Hello all! For those who didn't see the A/N chapter, this is a revamp of one of the first fics that I put up on this site. Version 2.0 is far less dialogue-heavy and I've taken out all of the [Ran POV]/[Shinichi POV]/[WHOEVER POV]'s that appeared about 10 times in every 300 words. It also starts off slower, building up, giving a flipping backstory, instead of starting at the climax and leaving the readers scratching their heads as to what the hell is going on. Overall, much happier with this version.

I still tend to sporadically switch POV's though, so fair warning.

Disclaimer: If I owned Detective Conan, Ran would not look like she has Phineas stuck to her head.

(Kudos if you get it)

An Unlikely Ally (Revamp)

Chapter 1

Shinichi opened his slightly gummy eyes with a reluctant sigh, slowly taking in the dim off-white ceiling and Occhan's snoring on the other side of the small room, letting reality sink in again. He'd had one of those dreams again; the startlingly realistic ones where he was seventeen again, but was still Conan and Ran and everyone else had moved on without him. Without Shinichi. They weren't nightmares so to speak, there was nothing remotely fear-inducing about them at all; it was just him and the Shounen Tantei going about their daily lives except for the fact that instead of Teitan Elementary, they went to Teitan High. Apart from the fact that everyone was ten years older, it was just a normal, ordinary, boring day—but the dreams made him uneasy. Not so much the fact that everyone had moved on, or that the Shounen Tantei started officially helping Division 1 with cases, or that Haibara had given up on finding the Cure, not even the fact that the dreams ended when he-as-seventeen-year-old-Conan went to sleep and when he woke, there was always the lingering doubt that it hadn't been a dream until he was able to reassert that he indeed still only took up half the futon (and he never quite knew what to feel about how that fact was reassuring). No, it was the concept, the idea, that he would still be Conan that far into the future that stuck in his craw; that felt so—so wrong. It was something that Shinichi didn't want to think about; the prospect of not getting the Cure, but it was something that his subconscious conjured up anyway to remind him that whether he liked it or not, it was still a very real possibility, that these dreams could become reality.

It didn't exactly help his frame of mind that Haibara was still no closer to finding said Cure, and that the prototypes were lasting for shorter and shorter amounts of time and he knew it was only a matter of said time before they stopped working altogether. To make matters worse, Ran had that look in her eyes again, the one that meant she was getting suspicious of 'Conan's' story. Again. Which meant that he had to come up with some form of excuse. Again.

As if that wasn't enough, it was getting close to a year now that he'd been stuck as Conan, that he'd been going behind people's backs to solve cases, that he'd been lying to everyone, to Ran.

It was wearing on him. Immensely. It was getting harder every day to play the 'Little Kiddy' act. It was getting harder to keep track of who knew what between FBI, CIA, TMPD, friends, acquaintances and general public—in fact, he'd recently caught himself using the 'Kiddy Act' on Hakase when it was just the two of them, and he hadn't even realised until the old inventor had pointed it out with a confused and somewhat weirded-out expression on his face.

He was losing himself to Conan, and half the time he didn't even realise—and when he did it hurt more that APTX ever could.

It was getting harder to bottle it all up—which wasn't exactly a healthy thing to do anyway—and he knew that he needed some form of outlet, someone to vent to, but none of the people that Knew really fit the bill. Hattori, for all that he was a good friend, genius-level detective and honest to a sometimes-dangerous fault, he never quite got it. He knew that 'Conan' was in fact the shrunken form of Kudo Shinichi, and he knew that he hated being treated like—and having to act like—a child and so went out of his way to give them time to themselves so he could be Shinichi for once, but Heiji didn't truly understand why he had to keep Ran out of the loop, didn't quite understand just how much danger he himself was in just for knowing Shinichi, on the off-chance that Vermouth blabbed and They came to 'finish the job'. His parents tried, they really did, and they were as supportive as they could be while on the other side of the globe most of the time, and they understood the level of danger a bit better that Hattori, but they couldn't comprehend just what he was going through mentally, having to go about everyday life under a front—a mask, that could get people killed if he were to take it off. Hakase was about on par with his parents in terms of understanding, bar a bit more knowledge of how complicated and convoluted his situation was, and Haibara . . . arguably, she should understand his thoughts and feelings better than anyone, but unlike him she didn't have the burning urge to return to her old life—in fact, she wanted the complete opposite and was likely only helping him out of a somewhat-misplaced sense of guilt for being the one responsible for this whole mess in the first place.

