Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot.

The Quandary
Chapter 6 - Mitsushiko?!
08.06.04

Erstwhile:
Mitsushiko to Ai: "...are you going out with Conan?" he finally managed, eyes still glued to the floor.

... Seeing that Mitsushiko wasn't leaving without an answer, Conan stepped in. "No," he answered bluntly, "we're not."

"So…" a hopeful light shone in Mitsushiko's eyes. "I…will you go out with me?"

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"So…" a hopeful light shone in Mitsushiko's eyes. "I…will you go out with me?" he asked Ai softly, his eyes brimming with a pleading quality. "I—I've liked you for the past few years, but I've never had the guts to… to actually say anything…" he trailed off hopefully. He felt as if the world had stopped and everyone in the gym was staring at him, ready to burst into derisive laughter at any time. His ears flamed and he looked down at his shoes.

"I..." How do I turn him down without crushing him? I can't just say 'no' brusquely... Haibara debated her course of action as another thought rose up in her head. What do you care? He's just a kid; since when did you give a damn anyways? Fighting the urge to flat out refuse, Ai spoke out, "I'll get back to you on that tomorrow, okay? I really have to get to class." Haibara gestured at the clock, which read 12:47 PM.

"Okay," Mitsushiko answered happily. "I have to get to Accounting anyways. So... I'll see you tomorrow, then."

Once the trio was out of earshot, Conan turned to Haibara. "Let's go," he said distantly.

They managed to slip into the classroom unnoticed as the teacher was making her speech.

"So... we will be starting the year off with a slight review from Chemistry; we'll cover the functional groups first. If you haven't taken Chemistry, report to the counseling office immediately for a schedule change." She stared a the class expectantly, as if she knew there were students who had attempted to bypass Chemistry.

Slowly, a student stood and left the classroom, taking his backpack with him. "Come on... I know there are three of you," she continued in an annoyed voice. Ai smirked at Conan, who just gazed back dully before giving a weak smile. Sighing, the teacher reached for the student roster.

"Ai Haibara and Conan Edogawa," she announced expectantly. When there was no response, she glared at the ranks of the class. "Haibara, Edogawa, step up," she ordered harshly.

Ai and Conan stood grudgingly, but didn't move a muscle beyond that.

"Well, get out!" the teacher, Ando, demanded angrily.

"Why?" Ai asked.

"Because, as I explained earlier to the students that are not deaf, you will need a strong background in Chemistry to succeed in Biology," Ando replied in a sugary tone that suggested she was speaking to a child.

"I think we're both okay with that," Ai replied, trying to keep at least an iota of respect in her voice, but it was extremely difficult.

"Name a functional group," Ando challenged, still using her sugary tone.

"Amine," Ai answered in a bored tone, quickly naming the group most familiar to her. "Group with nitrogen, bonded to carbon, as a key atom. Amines act as Brønsted-Lowry bases since they are proton acceptors, and due to this basic nature, amines can react with carboxylic acids to form amides, which are commonly formed along with amino acids' peptide bonds."

"Since you seem to know so much about amino acids, why don't you tell us the difference between DNA transcription and translation?" Ando asked after a quick recovery from her shock.

Jeez, stop being a spiteful, vindictive bitch and just let it go that I'm better than you, okay? Ai was feeling uncharacteristically immodest. "Transcription involves the synthesis of mRNA--that's messenger RNA," Ai threw in just to spite Ando, "from its complementary DNA. Translation is the formation of protein at a ribosome from the mRNA." Ai finished, glancing at the teacher for her response.

Ando looked livid. Her face was all but purple with rage, and her body gave off occasional tremors. She opened her mouth to speak, but Ai cut in.

"And that was not a fair question because that's a topic to be covered in Biology, not something we learned in Chemistry," Haibara continued in the same tone she had adopted during her explanations.

"Fine!" Ando roared. "You stay." Turning to Conan, she began to pummel him with questions about thermochemistry, specific properties of random elements, and whatever she could think of, all of which Conan answered brilliantly.

