Kiss #7: Just Friends
Title: Just Friends
Author: ran_mouri82
Word Count: 2302
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Detective Conan is pwned by Aoyama Gosho. I only admire his l33t skillz.
Pairing: Kudou Shin’ichi and Mouri Ran
Notes: 30 Kisses: #2 - news; letter
Just Friends
The closing chimes rang, and all students without club meetings, duties, or worse, detention, burst through the doors of Teitan High School, eager to enjoy the brisk air and sunshine. Two students, however, strolled more leisurely side by side; Kudou Shin'ichi yawned and blinked the grogginess from his eyes, too sleepy to exert himself in hurrying from the schoolyard, while Mouri Ran tossed her chestnut hair in the spring breezes, then swung her satchel by her side and flashed him a bright smile.
"You said Inspector Megure doesn't need to meet with you today, right?" Ran asked, walking close beside Shin'ichi, her energy bottled in each springing step.
"Yeah. Though I guess I should go home and study . . . didn't catch that last class," Shin'ichi muttered, shifting his satchel over his shoulder with a shrug. He stepped aside as some girls from a neighboring class dashed between him and Ran, linking arms and giggling about their supposedly hot teacher while they bounded through the front gate. Shin'ichi grimaced. Guess they can't walk and gossip at the same time.
"That's because you slept through it again," Ran groaned. Clasping her hands behind her back, she hesitated and asked, with a blush, "Um, you can come over to the Agency and study-if you'd like."
Each day in the two weeks since Shin'ichi regained his height and his freedom had been busy and unpredictable, but flavored by an undercurrent of sweetness, not that either he or Ran would admit that to anyone else. The glances they stole, the lunches they ate together, the few but special words they exchanged about feelings that they still fumbled to share-all of them more than made up for the wait. But . . . .
Scratching his head, Shin'ichi returned the offer with a sheepish grin. "Er, yeah. That'd be-"
"Hey, if it isn't the married couple!"
Old habits die hard. And in more ways than one.
Both Shin'ichi and Ran glanced at the open doors, startled, as a familiar group of male classmates rushed toward Shin'ichi, pounding his back without mercy. The most boisterous one in the group, a long haired blonde named Takeshi whose broad shoulders could crack bricks, grabbed Shin'ichi in a head lock and ground a fist into his already mussed shock of hair. He chuckled and said, "No wonder you didn't see us in the hall! Going home with your wife, huh?"
"Sheesh, what are you talking about?" Shin'ichi grumbled, breaking free and brushing his jacket sleeves. "You were hanging around in there for over ten minutes, talking about something stupid. Some of us wanted to go home."
"Heh, so he admits it!" said Seiji, another classmate with dark, bristly hair like a bottle brush and sinus problems that gave him the most nasal voice in the school. Sidling over to Ran, who crossed her arms without bothering to hide her disgust, he nudged her and whispered for everyone to hear, "Didn't want us at the wedding?"
"Cut it out," Shin'ichi snapped, a five alarm blush rising to his cheeks in unison with hers.
The smallest of them, Mizuki, who never seemed able to straighten his crooked tie, pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and smirked. "Not like we care, but it's not exactly news that you're going out."
Instinct surged through Shin'ichi and Ran's veins, making them gulp loud enough to alert pedestrians three blocks away. Their mouths twitching and fists clenching, a sound gargled from the hollow of their throats and, after some moments, formed words that they blurted out.
"We're just friends!"
They gasped. Wincing as heat rose from their necks up, Shin'ichi and Ran glanced sidelong at each other, speechless. What?
This was too much for their tormentors. Snickering, they clutched their stomachs, some bursting into hearty laughter as they doubled over and shook. Then, stumbling over each other, they bolted across the street, narrowly avoiding rush hour traffic and being squashed into Teitan High pancakes. Takeshi cupped a hand around his grinning mouth and bellowed, "Mr. Detective! Call us when you get a clue . . . or when your wife lets you out of the doghouse!"
"How about when you learn to mind your own business?" Shin'ichi spat in reply, his acidic retort undercut by the slight squeak in his voice.
"Ooooh!" they jeered, just before a construction worker laid on his truck's horn and yelled for them to get the hell out of his way.
