Phantom-Akiko's Fan Works

[Phantom-Akiko]

Catboys
Chapter Two: New Discoveries
by Phantom-Akiko and Vampire-kid
thanks to hallow777 for beta-reading

---

Spoiler:

Aoko was still giggling on her way home when she thought about the ears and tail. Kaito went up to his room after she left and just dropped back onto his bed again, wanting to ignore the whole world for today. He knew however, that his mother needed to know and he guessed that she would have a similar reaction. Well, she would be worried, but it was pretty much likely that she found him overly cute as well. He sighed in desperation and decided to sleep for the few hours he still had till his peace was ruined. His Mum came home after a while and went into the kitchen to cook dinner. She wondered if Kaito was at home or went somewhere. So, just when he had been asleep for a while, his sensible nose picked up a familiar scent and he woke up with a start. He groaned as his ears and tail popped out yet again at the scent of cooked fish and he slumped back into his pillow. "Can't they just let me alooooone...?", he whined in frustration, burying his face into his soft pillow. After the dinner was ready his Mum went upstairs and knocked at Kaito's room. "Kaito? Dinner is ready!â€

[Elika12]

I'm loving this "Catboys". It's really great

[Phantom-Akiko]

Next Bloody Destiny page 

Spoiler:

[mangaluva]

The expressions are, as always, my favourites ♥ Especially Shinichi in the last panel 

[Phantom-Akiko]

New fanart

Spoiler:

I love Kaito with wings x3

[Phantom-Akiko]

Catboys

Chapter Three: The Problems of Catboys

by Phantom-Akiko and Vampire-Kid

thanks to hallow777 for beta-reading

Spoiler:

Conan did his homework, and as usual completed it really fast, then read some Sherlock Holmes stories. While he was reading, he also thought about the whole Cat-Thing and sighed. "I just hope those kids won't find out...', he thought.

Downstairs, Ran was done with the cleaning. She had already done what little homework she had. So, she sat on one of the couches and switched through channels on the TV. She stopped when they broadcasted the news, she heard a familiar name. "Conan-kun!", she called him downstairs, hoping he would hear her.

Conan looked up when he heard Ran and went downstairs. "What is it, Ran-neechan?", he asked, looking up at her.

"Come here! There's something on the news that you might want to see!", she told him.

Conan went downstairs and looked at the TV-screen. And found out that Ran was right, the news really was interesting. 'So he's planning a heist again...', he thought and sighed, 'Hopefully my ears and tail won't appear during the evening...'

"I wonder if Sonoko wants to go...do you want to go there?", she asked him, wondering.

He nodded. "Yes, it’s sure to be exciting!", he said in a childish voice and smiled.

She giggled slightly and nodded. "With how you're famous for battling against Kid, we'll surely be able to get in the museum."

He nodded a little nervous."Even though the most of them were just coincidence.", he said. It would sound weird if he were to say that they are rivals or something.

"Yeah...that's sure strange...", she wondered. "There are not many other people, who just meet him because of mere coincidence...or are there?"

He got more and more nervous and scratched his head. "P-Probably he just likes to tease kids, that's all.", he said, nervously smiling.

"But...", she said and thought back to the incidences where she had met the Kid as well. "Doesn't he usually tease Nakamori-keibu and the rest of the police?", she asked in puzzlement.

"Well... that's probably because.. eto... I'm kinda on the police’s side, because I'm also against Kid.", he tried to explained.

"Hmmm...That might be the reason...", she said. After a while of thinking that over, she giggled shortly. "Although there are sure not many criminals, who would think that you belong to the police...all of the other criminals were always caught shortly after that. Kid might be the only one to think so..."

He shrugged. "I don't know what Kid is thinking, though..", he said and smiled a little. "But is it okay if I go to the heist?"

"I think it's okay. But you must promise you’ll be careful!", she told him.

He looked at her and smiled. "Sure, I promise.", he told her, "Until now I've never got hurt at a Kid heist, so it won't be different this time, I think."

She looked a little worried to him at that phrasing. "You think? What do you mean by that?"

"N-nothing, Really! I'll be careful, okay?", he promised her and looked at her.

She sighed, but let him go anyway. "Yeah, it's okay.", she said and smiled slightly.

He smiled when she allowed him to go. "Thanks Ran-neechan!", he said in a cute childish voice.

She giggled at the sight of Conan's cuteness. 'These things really seemed to mean a lot to him...', she thought, wondering about her little Conan.

He smiled and looked around. "Wow, Ran-neechan... you really cleaned up a lot!", he noticed.

"Thanks...", she said and blushed. "Well, since a certain someone never cleans up, it is always up to me.", she huffed.

"Well, he should be happy that you're always cleaning up.", he said and smiled a little and looked around. 'Hm.. I wonder where she put my book, which was laying on the table before....', he asked himself wondering.

"Yeah...he SHOULD be!", she said angrily, because he clearly took it as a perfectly normal thing. She then wondered if he was searching for something. "Are you looking for something, Conan-kun?"

He smiled a little nervous because of that comment and nodded. "Yes.. uh... Before you cleaned up, I put my Mystery novel on the table.", he told her.

She pondered for a while, then realized where it was. "I must have put it into that drawer there, so that it doesn't get dusty.", she said and pointed to said drawer.

He looked to the drawer and nodded. "Okay, thanks.", he said and went to the drawer and found his book. But then his eyes also saw something else his ears and tail popped out and twitched around.

Ran noticed the change instantly and wondered what had happened to cause this. 'I didn't put any fish into the drawer, that's for sure...', she thought and went slowly to him. 'There's only the book, a few pencils and...oh, the things I bought for Goro! That must be it!', she thought and went to see if she was right. And yes, there were various cat toys in there and Conan was staring at them with a cute curiosity. She picked one of the balls with bells in it up and watched for a change in Conan's behaviour.

Conan stared at the toys without even noticing and looked up when Ran was taking something out. His ears were twitching when he heard the bells and looked with big eyes at the balls and tried to hit them, he was close to give up logical thinking like Kaito.

She took in his reaction, thought about it for a second and threw the ball over to the other side of the room, where it made lots of ringing noises.

When Ran tossed the ball he completely lost his mind, twitching his ears when he heard the ringing again and ran on all fours after it, while his tail was twitching excitingly. When he reached the ball he swatted it again and again and sometimes made a "Nya~" sound.

She made his way to him where he crouched down on the floor and giggled at his childish actions. She crouched down in front of him and used her hand to move the ball a little as well.

He kept playing with the ball and really enjoyed it. He hit the ball again and again and when Ran started to play with him he jumped after the ball. It kind of looked like he was chasing the ball.

Ran had a lot of fun playing with him. 'It's like having an overgrown cat ', she thought, rolling the ball around and letting the little bell inside ring.

Conan played a while with the ball and really had fun. "Nya~", he yawned after a while and stopped chasing the ball. He had gotten quiet tired from chasing the ball and his ears drooped a little. Without thinking about it he just cuddled up to Ran.

"Cute~", she whispered and stroked him behind his ears.

He leaned more against Ran while she stroked him and calmed down. Slowly his mind returned and when he noticed what he was doing and what was Ran currently doing to him, he blushed.

Ran hadn't noticed the change and just continued to caress him on the head.

Conan felt embarrassed all of sudden. He did enjoy it but for him it'd be to embarrassing to keep it like this. "Uhm... Ran-neechan..?", he asked and looked slowly up at her.

She smiled down at him and noticed his red cheeks, which made her chuckle softly.

"Yes, Conan-kun? You seem to be normal again, huh?", she asked and titled her head to the side.

He nodded a little. "Seems like I kinda lost control of my actions...", he said and smiled embarrassed and was still surprised about what happened.

"But that was really cute, you know?", she told him and giggled a little.

He blushed even more when she said that. "Y-you think so? I completely lost control...", he said a little thoughtful, “I didn't imagine that something like this could happen."

"Hmhm~", she hummed. "It was definitely cute! I have never seen you this carefree before, it was quite a relief. Well, now we know, right? Don't bother yourself with it."

'That's because I was acting like a cat and not like me at all...', he thought and sighted. "Yea. So the ears and tail won't only pop out when I'm near fish..", he concluded..

"Well...there are usually not things around you like toys like that, right?", she smiled sweetly.

He looked at her and nodded. "Yeah, that's right... So fortunately this won't happen very often...", he said and smiled a little.

"Yeah...although I think you have to be careful about balls. Hmm...that reminds me...I wonder if you would go after a soccer ball like this..."

"Your probably right.", he said and nodded. "I don't know about that...", he wondered, "I haven't played since then."

"So, before you play outside you might want to try it somewhere alone, huh?", she wondered.

Again he nodded. "That’s a good idea, I guess I should try it soon.", he sighed. If he plays soccer with the kids and the ears pop and the tail pop out he had a problem.