However, Conan did not seem pleased by the situation, or even amused. He just sat limply, tuning the world out. How could she? How could she even consider Mitsushiko's offer? Does she not realize that it's bordering on pedophilia? That it's disgusting beyond words? That it's immoral to allow this to continue without informing Mitsushiko of our conditions? Informing Mitsushiko is out of the question, since it would place us both in higher danger of exposure, thus this Mitsushiko/Ai thing will not work, he told himself firmly. I have to talk to her about it. ...but it's none of my business. I can't talk about it without making myself seem crazily overprotective. I can't do anything about it. ...Except show her that I care. I'll...Thousands of ideas ran through his head, but to Conan, none were good enough. There has to be the perfect course of action that will bring Ai to her senses and make her realize that she cannot accept Mitsushiko, but I can't seem to find it. It's like... I'll have to do something drastic, y'know? Like... like go through with my plan. Go to the Syndicate and turn myself in for her sister's safe return, steal some information about the Organization during my stay, and get out, or even collapse the evil Syndicate from deep within. Yeah... I'll do it. I'll do it.

Conan didn't even notice the conclusion of class until Haibara shook him.

"Hey, snap out of it; class is over and we have to be in Chemistry in five minutes!" Ai tried to keep her voice low. "Hey...Hey! Ku-Edogawa!" she amended, seeing that Ando was watching them closely. Expecting to have to drag Conan to Chemistry, she reached out to grab his hand, but paused; she wasn't sure if he would mind, so biting her lip, she began to shake him by shoulders.

Conan was still thinking about his plan to destroy the Organization when he felt a jolt run through him, a tingling feeling that began at his shoulders and slowly spread throughout his entire being. He looked up in time to see Haibara's face peering at him.

"Are you okay?" she asked in a concerned voice. "Class has been over for a while… we only have about two minutes to get to class," she finished.

Conan shook his head slightly before answering, "Today is just not our day… we've been running to 'the next class' ever since lunch."

Haibara laughed. "Well, let's go… we don't want to be late; we might miss some important information." She smirked and shot a meaningful glance at Ando before turning and walking out the door.

Complacently, Conan followed without giving much thought to where he was heading. I'll definitely need some waterproof matches, water, I'll have to grab all of Agasa's toys, some food or other source of nourishment, a suit of black clothes, extra hypodermic needles for the watch, a pocketknife, and maybe even--

"Shinichi!" Ai whispered urgently. "Where--" she began, but broke off when she met Conan's questioning gaze.

So I'm Shinichi now, am I? he thought, cocking an eyebrow at Haibara.

"Sorry," Ai managed quickly, flustered. "Kudo," she amended, "where are we?" Catching the unchanged look on Conan's face, she grew a bit annoyed. "Come on... it's my first day here, and it's not like either of us bothered to attend the orientation since you said you'd show me around. Ever since the end of gym, you've been acting kind of out of it... are--are you okay?"

Am I okay? Let me see...NO! Why can't you see? Why can't you see that it's ridiculous to even consider Mitsushiko, that it's killing me that you are taking his words into consideration, that I'd break if you were to accept? "It doesn't concern you," he grated harshly.

Having lived with Haibara for the past eight years, Conan had learned to read the finer features of her masks, and was able to sense the moods that were invisible to all others. He immediately regretted his tone and choice of words when he saw a hairline crack make its way up the side of her mask as the lucid blue pools of her eyes reflected hurt and confusion.

Stepping forward, Conan tried to apologize, but Ai cut him off before he could even open his mouth. "Just get us to Chemistry," she interrupted coldly.

What the hell did you just do, you idiot? What was that for? Mentally, Conan sighed and turned around. Wordlessly, he headed for the closest door and pushed it open to be greeted by a strong gust of wind whipping at his face. Holding the door, he turned and waited for Haibara to exit the building without meeting her eyes before turning and walking up a flight of stairs. Once again, he held the door for Ai, looking anywhere but at her, and followed her inside.

They reached the the Chemistry lab just in time to hear the teacher announce, "Okay, class... quiz next time on the material we've just covered! Hey, you two!" she added, noticing the two students who were trying to sneak into the back of the classroom inconspicuously. "Come up and get your textbooks, and read Chapter 1... that's pages one to 56."

