Catboys von abgemeldet ================================================================================ Kapitel 1: Yet another change! ------------------------------ Catboys Chapter One: Yet another change! by and thanks to hallow777 for beta-reading Conan and Kaito got kidnapped by mad scientists. After they escape, they notice weird thing happening with them. _________________________________________________________________________ He was on his way home from school when Kaito suddenly felt a sharp pain in the back of his head and moments later, his face met the ground. He was aware that someone picked him up, but then his vision went black and he lost consciousness. The man looked pleased at the unconsciousness boy in the back of the van, after he put said boy in the van. He was lucky that the street was this empty and that the boy hadn't paid any attention either, or it could have become difficult. He sat down in the passenger seat and nodded shortly to the driver. Moments later, the van was nowhere to be seen in the street and on its way to their secret laboratory in the woods near Tokyo. Conan was just on his way back to the Agency when he felt suddenly a pain in his neck and fell to the ground. He lost consciousness while he felt someone picking him up. A man carried him into another van and drove him to the same laboratory where Kaito was. When Kaito regained consciousness, he was strapped to some kind of operating table. He blinked hazily up at the very white ceiling and deducted that they had given him some kind of sedative. That could be the only reason, why he was still so calm about everything and didn't really want to move at all. A few men in white lab coats came into his line of vision and talked a few sentences while looking at him. They did something with his hand and put a mask on his face. He realized that it was some sort of tranquilizer, but was once again clouded in darkness after that. The same happened to Conan. He woke up and blinked in confusion because he noticed that he was strapped on some kind of operation table and couldn't really move. First he thought it was someone from the Black Organization but before he could continue thinking about it, some men in white lab coats appeared and also put something on his mouth and he blacked out again. He also didn't know that his rival, Kaitou Kid, was right in the next room. The third time Kaito woke up, he was more aware of his surroundings, which suggested that they hadn't had him under anymore drugs. He felt that something was off, but couldn't put his finger on what it was. He also didn't notice any differences. What he noticed was, that he was still bound to the bed, but not one person was currently with him. Getting out of restrains like that was already too easy for him, but the dear doctors wouldn't have any idea, that they had kidnapped an escape artist. He briefly wondered if he had some letter pinned to his back, saying 'I'm good to try some experiments on, please kidnap me.' He really wondered what they did with him after he blacked out the second time. He freed himself easily enough and got out of the bed. The first thing that he noticed was that he had somehow more balance, even when he was still slightly disoriented. What annoyed him was that he was in the typical hospital gown, that was to say...very open. He would have to get something better quickly. He slipped out of the room and into a long hallway with a lot of doors. He was really curious of what was in there, but the need for clothes and freedom was larger. He opened one of the many windows in the hallway and noticed the little space he had to put his toes onto before he would have a free fall from two stories up. As he was outside of the window, he looked into the window below him and noticed quite a few of the white coats hanging from clothes racks. Unfortunately, they weren't the only ones in the room. There was a small group of people and it looked as if one person has teaching them something about human anatomy. 'How weird...', he thought. 'I hope they didn't do anything weird to me.' He positioned himself so that they wouldn't be able to see him and let himself into the room. He quickly changed his clothes and was happy to wear anything at all. One of the persons in the room must have noticed something moving, because they all stood up pretty quickly. Without much thinking other than 'Shit, shit, shit! Get away, get away, get away!', Kaito went straight back to the window and jumped out of it, forgetting he was still one story up off the ground, but he just wanted to get the hell away from there. He landed in a smooth crouch on the ground, completely unharmed and ready to flee. Which he did immediately without giving much thought about what had just happened. He could hear voices in the distance, but he was already too far away from them to have any chance of catching up on him. When Conan finally woke up again he felt better than the second time he woke up. He felt a little odd but didn't really notice any difference besides that and decided to tried try and figure out a way to get out of there. While he was looking around he noticed that there was no one else in here, he also wondered what exactly they did to him and who it was. If it was the BO they probably would have killed him already so he asked himself who else it could be. But right now he just wanted to get away from this place. Somehow Conan managed to get free and when he stood up he also felt more balanced. But now he just wanted to get outta there and after noticing that all doors were locked from inside he tried to use the ventilation shaft. He got forward pretty fast and silently and no one noticed any sounds. He was kinda curious about that but now he searched for his clothes and found them after a while. He opened the shaft and jumped out and wondered that he landed so smooth. 