CHAPTER 2:

THE HEIST

Conan and Heiji both went to Ekoda together. They scouted the museum where the heist was to take place and were met by the head of Kid's taskforce and his men, as well as Hakuba, a high school detective like Shinichi and Heiji, who also called himself the sole rival of Kaitou Kid.

Suffice to say afterwards they were not in a very good mood, especially Heiji who seemed to have taken an instant dislike to Hakuba after fake detective gathering show on the island. Together they went back to the room where the emerald was been kept prior to the show, and checked the place for booby traps. They wanted to give few suggestions, but the thought of Inspector Nakamori's reaction stopped them.

As midnight rolled near, everyone grew tense and one minute to twelve, everyone started counting. At exactly 12 o' clock a flash bomb was deployed and when it cleared, the thief was perched upon the glass, in which the Cat Eye was displayed, like an over sized cat.

Nakamori started shouting orders, unfortunately for the young rookie in Division 2, who suddenly found himself in the thief spot; the police played their usual pile on the bandit with the thief, not that the other officers could have stopped their jump midway. The detectives fortunately, were not stupid enough to get caught in their insane game. The officer's jump activated the thief's traps on the young rookie and when the white smoke cleared, all the officers found themselves in black cat outfits, complete with cat ears and the tail.

They were also glued to the floor, with glitter and ribbons of every color around them and other various cat toys scattered between them. Nakamori started cursing loudly, though everyone was surprised, or perhaps not everyone, when instead of curses they heard "meow" coming out of his mouth. In fact every time an officer opened his mouth to speak, it was to find that instead of human language they were somehow speaking the language of a cat. Nakamori looked like he was going to explode, especially when Kid appeared suddenly in front of him and snapped his photo. His red face with his black costume was, let's just say, VERY striking. And the detectives were having a very hard time, trying to stop their laughter; especially Hattori because of the hard time the inspector had given him and Kudo earlier, he was feeling sort of vindictive.

With the incompetent officers out of the way, the chase between the Kid and his detectives started. Hakuba was ranting on the thief's stupid antics, while chasing him, on how could he leave the poor officers like that, when suddenly Kid stopped just before turning the corner and turned around to face the detectives who too, had stopped in surprise.

Heiji privately thought that, had the thief been giving him that look he would definitely turn tail and run as hard as he could in the opposite direction, pride be damned. But Kid was not looking at him so he was content to watch the show that was undoubtedly about to begin, he watched sideway and saw that Kudo too, was smirking.

Kid turned back to face his detectives, and gave Hakuba his best Cheshire grin that meant Trouble with capital T. And said "I was not aware that you wanted to co-splay as a cat Tantei-san, though I can't say I am surprised considering your interest in Holmes outfit, do forgive me, I apologize for not realizing that you would feel left out."Suddenly he smirked, as Conan and Hattori chortled and Hakuba gaped at him"Here", and he flicked his fingers and the silver smoke surrounded Hakuba.

When smoke cleared, they saw Hakuba standing in a female pink cat outfit with cat ears and tail as well as stockings, and purple hair. Hattori started laughing outright so hard that he failed to notice the thief disappearance, though Kudo did not and went after him. When he realized that thief was gone he started swearing, but stopped when he saw the camera left by the thief, with the note "For Tantei-han",he quickly picked it up and checked it. In the camera there was a new reel, obviously he had taken the previous one with him. Hattori without the second thoughts started taking Hakuba's pictures, laughing when Hakuba opened his mouth and cat purring noises came out.

Conan faced the thief in his own domain, the rooftop. They both knew that Hattori would not be joining them, as he was busy taking Hakuba's pictures and laughing his head off, at the other's embarrassment.

"Hello Tantei-kun, so good of you to join my heist, I heard that you were having little problems. I hope nothing serious happened." He asked lightly, playfully. Though he knew that Tantei-kun had left Mouri Ran's house and started living with the professor, but he wanted to know why?

