(Important) Author's Ramble: This is a loosely based "Little Red Riding Hood" Modern AU. Kaito knows Shinichi is Christie, but doesn't know she has Pandora, while Shinichi suspects Kid might be looking for Pandora but doesn't initially know he's Kuroba Toichi's a.k.a. "Black Dove"'s son, and only finds out later.

Kaito did not understand what drew him to the flash of red that went by.

It was always a fleeting glimpse, perceived only from the corner of his eye, but for some reason he could not identify, he always kept his eyes on the bobbing blot of red just until it made its way across the crowd and out of sight enough that even if he craned his neck all he would see were heads and not hats.

Reaching the crossroads towards Ekoda High, an apple tree stood for as long as he had been a high school student, like a strong, silent guardian watching over the young students who came by its way.

In the sea of rushing students, the red-capped girl was hard to miss, like a drop of blood dissolving in a glass of ice water.

Other than her vibrant headwear, what he found peculiar about the girl was that instead of going along with the standard aursurration of students, pass the apple tree, towards the gates of Ekoda High, she went directly across his fellow schoolmates' flow, from the path immediately across the tree, towards it, sluicing between girls giggling about last night's comedy show or guys showing off their latest issue of "Kawaii Kuties" and either bragging how their girlfriend was "waaaaaay hotter" or blushingly fantasizing how they could have such a beauty to worship them.

The hatted girl was purposeful and intent to the point of appearing studious and responsible with her piles of Manila folders and black attaché case, but Kaito could only conclude that she was cutting classes.

Because for some reason, the red-capped girl in the blazer uniform that wasn't from Ekoda High always seemed to be heading to the commercial district instead of a school or any school for that matter.

But that was just it. The girl was just off and a little odd and Kaito liked how she didn't seem inclined to follow the rules (even if it was simple as what path she took), though she looked like someone who did.

The stranger was refreshing in the most innocent of ways and seeing her cherry-colored hat in the moving mass of the student body he bumped shoulders and rubbed elbows with every day, while talking to Aoko about the same, old things and being the bane of Hakuba's existence, gave him a sense of contentment and peace he never would have thought he would receive from the distant presence of someone he never knew who was just being a little more interesting than everyone else.

And Kaito would've gone on like that, hosting elaborate heists at the end of each month, going to class to learn things he already knew, alternately annoying and charming Aoko, further driving Hakuba to the brink of insanity, dealing with Akako's frustrated infatuation and being a general source of risk and reward…

… if the girl didn't went running at the sight of him.

Shinichi usually had a fairly good idea of what went on and how things worked in the world around her.

Rainbows were an effect of a refraction of light due to the moisture in the atmosphere.

Water turns into ice in a freezer because heat automatically travels to where there is a lesser concentration of heat thus lowering its temperature thereby bringing it to its freezing point.

The Sun is a constant chemical reaction of creating gases and burning gases.

People become killers when pushed to a certain limit; some closer than others.

And sometimes people do things they don't want to do but have to.

But what she could not possibly wrap her infinitely open and vast mind around was, how could Kaitou Kid be staring at her in a crowd full of people in Ekoda, of all places, when she was in the middle of investigating the more obscure members of the Black Organization?

And to those who questioned how she knew it was the notorious, flamboyant Magician Under the Moonlight watching her, well, let's just say their monthly moonlit rendezvous during her time as Edogawa Christie gave her the opportunity to conclude that only Kid could have such dark blue eyes so curiously streaked with violet.

Taking her trot to a sprint, she dodged prattling passersby, eying the large apple tree at the corner of the street.

All she needed was to get pass that point and she'd be safe in the bustling, buzzing hubbub of the metropolis.

She could lose him there.

From the very first morning some months ago when he had spotted Little Red Baseball Cap, as he had now dubbed her, he never had any intention or inclination to get to know her any better than the sparse knowledge he already had of her.

That she always left at the time he came to class.

That she always came from across the apple tree.

That she always headed to the commercial district.

That she always had a small stack of folders and papers in her arms and a black leather attaché case in hand.

And that she always wore that red Tokyo Spirits cap.

