Author's Notes: The last time I updated this was..four months ago? Oh God. I'm so sorry. T A T As I said on my profile, I had a really bad case of writer's block. Knowing the major events I want to happen but not how to get there is really frustrating. Add to that starting school so yeah, I've been a bit busy as well. Akhgfdsfgsd. But now I'm on a short summer break so I was actually able to write more! Anyway, I hope that you guys will enjoy this chapter. :)

And just another reminder that, yes, this will be KaiShin. So don't worry. ;)

Once again, thanks for the new alerts and favorites! And of course, thank you very much to Kazami, DayDreaming0f y0u, Epicfan/takodivy, Kaida-14Kage, and the Guest for reviewing the previous chapter!

Kazami: I'm glad you thought so. Hehe. :)

Epicfan/takodivy: Don't worry, I don't mind the consecutive reviews like that. In fact, I was very happy about it. Haha. XD Anyway, as I said to someone, all things shall be revealed in due time. Hoho. XD And thank you for the review and for your words! ^^

Guest: Thank you for the review! Though I'm afraid I didn't quite understand what you meant? I'm sorry. I'm slow.. ._. (I have a feeling though. You wouldn't happen to be Epicfan/takodivy as well, would you?)

Warnings: Female Shinichi, shounen ai, and OOC-ness.

Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan in any way.

Chapter Twelve: Celebration

"Oh. Uhh. Thanks," Heiji said with a polite smile, at which the girl before him just blushed and stuttered, as if she wanted to say something else. Whatever it was that she wanted to say, she never got to though and she just shuffled out the room.

It had been a few weeks since he, along with Shizuka and Kaito, watched that soccer game one weekend. Enjoyment they did get, but it seemed that life had much more in store for him, namely, a crossbow wound to the thigh. It wasn't that serious though; he got a few stitches and was told that full recovery would be after two weeks, which was now.

What was unusual to him, however, was the weeks in-between. When he turned up on Monday in crutches, he got offers to help him with random stuff throughout the day.

But it didn't stop there. The following day at lunch, many girls (including the ones from other classes) suddenly came up to him and gave him lunch boxes as "get well soon" presents. Baffled at the sudden attention he was getting, he just accepted them anyway, also because he didn't want to hurt their feelings.

And so he ended up with sixteen lunch boxes that day, not including the one that Kaito's mom made.

Speaking of the thief, he jokingly suggested that Heiji make a business out of selling the lunch boxes to guys who had crushes on the girls who made them, at which he said no. Meanwhile, Shizuka offered the use of her refrigerator just in case his ran out of space. They all had a good laugh at that. (Though he did end up taking her offer.)

As the days passed, the number of "presents" dwindled until he received nothing anymore, which was totally fine with him.

So he was surprised when now that he was fully-recovered (so no need for any "get well soon" presents), another girl came up to him. She was from a different class but for some reason, he felt that he had seen her somewhere before. She offered him a - guess what - lunch box. Unsure of what to do, he accepted it anyway with what he thought was a polite smile, so he had no idea why she suddenly left like she was in a hurry, without even getting out what she wanted to say.

"I'd say she seems pretty serious about you, Hattori," Kaito teased, as if reading his thoughts. Heiji turned to face him with a pointed look, but the thief continued in a still-teasing tone, "Shall I tell Mom not to make lunch for you anymore?"

"Oh, shut up," was all Heiji managed to reply, and he couldn't help but mentally facepalm himself for coming up with such a witty comeback.

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard a short "Heh" from their other companion. He, as well as Kaito, looked at Shizuka with mildly surprised expressions. To this, she asked, "What?"

'Nothin'. Jus' that ya' finally seem a bit more normal now, compared ta the past few weeks,' Heiji was tempted to say, but managed to hold his tongue.

Ever since that crossbow incident, Shizuka once again slowly withdrew herself from them. Even when they would hang out together, it was as if she wasn't really with them. She didn't react to their conversations like she usually would. Heck, even Kaito's pranks could not get a rise out of her! Aside from offering her refrigerator space that one time, she didn't interact with them much anymore.

However, what was worse was that after school, she would directly go to work. When that was done, she would go straight to the apartment. On her days off, she would stay in her room and only go out when she needed food. It was as if she was set on automatic with a schedule that she had to keep at all times.

Needless to say, this did not bode well for The Plan. He and Kaito already asked Chikage for help regarding Shizuka, but even she failed.

He knew it was because she was blaming herself for what happened to him, as well as what happened to Kaito before, and he really disliked that. Why did she always think that everything bad that would happen to her and the people around her was her fault?

