The evidence of his parents going on a trip had been lying around the house for the past week. His mother had dug up their passports and put them on the kitchen counter one morning when she was making herself coffee. Shinichi noticed that there were only two passports but made no comment. He was perfectly content not going wherever his parents were off to this time.

There had also been the random articles of clothing going missing from the various closets in his house and the fact that the study didn't have random papers littered all over it. His father only cleaned the study when he wouldn't be using it.

The only thing that surprised Shinichi was the size of the luggage that greeted him as he stood in the entrance hall, which left him to decide if he wanted to try to move them to get by them or if he wanted to just leave through another exit. His mother was very good at packing, enough so that her luggage might not be worth the effort to lift it.

He nodded to himself and hoisted his soccer bag more firmly on his shoulder before heading to the kitchen to exit through that door.

His mother came at him from the side with a hug that Shinichi privately thought was more like a tackle, making him stumble for a moment before he regained his footing. She didn't remove herself from his waist and Shinichi didn't waste the breath required to ask her to do so. She would probably just cling tighter to spite him. "We're going away for a while, Shin-chan, and you weren't even going to say goodbye!" she wailed. He sighed at both the nickname and dramatics. He didn't dare complain about the nickname because he had thoroughly rejected any of the alternatives she had deemed acceptable.

"I'm sorry, Mom. I'll make sure to find you first next time." She subsided into fake sniffles that sounded quite real for a few moments before grinning at him and finally releasing his waist; he almost stumbled once more from the sudden weight adjustment.

"Well, I'll have to forgive you then!" she said brightly, and Shinichi grew suspicious. She usually tried to guilt trip him for longer than that unless...

"You're running from dad's editors again, aren't you?" he asked, feeling annoyed at her suddenly contrite expression. "You're leaving me to deal with dad's editors again, aren't you?" He gave a short huff when she nodded before handing him an envelope.

"It won't be as bad as last time. Just give them this clue and call us when they leave so we can have a general idea of when to come back," she said as she pulled out an envelope, making it sound like a normal and reasonable favor. Shinichi envied that tone she had; he had asked for actual reasonable favors before and still not managed to make it sound as sensible.

He grabbed the envelope and set it on the table near the entrance. That way, he would always have his defence against his father's editors close at hand.

"I'm sorry we're not taking you with us, Shin-chan-" she said, but Shinichi cut her off before she could ask another favor.

"I'm not. I'll see you guys soon and call every week if you want. Just have a good vacation," he said, already turning down the hall and walking swiftly away.

His father stepped out of one of the doors he was passing and asked, "Would you like us to bring you anything back?" as if continuing a previous conversation. Shinichi didn't doubt that the man had been listening at the door and waiting for a suitably dramatic moment to enter before realizing he would miss his chance entirely if he didn't do it soon. Shinichi would know; he sometimes did the same thing and he had learned it from both of his parents.

Shinichi paused and turned to see his father's face. That was a genuine offer, but he didn't really know what he wanted that he couldn't get for himself. All three of them felt some magic settle itself on Shinichi, but the Kudo house had many wards to prevent malicious magic from entering. Besides, fans of the Kudo family often chose to bless one of them in return for their work. They ignored it.

"A rose," he said, slightly baffled at what had come out. His parents looked confused for a moment before realization seemed to dawn.

"Are you going to give it Ran-chan?" his mom asked, an edge to her voice that Shinichi associated with trouble.

"No," he said flatly and watched them looked at each other with raised brows.

His father looked back at Shinichi with a considering look on his face. "Are you planning on giving it to anyone?"

Shinichi caught on then. They thought he meant it as a romantic gift for someone, a rose from an exotic location meant to win a heart. "No. I just want to receive a rose." He blinked before the conversation truly caught up with him. "I don't like Ran like that," he clarified. "I'll make sure to tell you if I become interested in anyone." 'Mainly because you'll find out anyway, and it'll be less embarrassing if I just tell you.' His parents nodded, smirking as if they knew precisely what he was thinking. He didn't doubt that they did.

He gave them a brief smile before turning and heading to the kitchen again. He was running a little late for the soccer game his friends had arranged now.

"Bye Shin-chan!" his mother called even as he shut the door.

He smiled lightly, resting his head against the door. "Really, they're so irresponsible," he said fondly.

He straightened and jogged over to his car. If he drove instead of taking the train like he had originally planned, he would probably be early. His father had expressed frequent amazement that he had managed to outdo even Yukiko's driving for both speed and elaborate stunts; his mother had simply been very proud that he had taken her teachings to heart. Hattori had expressed sentiments similar to his father and had seriously questioned him as to whether he had drugged or bribed his examiner for his driving test.

