Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan/Case Closed.

Pairing: KaitoxShinichi

Rating: T

Genre: Romance/Humor

Ghosts and Secret Admirers

Idol

Shinichi looked at the row of bright faces before him and sweat-dropped. They were the faces of Division One's newest officers. Megure-keibu had decided to introduce them seeing as Shinichi was practically a part of the division anyway, and the portly inspector thought that it would be good for the young to get to know each other better. They would after all, he was sure, be working together quite a lot in the future.

But back to the now.

Shinichi had gotten used to being famous. He didn't like it as much as he used to—or maybe he should say that he didn't like it as much as he used to think he would back when being a detective had felt like a grand, exciting adventure. He'd learned the reality of it all the hard way, but that was a different story. The point was that he was no stranger to attention, wanted or not, but it still made him uncomfortable. The paranoia from living in hiding for a few years wasn't something that could just be shaken off. It didn't help that, though they were younger than the other officers—new to the force and all that, they were still a little older than he was. The youngest of them was two years his senior.

It always felt a bit weird to be idolized by people who were older than you.

"I've heard a lot about you. It's an honor to meet you!"

"I'm looking forward to working with you."

"Hey, is it true? That you helped take down a huge criminal organization?"

"Oh, I was wondering about that too! How did you do it? The media was really vague about it. What was it like?"

In the face of the deluge of questions, Shinichi didn't know where to begin. It didn't help that half the questions were ones he would much rather not answer. He was relieved when Megure-keibu bustled over and handed them a case to work on.

Duckling

"So what's with the ducklings?"

Shinichi lowered the menu he'd been handed to give Kaito a bewildered look. "What ducklings?"

The magician lounged back in his seat, watching his date while simultaneously keeping an eye on the rest of the restaurant and the street outside the window. "You know, those three officers you were with outside the barber's shop earlier. They were trailing you around like baby ducks all day."

Shinichi spared a moment to wonder how Kaito could know they'd been following him all day if he'd only seen them at that one crime scene (besides, Shinichi hadn't had classes today, but he knew for a fact that the magician had had two), but he decided he'd rather not know. "They're Division One's new recruits. Megure-keibu wants me to give them pointers. Teach them what kinds of things to look out for and what kinds of questions to ask—that sort of thing."

"Shouldn't he have assigned a senior officer to do that?"

"He did that too. But he told me he'd like us all to spend some time working together."

"Preparing for the future then, eh?"

Shinichi shrugged. "I guess so."

Station

"The—the station is haunted!"

"What?"

"I came in late last night to fill out a report on that drug dealer we arrested the other day, and I saw lights flickering on and off in the room where all the forms are. I thought someone else was there, but the light went off just as I got to the door and no one came out! When I looked inside, the place was empty."

"Maybe it was a malfunction in the lighting system? Or maybe someone forgot to turn the lights off and the bulbs happened to die when you arrived."

"That can't be it because I turned the lights on when I went in, and they were all working fine."

"Oh. Well, a malfunction then. Things happen."

"But that's not all!"

"It's not?"

"Remember that weird code Chiba-keiji found in that warehouse two weeks ago?"

"The one that led us to those underground weapons dealers?"

"Yeah, that one. Well, do you know who solved it?"

"I didn't think about it. I assumed it was a joint effort by the group working on the case."

"It wasn't them at all. I overheard Chiba-keiji telling Takagi-keiji that he just came in that morning and found a note on his desk. The key for breaking the code was all written out there for him."

"So someone else solved the code."

"Chiba-keiji thought that at first too, but he asked around to find out who he should thank and no one knew anything about it."

"At least if it is a ghost, it's a friendly one."

"You're mocking me, aren't you?"

"Let's just say I think there are a lot of possible answers that don't involve the supernatural. I mean seriously, you're a police officer. You should know that."
"What about the coffee then?"

"What about it?"

"Haven't you noticed that on the days when Kudo-kun comes in early, there's always a cup of coffee already on his desk?"

"Now that you mention it, I guess there is."

"No one's ever seen the person who puts it there."

"That sounds more like Kudo-kun has a secret admirer than that the station is haunted to me."

"But I asked around, and everyone said it wasn't them."

"Of course not. That's the whole point of secret admirers. They're secret."

"How about this then. Two days ago, when I went to the restroom in the middle of briefing, I heard a weird sound from inside the bathroom. But when I went in, all the stalls were empty. There was no one there, but I could still hear it."

"It?"

"It was someone laughing."

An involuntary shiver. "I have to admit, that one's just a little bit creepy."

Mug

Shinichi had gotten used to finding a mug of hot coffee waiting for him on his desk on those days when he didn't have morning classes and decided to head to the station early. Ran had asked him once why he even had a desk at the station, but then they'd both thought about it and realized that it only made sense. Shinichi certainly spent more than enough time there. And he suspected the police were angling to coax him into joining them upon graduation instead of going the private route.

But that was a story for a different time.

