Detective Conan - Magic Kaito oneshots

Dreaming up friends

Sonoko sniffled. It was a bad night, one of those where her own mind betrayed her. At least it was a bad night until she heard the very specific, unmistakable clearing of a throat by the door to her balcony. The same sound down to the detail that she'd heard multiple times from that direction during the last months.

Despite the lump in her throat, and the tears in her eyes, and the horrible cold feeling in her gut, Sonoko looked up and laughed. Of all the stuff he'd brought her before to cheer her up, that night he chose a balloon animal of all things. A very elaborate dragon, almost unrealistically so, kept from freely flying up towards the high ceiling only by a thin string.

He smiled at her, kind eyes halfway hidden in the shadow of his iconic top hat and behind the familiar monocle, wordlessly asking permission to come closer like he always did when he came to visit. He'd obviously never asked permission to break in over her balcony and despite her being in the room every time it happened, she'd never heard a sound, or seen a glimpse of him, or even so much as felt a draft of fresh air coming in from outside.

It was almost supernatural really, and she could've easily thought him to be a ghost or another magical creature if he hadn't been who he was, if she hadn't immediately recognized him for who he was. Though that fact was obviously rather crazy in itself.

Of course Sonoko had thought that she was dreaming when she saw Kaitou KID of all people standing inside her room. It was exactly the kind of dream she'd pick if the choice was up to her.

And so she wasn't overly concerned with an internationally wanted thief distracting her from her troubles for a couple of hours, talking about all kinds of inconsequential things, perched on the armchair in the corner as if he belonged there, it was just a dream after all.

Except, the rose he had gifted her that night had still been there when she woke up the next morning. And she probably should've been more alarmed about that than excited, but that just wasn't her style.

So instead she was insanely happy when he showed up again a couple weeks later, following the same pattern, and once more they talked until she fell asleep again, and he disappeared just as mysteriously as he always arrived, and left her with another gift that hadn't vanished when her consciousness returned to her, hours later in the morning.

That his visits were prone to occur after traumatic events happened which involved her or often both of them, well. Something about the balance of light and shadow, and getting check up visits from Kaitou KID definitely made whatever experience bound to come back to haunt her in her dreams a lot more bearable. She just hoped he wasn't solely motivated by guilt to do so.

They repeated that same experience a few times until she could really, truly believe her luck to be reality. After the first month she dared to think of him as a friend in the privacy of her own mind. Nobody knew about their nightly meetings and nobody ever would if she could help it, not because it would make her look desperate and ruin her image, she could do that herself, but because it would endanger her new friend. And that was a sore topic to her.

She really didn't want to lose him and his company. Because. Well. It wasn't that Sonoko didn't have any real friends, but she only had two best friends, and one was currently in the hospital once again, while the other was effectively missing, even if nobody called it that. And had been for a painfully long while now.

So yeah, there was a truly unnerving pattern there of her friends regularly getting hurt or disappearing without a trace or goodbye, and she was soundly of the opinion that she was allowed to be upset by and borderline paranoid because of that circumstance. Her therapist had told her it was her good right. So had her friends. If she believed anyone, Sonoko believed them.

Her friends, which now also unofficially included KID. She'd never dare to ask him if he felt the same way, afraid to break the magic of their easy midnight conversations that felt like they existed somewhere in an alternate space only adjacent to reality. Afraid to lose a good thing too soon even though she knew very well that they were building this relationship on borrowed time.

Someone was going to catch them someday, someday someone would coincidentally come in to check on her or actually feel the need to investigate where her gifts came from that appeared over night, someday her friends and family wouldn't fall for her evasions whenever they asked her about how she got those things.

Someday they wouldn't let it slide, wouldn't cut her some slack just because she or those dear to her narrowly escaped another life threatening situation or such.

Good things never last, the saying went. One was supposed to let go of things when they couldn't get any better, when they'd reached their highest peak, and yet. Sonoko couldn't bring herself to put an end to this unplanned arrangement before it went off the rails and crashed and burned. Some things where worth that.

Having someone to talk to who didn't judge her for her thoughts and feelings, her panic attacks and unreasonable worries, who seemed to understand her and treated her like a friend, but was still enough of a stranger that her confessions to him wouldn't come back to bite her in the ass in her everyday life, it was worth that.

She could keep secrets from Ran and her parents for that, she could deal with the fact that because of the nature of his criminal career their conversations were always about her and her life, making their friendship feel just a little one sided, Sonoko could accept all of that if it meant she wasn't left alone in her bedroom to have a panic attack one night more every month or so.

The panic didn't have the same chokehold on her when he sat there in her armchair and told her something about his doves, when she talked to him about schoolwork and they both danced around the topic of bombs and guns and life threatening situations. And eventually she'd drift off to sleep to the faintest sound of her balcony door closing.

Sonoko briefly squeezed her eyes shut against the morning light before blinking at the balloon dragon floating under her ceiling with a warm feeling of gratefulness spreading inside her chest. She could only hope that KID would continue to find this just as worth carrying on until the bitter end as she did.