Agasa was slumped over across the table, his hands on his head with his fingers entwined in his hair, looking like he's regretting every decision he's ever made to get to that point. If it were in a manga, there would be some vertical lines and a dark cloud looming over his head.
Haibara seemed to be okay now (or at least not in shock) considering she was sitting on a chair next to Agasa and sympathetically rubbing comforting circles into his back.
It sounded like Agasa was muttering something under his breath - probably because of the shock - but Conan wasn't close enough to hear (he would guess it was about how he wasn't Shinichi, or something similar to how Haibara first reacted). Every time he tried to get closer, Haibara would glare daggers at him (understandable). Agasa's mood was completely all Conan's fault so he couldn't exactly bring himself to be mad. It was probably for the best, actually. Him being around Agasa would most likely just make things worse.
After Agasa came back from Shinichi's, Haibara had given him a brief rundown of Conan's whole situation (that - no - he wasn't Shinichi, no - this wasn't a prank, yes - he was lying to them this whole time, and that his parents were dead so there weren't any worries there, and that Conan was actually a child) and he didn't seem to be taking it too well. So Conan wisely kept his distance and just patiently sat down on the couch.
He heard some movement from Agasa's direction, so Conan sat up more and peeked over the top of the couch. Agasa had sat up slightly, his head still in his hands. "I've given a tranquilizer gun to a child..!" He wailed.
It seemed Conan didn't have any sort of brain-to-mouth filter left, because, without any sort of thought, he immediately interjected, "Hey! I've only ever used that thing responsibly!" Expectedly, Haibara glared at him again. Conan would've stopped right then and there, but apparently he had even less control over what he was saying than he thought, considering he just went and continued, "Well, except for that one time I used it on myself when I had insomnia, but that was once!"
Understandably so, that didn't seem to help and, in fact, made things worse. Agasa groaned and buried his head even further into his hands.
Haibara was still glaring at him. She pointed an accusing finger at him. "You. Shut up."
"I'll try." He said.
Haibara continued to glare at him for a few seconds, before she hopped off her chair and headed towards the kitchen.. for some reason. Thankfully Conan did actually shut up and there wasn't anything his brain felt compelled to share.
After a short moment, Haibara came back from the kitchen holding what looked like a candy bar..? She sat back down next to Agasa and tapped him a couple times on the shoulder. He looked up at her.
"Here." She slid the bar next to him.
His eyes lit up. "My favorite chocolate bar..."
"You deserve it." She said.
Agasa gratefully accepted it and tore it open. "Thank you Ai-kun..." He said as he took a gracious bite.
Apparently, Haibara decided that Agasa was alright enough because she stood up and headed towards Conan, then sat down on the couch opposite of him. "Ku-" She began but quickly stopped herself when she realized she used the incorrect name, again. Thankfully she didn't have as much of a full-blown reaction as last time, and instead just closed her eyes and let out a shaky breath, calming herself down for a second. "What should I even call you now?" She asked retrospectively, looking down at her knees.
"Just Conan." He quickly answered. "Please don't bother with Takayama or Edogawa."
"Alright then..." She accepted. "Anyways, I still have some questions for you.. C- Conan-kun." She forced out, as if it physically pained her to say, which, to be fair, it probably did a little. Saying that was basically admitting to herself that Conan was Shinichi, and he could imagine she still hadn't fully accepted that yet
But, Conan just ignored the emotional plight Haibara was probably going through and casually said, "Okay, shoot."
Haibara just looked down and lightly shook her head, letting out a very exasperated sigh. "I- okay, I was just wondering how many other people.. uh, know... I mean, we can't be the only ones who thought you were Kudo." She explained.
"Ah, there's only a couple people who know I'm pretending to be Shinichi." He said. Haibara then slumped down a little which told Conan that was not the answer she wanted (instead, she was probably expecting him to say who currently thought he was Shinichi) but, despite that, Conan continued anyway, "Kaitou KID and.. Yusaku..." He trailed off pensively.
Haibara shouted, "Kaitou KID!?" in surprise, but Conan was too busy remembering something he should've considered much earlier, to hear it.
He suddenly gasped and brought a hand up to his mouth. "Yusaku!" He yelled.
"Huh?" Haibara asked. Even Agasa looked up from his chocolate bar and over his shoulder at them.
