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Fukuzawa watched curiously as he saw the forms of Yosano and Ranpo through the frosted glass on his office door. From the looks of it, it seems that they were having some sort of argument, with Ranpo gesturing widely and Yosano having her hands on her hips.
It wasn’t exactly the strangest thing that they were arguing. If he didn’t know any better, Fukuzawa would have thought arguing was simply the way they communicated.
No. The strangest thing was that they were arguing in front of his office door. Fukuzawa couldn’t hear them from where he was. But still. It was suspicious.
It seemed that Ranpo had won whatever argument they had been having. Yosano’s shoulders were hunched in defeat and Ranpo’s head was tilted in a way Fukuzawa knew meant he had a smug grin.
He could see Yosano’s blurred form turn to face the office door. The door handle dipped, signaling that she was about to enter.
Maybe their latest argument had something to do with why Yosano was entering his office now and why Ranpo was not-so-subtly leaning forward with his ear pressed against the door. If so, he’d hopefully get some context soon.
“You should do it.”
“No way!” Ranpo protested immediately. He gestured widely towards the door to Fukuzawa’s office. While the glass was frosted in a way that he couldn’t see too far inside, he knew Fukuzawa was sitting at his desk. “You should do it!”
Yosano put her hands on her hips. “No. You.”
“No! You!”
“No. Y—” Yosano cut herself off and paused, thinking for a moment. “You know what? We’re getting nowhere with this. I say we both need to calm down and talk this through again.”
“‘We both need to calm down’? Yeah, right. I’m the one who’s being rational here. I think you need to take a moment to think things through.”
“Oh?” She crossed her arms. “And why do you think that?”
“Because you wrote the papers in the first place. So since you’re the one who wrote them, that means you should give them to him.” Ranpo the pointed to the papers in Yosano’s hand. “Plus, you’re already holding them.”
She huffed and shoved the papers into Ranpo’s hands. He was forced to grab onto them to prevent them from falling onto the floor. He attempted to force her to take them back, but when that failed, he settled for simply glaring at her.
“Those reasons don’t even make any sense. If we’re really going by who did what, then you should be the one to give him the papers,” Yosano reasoned. “I already did the work by writing them. You can do your part by giving them to him. It’s only fair.”
“But it’s not about what’s fair,” Ranpo claimed. He had started to try and give Yosano the papers back. He was failing. “It’s about what we need to do for the plan to work. And believe me, it absolutely pains me to say this but…” Ranpo’s tone indicated anything but. “It would be a thousand times better if you were the one to do it.”
“Now you’re just making things up. It would be better if you gave them to him.”
Ranpo stared at Yosano. “No. You.”
“No.” Yosano stared back at him. “We are not going back to that.”
“Yes, we are.”
“No.”
“Yes. And I think you should be the one to do it.”
“No!”
“Yes!”
“You were here first,” Yosano blurted out.
“No— wait. What do you mean?” He squinted at her suspiciously. “What exactly is the point you're trying to make there?”
“Well, you’ve known Fukuzawa for longer than me. Obviously it would be better if you were the one who gave him the papers.”
“Yeah, but the whole point of this is that he doesn’t know what they’re for until it’s too late for him to change his mind, so we don’t need the emotional manipulation of me doing it,” Ranpo pointed out. “We’re meant to be discreet. Which really means you should be doing it.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. You’re normally the one who gives him all of the paperwork, so it would be suspicious if I was suddenly giving him papers to sign.”
Yosano stared at him. And stared. And stared some more.
She was still staring as she glared and took the papers from Ranpo’s hands.
Ranpo cheered. “Ha ha! Yeah, that’s right! You’re the one who’s doing it!”
Yosano glared even harder before she ignored him by turning to face the door. As she entered, Ranpo leaned up against the door with his ear pressed up against it.
Fukuzawa looked up as she entered. “Yes?”
“I have some documents you need to sign. Preferably as soon as possible. As well as while I watch,” Yosano stated as she strolled towards Fukuzawa’s desk.
