Chapter 1 –Meeting (Officially)

Today had to be the once-every-three-months special surprise day the hosts held for their clients. Usually each host would have a booth of his own and serve their clients in their respective places. However on these special days, everyone mix and mingle with other clients and hosts. It was sort of like a garden party that had the theme of: the season, whatever holiday was closest to the date, or some random idea put forward by a host, staff or the owner.

The theme tonight was a ball party. White linen clothed tables surrounded by a few chairs were set in a sort of circle – leaving the centre of the big room/hall/auditorium empty. The clearing had lights above it, illuminating the dancers. It was a day where clients could invite some male friends to the party. Females and males (not just the hosts) would meet and ask for a dance. If things hit off well, the two previously strangers could become friends, possibly even more.

In Conan's opinion this was ridiculous. Since most of the clients who came to hosts clubs were single, this 'opportunity' would get them to meet a new male, one they had never met before and have a chance at getting together. Sure it was 'good' that the griping single ladies would socialise and talk with others, not just the hosts, but to Conan it looked like a 'break' for the hosts.

He was not one to believe in love at first sight after all. He believed it was absurd that people could truly fall in love with a stranger they met a few minutes ago, or only laid eyes upon.

Currently, Conan was observing the wide space while Ran and Sonoko were talking with one of the staff. For those who didn't come wearing a ball gown the club offered some decently designed ones for free as long as they got it back in the same condition it was handed out in. The same went for the males as well. Ran had wanted Conan to wear a suit, and surprisingly there were some that were his size, but he stalled for as long as he could by saying he would get changed after she did.

Rich clients showed off their personally-made-for-them dresses that screamed 'SPOILT, WEALTHY DAUGHTERS'. Thankfully, there weren't too many of those types around.

Admission into the club tonight closed at 5:40pm – they didn't want the hall to be crowded, after all. Sonoko, Ran and Conan had entered at around 5:20 and were given the menu of the hosts containing a picture and a profile on the age, hobby and personalities of each host. Sonoko had been giving advice to Ran on which host to become a client of the next time they came. Conan had seen the two of them be surprised by most of the profiles – from what he could gather; they were mostly people they knew.

There was one profile that had stood out the most to both Ran and Sonoko. Sonoko immediately shouted as soon as they had turned the page: "This is where he's been this whole-!" when she froze. Both were girls were quiet for a second and looked at each other. Curious, Conan had asked Ran what was wrong.

When Ran showed him the profile picture, he had been at a loss for words.

The teen in the picture looked just like him!

…well, his teenage self anyway.

Sonoko then proceeded to drag Ran to the changing rooms muttering about how they were wasting time looking at the menu when they could just meet with all the hosts on special days like tonight. Ran called out to him, "Conan-kun, sit over there and wait for us alright?"

"Ok, Ran-neechan!" Conan answered and did as he was told, bringing the host menu with him.

Upon closer inspection of the doppelganger host, he noted there were subtle differences – 'Lupin' had indigo irises, his hair was messier and was of a slightly lighter shade, and his cheekbones were slightly lower than Shinichi's.

Still, to find someone who looked similar enough to pass as his twin was downright creepy.

A blue rose suddenly obscured his vision and startled Conan out of his thoughts.

"Welcome to L'Amour Club Cyprus, bouya. Are you here with your older sister?"

Speak of the devil – it was Lupin.

Conan gave the rose a disdainful glance before turning his head, ignoring the host who was kneeling on one knee in front of him.

"Did you know it's quite rude ignore people? Especially when you're offered a rose?"

Conan looked back at Lupin with a deadpan look on his face.

"Did you know a teenage male offering a seven year old boy a rose makes you look like a paedophile? Especially when you're on your knees, taking the pose of a proposer?"

He watched as Lupin clutched his chest where his heart was, face morphing into one of mock hurt. "How mean! I'm not a paedophile, I'm an awesome magician! And here I was going to show you magic!"

The two stayed still, as if someone had pressed the pause button. Conan was waiting for the other to either say something else or lose interest and leave, but it seemed as if Lupin wanted him to talk.

Conan sighed. "Magic? Can you do real magic, Mr. Magician?" he asked, looking unconvinced.

Lupin grinned at him, stood up and pulled a chair close so he could sit next to Conan. "Of course I can!" he exclaimed as he raised the rose that Conan had refused and held it with both hands. Lupin twirled his hands, closed them into a fist, then opened them, and proceeded to show his empty hands to Conan. "See? The rose disappeared into thin air. No one can do that unless they can do magic!" he exclaimed, confident the boy wouldn't know where the rose was now.

Conan once again deadpanned at him.

Confused by the non-existent look of wonder kids should have when an object 'magically' vanishes in front of them, Lupin was surprised when he heard the next three words along with the action that accompanied it.

"Sleight of hand."

Conan had produced a blue rose from 'thin air' with some improvisation.

To say he was surprised was an understatement. Tantei-kun had not only known how he made the rose disappear (well, he was smart enough to rival Kaitou KID) but Kaito didn't notice when Conan had pick-pocketed him.

Knowing that a person used sleight of hand didn't mean you knew where they put the 'vanished' object after all.

Then again, this was Tantei-kun, a detective, so he probably deduced where Kaito had pocketed the rose. Either that or his sharp eyes had seen where Kaito put the rose.

But that didn't explain how Conan had stolen the flower out of his pocket without him noticing – the boy had just pick-pocketed Kaitou KID!

Adding to that, he had also used the same trick Kaito used in reverse. Critics were meant to unravel all the mysteries and tricks, not copy them!

Also, not only had Tantei-kun copied his trick, he had added in some makeshift confetti out of shredded paper napkins.

