Kogoro went still. Anger gone in a flash. Surprise did that to people. The brat actually thought? But…
"Can you stand?" Shinichi asked in the awkward silence, rubbing the back of his neck as he dropped his piercing look. "You should be able to put some weight on that left leg for a second so I can lift you onto my back. I think it's just fractured."
"Fractured is still broken, brat." He retorted reflexively, trying to get his brain back in gear. Shinichi couldn't have meant that. He couldn't have. And then the brat was offering to carry him? The old Shinichi wouldn't have done that. What had happened to...could being Conan really have changed his opinion of him so much?
"Do you want to drag yourself through the building then, Oji-Mouri-san?" Shinichi raised an eyebrow, offering a hand to him. "Because I definitely can't lift you on my own from there."
For some reason, hearing Shinichi refraining from calling him Ojisan now felt wrong. Especially after the boy had just stated he valued Kogoro's life, the Mouri Kogoro, the man Shinichi hadn't liked at all, over his parents.
Kogoro frowned and shook his head. "You're injured too, Shinichi-kun. You can't carry me with that shoulder." He may not know how badly it was injured, but with how Shinichi flinched whenever he had grabbed the arm connected to said shoulder, it had to be painful. Not to mention the boy's other cuts and scrapes that the jacket now mostly hid. They both shouldn't be moving until help arrived. But he doubted those injuries would stop the boy. Shinichi had a familiar stubborn glint in his eyes that Kogoro knew all too well. Conan had had it often whenever he'd tried to kick the boy out from crime scenes. So despite his misgivings, he lifted his hand for Shinichi to grab.
"It's no big deal, Mouri-san." Shinichi said, failing to hide a wince as he twinged the shoulder in question while grabbing Kogoro's hand.
Kogoro raised a skeptical eyebrow. Fine huh?
"I can still walk," he added defensively. "You can't."
Sure. Walk barefooted. Over broken glass, concrete, metal, and who knew what else, plus carry Kogoro's own weight? "You still need your own treat-" Kogoro yelped as Shinichi pulled him to his feet. He reached out to grip Shinichi's arms with the intention of never letting go as he put his full weight on his legs. He couldn't catch is breath from the radiating agony coming from his limbs. Quickly he lifted the right one off the ground to get some relief from the exploding volcano trying to take up residence there, while the left only felt slightly better as a ball of liquid fire.
Shinichi didn't let him stand for long. "I'll get treatment when I shrink again." He said, somehow removing Kogoro's vice-like grip on his arms as he pulled him into a fireman's carry, giving Kogoro blessed relief from standing.
Even though he was reeling in his own agony, Kogoro caught Shinichi's muffled cry of pain as his weight settled on the boy's injured shoulder. "A-any bandages I put on now will only fall off then."
"Sh-Shinichi-kun," Kogoro managed to say as the fire in his legs died down, unable to keep the concern out of his voice as he tried to get back off. The boy was going to hurt himself worse. It was amazing he could stay standing, the boy shouldn't be able to carry him as is. He shouldn't be strong enough. Shinichi'd said temporary strength. Not everlasting strength. "We can wait here."
Shinichi tightened his grip on Kogoro, preventing him from moving. "I'm fine. It's not-"
"Not safe to wait." Kogoro grumbled, full of misgivings for not trying harder to get off the boy. But...he didn't want to face standing on his legs again, nor did he think Shinichi would allow him to get off without fighting to keep him on. So he held still instead to prevent himself from jostling the boy.
Kogoro glanced upwards, not missing the creaking of the ceiling above them with the occasional pitter-patter of falling debris. Was Shinichi always this fool-hardy-yes, yes he was. He remembered the boy getting shot in the stomach, as well as kidnapped, and trapped in other buildings with bombs and fires. "I got it the first time." He muttered as he did his best to avoid putting too much weight on the boy's injured shoulder.
Shinichi nodded, relaxing when Kogoro went still. "Good. Let's get out of here."
Kogoro couldn't help but hold his breath as Shinichi wobbled, convinced he was going to collapse before the boy began walking them through the rubble. Surprisingly Shincihi didn't struggle as much as Kogoro expected him to. Only Shinichi's fingers tightening and releasing on Kogoro's limbs indicated how often the boy stepped on something sharp.
Did the boy really care so much for him? Mouri Kogoro? To risk further injury to get him out of this place? Ran he could see if she were here, but him? Kogoro stayed silent only for another minute before he stated "You can't mean that."
"Mean what?" Shinichi huffed.
"That you care for us more than your parents. They're your parents Shinichi-kun." It bothered him to hear that. It wasn't like Kogoro had been the most...welcoming of the freeloader in his house.
Shinichi chuckled and shook his head. "You know...I actually forgot to tell them. My parents." Shinichi admitted. He glanced to Kogoro before he returned his focus to the rubble around them. "I've been on my own for so long, it never occurred to me to give them an update on my...condition. We don't keep in constant contact since Dad's always traveling to avoid his editors." He twisted, sidling them sideways through a narrow gap, doing his best to avoid jarring Kogoro's legs. "So I was as surprised as you were when Edogawa Fumiyo showed up. I hadn't known she was my mother."
Kogoro tensed, both in disbelief and because his right leg had just been jarred by an outcropping of pipes. "You went off with a stranger?!" He exclaimed half-strangled. This boy was more than foolhardy! Hadn't he just said he couldn't let those people find him?
