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The Grey Zone: Cascade
By Icka! M. Chif

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I remember when, I remember, I remember when I lost my mind
There was something so pleasant about that place.
Even your emotions had an echo, in so much space

And when you're out there, without care,
yeah, I was out of touch
But it wasn't because I didn't know enough
I just knew too much

Does that make me crazy? Probably...
-Gnarls Barkley, "Crazy"

"Ore wa Hirokini ja nai."

The dial tone buzzed in Kid's ear as he stared at the pay phone's receiver.

'I am not Hirokini.' That's what the strange voice had said, so much like Hirokini's familiar boyish tones, but so distinctively not.

"It's not Hirokini-kun." He said, almost giddy with relief as he hung up the phone and stepped out of the booth. "I don't know who it is, but it's not him."

Saguru let out a small breath, a sigh of relief, some of the tension in his shoulders he'd been carrying fading slightly. "Come." Saguru said, sticking his hands in his pockets, ostentatiously -not- reaching out to touch Kid. "We'd best leave before trouble arrives."

Kid nodded, picking a direction at random and going with it. Saguru followed, a step or two behind, instead of beside him like they usually walked. His detective had been acting slightly edgy since they had left Seattle, looking guilty as he hovered just out of arm's reach, and it was starting to get really annoying.

He walked in silence, trying to mentally pick apart the prickly puzzle that was the English detective. Saguru was usually a solid presence, dependable and driven. It was unnerving to see Saguru shaken, even slightly. But his detective had also spent more time with Hirokini than either Kid or Kaito had.

Although he was mildly irritated that the half-briton had kept the possibility of how they were being tracked secret. Kid was more irritated at himself however, for not having noticed it sooner.

The other question was, what other secrets was his detective keeping? Kid had no more to hide, the blond knew them all. That had previously been a comfort, now it was a distracting hurt. That was one reason he had worked by himself for so long, trusting someone left himself wide open to be hurt. Or captured.

"Hobbit?" Kid questioned, looking up at the sky. Saguru startled, looking up at him. "One thing I don't get."

"Yes?" Saguru waited, looking like he was expecting to be hit.

"When you left the mobile behind on the bus, you knew that there was a high probability of the bus being attacked by 'them'." He avoided mentioning the people in black, lest he inadvertently summon them. "What about the passengers on board?"

Saguru let out a heavy sigh, one that visibly did nothing to ease his detective's tenseness. "I thought about that as well." Saguru admitted, fists clenched in his jacket pockets. "One of the reasons I chose that bus was that it was practically empty. I had hoped they would do something like try to hijack it, not slip an explosive behind a tire. But mostly...."

He trailed off, lips white from being pressed together so hard. "Mostly?" Kid prodded.

"This is going to sound completely ludicrous." Saguru frowned. "But I trusted your luck that no one would be injured."

"-My- luck?" Kid raised an eyebrow. "What would my luck have to do with it?" So he seemed to do the improbably, big deal. He was a Magician.

"Because you -do- things." Saguru muttered, a bit of pink rising in his cheeks as he warmed up to the topic. "Just by being in your local proximity, Things Happen. You do it -constantly-."

"Do what?" Kid raised an eyebrow.

"Change the Odds. We'll be followed or chased and a street lamp above us will go out, giving us time to hide, or a truck will pass, or a bird will chose that moment to take dump on someone." Saguru motioned expansively as he talked. "Or we will get the last slice of cake at a diner, or the first batch of something really good or we'll get a little something extra when we're starving. Or someone will forget something and we get things for free. It makes no sense, but it happens All The Time."

Saguru made it sound like that sort of the thing was out of the ordinary. "Why wouldn't it?"

"Exactly." Saguru's frown deepened. "These sorts of things happen to you. They do not happen to other people."

.... They didn't?

"Then, there is the STUFF you do." Saguru continued on, counting points off on his fingers. "Materialisation, mostly. Both of you have always pulling things out of mid-air that you shouldn't be able to.-"

... pulling a man out of the river with a line of knotted scarves he knew he hadn't hidden on himself that day...

