Four points of the same star

DISCLAIMER:I do not own Detective Conan .

A.N: A few corrections have been made.

' ...' characters thoughts

FOUR POINTS OF THE SAME STAR

Chapter 2

A letter from a friend

"Haibara-san, we're here! Are you ready?"

They had just arrived in front of Professor Agase's house. The three kids were waiting eagerly while Conan was still lost in his thoughts. He kept glancing at the house next door.

His house.

It had been empty since his accident and nobody ever went in. No one besides Ran or Agase who cleaned it up a bit, every once in a while.

He missed it. He missed his room; he missed his things.

At the beginning, he occasionally went back in and took some stuff to taka at Hakase's place such as books or cloths but after Haibara's revelations, he became more careful and his visits home ceased. The men of the Organisation had been there twice to make sure he was really dead and she had been there, too to get proof of this.

She was the only one that had noticed that some of his children's clothes had disappeared from a drawer; she was the only one that had guessed that Shinichi Kudo may have not died but might have been turned into a child. But she did not reveal it to anyone. He was, in her words, -an interesting experiment, that she did not want to waste.

Shortly after that, she became an experiment to study too.

The Organisation killed her sister, her only living relative. They had decided to kill her, too, after her refusal to continue the research on the poison, but she managed to save herself. The poison that was the work of all her life betrayed her, it's creator, the moment she had decided to take it and commit suicide. She became a child and found a way to escape betraying the Organisation.

They met each other shortly after. Agase found her unconscious in front of the his house and helped her. He gave her a new name, Ai Haibara and a new home.

It was strange how destiny had played with the two them.. They were so alike but yet... so different.

Conan shook his head.

'Damn, what's wrong with me today?' he thought, 'Last night's dream has tampered my thoughts! I've never spent so much time thinking of the past!'

The front door opened and he was diverted from his musings. He looked at his side and saw the reddish-blonde haired little girl come out.

"Good morning, Haibara-san!" Mitsuhiko and Genta said cheerfully.

"Hello." the girl's tone was flat as usual. She shot a glance at him and Conan nodded imperceptbly.

It was their way of greeting each other.

"Good morning, Ai-chan!" Ayumi chirped.

"Good morning, Ayumi-chan." Ai replied with the faintest hint of a smile.

They were going to go when Agase rushed out.

"Ai-kun, wait a minute!" he called, "Can you come back a second?"

Ai and Conan turned around in unison and the boy watched with mild curiousity as the girl retreated to the door where the old scientist was. They talked so softly that the other four couldn't hear them.

"Thank you, Ai-kun." Agase said, giving the girl a parcel, "I have just remembered it."

"It's nothing, Agase. See you later." she said, leaving him at door frame. "Bye."

"Bye, Professor!" the three children yelled.

"Bye, children!" the scientist said with a smile.

-:-

The five children were walking together, heading to their school. Three were chattering loudly while the other two trailed behind silently.

"Genta-kun, why are so worried?" Ayumi asked, noticing the boy's strange face.

"Today we'll get our math tests back, right? I am sure I did it all wrong! My mom will get very, very angry with me."

"Why didn't you study? No, don't tell me: you've passed the whole day playing at the game-centre, didn't you?" said Mitsuhiko with a slightly amused face.

"Well... " Genta stammered, getting red.

"You can't only think of having fun, Genta-kun." the freckled boy admonished him, "School's important and..."

"Aw.. cut it out! My mom will tell me same when I get home!"

"How did your tests go?" Ayumi asked, turning to the boy and girl behind her.

"Why do you ask?" said Genta enviously. "They probably got top marks, as usual!"

Conan and Ai smirked slightly. It was natural that they did well: they were seventeen years old. A first grade test was something they could blind folded.

"I think I did well, Ayumi-chan." Conan replied.

"I think so, too." said Ai.

"Really? You two are great!" Mitsuhiko and Ayumi exclaimed in awe.

The three kids always treated Ai and Conan with a certain amount respect. It seemed that they knew everything from their point of view.

As they reached the school, Genta's mood had not improved.

"Genta-kun, why don't check out your locker?" Ayumi said, in an attempt to cheer him, "Maybe someone has left a note for us."

"Yeah, there could be a new case for the Detective Boys!" Mitsuhiko added.

"You're right! I'll go and check." Genta said and ran in followed by the other two.

Conan shook his head.

