Conan groaned softly as he woke up to the sun shining in his face, before sleepily pressing his face into the pillow he was snuggling to try and go back to sleep now that the sun wasn't hurting his eyes.
His plans of more sleep failed though, since Agasa was apparently awake and called for him that breakfast was ready. Not wanting to miss breakfast, he begrudgingly dragged himself out of the bed, glaring sleepily at the bed when he was once again reminded of his predicament, seeing as the bed was less than a foot shorter than he was.

He made his way down stairs and to the professors dining room, where Agasa was seated at the table, a plate of food for him and a plate for Conan placed at the seat next to him.

"How'd you sleep? Any other problems or lingering pain?" Agasa asked as Conan took his seat at the table.

Conan yawned softly and shook his head, "no, I feel fine aside from my head, but the medicine you gave me is helping a lot with the pain." He said as he took a bite of the eggs in front of him.

"That's good," Agasa said as he took a sip of his coffee, "Ran called a few minutes ago, and said she convinced her father to let you stay and that she'll come pick you up in twenty minutes or so." He added.

Conan sighed softly, "I'm still not sure if this is a good idea, what do we do if she finds out?" He asked.

"Well, try and convince her otherwise, but if she has you pinned and you can't make an excuse then I'd say to take her somewhere private and explain to her what's happened, and stress the fact that she can't tell anyone anything." Agasa said with a shrug. "But hopefully that won't happen."

"Yeah, hopefully..." Conan said as he took another bite of his food.

He finished his breakfast and had just enough time to he'd dressed and get his suitcase before Ran arrived. He had talked with professor Agasa about acting the age he looked, and the two had worked together to try and piece together how a child would act in the situation they'd made for Conan's backstory.

Since Ran already seemed to think he was shy, Conan decided to go along with it, and practiced how he should act around her and her father as a shy seven year old who's parents had gotten into an accident and had sent him to stay with his closest yet still semi-distant relative for an unknown amount of time. He'd work out more of the details over the phone with Agasa later, like names and birthdays and such, but it would have to do for now.

There was a knock on the door and Agasa went to go open it while Conan moved to sit on the couch, taking a deep breath before getting into character.

He heard the door close and heard Ran's voice talking to Agasa in the hall as they walked towards the living room.

"Yes, Conan has his bag all nice and packed and is ready to go, thank you again for watching him." Agasa said as he lead Ran into the living room.

"It's no problem at all professor," Ran said as she followed him in, "He seemed like a sweet boy last night, I'm sure he won't be too much trouble." She added, before walking over and kneeling in front of Conan.

Conan quickly looked away and bit his lip, trying to act like the nervous children he'd seen in stores and such.

"Hello Conan, it's me Ran again," she said with a kind smile, "I'm here to pick you up and take you to my house, you're going to be staying with me for a while." She added.

Conan hesitantly turned to look at her, and gave her a small nod, glancing over at Agasa before getting off of the couch and grabbing his small suitcase.

"Conan has a phone so that he can contact me if he needs me, you should probably add your number later as well." Agasa said as he walked them to the front door, "he doesn't have any allergies to my knowledge, and he'll hopefully get a bit more comfortable around you in a day or two." He said as he opened the door. "And he has a spare pair of glasses being sent to my house that I'll give to you when they arrive."

"I'm sure he will, it's probably strange and stressful for him right now, being in a new place all by himself," Ran said, "I'll take good care of him, and if he's staying here for a while then maybe we can enroll him in a school." She said.

"That sounds like a great idea, then maybe he'll be able to make some friends while he's here." Agasa said, before turning to Conan.

"Now you be good for Ran and her father, and don't hesitate to call me if you need anything." He said.

Conan nodded but kept his mouth shut, having told Agasa he was going to play the part of shy-child already.

"Come on Conan, it's not a long walk to my house." Ran said as she gently took his hand and led him down the walkway and to the street, waving goodbye to Agasa.

"Here, I can carry your bag if you want." Ran said as she held her other hand out, and Conan reluctantly passed over his bag. "Oh it's very light, you didn't pack very much." She commented.

Conan shook his head and moved to stare at the people around them, decided to spend his time looking for anything suspicious or like the two men in black.

"You're very quite today," Ran said as they walked, "hopefully you'll warm up to me a bit soon." She added with a smile.

The rest of the walk was done in silence, with the occasional comment from Ran.

She lead him through a slightly busier part of town before stopping in front of a building with a sign that read 'Mouri Detective Agency' on it.

"This is where I live," Ran said, "my father is a detective, so his office is on the first floor and our house in on the second." She said as she led him towards a set of stairs.

