Mikau: Hi there, everyone! I hope you've had a wonderful week. Mine's been…hectic. Productive, though. Yesterday I completed 50,391 words for the month of April. Yay! Now I'm tired. And in a pessimistic funk. So ignore my moodiness. Well, I've basically just been working on FLL this week, so the only other update I have is Just Passing Through. I don't think any of you are reading that, though. Hm. Maybe I'll drop it and keep my writing practice to myself. It's not like it's particularly inspired anyway. -.-; *Shrugs* Any-hoo. Thanks a bunch to those of you who reviewed last time: Lady Rosencrantz, Miss Emotion, Detectivewriters, 908-03, GeekyGenius, Orange04 (times two), Bunnyz-chan, and neonquincy1217 (times two)! It made me feel a little better. I was really considering rage-quitting this fic. ^.^; Like I said: pessimistic funk.

Disclaimer: If I owned it, I would have already seen the movie. *Pouts*

…

Chapter Twenty-Six: The Answer

After such a sincere confession, Shinichi felt like he had to give Kaito some kind of answer. He couldn't say "I love you" back. He didn't. At least…he didn't think so. Not yet. Maybe someday, but… Gah! Right now he was just too confused, and he was still trying to deal with his crumbling relationship with Ran, but…the only thing he knew for sure was that he couldn't tell Kaito "yes" right now.

But Kaito still deserved an answer, and Shinichi knew that he wouldn't be able to explain things clearly using his own words, so the best he could do was convey his feelings with a song.

"Just the first verse," he muttered, stepping up to the microphone but not bothering to sing into it. He was well aware that he didn't have a very good voice…or at least that he completely lacked the ability to utilize it properly. He didn't need the harsh notes emanating from his throat to be amplified in the least for his feelings to get through.

He took a deep breath as Ai no Scenario started up. Conan closed his eyes just as Kaito had and sang just as earnestly as he did off key.

When the pertinent parts of the lyrics came, he opened his eyes and looked at Kaito, hoping that his message would be clear.

Kaito sat smiling serenely throughout the entire song, calmly accepting Shinichi's answer.

Ai no Scenario was a good song for Kaito. It highlighted Kaito's free spirit and individuality while asking him to rely on Shinichi and share his troubles with Shinichi like they had been doing since that hellish night back in August when they had first met and shared the secrets of their misery with one another.

The crowning line of the piece was "That trembling, difficult to understand heart of yours and those sad eyes…I'll unravel their mysteries and steal them away."

He spoke of wanting to be there for Kaito, to understand him and to ease his pain. He wanted to offer the other teen a shoulder to rest his head on, a sympathetic ear. More than that—empathy.

Conan reached out his hand and asked Kaito to believe him, believe in him.

And Kaito heard him loud and clear. There was no undying love promised in Ai no Scenario. There was affection and the fact that the singer thought of the listener as precious, but the feelings expressed were not a resounding "I love you too!" It was more of a "You're important to me, and I want to be there to support you and get you through the tough times, all of your fears and your doubts." The song spoke to Kaito of devotion and unshakable friendship, but there was no romantic love there yet.

But Kaito smiled. Because, at this point, with things still so shaky in Shinichi's life (romantic or otherwise), the fact that Shinichi wanted Kaito around was enough. Just the affirmation of their bond and the promise of a continued relationship was enough right now. There would be time to gradually chip away at Shinichi later once the detective was sure of where he stood with Ran. Kaito was prepared to wait.

Meanwhile, Masumi had heard an entirely different message. Not knowing much about where their relationship stood at present, what all they had been through together, Sera heard in the lyrics an invitation to share secrets, share their worlds with one another. She heard promises to steal away Kaito's sadness, to come to truly understand Kaito and ensure his happiness in the future. To her, it seemed like Kudo-kun was telling Kaito not to be afraid and not to run away because his feelings were returned.

And at the moment, that was more than Sera could deal with.

As the first verse came to an end, without looking at any of her friends, she muttered a quick, "Restroom." under her breath and beat a hasty retreat.

Saguru frowned, sensing that something was wrong, and got up to follow after her, but Kaito held out his hand.

"Let her have a minute. Then I'll go after her. I'm the one she's got the beef with anyway. You can have your turn when you walk her home, but we've got some girls' stuff to talk about," Kaito explained.

The furrows in Saguru's forehead deepened, and he bit his lip to remind himself to be patient, but he eventually nodded his consent and understanding. "Only because I've come to believe that you know what you're doing. Is this part of your genius plan or something?"

Kaito smirked.

Hakuba grumbled under his breath in a disgruntled tone.

Kaito ignored his friend's frustration in favor of winking suggestively at Conan as he returned sheepishly to his place on the couch.

