Mikau: Hi guys! Long time no see. Special thanks to reviewers from last time: Kimmiko T, Shana-Fujioka, neonquincy1217, and APTX-1412. Most of the prompts from the subsequent exchanges have spawned much larger fics, so I haven't had anything to add to this collection until now. This is from Poirot Café's Prompt Exchange Five. Characters include the Shounen Tanteidan, Haibara, Conan, and a poor terrified mouse that found its way into the classroom.

Disclaimer: DCMK is the intellectual property of Aoyama Gosho, and the prompt for this chapter was sent in by sgamer82 on Poirot Café.

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sgamer82: A mouse in the classroom.

Ayumi's scream was becoming sadly familiar to the other Tanteidan members, so when they first heard it before the start of homeroom that Tuesday morning, Genta, Mitsuhiko, and Haibara all thought that Ayumi had simply found yet another body. When they all whipped around to look at the screeching girl, they became confused, wondering if perhaps it were only a body part, as little Ayumi was looking at the inside of her desk and screaming her head off.

Intermingled somewhere in the incoherent wails, tears, and panicked "Kyaaaaaa"s, seemed to be the word "mouse".

And then it leapt from the desk, into Ayumi's lap, and no one was confused any longer.

Pandemonium quickly spread throughout the classroom as Ayumi jumped to her feet, flailing and shrieking like a siren. Two thirds of the girls present joined her in her squeals of horror, tripping over one another as they fled, fearing that the intruder would next jump on them.

Even some of the boys let out concerned yelps as they slowly backed away, afraid, but too aware of the expectations placed upon them as men to show that fear as openly as the girls.

Once she'd shaken her attacker free, Ayumi's knees gave out on her, and she sank to the ground, sobbing, too exhausted from her ordeal to do anything else.

The shaken mouse scampered off in terror and confusion, only to have a shoe hurtled at it by the brave Genta.

"Get it!" one of the girls yelled.

"Kill it!" urged one of the boys.

"Stop this instant!" shouted Haibara Ai, glaring at her fellow first graders. "You leave that mouse alone! Can't you see how scared he is?"

A hush fell over the children, and they all stared at Haibara, waiting for her to suggest an alternative to their behavior. She sounded so authoritative, though, and she had always acted so much more mature than the rest of them. They looked upon her as a leader on the few occasions she chose to speak up because, in those instances, like now, she seemed like one of the grownups who could be trusted and relied upon for instruction.

Seeing that she had their attention, Haibara smiled softly and reassuringly as she cautiously crept towards where the trembling mouse had taken shelter in one of the cubby holes.

"He's much more afraid of us than we are of him," she informed them. "And he won't hurt us. Will you?" she addressed the little ball of white curled up on itself in the very back corner. "Come here, little one. Where did you come from? I promise I won't hurt you."

"Here," Conan's soft voice came at her left, his breath tickling her ear as he put a hand on her shoulder and crouched down beside her. "Let me," he offered, showing her a plastic cup he had grabbed from the arts and crafts supplies when he'd walked into a classroom of shrieking children and ascertained what had happened.

Haibara was careful to hide the blush coloring her cheeks as she pulled back out of the way, letting him capture their uninvited guest.

"Hey, little guy," Conan called gently, carefully sliding the mouse out and holding him up to eye level. "It looks like somebody's pet got loose. This is the kind of little white mouse you buy at the pet store," he observed.

"Then we should probably keep it and try to find its owner," Mitsuhiko suggested, approaching warily.

"Where are we gonna keep it?" Genta came to stare inquisitively at the squirming form under the clear plastic cup.

"It's…kind of cute," Ayumi noted, getting up the courage to peek over Conan's shoulder. "And that was so cool how you caught it, Conan-kun! You're so brave!" she cooed, clinging to his arm.

Haibara tried not to snicker as Conan smiled sheepishly, tolerating Ayumi's girlish crush.

"Haibara's the cool one," Conan corrected, catching Ai by surprise. He turned to Haibara and smiled. "It was really cool how you stood up for this little guy."

Haibara couldn't turn away fast enough to keep him from seeing her cheeks turn scarlet that time, but she made a show of waving away his praise with almost inaudible protests of "It was nothing", "It reminded me of the lab mice", and "I couldn't bear to see the poor thing terrified like that".

But Conan still smiled knowingly at her, and it made her ears burn. Because she knew he saw through her.