It was such a peaceful night with the sky so clear and the moon so bright. The temperature was relatively cool, considering this afternoon was the hottest day of the summer this year. Almost every house in the neighborhood had turned their lights off for the night. Tomorrow was Saturday after all, so most of them were getting rests for their weekend family picnics or other summer activities.

Except for the Kudo Residence.

Anyone who passed by their gate now would definitely notice the light to their living room was still on, although rather vaguely since the windows were covered almost completely by the curtains. Even so, it was clearly implying that its residents were still awake, doing their own things.

By the look of it, there were two people occupying the living room. Although there wasn't any talk between them, only exchanged moans and grunts were more than enough to make them understand each other. The entire room was filled with the sound of their skins kneading together while their enamored honey fragrance lingered sweetly on their sweaty clothes.

The strawberry blonde finally leaned forward to plant a kiss on the detective beneath her for the last time before she reached her conclusion, which he followed soon after as he let a heavy satisfying sigh escaped through the back of his throat, kissing her back. He was relieved her mood had lightened up so much that she seemed to forget why they even started this. How could she not?

Since she was very well pleased, being indulged in his frustration and misery as her trails of fingers were delicately leaving hot thrilling remnants on every exposed skins he could offer; not to mention those small kisses she would place one at a time on his soft spots. She didn't really need to explicitly uncover his layers of clothes to wake the lion in him. Her piercing darkened eyes and her sweet controlling voice had done their jobs well, even to denude the deepest part of his bones.

He melted in her hands.

She indeed spent her time enjoying the control she had over him while he lost count of the minutes he had to endure for her– probably more than an hour before she finally allowed him to slip inside her. It was just the intro to his torture though, because it was clear to him that she still had more plans in her mind. He was almost at his limit, yet he could do nothing besides to surrender himself to her mercy.

If such revenge still wasn't worth her emotion of jealousy and anger, then he couldn't think of anything else that would.

With this, Shinichi made a note to himself to never let his wife encounter those dangerous emotions again. She really was abusing him inside out when she did.

He used his remaining strength to bring his arms to circle her perfect size (for him) frame, not wanting to lose her presence as his fingers were stroking her strawberry blonde hair gently. Both of them were staying in that same position with her still on top of him, panting erratically to gather as much air as possible to catch their breaths.

She noticed it though, at how his circled arms were protecting her from getting away, as if he was afraid of her leaving him despite the thing they had done just now.

Again. She said to her mind while she listened to his heartbeats.

"Is there something boggling your mind?" Ai broke their silence a minute later after she had collected enough air to her lungs. She was too tired to bother turning her view to his face though.

"Hm?" He too, was much spent to bother throwing a glance at her.

"Somehow you seem to overly worry about me leaving you." She replied, curiosity engulfed her no-longer-darkened eyes.

"Heh, how did you assume that?" Shinichi asked her back in amusement.

She eventually lifted her head to give him an annoyed glare straight into his eyes. He had to unwillingly stop his hand from working on her hair further because of that, before he returned her glare with his innocent look. He got the feeling that this little light talk would turn to serious, again.

"Really? You've been saying to me not to leave you, twice at that, before we ended up like this." She sighed as she shifted a bit to lay her arms on top of his chest. She was getting herself comfortable by slightly nestling her lazy head on it. Her eyes didn't leave him while his fingers continued caressing her hair again.

"Well–" He tried to find some other issues to avoid the discussion. It was hard for him to think of sensible answers without him explaining from the very beginning if he was to continue with this conversation.

Because he believed he didn't have the rights to bring their past up.

"Is it because of the thing between us eight years ago?"

Her voice echoed through his ears as he widened his eyes in surprise. Shinichi wasn't anticipating this at all, that she would finally touch this subject right now. Moreover, she shot her guess right in the target.

He smiled at her ambiguously. His fingers slid down from her head to the edge of her hair only to tease her strawberry blonde strand. She growled impatiently from waiting for his exact answer.

"Well, you can say that." He replied after what it felt like an eternity for Ai.

Shinichi chuckled when he saw her getting more irritated with his short answer. His wife was surely demanding more than just a mere brief reply from him.

"I don't know why but it looked like I hurt your feeling greatly at that time, then the next thing you did was to cut all ties with me." He elaborated. "So I was afraid you were going to do the same thing again today, since you know, I angered you this afternoon."

Although Ai was aware that the things happened eight years ago, or the one that occurred this afternoon weren't exactly his fault either– she also had the part in regard of her decision and her self-control.

She was starting to feel guilty about it. She didn't know he would be that remorseful when she walked out of his life those years ago that it even traumatized his mind up to today. But, wasn't it too much for him to feel that way toward his partner? Or was she really worth that much to him even way before this too-good-to-be-true marriage?

"I'm not that childish, Shinichi." She retorted lightly. "I would never make such a life-changing decision simply based on a fleeting emotion, like anger or hurt."

And she knew that he knew her too well for her to explain further about all that.

"Then why did you?"

Finally, Shinichi reached the question he had been earnestly waiting to ask her for years. Ai straightened her head up immediately once she saw his face was set in a grim expression. She looked at him in awe, trying to find the start of the 'why' thing he asked.

"I had finished everything I owed you, so what was the point of me to continue mingling in your life?" She replied softly. "I would only be a hindrance to you."

They were never meant to cross path with each other if it wasn't for the apotoxin and its antidote anyway, so not only did she try to grant him his original body, she also tried to give him his original life path back. The path where the two of them had never met, in order to keep her away from ruining his life again.

