AN: Just a quick addition to this verse that I had been thinking about for awhile! Since I had a bit of time today, I decided to write it out and go ahead and post it up with the rest of the stuff. Thanks for reading!

Ring

"You looking for something, Uehara?"

"Oh, Kan-chan." Brushing back a stray strand of hair, Uehara Yui gave her childhood friend a small smile. "I didn't hear you come in."

"Yeah, I could tell." Merely arching his remaining brow, Yamato Kansuke cast a glance around the apartment, which was in such a state of disarray that were Yui not actively searching through one of the drawers herself, he would have half thought a burglar had broken in. Turning back to Yui, he tilted his head, brow arching all the higher. "So? Like I asked before, you looking for something?"

"More or less." Yui told him, letting out a short sigh, hesitating for a moment before she continued- something which did not go unmarked by Kansuke. "I was looking for my ring."

"Ring?" Kansuke asked, tilting his head, before a look of understanding dawned over his face. "Your wedding ring, you mean? What the hell do you need that thing for? Rather, I'm surprised you even still have it."

"Of course I do!" Yui protested, almost puffing out her cheeks. "Yoshiro-san bought it for me, it's the least I can do to keep it, after the way I tricked him."

"I wouldn't say you tricked him. It's not like you're the one who asked to marry him." Kansuke noted, grumbling to himself a little as he gripped his crutch tighter to take a step forward. He'd gotten so used to using the forearm crutch, that going back to using a regular one was proving to be a serious pain in the ass. His body being much smaller than he was used to was only adding to that.

...though, if his body hadn't gotten this small in the first place, there'd be no need for him to use any other type of crutch. How'd he get stuck in this goddamn mess anyways?

"But it is still true that I accepted it with ulterior motives in mind." Yui told him, a tinge of regret in her expression. "I couldn't exactly call myself a faithful wife."

Here she was, not even a few scant months after her husband's death, living under the same roof as another man. Even if said man was currently stuck in the form of a small child, that didn't really change the principle of the matter. Even so- better with her than with Inspector Morofushi, she thought.

Getting transferred somewhere, and taking Kansuke with her, had been her intention. Getting transferred to Tokyo, however...

...that had been decidedly less so.

She'd only meant to take him out of the prefecture where he was so easy to recognize. In hindsight, perhaps she should have been a bit more specific on her transfer request. She'd only noted that she would rather avoid the neighboring Gunma prefecture, and had left everything else up to the hands of fate.

A bad choice, clearly, considering how quickly Kansuke had blown the one thing that Conan had asked him to do. Heaving a sigh as she remembered the ensuing mess that had unfolded after that, she could only blame herself for not keeping a closer eye on him. She wouldn't have thought that a small child with a bum leg could escape from her so easily, but apparently, she'd been wrong about that.

She wasn't going to make that mistake again, however.

"So?" Cutting short the topic entirely, since he didn't know how to deal with it, Kansuke mad his way to the couch. Leaning his crutch up against it, he pulled himself up with an annoying bit of effort, taking a seat. "Why are you suddenly looking for that damn ring so desperately? If it's living costs, I can help with that."

"It's not that." Yui was quick to reassure him. "My salary's just fine, Kan-chan."

"Then what?" Kansuke asked.

"I thought maybe I'd put it on." Yui told him, almost sensing what would come next, and hurriedly moving to preempt it. "I'm sure you've noticed, but the way your, ah," and she hesitated here for a moment, in spite of herself, "...teacher talks to me sometimes is a bit..."

Ah, he really had noticed. Just the mere mention of him caused a twitch in his good eye. "You don't need your damn wedding ring for that! Just arrest the bastard for sexual harassment!"

"I'm pretty sure it doesn't work that way, Kan-chan." Yui told him.

"Yeah, well it should." Kansuke grumbled, muttering something underneath his breath about how if she wasn't going to arrest him, he sure as hell would- his own current appearance as an eight year old child not withstanding.

(He could get Koumei to do it- that bastard was too free anyways, judging from the way he came over here to harass him every weekend. Hell, maybe the one he needed to arrest was him. Maybe then at least he wouldn't have to see his pretentious mug every Sunday, like clockwork.)

"Anyways, you don't need your stupid wedding ring for that, Uehara." Kansuke told her. "I mean, that bastard thinks you're a-"

Ugh, he couldn't finish it. Who had come up with this dumb cover story anyways? Probably Koumei. Dumb ideas were that bastard's forte.

"-a single mother?" Yui finished for him, and Kansuke could only grumble all the more, given how damn amused she sounded about the whole thing. "Now, now, don't be that way, Haru-chan~."

"Don't Haru-chan me, Uehara!" Kansuke barked, making his voice as deep as he could manage given how insufferably high the pitch had gotten. "It's bad enough with you calling me Kan-chan all the damn time, I don't need you to call me by some damn fake name when we're alone together!"

"You say that, but you haven't called me Yui once ever since you got this small." Yui pointed out, pretending that she didn't know the reason why.

"That's different!" Kansuke told her, grabbing his crutch and getting back to his feet. "Anyways, you don't need your stupid wedding ring, so stop looking for it already! Hurry up and fix the damn mess you made!"

Anyone else would have likely flinched at being snapped at like that, even coming from a child, but Yui simply blinked, already more than used to his periodic temper tantrums. "Are you going out again, Kan-chan?"

