Chapter 2 - Temptation & Hesitation

Ran made her way towards the exit of the locker room, with Sonoko catching up to her quickly. After a moment of silence, Sonoko asked: "And? What did he write? On his White Day card I mean."

"Nothing special, really, but it wasn't cheesy either. It was something you'd expect from Shinichi." Ran said. She was sick with a bad cold at the time, barely able to speak, so Shinichi's gift was a large package of white cough drop candy, with a card that read To hopefully make you feel better and get well soon. I miss your voice. -Shinichi; Ran inwardly chuckled, writing that last sentence probably hadn't been easy for him. Knowing that made Ran even more happy that he actually wrote it down though.

"Way to avoid the question...again..." Sonoko mumbled, but she didn't press the issue. It seems like she was busy with thoughts of her own.

Upon leaving the locker room, Ran and Sonoko almost bumped into Kamiko's boyfriend, Ikema, who was standing really close to the door of the locker room. "Don't you think you're waiting a bit too close to the door, Ikema-kun?" Sonoko asked. "People might mistake you for a pervert trying to peep."

"None of your business." Ikema huffed, as Kamiko also came through the door. Sonoko and Ran moved along. However, they looked back over their shoulders when they heard dog like licking sounds, only to see Kamiko and Ikema engaged in a bizarre kiss, which involved his tongue sliding over her face a couple times between lip contact. They hurried away from that sight.

Contrary to Ikema, Shinichi didn't wait obnoxiously close to the girls locker room, but rather outside, sitting on a waist-high wall along the way from the locker room building to the school gate. He was casually reading a book, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie, when he spotted the two girls and got up.

Their way home was mostly filled with unimportant chit-chat, with hardly any of Sonoko's trademark teases; she was confusingly silent in general, even when they parted ways. At least it was a bit confusing for Shinichi, Ran had a pretty good guess at what kept Sonoko's mind occupied. "Sonoko was weird today...did something happen in your locker room? She wasn't like this earlier..." Shinichi asked.

"Maybe..." Ran said. "Locker rooms can start pretty weird conversations sometimes..."

"it will change everything about your relationship"

Ran shook her head as Kamiko's words suddenly came back to her mind. "Say, Shinichi..." Ran started. Maybe hearing some sort of story from the other side would set her mind straight. "Ikema-kun, has he talked about his girlfriend recently?"

Shinichi nodded. "Uhh...Kamiko-chan, right? I think he has, but he's always full of boasting and hyperbole when he tells stories, so I don't really pay attention to what he says anymore, but I think recently it has been all about his girlfriend." He looked at Ran as they were walking. "Why?"

"Ah, just curious, Kamiko-chan seems more...happy recently, so maybe something good happened between them." Ran shrugged while she lied to Shinichi.

"I see." Shinichi sighed. "Well, I'd tell you more details, but Ikema is just too tiresome to listen to. Plus, there is another topic in that locker room that interests me more right now..."

"Don't worry about it, it's not important." Ran hastily said, before he could continue. "Kudo-kun might be nice now, but that'll change." Ran shook her head again. She was frustrated that the words of her classmate came back to her mind; she didn't want to think about it now.

Once Ran and Shinichi arrived at the Kudo mansion, they worked on their homework and learned for the upcoming math exam. After that, Ran made dinner for them.

"What are you thinking about? A new case?" Ran asked while they ate. Shinichi had seemed like he was thinking about a case even when they were studying and now during dinner too.

"Kind of..." Shinichi answered. "It's about what I mentioned earlier, about what topic interests me more in the locker room. Recently, some of the boys in our grade behave strangely around women."

"Huh?" Ran wondered. "What do you mean by that?"

"They get totally nervous around them, downright anxious even and I don't mean just girls of the same age, no, even our teachers and some even with their mothers. I've seen some of the guys, who were drooling over Jodie-sensei and had that dumb smile all over their face when she gets a bit flirty, flinch away from her when she simply touched their shoulders." Shinichi explained. "But I can't figure out the reason for it, that's why I keep thinking about it. They obviously deny any of that and won't talk about it, no matter how subtle or unsubtle I'll ask them about it. I don't know, I feel like something weird is going on..."