Of course Conan already knew this, he'd been to Rans house more times than he could count, but he still didn't say anything to her.

The door on the ground floor suddenly burst open and a tall man in a blue suit with dark hair and a mustache came running out.

"Oh Ran! I just got a case, a rich mans daughter was just kidnapped! The witness said it was a large man wearing all black!" He said as he rushed to the side of the street, where he quickly began trying to hail down a taxi.

The daughter of a rich man was kidnapped by a man in black? Maybe it was one of the men who'd drugged him!

Conan quickly rushed forwards as the man, Rans father Kogoro, managed to get a taxi, quickly jumping into the backseat. He needed to come along and investigate.

"Conan!" Ran said in surprise as she rushed after him, getting into the back seat as well just before the taxi drove off, her father in the front seat with the driver.

"Conan! What do you think you're doing! You can't just go jumping into cars!" Ran scolded as she quickly bucked both him and herself as the car sped down the road.

"S-sorry Ran..." Conan said with a small sheepish smile, knowing there was probably a better way he could have gone about going along for the case.

"Eh! What are the two of you doing in the car?" Kogoro asked as he turned around in his seat to look at them.

"Sorry dad," Ran said, "I guess Conan wanted to go on a case after I told him you were a detective."

Her father huffed but turned back around to face forwards, "A crime scene is no place for a child," he said, "but you're here now so there's not much I can do, seeing as we're on the highway, so just keep him out of the way."

-

They reached the house roughly twenty minutes later. It was pretty large, similar to Conan's parents house, and was well decorated and had many well-kept plants.

The three of them were led to the backyard, which was apparently the scene of the crime, where they were met with the daughters father, their housekeeper, and their two maids.

"The child that was kidnapped was my daughter, Akiko, She is ten years old," the girl's father, Mr.Tani said as he handed Kogoro a picture of what Conan assumed was the girl, "the housekeeper, Aso, saw the kidnapping."

"What's a kidnapping?" Conan asked in the most innocent voice he could muster.

"Ah, a kidnapping is when someone takes someone else away, without permission." Ran said as she kneeled next to him.

"Eh? So the girl was kidnapped? How? It's her own house?" Conan asked, tilting his head in exaggerated confusion.

Kogoro seemed to catch on, and turned to Aso, "can you explain the kidnapping? What did you see?"

The elderly man nodded, "It was roughly and hour ago, the young miss had been in the backyard playing with her dog in the garden while I watched her," he began, "suddenly, from the back corner of the garden, a man dressed in all black jumped out and grabbed her," he continued, "he held a knife to her throat and told me to tell my master that if he wanted his daughter back in one piece he'd need to shut down his company for a month, and that he'd kill her if he contacted the police." Aso explained, "after he said that he put the knife away and climbed up the pine tree over there with the young miss and escaped over the fence." He finished, pointing to a large pine tree that stood next to the fence of the backyard.

"Did anyone else hear anything?" Kogoro asked as he turned to the two maids.

"No, all we heard was Aso shouting that the young miss had been kidnapped, neither of us heard anything else." The elderly maid said as she shook her head.

Conan looked over at the fence, and quietly walked over as the adults continued talking, managing to get over there without Ran noticing and stopping him.

He began to look around the base of the pine tree as he listened into the adults conversation as well. Apparently the kidnapper had called recently and had demanded 300 million dollars in addition to his previous demands.

It didn't make much sense though. Why would the criminal risk coming to her home to kidnap her and not while she was out or something, it would have been simpler and overall safer if they'd done that. And he was seen by someone, which was careless, but he also demanded a large sum of money, which meant he was pretty confidant they wouldn't try anything stupid to get the girl back.

He was jolted out of his thoughts by a loud growl and a large dog, a Great Dane, lunging forwards and knocking him backwards and pinning him down with a cry, gaining the attention of the others.

"Conan!" Ran said as she quickly rushed over as she saw the dog pinning Conan to the ground.

But stopped when she saw that the dog was licking his face, and that Conan was laughing as he tried to wipe the slobber away.

"How strange," Mr.Tani said as he and the other adults came over to help get the dog off of Conan, "Jombo's usually only friendly to members of the house hold, he's a good guard dog." He said as Conan was pulled into Rans arms.

Wait a minute...

"Eh?" Conan said as Ran helped him wipe the sliver off his face, using her sleeve, "does that mean he barks at strangers? Like the kidnapper?" He asked. It wasn't very subtle, but it got the job done.

"Hey wait," Kogoro said as he turned to the staff members, "you guys didn't hear the dog barking did you?" He asked, and the two women shook their heads, "Well wouldn't the dog have barked at a stranger?"

