Author's Notes: I'm sorry it took so long! Again! TT^TT And oh my God. So much words. I'm sorry. O.O Um. Let's just say it's to apologize for the long wait? Hehe.
Anyway, thank you for the new alerts and favorites! And a big big thank you to DayDreaming0f y0u, AshTro, and Alaena F. Dragonstar for reviewing the previous chapter! :) I honestly thought nobody was reading this anymore. But then I read your reviews. *sobs* Thank you again! *bows*
AshTro: Aww. Thank you very much! And same here. Haha. XD
Warnings: Female Shinichi, shounen ai, AU I think, and OOC-ness.
Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan in any way.
Chapter Ten: Broken
It was the first day of classes for the school year. Mouri Ran had just sat on her chair when her best friend, Suzuki Sonoko, approached her, bringing some news.
"Hey, Ran!" she greeted and sat on the edge of her friend's desk. "Have you heard already? Apparently, we're going to have a few new students in our class!"
Ran looked surprised for a moment. It wasn't exactly unnatural to have transfer students at Teitan High School; what she found odd was that why these students moved to a different school for their last year in high school.
'Well, whatever,' she thought and mentally shrugged. 'It was their choice after all.'
They continued chatting about these new students. However, it turned out that Sonoko didn't know much about them as well; she had just heard the news from a few of their classmates. Still, she sounded quite excited, saying, "I hope at least one of them's a hot guy!" At this, Ran just smiled good-naturedly as her friend sighed dreamily.
Soon, the talk turned to what they had been up to this past spring break.
"So Kudou-kun went off somewhere again, huh?" Sonoko said, letting her irritation color her words. "What did I tell you about him? You should just give up on him completely! If only I had the same level of karate skills as you, I would have beaten him senseless for leaving you all the time!" At this, she made the motion of cracking her knuckles and glared at no one in particular, or probably an imaginary Shinichi.
Ran felt a bit touched at her best friend's concern for her, but she believed there was no need to beat him up, even if he deserved it. Besides, she remembered taking Sonoko's advice, the one she told her before spring break began. She felt embarrassed talking about it, but she still wanted to let her best friend know.
Just as she was about to tell her story, the bell rang and their homeroom teacher entered the room. All the students began taking their proper seats, even Sonoko, so Ran just reminded herself to tell her story during the break.
"Good morning, class," their homeroom teacher started. There was a general murmur in reply. He continued, "It's the beginning of your last year in high school. But before everything else, I would like to introduce to you three new students who will be with us this year." He turned to the door and said, "Please join us."
Ran's eyes widened in surprise at the mention of three new students. Looks like this was going to be a year unlike any other.
The first transfer student entered the room and Ran couldn't help but open her mouth in shock. Even when the student had already introduced himself and bowed to the class, she still couldn't believe what her eyes were seeing. It was only when said student greeted her when he walked towards his seat (which was near her) that she finally convinced herself that this was real.
"Yo, Mouri-han!" he greeted as he finally took his seat.
Ran could only slightly smile and raise a hand tentatively in greeting at the familiar dark-skinned detective. 'What on earth is Hattori-kun doing here?' she thought, feeling confused. On the seat next to her, Sonoko had the same puzzled look.
However, the surprises didn't end there. If Ran's mouth was slightly open in shock upon seeing Heiji, this time she could almost feel her jaw dropping on the floor when she saw the second student.
At first glance, he looked exactly the same as the person she had in mind. But when she looked more closely, she noticed that there were actually a few differences. For one thing, this boy before all of them had a messy mop of hair that looked like any comb or brush that would even attempt to tame it would lose hands down. Another difference she noticed was the eyes. Though she wasn't sitting at the very front rows, she could still see that this person's eyes had a more violet hue and a twinkle of mischief. And the last thing was the way he carried himself; it just felt too..different from the person she was thinking of, to her, at least.
'Besides,' she mused. 'He isn't exactly a new student, is he?'
