Things to Note:

1.) B.O was taken care of six years ago

2.) Conan and Haibara no antidote route therefore growing up a second time. They are currently thirteen in this fic.

3.) As a side effect of growing again for a second time, parts of Conan's body pay a price such as his sight - they deteriorated over the years so he needs glasses for real.

4.) ShinRan broke up years ago

5.) OOC Conan, probably.

Alright, Conan thought to himself, his hands warm and sweaty, this could be worse. I could make this so much worse. But I'm not, so that counts for something.

It's been seven years since he had spontaneously melted into a six year old's form. He's gone through elementary school for a second time, swallowed down embarrassment that came hand in hand with that and got over the blows to his ego as a being internally a teenager, got over his initial plethora of mental issues that came associated with the fact he might just never be that teenager again, the identity crisis, feelings, letting go of his first love -

- and the list went on. He was a changed man now. The complications of admitting the truth to everyone he knew had settled down over the years, and recently he'd finally found himself in normalcy. Acceptance came at a great price, but in the end, Kudo Shinichi - Edogawa Conan - finally came to peace with himself.

Not without help, of course.

See, if there was one thing over the years that had spontaneously changed over the last few periods of his life, it was the sudden relationship upgrade with his fellow shrunken teen, Haibara Ai aka Miyano Shiho.

At first, it was mixed messages on her part. She knew that he had an emotional intelligence equivalent to a peanut - in her words, 'Something had to be sacrificed in order for your seemingly encyclopedic brain' - so it can't be entirely his fault for not picking up the subtle hints. And, by God, they were subtle. He may have been a genius, but the side of his brain that could contain some knowledge on romantic poetry wasn't all that extensive.

Then again, as much as he was ashamed to admit it, the blow of the breakup with Ran left him left him craving for affection.

That was entirely his fault, though. He'll admit that bitterly.

However, rebound-based ideas aside, he had an entirely different idea come the more recent years when his body kicked off on Puberty:Part 1 and his internal age entered his twenties. Upon some pondering one night in a house alone too big for an eleven year old kid, he had stared up the ceiling and reanalyzed his life. From square one, year one of his shrunken kid misadventures, shoving aside the murders and cases that drowned his life and focused on his personal relationships.

Like how, for one, Haibara Ai never left his side. Not at least once.

Not even when he was at his worst.

For some reason, that realization left him feeling electrocuted. His body felt on fire from that simple revelation, and then waves of information and dots connecting together and oh god everything finally made sense. Oh God did it make sense.

Haibara had liked him. Not in the ridiculous, childish sense of 'like like' - no, it ran deeper than that. It had to. Otherwise why hasn't she left him so many years ago like everyone did when the whole Black Organization fiasco was taken care of?

Oh, god. Now where did that leave him?

He paused for a bit, letting go of his iron grip onto the sheets and turned to the side. Now where did that leave him?

What was he supposed to do with this information, for starters. Edogawa Conan, detective, for once didn't know what to do with information - he could cry at that irony. Not to mention he felt the guilt multiply every second he realized the weight of it. How could he have been so stupid? How could he keep treating her like this? Did she know that he didn't want - Did she know that he -

- liked her too?

He paused. His body might've been feeling hot, but his blood felt as cold as ice.

Huh.

He rigidly sat himself up on his bed and fumbled for his glasses (goddamnit, he actually needed them this time round, not just for looks either) and put some hands on his temples. His brain really needed to stop with these groundbreaking revelations, he wasn't sure his heart could take anymore of it tonight.

But that was the thing, half of him said. It didn't even feel like a groundbreaking realization. It wasn't like Newton figuring out the three laws of thermodynamics, it wasn't like Da Vinci coming up with the sketch of the Mona Lisa - No, internally, he had a feeling this had been natural. Like his brain had finally caught on to what the heart had been hinting at all these years.

His eyes were blurry. He couldn't tell if he was tearing up because of lack of sleep and exhaustion from this mental train of thought, or if it was cause he felt so weirdly warm and in peace as if he had solved the world's most mysterious cold case.

One thing's for sure, though, Haibara deserved to know - uh, if she didn't already.

(He'd probably have been slower than a snail to realize it between the two.

Because, turns out, she did know. He had his open confession after they were left alone next door to clean up the aftermath of a 'Detective Boys Project' - it involved hand-painting, something Conan personally thought they'd have outgrown by now but they never cease to surprise him.

She still ended up flustered obviously, even if she hid it extremely well. He wouldn't even have realized if he wasn't such a master at spotting detail, which she scoffs a soft detectives underneath her breath, her hold on his hand tightening.

Regardless of how late he was though? He was glad he realized, because there was probably nothing in the world he wouldn't trade for a girl like Haibara Ai in his life.

God, that was cheesy, he thinks internally. But not wrong, he adds after.)