4/15: Let me be with you —by Round Table
It's been a long flight, and Shiho can't think of anything but the discomfort of her back, the soreness of her legs and the incessant crying of babies in the seats a few rows down hers. Usually, music can calm her down (but she can't concentrate on the melody right now, and she just had to lose her best pair of noise-cancelling in-ears) or a good shot of caffeine (but she should have known better than to get her hopes up on plane coffee, pun intended).
But at least they're minutes away from landing. Shiho's brows furrows less when she thinks how Shinichi would be so annoyingly ecstatic if he knew she had one optimistic thought just now.
He'd probably call for an exorcist when he knows she just had another (that at least Shinichi would find something to be happy about in this craptastic flight—wait, no, actually, he'd tease her that she missed him!) but he wouldn't know; she'll never tell.
When the announcement to get ready for landing goes on the screen and on the speakers, Shiho calmly locks her seat belt, clasps her hands together and closes her eyes. She goes through her mental checklist: very soon, the plane will land, the seat belt sign will turn off and the captain will announce the time and thank everyone. She will stand up, get her luggage from the overhead compartment, clear immigration, pick up her bigger luggage full of souvenirs from the baggage belt, clear customs, and finally—
It's inevitable that her mind flashes her a picture of everyone, and she lingers on one face in particular.
The drumming of her fingers pause and her grip tightens a bit, before she relaxes as she exhales in a sigh.
Shiho swallows, and the ringing in her ears stop. She opens her eyes and looks over the window: what was clouds and blue before is now green and gray and buildings and tiny cars.
She closes her eyes, and squeezes her hands together just a little bit tighter.
When the announcement goes on then ends, Shiho unlocks her seat belt and stands up, gets her luggage, and gets out of the plane.
She has nothing to do tomorrow, except, maybe, laze around in bed, but she can be persuaded to cook breakfast for a certain culinary idiot detective. She has nothing to do later, too, except, maybe, get a good cup of coffee or two—or three, since she needs to complain to him about everything that's wrong about that trip and that flight, then get a good dinner in before he summons a case out of nowhere...
Shiho just passed customs, and even she's surprised at how well she did on autopilot, and she's out of the gates, and—
—And there's Shinichi.
Finally.