A/N: Oh my gosh, you guys. I'm so sorry! I didn't realize that something went wrong when I was copying this fron my ao3 account!

Anyway, thanks Ascella Star for giving me that heads up!

"No way! Why was it in my hood?!" Ran cried out, kneeling near the drain.

Shinichi held out his hands, hoping to ward her off before she decided to practice another one of her karate moves on him. "Ah, I'm sorry. . .I put it there while I was thinking about where the culprit could have put the phone. . .and forgot about it afterwards. . ."

"Why did I lend it to you?!" Ran yelled, tears starting to form under her eyes. She knew it was silly to cry over an object, but. . . "Even though I just got it. . ."

"Don't cry. . ." Shinichi pleaded, smiling sheepishly as he tried to hide just how worried he was at seeing the tears in her eyes. He knew it was a gift from her mom, and she received so few of them, that losing the phone was probably making her feel bad as a daughter. "I'll get you a replacement. . ."

"You're the worst! Nothing good ever happens when I'm with you!" The tears finally fell, and Ran tried to rub them away just as quickly. "When we went to America, you did nothing but case work as well. . ."

Shinichi's thoughts halted. Ran didn't notice, facing the opposite as she wiped away a few straggler of her tears. He knows he had dragged Ran to a lot of trouble ever since they were kids, but surely some good things happen on some of them, right? It's not as if Shinichi was deliberately looking for trouble—most of the time—and Ran had fun in America! She said so herself!

Biting his lip, Shinichi blurted out the first thing he could think of to get Ran to stop crying. He knew that Ran didn't actually mean what she said, and people tend to blurt out things that they don't really mean when they are stressed.

He knew that.

He really did.

But he wonders sometimes.

And as months passed, and Conan happened, their relationship continued to break under the pressure. And after an endless fight with the Crows, he comes home to find that she had moved on.

She had moved on and she was smiling.

She was smiling. Shinichi could count on both hands the number of times he had truly made her smile like that. And most of it was from their childhood days, and wasn't that funny?

She was smiling, and she was recounting her date, and Shinichi could barely keep his face together. He tries though, because he already knew her heart wasn't his anymore (was it ever was?), and he could keep her happy just by being happy for her.

He couldn't be selfish. Not this time.

And he thought he kept it pretty well too. They were walking towards his home, and he was. . .content, just listening to her prattle on and on about this guy, but he keeps a teasing smile on his face as he asks subtle questions that would allow him to gauge the guy's character. Because Ran was family, and in this, at least the old man agrees with him.

But Ran (and it had always been her that could break him like this), finally ending her long spiel of her date, laughingly says, "We actually made it through the date without any case happening! I was actually a bit tense throughout the whole thing, wondering when it was going to happen. No stealing, no kidnapping, and no murder!"

She nudges his arm, already turning away from the doorway of his house as she starts to make his way home, "I think this one's a keeper!" she giggles, a light flush burning her cheeks as she remembers her date.

Shinichi just waves a hand, face already hidden in the shadows as he replies, "Meh, cases keep dates from getting too boring. You can keep your boring man."

And even without turning, he knows that she was rolling her eyes at him, but she yells her goodbye as he fully enters his house. He turns on a few lights, knowing that she could see it from the outside.

But she wouldn't see him bury his face in his hands, remembering their dates, every outing from when he was Conan. Remembering how nearly every single one of those were interrupted by a case, and he wonders.

Wonders if Ran expected it to happen when she was in his company, if she never really fully enjoyed being with him because of it.

And he finally cries, because he had never really made her happy, had he?