Kazuha didn't really remember what happened in those two weeks she apparently spent in Tokyo. According to Heiji, he'd been working on a big case with the elusive Kudo Shinichi and she'd forced her way on to the bike, as she always did.

Then, some sort of showdown happened and, in the course of that, she got hurt and ended up losing her memories. They had stayed in Tokyo until she regained them.

It was a simple, plausible explanation made more believable by Kudo's actual presence. But it didn't explain Heiji's downright weird behavior.

The first item of note, and probably the biggest, was The Kiss. Out of nowhere, clueless old Heiji had kissed her, right on the lips. And, as happy as that had made her, looking back, it was just so undeniably strange….

Another item of notice. When she'd woken up, she'd woken up wearing one of Hakase's shirt's and a pair of Kudo's pants. If this wasn't strange, she didn't know what was. Apparently, her clothes had been messed up somehow, but then that raised the question of who had dressed her?

And finally, there was just the matter of Heiji in general. Ever since they'd returned from Tokyo, he'd been just plain strange. She wasn't quite sure where they even stood now, he'd kissed her, but only that once and they hadn't talked about it since. But Heiji just…something was off.

It was little things, mostly, but the little things were little things that Hattori Heiji just did not do. Like grab her coat out of the closet when he was already wearing his, or straightening her scarf when he met her at her door to walk to school. They weren't strange actions in general, just strange for Heiji.

It wasn't that she was complaining, it's just that she didn't understand why he was suddenly so helpful with things that she could certainly do on her own. Just the other day, she had tripped and Heiji not only helped her up, which was not overly strange for him, he wasn't completely heartless, but then he proceeded to dust her off, his hands ghosting over some very inappropriate places, without blushing or making lewd jokes, or even leering a little bit. And if she even got injured in aikido practice, for some reason, Heiji had Band-Aids on his person and insisted on applying them.

Overall, it just let her with a sense of something missing, of some joke she was not in on.

\_/

"Kazuha? Oi, Kazuha?" Heiji called, knocking on the door to her house when she didn't appear like she normally did. There was no answer, but beyond the door, Heiji could here noises that sounded like cursing and….

Dammit, was she crying?

Heiji let himself in and walked to her room. He opened the door.

The cardboard thing on the ground appeared to be the science project that was due today, the one he'd finished and turned in earlier in the week. It was badly mangled; it looked as though someone had probably tripped over it. The person likely to have done such a thing was on the ground in front of it, her face red and marred by tracks of tears on her cheeks. Her green eyes were wide and startled; he'd opened the door without knocking.

Silently, Heiji regarded his best friend, who sat on the ground, sniffling and trying to wipe the tears off her face. Then, without a word, Heiji knelt down in front of her with his handkerchief and started to dab at her cheeks.

"Come on now, it's not that bad." He said quietly.

"Everything's going wrong." Kazuha said back, appalled to find that her voice was still thick with tears. She sounded like such a child!

Heiji pulled her to her feet and then retrieved her school uniform from her closet, pushing it into her arms. "Go get dressed."

When Kazuha returned, she found her project straightened up and taped back together as neatly as was probably possible. She carried it to the kitchen and sat it on the table as she tried to haphazardly pull up her hair. The brush was snatched out of her hand a couple of seconds later.

A piece of toast and a bowl of cereal slid in front of her.

"Eat." Heiji ordered. "I already called and said we'd be late. I think they assumed we got stopped by a case, but I didn't correct them."

"Okay." Kazuha agreed, subdued. She began to eat the cereal and Heiji shifted behind her.

Something brushed through her hair.

Kazuha started, nearly spilling her cereal, before Heiji's hand landed on her shoulder.

"Heiji—!" Kazuha exclaimed.

"Eat." He ordered again. "I'll fix your hair, we can't be too late or they'll count us tardy if we don't show up with an excuse."

"Okay…" Kazuha began to eat again, slowly, paying far too much attention to the brush as it ran through her hair, slowly coaxing it higher, until it was in its normal spot and Heiji tied her ribbon in and backed away. "Where did you learn to make a ponytail, Heiji?"

Her voice was small and hesitant and she didn't know why and could tell he didn't either. "Neechan taught me. Actually, she showed me how to do pigtails…it's the same, right? Just all in one and at the back?"

