A/N: Wow, this became soo long! I thought it would be half as long!
I can't believe how hard it was to write the beginning! I almost began writing some Indiana Jones-stuff! Which would've made this a trilogy instead of a... of a... twology (lol).

Warnings:
Strange English (mixing of British and American English), OOCness, KaiShin/ShinKai

Genre: Drama, Humour, Romance, Adventure
Uploaded: 2013-04-01
Chapter rating: K+
Words: 3,900

Summary of 'Of Fire And Water'
Words: 560
Shinichi died protecting 1412 when he was a child and Toichi brought Pandora to him to revive him. The jewel spoke with Yuusaku and Yukiko, telling them that if Shinichi was revived he would be 'cursed'. He would be drawn to dead bodies and 'murders in progress' in order to return the energy that Pandora had given him, since the jewel would gain the energy by stealing a dying person's last breath, but unfortunately he lost all memories when he revived Shinichi. Pandora would then die with Shinichi when the detective died a second time.

With a lot of help from Vermouth and a little help from Kaitou KID, Shinichi and the FBI managed to bring the Black Organization down, and at the same time getting hold of large quantities of Aptx 4869 so that Haibara could make an antidote. The side effects of the antidote made Shinichi realise that he was in love with Kaitou KID, and in order to protect the thief he decided to take down the other organization. During his investigation he uncovered KID's identity and decided to make sure that he was in love with the thief's real identity and not just who he pretended to be.

With a dangerous plan Shinichi takes them down and then begins his tires to court the thief without anyone noticing. Kaito realises that he's in love with the Detective of the East and that he's been unconsciously flirting with him for a while and then tries to seduce him for real, but to a thief, getting together with a detective is a dangerous thing, while a detective can lose all of his credibility by being together with a thief. The danger keeps them apart, and only once one of them gets kicked in the right direction things can happen, but they still have to avoid detection by sneaky people and protect the secret of Kaitou KID together.

Pandora and Shinichi began talking to each other and realised that they could do interesting things together, like see in complete darkness or see further in a snowstorm than what's humanly possible. Pandora can take over and control Shinichi's body if he's sleeping, but that exhausts them both, and they also gets flashes of memories from Pandora's past. Kaito can for some reason (not known to you) enter Pandora's world if he touches Shinichi. This world consists of a red Tokyo, but the jewel rarely ventures further than the Kudou-mansion.

Vermouth forced Shinichi to choose between taking her life and the life of everyone he loved, together with the crowds of people at a heist. Shinichi and Pandora takes the shot and kills her, saving everyone, but it came with a prise. Long ago, in memories lost to Pandora, the jewel had given her a tear, and all that power now ended up in Shinichi, forcing Pandora to realise that once the detective died of old age the jewel would continue living; something that Pandora didn't want.

Shinichi is friends with Hakuba, who knows that Kaito is KID and who's together with Aoko. Ran is together with an OC (Isamu). Yukiko knows that Kaito is Kaitou KID, but Yuusaku doesn't know even though he would if he thought about it since he doesn't want to pry in his son's life (Toichi and Yuusaku were friends and Yuusaku knew that he was Kaitou 1412). Hattori and Kazuha are still dancing around their feelings.

In the Footsteps of Others

Chap. 1
Danger Ahead

An entire year had passed since Vermouth died and vanished into thin air. It was a year that had passed a little too quickly if you asked Shinichi, but to him it had been a year of healing. He began studying at the University, not a program, just single courses that he thought could come in handy some day. Most of what he read and was planning to read was medical courses that had something to do with general poisons and emergency aid, but he'd also planned to read the basics from the Coroner's training program even though he already knew most things. After speaking with Hakuba he found himself adding some courses and ended up reading the same courses as the half-Brit that also had chosen to create his own program. The both detectives were expecting to open their own agencies in less than three years, but Kaito went in a completely different direction and began studying electrical engineering and physics.

Kaito only studied half-time and the other time worked on stage at a large restaurant during the evenings. He didn't want to draw too much attention to himself, not with the rumours that he was Kaitou KID still flying through everyone's minds from time to time, but his pride would never allow him to be 'just some magician' and he still had his father's name to uphold, so he gladly accepted the title promising and genius. He refrained himself from using too advanced tricks even though he used the simple ones with such perfection that even a few professional magicians that had known his father had watched his performance and had had a hard time realising what he'd done.

