Catboys von abgemeldet ================================================================================ Kapitel 2: New Discoveries -------------------------- Catboys Chapter Two: New Discoveries by and thanks to hallow777 for beta-reading [hr] 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!" She said. She was pretty sure he was home, because she saw his shoes in front of the door. "I'm not hungry!", he shouted to the door. "I won't eat the stupid f-fish anyway!", he added, while his ears were down and flat against his head. She knew that Kaito didn't like fish but she wondered how he knew that she made some. "C'mon, can't you at least try it, hm?", she asked nicely and came in. But when she saw the tail and the ears she blinked. "K-Kaito... Why do you have...", she asked while staring at the tail and ears. He looked irritated at her and sighed. "Well...to be honest...I wasn't at Jii's yesterday. I was kinda kidnapped and these crazy scientists did something weird with me and now...well, you see. They seem to pop out, when I see or smell fish. But they will go away when I calm down again. Also, a few of my senses got better, so I could smell the reeking fish all the way up here.", he finished his explanation and waited for her reaction. At first she looked very surprised at her son but also worried. "Are you really okay?", she asked, went to his bed and touched carefully the ears and blinked again and also took one more look at his tail. "Yeah, I'm fine, don't worry.", he assured her. "Besides having the habit of growing ears and a tail whenever I see or smell fish, I'm really okay.", he said and sighed. She nodded, still a little worried, but smiled anyway."Well... but it looks really cute, you know?", she said and giggled. He groaned. "Aoko said that as well...", he murmured, trying to hide the slight blush on his cheeks. "Oh, so Aoko-chan also knows about this?", she asked curious. He nodded. "Yeah, just after school, she came over and held a fish in front of my face…", he complained. "But you still won't eat the fish I cooked, right?", she wondered. "No, I definitely won't eat those things." "Hm, that's a shame. So, what else could I cook you for dinner?", she asked. He sighed. "Anything else other than that, please...", he whined. She blinked at first but I had to giggle after all. "Is that so. Well, then I'm gonna make you some curry, okay?", she said. He nodded shortly. "That would be nice.", he said and smiled slightly. She went back to the door. "I'm glad that everything is okay with you..", she said relieved. "Ehm...okay.", he said and grinned a little embarrassed. She smiled and left his room and went back into the kitchen where she made some curry for him. Still giggling a little when she thought about the ears and tail. When he got back the first thing he did was check if Kogoro was around but it seemed like he was off to see a client. A curious Ran Mouri stuck her head out of her room. "Oh, Conan-kun! You're back already?", she asked and smiled sweetly. "Hm?". He turned around and saw Ran. "Eh, yeah.", he said and smiled innocently. "Uhm.. Ran-neechan? Yesterday when I was disappeared all day long I wasn't really at the professors place.", he explained. A look of worry flickered through her face and she slowly went to him and crouched down in front of him. "Conan-kun...", she said slightly alarmed. "You know you shouldn't lie. But where exactly where you then?", she asked him. He nodded silently. "I was kidnapped... probably by some scientist from a lab or something like that. Most of the time I was unconscious and when I woke up I managed to escape and get back here. But they did something weird to me even though I don't really know what.", he explained and sighed. "And now, every time I get near fish I get cat ears and a tail.. That's why I didn't eat with you, because those ears and tail already appeared before.", and finished the explanation and looked at her and waited for her reaction. Her eyebrows went up to her hairline and she looked horrified at him. "Oh my god, Conan-kun! Are you really okay?", she asked him immediately. Conan was a little surprised that Ran believed him and nodded. "Yes, I'm okay, really!", he told her and smiled a little. "It's just a little weird to have a tail and cat ears...", he added in a lower voice. "Oh, yeah...", she agreed and nodded. "Can there be something done about that?", she wondered. He shook his head and sighed. "I already asked the professor but he didn't know what to do either.", he explained. "Well.. it's not that bad...They just appear when I get near fish and disappear after a while, so.." She nodded absently. "So, that wasn't a costume back then?", she asked him and looked to the spot on his head where the ears had been earlier that day. "Uhm… no, it was real.", he said a little embarrassed. Just then he smelt the same smell from lunch and blinked. The ears and his tail popped out again and he looked at Ran. "Ne, Ran-neechan... you heated the rest of lunch up, didn't you?" She twitched shortly when the ears and the tail suddenly popped out and she blushed a little, nodding. "Shortly after you left for the professor, 'tousan had a client here and went to his house. He should be back soon, so I reheated the leftovers from lunch...do you want some?", she asked him. He looked at her while she explained and twitched his tail. "It does smell really good~", he said and still smiled a little embarrassed. He did like fish before