"Are you planning on getting married soon?"

To be fair, Shinichi was not surprised when he heard the question from the reporter. The media had always been noisy and there had been speculations for years about the status of their relationship. Or more correctly, when they would take the natural next step.

Marriage.

Still, he couldn't help but frown at the TV. Questions like this had been coming up more and more lately, and it was getting old, fast.

"That's a little personal, don't you think?" Ran remarked, still smiling, but he could detect the bemused strain on her face.

How many times she had been bombarded with this question, he wondered. Probably more than he had. These days, Ran was the one who would get recognized and stopped on the street by people hoping to get a picture with her. Fifteen-year-old Shinichi would have chaffed at the lack of attention, but the person that he was now would beam in pride.

His girlfriend was a national treasure and a world karate champion, after all.

Still, their combined fame meant that the public would always be intensely curious about what was going on behind the curtains, so to speak. Sometimes, it didn't bother him that much, but most days, he wished they could just be left alone. He was getting very tired of reading articles like "10 reasons why Kudo Shinichi has not proposed to Mori Ran yet", followed by a lengthy quote from an anonymous source that was, supposedly, one of their close friends.

(All of his close friends avoided the press like the plague)

Truth be told, in the nine years that they had been dating, they had only discussed marriage a couple of times. Ran was not in a hurry to rush into anything, having seen first-hand what a failed marriage looked like and how it affected the child stuck in the middle. They might have been childhood best friends, but so had her parents.

Shinichi had thought once or twice that he would enjoy waking up to her every day and having mini versions of them running around immensely, but he was nothing if not rational. The fact remained was that these days, they could barely stay in the same place at the same time for any substantial period, let alone contemplating marriage.

Yet, he couldn't stop thinking about Mori Ran becoming Kudo Ran.

"So, how's it going with Miss Detective Agency? Put a ring on her finger yet?" Shiho asked casually one day when they meet up for lunch.

Shinichi rolled his eyes. Trust her to always be brutally straightforward about…well, everything.

"Saw that interview, didn't you?"

"Hard not to. It was all my students could talk about. I told them to shut it, but they didn't listen so I gave them extra assignments," she smirked. "I figured that if they have time to gossip then they certainly have time to do some extra work."

"Has anyone ever told you that you're a sadist?"

"Oh, couple of times. I don't let criticisms get to me," Shiho replied breezily.

"Of course you don't," Shinichi said dryly.

They ate in silence for a while, taking in the sound of life around them. It was almost Christmas and everything was getting busier. Ran would only be back a few days before the 24th, but Shinichi had already found himself impatiently counting down the days until she was home.

"I've been thinking about it, you know," he said suddenly, "Proposing. To her."

"Really?"

"I mean…yeah. We've talked about it before but lately…I don't know. I just keep thinking: I want to share a home with her, I want to make a life with her, I want to wake up next to her every day. And I'm not saying this just because we've barely seen each other lately."

Shiho stared at him. "That's really…cheesy, you know."

"Way to ruin the moment, Miyano," he rolled his eyes.

"You know there's another option, right? You can always live in sin like Shuuichi and me."

Shinichi laughed. "That would never fly with both of our parents. Mine are surprisingly traditional when it comes to things like this."

"Well, they are still Japanese parents, after all."

"Anyways, I don't know, I just want to be a family with her. That makes sense, right?"

Shiho regarded him, a serious look on her face. "What are you going to do then?"

It didn't take a genius detective to figure out the answer.

"You know I'm not the best person for this job, right?" Heiji asked for the umpteenth time as they visited yet another jewellery shop.

"Yeah, yeah, you've made your opinion quite clear since we first embarked on this…adventure," Shinichi said, exasperated.

Who would have thought that looking for one little ring would be this much trouble?

"I'm just saying, since we clearly hadn't made any progress in the last few hours. What about that one?" he pointed towards a sapphire ring.

"Nah, too…ostentatious. Definitely not Ran's type." Shinichi pinched the bridge of his nose in a tired manner and regarded his best friend. When he spoke, the note of jealousy was clear in his voice, "You totally lucked out when you could use your mom's engagement ring to propose to Kazuha, you know that?"

Heiji snorted. "Uh huh, saved me from all these troubles. I don't get it…why didn't you ask your mom?"