"Yes. Because I couldn't risk you and Ran getting hurt, Mouri-san." Shinichi replied like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "If that woman was with the people who poisoned me...my only hope was to convince them that you had no idea who I really was so that they would leave you two alone."
Kogoro couldn't help himself. He thunked the boy on the head, causing him to yelp and stagger, nearly sending them both tumbling into a pile of broken concrete. Kogoro jerked his hands up, hitting the concrete with them before their faces could. He pushed them away from the pile as Shinichi regained his balance.
"What was that for!"
"You're an idiot, that's what that's for." Kogoro stated. "Go off with a complete stranger! Someone who could have killed you." He glared at the boy. "And not even tell us that you were in trouble. What if you had died!" It made him feel sick just to think about. He was supposed to be watching this brat.
"Then you wouldn't have known, Mouri-san." Shinichi replied, adjusting his grip on Kogoro. "You both thought I'd gone off with my mother. And I couldn't tell you she wasn't her. If she was a part of Them, she would have killed you on the spot." A tremor ran through the boy's body. "Besides, why would you question if I never made contact again? I'm a freeloader am I not? I would no longer be a burden to you." He glanced to Kogoro and then away, "You'll be glad to see the last of me when Conan finally 'returns to America' to live with his parents."
Kogoro huffed. Truthfully, he hadn't questioned it. He'd been glad for the brat to leave then, but that was over a year and a half ago when they'd first met Edogawa Fumiyo. "Well...that's hardly...true...now." Kogoro couldn't picture it actually. Conan had become such a part of their lives after two years that the thought of him leaving brought a pang to his chest.
Shinichi paused, wincing as his foot hit a jagged copper wire. "It's not?" he asked raising his eyebrows as he looked to Kogoro, disbelief clear on his face.
Kogoro looked away as the boy began cautiously moving once more. Well, it had seemed like the freeloader would be living with them for forever and even if he grumbled about it constantly...he no longer minded it. The boy had his helpful moments. "You're not...so bad…when you're not meddling in my investigations."
Shinichi chuckled quietly as he paused at a partially collapsed wall. "Well...I can't really help myself with that."
"No, no you really can't." Kogoro agreed ruffling the boy's hair with a fond smile. He really couldn't.
Shinichi made a small noise of protest, moving his head to try and dislodge Kogoro's hand.
It made so much more sense now why Conan was so acute at crime scenes. Why a six, well now nearly eight, year old could face death so calmly. Why he was so knowledgeable. His information didn't just come from 'something he saw on TV.' Shinichi already had known it from personal experience, from years of studying crime scenes with his father and through books.
"Do you think you can crawl, Mouri-san?" Shinichi asked drawing Kogoro from his thoughts, only now realizing that the boy hadn't moved away from the wall. "The wall's covered most of the doorway, I can't carry you through it."
Kogoro looked up to see that indeed the remaining wall was leaning dangerously over them, covering their potential exit. It took him a moment to locate the doorway in question, and narrowed his eyes when he did. A tiny hole at the base of the rubble. It hardly looked like they would be able to crawl through the narrow opening, let alone know if it would have an exit on the other side. It seemed more like they'd be wriggling through that tiny space instead of crawling.
"I can manage." He said finally, wondering how Shinichi could be sure it was a tunnel. Regardless, he'd already dragged his broken legs once today, he could do it again, especially if that meant giving the boy a break from lugging his weight around. Besides what other option was there? Who knew if there would be a second exit even available if they looked.
"Good." Shinichi bent over, letting Kogoro's feet touch the ground. Kogoro couldn't help but let out a cry of pain as once more he put weight on his legs, his hands gripping Shinichi's shoulders hard enough to bruise them as he fought to keep his vision from tunneling.
Shinichi winced, biting back his own yelp. "Easy, old man." He gritted out as he helped to lower Kogoro to the ground, getting the weight off his legs as quickly as possible. He pulled away from him once Kogoro was stable, massaging his shoulder with a grimace before the hand drifted down to grip at his chest. "I'll go first to make sure the path is clear for you to come through." He said wiping fresh sweat from his brow.
Kogoro narrowed his eyes not liking that idea, but the boy was in better condition. If only by the tiniest of margins. Just because Shinichi had working legs didn't mean that the rest of him would be alright. He was after all, just wearing Kogoro's jacket, that would hardly be any defense against whatever he might encounter in that crawlspace. "Be careful, boy," Kogoro said instead of arguing. They'd both have to go through the tunnel, might as well be the boy first.
"As careful as I can be, Mouri-san." Shinichi said flashing him his confident smile.
Kogoro tensed and grabbed the boy's arm before he could move. Making an impulsive decision. "You can call me Ojisan still, Shinichi-kun." He said, squeezing lightly. He kept eye contact as he fought to keep the frown of concern off his face. Shinichi felt...warmer than he had two minutes ago. "I don't mind." He really didn't. It was bugging him to hear the boy being so formal with him.
Shinichi blinked, his eyes softening before he turned away. "Alright...Ojisan." He pulled free of Kogoro's grip. "I'll holler when I'm on the other side." He said getting down on his belly and wiggled through the small hole, quickly disappearing from view.
Chapter 3 Published: 9/4/2017