Disclaimer: I forgot to put this in my last two stories, so please forgive me Gosho-sensei! I, in no shape nor form, own the Detective Conan or Magic Kaito franchise. If I did, not every episode would involve a murder. Let Shinichi relax for once! Not to mention that the Gosho Boys would meet up more often and sooner or later become sort of friends (considering the fact that Hattori and Hakuba are always going at each others throats like wild animals).

A/N: This is my third fanfiction story. Yay! On to this story's point. I have always pictured Heiji as the possessive best friend type. He always has to prove to others that he is Shinichi's only best friend. I can actually picture Heiji trying to pick a fight with Kaito just to prove that he will remain Shinichi's best friend and won't give up his spot for anyone. Kaito would just be a precious little thing and would try to tell Hattori that he was only a normal friend and had no intention of taking the tan boy's place, but Heiji would never listen and would compete with him in almost anything! Eventually Kaito just gives up while he only gets more and more confused and Shinichi becomes increasingly irritated. And don't worry, Hakuba will be involved in later chapters!

Anyway, enjoy the story!

Prologue

Swordsman meets Magician

Shinichi had always been a magnet of death, but for the first time in his life, as he watched as Hattori glare down Kaito, who was making the adorable expression of a confused puppy (head tilt and all), he actually wanted to be the one to murder somebody for once. Namely a certain Osakan detective who was acting like a complete ass to an innocent bystander.

"Hattori," he growled. This was getting tiring very fast. "Leave Kaito alone. What did he ever do to you? You guys just met, like, not even five minutes ago!" It was a stupid question and with how Shinichi's blood pressure was rising, he didn't actually feel like hearing what his friend had to say.

The day had actually started out so simple before Hattori had decided to show up.

-(o0o)-

With a yawn, Edogawa Conan - who was actually the high school detective, Kudou Shinichi - slowly rose from his futon. Unsurprisingly, it looked more like he was rising from the dead. Or he was an angry demon with how his face looked as it warped into a twisted expression of pre-morning coffee and sleepiness. While scary on his normal face, it was an oddly endearing look on a child.

(Or maybe the fact that the author was a complete loon for adorable children. Yeah, let's go with that... Back to the story.)

He gave an exasperated huff and, with what little strength he could muster from his just awakened body, made his trek to the kitchen. The quest for coffee was the only thing occupying his sleep-riddled mind.

But when he finally reached the kitchen that connected with the living room, he was met with a surprising sight that immediately snapped him to full awareness.

Standing in the middle of the living room was Kaitou KID, or Kudou Shinichi. The thief had apparently decided to pay another surprise visit. But, the thief had also forgotten the one flaw with his disguise:

Mouri Ran, Shinichi's childhood friend and current crush.

Who also loved him back.

"Oh my gosh, Shinichi! You never told me you were coming over! How long are you going to be staying?" Each sentence was said in such quick succession that Conan was actually surprised that he could actually tell what Ran was even saying.

And she was currently squeezing the life out of the poor teen by giving him the biggest hug she could muster, half out of relief to see him and half for revenge for 'Shinichi' being gone for so long.

Conan had to hold back a laugh.

He had befriended the thief on a heist night, ironically. The thief had bitten off more than he could chew when several Black Organization members had surrounded him with weapons drawn. Apparently, they had wanted the jewel he had stolen that night rather badly.

Conan had just happened to show up with several other Kaitou KID Task Force members himself. Just the appearance had caused the men to scatter instead of fight back like Conan had actually been half expecting to happen. Baffled by the unknown party, Nakamori-keibu had demanded to know what was going on. KID had been uncharacteristically serious as he told them not to get involved. The haunted look on the thief's face had stirred something in Shinichi and he found himself unable to just let the man go that night.

The chase had been a bit of a blur, but the confrontation was still fresh in the teen's brain. He had tracked the gentleman thief all the way back to his house. He didn't remember how he had gotten in, but he definitely remembered what KID's face looked like when he looked up from where he had been dressing his wounds. It had been priceless and Conan definitely would have laughed if he hadn't spotted the flow of crimson that was quickly reddening the sleeve of his silken shirt.

