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Sky Colored Eyes

26: Promises

"Ren?"

The girl sitting on the hospital bed turned her head at the sound of her name. Seeing Aoko hovering in the doorway, she smiled. The expression looked strained though, and it fell away almost as quickly as it had appeared. "Hey Aoko. Would you like to sit down?"

Aoko let the door shut behind her as she moved further into the room. Sitting down on the empty chair beside the bed, she studied her friend's face. The other girl had dark circles under her eyes. They were startlingly stark against the pallor of her cheeks.

"How are you feeling?" she asked.

"Okay, for the most part. I had a concussion, but that was about it. No broken bones or anything. I could have gone home a few days ago, but my dad was being a worrywart and insisted that I stay a little longer for observation. HE kept going on about how you can't be too careful with head injuries. I'll be discharged tomorrow."

"That's good."

"Yeah."

Aoko bit her lip. "So…does that mean your dad's home now?"

Ren shook her head. "He came home for a few days, but he had to leave again for a conference. He calls every day though."

"Oh." Aoko fought the urge to frown. An image of her own father flashed through her mind. He was always running off for work too. Part of her couldn't help but wonder what her dad would do if she were in Ren's position and a new KID heist notice arrived. She shoved the thought away. Now wasn't the time. She wished she could say something more—something that would lift her friend's spirits. Make her believe that everything was going to be okay. But she couldn't come up with the right words. Everything that popped into her head sounded empty or too much like wishful thinking. She had to do something though.

She closed her eyes, picturing Ren walking into an empty house. After everything that she had gone through, it just wasn't right. Her hands curled into fists on her knees.

"Do you have any plans for the weekend? Since you'll be home by then."

For the first time since Aoko had come in, Ren looked her straight in the eyes, her own brown orbs glimmering with uncertainty. "No, not yet. Why?"

"Let's go somewhere then. You deserve to have some fun and relax after being in the hospital for so long."

"But where would we go?"

"You just leave that to me!"

Ren let out a short, soft chuckle, and it seemed to Aoko that some of the color had returned to her face. "Sure. Why not?"

X

When Shinichi finally arrived at school, the day was already half over. On the bright side, that meant he only had to deal with the second half of the day's classes after his less than ideal morning. On the down side, he'd missed half a day which he would now have to, once again, do makeup work for. Why couldn't his life ever be simple? Someone up there must really despise him.

Everyone he passed as he walked through the school campus looked at him. It was like they'd all suddenly developed Shinichi radars or something. He just had to be passing by, and every head would turn, even the ones who had had their backs to him. Frankly, it was starting to give him the creeps.

So he was more than a bit late. Was it really that strange? Was there something on his face? Or maybe his hair had all gone white from accumulated stress. He glanced at his reflection in one of the windows as he passed. Nope. Everything looked normal. So what was up with everyone?

He was relieved when he finally made it to his classroom. It was still lunch time, so he found his seat and pulled the sandwich he'd bought on his way out of his pack. He hadn't even finished unwrapping it when a concerned Aoko sat down in the desk next to his.

"Are you okay?" she asked. "I heard that someone was killed near where you live."

Shinichi hid a wince. Talk about news traveling fast. "It was the man living in a different apartment in my building. He was shot this morning."

"Did they catch the culprit yet?" Kaito asked from right behind him, making Shinichi jump.

"Yeah. It was a former friend of his that he was blackmailing." It was a story he had heard far too often. It was depressing really, how fragile human relationships were.

"Well at least they caught him," the inspector's daughter said, letting out a quiet sigh. "But what about you? I mean, if something like that happened in an apartment building I was living in… Um, what I mean is, I'm sure Kaito wouldn't mind if you want to crash at his place for a few days."

Kaito raised an eyebrow at his childhood friend over the top of Shinichi's head. She didn't look at him though.

Shinichi himself looked mildly taken aback by the suggestion. "I'll be fine. It's not the building's fault that it happened."

Aoko blinked. "I…guess that's true." There was a moment of awkward silence as Shinichi started on his sandwich. "By the way," Aoko started again, this time turning her gaze to Kaito. "I promised Ren we'd go somewhere this weekend. I don't suppose either of you have any ideas on where we could go?"

"Isn't she still in the hospital?" asked Kaito.

"She's being discharged today. The thing is, her dad's out on another business trip, and her mom…you know… So I thought it'd be good for her if we could just go somewhere different and relax for a day away from everything."

"That should be good for her," the magician agreed. "Take her mind off things a bit. She's a tennis player, right? Why don't you go somewhere with courts?"

"I thought about that," the girl explained. "But, well, then I remembered that, back when all this started, it was because her mother kept comparing the way she played to her step brother."

