Merry Christmas @shsl-box-worshipper! I’m your @dcmksecretsanta, and this is your gift! I tried to mix fluff and angst in here as you said you like, so I hope you enjoy it! Have a very nice Christmas day!
Thank you to the org behind the event for making this possible ❤️
Hey @artycreaty! Sorry that it’s a little late, I had to make some last-minute changes to the storyline and it took some time to rewrite it. Here’s your gift for the @dcmksecretsanta event!
It was super fun to write, and I enjoyed playing around with a Shinichi who grew up so different from canon and didn’t become a famous high school detective!
It’s been a long time since I wrote anything, practically a year and 2020 was awful and 2021 didn’t start off well either because of a relative’s death. But anyway, I hope you guys like what I’ve written.
If you wanna support me, I would be highly grateful. My paypal is: paypal.me/filterish
It was truly horrible that Ran was dealt such a awful card in her life. An alcoholic father, a workaholic mother and an innate disposition of wanting to please people whom she loved.
She could have lived with the first two cards but it was the third one that made her life difficult. Wanting to do the best she could at academics so she could get praised by her absent parents, wanting to have friends so that she could answer her mother’s questions about her friendships with conviction, wanting to work so that she could take care of the monetary burdens… wants, wants, wants.
To be honest, all she wanted was peace. To not be involved in her separated yet together parents’ tumultuous relationship. Sometimes thinking about her family made her chest hurt and throat tickle. She loved her mother and she loved her father. But she didn’t love them together. And when she came to realize that at the age of twenty, she finally let go.
She had worried and schemed to get her parents back together practically her whole life but now, she knew that if they didn’t want to be together, all her efforts would be in vain. So, at the age of twenty, with a heavy heart, she decided to let her family go. She stopped calling her mother to fix a date with her father, she stopped pestering her father about giving a fuck about her mother. And then came the realization that she was lonely. So lonely that her heart ached.
She hadn’t managed to make friends, life long friends people would go on about, because she was focused on bettering herself so that her parents would praise her. On the flip side, she had gotten into one of the best universities in Tokyo and was studying her desired subject about Medicine. Most days she could live with the pay off. Having a stable career would help in surviving alone a lot.
People in her class would invite her to hang out and she would say yes, just to sit there and observe them. For some reason, the buzzing chatter of her classmates soothed her a lot. They would gossip or discuss about classes or professors and Ran would sit there with a slight smile on her face and her heart feeling lighter. She craved companionship.
With that thought in her mind, she decided to open up with her college classmates. She knew the names of the people in her class, thankfully and so, with a cheery smile she used to plaster on at her high school, she slid into the conversation about the college’s professors.
“… And Tsukiyama-sensei gives us so maaaany diagrams to draw,” Hayami-san was whining, “I have a part time job to do and then that teacher’s homework… I don’t get the time to unwind at all.”
“He does push us a lot,” Ran said and noticed the sort of surprised looks of her three classmates, though they quickly covered it up.
“You find it hard too, huh, Ran-san?” Sonoko-san said, “With your grades, I thought it would be easy for you to catch up.”
Ran quickly grabbed the opportunity to continue the conversation, thankful that the atmosphere didn’t turn awkward at her sudden interruption, “Ah, well, I don’t actually have a lot to do, you know? Mostly studies and a part time job as an assistant at a detective agency.”
“Detective agency?!” The three of them exclaimed and faced Ran fully.
Her smile grew sheepish as she said, “Ahhhh, but, nothing interesting happens when I’m there. Usually, I just have to compile all the data and file them.”
“But, still! You must have found something interesting there!” Aoko-san said, with her eyes shining with excitement, “A case? Or a person? Have you ever helped the detective, Ran-san?”
Ran shook her head no, “I’m not allowed to work on the cases, Aoko-san. As a matter of fact, I’ve not even seen the detective yet, I usually work in the evening, after my classes are done.”
Hearing that, the three of them looked concerned and Hayami-san spoke, “Ran-san, are you sure that’s safe? I mean,” she shared a look full of concern with Sonoko-san and Aoko-san, “you have never seen whom you work with, right? What if it’s some super shady guy?”
Ran chuckled a bit and said, “It’s okay, Hayami-san. I’m trained in karate. Plus, the agency I work at is super reputed. It’s just that the guy whom I’m assigned to is very, very busy and even other employees have said that it’s rare to see him in the office. He works at very odd hours.”
That did nothing to alleviate their concern and Ran felt a bit touched. This was the first time she was having a proper conversation with them and the four of them were practically strangers yet Hayami-san, Sonoko-san and Aoko-san were so concerned about her well being.
Aoko-san was apprehensive and she murmured, “If you say so, Ran-san,” and then in a more chipper tone asked, “Which agency do you work at?”
“Kudo Detective Agency.” Ran replied.
Hearing that, the three of them were even more animated in their response, “THE Kudo Detective Agency?” Aoko-san gasped in disbelief.
“Wait, the famous ex-policeman one?!” Sonoko-san exclaimed.
“The one that has this hot, handsome guy working there?” Hayami-san said.
