Warnings: Shounen-ai. Minor coarse language. Rated T for safety, rating subject to change
This chapter has been edited – July 9th, 2010
Chapter One: Kudo Shinichi
Kudo Shinichi stood on the fenced rooftop, arms wrapped tightly around his body, silently cursing his flu, phantom thieves and the world in general – though not necessarily in that order.
He just had to send a heist notice out for tonight, the teen detective observed bitterly as yet another sneeze escaped him.
Normally a Kid heist was a reason for a sort of anticipation filled glee. Not tonight though. The fact was that Shinichi wanted nothing more than to go home and crawl into bed. The mere thought of attempting to chase after the thief was enough to make him want to sleep for a week.
This was why the detective was currently staked out on the rooftop in question. Better to leave the running around to Nakamori-keibu and the Task Force. Shinichi intended to wait quietly for Kid to execute his escape plan.
You had to be crazy to announce to the police the where, when and what of a heist - even in the form of strange notes and riddles. But it took Kid's particular brand of insanity to leave hints about the escape route you planned on using.
That was the reason Shinichi had bothered to show up at all. The phantom thief had practically left him a gold embossed invitation in those hints, though it had taken longer than normal for Shinichi's flu-addled brain to process their meaning.
The detective shifted his balance and wished he could sit down. Why not? Things are still crazy over there. It's going to be a while yet.
Easing himself into a sitting position that allowed him to lean against the fence, Shinichi reflected on the other reason he had shown up.
It had everything to do with the fact that it was Shinichi who was waiting and not Conan. For the first time since he'd changed back (on a permanent basis this time), the detective was getting the chance to face the thief as himself. Really, it was the first time that Kudo Shinichi was going to meet Kaitou Kid face to face.
Coughing into the face mask he wore, Shinichi was reminded of down side of changing back. According to Haibara his immune system was a wreck, something to do with having two constantly battling poisons in his system.
The famous high school student was not used to feeling weak.
Oh, as Conan he had certainly lacked the physical strength of his teenage self. But then, he'd physically been a kid, and a handful of inventions by Agasa-hakase had quickly and efficiently solved the problem. There had been an acceptable, if annoying, reason for it.
This felt more like his body had decided to mutiny.
His joints were aching like he was some arthritic old man, he knew he had a fever but was shivering from the cold, his sinuses were blocked up, and his stomach hadn't stopped churning all day.
That was all attributable to his flu, but the sense of fatigue and muscle weakness had become all too familiar over the course of the last two months.
With a sigh Shinichi allowed his eyes to close for a moment.
Kaito shivered slightly as he balanced on the wire fencing, but even the cold couldn't keep back the triumphant smirk on his face. Tonight's heist - not Pandora, but then he hadn't really expected it to be - lay tucked safely in one of his inside pockets, the police were running in the other direction chasing a blow-up Kaitou Kid doll, and the people who had come to watch tonight's heist were slowly making their way home after witnessing one of Kaito's best performances to date.
Kaito himself was on an adrenalin high, and he couldn't quite stop himself from widening his smirk in anticipation; the best part of the night was yet to come. The thief had to admit to himself that this was really the reason he had pulled this particular heist.
He waited a few moments, a white statue in the moonlight, for the voice to call him out.
When it didn't come Kaito wasn't particularly perturbed, Ah, does Tantei-kun have something up his sleeve this evening?
Being careful not to catch his cape on the wire, the phantom thief dropped to rooftop and had a look around.
His searching eyes quickly found their query on the otherwise empty roof. It was an unusually dark night and the place where the detective had seated himself was currently shaded from what ambient light there was, but Kaito was certain it was him.
"My apologies for keeping you waiting, tantei-kun."
There was no response.
Kaito walked forward a few steps, poker face hiding the frown that would otherwise be showing on his face, "Tantei-kun?"
The moonlight shifted slightly, giving Kaito a better look at the detective that he had gone to such lengths to invite out this evening.