He unlocked his car and happily ignored his father attempting to get one of the suitcases outside the house. Judging by the way that was going, he had made the right move when he had decided to just go through the kitchen.

"Hello," he said as he picked up the phone, cradling his coffee mug in his other hand as he tried to find a comfortable position for the phone.

"Is this the Kudo residence?" a male voice asked. Shinichi didn't recognize the voice, which didn't really narrow it down all too much. Most of the people whose voices he automatically recognized were either involved in police work, family or close friends, none of which would have to ask if the number they had called was the right one.

"Yes," Shinichi said, cocking his head at an awkward angle to keep the phone in place as he tried to get his toast out of the toaster with one hand. He wasn't really willing to put the coffee down, long years of his parents stealing it making him wary even when they weren't there.

"I'll guess Yusaku is out then," the man said dryly. A close friend of his dad's then. "Can you give him a message?"

Shinichi made a vague affirmative noise as he had managed to get the toast and was now in the process of grabbing a plate for it. He knew he had forgotten something.

"My son's gone missing," the man told him. He seemed to be aiming for a detached tone but was failing. "I fear it might be a kidnapping of some sort, but my wife and I haven't received any sort of demands. She'll drop a file tomorrow if he thinks he can do anything."

Shinichi's heart sank even as he listened. He didn't tell the man how unlikely anyone was to find his son unharmed if he had been gone long enough to inspire that sort of worry in the man or the fact that the kid could have been taken by a wizard or witch and be practically unreachable even if he was still alive.

"I'll call him. How can I reach you?" Shinichi asked, careful to keep his tone professional.

The man rattled off a string of digits that Shinichi wrote down on the notepad next to the phone. "Just call me at that number. It's my home number, so if anyone else picks up, it'll be my wife. It would be fine to tell her whatever you would tell me, because I may be busy," the man said. "Thank you. Have a good day."

"Ah, what's-" Shinichi tried to asked, but he heard the click that told him the other man had hung up. "Who was that though?"

He stared down at the file. Both his father and the mysterious man had said it was alright if he worked the case, but it was bizarre that the man was so intent on not letting Shinichi know who he was. He had said that he didn't want to place his son in any unnecessary danger, just in case whoever had him didn't know precisely who they had and had wanted him for other reasons. Apparently, the man had made enemies in his life that he really would prefer not know his son was missing.

Shinichi didn't quite get how that translated to keeping his identity hidden from Shinichi himself but he had managed to gather from his father that the man was a bit of a prankster in his private life anyway; Shinichi was quite glad to allow the man some measure of comfort if he needed it. His son had been missing for just over two weeks, after all.

"Kaito," Shinichi murmured as he read through what seemed to be an oddly thorough account of what Kaito had done on the days leading up to his disappearance before suddenly no one had known where he was. It was especially odd seeing as he had been in a cafe with his best friend when he had apparently had a short conversation with another woman and then his friend had been distracted by the waitress and Kaito had been gone. "Where would you have gone next?"

Kaito seemed like a smart kid (and it rankled Shinichi that he had to refer to the other by his first name, but he had no other name to call him by as the last name had been omitted from the file). He wouldn't have left his best friend without a word, let alone left with a stranger without saying anything. The woman he had been talking to had reportedly been small, and Shinichi doubted she would have been able to overpower Kaito even if she managed to surprise him, let alone in the middle of a crowded cafe without alerting anyone.

'Unless she was a witch,' Shinichi's mind whispered insidiously, and he frowned. He had been trying to avoid that thought, and it had been working so well right up until that moment. It was a valid worry though. If Kaito had been talking to a witch and managed to annoy her, anything could have happened to him. If that was the case, Shinichi couldn't think of anything he could do to help besides perhaps find the witch and try to persuade her to undo whatever she had done; the possibility of that succeeding was only slightly less likely than him going a month without any kind of case.

It wasn't useful to focus on possibilities when he couldn't do anything about them though. He shoved the thought aside.

The most wise course of action would be to visit the favored haunts of Kaito. If he had managed to leave a clue anywhere, it would be somewhere someone would think to look.

He picked up the phone and checked the notepad next the phone to ensure he had the number down properly.

"Kudo-kun?" a female voice answered. He assumed that this was the wife that had dropped off the file. He was still trying to figure out how she had managed to drop a file off at his front door without being seen by any of the cameras on the property or anyone around his house. The entire family had a penchant for the mysterious, it seemed.