So just why he ditched chattering and bubbly Aoko, cryptic and smirking Akako, accusing and smug Hakuba and some of their other classmates and friends just when he was in the middle of his latest trick, with some half-assed excuse about some shitty thing, he did not nor did he care to know as ten seconds later he worked his way through the crowd, his head turning side to side, blinking rapidly and a little desperate for the blot of red.

The red that he did see was the bright rosy scarlet of ripe apples hanging from the tree at the corner, and it was as enlivening a sight as of an oasis in a desert.

Brushing past the tree, Shinichi released the breath she didn't even realize she held and heaved a deep sigh of relief.

In front of her lay a shorter road, less populated than the street she had just escaped from, but she could quickly transverse her way to the crosswalk at the end and hitch a ride on a bus back to Beika, just in time for school.

The irony of her being chased by the supposed civilian persona of Kaitou Kid in broad daylight as opposed to their standard standoffs under the full moon was not lost on her.

As to why she was an entire district away from Teitan High and why she was in Ekoda when she had lived in Beika all her life, even during her two-year "disappearance", it was becoming the norm for the past few weeks.

Being the prime investigator of a high-profile, internationally-renowned case had a tendency to mess with your life, especially if you are also the star witness.

After regaining her body a year ago, and having taken down the foremost threats to her life and the lives of her loved ones (namely Gin and Vodka; Vermouth had escaped and her whereabouts were still unknown) as well as other key members of the Black Organization and having spirited away tons of valuable and sensitive data (with the help of Haibara, Hattori, Hakase and some very close FBI friends), the Black Organization was on its knees. And they knew it was best to strike when the enemy was down.

Data taken from the Organization's computers showed a concentration of members in the Ekoda district who were supplied and invested in substantially.

Dubbed as the Supernatural Sciences Division, led by a member under the codename "Snake", and though the purpose of the subdivision was yet to be made clear, Shinichi took it upon herself to finish up the work there along with other nearby areas with suspicious records from the Organization's records.

Thing was, as her investigation went on, it became clearer that there was an even more unsettling network of people around Ekoda, with the Supernatural Sciences Division just the center of it.

A smaller organization within a larger one, like a bulging egg lodged within the cavity of the Black Organization, ready to burst its host apart.

Upon this discovery, several agents were sent to different towns and stationed there for the time being, along with Shinichi right at the black, corrupted heart of it.

The last thing Shinichi expected to see eight blocks from the safehouse she was renting was Kaitou Kid.

The blinking green streetlight was like a lighthouse's beacon, and the waiting shed with the bus stop sign appeared like the sign at the gate of Heaven's promised release.

Dread shrouded her when a quick succession of footsteps followed closely with her own.

Damn Hattori and his insistence I wear this idiotically conspicuous hat for "cover".

She ran.

Some people liked to tease that Kaito must've descended from a line of master thieves by the way he could creep up on his unwitting victim without them ever knowing until the fatal strike of colored dye seeps into their respectable hair color.

Little Red Baseball Cap was an exception.

She seemed to fly across the pedestrian lane and if he wasn't the Kaitou Kid, he would either have been too late to cross with his life and limbs intact or he would've been clipped in the rear end by the screeching midnight blue SUV that sped right after he stepped onto the pavement on the other side.

Little Red Baseball Cap took a sharp left turn, her black school shoes scuffing the pavement.

A fraction of a second too late, he saw her leap onto the stopping bus.

God or the universe or probability or whatever higher force or being that governed existence finally saw it fit to give Shinichi a bit of reprieve when a bus stopped just in front of her.

She jumped onto the bus stairs' first step, clambering up to the ledge as the door slowly slid shut behind her.

Kaito skidded to a halt as he watched the bus door close, only the back of a blue blazer, a cascade of raven feathers, and a suggestion of a red cap available to him through the blurry tempered glass.

Something tight and uncomfortable lumped in his throat if this was really the last time he would see that hat again.

The unfamiliar discomfort cloyed and oxygen seemed to have deserted him.

