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 11: Lost

Premise: This is a continuation of the manga. Hopefully. At the very least you can be confident of canon up to around chapter 575ish. I haven't read from then on so if something happens here that's completely opposite of what's happened in the manga, we've diverged.

-o-o-o-o-o-

The Black Organization fell a few months ago.

During the confusion, as agents and police swarmed the building, a small boy went unnoticed as he stole up to an empty terminal before leaving the building with data on APTX4869. With this data, Ai finally developed a working antidote.

He took it right after she gave him the pill, and aside from nausea and a bit of blood during and a few days after the transformation, it looked like Conan was gone forever and Shinichi was here to stay.

She had a problem. With the fall of the Black Organization, Ai did not have to focus on surviving anymore. With the completion of the antidote, she did not have anything that she could work on. There was one thing left that she wanted to do, but after considering it for some time, she decided not to waste her time on the impossible.

Without these major driving forces in her life, she suddenly found herself lost as her life suddenly lacked meaning. She continued to live, but a glazed look had entered her eyes as she mechanically took each step, one at a time. Her mind restlessly wandered but it offered no suggestions on what she could do next.

She lost track of time, hours blended into each other and soon they became days. One day, there was an interruption during history class, and the teacher paused in his lecture to speak with the intruder for a moment. He turned to the class moments later.

"Haibara-san, your mother has taken ill and your older brother has come to pick you up. You may leave, and I hope for a successful recovery."

The haziness that had come to represent each day faded away a little as a recently dormant wariness arose once again. She didn't have a brother. Who would pretend to be a member of her family? What motive did he have? Could it be that the Black Organization wasn't as dead as they had believed?

She reluctantly stood up from her seat amidst the small murmurs of prayers and well-wishing from her fellow students. Their comments fell on deaf ears, she was too busy worrying about the identity of her 'brother.' Hopefully the staff would be able to stop the man if she shouted loud enough. However, the chances of a member of the organization walking around without a gun was nonexistant.

Ai slowly followed behind the messenger as they made their way towards the office where her 'brother' was waiting. The empty school hallways echoed with their footsteps. Once they arrived, the messenger held the door open for her. She took a deep breath...and walked in.

What happened next, she was completely unprepared for.

"Hey sis." A large hand ruffled her hair. It belonged to a teenage boy sitting in a small chair. Aside from a strawberry blond wig, she knew exactly who this was.

"Shin-"

"C'mon, we have a sick mom to see," Shinichi said with a wink before he stood up and took her hand. After signing her out, Shinichi led the girl from school grounds.

It soon became obvious that Shinichi was not taking her home.

"Where are we going?" Ai finally asked as the two made their way down a fairly quiet street.

"Where else, Haibara? It's a nice day out, so I'm taking you to the park for a walk. Since you're at the top of your class, you can stand to miss a day."

"But what about you?" Ai asked. Implied was the question: why wasn't he with Ran?

"Haha," Shinichi laughed nervously, a hand behind his head, "I missed too many days. What's one more when you don't understand the material at all?" he looked away and muttered, "I don't think Mom and Dad will be too happy when I'm held back a year though."

And just like that, he had dodged Ai's real question. Ai had to wait before she could ask again, since they had just stepped into a crowded subway.

-o-o-o-o-o-

"Where is Ran?" she finally asked when they entered the park.

Shinichi looked down at the short scientist before he sighed. "We were apart for too long, there isn't a hint of romance between us right now. She's happy to see me, but we're at the stage of friends once again..."

"Oh." Ai said, a hopeful feeling welling within. She ruthlessly quashed it when she heard him say, "...she's willing to try again, but we both need some space for now."

Ai suddenly felt her hair being ruffled again. She looked up and turned so that she could gaze at him with a neutral look.

Shinichi had a sheepish grin on his face. "I can't help it, it's so soft," he said before he sniffed his hand. "It smells nice too. Lavendar?"

The unamused look remained on her face, causing Shinichi to sigh again before he bent down to whisper in her ear, "Whether you take the antidote now or grow up in 10 years, I'll be here for you Haibara."

When a confused look appeared on her face, he got down on one knee and said, "I promised that I would protect you, and I mean it. I won't leave you behind."

Ai stared oddly at him for a moment longer before she quickly turned away to hide the smile blossoming on her face. Maybe...Maybe it wasn't as impossible as she thought. Even if she failed in the end, she had to try.

She had meaning in her life once again.

-o-o-o-o-o-

A/N:

- Ai strikes me as the type of person who, if she didn't have a goal to work towards, she would feel lost. I mean, she isn't quite the type who would search for adventure. She's the type that would sit and wait for something to happen.

- The best part about this idea is that the ShinxRan lovers can't have Shinichi pull a child Ran from the classroom without him coming off as some sort of cradle robber. I mean, how do you get a child Ran? 1, you shrink her with the pill. In this case she'd demand that he go back to school. 2, you have her grow up from scratch. The same applies for ShinxAyumi lovers.

- I have no clue what color Ai's eyes are.

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Replies for Miyano Ran: From oldest to newest:

Ch 1 - ...

Ch 2 - ...

Ch 3 – I wrote this one assuming Ai couldn't find a pill. Thanks for pointing out that I need to write a premise for the previous chapters.

Ch 4 – I agree, that's why I wasn't thinking of them as elementary students when I wrote this drabble. Again, what if Ai wasn't able to create the antidote? This one uses a universe similar to 'Memento Mori' by PyroKid.

Ch 5 – Uhh...I like you already! I'm not going to tarnish your innocence to explain this one! It's just a joke carried out Ai style. But...I found a problem with it and I added a patchlike fix.

Ch 6 – Love can make you do strange things. Besides, she's a good actor...Conan and Ai know that. Not only that, she has to act like a kid to stay out of suspicion. I got it! I'll just change these two lines and...voila!

Ch 7 – Possible response to Astarael00's CA 1sentence, File 3, #23 – Honor

This time love isn't an issue. I'll update the premise...maybe I can get Astarael's permission to copy and paste that drabble.

Ch 8 – For the life of me, I couldn't think of a sweet soup either. But the pepper added a spicy bitter tang to the soup that makes you wanna retch. I'll doublecheck to make sure. I could've sworn I had something about the change in taste...

Ch 9 – Jumping through hoops? Just because Ai likes him doesn't mean she's going to make it easy to get together with her. You see it all the time...she runs away, she hides her feelings, ...I just wrote something different.

Ch 10 – Yup! That's my favorite part in this drabble. I built most of this chapter around it.