Disclaimer: I do not own DC/CC in any way at all. Sad I know. Made me cry when I found out. 'You mean I don't own DC?! But-'

Nah, joking.

Please read and review. It would make my day.


It was night time.

Thirteen year old Shinichi sat in front of his desk, reading another of his beloved detective books. A cup of coffee sat on the desk beside his hand, wisps of steam wafting up from the cooling liquid. It was untouched. Shinichi was absorbed in his book. The curtains were open and the soft light of the moon spilled through the garden and in through his window, to be dissipated by the bright light of his table lamp. The faint glow of the lamp cast shadows over the room, and softened Shinichi's facial features, silhouetting his figure against the wall.

After about an hour of reading, Shinichi rubbed his eyes sleepily.

He yawned and stretched, looking up from his book as he did so. He decided to give his eyes a break, and thus looked out of his bedroom window. As he stared outside, he had a revelation. He noticed for the first time how pretty the sky looked at night.

Strange, he thought to himself, that he hadn't noticed that before. Now that he came to think of it, he didn't think that he had ever taken the time to look closely at the sky when it was dark.

All right then.

He switched off his desk light to get a closer look, peering into the night. It took his eyes a little white to adjust to the sudden blackness, but slowly, the stars started to reappear, until he could discern a great many of them, scattered through the sky like tiny grains of sand. He relaxed, leaning back and settling into his chair with great pleasure as he gazed up at the sky. He sat, motionless, admiring its splendour and beauty, spanning out over the whole of the earth.

A vague thought struck him as he sat there, thinking. He realized that save for the sun and the moon, the sky was the one thing that united the people of the earth. It was the roof of the world. He smiled at that odd idea. He didn't usually have thoughts like this. However, it could not be denied that no matter how different the culture, or how distant they were from each other, two completely different people would always share this one common sky.

How strange that he hadn't realized this before.

Idly, as he stared out into the dark expanse. As soon as the sun disappeared at night, the sky would be transformed into a dark, shadowy backdrop. When he was little, he had been scared of the dark. Of course, he wouldn't admit it to anyone, but whenever it had gotten dark, he would begin to feel the fear of the things in the night creeping into his heart. Once though, when he had been really scared, he had cried out for his mother. She had sat next to him on his bed, and told him; whenever he got scared, all he needed to do was look up into the sky. She told him that in the sky, the stars would watch over him, a thousand tiny white lights to guard and protect him. From then on, whenever he had felt the fear of the night, he would look up at the sky to see the stars, comforting and friendly. This was how the stars looked to him now, dispersing that fear as they readily shared their bright glow with the world. Stars really were such sociable creatures.

At night, the moon reigned like a queen. She watched over all of the earth, her soft light illuminating the whole of the night with a subtle magnificence that to even the street lamps couldn't compare. Shinichi had never really thought himself poetic, but the beauty of the night really did things to you...

Gazing up at the breathtaking sight of the star-jewelled sky, Shinichi's thoughts slipped to those of Ran. She loved beautiful things and he knew that she would love to see this sight. He smiled at this thought, and dropped his book on the desk. Coffee untouched and forgotten, he walked quickly towards his bedroom door, grabbing a jacket as he went past.

Calling a brief, 'Mom, I'm going out,' he pulled on his shoes and stepped out of the estate and into the darkening night. Breaking into a light jog, he ran down the long winding driveway and out of the gates, pulling on his jacket as he did so.

He slowed down to a brisk walk and strode down the street, in the direction of Ran's apartment. The street lamps were dimly lit, casting their own pools of warm light onto the dark street. Shinichi looked around. In this section of Tokyo, there weren't many people out at night. Without warning, he shivered, his mind filling with the stories he had heard of the scary happenings that had taken place in lonely places like these.

