KudoEdogawa presents...

""Tanjyoubi Ometetou, Shinichi""

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The steel doorknob turned and the door opened with a creak, the little boy walked in, drenched in sweat, rather unusual since it is still rather cool this early in the month of May, but she knew why, the boy had been playing soccer, his favorite sport. And his, too.

"I'm home, Ran-neechan!" The little boy yelled, "I'm hungry, is dinner ready yet?"

There was no reply.

"Ran-neechan?" Conan Edogawa shouted. Could Ran be out? The boy went into his room and dropped his soccer ball and backpack as he searched the house "Ran-neechan?"

She was in her room, curtains shut, windows closed, with only a lamp lit on her desk. Conan knocked twice, and when no reply came, he got worried and entered, slowly as to not disturb the room's inhabitant. Balls of crumpled tissue paper littered the desk and floor, and there are several more in the trash can. Her hands clutched onto the blue picture frame that sat previously on her desk, and her eyes stared into the picture, blankly, lifelessly, as she has done so for the past few hours.

"Ran-neechan?" The boy asked in his innocent tone, a hint of worry and care veiled the love that was behind his voice. He knew that something must have happened, or else Ran wouldn't be staring at that picture. That same picture of the man who brought her so much frustration and sadness. They both wondered the same question now and then: why could they not be like when the picture was taken? Happy, carefree, and glad from the bottom of their hearts to be next to each other, smiling and just having a good time.

A glint of light passed across her face, followed by a second, trailing directly after the first one, and silent crystals fell, onto the desk, onto her lap, onto the picture, just as they had been for the past few hours. Conan frowned; he would never make Ran cry on purpose, what has happened today? Or was Ran just having one of those emotionally unstable days?

"Ran-neechan," Conan spoke again, "Do you want me to leave you alone for a while?"

Ran slowly turned her head, staring at the small figure standing at the door way as if she had just noticed his presence. Her eyes seemed to be drifting towards somewhere behind the boy, right behind him, the illusion of the one that she has been waiting for smiled at her and waved at her. She gave a weak smile as the illusion began to fade and she snapped back to reality.

"I'm sorry, Conan-kun," she said in a weak voice. "You must be hungry by now, huh? What time is it?" She said, wiping her tears.

"Six-thirty," Conan replied.

"Oh, I had better go make dinner then," the girl said and left her seat, slamming the photo face-down on her desk. Her feet made no noise as they walked across the carpeted floor, swaying this way and that way until she finally reached the door. Conan stepped aside to let her through, and she smiled at him, the pained and forced one that Conan have seen just way too many times.

After dinner she returned to her room, this time shutting the door and locking it. Perhaps she didn't want Conan to see her cry again, perhaps she just needed to concentrate, perhaps to block out her father's cheers and laughs as he watched a program with Yoko... or perhaps just not wanting to see that illusion standing in the doorway.

Conan wandered past her door, there was no light in the room.

"I don't understand what caused her to act like this today!" Conan complained to his neighbor. He had told Kogoro that he'd be spending the night at Hakase's house with the Detective Boys since the following day was a Saturday.

Hakase shrugged as he continued to type furiously on the keyboard, his eyes glued to the flashing screen of the computer.

Haibara stretched herself on the long sofa behind them, flipping through a fashion magazine without really looking at anything. "Well, great detective, you might want to know what the date is," she said monotonously.

"May third, why?"

"And tomorrow would be...?" She asked in the same dull tone.

"May fourth," Conan replied.

"Which is...?"

"A... Saturday?" Conan tried, unsure. "Wait! It's the day that Professor Moriarty fell down the Reichenbach Falls with Holmes! But... what's that got to do with anything?"

"Are you having the slightest feelings of a deja vu right now?" The blonde girl asked. *

"Erm... kinda," Conan said truthfully, he remember pondering these questions before, but cannot recall the significance behind it.

"Well, meitantei, for your information, May fourth happens to be your birthday." Ai said quickly as she dropped the magazine and turned on the TV.

"Oh..." Conan said. Now he could understand Ran's abnormality today; she'd want to tell him happy birthday, in person, not through the phone and certainly not through some voice-changing bowtie. Conan walked to the wall and leaned against it, staring out the window at his house longingly; he didn't want any of these to have happened either.

The branches of the trees outside are being bended; the wind is picking up outside, and the soft thudding heard on the room signaled that it had started to rain. Yet amidst of the bad weather, at nearly midnight, someone could be seen standing outside, in front of the metal gates of the Kudo residence. Conan rubbed his eyes; it was Ran.

"Ran..." the boy muttered softly.

"Just call her," Ai said casually.

"But it won't be what she wanted," Conan replied solemnly. He would rather be the one standing there, in the rain, rather than here, watching.

Ran stood in the rain, a bouquet of flowers in one hand, and a wrapped box in the other, containing her hand-made lemon pie. Shinichi's favorite, she thought to herself.

"Why don't you just go and tell her to go back home?" Hakase asked, turning away from the computer.

"She wouldn't want to let 'Conan' see her like this," Conan replied. Argh, how he hated that name right now.

Conan shut his eyes and turned away from the window, his own tears falling as he dropped to the floor, the clock on the wall above him chimed twelve. It was midnight. It was his birthday.

"SHINICHI!!" Ran sobbed, her voice painful and loud that it fought its way across the rain and the wind and came to Hakase's house. "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SHINICHI!!"

Her voiced echoed in the night, and in Conan's heart. "I'm sorry, Ran," he whispered, "So sorry..."

Ai turned off the television and Hakase watched the sobbing Conan with sympathy as Ran continued to shout outside. Her every cry striking Conan like a dagger.

"SHINICHI!! CAN YOU HEAR ME!? SHINICHI!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! SHINICHI!! ......"

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A sudden idea upon realizing that it is soon to be Shinichi's birthday! I meant to make this a happy, happy, joy, joy fic, but it ended up like this. I love stories like this, because it's so kawaii, yet at the same time, so emotional and so sad. Aoyama-sensei is so evil !! Please R+R~

Written: May 3, 2004. KudoEdogawa.