Chapter 8 Summary: If you decided to skip chapter 8, basically this happens: Conan wakes up with more intense stomach pain that ripples throughout his limbs, he crawls downstairs (unable to stand) and begins breakfast, during breakfast he has a rather bad accident and Ran takes him upstairs for a bath where Ran gives him medicine (a painkiller) and then puts him in pull-ups for the day.
O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Fresh from his shower and breakfast, Conan sat on the couch and began watching TV with Ran. They cycled through a series of bad children's shows, then a series of bad tv day dramas, before settling on a fun variety talk show. Conan felt the painkiller numbing his body even more, easing his low level pain to a point where it only hurt when he moved. To his chagrin it also seemed to dampen his mind. He hoped it would make his mood swings more mild but he also hated that his usually sharp mind was being limited. He decided to embrace the painkillers intoxicating effect; afterall he was still sick.
Come the first commercial break Conan snapped out of his trance and realized he already felt a twinge in his bladder. He jumped up from the couch and took a moment to find his footing, the weakness in his legs and the dizziness in his mind taking their toll on his equilibrium.
"Need something?" Ran asked.
"No, just going to the bathroom," Conan responded, finding his center of balance.
Ran watched the child clumsily walk to the bathroom. She muted the TV until she heard a flush and a while later Conan rejoined her on the couch. Professor Agasa had told her there was a painkiller in the medicine but she hadn't expected it to be this strong. Her heart broke for Conan, who she knew must have been dealing with a great deal of pain up till now.
O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
The two continued their program until the next commercial, when Conan realized he had to go again. He stood from the couch and had another tough time finding his footing.
To Ran it looked like he was going to fall over. She leaned forward, ready to catch him, but he ended up alright.
"Are you okay?" Ran asked.
Conan nodded. "Just need the bathroom again," he responded.
Ran bit her lip as Conan walked to the restroom. Again, she muted the TV to make sure he didn't fall over or have an accident. She knew it was only a matter of time before his control would be at a point where he had to wear a full-on diaper, anyway. She considered just putting him in one today to keep him from having to keep getting up and down and possibly falling over but she knew Conan would never accept that. That's when she formed a plan.
When Conan rejoined her on the couch Ran asked him, "Wanna watch a movie instead of this?" If Conan was using the commercial breaks to remind him to go then she would just cut out the commercials.
"Sure," Conan said, apathetically. Ran's taste in movies wasn't great to begin with but when she took into account she needed to find one for a child to watch as well the movies became downright boring. "Which movie?" he asked.
"You pick. Whatever you want to watch," she answered.
Conan's face lit up. "Really? Cool!" he said, taking the remote from Ran. Conan, ever the mystery otaku, turned on the new movie adaptation of Agatha Christie's "Murder on the Orient Express."
The two watched it together. Ran found it interesting enough but Conan became enthralled. He knew who did it before the murder even occurred, of course. Partly because he was a brilliant detective himself but mostly because he'd already read the book.
Not long into the movie came the scene at night, which is when the murder took place. Conan's attention was intercepted by a sudden signal from his bladder saying he needed to go soon. He looked over at Ran, who seemed deeply invested in the scene, and decided to wait for a break in the action so they could pause the movie. He shifted himself in his seat a bit and refocused his attention.
O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Ran was immersed in the movie and trying to deduce who the killer was as the detective searched through his fellow passengers' cabins. That's when she considered how long they'd been watching for and that Conan hadn't gotten up to use the restroom even once yet. She looked over at the boy, he was partially laying on his armrest but still intently staring at the screen. She grabbed the remote and pressed pause. Conan looked quizzically at Ran.
"Conan, do you need to use the bathroom?" she asked.
"Oh right!" Conan said. He'd forgotten that he needed to pee but now that Ran mentioned it he really needed to go. He rose his head from the armrest and stood from the couch. His vertigo made him grab onto the couch to keep balance. As he gained his footing he felt something was off. He adjusted his legs and realized his pull-up felt different. Confused, he grabbed at it through his pants and gave it a few squeezes.
"What's wrong?" Ran asked, knowing full well what the problem probably was.
Conan stopped grabbing his pull-up and blushed. "Sorry, it's nothing," Conan said. He still needed to go to the toilet, afterall, so he couldn't have had an accident. Besides he would have known if he was peeing. He walked to the bathroom and Ran waited, doubting it was nothing.
