She looked so happy, so wishful when she saw him bend down to his one knee with a box of ring in his hand. Never did she know that all her waiting years would eventually end up in a fairy-tale-like ending. Heck, she turned so cynical about its existence midway, although she believed it once again now.
"Yes." She said with teary eyes and smiling cheeks. "Yes, I do."
Everything seemed too dreamy the moment she said her reply. It was the reply he was yearning for her to say for all his life; and to hear it directly coming from her mouth, he instantly felt like he was flying to the cloud nine. His heart quivered in excitement as he slid the ring to her finger. It looked gorgeous and enchanting to see the mark he set on her hand– it was his claim of his proprietary and his promise of a future with her.
"Oi! Did you hear me, Kudo?!" Heiji was excitedly shouting through the other side of the phone line. From the way he spoke, Shinichi was aware that he was overly exuberant to tell something to him, his best friend. He even cared not about the time he made his call.
It was 12.15pm.
A perfect time for him to get a rest and pamper himself in a self-indulgent lunch break, away from all those piling up paperworks he hated.
"Yeah, yeah." Shinichi replied, dragging his voice a bit lazily. "Congratulation for both of you, then."
Not to say, today was February the fifteenth.
Rather a day late but still, it was totally a marvelous time for him to enjoy the beautiful view of the falling white snow from his office window while eating the chocolate gift he was supposed to get from her.
Supposed.
Alas, expectations had always been nicer than reality. Instead, he was receiving a sudden phone call from his Osakan friend whom he thought was going to discuss some cases with him but turned out, he was calling him just to brag the good news about his overdue proposal to his forever girlfriend yesterday night.
Completely a clichéd romantic scenario, he must say.
"Heh, many thanks for your good wishes." Heiji replied back with a sneer. His excitement meter instantly fell down below a degree, all was due to his friend's lack of enthusiasm.
He was hoping more from Shinichi's response, though it didn't have to be a happy ones. Actually, a fired-up half-joking spiteful remark from him would be more than sufficient to satisfy Heiji's manly pride right now. After all, Shinichi's jealousy would only meant he had achieved more than him. And it was one of the reasons he was so eagerly bragging the news to his best friend over the phone as soon as possible.
Gosh, he finally made his plan a success to propose his childhood girlfriend for a lifetime promise. So what more could he want to hear from his closest friend aside from comments that would only make his head swell in arrogance? However, the said friend sounded so unexpectedly apathetic this noon.
All he had gotten was a mere light half-hearted dry chuckle from the other end of the line.
"Well then, I have to go now." Heiji said cheerfully. His mood was back to yellow once again as he heard some of his colleagues' voice from behind, searching for him. It seemed Shinichi's impassive responses hardly stripped his joyful heart away. "I'll update you with the wedding date soon!"
With that, the connection was cut off one-sidedly before Shinichi could even say a word back. It wasn't like he had anything more to say anyway. But still, he clicked his tongue while staring at the phone with his annoyed look. His other hand was propping up his head on his office table as he let out some grouches.
Just who did Heiji take him for, huh? To call him out of the blue at this inconvenient hour and cut the line off as he wished.
He could only let out a heavy sigh in the end, the corners of his lips turned upwards in a soft small smile right after then. Though he didn't show it, he was actually happy for his best friend's engagement. It slightly reminded him of his own heart-thumping moment with the strawberry blonde on that one Saturday morning a month ago.
And for a spur moment, she could never look more angelic than herself when she told him her answer that day.
Even so, that nice memory alone wasn't enough to hold his dejectedness from contaminating the air around him. After all, yesterday was supposed to be one of those sacral days for couples, which he had– unusually– eagerly anticipated. Only that, things with her didn't always go the way he reckoned.
He sighed again, ripping off his small smile from his own face. His eyes had no other choice but to leer at the piles of gifts and chocolates on the far end row of his desk. His bottom lip was slowly jutting out in a sulking pout.
Those piles were there, lying idly on an unoccupied desk with a printed sign that told anyone to take them freely, as if it was an annual birthday sweet corner that appeared out of nowhere on the second month of every year. For sure, they were all coming from Shinichi's fangirls, including those female reporters who had scooped his news; those police women from the other divisions; and those unknown mere female civilians who had crushes on him, young and old.