but now he really loves the smell of fish. She giggled a little, stood up and went to get him some of the food. When she came back, she had a plateful of fish for him and handed it to him. "Itadaki-masu!", she told him, grinning a little. He looked at her curiously and his ears stood up straight. He sat down at the table and twitched his tail a little more when he saw the fish. "Thanks Ran-neechan!", he said happily and started eating the fish, and really enjoyed it. She giggled again at his behavior and sat next to him and just watched him eating. He ate and remembered something and looked at Ran. "What about Ojii-san? Should he know or not?", he asked while eating another piece of the fish. She considered that question for a while. "Well...hard to say...", she said absentminded. "We could hide it from him of course, but would we need to?", she wondered to herself. She then smiled a little apologizing. "But I don't think he would be very easy with it, considering that 'kaasan has a cat as a pet as well..." "Hm...", he nodded and thought about it. "Well, I can try to hide from him and if he finds out I'll just tell him what happened.", he said and looked at Ran after he finished eating the fish. Ran nodded smiling. "Yes, I can help you there as well, if he'll decide to do something he really shouldn't do.", she said firmly and balled her one hand into a first, grinning evilly. He looked and her and smiled a little. "But don't hurt him because of me, okay?", he asked in a little nervous voice. She nodded again. "It's okay, I promise that. But only if he doesn't hurt you first. You know him...", she said and sweat dropped a little. And after the smell of the fish and also the fish itself disappeared the ears and the tail were gone too. She was a little surprised, when ears and tail suddenly just vanished, but smiled sweetly after that. 'Yeah, I know that he doesn't like kids… especially me..', he thought. "Okay.", he said smiling and when he noticed that the ears and the tail disappeared he sighed relieved. "Well, I'm pretty tired… Good night Ran-neechan! And thanks again!", he said standing up. "Good night, Conan-kun. Sleep well!", she said and started to clean his dish. He smiled and went upstairs. After he changed clothes and got ready for bed he went to sleep, even though he thought about a lot of stuff before. After he went to sleep, Kogoro finally came home and complained about the fact that the client took too much of his time, so that he missed a very important tv show with Yoko Okino. Ran just sighed, made him his food and went to her own room as well. After a while, Kaito went downstairs, when he smelled the spicy smell of curry. He saw how his mother was still busy with cooking and decided to help her with the dishes. He was glad, that his ears had disappeared shortly after his mother left his room earlier. She was so busy with cooking that she only noticed Kaito when he started helping her with the dishes. She also noticed that the ears and tail disappeared and smiled. When the dinner was ready she set the table with the food. He was done fast and sat down in front of the steaming food. He started eating and Kaito was glad that he could eat something different than fish. She looked at him eating and smiled and after she sat down, she also began eating. He was finished after a while and helped her with the dishes again, when they both finished. After that, he went upstairs again to do his homework. He knew that he also had to prepare for the heist in a few days. He was just glad, that he didn't come in contact with fish on heist very often. It did happen, however and he wasn't very fond of it. She put the dishes back while Kaito went upstairs again and was feeling tired so she went to sleep after she cleaned the house up a bit. After finishing his homework, he went out and to the next bus stop to get to Jii. He went to his apartment and knocked on the door, waiting to be let in. Jii wondered who this could be and smiled when he saw Kaito. "Oh, Kaito-bocchama!", he said and stepped aside so he could come in. "I'm surprised that you're visiting me at this time.", he told him. He did come at this time before but mostly close before his next heist and the next was in a few days. Kaito nodded and made his way into Jii's living room, where he sat down. "I wanted to start a little earlier, since it's possible, that I wont have as much time as I thought I would have...", he said and shrugged. "A few things happened and I'm not sure, if there will be things that get in the way of my planning." He followed him into the living room and looked at the young master. "A few things?", Jii asked him, "What happened?", he asked a little worried. Kaito hesitated a little. "I'm not sure if you'd believe me without proof, but I'm really not fond of proving it, you know?" He explained the whole thing to Jii as well plus what he learned from his mother's food cooking. After Kaito finished explaining everything Jii understood why he said that it's hard to believe. After a while of silence, Jii said,"Well… that sounds really unbelievable…", he said and looked at the young master, "but I don't think you'd imagine all this, so… I believe you." He breathed a sigh of relief, for he didn't have to face the evil fish. "That's good. You see...Aoko and mum already know about it and took great delight in it...", he said and smiled a little embarrassed. "I'm not sure, if Aoko won't be trying something in the next few