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Shinichi laid in bed staring at the ceiling. It had been a week since he had taken the antidote and Haibara had finally deemed it ‘safe’ for him to return back to his own home. Now he laid in bed trying desperately to fall asleep. He had grown accustomed to listening to the old man’s snoring and now the still silence of his own home seemed foreign and uncomfortable.
He sighed as he turned to his side again, attempting to find a comfortable position. Suddenly a quiet noise coming from the roof drew his attention. He stopped fidgeting and listened carefully for a moment. Yep, that was definitely the sound of human footsteps. Shinichi tensed as the footsteps began heading towards his window.
Mentally congratulating himself on his self-preparedness (it wasn't paranoia if they were actually out to get you) he slowly slid the dart-watch out from under his pillow, and curled his hand loosely over its face. He kept his breathing even as he watched the window through slit eyes, careful to keep his muscles relaxed to maintain the appearance of sleep.
Shinichi’s eyes widened slightly when he saw that his window seemed to be opened with no sort of propulsion and suddenly the intruder entered as swift and silent as a shadow. Quickly, before the intruder could get comfortable in his room, he shot a tranquiliser dart, causing the intruder to drop on the floor.
He warily pushed himself upright and froze momentarily when the intruder stood back up before aiming the beam of his watch-light straight into the intruder’s face. The intruder tried to dodge the light from his watch, but Shinichi moved it to follow them, quickly trying to read what little of their body language he could see to gauge when they would strike.
“Ahh!! Will you please quit that!?!”
“NO” Shinichi hissed, his mind now on overload. The intruder’s voice sounded strangely familiar.
“How cruel, my dear Meitantei. And here I thought that we were friends!”
The theatrically heartbroken response combined with the familiar nickname finally allowed Shinichi’s panicked mind to identify who the speaker was.
“KID,” he said, relaxing. “What are you doing, breaking into my house at” he checked the time “1 AM in the morning!?! WHAT THE HELL!!?”
KID flinched slightly at the volume of Shinichi's voice and smiled sheepishly.
“I didn’t think you would be awake?” he said, as if that explained anything.
Shinichi sighed and pinched his nose. KID continued hastily “I’m not here to steal anything, really, besides-”
“Ugh, get to the point.” Shinichi said, cutting him off. “Why are you here?”
It was too dark to really tell but Shinichi could swear that he saw KID blush.
“I heard the news and wanted to check on you.” the thief said, sounding a little contrite.
Shinichi sighed, his irritation reducing significantly, but still not enough to stop him from feeling mildly annoyed. Why couldn’t the idiot just check on him during the day like a normal person? Oh, wait, that would require KID to have some amount of sanity.
“Right. As you can see, I’m clearly fine, so please leave and let me go back to sleep.” Well trying to anyway.
With an exaggerated huff of aggravation KID turned towards the window. Shinichi was sorely tempted to literally power kick the thief out when KID grumbled, “You’re no fun, Meitantei.” before jumping out the window.
Somehow that encounter had cemented in KID’s mind that he was welcome to drop in at any time of the night.
Thankfully the thief bought coffee for him whenever he dropped in, or else Shinichi would have definitely killed him in a bout of sleep deprived lucency. Occasionally the thief would deliver a heist notice, but more often they would end up talking from one subject to another. Many times it ended up with KID complaining about something Hakuba said or did, while Shinichi just nodded.
When Shinichi heard his window opening that night he didn't think much of it. KID usually arrived whenever he felt like. But when he heard the way that the thief greeted him, he knew that something was wrong.
“Hey Meitantei” KID said, the cheer on his voice fooling anyone who hadn’t heard him genuinely talk before. “Sorry I couldn’t bring coffee today, I kinda came here in a hurry.”
“I hope that you haven’t led any policemen to my house” Shinichi said dryly in an attempt to maintain normalcy. “Because having to explain Kaitou KID dropping by at my house would be very inconvenient for me.”
Shinichi observed KID’s appearance. While the magician’s poker face was still on, Shinichi could see that his shoulders were slightly hunched, as if they were carrying extra weight.
“Ha, no need to worry!” KID said, his cheer becoming slightly more real. “No one could ever keep up with the great Kaitou KID! You do come close though.” he added placatingly.
Shinichi smiled slightly. “Well Mr Uncatchable Thief, since you haven’t bought me my usual nightly drink it looks like I have to make it myself. Come on.”