"Yeah...probably.", she said, smiling sweetly.

He wondered where he could play soccer without the possibility that somebody was watching him. "Hm... maybe I can try it at hakase's garden.", he said. The garden was pretty big and the only ones who could watch him were the Professor and Ai.

"So you want to try it out now?", she wondered.

"Uhm... maybe later or tomorrow.", he said and smiled a bit. "I'm still a little tired from playing...â€

[Phantom-Akiko]

New fanart
For Vampire-Kid

Spoiler:

[Soreiyu]

You have a lot of really nice stuff. :3 I think I'll watch you on DA.

haha We should do an art collab someday.

[Phantom-Akiko]

You have a lot of really nice stuff. :3 I think I'll watch you on DA.

haha We should do an art collab someday.

Thanks I'd be really happy^o^

Well, why not? xD Haven't done this anyway xD

[Boxcar Children]

cool Vampire-kid  I want to suck you blood. Ok that was a bad joke.

[Phantom-Akiko]

Catboys

Chapter Four: Heist

by Phantom-Akiko and Vampire-kid

thanks to hallow777 for beta-reading

We really have to apologize to Kaito in this chapter...we let him suffer so much...^^°

How the name is already suggesting, this entire chapter is nearly only about the heist.

Have fun^^

Spoiler:

The days went by and all too soon it was the evening of the KID heist. Conan worked on getting used to all the new cat stuff he had to deal with so that hopefully they wouldn’t appear during the heist. He went with Ran and Kogoro to the museum where all the police already were.

Kaito had done the remaining preparing with Jii and they were in position. The heist wasn't due to take place for another hour, so they had still time.

Kid took a last glance into his binoculars and scanned the area of the museums. "Let's see...there's Nakamori, shouting at his men again...and there's Hakuba. Looking smug tonight, aren’t we? Wonder if he's planning something about my new nature. Oh, and there is tantei-kun! That's gonna be fun. I wonder if he will notice my new agility and balance..."

The shrunken detective was patiently waiting and also thought about that. 'Maybe my new balance will be helpful while chasing him...', he thought and sighed, 'as long those damn ears and tail don't pop out...', and could already imagine Kid’s grin, seeing him like that.

Kaito waited for the rest of the time then flew with his glider a minute before the arranged time onto a balcony of the museum.

Conan watched at his watch again and again until he could count the seconds until it was finally time for Kid to appear. Then he heard some police shout "Kid! On the balcony!", and looked immediately in that direction.

The thief went through the huge glass doors as if they weren't even locked. Which they actually were. He stepped up on the railing of the upper corridor, jumped in the air and let himself fall towards the ground again. He landed in the middle of the museum's floor.

When he landed in the middle of the floor the police ran towards him and tried their best to catch them. "Catch him!", Nakamkori-keibu yelled. Conan kept still and watched what Kid was going to do next. If he were to run towards him, he'd get lost under the police.

He evaded the first officer with a jump in the air and used his head to avoid a collision with two other officers, who now lay dazed on top of the other. The game of dog-pile-on-the-bandit continued like this until all the police officers were in one pile and also stuck together from the blue paint that Kid had somehow managed to stick between them. All in all, Kid was having loads of fun and was laughing like the idiot he was. When he was lounging on top of the pile of officers like one giant dove, Hakuba approached the thief from behind, hoping to surprise the Kid. But then, the thief suddenly did a flip in the air and was suddenly behind the blond detective, who soon found himself tied up against the nearest pillar of the museum. Which only left Kid and Conan.

Conan had watched this and sighed. 'How can the police be so stupid?', he asked himself and really wondered. Kinda tired of Kids game he turned the power of his shoe on and noticed that he and Kid were the only ones left. "You really had fun,didn’t you?", he asked, glaring at him annoyed.

Kid turned around to him and *grinned*. "Oh, how can you tell, Tantei-kun?", he asked innocently and prepared to leap, if the detective should shoot one of his soccer balls again.

"Maybe because of your stupid laughing?", he said and pushed the button on his belt and let a soccer ball appear before kicking it straight in his direction.

Kid leaped out of the way without a problem and bounced over to the case, where the gem still lay inside the glass case. Humming some sort of tune, he quickly picked the lock and had the gem in his pocket a few seconds later. With that he swirled around to the detective again. "My laughing might be stupid, but I have the gem."

Conan looked at him and pointed his stun-gun at him. "Not for long!", he said and tried to get him with a shot of his stun-gun.

Kid dodged the dart with a jump over the pedestal, the dart got stuck in the material of the case and the thief vanished with a mock bow and a puff of smoke from the room.

"Shimatta!", Conan swore when Kid disappeared in the smoke and looked around and ran to the exit of the room, hope to find him before he could escape.

Kid had already made his way to the roof, where he checked if the jewel was the Pandora Gem or not. He sighed as the gem did nothing in the full moon's light.

When Conan found the stairs he hurried up to the top and finally arrived on the roof. He saw the thief, putting the gem back and slowly came up to him, not making a sound.

After tucking the gem safe in one of his pockets, Kid sighed and looked across the town. He already wondered, where the Chibi-tantei was, but he was sure, that he would hear the little footsteps as soon as he would make his way to the roof.

The little detective noticed that Kid didn't noticed him and turned his shoe on again and pushed another ball out of his belt. By now the thief should have heard him, because he was kicking the ball with full power to the thief again.

Kid indeed only heard the detective, when he heard the familiar clicks of the shoes mechanisms. He was just turning around and about to flee, as he already felt the ball slam into his waist, sending him over the edge of the rooftop. Luckily for him, the museum wasn't that high. Still three stories high, but he even managed to land on his feet and hands after doing a flip in mid-flight. And for the sake of his own freedom, he ignored the pain in his stomach for now.

First Conan was pretty satisfied that he hit the thief but didn't thought that he'd fall down the building. He ran to the edge and saw Kid already on the ground, with no hint of any injuries. Conan wondered how the thief managed to do that and looked for another way to get down. Then he discovered some ornament on the wall of the building and after thinking about it, he jumped down and by climbing and jumping he was soon also on the ground. 'Good thing that I have more balance...', he thought till he was on the ground again.

Kid looked surprised at the way Conan made it down to the ground. "Was he always this good...?", he wondered absently, before he checked the door of the museum. ' No police officer there, yet. Must still be in a tangle of themselves...Hakuba might be free already, but he hasn't gotten out yet...'

He also noticed that the police still wasn't around and sighted. 'Damn thief...', he swore and looked at him. "Seems like you can't use your glider any more.", he said grinning.

"Oooh, who said that?", he asked with a smirk and went off. He made his way onto the street next to the museum and went to the direction of the slightly bigger buildings.

"Hey!", Conan yelled and ran after him and trying not to loose him.

When he arrived at the first higher building, he took a look backwards and saw that the detective had been faster than he expected, but was still far behind. He turned a corner and already climbed up the fire escape, thinking that just running up there would waste too much time, anyway.

He still saw how the thief climbed up the fire escape and sighed. 'Why can't he just stop?', he thought and also climbed up there, hoping that the thief won't be too much faster than him.

From the top of the fire escape, he jumped directly to the next roof and waited there for a moment to see Conan climbing up there as well. 'He's gotten GOOD. I wonder if he just never used it or if I just haven't noticed it...'

Right now, Conan was pretty thankful for his new senses. He also wondered that the thief can climb so much, but he didn't thought about it any more and jumped after him on the roof and asked himself how long the chasing will go on.

Kid grinned as the boy landed on the roof as well and run over to the next rooftop, and kept on running.

Conan quickly started to follow him and was glad that he could manage the jumps over the rooftops.

Kid had very much fun with leading the detective around across the rooftops. He usually didn't have the opportunity to do so with other people. So he chuckled slightly, as he watched the detective approaching him, as he was standing on some sort of glass covered roof. He wasn't able to see what lay inside the building, but it wasn't rather important for him, anyway. What he didn't notice were the cracks a few feet in front of him.

After the thief finally stopped after a while Conan also stopped at the roof and grinned. "Want to do this chase for another few hours?", he asked and when he took a look down he also noticed that it was some sort of glass roof and also noticed the cracks. He gulped when the cracks got bigger.

Kid's now better ears also picked up the noise of the cracks getting bigger. 'Oooops...guess that roof was not designed for people standing on it...', he thought just as the ground gave away and they both fell into whatever lay below the glass. Kaito felt water hitting his body and he struggled not to breathe the water.

When Conan felt that he felt into water he tried to open his eyes again and blinked when he saw the fish, even if it wasn't that clearly because he was under water. 'Probably some sort of aquarium...', he noticed and fast swam up to breath air again. When he looked around he noticed that the tail and the ears popped out again and sighted annoyed. "Just great...", he muttered and his wet ears drooped.

