Disclaimer: Shinichi and Ran and all other characters to appear in this story are the property of Aoyama Gosho and his incredibly precious little grey cells. I think I can play with them, though. A little…

A/N: At long last, it's here! I wanted to nearly finish writing it (or at least halfway, as I am now) before posting, just in case I didn't finish it. I would have hated myself if I let you guys hanging. Be warned, this is a drama/angst/romance fic, and it's going to be frustrating sometimes. If you've read Love stories, however, you can probably guess how this is going to end. And before I forget, the T rating is due to some swearing words here and there, but you never know if something citrusy-flavoured could happen in the future. Hope you enjoy it!

Run

Prologue

Ashes

She needed a minute. She needed time to freeze, so she could breathe, so she could feel the oxygen entering her lungs again. She needed to feel it flowing through her arteries and veins, to feel it permeating every cell, every bit of interstitial space between them. She needed her heart to beat once more, needed to feel alive, since she believed she could already be dead with just one blow, with just those three words he had uttered.

Maybe she hadn't heard right? Maybe he had been kidding?

"You were Conan?" Ran asked, taken aback, not wanting to believe.

"I'm sorry. I know I should hav−"

"You've been lying to me all this time?" she interrupted him, her temper building like a tidal wave.

"The Organization−"

"I could have helped. I could have fought at your side that day, I could have been at your side at the hospital, and I would have supported you every day. Instead, I was crying my eyes out for you when you were right there."

"Ran, if there had been another way…"

"You've been lying to me for a whole year and now you expect me to believe that you didn't want to lie to me in the first place?"

Her voice broke, tears already welling up in her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. She exhaled. She was hurt, she was mad, and she felt tricked and played, by Shinichi, of all people. Her childhood friend, her best friend, her crush, her love. Her love. She felt drained, and it showed in the quiet voice she mustered to ask her next question.

"Shinichi, how could you be so naïve?"

Shinichi opened his mouth to close it again after a moment. He had done everything for her and her only. She and her love and the promises had gotten him through the storm, had given him purpose, but she was so hurt she couldn't see past the lies. He wished he could find the right words to convince her.

"Ran, I didn't want to lie to you. Believe me, Conan was necessary to keep us safe. I do regret lying to you, but I had to if I wanted nothing happening to you. And I'm not naïve. The truth is that I've always believed that what we had was stronger than whatever obstacle we might find, our friendship, our relationship−"

"Don't you dare think we can be still together after this!" Ran yelled at him, crying openly now. "You've lied to me, you've used me, you've used my father, you've used everyone around you, and you don't even care about what we feel. It's just you and the Organization you had to take down."

"That's not true! You of all people know that I do care about your feelings. It's the main reason why I stayed with you; because I didn't want you to be lonely. It was hard for me too, being so close to you and still lying, but your safety was more important than my feelings or my happiness. I didn't tell you anything not because I had my own agenda, but because these people were dangerous, and you and everyone who knew about them could get hurt, or killed."

"Still, you should have told me, and even more so if they wanted to kill you! I would have never told anyone about it."

"We couldn't risk it. If there was ever a slip and they heard…"

"Then we would have confronted them. And we would have won. Together," Ran retorted, not even bothering to wipe off her tears, "as the team we were supposed to be. A team that looks after one another, and that runs in the same direction when things get serious, and that fights side by side," she tried to let go of her anger, deflating, and looked at him with such a sad expression that something tore inside of him. "In the end, it's really simple, isn't it? You didn't trust me to stay silent."

"I do trust you, Ran!" he shouted when he got his voice back, wanting to get at least that message across her thick skull. "I do trust you with my life, and you have my life in your hands and you know it! I just wanted to protect you, Ran," he said, imploring with his eyes. "Is it that hard to understand?"

"Are you really asking me if it is hard to understand?" Ran asked in disbelief. "How dare you? You asked me how I felt about you in Kyoto, and then we were dating, and you were my boyfriend, and even then you still didn't say anything. Is this the kind of trust you have in me? The kind that doesn't allow you to tell your girlfriend by choice what is going on in your life? You said it was a case, but it wasn't just a case. It was the case. And it was your life on the line. Didn't I have the right to know?"

"Ran, I…" he was speechless now; she was right on all accounts. A relationship is based on trust, on having no secrets, on two hearts, together, compromising. He had no right to be asking her to understand, even if what he did was the right course of action given the circumstances.

"Shinichi, you didn't trust me, don't deny it. You lied to me, and you made a fool out of me."

"I know I made mistakes, and it's natural I made them, because I love you. I can't think straight when you're in danger, I rush through things and climb the walls because I can't handle you getting hurt, or even the thought of you dying at their hands. I couldn't risk you, and I'm sorry for all of it. But I want to make it up to you. Give me a chance to make things right," Shinichi pleaded, approaching her to take hold of her hands.

Ran took a step back, freezing him on the spot.

"Shinichi, you don't love me," Ran uttered, with a downcast smile tugging at her lips. "I guess I could understand you hiding if you gave me some time to think about it, but it's not just that. I feel as if you took advantage of every little situation while being Conan. You got to know every little quirk of mine, every little secret, things I wasn't ready for you to see or know about, while I didn't know the first thing about Conan, about you. When it mattered, I wasn't your friend," she hesitated a moment, her voice breaking even more "or your girlfriend; I was just the neechan keeping up the charade. That is not how you love someone."

That disheartened expression of hers was killing him on the inside, breaking one time and again the tiny part of his heart that hadn't been already shattered to pieces. He could not lose her like that.

"Ran, please! Let me explain!"

"Goodbye, Shinichi," she said with finality in her tone, opening the door of the Detective Agency for him to get out.

"But Ran…"

"I'm sorry, but I can't deal with you anymore. I need time."

"You're saying that… you don't love me anymore?" Shinichi asked, voice quivering, while he felt weak in the knees.

"No," she laughed through her tears, self-deprecatingly. "Even after all of this, even if I can't feel my heart anymore, I know I do, I really do. I love you so much. That is why this hurts so badly."

"Ran…"

"Goodbye, Shinichi."

In the end, he lost. Words. Hurt. Broken voices. Tears. Hearts torn to shreds. And shreds that turned to ashes by the fire in her eyes. He pleaded silently one last time, but he saw no hope, no remedy, when looking at hers. Her heart was no more, and his along with hers, and theirs along with hers.

He walked to where she was standing, grabbed the doorknob, and closed the door of the Detective Agency behind him, setting his feet into motion right afterwards. He didn't dare look at her one last time, because he couldn't fathom it could the last. He hoped he could come back, someday.

Love. Love was indeed zero. Love felt like an unmovable force, as if it were the one pulling the strings behind their fate. Love, which had its own opinion, its own plan for them. Love had torn them apart, and love had not given him the chance to pick up the pieces of her heart. Still, he would not give up on her love, even if she had given up on his. He couldn't. Love must have known they were meant to be, it must have known that each other's arms were where they belonged. Love could lead them far away from the other, draw separate paths for them, and it just wouldn't matter. And even if love screamed its lungs out, cried and struggled against it, it just wouldn't matter at all. Shinichi would fight back, he would fight tooth and nail to come back. If he didn't, he wouldn't be alive. His heart needed hers to survive, together, beating as one.

Love was indeed zero, and zero was the start of every little thing.

But zero were also the worlds where love could keep them apart.

Go ahead to the next chapter! :)