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Shinichi wondered if Hattori knew they were courting each other.
For all his friend/crush/rival/kind-of-boyfriend likes to flaunt about being the better detective, he sure was dense.
Hell, even Shinichi had been a little dense about it. It took Ran cooing over his texts with Hattori and asking who the (un)lucky girl was for him to stop and reassess what he knew about them.
He even remembers Kazuha in particular being very loud about their... Fixation on each other.
Shinichi was clearly the better detective for figuring it out first. He can't wait to rub it in Hattori's face when he realizes it.
That being said, at this point, it's become a sort of amusing game for him. Hattori was so immensely dense, that Shinichi could take him on dates and act as affectionately as he wanted (or as he could be, in his case) without Heiji ever questioning anything.
He'd feel a little bad about it if it weren't for the fact that out of the two of them, Hattori is the one who started showing affection first and was the most loud about it.
If this were before the Conan Situation(™), Shinichi would have probably all but thrown a love confession on his face out of frustration (if he even noticed it, that is), but now he was more than happy to watch things unfold naturally between them.
And it was funny. Very funny.
Even funnier if you factored in that Heiji was still under the impression that he was in love with Kazuha. He wasn't even jealous, it was just that hilarious.
Shinichi asked Kazuha about it once out of curiosity when they went to get some tea, and she'd told him in no uncertain terms that she'd moved on from her childhood crush after he'd chickened out of confessing several times.
"Heiji's kinda an idiot, ain't he?", was what she said.
Shinichi wholeheartedly agreed.
He thought it was good for her. Not because he wanted Hattori for himself, he just thinks she'd be miserable with him. Heiji hyperfocused too much on cases, to the point where he tended to ignore everything and everyone unless they were someone who could keep up with him, another detective.
So his options were either Shinichi, Hakuba (who he hates) or Sera (who he doesn't see eye to eye with).
In other words, Shinichi won the lottery on Hattori's exact type, and he loved winning.
Now if only he was a little less of a dork…
Shinichi wondered if Heiji even felt attraction that way. He's tried to wool him a great many times into having sex during their multiple sleepovers (sue him, Hattori was nice on the eyes), but his (very straightforward) hints always went straight over his head, and the worst part, Heiji didn't even seem turned on at all.
He'd felt a bit hurt about it at first, he'd gone a couple weeks feeling insecure about his body and thinking that maybe he'd greatly misread the clues, but after further investigation, he reached the conclusion that Hattori maybe just didn't feel that kind of thing.
Sure, his favorite beach game was trying to guess the color of the bikinis of girls submerged under water, but that was more of a thought exercise than anything else, really.
He was fine with it, honestly. If his boyfriend-kind-of-not-really-but-yes didn't do sex, Shinichi would just have to live with it.
It just meant that he had virtually no competition.
All that to say, as much as Heiji's denseness was entertaining, they were reaching a point in their relationship where they both should settle. Almost all of their mutual friends were already married with kids, and sure, while Shinichi agrees that what they have can't be compared with others, he loved his idiot boyfriend-maybe-it's-complicated, and he wanted nothing more than get married and vow to spend the rest of their lives together.
Shinichi was a romantic at heart, sue him.
They both had stable jobs, they weren't seeing anyone else (ignoring the rare periods where Heiji remembered Kazuha and bemoaned her lack of free time to hang out), hell, Shinichi had even moved in with him! Really, there was no better time.
The only problem was that for Shinichi to propose, Hattori had to know that they were dating.
He was doing everything by the book. He picked the most romantic fancy restaurant he could find. He made sure they had everything Heiji liked plus a very creative (and maybe a little sarcastic) puzzle breaking the news.
He just hoped it was enough.
"C'mon, Hattori, we're gonna be late."
Shinichi said exasperatedly, checking his watch.
"Calm yer tits, Kudo! Ya were da one who insisted on wearin' suits!" Hattori said, frankly struggling with his tie. "I don' get why ya would wanna wear suits when it's just da two of us."
Shinichi rolled his eyes, before moving to help him with the tie. He assumed that was the reason he never wore one to go to work, but it was nice that he was going out of his way to dress nicely just because Shinichi asked.
"Idiot, I told you it's because I have something important to show you."
Hattori snorted. "Heh, ya say that but every time we go somewhere nice, we end up with a body on our table."
Oh, Shinichi accounted for that. He'd rented out the entire restaurant just for the occasion, to make sure that no murder got in the way of his confession. All the other guests, and even some of the staff, were paid actors Shinichi specifically hired after running several background checks.
If any bastards decided to choose tonight specifically to go trigger happy, Shinichi... well. He wasn't going to murder them, but he'd use his contacts to make sure they never got out of jail.
"Hm. We'll see about that."
He replied smugly, as soon as he finished with the tie.
"Wow, that's ominous. Did ya finally cave and get yer own lucky charm?"
Shinichi shoved him playfully, and Hattori laughed like a hyena as they left their apartment.
_
Everything was going perfectly. All according to plan.
Hattori had already found out about the puzzle he crafted in the restaurant (“Kudo, the pattern on da walls! There’s a hidden message here!!”) and he was enjoying it immensely, though he did think it was a little suspicious that Shinichi wasn’t helping (“Kudo, there’s a riddle here, why aren’t ya doing anything about it? Ya love destroyin’ riddles.”).
Finally, he was getting close to the final message, he just needed to translate the last bit of the code.
“C-O-N-G-R…” Hattori spelled out under his breath in concentration, getting progressively quieter as he uncovered more of the message, until he was finally done. “Congratulations. We’re in love, ya dork…?” He frowned, staring down in confusion. “Kudo, what does that mean? Is this something yer planning to show yer girl or something?”
Shinichi snorted. “That’s meant for you, you idiot!”
“No- But- ” His partner opened and closed his mouth, and Shinichi watched in real time as he started connecting the clues. He half wondered if that’s what Ran saw when he himself realized it for the first time. “Oh my fuckin’ God. Kudo, we’re a couple.”
“Finally!” Shinichi cheered with a laugh. “I’m clearly the better detective for figuring it out first, by the way.”
“No way! I bet ya only found out like a week ago!”
Hattori yelled defensively.
“Hattori, I’ve known for 8 years.” He raised an eyebrow. “Why did you think I moved in with you?”
“I don’t know! I thought ya needed a roommate to pay rent or somethin’!”
“Hattori, we’re both rich.”
“Maybe ya were just lonely!”
“Why do you think I chose you!? Osaka is very far from Tokyo, you idiot!”
They both stared at each other for a moment, before breaking out into laughter.
Shinichi looked at his boyfriend fondly. Figuring out a relationship shouldn’t be too hard for two detectives, right?
_
“Kudo. Kudo. Oi, Kudo! Wake up! This is important!”
He groaned, opening his eyes begrudgingly. “What is it?”
“Is THAT why ya were comin' into my room half naked for a week straight!?”
Shinichi laughed so hard he almost puked.