"Probably because my parents…well, my dad lost the ring, so that's that."

"You're joking?!" Heiji exclaimed, his face a comical mix between shocked and amused.

"Nope," Shinichi replied as he leaned down to inspect a simple princess cut diamond ring. It would have been nice, had the stone not been the size of a golf ball. "Apparently they were at the scene of a murder and he used the ring to demonstrate something. Long story short, it disappeared."

"And your dad's still alive?" Heiji asked incredulously.

"Shocking, right?" Shinichi snorted, remembering the murderous look on his mom's face when she recalled the story. He suspected that his mom was still holding on to this till this day - she was anything but the forgive-and-forget type.

"Tell me about it," Heiji muttered. Suddenly, he straightened up and tapped Shinichi on the shoulder. "Don't turn around, but there's a photographer across the street."

"Well…shit."

Shinichi had never truly contemplated homicide as much as he did when he saw the latest headline running across every gossip columns and social media: "Kudo Shinichi ring shopping with best friend Hattori Heiji: Expect an announcement to be made soon!" followed by a grainy picture of him slouching in a jewellery shop. Never mind that he looked like a homeless bum who was about to pull out a gun and rob the shop, just the fact alone that this was on the news meant that his surprise was ruined.

Now every person in Japan along with their pet cat would know that he was planning to propose to his girlfriend.

"You'd think the journalists in this country have better things to do," Shinichi fumed, slamming his phone down on the table.

His dad gave him a sympathetic look.

"Oh come on Shin-chan, for someone who claims to be so smart, you're being particularly dense about this," his mom remarked breezily. "You know the press has been obsessed about this for months. If you don't want to be discovered, you should have been more stealthy."

"So it's my fault?"

"That's not what she meant-" his dad started.

His mom nodded, cutting his dad off. "Absolutely not. What I meant is that it is useless to argue about what the press should and shouldn't do. They will keep at this whether you like it or not. Don't waste time getting angry about this."

"It's just…unfair that she has to find out about it this way!" Shinichi almost snapped. He had never been the temperamental type, but the way the press had been hounding them could try the patient of a saint. "She's on a world championship tournament but the only thing those journalists will be focusing on is this! I don't want the focus to be taken off of what she has achieved."

"And I understand, Shin-chan, but what's done is done. What you need to be thinking about right now, is what you will do next. Are you going to sue the photographer who captured you at the shop, or are you going to fix this for her?" his mom asked pointedly.

Shinichi rubbed his temple. The answer to his mom's question was easy. What was difficult was figuring out how.

Ran's flight had been cancelled.

There was a snow storm happening in the UK and they didn't know when the weather would clear up enough for planes to safely take off, so she was stuck there for the next few days. Most likely, she wouldn't be able to make it home before Christmas.

When Shinichi found out about the news, he felt a strong urge to hit something. He had planned to take her out for the day to all of her favourite places, before bringing her back to the kindergarten where they first met and proposed to her there. He had asked Ran's mom to show him how to fold the flower that Ran had once folded for him to put the ring in there. He had even arranged with the teachers and the guards to let him in to their old classroom for the night.

It would have been perfect.

Until this freaky snow storm happened and Shinichi had to cancel all of his plans. He had a strong suspicion that he must have pissed one of the gods up there at some point during his twenty six years of life.

"You look like your pet cat has just died, Shinichi. And I know you don't have pets," Ran remarked through Skype the day after she had told him that her flight was cancelled. The concern was evident in her voice as she asked, "Are you okay?"

Shinichi sighed. "It's okay, Ran. Don't worry. I just miss you, that's all."

"I miss you, too," she said, giving him a small smile. "But it'll just be a couple of days. I'll be back with you in no time. Meanwhile, you can spend Christmas with your parents. Isn't it the first time in a few years that all three of you are together for Christmas?"

"That's right," he replied moodily. It wasn't that he didn't like spending time with his parents, because he did. But he would much rather spend the day proposing to Ran and then revelling in the fact that in a few months, he would be waking up to her every morning and falling asleep next to her every night.

It would have been the best Christmas present he had ever received.

Alas, there was the possibility that Ran would say no to his proposal, but he had prepared himself for that as well. All he wanted was a proper chance to ask her.

