A/N: Some super fluffy fluff to make up for melancholy mood that's been in the last couple of chapters!

Day 10

65. Horror

842 words

Rating: K

The creaking as a door opened somewhere in the distance woke him, and in the time it took his brain to fully catch up with his state of consciousness, he thought he could make out shuffling footsteps in the hall as well.

Shinichi groaned and turned to look at the clock. 2:05 a.m. Goddamn it. He flopped back onto the mattress, throwing an arm over his eyes, hoping sleep would reclaim him soon.

"Hey, Shinichi?" His own door creaked open and her voice came in a whisper from the doorway. "Are you awake?"

"Well, I am now," he couldn't quite keep the irritation from his voice as he shifted to regard her.

"Sorry." Ran said quietly, looking away as she crossed the distance between them. A beat later, "I couldn't sleep. Do you mind?"

They stared at each other for a moment.

And then he sighed, rubbing his eyes as he sat up, tugging her toward him. "Come on, you."

She let him draw her under the blankets and into his arms, burying her face in the groove between the crook of his neck and his pillow.

"It's the horror flick Sonoko made you watch, isn't it?" Shinichi asked, after a while. Ran could feel his voice rumbling in his chest, and it tickled in a funny sort of way as he spoke.

She offered a sheepish smile, peering up at him. "Yes?"

"What happened?"

"Doesn't matter. It was silly, but I just…" She shuddered subconsciously.

Shinichi sighed, tightening his arms around her. "You should stop doing that to yourself."

"You know how Sonoko is...doesn't take no for an answer…"

"Still, I don't get why you're scared of ghosts," he mumbled into her hair. "You could just...I dunno, roundhouse kick it."

"I can't roundhouse kick something that goes through walls, Shinichi."

"And it's not like you don't see dead bodies on a daily basis." He continued like he hadn't heard her. "Murder always just around the corner, and you're scared of ghosts?"

"It's precisely because I see dead bodies on a daily basis that I'm scared of ghosts!" She protested, swatting at his chest.

He chuckled and kissed the top of her head. "I hate to break this to you, but if the spirits of the recently departed are really roaming the earth searching for vengeance, bunking with the death magnet isn't really the safest course of action you could take."

Ran mumbled something unintelligible and burrowed further into him.

"What's that?"

"...It's just that whenever you're around, ghosts turn out to be just plain, ordinary murderers and-"

"Idiot, you'd prefer real life serial killers to ghosts?"

"What I was trying to say before you so rudely interrupted me," She glared up at him, "Is that I can deal with those. And besides," she added, eyes softening as she looked away again, "You just….feel safe."

"Do I now?" Shinichi was doing the cheshire cat grin, propping himself up on his elbows to look at her.

"Don't let it get to you head," She flushed and snapped, turning around so that her back faced him.

"I won't," he promised as he pulled her back into his arms, her back pressed against his chest. "Now go to sleep. Those vengeful spirits rely on me to solve their murder cases and get their justice, so I doubt they'll touch my girlfriend."

He thought he heard her whisper his name in conjunction with some choice insults, and lovingly dropped a kiss into her hair.

They lay in silence, her hands tucked beneath her cheek, his arms wound around her waist.

"...Come to think of it, your dad's going to kill me tomorrow. And then I'll be a ghost." Her breath was just starting to even when he spoke again.

"Shinichi," Ran shifted to give him a pointed look over her shoulder.

He laughed. "Ok, ok." And then he couldn't resist but to add, "If I really do become a ghost though, I'll let you practice that roundhouse kick on me."

She flicked him in the forehead. "Baka. Go to sleep."

"Wasn't I just saying that to you?"

She kissed him to shut him up and then turned back around, and, sharing in each other's warmth, sleep claimed both of them. Peace washed over the silence. All was well, ghosts or not.

Well, at least until Kogoro Mouri got up, realized Ran wasn't in her room, went across the hall to Shinichi's and then started yelling every swear word under the sun at the top of his lungs first thing in the morning.

OMAKE TIME

"Did Nee-chan just roundhouse kick the seven foot tall abominable snowman," Hattori's tone was incredulous, "Because she thought he was going to eat you?"

"...Uh...Yes?" Shinichi looked up from where he had been kneeling, bandaging her (most likely broken) toes.

"Ow," Ran protested, "Ow ow ow."

"You should've seen what happened to the other guy," Hattori said, a little too gleefully, "I think you broke his face."

"...Guess you can roundhouse kick ghosts after all," she remarked, after a long while.

"I told you so," Shinichi grinned up at her, surging to his feet to press a kiss to her cheek.

Ran turned bright red and resisted the urge to roundhouse kick him.