Conan took a steadying breath as the thief and detective looked at him expectantly. He had a feeling this was going to take a while, and he really didn't want to go into too much detail. He closed his eyes for a moment, silently praying for courage. A memory flashed behind closed eyes suddenly.

A sharp pain in the back of his head as someone hit him, the sharp tug as that same person grabbed his hair to lift his head up, the feel of liquid being dribbled down his throat as he wavered on the very edge of consciousness. The sheer agony as whatever was given to him began to work.

He shook himself free from the memory, sighing softly as he resigned himself to a lengthy explanation of everything, though he was equally resigned to omitting the whole Child-With-Wings thing, because he highly doubted Hakuba could deal with 'body destroying poison turned me into a child' let alone 'a teenage witch tried to curse Kaitou Kid and accidentally got me instead.'

"Conan-kun?" Hakuba prompted, looking a little concerned as Conan remained silent, staring at nothing in particular. A sad, lonely sigh. Best get this over with. And it'd be nice if shinichi could talk to someone his own age properly. Hattori didn't really understand -he had met conan first after all-, and Ran was... well, Ran. His best *female* friend, and big sister figure.

"Don't call me that! Not here." Conan snapped, glaring at the older detective for a moment before letting his expression soften into something much more vulnerable. "It's not my name Hakuba-san. It never has been." Honey brown eyes widened at that, and Conan had to wonder if Hattori was right in thinking Hakuba was too rigid in his logic to accept what he was about to learn. An all too familiar snicker.

"Careful Meitantei. You might break him." Conan glared at the magician thief with a look that promised retribution of the black and white projectile kind if he didn't shut up that instant. Said magician grinned unrepentantly, but wisely shut up. Conan mentally sighed. Of course, Kuroba already knew, so that made things slightly easier. Only slightly though.

"He's already broken if he's dating you, kuroba niichan." The last two words dripped with a childish sweetness that was so unnatural for the seven year old homicide detective that it bordered just on the terrifying side of creepy. "As I was saying, my name isn't Edogowa Conan, though I guess I'm more used to hearing it than my real name now." That raised a concerned blonde eyebrow. Kuroba was no longer grinning, clearly opting for a more serious expression. He was probably worried about Hakuba's reaction too.

"In fact, you two are currently in my old bedroom. The one down the hall is mine now because it's more convenient because it's like Kuroba's bedroom." A sly grin from the child as Kuroba failed to hide a faint squawk of surprise. "Don't worry Kuroba. I've never been to your house. But considering it's identical to the Kudo villa in England... that I'm not supposed to know about for another month.... don't tell Kaa-san and Tou-san I know about that ok?

Anyway, back to my point. Hakuba-kun, ever heard of the Heisei-Holmes?" A frown followed by a wide eyed look as it finally, finally registered with the teen. Kuroba looked mildly amused.

"Kudo-Sama? What about him?" A snort of amusement from the magician. Conan raised an eyebrow.

"How about he's standing right there 'Ru." Kuroba pointed out, dissolving into fits of mirth as the blond looked at Conan blankly. Conan removed his glasses and sighed audibly as he put thumb and forefinger on the bridge of his nose in exasperation. It was starting to look Hakuba was only mildly above average, if he was so set in his logical little world that he couldn't see the truth. True geniuses had the ability to think outside the box.

"Hah?" Kuroba's mirth increased as he spluttered out something along the lines of 'drastically changing size isn't much more of a stretch than pandora idiot.' But as it was said in rather garbled English and interspersed with snorts of laughter, it was hard to tell. But that's what it sounded like.

"Kuroba's right Hakuba-kun. I'm stood right in front of you." A loud commotion cut the young detective off. Four sets of footsteps clattered up the stairs towards them. Conan swore loudly. In French. Ran's voice could be heard warning the visitors to be quiet and to not disturb 'Shinichi'. Conan swore again, but in English this time. Hakuba raised an eyebrow at the somewhat colourful language.

"Can you pretend to be me again Kuroba? Please?" Conan rushed out quietly, smiling softly in relief as the magician smoothed his hair down and flicked a set of coloured contacts into his eyes to change amethyst into sapphire. Where had he hidden those? "Hakuba, don't say anything. Let me and Kuroba do the talking. Also, you might want to fake my.. condition, Kuroba." The young detective ordered, as the door handle twisted.

