Soft coos could be heard in the background as a young man with choppy brown hair went about preparing breakfast for everyone. Sat at the kitchen table were two people; his best friend and his boyfriend; and about a dozen Snow White doves, all perched in a neat -as in military neat- line along the backs of two of the chairs.

The best friend was a teenage girl in the last year of high school, with long-ish brunette hair the exact shade of the young man's, only with less bed-head spikes. Indigo-blue eyes watched as her friend cooked a western style breakfast, actually surprised at the other teen's obvious ease in the kitchen. She'd always been under the impression that he was dangerous in the kitchen; if his experiments in the school kitchens were anything to go by at any rate. Oh, and her name was Nakamori Aoko, daughter of Nakamori Ginzo, head of the Kaitou Kid Task Force.

The boyfriend, a young Half-British detective named Hakuba Saguru, was also in his last year of high school. However, He had dark blonde hair and honey brown eyes, along with a mixed English and Japanese heritage that still earns him grief from his peers, despite his protective boyfriend's semi-successful attempt at (terrorising through pranking) silencing aforementioned peers.

Unlike Nakamori-chan, Saguru had witnessed his prankster of a boyfriend in the kitchen multiple times, and wasn't bothered in the least. He smiled softly to himself as he recalled a conversation a while back where he'd said something along the lines of 'if Kaito ever decided to stop being an insufferable Kaitou, he should take up cooking professionally instead of aiming for World Famous Magician.' That hadn't gone down well with Kaito, for obvious reasons, and the blonde had spent the next week with neon green hair as a result.

Kuroba Kaito on the other hand... he wasn't quite enjoying cooking a Full English Breakfast for three as much as he was pretending to be. No, his left hip was causing him considerable discomfort this morning, as it had on and off since he'd crashed into a skyscraper on his hang glider when first starting out. Maybe leaping off a tall building in the middle of the city wasn't the best place to learn how to fly. Especially with a small army of police officers on his tail. He should count himself lucky he'd only clipped the building really.

Anyway... breakfast done, Kaito dished up a generous serving each, making sure Aoko had more toast, Saguru had no beans (weirdo) and the little gray lever by the sink had been pulled towards him. (It hadn't, and once he'd done that, a flurry of feathers burst up and out of the room as the birds all headed to the indoor aviary, where seed had just been dispensed.)

The magician made a mental note to clean out and top up the water feeders at lunch, and to thoroughly wipe the seed troughs clean at dinner. Then he settled down to eat a leisurely breakfast with the two most important people in his life, save for his assistant and mother of course.

     Aoko was unaware that Kaito and Hakuba-kun were actually dating, though she had noticed a distinct lack of animosity and a strange, recent bond of friendship. She did wonder what had made them such fast friends, but thought better than to actually ask. She was just happy they got along better now... though Kaito still dumped the brunt of his pranks on Hakuba-Kun and herself at school. (She was so glad it was the holidays. Kaito tended to tone down his creativity in public. School apparently didn't count as public.)

       Both Kaito and Saguru were well aware how risky their relationship could potentially be, so they kept it under wraps for now. Well... Kaito's mother and Jii-chan knew, along with saguru's Baaya, but they were still cautious. Hakuba-Keishi-Sōkan had made it apparent several times that he was rather.... 'old fashioned' and quite judgemental, which made Saguru both afraid and reluctant to even try and broach the topic to his father.

     ...they ate their breakfast in companionable silence, only broken by a badly suppressed cough now and then. This bothered both Aoko and Kaito, as both knew their detective friend wasn't quite well yet after that scare a single month ago which had resulted in the blonde being hospitalised for two weeks. It had shocked Aoko how few people seemed to care for the Half-Brit come to think of it. (Baaya, Aoko, and himself. Not even Saguru's father. Not that Kaito was all that surprised.)

      Kaito shuddered to even think about it. He didn't know the full story, not really, but his 'Ru had been pretty much comatose for the first five terrifying, nerve wracking, horrifying days, followed by another six days of being woozy, semi-coherent and disoriented before he'd stabilised properly and recovered enough to be sent home exactly two weeks after his initial admission to the hospital. (Under strict instructions to rest, followed by strict instructions to his Baaya to keep a sharp eye on him.)

          That Saguru hadn't fully recovered despite the doctor's apparent conviction he was fine now... yeah, Kaito had a reason to worry. Which was why saguru was currently under Kaito's roof. Hakuba-keishi-sōkan was never home long enough to so much as glance at his son, let alone care for him, and Baaya had been called away to England by Saguru's mother. (no, he did not want to visit his mother whilst still under the weather. She was hard enough to handle when he was in fine fettle.). Which left Kaito and Aoko to keep an eye on him.

