A/N: My take on what would have happened in DC if you included bad weather, a cold, a misplaced criminal and Gin being a little more careful about blending in, not that it helped him much. This will keep you entertained for some time while school busies me :)


Title: What Size Again?
Genre:
Humor/General
Rating: T
Warnings: Slightly altered timeline, humor
Words: 3970


"Achooo!"

"Shinichi, really! This is all because you just had to go out in that bad weather and search for your stupid clues!" Ran scoffed as she looked at the sick teen. "Couldn't you have sent some forensic out there or something? You're a real baka detective, you know that?"

The teen in question attempted a light-hearted chuckle, but it quickly dissolved into a small coughing fit. Grin never leaving his face, he waited till it subsided enough to answer his long time childhood friend. "Ah, Ran, but then it wouldn't have been half as exciting to corner the criminal as usual!" Another cough. "Besides, forensics tend to report first to their superiors and then to snotty high school wanna-be detectives. It would've been no fun that way." He sniffed.

"Either way…" Ran replied, her face losing the scornful look as worried eyes fell on him again. "You should have stayed home, Shinichi. We could have always made the trip to Tropical Land some other day. You shouldn't have pushed yourself too much over this."

Pulling the hat he was wearing more securely on his head, and the scarf tighter around his neck to preserve warmth in the almost chilling weather, Shinichi glanced at her in obvious annoyance. "Baka. The entire next week is said to be raining cats and dogs, and temperatures are only going to get lower from now on. Besides," He grinned at her, hand coming up to the section of his scarf where the back of his neck would be. "I promised, didn't I? You won the karate championship, so a deal is a deal."

His answer was an irritated huff, the girl's head turning the other way to hide the light blush gracing her cheeks. "Just don't overexert yourself, baka detective. I don't want to drag your dead weight home when you pass out in the middle of the park."

The boy just sighed in relief. Argument avoided. He'd really rather not be at the mercy of her right hook just because he decided to go out in the state he was in.

But really, Ran should have known better by now. Once he saw a clue, he would follow it till he was sure of his theory was correct and the right man behind bars. And if that included going out in an inconveniently bad weather to look for rope and hook indentations on the stone balcony of the deceased's room, then who was she to blame him? But she probably already knew that, better than himself in fact. How many times had he stood up a meeting with her to solve a case? He'd lost count already, and that was an accomplishment in itself.

So he wouldn't miss this one. There haven't been any cases since that last one he solved, and the weather was looking surprisingly good for the chilly time of year. The only negative part of it was his being sick, and he wouldn't let a silly thing like a that keep him from upholding his promise to Ran this time. And if this whole trip to Tropical Land just screamed 'Date' in his face…

Occupied by his musings as he was, it took him a moment longer than it should to register a specific part of the girl's speech. A part mentioned twice already, much to his embarrassment.

"Hey, who are you calling 'baka detective'?!" He exclaimed indignantly.

"Got that part only now, huh? Maybe you're not such a great detective after all."

"Now wait a mo-"

A hand grabbed his own, his body being dragged forwards by the surprisingly strong one leading him on. He heard a few giggles emanate from ahead, and couldn't stop his own grin from donning his face, mood substantially better than a moment before.

"Come on, I want to try the roller coaster they have here! I heard Sonoko saying it was great!"

"Yeah, yeah, you don't have to drag me all the way. I can walk on my own, you know." His voice lacked its normal annoyance though, only good natured humor showing through. "So, where was it again?"

"Umm…" She contemplated, a finger reflexively coming to rest on her bottom lip in thought (privately Shinichi thought it was cute) and her pace slowing down enough to let an almost panting Shinichi (only due to the cold, Shinichi would later say) catch up to her. She pointed in a random direction. "That way, I think. We should be able to see it soon."

"Good, then let's-"

"THIEF! Don't let him get away!"

Both teens jerked at the shrill scream, their feet taking them in the direction to the source without a falter, showing just how much similar experiences to these they'd had before. Just as they turned a corner, a body collided with Shinichi's own, sending him sprawling to the ground and making him let go of Ran's hand. There was no time for blushing and squeaking at the fact they'd been holding them together this whole time without realizing, as Shinichi quickly realized this was the criminal in question that was lying on top of him. The thief was quick to recover and resume his flight though, and Shinichi scrambled to quickly stand up and give chase.

Ran was already a few steps ahead of him, well on her way to beat the living daylights out of the man, but faltered in her steps momentarily at the sound of her friend's vicious coughing fit. It was enough for the criminal in question to slip around another corner and become lost in the crowd, the task of catching him becoming almost impossible now.

Realizing it wouldn't matter if she gave chase again anyways, Ran quickly ran back to the still coughing teen's side, kneeling by him and offering a few claps across the back to help him get over it.

"Baka detective! I knew you weren't that well! You should have stayed at home."

