Title: Fire in His Eyes
Fandom: Detective Conan
Author: Amm (SoulSeeker)
Theme: #11—you will never look at me
Pairing: Kudo Shinichi/Mouri Ran
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters of Detective Conan—I just play 'Barbie' with them, because god knows they're a lot more fun than real Barbies.
Summary: There was something different about him that night. You could see it in his eyes…

Numero once ;P

You know, I've never enjoyed being a light sleeper.

Just ask Shinichi—he could tell you. Ever since I was little, I would wake up to absolutely everything—pretty much any sound that I just couldn't get used to sleeping through. Footsteps outside my room; cars honking outside my window; chattering outside my door, if people were still awake in the house when I finally decided to turn in for the night…and of course, the phone.

Night cases were relatively light in the Beika area, but dad still got them occasionally, and it was only then that the phone would ring in the late hours.

I hated it.

Not only did it wake me up, but I always ended up being the one to answer the phone call, too. Dad slept like a bloody rock (there was a reason he was called the Sleeping Kogoro), and unfortunately, I never inherited that gene. It was nice when Conan was around—he never minded answering the phone, but he left already. So it was just the two of us, and only me left to answer the calls.

Sometimes I wondered—seriously wondered—what would happen if I ignored the calls. I never acted on it though, and that night when the phone rang, I still didn't.

"Hello, Mouri Detective Agency, how may I help you…" I muttered groggily into the phone and let out a yawn. I already knew who it was.

"Ran-chan; sorry to wake you up. Would your father happen to be awake?"

I sighed and sat down on the couch, which was the closest thing to me at that moment. "No, keibu—people typically aren't awake at two in the morning," I told him. "But I can certainly wake him up for you if you need him for something." I could hear other officers chattering away in the background, and from what I could pick, it was your typical robbery/murder case. It must have been a difficult one if Megure had resorted to calling my dad.

"I'd greatly appreciate it," he replied. "Could you tell him we need him down at the new jewelry store that just opened up in town?"

"Will do, sir," I yawned. The chattering had gotten notably louder, and I blinked a couple times, confused, when I heard a familiar voice in the crowd. "Keibu, is that Shinichi?"

I could hear Megure stutter a bit, and he was hesitant as well—like he didn't want me to know or something. "Yeah, Kudo's here too," he finally spat. "I'll explain everything later okay? Just get your dad down here, please."

I finally complied, and I decided that I was going to go with him, whether he liked it or not. "All right, sir—good bye."

After hanging up, I had rushed up to dad's room where he slept and immediately began to shake him. I started out gently, simply gripping his shoulders and jerking him back and forth, but it progressively got more violent, as if by instinct. It wasn't a problem though—after all, he couldn't get mad at me if it was an emergency. (That excuse always worked.)

"Come on dad, they need you," I prodded. "Wake up!"

No movement, not even an inch.

"Daaaaaddd!"

I almost slapped him in all my anxiety, but he finally began to stir. I saw his eyes open in the moonlight, and he moved his hands to rub them. For a while he just stared at me, utterly dumbfounded, but eventually he became conscious enough to ask me, "Why in the world are you up at two something in the morning—and more importantly, what the hell did you wake me up for?"

A smile curled my lips as I flicked on the light, making it shine directly in his eyes. "They need you," I repeated. "Down at the new jewelry store in town."

He looked like he was about to pounce on me for making him go blind for that few moments, but what I said seemed to distract him. "The new jewelry store?" he asked disbelievingly. "But they just opened not too long ago! Was there already a robbery?"

I nodded. "Apparently—and a murder too."

Dad sighed. "How sick," he remarked. "I'd better get down there."

"I'm coming too," I informed him. I made it clear that I wasn't asking, and he knew that if he didn't take me, I'd find another way down there. It wasn't hard to see that I clearly inherited his stubborn determination.

"Fine, fine, just don't get in the way," he glared. Quickly he grabbed another shirt out of his closet and changed into it, just to look a little more presentable, and before I knew it we were on our way. The car ride there, however, was not as pleasant as I'd hoped.