She watched him closely as she put the documents in front of him. She flipped through some of the pages before she reached the end, pointing to a box at the end of the page.
“Sign right here. Please,” she added after a moment.
Fukuzawa picked up the papers and flipped them back to the front.
“Wait! What are you doing?!” Yosano quickly snatched the papers away from.
He raised an eyebrow at her. “I’m reading them over?”
“Oh, you don’t have to do that,” she rushed, absolutely not suspiciously at all. “You can just sign them without reading them.”
‘I’m pretty sure I should read documents before I sign them,” Fukuzawa said, sounding somewhat amused.
“Uhhh…” Time seemed to freeze as Yosano saw Fukuzawa begin to look back at the documents. And then she panicked. “I’m going to go now!” She announced. “And I’m taking these with me!”
Before Fukuzawa could read what the documents were about, she clutched them close to her chest and she whipped around to the door. She quickly hurried out of the room before things could get too awkward.
Ranpo was still standing where he had been when she had first entered.
“What was that?!” He demanded as soon as she exited.
“I don’t know! I just saw that he had been about to look at what they were and I panicked!”
“Yeah. Clearly,” he scoffed. “How are we supposed to get him to adopt us now?”
“We could actually tell him what we want,” she suggested. And then immediately back tracked. “Actually, no. That’s a horrible idea. Wait… why are we saying it’d be a bad idea to tell him again?”
Ranpo stared at her. “Well, for one. What if he says no? You want it to be awkward if we're in the same room ever again? Also, it’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission, so if we can get him to sign it without him knowing…”
“There’s practically no way he could refuse then,” Yosano finished for Ranpo. “He always forgives us when we mess up! We can try again tomorrow.”
“Ha ha, yes!” Ranpo cheered. “I have a new plan! And there’s no way this one is going to fail!”
“Okay, soooo who’s going to give him the paperwork this time?”
“You, duh.”
“No, you’re doing it this time.” Yosano glared at Ranpo. “I did it last time! It’s your turn.”
“But I’m the one who came up with the plan this time,” Ranpo complained. “I’ve already done my fair share of work.”
Yosano slid the papers on the table towards Ranpo. “And I wrote the papers and tried to give it to him last time. It’s only fair that you do it this time.”
“Fair, shmair,” Ranpo grumbled, but reluctantly took the papers from the table. It was getting late, and if Yosano wasn’t going to give in, he’d have to make the sacrifice of doing it himself.
Yosano grinned. “Good! Now let’s go, it’s time for breakfast.”
When Ranpo didn’t make any move to leave, Yosano grabbed Ranpo by his shoulders and started pushing into the dining room. Ranpo was looking crossly at her the whole journey.
Ranpo and Yosano were arguing again. Fukuzawa could tell by the shadows on the walls where they were just around the corner.
They seemed to have been arguing more than usual lately. So much in fact, Fukuzawa was considering sitting them both down to have a talk about it if they didn’t stop soon. For the meantime, he’d let them (hopefully) work it out themselves unless things got worse.
Ranpo and Yosano eventually entered the kitchen together, with Ranpo being physically dragged by Yosano. He looked somewhat cross, but other than that, he didn’t seem too mad.
Hopefully they could have a peaceful breakfast.
“Ranpo. Akiko,” Fukuzawa greeted as they both approached the table. Yosano had stopped pushing Ranpo and had claimed a seat at the table. Ranpo was still standing, holding papers in front of him.
Fukuzawa noticed him fidgeting by folding and unfolding a small corner of the front page.
Deciding to let Ranpo bring it up himself, Fukuzawa silently pushed a plate towards Ranpo. Ranpo took the invitation and pulled out a chair next to Fukuzawa.
They ate in silence for a while. Fukuzawa was still trying to determine if it was an awkward one or not.
Based on the fact Yosano was shooting pointed looks at Ranpo, that he was clearly ignoring, he’d bet it was something adjacent to that.
While he was curious about the papers Ranpo had brought to the dining table, he waited patiently for Ranpo to speak up first.
His patience was soon rewarded.
