Pairings/Characters: KaiShin
Rating: PG
Warnings: Bit of angst if you squint. Mentions of boy's kissing.

A/N: Idea thats been floating around my head for awhile. Just wanted to write somethere where Shinichi had a complex about Kid's monocle. And now I'm probably going to use this fic to post any random drabble-y oneshot things I write. Most will probably be KaiShin, of course, but some will wander elsewhere in the fandom, I'm sure.

Delusions of Moonlight

words: 626

Kaito always went to him in the guise of Kid, because they had yet to meet in the light of day. Fate hadn't been so kind as to allow an open windowed opportunity like that and, even then, it would still be different. Because Kaito wasn't Kid and Kaito wasn't really Kaito and, yet, he was. He had so many distinct personalities that he used, so many acts, that Kaito had trouble remembering which ones were real. Shinichi seemed to know, though. Shinichi told him he acted real with him.

Still, sometimes he wanted to be able to be seen with Shinichi in the daylight: To see the way sun highlighted Shinichi's dark hair, or shadows under a tree played over his eyes, or the way he'd move through a crowd that had nothing to do with running to catch a thief.

Despite that want, almost a painful need, Kaito also cherished their little moonlit liaisons. It was a secret the world would never know, protected by the thin fabric of darkness. It was a risk, and exposure was always a single mistake away. He was both chilled, and thrilled, every time he leapt from his home, not to go and steal a priceless jewel but to steal a kiss or two or three from a young man he adored.

Shinichi had many strange habits. Some of them he found amusing and endearing, others frustrating, and some still were simply confusing. Take, for example, the fact that Shinichi would never touch his monocle. No matter what was occurring, he would never even make a move toward it. Kaito could have him drawn close, wrapped in his arms, the thick fabric of his cape falling around them, their lips sealed in a slow passionate kiss that burned them, and Shinichi would simply clutch at him.

Kaito never understood why, so he asked because, after all, Shinichi knew very well who he was. Nights had been spent, sitting together and whispering secrets of their daily lives like it were those that were unreal; like it was the lives they lived in the daylight that were the big secret, not this hidden reality in the moonlight. Shinichi knew all about Kuroba Kaito, and Kaito knew all about Edogawa Conan, and the Kudou Shinichi that the world saw. He saw someone different. Shincihi was real with him, too.

Shinichi's answer had been simple yet complex: 'If I don't take it off, I haven't unmasked you, and I don't have to lie as much.'

He didn't really understand it, because it was still lying. He supposed, however, that Shinichi knew a little more about lying to protect other people. Kaito lied to preserve himself.

So, it was Kaito would would take the monocle off, set it aside, and become Kaito rather than Kid just so that Shinichi could continue deluding himself that he didn't, in fact, have any knowledge of Kid beyond what the rest of the world knew. He did it because there was no other way: Shinichi's morals and since of justice would not allow him such liberties, and neither would Kaito's sense of self preservation.

He knew, even if they, one day, met in the daylight that they'd be just the same. Kaito could be no other way with Shinichi. They would always have moonlight, and secrets, and lies, and monocles that only they, personally, could take off. They couldn't strip everything away from each other, because that was all they had, and because the world demanded they be this way.

Kaito was content, and so was Shinichi, for now, at least. Kaito was a Kaitou: He always got what he wanted in the end and, this time, he didn't plan on ever giving back what he'd stolen.