Conan noticed Aso slowly begin creeping away, and crossed his fingers that Kogoro would notice as well...

"Hey Aso, where are you going?" The man asked, much to Conan's relief. "There are a lot of suspicious parts in your story now."

"There wasn't any man in black was there Aso," he continued, "no, instead you're the criminal who kidnapped Akiko." He accused with a glare.

Aso let out nervous sigh before nodding, "Yes I am, and I'm so so sorry, please hear me out!" He said as he held up his hands.

"Why would you do such a thing!!" Mr.Tani said, not giving him a chance to explain as he glared at Aso, probably angered that his own staff would kidnap his daughter.

"I-" Aso was cut off by the sound of  Mr.Tani's phone ringing, which he quickly pulled out and answered.

"Hello?" He asked, before suddenly turning pale and looking shocked, "who are you?!?." He listened to the phone for a second "That's impossible, the criminal has already-"

So there was another kidnapper, someone must have kidnapped Akiko from the place she'd been held my Aso.

"Akiko!" Mr.Tani said in shock, and he must have heard her, since there was a muffled cry that everyone could hear from the phone. "Please I'll get the money! Can you please let Akiko return home safely!"

"Try and keep him talking, get his location." Kogoro whispered.

Before Mr.Tani could even nod the phone was hung up on the other end, and the man looked down sadly. "Akiko..."

"Did She say anything? Did you get any information on where she is?" Kogoro asked.

"She said she was in a school's storage room, and that she could see a big chimney out the window." He said as he pocketed his phone.

"Alright, I'll start looking around, but you should prepare the money just in case." Kogoro said sternly, gaining a quick nod from Mr.Tani.

It hadn't been that long since the kidnapping, so the kidnapper couldn't have gotten very far with the girl... but even then it'd be difficult to find her...wait, what if...

Conan ran over to Jumbo and untied his leash before climbing onto his back, being glad for the first time that he was so small and light and glad that Jumbo was a big dog. Jumbo immediately ran towards the gate, which was open, and raced out side and onto the sidewalk, both him and Conan ignoring the adults who ran after them. The dog seemed to know that his human was in trouble.

If there was a chimney then it belonged to either a factory or a bath house, so that narrowed down the number of schools even more to only five possible ones.

The first school was a bust, and so was the second, and the third, fourth and fifth. It was taking to long, and both Conan and Jumbo were getting tired. But there were no other schools that could see a chimney from their storage roof in that area, could the kidnapper have really gotten that far away?

Conan looked around for anything that could remotely look like chimney, and froze when he saw one of the tall skyscrapers. It was wide and thin, and if you looked at it right it would have looked like one of the chimneys. That must be it! Akiko must have mistook it as a chimney from the angel she was seeing it at.

There was only one school in the area that saw the building from that angle, which was Futatsubashi. He quickly climbed back onto Jumbos back and guided him to run towards the school, coaxing him to run faster, knowing that they didn't have much time left.

They arrived at the school five minutes later, and Junbo quickly caught and followed Akiko's scent to the storage room.

He could hear voices inside, and peaked through the crack in the doorway. He saw a tall broad shouldered man standing above a bound and gagged little girl in a fuzzy pink sweater that had to be Akiko. The man had just drawn a knife, as was reaching towards her-

"Wait!" He called, kicking the door.

He heard the man gasp and the sound of something metal hitting the floor.

He took a step back as he heard the man walking towards the door.

"Who's there?" He called.

"Me!" Conan said as he yanked the door open wide enough for Jumbo to leap through and tackle the man to the ground with an enraged growl, causing the man to go flying backwards.

Conan quickly ran in after them, and knelt down next to Akiko, ripping the tape off her mouth before starting to untie the ropes. "It's alright now," he reassured, knowing she was probably terrified.

"Who are you?" She asked with a small sniff, and Conan saw that she'd been crying, which wasn't surprising considering the situation.

"I'm Conan, a detective." He said with a smile.

"A detective?" She parroted, and Conan could see a bit of hope in her eyes.

He jumped slightly when he heard a loud yelp, and looked up in time to see Jumbo getting knocked away after the man had hit him with a baseball bat he'd found, and watched as the large dog scrambled out of the storage room, barking loudly.

"Times up little brat!" The man said as he ran over and swung down at Conan, who barely managed to dodge the hit, which is head hit a few boxes next to him.

Conan quickly jumped and aimed a kick at the mans head, but stupidly forgot that he wasn't as tall as he once was and missed by a long shot, the man managing to grab his leg and fling him away like he weighed nothing.