“So, Da— aaaaa best man,” Ranpo clearly stumbled over his words, before putting his elbows on the table to awkwardly shoot Fukuzawa finger guns.
“Yes?” Fukuzawa ignored Ranpo’s weird way of addressing him for the moment to turn his full attention to figuring out what Ranpo wanted.
“So,” Ranpo said, “cats.”
Next to Ranpo, Yosano was hitting her face into the table.
(Fukuzawa glanced over to make sure she was okay before turning back to Ranpo.)
“What about cats?” Where was Ranpo going with this?
“Cats—” Ranpo was nodding wisely. “—are cool. Agreed?”
“Yes?” Fukuzawa’s tone was closer to a question. Of course, he more than fully agreed with Ranpo (cats were the best), he was just confused on where this was going.
“The animal shelter needs signatures!” Yosano shot up straight, face no longer on the table. Leaning over, she stole the papers from Ranpo and thrusted them into Fukuzawa's face.
“Uhhhhhh, yes!” Ranpo had perked up, looking considerably more confident, reaching into one of his pockets. “They need more signatures to give the animals more rights! Especially the cats!”
Fukuzawa instantly dropped his eating utensils and grabbed the pen Ranpo had recently presented him.
“Where do I sign?”
Hit eyes shot to the box that both Yosano and Ranpo were pointing to. (He ignored the small part of his brain telling him these papers seemed familiar. That part of his brain was shoved to the larger part of his brain screaming CATS!!!)
“So why exactly do they need signatures?” He asked while signing.
“I already said. To give the animals more rights!” Ranpo informed vaguely.
“Do they need money? I can donate if so. Volunteers? I think we’re free next weekend and we can all go. What about cat food? Toys? Do they have enough room? Do they need a new building? I have favors I can pull in. I can get them a new building.”
“Uhhhhhhhhh, yep. Yes, all of that!” Fukuzawa noticed Ranpo grinning smugly at Yosano as he spoke. He wondered if this had something to do with their recent arguments…
Halfway through signing his signature, Fukuzawa’s eyes drifted up to the top of the paperwork.
‘Adoption’? Huh?
“Wait.” Fukuzawa slowed in signing his signature. “This isn’t a petition. Why does it say adopt—?”
“AHHHH LOOK! DISTRACTION!” Ranpo yelled out while pointing at a spot behind Fukuzawa’s head. The smug look he had been giving Yosano earlier was completely wiped from his face for one of pure terror
Deciding to humor him, Fukuzawa turned around, an amused huff escaping him.
“Is this about those papers? If you wanted me to adopt—”
“We have to go now!” Yosano announced, followed by the sound of a chair scraping against the ground.
“Yes! Goodbye.”
There was the sound of footsteps hurrying away. And then silence.
Sighing, Fukuzawa turned back around. A quick scan of the table confirmed that Ranpo and Yosano had taken the paperwork with them.
He looked around the dining room. Ranpo and Yosano must have ran to their rooms. He was sitting alone at the table with his rapidly cooling food. At least Ranpo and Yosano had taken their plates with them so they wouldn’t be hungry later…
Fukuzawa sighed again.
“I would have adopted a cat anyway if they would have just asked…”
“What was that?!” Yosano yelled at Ranpo when she was sure Fukuzawa had left for his solo bodyguard job. She was pretty sure he already left. It’s not like they could have checked since her and Ranpo had locked themselves into her room.
“I’m not sure!” Ranpo yelled back. “I panicked!”
“You panicked—? RANPO!” Yosano shook Ranpo by the shoulders. “How can you be so smart yet so dumb?!”
“Excuse you?!?!” Ranpo stated offendedly and dislodged himself from her grip. “It’s not like you were of any more help!”
“Uggghhh.” Yosano wretched the papers from Ranpo’s grip. “We’re going with plan B.”
Ranpo gasped. “NOT PLAN B!!!!!!” He wailed.
He then proceeded to launched himself at her and latch onto her shirt, almost causing both of them to fall over. “I’M NOT EMOTIONALLY PREPARED FOR PLAN B YET!!!!!!”
