Detective Conan and Magic Kaito characters, settings, and ideas do not belong to me but to Aoyama Gōshō.

Gestures of Kindness

By Taliya

Prologue

With the Midnight Sun safely tucked in a pocket—which was not Pandora—sixteen-year-old Kuroba Kaito, currently masquerading as the internationally wanted phantom thief known as Kaitou KID, glided through the cloudy night sky, enjoying the solitude being airborne had to offer. Tonight's heist had gone as well as he could have hoped, and he thanked the gods for escaping unscathed from Snake's bullets. He had made out with the target while outsmarting the London Detective and his fellow classmate, Hakuba Saguru, along with Inspector Nakamori Ginzo and the rest of the Kaitou KID Task Force before trading barbs, bullets, and steel cards with Snake and his men. The sounds of the sparse traffic and people thirty minutes to midnight were muted at this height due to the thickness of the air courtesy of the front expected to roll over Tokyo in a few hours' time. Even so, his keen eyes were able to pick out the individuals that dotted the grounds as he soared over Tropical Land. The amusement park was particularly busy; tonight was the beginning of the Golden Week holiday, with today happening to be both Shouwa Day and a Friday.

With the heist over, there was no need to uphold his Poker Face when he was alone, and it allowed him time to reflect and observe. Below, there were clusters of people that traipsed along—groups of friends, couples, all strolling at leisurely paces, and Kaito smiled wistfully at them, a part of him longing to be one of them but knowing he was set apart for as long as he was Kaitou KID. Sudden movement caught his eye as one person broke into a sprint, leaving another person standing alone as he passed over Horror and Fantasy Land. Curiosity piqued, he dropped in altitude and circled, watching the male teenager dart into the shadows and brace himself alongside one of the equipment sheds at the periphery of the amusement park. He switched on the night vision ability on his monocle, eyes narrowing when he spied a man clad entirely in black making a monetary transaction of a large sum via briefcase with another man, who quickly fled. Not Snake, I just left him. An associate of his, perhaps? Indigo eyes widened when his gaze returned to the teen, who had been dropped by another man with long blond hair armed with a baseball bat, also clad in black. The man bent over and fed the disoriented teen something before the two involved fled the scene.

The desire for revenge—the yearning to chase the two men who might possibly lead him to his father's murderers—warred with the anxiety that flooded his gut as he watched the teen spasm on the ground. His conscience nagged at him for wanting to chase the two men in black when there was someone clearly in pain and needing aid when there was no one else immediately nearby to help, though there were two policemen with flashlights further away sweeping the areas behind the sheds. Cursing softly under his breath with a last lingering glance at the two escaping suspects he quickly dropped further in altitude, landing on the equipment shed the now-convulsing boy had hidden against. Once on the ground, Kaito could see a ribbon of blood painted down his cheek, but that concern was exponentially amplified when he heard the pained grunts and hisses that made it past the teen's clenched teeth. A quick glance around revealed the two officers nearing their location, clearly searching for suspicious figures. Knowing he could not be found in costume but unwilling to give up the tactical advantages said attire offered, Kaito flattened himself against the roof and waited, wondering about the teen's condition and working through various scenarios on to get the teen to the nearest hospital without being caught himself as the male teenager on the ground quieted with a final whimper.

"Are you all right, boy?" asked one of the policemen, and Kaito blinked.

Boy? he thought. Why are they addressing a teenager as 'boy'? He eased himself to the edge of the roof after taking off his top hat, peering down at the developing situation and barely biting back a gasp of shock. Gods and goddesses in heaven, he swore. Instead of a male teenager lying in the grass, a young boy of about six years of age blinked into the flashlight beams, wearing clothing much too big for him—the same clothing the teenager had worn. Kaito's brain froze as it processed what he was seeing. The child sitting in the grass had the same trickle of blood on his face, along with another one that stemmed from his eye. Same clothing, roughly same wounds, but different ages—had the teenager been de-aged somehow? He noticed the child looked just as confused as Kaito himself felt, the boy's brows furrowing as he watched the police officers.

"Your head is injured. What exactly happened?" continued the officers, taking a step towards the youth.

As if suddenly recalling the fact that he had been hit on the head with a bat, the boy grabbed the back of his head with a grimace, but then looked at the overly long sleeve that covered his hand in bafflement. Shock filled his eyes as he swiftly stared at the too-large puddle of jeans he was currently sitting in, and Kaito decided to watch and see how the situation unraveled—and to offer his aid if necessary—intrigued by the abrupt physical transformation in the teen-turned-child.

