#but i can't stop referring to him as conan if he's in small form

[decimalsheep]

I finally watched Bride of Halloween and I love Amuro content (even tho he was stuck in a box for most of the movie LOL) but it got me thinking about like. how so many of his friends died and i’m a sucker for fix-its so:

Time Travel!DCMK where Conan is thrown ten years into the past, right back to the day he met Akai at the beach. He’s bewildered and disbelieving but, quote, “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” so he accepts his new reality and makes a plan accordingly.

At the beach he makes sure to cling stubbornly to Akai, refusing to let go and when they eventually leave the beach, Conan has a new number registered in his phone and a new pen pal buddy. Understanding that Conan is not as he appears, Akai agrees to send updates on his life occasionally (at first out of amusement and pics of whatever food he’s eating, later on asking Conan for advice on specific cases). 

At 9 years old, Conan begs his dad for tickets to Kuroba Toichi’s magic show in Tokyo. Yusaku, who is about 86% confident that his son is a time-traveler, agrees easily and may or may not have called the police for back up just in case. Because Conan doesn’t watch magic shows, time-traveler or not (if you don’t count Kid’s heists) and the poorly hidden desperation when he asked was more than enough of a hint that something was going to go down. Surprise surprise, the venue burns down, but this time Kuroba Toichi lives with some minor injuries. (The incident leaves his arm numb, and he feels that his days as Kaitou KID is running short - he decides to pass on the mantle to Kaito when he’s old enough)

At 10 years old, Conan bumps into Hagiwara Kenji at the park. It’s an incident he almost forgets about until he’s staring at the rest of the police academy students. It’s July, and Hagiwara dies in November. Conan doesn’t know the specifics, but when November rolls around, Hagiwara gains a watchful shadow. It’s when the serial bomber case appears on the news that he knows it’s time. 

There are officers at the entrance of the hotel stopping guests from entering, but Conan has never let that stop him before, so he runs, and runs and runs to the floor that Hagiwara is on. The timer is stopped, but Conan knows that it will explode regardless. He throws himself into the room, startling the occupants, and starts shouting.

“The bomb is going to explode!” he shouts and claws at the arm that tries to stop him from getting closer. “The bomber- he- it’s going to start again, Matsuda-san says it’s going to explode!” Hagiwara looks up at the commotion, radio in his hand. “What’s going on?” Matsuda snaps.

“It’s going to explode, the timer isn’t stopped!” The kid shouts, desperate and pleading. “You’re going to die!”

The kid looks straight at him when he says that. Unbidden, dread settles in his stomach, every single hair on end and the unshakable feeling that what the kid is saying is-

“Everybody out!” Hagiwara shouts - commands. “Down the hall, now!”

There’s a rush to get out the door and the kid falls to the ground in the process. He scoops him up and together they exit the hotel room. It’s as he’s turning into the hall that he hears the tell-tale sign of the timer turning back on, ticking down to their demise. The radio is left lying on the ground, Matsuda’s voice coming out loud and panicked.

The bomb explodes.

The force of the explosion sends him flying, curling his body around the kid so as to cushion him from the impact. There’s a ringing in his ears and his back hurts like a bitch, but with more distance from the bomb and several walls to take the brunt of the damage, everybody lives.

Matsuda definitely isn’t crying when he sees him coming alive out of the hotel. Life-threatening situation aside, he is so making fun of him for it in the future. Temporarily forgotten in the moment, a small boy slips away from the crowd.

A few days after his 11th birthday, Conan feels someone tailing him. He acts as if he doesn’t notice, fiddling with his phone. But as the crossing light starts flashing for an oncoming train, he bolts and takes off across the street. His tail startles and the chase begins. Using his smaller stature he zigzags through the alleys and streets, throwing himself into crowds in an effort to shake off whoever is following him. But they’re good, and persistent. He turns into an alley that he knows has a gap wide enough to fit only him from his time in the future/past. But he comes to a stop when he sees the construction going on and curses under his breath. 

A hand lands on his shoulder and he jolts, reaching for his tranquilizer watch that he got Agasa to remake, only to freeze when he sees who’s behind him.

“Oh, it’s just you Amuro-san,” he sighs, heart beating wildly but now calming down knowing he’s not in danger.

“Amuro-san?” Furuya Rei repeats, bemused, and shit he’s not Amuro yet.

He stutters out some random excuse about how he mistook him for someone and Amu-Furuya seems to let it go. But from that day on, he sees Furuya lurking in his peripherals. He never gets close, hovering from afar, but he’s there nonetheless. It’s not until Conan gets involved with a kidnapping incident does Furuya appear, kicking down the door and a wild look on his face. The rope leaves a burn on his wrists but he’s uninjured otherwise, still, Furuya treats him like he’ll break at a moments notice, carrying him with surprising softness. 