He crashed into a basket full of soccer balls with a small cry, spilling them every where. He quickly sat up with a grunt, looking around at the soccer balls before getting an idea.

He quickly got up, his legs a bit shaky, and kicked one of the balls as hard as he could at the man. His aim was on point, but he wasn't as strong as he used to be, so the man batted the ball away with a smirk.

The man charged at him, and Conan didn't have time to dodge before he was getting hit full force in the stomach with the metal baseball bat, sending him crashing into a wall with a cocked cry and knocking the wind out of him as he crumpled to the ground.

"Your stupid game is over kid, you shouldn't have meddled in things you weren't a part of!" The man said from where he stood over Conan, the bat raised above his head.

"No don't do it!" Akiko cried, but the man ignored her and swung his bat down at Conan's head, the force of which could cause a potentially fatal injury.

A blur of bright blue suddenly rammed into the man from the side, knocking him away with a powerful kick.

Conan -who had curled up to try and protect himself- quickly looked up when he heard the man cry out, and couldn't help smiling wildly as he saw an absolutely livid Ran standing above him, the teen having just kicked the man away with enough force to crack ribs.

The man scrambled to his feet and ran forwards to punch her, but Ran quickly and easily blocked him before kicking him in the face and sending a flurry of quick punches to his stomach, causing him to stumble back and fall to his knees, where she quickly gave him another swift kick upside the head, which made him crumple to the ground.

She waited a few seconds before relaxing from her fighting stance and moving to kneel next to Akiko, quickly untying the ropes and helping her up before moving to Conan as Kogoro and Mr.Tani rushed into the storage room.

"How'd you know where we were?" Conan asked as Ran helped him sit up, wincing as he quickly moved to hold his stomach, which actually hurt pretty bad from the hit.

"We followed you as far as we could, and were luckily near by when we heard Jumbo barking and saw him run out of here." She said as she carefully picked him up.

Akiko's father quickly gathered her in his arms and held her close while Kogoro moved to watch the kidnapper while calling the police to come collect him, looking very proud of himself for having 'solved' the case.

"We're going to need to have a talk about you running off on your own though Conan," Ran said as she gave him a stern look, "you could have gotten much more hurt than you are if we hadn't been here, you need to be more careful." She said.

"Sorry Ran." Conan mumbled, realizing that she was right. Since he wasn't as big and strong as he once was, he might need to depend on her or other adults, although he didn't really like the idea of that.

"It's okay, just try not to do this again? I don't want you to get hurt." She said, and Conan gave her a nod.

After the police showed up they all went back to Mr.Tani's house, to finally let Asa explain and to get Akiko home.

-

"I was the one who planned the kidnapping." Akiko began as she looked away from her father from where she sat on the porch.

"What? Why?" Her father asked as he kneeled in front of her.

"Because you only care about your work," she said as tears welled up in her eyes, "I asked Asa to help me with the kidnapping, I though that if dads company was closed, even for a little while, then he'd play with me instead of doing work!" She admitted with a small sob.

Mr.Tani sighed softly and turned to Asa, "even if it was my daughter who asked you still shouldn't have listened to her," he said sternly, and Asa nodded, looking ashamed.

"Your punishment," Mr.Tani began as he continued to look at the housekeeper, "is to book a one week trip for two in Australia." He said, much to everyone's surprise.

"It's for you and me, Akiko," Mr.Tani said as he pulled her into a hug, "I'm sorry for not giving you enough attention, let me make it up to you." He said. "And never do something like this again." He added.

Akiko let at another sob as she hugged him tightly and nodded, "Okay dad, I promise!"

Mr.Tani then quickly called a taxi for them, and said he'd be sending a reward soon, while praising Kogoro for his good work while Ran and Conan sat with Akiko while they waited for the taxi.

They were soon picked up, and taken back to Ran and Kogoro's house. Thankfully his suitcase was still sitting on the steps, otherwise he would have needed to go back to his house to find more clothes.

Ran quickly settled him into the guest room she'd cleaned up the night before, telling him to sit on the bed while she grabbed a wet rag and some bandaids to clean and patch up some of the scrapes he'd gotten. It didn't hurt much, and the cool rag felt nice on his skin, so he didn't really mind.

She then had him take his coat and shirt off so she could look at his stomach, and concluded at nothing was broken or severely damaged, but told him that a pretty bad bruise was forming and that he should take it easy for a bit.

It was past lunch time, and evening was crawling into place, so they decided to have an early dinner. Ran was too tired to cook though, and Kogoro wasn't allowed in the kitchen for anything except water and coffee, so they ordered take-out.

