with such ruthlessness, that's only temporary. The problem with myths is that they persist across time- in books, in murals, in vague references muttered from loose lips…”
KID shrugged, raising his hands as he shot the other a wry smile. “There is no end for me, Meitantei. Even the barest whisper would risk reigniting the conflict all over again, regardless of whether the true object exists or has been publicly destroyed.”
Shinichi didn't respond for a moment. The thief was right, of course. There was no end to people chasing myths, even if news spread of its destruction, there would always be one to disbelieve. There would always be at least one to still hunt for it.
At the same time, however...if the biggest threat were to be taken out…
"Be that as it may," Shinichi finally said, "...it's better to have someone by your side if that happens than alone, no? You don't have to fight all by yourself, KID.”
The magician swallowed. Part of him desperately wanted to take the offer. Having someone on his side, that he knew he worked well with and trusted to make the hard decisions in the face of adversity, could be nothing but a boon to him. He loved Jii like family and appreciated all that he'd done for him over the years, but sometimes the old man’s sentimentality clouded his judgement. If there ever came a time where he had to choose between Kaito and fulfilling the mission, he would undoubtedly freeze up long enough to render both choices void. Tantei-kun was similarly sentimental, but he had the cleverness and reaction time to act on it- often resulting in being able to save both.
He’d seen it in action several times- most recently during the takedown of that shady organization. When plans had gone awry, he had managed to rescue Miss Mouri while still mitigating the number of severe injuries among his varied allies. His one sacrifice- the research data and samples for the poison that had failed to kill him- had been retrieved by Kaito, instead. The man had been prepared to write it off, whatever the personal consequences of it might have been, in order to maximize success in other areas. Kaito wanted to reward that willingness for self-sacrifice, seeing so much of himself reflected in those determined eyes, so he'd taken a detour from his own mission to recover them.
He wondered if that was the reason for the offer now. Their relationship had always been one of give-and-take. Since he'd helped the detective with his foes, then he probably assumed that it was his turn to assist KID with his mission.
For some reason, that thought left him feeling a little empty.
“What happens if I agree?”
The hands around his tightened — like a tiger closing its jaws around its prey, like a drowning man desperately grasping for a lifeline.
"As much as you'll allow," Shinichi said, openly, earnestly yet as gentle as a still, small voice in the mountains—the truth didn't need any further spectacle. "Anything I can give to be by your side."
'What a horrible poker face,' was what Kaito didn't say between quietly frantic thoughts and the impulse to accept what he longed for.
He pulled together enough of KID to chuckle, "That's quite a proposal."
Shinichi ducked his head, a blush colouring his cheeks. "It could be. As much as you're willing to take, I'm willing to give."
Kaito laughed before the tears could form and fall. "That's too much licence for a detective to give a thief."
"That's not all we have to be, nor what we have to stay as." Shinichi gave a soft smirk. "Technically, it was Edogawa Conan who chased after a certain thief. Kudou Shinichi almost exclusively deals with homicide—which leaves him without prejudice if a particular magician decides to enter his life.”
“Ah, yes. How fortuitous that you don't carry a vendetta on behalf of your… cousin, was it?” He teased with a knowing wink, squeezing Shinichi's hands before tucking his own back into his pockets. “What would he say if he heard you now, offering the world to his destined rival?”
Shinichi mirrored his stance.
"He'd probably call me an idiot, but he would understand, I'm sure," he answered with a chuckle. The smirk blazed into a grin so fond it made Kaito's heart hurt. "He was rather fond of you too, after all.”
KID leaned back on his heels. “Fond, huh? I suppose that's a good place to start.”
He removed his hat with a flourish, bowing slightly and brandishing a small card with a phone number scrawled in turquoise ink. It was a burner phone, of course, but as much as he wanted to lean into this, he knew he had to be cautious.
“Let's see if you can keep up, detective.”
OMAKE
Deadman Walking: cute ♡＼(￣▽￣)／♡
Deadman Walking: snipers ( ╹ -╹)?
Chibi Tantei: sorry akai-san! forgot you were there
Chibi Tantei: and thanks! please leave them with megure-keibu
Chibi Tantei: hell brief nakamori-keibu after theyre processed
Chibi Tantei: hows work on the pardon
Chibi Tantei: ?
Deadman Walking: ദ്ദി・ᴗ・)✧
Deadman Walking: paperwork (；￣Д￣)
Deadman Walking: but progress (･ω<)☆
Saucy Ikemen: @Deadman Walking As expected from you meddling foreigners. And text properly! You are a grown man, not a teenage girl!
Saucy Ikemen: @Chibi Tantei We have good progress on our end. We have submitted our review to Interpol on the individual who is allegedly International Criminal 1412 and have found inconsistencies with the identification and attribution of crimes from a decade ago. His assistance during the BO Operation is highly favourable in distinguishing him as a separate individual. Thank you for providing that additional affidavit from your father as an expert on the original International Criminal 1412. You have truly been an asset to our nation and we are happy to provide this assistance in clearing the name of your key ally.
Chibi Tantei: thank you so much furuya-san!
Chibi Tantei: i very much appreciate both of your assistance on this matter
Deadman Walking: happy to wingman (･ω<)♡
Chibi Tantei: (//▽//)
Saucy Ikemen: @Deadman Walking Enough with your juvenile texting!
MagicK: WE HAD AN AUDIENCE?? (⸝⸝๑﹏๑⸝⸝)