Kaito felt something brush his one leg and opened his eyes to see what it was. His mind already told him, what it could possibly be, what animal would swim in the water, but he didn't want it to be true yet. When his eyes came face to face with a fish however, he tried to scream, which only erupted in a flow of bubbles. He swam fast to the surface and took a few long breaths, before he climbed onto the next prop he could get his hands on. With now being a little calmer, he noticed his ears, which hung under his hat and the tail that was hanging down. It didn't help that he was wet all over. 'Well, shit...', he thought and took a look at his little rival. His eyes went wide, as he saw the nearly identical cat ears.

When Conan noticed some bubbles next to him, he looked into the direction and suddenly saw Kid who looked like he had total panic... and than he also noticed the ears and the tail of the other and blinked a few times. "Wait a sec... is that real or just one of your jokes..?", he asked.

"Why should I use jokes like that, when I didn't even know about your current condition?", he said with a raised eyebrow. He noticed how his body still shook from fear at the memory of the fish.

He also went up on the prop and looked at Kaito. "Uhm... could it be you got kidnapped by some mad scientist a few days ago?", he asked curious and raised one eyebrow.

"Eh...? Yeah...you too?", he asked and raised an eyebrow as well.

He sighed and nodded. "Yes and now, unfortunately, these ears and tail keep popping out sometimes or it's getting even worse..", and thought about that play-mood thing.

"Worse...the loosing control thing?", he asked and sighed. "Guess we have similar problems, huh?", he asked, grinning slightly.

He looked surprised at him and nodded. "Well, seems so.", he agreed, "But you got quiet shocked when we fell in here?", the shrunken detective wondered then.

"Uhh~" He glanced a little nervous to the large hole they made. "Kind of...", he admitted, but also didn't want to tell the detective about his fear of fish.

"May I ask why? Hate cold water or something?", he asked curious.

"No, you may not ask why.", Kid said and shrugged.

Conan blinked and snorted. "Fine then...", he muttered, "Too bad I don't have ball here you for you. I'd love to see the great thief, playing around like a cat.", he grinned.

"Oh...you would, wouldn't you?", said thief answered with a smirk. "Bet you would lose control as well if you see the ball rolling. So what? The great detective of the east playing around like that?"

He looked at him and sighted. "Probably... well... you probably also didn't find anything to stop those cat stuff to pop out, did you?"

"Nope...and I have a person, who likes to find new ways of making them pop out.", he said and sighed.

"Sounds nice.", he said, glad that Ran was not like that. "I don't think Ran'll do something like that on purpose... even though she likes to see me like that. She even thinks it's cute..", he mumbled at the end.

"Well...same here.", he said and let out a groan. "I could understand that a little boy would be cute with them, but me?", he wondered.

"I'm not sure about that, probably they think it's always cute?", he said and sighed. "At least I'm not the only one who has to deal with it."

"Yeah...kind of good to know, huh?", he said and chuckled. "Think they would look for us, since we both obviously escaped?"

"Mh... not sure..", he said and thought about that. "Could be... I mean... they probably wanted to do something else with us, when the retrained us... even though I don't really wanna know what exactly...â€

[Phantom-Akiko]

Catboys

Chapter Five: Aftermath: Shopping (part 1)

by Phantom-Akiko and Vampire-kid

thanks to hallow777 for beta-reading

Attention: This chapter is long! Really! ôo Double length than most of the chapters. And we had also so much fun writing this xD

Spoiler:

Conan was on his way back to the agency which wasn't too far. When he came in he saw that Ran had fallen asleep on the couch in the living-room and sighed. 'Probably waited for me till she was too tired...', he thought and put a blanket over her and smiled softly. After that he quickly went to bed in his room and it didn't take long for him to fall asleep.

Conan was sleeping pretty good. Probably because he was awake all night long and also had a lot of trouble of getting through, but not so much as Kid had. In the morning Ran woke up after a while and noticed, with some surprise, the blanket that was covering her. Then she remembered that she was waiting for Conan and hurried quietly to Conan's room and looked through a little crack in the door and saw him sleeping. She sighed relieved and closed the door again. "Yokata..", she whispered because she had been really worried about him yesterday.

-

Kaito had made it back to his house, mostly explaining all the events that took place that night. He changed clothes in the car and he was finished with explaining as they reached the Kuroba estate. He felt already more and more tired and exhausted and greeted his worried mother with a huge yawn, which definitely didn't make her worry disappear. But when she asked what had happened, he told her that he was too tired for answering that and went without another word up the stairs and into his room, where he flopped himself onto his bed and instantly passed out again. When his mother entered the room, she just sighed and changed his clothes for him, put him under the blanket and went down again, where Jii was waiting in the kitchen. He told her what her son had told him only minutes earlier.

-

Conan slept until 2 pm and was still tired after waking up. 'Lucky for me, today is Saturday...', he thought and stood up to change his clothes. After that he went downstairs and searched for Ran.

Ran was busy talking to Sonoko on the phone, when she noticed that Conan was finally awake. She waved at him and smiled, but held a finger in front of her lips and continued the talk.

The tired detective looked at her smile. 'Seems like she isn't mad.. I hope.' he thought and went into the kitchen to get himself something to drink and to eat.

When Ran was done talking to Sonoko, she searched for her house guest and found him in the kitchen. "There you are...are you alright?", she asked worried.

He looked at Ran and nodded smiling. "Yes, I'm okay.", he told her.

"You were pretty late yesterday...when did you come home?"

"Uhm.. not sure.. around 5 am?", he said and hope she wouldn't yell at him.

"W-what?", she asked quite shocked an her eyes widened. "You were out this late? Have you chased after Kid all that time?", she scolded him.

"Well, it took longer as I thought but I'm really fine.", he told her again.

She looked down at him for a while longer and made sure, that he was telling the truth. Then sighed and nodded. "Alright, but you should know, that I'm not comfortable with that!"

"Thanks Ran-neechan!", he said in a sweet children's voice, "Next time it won't last so long...", he added.

She nodded and smiled then. "Alright, but now eat something and then get ready, will you? I promised Sonoko, that I would go shopping with her. And 'tousan is not here, so you have to come along.", she explained to him.

He didn't want to go shopping at all, but didn’t have the energy to argue with her and sighed. "Okay.. I'll get ready...", he mumbled and went upstairs into his room again and got ready.

Ran prepared herself as well and then waited for Conan to come down.

After a short while Conan came also down and together they went to the shopping mall to meet Sonoko.

It was quite new and large, so it attracted a lot of young people. They met the blond girl in front of the entrance, where she was waving at them from far away. As she saw that, Ran smiled and waved back at her.

Together they went through the shops and Conan got pretty bored and wasn't really in the mood for all that.

Ran and Sonoko still were very exited and never dulled because of their young charge's misery. They had their bags full of clothes and other thinks boys would usually claim to be useless, when they had finished going through the first few stores.

Conan was quiet annoyed by Sonoko, because he had to carry her bags, and he was already tired. He was lucky that he only had to carry two of her bags, though.

After a while, Ran had suggested to get some rest, especially for Conan and Sonoko agreed after a while. They searched and found a nice ice cream parlour. While they looked for a place, they needed to go through the whole thing, because it was pretty crowded. Conan was relieved that he could finally take a break and helped looking for a place. When Ran spotted a more secluded place by accident, she stopped cold at what she saw there. Behind her, Sonoko stopped as well and looked for the source of Ran’s bother. When she spotted the pair, her eyes went wide and she caught her breath.

Conan noticed that Ran stopped suddenly and looked into the direction she was staring at and blinked surprised. 'Wait.. isn't that..', he wondered.

Ran wanted to know if that was some kind of joke, but couldn't move. Then, her friend complained something about untrustworthy and deceptive detectives and rushed for her friends sake to the young man, who was sitting at that table, chatting happily with a young woman.

Conan blinked when he heard Sonoko and gulped. 'Wait.. they think it's me?', he thought and noticed that the blond girl was already on her way to the young man.

-

Aoko was happy that she was able to make Kaito come with her. Well, he didn't really have a choice, because she also had her mop when she stood in front of his door in the morning. And after a while shopping they sat down at some nice place. She laughed and noticed Sonoko, who was coming to them and that she was also glaring at Kaito. "Ne, have you done something stupid again?", she asked and looked at Kaito.

Kaito was surprised at her sudden question and his sensible ears picked up frantic steps coming towards him. "Uhhh...no?", he answered reluctantly and looked over to the now looming blond girl before him. He recognized her of course, but wondered what the Suzuki girl would want from him, when she started to rant at him.

"Kudo-kun! What the hell is this? You are cheating on Ran, you bastard! How could you after she waited for you so long?" At that, Kaito blinked and linked eyes with a certain detective and then looked apologetic to Sonoko again. "I'm sorry, but I think this is a mistake...my name's not Kudo." But the huff and the expression on the girl's face showed that she didn't believe him. "Oh, sure...just change your hair and your voice a little and I wouldn't see through that?", she asked and huffed again, "Seriously..."

