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Kogoro watched the Brat look at his phone and literally brighten up. He watched him get up and quietly make his way towards the door and sighed.
"Going somewhere?"
Kogoro watched the Brat flinch and hunch his shoulders as he turned to face him. He raised an eyebrow waiting patiently as he crossed his arms over his chest.
"Can I please go out Otchan?" He laughed nervously a flush appearing on his cheeks while he tapped his fingers against one another. Kogoro withheld a sigh as he crouched down so they were at eye level with each other.
"You don't need to keep sneaking around. You could ask or leave a message for us." The Brat looked up stunned the flush rising to cover his entire face as he dropped his hands.
"EH?!" He covered his face muttering incoherently about how and when and being careful.
"Just go on before you're late." The Brat had the nerve to smile at him in thanks and take off on the skateboard of his. At least he was doing better now.
It had been hard watching the Kid be so lackluster in everyday things.
Even when a case came up he helped but mostly kept quiet and out of the way.
Many times Kogoro would look to him trying to get a hint or clue to the case and instead of the Kid going out of his way to act as if he didn't have a clue about a thing he simply told Kogoro and watched everyone else.
He wouldn't play soccer, didn't hang out with those friends of his, even missed three different Kid heists.
His parents wrote to him and that cheered him up a little but it never seemed to last.
It upset everyone especially when he tried so hard to make it seem as if he understood and was okay with it. That quickly fell through after a week when he was talking excitedly about this restaurant in America his mother loved taking him to.
He started crying halfway through his story about a cat, fire, dine and dash and freak accident with a frier.
It had taken Kogoro nearly an hour of reassurances to calm him down. After that he quickly spiraled into depression and even with him opening up a little nothing could keep a smile on his face for long. Not even the Osakan brat who had shown up out of the blue and kidnapped Conan from school.It
It had to have been the strangest day of Kogoro's life not counting the time Ran and Shinichi had been taken hostage to be used against Eri and Kogoro who had witnessed the kidnapper's leader murder a rival during the dinner date Ran and Shinichi had set up. That been a troubling week and he was glad they had come home relatively unharmed. Between the two there had only been two broken fingers and plenty of scrapes and bruises.
He had been subtly keeping an eye on the Kid whenever he went out worried that he'd have an episode. Then Ran ended up catching a cold and to keep the Kid from getting sick Kogoro was taking care of him. So on the first night they went downstairs to get a meal at the Poirot. Kogoro had gone upstairs to deliver some broth to Ran.
When he came back the kid had a glass of iced coffee and a small grin.
With everyday that passed the small grin began to grow and so did his confidence and passion. It took nearly a week of careful watching and two days of missing mahjong and pachinko, but he finally found out just why the Kid was getting better.
It all came down to one Jigen Daisuke. Edogawa Conan's adoptive father from Vespania.
The Kid was very secretive about going out to meet his father but with the way he was opening up and laughing he was fine with it and was willing to wait until the Kid brought it up. But after nearly two weeks he decided to just let Conan know he knew everything. The flustered expression was cute.
"Finally confronted Conan-kun?" Asked Ran as she was setting something in the oven with a bright smile on her face as Kogoro sat down at the table to eat lunch.
"Yes. He used to be ashamed of it, I reminded him he shouldn't." Kogoro still remembers how the Kid had been so ashamed he'd left for a week.
"I'm glad that Conan-kun is okay now. I was worried." Ran glanced at her cup with a frown that turned into a grin when she saw the cup with a kitten's head as the coaster. He had come home with the cup stuttering and blushing whenever he was asked where it had come from. Kogoro watched her laugh and grinned at the various gifts he would come home with never answering where they came from though the blushing always gave it away.
Conan twitched when he slipped around the corner to avoid being spotted but Ayumi-chan, Genta and Mitsuhiko.
It's not like he was ashamed or embarrassed to be seen with Papa.
Just he wanted to spend time alone with Papa without having anyone around so he could be his self. And even when there is some type of murder, kidnapping, robbery he's able to have it taken care of shortly so he could go back to spending time with Papa. Was that selfish of him? Papa always ruffled his hair and told him everyone deserves to be a little selfish sometimes and Conan couldn't find it in his self to disagree.
He just didn't believe he deserved to be selfish after all the troubles he's caused.
