AN: A one-shot that wouldn't just leave my mind. Please tell me how you like it. I literally don't know where I'm going with this story...

For my Fated Friendship readers, a little more patience. I'll be updating in a week or so. :)

Warning:- Also, this is slash. M/M pairing. If anyone is uncomfortable with it, please do not read. Nothing explicit, however.

"Dialouges"

'Thoughts'

Kindly Cruel

It had been a couple of years since the Black Organisation had fallen. The main branch in Japan first going down with the combined efforts of the shrunken Kudo Shinichi, FBI, CIA, Japanese Public Safety Bureau and Kaitou Kid's assistance.

Hattori had spear-headed the take down in west of Japan, while Hakuba had contributed to their efforts by finally capturing Spider.

It had taken them till the end of what should have been Shinichi's third year of High school, but with the BO finally captured, Shinichi was too relieved and exhausted to complain about the years it took.

Haibara had gotten the original formula of APTX-4869 from the organisation's files and made Edogawa Conan an antidote soon after. Kudo Shinichi had lost a lot of time, but with all the new friends he'd made and after revealing his double identity, he was able to move on finally.

Pandora had never been found, but Kaito had agreed that it best remained so – unknown and mysterious. After all, there was no one left who knew its legend anymore.

Ran and Shinichi had decided to remain friends in the end. Closer than they ever used to be, but only friends. For all that he'd loved her; he had been a part of something she'd never be able to understand. And while it was regretful, they cherished each other too much to mourn the loss of a potential relationship.

Kaito and Aoko had come to a similar conclusion. By some twist of fate, Ran and Aoko had bonded over their similar experiences with their childhood friends despite never having known each other previously.

While neither Conan nor KID had known each other's identity, or had even been willing to share, they had sacrificed it in order to bring the organisation down. With a tentative amount of trust, they'd started working together, and now, finally in University after a totally unusual and unique High School experience, they were the best of friends.

It was when Kaito and Shinichi decided that they would like to take their relationship to another level, that the magician had first broached the issue.

"Are you fine with it?"

"With what?"

Kaito sighed, now was not the time for Shinichi to be clueless, "With my past as KID."

"Of course," Shinichi looked incredulous, as if the mere question was preposterous.

"Listen, being friends and being in a relationship is a different matter," Kaito tried to explain, "This is not going to stay hidden, and we both know that many of the police still think it's unfair that I got a full pardon."

Because despite the fact that Kaitou Kid returned what he stole and had a 'No one gets hurt' rule, it did not mean that he was not a criminal. He had caused enough property damage and identity thefts for him to get a short sentence in jail.

With a really good lawyer – Kisaki Eri – the FBI's influence and statement that he'd co-operated in taking down a multi-national criminal organisation and the backing of quite a few influential detectives, Kaito had escaped a criminal sentence. He had to pay a rather hefty fine, but that had been all.

Of course, when the court had demanded he turn over all of Kaitou Kid's possessions, they had disappeared miraculously and no one had been able to find it in the Kuroba's home or otherwise.

"It doesn't matter what they think," Shinichi dismissed, "you are no longer held accountable for your past actions, and their thoughts are hardly going to affect us."

"They are," Kaito insisted, "you are planning to join the Police Department after University, aren't you? Such things matter when it comes to promotion. If you have anything that stains your reputation –"

"You are not a criminal, Kaito," Shinichi smiled, placing his hand over Kaito's, "and you're not a stain on my reputation. In fact, you are a budding magician who will soon be making his debut performance on stage! Besides, I can always start my own agency; it'll be more than successful due to my wonderful detective skills!"

Kaito had sighed at that but accepted the end of the discussion happily. It didn't matter to him what the people said about his thieving – those that knew at least, like the police. The general public was still unaware for safety reasons – but for a career in the very same police department that snidely commented about how he did not have to pay for his crimes, it could be a potential setback.

But if Shinichi was fine with it, then there was nothing to worry about. Kaito had never cared for the opinions of those he didn't even know, and he wasn't about to do so now.

He did wonder what Shinichi thought of it though. The detective might have been alright with consorting with criminals when the threat of the BO had been very real and immediate. But after?