The few seconds it actually took for the schoolgirl to board and for the bus door to airshut shouldn't have felt like several lifetimes.

It was irrational, unexplainable and just damn freaky but the meaningless croaking he was making finally held a manic coherence when the knot stuffed in his larynx untangled itself and came out in a stringed cry even he thought had a mildly pleading edge to it.

"MISS!"

Shinichi was sure Kid knew it was her.

So, the generic call from behind her failed to raise her alarm and she turned to look at the person who could, logically, be calling out to her.

In Shinichi's defense, Kaitou Kid never sounded so panicked in all the time she chased him beneath the full moon.

If Kaito was honest, he would admit that the reason he never thought of talking to the somewhat interesting girl in the red hat was because she might be more mundane and ordinary close-up than she appeared to be faraway.

Large limpid lapuz lazuli eyes he thought he would never see again gaped at him.

Well, apparently Kid didn't know it was her until the moment she turned.

No confusion now.

Shinichi had to revise her previous statement. The only person who could have the same stormy sky eyes other than Kaitou Kid was Kid's civilian persona gawking at her.

The bus' sliding door let out a compressed puff of air as it closed with a brutal finality, the roving engine like a series of periods.

Kaito apologized silently to Aoko in his mind when he thought of her knocking on the door to his empty house the following morning.

The crossroads were sparsely peopled at such an early hour, most of Ekoda High's students just getting up or reaching for the snooze button on their alarms.

He leaned against the trunk of the apple tree, focused with the same singleminded determination he reserved for heists, escaping Aoko's mop-fu, and going head-to-head with Edogawa Christie, at the street immediately across it.

Edogawa Christie…

He winced at the name.

She was back, huh?

Warmth settled at the pit of his stomach, a calming weight that seemed to anchor him.

It was possible to win. Tantei-chan, alive and well and back, was proof.

And if she could do it, while in the body of a seven-year-old girl at that, then he could too.

It was possible.

He allowed himself a brief respite when he smiled small.

A figure came up in a mad dash.

The morning sunlight made the cleaver the man was holding gleam, blood dripping from it like pureed rubies.

Running into a murderer on the same morning she was trying to get ahead of Kid was exactly the kind of thing Shinichi's life was about.

She would've indulged in a little life-examination to figure out how the hell did her life come to resemble a bad cop drama cliché if she weren't a bit busy running after a probable killer.

She was walking down the normal route she took to the bus station pass the apple tree when someone blindsided her.

At first, Shinichi thought it was a normal guy in a hurry and wasn't too annoyed at his carelessness but the speeder was frantically scrambling the ground for something.

She saw the wet knife he clutched.

And the chase was on.

She ran her eyes over the ground they were covering, searching for a stone, a can, a stick, something anything she could kick at the possible murderer's head. She noted with disdain that the residents of Ekoda were conscientiously tidy.

She pounded against the gravel with more power, but an explosion of pink glitter ahead of her engulfed the man she was chasing, and once the smoke cleared, smack in the middle of the crossroads was the killer dressed in a purple bunny costume and tied up with silver ribbons, a large bow on top of his head.

Shinichi slid to a stop. She was in the same crossroads with the apple tree.

A few people clumped around them, attracted to the chaos, and Shinichi cuffed the subdued killer.

The bystanders chatted amongst themselves as if Shinichi and the unknown man were mere characters in a street play rather than human beings engaged in a life or death chase.

But she didn't pay any attention to the cheap entertainment these eavesdroppers demanded and moved to pluck a piece of notepad paper stuck onto the bow on the unconscious man's head.

It was a hastily scrawled Kid insignia.

Kaito had a perfect view from the higher branches of the apple tree to watch her control the crowd with an efficiency and grace befitting a seasoned monarch attending to her troubled citizens.

Police officers announced their arrival with sirens and lights, and Tantei-chan, the epitome of equanimity, led the officers back the way the knife-wielder had come.

She still wore her red Tokyo Spirits cap.

Students slowly began to congest the crosspath, a silent reminder that he still had his role as Kuroba Kaito to play, that the next act was about to begin and he'd better get into his position.

He followed Tantei-chan.

