Chapter 3: Injured
Conan hovered just out of sight as he watched Ran scout ahead, shoulders aching from his earlier excursion, almost past the point of exhaustion. The child was certain he'd have already collapsed into slumber by now, if the adrenaline wasn't still coursing through him in the way that it did after every flight, Kid heist or no. Ran turned back to him and nodded, frowning slightly as the boy vanished from sight and reappeared with a semi-conscious young man stumbling just behind him, a sad sight really, consider just who the young man was.
Conan struggled along, supporting the thief despite the sheer agony of his burning shoulders. He could still feel the ghost of a bullet, but his injuries were not dangerous. Not like the kitten weak magician thief he was supporting.
They made it nearly all the way to the hotel lobby before they met trouble; which was impressive, considering how many people were about despite the late hour, though most of those people were out watching the aftermath of the Kid heist. In the lobby was a certain blonde teen that both Conan and Ran knew fairly well, despite only meeting him a few times. Conan snorted softly in annoyance, looking up at the teen his much smaller frame was currently supporting.
Conan wasn't stupid; he was a better detective than even the brightest high school one, (which, ironically, was his teenage self) and he knew from a single glance that Hakuba Saguru was looking for someone, a worried look on his face. Another brief glance told him that it wasn't Kid he was looking for; Hakuba had a different searching face for Kid, so a friend or romantic partner then?
Though Hakuba was denser than Conan himself, so he discarded that last train of thought as highly improbable. But he shouldn't discard that thought completely. Even the densest of detective's harboured... strong feelings for someone.
A flicker of his free right hand had Ran striding out confidently, going right up to Hakuba to greet him and ask if he was ok. Conan stayed just out of sight with the barely conscious magician, helping the older boy to lean against the wall. Sapphire eyes flickered over to where he could just about see Ran, then back to the magician, who was apparently defying gravity now. No normal person could stand on such a badly damaged leg after all.
A soft beep alerted Conan to his earpiece he used instead of a detective badge now (people hardly ever tried to steal it, because it looked like a hearing aid, not a wireless communicator or toy badge.) and the boy turned the volume up slightly, hearing the entirety of Ran's conversation with Hakuba easily through the speaker and transmitter hidden in her purple orchid pendant.
"Ah, Mouri-chan, you startled me. I thought you had to rush off. Didn't your boyfriend call you urgently earlier?"
"Is that what it sounded like? Huh, I guess I do talk like that when Shinichi calls. But no. He's a childhood friend, more of a little brother really. I don't see him much anymore, he's always so busy. Usually with cases." Ran sighed wistfully, causing Conan to smile sadly.
She knew the whole truth now, about Shinichi.... and Conan, but she was so discreet about it even he forgot she knew sometimes. Not even Hattori had noticed that Ran knew now, though his parents and Agasa Hakase knew she knew, which meant Haibara also knew Ran knew.
"Ah, but I digress Hakuba-kun. You look a little lost. Are you looking for that pretty bird of yours?" A brief sound of disbelief from Hakuba, which had Conan biting back a snort of laughter. That... that was sly. He'd have to praise Ran for that later.
"Actually, Watson is resting at home, she tends to get dyed odd colours if she comes to a Kid heist. Im searching for a... friend. He's an... avid Kid fan, and promise to meet me here after the heist, but he's late. He's almost as punctual as I am, so I'm getting mildly concerned. He's never been half an hour late before." Conan started slightly, noting the tone in the detective's voice, hearing what the brit wasn't saying.
"That must be interesting. A Kaitou Kid supporter and a Detective who chases him. Don't you two get into fights?" Conan bit back a grin. He had a feeling he might possibly know who Hakuba was on about now.
He looked up at the thief slumped against the wall, pale and obviously not really aware right now. To be frank, Conan was surprised and impressed at the thief's resilience, though he was seriously concerned at both the lack of awareness from someone who should be bouncing from roof to roof like a hyperactive ninja child on a sugar high, and the loss of blood that the young detective had already mostly stemmed.
His eyes flickered over to where Ran was, then back to the thief. The way Hakuba talked.... he knew Kid. As in, he knew the theif's civilian persona, knew about the night job and not only that, but accepted it too. Curious. He knew kid knew Hakuba; the thief had once spent an entire evening whinging about nosey blonde schoolmates; but he didn't realise the detective actually knew....
