Part Two
"There you go again, smiling for no reason!" Sonoko said, eyes flat with suspicion.
"Eh?" Ran turned, her eyes wide and questioning. "Am I really?"
"I bet I know why you're smiling," the Suzuki heiress proclaimed, leveling a pointing finger at her best friend. "You're thinking about your husband!"
Ran immediately turned bright red. "Sonoko!" she cried out, thrusting her hands to her face, trying to hide her embarrassment.
"Ohohohoho!" Sonoko laughed, a delicate hand lifting to her mouth. Several people on the street were turning to look at the spectacle, but teenage drama was beneath most of the spectators and they turned back to their own business. "I'm right, I knew it! You are soo easy to read, Ran!"
Said high school girl tried valiantly to deny the fact.
"You are! You're thinking about him even as I'm needling you! I bet you're off to have a secret tryst with him, aren't you?" Sonoko demanded. Ran's sputtering only continued, and Sonoko's face actually slackened in shock. "Wait, you are? You really are?" Then she straightened. "Oh, Ran! This is so wonderful! You haven't seen him in forever, and now you can meet and confess your heartfelt love for him. 'Ah! Shinichi! You've kept me waiting for so long; I've been worried and scared for so long! But now you're here and I'll never let you go, and we can spend our days in wedded bliss!' Am I right?"
Ran shook her head in vehement denial, unable to even stand the picture that Sonoko was painting. This only sent her best friend into more peals of laughter, the blond heiress having long forgotten decorum and slapping Ran lovingly on the shoulder. Desperately, Ran tried to tune it out, to think of something else. On a level she would only acquiesce much, much later, she was touched that Sonoko felt so happy for her. Most teenagers, Ran found, were too absorbed in their own problems and dramas to be so conscientious of the dramas of others around them. Sonoko was one of the few. In fact, Shinichi was too; his observational skills were always top notch, even if he tended to be clinical in his support before Ran had taught him proper protocol. The thoughts only made her smile again, and Sonoko seized upon yet another opportunity.
"Oh!" the blond said, slapping a fist into her palm. "But what if you find out that he's been seeing another woman?"
Ran gaped.
"That two timing tripe! When I find out who she is I'll yell at her until her ears fall off for traumatizing my beloved Ran!" Sonoko shouted. "Then I'll grab that damn detective otaku and beat him senseless, then I'll break his arms and his legs, and then I'll sue him for psychological damage to my best friend. Just you wait, Kudo Shinichi! Retribution is at hand!"
"So-no-ko," Ran placated, "Please, Shinichi isn't seeing anyone, alright?"
This only caused her best friend to focus all attention on her. "How do you know?" she demanded.
Ran involuntarily backed up. "Because... because... because he isn't?" she offered lamely. Really, how could she explain that Shinichi, after he had been shrunk to the form of an elementary student, had done everything in his power to stay by her side, to prevent her worry in the protective identity of Edogawa Conan? Ran wasn't good with on-the-spot lying like this; she was much more comfortable if she already knew the cover story.
"Oh, Ran, the look on your face is priceless!" Sonoko said giddily, bursting into reams of laughter again.
Finally, wiping tears from her eyes, Sonoko said, "You give him hell, Ran. And if he makes you cry, kick him to me!"
"... Sonoko," Ran said, touched by the sudden compassion in her best friend.
"Annnyway, I have an appointment I suddenly remembered that I absolutely have to attend to," Sonoko said airily. She turned, but not before leveling an intense gaze upon Ran. "I want every scintillating detail, a thorough report, when I see you tomorrow," she demanded, and it was understood that if Ran did not comply, life would be dire indeed.
And with that, Sonoko spun on her heel and trotted across the street, singing random bits of a song and leaving Ran breathless over the escapade that had just occurred.
But that didn't stop her from smiling even more as she walked a route different than what she normally did. It was twenty minutes later when she stopped in front of a very familiar house, still unused and most likely dusty beyond recognition. She'd been in that house once or twice, to clean up and make it presentable for Shinichi's inevitable return. At those times she always worried when she saw the dust and disuse, afraid of what it signified about the fate of her beloved Shinichi, but now she understood why it stood empty and she could only look at the house fondly. Humming to herself, she planned on cleaning it over summer break, still in hopes of Shinichi's return, but this time not with worry and fear, but hope and aspiration.
