I found a beta :'D Great thanks to Serendipital, she found many faults with this chapter and corrected it. I feel loads better about posting now.
And wheeee, I got 3 reviews for just the prologue! Glad my crazy idea is accepted!
Anyway, more A/N at the end. Read now, and enjoy!

Warnings: child!fic, wannabe-serious!fic
Words: 2612


Chapter 1: Introductions


His dreams of mouse detectives and rat criminals slowly began dissolving when a warm hand shook his shoulder lightly. He groaned, not wanting to let go before the bad guys were caught. Trying to go back to sleep proved fruitless, however, because the hand was damn persistent.

"Shin-chan, look," was whispered in his ear.

He blearily opened his eyes, staring at his mother in question, but she just smiled and pointed a finger to the window of the airplane. The shades had been pulled away while he was sleeping and now dull light shone from outside. Still half-asleep, Shinichi did as his mother asked, stretching out to take a look.

The scene had changed drastically since the last time he'd checked it. Instead of endless blue sea, now there was an expanse of green and grey. Mountains protruded not high enough for him to see them as such from his vantage point and light green color interspersed with dark as plains changed to forests.

"Isn't it nice? I bet we'll have a great time here."

Shinichi doubted it. The scene looked much colder, more desolate to him than Hawaii, with hardly any houses scattered about and roads lonely traveling across grassy fields. Even from high up here, the sun was almost over the horizon and darkness was starting to envelop everything, giving a cold impression. He doubted he'd have that much fun there.

Having done what his mother had asked of him, the five-year-old closed his eyes again in the hopes of continuing his previous dreams. Soon, he fell asleep.

Somehow, the mouse now chased the rat on a giant lizard.


Shinichi sometimes hated it when he was right.

The cold had been just as he'd expected it, or maybe even more – it chilled him to the bone. As soon as they left the warm inside of the airport and stepped into the frigid air, Shinichi couldn't help the shivers that ran throughout his body. He could guess part of it was because he had spent a good amount of time lounging at their warm retreat in Hawaii, but it still put him off. Wasn't it supposed to be a bit warmer in early September?

At one point his mother had noticed his shaking. Despite his many complaints, she took him in his arms and carried him the rest of the way out of the airport. Some time later he had quit demanding to be put down and just enjoyed the much warmer ride. His father had sent him knowing looks over the shoulder.

They met up with one of mum's old acquaintances, who gave them a long ride to a far off village and the hotel they'd be staying in. By the time they arrived, night had already fallen. It looked more like a big tavern than a hotel to him, but his father told him they only built it as such to make it feel more traditional. Shinichi thought he understood, but it didn't really matter to him as long as the inside was warm and cozy.

As he got out of the car, Shinichi noticed the building was positioned near a forest, maybe a five minute walk away from the actual village. This feeling of isolation too, his dad told him, was to make the place more attractive to tourists.

A gust of warm air greeted them upon entry and Shinichi had never been so glad for it in his life. From what he could see over his mother's shoulder, the ground floor was actually converted into a sort of pub, with crude wooden tables scattered over the place, stuffed animal heads hanging from the walls and a large fireplace crackling merrily in the back of the room. Villagers were mixing with foreigners, hunters exchanging stories, and somehow it seemed more like a popular meeting place at the village then just a resting place for tourists.

As soon as he was put down Shinichi set out to explore the room. His parents were led to a large table with an assortment of people, but none of them held Shinichi's interest. They'd be introducing themselves to each other for the next half an hour and he had no desire to be dragged around from person to person, watching them stare at the son of the famous mystery writer and actress rarely seen in public. He'd first leave them to cool down a bit, so possibly by the time he joined them he would be simply ignored.

He observed the stuffed animals with interest, but was ultimately drawn to the large fireplace at the back. It was the first time he'd seen a working one, those on TV excluded of course. He had a strong desire to poke at it with a metal pole lying nearby and watch the embers fly. He almost did it, but a feeling of being watched made him look around.

The barmaid was watching him knowingly, a platter of dinner orders in her hand. It was like she was daring him to try play with fire, yet at the same time telling him he better not even try or he would regret it.

The hand that had been reaching for the pole faltered. The barmaid's expression melted into an approving smile, but Shinichi scampered away with a flush on his face.

The woman was scary.

He joined the others at the table and was gratified to see his parents had left him a seat in-between them, so almost no one paid him a second glance. He didn't know why, but he didn't like people looking at him. They had a tendency to refer to him as cute and sweet and pinch his cheeks, thus drawing even more attention to the easily embarrassed child.

This was apparently the staff that would shoot the movie, or at least the part that stayed at this hotel and had time for an evening of jolly drinking. They had dinner all together, the atmosphere friendly and lax, with dishes ranging from wide-known to traditional. He tried a few of the later ones on his mother's insistence, but mostly stuck to the usual. Before they knew it the food was soon replaced by drinks and Shinichi's hands had acquired a book from his backpack.

