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Shinichi had become quite good at cooking, he thought, but his daughter Masako would never say so. She was a stubborn child, and even gentle teenagers seldom compliment their parents anyway. One time he tried to bond with her through a cooking exercise, but she objected to it right away. For one thing, she liked her mom's recipes better, and he didn't know them very well.

That Sunday, Masako didn't sing her father's praises for his fox udon or his encyclopedic knowledge of why it was called fox udon even though there was no fox meat in it. She had tests to study for, and her friends were busy, and she was carefully avoiding her boyfriend, so she retreated to her room for the afternoon. He reminded her that it was an important day. Her mother was with Aunt Akemi. It was a time for family and bonding. Masako understood that, but what did he want her to do?

He thought about her question for some time, sitting at the computer—her mother's computer. He'd seldom used it. He'd always been on the go. He was a detective, after all, but she'd run simulations of proteins on her computer. It was a powerful machine, built for science, and she kept meticulous records and backups.

It was her penchant for backups that inspired him to power on the computer and do some looking around. She'd never felt the need to hide her work and research from him, and he wasn't interested in all that anyway. Her photos and videos were organized into distinct folders for every occasion. It was thanks to her great sense of orderliness that he found some gems—videos of the two of them in the past, before Masako's birth.

He waited for Masako to come down on a break from studying, and he invited her to her mother's computer to take a look. The videos were old, of course. It had taken him a while to find a video player compatible with the old format, and they lacked the resolution and color gamut of newer methods, but they were still videos. They weren't hard to make sense of. The first video was of the two of them at Professor Agasa's (long overdue) wedding. He'd had the privilege of being a groomsman, her a bridesmaid. The Professor had devised a spiral contraption meant to symbolize his and his bride's mutual and eternal love. It had worked mostly as designed. Everyone thought it was just like him, but it was still such a spectacle that Shinichi and Shiho could hardly suppress their amusement as they followed the bride and groom out.

Masako watched over his shoulder, her eyes following the two of them as they walked, even up to when Shinichi's mother gave Shiho her phone back. "Mom looks the same," Masako said, "but I didn't realize you used to be so young. When did you get old, Dad?"

What a little charmer she was.

Still, Masako couldn't hide her fascination as Shinichi went through a few old videos, such as Shiho's thesis defense or their honeymoon on Kaua'i. Shinichi sneakily stepped away, claiming he was thirsty, and when he returned, Masako had taken his chair. He brought another chair over from the writing desk. When one video finished, Masako asked him what else he wanted to see, and they navigated the tree of folders—of memories—as if climbing into the past.

"I never knew you two were so mushy," Masako remarked after a kiss went barely hidden off-camera. Her mother had seldom shown that side of her in front of Masako, so it didn't surprise Shinichi to hear that. Shiho had always put a premium on maintaining order, and she'd felt some physical displays should be kept private. Masako's growth and development had been her priority.

No one could know when loved ones would exit one's life, but it was bound to happen sooner or later. Friends drift apart, people fall in and out of love, and everybody dies in the end. These fates weren't worth fearing. He'd seen too many people act rashly because they were afraid of loss or death. Some became criminals—lying, cheating, stealing, or killing to hold on to what was fleeting. Others gave in to despair, letting their lives fall apart around them. He hoped to avoid those fates. Seeing those videos of Shiho from the past reminded him of just how unexpectedly someone could enter one's life. The first time he saw her, he couldn't have imagined what would happen to them or that behind her icy, aloof demeanor was somenoe who would give up a lot for friends and family. These were important lessons—for him and Masako. She'd enter high school soon, but she already had a boyfriend—and he could end up going somewhere else, possibly out of town. "Enjoy it while you can," said Shinichi. "Don't let worrying about the future spoil what you have right now."

Masako seemed to take that to heart. Rather than stay in hiding, she decided to get out of the house for a bit. Maybe she would see her boyfriend. They could do some studying together. They could worry about getting into high school before worrying about what was next after that. Of course she took off without so much as a thank you, but that was all right. Shinichi would find a way to hold it against her later.

As afternoon turned to evening, Shinichi thought about making dinner himself, but he decided against it. The house was quiet. He was all alone. It was a good time to read, so went to his library and picked out a copy of The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. It was a well-worn tome with a faded green front, and inside the cover, there was a short handwritten message. "I will never understand how you can read the same mysteries over and over and still find them intriguing, but please don't change. It makes shopping for you easier. -SM"

Shinichi smiled at that, but he got only a few pages into "The Final Problem" before a sound at the front door interrupted him. Someone was struggling with the lock.

"Is that you?" he asked through the door.

"No."

Chuckling to himself, he opened the door, and Shiho came in with her arms full of flowers. Apparently Akai had been by the grave again and left an extravagant display of his love and regret for Akemi's death. It was just too much, and she couldn't just leave all those flowers there. Shinichi took one bouquet off her hands, and they spent the next five minutes trying to round up some pots or vases. He explained that Masako had gone to see her boyfriend for the first time in two weeks, which Shiho thought was a positive change. She chided him for not starting dinner. "What were you doing while I was out visiting my siter's grave? Reading Holmes stories again?" Well, that was partly true, but it wasn't just any Holmes story, or any copy for that matter. That mollified her a little. "So what did you do all afternoon?" she asked with just enough edge in her voice to make clear she wanted a good answer.

"I showed Masako how amazing you are," said Shinichi.

That intrigued her. "Go on."

"You remember the Professor's love spiral?"

She made a face that almost made him burst out laughing. "I told him not to do that, but he just had to."

"I found the video. There was an absolutely stunning bridesmaid."

"Oh really?"

"Yes, and she couldn't hold a candle to you."

Shiho stared back at him, speechless for a moment before her wits came back to her. "You mean to say you paid attention to another woman? I should be unhappy about that." How unhappy could she be, though, with such a contended smile on her face?

Still, Shinichi promised to make it up to her. He brought his laptop over so they could watch the old videos while making dinner together. In the end, they watched for hours, through dinner and after, as they waited for Masako to come home.

For CoAi Secret Santa 2018 - Prompt 'Movie'