Work Text:
“Hey, Shinichi.”
“Shinichi.” Shinichi felt a poke on his check. He only shifted around in his favorite chair in the library.
“Heyyyyyyyyyyyy, Shinichiiiiiiiii.”
With a huff, said boy sent down his novel,he was rereading A Study in Scarlet for the upteenth time, and turned to look at the nusiance. Kuroba Kaito had been bothering him even though he knew this was precious down time for Shinichi.
“What Kaito?” His tone was clearly exasperated; however, it didn’t seem to deter the other boys always cheerful demeanor, in fact, Shinichi’s weariness to his antics seemed to only make Kaito happier.
“Have you ever seen a magician pull a rabbit out of a hat?” Kaito’s lips quirked from a pleased expression into something one could only describe as a knowing smirk.
“What?” Shinichi’s own expression had been clouded with confusion as that was one thing he hadn’t expected the magician to ask, to watch a trick, maybe, but certainly not about whether he had ever seen a certain trick before. He thought over it, trying to remember what little magic shows he had ever seen, mostly cheap ones for kids’ birthdays or even the one he had seen when he was a child, the first time, though the second had been remedied some time ago after the fall of the Black Org., when he saw Kuroba Toichi perform after his family had been personally invited by the magician. “I don’t suppose I have, why?”
“Well, it’s a cliche, isn't it?” Shinichi only nodded in response and Kaito continued, “I grew up surrounded by magic and even I have never seen a magician pull a live rabbit out of a hat.” Shinichi’s eyebrows shot up in surprise, Kaito, self titled ‘Magician Extraordinaire’ had never seen a rabbit come out of a hat. Noticing his surprise, Kaito chuckled a little, “I mean, I’ve seen my dad make doves appear out of a hat and even other magicians pull stuffed rabbits out, but never a live, real rabbit.Odd, isn’t it?”
“I guess.” Shinichi mumbled,” So, does that mean I get to see it happen right now?” He quirked an eyebrow at the magician who was still draping himself over the side of Shinichi’s chair, although the magician had jumped to his feet soon after Shinichi’s question had left his lips.
“Bingo~ That’s why you’re my favorite, Meitantei, you always know what I’m thinking!” He moved to stand directly in front of Shinichi’s chair while Shinichi, secretly amused, stared dead-faced at the quirky look alike. He knew what he had induced from the magician, but he didn’t mind since the tricks were always entertaining. “My dearest gentleman!” Kaito gave a bow and a wink at Shinichi, who only rolled his eyes in response. “ I will know perform a most amazing feat, the likes of which I know you have never seen before!” An even harder eye roll escaped from Shinichi almost unconsciously.
“I just told you I hadn’t seen anyone pull a rabbit out of a hat before, you aren’t allowed to ham it up.”
“Tantei-kun!” Kaito huffed childishly, “You have to let me have my fun!”
“Fine, fine.” Shinichi relented, which returned Kaito’s smug look.
“Now then, for my first-!” Kaito started.
“And only” Shinichi interjected.
“-trick!” Kaito finished with an annoyed look at Shinichi. “I will pull a rabbit from a hat!” With that said, Kaito pulled a white top hat out of nowhere. ‘ Scratch that ’ Shinichi thought, ‘ That’s KID’s “Silk designer hat”’ and he made a mental note to tease Kaito about it later but for now….
“Do you just carry that with you?” Kaito laughed.
“Of course I do, tantei-kun. What if I need to be mysterious? Or need something to pull a rabbit from?” Cue another eye roll from Shinichi, but he made no further comments.
“Now then.” Kaito started again, “ As you can see, I am holding a perfectly normal hat-” Shinichi scoffed, the day KID’s hat is normal is the day Shinichi retires, but didn’t comment. “With absolutely no slits or a false top.” To prove his point, Kaito crushed the top of the hat down and pushed it back up from the inside. “ And now,” Kaito faced the open end of the hat at Shinichi so he could see there wasn’t anything inside, “ I will pull an extremely adorable creature from this hat!” With a flourish, Kaito made an extremely clichéd magic wand, one found in a child’s magic kit, appear in his hand.
“I could see that up your sleeve you know.”
“Not the point Meitantei.” Kaito didn’t even falter in his act, giving Shinichi a comment that was meant to be sound irked, but it was presented in a cheerful, showman’s tone. Amused, Shinichi smiled and remained quiet. “Now, if there’s no more interruptions from the audience,” A glare at Shinichi, his only audience, “ Kaito held the hat up with a flourish, circled the brim with an “Abracadabra!” and tapped the brim a couple times. To Shinichi’s amazement, nothing happened.
“Wow. I’m sooooo impressed.” Shinichi revealed none of his actual amusement to the magician’s failed trick. Kaito let out a disappointed noise and sent another glare towards Shinichi for his sarcastic comment.
“This worked before...Oh!” Shinichi started at the magician’s loud exclamation. “I do believe there was something I missed preparing the trick, how silly of me!” Kaito was obviously trying to look like he had made an innocent mistake, but his poker face was cracking, Shinichi saw him smirk, most definitely a KID smirk. Shinichi made a noncommittal smirk to humor him. “Silly me forgot to acquire an assistant!” ‘ Oh no ’ was Shinichi’s only thought before Kaito pulled him from his chair. “I’m so glad I had such an excited volunteer from the audience.”
Shinichi, obviously not happy and still the only member of the audience gave an unamused, “Happy to help.”
“Of course you’re happy to help, otherwise you wouldn’t have been chosen!” Shinichi thought best not to reply. “ Now then, with the help of my lovely assistant,” Shinichi scoffed, “ I will finally pull a rabbit from a hat.”
