Hi people.:)
I'm updating again.. Sadly, I haven't got a lot of reviews... :((
Anyways, lets proceed with the story.
D I S C L A I M E R
Shinichi: She doesn't own me *squeaks in delight*
Kaito: Or me together with the rest of MK/DC characters *jumps up in the air*
Me: All rights reserved to Gosho Aoyama :)
WithMrDeathDie: That will be mentioned on this chapter :)
C H A P T E R 4
"Absence diminishes mediocre passions and increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles and fans fires."
~Francois de La Rochefoucauld
oOo
Because Shinichi had laughed.
When he had said he had understood how he must be hurting he had actually flung back his head, closed his blue eyes briefly and laughed out loud. And it was not a pleasant laugh. It had nothing of any real humor in it, no warmth at all. It was a cold laugh, a harsh and bitter laugh, one that made a thousand tiny electrical shiversw over his skin and turn his veins to ice.
"Shinichi?" he queried, wondering if after all he had actually got through to him.
In his nervousness had he really made any sort of sense or had he just confused him? Was it possible that he had somehow made him think that this was some sort of joke- a very dark, sick one, but a joke nonetheless?
"Shinichi-did you hear what I said? You have to understand..."
"Oh, I heard, hermoso, and I understand only too well. Your sister had reneged on her promise and run out on me, leaving you to pick up the pieces. That I understand only too well. What I do not get is why in hell you think I should care?"
"What?"
Kaito found that he was blinking in confusion, trying to make sense of Shinichi's words, but most of all trying to understand or even believe in his reaction.
If that laugh had been unexpected, then the rest of his words sounded almost surreal. When he had been expecting distress, anger, bitterness at the way he had been betrayed and left at the altar by the woman he wanted to marry, instead there was dark cynicism, and almost dismissal of what he had just said.
"You don't care? But surely...?"
Shinichi's response was a shockingly indifferent shrug of his shoulders under the fine cloth of his immaculately tailored jacket, and he pushed both hands through the gleaming darkness of his hair as if relaxing after a long day.
But relaxed was the last word he would use to describe the set of his face, the tight compression of his sensual mouth, the way that a taut muscle jumped in his jaw. And the glittering look he turned on him had nothing that was comfortable or easy-going in it. Instead, he was reminded of how, on the day he had first met him, he had believed that he had the coldest eyes of anyone in the world.
"You expect me to act as if your sister has broken my heart? As if I have lost the love of my life and cannot find the strength to go on-to live for the future?" he questioned cynically, biting the words out as if they were bones he wanted to snap. "Well, then you could not be more wrong. I will have no trouble going on with my life after this-though your family might find it harder to pick themselves up as a result. In fact-"
He broke off as a sharp rap came on the door, someone knocking on heavy panels from the other side, in the church.
"Kaito? Kai?"
It was his mother's voice, coming sharp and concerned through the thickness of the wood.
"Is everything all right? What's going on? Shinichi-what-"
"Wait a second!" Shinichi snapped, tossing the word over his shoulder, his burnig eyes still fixed on Kaito's bewildered face.
"We will be out in a second and we will explain all. Or rather..."
The cold, curt tone slid into something else as his eyes seared across his skin, seeming to strip away a necessary protective layer and leave his nerves raw and exposed underneath.
"You will do the explaining," he said and for all the sudden softness and smoothness of his tone, Kaito could be in no doubt that it was an autov\cratic command, one that he expected to to have obeyed without hesitation or argument.
"You will tell you mother- your family-what has happened.'
"But I..." Kaito began, his voice failing him, the words drying in his throat as he tried to protest. It isn't up to me now-surely you..."
He couldn't go out there and tell everyone why he was here. Tell them that Ran had to run out on her wedding-the wedding that was described in the newspapers and the gossip columns as the Wedding of the Year, the joining together of huge wealth and aristocratic beauty. It was to have been the union of one powerful rich, ultra modern bloodline of the billionaire detective slash entrepreneur, and the old patrician lineage of Ran Mouri, twenty-year-old daughter of Kogoro Mouri. Shinichi Kudo who had made his fortune with his own hands and brain, dragging himself up from his lowly and impoverished beginnings to the height of his wealth and power, was marrying into nobility, a family whose name had been amongst the highest in the land for centuries past. It had been the stuff that fairy tales were made of, especially when the bride was acknowledged to be a stunning beauty and the groom a hunk whose carved, handsome features and lean, frame had featured in many photographs in the gossip columns and in magazines, usually with some supremely decorative female draped on his arm.
