Thanks to Acechan for pointing out plot holes and helping us fix them.

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Shades of Grey: Relative Truths
by Icka! M. Chif

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"Kuroba..." Hakuba tugged his host off to the side, keeping a weather eye on the three women as they talked. "Why does Aoko-kun look like a younger version of your mother?"

This was the first time he had visited the Kuroba household and met the woman who raised Kuroba. She looked just like the pictures he'd seen in the hallway of her, the likeness in Kuroba that showed in his round face and wild hair, mixed with the sharp features and fierceness of the deceased Kuroba Toichi. However, he had never realised just how similar those same features were on the younger Nakamori until he'd seen Aoko talking to Kuroba's Mother face to face.

It wasn't just a passing similarity. It was an uncanny similarity.

There was a brief flash of panic on Kuroba's face, so fast he might have missed if it he wasn't used to attempting to pick up clues from the Kid's expression, before it fell into a bland mask of nonchalance. "Really? I've never noticed it."

Bullshit. Hakuba frowned, glaring at the magician.

"Look Tantei-san," Kuroba obviously caught his stubborn expression and sighed. "Do you think you could drop it? As a personal favour?" The tone was wistful, but there was a 'before I have to hurt you' part of the statement, which was no less valid. Hakuba recognized it as Kuroba going into Aoko-protective mode.

Hakuba paused. Could he drop it? He liked mysteries, he liked solving mysteries and this was a mystery involving his favourite mystery itself. But at the same time, if this was a family thing that didn't hurt anyone, it really was none of his business.

But...

"I will try." He promised. His friendship with both Kuroba and Aoko was nowhere near stable and the last thing he cared to do was alienate either of them.

Kuroba nodded, patting his shoulder before returning to Koizumi and Aoko, who were having an entirely inordinately good of a time talking to the magician's mother. Hakuba almost felt bad for Kuroba, dealing with the after affects of this meeting. Koizumi knowing anything personal was scary. You never knew what she was going to do with the most innocent of information.

Say, like, Sir Stinky...

Kuroba and Aoko herded them up to Kuroba's room, where they took over the bed and the floor, talking and laughing. Or at least the other three did, Hakuba found himself hanging back a bit and lingering. Watching. He got a few odd looks for it, but no one brought him up on it. He tended to go quiet occasionally and they were aware of his silent moods.

It was funny, the little things he had never noticed before as Kuroba and Aoko sat next to each other, jostling each other as they talked back and forth, Koizumi adding her biting witticism at various junctures. Such as the little mannerisms they had in common, hand gestures, ways of pronouncing certain words, body language. It could be logiced away due to the fact that they had been close mates since sometime around their kindergarten or first elementary school years. Mannerisms were often passed back and forth between people after extended amounts of time.

... Stubbornness was definitely a feature that they both shared....

There were differences, of course, aside from the rather obvious one of their different genders. Aoko's face was more rounded, feminine, while Kuroba was all lines and masculine angles. But even then, there were similarities in the shapes of their eyes and noses. At certain times, their eyes almost seemed the same shades of blue. -At least while Kuroba was relaxed and acting as himself instead of the Kid. Kid's eyes were usually violet in the shadows.

Their hair was even similar. Aoko's was longer, of course, but the spiky patterns at the top were close. Different shades as well, Aoko's being slightly lighter.

He was torn between awe and exasperation with himself over the fact that he had never noticed how much like siblings Kuroba and Aoko looked. They were so close, so much of a matched set that it was easy to ignore the obvious.

But once he noticed the similarities, the slight differences became glaringly obvious as well. Siblings often times looked nothing like each other, despite what adoring relatives might say. And now that he had the template of Kuroba's mother in his head, he could see the Nakamori influance clearly in Aoko.

And it did not makes sense that Nakamori-keibu would raise a child that was not his own. Especially lacking a wife. Which then brought up the question that had been bothering him for a while, where was Aoko's mother and what happened to her? Kuroba's Mother and Aoko seemed friendly, but not particularly close, but then he was not the best at reading or understanding people.

The afternoon passed quickly and before he realised it, he was snapped from his musings by the girls rising to head home before it got too late. He said his goodbyes automatically, rising to escort them out. He hung back as they left, returning back to Kuroba's room as if on autopilot, sinking back down onto the pillow he'd been sitting on most of the evening.

He was vaguely aware of Kuroba following, closing the door behind them then standing over him, arms crossed and face impassive. Hakuba looked up after a few minutes of silence. "Aoko-kun is your half sister-?"