There was a lot of useless adult talk so he had soon gotten bored with it. Occasionally there would be some interesting bits that caught his attention, but they were few and far between.

So far the boy had caught some mention of a scene a drunkard had made earlier, of the cold weather that would get even colder (great, just great), some barren island that was recently discovered because smoke from its volcano had been creating a concealing mirage, and some craters in the woods that were the village children's doing.

He'd been falling half-asleep by the time another interesting topic rolled around.

"You sure? Then is it wise to shoot here?"

"Nah, it's just gossip, gossip people," the man questioned said in a joking tone. "There can't really be a bear here, hasn't been since forever. And if there were, they say it's deep in the woods up north, and we're only going to film on the edge of it. Nothing to worry about."

"Still," One of the actors seemed uncertain. "A bear, in these parts? I thought they were long extinct. Maybe it was a wolf or something?"

The man jumped almost a foot high when a firm hand landed on his shoulder. He looked up into the steady gaze of the barmaid Shinichi had seen earlier. The small boy sunk in his chair, trying not to be seen. The barmaid spoke.

"Aye, but there ain't nae wolves here fer more than two cent'ries."

The joking man from before suddenly didn't seem so prone to jokes anymore. He straightened and tried to look more serious (and sober) than before. He didn't succeed much.

"Edel, what brings you here?"

'Edel' was a portly woman in her forties, with pulled-up dark brown hair and a face that was definitely warm, unless she was looking at someone with a stern look that anyone having experience with drunkards and troublesome customers had perfected over time. Come to think of it, she was leveling that look right then at the leader of their small party. Shinichi had also been an unfortunate victim during his inspection of the room earlier.

Her voice had a thick accent that took Shinichi additional time to properly decipher, and she was still wearing a pitcher of some drink in her hand that she must have been delivering.

"Don't yeh 'Edel' me, Mr. Director!" she replied in an angry voice, but the amused glint in her eyes was unmistakable. Shinichi was sure that wasn't the man's real name, but the small child didn't really care about it at the moment. "Yer talk about bears' makin' my guests believe there's actually one out there!"

"Too true." Yuusaku quietly added from Shinichi's right.

They looked around. Even if it seemed like no one was listening, there were a bit too many heads suspiciously refusing to look in their direction.

"Well, what is it then?" A staff member asked.

The barmaid puffed out a gust of air. "Prob'ly some fox or other. It's just a bunch o' rumours," Almost absent-mindedly she re-filled the glass of a nearby man whose cheeks were getting rosier by the minute. "Truth is they found some upturned earth in th' forest some time ago, an' after that a fawn turned up half-eaten. But tha' was months ago, an' nothing happened since." She waved a hand nonchalantly. "They even set up some bear traps, just ta be sure, but still nothin'. If yeh ask me, some hungry foxes just got lucky on a sick fawn, and th' earth was some prank played by the children 'round here. They'd done it before."

The occupants of the table all nodded their heads in silent agreement, accepting the most likely explanation. Shinichi even saw some of the other guests appearing more relived, their shoulders slumping a fraction more than before. In his opinion, they couldn't have been more obvious if they tried.

"But what's this?" She changed the topic abruptly, catching sight of Shinichi lounging half-asleep in his chair. "I wanted ta ask yeh this since yer came in, but it was a busy night. Care to tell me who this cute little fella is? We haven' had children so young over in quite awhile, mostly it's jus' hunters and some couples wantin' ta be alone."

Shinichi suddenly felt as if there were all too many heads turned his way. He couldn't help the blush creeping up his face. Damn, and he'd done such a good job at staying undetected. He shouldn't have gone to examine that fireplace, he just knew it. Damn his curiosity.

His mother, however, seemed to glow under all the attention. Before he could even blink, she grabbed him around the waist and placed him snugly in her lap. Shinichi would have protested, but he was too embarrassed by the many stares. Why did they have to look at him so intently?

"Oh, this is Shinichi, our son," she gestured to herself and the aforementioned son's dad. "I'm Yukiko by the way, and this is Yuusaku."

Edel nodded. "Ah, I heard about yeh. Hope yeh have a nice stay, since yer brought yer family with yeh an' all. How old is he?"

"Thank you, I'm sure we will," she smiled. "And he's- Well Shinichi, why don't you introduce yourself and answer the lady's question?"

The situation couldn't get any worse for the boy. His face was on fire and everyone was still looking at him. He was sure this was another one of his mother's schemes to make him 'come out of his shell' and 'shine under all the attention' as he was supposed to. This would actually be the first time he spoke to the others this evening. Usually he'd just try to stay invisible.

