Disclaimer: Detective Conan belongs to Aoyama Gosho. Spoilers might be contained.

A Glove, a Slap, and a Merry Christmas

Haibara didn’t stop typing, nor did she care to turn around to see who it was. She could tell by the soft shuffling footsteps that it was Conan and not Agasa who had entered the lab. She asked, “What do you want?”

It was Christmas and there was a party at Agasa’s house. After greeting the other three members—the only true seven-year-old kids—of Detective Boys earlier that morning, Haibara had retired to the lab in the basement. Believing in Santa, bargaining over presents, and screaming “Merry Christmas” didn’t belong to her department. Holidays like Christmas not only provided her an opportunity to stay away from the streets where she might meet up with Gin and Vodka, but they also allowed her to work on the antidote of APTX-4869 during the day so that she could sleep at night.

The footsteps stopped not far from her and Haibara frowned a little when she realized she couldn’t hear children’s laughter from upstairs. Not that the silence wasn’t preferable, but at least their laughter indicated they were all right.

“Uh,” Conan started, shifting from foot to foot like a child who was about to ask his mom for more candy when he had already had too much. “Haibara, do you happen to have a blank cassette tape somewhere?”

Haibara stopped typing but continued to stare at the computer screen. “No,” she replied.

“Well, then, how about a...meter stick?”

“Are those two supposed to be related in some way?” Haibara asked with an arched eyebrow and resumed typing; afterwards she said, “No.”

“Oh. Um, how about—”

“No. Leave, Edogawa-kun. I’m busy.”

After a whispery response of “ok,” the footsteps shuffled away and the door was shut.

Haibara sighed and dismissed the odd confrontation as a consequence of playing with seven-year-olds. Scanning through the little information on APTX-4869, Haibara recalled that the three kids and Conan had begged her to stay and play games upstairs. Sometimes, kids were even more corruptive than money and power. Interesting, really. However, when the laughter reached her ears once more, she forgot about Conan’s request and focused on her job.

The door creaked open again after who knew how long and Haibara leaned back on her chair in frustration. If Conan wanted her to find the antidote for APTX-4869, he’d better stop walking in and out of the lab, a seemingly new hobby he’d acquired—his Christmas present for her, maybe?

“What now?” she asked, but she turned around to glare at Conan when he came and stood behind her.

There was an evil smirk on Conan’s face.

And there came a slap. A gentle slap across Haibara’s face by a glove Conan was holding, to be exact.

Haibara stared at Conan and his widening grin as he threw the glove onto the floor, making an extremely loud “smack.” The slap didn’t hurt, but it came as a shock. Edogawa Conan, no, Kudo Shinichi, the great high-school detective, wasn’t sane anymore. Why had she taken so long to find the antidote? If only she’d separated him from the seven-year-olds earlier...

Before Haibara could collect her thoughts to think rationally, however, she suddenly found herself surrounded by screaming beasts spraying stuff on her. She raised her arms to protect herself and turned her head away, crouching low on her seat; for a moment there, she had thought that the Black Organization had burst in to throw gas bombs into the room.

The hissing sound stopped, yet, Haibara didn’t dare to open her eyes, until...

“Aw, you’re no fun, Haibara-san. You’re supposed to run away when we attacked you.”

Kojima Genta, the food-is-all boy.

Haibara sat up straight and started to peel off the spider-web-like stuff on her...silly strings.

“Ai-chan, you could’ve sprayed silly strings back at us,” Ayumi said without realizing that Haibara had no silly strings, except for those on her currently.

Mitsuhiko added, “You should lighten up, Haibara-san. You work too hard and never have fun.”

Controlling herself as she rolled and squashed the silly strings together, Haibara glared at Conan, who, slowly backing away, knew that he should cry with glee that Haibara had no weapons with her. The four attackers, under Conan’s hint, scrambled out of the room, even though they gave her another pleading look, trying to persuade her to join them upstairs.

Haibara stared at the door without moving, save for transferring her anger into the silly string ball she had managed to squeeze with her hands to the size of a shrunken tennis ball. She tossed the ball into a trashcan and turned back to the computer. Why should she get upset over three little children and one insane detective who could be under her mercy if she decided to trash the computer? He could be stuck in a child’s body forever for all she cared.

