Fandom: Detective Conan/Case Closed
Disclaimer: They all belong to Gosho Aoyama. insert cry of desperation
Story Title: Planetarium
Chapter Title: Myths and Truths
Notes: THIS IS A SHAMELESS TRIBUTE TO HP5 (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix). Namely, Harry's CAPS LOCK OF RAGE.
Chapter Summary: They see each others' masks, and long to uncover them.
Chapter Quote: Sacrifices. No matter for what important cause they were for, they still left a black hole in the heart.
"You, me, our girlfriends. The beach. In two hours."
"Wait, but -"
"No buts, except the hot ones we'll see soon!"
"...oh God."
"I can hear you rolling your eyes over the phone, Shinichi."
"That was an exceptionally terrible joke. And besides, I normally get cases on Saturday."
"Oh, come on. Dead people can wait - they're already dead."
"Yeah, Kaito, but their friends and relatives are still alive and they want to know what happened. I can't just ditch my job to go on a pleasure trip with you. It is my duty and responsibility to -"
"Yes, yes, I know. Spare me the lecture. But you still can't hole yourself up at home forever and be a slave to your clients. They can understand that you need a break. Get out. Get a tan. Get nice views..."
"Somehow, I don't think you're referring to the ocean."
"Shinichi...who actually goes to the beach to swim? I, for one, am waiting to see Aoko in a very strappy, very small two-piece."
"...I'm hanging up."
"Fine, but are you coming?"
"Only if we spend your gas money."
"Asshole. All right, I'm coming over in an hour. And don't bother to tell Ran - Aoko already called her."
"What? Conspirators!"
"Thank you," said Kaito cheerily, and the phone clicked off.
Shinichi placed the handset away, gave an exasperated sigh, and continued taking notes. I'll just finish this little bit of paperwork before I get ready, he assured himself. But all his evidence for his latest case was going absolutely nowhere. He couldn't very well say that the victim had helped hang himself while the murderer tied the ropes to the beam. But Shinichi couldn't find any other evidence that would point otherwise, and the heat - he had forgotten to turn on the AC again - was stifling his thoughts. He couldn't concentrate on the words that swam before him, and felt as if he was dreaming on some drug, breathing air that intoxicated him and drinking water that poisoned him. The atmosphere thickened around him and his notes seemed to melt together. His eyes fluttered closed as his fingers slackened and scribbled meaningless shapes that eventually faded to a thin line across his notepad. He was asleep on the desk by the time Ran came home an hour later.
"Shinichi?" she whispered, shaking him. "Hey, wake up..."
"...bwuh?"
Ran giggled at the jacket-creases impressed on his face and Shinichi's dazed expression. "Come on. Kaito and Aoko will be here any moment. We're going to the beach!"
Right. Kaito. Phone conversation. "I'm not too sure..."
"But you look so overworked, Shinichi, and a bit of sun will do you good. You've been positively ill lately. Get out and get some fresh air."
"Well...I don't know..." He blearily rubbed his sleepy eyes.
"I'll be wearing a bikini."
Suddenly, Shinichi felt a burst of adrenaline shoot through his veins, and in a few minutes, he was ready and out the door. Ran had barely collected all her things before Shinichi was waiting outside, suddenly understanding with extreme clarity why Kaito was so eager to go out to the beach.
The shorefront was warm, and the sand, soft and feathery, felt nice between Shinichi's toes. Ran, Aoko, and Kaito were off in the distance, setting up on a beach table; Shinichi could hear their happy voices drifting across the breeze. He sighed and allowed himself a small smile, begrudgingly admitting that everybody was right; he did need a trip outside. He was now in a respite from his papers of murders and searches for Kid, all washed away by the warm glow of the sun. There was no moon to haunt him on the beach, and Shinichi wished he could stay in the daylight forever. He found himself standing dreamily in front of the tide, savoring the soft waves stroking his skin. It felt nice, quiet, and he wanted to slip into the water and disappear.
Suddenly, a pair of hands violently pushed him, and Shinichi fell out of his reverie and straight into the sea.
"KAITO!" he bellowed, sputtering out water, and chased his offender across the shore. Shinichi grabbed Kaito's shoulders and dragged the idiot down into the water, laughing evilly at the bubbles rising on the surface and at his victim's helpless flailing.
"Not cool," gasped Kaito, sopping wet, when he emerged. "If I'd stayed down there longer, you'd be caught up in your own murder case. And God knows you've had enough of those."
"Yeah, you're right. For once," he added wryly. Shinichi wiped the water off his face and pushed his mess of hair out of his eyes. Water dripped heavily from his limbs and he noticed he was standing in a growing puddle; a similar one was pooling around Kaito's feet as they both tried to catch their breaths. "Hey...thanks for inviting me out. I needed it."
