PART ONE

Conan was different.

Conan had primary school in the morning, multiplication facts to suffer through, the Detective Boys to handle, and parents away after a terrible accident. And Shinichi had high school waiting, his best friend wondering where he was, soccer to play, and Sonoko to ignore. And some of these things he shared with Conan, like soccer and Sonoko. And, sure, their fascination with detectives and Sherlock Holmes was another common factor.

But, the more time he spent as Conan, the more Shinichi began to realize that Conan was his own person. They weren't one in the same as he had once believed. Conan lived with Ran and her dad, was practically her little brother, was a miniature detective, one of the Professor's "grandkids." And Shinichi could never be those things.

Shinichi was Ran's best friend. But Conan had the Detective Boys for that. Shinichi was Ran's dad's biggest worry, whereas Conan was the whole reason he had a good career. And Shinichi was more like the Professor's friend. Not a grandkid by any means.

Conan was Heiji's friend. Not Shinichi.

Conan had rescued Ai. Not Shinichi.

Conan was this, Conan did that…and Conan had a time limit. He didn't have much longer.

And, as time passed, Shinichi began to realize his biggest obstacle would not be the Organization, or keeping his secret as he had once thought.

No, his biggest obstacle would be, when the time came, letting go of Conan forever, and destroying that person.

And that was an obstacle he wasn't sure he could get around.

His day starts at seven, where he walks with Ran-neechan to school. There he endures the endless chatter about Masked Yaiba and cooked eel with Genta, Ayumi, and Mitsuhiko until Ai arrives and saves his sanity. From there, they check Genta's locker for requests, hurry to class, and he pretends to work on things he already knew, then he goes home and plays soccer with the Junior Detectives while Ai reads a magazine on the steps.

After an hour or so, he says goodbye and walks Ai back to the Professor's, asks about any revelations about Gin and Vodka, goes back to Mouri's, and proceeds to explain to Ran-neechan why school was amazing today. He helps her with dinner. He does his homework. He reads for a while, maybe uses his bowtie to call Ran and assure her that Shinichi is fine, and finally goes to bed. Then it starts all over again until a case arrives, which he solves in place of the "Sleeping Kogorou" and goes on with the rest of the day.

And Conan was convinced he was bored of this life, that going back to being Shinichi, even for a day, would be like heaven to him. In fact, every time his temperature rose in the slightest, he would find some way to sneak a sip of paikaru in hopes it would turn him back. Usually it just gave him a headache and genuinely made him sicker, and not in the way he turned into Shinichi. Every once in a while he'd change, but he wouldn't place his bet on it whenever he got sick.

This was what he was sulking over in the back of the Professor's tiny yellow car, squished in between Genta and Ayumi. Another vacation, he thought briefly. How many ways can this go wrong…?

But he was shaken out of his bitter thoughts quite literally as Ayumi grabbed his arm. "Conan-kun!" she said excitedly, pointing out the window. "Look at the lake!"

He glanced up, out the window, and noticed the bridge they drove across for the first time. The lake beneath it was full of boats, people taking advantage of the last few weeks before the summer heat kicked in, just as school dwindled to a close and summer came in. The water shimmered in the sunlight, and he noticed the ring of hotels around the lakeside. "Pretty," he said, glancing towards the driver's seat where the Professor happily whistled.

Ever secretive and fond of surprises, the Professor had yet to tell them where he was taking them this time. Though, considering the swimsuits they had been told to pack and his recent view, Conan had a good idea of the location now. And he suppressed a sigh, thinking about how crowded it had all looked. Just great.

"Look at all those boats!" And Conan eeped in a very un-Conan-like way as Genta leaned his bulk across him to peer out the window. "I wanna ride on one!"

"Can't breathe!" Conan gasped as Mitsuhiko said, "Haibara-san, what do you think?"

Ai, sitting in the passenger seat, glanced up from her book. "It looks pretty," she said emotionlessly, "but crowded."

"Hey, Professor," Genta said, leaning away from the window and freeing Conan. "Are we going to the lake?"

"You'll see," the Professor replied gleefully, and Conan wiped a smudge from his glasses with a roll of his eyes. The Professor's tone said it loud and clear: yes.

"I think we are," Ayumi said. "Don't you, Conan-kun?" She turned from the window to smile at him.

"Y-Yeah," he stuttered, and he found himself inching a little closer to Genta, away from her. But Genta quickly elbowed him in back with a "Get off of me!" and Conan nearly fell into Ayumi's lap.

"G-Genta!" he shouted, but his voice was lost again as the Professor made a sharp turn and the whole backseat shifted in Mitsuhiko's direction, squashing him with a yell against the door.