Not ten meters away was her destination; she knocked politely before opening the door. Professor Agasa rarely locked it unless he was out, and even as the door cracked open she heard the sounds of the kids.
"But I'm hungry!"
"You are always hungry, and it is impolite to always assume that the professor will feed you."
"Conan-kun, look at this!"
Ran could only smile. "Hello?" she called out, stepping in and removing her shoes.
"Ah, Ran!"
A tiny child with glasses darted out into the hall, padding up and stopping just before her. He flushed suddenly, realizing how childish he was being, and looked down in embarrassment. "Uh, hey," he said softly.
Ran couldn't help but smile as she watched the love of her life. "Good to see you too, 'Conan-kun,'" she said lightly, running a hand affectionately through his dark locks of hair. "I see you brought your kids with you."
Below her line of vision, Conan only blushed redder. "They're not my kids," he mumbled, perturbed.
Ran giggled. "Sure they're not," she agreed far too readily. Walking by him, she traced the direction the fake child had come from. "Professor! I'm here!" she called out. "Hello, Ayumi-chan, Mitsuhiko-kun, Genta-kun," she added when she saw the other three children in Agasa's living room. Conan trailed in with a pout, but hopped onto the sofa without a word.
"Oh, Ran-kun," Agasa said, coming out from the kitchen with five... no, six glasses of lemonade. That meant that Haibara-chan was here too, somewhere.
"I'm here to pick up Shinichi's mail," she said smoothly, not even looking at Conan's direction. "I haven't been by in a while, so I'm sure it's piled up quite a bit." Yes, she was a much better actress when she already knew her lines.
"Thanks, Ran-kun," the professor said easily, already opening up a box and pulling out a folder. "It's just been piling up, and an old-timer like me just doesn't have the eyes for it anymore."
Ran accepted the mail, still not looking at Conan, and opened the folder, contenting herself to listen to the kids.
"So where are you going for Golden Week?" Ayumi-chan asked. "My mom's taking me and my sister to Hawaii!"
"Wow!" the boys said in appropriate awe. "That's totally a resort v'cation!" Genta added.
"I'm going to buy my bathing suit tomorrow!" Ayumi said brightly. "My old one is too small."
"Careful, Ayumi-chan," Conan said in a flat voice. Ran looked up to see his face matched his voice as he stared at Genta and Mitsuhiko. "I don't think they can handle the imagery."
Looking over to the boys, she noted that Genta had a happy drool on his face and Mitsuhiko was bright red. "Honestly, Conan-kun, don't say that," she said in a scolding tone. "They're too young for that. You are, too, for that matter." She put on an evil grin. "Unless you have a crush on little Ayumi-chan?"
Conan turned so red Ran was certain she saw steam emanate from his ears. To her surprise, Ayumi, too, turned a brilliant shade of pink. Oh, dear, she realized.
"That's so totally not fair!" Genta lamented, glaring at Conan. "You already have Ran-nee-chan, don't be so damn greedy! That makes you a... a... a pomp!" he said, proud that he'd remembered the word.
Ran hid her smirk behind an envelope. This only exasperated Conan further, and all he could manage was a growl before burying himself deeper into the sofa and opening his grade school book, intent on doing his homework and ignoring the world.
"I will be visiting my grandparents in Kyushu," Mitsuhiko muttered, finally coming out of his blush-induced coma.
"Yeah, I'm visitin' my gran'parents too, in Yokohama," Genta said, frowning. "They'll be pinchin' my cheeks and talking to my parents all the time and smellin' like old people."
"Genta-kun! That's mean," Ayumi chimed.
"That's true! They don't even keep any candy in the apartment," Genta quickly defended.
"I'm sure you'll survive," Conan offered from behind his book. "I'm staying home for break."
"He's going to be very helpful," Ran said brightly, her focus on the mail so as to increase her ambivalence to her next statement: "He's going to help me with my homework."
"He's WHAAT?"
"Conan-kun isn't that smart is he? I mean, he's smart but..."
"I had never supposed him to be so intelligent..."