Trying to avoid a repeat of Biology, Ai grabbed her textbook wordlessly, and Conan copied her actions, taking his book silently.

"Okay, class... I'm going to pass out the final exam for this course. This is not going to be for a grade, so don't worry when--if you do badly," she caught herself just in time. She knew that none of the students would be passing the test, but she didn't want to sound patronizing, and began to hand out the tests.

Ai made an extreme effort to counter the forces pulling at her facial muscles, and managed to transform the forming smirk into a small twitch. Yeah... when I fail. That'll be that day, she thought to herself. What the hell is up with these stupid teachers underestimating me anyways? It's like they've never taught anyone who's clearly above the class level. Oh well... she halfheartedly began working on the test. Read the following equations and indicate the direction in which the listed properties will shift. Provide the electron configuration for the following elements. Explain whether the following reaction(s) will take place, using proof from the activity series to back your claim. Define and locate the triple point on this graph. Write an equation using OH- as a base, then one with OH- as an acid. Hmm... yeah, this is really hard; I think I would have failed it when I was three. Haibara finished all 100 questions of the test in fifteen minutes and turned her paper over, staring blankly at the clock, willing it to turn faster.

Checking the roster, the Chemistry instructor, Marusa, found Ai's name and called out, "Haibara... there are five essay questions at the end."

"I'm done," Ai replied, trying to keep her tone even and free of her evident boredom.

"Very well. I'll be taking your test, then," Marusa replied, walking over to Ai's lab counter and picking up her paper. As she passed by, she saw Conan drawing absently on the back of his test papers, so she took his paper as well. The other students gaped at the two before hurriedly glancing down at their own tests as Marusa walked by.

Marusa sat down with the two papers and began grading them, starting with the essays. Glancing down at the five short paragraphs she saw, she was tempted to throw their papers into the trash. Even the best of her students had not been able to score a perfect 100% on this test, even on the second try at the end of the year with pages of explanations and essays, and these two kids thought five measly paragraphs would suffice? She shook her head and held her red pen poised above the paper, ready to critique. When she began reading, her eyes widened in shock at the depth of the student's obvious understanding of organic chemistry. In five short paragraphs, Ai Haibara had succeeded in clearly explaining every detail requested by the prompts in an extraordinary show of impressive and concise writing. The other paper, written by Edogawa, showed that he was slightly less eloquent, but also well-versed in topics covered in Chemistry I. She glanced at the roster once more. Freshmen?! First in my entire teaching career to possess such amazing brilliance, both in the same year? This should be a very interesting and competitive class... She glanced at the two again, and noticed that Edogawa looked oddly unfocused, as if... as if thinking about other issues, and Haibara just looked bored.

At the end of class, Conan stood and picked up the backpack he hadn't bothered to open, and headed out the classroom, exiting the building and scuffling down the stairs. Turning his head, he saw Haibara following him, eyebrows furrowed in a perplexed manner.

"You know the way home, right?" he asked. I'll just beat her home, grab all of my stuff, and leave before she even gets back.

Ai nodded, and Conan began running in the direction of the professor's lab. After a while, the scent of strawberries wafted by his nose, and he turned his head to see Ai effortlessly keeping up with him. Frustrated, he racked his brains for other ideas, but found none. I guess I'll have to leave in the middle of the night.

Upon reaching the professor's lab, Conan's home for the past few years, Conan immediately raced up the stairs to his room and started packing his things quietly. Haibara wandered into the kitchen and saw a note on the table. It was addressed to 'Ai and Conan', so she picked it up and began to read.

Conan, Ai,

I'll be out doing some research, and probably won't be back until 7:00 or 8:00, so plan on cooking for yourselves. Ai chuckled at the joke. It's concerning a new project I'm trying to make, appearance-altering drugs.

Agasa

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Review? .hopeful smile.

aria sunset: Thanks for the compliments! As for the pairings, you'll just have to read on! .evil grin. Hint: take a look at everything else I've authored, then make an 'educated guess' as to what the pairing will be. I assure you, it will take Shinichi Kudo's detective skills and millions of perusals of my other fics to figure out, since they're .all. supporting the .same. couple, even though the songfics are angsty.