Haibara, of course, was a completely different matter. From what Kaito understood, Conan and Ai had been 'partners' of a sort, and there was no way he was turning her in to the police when she was trying to start a new life as Haibara Ai. Miyano Shiho, according to all records available, was dead. And the apotoxin's shrinking side-effect was kept strictly under wraps – even from the police.

Which brought him to the matter… Had Kaito not been granted a pardon from the court – had Kaito never revealed his identity to the police to even be tried in court – would Shinichi still have been so accepting? His thoughts were a mystery to Kaito.

For all that Shinichi upheld justice and stood for the truth, he was quite different from the rest of the detectives he knew. Different from Hattori and Hakuba. His sense of morally right and wrong were certainly not the same as that of the police, and what the law states.

Kaito had seen him catch quite a few shop-lifters, pick-pockets and store-thieves; bring them to near tears by revealing all their past crimes and grievances, before letting them go. Not always, not often either, but sometimes.

"They won't do it again," Shinichi had told him once when Kaito had asked him about it.

'Huh, that's a lot of trust Shinichi's got in pickpockets,' Kaito had thought bemused, 'to just believe that they'll stop.'

Kaito's poker face must have slipped, because Shinichi had elaborated then, "It's not confidence, it's just giving them another chance. If they do it again, they'll get caught sooner or later and have to face their crimes."

So, of course, Shinichi's outlook on what was right and wrong was skewed. It was different enough for Kaito to be his friend and now, lover. Kaito was glad for it, really. But it was still something he couldn't figure out.

What did Shinichi actually think of the criminals he apprehended? What was actually going on in his mind every-time he foiled the culprit's painstakingly created – false – alibi and tore their plan to shreds?

Shinichi's cool voice and arrogant smirk betrayed none of his feelings. While Kaito could read Shinichi easily most of the time, it was when he was solving a case and presenting his deduction that, the detective's version of 'poker face' came into play. Then, what he was thinking was anyone's guess…

Kaito desperately wanted to understand though. Magicians could be just as curious as detectives.

So, when he got the chance to know, albeit from a criminal's mouth, Kaito did not pass it up.

Another case over, another murderer apprehended. This one was quite similar to those Shinichi had witnessed before; crime of passion and a hastily thrown together trick to fool the police. Not that it mattered, Shinichi had seen to the truth of the matter before long and the culprit had sighed before confessing.

As she was being led away, the culprit – a Niwashima Nagisa-san, daughter of a high-class businessman, who'd killed her own father in rage, when he'd purposefully made sure her low-class boy-friend was fired from work and evicted from his rented apartment because he disapproved of their relationship – she briefly stopped to talk to him.

This was not unexpected either. Crimes of passion did end sadly most of the time, sometimes premeditated murders also occurred due to gross misunderstandings. In such cases, the killer did stop to talk to him, tell him how he regretted killing and that once he left prison, he'd try to live a better life. Shinichi heard it all with stoicism, neither offering condolences nor sympathy.

This time, it was different.

"I'd heard of you, you know," Niwashima-san begins softly, the officer who'd been escorting her – Satou-san – stops along with her, allowing her to say her piece.

"From my friends, in the newspapers, from my colleagues – They called you a brilliant detective."

'So this is going to be one of those 'if you weren't here I would have gotten away with it' kind of speeches then,' Shinichi thought absently, nothing showing on his face.

"They said," she continued, "that as far as private detectives go, you are one of the most cruel there is."

The only other witnesses to this conversation, Megure-keibu and Kaito, who'd been standing beside him and Satou-keiji who'd been escorting her, gasped at that, making to pull her away. She resisted and ploughed on,

"That you deliver the truth as if they're hard, undeniable facts. Every secret the culprit possesses is laid bare by you, mercilessly and openly, for all to know. And I've seen it by my own eyes now,"

"Come on," Satou-keiji says in a hard voice, "that's enough from you,"

Niwashima gives her a look, staying her ground. She turns back to Shinichi, who's still looking at her with a bored, uninterested expression. She can't tell what he is thinking.