Kuroba looked at him for a moment, then noisily blew air out of his mouth in a not quite sigh, making a muttered comment about idiot detectives that turned into a rueful half-laugh. Hakuba found himself blushing slightly, having second thoughts about if he really should have let the subject drop.

The other boy sank gracefully down onto his former seat, next to the bed and crossed his legs. "So you figured it out, did you?"

Hakuba shrugged, rubbing his nose in a nervous gesture that would have made more sense if he'd been wearing his glasses at the moment. "Just that." He admitted. He'd gotten the 'what' part, but not the 'why' or 'how' parts. And 'where' and 'when' didn't quite fit into this puzzle. Nor did he think he was privy to such incidences, thank you very much.

However, his mind -could- think of a few possibilities for 'how', but he shied away from those with a disturbed feeling in his gut. He liked these people, admired them even, and did not wish to paint them with that sort of brush, even in his mind. And admittedly he still wasn't very good at 'why', but he was improving slightly under Kuroba's influence. Second guessing phantom thieves did that to a person.

Kuroba shook his head. "Shoulda known you couldn't drop it." The tone was not unkind, almost fond, but Hakuba grimaced anyway.

"My apologies." He chagrined at the lapse in manners and etiquette. Especially since it involved family members and secrets of a family he was not related to. He was being deplorably rude again.

The wild haired boy waved it off. "Should I explain, or do you want to deduct the rest?"

"I..." Part of him wanted to figure the rest out on his own, if nothing else than for pride's sake. But this was Kuroba and Aoko's families and any sort of investigation, no matter how careful, carried the chance of backfiring in his face, hurting quite a few people he cared about. The cons outweighed the pros in this situation. "Explainion, please. I would be honoured."

And if nothing else, Kuroba could weave a good story.

"It's probably redundant to say this, but this doesn't go any farther than the two of us." Kuroba sighed, leaning against the side of the bed, one arm resting against the top of the mattress. He glanced quickly at the door to verify that it was shut properly. This was not really a deterrent if someone wanted to eavesdrop, but the precaution was noted.

And this was a thieves' household. Who knew? Maybe it was more secure than it looked. Kuroba/Kid had to work -somewhere-.

"Agreed." His honour on it.

Kuroba nodded, apparently pleased, then tilted his head back as he began the story. "Something that a lot of people don't know is that Oyaji and Nakamori-keibu used to be friends, way before Aoko and I met. In fact, they were rival suitors over 'Kaasan. Obviously, Oyaji won."

"Obviously." Hakuba echoed. Otherwise Kuroba Kaito would not exist. "I hope there were no hard feelings about that."

"Nah." Kuroba grinned. "Nakamori-keibu met one of 'Kaasan's cousins at the wedding, fell head over heels with her. Literally, from what 'Kaasan says. Auntie Kinko. They got married less than a year later." The grin faded as Kuroba scratched the back of his head, his expression turning morose. "Auntie Kinko wasn't the healthiest of people. She and Nakamori-keibu wanted kids, but she... just couldn't carry them."

"I'm sorry." Hakuba said quietly. Kuroba shrugged in return.

"Well, since 'Kaasan was really close to Auntie Kinko and was healthier, so they came up with the idea of maybe 'Kaasan being a surrogate mother for them. Then when Auntie Kinko started taking a turn for the worse, they went through with it."

"So Aoko was born."

"Yeah." A small fond smile flitted over Kuroba's face for a moment, then returned to his storytelling facade. "Auntie Kinko died shortly after Aoko was born, but she got to hold her daughter before that happened. Then 'Kaasan got pregnant with me a few months later, and me being my usual impulsive self came a few months early."

Eight months apart. "Irish twins." Hakuba chuckled. At Kuroba's confused expression, he hastened to clarify. "Siblings born within a year of each other. Only you are not quite siblings..."

"Well..." Kuroba stretched the word out, looking uncomfortable. "That's the tricky part. Nakamori-keibu pulled me aside a while back and told me about it, cause Aoko and I were getting close. Because of Auntie Kinko being so weak they... may have kinda substituted some of her damaged cells with Mom's cells. Close genetics and all. So either way she's either my half-sister or my second cousin, but she's still..."

"She is family." Hakuba finished for him. "Aoko-kun told me a while back that things had mysteriously changed between the two of you, that it appeared that you were distancing yourself from her. I assume that this is the cause of it?"

