Semi-sequel to "After the Nightmare", but should be perfectly understandable even without reading that first. Because it turns out I still have Heiji and Conan on the brain.

Detective Conan belongs to Aoyama Gosho.

# # # Detours # # #

"Okay, I must admit, that was some of the best ramen I've ever tasted." Heiji said grudgingly as they exited the restaurant, burping to emphasize his satisfaction. He looked down at his companion. "The bamboo shoots in particular were excellent. The line was a bit long, though."

Kudo looked up at him, smirking. "When Occhan and I ran across the place initially – back then it was called 'Ramen so delicious you could die!' – it hadn't been remodeled yet, so it was pretty rundown. We were almost the only customers."

"Not including the murderer and the victim, eh? Must have been nice." Kudo raised an eyebrow, and Heiji smirked back, as always more than happy to explain a deduction to a willing audience. "If it had been the proprietor he'd be a bit too busy with either jail or being dead to be running a restaurant. And the way the waitress interacted with the proprietor spoke of a long familiarity with one another; if it had been the her who'd been the perpetrator, the current one would have been new."

"There could have been a second waitress." Kudo offered, face suffused with a childlike mischief that would have told him that there was no such thing even if he hadn't already surmised as much. "Or she could be an old family friend he called in to work there temporarily as a personal favor."

"If that restaurant had two waitresses before, when by your description it was almost completely empty, run down to the point where the other restaurant owners on this street were complaining, and in serious danger of bankruptcy, I'd seriously wonder about his business sense. And in that case, he'd almost certainly have at least two waitresses now. He only has the one, so it only makes sense to assume that he only had the one before, too."

Heiji returned Kudo's raised eyebrow and crossed his arms. "And while there's no doubt that she's an old family friend, she's entirely too competent at waitressing and too familiar with how the proprietor works to have been a recent substitute. Not to mention the fact that she clearly recognized you, and that means if she wasn't the waitress before she must have just happened to be eating there at the same time – which would be a few too many coincidences for a working theory, don't you think?"

Laughing, Kudo capitulated. "Yes, they were both customers."

"Hah." Heiji allowed himself a moment of self-satisfaction. "And you'll notice I totally didn't jinx us, either."

Kudo looked confused for a very brief moment before he placed the reference, and laughed. "Yes, I suppose we didn't end up having to solve any cases while we were eating. You do remember why dinner ended up being so late?"

Heiji waved that off as unimportant. "Hey, it's you an' me we're talking about here. There's no way we'd have gotten away with a whole day off."

Kudo rubbed his forehead in an action that looked entirely too adult for his current body. "… I hate that that almost made sense." He muttered, then pointed at Heiji. "Stop infecting me with your superstition. Living with Ran and her fear of ghosts is bad enough."

Heiji grinned unrepentantly. "'Once you eliminate the impossible' –"

"Don't start that again." Kudo growled. "It's not impossible that we're not cursed. It could be coincidence, or the fact that we're just more likely to notice these things happening, or any number of other rationalexplanations for the fact that wherever we go, we seem to trip over a crime scene or two –"

"—or five –" Heiji interrupted with a grin.

"— Don't remind me. Any number of other rational explanations." The apparent grade-schooler yawned suddenly, and likely involuntarily given the disgruntled look on his face when he finished. "… Why are you so fond of that quote, anyway? I thought you liked Ellery Queen better."

Now it was Heiji's turn to go blank for a moment before he parsed the reference and brightened. "Awww, you remembered!" He gave in to his darker impulses and ruffled Kudo's hair enthusiastically.

"Stop that!" Kudo protested, the words resounding surprisingly loudly in the mostly empty street as he ducked away from Heiji's reaching hand. Unfortunately (for him), though he could move surprisingly fast for a kid, his short legs were still no match for Heiji's longer ones, and the older (looking) boy had no compunctions about chasing after his friend just fast enough to keep his hand on his head.

"Ow!"

… At least until said friend turned around and kicked him in the shin. Heiji hopped back out of Kudo's immediate range, meeting his – dare he say it? – murderous look with an injured one of his own. "What was that for?"

Kudo just rolled his eyes, vainly attempting to pat his hair back down into a more manageable style. "Must you treat me like a little kid?" He complained. "When you of all people know I'm not."

Heiji blinked in genuine surprise. "I'm not treating you like a kid." He protested.

Frankly disbelieving glare.

"I'm not!" He looked sideways. "You're just … it's fun to annoy you."

