Fic_Off: Vampyre AU ~ Beach
Title: Vamyre AU: Beach
Author: Icka! M. Chif
Fandom: Detective Conan / Magic Kaito
Category: #1: "Fic'ed Off"
Old Wordcount: 3257
New Wordcount: 4166
Link to beginning of fic: Vampyre AU
And with this, all of the Vampyre AU fics are done. ^__^
"Alright. Explain this to me one more time." Kaito crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow at Hakuba, who was spreading some towels underneath an extremely large beach umbrella in the sand. "We come to the beach for a lotta sun, sand and water, and you wanna hide under a beach umbrella the entire time?"
"Precisely."
"Riiiiiiiight." Kaito scratched the side of his head. "And you came with us -why-?"
"Because Aoko-kun LOOKED at me." Hakuba deadpanned, as if not at all ashamed to be bullied into something by a small slip of a girl. After all, he was talking to probably the only other person in the entire world who understood that completely.
The power of Aoko's glare was truly scary to behold.
"That's it, I'm getting on a sugar high." Kaito waved his hands in the air and looked around for the nearest ice cream vender.
Hakuba winced, changing expressions for the first time this morning. He did not care to be reminded of what happened the -last- time Kaito decided that the leech on his energies needed to lighten up. "...and then Koizumi threatened to lock me in a room with that blasted pet cat of hers if I did not come. The cat YOU gave her."
"Err..." This time the magician winced. He wasn't fond of being reminded of his own magical failures. In this case, the transformation of a harmless little bunny into a spiky winged cat. That breathed fire. "Okay, okay, you win. This time. But if the girls drag you into something, I'm not coming to your rescue."
"Fair enough." Hakuba agreed mildly. "And not to point out the obvious or anything, but Mister Sun is most emphatically -not- my friend."
The zombie didn't shrivel into a mummified husk or burst into flames, but he did find that too much sun did tend to make him sluggish and slow. Not to mention was murder on his un-dead eyes, which were more comfortable in the cool shades of after dark.
A theory that Kaito apparently agreed with, seeing as he wore his own pair of sunglasses almost religiously while on the sand.
"There's always the Sugar High option." Kaito offered cheerfully.
"No."
"Spoilsport."
"Here comes Aoko-kun and Koizumi." Distractions were good, distractions were your friend.
"About time. How long does it take to change into a bathing su..." Kaito's voice trailed off as the brunette caught sight of the other two members of their party.
Kaito blinked.
And blinked again.
Hakuba smirked as the magician's jaw fell somewhere around his ankles as while his brain verified that yes, he was seeing what he thought he was seeing.
Aoko in a blue bathing suit strolling towards him with a faint blush and a small nervous smile on her face was quite a lovely and expected picture.
However, by the rush of energy and sudden blood flow, Kaito was obviously not prepared for Aoko in a Blue BIKINI.
Ye, praise be to whomever god invented the bikini, it t'were a lovely sight...
"Ran-kun, Kazuha-kun and Akako-chan dragged Aoko-kun swimsuit shopping when they heard she was going to the beach." Hakuba commented genteelly in his ear, startling Kaito from his reverie. One of the more interesting twists of being undead was the fact that the girls took him for essentially neuter and had a habit of discussing things in front of him that they would normally not in front of other boys. "Tissue?"
"Thanks." Kaito took a tissue from the offered box and wiped his nose from the aftermath of the blood rushing to other places besides his head. The magician paused a moment, looking at the tissue, then up at Hakuba. "Wait a minute. Why are -you- carrying tissues around? You shouldn't get nosebleeds!"
The blond zombie raised an eyebrow. "Force of habit." He commented blandly with a slight shrug. Allergies were a pain and with cross-continental travel, they were almost assuredly a certainty.
Kaito looked around the beach, and the amount of scantily clad people, over at Hakuba, whose skin had always been extremely pale even when alive, then over at Koizumi, who was wearing something that resembled nothing more than black dental floss in a cobweb pattern.
And obviously reached the wrong conclusion. "Ohh..."
Hakuba shrugged. Whatever. It certainly wasn't worth the argument.
Kaito's face lit up into a gigantic grin. "You pervert!" He laughed.
"Hardly." Hakuba's tone was dryer than the sun warmed sand they were standing on.
"Kaito! Hakuba-kun!" Aoko smiled as she nervously set her bag of clothing down next to the umbrella. "Thanks for setting up while we got changed."
"Not a problem." Hakuba gave her a small smile. "It is not like we have to do much in order to change." Upon finding a spot, Kaito had immediately stripped down to the swim shorts he'd worn as normal clothing, and Hakuba had switched tops to an open Hawaii'an patterned shirt.
Which in addition to the customary tropical leaves on a black background, was decorated with grinning white skulls. It was on loan from Koizumi, after his 'Tropical Fish From Around The World' shirt mysteriously went missing.
"Of course, the time generally does differ as to what you are changing in to." Koizumi purred, reclining on one of the towels completely hidden in shade. Both boys ignored her jibe.
"Are you going to be able to swim in that?" Kaito asked, idly snapping the shoulder strap of Aoko's bikini. "It doesn't look anything like a life preserver..."
"Kaito!" She snapped his hand away, her face turning red with anger.
"Translation." Hakuba spoke up wryly from the relative safety of the other side of Koizumi. "He could barely keep his eyes in his sockets when he saw you."
"Hakuba." Kaito shot the detective a particularly dirty glare. "Please die."
He quite obligingly toppled over on to the sand much like he had been struck by a two by four.
"Hakuba-kun!" Aoko reacted with shock as she dove to check on him. Koizumi muffled a snicker.
"D'oh." Kaito smacked his head with his hand. Never tell someone who was dead to drop dead. It left them too big of an opening to get you back with. "Completely forgot. Not funny Saguru-chan."
