File Two: Pointing a Gun at My Face

Soon, the trio were sitting in a taxi heading back home, given the fact that Yukiko had to go to the police station for questioning. It was clear as day that Shinichi was the only one who wanted to talk, given the fact that Ran seemed to be down for some reason and Conan being Conan prefered to look out the window in silence.

"And this is what Holmes said..."

The kid groaned and covered his ears. "Could you talk about anything else?" he grumbled. "You are really trying to spoil me, aren't you?"

"Sorry, sorry," he laughed briefly. "You said you were reading A Study in Scarlet, right? Did you reach the part where Holmes-"

"Shut it," he glared at his brother, but his look visually softened when he spotted Ran, who was quietly staring at her lap at the other end of the car. "Ran-neechan, are you okay?"

"Don't tell me it's about what Rose said," Shinichi asked, concerned.

"Eh?" she blinked. "Her English was too quick so I didn't understand, what'd she say?"

"It was nothing, she didn't say much."

Conan frowned a bit at her answer, but decided to not press any further.

"Put up your window, you'll get a cold," Shinichi told her. "Especially if that fever you mentioned gets worse."

"I'm alright now. Besides, I can't see New York if the window is up."

The child raised an eyebrow. Yes, you can.

"But still, the car will get wet, and the driver wouldn't like that."

"Don't worry," she brought a pink handkerchief from her pocket and held it up for the boy to see. Conan recognized it as the one that Sharon had given her a few hours ago. "I'll wipe down the seats before I get out."

"Ran-neechan, maybe you shouldn't..."

Predictably so, the wind made the piece of cloth slip from her fingers and fly off the window. Ran gasped and pleaded to the driver to stop. The child decided to wait in the car as the other two went to fetch it. He really didn't want to get wet.

Conan watched as Shinichi went inside an abandoned building and Ran stared after him, gripping tightly the umbrella that protected her from the rain. There was something there, however, that caused Conan's breath to freeze in his lungs.

There, he saw a man, slowly walking towards Ran.

"He's of Japanese descent with long hair," his mother's warning echoed in his mind.

"Ran-neechan!" he pulled his head off the window and yelled, not minding the rain soaking his hair. "Run away! He might be the serial killer!"

"Hey, hurry up!" the taxist screamed as well "Jump in!"

But Ran was paralyzed out of fear. She was unable to move, let alone using karate on him. Cursing under his breath, the child jumped off the car and ran. The taxi driver cursed under his breath and took off, but the small boy paid no mind to it.

He stood beside her, trying his best not to look scared.

"Conan-kun, what are you doing?!" she shouted. "You need to run!"

Conan said nothing, just analyzed the man in front of him. A few moments later, he blinked confusedly and then sighed in relief. "Don't worry, he's not the killer."

"Eh?"

"If he was, he would've already murdered you, and then kill both the taxi driver and me before we could escape so nobody could recognize his face," the child then smiled at him. "Right, Officer-san?"

"Close enough, but I'm not a police officer," the man stared for a bit, before smirking. "Have any of you seen a suspicious man?"

"None, besides you," Conan replied, dryly.

"C-Conan-kun!"

A car came from the way the man had came from and stopped right beside him. Another man stepped out and turned to the long haired one.

"Did you find him, sir?" he asked in English.

"No, I found only a pair of tourists. I guess he hasn't been to this street. The gunfight against us excited the beast, he couldn't have gone without catching the girl."

Conan then turned his attention to the man that had gotten here by car, and noticed the letters FBI printed on his back.

So that was what he meant when he said he wasn't a police officer.

The man with the long hair took Ran by the arm. "You can get to the main street if you take a right at this corner, I suggest you take a taxi from here."

"But wait, I'm waiting for my friend..."

"Then, I'll say this once for you, this kid, and your friend: Leave!"

And just like that, the two agents disappeared into the night. Conan was the first one to move, heading inside the building to search for his brother. Ran didn't even need to ask to understand and follow after him.

The girl gasped, staring at the floor. The kid followed her gaze, only to find tiny little drops of blood.

Don't tell me he...

"We need to find Shinichi," said Ran, determined, as she began to climb up the stairs, and called for him. "Shinichi?"

