Work Text:
Today was a nice day, Ranpo had the day off (well, honestly he had most days off, since he only worked when there was a specific case he wanted to solve or when someone begged him to, but today was his official day off, and he'll take off the entire weekend!) so he and Edgar had planned a date. Edgar arrived early to pick him up, a little before nine in the morning, the day was fresh, sunny but not too sunny and it had that particular coolness in the air that suggested maybe it would rain later, though maybe it wouldn't.
They went down to the café where Lucy worked for breakfast, Edgar ordered black tea along with an omelette, something simple, while Ranpo ordered what amounted to like five thousand yens in sweets, pastries and cake slices, and a milkshake, until the table was crowded with sugar in every possible form. Edgar looked at the spread and said with a bit of worry in his voice
"Ranpo dear, don't you think it's kind of bad that you're eating nothing but sugar for breakfast? just pure sugar on top of more sugar?"
To which Ranpo waved a hand and replied "Of course not, first of all, i'm strong, and second i'm the greatest detective in the world! if any of this were actually bad for me I would have deduced it by now. And I haven't, so shhh!!"
Edgar sighed at his response and then chuckled, because he knew his boyfriend was at least half joking, but he also knew with fondness that Ranpo would always always pick the option that'd get him into a diabetic coma fastest, thats just how his boyfriend was.
They lingered there quite a while with Edgar working on his new novel, arranging it in an online document, which was still a strange thing for him because he preferred writing by hand, and also his ability worked so much better that way, the words flowing directly from pen to page to the world inside the book, but he was trying (still trying) to lean a little more on technology during the drafting process because editing was easier that way, he had to admit.
That said once the draft was nearly ready and he wanted Ranpo to read it, he always had to copy it out by hand anyway, because Ranpo was incapable of sitting in front of a computer for some reason, he'd complain his head hurt and whine and act very melodramatically. Probably it was because of the combination of refusing to wear his glasses (to not “activate” his Ultra Deduction while reading his works, which didn't make a difference since he still figured out every detail there in no time, Edgar still didn't know if the glasses thing was a running gag of him or a coping mechanism, but he betted on he later) which made his eyes tire faster and the fact that he couldn't scratch notes around like a teacher grading an assignment or draw over Poe's page freely the way he could in a notebook
He never told Edgar any of this, but Edgar, being the great detective that he was, deduced it.
So while Edgar wrote for a while Ranpo was still working through the sweets and talking about all the cases he'd had that week and how he'd solved them and why they were so easy and so on, and he shared office gossip like how Dazai was being seen more and more often with that redhead from the Port Mafia and apparently no one else had noticed. Edgar just hummed, listening, it was quite peaceful. Ranpo loved to talk and Edgar loved the sound of Ranpo's voice, they worked well that way.
They stayed a while longer. Edgar paid the bill (obviously) and Ranpo took a couple of cookies for the road.
The weather was still nice when they stepped outside, the kind of fresh coolness that made walking feel pleasurable. Edgar loved walking with his boyfriend, and he especially loved being almost a full head taller, it was such a small thing but it made something warm curl up in his chest every time. They didn't walk holding hands because public displays of affection gave Edgar a little panic (he might actually faint if that happened) but they didn't need to anyway because they stayed close enough and Ranpo's way of walking usually meant he kind of bumped into him, nothing hard, just a light absent minded nudge the way someone a little clumsy and a little excited moves through the world. That light touch over and over reminded Edgar that his boyfriend was right there beside him, so real, so alive, and that he could touch him, which was still incredible every single time he thought about it
The plan was to spend the weekend at Poe's place, Ranpo already had clothes there since he stayed over often enough lately, not that he ever used his own pajamas because he always stole one of Edgar's shirts to sleep in so it didn't make much difference whether he had his own clothes or not. Still Edgar always washed them and kept them neatly folded in a drawer in his apartment.
Before heading home they went grocery shopping because Edgar usually forgot to do it. He didn't cook much when he was alone even though he loved cooking when Ranpo was there, for himself he just didn't pay much attention, sometimes he'd get lost in work and forget entirely the way he'd forget self care in general. Ranpo on the other hand was quite good at self care so, he liked quite the hedonistic lifestyle and was ready to show his boyfriend the wonders of actually taking care of yourself, Edgar was a bit embarrassed every time but it made his chest warm.