He wasn't about to call her out on it though—who knew what 'side effects' she could engineer into the prototypes in a fit of her twisted humour/revenge?

Despite what many people thought, he did have some self-preservation instincts . . .

Admittedly, not that many—but some . . .

Shinichi went about the school day as he usually did; on autopilot. On the days that there were no cases—like today (yet), he had a list of things he would do: come home to the Agency (and when had 'come back' become 'come home'?), check the answering machine to see if there are any cases that Occhan missed—if there are none, do 'Homework' and then proceed to channel surf until he found something remotely interesting, watch for about five minutes, be scolded by Ran for watching something that was 'too grown up for him', and then be forced to watch the afternoon children's cartoons and turn his brain to mush.

Ran seemed to have noticed his little routine but had yet to do anything about it—until today, when he was in the middle of finishing his 'Homework'.

"Are you okay, Conan-kun?"

"Eh?" He blinked at her, confused at the sudden topic. "Yeah, Ran-nee-chan, why?"

"We never see your parents, Brat, that's why." Kogoro grumbled, turning a page of the newspaper he had in hand.

"Exactly, Conan-kun," Ran frowned, obviously worried which made Shinichi feel even worse. He was making her constantly worry as Shinichi by being absent all the time, and now he was making her worry about 'Conan'. "Your parents never call you—we only ever saw your mother that one time and you said she wasn't your mother! You don't seem to miss her or worry about your father—who's in a coma—at all, even though you've been away from them for so long now. Please, Conan-kun, I want to know what's going on. What aren't you telling me?"

Ran stood arms akimbo, slightly breathless from her rant, her eyes alight with worry and the slightest hint of suspicion and Shinichi felt the metaphorical straw land on the metaphorical camel's back. He didn't dare look up as he felt his façade drop and smash into a million pieces; all the guilt, pain, loss, fear, anger, frustration and hopelessness that he'd balled up and shoved into the back of his mind to deal with (very much) later on came charging to the forefront.

A large part of him wanted to just drop the act, stop the lies, the excuses and the empty promises and just tell her who he was, but there was a larger part of him—that sounded like a panicked, angry Haibara—that screamed that it was too dangerous, that doing so would put everyone in danger and just make his life a whole lot worse. Even though he yearned to drop the act, he listened to the Haibara-voice (which was always the safest bet, since he never knew whether his fellow APTX victim would pull a gun on him or not and he knew she wasn't afraid to kill).

It was only then that he belatedly realised that Ran was still waiting for a response. He swallowed past the melon-sized lump that had taken up residence in his throat, fringe still hiding his eyes and his—too small, too young—hands fisting in his lap as he stared at them, refusing to make eye contact, because he knew he would lose what little of his composure that he was clinging to if he did. ". . . I'm sorry Ran— Ran-nee-chan, but I . . . I didn't— they're not— I-I can't—"

"Conan-kun?"

I'm not Conan! ". . . I'm sorry!"

It wasn't even a conscious decision to run from the room, but he knew he wasn't prepared to tell her the truth—yet, but he also did not want to add another lie to the mountain he had that just kept getting higher.

I'm sorry . . . Ran . . .

Ran watched in mortified horror as the boy in front of her stuttered, becoming increasingly distressed, before he burst into tears and ran from the room, and she winced when she heard the front door slam shut a few seconds later.

A shocked silence rang through the office, before;

"That went well."

She was too shocked and upset to even yell at her dad for his very much unneeded comment. What had she done? What had she said to make Conan-kun so upset? She wanted to ask somebody but the little boy had already run off and Agasa-Hakase was away at a science convention with Ai-chan and had left his phone behind.

Wait . . . Shinichi! Conan-kun was Shinichi's cousin (however distant)—surely that Holmes-Otaku would know if something was bothering his baby cousin; the two of them checked in with each other fairly frequently, after all. Much more often than Shinichi did to Ran anywa—

—No, Conan-kun was the one she needed to worry about now, not Shinichi-baka. Even though she didn't know what she had done wrong, she would say sorry to him, and bring him back to the apartment with her and let him watch a Yaiba marathon. That was sure to at least make him smile.