Conan shrunk a little under their curious gazes, and reluctantly explained. "Yusaku, he's uh..." He looked up in thought, trying to come up with an accurate term to describe whatever his.. relationship with Yusaku was. "We uh, have this sort of.. agreement..." He settled on, despite 'agreement' being a very.. loose term to describe that (really, blackmail would be a better term). "I'm supposed to tell him anything I find out about the Black Organization and whatever Shinichi's up to, and, in return, he wouldn't tell you guys I'm not.. Shinichi..." He trailed off, his eyes widening in realization. "But.. now you guys know.. so he can't..." A wide smirk started to form on his face, before he abruptly realized that it would be horrible to rebel against Yusaku in any way and shook his head to rid himself of the thought. "No, no. I'm sure he could find something else..." He mumbled to himself. (It was for the best, really. There was still Hattori, so...) "Uh, anyways!" He continued with a bit of a louder voice, actually speaking to the others. "Clearly, I know where Shinichi is now, so would you mind if I text him real quick?"
This probably wasn't the best time, but he did not want to deal with the consequences if he waited any longer. (And it hasn't been too long since Shinichi showed up at the school play so he should be fine.)
"Uh.. sure." Haibara said hesitantly after Conan's winded explanation.
"Great!" Conan said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. He quickly unlocked it, found Yusaku's contact, typed in 'Shinichi's back btw' and sent that, then returned his phone back to his pocket. He clapped his hands. "Anyways-!" He said, fully intending to get into what Haibara actually wanted to know, but he was interrupted when his phone suddenly rang in his pocket. He sighed and brought it out, unsurprisingly seeing Yusaku calling. He regrettably had to accept. "Wow.. took you long enough..." He sarcastically grumbled.
Yusaku ignored that and just demanded, "Explain."
"I mean, yeah. He's back." Conan plainly said, because, well, what else is there to say.
"What do you mean?" Yusaku asked, sounding progressively more angry.
"Uh, well..." He said, feeling oddly calm for talking to Yusaku of all people, especially with his current mood. "He just kinda showed up at Ran's school play and went back to his house I guess."
He heard Haibara say, "School play!?" but he ignored her in favor of the greater threat that was Yusaku.
"Are you sure it's him..?" Yusaku asked.
"Yeah, we went over and pulled on his face and everything." He nonchalantly answered.
"I- you what?" Yusaku sounded bewildered which was an achievement in itself.
"Yeah. Thought it might've been Yukiko or Kaitou KID playing a prank on me or something."
"Wait - hold on - why would Kaitou KID..?" He trailed off, probably wondering why Conan thought KID would even do such a thing.
"Oh yeah!" He said, as if he just realized he forgot to put milk on the shopping list, and not like he literally forgot to tell Yusaku an important piece of information. "He knows I'm pretending to be Shinichi now. Did I tell you?"
Conan must've been going a bit insane from everything that's happened because he barely even felt scared talking to Yusaku. (Or maybe he was just too tired to care at this point...)
"No, you did not." Yusaku plainly said.
"Oh." He laughed. "Oopsie!" He said cheerfully as if he didn't just admit to Yusaku that he didn't tell him something.
He really is going insane, huh..?
(His future self is going to hate him for all of this.)
He heard Yusaku let out a very exasperated sigh from the other end. He could imagine him rubbing the bridge of his nose to stave off the headache that was probably forming at this point. "Anyways," he continued, sounding too tired to reprimand Conan or anything else, "we'll be heading over as soon as we can. I'll get back to you later."
"Wait, we-?" He began to ask, but was cut off when Yusaku promptly hung up.
Conan brought his phone down and just angrily glared at the end-of-call screen.
Well, whether Yusaku brings Yukiko along or not, Conan didn't really care. He didn't particularly mind if Yukiko found out he wasn't Shinichi, and, in fact, would actually prefer it - hopefully she'd stop pestering him if she found out. He just didn't want to be there to see the fallout when it actually happened. He's hoping Yusaku will at least tell her before they arrive.
Whatever...
Conan just sighed and tucked his phone back into his pocket. "Anyways!" He said, giving the others no chance to ask any sort of questions they may have after overhearing that side of the conversation. "Getting back to the original topic, the only others left who still think I'm Shinichi, are Yukiko and Hattori." (Well, as far as he was concerned. Yusaku may have told Yukiko already but he kind of doubted it. Hopefully it won't stay that way though, considering the recent developments.)
