A/N: HAH I AM ON A ROLL. I think. Anyways, August is gonna be a pretty busy time of month for me, so if I don't update often, gomen'nasai!

Oh yeah, Agasa may be a little OOC. And maybe Kaito. I dunno /scratches head, puzzled/ but yeah. Enjoy, minna-san~

-Icie911

Stories and Drugged Tea

My stories for yours, KID.

. . .

But who first, Tantei-kun?

Conan blinked twice and rubbed at his eyes. KID without his costume looked surprisingly… like his teenage self. He narrowed his eyes slightly. There were a few differences—namely, the thief's eye color. KID's dark locks were also messier than Shinichi's had been, and lacking the tantei's identifying cowlick.

"Kuroba Kaito, magician," KID swept into a bow, "at your service."

A faint smirk tugged at the edges of Conan's mouth. "Kudo Shinichi," he removed his glasses and ran a finger through his hair, "pleased to make your acquaintance."

"Well, this is a pretty mess you've gotten yourself into," Kaito remarked, indigo eyes sparking with curiosity. "High school detective, eh?"

A wry smile flitted across Conan's features. "Primary school detective, nowadays. It's a long story."

"Then why don't I start?" Kaito remarked, settling back onto the couch. "Mine isn't that long."

Once upon a time, there was a gallant thief. Charming and quick-witted, he dressed in pure white. The phantom thief was honest and he was seeking a beautiful scarlet jewel that hid inside a larger gemstone. It was said to weep tears of immortality under the full moon, and any man that drank the jewel's tears would become immortal himself.

He was not seeking the jewel for his own purposes. A sinister, dark force was also desperately searching for this legendary jewel. The phantom thief, for years, searched for this jewel in an attempt to destroy it before the darkness could claim it. He always returned the jewels he stole, as they never harbored the red gem he wished to find. The thief never failed to entertain his fans with his magic skills, and his heists always attracted attention to the jewels he stole and their owners. In a way, he was helping them with publicity. This game went on for a decade, before the darkness discovered his true intentions.

They could not have someone so determined seeking to destroy their precious jewel.

So they killed the gallant thief in ivory, and vanished into the darkness.

Stories of the phantom's mysterious disappearance spun wildly, but as the years passed, so did his legacy. Soon, the thief was merely a fabricated story of the past. No one connected the accidental stage death of Kuroba Toichi, the famous magician, to the disappearance of the thief. No one suspected the phantom could've been killed. No one guessed his true intentions.

But.

The phantom thief had a son.

A son who had a passion for magic as strong as his late father's, a boy who was a mere toddler when his father had been killed. A boy who didn't know of his father's nighttime identity. As the years passed after his father's death, the boy grew into a young man. With his father's eyes and mischief, he dipped his hands deeply into the arts of magic and entertainment.

One day, the phantom thief mysteriously returned. The fans and media went wild. Two heists later, the son stumbled into a secret room in his house. Inside, he found garments of pure white and a portrait of a certain phantom thief. He was confused. His father, a thief? It would explain the disappearance of the phantom when his father died. But it didn't answer the sudden reappearance of the kaitou. Someone was impersonating his father.

So he revived the true thief himself for one night, to place himself in his father's shoes one last time and find the man pretending to be the thief. He met the other thief and had a battle of tricks with him, easily winning. Much to his surprise, the other man ripped off his monocle and hat, revealing himself as the previous phantom's assistant, a man quite familiar to the young man. He fell at the son's feet, crying that he had thought him dead. It was a moment before the son realized the assistant thought he was his father.

That night, he learned much more about his father's late night identity than he bargained for. The elderly assistant, whom he called Jii-chan, had babbled that he was dressing as the original thief to lure out his supposed murderers. It was that night that the son discovered the truth behind his father's stage death. And it was that night that he took over his father's legacy, much to the old assistant's dismay. The son wanted to lure out the murderers as much as the assistant had, if not more.

It wasn't until a few heists later and the increasing popularity of the new thief that the son gained his first pearl of information about his father's murderers. A man donned in pitch black appeared at the end of his heist. The man, codenamed Snake, was convinced he'd already killed the phantom thief and was almost spooked at his reappearance. The son gave no indication that he was or was not the original thief, and managed to escape unscathed.

It was later when he found out about the red jewel. And it was then that the young thief decided although he knew the truth behind his Tou-san's murder, he had to continue the search for the jewel. He would not let his father's death be in vain. He would find the jewel and destroy it, and only then could the phantom thief disappear into the night.