“What…?” Yosano looked quizzically down at Ranpo before understanding dawned on her. “That’s not plan B! Also, get off of me!”
Shoving Ranpo away from where he had been (fake) crying into her shirt, he landed on her bed with an “oomf”.
“Isn’t plan B… the one where we tell Fukuzawa?” Ranpo asked hesitantly, staring up from the bed.
“No? It’s the one— RANPO! WE EVEN DISCUSSED THIS EARLIER!!” Yosano resisted the strong urge that suddenly swelled up inside to hit Ranpo with the papers. She only managed to stop herself by reminding herself that it would have damaged the paperwork she had worked so hard on (Ranpo’s health was negligible at the moment).
“Plan B is where we forge his signature!!!”
“Oh… right!!” Ranpo jumped off of the bed and puffed up his chest. “I was just pretending to make sure you knew,” he said smugly.
This time, Yosano did not squash her urge to hit Ranpo.
“Hey! What was that for?!”
“C’mon.” She unlocked and opened the door to her room. “All of the forging equipment is in the living room.”
“Fine…” Ranpo huffed, but followed Yosano anyway. “But you’re going to be the one to forge it. You have a steadier hand.”
“Yeah, obviously,” Yosano scoffed. “Anything forged by you could be spotted a mile away.”
“Uh, most people’s eyesight isn’t that good…” Ranpo pointed out.
“Your eyesight also isn’t good enough to see a signature from even a foot away.”
“Hey! That’s what I’m sensitive about!”
Both laughing, Ranpo chased Yosano into the living room. When they entered, Ranpo stopped chasing Yosano to dive onto the floor while Yosano put the paperwork on the table in the center.
On the floor, Ranpo pried up one of the secret fake floorboards to take out a box of forging equipment. If there was one benefit to Fukuzawa's former assassin paranoia, it was that there were a million and one spots in the apartment to hide things like that.
When Ranpo not-so-gently set the box on the table, brushing a scarf on the table to the floor to make room, Yosano already had the paperwork spread out in front of her.
“Gimme some of the copies we made,” she demanded as Ranpo opened the box. “Because thanks to you, we have a signature that is only half written.”
“It’s just adoption papers.” Ranpo rolled his eyes. “It’s not like they’re going to check if the signature was done at the same time.”
“Look me in the eyes and tell me, that with your glasses on, you can’t tell the difference on a signature that was halfway done in one swoop and then finally finished hours later.”
“To be fair, it’s only been one hour since he signed it,” Ranpo grumbled.
“ Half signed it.”
“Shut up and forge his signature.”
“Fine, but not because you told me to. I was going to do this anyway!”
Yosano copied Fukuzawa’s signature on a piece of paper a few times for practice, using the multitude of signatures in front of her for reference. (Don’t ask why they had a bunch of Fukuzawa’s signatures in the box for forging signatures. That secret was between her and Ranpo and the credit card company.)
Finally, Yosano was ready for the real deal.
“Give me the adoption papers,” Yosano requested grimly.
Ranpo handed the papers over with an equally solemn air to his actions.
Yosano wielded the pen in her hand like a weapon.
She slowly lowered it to the paper.
She made the first loop.
She—
The table shook.
The pen slipped.
A jagged line took up the length of the signature box.
“RANPO!!!” Yosano turned to Ranpo furiously. “WHY DID—”
She stopped. Ranpo was looking at the doorway, horrified. Yosano looked at the doorway as well. She dropped the pen onto the floor.
“It’s… it’s not what it looks like,” Ranpo stuttered out besides her.
“You are currently forging my signature,” Fukuzawa, who had just walked into the doorway of the living room, stated.
“Heh. Wonderful weather we’re having.” Ranpo chuckled nervously. “Wonderful weather for a bodyguard job, wouldn’t you say?”
“I forgot my scarf.” Fukuzawa’s eyes drifted to the floor next to the table. “Which… seems to currently be on the floor.”
“…” Ranpo fidgeted. “Oops?”
Fukuzawa took a single step into the living room.
