AN: Slides in a post canon Shinran oneshot for today- because there's like, zero percent chance that Ran won't be justifiably ticked at him after everything is said and done.

Until next time!

Practice Makes Perfect

Characters: Kudo Shinichi, Mouri Ran

Summary: For some reason, he had assumed that this might be a bit more romantic.

"Are you done resting, Shinichi? We're going to continue."

"Wait a second, Ran. Give me at least a short break here. I'm not built like you." Letting out a gasp for air, Shinichi swore that he could still see stars dancing around his head. He was becoming increasingly familiar with the ceiling of Teitan High School's karate dojo, since that seemed to be the only scenery he found himself looking at this past hour.

Well, when he wasn't face down on the floor, that was.

"You were the one who said that you wanted to train with me, Shinichi." Ran noted, a rather stern note to her voice, as she cast a rather unsympathetic gaze down on him. "I told you right from the start that I was going to train you hard. If you wanted someone to go easy on you, you should have picked Kazuha-chan or Hattori-kun to teach you their martial art style instead."

"Well at the time I thought..." Heaving a long sigh, Shinichi trailed off a little, for the moment continuing to lie on the dojo floor as if he were dead. He knew the moment that he sat back up, Ran would regard that as a sign of him being ready to continue, and the training from hell would began again.

Perhaps he should have seen this coming. Ran had taken the news that he had been Conan the whole time a little too easily, now that he thought about it- he was certain that she was going to be furious with him for quite some time after the truth came out. Instead, she had merely smiled, accepting the truth without a second thought- or so it seemed at the time. The only thing that she did insist upon was that Shinichi finally buckle down and pick up a martial art of some type to defend himself with, lecturing him quite thoroughly on the fact that no, kicking a soccer ball really hard wasn't nearly sufficient enough, not after what happened to him.

He wanted to argue that point, seeing as he had been doing just fine with that all this time, but he knew she was more or less right- the days of using the Professor's Kick Enhancing Shoes were pretty much behind him. Even if he asked the man to make him a pair in his current shoe size, he was pretty sure that the force of impact from anything he kicked with it might very well be enough to kill someone. Not an option, obviously.

And he knew better to argue with Ran when she got like that about something. She could be awfully stubborn at times, after all. When she told him to pick one out of the three styles that his friends knew, he almost hadn't given it a second thought. Of course if there was someone that he wanted to teach him anything, it had to be Ran. Not only was she incredibly skilled at what she did, but she also had a reputation for being a kind and understanding teacher to her underclassman in the karate club.

Plus, having a little extra hands on time with his new girlfriend didn't sound bad either. Maybe a little romantic, even.

In retrospect, he really had no idea why he had expected this to be at all romantic. He should have run away the moment he'd taken notice of that cold glint in Ran's eyes when he first arrived here. Foolish, foolish- why had he done such a foolish thing? Even letting Hattori teach him kendo would have been a better option than this.

Obviously, without a doubt, Mouri Ran was still mad at him- furious in fact. And honestly, he couldn't blame her.

He had just been kind of hoping to get this all over with in one punch, rather than to have this be dragged out in the manner it had. His body was going to be sore in the morning- and he still had more lessons tomorrow, to boot, and for any number of days after that. He could only hope that by tomorrow, the heat of Ran's anger would have cooled somewhat.

"Thought what?" Ran asked, placing her hands on her hips. "Come on, Shinichi, get up already. I'm going to have you eat, sleep, and breathe these forms by the time I'm done with you."

"Can't you go easy on me, Ran?" In any other situation, Shinichi would have hated the whine his voice took on just then- but right now, he didn't care too much. Pushing himself up into a sitting position nonetheless, he sensed that he was only going to gain more of her ire if he kept lying there. "I'm a total amateur at this, you know."

"That's exactly the reason why I can't go easy on you." Ran almost snapped, sharply narrowing her eyes. A moment later however, her temper seemed to cool, and she let out a long breath, finally offering him a hand with which to help pull himself up with. "You were in a really dangerous situation there- you could have died back then, back at that amusement park. That was what would have happened, if you hadn't gotten so lucky!"

"Ran..." Trailing off a little, Shinichi frowned, slowly reaching out to take her hand, allowing her to haul him to his feet. "Could it be you're doing all of this because you're worried about me?"

"Of course I'm worried about you!" Ran told him, not yet letting go of his hand- if anything, she tightened her grip on it. "There was a chance that I might have had to attend your funeral, and we'd never figure out why you died in the first place, or even who killed you! You were always like that, and you're still like that even now! Always running off into danger without giving it a second thought- without properly considering the people that you might be leaving behind."

"...I'm sorry." Finding himself at a loss for words, Shinichi decided to hold back his comment that she was hurting him- she had his hand in a vice grip. "I never meant to make you worry the way I did, I was only thinking of trying to protect you, of trying to protect everyone. I didn't... I wasn't trying to-"

"I know. I know that, Shinichi." Ran told him, finally looking up at him, locking her eyes with his, and refusing to break contact. "But you were always so worried about protecting everyone around you, that you completely forgot to worry about protecting yourself! So I thought that at least if you knew how to properly defend yourself..."

"...Maybe if you knew how to do that, you never would have gotten into this situation in the first place." Ran told him finally, slowly releasing her grip on his hand- only to find Shinichi taking hers in his own now, giving her a rather apologetic smile.

"You're right. You're completely right, Ran." Shinichi told her. "I never really appreciated how dangerous this line of work is before that incident. Took it lightly, even. I can't change the past, but I can strive to do better in the future." His smile growing somewhat, he reached up a hand, wiping away a stray tear that was threatening to fall from Ran's eye. "And I really can't think of a better teacher than you to help me do that, Ran."

"Shinichi..." Trailing off a little now herself, Ran slowly allowed a smile to appear on her face, nodding her head in response to his words. "I really was so worried about you, you know. All this time. When I found out that you had actually been by my side the whole time, I was actually sort of relieved. Thinking of you off by yourself in some unknown place, investigating some kind of strange case on your own for months on end... I never liked imagining that."

"Although I am still mad at you." Ran admitted after a moment, narrowing her eyes a little.

"So you really were mad after all." Letting out a small laugh, Shinichi flashed her a grin. "I figured that was the case. Well, not that I can blame you. You'll forgive me though, won't you? After all, we are going out now, aren't we?"

"I've already forgiven you. I can understand your reasons, after all. Especially since you said that you wanted to tell me at first, but it was the Professor who advised you against it." Ran told him, giving him a small smile. "I'm just also still mad at you."

"I'll take it." Shinichi said lightly, finally letting go of her hand, reaching back to rub one of his aching shoulders. He was using muscles that he'd never used during soccer practice, and it made him realize how sorely lacking he was in those areas. As he thought, people who knew marital arts were amazing. "Now then, shall we get practice to practice, Ran-sensei?"

"Of course!" A broad smile crossing her face, Shinichi nearly flinched as that same cold glint resurfaced in her eyes, as if it had never left. "And don't think for one second that I'm going to go any easier on you, Shinichi. When I'm done with you, there won't be a fiber of you left that hasn't had these forms etched into you."

"Please spare me, Ran."

"No way~."