"Wait, hold on, you-" Haibara began to say.
But Conan interrupted and prematurely answered her question. "Don't ask me why Yusaku doesn't tell her. He's weird."
Although, apparently that wasn't the question she was asking, considering she said, "That's- that's not what I..." She trailed off, then just sighed and shook her head. "You said Kudo showed up at the school play. What do you mean by that?" She sounded mostly tired, but there was a slight edge of panic to her voice.
"He showed up and played a part in the play." He answered. "There was also a murder that he solved too..."
The slight hint of panic that was in her voice made itself well known in her face. She froze as her eyes slowly widened and her mouth stayed slightly agape. "W-wait..! What if word of that gets out and the-"
"Oh, don't worry about that." He said, cutting her off. "Shinichi told the police not to mention him." (Well, he was only assuming, but it was a very logical assumption in this situation. Shinichi obviously also didn't want his name to get out, and he did vaguely remember seeing him talking to Megure at one point.) "And Hattori told everyone else not to say anything about it, so you shouldn't have to worry."
Haibara released the tension in her shoulders and let out a breath, clearly relieved. "That's good." She paused for a second, before a quizzical expression suddenly fell over her face. She put a hand to her chin, thinking about.. something. She looked over at Conan and lowered her hand. "Wait... You said Hattori, right?"
"Mm-hm..?" He nodded his head, a bit confused.
"But if you were there.. and Kudo was there... Then..."
Conan's eyes widened as he realized what she was getting at.
He wasn't exactly planning on telling her about how he pretended to be her anytime soon.. or ever, but...
He nervously looked to the side and scratched his cheek. "Uh..." He nervously laughed. "Remember that plan you came up with back at the hospital..?" He asked slowly.
Haibara just gave him a confused look for a second, before her eyes slowly widened in realization. "You didn't..."
"I might've told Hattori that I was you..."
Haibara dramatically groaned and facepalmed with both hands, leaning down into them, for a second. "You..." She sighed and sat back up. "You're a real piece of work, you know that?"
Conan couldn't really think of a good or plausible reply to that so he just nervously laughed and said, "Yeah..."
Apparently that conversation was done with because Haibara didn't say anything more and, after a few moments to collect herself (or, probably something like that), she pushed herself off the couch and headed off to the kitchen again (to do what, he didn't know).
And that, gave him time to think.
Haibara knowing that he pretended to be her shouldn't cause any problems (that's assuming there wasn't anything he was missing), and might actually be a good thing, because, if Hattori ever tried to talk to her about that, then at least she wouldn't be confused.
But, even if Hattori and Haibara (or Agasa - who he's still not trying to bring into the conversation or ask any questions to, because he still seems to be in a bit of shock, so Conan's just going to leave him be with his.. chocolate bar.. for the next however long) don't meet very often, it'll still happen eventually. And when it does happen, it's over for Conan. He doesn't see any reason for Haibara (or Agasa, again) not to tell Hattori (well he also doesn't necessarily see any reason for them to tell Hattori, but that's probably just his opinions clouding his mind and they would definitely not agree).
So, he has until either Haibara or Agasa eventually meet up with Hattori, (or maybe they'd force Conan to tell Hattori himself, which is possible so maybe he should prepare for something like that).
Unless.. he somehow manages to convince Haibara to go along with his plan and continue to fool Hattori, but.. there's absolutely no way she'd agree to anything like that. He could only think of one upside for Haibara - that she'd be able to skip school for a bit - but that wasn't nearly enough of a benefit for her to even consider it.. probably.
Well.. he could just ask...
Actually, there's no harm in it - she'll just tell him no and, in the off-chance she does agree, then all the better for him. (Well, there was harm in it - it'd probably make her even more mad than she currently is - but, this whole night, he's basically just been doing whatever he wants without much thought and, again, he was too tired to care. So, screw it, why not?)
Only a few seconds after he came to his decision, Haibara came back from the kitchen holding a cup of steaming coffee (because she finished the skant amount of coffee that was still left in last pot, so she had to make a new one) and another chocolate bar that she gave to Agasa, who happily accepted it.
She sat back down on the couch and took a sip of her coffee.
Conan saw his chance and took it.