"So it might hit too close to home," Kaito concluded.

Aoko nodded. "So I was trying to think of something totally different."

"Does Ren-san like birds?"

Two pairs of eyes turned to stare at Shinichi. He didn't look up at them though as he was still nibbling at his sandwich between large sips of coffee (it seemed to Kaito that the sandwich was there to supplement the coffee and not the other way around).

"Birds?" Aoko repeated just to be sure. "I don't know. She might. She's always been a pretty outdoorsy kind of person. Why?"

"Do you remember Haibara?"

"That little girl who came to see you when you were sick?"

"That's her. Well, her guardian was originally going to take her and her friends hiking this weekend so that they could go see the swans at Shiratsuki Lake. The professor—that's Haibara's guardian—got a call from a friend asking for help repairing some of the inventions Agasa sold him before though, so he sent me a text this morning asking if I could take the kids to the lake instead. I still have to send him a reply. I could ask if it would be all right for you guys all to come too. I'm sure they wouldn't mind. And I could use the help," he added, blushing faintly at the admission. "The kids can be a bit of a handful."

"Sure, I'll help," Kaito offered. "It sounds interesting."

"We can invite Saguru and Keiko too," Aoko mused, beginning to write up a list. "And bring stuff for a picnic. Yeah, this is going to be great!" She glanced up at the clock. Seeing that there was still a few minutes to the end of lunch, she bounced to her feet. "I'll go ask them right now."

The two boys watched her go before Kaito shook his head. "She's like a force of nature when she gets going."

Shinichi nodded and shifted his sandwich to one hand so he could pick up his phone. "I should text the professor then."

Kaito waited until he was done before speaking again. "Hey, remember I said I'd ask Koizumi if she knows anything about these ghost callers?"

"Yes?"

"Well, I asked, and she said she'd like to talk to Sai, but it'll take her a week to get ready—don't ask me what that means. Then she'll be able to tell us what's going on as far as the ghosts haunting people thing goes."

"That would certainly be helpful," the detective sighed. "I feel like I'm trying to walk on quicksand as it is. Having someone who knows more about this…situation around would be a great help. But what I really want to know is what that man wants out of this. I still think we need to go and speak with him in person." His brows furrowed in that all too familiar frown. "I suppose it wouldn't hurt to do that first."

"I think you need to hear what Koizumi has to say before you go running off to confront this maniac."

Shinichi munched slowly as he thought. He could understand the merits of caution. He'd experienced firsthand the phenomenal amount of trouble one careless move could lead to. At the same time…

He swallowed the last of his sandwich. "I would prefer not to wait any longer than necessary. Every day that passes, there could be another victim like Takamura-san or Ogata. Or there could be another family falling apart like the Hasagawas. The longer I can't figure this out and track it to its roots, the more it's going to spread. And the worst part is we won't even be able to just say they're wrong and misleading people because they're making people happy, and they'll probably say that no one should have gotten hurt, and—"

"Whoa there." Kaito held up a hand. "You're starting to ramble."

Blue eyes blinked, refocusing on his face. "Sorry, sorry. I've…had a long morning." The detective drew a hand down his face then dropped his forehead onto his palm, gaze fixed on the blank top of his desk. "There's just so much to do."

The bell rang. Kaito retreated to his own desk, expression thoughtful. The rest of the school day passed in a slow motion blur. Then everyone was packing up and heading for the door.

"Shinichi!"

The detective turned at the sound of his name as Kaito came up behind him. Before he could speak, the magician caught his hands, clasping them both tightly in his own and taking a step forward so that he was now standing directly in front of Shinichi. This close, the detective had to look up slightly to meet his eyes. Their noses were just a hair's width from touching.

Shinichi blushed. "K—Kaito?"

"You kept saying earlier that you had to figure this out, but you're wrong. We started this together, and we'll finish it that way too. I will do everything I can to help you," the magician said, face and voice serious. "I give you my word."

Shinichi swallowed, mouth dry. He felt like he was being held in place by the sheer intensity in Kaito's indigo gaze as it bore into him. His heart raced.

Then the moment broke as that familiar, easy grin spread across the magician's face. "So don't worry so much, all right? You couldn't ask for better backup, trust me."

X

"I didn't realize it would be these brats," Nakamori Ginzo grumbled to himself as he glanced back over his shoulder before turning his gaze back to the road ahead. He still wasn't sure how he had been roped into driving these kids to some lake he'd never heard of in what felt like the middle of nowhere. He'd had to go and rent a van just so all the brats would fit. And to top it all off, four of them were those little nuisances who called themselves the Shounan Tantei. They were just as noisy and rambunctious as he remembered. They were currently singing some song about hiking, their voices somehow managing to hit all the most discordant notes. They were only fifteen minutes into the drive, and the inspector was already developing a headache.

