31_days | [September 27, 2008] [Detective Conan/Case Closed] Predictability and Oddity

Title: Predictability and Oddity
Day/Theme: Sept. 27: I don’t not like you
Series: Detective Conan/Case Closed
Character/Pairing: Kudo Shinichi and Haibara Ai
Rating: PG/K+

-o-

The great detective Kudo Shinichi glared in such a way that his seven-year-old face was somewhat disconcerting to behold. His companion (and incidentally the recipient of his glare) alias Haibara Ai just grinned. Somehow the scheming grin was as equally out of place on her own sever-year-old face as Shinichi’s glare had been on his.

“You don’t like me much, do you?” the miniature chemist said bluntly, still grinning like a deviant. It was the grin of someone who was toying with you – someone who knew the game was rigged in their favor before they even began playing against you.

Shinichi said nothing. The conversation had already taken place; to answer at all was rising to her bait. So he left. Back to Ran’s house, back to Kogoro, back to his lie of a life, masquerading as the grade-schooler he desperately didn’t want to be. He tried not to let his bitter disappointment show on his face as he greeted Ran.

After all this time, he’d had the audacity to think there was finally another lead – that this girl, Haibara, would be able to help him. She’d been on the inside of the organization. She’d invented the drug that had shrunken them both, for crying out loud! Kicking halfhazardly at his futon, he resolved to work harder. There wasn’t really much he could do about it.

And so time wore on, and more clues as to the whereabouts of the mysterious Syndicate slowly surfaced. More chances to take, more gambits to plot, each one more thought-out than the last…only to have the tables turned at the last moment, landing Shinichi back to square one of the game, cursing his infallible, badly-timed unluckiness.

And Haibara would coolly assess the facts, as only her sharp chemist’s mind could, proving to him that not only could she process the same situation that he could, but she could do it faster – it was so frustrating to him to be so transparent that he would seriously debate continuing the game at all… And then she’d grin— though the grin was admittedly more melancholy and less Machiavellian as time passed – and she’d ask her question once more: “You don’t like me much, do you?” He learned that this attitude was to be anticipated of her; it was practically her trademark.

They found themselves on the verge of one such precipice – closer, it seemed, than they’d yet gotten to the answers the craved – but they were confident, sure as the sun would rise for the new day, that their trail would inexorably go cold.

Haibara, as per her character, voiced this sentiment flatly.

Shinichi, as per his character, glared at her.

And she grinned. “You don’t like me much, do you?”

Sick of how easily she seemed to predict him, Shinichi paused, struggling to not let the comment pass as he usually did. And he sighed. “You have to understand…”

She looked at him in surprise, blinking.

“…it’s not that I don’t….well, it’s more that…”

Haibara said nothing. She quirked a single eyebrow, imploring him wordlessly to continue.

Shinichi struggled to form the phrase correctly. “I don’t…not like you.”

Haibara blinked once more.

Shinichi sighed in frustration. “I find some of your quirks…less than amicable.”

“My bluntness pisses you off,” Haibara corrected.

“—but I’m glad that you’re here. Helping me, I mean. That’s more than a lot of people would do in a similar situation,” Shinichi finished, eyeballing her reaction carefully, hoping he’d gotten the point across.

To Shinichi’s surprise, he actually caught a glimpse of a surprised reaction from her. And for a moment, Shinichi was ahead in the game, having succeeded in catching even Haibara off-guard. If he could ruffle her, he could do anything. And for that instant, Haibara’s was the flabbergasted face, and Shinichi’s was the Machiavellian one. Neither expression really belonged on faces so young.

But she recovered quickly.

“Define ‘similar situation,’ detective.”

Shinichi blinked, opening his mouth, and gaping like a fish. And then he settled for the reaction he knew best.

Shinichi glared.

But Haibara’s usual response never came.

Shinichi hoped that meant she thought him less predictable than she’d initially thought.

-o-

A U T H O R S N O T E

This came to me quicker than I thought it would…go figure. O.o

Perhaps it’s easier to write Haibara than I originally thought.

:shrugs:

Oh well.

~Ayaia