He decidedly began to run, not stopping until he reached the central big city region of Tokyo. Here, traffic never stopped, and there were lots of cars and people still out on the streets. Big, bright neon lights and giant screens flashed advertisements and company names down from tall skyscrapers, greatly reducing the need for street lamps. Shinichi thankfully mingled in with the crowds, walking hurriedly down the street until he came to a stop in front of Ran's apartment building. He pressed the buzzer labelled with Ran's house number and waited. Bzzzzzz. There was a crackle of static.

'Hello?'

'It's Shinichi,' Shinichi said loudly into the speaker. 'Ran's friend?'

'Okay, hang on.'

The person on the other side, presumably the guard, hung up and moments late the door opened with a click. Shinichi stepped inside, nodding to the guard who sat at the desk. The guard, seemingly with nothing better to do, was watching kid's programs on his small portable TV. The poor soul.

Shinichi shook his head pitifully, climbing up the long winding staircase until he reached Ran's apartment door. Huffing slightly from the exertion of the climb -man, no wonder she was so strong- he rang the bell, hoping it would be Ran who answered and not her bad-tempered father.

Unfortunately, luck was not on his side and Shinichi found himself face to face with Ran's father, Detective Mouri, glaring down at him from the doorway. Mouri was wearing nothing but a vest and boxers, and his face was unshaven. In his left hand he clutched a bottle. Shinichi shuddered slightly.

'Whadaya you want you little punk?' Mouri asked suspiciously.

'Ah, I was wondering, is Ran at home?' Shinichi looked meekly up at Mouri, one had rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

'What if she is?' Mouri drawled. Shinichi was beginning to have a slight suspicion that he was drunk.

'Now you look here son, I don't like you going around with my daughter-'

'Shinichi? Is that you?' Ran appeared behind her father, shoving him out of the way. 'It is you!' She looked pleased. Her father slouched grudgingly back into the living room, muttering something about lovesick teenagers and testosterone-happy boys chasing after his daughter, before collapsing onto the sofa, completely stoned.

There was an awkward pause.

Shinichi coughed, blushing.

Ran ignored her father's state. Instead; shooting a look that said 'you did not see that just then, understand?'; she went and pulled on her shoes, following Shinichi down the stairs.

Once outside, she turned to face him. 'Why did you come so late?'

Shinichi grinned at her. 'I wanted to show you something,' he said.

He held out his hand. 'Come.'

Ran took it, looking a little confused.

'Hold on tight,' Shinichi said, smiling wickedly.

Ran let out a little cry of surprise as Shinichi began to run down the street, weaving through the pedestrians and dragging her behind him like a toy doll. 'Shinichi?!' she protested indignantly 'Where are you going?!'

'You'll see,' Shinichi called back, grinning conspicuously.

They were quickly running towards a bunch of high school girls, who were talking in a group, probably on their way home from study classes. Ran gave a cry of alarm as Shinichi dragged her right towards the centre of the group. The girls gave loud shouts of indignation, scattering to avoid them as Shinichi and Ran weaved through.

'Hey! Watch it!'

'Sorry!' Shinichi flashed his most charming grin back at them as he ploughed determinedly through to the other side.

'You had better have a good excuse for this Shinichi!' Ran yelled from behind him, looking very much annoyed. 'Otherwise you'll be very, very sorry!'

Shinichi gulped. Maybe this hadn't been such a great idea after all. Perhaps he shouldn't have been so brash. An angry Ran was not the best of things to be mixed up with. He winced, remembering the last time he had made her mad. He had had to stay in bed for weeks afterwards.

He shook his head, clearing it of that –ahem- unpleasant experience. He upped his speed even more, earning a startled growl from Ran as he dragged her through the streets and to the entrance of Central Tokyo Park.

Shinichi slowed down to a walk, and; realizing that he was still holding Ran's hand; hurriedly let go of it. He blushed, looking down at the ground. He was thankful for the dimness of the street lamps to hide the light shade of red that had spread unintentionally over his cheeks.

Ran was of course, oblivious to this action. Instead, she turned to face him, speaking loudly to let herself be heard over the heavy noise of the traffic.