"Hello, ma'am," he said cordially. "I'd just like you to tell me a few more things about your son."

In the end, he did manage to get a last name from her, along with some other information, but he still ended up saying Kaito rather than Kuroba.

He treaded lightly, trying not to make too much noise. He didn't know exactly what was in this forest and he had no desire to attract anything's attention. The entire place was blanketed in magic, and he wasn't sure the effect that would have on normal flora and fauna. He didn't want to find out either; even his curiosity only went so far.

He knew the forest was a place only the magical frequented, so it was a bit odd that Kaito's mother had told him one of her son's favorite places was within it, but he supposed the family might be magical. It would certainly explain some things.

He flinched as a branch cracked underfoot and resisted the urge to look around him. If something was coming for him because of that, he certainly wouldn't see it coming in this forest, so it was best to instead ensure that he was still heading the appropriate direction. Everyone knew that getting distracted from your path while in the forest was the best way to ensure that you might never find the path again. Even the amount of blessings put on the Kudo family didn't completely counteract their bad luck, so while Shinichi knew that one really only lost the path if they ventured away from it, he wasn't willing to risk it.

"Hello," said a voice from ahead of him. "What is someone like you doing wandering in the forest?"

Shinichi looked up instinctively at being addressed before cursing himself and checking the path again. Still there. He allowed himself to look up at the man before him, warily eyeing him and trying to place exactly what the man reminded him of. "I'm looking for something," he said shortly.

"Well, so am I," the man said, with a grin that seemed like it could have been scary if not for the fact that the man seemed more mischievous than anything. "Anything I can help with?"

The Chesire Cat. That's the vibe he was getting from the man. "I don't think so. Although, I must confess to being curious as to how you keep a white suit so clean in the middle of a forest." It was really odd how often things he didn't intend to say were being said recently.

The man blinked at him and it was then that the pieces started to seem odd in Shinichi's mind. He was looking directly at the man's face, but he couldn't remember a single detail. The monocle and tophat seemed an effective disguise, except Shinichi knew shadows did not fall like that naturally.

So, when the man wiggled his fingers and said, "Magic," Shinichi believed him. "Would you like to come with me?" the man asked as he held out a hand to Shinichi.

Shinichi felt another burst of magic settle loosely around him as he considered the question, but he could tell it wasn't compulsion magic. He looked at the man and simply asked, "What's your name?"

"Well, that's the issue, isn't it? Just call me Kid."

"Kudo Shinichi." Shinichi took Kid's hand and was decidedly unimpressed at the kiss dropped onto his hand, especially since he felt the magic tightening. That had been an important decision, he supposed. He felt good about it though even as he was led away from the path and deeper into the woods.

"Home, for now," Kid said as he stopped before a building that was so drenched in magic that Shinichi felt like he was suffocating.

"Is this place even real?" he asked as he tried to focus beyond the distracting feel of so much magic.

Kid shrugged as he led them forward, barely a step ahead of Shinichi who allowed it mainly because he didn't know the area. "I don't think so. I'm pretty sure it was created due to the curse." He seemed unconcerned about the whole thing which made Shinichi want to hurt him. Curses were to be taken seriously, not casually dropped into a conversation. He glared at Kid until he elaborated. "There was this lovely girl-"

"I don't want a story. Tell me what the curse is, or I will leave," Shinichi told him flatly and narrowed his eyes at how antsy Kid suddenly seemed to be.

"Well," Kid said, obviously stalling. "I don't think you can do that."

Shinichi crossed his arms and stopped walking. Kid turned, a sheepish smile on his face. "Excuse me?" Shinichi asked, venom in his tone.

"The curse mandates that once someone to break it has been chosen, they are the only one who can break it. It forces them to stay in the forest once they accept the contract," Kid explained.

Shinichi thought of the magic that had felt like a vice. "I accepted the contract by accepting your hand." He was silent for a few moments. "This probably counts as kidnapping."

Kid took offense to that, his cape flaring out dramatically as he straightened, as if it were an extension of his body. "I have never kidnapped anyone!"

"Except me, obviously," Shinichi said dispassionately and raised a hand to prevent their tangent from continuing. If his gut feeling was right, they would have time to continue the argument. "What are the conditions for breaking the curse?"

"It's not really something that you can force," Kid said awkwardly. Shinichi had somehow already come to the conclusion that the other man had never managed to achieve awkward in his life, so it was a bit odd to see proof to the contrary. "I mean, a strong emotional bond has to be achieved. Well, I have to give you something, but the bond is a prerequisite to that."