"That's sounds quite curious indeed..." Ran said. She hadn't noticed that explicit behavior from her male classmates, but she remembered wondering why some guys were less willing to help Jodie-sensei with stuff, something she got tons of volunteers for previously. 'Like Shinichi said, that's something weird...' Ran thought to herself. They finished eating and watched a bit of TV. Ran decided to stay over the night again and the two of them kissed when they about to go to sleep. It didn't seem like anything more than that would happen.

Ten minutes later, the two of them were making out, stumbling backwards into Shinichi's room, passion and hormones dictating their movement. Entering the room, they eventually got to his bed; tripping when they reached the edge of it, Ran fell backwards on the bed, with Shinichi arching over her, still locked in a kiss. Their lips parted and Shinichi asked: "Ran, do you want to..."

"Yes..." Ran whispered, starting to undo his green tie. Shinichi smiled and removed hers. "It will hurt a lot, it'll be a ravaging experience." Ran closed her eyes. 'Get out of my thoughts, Kamiko!' She shouted in her mind.

"Ran? Is something wrong?" She heard him ask. Ran opened her eyes again and saw some worry on his face, so she flashed him a smile and shook her head.

"No, everything's fine." She said and started to unbutton his shirt. The worry vanished from his face and he mirrored her movements again, opening up her shirt until her bra was visible, a sight that made him blush quite a bit, despite the fact that they had making out for a good amount of time now. He just was cute like that. Shinichi leaned down again to resume the kissing.

"But don't expect him to care about your feelings or about your pain, they will only be distractions for him."
"it will change everything"
"he'll see you as a doll that is supposed to look nice at his side"

'No, that's not Shinichi, that's not him at all!' Ran thought, still feeling the taste of his lips. 'But...what if...what if she is actually right? What if Shinichi turns into someone like Ikema? That would never happen...or could it?' While they were still kissing, Shinichi started to unbutton the rest of her shirt.

"will change everything"
"ravaging experience"
"he will stop to care"
"change everything"

Ran grabbed Shinichi's hands, which were still busy with unbuttoning. "Huh?" He wondered out loud.

"Shinichi..." Ran said, opening her eyes a tiny bit. "Maybe...we shouldn't..."

"Oh...I see..." Shinichi said, an undefined emotion in his voice. Disappointment? Swallowed anger? Sadness? Ran couldn't tell either way.

"But don't hesitate much more now. If you keep him waiting for too long, his brain will see you as a frigid, old hag and he'll ditch you."

Ran closed her eyes again as she heard the words of the damned Kamiko in her mind again. Why did that girl leave such an impression on her? Was it because of the conviction in Kamiko's voice, that spoke of an experience Ran herself lacked? Ran felt incredibly stupid right this second. She had just bluntly and out of nowhere rejected an intimate moment with Shinichi, the one person she actually wanted to be intimate with, just because of the words of a girl which wasn't even really her friend, unlike Sonoko. As she still had her eyes closed, Ran only felt and heard how Shinichi got up from the bed (and subsequently her) and stepped away from it.

"I think we have a problem, Ran..." She heard Shinichi say.

'Oh god, what does he mean? What will he say? Is he...angry...sad...? Damnit, why I can't construe his emotions?' Ran thought.

After another moment of silence, Shinichi spoke again. "I can't tell which tie is yours and which is mine I'm afraid..."

"Huh?" Ran opened her eyes and jolted up from his bed; Shinichi was standing in the middle of the room, where they had thrown the green ties that was part of their school uniform. He held one tie in each of his hand, looking back and forth between them. Ran walked closer to him, taking note of his upper body which was even more exposed than hers; seems like she had been more eager and thus faster in unbuttoning his shirt, a fact that made her blush even more in addition to the blush she had from everything that had happened just now.

