Summary: Shinichi knew that there were only a few people who could beat him in soccer. However, he would have never thought that Mouri Ran would fit into that category.
Genre: Humour/ Romance
Rating: T
Winners
Shinichi x Ran
"Shouldn't you have gone easier on the kid?" Shinichi glanced up from his spot on the warm grass as he squinted at the blazing sun, until a shadow covered him, a girl bent over staring at him with an exasperated look.
"If I went easy, he would've thought I was making fun of him" Kudo Shinichi replied with a shrug as he finished tying his shoelaces.
"But he's a 10 year old kid. At least you could've let him score a couple more goals" Mouri Ran huffed as she stared down at her childhood friend.
"It's not a match Ran. I was training him and giving him pointers for the weekend's match" he replied as he hoisted himself off the ground, dusting the grass clippings off his shorts as he turned to face his friend, glancing down.
They were both 18 and with Shinichi's sudden growth spurt a few years ago, he stood a good foot taller than her, therefore he had to look down when speaking which still took time for him to adjust since most of their lives, they were the same height.
"And so? Did you manage to give him good advice?" she arched an eyebrow as he nodded instantly grinning, turning slightly and giving a goodbye wave to a 10 year old boy who grabbed his duffel bag off the grass and jogged away, meeting an older woman- his mother as they both left the field.
"The kid has talent. Didn't expect him to be that good" he nodded happily as he began to rant. "If I was his age and we played against each other, he would've made me run for my money. Although he did have some few spots where he needed to work on"
Ran's lips quirked up as a fond smile bloomed on her face. Whenever Shinichi started to talk about his favourite things such as soccer, Sherlock Holmes or even a recent case that came up, he looked like a 6-year-old kid receiving candy. His features brightened up as he spoke quickly and excitedly.
That's one of the reasons why she loved him. Ran flushed slightly as she thought about why she liked him. "You okay Ran? You look a bit flushed. Have you been in the sun too long?" Shinichi's slightly worried voice snapped her out of her thoughts as she shook her head quickly.
"I'm fine, just slightly thirsty" she excused as he raised a brow and rummaged through his sack and produced a blue water-bottle, and quickly handed it over to her.
"Better drink up" he grinned as he turned to look through his bag for something else as Ran sighed, slightly flushed as she stared at the bottle's opening. The bottle was ¾ filled with cold water, therefore he had already consumed the missing quarter- therefore his lips had already touched the opening-
she shook her head. It would do her no good if she kept thinking about it as she swung the bottle upwards and quickly downed the water. "Wow, you really are thirsty" she heard him laugh as she rolled her eyes, wiping her mouth. She drank half of what was left, as he took the bottle from her hands and closed his mouth over where she just drank. She stared at his lips in awe before quickly glancing away- needing to distract herself.
"So where's Sonoko? Wasn't she with you an hour ago?" she heard him question as she made her way to the field, spotting a soccer ball.
"She said she had to do something so she left" she replied, she and her best friend were sitting in the shade under a tree as they watched Shinichi teach a small boy. Sonoko had to leave early- something about needing to make a call to her boyfriend.
"Oh? Why didn't you leave with her?"
"She wanted to call Makoto-san. I decided to just stay behind and finish my homework while waiting for you" she replied absentmindedly as she slowly kicked the ball around. It wasn't a lie- but it wasn't the full truth either. She just wanted to watch him play soccer and hear his laughs and voice.
She did take out her homework under the tree and tried to work on it- but was distracted by Shinichi's voice and laughs during his interaction with the younger kid as her eyes would automatically filter towards him. Sonoko had smirked widely at her and nudged her as Ran would flush and bump shoulders with her friend back. It took a couple of fake threats to use her karate on her friend to stop Sonoko from teasing her too much before Sonoko had to leave and leave her alone- which Ran was fine with.
"Careful, if you bounce around like that- you're going to slip" a voice brought her out of her thoughts once again as the voice breathed right behind her. A yelp slipped her mouth as her foot indeed slipped on the ball as she lost balance. "What did I tell you!" a laugh escaped from the boy as he was instantly next to her- however she was too distracted by the hands at her waist to steady her.
"If I wasn't here, you probably would've slipped and made a fool of yourself" Shinichi laughed as he took his hands off her and moved to the stray ball that had rolled a few feet away. Ran huffing as she crossed her arms, feeling the lingering heat on both sides of her waist from his hands.
"I slipped because you came out of no where and scared me" she retorted as she watched him kick the ball up and bounce it on his knees, alternating.
"I forgot you get scared easily" he chuckled as he bounced the ball higher and balanced it on his nose. He would've never told her but as he was putting his empty bottle away, his eyes focused on the slim figure of his friend and before he knew it, he was right behind her, a smile on his face as she was slowly kicking the ball around, bouncing around- fully concentrated on the small task. It was endearing seeing her brows slightly furrowed in concentration.
"Thanks a lot" a sarcastic reply as he grinned back- blinking as the ball fell off his face and was quickly kicked away as a breeze of a floral scent past him, a blur racing before him as he stared with brows raised at his childhood friend.