Leaping onto the concrete walls that separated one home from another, he landed unscathed in the garden of the apartment where men and women both in plainclothes and blue uniforms swarmed.

He squatted down and peered in one of the slightly opened windows.

The victim was Shiroyan Inoue, a young kindergarten schoolteacher. She just moved in a week or so ago.

The little apartment might have once been clean and organized, the walls pristine, and the dead woman appeared as though in life she was as vibrant and lively as any young woman at the beginning of her career.

Now, the place looked like it belonged to a homeless bum with no care nor concern for the place he inhabited, the walls would need a new paintjob since the blood might never fully wash out and the promising educator was nothing more than maggot food.

With evidence of humanity's messed up psyche shoved up her face, Tantei-chan was unwavering and stoic, graceful and elegant. She reminded Kaito of a waterlily blooming in a swamp, beauty in the midst of anarchy yet untouched by it.

She spoke softly, yet her words were dipped in the poison of unnerving cunning, and the man who was caught blood-red handed could not refute her reason much as he tried with his own convoluted story about stumbling over the scene and discovering the aftermath by accident.

The murderer was Igarashi Suu, the victim's old college classmate who was obsessed with the dead woman and stalked her during the days when she was still alive and breathing.

He had tracked Inoue down to her new apartment in a new town, hoping to finally confess his feelings from their university days now that he, as a promising computer engineer, had something of worth to provide her with.

Inoue had no anger for the man who creepily trailed after her without her knowledge,, and invited him within the confines of her own space for a snack and a chat, simply happy to see the familiar face of an old friend.

But Inoue did not accept his feelings and apologized for not knowing.

"There is someone else who needs my love more." Suu quoted from the dead teacher.

Her rejection angered him, and he came at her with the knife she had used to slice apples for him.

His blind rage and hurt subsided and when he came to, exhausted and disoriented, the body of his unrequited love and the blood that painted the room like an angry abstract mural gave him enough clarity and energy to run.

Which was when he rammed into the very same woman who would become his downfall before he even tried to build up an alibi.

"I didn't want to hurt her. I just… for so long… and she…" The coward fell to his knees at the detective's feet.

Kaito thought killing someone was a horrible act only to be done in the most extreme circumstances, but killing the person you supposedly loved and cared about was just plain stupid and, if possible, even more awful than a murder done for personal gain.

He couldn't comprehend hurting Shin-

She spoke again, still softly, but the calculation was replaced with an underlying compassion.

"She must've cared about you, at least a little."

The exposed murderer snapped his neck upwards at the girl's words.

"She really must have. She took your feelings into consideration, because she already knew that she would not be able to return what you felt for her the way you wanted her to."

The kneeling killer's face contorted in an atrociously malevolent way.

"Cared? Cared? How could you say she 'cared', huh? She was a teasing harlot who just wanted the attention! She had it, and flaunted it but wasn't goin' to give it! The damn harpy!" Suu screamed adamantly.

But Shinichi was unperturbed by the outburst, and simply took a step to the side but not in retreat, rather with purpose.

She took a framed photograph from the stained coffee table.

"She knew she would never be able to give her whole self to you. Because there was someone else who was more deserving of it."

The detective scrubbed the encrusted blood off the glass of the picture with the back of her right hand before handing it over to the suspect.

Kaito shifted to see.

"And if you truly did care for her as much as you believe you did, then you would understand. And perhaps, even accepted it."

It was the same platinum blonde kindergarten teacher, smiling warmly, her green eyes obviously blurry from tears, a small clothed bundle cradled in her arms.

The shackled man-bunny and their unknown observer wandered their eyes over the room.

On the walls were framed photographs of a wispy, fey child with silver-blonde hair. With bright blue eyes instead of deep green ones. Blood splattered over the glass like melted wax.

"There is no one more deserving of a woman's love than her own child."

The rabbit, the thief, and the officers gawked at the detective carrying a young girl in her arms, her delicate palms over the little one's eyes.

"Ne, Mira-chan, thank you for coming with me. I know you're a little scared right now, but I need you to go to the nice policewoman for now, okay?" Shinichi handed the small body to the approaching officer.