The couple was living a life filled with whatever they wanted to do, unaware that trouble was looming in the future. During a heist just before the summer Shinichi was too feverish to go to KID's heist to watch his boyfriend steal a crown, so Kaito had to amuse himself with the taskforce and ended up in an old and somewhat abandoned part of the museum. He wondered what was stored in the very back of the building, because it was certainly never used, judging by the smell of old, confined dust in the heavy air. The thief moved slowly thought the dim lighting of the moon that shone through the unclean windows. Most display cases carried a thick layer of dust over them, some empty and others not, and never before had he been so intrigued by a place; why would anyone leave the things in their cases if they was going to seal off the place? Why not take them out and sell them?

The thief was walking through the room and used one of his gloves to dust off the display cases that contained an object, but as he got to a large case at the very back of the wall where the light was worst he frowned and pulled out a napkin with his clean untainted glove to dust off the glass completely.

A black stone relic, the size of a large square plate, rested in the case and Kaito was about to move along to the next wall when he noticed a carved-in sign on the artefact and froze in place. With fascination he pulled out a flashlight and saw that he object seemed to have two beautifully carved out towers in the back corners, but was otherwise flat. However, that wasn't what interested him; it was the fact that it seemed to have lots and lots of the same signs that he'd seen in Pandora's library. Looking around the empty and dark room he then opened the protective case and took it out, surprised at how light it was even tough it seemed to consist of solid rock.

Kaito smiled and placed the crown on the relic's place and pulled up a paper.
"Keep the crown I found something far more interesting, so I exchanged one treasure for another. It seemed so lonely over here.
~Kaitou KID"
The thief smiled and left the note underneath the crown before he closed the lid and cleaned the small sign with information.
"Tablet of the Gods
After being found by Hernán Cortés and the conquistadors on October 1519 in the Aztec Temple of Quetzalcoatl after the massacre of the unarmed Cholulan nobles the large tablet was brought to Spain where it remained until Napoleon Bonaparte invaded in 1808 and brought the relic to France. While Napoleon continued the French invasion of Russia 1812 the stone tablet was stolen by a worker at the museum where it was kept and brought outside of the country to China where it remained until it was bought by the Suzuki Corporation and placed here in 1969.
In 1970 the stone tablet was dated to being over 66 million-years-old, and the material is believed to have arrived with a comet to earth since it doesn't exist on this planet, but scientists have been unable to determine when the material was used to create the tablet."

Kaito raised an eyebrow at the fact that the rare material had just been left in a dusty room and then been forgotten, but he smiled as he followed one of the signs on it; this was certainly something that would make Shinichi interested.

All the detective could do was stare as a white-clad thief placed his stolen treasure on the bed beside him, looking like a smug kitten that just presented its owner with a newly caught prey.
"What's this?" the teenager asked in a hoarse voice, "I thought the heist-note said 'crown', and not this. Whatever it is."
"It did," Kaito grinned and changed his clothes in seemingly an instant, making his boyfriend blink; it was something that bothered Shinichi tremendously when the thief did it without the puff of smoke, as if his brain didn't quite believe what he was seeing and therefore tried to reject that it had even happened in the first place. "But I lost the taskforce after five or ten minutes, made Hakuba run in circles and then found this really creepy room, where this thing was being held hostage, and I thought that the markings on it looked like the ones Pandora has all around him so I took it instead and left the crown."

Shinichi immediately sat up and watched his sight disappear for a moment before he could look at the tablet from above, seeing that it was the same kind of markings, and felt how Pandora wanted to have a closer look.
'It really is,' the jewel studied the letters through the detective's eyes as Shinichi reached out for it. The detective gasped as he came in contact it, watching how a red light travelled faster than he had time to react from his arms to the tablet. Shinichi dropped it quickly and then saw how the signs began to glow.
"What did you do?" Kaito asked intrigued and jumped to the other side of the bed so that he could see the letters from the right side.
"It drew power from Pandora," the detective confessed hoarsely and coughed, "not much, but still." Shinichi held out a finger and quickly touched one of the letters, feeling how Pandora was trying to feel if anything changed, but it didn't. He brushed his fingertips over the symbols and frowned, wondering if the old relic did something or if it was just used for some religious act of worshipping gods.

