Hi guys! This is the first one-shot of the series "The life I've always wanted", the other ones will be set after this story.

English is not my first language so probably there are a few mistakes.

Last but not the least: DC and its characters belong to Gosho Aoyama (also because if it belonged to me, CoAi would be canon).

Have fun reading and let me know what do you think leaving a comment (and a heart if you like the story)!


It was almost midnight. Ayumi, Genta, and Mitsuhiko had already fallen asleep on the couch of Hakase's living room, while two fake 12-years-olds were watching them after switching-off the TV. The three were exhausted after that long day. Their trip to the Odawara castle had turned into an escape from a criminal band, that later had been successfully arrested by the police. Ai and Conan were also tired, but not as much as the other three kids, after all, they were't real kids.

"They're twelve years old now, but still keep getting themselves into trouble" Conan whispered.

"It's normal. You know, with a corpse-magnet like you, it's impossible not getting into trouble" Ai pointed out in a sarcastic tone.

"You're not funny"

"And I didn't mean to be. Seriously, so far, I don't remember a single trip with you where there haven't been any murder, kidnapping, robbery, or escape from some criminals" she said crossing her arms in her chest.

"We've talked about this for like a thousand times, could you just cut it out?" He asked her, disturbed by the topic of their conversation.

"As you wish, corpse-magnet," she said smirking.

"Anyway, it's been a long and tiring day, wanna go to sleep together in my house? I need some relax" he proposed extending his hand to her.

"And what will the kids say when they wake up and won't find us here?"

"Let's go and ask Hakase to find an excuse, just in case"

Then she nodded and held his hand, smiling to him. They silently walked to Agasa's lab, he was repairing Ayumi's transmitter, which got broken during the escape.

"Hakase" Conan whispered, careful not to wake the kids up.

No answer.

"Hakase" Conan raised a bit his voice.

Still no answer.

"Hakase!" He was now speaking with his normal voice tone.

Agasa seemed to hear the voice now, so he turned back, facing the two of them.

"Ah Shinichi-kun, that's you"

"Shhhhh, speak low, the kids are sleeping" Conan whispered to him with a finger on the nose.

"Oh sorry, Shinichi-kun, what do you want to tell me?"

"I and Ai are going to sleep in my house, can you please find an excuse for us when the kids wake up?"

"Sure, when they wake up I'll tell them that you went to buy something for breakfast, but don't have too much fun together" he replied and giggled a bit, pronouncing the last phrase with a teasing tone.

"Don't worry Hakase, remember? We're married now" Conan replied putting his arm around Ai's neck and pulling her closer. She lost a bit her balance and her cheek bumped into Conan's one, making the two of them blush and smile at the same time.

She pulled out of his hold and started staring at him, they were staring at each other, his electric-blue eyes got lost in her greenish-blue ones until Agasa broke the silence faking a cough. They stood up a little, then Conan took Ai's hand.

"So... we should go now, goodnight Hakase" Conan waved his free hand at Hakase.

"Goodnight Shinichi-kun, Ai-kun"

They turned away and got out of the house.

'How could I forget their wedding?' Hakase thought and smiled at that recent memory.

Three years ago, the BO was defeated by the FBI and the CIA, also with the help of Conan and Ai, and from the Japanese Police. Unfortunately, the data of the APTX4869 was gone, and so the chances of finding a permanent antidote. Conan and Ai were forced to live their childhood again. Conan took a temporary antidote to tell Ran to not wait for him anymore, he also told her that he was working to a very dangerous case and that he needed to move abroad and hide under a new identity.

Since then, Ran and Shinichi moved on with their lives. One year ago Ran got married to Tomoaki Araide and went to live with him, so Conan decided to move back to his house. One month ago, Conan and Ai got married as Shinichi Kudo and Shiho Miyano. Before the wedding, they took two pills of temporary antidote and then celebrated with Agasa and Shinichi's parents. None else knew about their secret wedding.

Ai and Conan entered the Kudo's mansion as they started walking upstairs, making their way to his bedroom, and wore their pajamas. Since they got married, Ai used to stay at his place on the weekends, so she brought there some of her clothes. They couldn't live together in his house because people, especially the Detective Boys, would've found it suspicious, mostly because they looked like two 12-years-olds. Even though they had never told the Detective Boys that they were dating, the three kids started to become suspicious about their real relationship, especially Ayumi and Mitsuhiko, who were getting jealous of the friendship between Conan and Ai, that was becoming closer than ever, so they insisted to meet them every morning at Agasa's residence to walk to school together. All of this forced them to spend the night together only on the weekends and on the other days before the one's when there was no school.

They were now lying on the bed hugging and cuddling each other. Her head was resting on his chest, with her arms embracing him, while he was gently caressing her strawberry blond hair.

"Thank you, Ai," Conan said taking a deep sigh.

"Thank you for what?"

"For being here, I needed to have some good-quality relax with you" his voice sounded so sincere and calm.

"And since when being with an evil-eyed yawny girl has become relaxing?" she questioned teasingly, letting go of a smirk.