"You're late." Conan laughed childishly reaching out to accept the hand held out towards him to get into his seat. There was already a mug of coffee on a coaster recently served if the steam was anything to go by.
"Uhn." Conan agreed sipping his drink as food was placed on the table.
"Otchan... Finally decided to tell me he knew." Conan still doesn't know how Otchan found out. He'd been careful not to be seen with Papa. Though it was probably the fact that he was going out all the time and coming home with gifts.
"Now you can stop looking so guilty all the time!" A voice exclaimed in his head making him jump and whirl around to see lupin grinning down at him.
"I don't feel guilty!" He denied hotly partly because he did and partly because Papa was shooting Lupin a glare. Lupin made his self at home and ordered his self some food leaning his elbow on Conan's head.
"You know you haven't attended any of that Kid's heists? Is he not your favorite anymore?" Conan glowered at Lupin roughly jabbing his fingers into Lupin's ribs and calmly returning to his coffee.
"Thatta boy." Conan blushed hiding his blush by bringing his mug to his lips.
"You're definitely father and son. You should definitely bring him to our next heist." Lupin winked and took after having finished his meal.
"Tch. Sticking me with your bill again." Papa grumbled under his breath and paid for their meal sticking out his hand once Conan hopped off the chair.
"A Kid heist? And he's after the Angel's tears, since when was there a heist notice?" Conan stared blankly at the notice then Jirokichi then he went back to the notice and felt his eyebrows furrowing as he read the post script.
"And he extended a personal invitation to me." Conan felt a little guilty that he hadn't attended the last three heists especially when he heard that Kid questioned just about every single member of the Kaito Kid task force about his whereabouts.
It wasn't like he meant to miss them, he just didn't feel like leaving anywhere for a while.
"Well?" Conan frowned feeling even more guilty as he remembers Papa saying he would take him to the movies at eight the time of the heist.
"I... Uh, have something planned already." Conan trailed off awkwardly seeing Jirokichi, Nakamori-keibu and Sonoko stare at him with shocked looks and them instantly began talking over one another.
"Enough!" Otchan shouted slamming his hands on his desk glaring at everyone.
"He has something to do, so he can't come that's final." Otchan nodded to him allowing him to get up and leaving after taking a picture of the heist notice. Ran was just coming upstairs so he grabbed a bag and followed her.
"Mou, I told Sonoko not to tell you." Ran muttered hearing Sonoko downstairs arguing with Otchan.
"You knew Ran-nee-chan?" She looked at him and crouched down after setting both of their bags on the counter.
"Conan-kun hasn't been this happy in a while. Seeing your Papa has cheered you up, and I don't want to take that away from you. I know you want to catch Kaito Kid, but your Papa won't stay in town for long right?" She smiled seeing him nodding his head and turned to put away the groceries. Conan felt guilty but it lessened and he resolved to attend the end of the heist if he could convince Papa to attend especially when he had the bad habit of running when someone yelled thief.
Jigen could see the Kid looking antsy as he checked his watch before shaking his head.
So he did want to attend the heist but he didn't want to leave Jigen, cute and sad.
It was better than when he first caught sight of him to see him staring dazedly at the crosswalk as his friends prodded him into their conversation not that he actually spoke.
And more than once someone had to hold his hand to get him walking or he'd stop and stare silently at the floor.
He was worried enough to begin investigating on his own and what he found had him deciding to drop all pretences of being annoyed and trying to put distance between them.
The Kid needed him now more than ever so on his way home from school he picked him up and sat him on his shoulders.
The Kid had clung to his hat and sobbed silently making Jigen's heart clench tightly in pain. It hadn't taken much to get him to talk but his voice never rose from the whisper he used to speak.
It had taken a few days for the Kid to begin acting like his old self again. And every time he managed to go a day without sinking into depression Jigen would get him a trinket. Little things that caught his eye and reminded him of the Kid.
The first gift he'd gotten him was a mug with a kitten's head as a coaster. The bright grin he received was worth the teasing he ended up getting from Lupin.
"Thank you Papa!" He made sure to get rid of every single photo Lupin had taken of them during that moment.
And if he slipped a copy to that little friend of Fujiko's well only she would know.
"Papa... You're not actually taking me to work are you?" Conan asked innocently already knowing where they were going when Papa picked him up and carried him over his shoulder.