As the detective forced his tired brain to think Kaito grinned and made him gasp by hugging him from behind as he sat down and buried his nose in his neck.
"You'll get ill," the detective remarked while the thief reached out and touched one of the letters. In shock Kaito stared as a globe formed above the board, shining in the same red light as the tablet's signs.
"I don't know if I like this kind of magic. Whenever I've dealt with it it's never been good," the thief muttered while Shinichi stared in disbelief, trying to get his brain to accept that he was seeing real magic and not just some illusion, but then again, he had died before.
"How often have you come across magic?" the detective wondered and reached out to carefully touch the globe on Pandora's command.
"From time to time. It's mostly Akako from my class that's trying to put me under her spell. I think that she gave up when we got together, but she does have all the other guys in school to buy her gifts and keep her amused..." the thief answered, hoping that the detective wouldn't get hurt by touching it.

Shinichi hummed as his fingers passed though the red globe and saw that it reacted with his movements.
'There,' Pandora's voice whispered in his mind and he stopped spinning the globe.
'Where?' the jewel's host thought.
'Bottom left of USA,' Shinichi turned the globe and stared at where the jewel was hinting, 'if you look closely you can see that he lines are all extending from that one point.'
"Pandora, what lines?" Shinichi asked loudly, knowing that Kaito enjoyed guessing the conversations that the jewel and his host had.
'Wait, you can't see them, can you?'
"No, I can't see them. It just looks like a red earth to me,"
'Let me try something,' Pandora said and Shinichi blinked, seeing that the globe seemed to come to life. It sparkled with energy and the power ran everywhere in the form of lines, all conveying in one spot.
"I can see it now," the detective stated and touched it.

As soon as the globe was touched in the right spot it seemed to zoom in on it, until it showed a familiar picture; one of the world's most known places.
"I know that place," Kaito exclaimed as they seemed to fly over a landscape of red rocks and steep cliffs, carrying a stream of water at the bottom.
"Grand Canyon," Shinichi agreed, "my parents took me there once when I was small."
"I've always wanted to go there with my glider, soaring along the cliffs," the thief grinned and watched how the picture slowed down, turned and entered a cave. Passing through the back wall they suddenly entered a new one, but this one was consisting of what appeared to be black rock with shining blue crystals along the wall. Small droplets of water were being captured by what appeared to be hand-carved, bowl-shaped rocks sticking out from the wall. All over the walls the same signs that Pandora had in the books in his library were glowing in red, giving the room a somewhat eerie feeling.
'I want to go there,' the jewel suddenly exclaimed excitedly in his host's head, 'can we go there?'
"Pandora wants to go there," Shinichi informed his boyfriend and continued to watch the strange room.
"I guess that we're taking a rather interesting summer vacation," the thief grinned happily and hugged his ill boyfriend, knowing that they would have to map out what the relic was showing them and then return it.

Hakuba gave him a questioning look as he watched the Detective of the East pack his bags, trying to mentally scratch away the fact that he was fairly certain that he could see a KID-outfit in his friend's bag.
"So are you two stopping anywhere on the way to America?" the blonde asked, knowing that Shinichi would understand that he was asking if they were going stealing.
"Rome and Paris," Shinichi smiled at his troubled friend, "don't worry about us; we'll be fine."
"What if you two gets stopped in the airport security?"
"Don't worry; we've got everything planned out," the dark-haired teenager stated, but didn't miss the other's doubtful look.
"I sure hope that you know what you're doing becoming KID's assistant," the half-Brit remarked and shook his head, "I never thought I would see such a good detective turn corrupt."
"Oi! Hakuba, you're just as corrupt as me!" Shinichi sent the detective an amused glare.
"And don't I know it..." Hakuba complained in a mutter, "when will you two get back?"
"I'm not exactly sure, but between three and five weeks if everything goes according to plan. We're going to stop by my parents and then head over to Grand Canyon, so we might have to run away from them in order to continue alone."

