Theme Seven: Heaven

Shinichi Kudo wasn't sure he could define heaven. He could certainly define all kinds of hell; he'd been in enough of them in the past year or so. And logically – at least, logically to him – heaven should be the opposite of that. And yet, at the same time, he couldn't imagine what it would be like anymore. At least, not until this moment.

He sat nervously next to Ran on a couch in Agasa-hakase's house. Ran had found out everything the day before by complete accident. She hadn't reached the angry stage, at least not yet. Shinichi had strong suspicions that she was still in shock. Haibara was just finishing explaining her part of the story as clearly and concisely as possible. They all sat there in silence for a minute or two after her tale finished. Everyone in the room had a different expression; Agasa-hakase looked distinctly nervous, Haibara was as expressionless as ever, staring at Ran passively. Shinichi was pretty sure he was going to turn blue from holding his breath. And Ran…

He glanced up at her nervously. She was looking at her lap, her bangs hiding her eyes. He couldn't tell if she was angry or not. Thankfully, her hands were limp rather than in fists. That was a good sign, if a small one. Then, to his shock, he saw a tear slide down her cheek.

"R-Ran?" he asked tentatively, placing a small hand over one of hers gingerly. "I – I'm sorry, Ran, I didn't want to make you cry, I can leave if you need me to now that you know, I just-" Thankfully, she chose that moment to cut off his babbling by pulling him into a tight hug, crying into his hair. He stiffened, feeling his face growing red. "R-Ran?" he squeaked.

"You idiot," Ran sobbed. "Idiot, idiot, idiot! Why would I want you to leave?" She sniffed. "I just… I wish you would have told me. I could have helped you, this all… all could have been so much easier…" Shinichi reached out a little and put his arms around her waist as far as they would go, forgetting that there were others in the room.

"I know," he said softly, voice choked a little. "I… there were so many times that I cursed myself for later, because they were perfect times to tell you and I let them get away. And more than anyone else I never… I never wanted to hurt you, Ran."

"I know," she told him. "I… well, I can't lie and say I'm not angry." She drew back to look him in the face. "In this case, I think it's impossible to not be at least a little angry. And we'll have to have… a talk… about some of those things later." Shinichi felt the blood drain from his face a little, and he nodded nervously.

It's more then you expected when this all started, he told himself firmly. So be a man and deal with it.

"But," Ran said firmly, "There's something more important than anger right now.

"There is?" Shinichi asked, blinking.

"Yes, you idiot," Ran sighed. "A detective otaku like you should be able to figure it out, shouldn't you?"

"That's not fair!" he began to protest, but Ran reached out and gently placed a finger over his lips.

"I'm just teasing," she said gently. "But there is something else, Shinichi." She smiled at him tremulously. "I missed you, you know. So for now… I'm just happy to have you back."

"Touching as that is," Haibara said dryly, "I have something that might make it even better." Shinichi and Ran jumped apart a little, startled by the interruption of their moment. Shinichi leveled a glare at the diminutive scientist, who merely blinked back at him impassively.

"Sometimes, Kudo-kun, you act like the kid you're supposed to be," she informed him.

"Ah – what did you have to say, Ai-chan?" Ran asked quickly as Shinichi opened his mouth to retort. Haibara nodded approvingly at her.

"By far the more sensible of the pair of you, Mouri-chan. As I was going to say, I have been working in my lab this past week. There have been significant changes in the rate of cellular change in some of my experiments, as I'm sure Hakase could tell you. He has been observing them with me." Shinichi blinked at her, utterly baffled, and she sighed. "In short, Kudo-kun, I think I am almost prepared to create an antidote."

"An… antidote…" Shinichi repeated dumbly, his brain having temporarily shut off. "You mean…"

"Yes, Kudo-kun, that is what I mean." Haibara gave him a small smile. "It will likely be done within the month. It's up for debate how long it will be until you can take it, however, since you don't want to flaunt to the Black Organization that you are still alive." Ran shuddered a little.

"We don't want that," she said fervently, then glared down at Shinichi. "Do we?"

"Um… yes?" Shinichi looked up at her, trying to look innocent. She didn't buy it.

"Shinichi Kudo, if you think that I'm going to let you use yourself as bait in this whole thing, you… What on earth inside you would make you think that was even a remotely good idea, after everything that's already happened…" Shinichi winced a little as Ran began to lecture him severely, but soon found himself fighting back a smile. With Ran lecturing him this way, and the amused look on Hakase's face warring with the same worries that Ran was now listing, he almost felt normal again. And if Haibara was right, he would be normal again soon enough – no matter how much Ran lectured him about it.

This, Shinichi thought as Ran let out an indignant "Shinichi, are you even listening?", might just qualify as heaven.