Shinichi's heart beat so fiercely against his aching ribs that he half-expected his chest to explode, and so loudly it was a wonder no one but he could hear. The officers half-supporting, half-dragging him on either side just thought that the seventeen-year-old was faking it to get out of being arrested.
"You—you don't understand," Shinichi panted, forcing open one eye to glance at the officer on his right. "I'm a detective—I want to help you solve the case—"
The officer chuckled mirthlessly. "Whatever, kid. Suspicious behavior around a crime scene is enough to get you arrested here in Osaka."
"But I'm Shi—" the rest of his words were drowned out by a loud, racking cough that ended in a gasp of pain as the officers holding Shinichi dumped him unceremoniously onto the floor of a cell. A dark-haired girl who had been escorted by two additional officers was led inside, and then before Shinichi could protest—before he could even refocus his eyes from the fall—the heavy metal door to the cell had slammed shut.
"No!" Shinichi gasped, slamming a fist onto the floor. According to his watch, he had only minutes before shrinking again—again—into Conan. And above all else, Shinichi thought as he glanced backwards at the girl sharing the cell, he could not turn into Conan in front of Ran.
"Now you can't run away again, Shinichi," Ran said quietly. With stupendous effort, Shinichi lifted his head, still breathing very harshly, and looked at her. Ran was pale and silent, obviously terrified that she, daughter of a former cop, had been arrested, but there was a quiet triumph in her gaze as she stared back down, her eyes trailing over Shinichi's scuffed jeans and oversized tee-shirt (a loan from Hattori Heiji), his damp, tousled black hair, and stopping on Shinichi's bright, feverish blue eyes.
"Ran…"
How to explain that he wanted, needed to run, and yet would have been happy to stay in jail with her for the rest of his life?
How to tell Ran that he had to leave her again?
"Shinichi—" Ran began, eyes widening in alarm as Shinichi dragged himself to his feet, leaning heavily on the wall, one hand clutching his chest.
"Ran, I have to get out," Shinichi gasped, horrified to hear his own wheezing voice.
"Shinichi, are you ill again?" Ran said. "You can't leave if you're ill. My father will come, and we'll take you to a hospital." One lone tear trickled down Ran's cheek, but she brushed it away impatiently. "Come sit down, Shinichi."
Shinichi shook his head, and the world swam dizzyingly. "Ran, please—don't do this to me." He tried to stand, but suddenly, suffocatingly, the world closed down. All other noise was reduced to a dull, distant roar, and Shinichi's ears were filled only with the drumlike pounding of his own heart—and then in an aching, suspended moment of frozen time his heart stopped beating.
Shinichi drew in a rasping, echoing breath—blue eyes wide and terrified—empty, empty silence—he was sinking into the emptiness of his own chest—
BOOM. His heart exploded into a pounding pulse; his whole body jolted—
only seconds left, minutes at most—
Only then did he realize that he had overbalanced and fallen into Ran's arms, and was now being held by Ran, his face pressed against her shoulder. Ran staggered slightly from his weight, but held Shinichi tightly. She shouted something, but her meaning was lost to the roaring in Shinichi's ears.
"You have to trust me, Ran," he whispered. "Just trust me."
Ran fell back against the cell wall, cradling Shinichi like an oversized child. "Of course I trust you, Shinichi," she cried, her voice strangely distant but her hot tears mingling with the sweat on Shinichi's neck. "Why don't you trust me?"
"Oi!" came a loud voice from outside the cell. "That's them in there! Get those two outta there right now!"
"Hattori-kun…"Ran whispered. Shinichi clenched his teeth as his heart pulsed again—his skin was on fire—just seconds now—
"Ran," he whispered faintly, right in her ear—his heart beating now with such rapidity that he nearly fainted. "It's not you I don't trust."
Banging on the door, curses in Kansai, and the clink of a key in a lock.
Ran held Shinichi tighter. "Don't leave again, Shinichi."
The heat was so blinding Shinichi could hardly think. The door opened with a crash. Get-away-get-away-from-Ran—
"Wait for me, Ran."
With the last of his strength, Shinichi wrenched himself from Ran's grasp and staggered out the door.
"No!" Ran shouted, tears spraying as she wildly shook her head. "Come back!" She leaped for the door as well, but the young man standing directly outside caught her by the shoulders.
"Oi! Neechan, stop! W-wait a sec, here—"
Ran spun around, grabbed Heiji's wrists, and twisted—he gasped in pain and she slammed him against the wall and darted past him.
But the hallway was already empty.
**I wrote all of these 'Arrested' shorts a few years ago—and this is the only one that's not funny (or at least I hope so! This is the only one that isn't trying to be funny, at least). That's because Shinichi's not funny! He's so serious, it's hard to make him funny without making him the butt of the jokes, but I'm trying! I've got half-finished Shinichi-Hakuba and Shinichi-Kaitou Kid that I'm trying to finish.**