"Sonoko..." Ran said in a low voice.
"What? There is no need for Ran to stay here..." Shinichi quickly said, which he regretted immediately.
"Shinichi..." Ran said in an even lower voice, mixed with a bit of sadness.
"Ah, no...that's not what I meant to say..." He tried to defuse the situation, but he couldn't quite find the right words. Ran looked to the ground.

"Well, why don't we do it the other way around?" Sera asked, making everyone look at her. "Instead of staying here, why doesn't Kudo-kun just come with us?"

Chapter 2 - The Detective, that I...

"Ehh?!" Shinichi and Ran both exclaimed. "Is this alright? I really don't want to butt in somewhere where I'm not wanted..." Shinichi attempted to escape her invitation, but it wouldn't be so easy for him.

"It's not a problem at all!" Sera chirped. "Originally I wanted Conan-kun to come with us, but he couldn't because of his school stuff. So it's no problem if you come with us instead."

"Ah, I'm still not sure..." Shinichi muttered.
"You're not bailing out this time, Shinichi-kun! We won't let you off the hook!" Sonoko exclaimed, before turning to Sera, whom she was still arm in arm with, again. "Right, Sera-san?" Sera nodded and the two threw their cheeky smiles at Shinichi. Meanwhile, Ran still observed the ground and the look on her face told Shinichi they were about to hit the worst case scenario. Ran was about to cry. His eyes widened at this realization, with her words from London coming back to his mind.

"Don't you get it...? You're a detective, aren't you? If you call yourself a detective, then why don't you try to deduce what's in my heart?! Idiot!"

He also saw her pained, crying face before him. No. No, no,no! He had to prevent this. Making her cry again while they were still seperated because of Conan was something he wouldn't forgive himself. Not again.

Shinichi put his hands in his pockets, sighed and desperately tried not to look like someone who was pressured into a hiking trip by two high school girls. Well, technically three high school girls, but Ran didn't play an active role in that, so she didn't count. "Well, I suppose then there's no reason for me not come." He said. As soon as he did, Ran looked at him, her sadness quickly replaces by a shy joy and a smile. Shinichi smiled back at her, while ignoring the teasing grins of the other two girls. "Alright, we should go over to my house so I can pack some stuff for the trip. We still have enough time before our train leaves, right?"

Sera affirmed that they did. Shinichi shouted a goodbye to the Professor and, unknown to the girls, Haibara and went over to his mansion with the three girls. Thank god they decided to conduct the test while Okiya was gone, otherwise he'd have some uncomfortable explainations to give. After closing the door behind them, Shinichi quickly took off his shoes and put on the house slippers. "No need for you to take off your shoes, I'll be fast, so just wait here for a minute." Shinichi explained, while already climbing the stairs to his room.

Sonoko chuckled. "You heard that Sera-san? No snooping around like the last time you were here."
Shinichi halted on the stairs and raised an eyebrow at the female detective. "You were snooping around here?"
"Ahaha, no, no. I just looked through some drawers in the kitchen while waiting for Conan-kun." Sera tried to excuse herself, clearly uncomfortable with Sonoko bluntly telling him about her actions. "You know, kind of a detective force of habit, you know?"
Shinichi narrowed his eyes. "I know, but I usually only have that at a crime scene. Anyway, as I said I'll be quick, so don't bother." He continued his way up the stairs. Shinichi could hear them talk when they thought he was out of hearing range.
"Sonoko-chan! Why did have to tell him that, what will Kudo-kun think of me now?" Sera asked her friend, a big note of embarassment in her voice. Shinichi entered his room, not interested in Sonoko's response.

He made sure they didn't follow him upstairs, took out his smartphone and called Haibara. She picked up immediately. "Salvage this, huh?!"

Shinichi groaned. "Did you have a better idea at that moment?"
"Not really. What're you going to do now?"
"What can I do? I'll just have to go on this trip with them and leave them sometime before the antidote runs out. I just hope I can manage to do that without hurting Ran too much..."
Now Haibara groaned in frustration. "Nice one, Kudo-kun, as if London wasn't enough already." Shinichi wanted to object, but Haibara didn't give him any time for that. "Listen, I'm getting sick of you do these things to her, so here's my one in a lifetime offer: think of an excuse to come over here for a quick moment after you're done in the mansion and I'll give you some of the twelve hours pills. So you can do this trip properly. And one of the older antidote prototypes that last for 24 hours, in case the new prototype doesn't work as intended. How does that sound to you?"

