Detective Conan: The Yellow Sheets Alibi (Part 2)
Conan sat soaking in the bath Ran had run for him, his face half submerged and breathing out bubbles while he was lost deep in thought. What had happened to him? He understood why he wet the bed, he'd dranken too much water and underestimated the strength of the relaxant in the medicine Haibara had given him. But why had he gotten so distraught over it? He knew Ran would never hurt him (not while in the body of a child, at least.) Then he remembered back to that cursed dream he'd had, that feeling of hopelessness and immaturity. The dream must have carried more than his empty bladder into the waking world. Conan usually took his shrunken condition in stride but that dream still lingered in his mind. He really hoped this new medicine would be the one to finally bring him back to his teenage body.
Meanwhile Ran was hard at work trying to erase any trace of the accident before Conan was finished taking his bath. She threw his soiled clothes in the wash and ran a fan in his room to help air it out. The futon, on the other hand, would have to be hung out to dry on the balcony. She cleaned the large wet spot on it as best she could but there was no way around how to dry it and get rid of the smell of lingering urine.
Ran felt bad for Conan. The young boy had seen dozens of murder victims ever since he had moved in with her and her detective father but she had never seen that look of fear and humiliation in him. She wanted it to be completely in the past for Conan. She needed to get him out of the house and away from the scene of his embarrassment.
Conan emerged from the bathroom just as Ran was finishing a phone call with a "okay, see you soon." He had put on the casual clothes Ran had laid out for him but, to his surprise, he had some amount of difficulty putting on his shorts. It seemed bending his waist and reaching down caused a slight tinge of pain in his abdomen. 'Growing pains?' he thought optimistically. He'd have to ask Haibara if it was a symptom of the drug.
Before he could reach his room, however, Ran rushed into the hall and said with some urgency "Oh Conan, I forgot but I'm running late to meet up with Sonoko to do a bit of shopping. I was thinking we could buy you some new shirts while we're out, you're starting to outgrow yours."
Conan wasn't dumb, he heard the fan going at full blast in his room and he knew he hadn't grown an inch in quite a while (it felt like decades to him.) But he appreciated Ran's efforts to try and make him feel better and more mature all the same. He put on a childish, enthusiastic smile and gave her an approving "sure!"
As Ran was locking the door on their way out Conan couldn't help but notice his futon hanging from the balcony on the third floor of their building. He cringed and averted his gaze, suddenly confronted with the effort his girlfriend put into cleaning up for him after he'd peed the bed.
o-o-o-o-o-o
A short walk later Conan and Ran found themselves at the train station waiting for Sonoko's train to arrive. Since Conan had skipped breakfast, Ran bought him a Coke with some melon bread from the station kiosk. Halfway through eating his snack Conan felt a pulse from his bladder and realized he'd forgotten to use the toilet this morning.
Wanting to try and run to the bathroom before Sonoko arrived, Conan began shoving the melon bread into his mouth. However, after a couple of gigantic bites Conan swallowed a bit of it wrong and started coughing vigorously.
"Slow down, I hadn't realized you were so hungry." Ran said over Conan's coughing fit. She noticed him reaching for his Coke between coughs and grabbed for it herself, untwisting the caps and pressing it to his lips. Conan, in his state of agitation, desperately nursed on the soda until it was empty, at which point he'd stopped coughing but was still trying to clear his throat. Ran began patting him firmly on the back. "There there," she said.
"That's good Ran, don't forget to burp him after he finishes his bottle."
Conan, caught by surprise, began coughing again as he and Ran looked up to see Sonoko Suzuki standing above them with her arms on her hips laughing at her own joke. Conan's embarrassment was immediate as he turned away and started coughing in his fist (partially to help hide his red cheeks.)
"Hey, Sonoko," Ran said as she stood up and went in for a hug. "I didn't see you come up."
"Hi," Conan said dryly, finally finished coughing.
"Hi Ran, hey brat," Sonoko said. "So we're going to Harajuku today? Man, I haven't been there in years. What gives?"
"Well I was hoping we might be able to find Conan a couple of new shirts since he's grown so big," Ran said, looking intently into her friend's eyes hoping she gets the message.
"Conan? Grow big? If anything he's gotten smaller since the last time I've seen him," Sonoko said, Ran's gaze going right over her head.