As police officers receiving gifts could mean accepting bribes in the eyes of the law, the upper directors strangely made an exception for him only on this particular date– with some security measures of course. Perhaps, they just didn't want those givers to go berserk and crush the whole metropolitan police headquarter since his fanbase was too large to control.
The piles themselves usually lasted for a week, more or less, before they completely gone by the end of the month. As the saying went 'eat desserts when you were stressed', so did everyone in the first division of the crime investigation was thankful to those fans for sending the detective a year worth supply of sweets. However, never did Shinichi care even once to dig in whatever gifts he was getting, thus the printed card said so.
Yet only this year did he observe the name of the senders one by one, which gave the whole office workers quiet a surprise. But since all of those were originally addressed to him, so they kept silent of his unusual behaviour. And to his concern, none of the gifts or the chocolates were from the strawberry blonde; not even a single lovely message card from her was found in the piles or a poetic text sent to his phone, a call all the more.
What a fool of him to forget that she was the famous Ice Queen. He shouldn't have taken too much concern to all her passionless treatments, should he?
"What's with the long face, Kudo-kun?" The male inspector Takagi plainly asked as he placed some documents on his own desk. His sudden appearance was blocking Shinichi's sight toward the piling gifts, ending the young detective's reverie with a startle.
"Ah, n-no. It's nothing." Shinichi replied, giving his best smile to cover whatever things he had in mind from showing on his face.
"But you sure are still popular within girls even after your heartfelt declaration at that live TV interview, huh?" Takagi chuckled, his eyes were following to where Shinichi directed his view a second ago. He was amused at the mountain of gifts that kept getting higher each year.
"It is pointless though." Chief inspector Shiratori said so knowingly as he walked toward the two men to place another bundle of documents on Takagi's table. He then joined their little men's talk, while leaning on the other desk beside them and crossed his arms. "A man doesn't need the whole world to love him, but one love to give him the whole world. Am I right?"
Both Takagi and Shinichi grimaced at the unexpected cheesy quote coming from the young master that they could only laugh wryly in response. Nonetheless, he was saying something agreeable. At least to the current situation Shinichi had right now, none other than a gift from her would mean something to him– not even tons of attentions from his fans would suffice.
Strange indeed, for him who was supposed to be a man of logic, to have a mixed up feeling only because of a certain strawberry blonde's ignorant on one particular date. He didn't usually remember birthdays and anniversaries, so why did he even care for one missed stupid event that he never once paid his attention to before?
Damn, love really did change people, didn't it?
.
.
.
A nice warm cocoa with mini marshmallows on top was one of those things that people usually craved on one chilly late afternoon. Lazily lying down on a couch while waiting for the dinner in the oven to do its own things was also one of those stuffs that belonged to the wanted category.
And those were her newly found activities that Ai had been doing every time she returned home from school for the past two days. Except that each time she did it, she was having that kind of face similar to that of a cat whose tail was just being stepped on by some random passerby.
Glaring at the mug of the warm cocoa in her hands, she swore inwardly at her own stupidity. These melted dark chocolate chips should have gone into the chocolate molds two days ago to create a set of nice chocolate truffles filled with all kinds of jams and caramels. Instead, she mixed them with a bunch of hot milk and cinnamon, topped it with some cute tasty white and pink marshmallows before she helped herself with a serving.
What the hell am I doing?! She cussed herself.
Never did her past self imagine that there would come a time when she looked so stupid during one of those days on the second month of the year. Until she found herself jovially humming some musical notes out in the kitchen, tempering a bowl of melted dark chocolate, while thinking of how a certain detective would love the taste of her homemade chocolate truffles she was making.
So slapping herself on the head for not acting like herself, her ego and her pride instantly took over the controller room in her brain. Her hands were moving on their own, abruptly cancelling out whatever plans she was having with the tempered chocolate, eventually turning it into a warm cocoa drink for herself.
What a fool. She sighed, embarrassed by her out-of-character-self.
She was a twenty-nine-years-old shrunken adult, for goodness sake! Nonetheless, why was her heart acting like an eighteen-years-old school girl here? Her insides were all jumpy over a little simple stuff such as making a gift for her fi– husband. Heck, February the fourteenth wasn't even a public holiday to begin with, so why would she want to celebrate it now of all times, like it was a yearly holy ritual she had missed for eight years?
