Disclaimer: I don't own Detective Conan.

The Joys of...Friendship

"Geez, you're early," he said as Ran crossed the street from her house after a glance at his watch, the same one that had helped him so many times when he was still trapped within Conan.

"Like you're one to talk," she countered. It was true. He had been glancing beyond the white "Mouri Kogoro Detective Agency" sign, plastered over the windows to the living/agency room, for five minutes already. "And I was expecting to wait for you."

And hoping it was really real, she added silently.

"Well, there was something I wanted to ask you about. We never came across it last night."

"Same here."

He grinned. So many questions, between someone he thought he had known so well and by the look in her eyes, she seemed to have the same thought. Of course, it should've been no surprise, really. They had hardly talked as Shinichi and Ran for about a year now.

"You first."

Ran's feet automatically starting in the direction of Teitan High. "The kids. Ayumi, Genta and Mitsuhiko. Do they know?"

"No. The only person I thought about telling was you. " He stole a glance at her, cherishing her smile.

"Will you tell them?"

"Certainly not now, I don't think. Maybe when they get older. For now, let's just say that Conan returned to America."

"I'm sure Ayumi will be devastated." Her remark was accompanied by a teasing grin.

"Well . . . she'll have time to heal. Besides, I know you'll always be there to offer support for the little girl."

"Oh?"

"Sure. You know you can't stand to see anyone sad, if you can help it."

She didn't know how to reply to that. Instead, she addressed the other person on her mind. "Um . . . what's to happen to Ai? I mean, Shiho?"

"What about her?"

"Isn't she going to be a target for those people as well?"

"The Kurozukume?"

Ran recalled last night at the police station, and nodded. "Yeah, them."

"They're not going to have as easy a job at finding her as you might think. She's decided to remain as Ai."

She stopped and turned to him. "Are you serious?"

"Dead serious. She's made too many enemies as Miyano Shiho, and she's decided to relive her life as someone else, since that option's open to her now. Ai's happier than Shiho has been in a long time."

She nodded, realizing for the first time what a life the blonde must have had. But then again, her own wasn't exactly dull, either. Not with Shinichi in it.

"So," he went on with a mischievous grin, "you'll be better off worrying about me."

"Shinichi, you're seriously asking for it . . . " she raised her fist.

"What?" The blankness was so apparent, it almost seemed feigned. No, Ran decided, it was feigned.

"Ohhh, that is it!" The fist came, but Shinichi was ready for it. He ducked just as it crashed into the wall and grabbed it upon impulse.

"Shinichi! Let go!" She tried to pull her hand from his, blushing furiously.

"You didn't say please," he taunted, enjoying it all.

"Please, you jerk!" She regained possession of her hand as she tugged it out of his grasp. She glared at him, but the glow within her eyes was anything but his imagination. She started to walk again, quickly, looking at anything but him as she tried to hide her still scarlet cheeks. "Uh, we'll be late if we don't hurry."

"If you say so." He smiled, amused at her feeble excuse. At this rate, they would make it to school with plenty of time to spare.

Several minutes of silence ensued. "So what did you want to ask me?" Ran finally asked.

"What you said last night, when I was explaining to them why I wasn't dead. About how it was worth it."

"Oh, that." She smiled, the smile he had seen last night in the light of the streetlamp, the smile he had seen before as Conan, whenever Ran thought about Shinichi – that smile was proof itself that she cared about him. "Didn't you feel it too?"

He was about to ask what she meant by that when three girls ran up to them, unconsciously pushing an indignant Ran aside. "E-excuse me . . . " one of them began, clutching a notebook to her chest, and the day's newspaper in her other hand. He could make out a picture of himself on the page that had been folded back. "K-kudo-sama?"

He nodded uncertainly. "Yeah –"

The rest of his sentence, if there was one, was drowned out in a single scream of glee uttered from three voices. "Will you please sign our notebooks, Kudo-san?"

Three identical notebooks and a pen were thrust into his face before he could answer.

"Back to life as Kudo Shinichi, every girl's heart throb," he heard Ran mutter as she leaned against the wall, and the detective shot her an impertinent smirk. She stuck her out tongue in reply and returned to watching the busy street before her with the air of one who had grown up seeing it everyday.

After the girls had scurried off, Shinichi turned to Ran. "You can never get used to it, can you?"

"What do you think? Who can?" she shot back.

"Jealousy ruins, you know," he teased.

"Who says I'm jealous? And even if I was – which I'm not – who says you're one to talk?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You know what it means."

He couldn't think of a smart reply to that, and diverted that part of the matter elsewhere. "Besides, it'll end, after –" He had bite his tongue to stop the words.

"After what?" she asked, turning around sharply.

"N-never mind," he answered, blushing as furiously as she had only minutes before.

Then she changed to a far more important subject, asking him in a quiet voice that didn't subdue her unhappiness, "But next time, if something happens to you again – "

"You'll be the first to know," he answered right away. "You have my word, Ran. Because you've given me a reason." And I can't stand being that far away from you for a second time.

Her smile returned, unbridled in its beautiful glory, a glory he knew he would never get tired of, no matter how many times he saw it. "Thanks."