From that moment on, Furuya gets close. He’ll say hi if they run into each other (on the days it’s a coincidence) or help him out with whatever errand he’s on (if it’s not). Conan get’s the feeling that Furuya isn’t sure how to treat him. 

He asks him about it one day, when Hagiwara spots him across the street and drags him into a family restaurant, proclaiming that he’s “caught the kid.” At the table are seated several familiar faces, Furuya included.It’s apparently lunch to congratulate Furuya and Hiromitsu on their new promotion. Everybody at the table orders for him, saying something about how he saved Hagiwara’s life. Conan insists that he has no idea what they’re talking about, but they don’t seem to care, already three beers in on a Saturday afternoon. 

It leaves him and Furuya sitting together, who appears to be the chaperone for the day. 

“That day,” he starts, keeping his eyes on his glass of orange juice even as he feels Furuya’s gaze slide to him. “Why did you...”

Furuya stares at him, expression carefully controlled. “You’re... familiar,” he says slowly, looking away as Conan freezes at his words. “Somehow, I have the feeling that if it weren’t for you... that because you’re here, everything will be different.”

His eyes flash, grief and anguish and rage flickering before fading into a calm. “Everything will be okay,” he whispers and Conan isn’t sure if he was meant to hear that.

He’s 12 when he meets up with Sera to watch the new Gojira movie, having become close friends with her since the day at the beach, forming a tight knit group of four along with Ran and Sonoko. The other two aren’t there that day, saying they’d rather go to the new cafe than watch a monster movie, so it’s just the two of them at the theaters.

At the train station where they’re about to head back home, he excuses himself to go to the restroom. On his way back out onto the platform, he bumps into someone.

“Shuu-nii?” he blurts (Sera had convinced him to call him that, and Akai hadn’t protested) and Akai blinks in surprise at seeing him. 

“Oh, are you here with Sera?” He asks, then glances at the ticket in his hand. “Then I’m assuming Sera actually does have money for a train ticket?”

They walk together back to the platform and he’s treated to yet another surprise when he sees Sera standing with Hiromitsu. Wait, he remembers Sera mentioning this-

“Hiro-san?” He asks innocently, plan forming in his head. He scoots closer to Akai so that they’re shoulder to shoulder, silently willing him to play along. “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be working?”

Hiromitsu looks up, surprised at first then apprehensive once he sees Akai next to him. At this point in time, Furuya, Hiromitsu, and Akai are all unaware of each other’s undercover status. In Hiromitsu’s view, Conan is currently standing next to a criminal. And in Akai’s view, Sera as well.

“I’m currently on a job,” Hiromitsu says pointedly, urging Conan to take the hint and not drop any important information, like the fact that he’s actually an undercover police officer. He knows Conan is smart, but today Conan is willfully obtuse.

“Where’s-” Furuya, he was going to ask, but suddenly he’s grabbed by the arm and dragged away from Akai. When he looks up, he sees a flash of blond hair under a baseball cap.

“It’s dangerous to be out so late at night,” Furuya says, smile tight and forced, even as his grip shifts into something more protective, his body standing in front of his as if to shield him from Akai’s view. He brightens up, bringing out his inner Ran.

“Rei-san!” He exclaims and beams up at him excitedly, doing his best to appear as innocent and friendly as he can. Sera and Akai are staring at him like he’s insane. Furuya and Hiro are staring at him the same way too. “It’s okay, I was with Shuu-nii.” 

“Shuu?” Furuya questions, eyebrow raised as Akai raises a hand to stop him from saying anything more.

“Yeah, Akai Shuichi! He’s like an older brother to me.”

“Oh? I could have sworn your name was Moroboshi.” 

“Surely you understand the importance of aliases. Right, Rei?”

“So how’s work going with the FBI, Shuu-nii?”

“Ignore him, he doesn’t know what he’s talking about-”

“What the fuck do you mean FBI-”

“And you too! Matsuda and Date and Hagiwara-san were complaining about how ever since you two got into PSB you were too busy to hang out-”

“What the fuck do you mean PSB-”

[raifuujin]

Thoughts on CoAi's viability? It's something I've always liked in *theory*, but in practice precious few people elaborate on what they'd actually *do* together as adults (or even grown teenagers). There's a few that advanced the idea of her working in forensic pathology, but I really can't see her wanting to get close to the crime-and-punishment field ever again if she has a choice.

