The sun streamed into the window, blinding Kaito in the eyes as he sat up. The previous day's events came back to him, and he went back down on the bed. He was doomed. It was as simple as that. He had a limited physical ability now and limited stamina-how in the world was he going to get past the traps made especially for him? He could hardly get past them as himself! How would he-

Chrk. Rustle. "Argh!"

Kaito leapt up. Wasn't that...his...

"Oh, crap," he muttered, and went to look outside the window in the guest bedroom next door. As he had suspected, there was somebody suspended in a tree, lifted up by a single loop of rope. Was that... "Oi! Tantei-kun! What the hell are you doing?! It's kind of obvious that there was a loop of rope just sitting there in the grass!" he yelled, fuming. Didn't the detective know how hard it was to reset that particular one? He'd have to replace the rope, reset the mechanism, retie the loop...

He put on a plain pink skirt and light blue shirt, which he had taken out of his mom's room. He rushed out of his room, whistling hastily for his doves. The boy could just hang there for a little longer; it wasn't her fault (she decided to address herself as a girl for now) that he had gotten caught at the time she had to feed her doves. She would hurry a little, but her doves had to be fed or else they would fuss and fly to Kaito to remind her to feed him.

"KID! KUROBA! LET ME DOWN ALREADY!"

She ignored him, throwing breadcrumbs and bird feed to his beloved pets. A newborn, Lia, flew over and latched onto her shoulder with an affectionate nip to her ear. "Good girl," she murmured to the bird. "At least you guys all still recognize me." She stood there, lost in her own thoughts.

"KID! GET! ME! DOWN!"

She jumped. "Ah. Right. Tantei-kun." She picked up a pocket knife and went out, Lia squeaking in her ear as she struggled to stay on her shoulder.

The cheeky detective glared daggers at the approaching girl. "What took you so long? And what's up with the outfit from yesterday?"

The teenager ignored him, getting to work on the rope on his ankle. The pocketknife was harder to move, and the girl glared at her weak hands. Stupid her. She couldn't even cut through a piece of rope! What could she do like this? In frustration she threw the pocketknife onto the ground and started to untie the rope with her bare hands. "Damn," she cursed as her fingers protested loudly to the tightness of the rope. It took her an extra two minutes than it normally did to untie the rope, and by then her fingers had been scratched raw. Conan yelped as he fell to the ground without warning.

"There, you're free. Now what do you want?" She flinched on the inside at how cold her voice was. "Can't you see that I'm busy?"

The detective stared at her. "Um...Kid, I think you could switch to your normal voice...because nobody's here. And you don't need to wear a girl's disguise, you perverted thief." She knew it was a joke, but it struck a bit too close to home.

The girl bit her lip to keep from yelling in frustration. Stupid detective-He couldn't solve this case, even if he wanted to. "Okay, what do you want? And how do you know where I live?"

"What do I want? You're the one who just snapped at me yesterday," the detective retorted. "Plus, you're the weird one here because I got caught in one of your traps that was lying there in the grass. If you're a normal person, you don't just put traps in the grass and expect people to know that they're there. I came to figure out what the hell's wrong with you! You literally have the nerve to show up in front of the mail and drop the gem in like it's normal, and then when I find out you act like your best friend just died. Of course I'm going to track you down! Plus, I put a tracker on your sleeve yesterday, which you obviously didn't notice. I tracked you down this morning after breakfast, though I told Ran that I was going to go visit Agasa Hakase's old friend with the old guy and Haibara, so you're not going to get rid of me that easily. So what's your problem, Kid? You look like you want to murder someone right now. And throw them in a lake. How about you welcome me in?"

Conan shifted uneasily as the thief put down a cup of coffee in front of him with more force than necessary. "Um...So...You're a...girl in real life?" Conan's attempt to start this conversation once more failed epicly as the thief groaned, making strangling movements with her hands. Conan had a feeling that the girl in front of him wanted to strangle him, and he sank back into the couch. "Tantei-kun, you are way, way, off. You are as close to the truth as the North Pole is to the South Pole," the thief said with a forced smile.

There was a ten minute period of silence as Conan thought about everything he knew about Kid and all his (her?) heists and how he (she?) moved and spoke...

Conan leapt up. He was really hoping that his deduction was correct, because it would be extremely humiliating if his sudden horrifying idea was true. "U-Um, Kid," he stuttered. "Are you...not...a...girl?"

