Chapter Text
Heiji flinched when Conan suddenly cried out, clutching his chest in pain and slumping into Haibara’s shoulder.
He was down by his side in an instant, holding a hand out to steady him. “Shit! Ku-Conan-kun, you okay?”
“Language!” Kazuha scolded from somewhere.
“Conan-kun? What’s wrong?” Ran stopped walking with the rest of the girls and crouched down to his level, resting a hand on his other shoulder. “You know, I’m starting to think you and Shinichi share some sort of heart condition. Maybe it runs in the family or something…” she said absently.
Conan took hold of Heiji’s sleeve, using it as leverage to hoist himself upright.
“I’m okay, Ran-neechan,” he gritted out, “R-really.”
Heiji would normally tease him for the way he was being babied, but from the looks of things, he was going to change back into his normal, adult self, at any moment.
But it was strange - as far as Heiji knew, Kudou hadn’t taken any kind of antidote today. So how could he be transforming without it? There was that one time when Heiji had given him that Chinese liquor, but he had long since grown an immunity to it... Hadn't he?
Heiji looked to Haibara for insight, but found her just as out of sorts as Kudou. She was pale - paler than usual, alarmingly - and he noticed how she jolted every so often, just as Kudou did.
Haibara’s eyes went wide, and she reached an arm out, fumbling as she tried to grasp onto something. But before Heiji could react in any way, her legs gave out, sending both her and Conan stumbling down like bowling pins. She had doubled over in agony, yet barely made a sound. It was concerning.
“Ai-chan! You too?” Came Ran-san’s worried voice.
Oh no. If this was what Heiji thought it was, he needed to get them out of here fast.
He moved to steady them. “Oh, what’s that?” Heiji cupped an ear towards the kids’ faces with a false sincerity that he hoped Kazuha and the others wouldn’t notice. “There was something in the cake, and ya need to go to the toilet? ‘Course I’ll take ya!”
He scooped Kudou and the girl up - one under each arm, ignoring the weird looks from the girls. Breaking into a sprint, he headed away from the group and toward what looked like a quiet corridor - somewhere out of the public eye.
He stopped in front of a door with the sign “Ladies Dressing Room” drawn in elegant cursive. There was no time - it would have to do. He let Haibara down to swing the door open and hastily shoved her inside. It would be empty by now - the models from tonight were currently mingling with guests. Plenty of adult-sized clothes for her in there too, he hoped, as he shut the door behind her.
“Hattori!” Kudou said from somewhere around Heiji’s armpit, voice cracking deeper than any six-year-old’s should. “Security Guard!”
A gruff voice rang out in the corridor, “Excuse me! You don’t have clearance to be here!” Heiji turned to see a fluorescent vested man approaching with quickening speed. The man was fairly built, fairly fast, and Heiji was fairly sure he could’ve taken him - only without the sickly Kudou under his arm, so he spun on his heel - and fled.
"Hey! Come back here!" bellowed the guard.
Heiji tried not to think about the way Kudou flopped around limply under his arm with each stride.
When they had turned the corner, out of the guard’s sight, he practically dived into the nearest room, and despite his and Kudou’s notorious bad luck combined - it happened to be unlocked.
The room smelled of paint and dampness, and pitch darkness swallowed them when Heiji shut the door. He pressed an ear against it, holding his breath as the sound of the guard’s heavy footsteps neared, echoing against the walls.
Please please please pass by.
The footsteps were just beginning to grow distant when Kudou made a strangled noise beside him, clawing at his heart again. Heiji quickly clamped a hand over Kudou’s mouth. Scratch that, there came the bad luck.
Clack, clack, clack.
Heiji and Kudou both went still in the cramped space. Their eyes met in a shared look of despair.
Clack.
They were so dead. If the guard caught them and threw them out before Kudou could change back, he would transform in front of everyone and - hold on.
Clack.
Clack? No. Those weren’t the same heavy stomps as before.
Clack, clack.
Were those… heels?
Tap, tap.
They sounded like heels.
Tap.
But they seemed to be getting farther away.
Tap, tap.
Heiji listened to the footsteps fade. He only let go of the breath he was holding after he was certain they were gone. Phew. Whoever it was, they were only passing by.
“C-clothes.” Heiji jumped at the voice. He tried to make out Conan’s figure in the dark - small, short, shaking slightly, kind of shiny with sweat. Undoubtedly Conan, but-
“Quickly, I need clothes!” Heiji almost jumped again. That was Shinichi’s voice.