"I'm protecting an injured young boy," the second policeman reported, speaking into a handheld transceiver. "No, it's a primary school student." The boy glanced back up at the policemen, puzzlement giving way to terror in his expression at his predicament. Standing shakily, he rolled up his oversized clothing as best he could and dashed into the darkness. "His head is wounded, maybe he is connected to some sort of criminal case," the officer continued, starting when he realized the child had disappeared.

Kaito had pulled himself up and leapt soundlessly to the next building over the moment the boy had pelted off, following the child by rooftop as the officers panicked behind him. Injured as he was, Kaito's conscience would not allow him to let the boy run off without some sort of medical attention. And yet… was this child really a child, or had he truly originally been a teenager? Kaito silently shadowed the boy as he exited the amusement park, running down the practically deserted streets in blind terror. As he followed, he wondered if the boy would show signs of more mature, rational thought and action—for example, going to an emergency clinic to get his head looked at, or calling up someone to pick him up. The clouds chose that moment to unload its cargo, and rain began to pour down to the earth. Kaito was quickly drenched, but maintained watch over the boy. When he finally tripped and fell to the pavement, he decided it was time to do more than just act as a sentinel and dropped from the roof of the building he had been observing from, landing tens of paces behind the child and securing his Poker Face.

The boy braced himself against a window as he righted himself before nearly smashing his face into it as he stared in utter dismay at his reflection. "—has shrunk?!" he exclaimed in horror before whirling around with his back pressed to the window, eyes not really seeing what was before him. "Why?" he wondered aloud, and Kaitou KID could practically see the cogs in the youth's brain churning. "Could it have been caused by…?" He paused before suggesting to himself, "Could those drugs have caused this?"

"Apparently, boy," the magician answered, and the child jerked to face him, fear written plainly on his face. He held up both hands to show they were empty—though for a phantom thief of his caliber, that really did not mean a thing—but the gesture was meant to reassure the child that he was ostensibly unarmed. "Calm down, I'm not here to hurt you. I promise." The thief made no move to draw closer to the youth; it would not do to spook him further. "I only wish to help you, seeing as how you are—or were—bleeding."

The boy's eyes darted wildly around like a cornered animal before settling fearfully back on him. "Who are you?" he asked, voice trembling, though whether it was from the rain or his situation, KID could not tell. As it was, the rain had by now rinsed away the visible blood from the child's wounds, and the gentleman thief was startled to see a near carbon copy version of his younger self staring back, albeit with deep blue instead of indigo eyes—his first good look at the child's face.

Poker Face held in place to hide his shock, KID bent into a theatrical bow, tipping his hat gracefully despite the fact it was waterlogged and barely held its shape. "Kaitou 1412, colloquially known as Kaitou KID, at your service," he said with as much disarming charm as he could muster. Straightening, he regarded the shivering boy, who stared back at him with wide eyes that held a strange spark of recognition. Filing that away for later food for thought, he said, "I would like to take you somewhere to get your head looked at. Head wounds are no laughing matter." He squatted so that he was eyelevel with the youth despite the distance that separated them, and held out a gloved hand in a silent entreaty.

The youth stared silently at him for a while longer, and KID could see the internal debate raging within before he seemed to reach some sort of resolution. "No hospitals," he insisted, and the phantom thief mentally frowned. "I—I can't have any public records of me when they think I'm already dead."

KID tipped his head in concession at the sound logic, though the statement worried him greatly. "Fine. But I assure you that I will be having a look at your head regardless to make sure you don't have a concussion or go into shock."

Hesitantly, the child stepped towards him, and the magician unconsciously held his breath, holding himself as still as he could as the boy approached. When the child's fingers grasped his own, he exhaled, only then realizing that he had held it at all. Even with the night vision of his monocle he was unable to tell if the boy was concussed or not given both his pupils were fully dilated in order to see in the rainy gloom, but he would need to confirm it further with other tests later. As it was, he showed no signs of needing immediate emergency care—he still possessed excellent coordination if he could run the way he did, no mention of dizziness or desire to vomit—though the slight stutter did worry him. With a soft grin, KID murmured, "Let's get out of this rain first, all right?" as he rose to his full height. "Then afterwards," and his tone darkened by a fraction, "we'll talk about those men in black who shrunk you."