Because she was only a mistake that had ever occurred in his life.

Besides, she had nothing left in her life as Miyano Shiho except him, the Professor, and the memories left by her deceased family. Yes, she had her sister's ex too, but he never truly introduced himself to her and they never really had a good relationship to begin with– so scratch that one. Meanwhile, Haibara Ai had more than herself; she had her childhood, her friends, and everyone else. Even though she didn't have him.

That was why she chose the latter option.

Shinichi frowned, despising her past self for regarding too low of herself, but also at his own foolishness for not deducing that far ahead about her thoughts in spite of knowing her so well. Damn, how could he overlook this tiny little shard that answered everything he had been asking for?

She noticed his solemn gaze upon hearing her answer, then braced herself for any disagreeing retorts that she thought she was going to get from him. Instead to her confusion, she saw him sighing in defeat, letting go of his sullen look and recomposing himself.

The detective realized they couldn't change the past now so there was no point to continue blaming their old selves and making a list of what ifs. They could only reminisce it.

Still, above anything else, he wanted to make himself clear about this one thing she needed to remember.

"Whoever told you that, you need to know that to me, your existence is worth a lot more than everything you have ever thought, Ai." It wasn't because he had gotten the real antidote that he told her this, but he truly did mean every single word he said.

She lost in her words now, didn't know what more to say to reply his utterance as if her doubt toward his sincerity he showed in his sentence and her guilt for not noticing such truth earlier, hindered her brain to think of anything that would justify her past one-sided decision.

Shinichi red-handedly caught the contrite glint in her blue orbs.

He took a strand of her hair that his fingers had been teasing and brought it to his smiling lips, kissing it playfully. His full-of-forgiveness eyes penetrated deeply into hers, telling her his inaudible affirmation that at least she was finally here with him right now regardless of anything else.

Light tints appeared on her cheeks as she felt the tickling sensation from his gentle flirty touch on her hair, washing away all her insecurities and whatever negative feelings she had right now toward their past. She had to agree with him that in the end all was well in its own time.

"Did you know that it took me three hellish years to finally accepted your decision and completely recovered from losing you in my life?"

No, she didn't.

And it surprised her, definitely.

"Even a heartbroken break up doesn't take that long to heal." She remarked mockingly.

"I know, right? It didn't even take half a year for me when I broke up with Ran." He smiled dryly since it wasn't something he should be bragging about.

However, Ai knew he was trying to tell her how important she was to him by comparing the length of time he needed to pull through from his break up with his childhood sweetheart. He was in love with her for ten years after all, but it still took six times longer for him to get on to his own feet when his partner left him.

She was really worth that much, huh?

The corner of her mouth turned upwards as she listened to him talking. It seemed like the more they discussed this, the more she was getting surprises to every unveiled layers of truth from his standpoint about their overdue nightmare.

Fate indeed had its own way to weave their lives together in an untellable tale. And she couldn't restrain her heart from tightening in happiness.

Just when she was about to relax, she suddenly felt something hard underneath– inside her lower part, literally. She tensed up a bit and her eyes were widened, unbelieving the sight of his embarrassed face. She blushed madly a second later upon realizing what it truly was.

He coughed, averting his gaze to his side.

"How can I hold any longer when you are tightening around me so much?" He pointed it out to her transparently with flushed cheeks.

Ai's face could never get to the deeper shade of red than now. Looked like her off the meter happiness had burst out uncontrollably, even her body unknowingly gave an automatic response to it too.

Albeit, did he really need to say it out loud in front of her?

"Pervert."

"Like for you to say." He retorted in between his blushes. "As for your information, I'm a normal adult man, Ai."

Shinichi said the last part as his hands moved to caress the corners of her jaws and pulled her for a kiss. He couldn't hold his urges back now, trespassing her lips as far as he could. She closed her eyes and replied him with a gratifying hum.

They hadn't changed their positions yet, however Ai knew he was taking his control back this time.

She clutched her hands on to his t-shirt with all her might, trying to prop herself up with her remaining energy that was getting drained by every second he took to deepen their kiss more. She tumbled in the end, allowing him to sit up and swiftly pushed her back against the other end of the couch.

Where did he get his sudden strength from?

He hovered her weakened body without pulling himself out too much from her. She squealed at the sudden stir he made inside her, then landed on whimpering as she felt his curved up mouth nibbling her neck downward. His hand started to roam under her clothes on her flat belly, going up by each kisses he planted on her. The other one enjoyed its place on her smooth thigh, bringing it up slightly to grant him more comfortable position to advance.

She brought her arms to circle around his neck for support, digging his back with her nails, feeling his moves. She couldn't go against him anymore but to shut her eyes and submit to him obliquely as if she had ran out of her adrenaline from accomplishing her revenge.

Be that as it may, she was feeling content about everything.

And only because she was now showered by his affections, she could finally dive deeper into the swarm of emotions she had never felt before. It was uncomfortable, yet swimming with him in this new sea was exciting.

As he took her hands, guiding her deeper into the bottomless ecstasy, guessed she would take her own time to truly grasp everything in her heart.

Author's note: Am I too explicit here? Oh well, I apologize for my dirty imagination then (haha).

Hopefully with this chapter, I could finally truly clarify the things that really happened eight years ago between them (from Ai's POV this time). Do not forget to give your comments and reviews. Happy reading!

Disclaimer: All characters of Detective Conan are belong to Aoyama Gosho. I don't own any single of them.