Strong emotional bond? That really meant one of two things: love or friendship. Hatred wouldn't be unreasonable if not for how Kid was treating him. Since they were dealing with magic, Shinichi would place bets on love, but he would allow Kid to say it however he wanted to. "Well, that's unoriginal." Kid raised an eyebrow at him and he elaborated. "I've seen a lot of different sorts of curses. By my standards, yours is a fairly benign one." He shrugged at the odd look Kid gave him. Seeing as most of the curses he dealt with were people paying off a witch to kill someone, it really was one of the better ones he had run into.

"Yes, well, I'm glad that my curse apparently doesn't meet your standards," Kid said, amusement clear in his tone. He turned, the cape flaring out with the motion once more, and Shinichi was getting the distinct impression that Kid was a showman. "Make yourself at home. We might be here a while." With that, a puff of pink smoke consumed the man, and he was gone.

"Definitely a showman," Shinichi murmured to himself even as he set off to wander the mansion he was currently trapped in.

"Do you have any family?" Shinichi asked one day about a week into his enforced stay as they sat down to dine. Food was provided for each meal, but Shinichi wasn't sure if it was the house or the magician doing it. "Friends even?"

Kid puffed up like an angry cat. "Of course I do, Kudo! I have my parents and-" He made a choked sound and then a frustrated noise that Shinichi was becoming very familiar with.

Beyond ensuring that Kid's face went unremembered, the witch seemed to have ensured Kid was unable to talk about anything that could hint at his identity. Kid himself only discovered that when, in the middle of conversation, he found himself unable to make any noise when he had tried to talk about how he had learned magic.

Shinichi simply continued with the next question he had wanted to ask. "Do they know what happened to you?"

Kid's shoulders took on a defeated slump. "I don't think so. I can't tell them either, because that's a dead giveaway as to who I am and what I look like. I tried to talk to one of the people I knew, but I couldn't say anything before the witch's magic swept me away from her."

Shinichi stared at Kid, contemplative. Then, he nodded. "I'll figure out who you are and send them a message. That should be allowed under the rules of this curse."

The other man looked up at him, slowly straightening as a smile overtook his face. "I wish you luck, Detective."

Shinichi looked away and didn't bother telling Kid that that form of address was more appropriate than the other probably thought. After all, Kid had managed to tell him both of his parents were alive, the gender of his friend and the fact that he had learned magic as a child, which he probably deemed as information that wasn't possible to link to anyone in specific. If he knew more about Shinichi's reputation, he might not have been able to tell Shinichi any of those.

Shinichi simply smiled back and started eating, ignoring the fireworks show that Kid decided would be appropriate midway through the meal.

For the first week, the blessings continued at the rate they normally did. Shinichi supposed that the sudden increase in blessings occurred when news of his disappearance had leaked out to the general public. He was grateful for them occurring now that he had managed to get more used to the house and the magic of the area. If they had started earlier, he might have fainted.

However, the increase in blessings made him have a few dangerous ideas that he was relatively certain Kid would not appreciate. The man had been rather protective of his wellbeing for a kidnapper (Shinichi would admit to himself that he was only calling Kid that at that point because of the way the other reacted to it), always warning him about either magical or physical dangers well before Shinichi approached them.

The man had warned him about the wards.

Shinichi thought the increase in blessings would last at least a month, but probably up to two. He was determined to figure out precisely who Kid was within the month.

In the meantime, he stuck his hand through the ward and tried not to scream. The pain slowly dissipated once he brought his hand back in. His hand was relatively uninjured, although the addition of some peeling skin and a small cut that seemed more like a paper cut than something magically induced made Shinichi now want to rethink his plan.

"Are those your pets?"

The doves were flying above them, trapped by the house as much as their master now was. Shinichi almost felt guilty for that, seeing as it was the fact that Kid had found him that forced Kid to remain in the house. He often reminded himself that Kid being stuck in a house was better than Kid never breaking his curse.

"Yes," Kid said, staring up at them with a relaxed smile on his face. Shinichi thought it was quite remarkable how well he had adapted to knowing the expression without actually remembering it in the next moment. Kid was leaning back on his hands, seated on the ground with his head tipped back.

He didn't seem to mind the birds that perched in his hair or on his legs, which implied a good deal of familiarity. Shinichi really didn't have to ask if they were Kid's birds, but he did because he was discovering that it was best not to look intelligent enough to piece together Kid's identity if he actually wanted to achieve just that. Kid himself sent him sharp looks when Shinichi sometimes skipped basic questions to tackle things like "Do you usually live in Ekoda?" because he heard Kid use a slang word that was most commonly used in that area. Kid could never answer the question anyway, so it really didn't help.

