-Love of Four-

Disclaimer: The works of Detective Conan and Magic Kaito belongs to Gosho Aoyama-sensei.

Warning: KaiShin relationship.

A/N: I feel like I just dug a hole for Shinichi to fall in, a hole of despair that is. Does that make me evil?


06: Obliviousness and Attractions

School passed like normal, with Shinichi bored to the brink of insanity. He saw how Shiina fared no better than he was by the amount of doodling done on the once empty notebook. The girl continuously tried to provoke Shinichi with small drawings of flowers and in particular roses, play cards, and gems. Time and again, Shinichi asked whether she had feelings towards a certain magician, knowing that the pair of them shared more than they had with Conan. The young (?) boy was quite happy, if slightly annoyed, by the fact that he had to attend school. But at least this time he could stay at the Kudo house and not have to put on the Conan act 24/7, even though Ran already knew about the incident.

Strangely, it seemed that only Shinichi retained the so-call 'death curse' as only bodies appeared around him. Shinichi was not sure whether it was a good thing or a bad thing.

Still, falling bodies and boredom aside, Shinichi noted something quite peculiar happening in the classroom. Students, particularly male, often tries too hard in class, too enthusiastic and often showing off. Every time they did something, they would glance towards Shiina and it puts Shinichi on the nerve as he wondered whether someone had figured everything out.

The afternoon, thankfully, passed without further incidents. All was calm, or as calm as a pack of wolves being shown a prey, which Shiina technically was by the amount of adoring looks she was receiving from the male populace in the class. Why she attracted so many was somewhat of a mystery for Shinichi, who was not really keen to find out. When accidentally voicing his opinion, Ran gave him a rather pointed look.

"I can't believe you never noticed." She sighed with exasperation, shaking her head at the same time. Sonoko, who was walking home with them mirrored the girl's reaction. Shinichi shared a look with Shiina, hoping that she could shed some light. But seeing as the pair were one and the same, both looked confused.

"They became her fans. Much like how you, you oblivious mystery nerd, have gain a rather large following of girls." Sonoko oh-so-helpfully gestured back towards the school yard that they just stepped out of. Shinichi spared a glance and saw how female swooned as he laid eyes on each of them, how the male students tried to hide behind the nearest furniture, wall, or tree just as Shiina turned around.

"I always thought they were attracted to someone else." Shinichi muttered.

"My God, how dense can you be?" Sonoko exclaimed, "you were pretty lucky there Ran. Being paired up with this idiot, with a guaranteed romance density of a rock, would probably bore you to bits."

"Shinichi's not that bad." There was a slight flush on her cheeks, no doubt remembering the handful of small gestures Shinichi made before he found his match in Kaito. "He's...well…"

Sonoko waited for a full minute before interjecting. "See? Even you find it difficult to name a particular incident where the detective nerd acted, or acknowledged, any form of romantic gesture."

"Can we not talk about my experience at romance?" Shinichi tries to steer the conversation away from his love life.

"Sure, we can always talk about your experience in the bedroom then." Shiina helpfully added. Ran went immediately red but Sonoko quickly became rather interested at this topic and slowed her pace so she could walk side-by-side on the sidewalk.

"Oh, this should be good! So? Managed third base yet the pair of you? Who's topping?"

"Sonoko!" Ran exclaimed, stopping abruptly in front of a cafe. "That's...that's not something I wanted to know about my supposed little brother!"

"But Ran, I know you're curious as well but you're too shy to ask." Sonoko nudged at Ran. "Admit it, you find Shinichi-kun and Kuroba-kun hot."

"Sonoko~" Ran whined. She was about to add something but was interrupted by a shrill scream. Immediately, Shinichi snapped into action, not noticing how Shiina froze up in front of the storefront nor seeing how Ran quickly went over to comfort the girl.

Shinichi managed to ignore a lot of things when his head was stuck into an analytical mode, his eyes automatically taking in details about the surrounding, cataloguing the various facial expression. His motions gravitated towards the body on the floor, carefully avoiding the growing puddle on the ground. He reached out, just in case, to check for pulse but found none. When checking for further signs of life, it never hurt to double or even triple check when a life was involved, Shinichi found that the woman in front of his was truly and undoubtedly dead. Though by the state, she was not dead for too long a time. He quickly round up everyone inside the store, directing the store staff to call the police as he took the initial statements.

None of the suspects exhibited any form of nervousness throughout his talk, though many were weary of the body on the ground. Shinichi had the decency to cover up the body as best he can with his own coat, bemoaning the fact that this one would have to be either thoroughly cleaned or thrown away after this. Maybe he should start carrying large black sheets for such cases, seeing as he stumbles across dead bodies all too often.

"Kudo-kun!" Megure greeted the moment he stepped into the store.

"Keibu." He nodded, stepping out of the way as the forensics team bustle about. He gave a quick run down to the inspector, who quickly ordered his staff to take official statements.

"Have you found anything?" The inspector looked around. "At least you had the decency to leave the girls out this time." He commented with a nod.

"Girls?" Confused, Shinichi looked around until his eyes landed on the large window facing the street. To one side, Ran seemed to be supporting Shiina fully as Sonoko glared furiously at Shinichi. "Um, Keibu. Do you mind if I stepped out for a moment real quick?"