Conan entered the restroom and maneuvered his fly and pull-up down just enough to get his member out. He finished his business and flushed the toilet then started trying to examine his pull-up. Again, though, the pain was too much. Even unzipping his pants caused a bit too much discomfort, much less pulling them down and examining himself. He decided that the pull-up must have settled strangely from his seat on the couch and rejoined Ran.
Before he could sit down Ran asked, "Did everything go okay?"
Conan considered what she meant for a second but answered, "Yeah, I guess."
"And you're all dry?"
Now Conan got it. He averted his gaze. "Yeah, of course," he said.
"And you'd tell me if you had an accident?"
"...Yeah," he responded, not wanting to have this conversation.
Ran considered his answers and the state he was in. Drugged up, sick, young, emotional, and proud. She didn't doubt Conan would tell her the truth but she was starting to doubt if Conan even knew himself.
"Mind if I check?" she asked, trying to sound casual.
Conan was taken aback by this. "You don't believe me?" he asked, a little hurt.
"I do!" Ran said, quickly and apologetically. "It would just...I'd feel a lot more at ease if I could see for myself. Do you mind? For me?"
Conan figured it was fair, she'd seen him in his underwear before, after all, and the faster she checked the faster they could get back to the movie. He stuck out his arms and looked away, silently agreeing to the check.
Ran leaned over from the couch and undid his button and zipper. She pulled down his pants part ways and saw a familiar yellow tint on his pull-up, now slightly more swollen than when he put it on. It didn't look like a big accident but these things weren't meant to take multiple wettings, she'd need to address this.
She looked straight to Conan's face, which was equal parts annoyed and embarrassed. 'He really has no clue he had an accident, does he?' she thought to herself. She needed to be gentle.
She pulled up Conan's pants and re-secured them. Conan looked back at her and said, "See?"
Ran pursed her lips and grabbed Conan's hand, cradling it in both of hers. Conan's eyebrows raised, not sure what she was doing. She looked him in the eyes.
"Conan, I think the medicine may have affected your ability to feel certain things," she said, deliberately choosing each word.
"Well yeah, that's what it was made for," Conan said, still not sure what she was getting at.
"Conan, you're wet," she said.
"What? No, I've been using the toilet constantly!" he argued back, flummoxed.
"Yeah, every 15 minutes," Ran said. "We've been watching this for nearly an hour."
Conan grabbed at the pull-up through his pants again and remembered back to the night scene, when he'd first needed to pee. Did he doze off for a second and wet in his sleep? No, he remembered the movie perfectly. "I...I…" he stuttered, trying to think of an excuse, any reason his pull-up was wet even though he was just feet away from the bathroom. None came to mind and his legs were getting tired. He plopped back down on the couch and stared at the floor.
"It's okay," Ran said. "The Professor said this was normal." She waited a moment for Conan to say something but he just sat there, dazed.
"Alright, let's head up to your room so we can get back to the movie," she said, not wanting to out and out say she was going to change him. Conan stood up and started sulking his way to the staircase. Ran following behind.
Conan was angry at the pills for making him not even feel when he peed himself but he was also glad that they seemed to damped his emotional outbursts. He was deeply ashamed to have wet his pull-up without so much as a thought to spare for the action but he didn't feel so depressed about it. Maybe it was because his accident this morning had been so much worse.
On his way up the stairs Conan's legs began giving out and he nearly tripped on a step, catching himself before he fell. By the time he got to his room he couldn't stand any longer and he collapsed backwards onto his futon.
"Tired?" Ran asked, walking to the closet.
"No!" Conan shot back, sticking his head up. He definitely didn't want her to put him in a diaper, not with her dad getting home in just a couple of hours. "It's just my legs," he explained, more softly.
Ran giggled to herself despite the boy's suffering. At least he was lucid enough to tell what he wanted to wear.
Ran proceeded to change Conan out of his pull-up while Conan laid on the futon on the floor, nearly limp in her control. Ran saw Conan looked notably less upset this time around so she tried making conversation. "So who do you think did it?" she asked.
He'd wet his own pull-up of course, Conan thought ashamedly before realizing she was talking about the movie. As she wiped him down with a wet nap he awkwardly tried to keep up the conversation. "I don't know," he lied. "Who do you think did it?"
