So this is reeeally late, but I figure I've got a good excuse. Went on an exchange trip to Tokyo, just got home yesterday. Ohoho. Jealous? Yeah. But don't get too excited. I had to got to school there. And it was like a hundred degrees every day. Blah. xP But anyway, bought me a ton of anime crap, had fun watching Naruto and Detective Conan on TV, and completely revealed myself as the whitest of white kids there ever was. Hoo-rah.

Aand as a present, here's a fic for you.

Enjoy. ;)

-File 3-
"Balance"
In which Conan finds out exaclty why children are annoying.

Genta lay sprawled on the floor of the train, facedown on the hard linoleum. Thank god for the near-emptiness of the compartment, or he would've most likely crushed a few innocent bystanders. This was the reason they had signs all over the train telling people not to jump around, now wasn't it? Conan sighed. Kids never learned.

"Baro." Conan muttered, leaning to the side as the train started up again. In his past life he'd been all over Tokyo on the city transit. Enough to make balancing on the fast-moving railway almost second nature. Needless to say this skill annoyed Genta to no end. Enough to make the larger boy do very stupid things in feeble attempt to prove himself, like attempting to jump Mitsuhiko while the train stopped. Which had landed him in his current predicament. Sad, really. "Can't just jump around like a maniac and expect to stay upright, you know."

"Conan-kun's right, Genta-kun.." Ayumi said consolingly, helping her fallen friend up. "You have to be careful on the train, otherwise- Ack!" Her sentence was cut off as the train rounded a corner, sending both of them stumbling for balance. Mitsuhiko had managed to grab hold of a nearby pole around the time that Genta had attempted to playfully crush him, and grinned down at the two of them.

"You guys can't stay up at all!" He giggled. The train jiggled a bit and his smile disappeared in favour of grabbing onto his pole for dear life. Mitsuhiko never was one of the coordinated ones. Genta harrumphed, Ayumi smiled sheepishly, and Conan –of course- swayed slightly to the right and yawned. Honestly, balancing wasn't that hard. He was surprised they hadn't got it by now.

"Waa! Conan-kun! You haven't fallen at all yet, have you?" Ayumi suddenly noticed, suddenly entranced by this new skill of the already over-talented Conan. Mitsuhiko joined in the awe, with Genta grumbling haughtily that the smaller boy must be cheating or something. Conan sighed, somewhere between exasperated and bemused. They really didn't get it, did they?

"How do you do it, Conan? Is it magic? Ooh! You're like that superhero with the magnets in his feet, aren't you? It must be a new invention of the Professor's!" Mitsuhiko exclaimed, nearly letting go of his pole in excitement. Conan deadpanned. It was true, little kids had absolutely no logical brain functions in those tiny little noggins of theirs.

"You can't be serious."

"Ohh no fair, Conan-kun! Just tell us how you do it! If the professor made an invention to keep us from falling down we should all have it, not just you! That's no fair!" Ayumi said earnestly. She was now holding on to Genta for support, who was in turn barely able to reach one of the lower handholds meant for the disabled. It was an interesting sight.

"Jeez.. These kids really have no clue, do they?" Conan muttered to himself. A lady in the seat close to him stared a second, but decided she must be hearing things. He gave one last cursory glance for open seats –a perfect excuse to offer the kids a distraction in favour of showing them how to stay upright- but there were none. He would just have to teach them. God, what a long day. He sighed, but quickly straightened up and put on his 'I'm-teaching-you-something-so-you'd-better-listen' face. All the kids stared at him expectantly.

"Okay, look. All you have to do is lean the opposite direction the train's going. It's not that hard. If we're stopping, your momentum will try to push you forward, so you should lean backwards to compensate. If we're starting, your body won't be able to catch up with how fast the train's accelerating unless you help it a bit, so lean forward. Turns are easy if you know they're coming, so watch the cars in front to see which way to go. So which way to you lean if we're turning right?" At their blank stares, he removed a hand from his pocket and pointed in the proper direction.

