Chapter 4

Kaitou stared down at the small boy with no small amount of frustration. Why was he being so obstinate about not telling what was on his mind? It annoyed Kaitou more than it should have, knowing that Conan still didn't trust him completely. Sighing, the thief looked down and saw something akin to lonely desperation in those bright blue eyes, and it left Kaitou feeling all the more frustrated that he didn't know why the miniature detective was feeling this way. He didn't like seeing such emotion's in Conan's eyes, and he could, at the very least, easily appease the loneliness he saw there for one night.

So, without thinking, Kaitou pulled out his cell phone and dialed the number he'd know by heart since he was five years old. Three rings later, his mother answered their house phone in an annoyedly bemused tone. She had been expecting a call from him for a while. As the famous Kid smirk crossed his face, he said, "Kaa-chan, may I spend the night at Tantei-kun's house?"

"Why bother asking when you already know the answer?" his mother answered, causing his smirk to widen. "So long as I know you're safe, it's perfectly fine. Just don't forget to go to school tomorrow."

"Thanks, Kaa-san," Kid replied. Mission accomplished, the phone disappeared from Kaitou's hand in a puff of pink smoke. When he looked into Conan's eyes again, his grin widened again. For the loneliness and desperation had been replaced by incredulity. The last thing he had expected was for the thief to want to spend the night, and although the idea was far from unwelcome, Conan couldn't figure out what motive Kid could possibly have for staying. A hopeful bubble had welled up inside him saying that just maybe Kid returned his feelings, but the shrunken detective quickly squashed that thought before it could grow too much.

"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbably, must be the truth." Conan believed these words with all of his heart, and he, himself, was pretty much a living example of them. However, he had not eliminated any impossibilities that would lead to the conclusion of the phantom thief loving him. No, another fairly famous phrase that was almost the exact opposite probably fit this situation better. "All things being equal, the simplest solution is often the correct one." Since Kaitou Kid was someone who really cared about people, and they had steadily built up a friendly rivalry, Conan had deduced that the simplest solution be that a caring person like Kid didn't want to see a, for lack of a better word, friend so unhappy. So, said thief did all he could to help said friend move on.

Anyway, however unexpected the move was, Kaitou Kid would be spending the night. After all, what reason would Conan have to stop him? The thief had already stayed over one night, even though it was, technically speaking, already the next morning since he'd shown up about 2:00 am. So without further ado, Conan pulled Kid out of the library and toward the kitchen, offering to let Kid use a pair of his old pajamas (Shinichi-sized). Once in the kitchen, Conan went to grab the phone to order take-out only to be stopped by a large hand grabbing his small one before it was anywhere close to the receiver.

"Not so fast Tantei-kun," Kaitou said, returning the favor of pulling by tugging the chibi tantei over to the refrigerator. When it was opened, Conan was unsurprised to see it stocked full of fresh food. Ai always made sure he'd have everything he'd need to take care of himself in his own house in case she and Agasa were gone. On the other hand, Kaitou was a little surprised since he knew Conan still lived next door most of the time but said nothing about that. "I can cook you know. So, what would you like for dinner?"

"I don't know, Conan answered. His mind had conveniently traveled to the fact that Kid was still holding his hand, and a light blush appeared on his cheeks. Luckily, his stomach growled loudly at that precise moment Kid had turned to stare at him again, and the blush could easily be explained away. "Preferably something that won't take too long."

"Hamburger steak with a fried egg on top it is," Kaitou replied, choosing something both quick and delicious. He regretted having to let go of Conan's hand, but he did so with a silent sigh and began pulling out the ingredients. Soon enough, the nice sizzling sound and beefy egg smell that indicated that the food was ready filled the kitchen. When they sat down next to each other to eat, Conan stared at Kaitou Kid for a few moments before starting to eat his food. Kaitou also began to eat, passively happy at the yummy sound coming from Conan, but his mind was elsewhere. The expression on Conan's face had caused a tingle to run through both his heart and memories. He had seen that expression before; he just couldn't remember where.

It was later that night, about 10:30. The dishes were clean, and they had retired to the library. Conan was immersed in a well-used, almost battered copy of The Sign of Four, and Kaitou was trying to lose himself in one of the earlier Knight Baron books when reality came crashing down. Just as he had stopped thinking about it, the memory hit him like a ton of bricks.

'Dear God, I hope I'm right,' Kaitou thought as he got up and walked over to Conan. What he was about to do went beyond impulsive and straight into reckless, and the consequences could be extremely sever. But now that he saw it, and it seemed so absolutely true in his mind, he couldn't help himself. That's why he pulled off his mask, picked up a startled, shrunken detective, and kissed him with soft, skillful lips.

Conan immediately dropped the book in shock and wondered when he had fallen asleep, because this had to be a dream. After all, he was pretty certain Kid didn't return his feelings. Either way, he wasn't going to let such a nice dream go to waste. So, he closed his eyes, grasped the white silk shirt as tightly as he could, and yanked down to pull Kid closer while returning the kiss with an excited fervor. Kaitou smiled into the kiss, buried his free hand in Conan's hair, and used it to angle Conan's head to deepen the kiss.

A short while later, they broke apart, and Kaitou noted with a smile that Conan had quite the cute, bright blush splashed across his cheeks with hair a lot more ruffle than normal. His eyes were wide with surprise, and his breath was coming out in short, little pants. Overall, Kaitou would have to say Conan was looking quite adorable.

