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Edgar ended up in the Cafe Uzumaki more than he expected, and at first, more than he liked.
He’d never been a big fan of spending time in public areas. Even his time in the Guild was spent in isolation. Especially with how close the cafe was to the Armed Detective Agency. The Guild now disbanded, Edgar held no ill-will for the Agency members, but that didn’t stop the paranoid racing of his heart every time he came in contact with them- Ranpo, and with time the Dr. Akiko Yosano being some of the only exceptions. He was once their enemy, a major threat to their sanctuary, so wasn’t it inappropriate for him to be in their spaces?
And yet, every time, he was always greeted with a warm smile, and a “‘Morning, Poe- kun!”, some even going as far to ask about his day, usually the ones he believed to be named Atsushi and Kenji, if his memory proved him correct. Managing to handle such small talk was slowly growing to become easier, but he still left the conversation with unease in the pit of his stomach, once again questioning why he allowed himself to get into these situations. The way Ranpo perked up and smiled, waving Poe over to his booth, answered Edgar’s question every time.
It was difficult for Edgar to pinpoint the exact moment that Ranpo wanted to start meeting in the cafe rather than the actual Agency office. Maybe it was when Ranpo figured out money wasn’t an issue for Poe, meaning he could convince the other to buy him all of the sweets he asked for, he mused. Poe was helpless to Ranpo’s pleading, and the sly smirk plastered on his face whenever he’d gotten his way. And once Edgar had learned his former associate, Lucy Montgomery was a member, visiting the cafe became more and more of a normality in his daily routine.
For his years in the Guild, Edgar was never close with any of the other members. Louisa perhaps, but even then, it was more of an acquaintanceship, maybe sort of “comrades in shyness”. Lucy had joined the Guild in its later days, and being one of the youngest members, Edgar and her never truly had a chance to properly enjoy each other’s company. Still, after the few months when the Guild were defeated, or disbanded one could say, and Poe had run into Lucy once again, she still managed to talk his ear off in her attempt to catch him up in everything in her life that he had missed - like they were old friends. Despite his aversion to any sort of interaction, he found himself not minding. Edgar wasn’t fully versed on Lucy’s life before the Guild, and while he wasn’t a world-famous detective, he wasn’t dumb either. He could pick up on things, and what he was able to infer wasn’t pretty. Maybe she saw some sort of paternal or older-sibling-like figure in Edgar, to which he wouldn’t be surprised, since the young girl reminded him so much of his cousin back home, Virginia. So routinely Poe allowed Lucy to drag him over to the counter of the cafe, telling him stories with wide gestures and her usual disdained demeanor.
Which led him to his current predicament. Meeting Ranpo to talk about Poe’s latest mysteries, and eventually leading towards conversations from everything to anything, was nothing new at this point. Poe and Ranpo had moved past their rivalry to an aquantship, or even friendship, Edgar thought giddily. Poe had entered the cafe, said his usual greeting to Ranpo, fully including Karl jumping from Edgar’s shoulders into Ranpo’s lap, and before he could even sit down in the seat across from his friend, Lucy had pulled him away. Her face red as she muttered, “It’s an emergency” . Poe cast a helpless look to Ranpo, the other looking not puzzled, but thoroughly and fully irritated.
“Lucy, is everything alright?” Poe expressed genuine concern because knowing the young girl, it could be anything from extremely serious to the most mundane of problems.
“No, I-” Lucy cast a quick glance at Ranpo, still intently watching the two, and groaned. She lowered her voice, and her gaze, and gritted out a quiet “ Everything is not okay,” in English.
Ah. If Lucy wanted to talk in English, Poe and Lucy’s native language, being from North America, she obviously didn’t want Ranpo or any other passerbyers to hear. While Edgar was fluent in a handful of languages, ranging from English, Japanese, German, and Latin, Ranpo was not. Ranpo had expressed to Edgar a number of times that he found English to be stupid, the words sounding slow and chunky, which Edgar found no issues with. His time in the Guild had forced him to become familiar with Japanese enough to have no problems communicating with Ranpo and others.
“ Oh?” Another quick glance back at Ranpo proved the fact that he was frustrated with not being able to understand them. Poe noted he seemed more irritated today, was it that he was upset with not knowing what Poe and Lucy were discussing? Ranpo did like to know everything, after all.
Lucy took Poe’s one word response as an invitation to go on a tangent. It took Edgar’s brain a few seconds too long to catch up with his ears. And once he was able to fully comprehend what Lucy was spewing at him, realization dawned on him. She was ranting about Atsushi Nakajima, and something infuriating the boy had done to irritate Lucy. Oh. Oh.
