Her navy pleated skirt fluttered as the spring wind swept through the light fabric. It incidentally gave him a glance of her slender pearly thighs; a slight whit more than what was necessary to be shown from the underneath. The red bow tie resting on her chest, along with the seam of her sailor collar that shared the same colour as her skirt. Her white shirt that only reached up to the rim of her waistband, exposing a little bit of her fair skinned flat belly as she brought her hand to her face.
Threading her fingers between her messy strawberry blonde strands, he saw her slip some pieces to the back of her left ear. She was trying to hold her tousled hair in place, restraining it from getting into her field of vision. There, he found her blue orbs– the one that he had usually taken less time to admire– were now detaining him somehow. They were somewhat beguiling in a way that he couldn't explain, squinting over the gusting breeze of the early season. Above all, she looked as pretty and enchanting as he could ever remember– as delicate and fragile as a sprig of red rose in a glass dome.
And he thought, how could a supposedly short spring break change someone in a flick?
"You know, it's impolite to stare at a girl for too long." Haibara piqued, noticing his weird gaping jaws.
"W-who said I'm staring at you?" Shinichi retorted back at her, flustering over her teasing remark. His face turned to that of a boiling lobster, embarrassed by the truth she had just pinpointed at him.
It was indeed undeniably surprising to see her so early in the morning in front of the Professor's gate. Furthermore, he saw her stand before him wearing a brand new set of middle school sailor uniform– a strange view which he had not expected at all.
After all, their morning schedules often clashed with each other ever since Shinichi took extra classes for the sake of his university credits. Although he self-invited himself into the Professor's house almost every evenings, disturbing her resting time by asking her help on some of his cases, he had somewhat forgotten that she'd enter the junior high school once the spring break ended.
It stunned him realizing that she was gradually growing into the beauty she was supposed to be.
"Heh." She replied him with an amused tone and her mocking smirk. Shinichi blushed even more so as his line of sight followed her steps. She was getting closer to his spot. "Oh well, you're looking good yourself in that suit, Tantei-san."
She threw her compliment quickly as she walked pass him, tilting her head slightly, smiling right at his face.
Today would be his first day working as an official appointed private investigator. Donning his tie and a suit that were other than his old school uniform or that silly red and blue combination outfit, he didn't expect to receive such flattery from her. He ended up hearing it, however. And together with the praise came the sweetest smile he had ever seen on her lips despite all the years of their partnership.
The mortified blushes on his cheeks slowly deepened into genuine crimson colour that warmed his insides. As a whiff of a sweet cotton-candy-like fragrant teased his nose, he could feel an excessive heartbeat coming out of his chest. It smelt too soft to be called a toilette, yet it was alluring more than any expensive perfumes his mom had ever sprayed.
Was it her natural scent? His detective instinct guessed it.
A second passed thereafter before he woke up from his trance and turned his heel to catch her pace. He managed to reach her side, returned her previous statement with some joking protests, acting all normal like he usually did in front of her with that pouty mouth of his. Nevertheless, he couldn't ignore the fact that the scent which he believed to be her natural odor, kept tickling his senses.
A strange pleasing sensation surged within his stomach all at once, starting from his lower abdomen up to his stomach, and stopping at his throat. It was like an inexistent lump stuck at the back of his pharynx, giving him a hard time to control his breath. To his own suffering, he had to bare with it for the short minutes of their walk.
They bantered along their way together until they reached the intersection where they parted. Still, her nice smell lingered free inside his mind.
And he wondered, since when did she smell this redolent?
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"This is so tiresome." Shinichi groaned looking at the heaps of files and papers on his wooden table in his library. He sighed as he closed the notebook in his hand and threw it into a labeled box on his side.
They were piles of documents related to his old solved cases that he had to sort out at all cost by the end of today. Despite the extraordinary huge storage he had in his library, he still ended up needing more space for his newer case files he was going to keep. As expected from the former famous high school detective of the East, the son of the great mystery writer and the legendary actress. It didn't take him more than a year and a half since he became an official to get countless calls for difficult detective jobs.
Nothing much had changed with his routines however; and his household chores skills hadn't improved even ever so slightly. All in all, he still needed her in every little things he did in his current life. Just like how he would ask her to come by his house today right after her school hour ended, only to help him arrange his sorted documents back to their respective shelves.
There she was, still in her short-sleeved summer uniform, tiptoeing to reach the upper shelf that was a level above her head. Her left hand was holding some books, while her right hand was trying to push a case file into the row. She was surprisingly so invested in the task Shinichi gave her that she didn't even waste her time to reply his complaint with her usual sarcasm.
Stealing a look at how she was doing, Shinichi couldn't help but notice how the hem of her white sailor shirt was lifted up a little bit. It awarded him with none other than a view of her bare tiny waist. Wandered further up, he could see her short hair was tied up in a tiny pony tail and a drop of sweat falling down off her slender neck. Her face was flushed as if she had ran a quarter-mile. Though, he found her serious face cute.