The zombie opened one eye. "We live to please." He deadpanned. Undead gallows humour. Had to love it.
"Or not, as the case my be." Koizumi snerked.
"That too."
+++
"Heiji?" Kazuha questioned as the Kansai werewolf pricked his ears up and began scanning the beach. "Somethin' wrong?"
"No..." He trailed off, still looking around suspiciously. "I just thought I heard someone familiar."
"Familiar good or familiar bad?" Conan questioned, setting his ice chest down in the sand with a muffled grunt.
"Not sure." Heiji said before giving himself a shake, both mentally and physically before shooting the smallest detective a small smile. "I'll keep a nose out anyway."
"Probably a good idea all around." Shin'ichi agreed. Just because they had gotten three of the known agents of the Black Organization was no reason to lax their guard.
But a nice relaxing day at the beach had sounded like a good idea when Kazuha and Ran had brought it up. Sonoko had already had plans, something that pleased Conan to no end, and the rest of the Shonen Tantei either couldn't come or had elected to stay home, in Haibara's case
"I've got protection charms in my bag." Conan offered, reaching into his own small knapsack and pulling out various items. "Omamori and sunscreen all around?"
"Sounds good. I'll stick some ofuda on the umbrella."
After all, it wouldn't do to scare away the ghosts and ghoulies just to end up with a nasty sunburn at the end of the day.
+++
"Ooo! Hey! Check this out!" Aoko grinned, waving a slip of paper as she ran up to join Hakuba and Koizumi under the large umbrella. Kaito followed behind her with skewers of freshly grilled yakitori, the chicken still steaming on their skewers in the warm beach air, a remarkably bland expression on his face.
"What'd you find, sweetheart?" Koizumi purred, lowering her sunglasses to get a better glimpse of the flyer.
"There's going to be a swimsuit contest!" Beaming, Aoko handed her the flyer. "You should enter, Akako-chan! You'd win for sure!"
"Hmm..." The witch debated it. "It's for both men and women. Hakuba-kun and Kaito-kun should join in as well."
"Not interested." Hakuba waved it off, content to hide under the nice shady beach umbrella.
"Pass." Kaito agreed, handing out the grilled yakitori.
"Pass?" Aoko's eyebrows rose. "But you love performing! And it's the talk of half the beach, almost everyone's going to be there."
"This-" Kaito waved a lazy hand towards the flyer "-is -not- performing. There is no display of talents or skills. It is merely a chance for people to oogle over the oppisite, or same, gender dressed in skimpy clothing in a large group as to not make complete fools of themselves."
"In other words, below your dignity."
"Exactly." Kaito said, nodding his head in confirmation as he plopped down on the towel next to Hakuba, as if the zombie would offer protection from the insanity of the girls.
Koizumi glanced between the two boys. More specifically, at Hakuba wider, broad shoulder frame, built for power and stamina, then down at Kaito's thinner, whipcord and muscle frame, made for speed and agility. Not that Kaito was lacking in strength, by any means, it just wasn't quite as impressive when compared side by side next to someone physically bigger than him.
"Worried that your physique is lacking?" The witch inquired idly, one eyebrow quirking in amusement.
Kaito sniffed disdainfully. "Hardly. If you want to go, I wish you luck, but you won't see me anywhere near the stage."
With that, he laid down on the blanket, pushed the sunglasses firmly over his eyes and appeared to promptly go to sleep.
"Party pooper." Aoko muttered, then turned and grabbed Hakuba instead.
+++
"Guess what? Guess What?!" Kazuha cheered as she and Ran brought back the ice cream.
"There's a dead body?" Conan dead panned. His larger self tossed a sunscreen bottle towards him for bringing the subject up. Heiji shot him a glare as well.
"Actually-" Ran said, distracting them with their ice cream cones.
"That wasn't it." Kazuha scolded them. "We found somethin' -interestin'-." The ponytailed girl unwrapped a flyer from where it had gotten stuck around her ice cream cone. She held it out for Heiji to read.
"A swimsuit contest?" Heiji sceptically read out loud.
"The Grand Prize for each gender is 10,000 yen and a trip for two to Okinawa!" Kazuha bubbled. "Second place is four tickets to Miracle Land!"
Conan and Shin'ichi glanced at each other. "Pass." They deadpanned.
"Amusement Parks-"
"-Give us the hives."
"Really?" Ran looked confused. "I never noticed."
The twins shivered. Between getting shrunk at Tropical Land, Ran getting shot at in Tropical Land, and Ran and the Shonen Tantei almost getting blown up in Miracle Land, they'd had enough of amusement parks to last them a lifetime.
"Hah." Heiji smirked."Like you would win anyway."
"HEIJI!" Kazuha snapped.
"Hah, what ever." Heiji shrugged, handing the paper back to Kazuha with a bored air. "What self-respectin' guy would go up on stage for a bunch of girls to ogle at anyway?"
+++
"Well, I'll be. Hakuba Saguru." Heiji's grin split across his face as the stone-faced undead detective took his place next to Shin'ichi. "Fancy runnin' into ya here! What are you doin' here?
"Being flatly outnumbered." The zombie said succulently, glancing at the crowd below the stage uneasily. They hadn't let him wear his sunglasses on stage and he was missing them for their sun shielding properties as well as camouflage. Surely someone would notice the slight milkiness to his eyes. "What are you doing here?"
"Equal exchange." Shin'ichi commented, raising a hand in greeting. "If we entered, the girls would enter too."
The blond tilted his head to the side, musing that over. "Logical." He finally decreed.
"Speaking of enterin', where's Kuroba?" Heiji mused, looking around. "Would have thought he'd be the first one on stage."
"He decided against it." Hakuba said drolly. "Something about a decided lack of a display of talents."