"My dad helped me train them for-" Kid cut himself off with the usual choking. Shinichi smiled blandly at Kid who was starting to look more resigned than frustrated whenever that happened. He smiled blandly as his mind whirred, because that had obviously been personal information, but Kid had only been cut off when he looked at Shinichi.

Kid had only been cut off when he was focusing on his words, on the conversation.

Shinichi could work with that.

Shinichi had taken up watching the doves soar around the house. He wasn't entirely sure why, but his mind sometimes flickered back to the image of Kid, relaxed and staring upward. He refused to emulate the other man completely though, and so he sat in a chair. After all, his outfits did not stay magically clean despite the fact that all the clothes provided by the house were the exact same outfit he had had on the day he had arrived.

Either way, his attention had been dragged from The Valley of Fear to the doves flying about the room he had seated himself in. A light breeze was flowing in through the windows and it made the room the perfect temperature. He supposed that was just as well, because neither Kid nor Shinichi had managed to figure out a way to close any of the windows in the entire place. He reckoned it was lucky that the wards prevented anything from passing through either way or else they might have had an issue with bugs, seeing as they were in the middle of a forest.

Of course, this was all before a dove decided that the best thing to do to break up the peace of the afternoon was to throw itself at the window. There was a flash of light but no noise, and Shinichi almost felt like that was worse because he could immediately hear the bird gasping. He dropped his book (and mentally winced later because he dropped a Holmes novel) and rushed to its side before realizing he had no idea what to do. He knew a lot of random things but caring for an injured bird had never really come up.

He mentally made a note about researching the topic even as he called, "Kid!"

The man was there in a moment and Shinichi moved away from the injured bird as Kid crowded the space, and it was sort of fascinating watching him pull a cloth from midair before he began tending to his dove. The bird's breathing stopped being that terrible gasping as soon as Kid's hands began glowing, and Shinichi was vaguely surprised the other man was so willing to use his magic in front of Shinichi. It would have been the work of a moment to send Shinichi away for some task or another or to simply ask Shinichi to leave the room. Showing someone you had magic tended to get people killed in different times, which had translated to it being a bit of an intimate action in modern times.

Then, Shinichi thought, '"Strong emotional bond", right.' He avoided thinking about the fact that, really, it had only been two weeks since they met. He also avoided thinking about the fact that, after that first week of partial avoidance because damn, this was awkward, they usually spent most of the day together, chatting about inane subjects like favorite colors ("Blue, although white used to be tied." There was no need to ask what changed.) and why Kid slept so little ("I usually have things to do. School-").

Once the initial crisis had passed, Kid became no less focused on the work in front of him, black fading to grey fading to white under his hands, but he began humming. He worked his way through an upbeat tune Shinichi didn't really know but was relatively sure were popular about a month ago simply because he had accidentally agreed to go out to the mall with Ran then and had had to hear it a few times an hour for a few hours when someone had died during the trip. The length of time triggered a reminder in his mind that Kaito was still missing. He wondered how he could have forgotten, but it didn't particularly matter. He was probably a missing persons case right now too, so he certainly couldn't be helping Kaito.

"Are you usually a showman?" Shinichi asked after a few minutes of this, careful to ensure most of Kaito's attention was on his dove. Its wing had been singed, and the edges were still blackened in a manner that made Shinichi want to wince in sympathy. He determinedly did not think that he was planning to cross that ward soon.

He was pretty sure Kid still hadn't made the leap that in order for Shinichi to get a message to Kid's loved ones, someone had to get out to deliver the message, and it sure as hell couldn't be the person which the curse was centered on.

"I guess," Kid said, and Kid was distracted, focused on his bird rather than the conversation. This was what Shinichi was banking on, because Kid was a surprisingly difficult individual to distract from his conversations with Shinichi despite all evidence to the contrary. Shinichi was a bit annoyed with himself that he found this endearing despite how difficult it made things. "My teachers hate it, but I get bored. I can't keep everything to my shows in the park-" There was the choked sound, as usual, but Kid looked at Shinichi, surprise clear. "How?" he got out, voice rusty, as if with disuse, even though the man was just speaking.

Shinichi cocked his head and furrowed his brow slightly, the image of innocent curiosity. He had been told that he could pull off this look quite well, even if no one in his immediate social circle bought it anymore. "How what?"

