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Ranpo Edogawa stared out at the endless blue ocean, waves lapping gently at the shore with the evening tide. If not for the din of Waikiki at night behind him, he would lay back and close his eyes for a nap; three years removed from American portion sizes meant that his dinner was now an almost uncomfortably heavy weight in his stomach, but when Poe offered to bring them both Dole Whips from the Lawson’s across the boardwalk, he couldn’t resist.
He was glad that his dad, Yukichi Fukuzawa, allowed him to accompany Poe’s family on this trip, but as he gazed westward across the Pacific Ocean, his heart twisted with homesickness for Japan. While he was falling asleep the first night in Hawaii, listening to Poe toss and turn in the bed on the other side of the room, a sudden yearning for his room in the apartment he and his father shared in Yokohama caught him by such surprise that tears sprang to the corners of his eyes. It was entirely unexpected, since he hadn’t felt homesick for San Francisco at all since moving to Japan.
“There you are!” Poe said with a sigh, sitting down on the low stone wall that served as a breaker between the beach and the boardwalk. “I was afraid your Dole Whip was going to melt before I found you.”
“You could have texted me,” Ranpo accepted the dessert from Poe. “Whoa, they really piled on the toppings.” Despite his belly full of dinner, he shoveled a heaping spoonful of pineapple soft serve, tapioca pearls, chopped fruits, and toasted macadamia nuts into his mouth, relishing the combination of sweet, tropical flavors.
“I told them to give you double of each,” Poe explained, “although they had to get a bigger cup to fit all of them.” He looked at his own Dole Whip, lightly dusted with coconut and topped off with a paper umbrella. “I have to say that outside of the Dole Whips, I’m pretty disappointed with Hawaiian Lawson compared to the real Japanese Lawson.” Ranpo made a noise that Poe took to be agreement, and he followed Ranpo’s gaze out towards the ocean. “Koko kara Nihon ha meccha tooi da ne,” he said.
“Damn, you must really miss Japan if you’re sad about Lawson and speaking Japanese in America,” Ranpo laughed, giving his best friend a light punch on the arm. “I like speaking English here. Although there’s so many Japanese people here it’s been fun to pretend I can’t, like when that one lady tried to kick us out of the hot tub ‘cause she wanted it for herself.”
“You could have at least said something that made sense. Eigo ga tabenai?”
“You thought it was funny, let’s be real.”
“Maybe,” Poe grinned. “I just don’t wanna forget everything I’ve learned this year. It’s really cool that you and your dad will practice with me when I come to your house,” He squeezed his eyes shut after taking a huge bite of his dessert, pushing the heel of his hand against his forehead.
“Press your tongue on the roof of your mouth,” Ranpo said around a mouthful of dessert. Poe reflexively complied, and soon after opened his eyes wide with shocked gratitude. “Dad’s boyfriend taught me that one. Except he had a different name for brain freeze. Something in Latin, I think.”
“I guess it’s easier to talk about your dad’s boyfriend here, huh? Not like in Japan where you always keep quiet about it.”
Ranpo shrugged. “I don’t mind not talking about him. Dad just wants me to be quiet about him and Mori-sensei is an okay guy, so I don’t mention it at school or anyone else’s house.” He sighed lightly. “Your family is super normal, though. Must be nice.”
“Is it normal to be a white American kid living in Japan and for my parents to always be gone for work? That’s a pretty weird way to grow up, compared to everyone else I know.”
“Not as weird as growing up with a single mom in America and running away to Japan to live with your gay dad who you’d never met before after she remarried some dude whose family she liked better,” Ranpo countered. He breathed deeply, taking out his phone and opening one of his stable of mobile games.
“Okay…you got me there,” Poe laughed, then glanced sideways at Ranpo’s shaggy-haired silhouette, illuminated by the golden Hawaiian sun. “You never talk about your family,” Ranpo pulled an annoyed face. “Uh, sorry, I guess I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“Ugh, I forgot Dad didn’t pay for an international data plan for my phone,” Ranpo scowled at the warning message on his screen. “We better get back to the hotel wi-fi before I miss a login bonus.”
Poe glanced at their half-eaten Dole Whips and back at the fiery sunset. He knew that Ranpo would be really upset if he broke a login streak, but he selfishly wanted to spend a few more moments together before they returned to the company of his parents. Ever since they arrived on Oahu, Poe had been waiting for the right moment to talk to Ranpo about something that had been gnawing at him for months. “Let’s finish these first. Mom hates it when sticky stuff gets on her furniture,” he said.
“‘Kay,” Ranpo agreed, sticking his phone back in his pocket. “I should call my dad tonight. He’s probably bored without me around.”
“Do you think you should tell your mom you’re back in America?” Poe asked. If he hadn’t been watching Ranpo so intently, he would have missed the tension in his shoulders.
“She hates Hawaii,” Ranpo replied, “She’d probably just get on my case about not coming all the way back to California.”
Poe licked a drop of melted pineapple soft serve off his thumb. “We can go to California if you want. My dad is always flying back and forth between Tokyo and Los Angeles anyway. I’m sure he could get us tickets to San Francisco.”
