Thanks to those who review! You keep me going, guys! The song from the last Chapter was "Nothing I've ever known" by Bryan Adams. Please enjoy this chapter and don't forget to visit my new homepage for there are some very interesting votes going on. You don't want to miss this, believe me.
Unexpected visit
The next morning, after a horrible night's rest, they woke up almost at the same time thanks to an uneasy sleep and as soon as their eyes were open and their brains started functioning, Ran and Shinichi jumped out of their beds, got dressed and left the house in a hurry, meaning to go and see the other as soon as it was in their might. Little did they think about wrong timing or any kind of consequences. The only thing that mattered was to see the other again and that as soon as possible.
With strongly beating hearts, each of our two young adults hurried along the well-known roads to the house of the other, only one goal in mind. Panting a little, they came to an abrupt halt after turning around a corner and running into one another.
"Oh, I am so sorry, Mister!" Ran blushed and bowed in apology.
"No, it was my fault." Shinichi replied and pulled away a little. "I really am so-…Ran?"
Her head shot up as she immediately recognized his voice. "Shinichi?"
They blinked a few times, the reality about what has just happened slowly sinking in. Three seconds later, both started laughing, the situation simply holding too much irony.
"What are you-?" both said at once and fell silent. Then they chuckled a little, realizing that both had rosy cheeks by now.
"Good morning!" she smiled politely at him and, as he realized, her whole body seemed a little tense.
"Morning!"
Both just stood there, looking at the ground between them, his hands in his pockets, hers folded in front of her, unsure about what to do next. The funny thing is that both knew exactly what they wanted to do but neither dared to act on it since they didn't knew how the other was feeling about the previous evening.
It was Ran who broke the ice. "How…how did you sleep?"
"Uhm, I…" He weighed out if it was worth it telling her the truth and decided on it. Firstly, it would be too funny to see how she reacts and secondly…he didn't want to lie to her anymore. He was sick and tired of it. "Actually pretty bad. How about you?"
After a few seconds, she just giggled loudly and nodded. "Same here!"
Ran and Shinichi stared in each others eyes for what seemed like an eternity, the mood around them having changed drastically and they knew it. The intense eye contact never broke, even as she made a tiny step towards him. Finally, she found her voice back and whispered.
"Shinichi, I…"
He grinned at her, suddenly knowing exactly how she was feeling. As an answer, he simply held his arms open and two seconds later she was in their circle. The two young lovebirds clung to each other tightly as if there wasn't going to be any new mornings, ever.
And it was then, at this exact moment, that both could feel it again. The same feeling of bliss, and contentment and happiness and love as they had felt yesterday. This was where both always wanted to be. What both always wanted to feel. The reason they couldn't stand being apart for long.
"I missed you!" she whispered against his chest where she now hid her flaming head a little deeper than before.
One of his hands came up to stroke her hair tenderly. "So did I!"
"I am surprised but so glad that you are still here. That you didn't go back to that case of yours!" she all of a sudden exclaimed, pulling slightly back to stare in his eyes.
"Yeah, so am I…" he answered her truthfully. He had half expected to be transformed as he woke up this morning and it had shocked him, in a way, to find himself still grown-up.
With all the tension that had eaten him up this morning gone, he could feel the slight stinging feeling in his stomach being replaced by another stinging feeling. Shinichi blushed and Ran only giggled as both heard his stomach growl.
"What are we going to do now?" he asked her hopefully. Just at this moment his stomach growled again and although he looked a little embarrassed, joined her in her giggling this time. The happiness at the fact that he obviously wanted to spend the day with her made her heart beat just a little bit faster, which was, by the way, more than enough to pump more blood in her head which, in turn, lead to a slight light-headedness that was feeling oh so good,.
"How about breakfast and then…don't know…something else?"
"Like?"
"Uhm… Maybe…Remember that beach-adventure center we used to go to? How about going to swim there, like in old times?"
"Sounds good to me!
"So, since we're closer to your house, we could go back, get your swimming stuff and go for breakfast at my place! What do you say?"
"What about you father, won't he-"
"He didn't return yet. Seems like this case of his is taking him much longer."
It was costing Shinichi lots of his acting talent to pretend that he had no idea why that was the case.
"Let's do that then!"
She smiled brightly at him after reluctantly pulling away from his embrace, and instead had him hold her hand. Shinichi smiled back at her simply because he couldn't help it. It was not only because she was the most beautiful being he had ever seen and no matter how many times he thought it, it would still be true. No, not only because of that.
It's simply because, when you are happy, really happy from the depths of your heart, it shows right through you. That's why Ran was looking so irresistible and that's why he was smiling more often than usual.
For when Ran was happy, truly happy, that was all that Shinichi needed to be happy himself.
---
Having arrived at his house ten minutes ago, he was almost done packing his things. Apparently something was still missing, for he hurried up the stairs, telling her he'd be right back.
After five minutes, Ran started feeling uneasy. It was not like she didn't trust Shinichi; on the contrary, she'd lay her life in his hands, as she has already done so many times, without thinking twice about it. She just couldn't stand being apart from him if it wasn't absolutely necessary. That's why, after another three minutes with no sign from him, she started ascending the stairs in the middle of the huge house.
