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The basement room was bathed in shadows, the suffocating darkness only broken by the small beams of light sneaking through the tiny single paned window and the incandescent blue glow of the computer screen. At the monitor, the hunched figure of a woman typed with purpose. The clicking of the keys was steadily slow only to fade off before picking up rapidly as if the woman at the desk had been assaulted with an idea that had to be recorded before it slipped through the cracks of space and time.
By the door, a young man looked on over the scene with a small smile that spoke of fondness and familiarity. He hadn't been standing there for long but he had yet to announce his presence. Then ever so slowly he reached over to his left, flicking the switch, dousing the room in light. The woman cried out and covered her eyes.
"Haibara-san, you shouldn't work in the dark," the boy commented. "You'll damage your eyes."
The woman– Haibara – rubbed at her eyes. "Suddenly turning on the lights is going to damage my eyes more, gaki."
He laughed. "I'm not a brat. I'm concerned for your health."
The red-haired girl snorted and turned around. Haibara crossed her arms over her lab coat and shot him an unimpressed look.
"Yesterday, you and Kojima-kun were fighting over the latest Kamen Yaiba episode while Ayumi-chan attempted to stop you."
Tsuburaya Mitsuhiko chuckled awkwardly and rubbed the back of his neck.
"That doesn't count."
"Sure it doesn't," Haibara replied sarcastically, shooting him a smug smirk.
Mitsuhiko walked closer to the scientist and sat on one of her desks. After ten years, Haibara Ai had transformed into a happier version of Miyano Shiho. Her eyes still looked far too old for her face but there was always a part of them that danced with strength and nowadays they appeared unburdened by the threat of the Black Organization. Mitsuhiko was glad she didn't have to worry about them anymore.
"You shouldn't sit on the counter. This is still a lab and I was working with some corrosive chemicals earlier."
"WHAT?!" Mitsuhiko jumped off the desk and started yanking his pants off.
Haibara's cackle startled him out of his panic. "Just kidding."
Mitsuhiko groaned. "Now I understand why Shinichi-kun always looked like he wanted to cry at your jokes. Most of them are psychological and terrifying."
"Why thank you, Tsuburaya-kun. I aim to please, she mock-bowed.
Clasping her hands together with a boom, she looked up curiously at him from her spinning chair.
"So, why did you come to see me?"
"I wanted to ask you on a date."
Haibara's expression froze and all the felicity drained away like the rapid deflating of a balloon.
"Tsuburaya-kun, I can't. You know I can't. There are so many reasons why I can't," she whispered, looking pained and conflicted for the first time in a long time.
"Do you not see me like that," he asked kindly, his detective instincts screaming that something was wrong.
She looked away. "I've been thinking about this for a long time since I first became aware of your crush but we shouldn't. I'm much too old for you. I'm older than your older sister."
"You were," Mitsuhiko conceded. "You're not anymore."
"Yes, I am," she snarled.
Mitsuhiko cocked his head to the side like a confused kitten and began to circle her. She looked bewildered before her expression transformed into annoyed.
"What are you doing?"
Mitsuhiko shook his head and tsked. "You don't look older than Asami."
Haibara face-palmed. "I meant on my birth certificate."
"I'm pretty sure Haibara Ai's birth certificate doesn't say she's twenty-eight," he replied airily.
"I'm being serious, Tsuburaya!" Haibara yelled, tears of frustration building in her eyes. " I have been on this Earth for twenty-eight years. I was in middle school for the first time when you were in diapers. I've created poisons and I have killed people, and I will not let you throw away your chance with someone amazing for a monster like me."
An unquiet silence descended upon the pair. Mitsuhiko felt horrified. How long had Haibara felt this way? How long had she kept these feelings hidden from her friends? All of Miyano Shiho's crimes were not her fault. She had been a child soldier in the loosest terms of the definition. She was given no choice and she had done what she needed to survive and she had repented.
"You don't do that anymore. You're trying to make up for your actions," he said, passion and sincerity coloring his words. "And you make up for it every day. You are training to be a forensics officer to solve murders so no family has to sit and wonder how and who killed their loved one. You are training your medical knowledge so you can save lives. You have saved my life so many times. You have saved Ayumi's life. You have saved Genta's life. You have saved Professor Agasa's life, Shinichi's life, Ran's life, and everyone's' lives at one point.
"We all owe our lives to you. You reverse engineered apotoxin-4869 from scratch to turn Conan-kun back into Kudo Shinichi. You are the girl who picks up stray cats and takes them in when they don't have homes. You have gone out of your way monitoring Professor Agasa's health so we can have him for many years to come when you didn't have to. Those don't sound like the actions of a monster to me.
"And Haibara it's my life. Trying to be something with you is my choice as much as yours."
Haibara gave him a sad smile. She walked over and squeezed his shoulder.
"You're too young to make that choice."
"Haibara-san, I'm sixteen now. I'm no longer six."
"I know," she said, hardly above a whisper, looking heartbroken.
Mitsuhiko brought her in for a hug.
"Besides, I'm asking you on a date, not your hand in marriage," he laughed into her ear.
She pulled away from him and held his hands in hers, swinging them back and forth like a pendulum.
"Alright. One date. What did you have in mind?"
"Well…"