Conan -still trying to keep his shy-child act up- sheepishly asked Kogoro if he could go on another case with him, although ran quickly argued against it.

Kogoro had thought about it for a second, before agreeing, saying that Conan might be a good luck charm for him or something since the case had gone so well while he'd been there.

Ran hadn't been to happy, and said that if Conan was going then she'd have to go too to keep him safe.

After that they finished eating and everyone got ready for bed, pretty tired from the day.

Conan changed into his baby blue pajamas and crawled under the covers, only to quickly find himself hugging another pillow like he had the night before, nuzzling his face into it as he began to think.

No sign of the men in black yet, although he shouldn't be surprised, it's only been a day.

He sighed softly and held the pillow tighter. The date with Heiji, Kaito, and Suguru was in a few days, and the thought of them coming here and finding Shinichi missing filled him with anxiety. What was he gunna do? Would they come here to talk to Ran? Had they tried to text or call him at all? His new phone had a different number, so any messages wouldn't have gone through and the phone would say 'I'm sorry, but the number you are trying to call is unavailable at this time' and to 'call again later' or something like that. He felt guilty for not contacting them, since he had their numbers memorized and could have done it. But then he remember how the men in black might hurt them or anyone else who finds out if they learn that he's still alive...

He eventually fell asleep around midnight, finally succumbing to his tired mind despite his restless thoughts.
-
-
-
It had been a few days since Conan had been sent to live with Ran and her father. There'd been no new cases, and no sign of the men in black, but that wasn't Conan's problem right now.

No, his problem was that today was the day of his date with Heiji, Kaito, and Suguru. They most definitely knew something was wrong at this point, and Kaito had probably stopped by his house to try and check on him. He obviously wouldn't find anything though, and they couldn't contact him since his old phone had been destroyed.

Currently he was sitting on the couch in the living room, watching some kids show Ran had put on for him to try and distract him from the ever growing anxiety in his stomach. It was 3pm, and the others would have arrived at his house an hour ago, but they hadn't tried calling Ran -since her phone was on the coffee table and hadn't rung once all day- so Conan wasn't sure what they were doing or if they were looking for him.

He'd been practicing his child-act the last few days when he wasn't searching for clues and talking with Agasa though, and had gotten pretty good at mimicking the actual seven year olds he saw in the park, doing his best to match their tones and body languages, as well as trying to copy their mentality and maturity towards things as well, which was a bit more difficult seeing as he was a decently smart seventeen year old on the inside.

He was cut off from his thoughts by a few short knocks on the door, which was odd since they weren't in the office portion the building and Ran hadn't mentioned any visitors coming.

He quickly got up and got Ran though, like a normal child would when someone knocked on the door, and she quickly came out to check and see who it was while Conan stood behind the couch, watching curiously.

Ran opened the door, but not wide enough for Conan to see who was there, but she began to talk to the person he couldn't hear what was being said though, before she stepped aside and let them in.

Oh shit.

Heiji Hattori, Kaito Kuroba, and Suguru Hakuba all stepped inside the room after Ran moved to let them in, each of them thanking her with somewhat tired smiles.

Conan was frozen as he stared at the three of them in shock, not knowing what to do as Heiji turned and spotted him, giving him a confused look.

"Uh, hey Ran, who's the kid?" He asked as he pointed at Conan, who let out a small squeak before he ducked behind the couch and out of sight.

Oh shit they were gunna figure him out! He should have expected this, they're freaking detectives -except for Kaito, who was technically a thief, but he was just as smart and inquisitive as the other two- of course they're going to come talk to the last person who had seen him as Shinichi. Well, he figured they'd talk to Ran at some point, but he thought they'd call first.

"Oh, that's Conan, he's one of Professor Agasa's relatives that my father and I agreed to watch for a while," Ran said as she closed the door, "Sorry, he's a bit shy." She added.

"That's okay," he heard Heiji say, and he could practically hear the smile in his voice.

Suddenly someone stepped behind the couch and squatted down in front of Conan.

"Hey kid," Kaito said as he gave him a kind smile, before holding out his hand. He twisted his wrist and in the blink of an eye a fake flower was pinched between his fingers, which he offered to Conan with a grin. "No need to be shy."

Conan hesitantly took the flower, eyeing Kaito warily. This was a magic trick Kaito did often, especially when they were on dates, but Conan knew he also liked to show off and make children happy with his tricks, so it probably didn't mean anything in that sense.

"Conan, how about you come say hi, these are some friends of mine." Ran said.