"Really, Sonoko? I think you have too," Conan retorted, looking down at her breasts just long enough to let the insult sting but not long enough for Sonoko to accuse the child of perversion. So instead she was left to pout as the 3 of them boarded the line to Harajuku.
o-o-o-o-o-o
A few minutes into the ride Conan had remembered his original problem. His bladder was back with a vengeance to remind him. He knew he had about 5 stops to go before they reached their transfer station. He was uncomfortable but he knew he could make it.
Meanwhile Sonoko was telling Ran about the various guys she had been courting. As Shinichi he had little interest in the topic, as Conan he had virtually zero. So instead he was left to distract himself by looking around the train. The seats were full and and he was too short to look over the passengers, so he couldn't look out the window. There were various ads on the subway. Conan perused them with passive interest.
The train rolled to a stop. 'One down' Conan thought as a flood or passengers began boarding the train. Before the doors closed the already cramped car became even more packed. Conan looked around again but all he saw was the legs of his fellow passengers.
Conan squeezed Ran's hand tighter. With nothing to distract him all he could think about was his aching bladder. To make matters worse it was filling fast. He cursed himself for finishing that Coke and for not having enough of the melon bread to soak it up.
A few minutes passed and the train stopped again. Hardly anyone boarded or left the car and in a moment they were back to moving. '3 more stops,' he thought to himself. But the urge was growing and the closer the train moved to his stop the more the anticipation seemed to build. He found it strange that he'd hardly noticed his need to urinate 20 minutes ago and now it was getting more dire by the second. He unwittingly started bouncing from one leg to the next.
Ran noticed Conan impatiently fidgeting in the corner of her eye. "Conan, we'll be there soon. Don't move around so much when the train is full," she told the child before going back to her conversation.
Conan stopped and started trying to regain his composure. He'd let Ran lecture him, he didn't want to tell her he needed to go to the bathroom and risk reminding her about his unfortunate morning. But the pressure was building.
As he stood there trying to think of anything else besides his desperate urge to pee he felt a sudden surge come from his bladder and his free hand instinctively grabbed for his crotch to block the flow. He'd never been this desperate for a toilet in his entire life but he was still a teenager at heart, damnit. Once the urge had passed he took his hand away to maintain his dignity. The tops of his legs glued together to compensate, however. He figured he could get away with that much.
The train stopped again and cleared out a little. Not that it mattered to Conan, he could no longer afford distraction from his growing urge. He needed vigilance to get through this with dry pants and dignity.
But with all his focus on his bladder and his legs in such an unnatural position he was completely unprepared for the sudden jump forward as the train started moving again. He lost balance for a second and pivoted his leg out to catch his stance but in doing so he lost the only thing acting as a dam on his bladder. He felt a spurt of warm urine shoot out into his underwear and both of his hands instinctively went to grasp his boyhood, ripping his hand away from Ran's in the process.
"Conan?" Ran said as he felt the boy's hand rip apart from her own. She looked down at him and saw him with both hands clutching himself and his legs pressed together like locked sliding doors. "Eh? Are you alright?" she asked, though it was obvious what his problem was.
"F-fine. Just need a toilet. When we get to the stop," he answered, trying to play it cool. He'd managed to ebb the flow but he still felt a slight dampness.
"See, that's what you get for downing your bottle so quickly," Sonoko teased. Ran shot her a glare. Conan couldn't spare the energy to think of a comeback.
"Do you want to get out at the next station?" Ran asked, trying to play this delicately while also not wanting Conan to embarrass himself further by going past the breaking point.
"I'm fine," Conan said a bit too quickly for Ran's comfort.
Sonoko, still sore from the weight of Ran's pointed gaze, thought on her feet. "Oh, that reminds me! I think I read about a really trendy new glasses shop near the next stop. Do you guys mind if we go check it out?" She knew they wouldn't find anything of the sort near the station but looking down at young Conan, clearly desperate and in pain, she felt a bit of remorse for teasing him like that.
"Oh yeah, let's do that," Ran said. She smiled at her friend, Sonoko was a bad actor but she'd hoped Conan was too distracted to notice she was lying.
The young detective, of course, saw right through her. But he couldn't worry about that now. Holding back onto Ran's hand, he clutched his young package in his other hand to ease some of the burden from his aching bladder.
The train stopped again, this time quickly enough to cause even Sonoko and Ran to have to brace to keep themselves up. Conan was caught completely off guard, his hand ripped away from Ran as he fell to the floor.