Wasn't this supposed to be his day off?

"Dad!" Aoko scolded him from the front passenger seat. "They're not brats. They're Kudo-kun's friends."

Nakamori almost snorted, but he thought he'd better not. Aoko would disapprove. Come to think if it, there was the answer to his earlier question right there.

When Aoko had approached him earlier that week and asked if he would be free on Saturday, he'd thought she was going to ask if they could go out as a family—maybe have a nice meal and see a movie or something. He knew he hadn't been spending nearly enough time with her, and he had no idea what she was doing in school anymore, which he really should. So he'd thought it was high time they got caught up, and he'd told her Saturday was his day off and asked if she'd like to go somewhere special.

This was not what he had had in mind.

Unfortunately, he'd agreed before he'd asked for the details. Now he was stuck babysitting a bunch of wannabe detectives.

Work was starting to look extremely attractive.

Except… Except that he hadn't seen Aoko smile like that in what felt like forever. Her blue eyes gleamed and her smile was bright and free and full of excitement. There was a soft, happy flush in her cheeks.

The inspector's shoulders relaxed as he guided the car through traffic. His heart lifted. It felt as though a weight had just floated up off his shoulders.

His daughter was happy. For that, he could endure anything.

X

"Everyone make sure to keep track of your pack," Shinichi said as he opened up the van's trunk and began passing out backpacks. "If we lose these, we won't be able to have that picnic."

"We'll stick to them like glue!" Genta declared, shoulders set in determination. No food would ever be lost on his watch!

"Ren, think you can manage this one?" Aoko asked, holding up a russet backpack. "This one has a lot of utensils in it so it might be a bit heavy. If it's too much, we could divide some of it out into the other packs."

Grasping one backpack strap in her right hand, Ren slung the pack effortlessly up onto her shoulders and smiled. "No problems here. I could use a good workout after all that bed rest anyway."

Hakuba wandered over to join them, a paper map open in his hands. "I believe I know where we are now. If we head that way," he pointed, "we should be able to find the mouth of the trail that will take us up to the lake. There should be a rest stop on the way as well where we can refresh ourselves and acquire more information about the area."

"That's convenient. Maybe they'll be able to recommend a good spot for us to have our picnic."

Back at the van, Kaito hopped out, holding up a small duffle that clanked loudly at the movement. "I found this bag of shovels tucked in under the seats."

"Oh, that's ours!" Mitsuhiko said quickly, running over to grab the bag.

Shinichi's brows furrowed. "Why did you bring shovels?"

"No reason," the elementary school trio chirped, trying (and failing, to the detective's experienced eye) to look innocent. Before he could question them further, however, the shovels were distributed amongst the children's packs and the empty duffle shoved back into the van. Letting out a breath that wasn't quite a sigh yet, Shinichi reached back into the trunk and took out a large picnic basket.

Kaito came up behind him and peered over his shoulder with interest. "I don't remember seeing that when we packed the food. What is it?"

"It's for the picnic," the detective non-answered. He didn't dare look at Kaito as he slid the basket over his arm and reached up to shut the trunk. He could feel the magician's eyes on him, and he just knew that his face was going to start turning red at any moment. He coughed lightly to distract himself and hopefully forestall the appearance of the impending blush. "If everyone's ready, we should get going."

The Shounan Tantei let out a ragged cheer and started trotting in the direction of the trail. Shinichi hurried after them with Ai walking at a much more sedate pace behind him. Kaito observed the scene for a moment before moving to catch up to Shinichi. He was itching to get a peek inside that picnic hamper. It was big enough to have had half their food supplies packed into it, but he knew that those said supplies were currently distributed amongst the backpacks they were all carrying. So then what else would Shinichi have decided it was necessary to bring?

He rubbed his mental hands together in glee. He loved surprises. But he also loved the challenge of unearthing those surprises just in case there was room for him to improve on them, making them his own. But he digressed. Right now, they had a long hike ahead of them and a lot of noisy brats to watch and herd in the right direction.

At the very end of the procession, Nakamori Ginzo locked up the van then hefted his own pack onto his shoulders before trudging after his daughter and her friends. This was, he decided, going to be a very long one-day trip.

Come to think of it, wasn't there a brat missing? He counted the bobby heads ahead of him again and frowned. Yeah. That runt with the glasses who was always with Mouri Kogoro wasn't here. Strange. Then again, he hadn't seen the overly curious little boy in a while. Shrugging the thought away as unimportant, he lengthened his stride.

"Stay together!" he ordered as he did so, well-practiced lungs belting the words out so that they rang all across the parking area. "And don't wander off the path!"

TBC