Boys of fortune

Four

A gateway was needed, as Shinichi was tired from his daily life in Japan. The job, the press, the paparazzi, the fans… he just wanted alone time from everything. He couldn't go on as it was, and he was already scouting places he could go to without being recognisable and where he could see himself go in months - he didn't like beaches or was generally a fan of hot summers, so a lot of popular places were crossed off immediately. He wasn't a fan of winter either, but at least he had the option of putting another shirt on and avoid the cold. Avoiding the heat was much trickier and him being as pale as he was sunburns were a common thing even when he was someone who applied his sunscreen regularly. Sunburns happen to a lot of people and it isn't even that hard to get, but with frostbites you either have to be an idiot or things have to go extremely bad - maybe both.

Unfortunately, his boyfriend wouldn't be able to go with him as he had work related complications going on, but Shinichi didn't bother too much. Sure, it would be tremendously better if his lover was there with him, but the trip wasn't planned as a romantic gateway kind of trip anyways. If he had that in mind when he was planning it, then of course he wouldn't go alone on it, but as it was he was fine with Heiji being on another continent than him. He grew up pretty much all on his own and he was used to going around an navigating strange cities alone  so while Heiji would have made the trip better, it was also refreshing to enjoy time without anyone other present and it held quite a nostalgic note; wandering around almost lost but not quite was a lot of his childhood and early teens.

He forgot how much fun he could have like this, away from people he knew and not bothered by any and all events currently going in his family's/friends/colleagues/celebrities lives. He couldn't give a damn fuck.

His luck didn't get any better and he could never just walk away from a crime scene, so he still continued to solve cases as they came to him in his daily life, though he did try to keep a low profile lest his cover was blown up. If only he could actually understand the language of the country he was in, things would get plenty easier. He'd get all the language clues, he wouldn't have to speak English with people who weren't very proficient in English or well, make gestures with his hands to people that actually didn't speak any English. It was frustrating and rendering him at times useless. Damn him for never learning a language only about 5 million in the world spoke, didn't have a lot of economic influence and wasn't high on the spot of places he would ever visit in his life.