"Since this evil-eyed yawny girl has become my wife"

"Are you trying to say that being with me wasn't relaxing before our wedding?" she continued teasing him.

"No, that's not- oh forget! There's no win against you, is there?" he surrendered, resigned to the fact that he could've never won a teasing battle against her.

"You should know it well after five years that we've known each other" she giggled in a sign of victory.

A few minutes passed. The room was extremely silent, their breaths and sighs were the only audible sounds. Conan was lost between his thoughts and the smell of the strawberry blond hair a few inches from his nose, he wished that moment to happen every night instead of a few times a week.

"Ai, are you still awake?" he whispered gently. She nodded and reached up to his neck, letting her breath brush against it.

"I was thinking... why don't you move here permanently? I wish we could stay like this every night. I miss you and your sarcasm so much before sleeping" he continued, expressing the last words with irony.

She sighed and raised her head a bit to place a soft kiss on his lips, then came back to her previous position. "You know, I wish the same thing as you, but we both know that it would be impossible to do it without stimulating those three kids' suspects".

"Then we should tell them that we're dating" he proposed.

"But that wouldn't justify two 12-years-olds living together at the same place, alone" she responded, emphasizing the last word.

"Honestly, I don't care about what they could think about us if this is the price to pay to spend every day and night with you. After all, I've been brave enough to confess to you, why shouldn't I be so brave to deal with them?"

She raised her head to face him, then narrowed her eyes and smirked. "You 'have been brave enough confess to me'? I remember things went quite differently..."


*FLASHBACK*

One year ago...

Ai was checking Agasa's mailbox, she had just come back from school when her attention focused on a pink envelope. She raised an eyebrow and then went into the house, curious about what the content of the envelope could've been.

"Hakase! I'm back!"

A few seconds later, Agasa came out from his lab and welcomed his adopted daughter.

"Oh Ai-kun, welcome back! How was school today?" he asked making his way to the kitchen.

"Boring as always. Anyway, I think we've received a love letter or something like this" she hypothesized following him to the kitchen.

"Maybe it's from one of your classmates who has a crush on you" Hakase presumed.

Ai set down at the table, then she immediately started opening the envelope and took out the letter.

Her eyes widened and she gasped, sadly surprised by the beginning of the letter, which said:

'You're invited to the wedding of Araide Tomoaki Mouri Ran'

She couldn't help but feel guilty after what she read. She closed her eyes and started thinking about how Shinichi must feel at that time, she also started blaming herself for not being able to give his perfect life back to him. If only she had managed to create the antidote, he would've been able to come back to her, his childhood friend, and first love. And now, he was gonna lose her forever, because of her and the drug she had created he was stuck in a kid's body and couldn't do anything to stop Ran from getting married to another man.

Agasa noticed the depressed look on Ai's face and walked towards the chair where she was sitting on.

"Ai-kun, is everything fine?" he asked gently, just like a father would do with his daughter.

"Read this, Hakase" she weakly handed him the letter.

After he had read everything, he immediately understood the reason for her quick mood change. 'She must still be blaming herself' he thought. Then he sat on the chair beside her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"All of this... it's all my fault" she mumbled lowering her head keeping her eyes closed.

"Ai-kun, don't blame yourself, I know that it's not your fault, and I'm sure that Shinichi-kun thinks the same as me" he tried to console her.

"Thanks, Hakase, but you don't have to say this to cheer me up..." she then got out of the chair and started walking to her room, "I'm gonna have some rest now, I'm tired".

"Are you sure you don't want to eat anything before going?"

"Thanks, Hakase, but I'm not hungry"

She closed her room's door behind her and went towards her bedside table, where there was a photo of her with the Detective Boys and Conan. She took the photo with both her hands and stared at Conan's face. 'I'm sorry Shinichi, I wish I could come back to the past, and get those data out of the laboratory before the explosion, even if it could've meant sacrificing my life for it. I would do everything to give your old life back to you and make you happy' she thought as a tear fell on his face.

The same day, five hours later...

Conan stood in front of Agasa's house and rang the doorbell, he had his skateboard underarm and needed Agasa to fix it. The old scientist opened the door and welcomed him.

"Hi Shinichi-kun, what brings you here?"

"Hi Hakase, could you please fix my skateboard? I'm having some issues with it today"

"Of course Shinichi-kun, come in"

Shinichi entered the house and gave the skateboard to Hakase. Agasa expected him to be a bit sad because of Ran's imminent wedding, but he was the same as always. They were silently walking towards the professor's lab as he broke the silence.

"Hey Shinichi-kun, we've just received the invitation to Ran's wedding"

"I know, she and Araide-sensei distributed them yesterday afternoon," he said calmly putting his arms behind his head. "And speaking of women, where's Haibara?"

"She's been in her room since she read the invitation after coming back from school. She said she was tired and needed to rest, she didn't even have lunch" Agasa explained worriedly.