Kid didn't seem to know how to clarify what he meant, but Shinichi knew. He just gave a little smile that could be interpreted as trying to reassure Kid when he didn't quite know what was going on but was really just him failing at completely containing his smirk.

He was getting stir crazy. Shinichi didn't deal well with having nothing important to do, but he was dealing with it better than Kid, who had decided that literally climbing the walls was the activity he wanted to tackle today. He had fallen off so many times that Shinichi had stopped laughing every time it happened and had instead decided to focus on Kaito's file once more. It had been one of the few things he had had on his person when he had gotten into this entire thing, and turning over the facts of the case was helping him not feel like he was doing nothing at all.

Kid was humming again, the same songs as before, and Shinichi wondered if Kid knew any other songs, even as he read of Kaito's shopping trip with his friend Nakamouri Aoko on the day of his disappearance. He thought of the music that was now stuck in his head through sheer repetition and asked, "Did you go to the mall a month ago?"

Kid's concentration on the wall was broken and he fell, which was sort of a shame because he had managed to get halfway up it this time around. He yelped before glaring at Shinichi for a moment once he hit the ground, which was sort of justified because Kid had asked him not to distract him. Shinichi shrugged, unapologetic, and Kid just sort of pouted at him for a moment before he stood up and prepared to tackle the wall once more. "Yeah. I went with a friend," he said before he started scaling again, and he therefore missed Shinichi's stunned expression.

A school-age male, likely within a year of his own age, who knew magic, owned trained doves, had a magician for a father, likely lived in Ekoda, had a female best friend, was an amateur magician and had gone to the mall with a friend last month. He felt a little ridiculous for not having realized it earlier.

"You're kidding me, right?" Shinichi asked as the realization dawned. Kid fell off the wall again, but he was only a foot up, so it didn't matter much, despite how offended he looked by the indignity of it. "You're Kuroba Kaito?" Kid made a choked noise and was staring at him in shock, which really was a response in and of itself. "I was working on your missing persons case before you kidnapped me!"

"I never kidnapped you," seemed to be Kid's automatic reaction to the statement before he processed anything else. "Wait, you're actually a detective?"

Shinichi nodded and strode over to Kid, dragging the other up and drawing him into a hug. "I can work with this, Kaito," he said, and it hit him a moment later that murmuring anything into someone's ear was a bit more intimate than he was usually comfortable with. 'I have a crush on Kid,' he thought, and it didn't feel like a new thought at all.

"If you're going to be calling me Kaito, I think I get to call you Shinichi," Kid said once Shinichi had released him, and Shinichi caught the faintest trace of a retreating blush. 'Kaito may have a crush on me too.' Certain things made a lot more sense when viewed with that perspective, like how attentive Kid could be or how he had allowed Shinichi to view his magic with no hesitation or backtracking.

Shinichi smiled. "That's fine, but I'm still going to be calling you Mr. Kidnapper," he said, ignoring Kaito's protesting as he refocused. It was all well and good to bask in requited admiration, but it would be a lot more satisfying if he could do so when he knew no one was worrying about either of their safety. Shinichi straightened, allowing himself a last moment of weakness as he trailed his hands down Kid's arms before he stopped touching him completely. He had to ensure that Kid didn't realize exactly what he was saying until they were at least at the door.

He gestured for Kid to walk with him, and the other man fell in step with him. "I know how to contact your parents," he began, "so I don't have to figure out that information too, which is good because I was going to have to use police resources to figure that out otherwise." Just two more rooms and then Kid would have to use magic to stop him, and, if Shinichi had read him right, Kid would never do that. "I'm a little bit behind my original projected timeline, but all of the appropriate elements are still in play, so that's fine." He still felt like the magic people were blessing him with was practically making him glow. (It had once when he hadn't been as careful with storing it away. He had checked.)

"Shinichi," Kid said, and that was nice. He should have allowed that earlier. Well, he supposed that it wouldn't have sounded nearly as nice before he had admitted that he had a crush on Kid. "What are the 'appropriate elements'?" One room.

"Just some necessary components," he hedged. "Doesn't matter to you. I'll just call your parents and tell them about your condition, and it will be fine." There was the door. This was going to hurt.

"Shinichi, that's nice and all, but you can't get through the wards."

He kissed Kid, both as a distraction and because he wanted to. "About that," he said as he threw the doors open. He gritted his teeth and walked through. By all rights, once he was through the main ward, the pain should subside somewhat.