Wondering if he was right in his thinking, the child murmered the British detective's name loud enough for the thief to hear, startling slightly as the magician somehow conjured up a white dove, letting it fly away with a gentle clap of it's pearly wings, before completely slumping to the floor. He heard a commotion in his earpiece, and realised where the dove had gone.
"Ah, tama-chan! What is it, hey, hey, stop it!" It sounded like the bird was smacking the detective with it's wings frantically, though he couldn't quite see from here. A series of coos had Conan's worried frown vanish as his eyebrows shot up. He... knew this pattern. Morse code? Kid had doves that knew morse code?! Ran didn't know morse code, but apparently kid's dove liked his big sister, because Hakuba made a strange sound, and suddenly Conan could see them heading towards them, Hakuba dragging Ran along behind him by holding onto her wrist.
Conan almost panicked when the brit rounded the corner, stopping dead at the sight before him. He had no clue how this'd seem to the older detective, but probably not good. A sharp coo from the dove had Hakuba shaking his head, seemingly to clear it, before kneeling down next to Conan and reaching to gently brush a few strands of hair from the thief's face.
"Mouri-chan, Conan-kun, something tells me you're not as invested in Kid's arrest as you claim to be. Come on, I reserved a room here in case he needed it. Let's get him out of sight, cleaned up, and then I think explanations are in order." The blonde carefully picked the thief up princess style, manoeuvring the now completely unconscious male so his head rested on the detective's shoulder.
Conan shared a look with Ran, nodded, then followed Hakuba up the stairs to a room on the fourth floor. The room itself was fairly standard for the larger hotel suites, with a balcony that conveniently faced the heist building. Curtains were drawn to shut out the outside world, lights were turned on, and Hakuba gently placed the thief on the bed, glancing around hesitantly, and Conan chuckled softly.
"It's ok Hakuba-niisan. There's no bugs in here. I've already checked." Ran chuckled heartily at Hakuba's confused expression. Of course Hakuba was confused. He though Conan was a fairly bright seven year old, not one of Japan's brightest teenage detectives. But then, Conan pulled off Fairly-Stupid-Spoilt-Little-Brat with no effort, and I'm-Just-A-Sweet-Innocent-Child like he really was one, probably thanks to his drama queen actress of a mother.
"Ran-neechan? Can you go find Amuro-san and Akai-san? We're going to need their help. Also, I don't really want you in here whilst I clean the wound. Hakuba-niisan hasn't had much experience with bullet wounds, from what I've found out." Hakuba goggled at the seven year old, stunned by the mature manner of speaking, and the implication that the child had experience with dealing with GSW's.
Mouri-chan smiled gently, tapped her pendant and then left the hotel room with a relaxed grace that had Hakuba wondering just how often the two had dealt with Kid and/or bullet wounds. As soon as Mouri-chan was gone, the boy went from oddly mature for his age to downright scary, ordering Hakuba to remove the thief's trousers so he could get a proper look at the damaged leg, hopping up onto the bed and somehow managing not to disturb anything as he landed on the mattress lightly like a cat, eyes sharp behind the glare of his glasses.
Saguru couldn't help but obey the child as he was ordered to remove Kaito's black leggings, revealing something that had Hakuba going pale and shaking. He did not deal well with blood. Ok, so he could deal with murders when he had to, but they were already dead. Dealing with a living person's blood was an entirely different matter. Especially when said person happened to be his internationally wanted criminal boyfriend that nobody knew about.
Conan saw the older detective pale significantly, realising it must be fairly sickening thing for someone to see if they weren't used to it. Sadly, Conan was used to the sight, usually on corpses and the like, and it angered him even more when the victim was still aware enough to suffer, even more so when the victim survived with life changing injuries. And although the damage wasn't all that grim looking in comparison to some of the things Conan had seen, he knew an injury like that would involve months of healing, and that was only if the leg could heal.
Gently, the young detective poked and prodded, assessing the damage as best he could with Hakuba in the room. It wouldn't do for him to show his full skill set in front of the nosy blonde, though it would be amusing to watch the blonde stutter disbelievingly. Conan sighed with resignation, noting with some fear that the thief required hospital treatment. Mind whirred into action more so than it had a couple hours ago at the heist.
