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If anyone asked Shinichi, he would tell them that ending up in the hospital is actually not the worst thing that could have happened.
That’s why, no one asked Shinichi. Ran would scold Nakamori Keibu, Hakuba would scold Kuroba then himself, and Aoko would wish she could scold KID himself. But none would ever realize the true cause of why he was here in the first place.
However, he supposes, it wasn’t something he expected. So far, his bad luck had been diminished greatly whenever he was at KID’s heist. That doesn’t mean the odds of something happening were eliminated, it just meant, well, that Shinichi was hoping the reprieve of simply enjoying the heist would last a little longer.
Shinichi’s luck, however, had other ideas and figured he’d had a long enough break.
It had started with a guy a little too stubborn for Shinichi’s liking. He was standing near a buffet table as if was being set up, another one of Sonoko’s themed parties for the Heist. With Halloween drawing ever near, this time was a costume ball. Sonoko insisted Shinichi be there to point out KID in case he’d been disguised among her staff and she wanted his personal autograph.
Since there was no way Sonoko was going to let him refuse, Shinichi gave in pretty quickly, and figured he
would
actually keep a look out for KID. (If only because they hadn’t seen each other recently between cases and Kaito’s planning.)
But of course, KID hadn’t arrived yet, instead this guy had. With shoulders a little too stiff, and a smile a little too bright, and eyes that Shinichi didn’t trust at all.
“Aren’t you that famous detective? Kudo Shinichi, right?” He’d asked, stopping right next to him.
“That would be me, yes” Shinichi didn’t feel inclined to look directly at the visitor just yet, doing one last check for the thief in disguise.
“You seem distracted tonight, care to share?”
Shinichi did glance over at that. The guy seemed to take it as a win. “Not particularly”
“Hey, ya know what they say! Sharing is caring, and besides it might help get it off your mind.”
“No thank you, I-” and that's when the task force finally arrived, a familiar someone along with them. The guy looked to see what had distracted Shinichi, before rolling his eyes and turning right back.
“Your buddies can wait, besides, it's not like i’ve done anything,” Shinichi thought he heard an unspoken
yet
before his wrist was grabbed. “Come on, we can hang out for a while.” and Shinichi was being dragged away attempting to yank his wrist back.
“I’d rather not,” but the grip on his wrist tightened. This time, it was Shinichi’s turn to roll his eyes. They were still in the middle of a banquet hall with plenty of witnesses, security cameras everywhere, and the now entered police force. What could one man do?
The world went black.
A lot, apparently. One man could do a lot. And as a detective, Shinichi wonders if he should have realized this point sooner.
Or well, okay not a lot, but enough to shock Shinichi. At first, he’d thought this would be quick and easy. A simple shout, a well placed kick, hell even Kaito could have come before any of those actions.
Instead, as Shinichi went to yank his wrist back, he fainted. When he awoke, he found Kaito above him, still dressed as a task force member, and the man who’d grabbed him was nowhere to be seen.
“Shinichi? Shinichi!”
“I’m fine, I’m fine….where did he go?” Shinichi asked as he went to stand, stumbled, and was caught by Kaito.
“I went after you and he immediately dropped you on the ground. And being the gentleman I am, I had to offer you my hand” he said, giving Shinichi one of his cocky smirks.
Shinichi simply blinked, “You really are at the pique of chivalry.” Going to rub his head at the incoming headache, “
Agh-”
he tumbled back down. Though, not far as Kaito was still holding him.
“Shinichi! What’s wrong?”
Shinichi couldn’t answer as the pain continued, but he could feel rough hands around his back and under his knees before finally everything came back to him with fresh air. They were on the roof.
Kaito, pokerface forgotten, sweeps Shinichi’s hair away from his face.
‘What the…” he whispers, though not in an attempt to hide it from Shinichi.
“What?” he asks, and Kaito pulls a mirror from his pocket, (why he has one, there's really no point in asking) and Shinichi sees the crescent sitting on his forehead.
Before they can talk any further, however, the laughter and rambunctious sounds of guests arriving become far more clear. So Shinichi pushes himself out of Katio’s arms and says, “Go, I’ll be fine.” Katio’s look is dubious and he clearly wants to argue, so Shinichi lifts a hand, kisses it, and lays it against Kaito’s cheek. “I would say good luck, but she’d always on your side. I’ll wait up here.”
With that, Kaito leaves.
At what was expected to be the end of the heist, Shinichi was still sitting on the rooftop waiting for Kaito. He was not, however, waiting for Hakuba.
“Kudo-kun, I was unaware you were attending this heist?” he says and he comes from the door only to find a detective.
“Ah, hello Hakuba. I wasn’t feeling well so I figured I’d sit out in the fresh air tonight instead.” a weak, but probable lie.
Hakuba stares for a moment, likely trying to discern if the detective really is who he says, or if its the thief in disguise. “Would you like an escort home?”
“No, that's quite alright. I’ll wait for this to end and the crowds to disperse first.”
Of course, because Kaito never did anything at a reasonable time, that was when he chose to come barreling out of the door.
Shinichi however, couldn’t focus as one minute he saw the two rivals standing off, the next his head was back to pounding, he was running towards Kaito before another blinding pain landed in his shoulder.
For the second time that night, Shinichi lost consciousness.
And this is how one Kudo Shinichi found himself, unsurprisingly, in the hospital again. This time, however, with a gunshot wound in his shoulder, a crescent on his head, an incredibly worried boyfriend, and more questions than answers.