Disclaimer:- i do not own DC. If i did, Shinichi and Ran would be going out a long time ago :D

R&R please! i want to know how it is, as it is my first DC fanfic!

It was a Sunday. Detective Mouri had gone to 'stake-out' an apparently suspicious bar, though Ran knew what he was going to do. Conan had gone with Dr. Agasa and the rest of the Junior Detective League for camping.

Ran had decided this was the best time to do a little spring-cleaning. All the troublesome parties were out of the house. Not that she would call Conan troublesome. He was the most mature seven-year-old she had ever seen, which in itself aroused doubts, but she usually warded it off.

She decided to start with the storage cupboards in the office. That was the one place that never got cleaned much. So after a quick breakfast, she headed down. She opened the cupboard, only to have a few of her father's files fall on her.

"Otou-san, how irresponsible can you get?" she muttered under her breath as she gathered the fallen files and put them in one pile on the floor. Bit by bit, she sorted out her dad's files and made three piles to accommodate all of them. Around mid-morning, she stumbled upon a packet. It looked bulky, and it was heavy. Ran wondered what it might be. Something to do with her dad's cases? Well, it was possible. But just to be sure, she decided to check it. Since it was heavy, the packet fell out of her hands just as she opened it, and hundreds of pictures flew out of it onto the floor.

"Oh, great," said Ran, cursing her luck, and bent down to pick them up. But as she looked at them closer, she realized it was pictures of her when she was small. And wait, Shinichi was there in most of them!

Her heart did a little leap. It always did whenever she thought of Shinichi, that mystery freak.

"Well," she thought. "I guess a little peak won't set me back too much."

And that's how she found herself looking at old pictures of her and Shinichi together.

They brought pack a lot of old memories. And a lot of pain. Remembering all the times she had with him made her miss him so much more.

As she sifted through the photos, she came across one of them in third grade. Shinichi was grinning his insanely stupid grin, with a bandage over his left eyebrow, while Ran, standing behind him with her arms around his neck, was also smiling, though it was evident that she had been crying.

"I remember this one," thought Ran. "It was when we had gone to Osaka for a day."

As though a projector had been switched on, the scene replayed itself in her mind…

Yukiko, Shinichi's mother and Eri, Ran's mother had both made plans to take their kids along for a day-trip to Osaka. Once there, they'd shopped, gone to a video-game arcade for the kids, had lunch, and decided to shop again.

"Geez," remarked Shinichi. "How much will you shop?"

"I don't know," said Ran. "But I kinda like it."

"Shopping is boring.."

"Is not!"

"..stressful.."

"Of course not!"

"..unproductive.."

"No!"

"..and did I mention boring?"

"Shut up, Shinichi!" Ran shouted angrily. "How would you know?"

"Because I've been dragged around by my mother almost every time she has to go."

The two third-graders were so engrossed in their argument that they didn't see where their mothers went, and ended up taking a wrong turn.

When they realized it, they were pretty far from where they had started, and since this was their first time in Osaka, they didn't know where they were or where to go. And it was getting kinda dark.

Ran, who was very sensitive to darkness and ghost stories even back then, grabbed Shinichi's arm and squeezed tightly. "I'm scared, Shinichi," she told him, her voice quavering slightly.

Unnoticed by Ran, Shinichi blushed hard when Ran held his hand. "Baka," he told her, trying to compose himself. "Nothing will happen. Don't worry."

"But I c-can't see okaa-san anywhere," she said. When he looked at her, she looked ready to cry.

He squeezed her hand back in reassurance. He was going to tell her not to worry, when they heard voices from the alley. Shinichi, being the curious young detective he was, went closer to listen.

"P-please, stop," came a lady's voice.

"You wish," snarled another voice.

Ran came to Shinichi to tell him that they should get out of here, but accidentally tripped on a can. Shinichi caught her before she could fall and hurt herself, but the kicked can caused a loud ringing sound.

"Who's there?"

"Uh-oh," muttered Shinichi. "Ran, stay behind me, okay?"

Ran was too scared to answer. Just then, the man pushed away a garbage can and found the two.

"You punks," he snarled. "Too bad you're gonna die so soon."

Though he too was scared, Shinichi didn't show it. Instead, he held Ran back protectively, and said, "Stay away!"

"Wish I could do that," said the man. "It'd save me a lot of trouble. But I don't know how much you heard."

Behind him, he heard Ran beginning to cry. "Sh-Shinichi, what d-do we do?"

The man seemed to be surprised by that name. "Shinichi? As in Yusaka Kudo's son?"

"What about it?" asked Shinichi defensively, though it scared him even more that this guy knew his dad.

The man began moving towards them with his knife raised. "All the more reason why I can't let you go. You'd just go to the cops."

Shit, thought Shinichi. I've gotten myself and Ran into one big jam.

Meanwhile, the mothers finally noticed that their kids weren't with them.

Eri began to panic. "Oh, no!" she cried. "What if they're lost? How will we find them? What if Ran gets hurt?"

Yukiko was much calmer. "Don't worry, we can ask the police to help. And anyway, Shin-chan's with her. He won't let anything happen to her. I guarantee it."

Back to the alleyway. Shinichi had remembered what his father always told him and tried to buy some time. Not that it worked. Come on, he was a freakin' third-grader messing with a hardened criminal. What do you expect?

He suddenly felt Ran's body go limp behind him. "Ran?" he whispered. When he got no reply, he looked back.

"Ran? Ran!"

The poor kid had fainted from the fright.

"Never face away when you're in danger, boy!" cackled the man. Shinichi turned just in time to see him throwing the knife in Ran's direction.

"No!" he shouted, and pushed Ran out of the way. She fell on the other end, unscathed, but as Shinichi dived away, the knife grazed his forehead. It began bleeding instantly.

Now he was angry. No one tried to harm Ran and got away with it.

With a yell, he kicked the nearest soda can, aiming right at the man's face. Caught off-guard, the man fell back on impact. Just as Shinichi was wondering what he was going to do next, he heard police sirens.

"Oh, crap!"

The man got up and ran into the darkness of the alley without a second glance at the kids.

"Shin-chan? Ran-chan? Are you there?" came his mother's voice.

"Okaa-san! We're here!" shouted Shinichi, then carefully hoisted the still-unconscious Ran onto his back. His forehead was really throbbing now, and he stumbled out of the alleys.

The minute he got out, he was spotted by Eri. "Shinichi! Ran-chan!"

Hearing her, Yukiko also came running. As Eri picked up Ran from his back, Yukiko bent down to her son. "You're bleeding, Shin-chan!" she exclaimed.

"He..had a..knife," said Shinichi and collapsed into his mother's arms.

When he woke up, they were in a taxi. The first thing he heard was Ran's exclamation. "He's up, he's up!"

Shinichi sat up. "Ran," he said slowly. The day's proceedings slowly came back to him. "Are-"

He never finished his sentence. Ran hugged him so tight that all the air was crushed right out of him. "I-I'm so glad you're okay!" she said, starting to cry again.

Shinichi went red. Very red.

Sitting on the other side, Yukiko was silently giggling at her son's very red face.

"B-baka," said Shinichi. "It was nothing."

"Nothing, my foot," thought Ran aloud as she looked at the photo. "If I'm not wrong, he still has a slight scar from that day."

But then again, that mystery freak had always been like this.

How was it? short? long? needs improvement?

Plz do R&R!