AN: There's not enough fics that revolve around Ran and Heiji's relationship, which is a damn shame, because I'm pretty sure they'd get along pretty well with one another when it comes down to it. So I wrote one myself!

Piggyback

Characters: Ran Mouri, Heiji Hattori, Conan Edogawa, Kogoro Mouri

Summary: He wasn't the person she was expecting to find her, but here he was.

"Oh, so this is where ya were, Neechan!"

"Hattori-kun?" Blinking rapidly, Ran glanced up from where she had buried her head in her knees. She must have dozed off there for awhile- it was a good thing that it was still warm, even though it was already fall. For a moment, her posture shifted, half wanting to get up- before a sharp throb in her ankle reminded her of the reason why she had sat down where she was in the first place. Glancing back up, she winced once again as her eyes trailed the hill that she had slid down, marks leftover in the mud showing her path of descent. Really, she was lucky she had only ended up with what was probably a sprained ankle and some minor scrapes and bruises.

But how embarrassing! And it wasn't even the first time that she had done something like this! Granted, she'd been so busy looking for the missing child that she hadn't entirely been watching where she was going- but that was still no real excuse. Not only had she gotten far enough into the mountain that she couldn't make her way back on her own, not with her ankle like this, but she'd probably given everyone else someone else to look for on top of the missing girl.

Not probably, she supposed, glancing up at Heiji's face, heaving a slight sigh as she glanced down at her watch. Three hours had already passed- she had probably been worrying everyone. The only thing that gave her some small amount of relief was the fact that she noticed that the brim of Heiji's cap was facing backwards again- that must mean that the earlier trouble had probably already been wrapped up.

"Everyone back at the lodge is worried about ya, ya know." Heiji said, nodding his head in it's general direction. Especially Kudo, he thought to himself, who was practically frantic when Ran didn't turn back up after everyone else from the search party- missing child included- had. "How did ya get all the way down here?"

"I slipped." Ran admitted after a moment, glancing back up in the direction she had come from.

"Oh, I see that now." Heiji noted, letting out a low whistle as his eyes trailed the path she'd created in the mud. Scratching the back of his head, Heiji crouched down in front of her, eyes trailing down to her right ankle, quickly noting that it appeared to be rather swollen. Nothing looked broken, at least not at first glance, which was good. "Did ya hurt yer ankle?"

"I think I must have sprained it pretty bad." Ran said, placing a light hand over it, wincing as even her soft touch was enough to send another sharp spike of pain through it. "I thought it would be safer to stay where I was and wait for someone to come along."

"Ah, that's probably the best idea." Heiji noted. "Mind if I...?"

"Ah, no. Go ahead." Ran said, shaking her head, giving him a quick smile. With careful fingers, Heiji reached out to examine her ankle herself, making a slight face as he did. "Is anyone else with you, Hattori-kun?"

"We split up, so no." Heiji said, shaking his head. "Ah, but if yer still worried about the missing child, she was found safe an' sound. A little banged up, but she'll be okay. Ku- no, that Uncle an' I already wrapped up the case back at the lodge."

"I see. That's good." Ran said, letting out a long sigh of relief, placing her hand over her heart. "Sorry. I must have troubled everyone."

"Nah, don't worry about it, Neechan." Heiji said, beaming brightly at her. "Can ya walk any? I think I more or less know how ta get back from here, but..."

"Not very well." Ran admitted, shaking her head. "Sorry, Hattori-kun."

"Honestly, ya don't have ta keep apologizin'." Heiji told her, shaking his head. Tilting his head slightly, he seemed lost in thought for a moment, before he nodded his head. "Well, it'll get dark pretty soon, so we should probably make our way back as soon as possible. Here, Neechan."

Turning around to show her his back, Heiji motioned with his head that she should get on. "I'll carry ya."

"It's fine, you don't have to do something like that!" Ran said, shaking her head. "I can walk, a little, at least."

"It'll be faster if I carry ya." Heiji insisted, beaming back at her, turning the brim of his cap back around to face forward, so that it wouldn't bother her. "Besides, Kudo would never forgive me if I forced his injured girlfriend ta walk when she's hurt. Come on now, the day's not gettin' any longer."

"He's not really my boyfriend..." Ran mumbled underneath her breath, her cheeks tinting a faint pink as Heiji's grin only broadened at the words. Taking in and letting out a long breath, Ran eventually gave in- he was right, they really would make better time like this. If she tried to walk back to the lodge, even leaning on his shoulder, she might make her injury even worse. "Fine."