"I bet she's still blaming herself for not being able to find the antidote..." Shinichi was feeling bad for her now. He wanted her to know that his feelings had changed.

"You're right Shinichi-kun... but aren't you a bit sad about this situation?" Hakase asked him gently.

"Honestly, I feel a bit sad because I will no longer spend much time with Ran, but I don't feel the same way towards her as once, I only love her as a sister now, and I'm glad that she finally found someone who will always be by her side" Shinichi clarified. "I'm gonna try to talk to Haibara... see you later Hakase... and anyway, after Ran's wedding, we're gonna be neighbors again" he concluded and smiled lightly.

"Oh, I'm glad to hear that, Shinichi-kun!" Agasa said jovially.

Shinichi greeted the professor and went straight to Ai's room. He knocked at her room's door and waited for her to speak.

"I'm gonna have dinner later, Hakase," she said out loud.

Conan slowly opened the door and found Ai near the window with her arms crossed on the windowsill, her body leaning on it and her glance up at the sky, which was colored by hundreds of shades of cobalt blue, red, and orange because of the sunset. She was so absorbed in observing those colors that didn't even notice the sound of the door being opened by Shinichi.

He paid attention to the picture on the bedside table, he noticed that it was a bit humid, and deduced that she must've been crying on it. She didn't use to cry very much, he had only seen her cry twice. The first time was on the day they met, she was crying for her sister's death, and the second time was right after the end of the BO, probably because she needed to free herself from all the anxiety and the tension that she had accumulated during the period when the MIB were haunting her.

He walked closer to her and reached her shoulder with his hand. She gasped at the touch and turned back, facing him.

"Kudo-kun, that's you," she said, surprised and relieved at the same time. "Why are you here?" she asked calmly.

He was surprised by her peaceful behavior. Normally she would shoot him a death-glare and yell at him for entering her room without asking, but this time she wasn't in the right mood to wear her cold and hard mask, even though she was trying to do it.

"I needed Hakase to fix my skateboard."

"Again Kudo-kun, why are you here?" Ai asked again, pretending to be irritated by his presence. The truth was that she was feeling too guilty to face him.

"How are you?" he asked sincerely.

"Don't answer my question with another question," she replied coldly.

"Okay, I'm gonna say it in another way... I'm here to know how are you" he clarified.

"I'm fine," she replied coldly, turning to the window and freeing herself from his hand, that was still on her shoulder.

"The professor said that you haven't eaten anything today... may I ask you why?" he tried to sound more sincere than ever.

"None of your business," she answered with a quiet and weak voice.

"Are you mad at me, Haibara?" he asked lowering his voice.

"Actually, you should be mad at me, Kudo-kun," she said, emphasizing the word 'you'.

"Why would I?" he sounded really friendly.

"You're asking me why... well... I am the reason why you can't be happy with her now, I am the person who created that drug, I am the person who got you into trouble, I am the person who ruined your perfect life..." she paused for about twenty seconds and then continued "I wish I could come back to the past, to that night, and get those data out of the laboratory before the explosion, even if it could've meant sacrificing my life for it, I would do everything to give your perfect life back to you and... to make you happy... because..." she paused again. 'It's now or never, Ai' she said to herself in her mind. She decided to tell him the truth, all the truth "...because I love you, Shinichi". Normally she would call him 'Kudo-kun', but this time, calling him by his first name felt so natural. Her voice sounded so fleable and miserable, reflecting her actual mood.

Ai hadn't turned to him yet, she was still staring at the sky, which was starting to become darker. Now that she had fully expressed her emotions and feelings, she felt relieved, she had freed herself from a big weight.

The room remained silent for a couple of minutes. Shinichi was shocked by her confession, he imagined her to have a strong affection for him, but he had never thought that it could've been love. Once he had realized the feelings expressed by her words, he knew the right thing to do, and a smile appeared on his face.

All of a sudden, Ai felt the warmth of his arms wrapping around her belly, he was hugging her from the back, and she also felt his chin resting on her shoulder.

"You don't have to blame yourself, Ai," he whispered to her ear. "My life couldn't be more perfect, because, right now, I'm with the person that I love".

Her eyes widened at the sound of those words, the ones she had always been dreaming to hear. She never thought that one day, he would've said those words to her.

He released her from the hug and turned her to him.

"You don't have to say that t-" she was cut off by his lips pressing against hers, her eyes widened even more now, the last thing she was expecting was him kissing her on the lips. The heat was rising into her body as she felt his hands gently sliding under her sweater, holding her waist and lightly touching her soft skin. Their lips separated after approximately twenty seconds, but it felt like an eternity to them.

"Now you've got the proof that what I said is the truth," he stated softly.

Ai was speechless, she couldn't believe that her most wished dream was becoming true. She tried to say something, but he placed his hand on her mouth and didn't let her proceed.

"Don't say anything, just let me comfort you, Ai." his tone was sweeter than ever.