It was summer anyway, and it was so heated up out there in the street.
His saliva started to pool inside his mouth, almost drooling before he swallowed it hard. His mind started to wander wildly against his conscience. He could feel his heart pumped his blood a lot faster than it normally did, circulating the oxygen around his body and back to the heart again at a speedier rhythm. His cheeks flushed instantly as something gingered up within him.
It was getting hot inside his library too, strangely.
The bell ring of a passing bicycle woke him up from his trance. He then shook his head, noticing the abnormality in himself. He better got out of his chair to resume his burdensome task, he thought. But when he had just gotten a hold of another unsorted file, he heard Haibara click her tongue– it gained back his attention on her. She sounded pissed off, displeased by the fact that she was not tall enough and that she couldn't put the book she was holding to the rack she wanted it to be. She tried to lean further toward the shelf and tiptoed even higher, not wanting to use the help of a stool.
Shinichi saw it all. He took a pity on her, but all he did was quietly laughing at her from his spot. He knew her prideful self won't just accept his help if it wasn't for her sudden squeal that came out a second later, followed by a thud of a heavy book falling to the carpeted floor. He saw her lose her balance and the big case file she was trying to organize was going to fall right upon her face.
"Haibara!" He shouted in horror.
The time seemed to slow down like forever while in fact, it took him instantly to run to her spot. He was just in time to push the file back into the rack abruptly, saving it from falling.
"Good grief, Haibara." He scolded her. His head was leaning slightly to her right shoulder while he sighed in relief. "Are you al–"
His words were stopped when he realized how close their bodies were. His left arm was circling around her waist, holding her so tightly showing his overprotectiveness. His chest was glued against her back while his right hand was on hers, pinning her between him and the bookcase like a sandwich.
Only then did he realize how small she was compared to him. Yet, she didn't have the same childish body that used to hide behind him years ago.
He could feel her heartbeat mixed up with his own. He was waiting for her to break her way out and rebuke him. If not, he was going to release her and apologize like he should. He didn't expect she would stay quiet, trying to hide her face instead. He could see shades of crimson reach the back of her ear. She was hardly suppressing her blush.
Watching her squirm underneath him, Shinichi felt an urgent urge flowing through his vein like a wave. It was getting more difficult for him to control when his nose caught a subtle hint of her scent. It was the same sweet cotton-candy-like fragrant that teased his nose on one dear morning of spring last year. And it was eating away the last bit of his rationality.
The next thing he did was a blur. All that remained in his memory was her burning skin he felt from the back of her hand as he interlaced his fingers between hers. His hold on her waist loosened and his hand went up its way to twiddle the thing she hid under her silky bra. She flinched by the sensation of his rough fingertips on her. Then he leaned forward, claiming her tender plump lips before she could let a low moan escape her.
"Kudo-kun…" She sighed between her breath.
She showed no signs of disapproval to whatever things they were engaging on right now. Rather, she broke their kiss only to turn herself over to face him. She gave him easier access to explore every parts of her. It surprised him, although he complied to her invitation without further hesitation.
"Haibara…" He whispered, needing and pleading. Yet, guilt was also mixed up in his voice.
By moral, he knew exactly well he wasn't supposed to do this to her considering that she held onto years of traumas that were surpassing her current physique and age. Deep down in his heart, he was giving warning to himself. But he didn't know what had gotten into him. Her look, her voice, her smell, every little thing about her had been haunting his dream ever since the day he saw her in front of their houses. He just couldn't stop now when she surrendered herself completely to him like this.
Chitter chatter of their neighbours echoed through the windows of his library. Mountains of books and papers were scattered on the carpeted floor, abandoned. Her short strawberry blonde hair was sprawled out on the bookcase as she leaned her weight and slid down losing to her weakened knees. Pulling along the detective who was pressing her with unbroken kisses, they settled themselves in the limited space they had.
His unbuttoned shirt, her unloosened bow tie.
His unbuckled belt, her disheveled skirt.
In the heat of a summer, her innocence that was granted by her second life– the very life which he had saved– was taken once again. And that was how their little secret complicated affair began.
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[CoAi Week 2022 Prompt #6: Innocence and Guilt]
Author's note: Yes, yes, I know it's been 2 years since the prompt release but I just couldn't let this draft sit in the junk, right? It's quiet hard to get the mood back, and I guess it's getting rusty, but I hope my writing is still acceptable :')
Well, please enjoy the read since I'm not sure when I'd publish another 2022 prompt (yes, I still have one last draft for the last prompt in my drive). All reviews and comments are warmly welcomed.
Happy reading and happy belated CoAi Week!
Disclaimer: All characters of Detective Conan are belong to Aoyama Gosho. I don't own any single of them.