Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan. Gosho Aoyama owns Detective Conan. We knew that already./p
"I can't believe this."
Akemi Miyano flinched and turned to her little sister. "Shiho I'm so sorry! I just lost track of time and then there was an accident and we sat in traffic for hours! I promise I will make this up to you!"
Her little sister, freshly 15 in a brand new dark red dress slammed the apartment door and dropped her black purse on the small kitchen table. "I'm not mad, stop babbling."
Akemi smiled nervously, if Shiho wasn't actually mad now (she clearly looked upset, bordering on pissed), she would be furious soon. "I know this won't make up for missing dinner, but I ordered some take-out and rented some movies. We'll go to Café Champignons next month, I'll even splurge on nice wine."
"I said it's fine," Shiho removed her shoes, then hung her coat from the back of a small wooden chair. "It looks like I'll be really busy next -"
The door opened again, this time a man entered. The color in Shiho's face drained, but blood quickly brought a pink hue to her cheeks. "What in the hell is he doing here?" This wasn't really a question.
"Happy birthday," the intruder said unenthusiastically. He was holding plastic bags filled with food packaged in styrofoam containers, dressed in black from his shoes to the stupid looking hat on his head.
Shiho whipped around to face her sister, who had her hands clasped in front her face pleading for forgiveness, or at the very least, compliance. "WHY THE HELL IS HE HERE, AKEMI."
"Well, I had to go to Nagano to meet someone for a project I'm working on for school and Dai-kun agreed to drive me out there, I'm really sorry. I didn't think it would take so long I know you're mad but I promise, promise it won't happen again." Akemi brushed her little sister's bangs out of her face, "I'm so sorry, please forgive me."
The young scientist sighed, breaking eye-contact with her older sister, "Of course.." She turned sharply to the unwelcomed guest, gesturing to the immediate left of the food he had placed on the stove, "Pour me a glass of that wine."
"Aren't you a little young?" he asked.
"I don't know. How old do you have to be to assassinate a police officer?" she retorted. Shiho held out her hand as a signal for her sister not say whatever it was she was about to. Persona Non Grata narrowed his eyes at her.
"Fine."
He grabbed a wine glass from the top cupboard, and filled it with a liquid nearly the same deep shade of red as her dress.
"And I get to braid your hair," she smirked, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "And then you can stay."
"Shiho-chan…." her sister attempted to plead for some small amount of peace, the teenager glared at her.
"It's his choice."
"Fine," he relented, setting her glass of pinot noir on the small kitchen table. "No hairspray."
"Deal." The younger sister was smiling now. She picked up her black coat from the back of the chair and hung it up on the door. Pulling out the chair, still with an unmistakably excited smile, she motioned for him to sit. He complied.
"Onee-chan, can you get me a brush and a few hair ties. Maybe some clips too, just in case."
The older sister dutifully marched into the bathroom, the younger sister slipped the hat off the man's head and tossed it across the room.
"You're not bald," she sounded disappointed.
"And why would I be?"
"I don't know, why would anyone wear such an ugly hat in late August?"
Dai sighed and rested his chin on his hands. He was used to relenting to a younger sister, but his younger sister was a vibrant tomboy who would beg to fight him or learn something more about a mutual interest. His girlfriend's younger sister was a different matter. She was morose and detached, she rarely asked for much. No one, he had learned quickly, escaped her anger unscathed.
He would probably have to wear his hair like this for a week.
Akemi came back from the bathroom with a small box of hair care supplies, setting them gingerly on the table. She met her boyfriend's eyes with a look that clearly said I'm sorry, please bear with it.
He shrugged slightly, don't worry about it.
Shiho grabbed the hairbrush from the box and flourished it proudly, her weapon of choice. Placing the hairbrush on his head, she pressed it firmly to the scalp and raked it heavily from his skull down the length of his long hair, with no regard for any tangles that might have formed throughout the day.
Again and again, she placed the brush on his scalped and dragged it heavily through his hair. His eyes watered involuntarily, the deeply undercover FBI agent decided this was practice for enduring torture. It was a possibility, maybe she knew.
He remained stoic.
Shiho placed the brush on the table once she decided the black mass of hair before her was perfectly smooth and shiny enough for her to work with. The young scientist rooted through the box, placed a few hair ties on her wrist and picked up a comb. Cruel and unusual punishment, part two.
Akemi poured her first glass of wine as she nervously watched the situation unfolding before her. She knew her sister would be upset, Shiho barely tolerated Dai-kun the few times they were forced to share air. Her little sister was smart and intuitive, it was a family trait, but Shiho was the extreme. Shiho knew nothing good would come of Dai-kun, of the situation they were in. Akemi still had a little hope.
Peering at him over her wine glass, she noted that his expression had hardly changed. They were a lot alike, these two most important people. Likely, she thought wryly, they'll never get along.
Shiho had finished the first and most difficult part of a perfect french braid and had moved to the lower sections of hair which were not quite as close to the scalp. Shiho was moving more quickly, her hands were skilled at this.
Oh no. Akemi opened her mouth to stop it but-
Shiho shot back with a look, don't you fucking dare.
Akemi sipped her wine to keep from spilling her sisters little prank. Really she shouldn't be letting this happen, but Shiho was clearly having fun. A little half smile, doing something utterly childish and age appropriate, it was so rare to see her like this. It was so rare to not see her shooting glares and muttering little curses under her breath whenever she was around Dai-kun. They were getting along for now (if you could really call this getting along), her boyfriend would understand right?
She bit her lip to keep from laughing.
"OK!" Shiho chirped. "You're done."
The young scientist stepped back and admired her work.
"Hey, onee-chan, we should go get ice cream. I can't have a birthday without ice cream." She met her sister's eyes, the usually reserved young girl was so… strangely vibrant. She was smirking, a little blush formed at the apple of her cheeks. She was so proud of her little mischief.
"Let's go," Shiho grabbed her coat. "But not you." She pointed at her unwelcomed guest. "You stay."
Dai-kun turned his head as they left the apartment and felt a slight tug. He leaned forward a bit, testing his hypothesis. His hair held fast to the chair.
She had braided his hair around the slats on the back the chair. He snorted, reached around and felt it out. She had separated the sections between two different dark brown slats, placing a few hair ties throughout to complicate getting loose.
Hands behind his back, he felt for the hair ties, slowly pulling them out & untangling chunks of his hair. It'd be a slow process, but it wasn't something he couldn't handle.