Kudo blinked, looking unsure for a moment how he was supposed to take that. Then suddenly plastered his Conan-face on and chirped, "So what you're saying is that Heiji-niichan is a big old bully who likes picking on elementary school kids!"

Heiji shuddered. "Ugh, that's so creepy." Then smirked down at Kudo. "And no, I don't go around picking on all elementary school kids. You're just special." Reached over and mussed his hair again, just as he'd finally gotten it settled back down into something approaching its usual state. This time he was prepared to dodge the kick – and the next several that followed.

"Hattoriiiiiii …" Kudo growled, still trying vainly to give Heiji's other shin a matching bruise.

Heiji just laughed and kept dodging.

"… Na, Kudo?" The apparent elementary schooler had started slowing down, a typical sign that he was on the verge of giving it up as a bad job.

Kudo stopped, though the look he shot Heiji made it clear that he was only doing so because he felt like it. The two of them went back to walking, side by side, at a meandering pace in the general direction of the Mouris' place. "What?"

"Does anyone actually take you seriously when you act like that?"

Kudo rolled his eyes. "No, Hattori, because that's the entire point."

Heiji shook his head. "Not what I meant. I mean, does anyone think you're actually like that? I mean, maybe if you acted like that all the time, but you clearly don't. And since you act sensible at least some of the time –" he absently dodged an absently aimed kick, though in hindsight even if he hadn't moved, it was at the wrong angle to have actually connected "—does anyone really not realize that it's just an act? Especially given that it's so incredibly over-the-top. I mean, do kidsreally act that way? How do they survive childhood?"

Kudo shuddered. "You would be surprised. The things I've seen … I don't remember first graders as a whole being nearly as obnoxious as they are this time around."

"What about your little posse?"

"Genta, Mitsuhiko and Ayumi?" Kudo asked. "They're … surprisingly tolerable. For first graders. Most of the time."

"Aww, little Kudo likes his little friends."

"… Don't make me kick you again."

"You're always welcome to try." Heiji grinned.

Kudo shook his head. "Anyway. Heh. The cute act's almost gotten me in trouble a couple of times – maybe it wouldn't have if I was more consistent about it, but I kind of suck at remembering to act."

Heiji shrugged. "Still far better than I would be."

"Oh, I'm well aware of that, Hattori."

Heiji flinched, remembering a few close calls with respect to Kudo's name earlier that afternoon, before the girls and Ran's father had given up in disgust around the third case and declared that they'd be heading back to the apartment and just getting sandwiches from Poirot's or something.

"… Trouble?" He prompted.

Kudo huffed another laugh. "Yeah, there was a murder when I with the kids and our homeroom teacher, and the usual Division 1 people showed up to investigate. Occhan wasn't around so I couldn't just use him to do the talking, and I was trying not to make Kobayashi-sensei too suspicious, so I was doing the usual cute act to point out the clues. The kids were seriously wondering if I'd gone insane."

Heiji barked a laugh, easily able to imagine the scene. "So it really does work? They never stop to think that there's something strange about you asking blatantly obvious questions with blatantly obvious answers that just happen to be key to solving the case?"

Kudo shrugged. "Not as far as I can tell." He sounded a bit bitter. "The ones I've been around a lot like Takagi-keiji and Satou-keijiat least seem to have noticed that my blatantly obvious questions are usually helpful, but they still seem to think that it's just coincidence or something. 'Oh let's listen to little Edogawa-kun'" he trilled, in a mocking voice that from what Heiji recalled sounded nothing like either Takagi-keiji or Satou-keiji … or any other member of Division 1 that he could remember. "'He notices the most interesting little details sometimes!'" He kicked a loose stone angrily, sending it flying impressively far given that he hadn't used his shoes' power at all. "I hate being six again. No one listens to me."

I do. But some things were obvious.

Luckily Kudo didn't seem to notice the pause, continuing with his rant. "Even Ran! Honestly! Given the number of times she's almost caught me out, given that we live together, and she sees me every day and I am really not that good of an actor, she of all people ought to have noticed that there's something off about my cute mode." He snapped his mouth shut suddenly, looking almost as surprised as Heiji felt – both at the content and at the sheer bitterness in his tone.

