Authors Notes:
Welcome back! :)

The Lycanthropy of a Shrunken Detective

Chapter Twenty

Despite her incredulity at the notion of breaking the curse (Haibara had seen movies, she knew the likelihood of a cure was slim to none) she was inclined to agree that it would do Kudo good to look into the matter. So without any prompting, she provided him with the card of the man they'd run into that day as he slipped on his coat to head back to the detective agency, having finally turned back into his child form.

"Give him a call in the morning… if nothing else he knows about werewolves it seems." She hesitated. "And please give some thought into taking… a vacation."

Conan sighed. "I guess… I'll talk to my mother. I really don't want my parents to know about this though."

Haibara nodded once. She understood that the Kudo's could be a bit eccentric.

Three days later Conan stood in the Mouri's living room his face stuck in a false smile as Edogawa Fumiyo rubbed her chin into his hair. Gushing about how she was so happy to have a chance to take Conan on a short vacation to America to see his cousins and his ailing father in the hospital. Fumiyo paused for a second laughing as she leaned in close to Conan's ear. "That was the story right?" She whispered.

Conan sighed. It was close enough and there was no way either Kogoro or Ran would have remembered the details of their previous meeting after all this time. "Yeah!" He chirped loudly instead of answering her and giving a show of excitement for the audience of two watching the interaction.

"You should keep him this time!" Kogoro said loudly.

"Dad!" Ran scolded.

Fumiyo paused in her cuddling of Conan to beam at the man. "You know I just might! His father has been showing improvement and if Conan feels comfortable with it, we could have him moved back to the states-

"But mom!" Conan glared at her as he whined. "What about my friends?!" Really he was asking her if she'd forgotten all about the Black Organization and his mission to return to being Kudo Shinichi.

"How could I take you away from all you've come to know and love! America would be such a culture shock at this stage…" She tutted. "Still I can hardly call myself a decent mother if I let someone else raise you."

"Mom…" Conan's voice was getting dangerous.

Waving off his frustration she smiled. "How about this! While we're in America I'll show you around! I'm sure my bright boy will quickly make new friends."

Conan sighed. His life was hell.

As his mother carried his larger bag of clothes Conan shouldered his bag and let out a long sigh. Ran kneeled next to him and brushed his hair back to look at his eyes. Hers were watery. "You be good for your mom okay?"

Conan blushed, nodding. Suddenly she leaned in and hugged him tightly. "I'm going to miss you."

Swallowing through a tightness in his throat Conan nodded into her shoulder. "I'm going to miss you too Ran." There were so many things he wanted to tell her but as he took in her sent and felt fangs growing in his mouth he pulled away from her looking at the ground. "I'll see you." He said then looked at her and gave a closed-lipped smile. "Don't forget me?"

She laughed. "We'll see each other again in no time." Her smile was sure.

Nodding Conan gave a little wave before his mother, to his slight irritation, took his hand and led him down the stairs.

A few hours later they were in a hotel and his mother, out of costume, was cooing over his fangs. "They're so adorable!"

Conan pouted. "Sure they are. I hate that I change when I get emotional. Being around Ran these last few days has been hell. I've come to the conclusion that whenever I start showing signs of wolfing out that it's only a matter of time before I shift into Shinichi… I think it has to do with whatever the curse does to the toxin in my body. Normally, I'd probably just wolf out a bit and be normal again- but the wolf coming out pushes the toxin back and I turn into Shinichi."

"Isn't that okay though? Don't you like being Shinichi?"

Conan hesitated. "Of course- I mean Shinichi is who I really am… but… shifting…" He shook his head as he felt a sweat break out on his forehead. "I'm going to have to either repress my emotions or figure out a way to allow the curse to affect me enough to be Shinichi without being Conan again, or I just might die." His lip quirked at the last part, even though he didn't really find it funny.

He was anxious. He'd never turned into Shinichi around his mom. She would probably go into overbearing mother mode once it happened. "I really need to talk to that Ingolf guy."

"Not on your own you won't." Kudo Yukiko said hands on her hips. Conan just rolled his eyes as he flopped back onto the mattress of the bed he was sitting on. Hell, his life was hell.

Authors notes:
So we're kind of transitioning right now in the story and there is a gap in my planned notes... because I suck at planning, but I'll figure it out! Thank you all for reading!

(Words used 868. Date posted May 5th 2018)