~Several Months Later~
"Conan-kun!" Kazuha called into her apartment from the kitchen.
"Yes, Kazuha-neechan?" Conan yelled back even as the sound of the boisterous laughing of children continued.
"Time for your friends to go home. Remember our plans for tonight?" Kazuha called, smiling. She'd never realized how quiet her apartment really was before. Now it was always filled with such sounds. She found that, as fiercely independent as she'd seen herself, she wanted what Conan had brought with him. The sound of children laughing, the slap of little slippers on the floor, the badly-written cartoons in the evenings, these sounds had been like medicine to heal her heart of loneliness.
"Yes!" Conan said and his voice was excited as he was reminded what day it was. Conan's friends came walking out of his room, still chatting and giggling and going on like children do. Anyone but children wouldn't be rushed out so fast. They would pause and give their thanks for being invited over, exclaim over how nice the home was, how kind the host, exchange all the meaningless necessities that came with being an adult. Not children, though, they just called behind them as they left, things they'd forgotten to say, like 'thank you' and 'see you tomorrow'.
"Bye!" Conan called before shutting the door, beaming up at Kazuha with a bright smile.
"Alright, go on and change while I clean up and then we'll leave." Kazuha said and, with that, Conan darted off, whooping in excitement. Kazuha was already dressed, but children needed snacks as they played and now she had dishes to wash. She didn't mind, though. She was settling in nicely.
A few minutes later, Conan appeared, clothes nice, but crumpled. Laughing quietly, Kazuha went about straightening his blue dress shirt's collar and tried to pat the creases out from him little pair of black pants. He wouldn't tolerate the iron tonight, he was much too excited and she didn't blame him. It'd been over a month this time.
"Okay then, Conan-kun, let's go." Kazuha said, taking his little boy hand in hers.
Then they were off, into the taxi and across town, getting out at the nice restaurant and going in. He would already be there, she was sure, and she was proved correct when she saw him flagging them down with a huge grin on his tanned face.
"Heiji-niichan!" Conan cried out gleefully, rushing over to hug his hero.
"Hey scamp!" Heiji exclaimed back, just as excited. He lived for these moments, when he wasn't the feared Hattori, but just Heiji-niichan, who was loved by one little boy.
The dinner went smoothly, the innocent chatter of what some would swear was a broken family and others would see as one that was beginning to be stitched together.
But all good things end and Heiji paid the bill with a sigh, looking wistfully at the two of them.
"I guess it's time to go." Heiji mumbled, looking disheartened.
"Do you have to, Heiji-niichan?" Conan whined. "You could spend the night. Just one night, please!"
"I don't think that's such a great idea, scamp." Heiji said, glancing quickly at Kazuha.
"Please, please, please! Kazuha-neechan's been helping me read the newspaper and I know you haven't been in there for a while! Please, just one night?" Conan pleaded.
"You what?" Heiji said, shocked, his gaze darting back between the two of them.
"The kanji was too hard for him. He's getting better." Kazuha said with a blush.
"But-" Heiji started, only to be cut off.
"If Conan-kun wants you to spend the night, I don't mind. You can share with him. What harm could it do?"
Looking at the big blue eyes set behind the large lenses, Heiji sighed in defeat. "One night."
Conan cheered and Heiji saw the slightest of smiles pull at Kazuha's lips. Not that he was looking at her lips, that is. No, not at all.
Conan grabbed Heiji's hand with his right hand and Kazuha's with his left, leaving him bouncing along between them. Over his head, the two young adults traded cauious glances.
Conan didn't let one moment of the night go to waste. They played with toys, baked a cake, read a book, watched a movie; they did a thousand things before Kazuha finally told Conan that enough was enough and it was time for bed. The most imporatant part for the child, seemed to be that they were all together.
It was during the movie, though, that Heiji understood why. They lights were out, the only illumination coming from the colorful animation on screen and Kazuha had slipped into a light doze on the other side of the couch, Conan squished between the two of them and looking more than happy to be there. The movie was at a slow point, for the little boy, at least, as the hero exchanged a heart-warming farewell to his lady, with a promise to return soon.
Conan sighed contentedly, snuggling into Heiji's side.
"It's almost the same." The child whispered, so softly Heiji barely caught it.
"Hmm?" the dark-skinned man asked, looking at the boy in question.
"It's almost the same. The same as Touchan and Kaachan. Almost. I'm starting to forget what they looked like, but I remember that we watched movies like this, with me in the middle. And Kaachan would always fall asleep…" the little boy yawned.
Heiji watched the rest of the movie in silence, but inside, he was a maelstrom of emotion, thoughts, and prevailing feeling that there was something he was missing, some power he had that could, if not fix everything, then at least make things better. The movie finished and Kazuha shooed them off to bed, heading there herself as she did. And still, Heiji's thoughts churned. They kept spinning as he brushed his teeth. As he tucked Conan in. As he shut off the lamp. As he laid down on his own futon on the floor.
And then it hit him.
In the darkness of the room, Heiji's smile was only lit by the orange glow of the nightlight and the pale glimmer of the moon.
Oh, what's this? An update on a fic all of you thought was abandoned? Ha! Shows you, I didn't forget, I was just...busy, yeah, busy. With important things! (like writing a Pokemon fanfic...)
KIRBY: And becoming a slasher!
SHE LIES!
KIRBY: Oh, then what's this? *brandishes Red/Green fanart*
MUSE OF EVILLLLLL!
KIRBY: We will have this discussion later. Most likely on LJ, when you get around to confessing, you slasher! Until then, you should finish explaining yourself.
Right, right. Anyways, no, I didn't forget, there's probably only one or two more chapters left, I'd say one if I had to flat out guess. And this would be the Timp Skip I've been alluding to for forever, so there's that. I'm kinda sorry to say, though, this is probably going to end up a lot less fluffy than you might expect from me, considering how much I like my happy endings.
KIRBY: Right, like all those happy endings you've written before! Like Snapshots, where you killed off small children and deprived a child of his father for at least six years, if I'm remembering right. Or Choice, where you eventually did decide to kill off another small child, for no particular reason. Oh, or even Project Arachne, where you tortured Ran for several chapters before saving her life by rendering her infertile!
...Okay, so no one should be expecting a happy ending out of me. But it will be! Happy that is. At least somewhat...NO SMALL CHILDREN WERE HARMED.
KIRBY: I would like to nominate Conan, for emotional abuse!
PHYSICALLY HARMED. *cough* Anyways, here's the part where your lovely feedback makes me feel guilty and write chapters quicker! So, in other words, please review!