Is it too late for me to call this a Christmas present for you guys? I'm sorry it's been months since my last update but I've been super busy, ah but you're probably used to that by now. On top of the usual lifey stuff, I'm more focused on my DW/Hetalia crossover project (co-written with a friend of mine) right now so I haven't been able to give all my usual stories the attention that they deserve but I promise that I haven't abandoned them, I'm just... taking my time to be sure they turn out as awesome as they need to be.
Well as usual I hope you enjoy and please review (it might actually make more work faster you know).

As they'd arranged previously the next day Kaito came to the Mouri house to pick up Conan so that it wouldn't seem suspicious that he'd just disappeared. It hadn't taken very long to get to Ekoda from Beika, with Kaito's 'amazing' driving skills they had arrived there pretty quickly.

"Where are we meeting?" Conan asked as he looked through Kaito's closet, unsure what outfit to borrow.

"Here at my house, I told her I'd let her know when you got here," Kaito replied.

Silently Conan pulled out a casual outfit, with a sigh he said, "I guess I should get started then..."

Kaito nodded, "I guess so."

Nodding back Conan made his way to the bathroom, where he took off his children's clothes and swallowed the temporary antidote.

It wasn't long before he felt the signs that proved that he was turning back, he'd been beginning to get used to it lately but still he couldn't help but scream as he changed from his child-like form to his teen-aged self. He waited for the pain to ebb a moment before putting on the clothes that he was borrowing from Kaito.

With that the fully clothed Kudo Shinichi stepped out of the bathroom.

It had been a while since he'd last been able to return to his normal body, so long that it felt like it would be strange talking to people without having to look up. When had it been the last time that he'd used an antidote... he almost couldn't remember, but it had been for Ran hadn't it? That's right he'd used the antidote for Ran, and here he was using it to talk to some girl that looked like Ran.

No... that wasn't right. Aoko wasn't just some girl that looked like Ran, no more than Kaito was just some guy that looked like Shinichi. Aoko was... the girl that would have been his childhood friend if fate hadn't decided otherwise. She was the girl that Shinichi had replaced with Ran. And he knew that, it had hurt him so much when he realized that he'd only befriended Ran to fill the gap left by Aoko.

Still Ran was the girl he'd grown to love and that was the way it was going to stay. He wasn't going to waste time questioning what could have been and what would have been, he intended to move forward in the present, as Kudo Shinichi rather than remain stuck in the past he never had a chance to have as Kuroba Kaito.

"I heard you scream... does it hurt that much?" Kaito asked, there was a hint of worry clear in his voice.

"It's nothing," Shinichi replied, he knew that Kaito wouldn't just leave it at that so he added, "It's only painful for a little bit."

Kaito hesitated, but he knew that Shinichi would be to stubborn to admit anything was wrong even if something was so he dropped the subject, "I guess I should let her know that you're here then..."

Kaito pulled out his phone and sent the girl in question a quick text. Pretty soon his phone vibrated and played a cute ringtone, he looked at the text he'd just received.

"She says she'll be over in a moment, are you ready, Kai-chan?"

Shinichi sighed, "As ready as I'll ever be."

...

Aoko stood in front of the door, hesitating.

She had been so determined to meet Kaito (... er Shinichi?) and now that it'd come down to it she wasn't so sure she really wanted to. Actually she wasn't entirely sure why she even wanted to talk to him to begin with, it's not like she was trying to replace Kaito (Toichi) with Shinichi, she just wanted to meet him again after eight years of having fallen in love with his father thinking he was him it was as simple as that -if that could be called simple.

And yet here she was hesitating. She was even thinking of running back home and telling Kaito (Toichi?) that she was sick and couldn't meet him after all... but that would just be running away. Running away wouldn't give her any answers, besides Kaito knew her to well to believe such a story anyway.

After a moment she was able to summon the courage to knock on the door.

Her heart was racing. She was just about to give up and run away after all when the door swung open. It was Kaito, well Toichi not the Kaito that she had come to meet, that had answered the door.

"Hey Aoko, come on in, Kai-chan's in the living room," He said in an easy-going tone as though introducing a girl he knew had a crush on him to his son was the most normal thing that he could be doing. Somehow that put Aoko at ease, if only a little.

"Right," She said, smiling as she made her way inside and Kaito closed the door behind her.

It almost felt normal.

Entering the living room Aoko looking at Shinichi as he looked at her. She couldn't help but notice that he looked almost exactly like Shinichi aside from the hair, while he noted that from a normal angle she looked almost exactly the same as Ran... well once you got past her chest (not that he was looking). They stood there in awkward silence for what seemed like forever before Kaito spoke up.

"Well I'll be in my room if either of you need me."

With that the two teens were left alone in silence again.

"Er... it's nice meeting you again..." Shinichi said, breaking the silence.

"Yeah... it's been a while hasn't it..."

"We first met at the clock tower in Ekoda right?" Shinichi asked hesitantly, not wanting to make it sound like he'd forgotten but not wanting to just assume with how tangled up his memories still were.

Aoko seemed a bit disappointed by the question, "That's right... you couldn't remember?"

"Until just recently I didn't know I was actually Kuroba Kaito," He replied trying to play it off like it wasn't a big deal, "Like father like son I guess."