'Think about that later...' He thought and quickly changed into his own clothes. After that he looked around. He was really curious about what kind of building this was but he couldn't do anything alone so he thought about escaping first. 'I'll find out more about that building later...' and got back in the ventilation shaft to look for an exit or something like that. After a little while he saw some light at the end of the shaft and was glad to get out of there. But when he opened it he noticed that he's really high up, maybe first or second floor. "Geez..it's impossible to get safely out with being this high up..." he whispered quietly to himself and sighed. Just when he wanted to turn around and search for another exit he suddenly heard some loud noise in the shaft and got so shocked that he accidentally fell out. He shut his eyes and realized he would hit the hard ground but when he opened them he already was on the ground without any injuries at all. He blinked, because when he looked up he could see the vent opening far above his head, he was pretty confused and shocked. But after he heard some people talking he just skipped thinking about it and ran away and looked for the next bus stop or something, because he still didn't know where he was exactly. When Kaito reached to the first few houses, he recognized his surroundings and was happy, that he had only to take a few shortcuts and he would be home. After what felt like a little eternity, he was home again and changed into his own clothes. Now that he had time to think, he wondered just what they had done to him. When his mother came home from work, she fuzzed over him and told him how worried she was, that he hadn't come home that last day at all. Telling the truth was a little awkward, so he told her that he was doing some research with Jii. He did have a heist coming up in the next few days. Her look told him that she didn't believe him one bit, but she sighed and let him go. He finally realized that he was tired, so he went to bed quite early. After a while, Conan found out that he wasn't that far away from Beika and got back to the agency. Where Ran yelled at him, because she was really worried, but he just told her that he was playing at Agasa-hakase's house and forgot the time. She finally accepted it and he could go to bed...he was really tired. But still he wondered who those guys were and what they did to him. After a while he just fell asleep and the next morning Ran had a little trouble waking him up because this morning he was more than just tired. But in the end he had to get up and get ready for school. While he was eating breakfast and went to school he yawned a lot, and at school he almost fell asleep during the lessons. During the day he often felt pretty tired but he got used to it after a while. At the end of the day they had sports and had to do some athletics. Conan was more a fan of soccer but when it was his turn he wondered since when he could move that fast and smoothly. His classmates were almost clapping when he did all exercises perfectly. But he was happy when the sports lesson was over and school ended soon, too. But he was still a little curious about what had happened. The next day at school, Kaito was greeted by a worried, yet furious Aoko Nakamori. Of course, that was because he had been absent that last day without any excuse. So one part of the mop wielding girl was worried about her best friend’s health and the other part was highly annoyed, that he most likely just skipped school that day. When the magician flipped her skirt, the first reason was quickly forgotten and the wild chase began once again. Kaito dodged her mop of doom several times quite easily and seemed to fly over the several heads of their schoolmates. Not that this act was so strange coming from him, but the easiness of these moves alone brought him back enough to the last day, that Aoko had the chance of hitting him with the cleaning utensil onto his head. Which was quite painful by the way. As his revenge, he colored her hair blue and Hakuba's green. He found out long ago that changing the witch's hair was either painfully embarrassing or embarrassingly painful. He didn't like both of the possibilities, so he let her off the hook. Now, he got chased by the detective as well, which was also fun. The detective made the funniest faces when he was pissed off. Having enough of his antics, Aoko reached for her ultimate weapon: The fish she bought before school for the meal her father wanted to prepare this afternoon. It had the desired effect. The magician yelped and took cover in one of the corners in the classroom, on the ceiling. What was new, however, were the ears, that were visible on his head and the tail which twitched around at his back. He noticed it after his two friends, gave another yelp and disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Hakuba looked disbelieving at the spot where his rival had been moments ago. "What the...?", he asked the world in general, before deciding that this was definitely not his day and he just walked back to his seat ignoring what had just happened. On one of the rooftops near the school, a distressed Kaito Kuroba was sitting at one of the edges, inspecting his new tail. He also noticed how his ears would move in one direction or another, which was quite fun and good for his hearing, but quite unnerving after a while. His tail twitched in agreement. He wondered just what deity he had pissed off to deserve something like this. Now he knew just what those people did to him, but wasn't sure if he wanted to know just 'how' they did it. 