"Hai, Onee-san."

"Please make sure she doesn't look." She whispered into the officer's ear carefully.

When the girl was safely outside and away from her mother's mangled corpse, Shinichi turned her back on the front door.

Tantei-chan finally allowed a suggestion of emotion flicker in her eyes, the tips of her lips turning downward but not in disapproval, not in anger, not regret.

Kaito recognized the emotion. It was sadness.

She was sad for the killer, sad for the victim, sad for the child, sad for the entire situation.

And sad because her sympathy would not help anyone in any way, would not rewind time, would not give back the confused little girl's mother nor provide the sobbing man any reprieve.

But she could give Shiroyan Inoue justice and provide little Shiroyan Mira with peace when she finally realizes her loss.

And Shinichi decided that that would have to do.

"She said she hid in the closet after her mother screamed. When you left, Inoue-san with her last breath,told her to stay in the closet. She didn't see anything. You don't have to feel guilty for taking a child's innocence."

She hardened herself. "But you do have to take responsibility for taking her mother."

Kaito decided that such blue eyes should never be so knowing, so cold.

At least little Mira could keep her childhood for a while longer since the actual sight of her mother's body had been spared of her.

And if the world just had a knack of dragging little girls with big blue eyes through all the grime and mud and shit of the world, then he would keep Shinichi from it.

He would change the whole world if it meant she never got hurt again.

She learned to leave earlier.

By now, Shinichi knew Kid went by the same path she did.

She could have gone a different route by then, but after the "Immaculate Mother Case", and knowing he was there, just there…

She admitted there was something about him waiting for her that made her still want to take the same route, despite how foolish it was.

There was an unspoken understanding between them; it would seem, just like during her second childhood.

He learned to wait for her.

Kaito knew Tantei-chan walked by this street by now, so he hid in the lofty branches of the apple tree than at its base, watching the detective in the red cap walk by through the spaces between the clusters of leaves.

And every single time since, just as she walked past, she would turn around and face the rising sun, as if expecting someone to appear on the horizon.

She would take off her cap, like revealing a secret to a dear friend, and the morning breeze would tousle her loose raven-wings hair.

Then she would turn around again, towards the road that would lead to the metropolis, and raven wings would be drenched in red as she stuffed her long locks back into the hat.

It had slowly become a ritual between them.

But before she would go any farther, she'd give one sideways glance up the tree.

And when she was gone and Kaito had gotten down, as more and more of his schoolmates crowded around and away from him, it was enough until the next day.

No touching.

Not talking.

Just the displacement in the air when the other moved was enough.

Securing her cap, Shinichi hid a smile and continued her way to Beika where Jodie-sensei was waiting for her latest report on the Supernatural Sciences division, pretending she didn't know, pretending she didn't see, taking comfort from him just being there and staying there.

Low, soft music woke Haibara Ai up.

The bleary-eyed young prodigy slowly sat up as the notes played in the background.

Her lethargy dawned on her and she felt the tugging at the corners of her mouth. When once long ago she would have been up at the slightest rustle, the smallest creak, now she had unconsciously stored enough security to warrant her slow uptake, the energizing, exhausting fear had subsided.

Amazing Grace…

"Kudou-san, I hope you have a valid excuse for waking me up at four in the morning on a school day." She greeted the detective on the other end of the line.

"Gomen, Haibara, but it's really important."

"More important than your life if I don't make it to class due to your interruptions?" The shrunken scientist sighed with the faintest tinge of fondness.

This was the woman who had saved her life. One of her first real friends. A member of what she now considered as her own family, along with the kids and Agasa-hakase. The person who gave her hope and faith, and taught her the virtue of action over inaction, of fighting back, and looking up.

The girl she loved almost as much as she had loved Akemi-neesan.

"Oi, oi, don't blame it on me if you can't ace your exams whether I call in the middle of the night or not, Prodigy-san."

Haibara rolled her eyes at the detective's petulance. She could practically see Kudou's eyes narrow, her lips forming into a scowl as she hissed over the phone.