Aoko looked surprised at Sonoko and wondered what she was talking about. "Kudo?", she asked, "Sorry, but this time he really says the truth.", she explained and hoped that Sonoko believed that. "Or did you disguise again or played some trick on her?", she asked and glared at Kaito.

"No! I did not!", he exclaimed and Sonoko looked a little less sure now.

Conan had watched them and sweat-dropped while they were talking. 'Brilliant conclusion, Sonoko..', he thought and sighed. "Ne, Ran-neechan? Maybe we should go to Sonoko-neechan. I don't think he's Shinichi-niisan, after all he's still busy with his case...", he told her.

Ran woke up from her 'Shinichi is dating another girl-daze' and looked down at him. "Uh...well, it could be...", she said reluctant.

'Thanks for trusting me...', he thought ironic.
Conan and Ran went to them and the little detective looked to the thief from yesterday, 'Weird coincidence...', he just thought and looked to Sonoko.

"Hm...well, I heard the name Kudo but that's definitely not his name.", Aoko then said and pointed at Kaito.

Kaito looked for an instant at the detective and then looked away. He didn't want to tell him his name like this, but the looks on the girls' faces told him, that he should introduce him as soon as possible. So, he sighed and stood up in front of them. "No, my name is Kaito Kuroba.", he said with a smile and successfully kept his uneasiness out of his expressions. "Nice to meet you!", he finally said and made two roses pop out and held them in front of the two girls. "For the two beauties here!"

The two girls blushed and took the roses. From the look of their faces, they were finally convinced, that he wasn't the detective. Especially Sonoko who blushed heavily and was excited.

Conan could already imagine that the thief didn't really want to say his name in front of him and was happy when he finally said it. 'Kuroba.. think I heard that before...', he thought and looked to the two roses and gave him an annoyed glare.

The shrunken detective just mumbled something silently and didn't like to see the thief flirting with his childhood friend.

Aoko looked to Ran and the boy and could already imagine that this was that Ran. She wondered if the little boy was her brother or something, but he did look similar to Kaito when he was around his age. "He thinks he's a super-magician but he only likes to play tricks on others.", she said and looked to the two roses.

"But that was just awesome!", Sonoko said and beamed. Kaito grinned in response and sat down again.

"Better not tell him that. Or he’ll get cocky pretty quickly .", she said and looked from the two girls to Kaito again, who just grinned at that.

Ran smiled at them, glad that this hadn't been Shinichi after all, but the magician still reminded her of her childhood friend. "Say...would it be a bother if we joined you? The other tables are all full...but if we would bother you...", she trailed off.

"Hm?", she looked around and also noticed that all the tables were full. "Sure, there are enough seats for everyone. ", she said smiling.

Kaito wasn't that happy to have the detective here as well, but smiled approving, when they sat down. Ran thanked them and they took a look at the menu.

Conan could imagine that Kaito didn't like that but he wasn't sure either what the thief would tell Ran.
"Well, my Name is Aoko Nakamori.", she introduced herself then and smiled.

"My name is Ran Mori and this is Conan Edogawa.", Ran said. "My name is Sonoko Suzuki.", the blond replied.

"Sooo...", Kaito said and leaned over the table, facing mostly Ran. "Did you have fun shopping? I'm surprised you aren't in male company. I do know that ladies like it when the males carry their bags. Don't tell me such lovely ladies don't have boyfriends." He grinned just a little at that and noticed how the two flushed again. "No no...", Sonoko said, "Ran does have one, but he's constantly away. You look very similar to him by the way, why don't you try to hit on her?" At that comment, Ran blushed a deep crimson and looked shocked at her friend. "S-Sonoko! We're not in that kind of relationship! And stop trying to get me together with random guys!"

Conan looked to Kaito while he was talking and glared at him. Annoyed, more than before. 'He's annoying even when he's not on a heist...', he thought and blushed a little when Sonoko called him Ran’s boyfriend again but was more focused on Kaito, who looked like he was having fun. Then he looked at the girl next to him, and wondered if she was the friend he was talking about, who knows about the cat stuff. 'His grin will sure disappear when that stuff pops out..', he thought and smirked.

While Conan planned his own little revenge, Kaito continued talking with the two other girls. He hadn't noticed the looks the little detective gave him, but could imagine them well enough.

Conan looked up to Aoko, who was sitting next to her and pulled at her shirt. She looked down to him and smiled at him. "What is it?", she asked smiling and bent down to Conan who was whispering something in her ear, "Can I ask you a favour?"

She looked surprised at him, but nodded. "Sure, what is it?", she asked curious.

He looked at Kaito who was still busy with chatting with the two other girls and looked to Aoko again. "Could you tease Kaito for me? We already met before and he was teasing me...", he said with sad child's voice and looked with big eyes at her. "I already know what to do, you just have to do it for me."

"Wha...he was?", she whispered in surprise and took a look towards the magician, who still entertained the other girls. "That idiot!", she cursed him and looked back to Conan again. "Alright...what have you thought of?", she asked curious.

He nodded an told her more. "Well, he told me before about this cat thing...and I have the same problem..", he said and sighed, "and the stuff also popped out when we met and he was quiet annoyed by that, so you just have to make it pop out."

"Oh!", she was very surprised, when he told her that he had the same problem as well. She never thought that there was anyone else with this sort of problem. "I...can do that, but I promised Kaito that I wouldn’t tell anyone...", she said and glanced at the other girls.

"Huh?", he looked to Ran and Sonoko and smiled. "Don't worry, they already know."

"Really?", she asked surprised and looked at them again. "Well, then...", she grinned and looked at Kaito again.

Aoko looked at him with a big grin. "Hey, Kaito! Look here!", she said and suddenly waved that stick in front of his face.

Kaito turned his head around in surprise and wondered what she wanted to show him. As he saw the moving stick again, the cat appendages popped out again and he stared in shock. Ran gasped in surprise and Sonoko only managed a 'Uh?' at the sight of the ears. The tail moved behind his back, only sometimes coming into sight. "Wha...why did you do that?", he asked her in shock. "I thought you promised NOT to do that!"

"How could you tease an innocent little boy?!", she asked, ignoring his questions and pointed to Conan, who looked innocently at Kaito.

He glared down at said boy. "Tease?", he asked, a hint of malice in his voice. "That brat was the one who teased ME, so just you know!"

"As if a little boy like him could do something to you.", she said and put the stick away from his face and put her hands on her hips. She didn't notice that she accidentally held the stick right in front of Conan's face and caused his ears and tail to pop out. "Ah..!", he said as he noticed that and sweat-dropped. 'Great...'

Kaito grinned in satisfaction as the detective's ears and tail popped out as well. "Well...so much for that...", he teased him with a grin.

He glared at the thief and sighed."Shut up...", he mumbled. When Aoko noticed that she turned to Conan and blinked. "Oh, sorry!", she apologized but had to admit that he did look really cute as well.

Then, Sonoko cleared her throat and looked at them. "Could anyone explain me what's going on here?", she asked.

He looked to Sonoko and tried to smile. "Uh.. well, some weird scientist kidnapped us and did something that causes this stuff to pop out sometimes..", he explained in a short version.

She blinked in surprise. "Uhhh...okay.", she said, but was still dumbfounded. "So, you're what...part cat? Catboys?"

He blinked. "Hey, don't call me a catboy! That's embarrassing!", Conan exclaimed.

"It's the truth, right?", she said and grinned.

Aoko was kinda confused that Sonoko was so surprised. "I thought you also knew about that?", she wondered and looked to Sonoko.

She look confused to Aoko and shook her head. "No, that's the first time I saw them or heard about that.", she explained. "See? The brat can lie as well...", Kaito whispered in her ear.

Aoko looked surprised to Sonoko and then to Kaito. "Hm...", She took another look at Conan who was looking at her again with those big and innocent child's eyes. "But I'm sure you teased him... he's just a kid, how could he tease you."

Kaito sighed. He leaned nearer to her ear and hold his hand near his mouth, so that no one else could hear him. "Don't say anything out loud, okay? I don't want him to hear, but...", he fumbled for words, "...he teased me with f-fish...", he managed to say. "But he also doesn't really know that...he just thinks I'm scared of water, so don't tell anyone!", he whispered in her ear.

She looked at him surprised and listened. After a while thinking Aoko nodded. "Okay, I won't tell anyone. But I can't really imagine that this little boy could harm you.."

"Yeah, yeah...", he said and nodded. "I know it sounds weird, but...don't bother yourself with that any more, okay?", he asked suddenly and smiled nervously. 'It would be better like this as if we start talking about why he was chasing after me yesterday of all times and we fell into a aquarium from the rooftop above it, which would lead to the question why he was chasing me over rooftops at all...'