days...", he said and sighed. "Hm... I see..", he said, while he nodded. "Well...the only thing you can do is to avoid fish, right?", he said after a while thinking. He laughed slightly. "As if I'm not already trying that, Jii...the problem is just, that now that Aoko knows they will pop out when I'm confronted with these things, she might want to confront me even more with them, just to make them pop out.", he said and sighed again. "That's true..", he said and thought about it again. "And there is really no way that they won't pop out?", he asked and looked at him. "Not sure...they did every time until now...", he said and sighed. "Hm.. I see...So currently we don't know what we could do against it...", he said thoughtful. "Nope...", he said, smiling slightly embarrassed. "But enough of that, we still need to plan a few things today and I have school tomorrow. I wont need much sleep since it's always the same boring stuff, but Aoko wouldn't like me to oversleep every day.", he said grinning. Jii smiled a little and nodded. "Okay, then let us begin that quickly.", he said and so they planned some stuff for the next heist. It was late at night when Kaito returned and he was already pretty tired, but they managed to prepare a few things this evening. The whole house was dark, so he guessed that his mum already went to bed. He didn't waste much time either and went to bed. The next morning, Ran woke up Conan for breakfast. When he woke up, he was still pretty tired and thought about that stuff that happened yesterday and wished it'd be only a dream. He went down to eat breakfast with Ran and Kogoro and went with the Detective Boys to school. "Ne..?", Ai asked, when they were in the back and not noticed by the euphoric babbling children in front of them. "Did you tell them?" He looked at Ai and nodded."I told Ran but not Oji-san..", he said, "Ran understood it somehow, even though I think she was quiet surprised but I think it's better if her father doesn't know about this. I'll just try to hide from him… Can't be that hard.", he said and shrugged. She giggled slightly and grinned at him. "Probably not, but you should still be careful. Also with them.", she said and nodded to the three children, who were still very engaged with their conversation. "They like and know about things that have to do with the supernatural, remember?" "Huh?". He looked to the three kids and sighed. "I'll try my best to hide it from them... I don't want to be their new toy…", he said a little annoyed. "That's the way...keep it on.", she said grinning evilly. He looked at her and laughed ironic. "You really know how to cheer somebody up, you know that?", he said in a sarcastic tone. "Of course.", she said with that same smile. He looked at her and sighed. After some time they were finally at school and he was glad it was not a place where you see/smell fish every day. He got some looks from Haibara sometimes, but it seemed as if she was just studying him like some new really interesting science experiment. He was noticing that, and felt like the first time they met. 'I hope she won't do anything to make the kids see the ears and tail...', he thought and sighed. She smirked and focused her attention back to their teacher. Conan sighed and also looked straight to the teacher again, even though it was really boring for him. 'Really... wasn't it already enough to bring me back to elementary school?', he asked himself and sighed again. Kaito's mother had some trouble getting her son out of bed, since he insisted on staying there. Only when she reminded him of the wrath of a certain wild haired girl, when he didn't show up today made him wake up with a start and he hurried to get ready for school. He already was quite a few minutes late when he arrived at school and an annoyed Aoko greeted him. When he finally appeared, she went to him. "I was starting to wonder where you were…", she muttered and pulled one of his ears, "Were you off chasing some mice?", she asked giggling. He glared at her and muttered something about putting one in her bed next time she asked that. She smiled amused and giggled. "I think I have still some fish somewhere~", she said and grinned at him. He gulped and took a step away from her, glad that she didn't seem to have one with her. A few footsteps behind him alerted him and he turned around to see a certain blond detective in front of him, staring with that strange calculating look into his eyes. "What?", he asked in annoyance. When Hakuba saw that Kaito Kuroba was in class he got curious about the ears and tail from yesterday. He knew that he was an expert at tricking people but yesterday didn't seem like a trick. He went to him and looked at him. "So you decided to come today, huh?", he said and watching at him, "Why did you leave yesterday all of sudden?" Kaito suppressed a gulp and turned to him with an annoyed look. "What...? Should I have stayed to annoy you even more?", he asked with a sly grin. He did say that he would tell him when he asked, but old habits die hard. And evading questions like that was definitely one habit he couldn't get rid of. "Hmph, I was just wondering. Is there any reason why you were dressed up like a Catboy-Cosplayer all of sudden?", he asked and lifted his brows. "Errrr...you noticed that?", he asked nervously grinning. "It was just something for you to ponder upon...did work great, ne?" He stared at him with a really skeptical look. "And you're telling me that I should