'I guess it's probably better that I don’t know.' he decided. After a while, he stood up and went home while running across the rooftops. Not that he did it as the Kid often enough, but now that the ears and the tail were there, he really felt the balance of a cat and it would be a lie to say that he didn't enjoy it. He soon reached home and the first thing he did was look into the mirror in his bathroom. He really had two black cat ears on his head. Seeing this, he sighed, went to his room and let himself drop on the bed. After the excitement vanished however, he felt the ears and the tail disappearing. 'Huh? So they will not be there the whole time...that’s good at least..', he thought relieved. 'I just wonder why they came out earlier?' After a while Conan was finally home and really hungry. He put his school bag down somewhere and went to the kitchen and wondered what Ran was cooking because it smelled really good. He looked around the corner in the kitchen and saw how Ran was cooking some fish. He got more hungry and stared at the fish and didn't notice the fact that he had suddenly cat-ears and also a tail. Ran noticed Conan and blushed a little. "Aww, Conan-kun! What a cute costume!", she said smiling. "Huh? Costume?", he said surprised and noticed that he had a tail and blinked. 'What the ...!?', was all he could think while staring at his tail until he remembered that Ran was still there and looked at her. "Ah, yes, it's for a party.", he said with a little smile, "I still have some homework so...", he said quickly and ran off to the bathroom. Conan locked the bathroom door and hope that Ran wouldn't ask why. He looked at the tail again and got a little more shocked when he could move it and also noticed that something was wrong with his ears because they felt quite fuzzy. 'Oh.. great...', he thought when he looked into the mirror and saw how his ears moved and he couldn't control it. Conan sat down and while he looked at his tail twitching he was thinking what exactly happened. 'So now I'm not only a shrunken High School-Detective.. I have also a tail and big cat ears...', he thought and sighed. 'Ran thought this is a costume but if I keep showing up like that with moving tail and ears she'll figure out that they're real...', he was thinking and while he was considering how it'll disappear he also noticed that his hearing was better, even though... he didn't really wanted to hear Kogoro's singing to Yoko Okino. When Ran knocked at the door and asked if everything's okay, he looked up to the door and noticed that the ears and the tail disappeared. 'So they disappear after a while...', he thought and unlocked the door and smiled to Ran. "Yes, everything's okay." "Hm.. okay, then come on.", she said smiling and went back to the kitchen, "Lunch will be ready in 5 minutes. I made fish.", she said and while he already smelt it again his ears popped out again just when she said fish. He hid his ears with his hands and knew why they came out before. After a short while he tried to relax himself a little and the ears disappeared again, and for him it was probably the best idea to just pass the lunch but somehow he really wanted to eat some fish. "Uhm.. Ran-neechan? Can I eat in my room? I have still a lot of homework...", he said with an innocent smile and while Ran watched at him she nodded with a sighed and gave him some food on a plate. "Yes, you can. But bring the dishes back when you're done.", she said. "Thanks a lot Ran-neechan!", she said and went in his room with the food and while he really enjoyed eating the fish his ears popped out again and also his tail was twitching around. Conan sweat-dropped a little when he saw how his tail was twitching while he was enjoying the fish. 'I guess that's even weirder than being shrunk...', he thought and finished eating, his tail and the ears disappeared again. He brought the dishes back and searched for Ran. "Thanks again for letting me eat in my room.", he said smiling. 'I hope I won't have to do this to often… but it's probably only with fish... at breakfast everything was normal...', he thought. "No problem.", Ran said and smiled. "Glad that you like the food.". Conan was nodding with a kind smile. "Well, I'm going upstairs and do the rest of my homework, okay?", he said and was already going to the door. "Okay, have fun.", she called after him and giggled shortly, before she went back to cleaning the dishes. Kaito pondered quite a while about the reason they popped out back then, but came to no real conclusion. 