No Strings Attached

Part 3: Raise the Stakes

By Hikari-chan

Disclaimer: Clearly not mine…for now. Ask me again when Kid/Ai/Conan becomes canon.

Notes: Last part of NSA trilogy. Each part just keeps getting longer. -.-;;; The ending pairing wasn't decided until a couple hundred words before the last line. It just sort of…worked itself there. I love unplanned endings that hit me like a ton of bricks at the last minute. Also, hot beverages vending machines exist in Japan. Thought I'd point that out.

Genre: General, Romance/Drama (?)
Rating: PG for innuendoes...again.
Pairing: Kid/Ai/Conan, no maybe's this time. XD
Word Count: 4603

-----

"I told you I don't want it."

He let out a heavy sigh, staring at the tiny capsule he now held in his hands. Here was the answer he had been searching for in the past seven years, but now that he actually had it, it seemed so meaningless. Another three years and he would be seventeen again. Even if this pill really could counteract the effects of APTX-4869, he would still be missing seven years of his life.

"And I told you I didn't just make it because of you," she replied.

"What would you do if I threw it away?" he ventured to ask.

"The same thing as if you took the antidote," she shrugged. "I'll live."

He stared back at the capsule in his hands. Once upon a time, Edogawa Conan had wanted desperately to return to his life as Kudo Shinichi. Shinichi had fame and recognition, and more importantly, Shinichi had the love of his childhood friend, Mouri Ran. Fame and recognition had been easy to get back as the years went by, but Conan would never have Ran's love. However, what Conan wanted was no longer love from Ran, but from Haibara Ai, the genius chemist who had been with him through his years as an adult stuck in a child's body, the one person who truly understood how he felt.

When had things gone awry between him and Ai?

They used to be comfortable together.

He had always thought Ai understood him best out of everyone that he knew. After all, they were the only two people stuck in this rather bizarre situation. He remembered when they used to be able to finish each other's sentences or thoughts, when they would unabashedly break out into arguments or debates everywhere they went. In those days, it had never occurred to him that things would change. Of course, the fact that he wanted to return to Ran's side as Shinichi had sat in the back of his mind, but the possibility of Ai not being there with him and for him had never struck him as something he should worry about. That is, until the night he discovered that Ai met secretly with Kaitou Kid before every heist the thief pulled.

After confronting Ai, he had realized he cared too much to merely watch as Kid took her away. However, the closer he tried to get, the farther she ran. She seemed more cautious and a little bit awkward around him, toning down even the sarcasm she had often used to make fun of him. A year ago, she had suggested he go back and live in his own house, since he no longer needed Agasa-hakase as a legal guardian. Agasa, noticing the recent unease between Conan and Ai, had agreed that it was a good idea. Since Conan hadn't wanted his feelings for Ai to come out in the open yet, he had reluctantly agreed. After all, she was right next door, and even living in the same house, he never saw much of her anyways, as she was often in her lab.

Conan had tried countless methods to get Ai to leave the house in the past few years. Anything that might keep her out of the lab and prolong the time until she found the antidote was worth a shot. His various attempts were often met with deadpan looks and sometimes a slam of her lab door in his face. The one thing she never missed was Kid heists. They often went together to the appointed place of the heist. He would watch her leave the scene before the crime, and every time, it left another hole in his heart, knowing she was going to see the thief. It was like watching her walk out of his life again and again. She would reappear after the heist object had been returned, and every time, Conan felt like Kid had returned her instead of the jewel.

Earlier this evening, he had received the phone call he'd been dreading since his love for the miniature scientist had come to his attention.

"Kudo-kun," her familiar voice came through the receiver.

"Haibara," he had replied, a bit surprised by her call. He couldn't remember the last time she had phoned him. She often just pressed that blasted horn that the professor had claimed to be one of his brilliant inventions. Then he would come over and grumble that it was not a civilized way of treating her neighbors.