"-Second most common is Levitation or Telekinesis, your other half started doing that shortly after we moved in with Mum-"

.... Crawling around on the smooth walls and ceiling of Saguru's room while the half-briton was wrapping presents, making an origami butterfly he'd pulled out of the air fly for a little girl...

"-You've recently started to Teleport, I think you first started to do that in Chicago, I woke up in the next alley over.-"

... He hadn't been able to find the cardboard boxes he'd hidden Saguru in when he went into the alley he knew they had run into...

"Stop." He croaked, feeling somewhat dizzy. Kaito in the back of his mind gibbered madly, trying to deny that he had done anything out of the ordinary even as the information sunk in with harsh reality.

The Kaitou Kid was a figure of fantastic myths and legends. Kuroba Kaito needed some shred of normalcy to cling to, to act as a stabilising influence so he didn't get swept away in everything that was the Kid and loose himself.

Kid was the one who did impossible things, Kaito was merely a talented sleight-of-hand artist.

Except he wasn't. They were the same person. It might have originally been compartmentalised 'That-Is-Kid' / 'This-is-Kaito', but the two had started to overlap and merge after the previous summer.

"-Puck?" Saguru put a hand on his shoulder, jolting him out of his thoughts. It wasn't the first time Saguru had called him. "Puck?!"

He pulled his hands away from his head, slightly surprised to realise he had been gripping it so tight that it hurt. It was even more of a surprise to realise that he wasn't wearing his gloves or monocle, he could have sworn he had felt the eyepiece digging into his flesh.

He made a croaking noise, the words 'How' and 'Why' getting tangled up in his throat. Saguru bodily turned him towards him, running a pale thumb across the bridge of his nose. He was startled to realise that he hadn't entirely imagined it, he could feel the dent against Saguru's skin, where the monocle would usually rest.

"I watch you." Saguru said softly, looking like he wanted to do nothing more than grab him up in a hug and not let go for a while, but was refraining because they were in public. "I've watched you for years, I don't think I can stop anytime soon."

He laughed softly. Only Saguru could make stalking him for years sound like a complement. In a way it was, it meant that he was interesting enough to follow for years. "I know." He managed to smile crookedly. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." Saguru smiled back, his own smile crooked with worry. "Come on, let us go find you some chocolate."

"Chocolate doesn't solve everything, you know." He smirked, stepping away from Saguru, then bumped his shoulder as they resumed walking again. He wouldn't say no to a painkiller however, he had the start of a bad headache growing right between his eyes.

"That's not what your sister says." Saguru said primly.

He glanced around, making sure that no one was within listening distance then leaned towards his detective as they stopped at a traffic light. "My sister also thinks that both of us are straight."

Saguru released a bark of laughter. "That's not what she thought during her last visit."

"Really?" He pressed the button to signal the pedestrian crossing. "I thought we were rather convincing."

"Conniving, you mean."

"That too." The light changed and they stepped out into the crosswalk.

A second later, Saguru grabbed him by the arm and yanked him backwards. "Kuso!!!" The blond cursed, staring in the direction of the dark car that had nearly struck them.

"'Guru!" He snapped, grabbing Saguru's arm and spinning him away. A large blue truck barrled past, the force of it's passing pushing him into Saguru, just as his detective attempted to pull him away. They both over balanced, rolling across the blacktop, coming to a stop next to the kerb, Saguru's larger mass pinning him against the rough surface.

They lay there a moment, hearts beating rapidly, breathing heavily. "Ow." He commented, feeling buzzed.

"K- Puck?" Saguru questioned, his detective's breath tickling the hairs next to his ear. "You okay?"

"Gimme a sec." He requested, squeezing his eyes shut, trying to find the pain through the adrenaline buzz. He knew he hurt, it was just hard to figure out how or why. Saguru nodded and lurched to the side, removing his weight. It was slightly easier to breathe, but he missed the contact. It had at least been something solid he could cling to. "You?"

