Hi peopless!!! Well.. I'm back writing fanfics, once again! It was to be expected though, I've been sick for a long time already, so I might as well do something constructive with the lethargy that I'm going through.. รณ.o not that writing fanfics is too constructive! xDDD oh well! I hope you like this as much as I enjoyed writing it. This will be a collection of one-shots based on my favorite couple, Shinichi and Ran. I hope you find it in your interest! n.n

Disclaimer: No, the series nor the characters belong to me... Of course, that doesn't mean I can't borrow them, poke them for a little while, and give them some peppermint patties before they go nite nite... and man.. does that feel GOOD! n-n

Title: The Desperate Return

Summary: 'Shinichi... what have they done to you?'

It was a dark and gloomy day. The rain poured down harshly as Shinichi ran through the streets, squinting his eyes in order to facilitate his vision. He couldn't care less about the water or the frigidness of his body from the cold though; his mind was completely focused on reaching his destination. Teitan High School had to be about 6 minutes from where he was at the moment, so he kept on running, afraid that the smallest stop might change his future forever. Fear was freezing his heart to its very bottom, but he couldn't let that feeling detain him. His painful wounds didn't help the situation either, tempting him to give in to the deep tiredness that filled his insides, and just drop to his knees, falling unconscious on that very street. But he knew better than to give up. He couldn't and wouldn't stop now. Not even if his life actually depended on it.

He had been fighting the organization, along with the many police officers, friends, and acquaintances that had assisted him in the task. The smallest and newest members were the easiest to capture, taking the police a few minutes to arrest all of them. But the high-ranking men and women of the infamous organization had proven to be difficult to detain. They surely had made the whole operation much longer than originally expected; setting off explosives, shooting the police constantly, and setting up traps for their enemies being the main reasons for why everything had taken so long; but after a long night of continuous effort, the dismantling of the organization had been successful. The relief of accomplishment hadn't been too long-lasting for Shinichi though. After a few minutes of partial rest, he realized that Vermouth hadn't appeared at all. He looked through all of the police squad cars, asked all of the officials if they had seen her, but there was no sign of the woman. At that moment though, a breathless Heiji and Takagi approached him while holding a small piece of paper. Handing it to Shinichi since neither of them were in conditions of speaking after running so much, the young Kudou began to examine the small parchment, his eyes widening and face becoming as pale as the paper itself. Without another word, he dropped the paper on the muddy ground and began to run as fast as he could towards his school

When the final day arrives, I shall reunite with the angel that looks over me. I'm sorry silver bullet... so terribly sorry.

Ran had never felt so lethargic in her whole life. Her teacher was currently giving an extremely dull lesson on Economics, and Ran could not help but let out a yawn every two minutes. The rain wasn't helping either. Watching it would always make her fantasize about returning to the warmth of her small bedroom, comfortably lie down on her cushiony bed, to slowly let the deep, peaceful, and relaxing sweetness of sleep overwhelm her as the cold rain continued to pour down in sheets, just outside her window...
Hm, maybe it was better not to look outside the window then. She wouldn't want to fall asleep right in her classroom.

The strong echo of running steps interrupted her thoughts though. It seemed that whoever was making that noise was in an incredible rush. The sound became louder and louder with every passing tenth of a second. Suddenly, the door to the classroom was violently opened, and Ran's mouth hung open as her eyes widened considerably.

A drenched, sweaty, blood-covered, and tired Shinichi was at the door. He was gasping for air from the long run that he had made, and looked as if he would collapse in any moment, but he still stood as firmly as he could, while his eyes searched for someone in particular. Ran quickly stood up and ran towards her friend; shock, concern, and astonishment being the main emotions that gave frantic jumps inside of her.

As soon as Shinichi saw her, a look of relief spread on his face. He felt her small hands hold his back and abdomen, giving him the support that he currently lacked. His last bits of energy slowly began to escape his muscles though, and his legs quickly weakened as his hurt body slowly slid towards the ground. Thankfully, Ran hadn't lost her grip on him, so she was able to help him sit on the cold floor, while she also sat on the ground next to him.

