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Circuitous Breadcrumbs
Shinichi took a few cursory swipes at his slacks and blazer sleeves, dusting himself off in the rotating glow of the nearby police cruiser. He’d just finished wrapping up a middle-of-the-night murder which ended with him chasing down the killer when she’d tried to run. An athletic woman, she’d really put forth a solid effort, leaping fences and various suburban obstacles to try to shake Shinichi off her tail. When he’d finally gotten close enough he’d tackled her and kept her pinned until the police caught up to take her away.
On reflex he’d declined a ride when the cops offered, but once they’d all cleared out he realized he’d wound up in an unfamiliar part of Tokyo. He reached into his pocket for his phone.
It wasn’t there.
Swearing under his breath, Shinichi started searching the ground near where he’d tackled the culprit. Even with the light from his watch, he didn’t find it. With his luck, the police had happened upon it and collected it as potential evidence.
After a few more futile minutes he gave up, picked a direction, and started walking. If he could find a station, literally any kind of station – train, bus, police, or even just a major road – he’d be able to figure out a way home.
Shinichi didn’t really notice the fog closing in until it was a problem. He stopped walking, slightly baffled. It was so dense he couldn’t see where he was going. But he couldn’t just stand around waiting for it to clear, either. Since he was already lost and it didn’t particularly matter what direction he headed, he turned a slow circle and started carefully in whatever direction had the most visibility. There was a misty light much closer to eye level than a street lamp. It was likely on or near a building so he headed toward it, keeping one eye on the ground to be sure he didn’t wander into a road by accident.
He came upon a gate first, but it was unlocked so he went through it and headed up a path to a door. He’d apparently followed the glow of a porch light and he sighed. He wasn’t about to knock on the door of some random house in the middle of the night, no matter how lost he was. But…
But looking closer, he saw that the door wasn’t latched. It was just slightly ajar and, while the porch light was on, there was no other light from the building. No glow from any window or headlights of a parked car. That didn’t bode well.
Shinichi knew well that there was absolutely no way he could turn around and just forget about that door. Resigned to it, he nudged it open with his elbow and went inside.
“Hello?” he called as he eased the door shut behind him and clicked on the light in his watch. He waited, listening intently, but the house remained silent. He toed out of his shoes and headed farther inside, wondering what he’d find. A burglar? Another body? Two in one night would be unusual, even for him, but not impossible. Or maybe he’d find a normal family sleeping in their house who had just happened to leave their door slightly ajar when they came inside earlier. He snorted softly. “Yeah, right.”
He started poking around, looking for any signs of disruption or distress. So far nothing seemed out of place, but as he was turning to leave the sitting room he thought he saw movement – just a brief flicker of white – in the reflection on the dark TV screen.
It’s a good thing Ran’s not here, he thought as he headed for the stairs. She’d probably think there’s a ghost.
The ground floor was empty so he started slowly and silently up the stairs, passing his light over them and up and down the railing as he went just in case there were any traces of blood to be found.
At the top he went to the nearest door, this one closed (though, at a glance, not all of them were), and reached for the handle.
“Good evening, Tantei-kun~!”
The greeting was soft, brushing past Shinichi’s ear on a cool breeze, but in the quiet house it spiked Shinichi’s adrenaline as much as a gunshot. He jerked his hand back from the untouched doorknob and whirled around.
“KID?” he hissed into the dim hallway. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“Well, I saw you poking around. Seemed rude not to say hello.” KID had answered easily, and at full voice. He smirked as he watched Shinichi’s eyes dart around the hallway. “There’s no one else here, Tantei-kun.”
“Whose house is this? The door wasn’t latched; it was just sitting open.”
“And you, naturally, took that as an invitation,” KID laughed.
“And you?” Shinichi shot back sourly.
“Did you know,” KID started, sweeping past the question and past Shinichi to start back down the stairs. Shinichi followed, towed by KID’s natural gravity. “There are all sorts of rumors about this house.”
“Rumors, huh. Do you have any idea how many investigations start like that?”
KID glanced over his shoulder so Shinichi could catch the amused rise of his eyebrows. “You think some criminal is causing a dense and rather unseasonable fog to roll in at night, shrouding the area with noticeable frequency?”
“Fog machines. Dry ice. You really gonna hold it against someone if they want to use a smokescreen, KID?”
KID turned this time, continuing to walk backwards as he led Shinichi into the sitting room with a delighted grin. Then he started lighting candles around the room. Shinichi quirked an eyebrow at him.
“Okay,” KID said with both tone and expression saying I’m humoring you. He faced Shinichi in the warm candlelight that now ringed the room and Shinichi clicked off his watch light. “How about the strange noises?”
“If all people are saying is something as vague as ‘strange noises’ that’s not a rumor with much foundation. It’s probably just people repeating what they hear others say.”
“Screeching.” KID clarified.
“Bats.”
KID looked at him expectantly. Shinichi stared back, his lips in a tight what-do-you-want-from-me line. “Is the screeching always at evening or night?”
“Well, yes.”