Ran remembered another Agatha Christie novel Shinichi had forced her to read a long time ago. "I think the victim is still alive and plotting his next murder!" she posited, excited to have solved the mystery so soon.
Conan smiled warmly. He remembered nagging her to read the book and how when she finished she called him at home and allowed him to geek out to her over the well-executed mystery story. She was completely wrong this time, he thought to himself smuggly, but Conan was glad she still had that memory from when he was Shinichi. It reminded him of why he was going through all this, to get his old body and his old relationship back.
"Yeah, maybe," he responded, encouraging her enthusiasm. Ran buttoned up his pants and helped stand him back up.
"Let's go find out if I'm right. Think you can make it back down the stairs?" she asked.
"Yeah," he responded. "I feel much better now."
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
The two continued the movie, with Conan getting up twice more to use the restroom during it. As the movie rounded to an end and the detective was summarizing the case, Conan felt another urge to use the restroom. Knowing the story, he knew it couldn't be another 5 minutes before the movie ended so he decided to hold it.
About 2 minutes into the hold, however, Conan felt another sharp twinge from his bladder but wasn't even able to put up a fight this time. He sat on the couch and let his bladder drain into his pull-up. As he wet himself his face flushed and he looked over at Ran, who had her complete attention on the film. Conan cursed himself for failing to get to the bathroom on time but decided Ran didn't need to know just yet, they could finish the movie. He tried to ignore the warm sensation in his pants so he could pay attention to the screen.
O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
"Dang it, I couldn't have been more wrong!" Ran lamented as the credits rolled.
Conan laughed, she really couldn't have. Ran looked at him, faking indignity. He gave a playful smile, "What? I had no idea either," he said.
Ran giggled as she turned off the TV. "Well I should start dinner, dad will be home any minute now and you need to take your medicine," she said. "How are you feeling?"
Conan thought for a second and realized the pain in his body was beginning to rear its head once more. "I think the medicine is wearing off but I'm fine for now," he answered.
"Do you mind if I check you?" she asked, approaching Conan.
Conan grabbed at the waist of his pants, defending them from being pulled down. "No need," he said meekly. "They're...not dry."
Ran smiled, glad he was being honest and glad he was willing to use his protection instead of stressing out about keeping dry. "Alright, how about we fix that after dinner? That way I can get you fed and get you your medicine before the pain comes back."
"But...I'm wet," he said, not wanting Ran to look at him and think about how he's sitting around in his own urine. On the other hand, he didn't want to put Ran out and have her wait on him hand and foot. He backpedaled, "No you're right. I'll wait."
Ran smiled, "Thanks, I'll try and be fast," she said.
O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Conan was on the couch reading and Ran was cooking when the front door opened and Mouri came up the stairs.
"I'm home!" he called out as he got to the second floor.
"Hi dad!" Ran greeted him.
"Hi," Conan said, less enthusiastically. He'd been dreading Mouri finding out. Ran's dad wasn't a fan of Conan even on his best days.
"How was the case?" Ran asked. This caught Conan's attention and Mouri started to give a detailed summary about the mystery he'd been away solving.
O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
The story lasted well into dinner and, as Mouri began drinking, quite a ways past it too. Conan didn't mind much, he found the mystery fascinating and was actively asking Mouri questions about little details. He knew everything he was being told was embellished, of course, but he knew how to pick through those details.
Ran cleared the table as Mouri finished his story. "And so, Sleeping Kogoro strikes again!" Mouri announced, dramatically.
"But I thought you didn't fall asleep this time?" Conan said, unable to help himself.
"Well I'm not always Sleeping Kogoro, sometimes I'm just a regular great detective!" Mouri said in his defense.
Conan grinned, smugly, then realized he was getting another urge to pee. He got up from the table when Ran interrupted him.
"Oh sorry, Conan, I almost forgot. Let me get your medicine and something to drink," she said.
"Medicine?" Mouri asked. "Is the brat sick?"
Conan turned away shyly, anticipating how Ran would explain the situation to her father.
"It's nothing to worry about," Ran said while giving Conan the pill and a glass of water. "Professor Agasa sorted it all out." Conan sighed in relief, maybe Mouri wouldn't need to know the full extent of this.
"That's good," Mouri said through a yawn. "Time to get out of this suit," he continued before making his way up stairs.