When the boy introduced himself, there was a collective gasp from the class, at which Ran just sighed. 'What, were they expecting him to say he was Shinichi?' she thought incredulously.
As if to give proof that he was not who the class was thinking, the boy spread out his arms and almost instantly, the room was engulfed in white smoke. (Near her, Ran could hear someone sighing. Was it Heiji?) Somebody opened the windows to let the smoke out and when it cleared, everybody was surprised to find their hair styles not quite like before.
Most of the guys suddenly had their hair stuck up in all directions and painted in neon colors. Meanwhile, most of the girls' hair became rainbow-colored afros. Others had silly-looking pigtails with lots and lots of ribbons.
While everyone was freaking out about what happened, Ran touched her own hair and tried to assess the damage done. To her surprise, hers was only up in a ponytail. It also looked like the color was still the same. She let her gaze wander around the room only to see that aside from her, only Heiji didn't have a drastic hair style change.
She looked at the magician and for a moment, their eyes met. She sent him a look that asked, 'Why?' but he just shrugged and grinned.
The homeroom teacher, who also fell victim to the prank, was still not himself so the magician proceeded and took a seat diagonally behind Heiji's left, which happened to be a window seat.
Ran replayed his name in her mind. 'Kuroba Kaito,' she thought to herself. For some reason, she felt the need to keep the name in mind.
The class was still fussing but when the door opened a third time to reveal their last new classmate, silence settled over the room as every eye was focused on the girl who entered, even Ran. She didn't know why but when the new girl entered the room, she already felt a sense of familiarity. Had they met already before?
When the girl finally faced the class, there was only one name on Ran's lips as she stared the the girl's impossibly blue eyes.
"..Shinichi?"
Shizuka could feel an eye twitch. Really, she should have expected something like this already.
After her introduction in class earlier today, at first there was silence, but when she finally sat down on her seat (which was in front of Kaito's), the class was suddenly abuzz once again. It was only when their homeroom teacher (who seemed to have finally recovered at Kaito's prank) hushed them into silence that the students actually shut up. But after a few minutes, there was a bit of chatter once again. And when lunch came, all the words held in during the first few periods now came bursting forth, unfortunately, most being directed at her.
The bell signalling the beginning of break had barely rung when the entire male population of the class threw themselves in front of her desk, determined to ask her questions ranging from her interests to her vital statistics. She tried to answer each harmless question as polite as possible, and kept ignoring the more suggestive ones, but she could already feel her smile slipping. Seriously, they had been at this for twenty minutes already! Didn't these people get tired? And had the boys in her class always been like this before?
She turned to Heiji and Kaito and saw that they were having the same problem as her, only they had it easier because the female population split into two to question the two of them. She sighed and was about to return her attention to the guys still in front of her desk when something caught her eye. Apparently, not everybody from the whole class was fussing over them like this. To be more specific, there was one guy who seemed preoccupied with something in his seat while there was a girl standing by the doorway.
By the time Shizuka realized who the girl was, it was already too late to undo the brief eye contact they made. She hastily looked away, but felt her heart pound in nervousness when she heard footsteps walking towards her.
'No. It's not her, right? Right,' she thought, trying to assure herself. But that proved to be ineffective since she heard a familiar female voice reprimand the boys at her desk, with a punch at a nearby wall, even. "Seriously, leave the poor girl alone. Can't you see you're scaring her?" the female, who turned out to be none other than her childhood friend, Mouri Ran, said.
The boys, probably scared of both the punch (which made a dent on the wall) and Ran herself, immediately backed away and promptly disappeared in front of them. Though Shizuka was already used to Ran's skills' effect on people, she still pretended to be surprised since this was technically supposed to be their first meeting.
"T-thank you.." she said, hoping to sound relieved and embarrassed, as she turned to face the other girl.
"No problem!" Ran replied. "It was about time they stopped bothering you, after all."
"Ah. Yeah.."