"Hot damn, how come he gets to spend so much with such a hottie?"
"Genta-kun!"
And so it degenerated, Ran hiding her laughter behind the folder of letters and trying to not giggle further when she saw Conan's flat glare leveled in her general direction. Finally, Ran could contain herself no longer, and she lowered her collection of mail and laughed outright, giggles gurgling up and out of her. "Oh, Conan-kun!" she said finally, "You're so easy to tease!"
It wasn't long after that the kids finished their lemonade and found excuses to leave: homework to do, parents expecting them, etc, until it was just the three of them. Haibara had still not appeared, and her glass was untouched.
"Ran, do you have to do that?" young Shinichi demanded, putting down his front of a book.
"But it's true," Ran said, "You're just so easy to tease when you're with your kids."
"They're not my kids!" The fake child growled.
Ran remembered, not long before she learned the truth about the seeming seven year old, when a distracted Shinichi cried out about his guilt over "his kids" getting sick from a hidden epidemic. She smiled, understanding that Shinichi didn't want to admit such strong feelings over children. He always was private about his emotions, and Ran let him be so.
Not that it stopped her from teasing him at every available opportunity.
Still smiling, she began to seriously look through Shinichi's mail. "Hm... let's see... Credit card bill,"
"Save it, it goes to my parents."
"Phone bill, electric bill, gas bill, property tax notification... Oh, a letter to your father."
Shinichi looked up. "The bills all go to me except the property tax. I've set them up to pay from the credit cards I have from them. Property tax has to be a check, though, so they go to my mom."
"Okay," Ran agreed, rifling through the pile for other bills and pulling them out.
"Who's the letter to my father from?"
"Hmm. A writing company of some kind; who publishes your father's work?"
Shinichi snorted. "If it's his editor, then I'll forward it to my dad, disguised as a letter from me. Either that or I'll just forward them his address. I don't know why they still bother sending stuff here."
"Oo," Ran said, picking up another envelope. "This one's addressed to you." She sniffed it. "And it has perfume, too!"
Shinichi's head dropped. "All fan mail goes in the trash," he said flatly. "I've never understood it, I'm never going to reply to them, they're all just utilizing me in their fantasies and it's so pointless."
Ran scoffed. "It's not pointless to them. Fantasy or not, they're trying to show how they respect and admire you."
Shinichi looked up, cupping his head in a hand. "Duly noted, but they don't understand me, they don't even try to understand me. So how real is it?"
Smiling, Ran said, "That's very different from how you used to see them. I remember you loved their attention."
Shinichi scowled. "I'll never be that stupid again," he said in low tones, staring off into space. "I'll never be a public figure again," he added in softer tones.
Ran stilled at the sudden change in the faux child's mood. Once again she learned that there was much to learn about this new Shinichi. Gone was the cocky attitude, the headstrong push to the center of attention. This Shinichi had learned from a near brush with death and the overwhelming possibility that his life would be purchased again. Ran never recalled Shinichi to sit with his back to a wall, nor to survey a room before entering. Also too, she was not accustomed to his sudden mood changes; no, that wasn't completely true. The old Shinichi was always moody, prone to sudden changes in demeanor as various thoughts occurred to him, but now he was much more introverted, much more likely to turn inward, to become quiet. Often she was left suddenly guessing what had precipitated the sudden silence or, like now, trying to stave off the sudden downward spiral.
"You don't know that," she said in an encouraging voice, turning more fully towards the tiny boy. "A cure could still be found."
Shinichi's blue eyes darted towards her before returning to staring at nothing. "Even if it was," he muttered into his hand, "I won't make that mistake again. If I really want to help people, to catch murderers and make a difference, then I have to minimize how much my neck is stuck out. I don't want another noose wrapped around my neck; I've had more than enough of this one."
Ran frowned, unable to comprehend - yet all too clearly could envision - the amount of fear and worry that he now carried with him.
"We'll figure something out, Shinichi," she said softly, "We will."
He looked up to her again, his eyes very intense. But slowly, a small, genuine, smile tugged at his lips. "Thank you," he murmured. "I don't know how I ever did this without you."
Ran smiled in turn.