“House bats. Or a criminal doing a trial run of their crime which, stupidly, involves some screeching metal-on-metal situation. Where are you even getting these rumors from?”
“You are really killing the spooky vibe we could have had going on here,” KID scolded, gesturing an elegant gloved hand around the cozy, warm-lit room. Shinichi noticed the curtains were closed. He didn’t think they had been before…
“Why were you watching me earlier? Why did you wait to say something until I went upstairs?”
“You know, no one’s ever seen the occupants of this house,” KID went on. His words had a smoothing effect, ironing out the bumps Shinichi raised in the conversation. He stepped around the low coffee table in front of the couch and dropped onto the cushions. Legs crossed and body angled toward Shinichi, he rested an arm along the back of the couch as though reaching out toward him. He met his gaze and held it. “No one at all coming or going during the day, but people swear to seeing movement in the windows at night.”
“You have got to be kidding me,” Shinichi muttered under his breath. He crossed his arms. “Some people work nights, Kaitou KID. Maybe one of your task force officers lives here. Which would be really fantastic to witness, actually, if we were chatting in their living room when they got home.”
“Are you saying you’d like to stay the night~?” KID purred. “Call it a… stakeout.” He grinned again and Shinichi narrowed his eyes. The flickering shadows of the candlelight made something about that grin look just slightly off. “Now,” KID said, sitting up straighter and folding his hands over his knee. “For the real gem of the gossip mine.”
“You were holding out on me?” Shinichi prodded.
“I was building suspense,” KID readily returned. “So, after a couple years of these rumors, ghost hunters and urban explorers and the odd social media wannabe looking for a bump in views have gone poking around, hoping to get to the bottom of it all.”
“A couple years?”
KID’s smile turned saccharine and firelight flashed off his monocle as he tilted his head. “Throwing off some of your theories a bit?”
Shinichi stubbornly remained silent, waiting for KID to go on. He did.
“What do you suppose those brave – albeit amateur – investigators found?”
“More rumors?” Shinichi said flatly.
“Essentially!” KID answered on a bright laugh. “The rumor is… none of them can remember what they found. They all came to the morning after each little escapade with memory gaps, wiped footage, and little wounds on their necks or arms. Now what does the great detective think about that– uh, Tantei-kun?”
Shinichi had let out a low but vicious curse and turned on his heel, stalking out of the room. KID could hear him banging around in the kitchen. He shoved to his feet and hurried after him.
“Tantei-kun, what are you doing?”
Shinichi had pulled on gloves, opened the refrigerator and freezer, and was ransacking both. He pushed items aside, pawed through drawers and shelves, even dumped and/or sniffed the contents of anything not sealed. Then he moved on to the cabinets.
“Puncture wounds?” Shinichi said as he tore through the place like a hurricane. “Memory loss? Wiped footage? With the occupants keeping hidden?” He opened the oven, then the microwave. “What do you think I’m doing? I’m looking for experimental drugs.” He paused long enough to take a step back and swear again, then muttered, “Just a random house tucked away on a random residential street. Who would think to look there? Fucking figures…”
KID’s forehead dropped into the palm of his hand. His poker face had never encountered such a strong and unexpected strain. He had to bite the inside of his lip to keep from groaning out loud. He drew blood, sighed, and licked over the cut.
“Tantei-kun.” His voice was firm and level as he straightened up. “Stop.”
He didn’t stop, too busy squeezing a loaf of bread to see if anything was hidden inside.
“This is my house.”
Shinichi stopped.
“Please put down my bread.”
Shinichi put it down.
“Shall we chat in the living room?” KID swept his hand out, gesturing Shinichi back the way they’d come.
Shell-shocked, Shinichi obeyed, even going so far as to sit on the couch. KID sat beside him.
“To be abundantly clear,” KID started. “There are no experimental drugs in the house.”
“The screeching?”
“House bats. They like me. Any my doves like them.”
Shinichi nodded, and looked rather more settled. “Well, you do work at night.”
“I do.”
“And if anyone could evade their neighbors for a couple years it would be you.”
“Fair enough.”
KID waited for the obvious question. Shinichi took his time with it.
“I… can understand not letting anybody get footage of your house,” he started slowly. “And, to be fair, they would all have been trespassing unless you just let them in.”
KID hummed, rolling his eyes up toward the ceiling noncommittally.
“But wounds? And how did you get them to agree to not say anything? The memory loss is all fake, right? What did you do?”
KID’s chuckle was low and rolling, as warm as the candlelight. “Oh, Tantei-kun.” He shifted closer on the couch, angling himself toward Shinichi again, right beside him. “No,” he whispered. “That’s not fake.”
A chill shivered up then down Shinichi’s whole body. “…Hypnotism?” he ventured, and suddenly KID was laughing again. Shinichi was captivated by the open mirth on his face, so close and undisguised.
“If you like,” KID allowed, shaking his head with a persistent smile. “Call it whatever you need to.”
Shinichi instantly bristled at the patronization. He turned sideways on the couch to face KID more fully. “If I’ve got something wrong, just tell me.”