Shinichi led KID down to his kitchen. He could see KID looking around his house, having only ever seen his bedroom. When they reached the kitchen, KID sat down on the counter. Shinichi busied himself in making their drinks.
“Here you go” Shinichi said, handing KID a cup. KID took a sip from the cup and made a pleased sound.
“Hot chocolate! You do spoil me meitantei.”
They both drank their drinks in comfortable silence. Just as Shinichi was about to ask him if there was something troubling him, KID spoke up.
“He died today” KID said, his voice unreadable. Shinichi waited for him to continue. “The first Kaitou KID that is”
“Oh” Shinichi said, not knowing what else to say. He had never been very good at consoling people.
“It was a long time ago,” KID said, Shinichi could hear the grief in his voice even though he kept it remarkably steady. “I should have gotten over it by now.”
“There is no right way to deal with grief.” Shinichi said, moving slightly closer to KID.
KID buried his head into his hands.
“The worst thing is” KID said, his voice had started to shake. “The worst thing is I have no real idea of what he was like, as a thief. I don’t know what sort of tricks he used, what gadgets he preferred, nothing! All the official documents on him are all sealed so tight that even I can't get in and my mother barely tells me anything about him.”
Shinchi let his hand rest at KID’s back for a while, letting him grieve. Then he said “Wait here for a second, I have something for you.”
He went to his father’s private study, opened the safe and took out the file he was looking for. He then returned back to the kitchen and handed it to KID.
“What’s this?” KID asked him, his voice steady now that he had had a minute to collect himself.
“This,” Shinichi said, smiling lightly at KID, “Is my father’s case files on all of the previous Kaitou KID’s heists and exploits.”
KID stared at him with a gobsmacked expression. He opened the file reverently and looked inside.
“And,” Shinichi continued his smile growing wider. KID’s eyes were starting to look a bit misty. “You know how you said that your favourite magician was Kuroba Toichi right?” At that KID nodded a little hesitantly “Well, this case file also has notes written by him explaining some of the tricks that this first Kaitou KID used! He and my dad were-” suddenly KID started sobbing loudly.
It took some time for KID to calm down. Shinichi’s panicked babbling the moment he started crying definitely didn’t help.
“Sorry, sorry” Shinichi said, desperately trying to calm the emotional thief down.
“Why are you apologising you ridiculous detective?” KID said, giving him a watery smile.
“Ummm” Shinchi said, not really knowing what to say.
“This,” KID said gesturing to the file “Is one of the best gifts I have ever received.”
Shinichi felt the knot in his chest loosen. He smiled “I’m glad you liked it KID.”
“Kaito,” KID said suddenly.
“Huh?”
“My name. It’s Kaito.” KID, no Kaito said, smiling a little nervously.
Shinichi stared at him for a second, then exclaimed “Seriously!?!!?”
“Yeah,” Kaito said laughing. “Mom and Dad had an interesting sense of humour.”
“Well,” Shinichi said, smiling wryly, “with your parents being who they were, it's no wonder you ended up where you are. The name fits you perfectly.”
“Why thank you meitantei, I do try my hardest.” Kaito said with a slight bow. “So how did your dad know Kuroba Toichi?”
“Oh he taught my mom acting and disguises and was a sort of intellectual rival to my father.” Shinchi said, smiling fondly. “He used to visit us sometimes when I was younger. I used to love his visits cause he used to set up these elaborate schemes and traps for me to deduce my way through. I remember once he tried to teach me how to throw knives. My mother threw a fit when she saw her six year old running around with a bunch of throwing knives.”
Shinichi smirked a little at the memory. That was the loudest he had ever heard his mother scream. His father had spent most of his time alternating between laughing and trying to stop his mother from murdering the man.
Shinichi sobered up suddenly and looked down. “He died when I was 8.” Shinchi said “The police said that it was a malfunction in his equipment that killed him but my father insisted that he was murdered.” He heard Kaito gasp. “My father investigated it for years but he was never able to conclusively prove anything. I think that still remains one of his greatest regrets.”
Shinichi looked up and saw that Kaito was staring at him.
“What?” Shinichi asked.
Kaito just looked at him for a long moment before breaking into a brilliant smile and removing his monocle and hat. “Let me introduce myself properly this time, my name is Kuroba Kaito and I do believe that we can be of a lot of help to each other.”
Shinichi grinned