"I've been better." Saguru said dryly.

"Oh my god!!! We're SO sorry!!!" A frantic voice shouted. He was vaguely aware of footsteps stomping towards them. He tried to look up, stopped by Saguru's hand on his chest. Saguru's golden eyes were looking at him with concern, but silently telling him to Stay. Put.

He carefully nodded back. If the people approaching were trouble, it would be better to surprise them by being in better shape than expected. Although at the moment, he wasn't quite sure at just how much better of shape he actually was as compared to how he was pretending to be.

Two pairs of blue eye looked down at him, one surrounded by a mass of curly hair, the was hardened in a way that screamed 'cop'. Things snapped clear for a moment, the mental confusion fading as Kid retreated, Kaito coming back up to the surface. He was just a harmless teenager on an overseas experience, no world renowned jewel thief here...

"You okay?!" The curly-haired guy asked, practically vibrating. "So sorry about that man, we didn't even see you there, you just appeared out of nowhere-"

"Just catching my breath." He smiled weakly, lifting a hand up for assistance.

"Hold on." The cop guy instructed. "This may hurt, I'm going to check to see if you hit your head."

"... All right." He hesitantly agreed, glancing at Saguru. Saguru nodded back. The strangers weren't setting off any warning signs for his detective. And they had stopped instead of continuing, so that was a point in their favour

"It's okay." The curly-haired guy nodded. "You can trust Jim. He's a trained medic."

"Although if you find anything, I will be shocked." Saguru quipped as 'Jim' ran his hands over Kaito's head. his hands were large and calloused, but competent feeling and extremely gentle. Bonus for the guy. "His head is harder than a rock."

"I don't feel anything. All right, follow the tip of my finger with your eyes. " Jim reported, holding up his pointer finger and moving it from side to side, then up and down. Kaito, feeling like a daft fool, did. Jim nodded, looking pleased. "I don't think he's got a concussion. Let's try sitting him up."

Hands on his shoulders and arm helped him up to a sitting position. He was going to need some new jeans after this, he'd torn the crap out of the legs on these. Saguru's trousers looked like they hadn't fared much better, the blond looked like he'd gone several rounds in the dirt. He leaned forward to poke fun at Saguru for it and was startled by the wave of pain.

"Puck!?" Saguru grabbed him again, holding him upright as tears stung his eyes. Oh shit, that hurt.

"Okay, so maybe not okay." Kaito grinned weakly, picking up his right arm and cradling it against his chest. It hurt, pain throbbing with each beat of his heart.

"Let me see it." Jim instructed.

Horns honked, startling them. "Out of the road first?" Saguru suggested. "Can you stand?"

"Don't think there's anything wrong with my legs." Kaito agreed as they helped him stand. His knees were a bit sore, but nothing some disinfectant and ice packs couldn't cure. They were both probably going to have some -lovely- bruises after this. They all hobbled over to the sidewalk and sat down again, Kaito's back against a sun-warmed wall.

"I'm Detective Jim Ellison, by the way." The cop introduced himself, picking up Kaito's arm again and probing it with those oddly strong but gentle hands. Kaito mentally re-wrote 'Jim' and replaced it with 'Mr. Ellison'. "Major Crimes, Cascade P.D. This is my partner, Blair Sandburg."

"You don't look like a cop." Saguru commented, raising an eyebrow.

"I get that a lot." Blair grinned. "I'm an anthropology student at Cascade University-"

"He rides with me." Jim cut him off, but not without some small sense of humour. "Chief, if you could get the first aid box out of the truck?"

"Right away." Blair agreed, scurrying off.

"Puck." Kaito introduced himself before motioning to Saguru. "This is Hobbit."

That earned them a raised eyebrow. "Nicknames."

"We're gamers." Saguru deadpanned, straightening the collar of his scruffy jacket. Well, scruffier jacket now. They certainly looked like sterotypical gamers. "Currently backpacking across America as our Big O.E."

