Shinichi had planned everything in excruciating detail for White Day. He decided he wouldn't try to make chocolates surreptitiously, not even with Ran's help. He picked these out special, not something exotic that would try to bamboozle her with the money he could throw at the problem. He was lucky in that respect. When he's arrived at the store, they were out of white chocolates with cookies and cream, but an employee was just restocking them, and he got the first of the new batch.

He has his itinerary set down to the minute, but he baked in an extra couple of hours to get to Shiho's place because, well, he was Shinichi Kudo, and if a day passed without someone calling upon him for a case, it would've been a surprise. Sure enough, about ten minutes before he was due to leave for the station, he got a call about a dead body in a shrub maze. Getting lost with one's lover, in a place with lots of privacy—a good place for a date and a murder. He wished he'd thought of that—for a date, of course, not anything else. Just as he was starting to worry about making the train on time, he spotted a few birds running underneath the shrubs and realized how the killer escaped without being noticed. If not for that casual glance, he would've been late.

When he arrived at Shiho's lab, it was already far later than he'd hoped, but Shiho was still running an experiment, and her advisor led him to Shiho's desk to wait. It was only thanks to that coincidence of timing that he was there when another man showed up.

"Who are you?" the other man asked.

Shinichi didn't see a point in getting his name involved. "I'm waiting for someone."

"This is Miyano-san's desk," the other man said.

Shinichi nodded.

The other man seemed to start processing what that meant. He had a small box under his arm, with white wrapping paper and pink ribbon. "What's your relationship to Miyano-san?"

"I'm her boyfriend," Shinichi said.

"What? No, I—I'm her boyfriend!"

A good detective can look into a man's eyes, listen to his affect and cadence, and even smell emotion in the air. He can do all that and get a good idea of the truth, but it's far from proof. "You know she loves classic cars," Shinichi said. "I tried showing off a friend's Porsche 356A, but she wasn't impressed. No reaction."

"Of course she wasn't impressed. She's infamously picky."

Shinichi shot him a look that said wrong answer, and the other man shrank.

"Okay," the other man admitted. "She was my girlfriend, before. I was hoping, uh—"

"You can speak to her if you like," Shinichi said, rising from Shiho's chair. "I'll be outside."

"Are you sure?"

Shinichi was quite sure. If he was the man Shinichi was thinking of, he and Shiho were still friends, and it would probably be better if he got the idea out of his system—one way or another. Besides, no one could tell Shiho Miyano who to date or fall in love with. If Shinichi tried to manipulate someone out of her life, all these fortunate moments that had put him in that chair just in time to see this would've been all for naught.

Shinichi waited in the break room outside Shiho's lab, and after about half an hour, he saw Shiho's friend wander out, box in hand but unwrapped and opened. A good touch. Shinichi approved.

Shiho followed soon after, not quite as composed and cool as she usually was. "Sorry about that," she said, and she shot a glance down the hall. "I didn't know he felt that way."

He slid the box of white chocolates with cookies and cream over to her, and she opened them without asking—so typical of her that it made him smile.

"Why cookies and cream?" she asked after finishing a piece.

He could give a hundred reasons, but more than any other, he thought that it was fitting for her. Regular chocolate is smooth. The cookie bits inside gave the chocolate an irregular and unpredictable texture. That always kept him on his guard, but it wasn't a bad thing. Everybody likes cookies, after all. As for the cream, it felt fitting of her cool side, and aside from that, he liked the taste.

"Sounds like you got chocolates for me that you could've liked to receive," she said, sliding the box back to him jokingly.

"I might've been hoping for a taste."

"Oh really?" She unwrapped another piece, and he tried snatching it from her fingers, but she plopped it into her mouth. "Too bad," she said, and if she weren't trying so hard to be cool, she would've been grinning ear-to-ear, he was sure.

"You shouldn't eat so much chocolate before dinner," he insisted, and as she took a third piece from the box, he caught her hand.

"Hey!" she cried. "It's mine!"

"Let's play rock-paper-scissors for it," he offered.

There was a flash in her eye. She always liked a good chance to best him, so she agreed. Shinichi felt that fortune was on his side that day, so as they prepared themselves, he was confident and sure. He'd cut through every obstacle already, so he played scissors.

Shiho played rock.

With a sigh, Shinichi pushed the third piece of chocolate toward her, and she happily took a bite, too satisfied with herself, and as Shinichi prodded her to pack it up and get ready for dinner—they'd have to stop by her place first to let her freshen up—he lamented that he'd been so irrational in thinking that luck was on his side. Any practical mind such as his would recognize that some things are the product of chance, of variables far too complex and uknonwn for one man's mind to predict. That store clerk had had to restock the chocolates well before Shinichi had ever walked into the store. Those birds were just following their instincts. Shinichi's timing in being in Shiho's chair was not any providence but just a happy accident.

Even so, on their way out of the lab, Shiho did something unexpected. She tugged on his shoulder, just enough to get his attention, and kissed him. She kissed him so deeply and passionately—how did she manage to turn that up so quickly and always act cool after?—that it was almost enough to make him believe in luck again.

"You seemed disappointed earlier," she explained as she pulled away. "How about now?"

"I—I'm good," he said.

She smiled at that, and for a moment, Shinichi thought he tasted a little bit of cream.

For CoAi Central's 2018 White Day writing challenge.