Conan couldn't really ignore her, since she'd probably come pull him out from behind the couch if he did, so he quickly went around the couch and sat next to her on the love seat while the other three made themselves comfortable on the couch across from them.

"Conan this is Heiji, Suguru, and Kaito, although he already said hi." Ran said, giving him a smile when she noticed the flower in his hands.

Conan kept his mouth shut and his eyes glued to the coffee table, barely nodding in response to the names. Will they recognize no? Did he ever show them childhood photos? No...no he didn't think he had...

"Sorry again, he's still a bit nervous around strangers." Ran said apologetically.

"It's no problem, a bunch of little kids are shy." Suguru said.

Ran nodded and gave them a smile. "Well, why are you three here? I thought you had a date with Shinichi today?" She asked, and Conan saw the three of them visibly sag out of the corner of his eye.

"Yeah, we were supposed to," Heiji began, "but Shinichi is MIA right now." admitted, his voice soft and tired sounding.

"Eh? You can't find him?" Ran asked with a small frown.

"Yeah, He wasn't at his house and he hasn't been answering his phone," Kaito said with a frown, "we were wondering if you knew anything? You went to that amusement park with him a few days ago right?"

Ran nodded, "Yeah, we spent most of the day there, and he even solved a case when a woman murdered her ex on the roller coaster we were on." She said, gaining a few fond and knowing smiles from the other three that made Conan's heart melt.

"Yeah he texted us about the case, but that's the last we heard from him," Heiji said, "we were wondering if you could tell us what happened after that?" He asked.

"Well," Ran began, "We decided to leave the park after the police let everyone leave, which is probably when he texted you, and he comforted me a little because I was still upset about the murder," she recalled, "then he stopped and turned to me with a kinda worried expression, and told me that he had to check on something and that I should keep walking home and that he'd catch up with me in a few minutes." She continued with a frown, "then he ran down a dark alley before I could say anything, and I got a weird feeling," she admitted, "like something bad was gunna happen, but I didn't run after him and did as he said." She contiuned, "but then he never met up with me on the walk back home, and didn't answer his phone at all, so after a few hours I went over to his house but he wasn't there." She said, "he hasn't answered any of my calls or texts at all since then." She finished.

Conan watched as the three of them exchanged brief yet worried glances, before turning back to Ran.

"Can you remember anything else? Anything or anyone that was suspicious right before Shinichi left?" Suguru asked. "Was he nervous at all throughout the day?"

"No he was fine all day, we teased each other and he seemed relaxed," Ran said as she rubbed her chin thoughtfully, "but now that you mention it, I'm pretty sure a man with a black bowler hat and a long black coat had run down the alleyway before Shinichi did, he kinda looked suspicious I suppose." She said. "Do you think shinichi's in trouble?" She asked with a worried frown.

"We don't know," Kaito said softly, mirroring her frown, "but we're going to try and find him."

"Can you show us the spot you last saw him? Even if it was a few days ago we might still be able to track down where he went or something." Heiji said hopefully.

Ran nodded quickly, "Yeah of course I can show you," She said, "just let me go grab a coat for me and Conan, I can't leave him here alone." She said before turning to him, "go grab your shoes." She added before getting up and going to the other room to get their coats.

Conan nodded and hopped off the couch to grab his shoes, bringing them back to the couch as he purposefully struggled to put them on. No seven year old was able to tie their shoelaces without some amount of trouble.

"Need some help there?" Kaito asked with a smile as he gestured to his shoes, which Conan had purposefully/accidentally gotten tangled. He gave him a hesitant nod, and let Kaito take the shoes from him, watching as he untangled the laces.

"So, Conan, have you ever been on a case before?" Heiji asked with a kind smile that made Conan feel even more guilty for hiding from them.

He gave him a small hesitant nod, not takin his eyes off of his shoes as Kaito finished untangling them.

"Really? Was I with Kogoro?" Heiji asked, and Conan gave him another small nod. "Ah, I bet it was exciting."

"Conan did really good on that case," Ran said as she came back with her coat and Conan's coat, "a little girl had been kidnapped and Conan managed to find her with the girls dog, although he went on his own and got a little hurt in the process." She said as she set Conan's coat down on the arm of the couch.

"Oh really?" Kaito said as he helped Conan slip his shoes on, "he's a little rascal then."

"And a detective." Heiji added, "maybe he could help us find Shinichi." He said in the same way an adult tried to make a child feel important and involved, but not actually thinking he could help.

Conan gave him a small smile. If only he knew...

Kaito finished putting on Conan's shoes and tied each with a double knotted bow, before he got up and Ran helped him put his coat on.

