A Case Of Identity

Secret Identities

Okay...so the ending might be cheesy. Very, very cheesy. And with fluff. Lots of fluff. Don't know what came over me.

Possible withdrawal from all that angst :P Or the euphoric feeling of end of exams... :D If you want to blame anyone, blame Shakespeare. Or King Lear's kids. Either way, that old guy is to blame for the cheesy ending.

Also, Happy White Day!

Let me know how you liked it!

Enjoy~

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"Dialgoues"

'Thoughts'

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Note: Please read till the end. I've left a few acknowledgments in my author's note after the chapter and news regarding the bonus heist chapter.

***

"I'm Kuroba Kaito, a magician."

"Kudo Shinichi, a detective."

No masks, no falsehoods, no lies, no omitted truths.

No more secret identities.

This was them – Kaito and Shinichi. No more and no less.

Shinichi silently stepped aside, wordlessly inviting Kaito inside. Kaito grinned at that before complying. They had a lot to talk about. A lot to say to each other. And what better time to do it than the present?

***

It had been four months now, four months since Kaito and Ran's not-break-up.

While Ran had held no ill will towards Shinichi at all; he had not lied to her truly and when she'd asked, he had told her everything; she did harbour some resentment towards Kaito for a while. It was simply a left over bitter feeling from having liked him and then being rejected because Kaito was in love with her best friend. Eisuke had helped her overcome most of it, being a faithful friend and a compassionate listener. But when the Suzuki heiress started giving Kaito the evil eye, Ran completely let go of her anger, rushing in to defend her friend from Sonoko like the true angel she was.

Kaito and Ran had grown close as friends now, keeping their distance for a while but still interacting during college hours. Besides, they both had other people to spend time with – Kaito with Shinichi, whenever they could talk on the phone or spending time together during weekends when Shinichi returned to Tokyo, and Ran with Eisuke. They would spend time catching up with one another or generally hang out whenever they could. Eisuke and Ran were keeping it at friendship for now, but Ran had told Shinichi that she might give him a try – Eisuke seemed to genuinely care for her since high school after all. Also, she might be developing a bit of attraction towards him; he was quite charming in a different sort of way. Nothing immediate, of course, but she was willing to give it a try some time soon.

Kaito and Shinichi had started talking more freely, meeting with each other whenever they could and they spoke of things from their personal lives that had been untouched before. Those three words had never been uttered since that fateful day when Kaito had said them to Shinichi, but that was perhaps for the better... They were re-discovering parts of the other that they had once fallen in love with and some things just couldn't be rushed.

They did not go on 'dates'. The word felt foreign to them. And as evidenced by Shinichi's luck, going on a successful date seemed to be an impossible challenge. Even if stumbling across corpses did not happen so frequently with Kaito around, it was better not to tempt fate.