Hi, everyone. Happy Valentine's/Singles' Awareness Day!

I've recently lost my infatuation with the DCMK fandom, but I had this sitting completed on my computer for several months before that. I was waiting for Valentine's Day to come around to post it because of how seldom I write romance at any level, so I'm posting it even without currently being obsessed with the fandom. I guess you could think of it as a special Valentine's oneshot for you guys. :)

One Truth

Patter. Patter. Conan heard the thief's near-silent footsteps on the rooftop as Kid pocketed the picture he'd been looking at and went to look out over Beika's nighttime skyline. "What's this about, Kid?"

"I suppose you know quite a bit about death, don't you? You probably know more than me."

Kid's eyes had seemed empty to Conan when the boy had first arrived on the roof. With the thief's position next to the edge of the roof and the flat tone to his voice, Conan would have been worried about the thief's life if Kid hadn't started to sit down. As it was, Conan's working theory was that Kid was grieving.

"I've seen plenty of corpses," Conan admitted, "but I've never had anyone close to me die."

"That's fine. I don't need emotional advice."

"You want me to look into a death, right?"

The thief shook his head. "No. It's more a personal matter."

Conan repeated his earlier question. "What's this about, Kid?"

"I've been thinking of three different deaths I've been personally connected to and the effects they've had on those they've left behind."

"So this is a psychological matter then."

Kid shook his head slightly. "I'd say it's more about crime … and family."

The detective went and sat down next to the sullen magician. "You know I need more details to give you any advice."

Conan observed as the thief's body language relaxed ever so slightly. "Did you hear about the bombing that happened on my last heist?"

Conan nodded. "There were eighteen casualties, and the police still don't know who set the bomb or why."

"But I do," Kid admitted. "They were old enemies of Phantom Lady. They heard that she was going to come support me at my heist that night, so they set the bomb in hopes of killing her."

Conan looked over at the thief sympathetically. "That time you returned Ryoma's treasures, you said that neither of us could say no to our mothers. I thought that..." Conan paused. "Phantom Lady really is … no, really was your mother, isn't she?"

Kid nodded slightly.

The rooftop was silent for a moment. "You said you know who killed her," Conan said. "Any chance of bringing the culprit to justice?"

"I hope so," Kid answered, "but that's not the primary reason I came to see you tonight."

"Oh?"

Kaito continued. "I have a childhood friend, just like you have Ran. She was also injured that night as she came to cheer the police on in catching me." The thief had to ignore the funny expression on his smallest detective's face for a moment as he continued, "I've been in love with her for several years, and I want to marry her someday, but..."

"...but it's too dangerous with you being Kid, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Kid admitted.

"So that's what this is about?" Conan asked.

"Yeah, but there's more to it than that. Some of the things that happened after the bombing got me thinking about how Kid might affect any children of mine." Kaito sighed. "I've seen crime tear apart the families of two criminals now."

"Of course something like this affects your loved ones. They'll be hurt if something happens to you. They'll be hurt if any of your enemies catch up with them too." Conan looked over at Kid. "But keep in mind, distancing yourself from the ones who already care about you can't protect them from being hurt."

Kid sighed. "I know."

The next thing out of the detective's mouth caught the thief by surprise. "Why are you Kid?"

Kaito sat up straighter. "What?"

"Why are you Kid?" Conan repeated.

Kaito frowned at his little critic. "You're a detective. I'm not telling you."

"You don't have to," Conan clarified, "but you should ask yourself that question. Is stealing worth tearing a family apart? Or are you willing to give up having a family altogether to continue with being Kid?"

Kaito sat in silence for a moment. "Those are the questions I was hoping you could help me answer."

"I can tell you right now that the answer to at least the first of those questions is no. No matter how noble of reasons you might have for being Kid, there are better means to get done what you're trying to do than committing crime."

"What do you know of my motives?"

"Not much," the detective replied. "You don't seem to be motivated by getting rich because you keep returning what you steal, but without more information, how is anyone supposed to know why you're a thief?"

Kid narrowed his eyes. "Then how are you so confident that what I'm doing isn't worth it? How can you say that there's something else I should be doing?"

"Because I know stealing is wrong. Or is there some sort of information that would prove otherwise?"

Kid sat in silence for a moment, sending the occasional frown at Conan. The detective let him, not making any move to interfere.

Finally, Kid sighed. "I can't believe I'm telling you this, but it's to serve justice and catch my dad's murderers, alright?"

"Your father was murdered?"

"Yeah."

"Do you want me to catch the culprits?"

The thief blinked. "You?"

"I shouldn't have to tell you this, but murder cases are my specialty."

"No. I'd have to tell you who I am, and you'd arrest me too."

"My offer still stands. But tell me, how can you serve justice if you don't serve the law?"