And thus, the Phantom Thief Kid, Kaitou 1412, was reborn.

He would avenge his father.

Even if the cost was his own life.

Kaito's violet eyes had darkened considerably as he'd told his story, fingers twisting around his monocle and fingering his white hat. Conan sat in silence, absorbing everything, blue eyes dark.

"Not that short of a story," the younger boy finally commented. His blue eyes softened for a fraction of a moment. "I'm sorry about your Tou-san." Kuroba Toichi, the boy mused to himself. Otou-san knew him… didn't he?

"It's been more than eight years." Kaito shrugged, Poker Face clenched hard around his face. "If I'd gotten anyone involved, they would be in danger. So the phantom thief is my secret alone."

Conan sighed, rubbing his temples. "When I'd first realized you had an organization as well, I thought ours might be the same. But," Conan's eyes darkened, "I'm not so sure anymore."

"And why not?"

"Well, for one," Conan ticked on his fingers, "your organization members seem to have predator codenames. The Black Organization we deal with uses alcoholic codenames. But mostly," Conan bit his lip slightly, "I'm having doubts because I think if we had the same organization, you would be dead already."

"Oh?" Kaito raised an eyebrow.

"Gin would never be so careless," Conan murmured thoughtfully. "At least, he wouldn't have been so careless before the BO killed him. If he knew that your father was Kaitou KID and that was confirmed by their dual disappearances, he would've killed you and your mother immediately. He wouldn't have let you two slip by unnoticed, because there was too much danger in letting you live. He also would've found that secret room and destroyed it. Where was it hidden?" The faux boy suddenly looked up, questioning the thief.

"Behind a painting of my father in my room," Kaito replied slowly.

"Too obvious," Conan muttered quickly, blue eyes flickering with thoughts. "Even if he didn't find it, he would've destroyed your home after killing you, as a precaution. Or maybe killed you while destroying the house. Anyone connected to your father would've been killed, and all electronic devices wiped. All strategically accidental, of course. That assistant of yours—Konosuke Jii, was it? He would most likely be captured and tortured for information. After they used him, they'd dispose of him and possible any people who knew him as well. This would all be over less than two years after your father's death. Yet, here you are."

Kaito's violet eyes grew hard and cold. "Your organization seems to be a nasty one. Perhaps you should tell your own story before going on?"

Conan sighed for the umpteenth time that night. Pressing his temples, he took a breath. "I suppose so."

Once upon a time, there was a high school detective. His father was a famous author and his mother a widely-known actress. He had a perfect life—a childhood sweetheart and sharp wits and famous parents and a large mansion. The detective was always in the newspapers, dubbed the savior of the police force and the Great Detective of the East. He played violin and soccer like a professional and his idol was Sherlock Holmes. He had high marks in school and was quite popular.

But the detective would be lying if he said he thought his life was perfect. He rarely saw his mother or father, as they left him alone in the huge mansion and travelled overseas since he was fourteen. He was adored by people who didn't even know him and really had only a couple of friends. The high school boy would be lying if he told you he wasn't even the slightest bit lonely. But he had his childhood friend and the thrill of cases, so he didn't dwell upon his loneliness much.

One night, he took his childhood friend to an amusement park. Someone was murdered on the mystery coaster, and the detective solved it with ease. But the damage was done, and the girl was shaken and crying at the bloody scene they'd witnessed. The high school detective really should've just stayed with her and comforted her, but he saw a man in black slip around a corner, shady and extremely suspicious-looking. Two men in black had been on his coaster when the murder happened, and although they weren't the murderers, the tall one had the ice-cold eyes of a heartless beast. The stockier one was the one he saw, but his detective senses were tingling with unease. It was later that he discovered their names—Gin, the tall one, and Vodka.

The tantei made his decision—to follow those two shady men. He told his friend to go home and not follow him. 'Don't worry!' he had shouted at her, grinning reassuringly. 'I'll catch up to you later!'

He would regret those words for the rest of his life.

He found the man blackmailing another businessman. He didn't notice the taller man in black sneaking up behind him, and he was smacked upside the head with a metal pipe. The detective fell to the ground, dark blood seeping out of the wound and into the emerald blades of grass. The tall one fed him an untested poison, a capsule, and made him swallow it with water. They left him to die.

