Disclaimer: Don't own T-T Wish I did. But I don't.

Kaito frowned as he overlooked the scene, glancing slightly to the side to see his quarry crouched low behind the bushes, watching an interaction that seemed to be straight out of some sort of movie. Seriously, how often did a teenage detective stumble upon a meeting between two overly suspicious men AND find out that it happened to be a combination of blackmail AND weapons dealing? The basic chances were slim to none, and then throwing in having said detective's unknown rival follow him to the scene, all he could say was that it was a once in a life time occurrence.

The mere fact that Kaito had even seen the detective was amazing as it was; Tropical Land was huge, as were the crowds that frequented the amusement park. That he'd recognized him was even more so, considering he didn't know much about the person that had nearly foiled one of Kaitou Kid's heists other than his voice and his reputation. Kudou Shinichi was well known even in his neck of town, and after the nearly disastrous clock tower incident he'd looked into the potential pain-in-his-side with meticulous care.

The kid was an amazing detective, did well in sports and school as well if the gossip he'd heard was accurate enough, yet he seemed to be lacking in common sense. Who in their right mind would trail after a man dressed in a black suit and black sunglasses? Especially when you knew they had a partner dressed in similar attire? And even if one did follow, against all laws of the nagging little voice called common sense, wouldn't they leave the second they figured out that they had stumbled upon something dangerous? While most sane people would, it seemed the source of Kudou Shinichi's brilliance turned out to be true blue insanity.

But then what did that say about Kaito? He'd ignored his own nagging voice to follow Kudou, and still stuck around while he was listing to himself all the reasons Kudou was an idiot for not getting the hell out of here the minute he heard the words 'the money comes first'. Then again Kaito was anything but normal, and his version of weird was on the opposite end of the spectrum as the little detective's down there. Normal everyday high school magician by day, thief extraordinaire by night; Kaito figured he had a reason to be labeled insane; it kinda came with the job. Besides, someone would have to be a little more loopy than usual to run around at night stealing gems dressed in white.

Okay, so he had a reason, but that didn't stop him from calling Kudou every version of crazy in the dictionary and even some that weren't. Now that he'd figured out that his rival was insane—not that it was surprising, he had managed to get far enough into Kid's brain to stay a half a step ahead of him in the clock tower case—he had to figure out what he was going to do about it.

The thief in normal clothing scanned the area from his hiding place on top of the cement foundation and hidden in the frame of the Farris Wheel —he preferred high places, and could see almost everything from his vantage point. There was Kudou hiding behind the corner of the ride's foundation, the two strange men completing the deal by the base of the Farris wheel, and there was the guy's partner—

Kaito paused, the long haired guy was not where he was a second a go. He was moving toward the group, and would be in direct sight of the detective in a few minutes. Crap, crap, crap, damn it Kudou. There would be no time to fix the foolish kid's mistake. His mind was working in overdrive to discover a way to get the best outcome from a very bad situation, and the only thing he came up with was something even more stupid that he'd expected. He eyed the slowly approaching crow, making his final decision, which is the world going to miss more, a genius thief or a detective genius? A wry smile flit across his face as he began to move, it didn't really matter what he answered that thought with, he had a policy of no casualties and he was going to maintain it.

He moved noiselessly, putting all of his thieving experience into his effort, and double checked on the progress of the incoming MiB—man in black, his love of movies came in handy sometimes—and determined he still had about half a minute of leeway before he'd be in danger of being caught. He positioned himself directly above the detective—who was reaching inside his jacket for something—and fell off the cement foundation, landing directly behind the kid and wrapping his hand over his mouth to stifle any sound. The boy froze, but luckily had kept enough of his wits to stay quiet, "Good." Kaito murmured in his ear, "The other is coming, stay quiet and don't move." He hissed the last part and shoved the teenager into the heavy bushes a few feet away, taking his last few seconds of grace to make sure he was thoroughly hidden and positioning himself where Kudou had been. He even went so far as to pick up the disposable camera Kudou had dropped and position it as if to take a picture.