"Are they interviewing the suspects?"

"Uhm…I dunno…"

"How many officers were there?"

"It sounded like there were a lot…"

"How many suspects are there?"

"Uh…"

"Come on, don't you know anything!"

I finally glared at him, frustrated. "No, I don't dad, would you just save it for the suspects? Jeez!"

Honestly, how the hell did he expect me to know all that? It was like thought I was right there or something when everything was happening. I had only been told so much, and I was probably half-asleep for most of the conversation with Megure-keibu. Hell, for all I know, I could've imagined Shinichi's voice when I was on the phone.

Dad finally simmered down and the two of us arrived at the scene; Dad, in somewhat proper clothes with a coat, appropriate for the coldness that was outside, and me, in my lovely, not-so-warm pajamas that I didn't bother to change out of.

Not surprisingly, the first thing I noticed was Shinichi. Yes, he was there; I hadn't imagined him, though I couldn't help noticing something. Something out of whack. There was something different about him that night…you could see it in his eyes. His beautiful, cool blue eyes were illuminated by a glowing fire; a fire of determination, one glowing so brightly I could barely stand to look at him.

Not that I would've been able to anyway; he was surrounded by officers, and I figured it was just him being his regular arrogant self, solving the case like he always did—but somehow, the conversation between them had lent itself to something completely different.

"I don't get it, keibu!" Shinichi exclaimed. "Why in hell's name are you treating me like some suspect just because ONE witness said the killer's face looked like mine? Since when do you put so much stock in ONE eye-witness account, huh? Tell me that!"

"Damn it Kudo, it was more than just that!" Megure looked like he was finally getting fed up. "You're sitting here, out in the middle of the night doing god knows what, sneaking around in the dark, acting obscure and suspicious in the right time and place, and you didn't think that I'd give you a second glance? Puh-lease! What kind of inspector do you think I am!"

Shinichi glared. "I already told you why I was out here, and being that I've helped you on many cases just like this one, I thought I might've earned some trust!"

I couldn't believe what I was hearing, what I was seeing. Even dad didn't dare to talk, and neither did the other officers. I didn't want to either, but it was like my mouth had a mind of its own. It wouldn't let me stand there and stare anymore.

"Uhm…what…what's going on?"

They both turned to the two of us, and Shinichi ran over to me immediately. "Ran! What are you doing here?" he asked. He looked happy to see me, but I still had trouble making eye contact. It was like my mind convinced me that if I had looked at him even once—even just a glance, just one slight pinch of attention given to him—something bad would happen.

"Megure called my dad," I answered meekly. "I thought I heard your voice in the background so I decided to tag along and watch you in action like I always used to…"

To be honest, I was kind of scared. The notion of Shinichi being a suspect wouldn't come together for me. Why was this happening? Megure wasn't stupid. He should've known that Shinichi wouldn't hurt a soul…how could he? He built up so much of a reputation for himself as a budding detective—it wouldn't have made sense for him to ruin it just like that. I wasn't Sherlock Holmes or anything, but I could still tell them that much!

"Kogoro, Ran…" Megure had followed Shinichi. "I'm sorry you had to hear that."

We both gave him blank looks, and Shinichi had grabbed my hand.

"You care to fill me in on what's going on here, keibu?" Dad asked. Megure just sighed, and it seemed that his attention had been completely diverted. Shinichi used the opportunity and pulled me aside out of the moonlight, away from the officers and all the riff-raff. I'd been a tad surprised, but the initial shock went away pretty quickly when his soothing voice reached my ears.

"Thanks for being here…" were the first words to come out of his mouth.

I nodded. "Of course, but…why is everyone being so…so…"

"Untrusting? Irrational? Stupid?"

I gulped. It was around then that I decided I didn't like Shinichi angry. "I…I guess so," I hiccupped. I could feel sweat drops rolling down my face, and though the night was cold, I was feeling warmer with each passing minute.