Conan blushed and fidgeted uncomfortably, trying not to make eye contact.

Kaito just chuckled. "Thanks for being honest," he whispered as he got to his feet to follow after Sera.

"I thought you said to give her a minute," Saguru snorted accusatorily.

"Yeah. Like a literal sixty second period," Kaito clarified. "We don't want to give her too much time to start overthinking things, do we? You two play nice while Mommy's gone, okay?" And with a playful wiggle of his fingers, Kaito slipped out of their room.

And that left two detectives with little to talk about.

Conan and Saguru sat there, shifting uneasily in the awkward silence for a minute or two before Conan finally attempted to fill the stagnant air.

"Hakuba-no-niichan, what do you think of—"

"—Oh, please stop calling me that," Saguru sighed, temper a little short in light of current events.

Conan blinked. "…O…kay…. Would you like me to call you Hakuba-san, or…?"

Saguru shook his head. "Just Hakuba or Hakuba-kun will do. I mean…" Saguru paused and really looked at Conan for a minute, trying to decide what to say, what would be appropriate to say, and how to say it.

"I have a great amount of respect for your work, you know that?" he continued hesitantly. "I consider you my equal and…if not…my superior mentally. You're a talented detective, and…"

Saguru swallowed hard, rubbing the bridge of his nose, trying to think. "Look. I've been looking into you. Ever since you and Kaito started your friendship back in August. I must admit that I was not prompt and certainly not thorough until very recently because of…well, my personal involvement with Masumi-san as well as my caseload requiring me to travel—more often that not, abroad for extended periods of time—so… But I have been gathering information about Edogawa Conan."

Now it was Shinichi's turn to gulp.

"I just put it all together the other week when Kaito told me he was in love with the missing Kudo Shinichi, but…you didn't do a very good job creating Edogawa Conan. He just dropped out of nowhere three years ago. I can understand your reluctance to forge all manner of documents as a detective, but…school records, health records…there were little things, small inconsistencies that made me suspicious," Saguru explained. "I've known for a while now that whoever you really are, Edogawa Conan only came into existence three years ago. I didn't really start piecing the rest of this together myself due to…the personal and work reasons that I brought up before, but…Kaito spoke of Kudo-kun and Conan-kun almost interchangeably.

"Kaito's little slips of the tongue were what really gave it away for me. Did you know that he calls you both 'Shin-chan'? Other people probably accept the whole 'It's short for Shinigami-chan' thing more readily, but…"

Here Saguru looked up and met Conan's gaze. "I don't know what in the world you're messed up in, but I know who you are, and, if Kaito can be believed, you're going to be my brother-in-law someday, so…just call me Hakuba, okay?"

Conan stared at the blonde in quizzical silence as his mind jumbled like clothes in a dryer.

Saguru rolled his eyes, "Oh, and, by the way, I plan on telling everyone who will listen, just in case you were curious."

Conan sent his fellow detective a decidedly not amused glare.

Saguru sighed. "Oh, don't worry. I've learned discretion well over the years. Your secret is safe with me. Now, what I want to ask you is: Is Kaito's heart safe within your hands?"

Conan grimaced. He floundered for a response, grasping at words with all the productivity of trying to lay hands on wisps of smoke.

"You're still unsure," Saguru observed, and he was not pleased. It was one thing for Saguru himself to be kept waiting for an answer to his feelings from Masumi, but Kaito…Kaito had been broken over a lost love once. He was still cracked and crumbling over Aoko-kun. A second blow to the heart would demolish him. This was unacceptable.

"There's a lot of personal stuff going on right now," Conan confessed in his own defense. "I'm trying to work all of that out before I say one way or the other. I don't…now that I know that Kaito's serious, I don't want to lead him on or give him false hope or unrealistic expectations, so…I can't answer your questions right now…but I promise to be honest with him throughout, so…?"

Saguru slowly let out a sigh of dissatisfaction. "If that's the best answer you have, there's nothing to be done, I suppose."

"That's the only answer I have right now," Conan grumbled. "And believe me. There are a lot of questions."

Saguru nodded, albeit reluctantly. "Very well. Thank you for your frank response, then."

Another period of uneasy silence fell upon them.

Hakuba bit his lip, once again hesitant to comment. He wasn't sure that it was his place, but… "For your information, Masumi-san seems rather fond of you too. I don't know if her feelings equal Kaito's, but…she has a lot of respect and admiration for you. I'd ask that you be considerate of her feelings in the future as well."

At that news, Conan buried his face in his hands and blew out a long sigh. "Dammit."

…

Out in the hall, a similarly awkward and equally important heart-to-heart was taking place.

Sera had only fled as far as the vending machine, and Kaito had cornered her there.