Carefully wrapping her arms around Heiji's neck, Ran whispered a silent apology to Kazuha for borrowing her childhood friend's back, making damn well sure Heiji couldn't hear it as she did so. As he tucked his arms underneath her legs, more or less holding her secure, he rose to his feet. If she hadn't been so distracted at the moment, she might have noticed the sharp inhale of breath he took as he got to his feet, but it slipped by her without notice at the time.

"Too bad ya can't get Kudo ta carry ya this time again, huh?" Heiji teased, glancing around them, eventually picking out the best path. At the very least, Ran hadn't found herself trapped in a place that was very difficult to get out of- that would be tricky.

"Geez, don't tease me like that." Ran said, puffing out her cheeks lightly. "Besides, Shinichi's not even here." Well, although he had appeared out of the blue the last time as well- but he had been the one who had been invited to come to that village in the first place, and not them. It really wasn't that strange that he would turn up there.

"Ah, well, I suppose that's true..." Heiji trailed off a little, averting his gaze from her, busying himself with making his way back towards the trail. Well, technically speaking, he was here- but well, he definitely wasn't in a state where he could carry Ran. Mentally, he tried to imagine pint sized Conan even making an attempt- and frankly, it was a small miracle that he managed to bite back the snort, keeping it purely mental.

He'd be lying if he said he didn't feel bad for his shrunken friend, but damn, was that ever a funny picture.

Carefully studying the back of his head, Ran frowned a little. She always got the feeling that Heiji knew something about Shinichi that he wasn't telling her. She knew that the two of them had been rather close- even though, to her knowledge, they had only ever met three times. That time at the diplomat's house, that time at the play, and that time at the aforementioned village- she had discussed it with Kazuha before, and she had shook her head, telling her that she had never seen Heiji and Shinichi together other than the latter two times.

How was it, then, that the two of them had seemed to become such good friends? Maybe back when Kazuha had been worried about Heiji having some sort of affair- which was really quite hilarious to her now that she had gotten to know him a little bit better- he had actually been calling Shinichi in secret.

Well, it would be rude of her to ask him about all of that right now- he was helping her out. She'd basically be trapping him into the conversation as well, seeing as he couldn't exactly abandon her out here. He wasn't that type of person, after all, that she had come to understand infinitely well. She felt like she could understand a little bit as to why Kazuha had come to fall in love with him.

She kind of wished that one day, Shinichi would be around long enough for Kazuha to get to know him as well, really. Maybe someday soon, that would happen- when he came back from whatever mysterious case it was that had him so busy.

"So was it the uncle?" Ran asked after a moment, wanting to break the silence a little.

"Nah, that uncle only sent the threatenin' letter." Heiji said, shaking his head. "He never actually meant to carry through on it, just shake everyone up a little. Apparently he felt like the girl's parents weren't payin' her enough attention. Weird way ta go about it, but I guess his intentions weren't bad, at least. Nah, the culprit was the maid, who took advantage of it."

"I thought she was acting a bit odd, now that you mention it." Ran said, a slight frown gracing her lips. "But it's good that the girl is safe and sound."

"Yeah." Heiji agreed, nodding his head. "As soon as we finished that up, everyone split up again ta look fer ya, Neechan. Why did ya wander out this far anyways?"

"I found a ribbon." Ran told him, giving him something of a sheepish smile. "I thought that maybe it could have belonged to the girl, so I ended up getting a bit turned around when I was checking that possibility out. I guess it didn't, though. Probably just someone's lost item, blown here by the wind."

"How are Conan-kun and dad?" Ran asked, glancing down at him with a slight frown. Somehow, his breathing seemed a little bit labored. Well, this was his second time scouring the mountains, and she was a bit heavy- muscle weight, mostly.

"Worried, but fine." Heiji told her, glancing up at her with a quick grin, as if sensing her worries. "We all agreed ta meet up back at the lodge in an hour, so I'm sure they'll already be back once we get there. Kazuha an' everyone else as well."

"That's good." Ran said softly, nodding her head. "Some trip this turned out to be. Well, running into you and Kazuha-chan was still pretty fun, Hattori-kun."

"Well thank ya." Heiji said, his grin growing wider, turning his gaze back on the trail. It had been a bit of a challenge, but he had more or less managed to find it. Well, speaking of Kazuha, she was probably going to kill him when they got back to the lodge, but it wasn't as if there were many other options in this situation. If he'd left Ran there by herself to go get help, Kudo would probably never forgive him. "I'm sure Kazuha feels the same way. Really, the two of ya have really gotten close."

