Detective Conan AU

By: FunahoMisaki

(A/N: I own nothing and read last chapter)

Later that day the small family entered the Kudo home, Vermouth having a key which only further made her claim of being a friend of the family if not a part of the family seem true.

Entering the home Gin looked around while Conan seemed to know where he was going immediately and went straight to the library. Both of his parents followed him and Gin stopped when he was in the hallway passing by a picture on the wall.

It was of a teenage boy who looked similar to Conan only without the glasses standing beside a teenage girl, and they were both smiling at the camera. Well…the girl was smiling, the boy who had caught his attention was smirking at the camera.

"The boy is Shinichi Kudo, a rather well known high school detective. The girl is his childhood best friend and long time crush Ran Mouri, her father is a detective and her mother a lawyer." Vermouth said as she noticed that he stopped and was staring at the picture.

"Shinichi was Conan's babysitter before he…" Vermouth trailed off then and she was visibly upset and bothered by Shinichi being gone.

"Auntie said that Shinichi-nii-san died all of a sudden about three months before I was kidnapped." Conan's voice surprised Gin for half a second as the little boy made his presence known from where he was standing beside his papa staring up at the pic with sad eyes.

"I see." And Gin did. That boy, the detective, he had looked vaguely familiar and now with that name to go with the face, not to mention the location of the picture being very familiar as well…that was the nosy brat that had spied on their transaction at Tropical Land.

That was the nosy brat that he had killed with the experimental poison.

Looking down at Conan he saw that his son was looking so sad at the sight of the picture, he must have truly looked up to Shinichi. That just made the guilt of taking away someone who his son had cared about, and who had cared about his son, eat away at him even more.

He had been the one to kill the teen. He had killed the teen who was responsible for babysitting the son he hadn't known he had at the time. The teen that had protected his son…because the teen had been killed Vermouth had been forced to rely on someone else to look after their son. Someone who wasn't aware of the danger he was in all of the time. Someone who hadn't been able to protect him.

It was his fault his son was taken and experimented on. His fault that his son probably had PTSD and trauma over what had happened to him.

There was just one thing bugging him though. The very eerie resemblance between Shinichi and Conan. They looked like they could be brothers, was that just a random coincidence or….or had Vermouth…the time lines matched up again…for a time when he had been with her multiple times before she suddenly disappeared with no good explanation for a year, give or take a month or two.

"He was our son as well." Vermouth said softly to Gin as she waved Conan back towards the library.

"Why didn't you tell me about him?" Gin asked as he felt his horror and guilt grow by a multiple of at least ten.

"Look at the time lines Gin. He was almost seventeen when he passed. When he was born you would have only just turned eighteen yourself. How would you have reacted to having a son at that age? Not to mention how it would affect my own reputation if anyone learned that I had gotten knocked up by someone who's still a minor in Japan." Vermouth said shaking her head at him and making him wince. Yeah he was panicked enough being a dad to Conan now. If she had told him she was pregnant with his child back when he had been eighteen…

"My friend and relative, Yukiko, was rendered sterile after an accident on set during a movie shoot. I was about to be a mother to a son I couldn't raise, she had no chance to be a mother to any child who she dearly wanted…it worked out best for everyone. I even got to see him regularly." Vermouth said smiling softly at the picture and she looked upset as well and that explained most of her behavior as of late.

Not only had she been trying to hide and protect her six year old son…she had also been in mourning for the nearly seventeen year old son who she had lost. Lost because of him.

"I see…" Gin said and he was torn on this. Sure his son had been a nosy detective and stuck his nose where it wasn't wanted…but it had been his son! His son who had been protecting Gin's even younger son.

Gin had killed his own son.

'I'm sorry Shinichi…I didn't know. If I had I would have handled things differently back then…I'm so sorry.' Gin thought miserably as he stared at the picture of his son who had looked genuinely happy in the picture, even with the familiar smirk on his face.

Looking at all of the other pictures of his son in the hallway, Gin stared at how happy he had been even if he sometimes tried to hide it. He noticed how he looked at that girl with the lawyer mom and detective dad as if she meant the world to him. His son had been so head over heels in love and never got a chance to even explore that.

There were even some picture of Shinichi with Conan over various years, the two of them playing together or reading together. Looking just like a loving protective big brother with his adorable little brother.

'I'm so sorry musoko. I'm sorry that I killed you. I'm sorry I took you away from a loving family and your mother and your little brother. I can't do anything at all to make up for it…but I swear to you that I will protect your little brother at all costs. I won't let anything else happen to Conan again. You can be at peace in the afterlife knowing he will be protected now.'