Chapter Text
When Shinichi finally rid himself of Heiji all he wanted to do was sleep, but there was one task to do first. He grabbed his bow tie, for the last time he sincerely hoped, and dialed that all too familiar number. When the phone stopped ringing there were silent sobs on the other end… She answered, then she hung up abruptly, so Shinichi ended up calling an entirely different number instead. It rung a couple of times before the voice he was waiting for, it was slightly scratchy.
“Evening Fox,” the voice was as close to casual as the blond’s got. Shinichi frowned, he was smoking again, “how did the antidote take?” He asked nonchalantly, Shinichi switched which side he had the phone on.
“You’re smoking again, what did Vermouth do this time?” Shinichi questioned. He heard the blond scoff, “or was it Haibara this time? Araide sensei said you need to lay off the smoking…”
“You’re nosy,” the blond growled, “Vermouth was teasing Vodka, I stepped in and got sent to Anokata. My arm is sore, end of story. Why did you call?” Shinichi smiled at the thought of the two other agents working at each other, but Anokata made him shiver. The boss of the Black Organization, a fearsome individual that had yet to be identified and caused more terror than could be measured.
“Are you alright?” Shinichi asked with genuine concern, “your arm was only partially mended due to your experimental drugs, and you aren’t supposed to be smoking while you were taking them…” The blond sounded irritated at being caught, but it didn’t seem nearly so irritated as it used to.
“It’s fine, Sherry’s horse tranquillizer of a pain pill works far too well,” the blond muttered, his speech was ever so slightly slurred. Shinichi however knew that wasn’t the pain pill causing it, he frowned picturing it.
“Spit out that cigarette, you said that it could lead to a loss in bone density in combination with that bone mending drug you concocted! Why would you intentionally make your bones more brittle?” Shinichi reasoned, the assassin growled on the other side of the line, sensing the hesitation Shinichi continued, “I know you don’t want to, but at least do it while you are using the bone mending compounds on yourself. There’s always the nicotine patch in the mean time…” That earned him a snort.
“I have been smoking the entire time I have been using the compound Fox, and I said there was a risk of osteoporosis and loss of bone density. I’ve more than increased my calcium intake to deal with that,” the assassin countered. This was the problem, since Gin actually knew chemistry and biochemistry, had the assassin known any other subject he might have even considered listening. Unlikely and doubtful as it was, the blond only listened when it was life or death, not when it was something that could threaten his life in the future. “Also, I smoke by choice, that patch is designed for people who want to quit, which isn’t me.”
“While that may be true, did you ever consider what smoking does to your lungs?” Shinichi decided upon instead, he had seen the pictures. It was one thing that Holmes did that Shinichi utterly refused to try, the other being his seven percent solution of cocaine. “Then again when have you ever cared about your own health in that way I suppose…” If the detective phrased this right he might get some interesting results in the very least.
“Is this your way of worrying about me Fox? It’s more irritating than anything else… hmm,” the assassin stopped talking at that, probably dropping the phone into his pocket was what it sounded like, but the effect the assassin had hoped to achieve did not occur. The voices on the other end of the phone were perfectly clear… He could only listen in horror.
GIN
Anokata's enforcer lieutenants stood in front of him, looking rather amused. Ever the master assassin, he pulled his Beretta out and clicked the safety off in a matter of seconds. A simple reflex for someone who dealt with death frequently, questions could be answered after threats were incapacitated appropriately. The two enforcers backed up, Gin gave the barest hint of a smirk.
"Who were you on the phone with Gin? You're girlfriend?" one of them, Hops if he was not mistaken, asked. Gin pulled the hammer back with a quirk of his eyebrow.
"Or perhaps a boyfriend?" Barley took a step forward, and Gin squeezed the trigger. Barley dropped and Hops froze, Gin knew the Fox was still on the other end of the line.
"Don't threaten me," Gin warned the remaining enforcer, "I assassinate people for a living." Hops watched the blood seep out of his partner's neck, with each beat of his heart he inched closer to death. His eyes stayed trained on the blond, realizing the mistake was entirely on them.
"We were told to investigate your movements," the man explained, "the boss is worried you've been leaking secrets to an outside source."
"Hardly," Gin scowls, "I shoot people. I enjoy shooting people, especially people that piss me off. It's why I assign the targets through the assassination branch, leaks are bad for business."
"I'm realizing this," Hops responds, "well if it isn't you then who is selling out Organization secrets?" Gin rolls his eyes and pulls the phone out of his pocket pressing the end call button. No need for the Fox to know any more than he did.
"Secrets fall into that woman's hands. Did Anokata take that into consideration?" Gin asked placing the phone back into his pocket, "she sent you." Hops nodded, seeming to understand that this wasn't going to end well for him. Especially now that his partner was dead, and that he was now trapped in a room with a very pissed off assassin.