"Conan!" Ran exclaimed, worriedly. Conan was able to catch his fall, landing on his hands and knees. But as the brief moment of disorientation wore off he came to the realization that he had begun peeing. He tightened his muscles and shot one of his hands back to his crotch, stopping the flow. The amount of strength it took for him to go from full stream to nothing left no power in his body to do anything else.
Ran, seeing the boy had caught himself, began to worry about the doors closing. She ran up to Conan and lifted him by the armpits, causing the boy to lose another small spurt. Ran grabbed Conan's hand and pulled him out of the train car, with each step causing Conan to let loose a little more. The three of them barely reached the platform as the doors slid to a shut behind them.
Ran immediately began to lead the way, pulling Conans arms with Sonoko trailing. But as she pulled she met resistance. She turned back to see the child desperately holding himself with one hand. She looked down and saw a small wet spot on the very front of Conan's shorts, peeking out from behind his clenched hand, a thin line leading partially down one side of his shorts. She also noticed a few small beads of liquid slowly trailing down Conan's calf.
Conan had finally caught himself. The small bit that escaped him hardly eased his desperation, however. It's then that he noticed Ran looking back at him, trying to lead the way. He took a step forward. No good, he felt another bit of pee flow out into his already moistened underwear and he stopped again to regain himself.
Ran saw the tiny trickle run down his leg and into his sock when the boy took the step. She looked up and saw Sonoko, standing on the platform looking equal parts awkward and concerned.
"Go on ahead, we'll meet you in front of the station," Ran told Sonoko. She knew what she had to do but she knew Conan would never accept it with that woman around.
Once Sonoko was out of site Ran leaned down in front of Conan. "Conan, if you're in pain just let go. There's no shame in it, we can always buy you new pants."
This was of absolutely no comfort to Conan. He looked forward and into Ran's eyes, tears welling up behind his thick glasses. "Please no…" he said quietly, pleadingly.
"Then we have no choice," Ran said. In a single movement, showing the accumulated experience of all her martial arts training, Ran swooped Conan into her arms; his back resting on one arm and his legs on the other.
Conan had not expected this at all and let out a small stream as he went up, which flowed down into the seat of his pants. There, being cradled by Ran, Conan was free to use both of his hands to help him stop the flow again. He shuddered for a brief moment as he felt the liquid on his rear. Then he glanced up. The two of them were getting extremely strange looks as Ran hurriedly made her way through the station. He hated it but he could worry about how much he hated it later. He had other things on his mind.
Ran rounded a corner and started for the the men's room before a thought hit her. In his state he wouldn't be able to make it the entire way on his own without drenching his pants. She had no choice. She pivoted and made her way to the women's restroom.
Conan saw where he was being carried and became worried. "Wait, what!" he protested. He began to struggle, shooting his hands behind him to push off of Ran's arm. But the struggle made him lose control again, a full stream now began to release and pool up underneath him. "Ah!" he exclaimed, shooting his hands back down. He regained some control but not enough as spurt after spurt freed itself from his grasp.
Ran pushed open the door into the restroom and saw a woman using the mirror. She was in a hurry but she still smiled and gave the woman a slight bow. "Sorry," she said. The woman smiled at them.
Conan saw the woman as, spasm by spasm, his bladder drained. Splurt, splurt, splurt, splurt. Each one coming faster than the one before and lasting longer than the previous.
Finally Ran opened a stall door, locking it behind her and set Conan down on his feet. This sudden change in gravity caused Conan to completely lose control. The boy threw aside his hands in shock as his bladder began to uncontrollably empty. Ran, though, didn't waste a second. She undid the loop on his shorts and pulled down the boys garments, leaving his underwear on so that the stream kept flowing down Conan's legs and not onto her. She then lifted the peeing boy and sat him on the toilet.
The sound of his pee trickling into water brought Conan an instance of pure bliss. He leaned back on the seat and let his head relax back onto his shoulders, pee running out of him without a care in the world. He smiled a deep smile, like every problem he had was being drained out of him. He felt like that moment lasted an eternity.
He snapped out of it a moment later when he felt something at his feet. He looked down to see one foot dangling off the toilet and the other in Ran's hands, taking his shoe off. She was smirking slightly.