"Feeling better in the sun? Or is it the sight of your girlfriend in a bikini that's giving you a shot of energy?" Kaito grinned.
Shinichi choked out water he hadn't known had gone down his throat. "Shut the hell up!"
"Oh, come on. You're grinning like an idiot." Kaito dusted off the sand from his knees. "I know that expression. You always have it on when you've figured out a case. You look all victorious, then you look slightly deranged - what with the deathly gleam in your eyes and wicked grin - and then you get all dramatic and point at the murderer, who either faints or laughs condescendingly at you."
Shinichi groaned at the painfully accurate summary of his job. "It's not really a case, but I have figured something out."
"What is it?"
There was a pause, and Shinichi seemed to make up his mind about something. "My version of the ending to the myth is so much better than yours."
Kaito looked disbelievingly at Shinichi before doubling over in laughter. "The myth?What the - ? Is everything a competition with you? I can't believe you're still thinking about that!...though I do find that my ending's more appealing than yours."
Shinichi grinned. "Do tell why."
Kaito stroked an imaginary beard and frowned pensively. "Well, there's the obvious first point. Why would anybody let themselves be killed? I mean, even considering the circumstances, it seems weird."
"Well, it's a myth. Obviously, things have to be a bit dramatic and what have you, but I don't think the reaction was entirely unreasonable."
"He knowingly let his friend kill him."
Shinichi kicked a pile of sand in front of him, slightly impatient. "Yes, yes, he did, but think of what he chose over it! The prince knew, like I said, that if the assassin failed to complete the job, then he - the assassin - would be killed. The prince didn't want that to happen, so he walked into the trap."
"Wouldn't it have been easier if he banished the rebel? You know, kind of like in my ending?"
"Someone would have still killed the prince and the rebel, and the prince knew that. He didn't want his friend to die, so...he sacrificed himself to defend his friend to make a shield created by death. An act of love, if you will."
"He left his people."
"Emotions win over logic."
"I can't believe you, Mr. Egocentric Deduction Idiot, are actually saying that."
Shinichi shrugged. "In nearly all my cases, it's emotions that rule the actions. I merely use logic to find what happened - and almost all the time, what happened was a result of high passion. People do irrational things for the people they love. They kill, and let themselves be killed. They put themselves in danger and in trouble. Like in A Study in Scarlet, a Sherlock Holmes story, when the man goes out and avenges his loved one by murdering her aggressors, while knowing the whole while that he could be killed or thrown into jail for life."
"No! Please! Don't go all Holmes-fangirly on me again." said Kaito, raising his hands in a gesture of surrender, and Shinichi couldn't help but to laugh.
When he looked up, however, Shinichi thought he saw a glimmer of frustration in Kaito's eyes, though from what, the detective couldn't fathom. But in a flash, it was gone and Kaito was just grinning like an idiot. How strange, mused Shinichi. Either I really am getting overworked, or I just hit a nerve somewhere. But either way, thought Shinichi darkly, Kaito obviously has extensive experience quickly covering up what he thinks.
"...even considering what you said about emotions," continued Kaito, oblivious to Shinichi's musings, "I still think I'm right, because if a person has a chance at escaping, he'd take that as the best option, especially if the alternative is his friend's betrayal. And you know what, Kudo? After listening to you just now, I'm beginning to think that on the crime scenes, you're crazy smart. And everywhere else...you're just crazy. At least in my version of the myth, the prince has a sense of self-preservation."
"So? People make sacrifices for more important things." Shinichi paused. He knew this well enough. Throughout those years as Conan, he had desperately wished he could tell Ran the truth about everything, though he knew that the moment he spilled his secret, Ran would be in danger. He felt cold every time he thought of her being on the Black Organization's target list, and had to remind himself every time he saw Ran upset over Shinichi's - his - disappearance, the alternative would be her death if she ever learned the truth. Sacrifices. No matter for what important cause they were for, they still left a black hole in the heart.
"I don't think you can sacrifice your life for a friendship, 'cause if you're not alive..." Kaito trailed off and raised his eyebrows.
"Friendship and feelings between people can last beyond the grave." Shinichi hesitated. "I'm sure that you know what I mean. Your dad's still watching over you. I'm certain of that. He hasn't stopped just because he passed away."
Kaito was silent, and for a few moments the only sounds were the waves washing over the shore and the distant laughter of passerby. Shinichi didn't know if he had stumbled on something he shouldn't have mentioned, but judging by Kaito's contemplative expression, it seemed to be not too sensitive a topic.
"I guess so. I don't know. But I still like my version better," said Kaito. "It's more logical, Mr. Detective."
"Like I said - actions aren't always based on logic. If that were so, then you would never flip Aoko's skirt, because the effect of that would be her murdering you with a mop. The whole sacrifice thing...it's something you have to experience, I guess, for you to really understand."