As she entered his room carefully, not wanting to catch him in a compromising situation, her eyes fell immediately upon his crouching figure. He was kneeling in front of his open closet and concentrating hard on some items that were spread out in front of him. Very slowly her head appeared over his shoulder but he was too absorbed in the problem at hand to notice her right away.
Her head moved forward next to his and after a moment she very tenderly puckered her lips and pressed a sweet kiss on his cheek. "The blue one!" was all that she said.
Ran, with her cheeks rosy, stood up and observed amused the blushing boy in front of her who was looking surprised. He quickly, without another word, reached one hand out to grab the blue swimming-trunks, shoving the rest back in his closet.
She giggled to herself. "Are you ready?"
"Yeah!" he nodded, pushing the last garment in his bag. "Let's go!" Shinichi held his free hand out for her. She took it with a smile and together they left his house and started walking over to her own, the anticipation of the wonderful day that lay in front of them swirling like a million butterflies around their stomachs and making both feel almost giddy.
---
As Ran and Shinichi arrived at the detective agency hand in hand, they'd have counted on everything. They'd counted on encountering Kogoro on the street, waiting for his daughter to return and for his chance to murder Shinichi, on the agency burning down (the fire set by people Kogoro had helped send to jail, and so on). Even on the whole mini-detective bunch. Heck, and maybe even with some parents they seldom saw like Eri or Yukiko. Like we said, they'd counted on everything; except with what they actually found.
Only a few feet away, they heard familiar voices arguing about something.
"You are impossible!"
"What?"
A slight pause.
"HATTORI HEIJI, I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU!"
Ran and Shinichi shared a look that said more than words could have said. Then they crossed the last feet towards the bottom of the stairs to the agency where they already saw their friends from Osaka, Heiji sitting on the stairs, Kazuha standing in front of him. They were fighting, which as fact alone was less of a surprise than their actually being here.
"Kazuha-chan?"
Kazuha turned around and as she spotted her friend, turned away from Heiji and half-ran to her. The two girls hugged.
"What a nice surprise! What are you doing here?"
"I thought, since you were sick a few days back that I better show up and look after you but you look a lot better to me!" Kazuha pulled back and looked at her friend from tip to toe. It was then that her eyes spotted the slightly blushing young man behind her who had both his hands in his pockets. He waved at her with a tiny motion. "Hi!"
"H-hello!" Kazuha blinked back, the surprise about his presence still apparent as she gaped at him.
Heiji now stepped out of the entrance and saw Ran who was standing behind Kazuha. He raised a hand to wave at her in greeting.
"Hi, Neechan, how are you?"
"Hello! Fine, thank you. How about you?"
"Fine. Just starving…" he knew he'd get a glare from Kazuha for this one and he was right. But he chose to ignore that annoying woman for now. Instead, he walked past her without another word. "And where's the little on-" Heiji stopped……
"You mean Conan-kun? He's at the Professor's but guess who I brought with me!"
Ran stepped aside and Shinichi came into view completely. He smiled a little oddly at the pair, waving with his hand a little. Kazuha's eyes widened in delight and Heiji's chin only dropped open with a clinging noise.
"Kudo-kun!" Kazuha exclaimed still delighted.
"Hi guys!"
"What the…" Heiji murmured to himself, trying to keep his eyes from falling out or simply bulging to the point of pain. He closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again to see if he was still standing there. He was. So, no ghost. Ok, so it was not like ghosts existed, but still…
What the hell…?
'Calm down, Hattori, calm yourself down, man. Take deep breaths. I am sure this has a reasonable explanation. Nothing at all to get worked up about, really.' he tried to tell himself, closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath before opening them again and looked at Shinichi in a calm way. Three seconds passed until…
"Kudo, what the hell are YOU doing here?!!" Heiji yelled at him from the top of his lungs.
'Oh well, harder than I thought, this staying calm-thing.'
"H-hello Hattori, nice seeing you, too!" Shinichi grinned at the outraged detective in front of him.
"Don't you start this hello Hattori-shit with me!" Heiji screamed He suddenly became aware of the glares of the two girls next to them. He then cracked a forced smile at them and pulled Shinichi aside by his elbow. "I want an explanation!" he whispered fiercely.
"I'll tell you later." Shinichi whispered back.
Heiji didn't look convinced at all and crossed his arms in front of his chest. Certainly he would have started arguing, loudly and mercilessly, if not for the presence of the girls. So he simply stared at Shinichi.
"Why have you been screami- I mean, what have you been discussing before we came?" Ran asked her friend carefully.
"Uhm…nothing, really!" Kazuha smiled, trying to look completely innocent.
What really had happened…"There they are!"
"Thank god, I am starving!"
"Heiji!"
"What?" he knew that he maybe wasn't the most tactful person on the planet but his stomach was growling so loudly that he honestly did not care about such things right now.
"You are impossible!"
"What?"
"We are here to visit, not to eat all their supplies. All you ever think about is your stomach!"
