Second to the last chapter. But the first half's not that great... I've got writer's block piled on top of each other.

Disclaimer: I don't own DC. (I'm getting tired of writing disclaimers...)

Note: In Yukiko's response, down there, I cut the english translation so that you can discern between the words.
Note 2: It's actually kokuhaku (confession). No ~'s.
Note 3: Doki doki is an onomatopoeia for heartbeat.

~~~~CHAPTER 16: CAN YOU DO IT?~CONAN'S POV~~~~

"You seem pretty happy," commented my blue green-eyed seatmate.

I grinned at her. "Why shouldn't I be? Ayumi's not mad anymore and Mitsuhiko's acting normal." I blushed a little, dropping my gaze to my desk and whispered, "Just one thing left and everything'd be perfect."

"What's that one thing?"

"Wha-" was all I got out as I looked up and saw that her arms were on my desk, her face inches from mine. I leaned backward in my chair, trying to move away and hide my embarrassment and lost my balance.

"Itai!" I exclaimed as my butt made contact with the floor.

She offered her hand to help me up, asking "Daijoubu? (who doesn't know what this means?)"

I reached out to take her hand, but before I even touched it, my heart threatened to burst out of my chest. I got up by myself, earning a questioning look from her.

Seeing that she was about to ask why, I decided to change the topic. My eyes caught Mitsuhiko trying to arrange his books in haste. "Oi, Mitsuhiko!" I called out, "What's the rush?"

"Ah, Conan-kun," he said, having managed to stuff his books in his bag. He smiled at me, a smile very similar to Genta's. "Taisho has an all-you-can-eat campaign today!"

"Mitsuhiko, hurry up! It ends at four!" shouted an impatient, pudgy boy from the doorway.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," he replied, running over. "So anyway, Conan-kun, we have to go. Ja ne!" The two of them rushed off, Genta waving his goodbye. I scanned the room and saw Ayumi, also in a rush.

"Ayumi-chan, what's up?"

She glanced at me. "Okaa-san told me to hurry home. Ja ne, Conan-kun!" She headed for the door and left, disappearing from view.

They've changed... I admired them for a moment. But now, this means I gotta go home with Ai ALONE! We'll be alone together! Oh, God... I'm gonna confess to her tomorrow... How am I supposed to deal with this?

"Conan? Is something wrong?"

"Eh?" My head turned in her direction. She already had her bag ready and it seemed like she was just waiting for me.

I told myself not to blush and picked up my bag. "N-nothing's wrong. Let's go home."

~~~~AGASA'S HOUSE~~~~

The walk home had been uneventful. We didn't talk, but then again, she wasn't really the type to say much. I was thankful for that. With the big day coming, I don't think I could have kept up a decent conversation with her.

I entered my bedroom, surprised to find a piece of paper lying on my bed. I approached it carefully. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew that it came from a certain actress who retired at the age of twenty.

I picked it up, my eyes scanning over the words. My eyes widened and a real smile replaced it.

I ran out of my room and clambered down the stairs. In my haste, I dropped the note and it fluttered to the floor. It read:

Shin-chan,

I just saw a dress that would look perfect on Ai-chan! You'll fall in love with her all over again! I thought you might want her to wear it for tomorrow's ko~ku~ha~ku~!

Get her to drop by tomorrow. I'll even fix her hair, just for you. You better be grateful!

Night Baronness

Catching sight of her reddish brown hair, I entered the kitchen where she was preparing dinner. My heart started beating like mad, but I willed myself to stay calm. "Ne, Ai..." I started, not sure if I should ask.

She had her attention focused on the vegetables she was cutting. "What is it?"

"About tomorrow..."

"Tomorrow?" she asked. She stopped cutting, looked at me curiously. Then she smirked as she remembered. "Oh, you mean the dinner with egotistical, cocky, selfish Shinichi Kudo to pay for kissing me in front of the whole class?"

I looked down in an attempt to hide the blush on my face. "You didn't have to put it that way..."

She put down the knife and walked closer to me. "Why not? It's the truth, isn't it?"

"L-listen," I said, before she could get any closer and make me stutter like an idiot. "My mom got a dress that she said would look great on you so I thought you might want to wear it for tomorrow."

She stopped in mid-step, raising an eyebrow. "And why would I want to wear a dress for tomorrow?"

"W-Well, because we're going to a classy restaurant and, you know, to fit the atmosphere." I paused. "Come on, please? Don't make this any harder for me..."