As her glare on the drink intensified, her mind was wandering. Thinking back now, she should have just go on and made some batches of the chocolate truffles for the detective boys, Yukiko, and Chiharu instead. With that much of dark chocolate chips she had melted, she was good to go with a month worth supply of warm cocoa now.
DING DONG!
The bell to her house was ringing, waking her up from her self-cursing trance. She quickly put down her mug on the kitchen island before she walked toward the genkan to open the door for the guest.
"Long time no see, Shiho-neechan!"
It had been years since she heard someone call her by her original given name. It still sounded as beautiful as the last time she remembered that she didn't realize she had been yearning to hear that name more than she had thought. However, as much as she was enthralled by her birth name, it stunned her to see her blood cousin standing by her very doorstep.
"What are you doing here, Masumi?" Ai lowly growled. It took only a split second for her expression to change from being surprised to speechlessly fascinated before it finally stopped at being annoyed.
The female detective only grinned in reply as she brought a small brown carton box she was holding into Ai's view. The box was uncovered, so anyone could see the top part of its inside that looked like a dozen of purplish and greenish small containers' lids.
At one glance, Ai recognized them full well that they were special peanut butter spreads and blueberry jams that were only sold in the States, that could only be ordered via online to Japan. Not even the international groceries stores in Tokyo had these heavenly stuffs in stocks all the time if not by pre-orders.
"Bribing me won't get you anywhere, you know." Still with her unchanging look, the strawberry blonde stepped aside a little bit, opening the door wider for Masumi to get in to the genkan. The latter's grin was getting cheekier once she had her cousin's approval to get inside.
"What a nice chocolaty smell." Masumi commented around as she went into the kitchen to put the box on the island table. Her nose twitched slightly, catching up the bold sweet scent in the air. Her eyes instinctively found their way to the mug of warm chocolate that was sitting idly on the counter top. "Are you, perhaps, making some chocolates for Val– "
But as if she had just said the taboo word, she found her shrunken cousin threw her iconic death glare at her direction from her side. She was having that disgusted expression transpired so clearly on her face, like she was going to vomit any time as soon as she heard the last word.
"Ah, just forget what I'm about to ask." And so Masumi stopped the question midway awkwardly with a dry smile. "But that sure looks tasty and cute, does it not?"
She remarked teasingly while pointing at the forgotten mug beside her. At that, Ai stiffly took the drink away from that puckish cousin of hers and held it tightly in her palms. She still maintained her glare on the said cousin, hinting her to stay out of this. Even so, that blushes on her cheeks betrayed her implied means.
Now, Masumi was amused at how Ai failed to keep her usual on-guard stance. It looked like she was becoming more human than the last time she talked to her. She was even acting more and more like normal girls around her physical age. Perhaps, repeating one's childhood could really change one's view on how life was supposed to like, eh?
Nevertheless, the one that caught her attention the most was the diamond ring on the strawberry blonde's left ring finger.
"Okay, I think I'm done with my stuffs here." She uttered out of the blue. Her smirk was so smugly plastered on her mouth as she looked at the shrunken scientist with a glimpse of satisfaction.
It confused Ai as to what made Masumi's visit to be so quick. Surely, she won't come only to deliver these goods, right? And that well pleased look on her face was just too hard to be interpreted. Having thought that, she still followed her cousin to the genkan to see her out.
"Ah, right." Masumi said as she put on her shoes back. "I saw Kudo-kun by chance last month, and he was desperately talking about having an infatuation with a very intriguing female stray cat around this neighbourhood."
A stray cat? Ai knitted her eyebrows at the vague fact her cousin had just told her.
"And it seems he has successfully claimed for her ownership now." The female detective kept saying things that sounded like a blabber to Ai. She then dumbfoundedly watched her turn around and lean in closer to shorten the gap between them. Her green eyes were sharply looking at her pair of blue orbs. "I'm glad she has finally found a family she should've returned to from now on. So all I can say is may you be happy, Shiho-nee."
She whispered the last part loud enough only for Ai to catch the phrase right on her face. Masumi pulled back and grinned mischievously before she said her parting words.
"Don't you guys forget to visit us once in a while!" Then without waiting to be replied back, she went out from the front door, abruptly leaving the premise.
Her short story of the stray cat left Ai flabbergasted at first. That last wishing ambiguous sentence too, was confusing her. It surprisingly took another minute for a genius such as her to realize that they were actually a metaphor of herself, which then it reminded her of the cat ears events she had with Shinichi some time ago.
