Deal

Chapter Five: The Detective and The Thief

It had been exactly one week since Kudou Shinichi and Kuroba Kaito's date and exactly five days since school in both the Teitan and Ekoda schools had started once more.

It had also been exactly five days since Kuroba Kaito had pranked anyone.

Hakuba Saguru was watching his classmate out of the corner of his eye, worrying madly but trying to conceal his unease. But it was completely and utterly strange to see Kuroba Kaito sitting in his seat, calmly writing down an equation and solving it like he did it every day. The rest of the class was high strung and twitching, fearing that in a second hyperactive Kaito would reappear and none of them would be able to sit for months.

Yet nothing happened except for the teacher asking for the answer to the problem and Kaito raising his hand, saying the answer was seven.

Class was dismissed for lunch a few minutes later, and Nakamori Aoko hurried over to Saguru, her eyebrows woven together. "Hakuba-san, I'm starting to get really worried about Kaito –" she burst.

Saguru held up a hand to stop her. "I know, Aoko. I know."

Aoko blinked at the lack of honorifics before saying, "But he hasn't been acting normal since the holiday last week, Saguru –" (Saguru nearly blushed at her calling him by his first name but managed to hold it in somehow) "– and he tells me everything's fine whenever I ask." She contemplated him. "You're a friend of Kaito's, right?"

Lifting his gaze to the ceiling, Saguru considered the idea. "Um... no."

"Well, do you know anything about last week?"

"Sort of," Saguru answered hesistantly. Could his behavior have something to do with the bet we made? But that's... absurd. Yet somehow, it's the only solution that fits all the evidence...

"Then please, Saguru, try to help him!"

He looked at Aoko. Her eyes were large and pleading, and her bottom lip was quivering as she said, "Kaito's like my brother, and he's really starting to scare me!"

"Okay," Saguru stammered, his defenses breached by her imploring expression. "I'll go, er, ask him about it."

Aoko straightened, her cheerful grin back in place. "Thank you, Saguru. He'll be eating lunch on the roof." She sighed, the smile disappearing for a moment. "That's where he's been eating for the past week, at least."

Saguru nodded and watched as Aoko hurried off to eat with Momoi Keiko and a few other girls in the class.

Before I confront Kuroba, I guess I'm going to need to ask about Kudou...

Mouri Ran was sitting by Suzuki Sonoko, who was talking rapidly about Kyogoku Makoto, when she heard her phone buzzing. Smiling apologetically at Sonoko, she picked it up and flipped it open. The number displayed on the screen was unfamiliar.

"Who is it?" Sonoko asked, irritated by her friend's diverted attention.

"I don't know," Ran replied, puzzled. She hit the talk button and pressed the phone to her ear. "Hello?"

"Is this Mouri Ran-san?" a voice said in British-accented Japanese.

"Um, yes. Who is this?"

"Ah, I have the right number. This is Hakuba Saguru, a friend of Kudou Shinichi's. I apologize for calling you, but can I ask about Kudou-san?"

"Of course. But, um, we're not very close anymore," Ran commented ruefully.

"But you're the closest one to him at the moment, correct?"

"I supposed that's true – Hattori-kun hasn't come around for a while and other than that, he doesn't have very many friends."

A sigh came from the other end. "He's anti-social?"

"Ever since he came back from that big case he's been distant from everyone. And, actually, he hasn't been at school for the past five days."

"Really?"

"To be technical, he's been out of touch since the last time I saw him at that café."

"Is that so."

Ran gulped and turned away from a questioning Sonoko. Lowering her voice to a whisper, she added, "Also, I just heard earlier today that he's been in the hospital for about a week."

There was a sharp intake of breath before the man on the other end seemed to regain himself. "Tell me more."

Beep.

Shinichi breathed softly, blinking rapidly. His internal clock told him it was around lunchtime.

Beep.

He'd been there for so long... His hand tightened around the empty paper cup he held.

Beep.

What he had done, what he had said, was absolutely unforgiveable.

Beep.

His eyelids felt heavy.

Beep.

It would be so easy to just let go...

Beep.

It would be such a relief...

Beep.

But he couldn't do that, not when...

Beep.

The paper cup fell to the ground and rolled away.

Beep.