"By the way, I'm Mouri Ran. You can just call me Ran." She smiled and held out a hand which Shizuka took, though a bit tentatively. She replied, "Hi, Ran..san. You can call me Shizuka as well."
"Shizuka-chan, want to eat lunch with us?"
"Us?"
Ran nodded and motioned her head to someone behind her. When Shizuka looked, she was expecting to see Sonoko, but instead she saw the boy from earlier who was preoccupied with something in his seat. He nodded at her and gave a shy wave.
When she returned her attention to the girl in front of her, Ran said, "Normally, I'd be with my best friend Sonoko, but she seems to be quite busy with our new magician classmate." She sighed and shrugged.
Shizuka turned to look again and true enough, Sonoko seemed to be trying to get Kaito's attention by smiling cheerily and batting her eyelashes even. She fought the sudden urge to gag at how the rest of the girls were actually doing the same thing, even the ones who were trying to catch Heiji's attention.
"So.." came Ran's voice that broke her out of her thoughts. "Want to eat with us?"
Shizuka thought for a moment. Honestly, she knew it was inevitable that she interact with Ran at school, but she didn't expect it to be so soon! She still had to further internalize her identity as Shizuka so she wouldn't mess up and thus expose her identity, especially to her childhood friend. But now she was being asked to join for lunch the one person she didn't want to "meet" yet. Things never really went the way she would want them to, huh? So she just mentally sighed and accepted the situation. Hey, at least she wouldn't be totally alone with Ran (though she was still wondering who this unfamiliar boy was).
Long story short, she said yes.
It was a nice day out. The sun wasn't too hot and there was a light breeze. Still, they decided to sit at one of the few benches that stood near the steel fences surrounding the rooftop (with Ran sitting in between the two) so they wouldn't be in direct sunlight.
It turned out that all three of them brought their own homemade lunches. Shizuka's, as well as Kaito's and Heiji's, were prepared by Chikage. Ran's was most probably prepared by herself, while the boy's..honestly, Shizuka could quite care less.
At first there was small talk that was mostly initiated by Ran. It was then that Shizuka found out that the boy, who was named Takahashi Hiroki, became friends with Ran over the spring break. They met by accident and when they found out that they actually went to the same school, they became a bit closer, meeting up quite a few times. Shizuka felt that this sounded a bit suspicious, but held back from asking questions; it would be rude after all if someone they were supposed to have just met would suddenly go asking about their personal lives.
In the middle of eating, Hiroki stood up and said he was going to buy them some drinks. Both girls nodded but deep inside, Shizuka was starting to feel anxious that something was going to happen.
Now that only the two of them were left, she felt an awkward silence between them. For some reason, she also felt that Ran was going to ask her something, and she was hoping that that something would have nothing to do with suspicion about her identity.
"Shizuka-chan," Ran started, making her take a deep breath as she prepared herself for how their next conversation would go. Ran seemed to hesitate for a moment before continuing, "How long have you known Hattori-kun?"
'..that's it?' Shizuka was tempted to ask out loud. The question was quite unexpected, so she thought she would be able to somehow relax now. "For almost a month," she replied, keeping in mind her made-up background story. "Why do you ask?"
"Oh, nothing. I was just curious. How did you two get to know each other?"
She was still puzzled as to where this conversation could possibly be going, but answered nonetheless. "My parents are friends with Kaito's and I've been staying with them for some time. I got to know Heiji through him since they're friends."
A short pause, and then, "Did you get to know another friend of theirs?"
Realization finally dawned on Shizuka. 'She must mean me, or at least 'Shinichi'. At this, she couldn't help but feel guilty that she would be lying to her childhood friend once again. "I.." she started, hesitating a bit. "I'm sorry, Ran-san. It's just the two of them that I met." She added as an afterthought, "Why, did you have someone in mind?"
Ran immediately shook her head and replied, though sounding a bit defensive, "N-no! Nobody. I was just..curious."