It wasn't bad at first. A mild burning coiled in the core of his being, twisting and snaking around. But the pain grew sharper and hotter and shot his body with an endless flow of ice-hot spears. His bones shifted and cracked and melted and his brain flared into hotness rivaling that of a thousand young suns. The detective couldn't even muster the strength to scream, and each breath caused rippling pain to flicker through his body. Finally, he was enveloped by a blissful darkness. Nothingness.

When he awoke, his brain was foggy and unclear. He was alive? He had no time to think, though, because two police officers found him at that moment. They called him 'kid' and lifted him high up, saying they would send him to the daycare. His clothes were suddenly far too large for him and the world seemed… bigger. It wasn't until he faced his reflection that the detective finally hit reality.

He was no longer a high schooler.

A long stretch of confusion ensued afterwards. He managed to convince his neighbor and close friend, Agasa Hiroshi, that he was really Kudo Shinichi. The older man convinced the now primary school child that if he told a single soul about his existence, the men would come back for him and kill anyone who knew as well.

But the tantei had forgotten about one factor—his childhood friend. She, who had been deserted rather alarmingly by the detective, came searching for him. Since her father was a detective as well (a bumbling one, at that), the boy quickly pushed on a pair of glasses as a disguise and went to live with her. When pressed for a name, he quickly pulled up Edogawa Conan, from Edogawa Rampo and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Much to the faux boy's despair, his sweetheart's father was so much of a fool he rarely had a client and the father and daughter were barely scraping by. He took matters into his own hands, eventually, and made the Sleeping Kogoro. Using Agasa-hakase's nifty inventions, he knocked the older man out with a tranq needle from his watch and impersonated his voice with his bowtie. As time went on, the Sleeping Kogoro grew famous, along with the foolish Kogoro's pride. Cases poured in, but there was no luck on the men in black.

One particular day, a cold little female transferred into the detective's elementary school class. Haibara Ai, she was called, and she had ice-blue eyes and a mannerism to match it. She revealed herself as Sherry, the scientist who'd made APTX 4869. The organization had killed her sister and she'd taken her own capsule poison in order to escape. To her surprise, she shrunk and managed to slip away alive. With no place to turn, she turned up at the detective's door. She knew that he had shrunk from her poison, though she told the organization his death was confirmed in a strange act of kindness.

It was a while before she gained the detective's trust. But once it happened, the two were a formidable duo, but in much danger. Though the organization thought Kudo Shinichi to be dead, they knew their precious scientist was not. Furthermore, they knew how she looked when she was young, so although they were looking for an eighteen-year-old, they would know what happened immediately if they saw the shrunken girl.

From that moment on, the scientist formulated temporary antidotes to test on the detective. It was immensely painful to turn back into a teenager and then a child, but the detective bore it willingly. He craved his old life back, naïve and carefree. More than all of that, he craved to go back to his sweetheart. It broke his heart, seeing her cry over his disappearance and long absences when he was right next to her. But he said not a single word, because he would rather have her heartbroken than dead.

A year passed, and life became increasingly difficult. The detective's sweetheart began to suspect the young boy and her crush to be one and the same, and it made his heart break each time he had to deceive her for her safety. It hurt him more than the body changes to see her trying to be brave for her 'little brother' and not cry. Too many people now knew his secret. An FBI agent, Akai Shuuichi. A kansai detective, Hattori Heiji. An organization member and undercover CIA agent's brother, Hondou Eisuke. A mysterious organization member, Vermouth. His mother and father. Too many more suspected it.

His reputation as a young detective also built up far too quickly. One random serial murderer already knew all about his gadgets, and managed to even disable them all. He nearly killed the boy detective, and left him there to die. Eventually the killer was caught by the police, but by then the boy was already neck-deep in trouble. The organization had found out that in some strange malfunction, Kudo Shinichi had in fact shrunk. Edogawa Conan and Kudo Shinichi's DNA matched almost perfectly and the timing matched up. And they also knew about their little scientist, whom Gin wished to kill with a fiery passion.

The boy was poisoned by the silver-haired assassin—Gin. He was forced to take the same poison he had one year earlier, and was found near-dead in the morning. Luckily for him, the scientist had gone to visit him and managed to save him. She had finally concocted the perfect antidote—the one that was supposed to turn the boy back into a teenager. But in a desperate last moment lunge, she used it to save his life instead. He would never be able to use the antidote again, but his life had been saved.