Her umbrella was left forgotten on the ground, prompting Conan to take it and walk behind her. A dizzy spell suddenly hit Ran and she all but collapsed against the handrail.

"Ran-neechan!" Conan hurried up beside her, and reached the girl as soon as she began to straighten herself. "This is the sickness you two were talking about before, right? You should stay here while I go get-"

He stopped talking when she shook her head at him. "No, I have to do this," she began walking up again, slowly, while Conan could only panic while standing beside her. "Shinichi came in here after the handkerchief I lost. It's my fault."

Her eyes watered as she continued to climb.

"Yes. I-It really is my fault."

Conan stared innocently at her. "This... This isn't about the handkerchief anymore, is it?" Ran did not reply. "This is about what that woman said."

"N-No, that's not it," she struggled to give him a weak smile, which was far from convincing. "Didn't you heard when I told Shinichi I didn't understand what she said?"

"You're lying," he said, quickly. "At that time Rose spoke slowly and clearly, and your English is not that bad. You definitely understood her."

Ran sighed, seemingly giving up trying to lie to this kid.

"If I hadn't saved her, Heath-san wouldn't..."

"If you had let Rose die, would you be able to live it with it?" the question shocked her, greatly. She glanced at the small yet very smart boy, who smiled warmly up at her. "You're kind, Ran-neechan, that's who you are. Don't be so hard with yourself."

Before she could reply, however, they heard it.

Steps.

Someone was coming downstairs, and it certainly wasn't Shinichi.

It was a man, with long silver hair and a gun on his hand. He was injured, Conan dimly noticed.

"Conan, Ran!" they heard Shinichi crying, desperately. "Run! That's the serial killer!"

Conan froze as he watched the man pulling out a silencer and began to put it on. Before anyone could do anything, however, the rail he was leaning on gave up and he began to fall.

The silencer fell into the asphalt with a metallic sound. The killer, however, didn't.

The child could not believe his eyes. Ran was suddenly grabbing into the killer's jacket, holding into it like dear life, shouting at him to hurry up and grab her arm.

Shinichi soon copied her actions, after making a run downstairs as soon as the killer had set his eyes on Ran and Conan. Soon thereafter, the silver-haired man was back on his feet, glaring at them.

What should I do? Conan trembled slightly, his knuckles now white after grasping on Ran's umbrella so tightly. If worse came to worse, what could a six year-old do? A worn-out umbrella wasn't going to do much against a charged gun.

"Why?" the murdered yelled. "Why did you save me?"

"Because Conan-kun was right," the girl said, softly, and Conan jumped at the mention of his name, purely out of surprise. Her voice was growing weaker at each passing second, however, "If I let you die... I don't think I would be able to live... with myself."

And then she turned to the frozen child and smiled warmly, mounting a thank you before all strength left her. Her eyes closed and she dropped into the floor, just like a puppet with its strings cut.

"H-Hey, Ran!" Shinichi called, concern written on his face.

Finally, Conan felt his legs moving. "Ran-neechan!" and soon he was right beside her, resting a small hand against her forehead and looking at his brother with some sort of urgency. "She's burning up. We need to get here out of here."

"I got it," he replied and turned around to pick the girl up. He heard the click, so he didn't need his little brother to tell him that he was being pointed by a gun.

"Maybe you shouldn't do that," Conan said, quickly, as he glared at the man. "I found an FBI agent on my way here not that long ago. They are looking for you, and they are nearby. They will hear you as soon as you fire that gun."

The killer gritted his teeth and lowered the gun. Only then, Conan found himself able to breathe properly again.

"I'll let you go for now. But if you hurt either Ran or Conan, I won't show mercy next time," his eyes narrowed dangerously. "I'll prove your crimes with any evidence necessary and I'll make sure you're put away, even if my life goes with it."

And, like so, Shinichi carried Ran away, his little brother following after him, staring at him curiously

Just now, his brother really did look like an entire different person. Back there he sounded so serious and determined, even if he was talking to a serial killer...

But Conan knew he had been terrified, if the way his hands still shook and sweat dripped from his forehead was something to go by.

At the end, they arrived home without any further complications. Ran didn't wake and rested for the entire night.

That night, though, Conan woke up suddenly, only to find himself sitting straight up on his own bed, completely drenched in cold sweat.

