A/N: Ah, man. I've had an exhausting week. And yet, I found time to make a new fanfic-centric LJ for myself. Check it out. 'Tis my homepage. I wrote this chapter hurriedly, so please excuse the typos for now. I'll fix them later… I just figured everyone would prefer a slightly messy chapter, up on time, than a slightly less typo-y chapter, up late. Enjoy!

xXxXxXx

Yoshida Ayumi wasn't happy. Not in any way, shape, or form. Despite Conan's words, despite his not using an honorific on the end of her name, despite everything, she knew there was something going on. His harshness towards Mitsuhiko did nothing to deter her, and did everything to solidify her opinions about his relationship with Haibara. Conan's personality wasn't a harsh one – he would only act like that if he was truly angry. Normally, he would be embarrassed at an accusation like that.

It was Genta-kun's sudden appearance that helped her formulate her plan. This was going to become a case. Conan and Ai-chan had been… kidnapped. Yeah. That would work. She focused for a moment, and tears formed in the corners of her eyes. She masked her smile. She was ready. "Genta-kun!" She cried, getting up and running towards him, "Something terrible has happened!" He looked shocked.

xXxXxXx

Two hours of searching had resulted in a strand of Gin's hair, the addition of several layers of dust to Haibara and Conan's clothing, and an alphabetized Okino Yoko video collection. "That's it," Conan groaned, "that's honestly all there is here."

Haibara sighed. "What did you expect, Kudo? If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times: They work by leaving no clues."

"I know that" he huffed, "but that's not possible! They can be good, but they're still human. Humans make mistakes. Humans leave clues!" He swore, picked up the soccer ball next to his backpack, and began his infuriating little "keep up" game.

Haibara slumped down on the couch and pinched the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger. She suddenly had a pounding headache. Kudo looked at her, still bouncing the soccer ball on his knee. "You alright, Haibara?"

She rolled her eyes. "Yes, Kudo. I'm just brilliant. Can't you tell?"

Something inside Conan snapped. He kicked the soccer ball as hard he could in the general direction of his room and swiveled to face Haibara. "You know what?" He snarled, "I don't feel too great either. You wanna know why? Because your bloody organization left no goddamn clues!" He stood there, yelling at her. Which was, frankly, a stupid move.

She stood up quickly, anger flashing in her eyes, and Conan took an involuntary step back. He'd never seen her like this before, but he was too angry to be concerned – for his life or for her.

She knew she shouldn't be standing – this so-called headache was obviously actually a migraine – but she, too, was too angry to be thinking straight. He was still yelling, his words having gone from mostly coherent to entirely incomprehensible. She had no response for his roars. She simply raised her right hand, threatening to slap him. He didn't seem to take notice. If he had, he didn't do anything. She drew back said hand, and had begun to swing it towards his unprotected face when her knees decided to buckle. Dammit, Kudo, was her last thought before she passed out.

xXxXxXx

Akai Shuichi, despite his job, didn't like helping people all that much. Why? Because people are, frankly, idiots. They do stupid things, end up hurting other people, who, in turn, hurt others also. He knew that he, too, was human. He also knew that he wished he wasn't one. He stood outside the door of another human. One that wasn't famous, but was powerful. One that wasn't cruel, but certainly wasn't kind.

He raised a fist to knock, and the door swung open. He lowered his fist, and found his eyes to be level with a bushy blonde moustache. "Good morning, James."

The blonde man took a step back. "Ah, Akai! Do come in."

Akai rolled his eyes. "Don't bother to fake the britishness. I know who you are, James."

James Black grinned toothily and waved in the man before him "I take it you have the information I asked for."

Akai yawned and handed over the voice recorder. "I do indeed." With that, he turned to leave, but was abruptly halted by the placement of a hand on his shoulder. He brushed off the hand and turned to face the man behind it to find that the intensity in James's eyes had been turned up several notches.

"Akai," James said, a previously unheard edge to his voice suddenly appearing, "Do you want to see her again or not? I need to know before I assign you to anything."

Akai smirked. "If that's all you wanted to know, then you shouldn't have asked. It isn't time yet." He turned and left, this time with no one stopping him.

