13Chapter One: In which Kudou Shinichi flirts without even realizing and it's all good until he accidentally breaks Kaito; aka, "from 'call me maybe' to 'call me? maybe?'
"We are coming to you live from…the scene of Kaitou KID's heist, where tonight's target…"
The chop-chop-chop of the helicopter's blades drowned out most of the reporter's enthusiastic narration, but he wasn't listening, anyway. The familiar thrill of a KID heist thrummed in his ears and warmed his blood with anticipation. His mouth curved in a wolfish grin, his teeth a white blade in the dark.
Five seconds left.
Four.
Three.
Two.
One.
Showtime.
One way or another, KID was going down.
…That was what he'd thought, but of course it was never that easy with KID.
Shinichi rounded the last flight of stairs and slammed the door open, gathering his breath to yell, but drew back at the sight of a rooftop conspicuously bare of annoying thieves in stupid capes.
He frowned thoughtfully and stepped sideways, careful to keep his back to the wall.
The sound of the door falling shut almost drowned out the subtle sound of shifting cloth, but the low chuckle by his ear was unmistakable. The warmth of KID's breath made Shinichi shudder even as he brought his watch reflexively upwards and fired right at that smug Cheshire grin.
The dart pinged harmlessly off the concrete as KID pulled his head back behind the corner, and before Shinichi could adjust his aim to try again KID was already backing him against the wall, caging him in with his left elbow braced against the wall by Shinichi's face and his right hand in a gentle, inexorable grasp around Shinichi's wrist.
"Hello there," KID crooned, sliding his hand down to raise Shinichi's own to his lips and ghosting a kiss across his knuckles.
Shinichi blinked, bewildered, unable to help either the mysterious thrill that ran through him nor the tinge of darkening pink he could feel curling around his cheekbones.
"I don't know if it's the moonlight or the glitter, but you do look particularly lovely tonight."
Shinichi bristled, snapping out of the odd spell KID had woven over him. Glitter.
Shinichi's quick reflexes had kept most of the surprise glitter bomb out of his face, but he'd mixed it into some sort of gel, and a smear on his cheek caught and held a stray moonbeam.
Well, far be it from the Magician Under the Moonlight to miss such a lovely lure.
KID smiled, a soft, surprisingly artless curve that froze Shinichi in place for the bare moment it took for KID to cup his cheek in one hand and thumb away the smudge, then laugh and duck away from Shinichi's embarrassed swipe to flip himself onto the railing.
"I'm going to see you in handcuffs or in hell," Shinichi snarled, pushing his sweat-soaked bangs out of his starlight eyes, and glared at him with a particularly adorable kind of embarrassed hostility. Kaito held back a besotted sigh at the way his pale skin shimmered in the moonlight. The glitter was just as nice a touch as he'd thought! There was no doubt at all that Kaito had the cutest tantei-kun in the entire world.
He grabbed at his chest melodramatically, wailing: "Meitantei-kun! Why do you treat me so? Are dashing gentlemen in white just not to your liking?"
Shinichi paused, cocking a brow ironically as he levied KID with a look of pure skepticism. Then a thought occurred to him, and his lips quirked into a sardonic grin as he sauntered over to lean against the railing himself, the distance he left between them a message of his disinterest in any last-ditch lunging ploys.
KID's monocle flashed in the moonlight as his gaze followed Shinichi's movements. The brim of his hat cast his face in shadow, but there was a hint of intrigue in the tilt of his head. Shinichi cast a sidelong glance at him, a private smirk playing at his mouth, as he beckoned KID closer.
He'd half-expected KID to fly off, so Shinichi felt a warm rush of something almost like affection when KID leaned in without hesitation. It was a rare privilege indeed to be trusted by Kaitou KID.
Smile widening with pleasure, Shinichi lowered his voice and murmured, like he was revealing a secret: "They are, actually."
KID made an odd movement, almost like he was swaying towards Shinichi, and Shinichi caught his eyes among the shadows on his face. He held his gaze as he let the grin itching at his cheeks take over, continuing cheerfully, "Too bad I don't see any here."
