Chapter Text
They decided to use Google Docs as the mode of writing, beta-reading, and flat-out communicating. Well, Shinichi said ‘they’, but it was really Kaito’s idea. Because: “who didn’t own a computer with internet connection? Only someone super paranoid about people breaking into their stuff would have a computer like that!”
Shinichi did not tell Kaito that his own computer had been broken into three times in the past month. The perpetrators had been looking for case files (which Shinichi always kept as hard copies), not his book, so Shinichi wasn’t sure it counted.
Sonoko and Ran went with him to get a laptop and a more powerful wireless modem. The one he had now only allowed for phone apps to be played with any consistency.
Between the two of them, Kaito and Shinichi had also drawn up a tentative back-and-forth. Since Kaito’s stories had both first and third-person views, Shinichi’s third-person-only writing style fit well in the in-betweens. His detective character would work with the police force that Kaito typically used in the third person perspective, adding a different flavor than usual while Shinichi would gain insight into a criminal’s mind.
Kaito had assured Shinichi that he had never committed a crime.
Shinichi… is not 100% sure that he trusts the other author. His instincts have never led him wrong before… but that was neither here nor there.
They had a plan. They had a mode of writing. What they lacked… was a plot.
And Kaito. Wasn’t. Helping.
Every time Shinichi started to get somewhere, the ADHD ass would go off on another tangent!
Shinichi had no doubt that Miyano Shiho, his friend that Haibara Ai had been based off of, would love to be a vampire, if only in that weird ‘hate-less’ kind of way of hers. That was beside the point.
Shinichi gritted his teeth. That was it. He was done!
Kaito wanted to play dumb?
Fine!
Two could play at that game!
Shinichi cracked his knuckles and sat back in his chair, resting his head back in his hands.
Take that! He thought victoriously. Now what will you do?
Shinichi waited a few seconds, wanting to see Kaito’s reaction. He waited… and waited… and waited. Frowning, Shinichi sat up in his chair. Had he gone too far?
Carefully, he started to type, but Kaito’s response interrupted him.
Shinichi’s cheeks burned as his head met his desk with a heavy thump. Somewhere beyond the study door, Sonoko called to him, asking if he was okay.
“I’m fine!” he called back. To himself, he muttered, “Just suffering the worst embarrassment of my life!”
* * * * *
Aoko looked over at Kaito, frowning at his over-exuberant look. “What are you so happy about?”
“Shinichi’s mad at me!” Kaito beamed.
Stiffening, Aoko came over to look over his shoulder. She didn’t see anything in the text that would imply that -other than maybe some frustration on the other writer’s part. Her brow furrowed, not seeing what Kaito was. “What do you mean? Why is that a good thing? Isn’t that something we’re avoiding?”
“Sonoko-chan told me that mad Shinichi has the best ideas!” Kaito gestured wildly, nearly shaking his laptop in his excitement. “Alternate universes, Aoko! What’s more scifi than alternate universes?!”
Oh Shinichi, Aoko lamented as Kaito cheered again and kept typing away. What have you done?
And so, what was a throw-away idea, became the basis of their plot.