Fandom: Detective Conan/Case Closed
Disclaimer: They all belong to Gosho Aoyama. (insert cry of desperation)
Story Title: Planetarium
Chapter Title: Deception/Revelation
Notes: I just now noticed that every time I put Heiji and Kazuha together, there's always a bit of fluff.
Chapter Summary: Heiji and Shinichi discuss matters quietly. In the small, smoky pub, Shinichi finds the moment that a deception becomes a revelation.
Chapter Quote: Shinichi sighed and began absently tapping the shot glass on the table, paying no heed to the tightness of his grip on it. At this point, Heiji realized exactly how drunk Shinichi was.
The woman was found hanging from a high beam in her room, her doors all locked and the windows untouched. It would have been a perfect murder covered as a suicide if the culprit hadn't placed such an unusually short stool beneath the victim's feet. And because of this seemingly insignificant detail, two college detectives found themselves investigating yet another crime scene.
Shinichi frowned at the wall of the victim's room, which was mostly covered by a large wardrobe and a cabinet displaying a collection of Western glassware. Everything was covered by a pane, so the overall surface was mostly smooth. But if Shinichi's theory was correct, then there would be some sort of small, sturdy object protruding from somewhere. The handle for the wardrobe was too flimsy, and the coat hook was facing the wrong angle. So where was...?
Ah, he thought, his eyes settling on the air conditioner controls. Perhaps that's it? He peered over the top and carefully examined the dust lying on top of the plastic - and sure enough, there was thin, clean strip running along the controls. Perfect. He grinned satisfactorily to himself. Now to check the other wall for something similar -
A warm hand touched his shoulder, startling Shinichi. Heiji had come up from behind him, looking mildly concerned. Shinichi had noticed that his friend had been keeping a careful eye on him lately, so he wasn't entirely surprised to be interrupted like this. "Hey," said Heiji quietly, "you go sit down and take a break. I'll do the rest."
"Wait, but I found some dust -"
"I know, Kudo," said Heiji pointedly. "I found the evidence before you did," he added matter-of-factly, holding up a broken fishing line. "And even though I will vehemently deny saying this later, it's not every day something like that happens. Your mind's obviously not on the case. What's up?"
Kaito, thought Shinichi immediately. "Not anything important."
"Liar. Your face went all dark."
"Well, maybe I just don't want to -" He stopped, remembering Kaito's words. They felt like bruises on his skin, stinging and sore. Damn bastard. He really has no idea what the hell he's done.
"You don't want to what?" said Heiji expectantly, raising an eyebrow.
"Never mind," said Shinichi in an annoyed voice, adjusting his coat. "I'll tell you later. But right now, I'm going out," he said, and went down the stairs.
As Shinichi's footsteps died away, Kazuha and Ran emerged from the hall, both looking amused. "I can't believe that worked," Ran smiled.
Heiji shrugged. "It's not like he'll listen to me if I keep demanding him to go outside, 'cause that didn't work even when you tried. So the obvious answer was to stay inside and annoy him until he did go."
Kazuha rolled her eyes. "Men. They're all annoying whether or not they intend to be. Especially this one."
"Kazuha!"
"Ahou," said Kazuha neatly. "But now that he's gone, we can...ah...talk."
"I don't like that word," said Heiji, looking alarmed.
"Don't worry; I'm not breaking up with you."
Heiji flushed and began to sputter nonsensically. "That's not - ! I didn't - I didn't mean it like -"
"Anyway," said Kazuha innocently, ignoring Heiji's flustered protests, "Ran - you said something about the beach earlier?"
"Yeah. Kaito and Shinichi got into a really bad argument a few days ago. I don't know exactly what happened, but it seems like Kaito was telling Shinichi to do something really important."
"We can't just go on that," said Kazuha, frowning. "Did Kudo say anything afterwards about it?"
Ran sighed. "I can't think of anything that he said, but I could hear him punching his desk - and even though he's hiding it, there's a bruise on his wrist from doing it. And also, I know that he was angry enough to misplace his copy of The Sign of Four."
"That's dangerous," said Heiji darkly. "Did you ask Nakamori about Kaito?"
"Yeah, Aoko called me," said Ran, looking more and more upset. "She caught Kuroba looking suspiciously red-eyed, but he wouldn't admit to crying."
Heiji looked at the ground contemplatively. "They're both idiots," he finally concluded, and shrugged. "I'm sure that they'll make up soon enough. They've gotten into fights before."
"But this isn't just a fight, you ahou!" said Kazuha, sounding distressed. "It's like - I don't know, the apocalypse or something! And you have to do something about it!"
Heiji was taken aback. "Why me?"
"Because you're a guy, his best friend, and you two can do some manly bonding once you get Shinichi drunk enough," said Ran imploringly.
"But you're his girlfriend!"
"There are some things you can tell certain people, and other things you can't. Maybe I'm the one that's closest to Shinichi aside from his parents, but there are things that he's willing to tell you that he's not willing to tell me. And whatever's been bothering him recently - and maybe even the fight with Kaito - he might share with you."
Heiji groaned. "I hate female intuition," he whispered feebly.
The pub was lit with incandescent light bulbs and dimmed by the heady fog of cigarette smoke. Torn bits of newspaper littered the floor, and the tables felt faintly sticky from copious amounts of spilled alcohol. Heiji didn't like the look of the place at all, but Shinichi didn't seem to notice the dingy atmosphere of the pub. He had half-collapsed on the stool and ordered a shot almost instantaneously, which made Heiji's job considerably easier. He ordered a gin and tonic, since those two bottles looked moderately clean in comparison to the others. Shinichi and Heiji didn't talk for a few minutes; instead, they downed their drinks and stared at their gradually emptying cups.