The boy attempted to flee once more in panic, but the phantom thief securely grasped the child's hand without causing injury. "L-Let go of me!" he yelled, tugging at his captured hand.

The magician pulled the boy closer to him as he bent down to eyelevel once more. "You're not a normal child," he stated, no longer verbally babying the boy and was gratified when he froze, eyes intently watching him with mingled interest and fear. "I know you're actually a teenager, between fourteen to seventeen years of age at a guess, if memory serves correctly. I saw how they dosed you with something, though I did not actually see you shrink to your current form." Assured that he had the boy's complete attention, KID continued. "Now, I'm not sure what the circumstances that led you to them were, but because of the serious nature of your situation and because I am quite an inherently curious being I'm willing to help you a little bit if you'll let me."

The boy's brows furrowed as he considered Kaitou KID's offer before he said shrewdly, "But you're no Good Samaritan—all you do is steal and return jewels. Why would you help me?"

"Oh, so you have heard of me!" the thief purred with unconcealed delight.

The child scoffed. "I do read the papers every now and then when I have the chance, Kaitou KID-san." The boy studied him for a moment longer, and now that the child had calmed down, the intense stare KID was lucky enough to be on the receiving end of completely proved to him that this boy was well and truly not a six year old. "But regardless, why do you want to help me?"

KID's brow rose at the question before his expression morphed into his normal rakish, devil-may-care smirk. "Kaitou KID isn't allowed to help others even outside of heists? Don't you know the most important rule that I abide by?" he replied. The shrunken teenager gave him a flat stare. "Such a harsh critic," bemoaned the thief as he straightened and tugged the youth towards an alleyway. He felt he had spent too much time exposed on the empty streets as it was, and who knew if Snake or those other guys were anywhere in their immediate vicinity?

When the shrunken teenager began to resist, KID murmured urgently, "We need to hide. If those guys are truly after you, you'll need to disappear a little while, and I feel much too exposed here. That and you still need to get your head looked at."

The child immediately ceased struggling, understanding the gravity of his situation and warily but docilely followed the gentleman thief into the darkness. The rain had tapered to a steady drizzle as they wove around the residential backstreets of Beika City for close to fifteen minutes, though thunder rumbled ominously in the distance. Only then did KID deem it safe enough to stop after quickly but efficiently scoping the dimly lit side street they rested in. "Know of any places nearby where we won't be disturbed for a while?" the thief asked quietly, noting the exhaustion in the boy's body language despite the comparatively stoic mien. KID knew the feeling intimately, having crashed too many times afterwards from the heist-induced adrenaline rush, and he was eager to get both himself and the boy out of their soaked clothing. As it was, he was amazed the child had not gone into shock already. He was already working out the logistics for getting the boy to his home in Ekoda despite the unknowns and risks, if push came to shove.

The boy once again pinned him with another penetrating stare, and KID could not help but wonder who exactly the teenager beneath the childlike appearance was. "If you really want to help me," he said slowly, and the phantom thief froze at the frigid solemnity that was completely at odds with the child's appearance, "I need to know if I can trust you." When KID opened his mouth to protest, he was cut off. "I want a name and a face."

That brought him up short. Eyes narrowing, he carefully reconsidered the youth standing before him, brazenly demanding his identity, reading between the lines. "You need to build a new persona in case this is a little more long term, I'm guessing?" Folding his arms across his chest, he countered without a hint of KID's usual jocularity, "And would you be willing to make the same concession? Would you be able to keep my identity a secret like I would yours?"

The youth's eyes narrowed in thought and he tilted his chin up to meet the thief's gaze full on. "I can keep a secret if it is necessary, though I don't like it and I'm terrible at lying," the boy finally admitted.

The phantom thief sighed audibly. "You do realize that once we construct an alter ego for you, you'll be lying through your teeth every waking second until you regain your original form, right?" The boy's eyes slid to the side as he nodded in resignation. "Well then," he said briskly, the change in tone abrupt enough to snap the boy out of his musings, "let's first find a hidey hole for us before we begin introductions."