"Don't worry about it," he said, his voice amazingly calm, "I'll handle everything. Just take this, okay? If they see me with it, it'll just make things even harder for me."

I saw his outstretched hand and reached out, grabbing the object that was on it; it was a necklace. I couldn't believe it. It was a gorgeous red crescent moon necklace, dangling off of what looked like pure silver (though I could never tell). A gasp escaped my mouth. "Shinichi! You don't mean—you can't be—?"

Shinichi covered my mouth hastily. "Shh! Come on, Ran, I know you know me better than that," he said softly. "I got this for you last week, and I finally was going to give it to you tonight but all this happened. If they see it in my possession, they'll think I took it from that store. Just keep it and don't say a word, okay?" He moved his hand away when he realized I was struggling for air. "Let me handle everything. Don't say anything—don't give me any looks—just don't do anything that might give them more reason to think I did it. Okay?"

I nodded. "O…okay."

"Promise?"

I faltered a bit.

"Ran!"

"I promise, I promise!" My breaths were heavy now, and I was drenched in sweat. Shinichi simply smiled at me; it was a gentle smile, and he wrapped his arms around me to calm me down.

"Good," he chirped. "And remember—don't worry. I'll be back."

Famous last words, weren't they?

With that, he ran back to Megure and the others before they could notice him gone. It wasn't until then—until I had shone the red moon necklace up into the moonlight—that I realized that the red matched the fire in his eyes.

It was a gorgeous fire, but if this was the grief it caused to get it…if there was this much suffering involved…I could only hope to god that I would never see it again.

A/N: And that, as they say, is that :D I'm actually very proud of this plunnie, so I hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Also, I have a surprise for you guys! I was telling Candyland about how my plans for the Family Portrait story had completely been changed by the time I was done with it, and I told her about how I originally planned the ending to be. She was the only one I told and she liked it so much she demanded it as an omake. So here it is! A little extra scene for that story for all of you, as per request. A mini-epilogue if you will ;) Enjoy!

Shinichi waited anxiously; in fact, he'd never been so anxious in his whole life. At least not for another person.

Of course, said person was Ran, so it was only expected that he be worried for her. They had been stupid and crossed the line by quite a bit—and the worst part was, they never even caught Sonoko. She had disappeared somewhere; though they knew that she couldn't avoid them forever.

Finally, Ran had made her appearance, walking calmly out of the Yoshida household. He had offered to go in with her; to explain what happened. After all, Shinichi was good at making things up on-the-spot. But she had refused to let him.

"Well?"

He looked at her expectantly and he had noticed that she hadn't even looked at him once she had come out. Ran blinked, finally sparing him a passing glance as she shuffled her feet. "Well what?" she replied innocently.

Shinichi slapped his forehead in frustration, letting out a sigh. "What did she say? What happened?"

Ran laughed lightly and slowly, and a smirk played on her lips. "Oh…" she smiled. "That."

He continued to stare, determined to get an explanation.

"Well, let's just say we were lucky that Mitsuhiko's parents were there to take her home after we left," she explained.

The tantei chuckled, and decided that he was completely fine with not knowing any more details. "That bad, huh?"

She nodded, and there was silence. Cold, uneasy silence.

"I still get my favor, right?" Shinichi questioned. "I told you that you'd owe me."

Ran raised an eyebrow and it took her a few moments to remember that he had demanded that he get something in return. She sighed; how desperate had she been, anyway? Ran wasn't one to go back on her word though.

"What do you want?" Ran asked softly. She just knew that she was going to regret this in some shape or form. Shinichi would make sure of it. His gaze had shifted towards the awful picture Sonoko had taken, and he smirked.

It was an evil smirk that all criminals had come to fear, and Ran had learned to fear it too.

"So, you know those two children in our 'family portrait'…?"

And Ran turned red…whether it was from anger or embarrassment however, Shinichi couldn't tell—and he wasn't so sure he wanted to stick around and find out.