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Being a member of a family of celebrities must be the dream of many.
Living a luxurious life, being the center of attention, seeing your pictures everywhere and having people recognize you in the streets and ask for your autograph.
Yes, it must be the dream of many, but Ai certainly didn't consider herself part of that many.
She preferred a simple, quite life where people leaved her alone and didn't pester her or, even better, didn't give her existence much thought.
Unfortunately, that was not likely to happen when you have a famous novelist for a father, a famous actress for a mother, and a famous detective for a brother. And, even though Ai had mostly learnt to live with it, this life had other problems.
Like getting kidnapped.
It was the same old story: a stupid guy having what he considered it to be a brilliant idea to abduct a child from a wealthy family and asking for a ransom to give said child back.
She had been kidnapped because of this common, repetitive and boring mentality more than she would like to admit. All those kidnappers were the same, but they also made the same mistake.
Choosing Kudo Shinichi's little sister as a target.
Other children her age might get frightened when they're kidnapped, they would scream, cry, or maybe had a panic attack at the idea of an evil stranger taking them away from their dear parents, or the possibility that they might never return home again.
Ai, however, was different. Beside being more mature and more used to dangerous situations than her peers in general, she knew that it wasn't worth worrying over. She just had to sit there and wait for the inevitable outcome, the one she pretty much knew by heart now:
1) Shinichi notices that Ai is missing.
2) Shinichi freaks out.
3) Shinichi realizes that Ai got kidnapped — it's the first thing that will come to his mind and, sadly, most of the time he's right about it.
4) The culprit calls to ask for the ransom, confirming Shinichi's suspicions.
5) Shinichi activates his detective mode at full force to deduce what happened and search for her.
6) Shinichi finds Ai.
7) Shinichi makes the culprit regret the day they decided to take the dishonest road.
8) Shinichi and Ai return home and forget about the whole thing by the next morning.
It was simple, really.
Ai then heard footsteps approaching, probably the culprit coming to tell her to behave until the deal is over.
"Listen here, young lady," the man started. "Just be a good girl until I receive my money and everything will be fine. The ransom will be delivered tonight and then you can go home."
Yup, they were so predictable it physically hurt.
"Whatever." To the kidnapper's surprise, Ai yawned. She raised a hand to rub her eyes, but she couldn't do it properly with her wrists tied up like that, causing an annoyed huff to escape her.
"You know, maybe it would be better for you to just untie me and go hide somewhere," Ai warned him, voice bland. "You still have a chance to escape, you'd better take advantage of it."
It wasn't that she liked to help criminals or anything, but this man was so sloppy he would get caught eventually anyway, and it would be better for him to get arrested by someone else instead of a certain detective she knew.
He blinked at her in confusion. Once, twice, before facing her fully with a scowl on his face
"Stop talking nonsense!" He exclaimed, sounding irritated. Hmm, so he was from the inpatient type — another kidnapper would have laughed at her. "I'm not letting you go before I get what I want!" His speech was rather dull and boring, too. Probably his first — and last, Ai was sure — kidnapping attempt.
How fun.
"As you wish," Ai shrugged. "But remember that you brought it to yourself."
Without giving the man a chance to reply or even process what she just said, Ai turned her head to glance at the old, wooden clock on the wall. It had been two hours, he should be here any moment now.
The culprit's confusion increased when she started counting down out loud.
"Six, five, four, three, two-"
"AI!" A voice boomed through the place suddenly, startling the kidnapper quite a bit he nearly tripped on his own feet. Ah, there he is.
It didn't take long for the door to burst open and, sure enough, it was her older brother. His eyes scanned the room frantically in search for her, she smirked despite herself when his gaze finally landed on her.
"Took you long enough, you usually arrive before I reach number four," Ai stuck her chin in the air, looking smug. "Are you losing your touch already, Great Detective?"
Shinichi's eyes dulled at that.
"Funny." He replied dryly, not amused.
Kudo Ai was one of a kind, that was for sure. Shinichi didn't think another child acting this nonchalantly while being held hostage existed.
Then again, he didn't think another child getting kidnapped this frequently existed either, he had been suspecting that his bad luck had rubbed on her lately, and now he was starting to believe that his theory was correct.
Frankly speaking, Shinichi wasn't sure if he should be concerned or disturbed. Maybe both. Yeah, both was good.
By that moment the man was over his 'How did he get here?!' shock already, he raised a thick stick he had with him menacingly, getting ready to attack.
"Came to save your sister, huh?" he sneered. "Well, looks like you'll join her instead. Unless you want that bright brain of yours to suffer from a severe concussion."
He didn't even do a proper background check. Ai thought to herself, bored. He wouldn't have said that otherwise.
Shinichi didn't reply, but his expression darkened considerably, and his gaze took a much more gelid, deadly turn.
The next second, the culprit was laying on the ground, panting heavily and unable to move from pain, while Shinichi hurried to Ai's side, ignoring him completely.
"Are you alright, Ai?" He asked worriedly, crouching in front of her to untie the ropes around her wrists and feet.
"I'm fine," she assured him, rubbing the sore spot where the ropes had been. "No need to worry abo-" she halted when she felt arms wrapping around her form.
"Thank God you're okay," Ai's eyes widened when she realized that Shinichi was shaking. "I was so scared..." His hold tightened, as if he was afraid that she would disappear if he loosened his grip, even for a second.
Scared? But it wasn't like they hadn't gone through this before, why would he-
She suddenly was reminded of what happened last time she was abducted. The guy was from the impatient type, too.
And he had a knife.
Her gaze softened at the thought. Sighing, she closed her eyes and returned the hug, burying her face in his chest.
Later, they would have to give their statement to the police, then they would return home and probably spend a few hours reading in the library before bed.
Later, they would give their parents the weekly phone call, and their mother will suffer from a heart attack when she hears about what happened while their father will laugh it off as always.
But for now they're staying like this for a while longer, not caring about the kidnapper's faint groan of discomfort or the sound of police sirens that was growing louder by the second.