The Quandary
Chapter 3
Entr'acte - Flashback: Comments, Reviews, Fan mail

flashback
A boy of fourteen with a wiry frame and shocks of black hair made his way to the gray mailbox. Eagerly, he pulled it open and reached inside. Well, I've just solved another case, and the comments should be flooding in... Nothing. Finding the mailbox empty, he scowled irritably and slammed the door of the mailbox, his annoyance reflected in his dark blue eyes and his eyebrows furrowed in a frown.

"Solve a couple of cases, and pretty soon, everyone states to take you for granted. No one appreciates or respects my work enough to comment, not a single one! Have all of you people out there died??!!" Conan Edogawa raged. "Well, fine! If you want to play dead, I'll join you. We'll see who's left to solve the hardest, most unusual cases the police come across without me. Certainly not that idiot Kogoro Mouri."

"Something upset you, Shinichi?" the professor asked as Conan entered.

Two years ago, as he began to look more and more like Shinichi, Conan's parents took him from the Detective Agency and left him in the professor's care, claiming that they no longer wished to burden the great detective. Because Agasa was a relative, it would be less of a hassle. Kogoro hadn't been sad to see Conan go at all.

"Has something upset me??!! Yes! I've cracked so many cases as Conan Edogawa that the public is beginning to take me for granted. Look at this." Conan held out his empty hands, palms up and about a foot apart. "Nothing. Not a single letter, fan mail, or comment. So you know, I think I'll quit and devote myself to my studies, maybe help Haibara find an antidote with my spare time instead of wasting it solving crimes and doing the ungrateful public a favor." Conan shrugged carelessly.

"You will not," a cold voice originating from somewhere behind Conan contradicted.

Conan grimaced. It was Haibara, icy, as usual. But there was something else in her voice that made her sound impatient... almost annoyed. He spun around. "Won't what?" he asked.

"I'm getting along fine with the antidote, and I don't need your help," she replied.

"Doing fine?" Conan repeated. "If you're doing fine, then where is it?"

"You know, if I were you, I think I'd be a bit more careful about who I insult and make demands of. You do realize that I won't, in any way, benefit from the creation of the antidote? I'm much better off the way I am, and if I make and give you the antidote, you'll draw their attention, which will in turn endanger me. Now why would I do that for someone acting the way you do? Why would I endanger myself for some egomaniac who takes out his anger on others because he has received no comments on his work?" Haibara demanded.

Conan was stunned. His eyes widened, and he stared at the girl before him in disbelief. For the past eight years, they had always gotten along... well, they had maintained a certain degree of amity. Did she just threaten to quit developing the antidote? He opened his mouth uncertainly. "I... I'm sorr-"

"Don't bother," Haibara cut him off. "I know you're not. You're just saying that so I'll-"

"No, I am. I truly am sorry... I never did stop to consider... not when you gave me the temporary ones, not when I pestered you about the antidote afterwards, not earlier... I never stopped to consider how that would impact the people around me. All I knew was that for a day, a whole, blissful day, I would be free... I would be myself. I never took into account the fact that if someone saw me, it'd be over not just for me, but for you, the professor, maybe Genta, Ayumi, and Mitsushiko... But it's not like that anymore... like you, there's no reason for me to return to my former state anymore..." he finished sadly.
/flashback

BlackIce29, Kaitou Magician, Kasuga-sempai - Whatever... consider it AU if you must. Like it really matters, anyways.

0....0 , reize-feitan, 1134 , Jack5 - lol, yeah... I think it's def. C x A