"Just somewhere." Kansuke told her. "I don't need to run all of my moves by you, do I?"

"Well, seeing as the last time you went off on your own..." Yui trailed off.

"It was a stupid secret anyways, and you know it." Kansuke snapped. "The kid's better off with that detective agency girl knowing!"

"I think Conan-kun would disagree with you there, but..." Heaving a short sigh, Yui closed the drawer she had been digging through. She hadn't exactly expected him to regret his actions, knowing him as she did. "Just don't get into any trouble, Kan-chan. I'll make dinner tonight, once I finish cleaning up."

"I'm not going to get in any damn trouble." Grumbling, Kansuke turned his head so that he could look back at her, before jerking his head back away again. Having to look up to someone who was supposed to be both shorter and younger than him... what a serious pain in the ass!

"How old do you think I am anyways, Uehara, five?"

"Of course not, Kan-chan. You're clearly eight."

"UEHARA-!"

"Here."

Leave it to Kan-chan to give her presents in the roughest way possible, Yui thought to herself, as she found a small box all but thrust into her lap. Were he still tall enough, she was almost certain it would have been thrust into her face instead, so all in all, she had to consider this as an improvement.

Glancing down at the small, wrapped box in her hands, she had to admit, she was surprised that he even bothered. Usually he was the type to not care about such frivolities as wrapping when it came to giving presents- but this one, unlike the handful she had received in her life that had been wrapped- seemed as if it had been actually wrapped by hand, as opposed by being done by someone at the store.

She couldn't help but wonder why he'd bothered, this time.

She also wondered why it was that he couldn't look her in the eye, having turned so sharply on his heel after giving her the box that he nearly stumbled.

"Kan-chan...?" Yui began, tilting her head.

"Just open it already, Uehara!" His usual impatient bark sounded a bit different from usual- and not just because of the change in his voice's pitch.

"...but what is it for?" Yui asked. "It's not even my birthday."

"Like I said," finally turning around to face her, Kansuke jerked his head upwards, locking eyes with her, "...just open it already, and you'll find out!"

Blinking for a moment longer, Yui let out a short sigh, plucking the box up from her lap. "Well, if you're going to be that fussy about it-"

"I'm not being fussy!"

"-then I'll open it right away." Yui finished, ignoring Kansuke's interjection.

Doing just that, Yui undid the tape, careful not to rip the wrapping paper. Frowning at the small box it revealed, she turned it over in her hands, a curious expression her face. On the surface, it appeared to be some kind of jewelry box, but Kansuke never was the type to gift something so grand.

Cracking the box open revealed a simple silver band inside, one that she took out with care. Turning it over in her hands, she fixed her gaze next on Kansuke, trying to puzzle out what it meant when Yamato Kansuke, of all people, gave her a ring.

And trying to pretend that her heart wasn't beating like crazy- even as she was mentally cursing that a development like this couldn't happen while he was at full size. All the while, of course, reminding herself that when Yamato Kansuke was involved, nothing was ever as simple as it seemed.

"Now you don't have to worry about that bastard hitting on you." Kansuke told her, tilting his head back, arching his brow. "And you don't have to look for that damn Torada's ring anymore either."

What, so that was what all of this was about. Well, she couldn't say that she had expected anything more- Kansuke was Kansuke, after all, and she doubted losing several feet off of his height was bound to spark anything resembling romance in him. It could just about hit him smack over the head, and he'd never notice, great detective he might be.

"You didn't have to go out of your way to buy a ring for me, Kan-chan." Yui told him, even as she carefully slid it onto her finger. A perfect fit, as if she had any doubt.

"Well, just consider it a repayment for putting up with me when I'm like this." Kansuke noted, once more pivoting on his heel, careful this time not to topple over. "That's all!"

"In that case, I'll take good care of it." Yui told him, rising to her feet, careful not to drop the box. Vaguely, it occurred to her to ask how he had even managed to obtain the ring in question- she couldn't imagine a jeweler being in a hurry to sell a ring to what appeared to be a grade school student.

It didn't take much detective work to figure out, though.

Perhaps she should avoid needling him about this any further- no wonder Kan-chan was acting a bit strange, seeing as he'd been forced into a situation in which he'd had to ask Inspector Morofushi, of all people, for help. No wonder he was sulking.

Kan-chan was Kan-chan, after all. There was no reason for her to think that he'd realized any other meaning that a man- even a rather tiny one- giving a woman a ring could have.

That damn Koumei- having to put that ridiculous idea in his head. He just couldn't resist saying something, that jerk- and as much as he wanted to forget all about it, he couldn't get it out of his damn head.

He'd thought nothing of buying Yui her own ring to replace the one that she couldn't find. Koumei, on the other hand, had been quick to remark that if he was planning on proposing to Yui, he ought to wait until he came up past her waist again.

Like hell that was what this was about! He was just trying to get some stubborn jerk off of her back- and keep her from wearing a dead man's ring. That was bad luck, in his books. Twitching, Kansuke couldn't help but grumble to himself, annoyed that he'd thought about those infernal words of his again. Somehow, even when he wasn't even here, Koumei managed to grind his last gear.

...but well... Yui looked happy, at least, so maybe it wasn't all bad.