The boy had seemed to reach some sort of decision, for he reached out and grasped the phantom thief's hand before saying, "This way." The pair made their way from Haido to Beika, where eventually they stood before a large, western-style mansion. The nameplate on the perimeter gate entrance proclaimed the manor as the home of the Kudou family. The name was somewhat familiar, and he fleetingly wondered if this residence was that of either the mystery writer Kudou Yuusaku or the retired actress Kudou Yukiko—or maybe not quite as farfetched, the home of the teenaged detective, Kudou Shinichi. But the likelihood for any of those people—except perhaps the young detective who did hail from Beika—seemed statistically low, and so he put it out of his mind.

KID watched with hidden amusement as the child tried and failed to reach the gate's lock with growing frustration before taking pity on the shrunken teen and wordlessly unlatching the gate. He followed the boy into the house with a warning that they keep all the lights inside the house off, shedding KID's white shoes in the genkan and stowing them away on his person as he muttered, "Pardon my intrusion." As the boy began to walk down the hallway leaving a trail of water he said quietly, "Hide your shoes. We'll need to dry the floor later so that it will look as though you never returned home." The child complied, stowing the drenched sneakers in the shoe cabinet before padding down the unlit hallway in slipper-covered feet toward the library with the thief in tow, both of them leaving a string of interconnected puddles in their wake.

"Are your parents home?" he asked quietly, eyes searching the darkness for movement and ears straining for any unusual sounds.

"No," breathed the boy, "they are currently somewhere in America. I live by myself."

KID sighed, feeling the child's living situation was all too similar to his own, what with his father dead and his mother flitting across the world. "Maybe…" the thief said softly in the hallway just outside the library, and the youth paused to listen, twisting to face him. "Maybe you should get some sleep first and have some time to think about my offer after I take a look at your head." He had no doubt the boy was turning his second offer over and examining it from all angles for loopholes, and Kaitou KID himself, despite being the one to suggest it, was fairly uneasy about how the whole affair was slipping beyond his control. That and if the child truly had a concussion, someone needed to drop by and check on him every couple of hours. So much for a full night's sleep, he mentally groused without any real resentment.

The child's eyes narrowed shrewdly. "You're not backing out already, are you?"

"Not at all," KID said in an affable tone, though it did little to mask the gravity of the situation. "But it'll give you a chance to really think things through and get some rest. If you decide to go through with it, hopefully you will have decided by tomorrow, since I plan to drop by this place at midnight tomorrow—or would that be later today? If nothing else, then it's just a safeguard to make sure that you are stable enough to be alone if you do not have a concussion. Anyhow, if you decide you do not want or need my help after I come back, I give you my word I will mentally delete this address and name and never bother you again. But first," he said, not giving the bedraggled-looking boy a chance to interject, "why don't we get you changed out of your clothes into something dry and I take a look at your wound? I'll wait in the library—" he gestured to the dark room to his left where row upon row of shelving was barely distinguishable in the shadows, "—and you come find me with a first aid kit, yes?"

The boy nodded and disappeared up the stairs by the entrance while KID quickly located a powder room and wrung out his clothing as best as he could. He returned to the library and stood in the center, not wanting to dampen the dual couches or the desk chair after drawing the curtains of the windows shut and hiding away the occasionally lightning-lit sky. A quick call to Jii informed the man that he was fine and not in need of assistance.

"I'm back," said the youth, and the thief turned, gratified to find that boy had returned wearing a primary school uniform—likely his own from when he actually was that age, rumpled towel-dried hair, and wielding a first aid kit. Thunder rumbled loudly and the front rolled over the manor with a torrential roar.

Kaitou KID stepped towards the child and relieved him of his burden, directing him to sit on one of the couches after turning off the night vision on his monocle and switching the library's desk lamp on. It was at that moment the phone rang. The boy sprang up to answer it, but was easily restrained by KID with a hand clapped over his mouth. When the youth began to thrash, he whispered urgently, "You're supposed to be dead, remember?" and the child physically wilted in his arms. The phone continued to ring until the answering machine picked the call up.

"You've reached Kudou Shinichi. I'm not home at the moment. If you have a case for me, please leave a message…"

Well… That was not quite how he had planned on obtaining the boy's name. He groaned loudly in his head as details about the teenaged detective genius flashed through his mind. Second year student at Teitan High School, standout soccer player, incredibly intelligent, intuitive, and observant, son of the both the mystery writer and retired actress, known as the Modern-Day Holmes—the list went on and on. Why, why, why did I have to come across another detective? KID mentally wailed. What were the odds? Hakuba is bad enough, but add in a second detective? The gods must truly hate me to have dealt me such a punishment!