"She implied, Anokata sent us," Hops raised his hands, "I'm dead aren't I?"
"Under normal circumstances you would be," Sherry interrupts with a scowl, "Gin doesn't have any open spots for extra bodies at the moment. I'm also out of hydrochloric acid, so he doesn't have anywhere else to dissolve the extras." Gin raises an eyebrow, none of the places he stored bodies were occupied. That would be no incriminating evidence, the only dead body was Barley.
"Who are you?" Hops asked. Sherry scowled and held up a menacing looking needle full of something green.
"It's not radioactive," she smirks in a way that would have made the Fox shiver. Gin should never have taught her that, Hops faints as she flicks the tube innocently before pushing the plunger.
"Food dye?" Gin asks looking at the out cold agent.
"Of course," Sherry nods.
"I've taught you well," Gin pulls his phone out and dials the Fox back, "have Vodka do something with Hops. I know exactly where Barley is going. Fox, no… just an idiot operative, no innocents bystanders this time."
KUDOU SHINICHI
The gunshot rang in Shinichi's ear for a couple moments before Gin called back, it turned out that Sherry had frightened the remaining officer into fainting using nothing more than green food dye in a syringe. The blond had of course shot someone, they did in fact die, and it would be taken care of. The blond had put on a hands free headset and was taking care of the body. Gin told him that he was leaving him in Vermouth's room as a warning, Shinichi couldn't decide if he should be disgusted or grateful that the master assassin was just interested in sending her a message.
He was perched on his chair, and trying to decide how to ask the assassin what he should tell his best friend… He couldn't tell her everything, but was there really anything he could actually tell her at all? He'd been supposedly gone for over a year, did he tell is her he was Conan? Did he tell her it was a fluke that someone else showed up looking like him and that he was in a coma? Well that last one was ridiculous even for him, lying was never an option. Did he tell her he was in too deep and couldn't talk about it.
"Gin?" Shinichi whispers. The assassin grunts, and he takes that as his sign to continue, "what do I tell Ran?" The line is silent for several moments, there's the subtle click on the other end. It's most likely a doorknob. He hears the sound of the phone being dropped in the assassin's pocket again. He waits, Gin isn't the type to simply hang up or leave the phone on like that.
It takes a few minutes, and there's the sound of another door shutting over the line, then the clink of a lock, a tad more shuffling before the phone sounds like it is being removed from the pocket it was placed in.
"Why ask me Fox?"the response isn't the flat tone he would have expected.
“Why not you? The terms of our deal was that no one else be involved, obviously telling her is out of the question,” Shinichi pauses, “I can’t exactly lie, you’ve seen how bad I am at that.” There’s a sigh on the other end of the line, it's not as though Gin hasn’t already thought about it. He had mentioned dealing with Ran was going to be the most challenging part of this.
“Look Fox, I’m good at two things which are killing people and scaring people. Neither of which is the answer to this situation if I know anything about you at all. Talk to girl, tell her what you think needs to be said to make her understand that you can’t tell her what happened,” the assassin responds. It's not the words that he needed hear, it's that Gin doesn’t feel the need to kill Ran that makes him relax that way.
“I’ll handle it then, but we really do need to talk about what happens next,” Shinichi points out, “give me a week to work the situation out with Ran.”
“I’ll be surprised if it takes you that long Fox, I’ll stop by next week if I don’t hear anything,” Gin’s comment is strangely comforting, Shinichi realizes that he’ll probably call him before that. The phone clicks, and Shinichi knows that he won’t be calling back this time.
He sits there staring at the phone knowing he should call Ran and let her know that he’s back. Let her know that he’s okay now, but at the same time… Things aren’t alright, things have changed. Will he tell her he was Conan? Will she kill him if she finds out? Probably not, will she believe him? Who’s to say, maybe he should call Kaitou and ask for a favor? No, it's probably best he gets this over with.
“Hello?” her voice is quiet, and he realizes he hasn’t said a word. Does he want to do this in person? Does he want to tell her over the phone? What about the deal? Will Gin still let him see Ran?
“It’s me,” Shinichi answers after a moment. He hears the soft crying, “do you have time to talk?”
“Of course Shinichi, what’s going on?” Ran’s voice is hesitant, he can’t tell if it's because he's nervous or she's upset.
“I’m back, for good,” Shinichi blurts. He can hear the breath she sucks in at the news.
“That’s great news Shinichi,” he can hear her start crying across the line, “can I see you?” He feels bad for making her wait, but Shinichi knows now what he needs to do.
“Sure Ran,” he lets the sad cross his face. He knows this won’t be easier for either of them, but he needs to get part of his guilt off his chest. He could be honest to a extent, he loved Ran like a sister, like a best friend. As much as cared for Ran, his feelings for the assassin had grown to something he didn’t really understand, but it was different...