Disclaimer: I own nothing and no one

That is why it is called fanfiction

For Motif, I twisted your idea a bit

I hope you still like it

Act I

A pair of dark blue eyes snapped open, irises dilating to make use of the moonlight that shined through the half open window. Something was not right. Another person may have thought they were imagining it, Hitomi Kuroba knew better. She could neither hear nor see anything amiss, by all accounts it was a perfectly peaceful night. But her instincts were screaming at her, and that was all the warning any phantom thief needed, even a retired one.

Hyper aware of her son's presence just down the hall, the young woman silently slipped from beneath the sheets. Her movements were quick, but graceful as she retrieved a katana from a hidden alcove near the bed. The gleaming edge revealing that this was no practice blade.

Only a few people were aware that Hitomi was a master swordsman. She had been somewhat clumsy as a child, and studying kenjutsu had sounded so much more interesting than dance lessons. It was a decision the woman was now grateful for. If those bastards thought she would be an easy target they would have another thing coming.

A faint flicker of movement caught her eye and she whirled, a snarl on her lips, only to pause. "Toichi," she whispered in disbelief as she beheld her dead husband. For a moment the tip of the blade wavered before coming up again, she wouldn't be taken in that easily. "Where did you buy my engagement ring?" she demanded ready and willing to skewer the figure if he gave the wrong answer.

The magician just grinned, seemingly unconcerned by the threat of death. "I didn't," he responded without hesitation. "I forged it and the matching earrings myself out of a gold ingot I stole from Fort Knox." Perhaps it had been a little over the top but he had wanted to prove himself worthy of her. Besides, he had always loved a challenge.

Hitomi's eyes filled. "Toichi," she took a step forward, the blade coming down. "Oh Anata." Throwing herself at her husband, the young woman began to sob. "I thought," she choked. "I thought . . ."

"I know Hitomi." Toichi hugged back just as hard, inhaling the familiar scent of his wife's hair. Vanilla and Jasmine. It had been close, too close.

"The body?" she asked after a moment. The flames had done too much damage for a positive identification.

Toichi closed his eyes in pain. "Jii," his partner had saved his life at the cost of his own. Everything had happened so fast after that. He knew that if Snake discovered he had missed, the assassin would try again. Perhaps this time threatening his family, and that was something the kaitou would not, could not allow. It had been an easy decision after that, to slip into his old friend's shoes, quite literally.

But he didn't tell Hitomi any of that. He didn't have to. His wife was more than intelligent enough to realize what had happened, and what was going to happen next. To the world, Toichi Kuroba was dead.

"What are we going to tell Kaito?" she asked softly.

There was a moment of silence before the magician sighed. "The truth," young as he was, his son knew how to keep a secret. Lifting a hand, Toichi gently tucked a stray bit of hair out of Hitomi's face. "We will train him," he said softly. Really, they had no other choice, not if they wanted Kaito to be safe. What he did after that, well that would be his decision.

"He'll be better than you, better than me." Toichi had already seen flashed of that brilliance in the ease with which Kaito mastered new tricks. The look of concentration on his face as he slid out of ropes, or picked a lock. "And when he is ready then," he tightened his grip on the woman he had nearly lost, half of his greatest treasure. "Then we will finish this."

FoaGFoaGFoaG

AU obviously. The idea of Toichi living is interesting

But I can't see him abandoning his family. Sighs, if only I wasn't writing

Phantom of a Thief I would be tempted to turn this into a whole story.