Kid's eyes widened, filled with shock. Conan hoped that he hadn't shocked her too much. "O-Ok, apparently not. It was just an assumption-"

Kid interrupted, her bright eyes shining excitedly. "I knew you would get it, Tantei-kun!" she squealed. A stunningly familiar smirk that closely resembled Kid's male smirk appeared on her face. "But, Tantei-kun, how would you think of such an idea?..." A small thought invaded his head as he opened his mouth. I mean, you never had that much cleavage in that area before...WHAT AM I THINKING?!

Conan's face flushed red as a group of unwanted pictures of Ran and Sera flickered through his mind. "I-It's n-nothing important!" he sputtered, barely getting the words out.

Now there was no doubt about it. This girl was a guy, who was also Kid, who had a heist this Friday, which was in less than five days...

Conan's eyes rolled back in his head and he fell back further into the couch. Just before he ran from the room and into his dreams, he heard the thief murmur to herself. "Man, if the Heisei Holmes can't handle just this part of the problem, I wonder how he'll react when I bring in Akako's part in the story and the gem and the time the cure is done..."

Hakuba Saguru was staring at the unoccupied desk next to a window that belonged to the class prankster. His head pounded, a consequence of the capsules Kid had put in his room, where he had entered at promptly 2 a.m. after filling in reports on Kid's heist and solving a murder case, then filling in another report on the murder. At that point he had been too tired to even care, and had fallen asleep on his bed in his wet clothes. When he had woken up, he had such a high fever yesterday that he skipped class and stayed at home. However, he considered himself a little better today and had forced himself to get out of bed and go to school. He had assumed that Kaito would be there and he could yell at him, but the magician never arrived.

Just before lunch, Hakuba asked Aoko if she knew where Kaito was.

"Eto...Kaito?... Ah, Aoko remembers now! Mikuya told me that he was visiting an old town with his mom, because they knew Toichi-san, to pay their respects. After all, it is Toichi-san's and Chikage-san's anniversary tomorrow. Aoko doesn't know when Bakaito will be back, though..."

That information was all Hakuba needed. "Thank you, Aoko-san. Um...Who is Mikuya?"

Aoko beamed, as if happy to talk about the mysterious girl that was somehow related to the bastard prankster that had caused his cold. "Mikuya is Kaito's...cousin. She's taking care of Kaito's house, Aoko thinks. Aoko was going to ask her more, but then Aoko realized that Aoko was going to be late to school."

Hakuba nodded, processing this information carefully. Many new questions floated out of his thoughts. Why is this...this Mikuya taking care of the house? Why isn't she in school herself? Does she know if Kaito is really Kid? Could she be Kaito herself?

His head throbbed painfully, and his theoat burned as he coughed hard, caught in yet another coughing fit. Aoko looked at the blonde, worried. "Hakuba-kun, are you okay?"

Hakuba nodded, but his vision was a little blurry. "Ah-Aoko-san, I'm going to go home early today. Could you send me our classwork and homework later?"

The girl nodded. "Aoko will send you them as soon as she gets home. Feel better, Hakuba-kun."

"Thank you," he said weakly as he shoved everything hastily in his bag and walked out of the classroom, stumbling as he did so.

Now, he thought, I'm going to get myself some medication and pay this Mikuya a visit.

Kaito clucked disapprovingly, looking at the detective in his backyard. When she had gone upstairs to hide anything that revealed to be Kaito, the detective must have woken up. And he must have not been in a good mood, as he was attempting to murder the poor trees in his backyard with a soccer ball. By the time she had noticed that he was awake, it had been almost noon.

"Hey, Tantei-kun, do you want to go out and get lunch?" she called at the detective. "It'll be a lot more useful than murdering my innocent trees."

He scowled at her. "If you haven't forgotten, I am supposed to be with Professor Agasa, Haibara, and some random person in some place somewhere! If anyone I know sees me, which is a lot of people, they'll tell Ran, who will definitely ground me forever. And that means no 'Kid Killer' competition during your heists, Kid, so-"

"Kaito. That's what you call me as a civilian. Kai-to. And when I'm a female, you call me Mikuya. You call me Kid at the heists. I would rather prefer you don't use it when I'm in public. Got it?" Kaito interrupted.

Conan rolled his eyes. "Whatever, Kid."

"Mi-ku-ya. That's what you call me." An evil smile came onto her face. "Or you could call me 'Mikuya-neechan', like you call your girlfriend 'Ran-neechan'."