The look and the memory that had returned to Kaitou was a scene he had once seen while spying on the small detective not a month before Ran had died. They had been in the kitchen, and Ran had just finished cooking. She placed Conan's food in front of him and turned around to get her own. Conan's face had held an expression the showed the intense love and affection he had for the female, only to be replaced by the normal childish one when Ran turned back around. See, the look he had seen on Conan's face directed toward him mirrored the one aimed at Ran not so long ago.

Now, Conan obviously had many things to be surprised about once the kiss had been broken. For one, he realized that this was no dream, and Kaitou Kid had actually kissed him. He was also no longer looking at a spiky blonde-haired, green-eyed, Takagi look-a-like. Rather, he was staring up into the violet-blue eyes of a teenager who looked similar to his older self and had dark, messy brown hair. Kid had kissed him and shown his true face. Hope swelled inside Conan's chest, and he did not beat it down this time. Because Kid's expression made it quite clear that he loved Conan just as much as Conan loved him.

"Kuroba Kaitou," the thief whispered softly in the miniature detective's ear, and the reply was a gasp. "Now, I've given you everything, Shinichi-kun."

"Kuroba Kaitou…" Conan whispered softly. "Kid." Then, something struck him, and although the situation was still a serious one, he was unable to hold back his laughter. After all, the phantom thief's true name made for quite the humorous pun. And rather than getting annoyed, Kaitou just smiled. He had often thought the quirk was amusing himself. His heart was also distracting him with numerous flip flops, because if Conan was cute when blushing, he was breathtakingly beautiful when laughing so freely.

"You're father had quite the sense of humor, didn't he?" Conan asked after his bout of giggles was over. Now that he knew who Kid was currently, it wasn't hard to figure out who he'd been in the past.

"Yeah, he did," Kaitou said with something akin to nostalgic sadness. "But I think Mom was actually the one to suggest it, seems more her style. I guess I'll never really know."

"He's what They took from you, isn't he?" Conan asked. He noted, then, that Kaitou had tensed up and wasn't going to ask further. But Kaitou had always been there for him, he wanted to do the same. "You lost him to Them; that's why you could understand."

"Yeah," the thief said with a sad, reminiscent smile. He ruffled Conan's hair a bit and then continued. "They made it look like a stage accident. At the time, I had no idea. I didn't even find out who until a few months after I became Kaitou Kid. Anyway, it's the same organization that did this to you, but a different branch, seeing as mine has animal code names and yours alcoholic ones. So, is this what you weren't telling me?"

"That I'm completely in love with you," Conan answered. "Pretty much, yeah. There were other things too. Like I really shouldn't let myself love you and want you to love me back. Cause I'm a complete jinx for dead bodes. Almost everywhere I go, murderers and victims follow. Ran was murdered just for her connection with me, and you're already targeted by the Organization just for being Kaitou Kid. With my luck, you'll be dead within a month."

They fell into silence again, and Conan's expression grew forlorn once more. Kaitou was annoyed, frustrated, and incredulous all at the same time. How could Conan see through other people so thoroughly but see himself so wrongly? Regardless of this fact, Kaitou would be damned before depriving himself and the detective of this particular relationship. Squeezing the boy tighter to his chest, Kaitou said, "You're wrong. All those murders would have occurred whether or not you were there, and think of all the people you've saved before. How can it be your fault that someone decided to murder someone else? And how many times have there been when someone could've killed me during my nightly excursions? I was still alive last time I checked. Besides, I think corpses following you is Heaven's way of saying they want justice, so it sends the most capable person to catch the murderer. So, you see Shinichi-kun? You're not death, you're hope."

Conan remained silent as he turned these words over in his head. Everyone else had always told him he was jinxed but the more he thought about what Kaitou said, the more he wanted to believe those words to be true. Slowly, the confident smirk that had been gone from his face steadily grew into the expression he wore when catching criminals or solving a puzzle.

Shinichi Kudo was back!

A/N: It's over! I finally have finished this fanfiction. Would any of you believe me if I told you this was originally going to be like a one-page one-shot? Anyway, thank you all of you for sticking with me this long and reading the entire fanfic. I'm sorry the last chapter took so long, but at least it's done.

Just out of curiosity, did any of you notice that a few of the ideas I had were influenced by different animes and books and did you notice which ones? If you could tell me and you were right, I'd be incredibly impressed. Also, this whole fanfiction was based on three quotes I thought would say if certain things had happened in the anime. If you can guess those, you can receive a once in a lifetime reward / prize. I'm planning on writing a one-shot sequel to this. The prize for the winners (the first and second person to get all three right or the two closest) would be to name the OCs I will be using in the sequel. Their real names could be yours, a friend's, something you made up, whatever, and their alias would have to be an animal.

And for the last time for this particular fanfic…

I would really love for someone to seriously critique my work. It doesn't have to stop at constructive criticism. I'd love for someone to really pick apart my work and tell me every little thing they hated, what needs to be improved, and what parts of my writing they liked best. Believe me when I say I love all reviews, and it's really nice to know people appreciate my work. However, I'm a far cry from being perfect, and there's always room to improve. Also, if I can get better, I can give better fan fiction to my readers. Anyway, thanks again for reading this fan fiction and hopefully you seriously considered my request.

Finally, thank you to Kajune, Cadmium Poisoning, GoGothGirl, Cathy Daine, and SunniNiko for the in-depth critiques. I love all of you so much! Your critiques made me so excited and helped me write a better chapter. Trust me, I always feel like my roughs in pen are so much worse than the typed version. I also love all the other reviews and reviewers very, very much. Thank you all for your loving support.