"...well, obviously, you haven't experienced it yourself. You look alive to me."
"And I doubt that you have some great secret hanging around that you can't tell anybody for fear of some severe retribution," said Shinichi, raising an eyebrow.
"Oh?" said Kaito coolly. "And wouldn't you like to know."
"Is there something you're not telling me?" said Shinichi, a hint of testiness edging into his voice.
"Judging by the way you were speaking earlier, there's something you're not telling me. You know," said Kaito brusquely, "you still haven't told anybody about the really big case you practically abandoned everybody for two years ago. And we all know it's not just a case that dragged on for a long time and you can toss aside. You've been different since you've solved it, and you haven't told anybody at all about that year that obviously really affected you."
Shinichi took a deep breath. "It doesn't concern anybody anymore, so there's no reason to tell it."
"There's no reason to be honest about a secret and let it out?" countered Kaito. "Even though you spend your life looking for the truth in other people, you can't even expose your own truth?" he added, not a little angrily.
"I wouldn't like to hurt my friends; obviously, that's why I haven't said anything about it," said Shinichi, his fingers curling into fists. Kaito was looking at him with a degree of smugness; Shinichi hated that expression and felt his blood boiling with every second it stayed; it was the same smirk that Kid always wore, so arrogant and infuriatingly confident, and Shinichi wanted to shatter Kaito's mask; he wished it were gone, gone, and he could see -
"Sacrifices, Kudo." said Kaito hotly. "Just give us the truth already. Otherwise, there's going to be something blocking you from all of us, and it's going to hurt everybody in the end if you just keep it inside."
Shinichi glared at Kaito, who was smirking. "You sound like you have a lot of personal experience with that."
Kaito's eyes narrowed. "Everybody has their secrets. Mine need to be kept for good."
Shinichi stood up angrily and brushed the sand off his legs. "What the hell? Then don't lecture me on being honest when you can't even do it yourself, Kaito," he spat out, fury getting the better of him.
"I was -"
"And don't pull my own words back on me. Sacrifices? Sacrifices? Do you have any damn idea about how many I made?"
"Look, I -"
"I was trying to protect you all, and I can't tell you anything about why, or how, and I still kept it inside even though I knew the whole case could really screw up. And here you are, trying to wheedle something out of me that I just want - I just need - to keep in the dark forever, and you tell me that I have to make a "sacrifice"? What the hell do you know?"
"SHUT UP!" roared Kaito angrily, rising to his feet. "I KNOW AS WELL AS YOU DO WHAT IT FEELS LIKE!" He looked shocked - no, hurt, and his face was scarlet. "DON'T YOU DARE THINK YOU'RE THE ONLY ONE!"
"Don't lie to me, you -"
"I've nearly lost all my friends before!" hissed Kaito. "And now? I about to - I'm about to lose -" But he broke off abruptly from that sentence and veered onto a new course. "You know what your problem is, Shinichi?"
"What?" spat the detective.
"You're so damn prideful. All you effing think about is yourself - you don't think about the people you care about at all; everything that's important are your screwed up cases and your effing misery, and sometimes you're just on some distant cloud up there, floating in some other world of your logic and drama - and you don't even care, do you, about all of your friends who are just hoping you'll snap out of all that and maybe give an effing damn about what's going on down here on Earth? Do you know how much Ran's worried, and how much she just wants you to give her a smile? Do you know how much I've worried about how positively ill you've been looking lately? Of course not. Because you're a self-centered, prideful, and effing arrogant bastard. Get a damn clue, detective," spat Kaito, and stormed away.
The rest of the time at the beach was so fraught with tension between Kaito and Shinichi that finally, Aoko and Ran irately snatched up Kaito's car keys, told their boyfriends that "they could find their own way home", and drove off. Shinichi managed to hail down a passing cabbie, promising that he would pay upon arrival. When he left the beach, Kaito was still sitting on the beach, moodily throwing rocks in the water.
He got home a few hours later, slightly sunburned on his shoulders and in a dark mood. He had left the house expecting to feel better, but returned feeling terrible. Maybe Ran was right about him having a curse. A wave of exhaustion passed over him, and he began to think a short nap was in due order. It would, at least, help him forget about the afternoon events. But as Shinichi set down his duffel bag, he noticed that a small edge of something white - A card? - was poking out of one of the side pockets, and he blinked stupidly at it.
He frowned, not remembering it having ever been there before. Had Ran slipped him a note before he got out of the car? No, she would have told him to call her later if it was a private matter. Bewildered, Shinichi took the card out of the duffel pocket and read its contents.
The Takanawa Hotel
11th Floor
21:00, Saturday
Kaitou Kid
A/N: Okay, the next chapter will be the Dying Detective one. headdesk I am full of teh stoopid. And I am le tired. Hope you enjoy!
