This is my new ongoing story. I will try to update as often as possible. And I know there have been other stories where Shinichi has a twin sister, but this story does not take any ideas from them. OK. I'm only going to say this once:

I do not own Detective Conan.

Broken Family

Prologue

Kudou Yukiko often found it hard to explain to other people why she was so in awe of her children. Other people just couldn't see what she could. At just four years old, she saw a spark in their identical blue eyes that promised both intelligence and determination. She smiled to herself as she watched them run around their backyard. As alike as they were in appearance, they had very different personalities.

Her son Shinichi was already just like his father. He had become addicted to the mysteries Yusaku read to them before they went to sleep, and sought anything that was a challenge. He took pride in the fact that he was the older twin, but his sister didn't mind at all. Where Shinichi was bold and outgoing, Shino was shy and quiet. It took a lot to rattle her though. Shinichi would let the smallest of things bother him; while Shino seemed, not oblivious, but indifferent to anything that seemed to go wrong in her world. Of course, both children had yet to come across a really difficult situation in which they could truly have to find their own way out.

Yukiko found it most interesting how they thought so differently about things and had such different interests. Shinichi, being bold and prideful, had no filter for anything he thought. He spoke his mind even if it upset someone. Shino was like his moral compass though. She would always berate him when he said something wrong, and she thought about all the emotions involved in a situation rather than just blatantly stating the truth. Both had a strong belief in the truth, but Shino was more careful about what truths were alright to say and which were not.

Shino found music fascinating. She wasn't yet old enough to understand it, but she loved to often listen to it with her eyes closed. When someone asked her why her eyes were closed, she would say it was because she wanted to picture the song she was listening to in her mind. Shinichi was entirely opposite. He couldn't sing a note, and anyone nearby had to resist the overwhelming urge to cover their ears if he tried. He quickly discovered that he had more of an interest in soccer though, and was "training," as he referred to it, to one day play on a team whenever he played a game with his sister in the backyard. Despite their differences, they were nearly inseparable. There had not yet been a day in there lives when they hadn't been together, and Yukiko hoped that they would always stay as close as they were in their childhood.

Yukiko heard her husband closing the front door as he entered the house, and the two little brown-haired children seemed to freeze where they were. She laughed gently at them. She couldn't help it. In a moment they'd be running into the house to greet their father, who'd been on a research trip for his next novel, neither of them caring about how muddy they were, or how they would stain Yusaku's clothes when they hugged him.

She watched them stumble over each other as they rushed into the house, and her husband gave her a kiss on the cheek by the back door. Yusaku smiled knowingly at his wife as she frowned at the carpet that had just been splashed with spots of mud. Then he went over to his children and scooped them both up. He carried them back outside as their laughter seemed to fill the whole mansion, Shinichi hanging upside-down over his father's shoulder, and Shino with her arms wrapped tightly around the one he held her with so she wouldn't fall. Yukiko closed her eyes, and listened to their sounds of joy as they faded away into the outside world. Please just stay like this...never grow up...

Well. That was my prologue. What did you think? I know it isn't much, but I promise the first chapter will be the story actually beginning. I really hope you can get into this story. I've had it in mind for AGES and I've finally found the time to start writing it down. Anyway, to those of you following my collection of short stories: yes, this is the ongoing story I was talking about, and no, I will not stop posting new short stories. Those just won't appear as often.