"Shinichi... " Ran whispered, her voice barely noticed by anyone in the room. She began to observe his features carefully, shocked by the state in which he was currently in. His pale face was covered in a mixture of rain and sweat, while a trail of warm blood ran from his eyebrow down to his jaw, and made a small, scarlet puddle on his shirt. His drenched clothes were clinging to his figure, and his entire body lay completely still from the great lack of energy that he was now experiencing. Ran's eyes drifted back to Shinichi's face. His dark sapphire eyes were extremely tired; she could tell that they wanted to close immediately, but Shinichi continued to keep them open. They were shining like never before, happiness and relief being the two overflowing emotions in them. His cheeks had a very faint flush, probably from all of the running that he had just done. His lips looked great... so rosy, and soft-looking, and wet, and... oh god..!

"Ran..."

Her super-wrong-hormonally-driven thoughts were suddenly interrupted by Shinichi's voice, making her blush madly. How could she be thinking those things? It always made her feel so guilty when she thought of Shinichi like that... It was just... so... w-wrong! 'Oh, c'mon Ran!! Here's Shinichi lying in front of you, looking worse than you have ever seen him in your life, and you start to fantasize about him! How can you be like that?!' Despite her intense blushing, she tried to brush her thoughts aside.

"Shinichi... what happened to you? You look terrible..!"

Shinichi gave a small chuckle "Don't worry... It looks worse than it is." Pausing for a moment, he continued "I came over here to see if everything's okay.. nothing happened before I got here, right?"

"No... nothing happened... Why Shinichi? Is everything alright?" Asked a concerned Ran.

".. Y-yeah... yeah, everything's fine..."

"Shinichi..." warned Ran in a severe voice. She just knew he was keeping something!

"Ehh..." He knew she would ask sooner or later what exactly happened to him, or what was going on, but he really couldn't tell her yet! Vermouth was still to be captured! What if she did something to Ran for just knowing about his "case"? What if that woman, or maybe some other member of the organization that they hadn't captured, came and harmed her in any way? He would never be able to forgive himself! Not in this lifetime, nor in the next... But somehow.. somehow, he could figure out a way to let her know a little about what was going on, just so she wouldn't feel completely clueless, but at the same time, not inform her so much that she could be in danger. It wasn't impossible, actually...

"Well... it's just... That this is the case I always talked to you about, Ran." He said simply. Ran's expression changed into one of surprise, she obviously never quite believed that he had dedicated all of this time to just one case.

"The case? This.. this is the case?"

"Yeah..."

"But... but you're wounded, Shinichi. There's blood on your face.. why?"

"T-that's because... Alright, this is the thing. This case... It's just.. a bit different than the other ones I've handled before... While I've usually known who the victim of a crime is, and I just have to figure out how the murder was committed, and who the murderer is... In this case.. well, I know who the murderer is, who the victim is, and I know of the crime that has been committed... The only thing I have to do is figure out just, where the criminals are... I guess, that's.. well, more or less... what's been going on." Finished Shinichi a little awkwardly. He really didn't know what to say, but he guessed that was the closest to the reality of the situation though, so that was somewhat satisfying.

"You have to investigate where they are?"

"Yeah..."

"But if you know who they are, then you should be able to obtain their location immediately... right?"

"Well.. yes, but I only have most of their codenames, and not actual identities or anything... That's why it has taken so long... But last night, we were able to make some progress and managed to detain most of these criminals... I guess we now only have a couple of them left.." whispered Shinichi, he still wasn't able to breathe too well. Ran noticed this, so she stopped asking him about the case. She really didn't want his health to worsen by overworking his mind. Crouching a little so she could move from her spot, she sat a little closer to a Shinichi who now seemed to be a little worse than some moments ago. His eyes were tightly shut from an invisible pain that he was going through, and his body was shivering strongly from the cold water that saturated his clothes. Ran placed her arms around his body, embracing his figure while she gently pulled him towards her. She really wanted him to feel better, at least make him feel somewhat warmer! It really didn't matter if she was in her classroom, and everyone was watching.. and the whole.. school would.. soon f-find... out...