Shinichi was speechless at her offer for a second. "You're a genius, Haibara! What did I do to deserve this?"
"As I said, nothing." The little scientist responded coldly. "But atleast we can still conduct the test this way and you won't raise any suspicions with your friends when you leave. Atleast the Nagano mountains are pretty unpopulated, so you won't run into any press or something there. But you still need to be careful!"
Shinichi nodded, but then he remembered that she couldn't see that. "Yeah, got it. I'll have to pack now, see you in a few." He hung up and started to prepare his backpack for the trip, putting in everything he needed. Additionally, he hid the Conan clothes he left here when he got himself ready for the test under his real clothes, just in case something unexpected happened. He wouldn't be able to explain a Conan in Shinichi's clothes, much less a Conan without any clothes. After that, Shinichi had an idea for a form of disguise he used before, but couldn't remember where he put them in his big closet. But someone in the house probably knew.

He went over to the door and shouted down to the girls. "Hey Ran, where did I put my basecaps?"
"Second drawer from left." came the immediate answer from her.
"Thanks!" Shinichi replied. Downstairs he could hear Ran talking to Sera and Sonoko again.
"Ehhehe, don't look at me like that. I helped him tidy up once or twice and just happened to remember this."

Shinichi opened said drawer and sure enough, there were all of his soccer basecaps he usually just wore in a stadium, but for their way to the trainstation and the train to the Nagano mountains itself, they would make for a discreet form of disguise. Simple things like glasses and hats were still the best form of disguise there was, atleast for people who couldn't produce masks like his mother or Vermouth could. He chose a Tokyo Spirits cap, grabbed his backpack and went back downstairs.

"Found something interesting, Sera-san?" Shinichi couldn't resist shooting Sera a little stinger. The tomboyish girl made some defensives gestures and gave him a nervous smile. While they back to the street, Shinichi couldn't help but notice that Sera shot Sonoko more than one angry glare.

With the excuse that he forgot his phone in Agasa's he quickly ran to the door of his neighbor, giving the girls no chance to follow him. The door opened before he could ring the doorbell; it seemed like Haibara and the Professor watched the street, eagerly awaiting his return. Inside, Haibara handed him a small case.
"Here you go, three twelve hours pills and one 24 hour pill. They're shaped differently enough so you won't mistake them."
"Thanks Haibara! I owe you one!"
"Don't mention it..." Haibara almost whispered. Did she just blush a little? Shinichi chalked it up to his imagination and went back outside to his classmates. He waved his phone around, signaling that they were now good to go to the trainstation. Shinichi noticed that they completely forgot that they came to the Professor's house with the intention of seeing Conan off, but his return apparently overshadowed that. Plus, the excuse Agasa gave them was pretty solid, so atleast he wouldn't have to worry about that.

Usually, when the four of them were en route somewhere, the three girls chatted like there was no tomorrow, while he made some childish comments here and there. But unfortunately, he wasn't a grade schooler right now. Thus, there was just silence during their walk. Ran and Shinichi didn't really know what to say to each other, and being under the scrutiny of Sera and Sonoko didn't make it any easier.
Finally, Sonoko had the mercy to break the silence.
"So, Shinichi-kun, what did happen in London?"
Scrap the mercy part; suddenly, Shinichi missed the silence.

"Ah ha ha, you know, a case, a tennis tournament and lots of Sherlock Holmes stuff." Shinichi tried to shut her down. To no avail however.
"Really? A little bird told me something happened under the eye of Big Ben. I wonder what that was?" Sonoko waggled her eyebrows at him.
'Sneaky witch! Ran told her exactly what happened in London, but now she's pretending she doesn't know any details.' Shinichi thought.

"I'm sorry, I can't quite follow...what about London? A case? Big Ben? I don't understand." Sera said, gathering everyone's attention.
"Oh, that's right, the whole thing happened before you transferred here, Sera-san." Sonoko said. "I wasn't there, but the gist of it is this that Ran went to London and ran into Shinichi there, forcing a love confession out of him."