"Yes well, the smell of alcohol get to you after awhile. So I changed my residence, but you can forget it, if you think that it will stop me from chasing you. I will catch you, Kid." Conan answered. He knew what Kid had wanted to know, but he wasn't going to give answers so easily, especially when Kid also kept information from him.

Kid frowned, he knew that Shinichi had understood his unasked question, but that meant he had deliberately chosen not to answer him. In his frustration, he ignored that Shinichi had only spoken half of his usual sentence and not said that he would throw him in jail.

He opened his mouth to chide or perhaps ask bluntly about what had Tantei-kun gotten into now, but the words died on his tongue as they were suddenly under attack by the snipers.

They had not expected their talk to be interrupted, and so they quickly scrambled away from the bullets and took cover behind the wall.

"Damn it, I should have expected them." Kid cursed himself for not remembering the danger; it was just so easy to forget everything with Shinichi, to just enjoy their banter and each other's company.

Shinichi heard him and sighed, he too had forgotten about the danger. As usual it was fun to match his wits with Kid, to forget about the darkness and ugliness in the world. Kid was his salvation, his light. Shinichi didn't know when he had started seeing Kid as a constant in his life but he had. He wanted to know everything there was to Kid, not because he just wanted to unveil his secrets but because he wanted to understand him.

"Berating yourself won't do any good Kid."He said rather sharply, he didn't know why, but he couldn't stand seeing Kid in pain, "any way its good thing that you glued the task force and Hakuba to the floor, they would have gotten hurt because they don't have much experience dodging the bullets, like us and Hattori. Anyway I need you to distract them, so that I can pinpoint their location. We can think of a plan later."

Kid wondered with half of his mind, on what exactly they were going to do, but he took out few smoke bombs and threw them to the far edge of the rooftop, opposite the snipers. As they had expected the bullets immediately stopped in their direction and were aimed towards where the smoke bombs had landed. Shinichi immediately peeked from behind the wall and pinpointed their sniper location, through his glasses.

Then conversationally asked on what were the chances of him still been there, if they sneaked up on him. Kid raised his eyebrows silently asking 'Oh! And how in the name of Hermes, are we going to manage that feat; Shinichi smirked and fingered Kid to follow him, which he did. They went down one floor and Shinichi silently stood at the window facing towards the opposite of where their sniper was.

Kid in silent understanding of Shinichi's plan opened the window and picking Shinichi up and securing him on his person, jumped out of the window. They quietly landed on the concrete pavement below and Kid quickly changed his clothes to the more suitable attire of black.

Shinichi followed Kid as he silently made his way to the other building, like the phantom he was. There were a lot of questions he wanted to ask, but this was not an appropriate time, so he curbed his curiosity and concentrated on the task at hand.

They quickly made their way to the other building rooftop, where Snake was just finished packing his rifle. He was startled to see Kid suddenly appearing behind him and took out his pistol. Kid avoided the bullets and threw his razor sharp tarot cards at him, forcing him to turn as Kid re positioned them in such a way that Snake was standing with his back towards the door. Shinichi appeared, when Snake was sufficiently distracted and walking silently he reached the sniper's back and darted him.

Snake went down before he even knew what hit him, Kaito couldn't believe his luck that after years of fighting against Snake, he had him cornered but before they could decide on what to do with him, once more bullets were showered on them, "probably by his partner", thought Shinichi. This time though the sniper was aiming more towards Shinichi then him, Kid noticed, which wouldn't do at all. He quickly shielded Tantei-kun and as the result the bullet grazed his shoulder, and one almost went through his heart but thanks to his quick reflexes he was saved, though he didn't notice it. His mind was filled with only one thought, to get Shinichi to safety. He even forgot all about snake, and as smoke bombs erupted everywhere on the rooftop, he quickly dived off the building with Shinichi in his arms, shielded by his body.

Shinichi wanted to shout at Kid to stop putting himself in harm's way. Shinichi thought his heart was going to stop when the bullet grazed Kid. But before he could say anything, Kid had grabbed him and they were airborne.