Conan glared at him. "I'm only calling you that in public. Otherwise, I'll call you Mikuya."

Kaito pouted. "Fine. So what do you want for lunch?"

After thirty minutes of not agreeing on what to get for lunch, Kaito finally went out to get food. "Tantei-kun, don't go into my room while I'm gone. It's rigged to the max with pranks."

Actually, it wasn't; he just wanted to keep the detective away from the painting of his father. The last thing he needed was the kid blackmailing him with photos of the secret room.

"Okay, I won't. Are you sure you don't want sushi?"

Kaito paled slightly. "Yes, I am very sure. I am getting you curry and I'm getting myself a simple salad. And some chocolate desserts." And absolutely none of those finny things!

"Chocolate desserts and a salad? What kind of a lunch is that?"

"Stop protesting! Genmei's chocolate cake is the food of the angels! And so are their chocolate mochi, their chocolate ice cream, their chocolate-covered waffles, their chocolate brownies, their chocolate dorayaki, their chocolate crepes, their chocolate imagawayaki, their-"

"Ok, ok, I get it!"

A pause.

"Hey, Kuroba?"

"Hmm?"

"Do they serve anything with coffee in it? Ran doesn't let me drink any anymore."

"Yes, they have coffee jelly, coffee-"

"Just get me cold coffee jelly, pure black coffee, and the curry I wanted."

"Hai, hai~"

As Mikuya walked back to the front of her house with lunch in two bags, she noticed someone standing there. Was that... "Lady Luck has abandoned me", she muttered as she made out who it was. Hakuba Saguru stood there, staring at the windows and coughing hard.

"Um, excuse me..." Hakuba spun around to face the speaker.

Kaito shifted uneasily. "Can you move a little bit? I can't reach the gate, sorry. It's my lunch that's at fault right now. Ah... who are you again? I'm afraid Kaito isn't here if you wanted to see him."

Hakuba frowned. "Are you Kuroba Mikuya? I heard that you were watching over Kuroba's house." Then he added, "I'm Hakuba Saguru. Nice to meet you."

Kaito nodded. Then he frowned at Hakuba's appearance. The British detective was pale, his skin clammy and covered in sweat.

"Yes, I'm Mikuya," he said. '"Hakuba-san, are you ok? You look pale. Here, come inside." Kaito managed to get the gate open. Next came the door. Conan was standing on the doorstep, glaring at the thief. "What took you so long? I've been here for practically an hour!" Wordlessly Kaito handed the boy the food, one bag at a time. When that was done, Kaito turned to find that Hakuba was leaning heavily on the doorframe for support.

"Hey, are you okay? Here, lean on me." The detective's silent obedience made her worried. She guided him to a couch, one opposite of the one Conan had passed out in earlier. She felt his forehead, then yanked it away almost immediately. "Hakuba-san, you're burning up! Okay, let me get some water and some fever medicine..." She didn't need to act for this. Her concern for the detective was genuine.

Kaito grabbed the items she needed, then went to find Conan. "Hey, Tantei, can you do me a few favors? Do you know Hakuba Saguru?"

At the detective's nod, she continued. "Well, currently he's lying on my couch with an extremely high fever. I'm going to bring it down, but you need to help me when I cook something for him. I have already experienced your cooking. And that cooking will probably send Hakuba to the hospital with severe food poisoning. Do me a favor and get me a towel from the closet upstairs."

And with that Kaito grabbed a nearby thermometer as well as everything else and brought them to a table close to Hakuba. The thermometer was stuck into the blonde's mouth, announcing the temperature to be 40°C. Kaito nearly fell over. 40°C was like 104°F! What did Hakuba do to get such a scarily high fever like this? Sighing, she grabbed a towel from the stack the mini detective had quietly put beside him, and soaked it in cold water. The cloth went on Hakuba's head, and Conan was sent to get a blanket. The Brit was shivering like mad, yet sweating buckets at the same time.

It was close to eleven at night that the fever had begun to lower. Kaito looked for the shrunken detective, but found him asleep on the couch he had passed out on earlier. With a small smile on her face, she got another blanket and covered the boy with it. She yawned, leaning on the couch for some support. She was tired, too tired to even eat her precious chocolate. Oh, well. The chocolate could wait another day. Her eyes drooped, and she leaned more on the arm of the couch. She would just take a small nap...

A/N: Idk, this didn't exactly turn out as I planned and hoped...Hope you enjoyed anyways!