"From Australia?" Ellison guessed.

"England." Saguru corrected, doing his snooty British impersonation.

"Sorry, we've got an Aussie on our staff." Ellison flashed a small grin. "The accent is similar."

"It is not." Saguru muttered. Kaito quietly snickered.

"This may hurt." Ellison instructed, turning business like again. "But I'm going to need you to flex your wrist."

Kaito nodded as the wrist was examined, giving short brief responses to the questions of 'Does this hurt?' as he tried not to scream when it was flexed too far. The curly-haired guy came running back, carrying a white metal case.

"Hope you're a lefty." Blair commented with good nature. Kaito gave him a weak grin. Unfortunately, he wasn't. While he could and frequently did shoot left-handed, he was predominately right-handed. Which, unfortunately, was the arm that was currently in pain and under scrutiny.

"I think it's just a bad sprain." Ellison reported. "But we should probably take you to the hospital and get it x-rayed to be sure."

"I'd really rather not." Kaito said through ground teeth as Ellison pulled an ace bandage out of the first aid kit and began to wrap his wrist. "We're not exactly working on a big budget here."

Bit of a lie. Between Saguru and himself, they were carrying over ten thousand each on them, the contents of the slush funds Kaito had set up. They'd emptied the accounts before Kid had called Hirokini because it was too risky to continue using the bank accounts they'd set up with Hirokini.

"The department can cover it." Blair assured him. "After all, it is Jim's fault for almost running you over."

"I was in pursuit!" Ellison growled. The words sunk in and he ran a hand over his face. "-Of a vehicle and suspects who got away. Simon's going to kill me."

Kaito chuckled, glancing over at Saguru. "Black or dark blue sedan. Mid-model. License plate started with 'B-A-K-4." Saguru commented, crossing his arms. "Driver was male, caucasian, on the tall side, dark hair, wearing sunglasses. I didn't get a good look a the passenger."

The officers stared at Saguru. Saguru stared back. "What? Dad's an officer. I grew up around this sort of thing."

"... Right." Ellison nodded, gathering the first aid kid and rising to his feet. "I need to call in what happened. Chief here will get your -real- names and contact information."

Blair nodded in agreement, then patted down his pockets, his face falling as he realised that he didn't have any writing implements. "Or I'll do that as soon as I get some paper and a pen. Be right back."

The curly-haired man quickly trotted after his partner. Saguru sighed and crouched down next to Kaito. Kaito gave him a small smile. "How are you doing?" He inquired.

"Nothing requiring immediate attention." Saguru waved it off. "However, I must admit that this latest turn of advents does perturb me."

Kaito nodded, slowly flexing the fingers in his right hand. Even that much was enough to make him hiss in pain, there was no way he going to be able to do anything dexterous with this hand for a while. Which left them at a disadvantage if they needed to make a quick escape or attack.

"Kaito..." Saguru said softly, catching his attention. "What about-"

"No." Kaito growled.

"I can spare the-"

"No."

"But-"

"What part of 'No' aren't you getting?" Kaito snapped, cradling his injured wrist against his chest. "The whole point of finding it was to keep people from using it!"

"Including us." Saguru said flatly.

"This isn't serious." Kaito waved it off. "A couple of weeks, it'll be fine."

Saguru made a growling noise of frustration. They might not have a couple of weeks, the mysterious organisation was closing in on them -now-.

"Besides." Kaito momentarily wished that Saguru was standing on his uninjured side, so that he could unobtrusively touch his detective. "We don't know what other affects it has. On either party."

For all they knew, the stone could bleed Saguru dry without their realising it. Pandora was still an unknown entity in this equation and Kaito was a bit leery using anything that bore the name of one that was reported to have unleashed all the evils in the world.

Saguru nodded, brushing Kaito's shoulder with a hand, a silent apology. Kaito shot him a smile, leaning towards him. "Thanks, though."