How could someone so intelligent be so childish?

"Whatever. I just needed to ask you something then you can go back to sleep if you want."

The nine-year old leaned back against her pillow.

"Ask away, then."

A brief silence came and went and Haibara could feel the shift to "Holmes" mode.

"Haibara… Do you know anything about a Black Organization member under the codename 'Black Dove'?"

Whatever sleep Haibara hoped to recover one the call was over was gone now.

"Kudou-san, what have you been up to?"

"Just answer me, onegai."

Haibara tucked her legs to herself, clutching the phone closer.

"Black Dove was a legend. A singularity."

"I thought dying as punishment for treason was a common occurrence?"

"You know more than I thought." Haibara stated before revealing the piece of information Shinichi needed to hear.

"He was a singularity and a legend not because he lived… It's because as to date, he is among the few who got his family out."

Tonight, he exchanged his gakuran for the white ensemble of his nighttime persona.

The heist ended flawlessly, every trap and trick triggered, the Scarlet Lock safely pocketed and the task force immobilized and left wondering why they purposely allow themselves to be humiliated every other week.

Kid held the gem to the sky like an offering, tilting it from side to side, allowing the white moonlight to streak through the cuts and lines of the jewel.

Nothing.

"It isn't this one, either." Kaito sighed deeply and plopped down onto the rooftop's ledge.

He had a few minutes to spare for a little breather. No one of any real skill or caliber was at the heist site tonight anyway and it would take some time before the officers managed to get out of the glue traps he had set up.

He was exhausted.

Kaito took off his top hat and laid it beside him.

He was so tired.

Burying his face into the crook of his white-clad elbow, he sighed and in that single breath allowed a sliver of grief out.

In another of their recently numerous role-exchanges, Shinichi hid behind the stairwell wall, watching Kid as he took off his hat.

Or rather the original Kid's son.

It had always been a possibility far back in Shinichi's mind. The eight-year disappearance, the sudden revival, the fact that Kid didn't seem to age a day from the last time he was seen, not to mention the cocky overconfidence endemic to only the special subspecies known as teenage boys.

Kuroba Toichi, also known as "Black Dove" of the Black Organization's Supernatural Sciences division.

Originally a simple magician just beginning to make a name for himself and carve out his place in showbusiness, he was recruited after an infamous thief by the name of "Phantom Lady" vanished from the criminality scene, and a new cocky crook in white now known far and wide as "Kaitou Kid" appeared, successfully redirecting the heat of the police force's fury.

The coincidence of one flamboyant fiend appearing after another left without a trace was too great to consider it as an actual result of chance. Kuroba Toichi created the criminal persona "Kaitou Kid" in order to take the pressure off of the missing Phantom Lady, but why he did so, Shinichi remained uncertain.

Yet whatever the reason may be, Toichi nonetheless caught the attention of the Black Organization's Supernatural Sciences Division, and they offered him a business proposition he would have to die to refuse.

It was simple work, and work he was already doing anyway, so if he was to be paid to steal certain jewels and gems then who was he to refuse?

Especially since he was, then, a mere stage performer with a wife and a child to provide for.

Shinichi sighed. Kuroba Kaito was fed, clothed and educated by the same people and the same money that made him fatherless. It was depressingly ironic.

And now here he was, continuing his father's unfinished mission, the fledgling dove unwittingly doing the Crows' bidding.

Judging from the Supernatural Sciences Division's records, Black Dove was one of their highest-ranking field agents.

The subdivision was created in order to pursue the "mythological, legendary, and epic".

The projects that fall beneath their department are those concerned with time travel, wormholes, astral projection, extraterrestrial contact and the like.

Aside from the seemingly-fictional scientific research done, they also hunted the most elusive and enchanted of treasures and relics, lost in time and to history.

Like the Fountain of Youth.

America's Book of Secrets.

And The Gem of Pandora.

Unlike the majority of the secret partition of the shady Black Organization, Black Dove utilized his infamy and flair for the dramatic to scope out Pandora, "the mystical jewel of everlasting life", under the guise of a common attention-seeking petty thief.