James sated at the man's retreating back. When is the time, Akai, he thought, and when it arrives, will you really tell me?

xXxXxXx

Conan was watching an unconscious Haibara, guilt splashing about in his mind. I was the one who caused this; he thought frantically, I was the one that made her work while she was sick. Why didn't she tell me she was still sick? Dammit, Haibara. Why do you have to make things so hard on yourself?

He sighed. She was curled up on he couch, a beige blanket draped over her small frame. There was sweat on her furrowed brow - a clear indication of pain. Conan winced and raised his hands to his temples – he'd always had too much sympathy for people who were ill.

Another sigh. What more could he do? He'd gotten the blanket, placed a glass of water on the table, and moved her to the couch. He felt oddly helpless, and it had nothing to do with Ran having been kidnapped.

He'd found a shoeprint near the door, and several more outside. He knew that they didn't belong to Kogoro, Ran, or any of the clients from previous days, and so he wanted to investigate. But, truth be told, he felt bad about leaving Haibara. He'd done so too many times before. But to stall was to lose the trail – it looked like it was going to rain.

He adjusted his stun-gun wristwatch and made his way to the door with one last glance at the unconscious Haibara. Just as his hand gripped the doorknob, however, he froze. With the tips of his fingers on the cold metal, he turned around slowly. Haibara…

He felt a strange twinge in his stomach as he watched a droplet of sweat run down her cheek. It looked like a lone tear, wending its way down her face. His hand dropped from the knob and he walked towards her, an unfamiliar confidence in his stride.

He knelt beside the couch and brushed her wispy bangs back from her burning forehead. Slowly, tenderly, he pressed his lips to hers. The kiss was over quickly – he was in a hurry – but there was no lack of love to it. He stood, and took his glasses off quickly. The idea he'd just had was, perhaps, stupid, but it had worked once before. He would leave his glasses here, and if Haibara wanted to find him, she could. Of course, it had been unintentional last time, but perhaps he was just offloading guilt.

At any rate, he placed his glasses on the table, scribbled a quick note, which he placed on top of them, and raced out the door. He had a certain black organization to catch.

xXxXxXx

"THEY'VE BEEN KIDNAPPED?" Ayumi quickly hushed the roaring boy and nodded vigorously.

"Yeah! We've got to investigate this, but make sure you don't tell anyone else." Ayumi did her best to look somewhere between scared and excited, while Genta-kun just gaped in amazement.

Mitsuhiko approached the two slowly, and hence got to be on the receiving end of Genta's second surprised roar. "DID YOU HEAR THAT? THEY'VE BEEN KIDNAPPED!"

Mitsuhiko did his best to look concerned. "I know! It's terrible! We've got to save Haibara-san!"

With that, the three members of the shonen tantei rushed off, determination on their faces. The teachers they screeched past, however, just looked mildly confused. When they're not with Edogawa-kun and Haibara-chan, one thought, they're just regular hyperactive children.

Only when they didn't show up for class twenty minutes later did they have cause for concern. If they were out on a "case" without Edogawa-kun and Haibara-chan, all hell could break loose. That, and the school would be the first organization to get sued.

xXxXxXx

When Haibara awoke, still exhausted but no longer in pain, it occurred to her that she'd been waking up after having passed out due to illness far too often lately. I blame it on the antidote, she thought, well, the lack thereof. It was then that what she was sleeping on wasn't the couch at Agasa's, and the room most certainly wasn't the professor's living room.

The detective agency? Why was she here? Ah, that's it. She'd come here with Kudo to search for clues pertaining to Ran's kidnapping, Kudo had 'accidentally' hit her with a dictionary, they'd kissed, and then they'd fought. That sequence of event reminded her vaguely of a certain Mouri Kogoro's relationship with a certain Kisaki Eri. At any rate, she couldn't remember anything after that… Meaning that, probably, she'd passed out at some point during the fight. She hoped that Kudo had gotten his well-deserved slap, though.

She noticed, after a while, that a light blanket was draped over her and that there was a glass of water sitting on the table, next to which was… Her eyes widened. Conan's glasses. For a terrifying second, she believed that, he, too, had been kidnapped.