"Now, now," a new voice said, belonging to a tiny blond that entered the room. "Kudo-kun is too young for you right now."
Shinichi and Ran straightened, both turning bright red, as Haibara Ai finally appeared to take her glass of lemonade.
Haibara had been only a recent revelation, Ran discovering exactly who she was quite by accident. They had been at Agasa's house, the elderly professor talking animatedly with her and Shinichi when Haibara had come in and Agasa - a mere slip of the tongue - had called Shinichi by name. Ran had quickly tried to cover for him, to reassure "Ai-chan" that he mean "Conan-kun," that of course he wasn't the seventeen-year-old detective.
Haibara had only leveled a flat glare at the professor before turning to Conan and saying, "There's no helping it now, Kudo-kun."
Their three o'clock-in-the-morning conversation that night had quickly turned into an argument so big that it had actually woken her father. Ran had been hurt beyond all imagination - he swore that he'd tell her everything, how could he keep something like this from her? Again? She'd been so incensed, and Shinichi was equally frustrated as he tried to explain. The next two weeks had been very strained, until Haibara had showed up on her doorstep, explaining to a startled (and slightly scared) Shinichi that she and Ran needed ice cream.
"It's not that he doesn't trust you," Haibara had said, the two of them sitting in their booth of a parlor. "But some of the secrets he has aren't his to tell. It's one thing to tell you that I existed, but I didn't want him to tell you that the scientist who created the drug was me."
Ran had still been struggling to reconcile the face that this little girl was in fact the one responsible for Shinichi's... condition. Several parts were screaming, "Hurt! Maul! Pain!" while others were being overrun with "Why, why, WHY?" while still others were shouting, "But she's just a kid!" It was a weakness of hers to do nothing when she was so conflicted, but after learning about Shinichi's secret, she was beginning to discover that it had advantages.
"It's not that he didn't trust you," Haibara said again, "it's that I didn't trust you." The tiny blond sighed as she took a spoonful of ice cream. "It probably works out for the best," she said afterward, "Professor was becoming quite confused on when he was supposed to act and when he wasn't."
"... Haibara-san?" Ran had asked, hesitantly.
"Yes?"
"What... what are the chances... that you'll find..." she couldn't finish the sentence, suddenly afraid to.
The impassive look on the girl's face dropped slightly, something that looked like longing, perhaps even jealousy, ghosting across her painfully young features. "I don't know," she had answered honestly, "But I will use every chance I have." She had been relieved, ending another secret Shinichi had kept.
"Haibara!" Shinichi said, throwing his book down and hopping off the sofa, still bright red. "It's not like that!"
The shrunken scientist turned around, and both Ran and Shinichi could see the hint of a smile on her lips. "Sure it's not," she said simply, before sipping her lemonade and walking back the way she'd come, disappearing back into the house.
The two would-be lovers stared at each other. "Did she just... tease us?"
"Yes... Yes, I think she did."
The two burst out laughing.
"Oooh, did the old man miss something funny to the young whippersnappers?" Agasa reappeared, carrying something in his hands.
"Nothing of importance," Shinichi said dryly, plopping himself back on the sofa and rolling his eyes. Ran was still trying to stifle her giggles. "What's up?"
"I have something for Ran-kun here," the old professor said, sitting with some effort next to the teenage girl. He revealed in his hands a necklace.
"It's beautiful," she said, accepting the accessory.
"I didn't think it was possible for you to have good taste," Shinichi said in flat tones.
"Shinichi!" Ran hissed, examining the marksmanship. "Oh," she said, realizing just what this was.
"This should be pretty helpful to you in the future," the professor said with a smug smirk. "One of my finest inventions to date!"
"But what does it do?" Shinichi asked, his abrasively apathetic exterior quickly vanishing to curiosity.
"First it's a digital radio receiver," Agasa replied, pulling from his pocket a familiar pair of glasses. "It goes with this," he added, tossing them to the shrunken detective. "With the advent of all this digital higglty-pigglety I figured it was high time I started using it with my inventions. It uses ISDB-S: Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting-Satellite, with an MPEG-Two audio compression system on a twelve GHz band with PSK modulation, only thanks to my brilliance-"
"Use smaller words, Professor," Shinichi interjected, much to Ran's relief. "I can only barely keep up with all the acronyms you're using, and I'm sure Ran's already lost by now."
