(Here's chapter 8. We hope you like it, and review it.)

(Umi's Part)

(Ran's point of view)

Mathew, dad, and I hadn't gotten a lot done by the time we got home, but at least we looked. Well, at least Mathew and I did, anyways. Mathew was over and I was cooking our supper; all that was left was for Conan and Umi to arrive. I wondered if they had gotten anything done. Mathew came into the kitchen and pointed back to my dad's office.

"He was getting too loud for me. I think he just broke my eardrums." He said to me.

I smiled and looked past to my dad's office. He was probably watching a Yoko Okino tape or something.

"Go, go, Yoko," I heard my dad shouting with enthusiasm.

I handed Mathew a beer and gave him instructions.

"Give this to dad, and tell him it's the last one. He'll probably stop yelling just long enough for the show to end and then go out and buy some more beer." I explained to him.

Mathew looked at me.

"This happens a lot, doesn't it?" He asked.

"All the time." I said, sighing.

"He obviously doesn't want to live until he's 100," Mathew said, sighing too.

"What do you mean by that?" I asked, stumped.

"I read somewhere that a man in this country -- Japan, is 111 years old," Mathew answered.

He went to give the beer to dad and I continued making sure nothing burned or anything. I was pretty sure we all had a hard day.

I wonder how Shinichi is... I thought.

(Umi's point of view)

I leaned back on the bus with my notepad out. Conan and I had spent the rest of the day discussing the case. You know, for a kid, he was pretty sharp. Almost made me think that he wasn't really a kid.

"So you're saying that this may be connected to some big robbery from awhile back?" I asked, looking at him with raised eyebrows.

(Conan's point of view)

I had told her briefly about the billion yen heist and how Akemi Miyano had used an alias to get Kogoro to find the driver in the heist, and how she was afterwards shot. Of course, I didn't know how to tell her about the Syndicate... At least not without revealing my true identity.. But I got a feeling they were connected to it somehow.

"Ah, maybe. But we don't even know what that van was used for."

"How do you know all this," she asked me. Uh...

"O-oh, Doctor Agasa talks about it over the phone a lot."

"With who?"

"Shinichi nii-chan."

"Ah.." We were nearing my stop - AKA the sleeping Kogoro's detective agency.

"Well, you need me to make sure you get inside safely, or will you be okay?" Umi asked.

"Maybe you should come inside, at least for awhile. After all, we don't know what Kogoro, Mathew, and Ran have learned, and I can't remember what all we learned. Not only that, but we need to draw straws again for tommorow." I said to her.

"Oh yeah. Okay then." Umi responded.

The bus came to a stop moments later and we got off. As we were walking up the steps, Kogoro yelled something incomprehensible, opened the door, and dashed right on by us. We went inside, and were greeted by Ran after announcing I was home.

(Umi's point of view)

I clapped my hands once. I didn't.. do very well with people.

"Sooo... How about we just exchange what we learned, pull the straws, and I can go? I don't want to be a bother or anything..." I asked.

"Oh, it's no problem. Supper is almost ready for all of us. Including you, Umi. We can talk it over during supper." Ran said with a smile.

I returned the favor. Only mine wasn't... as.. er.. nice. Conan had went over to the couch and laid down with a Shonen Jump magazine over his face. I did the same on the other couch.. Only, I didn't have a magazine.

(Ran's point of view)

I came out to see what they wanted to drink, but Conan and Umi were asleep. I smiled and walked over to Mathew.

"What would you like as your drink," I asked quietly, not wanting to wake them up.

He looked at me with a questioning look as if to ask why I was talking so quietly. I motioned to the living room thing. Mathew almost laughed.

"How about some water," he said.

"Okay, what's so funny?" I asked him.

"Well, it's funny thinking about their personalities.. and now how they're sleeping." Mathew responded.

"Conan always sleeps like that." I said, not looking too surprised.

"Well--" Mathew was cut off as Dad came back in holding a case of beer high above his head. Before I could say anything, he switched on the T.V. to what I would swear could also be called "blaring mode." Conan lifted the magazine off his face, looked around, and then ignored the T.V. Umi was still asleep. I walked over to the T.V. and switched it off.

"Dad, they're sleeping," I said, upset that he woke Conan.

He gave me an annoyed look and then looked at Conan and Umi. Actually, I would have to wake them up soon, anyways. Supper was ready.

(Kogoro's point of view)

I glared at the two sleeping freeloaders in my agency/house. They do nothing to earn anything around here, and they take away my Yoko Okino time? I stood up and walked over to them.

"Dad? Dad, wait!" Ran said, trying to keep me back.

She would have to wake them up for supper anyways. I might as well get it over with. I yelled at them both, and then hit them on the head.

(Umi's point of view)

"GAH! OW!" I screamed, grimacing from the hit to my noggin.

I had fallen on the floor and felt pain.. Pain.. Overwhelming pain in my cerebral area. Where the hell was I anyways? I looked around. Oh, right-- the case. So much for dreams of Leon, Squall, Zero, and other video game characters.

"Well, next time, you'll know better than to sleep on MY couch." A grumbling voice brought me back to reality... Again.

"Hey! I don't sleep that often, and today was probably one of the longest days of my life!" I said, disgusted with Kogoro.

"And the end of my unusually long day has been ruined thanks to you," Kogoro snapped back.

I jumped to my feet and raised a fist.

"You wanna take this outside?" I asked with a look of determination on my face.

"I have a policy of not hitting women," Kogoro grumbled, probably wishing he had never made that self promise.