She swore, tossed the blanket aside, and grabbed the note resting on top of them. She read it hastily, though it wasn't long. On it was written, in Conan's messy scrawl, "Find me. I know you would anyway."

She blushed, but whatever feeling had caused that to arrive was in the back of her mind. "That idiot!" She snarled, worry and anger swirling in her mind, I don't believe he could possibly be this stunningly stupid. Baka!

Nevertheless, she put the glasses on with no lack of tenderness, and quickly assessed the situation. He appeared to be about a mile away, and moving slowly – most likely on foot. She pulled on a jacket and Conan's baseball cap, mentally prepared a list of the nearest taxi stands, and swung open the door, the doorknob of which only narrowly missed decapitating three very annoyed eleven-year-olds.

Haibara froze. The shonen tantei had come to find her, and find her they had. And the questions foremost in their minds were, "Why are you wearing Conan's glasses and hat?" – that from two of them, and "If we solve this can we go out for eel?" – that from the other. Haibara's eye twitched. If the "shonen tantei" could find her, anyone could. This wasn't good at all.

xXxXxXx

Ayumi, Genta, and Mitsuhiko had somehow escaped Teitan elementary, and none of them were mourning the fact that they were missing math class to investigate this very personal "kidnapping."

They had gone, first, to Agasa Hakase's house, and had rung the doorbell three times before Agasa had opened the door, looking slightly groggy. Ayumi had only just managed to keep Genta from screeching out that Conan and Haibara had been kidnapped, and instead politely asked if he'd seen them. His answer was a mumbled, "Nope, sorry."

Only half an hour later did it occur to him that Ai-kun and Shinichi should probably be in school, and the shonen tantei most certainly should be. He sighed. This couldn't possibly bode well.

The next stop for the shonen tantei had been the Kudo house, next door. They had once seen Conan enter it, and so assumed that perhaps it was his hideout. They'd gotten Genta to run up to the door, ring the doorbell, and run away. No one answered.

Reluctantly, they went to the detective office. Surely Kogoro would have thrown out Conan and Haibara and forced them to go to school? Well, perhaps he was out. At any rate, just as they were about to knock and find out, the door swung open and they were faced with a stunned-looking Haibara. Specifically, a stunned-looking Haibara wearing Conan's hat and glasses. It was those last two details that enraged a certain two of the group the most.

While Ayumi and Mitsuhiko yelled incoherently about why she was wearing things that belonged to Conan, Genta accused her of having killed Conan. "Oh my God, Haibara! Y- you killed Conan and stole his glasses?" The other two turned slowly to face Genta, the corners of their mouths twitching downwards.

Haibara saw her chance and escaped down the stairs. It was ten minutes later that they realized she was gone. By then, she was in a taxi, and they'd lost the trail. Haibara had underestimated them though – they weren't about to give up.

xXxXxXx

Edogawa Conan had never been so in to a case before. Then again, he'd never been tangled in quite such an intricate web of crime before. He wasn't sure how he was going to get anywhere with as few clues as he had, A lone hair, a few footprints, and Haibara, if she decided to come along.

He had nothing, and yet this was the one case he actually had to solve. If he didn't, the lives of everyone he knew were at stake. His two clues had led him an immensely conspicuous building. Specifically, Tokyo Tower. How could they be hiding here? He mused, Hidden in plain sight, I suppose, but still… This is just overly obvious.

He kicked his skateboard into his grip and strode through the grand glass doors before him. Surely not… Not here, not now… Where are you, Haibara? Please knock some sense into me before I do something even more idiotic than coming here was.

Haibara, half a mile away in a small taxi, was thinking along similar lines. With more swearwords.

Two people, each an idiot to themselves but not to one another, made their way into greater danger than they usually were. Which wasn't saying much.

xXxXxXx

A/N: Well? I liked this chapter. It had real plot (/shock horror/) And… uh… stuff like that. Sorry, no omake this chapter. I did stay up late this week, but I wasn't in a humorous mood. Chapter six will be up at the usual time.