015. Blue.

It was Friday, February 17, the day before the heist was set to happen, and the police were going crazy out of their minds trying to figure out what exactly the target was. Despite the fact that the Kaitou Kid task force had done nothing but attempt to decipher the note for three whole days, they still didn't even know where to begin looking. And that's why a certain blue-eyed, glasses-wearing little boy had successfully extracted a promise from Nakamori-keibu for permission to attend the heist (provided he was escorted by a responsible party).

The little boy was obviously Conan Edogawa, and the responsible party would, of course, be Ran Mouri, especially after the not-child's morning performance.

"Nee, Ran-neechan," Conan had cooed in his best little boy voice with the most pitiful puppy dog eyes he knew how to muster. There might have even been a few fake almost tears in them, but the miniature detective wasn't going to admit to that. "Can you come with me down to the police station in Ekoda?"

"Why Conan-kun?" Ran asked, turning her attention away from clearing the table.

"Well," he looked down and scuffed his foot against the floor. "I want to go to the Kaitou Kid heist, but I don't think Nakamori-keibu really wants to let me. And I don't want to tell him where it is if he's just going to ban me from going. And I was maybe hoping you could get him to let me go."

"You figured it out?" Ran asked, sounding mildly surprised. Conan just nodded his head and shrugged a little helplessly, like it had been a bit of an accident that he did. "You do know that Kid is a criminal, right, Conan-kun? It could be dangerous."

"But Kid never hurts anyone!" the shrunken teen said pouting, almost whining. "Please, Ran-neechan, please, please, please, please let me go."

"Okay," Ran said with a sigh, shaking her head a bit. But then, Conan let out a small smile brighter than anything she'd seen from him in weeks, and all her worries flew out the window. "Don't worry. I'll make sure you get to go."

"Thank you, Ran-neechan!" Conan exclaimed as he smiled even wider and threw himself at her leg, wrapping his arms in a tight hug around it. Ran's smile widened too as she finished clearing the dishes with him attached to her leg.

So after school, Ran took her young charge back to the Ekoda police station and into the task force headquarters. After stubborn refusal from Conan to say anything and a lot of strong words aided by threatening posturing from Ran, Nakamori-keibu had extraordinarily reluctantly (after shouting until he was red, then blue in the face) agreed to allow Conan to attend the heist if, and only if, he was right about when and where it would be.

"It's the Shallow Shroud, the lapis lazuli on display at the Beika Museum, he's after this time," Conan chirped out. "And the heist's gonna be at 10 o'clock tomorrow night."

"Explanation," Nakamori demanded (shouted). "NOW!"

"Well, at first, I thought 'at the house where bad luck reigns' might refer to where the jewel is located," Conan said. "But that doesn't make sense when the 'Bringer of Truth' tells us exactly what the jewel is, and therefore, where it's hidden. That meant the first line refers to the time, and it's bad luck to live in a house whose address digits add up to 10. And since he wrote that the note was for me, I first looked at jewels at the Beika museum cuz that's the closest one to Ran-neechan's house. And the Shallow Shroud's nickname is Bringer of Truth."

That explanation was actually a partial lie, but Conan wasn't about to tell these officers, or Ran, that he had figured out a rough idea of the criteria Kaitou Kid looked for in a gem. He also wasn't going to tell them that he had made a list of gems that had yet to be targeted by Kid, that the information he had included alternate names for each gem, or that he had consulted that list to find the Shallow Shroud. He had come up with the last bit after finding out where the gem was located. After all, that's probably how Kid had decided, what with thinking Conan was actually a child and all.

"Do you have anymore questions for him?" Ran asked, glaring at the inspector; she still hadn't forgiven him for all the cursing. Nakamori glared back for several seconds before shaking his head and muttering something about preparations. "Well, you better get to it then. We'll see you all tomorrow."

When they got home, Conan gave Ran a final thanks as she headed off to make dinner, and she assured him that she would be more than happy to take him to the heist tomorrow. With a smile, he nodded and skipped up the stairs to his own room, and when he was alone behind the closed door, the bespectacled boy collapsed in relief on his bed. He was so tired from all that acting. He wasn't nearly so happy or recovered as he'd pretended but Conan had been willing to do just about anything to attend that heist. Exhausting himself to act happily for Ran's sake had obviously been in that category, but now he could just relax and be miserable in the safety of his room.

The note from Kid may have been welcome and something he'd always treasure, but it wasn't even close to being something that could help solve his problems. He still had to reconcile himself to the fact that he really did have to live out the rest of his life as Conan, but right then, the not-child still wasn't fully prepared to give up completely on Shinichi Kudo.

A/N: YAY! I actually managed to get this done. I'm sorry I haven't updated in nearly two months, but I finally did. School, life, and inspiration for other fanfiction kind of got in the way. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and if anyone is wondering, a lapis lazuli is a blue gem (y'know, to go with the set theme of this drabble).

Oh, also, I posted this in Lost and Found, but I figured I could put it here too. I am planning on going to North America's biggest anime convention this year of 2012 (also known as Anime Expo), and I will be there from Day 0 – Day 4. So, if any of you readers wanted to, I don't know, meet me, that would be the place to do it. I have finally decided what to cosplay, so those details will be posted on my profile so that you can actually find me. Or you can PM me, that works to.

I'm just throwing it out there, because one of the things that inspires me most to keep writing is physically seeing the people who enjoy my writing. I met a few people there last year, and it was great.