Catch

She wanted to catch him like how he used to catch her.


"Hey idiot, ya' better don't fart."

Kazuha turned and hit Heiji's head as he scowled in pain, rubbing his bruise as he glared back at Kazuha who gave a triumphant smirk.

It was their school Sport's Festival week and one part of their class were chosen for the Kibasen team, where a person sits atop of a person while two other person supports from behind. It was the last round and the competition was getting really intense. Kazuha was nonetheless picked to sit atop of one of their strongest guy in class, whereas Heiji and another guy were the ones supporting Kazuha's leg from behind.

Kazuha tightened the ribbon on her head and gave a yell of courage like she always did when she was preparing for her Aikido competition. The teams were all getting ready in their position and when the sound of the horn blasted, all the team rushed towards the centre within a second.

Even though Kazuha was already scary, the other girls competing weren't lacking in that area either, and some, in Heiji's opinion, was sure rough and tom-boyish as hell and he once thought Kazuha was the worst. How wrong he was.

"One team down! Red team have took Yellow team's ribbon!"

Loud cheers could be heard from the bench area and every one of them started cheering for their own class. Heiji and Kazuha's class, which belonged to the blue team, sure heard how loud their class cheer was but all they could manage was to get one ribbon despite all their effort made. Three teams out of seven were down now.

"And now Black team is out! It seemed like the Green team is leading! They had collected two ribbons for now while Blue and White team both got one ribbon!"

"Kazuha, aim for her chest instead of the ribbon."

"Heh?" Kazuha looked back at him and gave a puzzling look.

"Attacking isn't going to work. You got to distract them. Aim for her chest since all of ya' are girls. Then when she's caught of guard, get the ribbon. We'll try to aim for the White team, since they seemed less threatening." Heiji whispered.

Kazuha nodded and took her stance.

And in just a brief minute of battle, the White team's ribbon was now in Kazuha's hand as the team and their class cheered. Heiji smirked proudly.

"So what's the plan now." The guy beside him asked.

"Distracting is totally not gonna work since they probably see through our plan just now. But from what I observed, that girl isn't really flexible in her movement. We can attack from the side or back, her movement will be slow then."

But the thing Heiji miscalculated was that he focussed too much on the girl and not the guy that was carrying her. When their plan was being carried out, the other team turned so abruptly that Kazuha and her team could barely see and react to his movement. The girl atop swirled around as well and her fist went right towards Kazuha's forehead. But she wasn't going to back down so easily.

She raised both her arm and moved, trying to defend herself but she was slower. The opponent's hand directly hit her cheeks and the impact was so great and sudden that she immediately flew up from her position.

"Kazuha!"

Before she landed on the ground, she already fainted. Before she landed on the ground, everyone screamed out for her name. Before she landed on the ground, she was already caught by the two arms of a man that broke the fall for her.

.

.

"You're finally awake huh."

Kazuha glanced around and blinked for a few times before she shifted her head, staring at her dark-skinned childhood friend.

"I guess we didn't won." Kazuha let out a breath and then went to cover both of her eyes with her arm. "We're so close... So close ya' know!" Kazuha hissed.

"Can't be help." Heiji shrugged as he put both hands behind his head and stretched his back. "But I didn't expect we'll last so long to be honest. Comparing you to them, they are way lot scarier and rougher than you."

She lifted her arm away from her head and slowly sat up on the bed. He peeled open one of his eyes and stared at her while she stared back as well.

"What." He spat.

"You caught me?"

"... Huh?" Heiji gave a confused look.

"I remember someone holding onto me when I fell." Kazuha rubbed both side of her shoulder and looked at Heiji with a teasing smile. "It's you, isn't it."

"Uhhh kinda." Heiji scratched his cheeks before waving her off. "By the way is your bruise alright? It's like a bun right there."

Kazuha groaned and lightly touched her cheek but her attention were soon drawn from her face and back to Heiji again. He gave her a confused look.

"But really, thank you Heiji. For catching me."

Heiji shook his head and sighed. "It's suppose to be my duty in the first place."

.o.

"Stupid! I'm never letting you go!"

Kazuha whimpered, tears sprang to her eyes as she quickly blinked them away. "Heiji..."