He wasn't moving.
Kaito crossed the rest of the distance fast enough that even Aoko would have been surprised.
The first time Shinichi drifted towards wakefulness, he had the oddest floating sensation. His ever logical - if still fuzzy - brain decided that he was obviously dreaming. Since this dream was accompanied by a vague sense of warmth and safety Shinichi decided that continued sleep was the better option and drifted back into unconsciousness.
The second time Shinichi came close to awareness he was greeted with the comfortable sensation of a pillow beneath his head and blankets being wrapped around him. Some little voice in the back of his head questioned this, but was promptly silenced as the lure of proper sleep in a comfortable bed won out.
The third time Shinichi reached something closer to sentience. His eyes opened a crack; the teenager stared at the ceiling for a full minute before deducing that he was home in his own bed. It was another minute before his sluggish mind caught up to the fact that he wasn't supposed to be there. What . . .
Luckily enough the answer chose that moment to waltz into the room.
"Finally awake, tantei-kun?"
"You!" Shinichi jerked up into a sitting position, only to immediately regret the action as his head started to pound.
"Bad move, Mister Great Detective," Kaitou Kid scolded, waggling a finger in the air. Shinichi could practically hear the tsk accompanying the words.
"You . . . what . . ." Shinichi hissed through clenched teeth, his eyes closed tightly against the onslaught of pain.
A gloved hand lightly pushed him back into the pillows. "You've been asleep all day. Getting up too quickly is not on the list of great ideas. Besides, you are still sick."
The pounding resided enough for Shinichi to glare up at the monocled face, where his glare was met with a grin.
"I'll be back in a few minutes, I'm going to get you something to drink."
With that the high school detective was left to stare at his ceiling again. Needs a new coat of paint. Agh... what am I thinking? I should call the police . . .
Right. And tell them what? 'Kaitou Kid is in my house, no he's not trying to steal anything, in fact he appears to be trying to take care of me . . .'
He'd be gone before the police could get here anyway. Shinichi resolved to wait things out and see what happened.
Not that he had much of a choice in the matter.
The detective wasn't certain how much time passed before the phantom thief re-entered the room, but he was sure it was a lot longer than simply getting a drink would take. Shinichi opened his mouth to inquire about it when the scent of food reached him.
Kaitou Kid had heated up chicken soup for him. Shinichi wasn't quite sure if that was sweet or humiliating.
"I'm not sure that your stomach will be able keep this down, but we need to put something in you," Kid said in reply to the questioning look Shinichi sent him. "Try sitting up a bit, though take it more slowly this time."
When Shinichi had finished manoeuvring himself, Kid laid down a bed tray with a bowl of soup and a glass of water on it. Shinichi muttered a quiet thanks before starting in on the meal. Surprisingly he was actually a bit hungry, which was probably a good thing since he hadn't eaten at all the previous day. The detective ate about half the bowl of soup and downed the entire glass of water before breaking the silence that permeated the room.
"Why?"
"Well you have the oddest assortment of food in your cupboards, and American's say the chicken soup is good for . . ."
"No," Shinichi interrupted, caught somewhere between amusement and exasperation. "Why are you doing all of this? You could have left me somewhere for the police to find, or just woke me up! Why go to the trouble of bringing me home and taking care of me?"
"And miss the fun of seeing you when your mind obviously isn't up to snuff?" Kaitou Kid smiled at him gaily, for all the world looking like some class clown and not the world renowned thief that he was.
Shinichi blinked.
"And if you don't like that reason, I'm sure you'll come up with something that you like better when you're up and running. Now, since you appear to be fully awake, how about some entertainment?" The phantom thief produced Shinichi's own battered copy of The Sign of Four, seemingly out of thin air, opened it up and began reading.
He really is insane, Shinichi thought to himself even as he settled in to listen to what promised to be a much more . . . interesting version of the story.