They went to the supermarket together, it was fun because it felt so domestic, standing in the aisles with Ranpo strolling the cart and sometimes pushing it way too fast almost crashing into other customers, making Edgar flush with embarrassment because he swore surely they were going to get kicked out of the store. It was like Ranpo was racing some invisible other cart and every so often he'd just disappear around a corner and Edgar would have to go find him. And on top of that he kept sneaking sweets into the cart, more and more and more sweets, but he also slipped in plenty of things he knew Edgar liked, he basically forced Edgar to buy food for the whole week and not just the weekend he'd be staying there. That way Edgar would have to use it up
Edgar knew that was Ranpo’s way of taking care of him, making sure there was always food in the fridge, things that were easy to make, nothing too elaborate, but nutritious enough for someone without much energy, someone who got depressed and low pretty often. Edgar thought it was something very sweet between them, the way they understood each other without everything being spoken directly, without it being one hundred percent verbal communication, but as if they could read each other's minds. They just understood each other that well.
They finished buying in the supermarket and left with the bags, both carried half and half. They kept walking and by now it was around six in the evening, then they arrived at Poe's apartment
Inside they took off their shoes and Ranpo squatted down to pet Karl who had come to say hi, until he scurried off and settled somewhere else. The bags went on the table and they started taking everything out, organizing the kitchen and arranging the fridge and throwing out anything that had already gone bad from before. They tidied the house a little, Ranpo opened curtains and the windows, and helped tidy up the place, because Poe on his own often lacked motivation. Some days were very difficult mentally and that made him neglect his home which was honestly too big for just one person. That used to embarrass him deeply but not so much anymore because he knew Ranpo understood. And Ranpo beneath that persona of someone lazy and so unwilling to do anything and almost unempathetic for some, was actually a very nice and helpful person, someone deeply empathetic and deeply serious about the people he truly cared for, the ones he wanted to protect and look after. Ranpo never judged him, not once, he helped him whenever he had the chance.
This squeezed Edgar's heart until it melted, it made him want to give Ranpo five hundred billion kisses all over his face.
Afterwards Ranpo sat on the sofa and read one of the other books Edgar had, criticizing it as always (though he never stopped reading them and never stopped asking Edgar to buy and write more, so Edgar no longer took his critiques too at heart). Ranpo stayed there on the sofa reading while Edgar cooked. The kitchen filled with the smell of something warm and familiar, whatever it was (Edgar hadn't decided until he started pulling ingredients out but it was coming together nicely), and by the time he was done the whole apartment smelled rich and good.
They settled on the sofa to eat as it was always Ranpo's request, in his words “it was domestic and comfortable and cozy and there was no reason to sit at a proper table when the sofa was right there”, which Edgar couldn't deny, they put on a bad detectives’ show on TV to complain about while eating, though they were secretly (not so secretly) invested in the office drama, and the shipping, mostly the shipping.
Sunset was approaching through the windows, the light turning golden and then grey as clouds moved in. While Edgar had been cooking a light drizzle had started, nothing too heavy at first and it wasn't unexpected, but now suddenly the storm broke hard. A thunderclap cracked through the sky and Ranpo let out a small gasp, jolting against the cushions, and then right after the thunder the lights went out.
The whole apartment and all the surrounding area went dark. It seems there had been a power outage from the storm. Everything felt colder immediately, the warmth of their just finished meal and their afternoon evaporating.
This sudden change ruined the mood for Ranpo completely, because sudden changes sucked, and Ranpo hated when the power went out. It reminded him of things he didn't like to be reminded of, like lonely nights on the streets after his parents' death when he had no one and nowhere to be, just a lonely little kid wet under the pouring rain seeking shelter in any 24/7 convenience store he could find, it was so much cold. Everything was so much louder in the dark like this, overwhelmingly loud, the rain pounding against the windows and the wind howling and the old apartment creaking. The weather was so much more intense when you had nothing to hide from it and right now, sitting on the sofa in the sudden dark with the storm raging outside, Ranpo just felt… small, small and very exposed and very far away from the warmth he was enjoying before.
Edgar didn't know how to react at first because he actually adored this kind of weather. It was melancholic, Ranpo would say it was “gothic just like him” he didn't use much electricity when alone in his house anyway (no TV and honestly he liked using little candles for the aesthetic). His first instinct was to get up to go light some candles, to let the storm be background noise to their next conversation. But then he looked at Ranpo, who had gone very still on the sofa, his face unreadable in the little night light entering from the window, and he hesitated
He thought Ranpo would call him a “performative ass” if he lit candles right now, not that Ranpo could say much, because he was also weird as hell. The difference was that right now Ranpo's weirdness had its teeth in something old and cold, while Edgar's weirdness was standing useless with a box of matches in his hand, watching his boyfriend disappear somewhere inside himself while the rain kept pounding down.