“Yer… Yer voice!” Hoarse and strained - but distinctively Shinichi.
Shinichi’s voice was coming out of Conan’s body.
“Usually the f-first thing that changes. Focus!” Kudou said, unsettlingly deeper. Creepy!
“Oh, right. Clothes.” Heiji looked around, willing his eyes to adjust to the dark faster. Judging by the singular shelf that occupied most of their space, accompanied by the silhouettes of brooms, it seemed that they had landed in a cleaner’s closet. No clothing items in sight. Shit.
Kudou screamed. Double shit.
Clack, clack.
From the looks of it, Kudou was going to change back any minute, and Heiji was going to have to improvise.
Clack, clack.
He swiftly unzipped the bomber jacket that Kazuha had gifted him for his birthday, holding it out to Kudou. “Take this for now.”
Clack, clack.
Kudou screamed again, writhing on the floor. He clawed at his blazer this time. Heiji was going to have to help him, he realized, lifting the tiny blazer off his shoulders and replacing it with his own jacket. The little guy was practically swimming in it. Now, to zip it up-
Clack, clack, clack.
Heiji’s thoughts were interrupted by footsteps - those heels again? Before he could make anything of them, they were drowned out by Shinichi’s raw, guttural scream. His final scream.
“Shinichi-kun? Is that you?” A girl’s voice. That was the first thing Heiji registered. The second thing was sweat, and not his own. He found himself uncomfortably close to a newly long-legged Kudou.
“Are you okay?” The girl’s voice again. It sounded a lot like Nee-chan's friend-
“S-Sonoko?” Kudou rasped.
“Okay, that’s it. You’ve been warned - I’m coming in!”
The door swung open violently, illuminating the room and laying down a Sonoko-shaped shadow over the two of them, her hand on her hip. The shadow jumped when Sonoko did - she opened her mouth, presumably to scream, then closed it again. Then opened it.
“Did he- What did you do to him!?” Her eyes flitted between Heiji's face and Kudou’s lack of pants.
Heiji looked down, then up immediately, gaze snapping to Kudou’s wide eyes. Ah, he was… in a… position, for sure. He did not account for space after transformation. Awkward.
“Uh…”
“N-nothing! He didn’t-”
“I’m calling the police!” She pulled out her cellphone, keychain dangling. Okay - woah! This sure was escalating quickly. Sonoko paused a second. “No - Ran. She’ll give you the proper beating you deserve-”
“Sonoko!” Shinichi almost yelled, and she relented. Heiji could tell that she was struggling to focus on his face and not anything below, by the occasional flick of her eyes. “Don't call Ran!”
“But this guy was-”
“He didn’t do anything!” Kudou argued, shoving Heiji away slightly, and Heiji withdrew happily, grateful for the space now between them. Kudou brought his knees to his chest and yanked the jacket over them in an attempt to cover more of himself. It was a shame it wasn’t a particularly oversized one.
“Then explain why you were screaming like that. You look like you just ran a marathon!” She was right - he was sweating buckets, his hair was all mussed, and with the way his chest continued to heave, it wasn’t looking good for Heiji.
“Heiji didn’t… he didn’t hurt me.”
Oh.
Well, that was worse. Great going, Kudo!
“What? Then…” Her face twisted into something of bewilderment, then it turned red. “Huh. R-really?”
Heiji felt his face burn. His eyebrow twitched. He didn’t like the sound of where this was going, but Deduction Queen or not, he couldn’t really blame her for misreading this.
“Just- Don’t - You can’t tell Ran you saw me, okay?” Kudou said.
Sonoko gave him a stern look.
“Please, Sonoko. Promise me.”
She turned away from them. “Since you asked so politely.” She said through her teeth, and trotted off stiffly, the sound of her heels clacking filling the uncomfortable silence.
Heiji slammed the door shut to whisper-shout. “You really had to say that?”
“What was I meant to say? I didn’t mean to make it sound like that!” Kudou whisper-shouted back.
“You called me Heiji!”
“I panicked! At least it’s better than her finding out that I’m… that I’m-”
“You think that Ran-san thinking we’re fucking, is better than her finding out you’re Conan!?”
“Sonoko isn’t telling Ran-”
Heiji scoffed. “We both know that’s a lie.”
“Whatever! Shit!” Kudou brought a hand up to massage his temple.
A minute later, he spoke up again, “I, uh… still need some pants.”