"Too slow Shinichi!" she had stuck out her tongue childishly, the stolen ball underneath her right foot.
"I just let you steal it" he replied easily as he slowly made his way towards her. She squeaked and quickly kicked the ball further away, following it with a laugh. Shinishi grinned fondly at her light laughter as he followed her. He made sure he wasn't too close but not too far away as he trailed her, watching her clumsily kick the ball.
"Stop following me!" she had cried out as she kicked the ball, eyes on the white blur.
"You're the one running away" she heard him reply from behind, his voice slightly closer than she wanted as she sped up.
"It's because you're getting closer!"
"Fine, I'll stop" his voice slightly far away as she turned around, stopping the ball with her foot, panting slightly but a full grin on her face as she stared at her companion a few meters away looking amused at her antics. He had a drop of sweat slide down his left side of his face as she resisted reaching out to wipe it away. "So now what Ran?" he had asked.
"I'm going to score against you" she had laughed as she dashed away towards the goal post. Shinichi gave her a two second start, watching her and smiling at the sight of her glowing, exhilarated with the sudden exercise. After the 2 seconds, he moved his legs and was hot on her heels.
"Eek!" she had squeaked as he was right beside her, his left foot lunged out slightly, snagging the ball as he curved the ball away from her and into his line of vision. "That's no fair Shinichi" he heard her cry out as she tried to steal the ball, his feet easily snagging the ball expertly to refrain the girl from taking the said object as she huffed, staring at him as he once again was dribbling the ball on his knees, staring at her challengingly.
"What do you mean it's not fair? I didn't perform any tricks" he had replied innocently, loving how her face would scrunch up slightly whenever she was annoyed.
"If I manage to score one goal, you have to do what I say" she declared, as Shinichi nearly faulted by her sudden declaration.
"And if you don't manage to score a goal in 10 minutes, what would you do?" he asked easily as he left the ball drop to the grass in front of him.
"I'll do anything you want" she responded immediately, as blood immediately rushed south as thoughts passed his mind quickly at her bold response. He immediately shook his head and quickly thought about professor Agasa with a towel around his waist and some other nasty thoughts to get the unwanted thoughts out of his head.
"Alright then, you have 10 minutes to score a goal" he replied trying to steady his voice. "And I'm not going easy on you" a smirk.
"Y-Yeah!" Ran quickly replied, feeling blood flush into her cheeks when she heard him talk. For some reason, his voice dropped while sounding slightly strangled and husky. "Let's do this" she stated, deciding to concentrate on the task at hand as she began to move.
"You ready to give up Ran?" Shinichi drawled out, the ball slowly stopping in front of him, as he looked at the girl before him amused. Ran was panting heavily now as she wiped the sweat off her brow, Shinichi unconsciously following the straw drop of sweat that had slid down near her right ear and underneath her uniform-
"Never!" she stated loudly in retaliation.
"You have 1 minute left Ran. I fail to see how you're going to score a goal. No one scores a goal past me- and you know I'm not going easy on you" Shinichi glanced down at his watch.
"…" Ran bit her lip, Shinichi's eyes snapped to the small movement. "No… there's a way" he heard her mumble softly.
"What do you have in store?" he raised a brow as he watched her slowly walk towards him until she was an arm's length away. He wasn't scared of the chance she would try steal the ball again. He could easily take it back without trying, so he stood still wondering what she was up to.
"Hm…" she frowned slightly as her cheeks were tinged pink.
"Do you need water again?" he asked observing the pink tint as he leaned slightly closer furrowing his brow wondering what was wrong with his childhood friend.
"No" she mumbled.
"Then what is your plan in order to score a goal-mmph!"
Navy blue eyes widened in pure shock as a pair of soft lips landed onto his suddenly, the faint taste of a strawberry chap-stick invading his senses as he froze, staring at the flush face of the girl before him.
Swoosh! He stared flabbergasted as within a second, she had kicked the ball away and in one strong kick, she had scored a goal- right before time was up. "Yay I won!" she proudly shouted, jumping as she twisted around with a full smug grin as she stared at the boy- still staring at her in shock.
"T-That's c-cheating!" he uttered stammering loudly, his face turning bright red.
"There's no rules against kissing your opponent" Ran replied giving a small shy smile as Shinichi huffed, moving forward- his lips still tingling as he absentmindedly licked his lips.
"So that means I can kiss you?" he asked huskily, gently grabbing her wrists with his hands, preventing her from escaping. She made a small noise from the back of her throat as she avoided eye contact. This just made him smirk.
"I won, so you get to listen to me" she tried to move out of his grasp- but for some reason, she had lost her strength- perhaps due to the running around in the past 10 minutes or maybe the hot tingling sensations from his hands on her wrists or the smoldering look he was giving her.
"You have all the time to think about your request" he whispered before leaning down and preventing her from talking any more.
From that day, Kudo Shinichi reminded himself to never underestimate Mouri Ran ever again as she was probably the only one who could score a goal by a distraction like that.