Ran's thoughts stopped. The mere realization of what she was doing, and of the many people that were now looking at the both of them, made her freeze completely. How could she forget her classmates? All of the students who were now watching silently, but that in 5 minutes would be screaming their heads off, telling the whole world on just exactly how Kudo Shinichi and Mouri Ran had been embracing just so very lovingly! 'Ahhh...!!! Oh god, oh god, nooooo!' thought Ran desperately, blood rising to her head like a raging volcano, the nervousness in her body causing for her to put even more pressure into the embrace. She took a quick glance towards Shinichi, and once she did, her previous worries vanished into thin air.

His head was lying on top of her shoulder, while exhaustion began to take over his body. It was a very sad image for Ran. Her best friend, also love interest, completely vulnerable for the first time in his life, semi-conscious on her shoulder, drenched to the bone, and even bleeding.'Shinichi... what have they done to you?' she thought as hot tears threatened to spill. Shinichi's eyes began to unlid at that moment, and as soon as he saw the warm tearmarks on her cheeks, his eyes opened up very widely.

"Ran.."

Before she could even respond, he gently cupped her face and carefully brushed her tears away, not wanting to see the beautiful, yet hurting crystal drops on her cheeks. Shinichi gazed deep into her eyes once again, and quickly mustering the smallest bits of energy left in his body, he closed the distance between them before anything else could change his mind. His mouth began to make contact with Ran's, not developing the kiss into anything passionate, just simply wanting to feel the softness of her lips against his. They spent a few moments like this, until Shinichi's lips slowly parted from Ran's while he reopened his eyes. Ran's eyes fluttered open a couple of seconds later, a deep blush of delight already spreading onto her cheeks.

"Shi-Shinichi..."

"Oh my gosh! Did you get that Sonoko-chan???" Asked excitedly one of the girls from the class.

"Yes!! You just have to see this picture Hikaru-chan, I got the magic of the kiss perfectly!" Responded Sonoko, showing all of the class the incredibly "magical" picture she had just taken.

Just as a beet, beet red Ran was close to screaming at Sonoko to stop and delete the so very embarrassing photograph, a team of paramedics suddenly rushed inside the classroom, making their way towards Shinichi and Ran.

"Alright, he's in here!"

"C'mon Kudo-san, let's take you to the hospital, you're not looking too good." Stated one of the paramedics while along with another man, both lifted the detective's weak body away from the ground, towards a gurney. Ran quickly got up and stood right next to Shinichi, wanting to accompany him to the hospital, but one of the men approached her before she could even open her mouth.

"I'm sorry miss, but you cannot come into the ambulance with the patient" said the man flatly, leaving no room for a discussion.

"Where are those police officers that called for an ambulance, anyway?" Asked one of the paramedics who was quickly filling out some paperwork.

"The FBI people? I believe they were making some arrests on the back of this building.. they called when they saw this boy run inside the school... at least that's what that Starling-san said, and she was the one who made the call..."

Ran focused her attention on Shinichi once again, directing her eyes towards his figure, and was surprised when she saw him smiling at her so very sweetly. His expression was one of fatigue, yet also one of pure felicity and peacefulness. He extended his fingers towards her direction, and noticing this, Ran quickly entwined her fingers with his while a content smile spread on both of their faces.

"I'll meet you in the hospital, okay? I'll be waiting for you..." whispered Ran, giving him a warm smile.

Shinichi smiled softly and nodded, while he gave Ran's hand a gentle squeeze before letting the long desired deep slumber overwhelm his senses.

There goes the first day of romance! I don't know how many there will be yet, but we'll see. n.n

Now that I've done my part, I ask you to... Please! Send a review! n.n It's just a button away... see? see? It's right down there, now move the mouse a little bit... ahhh there you go! Nice, very nice.. now click on it! C'mon buddy.. don't be shy..! n,n

O.OU

Ja ne!!