However, Shizuka felt that the girl before her wanted to say much more so she just kept quiet and waited. A few moments later, true enough, she did speak up again.
"Wait. I'm sorry, I lied. I really had someone in mind. Kudou Shinichi, do you know him?" When Ran said the name, she looked into Shizuka's eyes.
At that moment, the detective saw, for the first time, the raw emotions in her childhood friend's eyes. There was loneliness and doubt, but she could also see that there was a bit of hope, and it pained her so much that she just might be crushing that hope with her next words.
"I..I know he's a famous high school detective, but I haven't met him personally," she replied in the most normal voice she could muster.
"..oh," came the disappointed reply. But after a short while, she laughed, which greatly surprised Shizuka. As if to answer her, Ran explained, "I'm sorry. It's just that..I was thinking how utterly stupid I am. I mean, when I first saw you a while ago, I actually thought you were Shinichi." She didn't notice Shizuka flinch at this and just continued, "But I know that's not possible since you're a girl. People don't just suddenly change genders, do they? So now I feel silly that the thought even crossed my mind." Ran gave another short laugh but the other noticed that it sounded a little forced.
Shizuka swallowed all the words she wanted to say in reply, until the only ones that were left were, "Was Kudou-san..an important person to you?"
Ran's eyes were downcast and there was a melancholic smile on her lips when she said, "Yes.. He's a very important person to me.. He's my childhood friend and he's.." Her voice was barely above a whisper now. "..the first person I've ever loved."
The breeze that was gentle earlier now felt cold as it blew around them, and Shizuka couldn't help but notice how the wind gently blew Ran's hair away from her face. Normally, she would have been captivated at how pretty the sight looked, but at present, things weren't exactly normal.
The first time she heard Ran talk about her feelings for 'Shinichi', she was Conan. He felt embarrassed then because he didn't expect Ran would talk about her feelings to 'a little kid' like him. But it was because of that event that he vowed to return to normal so he could tell her his feelings. Unfortunately, even when he regained his old body, he still never told her. Come to think of it, why didn't he? Wasn't it only logical for him to have confessed so that they finally could have been together? Wasn't this what he had wanted?
But no matter, the chance appeared and he let it slip. And to make matters worse, he was now a she. Surely there was no way she could confess now, the way things are.
She simply stared at Ran, thinking of what would be a proper reply. However, she was caught off-guard when the downcast eyes looked at her and for a moment..was that joy that she saw?
As if to confirm her thoughts, Ran spoke up, this time in a more steady voice, "But that's all in the past. My best friend Sonoko has been telling me to give him up but for some reason, I just couldn't. However, now.." She trailed off and looked at the door that led them to the rooftop. Shizuka followed her gaze and seemed puzzled for a moment, until it finally clicked.
"Do you mean..Takahashi-kun?" she asked, trying to keep the disbelief out of her voice. To her not-much-of-a-surprise, Ran blushed and shyly nodded.
At that moment, Shizuka wanted to ask so many things.
'Why did you suddenly follow Sonoko's advice?'
'Why him?'
'Why couldn't you wait a bit longer?'
But she knew these were all selfish thoughts, especially the last one. Most probably, it wasn't that she couldn't, perhaps it was that she simply didn't want to wait anymore. After all, how long had she been waiting for Shinichi?
When Shizuka was still Conan, he could feel Ran's hopes rising whenever he would call her using the bow tie voice-changer. That hope would rise even more whenever he drank a temporary antidote that would return him to his old body for a short while. And when he got his body back for good, he could see the joy practically radiating from her whenever they would see each other.
Yet he still made no move.
'Do I regret doing nothing?' Shizuka thought. 'Especially now that because of that, Ran's given up on me and found someone else already?'
A part of her said yes, that she regretted it. If only she hadn't hesitated, both of them would be happy now.