     It was concerning how little Saguru's father seemed to care, but then the superintendent was a fairly busy man, and life tended to get in the way of family these days. Not an excuse of course -the Kuroba family proved that- but it was common. It was also rather concerning how Saguru had once said his father hadn't always been like this, how his father used to make time for Saguru, but not anymore.

     Another cough, this one a bit... healthier sounding than the last, had Aoko fussing like a mother hen. The blonde accepted her concern with the same kind of grace Kaito had with her; clearly not comfortable with it, but letting her anyway because he was Not up to playing dodge the semi-lethal-cleaning-apparatus today.

     Kaito watched Aoko's subtle (for her) flirting with a sharp eye, knowing his 'Ru wouldn't take kindly to Aoko's attention if she pushed him too far. Angry Saguru somehow contrived to be more terrifying than Edogowa-Conan's Soccer Balls of doom (which could partially crush granite when kicked. That kid was terrifying.) and the magician wasn't in the mood to learn more English curses today. He already knew enough.

Breakfast finished, Kaito busied himself with clearing the remains of their meal away, mildly amused to find a rather ruffled and brightly coloured Harris Hawk hunched up miserably in the sink. It blinked at him with a sort of 'save me' expression.

Hmm... judging by the colours, Kaito could easily guess which of his doves were responsible -each dove had a unique colour set, making it easier to tell who to praise and who not to at heists- and made a mental note to reprimand them later. (It was scary how smart his birds were really.)

Scooping up the miserable Hawk and placing her gently on the side for a moment, he cleaned the dishes whilst juggling them with a practiced ease, putting them away in a puff of grey smoke at almost inhuman speed. He then re-filled the sink with luke-warm water before swiftly scooping the disheveled bird up and depositing Watson in the water, conjuring a soft sponge from the air as he did so.

The Dye came out easily enough, but it had to be soaked off. Well, it was water soluble dye, but it was slow fade water soluble dye, so chances were it'd take a good two or three baths before the colour faded completely.

Watson let Master's Mate bathe her with more than a little bit of relief. She still gave the Mate the evil eye though. Ok, so the Mate was scary smart, an undoubted genius compared to the rest of his flock, but still. She'd assumed the doves would be just a little bit more accommodating, especially as she never ate her food around them.

The Hawk was smart; she'd been hatched and trained by Master's older egg-mate to be an excellent detective's assistant; and she knew enough about doves to realise the Master's Mate's birds were not normal, not by a long shot. They were the Mate's friend's, and therefore not on her menu, not that she hunted very often in the busy city. Why Lupin, Lucifer and Lucky had taken to attacking her at every chance they got, she didn't know. She was careful; she never hunted doves or pigeons anymore.

"Sorry Watson, but I have to use the sponge now. Try not to squirm too much." The Mate warned, before a thick blocky lump descended and gently blotted at her feathers until she just knew they were soaked through. Then the 'sponge' smoothed her feathers down, in all the right ways like a petting, and she noticed, with her sharp eyesight, that the shallow pool of not-cold water around her was turning a glittery brown. "Not so bad, is it?" This. This was why Watson liked the Mate. He treated them all as equals, birds, human fledglings and hatchlings, adults... they all got the respect they deserved, based solely on the individual and not their appearance. No wonder all the doves respected him.

💎⚽️💎⚽️💎⚽️💎⚽️💎

On the other side of the city, in a slightly less popular bookstore that specialised in mystery, manga and non-fiction, a certain young detective was browsing the manga section sulkily. He glared at the books through his wide framed glasses, feeling just a little miffed at the fact that he had been wrong. For years. Years. Ok, so it had been an entire month since he'd met that Witch at the Kid heist, and he was still getting used to the fact he now had a... a... supernatural ability, for lack of a better description, but still. He wasn't sure if it was a blessing or a curse.

He hadn't told anyone yet, not even his best friend-slash-big-sister-figure, but until he could actually think about it without panicking and breaking down, he was content to keep it locked away in the back of his mind. At least it wasn't as drastic as the last earth shattering development in his life. He still looked the same at least.

Actually... the witch's curse/gift was the reason he was currently in the bookstore to begin with that morning. He owed Ayumi-chan, a classmate and friend of his, the latest Kamen-Yaiba manga because of a childish bet they'd made ages ago. Ayumi-chan had probably forgotten already, but, as Haibara had oh-so-delightedly pointed out, a bet was a bet.

