TVD Omake

When I Was Myself

AN: Missing conversation between Ran and Shinichi set just after Kaito leaves the Mouri residence in chapter nine.

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"Ne, Shinichi?"

Ran caught him looking at her with that slightly worried expression of his, and backed down, blushing.

"Eh, never mind. It's not really anything important..."

"Barou. If it wasn't important, you wouldn't have brought it up. What's more – since you're bringing this up just now, after Kuroba's gone, I can only deduce that it's got something to do with that guy. Or rather, should I say, the Kaitou Kid."

Ran rolled her eyes but didn't disagree. Of course he was right. Shinichi was always right about such things.

"So? What is it?"

"I... I was just wondering... that is, um..."

Shinichi sighed.

"Look, if you want me to find something out, we can just call him – I'm sure he wouldn't mind. If it's about anything else, you can just ask me. I'll still be here whenever, you know."

She sighed. No matter how many times she heard the words, they would always now have a place in her heart that made her feel so much better when he said them.

"It's not about Kuroba-kun. At least, I don't think it is. Um. Kind of it is, but it also isn't, and. . . it's also kind of about you," she said, trailing off at the end with her face red.

"About. . . me?" Shinichi asked, nonplussed. "What could be about both me and him? I mean, other than when I've met him at heists, and that wasn't exactly meeting, but. . ."

"Eh? You're sure?"

"Yeah, pretty sure. Why?"

"I suppose... It's just, well, you two look really similar. Like you could maybe – oh, I don't know, pass for one another, like if someone just saw a bit of you, or. . . Shinichi, what're you laughing for?"

"Oh – sorry, Ran. It's just the idea. Me, dressing up as him? Even now, you wouldn't be able to pay me to do it. That guy's a thief, Ran – no amount of alliance is going to change that, whether he's actually a nice guy or not. Not to mention I've never done a practical magic trick in my life, and they practically are his life."

Ran giggled.

"You mean like you and your mysteries and your Holmes?"

"Yeah, I guess," he groused, "except that guy likes Lupin better. Anyone with eyes can see that Holmes was always better."

"Ah, aha ha. . ." She trailed off, eyes going distant. "Yet, Shinichi – wasn't Lupin the one who wore so many disguises he almost couldn't remember which one his own face was?"

"Yeah, he was," her friend said, surprised slightly. "But when did you hear that?"

She shook her head.

"I heard you and Kuroba-kun arguing over them worse than you and Hattori-kun usually do over Holmes and Ellery Queen."

"Ah." There was that smug look back on his face, the one that said he knew something that she did not, and that he was going to make a big show of knowing, and- "What you wanted to ask me; it was about all those times I went back to my old self, isn't it? And the times I only appeared to."

Her eyes widened ever so much on a reflex, always astounded at his deductions no matter how seemingly small. Then she nodded, looking down in embarrassment and shame.

"I know I shouldn't even have to ask – it couldn't have been you. You were there, at the same time, nearly every time, at least, I think so. And there were so many times when it seemed like you were back but you'd just go away straight after, or only call, and I know how good Kuroba-san is with voices, and he looks just like you..."

"O-oi, Ran, don't be upset – please don't cry, you know I don't like it when you cry – and it was me, really me, at least it was most times. You remember that time when we first met Hattori? That time, and the time when I solved that case still dressed up as the knight from that play, and then later had to solve that crime in that restaurant while you waited, but then..."

"...then you had to go back to being Conan again. I remember that. But what about all the other times? I mean, thinking about it, it was definitely you who disguised yourself as Shiragami-sama, right? I remember... we were still holding hands... but all of the other times?"

Shinichi sighed and turned away from her sideways, so that only his profile was visible to her, and she once again marvelled at how sharp yet smooth the lines of his face were now in the sinking of the sun, which was causing them to look as though they were both blushing.

"Well, those other times, huh... Yeah. Them you'd have to thank Kuroba for, I think. Might be one or two we missed out, though, but aside from that..."

"You mean, when I thought I saw you in Shibuya that day, it really wasn't- and it was really...?"

"Yeah, that'd probably be Kuroba. The girl was probably Aoko-san. I've met her."

"And that time you appeared after the case with all the Easter eggs but when I got out you were gone, it was- ?"

"Kuroba, again. Though that time, he actually did it on purpose, the jerk. I suppose I had to thank him, though – I was almost about to tell you, and if I had at that point, it definitely wouldn't have been pretty." He held up a hand to ward off her protests when she opened her mouth. "I know you wanted to know, but it just wasn't time yet back then, you understand, right?"

Resigned and forcefully putting the past in the past, she nodded slowly.

"And. . . that time, when you showed up – but that can't have been you! At the theatre, and on the plane – you were there still, you were still Conan, and you acted like, well, you as Conan, but kind of off as Shinichi..."

He smiled – more like a full-blown grin – and put his hands behind his neck.

"Bin-go! I have got to see the look on his face when he's told you figured him out from that – he prides himself on getting the details right, you know."

Se frowned slightly, but there was amusement hidden behind her eyes, and she knew that he could see it.

"It wasn't so much the details as it was the fact that he used weird words, and acted all funny. 'Cute'. I still can't believe he called me 'cute' He was trying to flirt with me, and he's already got a girlfriend!"

Shinichi laughed a little at the expense of the thief, who, she believed, entirely deserved it.

"I think he just flirts and teases everyone like that, Ran. All it did was make it easier for me and the others to figure out who he really was. He even landed on Ayumi-chan's balcony, once!"

Ran attempted to hide a giggle behind her hand, but of course with his hearing the way it was now it was only a gesture.

"Oh, Shinichi... you still talk about them like that, don't you?" She shook her head, but only paused for a moment, not long enough for him to give her an answer to the question. "Thinking about it, though. . . I am still almost glad that it was him still who called on that plane, later."

"Eh? What was that? I don't remember him ever calling anyone – unless you mean when he was contacting flight control, and I was right there, remember?"

"You – you – you mean you- ?!" Her face growing brighter and redder by the second, she stared at him. He, who was still partly facing away from her and looking into the sunset, his face flushing slightly pink. She looked away out of sheer embarrassment and the way the fading pink sunlight silhouetting his figure made her feel.

Those words. I said those words, and I almost didn't think that he had heard them, that it was my secret with someone else. . . But he did hear them, didn't he? I heard Conan on that phone – I know I did. So. . . why hasn't he said anything, even now? At all?

She looked back at where he had been, only to find him gone. She turned about so quickly she was almost afraid of whiplash, but there he was again, heading towards the door and stairs to go, jacket hung over one shoulder. He sighed again, turning his head slightly her way so that she could see the fond smirk that was playing its way around his mouth.

"Of course I heard, Ran. . ."

The words were so softly spoken that she almost thought that he had not said them at all, that it had been a fantasy of her own imagination. But they had been just loud enough to hear. Both that and the look on his face just before he had said them were good enough for her, and she was in such good spirits so far into the night that her father even asked her if she was all right, and what it was that the 'detective brat' had done this time.

She just shook her head, said that nothing was wrong, and kept on grinning.

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AN: I've been wanting to write this for simply ages. I mean, ages. . .

Written in keeping with that point in TVD1, the tone here is light, but with overtones of some of the themes that were playing out in that part of the story.

Please be aware that, like in the main story, I'm using both the manga and the anime movies as canon material. I like the movies. They're cool. I think the only one that I missed out was the Seventh, Crossroad in the Ancient Capital. But I couldn't think of where – or how – to put it in, so you've still got all of the others covered, I think.