007. Days.
For days after that fateful phone call, Ran was still in a bad mood. She'd been short with just about everyone, but at the same time, she had bouts of almost depression. Her friends tried to be understanding and supportive when they heard what happened; Sonoko especially, who had threatened to castrate Shinichi the next time she saw him. Still, her mood had taken its toll, and she was generally left to her own devices after school.
So, Ran had put more focus on taking care of Conan, seemingly because it gave her a bit of comfort and kept her mind mostly off Shinichi. And because of this, Conan had made sure to be home for her more than was strictly necessary, forgoing play dates with the Shounen Tanteidan during the next weekend to stay at ome and be fussed over by her. He'd been acting more like a little kid than he'd ever had. And Ran had been eating it up, alternately smothering him with attention and admonishing him for being spoiled.
It was that Sunday night when Ran finally pulled Conan aside to apologize for how she'd acted the night of the phone call. She had made all of Conan's "favorite" foods for dinner and baked a fresh lemon pie for dessert. By the time they sat down to dessert, Kogorou had left to go play Mahjong, so they were alone. With an excited little boy squeal, Conan had instantly dug into the lemon pie without a thought.
"Ne, Conan-kun," Ran said with a little smile as she took a small bite of her own piece of pie. "I wanted to talk to you about the lecture I gave you the other day."
"What about it, Ran-neechan?" Conan chirped in that adorable little boy voice of his.
"Well, I wanted to apologize," Ran replied. "For shouting at you. It's not you I'm upset with, and I'm really sorry I took it out on you."
"It's okay, Ran-neechan," Conan replied, taking another bite.. "You made me all that great food and this really, really good lemon pie too." Then, he smiled even wider than before as he made exaggerated yummy sounds.
"Why are you acting…" she stopped as a look of realization dawned in her eyes, and a sad smile was brought to her face. "He talked to you, didn't he? That detective geek."
"Yeah," the miniature detective said looking away. "Shinichi-niisan asked me to be extra nice and understanding to you for a while. He said he did something that hurt you really bad and that he couldn't ever make it up to you. So, he asked me to try to comfort you for him. Am I doing something bad?"
"No, no, Conan-kun," Ran answered, that sad smile remained. "Thank you. I really appreciate it." They finished eating their respective pieces of pies in silence, and Conan took the lack of conversation as a hint that Ran wanted to be left alone. So when he was done, he cleared the table and put the leftover pie in the fridge before returning to his room and continuing his way through one of the Arsene Lupin novels.
Not even thirty minutes after he'd started reading did he hear muffled sobs coming from the other side of the door. Slowly, he put down the book and peeked his head out the door to see Ran crying into a pillow on the couch. Shuffling over to her quietly, he tugged on her pant leg and said, "Ran-neechan?"
"Oh, Conan-kun," she sobbed and pulled him onto her lap, squeezing him for all she was worth. "Why doesn't he love me anymore?" As she cried into his shoulder, Conan could only hold her with his too small arms, knowing that if her anger had lasted hours, her first flood of tears since that phone call was going to last for days.