The high-pay and proverbial Sword of Damocles silently looming above his dear wife and beloved son's heads were what kept Toichi at their beck and call despite his growing anxiety and guilt at being one of the Crows who murder, pillage and plunder.

Toichi grew in power, money, and prominence in the eight years since he had been christened as the Black Organization's Black Dove.

He believed it was time to reveal the horrors of the Organization that had kept him and his family in their electrocuted golden cage.

The verdict was sentenced, and Black Dove's wings were not merely clipped but set ablaze.

Did Kid- Kaito- know of his father's past?

Because this really isn't the most ideal way to find out about your father, is it?

Was this the reason for the resurrection of the persona "Kaitou Kid"?

Was Kaito truly foolish enough to pursue Pandora in the place of his father?

Why?

Closure?

Answers?

Retribution?

Revenge?

A low groan at the detective's feet alerted her to the sniper's awakening.

Shinichi released a burst of power in a one quick kick to the gunman's side, and felt a vicious vindication at the sharp crack that followed shallow, wheezy breaths.

Kid had replaced his hat atop his head.

But she had long confirmed the Moonlight Magician and the highschooler who watched over her on the apple treetops were one and the same.

"KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIID!"

Pushing the assassin's unconscious body to the side with her foot, she hid further into the darkness as the taskforce shoved open the rooftop door, clumsy, miscoordinated bodies falling one on top of the other, with Nakamori-keibu crushed at the bottom of the pile.

Kaito's laughter rang through the night, as loud and hollow as church bells.

"I thank you for the fun this lovely evening, and as a token of my gratitude, please have this~" The thief sang out, tossing the Scarlet Lock to precisely land on Nakamori-keibu's nose.

Kid somersaulted over the ledge, into the air, and his hanglider unfolded like wings.

Fly, Elpis. The Crows are here. You may have risen from your father's ashes like the mythical Phoenix, yet you will still burn and die like the mortal you are, White Dove.

Shinichi carried the silencer-fitted shotgun with one gloved hand, dragging Kid's dictated yet thwarted killer by the collar in the other.

I refuse to let them clip your wings.

Snake's men were at the heist.

But Kaito was still alive.

The rain bawled and the wind howled, but it was nothing compared to the turmoil he held at bay within.

The gaily dressed branches of the apple tree did little to shelter him, but he didn't mind the early morning storm.

And neither did Shinichi, apparently, as she walked the same lonely path, no folders, no case, no umbrella or coat save for the red cap that had been suffused with the darkness of the weeping clouds, more brown than red like dried blood.

There was an unusual sense of piety in that moment in time, when the rain washed away the weariness of the world, where the wind's songs were all to hear, where the only life on the abandoned street was just her and him.

She stepped slowly and carefully across the wet street, like a rose petal sliding against silk.

She had saved him that night.

Like a guardian angel, merciful and protective.

He watched the girl skip over puddles only to land in another, her gleeful giggles as holy to him as cherub chuckles.

He could allow her to come no closer to him. Not while Snake was around. Not while his mission was unaccomplished. Not while he didn't have all the answers.

When he first took upon his father's mantle, Kaito never thought his father's unfinished work would eat at him like it was doing so.

He never imagined that every fluke jewel would become a jackhammer to his resolve.

He never prepared himself for the internal isolation required to partake in such dangerous work.

He never meant for the mask to meld itself onto his own face.

He never needed to comprehend the malevolent, manipulative machinations just as to how Pandora, Snake and the secretive organization now after his blood were all tied to his father, his kind, creative, loving father, in the first place anyway.

Was he simply a victim of circumstance?

Did he do something as Kaitou Kid that had inculcated Snake's and the Boss' wrath?

Did he stumble upon Pandora during one of his heists before?

Did Oyaji hide Pandora away himself?

Or…

Kaito clenched his wrinkled fists around the branch he was holding on to for leverage.

There were some mysteries best left unsolved.

At least for now, he didn't have to know.

Not yet.

If the answers he would find will be as devastating and corrupting as he feared they were, as he knew they were going to be, he didn't need to know.