She had a Look on her face. One that said she wanted to keep torturing me but it immediately vanished, replaced by the normal emotionless expression she always had. "Why not?" she said, shrugging.

I instantly brightened. "Really? Great! Then tomorrow, after school, you'll go to my house to get changed okay?"

"Whatever," she replied, going back to cutting vegetables. "Dinner will be ready in ten minutes."

~~~~AFTER DINNER~~~~

"Shin-chan," that ever-annoying voice called out, "There's something I want to show you!" Its owner appeared by the door frame, her smile sending chills down my spine.

"What do you want?" I asked in a voice that said 'I'm grateful for what you've done but I don't know what you're here for and I want you to go away' as I put the last of the plates I was washing in the drawer.

"I just told you Shin-chan. There's something I want to show you," she said as she waved an envelope in my face. She stopped bothering me for a moment and turned to Haibara.

"Don't worry about playing host, Ai-chan. I'm just here to pick up Shin-chan."

Haibara looked at my mom, nodded a little and said, "Oyasuminasai." (you guys already know what this is, right?)

The loud obaa-san beside me smiled back and replied, "Oyasuminasai, Ai-chan," before dragging me out of Hakase's and into our house.

I pulled away from her, not bothering to hide my irritation. "Whatever it is, hurry it up," I said, removing my glasses and wiping them with my shirt.

"Aren't you even going to say 'arigatou?'"

I inspected her through narrowed eyes, then sighed. "Fine," I said, trying to sound as sincere as possible, "Arigatou."

"Do itashi mashite (you're welcome), atashi no (my) kawaii (cute) musuko (son)."

I put down my spectacles on the table and asked, "So? Is that all you want from me?"

She grinned, in a mysterious way that sent chills down the chills down my spine (no, this is not a typo). She opened the envelope she was holding, spilling its contents on the table. "I thought you might want this," she said.

I picked up one of the pieces of paper that came from the envelope. I realized it was a photo. I turned it around so that the side with the picture faced me, and instantly turned three shades of red.

"Wh-what the hell is this!?!?" I shouted. The pictures were all of me and Haibara. One was the time I cried in the rain. Another was of yesterday, when Haibara kissed me in the garage. The other was...

"Maa, maa, calm down." A teasing tone entered her voice. "You don't want it?" She flapped one of the pictures in front of my face.

"It's not that I don't want it..." My blush deepened and I avoided her eyes. Then I regained my indignant pose and faced her, ignoring the fact that my face was burning. "Why the hell do you have these!?"

She looked at me innocently. "Didn't you notice, Shin-chan? I asked Agasa-hakase to install hidden cameras all over his house."

An image of me and Haibara on my bed flashed through my mind. "Wh-what about my bedroom!?" I asked, panicked.

"There's one there too, of course," was her immediate reply.

I dropped the photo I was holding and just stared at her, not knowing what to do anymore. A minute passed... two. Then she winked at me. "Just kidding."

I blinked, once, twice. Then all my pent-up frustration burst out. "WHAT!?!?!"

She put her hands on her hips. "I'm not some nosy old lady with no morale, Shin-chan."

That's exactly what you are, Goddammit. She continued talking, not aware of my thoughts. "I respect my son's privacy. I won't go poking around in places I know I shouldn't. Of course there's no camera in the bedrooms and bathrooms."

I heaved a deep sigh and relaxed. She collected the pictures that had scattered on the table and stuffed them back into the envelope. Silence reigned for a while.

"Can you do it?" my mom asked, serious this time.

I narrowed my eyes at her, still wary, and uncertain about this sudden change of topic. "Do what?"

"Kokuhaku, Shin-chan. Kokuhaku," she answered, hiding the envelope in the drawer.

My face must have said 'Huh?' because she immediately took my eyeglasses from the table. "Do you really think you can say..." She lowered her voice to match mine, putting on my glasses and said, "I love you, Ai." Then she removed it, regaining her normal tone, "Without looking like a bumbling fool?"

I stared at her for a moment. "I love you," I blurted out, my eyes fixed on hers.

My mother stared at me, seemingly surprised by my revelation. Then a smile spread on her lips and she hugged me, kneeling down to my height. "Shin-chan! I've waited twenty-two years for you to tell me that!"

I flailed my arms, struggling from her grip. "That's not what I meant, baka!"

She pulled away, her arms still on my shoulders. "It's not?" she asked, her tears starting to pool in her eyes filled with disappointment.

There's that actress face again... I glared at her. "Well, obviously not! You were the one who first started saying if I could confess to Ai!"

"But Shin-chan, you were the one who told me you loved me!"

"I only said that to practice for tomorrow!"

"Does that even matter? You confessed your love for me!"

"What's the problem?" a voice suddenly asked, interrupting our shouting session. Our heads turned in the direction of the voice, and there by the front door, was the famous mystery novelist, Yuusaku Kudo.

"Yuu-chan!" exclaimed my mom, immediately rushing to his side. She shot him that intensely hurt actress look and said pitifully, "Shin-chan's denying that he loves me..."

My father got into the act as soon as he heard this. He gave me a stern gaze that said 'how dare you steal my wife' and put his hand on her cheek, angling her head so that it fully faced him. "You don't need someone like him, Yukiko. You have me."

"Yuu-chan..." she whispered, just loud enough for me to hear. Then she pulled away, hiding her face from him but making sure that I can see it. "I-I can't. I don't deserve you, Yuu-chan. Not after... Not after loving Shin-chan as well... I don't deserve someone like you."

He put a hand on her shoulder, gently persuading her to face him. "Yukiko..." he started in a voice full of emotion.

"Don't worry about it," he said, and she finally turned around, a tear sliding down her cheek. He wiped it with his thumb. "Nothing that you've ever done before counts. The only thing that matters is that we're together."

"Yuu-chan..." she whispered again, her lips dangerously near his.

"Cut the crap, will you?" I intervened. Since I had interrupted their little 'play,' I had thought they would be mad at me, but they faced me with grins so big, I thought it would split their faces.

"It's not crap, Shinichi. We're being serious," my dad said.

"That's right," my mom added, "We're showing you how to properly convey your feelings."

They had separated (thank god) and both of them had sat down on the sofa. "Hmmm..." my mother started with a thoughtful look on her face. "But I do think that when confessing, you should at least give her a red rose. Then, remove your glasses and make sure not to let go of her gaze and say," She struck a pose. "I love you, in this world, more than anything else."

"I beg to disagree," my father said, his hand cupping his chin. "I believe that a confession should be done during a do-or-die situation. One where you say it before a near-death experience. That will make it more memorable and it will give you the chance to say, 'If I could be with you, I don't mind going to heaven.'"

"Then why," she asked, pouting, "didn't you arrange a life-threatening situation for us when you confessed to me?"

Oi, oi. You actually want something like that? I gave them a skeptical look as they kept talking about the most romantic way to confess (each one more extreme than the last). "I'm leaving," I announced after listening to them for a whole five minutes.

They ignored me and kept on talking as I made my way towards the door. I closed the front door behind me and walked towards Hakase's hoping that Haibara hasn't locked the door yet.

It was open. I bolted the locks and climbed the stairs to my room. Finally I flopped down on my bed and allowed myself a small smile. Those two... They just wanted to help me relax...

"Arigatou, Otou-san... Okaa-san..." I whispered to the darkness.