KID leaned in. “What if I showed you?” He was grinning again, and this time Shinichi couldn’t possibly miss them – the long, sharp canines in KID’s grin. “Can you guess now?” KID asked softly. “Where the wounds came from?”
“You… I…”
KID watched the racing thoughts, so clear on Shinichi’s face. But then Shinichi blinked and refocused his gaze to meet KID’s.
“I’m gonna need proof.”
KID’s eyebrows jumped up. “To what end?”
“Peace of mind.”
Again, the answer surprised KID. “Not to… arrest me? Or, I don’t know, hunt me down with torches and pitchforks?”
“Aren’t stakes the customary– Oh for fucks sake, KID, a stakeout? Really?”
KID’s smile overtook his face again and Shinichi kind of loved the sight of it, even if the fangs were a bit… distracting. Shinichi sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Anyway, I don’t care about that. I wanna solve the mystery.”
“Are you asking me to bite you, Tantei-kun?”
“If that’s the answer to what happened to all the other people who went poking around here. Just like me.”
KID’s eyes softened. “No. Not like you.”
Gloved fingertips gently traced down the side of Shinichi’s face. Shinichi didn’t pull back, didn’t speak, just waited.
“Well then,” KID murmured, setting his hat absently aside and leaning in close. “Itadaki~”
Shinichi felt cool lips against his neck, then the sharp, quick pain of KID’s bite. Startled, Shinichi sucked in a breath. His hands flew to KID on some kind of reflex or instinct but he didn’t push him away; he held on, one fist gripping KID’s cape and the other clutching into KID’s hair, actually pressing him harder against Shinichi’s neck. He felt KID’s chuckle, then a gentle hum, and one long, pulling draw on the wounds that forced another gasp through his lips.
After a few moments to get his bearings, Shinichi’s mind got clearer. He released his hold on KID’s cape and slowly – very slowly – slid his hand over to touch KID’s neck. He thought he felt KID’s lips curve against his skin in a smile, and then KID’s throat worked under his fingertips in a clear and obvious swallow. Shinichi swallowed too, heart suddenly racing.
KID swallowed once, twice more, then eased back to find Shinichi’s eyes. There was just the slightest smear of red on KID’s lower lip and, as Shinichi watched, KID licked it away.
Shinichi raised unsteady fingers to his own neck. He touched the spot KID had latched on to then brought them away to look at the fresh blood wetting his fingertips.
“Ah, my apologies. Let me take care of that.”
Then KID was holding Shinichi’s hand and licking his fingers clean. Still holding on, he leaned in again and licked over the wounds on Shinichi’s neck.
Shinichi let out a shaky breath. He swallowed again but his mouth was dry. “And… the memory loss?” he asked.
KID sighed and Shinichi caught the very slight metallic scent of his own blood on KID’s breath. “If you want me to, Tantei-kun, I can make you forget any of this ever happened. I will see you safely home. You will remember everything from tonight, up until the fog.” KID paused then, and smirked. “You never did try to explain that part away.”
“You’re Kaitou KID,” Shinichi said. “Seemed a superfluous effort somehow. By the way, did you steal my phone?”
KID finally let go of Shinichi’s hand and, with a twist of his wrist, he was suddenly holding Shinichi’s phone. He handed it over, looking perfectly pleased to have been found out. “Ah, Tantei-kun,” KID said. “I love you.”
What might have been a bold declaration was made rather conversational by KID’s easy calm and quiet smile. A smile, Shinichi realized, that had lost its warm light. KID was… sad.
“You said if I want you to. It’s not a side effect of the bite?”
“Side effect? Look at you, accepting that something decidedly inhuman just snacked on you~” KID said.
“Shut up and focus. If I have a choice, why the hell would I choose to forget?”
“Well… I doubt I really fit into your perception of the world. I imagine that might cause you quite a bit of cognitive dissonance.”
Shinichi’s eyebrows knit together, mouth set in a frown. Then, without warning, Shinichi grabbed KID and bit him.
“Ow! Hey! What the– Ah! Ah! What are you doing?!”
Shinichi was nibbling KID’s neck, worrying the skin until it pinked, and then he licked over the spot to sooth it. “Retribution,” Shinichi said, sitting back but keeping his hold on KID’s arms. “I’m frankly insulted you think I could learn something new and then just throw it away because… I don’t even know why! People used to think that flying was impossible. They thought the sun revolved around the earth, or that the earth was flat, or that illnesses were curses. Hell, I used to think there was no such thing as pills that de-age people!”
At this, KID snorted a laugh and Shinichi smirked. “My point is, paradigm shifts aren’t inherently bad. And more importantly, you said you loved me.”
KID looked incredibly caught out. Shinichi decided it was a good look on him. “I, uh… I thought you wouldn’t, um, remember that.”
“Yeah? Well too bad.”
And then Shinichi was on top of KID, flattening him back onto the couch cushions and kissing him stupid in the candlelight of the mysterious haunted house in Ekoda – a first kiss they would never forget.