Flashpoint by littlelinguistme
Written mostly because this song is stuck in my head and there was no other escape.
Disclaimer: Please don't sue me. All recognizable elements belong to Gosho, Lauv, and Julia Michaels.
Just as she's finishing up her drink, the bartender slides her another. She looks up in confusion.
The short haired barkeep is shooting her a gummy grin as she jerks her head towards a back table. "With compliments from the gentlemen over there."
Shiho sits, unimpressed, and glares at her cousin. "It's tainted."
The brunette quickly turns away, suppressing a snicker. She reaches over to grab a new bottle of the bottom-shelf gin that her sour relative had been drinking to pour her another, untainted, Delmonico.
Sera pretends to grumble under her breath while she works but makes sure that Shiho can hear every word of her play-complaint; this is a waste of perfectly good alcohol; I don't see how a drink bought by a stranger, poured by me, your dearest cousin, could be tainted... Just as she's capping the liquor pour onto the handle, Shiho stops her.
"John Collins." Her words are met with a raised eyebrow. "Please," the blonde adds. Sera gives a theatrical sigh but the smile on her lips makes Shiho rolls her eyes at the younger girl's antics. She reaches up and trades the gin for a mid-tier bourbon. They lapse into companionable silence as Sera works.
The buzz of the pub overtakes them both for a moment. Sera finishes the cocktail and sets it before her freeloading relative. Someone's flagging her down at the other end of the bar, and after a quick scan of the room and a wink to her unaware almost-sister, she is gone.
Almost immediately after, a manicured hand reaches for her new drink.
Bewildered, Shiho scrambles to grab it, spluttering, "hey! Excuse you, that's my drink." Her fingers grasp a wrist, halting the hand's movement.
Her gaze follows the drink past an expensive-looking watch, up and over a set of obviously masculine shoulders, to finally rest in the bluest eyes she's ever seen. And he's looking right at her. She finds herself unexpectedly swept up in the stranger's intensity.
That is, until she notices they seem to be laughing at her.
He breaks eye contact in favor of downing her drink. Now thoroughly confused, Shiho's hand slips off of his and into her lap. The heat of his skin lingers on hers.
He speaks. "For me right? I buy you one, you buy me one, that's how this works?"
Shiho makes a strangled yet still distinctly incredulous noise. "I don't accept drinks from strangers," she states thinly.
Grinning wide, the handsome stranger moves decisively, with no hesitation. No sooner than he had deposited the now-empty glass on the counter was he then extending a hand towards her. When she doesn't take it, he steps into her personal bubble and grabs her hand himself, easily confident that he'd charmed her enough that she wouldn't mind. Her treacherous heart skips a beat when he squeezes her fingers.
"Shinichi Kudo," he announces. She assumes it's his name. "I'm a detective," he tosses out another dazzling grin, clearly proud of his occupation, and she envies how openly he lives.
She opens her mouth, doubts of his skill obviously at the tip of her tongue. He interrupts before she can break the air around them.
"Let me try. I can tell you a little bit about yourself." There's a look in his eyes that she finds impossible to refuse. She leans back against the bar with a raised eyebrow, eager, challenging. He feels her move to take her hand back and he lets it slip from his grasp, regretfully, from the look on his face. He observes her. Hours seem to pass them by as she shifts under his watchful gaze.
He suddenly nods to himself. Sliding onto the empty stool beside her, he starts, "you..."
Shiho finds herself echoing him, encouraging. "I..." she trails off, waiting.
"You are breathtaking."
She rolls her eyes but she can't help but feel pleased at the compliment."You're a moron." She scoffs. "Wow. I can't believe you just- and I-"
"I'll have you know, I'm actually quite good at this."
"But what, I was too beautiful? pfft" Shiho reaches for her drink but remembers halfway that it's now empty, courtesy of this 'detective'. She awkwardly drops it and moves her head to search for her absent cousin just in time to catch sight of Sera slipping into the backroom.
The strawberry blonde glances at the near-stranger to find his gaze already locked on her. It seems as if he had been waiting for her to look back at him.
"You are," he says, "exquisite." She can't look away. Her cheeks flush pink.
"Haibara." She throws out a fake name, not wholly willing to trust the bar rando who stole her drink, but at the same time, accepting this strange interaction he's initiated. "I… My name's Ai Haibara."
His eyes flash in amusement, as if he knows something she doesn't. "Right..." He looks at the cup she wouldn't touch.
"So, Ai..." Shinichi pauses, the first time all night that he's shown hesitation. "What's it gonna take for you to have a drink with me? I thought I asked Sera to get you the same thing you were having before..." His head tilts in confusion.
She studies him, trying to find what motivated him to approach her. Coming up blank, she sighs, "I'm tired of Vermouth… and Gin." Shiho can feel the air change around them.
The redhead looks up when she hears him move. She didn't peg him as one to abandon ship so abruptly. Hiding her disappointment, Shiho watches as he abandons his chair, circles around her and the last little empty stretch of bar, and, with all the nonchalance in the world, crosses into Sera's area.
"Hey- Ku- what are you doing!? You can't go in there! That area's restricted-"
He ignores all of her protests and busies himself digging through Sera's garnish station.