"Hm.. okay, as long you won't tease him again..", she said and watched him with raised brows. She still wondered how they knew each other anyway, even though Kaito said she shouldn't think about it any more."Although you say he also teased you, you should apologize to him.", he told him.

"Eh..?" He looked at her as if she had lost her mind. Completely. Which he, at just this moment, thought. "No way...", he muttered. "I went through more horror...", he whispered.

"Even though he scared you, he's only a little boy!", she said a little upset. "Is it really too much to apologize?"

'If you only KNEW, Aoko! He is definitely NOT a little boy! Stupid shrunken detective! He wants the authority of an adult when he's acting like an innocent child! Argh!', he mentally made a face. "One word: Yes!", he whispered to her. "And I wont change it! Even if you come with those...scaly things after me!", he added as well.

Aoko looked at him and sighed. "Geez, that's childish...", she mumbled, "To be so upset about a little child..", and took another look to Conan, who looked at her with a sweet smile ,when he noticed she was looking at him.

Kaito just rolled his eyes at that innocent act and her persistence. 'Fine...then I'm childish...it's not like nobody has ever told me that yet...Akako did, Hakuba did, our whole class did, the Task Force plus Nakamori did...heck, even Aoko has said that...dunno how much, but it was quite often...', he thought and sighed.

When Aoko looked away from the little detective, he grinned at the thief again and his eyes met the annoyed blue pair of eyes from Kaito. The little detective looked forward to Ran again and behaved like the innocent child he looked like and Kaito sighed, shrugged and got a relaxed expression onto his face.

The girls kept talking for a while and seemed to have fun. Conan just sat there, sometimes taking a look at the thief and his ears and tail disappeared after a while again, so he was quiet happy about that. With time, Kaito's ears and tail had disappeared as well.

"By the way, may I ask where this Kudo-kun is? The one you thought Kaito was?", Aoko ask after a while and looked at the girls.

At the question, Ran blinked at her and blushed a little. "Well, he's my childhood friend-" "Husband!" "-and...SONOKO!", Ran yelled and looked furiously at her friend, her face bright red. After seeing her friend just grinning at her like normal, she sighed and turned back to Aoko again, face still red around her cheeks. Conan looked at Ran when Aoko asked that and got also a little red when Sonoko called him again her 'husband'.

"Never mind that, we DO NOT HAVE a relationship like that. The mystery freak is just absent because of a case for so long now. So, it was quite a shock for me, when I saw Kuroba-kun here, because they look so much alike...", she said and looked over to Kaito, who just blinked a little in surprise. 'Does she always have to say mystery freak?', Conan thought a little annoyed and took a short look at Kaito since he himself had also noticed that yesterday. 'Well, she is right with that. He really DOES look a lot like me..', But he had already noticed the day before.

"I thought he was lying to me about the case thing and was enjoying himself here..." "...with a girl! So she thought he was cheating on her.", added Sonoko with a grin. "SONOKO! Stop that!", Ran told her and was flushed again. Conan glared annoyed at Sonoko and also got a bit red on his cheeks.

"Well, I'd like to meet him. I bet he's more accrue than Kaito. He's just a magic-freak who likes to plays tricks on people.", Aoko said and watched at Kaito.

'Well, fits pretty much to Kid...', Conan added in thoughts.

"Oi, I can be nice as well!", Kaito protested and glared annoyed at her. "And it's not called magic-freak, but magician! Just so you know that!"

"Yea, but that's rare.", she said and grinned at him,

He muttered something incomprehensible under his breath for that comment.

"And I'll still call you magic-freak. They're just tricks anyway, not real magic or something.", she said and grinned at him.

"If I could do real magic, I would be a wizard.", he said and rolled her eyes. "Mop-girl...", he said and grinned slightly.

"Right, but you're just a magic-freak.", she grinned and hit him on the head for that comment, but not that hard.

"Ow! That hurt! You brute...", he complained to her.

"You deserved it..", she muttered. Conan chuckled as he saw the great thief being bullied by his child-hood friend.

As Kaito heard the chuckle, he glared down at the detective and then took a glance at Ran. Slowly he leaned forward onto the table again. "Ne, you said that that childhood friend of yours was a mystery-freak...aren't there other personality traits about him?", he asked curiously.
Conan looked at Kaito and then to Ran. 'What? Hey, that' not fair!', he thought.
Ran was thinking for a moment. "Well.. he's reliable, mostly, and good at spots and plays excellent soccer but he's also pretty cocky and loves to annoy others with his mystery stuff, especially Holmes!", she said and nodded, "And the worst is his singing!", she added.
The shrunken detective just glared at Ran. 'What the...? Why does she has to describe me this bad..?', he thought, 'And did she have to say that I can't sing?'

As Kaito glanced over to Conan, he could see the little meitantei's look and snickered. He looked back to Ran immediately. "So...he's so much more accrue then me, huh?", he grinned and glanced over to Aoko.

Conan gave him a 'shut-up' look and sighed. "Don't know...you sure do have also other personality traits, right?", Ran asked and looked curiously at him.

Kaito just shot him a grin at that look and looked over to Ran at her question. "Oh, sure...but I guess these aren't so important." , he said and waved that aside.

"Hm...", she said and looked smiling to Conan. "Well, Conan-kun and Shinichi have really much in common. For example they both like Holmes.", she said smiling, "And they're also related, that's why Conan looks pretty much like Shinichi, when he was his age. But Shinichi was that time way more childish and bolder. Not like Conan.", and the shrunken Shinichi dropped. 'That's really starting to piss me off..', he thought and put on his child-smile when Ran was watching at him, even though he got quite annoyed.

"Ho...more childish and bolder?", Kaito asked grinning and sent a short smirk to Conan. "I would have loved to see that..."

'I'm sure you would...', he thought and sighed. Aoko listened to Ran and giggled. "Well, Kaito was kinda like that too, when he was in his age. Well, he still is.", she grinned.

Kaito blinked at her when she suddenly spoke. 'What...she isn't going to...', he thought just as his thoughts were interrupted by Ran. "Really? Well, Shinichi could also sometimes be like this, when he was babbling over Holmes again or playing soccer."

"But I bet it's not so worse like Kaito. Sometimes the whole class gets mad at him, because of some stupid trick.", she said grinning.

"Well, that'd be true. Shinichi would only be extremely bored in class, because he is oh so brilliant.", Ran said and rolled her eyes.

"Kaito also thinks he's a genius.", she said and looked to him with raised brows."But if he tease or annoys me, I'll always know how to make him shut up.", she grinned.

At that, Kaito looked at her warily and hoped she wouldn't go further into detail.

"Shinichi thinks the same...", Ran said and sighed. "I sometimes need to get him back to reality by a good punch or a kick...or I yell at him.", she said and remembered back to the times where it was still normal for Shinichi to be around.

'Yea, I do remember that, and also the pain...', Conan thought.

"What methods do you use, Aoko-chan?", Ran asked curiously.

"Well, I chase him with a mop or I scare him. Because he fears something, that is really ridiculous." She said grinning and wanted to go further on.

"Aoko!", he hissed in her ears. "What was that about your promise?", he asked and blushed a little out of embarrassment.

Just in that moment she wanted to say, 'He fears fish more than anything else!', when Kaito interrupted her.

"What? C'mon! You hardly know her or the others, so they can't tease you with that, like me.", she grinned, "Please, it's so funny!"

"No! Definitely not! It's embarrassing as hell! And you *promised*!", he whispered furiously in her ear.

She thought about and sighed. Aoko wouldn't break her promise, so she nodded. "Okay, I won't tell.", she said disappointed.

Kaito breathed out a huge sigh of relief. 'At least something...Tantei-kun still doesn't know anything about my fear.'

Conan was also disappointed, because Aoko didn't told what the great phantom thief feared most. 'I'm starting to get really curious about that...', he thought and looked at the thief.

Quickly, Kaito just stuck out his tongue out at the detective. Ran and Sonoko seemed disappointed as well, but didn't say anything. Ran was also very serious about keeping promises, because a certain detective so often didn't keep his.

Right now, Conan would just love to kick his soccer ball straight into his face. Too bad, that he couldn't.

"By the way, from which part of Tokyo are you from?", Aoko asked curiously and looked at Ran.

"Oh, we live in Beika. Were are you two from?", she asked curiously.

"Oh, no wonder I've never seen you at school. We're from Ekota.", she said smiling.

"Well, that is some way...", Ran said and imagined the way. "But this mall is also pretty huge and popular, so it's no wonder if we'd even meet people from outside Tokyo, I guess.", she said and snickered.

Aoko agreed by nodding. "True, I think it's the biggest one of them I know...", she said and thought about that for a moment.