(The guy staying at Shinichi's house has gone for vacations.)

Both Kid and he landed at Shinichi's room balcony. As soon as they landed Shinichi grabbed Kid's uninjured arm and started dragging him towards the bathroom, where he brusquely told Kid to take off his shirt, as he went in search of the first aid kit. He brought it back, to find Kid-sitting cross-legged without his shirt on, but the hat and the monocle were still on him. He sighed at the picture that Kid made, and without a word quickly set to work on him. After they were done he went to put the first aid kit back and came back to find Kid already fully attired perched on his room window sill, looking at the Cat's Eye in the moonlight with sort of a desperate look, which Shinichi himself showed, when taking the antidote hoping against hope that it would somehow become permanent, it never did though. He sighed as he saw Kid erect his poker face back on as he realized that he was not alone.

His eyes widened in surprise, when Kid threw the Cat Eye at him, which he caught in reflex.

"Not what you are looking for?" Shinichi asked suspiciously.

"Unfortunately no, it's a rare Emerald Zultanite but not what I am looking for" Kid answered.

"You never said what you are looking for?" Shinichi asked.

"Perhaps another time tantei-kun, I will be taking my leave now. Thank you for patching me up and as a gift I will leave this emerald with you, give it to police when you want to. It suits you more than me anyway, it being you birthstone and all. Goodbye Tantei-kun, see you later." He smiled as he saw the dumbstruck expression on his face and quickly took off, before his shock wore off.

Shinichi shook his head as Kid took off in the night. He went home, to professor, both Haibara and Agase had gone to sleep. So he too went to bed, hoping to get few hours sleep before he had to deal with Hattori and the police questioning.

An irate Hattori woke him up as soon as he had fallen asleep, or so it had seemed to him. Though his growl stopped Hattori, who was in the middle of his rant, he subsided sullenly and watched Kudo go about his morning routine and then following, the aroma of the coffee, to the kitchen.

He waited until Kudo had half drank his coffee, after all he knew exactly how it felt in the morning without it, before starting to interrogate him.

"Kudo, where the hell did you go, last night? When I went on the rooftop, you both had disappeared and I found bullets, a lot of them. I was worried about you, you aho. I thought that they had taken you" said Hattori angrily.

Shinichi was truly feeling bad about forgetting Hattori and putting his talk with him on hold. But truthfully speaking, he had completely forgotten about everything except making sure that Kid wasn't badly hurt or dying.

He grinned sheepishly "Sorry Hattori I just completely forgot about everything and well, when I came back I was just so tired, sorry. Anyway we were on the rooftop, when suddenly a sniper started firing at us. We took cover behind the wall and after Kid distracted him, we escaped the rooftop and well, we surprised the sniper at the opposite building and managed to knock him down but before we could do anything, his partner opened fire and we had to get away. Anyway what do the police think about the sniper, did they get anything out of him?"he asked excitedly.

"What the hell are you talking about, Kudo? I checked the opposite building, there was no one there."Hattori asked confused"And….ah…. about police finding out…they don't know about the bullets or snipers. I didn't tell them I thought it was them and well, I didn't want to, you know...…" He trailed of, looking sheepish now.

"It's alright Hattori, you did the right thing. It was them. We shouldn't tell police about it, if they find out about the snipers themselves, so be it." He said determinedly.

"Alright" Hattori agreed, looking relived, "but why were they at a heist, Kudo? And what about the Cat Eye?" he asked confusedly.

"I don't know why, Hattori, but they are after Kid's life and we have got to protect him. He might be a thief, but he is nonviolent. And about the Cat Eye can you drop it at the police, on your way to the train station. Kid left it with me last night. I don't know why, though?" he answered. Though he did have an idea as to why he left it in his care, but didn't want to tell Hattori.

He wondered what Kid had done to get on their bad side, but he would have to wait till the next heist to find out. He went about his day and wondered when next heist will take place.