Said karate master humphed in indignation. It didn't help that he was right either.
"It's rather like your detective badges," Agasa said after a moment's petulant frown. He was perturbed that he didn't get the chance to show off his scientific knowledge. "Only instead of working on a shortwave radio frequency it works on a digital satellite transmission."
Ran frowned. "But if it's digital, that means it can be copied, right? By hackers or something."
"Only if the information is accessed," Agasa said, suddenly smug again. "Not only did I program a 'Copy Never' code which forbids recording of the transmission, I also piggybacked the frequency and used some of my best encryption algorithms. Assuming anyone could even find the signal, they'd be hard-pressed to try and decipher it."
"Interesting," Shinichi said, having already removed his old glasses and was fiddling with his new pair. "So what can it do?"
"All your old features are included," Agasa explained, nodding his head in confidence. "You and Ran-kun can track the badges and each other, and also talk to each other through the digital frequency - so there is less chance of people listening in, which I know was always a concern for you, Shinichi-kun. The signal strength is stronger, and so is the range. If the devices weren't so small I'd have also added a camera feature."
"No, this will be fine," Shinichi said, putting the glasses on. "Pictures would need to be stored, and I'd rather not have that kind of evidence. Eh?" he added, blinking. "They're heavier."
"I imagine they must be," Ran said, still pressing buttons on her necklace, "I can't imagine the number of microprocessors and other hardware that would be necessary for a piece like this." She paused, a thought crossing her mind. With a bright smile, she quickly thrust the necklace to her beloved. "Here!" she said quickly, "Hand this to me."
"...? Why?" Shinichi asked, adjusting his new glasses.
"Just do it!"
"... Okay," he said slowly, taking the accessory from her, holding it for a few moments, and then giving it back.
"Perfect!" she said with a smile, reaching behind her neck to clasp it.
"I don't-"
"Now I can tell everyone that you gave it to me!" she said brightly, working to find the clasp by feel. "Sonoko was convinced that you and I are having a secret meeting this afternoon, and now I have something to tell her. That is, of course," she added, giving up on the necklace for the moment in exchange for the next little taunt. "You want me to tell her I was helping you look after your kids!"
"... Raaaaan!" he whined.
Conan adjusted his glasses again, still not used to the extra weight on the bridge of his nose. He knew enough about computers to appreciate the compactness of the design, but it felt like the darn things were going to break his nose. He looked up to see Ran again fidgeting with her new necklace, smiling at seemingly random intervals.
"What are you thinking about?" he asked as they continued the walk back to their home. It was late in the evening now; the sunset later and later but it was still pitch dark out.
"About what a relief this necklace is going to be," Ran said honestly, tucking the invention under her uniform. "I'm always worried when you run off after a murderer or disappear looking for evidence. Now I'll always know where you are."
Conan turned away, guilty at the thought of his beloved worrying. At the new angle his glasses slid down his nose fractionally. Growling, he adjusted them again.
"I can't help it," Ran said, catching his mood. "I care about you too much to not worry."
"Ran," Conan muttered, "if I could do things differently..."
"Shh," she said softly, a hand reaching down to touch his shoulder. "Don't say another word, because there's nothing we can do about the past; all we can do is look to the future."
Just simple words like that flooded through him, and he felt himself relax. Really, he couldn't understand why he hadn't just told her everything so much earlier. All the rationale and rhetoric seemed moot. Conan shook his head at that thought, because he knew without a shadow of a doubt that the threat to her was still very, very real.
The rest of the walk passed by in comfortable silence; Conan noted when they arrived home that the lights were off. "Occhan's off playing mahjong again," he drawled in fed-up tones.
"He wouldn't be my dad if he wasn't," Ran said, though irritation was coloring her voice as well. "Was there anything specific you wanted for supper?"
"Anything you make is fine," Conan offered, happy to be rid of his school backpack. "Did we get much homework today?"
"We just started the new term, Shinichi," Ran said airily. "They're pounding us early so we don't forget it all over break. Here," she said, offering her backpack. "Homework is listed in the usual place. I'll be in the kitchen."