It then hit Conan. There he was, on the toilet, in front of his girlfriend. Peeing. Worse still, peeing freely and uncontrollably into his underwear. He thought about trying to stop the flow but with his muscles so drained he didn't even know where to begin. Instead he sat there, limply, as Ran removed his shoes. Tears started to well up in his eyes but he tried to hold them in, not wanting Ran to see. It was no use. Tears began to poor down his cheeks. 'I can't even hold that in' he thought in shame, making himself cry even harder.
The last bit of pee escaped the boy just as Ran had removed his socks. He was still crying, small pouts coming from his lips. "There, there" Ran kept saying, interspersed with the occasional "it's okay."
Ran began to remove the boy's shorts. "Wahh!" he shrieked, slightly hysterically. 'I have to stop this!' he thought to himself. 'I have to regain my composure and show Ran I can handle this myself.' He began to calm as ran pulled out one foot, then the other.
She held the shorts up and examined them. There was a noticeable patch right on the front going from thigh to thigh and into the zipper. Her eyes moved down to see a wet line running down the entire length of one of the legs. 'The line isn't too thick,' she thought to herself. 'Could have been worse. At least his other leg is mostly dry.' She turned the shorts around and presented them to Conan. "See, not too bad. We can hide that no problem until it dries off."
Conan's grimace begged to differ, however. He'd looked at the backside when Ran was holding the shorts up. He saw a small spot on the butt and became hopeful that maybe it wouldn't be as bad as it actually was.
Ran, too, took this opportunity to look at the backside. She was proud of Conan for holding it in as much as he could. His bottom had barely gotten wet. She placed the shorts with the rest of his clothes on the coat hanger.
Ran reached past Conan's head to flush the toilet then grabbed the small boy by his armpits and stood him on the floor. His bare feet hit the cold tile and it sent a shiver up his naked legs, into his soaked undies and right into his spine. The half nude boy stood staring at the ground, avoiding eye contact with Ran who was staring down at him. Ran squatted down to be level with Conan and grabbed the boy by his shoulders.
"Hey, it's happened to everyone at one point. Don't worry about it," she said reassuringly. Conan looked up and smiled, feeling some comfort. But then she followed it by saying "Okay, now let's get those dirty undies off you." With that she slid her hands down his waist and to his hips. Conan literally jumped back, smacking his spine against the toilet and bouncing forward into Ran. Ran couldn't help but let out a small laugh. "Oh my god," she said, catching the boy. "Are you okay?" she asked, standing the boy back up and trying to take on a more sympathetic tone.
"Ahh, yeah I'm fine," Conan said through grit teeth.
"Alright, alright, I'll let you handle it from here then. Take off those wet undies and put the rest of your clothes back on. It will be uncomfortable but we can find you some new ones when we get to Harajuku," she told Conan. "I'll be right outside if you need me."
Ran left the stall, closing it behind her for Conan to lock. This bit of dignity he would not allow Ran to take away from him, he can take off his own wet undies thank you very much. He began to pull his undies down but felt that same pain in his gut that he'd felt earlier when trying to put his shorts on, only it hurt even more now. He winced at the pain. Hitting the toilet seat must have exacerbated whatever the pain was. He let his underwear drop the rest of the way, hitting the floor with a soft wet "smack." He kicked the underwear aside and grabbed his shorts, standing on tippy toes to pull them off the hanger. As he leaned down to put his foot through the first leg he felt that twinge of pain, stronger than ever as the more he bent the worse it felt. He was determined. He tried again, bearing through the pain as he got his first foot through. Then again with his second. He began to pull them up to his waist but his newest twinge of pain was so sharp his knees nearly buckled and he lost his grip.
"Aahh" Conan moaned in pain through his breath. He reached back down to grab his shorts, now resting on the floor, but the pain was too much. He needed help.
"Ran…" Conan said timidly. No answer. "Ran?" No answer. Conan, his shorts around his feet, opened the stall door and waddled out to look for Ran. As he exited the stall he was confronted with the fact that he'd not only forgotten he was in public but he'd forgotten he was in the woman's bathroom. He saw no sign of Ran but the same woman who was at the mirror when he'd entered was still there doing her makeup.
She turned around to look at Conan and their eyes locked. Conan froze and turned a deep shade of red. The woman began to giggle at the boy. "S-sorry," Conan stuttered as he quickly backed himself into the stall. He stood there mortified at a random woman seeing his junk before realizing that if she'd been out there the whole time she'd heard the commotion he'd made in the stall too. 'I live here now,' Conan thought to himself. 'I can never leave until I'm sure that woman is gone.'