The detective in question had stiffened in his arms once the phone call had rolled over to the answering machine, and even now had begun trembling once more. KID marveled at how small the body in his arms was, having been shrunk from a form that was his size to this. Mentally giving himself a shake, he reorganized his thoughts. Priorities. Head wound. Right. "Come on," he murmured and scooped the shuddering and unresisting teenager-turned-child up and depositing him back on the couch. "Let me take a look at your head, then we'll talk."

Upon learning about his father's murder and understanding that the men that had killed Kuroba Touichi would assuredly try to kill him whenever he was in costume, Kaito had immediately taken an assortment of practical emergency first aid classes and read texts of physiology and anatomy and other such volumes on medicine, just in case. Putting that training to good use, he performed a quick series of diagnostic exams, asking if he could perform simple coordination tasks, checking his eye movement with a pen, and how he felt. While he was positive the boy knew exactly what he was doing, that he allowed himself to be treated without comment indicated just how out of it he truly was. Relieved but not entirely happy with his diagnosis of a lack of concussion—symptoms could show up days later—he then delicately prodded the boy's head, finding a large bump and a shallow wound. The blow he received had been glancing, for if he had been hit full on with that bat it would have likely crushed his skull in. Still, he was thankful that his white gloves came away clean, and he located a cotton swab before dabbing the area as best he could through the shrunken detective's hair with an antibiotic ointment. A long string of gauze later, and a neat bandage was wrapped around the child's head.

They situated themselves on the couches regarding each other awkwardly—or rather, the boy sat on one couch and KID stood in front of the other, still wearing his sodden trademark white outfit. Neither person was particularly enthused by the situation that had already revealed one of their identities to the other unknown entity. But the phantom thief was determined to help the teenager-turned-child; he had promised after all, and a gentleman always honored his word. Plus, seeing any child fleeing in as blind a panic as the one before him ever had made him want to do nearly anything to help.

"So what's your verdict?" he asked lightly in an attempt to defuse the tension, masking both his curiosity and apprehension at the child's answer. "I will, of course, never reveal your identity regardless, as I assuredly do not want you dead." He sighed, noticing the wrinkled bands of dampness across the boy's shirt from where his arms had held him. No doubt his back was completely soaked as well. "I got you wet again," he murmured morosely to himself.

"You know who I am now," the child said at length, apparently not bothered by the saturated state of his clothing. He swallowed thickly, almost visibly gathering his courage and drawing it about him like a cloak, and KID felt himself tense despite the fact that he was trying to actively relax his body and project a sense of calm. Blue eyes locked on to his, and his breath was temporarily stolen by the intensity of the youth's gaze. "A name and a face," he repeated without hesitation. His tone indicated to the phantom thief he would accept nothing less.

KID closed his eyes and sighed silently through his nose before catching the detective's eyes. "You're sure?" he asked for confirmation, voice betraying none of the anxiety he felt. "You can, even now, still find someone else to help you, and I will forget you ever existed."

The child shook his head. "You know already, and at this juncture I think it's best to keep that number as low as possible."

"Fair enough," the gentleman thief replied neutrally, securing his strongest Poker Face. "You promise you will keep my identity secret and won't turn me in? I have a lot more to lose than you do, being an internationally wanted criminal and all," he said as a warning. "You would be considered an accessory after the fact."

"I understand," the boy said coolly. "But I am also not stupid enough to bite the hand that feeds me. It's definitely the lesser of evils, at any rate." The child hopped off the couch and stood facing him, countenance grimly serious and eyes bright with intelligence. "Kudou Shinichi, detective."

Author's Note: I'm not quite sure where this little plot bunny came from, but aside from the rather obvious holes in my story of, "Why would Kaito have taken notice of something that happened in the dark fringes of the park in the first place?" and "Why would Shinichi accept help from an international criminal?", it promises to be one hell of a ride, I think. The story will be told more from Kaito's point of view. Golden Week is a weeklong national holiday celebrated from April 29th to May 5th, beginning with Shouwa Day on April 29th, followed by Constitution Memorial Day, Citizen's Holiday/Greenery Day, and Children's Day on May 3rd, 4th, and 5th, respectively. I've fudged things up by ensuring that Shinichi has already heard of Kaitou KID, so it helps the storyline along. I hope you enjoyed it.

Completed: 13.04.2015