Well, ok, you could say it was kinda because she attracted so much trouble. 'But the moment I decided ta become a detective, I already knew what kind of dangers I'd start gettin' into. Hangin' out with ya' an' Kuroba don't really help either. But I still stick with ya', don't I?' he thought.

With that, Heiji heaved a sigh. He wasn't sure if she already knew these thoughts of his. If she did, it was most likely that she didn't care or that she remained her stubborn self who believed that everything bad was because of her. If she didn't know, well, he didn't think it would make much difference, especially since it would be difficult to make her change whatever was on her mind.

"What?" Shizuka repeated after some time, looking back and forth between the two boys as she waited for a response.

"Nothin'," Heiji said and shrugged. He then turned away and gave a sad smile which, unknown to him, did not go unnoticed, thus prompting and exchange of uncertain glances.

The rest of the day flew by, to Heiji's liking. He just wanted to go back to the apartment and sleep until it was the weekend again, if that was even possible. For some reason, he wanted to get away from everything stressful and just rest, properly, that is. No crime scenes, no heists, no (possible) Black Organization henchmen shooting him and his friends. Nothing. Just his self, his room, and peace and quiet.

But of course that wouldn't be happening. At all.

He was just about to head outside the school gate after saying goodbye to his friends when Shizuka asked a question that made him stop in his tracks.

"Heiji, are you free later this evening?"

Wait. What? Did she really just..?

He turned around to face the speaker, just to be sure that his ears weren't playing tricks on him. And true enough, he saw Shizuka looking straight at him, as if waiting for his response.

Almost immediately, Heiji felt his face heat up. 'The hell? What on earth am I gettin' embarrassed fer?' he thought, confused at why his body was being weird all of a sudden. It wasn't as if she was asking out like that, right? Surely the question was raised just for the sake of asking, and not because she wanted to spend some time with him tonight. After all, they were just platonic friends, in a totally non-weird way, right?

Heiji shook his head, attempting to get rid of his weird thoughts with the action. But still, he was uncertain on how to reply. Glancing at Kaito who was right behind Shizuka, he was dismayed to see that the Poker Face was on, which totally did not help. So he just sighed and opted for the truth, "Sure, I guess. What's up?"

He was caught off-guard when he got a smile in return, as well as a cheerful, "Okay. I'll see you later, alright?"

She was just about to head off before Heiji's tongue decided to finally become useful and asked the questions he wanted to be answered. "Wait. What's goin' on? Are we goin' some place? Where?"

This time, he got a mysterious smile and a short, "You'll see."

With that, Shizuka and Kaito finally went ahead (most probably to go to work) without another word, leaving behind a thoroughly confused Kansai detective.

This was the fourth outfit he had tried on since getting back to his apartment which, finally, got his seal of approval. Truth be told, Heiji wasn't sure if he needed to dress up, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Still, he didn't want to seem overexcited about the whole thing so he just opted for a plaid button-down shirt, presentable jeans that didn't have any rips or holes, and a pair of clean sneakers.

Not formal yet not too casual. At least he hoped so.

He looked at his reflection in the bathroom mirror for the nth time that night and couldn't help but make a disgusted face. What the hell was wrong with him? Why was he so excited for tonight? 'Like I'm lovesick or somethin'!' he thought, finally leaving the bathroom to go and lie down on his bed.

As he lay there, staring at the ceiling, he felt warmth creep up his cheeks again. And like before, he shook his head, wanting to stop the weird thoughts before they even surfaced and then go out of control. He was at a complete loss as to why his body, or more specifically his face, kept betraying him the entire day. He hadn't always been like this, had he? Then what changed?

Just as one name popped into his head, he heard a knock on his door. He sat up and for a few moments, just stared at the door which was visible from where he was, before he finally decided to stand up and open it. As he was walking, he unconsciously straightened his shirt and tried to check if his hair looked okay. When he realized what he was doing, he dropped his hands and made another face. 'Dude, this needs ta stop,' he said to himself.

He finally opened the door to reveal the person he had been waiting for. All of a sudden, he felt a bit self-conscious of his outfit though, because Shizuka was wearing a plain shirt and jeans. Thankfully, she didn't comment on his choice of clothing for what would likely be a very casual and entirely friendly night out.

"Ready?" was all she asked, to which he simply nodded. "Let's go," she continued and stepped away from outside the door, waiting for Heiji to lock and close it before they left.

When he was done, he turned to face her and asked, "So.. Where're we goin'?"

Once again, he just got that mysterious smile and short, "You'll see."