'Great idea I had to give them those badges and let them carry on that crazy idea of the detective's group.' he thought. Every time they faced a case, a real one, he solved it and the others got the merits, saying that their help had been vital. But he didn't mind it, after all. Those kids were annoying at times but they were his friends.

He was going to enter the school gates, when a voice made him stop.

"Kudo, wait a minute."

"Huh?" he asked, turning to Ai. "What?"

She opened her school bag, took out the parcel Prof. Agase had given her before and handed it out to him.

"Agase has been taking the mail down at house in these months but he always forgot to give it to you while you were around. This morning, however, he remembered and asked me to do it."

"Why didn't he give it to me directly then?" he asked taking the parcel, "I was there, too."

"The others would have noticed that the mail was for Shinichi Kudo and not to Conan Edogawa. They would have started to ask questions. That's why he told me to take it and give it to you when it was possible." she replied. She looked at him with sarcasm, "You're the famous detective, Kudo, I thought you guessed it immediately."

Conan rolled his eyes

"Very funny, Haibara." he said.

The girl just smirked and went in while he followed her, putting the parcel inside his bag.

'I'll read it at lunch time.' he thought.

-:-

The Detective Boys were sitting together at the same lunch table. They had received their test papers and Genta was so glum that he nearly lost his appetite. Ayumi and Mitsuhiko tried their best to cheer him up a bit.

"Come on, Genta-kun, don't worry!" Mitsuhiko said, "You'll do better next time."

"Yes, he's right." Ayumi said, "And we'll help you, too. Right?" She turned to Conan and Ai with a tooth-aching sweet smile, waiting for their support.

"Yes, we will." were their monotone replies.

"See? They'll help you."

Genta, actually, felt better. If Conan and Ai helped him, he'd surely pass.

After lunch, the group went outside: the kids wanted to play hide and seek.

"I'll wait for you by the swings, guys." Conan said, " I don't feel like running today."

"Are you sure, Conan-kun?" Ayumi asked.

He nodded.

"Don't worry." he said with a smile.

Ayumi blushed

"O...Ok." she stammered, "And you, Ai-chan?"

"I'll wait too. I'll read a bit." Ai replied, holding a magazine.

"O.k, see you later, then." and she ran off to play.

-:-

By the swings

Conan and Ai were sitting on the swings, without speaking to each other. God knew which was the relationship between them: they knew too much about each other to be strangers but did not understand each other enough to be close friends. But when in need, they always found a way to help and support one another. They were a weird couple of friends.

Ai was reading her magazine when she noticed that Conan pulling something out his jacket pocket. It was his parcel.

"You're going to read your mail now?" she asked without raising her eyes from the magazine.

"Well, yes. There's nobody around and by the way who would care?" he replied. He looked at her sideways and saw that she was watching him. He cocked an eyebrow ironically. "Are you curious to know what I received, Haibara?"

"You'll only find bills and advertisements, Kudo." she replied.

Conan just rolled his eyes and started to open the parcel. He found a small pile of envelopes inside.

"Well, let's see: light bill ... gas bill... advertisement.. another one, another advertisement, water bill, advertisement.. phone bill.." Conan sweat dropped. Ai snickered.

'Why did Agase keep all this rubbish?' he thought furiously. Then, he noticed two letters under a another advertisement.

"Who sent me these? " he muttered, a bit confused. He didn't expect letters from anyone.

He immediately recognized one of the envelopes.

It was large and white with the sender's address and name typed on a side and with a small logo on the top, opposite the stamps place: the masked face of the Night Baron, his father's most famous character.

'Why did dad send me a later from his office?' he thought, 'Wait, it can't be him..probably, Mom who didn't find an envelope and borrowed one of his. Ok... but why write to me? They could have called... Damn, they can't call me! I live with the Mouri's: Ran could recognize their voices in a second. Well, if Mom wrote this, I'll read it later. I'm sure it's full of questions like: Are you well? Why don't you come and live with us? and whatsover.'

Conan slipped his parent's letter back in his pocket, got up and threw the mail in the bin. All except the other letter he had recieved. He sat down again and read the sender's name.

Ai had been watching Conan the whole time out the corner of her eye, and when he sat down again, she glanced at him casually and saw a grin creeping on his face. She raised her eyebrow slightly and went on reading.

Conan grinned as he read the name.

"Long time no see... Rei."


On with number 3!

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