"Welcome." Saguru shot him a small smile back. "I just..." He trailed off, looking embarrassed. Saguru was the protective sort and hated seeing anyone hurt. Especially someone he cared about.

"I know." Kaito leaned his head against the wall. "I'd probably be the same way in your shoes."

The blond chuckled, rising to his feet again as Blair ran back towards them. "Sorry about that." The curly-haired man motioned back to the truck. "I had to assure Simon that it wasn't me that got hit this time."

"Simon?" Kaito questioned as Saguru traded places with Blair, moving to stand on Kaito's other side.

"Our boss." Blair shrugged. "The way he and Jim act, you'd think that I get kidnapped on a daily basis."

"Do you?" Kaito inquired cheerfully.

Blair gave him a glare. "No."

Kaito chuckled and reached out to nudge Saguru. Or where Saguru had been standing. Kaito blinked, looking around. No sign of his detective. "Hobbit?"

No response. He called again. "Hobbit?!"

"Where'd he go?" Blair asked, standing up and looking around.

"Don't know." Kaito said, stumbling to his feet and clutching the wall for balance. Saguru would -not- have ducked off without saying anything. Especially not with the mysterious organisation so close to their trail. They were only a block or so away from the phone booth they had just called from. "-He's not the kind to run off..."

Unless....

No. He wasn't going to think about the men in black capturing Saguru.

"Jim!" Blair called his partner over. Ellison waved back, saying something into the radio before walking over. Kaito glanced around, feeling somewhat frantic. They had yet to replace their mobile phones and they could no longer track each other's location through Hirokini. Blair patted his shoulder. "It's okay, Jim'll find him. He's good at this sort of stuff."

"Sandburg." Ellison called, his tone grim. Both the curly-haired man and Kaito walked over and the officer pointed to the ground, where there were some drops of fresh blood, the drops leading away from where they had been standing.

"He wasn't hurt that badly." Kaito commented. Saguru shouldn't have been dropping blood, unless he'd picked at something until it bled enough to leave a trail. Which sounded like something the half-briton would do.

"This way." Ellison's demeanour changed, he looked grim, like a hunter on the prowl. Kaito shivered slightly and followed him, privately glad to not be prey. There was a gathering of drops about mid-way into the alley, Ellison crouching over them and sniffing as Blair hovered over his shoulder.

"Bit of a scuffle here." Ellison motioned to the pattern of the drops. That was one of the things Saguru had taught him while they were investigating cases in England, how to read some of the basic blood splatter patterns. In this case, a few went back in the direction that they had just come from, Saguru making a break for it, then getting pulled back. "He didn't go without a fight."

Kaito nodded mutely as they continued on. The blood trail disappeared where the alley intersected with another one. Most likely some sort of car that they had dragged Saguru into. He looked around, then up. He could hit the rooftops from here, get a bird's eye view on things. Most police officers were nice enough people, but couldn't see the obvious if it was in a brown paper evidence bag with the contents written on the side of it.

"They went that way." Ellison reported, pointing towards the closer of the side alley's two exits. "Some sort of van by size of the tread marks. Not moving quickly. They're not going to get very far anyway, not the way the vehicle is leaking fluids."

... Or he could stick with the nice police officer and use the resources at hand. He was supposed to be a ordinary guy, just travelling the country with his best bud. And while he could probably find Saguru on his own, at the moment appeared to be faster work with the police.

And at the moment he had a bit of a handicap. He flexed some of the fingers in his right hand and flinched. Definitely not doing anything with that hand for a while.

"Can we track them from a vehicle or will we need to remain on foot?" Kaito questioned. Both police looked up at him, surprised. He glared back. "What? He's my best friend, yer daft if you think I'm gonna leave him behind."

Ellison and his partner exchanged looks. "Truck." Ellison said. "I'd prefer to know that we can call for back up if we need to."

Kaito nodded, following them as they quickly jogged back to the large truck. It would also give them something to hide behind in case of a fire fight.