     Edogowa Conan was still miffed at having magic —real magic, not the parlour tricks Kid used— proven to him though. What else could he call this... this ability of his, but magic? Wait... that witch had been waiting for Kaitou Kid. So... did Kid know magic existed? Could... could he use it too? The witch had spoken of kid with familiarity, so...

    ...so Kid was acquainted with a witch. Conan couldn't even muster the effort it would require for him to be surprised. This was Kaitou Kid, for heavens sakes. Of course his friends/acquaintances were anything but normal. Conan blinked as he pulled a Detective Samonji novel off it's shelf.

      There had to be others out there with... abilities not unlike his. He couldn't possibly be the only one. And that. That was a disquieting thought. What if there were others out there with powers? What if they used them for criminal acts?

     The bookstore clerk watched her most frequent customer with mild confusion as the seven year old boy scratched his head in frustration. Glasses glinted ominously as the child pulled a Kamen Yaiba Manga off of it's shelf, grumbling quietly to himself as he shoved it into the small basket he had.

     Young Conan-kun usually only went for the more mature reads such as the Detective Samonji series or the latest crime or mystery novel. So why was he purchasing a manga she's heard him complaining about multiple times?

     It was with great amusement that she noticed he'd also picked up two murder mysteries (she'd long since given up trying to convince the child to read something more age appropriate. From what some of the adults around him said, his life was worse than anything he could read, as evidenced by that one murder she'd seen him at.) and a sketchbook and a pack of artists pencils.

     The boy never bought crayons or cheap pencils either, and he had a startling eye for quality, despite looking no more than six, for all he claimed to be almost eight. Kagome often wondered where the boy had come from, because there was just no way he'd come from a normal family. He was too creepy, when he wasn't being sickeningly sweet and childish.

     "Ohaiyo, Kagome-oneesan. Just these please." Conan-kun beamed, switching to a stony glare as she picked up the offending manga to scan it. He brightened considerably when she handed the detective novels to him afterwards though. That childish glee was just so nice to see, especially in this particular customer, considering she'd heard rumours from her friends in the police that the boy couldn't go a week without stumbling upon some form of major crime.

     "Ohaiyo, Conan-kun. It's not like you to buy manga. What happened, did you lose a bet to Mouri-chan?" Kagome joked, raising a single eyebrow when the seven year old muttered something about wishing it had been his 'Ran-neechan'. He shoved the books and pencils into his beige backpack whilst muttering about eight year olds being scarier than karate champions.

     Kagome shook her head. If she remembered rightly, Conan-kun hung out with a small group of other children, two of them girls. She didn't know much about the strawberry blonde girl who scowled a lot, aside from the blatantly obvious crush she had on Conan-kun.

     The other, dark haired girl was little Yoshida-chan, a huge fan of manga, if Yoshida-san's many 'rewards' for his daughter were anything to go by, and another girl for Conan-kun to be oblivious about. Kagome wondered if the boy would be so oblivious of girls in six or seven years time as she took the offered money from the boy.

     Not that it mattered to much. As long as Conan-kun was ok. That boy was too bright for his age, and famous to boot. She wasn't so sure about the title of Kid Killer —Kagome was a fan of the thief herself— because from the way he spoke of the thief to Mouri-chan when she came here with him, the child was less invested in the internationally wanted magician's arrest than he let on. (She hadn't meant to eavesdrop that time, she just happed to be stocking shelves the aisle over.)

      She handed the boy his change with a motherly smile, who smiled in return from behind his overly large glasses as he took it. Where did the boy get so much pocket money from anyway? Mouri Kogoro may be famous, but she couldn't see him as the type to be generous with pocket money. Or the type to give it out at all for that matter.

    But... that wasn't really her problem. Was it? Maybe his real family were well off? "Ja ne, Kagome-oneesan." The boy called, waving at her childishly as he left the bookstore, a blue and yellow skateboard in hand. Kagome pitied the traffic cops. That was Conan's ...she didn't know what sort of skateboard it was, only that it was abnormally fast. He'd used in that case she'd witnessed.

     Conan sighed softly to himself as he put his skateboard down with a clatter. Now came a few fun-filled hours with the Shounen Tantei-dan. Oh joy.

     It wasn't that he didn't like hanging out with his classmates-turned-friends, no. It was just... well, Kudo Shin'ichi's social skills were somewhat lacking, and it showed as he struggled to fit in, even in his second childhood as Edogowa Conan. But... he was learning. The three real kids who'd forced themselves into his life made sure of that.