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Ran-oneesan hovered behind them as Genta tried the door, opening it on smooth hinges. Ayumi-chan was glancing from Genta to Ran-oneesan with a worried little frown on her face. Mitsuhiko frowned as he caught glimpse of the room before the older Karate champion pulled the door forcefully shut. He knew what he saw; he wasn't Conan, but he was observant, and good at it too.

Mitsuhiko had seen Conan knelt down on a bed, next to a much bigger person with dark brown hair, probably a bit taller than Ran-oneesan, but smaller than the blonde person sat in the chair next to the bed. The blonde person looked scared, but Conan didn't seem worried, but it was hard to tell, and the one actually in the bed seemed to be asleep.

"Mou, Genta-kun! Ran-oneesan told you not to disturb Shinichi-oniisan." Ayumi-chan scolded their friend, as he looked suitably guilty. Mitsuhiko looked curiously at the now closed door and Ran-oneesan blocking the way. He was curious now. But unlike Ayumi-chan and Genta, Mitsuhiko knew that some things were best left alone, and judging from Ran-oneesan's body language and her reaction to the door being opened, this was one of those 'need not to know' things.

"Minna, why don't we go to Poirot for cake?" Mitsuhiko almost snorted. If that wasn't a distraction and topic change, he'd eat his detective boy's notebook. A cheer went up from his classmates, but Mitsuhiko heard a scuffling sound behind the door.

Ran-oneesan jumped and turned to the door as it opened behind her, a nervous bespectacled face glancing up at her, then around at them. Mitsuhiko shivered. There was something... not quite right about Conan's expression. He looked... afraid? Nervous? No. He couldn't be. Conan was never afraid. Or at least, he never showed it when he was anyway.

"Ran-neechan? Shinichi-niichan said you can come in, but only if everyone is quiet." Mitsuhiko paled slightly at that. Conan sounded like... like he was about to cry. What was going on? Wasn't Shinichi-san the detective cousin Conan looked up to? The one that was 'unofficially' missing?

"Ran?" A weak voice called out, as Genta and Ayumi-chan pushed past Conan into the room, Mitsuhiko following at a fractionally more reserved pace. The older girl practically leapt over Genta's head and was by the bed so fast, mitsuhiko couldn't tell if she'd actually moved, or just teleported.

The teen in the bed, the dark haired one, looked pale, as in sickly-weak-pale, not scared-pale or porcelain-doll-pale. He wasn't even sat up properly; he was just sort of slumped against the bed's headboard, but mostly laid down. The blonde teen sat in the chair was watching everyone with a confused look, the sort of confused look his big sister had when she'd just gotten up.

Ran-oneesan sat on the edge of the bed, glancing at the blonde teen before gently brushing the hair from Shinichi-oniisan's face. Conan was back on his perch on the bed, his small hand grasping the older detective's in a way that reminded Mitsuhiko of a few months ago. Back when Conan had gone missing, returning two day later with a bandaged head and broken glasses. He'd been clutching Ran-oneesan's hand in much the same way hadn't he?

Ayumi-chan made a suppressed squealing sound when the older detective stirred, bouncing with excitement for some reason. Conan glanced at them and then behind himself quickly, the frown that had been forming vanishing in what Mitsuhiko could only describe as relief when he saw nothing there, though it did make the young freckled detective wonder what Conan had been expecting to see.

"Shinichi-oniisan? Why are you still in bed? It's the afternoon already! Shouldn't you be eating lunch now?" Mitsuhiko frowned and rounded on Genta, but before he could say anything, Shinichi-oniisan coughed slightly and chuckled.

"Conan was right when he said Genta loved food then, eh Ran?" Mitsuhiko heard the weakness in the voice, and wondered just what had happened to his best friend's cousin to make him sound so sick. Conan often mumbled about Shinichi-oniisan never getting sick, especially when Conan himself was struck with a sudden and nasty cold.

(What sort of normal kid got sick every month without fail anyway? Was it nature making up for Conan's scary intelligence maybe?) the Heisei-Holmes smiled weakly at Ran and then at them, before dissolving into a violent coughing-turned choking fit that ended in the detective breathing in the same way Conan had when he'd been shot, shortly followed by the blonde teen (who Mitsuhiko had sort of forgotten about) leaping up to hold the detective's shoulders and asking in a weird accent if he was ok.