believe this story?", he asked. "Why not?", he asked and smiled innocently. He knew that he couldn't trick Hakuba with that, but it was just too much fun to annoy the Brit. He muttered something and sighed. "Just forget it... I'll know about this soon enough...", he said and went back to his seat. Inwardly, Kaito made a sigh of relief, seeing the detective leaving again. After that argument, he leaned back in his chair, sighing. Saguru was still not satisfied, but he also knew that Kaito won't tell him anything so he just left it like that. But he was sure to talk about that again. During the first break, Haibara turned to him again and smirked. "Enjoying your new life even more?", she whispered to him. He sighed and looked at her. "Just shut up...", he said annoyed. "You really seem to be enjoying this, aren't you?", he asked her. "Who? Me? That has to be your imagination.", she told him sweetly with a not so sweetly grin. He gave her an unbelieving look and sighed. "Yeah, sure. You probably feel really sorry for me, don't ya?", he asked sarcastically. "You can't imagine how sorry I feel for you, having yet another change in your body.", she said grinning. "Well, it's hard to imagine that you feel sorry at all, you know?", he said and also grinned a little. She raised an eyebrow at her. "So you're saying that I can't have this feeling?", she asked with a slight icy tone. He gulped nervously."N-No, of course not!", he said quick, "Of course you can feel sorry, more than anyone." Suddenly she grinned again. "Nice to hear that from you Edogawa-kun." This time he just stayed quiet and only sighed. 'Why me..?', he thought and sighed again when he saw Ai's grin. The moment their teacher walked in again, she looked at her again and left Conan to his misery. Conan looked to the teacher, even though he couldn't really concentrate. When school was finally over he sighed in relief and couldn't wait to get back to the agency. When he returned to the agency, Ran was already there, surprisingly early, but she said that two of her teachers were ill today, so she could prepare some food for them. After she explained, why she was already there he got curious what she was cooking. "Ne, Ran-neechan? What did you plan for lunch?", he asked. She giggled a little. "Since you liked the food yesterday so much, I made us sushi.", she said and smiled sweetly. He blinked and looked at her. "Sushi?", he asked, and when he thought about it the ears and tail popped out. She giggled even more, when the words had the desired effect. "Kawaii~", she cooed and went back into the kitchen with a broad smile. He noticed that the ears popped out again he looked at her confused and blushed a little. "Did she just say 'Kawaii'?', he asked himself surprised. Then he shrugged, because he didn't really understand women at all. A few minutes later, she called him to lunch. Her father was off meeting that client again, because he hasn't made any progress in that case. So the two of them had the kitchen all to themselves. He could already smell the fish and was waving his tail faster. When she finally called him he came fast and sat down at the table and looking hungrily at the fish. "Here you go, Conan-kun!", she said and put the sushi on the table, taking place herself. "Itadaki-masu!", he said and started eating, and did enjoy it, just like yesterday and dropped his ears, while he ate the sushi. "Itadaki-masu!", she replied and ate some as well. Conan kept eating the sushi and enjoyed it like a real cat would do. "Delicious, Ran-neechan!", he said and smiled at her and put the next piece of sushi into his mouth. She giggled at his cute comment and wondered for a while. "Ne, Conan-kun! Could it be that you are more cheerful now? You are usually so serious..." At first he looked a little surprised at her and smiled a little embarrassed. "If you say so, I don't know.", he said then. 'Guess she is right... Probably because of some kind of Cat-Genes...', he thought and ate the rest of the sushi. She titled her head at that answer and thought once more about it. Ever since she met Conan, he seemed a little more mature than normal children. Of course, there were incidents, when he acted like a cute little boy. Still smart, but definitely acting his age. But they were so very few compared to what she had seen from the detective boys. Now, he really seemed to brighten up more, another thing she noticed with time. He had been so dull or lost in thoughts sometimes, she was sure it wasn't normal for a child. But when she talked to him about it, it usually vanished in an instant. He noticed that Ran got lost in her thoughts again and wondered what it was now. When he finished he stood up with his plate. "Thanks again, it tasted really good.", he said smiling and brought his dirty dishes into the kitchen. She was startled out of her thoughts, when he suddenly talked to her. "Y-yeah...that's good.", she said and smiled. She finished her own meal as well and went to clean everything up. He also helped her with cleaning the dishes and the ears and tail disappeared again, which he was pretty relieved about. "I need to dust and clean the office a little...", Ran said while cleaning. "And you still have some homework to take care of, right? I'm not sure how your nose will take all the dust in the air..." "Err.. Yes, okay.", he said and nodded. His sense really became better so he didn't says anything about it. "I'm upstairs.", he told her while he was