justonetruth | (no subject)

"It's in the lobby. Or it was yesterday. It had presents underneath of it in December, but I'm pretty sure it's not goin' anywhere. 's growin' from th' floor."

An annoyed noise, poking at her food. "'ve got nothin'. There might be people in charge, controllin' this place, but they haven't show themselves."

"Growing from the floor." Suggesting tree and mansion had been there some time -- but what did that mean?

"As far as I can tell at this early point, the salient points seem to be: One. The method of our arrival. No one seems to remember it happening or intend to come here." Conan paused to allow Ran or Hattori to contest this before continuing. "Two. The discrepancies in time. Three. The location and nature of this place. And four -- which is related to two -- the alternates."

Ran had been listening to the conversation with interest -- this was the first time he'd really gotten to see Shinichi and Heiji talk to each other as detectives with nothing in the way, and he had to admit it was pretty impressive.

"I don't think anybody knows when they're about to leave, either," he chipped in. "I was talking to a psychic version of you and even he couldn't figure it out." And then quickly, before Conan could pounce on that 'psychic', "And I've been outside. If you go far enough everything starts to get really foggy. I had to turn back after a little while because I couldn't see anything."

"One, two, and three, I've got nothin' on. Four... Well, it's kinda hard ta deny the alternates."

A glance at Ran. "Yeah, I went out there. I might have gotten turned around in th' fog, but I walked straight ahead and wound up back at th' front door."

"Nothing?" That was -- alarming. Even more than Ran's alternate dimension theory. Three months and Hattori didn't have a lead--

"I think we can assume that the fog is deliberate -- either the location was chosen because it would be hard to investigate or the fog is engineered to create the same effect," Conan decided. "Nothing else you've noticed--" Conan paused, unsure what name was more approrpiate. "Uh -- Hattori-san?"

"'Hattori-san'?" Ran repeated, disbelievingly, though the smug grin on his face indicated that it was more than half act. "Aren't you two on a first name basis yet? She already knows who you are..."

"Jus' Hattori's fine."

And it suddenly hit her, the realization that she was female and Kudo was male and Ran was male. And that's how it was in that world. And Ran is teasing and teasing means...

Not going there. Not ever. Not letting herself go there. Not Kudo. Not her. Not ever.

"Or," covering over the moment with a hasty continuation of conversation, "there's nothin' out there. There's nothin' here, no information, no clues, nothin'. Jus' this building an' th' alternate versions'a people."

"Oh. 'n th' pillow fight."

"That's different," Conan said immediately, trying to pretend he wasn't pink. It wasn't working -- Ran was so going to hear about this later. "Hattori then."

"That can't be a possibility, can it?" Conan seized the distraction gratefully, although the possibility Hattori had raised alarmed him. True they hadn't found anything that seemed promising yet -- but that didn't mean they wouldn't.

"... pillow fight?"

Ran was of the mind that it was totally worth it.

Though he was also pinged by Hattori's comment. "Pillow fight?"

Kudo does not need to be turning strange colors. It doesn't help with her whole 'try to pretend you don't like him' thing.

"That was somethin' strange that actually happened, instead'a just being a feature'a this place. 'm surprised no one's mentioned it yet."

Though, she's not sure who's still around from November.

"November... fifteenth. Nothing unusual had happened, 'n then everyone was wearing their pajamas an' th' floor was covered in th' remains 'f a pillow fight."

It's not doing much for Conan's 'Convincing Ran there is nothing going on there' campaign.

He's trying very hard not to picture Hattori's pyjamas. "Everyone? So -- everyone was gathered in the one place? Was that deliberate?"

"And it was just the leftovers of a fight?" Ran queried further. "Nobody was actually playing?"

Oh yeah, and the nightgown wasn't even her's. Waaay more see-through than anything she owned. Hakuba had turned odd colors.

"Not in one place, but in different places 'n we were before. I'm never gonna be able ta talk ta that Hakuba again."

A grin at Ran. "Exactly."

"Why wouldn't you be able to--" Conan trailed off as the reasoning part of his brain filled in the blanks for him.

... he'd never liked Hakuba much to start.

Ran's thoughts had followed a similar line of reasoning, and the boy flushed. "What kind of pajamas were you in?"

She flushes dark red, protesting. "It wasn't actually a nightgown I owned. 'n it wasn't that bad. Jus'... Hakuba."

That wasn't much better. Especially not with Heij-- ahem. Hattori's blush. "You're friends with Hakuba-san?" Conan said politely, plotting the demise of this Hakuba -- or at least, the demise of any bits of Hakuba within Conan's range.

Ran took full note of how Hattori didn't actually say what kind of pajamas she'd been in, then took note of Conan's expression, and decided to just sit back and enjoy the show.

This conversation was turning out to be even better than he'd expected.

"No! I'm not friends wi' him."

But the blush isn't going away.

"Ya know how important both our dad's are in th' police. 'n both our families support arranged marriages."

The last sentence came as an annoyed mutter.

"What? But that's--"

From Conan's shocked tone it is only to easy to deduce that 1. Conan hadn't known anything of the sort. And 2. Hakuba might want to invest in knee protectors.

Ran apparently hadn't been expecting it either.

"You're engaged?!" he half-yelped, almost totally shocked. Hakuba and Hattori had never gotten along. It was a thing to boggle at.

"Not 'f I have any say in it."

They had met for the first time at the Koshien. It hadn't gone over well at all, both trying to one-up the other, both not liking the personality of the other, both coming out of it able to tolerate the presence of the other, but nothing more. Then, as she was retelling the case to her mother, she found out what their parents had been planning.

Heiji was resigned to the idea by now, nothing more than a token attempt at rebelling.

"Is that -- all right? They can't actually make you--" He knew this wasn't the Heiji he knew, but that didn't seem to make the slightest bit of difference to his reaction. He and Heiji, they'd never talked about this--

"Yeah, why would you put up with that at all?" Ran asked, just as bewildered. Hattori-san was the last girl he'd expected to get caught in an arranged marriage. He thought she'd be raising high hell all over half of Japan if it was even mentioned.

"'m not putting up with it."

She's already been through this with her Kudo, and doesn't particularly want to repeat everything.

"They're not gonna make me go through wi' it if it's obvious it's not gonna work."

I wouldn't be suprised...

He's probably never seen Conan and Hattori behaving like adults. This must be totally new.

That's pretty much exactly it.

Ah, poor Ran.

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