Aoko laughed a little bit though it was clear she wasn't really sure what to think about what Shinichi had just said, "Oh, is that so?"

"Yeah..." Shinichi replied awkwardly.

For a moment neither of them said anything, they both simply thought about what might have happened if Toichi had chosen to live a more normal life. Shinichi would have never had to be Shinichi or Conan (though Aoko didn't know about the later), he'd have lived an ordinary life as Kaito, he'd have continued to love magic and most likely have gone to become a magician instead of a detective, and probably grown to like Aoko in the same way he'd grown to like Ran. That simple life seemed good and it was upsetting that Shinichi had never gotten that chance to live it but on the other hand if Toichi hadn't been Kaitou Kid the organization might have gotten their hands on Pandora and who knows what they would have done with the supposed immortality it brought.

Finally Aoko spoke up, "I hope I'm not keeping you away from some important case..."

"Not at all," Shinichi replied calmly, "I'm taking a bit of a break to sort all this Shinichi or Kaito stuff... There's not much I can do about the case I'm working on at the moment..."

"Oh, I guess that makes sense..." Aoko replied, remembering how Kaito -or rather Toichi- had been when he'd first started to regain his memories, she hoped it'd be less of an adjustment for Shinichi, "Um... what kind of case are you working on?"

A faint frown quickly flicked on Shinichi's face before disappearing as he casually replied, "I can't say... it's too dangerous."

"It can't be anymore dangerous than your father being Kaitou Kid," Aoko responded with the same sort of strained casualty.

"It's nearly the same, only without the criminal end of things," Shinichi almost laughed, a amused frown appearing as he added, "Another case of 'like father like son' I suppose. I wonder where the similarities will stop."

"If it's the same why can't you just tell me?" Aoko asked, she could tell that Shinichi didn't really want to talk about it but her curiosity beginning to get the better of her.

Shinichi let out a sigh, "You're already in enough danger knowing his secret, and just by being here I'm putting you in more danger. You aren't involved in this, and I don't want you to be... can't we just leave it at that?"

"I guess... but if it's that dangerous you shouldn't be going at it all alone," It was clear from her expression that she was genuinely worried for him even though she hadn't actually met 'Shinichi' before.

"I'm not in it alone... I have my own comrades, and now that I'm getting to know him I have Kid."

Aoko giggled just a bit, "You call him 'Kid'? Why not just call him 'Kaito' or 'dad'?"

"I know him better as 'Kid' at the moment," Shinichi replied honestly, "I'll probably start calling him something else once I've actually gotten to know him more."

"I guess that makes sense, I knew him as Kaito so it's hard for me to think of him as anyone else, though I think he's decided to think of himself as Toichi," Aoko nodded understandingly, "To be honest I wasn't really sure what to call you when I asked to meet you, when we met you were 'Kaito-kun' but I guess it should be 'Shinichi-san' now, right?"

"Just 'Shinichi' is fine," he said with a chuckle.

"Then you can just call me 'Aoko'," She smiled, "So, Shinichi, what's it like being a detective?"

"It's a lot of fun, but with all the danger lately I can't enjoy it as much as I used to. Almost makes me wish I'd wound up becoming a magician like I'd wanted to as Kaito after all," Shinichi half joked.

"You still could be one you know, I'm sure Kaito would love it if you told him you were interested in magic."

He shook his head, "I couldn't. A magician tricks people and a detective reveals tricks... I can't be both, and these days all I see in magic is the trick."

Aoko offered a small frown as she wondered if Shinichi regretted having been taken away from the life he was meant to have and the dream he'd originally followed. She changed the subject, and like that they continued to talk about whatever seemed like it would be interesting to the other for the next few hours, catching up on how each other's lives have gone and changing the subject if it started to hit on an area that came too close to abnormality.

The sound of a clock chiming startled Aoko, she looked down at her watch, "Oh it's this late already? I need to get home and start on dinner."

Shinichi looked down at his own watch, he still -presumably- had quite a while before he would be changing back into Conan, he smiled, "I'll walk you home."

"Oh no it's just down the street you don't have to-"

"It's no trouble," Shinichi insisted, "Besides, it's dangerous for a girl to be walking around alone at night."

Aoko seemed to consider that for a while before realizing that Shinichi probably inherited Kaito's stubbornness so there would be no point in refusing his request. They just continued chatting about silly things (cases that Shinichi had solved, tricks Kaito had pulled in class, et cetera...) until they had arrived at Aoko's door.

"Well... I guess this is good night."

"Will I see you again someti-" Aoko cut off suddenly sounding worried, "Shinichi, are you okay?"

Shinichi clenched his teeth, "It's alright this happens all the time..."

"You don't look alright..."

"I'm fine... really," Shinichi said keeping his cool despite the fact that he was beginning to feel very hot. None of the other symptoms of changing back had turned up yet so he knew he still had some time, though he couldn't be sure how much. Normally it was around thirty minutes after he started feeling like this but with this happening a few hours early he could have only a couple of minutes for all he knew.

Aoko put her hand to his forehead, "You're burning up! Come inside, I'll get you some fever medicine."

"No, I've got to get back to Kid's house... see you around..."

With that Shinichi headed off in the direction from which he'd come, disappearing before Aoko had the chance to say goodbye or anything else for that matter.