Ok, part two has started and I will try to update every week to week and a half.
Thank you for the reviews!
CrazyInsansAnimeFanGirl, thanks I'm glad you liked it.
Mystic, I'm glad you liked the mystery and the scene with the teacher. I'm sure that Conan, Ai and Arthur must be a challenge to their teacher.
Otaku, here it is. Sorry it took so long but I like to outline each part before I start to write it, helps to prevent writers block.
Dark-Koomrie, I'm flattered that you think this is one of the best DC stories you've read but there are many stories much better than mine. Look for stories by Becky Tailweaver, Icka M. Chif, or Ysabet. They are incredible authors!
Disclaimer, I don't own Detective Conan or any of the characters, I'm just borrowing them.
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School was out, not just for the day but also for the summer. And groups of excited students were walking home. One group of six elementary students stands out a little from the crowd, mostly because of one small boy walking on his hands. The other kids ignore this unusual method of travel; they are more interested in the conversation.
"I can't believe you did that." Said Conan, who could almost be a mirror image of the boy doing a handstand. He sounded like he was caught somewhere between laughter and disgust.
"Well, dear brother, the last day of school should always be memorable." Apparently tired of walking on his hands Arthur got back on his feet.
"It was memorable alright."
"It was so cool!" said Genta, who was much taller than Arthur or Conan and looked to weigh more than both of them together. "How did you get the blue Jell-O and glitter in the teachers lounge anyway?"
"With magic." Said Arthur with a grin.
"There's no such thing as magic, it's a scientific impossibility." Said Mitsuhiko. "It must have been some kind of trick, but I can't figure out how you did all that, especially the stuff with the school bell and the announcements."
Ayumi whispered something to Ai and giggled.
"Well yes," Ai replied calmly as she pushed a lock of her blond hair out of her face. "But I thought the fire drill and pink smoke was a little too dramatic."
Arthur overheard her and shrugged. "What can I say? I got bored."
After a while the kids split up to go to their separate homes after promising to meet at the park tomorrow. Conan and Arthur climbed the stairs leading to The Moori Detective Agency, once inside they were greeted by the familiar sound of Kogoro yelling at the TV.
"I guess Ran isn't home yet." Said Arthur
"I'm going to our room until she gets home, it's better than listening to him." Said Conan
"Yeah, I'm glad we finally got our own room. Sometimes the smell makes me wonder if he brought some work home and lost it in his bedroom, and then there's his snoring."
"You're glad? I lived here for a year before Kogoro and Ran cleaned out that little room for us."
The room they entered was tiny, a dresser and bookshelf took up most of one wall. The only other furniture in the room was a storage chest under the small window. Arthur immediately claimed this chest as his seat, leaving Conan to sit on the floor.
Conan picked out a book and began to read, while Arthur pulled three small rubber balls out of his pocket and began to juggle. The three balls became four, then six as they spun in ever more complicated patterns, then Arthur began randomly bouncing a ball off of the walls, ceiling and floor and catching it without dropping or slowing the others. Conan never looked up from his book, until.
'Bonk'
"Ow! Stop that!" Snapped Conan rubbing the back of his head.
"Stop what?" asked Arthur a little too innocently, as another ball bounced off the wall and ricocheted off Conan's head before Arthur returned it to the whirling collection of objects that now included the six balls, two books, a cup and one of Conan's shoes.
Conan didn't ask how Arthur got one of his shoes when he knew he had left them by the door; he just waited until Arthur launched another ball in his direction. He caught it and threw it back at Arthur who juggled it and sent another one to Conan. That one was returned to him just as quickly, and when Ran came home she found Arthur and Conan juggling several balls and small objects between them. She stood in the doorway for a while and watched the two boys before heading to the kitchen to start dinner.
It wasn't long before the delicious scent of her cooking brought the boys into the kitchen. And while dinner finished cooking the boys set the table. As usual, Arthur began juggling dishes and Conan lectured him in a futile attempt to make him stop. Ran just ignored it; Arthur never dropped a dish and any attention only made him worse.