Speaking before he could think of the consequences, Poe said a simple, “ Oh, you like him.”
Her eyes widened and her face flushed, rivaling her fiery braids. “ That is not what I was saying!” She shrieked, “ You weren’t listening at all ! I did not say that!” Her volume only continued to raise, drawing the attention of the other customers, and most importantly Ranpo.
“ Besides,” She hit Edgar across the arm with the towel she carried, “ You’re one to talk about who liking who!” Her hand gestured to Ranpo in a much too obvious gesture.
Edgar raised his hands in a gesture of peace, growing uncomfortable with the staring from the other customers. Her words hit him a moment too late, his own face burning now. His feelings were Ranpo were ones he had long since come to terms with, and even more so accepted that would not be requited. Because of the unrequited nature, and Poe’s quiet nature in general, he found himself staying quiet about it. So how had Lucy noticed? Had Ranpo noticed too? Oh god.. He tried spluttering out a reply, a retort, but his words seemed to fail him. Years of writing, and for what?
“ Lucy, Lucy, please.. People are staring…”
“Ugh! You don’t know what you’re talking about! All men are stupid, all of them!!” Lucy let out a final groan, burying her face in her hands and storming off behind the counter and into the kitchen.
Edgar cast a nervous glance around the cafe, meeting eyes with some of the still lingering gazes, and ducked his head down. Shoulders to his ears, he sulked back to the booth with a still-waiting Ranpo.
Speaking of, the man in question still looked beyond irritated. He bit on the end of what Poe assumed was a lollipop stick, his hand resting in his hands and glaring down at Karl in his lap. First an irritated Lucy, and now an irritated Ranpo. It was not Edgar’s day.
“Ah.. Sorry for the wait, Ranpo- kun..”
“‘S fine. What was that all about?” Ranpo looked up at Edgar, his expression unreadable.
“Oh, uhm..” Edgar hesitated, not wanting to reveal Lucy’s secret to Atsushi’s coworker and friend, “Lucy.. is having a bit of a problem.”
“Yeah, I could tell.” His tone was flat, and it made Edgar flinch. He wasn’t used to being on the end of Ranpo’s aggression. Usually it was directed at incapable police officers, never with Edgar. Worst of all, he couldn’t even figure out what he’d done to upset the other. Ranpo was truly a mystery to Edgar, sometimes, even after months of post-rivarlyship.
“Did you, uh, ” Poe gestured to the stack of papers on the table in between the two, “still want to check out the manuscript..?”
“I finished it, and solved it.” Ranpo had only had the papers for the short amount of time Edgar was talking to Lucy, but knowing Ranpo, getting through the story that quickly wasn’t all that unreasonable.
Edgar nervously cleared his throat. “..What did you think?”
Ranpo only answered with a shrug, and looked away.
The older man bit his lip, trying to rack his brain of what he had done to upset Ranpo this much. He had barely gotten out a few words before Lucy dragged him away. What in those few seconds could Edgar had said to upset Ranpo this much? Unless…
“Ranpo- kun, are you upset that Lucy got to talk to me today before you did?”
The man in question didn’t answer, opting to puff his cheeks out in a pout that Edgar found much too adorable, given the other’s current anger towards him. Once again, Poe found himself a sucker for Ranpo’s desires. His lack of answer was answer enough, and Poe found himself holding back an amused huff.
“It isn’t funny!” Ranpo shot at Poe, startling the sleeping Karl in Ranpo’s arms.
Edgar shook his head, shaking the fond smile off his face. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. It isn’t my intention to make fun. Ranpo -kun , there is no need to be jealous.” Poe found himself speaking before thinking for the second time today. “You know there’s nothing that gives me more pleasure than giving you all of my attention.”
Poe realized what he said the same moment Ranpo did. His hand flew to his mouth, as if it would force the words back inside, as if they had never been spoken at all. But they had, and it felt too late to take it back. Edgar swallowed. His smile, his tone, his words, all much too fond for the platonic relationship he had established with Ranpo. Months of building a friendship, longing looks and hands-brushing that Edgar oh-so valued, all coming to an end, crashing around him. Edgar pondered activating his ability, climbing right inside the manuscript in front of him and never returning. He shut his eyes, his home back in Boston and memories of Karl flashing in front of his eyes. Well, it’d been a nice life, Poe though, fully ready to take his forever leave.
“Poe- kun.”
Oh god. Edgar didn’t open his eyes.
“ Edgaaaaar,” Ranpo drawled out, his tone sing-songy, and nothing unlike the annoyed voice he had taken on only minutes prior.
