#my humble contribution to this au populated with amazing art

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AN: PROLOGUE|| Part 1 || Part 2     Pardon the tardiness! Here’s my words as part of the Pandora’s Tears au, Kaito’s POV

By now Kaito’s used to the exhaustion, the weariness dragging at his bones and rattling his lungs with every heaving cough, while the timer on his life ticks away ever so patiently. It’s a race against time and his own life, a gamble that he plays against himself while he burns away his hours and days on the chance to have more in his future than a finish line at only twenty-five. His chips are down on red, the life-saving red that will be his prize if he comes out alive, if he makes it out without dying. Because his demise can come from a bullet, or from his own body. 

But the cold wind on the rooftop is bracing and he doesn’t have time to waste on those kinds of thoughts right now, not when he’s holding himself together by the knot of his tie and the threads of his cape. KID has no earthly troubles holding him, he’s not shackled to death by any kind of burden; the fact that KID survived his father proves that. That’s the kind of immortality he’s looking for, though in a more permanent fashion. 

The High Tide Hotel looks serene from outside, hiding the frantic anthill of activity that has taken over its corridors and main ballroom. It’s a beautiful building, expensive and situated next to a park that livens up the block with its colorful bouquet of leaves in the prime of fall. He’s not a fan of their theme, too much emphasis on the sea for him to appreciate the high quality of the place, but it’s doubtless as good a place as any to find what he’s looking for.

It’s almost too easy to infiltrate the police squad on guard around the gem and Kaito slips in unnoticed, reporting for duty late due to illness. His wheezing breaths are entirely authentic, but he reigns it back in just enough to be kept on the task force; there was no point to displaying his weakness this early on, especially when they’ll eventually realize it was him. Nakamori’s face if he ever found out—with his characteristic gasping surprise—that the dying boy next door is the same one he’d been ordering his officers to dogpile on at every opportunity, would be priceless. 

“Be alert!” Protect the Song of the Sea at all costs!” Nakamori yells from just a few feet away, jaw clenched tight as he stalks the tiled room with brisk steps. “Get into your positions, men! KID will appear soon, so make sure to keep an eye out!” 

It’s just too easy. Kaito smirks, standing at attention alongside the rest with his arms held conveniently behind his back. After how many times that’s aided him in him in a heist, you’d think the police would take notice and change their tune, but instead it keeps giving him the perfect place to pull off his tricks. Flicking his wrist, the smoke bombs drop into his palm with a quiet click he disguises with a discreet, but noisy, cough. He counts down the seconds as he works the smooth marbles between his fingers idly in the meantime.

Three.

 One almost drops from his grip when a shot of pain spasms down his arm. 

Two.

Letting go, he breathes a short sigh of relief as his muscles don’t protest the movement and the smoke bombs roll away down the row in gentle arcs. He’s in the clear. 

One.

Smoke blossoms from the marbles in plumes of violet, hiding the aquariums displayed along the walls as well as the other officers, both of which he’s very glad about. While the squads scramble out of the way of the sleeping gas, he makes a beeline for the jewel, a satisfied smirk spreading across his face. These were the moments he lived for now, the anticipation on the edge of success was the only drug that worked on his condition, even if it was a placebo that did nothing but give him the impression of hope until it wore off. 

The Song of the Sea, pale blue and heavier than he expects, dangles from his fist as he races past Nakamori with a quick tip of his hat and rushes up the stairs. In the past, he’d been faster during these chases, able to jump the gap and run the distances that left the task force panting and him still grinning from above. But now he’s joined them in feeling the burn of his breaths as he skids around a corner, his cape swirling behind him in his wake like a riptide drawing the officers after him. They certainly have a better chance of catching him now than they did before. 

Nevertheless, he reaches the cafe at the top of the hotel with no one else in sight, vacated a short while ago to leave the lights off and the room bathed in moonlight. Holding it up, he tilts the Song of the Sea this way and that in an effort to exhaust every possible angle that it could be hiding inside, but comes up empty regardless. And there’s the crash from the brief high, the reality of another failure settling on his shoulders and he stares out the window, past the beautiful view of the brightly lit city. His mother is meant to report in tonight, some paltry reassurances on her own search and the answers she’s chasing too, and he’ll smile as usual, wave off her apologies for her absence and hope that perhaps next time he sees her he’ll have the solution in his palm. 

“Hand it over.” 

Kaito doesn’t turn immediately, tossing the Song of the Sea into the air idly and thinking over Snake’s offer. The click behind him doesn’t put him on edge either, it feels like an empty promise when he knows death is growing inside him already. 

“It’s not what you’re looking for, I’ll tell you that much.” 

“Hand it over,” Snake repeats, making Kaito glance over his shoulder to meet the man’s glare.

“I’ve already told you, did you not listen?” He doesn’t have the patience for this tonight, not after the disappointment that’s reared its head yet again. He’s had fewer encounters with Snake than he can count on one hand, all of them lasting not much longer than the initial question and a vehement refusal, but he has no interest in continuing the conversation today either. 

“The shard. Hand it over.” 

But that gives him pause. 

“Shard?” Kaito searches his memory, the scraps of paper left in his father’s study and the meager amounts of research he’s managed to scrounge up from irreputable sources. The implications send his mind spinning, trying to make sense of what he knows so far. 

“Of Pandora. We know you have it, stolen twenty years ago.” 

Struggling to maintain his mask of indifference, Kaito twirls the Song of the Sea between his fingers as he searches for how to answer that kind of accusation. Pandora in pieces had never crossed his mind and it seems unlikely, considering the uncharacteristic nature of the gem itself. If it could grant immortality, would it not also be logical for it to keep its whole form ad infinitum? 

 His silence stretches too long, it seems, for Snake and the gun in his hand swerves to aim at his chest. A second before the trigger twitches, the sound of footsteps rings from down one of the service halls that the hotel staff utilizes for expedited efficiency. 

“Get this floor surrounded! No one leaves until I’ve dealt with them myself.” Nakamori’s voice is a welcome relief from the confusion clouding Kaito’s thoughts and he throws himself to the side as the sound of a gunshot rings out a moment too late. He rolls to his feet, the movement slowed by his lingering exhaustion from the stairs and the revelation that had shaken him not a minute before. 

“We’ll have it, one way o r another,” Snake threatens, his last words swallowed by Nakamori’s continued shouts. 

“Guard the exits! Pair up, no one goes alone!” But despite the familiar cadence of the vigorous yelling, Kaito can hear the slightest scratch of static underneath the voice’s register, not to mention the dear Inspector’s never thought to pair his officers up in the two years that they’ve been playing inept cat and the vanishing mouse. 

Straightening up as Nakamori’s approach reaches the entrance to the hotel cafe, he stifles a groan at the way his bones protest the motion. 

“Eavesdropping, are we detective? I would think conversations between thieves and assassins are private business,” he says, proud of the way his voice still retains the usual smooth ease of KID’s teasing despite his weariness with the night. “What brings you here, so late to tonight’s game?”

|| Part 4 ||