"Ah! Left! Oh, I get it!" Ayumi squealed. Conan smiled. Tiring as it was, it could be sort of fun to teach them new things every once in awhile.

"Oh! Oh! Me too!" Genta yelled. Other occupants of the car were chuckling now. Genta's excitement did tend to have that affect on people. "But, Conan-kun… What he heck does 'momentum' mean?" He muttered, looking slightly irritated that Conan would use such a word in his presence. A lady to his right laughed openly.

"Your little friend has quite a vocabulary, eh?" She giggled, a definite American accent lacing her Japanese. "Don't get too ahead of yourself, eh, kiddo?" She patted Conan on the head. A few junior high girls giggled and started exclaiming how cute he was. Conan's eye twitched slightly. Annoying little..

"Hey hey, I've got an idea!" Mitsuhiko announced suddenly, "Now we all know how to do it, let's practice with a contest! Winner gets the next seat!"

"Alright!" Genta yelled. He quickly let go of his handhold and jumped into place beside Conan. "I'm not gonna lose to you now, Conan! Prepare to be defeated!"

"Ha ha…" Conan muttered. Maybe he should just pretend to fall on his ass now, and get them to leave him alone. But, then… He really wanted a seat. "Alright, fine. Don't start crying when you lose, Genta."

"As if!" The boy yelled. He took a mocking stance, just to prove his might, but stumbled as the train rounded its next corner. "Augh- Eck! That was just a practice fall! To- to show you how you'll look! Yeah! Loser!"

"Right…" People all around them were chuckling, now. What luck, they'd landed a little amusement on the otherwise interminably dull ride home.

"I wanna play too!" Ayumi squealed, eager to prove herself to her friends. It wasn't like only boys could do these things! And, besides, it would be kind of fun if she could beat Conan-kun and Genta.. Maybe Conan-kun would be so impressed, he'd hug her! The thought was enough to send her into a fit of embarrassment. Conan blinked as she giggled in his direction.

"Are you okay, Ayumi..? Your face is red."

"Wha?" She clutched her suddenly burning cheeks, "I- I'm fine! But you're gonna lose, Conan-kun! And Genta-kun too! Ayumi-chan can do anything you can!" The redness was gone as she took her place confidently alongside Genta. The train came to a stop for the next station, and Mitsuhiko let go of his safety bar to complete their little line. The end of the compartment allowed enough room for four such small children to stand comfortably side-to-side. The lady that had patted Conan's head earlier laughed good-naturedly.

"I'll be the judge!" She announced. She was sitting right at the end seat, and so had the best view. Various other occupants of the train were smiling and chuckling at them. "Anyone who falls or stumbles is out! The last one standing can have my seat, okay?"

"Yeah!" All the kids cheered in unison. Conan preferred to keep hid hands in his pockets and yawn.

And it was on. Business people, high schoolers, random adults.. Everyone in the compartment watched bemusedly this new little spectacle. Four kids standing in a line, three with expressions of intense concentration, one looking as if he'd done this a million times and wanted nothing more than to get the silly thing done. (Which was true, anyway. Though most people pinned him as over-confident and smug rather than mind-numbingly bored.)

As the line neared its first bend, Ayumi leaned over with such enthusiasm that she actually managed to make herself trip. Mitsuhiko, ever the gentleman, helped her to her feet and so found himself tripping over to land right down on the floor with her. Well, that was two out. All eyes moved to the remaining pair. Conan swaying slightly, obviously trying not to yawn too openly, and Genta failing around, somehow managing to keep his feet glued to the floor despite the laws of physics.. Ayumi and Mitsuhiko scrambled out of the way. It was down to the championship!

The train righted himself again, and Genta pinwheeled backwards, nearly braining Conan in the process. The smaller boy ducked slightly and grumbled something about just losing already and giving him his seat. It looked as if the match might be over, but somehow the flailing Genta managed to get back straight, and after a few seconds' stabilizing, grinned confidently in Conan's direction.