Shin'ichi snorted. "Like that would stop him."
"Very true." The blond admitted, glancing at the darkhaired gentleman who joined the queue next to him, wearing black speedos, but strangely enough was also wearing a knitted toque and was carrying a rifle over one shoulder as he smoked a cigarette. Shin'ichi noticed and shuffled closer to Heiji, away from the new guy. "-I would have thought you would have sniffed him out by now."
Heiji sneezed, wrinkling his nose as he wiped his nose with the back of one hand. "Sorry. Prolly would have by now, but sprayed somethin' and now I can't smell a d'ing half the time. Real annoyin'."
"Bless you." Hakuba saluted, taking a step away from his weapons carrying neighbour.
"Oi." Heiji reached out and tugged Shin'ichi's swim shorts a bit lower on his hips, so that they showed the curve of his hip bones a bit better.
"Hattori!" Shin'ichi yelped, jumping a bit. "What?"
"Don't be such a prude." Heiji smirked as he straightened, drawing attention to the his snug fitting speedos. "It couldn't hurt ta show a bit more skin. And it's not like Neechan's gonna argue."
The Detective of the East glared at his friend, leaning towards the undead detective. "Is it just me, or do those speedos make his butt look big?" He muttered just loudly enough for Hakuba to hear him.
Hakuba debated this. "You've obviously never been to some of the nude beaches in Europe." He finally concluded. There were a lot worse sights out there than the Kansai Detective in budgie smugglers. He change the subject. "Interesting. Both of you have scars in the same place. I would have thought Hattori-kun wouldn't."
"Huh?" Both teenagers looked down at the prominent scars on the left side of their lower torsos. Shin'ichi tugged his shorts down a little farther to look at the pale scar on his skin.
"Well, maybe not the exact same place." Hakuba amended. "Hattori-kun's is a little farther left than Shin'ichi-kun's, but they are in remarkably similar places."
"Oh, that." Heiji shrugged, then sneezed again. "Geh. Yeah. Prolly wouldn't have left a scar if I hadn't gotten mad and picked the guy up and tossed him around a bit."
"That was when you loaned me, er, Conan, your omamori, wasn't it? That time you invited us to Osaka." Shin'ichi commented, reaching over to poke the larger and more jagged scar that ran along Hattori's stomach. The entry point was obvious, but the puckered starburst shaped tearing around it. Even advanced werewolf metabolism had trouble dealing with injuries sometimes.
"Sakata-han? Yeah." The dark skinned boy didn't seem to hold a grudge against the former policeman. "Kinda surprised that yours isn't bigger. Didn't ya, uh, -grow- after ya got shot?"
"Yeah. Chasing some crooks in a cave." Shin'ichi ran a finger down the slightly puckered skin. "Ran even had to give me a transfusion after we got out, I'd lost so much blood in the cave. Course, when you're that small..."
The other two detectives nodded. When you're smaller, what may not seem like a lot of blood counts for a lot more.
"And people wonder why I stick to chasing the Kid." Hakuba raised an eyebrow at the other two. "People don't try to kill you nearly as much."
The other two detectives looked sceptically the un-dead detective and said nothing.
+++
On the other side of the stage, Kazuha, Ran and Aoko watched Heiji tug on Shin'ichi's shorts with amusement, unable to hear the conversation.
"So..." Kazuha elbowed Ran, a smug expression on her face as Shin'ichi's swimsuit dipped a little lower, the other two detectives investigating the scar on his hip. "Soccer shorts, huh?"
"What?" Ran looked confused, then blushed slightly as she understood what Kazuha was saying. "Oh." Shin'ichi's swim shorts -were- a bit on the short side.
Kazuha and Aoko giggled. "Like you've got room to talk." Ran elbowed Kazuha back. "What's that Heiji-kun's wearing?"
"If Heiji could get away with wearin' less, he would." Kazuha informed her primly. "Any excuse not to wear clothin', I swear."
Ran's eyes went wide as she covered her mouth to giggle.
"Really?" Aoko commented, taking her place Ran's other side. "How often that -that- happen?"
"... um..." Kazuha turned red as the other two giggled gleefully. "Oh, shut up! He's been like this since we were little!"
"But you know... it's funny. I'd never noticed that Shin'ichi has a scar in the same place Conan-kun got shot before." Ran mused.
"They do?" Aoko blinked.
"Yeah, right there on their hip." Ran pointed to her own. "I'll have to ask them about it later."
"Speakin' about Conan-kun..." Kazuha jumped up on the change in conversation. "Where is he?"
"Right there." Aoko motioned. "By the black spider parasol. He and Akako-chan are watching."
"Should we say 'Hi'?" Kazuha grinned. The others grinned back.
"HEY~ CONAN-KUN!!!!" The three girls cheered and waved.
+++
Conan laughed nervously, waving back.
"Ooo..." Koizumi nudged him, an amused smirk on her face.. "Some body is popular."
"I'm safe for the girls to tease." Conan shrugged, sticking his hands in the pockets of his board shorts. He was a kid, at least as far as the girls knew. Too young to understand or react to bikini clad young women. "How come you're not up there, Akako-neechan?"
Hidden by her matching cob-webbed black parasol, Koizumi smirked. "I wanted to give the other girls a chance for a change."
"Aah." The boy nodded. Just because the witch toned down her 'allure' around large crowds didn't mean that there was no effect. It was easily understandable her need not to be mobbed by half the population of the beach the second she stepped on stage. Such charisma had some drawbacks.
"And you?" The crimson-eyed witched gazed at the boys on stage impassively. "Would be up there if you could be?"
Conan looked at his larger half, sniping at the detectives on either side of him. "... No." He finally decided. He was content being where he was at the moment. Kudo Shin'ichi was back and that was really all that mattered. He had a chance to be a kid again, a chance few people in life had. He'd be remiss in wasting it trying to be big once more.