"I have a proposition." He said, looking straight at Haibara.
She looked over at him and paused for a second, before her face screwed up in exasperation. She looked down, putting a hand up to her head, and mumbled under her breath quietly (but not quietly enough that Conan couldn't hear), "Proposition? What seven year old uses the word proposition?"
Conan pretended he didn't hear that and just continued to wait expectantly.
(It was a fair point, really. What kind of seven year old does use the word proposition?)
(Well, Conan apparently, that's who.)
Haibara shook her head and looked back up, steeling herself. "Sorry. What is it?"
Conan awkwardly cleared his throat. "I already know you're gonna say no, but.." he twiddled his fingers nervously, "uh, just in case Hattori comes back while Shinichi's still here.. how do you feel about.." he paused and looked down at his knees, "going along with my plan and making Hattori think I'm you?" He rushed out his words in one breath, practically slurring them together.
He looked up to see Haibara giving him the most blank and 'are you kidding me' look possible. "What on earth made you think I'd ever agree to that?" She asked, which was fair.
"Well I did say I knew you'd say no." He grumbled looking away with a slight blush.
She just continued to give him that Look. "Then why'd you ask?"
"Well, I thought, why not?" He shrugged. Haibara's expression did not change. "I mean," he continued, "it's not like you'd have to actually do anything. All you'd need to do is stay home from school for however long Shinichi decides to stay. You'd have more time to do your science experiments or whatever you do in your free time." He said cheerfully as if that was actually a good deal for her.
Haibara had this.. undecipherable look on her face. Her gaze was slightly lowered and she had a hand on her chin, looking deep in thought. It almost looked like.. she was actually pondering his proposal...
No.
Conan shook his head.
He can't get his hopes up. It must be something else. There's no way she'd actually accept. Yeah.
However, he was proven wrong just a few seconds later when Haibara said, "Actually.. I might just do that."
Conan stared at Haibara as if she was the one who was insane this time. "What?" He said, his voice not fully portraying the surprise he actually felt.
"I said I'll do it." She said casually. "Did you not hear?"
Conan just sputtered uselessly for a bit as his brain pathetically tried to process what he heard. Eventually, he finally found his voice. "Thanks, but why!?" He incredulously asked.
"Just to be clear," she said, "I'm not doing this to help you in any way." Conan nodded his head. He expected that much, really. "I actually have something I'd like to do that would require time off school, okay?"
Conan nodded his head again.
That made a bit more sense, but it was still quite mind boggling that she even accepted in the first place. Well, it's not like he was complaining. Even if the reason she agreed had nothing to do with Conan, he didn't care. All that really matters is she agreed, no matter why.
Suddenly, a wave of exhaustion hit him and a yawn escaped his mouth. He curiously checked his watch, the time reading 10:43.
It was quite late for him. All those explanations he had to give must've taken a while. No wonder he felt so tired.
"It's late." He plainly said.
"Hm?" Haibara said, sending a glance to the clock on Agasa's wall. She lifted an eyebrow. "But it's only..." She trailed off as she realized. "Oh, that's right. You're actually a child. You must have an earlier bedtime."
Conan nodded his head. "So could I go sleep now or do you have more questions you need to ask?"
"Hmm..?" She thought for a second. "I think I should be good for now." She glanced over at Agasa. He still didn't seem to be in too good of spirits, but he looked better than before. "He should also be fine. If he has any questions I could probably answer them."
"Thanks, then." He said, hopping off the couch.
Conan didn't exactly remember to bring anything other than his skateboard, with all that was going on, but he figured sleeping in his shorts and dress shirt should be fine for tonight. It was a long day after all.
He headed past Agasa and up the stairs and walked into what was designated as his room in Agasa's house (well, technically it was Shinichi's, but it's not like he was - or should be - here to use it).
He took off his bowtie and suit jacket, and set them down in a neat pile next to the bed, then promptly went to sleep.
"All he did was a simple deduction and I believed him!" Agasa yelled. "I believed him, so easily-!"
"I know, I know..." Haibara comfortingly patted him on the back.
"The reason he spent so much time in his- Shinichi's house! The sudden interest in my inventions! It all makes sense!" He groaned and hid his head in his hands. "I feel like an idiot!"
"If you are then I am as well, so don't worry about it."
Agasa stifled a scream into his hands.