With an internal sigh, he looked up from his lap to meet the lady's eye – or rather the pitcher, since he was too shy for direct eye contact..

"Umm, hullo. My name is Shinichi, and… etto… gosai desu."

His cheeks burned even more at the blank looks he received. Had he said something wrong?

A hand was tussling his hair into a right mess before he even had time to protest. Yukiko laughed apologetically at the others while at the same time deflecting Shinichi's hand that wanted to save his cowlick. "You'll have to excuse him, Shin-chan's been having some troubles separating English from Japanese," she explained and removed the small hand grabbing for her chin. "You see, we've been living in America for a long time but spoke Japanese only between us, so it's all gotten a bit mixed up. Anyway, I think you wanted to say you're five years old, Shin-chan," she admonished.

"Ah, hai." He agreed, then caught himself at the look in her eyes. "I mean, yes."

"So he's bilingual," Edel nodded her head in understanding. "But I think it's more cute than anythin' tha' he mixes up words."

The look in her eyes was strangely similar to the one his mother would give him when he did something 'kawaii', after which she would proceed to hug him and take pictures. It made him decidedly uncomfortable, even more uncomfortable than when she'd sent him a stern look earlier. This was starting to enter dangerous territory.

"He'll be stayin' with yeh th' whole time?" the barmaid inquired, indicating both Yukiko and Yuusaku.

"Yes, we thought we'd make this a vacation. And either way, my husband doesn't have anything better to do."

Those who had heard of Yuusaku's occupation and trouble with editors laughed heartily. The conversation steadily moved away from the topic of Shinichi, and he thanked kami for that. Although now that he was high up in his mother's lap and in direct view, he got the occasional curious glance or two.

He decided he'd spent enough time being the center of attention for the evening. While she was still holding him securely in her lap, Shinichi tugged on his mother's sleeve. When she broke off her conversation with another woman, he turned to her. "Kaasan, I'm tired."

Having seen the display, Shinichi caught the barmaid hugging the pitcher she was carrying to her chest, as if she was trying not to do the same with the uncomfortable boy. It was really becoming high-time for a tactical retreat.

His mother glanced at the clock, blinked at the late hour and thankfully began to excuse herself so she could ready him for bed. By the time he was whisked off to their room, inspected it briefly, washed and was tucked in bed, Shinichi was feeling the exhaustion of the long day, as well as the flight, and fell asleep without much fuss.

Ina few days the shooting would start, and somehow he had a feeling it would be a hard few months for him.

Sometimes he hated it when he was right.


In the dead of the night, no one noticed a dark body soaring through the equally dark sky. It stretched out, making loops and dangerous dives in the still air, and never did it feel so free.

It went as far as to the shore of the mainland, swooped down and caught a fish in its maw. It repeated the process several times before it was satisfied enough to rise to the sky once more.

In its opinion, fish was so much better than any other land animal.


-0-0-0-0-0-

I'm adding another point: in addition to taking this seriously and knowing nothing about Scotland, I also know next to nothing about making a movie. Dunno how long it takes, how many people are required, and frankly I think I'd better do without despairing when pointed out I'm doing it wrong. It'll be just on the sidelines as a plot-device, so bear with me please :)

So, chapter 1 is here! Before any real plot begins I had to do some pesky introductions. None of the people really matter, but Edel will pop up here or there to help out in babysitting Shinichi :D You get to see what I meant about mixing words in the prologue (isn't he just the cutest thing?) and we hear some rather interesting rumors flying around. Oh and is that last sentence a confirmation of those rumors? *big grin*

POV: The story is mainly in Shinichi's POV, but later on I've gotten tired of dumbing the text down so you'll see some words a 5-year-old shouldn't know. It's gonna be weird, but I'm not looking for perfection. That's why Shinichi sort of curses ('Damn his curiosity').

Mixing words up: My beta asked me why Shinichi is confused people don't understand him, instead of being embarrassed he doesn't know the words. In short, Shinichi is a shy kid, also very young, and had his parents do most of the talking to strangers. When he talked with Yuusaku, he tended to ignore his slip-ups, and Yukiko thought it was cute until it was too late to realize Shinichi adopted his manner of speech as 'normal'. She's trying to get him out of the habit, but it takes time, and it's not exactly as if Shinichi was forced to adapt or realize it needed to change. Until now.

Hawaiian: No, Shinichi didn't learn that language cuz he was mostly indoors, shied away from strangers and wasn't at Hawaii all the time. His parents traveled across the world, primarily America and Japan, so he had no opportunity for that.

I think that's all the matters I needed to clear up. Please tell me what you think and if you don't understand, ask questions so I can add explanations for everyone in next chapter. And again, please review! :D

Next Chapter: Out of Sight