"I have the antidote," she said with an eerie calmness to her voice. "Come over."

Conan had stared at the receiver for a long time before realizing Ai had already hung up. The antidote to APTX-4869 had been such a big part of their lives that Conan had gotten used to waiting for it. Now that Ai had announced she had it, the situation seemed to have become surreal to him. Perhaps part of him didn't want to think about what having the antidote meant.

He would no longer be linked to Ai in a way that was nearly impossible to duplicate.

Coldness rushed through his veins. Mechanically, he put on his shoes and grabbed his jacket and keys. The steps he took towards Agasa-hakase's house were deliberately slow. Since when had the distance between the two houses been that close? Letting himself in with the spare key the professor had given him when he still lived there, Conan found Ai waiting for him in the living room, a long rectangular box in her lap. She wore a pink blouse with short, puffy sleeves over a gold skirt adorned with pink roses. It was a painful reminder that she would be seeing the Phantom Thief again that night. She never dressed up for him after all, only for Kid.

Ai looked up at him and opened the case, taking out a pill and giving it to him. Conan took it wordlessly and turned it over a few times in his hands, seeming to consider the words he wanted to say while Ai observed him curiously.

"I told you I don't want it."

He let out a heavy sigh, staring at the tiny capsule he now held in his hands. Here was the answer he had been searching for in the past seven years, but now that he actually had it, it seemed so meaningless. Another three years and he would be seventeen again. Even if this pill could really counteract the effects of APTX-4869, he would still be missing seven years of his life.

"And I told you I didn't just make it because of you," she replied.

"What would you do if I threw it away?" he ventured to ask.

"The same thing as if you took the antidote," she shrugged. "I'll live."

He stared back at the capsule in his hands. The pill was the end of his bizarre but unique relationship with Ai. If he took it, he would become Kudo Shinichi again. He would have his original life back. But, he reasoned, Ai and the people he had met as Edogawa Conan were as much a part of his life as the people he knew as Kudo Shinichi. How could he choose between two lives that were just as real?

He clenched his fist around the pill. "Are you going to take it, Haibara?" he questioned.

Her gaze had never wavered from his face. "No," she answered quietly, snapping the case shut.

"Miyano Shiho disappeared when she was taken to the Organization. Sherry died the day she was labeled a traitor and took her own poison. This is who I am."

"I wish I had such an easy time coming to terms with my alter egos," Conan sighed.

Ai smirked. "The scientific term, Kudo-kun, is Multiple Personality Disorder," she informed him, "and I'm sure if you call up a psychiatrist, they'll be happy to help you."

Despite the obvious jab at his sanity, or lack thereof, Conan couldn't help but smile. It had been a while since he had heard one of those retorts from her. Pocketing the pill, he held out his free hand to her.

"Ready to go to the heist?"

She nodded and got up without his help, something he had gotten used to, although it had never stopped his habit of offering to help her. Ai went to the stairs leading to the basement and called down, "Hakase, we're leaving!"

"Ah, be careful, Ai-kun!" Agasa replied just before he yelped and a small explosion was heard from below.

Ai let a smile of fondness cross her lips and followed Conan out the door. The heist would happen at the Suzuki Museum. The heist object was, to the police's surprise, a piece of rock from the moon, named the Reward of Faith. The rock wasn't worth very much, but was valued scientifically because it was the first piece to be brought back from outer space.

Conan and Ai arrived about half an hour early. While Conan walked around the room and surveyed the building, Ai took interest in the other items on display. Nakamori and his team of Kaitou Kid Specialists no longer bothered to deal with either fake teenager. Since neither got in their way and both were familiar faces at Kid heists, Nakamori merely gave Conan a nod of acknowledgement before going back to yell at a random officer about tightening the security.

"So," Conan began as he walked up to Ai and tucked his hands in his pockets, "when's your scheduled meeting?"

The girl gave him a smirk. "Why? Want to join in?" she asked.