By now Conan was shifting his weight, he knew he didn't have long to get to a toilet. He quickly downed the water and his pill.
"I'll meet you in your room," Ran said. "Let me just finish up with the dishes real quick."
"No problem," Conan said. He dashed up the stairs, holding his crotch with his hands as soon as he was out of Ran's sight. When he got to the upstairs bathroom he tried for the door, only to find it locked.
"Gimme a minute!" Mouri yelled through the door.
'Crap!' Conan thought. He held his crotch tighter and crossed his legs, shifting his weight back and forth. He heard the toilet flush and his eagerness built. But as Mouri washed his hands Conan heard the sink running and found that temptation too much to bear.
Conan felt pee leaking into his pull-up and he relaxed. Too late to stop it now. Besides, he was already wet. It's not like an extra wetting would make getting changed even more embarrassing.
Mouri slid the door open and nonchalantly said "All yours," before actually looking down at the boy. Conan still had his legs crossed but his face was one of relief. "What are you…" he started, stopping when he saw a wet stream start to form down the side of one of Conan's legs.
Conan's eyes grew wide as he felt warm urine flowing down his pant leg. He tried to dam the leak but his bladder muscles were worn thin, there was nothing he could do.
"Ran!" Mouri yelled down the stairs. "He's pissing himself!"
Conan's eyes turned to Mouri in fear as Mouri grabbed him and pulled him into the bathroom. "You couldn't wait just a couple of minutes?" Mouri asked. "If you keep holding it until you burst we might just have to put you in diapers!" he scolded, not realizing just how far the situation had already developed.
Conan finished peeing his pants, leaving a small puddle below him on the bathroom tile. He was beginning to tear up as Ran came dashing upstairs.
"What happened?" she asked through laboured breaths.
"The brat wet himself like a toddler!" Mouri said.
Conan looked away in shame. Ran immediately dropped down and held the boy in a tight hug. She shot a look over her shoulder at Mouri, a look so angry that it sent a chill down her own father's spine. Mouri slowly backed out of the hall and into his bedroom.
"There, there Conan. It's alright, he doesn't know" she comforted him.
"But he's right," Conan said through quiet sobs. "Even with a pull-up I can't keep my pants dry. I'm no better than a 2-year-old."
"Shhh, don't talk like that. You'll be all better before you know it," she said. She stood up and took Conan by the wrist. "Come on, let's go get you cleaned up and ready for bed."
It was still a few hours before Conan's bedtime but he knew what she was getting at. He'd had 4 accidents today, not counting waking up wet. He didn't want to be put in diapers full time but here, with wet pants, he could hardly argue his case.
O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
As Conan was getting changed he felt the painkillers embrace him, easing the pain in his body and numbing his senses. Ran slid the diaper under his butt as she talked. "Don't worry about dad, you know how he is."
Conan DID now how he was and he absolutely worried anyway. Ran sensed this.
"I'll tell him the situation and be sure he doesn't say another word about it. I promise he's not mad, your accident just caught him by surprise."
Conan said nothing, he just laid there limply and upset as Ran fastened the tapes on his diaper and put him into his pajamas. After Ran helped him get on to his feet he began to walk around and, again, became all too aware of the deafening crinkle coming from his pajamas. He looked back at Ran, pleadingly.
Ran heard it too. She found the sound he made when he walked cute but she was sure he didn't see it that way. "Here, this might help some," she said as she made her way to his closet. She pulled out a yukata and helped Conan put it on and fasten the belt. Conan moved a bit and found that, while it didn't completely silence the sound, it definitely helped.
Conan smiled. "Thanks," he said.
Ran smiled back and exited the room. She turned back to see Conan wasn't following. "Coming?" she asked.
Conan averted his gaze. "I think I'll stay up here and read tonight," he said. He couldn't face Mouri again.
Ran understood. "Well if you need anything or if you change your mind just come on downstairs. Dad's exhausted, I'm sure he's gonna call it an early night," she said.
Ran made her way downstairs to find Mouri in front of the TV, drinking another beer. Ran stepped right into his view and gave her father a verbal tongue lashing, followed by a brief explanation of Conan's troubles over the weekend. Mouri was occasionally tempted to laugh but he wouldn't dare, Ran was a fierce protector of the ones she loved and he was scarred he wouldn't survive even the most faint of giggles aimed at the boy she was taking care of.