What a Shame (Detective Conan Fan-Fic)

Chapter 2

Haibara Ai, otherwise known as Miyano Shiho, still wasn't sure what to make of the young, blonde girl. From what she had heard from Kudo and Agasa, Furuya Reiko had spent a majority of her life being raised around adults and apparently had little knowledge on how to interact with those her own age. Even without that knowledge being given to her, she would have likely been able to figure it out easily enough. 

Reiko was, by far, the most adult-like child she had ever met. If she didn't know any better, she probably would have assumed that she had shrunken as well. Unfortunately, she did know better, so it just ended up making it all the more unnerving whenever she noticed Reiko staring at her and Kudo like she knew all the answers to the universe. Kudo had already mentioned that there was a chance that she would see through them with ease, but waiting to see if the girl truly knew was starting to stress her out. It was like waiting for her own execution and not knowing when it was actually going to happen. While she still had a hope that the girl didn't know, it wasn't much.

That little bit of hope disappeared completely when Reiko decided to finally speak up. 

"Do you mind if I ask how you and Shinichi-nii shrunk?" If Haibara had been drinking something, she surely would have done a spit take. Even then, she still froze at the abrupt question, not entirely sure how they had managed to go from a tense silence to this. 

The question had come out of seemingly nowhere, but Reiko had been thinking the entire time they had been preparing lunch. Originally, she had been planning on just observing the pair of shrunken teenagers, but that had proven boring and did not yield the best of results. The two were obviously on guard around her, so it was doubtful that she'd overhear anything useful so long as they suspected that she knew something. 

And so she decided to speak exactly what was on her mind.

Trying to get over her shock, Haibara cleared her throat and did her best to send the child a questioning gaze. "What do you mean, Furuya-san?"

Reiko just stared, knowing that the other girl was trying to play the innocent card. At this point, both of them had stopped preparing the food and were just staring at each other; Reiko blankly and Haibara warily. Luckily, Agasa was off grabbing something from the car, so there was nobody to witness this strange conversation and stare off.

"You don't have to answer," Reiko finally spoke up quietly, turning away from Haibara and putting her attention back on the food. "I was just asking out of curiosity."

And with that, Reiko dropped the conversation. It was true. She was extremely curious, but if Haibara didn't feel like speaking about it, then she would respect that. Besides, she'd probably end up figuring it out one way or another anyways. For now, though, she didn't want to make a potential friend any more uncomfortable than her first question already had. 

While Reiko had gone back to her work, Haibara continued staring at the younger girl. She was having a hard time believing that she'd drop the topic just like that. She could tell that the girl truly was curious despite her neutral tone whilst speaking. And yet, she dropped it just because Haibara tried to avoid the conversation. She doubted that many others, at least out of the people she knew (damn detectives), would ever have the courtesy to do such a thing.

Haibara would never admit it out loud, but Reiko had somehow managed to earn her respect. 

At least a little bit. 

"...APTX 4869," Haibara started abruptly causing the other girl to pause and glance over to her direction in slight surprise. While Haibara was still a bit wary of Kudo's mysterious cousin, she had to admit that she had no doubts that this girl would keep any secret entrusted with her to the grave. It was honestly strange how easily she decided to trust her after only a few sentences being shared between the two. "It's an experimental drug that I helped invent and manufacture."