"I don't think..." he tried again, feeling even more lost and adrift than in the first moments when he had arrived in the church and had come under the scrutiny of those coldly burning eyes as he walked up the aisle towards him.
Because the truth was that he didn't know what he was meant to say or how-and what-he was supposed to explain. Nothing had been as he had expected it. But then how did you know what might happen when you had to break up a wedding by announcing to the groom that his fiancee had jilted him? It wasn't exactly something that you did everyday.
But Shinichi wasn't listening to his protests. Instead he had levered himself away from the door and taken two swift strides towards him, his hand coming out and clamping over his arm, just above the elbow fingers digging into his skin as he swung him round to face the door at his side.
"You will do it," he declared, cold, brusque. "Your family has messed up my life enough already, so now..."
He was interrupted by another rap at the door and his mother's voice again, sharper this time.
"Kait6o-what's going on in there...?"
"Nothing-I mean, it's fine," Kaito managed when Shinichi turned a forceful glare on him, the burnished eyes directing a silent command that she should respond.
"We-we're coming out now and I'll...I'll explain."
He had no option, it seemed, because that hand that gripped his arm was now pulling him forward, leaving him no choice but to follow.
"Let go of me!" He spat in furious protest. "OK, so I had to bring you bad news-but there's a saying about not shooting the messenger. And that's all that I am-the messenger. Ran's the one-"
"But your sister's not here."
It was a low growl and he didn't look at him, didn't slow his steps towards the door, yanking it open as soon as he reached it.
"So don't take it out on me! You can't drag me about like this-"
He'd taken his attention off his own feet for a moment and as a result he caught his toe against one of the uneven flagstones, stumbling awkwardly in the unaccustomed shoes. For a second he thought he would fall but then that cruel grip around his arm tightened even more, holding him upright by sheer force.
"Don't yank me about!"
"I was trying to help."
The cold flash of his brilliant eyes warned him not to argue but his own temper was bubbling up sharply and he was having to struggle to contain it. How had this happened? How had he come from being just, as he had said, the messenger of bad news, to being the victim of Shinichi Kudo's dark disapproval, hauled out into thew church by him to face the congregation assembled for his society wedding, without even being aware of just what was involved?
Because something was involved, that much was obvious.
"Then don't help." he laced his tone with sarcasm to make it clear that helping was the last thing he thought he was doing. "I can manage quite well enough on my own."
"You might be able to manage," he flung back from between gritted teeth, keeping his voice low so that no one, not even his stepfather in the front row, or his mother, still waiting by the altar steps, could catch what he was saying. "But I would prefer it if you didn't fall flat on your face and then blame it on me. And I want to make sure you don't take off li8ke your sister and disappear out the door."
"What would it matter if I did?"
For a second, Kaito was tempted to aim a hard kick at Shinichi's ankle but another of those flashing sidelong glances seemed to catch his intent and a grim smile crossed his mouth as he brought them both to a halt right in front of the altar.
"Kaito," his mother began once more but silenced herself hastily when Shinichi turned a burning glare on her.
"Ladies and gentlemen..."
He barely had to raise his voice to be heard, the church had fallen so silent as soon as they had appeared. Every eye in the place was fixed on them, some faces frowning in confusion and puzzlement, others, like those of his mother and step father, looking pale and taut with tension. Just what was going on here? What were the undercurrents he was just not picking up on? The things he didn't understand?
But Shinichi didn't seem to be aware of them as he continued to speak as calmly and as confident as if he were making his after-dinner speech-the one that now would never have to be made.
"There has been a slight change of plan..."
Slight?
That bright Kaito's head round to his in a reaction of stunned shock. How could he describe Ran's jilting od him, her flight to the airport, as 'a slight change of plan'?
But Shinichi ignored his total consternation, his wide, shocked eyes and continued with total control.
"The wedding is not going to take place..."
"Not..."
The word was choked from his mother as she took an unsteady step backwards. And in the front pew, Kaito saw his stepfather went even whiter, one hand flying to his mouth as if to hold back the cry of shock and disbelief that almost escaped him.
