A/N: Oh look, another story. o.O; This one's mildly inspired by BakaThief's short-comic on DeviantArt, titled "DOPEY". I highly recommend you look it up because it's great, but it is not at all necessary for the reading of this story. My story is very different from theirs; their story just sparked a bit of the line of thought that lead to this story is all.

Rating: K+

Warnings: Mild mention of mental issues and mild violence, but otherwise no warnings.

Slash: No specific or purposeful slash is intended in this story, though there may be subtle hints at any number of pairs if you squint and tilt your head to the side. You could pretty much just pick your favorites and roll with it.

Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan/Magic Kaito. I guess the actual character of "Dopey" which I've created belongs to me, but I wouldn't mind if people used the character, so long as they mention that he's originally mine. *Shrugs* Cover art is mine.

Chapter One: Dopey Dove

Conan had chased KID up to the roof, as usual, and KID had greeted him with his usual cocky grin and taunting, downward-tip of his hat.

They exchanged witty banter for a few moments, during which Conan showed off his intelligence by deducing everything KID had done that night while the magician sounded impressed and interested in an ever-so-slightly teasing and satirical manner.

All too soon, they knew it was time to end their battle of words and begin the usual dance. Conan bent down to turn the knob on his power-kick shoes, KID reaching behind the lapels of his suit jacket towards his card gun and tensing to dodge the inevitable attack Conan would provide.

Conan's other hand went to the button on his ball-dispensing belt, and he paused for a moment, smirking at KID. His unspoken question didn't go unnoticed. "Are you ready?"

The Moonlight Magician's returning grin was as devious and mischievous as ever. "But of course~!"

Conan's finger twitched near the release button…. But he never got the chance to follow through.

Milliseconds before he could release a ball, there was a blur of white which hurtled itself towards Conan's head. He didn't see it until it was too late, the stark-ivory something colliding with a loud THWACK against the right side of his skull. Immediately after there was a sharp, but short, cry from Conan, more of surprise than of pain, as he tumbled sideways onto the roof, knocked over, and a simultaneous SQUAWK.

Conan righted himself quickly, rubbing at the side of his now slightly aching head, his glasses resting sideways, askew, across the bridge of his nose as he sat up on the roof. "What in the…." He stopped as he spotted what had collided with him.

There on the roof next to him was a white dove. Its feathers were a little ruffled, but otherwise it appeared to be well-cared-for and pristinely clean. One of KID's, then. It flapped frantically, having fallen to the roof's grey top after colliding with the boy, righting itself before sitting there on the roof for a moment and panting heavily to catch its breath. Conan blinked at it, it looked up at him, and flapped a bit, letting out what Conan could only describe as an annoyed sound at him, as if reprimanding him. Conan stared for another few moments, surprised.

"Hey now," he said to the still aggravated-looking dove. "I'm not the one who ran into you," he pointed out. The dove huffed, seemingly even more annoyed with him now, but it didn't attempt to fly away from where it was still panting slightly on the roof and Conan didn't stand. Instead he turned to look at KID. "You attacked me with a dove?!" This was a new and startling tactic, and one that Conan had not at all expected from the gentlemanly (albeit annoying) thief.

Conan knew though as soon as he saw KID that such was not the case. Not only did Conan find it difficult to believe that KID would use his doves in such a potentially harmful way (harmful for the doves, namely, who Conan knew KID cared for deeply), but the look on KID's face also said it all.

He had his left hand's fingertips pressed against the side of his face in what Conan supposed was supposed to be akin to a much more elegant version of a face-palm, his usual smirk pulled down into a slight frown of…. Vexation, perhaps? That seemed too strong a word though…. KID was looking at his dove somewhat fondly, but also clearly just a tiny bit irked, seeming slightly put-upon.

Any which way, Conan figured by KID's response that the impromptu dove-to-the-side-of-Conan's-head had, in fact, not been planned.

With a sigh, KID began to walk forward. "Dopey, I told you to go home thirty minutes ago," he said, somewhat exasperated. He stepped up to the dove, ignoring the little critic next to him who watched on with confused and questioning eyes. KID carefully bent down and cupped the dove in his hands, his deft fingers ever-so-gently roaming the avian creature's body, spreading its wings and inspecting it for injuries. Finding none, he sighed again, this time a bit more in relief rather than exasperation.

He lifted a white-gloved finger and pointed it at the dove, who watched him intently. He shook it admonishingly. "That's it. No more heists for you!" The dove ruffled its feathers up as if upset. "Don't give me that." The bird chirped sadly. "Well…. You…." KID groaned ever-so-quietly under his breath, Conan barely picking up on the sound. "We'll talk about it later."