Yosano grabbed the stack of papers filled with practice forged signatures. She proceeded to throw it into the air, causing them to create a weak barrier between them and Fukuzawa.
“Scatter! Everyone for themselves!”
Yosano jumped away from the table and sprinted to the hallway.
“Wait! Don’t leave me!” Ranpo wailed. Ranpo had reacted significantly later and was only now leaving the living room. Sparing a glance behind her, Yosano saw Fukuzawa standing still and staring at them with an unreadable expression on his face. (To be fair, most of his expressions were unreadable.)
Looking for a viable hiding spot, Yosano took the soonest right turn she could. She ran into the bathroom and locked the door behind her.
There was a frantic knocking sound at the door soon after.
“Yosano!!!” Ranpo cried. “Please!”
“Get your own spot!” She leaned all her weight on the door for extra security. “This one’s mine!”
Soon after, the knocking stopped and Yosano could hear Ranpo continuing his run down the hall. The footsteps soon faded from her hearing and she couldn’t tell what room he had taken shelter in.
Yosano turned her back to the bathroom door and slid until she was sitting down. She buried her head into her heads, elbows on her knees.
She could only imagine how Fukuzawa could be reacting right now.
Disbelief…
Disgust…
Weirded out…
Regret for pitying and taking in two children who went and got too attached to him…
Yosano rubbed her eyes to try and stop any more tears from forming.
How could this have all gone so wrong.
Fukuzawa was… confused to say the least.
He had been ten minutes from the apartment when he had realized he had forgotten his scarf. He ultimately had decided to turn back, since he had already left early. He could afford to backtrack and still be on time.
And then he had returned to a quiet apartment.
And that was the first sign something had been wrong.
Yet, he hadn’t thought anything of it. Ranpo and Yosano had already run away after breakfast, so maybe they were still hiding out?
And then he entered the living room.
And had been greeted with the sight of Yosano forging his signature and Ranpo helping.
And before he could even properly ask what was going on, they had fled from the room.
Leaving the evidence…
Fukuzawa looked at the doorway both Ranpo and Yosano had left from. Every part of him was screaming at him to go after his children them, but he knew he should at least try to find out what had upset them first. He’d be no use if he had no idea what was going on.
He approached the table where Yosano had been forging his signature. There layed a stack of papers with an obvious fail of a forging job based on the giant line across half of it. Besides it, Fukuzawa recognized the papers he had signed earlier at breakfast, with only half of his completed signature.
He picked up the stack and flipped through it until he got to the front.
Oh.
Oh.
In his hands were the documents for legal adoptions.
Ranpo’s and Yosano’s names were plastered all over it, along with Fukuzawa’s own name.
Guess that explains why they needed my signature…
It still didn’t explain why they didn’t just ask him in the first place. But that wasn’t what mattered right now.
What mattered is that both of his kids had run away from him upon him walking in on them trying to make an adoption officially legal. He couldn’t let this fester for any longer.
Fukuzawa informed his client as quickly as he could that he couldn’t do the job. It was low-stakes anyways, mostly just for a formality rather than an actual serious potential threat, but he did give the client the names of a few people who would take the job on short notice.
With that solved, Fukuzawa followed where Yosano and Ranpo had run to, a convenient clean copy of adoption papers that had been on the table in hand. He made sure to make his footsteps loud enough so that they would be able to hear as he approached. It would do no good if he were to accidentally startle one of them.
The first thing he noticed when entering the hallway was that the bathroom door was closed with light streaming from the edges. The distant sounds of silent sobs were coming from the room.
Fukuzawa cautiously approached and knocked gently.
“Akiko?”
Sobs answered him.
“Can you open up the door for me?”
A quiet “no” was heard in response.
“That”s okay,” Fukuzawa said gently, crouching down until he was leaning on the wall next to the door. “Can we talk at least?”
“…”
Fukuzawa waited patiently.
“I guess…” Yosano mumbled.
Fukuzawa held back a sigh. It would do no good if she thought he was mad at her.