It seemed a good night's sleep was exactly what Agasa needed to get himself out of the shock.. mostly.
The next morning, he was casually eating some pancakes (that Haibara made because, apparently, he wasn't that good at cooking - Conan had to wonder how he's stayed alive for the past however many years) as if nothing was amiss. When Conan came down, he only flinched slightly.
Conan was nearly impressed.
"You still have school today, don't you Shi-" Agasa paused at the slip-up, and furiously shook his head. "C-Conan-kun." He stuttered only once which was pretty incredible.
"Yeah." Conan answered. "I forgot to bring my school stuff so I'll have to stop by the detective agency." He checked his watch. "I'll have to leave soon."
"I suppose me or Ai-kun could walk you..." He trailed off.
Agasa did not look like he wanted to do that, at all, nor did Haibara either. She was still in her pajamas (it seemed she was actually going along with his proposition and not going to school which was kind of a surprise to Conan) and was eating some pancakes by the window. She looked quite tired. He was unsure whether it was because of the unhealthy amount of coffee she drank at ungodly hours of the night yesterday, or if it was just because of the combination of.. everything that has happened (a mix of both he would guess).
Conan also didn't want to be walked to school. He didn't want to be babied now that they know he's actually a child, so he relieved everyone of having to do any of that by saying, "Just because I'm a child doesn't mean I can't walk to school by myself. I've done it tons of times before. Besides, Ran will be there when I get to the detective agency." He finished, perhaps a bit more angry than intended.
Agasa didn't say anything and just looked to the side awkwardly.
That continued on for a moment more, until Haibara said, "It seems we won't have to do either." While looking at something out the window.
Conan set down his pancakes to take a look, and saw Ran walking down the sidewalk towards Agasa's.
Well, that made sense, he figured. It was a very Ran thing to do, picking him up for school. Or.. that's what he thought until she walked straight past Agasa's house and continued towards Shinichi's. Conan was very confused as to why on earth she would be doing that, until he realized she was probably meeting up with the high school detective himself.
Oh, no wonder she was so happy yesterday! Conan had to stop himself from facepalming because how didn't he realize that earlier!
"I'll go meet her then." He said, resigned.
He had already gotten ready, so he just walked over to the entrance, put on his shoes, and headed out the door.
"Ah, Ran-neechan!" He shouted, pretending to have just noticed her.
Ran paused mid-step and turned around at the sound of his voice, looking a bit surprised. "Conan-kun!" She said, bringing a hand in front of her mouth. The boy headed over to her. "That's right! I forgot you were staying over at the Professor's." She said as she began walking towards Shinichi's again.
Forgot..?
Conan looked up at her quizzically, because that was quite unlike her. She must've really been looking forward to seeing Shinichi again, apparently.
Conan didn't really have anything to say to her, so he just fell into step with her.
He casually placed his hands into his pockets, as one does, and then accidentally brushed his hand against the face mask he forgot in there. After a few moments of consideration, he pulled the mask out and put it on his face. He still had a cold after all (albeit a small one) but he was also worried about the possibility of Hattori giving him a surprise visit, so he wanted to be a bit prepared in the off-chance that actually happened.
Ran rang Shinichi's doorbell and expectantly waited for him to speak through the intercom. After a few seconds of silence, she rang it again.. then again, and again, and again.
Conan had heard Shinichi's doorbell from inside the house and it was not the quietest. He was starting to feel a bit bad for the guy.
Ran continued to ruthlessly and impatiently ring the doorbell until, eventually, Shinichi angrily slammed open the gate and yelled, "Geez, I heard it the first time! You only need to ring it once, you know!" He turned back and headed towards his house, ending with a final, "Geez!" Ran and Conan followed after him. "Just give me a few seconds to get ready, okay?" He said before unceremoniously shutting the door in their faces.
Despite the somewhat rude behavior, Ran started to patiently wait with a giddy smile and a slight blush on her face. "He's back. He's really back!" She giggled and was practically bouncing on her feet. "Aren't you glad, Conan-kun?" She turned to the boy and said.
Conan startled a bit at being addressed. "Y-yeah..." He nervously said as he nodded his head to make Ran think he wasn't lying.
He actually was quite the opposite of glad. Shinichi coming back has caused just a whole smorgasbord of problems; not one, but two entire people found out his whole secret. So, needless to say he was a bit miffed.