Okay, so. CoAi is a ship that could work. Obviously, as a fandom concept in the same vein as KaiShin, but it has the potential.

The problem (and the thing that turned me off from being able to enjoy the ship myself) is that: people who actually put content out for the ship make it feel so very toxic and, yeah, kinda something that could only exist in a short term way with no explanation for why things would work out.

(The ‘what they’d do’ as a future and what kind of jobs people would have doesn’t bother me quite as much, as plenty of fics exist as a general idea without focusing on anything big. Sure, some have a focus on college, or jobs, or children, but most gen works don’t. I suppose CoAi/ShinShi might have a smaller proportion of content that focuses on topics like that, but I’d be the first to admit I don’t have as much frame of reference other people might have. If I were to spitball a career, I’d pick something where Shiho works with kids or possibly take after her parents and work in a clinic. Basic interest in wanting to help because she’s had far to much guilt over the harm she’s done, and in general I think she gets along well with kids and having involvement in the younger generation feels right for her. Her age and older feels like it might still be awkward for her to talk with, but kids are good for her. She might have good mind for science stuff and logic, but I agree she’s unlikely to work in crime-related jobs, even if it’s to stop crime rather than commit them. I also don’t see her wanting to work in labs.)

As far as overall viability, I just wish people would go the KaiShin route with CoAi/ShinShi at least a little more than what I’ve seen. Not so much the ‘entirely change their personalities to the form I prefer’ (that already happens regardless), but more the blatant ‘I don’t care about canon because this could never be canon anyway, so I’m going to have fun with it’. KaiShin might have an easier time because it’s super easy to ignore canon when you make the guys gay, but really. It’s super easy to ignore the childhood romance canon when it comes to fic writing. Just go with a ‘yeah, we care a lot about each other, but it’s kinda like siblings’. You take that stance, and then you could have a more solid setup for how to make it more comfortable as a ship. Shinichi could start to be more protective of Shiho. Shiho canonically starts to develop a crush, but you could write Shinichi start to realize she’s crushing or start getting self conscious or however people want the actual ship to start sailing.

But for the love of all that is holy, you cannot keep sarcastic barbed-tongue Haibara being verbally abusive and cutting him down at random. For a viable, healthy ship... Look, I’ve been on here saying that a little bickering isn’t toxic because how the characters are presented reacting to it makes it seem like they’d never get into huge arguments that would hurt the other, and I’m sure some of it applies to people who throw insults around, too. It could work, I’ve seen people who look to be great friends throw around good natured insults and it looks fun. But that’s not ever how any sarcastic CoAi feels like in text form, because by nature of the medium, there’s no indication if there’s knowing smiles and little laughs surrounding it, so most of the time it feels painfully deadpan and comes off as hurtful, usually when Haibara/Shiho is insulting Conan/Shinichi specifically. That shouldn’t be what half of their relationship is like.

And quite frankly, with what we do have of their canon personalities, the two really don’t feel like they’d be the type to be the cynical types who play off each other. When Shinichi’s romantically interested in someone, he might could tease a little, but he’s super easy to tease back, and teases always 100% come with a smile. Haibara we see get soft when people are making a genuine effort to be nice, so as Shiho, if she were together with Shinichi? She’d tone down on snide remarks, and would also be more likely to tease every once in a while with her own small smile. In canon she’s been healing, she feels a little safer, she can get PO’d that Genta ruined the curry they were making and now has to supervise the kids so they won’t buy candy at the store. She’s not the same person who tried to kill herself (x2) out of guilt/despair, and she’s not the person who sits in a soccer stadium with sunglasses on trying to stay disconnected from everything. Fanon Shiho deserves the same development of being soft, lively, engaged in the world, being able to feel comfortable with where she is in life. Then, ShinShi would feel more sustainable in the long term and viable to me.

(And, even though I started this saying ‘CoAi’, ShinShi would feel like the most comfortable. And I don’t mean it like a ‘well, more their relationship when they’ve grown’, I mean they should both take the antidote. CoAi works fine and mostly the same, but only in the plotline where Shinichi becomes resistant to the antidote. Even if you remove romantic w/ Ran reasons for wanting his body back, Shinichi still had a life and friends and everything to go back to, so he’d want to return to that, and Shiho would be just as invested in making it happen as she is now for the sake of his happiness. Just, in a ShinShi, story, he’d happen to gain a gf from his time as Conan, and Shiho could be introduced into Shinichi’s existing life instead of building a life for themselves from scratch with the DB as friends and only a select few adults who truly know them.)