He gently laid in her bed with her, hugging her. He placed a soft kiss on her forehead, then gently pushed her head on his chest, and leaned his head on hers. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the warmth from his body, she felt safe from everything, she felt protected, comforted, and, after a long time, she felt loved. She would feel like this only when she was with her sister. They stayed like that for about ten minutes, until Ai fell asleep. Shinichi silently got up and covered her with the blanket. 'Sweet dreams, Ai'. He went out of her room and closed the door behind him.

*END FLASHBACK*


"What are you trying to say? That I didn't need courage to confess to you?" Conan asked raising an eyebrow.

"Exactly, idiot. I had already confessed to you. I had to gather all my courage to confess to you." she specified, putting a strong accent on the word 'I'.

"You're making me appear as the densest man on the Earth," he said, trying to free himself from the blame.

"Because you are, which man on this Earth would let his beloved girl confess her feelings before him?" she said smirking and giggling.

"But at least I comforted you, you must admit it."

"I'd like to remind you that there's a difference between 'comforting' and 'making fall asleep.'" she pointed out.

"Could you stop being so persnickety? Anyway, let's change the topic." he finally gave up.

"Well... in this case... I have an important question for you,"

"What?" he asked, curious.

"You've never told me when did you start to have feelings for me."

His expression immediately turned from curious to extremely embarrassed, he was now blushing madly and stopped caressing her strawberry blond hair.

"W-why do you want me to tell you that?" he asked, ashamed.

She looked at his face and noticed his embarrassment. She raised an eyebrow. 'Why does it look like he's afraid of telling me that?' she asked herself.

"What's wrong with you? Why are you being so reluctant about it? I'm your wife now, what are you being afraid of?" she asked friendly.

"..."

"Fine..." she freed herself from his hold and got out of the bed.

"W-where are you going?" he questioned.

"Since you don't want to share your secrets with me, I don't want to share the bed with you," she replied coldly, taking some steps towards the room's door.

"Oh come on! Wait!" he appealed

"Goodnight, my dear, I'm going back to Hakase's house." she opened the door and was about to leave the room.

"Okay okay, you won, I'll tell you everything if you remain here," he told her quickly.

She let go of a smirk and giggled. "Fine, I'm gonna stay here, now spit it out".

"Okay but come here," he said opening his arms. She came back to the bed, allowing him to put her into an embrace as he gently rested his chin on her head. "You really know how to get what you want, don't you?" he said in an ironic tone.

"Don't try to change the topic." she intimated with her threatening voice.

"Okay okay, but you must promise me that you won't kill me once I'll have told you everything."

"If you don't go on I'm gonna kill you right now." she threatened.

"Well..."


*FLASHBACK*

One year and six months ago

It began as one of Conan's ordinary days. He was woken up by Ran's voice saying that the breakfast was ready, so he went straight to the kitchen and noticed that Kogoro wasn't there as usual.

"Good morning Conan-kun! Your breakfast is on the table" Ran said cheerfully with her typical genuine smile.

"Good morning Ran-neechan, where's your father?" Conan asked as he started eating his breakfast.

"He's got a case, he's stalking the likely secret lover of his acquaintance's wife" she explained while washing the dishes.

'Finally, a case that competes him' Conan thought while laughing in his mind. He finished his breakfast and got himself ready for school. He was about to leave when Ran stopped him saying out loud, "Ah Conan-kun, I almost forgot to tell you that I'll be hanging out with Araide-sensei for the rest of the day, I'll be back home tonight, your lunch is already in the fridge, you only have to heat it up in the microwave."

"Thanks, Ran-neechan, have fun with Araide-sensei!" he replied merrily, then walked out of the investigation agency and started walking to school.

Even though he wished he could've come back to Ran as Shinichi, he was now glad that she had moved on and found happiness with another man. Although he was happy for her, he hadn't moved on yet and couldn't help but feel a bit low-spirited for losing his first love. He still didn't know that, very soon, another person was going to replace Ran in his heart.

The sun was shining, but the air was cold and still humid because of the heavy rain of the day before, and there were still a few clouds in the sky.

Conan met at the usual place with the Detective Boys, noticing that a certain strawberry blond-haired girl was missing. He couldn't help but ask himself what could've happened to her since it wasn't her habit of skipping school. So he decided to ask the other kids if they know the reason for her absence.

"Hey guys, do you know why Haibara isn't here today?" Conan asked them.

"She texted me this morning that she wasn't feeling well today and would've skipped school to get some rest" Ayumi explained, a bit concerned for the health of her best friend.

Conan nodded, satisfied by Ayumi's explanation, as he entered the school's gate with his friends.

The school day was being more boring than usual to Conan, and the reason was the empty place beside him. Ai always added some flavor to his school days with her sarcasm and mockeries, causing time to run faster for him. In the past two years, she had become an irreplaceable partner for his investigations and a very enjoyable company during the boring moments of this new life, despite her cold attitude.