Edgar peaked through the thick curtain of curls covering his eyes. Ranpo.. didn’t look mad. In fact, he looked pleased. A pretty shade of pink had worked itself across Ranpo’s cheeks, but that didn’t deter from the way that his lips curled up into a lazy smirk. Poe felt his heart burst out of his chest. He was sure Ranpo could hear the rapid beating from across the booth. Edgar had prided himself on hiding his feelings for Ranpo for a very, very long time. But now, with his feelings on the table and his heart on his sleeve, he felt much too vulnerable to Ranpo’s all knowing-gaze.
“You like me, don’t you, Poe- kun. Of course you do, I know everything after all.”
All Edgar could do was nod, before all of the words left him at once. “I’m-I’m really sorry, Ranpo- kun, I didn’t mean for you to find out like this, or find out at all. If you want, I can-”
“For being so smart, you really are oblivious sometimes, aren’t you?” Ranpo sighed, in a way that sounded affectionate, but Poe tried to not get his hopes up.
Huh? “Huh?”
Ranpo laughed, much more akin to a giggle that made Poe’s heart skip a beat. “How long?”
“ Huh?” Edgar repeated very eloquently.
“How long have you liked me?”
Edgar cast his gaze downwards. “For… God, longer than I can possibly remember. I’ve liked you for so long. Ranpo- kun, if you are going to make fun of me-”
“What? I’m not making fun of you, silly.” Ranpo reached his hands out across the table, making a “grabby” like gesture. “Cmere.”
“I…” Edgar hesitated. Ranpo’s hands were small, with thin fingers that Edgar so desperately wanted to intertwine in his own. He allowed himself to wonder how their fingers would fit together.. Maybe like two puzzle pieces finally coming together. Indulging himself in these thoughts was dangerous, but Ranpo was right in front of him and tempting.
“C’mon, Poe, don’t keep me waiting again! What was that about wanting to give me all of your attention, hm?” Ranpo teased, his smirk attractively, and almost impossibly, even growing. Edgar couldn’t resist the bright blush that burned his cheeks as he finally, finally, held Ranpo’s hand and interlocked their fingers. Years of isolated, painful longing, months of sweet pining, eyes lingering on Ranpo’s hands a little too long - a little too fixated on the skillful way he turned the pages of Edgar’s books. Waiting and waiting all building up to this moment. Edgar had to bite his lip to hold back a whimper at the surprise of the pure softness of Ranpo’s hands.
He struggled to find the right words to properly display what he was feeling, still confused about the fact if Ranpo even shared his feelings. “Ranpo- kun, I..”
Ranpo tutted, “We’ve known each other long enough, and you like me enough, Poe. Drop the honorifics. We sure aren’t strangers, and we aren’t an old married couple. Unless, you’d like to be of course.”
Edgar frowned. “You’re.. You’re teasing me..That isn’t very fair, Ranpo- kun, erh, Ranpo..”
“Aw, what kind of rival would I be if I didn’t tease you?” Ranpo let out a happy, albeit exasperated sigh. “You’re lucky you’re so cute, y’know?”
His eyes widened, and the already prominent blush high on his cheeks seemed to only flush brighter. The tip of his ears burned, and he felt like he was going to explode from the inside out.
“I-I-wha- Ranpo... Please, stop teasing me.. You can read me like a book, but I can’t do the same for you.. I need to know if you like me back..”
Edgar didn’t have time to focus on the shame already working itself up from his stomach into his throat. Ranpo used the leverage of already having Edgar’s hands in his to yank the taller man across the table. The cafe and all of its customers, the anxiety in his stomach, all faded away as Ranpo pressed their lips together.
The kiss was short, both of their inexperience evident, but Edgar didn’t care. God, he didn’t care. He pressed back without even needing to think twice about it. He’d dreamed of this moment, and it was everything he’d expected and more. Ranpo’s lips were slightly chapped, and sweet, very sweet.
Ranpo pulled away first, smiling up at Poe. “I’d been waiting so long to do that. Be thankful I’ve been soo patient in waiting for you to confess! And yes, before you ask, I like you too, Poe. You’re the only one fitting of a great detective like me, after all.” He let go of Poe’s hands in favor of clapping them together. “Now that we’ve handled that, are you interested in buying me a hot chocolate? I’m absolutely parched!”
All Edgar could too was nod, still working his way out of his dopey Ranpo-induced haze. Ranpo could’ve asked Edgar to do anything, and he’d know he’d agree and go along with it. Though, that isn’t very different from how things normally went.
Edgar ended up getting that hot chocolate for Ranpo, and one for himself as well. Though the hot drink wasn’t as warm, and wasn’t as sweet, as Ranpo.