Title: Catching Her Breath
Author: RanMouri82
Word Count: 336
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Detective Conan's owned by Aoyama Gosho, but I just call him A-dawg.
Pairings: Ran and Shin'ichi
Notes: When love found Ran, the best moment after losing her breath was catching it.

Catching Her Breath

Slowly, gently, their breathless lips parted, drawing in the chill night air. Ran's head swam as she finally opened her eyes; she had squeezed them shut when the giddiness swelled, throbbing in her ears and drowning her in his embrace. But as his warm breath drifted from hers, her hazy vision began to clear, revealing a pair of shining eyes that gazed into her own, a nose that brushed hers, and Shin'ichi—

Reality jolted Ran and set her pulse racing. Shin'ichi!

In a way, their situation was almost comical: two childhood friends, one of them dressed in a green jumpsuit designed to accommodate his shrinking and growing, stood on a greasy dock that smelled of year old fish, surrounded by looming barges covered with barnacles and the oncoming, though still distant, sirens of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police. But beyond all consideration of the criminal syndicate, the FBI, the police, and their family and friends, a twofold secret now lay bare between them. The first part of this secret, Shin'ichi's identity, had exposed itself right before Ran's eyes, but the second . . . .

Scarlet suddenly bloomed on Shin'ichi's cheeks, purpling them against the midnight sky. Ran, too, felt her face burst into flame as the throbbing began to subside.

Coughing, Shin'ichi loosened his arms around her waist; Ran timidly slid hers away from his shoulders and rolled her feet back onto their heels. It was only then that she realized how much the balls of her feet ached from leaning so long.

Sirens began to cry louder; flashing lights swirled around the bend, calling the pair away from this awkward moment.

But then, Ran swallowed hard, hot tears blurring her vision of Shin'ichi once more. With a sob that she no longer had the strength to stifle, she flung herself into his arms and gripped his back, desperate never to let him go even as he drew her closer. The mystery geek she cherished was home.

"Shin'ichi," she whispered, crushing her tears into his chest, "I love you, too."