"Hmmmm...well, I was in a lot of huge buildings until now, but I can't remember one of them being a mall like this.", she said and giggled. "Well, since we are so comfortable around each other...would you like to become friends with us? We could visit each other sometimes.", Ran suggested with a warm smile.

Aoko thought about that shortly and nodded smiling."That sounds great. I'd be really happy to meet with you again. Isn't that right, Kaito?", she asked and looked at him.

Kaito wasn't all too happy about all this and sighed, not letting his frustration show on his face. "Well, sure!", he said grinning. “As long as you don't use me as a pack mule while going shopping, there's no problem."

"You have to carry my stuff anyway.", she said grinning. Conan looked to Aoko and then to the thief and could imagine that he didn't like the idea. Well, he liked it actually, because he could get more information about the thief he was so curious about. And as long Ran doesn't do any embarrassing kiddy stuff with him, while he was watching it should be okay.

Kaito groaned in response. 'Really! Women! Can't they carry their stuff themselves...?', he wondered.

"Well, what do you think about, spending the rest of the shopping tour together?", Aoko asked then.

"Sure!", Ran answered and smiled. Sonoko, who listened to them with a big grin on her face nodded frantically as well. "That'll be fun!", she said and grinned.

Kaito just rolled with his eyes and sighed. 'One whole afternoon together with the shrunken detective...joy!', he thought sarcastically.

"Great!", Aoko smiled, "Then we should go soon, right?", she said and took a look on her watch.

At that, the other girls looked at their watch as well.

"Oh my! It's already that late? Let's hurry up!", Sonoko said and stood up. Ran stood up after her friend left for their bags and dragged Conan off of the bench the other three were sitting on.

Conan said nothing when she dragged him off. He got used to that, so. 'I just hope I don't have to carry Sonoko's bags again...', he thought and gave her an annoyed look.

Ran went over to Sonoko with him, who had quite a few bags in her hands already, but still shoved two of the small bags in Conan's direction. "Here, make yourself useful, squirt!"

"Geez...", he mumbled and took the two bags, before she get even more annoying. 'Hope they won't buy so much any more...', he thought and looked at the thief again.

Against what he wanted himself, he already picked up Aoko's stuff and hoped as well that she wouldn't buy anything more.

[Phantom-Akiko]

Catboys

Chapter Five: Aftermath: Shopping (part 2)

by Phantom-Akiko and Vampire-kid

thanks to hallow777 for beta-reading

Spoiler:

In a group they visited different stores and stayed longer at some fashion-clothing shop. The boys could just watch the three girl, picking ton of clothes. After a while they had enough, or they just couldn't carry more and went to the fitting-rooms. "You two can sit down on the couch.", Aoko said and pointed on the couch in front of the fitting-rooms. "Then we can also show you our clothes.", she trailed off and went with the others in. Conan sat with Kaito down and sighed. "I didn't think that this afternoon would end in watching the girls presenting their new clothes with you...", he mumbled.

"Did you think I did?", came the dry reply from the magician. "But if the girls want something, they usually get it as well...you know how they are...", he sighed. "So lets just keep them entertained enough, so that they wouldn't need to be entertained by us, when they make these things pop out again..."

"Hell no... it's already enough that Sonoko now also knows about me...", he sighed. "Your girlfriend actually just should make yours appear.."

"Ah...I see...", he said and gave him a pressed smirk. Before he could say anything else, however, the girls burst out of the changing room, dressed up. Kaito noticed with a blush that Aoko wore a dark blue dress, that ended shortly above the knees and he could see more skin than normally on her upper body, because her arms, shoulders and a part from her back were naked.

Ran came shortly after her out and wore a red dress, which also showed pretty much skin like Aoko's. Conan looked at them. Well, more at Ran also blushed.

"Y-You look great, Ran-neechan!", he said than after a while staring at her.

"Thanks Conan-kun!", she said and blushed a little from that comment.

"Ne, Kaito? What do you think about this one?", Aoko asked then and looked at him.

"Uh...", for the first time, the magician was at a loss for words as he looked at his dressed up childhood friend, "You look...beautiful...", he finally brought out and just after that he noticed what he had actually said and blushed.

Aoko blushed a little, to hear something like that from him and grinned when she saw him blushing again. "Kaito, you're blushing again~", she teased him.

He looked embarrassed up to her. "You shut up! That's your fault!", he exclaimed with red cheeks.

She giggled again on his reaction. "Ne, Ran-chan, let's go back and try the other dresses on."

"With pleasure!", she answered and giggled. Then, they left the boys sitting there again.

Conan looked after them, disappearing in the cabins again and looked at the thief and grinned a little. "The great thief really blushed."

"This cat thing is affecting my emotions...", he grunted out, "I can't keep a straight pokerface like that..."

"Hm... I see... must be tough for someone like you.", he said grinning. Conan himself didn't really notice any changes of his emotions, only that he loses control when he sees a ball, cat toy or anything like that.

"It's annoying!", he told the miniature detective, "And I can't even do anything against it!"

"Well, sorry for you..", he said and chuckled. It was quiet amusing to see him like that.

"Sorry you are...?", he asked him with a disbelieving look, "Sure..."

Conan smiled at him innocently, like a child, ignoring the ironic in the tone of the other one.

Kaito glared down at the little detective and wondered if he should do something embarrassing to him, when the girls saved Conan by bursting out yet again and wearing other beautiful dresses.

Again, both of them looked really beautiful Conan blushed again, when he looked at Ran. 'Wow...', he thought, didn't really know what to say. Aoko's dress looked also really great. This time it was a little longer, but still showed much skin.

Kaito blushed at their appearance as well and it seemed that their red faces and expressions already satisfied the girls, who instantly giggled again.

"So, you like it, don't you?", Aoko asked and looked grinning at Kaito after she stopped giggling.

He just nodded slowly while taking in her appearance. He wondered why she so rarely wore something so good. But then again, they rarely had the opportunity to dress up like this.

Aoko grinned satisfied. "Too bad that it's so expensive...", she sighed and took a look at the price.

"Oh...", he said a little disappointed. "What's the price?", he wondered and took a look at it.

"Well...", she said,"$399,99. Not in my price range at all.", she said and sighed.

"Ouch...yeah, I can understand that...who's selling clothes for such a price anyway?", he complained.

"Well, the brand is also famous for their high prices...", she said.

"Does someone buy this?", he wondered and took a look at the price again.

"Probably someone who is really rich...", she said and sighed.

"Yeah...", he could just answer and sighed. For once, he liked the designer dress. He just hoped that Aoko had a few more not so expensive things there as well.

Ran looked to Conan's red face and smiled lovely down at him. "So...is that nice as well?"

Conan blinked when she spoke to him and nodded. "Y-yes, it looks great!", he exclaimed.

She giggled slightly. "Do you think I get Shinichi to buy me this?", she asked with a blush across her face.

He blushed even more when she asked that. "D-dunno... ask him..?", he suggested.

"Oh, that's a good idea, Conan-kun!", she said and smiled. "Can you take a photo with my cellphone? I could send it to him, then."

"S-Sure...", she said and had a really bright red his face, when he remembered when Sonoko sent him a picture of Ran in a bikini.

Ran wondered about his red face, but couldn't guess why he blushed so much. "Okay, here...", she said and handed him her cellphone.

He took the phone and took a photo of Ran in the dress and gave her it back. "Is that okay?", he asked and looked up to her.

She looked at the picture and nodded. "I think this will do!", she said and wrote a short message and pressed send.

Conan was lucky that he turned off Shinichi's cellphone but blinked when Aoko called him 'Ran’s boyfriend'.

She looked at Ran and grinned. "I'm sure your boyfriend will love it."

Kaito snickered as the detective's look, but kept his mouth still otherwise. It wouldn't do them both any good, if one of their secrets was discovered. Ran turned around to Aoko, blushing heavily. "I- I said he is NOT my boyfriend! We are just childhood friends!"

The shrunken detective gave Kaito an annoyed look.

"Right, your childhood friend..", Aoko said and giggled, "Let's try the next dresses on!", she added happily.

"With pleasure!", Ran sang happily and they went back into the dressing rooms.

Aoko followed her and Conan looked after them and took Shinichi's cell-phone out of his pocket and turned it on. Shortly after that he received Ran’s Mail and looked at the picture again. 'What does she expect me to answer anyway?', he asked himself.

Kaito snickered and glanced to the message. "So...you gonna buy this..?", he whispered in the detective's ear.

He blushed immediately and looked to the thief next to him. "That's none of you business!", he exclaimed.

"Look who's blushing now!", he said and his razor sharp grin dared to split his face in half.

"Shut up!", he muttered and put his cell-phone away and decided to answer the message later and to ignore the stupid thief.

Said thief snickered again and greatly enjoyed the look on the detective's face.

He tried to ignore that too and looked at the girls who came out after a few minutes with other dresses, which looked again fabulous.