"Smart boy." Koizumi said. Conan smirked back. He hadn't exactly been a slouch in the mental department before he'd been shrunk and his brains hadn't decreased with his size.
+++
The beach was filled with the sounds of screams, cheers and cat-calls. It was one that disturbed the people who had come to the beach with the intent of peace and quiet, but for those who had come to the strip of sand and sun to watched scantily clad nubile flesh, it was a glorious day indeed.
The girls went first and Ran surprised many of her friends by having groupies, waving banners and signs declaring their undying love for her. Being a Karate Champion, especially a cute female Karate Champion, had the occasional perk and drawback besides self-defense and a killer body.
Shin'ichi, Heiji and Hakuba also had fangirls, and a few fanguys, as well. However, not all were cheering because of their detective skills. Kazuha and Ran nudged each other about each other's childhood friend's outfit. Or lack there of, in any case. Hakuba got many comments because of his pale solemn nature.
Heiji and Ran won second place, winning a grand total of eight tickets to Miracle Land, enough for their entire group to go the amusement park. Shin'ichi and Kazuha, Saguru and Aoko got third and fourth, respectively. Which was just various beach paraphernalia.
Shin'ichi and Kazuha also got a bit irritated at just how many pictures got taken of Ran and Heiji together. Especially since the Grand Prize winners --the cool acting speedo guy who had been standing next to Hakuba with the rifle over his shoulder and a girl who looked remarkably like a hyper bouncy bigger busted version Okino Yoko-- had vanished. The Grand prize tickets and trophies were gone as well, the winners apparently having claimed them before disappearing.
Even with the disappearance, it was mutually agreed by most people on the beach to have been a successful and entertaining, if a little mysterious, venture all around.
+++
"I trust you had fun in our absence, Kaito-kun?" Koizumi purred as they approached their parasol. Kaito was sprawled out on one of the blankets, looking like a pleased happy cat in a sunbeam.
He yawned and stretched, looking at them with sleepy eyes. "Oh. You were gone? How was the contest?"
"I got a hat." Hakuba informed him. "And six phone numbers."
Koizumi snapped the elastic waistband on his board shorts. "Seven."
"Oh, dear." Hakuba twisted around attempting to read the phone number that was written on his lower back while Koizumi not-quite leered as she watched the show. "How is one supposed to read -that-?"
Kaito snickered, leaving Koizumi to her small pleasures as he turned towards Aoko. "And you?"
"I got a lot of cat calls." She admitted with a blush, glancing between the still turning Hakuba and Kaito. "And a couple of offers for coffee. I didn't accept any."
Kaito grinned, slow and easy. The kind of grin that made her belly do somersaults. She cleared her throat. "What about you?" Aoko questioned. "What did you do while we were gone."
He shrugged back. "Oh, this and that. Nothing exciting."
"That's good to hear." Aoko smiled, shoving the duffel next to him to the side so she could sit down next to him.
The duffel bag clunked.
"Clunk?" Aoko echoed. Hakuba stopped spinning, looking at them. Koizumi pouted, her amusement interrupted.
Kaito fidgeted. "Um."
"I am fairly certain that none of our luggage said 'clunk' previous to our departure." Hakuba mused. Aoko nodded and opened the duffel as Kaito started to sweat.
Inside the duffel were two wigs, one long blond and curly, the other short and black and apparently attached to a knitted toque. There was also a jumble of cosmetic jars of various shades intermixed between a black speedo, a woman's one piece bathing suit and a pair of jell-o filled water balloons.
And most importantly, two trophies. One for winning the Mens' Swimsuit Competition, one for winning the Woman's Swimsuit Competition. Aoko lifted the latter out, her eyes wide.
Kaito smiled weakly. "... I won us tickets to Okinawa?" He offered, glancing between the pale faced Aoko and the stone faced Hakuba. "There's even an extra one if Koizumi or your father wants to go along."
Aoko made a cut off choking sound as her face went from pale to angry red. "KAAAAAAIIIIIIIIII-" She brought the trophy down at where Kaito had been just milliseconds before. It made an impressive dent in the blanket covered sand. "-TOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!"
Never a fool, nor one to stick around where bodily harm was being threatened, Kaito took off running down the beach.
+++
"Hey..." Ran squinted her eyes before pointing in the direction of a fast moving object. "Isn't that Kuroba-kun?"
It was indeed Kaito who ran past them, grinning like a fiend.
Aoko followed on his heels, cussing a blue streak and waving a glimmering trophy in the air like a club. She occasionally took a swing at him and missed.
"WAAHHH-HOOO!!!" Heiji cheered, clambering to his feet and chasing after them. He was part German Shepherd after all. And as long as there was something moving, it was his job to chase it.
"HEIJI!!!" Kazuha yelled, diving into her basket. She pulled out a collar and leash and proceeded to chase after him, waving the leash around as she did so. "AHOU!!! HEEL HEIJI!! HEEL!!!"
Ran stared after them. She shook her head slightly as if to clear it, then glanced down at Shin'ichi and Conan, who were laying under the beach umbrella, looking completely content not to move for the next millennium. "Should we chase after them?" Ran ventured.
Conan looked at his larger half. Shin'ichi looked at his smaller half. They both put their heads down and closed their eyes.
"Nah."
"No." The twins decided. "Let them-"
"-have their fun."
Ran watched Koizumi and Hakuba amble by, Hakuba carrying his group's bags, Koizumi with the beach parasol over one shoulder, shading them both. They nodded to Ran as leisurely strolled along. Ran nodded back.
She thought it over for a moment, then laid down between Shin'ichi and Conan under the beach umbrella.
There were many ways to enjoy a bit of sun and surf at the beach. And as long as it was with friends, that's what really mattered in the end.
