Title: Dandelions
Fandom: Detective Conan
Author: Clamowamo!
Characters: Jodie Starling & Shuichi Akai
Theme: 27, Mimic/Imitation.
Disclaimer: Meitantei Conan is the sole property of Aoyama Goshou. (and Shogakukan, Yomiuri Television, Nihon Television, Shogakukan Production, TOHO, and TMS (1994-2006).)

Notes: Takes place between the Haunted Ship arc and Haibara's resolution.

Considering the failed arrest two days ago, he didn't really have a reason to be bored. He could have been finishing the small mountain of paperwork that had been piling up, following the few possible leads that had been discovered or maybe keeping on eye on the 'kidnapped' 'children.' But of course, it was better to stay as far away as possible from the last thing as he could. He wasn't even going to bother himself, he'd just send a subordinate or two if he felt the need.

But out of all the things he could be doing, of all the things he definitely should have been doing, he found himself spending a rainy afternoon guarding his partner's hospital room. Even worse, said partner was brooding. And brooding, and brooding, and brooding.

"--I can't believe they actually fell for her cheap imitation of me! They should know better, why would I ever call off an operation like that! WE. WOULD'VE. HAD. HER."

"Yeah, yeah," he muttered, it was a half-assed attempt at placating her.

"Had you not shown up late--"

"You'd be dead?"

She glared, "Maybe we would've caught her already?"

"Maybe not," he shrugged and tucked his hands into his coat pockets. "And if we caught her, have you considered what we'd do afterwards? I don't think our task force, or even the Japanese police for that matter, would be ready for Their backlash. That woman... I believe they'd get her back somehow, hell or high water."

"Oh yeah, I sometimes forget you're the 'kill the root to kill the weed' guy."

"I guess," he pulled out a pack of cigarettes, lightly packing them against his leg. "but we'd have to tear the whole damn earth apart to get all the root. I'd say, wait for more weeds to pop up and we'll work our way through the ground from there."

"But That Woman is the only excuse the American government has for investigating here. We don't have any solid proof of anyone else committing crimes on American soil."

"No, that's your only reason for being here," he said, unwrapping the shrink wrap from his cigarettes and stuffing the trash in his pocket, "but we hardly have any proof that CHRIS Vineyard committed any crimes. Yeah, the fingerprints match, but until we figure out how someone can stay twenty-nine for twenty years, no one'll believe a word we say. We can't do a thing until we pick more leads."

She fell silent for a moment and adverted her attention to her hands. "We'll you've got me there... but..." It was then that something clicked, she looked up at him with a look of apprehension and shock. He smirked, only slightly, with a cigarette tucked haphazardly between his lips. "'Pick more leads?' Was that a pun? I thought you put your sense of humor to rest a long time ago." He was giving her a 'ha-ha-now-shut-the-hell-up' look, she just grinned back. "Hey, that was pretty punny!"

She laughed, and then yelped as the action stretched certain freshly wounded muscles the wrong way. He rolled his eyes.
Calling her a dumb ass was the last thing he said before he left for his afternoon smoke break.

Author's Notes: I've been wanting to do one of these nifty little 30 theme challenges on eljay ever since Candy-chan started doing hers (read them, they're good!), but I could never really find anything that worked. Then one day, I found the 30gen community and had a sudden revelation: I CAN'T WRITE ROMANCE. I don't know if I'm necessarily bad at it or not, but of the times I've tried, I end up looking my fluff and/or angst writings over and discarding them. That just isn't me, I'm more of the unromantic and goofy type. Based on that and being told that I wrote them well, I decided I'd do the 30gen challenge on Shuichi and Jodie.
My only problem so far is deciding if these should be connected or not. Right now I'm going with 'kind of.' If you see a plus sign (assuming ff dot net hasn't abolished the use of those too) it indicates the story is a part of a greater story line. Maybe a three, four, five parter? I don't know.
Hopefully this will get finished. Wish me luck, give me comments and/or constructive criticism, but mostly: thanks for reading!