Ch6
"speech"
'Thought'
The Dollar's Back
Time was coming to an end to this long agonizing day. Conan held in his arms a dozen bags as he watched with utter amazement at Ran and Sonoko as they bulldozed their way through the crowd of women that gathered around the "On Sale" sign. Ripping, tearing, slapping, scratching, biting, swearing, smacking, he gave a few blinks and sweat dropped.
Oh how he wished that could be the case, at least then he would have a show to watch. 'Isn't that what girls are suppose to do in department stores?' he sighed to himself. This afternoon was none of the sort; rather it was quite the opposite. He still carried a bundle of bags across his arms but there was no ripping and tearing to be seen. The bleak quietness of the store with it's whispering elevator music only emphasized his boredom.
He took a seat on the near by bench and set the bags upon the floor. Sonoko and Ran were flipping through pieces of clothing. For the past 3hours, Sonoko had been selecting tuxedos, which only differed in the name of its color. The professor had been pushed, pulled, spun, twisted, and jerked around the large department store through the entire time with no rest. Sweat poured from his forehead as his legs quivered from exhaustion.
"hmm, night time black, evening black, nocturnal black, Night sky blue (AKA: Black). She pondered as she took the tuxedos upon her arms and scanned each one intensively. She then walked behind the professor and gave him a small jerk upon his back, forcing it to stretch up straight. "Which one do you think is the best one professor?" she asked.
"Nocturnal," he answered with the first word that came to his mind.
"But then it doesn't seem to cope with the pants. If you want it then we're going to have to find a new pair," Sonoko replied.
"What! No, no, there's no need for that!" the professor jumped, "In fact I'll just take all 4, How's that? We'll decide when we get home," he said with a sweat drop sliding in the back of the head.
Boredom was taking over the child's mind. Conan took notice of a small piece of lint upon the bench he sat on and had taken up an obsession to it. He was flicking the piece of lint back and force, each time coming up with a creative way in thinking how he can flick it further than the last. His head jolted up in sudden realization of the situation. 'You know you're bored when flicking a piece of lint become all consuming,' he thought to himself, shooting a fake laugh. He checked his watch that replied back with the time of 4:45. 'Wow, I've been caught up for 15 minutes flicking a piece of lint,' he thought with amazement.
Ai walked over with her hands behind her back and a smile of amusement to the bored detective. "You look like you're having a blast," Ai said with sarcasm in her voice.
"Ohhh yea, so far my record is somewhere around 15 inches," he replied in sarcastic pride.
Ai bent down and shifted the lint over to the edge of the bench. With one smooth flick, the lint raced through the air, landing a few feet away from its original position. She turned back with a mocking smile and chuckled the words; "I win," before extending her back once more.
Conan pouted and folded his arms. "Beginner's luck," he huffed as he blushed slightly from the embarrassment he felt. The smile grew slightly in size upon the girl's face with satisfaction. It was truly a sad competition, but it was enough for Ai to shoot another arrow upon his pride and that is the only thing that mattered to her.
A slight annoyance bubbled in the young boys mind as he took notice of the mocking grin. "Does it hurt?" he asked politely.
"Does what hurt?" she questioned.
"It must hurt to be putting cracks upon that Frankenstein face of yours with that smile," he smiled and nodded as though to say 'take that'
Ai merely nodded and with her eyes closed as though she was going to let the comment slide. Conan extended his neck with a puzzled look, wondering why she didn't reply anything. The girl's eyes opened with great force then gave a glare toward the boy next to him. It was a glare of pure fury and anger. All emotions of hate flowed through those two dark pupils as they focused upon their target. In the sudden surprise, Conan jumped up with a whoa and fell heavily on his rump off the bench. He rubbed his back and looked back up nervously, Ai smiled back at him and gave a small giggle.
"How did you do that," he asked with astonishment.
"It's…a girl thing," she replied.
It was another 1hour before Sonoko finally found the perfect suit for the old man. Even Ran had given a sigh of relief for she had begun to get bored of the search. Looking back, the old man scratched his head once more. 'I still can't tell the difference.' He thought dropping his eyelids halfway down and stuck out his bottom lips.
"That will be 165.45," the cash clerk said.
"165!" Agasa exclaimed in outrage.
"Yes sir, 365.45, and your pants will be an additional 70," the clerk tilted his head and smiled.
"430!" he shouted, slapping himself on his forehead.
Sonoko looked over with a confused look, "What about it?" She asked.
Few Minutes Later
"Well that was a waist of time," Sonoko breathed out heavily.
Agasa folded his arms as his brow twitched slightly from trying to hold his rage. "I'm going to go home, my date is in less then 2hours," he said swallowing his fury, "I'll just wear my old suit."