But.. Conan snuck another glance at Ran, who was currently cheerfully humming some sort of tune.. at least Ran was happy.
A bit later, Shinichi finally came out, wearing his full uniform this time with his school bag in hand. "Sorry, Ran!" He said. "I overslept a bit so that took me a bit longer.. than.. expected..." Shinichi trailed off as he noticed the second member of the conversation, namely Conan (apparently he didn't notice him before...).
"It's fine." She said, waving a hand dismissively, but neither of the two others heard or acknowledged her because they were too busy having what seemed to be a staring contest.
It all felt a bit.. surreal, to Conan. He's spent 6 months pretending to be a guy that he hasn't even met well, who was currently in hiding from a dangerous criminal organization who thought he was dead, but.. here he is, living the normal school life as if nothing was amiss. It was just so weird that he was walking to school with Shinichi of all people.
Now, Conan obviously didn't know what Shinichi was thinking but, if he were to guess, he'd say it would be something about what happened last night. Some kid knocking at his door somewhat late at night, then pulling on his face and just leaving must've been pretty confusing (let alone his next door neighbor going over and doing the exact same just a bit later). Shinichi wasn't staring at him with surprise or something like that, but more with confusion. Conan also realized it was partly one of those Detective Gazes that they tend to have when they've discovered a particularly intriguing mystery, so he figured he was probably right. (Although that was all just speculation and Conan wasn't an expert on reading people or anything. Shinichi was still kind of an enigma to him.)
"Let's get to school then!" Ran said, breaking the two out of their stupors.
After that, their walk to school was, well, awkward, he would say. Ran and Shinichi kept looking at each other and blushing, which was weird. He wondered if they both caught his cold or something because it wasn't that hot out... Anyways, along with that, Conan kept sending glances to Shinichi (because this situation was really weird and he was still trying to get used to it) and he caught Shinichi doing the same to him. Sometimes their glances to each other happened at the same time, and then they'd both instinctively look away as if they were a child caught sticking their hand in the cookie jar, which ended up being pretty awkward.
There was a slight reprieve when Conan escaped into the agency to get his backpack, but, after that, it was back to the same.
Thankfully, Conan and Shinichi were released from this weird awkward situation when the detective boys arrived and took Conan along with them to head to school (after their slightly awkward introduction to Shinichi), separating him from the other two.
The school day was rather normal (well, except that Haibara was absent). He still continued to act like Haibara, even just around the detective boys, half because of paranoia (again) and half because it was kind of fun acting standoffish like that once in a while. The only somewhat notable thing that happened was the text he got from Yusaku in the morning, saying their flight will arrive tomorrow night.
School had ended pretty much in a flash. He wasn't really paying attention to anything that was being taught - there were more pressing issues he couldn't help think about - so that was to be expected.
He met up with Ran and Shinichi (still weird) and followed along with them until they made it to Shinichi's. Shinichi went into his house, obviously, and Conan went into Agasa's, because he realized he forgot his skateboard there and he also wanted to tell them about Yusaku's text, which left Ran to walk to the agency on her own.
Conan was expecting his visit to be relatively uneventful, considering how the rest of the day went, but as soon as he headed into the living room he was proved wrong.
Haibara was sitting there on the couch - which sounded completely normal, but, trust him, it wasn't. Perhaps 'Haibara' wouldn't be the most accurate term to call her - Miyano Shiho was probably better - because she was completely un-shrunken and fully grown, and definitely did not look like a seven year old. She looked exactly how he remembered seeing her coming out of Shinichi's house with Gin and Vodka all those months ago and back at the Haido City Hotel.
Conan just stood there, speechless, unsure of what to do. Eventually he just decided to say, "Ummm..."
Haibara looked over at him and, after a few seconds, took a nonchalant sip of her coffee. "What?" She said. "I made an antidote; I wanted to try it out."
He guessed he knew why she accepted his proposal now...
Conan blinked."U-umm..." He said worriedly. "This" he paused to gesture at her vaguely with his hand, "isn't going to be permanent.. right?"
"Oh-" She said, sounding a bit surprised. "No it shouldn't be." Conan visibly relaxed. "I based it after the Paikaru after all. Although, it should last a bit longer than that." She said. "But you have good timing though. I was planning on asking you some things."
