Chapter 8 - Anxiety's End

"Alright, take her away," Inspector Megure said, after Shinichi solved the case and the culprit confessed. "Kudo-kun, you truly didn't disappoint! Do you want to come and face the press with us?"

"I'm sorry, Inspector," Shinichi said and shook his head. "I have something else to take care of right now...", he added with a side-glance to Ran.

"Ahh, I get it," Megure and patted Shinichi strongly on the back three times. "I heard what your role during the play was. Truly like father, like son. Anyway, see you around," Megure said and left Shinichi standing there.

"..." Shinichi shivered inwardly. "I don't think I want to imagine that..."

"I need to imagine that, because Yu-chan never did something that bold with me like you did with Ran-chan," Yukiko explained. "But that should give us some good inspirations for the future..."

"Now I know for sure that I don't want imagine that..." Shinichi said dryly. "Thanks, Mom ... anyway, I'll get out of this costume now. See you later."

Shinichi went backstage and was greeted by many of his fellow students who were congratulating him both on his performance in the play (rather odd, considering he did almost nothing) and on how he solved the case (the usual stuff). He smiled his way through the compliments, before hurrying to his change room; not that he didn't enjoy their praise, but right now, he had his mind on other things. Quickly discarding the costume of the Black Knight, he got back into his street clothes and left his room, going to Room D, where Ran was changing. Shinichi knocked on the door. "Ran, it's me. Can I come in?"

"Come in," came the simple reply from inside her room. Shinichi opened the door just a tiny bit and slipped through it and quickly closed it behind him. Like him, Ran was already back in her usual clothes; considering that she had a great head start when it came to changing out of costume, it must've been a rather complicated procedure. "So ... this all happened..."

"Yeah..." Shinichi grabbed himself a chair and sat down besides Ran. "First of all, well ... I-I didn't know about the kiss scene before today."

"What...?" Ran asked. "But ... you were at the reading...?"

"Yes, but well, my father sent me the new draft of his next book, so I was busy reading that instead of the script I was supposed to read," Shinichi explained. "So yeah, on the roof last week, I had no idea."

"Oh!" Ran gasped and covered her mouth with one hand. "That's why you ... and I assumed ... oh god, why didn't I just say...?"

"Yeah, me too, I should've said something, seek a clearing talk or something, but, you know..."

"The timing was never quite right, was it?" Ran completed his sentence, to which Shinichi nodded in confirmation. "I know that feeling, it was the same for me too..."

"Yeah, so, about Araide-sensei ... after I learned about the kiss scene, I may have overreacted kinda ..." Shinichi and took out a wristwatch from his pocket. "See, this is a watch Professor Agasa made recently, as a concept for a potential costumer, but the deal fell through, so he gave me the prototype as a gift. If you click here," Shinichi pushed a little button on the watch, making the lid pop up and form a crosshair, "you can fire a little tranquilizer dart."

"Shinichi! Don't tell me you used that thing on Araide-sensei...?!"

"Yeah, well, I did..." Shinichi scratched the back of his head. "But don't worry, it's completely harmless, no side effects and you're back standing after roughly fifteen minutes. It was probably wrong, but ... I just, I couldn't just let that happen, I didn't want him to kiss you...!"

Both of them blushed. "I didn't want to do it either ... but Sonoko had already made me agree before I read the script and she kinda guilt-tripped me into it afterwards ... and well, I almost couldn't continue the play after you chased off the bandits, but then ... then you hugged me and I just felt ... I felt safe and I was so confused because I didn't know why Araide-sensei could make me feel this way ... but it was you, all along. Even though I didn't have a clue, I could feel that it was you, I just ... I could feel you, but I didn't know how to interpret that feeling..." Ran explained.

Shinichi took her hand and gently squeezed it. "So ... that kiss, huh?"

"Yeah ... that happened ... in front of the entire school..." Ran mumbled.

"Right ... that's gonna stick for a while ... but it was good, right...?"

"Yeah, I mean ... it felt like heaven for me, so yeah ... I'd say it was good..."

"Yeah..." Shinichi said and leaned towards Ran. "... I wonder if that feeling is ... reproducible..."

"Well..." Ran said and also leaned in closer. "... we won't find out if we don't try..."

A short knock on the door made them quickly lean back to a normal sitting position, before they heard a quick "Hey, you two, I'm coming in!" and Yukiko Kudo entered the dressing room. "I hope I'm not disturbing you with anything."

"No, Mom, whatever gave you that idea..." Shinichi grumbled.

"Right. You can get right back to it, but I have to say goodbye to you two first," Yukiko said. "I didn't want to rush it like I have to do now, but getting tangled up with this nasty murder case took pretty long, so now I have to hurry a bit to catch my plane. Ran-chan..." Yukiko hugged Ran and whispered the next words into her ear. "...don't worry. Just listen to your heart and everything will go well." Ran blushed, when the two of them parted, and Yukiko hugged Shinichi next, whispering into his ear now. "Shinichi, continue to care for her feelings. And don't forget to use protection." Yukiko winked.

"M-Mom...!" Shinichi exclaimed, while Yukiko went back to the door. "Wait, how did you know I was in here when you knocked?"