“Akiko…” he started after a moment of nothing else. “Do you—”
“Why do you call me that?” The question was loud and clear, so far from how Yosano had just been speaking and acting that it startled Fukuzawa.
“What do you mean by that?” Fukuzawa made sure there was no shock in his voice, just gentle curiosity.
“Why do you call me by my first name Akiko…?” Her question was stated softer this time. “I’m not… I’m not your child. I’m just a kid you happened to stumble upon and choose to rescue.”
“Yes, you were in a bad situation. Of course Ranpo and I helped you.”
“But that’s what you do! You two help people! It’s literally in your job description! And I—”
Yosano was cut off by more sobs.
Fukuzawa quietly moved his hand next to the bottom crack of the door. A second later, Fukuzawa saw a shadow behind the door fall right in front of where his hand was.
“I haven’t even used my ability for my job, yet you still pay me and let me live in your home. You even got a more expensive apartment just so I could have my own room! You protect people, Ranpo can solve cases, and I’m still here, not—”
More choked sobs across the door.
“—not even able to heal people fully because I’m still reminded of him every time I even think of using my ability.”
“Ranpo’s already said we didn’t hire you for your ability.” Fukuzawa thought back to the time Ranpo had retold his first meeting with Yosano, reciting what he had said. “We weren’t after your ability, we wanted your kindness.”
“Yes, but that was Ranpo.” The shadow pulled away from the door. “He’s always saying things like that to people, even to some criminals. I want to know what you think.”
Fukuzawa took a moment to collect his thoughts.
“Do you want to know what I think?” He shifted to get more comfortable on the floor. “When I think of you, especially back then, I think of a child who was hurt by the adults around her. Who was still doing her best to help everyone, despite the horrible situation she was in.”
The shadow was back next to his hand.
“I think of someone who is still doing her best to help others. Who is helping others, even if it isn’t in the exact way she thought she had to.” Fukuzawa let a smallest of small smile cross his features as he looked over at the door. “Someone who makes people smile, who heals others' souls as well as their bodies. The medical attention you give others still heals them, even if it isn’t using your ability, you know. It just means they have to do more healing themselves than placing all of the responsibility on yourself, and that’s okay. You’re still helping them either way.”
Fukuzawa let himself give out a single, soft sigh before continuing.
“I think of someone who cares. Maybe even a little too much. Someone who cares so much they try to make up for mistakes they’re not even responsible for,” Fukuzawa stated, trying to convey with all his heart how much he meant it. “You know, Ranpo really cares about you. And I know you care about him as well. When I think about you, I think of someone I care about.”
Fukuzawa pulled his hand away from the door to shuffle the adoption papers loud enough so they could be heard through the closed door.
“I think of someone I would be honored to call my daughter.”
Fukuzawa heard the door unlock and slowly creek open. And then suddenly Yosano was launching herself at him. Fukuzawa barely had time to rise from the floor to meet her with a hug.
“Thank you,” Yosano’s voice was muffled as she buried her face in his clothes. “I… that means so so so much to me.”
Yosano’s arms tightened around Fukuzawa, and Fukuzawa returned the gesture. Yosano still let out the occasional sob. Fukuzawa rubbed a hand up and down her back to help calm her down.
Eventually Yosano pulled back from the hug, rubbing her face with her sleeve to get rid of the extra tears.
Fukuzawa placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. “How about we go find your brother now?”
Yosano beamed up at him. “And tell him the good news?”
Fukuzawa had to turn away to hide his smile. He smoothed out the adoption papers in his hand that had miraculously stayed free of tears.
“Even better. I’d like to sign these with both of you as my witnesses.”
Yosano snorted. “That’s not how it works. We’re both minors. We don’t actually count as legal witnesses for signatures.”
“You got my point.”
Ranpo is not ashamed to admit his first instinct was to hide under the bed. However, he may be just the tiniest little bit ashamed that his instincts thought it was a good idea to hide underneath Fukuzawa’s bed.
He grabbed a blanket’s corner that was hanging off of the top of the bed, dragging it onto the floor. He proceeded to pull it under the bed and throw it over his head.