"What...?"
It was Chikage, trying again to make her tongue work, to ask the question that was so obviously whirling round and round her head. Kaito had rarely seen his mother looking so shocked and upset. In fact, her reaction seemed out of all proportion to the situation. OK, so it was bad, there was going to be a terrible embarrassment to fac, and the aborted wedding would be the talk of their friends - and probably the gossip columns for some weeks to come.
But surely that was better than Ran making a huge mistake and marrying a man she didn't love? Better to call the wedding off now than to face a costly divorce-costly in more ways than financial-maybe jsut months from now? But his mother was looking as if the end of the world had come and...
Kaito had no chance to think things through further because at that moment Shinichi's firm grip on his arm propelled him forward so that he was standing just in front of him, facing the gaping congregation.
"Ran isn't coming," he said coolly. "She has run out on me-that is what her brother came here to tell me. And now he's going to explain it all to you."
A forceful little push made him take another step forward in the same moment that it pointedly told his that now was the time for him to speak-to tell everyone the truth.
But what was the truth? Suddenly Kaito was not quite sure. He only knew that it had been obvious that Ran didn't want to go through with the wedding. But why had she ever agreed to it in the first place? That question made the earth seem to shift beneath his feet. But he didn't have time to consider the possible implications of that before his mother found her voice.
"Kaito? What is happening?"
"Tell her," Shinichi prompted harshly when he still hesitated. "Tell them"
"I'm afraid Kudo-san is right..."
The way that his words echoed round the silent church had an eerie, hollow sound but atleast his voice had more strength than he had anticipated and he sounded as if he knew what he was talking about. How far that was from the truth only he knew.
"Ran has changed her mind. She doesn't feel it would be right to marry him. Not when she realizes that she truly love someone else."
And that at least he could say with conviction. In his mind he still had a clear image of the moment he had looked into his sister's hotel room and seen Ran sitting on the bed, staring at the beautiful wedding dress that hung in the wardrobe, her face pale and drawn, her eyes flooded with tears.
"I thought I could do this, Kai," his sister had said. "I really wanted but it just isn't going to work now. If Saguru hadn't come into my life I would have gone ahead...but he did...and meeting him has changed everything."
"She's truly sorry to have messed everyone about...but she knew it was better to break it off now than to go into a marriage that she knew wasn't really right for her-"
"And she did not have the courage to come and tell me herself?"
It was Shinichi who spoke, his low, darkly dangerous tone drawing his eyes to his face. The black fury that blazed in those eyes, the bitter, insulted pride that tightened his jaw, turned his mouth to a thin, hard line, sent a shiver down his spine as his hard, unyielding gaze locked with him. Privately, he acknowledged that he couldn't blame Ran for not wanting to face him. When he looked like this he couldn't imagine why his sister would ever have wanted to marry him in the first place.
"No," he managed uncomfortably. Ran hadn't even dared to face her mother and father with the truth. "I'm sorry."
If the slight inclination of his proud head was meant to be an acknowledgement of his apology then it failed to have any impact. There was no lightening of the coldness in his eyes. And to think that he had once worried that the news of Ran's flight might hurt him!
This person looked as if nothing could touch him. As if nothing could penetrate that armored hide and reach through to find his heart. Right now he didn't even look as if he had a heart to touch.
"So where is Ran now?"
Another question from his mother drew Kaito's attention back to where Chikage was standing, hands clenched tightly together, a frown creasing her forehead.
"On her way to the airport-no..."
A quick glance at his watch confirmed his suspicion.
"She must be through to Departures by now. She was getting on a plane..."
"Oh, no! Ran!"
It was Kogoro Mouri, Chikage's second husband, reacting in exactoly the way that Kaito had anticipated that his stepfather would.
"What has she done? What will we do?"
"Hush, my dear..." Chikage's response sounded almost like a reproach rather than an attempt at consolation as she stepped forward to take her husband's hands in hers and hold them tightly, looking deep into his glistening eyes.
"Kogoro-don't..."
Kaito took a couple of steps forward, then stopped, knowing that his stepfather would not want his attempts at comfort.
"Surely it's better this way than for her to realize later that she's made a terrible mistake," he repeated.