"Hmph," huffed Shin'ichi, reaching behind his head to let it rest in his cold, sweaty palms. Though he choked down the butterflies that rose to his throat, his blush still burned as the rowdy crew laughed and whistled before rounding the corner. "Those guys don't know when to shut up."
"Mmm," said Ran, nodding. She toed a crack in the ground and strained her lips into a tight smile.
Shin'ichi swallowed hard and glanced at the sky, its puffy cloud formations suddenly sparking his interest. The cool breeze felt refreshing, but offered no relief. Clearing his throat, he said, "You know that didn't mean anything, right? It was just one of those, uh . . . reactions."
"R-right!" cried Ran, her enthusiasm ringing with a dull echo on the concrete. "We're both used to saying it all the time, so . . . ."
"And it's not like it's any of their business, anyway," Shin'ichi added, following Ran through the gate and onto the sidewalk. Most of their classmates had left already, leaving the spot almost deserted, save for the rumbling cars.
"Right," Ran replied, softly.
A pair of schoolchildren darted past them out of nowhere, giggling and running so fast that one of them, a girl with a little braid bound in pink ribbon, bumped into Ran's leg. But before the girl could bow and stammer her apologies, a freckle faced boy with smudged pants grabbed her hand and dragged her away, grumbling to himself about finishing homework in time for Kamen Yaiba.
Watching them leave, Shin'ichi scratched his head and looked down while Ran knit her eyebrows together.
Then, at once, they spun and faced each other-to blurt out different words.
"Is going out too much for-"
"Are you really in love with-"
Ran, blushing furiously, finished speaking as Shin'ichi paused, wide eyed. " . . . me?"
Shin'ichi blinked. Huh?
Ran held her fists at her sides, but her gaze was both sharp and pleading, as if she braced for the worst. "Because, even though you know how I-" Her voice broke and she glanced away. "Even though you know, it's alright if you don't . . . feel the same way. You can tell me."
Shin'ichi gave her a sad smile, then moved closer, catching a silky strand of her hair between his fingers. "Idiot, you think I'd lie to you about that?"
Ran's breath caught.
"If you want to know the truth," Shin'ichi said, letting his satchel drop to the ground so he could grasp her chilled hand, "it's actually something I'd been waiting to tell you for a long time."
Swallowing, Ran searched his gaze with her own, trembling slightly at his touch.
"B-but," he continued, his face flaring red, "you didn't know about that before, so I understand if-"
Ran lifted a hand to brush his cheek, stunning him into silence. Warmth bloomed beneath her fingers as she clutched his hand more firmly for support and rose on tiptoe.
Partly shielded by the tall, silver pole of a streetlight, Shin'ichi's pulse nevertheless began to race at the fact that they were still in front of their school, on an empty but public sidewalk, and nearby dense traffic. But as Ran squeezed her eyes shut, he could hear and feel her heartbeat throbbing faster, too. Shin'ichi inched his eyelids closed and bent nearer to her upturned lips. But . . . we're not just friends anymore.
"Is that Kudou Shin'ichi?!"
Shin'ichi and Ran opened their eyes and, for a split second, stared in shock before Shin'ichi straightened and turned around, flinging his arms wide as Ran huddled in the shade of his back. A trio of bubbly girls soon trotted across the street, this time at the crosswalk, and shrieked with excitement. Their uniforms of green and white looked unfamiliar to Shin'ichi, but their giggles, whispers, fidgeting hands, and squealing all suggested one identity.
Fangirls.
Stopping to gather around him just opposite the streetlight, they rummaged through their bags with glee and produced pens and rumpled sheets of paper, which also suggested that, thankfully, they had failed to notice how close their idol had come to kissing a strange girl in their presence. The shortest girl, one with bouncy pigtails and a dainty nose, was shoved forward by her friends.
"M-Mr. Kudou?" the girl spluttered, turning pink with the effort. Fast as lightning, she bowed and thrust a clipped newspaper article in Shin'ichi's face. "Please autograph this for me!"
"Atsuko here is your biggest fan!" enthused another girl with thick, purple mascara after popping a wad of bubble gum between her teeth. "Even though you were away so long, she still recognized the back of your head because of all the newspaper clippings on her wall-and here!" she added, wrestling another wad of papers free from her classmate's bag. "Take these! They're loooove poems!"
