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Kuroba Kaito, a brilliant magician, had his own alter ego, called Kaitou Kid. A famous showman and the most skilled and wanted thief in the world, pursued not only by the most formidable police in Japan, but also by talented critics.
The most beloved critic of Kaitou Kid was a little boy, who was, frankly put, a pest. Smart, resourceful, fast and terribly agile, and on top of that very well equipped (it just seems so easy to dodge the sudden soccer balls and poison darts, but in the dark these things are not so easy to see).
Very often, Kaito was unwittingly attacked by bouts of cuteness right before the heist, when he watched with great pleasure how the boy’s round and naive eyes looked at everything from under the glasses in order to find set-up tricks ahead of time. How little brows frowned, trying to solve another mystery, how sometimes a face suddenly lighted up, and then this sweet childish grin appeared.
That's why Kaito was smitten to the heart when, in the guise of Ran, he heard this call:
— Ran nee-chan! Ran nee-chan!
Oh, if it hadn’t been for his ability to control his face, he would have pulled this baby closer to him at the same moment to hug him properly! Only an unknown miracle saved this little gremlin from having "sister Ran" start cooing with him right there, because the way the naive eyes looked right at him, Kaito, touched him to the very depths of his soul, grabbed his heart and was not going to let go under any circumstance.
And, apparently, Conan felt something like that, because the next moment his pupils shrank, and after that the smile became a little different, more like a smirk, when he realized the person he was calling was not really his dear sister Ran.
Kaito couldn't even get too angry about it - the opportunity to pat the child's soft hair as an approval and encouragement to his sharp mind was worth being revealed so quickly.
Being a child, Conan immediately grabbed his hand, — that little palm! Those little fingers! — tightly squeezing and clearly not going to let go until the heist began. In any other situation, Kid would have been worried, but he knew perfectly well that his smallest critic would prefer to see the performance first, and then, after a real chase, catch him with his own hands. Not that he would succeed, because the child was, what, seven? Six? Maybe six, judging by the height. In any case, unfortunately, nothing will come of it for the next ten years, because Kaito had already realized that he did not want to turn to the police for help.
“Conan-kun, is something wrong?” he took on the role of the older sister, squeezing the child's palm a little tighter.
Conan gave him a look.
“Nothing like that, Ran nee-chan," he replied sweetly through gritted teeth. “I just wanted to get closer to see the diamond better!”
“Of course, let's go,” Kid smiled easily, starting to lead the child.
They moved closer as Conan turned his attention to his surroundings area to find traps ahead of time. Kaito mostly watched the child himself, struggling to restrain his reactions, which, by the way, required special concentration.
However, they couldn’t stand near the showcase for a long time, so after a few minutes they went back to where they came from. They spent some time in silence until Conan suddenly pulled him down:
“Ran-nee-chan, carry me, please?”
Kaito felt his lip twitch involuntarily because! Because! Conan looked at him with his big blue eyes, blinking calmly and was so incredibly cute that his heart just couldn't stand it! Completely unaware that his unbelievably sweet expression was about to become a disaster for Kaito — it seems that he was about to have a seizure, his heart was beating so fast in his chest — the boy raised his hands up, as all children do.
“Of course,” Kaito managed a little more hoarsely, after which he quickly recovered. “Conan-kun”
What made the child even more adorable was how easily and quickly he settled in his arms, after which he warningly put a couple of fingers on his neck, where, as Kid knew for sure, the carotid artery was located. What a little gremlin!
“Your disguise is terrible,” he said with sincere contempt, all the time retaining the usual face of a curious child. His critic was such a wonderful actor! “Which means that you specifically wanted to get close to me so that I would know it was you. What do you want, Kid?”
Kaito sincerely hoped that the child could not feel his pulse right now — because it was going off the scale and only thanks to a miracle, no other way, he was able to control his own breathing.
“Conan-kun,” he began in his own voice, but low enough that no one but the two of them could hear it. "How about you call me Kaito-nii-chan? Or Kid-nii-chan? I don’t mind either option, although I still like the first one better." Kaito’s mouth twitched at the corners, threatening to stretch into a big smile.
Conan's face froze for a moment, and then he seemed to realize the position he was in. Kaito's heart made a deafening tudum-tudum tudum-tudum, when the boy's face looked at him hesitantly at first, and then incredulously. Then, as if realizing — and clearly coming to a conclusion — Conan smiled slyly.
“You like cute things, don't you?” the child began patronizingly, looking at him with real superiority. His little leg swung in his hands, forcing him to hold the child more tightly, so that he would not fall under any circumstance. “To think that you’re going crazy with the idea that there is a boy with innocent blue eyes at your heist who does not call you with a respectful suffix. I guess such thoughts keep you up at night, do they?”
Kaito made as indifferent a face as possible. Not that it could save him from such a hopeless situation — the kid was literally in his arms, it would undoubtedly attract attention if he abruptly let him fall — because yes, Conan was right, he was crazy about cute things, and children were so cute! They looked at him with such sincere and pure admiration, believing in magic and his magic tricks, as if Kaito opened up a whole new world to them every time, full of mysteries and magic, a real miracle!
And only one little asshole—oh, how affectionate it sounded even in his head! — still couldn't calm down and enjoy the performance, for which he unwittingly became Kaito’s favorite critic.
But Kaito at least sometimes wanted a reward. And he loved cute things and enthusiastic children, who always called him "Kaito-nii-chan" so sweetly, like a protective older brother.
"What do you mean, Conan-kun?" he asked bewildered in Ran’s voice, although he saw perfectly well that the boy would not be affected by these tricks. He was too smart for his own good.
“Ah, Ran-nee-chan," he sighed, fake and obviously on purpose, looking at Kaito intently and somehow seeing through the dense mask to the real emotions that were literally bubbling up in his body from barely restrained squealing because of the cuteness right in front of his eyes. Literally in his arms! “I just thought that if Kaito Kid can impress me today, then maybe I'll give him one surprise. Do you think he'd like it?”
“Absolutely!” Kaito exclaimed more emotionally than he had meant to. Edogawa's grin showed that he was enjoying the show now, playing on his nerves, because in fact he had not given any real promise, but he had already forced Kaito to work more carefully and harder than usual just in case.
A cunning little asshole.
“Oh," Conan sighed suddenly, drawing all his attention. "Do you think I should wish him luck? He will perform a lot of difficult tricks today, after all!”
His throat was suddenly dry. Kaito repeated to himself as loudly as possible in his head that if he stole Conan Edogawa during a heist, then it would be very difficult to return him later — he would want to keep the child for yourself.
And he even had a second bedroom, which he had used as a child — at about the same age.
Terrible thoughts.
But—this boy! — he was such a wonderful scoundrel! Kaito would be so good at teaching him a couple of bad things! For example, how to be a Kid-Kaito-Kid. Little Kaito Kid! Their duet would be an amazing success!
"If you want to, why not?" He asked in a terribly enthusiastic version of Mori Ran’s voice. Conan asked to be put down, so he had to lower him with great reluctance, because the show was about to start in a couple of minutes. “But what makes you think that he will have to do lot of difficult tricks?”
“Well, how?” the boy was surprised, his eyes wide open. “He will need to work hard, because today I will definitely catch Kaito-nii-chan!”
"Oh, no," Kaito thought, reaching out with his hand to his heart and literally feeling the mask stretch from the smile on his face, which could not be contained. He was exhilarated that this was just getting better and better, and there was no indication that it would stop "It seems I'm really going to die of happiness now."
Edogawa Conan watched him with his big, blue eyes with an impudent grin.