The silence was immediate, not real silence because the storm was still raging outside hammering against the roof, the windows and the pavement far below, wind rattling the old frames, but somehow all of that only made the quiet inside feel deeper. The background hum of the apartment was gone, the soft whir of the fans and the low rumble of the heating and all those invisible little electrical noises that usually lived beneath everything. Ranpo had always been acutely aware of those sounds (Edgar suspected that Ranpo's brain didn't filter out these things the way other people's did) and now that they'd vanished it was like the room had been ripped away and replaced with somewhere else entirely. The darkness was almost absolute too, no streetlights, just the small bright of the stars very far away and the faintest grey outline of the window. Ranpo couldn't see anything and that somehow made the cold feel painful and the silence louder, the two sensations layered on top of each other like they were trying to crush him underneath them.
He'd stopped talking, after the little cry he'd let out when the thunder hit, he'd lost the thread of the conversation completely and gone mute, and Edgar noticed right away because of course he noticed, not just because he always noticed everything about Ranpo but because it was painfully clear something had gone wrong, Edgar asked quietly “Ranpo dear? are you alright?" to which Ranpo just shook his head in a small motion, no.
Edgar worried but he didn't push. It wasn't usual for Ranpo to shut down like this but pushing him never helped and Edgar knew that. So he just gently touched his boyfriend's shoulder and said "Thanks for telling me dear, I'll be right back, let me make a little lamp for us” then he went to find candles after all because maybe some light would help even if he didn't understand exactly what was wrong yet.
He didn't fully know what to do, he thought maybe he could say something about how the rain sounded beautiful, how it was actually kind of lovely if you listened to it the right way, but that felt thin and he knew it. So he found Karl instead, the little raccoon startled and wide eyed from the thunder, and he scooped him up and carried him back to the sofa, placing him gently on Ranpo's lap without saying anything. Stroking Karl's fur always calmed Edgar down, so he figured it might help Ranpo too. Ranpo's hands moved automatically to the familiar warmth and started petting the soft animal slowly, so Edgar counted that as a small victory
Still the mood wouldn't lift, Ranpo wasn't bubbly, hyperactive nor chattering anymore, he'd folded inward completely like he was a different person, he had never seen him like that, not even the only time he had seen when his detective couldn't solve a case right away did he stay shocked for long, Edgar felt helpless in that particular way loving someone deeply made you feel when you couldn't fix whatever was hurting them
After a while of sitting next to each other, Ranpo petting Karl and Edgar stroking his shoulder, Edgar decided they should go to bed, the power wasn't coming back anytime soon and maybe sleeping would help. He asked Ranpo if he wanted to take a quick shower before bed or just change and lie down and Ranpo nodded yes to the latter, a small tired nod but it was enough, so Edgar said "Alright my love, let's go get ready for bed then” holding out his hand to help his boyfriend stand up, not because Ranpo couldn't do it by himself but because he really wanted to help in any way, he would just pick him up bridal style and carry him to bed but he didn't know how much touching was good in times like these, so he went to take a fast shower while Ranpo was supposed to be in the bedroom changing into pajamas and trying to sleep.
The water was cold because the heater wasn't working without electricity but Edgar didn't mind much. He'd gotten used to warm showers and the little luxury of comfortable baths but he'd spent a long time bathing cold before and his body remembered, so it wasn't that bad, mostly he just wanted to rinse off the day, clean the city off his skin, and he tried not to take too long because he didn't want to leave Ranpo alone, but also he thought maybe his boyfriend needed a little time to himself? a moment to breathe without anyone watching. Edgar stood under the cold water and thought about his boyfriend and what he could possibly do to help, turning ideas over and over until he gave up and just hoped being there would be enough.
He got out, toweled off his hair a little, wrapped the towel around himself and walked toward the bedroom to change. That was when he heard them, muffled little sounds, sobs and sniffles being pressed into fabric, someone trying very hard to cry quietly but not quite succeeding at it, Edgar's heart dropped straight through the floor and hurried to the bedroom door
Ranpo was there under the covers, curled around a pillow crying, it wasn't the kind of crying that let itself be heard but the kind that fought to stay hidden, the kind that choked itself back and then came out all wrong, like his body was forcing the tears out whether he wanted them to or not and he was using every bit of strength he had to keep them silent. Ranpo looked so overwhelmed and so sad that his body had taken over and was sobbing out without his permission while he was trying to smother it all into the pillow.
Edgar still in his towel sat on the edge of the bed and reached out to touch Ranpo's shoulders through the blankets, trying to apply a gentle grounding pressure. "Ranpo sweetheart, are you okay? What's wrong? my love, please, whatever you need, you know I'm here, you can talk to me” his voice was cracky, but it came out softer than he knew he was capable of.
