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Despite his age and fame, Shinichi usually found himself with nothing to do. There weren't always cases to manage, and compared to Kaito, who was often traveling the world for his tours, Shinichi was often bored.
So, he had started taking up babysitting; specifically his youngest siblings.
Yukiko and Yusaku, even as the years progressed, were still busy people. Sometimes they left on trips, or were busy with errands and visiting friends. So, that left Shinichi in charge.
Not that he minded. When he watched the twins, he often invited others to help and hang out.
Usually the one who showed up most was Shiho.
She didn't technically have a job, and she'd long since grown bored of the things she could read and do within Agasa's home.
Child-rearing was not something she was used to, but she did like the twins plenty.
Often, she helped Shinichi when she had nothing else to do.
Taking the twins to school, to go eat, to parks; it was just a normal thing for them at this point.
It was during one of these many normal outings that Shiho and Shinichi had brought the twins and the Detective Boys to an aquarium for the day.
Genta, Ayumi, and Mitsuhiko were running around the giftshop, trying to decide what they wanted to pick.
"Hey! One item each!" Shinichi called after them, slinging the twins' travel bag over his shoulder. "You still have to save some spending money for tomorrow!"
"Okaaay..." the three whined, splitting up to pick out what they wanted.
Shiho sat in one of the cafe chairs outside the giftshop, holding the twins against her chest. They had long since gotten tuckered out from the day at the aquarium, so Shiho offered to hold them so they could nap.
Kona liked Shiho a lot, and Ai liked being held, so both were happy to nuzzle against her.
"Are they asleep? Do you want me to hold one of them?" Shinichi looked down at her, clearing their table of trash and tossing it out.
"They are, but I'm fine. They're only 4, they barely weigh anything." Shiho shifted a bit in her seat before blinking. "...I'll need help standing up though."
Shinichi gently pulled Shiho to her feet, grabbing her purse and adding it to the bags he was carrying.
"Excuse me, is this table free?" a woman asked from behind them, pointing to the seat they had just gotten up from.
"Oh, yeah. We were just leaving, it's all yours."
"Thanks!" the woman and her two friends moved to sit down, before glancing up at them again. "They're so cute, by the way! How old are they?"
"They turned 4 recently." Shinichi replied, and one of the women gasped.
"You're the famous detective, Shinichi Kudo! I just saw your interview in the papers the other day!"
He chuckled nervously, still not used to the random bouts of popularity he got in public.
"Shinichi, we should go get the others." Shiho nodded towards the giftshop.
"Right. Well, have a great day."
The women waved, before turning to each other.
"How cute! No wonder he's been out of the public eye lately!"
"To think, he started a family!"
"His wife was so pretty too. How cute that his kids look just like them!"
Shinichi froze.
Family? Wife? His kids?
Did they think the twins were mine and Shiho's?!
―
Over the next few weeks after that encounter at the aquarium, there were more and more people who seemed to think that Shinichi and Shiho were in fact the parents of the twins.
Some rumors wondered if they were all siblings, or perhaps two sets of siblings, but the parent rumor seemed to be the most predominant one.
And when Shinichi had brought his concerns to Kaito, the other reacted about as maturely as one would expect.
"AHAHHAHA!"
"I-it's not funny, Kaito!"
Shinichi had well and truly realized that the rumors about him and the twins extended farther than he thought. Apparently other people had the same idea, and there were even a few articles online about it.
Shiho sat on the long couch across from them, the twins asleep with their heads in her lap.
"This is awful! All of these rumors are going to give people a weird impression of me and Shiho!"
Kaito crossed his arms over his abdomen, wheezing. Shiho said nothing, and her eyes were closed. Shinichi wondered if maybe she had fallen asleep.
"Oh what's the harm! It's just rumors, everyone who knows you personally knows that you'd never start such a serious relationship without some sort of life or death situation pushing your hand."
"That sounded extremely personal, where did you even get an opinion like that from??"
Kaito simply shrugged, and Shinichi facepalmed.
"Look, you have a lot of sway with the media, just... help me make this disappear."
"When you phrase it like that, it sounds like it's true and you're just trying to sweep it under the rug."
Shinichi threw his hands up in exasperation, leaving the room before he lunged across the table to strangle his brother. Kaito grinned as he watched Shinichi storm out of the living room, before casting a side glance to Shiho.
"He's gonna freak out when he finds out you were the one who spread the rumor."
Shiho opened her eyes slightly, having just been pretending to be asleep.
"..."
Kaito crossed one leg over the other, folding his hands in his lap. "I'm always down for making Shin-chan upset, but why did you choose something like this? He was right about one thing, it could negatively impact you guys in the future."
"...
"It was just some wishful thinking, is all."
Kaito exhaled, not quite a sigh but close enough.
"Did you have fun?"
At that, Shiho smiled.
"Well, then I guess that's all that matters!" Kaito stood. "Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some rumors to dispel."
—
Shiho felt bad about putting Shinichi through those rumors.
At first, it was just some self indulgence on her part, but it spread faster than she expected, and it was a terrible thing to do to someone who considers you a friend. Not only that, but his family was dragged into it as well.
Kaito told her that it was fine, that he can handle the fallout and sweep everything under the rug, but that didn’t change how she felt. She agonized over it for almost a week before she decided to speak with Shinichi directly. When she expected anger, the nonchalance she received was slightly more concerning.
“Oh yeah, the rumor thing? I knew you were behind it.” Shinichi shrugged, flipping through his case files.
“What?” She snatched the paper out of his hand, forcing him to pay attention to her, “When did you find out??”
“Kaito told me about it when he was going through resolving the issue.” Shinichi reached up and took his papers back. “I had a suspicion, but couldn’t prove it. So, him telling me just confirmed what I already knew.”
Shiho’s face scrunched up in annoyance. “What do you mean you had a suspicion?”
“The rumor only started after that situation at the aquarium. I figured it spread way too fast for just three women who had a passing interest in my personal life.
“I figured that someone probably sat on it for a few days, before posting some comments online. Once the online crowd got a hold of it, it spread like wild fire.
“You probably didn’t mean to make it spread as far as it did, and now that you had time to think about it, you felt guilty.
“Am I wrong?”
Shiho glared down at him, crossing her arms. So he knew the entire time, and didn’t bother to confront her about it? She had been fighting with this for almost an entire week!
As if sensing her annoyance, Shinichi simply smiled.