DISCLAIMER: The entire Detective Conan series, including its characters, belong to Gosho Aoyama. This is a non-profit fan work.

Passing by

Of the five, she was the only one who remained silent. The others did not seem to care – not anymore, at least. At first, they had constantly tried to make her join their conversations, but after some time they had learnt for good that Ai Haibara wasn't very talkative.

It was nice to walk home with them, though, even as a quiet companion. They seemed to be having a very good time, and that was enough for her. The high-pitched voices of her friends, chatting about the last science exam and whether the new episode of Yaiba would be as good as they expected, had become familiarly pleasant to her ear. She could get used to that life.

'Ai, Ai!' Ayumi asked her excitedly. Apparently, she had understood the titlting of her friend's head as a petition to intervene. 'What do you think – was the exam easy or hard?'

'It was fine,' she judged. 'But I thought you would find it hard, especially question number four.'

'Number four was really hard!' Ayumi whined. 'You are vey good at science, so you always get good marks – but today's exam was very hard for me! I hope I pass!'

'You will, don't you worry.' Noticing her friend's sad look, Ai made a comforting smile. 'And even if you don't, that does not have to mean you will not pass at the end of the year.'

'Thank you, Ai!' Ayumi exclaimed. 'You are very kind!'

Haibara turned her head to one side, trying to prevent any of her friends from seeing her widened smile – as much as she valued their affection and cared for them, she preferred not letting her feelings show.

A glimpse of deep black among the cars that swarmed the avenue caught her attention. She tried to follow its course and her heart skipped a beat as she distinguished the shape of a Porsche. However, it disappeared down the avenue before she could tell for sure whether the hair of its driver was ash blonde or not…

Could it be? Could that had been Gin's car, and Gin driving it? Could the two of them, he and she, had casually found themselves only some odd feet away from each other, as close as they had not been for what felt to her as long as years? Gin and Sherry, the assassin and the scientist, ash blonde and reddish brown, whose hair colors were as unique as themselves and their relationship, reunited once more; just like a fairy tale, the two lovers seeing each other again after all the pain, the distance and the hate… For she knew she hated him from the bottom of her heart – not as much for hunting herself down, that she didn't care much for, but for killing her sister, the only family she had ever known.

He seemed to hate her now, too. How else could he have tracked her down so passionately as she knew he had, how else could he have smirked so widely when shooting her on that rooftop? He had enjoyed it, seeing her hurt and fall down onto the pillowy snow, colored by her own crimson blood. Although she had asked him more than once, Gin had never told her what it felt like to pull the trigger, to see the bullet make its way through someone's body, to see them bleed and sometimes die. It must had felt twice as good when shooting her, the one he had dared to call the love of his life, the person he had claimed to care the most for in the entire world. Those words – had there ever been some truth in them? She had started to doubt it.

And yet, it had been nice to hear them. His warmth still surrounded her when she recalled the touch of his skin against her, his pefume still numbed her senses when remembering the way their bodies had tangled around each other. Drunk on his love – those were the right words, the ones he had more than once used to describe her. Too drunk.

She glanced again at the road. No sight of the black car. It was gone, just as everything regarding her love for Gin should. Even if her heart could never stop being under his influence, her mind liked to believe it had already moved on. And so should she.

Ayumi was speaking. The girl turned to her.

'If I don't pass the exam,' proposed the child, 'will you help me understand what I have not?'

'Of course I will.' Haibara nodded and her friend's cheeks flushed in excitement. 'I'll help you.'

And I'll give my life to bring the Organization and Gin down, she added in her thoughts. Especially him.

Right before the end of the avenue, the black Porsche stopped for a moment at a red light. Gin glanced at the rear-view mirror. As he drove down the street, less than half a minute before, he had believed to notice a reddish-brown head of hair, just like Sherry's. He inspected the crowd and found it again, only to let out a disappointed grunt. A child – simply a child whose hair looked like hers. He averted his eyes. But even if that had really been Sherry, would it have mattered, anyway? The love of his life hated him now – what use could it have been to stop the car and run towards her?

Author's notes:

¡Hola! Hello! Hallo! こんにちは! Salut! Here comes Sherry Furude once more, ready for attack!

I wrote this fic for a Tumblr request, which I received back in March – about four months ago. An anon asked for 'a fic on gin/haibara' on what each one might be thinking about the other. I liked the starting point (quite innovative, since I rarely write about Shiho as Haibara) but at first I did not really know what to with it. Then came my exams, and it was by early July that I could resume working on this request. I considered different approaches and even rewrote the beginning from scratch. But then I lost my Internet connection for about a week! I'm glad I can finally publish it.

The title is a game of words, as it has two meanings: 'passing by' as walking without paying much attention but also as passing someone by, not noticing them – both of which happen in the fic.

I hope you liked the fic. Thank you very much for reading! Thanks very much to the anon, too, both for this request and for being so patient! I'm sorry it took me this long to publish the fic.

As I always say, please do not hesitate to tell me if you find any mistake (of grammar, spelling, punctuation…). I would also be very glad to read your thoughts on the fic. Thanks to your feedback, I'll become a better writer!

Lots of love and see you next time,

Sherry F.