"Hakuba-niisan. Will the snipers look for Kuroba Kaito in the hospitals after this?" Honey brown eyes zeroed in on the child currently checking his magician's pulse.
"How?"
"Baro, I know a lot more about Kuroba than I let on. But I'll explain later, when we've sorted Kai-nii out. Now answer my question."
"They'll probably be looking for a Toichi, not a Kaito, but the surname and injury will match, so I doubt they'd hesitate to finish their job. Why?"
"Because he needs a hospital. Or at least a decent doctor. I refuse to set my vampire doctor slash mad biochemist on him. She might end up accidentally killing him." Saguru couldn't tell if the boy was actually joking, though he hoped so. Vampires didn't exist, so he was safe there, but a chemist slash doctor who killed accidentally? Wasn't that dangerous? "Not that her chemistry experiments blow up very often." Ok, that was definitely a cheeky grin. The boy was likely joking, though he didn't know Conan-kun well enough to really tell.
"Actually... let me make a call. I know someone who might help us. Discreetly."
A few phone calls and ten agonising minutes with a dangerously worried Mouri-chan later, two people showed up at the hotel door, shooting acidic glares at each other. One was a well tanned blonde with sharp blue eyes, and the other was a taller dark haired man with mean looking green eyes. Both men (who both looked to be at least in their late twenties) stopped sniping at each other and began following the seven year old's orders without a complaint.
Saguru was fairly surprised at the speed the two men -Amuro-san and Akai-san- worked, even more so to learn that they were PSB and FBI agents respectively. How the bloody hell had Conan-kun, an elementary school age child, managed to get the intelligence agencies of two countries to work with and listen to Him?
....as soon as Conan knew the magician was safe in the back of Akai-san's car, he crumpled into a heap, not caring that Hakuba was watching as he clutched at Ran, a soft noise, not unlike a pained coo, escaping him. Ran knelt down to pull the not-child into her arms, fully understanding the boy's exhaustion and not caring that Hakuba-kun was staring.
Well, of course the detective was staring. Conan's shirt was clearly torn in two neat-ish slits right on his shoulder-blades, she knew that without even having to look. She wondered what sort of conclusion the detective would draw from that. Lifting the tired not-child into her arms, she asked for Hakuba to follow, before leading the way to where Kuroba-san was waiting.
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Kaito came to slowly, not really sure if he was still alive. Had he already died? The last thing he remembered was falling off a... wait... where was it again? Somewhere high up? High up... high up... oh! Right! A kid heist. He'd been caught off guard. Something about a bullet and losing his balance?
Tante-kun had been in his arms, only his glider had failed? Why had it failed? Had he died a messy death on the pavement below? Or was he a mangled mess with a pulse? If he was laying in a hospital dying somewhere, he hoped Saguru was there with him, by his side. He didn't want to die alone. But... he also hoped Saguru was not there too. Seeing the most likely mangled mess of a magician would kill his detective. Probably literally as well as metaphorically.
He tried to move a bit, only to feel agonising pain race through his body, stemming from the leg where he'd been shot. Ok. He was alive. Dead people didn't feel pain. Or at least, that's what Akako claimed. Also, he was almost certain the pain wasn't from a fatal injury. A devastating and long lasting one maybe, but not lethal, not compared to the head shot he'd dodged last night, or however long it'd been. How had Tantei-kun gotten them out of it? Was he okay?
Tantei-kun better be ok. If he wasn't... he'd never forgive himself. In this life, or whatever came after. Not that the little horror couldn't take care of himself, but still. He was only a child. At least physically anyway. Seventeen year old genius mind or no, he looked like a child.
He moaned softly, stirring as he tried to move into a sitting position, only to find a familiar hand against his chest applying just enough pressure for the magician to understand that he shouldn't move. He moved to grasp that hand, finding his movements to be a bit stiff and slow, but still obeying him. not that anyone but the owner of aforementioned hand would notice.
A voice, vaguely familiar to his barely awake mind, said something he couldn't quite hear, and a door announced either the arrival or leaving of someone. Kaito moaned softly again. His thoughts were fuzzy and crystal clear all at once and it was disorienting. The hand remained on his chest, soothing him merely by it's presence.
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