2. The Favor

-x-

"I'm giving Ran-oneesan this." Ayumi held out her palm on which sat what resembled a golden egg. Unlike a golden egg, however, this object was slightly transparent and contained quite a lot of small air bubbles as well as something unique. While Mitsuhiko and Genta awed at the present, Ayumi added, "Dad bought a couple of these from... I can't remember where, but it was in Europe. I think this one is the most interesting. So I'm giving this one to Ran-oneesan."

"Is that real amber?" Mitsuhiko asked with his eyes still wide.

"I think so. Yeah," Ayumi said and held the object closer to the two boys for inspection. "See the ant inside? This is the only one with an ant. All the others that I got have either leaves or nothing at all. But there was a black one that Dad said was rare. What do you think, Conan-kun? Do you think Ran-oneesan will like this present?"

Conan blinked and smiled. "Yeah, I'm sure she'll love it. This one is beautiful." Ayumi beamed, hugged the present, and returned it to its container to be wrapped. And I sure am glad that you didn't decide to give her the black one, Conan said to himself, shaking his head at his growing phobia of the color and the word "black," and threw a glance at the strawberry blond.

"You think that's beautiful?" Ai asked, looking at Conan.

Conan raised an eyebrow. "And you don't think it is?" He drew closer to Ai and lowered his voice as a hint to the strawberry blond that they shouldn't let the other three overhear their conversation, which was, to him, not going in a good direction.

Ai leaned forward with a mocking smile, making Conan unconsciously withdraw a little to put some distance, and whispered, "To preserve that moment of the ant which you call beautiful is to destroy it – the ant. What's left is just a shell. Empty. Monstrous." Ai drew back, paused, and looked at Conan as if to challenge him to retort her.

Furrowing his brows, Conan glimpsed at the three children, who were watching them quietly but completely confused, and forced a smile. "Don't worry. We're all good," he said to the children, who looked at each other and shrugged helplessly. He then turned back to Ai and demanded in a whisper, "What is up with you today?"

"I thought I've always been like this," Ai responded, undaunted.

"No. Well, yeah, except you're way harsher than you usually are. Critical of the decorations and presents and food and... pretty much everything. You sound almost resentful of what we're doing. If – "

"The lack of sleep, maybe?" Ai suggested in a calm tone and with an innocent smile. "Someone had to give me only one week."

The shrunken detective stared. "No. Are you serious?"

"You asked for a favor, didn't you? Did I ever turn down a request from you?"

Conan snorted. "At least once." He paused and then regarded the strawberry blond, who resumed wrapping the presents. "I thought it'd already be available," he said in a soft and apologetic voice. "If I'd known that you still needed to work on it so much..."

"You wouldn't have known and didn't know." Ai paused in her work and looked up. "It's useless to talk about if." She glanced at the clock and returned to the work at hand. "She's coming in half an hour, isn't she? We have a lot of work left to do. Hurry up."

-x-

The doorbell rang at six, as expected. Agasa opened the door and saw a nervous-looking Ran fiddling with her dress. "Ran-kun," he greeted. "What are you doing here?"

"Uh, Conan-kun told me to come here at six today." Ran bit her lip and combed through her hair with her hand. She chuckled and gestured to the red dress that she was wearing. "He even told me to put this on. He's so smart but so bad with surprises." Blushing, she shook her head and smiled.

Agasa smiled back. "Come in."

"Happy birthday Ran – " And several ways to address her followed. Neechan, oneesan, san... Along with the cheer, there were confetti, silly strings, whistles, balloon pops...

Ran laughed and greeted the Detective Boys, not bothering to peel off the confetti and silly strings on her. "Thank you!" She crouched down and gathered all five of them into a group hug. "Professor too!" She stood up and gave the professor a hug. "Thank you! But are we the only ones?" she asked as she looked around the house and smiled widely at the decorations.

"Yeah." Conan tucked his hands behind his head and sighed. But his eyes widened when the doorbell rang again.

"That must be them," Agasa said brightly and went to open the door.

"Who?" Conan asked, confused, but his rare baffled expression was ruined when he saw the children stifling their laughter. "Oi, you guys..."

"Dad. Mom!" Ran cried out when she saw the guests standing at the doorsteps. Then she gasped when she caught sight of more of them. 'Lo behold, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police.

"What's going on?" Conan asked the children.

"Well, we found out that it's mostly Ran-oneesan's classmates going to her birthday party tomorrow," Ayumi explained. "Since we can't go tomorrow, we decided to ask more people to come to today's surprise party. Now everybody gets to celebrate Ran-oneesan's birthday. Isn't that great? It was Ai-chan's idea."

"Oh." Conan's eyebrow twitched. That explained why he wasn't informed. And why the planning (ahem, plotting) was successful. He searched around for the strawberry blond and found her idly helping herself to a cup of fruit punch. "Hey," he said as he walked up to her.

She took a sip of the punch and looked up. "What?"

"Thanks."

She raised an eyebrow before realizing what he was thanking her for. Smiling softly, she looked away and said, "Save it." She turned, walked off, and seated herself in a chair near the window of the living room. Away from the crowd. Looking outside.

He followed her and slipped his hands into his pants' pockets. "You know, maybe you shouldn't do me the favor this time. Things might just work out fine. Without the need to risk anyone's life."

She lowered her hand and stared into her cup. Her hair slid down her face. "Tomorrow. I'll give it to you tomorrow."

"But I – "

She lifted her head but didn't look at him. "I'm not doing you the favor." She looked at the birthday girl and said in a whisper, "I'm doing her the favor."

"Huh?" Conan tilted his head to the side and tried to read the strawberry blond's eyes but couldn't. Her eyes slid away and she returned her gaze to whatever interested her outside the window. Conan scratched his head. "Why are you sitting here?" he decided to ask.

Ai smiled, still refusing to look at him. "That's okay. You go ahead and enjoy the party. There are some things that... I need to sort out."

"Come on." He took her hand. "Don't be a party pooper."