Dinner was rather quiet; Arthur hadn't pulled any of his tricks during meals since the noodle incident last month. And after dinner Kogoro took control of the remote so Ran took out a magazine to read while the boys played checkers.
Somehow the game of checkers became a pillow fight. When the boys got too close to Ran she flattened them both with a cushion, and the war was on!
Ran used her greater height and strength to full advantage while Arthur all but climbed the walls and bounced off furniture. Conan some how held his own, he seemed to know what the other two would do almost before they did.
Finally Kogoro had had enough and started yelling so all three ran out of the room. In the hall Ran leaned against the wall and tried to stop laughing long enough to catch her breath.
"I don't think I've laughed that hard since Shinichi left. Thank you, I needed that."
She placed a gentile kiss on each boy's forehead before ushering them off to bed. Although Arthur look embarrassed when she kissed him, she almost laughed at Conan, He looked like a tomato!
Later, after the boys were asleep she found herself looking at one of the few pictures of Conan and Arthur.
'I'm glad Arthur came here' she thought 'Conan laughs more now. He's always too serious for a boy his age. Of course Arthur hardly ever stops smiling so I guess they balance each other out. I wonder what Shinichi would think of them.'
With that thought she turned off the light and went to bed.
Ran lay in bed, she wasn't sure what had awakened her but something felt different.
Not wrong but some how off. Quietly she got up and began to check the house, everything felt eerie, dreamlike. Moving carefully through the darkened rooms so as to not awaken anyone she came to the living room.
Perched on the narrow sill of an open window, as comfortable as if he lay in bed, was Arthur. At least it looked like Arthur though he wasn't wearing his glasses and looked somehow older. His light blue pajamas were bleached by the moonlight to a silvery almost white, yet his eyes seemed more intense than she'd ever seen. In his hands was a piece of white paper, as he began folding it he spoke softly to himself.
"I wonder what your dreams hold tonight Aoko? Do you think of a certain messy-haired magician? Do you know how much I miss you? I doubt it, I've kept you at arms length to protect you but look where that got me."
Under his nimble fingers the paper had become a dove, the fragile curve of its half-spread wings made it look like it would fly from his hand at any moment.
"You're right, sometimes I'm too clever for my own good. My brilliant plan to expose the ones who stole my father's life has failed spectacularly. If not for those detectives I'd be dead, instead I'm trapped in this half-life."
All unwilling his fingers tightened, crushing the paper dove in his small hands.
"Damn it! How has Kudo lived like this? It's only been a few months and I feel like I'm loosing my mind. What I wouldn't give to see you again Aoko, even if you were mad at me, even if you hated me, God knows I'd deserve it if you did."
He looked sadly at the crumpled paper in his hands and slowly straitened and smoothed some parts while folding others; soon he had a rose resting on the palm of his hand.
"If I get out of this mess alive I'll tell you everything, no more secrets. Not about me, not about my family, you deserve at least that much."
He cupped his hands around the rose, hiding it. Then he lifted up and opened his hands as if offering the paper rose to the moon, but it wasn't white paper anymore! It was a real rose, a pale silver-blue.
"Sleep well Ao-chan."
He blew softly on the rose and the silver-blue petals drifted out the window and danced away on the night wind.
He climbed down from the window before he realized Ran was watching him, he froze. Most of his face was in shadow but Ran could see his eyes. They were filled with grief and heartache but most of all with a kind of weary determination that had no place in a child's eyes, She could stand the gaze of those eyes for only a moment, a breath before she had to look away.
When she looked back, though only seconds had passed, she was alone in the room and the window was closed. Quickly she went to the room that Conan and Arthur shared, quietly she opened the door, Conan was curled around his pillow, fast asleep and on the other small futon Arthur was sprawled in a position that should have been impossible for anyone who wasn't boneless.
"A dream, that's all it was." She whispered as she closed the door and went back to her room.
She never noticed a pair of blue eyes watching her from under nearly closed eyelids.
'That was close, Kudo would kill me if he knew I nearly spilled our secret to Ran.'