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It was a long day after a case and Ran found herself walking home with Conan, Sonoko, Sera, Heiji, and Kazuha in tow as the dimmed sunlight made its way across the ground.
Ran remembered smiling to herself after Megure arrived at the scene, annoyed at all the detectives milling around.
But the case was wrapped up quickly and they found themselves returning to the agency on foot, with Conan and Heiji leading in front.
“Do you think first kisses are really that important?” Kazuha asked, “You know, because the suspect said that the victim played with his feelings by being his first kiss.”
“Idiot,” Heiji admonished her, looking back at her, “He was just jealous that she started dating someone else. It didn’t have to do with ‘first kisses’. They aren’t that important to kill for.”
Kazuha looked like she was going to hit him, but Sera injected, “I take it you haven’t had your first kiss then.”
Heiji nearly stumbled and Conan snorted. “I – it – I -it’s none of your business!” He stuttered over his words and despite the coming of evening, they caught his red face under the streetlamps.
“I haven't had my first kiss either. Any of you had your first kiss?” Sera addressed the rest of the group.
All of them shook their heads ‘no’ with Conan and Ran not saying anything. The latter, however, turning very red in the face.
“Oh?” Sera said. “I noticed that a particular member didn’t say anything.” Wagging her eyebrows.
“I’m only a kid,” Conan piped up.
“Not you, Geek!” Sonoko said, punching Conan in the head.
Conan gave her an angry look while rubbing his wound furiously.
“Who was your first kiss then, Ran?” Asked Kazuha while Heiji stared at Conan with sly grin on his face.
She paused for a moment, as if trying to remember. “It was that boy from class, Kappei.” She said with a smile.
Many things happened simultaneously when she finished the sentence. Sonoko and Kazhua yelled, “What?!” loudly enough that the passersby on the opposite side of the street stopped midstride. Ran tripped over Conan who also decided to stop but did so in front of her legs. Heiji became angry and Sera laughed loudly.
“Are you okay, Conan?” Asked Ran pulling him onto his feet. Now, in addition to the knot on his head, his knee was skinned.
Ran laughed then, helping dust off Conan who looked furious, “I was joking, joking!”
“My first kiss,” she said smiling at Conan who still had a scowl on his face, “was Shinichi.”
She remembered it like it was yesterday, even though it was several years previous. As 8-year-olds who thought they were older and Shinichi acting more mature than that, they decided to watch a “grown up” movie. In other words, a non-anime movie. And instead of the detective movies that Shinichi would watch, Ran overruled him and they watched a romantic comedy instead.
10 minutes into the movie, Shinichi was already bored and was inching his hand towards the remote until Ran slapped it and he decided that watching it with Ran was better than getting hit by her. She had started karate lessons a year before and was quickly getting the hang of it. He wasn’t looking to being her punching bag unnecessary.
Towards the end of the movie, the two protagonists were arguing with each other and then they stopped and kissed each and suddenly that ended the argument. After they laughed and were friends again.
The next day as they were getting ready to leave school, Ran wondered out loud if all she needed to do to get her parents back together was for them to kiss, but Shinichi said she was an idiot and that it would probably take more than that.
“You think you know everything Kudo Shinichi!” She yelled, tears of anger welling her face.
“Well, well, I do!” He claimed with a smug look on his face, bouncing a soccer ball on his foot.
“Then did you know this?!” She shouted, pushing him. She didn’t push him hard, but the ball fell from his foot and when he tried to catch his balance, he slipped on the ball and fell on his butt in front of most of their classmates who started laughing at him.
“Wait, wait, wait!” Heiji interrupted, “He really said he knew everything?”
“He was a bit smug back then” Ran smiled.
“Was?” Sonoko asked.
“I think,” Conan coughed, “he was just trying to impress Ran.”
“Get back to the story!” Kazuha reminded her.
“Oh right,” Ran said, “So we yelled at each other the entire walk home. I did feel a little bad though. Especially because every now and then I would catch him rubbing his butt and giving me dirty looks.”
For some reason, Heiji took his opportunity to poke Conan’s shoulder.
When Shinichi arrived home after yelling at Ran nearly the whole way. He found that they weren’t the only ones who were mad at each other. He could hear his parents raised voices on the second landing. They were arguing so loud that they didn’t even hear him come in.
Shinichi snuck up the stairs, careful to avoid any creaks in the steps and peered into his parents’ bedroom. His mom, a normally beautiful woman, had a deep scowl on her face making her look older than she was. Her arms were crossed, and she refused to look at her husband who was sitting a few feet away from her on the edge of the bed. His back was towards Shinichi, but Shinichi could tell from his dad’s posture that he was starting to relent in his argument.
“Yukiko,” His dad said in a soft voice. Yukiko pointed her face even further away from him. “Yukiko, come here,” he said again in the same voice and threw out his arms in front of her.
His mom moved closer to where she was right in front of his dad, yet she was still determined not to look at him.