+++ Fin +++
Author: Icka! M. Chif
Fandom: Detective Conan / Magic Kaito
Category: #1: "Fic'ed Off"
Old Wordcount: 3257
New Wordcount: 4166
Link to beginning of fic: Vampyre AU
And with this, all of the Vampyre AU fics are done. ^__^
"Alright. Explain this to me one more time." Kaito crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow at Hakuba, who was spreading some towels underneath an extremely large beach umbrella in the sand. "We come to the beach for a lotta sun, sand and water, and you wanna hide under a beach umbrella the entire time?"
"Precisely."
"Riiiiiiiight." Kaito scratched the side of his head. "And you came with us -why-?"
"Because Aoko-kun LOOKED at me." Hakuba deadpanned, as if not at all ashamed to be bullied into something by a small slip of a girl. After all, he was talking to probably the only other person in the entire world who understood that completely.
The power of Aoko's glare was truly scary to behold.
"That's it, I'm getting on a sugar high." Kaito waved his hands in the air and looked around for the nearest ice cream vender.
Hakuba winced, changing expressions for the first time this morning. He did not care to be reminded of what happened the -last- time Kaito decided that the leech on his energies needed to lighten up. "...and then Koizumi threatened to lock me in a room with that blasted pet cat of hers if I did not come. The cat YOU gave her."
"Err..." This time the magician winced. He wasn't fond of being reminded of his own magical failures. In this case, the transformation of a harmless little bunny into a spiky winged cat. That breathed fire. "Okay, okay, you win. This time. But if the girls drag you into something, I'm not coming to your rescue."
"Fair enough." Hakuba agreed mildly. "And not to point out the obvious or anything, but Mister Sun is most emphatically -not- my friend."
The zombie didn't shrivel into a mummified husk or burst into flames, but he did find that too much sun did tend to make him sluggish and slow. Not to mention was murder on his un-dead eyes, which were more comfortable in the cool shades of after dark.
A theory that Kaito apparently agreed with, seeing as he wore his own pair of sunglasses almost religiously while on the sand.
"There's always the Sugar High option." Kaito offered cheerfully.
"No."
"Spoilsport."
"Here comes Aoko-kun and Koizumi." Distractions were good, distractions were your friend.
"About time. How long does it take to change into a bathing su..." Kaito's voice trailed off as the brunette caught sight of the other two members of their party.
Kaito blinked.
And blinked again.
Hakuba smirked as the magician's jaw fell somewhere around his ankles as while his brain verified that yes, he was seeing what he thought he was seeing.
Aoko in a blue bathing suit strolling towards him with a faint blush and a small nervous smile on her face was quite a lovely and expected picture.
However, by the rush of energy and sudden blood flow, Kaito was obviously not prepared for Aoko in a Blue BIKINI.
Ye, praise be to whomever god invented the bikini, it t'were a lovely sight...
"Ran-kun, Kazuha-kun and Akako-chan dragged Aoko-kun swimsuit shopping when they heard she was going to the beach." Hakuba commented genteelly in his ear, startling Kaito from his reverie. One of the more interesting twists of being undead was the fact that the girls took him for essentially neuter and had a habit of discussing things in front of him that they would normally not in front of other boys. "Tissue?"
"Thanks." Kaito took a tissue from the offered box and wiped his nose from the aftermath of the blood rushing to other places besides his head. The magician paused a moment, looking at the tissue, then up at Hakuba. "Wait a minute. Why are -you- carrying tissues around? You shouldn't get nosebleeds!"
The blond zombie raised an eyebrow. "Force of habit." He commented blandly with a slight shrug. Allergies were a pain and with cross-continental travel, they were almost assuredly a certainty.
Kaito looked around the beach, and the amount of scantily clad people, over at Hakuba, whose skin had always been extremely pale even when alive, then over at Koizumi, who was wearing something that resembled nothing more than black dental floss in a cobweb pattern.
And obviously reached the wrong conclusion. "Ohh..."
Hakuba shrugged. Whatever. It certainly wasn't worth the argument.
Kaito's face lit up into a gigantic grin. "You pervert!" He laughed.
"Hardly." Hakuba's tone was dryer than the sun warmed sand they were standing on.
"Kaito! Hakuba-kun!" Aoko smiled as she nervously set her bag of clothing down next to the umbrella. "Thanks for setting up while we got changed."
"Not a problem." Hakuba gave her a small smile. "It is not like we have to do much in order to change." Upon finding a spot, Kaito had immediately stripped down to the swim shorts he'd worn as normal clothing, and Hakuba had switched tops to an open Hawaii'an patterned shirt.
Which in addition to the customary tropical leaves on a black background, was decorated with grinning white skulls. It was on loan from Koizumi, after his 'Tropical Fish From Around The World' shirt mysteriously went missing.
"Of course, the time generally does differ as to what you are changing in to." Koizumi purred, reclining on one of the towels completely hidden in shade. Both boys ignored her jibe.
"Are you going to be able to swim in that?" Kaito asked, idly snapping the shoulder strap of Aoko's bikini. "It doesn't look anything like a life preserver..."
"Kaito!" She snapped his hand away, her face turning red with anger.
"Translation." Hakuba spoke up wryly from the relative safety of the other side of Koizumi. "He could barely keep his eyes in his sockets when he saw you."
"Hakuba." Kaito shot the detective a particularly dirty glare. "Please die."
He quite obligingly toppled over on to the sand much like he had been struck by a two by four.
"Hakuba-kun!" Aoko reacted with shock as she dove to check on him. Koizumi muffled a snicker.
"D'oh." Kaito smacked his head with his hand. Never tell someone who was dead to drop dead. It left them too big of an opening to get you back with. "Completely forgot. Not funny Saguru-chan."
