Chapter 6: Worries
Something was not quit right and it had definitely something to do with the loud noise Conan had heard when he came home. Ran had assured him that it was only her phone that fell on the table, after it had slipped her grip. This was not only strange because the noise was too loud for the rather light mobile phone, but also because he seriously doubted that Ran would let her phone just slip without a good reason.
But as curious as he was, he knew that there were things people did just, so they could save a little of their pride and dignity and even though Ran wasn't one to do so, he could completely understand if she didn't want a little child to know why exactly she was angry enough to punch the table. In all probability the reason was either he as Shinichi or her father, who had done something they shouldn't or not done something they should have done. Now that he thought about it, the last time he called her was a good 3 weeks ago and he knew that these calls were very important for Ran and he liked them too. Deciding, that he would call her this night, he engaged her in a light conversational about their days in school and told her of the "awesome" things they learned in class. Even though he knew visiting an aquarium was not something any teen would consider anything close to awesome, he still tried to sound as excited as a kid should be. Completely focusing on his act, he stopped to pay much attention to Ran's response and thus missed the small signs of pain.
For her, the evening was not as relaxing as it should have been. Even though she tried as hard as she could, it was just impossible to be as attentive as usual, while her mind was still filled with a chaos of thoughts all important but none of them helpful. Even when they started to watch their series, she had real trouble to just follow the rather shallow plot line of the mystery series and while Conan happily commented on the obvious tricks the culprit had used, she didn't even understand what was happening. Worst of all todays episode seemed to be a special one.
Ok, now it was too much for Conan. Till now he could blame her absentmindedness on stress and worry over Shinichi, but never ever would she forget to hold his eyes closed if something like this happened. As it turned out todays episode was a story-heavy one, which, on top of that, focused on the romance between the two protagonist and now of all times they had to show a make out scene. Normally Ran would not fail to immediately cover Conan's eyes and start to speak very loudly before she could silence the TV with the remote control. But today, today she just sat there, starring at the screen and clearly not picking up anything of what was going on. As embarrassed as he would typically be, as worried was he now.
"It has to be something bigger, something heavier than usual. Did I forget her birthday? No, that is only in a few months. Is valentine's day or something? No, that wouldn't be a reason for her to be like that. So, what is going on?", he started to contemplate. And while he was emerged in fancy and theories, dismissing them as fast as created new ones, the girl besides him awoke form her trance.
The first thing Ran noticed when she finally managed to leave her thoughts behind, at least for the evening, were the strange groaning and moaning sounds. Confused she stared at the TV screen where she could only see a blanket moving up and down. Not understanding at first, her cheeks immediately flushed red, when her mind had processed what she was seeing. In utter bewilderment, she looked around, spotting the boy next to her who seemed to stare at the screen, his face showing intense concentration. Anybody else would at least now turn off the TV and scold the boy for looking at something like that, however something in her mind clicked and started to ask questions.
"Why is Conan watching this so intensely? Is he interested in that stuff? Does he want to do this with …"
SMACK!
The loud noise made Conan jump, interrupting his brainwork and drawing in his complete attention to its source.
Besides him Ran sat upright, no longer emerged in thoughts and, as he noticed to his distress, with tears in the corner of her eyes. His detective senses immediate told him what had happened, spotted the bruise on her cheek and the red palm of her hand, concluding that she has slapped herself quite strongly, which was the cause of the tears, but this was not what interested him right now.
"R-Ran-neechan?" he asked hesitantly, "Are you alright?"
Worry flooding his sense, he could only look at the girl in front of him, which now looked back, hurt, guilt, fear and pain in her eyes. After a few seconds, she lowered her gaze.
"What have I done?", Ran thought to herself, "This is not something I can tell him, but what should I tell him? What would sound just faintly plausible?" Slowly turning back to the boy, she focused his face and looked deep in his eyes, seeing the confusion, worry and a faint shine of guilt.
"Listen Conan-kun," she started, not blinking, "Sometimes people do bad things and most people know if what they have done is good or bad. When that happens, some people remind themselves of what they have done and what that means. Do you understand?"
Now Conan was completely lost. He had expected a lot of things, but not this!
"What is she trying to tell me? Has she done something bad? And if she has, what is it?
Is she only trying to cover something up? Or is there more to this?" At an utter loss of words, the only thing he could mutter was a faint "Okay" and with that Ran stood up and vanished inside of her room, leaving a puzzled boy alone on the coach.
As always all right go to Gosho Aoyama, the original creator of the Detective Conan Universe.
Questions and review are highly requested and if you want to know how the story continues leave a follow.
I hope you liked it so far and are thrilled for more.
Farewell