With that KID tucked the dove safely into some inner pocket up his left sleeve, letting it settle until it was comfortable and invisible to outside eyes, regardless of keenness. Even Conan couldn't see any irregular shape in the fitted way KID's clothes settled against his skin.

Finally, KID turned his attention to Conan for the first time since the incident. He cocked his head slightly to the side as if in question. "I don't need to inspect you for injuries too, do I?" His tone was well disguised, but Conan could sense the faintest hint of taunting sarcasm.

Conan glared at him and KID smirked, all guise of seriousness gone.

"Well, regardless, I give you my apologies, Tantei-kun. Dopey is a good bird, honest he is, but he's just a little…." Kid waved a hand from side to side to indicate instability. "….Off."

"Why do you think that is?" Conan asked, voice light with genuine curiosity. Leave it to a detective to ask questions.

KID laughed at his curiosity and decided to humor him. "Heaven only knows. I truly couldn't tell you. He, like many of my doves, was conceived by one of the others. His mother has certainly always treated him well, being a loving bird herself, and I never saw any damage to his egg before hatching. The only conclusion I can come to is that either he suffered some trauma or injury somehow without my knowledge that the others hadn't been able to save him from -I can't very well watch them twenty-four seven, though I also can't imagine him coming to harm in any of the locations I keep them- Or he's just got a quirky personality." KID shook his head. "I don't know what goes through that little bird's mind most of the time. He runs into things, dive-bombs the ground…. Sometimes I feel like he's trying to show off his impressive flying skills, which he doesn't have. I don't know if he meant to hit you either, or if he was trying to fly near you without actually touching and messed up, or if he was just flying without even paying attention. I genuinely worry about him: I fear one of these days he'll get himself killed."

Conan scoffed and laughed at the same time. "It sounds to me like he just takes after you."

KID glared at him and opened his mouth as if to respond, but stopped, shutting it again with an almost audible clack. That…. Was actually a possibility. Only the doves themselves would know this (and also possibly Kaito's mother and Jii, he wouldn't put it past them), but Kaito often took his doves out with him into the mountains when he practiced flying. As an ever-learning Phantom Thief, he did, after all, have to put in genuine effort to learning more maneuvers, techniques, and impressive tricks with his glider. He always took his doves with him when he ventured to one of his favorite secluded areas to practice new magic tricks and flying, in part because they aided him in learning the flying tricks, allowing him to watch their movements to gauge the air currents more accurately and sometimes having them preform the tricks themselves while he observed, for his more skillful at flying birds. The other reason he took them was because if anything ever went wrong and he found himself in trouble, or if he crashed in such a manner as to sustain serious injury, they knew how to go for help. Everyone needs a spotter or two to watch their backs, and though Kaito put in great effort to making sure crashing was kept to a minimum and that he was relatively safe, it would still be unwise to travel into secluded areas with the purpose of practicing dangerous tricks without someone about who could get assistance should something go wrong.

Having said that, the doves had, for a long enough time, been observing Kaito as he learnt new tricks on his hang-glider and, inevitably, this sometimes meant watching him smack into trees when the air pressure dropped and he couldn't turn sharply enough, or into the ground when the wind didn't catch in his glider the way he'd figured it would. Maybe he'd crashed a few times more than usual during the first few times he'd taken Dopey out with him, back when Dopey himself was still new to and therefore learning the art of flying. It could certain explain a few things….

KID hummed when he realized that Conan was still staring at him, expecting some sort of rebuttal from the Phantom Thief. KID only smirked at him. "Unfortunately, you may be right about that, in one way or another." KID stood and offered a white-gloved hand down to the detective. He took it, and KID pulled Conan up onto his feet.

Conan righted his glasses and looked up at KID analytically, noting the tenseness in KID's shoulders which indicated that he was ready to dodge and run if Conan made any moves to attack. But Conan simply placed his hands in his pockets and relaxed. "Normally you don't have a dove with you when we meet up, because you're careful enough not to put them in my line of fire. I'll let you go without any trouble tonight, only because I don't want to risk accidentally hitting your bird, or hitting you only because you have a handicap you need to protect." KID relaxed ever-so-slightly and smiled at him in appreciation. "You owe me though, both for letting you off easy and for the bruise I'm going to have from this."

KID didn't verbally respond, acknowledging his rival's comments with a polite tip of his hat in thanks before leaving ever-gracefully off the roof, his hang glider snapping out as he glided off under the moonlight. Watching him go, Conan could make out a white shape which flapped along erratically and energetically around him, Dopey nearly running into his master several times in the short distance Conan was able to see him before the two white blurs against the night sky were inseparable from each other across the distance.

A/N: Well, that's it for the first chapter; I hope you liked it! If you did, leave me a review, 'kay? X)