Shinichi and Shiho stare at the room in awe, for different reasons. Shiho's in a completely alien land, I know; she slips from my side and wanders around almost as if she's sleepwalking, staring at books, jumping when she nudges my computer chair and it rolls away from where it was sitting next to my bed, rotating slightly. It's different for Shinichi. This is a familiar place turned alien, like Tokyo in Gin's nightmare. I wrap a protective arm around him.

"Welcome home," I say softly. He stares around the room with a surprised expression, and then looks up at me.

He smiles broadly.

"Thank you!" He yells happily, throwing his arms around my neck. "You got me home! Thank you thank you thank you!"

I hug him back, surprised. I'm surprised by how happy he is, surprised that he's thanking me.

"Why are you thanking me?" I ask quietly, little more than breath brushing across his ear. "It's my kind's fault that you were taken away…"

"But you got me back, and anyway you're not like the others," Shinichi insists. "You're one of a kind." That makes me grin as I remember what I told Vermouth.

"Sh… Shinichi?"

We both turn to the tearful question from the doorway. My mother is standing there, tears in her eyes, staring at Shinichi and I. I set him down on the floor, where he turns to face our mother. His mother.

"Kaasan!" he sobs, running over to her and jumping into her arms.

"Shinichi!" she cries, hugging him tight. "Oh, Shinichi, Shinichi, Shinichi…" she keeps repeating his name over and over, like she's binding him there. Shiho stops examining my keyboard curiously and watches the tearful reunion. I simply sit on the bed, watching them as she does. I'm glad to see that they're together again, but I'm sad too. This is a family that I have no place in. Now that they are reunited, I'm alone. I clench my fists in an urge not to show upset. I'm lonely. I can't show that. I love them so much, even though they're not my family, not really. I don't want to get in the way of their happiness, not again.

"Yuusaku," she's begun to yell. "Yuusaku! He's back, Yuusaku, he's back…"

"Yukiko?" I hear him call. He's coming up the stairs, he'll see his son, he'll be happy too. They'll be reunited. I'll be left out.

Shiho backs away from them a little, sitting down on the end of the bed. I know that she feels left out too, but nevertheless she looks hopeful. I'm jealous. She's a child, she can be taken in by an adoption agency, find a new family, a new life. I look like I'm in my late teens, technically an adult. I'm too old to be adopted like that. I'm on my own.

It's everything I expected. He looks closer to crying than I've ever seen him, holding his wife and son close. They're together again, and there's no room for me.

Is what I think up until Shinichi's mother, still holding him, suddenly jumps up and hugs me.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" she cheers happily. "You really brought him back! Oh, thank you, thank you so much…"

"I-it's okay," I insist, thrown off by the affection. "Really. I mean, I… I was just…"

"I don't care what you were "just", you brought him back," she insists. Shinichi grins at me. "We're all together again!"

"Thank you… Kaito?" her husband says, reaching out a hand to shake mine. I shake it, a little shellshocked, as she begins fussing over Shiho. "Really. I'm sorry if we ever made you feel unwanted… we're forever indebted to you for bringing our son back to us. And… You said that we were like parents to you, the only ones you've ever known. I think… the reason that we left wasn't quite that we hated you… it was that you did feel like a son to us, even though we didn't want to feel that way. I'm sorry for that. What happened to Shinichi wasn't your fault, and you've far more than repaid any blame that you should have felt, which wasn't a lot…"

"Thank you," I murmur, feeling my eyes well up. "I… you mean… I can stay? As if… I'm…"

"Well, frankly, in lieu of thinking up an explanation why Shin-chan seems to have shrunken thirteen years," our mother- and she's my mother again, I know, no matter what- says thoughtfully, "you might as well keep pretending to be him until he's big enough to step back into his life."

"Thirteen years?" Shinichi and I chorus in surprise, for different reasons.

"I've been gone for thirteen years?!" Shinichi squeaks in shock.

"I've been out of it for a whole year?!" I gasp. "But what…?"

"I guess time worked a little differently… wherever you were," our father sighs. "We followed you and Akako-san up here and you were lying on the bed- well, floating half an inch off of it- in your true form. Akako-san was sitting next to you with her eyes closed and one hand on your forehead. Neither of you moved for days, then weeks… eventually we accepted that it might be a very long time before you came back."

"Hattori-kun and Kazuha-chan were already aware of what was happening," our mother says, patting Shinichi on the back with one hand while absent-mindedly smoothing my hair with the other. I have to resist the urge to lean into her touch, like a cat getting its ears scratched. I never imagined that I'd be allowed to stay, that I could be with the people that I love- That they love me back. "We told Ran-chan when she turned up, too. She was worried about you, running off like that."

"Wait, you told Ran?" I ask, feeling fear rise. She knows I'm…?

"Well, we didn't exactly tell her," our father hedges. "She was… rather agitated, and stormed up here."

"Can't stop Ran when she's mad," Shinichi opines.

"She hasn't changed," I assure him. "In fact, now she's a black-belt in Karate, so she's even more dangerous." He laughs while affecting an over-exaggerated shudder of fear, then his expression suddenly shuts down. I suppose he was trying to imagine how she looks now, and then remembered the nightmare that Bourbon tossed us into. I touch his head, driving away the nightmare, and he calms. I glance back to our parents. "So… how'd she take it?"