Sera blinked a few times trying to compute this new information. "Love...confession..."
Shinichi threw Sonoko a glare. "I thought you didn't know what happened under Big Ben? So, Ran did tell you and you just wanted to get some additional details."

Sonoko shrugged. "Well, I thought maybe your version was a bit less...weird."
That last adjective made Shinichi wince. "Weird, huh..." He clenched one fist in his pocket. "Well, if it's so weird, we can stop talking about it." He hissed, angered. That backhand comment put him off for some reason.

"Shinichi-kun, I didn't mea-"
"Forget it, Sonoko. It's fine."

The rest of their way was spent in silence again; Sera looked like she wanted to get more details about what this whole London thing was about, but it seemed like she knew it wasn't the best time to ask, much to Shinichi's delight. He had already calmed down when they arrived at the trainstation. They would have to wait a bit longer. Shinichi and Ran sat down on a bench, while Sonoko went off to check the train schedules and practically dragged Sera with her, apparently wanting to give Ran some time alone with Shinichi. After a few moments of more silence, Shinichi spoke up.

"Does it still look weird?"
Ran turned around to look directly at him. "Huh?"
"Me, wearing a cap. During that highway case you said I looked weird with Heiji's cap on." He explained. "You kept stealing glances at me while we walked here and you were doing it again just now. I...I thought it was because you were put off by the cap again."

Ran blushed, although it really shouldn't have surprised her that Shinichi caught her looks. "No, that's...that's not why I kept looking at you..."
Shinichi sighed. "Well, I'm glad. Atleast now that I don't look weird anymore, I can concentrate on not saying weird stuff anymore."
"What?" Ran wondered, but then caught on to what he was referring to. "Shinichi, I'm sure Sonoko didn't want to..." Didn't want to what? Ran had to think about how she wanted to end that sentence. Didn't want to hurt his feelings. She didn't say it out loud, because in Ran's mind, Shinichi wouldn't be affected in that way by Sonoko calling his confession weird. Or would he? When it came to Shinichi's true feelings, Ran simply hadn't enough experience to find a satifying answer to that question.

Meanwhile, Shinichi broke the uncomfortable silence that was created by Ran not finishing her sentence. "You know, Sonoko is probably right. My words in London were weird, but getting them called that is stinging me. Because these words came from my heart, not from my brain; there wasn't much thinking behind the structure or the exact words or anything, but in that moment they just felt right to say." He sighed and stared at his feet. "Maybe I'm really as hopeless in that regard as everyone says..."

Ran clenched her fists. "I liked your words!"
Shinichi turned his gaze to her again.
"I liked your words." She repeated, in a more softer tone. "They weren't like the words you'd read in a cheap romance novel or maybe not even in a higher quality one. Your words were special. And they meant a lot to me, Shinichi, because they were just so completely you. Out of a hundred confessions, I'd bet I wouldn't find any that would be more like you, the detective geek and best friend that I...I...lo-"

Suddenly, the train arrived at the station, causing a lot of noise and interrupting what Ran was going to say.
"Oh good, the train is here! Come on, you two, time to leave." Sonoko screamed, to be hearable over the train coming to a halt.
Shinichi was still staring at Ran, who was just staring back. 'What did she want say? Damn it, why couldn't the train arrive a few seconds later?'
And then Ran interrupted his thoughts, through quickly closing the distance between them and pressed her cheek against his. Thus, she whispered her next words directly into his ear, just hearable for the two them.

"...that I love."

A/N: And that's it for the original exposition, next chapter we'll get to places that you could recognize from the manga, thus furfilling the "Alternative" in the title.

I hope I didn't make this too sappy or Shinichi too out of character. But it was necessary to have Ran's reply, because in my mind, the next in person meeting of Shinichi and Ran will have to have her reply or else there would just be a gigantic elephant in room, that would make writing it a bit...awkward. Don't worry, this won't be overly romantic all of a sudden, the case they'll get to will still be about the dangerous Red Woman, so look forward to that.
~21.05.2015