"Are you listening to me? You can't be in there!" Shinichi turns his attention to the liquor shelf. Shiho stands and tries to get his attention again. "Hey! Get out! What ar- KUDO."
The sound of his name has him turning around to face her. Shiho likens the look on his face to a an overeager puppy. She asks him, again, what he's doing.
"You wanted a drink." Met with only her confused silence, he continues, "Your hand keeps reaching out for your drink but you won't take it and you said you're tired of Gin."
Shiho just blinks at him, astounded at his reasoning.
Seemingly undeterred by her complete lack of reaction, he begins narrating his actions. "Personally, I don't think you're a bourbon kind of girl either...I've got a fair hand for mixing, drinks, that is, can't cook with anything..." He's grabbing a shaking glass and a pour.
"Well, what can I do ya for?"
The redhead lets out another incredulous exhale and hesitantly resettles herself into her seat. She tries to warn him one last time. "My cousin's going to come back any minute and she's, uh, you don't want to be here when she does."
"Sera'll be fine..." He trails off; she can practically see the cogs turning in his head as he thinks about god knows what. Eyes closed, Shinichi continues, "You went from a Delmonico to a, what was that, a John Collins?" He licks his lips as if trying to get a taste for her drink. "Substituted the gin for bourbon? So you went from bitter to sour?"
He cracks an eye open and considers her for a moment. "Yeah, definitely not a bourbon girl. Hmm.. do you like sweet drinks?"
He's giving her whiplash with how fast he talks. She answers his last question, the only thing she could make sense of. "In moderation."
He grins at her perfectly practical answer as an idea hits him. "I've got just the thing." He turns and busies himself leaving her alone to her thoughts again.
Eyes trained carefully on his hands to make sure he doesn't start dipping his fingers into the tip jar, Shiho briefly considers flagging down security. She wonders how her evening got so derailed. The deeper in thought she goes, the more her eyes unfocus, until she finds herself staring at the stupid-looking cowlick on top of his head.
She supposes someone so stupid-looking couldn't have that devious of intentions. The blonde hoped her cousin wouldn't come back just yet so she could learn more about this odd character.
clunk
Shinichi presents Shiho with a slightly green-tinted drink. It is in a small glass and, she thinks, suspicious.
A beat.
"I'm not sleeping with you."
He completely loses his composure. Immediately he is red and spluttering and blinking excessively. Shinichi stumbles back a few steps trying to put some space between them. His explanation is a little jumbled but mostly coherent.
"N-NO I DON'T WANT- WITH YOU- ImeanIdon'tnotwantto BUT THAT'S NOT-"
She laughs, at him; she doesn't even try to hold back. The sound of her is sweet and unrestrained and full of mirth.
Belatedly, he realizes she didn't mean it seriously and the pitiful look on his face sends her into another fit of giggles. This time she tries to suppress the outburst, covering her mouth with a hand but her smirk is wider than her fist and the shaking of her shoulders gives her away.
He stops at the sight of her, beautiful. Red fades to pink as he shuffles back towards her, more embarrassed than mortified now. Her bout of bliss has mostly subsided and he chuckles nervously, his plan foiled. He opts for the truth.
"I need your help; there's this case... but I'm hoping we can come to a more permanent arrangement."
She sobers quickly at his words. "You know me." It isn't a question.
"I heard you're the best."
Shiho scoffs, "I don't work for anyone-"
He interrupts her, "I don't want to hire you. I want you to work with me. Full partners, with equal decision-making power."
"Pass."
She's looking around the bar wondering where the hell her cousin was. Shiho grabs her phone intent on calling security over but suddenly his hands are covering hers. She curses her heart even as her breath catches in her throat and their eyes lock once more.
Shinichi's halfway stretched across the bar table but his grip is steady around her. His hands, cold from the ice, steal the warmth from hers.
"Just hear me out." She can feel him thinking frantically. "Tomorrow, anywhere you want. My treat."
She naturally moved backwards to try and re-establish space between them but he pulls her back in. His touch electrifies her. Shiho pulls her hand back as her heart races.
He tries once more. "We can make history, you and me." The detective's absolute confidence floods her mind with could-be images, scenes from years yet lived.
Again, he extends a hand. In the background, Shiho registers Sera calling her. Suddenly, she is overcome with the biting aftertaste of gin. She thinks of her current life: an unreliable dead-end freelancing job and a rarely sober, drug hustling ex. She swallows and the ghost of sweet vermouth mixes with the gin bitter. A fresh pain holds her in place now.
Shiho looks from the detective to his hand to the barely-green drink just in front of him. She doesn't even know what he's offering, but she knows this is her once-in-a-lifetime choice.
A moment passes.
Two.
It's an easy decision.
Her acceptance echoes in their ears and she reaches out. His eyes brighten, finally registering her agreement, but they immediately scrunch up in confusion as she forgoes his hand for the glass. The detective watches, mesmerised, as a drop of condensation drips off the glass and trails down her chin. She downs the whole drink.
"I buy you one, you buy me one. That's how this works, right partner?" she said. He can scarcely hide his grin.