The five of them then left and hopped on a bus to get to Tropical Island, since it was kinda far and none of them wanted to waste time by walking. They ended up needing to pay to get into the park, despite the fact that they were just investigating and not actually there for the park.

Ran led them to the spot in front of the alleyway that Conan knew lead to outside the park and into the clearing he'd been drugged in.

"This is the spot we were at when the man ran into the ally and where Shinichi ran after him." Ran said.

"Thanks Ran," Heiji said, "if you want you and Conan can wait here." He added.

That was not happening. Conan wasn't going to let them go on their own, not while he was here, even if he wasn't Shinichi anymore. The men in black might still be around and he didn't want the three of them getting involved.

He let go of Rans hand and quickly ran into the alleyway, ignoring the others as they called for him to come back and ran after him.

He stopped when he came to the cleaning, feeling somewhat relieved when he saw that it was empty.

"Conan! You can't just go running off like that! It could be dangerous." Ran said as she caught up to him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Sorry." He said, trying to act apologetic and sheepish, "I wanted to help with the case, like a detective." He said, looking up at her hopefully, hoping he looked innocent enough for her to not scold him and drag him away.

She sighed softly but nodded, "I guess we can stay and help." She said, "but I told you before that you need to stop running off like that." She added before turning to the three boys that had run after him with her. "What exactly are we looking for?" She asked.

"Anything suspicious, or anything that's Shinichi's," Suguru said, "split up and search the whole clearing."

The five of them quickly set to work, each taking a separate area of the clearing, except Ran, who stayed close to Conan to keep an eye on him.

They searched for probably ten minutes before finding anything.

"Hey guys! I found something!" Ran called, gaining their attention. She'd been searching the farthest corner of the clearing, where there was a hole in the metal fence. Conan recognized it as the one he'd ducked through that night to get away from the police.

She was holding a familiar baggy, dull dark green jacket in her hands.
So it was still here after he'd ditched it, that's good, at least he hadn't lost it.

"This is the jacket Shinichi was wearing that day." Ran said softly as she passed it over to Heiji, who held it like it was so fragile that any pressure at all would turn it to dust.

"That's yours right?" Suguru asked as he put a gently hand on the small of heiji's back in a comforting manner.

"Yeah." Heiji said softly as he looked down at the jacket.

After a few moments of silence he shook his head and folded the jacket up before tucking it under his arm. "Come on, lets keep looking." He said, before turning on his heel and walking away to a different part of the clearing.

Conan stood and watched him walk away, feeling guilt clawing at his stomach and eating him whole. He hated this. He wanted to tell them, wanted to comfort them and assure them that he was fine, or at least as fine as he could be, but he couldn't. Not if he wanted to keep them safe. And he'd rather them be in the dark and upset, than involved and dead.

He reluctantly went back to searching, and eventually found himself drifting over to where Kaito was searching.

"Who's Shinichi." He asked softly, still trying to keep up his child act. Children where curious right? And kind of insensitive?

Kaito looked at him in surprise for a few seconds before shaking his head as giving him a small sad smile that made Conan's heart ache. "Shinichi is someone very important to me -to us," he said as he knelt down next to Conan, "he's our partner, in every sense of the word." He added, ruffling Conan's hair before going back to searching.

Conan sighed softly and went back to looking as well, not putting much effort into it.

He eventually found the broken remains of his phone, which was a surprise since he assumed the police would have found them and taken them, and was met with a problem. Tell the others he'd found something, and cause them to worry even more than they already were? Or hide it and risk them finding out and being angry with him and then causing them to worry?

Apparently he'd been still for too long and Ran had come over to check on him.

"What is it Conan?" She asked as she leaned over his shoulder to look at the ground he was kneeling in front of. "Eh? Oi! Guys! Conan found something!" She called, getting their attention.

The others quickly gathered round as Ran picked up the broken cellphone.

"Well...I guess we know why he didn't answer his phone." Kaito said, his voice the grimmest Conan had ever heard it.

"And now we can assume that something actually happened to him and he didn't just loose his phone or get too caught up in a case." Heiji added, much to Conan's irritation and embarrassment. He wouldn't get so involved in a case that'd he'd forget about his boyfriends.

"What do we do now?" Ran asked as she passed the phone to Suguru.

"We go and inform the police, tell them all that we know and give them our evidence," Suguru said as he pocketed the broken pieces, "then we continue to look for him ourselves as best we can while working with the police."

"But the break is almost over, how will you look for him while you're at school? Or solving other cases?" Ran asked.