They had been walking for the past half hour without any specific destination in mind, at least to Heiji. He didn't mind though. He might not have had the relaxing sleep that he initially wanted, but he did get a relaxing walk that still managed to get his mind off things, even for a short while.

Surprisingly, the walk was spent in comfortable silence, with the occasional small talk here and there. Heiji honestly expected that there would be some level of awkwardness between them, especially after the way Shizuka had been acting recently, but he was glad that he had been wrong.

They were to reach the one-hour mark of simply walking around when all of a sudden, Shizuka stopped and turned to face him. Heiji was about to ask what was wrong, when she threw out another question that caught him off-guard.

"Hey, Heiji, can you close your eyes for a minute?"

For the third time in just a span of few hours, Heiji felt that his face was making a very good impression of a very ripe tomato. He could feel all the blood rush to his face that he wouldn't be surprised at all if he happened to pop a vein or something similar.

She continued to stare at him, her eyes almost unblinking as she waited for him to reply or to do as she asked. For a moment, Heiji looked away first, trying to compose himself. When he deemed himself okay, he faced her and finally did as he was told. He pursed his lips and began leaning a bit forward, his face still feeling quite hot. This continued until..

..he felt a hand latch around his wrist which then proceeded to drag him away.

His eyes almost flew open at the surprise, if it weren't for Shizuka saying, "No, keep your eyes closed." So he obeyed, again, and asked, "Where're we goin'?"

Even though he voiced that question, Heiji had a feeling that he would only get that mysterious smile as a reply, which wouldn't really help, even if his eyes were open to actually see it.

Heaving a sigh, he just resigned himself to whatever was in store for him.

It didn't take long - not more than five minutes, in fact - before they stopped and Shizuka declared, "We're here!"

Heiji had no idea where on earth they were but his eyes remained shut anyway, just in case his companion wanted them to stay that way for the meantime. True enough, she didn't say anything and just tugged at his wrist which she still held onto, leading him towards wherever 'here' was.

Judging from what he could make of the noises and everything around him that he could sense, they had just entered a gated area, most probably a home. This was further proven when he was warned that they would be taking a couple of steps of stairs which he assumed led to the entrance of the house itself. He heard her open a door and once they were through it, she closed it behind him.

"Just wait for a while, alright?" Shizuka said and finally let go of his wrist, now walking away, judging from her foot steps that were slowly becoming fainter.

Brows furrowed in concentration, Heiji tried his best not to open his eyes just to be done with all the mystery. It didn't help at all when he felt that his surroundings were very familiar, only of course he couldn't be too sure, at least not until he really saw where he was. And so he simply crossed his arms as he waited for his companion to come back, which actually didn't take very long.

A few moments later, he heard steps again, though this time there was more than one. He knew that one of them was Shizuka though, because she said, "Okay, are you ready now, Heiji?"

"Ready? Fer what exactly?" he asked.

"You can open your eyes now."

He did as he was told.

Since he had his eyes closed for quite some time, it took him a while to get them adjusted to his lit surroundings. Before the initial blurriness came to pass though, he heard popping noises that surprised him. However, once his vision cleared, the sight before him surprised him further.

There stood Shizuka, Kaito, and Chikage, each with just-used party-poppers in their hands and smiles on their faces with grew as they chorused, "Happy Birthday!"

Momentarily stunned, it was only when Shizuka ushered him to the dining room that he was able to move his body after what seemed like a long time of being rooted to the same spot. But once there, he practically gaped at what was in front of him: different kinds of food on the table, balloons on the ceiling, a banner with "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HEIJI!" in large letters, and most importantly, the cake in the middle of the table with colorful candles lit on top. 'All that's needed's a clown, seein' as we already have a magician here,' he thought with a grin.

Turning to the people who prepared all of these for him, Heiji felt a rush of gratitude. He tried thinking of enough words to express just how thankful he was, but all that came out was, "Ya' sure went all-out, huh?"

"No," Kaito corrected. "All-out would mean having loud music, drinks, fireworks, and maybe some elephants, pandas, and tigers..inside the house." He said the last part with a grin, at which the two females in the room just smiled at him. But Heiji knew that those smiles meant something along the lines of 'Don't you dare even try or else something bad might just happen to you'. The thief seemed to have gotten the message as well, but he simply shrugged and brushed the warning off.

Shizuka then turned to Heiji and this time, the smile was much more sincere. "Well then, shall we begin?"

For the moment, everything was normal.

They all ate, chatted, and cleared away the decorations and food. The three volunteered to clean the rest of the mess while they let Heiji have some privacy outside as he listened to a recorded greeting from his parents that they got for him.