He gave a small sniff as he wrapped the blanket around him in a poor attempt at comfort.
He really wished Fukuzawa was here to give him a hug right now…
Would… would Fukuzawa ever give him a hug again? Would he think it was too weird after finding out that Ranpo saw him as a… as a…
As his dad?
Ranpo was too scared to put on his glasses to find out. What if he didn’t like the answer?
Nah, it was better to delay the dismay.
Maybe even repress and regress.
Could also invoke the suppression of depressio—
Ranpo thinks he has made his point and would now like to stop thinking about this now.
He’s pretty sure he heard the noise of talking down the hallway. It was probably Fukuzawa confronting Yosano about the forged signatures. And also the adoption papers Ranpo was just now realizing they had foolishly left on the table. To be fair, they both had been very panicked while fleeing from the crime scene and the papers had completely slipped his mind.
The talking noises had stopped outside.
After a few seconds, footsteps started approaching his MASTERFULLY HIDDEN hidey hiding spot. Two pairs of footsteps to be exact.
Ranpo curled up tighter under the blankets as the sound got closer and closer. Under the bed was definitely not the best spot… the closet probably would have been better.
Aaaaaand that was the sound of the closet opening. Never mind. The bed was an excellent hiding spot. He is so so so sorry for ever doubting it.
The floorboards by the bed creaked. Ranpo knew from crawling under here earlier that someone must be crouching down next to the bed.
“Ranpo?” That was Fukuzawa’s voice.
Welp.
Seems like he couldn’t delay the dismay any longer.
Or could he?
“Ranpo isn't here. He’s in Blanketville.” Well, it was worth a try, right?
“Ranpo.” His name was being said again, but noticeably more exasperatedly.
“What?” Ranpo still did not take the blanket off of his head.
There was the sound of shuffling papers.
Double welp.
“I saw the adoption papers you and Yosano wrote…”
Ranpo hummed. “What about them?”
“I… I would like to sign them and… make them official.” Fukuzawa’s voice seemed almost hesitant.
“You’re just saying that,” Ranpo stated bluntly.
He shifted back and forth. The blanket was getting stuffy…
“I’m not.” Ranpo peaked out of a small hole in the blanket. Fukuzawa was on his stomach to be level with him. It looked kind of uncomfortable… “I really mean it. I’d love to be able to call you my son.”
“Why?”
“I—”
“Because I can think of a couple reasons why not to.” Ranpo pulled the blanket down enough to expose his head and his hands. “One. You’re going to have to do a lot of paperwork. Like, a lot. And paperwork SUCKS! I have no idea why you would willingly do more than you have to.”
Ranpo lifted one finger with his other hand as he spoke.
“I would gladly do as much paperwork in the world if it meant I could legally adopt you.”
Ranpo stared Fukuzawa dead in the eye. He seemed to be honest… but also Fukuzawa did one MILLION packets of paperwork a day, so he wasn’t sure how much that meant yet.
“Two.” Ranpo raised another finger as he continued. “Teenagers are expensive. I know you’re taking care of us right now, but since we aren’t legally tied to you, you could always dump us on the streets the second we start to cost too much.”
“Do you really think I would do that?” Fukuzawa deadpanned.
Fair point… Fukuzawa was waaayyyy too much of a pushover for that!
(Looking back, Fukuzawa was never a push over when others asked him to do stuff he didn’t want to. Only when Ranpo or Yosano did. Huh.)
“Three!” Ranpo said cheerfully, then…
He said nothing.
He took a moment to look around nervously. Yosano was standing behind Fukuzawa. Ranpo could tell she had been recently crying based on how red her eyes were. Fukuzawa was looking at Ranpo with endless patience.
Ranpo hesitated and slowly lowered his hand.
What was he doing, trying to convince Fukuzawa not to adopt him when this was exactly what he had wanted since day one?
Was he… was Ranpo somehow trying to convince himself that Fukuzawa didn’t really want to?
Nope! Preposterous! The Greatest Detective in the World was ALWAYS one hundred percent certain of everything he did!
