Happy Thanksgiving to those of you who celebrate it! I uploaded two chapters today as a present so make sure you've read the previous chapter before this one! Also, trigger warning for blood/gore.
Chapter 13: Conventus
It was Agasa who brought things to an end about twenty minutes after Yoko left. "We should be getting you home before dinner," he said to the children.
"And we wouldn't want to spoil yours," Ai added with a side glance at him. He chuckled nervously.
"Can't we stay a little longer?" Genta complained.
"Yeah!" Ayumi agreed, hugging Conan's arm to her with a pout.
"Oi oi," he muttered, not pulling away because that way lay tears and murderous looks from Genta and Mitsuhiko.
"We should be getting back," Ran said. She turned to Heiji. "You could stay with us tonight if you wanted, Heiji-kun."
"Maybe ask first before volunteering my room," Kogoro protested. He quailed under the steel smile in the polite gaze his daughter gave him.
"It would be all right, wouldn't it?" Ran asked sweetly. Her father mumbled an affirmative and only then did her smile soften.
"I'm cool with that," Heiji said with a grin. "Oh, Ku-nan-kun, you've got something..." He pointed at the lower half of his right cheek.
"Here?" Conan rubbed at the wrong spot, completely missing it.
Ran chuckled. "No, it's-" She and Heiji reached for the napkin between them at the same time, their fingers touching. An eternal second passed and then Heiji pulled his hand back like he'd been burnt.
"Sorry," he said, dark cheeks slightly flushed.
"It's fine," Ran said, a little bewildered. What did he have to be embarrassed for? It wasn't like either of them were interested in each other, after all he had Kazuha and she...
Ran firmly ended that thought and wiped the ice cream off of Conan's face. "There, that's better," she said with a smile. He smiled back, cheeks pink.
"We'll be able to see each other tomorrow," he said, turning to Ayumi and the others. "Saturday, remember? Besides, the doctor said I should get plenty of sleep!" he chirped brightly.
"That's right, you'll need to get to bed early tonight," Ran agreed. She stifled a giggle at the look on Conan's face. "No late night TV for you."
"Hai," he muttered.
"And I'll help," Heiji snickered.
"Well then, we'd better be going," Agasa said, pushing his chair out and standing up. "C'mon kids." There was assorted grumbling from the three of them and Ayumi gave Conan a quick tight hug.
Ai lingered for a moment before saying, "Take care of yourself Edogawa-kun," in a quiet voice. Before he could reply she followed the other kids and Agasa out the door.
"...Bye Haibara," Conan said to the empty spot she'd been standing. He pushed the stack of empty bowls to the middle of the table while Ran and Heiji put back the chairs that they'd swiped from a nearby table.
"I'm going over to the police station," Kogoro said outside of the shop. "I have to discuss some things with Megure-keibu."
"Do you want me to save some food for you?" Ran offered but he shook his head.
"I'll get something to eat on the way back. You just keep these two troublemakers in line," he said, giving Heiji and Conan a Look.
"No need to worry about us," Heiji promised. "We'll be good, right Conan-kun?"
"Un!" Conan said with an angelic smile.
Ran rolled her eyes. "It'll be fine otou-san." She gave him a hug before she and Heiji and Conan started walking back the couple of blocks to the agency.
"I meant what I said earlier," she said after a moment, catching the attention of both the boys. "You're going to bed early tonight Conan-kun. I know you've spent the last couple of days in bed, but we need to keep you from getting stressed."
A strange look passed over Conan's face and he opened his mouth to say something.
"HEIJI!"
The three of them looked up, startled by the angry shout.
"Kazuha-chan!" Ran called but she was ignored.
"You ahou!" Kazuha fumed. "Do you know what I have been through the past day because of you?"
The look of terror on his face shouldn't have been so funny, but Ran was allowed to be a little vindictive.
"K-Kazuha, I didn't-"
"You didn't tell me where you were going, you just up and left without so much as a word to anyone asides from your mom! I couldn't get a hold of you, I was worried sick!" The slight difference in their heights had no bearing on Kazuha getting up in Heiji's face, and she was now practically growling at him. "Do you know what it's like having yer mother practically interrogate ya? It's hell!" she snapped before he could answer. "She's half convinced yer shacking up with someone in Tokyo because of how often ya come down here, always sayin' it's Kudo-kun when he's nowhere around!"
"Hey, that's not-" Heiji stopped at the venomous glare Kazuha gave him.
"An' then yer dad can't get ahold of ya and somehow it's my fault because obviously we're joined at the hip except you don't tell me anything!"
"Kazuha-chan!" Ran interrupted firmly. "Could you maybe take this inside?"