But a part of her also did not regret it. Even if they did end up together, who would be able to say that things would still be the same between them after her sudden gender change? Surely she wouldn't be able to tell Ran the truth. And Shizuka really wouldn't want their relationship to be full of lies (mostly on her part) since that would just make Ran unhappy; and she didn't want her childhood friend to be unhappy, especially if she was the cause.
So maybe it was a good thing that she made no move before. At least things seemed to have worked out for the better, well, for Ran, who wouldn't have to get hurt anymore.
Shizuka didn't realize that her companion had actually been talking to her until Ran waved a hand in her face.
"Oh. S-sorry. What was that?" she asked, confused and a little embarrassed that she wasn't paying attention.
Ran pouted yet looked worried for a moment as she pointed out, "You were spacing out. Is something wrong?"
Shizuka shook her head and replied reassuringly, "No. I'm fine. I was just thinking. Now what was that you said?"
"Oh. Ok. Well, I was just wondering. Do you think..it was bad of me to have..moved on like that?" Ran asked, a bit hesitant, and hastily added, "But it's not like Shinichi and I were actually together in the first place! Hiro-kun and I aren't as well; we're just getting to know more about each other for now.." She trailed off.
Shizuka was at a loss on what to say. She couldn't find the right words without sounding like she was very affected by this whole thing. So she just asked, "Does..Takahashi-kun..make you happy?"
Ran blushed and looked away before nodding shyly, to which Shizuka said, "Then that's all that matters."
"..do you really think so?"
"Yes."
"But Shinichi.."
"Just tell him. I'm sure he'll understand."
"Alright." Ran looked at Shizuka once again and gave her an embarrassed but grateful smile. "I'm sorry, Shizuka-chan. I suddenly told you all these weird things. But.." She moved closer and took the other girl's hands in hers. "Thank you. It was nice to talk to someone about this."
It took Shizuka everything she had to return that smile and say in a steady voice, "Thank you too, for..trusting me enough to share it with me."
At that moment, as if on cue, Hiroki returned carrying three cans of juice. Seeing how the two girls were now sitting close together and Ran holding Shizuka's hands, he asked, "..did I miss something?"
Ran let go but remained sitting close to the other girl. She said in a now cheerful-tone, "Nothing much. Girl talk."
"Oh," was all he replied as he resumed his seat on Ran's other side and handed the two their juice which they accepted with a "Thanks".
"What took you so long?" Ran asked in a mock-irritated tone as she opened her can and took a sip.
"Sorry," he replied and scratched his head sheepishly. "Before I could buy drinks, I saw a freshman carrying a huge pile of books. I thought he might need help so I did."
Ran continued to be mock-irritated but Shizuka could see that deep down, she felt happy and proud of him. And so she stayed silent, watching the exchange between the two with a small smile on her lips, even though deep inside, she wanted to do the exact opposite.
The rest of the day passed by quickly with the three new students still being the center of the class's attention, thought the students were now less zealous compared to the beginning of lunch, to the trio's relief.
Throughout the day, Kaito did no pranks, vowing to make up for it in the following days. It was only the first day of school after all. In the meantime, he undid the damage done to everyone's hair before their last class ended. 'To lull them into a false sense of security for now,' he thought as he grinned to himself, now thinking of a large-scale prank that would never be forgotten.
He, along with Shizuka and Heiji, were about to head out of the school gates when a voice called out to their 'female' companion. "Shizuka-chan!"
All three turned to see Ran trying to catch up to them. Behind her were who he knew to be her best friend Sonoko and one boy from their class that he wasn't familiar with.
Kaito then did a double-take upon realizing what just happened. 'Wait. Shizuka-chan?' he thought, equal parts confused and shocked. Did something happen between these two?
However, Shizuka seemed unaffected by this and just gave a small smile as she replied, "Hey, Ran-san. What is it?"