Finally, the school bell rang, announcing the end of that day's lessons. Conan was impatient to switch at the intersection where he and the rest of the Detective Boys would separate to make their way to their own homes. As soon as he did it, he picked up the phone and dialed Haibara's number. the phone was ringing, but there was no answer on the other side. He started worrying a bit for her and, as soon as the phone stopped ringing, he dialed Agasa's number, impatient to know why Haibara hadn't answered his call.

"Hello"

"Hello, Hakase!"

"Oh Shinichi-kun that's you, I was just about to call you"

"How is Haibara? She didn't answer my phone call" he asked, concerned.

"She has a high fever, could you please come here to take care of her? I have to meet a scientist friend of mine and will be back tonight, but I can't leave her alone in these conditions"

"Okay, I'll be there in five minutes" he replied as he quickly hanged up the phone and started running towards Agasa's residence.

He finally arrived at Agasa's house's gate and immediately rang the bell, gasping for breath due to the long and fast run. Agasa welcomed him into the house as Conan went in.

"Hi Shinichi-kun, Ai-kun is in her room, come with me," Agasa said moving his arm signing Conan to follow him.

Conan followed Agasa to Ai's room and found her laying on her bed, she was covered up to her neck with a blanket, and there was a wet towel on her forehead. She was sweating and breathing heavily. Due to the high fever, she wasn't conscious.

"How is she?" Conan asked the professor with a low voice and a worried look on his face.

"I had just checked her temperature before you came, the thermometer was 40ºC"

"Damn it! How did she get so sick?" Conan asked Agasa, whispering.

"Yesterday she was caught without an umbrella from the heavy rain while she was coming back from school. When she came home, she was completely wet, and in the evening she started coughing and feeling a headache" Agasa explained to Conan, getting down to whisper in his hear.

"Now I should go, Shinichi-kun, she has already eaten some chicken soup. In case she wakes up and gets hungry, I left some more soup in the fridge. And don't forget to often change the wet towel on her forehead, I'll be back around 8 pm."

Agasa gave him the last directives to take care of her and then went out of the house.

'Well... Seems that I have to find something to do while she sleeps' Conan thought. Then he approached Ai's bookcase and searched for something interesting. There were a lot of fashion magazines and a few crime novels, on which his eyes focused the attention. His eyes widened as he was surprised to find the Sherlock Holmes book 'A Scandal in Bohemia'. 'I'd never said that she was a fan of this book' he thought while unconsciously smiling. He sat in the armchair near her bed and started reading the book from the beginning, although he had already read it dozen of times.

About ten minutes later, he put the book on the bedside table and changed the wet towel on her forehead with a new one, noticing that she was soaked in her sweat, and so her clothes. 'Should I change her clothes?' he questioned himself in his mind. A hint of red appeared on his cheeks at the thought of him changing her clothes. 'She's unconscious, so she unlikely will notice it. After all, she has the body of a 10-year-old, and I would change only her pajama, not her underwear' he convinced himself that it wouldn't have been a problem, so he decided to do it. He took a dry blue pajama from her closet, then uncovered her from the blanket, and delicately took off her wet pajama, leaving her with her underwear. His cheeks were heating up and he froze for a few seconds, then shook his head and gently dressed her with the new pajama and covered her with the blanket again. As Conan thought, Ai was still unconscious and didn't notice what he had just done.

'Done' he said to himself while rubbing his forehead with the back of his hand and letting go of a sigh of relief. 'If she knew what I've just done, she would immediately kill me' he thought, hoping that it would never come true. He sat in the armchair and took again the book to continue the read.

Two hours later, Conan was asleep in the armchair with his hands on the book, which was still open, positioned on his lap. He slowly opened his eyes as he heard Ai's voice murmuring something while she was asleep. After he woke up, he got up of the armchair and got closer to her, trying to understand her words.

"Akemi... Don't leave me..." she was mumbling.

'She's dreaming of her sister' he deduced, as a sad smile appeared on his face, while the image of Akemi Miyano dying in his arms flashed through his mind. He was still feeling a bit guilty about that event, which he hadn't been able to prevent. His thoughts were stopped by Ai, who was mumbling something again.

"Thank you... Kudo-kun..." she whispered, still asleep.

His eyes widened as he heard those words. Even though the first time they met, she blamed him for Akemi's death, she'd never thought that it was his fault, and the words she had just murmured gave him the confirmation of that, making him feel relieved and delighted. After all, she was grateful to him.

Ai's breath had slowly become quieter than before, and she was now breathing normally. She had also stopped sweating, sign that the fever had fallen. A smile appeared on her face, making Conan blush as he was observing the peaceful look on Ai's face. A weird sensation was now affecting his stomach, something he wasn't able to recognize, but it wasn't a negative feeling, it was just strange. Without him knowing, a new love had just bloomed.

Conan spent the rest of the time in her room, changing the wet towel on her forehead every twenty minutes, reading the book while sitting on the armchair, and taking many glances at Ai. All of this until Agasa came back home at 8:15 pm. Conan told him not to tell Ai that he had been there taking care of her, he also mentioned to him the quite embarrassing action of changing her clothes and asked him to tell her that it was him (Agasa) who changed them. Agasa understood everything and, as soon as Conan went out of the house, a sincere smile appeared on his face.

