So here's the spy AU that I promised! Unfortunately, it's only the first part because I just couldn't get this finished, but I'm about midway through the second half! Any and all understanding of how espionage works is stolen from Kingsman (which I saw recently and is the primary reason why I wanted to write a spy AU), James Bond, and Avengers fic.

Warnings include shounen-ai,grammar mistakes / errors, handwavey spying tactics (as previously mentioned), etc., etc. Title from Adele's "Skyfall" for obvious reasons.

Enjoy! - Luna

Drowned and Dreamt

Kaito hadn't started out as a spy – excuse him, an "intelligence gathering asset." Far from it, actually. He'd started out as a high-profile jewel thief. He'd had his own police ordained codename and everything ("Phantom Thief 1412," though somehow that had morphed into "Kaitou Kid"). He'd made his jewel heists entertaining, throwing in some of the magic tricks he'd learned as a kid and being as flashy as possible. He'd had fan clubs.

And then Kudou Shinichi had shown up and changed everything. As he was wont to.

It had happened when Kaito was prematurely letting his guard down as he loitered in an alleyway several streets away from where he'd lifted the Diamond Queen from some snobby family's treasury (or whatever a large collection of art and jewelry on display was called). Well, maybe "prematurely" wasn't the correct word. It had been premature in hindsight, but at the time, Kaito had never been caught before, so there had been no reason for him to suspect he'd be jumped thirty minutes after his heist, far from the heist location, dressed in an inconspicuous pair of jeans and t-shirt and looking nothing like his eye-catching alter ego.

He had been in the middle of inspecting the Diamond Queen, watching it gleam in the dim, murky moonlight, when a soccer ball, of all things, came careening out of nowhere and knocked the eighty-seven carat diamond out of his grip. Before he could comprehend what was happening, Kaito was trussed up in his t-shirt with his cheek shoved against the gritty, cold ground as a silhouette crouched over him, one hand on his neck to keep him restrained.

Gasping, Kaito had barely been able to hear the low voice of his assailant over the sound of his pounding heart. "Kuroba Kaito," the man had greeted, syllables strung together in a soft, smooth cadence, and Kaito had blinked up at him, feeling a bit like a beached whale.

"Um, hi. You know, this would be a lot more pleasant if you weren't pressing me into the ground, but whatever," he had grumbled before he could stop himself. He had tensed upon realizing that perhaps it wasn't a good idea to snark at someone who could clearly kill him with, like, an eyelash or something.

Surprisingly, the man had laughed and released his neck, allowing Kaito to struggle into a seated position against the decaying brick wall behind him. The dim moonlight had chosen that moment to illuminate the man's face, offering Kaito the chance to get a good look at him.

And wow. Kaito had been instantly starstruck at the sight of him, of the sight of those angular cheekbones and matching jawline and the impeccable fall of hair over that forehead, not to mention the flare of the man's suit over his narrow waist. And it that hadn't been enough, the man was still smirking just the slightest bit, his well-shaped mouth turned up higher on the left than the right.

God. Kaito had always been weak for good bone structure and crooked smiles. It had been as if the universe had known just what to do to screw with him.

When the silence had grown too heavy and long, Kaito had coughed and, demonstrating his considerable prowess as a wordsmith, said, "…Um."

The man had smiled the unworried smile of a man who got that reaction often. "Kuroba Kaito," he had repeated. "Also known as Phantom Thief 1412. Or do you prefer Kaitou Kid?"

That had been enough to snap Kaito out of his trance. He had scowled, slanting his head at the man. "Either's fine."

"Excellent." The man had reached into his suit pocket – Kaito had tensed, prepared to try to escape even while still tied up like an amateur BDSM enthusiast – but all the man did was extract a silver-threaded business card and set it on Kaito's knee. Squinting, Kaito had been able to make out Kudou Shinichi – Defense Analyst and Technology Expert, Night Baron Security – Private Contractoralong with a phone number written on it in thick, blocky print.

"We at Night Baron have taken notice of you," the man – Kudou Shinichi, Kaito had supposed his name was – had informed him as Kaito had gaped up at him. "We've been watching your heists for a long time. Your skill with disguises and your acting ability have impressed a lot of people, Kuroba-san." He had done something with his eyebrows, a subtle flick or lift or raise, that had something in Kaito's stomach twisting into Gordian knots. "We're interested in recruiting you as a, ah…" Uneven smile here, and oh, there had gone Kaito's heart, goodbye forever. "An intelligence gathering asset. We're willing to overlook your criminal record, so by all means, please contact us with the number on that card."

With one last nod at Kaito, Kudou Shinichi had walked out of the alleyway, only stopping to scoop up the long-forgotten Diamond Queen.