There was a bit of a mad scramble as they climbed into the vehicle, trying to figure out who sat next to Ellison and ultimately Kaito got the window seat. Something that Ellison growled about, muttering about people grabbing people off the streets.

"Any idea why someone would grab your friend?" Blair questioned, bouncing slightly in his seat. "Anybody in town that doesn't like you?"

"Not a clue." Kaito shrugged. "We haven't been in town long enough to piss anyone off. We got off the bus, made a quick phone call to my cousin to say were arrived safely, nearly got run over by a couple of cars ignoring traffic signals and met you guys. It's been a hectic past half hour."

"And before that?" Ellison questioned.

They had been using different aliases in Seattle, Kaito had been more of a blond up there as well, so the probability of them being tracked to there was remote. "Vegas."

"Score big?" Blair asked, scrabbling for purchase as the truck went around a corner. Ellison appeared to know where he was going at least.

Kaito smirked. "Well... there was this one hot blond in a jacuzzi... and a really dreamy red-head that wouldn't leave us alone..."

Ellison made a comment under his breath about teenage hormones, dogs and table legs. Blair made a mocking face in the direction of his partner at the comment. Oohhh. Kaito raised an eyebrow. Someone wasn't getting any.

"There's somethings about you that are irritating me." Ellison commented. "You're travelling light, using nicknames, and trying to avoid a paper trail by not going to the hospital. And you smell like cosmetics. Seems to me that something has you you scared and running. All the way from Australia."

"England." Kaito corrected.

"What ever." The truck abruptly slowed, then coasted to a stop. "When we get your friend back, I want all the full truth from the two of you. All the details." Ellison growled. "In the mean time, Stay In The Truck."

The large officer got out of the car, reaching into his jacket and undoing the snap that held his gun into the holster. He disappeared down the side of the truck.

Kaito looked at Blair.

Blair looked at Kaito.

"Grouchy lots?" Kaito inquired.

"He's actually a nice guy." Blair shrugged. "Once you get past the whole Cro-Magnon 'stay in the truck' over blown protector sense."

"I'll take your word for it." Kaito undid his seat-belt.

"You sure that's a good idea?" Blair questioned even as he unbuckled his own seat-belt. "Jim told us to stay in the truck."

"And how often do you actually follow that?" Kaito questioned, opening the door as silently as possible. It was tricker to do so using only his left hand, but he managed it. Just.

"You have a point." Blair flashed him a nervous smile as he followed Kaito out. Kaito eased the door shut behind them, then they scurried down the length of the truck, crouched down for cover.

Ellison met them at the entrance to the alley with an icy glare. "I thought I told you to stay in the truck."

"Hey, I just was following him." Blair said with complete innocence as he motioned to Kaito. "Gotta stick with the witness, right?"

Kaito shrugged back, fighting back a glare of his own as Kid momentarily flitted across the surface. He was following Saguru.

Ellison grounded his teeth together and motioned for them stay down and follow him quietly. Which they did, Blair skulking behind Jim, Kaito pussyfooting his way behind Blair. They made it down the dark rubbish lined narrow passageway with relative stealth. Well, relative stealth compared to his own Kaitou skills that was.

Blair was chanting questions and observations to Jim, who had a look of intense focus as they crept up on a grungy looking white van that had definitely seen better days. The rear doors were open and he couldn't hear or see anyone around it. Still, appearances were deceiving.

"I'm only picking up one person." Jim whispered. "And exhaust fumes. Either this car died here or someone left before we showed up."

"Probably the latter." Kaito piped up. Jim gave him a wary glance before stepping forward.

"CASCADE POLICE! FREEZE!!!"

"... Eh?"

The confused sounded echoed out of the back of the truck. Kaito blinked. He -knew- that 'Eh?'. He stepped forward, past Jim who made a grab at him and missed.

It was Saguru.

It was -Saguru-.