After commenting on them again, they continued this a few times until the boys were more exhausted than the girls.

After a while they were finally ready and Conan was happy, so the thief couldn't tease him any more. "How much are you gonna buy from that stuff?", he asked Ran when she came out of the cabin with the dresses.

"Oh...a few of the not so expensive stuff...and there only the things that looked really good.", she said and smiled.

He nodded. "And are you gonna buy that dress too, which you showed to Shinichi-niisan?", he asked.

"Well...I don't have that much money with me...", Ran said a little embarrassed. "That's the reason I asked him..."

He looked at her and nodded. 'Well...It wouldn't hurt to pay a part of it...', he thought, "I gotta go to the toilet!", he said then and hurried off. When he was there, he pulled his cellphone out again, and texted her back.

'I don't think this sounds like a pervert...at least I hope so...', he thought and pressed send.

Kaito glanced over to Aoko and went to her. "And? What're you going to buy from that?", he wondered.

"Well, like Ran-chan. But the cheaper dresses are also really nice.", she said smiling.

"Ah...I see!", he said and nodded in approval.

"And you're going to carry my bags, right?", she asked smiling at him.

Kaito glared at her demand and rolled his eyes. "Fine...this time!", he agreed.

"Thanks, I appreciate that very much.", she said grinning.

Kaito was surprised when Ran's phone suddenly ringed. 'Ah, yes...Tantei-kun just went to the toilet, right? I bet he didn't what you usually do there...', he thought and grinned.

"Nice dress.

Let's say I'll pay the half."

Aoko looked over to Ran. "Oh, did he answer?", she asked curious.

Ran nodded and blushed a little. "Yes...he said he would pay half of the price...", she said and smiled.

"Lucky girl..", she said smiling, "Kaito wouldn't pay, it's also enough for him to carry my bags..", she said and glanced over to him.

He glared back at her and shrugged. He guessed he could pay one of her dresses as well, but she didn't ask for it, right? Right!

Ran then thought about Shinichi's suggestion, but then nodded. She then remembered that Shinichi couldn't see her and texted back.

"Thank you!
So, I will buy it from my money now and you give me the money back later, okay?

Thanks again!
xxx
Ran"

It didn't take long when the answer arrived at Shinichi's phone and he raised his brows in confusion, scratching his head. 'Again this xxx... ', he thought and sighed, not sure, what to think about that.

Conan also came back and watched the girls chatting, but was still thinking about this damn 'xxx'.

Kaito then saw the little detective again and wondered what could get him into such deep thought.

Sonoko came also back to them, in a good mood, probably because of all the dresses she held in her hands. "Well, I guess we can go paying for the clothes, hm?", she asked and looked to the others.

They both nodded and went to buy the clothes they'd picked, leaving the two guys alone.

Kaito looked after them and then glanced down at the detective, who seemed to be still in thought.

"Oi, what's up with you?", he asked and bend down. "Got a clue on a case or what?"

The little detective still thought about that and looked surprised to the thief. "Huh? Erh... no, nothing like that...", he said and looked around. "Where are the girls?", he asked him.

He raised an eyebrow at that. 'Had the detective been that much in thought?', he wondered. "They went to buy the clothes they chose...", he answered with a shrug.

"Hm... I see..", he said and looked to Kaito, "So they left me again with the thief alone..", he sighed and thought. If he'd asked him about the mysterious 'X' and Kaito knew what it means, he could imagine that the thief would make fun of him.

"Am I troubling you that much?", Kaito asked in a very annoyed tone.

"I just know, that you like to fool around with people.", he said and grinned a little. "Well, I'm sure, that I'm more troubling for you than you for me.", he said and chuckled.

He glared down at him and decided not to answer that one. It was for the best, he thought.

He grinned and then, again, he thought about that damn 'X'.

"Ne...", he said finally after a while of silence, "I have a question. But don't laugh or anything!", he warned him.

A very curious look flickered across his face and he raised an eyebrow. "I'll try.", he said and smiled innocently.

He thought again about it, if he should really asked him that, and so he just did. "Uhm... do you know what 'xxx' means?", he asked.

"Oh, you mean what girls like to use in letters and SMS?", he asked curiously. "Yeah, I do. What about it?"

Conan nodded. "Well... Ran wrote that again, and I still don't really know, what she means with that.", he said a little embarrassed.

Now, he raised both of his eyebrows and grinned down at him. "How sweet!", he cooed and Conan sweat-dropped at that comment.

Kaito bend down to him, so that he could whisper directly into his ear. "Each x means a kiss...I would bet she was blushing madly when writing that...", he said and chuckled.

Conan listened to the thief when he told him the meaning of x and blushed. "W-What? Are you sure?", he asked him.

He nodded. "Sure! As how much I'm disguising myself as girls, I should know it, huh?"

"Yeah... Ran was already enough. And the clumsy maid was already too much.", he commented and blushed still at the thought that ran always sent him three kisses. 'What does she expect me to say to that anyway?', he asked himself.

He snickered at that. "But isn't it cuuute?", he asked innocently.

"Yes, of course.", he said ironic. "I bet you have disguised as your childhood friend too.."

He thought once about it and then nodded once, "Yeah, but only a few seconds to throw her father off...", he said and grinned.

"Lovely..", he commented dryly."Well... still better, than disguising as me."

"Even better than disguising as Mouri-chan?", he asked grinning.

He blushed again and snorted. "Just shut up...", he muttered.

He giggled and then shut up as he saw the girls walking towards them again.

Aoko and Ran both smiled happily and looked to the boys. "We're finished here.", she said smiling, "Let's go to the next store!"

Kaito looked kind of shocked to her as he heard that. "Next store...? You are kidding! You aren't done yet?"

She giggled at that reaction. "You know, just trying on clothes is also fun.", she smiled innocently, "Maybe we can find a sale!", she beamed.

He groaned as he heard that. 'Please...someone save me!', he thought but knew as well, that the chance of saving was little to zero.

"C'mon! hurry up!", Aoko said and dragged Kaito out and searched for the next store, while the little tantei just followed them with Ran.

Kaito had the feeling that the shopping went on and on and it seemed as if nothing could stop the girls. From what he saw, the chibi tantei had just as much fun as he had.

Conan didn't really have fun. And to him, it seemed like they would spend the rest of the day going through stores. "Ran-neechan? When are we going to be finished?", he asked in a sweet child's voice, hoping that will affect Ran.

She looked down at him with what seemed to be a slightly worried glance in her eyes. "My...are you too tired from shopping?", she asked with a worried voice and knelt down on front of him.

He kept playing his cute-child's act and nodded. "Yea, kinda. Maybe just a little break? We've been looking around for clothes for quite some time now..."

Her face lit up at what he said. "Well, yeah! Why not? That's a splendid idea, Conan-kun! I know a nice little café a few meters away. I'm sure Aoko-chan will like it as well!"

"Great!", little Conan-kun agreed and smiled happily. Just then Aoko noticed that Ran and Conan weren't following them any more and went back to them. "Is something wrong with him?", she asked.

Ran looked up to her new friend and shook her head. "Well, it seems as if he is a little tired from all our shopping, so we decided to have a break.", she explained with a soft smile. Kaito, who was now leaning over Aoko's shoulder leered down at him. "So, if he is so tired, he would need to go to bed, soon...right?"

Conan glared up to Kaito and swore in thoughts. "I'm not THAT tired.", he said, "Just a little break would be nice.". Aoko thought about that and nodded. "I think a little break is a good idea!", she agreed.

He giggled and grinned at the detective's antics and went to follow the girls, particularly Aoko, to the café she mentioned.

Conan also followed them, trying to ignore the thief. When they arrived they all sat down and looked at the menu.

Kaito couldn't just not mention to the detective that they had kid's menus here as well, while the two girls blinked confused at him.

Again, Conan gave him an annoyed look and kicked the thief's leg under the table, so the girls couldn't see it, and smiled innocently.

He quickly got his legs out of kicking range, looked straight at the detective and snickered.

'Stupid thief...', he thought again and imagined how he'd love to kick a ball right in his face. Then Conan thought about using his sweet child's line at Aoko again. He already used it once, though..

Kaito's grin slowly changed into a frown as he noticed that Conan seemed to be planning something again. 'He's looking THAT way at Aoko again...wait...does he wants those things to appear again?', he wondered and watched the detective closely.

After some thoughts, he grinned and pulled at Aoko's shirt again, looking at her with big innocent child-eyes. "Aoko-neechan..?", he said in a really cute voice.

Aoko looked down from her conversation with Ran and looked down at the little boy. She was a little confused at the big eyes, but found them really cute. "What is it, Conan-kun?", she asked sweetly.

"Kaito-niisan teased me again...", he said in a whiny tone, "Could you let his ears pop out one more time..?", he asked in a lower voice.