With no help coming and not wanting to humiliate himself further Conan gritted his teeth and launched himself forward like the arm of a catapult. "Aah" he groaned, the pain being excruciating. But it worked. He was able to grab his shorts and pull them up as he straightened his posture. The cold, wet fabric resting on his thighs was impossible to ignore.
He looked up to see Ran had left his socks on the coat hanger as well, far out of his grasp. 'For the best' he thought, he'd never be able to bare putting those on himself in this state. He slid his feet into his sneakers, sockless, and felt a squish in the soul of his shoe. He cringed.
He looked under the stall door to where the woman was standing. 'What could she possibly be doing,' he thought to himself angrily, cursing the woman's vanity.
'How long have I been in here?' he wondered. Sonoko was waiting out front and Ran was waiting for him just outside the bathroom door. He had no choice, he'd have to face the woman again. So he made it fast. He opened the stall door and made his way for the exit, stealing a glare at the woman who was looking at him through the bathroom mirror.
He opened the door and quickly shut it behind him then looked over at Ran who was standing in front of the wall right next to him. But worse, he saw Sonoko had joined back up and was looking down at him with an expression of worry and amusement. Conan frantically turned his body in a way where Sonoko wouldn't be able to see the stain on his shorts.
"All better Conan?" Ran asked with a smile.
"Eh, yeah," Conan replied.
"Did you wash your hands and throw away your trash?" she asked.
Conan didn't answer as he realized he'd left his wet underwear on the floor. His silence told Ran all she needed to know.
"Come on Conan let's wash up," she said, opening the door for the boy.
'Damn,' he thought, kicking himself for his carelessness. The two of them re-entered the restroom. Conan avoided looking at the vain woman using the mirror and the two of them made straight for the stall he had occupied. Ran bent down and picked up Conan's tighty (now-less-than) whities. He had saturated them so heavily that a few small beads of urine dripped to the floor.
Ran looked up. "Oh Conan, your socks," she said while attempting a whisper that would make it possible for Conan to hear here from their height difference. She overshot her volume and the words echoed in the silent bathroom.
"I...couldn't reach," Conan admitted, barely audible.
Ran grabbed them off the hanger and whispered, again too loudly, "It's for the best. This one is a bit soaked."
Conan sighed. At this point it was all he could do. The two of them made their way out of the stall and to the trash with Ran holding the soiled clothes a distance in front of her as to not let any pee drip on herself. Conan looked into the mirror and saw the reflection of the woman who looked at the items in Ran's hand and then looked at Conan before giving a soft giggled. The woman turned around, stashing her lipstick in her purse and walking past the two just as Ran placed his soiled underclothes in the trash.
Conan stood there brooding as Ran washed her hands. He hated this. Even since the first time when he was an actual child growing up he had never felt so much like a child. He'd hoped maybe Ran could forget the wet bed but he knew she would never forget this; cleaning up after the boy who had wet himself in public.
Ran picked up Conan by the armpits from behind and helped him wash his hands. She set him down and said "There, we're all clean now."
Conan hardly felt clean. His wet shorts still rested against his skin with urine drying on his leg. He tried to put on his fake, childish smile for Ran but he couldn't seem to muster it.
"You know, it's actually sort of hot out today," Ran said to the boy before pulling off her sweater. "Can you do me a huge favor and hold onto my sweater for a bit?"
Conan looked up. The ploy was obvious: hold onto the sweater so he had something to hide the wet patch on his lap and leg. Still not completely able to look her in the eyes, Conan reached out a hand and took the sweater. He was grateful for the lifeline. Ran turned for the door but Conan spoke up.
"Ran," he said. She stopped and turned around to face him, looking perplexed.
"Thank you," he said, finally forcing him to make eye contact.
For her part, Ran simply smiled and cocked her head to the side. "For what?" she responded, turning around and opening the door for the two of them.
Sonoko was still out front waiting. She looked down and saw Conan holding Ran's sweater suspiciously in front of himself. Not that it mattered, she'd gotten a full view of the damage the first time he came out. 'Poor brat,' she thought to herself. She decided to try and not tease Conan today, for once.
"So I went and checked out that glasses shop," she commented casually. "Complete bust, so behind the times." The three of them basked in the shared lie for a second, hoping it would cement itself if left undisturbed.
Sonoko continued. "Anyway, you guys ready?"
"Yup," replied Ran. Conan nodded and the three of made their way back to the platform.