All of them turned to look at Hayami-san and she shrugged sheepishly, “What? Everybody knows that there is this rumored handsome guy who works there and is seen like once in every millennia,” she said sarcastically.
Sonoko-san swatted her friend and Aoko-san clicked her tongue, waving her comment away and turned her attention back to Ran, “You really work at Kudo Detective Agency, Ran-san? Oh, wow. It houses the best of the best detectives.”
Sonoko-san nodded and said, “Damn, you must have impressed the Kudo husband and wife duo a lot. Seeing that they have such a strict policy and criteria to employ people.”
And with that, the three of them were off chattering about the elusive Kudos. Ran chipped in whenever she could but mostly listened while they were talking. She didn’t have the heart to tell them that only reason she works there is to spite her father in an act of rebellion.
The Kudous were not the reason her father was a piss poor detective but she had spent her teenagers listening to him whine about how Kudo Yuusaku was responsible for the lack of cases in Mouri Detective Agency. And at that time, Ran did what she could to help him, guide her high school classmates in need, put up posters, advertise in newspapers… she did what she could but her father was too prideful to take small cases and too incompetent to work properly on big ones. And by then, the ex-policeman Yuusaku and ex-actress-turned-housewife had established a proper detective agency housing some of the brightest, youngest detectives.
When she cut ties with her family, she decided to do what she wanted. And so, she offered her services to the Kudous. She knew she could be an excellent assistant and she proved herself by working for a week under Yuusaku Kudo herself. From organization to appointments to little treats or snacks for the clients… she did what she could have been doing for her father.
And by the time the week had ended, she was employed with a good salary. She thought that working there would hinder her Medicine study course but the detective whom she was assigned to had a set of orders ready when she entered his office.
She was surprised at first because no one was there to greet her on her first day, just a piece of paper telling her not to come during day time and that her work was to organize the papers that were kept on the table. Sure, there were scribbled notes scattered everywhere on the table but a quick glance clued her in that those were case notes. Case notes of multiple cases, to be exact.
She found it extremely odd that the detective whom she was supposed to assist had never shown himself. All she knew was that his name was Kudou Shinichi, Kudou Yuusaku and Yukiko’s son, and was an excellent detective. He had grown up in the States and had come back at the age of twenty with plethora of experience under his belt.
Ran chalked up never seeing him to some weird quirk of his. Truthfully, she liked working there. The Kudou couple treated her kindly, the assistants of other detectives were warm and welcoming, even the other detectives greeted her and indulged in small talk. The work wasn’t difficult, the pay was excellent, the timing fit her college schedule perfectly; everything was great except for never having seen her superior’s face.
Ran sighed as she brought herself back to present. Aoko-san was talking about the lab work they had just finished and Ran smiled lightly. Having friends like them would be nice, she thought. And swore to herself that she would make the effort to know them better.
That day, she felt very calm as she entered her office. The Kudo Shinichi plaque at the door greeted her and she opened it, mentally gearing herself up for the stack of papers that was bound to be there, only to be greeted by a man, who was shuffling through them.
“Umm… hello?” Ran asked hesitantly, not wanting to jump to conclusions about who this man was.
The man faced her and smiled a bright smile, which left Ran disarmed. “Hello, you must be Mouri Ran-san?” he asked.
Ran felt a little discombobulated, she hadn’t anticipated someone being inside the office. “Uhh… yes, I am. And you are…?” she didn’t want to presume who he was but she had a little inkling of whom he could be.
“Ah, sorry for introducing myself late,” and he walked up to her and held his hand up for a greeting, “My name is Kudou Shinichi… and ahh, I’m supposed to be working here,” he said in a playful tone with a smirk that showed a dimple on his left cheek.
The only thought that crossed her mind at that moment was what Hayami-san had said a few hours before. He really was a gorgeous man.
“What, why?” Ran was confused why she had to kiss him. The situation didn’t warrant for a make out at all.
“It’s the only way.” Shinichi answered gravely. And for a minute, Ran was on alert. Had she missed something? Had the people they were tailing somehow spotted them out?
And so she stepped closer in front of him, just in caution and asked under her breath, “The only way for what?”
“It’s the only way,” he answered back with a serious glint in his eye, his jaw clenched. And for a second, Ran’s head was full of thoughts about how hot her boyfriend looked. She shook her distracting thoughts off, surreptitiously glanced around and stepped further closer to him.
“The only way for what, Shinichi?” She asked again when they were almost chest to chest and Shinichi still had that grave look on his face.
Slowly, his arm circled her waist and he bent down to reach Ran’s eyes. She instinctively looped her arms behind his neck, waiting for an answer while looking around the street in order to find out who had found them.
She got distracted when she felt warm breath on her lips and she turned her head to see Shinichi looking at her dead in the eye. She gulped. Something must have seriously gone wrong for him to look like that.
“Just kiss me, Ran.”
