Title: Safety Bubble
Fandom: Detective Conan
Author: Amm (SoulSeeker)
Theme: #28—I feel safe with you by my side
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: It was a gamble she'd always been willing to take.

Boredom was a curse. Mouri Ran was convinced of this.

She sat, suffering through her high-school Chemistry class—her last one of the day—with her ever favorite detective friend, Shinichi, sitting behind her. Absent-mindedly, she took notes, occasionally glancing at the clock at the front of the classroom, hoping it would tell her that it was time to leave. But that wouldn't happen for another twenty minutes or so.

And what a grueling twenty minutes it would be.

It started with the light tapping of his pencil. It was Ran's pencil actually, that Shinichi had needed to borrow, since he did not come prepared with one. You could tell it wasn't his by the girlish moon-and-stars design etched on it. He stared at the detail intensely as he continued to tap it against his desk, only half-listening to the teacher's lecture.

Yes, the great Detective of the East was definitely looking for something to pass the time.

Tap, tap, tap...

"Stop it," Ran would turn around and scold him. "You're distracting people."

Shinichi only smirked in reply, now swirling the pencil in his hand. But eventually, even that lost his interest. He began to tap with his fingers now, too, almost forming morse code. His feet rested on the back of Ran's desk in front of him, and they began to click against the metal, making a clinking noise. It was like there was a song playing in his head. Turning around, she gave him a stare.

"Stop," she warned again.

Clink clink clink. Tap tap. Clink clink clink...

"Your red clown nose is showing, Conan," she murmured teasingly in a heated whisper, turning again.

Shinichi, a class clown? No way.

"You're the one talking," he warned her quietly with a wide grin. "And just so you know, the Conan jokes stopped bothering me, and stopped being funny, a long time ago."

Ran turned around all the way now, attempting to grab at his pencil in anger to keep it away from him. The hell with notes, she knew everything anyway. He put up a fight, the devilish smile not faltering one bit. She was cute when she was angry.

"Miss Mouri, is there a problem?"

The karate girl's head seemed to whirl around immediately at the sound of her name, her dark brown hair sparkling as it fell. "No, sir," she replied to the teacher, blood rushing to her cheeks.

"Then I'll have to ask you to keep your eyes up here please," the man replied. "And pay attention."

She nodded and clentched her fists, cursing under her breath.

"Told you so," came Shinichi's whisper behind her. "Who's got the red nose now?"

Her whole face, in fact, was red with annoyance and embarrassment. It was times like this she wondered how she ever felt safe by his side.

He could create a protective bubble around her to make her feel safe. He'd sacrifice the world for her to make that bubble, but he could also pop it in an instant. The safety laid in knowing that he never would; but the danger laid in knowing that he might. It was a gamble; sometimes dangerous, sometimes harmless.

But it was one she'd always taken since she'd met him.

And it really was a gamble: danger flocked to him, much like his cases did. One might've thought that he asked for trouble. It was like picturing a crowd of fangirls herding around him, asking him for an autograph and making their confessions of love; telling him how awesome he was, feeding his ego. Just thinking about it was enough to make you sick. She supposed it was jealousy.

"Miss Mouri? Since you're so eagerly paying attention, perhaps you'd like to tell us about the properties of water that allow it to travel up to the leaves of plants."

The voice came sharp and sudden, and made Ran stammer. When did they start talking about water? She had no idea, and she had a feeling she was about to make a fool of herself again.

"Cohesion and adhesion," she suddenly found herself saying, with no hesitation. "Cohesion describes how water molecules stick to each other, through their positive and negative ends. Adhesion describes how water molecules stick to other substances—for example, the capillaries of the xylem. Water molecules 'climb' up the xylem and pull other water molecules up until they reach the leaves."

The brunette looked almost as shocked as she did when the teacher had first called on her. Seeming unsatisfied that he couldn't embarrass her—again—the teacher nodded and moved on for the last few minutes of lecture. She was saved...

Ran spun around to see Shinichi, smiling, and she thought he saw him wink right before she turned around again. She was still in surprise, but suddenly, when the bell rung to signal the day's end, she pieced it together. She smirked at him.

"I thought you gave your bowtie to Ayumi," she said softly as students began to shuffle out.

Shinichi returned the gesture. "Fortunately for you, I thought I might still have a use for it," he replied. "Seems I was right."

"Thank you. I never pegged you as a plant guy, to be honest."

The detective shook his head. "Nah, I'm not," he assured her. "But I know plenty about water and what it can do."

"I noticed."

"I tried to apologize," Shinichi added quickly, "for, you know...earlier...you didn't hear me though."

Ran only smiled, having already forgotten the class-clown business. The clinking and tapping, the anger.

"Apologize for what?"

A/N: Uhm... in my head, I had gotten as far as 'It was times like this she wondered why she ever felt safe by his side.' Then my hands just kept typing...

(halo) Anyway, I thought it was cute :3 And it fit the theme. Till next time.