(Quick a/n: This is true, and it comes out in several cases, if I'm not mistaken, as well as the 9th movie.)

Note to self: From now on, take the advice of my family and think before I speak. Or act.

"Supper's ready," We heard Ran's voice say.

Ran interrupted the would-be fight -- thank goodness!!

(Ran's point of view)

I was kind of listening to their conversation, and got lost in which one I thought had the right to be angry. Oh well. As long as there's no fighting.

(Mat49324's part)

(still Ran's P.O.V.)

After getting the whole group together for supper, we put the case on hold and continued to eat to our heart's content.

"This is good, Ran," Mathew said to me.

"Told ya she was a good cook," Conan said.

I saw a smug look on his face.

"Cut it out, Conan! I'm not that great!!" I said.

What he said was true -- I was a pretty awesome cook. Suddenly, I remembered something: when we went to swim last night, only Conan, Mathew and me went; Umi stayed behind. For the first time in awhile, I wanted to find out why she didn't go.

"Say, Umi," I said as I finished my supper.

"You know last night when Mathew, Conan and I went swimming, why didn't you want to come with us?" I asked.

"Yeah," Mathew added.

"Don't you like to swim?" Conan asked her.

(Umi's P.O.V.)

"Er..." I stammered.

A million excuses ran through my head at once. I picked the most plausible and the one I could lie with the easiest.

"When I was a kid, I almost drowned in a lake." I finally responded.

It was partially true.

"My friend and I tipped a canoe about five feet, at most, away from the shore.." I explained.

That meant it was extremely shallow. The funny thing was, they looked at me with this "uh.. okay" kind of look and then went back to eating their food. Honestly, though, I just felt awkward wearing a bathing suit of any kind. That's when I heard Kogoro assume something.

"If you ask me, I think this girl is afraid to wear a bathing suit," Kogoro assumed.

"Am not," I retorted, even if he was right.

"Dad, that's enough," I heard Ran say to Kogoro.

(Ran's P.O.V.)

"Umi," I said to her, smiling.

"Almost drowning in a lake is a good reason, but you can't let it haunt you for a long time; Mathew never went to a beach for 11 years until last summer when he went with a friend of his."

"Really?" Umi asked Mathew.

"What she said is true," Mathew responded.

"I told her that's why."

(Mathew's P.O.V.)

When all of us finished our food, Ran went to wash the dishes and I offered to help dry them.

"That's sweet of you, Mathew," Ran said to me, smiling.

I thought about asking her about when we should get together for our date when the case was finished.

"Say, Ran," I said to her after drying a plate.

"So, what time did you want to get together for our date when this case is done? I'm just curious to know."

(Umi's Part)

(Ran's point of view)

"Hm.. I was thinking maybe around 6-ish?" I suggested.

"Okay, that sounds great," Mathew said.

We had established a time, which was good. Too bad there was no set date, due to the case and it's longevity. I held out my pinky.

"Promise?" I asked my best friend.

Shinichi and I promised maybe once or twice using the pinky system. Mathew looked at me and my pinky and then smiled and we linked pinkies.

"Promise," he said.

We smiled at each other and then finished the dishes.

(Conan's point of view)

We had told Mathew and Ran everything on our side of the case. Kogoro was just.. there. In his drunken state, where he wouldn't be able to comprehend any kind of case, unless it was a case of beer. Now, we were just waiting for them to return so they could tell us about their side, and so we could draw straws.

So, in order to kill time, I decided to go ahead and get my homework out of the way.. I can't believe I had to do this stuff again.. While I did 1st grade math, Umi decided to play my mantendo system. I have yet to figure out if her beating my high scores is good or bad.. I shrugged and decided that I just had more of a life, and finished my math, moving on to science. I was halfway through by the time Ran and Mathew came back. We waited for three minutes before someone decided to drag Umi away.

"Okay," Mathew said after Umi sat down and stopped complaining about the last boss or something.

"We know what you guys got.. Now it's our turn."

"We pretty much didn't find much out. But we did find that the janitor's name is Johnathan Smithee. He had today off. But maybe he'll be there tommorow."

"Johnathan Smithee, huh? Sounds foreign. Hey, Kogoro, did the guy seem foreign?" Umi was asking Kogoro, or rather, trying.

He was drunk as a guy could get, and babbling on to himself. Honestly, it was stupidly amusing. Until she started threatening him within an inch of his life. Thankfully, Ran got in the way and we resumed talking about the case. Apparently, Umi had never been around a drunk before. Not much else was said, save for the case, and no more confrontations were held.

"Welp, I should get going," Umi said, looking at her watch.

"Ah, wait! We should draw straws. Hold on, I'll go get them." Ran said, running off and coming back with eight straws.

She held them up via aluminum foil over a black-covered jar. We each drew. Ran drew twice -- once for her, and once for her dad.

"Okay, then, the van-ers are Kogoro and Conan. Everyone else is off to the hotel to find out some more about this guy," Mathew announced, looking at the straws we drew.

I sighed. Kogoro saw me as just a pest. At least Ran, Mathew, and Umi would listen to me. Umi and Mathew left, and Ran shooed me off to bed. I figured Kogoro would find his way to his room, or just collapse. Ran must have thought so as well, because she told me good night and went off to her room.

I laid back on the floor and looked at the ceiling. What the hell was up with that hotel?

End of chapter.

(Okay, that's going to wrap up another chapter. Oh, and be sure to check out Umi Sagara's deviantArt profile page -- she'll be uploading pics she drew of my "Unexpected Fears" fic. We'll try to update as soon as possible.)