Unlike curious, stupid Pandora, he could keep his own forbidden box shut for a little longer.

He simply needed to find Pandora and destroy it in his father's honor.

To impede the organization who had murdered his father.

Defeat them. Unmask them. Reveal them.

And to keep his Tantei-chan safe and out of Snake's way.

For now, though, he could extend to her this.

Shinichi liked the rain.

There was something cleansing about a storm, falling from the sky, sluicing through the Earth, the movement of the air, the stillness of the land.

Her shoes squeaked and spat out puddle water with every step she took, only to be drowned in even deeper pools.

After informing Nakamori-keibu of the armed man on the rooftop during the last heist (though not telling him of the man's true affiliations or intentions), Shinichi handed him over to Jodie-sensei who was stationed just outside the heist site after she had called the FBI agent about the planned assassination of Kaitou Kid.

Snake's croney refused to divulge anything and was still in custody.

Shinichi lifted her head to face to falling rain.

As she approached the apple tree, she saw the spot of red tied to a low-hanging branch with a string of soaked, silken scarlet was unlike the way Nature had intended, for she was sure roses weren't meant to grow on apple trees.

The crouching shadow hidden behind the higher branches, and she knew he knew what she had done for him.

She had something else for him, too.

Raindrops on porcelain like artificial tears.

But he knew she was smiling.

Bounding down, he saw the crimson-maroon Tokyo Spirits cap hanging on the same branch he had tied a single rose to with a foot of red ribbon.

He snatched it and made an attempt to sprint after the detective but the wind shushed him and he stopped.

Her back was to him as she moved silently further away.

Her long, tangled, matted raven-wings hair tied back with a piece of red ribbon.

A flower hooked over the shell of her ear.

Kaito was a walking dish rag when he got to class.

"BaKaito, you left early again just to play in the rain? You idiot!" Aoko began her tirade again, and Kaito simpered apologetically, flopping into the seat next to her.

"… and what's with the stupid hat?" The inspector's daughter reached over to take it.

The miserable-looking magician ducked, slamming his face against his desk yet narrowly avoiding his childhood friend's swipes.

"Aoko! Don't you know 90% of a person's body heat escapes through the head? I need this hat or else I'll die of hypothermia!"

"Your wet clothes are already leeching heat out of you so if you really want to live, you better change out of them then!" Aoko continued to pounce for the crumpled cap.

"See? So, I can't take it off so I can preserve and maintain my internal temperature."

Kaito stood on his seat and skipped merrily from one seat to the other, away from Aoko's grasp.

The class got rowdier, one half cheering Kaito on, the others calling for Aoko, while the rest simply laughed.

In the chaos, Kaito managed a glance at the gray skies, at the horizon where the sun rose and the detective was.

I want to keep you safe, so I need to stay away.

Until then, he would remain shrouded here, watching over her for as long as she walked the same path he did.

"Shinichi! You're late! Again!"

Ran sounds like a runaway freight train, the battered best friend objectively concluded as she steeled herself and braced for the scolding of the millennium.

"Why are you even late, anyway? I thought you found a train station closer to your apartment and that it takes half the time it takes you to get here by a bus. And you didn't even bring an umbrella!" Ran pulled at the drenched detective's blazer which was heavy with the storm and pushed her shivering best friend into her proper seat as the class began to settle.

"I like the scenic route better." Shinichi simply said, taking the wilting, drooping rose behind her ear and pressing it between the pages of her Trigonometry textbook.

The red ribbon remained entwined in her hair.

I want to help you, so I will stay anyway.

And she will continue to walk the same path, for as long as he will have her.

He continued to wear her hat.

She still kept his ribbon in her hair.

And they walked the same path.

Even as the Crows linger.

The Dove…

I refuse to drag you further down into Hell.

But I will still reach out from its depths just touch you.

… and the Raven…

I will seal away your darkness.

… never truly part.

Author's Ramble: This isn't exactly a Valentines' day-sort of fic, but it's the only one I got done. I'll be writing again, guys, but for now I'll see you guys!

"I will seal away your darkness."- Ur from "Fairy Tail"