"W-what are you talking about, Ran-neechan?" Conan quipped in a high-pitched voice, from his nerves or an attempt at feigning childishness he did not know himself.

"Don't, lie, to me," Ran said, her voice wavering with overwhelming wrath. She wheedled out the bloody bandage from a plastic bag and brandished it in plain sight. Conan's eyes widened.

"R-Ran-neechan, you-"

"Yes, I tested the blood with Shinichi's blood, and guess what? They MATCH!"

Conan gasped. Ran had confronted him several times, but before now, she did not have something vital.

Evidence.

But now, there was no denying it. Conan looked up at Ran, desperately trying to read her expression, only to observe Ran's emotive eyes shadowed unfathomably with her soft bangs, her long hair swaying lightly as she turned her face away from Conan. Her red lips remained unmoving. He could not at all tell what Ran was thinking. And this coming from a usually animated person, it betokened no good.

"R-R-Ran…" Conan began, unsure how to continue. His tone was pitches lower now, more than ever resembling Shinichi's voice.

A sudden wind fanned his hair back as Ran knelt down before him as quick as lightning. Now he was parallel to the pure blue orbs.

And he saw sparkling tears.

Ran reached out a hand and caressed Conan's cheek, staring deeply into his azure eyes. "Why didn't you tell me?" she said, unable to diminish the accusing tone. Blue eyes searched blue eyes.

"I-I… I was trying to protect you…" Conan explained, sadness swamping him to see Ran so distressed.

"Protect me? Protect ME?" Ran exclaimed, her voice bordering at hysteria. "You want to protect me by FAKING YOUR DEATH? Protect me from what exactly? From a lifetime free from regrets?"

"No, no! I-" Conan struggled to explicate, his hands waving hastily in front of him.

"Or you just don't think I'm important enough to have your explanation! After all these time… We grew up together, Shinichi. 17 YEARS, for goodness' sake! And you don't even bother to tell me you've been shrunk!" The voice ascended into the madness category. Ran's whole figure was trembling, and tears were beginning to develop into a puddle on the floor.

Conan touched Ran's shoulder, feeling her recoiling immediately as if he were a disease. "Ran, please listen to me!" he implored.

"Why should I? When all you had told me were nothing but lies?" she shot out, her eyes acquiring a feral gleam.

"I never lied about one thing. I LOVED YOU!"

Silence.

The two silhouettes gaped at one another, shocked beyond belief. The world seemed to be spinning nauseatingly around Conan as he toiled to collect his thoughts.

After an eternity, Ran tentatively raised a quivering hand, her face still satiated with flabbergasted skepticism. But she swooped down on Conan nonetheless, pulling him into an intense hug.

Conan reciprocated the hug.

--

Haibara, working diligently in her laboratory now that she had recovered her eyesight, gave a cry of rapture when the millimetre-sized white mouse before her expanded into its original size after consuming a pill. And it showed no sign of telescoping again.

"I did it! I did it! He would be so delighted!" she shouted in glee, clapping her hands together.

However, her sharp ears caught some din coming from outside. Something that sounded like 'I love you.' Her torpid curiosity was uncommonly aroused.

What's going on? Could it be… He's practising how to proclaim those words to me?

Giggling like she never did, she pranced up the stairs in high spirits, the APTX 4869's antidote pinched between her fingers.

He can say those words to me when I show him this.

She opened the door, frolicked blithely towards the dining room with an amicable grin gracing her features, conjuring up millions of expressions on Conan's face when she showed him the remedy to their 'reduction' problem in her mind. She bobbed gaily into the dining room.

The sashaying ceased.

The grin vanished.

She stood motionless, taking in the embracing outlines before her. The pill slipped from her growingly sweaty finger, exuding a seemingly ear-splitting hullabaloo as it bounced and twirled on the floor. But still the two figures did not notice, their flushed cheeks touching as their arms tightened around each other.