Then he heard it, a faint footstep behind him, and a whoosh as a sharp pain exploded on the back of his head. While it wasn't quite enough to knock him out—he'd suffered worse in his career—the softly whispered words did nothing to help the monstrous headache he'd been gifted with, "Your detective game…is over…"

He allowed himself to fall to the ground with a thud, willing the detective to listen to his self preservation instincts for once and stay quiet. He wasn't worried about being killed here, a gunshot would draw the attention of the lingering police force and from what he'd seen, these guys liked to keep a low profile.

"This little shit was trailing us."

"Hey is that the detective—"

The stockier one was cut off mid sentence, probably by a nod or head shake or some other type of gesture. He couldn't really see since he was a) face down in the dirt and b) his vision was still swimming from the blow to the head. He was pleasantly surprised to find he could still think in a fashion that vaguely resembled clearly. The MiB that hit him leaned over and jerked his head up by the back of his jacket; the man's face swam in his vision, the empty black eyes the only feature that stood out, cold, calculating, they sent a shiver through Kaito's form and he couldn't help but wonder what the detective had managed to stumble onto this time.

"No. It's some other random punk."

The iron grip on his collar didn't let up, and Kaito heard the click of a gun, and the shorter man's question about whether to end his life. His captor's answer was as he had expected--no guns for fear of the police. Now they'd probably take him somewhere to get the job done, and he knew he'd have a far better chance of getting away from them than Kudou. Being a thief meant he'd had prior experience with the escape arts, he had to if he wanted to keep his hands out of cuffs and his tail out of prison.

Of course, nothing ever wants to go quite as planned, and his half lidded eyes bulged a little at the black-eyed one's decision. Poison. Shit. He hadn't even considered poison.

He clamped his mouth shut, and soon felt something small being pressed against his lips. From the size and shape it seemed to be a capsule. Well, well, that wouldn't hurt him if he didn't digest it.

"Uncooperative little punk." The gravelly voice was beginning to become laced with annoyance, "Vodka, cover his nose."

Vodka? What a strange name… The thought drifted across his mind as he the large hand covered his nose, cutting off his oxygen supply. He knew what they were trying to do, they wanted to make him open his mouth to try and breathe. Too bad, he was going to make it as hard as possible. He was lucky he held the record for breath holding at his school.

Just above the bulky hand he could see the bush he'd dumped Kudou in. So far the boy hadn't tried anything stupid, and he really hoped it stayed that way. Kaito was starting to feel lightheaded as the seconds passed; he didn't know how much longer he could last with his lungs near screaming for air.

It was nearing three minutes when he couldn't take it anymore, and he unintentionally gulped in a large breath of air. The unnamed MiB used the opportunity to thrust the pill into his mouth, the sudden intrusion nearly causing him to gag. Some sort of liquid, water by the taste of it—or lack thereof, ended up washing it down and the man finally let go of his jacket. Kaito once more landed with his face into the dirt, but this time he was barely able to form a coherent thought.

"So long punk."

He was barely aware of the retreating footsteps, or of the faint rustle in the bushes beside him. All he could focus on was the fire building inside, growing larger with each and every second until it encompassed his every waking thought. Everything was burning, engulfed in flames that only he could see.

"H…ey…" He couldn't hear over the roar of the flames as they soon became his whole world.

To say he was relieved when he finally blacked out was the understatement of the century.

A/N: I think I've already mentioned I hated plot bunnies…well this one kinda bit when I was working on the 2nd chapter to Masquerade. Before I knew it, it was over 1500 words and still growing. I hope no one has done this idea before…I don't think I've seen it and I've scoured the DC section looking for more fics to read. The lack of fics might actually be the reason for these bunnies. If you can't find it, write it.

Please excuse any typos and point them out to me if possible. I am trying to compile a dictionary of words from the language of Idoono, a guide to modern typos(not really, I just wanna fix 'em).

There are two outcomes for this story. 1) I end up continuing it, or 2) it gets put on the back burner until I get at least one other story out of the way. I dunno which it will be yet, I happen to like this idea.

Anyways, if any pairings at all it will be ShinichixKaito, but nothing explicit.

Drop a review if you like. Actually, I'd much prefer it to just alerting. It's been a bit depressing how many alerts I get versus the reviews I get.

oO long author's memo.