Detective Conan - Magic Kaito oneshots

A friendly game

It was getting dark outside. Everything was tinted blue, contrasted beautifully by the yellow and orange glowing spots lighting up in the distance as people switched on the lights in their houses and apartments. The cool white light of the street lamps flickered into existence.

Heavy clouds hung in the skies above, promising rain. Thunder rumbled in the distance, lightning flashed faintly on the horizon. A thunderstorm was heading for Beika.

Ayumi blinked, rubbed her tired eyes. They were burning, almost constantly since last week, wether from sleep deprivation or the persistent urge to cry, she couldn't tell anymore.

Five days since Conan had been admitted to the hospital. Five days since they'd stupidly decided to enter that cave. Five days since she'd first seen someone getting shot right next to her, with her own eyes. Five nights of nightmares since then.

Every time she closed her eyes she saw the blood on his hands, on his clothes, the cold sweat that broke out on his face, his pained grimace, the faces of the criminals hunting them through the cave, the bats, so many bats, flying at them.

In every silent moment the faint noise of traffic or the wind outside would warp into the sound of the water in the cave, of Conan's panting, his wheezing voice. The sound of bat wings. Every sharp clang sounded like a gunshot, startled her, made her flinch and attempt to duck out of range.

The looks her parents gave her were downright horrified. If she hadn't already been refusing to go outside all on her own, they'd probably have forbidden her from going out to play detective with her friends ever again. The only reason they could convince her to leave her room, where she'd sat hidden in a corner, wrapped in her blanket, was when they took her to see the therapist, promised she'd help her, two days ago.

And today, when they'd talked to Genta's and Mitsuhiko's parents and had come to the conclusion that they should allow their children to meet up again in a safe space that wasn't one of their homes, so that they wouldn't develop any long lasting fears connected to the outside world or something. Ayumi had only been listening in on her mother talking on the phone halfheartedly.

Whatever they came up with, apparently the Professor had also been part of the plan.

Now they were sat in the Professor's living room. A scene as familiar as it was utterly foreign. There was no loud cheering, they weren't playing a game. The Professor hadn't asked them a quiz. Ai hadn't shown her face, was hiding in the basement.

Mitsuhiko was catching up on homework, Genta was solving a Yaiba themed puzzle, Ayumi herself was staring out the Professor's large windows, watching the sky starting to shift from day to night. Nobody talked.

The three friends barely looked at each other. Whenever their eyes met they saw their own state mirrored back at them. They were all plagued by nightmares, haunting echoes of the cave, and the bats, and the fear of getting lost in there forever, and the criminals after them, and Conan's life seeming to slip through their fingers, the fear of not being fast enough and clever enough to save him.

Genta probably also had the unpleasant bonus of remembering the face of the corpse he'd gotten such a good look at, and the feeling of Conan bleeding out on his back, warm and sticky fluid with its horrible iron smell drenching his shirt all over.

When the Professor had thoughtlessly offered them red juice he'd been the first to vehemently decline, and Ayumi saw him scratching at his back from time to time. As if to make sure there was no more blood sticking the fabric to his skin. She pulled her knees up to her chin and wrapped her arms around herself as she shivered.

They were all blaming themselves. They'd forced Conan into the cave with them. The therapist, (kind woman, understanding and gentle, all three of them were now forced to see one, something about them being at risk of losing their carefreeness and childhood to trauma,) had insisted that blaming themselves wouldn't help make anything better.