By then, the four of them had stopped in place to wait for Ran's companions to reach them. When all of them were together, introductions were made for the sake of those who didn't know each other. As usual, Kaito felt the need to show his magic skills again by offering yellow roses to both Ran and Sonoko. Both girls accepted the offered flowers with a "Thanks", the former looking somehow flattered and the latter giggling a bit too much. He then noticed that the other guy, Hiroki, looked a bit tense. But when he sensed that he was being observed, he quickly changed his expression to a more relaxed one. The thief raised an eyebrow at this but did not comment on it.
Ran then said what she had been planning to say. "I just wanted to ask if you wanted to walk home together?"
Unfortunately, Shizuka shook her head and replied, "Sorry, Ran-san. I still have work with Kaito."
"Oh. Really? Where do you work and what do you do?" she asked, sounding genuinely interested.
"Um. Waitress at the cafe in the mall."
"Ooh. There's only one cafe there, right? I think I've been there before. Can we come visit you there some time?"
"Uh. Sure?"
"Alright! Next time then. By the way.."
To Kaito's, and perhaps the others' as well, surprise, Ran suddenly hugged the other girl and said, "Thank you again for earlier. That meant so much to me." When she released Shizuka, she gave a bright smile and proceeded to drag her two companions away, all the while saying goodbye to the remaining three.
When they were out of sight, Kaito and Heiji looked at Shizuka, waiting for some answers and clarifications. However, she just sighed and said, "I don't really want to talk about it yet."
At the dejected expression on her face, Kaito had enough sense to just drop the topic for the meantime, thinking that he'll just bring it up when she felt like it. Glancing at Heiji, he saw that the Kansai detective seemed to be thinking the same thing.
And so they continued walking, this time in silence.
Since Heiji's apartment was on the way to the mall, he walked with them and only separated and said goodbye when they reached it. After that, the silence remained until they reached the mall and eventually, their work place.
It was a wonder to Kaito how Shizuka seemed to have been able to forget (even momentarily) what it was that was bothering her as she just concentrated on her work. It was like she was an entirely different person during their shift that afternoon - she would smile more often and for once, she didn't seem that bothered that her job was something her male pride usually wouldn't be able to swallow. However, he could feel that whatever it was she was trying to keep inside must be something very big. 'For her to actually want to hide it so bad,' he thought worriedly.
Their co-workers, as well as usual customers, must have noticed the change too. But unlike him, they didn't think deeper on it; in fact, they just went along with the now-cheery mood of the girl.
Their shift was supposed to end in the early evening but Shizuka volunteered to work overtime. Kaito, not wanting to leave her, volunteered as well. And so they were both assigned to close the shop later.
The night was growing deeper and one by one, the other shops inside the mall started closing. The two teens did the same for the cafe. Both worked silently, minding their own tasks. The thief would steal a glance at his companion from time to time, feeling uneasy that something might happen to her while he wasn't looking.
Once they were done, all that was needed was to change out of their uniforms. They were at the employees' locker area then, the two of them on opposite sides of the room with their backs turned to each other.
Kaito simply stood there, listening to any kind of movement from his companion. When he heard none, he turned to look at her, and saw that Shizuka was merely standing as well, her head bowed and a hand on her open locker door. He slowly made his way towards her until he was right behind her and asked, "Shizuka, are you alright?"
At the mention of her name, she flinched, as if she was lost in her own world and was only brought back because of that one word. She turned to face him but didn't look at him directly as she said, "S-sorry. What did you say?"
Kaito frowned, but repeated anyway, this time the worry more evident in his voice, "Are you alright?"
"Of course!" came the immediate reply. "Why wouldn't I be?"
His frown deepened at the cheerfulness in her voice that sounded too fake. 'What, she can't trust me enough to tell me what's bothering her?' he thought, feeling a little hurt.