"Okay..." He said meekly, then hesitantly headed over and sat down on the opposite couch.
He nervously looked up at her. He felt.. small, when she was large like this. He's only ever seen her like this when it was a life or death situation, so this was pretty weird.
Haibara was giving him a kind of disappointed and unimpressed look, as if she was done with this conversation already.. for some odd reason. She revealed that reason herself by saying, "You don't have to be all nervous. I'm still the same person, you know."
"I- I know that..." He grumbled. "It's just that- you.. I- it's..." He stammered, unable to describe whatever he was feeling in words. Eventually he gave up and just said, "It's.. weird."
Haibara just sighed and lightly shook her head. "Whatever..." She leaned forward and began. "Anyways, how did you know about the Apotoxin's side effect and Paikaru?" She simply asked. "I don't remember too well, but I believe you said it was a coincidence?"
"Y-yeah... That's pretty much it. A coincidence." He said nervously. Haibara was giving him one of those Looks again (which was made even more intimidating now that she wasn't small), so he immediately caved and continued. "Well, basically.. I saw Shinichi at Tropical Land and he was watching this deal with Vodka, but then Gin snuck up on him and knocked him out and fed him APTX 4869." Haibara looked a bit worried. "I was hiding in the bushes so no one saw me." He added, even though he wasn't exactly sure if that was what she was worried about, but best to be safe anyways. "Then Shinichi made himself throw up - as I've said before" he said, just in case she forgot, "and then he left.. somewhere. I don't know. But anyway, I thought it'd be kinda funny if I said I was Shinichi and that the drug shrunk me..." He nervously chuckled. "I didn't exactly think anyone would believe me.. or that the drug would actually do that..."
Haibara let out a quiet 'hmm' and put a hand to her chin, seemingly accepting his answer.
"And, um, as for the Paikaru..." He hesitantly continued. "Hattori gave me some - when we first met - and then Shinichi suddenly showed up for the case, and so I had to tell Agasa that the Paikaru, uh.. did that..."
Haibara continued to have the same expression, thinking things over probably, before, a couple seconds later, she raised her eyebrows and said, "Huh. Those really are just coincidences." Although she still looked a bit skeptical, but he couldn't exactly blame her for that.
"Yeah..." He gave a small nod. "That's why I was so surprised when you started telling me about APTX 4869 when we met.. and when the Paikaru worked..."
Haibara paused and stared at some random spot past him, if he were to guess, reliving those past situations. "Ah. That makes sense." She said, as if she found the final piece to a puzzle.
Conan just continued to sit there nervously, waiting for Haibara to either continue or confirm that the conversation was over. Eventually, she did continue, and said, "I also want to know what you think Kudo's doing."
Conan blinked. "Shinichi..?" He asked.
"Well, he is supposed to be in hiding, right? What he's doing is very dangerous.. so I was wondering why?"
"I don't know." Conan shrugged. "In case you've forgot, I'm not actually Shinichi." He added, just for a bit of fun.
Haibara didn't show any physical reaction, not that he could tell anyway, but he could still tell she wasn't having it.. somehow. After a slight pause, she said, "Well you seem to be very good at getting into his mindset. I was asking what you thought."
Conan paused.
He guessed he was, huh... Agasa had known Shinichi for basically all his life and Conan had managed to convince him he was Shinichi for months when he barely even knew the guy himself. That had to count for something. Maybe he was more similar to Shinichi than he thought?
"Well..." He nervously began, internally putting himself into Shinichi's shoes. "I guess he'd probably get pretty tired of living in hiding. He probably misses his old life or something like that. Other than that, I wouldn't know."
Haibara didn't look too satisfied with his answer, but he didn't exactly have much else to say...
"Uh, is that all..?" He hesitantly asked.
"Yes, I believe that should be it." She said.
"Okay, I'm gonna.. go.. then." He said slowly, gauging Haibara's expression. "Ran's probably waiting for me."
Haibara seemed to be fine with that and she apparently didn't have anything to say, so Conan hopped off the couch and headed towards his skateboard by the entrance. He was about to pick it up when he suddenly stopped and realized something he forgot to do.
"By the way," he said, looking back towards her, "Yusaku said they'll get here tomorrow night."
"Alright," she said calmly, "I'll be sure to tell the Professor."
" 'Kay.. bye then." He grabbed his skateboard and headed off.