"Cheap skate," Sonoko spoke under her breath. Ran immediately jumped and covered her mouth as the old man turned and smiled difficultly at the two young ladies. With a cough, he cleared his throat and walked away.
"At least I got lots of new clothing for Conan-kun, I guess," Ran sighed.
Conan took a peep into the bags he was holding. 'Let's see…Mr. Sun, Mr. Sun, Waving frog, overall with a smiling dolphin. One could get beat up for wearing stuff like these.' He raised an eyebrow hesitantly.
He took a step but was abruptly stopped by a small figure of a girl. Ran and Sonoko stopped their chatting as they glanced down at the two young kids. Ai twisted her right foot as she swayed from one side to another, shyly looking up through her bangs.
"Haibara?" Conan said in confusion.
"Conan-kun…"she paused and held her breath. She gave her head a few shakes and they turned into a fading shade of red, "Do you…like me?" she asked turning to her side to reveal her fidgeting fingers behind her back.
"Huh? What are you talking about?" Conan replied slightly shocked and completely oblivious to what was going on.
Ran gasped and blushed slightly, 'Is she…oh wow…'
Sonoko peeped down, also confused about what was going on.
"I mean, do you like me," Ai said again looking up then quickly turning back to the floor when she met eye contact with the boy.
"What the heck are you talking about? I don't (kick) ow," he turned and looked behind. Ran gave him a strict look and nodded her head. "Oh..y..y..y..yea I li..l..lik..lik..like you," he said as his brow twitched even more rapidly.
"Really?" Ai asked.
"Of..of course," Conan coughed.
"Then why did you say such horrible things to me earlier?" she questioned.
"What horrible things?" Ran jumped in.
"He…He…" Ai rubber her eyes, "He called me a Frankenstein!" she frowned then sounded a few chokes.
Ran turned back and glared at the young boy, "CONAN-KUN! IS THIS TRUE?" she demanded an answer.
Sonoko pulled her back up and brought her lips to her ear. "Hey Ran you think that Conan-kun said that because he likes her and just wanted to tease her. Kids that age does it all the time," she whispered.
Ran's eyes quickly cleared up as she release a intrigued "oh". She leveled her height with Conan and pointed her finger toward him. "Conan-kun, that wasn't a very nice thing to do," she said in a lecturing tone, "Now apologize to Ai-chan."
The shrunken detective nodded then walked over as he glared at Ai. A small smirk stroked upon the girls face which dissipated as fast as it formed. "I'm…sorry Haibara," he said.
"Good," Ran said, "Now give her a hug for hurting her feelings."
"What!" Conan spun around nervously.
"You heard me, now hurry up!" Ran ordered as she pointed her finger to the frowning girl.
Ai looked up and gave him a mocking look with her eyes before switching them to a look where she seemed to be waiting for his approach.
Conan walked over and put his arms around her. Ran and Sonoko giggled at the puppy love romance they were witnessing.
'One more push,' Ai thought to herself. "Conan-kun, she whispered but loud enough for the two teens to hear, "Would you like to be my…Boyfriend?" she asked.
Ran jolted up with shock and excitement. Knowing that Ran will go on forever if he was to refuse, Conan answered with some difficulty in his voice, "I would be happy to…"
Sonoko gave a mocking glance to her friend beside.
The brunette tean gave a questioning look. "What," she asked.
"You know what this means don't you?" Sonoko replied.
"What does it mean?" Ran asked still in confusion.
"This means.." Sonoko leaned over against her friend's ear, "That you owe me a dollar again." She smirked and gave a giggle.
End…
Did you like this chapter? What's going to happen between Haibara and Conan? Oh, and Ayumi will not come into this fiction in case some of you may think that after reading Ai Edogawa. Next Chap, Professor's date revealed!
I will not be updating "Secrets" for a while because well, I just simply don't have any good ideas on it. This fiction sort of replaced it
Time to answer to reviews!
Great Detective: Lol, it's a rat race out there. Thanks for your support!
Fanfic Maniac: I'm glad, comments like yours really do encourage me to write the next chapter faster than I intended to
Mystery Max: Here you go, Conan and Ai. Do you like it? More to come
Crystal Snowflake: I am a BIG fan of yours! Love your stories! Especially your one shots. Glad you like it
Shonzu: Heh, I'll do my best
Adilla: You're welcome. An since I realized lots of people like C/A, I wrote then ending to this chapter like that.
After the next chapter, I'm thinking of starting a sequel that will be directly added as chapter 8. The plot? Based on what happened till now until Conan explaining to Ran about how he got dumped. Yes, next chapter is final chapter to Prof First Date so there will be A LOT MORE of the professor.