Three hours later, Conan was on his bed trying to sleep, but the image of Ai sleeping with that smile on her face was still stuck in his mind.

*END FLASHBACK*


"... and that's the full story" Conan ended his narration, still embracing Ai and caressing her hair.

Ai didn't know how to feel, her facial expression was a mixture of astonishment and embarrassment, but mostly embarrassment, especially after knowing that he had changed her clothes.

"I was afraid of telling you the whole story because of the part when- Ouch!" he was cut off by her who was strongly pinching his hip.

"What was that for?" he cried out loud.

"Don't you get it, pervert?! YOU CHANGED MY CLOTHES!!! YOU EXPLOITED THE FACT THAT I WAS SICK AND ASLEEP!!!" she yelled at him, getting herself out of his hug and sitting beside him in the middle of the bed with her arms crossed on her chest, not even looking at him.

"This is the exact reason why I didn't want to tell you all of this," he said, getting up as she had just done. "But in my defense, I'd like to say that your fever fell after my action, I never removed your underwear, and plus, you were in the body of a 10-years-old, so there was nothin- Ouch!" he was cut off again by her, who had just elbowed him in his hip.

"Now you better apologize to me for what you did," she intimated, offended by his words. "And don't think you're gonna get away with some kisses and stuff like this" she was really serious.

His look was now concerned after hearing the tone of her voice. He lowered his eyes, "I'm sorry" he apologized with a weak voice. Her eyes widened as he heard those words, it was rare for him to say that. She turned her face to him and stared at his face, it looked like he was broken. 'Maybe I overreacted a bit, after all, he was only trying to help me' she thought. She placed a hand on his shoulder, trying to comfort him.

"Hey... I'm sorry for my reaction, you were only trying to help me, so I guess... I can forgive you now" she said with a sweet voice and planted a kiss on his cheek.

As she kissed him on the cheek, he closed his eyes and started grinning, then he laughed loudly. She was confused by his sudden mood change, she didn't expect that a small kiss on the cheek could cheer him up that quickly.

"I can't believe you actually believed it," he said while laughing, then continued: "after all, being the son of a famous actress has its advantages".

"Wait, are you saying that you only pretended to look that depressed to get my forgiveness?" she questioned, upset.

"It's too late now, you've already forgiven me" he said teasingly.

"Fine, but you owe me a very expensive gift for fooling me like that" she stated firmly, closing her eyes and crossing her arms, irritated.

"Okay okay, you win, I'll go to the jewelry tomorrow to buy something nice for you," he said condescendingly, kissing her on the cheek. She was still rigid, so he held her shoulders with his hands, pulling her down with him. They were now in their usual position again, the same as the first time they confessed to each other. Staying like that had become a sort of ritual for them when they were on the bed; they felt like they were in another world, where none else could penetrate.

Ai closed her eyes and started relaxing in Conan's arms, then took a deep breath, enjoying his warmth.

"I love you more than everything, Ai," Conan said in a soft and lovely tone, pressing his lips against her forehead as she took another long and peaceful sigh, smiling sincerely.

"You know, the last time you pronounced those exact words was when you asked me to marry you, remember?"

"How could I forget? It was when..."


*FLASHBACK*

Two months ago...

It was 6 pm.

Conan and Ai were inside an abandoned building situated on Tokyo's outskirts. They were sitting on the floor, their arms and legs were tied by thick ropes, their backs leaning on each other, and so their heads.

Two hours earlier, they had been kidnapped by a band of three criminals for being witnesses of a murder. The criminals trapped them in that building and put them to sleep with chloroform.

Conan slowly opened his eyes, but he could barely see because there was no light. 'Where am I?' he thought. Then he felt a weight resting on his back and remembered everything. 'Oh right, we witnessed that murder while going to the supermarket, and then those criminals kidnapped us, they must've used chloroform to force us to fall asleep. We must be in a sort of abandoned building. There's no scotch tape on our mouths, the building must be so large that even if we shouted, none would hear us.'

"Ai, are you awake?" he whispered since he didn't know whether the criminals were still there or not.

Ai started to open her eyes and soon realized what had happened a few hours ago.

"Sh-Shinichi?" she mumbled with a fragile voice.

"Are you alright, Ai?"

"Yeah, I think so, I don't feel pain anywhere. And you?" she asked, worried for him.

"I'm fine too. Do you manage to see anything?" he asked, hoping for a positive answer.

"No... unfortunately, it's too dark here..." she said while narrowing her eyes, attempting to see something. All of a sudden, she gasped as her eyes managed to spot a few red numbers.

"What's wrong?" he asked, alarmed by her gasp.

"Bad news, there's a countdown a few meters far from here, probably a bomb... Looks like we only have one more hour to live... they probably wanted to destroy our murder's place, so none will link them to our deaths" she said in a serious voice.

