Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan or Magic Kaito.

Neko no Triad

Prologue

Shinichi ran through the night streets, legs aching and wind rushing through his hair. His blue eyes were wide in terror, panic evident in his actions. Swerving out of the way of an oncoming car, mostly by reflex, he stumbled over the asphalt and, tumbling head over paws, collapsed in a puddle. He struggled to stand up, fur drenched and filthy. As he stumbled to his feet, he caught sight of his reflection once again. Catching sight of the feline appendages and form again, he drew back, hackles raising. Disbelieving cerulean eyes glanced around wildly, feline ears twitching and tail lashing in horror. Once again, the instinctual command of panic and flight or fight flashed across his mind and he tore off into the night.

Tap-tap-tap, Bam! The dark chocolate kitten abruptly crashed into a set of legs and tumbled back from the recoil. The owner of the legs stepped back in shock, shouting in surprise. Dazed, Shinichi attempted to pull himself back up – accursed paws! – and failed, falling in tangle of paws and distressed kitten.

Hakuba was having a bad day. He had woken up late and had to run to school without breakfast. Shortly after arriving, Kaito had dyed his hair neon green and set off a glitter bomb in his desk. Katio had then looked up Aoko's skirt, which led to her chasing the resident magician while wielding a mop. While in front of his desk, Aoko swung her mop at the same time Kaito leaped up into the air. This resulted in Hakuba being whacked across the face by said mop enough to knock him out of his desk. The two had apologized profusely, but Kaito's stifled snickers were infuriating.

After school, he had walked home and, as soon as he entered his kitchen, realized that he needed to buy groceries. He had to run to the nearest grocery store, which was a couple miles away. When the cashier kept giving him odd looks while he was checking out, it occurred to him that he had forgotten to wash the green dye out of his hair.

Hakuba had promptly rushed out of the store, face flaming red, and halfway to his house, it started pouring rain out of nowhere. The detective had run another mile and had just found shelter when the rain suddenly stopped. Staring at the sky, Hakuba decided to give in and do as Inspecter Nakamori did: curse using every expletive known to man – plus a few more (Yay invention!).

It was around ten o'clock when he finally managed to make it back to his house. As he walked to the gate of his house, something slammed into his legs – most likely bruising them – and nearly bowled him over. Hakuba shouted in surprise and glared at the culprit, ready to yell at whatever it was.

He was not, however, prepared to be faced with a rather, dare he say, cute kitten mewing in distress at the tangled mess it was in. Even though it was rather filthy and wet, the kitten's bright blue eyes compensated with its "cuddle me!" expression. Despite himself, Hakuba found himself picking up the small feline and carrying it into his house.