Title: Splish Splash
Fandom: Detective Conan/Case Closed
Author: Amm-chan (SoulSeeker)
Theme: #22—a favor
Friends: Edogawa Conan and Haibara Ai
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: All Detective Conan characters are not mine. They are merely toys borrowed from Gosho Aoyama, and I'm being extra careful so that I can give them back to him in perfect condition.
Summary: It was summer at last!
The first day of summer was always exciting. School was out at last, and the Detective Boys wasted no time in getting started on their fun summer-time activities…though they had their troubles on deciding what to do first.
"I want to go to the beach!" Ayumi grinned, imagining herself with a sun tan.
"No way!" Genta argued. "I say we spend a day in Tropical Land's water park—it'd be way more fun, with all the water rides and cool games, and good food!"
"Yeah, you would want to go for the food," she hissed in response.
"Are you deaf? It also has good games and water rides!"
"Why don't we let Ran-neechan decide?" Conan suddenly raised an eyebrow, watching the two of them argue. Usually, arguments were between Genta and Mitsuhiko, so to see a bout between Ayumi and Genta was quite strange and novel, indeed. Of course, little fits between friends here or there were normal. And at their age? Conan doubted he even needed to act as mediator.
The two of them turned to Conan, eyeing him like they hadn't even heard what he'd said. "Ran-neechan?" they repeated.
"Um…well she is the one taking us, isn't she?" the boy calmly reminded them.
The two of them sighed, hanging their heads down. Suddenly, it had seemed like they had gone from being on top of the world to being children again, tagging along with adults. Seeing the look on their faces, Shinichi almost hated himself.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Haibara smirk, shaking her head almost in warning; and he gave her a look. Yes, yes, he should keep quiet now; he knew. He didn't need to be told.
"Oh, nonsense," a voice chimed. "We can go where ever you guys can agree on." Ran, having just come from the kitchen, chimed into their conversation and decided to throw in her two yen. "Since you're having trouble deciding though, I do think Tropical Land might be a bit easier for today. It's closer; plus, you can still get a tan there Ayumi"—she winked—"is that all right?"
Ayumi looked at her and smiled. "All right," she complied. "Can we go to the beach next week?"
"Absolutely," Ran promised. "But for now is Tropical Land all right with everyone?"
"Yeah!" Genta and Ayumi grinned, agreeing at last; and just then, Mitsuhiko's parents pulled up to the agency driveway, finally dropping him off. Ayumi filled him in on what was to happen that day.
Conan cursed under his breath.
And thus, the girls and boys changed into their swimsuits and trunks, put on their best summer clothes, and they were soon on their way. Ran was sure to get a bit of money from her father so she could treat them to lunch, dinner, and possibly ice-cream throughout the day. They headed straight for the water park, and while Genta and Mitsuhiko decided they really wanted to speed down the water slides, Conan decided he'd prefer to lounge in the wave pool.
Ayumi wanted a tan, thus staying with Ran to sunbathe for a while—and Ai followed Conan. He couldn't be a lone wolf all the time.
"Well…at least we're not riding the Mystery Coaster," Conan sighed, ruffling his hair a bit after it had gotten wet.
"Yet," Ai had to add—just to rain on his parade.
Giving her another look, he tried to ignore her remark and instead laid back, allowing himself to float. He relaxed with his eyes closed, letting the water drown out the noise from the loud, screaming, annoying children. And suddenly, a cold rush of water splashed over his face, in surprise, almost causing him to choke. His azure eyes burst open, and his head popped up from the water again, looking around.
"Who was that?" he demanded.
He could see Haibara, just coming out of the water after diving under. He eyed her critically, to which she stared right back. "What?" she asked.
"You know what. You splashed me and I nearly choked!"
"No I didn't."
"Yes, you did. I can see it in your eyes," Conan declared. He looked straight at her, his gaze unyielding. "Most people have trouble looking others in the eye when they lie. You, on the other hand, know this fact, and you're the opposite. That's where you always look when you lie."
"I always look people in the eye when I talk to them," Haibara informed him. "How can you tell?"
And there, he smirked.
"Because your eyes stay perfectly still when you lie," he replied simply. "When telling the truth, your gaze always moves a little, because it's hard to focus on one thing, especially with so much going on around you. But when you lie, you're concentrating on fooling the person, trying to seem truthful. So you concentrate on keeping your eyes on theirs, and they stay still."
Ai simply stared at him for a moment with folded arms, almost impressed. "You're too smart for your own good, you know that?" she informed him. "Why don't you be a kid for a day in your life? Most adults would kill to have the poison the men in black fed you, you know."
With that, she splashed him again, hard, and dove under water. The water had flown up in a wave, hit him, and went to hit the man behind him who'd been floating on one of those tubes you could rent from the park. "Watch it, kid!" he scowled warningly, seeing no one else around.
With that, and without even apologizing, Conan dove after her and began to swim in her direction. It was just then that he could hear the bell sound, signaling that waves were about to come. And they did, while Haibara only swam deeper.
She smiled at him, as they both the surfaced to breathe. "They did you a favor, Conan," she told him, over the sound of waves. "Just enjoy it for now. While it lasts."
Conan froze for a moment, allowing himself to bob up and down with the waves like a buoy. His expression seemed surprised, that Haibara would ever suggest that he should be happy with what happened—that the men took his life away. But in the end, his lips curled into a smirk. Perhaps just for that day, she was right. He definitely was not happy about anything that happened to him. But just for that day…
"I'll get you!" he yelled. And with all his might, he continued to pursue her, splashing violently every once and a while in attempts to splash her back. Against the waves, this proved to be quite the difficult task, but he didn't give up—not even when she began to splash back.
When she did, he dove under water to avoid it. He came back up to splash her once more, and neither cared who was caught in the crossfire.
And for the moment, Shinichi and Shiho did not exist.
A/N: Okay, so it's been a while. Yeeess, I know. Sorry about that. I hope you enjoyed this one. It was nothing like it was supposed to be…in fact, it wasn't even supposed to be for this theme. Buuutt, it turned out well in my opinion. Thanks for reading and hopefully it won't take me months for the next one. (smiles)
Happy summer!