'Was it because of the f-...scaly thing?', he wondered. Had to be, right? So, he had to avoid them. It's not like he already did that as much as he could. Maybe he could get Aoko and his mom to stop scaring him with them like this. As if approving his new theory, the doorbell rang and startled him. He went down and saw a worried Aoko in front of him. "Ne...are you okay?", she asked him and looked at his head and behind him for any signs of strange ears and tail. When she wasn't able to find anything, she was even more confused. "Why don't you just come in?", he offered and let her in his house. She brought his school bag with her and put it on the kitchen table. They sat around the table in silence until Aoko searched for his cat-ears again. "Say, Kaito...what exactly was that at school?", she wondered and pointed a finger at his head. He sighed and wondered for a brief second if he could talk his way out of this, but guessed he couldn't. The ears might pop out again, if she was trying to scare him with the scaly evil things again. "Well, I was at some sort of laboratory, yesterday. They kidnapped me off the street and did something strange with me. That was the reason I wasn't at school. I just noticed what it was in school, like you did as well. Still don't know what it is exactly, but the things you were looking for just now did exist.", he explained and waited for her response. She pondered over what he said and suddenly, there was a smug smile on her lips. He inched away from her with a bad feeling and before he could get further away from the evil girl, she held the same fish in front of his face again. He yelped and did a jump backwards off of the chair he was sitting in, but landing on all fours with the ears and tail out again. The fish was put hastily away and Aoko hurried to him, pulling at his ears and feeling them. "Whaaa~ kawaii!", she squealed, while he was too perplexed to do anything else than gape at her. Aoko was still touching his ears the whole time and totally loved them. "Aww, they're so soft. Never imagined that you could be so cute~!", she said smiling. She kept staring at them and giggled when they moved. "Will they always pop out when I scare you with some fish?", she said with a grin on her face. Kaito gulped down the fear and took a look at her. She really didn't seem to mind them, in fact, she seemed to really like them, which seemed weird to him. ‘But then again this whole day has been weird.', he thought. "I dunno...they did two times, but...Aoko?", he asked hesitantly. "If you want them to pop out...can we try to find a better method, please?" "Hm?". She looked at him and giggled. "Hm... if you're nice to me.", she said with a grin. "What else could I do...", she said while she looked thoughtful up. "Ah, maybe I can pat you like a cat!", she said smiling and patted him already and giggled. He just looked so cute. He sweat dropped and couldn’t really do anything against it. When she brushed against his ears, a pleasant shudder ran along his spine and he moaned a little, closed his eyes and leaned forward without thinking into her hand. When she saw that she giggled a little and kept patting. "Kawaii~", she said quietly, watching him. "Right now you really just look like a big cat, you know Kaito?", she said and grinned at him. He muttered something incomprehensible, already too far away to really notice what she was saying. His head slowly dropped into her lap and he curled up against her just like a cat would do. She smiled and giggled when she saw how much he enjoyed it. After a while she stopped and smiled. "And how do they disappear again?", she asked and was still touching his ears. It took a while for the question to register, but when it did, he snapped out of his reverie and bolted upright again, face flushed in a bright red. "I-I think when I relax again and calm down...but I am not sure.” She giggled again when she saw his red face. "I see~ like when you see fish and get panic and the ears pop out and when you calm down from that again they're disappearing?", she asked with a little grin. He shrugged, the blush in his face fading. "I guess so...what are you aiming at?", he asked uneasily, his tail twitching in irritation. She looked at his tail and giggled. "Nothing special~", she said in an innocent voice which seemed rather suspicious. "Uh huh...", he said disbelieving, itching further away from her. "Since it's nothing special you can just refrain from doing whatever evil plan is forming in your head right now.", he insisted, but had little hope. "I don't know what you're talking about~", she said innocently and looked at him again. "Aww, you just look like a big kitty~", she said again and touched his ears. He rolled his eyes and sighed. A little of the feeling from earlier returned and he was definitely not going into that mood again. She looked around and then to Kaito. "Does your mom know about this?", she asked and looked at the tail again. He shook his head. "Not yet, no...", he said and sighed. He didn't really look forward to that. "But you're gonna tell her, right? I mean.. it'd be hard to hide something like that from her...", she said and watched to his tail and the ears. "I guess I have to, huh?", he asked, grinning slightly. She nodded and grinned a little. "But you won't go out at night and chase mice, will you?", she asked and giggled a little. "What about Hakuba-kun and Akako-chan?", she asked curiously. He shook his head. "No, definitely not." He shuddered at the thought alone. "And I'm pretty sure, that Koizumi has already some guess...she's weird like that.", he said and sighed. "And it would probably break Hakuba's mind anyway. But if they ask, I tell them, alright?" "Hm... okay, if you think so", she said an smiled again. "I'll try to keep the fish away from you for awhile.. But only if you're nice to me." He glared at her, but he knew that he really didn’t have a choice right now. And he didn't like it. She grinned devilishly and stood up again. "Well, I guess my dad is already wondering where I am. I promised I would cook dinner tonight.", she said and looked at her watch. "See you tomorrow!", she said smiling and giggled a little while she patting him once more. He snarled a little, but brought her to the door anyway. "See you tomorrow!", he said and was happy, when his ears and tail finally