Kiss #1: Sweet Slumber
Title: Sweet Slumber
Author: ran_mouri82
Pairing: Kudou Shin'ichi and Mouri Ran
Fandom: Detective Conan
Theme: #22 - cradle
Rating: G
Disclaimer: Detective Conan is pwned by Aoyama Gosho. I only admire his l33t skillz.
Sweet Slumber
"His swift left foot kicked the soccer ball deftly," recited Miyamoto Shou, English teacher of Teitan class 2-B, in sharp monotone. Holding an English textbook aloft with one hand and grasping a stub of white chalk with the other, he wrote the sentence on the blackboard in soft, rhythmic scratches. Afternoon sunlight bathed the classroom, tracing golden stripes on the blackboard, and many students fought growing fatigue by yawning, blinking, pinching themselves, or even biting their lips-the last one being the tactic of Mouri Ran, who missed Jodie Saintemillion more than ever.
Glancing at the young man who sat between her and the window, though, Ran sighed; draped in that warm blanket of light, Kudou Shin’ichi cradled his head in the crook of his crossed arms and slept.
He’s been like that since class started, Ran thought, scrawling the sentence with pink gel pen while resisting the urge to decorate her notebook’s margins with flowers. Shooting a glare at the ironically sleeping detective as she could feel the drool running onto his sleeve, she huffed to herself, "He acts like he hasn’t missed any school, let alone a full year."
"Do you have something to say, Miss Mouri?" Mr. Miyamoto asked, turning so the combined glare of sunlight and white florescent obscured his enormous glasses.
"N-no," Ran stammered, flinching as Shin’ichi snuggled his head further into his elbow. After what felt like an eternity, Mr. Miyamoto nodded and returned to the crooked sentence diagram he had begun drawing on the board, and it dawned on Ran that while her teacher might have excellent hearing, with or without glasses his vision was horrible. Ran turned her attention to the board, copying the sentence diagram and wondering why people teased her for sleeping like the dead.
But soon, soft breathing hummed beside her and a blush warmed her cheeks, that age old twist in her stomach prodding her to take another look to her left. Shin’ichi had twisted his head in her direction, specks of dust in the stuffy classroom dancing with every slow exhale from his nostrils and parted lips. His hair all but obscured his drawn eyelids, protecting them in whatever sweet dreamland Shin’ichi dwelled.
Resting her chin in her palm as Shin’ichi’s back rose and fell with each gentle breath, Ran could not help but smile.
Dong, ding, dong.
Ran jolted upright in her chair, startled at the chimes that signaled the day’s end; shaking her head, Ran jotted down the night’s homework assignment, snatched her satchel and stuffed into it her notebook and supplies. There was still dinner to make for three; her mother had decided, albeit in as businesslike a manner as possible, that she would give living at the Agency a trial run. Maybe soon I can cook for four, Ran thought with a grin, scooting her chair back so she could stand, if Dad wouldn’t mind Shin’ichi coming over and-
"Oh, what’s this? Detective Sleeping Beauty still under his spell?" a female voice taunted. Over her shoulder, Ran saw Sonoko slip behind her desk and hover over Shin’ichi like a hen; smirking, she kicked the leg of Shin’ichi’s chair, the impact wobbling Shin’ichi a bit but failing to rouse him. "Hmph! If it’s beauty sleep he’s taking, he should just give up now."
"Come on, Sonoko," Ran replied, planting her hands on her hips while narrowing her eyes at her friend, "he’s still exhausted after everything." Of course, the niggling voice in the back of her mind told her that comment would evoke less, not more, sympathy from the Suzuki heiress who was still getting over such shocks as the not-so-little Haibara Ai unlocking a door with illegal firearms.
But Sonoko quirked a mischievous smile and leaned closer to Ran. "If that’s true, you could always perk him up. Why don’t you awaken your sleeping prince with a kiss?"
"A-a-as if I would do such a thing!" Ran cried, her face flushing red as she squeezed her satchel’s handle and ground it between her fists. The students on cleaning duty ceased milling around to cast mildly interested glances their way.
"Okay, okay, it was only a suggestion to help your husband," Sonoko replied, pinching Ran’s flaming cheek while she squirmed. Finally releasing it, she swung her own satchel over her shoulder and strolled out the door, chuckling as she waved goodbye. "See you later!"
Ran heaved a sigh, picturing how Sonoko would fuss over her Friday night, attacking her with tweezers, eyelash curlers, and lip liner. Shin’ichi was taking her on their first real date that night, back to the Beika rooftop restaurant . . . a fact that tingled her spine with nameless anxiety.
Blinking, Ran realized the crew had already moved past the chalkboard and erasers to the desktops; she had to wake Shin’ichi somehow. Reaching a hand to shake his shoulder, she glanced from the inert Shin’ichi to the other students and back again; he grunted, but gave no other signs of life. Ran frowned. If he was up late again with another case, I’ll-"Hey, we’ve got to get going!"
"Ran-neechan . . . ."
Ran jerked back, knocking her desk off-balance with a squeak and rattle as she contorted in shock. W-what?
"I’m waking up . . . Ran-neechan," the teenage detective mumbled, his voice thick with drowsiness. After all the futile shaking, his head had completely rolled off his arms onto the desk, blanketing his face and slumped arms with a cascade of jet black hair. What little of his eyelids Ran could see fluttered for a moment, then gave up.
Shaking her head, Ran laughed at the slumbering young man that, until recently, had worn the visage of a chubby cheeked boy. She glanced toward the now oblivious cleaning crew one more time; then, tenderly, she reached a delicate hand to his brow and ran her fingertips along a face no longer trapped behind false glasses. Brushing away the errant strands, she murmured, "Yes, I know."
And so finally, as in one day before the deadline, here's the beginning of "30 Kisses: Ran and Shin'ichi"! Whew!