Shinichi all but collapsed in on himself as soon as he found a somewhat secluded hidey-hole behind Poirot Café, slamming his knees to his chest in an effort to stop himself from trembling. "What the hell . . . ? What the hell was that . . . ?" his voice was thin with strain and he sucked in shuddering breaths like a drowning man—and he might as well have been. He was drowning, not in water but in lies. He began to angrily swipe at the tears that just would not stop, but it was no use. "Why the hell am I crying . . . ? Kuso!" He rammed the palms of his hands into his eyes, but water still made its way down his cheeks. It's getting harder and harder to lie every day, to play the innocent child. They—Gin and Vodka—they took everything, and I don't think I'll ever get it back—not truly. I've changed—I don't want to admit it, but I've changed—so much that the Shinichi everyone knew before APTX, the Shinichi that Ran fell in love with, may as well have been a completely different person. A person that doesn't even exist anymore. If I tried to go back, tried to pretend that none of this had ever happened, I'd be lying to myself as well as the rest of the world. The one thing that I want is to not have to lie, but I don't want to hurt people with the truth behind these lies. I know that such a thing is inevitable, though. Lies hurt, and lies to protect hurt on both sides.

As much as I want to just forget Conan and be Shinichi again, the way things are now, I've made too many connections, too many friends as Conan—ironically, more than I, as Shinichi, ever had. But because of that, 'Conan' can't just 'go back to America' and never be heard from again. People will expect him to keep in touch; to call, or at the very least send an email or two. When he doesn't, as his 'relative', people would turn to me for information on how 'Conan' is doing and in order to answer, I'd have to lie. Which brings me back to square one. The only solution I can think of right now is for 'Conan' to 'die'—which he essentially would be anyway with my taking of the Cure, and something like that would be the easiest way for 'Conan' to cut all ties without leaving hurt and heartbreak behind, and give me as Shinichi ample reason to meet 'Conan's' friends and acquaintances. But such a thing would essentially be one big lie—however, if it saved me having to lie in order to give explanations for the things I know, and if it consequentially gave me more freedom, then maybe . . . maybe that's what I should do. . . . But, damnit—I've come to care for those kids, and they—and Ran—would be devastated if 'Conan' died.

Shinichi's shoulders drooped so much that it hurt, and he felt more tears run down his cheeks as the stone at the back of his throat grew heavier with the weight of the guilt and the lies and the—everything until it was almost impossible to swallow. I can't help but leave hurt and sadness wherever I go, can I? Maybe Megure was right; maybe I am cursed.

". . . kuso . . ."

Even after the tears had dried, it was a while before Shinichi felt calm enough to pry his arms from their chokehold around his knees, so it took him longer than it should have to notice that his phone—Shinichi's phone—was ringing. Must be Ran, he looked at the caller ID, yep, Ran. Should have known she'd call me, after I— or well, Conan, ran out on her like that. Wait . . . god damnit, this means that I'll have to lie again. Not enough time to create a 'story', so I'll have to improvise . . . I've gotten disgustingly good at that as of late. He sighed, no point trying to postpone it—Ran'll be cranky enough with me as it is for taking so long to answer. After taking a few seconds to make sure that his voice was steady, he answered.

"Y-Yo, Ran, what's the matter?" Realising that he shouldn't know of the—debacle—that had just occurred, he added a hastily tacked on, "Is it a case?"

"Shinichi! Why'd it take you so long to pick up, Baka!"

"Sorry, sorry, I was . . . uh, occupied." Well, that's one way of putting it, "So? What's the case?" because the Old Shinichi would always think 'Case' first and 'Other Problems' later, if at all. He knew better now.

"No, it's not a case . . ."

"Then wha—"

"—It's Conan-kun,"

"What?" The surprise in his tone was real—even though he had been expecting it, the topic still caught him off guard somewhat, strangely enough.

"I spoke with him just before, I—I asked him why we never saw or heard from his parents and he just burst into tears and ran off! I don't know what I did or if I said something wrong, and he's not answering his phone, either." Oh, err . . . oops. "I'm— I'm not too worried, Agasa-hakase or Amuro-san or Subaru-san will probably find him and bring him back before it gets too late, but . . . why does Fumiyo-san never visit, Shinichi?" Ran sounded so worried that Shinichi ended up feeling a mixture of awkwardness and fondness. "She's his mother, and well, since Conan-kun's father is still in a coma, I can understand if she doesn't visit as often, but why does she never even call?"

Shinichi paused, almost having let the flimsy 'she's just really busy' excuse that Conan always used slip out of his mouth. That would do him no favours in terms of averting Ran's (correct) suspicions. He needed something that would reassure Ran, something plausible—something logical, not a kiddy's excuse.

