"Shinichi."

The eyes of the named detective slowly fluttered open.

"Please."

He opened his eyes in shock at hearing her voice again.

"R-Ran?!"

He sat up abruptly, gaining him a slight headache. He brought one of his hands to touch his head while the other was to sustain his weight.

"Ran! Where are you?"

He got no reply. Not even an echo.

Now that he felt his headache had lessened after sitting for awhile, he tried to look for a sign or a clue of where the hell he was. Where the hell her voice came from.

He saw nothing but black.

He tensed up when he felt something wasn't right as he heard a bit sound of water drop echoing in a very slow rhythm. He then noticed he was surrounded by a pool of water that reached only half of his laid-flat-palm, but his clothes was dry. He could clearly see his own reflection under him.

Looked like he was in a cave, perhaps.

He shouted her name again, but he only heard silence.

Again. And again.

His heart was racing faster for each time he received silent reply.

Then he felt the water by his hand became thicker. It was blood.

His eyes widened at the dark red color on his hand. What the hell was this? As far as he remembered, he was laying on his comfortable sofa in his warm living room before he woke up in this shitty situation.

The tension in his mind had risen at a top notch. He felt his head became heavier and it was harder for him to breath. Then he finally heard her voice, but it was too late. He was already suffocating, unable to say anything.

"Please take care," she said, "Shinichi."

At that, he felt his consciousness was being pulled up from the depth of his misery as he shouted her name. It was loud enough to startle the one-year-old baby girl whose stomach was laying flat on top of his face while her little hands played with his dark brown hair.

He panted as his throat felt hoarse and dry, cold sweats were all over his body. He rested one of his arms on his forehead, still laying while trying to compose himself.

It was a dream, his inner voice said to himself.

When his mind had started to find its focus, he heard the sound of a baby girl crying. Shinichi sat up hurriedly and searched in worry for where she was from his position. She couldn't be far since he was sure to put her down on the floor beside the sofa before he laid down. And true enough the detective found her on the floor near the place where he had fallen asleep, but now with her face down.

It seemed she had successfully climbed up from the floor to his face while he was drifted to sleep, but she fell down when she lost her balance after startled by his loud voice.

"I'm so sorry," he said softly to the baby as he brought her to a cuddle while stroking the red swollen spot on her forehead, "Stop crying, it's okay now."

The baby cry wasn't stopping though. In fact it had became louder. Shinichi didn't seem to know whether it was because of the lingering sting from the fall or she was searching for her mother's arms. He was still a new dad after all.

Lucky for him the sky was quiet bright outside before it was flooded with the orange clouds. At least the what seemed to be unstoppable baby cry wasn't disturbing the neighborhood yet. It would, however, when the nightfall came. Shinichi had lost his count of the sleepless nights he had been on because of it, and how many days left he had on his annual leave. He needed to sort this all out before he returned to his work.

Since the baby cry was still as loud as ever, he decided to take her outside for a short walk. Maybe she would find something interesting that could make her stop crying.

As he locked the main door and walked out from the house gate, his dark blue eyes met with a pair of blue eyes. It was the blue eyes he was so familiar with, the one he hadn't seen for eight years. The eye color that belonged to the strawberry blonde, who used to be his partner.

The two froze, didn't know what to say to each other while the baby cry could be heard on the background. It was awkward. After all those eight years living in their houses that were next to each other, why should the probability of them to cross path fell on this day?

"Still alive, eh, Kudo-kun?" She started, trying to break the uncomfortable air.

"Still the same as ever, huh, Haibara?" He smirked. How he missed her voice so much.

"Didn't know you are a father now." Her eyes darted to the crying baby in his arms, without realizing how hurt her voice sounded.

"Er, yeah." He replied a bit hesitating.

It was awkward again.

Those moments they shared years ago and the friendly banters they used to have seemed to be long forgotten. Since when had their relationship went down to the point of being strangers? Right, it was since he had his original body back. And since she had decided to stay as Haibara Ai.

"Congratulation to you then, though looks like it was late." She said as she started to walk past him.

But before she could walk even a step from her spot, he called her to wait. Shinichi himself didn't know what had gotten into him. Perhaps his straight mind had taken its toll due to sleep deprivation. Or perhaps it was his heart that found its beats after he heard her voice again.

She looked at him with an annoyed face, but he didn't mind it. On the contrary, he found it relieving because it was the proof that she was still the same Haibara he knew.

"What more do you want from me, Kudo-kun?"

"W-Well," He was trying to find a reasonable excuse for stopping her, while in fact he just didn't want her to leave yet. Was he trying to make things back to the way it was between them?

"I don't have the whole life to wait for your answer, Tantei-san." Haibara scoffed, ready to take a step again.

"W-Wait!" He quickly told her, "C-Could you please teach me how to take care of a baby?"

Haibara stopped her track when he finished saying his sentence with flushed face. Her brain was still confirming her ears on each word the detective uttered. What an absurd request was that?

Shinichi was stunned after he gave out the only excuse he could think of in order to stop the shrunken scientist (or the now normal teenage girl) from walking away from his life again. He knew it was such a lame excuse but what could he say more though? Besides, he really needed to find a way to reorganize this new life of his as soon as possible.

And the only one who he needed right now,

the one who crossed his mind whenever he sought for help,

was his partner.

"Eh?"

Author's note: Another fanfic I thought of for getting these two together! Hope you all like it. Maybe some of you had guessed it, but I'm gonna save my apology on the next chapter. I don't want to spoil anything here.

Just some other notes, I actually had some confusions with the hair and eye colors of the characters (except for Haibara's hair) because they kept changing as the anime or the movie progressed, and the manga didn't help at all since they were all black and white. So after some research, I decided to use the colors that were said in the most of fandom sites.

For those who know the right colors, please let me know and I would correct them. Also, do not forget to give your comments and reviews.

Happy reading!

Disclaimer: All characters of Detective Conan are belong to Aoyama Gosho. I don't own any single of them.