The point was, he'd gotten used to the mysteriously appearing coffee. Okay, not so mysterious. He knew it was Kaito, and he appreciated the gesture. He also suspected that the thief found it vastly amusing that the police officers were still trying to figure out how it got there each time.

This morning, however, Shinichi had arrived to see a whole crowd around his desk. Having only expected the three young officers he was still assigned to working with, he was understandably confused.

Until he saw the mug.

It was a new mug. His old one had been broken in an unfortunate accident two days ago when one of the other officers had mistaken it for his own.

This mug had his photo printed on the side.

It was a photo of his sleeping face.

He almost groaned out loud. When he'd told Kaito it would be nice if it was more obvious that his mug was his mug, this was not what he'd had in mind.

And was it any wonder that the police were confused? After all, Shinichi couldn't have taken the close-up of his own sleeping face. And even if he could have, they knew him well enough to know that he wouldn't have had a mug made with such a picture on it at all.

Then one of the officers turned to him with an entirely too serious face and asked, "Kudo-kun, have you noticed any strange people following you?"

He could tell that what the officer really meant was, "You might have a stalker. Have you noticed any signs?"

It took a lengthy and rather heated debate to convince them that it had to be someone's idea of a joke. And even after he'd pried agreements out of them, he suspected that half of them were going to be on the lookout for stalkers anyway.

Assault

Shinichi had been on his way to the police station. Again. No, there weren't any cases today—yet anyway. He just currently had nothing better to do. His classes were over for the day, and he'd already finished all his homework. Kaito was out of town too for another of his shows. He'd been gone for four days. He wasn't scheduled to be back until tomorrow, which was why Shinichi was quite shocked when someone grabbed him and pulled him into an alley.

He knew it was Kaito though. He recognized the strong, calloused fingers wrapped around his wrist. And when the shadow stepped closer, he recognized the magician's scent.

Tilting his head back, he looked up into familiar, indigo eyes. Warmth fluttered in his chest.

He would have said something, but he couldn't because a hot mouth had descended on his own. Half of him wanted to complain that an alley was hardly the place for this kind of thing, and really couldn't the magician have just waited until they got home? The other half wanted to melt into a happy puddle. He ended up doing neither as there was the sound of running footsteps behind them.

Startled and so not wanting to be caught like this in public, Shinichi tried to push Kaito away. In turn, Kaito—reacting on thief-honed reflexes—vanished in a puff of smoke.

A chorus of familiar voices reached Shinichi's ears.

"Kudo-kun! What happened?"

"Who was that?"

"What's going on?"

It was the trainee trio.

Not really thinking about who he was talking to, he'd grumbled, "That idiot just grabbed me." He'd been thinking about why Kaito might be back so soon, and it wasn't until it was several seconds too late that he realized how that might have sounded.

His fears were confirmed when he looked around quickly to see that the police officers' eyes had widened.

"No, wait! That didn't—it wasn't—"

But by then it was too late. All his stammered denials were taken as, well, denial. And soon they were worriedly suggesting he see the police psychiatrist.

His protests of, "Really, it was nothing!" only spurred them on.

"This is a serious issue! You can't just brush it off."

He wondered with exasperation why, if they really respected him so much, they weren't stopping to listen to what he had to say. But maybe that was where the age thing came in.

Protect

"Now they think they need to set up some kind of guard to protect me from creepy stalkers!"

Kaito blinked at the detective who had just stormed into the Kudo library. "You have a creepy stalker?"

Shinichi froze for a moment, staring at him in disbelief, then slapped a hand to his forehead. "It's you, you idiot!"

"Oh. Well, there's nothing to worry about then." The magician had the audacity to look pleased. Shinichi was seriously tempted to grab a book off the shelves and throw it at the thief's head, but the books didn't deserve it.

"I hope you're happy with yourself," he grunted, crossing his arms and glaring balefully at his unrepentant partner.

Kaito had the nerve to look smug. "I always am."

Now Shinichi was half tempted to turn around and bang his head against the wall. This was getting totally out of hand, and he wasn't sure how to fix it without causing himself any further embarrassment.

He couldn't exactly tell the police that the "creepy stalker" was his boyfriend. He didn't need the police to start questioning his sanity. Honestly, didn't Kaito realize how hard he was making it for Shinichi to ever introduce him to the police? "Hey, just so you know, the guy who's been breaking into the police station at odd hours to do weird things like put creepy pictures of me on mugs? Well, he's the same guy who jumped me in the alley, and guess what? He lives with me!" Yeah, right. It was bad enough that Kaito was an internationally wanted phantom thief.

He sighed. With his luck, the police were going to walk in on them one day when Kaito had him tied to a bed or something equally awkward and easily misunderstood (er, well, he supposed whether it was a misunderstanding would depend on the details, timing, and whatnot, but again, his luck would probably dictate that it be one of those times Kaito was just trying to force him to take a break). They'd have to list the cause of death on his death certificate as abject embarrassment.

-End of this Chapter-