Needless to say that Shinichi had stayed and a talk had been had. It was long and complicated and very revealing. While Shinichi had been more than a little nonplussed to find out that KID knew who he was, he was even more thrown for a loop when the thief told him about why he was KID and not anywhere near as old as he should be. The lack of top hat and monocle only revealed a face as young as his own and the story only proved that KID was indeed as old as himself.

After the story, Shinichi was left in awe. It's not every day that you find out that your rival was actually practically a moonlighting vigilante who was trying to take down the same organization that you were. Or what they were really after. He had even learned KID's real name; Kuroba Kaito.

But when Shinichi watched as KID looked longingly at the poster of his role model on the bedroom wall, he had made his decision right then. The decision to help the thief.

That night they had called a truce and KID had taken him back to the detective agency. Ran had been frantic when she couldn't find him. But when she had seen Kaito, who had been disguised as Shinichi himself, she had glomped him. Needless to say, Conan was very upset, but the flustered and pleading expression on the other boy's face was worth it. He obviously wasn't used to being treated in such a way.

It eventually turned into a game since then. Kaito would take his place when needed or when he felt like coming over for a visit. It seemed that he had decided to keep up the Shinichi disguise because it actually helped Ran calm down. She became less worried and it also benefited Shinichi because Kaito could go and collect his homework for him from his school. It was during the moments that 'Shinichi' took 'Conan' out for a while that he actually caught up on his work.

He was actually going to graduate high school on time at this rate.

He was shaken from his musings when he heard a thud. Looking up, he found Ran standing over an almost passed out phantom thief who looked like he had just watched a particularly gory film with how terrified his face was. This time, Conan did laugh.

The sound of his laughter had snapped KID out of his fear and he turned a mild glare in his 'cousin's' direction. He was obviously not finding the situation as humorous as the shrunken teen.

This only made Conan laugh harder.

Ran looked distraught and very worried. She was apologizing profusely, "Oh my god! Shinichi, I'm so sorry!" The poor girl looked close to tears. Relenting to the power of the doe eyes that only girl's and small children seemed to be able to pull off, Kaito had reassured her that he was fine. Sadly, his words of comfort didn't seem to help and she had rushed off to buy an ice pack from the nearest convenience store.

By this point, Conan was laughing so hard that he was close to passing out from the lack of air. Apparently, the kaitou had decided that enough was enough. He crawled across the floor quickly and snatched Conan into his arms. The young detective only had a second to register his situation before KID dug his fingers into the child's sides. With a surprised yelp, they non-child once again was dragged into peals of laughter.

"If you want to laugh, I'll give you something to laugh about!"

The thief's indigo eyes were alight with mischievous glee as he watched the small detective in his arms weakly trying to remove his opponent's fingers from his person. It only gained fruitless results, but at least Conan could say he tried.

And that was when Hattori burst through the door with a loud, "Hattori Heiji has arrived, Kudou! Prepare yerself fer-"

His sentence died as he took in the image displayed before him.

Big Kudou. Little Kudou. In the same room. Big Kudou was playing with Little Kudou. Little Kudou was sitting in Big Kudou's lap and was obviously trying to get away. It didn't take a genius to see where the Osakan's thoughts were going.

"WHO THE HELLA YOU?!"

Kaito flinched at the furious cry of accusation. Was Tantei-han always this loud? The sudden cry had been so loud that Kaito had almost flung Shinichi off of his lap when his body jerked in shock.

Conan went from pleading for mercy to apprehensive. He had forgotten to tell Hattori that he had made a new friend. Or maybe he had just not felt like dealing with a situation like this one. He turned his gaze to his tanned friend and, with a resigned voice, tried to explain the situation. "Hattori, this is Kuroba Kaito, my friend from Ekoda. He was just coming over for a visit so cool your jets before you break something." The final sentence was said with fond resignation as he knew that it would take a little more than that to calm his friend down.