The other was helpless against her scorns, being unable to reply until the coughs subsided. 'Ouch,' Shinichi amended. 'Next time, don't let a body collide with you and make you almost cough your lungs out. Ouch.'

Once the coughing fit subsided, they both just waited there a moment longer for Shinichi to catch his breath, him still kneeling on all fours, and Ran crouching by his side with worried eyes.

"We should really bring you home. I don't want you to pass out here or something."

Shinichi just shrugged and sniffed loudly, wounding his scarf tighter around him as he pulled himself up. He'd wanted to say something, but was beaten by a soft woman's voice behind them.

"Umm… Excuse me, are you alright?"

Both of them turned to see a young woman around their age peering at them curiously. If one had to describe her, then the only word would be… ordinary. Her light brown hair and dark eyes easily blended in with the crowd, the freckles on her face and large round glasses being the only thing making her stand out a bit. She was looking at them curiously, her hand nervously gripping the strap of her purse.

Ran was quick to recover, waving her hand in an offhand manner and smiling politely. "Ah, no, he's alright. He's just caught himself a cold and his pride wouldn't have let him stay at home. He's really stubborn when it comes to that."

"Oi, oi! Stop acting like I'm not even here. Sheesh, I'm not some little kid." Shinichi sniffed in disdain, as well as for real.

"Oh really? Could have fooled me." She ignored his indignant 'Hey!' and continued as if he hadn't interrupted at all. "Besides, I should have known better. Whenever you have a cold, it's always of the heavy bed-ridden sort, where walking around shouldn't even be allowed."

The woman who'd been watching their casual banter softly cleared her throat to get their attention. Once they'd both turned to her, both sheepish they'd almost forgot about her, she gave them a light bow. "I just wanted to thank you for trying to stop the man. Thankfully, when he collided with you he must've accidentally dropped Hitomi's purse, because we found all of her missing things in it. Well, not all…"

The woman glanced off to the side in sorrow. Turning in the same direction, they found three people standing together in a group some distance away, two of them reassuring the third one (a woman, also around their age, with long dark brown hair wearing a blue suit). Their words didn't seem to affect her though, even when she got her purse back, as she just kept mumbling to herself, numbly looking at the returned item.

The woman in front of them sighed softly, turning her attention back to them. "Only her necklace wasn't found. I don't know who she got it from, or why she carried it in her purse, but it seemed very important to her…" She sighed again, turning to head back to her group. "Well, I have to go now. I just came here to thank you. Thanks again for helping us."

And she was gone. Soon after that, the group of four left, leaving them to blink at the abruptness of their encounter. She hadn't even introduced herself.

After a few more arguments on Shinichi's health and Ran better enjoying the day, they decided to go on one more ride before taking Shinichi home, despite all his protests he didn't need a babysitter. After all, why waste a perfectly good opportunity to enjoy an amusement park?

And amuse themselves they did. The ride on roller-coaster was great, if not giddy in Shinichi's opinion, as he remembered Ran clutching his hand in fear. The only argument they'd had after that was of Ran commenting how she was glad she didn't have to hear him rambling on about Holmes now that he was so sick his voice was a tad too hoarse to speak for too long.

As they were getting of the cart, Shinichi's eyes were immediately drawn to two figures in black that were up next. They stood out like a sore thumb amongst all the excited crowd, their faces serious and cold. They didn't seem the type for roller-coasters at all…

"Come on, Shinichi, time for you to go home. And don't try to guilt-trip me anymore into staying longer, I've had it with you sneezing all over the place."

"Yeah, yeah, coming. Wouldn't dream of defying you again, mother."

He dodged the playful swat at his head, his hat only angling a bit further up his face, making almost nothing but his eyes visible to other passer-by. He didn't bother adjusting it; it covered his forehead better and kept away the slight headache he was starting to feel.

Although, as they passed by the men in black, he couldn't help but overhear a part of their conversation.

"Keep still, Vodka, or do you want to stand out more than we already do?"

"But it's already two hours past the time of the transaction…"

"If he wants it back, then he'll be waiting. Now shut up before you…"

The rest was too faded to hear as Ran had already dragged him out of earshot, but Shinichi had heard enough.

Excusing himself to Ran, saying she should go ahead while he went to retrieve something he forgot, he left her standing there, in the fading twilight, her hand still outstretched in the direction he'd taken off. Faltering for a few moments on what to do, and fighting against the ominous feeling of dread creeping up from the pit of her stomach, she decided to better just take Shinichi's advice and go ahead. She was sure he'd take a different route out anyways, just to avoid her mothering him.

Really, sometimes that detective otaku acted like such a kid that even she forgot herself.

But she'd be waiting for him at his house, he was still sick after all.


Thunk!

Thump!

"Aniki!"