"Relatively well," our mother says with a shrug. "She waited until after Kazuha-chan and I had had a chance to explain before ranting about how when you turned back up, if you didn't have Shin-chan she was going to break every bone in your body." I swallow hard. I have very little doubt that she would have. Shinichi stares at his mother.

"Well, I'm back, so she's not going to hurt him, right?" he asks, worriedly. "I mean, he saved me. I don't want him to get hurt for that."

"Thank you," I say softly, immeasurably touched. He smiles at me, and I feel peace settle on me.

"So what happened while we were away?"

*****

It's the nighttime, my time, but I no longer have any urge to fly. Earlier, my father commented offhandedly about how the Kaitou Kid vanished mysteriously about the same time I did. I said nothing, and he said no more on the subject. I don't really want to follow that line of enquiry.

It turns out that Kudo Shinichi has an alibi for the past year; he has been globetrotting before going to college. My father has a number of forged postcards in the library. He's currently talking to a few friends of his in the FBI, trying to use the Witness Protection Program to make Kudo Conan, my little cousin, a reality, as well as his sister Ai. Kaasan adores her, she finds her old-fashioned manner of speaking and complete awe of the modern world to be absolutely adorable. We've already had a fun time inventing backstories for both of them, as well as a few tales for me of my world travels; better than board games for binding a family together. I've been thinking of cultivating a life as Kuroba Kaito on the side, though. I've always enjoyed the double life, why stop now?

Besides, Shinichi says that he wants his life back, when he's old enough that nobody'll notice the switch. For taking his life from him, I think the least I can do is look after it until he's ready to return to it, and I want my own life to step into when the time comes.

We haven't decided what to do about Conan when that day comes. Perhaps an accident, perhaps an illness, but when the time comes, we'll have to think of some way for Kudo Conan go. Then and only then will Kudo Shinichi and Kuroba Kaito appear together.

And it will be together. I know this as I sit here, hand resting on Shinichi's cheek while he sleeps peacefully. He was afraid to fall asleep, afraid that he'd relive the nightmares from the Faerie Realm, or that the Faeries would take him again in his dreams. Ai was not so afraid; she's sleeping on the other side of the bed. She fell asleep straight away, unused to such a soft, warm bed, a far cry from an earthen floor and a thin blanket. But Shinichi was afraid. I hate seeing him afraid, and so I promised to be his dreamcatcher, driving away bad dreams and weaving good ones for him. It's a strange way to use my species' ability to tread in the dream world, but using it to protect him makes me happy. I never have to sleep, but the restlessness that once gripped me during dark nights fades while I softly paddle in his dreams. He'll never have a nightmare again.

When the morning comes, I suppose we'll see Ran again (is she with Hondo?), we'll see Hattori, maybe Kazuha too. I don't know if she'll accept me, but I'm not afraid. I have a family who love me, a place to belong, a future, and a purpose- protecting Shinichi's future.

I'm not alone. And if Shinichi will let me stay with him, and continue to protect him, I need never be alone again, until the day we die.

For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil must give us pause.

I wonder if they're good dreams? If they aren't, I'll make them good. After all, I'm the Kaitou Kid. I'm a human and a Faerie, and there's nothing I can't do. Not as long as Shinichi will dream me.

This is not the end of the story, but it is a peaceful moment in which to do so.

Sweet Dreams.

*****

Aaaand that's "Faerie Thief". Because I like Celtic mythology and Terry Pratchett books. Finally popped up after a combination of further crappy weather and my parents' fondness for random trips to the Highlands put me offline for a week. Sorry 'bout that XD

Vermouth is always awesome, eh, Cat? XDXD

I didn't really get into the Ichthyophobia, SoftcoreOtaku. I figured that since he grew up as Shinichi, he wouldn't have come across whatever stimulus in Kaito's childhood caused the phobia. It's for similar reasons that Aoko doesn't really exist in this fic :P The rain has finally stopped! Thanks for turning up with Sunny Day, Groudon! XDXDXD

I may find this freakier because many of these nightmares are based on actual nightmares I had, Marie Ravenclaw XD I missed you, internet! DX

Definitely sounds like us, Katty008 XDXDXD

Glad you think so, tanteigirl69! Vermouth is awesome XD I know first person can be a little tense, but I figured that angle, with the present tense, would help it come across as a little freakier. Gets rid of that remove for the reader, yanno? Anyway, glad you've enjoyed!

Lucky you, KageNoNeko… this is unusually extreme for Scotland, yeah. Proof of Global Warming, or what would be more accurate to call Global Weather Catastrofuck XDXDXDXD

Rain and lack of internet connection in the highlands SUCKS, KSA Key-chan DX Sooo much catching up… I didn't put too much thought into the differences in the mechanics of the Kids heists, but I'd guess that yeah, the name came about in the same way, and yeah, he does send a note, so that the police and crowds are around to maximise the funsies XD

Akako and Vermouth are always fun to write, llamaglamasama XDXDXD and it's true: everything is for funsies XD

Anyway, thank you to everyone who read and reviewed, especially for bearing with me. This was supposed to last one week and the weather stretched it out to two :P Hope you found it interesting, different, and above all, enjoyed it!

Only in my wildest dreams do I own Meitantei Conan or Magic Kaito. Please don't dream up a lawsuit.