"Oh really?" he growled at her playfully, reminding her vividly that he was very well capable of having other things in his mind, which caused Kazuha to blush badly and scream even louder.
"HATTORI HEIJI, I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU!"
That was the moment when they heard Ran's voice.
"Really, Ran-chan. Nothing at all!" Kazuha kept smiling strangely at Ran who didn't say anything about it although she did not believe her.
"Let's go inside and have breakfast, what do you say?" Ran politely asked the small group.
"Sure!" Kazuha answered.
Heiji was still too occupied with staring at Shinichi that he didn't respond at all and that had Kazuha worry for a moment. Here was Ran, offering food to him and he didn't even pay attention? Something was definitely wrong!
"I can't believe you, why the hell didn't you-" Heiji hissed.
"I told you I will tell you later!" Shinichi interrupted him in a low voice.
Heiji opened his mouth but never got a chance to reply.
"Why don't we go upstairs first?" Ran offered a little louder and gently nudged the little group up the stairs, having become aware of the people on the street staring at them. Yes, our sweet and innocent one could be very convincing at times.
---
Inside, the little group of four people was gathered in the kitchen, helping out with the breakfast since they were all starving.
"I thought they had food on those flights!" Shinichi commented.
Heiji's eyes narrowed and he took Shinichi aside with an "excuse us for a moment".
He spun him around and a staring contest began. Out of nowhere, Heiji reached out and pinched his cheek, hard.
"OW!" Shinichi screamed, rubbing his slightly throbbing cheek while using his best scandalized expression on Heiji. "What did you do that for?"
The dark-skinned man only smiled, already feeling like he had gotten a little of his revenge.
"I just had to make sure, you know." Shinichi immediately understood. He had told Heiji about those times Kid had dressed up as himself, so it was only logical that he was to check it. But the knowledge didn't make Shinichi glare less at Heiji. "Yoouuu-"
"Would you explain yourself now?"
"Hattori, I told you I will-"
"What are you guys doing?" the girls peeked around the corner.
Both guys immediately turned to smile completely innocently at them.
"Nothing!" Heiji spat out quickly.
"Really!" Shinichi added.
"Is that so!?" Ran raised an eyebrow.
"Yes. You know, it's been so long since I have last seen my good friend here!" Heiji patted Shinichi on his back rather hard. The latter choked a bit and turned left to glare at him. But Heiji completely ignored him. "So, I just thought that a little…guy talk would be in order!"
"Oh. Well, you have still time for that later. The breakfast is ready!" Ran left them alone.
Shinichi spun around to his friend. "Guy talk?"
Said friend stared back unashamed. "As if you've had a better idea …!"
"So, later it is?"
"Yes." Shinichi assured him as they re-entered the kitchen.
The girls were already waiting on the table. As soon as the guys saw the food, everything, including possible quarrels-they have already forgotten about them at the sight.
Almost automatically, Shinichi sat down next to Ran. Hey, don't laugh; this urge for closeness could be unbearable if you are deprived of it for so long!
The guys almost fell face-first in the food, stuffing their mouths with the delicious food. Ran smiled.
'Some things never changed!' She was vividly reminded of all those times that she had watched Shinichi eat with abandon and was glad for this little piece of normality.
Come to think of it, he reminded her a little on Conan. He was eating her meals with equal pleasure. 'I wonder if he is all right!'
Opposite of her, Kazuha was grinning as well. She lost counting of all the times she had seen Heiji eat like this. 'Honestly, this guy has a black hole instead of a stomach!'
Then she turned to look at Shinichi who was almost the exact reflection of her childhood friend and grinned wider. 'Then again, if I look at Kudo-kun, it certainly could have something to do with his line of work'.
The girls talked with each other over the slurping noises the guys made. Here and there one of them would add something through their mouth-full of food. Really, sometimes it appeared like even brothers couldn't be more alike.
"So, what are the plans?" Kazuha asked happily.
"Huh? What plans?"
Ran earned herself a knowing grin from her friend. "Kudo-kun's and your plans, of course! Don't tell me he just came back and you are completely clueless about what to do?!"
"Oh, you mean plans…" Ran blushed, looking down at her hands. "W-well, we do have plans… we wanted to go swimming and…" she stopped because she didn't know what else to add to that statement.
"That's great! Why don't we go together? We four? Heiji and I wanted to swim after visiting you anyway, at this beach-alike thingy you crazy Tokyo-people have, so we have our stuff handy. What do you say?"
Ran looked at Kazuha with big eyes, weighting the ups and down of her proposal. On the one hand, it may be safer to be four but on the other hand, it was also nice being alone… But Kazuha's expression clearly showed that the decision was already made.
That's why, an hour later, Ran found herself with her friends in front of a huge building with even huger windows and an open roof.
So? What do you think? Please review, remembering that you certainly do want a satisfying next chapter (finally, the "swimming fun"), don't you? Hehehe... Oh, and don't I get any credits for bringing Heiji (and Kazuha of course) into this?? God, he (that perv) is just so much fun to tease, muahahaha...