And so she did. The instant Ran’s lips touched his, Shinichi spurred into action, pushing her against the brick wall in the alley and Ran let her hands curl in his hair. His tongue brushed against her bottom lip and Ran groaned at the unexpected action but opened her mouth. Once his tongue came in contact with hers, she lost all thought of someone finding them out and just gave in fully. She titled her head for better access, all the while Shinichi’s hand snaked up along the nape of her neck. He held the back of her neck with a single hand while Ran tugged on his hair.
Shinichi let out a guttural moan and pushed Ran even further into the wall, their lips breaking off to catch some much needed breath. She let her head fall back and Shinichi took this opportunity to glide his lips along the side of her neck.
The much needed oxygen helped to clear her head a little and she asked breathlessly, “That kiss was the only way for what?”
Shinichi hummed a little, his lips a little too busy with the skin on her collarbone.
“Shinichi?”
Somehow he managed to pull himself a little before giving her a wide, unapologetic, satisfied grin, “Ordering you while we are working was the only way I could get you to kiss me in public.”
I would like to thank @detectivegeekshin for the wonderful, wonderful dialogue and headcanoning with me
Ran nodded eagerly, her eyes twinkling with mischief, “Yes, a fake husband.”
Shinichi slowly sipped his coffee, reminding him that no, he wasn’t drunk and what he was hearing was in fact, correct. “A fake husband?”
Ran’s enthusiasm didn’t wane as she exclaimed, “Yes, a fake husband.”
Somewhere in the back of his mind, he was well aware that they had been repeating themselves for the past minute but for the love of god, he couldn’t compute the information he was being provided with and in a courageous attempt, tried to actually process what Ran was saying.
It took him some time, if he was being honest. He didn’t like that fact. But then again, who else other than Ran was capable of reducing his brain to mush?
“You want me to be your fake husband?”
“Yes.”
“… Why?”
“You know how my parents have been overseas this whole time?”
“Yeah, ten years.”
“Recently, they’ve been on my case about ohh, nooo, Ran, you’re twenty-five. You’re still not married. Your medical career is not going to keep you away from loneliness when you grow old. Why don’t you find a good man for marriage? Maybe I should help you out.” Ran rolled her eyes as she recalled what her mother had said to her on their video call, “Soooo, I thought, hey, what if I told them I was already married?”
“So you wanted to send them early to their grave. What a good daughter you are.” Shinichi said as he stabbed the omelette.
Ran pouted at him and Shinichi rolled his eyes, very well aware that Ran and her parents had what he liked to call a give-them-a-heart-attack-love relationship.
“Oh, please. If changing my career choice in my last semester didn’t make them keel over, nothing ever will.” She said nonchalantly as she poured herself a glass of black coffee. Shinichi made a disgusted face at the quantity and Ran gleefully smiled at him, aware that he found her drinking habits appalling.
“Sooo, be my fake husband, please?” she pleaded.
“No.”
“Awwww, you’re such a bad sport.”
“Thank you.”
“Wasn’t a compliment.”
“I don’t want a compliment from you. It’s the scariest thing ever.”
Ran sniffed, “Waaaow, so rude.”
Shinichi smirked, “I aim to please.”
“You being my fake husband would be most pleasing to me,” she said as she sipped her coffee, her eyes over the rim of the glass.
Shinichi sighed, “Why me? You know you have an endless line of admirers who would jump on this proposal.”
Ran put away her coffee and answered, “Because I love you.”
Shinichi could have sworn his heart leapt out of his chest when he heard her. He chuckled nervously at the serious look on Ran’s face, trying very hard not to let her words swarm into his brain and heart. She didn’t meant it that way. She was never supposed to mean it that way. They had been childhood friends since they were four. There was no way he would see Ran in a romantic light. She meant much more to him than a fickle love. She was like a sister he never had. His number one supporter in everything, his go-to person. There was no way she would blur the lines knowing how he felt about romances. How much he loathed them and the horrible relationship his parents had. And how much he was turned off from the prospect of romantic love, in general. There was no way Ran would force him into a corner like that, knowing how much he despised romantic love, so he deflected.
“Ha ha, you know I love ya, too, but c’mon Ran, a fake husband, isn’t that too much?” he swallowed at the serious look on her face.
And as Ran gave him a sad smile, he knew she got the message. Shinichi had never felt this horrible, seeing that sad and accepting look on her face and blurted out before he could stop himself, “For how long will I have to be your fake husband?”
Ran tried to put up an excited front now that he had agreed but Shinichi could see it through. She meant it when she said that she loved him but Shinichi also meant it when he said that he loved her.
He loved her too much for her to end up like his mother.
Happy New Year! This is one of the last places we visited with Freeschool #I CAN. I had visited Eshini Hall before, and @toddstafford has visited here before, but the Eshin no Sato Memorial Hall was a nice place to get a cup of coffee while enjoying a beautiful view. The cut-outs on display were created by an eighty year old artist and represent the 12 animal zodiac signs of each year. 2019 is the year of the boar. Eshin, the Buddhist nun and wife of Shinran, has some writings and letters displayed here, but photos are not allowed. There are meeting rooms and a large multi purpose room also for rent. #joetsu #itakura #enishi #coffee #shinran https://www.instagram.com/p/BsOV0ENnHhf/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=59s3azk5iscj