After getting away from the rest of the tourists Kaito and Shinichi headed off in their own direction. Disregarding the guide's warning about it being a dangerous area they wandered through the heat until sundown and then set up camp, knowing that they would have to travel two more days to reach the cave, counting in the fact that they would be using the gliders the next day, just before the sunrise. During the entire time Pandora was eager to see the cave, wondering if he would remember something new; maybe he could find a way for him to die together with Shinichi and Kaito when the time came?

It wasn't until a few days later when they used the binocular-function on the monocles that they found the entrance to the cave on the other side of a large ravine not far from them.
"Judging by the distance we should be able to fly there if we make a circle," Kaito smiled and then looked at the way they would be forced to climb if they explored the cave and found no other way out, "but the way up won't be fun."
"No," Shinichi agreed as he watched the wall, trying to find the easiest way up, "how long is the modified grappling-hook?"
"Not long enough, and I won't use it on that wall; it will just tear loose rocks. It might be easier to just go down to the river and walk beside it until we find a better way up."
"Yea, I suggest that we stay in the outer cave for the night and then begin our descent early in the morning. We could rest by the water and at the same time filter some so that we have for the way back," Shinichi continued and saw his boyfriend nod.

Kaito used the monocle to look around, seeing only deserted rock, before he smiled and saw Shinichi close his eyes. The detective didn't particularly enjoy the fact that he wasn't able to change into the KID-outfit on his own; Shinichi took at least a few minutes, and that was minutes that he had to endure and ignore his boyfriend's perverted smirk, remarks and so obviously content hums. The teenagers placed their packing on their front and closed the straps, making sure that the mantle was flying freely behind them.

The thief ran to the edge, extending the glider as he took the last steps and almost lifted off the ground before he got to the ravine. Shinichi watched him for a moment and then followed suit, watching the thief soar in a large circle before him. Kaito folded his wing, easily landing by the entrance and took off the bag so that he could help his boyfriend if he needed it. Shinichi landed without the same elegance that the thief had had and would've fallen backwards if it wasn't for the fact that Kaito grabbed into the bag and pulled him inside.

'I can feel something,' Pandora informed Shinichi as the two teenagers made their way deeper inside, still enlightened by the sun that shone through deep cracks in the ceiling, 'not far from here.'
'How about you work with me?' Shinichi thought and stopped, 'maybe you can see something that I can't, just like with the globe.' After getting an agreeing response from the jewel Shinichi closed his eyes and mentally reached for Pandora, suddenly able to see a world consisting of red and slightly glowing lines. The detective opened his eyes and continued walking, seeing pulses of something moving though his field of vision.

"Can you see anything?" Kaito wondered and smiled as the detective's now red eyes turned to him.
"There's something further in; it's like energy pulses running through the walls," the detective informed his boyfriend, seeing that the thief had turned on his flashlight, and he realised that it must be dark, "how are you doing? Is it dark?"
"Yes, I'm fine, I have the monocle and the torch," Kaito smiled, "but tell me if there's monsters."
"Don't scare Pandora," Shinichi rolled his eyes, unable to comprehend why the jewel would even tell Kaito that he was afraid of the dark, "you know that he's scared for me and you, and not himself. He would survive, even if you and I were torn to shreds."
"Yea-yea, but we'll be fine,"
"And he'll get back at you," the detective smiled in a way that ne never usually did, so Kaito knew that it wasn't his boyfriend talking anymore, "twice over."
"Bring it, Pandora," the thief grinned hearing the detective mutter something as he got the control back .

Turning around a corner Shinichi saw how the red lines conveyed around a small circular shape beside a larger square one.
"That looks disturbingly much like a door," the detective continued walking and stopped in front of it.
"I can't see anything, to me it looks like any ordinary stone wall," Kaito stated as he shone the light over it and placed his hand on it, however, to Shinichi something interesting happened; the lines bent in Kaito's direction and then retook their normal paths as the thief stopped touching the stone.
"I think there's a button here," Shinichi placed his hand on it and then watched how the lined changed and formed a room behind the wall, but the wall still seemed to be straight in front of them, "that's odd. Touch the wall again, Kaito." When the thief did as he was told he gasped inaudibly as his hand went straight through it. Slowly he took a step closer, watching his entire arm disappear and then pulled it out of seemingly solid rock.
"Well, that's fascinating," he pointed out and then saw how his boyfriend stepped inside before he quickly followed.