"Damn, I can't even move my hands. At least, I have my transmitter with me, so maybe Hakase will be able to track our position... we can only hope for someone to come here and rescue us" he said, resigning to the idea that there was nothing he could do to save themselves.

"Well, at least, in case none arrives, we will spend our last hour being together" she pointed out, trying to cheer him up a bit using her sarcastic tone.

He chuckled, he didn't expect her to find the bright side of the situation. Usually, he'd be the one doing that.

"You're right, and plus, despite having both arms and legs blocked, this position is pretty comfortable," he said smirking, referring to their backs and heads leaning on each other, making her smile and giggle.

They continued chatting like that, talking about the happy moments they experienced together, and all the troubles they went through during the fight with against the BO. Although they were trying to focus on something else than the possibility of dying there, they couldn't help but feel a deep sense of sadness.

"Seriously, Shinichi, what if we don't manage to escape from here alive?" she asked in a low and weak voice.

"In that case, I want you to know that these last months have been the best period in my whole life..." he replied, serious, then continued, "... But now you have to promise something to me..."

She nodded, waiting for him to speak.

"... You have to promise that, in case someone comes and saves us from this situation, you will be by my side for the rest of our lives."

He had never sounded so serious before, and Ai felt that, but didn't exactly know what he meant with that phrase.

"What are you trying to say, Shinichi?" she asked him, a bit puzzled.

"I love you more than everything, Ai... and I can't imagine living my life without you... so... what I'm trying to ask you is..."

Her eyes were wider than ever as she started to understand what he was going to ask her.

"... will you marry me, Ai?"

Her heartbeat fastened as she heard those five words. She'd never thought that one day this moment would come.

"You really have the worst timing ever to ask this question," she said giggling with sadness and joy at the same time.

"Yeah, I know... but this could be our last moment together, so I've got nothing to lose" he answered back, letting go of a melancholic giggle.

"You know Shinichi, in my twenty-three years of life I couldn't have wished for something better than these last months and, even if I died today, I'd be more satisfied than ever because I've spent the last months with you. The time we spent together has already paid me for all the pain I've suffered because of the Organization." her speech left Conan speechless as he'd never expect her to be this sensitive.

"Wow... I didn't know you could be so... emotional... but, back to my question, what's your answer?"

She smirked closing her eyes.

"You're really the densest person I know when it comes to feelings..." she teased.

"Could you just be serious and stop teasing me in a moment like this? Just answer my question," he told her, annoyed by her teasing.

"Genius, what do you think my long speech meant?" she said coldly, after all, she expected him to not understand what her words meant.

"Do you mean that..." his brain started to process her words, as he began to comprehend what she had tried to say.

"Yes, Shinichi, I'll marry you"

His eyes widened, but he didn't manage to speak as he got stopped by another voice.

"CONAN-KUN! AI-CHAN! WHERE ARE YOU?" a familiar voice echoed in the building as they both gasped.

"It's Sato-keiji!" Conan exclaimed with positivity. "SATO-KEIJI, WE'RE HERE!!!" he shouted.

Ten minutes later...

Conan and Ai had been rescued by Sato and Takagi, and now they were out of the building, where the Detective Boys and Agasa were anxiously waiting for them to come out.

"CONAN-KUN, AI-CHAN!" the Detective Boys shouted in chorus, running towards their two best friends.

A few seconds later, Conan and Ai were being suffocated by a tight group hug.

"We're happy to see you too guys," Conan said with a croaky voice, desperately trying to inhale.

They released the two fake kids from the hug, letting them breathe.

"How did you find us guys?" Ai asked.

"We were waiting for you to come back to professor Agasa's house, but you weren't coming, so we became worried about you and tried to contact you using our transmitters, but you didn't answer, so we asked Hakase to track your transmitters, and while we were following the signal with Hakase's car, we met the police, that was investigating on a murder case. They told us that, probably, the culprits were a dangerous band of criminals. So we hypothesized that they had kidnapped you and decided to ask Takagi-keiji and Sato-keiji to come with us" Ayumi explained.

"And what about the culprits?" Conan asked, curious.

"Shiratori-san called us five minutes ago and told us that they had captured the three criminals at a block post in the opposite part of the city, they were trying to escape," Takagi told them.

"Conan-kun, Ai-chan, you should come with us to the Police Department for the depositions," Sato asked friendly, pointing to get in her car.

"Of course, Sato-keiji, and thanks for rescuing us" Conan replied while making his way to her car with Ai.

They sat together on the backseat, Sato went to the driving seat and Takagi sat beside her. As Sato started driving the car, the building exploded behind them. Shades of orange and yellow mixed with the dark blue sky's ones, creating such a beautiful view. The two fake 12-years-olds were now breathing normally, staring at each other while smiling and holding their hands on the seat.

"So now... I suppose we should begin with the preparations..." Conan said with a low voice but loud enough to be heard by Ai, who snickered genuinely.

Conan got closer to her and put a hand on her cheek, caressing it with his thumb. He approached her face with his, and was going to kiss her.