"I'll be ok, Ru. *wince* Ran, can you take the... the kids out somewhere?" A hand reaching to clutch as his chest and a painful grimace told Mitsuhiko something was very wrong. Why wasn't anyone calling an ambulance? Surely someone that sick should be in a hospital?

"Yeah, what Mitsuhiko-kun said!" Ayumi's voice agreed. Ack. He hadn't meant to say that aloud!

"No. Shinichi-niichan would die." Conan reprimanded bluntly, a haunted look on his young face that made the freckled boy shudder. "You can't tell anyone. Ever. Not even Haibara. You can't even talk about it. Ok? Shinichi-niichan was poisoned by two very evil guys, a special poison that can't be traced. It's always, always killed the victim. But shinichi-niichan was lucky. He wasn't killed. But he's sick. That's why we can't tell anyone. The bad guys think he's dead...." conan trailed off, looking scared and more like a normal little boy for once.

"I've been secretly looking after Shinichi with Conan-kun's help. The bad guys are really hard to catch, and we don't know what they look like, and.... Conan-kun?" Ran-oneesan hesitated, and Mitsuhiko suddenly noticed Conan's face. The young boy looked at his other friends, noting Genta's cluelessness and the worry on Ayumi-chan's face.

Then he looked at Conan again, and finally realised what was happening. And.... and it was just really really weird. He'd never seen conan scared before, let alone panicked. Shinichi-oniisan cried out again, going very still and very quiet with a suddenness that scared Mitsuhiko, until the older detective shakily mumbled something in a foreign language Mitsuhiko didn't recognise. Whatever was said calmed Conan down a little, but his friend was still clearly scared.

"Conan-kun?" Mitsuhiko asked cautiously, as the boy practically launched himself at Ran-oneesan. The Karate champ frowned, before turning to the three other children, Conan still in her arms.

"Two years. Shinichi has been fighting the poison and the bad guys that did this for two years. Conan lives with me because his parents were hurt trying to protect Shinichi. Badly hurt. He likes to pretend he's big and brave all the time, but even if he is clever for his age, he's just a grade school kid like you guys. He gets scared too. He just..." a mumbled Ran-neechan cut her off and the older girl smiled. "Minna, if you promise never to talk about this again, I'll buy you juice and cake at Poirot, and then I'll but that Kamen Yaiba manga Conan told me about. One each. Promise?"

Mitsuhiko knew bribery when he saw it, but he was still a little kid, in comparison to Ran-oneesan, and the scary stories of what happened when someone upset her made Mitsuhiko believe taking the bribe and doing as he was told was the safest thing to do. So, along with Ayumi-chan and Genta, he nodded, happily agreeing, though he wondered what they weren't saying about Shinichi-Oniisan....

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Kaito gave a sigh of relief when the three children and Mouri-chan left, leaving behind a suddenly cheerful Tantei-kun and a rather shell shocked Saguru. Poor Ru. Kaito had seen Tantei-kun as his adult self change once, an experience he would both never forget, or wish on anyone. Even snake. To learn that it was poison, one the mini teen's body was probably still fighting... because that's what Mouri-chan and conan meant when they'd explained it to the kids. Right?

That's how he knew how to act like Tantei-kun when he was about to change back. If Mouri-chan hadn't known it was Kaito, he had a feeling she'd have forcefully removed the kids from the room so they wouldn't see Meitantei change back into Tantei-kun. Kaito wondered if it really was painful, or if Tantei-kun was acting. Then again, ageing and de-ageing ten years in less than thirty minutes must hurt a lot, if the pained screams were not clever acting. How did Tantei-kun's body survive the strain?

"Sorry Hakuba-kun. We didn't mean to worry you. What we said about poison... is true. Kind of. Ran simplified it a lot and I panicked on purpose because Mitsuhiko was giving me a funny look. He's the ringleader of the shounen tantei-dan when I'm not there, and he's really bright for his age. He actually downplays his intelligence around everyone, and I'm sure he picked up on some of the things Ran and I weren't saying...

"If he's picked up on what I wanted him to, he'll keep the others from looking into 'shinichi-Niichan's' attempted murder. Because that's what it was, though With the way I am now, it's more like actual murder, because I might never be shinichi again, or at least, not for more than a few days at a time...." Conan paused to gauge the reactions of both the detective and the thief. Happy that neither one was likely to flip out, he elaborated, starting from the promise to Ran and ending with saving Akai-san's life.