"What?" Kid yelped. "I came to you for advice, shortie!"

Conan frowned. "When we first met, you spoke of a corrupt legal system. The point of a legal system is not to be corrupt, but to help people live together peacefully. I know that there will be corruption in the system as long as it is run by humans, but overall I believe what we have is a good thing. However, even if you're right and our system is corrupted, it still doesn't make it right for you to try to act in its place – breaking the law yourself to bring about 'justice' corrupts your justice too."

"Do you think I should have ignored my father's death just because law enforcement didn't bring the murderers to justice themselves!?"

"Calm down, I am not asking you to ignore your father's death. I offered to help you with that problem myself earlier, didn't I? I'm not ignoring the problem of your childhood friend being in danger either. You should know me better than that. Now tell me again, what did you come here for?"

"Advice," Kid grumbled. "Advice that you're taking your own sweet time to give."

"My advice is that instead of stealing, you should find a more legal route to get at your enemies," Conan gently told the clearly upset thief. "What I've been doing is giving you the reasons behind my recommendation."

"You've insulted me. If I'd had a better choice, wouldn't I have taken it? You should know me better than that too."

Conan shook his head. "You always had a better choice. The question was whether you had enough courage enough to take it. You could have asked someone for help, someone who could do the job legally and wasn't corrupt."

It was Kid's turn to shake his head. "The only person I knew back then was Inspector Nakamori. I didn't want to tell him that my father was Kid – you've seen what he gets like."

"Coward."

Kid glared at the shrunken teen next to him. "What does that make you? Or did you finally tell the authorities who you really are?"

Conan stuttered. "Th-that's different!"

But Kid stared him down. "How?"

"I did go to someone for help first!" the detective protested. "It was on his advice that I decided to hide!"

"And you thought the idea was a good one?" Kid still hadn't broken eye contact. "You shouldn't tell me to do something you're not willing to do yourself."

Conan froze. Then he hung his head. "Maybe we are both cowards."

The false child sighed. "The point is that if you're worried about Kid affecting your loved ones, you're going to have to give something up. I think the best thing you could give up is Kid because the thing you've been trying to accomplish by that could be done better through other means."

"I see," said Kid, looking morosely out at the skyline.

"Kid?" Conan asked softly. He put a hand on the thief's arm.

"Hm?"

"There is only one truth, okay? And that truth is that there are things that are right and things that are wrong, and we're all going to have to face the results of our choices someday. Both you and I will have to pay for dishonesty."

"And our loved ones too, right?"

"I hope not," Conan said. "It will affect them, but I don't think they'd have to pay for it in quite the same way we will. But, I think there may be a way to fix at least some of what we've done."

"Let me guess, turn myself in and tell the authorities what happened to my dad?"

"If that's what your conscience tells you to do, but you're right – I shouldn't ask you to do something I'm not willing to do myself."

"What do you want me to do then?"

"You do whatever your conscience tells you to do, but I can tell you what I'm going to do when I can finally stop lying, if it helps."

Kid thought for a moment. "Yes."

"When I stop being Conan Edogawa, I'm going to apologize to everyone I've had to lie to. I'm going to tell them the truth about me, even though it's going to hurt. Then I'll ask forgiveness and do what I can to make it up to them."

Kaito's brow twitched. "Isn't that the same as turning myself into the police? I thought you said you weren't going to ask me to do that."

"It's Kaitou Kid who stole. Shouldn't he be the one to apologize, at least to the people he hurt?"

"I might be able to do that, but what about my dad? And what about Kid's enemies? They're not guaranteed to stop coming after me if I quit."

"Maybe not," Conan said, "but it would make it less likely that they'd find you and your loved ones. You'll probably never going to be able to stop looking over your shoulders for them until they're caught, but it would lower the risk. Also, it would be a good idea to tell anyone you're planning to start a family with the truth – just in case."

"But, the inspector's daughter would never!"

"Never what? Forgive you?"

"Exactly! This isn't like you and your girl."

"Kid, are you certain she'd never forgive you? It might take a lot to make things up to her, but are you sure? It's the only way a relationship would be able to work."

Kid's poker face had long gone out the window, but at this moment, the thief lost an extra degree of control over his emotions. His hands formed into fists and a choked sob blocked any words he might have said to Conan.

"If she really cares about you, I'm sure she'll want to forgive you. It will just take work."

"Kudou, what if I've done too much for her to forgive?"

Conan looked at the distraught thief. "Look, I probably shouldn't be offering this, but if you give up crime, I'll keep my silence about your identity, I'll talk to your girl about forgiving you if you want, and I'll investigate your parents' deaths myself. I'll do whatever else I can to help too."