"Go on ahead. We need a bit of time to check everything through. By then, we should have the initial report from the coroner." He waved for Shinichi to leave temporarily.

"Shiina?" Shinichi approached the girl hesitantly with careful steps that barely made a sound on the concrete ground. Ran glared angrily at Shinichi before morphing into a more pitying expression. Immediately after calling out, Shiina launched herself at Shinichi. He made small shushing sounds, rubbing slowly on her back in hopes of calming her down. "Everything's fine, no need to panic."

"I...I just….I'm…" She stuttered as she buried her face into Shinichi's shoulders, trying hard to stifle her sniffling.

"Ran, do you mind walking her home first? I'll pick up Conan later…" He received a rather harsh glare from Ran, to which he took a step back as though physical distance can minimize the traumatic experience.

"You better." She growled before wrapping an arm around Shiina. "Come on, I'll walk you back and we can maybe stop by a cafe for coffee to calm your nerves…" She muttered softly to the girl. It had Shinichi wonder slightly at how different his childhood friend was treating the girl in comparison to him. After all, they were the same.

As though sensing his question at the very last minute, Ran turned her head and shook with a face full of pity. "You really don't understand the mind of a female do you?" She waved Sonoko ahead, making sure that Shiina was also walking along the path with her. Shiina looked to be slightly reluctant to be tugged away from her pillar of strength that was Shinichi but otherwise complied. "You might have been the same at one point," she talked softly in case anyone overhears, "but Shiina is more delicate than you are. And the reason I don't baby you is because I know you. You'll never stop chasing after crime scenes, no matter how bloody or gory they are. You push past your discomfort and focus on your mind rather than the environment."

"I do not." He rebutted. "As a detective, I have to look at everything."

"Yes, everything but not everyone. You pay more attention to suspects and victims than your friends who were roped into the cases." She placed a hand onto Shinichi's shoulders, "I'm not blaming you too much for it. That's just your character and how you were raised up."

Without parting goodbyes, Ran walked away before Shinichi could respond to anything else. He only stared at the retreating forms until Megure called him back into the crime scene for a rundown.

The case was solved in record time that left him with enough time to pick up Conan from Beika park. Immediately, the moment he entered the park and was seen by Conan, the rest of the Detective Boys knew of his approached and pounced on him. Shinichi landed on his backside with the children all piled on top of him. Off to the side, Haibara and Conan watched, sniggering behind their hands.

"Shinichi-niisan!" Ayumi yelled, "why don't you join us for a game?"

"Not today, it's rather late." He glanced over at the nearby clock by the fountain, if he calculated corrected, they would have been playing for the past three hours in the park. Something that was not unheard of but was rather a surprise seeing as the Detective Boys had the tendency to stumble across some sort of mystery whenever they were in the park. "I should walk all of you home." He gestured towards the pile of backpacks near the shadows of the trees.

"Aw~" Genta kicked the dirt at his feet, "do we have to go back? We were just about to win against Conan."

"Really?" Surprised, he turned to the small boy in question who shook his head.

"I'm playing them with a handicap." Conan stated, obediently going over to the mound of backpacks. "I'm not allowed to move more than 3 steps each time before kicking the ball."

"So...no dribbling." It was a rather large handicap and he wondered what the boy did to deserve this.

"They managed to shrink the score gap to two goals." Shrugging on the backpack, the boy returned to Shinichi's side, now with a soccer ball underneath his arms. Not a moment too soon, Conan began bouncing it on his head, on his ankle, dribbling, and bouncing on his head again. It was clear how little exercise he had and Shinichi wondered would it be useful to help burn off some of his energy in the backyard.

Thankfully, the walk was not interrupted by any falling bodies, missing people, or stolen goods. Shinichi dropped off the children each at their own house, each time treated with a hug and an enthusiastic wave of goodbye. When it was only Conan and Haibara remaining by his side, the boy immediately dropped the overly happy smile and returned to his normally content smile.

"So? Do you have any results from your blood mongering?" Shinichi asked. He did not have to be too careful as the street was devoid of any living being.

"You should be happy to note that all three of you are healthy. Though Kudo-kun, it would not kill you to eat more nutritiously." Her stern gaze made both Shinichi and Conan, even though he was not the recipient of the look, shudder. "I'm hoping that with more people in the house, you, or perhaps your female counterpart, will cook more often."

"Conan is a growing boy." Shinichi made fun of the boy by messing up the hair, earning himself a rather annoyed look as Conan straightened himself out again. "Seeing as you reminded me, I might as well pick up some groceries."

"Not from the convenience store you aren't." Haibara was quick to latch onto his wrist and began pulling at the direction of the shopping district. "Might as well, you can carry my groceries as well. I don't trust the professor to buy it anymore. He always had a tendency to pick up snacks and hide them, as though I wouldn't know. Unfortunately for him, the receipts were always in the bag."

Both laughed nervously, knowing how the Professor was on a strict diet. It was just like him to sneak in a bit of goody in the bag.

'At least the Professor has not resorted to using children for his shopping…' The same thought passed through both their minds as they shared a knowing look.

-TBC-