Prompt: "Shinichi needs to learn how to expertly disguise himself for a case and asks his mother, who is too busy... (We all know that there are very few people skilled enough to create perfect disguises... Vermouth is obviously not an option...) anyway... Yuusaku overhears and reminds his wife of her teacher's legacy, and maybe toichi's son could help? (he thinks it's extremely amusing as well as ironic to push shinichi towards kaito because I'm sure he KNOWS... ) ... So shinichi ends up seeking out kaito and recognising him on sight- because of the time kaito disguised himself as shinichi... But lack of concrete proof and the urgency of his need force him to ask for lessons in exchange for not using this avenue to expose Kaito (heists are fair game)...

"Well... Something like that but now I think it would be less cliched if the BO had not been defeated, so his need to learn how to disguise himself is born out of the urgency to conceal himself from the public eye and the Organisation..."

Requestor: iluvstorys

Pairing: pre-Shinichi x Kaito

Note(s): Like Suzanne's request (Requiem), this is one of another one of those fics that would be excellent as a chapter fic, so if any of you are interested, please take it up! I'm sure iluvstorys won't mind! (Right…?)

EDIT (9/29/14): This fic has been officially adopted by Mikauzoran. Yay~!

Behind the Mask

The only thing worse than returning and finding his life in shambles was that Shinichi couldn't exactly leave the house on a daily basis.

He ran a hand through his hair, staring at his reflection – the ten-years-older version, thankfully. He didn't look that distinctive, right? Maybe?

…Who was he kidding? With the way his face had been plastered at every street corner before his disappearance, Shinichi had barely been able to make it from the professor's house back to his own after he'd taken the antidote. And that had been at three a.m. in the morning, wearing a scarf and sunglasses. That pedestrian was probably still rather confused as to whether she'd really just met a Kudou Shinichi lookalike.

"Shin-chan," called a voice from behind him, and Shinichi turned away from the bathroom mirror to find his mother standing in the doorway, watching him with eyebrows raised.

"Hey, Mom," Shinichi muttered.

"Going a bit crazy, aren't we?" Yukiko smiled knowingly. "Do you think it might've been better to take down that organization before taking the antidote so this didn't have to happen?"

"I guess, maybe. But Conan's body had too many restraints." Shinichi sighed heavily. "It's just sort of annoying that even though I have my body back, I can't even leave the house. And I heard from Takagi that they've run into a difficult case down at headquarters. They need someone to infiltrate a club that's been suspected of drug trafficking, but since the owner is a former police officer and knows all the police officers' faces, they're having difficulties. It's something I wish I could do, but with this face, I can't exactly help out."

"That's true," Yukiko hummed, offering a grin. She twirled a finger through the air, straightening her scarf. "Well, Yuusaku and I are off to Paris now, so you might want to go to the professor's tonight."

Shinichi cast a tortured look in her direction. "Why do you have to go to that reunion? You just got here, like, last night."

"I haven't seen any of my former costars in a long time, Shin-chan!" Yukiko squawked, waving a hand at him. "And I just wanted to see you before we went off!" She blew him a kiss, one that Shinichi leveled a blank glare at.

"Yukiko? Are you ready? Where are you?" Yuusaku's voice floated from down the hall, and Yukiko jumped.

"I'm in the bathroom with Shin-chan, love!" she called, and winked at Shinichi.

Yuusaku appeared in the doorway, settling an arm around his wife. "So, still having fun in the new body, Shinichi?" he asked, smiling.

Scowling, Shinichi leaned against the sink. "I might be, if I could actually leave the house. The people who shrank me are still out there, you know."

"Hm." Yuusaku frowned, reaching up to rub his chin thoughtfully. A thought seemed to occur to him, and he grinned. "Why don't you have your mother teach you how to disguise?"

"Wh~at? But Yuusaku, we were going to the conference!" Yukiko whined, turning a pleading look on her husband.

"Come now, Yukiko, our son needs you…" But the way Yuusaku was blinking meant that he was a few seconds from crumbling, and Shinichi heaved an internal sigh.

"No, he doesn't! I'm sure he can wait till we get back! The conference is only for two weeks!"

"But two weeks…"

With a groan, Shinichi flapped a hand dismissively at them. "That's okay. I don't want to get in the way of your plans. You guys can go. Maybe Haibara will have some ideas." He blew out a breath.

"Aw, Shin-chan!" Yukiko rushed across the bathroom to hug him tightly, much to Shinichi's displeasure and "Hey, get off! Mom!"

"But still, I think it's something you might want to learn…" There was a calculating gleam to Yuusaku's eyes as he studied Shinichi. "Oh, Yukiko?"

"Yes?" Yukiko glanced over from where she appeared to be trying to suffocate Shinichi with her shoulder.

"What about Toichi?"

Releasing Shinichi (who gasped for air dramatically and clutched at the sink), Yukiko thought about it. "He did teach me how to disguise…" An uneasy frown stole her face. "But Yuusaku, you know he's…"

"Of course I know," Yuusaku agreed with a soft sigh. "But he had a son, didn't he? Kaito-kun, wasn't it?"

"Right!" Yukiko clapped, her usual cheer restored instantaneously. Shinichi marveled at that. "Kai-chan! He just like his father, really – he gave me a rose the first time we met and everything! I'm sure he's become a magician, following in his father's footsteps."

"Which means he might know how to do disguises, right?" Yuusaku smiled at his son. "So maybe he can teach you how to disguise, Shinichi. I'm sure if you ask him, he'll say yes."