"I'll be returning this to the Suzuki family, if you don't mind," he had called over his shoulder above the tap of his polished shoes against the concrete, and Kaito had not swooned, because he hadn't been a preteen girl, he'd just sort of… sagged dreamily against the wall.

In the end, he had called the number, out of a combination of morbid curiosity and the fact that yes, okay, he sort of had a tiny, unimportant, irrelevant thing for Shinichi. Upon calling, he had been directed to a sleek skyscraper in Beika City, interrogated by a set of terrifying young women, and then sent out on a "test run" that involved infiltrating a gala that an international weapons dealer was allegedly using as a cover for a deal.

Naturally, Kaito been successful in this venture – he had latched onto one of the stuffy older gentleman attendees in the disguise of a voluptuous, airheaded blonde and shut down the transaction minutes after it had begun – and thus he had been inducted into the ranks of Night Baron Security's assorted "defense analysts, technology experts, and intelligence gathering assets."

Basically, that was how Kaito had become a spy.

The first time Kaito had happened upon Shinichi in the hallway after a briefing from one of the many handlers Night Baron employed, Shinichi's eyes had widened and he'd clapped Kaito on the shoulder, all the while grinning. "So you made it in, did you?" he had beamed, and Kaito had nodded and smiled stupidly back at him.

It had escalated into Shinichi mentioning that he had just lost a partner – Mouri Ran, his last one, had been promoted to some kind of higher level of spy (Kaito hadn't and still doesn't understand the hierarchy of spies, but whatever) – and Kaito had remarked, "Oh, I haven't been assigned a partner yet either," and Shinichi had looked at him with consideration, and then, well, it hadn't been hard to see where that was going.

And three years later they were still partners. Unfortunately not life partners, as Kaito would've hoped would've happened within three years, but regular partners were close enough – considering Night Baron's odd cohabitation regulation, which forced them to live together (and subsequently forced Kaito to see things that were dangerous to his sanity, like Shinichi topless and flushed right after a shower).

They'd gotten through ridiculous missions, things involving endangered pandas and bungee jumping off the top of Bell Tree Tower and near-death encounters with radical soccer fans, and they'd gotten through ridiculous arguments, things stemming from Shinichi's habit of not eating until he passed out from hunger and Kaito's predilection for singing loudly in the shower and their opposing views on eggplants. They'd gotten through it all. Because at the end of the day, Kaito needed Shinichi in many ways, both visceral and rational, and while he didn't know if Shinichi felt the same, he did know that Shinichi didn't seem to mind him, and that was good enough. If they never progressed to romance, Kaito would be fine with that.

After dismantling a dirty bomb in Alaska (of all places; Kaito didn't understand terrorists sometimes), Kaito came home to find Hattori passed out at the kitchen table. His partner Hakuba was spinning a standard issue throwing knife between his fingers as he lounged on the couch. Shinichi was nowhere in sight.

Blinking and setting down his bag, Kaito shut the door behind him. "Uh… hi."

Hakuba nodded genially in his direction, and then proceeded to throw the knife at him. He ducked out of the way with a yelp.

Glaring at where the knife was now embedded in the front door – Shinichi was not going to be pleased about that – Kaito turned to scowl at Hakuba. "What was that for?"

"Just testing your reflexes," Hakuba answered and had the nerve to smirk at him.

Kaito fumed. Hakuba had transferred from MI6 to Night Baron for reasons Kaito didn't know and didn't care about, and because he had worked for a "government agency," he seemed to think he was head and shoulders above the rest of them. Which was an unfortunate character trait, considering his assigned partner was Hattori, who was both arrogant and hotheaded and therefore did not appreciate Hakuba's ego. They fought to the point that Kaito had a legitimate fear that he would die as collateral damage of one of their arguments.

If it were up to him, he wouldn't voluntarily deal with either of them, because they were both insane, but Hattori was somehow Shinichi's best friend and Shinichi and Hakuba shared a borderline obsessive love of Sherlock Holmes, so unsurprisingly Shinichi adored both of them. And as that was the case, Kaito couldn't bring himself to demand Shinichi stop inviting the two of them over.

The things he did for Shinichi.

Hattori stirred at the table as Kaito plucked the knife out of the door and hurled it back at Hakuba (the bastard caught it between his fingers, likely just to annoy Kaito). He lifted his head, squinting as he took in his surroundings. "Oh, Kuroba. You're back," he mumbled, yawning.

"What an astute observation, Hattori-kun. Truly remarkable," Hakuba sniffed in his infamous, insufferable I am leagues above your level tone, and Hattori went dangerous and frozen halfway through his yawn.

"I swear to God, Hakuba, I'm gonna rip your goddamn blond hair out with my bare hands –"

"How violent," Hakuba gasped with perfect British horror, and Hattori near growled.