The Osakan girl seemed to realize just where she was. "Ah I'm sorry Ran-chan! I got kinda carried away..."
"Let's keep the shouting to a minimum?" Ran asked, tone polite. "Conan-kun just got out of the hospital today."
"He did?" Kazuha turned to the boy with an earnest expression. "That's great ta hear Conan-kun! Sorry Heiji's being such a jerk."
"Hey!" Heiji protested but did not continue for fear of further riling his childhood friend.
The group went up the stairs to the apartment and removed their shoes inside.
"Conan-kun, why don't you go put your things away," Ran suggested. "Heiji-kun, go with him. Kazuha-chan, do you want to help me make dinner?"
"Sure," Kazuha agreed as the boys took Ran's suggested and fled the room. "Sorry about outside," she apologized again. "I took the train down here an' he wasn't answering his phone and once I got here no one was here and I tried to call you but you weren't picking up, and-"
"You called me?" Ran frowned. "I don't remember getting any calls..." She fished around in her pockets and bag. "I must've forgotten it here."
"Yeah, when I called I could hear yer ringtone comin' from the agency," Kazuha said.
"Excuse me for a minute while I get it?" Ran asked.
"Yeah, go ahead." Kazuha pulled a pot out. "I'll start boilin' some water."
"Thanks," Ran smiled. She slipped her slippers on and went down the stairs to the agency door. "Ah, there it is!" she said with a sigh, picking it up from the table. There were two missed calls, both from Kazuha, a few minutes apart. As she turned to leave, something caught her eye.
There was a box on her father's desk. It was on the larger side, about the size you would put a cake in. It was brown, undecorated, and there was a card on top.
Ran did not remember seeing it earlier that day before they went to the hospital.
She approached the package with a slight amount of trepidation. A few inches away from it she stopped and listened. Everything was still and quiet, the sound of her own heartbeat the loudest thing she could hear, though there was a strange smell this close, something vaguely familiar. Probably not a bomb, she thought, and closed the rest of the distance.
The card was white, typed print, and she pulled her sleeve over her hand so she could pick it up.
To my partner in destiny, the card read. He is yours as I am, though I am infinitely more useful. I am here for you.
It sent chills down her spine, and her mouth was dry. She put the card down on the desk and picked up her phone. With lightly shaking fingers she typed in a series of numbers. Only few seconds passed before Kazuha answered.
"Kazuha-chan," Ran said and even to herself her voice sounded strange.
"Ran-chan? What's wrong?"
"Could you and Heiji-kun come down here?"
"What's wrong?" Kazuha repeated, and in the background Ran could hear Heiji asking who was on the phone.
"Try to keep Conan-kun away. There's a package here and I don't know what's in it - I don't think it's a bomb, but I'm-"
"We'll be right down." That was Heiji and Kazuha must have put the phone on speaker. A minute, tops, passed and Heiji burst in first, Kazuha and Conan behind him and dammit didn't she say-
"Sorry," Kazuha apologized, though she kept Conan back as Heiji came over to the desk with a box cutter. "He wouldn't stay."
"Thanks," Ran said with a tremulous smile before addressing Heiji, whose expression was deadly serious. "It might just be nothing, it-"
"It's fine," Heiji said softly, meeting her eyes. "You did the right thing neechan." He carefully cut down the tape and Ran couldn't move, could barely breathe, foreboding swelling in her temples like a migraine as Heiji pulled the flaps back.
Light hair matted with blood caught her eye first and there was so much of it - hair, not blood - surrounding the head like a halo, a color somewhere between blonde and white, but she couldn't mistake it for a woman, because those cold cold eyes, she had seen them before, she had-
The thrill of the coaster, holding Shinichi's hand and then blood, so much blood, and those two men, so suspicious, so strangely dressed but Shinichi said they were innocent, said they hadn't killed that man (no it was the woman with the necklace, and seriously, what the fuck?), and they were nervous, so suspicious, and the man with the long hair, Shinichi had had such a strange look on his face, almost fearful-
She knew this suspicious man from Tropical Land the day Shinichi disappeared.
She remembered him.
Chapter title translation: Rendezvous
A/N: *insert gif of Rogues from Holy Musical B man! singing "Muahahahahahaha"* Chapter 13 bc BAD LUCK THIRTEEN MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Oh man, I've been looking forward to this for like five chapters now :D Feel free to shriek incoherently at me over on my tumblr :3 Warning, IT ONLY GETS WORSE FROM HERE ON OUT well ok no it does get a bit better but it gETS WORSE BEFORE THINGS ARE RESOLVED
Hope y'all enjoyed the chapter~!