Ran sighed as she walked out of the theater with Shinichi. They had watched one of those stupid romance dramas yet again about a man who didn't know of his illegitimate child until meeting his former lover after some time and some dramatic rubbish ensued.

"My God, if I were that man I would've got done on one knee and married that girl right after knowing she had his child! Aw, that'd actually be so romantic!"

Shinichi snorted.

"What?"

"It's just that the most proper thing a man could probably do the second after knowing something like that is freak out and run away. Seriously, all the men in your head have such a princely attitude."

It was Ran's turn to snort.

"The only man here that's low enough to freak out and run away like that is you."

Shinichi rolled his eyes and walked ahead of her.

Two teenagers stood in bitter silence, looking down at their shoes.

"Ran," a boy said silently, afraid of breaking something fragile, "I'm sorry."

Ran stood saying nothing, her hands balled into fists beside her. Shinichi swore he saw her knuckles lose all blood in them.

"Go."

Shinichi blinked. "What?"

"Leave. Go. Scram. GET OUT OF MY SIGHT YOU BLOODY LIAR!" The girl exploded.

"I-I didn't mean to lie! I was trying to protect you! I swear!"

"YOU CAN SWEAR ALL YOU WANT, BUT GET OUT BEFORE I PACK YOUR BEHIND WITH ALL THE SWEARING I CAN MUSTER!"

Shinichi opened his mouth then closed it. He sighed and looked down, chewing on his lower lip. He took one last look into the girl's eyes and saw a shock full of anger. It was worse than seeing her cry.

Shinichi turned around and headed for the door.

It was another afternoon. Sunny. Breezy. Boring. A 23 year old man sat in his large black desk chair, legs folded on his messy table of folders and papers, and a newspaper in hand. The man flipped to the next page, read through it, then closed the paper, throwing it onto the desk. The front page had a large picture printed on it of an attractive man looking dully at the camera, a man in cuffs behind him. On top of the picture were the words 'Kudou Shinichi apprehends yet another criminal'.

Kudou Shinichi rubbed a growing beard he had to shave soon and looked up at the door. Someone was knocking.

The man heaved his legs off the table and trudged to the door. He opened it and felt his heart stop to see a rare visitor.

"Shinichi."

He blinked and tried to dampen his dried throat with a gulp of saliva.

"R-Ran."

"Ah! The man in the papers!"A little boy squeaked, peeking out from behind Ran.

Shinichi stared at the oddly familiar looking boy then back at Ran.

"He's a relative's," the woman smiled.

"Oh! A-ah. That clears a lot up," he chuckled nervously. "Um, come in, come in. It's strange to see you visit my office. It's been a while. Um, it's been..."

"4 years," Ran smiled. "It's been 4 years."

Shinichi stopped. 4 years since he walked out of her life.

"Ah, has it."

The little boy looked up a Shinichi curiously. "This man's crying."

"Conan, don't be naughty!" Ran hissed.

Shinichi froze again and rubbed his eyes before staring at Ran. "Conan?"

"It's a coincidence. Don't mind it." The woman then proceeded to looking around the office, humming a happy tune. She picked books off the shelf and laughed about him still reading Sherlock Holmes.

"Hey Ran?"

"Hm?"

"Have you forgiven me?"

Ran responded with silence. Then soon opened her mouth to talk about a different thing. "You know, Conan's four today."

"Oh, happy birthday, kid."

Conan nodded at Shinichi and pestered with the bookshelf with Ran.

"It's so funny, Conan was born 9 months after you left 4 years ago."

Shinichi closed his eyes. She was still mad. The detective sighed and sat down on a couch. He picked up a book off the coffee table and continued where he left off. Ran chuckled to herself, quietly enough for Shinichi not to hear. From the corner of his eye, Shinichi could see Ran looking from him to Conan. The man shrugged it off until the staring intensified and annoyed him to the bone. He looked up.

"What?"

"Oh no, it's just funny how much Conan looks like his father."

At that moment, everything fit together in Shinichi's head. Shinichi stared at Conan's oddly familiar features, the very same sweetly evil smile Ran was wearing now was plastered on the boy's face too. Shinichi smiled, closed his book, and got down on one knee.