[October 2, 2008] [Detective Conan/Case Closed] Breaking the Rules

[ayaia-moon.livejournal.com]

Title: Breaking the Rules
Day/Theme: Oct. 2: Shiny Happy People
Series: Detective Conan/Case Closed
Character/Pairing: Shinichi/Ran
Rating: PG/K+

 

-o-

“Death. To die. To expire. To pass on. To perish. To peg out. To push up daisies. To push up posies. To become extinct. Curtains. Deceased. Demised. Departed. Defunct. Dead as a doornail. Dead as a herring. Dead as a mutton. Dead as nits. The last breath. Paying a debt to nature. The big sleep. God’s way of saying, “Slow Down.” … To check out…To shuffle off this mortal coil…To head for the happy hunting ground…To blink for an exceptionally long period of time…To find oneself without breath…To be the incredible decaying man…Worm buffet…Kick the bucket…Buy the farm…Take the cab…Cash in your chips…And if we bury your ass up, I’ve got a place to park my bike.”

      -- Hunter “Patch” Adams and Bill Davis from Patch Adams (1998)

 

-o-

 

There had been rules that Ran had set forth for a healthy, happy, shiny-people relationship. Stipulations, she’d said, of the contract that she’d verbally instated that kept her from killing Shinichi outright when the whole story came to light. Shinichi hadn’t uttered a word against her – he almost couldn’t believe he was getting off so lightly.

The rules weren’t all that terrible, either. Any normal couple could have made them. But the meanings behind some of the rules were solely theirs. No more secrets, one of the rules had been. Because they both knew that secrets had nearly ruined their relationship before it really began.

No matter what Ran did, though, there was always the threat of the one vice Shinichi couldn’t give up, even for her, even if he desperately wanted to. And that was the simple fact that no matter where he went, he seemed to attract dead bodies like Johnny Depp attracted fangirls.

And so they had carefully decided, upon becoming parents, what parameters should be set concerning these deaths that followed Shinichi like a creepy magnet. Ran didn’t want their son subjected to that sort of thing. Period. Shinichi was quick to agree, eyeing the crack in the wall with trepidation.

No matter the rules set, though, it seemed that fate just didn’t like Shinichi. Either that or some deity up there was particularly bored. Because it wasn’t Shinichi who killed the poor sap by poisoning his ice-cream. And, unfortunately, it wasn’t fate. It was, in point of fact, the victim’s ex-girlfriend. They had both gotten jobs at this particular fast-food place without permission, and the poor guy had ratted his girlfriend out to save his own skin, only to dump her three days later for the girl now working the cash register.

But, as usual, Shinichi had just happened to pick this particular store to take his business to – his business, of course, was buying lunch for his five-year-old son, Conan – and the guy just happened to bite the dust while he was still there.

Privately, Shinichi was quite relieved that the murder had been poison, instead of another, more horrible method of death. Underneath this relief was a loud voice, nearly drowning out all other thought, which was scared to death of what Ran was going to do to him when she found out that their carefully set boundaries had been breached.

Conan just happily slurped at his ice cream, seemingly oblivious to the whole thing.

Upon solving the crime, naming the criminal, and paying for the three ice-cream cones his son had consumed while doing so, Shinichi started hatching a plan. He sneaked a glance at his son, who was finishing off his fourth cone contentedly.

“So…Conan? Did you have fun today?”

“Uh-huh!”

“What do you suppose we’re going to tell your mom when we see her?”

“I’ll tell her I ate four ice-cream cones!”

“What else?”

“I’ll tell her about that man who was laying on the floor!”

“That…might scare your mom, Conan.”

Conan blinked. “It would?”

“Why don’t you tell her about all the different ice-cream they had?”

Conan brightened immediately. “Yeah! And the big machine they had to put it on the cone!”

Shinichi grinned. Maybe this will work. Maybe Ran won’t have to know.

“Hey, there’s mom! Mom! Guess what! I ate four ice-cream cones!”

Ran, who’d come to the door to greet them, gave Shinichi an exasperated sigh. “Really, Shinichi. Four? What were you doing?”

“Mom! They had an ice-cream machine that was bigger than me!”

“Really?”

“Uh-huh! And Dad let me get sprinkles!”

“Oh really?” Ran shot another glace at Shinichi. Shinichi examined his thumbs and pretended he didn’t notice.

“Oh! I almost forgot, Mom! Megure-keibu said to tell you hi!”

“Megure-keibu?”

“Uh-huh.”

Ran turned to Shinichi again. He could almost feel the temperature drop. He was doomed. “What was Megure-keibu doing there, Shinichi?”

“He was asking Dad about the poison in that guy’s ice-cream!” Conan piped helpfully.

Shinichi groaned. He was going to die. Ran had been around so many murder scenes – it’s not like she lacked options.

“Hey, Mom? What’s cyanide?”

 

-o-

 

A U T H O R S   N O T E

 

:D

 

Happy! I’m happy with this one! Especially the quote! Yay for Patch Adams!

 

~Ayaia