A river of silver pooled into the dark room, like the Milky Way in the night sky. A lone figure stood silently in it's midst, gazing out into the starless night, which was reflected into the depths of his eyes. His pale, sinewy fingers clutched the window ledge tightly, as if he didn't want to fall.

"I knew it was a mistake coming here today," a voice rang out behind him, breaking the thick silence, if only for a moment.

He turned, eyes searching for the owner of the voice, in the folds of the shadows, and narrowing at the sight of a smirk on the speaker's face. "I didn't ask you to come," he stated.

The smirk dissolved into a chuckle. "So cold and heartless, aren't you? How fitting." Stepping into the pool of light spilling into the room, Kuroba Kaito spread his arms and shrugged. "I just thought that you wouldn't want to spend this day alone." Moving closer, he reached out and touched one of the hands gripping the window ledge. "So tense…if it hurts, why do you still think about it?"

He drew back almost immediately, as if the touch was something so unbearably painful to him. "Because…I…I love her! If only…if only I had accompanied her! Then perhaps the accident would not have happened and she would still be alive today!" He buried his face in his hands, letting out a painful cry like that of an injured animal. He wanted to keep her memory alive, always, the first and last woman he would ever love.

But he did not see Kaito's bright blue eyes dim at the mention of her. Forcing a smile, he whispered in soft, placating tones, that Ran would not want to see him so broken up over her death and that she would stay in his memory forever. Mandatory things said in a mandatory tone when you had to comfort someone, no matter how much you wished it were otherwise.

"Kaito, I'm scared. What if I forget her?" Insecurity was eating at him, refusing to let him go. After all, he had been witness to how fragile memories could be.

"You won't." There was a slight tremor in his voice.

And after that, the silence between them was deafening.

********

Two: Tsuki no Tenshi

::Catch me::

::Catch me if I fall…::

That was how it all started, wasn't it? After Ran had gone… He had been so lonely, so afraid of spending his life alone when he came along, and pulled him out of the abyss of despair he had pushed himself into.

He remembered the night when the moon hung low, when he sauntered out from the mist like an angel, in the purest white. Kaitou Kid, the phantom thief, whom he had been so eager to throw in jail.

But at that moment, he did not move. He wasn't even listening when Kid told him, "Catch me."

"Are there angels where you came from?" he blurted out. It was a totally irrelevant question, but he couldn't care less.

"Will you catch me?"

"Why?" he asked. Funny how there was an ocean in his head, pounding, pounding… As he realised that he had not a good sleep for days on end, the world spun merrily around in a burst of colours, and just before he touched the ground, he thought he heard someone whisper, " I came here to find one."

And when he awoke the next day, he was in his room and Kuroba Kaito was in the armchair next to the window, telling him something about the weather and how apologetic he felt for knocking the meitantei out, but the police were approaching and he really had no choice.

"Catch me." There was a note of finality and an age-old fatigue in that otherwise dispassionate tone.

"Why?" he asked.

Kaito shrugged. "I'm tired," he said, looking straight into his eyes. "Will you catch me if I fall?" In that detatched tone, an undercurrent, a fear of rejection.

We have the same eyes, he realized. He picked up the eyeglass lying on the study table and opening Kaito's palm, placed it in his hand…After that, Kaitou Kid ceased to exist.

Because he had already been caught…

::Catch me…before I fall::

********