"Oh..." Kaito groaned, running a hand down his face. Only Saguru could get himself into these sorts of situations. "-Fuck."

"Puck?" Saguru lifted his blindfolded head up, turning to face them. He was clearly visible through the open doors of an obviously disused van. His detective was tied to a wooden chair which stood above a very nasty looking contraption with lots of wires spiralling out of it. "Is that you?"

"Yeah." Kaito tried to sound reassuring. The officer and his partner quietly back and forth behind him but Kaito didn't need to listen in to know what was going on. A bomb. Saguru was sitting on top of a frikkin -bomb-. "It's okay, we're going to get you free-"

"DON'T!" Saguru snapped, looking fierce despite the fact that they couldn't see his eyes. "Do not get any closer! It is a Trap."

"Yeah." Kaito deadpanned. "Thank you, Captain Obvious." All it needed was a giant flashing arrow pointing to the bound blond. Elision touched his arm, gaining Kaito's attention.

"Keep him talking and calm." The man instructed softly. "Blair's on the horn for the bomb squad."

"Bomb squad is not going to arrive here in time." Saguru said calmly, despite the tremor that shook his body. "They were kind enough to explain about the situation I am currently in in great detail. The flat of the vehicle that I am currently resting on is a pressure sensor. Any changes in weight, either an increase or a decrease will trigger an immediate explosion."

So they couldn't climb up and untie him, nor could they approach the bomb itself, since Saguru was set more than an arm's reach inside the van.

"I was further informed that if that fails to happen, the bomb itself is timed to explode in approximately seven minutes, twenty-three seconds. But as I cannot see the contraption, I cannot verify this." Saguru added. "They left approximately two and a half minutes after that."

"You've got to be shitting me." Blair muttered, looking up from his mobile phone.

"No, his sense of timing is usually that good." Kaito admitted, Kid simmering beneath the surface again, trying to calculate how to defuse this situation. "Anything else, Hobbit?"

"My nose itches." Saguru said, the complete epitome of dignity. "And I cannot reach to scratch it."

"It never fails." Ellison agreed with morbid humour, his hand still on Kaito's arm. He dropped his voice, talking only to Kaito. "Right. We need to clear this area out. That includes you, Mr. Puck."

"No." Kaito said flatly.

"Kuroba." Saguru snapped. "Do not do anything stupid."

-Said the man who'd gotten himself kidnapped and bound to large bomb. Hah.

"I'm not." Kaito narrowed his eyes. "But if you're going out in a giant fiery explosion, I'm going to personally be here to roast marshmallows over what's left of your mangled burning corpse. Moron."

Blair snickered, hiding a grin behind a hand.

"Besides." Kaito gave a pointed look at Ellison. "Someone needs to talk to him to keep him calm after all."

The large man debated this for a moment. "All right." He grudgingly agreed. "But the first step you make out of line and I'm sending you out with the rest of the civilians."

"That's fine." Kaito agreed. Ellison nodded, grabbing the mobile from Blair and talking to other officers about the process of setting up a secure perimeter before prowling off for more evidence for who grabbed Saguru.

"I do not not need you 'to keep me calm'." Saguru snapped. "I am doing a perfectly reasonable job of that myself. You do not see me ranting or screaming like a loon, do you?"

"Oh, blow me." Kaito snarked back. "Who's the one who is always going on about not wanting to be treated as a blond in distress? Guess what?!"

"Uhh... guys?" Blair spoke up. "I don't think this is exactly 'keeping calm' here."

"Stress relief." Saguru tossed his head, trying to get some of the hair out of his face before lowering his head tiredly. "We've been rivals longer than we've been friends."

"And don't you forget it." Kaito snarled. Kid pacing in the back of his head like an angry caged tiger, defiant at those who would steal his gold-eyed treasure, waiting to be unleashed. "And you're supposed to be chasing -my- ass, not the other way around."

"Yes, well." Saguru sighed. "I do not believe they were expecting you to find 'my ass' until just before the bomb went off. Or after."