However, Haibara couldn’t bring herself to make the computer system crash and lose the only information on APTX-4869 that they had. She had brought him enough misery already by creating the drug in the first place. Besides, Conan’s intention for this prank was to introduce her to a normal life instead of the one she locked herself into, one submerged into constant fear, not necessarily for herself but for the safety of the others...those that she, well, cared for.

Haibara shook her head to get rid of these overwhelming thoughts and proceeded to her laboratory set. She had set a chemical overnight, and it should be ready for testing now. Slowly stirring the chemical in the test tube with a stirring rod, Haibara stared at the chemical as if observing a microscopic change in the physical qualities of the chemical was crucial to finding the antidote. After jotting down the observations, Haibara reached for another chemical to mix with the current one she was holding.

Something bumped against the door; Haibara swirled around, and the test tube slipped out of her fingers, smashing onto the floor. She didn’t notice the broken glass as she became conscious of the lack of partying sounds. The sounds of a duct tape outside the lab door cut through the silence and Haibara jumped.

Her palms began to sweat and her heart thumped faster, when all of the sudden, the door opened and Conan peeked in, trying to block the other three kids from looking into the lab at the same time.

“Are you alright, Haibara? We heard glass breaking,” Conan said.

Haibara clenched her fists when she saw Genta pasting duct tape across the door. She muttered, “I’m fine... And do you honestly think that duct tape on the door will stop me from leaving this room to seek revenge on you?”

Conan flashed a smile after hearing the threat. He remarked, “So you’ve finally decided to join us.”

And before Haibara could respond, he shut the door; Haibara hear them running upstairs.

Great. A scornful threat became an agreement to join their stupid game of war. She had to act fast, or else they would bury her with silly strings and humiliate her some more.

First, it was to clean up the broken glassware and spilled chemicals on the floor. Next, she had to put the lab set away and switch off the computer for fear of the wondrous curiosity of seven-year-olds. Then, the setup for revenge. It wasn’t difficult to find the needed tools because Agasa kept a box of toys in the basement that he planned to use as the prize for the next treasure hunt. Haibara had to thank Conan—he must have known what she needed to do and how long it would take for her to prepare. Then again, why were they doing this?

Haibara heard her “enemies” descending the stairs and approaching the door. They, armed with silly string cans, flung open the door, but they were soaked by the buckets of water Haibara had placed above the door. She had wanted to electrify the doorknob and the poor soul that touched the doorknob, but she decided against it. A mad mom yelling at her would be the last thing she needed, even if the voltage applied was only comparable to the shock people got during winter when touching another person or a metal surface.

All four of the victims laughed after they were soaked while Haibara walked toward them with a smirk on her face. Conan was the one who slapped her, so she was going to get back at him the most, regardless of whom it was that came up with the plan of attack initially.

Conan found his face covered with silly strings that came from a can that Haibara had found under her desk. There weren’t much left in her can, but there was enough to blind Conan, who tried to spray silly strings back at Haibara but missed because he couldn’t see through a pair of string-covered glasses. Genta, Mitsuhiko, and Ayumi broke into laughter and bumped into one another while trying to avoid Conan’s random spraying of silly strings.

When Haibara’s supply of silly strings ran out, she dropped the can onto the floor and Conan plucked his glasses off his face, cheering in his head that he wasn’t near-sighted in reality. He was about to aim his can of silly strings at Haibara when Haibara brought out a water gun from behind her back and shot water into Conan’s face.

Haibara lowered her head and observed, through her bangs, Conan swaggering and backing away from her as she tried her best to hide her smile at the comical sight of the helplessness of the shrunken great detective. She didn’t stop until the water ran out, and by that time, Conan was sitting on the floor, rubbing his eyes, and laughing.

“We’re even, Haibara! Stop. No more,” Conan said as he stood up and cleaned his glasses. “So...how about you join us upstairs and let us have a peaceful Christmas celebration instead? Come on, Haibara. Just this once. Forget about everything and enjoy the festival. What do you think?”

Genta, Mitsuhiko, and Ayumi joined in the cheer of persuasion to convince Haibara to enter the fun. Well, what could it hurt? She was already corrupted by seven-year-olds when she revenged, and she could tell that they wouldn’t leave her at rest if she declined, so...she replied with a smile, “Only if you clean up the room.”

(END)

The ending didn't turn out as good as I had hoped for. :( Tell me what you think.

Happy Holidays.