"You accused me so heartlessly, and provided evidence I couldn't back out of," she said, "They called you arrogant too, and cunning and devious. However, none of them said anything about your kindness…"

That halts Satou's attempt to take Niwashima away. Megure seems oddly curious about what she is saying, as well. Kaito is just silent, listening to what she says, raptly.

Shinichi, uncharacteristically, widens his eyes, betraying his surprise, though the rest of him remains as composed as ever.

"I suppose it's only us, the criminals who have faced you, that could ever actually recognise it. The kindness behind your cruel actions."

"Satou-keiji," Shinichi begins stiltedly, "should you not be escorting her away?"

"Why run away from the truth, Meitantei?" Niwashima gives a tiny, half-hearted chuckle, "The truth you so easily expose when it is not yours…why deny it? Let me acknowledge this truth. As you say, there is only one truth, is there not?"

"Satou-keiji!"

Shinichi's request goes unheard however, because now even she wishes to know what Niwashima is trying to say – a truth that only the criminals Shinichi exposes realise? What could that be?

"When you declare our guilt for all to hear, without any reservations or hesitance, it is painful. It is painful to face the facts, to acknowledge your irredeemable actions," Niwashima is speaking from her own experience here, "The truth…hurts."

Then, surprisingly, she smiled, "But when you reveal our falsehoods, leaving us nothing to hide behind…it is freeing. In a way, you are actually offering us a clean start, aren't you? A new life – after serving our sentence – without any regrets. Without any obscured and illicit past to hinder us from starting a new beginning."

There are tears glistening in her eyes now, but there is another emotion there too – gratitude.

"Which is why, Kudo-san," Niwashima bowed her head slightly in Shinichi's direction, "I must thank you. For making me face the truth and offering a chance for redemption."

Shinichi finally breaks his silence, "Everyone deserves a second chance, a chance to remorse. However, it will depend entirely upon the person as to how they make use of this chance."

"I understand," with these words, she finally left the scene.

Megure gave Shinichi's shoulder a squeeze before making his own leave. Kaito, who'd tagged along and quietly watched the whole thing, moved forward then.

"Huh, she was right," the magician said as he peered into the detective's face, "you really don't take it well when someone reveals the truth of your thoughts, do you?"

Shinichi sighed, "Most of them do realize my actions," he confessed, surprising Kaito, "but no one says it aloud. Because, in the end, my deductions are sending them to jail."

"It's a double edged sword," Kaito agreed, "they may understand what you did and be thankful for it, or resent you for it either way. That's what you meant by taking the second chance, yeah?"

Shinichi hummed, waving to the other officers as the both of them made their way out of the business-man Niwashima's house.

"You know," Kaito said as they walked hand in hand on the sidewalk, "I'd never really seen it that way. She was right; you'd need to be on the other side of your deductions to actually understand."

"What do you mean?" Shinichi asked him, not getting what Kaito was trying to say.

"I'd wondered, why you were so accepting of the fact that I used to be KID," Kaito smiled at him, "it's because you don't think I am anymore, right? This is my 'second chance' and my past is of no matter to you…"

"Well," Shinichi blushed lightly, "I never really thought of KID as a criminal when he was active either. Not very law-abiding of me, I know –"

Kaito gave a startled laugh before pecking him on the cheek, "Only you, Meitantei, only you…"

'I think I understand it now, Shinichi,' Kaito thought as they made their way home, 'It gives them a clear conscience, doesn't it? No matter what anyone may say later, they will know that they've got nothing to hide any longer and can live their life with their head held high.'

AN: Hey, so this was my first foray into writing a story with slash in it. But, as my favourite parings are ShinRan and KaiShin, I knew I'd have to do it someday. I just hope I've made a decent attempt at it.

The plot of this fic...I don't really know what it is, or turned out to be. The idea's just been there in my mind since a long time. I've wondered what the criminal's thought of Shinichi's occasional kind words, or when he tells them to lie in order to protect someone else (Araide Tomoaki's case and the episode named: Kudo Shinichi, Murderer).

How did you like it? Please let me know your honest opinions!

REVIEW!