Theme One: Introduction

Looking back on it, Ran Mouri couldn't exactly pinpoint the moment that she had met Shinichi Kudo. It was more that he had always been in her life. Their parents had always put them in a room to play while they talked, and they had always grown up as friends. Ran, up until a few months ago, would have told anyone that she couldn't imagine life without Shinichi. It wasn't just how she felt about him – although that was part of it too – but also that he had always been a fixture in her life. At least, he had been until that night when the little boy named Conan Edogawa had come into her life.

Their introduction to each other was one that she remembered all too clearly. The night that Shinichi had run off with just a call over his shoulder that he would catch up to her, the night that he vanished into the darkness that he never really returned from, when she walked into Shinichi's house to find Agasa-hakase and the boy who looked so much like him… The boy with huge blue eyes behind those glasses…

He had seemed so scared of her at first as she approached him. Ran remembered clearly the looks that he had been throwing at Agasa-hakase, almost like pleas for help when she was asking him questions about himself. And when she asked his name, he had acted so shy. At the time, she had thought it was the cutest thing she'd ever seen. And then his name had been so odd. She'd never heard of a name anything like Conan before. But she had accepted it and taken him in. After that first introduction, he had become like a little brother to her. Soon, he had become almost as much of a fixture as Shinichi had been. It was almost like having him there. She sighed, remembering it. Conan had been such a help to her these past months, it was hard to believe…

"…Ran? Oi, Ran!" Ran jumped as the voice that came through her phone startled her out of her reflections.

"Ah – sorry Shinichi! I was just thinking about… well, kind of about you. And about Conan."

"About me… and Conan?" Shinichi sounded nervous. "Like what kinds of thoughts?"

"Oh, I was just remembering when I met Conan," Ran told him with a smile, leaning back in her seat. "Not a really big deal." She looked at the ceiling. "Say Shinichi… do you remember when we met?"

"Baka, we were little kids," Shinichi told her. "How on earth do you expect me to remember that?"

"I guess it was a silly question," she admitted.

"Well then, here's a question for you," Shinchi told her, a note of teasing in his voice. "What on earth does us meeting have to do with Conan?"

"Oh, nothing really. Seriously, Shinichi, I think I was just spacing out." Ran sighed. She paused, then asked the question she'd been trying to avoid during the conversation. "Shinichi… speaking of questions… are you ever going to be able to tell me anything about the case you're on? Anything at all?"

"Ran…" Shinichi sighed. "I wish that I could, believe me." He hesitated a moment, then said, "When I come home, I promise that I'll tell you everything. I promise."

Shinichi closed his phone and sat back on his bed, where he had been calling Ran from. Unbidden, his thoughts turned to the question she had asked him. Had she really expected him to remember when they first met? He frowned. No, they had been too little to remember anything. They had always been friends; surely she knew that much. Then he let out a sigh. He might not remember the first time that they met, but he could certainly remember when he had to introduce himself to her the second time.

There were really no words for the panic that had rushed through him when Ran had asked him his name. In those seconds, he had had to create a whole new identity for himself. In introducing himself to Ran as Conan, it was almost as though Shinichi had vanished. He closed his eyes for a moment, fighting down emotions that were rising inside of him. Then he opened his eyes again. They gleamed with determination.

"Just wait, Ran," he said quietly. "When I come back, I'll introduce myself to you again. And this time, I'll show you both sides of me – Shinichi and Conan."

"Conan-kun!" Ran's voice called. "What are you doing in there?"

"Ah – just some homework, Ran-neechan!" he called back, hastily sitting up and grabbing his glasses, which he had removed.

"Well, if you're almost finished, why don't you come help me with dinner?"

"Haaaai!" Slipping his glasses onto his nose, Shinichi jumped off the bed and ran down the hall, a small smile on his face.

Just you wait, Ran. Just wait a little longer. I promise.

Author's Note

So this is my first time publishing Detective Conan fanfiction… I have several stories running around on my computer, but those are not suitable for the public eyes…. Anyhow, I am going to try and write the entire 100 themes challenge for the ShinRan pairing, AND finish up my HP story, AND work on a story that I'm writing with my sister… yes I am insane… Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the story! Please leave reviews!

PS – Sorry that the first two themes are so short! I'll try to do better in the future!