Knowing that did not make the trip through any easier. A shout escaped him before he was through, the magic's displeasure known. It seemed a small eternity before Kid stood on the other side and seemed torn between anger and relief, and Shinichi sat down. The pain was more of a simmer now, and he was not sure if that was due to the injuries he had just acquired or if it was part of the spell that being outside the wards hurt. Kaito favored anger when Shinichi brought out some bandages and started covering some of his newly acquired wounds.

"How long have you been planning this?" he asked, his voice quiet, and, if it had been just his voice, Shinichi would have been fooled into thinking Kid calm. He would have, except he could see Kid's clenched fists and flashing eyes and knew that calm was far from what Kid was feeling. "You don't get to decide this by yourself, Shinichi."

"Really, I do, especially since I've been planning this since I offered to deliver the message," Shinichi said, just as quiet. The pain was still there, a specter that couldn't be forgotten, but Kid had a guilt complex. It was the reason why the message needed to be delivered in the first place and why he was upset that Shinichi would injure himself for Kid.

"But you-" Shinichi cut him off with just a slight shake of his head.

"We can argue about this when I get back. I have a message to deliver," Shinichi said, charming smile firmly in place. "See you, Kaito." He turned and headed off into the forest, hoping that the blessings were still enough to allow him to navigate his way out even after allowing him to bust out of the wards.

He almost got lost, and his skin burned, the magic punishing him. It didn't matter. He would be back in the wards soon enough, and then he would be fine.

His car was still parked where he left it, only with the addition of caution tape. He supposed his disappearance might look like a crime if you were unaware of the circumstances. Really, the car wasn't the most important thing at the moment. His cell phone still lay in the glove compartment, battery dead. He turned on his car and began charging his phone, ignoring the bruises appearing on his skin.

He scrolled through his contacts before coming upon the Kurobas' number, calling them immediately.

"Kudo-kun?" the man answered, shock evident.

"I'm okay, and so is your son. I found him, and he should be able to come home shortly. He ran afoul of a witch, and I sort of got wrapped up in the whole mess," he said quickly, because it was getting a little hard to ignore the fact that the cuts were starting to accumulate enough that he was a little worried about getting blood in the upholstery. He didn't know how long Kaito would take to break the curse at this point, but he didn't want someone discovering his blood in his car and deciding that he must have been murdered after all.

"Do you know how long you've been gone?" the man demanded, incredulous.

"... A little longer than a month?"

"A little longer than a month, he says, as if that's not over a month. You must have been so frustrating to raise, just disappearing without word for weeks on end."

"To be fair, it's kind of a unique circumstance that I will happily elaborate on later." He was getting a little anxious to end the call. He still had to contact his own parents, and he'd prefer that it didn't take so long that the slowly spreading burns got too far. Kaito could probably help him if nothing was too severe, but he wasn't sure what too severe meant in regards to magic. It was a bit of a nebulous thing. "I promise that I'll explain soon," he said, and then he hung up.

He called his mother next, and she squealed at his voice, as if she had never been worried at all. He supposed that they had gone longer without hearing from him, but it was a little disconcerting. He had planned to let her go on a little, but she noticed the second his breathing speed changed. "You're in pain," she said, and that was the first hint of worry he had heard from her during the conversation.

"It's a magic thing," he said, and she grumbled.

"Go fix yourself. I know my Shinichi wouldn't let a magic user get the upper hand without a way to fix it," she said, and then she hung up on him. He stored the phone away, and his trip toward the forest was a much faster one than the one away from it.

The forest swallowed him, but he was not worried about straying from the path. The magic of the wards called out to him, an easy trail to follow. The house was a welcome relief when it came into sight, a worried Kid pacing in the door, which had been left open.

"Didn't take long at all," Shinichi called as he jogged over. He braced himself for the wards once more as Kid turned furious eyes on him. That was the last thing he saw before he fainted, the wards finally ceasing their burning as he crossed back into them.

Shinichi awoke alone in his bedroom in the house he had lived in for a few weeks now.

It didn't take very long for Kid to wander in. "You're an idiot, Shinichi," he said as he sat on the edge of Shinichi's bed, glaring slightly. "Just because I can heal you doesn't mean you should be relying on that at all."

"I promised to deliver a message for you. I knew what I was agreeing to when I said that." That didn't seem to mollify Kid at all.

"Well then, it was a stupid promise too," he said, stubbornly. It was sort of adorable. "You don't even like me that much, but you hurt yourself trying to help me."

Shinichi blinked, utterly confused. "Wait, what?"