Haibara's heart stopped beating, as frozen as its owner was. And together, they slowly melted. A drip of tear journeyed from the aquamarine eyes to the end of her dark long lashes, dangling there as if refusing to leave. She started breathing again, her lungs expanding and contracting at an alarming rate. The words 'I love you' echoed hollowly in her ears as she put two and two together. As enchanting as those words had been, as dispiriting as they were now.

She twirled on her heels, scampering out through a back door, crushing the silent pill, the source of her delight not too long ago, into an annihilated pile of pulp very much like its owner's present heart. And still the two figures did not notice.

Haibara was gone. Possibly forever.

The only thing that marked her previous presence was the macerated capsule lying pitifully on the floor.

--

They finally let go of each other. Their eyes met again, but this time tears did not mar either one's eyes.

"Ran I-"

"Sshhh. You don't need to say anything. I know that you don't love me anymore," Ran said surprisingly calmly. Conan raised his eyebrows in stun, especially at the smile playing on Ran's lips.

"How did you-"

"You said 'loved', not 'love'. You're not one to make this mistake," Ran elucidated simply, as if she was saying something as simple as one plus one equals to two.

"And you're ok with that?" he asked tentatively.

Ran beamed. "Yes. But I still want to hear your explanation. Right after you tell me who the lucky girl is."

"Huh?" Conan said, a look of confusion on his countenance.

"I can see it plainly on your face. You're in love with someone. Who is it? Ayumi-chan? Hey wait! It's Ai-chan, isn't it?" Ran deduced, a contemplative finger on her chin.

"You're crazy!" Conan declared, blowing his bangs to stress his indignation. But a blush crept up to his cheeks anyway. Ran elevated an eyebrow in askance, her lips curving into a mischievous smile.

"So it's Ai-chan after all. Ara, I should have known. It's so obvious you're head over heels in love with her, the way you comforted her when Ariadne-sensei checked on her," Ran teased.

"So who is it with you?" Conan retorted. Ran blushed.

"What are you talking about?" Ran laughed and waved her hand to emphasise how idiotic she thought the question was.

"You're not the only one who can see through me at once. I can read you like the back of my hand as well. We grew up together, remember?" Conan smirked. Ran thumped the top of his head.

"It's none of your business!" she snapped, then chortled. "Aahh, seeing you being shrunk gives me an authoritative sense over you. It's payback time, Shinichi, for every stunt you pulled on me all those years," she chuckled puckishly.

"You wish! I may be small, but I'm still smart!"

"Oh, still the king-sized ego, huh? Well, don't forget, I'm your neechan. You HAVE to obey me."

"Hmpff!"

They both guffawed.

"This is so like the good old days…" Ran sighed nostalgically.

"Yeah…" Conan agreed.

Their eyes connected again. Conan, his eyes large with pensiveness, and Ran, a wistful smile around the corner of her mouth.

"We would have made such a good couple. But I guess it just wasn't meant to be," Ran murmured.

"That's how life is. C'est la vie! You know, I was just about to profess my love for you when I got shrunken. It's fate. We were never meant to be…"

Still those sapphires penetrated each other. There was a long, poignant pause, as past memories flitted through their minds. Arms encompassed each other simultaneously. But this time, the hug denoted something else. Something different.

"Farewell," Ran whispered, biding adieu to every single romantic sentiment she had for Shinichi.

He understood, and sealed his eyes.

"Farewell."

--

He roamed around the streets and sniffed the air. It reeked with the stench of about-to-be-spilled blood. He sneered. Revenge was near, and he knew it. He could feel it in his bones.

Polished black shoes stepped portentously on, occasionally halting, shuffling and trod on again. The click of its low heel rang gloomily in the deserted area, lit only by dim streetlights. He turned around a corner, and saw his prey.

Shivering in the cold. So…. pathetic. He had been awaiting this moment for a long time since he tracked down her whereabouts. A moment when she would be alone. Cold. And afraid.

He marched slowly in tempo towards his prey. He saw her jerk her head up suddenly, fear cramming those large blue-green pupils. He leered, liking what he saw.

He bent down to her, his proximity seeming to terrify her tremendously. A sharp inhalation broke the hush.

The thin lips moved.

"Sherry."