(A/N) FS, this one's entirely your fault.

…But I suppose that's a dedication instead of a reprimand. Hm.

Well, as some of you have probably figured out from the summary, I have halted 1sentence Drabbles. I don't know when – or if – I'll pick them up again. Probably never.

Either way, this is my next project: dictionary drabbles. A-Z, one drabble for each prompt, one prompt per letter.

Directions for assignment: 1) Fill in the blank. 2) Never ask again.

Disclaimer: _

Dictionary Drabbles

#01 – Alibi
There was nothing he could do. Not only was the fingerprint evidence clear, they had DNA samples, a scratchy audio tape courtesy of Gin's paranoia, and an eyewitness. Who was the eyewitness? A little boy named Edogawa Conan, of course. And his word could be trusted because he had worked with the police before, he was part of the Detective Boys, he…

Kudo Shinichi nodded understandingly as all of this was explained to him, refraining from mentioning that he knew Conan very (very) well, and tried not to cry as Shiho was jailed for saving his life.

But she smirked at him as she went by, and baffled the onlookers when she told the famous detective, "I finally gave you your life back, so don't screw it up. Again."

#02 – Breach
His cell phone rang in class, and he answered it despite the teacher's disapproving frown. It was, after all, the phone reserved for emergencies. Very few people had the number, and even they very rarely called it.

But he answered normally enough, hoping it wasn't that bad. Then his face went white, because it was "that bad," and in a spectacular demonstration of how not to hide emotion, he dropped the phone. Haibara, who sat next to him of course, caught it.

"Repeat what you just said."

There was a pause, and then she said softly, "Sherry."

Another pause, this time longer.

And then, to the further astonishment of the already shocked class, she too went white and dropped the phone. This time no one caught it.

#03 – Conflict
If Akemi had been reborn, her name would have been Ran. Of course, even if reincarnation did happen, the ages were wrong. Shiho knew that. Still, it didn't stop her from becoming protective of Ran – or more specifically, of the "sister-who-had-not-died."

It was odd, this situation. Shiho was older than Ran, yet had the body of an eight-year-old, which further reinforced the association. She had looked up the same distance into similar eyes before, and had beheld a similar smile from afar. She had wished happiness upon a similar person before, and she wished it upon this one, too.

And yet some part of her couldn't help hating Ran, because it wasn't fair that Akemi should have to die while this innocent went untouched, because it wasn't right that Ran should try to take her sister's place, even unconsciously, and because…but the last reason was unthinkable.

#04 – Decide

Both of them had to choose, and neither could. They were standing face to face, staring at each other; trying to read the look in the other's eyes and trying to figure out what the look in their own must be. After a minute or two of this, Ran walked in saying something about making them dinner because Agasa was away; and they both stared at her with such strange looks in their eyes that she quickly became confused by their silence and suspicious of their ages.

The moment was broken when the two teenaged children simultaneously closed their eyes, lowered their heads, and sighed. They turned to face each other again, but their synchronization ended when one said, "Go," just as the other said, "Stay."

Again they sighed.

Glancing up at Ran and correctly interpreting the look on her face, Haibara smiled (she'd gone with the Childish Cuteness flavor, Conan noted absently) and explained, "We were just deciding whether or not to go to Tropical Land."

#05 – Explosion
They stood completely still and silent as the building collapsed, all of them. It wasn't until every stone had fallen off of every other stone and nothing so much as twitched in the ensuing silence that the ragged group let out a spontaneous cheer and started to disperse.

Ten minutes later, only two of them were still standing there; but that made sense since these two happened to be the most involved. Their names were Shinichi and Shiho, and neither would respond to those names for a good while yet.

"So, Ai," started one, just as the other started, "So, Conan."

There was a pregnant pause, and then the two finished in unison, grinning at each other: "Now what?"

#06 – Fragile
"They're so pretty," said Ayumi as she watched the floating bubbles.

Haibara, sitting next to her, merely deadpanned. When she didn't reply, the other three looked at her oddly: a comment like this was usually her cue to make some biting remark.