"I'd rather not share, if you know what I mean," Conan replied flatly, understanding her connotation easily after having dealt with her for so many years.

"I'd rather not either, actually," Ai drawled. "I was going to allow you to go ahead. I never liked competing for attention anyway."

"Thanks for the generous offer," Conan stated dryly, "but I don't think I'm in the running for

Kid's attention, or rather, his affection."

"Oh? Are you certain?" Ai mocked. "He seems to have a fondness for pink, after all."

Conan blanched. "Well, he's not in the running for my affection," he corrected.

"Your loss," Ai shrugged. "Then I'll go ahead with my appointment."

She turned to walk away, but Conan reached out and grabbed her hand, stopping her in mid-step. Maybe finding the antidote had put her in a good mood, but it had been a long time since they had bantered like that. The one thing he knew for certain was that he had missed the comfortable atmosphere of their arguments. He had missed her.

"Stay," Conan pleaded, squeezing her hand.

"But-" Ai started to protest.

"Once!" he interrupted. "Stay with me, just once."

She stared at him as though he had grown a second head, but when he remained serious for a good minute, she understood that there was something about her meetings with Kid that bothered him more than the fact that the Phantom Thief was an internationally wanted criminal. She slowly withdrew her hand from his grasp, but didn't make a move to leave.

"I'll stay," she agreed quietly, "but only until the heist is over."

It wasn't exactly what Conan had hoped for, but at least she hadn't outright refused him. He nodded and got ready for the heist itself, having a newfound motivation for catching Kid. If he caught the thief this time, Ai would not be meeting him again.

-----

The heist had not been particularly successful in Kid's definition, despite the fact that he had gotten what he wanted. For one thing, the thief thought as he rubbed his arm, his favourite detective had been particularly aggressive during the whole thing, that crazy super-powered soccer ball of his barely missing the thief and even breaking the glass display case behind him. He had a general idea of what might have caused the change in behaviour, but was nevertheless unhappy about the lack of grace with which he had run for the rooftop.

Taking the rock from its hiding place in the front pocket of his shirt, he held it up to the full moon to inspect it.

A glowing red stone appeared inside as the moonlight hit the rock.

He took a sharp breath, poker face failing him for a short moment. After so many years of being Kid the Phantom Thief, it seemed surreal that what he was looking for was now in his hands. He blinked a couple more times, making sure he wasn't just imagining the red stone.

"Reward of Faith indeed," he finally whispered, fist clenching around the rock.

"You found it?"

He looked over his shoulder at the sound of the familiar voice, grinning when he saw her, her hair and skirt fluttering in the breeze around them.

"Ah, Ojou-chan," he greeted. "You missed our appointment earlier today."

"Disappointed?" she mocked him, crossing her arms.

"Very," he affirmed, taking her hand and dropping the customary kiss on the back of it. "I'm afraid, however, that I wasn't disappointed for long."

"It's hard to be when what you've been searching for these past seven years has been found," she agreed, taking out a rectangular box from the pocket of her blouse.

"I was actually referring to the fact that you came to see me after all," Kid replied with a shrug and a grin, "but what you said is true too."

Ai ignored him, instead snapping open the case she held to reveal two pills sitting inside and a microchip. Kid looked at the contents she held up for his inspection.

"APTX-4869, its antidote, and the information for both drugs," he guessed.

"I like your occasional intelligence," she smirked.

"I'm flattered, Ojou-chan," Kid replied. "I was under the impression that you thought all men are stupid."

"Not all men are stupid," Ai corrected. Then, with a snicker, she added, "Some men are dead."

"Nah, men born stupid stay stupid when they die," Kid grinned.

Ai seemed thoughtful for a moment, and then snapping the box close, she said, "True, but people tend to be remembered for their intelligence rather than their stupidity."