But now, that would have to wait until gods knew how long.

"Cheer up, Shinichi. You're going to develop premature wrinkles at this rate," she teased and he wanted nothing more than to kiss her at that moment.

Shinichi wondered if she knew what was going on in his mind, if she had suspected that the reason why he was so upset about the snow storm was more than just because he missed her. She hadn't once mentioned the articles since they came out (she would have to be hiding under a rock to not know about them).

He had an inkling that she was waiting for him to bring it up and he would have, on Christmas's Eve when he proposed to her. Now that that was ruined, he didn't know how to bring it up without ruining whatever future surprises that he might plan.

But he also didn't want to ignore the elephant in the room. Ran hadn't had a run in with the press yet, but it was bound to happen and he didn't want her thrown into the deep end without letting her know about his intentions. Of course, he could lie and say that he was helping Heiji to look for a gift for Kazuha, but Shinichi didn't want to lie to her.

After all those times in high school, he had vowed to never lie to her again and he had no intention of going back on his words.

"Shinichi, is something wrong? You're being awfully quiet and you keep staring at a spot above my head. I'm starting to think there's a ghost in my room," Ran remarked jokingly, though she seemed somewhat worried.

"Ah, no…," he muttered, looking away.

"You sure?" she asked, still sceptical.

Shinichi stared at his hands, his mind racing. For the first time in his life, he felt out of his depth. He had no idea what was the best way to go about this. Wasn't he supposed to be some sort of genius? Why was he so nervous about this? He should know how to fix this situation….

"Willyoumarryme?" he blurted out suddenly, his words slurring together that they sound intelligible even to his ears. Once he realized what he had just said, he immediately clamped his mouth shut as he looked at Ran in horror.

She blinked owlishly at him. "What…what did you just say?"

Shinichi wanted to let out every curse word that he knew, but he wisely kept his mouth in check. What the hell was wrong with him? Why on earth did his mouth think that it would be a good idea to just blurt out the question like that? Proposals weren't supposed to happen through a damn Skype call!

"Shinichi," Ran said hesitantly. The pleading note in her voice was enough to snap him out of his stupor and he found himself straightening up.

No matter how much he cursed at himself, it wouldn't change the fact that he had just asked Ran to marry him. It wasn't supposed to happen this way, but when had his life went the way he wanted it to? He would have much preferred this to happen in better circumstances, but even through a Skype call, his intention and sincerity were the same.

He wanted to marry her, now or later.

And so with that thought in mind, he sucked in a deep breath and looked her in the eyes as he asked once again, calmly this time: "Mori Ran, will you marry me?"

She didn't say anything, just stared him with wide eyes. As the silence stretched on, Shinichi found himself shifting uncomfortable in his seat.

"This is the most terrible proposal in the history of terrible proposal. You deserve so much better than a Skype call with shoddy Internet connection, Ran. I had it all planned out…it would have been perfect. But then this storm happened and those damned articles and I just…I got a ring. I think you'd really like it," he rambled on when she still didn't say anything, nervousness seeping into his every words. "But if you want to say no, if you're not ready, I totally understand. You don't have to do anything that you don't want to do. And yeah, again, this is a terrible proposal-"

"Shinichi, shut up."

He immediately stopped talking. There were tears in her eyes when he peered at her anxiously and he felt his panic flared up.

"Oh shit, Ran, I didn't mean to-"

"I told you to shut up, didn't I?" she almost snapped, but there was not bite to her words. Much to his surprise, the corner of her lips curled up into a smile as tears continued to spill down her cheeks. "You're such a…you're the worst, you know that?"

He didn't have anything to say to that, because he was, wasn't he? But she was smiling, so that had to count for something, right?

"Yes."

"What?"

"Yes, I'll marry you, you idiot," she sniffed. "I can't believe you're doing this through Skype…"

"Sorry," he said, but his apology sounded almost insincere when he was smiling so much his face hurt. "I'll make it up to you, I promise."

She smiled, too, hands wiping away the tears. "You better."

"I will," he assured her, and as happiness blossomed inside his body, he felt compelled to add, "Till death do us part."

Because when it came to Mori Ran, Kudo Shinichi was a hopeless romantic like that.

Tbc.