… Though from the way he opened his mouth, but didn't quite manage to come up with anything else to say, Heiji suspected there was a lot more truth buried in there than he cared to admit; enough that his dedication to the truth kept him from quite being able to deny it. Not to himself, and Heiji couldn't help being pleased that Kudo wasn't trying to paper things over for his benefit either. I'd just see through it anyway, but … I've gotta admit, I'm glad that he thinks enough of me not to even try.

"Maybe …" Heiji started, then stopped. "… Maybe it's just easier for her that way?" He finally offered. "Especially if she's decided to wait and let you tell her the whole story when you're ready, maybe it's just easier for her to take your act at face value instead of being suspicious all the time?"

"… Maybe." Kudo looked unconvinced. "But there's still a difference between recognizing that I'm Shinichi and recognizing that I'm acting – badly – whenever I pull out my cute mode."

Heiji rubbed his head in frustration, making a mess of his hair to almost equal the mess he'd made of Kudo's earlier. " 'f it bothers you so much, why not just tell her?" He finally asked. "Give yourself at least one place you can be yourself."

Kudo shook his head. "You don't know how many times I've …" He broke off. "How easy it would be to just … give in. Let her find out. I probably wouldn't even have to tell her outright, just drop a few clues and let her corner me and just … not find a way out of the corner. I've run the scenarios through my head so many times. I want to, so much. But."

He paced another several steps forward, head down, face dark. Heiji briefly considered prompting him to continue, but ultimately just held his peace.

"I just can't do that to her." Kudo finally continued slowly. "It's not fair to make her deal with the constant worry, the paranoia, the need to act at all times ... even if I told her, we'd both still need to act constantly. Unless I told Occhan too."

Heiji couldn't completely hold back his snort at that idea.

"Exactly. Though even if I told him – the office has been bugged before. I'm sure it'll happen again. As long as I stay alive, and especially as I become better known as Edogawa Conan and Occhan becomes better known as Sleeping Kogoro, it's really only a matter of time before the next set starts sniffing around. So even then, it would just mean that all three of us would have to act constantly."

His shoulders hunched inwards. "And any time I think about them, and the way they eliminate anyone who knows about them … she's so close to me – to Shinichi and Conan both – that if they ever do come after me she's probably already lost. But if there's any way she can be spared. If it's even possible that they might refrain from killing her too … I just. I can't take that chance away. Not just because of my own selfish weakness."

Geez, depressing much? Though Heiji supposed he couldn't blame Kudo entirely. He'd had more than a few nightmares of his own – though most of them centered around his too-tiny-for-his-own-good friend; rightly or wrongly he tended to feel almost … safe back in Osaka.

It was easy to pretend that they were a Tokyo problem. Easier to focus his worry on Kudo and feel guiltily glad that he (and Kazuha, who he just knew would jump straight into things even faster than 'Neechan given the chance) was out of the center of things most of the time, than to think too hard about the implications of them being an international organization with eyes everywhere. To consider that even in the course of his normal cases back home, it could very well be him sticking his nose where it didn't belong and getting himself killed next. Or shrunk, perhaps. But I'd really rather not bet on odds quite that long.

He shoved that particular set of thoughts away with the ease of long practice and looked down at Kudo only to find his friend looking back up at him with a suspiciously familiar troubled look. He glared. "You're not feeling guilty for letting me in on the secret again, are you?"

Kudo looked away – as good as a vocal admission, and as close to one as he was likely to get.

"Aho. If I wanted safe I'd be an elementary school teacher or something." That drew a sputtered laugh out of Kudo – and to be fair, he had a hard time imagining himself in front of a bunch of the little brats either. But that wasn't the point. "I can't help you figure out a way to take the bastards down if I don't know the problem exists."

"I'm fine –"

Heiji eyed him. "Riiiiiight. I seem to recall a few times in the past where you'd have had problems pulling things off without my help. Halloween ring any bells?"

And there was his stubborn face. "I'd have figured something else out."

"Oh maybe. I suppose your mother would have loved the chance to prove she could pass as her son."

That brought a complicated look to Kudo's face that Heiji chose to categorize under 'disgusted'. "She would." He muttered. With perhaps a bit of 'reluctantly proud' in there too. "… And she could probably have pulled it off, too."

"—But my point is, it wouldn't have been nearly as awesome if I hadn't helped." Heiji flicked Kudo's forehead. "Face it, I'm here to stay. And if I find out you've been hiding things from me out of some silly sense of guilt for dragging me into this mess, I'll … I'll …" He struggled for several long moments to come up with an appropriate punishment to fit the severity of the crime, couldn't think of anything appropriate, and finally settled for, "… I'll bop you one. Really hard." He eyed Kudo. "I'll wait until you're big again, though. 't'd feel weird hitting a kid."