A smile played on Kid's lips as he reached for Ai's hand, turning it over and placing the rock in her palm. She watched wordlessly as he put a white handkerchief he seemed to have pulled from nowhere over the rock. Then, after tapping it twice, he pulled off the handkerchief.

The rock remained sitting in the scientist's hand.

"Nothing happened," Ai deadpanned, clearly unimpressed.

"Ah, because normality is easy to see," Kid pointed out, and with the flick of his wrist, a red stone about the size of a cherry appeared in his palm. "It takes intelligence to recognize intelligence."

Ai held the rock up to the moonlight. There was no longer anything in it.

"I can't have anything tarnishing my reputation for returning heist objects, after all," the thief said nonchalantly.

Ai smiled and closed her fist around the rock. "You really are one of a kind," she finally conceded, shaking her head.

"As are you, Ojou-chan," Kid replied, tapping the box that held APTX-4869 with his gloved hand.

"What are you going to do now that Pandora's been found?" Ai asked softly.

"Something legal," Kid joked.

"So you're handing in your resignation letter?"

"After I con Nakamori-keibu into having a retirement party for me," the thief said, a mischievous smile breaking out on his face.

"But of course," Ai smiled.

Both of them were silent, merely staring at each other in the darkness of the night. The spotlights from the ground were shining up towards the roof, searching for their last chance to catch the thief. Watching Kid's cape whip in the wind like the sail of a ship lost at sea, it finally hit Ai that once he took off into the sky, there would never be a "next time". He would be gone from her life, becoming nothing more than a memory. She was not naïve enough to believe she loved him, because she was practical enough to recognize that Kid was merely a costume, a symbol. Still, losing him was like losing a dream, a fantasy, a kind of magic that she had never believed in before, but that he had made into reality.

"Don't look at me like that, Ojou-chan," the thief murmured, his voice soothing and warm in the coolness of the night. "There are a lot of other people out there who care very much about you."

"You mean there's a certain detective out there who cares very much about me," Ai corrected.

"Ah, so Ojou-chan knows," Kid noted.

"I'd be a very bad scientist if I couldn't see something so obvious, even if he didn't tell me himself," Ai replied, a flicker of amusement in her voice. "Take care of Pandora."

"I will," he promised solemnly, "and you take care of the pills."

"Agreed."

He grinned and held his thumb and index fingers together, a red rose appearing suddenly in his hand. He held out the flower to her, and Ai was reminded of the first time they had talked to each other. Gingerly, she plucked the flower from his hand, turning it over a few times to study it.

"It's the last one you'll get from me," he warned her.

She smiled mockingly at him. "I'd hate to ruin tradition though," she responded, tossing the rose behind her. The flower danced in the wind, waltzing to the edge of the building with the breeze before falling to the abyss below.

Kid pouted playfully. "Your loss," he said.

Ai's eyes seemed melancholic to the thief, as though she agreed with him. "Goodbye," she whispered softly.

He leaned down and gave her a tender kiss on the cheek as he always did, and then for the first and last time, brushed his lips delicately over hers. "Goodbye, Ojou-chan."

The cape turned into the flashy hang glider that he was famous for, and then he was off, flying into the night with the police cars underneath chasing him. Ai watched as the hang glider became smaller and smaller in the distance until she finally couldn't see it anymore.

The dreams – and the nightmare – were over.

Kid had found Pandora; she had found the antidote to APTX-4869. Both would be destroyed in the next twenty-four hours. The heart of the Organization would finally die.

-----

After a rather long talk from one of officers about property damage and how he should behave at crime scenes, an aggravated Conan had finally made it to the rooftop of the museum, only to find that Kid had already left. Ai had returned the heist object to him and said something about this heist being the last one. She had been silent all the way home, and though Conan was itching to ask her what she meant, she had looked so tired that he didn't have to heart to interrogate her.