Using his left heel to press the boost button on Agasa Hakase's modified skateboard, Conan sped toward the park where he was supposed to be meeting his friends Haibara Ai (fellow shrunken teen and scary scary chemist prankster), Yoshida Ayumi (seven year old classmate with good observation skills), Kojima Genta (also a classmate and quite the gourmand) and finally Tsubaraya Mitsuhiko (the brightest of the three real kids, even if he did downplay his intelligence all the time).

     They were meeting up for a bit of football practice this morning. Sure, Shin'ichi had loved to play, and Conan still did, but it was a little sad that he could no longer play at his actual level. If he did, it would be less football practice and more of a one sided sports massacre.

     (It wasn't the kid's fault he was professional level in his football skill. They weren't to know he'd been scouted for the Tokyo Spirits back when he was in middle school as Shin'ichi. Just because he refused, didn't mean he thought he was a bad player.

     Also, he sometimes wished he could play football at his level again, but that would require at least two other people, and let's face it, his options were fairly limited if he didn't want to draw too much attention to himself. Hattori preferred baseball, Hakase was too old to keep up, Haibara... wasn't bad but not his level, and Ran... Well, let's just say Karate and Football didn't mix for a reason.

     That left Kaitou Kid. But Conan wasn't willing to approach him outside of heists, despite having dug up who the thief really was ages ago.)

     Conan swerved sharply to avoid a couple of pedestrians, dodging through traffic and avoiding other obstacles with the sort of ease that would make professional skateboarders jealous. He wasn't quite paying attention to his surroundings; he knew the route far to well now; instead thinking how best to phrase things to Ayumi-chan.

    Did he just go up to her and say 'I lost the bet, here' and hand her the manga? Or should he try and prove it? Not that he could if he didn't want Ran finding out yet. Should he just sulkily hand her the book and let her draw her own conclusions? He growled faintly in annoyance as he dropped down a set of steps on the skateboard. Damnit! He didn't know the proper etiquette for this!

     He was probably just overthinking things again, and anyway, he'd arrived at their meeting place. Early, for once. Conan shuddered. He'd not stumbled upon a corpse or major crime for a few days now. Which was odd, considering April was usually one of his busiest months on the crime front.

     He just knew something big (and possibly crow related) was coming. If he was lucky, it would rain corpses (meaning Hattori was in town.) less lucky, and... nope. He wasn't thinking about it. No way. He should just enjoy the relative peace whilst it lasted. Because it wouldn't last, it never did with him.

     Conan ran a hand through his hair in frustration as he considered his luck. Or rather, lack thereof. It was almost as if he were cursed, and considering what he currently knew, he wasn't so sure that the curse theory was so impossible anymore.

"Conan-kun!"

Edogowa-kun!"

"Conan-kun!"

"Oi, Conan!"

Aaaannd.... there were his friends. Right on time. Uh... why was Haibara smiling like that? It made her look cute.... nope. No way. He did not just think of that little evil not-child as cute. Not going there. Ex-evil miniature biochemists with crazy prankster streaks were not cute. Ever.

"Ohaiyo, minna." Conan greeted, cracking a smile as the three real children ran about him excitedly after returning the greeting properly, setting down jumpers as goal posts. His expression morphed into one of well hidden fear mixed with apprehension as he caught sight of what Haibara was wearing on her feet.

He paled several shades. His immediate future didn't look so bright, if those shoes were the sort he thought they were. "Ne, Ai-chan? Did Hakase get you new shoes?" Haibara nodded at Ayumi-chan. Conan swallowed dryly.

"Hai!" Conan paled even more at the childish excitement coming from the not-child. She sent him the Evil Eye. "Hakase made them for me! They're like Edogowa-kun's but I wanted them in pink." She waved her hands around excitedly to emphasise her statement.

"But I thought Conan was tha only one allowed those type of shoes?" Genta commented around a mouthful of whatever the hell it was he was eating this time.

"Aaaa... I thought that too. Does that mean Haibara-san is really good at football too?" Mitsuhiko agreed. Haibara smirked evilly. Conan was mentally panicking, wracking his brains for whatever he'd done to upset the chemist recently, but coming up blank. Yes, Haibara was ok at football, and she was almost as good as him at aiming. So... he was in trouble.

"Can we play now?" Ayumi-chan whined, tearing up because she knew she'd get her own way if she did. It didn't work on Conan, and she knew it. But Conan couldn't win, because heaven forbid if he made her cry... Mitsuhiko and Genta glared at him. Conan sighed in resignation.