After the second shot, Shinichi abruptly said, "Ran and Kazuha put you up to this."
Heiji choked on his drink. "Was it that obvious?"
"You lured me outside so that you and our girlfriends could talk. Obviously, the subject matter was about me, and if it was about me, then it's probably" - he downed yet another shot - "about what happened at the beach, or the fact I've been a bastard lately; or even more likely, judging by Ran's guilty expression when I came back - both."
"Of course. I should have seen that," groaned Heiji, slapping his forehead.
"And you don't even like drinking that much anyway, and you've been kind of quiet our entire time here. You've also been rude enough to not order a shot yourself when I have - you've chosen to drink the considerably weaker gin and tonic while I'm drinking something" - he sniffed his glass with a disgusted face - "that tastes like pure alcohol. Obviously, you intend to get me drunk. The most probable reason for this is that you want me to talk about something that I wouldn't normally talk about, since there's also the chance that I'll also get drunk enough to forget it all happened tomorrow morning."
"Ku - Shinichi," said Heiji quietly.
"At your service," said Shinichi listlessly, drawing circles on the counter.
"...you're already drunk." Good God, thought Heiji. He's hammered but can still make those effing deductions. Typical Shinichi.
"Of course," mumbled Shinichi, resting his head on his arms. "But really, if there's a matter that you want me to clarify, you don't have to get me drunk to do it. Have a little trust in me," said Shinichi, sounding miffed.
"You looked like you needed the drink," said Heiji, smiling.
"I always need a drink."
"Well said."
They drank in sullen silence once more, watching the faded television in the corner of the pub for a few minutes. Neither of them spoke, but chose instead to gather his thoughts.
"Shinichi," said Heiji, "are you ever going to tell Ran about Conan?"
There was an uncomfortable pause before Shinichi responded. "When it's a good time," he said quietly.
"When would be a good time?"
Shinichi paused. "Never."
Heiji sighed, frustrated. "Why not? She's going to wonder about it for the rest of her life."
"I don't want to hurt her."
"I think it's better to let her have a week's worth of rage rather than a lifetime of hurt at you keeping secrets from her."
Shinichi's expression darkened. "Don't say that."
Heiji blinked, perplexed. Lately, Shinichi had been testy about seemingly innocuous statements that people would make, and it was nearly impossible to have a normal conversation with him anymore. "Are you afraid she's going to leave you because of it?"
Shinichi turned his head away. "I lied to her. A lot. And I..." His voice softened a little. It always did, whenever he talked about Ran. "I don't want to lose her."
"You're asking me to have a little trust in you. Why can't you have a little trust in her? She's not going to hate you forever because of it. She's a smart girl. She can understand -"
"Nobody can," interrupted Shinichi. "Damn. The more time that goes by, the more I want to tell her and the more I want to act like it's a thing of the past. The syndicate is gone, Heiji. It's all over now, and I just want to forget it. But I can't, and you, Ran, and" - there was an uncomfortable pause - "Kuroba have all noticed that I've changed since the Black Ops. went down, and everybody wants to know what happened. I have no damn idea what to do."
Heiji looked at the detective in front of him. He was exhausted, his hair was messy, and it was obvious that he hadn't slept well in days. "You mentioned Kaito," said Heiji evenly.
"I did."
"I heard something happened between you and him."
"That's true."
"Are you going to tell me about it?"
"I have a feeling, Heiji, that you know precisely what happened between us. And you knowingly kept this information from Kazuha and Ran, because you don't want to know about the fight...you want to know about something else."
"You're too good," said Heiji mournfully.
Shinichi turned back around to face his best friend, and to Heiji's surprise, there was a glimmer of frustration in his eyes. "I actually did want to talk to you about something. But I didn't, because - because I didn't know how to tell you," he said, flushing slightly.
Heiji softened; Shinichi was normally never this open about anything aside from his deductions on crime scenes. It must be the alcohol, concluded Heiji wisely. "What is it?"
"It's Kuroba," said Shinichi, and the change in name usage did not go unnoticed by Heiji. "When we - when we were arguing, he made it quite obvious that he had some sort of secret. Like mine. He's had to lie a lot about something, and it's causing him a lot of pain."
"I doubt he got shrunk into a little child."
"Yeah - somehow, I don't think that's it. But his actions were very interesting. He got angry very quickly when I told him I had no intention of telling Ran about Conan. Strange, don't you think?"
Heiji nodded. "Exactly how did he behave?"
Shinichi sighed and began absently tapping the shot glass on the table, paying no heed to the tightness of his grip on it. At this point, Heiji realized exactly how drunk Shinichi was. "He sounded frustrated when he was trying to convince me the truth would be the best thing I could tell her. He spent an odd amount of time on that fact."
"I might be wrong," said Heiji after thinking awhile, "but it sounds like when he was shouting all that at you, he was really trying to convince himself of the same things. Maybe he was trying to make a decision about something, but had no idea what to do...so when he saw you in a similar situation, he transferred his own frustration onto your issues." Heiji shrugged, and took a swig of his drink. "Maybe."
Shinichi blinked. "Really? Was that it, then?"
Heiji thought he saw a victorious gleam in Shinichi's eye, but it disappeared quickly. "Well, it's just my opin-"
"Thank you, Heiji," said Shinichi, standing up abruptly. "You gave me the confirmation I needed." He returned the shot glass, gathered up his things, and walked out of the pub without staggering or bumping into anything.
It was at this point that Heiji realized something with blinding clarity:
Shinichi had never been drunk at all.
Heiji was staggered with shock for a minute before a grin slowly broke out on his face. The bastard, he thought, laughing quietly. He's on to something.