Even when both of them managed to climb back up the cliff to safety, they didn't dare to let go both of their hands because they were afraid once they did, the other would disappear. Kazuha's hand was stained with Heiji's blood, but she didn't care. Her grip tightened.

Heiji looked up, his voice was strained. "Kazuha... you're fine right? Are ya' hurt anywhere else?"

She shook her head but when she moved, she winced and stared down at the source of her pain. Her ankle was swollen purple. She didn't realize when or how she twisted her ankle but the fear of falling with Heiji back then was the only thing she had in her mind and nothing else mattered.

"Damn it." Heiji reached out for her ankle but retreated his hand back as he watched Kazuha biting her lips in pain. "I'll piggyback you back to the inn."

"Piggyba-?" Kazuha flushed as Heiji turned and faced his back towards her. "I'm kinda heavy and-"

"Who cares if you're a pig, I'm still carrying you back. We don't have time to waste either." Heiji yelled. He moved and pulled Kazuha's arm over his shoulder as she yelped in embarrassment. He was already weak himself and he struggled a lot to stand up, but he managed to carry Kazuha and started walking back to the inn with quick steps.

"Your hand is bleeding. You don't have the strength to walk on your own, much less carry me back all the way..."

"Nope, I'm still not putting you down." Heiji scoffed.

"Thank you Heiji." She softly whispered into his ears, digging her head heavily on his shoulder to find comfort.

"Idiot. What were you saying? Grabbing my hand and pulling me in and ended up getting yourself off the cliff and then you stabbed my freakin' hand just because you wanted me to let you go... Ya' gotta be the craziest person I know." Heiji chided, jumping a little to adjust Kazuha's position on his back.

"Well, aren't ya' crazy too? You jumped forward to save me in the end and refused to let go when you know the branch couldn't take our weight." She snickered.

Heiji sighed and gave a light laugh. "Yeah yeah. We're both crazy all right."

"But really..." Kazuha whispered as her eyes started to close due to her drowsiness. But her last words weren't left unsaid.

"Thank you for catching me."

.o.

Kazuha didn't know what black organization meant, neither did she know what Aptx whatever drug and numbers were. She didn't understand when she received a call from Heiji in the middle of her part-time job and he began telling her weird stuff. From warning her about some men in black to complementing her about her home-made Oreo cheesecake and that it was the best thing he ever ate.

When he hung up abruptly, she dialled back to find no one picking up her calls. She then tracked him down using some app that both he and she downloaded on their phone and found out that he was in a deserted warehouse that needed just half an hour drive to reach there from where she was. She called Ran and after some talking, she left her work and headed over after meeting Ran.

His phone was abandoned in the corner, the chase was over. But Heiji was now dangling loosely on the roof, a bullet hit his left arm, two bullets grazed his knee. His entire body was going numb.

Heiji glanced down at the height and gave a loud sigh and smiled, looking up as he watched the struggling child grabbing onto his right arm. "Hey Kudo." He spoke in a calm manner. "Make sure Kazuha is safe or I'll haunt you for life."

"Do-Do...Don't sa-say stupid things!" Conan yelled but his hand couldn't take it anymore. Heiji's weight was nearly triple of his and even when he used his entire might, he couldn't pull him up. His arm seemed like it was going to tear any moment. If only he wasn't in this form, maybe things would have been different. "Take care o-of your own girl-girlfriend!"

"Wow so ya' threatening me now huh." Heiji smirked.

"Ha-Hattori H-Heiji! If you let go... you b-bastard! I will n-never forgive you!"

He closed his eyes.

.

.

It was too late.

When Kazuha reached the place with Ran, Heiji had let go.

"HEIJI!"

He was falling, fast

Kazuha ran, her hands spread out and her tears were spilling.

She wanted to catch him like how he used to catch her.

But.

Not like this.

.o.

"Hey."

Everything was white

"Well erm..."

Heiji...?

"That day..."

Heiji, is that you?!

"I just wanna tell you..."

Heiji don't leave!

"I just wanna thank you for catching me that day."


A/N: I got two things to admit. One is that I really enjoy writing angst-y and death stories where I can torture my characters and also the readers as well. The next is that the last part of the story is quite rushed LOL.

I originally wanted to write Kaito and Aoko for this but I feel that Heiji and Kazuha probably is more suitable...? I suppose...? Well, I hope you guys enjoy reading anyway.