The room was exactly what they'd seen weeks before and they looked around in awe.
"Say what you will about witches, but they sure knows how to decorate," Kaito smirked and then saw that there was a similar relic to the one he'd found at the museum sitting on a pedestal, surrounded by what appeared to be glowing blue water.
"This is home," a voice whispered and Kaito saw that the detective was looking around the room, "at least that's what Pandora feels it to be."
"Maybe they created him here," the magician found himself answering and then carefully walked up to the second relic, realising that it was about two decimetres long, one decimetre wide and about two centimetres thick. Two circles were carved beside each other, one was slightly smaller. The relic also lacked the towers that the bigger one had had, but it was rounder and seemed to have been made to hold in one's hand. The size of the pedestal it was sitting on made Kaito suspicious of the fact that it might even have been made to hold both of the relics together; the larger one behind the smaller one.
"Shinichi, have a look at this," Kaito said as he turned around, seeing that the detective was standing with his eyes closed. Ehe thief frowned and waited, wondering what the two were talking about.

As Kaito passed in the corner of Shinichi's field of vision, an old memory passed before him, but it was blurry and not sounding entirely right, so he closed his eyes and concentrated on it. Someone had walked up to the pedestal and placed down the large relic and then placed the smaller one in front of it. For some reason it felt as if Pandora had failed at something, and the blurry person seemed to feel that too as he shook his head and said something while he turned around; Shinichi could see the mouth move, but he couldn't hear anything, but the man's eyes were sad.
"So this is it? This is where we'll remain?" Pandora's host had wondered all those years ago and sighed, "then so be it."
The world flashed a bit and Shinichi saw in the memory how the man had walked past them.
"You can't just leave it like that! That if it falls into the wrong hands?" the host had almost yelled and the detective suddenly realised that there were more unclear people in the room with him, most standing by the door.
'No one can use it; it's dead, so what's the point in setting up traps?' the jewel had asked a bit shamefully while the rest of the people had just ignored him.
"It's not your fault Pandora, nothing is your fault. This is home now."

Shinichi opened his eyes, finding that he was looking straight into two worried, indigo orbs.
"Are you okay, Shinichi? You're crying," the thief dried away a tear with his thumb and saw that his boyfriend looked genuinely surprised.
"I'm crying?"
"Is Pandora sad?"
"No," Shinichi frowned, "it must've been one of the previous hosts. These memories are very confusing and it makes me feel insane. I would honestly class myself as a schizophrenic if it wasn't for the fact that you and my parents are so sure that I'm not. Whatever is on that plinth it's useless and unprotected."
"Are you sure?"
"Yea, they placed it here because it was 'dead', as they put it," Shinichi informed and walked up to the relic with his boyfriend.
"So it's safe to touch?" Kaito wondered as he reached out and allowed his hand to hover above it.
"Yes," the detective confirmed and watched how the embodied curiosity picked it up, "when it had power it was dangerous in the wrong hands, but now it's harmless." Shinichi held out his hand to so that the thief would hand it to him so that he could have a closer look at it, but as Kaito placed it in his hand and he grabbed it his eyes widened as pain shot through his body. Kaito frowned at his hand as he was unable to let it go while Shinichi opened his mouth, not knowing if he was trying to breathe or scream in pain, but he was unable to do anything as his body was frozen in place.

Everything happened in less than a second, but Shinichi's arm glowed in red as so much power was drawn from Pandora that he could feel his heart burn in pain. Kaito, that saw the glow, immediately focused on his boyfriend only to see that his teeth were gritted and his eyes closed hard, showing a face of pure agony. Kaito grabbed into the detective's fingers and tried to get a grip to tear them off, breaking them if he had to, but something made him unable to do anything else but slightly touch them, and as it didn't work he resorted into trying to tear the thing away from his detective, but nothing worked, no matter if he yanked with his entire body.

Red lines encapsulated them and Kaito ran out of ideas as he had nothing more he could do but hold Shinichi close, hoping that it would be okay, that the detective wasn't going to die because of some foolish memory and Kaito's stupid decision that touching magical objects was somehow okay.