"We'll use the weekends, or take time off if we ever get a strong lead," Kaito said, "Shinichi is more important than school and other cases." He added, Suguru and Heiji nodding in agreement. "Not that we'll just ditch other cases though." And Conan assumed meant Kaito Kid wouldn't be making as many appearances either.

Conan did his best not to blush at that, his heart fluttering warmly as he saw how much they cared. Not that he thought they wouldn't care, it's just nice to actually see and hear it.

"And my father is chief of police back home," Heiji said, "he'll have some connections with your police department and be able to get info to me quickly."

"But keep your eyes out," Kaito said to Ran, "we need all the help we can get, so we'd appreciate it if you'd inform us if you find anything."

Ran quickly nodded, "of course," she said, "Shinichi is my best friend, I'll do anything I can to help find him."

"Thanks Ran," Heiji said as he gave her a smile. "Now lets keep looking and if we don't find anything else we'll go to the police.

They did end up finding one more thing, a metal pipe with a bit of blood on it, which Conan recognized as the weapon the tall man in black had used to incapacitate him that night.

They took all their evidence to the police and reported a missing person case that was also a potential kidnapping, and directed them to the spot they'd found everything.

The police took the pipe and took the broken phone but let Heiji keep the jacket since they had run a few tests and it didn't have anything important to the case.

"What are you guys going to do now?" Ran asked as the five of them walked down the street away from the police station.

"Go back to Shinichi's house and see if there's anything there that can tell us why he was taken." Suguru said.

Conan internally winced at that, knowing the three of them wouldn't find anything and feeling guilty about letting them go on thinking they'd find him.

Ran nodded, "I hope you guys find something," she said, "Conan and I need to get home for now, the breaks almost over and I was going to try and enroll him at the primary school nearby since he's going to be staying with us for awhile."

"Oh right, schools starting up soon isn't it." Heiji said softly as he stuffed his hands into his jacket, the one they'd found while looking for Shinichi. He'd put it on the minute the police said they didn't need it for evidence.

"That means we'll have to come here on weekends or our days off when we can." Kaito said, "while also keeping eyes out at home." He added.

They ended up splitting ways when they got to an intersection, the three of them going straight while Ran and Conan went left, the direction towards home.

"I hope Shinichi's okay." Ran said as they walked down the street. "I'm worried about him." She admitted.

Conan bit his lip, before gently squeezing Rans hand -she had insisted that they hold hands while they walked so she could keep him safe- and glancing up at her.

"I'm sure he's fine, wherever he is." He said softly, looking back down at the sidewalk, avoiding Rans gaze as she looked back at him.

He missed the smile she gave him. "You're right," She said softly, "I can't not worry though, he's like a brother to me, we've knowing each other since we were younger than you." She added. "I bet the two of you would get along."

Conan couldn't do anything but nod as he continued to look anywhere but her, she didn't seem to mind though.

They got back home a few minutes later, and Ran sent him to wash up while she talked to her dad and got started on dinner, leaving Conan with plenty of time to think.

Maybe he could use one of Agasa's weird experimental phones and text them that he was okay but couldn't see them? But then that would raise questions and they might find him...
He huffed softly as he sat down on the couch and pulled one of the pillows into his lap to hug as he continued to think to himself.
It was either leave them in the dark entirely, or call them to try and ease their worries and stop their searches. But knowing them that'd just make them look more -or even be angry with him when he came back. But he didn't want to leave them in the dark, since he'd have to watch them worry and waste their time searching...

Maybe if he waited long enough they'd give up searching? The thought of them giving up on him hurt, but logically he knew it would be the right thing. He didn't know how long he'd be stuck -maybe even for forever- and he didn't want to force them to keep waiting for him when he might not come back at all. They'd have each other, so he didn't have to worry about them dealing with this alone, but-

"Conan! Dinners ready!" Ran called, startling Conan out of his thoughts and making him jump slightly.

"O-okay! Coming!" Conan called back as he hopped off the couch and ran to where Ran was setting up food on the table, her father already sitting there.

He'd just have to deal with everything as it happened, might as well try to not think about what he'd have to do until he actually had to do it. It hurt less for him and for them that way.
For now he'd continue to be Conan and keep trying to find the men in black. Hopefully all of this would be resolved sooner or later.

He stayed up at night texting with Agasa about what had happened, and working out the details of his new person -apparently Agasa had a friend that could make him all the paper work he'd bed for school and such, and Conan didn't know if he should be concerned about that or not. Agasa also said he had a couple of things for Conan to help him try to find the men in black, and said to come over whenever he could to get them.

He decided he'd have to look into that at some point, before eventually curling up and going to bed, slipping into a dream about him and his boyfriends going on a date.