“No thanks,” Ranpo replied. “I’d rather stay in Yokohama than see my mom’s husband and his kids.”
“Aren’t they your step-family?”
“Maybe if that guy wasn’t such an ass,” Ranpo said around a mouthful of tapioca pearls. “Then I wouldn’t have had to move to Japan because he only cared about his own kids and he expected my mom to do the same. Which she did ‘cause she was always desperate to find another dude to replace my real dad.”
Poe bit the inside of his lip, irritation welling up inside. He couldn’t imagine someone treating Ranpo with such disrespect, and decided that he never wanted to meet Ranpo’s stepfather for fear that he might punch the man. “Were…your step-siblings also dicks?” Ranpo turned towards Poe, who waved his hands wildly. “Gomen, we don’t have to talk about it.”
“Heiki,” Ranpo acknowledged Poe’s Japanese, his eyes opening halfway. “Family stuff is weird.”
“Yeah,” Poe agreed, quickly looking down at his sand-covered toes. After a few moments of silence between the two boys, Ranpo spoke again.
“The oldest kid was a dumb jock,” he said, “Of course, so was his dad, so he was the favorite. I thought I’d get along with the younger one ‘cause we were more alike but he turned out to be a pretentious ass who was convinced he was smarter than me.”
“Was he?”
“No way,” Ranpo said, “I was definitely better at solving mysteries and was already reading at college level. You really think someone would be smarter than me, anyway?”
“I think I’m pretty much your equivalent when it comes to intellect,” Poe retorted. “You just cheat at figuring out the mysteries when we watch Poirot.”
“How the heck do you cheat at Poirot?” Ranpo laughed. “Dude, you just suck at recognizing patterns when you aren’t the one writing them.”
Poe crossed his arms over his chest triumphantly. “Just wait until you see the next part of our Call of Cthulhu campaign,” he said proudly. “You’ll eat those words like a Dole Whip.”
“Is that what you’ve been working on while I’ve been playing my summer game events?” Ranpo suddenly remembered his neglected mobile game and looked down at his melted puddle of dessert. He wasn’t sure he could eat any more, but it seemed to be a waste to throw it away, so he tipped the cup back against his lips and slurped the sugary slurry down as quickly as he could.
“Yeah, it’s more than halfway done. It’s gonna be ready by the time we get back from vacation,” Poe replied. “There was something I wanted to ask you…” he said, trailing off as Ranpo set down his empty cup and wiped off his mouth with his hand.
“About my step-family? I’m bored with talking about them. They suck and I’m glad I live in Japan with my dad. End of story.”
“I’m really glad you live in Japan too,” Poe said slowly, “I mean, because your step-family sucks and your dad is cool.”
“So what did you wanna ask me?” Ranpo shifted back and forth against the rocks, glancing between Poe and the sun sinking into the horizon. The sunset cast a deep crimson glow across Poe’s pale cheeks, and his best friend looked away and swallowed hard.
“Would you mind…if I…kissed you?”
Ranpo blinked. “Like as part of the campaign?”
“O…Of course! Yes! I was just thinking that since your character is currently unconscious due to a psychological break and and mine just learned from a cursed grimoire how to convert HP to SAN the most, uh, efficient way to transfer SAN to your character is for them to kiss, which would, mean, um, I would have to kiss you. In the game.” Poe stammered, twisting the hem of his Hawaiian shirt between his fingers.
“Huh. Yeah, makes sense,” Ranpo said, pursing his lips as he considered the question. “It should let me have the temporary ability to form a psychic link with you though. Then I could read your mind while you kissed me.” His smile became a smirk. “It could be a secret means of communication - I could discover things as a private investigator, you could kiss me, and then since you’re an author, reveal secrets via your stories about the coming madness that you learned from me. And nobody would know how it was happening but us.” He glanced at his best friend, whose face was nearly as red as the setting sun. “I think you got sunburned today.”
“Probably,” Poe replied, now desperate for a moment without Ranpo or his parents nearby. He looked down at his hands and shoved them into his pockets. “We should get back to the hotel before the hour and you miss your login bonus.”
“Oh yeah!” Ranpo said, reflexively taking his phone out of his pocket to check the time. “You should carry me back on your shoulders. I’m super full and giga tired.”
“You can walk back on your own feet,” Poe replied, gathering their Dole Whip cups and throwing them into a nearby trash can.
Ranpo groaned. “You sound like my dad,” he whined, trudging behind Poe as they started back towards the boardwalk. He wouldn’t tell Poe that the familiar scolding somehow brought him comfort.
“Your real dad or that other guy?” Poe said, looking back over his broad shoulders at Ranpo.
“My real dad, duh.” Ranpo quickened his pace just enough to walk in step with Poe.
“Oh. Well, I’m okay with that, then,” the taller boy replied, smiling down at his best friend.
Ranpo groaned. “Sometimes you’re a big dork, Poe. Dasai,“ he added in Japanese.
“Arigato, Ranpo-kun.”