Day 1

89. Through the Fire

366 words

Rating: K


The courtyard is on fire and his head is on fire and he doesn't have much time. He can already feel the odd tingling in his limbs and the fuzzy film that seems to insert itself between the direct workings of his brain and the front of his mind, slowing his thoughts and lending a misted tint to his perception. Someone's yelling at him. He can feel the raised voice in his bones, the words pounding against his skull. Whatever Hattori's yammering on about, it's irrelevant. Ran lay just beyond the grass, cheek pressing into hard stone. Even with the smoke clogging up his mind he can tell the building she lay under will collapse any second. There isn't time to hesitate.

Vaguely, Shinichi's aware of the flames, nipping at him as he dashes across the ring of fire, and later, he'll chalk it up to the disassociation from his body turning back to Conan, but he doesn't feel the heat. He bends with the fluid motion that comes from urgency, but it is with utmost tenderness that he lifts her from the ground and cradles her to his chest. Ran's skin is hot to the touch, and her lashes flutter against her cheeks. He sweeps her out from underneath the collapsing building just in time, and allows himself a smile.

There's almost elegance in the way he picks his way back through the fire, like a kind of waltz. He lift

s Ran just beyond the reach of the golden flames still snaking up into the air, deftly side steps, weaving around the waves of heat rising, writhing, from the ground.

By the time he reaches the other side, Shinichi's shirtsleeves are burned through. It doesn't matter, because Ran, still in his arms, remains untouched. He barely has time to press a kiss to her temple-cool lips, warm skin-before he's suddenly swimming in his charred clothes, and Heiji, muttering "baka" under his breath repeatedly, plucks Conan Edogawa from the ground and gives him his glasses.

(That night he puts burn cream on his own wounds. By the time Ran wakes up, he has the bandaged limbs hidden under a crisp and less holey blazer.)