"You –"

"Anyway," Kaito interjected at a louder volume than necessary, "do you guys know where Shinichi is?"

"Shinichi," Hattori imitated under his breath, drawing a slight flush to Kaito's cheeks (the whole first-name-with-no-honorifics thing had started as a result of a mission they'd done with another agent named Kuroo, after which Shinichi had insisted they call each other by their first names to minimize the confusion that had transpired over the comms). He let his head drop back on the table. "Kudou went out to get the debrief for the drug cartel thing we're supposed to do. Apparently he was having trouble downloading it on his computer?"

Frowning, Kaito took a seat across from Hattori at the table. "What drug cartel thing?"

Hakuba audibly rolled his eyes, sitting up straight. "Oh, just that mission that we've been assigned to do together for the past eight months," he answered, somehow managing to inject several thousand liters of disdain into his voice. "It's not as if it was anything important."

Fighting the urge to find a frying pan and fling it at Hakuba's face, Kaito gritted his teeth and turned back to Hattori. "So he's at headquarters, then?"

"Yeah." Hattori sighed. "I can't believe he would leave me here with this asshole." He jerked his head in Hakuba's direction.

"Excuse you, Hattori-kun, but I am most certainly not –" Hakuba began with enough haughtiness to make Kaito want to light himself on fire and jump off the balcony, but it was at that moment that the front door opened and Shinichi traipsed in.

"Hi, guys," he grinned, and instantly the tense atmosphere deflated. Shinichi just had that effect.

And it didn't hurt that he looked gorgeous as usual, Kaito thought as he inconspicuously tried to sweep his gaze over Shinichi. He was wearing jeans and an oversized cardigan that would be hideous on anyone other than him, and his hair was tousled from the wind. It was a far cry from Kaito's initial impression of him, but Kaito could admit that he preferred seeing how Shinichi looked outside of the field.

Tugging off his cardigan, Shinichi sat down at the kitchen table beside Kaito. "Hey, Kaito," he nodded with a smile, and Kaito half-melted into his chair. Shinichi didn't seem to notice as he went on, "How was Alaska?"

"Cold," Kaito replied, and Shinichi hummed.

"Anyway, here's the debriefing," he said, slapping a thick folder down on the table. As Hakuba relocated to Hattori's side, Shinichi continued, "Apparently there's going to be a huge transaction at this party thing." He wrinkled his nose, flipping the folder open and shuffling through a few papers. "Museum… opening? Showing? Something like that."

Hattori leaned forward, studying the included blueprint with raised eyebrows. He gave a whistle. "This is some high security shit."

"It's the grand opening of a 'metropolitan museum of art and culture' where several pieces of priceless art will be displayed, so that's hardly surprising," Hakuba murmured, but he didn't sound condescending. He thumbed through several more pages. "Kuroba is running point, it appears."

"Really? What am I supposed to do?" Kaito narrowed his eyes, flicking through the packet until he located the job designations.

"You're disguising as Takeda Kousuke, a young businessman with a failing company. In case you're wondering, we're planning to knock him out for the duration of the event. Anyway, Takeda has been approached multiple times by Yamamoto Akihiro, the suspected kingpin of the narcotics operation we're trying to shut down. He was invited to this opening, likely as a prospective customer," Shinichi told him. "Your objective is to get any and all information on the outfit possible. According to the museum layout, there's a suspicious unmarked spot between upstairs galleries two and three, which suggests that may be his base of operations. Hattori is playing back up in the event something goes wrong, Hakuba is mapping out the floor and disabling security, and I'm going to be walking you through the whole thing." He frowned, looking up with eyebrows lifted. "Wow, why am I handling? Shouldn't Nakamori or Toyama be handling this?"

"It's because they need a break from Kuroba-kun, and you're the only one who can stand talking to him for an extended period of time," Hakuba supplied, earning a glower from Kaito and an eye roll from Hattori.

But Shinichi, bless his beautiful soul, just looked bewildered. "What are you talking about? Kaito is perfectly good company," he argued, and Kaito flushed and flinched under the knowing look Hakuba leveled at him.

"Shut up," he grumbled, and Hakuba shook his head, making annoying little tsk noises. Hattori did the same.

"You're in deep, Kuroba."

Shinichi continued to frown, mystified, before Kaito forced a smile in his direction. "It's nothing. They're just being assholes," he assured his partner, watching in fascination as the wrinkle between his eyebrows smoothed at Kaito's words. It was alarming how much blind faith Shinichi appeared to put in him.

"If you say so," Shinichi shrugged, and turned back to the file. "Anyway, let's discuss these alarms…"

Kaito studiously ignored the twin smirks Hakuba and Hattori were casting in his direction. At least they had something they could bond over, he thought with an internal sigh.

If you enjoyed this chapter, please considering dropping me a review. See you all soon~! - Luna