      That signalled the end of the general chatter for the next hour as Conan carefully showed the three real kids a few of the easier tricks, teaching them everything cautiously, making sure to only move on once they'd grasped something completely.

     Conan sometimes wondered if he should have chosen to be a teacher instead of a detective. It wasn't something he'd have considered before meeting the kids, but it was fun. Teaching them something new, seeing the sheer joy on their faces when they finally mastered a new trick...

     ....it was just as rewarding as detective work, only better because nobody died. Only... he couldn't be a teacher. That wouldn't be fair on any potential students.

He stumbled upon too many murders for him to consider a change in career. It just wasn't natural. He averaged at two corpses a week, but he sometimes got as many as three murders a day on a bad week. No. Unless people stopped killing each other, homicide detective was kind of his only choice.

It wasn't until after a fifteen minute break that Haibara struck. If he hadn't been expecting it, Conan would have likely come away with worse than a scraped knee.

As it was, he was only just fast enough to dodge sideways in time to avoid the semi-lethal that implanted itself in the tree he'd been stood against only a few seconds before. He stumbled and fell, scraping his knee, but he was up on his feet again just as fast.

     Huh. He really shouldn't have been able to dodge that. But he had. So... better reaction times. Not obvious to anyone who didn't know him really well, but there. As if he wasn't freaky enough already. If he hadn't spent the last few years as a grade schooler, Conan -Shin'ichi- most certainly wouldn't be so calm.

     He really needed to talk to Ran about all this. Hopefully she'd take it as well as she took finding out he was Shinichi, but with her long-standing fear of monsters and the supernatural.... he wasn't betting on it. But first...

     "Ayumi-chan?" Conan called, the little girl looking at him sweetly from where she was trying to juggle the ball with her foot. The boy straightened his glasses and pulled at the hem of his jumper nervously. The little girl had a little crush on him, and he knew it.

        He hated it. Ok, so Conan was physically almost eight, like her, but mentally he was seventeen. He was Kudo Shin'ichi, for heavens sake. She was ten years his junior! But she didn't know that. Conan did though. And it felt wrong. But he couldn't stop her having a crush on him.

     "Hai, Conan-kun?" She answered. Conan sighed wearily.

     "I lost the bet we made." He mumbled, digging around in his bag until he found it. "Here." He shoved the manga at Ayumi-chan as she came over to him, refusing to look at her. She opened her mouth to say something to him, but just then his 'Shin'ichi' phone went off. Ran.

      He shot a quick, mildly panicked look to Haibara before grabbing his stuff and bolting. He didn't want the kids to hear whatever it was 'Shin'ichi' had to say. Once safely out of sight and ear-shot, he pulled out his bow-tie and answered the phone.

"Ran?"

"Shin'ichi!" That... didn't sound good. Ran was using that tone of voice. What had Sonoko done now? He voiced the question.

"How did you? Never mind. Sonoko's somehow gotten it into her head that you are her idol." Conan laughed. That particular deduction had been long overdue really. In fact, ever since he'd unearthed Kaitou Kid's true identity, he'd wondered how more people hadn't come to the same conclusion.

"You and I both know that's not possible Ran. Let her think that. It might stop her obsessing over the poor guy so much." 'Shin'ichi' paused to fling his skateboard on the ground. Ran had her phone on loudspeaker, so Sonoko was probably listening. He made a soft sound of pain in the back of his throat, making sure to project it just enough to make it audible over the phone.

"Shin'ichi?" Her voice was questioning, concerned. Even if she knew he was only acting right now. Sonoko could be heard making concerned noises in the background. Oh, so she was listening then.

"I'll be fine Ran." He paused, inhaled sharply, as if in pain, and then continued, making sure to sound just a bit out of breath. "I have to go, ja ne." He hung up, somehow confused with how long it had taken Sonoko to figure out how similar he and Kaitou Kid looked.

/Little Shinigami is getting better at that.\ a soft voice cawed. Conan ignored it by sheer force of will as he pushed himself forward on his skateboard. He wanted to go home. He sent a quick text to Haibara —just so she knew he wanted to be alone for a bit— before heading back to the Mouri detective agency.

By the time he arrived at his destination, the young detective was more than grateful to be home. It still freaked him out a bit, this new power of his, but at least at 'home' he was indoors and far, far less likely to encounter...

....Conan groaned with exasperation as he reached the top step of the detective agency and spotted a white shape on the 'welcome' mat. The bird looked at him with reddish-black eyes, it's white feathers flecked with brown that wasn't natural.

The bird met his eyes with a pleading look. /Well? You going to help me or not?\ it demanded with an irritated coo. All he could do was stare....