"Well, you could say the same for you and Conan-kun." Ran noted, unable to help but smile, a fond expression in her eyes. "He really looks up to you, you know. You two really are just like brothers!"

"Brothers, huh?" Heiji asked, this time letting out his snort. "Well, I guess that's true. He's pretty smart, that kid!"

"Sometimes a bit too smart for his own good." Ran couldn't help but note with a slight frown. "But well, I'm still proud of him, you know? He's a good kid."

"That he is." Heiji noted, closing his eyes for a moment. He got the feeling that whenever it was Kudo finally broke the truth to Ran- because he knew that one day he would, it was only a matter of when- that she would probably be mad at him. She'd forgive him in the end, because that was the kind of girl Ran was, and that was how strong their bond was, but she'd definitely be mad.

Well, she'd probably be mad at him as well, Heiji thought to himself, making a silent vow not to show his face in Beika when that happened, until Ran had some time to cool her head. He didn't want to be on the opposite end of Ran's karate- he wasn't an idiot, after all.

"Hey, Neechan-" Heiji began, before glancing back, letting out a small smile as he quickly realized that she had dozed off again. Well, that was fine. There was no need for her to be awake right now- it had been a rather long day, after all, for her more than anyone else. Turning his gaze back on the trail, Heiji focused all of his energy on just getting her back there.

"Ran-neechan?"

Slowly blinking her eyes open, for a moment, unsure of where she was, Ran found herself staring into the concerned eyes of her young ward, her father hovering not far behind him. He seemed to let out a breath of relief as she slowly woke up, and dimly, Ran realized that she was back at the lodge, wrapped up in a warm blanket.

"Conan-kun?" Ran asked, her voice soft. "I'm sorry. You must have been so worried."

"It's alright, Ran-neechan!" Conan said, shaking his head. When she slowly rose up to a sitting position, it looked as if he wanted to protest- but once he saw that she wasn't trying to stand up, he let it go. "We had the lodge doctor look over your ankle. He said it was probably just a bad sprain, and that you should just rest it for the time being."

"If anything, that Osakan brat was in a lot worse shape than you. Honestly, what was he even thinking?" Kogoro muttered, before turning to look Ran's way, a slightly grumpy expression giving way to one of relief at seeing his daughter safe and sound. "Well, you just take your time and rest up, Ran. The lodge owner says it's fine if we extend our stay for another day or two, given the case we solved for him."

"Though I don't really remember it at all." Kogoro muttered underneath his breath, a slight frown on his lips.

"Osakan-?" Ran blinked, a frown gracing her features as she looked between her father and Conan. "Did something happen to Hattori-kun?"

"You didn't know, Ran-neechan?" Now it was Conan's turn to blink, a small frown surfacing on his face. Well of course she didn't- that made perfect sense, really. There was no way she would have let him go through with it if she knew. Honestly, for once, Kogoro was right- what on earth was Heiji thinking? Well, it wasn't that he didn't appreciate his friend bringing Ran back to the lodge safe and (mostly) sound, but he didn't need to do it at the risk of his own physical well being.

Well, he couldn't say that he didn't expect this sort of thing from him. Rather, it was exactly the kind of behavior he had come to expect from Heiji.

"Heiji-niichan fell down the same cliff that you did, apparently." Conan told her, watching the look of shock blossom across her face. "Kazuha-neechan went with him an ambulance to the hospital just a little while ago. Apparently the lodge doctor says that while he only badly strained his left leg, he's worried that he might have broken his right arm."

"Broken-?" Ran gasped out. "I had no idea! He didn't act like it at all! If I'd known something like that..."

"Well, that's probably why he didn't tell you." Conan said, giving Ran a small smile, for the moment, she wanting to calm her down. "Don't worry, Kazuha-neechan chewed him out really thoroughly. Rather, she was still doing it when they got into the ambulance together. Besides, it's Heiji-niichan we're talking about here. He'll probably bounce back in no time."

Heaving a long sigh, Ran leaned back against the sofa, closing her eyes. "Listen, Conan-kun." She spoke up finally, opening her eyes. "I know that you admire Hattori-kun," she didn't notice the vague face that Conan made at that statement, "...but don't you go imitating what he did today. Really, I have half a mind to lecture him! A broken arm on top of everything... I should have been the one to carry him!"

The mental image that brought to Conan's mind caused him to audibly snort. Now that would have been a sight.