Shinichi watched as his father stood up and softly moved Yukiko’s face towards his and kissed her.
Shinichi’s face grew hot and as quickly – and quietly - as he could, he fled to his room.
A couple minutes later, his parents, holding hands, greeted him in his room and declared they were going out for a big family dinner – much to the delight of his mom. The entire dinner, he caught his parents smiling at each other and although everything seemed normal, at times he felt like he was invading on a personal moment between them.
The next day, Ran was waiting for Shinichi so they could walk to school.
“Hold on, hold on.” Sera interjected, “Why were you waiting for Shinichi? Weren’t you two mad at each other.”
“They walk the same direction to school.” Sonoko answered for Ran and rolled her eyes.
“Well, yes.” Ran said as if it was obvious.
Conan knew what was coming next in the story and protested, “I don’t think Shinichi would want you to tell the rest of the story.”
“Shut up!” Sonoko threatened, raising a fist.
“Yeah,” Heiji said, “It’s not like Shinichi is here to stop her. If he wanted to stop her, he should just come out and say, ‘Stop, Ran. Don’t say anymore!’” He continued, mimicking Shinichi.
Conan looked at him furiously.
“Go ahead Ran, we all want to hear what happens next,” He continued, directing his comment at Conan and winking.
Conan crossed his arms.
“So we met up, but neither of us were talking. We both were still really angry at each other.” Ran said, continuing the story.
“Hey Ran,” Shinichi said after several minutes went by in silence, their backpack zippers jingling in the quiet morning.
“Yeah?” Ran said in a small voice.
He glanced over at her, “Maybe you weren’t wrong.”
Ran looked at him confused.
“That thing you said yesterday, about kissing and not being mad at each other.”
“You really think so?” Ran asked excitedly, a smile forming on her face.
“I think we should do an experiment. You know, to test it.” He said, taking on a serious tone.
“What do you mean?” Ran asked, turning pink.
“Well, you’re mad at me, right?”
Ran nodded.
“And I’m mad at you.” He said.
And Ran nodded again.
“So what if we kiss? To see if we aren’t mad at each other anymore?”
By this time, they stopped walking. “You think it will work?” Ran asked facing him.
Shinichi shrugged as nonchalantly as he could muster.
“Okay,” Ran agreed, staring down at her fingers.
Shinichi nodded again and Ran broke her downward stare as Shinichi arranged themselves, so they were standing very close to each other. Ran could feel his clothes brushing her own.
“Ready?” Shinichi asked, a blush creepy up on his face. His hands on her upper arms.
Ran nodded once, closed her eyes and moved closer to his face as an affirmative. He closed his eyes too and while Shinichi couldn’t see, he could feel her breath on his face. And then their lips touched.
They pressed their lips against each other’s for a very long time until Ran peeked one eye open asking into Shinichi’s lips, “Is it working?”
Shinichi broke away. “I don’t know. I feel happy though. What about you?”
“Yeah, me too” Ran agreed. “Are you still mad at me?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Yeah, me either.”
“So it works then?”
“I think so.” Ran agreed.
They walked to school hand in hand, like they used to when they would visit Professor Agasa together when they were younger.
Ran closed her eyes at the memory, a big smile spread across her face.
“I knew it! That pervert!” Sonoko exclaimed.
“I didn’t think he would take advantage of young girls like that,” Kazuha said, her finger scratching her chin as if trying to figure it out.
“He’s not like that!” Conan admonished, putting up his hands in self-defense. “He didn’t know what he was doing!”
“Oh?” Heiji said leaning down to face him, “I think he knew exactly what he was doing.”
Sera asked, “So how many times did you get mad at each other after that?
“It’s not like that!” Ran and Conan said at the same time.
Sonoko punched Conan in the head again and Heiji sniggered at him.
“Well, after school I told my dad that he should just kiss my mom so they can get back together. But he got mad at me for ‘talking like an adult’ and I guess Shinichi said something to his parents too because they told him that ‘kissing was for grown-ups’. We didn’t kiss after that because we didn’t want to get into trouble.”
They all continued walking for a while with Sonoko declaring that she wanted Kaito Kid to be her first kiss when Conan piped up:
“Ran, you seem quiet.”
“Oh, well,” she began, getting the attention of her friends, “You see, when I kissed Shinichi, we were mad at each other. If” She paused, turning so red in the face, Conan thought he could feel the heat radiating off it. “If,” she began again, “I were to kiss Shinichi again, I would want it to be because we were happy.”
Conan’s face matched hers and there was a lot of woos from the group.
“Wait,” Kazuha said, breaking up the teasing, “When Shinichi does come around, aren’t you usually mad at him because he’s kept you waiting for so long?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Sonoko agreed.
“I guess he’ll have to stick around a whole day, then. Then I’ll be happy with him.” She smiled.
And if later that night, Heiji overheard Conan talking to Haibara on the phone begging for a longer-lasting pill, he made sure not to tease Conan too much about it.