Saguru really should not discuss birthday gifts within earshot of Kuroba, much less directly to him.

For future reference, always always always dig deep into your family history before attempting any form of shapeshifting, demon summoning, picking up items of mystic or unknown provenence, opening up sexual relations, or pitting yourself against a hero/villain. I think it's in the Evil Overlord list.

"Chicken egg?"

"Check."

"Cushioning Charm?"

Jo tapped the egg with her wand. "Check."

"Industrial epoxy?"

For the record? My family has the best recipe for thumbprint cookies. Period. Every other recipe I've ever seen is a shortbread-and-jam type, sometimes rolled in nuts, or the kind with the Hershey kiss stuck in. Our recipe is a chocolate chip-and-chocolate-ganache type rolled in powdered sugar*. Tell me that does not beat jam hands-down. (If you do I WON'T BELIEVE YOU.)

Kaito's daemon settled the day they laid his father's ashes to rest.

Saguru, it must be said, had a finer appreciation of humanity than he did of instruments, and of authenticity than he did of pretense. He frequented several places around Tokyo that, had they been in America, would have been called speakeasies by the layman only familiar with such venues from movies set post-Prohibition. None fit comfortably into such simple categories as bar, restaurant, or theatre; most had an unwritten policy of firmly ejecting uncouth parties. All of them featured vocalists, usually singular, in styles that were not so much 'forgettable lounge act' as they were 'Billie Holiday' and 'Norah Jones'.

And then we must ask ourselves, if Eiichi's karma is this bad with help, what the hell would he be attracting without?

Poor, poor Conan. "Only one truth" has its problems...

This was all Kouchan's fault.

He tripped headlong over the ball again, smashing into someone sitting on a park bench. The man's suitcase skittered over the ground and popped open, a cushioned velvet box tumbling out.

Oh, not again.

Ai levelly observed the small child staring silently up at her with curious blue eyes. A rather short four years old, the boy was relatively clean for his age, clutching a well-laundered plush bird and not drooling very much as he sucked on two tiny fingers. Perhaps it was Pavlovian of her, but that mild, wide-eyed innocence made her fingers itch for her old Shounen Tantei badge and the police on speed-dial.

At the age of twelve, Conan had inherited Kogoro's standing invitation to the Halloween ghost ship-slash-casting call.

207: Kidnapping:
Code Three: Emergency response (lights and sirens):
*sshft*
"Dispatch, this is Unit Twenty-Four, we have a 207-Posse, repeat, we have a 207-Posse."
"Copy that, Twenty-Four. All available units, Code Three, repeat, Code Three, 207-Posse. Twenty-Four, is Posse-One in the 207?"
"Roger, Dispatch. Posse-One, Posse-Two, and Posse-Four are in the 207."
"Roger, Twenty-Four, fire department is on standby."

For most of the world, Tuesdays were fairly unremarkable. It was the night of nuked leftovers and mediocre television, of putting off projects and not studying for the unevitable Friday tests.

In the Kuroba household, it was the night Kaito usually worked late, for exactly that reason. "No one's vigilant on a Tuesday," he'd said more than once, sometimes scoffing, sometimes laughing. "That's what makes it perfect for test runs."

Persona 4. Yosuke POV. Takes place early in the second playthrough, if you beat the game so you get to keep all your stats and money and stuff. Assumes you got a monster that my roommate flat-out refuses to take.

Conan: And I do NOT appreciate chasing MY OWN SON around doing the same stupid stunts your father pulled when we were your age!

In the face of a DNA analysis Kaito can't deny, he begins uncovering the rest of his family's secrets. Too bad he's not the only one looking.

It had taken a couple hours, but eventually, Dr. Kuwabara's invoked legality showed up in some of the oldest regulations Starfleet had. It was one of perhaps a half-dozen, buried among hundreds, that hadn't been overridden by later additions since the formation of the Federation.

Yukina had just finished the diagnostic on a medical tricorder, when the Sickbay doors swished open and Crusher-sensei hauled a half-conscious man through.