But… it couldn’t hurt to check, right? Just to make sure Fukuzawa was for real?
“You can use your ability.” Fukuzawa gave Ranpo a soft look, almost as if he knew what Ranpo was thinking (creepy). “Whatever will put your mind at ease.”
Well, see? Even Fukuzawa agreed!
Ranpo took out and unfolded his glasses. He was just about to put them on when… he stopped.
He looked around.
Fukuzawa was looking at him with the most hopeful expression Ranpo has ever seen. And that was saying a lot since A) he told a lot of people he would bring their family member’s murder to vengeance and B) this was Fukuzawa, who’s default expression was Just Woke Up From A Ten Hour Nap And Is Still Tired.
Behind him, Yosano had the same hopeful look on her face. Yes, she had been clearly crying, but the tears were long since dried. He also noticed her clutching the corner of Fukuzawa haori, with Fukuzawa not seeming to mind.
Looking back to Fukuzawa, Ranpo saw him with his hand outstretched under the bed towards Ranpo, yet still far enough away to give him space.
Maybe… maybe Ranpo didn’t have to rely on his ability to tell him what his heart was already screaming at him.
“You’re for real?” Ranpo hated how quiet his voice sounded.
“I’m for real,” Fukuzawa confirmed. And then smiled. Fukuzawa. Actually. SMILED!!!!
Ranpo shoved the blanket to the side.
He returned Fukuzawa’s smile widely.
He took Fukuzawa’s offered hand and let himself be helped out from under the bed.
And once he was standing on both feet, wasted no time jumping onto Fukuzawa.
Fukuzawa’s arms wrapped around him, preventing Ranpo from falling into the ground. He slowly lowered Ranpo until both of his feet were back securely on the ground, yet his grip never tightened, even afterwards.
Ranpo looked up from Fukuzawa’s arms to spot Yosano. He grinned at her and shifted over to make room in Fukuzawa’s embrace.
Yosano didn’t need any more of an invitation, joining in on their hug.
Ranpo squeezed them both as tight as he could, as if all of it would all drift away if he didn’t hold on hard enough.
Some tears might have been shed by him. But he would never tell anyone. And Fukuzawa and Yosano would also never tell since some tears were also shed by both of them.
Even when Yosano eventually pulled away, they didn’t stop Ranpo from clutching her hand securely. Yosano was holding tightly right back.
“So Future Legal Brother,” Yosano started while ruffling his hair. Ranpo huffed, but didn’t make any move to stop her. “You finally believe that Dad—”
She shot a look at Fukuzawa, as if making sure it was okay. Fukuzawa nodded, the faintest hints of a smile still on his face.
“—is going to legally adopt us?”
“I don’t know, Future Legal Sister,” Ranpo shot right back. “I’d like to take as long to finally believe as I’m sure you did. I bet it took a whole heartfelt speech and everything until you finally believed!”
The look on Yosano’s face confirmed everything.
Fukuzawa sighed affectionately and took the papers to a nearby bedside table. “Ready to make everything official!”
“Yes!” Shouted Yosano and Ranpo in sync as they ran up to Fukuzawa’s sides.
Yosano leaned up onto Fukuzawa’s side and Ranpo grabbed his free hand in his grasp as they watched Fukuzawa sign the paper.
“Thank you,” Ranpo’s voice was quiet again, but not with hesitation this time. It almost cracked slightly at the end as his eyes started watering again.
“Another group hug!” Yosano exclaimed once Fukuzawa had finished signing.
Laughing, Ranpo latched onto Fukuzawa’s side, while Yosano latched onto the other.
Fukuzawa let out another affectionate sigh as he ruffled both of their hairs.
They stood like that for a few seconds, enjoying the others’ presences.
And then Fukuzawa spoke up.
“We are going to have a talk about the fact that you have multiple copies of my signature in the forging box.”
Ranpo and Yosano had never run faster, even when they had been caught when Fukuzawa first came home. They laughed the whole way while Fukuzawa playfully chased them, hand in hand.
Truly, siblings in spirit.
(And now, in paperwork.)