The zombie opened one eye. "We live to please." He deadpanned. Undead gallows humour. Had to love it.
"Or not, as the case my be." Koizumi snerked.
"That too."
+++
"Heiji?" Kazuha questioned as the Kansai werewolf pricked his ears up and began scanning the beach. "Somethin' wrong?"
"No..." He trailed off, still looking around suspiciously. "I just thought I heard someone familiar."
"Familiar good or familiar bad?" Conan questioned, setting his ice chest down in the sand with a muffled grunt.
"Not sure." Heiji said before giving himself a shake, both mentally and physically before shooting the smallest detective a small smile. "I'll keep a nose out anyway."
"Probably a good idea all around." Shin'ichi agreed. Just because they had gotten three of the known agents of the Black Organization was no reason to lax their guard.
But a nice relaxing day at the beach had sounded like a good idea when Kazuha and Ran had brought it up. Sonoko had already had plans, something that pleased Conan to no end, and the rest of the Shonen Tantei either couldn't come or had elected to stay home, in Haibara's case
"I've got protection charms in my bag." Conan offered, reaching into his own small knapsack and pulling out various items. "Omamori and sunscreen all around?"
"Sounds good. I'll stick some ofuda on the umbrella."
After all, it wouldn't do to scare away the ghosts and ghoulies just to end up with a nasty sunburn at the end of the day.
+++
"Ooo! Hey! Check this out!" Aoko grinned, waving a slip of paper as she ran up to join Hakuba and Koizumi under the large umbrella. Kaito followed behind her with skewers of freshly grilled yakitori, the chicken still steaming on their skewers in the warm beach air, a remarkably bland expression on his face.
"What'd you find, sweetheart?" Koizumi purred, lowering her sunglasses to get a better glimpse of the flyer.
"There's going to be a swimsuit contest!" Beaming, Aoko handed her the flyer. "You should enter, Akako-chan! You'd win for sure!"
"Hmm..." The witch debated it. "It's for both men and women. Hakuba-kun and Kaito-kun should join in as well."
"Not interested." Hakuba waved it off, content to hide under the nice shady beach umbrella.
"Pass." Kaito agreed, handing out the grilled yakitori.
"Pass?" Aoko's eyebrows rose. "But you love performing! And it's the talk of half the beach, almost everyone's going to be there."
"This-" Kaito waved a lazy hand towards the flyer "-is -not- performing. There is no display of talents or skills. It is merely a chance for people to oogle over the oppisite, or same, gender dressed in skimpy clothing in a large group as to not make complete fools of themselves."
"In other words, below your dignity."
"Exactly." Kaito said, nodding his head in confirmation as he plopped down on the towel next to Hakuba, as if the zombie would offer protection from the insanity of the girls.
Koizumi glanced between the two boys. More specifically, at Hakuba wider, broad shoulder frame, built for power and stamina, then down at Kaito's thinner, whipcord and muscle frame, made for speed and agility. Not that Kaito was lacking in strength, by any means, it just wasn't quite as impressive when compared side by side next to someone physically bigger than him.
"Worried that your physique is lacking?" The witch inquired idly, one eyebrow quirking in amusement.
Kaito sniffed disdainfully. "Hardly. If you want to go, I wish you luck, but you won't see me anywhere near the stage."
With that, he laid down on the blanket, pushed the sunglasses firmly over his eyes and appeared to promptly go to sleep.
"Party pooper." Aoko muttered, then turned and grabbed Hakuba instead.
+++
"Guess what? Guess What?!" Kazuha cheered as she and Ran brought back the ice cream.
"There's a dead body?" Conan dead panned. His larger self tossed a sunscreen bottle towards him for bringing the subject up. Heiji shot him a glare as well.
"Actually-" Ran said, distracting them with their ice cream cones.
"That wasn't it." Kazuha scolded them. "We found somethin' -interestin'-." The ponytailed girl unwrapped a flyer from where it had gotten stuck around her ice cream cone. She held it out for Heiji to read.
"A swimsuit contest?" Heiji sceptically read out loud.
"The Grand Prize for each gender is 10,000 yen and a trip for two to Okinawa!" Kazuha bubbled. "Second place is four tickets to Miracle Land!"
Conan and Shin'ichi glanced at each other. "Pass." They deadpanned.
"Amusement Parks-"
"-Give us the hives."
"Really?" Ran looked confused. "I never noticed."
The twins shivered. Between getting shrunk at Tropical Land, Ran getting shot at in Tropical Land, and Ran and the Shonen Tantei almost getting blown up in Miracle Land, they'd had enough of amusement parks to last them a lifetime.
"Hah." Heiji smirked."Like you would win anyway."
"HEIJI!" Kazuha snapped.
"Hah, what ever." Heiji shrugged, handing the paper back to Kazuha with a bored air. "What self-respectin' guy would go up on stage for a bunch of girls to ogle at anyway?"
+++
"Well, I'll be. Hakuba Saguru." Heiji's grin split across his face as the stone-faced undead detective took his place next to Shin'ichi. "Fancy runnin' into ya here! What are you doin' here?
"Being flatly outnumbered." The zombie said succulently, glancing at the crowd below the stage uneasily. They hadn't let him wear his sunglasses on stage and he was missing them for their sun shielding properties as well as camouflage. Surely someone would notice the slight milkiness to his eyes. "What are you doing here?"
"Equal exchange." Shin'ichi commented, raising a hand in greeting. "If we entered, the girls would enter too."
The blond tilted his head to the side, musing that over. "Logical." He finally decreed.
"Speaking of enterin', where's Kuroba?" Heiji mused, looking around. "Would have thought he'd be the first one on stage."
"He decided against it." Hakuba said drolly. "Something about a decided lack of a display of talents."
Shin'ichi snorted. "Like that would stop him."
