Here's the epilogue I promised you! I don't put word limits on epilogues because I don't like to drag it on longer than I need to. Therefore, this chapter is short. There's a lot of post-story stuff at the bottom, so give it a look over if you'd like. ;)

Epilogue

It had been three months since the okonomiyaki, which meant a lot things had changed. For one, Shinichi had finally taken out the Organization and come back to himself permanently. Another big change was that Ran and Masato had, with a little pushing, finally starting seeing each other. Maya had been the major factor in getting that off the ground.

The most obvious change, though, was that Shinichi and Sera had secretly begun seeing each other, too. When he was Conan, they acted like friends whenever anybody was around, even when they knew his secret. Now that he was back as himself, they had become much more public about it.

When Sera had shown the picture of her and Shinichi to the students, her reputation had been restored to its normal position, but it had taken a little while before Shinichi's fan club was able to talk to her again. If she'd fake dated any other guy, everyone would've seen through it at once, but with Shinichi not actually being around, there was no way for anybody to contradict her. Ran had helped with restoring her reputation since she, while she'd been very surprised at first, had been a major proponent in making sure people believed her.

Most people had gotten used to them by now, but there were still two quiet but dangerous people who were very disapproving of the two of them: Subaru Okiya and Ai Haibara. Neither was upfront about it, but the two detectives could both sense the disapproval radiating off of them. That was why they had scheduled a meeting with them to put their minds at ease.

At ten in the morning, the bell to Shinichi's house rang. Subaru had moved out and gotten a new apartment when Shinichi had returned, giving him his house back. He'd also quit wearing his disguise and had returned to himself. Hearing the bell, Shinichi opened the front door to find the two of them waiting. "Oh, you made it! Thanks for coming!" he said, standing aside to let them in.

"What's this about, Kudo-kun?" Haibara asked as they walked towards the library.

"Oh, we haven't really talked much for a while, so I thought we'd have a little get together," Shinichi said cheerfully. "I'll go get us some tea while you get settled."

"I'll help out," Akai said quickly. "I know where the stuff is and I don't really trust your tea-making skills."

"Sorry about that," Shinichi grinned. Haibara left while the two guys headed to the kitchen. "So? Are you going to lecture me?" Shinichi asked, getting out the teapot and filling it.

"What for? You haven't done anything wrong."

"You've been glaring at me since you got here," Shinichi pointed out.

"Have I?" Akai asked absentmindedly, getting out the teabags and turning on the stove.

Now Shinichi was on edge. The calmness of this guy was scaring him more than him shouting ever could. "Uh, yeah, you have," Shinichi replied warily.

Akai stared at him for another ten seconds before relaxing his posture. "Well then, I apologize. I trust you won't do anything stupid that will make us have to have words, right?"

"Oh, of course!" he replied, catching his true meaning. "Do you think they'd notice if we used instant tea?"

"We're guys; they're going to expect it," Akai pointed out.

"True enough," said Shinichi, and they both smirked.

XXX

Sera was busy reading a book when Haibara walked in to the library by herself. She'd been sitting on the floor with her back to the desk since it was unexpectedly more comfortable than sitting in the chair.

Haibara didn't say a word, preferring to stand by the door and wait quietly. Well, she was actually staring at Sera, but she herself probably didn't even realize it. After about two minutes of this, Sera asked, "Where are the guys at?"

"Making tea," Haibara replied coolly.

Seeing she wasn't going to volunteer any more information, Sera closed her book and stood up, stretching as she did so. "Well, better them than me, I guess." She looked at Haibara, but the girl just stared back at her. "Haibara-san, you still hate me, don't you?" she asked quietly.

"There's a big difference between distrust and hate," Haibara said firmly. "So no, I don't hate you."

"That's not what your face says," said Sera. Haibara's expression changed at once. She quit staring and took on an impassive look. "Haibara-san," she said softly, approaching her and dropping to her knees so they were closer to eye level, "Haibara-san, I never meant to steal him from you. I was just as surprised as everyone else when he started paying more attention to me. I thought he thought of me as a close friend."

Haibara looked away and said, "You can't steal what someone doesn't have."

"Maybe not, but you can snag a victory from under someone's nose, and that's basically what I ended up doing. So I'm sorry about it."

"Ran-san is the one you should be apologizing to," Haibara replied, staring at her with a look that could melt glass. "She never would've realized she doubted Kudo-kun if those stupid rumors hadn't started swirling around."

"I already did," Sera confessed. "She gave us our blessing, and she didn't seem too upset by it at all. So now I just feel doubly guilty. All of you knew him longer and I just came in and messed up your whole dynamic."

"Life-changing events happen all the time," Haibara told her. "They may be unexpected, but what can be expected is that the future rarely turns out how you want."

"Also, I wanted to apologize for making you give him that pill. I wasn't thinking rationally at the time, so I did some things I'm not too proud of."

"No kidding," she replied coolly. "And I found out after that Kudo-kun already knew I was there, so your threat was invalid. Of course, the fool never did realize why…" She stopped dead in her sentence, catching herself before she blurted anything out.

So, do you forgive me?" Sera asked hesitantly.

"Like I said, you shouldn't be apologizing for things you don't need to," Haibara replied, her tone becoming a little lighter. "You're a strong girl, so why are you apologizing anyways?"

Sera breathed an internal sigh of relief. 'Good, she forgives me,' she thought. She'd been getting more and more worried about Haibara ever since she'd forced her to give Shinichi that temporary antidote. She knew the girl could be dangerous if she really wanted, but now she knew Haibara was more interested in keeping a close eye on them rather than getting revenge.

The guys entered with the tea just then, putting their conversation on hold. "Oh, the tea's here!" Sera exclaimed, getting to her feet and getting two cups from the tray Shinichi was holding. She gave one to Haibara, who was too short to reach it normally.

Shinichi put the tray on the desk and he and Akai both got their cups. "So, how's everybody doing?" he asked, kicking off the conversation.

END

So let me just say that this project was one of the most labor-intensive stories I've ever written. I've hinted at it through all the talk about the word count, but it's still absolutely INSANE I actually managed twenty chapters with over 2,000 words for most of them. It was also pretty difficult in getting the events to flow the way I wanted while still (mostly) keeping everybody in character. I could've just cheaped out with the ShinichiXSera dynamic by making Conan instantly forget Ran for some stupid reason like a bunch of non-ShinRan fics do, but that would've left a bad taste in my mouth.

...and I'm rambling. That's probably the reason I don't make YouTube videos. :P

To finish off, I sincerely hope that everybody that made it to the end and is reading this sincerely enjoyed the story. If anybody has any questions, comments, or concerns, then feel free to review or to drop me a PM to tell me your thoughts! And special thanks to user 15bubbles for being both helpful and honest in your reviews. Your input helped shape a lot of the latter half of the story!

Before I sign off this time, I have two final notes. First, I've decided on my next fanfiction story: Minami Edogawa Part Four! I've only done preliminary work so far, but it'll feature Kaitou Kid and a female Conan interacting, so cue the shippers. Though I doubt much of anything will happen since I'm a guy and not much of a KaiShin shipper, I've tentatively titled it First Crush, so that should give you a clue as to what might transpire. When I first announced I was writing more stories, I got a request almost immediately for the fourth part, so that's why I'm doing this now. Please look forward to it! :)

Last thing: I updated my profile with information about my original stuff I've been writing. It's at the very bottom of it, so it's easy to find. Be sure to check it out if you have the time!

~CoolKid94