~~~~SOMEWHERE IN THE KUDO HOUSEHOLD~AUTHOR'S POV~~~~

A feminine voice said, "When I wrote that note to tell him to get Ai-chan here tomorrow, I didn't think he would be so blunt about it."

"Did you think he'd just lead her here without telling her about the dress?" a deeper voice asked, male most probably.

"That's what he would've done before." The woman shrugged. "Anyway, I told Shin-chan that we installed hidden camera's all over the Professor's house."

"And I suppose he asked if there was one in his bedroom?"

"That was the first thing he asked when he found out. I wonder why," the woman mused out loud, though she clearly knew the reason.

The man cleared his throat and was about to reply when a different voice spoke, a bit high-pitched, like it came from a boy whose voice hasn't yet matured. "Arigatou, Otou-san... Okaa-san..."

The two shadowy figures smiled at each other.

"I guess it's a good thing you didn't tell him about the listening device," commented the owner of the deep voice. "By the way, have you contacted the Professor yet?"

~~~~CHAPTER 16: CAN YOU DO IT? end~~~~

PREVIEW: It's the big day! Conan confesses to Haibara. Here goes:

I gazed at eyes, trying to see if she had any premonition of what I was about to say. But her eyes betrayed nothing, her expression still unreadable.

I took a deep breath, and told her the three little words that meant so much.

"I love you."

How will the girl with the poker face react? And what are the two figures plotting? Why did they have to contact the Professor? Find out!

Sigh... The next one's the last... I hope everybody sticks around to find out the ending... Review please!