"Oh, just a little deduction of mine. I mean, why would there be a crowd in front of Ran-chan's dressing room, if she was alone in here?" Yukiko explained and left the room.

"A crowd...?" Ran wondered.

"Don't tell me..." Shinichi said and the two of rushed out of the room, finding Sonoko, Kazuha, Heiji, Kogoro and a sizeable number of Teitan students staring at Ran's dressing room from across the hallway. "What do we have here, the peanut gallery..."

"H-hey Ran ... Shinichi-kun..." Sonoko said. "What's up?"

"Sonoko...! All of you, just what the heck, is there no privacy at this school anymore?!" Ran exclaimed. "And you, Hattori-kun, you were the last one I expected here!"

Heiji defensively raised his hands. "Hey hey, don't think ill of me, I'm just here because Kazuha forced me and to make sure this aho doesn't go too far."

Shinichi spotted something on the doorframe. "Really, Hattori ... hey, Ran, look at this. There is a tape recorder stuck to the door of your room. Heh, what a coincidence, the words Property of the Osaka Police HQ are written on here, almost as if the son of the chief called in a favor with the requisition department to use this for his personal detective work. And look here, a sticker of Hattori's favorite baseball team, another funny coincidence."

"Really? Let me see," Ran said and Shinichi handed her the device. Heiji was sweating bullets by now.

"Considering we didn't hear any commotion outside, I guess our acquaintances here thought it was better to have Hattori sneak up on the door and put the recorder there, so they could maybe listen in afterwards to everything they couldn't hear from their observation spot over there," Shinichi deduced. "Recording conversations from a befriended couple ... how ruthless can one be...?"

"Yeah, really amoral, isn't it?" Ran said and slowly crushed the recorder in her fist. Pieces of it fell down to the floor, until Ran dropped the whole pathetic remains of the device as well. She looked at the scared onlookers, who's faces were white as sheets. Ran took a deep breath and screamed: "GET LOST, ALL OF YOU!"

Their crowd dispersed faster than light. Only Yukiko was in the hallway with Shinichi and Ran now. "Ah, this takes me back. When I was just the young newcomer actress Yukiko Fujimine who starred in the film adaption of the young, newcomer writer Yusaku Kudo ... the press was all over us when we started to date."

"Oh, really? I would love to hear some anecdotes about that," Ran said. "Every time I asked my parents about these kind of stories, they eventually turn it into talking about another nasty thing that happened between them..."

"Yeah, really exciting..." Shinichi sighed.

Yukiko nudged her son with her arm. "Don't roll your eyes, Shin-chan, these are the kind of anecdotes you two will tell your children one day."

"Mom..."
"Yukiko-san..."

Yukiko giggled. "Now you remind me even more of myself and Yusaku when we were younger ... come on you two, you can blush later. Let's get out of here, I've got a plane to catch."

The three of them left the backstage area. On their out, they ran into Dr. Araide and Sonoko, who sheepishly hid herself from Ran's gaze behind the doctor.

"Araide-sensei, are you feeling alright?" Ran asked with a side glance to Shinichi.

"Yes, Ran-san, I'm just fine. I must've been so excited that I actually forgot to drink and/or eat enough ... silly, considering I'm a doctor, but well, stage fright is a natural thing. Don't worry about, I feel perfectly fine now," Araide replied.

"But it's so sad..." Sonoko said, still slightly behind the doctor. "First our school gets shaken up by this nasty scandal with Kurara-sensei, then our summer festival is hit by a downpour of rain and then, as if that wasn't enough, a murder case ruins our play."

"There's nothing we can do about this," Araide said. "All we can do is to keep our smile and try our best the next time."

"I guess you are right..." Sonoko said.

Heiji and Kazuha approached the group, as they also had to get to the airport, to catch their plane back to Osaka. Shinichi and Ran went along with them, to see them off alongside Yukiko. Araide observed the five of them leaving the premise of the school, twirling around the dissolving needle of the tranquilizer wristwatch in his fingers. 'Yukiko, Yukiko ... to think your son would resort to such naughty methods to secure himself a role...' Vermouth thought with a smile behind the mask of Dr. Araide. 'Cool Guy and Angel, it's been a while, but it seems like they are happy ... good for them.'

Two hours later, when Yukiko was on her plane to Los Angeles, and Heiji and Kazuha were on their plane to Osaka, Shinichi and Ran were already back at the Kudo mansion, done with eating dinner and washing the dishes. It was already late, but thankfully the school suspended the lessons for the next day due to the case. So, there was no reason to delay the talk any further. The two of them were sitting on Shinichi's bed.

"So," Shinichi started, "you talked to my mother. About that evening."

"Yeah," Ran answered. "I would've talked to my own mother, but she wasn't available. But there was a good reason for that."

"I'm listening," he said.

"..." Ran nervously bit her lip. "It's ... it's about Kamiko-chan and Ikema-kun. On that day, I got into some kind of girl locker room hot seat ... anyway, the gist of it is, that Kamiko-chan began to tell me all this stuff about how ones first time is literally the most awful thing in the whole wide world and well ... that kind of got stuck in my head for some weird reason ... and that's why, well ... why I bailed that night..."

