The consistent beeping was driving Shinichi insane. The heart monitor to his left bleeped unsteadily, sometimes slow, sometimes so fast and hard that it hurt. Aside from the infernal noise, there was not a single sound in the white hospital room. He scowled up at the ceiling and wished dearly that he did not have to be stuck in bed. The nurses had threatened to knock him out, though, and so he was forced to sit still. Better to be conscious and alert than asleep but unguarded.

Perhaps he was getting paranoid. Haibara must be rubbing off on him…

A smile full of irony tweaked up on the minute detective's face. Haibara… this really was her fault, wasn't it? It wasn't like he could blame her. In all honesty, he probably would have done the same thing she did if he had been in her place. Memories, after all, were what shaped a person. Meaning that if they switched places, he'd be a cynical, sarcastic, somewhat suicidal little not-kid? Then she'd be a clear-minded, somewhat arrogant, and also sarcastic detective. Huh. Haibara the detective. The thought was actually a little creepy. If, by some wacked-out coincidence, she became a detective, he pitied any murderers that came her way. Little or not, the yawny-eyed girl was downright scary sometimes.

He noted as an afterthought that they both had one thing in common no matter what: sarcasm. Cynicism, too, though not as much for him. It was a bit hard to get along with people with his sense of humor. Oh, he could hold a conversation easily. Give Shinichi just about any topic, and he could speak about it for as long as needed. However, it was his true friends that he was awkward with. They were the ones he would feel comfortable speaking a mile a minute about Holmes and mysteries, with a dash of soccer thrown in the mix. Sometimes his pessimistic words came off the wrong way, driving people away from him.

The detective had to admit that back when he was sixteen, he had been a bit… big-headed, to put things lightly. Perhaps that was why he had so few real friends. Few being one, and one being Ran. His dry smirk morphed into a true smile at the thought of his childhood friend. Kami, she had to be the most kindhearted girl he had met. She was the only one who could get past his arrogance and see the true face beneath his cool masks: an awkward, even insecure teen who didn't seem to fit in anywhere. He really had mistreated her. Ran deserved so much better, and yet he had just blown her off for his cases time and time again.

Shinichi let out a snort. Look where that landed him. Trapped in a child's body and a hospital room. Actually, not even that—he was confined to his very bed at this point.

A parched cough left his mouth, and his throat burned in protest. The coughs quickly gave way to hoarse wheezing as the endeavors left him breathless and gasping. He could hear the heart monitor pick up—damn that beeping!—and saw the thin line spike, too high to be safe. His heart throbbed, now beyond mere pain and turning to something that bordered on agony. It wouldn't be long till it crossed that line.

A large hand came down on his shoulder as another began rubbing his back in soothing circles. Despite their size, the hands were surprisingly gentle. Shinichi grasped the wrist gratefully and used it as a support as his body shook with dry and forceful coughing. His breathing settled into raspy breaths, his small frame trembling delicately.

Something cold and smooth was pressed to his lips and cool liquid lapped against the skin. He opened his mouth and the cup was tipped up, allowing water to trickle in. He wanted nothing more than to seize the glass and gulp down the water like a man in the desert but knew that would do nothing but send him into another fit. So he simply took small swallows until the burn in his throat had faded.

When the water was gone, the glass was pulled away. He heard a small clunk as it was placed on a table. "Thanks," he grated out, wincing at the harsh edge to his voice.

"…Yer getting worse, aren't ya?" Hattori's worried voice brought his eyes lifting tiredly open. The Osakan's face had anxiety etched into every feature.

"I told you, Hattori. This isn't just some cold."

"I knew that!" He snapped. His temper had flared with a speed that left even Shinichi astonished. "Can ya blame me fer hoping, Kudo? Yer in th' hospital- my best friend is in th' hospital, and you want me to just assume th' worst?"

Shinichi softened as he realized just how scared his friend was. "I know," he murmured. "I'd wish for the same if it were you. But you and I both know it's not a cold. It's not a flu, and it's not a virus." His eyes darkened. "I'm going to die, Hattori. It's only a matter of time."

The larger detective was grasping at lifelines. "That little Neechan is working on a cure. She's going to finish it soon, and then you'll get better-"

"I'm not!" Shinichi cracked, his calm demeanor shattering. The worry, the terror, the anger all came rushing forth. "Do you have any idea how long it took her to make a temporary cure? Months, Hattori! And even then, there's a risk of me dying when I take it! For her to make a permanent cure is impossible. We don't have enough time! I'm going to die within the next five days, a week if I'm lucky. It was always going to happen. There was just something in my body that slowed down the poison." He glanced up at Heiji, feeling wetness on his cheeks for the first time in years. "The apotoxin is just doing what it should have two years ago."

Heiji stared at him, green eyes boring into glistening blue. The detective's face was stony, not letting a single emotion through. That only gave everything away. When the masks came up, it meant Hattori had reached his limit. It meant he, too, knew it was hopeless…

"It's not." Shinichi started at the sudden words. "That ahotoxin, apotoxin—I don't really care—is not gonna kill ya." His words were confident, the mask fading into an expression of complete assurance, like he had peeked into the future and knew what it held. "The little Neechan's going to find a cure. I don't care if you have one day or one hundred, we're not gonna let ya die on us this easily." A smirk lifted up onto his face as he finished, "We're detectives, Kudo. And we'll be damned if some measly poison gets the best of us."

Humm… This is an idea that's been playing around in my head for a while now. I think the mood switched around a bit too quickly, but my muse won't let me do anything else. xD Or rather, it abandoned me and I can't think of anything.

OH! By the way, I'm looking for some oneshot ideas. So when you review, drop a story prompt in, too. There's no guarantee if I'll write it or not, but I'll try. Any pairing and/or situation, so long as it isn't nuts. Like, no aliens. xD I'm no good with aliens.