Shinichi's eyelids dropped shut.

Beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep.

Kaito was sitting by himself, holding a sandwich loosely as the wind ran rough fingers through his hair, when he heard the door to the roof open and shut. Glancing over, he saw that Hakuba was standing there, looking grim and clutching his cell phone in a death grip.

"Oh. Hi," Kaito said disinterestedly. Go away, Hakuba.

"Why are you acting like this?" queried Hakuba without preamble.

Turning to stare at the determined detective, Kaito let out an apathetic sigh. "There's no reason."

"Of course there is. You haven't pranked anyone since school started again, you haven't flipped Aoko's skirt once, you haven't gotten into an argument with me about Holmes versus Lupin –"

"When did she become 'Aoko'?" Kaito asked flatly.

Hakuba snapped. Over the whoosh of the wind, he yelled, "What the hell's wrong with you, Kuroba?!"

There was silence on the roof. Kaito was staring at Hakuba with tired eyes, eyes that suddenly were overcome with sadness as he began to speak. "I lost someone I was desperately in love with."

"You haven't lost Kudou-san," Hakuba snarled.

Kaito stirred, but didn't bother to deny the accusation. "You don't know that."

"I'm serious, Kaito!" Saguru shouted, swearing in English under his breath. "I'm sure he – er – feels the same way about you! Nothing's unfixable!" Talk about awkward...

"If you overheard Aoko saying she'd only date you in order to help someone else, that it'd be impossible to ever even fall for you, what would you?" Kaito inquired, his voice no longer listless and taking on a glasslike quality.

Saguru blinked. Is that what happened? Kudou-san overheard what Kaito was screaming at me over the phone? "I – I would try to talk to her about it and explain the situation."

"What was the situation?" Kaito sighed and put down the sandwich that he had been holding.

Saguru blinked. "Huh?"

"There was no reason for me to yell that I didn't love him. If I was so scared of somebody else knowing, then I didn't love him enough to not care what other people think. Don't you get it?"

"You were just embarrassed. If he truly loves you, he'll understand!"

There was a slight pause, and Kaito frowned at Hakuba. "Why are you trying to help me?"

"It was a... request."

"From Aoko, clearly." Kaito sighed, looking away. "If you must know, I won't talk to him because I'm scared. I'm scared that he's going to say, 'Don't worry, Kaito, the feeling's mutual. I could never fall in love with you,' or even 'Ha! I can't believe you fell for that joke I pulled on you. I'd never go on a date with you; it was a bet with Ran.'" He laughed mirthlessly, eyes falling down to look over the city.

Saguru felt a stab of pain for his classmate. This might be a bit overdramatic, but...

"I didn't want to tell you this, Kaito," Saguru said in a low voice, "but Kudou-san has been in the hospital for the past week. Ever since that date."

Kaito's head jerked upwards. "What?"

"Can you hazard a guess as to why he's been in the hospital?"

"He... he wouldn't," Kaito breathed, eyes wide. "Shinichi would never... he... suicide?"

Saguru shrugged. "New Beika Hospital. I hear he's barely hanging on."

The words were barely out of his mouth before Kaito had disappeared from the roof, leaving behind his half-eaten lunch.

Grinning, Saguru strolled to the edge of the rooftop. He, as a detective, didn't approve of twisting the truth, but if it earned him a chance to see Nakamori Aoko's smile, it was worth every exaggerated word.

"Excuse me, but where is Kudou Shinichi's room?"

The brown-haired nurse manning the receptionist's desk looked quizzically up at the messy-haired teenager in front of her, who was bouncing frantically on the balls of his feet.

The nurse scrolled through the database. "I'm sorry, but there doesn't appear to be anyone here by that name. However, we do have a Ku –"

The boy was gone before she even finished, careening down the hall towards the private rooms. "My God, kids these days are so impatient." She sighed before a thought dawned upon her. "Actually, maybe that guy is Kudou Shinichi...? The one who... No, it couldn't be."

Kaito was running frantically through the halls with a single thought running through his head:

Find Shinichi.

He rounded a corner and jolted to a stop.

Kudou Shinichi, haggard, drawn, and not moving, was sprawled out on a chair outside of a room door. His eyes were closed, his lips slightly parted. An empty coffee cup had fallen onto the floor beneath his pale, slack hand, as if he'd dropped it.