She blushed uncontrollably like a boiling crab once everything became so much clear to her head. Her insides instantly turned into a shambles, her brain into a havoc. It was hard to put what she felt into words; she was embarrassed, mad, yet also grateful for Masumi's wish of her happiness at the same time.
Above all those, she was perturbed.
Just how far did she hear the tale from Shinichi? She was too late to ask that back to Masumi though, as much as she wanted.
Truly, what was the real purpose of her visit today?
DING DONG!
The strawberry blonde cursed as she heard the bell to her front door ring not long after the still-flat-chested female detective left. Why did things seem to always come one after another? She herself hadn't done calming her inner self, yet her patience had to be put on a test already, especially when she heard the bell ring once again.
"What is it this time, Ma–?!" She answered while trying to hold in her blushes and annoyance, only that it was cut short once she swung the door completely open.
Her half-complaining-half-blushing look instantly disappeared as she saw someone with a slightly bigger build than her come falling forward to her spot. A shock took over her brain, her quick reflex brought her feet to take a step aside. She was coldly letting him hug the floor instead of giving herself up to be crushed by him underneath his weight.
It was Shinichi.
His iconic cowlick at the back of his head was the one that told her so.
"Ai…" He murmured her name weakly. He was raising his right hand slightly with all the power he had left, begging for her help.
Startled by his precipitous appearance, Ai could only watch him crawl his way in. He was like a zombie, or maybe a pitiful worm was a better term to describe him right now.
What the hell is he doing?! She shouted inwardly with a face that was condemning.
That inaudible question of hers was answered so clearly with a very loud grumble from his stomach. It was followed by another one a second later, and another one another second later, just as though his mouth was inside his belly.
Oh. She instantly got the hint exactly at the same time as her oven made a ding sound.
He came just in time to have a dinner with her.
.
.
.
"Thanks for the food!" Shinichi jovially said his after-meal prayer once he was done emptying his plate of dinner. His complexion was getting better after he filled his stomach full.
All the while, the strawberry blonde was standing behind the counter, just right at his opposite front. A soft clinking noise was flowing through the air around them as the teaspoon met with the porcelain walled mug. She was watching him with that berating look of hers, while her hand was moving stirring the cocoa dregs at the bottom of her now-not-so-warm-chocolate.
"W-what?" Being the self-conscious ones, he stuttered.
She kept her silence, however, as her hand led the brim of her mug to her lips. An almost inaudible slurping sound was all that welcomed him, creating layers of high-strung atmosphere like the one he usually found in the court room.
She was deliberately putting him in a more awkward position here, pushing him to the edge of admitting the guilt he never did. Having some cold sweats here and there, Shinichi felt his guts turn so tiny at her mercy.
Until he saw a small sparkly glare from her finger.
"So?" Putting down her mug, she finally started her inquisition. "Care to explain why you came here, Tantei-san?"
He was supposed to be nervous by now, but his reaction was nowhere close to it at all. Rather, the goosebumps on his skin was actually a sign of excitement, a contentment that made him blush at the fact that her left ring finger was no longer bare because of him.
Noticing he was in a daze– although not his gaze on her left hand that cupped her mug– Ai sternly cleared her throat to gain his attention back on track.
"H-huh?" His innocent dark blue eyes came across her astute blue ones, while his blush was getting bolder.
"As far as I remember, I never invited you to have a dinner with me, at my house, this evening." She clarified her question.
"Well…" Shinichi froze for a second before he darted his gaze to his side, looking more uneasy and more embarrassed. He was trying to find some words that could dodge her question. "Should I have a reason to come and see my fi– I mean my own wife?"
"With an unexplainably dead starved stomach?" She raised one of her eyebrows, her probing stare was unwavering.
As a matter of fact, he was here to see what she had been doing today. All was because he was bothered over something as trivial as a chocolate that he never seemed to receive up to this very minute from the strawberry blonde. It even shut his ghrelin away from telling his brain that he was still a human being and that he needed food, and so did he forget to eat his breakfast and his lunch.
But like hell would his pride allow him to tell her that straight to her face.
"Err, that's because I got too caught up in a case so I totally forgot to eat breakfast and then lunch too." He sheepishly told her a half-lie, earning himself another distrustful outstare from Ai. "P-put that aside, there are some important things I need to discuss with you anyway."