"I don't know. You're a good guy, Shinichi," Kid continued, as if he hadn't just said something that didn't make the least bit of sense.

"Wait, no. I definitely like you. Why do you think I don't like you? I kissed you!" Shinchi didn't think he had been sarcastic enough that Kid could just brush that off. Shinichi wasn't aware of any amount of sarcasm that could cause anyone to brush that off.

"You're constantly calling me a kidnapper!" Kid exclaimed, incredulous. Shinichi seemed to have a knack for testing the credulity of Kurobas. It would have been more amusing if it hadn't been so frustrating at the moment.

"That was a joke! I wouldn't have come here at all if I actually thought you were a kidnapper!" Shinichi exclaimed right back, as if it were obvious, which it was to him.

"You asked me if I even have friends! That tends to imply you don't think I'm a very likeable sort of person," Kid continued, crossing his arms and frowning at Shinichi. At least he seemed a little doubtful now.

"I was trying to find out information about you!"

"You didn't even tell me you were a detective! That's basic information that friends know about each other!" It was obviously a last ditch effort, given that Kid was approaching a hysterical sort of shout.

"You couldn't give me information if you were always going to be paying attention to what I could figure out from it!" Shinichi shouted right back, defending himself.

"Oh," Kid said, his voice smaller than anything Shinichi had heard from the man yet. He suddenly grinned brightly. "Well then," he said. With a flick of the wrist and a puff of smoke, a rose appeared in Kid's hand, and he offered it to Shinichi. "I have high hopes."

Shinichi took the rose, feeling magic on it before suddenly the magic began leaving. He covered his eyes against the sudden flash of bright light, temporarily blinded despite his quick movement. The bed beneath him seemed to lower him to the ground before disappearing completely.

Kid laughed, a sound that encompassed so much joy that a small smile crept onto Shinichi's lips automatically. The light died down, and Shinichi blinked the spots from his vision.

Kaito stood before him, white suit vanished along with the house.

"Strong emotional bond, indeed," Shinichi said wryly, and Kaito glanced at him, seemingly resigned that Shinichi was never going to let that go. "Hello, Kuroba Kaito, pleasure to officially meet you. I've been working on your missing persons case. We should try to get you home now."

Kaito stalked over to him. "You're not getting rid of me so easily," he said, even as he yanked Shinichi up, kissing him firmly.

It was nice to be able to bask in the sunlight, kissing the man he adored with no stray thoughts about the people who had been worried about them.

Instead, he focused on how warm Kaito was and how his slightly chapped lips moved against Shinichi's. Jolts of pleasure ran through him, and he found the energy to drag Kaito down, maneuvering so that he pinned Kaito down. Kaito certainly didn't seem to mind, if the muted groan he gave was any indication, the sound inspiring a fierceness in Shinichi that he was unaware existed.

He pinned Kaito's wrists above his head, lacing their fingers together as he did so and pulling away slightly to meet Kaito's eyes for a moment, ensuring that was okay. Kaito lay there for a moment, breathing heavily enough to inspire decidedly unvirtuous thoughts in Shinichi, as if they had done much more than kiss. He then set about reclaiming Shinichi's mouth.

They lay there like that for a while, passion fading into lazy kisses before Shinichi kissed Kaito's nose. "Ugh, I'm in love with a dork," Kaito complained, even as he squeezed Shinichi's hand.

"I'll have you know, I'm a famous detective. Quite a respectable sort of man," Shinichi told him, mock seriously.

"I'll have you know that you're still a dork," Kaito said, grinning up at Shinichi.

"I'm not sure you realize how desirable I am," Shinichi said as he got up, dragging Kaito to his feet with him.

"I do have standards," Kaito told him, even as he hooked an arm around Shinichi's waist. "I don't kiss just anyone, you know. Just not sure if you're boyfriend material."

"I've met your parents, we've lived together for a few weeks, I released you from a curse. I am so completely boyfriend material, it's absurd," Shinichi said, dropping a kiss on Kaito's cheek. He felt light.

"I suppose you'll do," Kaito said, his step sure as he led them from the forest.

AN: So, it's a bit abrupt, I think, but I found it worked well enough for me. My tenses were wandering all over the place while writing this, so you'll probably have seen that during the read, as it is unbeta'd. I tried to fix it up a little, so please point out any mistakes I missed!

I wasn't entirely sure how to end it, so it just ended up with a quick makeout scene (seeing as I don't really write those, which you can probably tell) and dorky boyfriends. Hopefully that was okay?

Thank you for reading, and please review!

Ja ne!
~J. DCF