"Not now, Sato-keiji and Takagi-keiji could see us" she whispered.

"I don't care, right now I need to do it" he replied and immediately kissed her on the lips. She responded to the kiss, wrapping her arms around his neck.

Sato looked at the rearview mirror and saw the two of them kissing passionately. She smiled and decided to not ruin their kiss, waiting for them to break it before speaking.

"Looks like you two are really enjoying each other's company" Sato teased them with a friendly smirk on her face.

As Takagi heard her words, he instinctively turned his face back to look at Conan and Ai, who were now blushing madly.

"Well... Sato-keiji... you see... I and Ai-" Conan tried to explain while scratching the back of his head with a hand, with an extremely red face because of the embarrassment, until he was interrupted by Sato.

"You don't have to explain anything, Conan-kun" she reassured him.

"She's right, also because I think that things are pretty clear at this point" Takagi pointed out giggling cheerfully.

"Okay, but please, don't tell anyone about this, we don't want other people to know... right, Ai?" he looked at her asking for help to get out of the awkward situation.

"Conan is right, I'm quite an introvert person, and I don't like to be the center of attention" she specified confidently, taking full control of the situation.


"Don't worry guys, we know what that means from experience" Takagi reassured them as he glanced at Sato, who winked at him in the sign of understanding.

"Thanks to both for understanding" Conan ended their conversation as Ai rested her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes. He smiled and then gently leaned his head over hers, closing his eyes too and enjoying the moment.

*END FLASHBACK*


"... what a sweet memory," Conan said moaning for the pleasure of living again the last moment of that story. "You know what? Thinking of that moment on the backseat of Sato-keiji's car is making me want to kiss you like that right now..." he whispered seductively.

Ai was still leaning her head on his chest with her eyes closed and her arms around him, enjoying his warmth and listening to his heartbeat.

"Do it and you'll be dead in two minutes" she suddenly replied with her threatening and cold tone, not moving an inch and remaining with her eyes closed.

"What? Why do you have to be so cold even now?" he asked, being surprised and dumbfounded by her behavior. He expected her to allow him to kiss her like that time since she always enjoyed their passionate kisses.

She smirked and giggled a bit. "Just kidding" she added teasingly.

"Oh, man, you manage to make fun of me every time" he replied, frustrated.

"It's because I know that you like it when I tease you" she whispered.

"Have you ever asked me? Which proofs do you have to affirm that?" he questioned, trying to deny the evidence, unaware of being blushing. It was true that even though in the first moment he would hate her for teasing him like that, he quite liked this side of her personality.

She opened her eyes, getting her head up from his chest, and looked at his face. "You're blushing, and you do every time I tease you, and that's a crushing proof" she stated with her usual smirk on her face.

"Well... you win... again..." he gave up, resigned, "... but since you were kidding... you may now come here" he then held the back of her head with his hand and gently pushed her face towards his, making their lips crash onto each other. They continued kissing intensely, only breaking the kisses to gasp for air for three of four seconds. He then brought a hand on her cheek and the other one on her back, closing the gap between their bodies. She, on the other side, was ruffling his hair with a hand, bringing the other hand on his cheek.

Ten minutes later, she was still completely laying on his body, with her head resting under his chin, breathing on his neck. He was stroking her hair while holding her waist with the other hand.

"You can't even imagine what I would do to do this every night," Conan said with a wistful voice.

"Actually, I think I've found the solution to this problem," she said softly, planting some kisses on his neck, "instead of living here alone like a hermit five days a week... you could move to Hakase's house and sleep there... with me... every night...before our school days... and then... since being just the two of us alone is nice... we would still live and sleep here alone... on the days before the ones when we don't have school... this way... the kids wouldn't notice the change... because you already have breakfast, lunch and dinner at Hakase's place... and when they'd meet us in the morning before 'escorting' us to school... they won't notice that you'll have slept there... because they already find you at Hakase's place every morning... and we've already told them that you have breakfast there... so... no problem..." she exposed her thoughts between a kiss and another.

He was stunned by her idea. 'How the hell did I not think about it before?' he thought to himself. He then held her cheeks with both of his hands, stopping her from continuing kissing his neck, and brought her face closer to his, giving her a long kiss on the lips.

"I love you, Ai" he whispered gently.

"Yeah, I know" she smirked, the chuckled, and so did he.

"Oh come on, say that," he said. She rolled her eyes.

"Mmmm... let me think about it" she replied sarcastically.

"Come on pleeeeease... do it for me" he implored, wearing his puppy eyes. She smiled looking at them and decided to make him happy, so she brought her face very close to his ear and whispered: "I love you too".

A genuine smile appeared on Conan's face, just like the smile of a child who has just received a toy from his parents.

"It's already 2:00 in the morning, we should sleep now..." she remarked looking at the clock on the bedside table, then she gave him one last kiss on the lips before leaning her head on his neck.

"Goodnight, corpse-magnet"

"Goodnight, evil-eyed yawny girl".

THE END


And that's the end of the first story, did you like it?