Kid looked over at Conan, one eyebrow very clearly raised. "Are you sure? No tricks?"

"Our situations bear some similarity. When I come clean, I'm going to need all the help I can get, so why should I make you go through this alone?" Conan gave Kid a half-smile. "If I were going to trick you into an arrest, I wouldn't have bothered to let you go so many times."

There was a pause as Kid mulled over Conan's offer. "I guess it is time for me to stop brooding at home and try to move forward with my life already."

Kid removed his top hat and monocle, not caring whether the detective could see his face. "I'm Kaito Kuroba, and I used to be the Kaitou Kid. Let's be friends." He offered his hand for the other boy to shake.

Conan took it. "Shin'ichi Kudou, hoping to put Conan Edogawa behind me some day. It's nice to finally meet the real you. Friends."

A year or so later...

Kaito's face turned steadily whiter as his childhood friend whispered evilly in his ear. "They want me to what?"

"What? Kaito, didn't you promise those kids that you'd do any theme of magic show for them if they stayed out of trouble this month? Helping out with these kids' crime prevention is your rehab for what someone obviously should have prevented for you, you know. Or I could have just told my dad about you."

"Yes, but, was it really the kids who chose a fish theme?"

"Hakuba still doesn't like you, you know? He found out about your phobia somehow and mentioned it to the kids. Ever since, they've been dying to see your reaction to fish."

Kaito sighed. "Fine. I think I might need an assistant. Since you'll be busy, I've got to go make a phone call. I'll see you tomorrow, Aoko."

Aoko waved a cheery goodbye to Kaito. "I can pick up anything you need from the pet store! I'll see you tomorrow."

Kaito closed his front door. He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and speed dialed his newest best friend. "Hey, Kudou, what would you be willing to do if I could talk Haibara-chan into giving you one of those temporary antidotes?"

"Quite a lot. What do you have in mind, Kuroba?"

"I need you to be me for an hour or so."

"Are you in some sort of trouble?"

"Yeah. Kids can be evil."

"Kids?" The detective's tone immediately showed Kaito that he thought something was off. "Wait, you're not trying to ditch the volunteer work you're doing with your girl to help her forgive you, are you?"

"But … fish!"

"What about fish?"

"They're evil!"

The line was silent, then it was filled with young laughter. "I have a hard time seeing you being scared of fish, Kuroba!"

"Shut up," Kaito mumbled. "Will you do it?"

"What exactly would I be doing?"

"Pretending to be a magician. I can rig all the tricks to work themselves before hand, when there's no fish around. All you'd have to do is wave your hands around and make everyone think you're me."

"When? Where?"

Kaito released his breath. "Next Saturday at 7:00 at the Ekoda Rec Center. So you'll do it?"

"Of course not, but I may come to watch."

"Kudou!"

"Sorry, Kuroba." Kudou didn't sound all that sorry. "You'll really want to be the one on stage. The fish show will be worth it if it's for her, right? I mean, it sounds like a one-time event, and compared to giving up Kid it's nothing."

Kaito's teeth clenched, his face tinting itself red.

"See you later, Kuroba." The detective hung up. Kaito growled and put his phone back in his pocket.

Kaito came up with a routine of entirely self-working magic rigs based on (shudder) fish. He kept trying to convince Kudou to take his place, but the runt only promised to come and watch. Well, no antidote for him!

By the time of the promised magic show, Kaito still hadn't managed to wriggle his way out of it. Thus, he found himself on a stageful of scaly aquatic beasts. He was certain the kids could tell how pale he was even from the back row and were enjoying every minute of it.

The magician kept his eyes closed as much as possible during his show, but that couldn't stop him from feeling the monsters' rough scales, smelling their foul odor, or even thinking about everything that surrounded him.

The moment his act was over, Kaito dropped the big fish he'd been given as a prop and fled the room. Aoko took off after him. "Kaito!" she called.

He stopped outside and spun around. "Aoko, I've had enough! I can't go back there now that there's fish."

"You don't have to. I've finally come to forgive you, thanks to you sucking it up for the kids." Aoko stepped closer. "But Kaito, can you promise me one more thing?"

The magician was silent, simply glaring at his crush instead.

"Can't you promise me this one thing?" Aoko asked again.

"That thing is...?"

"That Kid's gone forever."

Kaito snorted. "If Kid ever came out again, a certain midget detective would throw me in jail faster than I could say magic."

"Thank goodness!" Aoko leaped on Kaito, Kaito's face slowly heating up as he realized how tenderly the girl was holding him.

"Aoko?"

She pulled back. "Now that Kid's behind us..." She beamed, then quickly blushed. "I wanted to give something to you on stage, but you couldn't stay for even a bit longer." Aoko leaned toward Kaito and her lips met his for the first of many times.