"Ah, Fumiyo-san . . . really isn't Conan's mother." Okay, what? Where did that come from? How was that supposed to reassure Ran? She'd just—

"Eh?! Shinichi no Baka! You mean your little cousin was kidnaped and you—" —panic. Time for damage control then.

"No— Ran! Fumiyo-san is his Foster Mother. Conan only just met her the week before her husband was injured in that accident and she asked mum and dad to look after him—but since they were still travelling, Dad thought it best to send Conan to Hakase, and the rest is history." That was . . . surprisingly believable, if a little weird at the end.

Ran felt her hand come up to cover her mouth, "So then, Conan-kun is—"

"Yeah," Shinichi sighed in relief, though Ran probably took it as something else, "he was orphaned, ah . . ." Think! Think! "just over two years ago now, and already he's been with eight different foster families—not counting Fumiyo-san, or you—unofficially. It's why he's always trying to be helpful; because he doesn't want to 'move' again." Yep, play up the sympathy. Damn he was good at this—and he hated himself for it.

"Then, why does Fumiyo-san say she is his mother? Why does she insist that Conan-kun call her 'Mum'? That's just cruel, to do such a thing!"

"She means well, and I think that she just wants Conan to feel like he's actually part of a family again, but you can never replace your parents once they're gone, not really."

"Shinichi . . . is that why you call him so often? To make sure he's alright?"

"Partly, yes."

"Partly?"

"You know how Conan wants to be a detective, right?"

"Mm, he's almost as bad as you are." She giggled slightly, "It's kind of cute really, him wanting to be like his Shinichi-nii-chan."

Shinichi sighed again, "I wish it was only that, Ran, I really do."

"Shinichi?"

"Conan's parents, they were murdered Ran, and Conan saw it. The murderer was never caught though, and Conan's determined to be the one to put them behind bars. In lieu of trying to get the case reopened, which will be difficult since it happened over two years ago, not to mention overseas in America, I've been teaching him things like critical thinking and police terminology, geography, how to read maps, Morse Code—both English and Japanese, and heaps more; anything that could help him to track them down. In my defense, I wanted it to be me who went after a murderer, but he insisted in that way that he does and wouldn't hear a word otherwise."

"So . . . all those strange things he knows, that he says he saw on TV . . ."

"Uh, yeah," Shinichi gave an awkward cough, "I'm the 'TV'. He says that it's the TV because he thinks I'll get in trouble for teaching him these things, so he lies. I've tried telling him that he doesn't need to, but—ugh, that kid has selective hearing I swear."

"Silly Conan-kun . . . but also, poor as well—no wonder he looks so mature sometimes . . ."

"Haibara-chan is the same, you know. Hakase took her in after her family was killed in a premeditated arson. They found the one responsible and it turned out to be a family friend who did it. That's why she's so distrustful of people—because she trusted that person and they burned her entire world to ashes." What the hell was with the -chan? Also, Haibara was going to kill him. Slowly. In multiple ways.

Ran's voice had gone quiet with horror at what the two seven-year-olds had gone through. "No— no wonder they get along so well; they can relate with each other . . ."

"They shouldn't have to, Ran," Shinichi voiced her own thoughts, and he sounded so sad, "I wish they didn't, not in that way . . ." There was silence on both ends before Shinichi spoke up again, "You don't need to worry too much though, Conan's smart; he knows to come back before dark."

"O . . . Okay Shinichi. Are you . . . are you nearly finished with that case of yours?" No asking when he'd be back—because she knew the answer would be along the lines of 'no'.

"It's— I don't know, Ran. We lost a few of our operatives last week and it's . . . hard. They— I can't— I don't know Ran, I really don't know."

"Shi-Shinichi?"

"I have to go now, Ran, I stepped out of a meeting to answer your call, and I'm kind of glad I did, but this might be a new lead. I'm sorry, but I—"

"No, it's okay Shinichi. If it lets you come home faster, then find out as much as you can."

"Thanks, Ran. Bye,"

"Bye Shinichi, and call Conan when you have the time—you haven't for a while now and, I think he could use a bit of a talk with you."

"Will do Ran. I'll call if I can, bye."

Shinichi dropped the phone as if it had burned him and ran clawing fingers through his hair. Another lie.

. . . Damn it . . .

Chapter 2 is coming along nicely, but between this, A Bellyflop Through Time and Newly Found Hope, Newly Found Family, when exactly this fic will be updated is a bit of an unknown. I'm working on it, though.

(BTW, for those of you who were wondering, yes, the weird-dream/nightmare at the beginning of the chapter was based off OVA 9)

Nutter Out!