After making sure she had gone home, Conan had walked into his own house, his hands playing with the pill in his pocket, his mind trying to lay out logically what he should do. Along the way, he had made a phone call to Ran. He didn't know why, but his fingers had automatically reached for the phone and dialed her number. He had called her as Conan, and had learned something new that night.

Ran had a new boyfriend. She had met him at her university. She hadn't forgotten Shinichi, but she had moved on.

The news left him with a sense of relief rather than sadness, and it was then that he had realized he wasn't confused about his alter egos. He was confused about the two girls he loved. Shinichi loved Ran; Conan loved Ai. He didn't want to go back to being Shinichi because he would lose Ai, but at the same time, staying as Conan was like abandoning Ran, and he felt guilty about such an action. Knowing Ran had moved on had made it easier for him to move on as well.

Unable to sleep the whole night, Conan decided to go over to Agasa-hakase's place instead of sitting around his own house, even though it was only seven in the morning. He walked into the kitchen, only mildly surprised to see Ai sitting at the kitchen table, staring into the backyard. It looked like he wasn't the only person who hadn't slept all night.

"Hey," he said quietly.

She looked up and blinked a couple of times to make sure he was actually there. "Insomnia?" she asked.

"Something like that," he replied, slightly amused that she had used the scientific term. He held out the pill she had previously given him. "I don't want it. You can take it back."

She stared at the pill for a moment, and then waved it away. "It's yours," she stated. "I don't care what you do with it."

Conan sighed and put the pill back in his pocket. "Breakfast?" he suggested. "I'll treat you."

A small smirk crossed her lips when she looked at him. "I was hoping our first date would be something fancier," she said.

"I don't think the high-class restaurants are open yet," he replied, falling into their casual bantering.

"I'm not hungry," Ai stated, standing up, "but I wanted to take a walk in the park."

"Oh, can I, uh...come along?" Conan asked hopefully.

Ai raised an eyebrow at him. "Last time I checked, I didn't own the park."

That was probably the closest to a "yes" he was going to get, so the two fake teenagers left the house together. They fell into a comfortable silence as they walked. When Ai settled herself on a bench in front of the pond, Conan took out the pill from his pocket. She watched as he toyed with it for another couple of minutes before he threw it into the pond. The pill dissolved into nothingness as the water lapsed at it.

"Wish the poison itself had been that easy to get rid of," Ai mused aloud.

"Is that what you spent the whole night doing?" Conan guessed.

Ai closed her eyes. "Information destruction is a great thing to ponder at night," she muttered sarcastically.

"Coffee?" Conan suggested. "I mean, since you're not hungry for breakfast."

"That...sounds good, actually," Ai admitted reluctantly.

Conan's face lit up with a kid-in-a-candy-store grin. "I'll be right back!" he called as he took off, not even bothering to look back.

Ai stared after him, and then she rolled her eyes heavenward and slumped back in the bench. "Moron," she muttered. "You don't even know how I take my coffee."

"Well, you did say all men are stupid except for the dead ones," a voice drawled next to her.

Ai's head snapped up and she stared at the man who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere and taken a seat next to her on the bench. He looked eerily like Conan, except older and with messier hair. He grinned, seeming to revel in the fact that he had taken her by surprise. He held his thumb and index fingers together, and a red rose suddenly appeared in his hand.

"I'm Kuroba Kaito," he said, holding out the rose to her.

A smile appeared on her lips as she plucked the rose from his hand. "I'm Haibara Ai," she replied.

"So, Ai-chan, something bothering you on this beautiful morning?" he asked.

"Just... I wonder what he's thinking sometimes, that stupid detective," she admitted.

"He likes you," Kaito pointed out.

"Really, now that solves everything," Ai responded, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

The man didn't seem to be put off by her obviously unenthusiastic tone. "Actually," he started, "what would solve everything is if you answer this question: do you like him?"

"I don't know," Ai confessed softly.

"You don't know or you don't want to know?" Kaito challenged.