Conan sighed and pulled out his phone texting Ran that he wouldn't be able to attend the heist after all. He should try escaping, but did he really want to leave Papa?
No, not really, but he would dart Lupin if he continues making ridiculous comments.
"You showed up to my heist, not that Kaito Kid's!" And, "I always knew you'd end up joining us." Along with other annoying things that ended up with him getting a soccer ball to the face. And then Conan ended up running away in terror when he was picked up from behind by Fujiko Mine.
It had taken Papa fifteen minutes to pry him out from under the bed and another ten to convince him to step in the same room as that woman.
Kaito Kid had found out what happened to his favorite Tantei and decided to try cheering him up. But he didn't attend his heist, or the one after that, or the one after that. So when he sent his notice he made sure that his heist notice would reach Tantei-kun by outright telling him to attend. And now here he was already in the building with no Tantei-kun in sight. He was getting really worried now, Tantei-kun had been slowly cheering up but he hadn't come to this heist either.
In this case he might have to get involved and convince Tantei-kun to attend his heist.
"Papa... I don't do this kind of thing... Its wrong." Kaito used a mirror to peer around the corner and saw Tantei-kun sitting on a man's shoulders fiddling with the band of the man's hat.
TANTEI-KUN WAS WITH A RIVAL THIEF?!?! IS THAT WHY HE COULDN'T ATTEND?!
Kaito took a deep breath and tried to think of why Tantei-kun would show up with another thief to his heist.
Had he fallen out of favor?
No, Tantei-kun said he didn't do these things.
So what happened?
Had he been, no Kaito shook his head, kidnapped by rival thieves?
He'd get to the bottom of this one way or another!
"You wanted to come." Kaito was curious but they were coming closer so he left before he could hear anymore.
Conan looked up looking to his left sensing Kid but as Papa made his way to the end of the hall he didn't see Kid or anyone for that matter. Conan instantly felt guilty and it was confusing for many reasons. The first of which was exactly why was he feeling guilty, he shouldn't feel guilty for attending Kid's heist with Papa... And Lupin had a heist today, at this same museum... Oh.
He'd need to make up for this, Kaito Kid was worried about him enough to include him in his heist and he repayed that concern by attending Lupin's heist instead.
Jigen watched the Kid attempt to dart Lupin and take him out with a soccer ball for attempting to insinuate he was the Kid's favorite again.
Obviously it was Jigen and everyone knew it including that thief watching them from his corner.
He briefly paused to ruffle Conan's hair and saw him blink once in understanding and smile.
Though his lips quivered and his eyes grew.wet but he stayed strong which was the only reason Jigen would ever allow a tracker to stay on, which was why he grabbed the white sticker and stuck it on the inside of his hat. The bright smile aimed his way was also another reason, not that he'd tell anyone.
How did this happen? Why was he even trying to cheer up this thief? Honestly it wasn't even like he purposely attended Lupin's heist, he also still showed up technically.
Even if he did accompany and accomplice of Lupin III...
Ah who was he kidding!
"Would it help if I said I just wanted to spend time with Papa?" Conan spoke softly as he stood in front of the vent Kid was hiding in while Nakamori-Keibu screamed about going to the roof a few rooms down. He glanced at the vent to see Kid with his arms crossed and head pillowed on his arms pouting.
"I was worried about you Tantei-kun, and I wanted to try cheering you up." Conan sat down to make his self smaller knowing he would be overlooked.
"I know, Otchan told me about the heists that I missed, and I wanted to attend this one... But Papa won't be returning for awhile and I don't see him that often." Conan reached up to the arm of his glasses and activated the tracker on Papa's hat to see that it was a mile away. And the distance was steadily increasing, he didn't want to watch Papa disappear but he wanted reassurance that he had escaped.
A hand gloved in white removed his glasses making him turn to see Kid crouching down next to him grinning.
"Want to see a magic trick?"
And that was how Conan and Kaito passed the rest of the night while Nakamori-Keibu and the others hunted down decoys outside. Kaito showing Conan magic tricks and rewarding him with candy every single time he could figure out the trick.
And was pleasantly surprised when Conan actually managed to make a purple Hyacinth appear before him easily accepting the flower and apology.
Not that he had to apologise, but it was nice; all the same especially when he learned that Conan was actually an amateur magician with no real passion for the art aside from understanding the tricks.