Stay! By My Side

Chapter 28

Agasa's POV

It has been ten days since Shinichi and Ai stopped their daily quarrels. Or you could say they almost stop talking to each other. Neither of them would give me any explanation of this current state. Such stubborn brats.

For some reason which I don't quite understand, Shinichi continued to stay in Mouri agency. He would check Ai's condition through phone everyday, and stopped by late in the night only to watch her sleeping for a few hours before coming back to the agency again.

"Why all these trouble?"

Tonight, after ten days I finally asked him and decided not to take any no to get a grip of this peculiar behavior. Still, Shinichi wouldn't said a word about anything. He ignored the question and straight to the lab.

"Ai-kun wouldn't allow you to rummage through her work station, Shinichi. What are you even doing right now?"

"I'm just doing my regular check up on her antidotes, Professor. Take it easy, it's not like I'm snooping"

"Something big happened, right, Shinichi?"

Still no answer.

"What kind of disagreement this time? Is it big enough to make both of you acting like stranger? Is it worth the troubles?"

He didn't answer but he did stop what he's been doing. Well that's a development, I might say, so I continued.

"If it's just a mere disagreement about the way she works, you should consider to just drop it, Shinichi"

"It's not a mere disagreement"

"Then what was so wrong?"

He released a heavy sigh before answered.

"We are not really having any fight. In fact, she didn't give me any chance to tell her anything. So right now, I just, I'm giving her space. I'm giving her a moment and I would wait from afar until she would give me a chance for us to have a proper conversation."

"I still don't understand everything you say, Shinichi."

"I'm done checking so I'm heading back to the agency right now, Professor. See you later."

And he left without further explanation. I stayed a little longer inside the lab until I heard a foot steps  that soon reaching my back.

"Ai-kun"

"What are you doing here, Professor? It's late"

"Did something wake you up? Did you have another nightmare?"

"No, I'm fine. I fell asleep early so I feel refreshed right now. I was thinking about resuming the antidotes when I saw the lab's door was left open and here you are."

"Should I bring you a late snack then?"

"No thank you, I need to focus on my work."

"Sure. Um, Ai-kun, if there's something you need to talk about just remember I will always glad to listen"

She answered with a nod.

"And uh, I'm not sure if I need to tell you this but Shinichi have always been watching you when you're sleeping. So, what I want to say is, he never leaves you. Not even a single night."

She didn't answer me this time. Her eyes sharply glare into my soul, giving me chill I never experienced from her before.

"Um.."

"What do you really want to say exactly, Professor?"

"You know, it's been quiet these past few days between both of you. And Shinichi wouldn't say anything to me."

"Mm-hm?"

"And... The truth is... I'm sorry if my words insulted you, Ai-kun."

I decided to surrender under those sharp gaze before i got weak on my knees.

"Tell Kudo-kun I will give my best to work on this. And as you can see, I have my rest diligently so there's nothing to be worried about. Tell him to stop sneaking into a girl's room and have a good rest for himself."

"Will do. I'm sorry, Ai-kun, I will leave you now."

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Shinichi's POV

It was half past three after midnight when I entered the agency through its front door. It took me by surprise to find Ran furiously standing at the end of the stairs.

"Conan-kun, what do you think you're doing?"

Busted.

"Mm, nothing?", I grinned.

"Were you going somewhere in the middle of the night again? Conan-kun, if you want to see Ai-chan so much you can just stay there instead."

"I didn't."

"Liar."

I'm too shock to give that one an answer. The tone she's using just now, is different. Sounds deeper and heavy that gives a funny sensation inside my stomach.

"Conan-kun, you need to figure things out. In this state, you're ended up hurting each other."

"We need more time, Ran-Neechan. This one is out of my league. It wasn't a simple case. For now, please let this be as it is."

I walked past her towards my room. Lately, I only feel burn inside my chest everytime I saw Ran. For a certain reason, I'm tired of being two person at the same time more than I already had. For the first time ever, I wish I would be Edogawa Conan rather than Kudo Shinichi.

I miss her.
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