"Shut up, Minami!" Atsuko retorted, elbowing the girl in her ribs and beginning a futile battle to wrangle her poems from the much taller girl's grip.
Shin'ichi was frozen in place. Are these girls serious?
"That article's the one from today about exposing the criminal syndicate, right?" chimed in the third fan, a pencil-thin girl with hair that fell to her waist in auburn waves. "So cool! Mr. Kudou," she squealed, tugging at his jacket sleeve, "would you like to come with us to the Dalgliesh Cafe down the street and tell us about it?"
"Shin'ichi."
All four of them halted at the perky, yet threatening female voice that emerged behind the Holmes of the Heisei Era. The fangirls glared at each other, wondering which one of them had dared address their beloved by his first name. Shin'ichi just cringed.
Gliding into view, Ran flashed them all a cheery smile and rested a hand on Shin'ichi's arm. "I don't think we've met before, hm? My name's Mouri Ran . . ."
Shin'ichi's heart skipped a beat.
Fire flashed in her brilliant blue eyes. " . . . and I'm Shin'ichi's girlfriend."
The trio gasped, covering their mouths in the horror of it all. Only the redhead who, in the girls' quick whispers, Shin'ichi learned was called Chieko, remained silent and thoughtful-in a loose sense of the word. Minami, her mouth open wider than a fish, turned from him to Ran, then to him, then to Ran again, babbling nonsense to herself. But it was poor Atsuko that asked for trouble.
"N-no way! That's impossible!" she cried, pointing an accusing finger between Ran's eyes. Her pigtails sprang and danced upon her narrow cheekbones as she shook her head in disbelief. "I know Mr. Kudou's never had a girlfriend!"
Shin'ichi arched an eyebrow, held back from speaking by Ran's hidden, but smouldering glare through the Atsuko's skull. As if I've been waiting for that girl to come into my life? Finally, he could not take it anymore and chuckled. "Yeah, actually," he said with a grin, "Ran is my girlfriend."
Ran slightly loosened the fingers she had clamped around Shin'ichi's arm and blushed.
A flash of realization zipped through Chieko's mind. Creeping backward little by little until her heels scraped the curb's edge, she first took Atsuko's elbow, then Minami's, and asked, "D-did you say that your name's Mouri Ran? As in the daughter of 'Sleeping Detective' Mouri Kogorou?"
Ran cocked her head to the side, flashed them a wide smile, and nodded. "Mmm hmm!"
"Run!" Chieko hissed in her companions' ears.
"What? We can't leave now-ow!" Atsuko wailed, the cry rising to a shrill yelp as Chieko yanked on a pigtail.
"Stupid! Mouri Ran's the prefectural karate champion!" Chieko bellowed, her face glowing red enough to match her hair. With a shudder, she added, "I've seen her fight."
Minami wrenched her elbow away and stood, defiant, with her hands on her hips. "There's no way that this girl-
"Kyaaaaaaa!" Ran plowed her fist into the steel pole, driving a dent into it so deep that Shin'ichi reeled backward, amazed it did not tip over.
The girls all reared on one leg, weakly lifting the other for protection while they clung to each other in a petrified group hug. Then they bolted, tearing down the street and shoving aside several old ladies until they left nothing but dust in their wake.
Shin'ichi slowly let out the breath he was holding, adjusted his tie, and shoved his hands in his pockets. Peering through lowered eyelids at Ran, who leaned forward with glee to wave the fangirls goodbye, however, he could not resist feeling amused. "Don't you think that was a little harsh?"
"Maybe a little," Ran replied, only a hint of nervousness touching her laughter. Straightening to her full height, she bounded to his side with a feathery step and, after hesitating only a moment, took his hand.
His stomach fluttered to spite himself when he grasped her hand in response, knowing that it had just bent metal into submission, yet melted so easily in his own. Crossing the intersection and approaching the more commercial streets of Beika, both hearts beat faster under the curious glances of the lawyers, housewives, salarymen, children, and high schoolers they passed, but they kept their hands joined. And striding together through the bustling crowd, they shared a feeling that friends could never know.
Sorry for the delay! Life can get in the way, but at least it seems I posted to 30kisses in time! And the fact that the previous Kiss is "Just You" and this one is "Just Friends"? Pure coincidence . . . and the need for some shut-eye. Hope you enjoy it!