Disclaimer: I'd bring in the disclaiming pig from another story, but I'm trying to maintain some seriousness here. I don't own the series, Detective Conan, or its characters. The honor belongs to Aoyama Gosho. In no way do I intend to profit off of this story.

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Drabble 9: Jumping through Hoops

Premise: Ai couldn't find the antidote again.

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High School, Conan Edogawa quickly discovered, was even easier the second time around. Because of this, he spent a lot of time daydreaming. Especially about one girl that always sat next to him in class.

One day, he finally worked up the courage to ask.

She gave a brief but lazy, "no."

He immediately asked if it was because he had taken too long and she had finally given up.

Her response was a cool gaze and a simple, "don't flatter yourself."

It was her way of letting him know that she was still waiting. So he begged, pleaded, and cajoled her for an answer why. Why didn't she want to be his girlfriend?

He finally received one.

"Edogawa-kun, I don't want to because of your past history regarding girlfriends."

The only girlfriend that he could think of was Ran, and he pointed this out as well as explaining that it wasn't his fault that the two were forced to break up. Faced with these facts, she had to agree!

"Fine fine. I'll be your girlfriend." She said this with a casual wave of her hand and an air of unconcern.

Before he could cheer, Ai took advantage of their new status to ask her first personal question.

"So tell me, what's so great about being a detective?"

Surprised, he set about answering it to the best of his ability. Several minutes later, he snapped his mouth shut...but the damage had been done.

It took even more begging, several arguments, lots of teasing, and an additional clause stating that Haibara could rethink her decision if he purchased an expensive gift for her before the two signed a contract. It gave Ai the right to break off their relationship at any time and he couldn't bother her about it afterwards.

Needless to say, the two were finally together. Ai was happy, Conan was happy, but until Ai finally took pity on it, Conan's wallet was not.

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A/N:
I was pretty happy with this one. It resulted from a thought: why would Ai agree so quickly anyway? However, I keep wondering about Conan begging Ai to be his girlfriend. I know he would do it, somewhat, but it just feels weird.

That second to last paragraph, first sentence...I don't know how to clarify it. I'm pretty certain it isn't very clear to the reader unless they read it twice, but none of the word tricks in my bag work.

When Conan mentions that it wasn't his fault that the two broke up. It occurred to me that the reader might assume that he was pressuring Ai into accepting. I'm not completely sure, but I think that this would be an issue that they resolved some time ago. Long story short, they both finally understand that he isn't blaming her. In other words, neither of them believe that he refuses to blame her.

Tip of the Day:
Don't write in notepad then copy and paste to document writer. It makes formatting on ffnet a nightmare.

Acknowledgements:
Hands up for Mizuki Ai! She added me to her author's alert list, and I kept feeling guilty that I didn't have anything to show her.