But then he realized that he was pretty much the same. There was actually a time when he used his Poker Face too much that he didn't know how to show what he really felt anymore. And that he didn't even know how to feel anything anymore, aside from being cheerful and annoying as Kaito and being mysterious and tricky as KID. It was most probably why he couldn't develop deep friendships with people easily. Sure he easily got along with all kinds of people, but the relationships he would have with them would barely even scratch the surface; he'd never had relationships with others who would actually bother getting to know the real him - the one that had been lurking beneath his Poker Face for so long. But that was until..
He shook his head clear of his current thoughts. 'This is not about me. This is about Shizuka who probably has enough worries of her own, and I don't need to add to that.'
Seeing that she was still smiling like nothing was wrong and still looking at anything but him, Kaito tsked in mild annoyance and held her chin, gently but firmly, tilting it upwards so their eyes finally met. He asked again, this time trying to keep his voice from rising, "Are you really alright? And please tell me the truth this time." His last note was that of a pleading tone.
To his surprise, her eyes had done the talking. He saw the hurt, regret, confusion, and hopelessness in those usually calm and confident blue orbs. What surprised him even more was when the girl before him buried her face in his shoulder as she finally released all her emotions.
Despite being caught off-guard by Shizuka's sudden action which now made him aware of how wet his shoulder felt, Kaito was more concerned over what could have happened to actually make her break down like this. If he remembered correctly, the first and last time she cried like this was when she found out that she'd been turned to a girl. And that was mostly because of shock and confusion.
But this..these current tears were from raw emotions that must have been held inside for so long for them to affect her like this. And like the previous instance, he was baffled as to what he could do to ease her pain, or at least help her calm down.
So he did the first thing that popped into his mind, which was to put an arm around her waist to pull her close and his other hand on her head in a gentle manner. He knew that such an action from him would normally result in a beating and/or an earful from the boy-turned-girl, but the current circumstances weren't exactly what you'd call normal. And actually, he figured that even if he would get punished later, he wouldn't really mind.
They stayed like that for a while, Shizuka crying silently and Kaito holding her close, waiting for her trembling to subside. When it did, she pulled away slightly, wiping her tears with the back of her hands. He let her move away, but his hand still lingered on her waist.
There was silence once again, this time, Kaito choosing to wait for her to speak herself, instead of pressing her for answers like earlier. After all, he wouldn't want a repeat of what happened just now. Though it was a bit endearing to see her cry as she let her emotions out, which showed that despite everything she was still only human after all, he was much more concerned for her as a whole. Also, he couldn't help but feel a little ache in his chest as he saw her looking so..so broken and vulnerable.
It seemed that gathering her thoughts took quite some time. Kaito didn't know what time it was now, but no matter, he was willing to wait. And when she was finally done, the first words that came from Shizuka's lips were, "I'm sorry.." Her voice was still trembling a little. Her head was still down but this time, her hands were now on her sides.
The thief tentatively released his hold on her waist and was about to reply when the girl before him finally raised her head and looked at him as she said his name, this time in a more steady voice. Her eyes were still a bit puffy and he could see that tear tracks remained, but what surprised him was the serious look she was giving him. There was a hint of hesitation, but she still looked determined.
He was about to open his mouth to ask why the sudden change, but then decided against it and just let her continue. Taking this as a cue, she did, though the hesitation resurfaced.
"Kaito," she repeated and paused for a moment. She looked away and bit her lip, but eventually took a deep breath. He merely waited patiently and once those blue orbs refocused on him, he steeled himself for what she would probably say next.
"Kaito..will you be Shinichi for me for one last time?"
Author's Notes: Once again, sorry if anyone's bothered by the long chapter. The words just kept on coming and I didn't know how to delete parts yet still make everything connected and make sense. O.O
I also just wanted to finally finish Ran's part in this. In the original version of this story, I killed her off. I then thought that that wouldn't be too..nice so I changed things up a bit. And thus I had to have another OC. Gah.
Err. I shall stop now before I ramble some more. Hehe. Just, as I always say, please do review! They would mean so much to me. Even if it's just to point out any mistakes or whatever. :)
Thank you very much for those who are still reading this! :D