"I had help." Kaito admitted. "Officer Ellison and Blair were most impressive."

"Blair!" Ellison called his partner over for assistance, it looked like he had found something on the far side of the van. Kaito took a small breath of relief as the curly haired anthropologist trotted off.

"Hey, Kaito?" Saguru tilted his head slightly, lips twisting in a slight fond smile.

Kaito laughed, Kid's sharper tones mingling with his. "I know." He loved him too. They hadn't said it yet, but he didn't want to hear it now. "But you're not dead yet. Gimme a few minutes to think and I'll get you out."

"You'll run when it gets under a minute." Saguru corrected sternly. "And we have four minutes, twelve seconds."

Ellison and Blair would be back any minute to escort him away. He could hear people running in the background as the words 'bomb' echoed around them. Kaito slipped back, allowing Kid's knowledgeable eyes to look for weaknesses in the set up.

He had no way to reach the bomb to attempt to disarm it without setting off the pressure plate. He might be able to pull Saguru out with a rope... he peered closer at the chair in the van. It was attached to both the floor and the bomb. And Saguru was tied to the chair, so that was out.

"How'd they set the pressure plate?" He asked.

"I heard someone below the vehicle." Saguru reported. "I would not recommend checking however, I heard glass shattering afterwards."

Someone had broken several glass bottles --non-tempered glass with lots of long sharp edges-- around the van, preventing anyone from easily looking underneath, much less getting under the vehicle. It was an obvious trap to entice someone to get closer and be caught in the explosion as well. Which meant that he might have been able to do something from the underside if they had more time, or he had less disreguard for his well being.

And there was no guarantee that it was actually a count down from the time they had said as well. If it was him, he'd set the timer a little fast, just to prevent 'last minute' rescues. Especially since he and Saguru had a habit of making impossible escapes.

"Three minutes, thirty seconds." Saguru reported helpfully.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ellison and Blair start to head his way, no doubt to escort him to a 'safe' distance.

"I have an idea." He announced.

"Is it a stupid one?" Saguru questioned warily.

"No doubt." He agreed, pulling a white silk cape out of mid-air. He wrapped a corner of it around his injured wrist, grimacing as the injured appendage protested the treatment. He wasn't going to be able to hold anything with that hand, but hopefully this would stay. "I'm gonna steal you back. If this doesn't work, we're both going out with a bang."

Literally. Although it kind of agreed with Kid's sense of dramatics.

"Then do NOT do it." Saguru snapped, straining towards him. "Kaito!"

Too late, he was already running towards him, the white silk whipping around him like a storm cloud.

Saguru had said that Kaito --not just Kid-- had Magic. Real magic. He'd said it in technical terms, like 'Levitation' or 'Materialisation'.

Or 'Teleportation'.

Kaito didn't know how it worked, didn't care how it worked, all that he cared about was that it did work. That it got them to saftey. As he leapt towards Saguru all he could pray was that this did work as his brain screamed 'Teleport-teleport-teleport-teleport' like it was a mantra.

He impacted against Saguru, the white material wrapping around them like a shroud as there was a very fatal sounding 'click'.

He closed his eyes as the world exploded around them in a rush of sound and light.

When he opened his eyes again, he could hear the remains of thunder echoing through an alleyway. He felt dizzy and drained, like he'd just been turned inside out and upside down. He was wrapped around Saguru, the blond's head resting against his shoulder, the soft exhalation of air against his cheek the only sign that Saguru was alive.

The outline of people moved towards him, carrying swords. He felt a brief flush of deja vu, wondering if they were back in Paris as he fumbled into his pocket and pulled out his card gun, pointing it towards the sword-weilding figures with his shaky left hand as flickers of lightening illuminated them from the background.

"You're NOT..." He ground out as the world swirled around him, dancing like spilled ink on paper. "-Taking our heads."

And then he passed out.

+++ Finis +++


Jim Ellison and Blair Sandburg are from 'The Sentinel'.

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