Ranpo curled tighter, as if trying to make himself so small he'd disappear from this situation, and Edgar could feel the embarrassment radiating off him, the shame of being seen like this, Edgar couldn't stand seeing him like hah "can I stay here with you dear? until you find your words again and can tell me what you're feeling” and Ranpo, for the first time since the lights went out, spoke, "Please” he said in a breath, as he reached out took Edgar's hand and pulled it toward his face, not to bite or kiss, to hold it the way he'd been holding the pillow, pressing it against his tear-wet cheek, burying his face into Edgar's palm and crying into it.
Edgar lay down behind him on the bed, arranging them into a slightly awkward spoon position, his towel still damp and his hair dripping onto the pillow, but none of that mattered to him, he wrapped his arms around Ranpo and held him, he didn't know exactly what was wrong but he knew Ranpo and he could guess it was one of those moments when the detective's past came up behind him, likely some old unprocessed thing or some vulnerability he hated showing. And on top of that Ranpo felt everything so intensely, his brain wired to take every emotion and amplify it until it was unbearable and became a meltdown or a panic attack or whatever name it wore. So Edgar held him and stayed as present as he possibly could, grounding him, reminding him he wasn't alone.
When Ranpo's crying started to get louder Edgar squeezed him, not too hard and not restraining (because Ranpo loved touch, but when he was overstimulated being held too tightly made him feel like a trapped animal, so gladly Edgar was careful), and when Ranpo's sobs began to quiet, turning softer and whispery, Edgar pressed little kisses to the back of his head and whispered sweet nothings into his hair.
Edgar had never thought he'd be capable of this. Yes he was a writer but he'd always felt clumsy with spoken words, and even clumsier when it came to people, he had never imagined he'd be in a position where his voice could actually comfort someone, but here he was now, saying things that came naturally from his heart to the person he loved most in the world, because he needed Ranpo to know he was safe in his arms
Later, when the tears had slowed and the storm outside had gentled a bit, Ranpo felt ready to talk a bit, he told Edgar some pieces about being a child alone in the dark, cold nights with no one and nothing, how the sudden loss of light and sound still yanked him straight back there. Ranpo didn't explain it all and Edgar didn't push, it wasn't needed, Edgar just listened and held his hand and let him go at his own pace. Then they ended up lying on their backs side by side staring up at the ceiling, still holding hands in the dark.
“I always liked the darkness" Edgar started explaining, Ranpo didn't answer but he felt him listening “It's beautiful to me, you can stare into it and your eyes will start making things up, shapes, colors, little lights that aren't really there" He lifted Ranpo's hand toward the ceiling guiding it gently. "Look, the darkness isn't empty, it's full of things your own mind makes for you"
There was a pause, Edgar thought he may have been too corny, now he was never gonna hear the end of it, but then Ranpo made a small sound that might have been accompanied with a smile. "How marvelous, it's like a kaleidoscope”
Edgar let out a little laugh, surprised and tender
They stayed like that, talking quietly now and then, little sleepy observations in the dark until their words slowed and their breathing evened out, and they fell asleep still holding hands, the storm finally fading away into the distance while they drifted off.
When Ranpo woke up it was morning already and the first thing he registered was sound, the hum of the refrigerator, the soft vibration of the heating, the distant whisper of the ceiling fan, appliances and electricity and all the tiny living noises that meant the power was back. Beneath that he could hear the street outside, cars and birds and the world moving again, and underneath it all no rain at all.
He opened his eyes a little and saw daylight pushing through the gap in the curtains, Karl was curled up beside him on the rumpled sheets and the bed was warm, Edgar wasn't next to him but it didn't worry him because he could smell breakfast happening somewhere in the kitchen, something warm and sweet, and a few minutes later Edgar appeared in the doorway carrying a tray.
"You're awake" Edgar said, and his face did that thing where it lit up like Ranpo was the best thing he'd ever seen, Ranpo hoped blushes aren't that noticeable when ones just woken up, "Good morning, Ranpo dear”
"Good morning, Ed” Ranpo said, his voice was still a little rough
They smiled at each other and Edgar set the tray down and climbed onto the bed, they ate breakfast together propped up against the pillows, the sheets all tangled around them, everything soft and golden and warm. Ranpo thought about the storm, the dark and the cold and then he looked at Edgar, who was stealing a bite of his pancakes and pretending he wasn't, not even because he was hungry but just to get a reaction out of him, and he thought that it was nice he would never, ever have to be alone again.