Kaito had strained his ears to listen to the conversation, but the damn brat was whispering in Aoko's ear, so he couldn't hear what he said. When she heard that, Aoko looked with an angry look to Kaito suddenly and he made an unintentional twitch back from her. "W-what...?", he asked her wearily, guessing for the worst.

Conan still played the roll of the hurt child, but was grinning evilly in his mind. 'You're not the only one with acting skills...', he thought and chuckled in thoughts.

Kaito threw the detective one glare, but looked surprised at Aoko again, as she suddenly stood up and grabbed the front of his shirt over the table and yanked him up. "You come with me...", she growled, then excused themselves with a very friendly 'Too friendly...' voice from the other three and headed with Kaito hurrying after her towards the exit of the café. 'What the heck is she planning...?', he wondered.

Conan looked surprised at her as well, when she suddenly dragged him out of the café and began to grin. "Too bad I can't see that...", he said quietly to himself, and wondered what she'll do to him now.

She lead him to the next shop, which she knew was just next to the café. She had absently noted it when they walked into the café. Now, she dragged him through the entrance and straight to the colder areas of the shop.

Kaito could guess where this was leading to, so he struggled to get away from the evil girl.

"What? What did I now do to deserve that?", he whimpered.

"You were teasing Conan-kun again! I told you to stop it, but nooo...you just had to bother the little boy again, you baka!", she complained while she slid open the glass that had all the loose fishes under itself.

Kaito's eyes widened by the sight, but hadn't time to do something because Aoko had shoved his head already into the box where they were. He shrieked and wanted to get out of there, using his arms to push himself away from there and using his tail to get Aoko's hands away from his head and neck.

While Aoko was busy taking revenge for him, Conan wondered what she was doing. Well...she still tried to get control and keeping Kaito's head in the box, but his tail was disturbing pretty much, so she let go after a while. 'Stupid tail...', she thought, even though she also thinks that its kinda cute... but that wasn't important right now.

He got his head out of there as soon as she let him go and stumbled away from it, breathing heavily and looking warily over to the box. He let his ears fall and noticed how wet they were from the ice that was always around because the fishes needed to be frozen. He shivered shortly and then shook his head, throwing drops of water and ice all around himself, not caring if anything or anyone got wet. After he was done, his ears still hang down, as well as his tail now. He didn't notice and didn't care of how he was now the centre of attention of anyone in the shop.

Aoko grinned at him satisfied and had to admit that he looked kinda cute.. like a wet cat, and giggled at that thought. "So, I hope you're not gonna tease him again!", she warned him, "You know, what I'll do then."

He glared at he then, just his expression was changing, nothing else.

She just grinned at that reaction. "Let's get back to the others, I'm sure they already wonder, where we went off.", she said and looked at her watch.

He sighed and walked after her out of the shop, through all the staring people. His tail was following his steps all along. They got out and inside the café without getting much attention outside.

When Conan saw them coming back he took a look at Kaito. 'He seems to be wet... and ears and tail are out as well..', he noticed and wondered where they were. But from the thief's face, he could already tell, that he didn't liked it and chuckled.

Without so much of a comment and only with a glare towards Conan, he sat down again, ears still hanging down and tail around his waist. Ran looked strangely at him and wondered what her friend had done to the magician.

Conan grinned and turned to Aoko with a sweet smile. "Thanks Aoko-neechan.", he thanked her in a child's tone and played the innocent child again.

"I think it was for the greater good, Conan-kun!", she replied smiling and nodded.

"Maybe he'll stop teasing me now.", he said innocently and smiled.

"I hope so...", she said and glared next to her where Kaito glared at both of them, variantly.

He just grinned back at him. 'That just what you get.', he thought satisfied.

'I'll get you later...when Aoko isn't there to protect you...', he thought and focused his glare on the detective.

He ignored the thief and just continued to play the role of the innocent and lovely child.

The two girls looked in puzzlement at the two boys and wondered what was up with them.

Then, they finally ordered something to eat and drink, and after that Conan was quite happy about that break.

The ears and tail had vanished during the meal and Kaito was also happy to have something warm in his stomach.

"Ne, Ran-chan. Where we should go next?", Aoko asked Ran smiling, after they all finished eating.

"Hmmm...I think we already have enough clothes...", Ran said pondering. "What about looking for some accessories?", Sonoko filled out for Ran, beaming at the thought.

"Accessories?", Aoko said and smiled. "Sounds good.", she agreed.

Ran nodded as well and Kaito gave them a weary glance. "So, let's pay for our food and lets go!", Ran said and waved at the next waiter she saw.

After they paid they left the café and the girls looked around for the next accessories store they could find.

The boys followed silently, casting glares and grins at each other sometimes. They went into a store with costume jewellery, glassware, statues, bags and other things. The girls went at first to the jewellery and left the two boys standing there.

When they just left them behind Conan sighed. "Are they expecting us to wait here?", he sighed again and put his hands into his pockets.

"Well...they will be pretty mad at us, if we just disappear...so yeah I guess, they want us to wait here...or follow them.", Kaito said and sighed.

"Great... ", he sighed and looked around, "Too bad that their is no library around."

"Most unlikely...", he said and grinned slightly. "Guess we have no other chance but to wait for them, huh?"

"That sucks...", Conan muttered and sighed. "When will they stop with their shopping anyway..?"

"Who knows...?", Kaito said and raised an eyebrow. He checked his watch and sighed. "Late afternoon now...but I bet they could shop until the stores close..."

"Hm...that's for sure... I wonder how long they'll stay in there.", he wondered and sighed.

"Yeah...a half hour maybe?", he just guessed.

"That's already enough..", he sighed.

"Think this store has other...more interesting things?"

"I don't think their is anything interesting for guys."

"Most likely not, but looking wont hurt you, right?"

"Hm.. guess you're right. I think it'll be better than waiting here."

Kaito nodded and they went a little more into the shop.

In the shop they both looked around. 'At least I don't have to look around with Ran... she's probably stopping everywhere with the other girls.', he thought.

Kaito went along the boards with all the things girls would like. In front of one of them, he stopped and pulled something out of the baskets lying there. He instantly let them flew around in a glowing circle. On closer examination, they were translucent balls with light in them.

Conan just followed him and looked up to the shiny thing he was holding and got kinda fascinated by it.

Kaito noticed Conan's fascinated look and grinned. He sent the balls in an eight and other formations and noticed that other people had started to watch him as well. He remembered what effect balls had on him recently and was happy that he could at least juggle them without having the ears and tail pop out and loosing control.

While Kaito kept juggling, Conan kept staring at the balls, what he didn't really noticed himself. And suddenly his ears and tail popped out but he still stared at the juggling balls.

Kaito noticed that the balls had very well effect on Conan and grinned. 'Talk about fair play, dear Tantei-kun...', he thought.

Conan kept staring and blinked when a child suddenly grabbed his tail. "Huh?", he said and turned around and just noticed then that the stuff popped out again. 'Wait.. when..?', he thought and pulled his tail back and looked annoyed up to Kaito. "Stupid thief...", he mumbled.

Kaito just grinned down at him and let the balls vanish in the basket again. "You got a problem...?", he whispered.

"What do you think?", he grumbled and hoped that the cat-stuff would vanish soon.

He snickered and turned around, just to find the girls standing there as well. Ran and Sonoko had stared in awe and Aoko just sighed and shook her head. Kaito grinned foolishly at her.

He looked at the girls and sighed. 'Guess this was his revenge...', he thought annoyed.

Kaito looked up to Aoko as she approached the two. "We can't let you alone for even a few minutes, can we?", she asked with a raised brow. "Uhh...", Kaito said nervously and backed a little away from her.

Conan looked up the Kaito and grinned a little. He was sure she knew something to scare the thief and chuckled at that.

She grabbed one of the balls Kaito had used just now and threw it up and down in front of him, causing the thief's ears and tail to pop out as well. She grinned satisfied, put the ball away again and grabbed one of his ears. "Now, we better get out of here...", she said and dragged him out of the store, the others following amused.

Conan laughed at that silently and also followed them.

Out on the street, the girls got busy contemplating of where to go next and what to do with the two boys.

That the cat stuff popped out again, wasn't really his fault, but both boys got quite confused or surprised looks from the people.

They tried to make it look as if it was just some kind of cosplay, but since their ears would pick up every sound and twitch in that direction, it was quite difficult. Their tail sometimes twitched around as well and they had problems holding it still. Finally, the girls had decided to get the boys to a book store and head to a shop next to it.

When they stood in front of the book store Conan beamed. "Finally an interesting store..", he grinned and went into it.

"Yup!", Kaito agreed grinning and went after him in it. The girls were already in the other store and the two boys didn't notice the curious stare that followed them.

[Phantom-Akiko]

New fanart:

[mangaluva]

New fanart:

oooooo... Awesome! *steals*