Shinichi experienced a visceral flash of gleeful spite as KID stumbled, arms windmilling frantically for a split second to keep himself from plummeting onto the rooftop. He recovered quickly, true to form, and fixed Shinichi with an injured pout so convincing it almost fooled Shinichi for a moment.
"Taaaaantei-kuuuun, what's that supposed to mean? Emphasis on the mean!"
Shinichi affected total composure as best he could with a mouth that kept twitching up at the corners. "Exactly what I said. You, KID, are no gentleman."
"How can you say that, Tantei-kun?" KID wailed, drawing his cape dramatically over his face. "After all we've been through together! What about the time I caught you when you tossed yourself off a building?"
"You tricked me into letting you go on the Queens Elizabeth by implying that you'd left Ran lying around naked and unconscious." Shinichi countered. "You threw a bra at a six-year-old."
KID's face emerged over the edge of his cape. "Or when I helped you fight bioterrorists on that airship?" he tried, looking uncomfortable at the reminder.
"You groped Ran on that airship."
"Alright, alright, so those were perhaps not my best moments, but what about the Memories Egg Scorpion debacle? I did my best!" KID insisted, looking gratifyingly off-kilter.
"You tased a grade-schooler. Also, your face when you smirk is the most annoying thing I've ever seen."
"My fa—oh my god, the Kirin's Horn."
"The Kirin's Horn." Shinichi confirmed, feeling mischievous and lighthearted, childlike in a way he hadn't felt in years. This was fun. Was this how KID felt all the time? "I could've died. And after I took care of your dove, too."
"I...turned down the voltage..." KID offered weakly, then pressed his lips tightly together, looking pained, as Shinichi raised his eyebrows at him.
Shinichi had officially struck Kaitou KID speechless. This might actually be the greatest accomplishment of his life so far, and he'd taken down a criminal organization spanning the whole globe while stuck in the body of a first-grader.
KID opened his mouth to argue, then shut it uselessly. He stood frozen in the moonlight, face blank and shoulders slumped.
Shinichi frowned. This was getting weird. "Hey, are you...?"
"I'm going to go home and think about this." KID announced suddenly, then turned on his heel and disappeared in a haphazard puff of smoke, nothing like the grand production of his usual exits.
"Wait, hey—shit," Shinichi groaned, pressing a hand to his forehead. KID was already long gone.
He'd honestly just been enjoying their banter, needling KID on all the outrageous tricks he'd pulled during their many encounters, but KID seemed to have taken his teasing seriously. Maybe he'd gone too far?
Shinichi didn't have a lot of friends, but he tried to hold onto the ones he did have. He'd apologize the next time they met. It'd be fine!
So why did he have such a bad feeling about the whole thing?
That was five weeks ago. It had been five weeks since KID's last heist, and the total radio silence on KID's part was beginning to gnaw at Shinichi. Even the heist target's return had been done without the customary dramatic flair, left unceremoniously outside the window of Nakamori's office in a cardboard box padded haphazardly with tissues, a bunch of stuffed KID dolls of the 100-yen crane game variety thrown in like an afterthought.
How was he supposed to apologize to KID if he wasn't around? It wasn't as though he had International Criminal 1412's phone number saved. They barely knew each other, really.
This whole miscommunication thing would never have happened if they had known each other just a little better, just enough to know when one of them was joking or should back off because he'd accidentally set off some kind of emotional landmine.
(Maybe Ran was right about the effect of spending most of his time around dead bodies on his social skills.)
So, new plan: instead of waiting for KID to come to him, Shinichi would hunt him down outside of heists to apologize and ask if they could maybe be friends. He is a detective on a mission! He might not know what Kaitou KID looks like or where he lives, his likes and dislikes or who his friends are, but he knows the way KID thinks. He can do this. This is what he's good at! This is his job. He can't fail.
Kudo Shinichi is going to catch himself a friend.