A familiar hand clapped down over Conan's mouth, an arm like an iron band scooping him off his feet to spin into the darkness. Padded metal clicked over his wrist, the watch snapping free and vanishing, then Conan's back thumped up against cold concrete and Kid shoved his other hand up to lock the handcuffs around it.

What on earth were Snake's masters thinking? "Oh yes, shoot Kaitou Kid on live national television," Saguru muttered, flicking his gaze up past his hand in the direction of Kid's escape, though the glider had vanished into the night. "That'll keep us out of the public eye." He made a disdainful sound in his throat, pretended it didn't sound miserable. "Imbiciles..."

Kid's dress is soaked through.

He doesn't really notice, at first, kneeling in the mud by the riverbank, empty-handed and watching the paramedics load Conan into the ambulance. Their pulsing lights mingle with those of the police, Conan's little cohort clamoring at the ambulance doors and officers circling like sharks. Even that doesn't dredge up his instinct to run, drowned -- bad word, bad word -- as it is in the twist in his stomach.

Figures. Soon as I go bemoaning my inability to write... bang! Fluff falls out of my head. We all remember Kiss Meme: Calculating, right? Jounouchi and Hakuba keep falling on each other mouth-first? Well, if you don't, here are Pts. 1-6 and Pt. 7.

So did I mention this fic has a bit of CCS on the sidelines? No? It does. (In case you didn't catch it, it's Kaiba's "inhumanly patient secretary".) And sadly, there is no Jounouchi/Hakuba in this part, nor is it what I've been trying to write as Pt. 8 for months. But how could I resist this opening line?
Pt. 8

When Kaito trips over a mysterious little girl messing with Hakuba, he gets caught up in a plot that'll shatter his world.

Rube Goldberg Devices

Did Gyre and Gimble 5

narrow escapes

glow in the dark paint

relocated furniture

muggle-born OC's prank Umbridge.

Draco stared at the Weasel twins in considerable horror, then turned on his boyfriend. "You. Did. WHAT?"

Harry, bloody Gryffindor that he was, didn't wilt properly under Draco's justified indignation. "I quoted Lucius' letter to them."

First part of a giftfic written for Ickaimp's "The Grey Zone".

Somebody had been in a morbid mood the day he wrote this, Kaito thought, chewing absently on the capped end of his red pen. The riddle itself was easy enough, with a bit of thought

"Ran and I went shopping today. She wouldn't hold my hand through the crowds. If you know... if you understand... meet me where we first faced off. Please."

Conan hadn't come to the party.

Without any murders, disappearances, death threats, or thefts having occured during the performance or while Kaito and his fellow interns were packing up for the next night, that only meant that Conan couldn't have reached the theater at all, three hours ago. And although sometimes cases did take three hours to solve, something about waiting for Conan this time prickled in Kaito's heart like a perfect rehearsal would. One of the theater superstitions that made sense, perfection meant overconfidence, meant disaster in the making.

Two days since the letter had arrived. Two days only knowing that Harry had faced an evil wizard, and that he was expected to make a full recovery. Two nights spent sleepless, the image of the still-too-small eleven-year-old's terror against a faceless, red-eyed shape with too much similarity to Vernon Dursley.

This was not what Trowa had expected of the 'finest wizarding school in the world'.

It was okay. She could do this. It was just like denouncing the killer, solo. She could practically do that in her sleep. Okay, so she'd only had three or four -- no, wait, there'd been the time with her grandmother up in Hokkaido -- five cases, then, where she hadn't had any of the Tantei there to back her up and cross-check theories. But still, she could do this.

Another year at Hogwarts, and, as always, last year's events have consequences... Sequel to The Best Defense. Not Yoma's, see my profile for links. Yu Yu HakushoHarry Potter crossover. ON HIATUS until the author's detoxed from HP.

Yuusuke has a talk with Kurama, and along the way clears up some troubling inconsistencies. Rated for language.

Joisbishmyoga

Voldemort's return has caught the attention of more than the Order of the Phoenix. The Spirit World's best are on the case, but can they handle Hogwarts (or Harry) without blowing their cover? Hiei/Kurama, Ron/Hermione, other pairings. Crossover between Harry Potter and Yu Yu Hakusho.