Conan-face came back on and Heiji raised his hands in surrender. "All right, all right, I'll go ahead and hit you before you turn back! Just don't start that 'Heiji-niichan' stuff again!"

With a snicker, Kudo subsided. "You are entirely too easy to manipulate."

Heiji shuddered. "I have to tolerate that enough when we're with everyone else. I shouldn't have to deal with it now, too."

"… And yet you persist in treating me like a kid."

Heiji grinned and made another quick swipe for Kudo's hair, though he didn't bother to follow when his diminutive friend skittered just out of reach. "Like I said, that's because annoying you is fun."

Kudo sighed, too loudly to be sincere, and allowed, "I suppose I can't blame you too much, since the feeling is mutual."

Heiji nodded in satisfaction, then blinked and glared. "Hey!"

Deadpan look, saying 'Well why did you think I was doing it?' so clearly it didn't really need words. Which … Heiji supposed was fair. Even if it was a lot less fun to be annoyed than to do the annoying. … But not enough to stop me! Hah!

A brief silence descended, and Heiji used the chance to take a closer look at the area they were passing through. As he had thought, it wasn't a street that was more than passingly familiar to him, which meant that wherever they were, it definitely wasn't on the direct route back to the Mouris' place from the restaurant they'd just left. Then again, that's no surprise – unless my sense of distance was thrown completely off by all the … detours … we ended up taking this afternoon, if we had been taking the shortest path, we should have long since made it back. He looked down at Kudo, who still stared straight ahead, hands still in his pockets, though his shoulders had lost most of their defensive hunch. Thinking, then, but not brooding. Or at least not about something he feels particularly guilty about. … Probably.

… Honestly, if I had to deal with acting like that every day, I'd want to stretch out whatever little free time I got away from it all, too. He took a deep breath, savoring the slight chill to the evening air and the remaining vestiges of all sorts of delicious scents that had earlier wafted in much greater quantities from the restaurants surrounding them, most of whom were now either closed for the night or getting close. … That really was very good ramen.

"… Does it really bother you that much?" Kudo's voice took him slightly by surprise; he looked back down to see his friend looking up at him seriously. "The child act?"

Heiji made a considering noise to buy himself a bit of time to get his thoughts straight, then nodded. "Yeah. I understand why you do it, and I'd never ask you to stop on my behalf or anything stupid like that. But –" he made a helpless gesture. "—you remember how I said that you're just so clearly Kudo I don't know why everyone else doesn't see it too? When you act like that, it's just … it feels wrong."

He made a face. "And even if I didn't know you're actually Kudo, I'd still have a lot of respect for you as a fellow detective. Anyone who interacts with you normally for more than five minutes ought to, even if they don't recognize you. So to see you acting like that … I feel like you're making a mockery of yourself, and … I just don't like it, is all. It's not right that people treat you so lightly just because you look like a pre-schooler."

"… Elementary school."

"— You've got to admit, you're pretty small for even your apparent age. Anyway. I don't like it that people treat you that way, and I don't like it that you act in such a way as to encourage them to. It's just not right."

"… Even if I could get people to properly listen to me – and I think by now I have enough capital with the police as their 'mascot'" Kudo made a face "that I probably could get them to listen long enough to start taking me seriously – having a genius detective six-year-old would be bound to catch their attention. And if they ever looked into my background deeply enough I'm sure they'd be able to figure out that I didn't really exist until that day at Tropical Land. And from there it's an even smaller jump to recognize that I look suspiciously like a ten years younger version of Kudo Shinichi. And then –" He made a slitting motion against his throat – not across the front like the more common gesture went, but right down the side of his throat across the jugular.

Ugh, let's not take that mental picture any further, shall we?

"Like I said," Heiji broke in hastily, hands up, "I understand your reasons. It's just … not fair."

Kudo snorted. "If life were fair, I like to think I'd never have ended up in this situation to begin with." He yawned even more broadly than before, belatedly making a half-hearted attempt at covering his mouth. Once he'd finally finished, he continued, "Speaking of unfair, do you know how much sleep a six-year-old requires? Way too much! I actually have a bedtime! I haven't had a proper bedtime since I was old enough for my parents to start letting me stay home when they went travelling!"

