Title: Kodak Moment
Fandom: Detective Conan
Author: Amm (SoulSeeker)
Theme: #26—frozen moment at the first sight
Pairing: Kudo Shinichi/Mouri Ran
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters of Detective Conan—I just play 'Barbie' with them, because god knows they're a lot more fun than real Barbies.
Summary: Shinichi just loves to make classy entrances, doesn't he?

First 30 Kisses, and now 40 Nights…why yes, I am insane, thank you. :D 1/40

Sometimes, Ran really hated research papers. The extensive amount of research alone was enough to make even Shinichi sick of the topic of Forensics, not to mention making sure each source was credible, inserting your own opinion about all of it, and backing everything up with sufficient evidence.

She had to admit: her personal decision to do a Forensics-centered research paper was mainly Shinichi's fault—or rather, his influence. It wasn't that she didn't like the topic, of course; but if it hadn't been for him, she probably wouldn't even know enough about it to get started, or have any interest at all.

It didn't really matter then. She was two weeks into the project, and she wasn't about to change her topic.

Perhaps it wasn't so much the paper that she hated, but the fact that every time she would have a chance to do research for it, it would be at the library with Sonoko.

Or perhaps it was more because every time she would go to the library with Sonoko, she would always bring Makoto along. Always.

Granted, she had nothing against the two; they made a lovely couple, and she was sure they were happy together. But being a third wheel was never ever pleasant, and she had no idea how Sonoko just could be so oblivious to how she felt about it. She had dropped more than enough hints that were anything but subtle, and she always told herself, 'I'm not doing that again. I'm not going with them again.'

Now maybe it was just Ran's loving, agreeable personality; but she often found it difficult to say 'no' to her friends.

So she found herself once again, walking over to the same library, with the same two people, feeling the exact same way.

Lonely.

She sighed, lagging behind the two on purpose to try to make it easier to forget about them for now. She got lost in her own thoughts, silently wondering how long her attention span would even let her stay in the library, and finally the three of them reached the entrance.

It was already late in the evening, so she figured she could probably manage to stay there until the library closed at around 9. With her notebook and pencil set on a table in the far corner of the library, she wandered away to the Forensics section to see what she could find. She looked at the rows and rows of books, glancing over their titles and she scratched her head in frustration—she didn't even know where to begin.

She grabbed a few books off the shelves that looked like they could possibly be of some use; after all, they always said that you should never judge a book by its cover, but no one had ever said anything about titles. She knew her notebook was back at the table, and she knew she needed it; she simply just didn't want to go back.

Instead she stayed in that very aisle, surrounded by books about Forensics, completely alone and in silence. She sat down and made herself comfortable, flipping through one of the books she had gotten; she seemed very uninterested, however, and was easily distracted by her own thoughts.

Glancing over paragraphs and paragraphs about medical evidence and solving mysteries, she silently laughed to herself, wondering jokingly about how she would go about citing Shinichi as a source for her paper. After all, he had offered to help her from the moment she had told him about it—over the phone of course. Not in person. He was much too busy for that.

She sighed, putting the book aside upon realizing that she really wasn't getting anything out of it, and she moved on to another book.

After spending about an hour by herself, unbothered by anyone, Ran finally decided she was bored enough to attempt to go back to actually record some of the information in her notebook she so readily abandoned. She rolled her eyes upon seeing Sonoko and Makoto, both peering over the same book, laughing and giggling. They had gotten off task again—surprise, surprise.

She ignored them and challenged herself to grab the notebook and walk away without them noticing; of course, they weren't blind.

"Hey Ran! Where have you been?" Sonoko asked in a laugh. "This book is hilarious!"

Makoto's gaze hadn't even shifted an inch from the book, and so Ran decided to ignore him as he had ignored her.

She raised an eyebrow at Sonoko, trying desperately to keep calm. "I've been researching, Sonoko," she replied. "You know, what we came here to do. And this is a library, so why don't you keep your voice down before you get us kicked out?"

Okay—perhaps those weren't the best choice of words on Ran's part.

Sonoko looked away in an upset manner. "Well, gosh, aren't we snarky today?" she retorted. "We've been working really hard this whole time, and we were just taking a break for a while. Sorry if that's not allowed, mother."

Ran rolled her eyes, turning away. "Whatever," she snapped in response.

She really wasn't in the mood.

She looked for anyone she knew from school that was working on the same paper they were, possibly start a conversation or something to remind her that she wasn't alone. Finding no one however, she was back at the same place she was an hour ago, now with a notebook.

It was brand new and not very thick; she had gotten it specifically for this paper and her research, and she hadn't written anything in it yet. She had stuffed some notes in there that she took separately on loose-leaf, but nothing else.

She was then quite surprised to find that there were written words on the first page, and they definitely weren't her handwriting. She recognized it though, or so she thought, but she immediately dismissed it as a possibility—Shinichi wasn't even there, and she knew it was unhealthy to think about him too much. She didn't want to become obsessed.

There weren't a whole lot of words, though they were written big.

Missed me, missed me, now you've gotta…

She blinked in confusion; who would've written that?

"…kiss me?" she added with a shrug. That was logically what came afterwards, if she remembered correctly…

"Don't mind if I do."

Ran jumped, her heart skipping beat after beat as the voice sent shivers up and down her spine. She turned around, her eyes widened in surprise—and for the moment time stood dead still.

Still, as a pair of moist lips suddenly pressed against her own, sending her emotions into a fast-paced downwards spiral. A magical moment; a stillness that would take something truly powerful to break.

Something like the flash of a camera.

"Sonoko!" Ran shrieked.

"Don't worry—this'll be up all around school by next week!" Sonoko laughed. With her camera in hand, she ran away from the two, giggling madly as she disappeared with Makoto into the darkness that was now outside.

Ran proceeded to run after them when she was pulled back by her arm.

"Don't bother, Ran…it was part of the deal…"

She whirled around hastily. "But, Shinichi! She's— wait…what deal?"

Shinichi just chuckled and sighed. "She saw me writing that in your notebook, and she was going to tell you unless I agreed to let her take a picture…"

Ran blinked. "And you didn't want her to tell me?"

"Of course not."

"Why not?"

"It would've ruined everything," he replied. "Besides, would you have believed her?"

Ran nodded. "Good point…"

There was an awkward silence, and the two of them just stared at each other, Ran still processing everything that was happening.

"So…you planned this whole thing then…?" she asked.

"From the very beginning," he replied confidently.

"What about your case?"

Shinichi shrugged. "Took a break."

Ran just stared at him, feeling as if she was interrogating a criminal; silence took over again, and she finally just hugged him, letting a few tears run down her cheeks. It was finally beginning to sink in: Shinichi was back.

"Welcome back, tantei..."

He returned her embrace and chuckled, wiping away the trail of wetness her tears had left on her face.

Perhaps Ran could learn to love research papers after all.

A/N: … T.T Damn I want a boyfriend like that… Ahaha, anyway, hope you enjoyed it. I think I'm off to a pretty good start … :D Only 39 to go… o.o