"Very true." The blond admitted, glancing at the darkhaired gentleman who joined the queue next to him, wearing black speedos, but strangely enough was also wearing a knitted toque and was carrying a rifle over one shoulder as he smoked a cigarette. Shin'ichi noticed and shuffled closer to Heiji, away from the new guy. "-I would have thought you would have sniffed him out by now."
Heiji sneezed, wrinkling his nose as he wiped his nose with the back of one hand. "Sorry. Prolly would have by now, but sprayed somethin' and now I can't smell a d'ing half the time. Real annoyin'."
"Bless you." Hakuba saluted, taking a step away from his weapons carrying neighbour.
"Oi." Heiji reached out and tugged Shin'ichi's swim shorts a bit lower on his hips, so that they showed the curve of his hip bones a bit better.
"Hattori!" Shin'ichi yelped, jumping a bit. "What?"
"Don't be such a prude." Heiji smirked as he straightened, drawing attention to the his snug fitting speedos. "It couldn't hurt ta show a bit more skin. And it's not like Neechan's gonna argue."
The Detective of the East glared at his friend, leaning towards the undead detective. "Is it just me, or do those speedos make his butt look big?" He muttered just loudly enough for Hakuba to hear him.
Hakuba debated this. "You've obviously never been to some of the nude beaches in Europe." He finally concluded. There were a lot worse sights out there than the Kansai Detective in budgie smugglers. He change the subject. "Interesting. Both of you have scars in the same place. I would have thought Hattori-kun wouldn't."
"Huh?" Both teenagers looked down at the prominent scars on the left side of their lower torsos. Shin'ichi tugged his shorts down a little farther to look at the pale scar on his skin.
"Well, maybe not the exact same place." Hakuba amended. "Hattori-kun's is a little farther left than Shin'ichi-kun's, but they are in remarkably similar places."
"Oh, that." Heiji shrugged, then sneezed again. "Geh. Yeah. Prolly wouldn't have left a scar if I hadn't gotten mad and picked the guy up and tossed him around a bit."
"That was when you loaned me, er, Conan, your omamori, wasn't it? That time you invited us to Osaka." Shin'ichi commented, reaching over to poke the larger and more jagged scar that ran along Hattori's stomach. The entry point was obvious, but the puckered starburst shaped tearing around it. Even advanced werewolf metabolism had trouble dealing with injuries sometimes.
"Sakata-han? Yeah." The dark skinned boy didn't seem to hold a grudge against the former policeman. "Kinda surprised that yours isn't bigger. Didn't ya, uh, -grow- after ya got shot?"
"Yeah. Chasing some crooks in a cave." Shin'ichi ran a finger down the slightly puckered skin. "Ran even had to give me a transfusion after we got out, I'd lost so much blood in the cave. Course, when you're that small..."
The other two detectives nodded. When you're smaller, what may not seem like a lot of blood counts for a lot more.
"And people wonder why I stick to chasing the Kid." Hakuba raised an eyebrow at the other two. "People don't try to kill you nearly as much."
The other two detectives looked sceptically the un-dead detective and said nothing.
+++
On the other side of the stage, Kazuha, Ran and Aoko watched Heiji tug on Shin'ichi's shorts with amusement, unable to hear the conversation.
"So..." Kazuha elbowed Ran, a smug expression on her face as Shin'ichi's swimsuit dipped a little lower, the other two detectives investigating the scar on his hip. "Soccer shorts, huh?"
"What?" Ran looked confused, then blushed slightly as she understood what Kazuha was saying. "Oh." Shin'ichi's swim shorts -were- a bit on the short side.
Kazuha and Aoko giggled. "Like you've got room to talk." Ran elbowed Kazuha back. "What's that Heiji-kun's wearing?"
"If Heiji could get away with wearin' less, he would." Kazuha informed her primly. "Any excuse not to wear clothin', I swear."
Ran's eyes went wide as she covered her mouth to giggle.
"Really?" Aoko commented, taking her place Ran's other side. "How often that -that- happen?"
"... um..." Kazuha turned red as the other two giggled gleefully. "Oh, shut up! He's been like this since we were little!"
"But you know... it's funny. I'd never noticed that Shin'ichi has a scar in the same place Conan-kun got shot before." Ran mused.
"They do?" Aoko blinked.
"Yeah, right there on their hip." Ran pointed to her own. "I'll have to ask them about it later."
"Speakin' about Conan-kun..." Kazuha jumped up on the change in conversation. "Where is he?"
"Right there." Aoko motioned. "By the black spider parasol. He and Akako-chan are watching."
"Should we say 'Hi'?" Kazuha grinned. The others grinned back.
"HEY~ CONAN-KUN!!!!" The three girls cheered and waved.
+++
Conan laughed nervously, waving back.
"Ooo..." Koizumi nudged him, an amused smirk on her face.. "Some body is popular."
"I'm safe for the girls to tease." Conan shrugged, sticking his hands in the pockets of his board shorts. He was a kid, at least as far as the girls knew. Too young to understand or react to bikini clad young women. "How come you're not up there, Akako-neechan?"
Hidden by her matching cob-webbed black parasol, Koizumi smirked. "I wanted to give the other girls a chance for a change."
"Aah." The boy nodded. Just because the witch toned down her 'allure' around large crowds didn't mean that there was no effect. It was easily understandable her need not to be mobbed by half the population of the beach the second she stepped on stage. Such charisma had some drawbacks.
"And you?" The crimson-eyed witched gazed at the boys on stage impassively. "Would be up there if you could be?"
Conan looked at his larger half, sniping at the detectives on either side of him. "... No." He finally decided. He was content being where he was at the moment. Kudo Shin'ichi was back and that was really all that mattered. He had a chance to be a kid again, a chance few people in life had. He'd be remiss in wasting it trying to be big once more.