"Ow," Mitsuhiko muttered when they all slid back into their seats.

"Sorry," chuckled the Professor. "Nearly missed my turn!"

"You should've brought a map," commented Ai.

"I know where I'm going," he argued, and the two were lost in their bickering, just like they were actually related.

And, as the backseat conversation slipped into the newest Masked Yaiba episode, Conan sighed a little and leaned back into his seat. How much longer, he wondered, will I be stuck like this?

"Hotel room number 304," read Mitsuhiko from the keycard the Professor had handed him. Then he glanced up at the little plaque beside the door. "This is our room," he said, looking back at Genta and Conan.

"Finally!" said Genta, and Mitsuhiko quickly opened the door. The three dragged their suitcases, filled with enough clothes for a weeklong trip, into the hotel room, letting the door swing shut behind them. Conan quickly took in the room—two beds separated by a nightstand, a small closet, a miniature couch against the wall, a sliding door connected to a small balcony beside it. He felt his eyes twitch. Two beds?

Then he put his focus back onto the others and saw Genta back up, then take a running jump onto the bed closest to the door. The bed creaked under his weight, and he bounced up. "It's soft!" he exclaimed. "Really soft! Like I'm on a cloud!"

"Really?" Mitsuhiko, taking a gentler approach, sat on the end of the bed. "It is!" he agreed.

Conan was about to make a comment about the number of cloud-soft beds when another door caught his eye. Near the closet, it had their room number on it in silver, and then a dash and the number 305. He felt a frown slip onto his face. "Hey," he said to the others, "are we connected to the girls' room? Or the Professor's?"

Genta stopped bouncing and noticed the connected door. "I didn't think so."

"The Professor's a floor above us," supplied Mitsuhiko. "I think he's directly above us. And Ayumi-chan and Haibara-san are on our other side." He eyed the door, too. "I bet the Professor didn't know this room connected to another one."

Conan frowned at it, then grabbed his suitcase and dragged it over to the door. Using it as a stool, he reached up, grasped the lock, and turned it. "Jeez," he muttered, jumping down. "Not even bothering to check the rooms he sticks us in…"

"All right, now that that's solved," Genta said, "I call this bed!"

"I call the other!" said Mitsuhiko quickly.

"H-Hey—" started Conan, then stopped, sighing loudly. I knew that was gonna happen. So he went ahead and gave up and began pushing his suitcase towards the couch. This is going to be a long week.

Ayumi unlatched the lock and pulled the sliding door open, racing up to the railing of the balcony and pulling herself up so she could see down below. On the third floor, the people looked kind of small, all running through the sand around the lake's edge and through the docks, unhitching boats and racing off into the water. And the water was beautiful, still sparkling in the light even as the sun began its descent and night approached. Through the fading light, she could see little shapes dotting the water farther out, lots of them. "So pretty," she said, awed.

"Those are islands," said Ai, coming up behind her. "Those little pieces of land out there. They aren't real islands like out in the ocean, which are much bigger, but people still go to these islands as well."

Ayumi looked back at the brunette, then back at the islands. "I want to go to one," she decided.

They looked out a bit longer before Ai finally became a voice of reason again and said, "We have to unpack in time to meet the others for dinner downstairs. Let's go back."

"Aw," Ayumi pouted, but she let go of the rail and followed Ai back into their room. She glanced back at the islands once more and smiled a little. I want to go to an island, she thought, with Conan-kun. Then she slid the door shut and ran back to her suitcase.

"Yes, I need a table for six," the Professor told the waitress. "Five kids, one adult." And he snickered a little at what Conan's expression would be if he heard that.

"It'll be just a moment, sir," the waitress said. "Please wait while we clear a table." And she bowed a little before hurrying back through the restaurant's doors to inform the busboys of their task.

The Professor checked his watch as she left, frowning at the time. They sure are slow, he thought. Then he heard the bing! of an elevator opening. He turned to see if it was the kids and ran smack into a man coming up behind him. He stumbled back a step, then offered an apologetic grin. "Sorry about that," he told the man, then shrank back a bit at the man's glare.

"Tch," was the man's only reply, then he tugged his black fedora down over his eyes and pushed forward, striding past the hotel restaurant and down the following hallway, where the hotel's conference rooms were. The Professor watched him go, scowling a little.

"What's with that guy?" he muttered. Then, looking back to the elevator, he said, "It's cliché to wear all black anyway."

Please review and tell me what you think! Thanks for reading! I hope you liked chapter one! -Wynter Fyres