"Really?" Frowning, Shinichi paused to think about it. Well, he doubted he'd lose anything from trying, so maybe… "But we haven't been in contact with him for a long time, have we?"

"Not since you were in elementary school," Yuusaku admitted with a shrug. "But we have we got to lose, anyway?"

"Nothing, really. Although if he lets it slip that he's seen Kudou Shinichi, that might be bad for him."

"Oh, I'm sure that if he's anything like his father, he'll be able to keep a secret."

There was definitely an underlying meaning to that, Shinichi decided, but his father's eyes and smug smirk told nothing.

Yukiko, who seemed to have realized something while her husband and son had been talking, giggled. She pranced back across the bathroom to nudge Yuusaku with her elbow. "Hey, since, you know, Toichi-kun is gone, do you think Kai-chan is moonlighting as that person now?"

"Of course he is. Who else could it be?" Yuusaku's smirk seemed to grow at the corners.

Moonlighting? Shinichi frowned. That was a rather strange choice of words, wasn't it? "Moonlighting as who?"

Eyes sparkling, Yukiko began, "As K –"

Yuusaku calmly covered her mouth, ignoring her muffled protests. "It's nothing," he reassured his son, very unreassuringly. He glanced down at his watch. "We've got to go, or we'll miss our flight. But we'll send you Kaito-kun's contact information, and you can arrange some kind of meeting." He grinned, suspiciously excitedly, at Shinichi, fairly dragging his wife down the hall. "Bye, Shinichi!"

Something that sounded somewhat like "Bye, Shin-chan!" followed, and then the front door slammed shut.

Shinichi blinked and wondered what, exactly, had just happened.

Oh well, he thought as the phone in his pocket rang, and Shinichi pulled it out to find that his mother had already texted him Kuroba Kaito's contact information. He just needed to learn how to disguise, right?

Kaito stared at the man on his doorstep, suitably frozen in shock. Well.

When he'd gotten the texts from the unknown number asking to meet up with him, he'd expected either a psychotic stalker or a shy underclassman. (He doubted that Snake or any of his men would be kind enough to ask for permission before coming to his house to kill him.)

But seeing as he didn't really expect to have a stalker (after all, as Kuroba Kaito, he was just a random teenager), Kaito had agreed to meet up with the person. If it was a stalker, he had the police on speed dial, and he didn't really doubt that he could take them. And if it was a shy underclassman, well… he might have to tell her off, but it was better to do that than to lead her on, right?

So when he'd opened the door to Kudou Shinichi, he'd been… a little bit unprepared.

Kudou Shinichi himself seemed similarly unprepared. His lips parted. "Kid?"

And all Kaito could think was, I am so very, very screwed.

"So your parents sent you to me?" Kaito squeezed the bridge of his nose, trying to stem his growing headache.

He felt it was a reasonable reaction, considering that Kudou Shinichi, the original form of tantei-kun and possibly his most formidable rival, was sitting in his living room. Wearing jeans and a t-shirt. With a cup of tea in front of him.

This situation couldn't get more surreal.

"Yes." Shinichi was still eyeing him as if Kaito were an otter balancing a beach ball on his nose and singing "Happy Birthday" – somewhat suspiciously and somewhat disbelievingly. "Apparently they knew your dad, and he taught my mom how to do disguises. Which is what I need you to do for me, actually."

"Let me get this straight." Kaito swallowed. "You need me to teach you how to disguise yourself."

"Yes, actually." Shinichi blinked. "That is exactly what I need."

"You want me. To teach you."

"Yes."

"Me, a criminal. You, a detective."

Shinichi sighed exasperatedly. "For the last time, yes, that's what I need."

Kaito felt his headache grow exponentially. "You do realize that I'm the Kaitou Kid. And you know my civilian identity."

"Yes." Shinichi ran a hand through his hair. "I do know that, yes. But I'm out of options right now, and I mean…" His face twisted as if he were being forced to say something terrible. "I do… sort of trust you, you know?"

"Oh." Kaito didn't quite know what to say to that, but his heart did decide to melt a little at the sincerity in Shinichi's voice. "I… see."

"So the sooner that I could learn how to disguise, the better. The people who shrunk me are still at large, so I can't exactly parade around with this face." With a groan, Shinichi leaned back on the couch, letting his head fall.

"How did you get here?" Kaito frowned.

"Uh, with a scarf and sunglasses. And a lot of hair gel. Apparently the way my hair falls is kind of distinctive." Shinichi glanced at him. "So will you do it?"

"I will, sure," Kaito agreed with a shrug. What did he have to lose, really, if Shinichi didn't turn him in? "I mean, as much as you irritate me, I don't want you to die, after all."

"How touching."

"But won't getting from here back to Beika be hard?" Kaito asked. "I mean, I doubt I can teach you all the basics before you need to leave."

"I'll make do."

"Or…" Kaito bit his lip. "Or, I guess, you could just… stay here."

The look Shinichi shot him was undeniably surprised. "What?"

"We have a guest room and all. And it would be less dangerous, right?" Kaito plastered on a confident smirk. "Can't have you dying between lessons and all. It would only be until you mastered the disguises, so maybe just a week or so."

For some reason, that brought a smile to Shinichi's lips. "Okay," he agreed. "That sounds okay."

If this feels unfinished, it's because it is. And because it is very unfinished, I really, really hope someone will consider taking it up. This is a pretty interesting idea, in my opinion, and I'd definitely read it.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed, iluvstorys (and everyone else), and I'll be back with a Shinichi-and-Kaito-trade-places-during-a-heist fic in a couple of days! Love you! - Luna