"Not... distancing, exactly. There's other factors here." Kuroba made a pained face at the vague mention of his 'night job' as the Kaitou Kid. "But yeah. Nakamori-keibu said that neither he or Oyaji told 'Kaasan about that part, so she doesn't know. But Aoko's a Nakamori no matter what. The inspector's just happy to have a daughter regardless of everything... Man, can he get creative with potential punishments when it comes to something happening to her."

Hakuba had to chuckle at that. "Which, I imagine, are now passed down on to me should his daughter ever discover the circumstances of her birth."

The sharp-toothed grin Hakuba got in return was somehow oddly reassuring for all its ferocity. Constants were constants after all, regardless of where they came form. "You can be assured, I will not pass this information on to anyone." In truth, whom would he pass it on to? The people closest to him were involved in the secret.

"And you're very good at keeping secrets, Tantei-san." Kuroba commented, his dark eyes hooded.

Hakuba nodded, smiling slightly in return. "All part of being a good detective." He allowed his smile to fade, becoming serious again. "I will not treat Aoko-kun any differently, Kuroba. She's a good mate."

"Good." And once again there was a 'or I'd wipe your arse across the floor' message hidden in there. Only now it was a bit more understandable. He'd thought before that Kuroba had been withdrawing from the inspector's daughter because of his taking up the role of the Kaitou Kid, but this filled in some spaces he couldn't puzzle out. The want to have Aoko close to him, but not too close.

And it was amusing to see Kuroba in Protective Brother mode and recognise it for what it was instead of mistaking it for something else. He muffled a chuckle at that.

Conversation drifted to touch on the topics that he had missed earlier due to his mental meanderings and he found himself relaxing and enjoying the bantering conversation for the first time since he'd noticed the similarities between Aoko and Kuroba's Mother.

Too soon he realised that it was time to leave, or risk being invited to dinner by the elder Kuroba. And while the thought was somewhat welcoming, he did not wish to impinge more than he already had upon the family. With more regret than he anticipated, he made his excuses to leave.

As he did so, he found himself watching Kuroba's Mother and relaxing in her unguarded friendliness. Kuroba, secrets he may have been hiding aside, was unabashedly fond of his mother. There was warmth between the two of them, bonds forged by being parent and child as well as the loss of what should have been the third member of their family, Kuroba Toichi. Hakuba smiled at them as he wished them a good night and began the walk home.

As he did so, he passed by another familiar house, the Nakamori household. The inspector was just walking into the house and he could hear the shout of 'Tadaima' and returning cry of 'Okaeri' before the door shut. As much of an indifferent grump the inspector may have acted, no one could despite the fact that he loved his daughter. And she loved her cranky father.

Hakuba smiled as he walked on, humming slightly as he did so, a random tune stuck in his head. It was peaceful, walking in the twilight hours. The wind was just starting to get that autumn bite to it too; soon it'd be winter again.

Hmm. Almost a year then, since he and Kid had shared that snowbound cabin...

"Tadaima." He called as he opened the door to his house, more out of reflex than anything else. It was rare that anyone was ever home.

"Okaeri." His father's booming voice surprised him by answering back. "Join me, I was just settling down to eat. How did your day go?"

Hakuba's smile grew as he joined his father in the dining room, patting the larger man on the shoulder before taking his seat. "It was... enlightening."

-Fin-

Oyaji - a rude way to refer to your Father
'Kaasan - Mother
Kin - gold
ko - girl/child
Tadaima - I'm home
okaeri - Welcome Home

We did a bit of research on Surrogates, but couldn't find much about the actual procedure. There's some leaps of logic, so if anyone can point us in the direction of some facts to verify, we'd appreciate it. Thanks.

-Nakamori's first name is Ginzo, which means 'Silver Three'. So Aoko's (blue child) parents are Silver and Gold. ^__^

Toichi and Ginzo being rival suitor's for Kaito's Mom's affections was something we saw in a doujinshi and just... clicked. Kaito's birthday is 21 June, Aoko's is in September (fanon: 26 Sept), so we're kind of playing fast and loose with the canon there. *Shrugs*

It dawned on us (in a round of 'you are your own worst critic') that some people could see Kaito and Aoko being sibs in this fic as a way of ensuring that there was no way for there to be any kind of romantic relationship between the two of them, thus leaving the way free and clear for Hakuba and Kuroba to get together without any sort of problematic strings attached.