"Ah," Conan agreed, pulling out Ran's planner and flipping it open. Ran had been more than willing to help catch him up and keep pace with his course work. In spite of his many attempts to sneak in reading a physics book or a math book, he had lost a lot of material, and Ran has spent the better part of the winter trying to bring him up to speed. With the start of the new school year, they both agreed to just cut their losses and have him learn what he missed as they went. The diminutive detective pulled out the necessary books and padded up to the room he shared with Kogoro to get his own notebook and paper so he could copy notes. Any questions he had he would ask Ran as he came across them.
He had just opened his math notebook, shoving his heavier glasses up his nose when he heard the distant tune of his phone ringing. Rolling his eyes, he went back upstairs to answer.
"He did it!" came the excited proclamation of an Osakan drawl on the other end of the receiver. "He actually kept his word an' did it!"
"Who did what, Hattori?" Conan said in flat tones. So help him, if this was another I'm-your-friend-let's-chat-it-up call he was-
"Kaitou Kid!" Hattori exclaimed, and seven-year-old Conan froze on the spot, his eyes becoming saucer-sized. "I didn' think he meant it, but he gave me a pers'nal invite ta his next heist! Left a balloon in m' window an' everythin'! Ya gotta come, Kudo. I've already got part of it cracked an' between th' two o' us-"
"Hattori," Conan said in soft tones, his head bent down and a hand balled into a fist on one side. "Hattori, he didn't invite me."
"So?" his best friend demanded on the other end of the phone. "That never stopped ya b'fore, Kudo. Y' always jump at th' chance ta catch Kid an' this-"
"Ran's calling me, I have to go," Conan said quickly before hanging up and turning off his phone. He glared at the device, wishing it had never rung.
He still hadn't completely come to grips with discovering Kid's identity. It had been at Ran's competition at the Budokan, another run-of-the-mill murder with the usual run-of-the-mill suspects, until he'd discovered that one suspect, Kuroba Kaito, was in fact Kaitou Kid, phantom thief extraordinaire and part-time intellectual sparring partner for his dear "tantei-kun."
It felt like supreme cheating, finding out his identity somewhere outside a heist. On some levels, his identity was moot, because it was the challenge of the chase that so intrigued Conan, the intellectual battle of matching wits of someone who, at least, was on the same level as he and Hattori. He didn't know what to do with the knowledge; he still didn't know what to do with the knowledge, and the call had brought up all those thoughts again.
"Conan-kun?" Ran called up, "Who was that on the phone?"
He needed a good ear for this. "Hattori," he called as he stepped out of his room and joined her down in the kitchen. "He was calling because Kaitou Kid invited him to a heist. He promised he would that time he helped rescue me from Psycho-sensei."
Ran took a seat across from him at the table. "You don't sound too happy about it," she said slowly, sensing that something serious was bouncing around Conan's head. Oh, how he loved her.
"I never found out why he did it," he said equally slowly as he tried to put his thoughts into words. "He's always proclaimed that no one gets hurt on a heist, that's one thing; it's his show and his rules. But what possessed him to decide to help me on the epidemic case?"
Ran frowned, thinking. "If he's so bound and determined that no one is hurt, then maybe he just didn't want to see you hurt. You did say he'd been following you before that, right?"
"Following isn't the right word," Conan replied. "He only would watch me on occasion, I'd hardly classify it as frequent enough for 'following.' Besides which, I always got the impression it was more of a 'checking up' on me." He shrugged his shoulders. "I have no evidence to verify that, so I could be wrong."
"So you're saying that he keeps an eye out for you specifically?" Ran asked.
"That night he showed up in my room, he said that Nakamori and the others don't need to be stalked. He also said we were flip sides of the same coin." Conan frowned, recalling that devastatingly revealing conversation.
"We both wear masks, tantei-kun," the phantom thief had said, "You wear yours because you need to protect the people around you from getting hurt. You're searching for a way to fix something. And you want justice served. If I really was stalking you, then maybe that's why: because my other critics don't have those qualities, and maybe that's why you warrant a more personal visit, because you do have those qualities."