"You can always leave me out of it if it were about a case." She replied straightforwardly and stoically, unhesitating to decline his unsaid request.
The way she assumed it somehow hit him hard on the head like a hammer. All those years, was he truly that dumb to only come find her when he needed her help with cases?
"I also have other things in life unrelated to cases, you know." He protested, a bit sulking.
"Oh, you do?" She smirked playfully, riling him up with that pretending question.
"Of course, I do." He hissed. "One of those is…"
His eyes then trailed off to where her left hand was, secretly taking a short glance at her ring again.
…is about us, you dummy. He said to himself.
Nevertheless, it seemed his effort to bring the talk up would be all in vain now, considering how Ai took control of their conversation since the start. He could only let out a long sigh dejectedly.
"Ugh, nevermind that." He gave up.
Satisfied with how exasperate he was, the smile on her lips was getting smugger. She smirked at his miserable look on his face as he fell deeper into his sorrow. Even so, there was a slight glimpse of softness in the way she stared at him– it was loving.
"Is this about yesterday's chocolate?" She suddenly asked, cutting his train of thoughts. She tightened her hands around her mug.
"Chocolate?"
And before Shinichi could give off his complete baffled reaction, Ai was already slamming her mug back to the coutertop and leaned forward to kiss her detective. She was slightly sitting on the table now, her one hand was grabbing him by the collar to shorten their distance that was made difficult by the kitchen island in between.
He gasped, surprised by her abrupt action. Yet, a strong hint of the bitter sweet chocolatey taste on her tongue sealed the whole deal. It took him not even a millisecond to forget everything and gravitated himself into her lips, bringing his hand to carress her nape as he deepened their kiss, sucking every last drop of the nutty taste.
The taste-testing lasted for a minute or so, before she pushed him briefly, retreating herself in need for air. The corner of her lips turned upwards in another smirk. Meanwhile, he was flushing, inebriated by her advances.
"If this 'important discussion' is about you demanding your yesterday's gift from me, rest assured, I have it ready all along here." She whispered to his ear, briskly brushing her wet lips on his skin so seductively. "So, would like to have your dessert now or later, Tantei-san?"
He shivered, titillated at what other sweets she would serve on the table for him tonight. If it had come to this, he didn't think there would be a need of a further discussion between them anymore. Or at least, everything else that he really need to talk over with her could wait until tomorrow.
After all, how could he stay sane when the thing he had been waiting for was just right in front of him right now? She was surely too tempting, too hot, and too sweet to be missed in this cold winter evening.
The lust she saw on his eyes was unreserved, visibly showing her he was fired up with unspoken desire. Without much saying, Ai reached out for her mug, and took another sip of the chocolate. Without much rendering, Shinichi instinctively leaned forward against the table, and let their lips rejoined once again.
A more subtle nip of nuttiness and creaminess were dissolved into one, all together with an exchange of their soft moans. Regardless of their not-so-easy position with the kitchen island, their hands could always find themselves onto each other's warmth. A drizzle of chocolate escaped her mouth, slowly dripping down to her jaw. It almost reached the neck of her pullover if it wasn't for his trailing kisses and lickings that prevented it from slipping more to her collarbone. She whimpered.
Definitely, a serving of hot cocoa would never be enough in this case, though it was nothing to worry about. After all, she had a month worth supply that they could finish tonight.
In between her heavy breath and her clouded conscience, she thought how funny things had been. She had this reluctant feeling in her heart, up to some minutes ago, about giving him the chocolate she made. Yet here she was, having a change of mind only because she saw his despondent look. There was nothing more entertaining than watching him in misery, indeed, but since when had she became this soft as to feel hurt by it?
Crap, love was surely changing people's heart, wasn't it?
Author's Note: Finally, updated! Honestly, I was supposed to update this on the fifteenth so I was kinda losing my confidence when I was going to put this up. But oh well, it was better than not updating at all (haha). I know I'm almost a week late, and although I don't really celebrate V-day to begin with, but happy belated Valentine's day to you, readers!
Hope you like this chapter as well (and hope I too could update it soon). As usual, please give me your comments and reviews. And for being such patient readers, all I can say is thank you. Happy reading!
Disclaimer: All characters of Detective Conan are belong to Aoyama Gosho. I don't own any single of them.