Heiji personally thought that that was less due to his apparent age and more due to the fact that – at least as far as he could tell from his admittedly limited exposure to Kudo Yukiko – Kudo's girlfriend was a better mother to him than his real mother had probably ever been. But what he said instead was "… How did your parents react to … everything?" Because there were some things even he could recognize were better off left unsaid.

Kudo shrugged. "They wanted to spirit me away to someplace hopefully safely out of their reach and have me twiddle my thumbs while their contacts at Interpol tracked them down and figured out an antidote for my current condition." He rolled his eyes. "Because they've been doing so well." He kicked another small stone, sending it skittering down the street. "Probably would have put me under house arrest at our vacation home in Hawaii or something."

"… Do you ever regret not taking that option?"

Kudo tilted his head side to side in a 'yes and no' sort of gesture. "I'd be lying if it didn't sound pretty good to the small part of my brain that's not either gibbering in terror or trying desperately to figure out how to get away when I've got one of them pointing a gun at my head."

"… It worries me that you say that like you've got multiple experiences to compare against …"

Kudo steadfastly ignored his mutter. "… But on the whole, no. I'd much rather be here actively doing something, even if it puts me in more danger, than hiding somewhere stagnating." He looked up at Heiji with a wry half-smile. "Same as you, I guess, when it comes down to it – now that I know about it, I can't not do something."

Another eye-roll, and a somewhat more successfully suppressed yawn. "Of course, my parents seem to be under the impression that I'm sticking around because I don't want to leave Ran behind. My mother is particularly fond of likening us to those star-crossed lovers that show up in bad dramas."

"… And of course 'Neechan had nothing to do with your decision." Heiji couldn't help but interject dryly.

That earned him another glare and eye-roll. "Of course not wanting to leave Ran was part of it. But even if I hadn't had Ran, I still don't think I would have chosen to just … run away."

"… Heh. Yeah, I guess we detectives do have a rather nasty habit of running towards trouble rather than away from it."

Kudo snorted. "Though as today demonstrated, trouble also has no problems seeking us out on its own."

Heiji shrugged. "Makes life interesting, I suppose." He snorted suddenly. "That third case. Man, I can't believe –"

"—that Occhan was actually right about the dying message? And figured it out before us, even?" Kudo asked, an amused look on his face. "Well, I suppose it was only a matter of time until we encountered a victim who went through the same borderline-incomprehensible thought processes as him. … It's a shame we didn't meet him when he was still alive. It would have been … interesting to see the two of them interact."

"… I'm not sure whether I'd pay to see that, or pay not to." Heiji admitted.

Kudo snorted his agreement, then heaved another too-heavy-to-be-real sigh. "Alas, as a result, despite having dealt with an odd number of cases, we've once again ended up in a tie."

Heiji's eye twitched slightly at the reference to their most recent 'contest'. "At least the detective girl wasn't there, so you didn't feel the need to go overboard with the 'Shinichi-niichan' references. That was almost as annoying as how badly you mangled your Kansai-ben."

"It was for a good cause." Kudo protested, clearly holding back his laughter.

"… Though you at least appear to have improved since the second time we met." Heiji glared.

"… You're never going to let me forget that, are you?"

"Damn straight I'm not!" Heiji pointed accusingly at Kudo. "Not only did you completely mangle it, you did it in my voice! You're lucky I let you finish your deduction instead of just picking you up, throwing you out of there, and finishing things off myself!"

Kudo glared back. "Well maybe if someone hadn't been busier concentrating on how to back me into a corner than on actually resolving the case, it never would have come up!"

"... Worked, though, didn't it?" To call Heiji's expression 'smug' didn't really do it justice.

"… Only because you cheated and threatened to tell Ran." Kudo glared. Then his mouth twisted, and he turned away to stare back out into the middle distance. "… I wonder, when the truth comes out … if it ever does … if Ran will be more angry at me for lying to her about my identity all this time, or for drugging her father almost daily, and building him into this national sensation based on a platform of complete lies."

"She's actually almost proud of him sometimes now, you know? I don't think she's been properly proud of him since he went downhill really badly after the divorce; she's always defended him from people trying to put him down because that's the sort of person she is, and she loves him despite his flaws. But it's been … hard for her."

