Chapter 1
"I hate you," she seethed, angrily hurtling the words at his already crippled state, tired and starving for at least an ounce of comfort.
His cobalt eyes widened at her statement of pure hatred in disbelief, slowly reaching out, trying to calm the violently shaking girl. "Ran . . . don't . . . don't let what I feared come to be . . . ."
She shook her head slowly, and he could see tears in her eyes.
Tears that confirmed his suspicions: She thought that he didn't trust her enough. To tell her . . . .
"You have no idea what I had gone through," he suddenly snapped.
"And what if I had?" Her quiet voice rang through the house. "Would you have told me from the start, and then figure it out together?"
"Not telling you had been to protect you!"
"You didn't give me protection," she snapped. "All you gave me was anxiety and heartache for four months straight!"
For once, Shinichi was speechless. Then he tried again. "When the Black Organisation suspected you, I had to go to great lengths to stop their suspicions!"
"Yes, because if they suspected me, they'd start to suspect you too," she said plainly.
He sighed in exasperation. "I didn't care about myself. I still don't. All I cared about was that if Gin got wind of the pills shrinking instead of killing their targets, he will be sure to suspect me and Haibara FIRST! Don't you get it?! After he finds out about us, ALL of our friends and family will be KILLED by their hands filled with innocent people's blood! You don't know how bad this Organisation can get, Ran. You have absolutely no idea. Because you haven't seen the world from a shrunken detective's point of view. You have never been in my shoes. You have never, ever, completely understood me!"
She stared at him, wide-eyed, opening and closing her mouth.
"If you can't understand why I did this, then that confession in London really wasn't worth it." The words came out without him realising it.
She gasped softly. "Shinichi . . . you've got to give me some time to . . . think about this." However, her pride got the better of her. "But you still didn't give me any protection. I bet even without it, I'd have still survived."
He reached his limit. All his frustration, sadness, heartache, and the yearning for comfort and encouragement was vented out in one deafening howl of, "Fine!" with an addition of "Keep on thinking like that, stubborn mind of yours!" He turned on his heel and slammed the door behind him. All of his anger been vented on the astonished girl, he walked briskly out of the house with no notice of anything else.
He sighed. Confessing the truth of Edogawa Conan and everything else had taken a toll on both of them. They needed to cool. She needed to cool. He needed to cool.
He needed to stay away from her for a while, even if that meant wasting precious time with his only childhood friend.
Well, ex-childhood friend.
Casting his eyes to the ground, he felt a droplet of water on his neck. He looked up and saw that a storm had arrived.
He smiled bitterly. This was what he felt like. And what he wanted. A question stood in front of him like a temporary barrier.
Is this really the right path to take . . . ?
P.S. Hey, I updated this again, so everyone who's read this story until Chap 7, please read Chap 1 again and tell me whether it's good, all right? Thanks for the nice reviews!