"You were followed." Gin sneered. Vodka didn't seem to notice. The shorter of the two started to pull out his gun, intent clear in the gesture, but the silver-haired man stopped him with a cold look.

"Wait, there still might be police around searching for some thief." He took out a small metal box from his black cloak. "Let's use this. A new poison the organization developed. Once consumed there's no way of detecting it..."

He grabbed the nosy person by the thick hat, his fingers clutching through the material at the hair so he didn't have to take it off. He pulled the scarf down just enough to reach the mouth and pushed the capsule between weakly clamped together lips. Making sure it was swallowed, Gin let go off the hat and let the body fall back to the ground, face first in the muddy grass below.

"Although it hadn't been tested on humans before… Well, you'll just be our first experiment then." He grunted derisively, tipping his hat for good measure.

"Goodbye, whoever you are. Not that I care."

And he didn't.

Behind them, a hand clutched at a clump of grass, the body it belonged to spasming from the amounts of pain it was subjected to. The hat and scarf hiding most of the features, not that Gin cared to get a good look at them, only added to the heat almost burning the body alive from within.

'Heh,' Shinichi mused. 'At least the fever is going to go away.'


As the last rays of the fading sunset died down and the chill of the night crept up, a small form stirred behind the public bathroom of Tropical Land amusement park.

The boy clutched his head, blood already forming a dark red speck on the back of the thick material of his hat, and briefly wondered why it covered him all the way across his eyes. It was almost as if it was too big…

It took one moment to look around himself to remember the events that had happened there not too long ago. He gave a brief gasp, recalling all of it, and left in a hurry to get back home safe.

Behind him, a scarf too large to stay around his neck remained.

And then he ran by a shop window.


The man strolled behind the small building, looking around himself curiously. He checked his watch again, sighed in dismay, and prepared himself for a long wait.

He didn't have to wait long. A pipe, lifted from a bush off the site, was all that was needed.

The woman dropped it as soon as the man hit the ground, the fatal wound on the back of his head bleeding heavily. She left quickly after that, her parting words being the last ones the man would ever hear.

"I wanted it to be your necklace, but I guess you didn't deserve even that."

Neither of them noticed the discarded scarf beside the man's head, nor the second bloodied pipe safely buried a distance away.


"Ra-an! You don't have to drag me by the hand!" Shinichi whined.

The girl just gave him an absolutely evil look, never faltering in her long late night return to the Mouri agency. "You think so?" Her tone was so sugar sweet it almost gave him a toothache. "You certainly seem like it. Attitude and age wise."

Shinichi just groaned.

-Flashback-

It took some time to get Agasa to believe him, especially since he was more concerned about tending to his experiment than listening to a kid blabbering about men in black in front of his house. It was only when Shinichi, who had followed a panicked looking Agasa in the house, had seen the soon-to-explode machine in the living room and kicked it out the window in his usual fashion, that Agasa started listening to him. And with a bit of deduction and showing-off, he soon had the professor helping him figure out what could have brought this particular situation on.

Bur first, as Agasa-hakase had said, Shinichi needed clothes. Kiddie clothes. And he was non too thrilled about it.

So they went to Shinichi's house, discussing the teen's state on the way.

"Can't you just invent some sort of antidote and cure me, hakase?"

The professor sighed as they made themselves comfortable in the library, Shinichi sitting on the edge of the desk as the older man stood by his side. "It's not that simple, Shinichi. If this poison was really untraceable, then there would be more than just a few lucky guesses needed. This is a complicated top notch poison of the weirdest kind…" He brought a hand to his temple. "Without a sample, I don't know if I'll even be able to say what exactly brought this on, Shin-"

"Shinichi?

Both heads turned sharply at the sound, Shinichi quickly scrambling off the desk and attempting to hide (why, even he didn't know). Unfortunately, by dangling his feet in midair a moment ago, the hoses of his pants had slid down his legs and pooled at the floor, causing him to trip over them as soon as he attempted the first step for safety.

The result was a rather heavily sprawled out not-child in the middle of the room, the hat falling over his eyes and professor standing by the side, not knowing whether to laugh or sigh at the failed attempt of covering.

It was this sight that greeted Ran when she entered the library.

She took one look at the moving pile of clothes on the ground, eyebrow raised, and turned to the professor with an inquiring look. "Professor? What's this?"

Suffice to say, the professor was at a lack for words, having not yet prepared for a situation like this. He scratched the back of his head, no good explanations coming forth. "A-ah…You see…"

But Ran was already moving to the groaning pile's side and helping it to sit upright. Small hands fumbled out of the too big jacket sleeves, rolling them hastily up to the forearms. Having completed the task, they then reached to pull the hat up from his eyes, but stilled abruptly in the action. Ran blinked at the tight-fisted grip the child had on the fabric.