And for all you play it down, just as hard for you, I suspect. Heiji found himself suddenly thankful that both he and Kazuha came from stable families. Even if Kazuha's mother was entirely too fond of sending them off on wild goose chases to hunt down special local foods. (Not that Heiji ever minded a chance to eat!) And even if Heiji's father did have a tendency to tell him off for butting his nose into things, while simultaneously using his tendency to do so for his own purposes.

"… Is that part of why you stayed? So that you could keep Sleeping Kogoro going?"

Kudo frowned, yawned again, and frowned harder in response. "Maybe. I don't think it would have tipped the balance either way on its own, to be honest, but … I do feel a certain level of responsibility for my creation. Whether he'd want me to or not."

"D'you think you'll ever tell him?"

Kudo shuddered. "… Maybe? If I have to? If I ever tell Ran, I can't really expect her to keep it a secret, not if I wait to tell her until all of the danger is past. Not when I'll finally be able to stop keeping secrets from her. … I'd only do it after I'm back to my proper size, though. And in an open area, so that I can run away. Say what you will of his intellect, the man's got some damn good judo throws."

"Let me know when you do, so I can tell Kazuha." Heiji said, unable to completely suppress a shudder of his own. "Even though it's not really my secret I've been keeping, I bet the aho will still be really angry. Especially if she hears about it from Ran first instead of from me."

Kudo huffed a laugh. "Deal."

They fell back into comfortable silence, and as Heiji once again took the chance to take a closer look at the surrounding area, he realized that they were approaching an area he was more familiar with. Still a considerable distance from the Mouris' place, but it still felt like a sign that their evening was beginning to draw to a close.

When the silence had stretched long enough that Heiji was starting to search for something else to say, he looked down at Kudo again, trying to judge his broodiness level (though when in doubt, "high" was usually a good guess to make), then cursed and quickly grabbed at his arm, dragging him back upright just as he started dangerously listing to one side. "Geez, you weren't kidding about needing ridiculous amounts of sleep, were you?"

Kudo pulled his arm out of Heiji's grip – intentionally loose enough that he could – and deliberately stepped back out to their previous distance from each other, gaining a certain amount of proud stiffness to his walk. "Just because some of us weren't allowed to drink coffee …"

"Do you want –"

"No. I'm fine." Kudo started listing to the side again, but caught himself this time, his walk becoming even more stiff and offended than before.

… Let a guy help out sometimes, will you? "Fine." Heiji said, deceptively casually, as he watched. The exhaustion appeared to have caught up with Kudo all at once; he'd gone from the occasional (though with increasing frequency) yawn to, as far as Heiji could tell, being almost completely unable to keep his eyes open. "But I reserve the right to stand back and laugh if you trip and fall face-first into something disgusting."

"You." Kudo proclaimed solemnly, "Are a terrible friend."

Which might have hurt if Heiji had taken his words at face value. "Pretty sure you'd do the same if our roles were reversed."

"I would n–" Kudo started to protest, then snickered. "No, actually, that would be pretty funny."

Several minutes later, and after a second quick rescue on Heiji's part – and a second equally quick attempt at restoring his fraying dignity by Kudo – the Osakan detective finally broke down. "Will you just let me carry you the rest of the way? As fun as it is watching you narrowly avoid falling flat on your face …"

"Do you even know the way home?" Kudo asked pointedly.

Home, eh? "I know it well enough to know that we took a pretty lengthy detour on the way back from the restaurant," Heiji responded just as pointedly. Kudo looked like he was vaguely considering feeling guilty at having been caught out – like Heiji could have failed to notice! – but appeared to subsequently decide that to do so would take too much effort. "And I know we're back on streets I'm familiar with now. I can find my way."

Another couple of minutes. Kudo rubbing his eyes vigorously in a vain attempt to bring himself back to wakefulness. And after tripping on nothing (though he did manage to catch himself), he finally sighed and relented. "… Fine. Just this once."

Once he had Kudo safely settled against his back, Heiji started walking again, at a somewhat faster pace now that he didn't need to compensate for Kudo's much shorter legs. Though not as fast as he could go by any stretch of the imagination – didn't want to bounce Kudo around too much, after all. No more than a few paces into it, he felt something – probably Kudo's forehead – hit his shoulder, and smiled a bit to himself.

"… I wish I could help more." He said quietly, mostly to himself, only just barely aware of the fact that he was speaking aloud rather than just thinking.