Glancing at the table next to them, he realised the paper napkin that was there a minute ago was gone.

"Why so surprised, Lupin-san?"

Focusing his attention back on the miniature detective, he saw the smug grin on the boy's face.

Poker face, Poker face… Why did he let his Poker face slip, even if it was only slightly?

Grinning and ruffling Tantei-kun's hair he said, "I'm amazed you know how to do sleight of hand, bouya."

Reeling away from him Tantei-kun replied, "It's one of the few tricks I can do without having to practice. After all I learnt it from my father's friend who was one of the best magicians ever." At this point the little boy spread his arms out wide with sparkling eyes.

Why's he suddenly acting so differently…?

A familiar feminine voice rang out from behind him. "Conan-kun!"

Ah, so that's why.

"Oh, so your name is Conan?" Kaito kept his 'I-don't-know-who-you-are' act up.

"Yes, it is. I'm supposing I shouldn't ask you for your real name since it would defeat the purpose of having an alias?"

"Precisely." Was it normal for a 7 year old to be this smart? He'd been asking himself this ever since he first met the boy on the roof with homemade fireworks as Kaitou KID. Wait, actually he had begun to ponder seriously from when Tantei-kun uncovered his disguise as Mouri Ran on the Black Star heist.

"Conan-kun, let's go get you a suit!"

Now that he met Tantei-kun as a civilian, perhaps he could work on the mysterious puzzle called Edogawa Conan.

Conan abruptly put on his 'innocent little boy' act as soon as he caught sight of Ran walking towards him.

Why wasn't he acting like a normal kid around Lupin, anyway? He always put on the act unless he was alone with Agasa-hakase, Haibara or Hattori… oh, and Kaitou KID as well.

But for him to forget about it in front of some complete stranger…maybe he was beginning to feel a little too safe to remember to keep 'Kudou Shinichi' under pad lock and key.

Ran came up to him, outstretching her hand. "Conan-kun, let's go get you a suit!"

"Yes, Ran-neechan," he reluctantly replied.

She looked stunning in the crimson dress that flowed around her, complimented by white gloves that came up to her elbow. She now had a matching crimson butterfly ribbon on the back of her head along with ruby earrings on her ears.

Sonoko came up beside Ran, wearing a dress similar to Ran's, only yellow in colour. They had decided to go for a twin look it seemed, the only major difference being that instead of a butterfly ribbon, Sonoko had a replaced her headband for one that was matching in colour to her dress.

"Welcome to L'Amour Club Cyprus," said Lupin as he once again 'magically' made two roses appear in his hand.

Of course, the magician host had to greet the two girls with a rose each.

Conan watched as Lupin gave the red one to Ran, and a yellow one to Sonoko.

A red rose meant love, unity, passion, admiration and beauty. A yellow rose meant friendship, joy, gladness, freedom.

Did Lupin know the meaning behind the colour of roses he gave? Or was it just to go with the colour of their dresses?

Then what about his blue rose? It was 'blue' only in name – its colour was closer to purple, like lavender, than a shade of blue.

Blue roses meant gentility, elegance, uniqueness, enchantment and love at first sight.

He only met the host today, so Lupin didn't, shouldn't, know him. It definitely couldn't be love at first sight since he was a 'child'.

This led Conan to deduce that the roses were given to match their outfits' colour.

He was wearing a dark blue denim jacket, after all.

While Conan was thinking of the intention behind the differing colours of the roses, Ran and Sonoko were entertained by Lupin and his magic tricks.

Until Ran caught sight of Conan still in his casual clothes.

"Oh, Conan-kun! We should get you a suit now! The party's officially going to start soon!"

Seeing the flustered Ran, Lupin chuckled.

"It's alright, ojou-san. You needn't to worry."

With a snap of his fingers, Conan found himself surrounded by pink gas.

Pink gas? Where had he seen it before…?

When the gas cleared, Ran and Sonoko were looking at him in wonder.

What...?

Looking down at his body, Conan saw that he now wore a dark blue suit, near black. He was also wearing shiny polished dress shoes.

How did Lupin know what size clothes and shoes he wore?

That was just plain creepy and Conan shuddered at the sudden chills he felt going down his spine.

And not to mention that Lupin had basically dressed him AFTER removing the clothes he was wearing – which were now in Lupin's hands – in the span of a few seconds at most.

"Wow, Lupin-san! That was amazing!" squealed Sonoko.

"How…?" started Ran.

Lupin put a finger to his lips, shushing Ran while grinning. "A magician never reveals his secrets~"

Seeing a pair of glasses perched on the top of the pile of clothes, Conan immediately smacked his face, hoping the glasses there weren't his.

Unfortunately, it was.

"Conan-kun?"

Looking up at Ran, he assured her nothing was wrong and that a mosquito was on his face when he spotted a certain someone on the other side of the room.

He barely registered Ran, Sonoko and Lupin cringing slightly as a manic, predatory grin appeared on his face.

"Ran-neechan? I'll be back real quick~"

"O-Okay."

The three teenagers followed Conan with their eyes, watching him beeline towards two familiar, arguing males.

Conan snuck up behind one of them.

Wanting to know what the boy would do, the trio walked close enough so as to hear and observe the unfolding scene.

Good thing they did otherwise they wouldn't have heard what the boy said.

"Heiji-niichan~? I thought you had to work tonight? What are you doing at a host club?"

Or perhaps it was bad – the voice dripping with child-like innocence made them cringe even more.

Heiji spun around, eyes wide. Upon noticing the small figure leering at him, he freaked.

"KU-K-C-CONAN?!"

TBC

So what do you think? Should I continue this story?