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Ranpo stared at himself in the mirror in disgust, well more stared at his chest. His chest wasn’t that big, but big enough to notice if he didn’t bind, so because of that he always wore his binder. Always.
It was a warm, sunny summer day outside, and everyone in the ADA was sweating so much that it almost looked like they had taken a shower a few minutes earlier. Most of them had t-shirts or some tank top. Tanizaki was just wearing his black binder, cause it was almost like a tank top anyway.
Everyone was dressed in as little clothes as possible cause of the heat. Everyone except one. Ranpo.
Atsushi thought about the fact that they’ve never seen Ranpo in anything else than what he usually wears, no t-shirts or tank tops, never even shorts. They thought it was a bit weird, but who are they to judge? Maybe Ranpo just doesn’t find it as hot as we do, they think.
That was certainly not the case though, cause Ranpo was so hot he felt like he might pass out any second now. It was slightly hard to breath with his binder on, but he just couldn’t take it off.
For the past 4-5 days he had been constantly wearing it, even when he slept. He knew I wasn’t good and that it could mess up his ribs, but he just couldn’t bare to look or feel his chest.
Suddenly the door to the office creaks open slightly. “Oh, Ranpo” comes the familiar voice of Poe.
“Hello Ed” Ranpo said as Poe opened the door and walked in. “Do you need anything? Or did you just come over to say ‘hello’ to you favourite person?” Ranpo said jokingly.
“Well I was wondering if you might want to go out for lunch, in case you haven’t eaten yet” Poe said with a slight blush on his cheeks, looking a bit anxious. “Sure, Ed” he answered, seeing Poe light up when he said that. “Where should we go?” Ranpo asked as he stood up.
“Well there is a newly open restaurant right around the corner, so I was thinking we could try that one.” He said, the slight blush becoming a bit more noticeable.
They start walking to the new restaurant. And they eat, nothing really interesting happens, except Poe being anxious about all the people in there, and Ranpo trying to hide the pain in his ribs.
They go back to the office, Poe decided that he could stay for a bit, just to spend more time with Ranpo.
Once back in the office, they talk for a bit, Ranpo does some work, kind of.
But the pain in his ribs is just getting worse and worse, he doesn’t know for how much longer he might be able to hide it. “Are you okay, Ranpo?” Poe suddenly asks, looking a bit worried.
“Of course I’m okay! Why wouldn’t I be-“ his sentence gets cut off by a strong sudden pain in his ribs.
“You don’t look okay.” Poe says before standing up. “I’m taking you home.” He pulls Ranpo up from his chair, Ranpo hunching over, while holding his ribs cause of the pain.
Poe told the other ADA members that Ranpo wasn’t feeling well, and that he was going to take him home. On the way out from the office Poe notices Fukuzawa looking at Ranpo worriedly, but he doesn’t say anything. Poe takes Ranpo to his car, and starts to drive to his house.
After about a 10 minute drive, they’re outside of Ranpo’s house. Poe unbuckles Ranpo and almost carries him out of the car and up to the front door. Poe unlocks the door with his spare key, and they get inside. He helps Ranpo take his shoes and jacket off, as Ranpo seems pretty out of it.
“Ranpo” Poe says. “Ranpo?” Ranpo doesn’t answer, just kind of stares into space. “Ranpo!” Poe says and touches Ranpo’s shoulder. That gets him to snap out of it. “What?” Ranpo mumbles.
“Ranpo, you’re clearly in pain, and almost completely unresponsive. What wrong? Did you get hurt on a mission or something?” Poe asks very worried at this point. Ranpo doesn’t respond, just stares at him, but he doesn’t look as out of it as he did before.
“Ranpo, i’m gonna check you for injuries and then I’m gonna give you a bath. Okay?” Poe tells him.
Ranpo once again doesn’t answer, but this time he whines instead.
Poe takes him to the bathroom and puts him on the toilet lid. “I’m gonna start to take off your clothes and check you for injuries, tap my arm twice if you don’t feel comfortable with me touching you on some place. Okay?” Poe says, making sure Ranpo understands. Ranpo nods slightly. “Ranpo, what do you do if you want me to stop?” He asks Ranpo, and Ranpo takes his hand up to Poe’s arm and taps it 2 times. “Okay, good” Poe says, glad that Ranpo understands.
First Poe turns on the water, so that the bathtub can fill up in the meantime. Then he goes to take off Ranpo’s shirt. Ranpo look slightly uncomfortable, but doesn’t do anything. “Promise me you’ll tap my arm twice if you’re uncomfortable with something” Ranpo just nods.
He takes the shirt completely off, and gets a pretty good look at the fading scar on Ranpo’s arms. He looked like he was in pain around his rib area Poe thought, so that’s where he’ll check. Under the shirt there is a black tank top, Poe asks if he can take it off too. Ranpo just nods again, and Poe takes off the black tank top.
Under the tank top there is something else. It kind of looks like another tank top, but it clearly isn’t. It’s a white binder. Poe knows what a binder looks like, of course, cause he used them before he got his surgery. And now he is pretty sure he knows why Ranpo’s ribs are hurting.
Poe looks up at Ranpo. The younger man looks slightly panicked and overwhelmed.
“Ranpo,” Poe says “how long have you been wearing your binder for?” He sees Ranpo think for a moment before mumbling “like 5 days or so.” “5 days?!” Poe says, well, more like yells. Ranpo flinches slightly at the volume of his voice. “I’m sorry.” Says Ranpo in a small voice, and Poe can see tears starting to well up in Ranpo’s eyes. “Don’t cry Ranpo! I’m not mad, but it’s not good to wear it for that long.” Poe says while trying to calm down the other.
“Ranpo, you should take it off and-“ “NO!” Ranpo yells out all of a sudden. “I don’t to take it off!”
“Shhh” Poe shushes Ranpo, as he goes to hug him. “It’s okay, I know it’s hard.” He comforts, as Ranpo sobs into the other man’s chest.
After about 7 minutes, Ranpo has calmed down. “Ranpo,” Poe starts carefully “you need to take it off, I can help if you want, or I can turn around. Either way, you have to take your binder off, and then you can take a warm bath. Alright?” Poe finishes, waiting for Ranpo’s response. “Alright,” he hears Ranpo was quietly “and can you help be take it off?”
Poe helps Ranpo get his binder off, and then the rest of his clothes. Soon enough, after a bit more crying about the binder, Ranpo is sitting in the bathtub. Poe is about to leave the bathroom to make something to eat, when he suddenly hears Ranpo say “Wait” Poe turns around to look at Ranpo “can you stay and take a bath with me?” He asks the older. “Why?” “Because I don’t want to be alone right now.” Ranpo responds while looking down at the fading scars on his arms, and then wrapping his arms around his chest. “Okay.”
Ranpo had never seen Poe without a shirt before, so to say he was shocked about the scars in the man’s chest was an understatement. Poe noticed Ranpo staring at his top surgery scars, and got a bit shy. Then he took of the rest of his clothes, and got into the bathtub.
“I didn’t know you were like me, Ed” Ranpo said quietly, still looking at the other man’s surgery scars.
“And I didn’t know you were like me either, Dear Ranpo”