"Hey," he greeted brightly.

"Hey, Kaito," she returned, tone a little stilted. She didn't look him in the eye.

"What? Am I not your 'Kai-chan' anymore?" he whined. "What happened? When did our love die?"

"I'm tired, so I'm really not in the mood right now," Masumi replied curtly, pretending to have a serious internal debate about which item she needed from the vending device.

"Because you're still clinging to the past…to your idealistic ideas about who Kudo Shinichi is and what he stands for," Kaito enlightened her, succeeding really only in infuriating her even more.

"Look. Hear me out. Don't punch me out yet," Kaito entreated. "You've never been super close buddies with Shin-chan, have you?"

"…No," she whispered begrudgingly.

"So you don't know him really well yet," Kaito continued, and it sounded like he was trying to make a point, but all Sera could hear were invitations to rising dragon kick him in the face.

"No," she replied once more through gritted teeth.

"So how do you know you're in love with him? What about him do you love?" Kaito challenged.

And Masumi blinked. Well…but…she just was, wasn't she? What else could these feelings she'd been holding on to for him for the past how many years be? It had to be love, right? This excitement she felt when she was by his side, waiting for the next case, waiting to see him launch into action. If it wasn't love, why did she always think about him and smile? Why did she idolize him so much, if it wasn't love?

"Well?"

"He's…really strong and brave. He's a good detective, and…" What else? What else?!

"And the corners of his eyes crinkle when he laughs," Kaito added. "And he's secretly scared because he doesn't actually know it all, despite popular opinion. And he can be childish about things, like when it comes to sports or whatever he's into at the moment, whatever novel, whatever comic series. And he gets angry for other people's sakes. And he cares, even if you're a dirty, rotten scumbag. Even then he thinks your life is important. And he can't cook for beans. And he's as surly as a rattlesnake in the morning and he always forgets that he's not Superman and he couldn't carry a tune if you put handles on it for him. And he's weak and he's afraid and he couldn't detect his way out of a cardboard box when it comes to falling in love. And Kudo Shinichi is one of the best men I've ever met," Kaito concluded.

Then he waited a minute for it all to sink in before he continued, "So…can you truly say you love him when you don't really know him? How are you going to accept everything about him when you don't know about all of his flaws and shortcomings? How is he supposed to love you when you can't sit down and have an honest conversation with him either? Hm?"

Sera didn't have a response. She was blazing, five alarm fire mad, but also…more than that, she was injured. Wounded. Her pride, her heart. It hurt.

Because he was right.

Could she say that she loved him? Did her feelings rival those of Kaito? …No. But then what was she feeling? What had she been feeling since she first met Kudo-kun? A crush. It was just a crush…and one that didn't look like it would be coming to fruition. Kudo-kun wasn't going to break up with Ran-chan, skip over Kaito, and fall in love with her. It wasn't going to happen, so what was the point of all this?

"Can I ask you something?" Kaito continued to drive the stake into her heart. "Are you happy being in love with him? Does pursuing him add something to your life? …Or is it all frustrations and disappointments?"

Kaito sighed, riffling a hand through his hair and leaning up against the wall as he looked at her. "Look, Mi-chan, I'm not having this discussion with you as your rival. I'm talking to you as your friend. 'Cause you don't look like you're happy like this. I mean…there have been times tonight when you've looked absolutely miserable, and it's not supposed to be like that. For me, Shinichi saved me. When I was falling apart over the end of my relationship with Aoko, he rescued me…and then he slowly chipped away at me without even realizing it himself."

Kaito sighed once more, and this time it was accompanied by a small, dreamy smile. "I'm happy. Yeah, there are still sometimes when it sucks, but…I'm content like this. Even if he ends up saying 'No, but I really value your friendship', that's okay with me. Are you seriously happy chasing after him like this when he shows little to no sign of reciprocation?"

"No," she whispered one final time.

"Then if holding on to your feelings for him isn't making you happy, let them go," Kaito advised. "He can still be important to you, but you don't have to let that get in the way of finding someone else. Yeah? 'Cause what's the point if you're not happy?"

Kaito patted her on the shoulder and turned to go, leaving her with her thoughts.

…

Mikau: Yay! Exciting chapter today, I think, but I'm more interested in your thoughts. I hope you enjoyed it. Anyway, I've got the drafts of FLL up to chapter thirty-seven done, and, as it stands, it looks like we're going to have somewhere around forty-five chapters total. All I've got left to write is the events of December 25-31. We'll see, but I'm thinking about going back to two updates a week. What two days work for you guys? Otherwise I'll just stick with once a week on Friday. I don't know. It doesn't seem like a lot of people are reading this anymore. Have a nice week! I'll see you again on Friday or sooner if you have a preference.