"Smart boy." Koizumi said. Conan smirked back. He hadn't exactly been a slouch in the mental department before he'd been shrunk and his brains hadn't decreased with his size.
+++
The beach was filled with the sounds of screams, cheers and cat-calls. It was one that disturbed the people who had come to the beach with the intent of peace and quiet, but for those who had come to the strip of sand and sun to watched scantily clad nubile flesh, it was a glorious day indeed.
The girls went first and Ran surprised many of her friends by having groupies, waving banners and signs declaring their undying love for her. Being a Karate Champion, especially a cute female Karate Champion, had the occasional perk and drawback besides self-defense and a killer body.
Shin'ichi, Heiji and Hakuba also had fangirls, and a few fanguys, as well. However, not all were cheering because of their detective skills. Kazuha and Ran nudged each other about each other's childhood friend's outfit. Or lack there of, in any case. Hakuba got many comments because of his pale solemn nature.
Heiji and Ran won second place, winning a grand total of eight tickets to Miracle Land, enough for their entire group to go the amusement park. Shin'ichi and Kazuha, Saguru and Aoko got third and fourth, respectively. Which was just various beach paraphernalia.
Shin'ichi and Kazuha also got a bit irritated at just how many pictures got taken of Ran and Heiji together. Especially since the Grand Prize winners --the cool acting speedo guy who had been standing next to Hakuba with the rifle over his shoulder and a girl who looked remarkably like a hyper bouncy bigger busted version Okino Yoko-- had vanished. The Grand prize tickets and trophies were gone as well, the winners apparently having claimed them before disappearing.
Even with the disappearance, it was mutually agreed by most people on the beach to have been a successful and entertaining, if a little mysterious, venture all around.
+++
"I trust you had fun in our absence, Kaito-kun?" Koizumi purred as they approached their parasol. Kaito was sprawled out on one of the blankets, looking like a pleased happy cat in a sunbeam.
He yawned and stretched, looking at them with sleepy eyes. "Oh. You were gone? How was the contest?"
"I got a hat." Hakuba informed him. "And six phone numbers."
Koizumi snapped the elastic waistband on his board shorts. "Seven."
"Oh, dear." Hakuba twisted around attempting to read the phone number that was written on his lower back while Koizumi not-quite leered as she watched the show. "How is one supposed to read -that-?"
Kaito snickered, leaving Koizumi to her small pleasures as he turned towards Aoko. "And you?"
"I got a lot of cat calls." She admitted with a blush, glancing between the still turning Hakuba and Kaito. "And a couple of offers for coffee. I didn't accept any."
Kaito grinned, slow and easy. The kind of grin that made her belly do somersaults. She cleared her throat. "What about you?" Aoko questioned. "What did you do while we were gone."
He shrugged back. "Oh, this and that. Nothing exciting."
"That's good to hear." Aoko smiled, shoving the duffel next to him to the side so she could sit down next to him.
The duffel bag clunked.
"Clunk?" Aoko echoed. Hakuba stopped spinning, looking at them. Koizumi pouted, her amusement interrupted.
Kaito fidgeted. "Um."
"I am fairly certain that none of our luggage said 'clunk' previous to our departure." Hakuba mused. Aoko nodded and opened the duffel as Kaito started to sweat.
Inside the duffel were two wigs, one long blond and curly, the other short and black and apparently attached to a knitted toque. There was also a jumble of cosmetic jars of various shades intermixed between a black speedo, a woman's one piece bathing suit and a pair of jell-o filled water balloons.
And most importantly, two trophies. One for winning the Mens' Swimsuit Competition, one for winning the Woman's Swimsuit Competition. Aoko lifted the latter out, her eyes wide.
Kaito smiled weakly. "... I won us tickets to Okinawa?" He offered, glancing between the pale faced Aoko and the stone faced Hakuba. "There's even an extra one if Koizumi or your father wants to go along."
Aoko made a cut off choking sound as her face went from pale to angry red. "KAAAAAAIIIIIIIIII-" She brought the trophy down at where Kaito had been just milliseconds before. It made an impressive dent in the blanket covered sand. "-TOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!"
Never a fool, nor one to stick around where bodily harm was being threatened, Kaito took off running down the beach.
+++
"Hey..." Ran squinted her eyes before pointing in the direction of a fast moving object. "Isn't that Kuroba-kun?"
It was indeed Kaito who ran past them, grinning like a fiend.
Aoko followed on his heels, cussing a blue streak and waving a glimmering trophy in the air like a club. She occasionally took a swing at him and missed.
"WAAHHH-HOOO!!!" Heiji cheered, clambering to his feet and chasing after them. He was part German Shepherd after all. And as long as there was something moving, it was his job to chase it.
"HEIJI!!!" Kazuha yelled, diving into her basket. She pulled out a collar and leash and proceeded to chase after him, waving the leash around as she did so. "AHOU!!! HEEL HEIJI!! HEEL!!!"
Ran stared after them. She shook her head slightly as if to clear it, then glanced down at Shin'ichi and Conan, who were laying under the beach umbrella, looking completely content not to move for the next millennium. "Should we chase after them?" Ran ventured.
Conan looked at his larger half. Shin'ichi looked at his smaller half. They both put their heads down and closed their eyes.
"Nah."
"No." The twins decided. "Let them-"
"-have their fun."
Ran watched Koizumi and Hakuba amble by, Hakuba carrying his group's bags, Koizumi with the beach parasol over one shoulder, shading them both. They nodded to Ran as leisurely strolled along. Ran nodded back.
She thought it over for a moment, then laid down between Shin'ichi and Conan under the beach umbrella.
There were many ways to enjoy a bit of sun and surf at the beach. And as long as it was with friends, that's what really mattered in the end.
+++ Fin +++