"Shinichi!" Kaito yelled.

Shinichi opened his eyes to find himself being hugged nearly to death by a pair of arms. Frowning, he sat up and managed to push the other off of him.

It shocked him to see Kuroba Kaito standing in front of him, looking relieved yet extremely miserable. "Oi, Kaito, are you okay?"

"I'm sorry!"

Shinichi blinked, finding himself with a lapful of blubbering magician. "I didn't mean it! I was just embarrassed because I thought that Hakuba wouldn't understand! I love you, Shinichi! I love you!"

Shinichi wrapped his arms around Kaito. "I love you too, Kaito," he replied in a confused voice.

Kaito pulled back. "Really?"

Shinichi stared at him. "Was there ever any doubt?"

"B-But... why'd you run out of the restaurant back then? Wasn't it because you heard what I said on the phone?"

"No."

"No?"

"Well, I did hear that it'd be impossible for you to fall for me and that you were only dating me to protect someone named Aoko. But that's not the reason why I ran out of there."

"What? Weren't you sad? Or hurt? Or something?"

"I figured you were just embarrassed, since we're both male and all. All the other signs pointed to you being madly in love with me, and I figured that during your bet with whoever you were on the phone with you fell for me," Shinichi beamed.

Kaito was at a loss. "So... then why'd you run out of the restaurant?"

"I got a call from my dad to tell me that my mom was in a car accident. She was walking across the street when a crazy fan of hers hit her with his car with intent to kill. When I asked why he did it to someone he apparently was a fan of, he said it was because he wanted to 'send her to heaven so she could be a real angel.'" Shinichi's eyes darkened. "That's unforgiveable. My dad and I are trying to get him put in jail for the rest of his life, but Megure-keibu is considering putting him in an asylum instead."

He stretched, forcing Kaito to climb off of him. "I've been trying to stay awake for as long as I can so I can keep an eye on my mom as well as work on getting that idiot thrown in jail, so I've been drinking an insane amount of coffee, but I guess I finally fell asleep after all this time."

Kaito opened his mouth to comment on how unhealthy/insane it was to stay awake for a week by drinking coffee, but he was cut off by a loud beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep from the room behind them.

Shinichi glared at the door. "My mom's been messing with the machines and making them start flatlining and beeping like she's dying when she wants my dad's attention. It's a miracle that I managed to fall asleep with that happening all the time."

"So... you were never mad at me?"

Shinichi blinked. "Of course no –"

He was cut off when a pair of lips suddenly pressed against his. Shinichi was shocked to find that Kaito was kissing him, but his elation quickly overcame his shock, and he took control of the kiss expertly.

Finally they pulled apart, both panting slightly. Shinichi was grinning from ear to ear, and Kaito was glowing five radioactive shades of red.

"Wow," Shinichi said breathlessly. "I never thought our first kiss was going to be with me half-asleep in the middle of a hospital hall."

Kaito smirked. "We can always redo it, if you want."

And with that, the two of them, rivals, a detective and a thief, both male, one a self-proclaimed philophobic, the other a wanted criminal, walked away, hand and hand.

"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

- Winston Churchill

OMG! It's finished! (Even if it's really short and rushed!)

And yep, I kinda trolled you with that resolution. Finally, not a cliché! Or... the farthest from a cliché that I'll ever get.

If you hated my resolution, please don't flame me. Actually, maybe you should, because I'm in the mood for crème brûlée right now.

JUST KIDDING. Don't flame me.

I've got a lot to say right now, so please... bear with me.

Firstly, I apologize for the very late upload – my favorite aunt came to visit from California, so I was a little busy.

Secondly, thank you very much to foreverandeveralone whose review was the 40th review! :D I now believe Owl City because dreams apparently don't turn to dust.

Thirdly/lastly, I'd appreciate if you'd review on either 1) my way of resolving the conflict – hate/like?, 2) whether my next story should be KaiShin or ShinKai (I like KaiShin as well as ShinKai), or 3) a synonym for "blink," and/or "blush" because I overuse both of them. -_-;;

Thanks for reading Deal.I love all of my readers, especially all my lurkers.

Till next time! - Luna Darkside