leaving the kitchen and went to his room to do his homework. After she saw him leaving, she started to do just what she had told him she would. Kaito was glad that school ended without him getting the catboy look again. He only regretted, that he couldn't tease Aoko as much as he wanted since she would bother him with fish again. After school was finished, Aoko went to Kaito and smiled innocently at him. "We walk home together, okay?", she asked in a really friendly tone, that it was almost scary. He gave her a calculating stare, while he leaned himself a little away from her. "Uhh...sorry that I ask, but...why?", he asked carefully. "Do I need a reason to go home with you?", she said sweet smiling. "I won't hurt you, don't worry…", she said and raised her brows."I'm not worrying about you hurting me, you know?", he told her. "Only if you include mental damage as well..." "As if I could do something like that.", she said innocently and smiled. His look indicated that no, he didn't believe her at all. "Sure...", he said, rolling his eyes in slight annoyance. She smiled and took her bag. "So, can we go now?", she asked smiling. He sighed and took his bag as well. "I don't really have a choice, now do I?", he asked while they went out of the room. She didn't say anything and just smiled at him, in a innocent way, which is unusual for her. They left school together and Aoko smiled satisfied. Kaito didn't really want to obey her like this, not with the way she was acting at the moment. He really shouldn't be going with her, but there would hell to pay afterward if he just left her like this. "Oh, Kaito? Yesterday I found something at home, wait…", she said and was grabbing for something in her bag and when she had it she held it direct in front of him. It was a cat-toy and she waggled it around in front of his face. At the sight of it, the ears and the tail were instantly out again and he was focusing on the still moving stick. She giggled when she saw that Kaito really wanted to play with it and kept waving with it. Wherever she waved it, he tried to snatch it from her hand, cat instincts, that didn't leave a trace of logical thinking, totally taking over. She grinned amused and kept waving and had really fun watching Kaito playing. He kept playing like that until the cat inside of him really wanted that moving thingy. He threw himself at her with a loud "Nyaa!", and they landed on the ground, Kaito on top, touching with one hand the little feathers at the end of the stick and the tail waving in excitement. Aoko had to laugh when she looked t Kaito. "Now you really DO look like a cat!", she said giggling and kept waving. She'd love to have a photo from this, because this was really so not-Kaito. "Nyaaa?" He made a confused sound, as she talked to him again. And a little tired of playing he cuddled up to her, making pleased noises. She blushed a little when he cuddled up on her and giggled. "Kawaii~", she whispered and sat down on the ground and patted him and also scratched him behind his ears. He calmed down, as he felt her hand against his hair and ears again. So much that he slowly woke up from the drowsiness and bolted upright, looking confused of what just had happened. When his actions slowly returned to his mind, he went through quite a few shades of red. Aoko slowly noticed that he woke up and giggled when she saw how he blushed. "Ne, Kaito, you're a really cute kitty~", she said amused and poked him in his blushed cheek. Which only made his blush worsen and he groaned. "Why does something like this always happen to me?", he complained and sighed. "I really don't like losing control like that..." 'What if something like this happens on a heist? Unthinkable!' "I don't think it's that bad.", she said grinning, "The first time I really thought you're cute.", she said giggling. He instantly changed into sulking mode. "This is not something I would wish for, you know?" She grinned. "Don't be like that. I've never seen you so playful before.", she said giggling. He sighed in desperation. "Oh, joy...so you're gonna make me change into that playful form more often from now on?", he asked and raised an eyebrow. "Hm.. Maybe~", she said with a grin that was a little devilish. "You really looked like a cat, you know?", she said amused. "Geez...", he sighed, looking annoyed at her. "If I ever get these people, they will wish they never did that to me." "What will you do to them?", she asked grinning. "They just need some fish to get rid of you." He snarled at the thought of having them chase him with these things. "Not sure what I'm gonna do...but they don't know the thing about the f-fish... And you're not telling them!", he exclaimed. "Of course I won't tell them.", she said grinning, "I'm the only one who has the permission to chase you with fish." "You. are. evil.", he muttered under his breath and glared at her. "Who? Me?", she asked innocently."I don't know what you're talking about." She looked at her watch and then to Kaito. "I'd love to play with you more, but I have to go home now and make lunch for Otou-san. This Idiot Kid sent a new warning and he's been busy with work so he isn't much at home." "Yeah...you do that.", he said and sighed and finally stood up again. "Better than embarrassing me..." She grinned at him. "Seeya tommorrow, Kaito!", she said and went on her way home, still smiling. He sighed and waved goodbye as well before going home. Hosted by Animexx e.V. (http://www.animexx.de)