But it only grew worse from there. The child woke up to amnesia. Retrograde amnesia. For a dangerous period of time, he knew not of the danger of the organization in black, nor his double identity. His sweetheart had been told of his identity already, and the boy was surrounded by those who knew him as Kudo Shinichi. Yet, he remained a guileless child. And one dangerous newspaper splash of his survival set off a terrible series of event that could only lead to an ending of blood.

Due to his failure to kill the young detective a second time, the silver-haired assassin's mentality broke. He had never failed at killing a victim before, let alone the same one twice. The leader of the organization condemned him to death.

But Gin escaped their clutches. He desperately stumbled towards the amnesiac child, filled with nothing but rage and contempt. He would kill the child. If it was the last thing he did.

It was a bloody encounter. The shock of seeing the silver-haired man in his room brought all the young boy's memories back. But it was a slow, horrifically slow process. He was drowning in the tidal waves of memory while the assassin took aim at his heart. And fired.

By an unbelievable stroke of luck, he did not die. The scientist had saved him, taken the bullet for him. And just when it all seemed ready to collapse, for everyone was bloodied and unconscious besides him, an unarmed boy, and the former assassin, another stroke of luck came to him. The organization arrived in time to kill Gin, but not before the silver-haired man left a chilling warning. He had one last devastating ace up his sleeve, but wouldn't reveal it. 'I'll be laughing in hell,' he snarled as the feral light died in his eyes.

But even so, the death of the horrific silver assassin did nothing to comfort the duo. They knew that now the organization had disposed of Gin, they two would be the next targets. And everyone—everyone that surrounded him. It was becoming stressful for everyone—oh, so stressful!—and the tension simply grew and grew. More and more, the detective felt caged, like they were watching his every move. He slept less and less, trying to find a way, a solution, anything.

The detective and scientist knew that they most likely had not much longer to live.

But they were determined not to go down without a fight.

For the first time, Kaito noticed the shadows and dark lines on the blue-eyed boy's face. His whole body drooped forward, like a wilting flower. His fingers fluttered restlessly, like a broken bird's wings, twining together and pressing to his lips. For the first time, Kaito noticed just how tired the young boy was.

"You have gotten yourself in quite the mess, Tantei-kun," Kaito finally said, softly. All thoughts of escape vanished, and his Poker Face even eased up a bit. "You need to sleep. What have you been running on, coffee?"

Conan rubbed his temples, responding tiredly, "Actually, yes."

Kaito tsked, "That's not good enough, Tantei-kun. It's getting pretty late, so you need to sleep. We can discuss more in the morning, when you've sufficiently rested yourself."

Conan looked on the verge of yawning, but quickly bit his lip. "I have to talk to Haibara afterwards," he muttered. "And we have a lot more to discuss too, Kuroba-kun."

"Kaito."

"Eh?"

"Call me Kaito," the indigo eyed boy instructed, flashing a smile. "It seems we have quite a big challenge ahead of us, so we may as well become familiar."

"But we don't even know that we're fighting the same organization—" Conan began to protest.

"Nonsense," Kaito interrupted, waving a hand in the air. "You, Co-chan, need some sleep. Pronto. We can figure out the rest in the morning."

Conan spluttered. "Co-chan—?!"

And then Kaito gassed him. As his brilliant blue eyes glazed over and fluttered closed, Conan facepalmed mentally. He was going to get the thief for that in the morning…

…

But as he gave himself into the blackness that was sleep, he felt a faint happiness and sense of lightness he'd forgotten even existed. He trusted Kaito, for some reason. With the thief's protection, he felt ridiculously safer.

It was a freeing feeling, to have someone shielding him, for a change.

And then Conan slept, dreamless, for the first time in months.

When the thief—Haibara still didn't know his name—dropped in downstairs, in her lab, she resisted the urge to detain him and get him away from all her precious information and chemicals. When she'd noticed Conan lying unconscious in the older boy's arms, she almost didn't restrain herself from knocking out the thief.

But there was a way that KID held Conan in his arms—like a father does to his child, that affectionate way—and a look in his indigo eyes that stopped Haibara. It was ridiculous to trust KID on the way he looked (wasn't he a master of disguise, after all?) and horribly careless to simply trust him on a gut instinct, but Haibara did nonetheless. Besides, Conan looked so peaceful—blissfully asleep. It had been so long since he'd slept—in fact, KID probably gassed him or something of the like to get him in such a state. She was almost grateful to him, being able to let Conan catch some well deserved sleep. The faux boy had been border-lining paranoid and even coffee was beginning to fail him. (Not that she was doing much better.)