“Took you long enough.”
“Now,” Shinichi had been ignored, “ If you would please hold my hat.” Kaito offered the top hat to him, but Shinichi didn’t grab it immediately, he paused long enough to grab Kaito’s attention before taking it from him. “What, Tantei-kun? Afraid of my hat?”
“No, just thinking about how I have just been handed incriminating evidence from Kaitou KID himself, and how I could just take this to Nakamori-keibu and have you arrested.” It was Shinichi’s turn to smirk as Kaito took on an expression of exaggerated horror.
“You wouldn’t! Oh, how it feels to be betrayed by the one closest to you!” Kaito threw a dramatic hand to his forehead looking distressed and betrayed.
“I said I was thinking, not doing.” His joke had backfired, as after his dramatics, the thief had ‘fainted’ into Shinichi’s arms, which were already busy holding the ‘incriminating evidence in his hands. Kaito chuckled and stood back up.
“I didn’t know you cared that much, Meitantei! Hakuba would’ve already cuffed me!” Kaito wiped imaginary dust off of his pants and straightened up.
“You would never walk into Hakuba’s house and demand to show him a magic trick.” Kaito narrowed his eyes.
“Touché, Meitantei, touché.” He immediately jumped back into his performer’s demeanor with, “Well now, since that debacles settled, let’s continue with the trick!” Shinichi smiled and let the other continue to rest of the imaginary audience. “Now, with my assistant holding the hat, I will finish my trick.” Again, Kaito circled the brim, but instead of his ‘Abracadabra’ he asked, “Shinichi, will you say the magic words for me?” Shinichi’s smirk returned.
“Holmes is better than Lupin.” Kaito looked agitated, but didn’t correct him, letting the detective have his fun, he was, after all, complying with his forced position of magician’s assistant. He tapped the brim of the hat, holding eye contact with Shinichi.
“And voila!” the magician exclaimed. Shinichi looked down, expecting to find another empty but was genuinely shocked to find a small white and black spotted rabbit sitting in the hat. The creature was clearly a real rabbit, as it was moving around in the small confines of the top hat.
“How in the world? It would have been impossible to keep a rabbit, even one as small as this one hidden like that.”
“Tut tut, tantei-kun!” Kaito was waving the wand in front of his face instead of his finger. “You should know by now that a magician never reveals his secrets!” Shinichi, however, wasn’t listening as he was much more interested in deducing where Kaito could have kept the rabbit. ‘ It would have had to have been on his person’ Shinichi thought ‘There was absolutely no other opportunity to retrieve the rabbit from elsewhere.’ Kaito knew a deduction face when he saw one, he didn’t spend all that time with Shinichi taking down the Black Org. and learn nothing about the detective’s habits after all, so he resigned himself to waiting for Shinichi to return to the mortal plain of existence.
“I have absolutely no idea how you did that.” Shinichi finally mumbled after about 5 minutes of dead silence, in fact, Shinichi had been so absorbed in deducing the trick that he hadn’t noticed Kaito removing the rabbit from the hat and sit down with it in Shinichi’s previously occupied chair.
“Really?” As Shinichi turned to face the magician he watched the other’s face light up in pure joy. “You seriously have no clue? For real?” The thief’s face only brighter as he registered the fact that his great detective couldn’t deduce how he pulled a rabbit from a hat. Shinichi sighed in defeat.
“Really, I honestly have no clue, but then again, I have no drive to seriously figure out how you did it.” There was that smirk again.
“Well, that’s good enough for me.” Kaito wouldn’t let the detective’s smugness blanket the fact he had admitted defeat. He continued to stroke the rabbit with a pleased expression as Shinichi knelt down in front chair to pet the rabbit as well.
“So,” Shinichi started, “are you going to keep it?” Kaito looked up, confused.
“What do you mean?”
“The rabbit, are you going to keep it? I know for a fact you didn’t own a pet rabbit before this.”
“Oh…” Kaito diverted eye contact, looking instead at a completely uninteresting bookcase like it held the answers to life’s greatest questions.
“Please don’t tell me you decided to buy a rabbit purely to impress me with a magic trick.”
“...Did it work?” Kaito shyly looked back at Shinichi. Embarrassed, it was Shinichi’s turn to look at the bookcase, his face flushing.
“Maybe.” Kaito’s smugness returned as he heard Shinichi’s soft reply.
“See, then it doesn’t matter that I bought a rabbit purely to impress you with a magic trick!”
“Kaito!” Shinichi turned back to face the magician, all traces of embarrassment gone. “You know you’re going to have to keep it now, you subjugated the poor thing to one of your tricks, that’s the least you could do.” Kaito looked thoughtful for a moment.
“Or…. Aoko could receive a very early birthday present.”
“I can’t believe you.” Shinichi let out a sigh.
“So you wanna give the rabbit to Aoko?”
“Yeah, we’re going to give the rabbit to Aoko.” Kaito gave a genuine smile and leaned over the small creature to give Shinichi a peck on the nose.
“You always go along with my crazy schemes, I knew there had to be a reason I love you.” Shinichi smirked at him.
“Are you sure it isn’t because I helped you pull off those heists to take down the Black Org.?”
“See?” Kaito replied, “Crazy schemes!” Shinichi laughed and leaned in to give Kaito a small, chaste kiss.
“Sure, taking down a very large, very dangerous crime syndicate through careful planning was a crazy scheme, now you want to go surprise Aoko?” Kaito laughed.
“I would love too.”