"Ha! See? I told you I could do it! You're totally gonna los- Waugh!" The rail curved again, and Genta, predictably, went flying. He crash-landed on top of his competitor, sending both boys tumbling down in a heap. Genta yelling and spouting various grade-school obscenities, and Conan getting nothing more than an awkward sort of squawk before being fair crushed by the larger boy's weight.

"Ahaha! Looks like you both lose!" A high school boy yelled. He and his friends were laughing hysterically, a few younger girls smiling into their handkerchiefs. Most of the older people were chuckling openly. There was just something about seeing a smug little kid be flattened under his giant friend..

Their judge held in her laughter just long enough to give them all congratulations, her promise of a seat lost in the gaiety of the moment. Conan glowered as he pulled himself out from under Genta's stomach. So much for a fair fight.

"Goddamn it, Genta.. Get your leg off my arm." He managed to wrench himself free of a rather stunned and sheepish-looking Genta. Who luckily wasn't paying enough attention to catch his curse.

"Conan-kun! Genta-kun! Are you okay?" Ayumi squealed. She looked genuinely concerned. Mitsuhiko, on the other hand, was trying valiantly to reign in his snickering and keep a serious face. He was failing rather badly.

Genta suddenly seemed to come to his senses. "Hey! I won! YES!" He jumped to his feet and pointed to a very irritated-looking Conan. "We both lost! That means I won!"

"What the- No, you didn't! You just fell on me! That's no fair!" Conan said indignantly. It was no use, though. Genta's head was far too thick for such reasoning. He sighed as the self-proclaimed 'leader' of the Shonen Tantei began to celebrate his victory. Friggin' hard-headed..

"Hey, kids, we're getting off here. You can have all our seats, no hard feelings, okay?" Their judge stood along with a few distinctly American-looking friends. The train slowed to a stop and they all got off, laughing and talking to each other in English. Balancing competitions on the subway weren't something you got to see just every day, after all. The kids cheered and scrambled for the seats.

"Hurray, we all win!" Ayumi threw her hands up in the air as soon as she'd made it up to the worn fabric. Genta and Mitsuhiko followed, grinning madly. The rest of the train slowly began to resume its normal atmosphere, though many people congratulated the children and began recounting their antics to friends. Ah, the power of children, to light up the ride of an entire train!

Conan, lost in the sea of childish anonymity, frowned at a bruise on his arm, and reluctantly pulled himself up to sit next to Genta. A seat was a seat, after all. Even if he did have to share it with a very irritatingly smug little boy. Conan glowered. Honestly, the kid looked entirely too pleased with himself.

"You still lost, you know." He grumbled. Genta grinned down at him.

"Nuh-uh! I got the seat, that means I win!" He proclaimed, proudly bouncing up and down to prove his point. "Besides, it's your fault you're so small to get squished by me!" Conan blinked, glared, made to open his mouth in protest, and then sighed. At this point, it really wasn't worth it. He settled back in his seat and listened to the sounds of kids celebrating. It was actually pretty adorable, being so proud of themselves over a simple contest.

Of course, he would never admit that. Conan closed his eyes and yawned. Well, at least I still got my nap. He thought lazily, and drifted off to sleep.

(1) Ba-ro is a form of ' baka.' Means stupid. According to some file somewhere, it's Shinichi's favourite phrase. (Haha. What a jackass.)

Sorry about any OOC-ness. Just wanted to write something and get it up. This is actually kind of a true story. My host student's friends and I had a balancing contest on the way to harajuku, (a LONG-ASS train ride from our house. Like fifteen stops.) Nobody really payed this much attention to us but I thought it would be more amusing with a bunch of elementary kids. Again sorry for the long wait! I've got tons more ideas after Tokyo, though, so we should be picking up speed. omg, kids are just so cute over there! xD

Next chapter: Ai! I really need to write more of her. Especially since people keep asking for her. Sorry, guys. Oh, and I'll make sure to make Conan stop being so annoyed all the time. I guess my feelings about children are just seeping into the writing. Bah.

NEXT FILE-
'Hats'