Kaito seemed to catch on. He had never met Tantei-han in his civilian form, so he knew how this must look since the Osakan was aware of Kudou's predicament. He decided to play dumb for now and tell the detective later if he proved to be trustworthy.

"Ah, you're Hattori-kun? Nice to meet you!" he chirped. He made sure that his voice held all the right tones so that he came across as a non-aggressive assailant who appeared to be trying to kidnap a small child from his home.

It didn't seem to work.

Hattori only narrowed his dark eyes as he seemed to scan Kaito's form (much to the younger teen's discomfort). He took in everything about the shorter boy and seemed to be making a criminal profile in his mind. Suddenly his eyes widened as he looked into the startled teen's eyes.

"YER FRIENDS WITH THE KAITOU KID?!"

The exclamation had been so loud that Kaito actually let go of Shinichi so that he could raise his hands to his ears in a desperate attempt to save his eardrums. It did little to help, however, when it didn't really block the other boy out very well. However, the pseudo-child seemed unaffected by the shout, only narrowed his eyes and hissed, "Be quiet, ahou! Are you trying to get him arrested?"

The look on the detective's face crinkled as his expression changed from furious to shocked confusion. "Ya knew he was Kaitou KID an' ya didn' turn 'im in?!" Kaito was just silently rejoicing that the voices had finally quieted before he lost his hearing. But at Tantei-kun's next words, he felt something inside him melt.

"Of course not! Why would I turn my friend into the police, ahou?!"

Kaito's widened eyes found themselves boring into the back of Conan's head.

Tantei-kun considers us friends... Tantei-kun just said...

Even though the two had called a truce, Kaito hadn't been willing to think that Shinichi would ever accept him as a real friend. While their game of cat mouse had been going on, the thief had long since stopped seeing Edogawa Conan as a threat and more of a friendly rival. They were intellectual equals and both were trying to protect had something they would die to protect and a childhood friend they held very dear. It was kinda creepy at first when Kaito had discovered just how much they had in common.

But for Conan to actually call him a friend...

Suddenly, Kaito could feel his face burning as a stupid grin proceeded to split it in half. In order to hide his expression, he quickly buried his face in the child's hair as he tightened his hold around the boy's midsection. He felt Conan stiffen before he remembered who was holding him and let the tension completely bleed out of his body. It only made Kaito's grin even larger at the show of complete trust.

However, Conan was confused and concerned. Was Hattori scaring Kaito that much? He had seen how the younger boy reacted toward violent people, so what was it about Hattori that set the thief on edge?

Hattori, who had thankfully not seen the look on Kaito's face before he had buried it in his best friend's hair, only hardened his glare. Kudou already trusted this guy that much already? This guy was an international thief for crying out loud! He was bad news! What if this was all a trap? Kudou would be in really big danger!

Hattori made up his mind.

He was going to make sure that that no good criminal wasn't taking his place.

And make sure that he knew that he wasn't welcome here.

To Be Continued...

So that is the end of chapter. The competition starts by the next chapter. Let me know what you guys feel about this chapter. Was it any good? Bad pacing? Too quick? Too Slow? Did I do Hattori's accent wrong? This story is mainly so that I can stop downplaying Hattori's role whenever I write him in a story that involves all the Gosho Boys together. I usually leave him out and only realize it later when I've already finished the story.

You guys can also let me know what challenges you think that Hattori would try to give Kaito? A sport? Maybe a trip back to Osaka for some baseball? Too far away? Plus I know absolutely nothing about Osaka...

Maybe something should happen during these challenges that helps change Hattori's mind about Kaito? Conan gets kidnapped? Kaito himself gets into some kind of trouble? Hattori sees how Kaito acts when no one else is around? When should I introduce Hakuba? Let me know what you guys think and drop a review! So until next time...

See you next illusion.

(KID Doodle)