"… You do." Kudo's voice was even more blurred with exhaustion now, somewhat muffled (that would be a confirmation of the forehead-on-shoulder deduction, then), and even quieter than Heiji's own, but at this distance it still carried well enough. "… I don't think you even realize how much. Just knowing you're there, just having someone I can be myself with. Having another person I can trust to double-check my conclusions when I feel like I'm buried so deep in everything that I can barely see my hand in front of my face, much less find a way out. You help a lot."

Heiji couldn't help the pleased flush on his face – though he'd deny it to anyone who claimed to see it. (He was dark-skinned, after all. And it was dark out. And it was a bit chilly, after all – probably just a flush induced by the wind and the chill.) It was one thing to proclaim himself as being on the same level as Kudo – even to believe it, which for the record, he did – but when he was being completely honest with himself, he was still a bit too aware of his own flaws as a detective. (Though he still beat that aho Hakuba. So there.) So being acknowledged in so many words by his best friend and favorite rival … meant more than he really thought it ought to.

"… And …" The one word instantly distracted Heiji from his self-congratulatory haze, even though it was only the barest thread of a whisper. "… Knowing you're all the way out in Osaka most of the time. Knowing that even if I fall, it's possible that they won't make the connection, or that they'll be slow enough in coming after you that you'll have a chance to realize what's happening and react. Knowing that even if I fall, you'll know enough to keep yourself alive and continue fighting them … reassures me."

Heiji didn't really know what to say – had never really thought of it that way; he'd always known he'd continue fighting those bastards no matter what, but he'd never really thought of it as a responsibility, as continuing to carry Kudo's standard even if he couldn't anymore. And that was a thought just a bit too big for this time of night.

"… Kudo?" He still didn't know what he was going to say, other than perhaps 'Of course I'm going to take down those bastards, but you'd better still be right there with me, aho', but something that big demanded some sort of response.

No reply.

Probably finally fell asleep. Heiji huffed a quiet laugh, shelved the entire conversation for later consideration, and continued walking.

# # # # #

"Where were you two?" Ran demanded as soon as she opened the door and saw it was Heiji standing on the other side.

"Shhh!" Heiji hushed her, throwing a significant jerk of his head in the direction of the warm weight on his shoulder that he assumed was Kudo's head.

"Oh! Sorry." She looked chagrined, and lowered her voice to match Heiji's volume, though sadly it wasn't enough to distract her entirely. "But do you realize how late it is? I don't care how many more cases you got involved in after we left –"

"Two." Heiji offered, ever-helpful.

"—It doesn't take that long to eat dinner, nor is that ramen place that far from here. I was starting to get really worried!"

"… At least you two actually managed to eat this time, right?" Kazuha asked from the couch, putting the book she'd been reading aside to look up towards the doorway. "Unlike some trips."

"That was mostly your fault." Heiji shot back.

"Well, if someone had told me that we were taking the train …"

"Anyway." Heiji switched his attention back to Ran, who appeared to be torn between amusement and continued irritation. Kazuha recognized his clear attempt to end the argument by ignoring her and stuck her tongue out. Which he also ignored. "I'm sorry for being back so late. I was trying to lead the way back and took a few wrong turns and, well – we got a little lost, I guess. K-Conan-kun tried to give me directions, but …" He would have shrugged, but didn't want to disturb his probably-sleeping burden. "Still, we made it back somehow, so all's well that ends well, right?"

Ran sighed. "I suppose. Though, for the record, smart phones? Have maps."

Stupid technology ruining my excuses. "Haha … I guess you're right. I just didn't think to look …"

Ran shook her head, looking more amused now than angry. "Well, never mind, I suppose." Her face softened as she looked over Heiji's shoulder at his much smaller charge. "He's completely exhausted, I see. Let's get him to bed."

Heiji stepped back out of the door to allow Ran through as well. "After you."

# # # # #

"… Liar." Kudo said softly, after Ran had tucked him in and left the room.

Heiji paused in his digging through his overnight bag – he could swear he remembered putting a book in there somewhere – to look back at his still-apparently-sleeping friend. "… You were awake after all, huh?"

"Long enough to hear you telling Ran a bald-faced lie about why it took us so long to get back."

Heiji turned around just far enough to reach over and poke the side of Kudo's head. "You're not the only one who enjoys a chance to see you being yourself, you know."

Kudo huffed something that might have been a laugh and burrowed deeper under the covers. "… 'Night, Hattori."

"Good night, Kudo."

Sleep well, my stubborn friend. I'll be here as long as you'll have me, to give you as much help as you're willing to take.

28 February 2013