Author's Notes: Long time no see!! So sorry for the long wait~ I've been extremely busy... and everyone? Plz go onto my profile and vote in the poll!!! ;D Ohh, and you guys are probably going to yell at me now... considering how many unfinished fics I have... but, I'm thinking of starting another one. Uh-oh. *ducks from arrows* Yeah, yeah, I get the idea. :/

Disclaimer: Y'know what? I actually own Detective Conan. Gosho Aoyama is just my pseudonym.

Yeah, right. In my dreams.

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Shadowed Eyes

Chapter Three - Confidence

She was there the next day, sitting at her desk, staring blankly in front of her, idly flicking pages in a book with a cheek cupped in her hand. As if nothing had happened, as if it had all been a dream. A dream.

No one else was at school yet, she had made sure of that. She didn't need a certain detective blocking her way and demanding to know where she'd been. She had no desire to tell him anyway, and when she didn't want to do something, she didn't do it. It was that simple.

Ai Haibara glanced at her watch again, and sighed. Maybe getting to school early wasn't such a good idea, she thought vaguely, subconsciously watching Kobayashi-sensei* sipping her coffee in the staff room. She wondered how she could deal with all these kids all day, all these kids and their inquisitiveness, their curiosity. It was an interesting thought. Talking about curiosity... she wondered how she was going to explain her absence.

*

*

*

There was darkness, there was a plane, there was that chilling feeling.

What was it?

Then, there was blood... the blood of the Great Detective of the East, Kudo Shinichi... and in her hand, there was a gun...

Oh no!!! Did I do that? I didn't!!! I didn't!!! I wouldn't...

"Sherry..."

No, that's not me anymore!!! Sherry's already died!!! I'm not Sherry!!!

"Shiho Miyano..."

No... Shiho Miyano died too, along with Akemi Miyano...

"So who are you then?"

Who am I... who am I...

"Ai-chan, wake up! Ai-chan!"

So it was a dream, huh?

But... what was it? Could it be... a premonition?

*

*

*

"No, Yoshida-san, I'm perfectly fine," Ai said patiently, as she had been doing for the last ten minutes, repeatedly. "I'm perfectly okay."

"Are you sure? Hakase said that you were sick, and that's why you didn't come to school," Ayumi said solemnly, her large baby-blue eyes boring into Ai's, as if challenging her, challenging what she said. Could she know...?

"Hakase also said that we weren't allowed to visit you because you were really sick in bed and that your illness was infectious," Mitsuhiko added in.

"He also said that you weren't allowed eel rice when I brought some for you, so I ate it up," Genta grinned, rubbing his tummy.

"And you know how big a sacrifice that is, for Genta," said Mitsuhiko cheekily, and was rewarded with being chased around the classroom.

"Mitsuhiko-kun! Genta-kun! Sit back at your table!" Kobayashi-sensei barked immediately. Ayumi giggled.

"Oh, and by the way, where's that detective freak?" Ai asked lazily. "Edogawa-kun."

"He's sick," Genta said. "Apparently he caught a cold because he went out with Ran-neechan to look for a missing girl."

"Missing girl?"

"Yeah," Mitsuhiko nodded, self-satisfied. "A girl went missing at midnight the day before, but I have no idea whether she's been found now or not."

"Oh..."

I guess that was me, then?

Sometimes, keeping secrets were a little tiring.

*

*

*

"Where were you?" Conan demanded, staring at Ai. "Apparently you thought it would be funny to just vanish, and then at midnight, Hakase discovered that you had disappeared. And somehow, for some reason, alerted the whole town that there was a missing girl." He waited for an answer, an explanation, anything, but didn't get one. "So where were you?" he pressed.

A few seconds passed.

"I don't need to tell you."

Six words, spoken softly.

She said the words almost in a whisper, like she was telling a secret. But this wasn't telling a secret. This was keeping a secret.

And the six words held more meaning, than that. It was trust-shattering, almost hurtful. Yet why does he care, she thought bitterly, when he has kept secrets from me all this time? It might be for my safety as he claims, but in the end, it's still keeping the truth from me.

By saying those six words, it seemed like that she was destroying their bond, their confidence in each other, that they can tell the other anything, and everything.

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A/N: I try to make my chapters at least 1000 words but sometimes it just doesn't work. :/ Sorry. This chapter might have been... a bit... weird? Meh. Hope you liked it though. I'm going to write more often nowadays, I hope... o.O

11.47 pm - still sitting at the computer, typing like mad. Don't know how I'm gonna get up tomorrow. I've still got school. I am so totally dead - again. Oh nooooooooo....................~~~~~~~~~

* sensei = teacher, or literally 'one who has come before'