'So then Shinichi, care to tell me why you decided to drag me out of my house with no warning whatsoever, at eight o'clock at night of all times, and without even giving me any time to get a jacket? Hmm?' She looked over at him, her arms folded, her eyebrows raised.

She frowned.

'Shinichi, are you even listening to me?!'

Shinichi glanced at her, putting on an innocent 'what was that?' face. Without warning, he took off his jacket holding it out towards her.

'Here. Now you have one less thing to complain about,' he said, grinning cheekily at her crossness. He slipped his arms up behind his head and walked on ahead, feigning carelessness and leaving Ran standing alone behind.

'Shinichi!' Ran gave an exasperated sigh, but jogged up from behind to catch up to him. Once she was level to him again, Shinichi reached and took a hold of her wrist, tentatively glancing at her face for signs of retaliation. Ouch, that would not be good. Ran rolled her eyes but allowed herself to be led into the park.

As they walked deeper and deeper into it, the noises of the traffic and people dimmed and became muffled. Ran and Shinichi walked down the path in silence, nodding occasionally to a few park dwellers who walked on past them.

'Come.' Shinichi motioned to Ran and they headed down another more secluded section of the park, Ran shooting him an 'I haven't finished with you yet' look. Shinichi cringed under the frostiness of that glare.

Man, girls were scary.

They climbed up several flights of stairs, rounded a bend and-

'Wow,' Ran breathed.

They were standing at the top of a small hill, the ground suddenly sloping down and falling away a little further onwards. At the edge of the hill stood a single maple tree, which had been decorated with fairy lights; draped over its branches like snow.

Ran walked slowly towards the tree, leaving Shinichi standing behind her. She walked around the tree once, admiring it from all different angles. Shinichi watched Ran's little display of happiness, relieved to see her anger melting away like snow, warmed under the glow of the fairy lights.

A faint smile flickered over on his face as he watched her, Ran's eyes wide with amazement and wonderment at the breathtaking sight. Ran usually acted like the older sister -bossing him around and generally bulling him- but right now, she looked every bit a young girl. The bright, glimmering incandescence of the lights contrasted spectacularly with the darkness of the night, as there were no street lamps in this area of the park.

The stars also twinkled softly down at the two teenagers, adding their own gentle beauty to the scene. Shinichi joined her, coming to stand next to her as they stared in silence at the stars, enjoying the peacefulness of the moment.

'It's so pretty,' Ran murmured, almost inaudibly, more to herself than to Shinichi.

But Shinichi was not looking at the lights, but at her. He stared fixatedly at Ran, who was all wrapped up in his jacket, her silky hair spilling down, cascading over it like a waterfall. The jacket would probably smell like her shampoo when she returned it to him. Shinichi made a mental note not to wash it immediately when he got home. Ran was now gazing up at the sky, her lips slightly parted in awe and her eyes bright and wide. She looked kind of cute like that, Shinichi thought to himself as he regarded her, smiling slightly.

Ran glanced at him, suddenly aware that he was looking at her and not the display.

'What?!' she asked defensively.

'Huh?! Oh, nothing, nothing.' Shinichi batted a 'calm down' hand at her, shooting her a reassuring grin. Inside though, he was kicking himself, as he realized that she had caught him staring at her.

Ran shot him a look of suspicion, but turned back to look at the stars.

Shinichi mentally let out a sigh of relief. He smiled, pleased that she had liked the sight. He was also rather glad that it seemed she wasn't going to kick his butt after all.

He turned back to stare at the lights in silence.

Together with her.


AN: -ahem- I have to admit, the way this story turned out was a little disappointing for me- loss of motivation perhaps? Maybe a lack of inspiration. I was hoping for it to turned out a little less..... forced sounding. Maybe I'm pushing myself too hard for ideas. Do you guys think it sounded a little mediocre? A little amateurish? Anyways. Please, help me to make it better! If you have any ideas, do not hesitate to review. Thank you!