"Yeah." Kazuha said, her mind busy with the question of why Ran would need to teach Heiji how to make pigtails.

"Kazuha?" Heiji said suddenly and now it was his voice that sounded strange, off in a way she didn't understand. She stood and faced him, head tilted in curiosity.

"Yeah?" she asked hesitantly, because who knew what was about to happen?

"I…" he stepped closer to her and there was some emotion in his eyes, some foreign emotion that seemed so strange, so deep… "I can't tell you everything, not yet, but I can tell you one thing."

"Tell me what?" Kazuha asked.

"That you're special." He said and swallowed hard. "You're special to me. I…I'm no good, at talking about my feelings, Kazuha…"

She smiled. "Yeah, I know."

He looked both reassured and nervous at that. "I know you know, you know everything about me worth knowing." He chuckled. "I guess….I guess what I'm trying to say is, I don't know what liking someone, or loving someone is. I don't. But…I'm willing to find out. With you. If you want to."

Kazuha didn't break down into tears at the confession, which is something she always feared she might do if Heiji confessed to her. She smiled and it was smile that was shy and knowing at the same time. She stood on her tip toes and pressed a tiny kiss to his mouth, a mere peck. Nothing like the firm kiss that Heiji had given her, but that was a good thing. Things didn't always have to be so hard and fast as he would have them.

"I want to." She said, backed away. He grabbed her wrists and pulled her back and she let him. "Let's take things slow, though, okay? I don't…we don't need to go rushing into things. You'll always be my best friend first, don't forget that."

His arms were around her then, crushing her to him and again she was reminded of that day in Tokyo."You'll always be my best friend, Kazuha. Always."

They ended up being counted as tardy and neither of them cared.

\_/

He felt changed.

It wasn't such a bad change, not by any means, but the way he felt towards Kazuha was…different now.

He gets it now, he knows that somewhere along the line, he fell for her, the insufferable ahou, fell for her hard and he's been left spinning ever since the realization, ever since he kissed her, he kissed her, oh no, what have I done?

But if she was going to let it slide, then he would too. Honestly, he didn't know what was happening, really. He just knew that when he looked at her, he saw someone completely different than he had before and yet, so familiar it made his heart ache.

He saw a young woman with fierce green eyes and he saw a little girl with her hair in pigtails. He cared about them both, he wanted to protect them both, hold them close, shield them from the world. He didn't know what to do with himself.

Vaguely, he wondered if Ran was having the same problems as him and decided, no, she wasn't, probably because Kudo hadn't managed to tell her yet. But he wondered if she still carried Band-Aids and wet wipes in her purse in case Conan-kun tripped or made a mess. He had them in the inner pockets of his jacket, now, he'd gotten used to having some on hand, Kazuha had not been the most coordinated of children.

It seems, even after just a short two weeks, he had gotten used to getting her ready every morning, making her breakfast, making sure everything was in order with her, that her shoes were still tied, that her hair hadn't been messed up, that she was wearing a jacket before they left and that her scarf was around her neck properly.

Her found himself checking the big, normal Kazuha over for these things too. Sometimes, he couldn't help himself, he had to fix her scarf or she would catch a cold, he had to button the button on her jacket that she missed, he just had to.

And if she fell, it was normal to brush the dirt off of her skirt, right? She couldn't just go walking around with dirt all over her.

Things were just so confusing now. He wanted to keep her safe and take care of her, but he had wanted that before, when they were just friends.

The only thing he really knows for certain is that he'd like to kiss her again. He thinks it would make her smile.

\_/

This here is probably the end of this one, I hope everyone enjoyed it! I just had this sudden desire to read a story with a shrunken Kazuha, but I think here and possibly Aoko are the only ones who I've never seen shrunken. I mean Ran gets to be shrunk, and Heiji, and Kaito, but not Kazuha or Aoko? Where's the love?

I might possibly have something up again pretty soon, a different story. It'll be H/K and so far its...kind of strange. Some of you might remember it from that poll forever ago, it was called Purpose, though I might change the title.

Anyways, please review and tell me what you think, I'd really appreciate it!

-katie and Kirby