As he sat on the steps outside the Kuroba household, listening to his dad's gruff yet somewhat-embarrassed voice ("Is this really necessary?" he asked with a sigh in the recording.) and his mom's calm and pleasant tone ("Hush. Of course it is! Don't you miss your son?" she asked.), he couldn't help but crack a smile. Of course his dad would seem so against doing such a 'sentimental' thing. But with just a few words from his mom, the man could be persuaded to do just about anything (which, to him, made her much scarier, along with the fact that she also had amazing kendo skills).

Their message was short, but it was enough to bring another smile to Heiji's face. 'I should probably go back an' visit once in a while,' he thought.

He was just about to replay the recording when he heard the door behind him open. Turning around, he saw that it was Shizuka, who asked, "Ah, am I interrupting something?"

"Nah, it's fine. I jus' finished listenin' to my parents' message anyway," he replied.

Seeing that she was about to sit next to him, he scooted over to give her more space. But once she sat down and he realized their closeness (the steps weren't exactly meant for seating two people after all), he couldn't help but sit still and look straight ahead, simply turning his head a few times to look at his companion when she spoke.

"So.. Did you enjoy yourself tonight?" she asked.

"Y-yeah.." came the nervous reply. Heiji wanted to hit himself. 'The heck am I gettin' nervous fer?'

"That's good."

"Uhh. Who came up with this anyway?" he asked, trying to maintain normal conversation between the two of them.

"One time, Kaito and I brought up the whole lunchbox thing at school and then Auntie suddenly asked when your birthday was. Once we realized that it was just days away, things just, well, they seemed to just fall into place. Hence this."

"Oh. So everyone pitched in? That's..nice."

He probably would be even more touched if it was only Shizuka who planned the whole thing though.

'Wait. WHAT?'

He must have had a horrified look on his face (because of his weird thoughts) or something similar because beside him, a worried voice asked, "Heiji, are you alright?"

In response, the Kansai detective said, "Y-yeah. Don't worry 'bout it." He gave an uneasy smile and for some reason, his mouth just didn't stop. "I was thinkin' though, since ya' mentioned the lunchbox thing, who do ya' think that girl from earlier was? She seemed kinda familiar, but I still dunno. An' she was the only one who gave me a lunchbox today even though the others already stopped some time ago. Do ya' think she did it 'cause she knew it was my birthday? Seems unlikely though, right?"

The urge to hit himself resurfaced, but Heiji still tried to look at his companion, even if it was just to see how she reacted to his babbling.

A shocked look. Well, that was understandable. But now, he could see the corners of her lips slowly turning up into a smile, which then erupted into laughter.

'Uhh. Okay..? It's better than a look of horror, I guess,' he thought, trying to be positive.

"Sorry about that," Shizuka said once she stopped laughing, but she was still grinning. Somewhat. "I just.. Where did that come from?"

"Believe me, I have no idea," he sighed.

For just a moment, their eyes met, but it was enough to send them into fits of laughter. Honestly though, Heiji didn't know just why he was laughing, but hey, if it was reducing the awkwardness he felt, then why the heck not?

Once that subsided, he could feel that a stupid smile was stuck on his face and though he couldn't see Shizuka's face, he could feel that she was the same.

They spent a few minutes in comfortable silence until Heiji decided to break it. "Hey, Shizuka," he said.

"Hmm?"

"Thanks.."

"For today? No problem!"

"No, not just that.." He faced his friend beside him, now ignoring how his legs are bumping into hers, and prepared to speak. "I.. Thanks..fer everythin'.."

Shizuka, for her part, looked confused, but replied anyway, "As I said, no problem. I mean, we're friends after all, aren't we?"

"That's the thing. I don't-"

For a moment, Heiji hesitated before continuing.

'Should I?'

'Will it be worth the risk?'

'...'

'..I'm sorry.'

Jaw set in determination, Heiji held her by the shoulders and looked into her eyes. To him, time began to move oh-so-slowly and his pounding heart could not get any louder. Until finally, the words left his mouth.

"I like you, Shizuka."

With that, he slowly closed the distance between their lips.

Author's Notes: Um. So. I just want to reiterate, this will be KaiShin. So yeah. Please don't hate me for this chapter or anything! I just felt that Heiji needed some love, especially since this was supposed to be dedicated to his birthday (which is WAAAY past, I know, sorry ;_;).

What else. Hmm. I've already started on the next chapter. Hopefully I can get another one out before break ends. That's one of my goals this summer break actually. :D

As I always say, reviews are greatly appreciated. And thank you very much to those who are still reading this! :)