Shinichi was still busy looking at the ties. "Hm, I can't figure it out..."

Ran went ahead and grabbed the tie from his left hand. "This one is mine."

"How do you know?" Shinichi asked.

"I just know, okay?"

"But...how?" He wondered. "They are literally identical..."

"Then it doesn't matter anyway, right?!" Ran snapped.

Shinichi held his hands up defensively. "Alright, alright, I get it."

They stared at each other for another moment, before they realized again in what kind of an awkward situation they were. Shinichi looked all over the room, while Ran looked at the ground before she said: "Well, I think I'll go to sleep now..."

"Yeah..." Shinichi mumbled. "That's probably for the best..."

Ran gave Shinichi a kiss on cheek and headed for the door. "Good night, Shinichi." She said while exiting his room.

"Night..." Shinichi almost whispered.

When Ran closed the door of the guest room/her room behind her, she let herself fall back against it and slid to the ground, barely holding back a few tears. She mentally scolded herself again for being so stupid and for ruining the situation, unsure what Shinichi would think of her now. Although...after thinking for a while, his reaction wasn't what she expected and he didn't show any emotion that she speculated. No, his reaction showed...content? Was it that he didn't care or was he fine with her reaction? Ran stood up and almost opened the door again, but ultimately, she refrained. Coming to his room now would only make matters worse; tomorrow was a new day. A new day where they could talk about what happened, because a talk was most necessary. Quickly, Ran discarded her shirt, skirt and socks, put on one of her pyjamas that were stored in the closet of the guest room/her room and crawled under the blankets of the bed. Thoughts about the discussion with Kamiko and about what happened in Shinichi's room kept her mind from resting, but soon enough, Ran was asleep.

Ran sat in her hotel room of the Izu Princess Hotel. The lights were off despite it already being late evening and tears were flowing down her face. The Night Baron who committed murder had been able to parry her karate kick. Only one of the suspects had that ability; thus, her idol, the man who inspired her to start practicing martial arts, was most likely the culprit and Ran hadn't told the police or Shinichi yet. Instead, she was sitting in her room, unable to make a decision on what to do next.

She heard two knocks. Ran looked over to the doo, but didn't make an effort to answer it. After another moment of silence, the door opened and Shinichi stepped into the room.

"You know, even though there is a murder investigation going on, there are better ways to spend your evening than crying in the darkness of your room." Shinichi said, as he closed the door behind him.

Ran wiped away some of her tears, even though he told her years ago that if she wanted to cry, she should simply do so. "I already told you earlier when you tested that trick to lock a room from the outside: I just yawned and that made my eyes tear up."

Instead of mentioning how shallow that excuse sounded, Shinichi simply sat down on the bed beside her. Ran bit her lip. "So...you figured it out, right? That the Night Baron who attacked us in the elevator could only have been...Maeda-san..." Ran deduced, to which Shinichi nodded. "Is he the culprit, Shinichi?"

Shinichi sighed. "It's seems very likely at this point, yes..." He answered and looked to the ground.

Ran sobbed another time, trying to hold back further tears. "What would you do, Shinichi? If you knew the culprit, like if it was Professor Agasa or me? Would you tell?"

"Yes, I would tell." Shinichi responded. "Whether it would be the Professor or you, I'd face you and confront you." Shinichi turned to Ran, raised his and pointed directly at her face. "'The culprit is you!'...or something like that." He lowered his arm again.

Ran pouted a bit. "That would be quite a serious situation...and you would try to look cool?!"

"Trying to look cool..." Shinichi chuckled and shook his head. "...no, I'd be lucky if I'd still able to stand upright. Because before I would confront you or anyone I'd call my friend like that, I would tried everything to prove your innocence, I wouldn't give up until I did. And after that, if there were no doubts about your guilt, then, and only then, would I confront you, even if it would break my heart..."

'Shinichi...' Ran thought and blushed. 'All right!' She stood up and clenched her fist, before slightly bowing down to give Shinichi a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you..." She said and left the room.