Ai bit her lip. Kid was easy to deal with. The Phantom Thief was like a fling on a clear summer night. Things happened, and were forgotten as soon as the sun rose. There was no aftermath, no consequences to deal with. It was easy to submerge yourself in a fantasy that you knew you would wake up from when things got out of control.

Conan was too real. If things went wrong, there would be no turning back.

"The stakes are too high," Ai finally answered. "I'm afraid things will change too much."

"Haven't they already?" Kaito questioned. "Besides, you know what they say?"

"I never really liked listening to what other people say," Ai responded. "What if they all told me to jump off a building?"

Kaito grinned, noting the irony in her words. "Then you equip yourself with a hang glider," he joked.

"Thank you for the advice. I'll keep that in mind," Ai retorted, rolling her eyes.

Kaito stood up and smirked down at her. "The higher the stakes, the better the reward," he reminded her. "If you don't risk anything, you'll never gain anything."

"You'd make a good psychiatrist," she stated flatly.

"I doubt it. I'm better at driving people insane," Kaito snickered.

"Haibara!"

Ai turned her head to see Conan hurrying back to her. She opened her mouth to tell Kaito he'd better have a good explanation ready, but when she looked back, the man who had previously been standing there was nowhere to be seen.

"Is something wrong, Haibara?" Conan asked, seeing her confused look.

"No," Ai answered carefully.

"Where did you get the rose?" he wondered. "You didn't have it before."

The shrunken scientist took a look at the flower in her hand, the expression on her face a bewildered one that seemed to say she couldn't remember where it had come from. An amused smile then replaced the look and she threw it over her shoulder.

"Nowhere," she said with a smirk. It was the truth after all. "Where's my coffee, Kudo-kun?"

"Conan," he corrected. At the raise of her eyebrow, he added, "Kudo Shinichi disappeared that day at Tropical Island. I'm Edogawa Conan."

"Ah," Ai nodded in realization. "I see someone has solved his identity crisis."

"You could say that."

He handed her the paper cup and she took a small sip. It was bitter and tasted absolutely awful. She wrinkled her nose and glanced up at him.

"Just because I have trouble sleeping doesn't mean I take my coffee black," she informed him flatly.

Conan laughed nervously. "I forgot to ask how you took it," he replied sheepishly.

Ai sighed. "Did you say earlier that you were going to treat me to breakfast?" she asked.

"And I thought you said you wanted our first 'date' to be fancy," Conan threw back.

"I do," Ai shrugged. "What's the most expensive breakfast place on this side of Tokyo?"

Conan stared at her, his expression a cross between ecstasy and exasperation. After a long moment, he let out a loud sigh and muttered, "Thank God for credit cards."

Then out of habit, he held out his hand to help her up. "Ready to go?" he asked

Ai stared at his hand thoughtfully. The corner of her lips suddenly twitched upwards, smiles chasing each other across her face in the morning sun that kissed her hair a golden blonde. Perhaps the stakes really were too high for someone like her, but the rewards were too tempting for her to resist not trying at all.

"Yes," she answered softly.

And then, she reached up and took his hand.

-----

End of part 3.

End of story.

Word Count: 4603

Final Notes: Because I'm sure the ending surprised more than one of you, I thought I'd give a short explanation.
1) I felt sorry for the dope, err, I mean Conan, as I was writing the first scene.
2) I had Kid and Ai instead of Kaito and Ai. Between the Kid/Ai pairing and Conan/Ai pairing I portrayed, they're like a fancy ballgown and a pair of comfortable jeans. You like the ballgown because it's pretty & when you wear it, you feel like a fairytale princess, but it's the jeans you come home to at the end of the day. Plus, Kid & Ai's relationship was supposed to be 'no strings attached'.
3) I tried to make them share. Neither Kaito nor Conan were happy.

And now, this is the official end of "No Strings Attached". I hope you've enjoyed reading the fic as much I had fun coming up with the innuendoes! XDXD