"I see," Shinichi said. "Well, I mean, if you weren't feeling like you were ready ... for any reason ... then you shouldn't force yourself to it ... although I wouldn't compare myself to Ikema-kun..."

"No! No, no, no, that's not it!" Ran exclaimed. "You're not like him, in any way and ... and I was kicking myself after I went over to the guest room, because ... because there is not another person that I would like to spend a night with except for you, because ... because ... ah, screw it!" Ran leaned over to Shinichi and kissed him; he was initially surprised, but then he kissed her back. Their kiss didn't take as long as it did on the stage, but it was breathtaking nonetheless. "I love you, you know that ... and if you maybe felt that my rejection was supposed to indicate anything else..."

"Ran!" Shinichi exclaimed and grabbed her by the shoulders. "I wouldn't jump to that conclusion, just because you weren't ready for something like that yet ... I mean, I was nervous and I had no weird girl tell how terrible it would be ... oh, sorry..." Shinichi hastily removed his hands from her shoulders, "... I didn't mean to be ... you know..."

"No," Ran said, grabbed his arms and put his hands where they were. "It's fine. Her words are not scaring me anymore, not after I talked to Yukiko-san and not after today ... I felt secure in your arm and even though I didn't know it was you, I felt more confident and ... well, just, I don't think there is any person in the world that I trust more than you," Ran continued and put her arms around his neck, pulling Shinichi closer so that their foreheads touched. "...Shinichi, I want you."

"I want you too," he replied and moved in closer for another kiss, but Ran continued to talk before he could do so.

"But," Ran said, "are you feeling alright too? I mean, after all what happened with Kurara-sensei ... I know, you're not traumatized like the other boys, but ... you shouldn't force yourself to anything either, so, if you have any inward fears or something, that would okay for me..."

Shinichi raised one finger over her lips, silencing her. "No. Not with you," he said and kissed her again.

The next morning:

Sunshine fell through the window into Shinichi's room. While the streets and gardens of the neighborhood were still a bit damp from all of the rain yesterday, the skies were as blue as a dream, with no clouds to shield the capital of Japan from the light of the morning sun. Ran fluttered her eyes open. She felt great, although her body was a bit sore. Nothing she didn't know from her many karate exercises of course. Ran stretched herself a bit; she and Shinichi were snuggled quite tightly together under the blanket, with Ran resting her head on his chest and Shinichi having an arm wrapped around her body.

Ran turned her head and looked at his face; he was still asleep. She gently slipped out of Shinichi's embrace and from under the blanket and sat on the brink of his bed. Stretching herself again, this time more thoroughly, Ran enjoyed letting the morning sun shining on her naked body. Thankfully, Shinichi's room was on the first floor and there was no house from which you could look down into this room; Ran knew this of course, she cleaned that window a number of times in the past. Nevertheless, it was time to get up; looking through the pile of their clothes on the floor, Ran grabbed her panties and swiftly put them on. She also grabbed a dress shirt and put it on as well. It was too big for her, which meant it belonged to Shinichi, so she rolled up the sleeves and buttoned up the shirt enough to make it clad her body like a nightgown.

Going downstairs, she went into the kitchen and made some breakfast. The kitchen of the Kudo mansion wasn't stocked up very well, but Ran could at least whip up some toast and coffee; she also went through the fridge to find something to make the meal less bland and found some strawberries, so Ran cut those up, put everything on a tablet and went back to Shinichi's room.

Shinichi fluttered his eyes open and was greeted by a smiling Ran, who was resting on his chest and wore one of his shirts.

"Good morning, Handsome," Ran said, spiked up a piece of strawberry and held it up to his face. "Here, try this."

Shinichi bend slightly forward and snatched the fruit piece from the fork with his mouth. "Mhh, tasty," he said while munching and smiled.

"I'm glad," Ran said. She rolled off of him, so she could place the tablet in the middle of the bed while the two of them could lie on it comfortably and slid a plate, a fork and a cup of coffee closer to him. "I tried my best, but we really need to do some grocery shopping," Ran said and started to eat a piece of strawberry as well.

"Yeah," Shinichi nodded and began to eat.

"Right, in that case, why don't we also go to the cinema today?" Ran asked. "The new Detective Samonji cinematic reboot started last week, but well ... you were wrapped up in dealing with this whole Kurara mess and I was busy learning my text, so why don't we reward our efforts with a good movie?"

Shinichi grinned and emptied his mug. "And here I thought we rewarded ourself last night..."

"Shinichi!" Ran jokingly gave him a slap on the arm, while unsuccessfully trying to suppress a giggle and a smile.

"Sorry, sorry," he said, while his grin grew wider. "But we also have to study for the exams next week. They won't postpone those."

"Don't worry," Ran said and opened one of the already few closed button on her shirt, exposing pretty much everything, "we have all the time in the world today."

A/N: Sorry, this chapter took a bit longer to come out, but Christmas celebrations and stuff left me little time to write and edit, I'm sure everybody understands. Btw, this is not the last chapter, there will be a final 9th chapter after this, so stay tuned for that!