Meanwhile, beneath the hat, Shinichi was internally panicking. 'What to do? What to do? I can't let her- Or can I… No I can't- But then how… Oh God, she'll never let me live this down!' were some of the many thoughts the detective was having at that moment. He didn't dare speak, didn't dare move, didn't dare to even lift the hat enough to look at Ran, because then-

And as light suddenly flooded his vision, Shinichi became aware of the decision already being made for him.

With horror written upon every inch of his face, he slowly turned to meet Ran's own shocked one, the hat in her hand almost tearing from the force she was clutching it with.

Silence reigned for a moment.

"Shinichi?"

Another moment of silence.

"…Err, yeah?"

And another.

And then-

"Why is there blood on your hat?"

Well. That wasn't the first thing Shinichi expected to come out of her mouth at the sight of him.

-End Flashback-

And that was how Shinichi found himself, after a lengthy explanation, some mothering from Ran and very much teasing and planning from both her and the professor, on the way to his new temporary home, the Mouri agency.

He still couldn't believe how calmly Ran had accepted the whole situation, bypassing the freaking out stage completely and jumping straight to the teasing with an ease of a gleeful woman having dreamed of something like this happening her entire life. He still couldn't stop fuming and blushing from all the hugs she'd given him because of his cuteness and all the plans she'd told him of buying kiddie things for him, as his own were, in her opinion, either too out of date or of his own choosing (which basically meant not acceptable in the world of ANY fashion).

He wondered if he'd ever get his dignity back after this whole 'shrunken by a pill' affair ended.

The boy gave an indignant squawk as he was suddenly lifted from the ground, legs flailing in the air and body helpless against the surprising turn of events.

"Mou, stop squirming, baka detective, I'm just lifting you up!"

At the sound of her voice, Shinichi's legs stilled in their frantic movements, his glare at his long time friend hateful and accusing. "Well, don't do it! I don't need to be carried like some snotty seven-year-old! I'm seventeen goddamn it!"

The other just nodded absent-mindedly. "Of course you are. But since this seventeen year old can't keep his pace up with a girl the same age as him, then the girl will save her time and just carry the other in her arms."

And it was at that moment that Shinichi realized he'd not only let himself be man-handled, but was now being comfortably carried at the hip of the girl he'd only recently started viewing in a different light. He groaned, burying his face in her shoulder.

Oh, he would never live this down.


In the dark room, the small TV was the only source of light. Flashes illuminated a low-level couch in front of the machinery, as well as the cold green eyes facing it.

"…was found dead in Tropical Land. Official report says he was hit by a pipe in the back of the head and died from blood loss soon after…"

A hand, covered by black leather gloves, held a purple cell-phone. A number was typed and a hand started for the dial button.

"The culprit was found out to be the ex-girlfriend of the deceased-"

The hand stilled.

"-who had been unstable and on extensive medications for a longer amount of time. Friends and family are shocked, having never-"

And pressed.

Two ring tones later, and a gruff voice picked up.

"Vodka," the cold eyes flashed in the darkness. "Confirm the death."

He hung up. Nothing more needed to be said.


"Ran! What the heck is this?"

"What do you mean?"

"This… this monstrosity!"

Ran looked at the small pajamas covered with fuzzy bunnies. "I don't see anything wrong with it, Conan-kun."

"Like he-"

"Brat, you better pay respect to your elders or you're gonna have another bump on your head!" A voice yelled from the other room.

"H-hai…"

Shinichi slumped.

Ran grinned evilly.


A few days later, 'Conan-kun's' previous cold made a comeback. As he lay in his bed with a serious case of fever, Ran scolded him mildly.

"You really shouldn't have gone out in the weather." The girl sighed. "Rest, baka detective, I'll get some more tea for you."

But Conan didn't hear her. His head was pounding, his body ached, and most importantly, he felt like he'd have a heart attack then and there. As she left the room, the pain peaked, and peaked, and peaked…

And it was too a peculiar sight that she returned with a cup of tea. They stared at each other.

...

"…Don't tell me you'll revert back every time you have a fever, Shinichi."

"…hngh?" was the weak reply.

"Well." She still stared at him. "Well, seems like Conan-kun will be in quarantine because his nee-chan didn't want the bug spreading around."

Shinichi managed to make an affirmative noise, his body not yet willing to move after the sudden onslaught of pain.

"And Shinichi~" She sang just before the door closed. "Put some clothes on."

Shinichi squeaked, suddenly fully energized, before realizing he still had the blanket over his most private parts.

That evil grin of hers was back full force.

Payback, sweet payback.


A/N: So, whatcha think? I'm not going to continue this, but I may post one or two more drabbles in this verse later on (I already got some plans). Anyone is welcome to adopt it though, just make sure you PM me first and get my permission. It's an interesting AU theory, ne? n_n