"Tantei-kun's tired," KID informed her in an almost singsongy voice. "He fell asleep mid-conversation—I'm just here to tell you he won't be able to chat tonight. Don't worry about me—I won't try to escape. Of course, you could always tie me up if you really wanted to, but I'd probably end up escaping the ropes."

Haibara rubbed her temples wearily. "I don't doubt it," she muttered.

"Anyways," KID responded cheerfully, "I'll be taking Tantei-kun up to a room. This is the hakase's home, so he doesn't really have one, right?"

"Just put him in the blue guest room," Haibara murmured. "He always takes that one anyways. I'll have to text Mouri-san later about Edogawa staying overnight…"

"I already did~" KID said brightly. "Don't worry about it, ojou-chan."

"Haibara."

"Don't worry about it, Haibara-chan!"

"Not 'chan.' Or I will murder you."

Kaito resisted the urge to shiver at the deadpan quality of her voice. "Well, I'll be going now, Haibara-san. You'd better get some sleep as well."

Haibara pinched the bridge of her nose. "Just don't gas me, KID," she muttered. "I'm pretty sure I can find some sleeping pills somewhere."

Kaito doubted she would take them, even if she found them. "Call me Kaito," he finally said, snapping his fingers so that a white rose appeared. A dove fluttered from behind him, dropping off the rose on Haibara's computer. "Oyasuminasai, Scientist-san. It was nice meeting you."

"Good night, Kaito." As the thief left, Haibara looked at the full rose on her computer. It still had its thorns—strange, because most performers removed them. A white rose for a brittle black girl, she mused thoughtfully. A white rose, unstripped of its protecting thorns. Are you trying to say something to me, KID?

Perhaps she was simply overthinking.

Sighing, she resumed typing, the blue screen light glowing in the darkening night.

Kaito bumped into Agasa after leaving the scientist girl's lab. The poor man looked like he almost had a heart attack, jumping back in surprise. Like the girl, he quickly noticed Conan sleeping in his arms and his eyes took on an almost dangerous quality before relaxing somewhat.

"A-ah, KID," Agasa stumbled backwards slightly, "I s-see you've finished chatting with Conan."

"It's about time he got some sleep," Kaito replied simply. Shifting Conan's weight to one arm, he produced a few capsules of sleeping pills with a small cloud of faint pink.

Agasa started in surprise and looked suspiciously at the pills in the thief's palm. "And what would that be?" he questioned, narrowing his eyes.

"I made tea in the kitchen," Kaito answered, nodding his head in the direction of the room. "Could you bring a mug of it to the girl downstairs for me? And take these—" he tossed the pills and Agasa caught them, fumbling a little before securing them. "They're sleeping pills. It looks like Scientist-san could use some sleep as well. Both of the kids look half-dead."

Agasa's eyes softened. "They've been overworking," he murmured to himself. Cocking his head slightly, he asked Kaito, "Why should I trust you, KID? How do I know you haven't drugged or poisoned the tea?"

Kaito shrugged eloquently. "I've never harmed someone at my heists. I will never understand someone's motive to kill—"

Agasa suddenly saw a shadow of Shinichi in the thief's eyes.

Hadn't the tantei said almost the same thing before?

"—and as for the drug question, isn't that the whole point?" Kaito pinned the old man with a deep look. "You don't have to use it. You can always make a fresh pot and dig out your own sleeping pills, if you really wish. I just want to make your life a little easier. Good night, Agasa-hakase."

Agasa looked, stunned, at the retreating back of the thief. "Ah—wait!"

Kaito stopped, but didn't turn around. "Yes?"

"If you, uh, don't mind me asking…" the hakase hesitated. "What's your real name, KID?"

Even though he never turned around, Agasa could hear the smile in the boy's voice. "Kuroba Kaito, my dear hakase. Magician." And then the thief disappeared around a corner, padding upstairs quietly.

"Kuroba Kaito," Agasa murmured slowly. "Yusaku knew his father, didn't he…?" He made his way to the kitchen, pouring out a mug of tea for Haibara from the full pot. Dropping in the capsules, he watched the pills dissolve in the hot liquid. "Perhaps," he mused softly, "KID will be good for us."

He cupped his hands around the warm mug and brought it downstairs to Haibara.

Later, when she fell asleep in front of her computer, he saved her files and brought her upstairs, to her room.

It'd been so long since Haibara had looked so tranquil.