"He sees something in me that's somehow similar to him," Conan said, still frowning. "I can't imagine what, because he's a thief. He commits crimes and makes a public spectacle of it; he goes against the law and for no observable reason other than to serve his own ego with his dramatic showcases of magic."
"Do you have evidence to the contrary?" Ran asked, getting up to check the oven. "Does something make you think this isn't true?"
Conan quickly clamped his teeth together. Yes, he did have evidence to the contrary. He had met him out of costume and Kuroba was not the egomaniac his alter ego displayed. He was cocky and a showman, but he had had an honest concern - not for his own safety - but for the death of his classmate and what it meant. And there was a pain there, something when he saw the body of his schoolmate, and something even stronger when the victim had insulted his father. Conan just couldn't believe someone who was clearly so complicated could commit grand theft just to satisfy his own ego and need for attention. But it fell back to the simple truth that had nearly destroyed them just a little while ago: "It's not my secret to tell," he ground out, the whites of his knuckles showing and he loathed himself for keeping something from her.
Imagine his surprise then, when Ran gave him a measured look, saw the knuckles and the clenched jaw and the regret and pain on his face, and her eyes only widened in surprise. "You know something?" she queried. The teenager seemed to catch herself however, a hand going to her mouth as she remembered something. "No, no," she said quickly. "I won't press. If you know something about Kaitou Kid - and given that you said it was a secret it must be something big - then you don't have his permission to share it yet. I'm sorry." Quickly she sat back down and reached out to put a hand on the boy's own. "It's okay Shinichi, okay?"
And Conan smiled briefly, putting his other hand over hers. "We're both learning," he said simply. "I understand."
Curiosity was clearly eating at Ran; she was bursting to know what gossip Conan had on the famous Phantom Thief and Conan was clearly biting his tongue to not tell her, since she always had such wonderful insight; and she always knew the right questions to ask.
"Shinichi, what you know about the Kid, is it enough to answer any of the questions you asked earlier?"
And that was when it all crystallized for Conan. "No," he said in awe, his eyes widened in realization. "No, I don't."
"Then maybe you need to find a way to talk to him?" Ran asked softly.
"Yes, yes I do," Conan said, his eyes narrowing in thought. "Ran, could you excuse me for a second? I need to call Hattori back. Could you tell Occhan when he comes back that Hattori invited us to Osaka again?"
Ran smiled, thoroughly glad she had helped. "Sure," she said lightly, getting back up to return to cooking supper.
Author's Notes: Sonoko and the kids are really great characters, and it's always fun to write about them. It's too bad the DC/MK cast is so razza-frackin' BIG; there are too many characters to keep track of, and the secondary characters like them tend to fall by the wayside. Even the older characters, like Kogorou and Nakamori, have less screen time because SO MUCH happens to the teens for us. So when they do arrive, we try really hard to make it memorable.
It's really nice for us as writers to write about a relationship that is past the "tension" and "admission" phase. So much story telling out there, on both sides of the Pacific Ocean, play up the romantic tension of two characters who haven't confessed all yet; and the climax of the story is when they do and we never get to see the after. Belying the fact that we both desperately wanted Ran to find everything out (which was the impetus of this not-so-little arc of ours) we also like the idea of writing about a couple that could be in love and see how they would interact.
Shinichi and Ran have a very mature relationship; they're very considerate of one another and, to our great relief, are not perfect. Ran's still struggling to come to terms with all the new "little" quirks in the love of her life, and Shinichi continues to fight between Truth and Instinct when dealing with Ran. These will be some common themes through their relationship in this fic, and so have fun watching them develop.
We made a very conscious decision to make Ran good with technology; more on that later in the fic, but we can say that we deliberately wanted Ran to have a skill in the physical, the emotional, and the practical (at least outside of homemaker) to make her more useful on cases or heists - as will become evident later.
Well, we've visited Osaka and Baker; I'd say it's time we moved on to Ekudo, giving that there is a heist rumored to be happening in a few chapters.
As a side note, after several reviews saying that Hattori was STILL difficult to understand, we've tried to tone it down... again. You won't really see this till we meet up with Hattori again, but we're trying. Especially since, apparently, many of you readers don't speak English as a first language. (! We have an international following?) Hopefully it will be easier to read.