They held their breath as she put a hand out, for surely she was about to pop one as a nonverbal comment. However, she merely let one of the bubbles land on her palm and then drew her arm back, gazing at the small, transparent thing with an expression still unreadable.

They breathed again.

"But so fragile," she said, and curled her fingers. Again they held their breath, hoping desperately that she wasn't destroying it; but after a second or two she uncurled her fingers, and the bubble was gone.

"You popped it, didn't you?" they asked in the injured tones of disappointed children. She could be so cold sometimes, each of them thought privately; and again they expected a biting remark.

However, her lips curled into the enigmatic, not-quite-smirk she often wore when speaking of things they didn't understand, and she replied, "Quite the opposite."

#07 – Gold
In the early days of the so-called "investigation," he had asked her with the pretense of a joke, "I suppose what they're after is to create the Stone of legend, and use one of its properties to turn lead into-"

He stopped mid-sentence when she shook her head, the ghost of a smile on her face.

"Close," was all she said at the time.

#08 – Helium
"I don't know what you're laughing at," he said with an affected air of affront.

The effect of his tone was somewhat marred by the fact that he was grinning…and the fact that his tone was an octave or two higher than usual.

As the other three kids rolled around on the floor, gasping with laughter, Haibara didn't even twitch.

"They're laughing at that."

And only when her voice came out incredibly high did she give into the urge to join them.

#09 – Impediment
"Move."

"No."

"Move."

"No."

A pause.

"If you don't get out of my way right now, I'm going to have to resort to drastic measures."

"Try it."

And suddenly his back was pressed against the wall as she kissed him. In the meantime her hand reached over and opened the door; and then she abruptly broke off the kiss, sped through, and closed it again, facing her lab and its contents as she locked the door behind her.

He almost missed the mischievous grin on her face in the rush.

#10 – Joke
"Will you marry me?"

There was a pause while she looked incredulously at him. They had several well-trained syndicate members on their tail, they were in dire peril, they…was he insane? Apparently her thoughts were reflected on her face, for his sudden sheepish look was replaced by an equally sudden mask of jocularity.

"I was just k-" he started, only to be cut off.

"Don't you dare," she said, reaching over to pluck the small box from his grasp.

#11 – Kids
"If you got married, would you want kids?"

The question was sudden and completely unexpected, but she kept her composure and gave him a calm (if slightly biting) reply: "I see enough of them as it is. What, are you trying to envision your future with Ran after the antidote is made?"

He looked up quickly, startled by the question and her use of the name, and responded without thinking, "No, I'm trying to envision my future wi-" Conan clamped a hand over his mouth, spun around, and exited the room at breakneck speed, leaving Haibara trying to decide whether to laugh or cry.

Ultimately she decided to do neither, and went back to making dinner, returning also to her previous train of thought, which revolved around swearing violently but silently at the stupid apron Agasa was making her wear.

#12 – Labor
They pushed themselves too hard, both of them; always thinking that they'd take a break after the next case, the next string of chemicals. "Just one more minute," they'd convince themselves, until the minutes piled up and became hours and it was like eating peanuts or popcorn and they found that they'd gone another day without sleep.

But that was okay; because to stop working was to start thinking, and to sleep was to dream.

#13 – Milestone
"We're both idiots," she told him matter-of-factly, not bothering to lower her already soft voice. He merely nodded.

The two of them had lived so long by marking squares off the calendar that they'd forgotten those squares had numbers, which were days; and that the boxes they'd scratched off hurriedly were beginning to constitute quite a long time. Long enough for Sonoko to get married, for Ran to find a new boyfriend, for Mitsuhiko to attend law school, for Genta to become a chef, for Ayumi to…well, to approach the certain pathway she would shortly be walking down

The music started on cue, and the girl-turned-woman moved forward with a brilliant smile marred only by her searching gaze. She was looking for two of her best friends – one in particular. But neither seemed to be here, and she was deeply hurt though she hid it well.

Unbeknownst to her, they had in fact shown up. Literally, up.

High in the rafters lurked two small shadows.