Ran opened her eyes. It was a dream, but not completely, she dreamt of a memory. Hard to believe it already had been a couple of months since the murder case surrounding the Night Baron happened in Izu. She rubbed her eyes and smiled. 'I was in quite a desperate situation back then, huh? Almost paralyzed by the fear that my karate idol had killed a person and unsure if I could do the right thing...thankfully, Shinichi was there for me in that moment, his words made me search the whole hotel until I was able to confirm Maeda-san's alibi, which was a key factor in figuring out the true culprit...' Ran thought. 'Shinichi...in the end, he was always there for me when I needed him...yet, a single conversation with a classmate made me fear that he would change...Kudo-kun will change, as Kamiko-chan put it...but that couldn't happen because of such a thing...or could it? I need to talk to Shinichi about what happened, I need to explain my doubts, thoughts and feelings! It won't be good for either of us if I just leave it hanging in the air between us.'

Yawning a little bit (not enough to make her eyes tear up), Ran grabbed her alarm clock to see what time it was. She let out a small giggle: she had woken up exactly one minute before the time the alarm was set to.

Roughly an hour later, Ran and Shinichi were already dressed for school in the kitchen, sitting at the table and drinking coffee; they still had time before they had to leave, which Ran saw as a good opportunity to talk about last night. She set down her cup and looked at Shinichi. "Shinichi...we should talk about what happened in your room..." Ran started.

Shinichi looked at her, set down his cup and nodded. "Yeah, we probably should..."

Ran hesitated for another moment, but then decided she should just tell him about the doubts that creeped up in her mind thanks to the talk with Kamiko. "So, yesterday at school, I had..." She started, when Shinichi's phone started to ring.

"Sorry, sorry, let me just turn this off..." Shinichi hastily said, pulling out the phone from his pocket. He looked at the display before declining the call, his eyes widening upon the sight. "Argh...it's my mother..."

"Yukiko-san really has a sense for timing, doesn't she?" Ran couldn't but to giggle. "Go ahead, take the call, you haven't spoken to her in a while. It's not like we can escape from having our conversation anyways..."

Shinichi flashed an apologetic smile before answering his phone. "Hey, Mom, this is not really a good time...no, I didn't mean...come on, you know that's not true...okay, okay, calm down, I'm listening...no, it's fine, really, it's fine..."

In the end, Shinichi didn't manage to keep the phone call with his mother short, but Ran expected as much. Yukiko Kudo was not somebody you put the down on easily. He only managed to end the call when they really needed to leave the house to be at their school in time; Ran was right, they couldn't escape talking about last night, but they had to schedule for after the school (because really, no amount of privacy they could find in their school would be enough privacy to discuss such a matter).

When they finished putting on their shoes, Shinichi held Ran back from leaving. "Hey..." Shinichi said shyly. "Uhm...so, as far as I'm concerned...I mean...there is problem between us, is there?"

Ran hesitated for a moment to process his words, before smiling at him. "No, there's no problem, it's just...I hesitated last night because of a confusing conversation I had and it's got nothing to do with you really...I mean, argh, it's complicated you know...but...ah screw it..." Ran gently grabbed his tie and pulled Shinichi down for a kiss. "When words fail us, we need to resort to actions..." She said when their lips parted. Ran straightened his tie again. "There is no problem between us, we just need to have a conversation before doing...that thing...alright?"

Shinichi nodded, so Ran grabbed his hand and the two hurried out of the Kudo mansion to make it to school in time.

A/N: Phew, here we are with the second chapter. Looks the conversation with Kamiko planted some doubts in Ran's mind; a foolish mistake? Anyways, this chapter (and this whole fic really) is hard for to write and with every chapter I type out, I fear that it lacks in quality. Another reason why feedback through reviews is always appreciated, it helps me to keep going and to let me know that I'm on the right path. Next time is school time; what will happen to Shinichi and Ran in Teitan High? Stay tuned and find out~