No, thank you, Ran. Thank you for . . . everything, he thought, knowing he didn't need to say it. Just the thought would be enough for her.

Shinichi stifled a yawn as he looked out of the window. Math was extremely boring, as usual, and being a year behind everyone else didn't stimulate his interest in the least. The school put him in his classes according to his age, ignoring his lack of real education for about a year. They were familiar with Kudo Shinichi's well-harnessed abilities. He had always been clever enough to grasp almost anything that came his way, and caught on quickly, like he always had. Anything practical, that was.

And life wasn't made of practicalities. Neither was Ran. "It was worth it," her words, accompanied by the way she said them despite the situation they were in, haunted him. And then, when she was about to answer, all she said was, "Didn't you feel it too?" Gee, thanks. That did nothing to ease his confusion. He waited until the teacher waded from his area of the classroom to the blackboard before scribbling something on paper and tearing it out, slowly, so nobody would notice the noise. He folded it into two and tapped Ran on the shoulder. She turned around and whispered, "What?"

For a reply, he handed her the note and watched over her shoulder as she turned back to the desk and read underneath it.

-Hey, do you want to come over after school?-

-Okay, but you could've waited until lunch to ask me,- she replied by pen and deposited it on his desk behind her, pretending to read the blackboard all the while.

Everyone had been ecstatic about Shinichi's return, and had pestered him for a full ten minutes before class, begging him to tell them every detail. With Ran's help, he had pulled it off, but barely. Something about working on a case and then going to Los Angeles, he remembered. Then they wanted to know every detail of the case, wanted to know why it took him so long, and would've chattered on to High Heaven if the bell hadn't rung.

And for the first time, it seemed, Shinichi was glad it rang, both because it saved him from an awkward situation, and because the peal somehow finally announced something he had been a little afraid to believe. It seemed so unreal, that after all the struggle, all the hope mingled with despair, he had finally made it: had finally transformed back into and unto his seventeen-year-old self. Permanently. And even after the declaration of the school bell, he realized it did nothing to settle his anxiety, well-buried but present.

"Pinch me," he said to Ran as everyone took his or her seat.

"What?" she asked, bewildered.

"Pinch me," he repeated.

"Should I ask why?" she wondered as she obliged, on his arm.

"Just to make sure this whole thing's real," he answered, with a wink.

She laughed, and after some thought, said, "Then pinch me too."

He reached out a hand to her wrist, and then stopped. "How do I know you're not going to punch me again?"

"Trust me, after what happened . . . uh, last time I tried, I won't," she answered, her cheeks lightly flushed as she recalled the episode on their way to school.

"As you wish."

"You're certainly spry today," observed Sonoko as she deposited a piece of shrimp into her mouth, chewing with a triumphant smirk on her face. "Since Shinichi-kun's back in your life and all."

"I am," she answered calmly. "I'd feel the same way if you suddenly returned after disappearing for months."

She chuckled. "Would you really. Who're you trying to fool? I've seen the way you look when you talk about him."

"Who?"

"Ran! You know who I'm talking about."

"You mean Shinichi?" she continued innocently.

Sonoko rolled her eyes. "Yes I mean Kudo-kun. Now are you happy simply because he's back in your life again, or did you finally confess, or did something go on between you two that I don't know about?"

Ran chewed and swallowed before replying, "I've no idea what you're talking about, Sonoko-chan. Shinichi was never out of my life."

Sonoko snorted in frustration.

Well, he wasn't, Ran thought to herself but didn't say out loud. And by that, she didn't just mean Conan. He walked across her memories, dreams, always, even when his physical self wasn't there. And weren't memories and dreams part of everyone's life?

Suddenly Sonoko abandoned her scowl for a smile constructed too widely for Ran's comfort. "No matter, I'll find out soon enough, Ran-chan!"

Ran bit her chopstick in apprehension.

"I'll ask the celebrity himself!" exclaimed the girl as she saw Shinichi detach himself from his guy friends and walk over to the desk where they were having lunch. "So, Shinichi-kun," she began before Ran could say anything in protest, "anything new? Other than the incidents during your long escapade from us, leaving poor Ran-chan to fend for herself all alone?"

"I have no idea what the heck you're talking about," he replied blankly as Sonoko facefaulted.

"Heh, well, you two did spend too much time together from the start," she muttered as she picked herself up. Just when Ran thought that she would give up, the relentless interrogator took her seat and asked Shinichi with the forwardness both Ran and Shinichi knew all too well, "Shinichi-kun, d'ya like Ran?"

"Sonoko!" groaned Ran. "Could you have said that any louder!" Several heads turned at her outburst, and she couldn't help but turn even more scarlet at their probing glances.

Shinichi thought a moment and shrugged, answering casually, "Sure, I like Ran."

Sonoko grinned in triumph while Ran buried her face, which had become redder still, if

that was even possible, into her hands.

"She's a pretty cool friend, if you can overlook how incredibly naïve she can be."

Both girls facefaulted. As soon as Ran picked herself up, she kicked him and stalked off.

"What have we learned today, Shinichi?" he muttered to himself as he clutched his ankle in pain.