Oh, he was good, Shinichi told himself, watching the way Kaito had moved forward then hesitated, noting the quiet, soothing note of his voice. Listening to him, watching him, he could almost believe he was genuine. That he believed every last word of the story that had dropped so convincingly from his pretty mouth.
But of course that couldn't be true. He had to be in this right up to his neck. He must have known that his sister was going to run out on him; why else would he time his arrival at the church so perfectly that it was impossible for anyone to go after Ran and bring her back?
They were all together -the whole family. And he had been foolish enough to let them persuade4 him to let his guard down and, for the first time in his life, make a bad decision.
As a wedding present for your bride... He could still hear Kogoro Mouri's beseeching voice inside his head. You wouldn't want to see your mother-in-law thrown out into the street...
God! What had he been thinking? Never before had he paid out anything on a contract before the whole deal was signed and sealed, but this time he's let his guard slip just a centimetre and that damn family had taken full advantage of it.
"You must want Ran to be happy."
"She would have been happy with Shinichi!" Kogoro wailed.
"We would all have been happy with things that way!"
"But she wasn't happy," Kaito protested. "She just didn't dare say it, once the wedding had been arranged and everything planned."
From where he stood slightly to the side, all that Shinichi could see was this Kaito's face and body in profile, and, having looked at him once, he suddenly found it impossible to look away.
'Weird and happy-go-lucky' was the way his stepfather had described him. But even at the pre-wedding party he had not seen him in that way. Now, even under the appallingly unflattering style, his profile had a purity that caught the eye and held it. His skin was so pale it was almost translucent and the length of the lush, eyelashes that rested on his cheeks as he looked down seemed almost as if they might waft a breeze across the church with each movement of his eyes.
His figure was tall and slender but he held himself with a natural elegance. There was something about him that drew his attention to him.
Something that hooked him and held him watching, caught by his stillness, his composure. Something that intrigued him and wouldn't let him go.
On the day that they had met she had been so cool, so distant, that he had disliked him on sight. He had turned those purple eyes on him in the sort of look that he had seen too often as he was growing up. Not to mention that he did look almost identical as him, lest the eyes and hair. The expression that reminded him he had clawed his way out of the gutter and he still carried the taint of the slums along with him. It was a look that he had vowed he would never let anyone subject him to ever again and, seeing it, he had told himself that if he had to chose then he would really prefer Ran to this cold, stiff, unwelcoming man. Wait, what? He's not a girl. Why was he comparing that guy to Ran?
Now he was no longer certain.
"But one thing's for sure," he was sating now, the calm, soft tones of his voice carrying clearly even above his stepfather's near-hysterics.
"I'm afraid there isn't going to be a wedding day here today. I just couldn't let Ran go through with it."
Counldn't... The word swung round and round in Shinichi's head, sending warning echoes out like ripples in a pond when a pebble was thrown into it. I just couldn't let Ran go through with it.
Couldn't,be damned. He had been part of this all along. He'd known that Ran was going to break her promise, had helped her run out on the wedding.
Helped her humiliate him in this public way.
"I'm sorry that you've all had a wasted journey, but I*'m sure you'll all undestand. And now I suppose the only thing we can do is to go home and go on with our lives."
He was moving forward as he spoke, making it plain that he was about to do just that, about to walk down the aisle, out of the church..."
"So if you'd all like to leave..."
"No!"
That was not going to happen. He wasn't going to just walk away from this, walk out on the mess he and his family had created, and leave it all behind without a backward look. The furious feeling that he had been duped and robed was like a blaze in his mind, obliterating rational thought, driving him into action. His hand shot out and fastened around his arm again, pulling him to a halt with such force that he actually spun around again, coming face to face with him. Ran might be beyond his reach, but his brother was not.
That family owed-and he didn't care who started paying. Only that someone did. And this brother seemed a good place to start.
But first he need to make sure that he didn't get away from him now, running out on him fast like his deceitful, lying sister.
"No," he repeated even more forcefully. "You are not going anywhere-you are coming with me."
woooooooooo CUT again :)
I think it's too long that people will be bored just by reading it ...
PLease review after reading .. I put a lot of effort in writing this :)
Kindly hit Review this Chapter button and give your feed backs :)
~alex