Shakily, the kid brought his hand to his forehead, trying uselessly to slow his breathing, but it only kept coming out in short, sharp gasps. Even minutes after waking up, Conan's heart still violently pounded against his chest, threatening to leap out his little chest.

Realizing that, once more, he wouldn't be able to get more sleep, he carefully slipped out of bed.

Shinichi woke up to a soft whimpering from the room next to his and craned his head, the numbers on his digital clock shining angrily at him.

3:37 AM

Like so the young detective laid awake, keeping an ear out and waiting until he heard the muffled sound of barefoot steps against the cool wooden floor.

Silently, the teen opened the door just to see the small figure of a child slowly heading downstairs. It really didn't take a detective to figure out where he was going, so he wasn't surprised when he found his little brother sitting on the carpet-covered floor of their old library, focusing on an open Sherlock Holmes' book.

The way he rubbed his eyes every five seconds, however, told Shinichi that the kid was having a very hard time going through it this late at night.

"Just like I suspected," Conan's entire body jerked up at the sudden voice. "I thought it was weird you haven't finished A Study In Scarlet yet, even though you have supposedly been up reading all night for a week now."

Once recovered from the first shock, Conan frowned at him, and pretended to focus back on his book. He kept at it, even when Shinichi crossed the room and sat cross-legged beside him.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Shinichi tried.

"I don't remember it," Conan answered rather quickly. "So I can't, even if I wanted to."

Conan heard his brother sigh tiredly and expected him to stand up and go back to bed, leaving him alone with his book, yet that didn't happen. He, instead, scooted closer and raised the child from his armpits.

The kid, in turn, could barely hold back a childish squeak when he was suddenly held in the air, before being placed on his lap.

"What are you doing?" the child asked, wide eyed, while he watched the teen taking the book from his little hands and opened it to read for himself.

"I'm helping you," he replied, easily. "At this pace you aren't going to finish it until you are fifteen."

Conan just stared blankly at him for a few seconds and sighed, resigning to his fate since he was way too tired to fight his brother. Shinichi, on the other hand, gave him a gentle smile and placed his hand on his shoulder, pressing the child's small body against his chest.

"I wish you could trust me enough to tell me, though," he confessed with a low voice. "What's bothering you, Conan?"

When the young boy said nothing the detective sighed, opening the book unceremoniously.

"I confess that..." his brother began reading out loud. "... I was considerably startled by this fresh proof of the practical nature of my companion's theories."

And Conan listened at every single word, somewhat impressed by how good the teen actually was. His English somewhat lacked in proper pronunciation, but the way he interpreted Watson and Holmes dialogue while reading totally made it up to it.

"Then, of course, this blood belongs to a second individual ─ presumably the murderer, if murder has been committed."

The way his eyes sparkled when he read Holmes' lines didn't go unnoticed. It amused him beyond belief to see his brother this excited, just like a child, even if Conan was supposed to be one himself.

It was so different from the Kudo Shinichi he would see every single night on his dreams...

Icy cold eyes and a deadly, solemn, expression on his face.

Yet, there he was, tenderly cradling his little brother against his body as he read his favourite book for him. Conan hadn't noticed it until now, but Shinichi was rocking his body back and forth, in a very comforting manner.

The gentle rocking motion was relaxing Conan and his body was gradually growing heavier, slumping even more against Shinichi's chest. He could clearly hear his steady, calming heartbeat from his spot.

How could he ever tell his brother what was bothering him?

Especially when he was certain he would see him again, without fail, as soon as he stepped into dreamland...

... Pointing a gun at my face.

The hand that wasn't holding the book was now on top of his head, running through strands of hair and gently untangling them.

Conan's eyelids dropped sleepily, so much that he had to struggle to keep them open, hoping to hear more about Holmes' brilliant deductions. The ministrations on his head and the vibrations of his vocal chords as Shinichi spoke slowly, but steadily, lulled him into a strange state of peace and quietness he didn't remember ever feeling in his short life.

Was that dream even real?

Or is this...?

...

... So warm...

Bone-weary exhaustion dragged Conan down and eventually lost the battle. His eyes finally slipped closed and fell into deep slumber before Shinichi could finish reading the chapter.

For the first time in what it felt like a really long time, the nightmares didn't bother him, not even once, throughout the rest of the night.