disappeared shortly after she left. After that, Conan thought about what he could do and decided to go to Agasa's place. "I'm going to Agasa-hakase’s!", he said and went down the stairs. After a short while he already was there and rang the bell of his house. The professor opened the door and wasn't much surprised to find the shrunken detective in front of his door. "Oh, Shinichi! Nice that you dropped by. I have a new game you might want to test with the others." "Sorry, but right now I don't have time for this...", he said and sighed. "Yesterday I got kidnapped and since then really weird stuff is happening...", he explained. "Can I come in?", he asked because he didn't want to explain everything in front of the house. The professor raised his eyebrows and stepped aside to let him in. He wondered just what this weird stuff could be. Conan went in and looked to the professor. After he closed the door he continued explaining. "Well... yesterday some kind of scientist I guess kidnapped me and while I was out they did something to me. After a while I woke up and could escape from there and when I was at the agency everything was fine, except the fact that I was really tired. But then strange stuff happened. I can hear better and move more smoothly. And today when I got home after school Ran cooked some fish and just because I smelled it I got cat ears and even a tail! The professor looked dumb at him, not believing what the teenager just told him. "Now, come on, Shinichi...", he said. "This is not the time for jokes and on top of that, the shrinking thing was bad enough." The boy looked at him and muttered. "I'm telling the truth, really!", he said a little annoyed because the Professor didn't believe him. 'Well… it really sounds like some crazy story that would never happen...', he thought, but it was true. "Fine, I'll show you then!", he said and went into the kitchen. Curious, he followed Conan into the kitchen and wondered what he was up to now. He guessed he wanted to find the fish he was just talking about. He went to the fridge to search for some fish. Just when he spotted some and took it, his ears appeared again, just like the tail. He noticed that immediately and put the fish back and looked to the professor. "Do you believe me now?" He looked up to the professor and waited for his reaction. The professor stared at him. "That...that...", he spluttered before falling silent and observing the boy. "I guess I need some coffee...or tea. Tea would be better, yeah.", he said, suddenly turning around and searching for his teapot. After he brewed the tea, he sat down in the kitchen chair and stared at Conan again, processing just what he was seeing. He sighed and gave in. "Alright, I don't know how they did that, but I guess this is not something, that can be overcome easily." Conan sighed in relief. "Finally...", he muttered and noticed the look of the professor, who was probably still staring at his ears or the tail, that was twitching behind him. "I guess you don't know what to do about this, right?", he said and looked at him again. The professor shook his head. "Maybe if I knew how they did that, but otherwise...no, I don't think so.", he said and looked at him again. "You really do have the strangest things happen to you, you know that Kudo?", came a young female voice from the door. "Should I be glad that this time, I'm definitely not responsible for it?", Ai Haibara asked and watched the twitching of his tail in amusement. He sighed, but he knew that the answer was something like that. When he heard Ai he looked at her and sweat-dropped. "It's not like I want these things to happen to me.", he said a little annoyed, still twitching his tail. "I'm happy that you don't have to do anything with this...", he said, "but you probably don't know anything about this either, right?", he said while raising his eyebrow. She raised her eyebrows and looked at his tail again. "No, but I can try to find some things out. Not that I have much hope...", she trailed off. "Great...", he sighed. He wondered why this experimenting stuff is always happening to him. Wasn't it already enough to get shrunk? "I think I have to tell Ran about this... She'll notice it soon anyways..", he said, moving his tail more slowly while he was thinking. She raised her eyebrows shortly and observed him for a while. "It's not like your or her life depends on it, right? Most likely anyway. So it would be better like that. Are you going to tell her father as well?" He nodded and looked in her direction. "I'm not sure... I'll tell Ran first and ask her if it'd be better if he knows or not..", he said and the ears and the tail disappeared again. "Hm.. i wonder if this happens only when I get near fish...", , he asked himself. "Well, that's your choice.", she told him and shrugged her shoulders. "I can't tell...but I guess you will find soon enough.", she asked with a devilish smile and disappeared from the door to go back into her lab. "Probably...", he said and looked at her. 'Even though it's not her fault she's acting like she knows better...', he thought and sighed, 'Scary.'. He looked to the professor again and also went to the door. "Well… I think it's the best if I'll tell her soon as possible." The professor looked at him again and nodded. "I guess that's better, Shinichi. Good luck!", he smiled faintly. "Thanks hakase..", he said not very happy, "See ya.", and he went off back to the agency. When he was back he first checked if Kogoro was around but it seemed like he was off to see a client. 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)