Chapter Text
It was sunny and the overpriced food truck on their direct right, shone brightly under the sun, almost like a spotlight, inviting Ranpo’s empty stomach for a double digit lemonade and mediocre fries.
She groans and slams her head against her notes, gaining a yelp from a startled Poe. They are studying, in the heat of June, and Ranpo wondered if it was Poe’s masochistic nature to keep studying and taking classes despite it being summer break, or the need to finish her damn major so she can get into the graduate program that she forces her twenty one year old frail body to sustain the hell of the California heat. And then she realizes, humorlessly, that it’s her own lovesick obsessed heart that jumps at any chance to spend time with the silent irresistible woman in front of her. Who has probably been calling her out for the past few minutes since she decided to inflict injury to repress her hunger.
“Ranpo? Oh dear…I think the heat really is getting to you..” She can hear her soft velvet voice, and internally laughs at the comment and outwardly groans. Ranpo was wearing a tank top with shorts and slides, decidedly wearing something much more weather appropriate compared to the chunky boots and long fitting skirt the other is wearing, alongside the big dark flannel button up covering her shoulders and most of her upper body, and to Ranpo’s utter dismay, Poe chooses to cover her fantastic low cut tank top with it, claiming there’s still a slight breeze.
She hears metal clicking together and footsteps going to the right, and she deduces she went ahead and got some drinks.
She wonders if all the silver jewelry she wears will melt on her short trip under the harsh sun to the truck and back.
Some time passes and she feels a cool soft hand hold her forehead and push it up, forcing her eyes to open and stare directly at quite the amazing view. Poe ditched the flannel, probably due to walking under the heat, and also has her hair up haphazardly in a claw clip, keeping her shoulders and chest exposed, save for her multiple collars and necklaces, of course. Ranpo stares at the mole in her cleavage as Poe gently puts a straw in her mouth.
“You need to drink this, Ranpo. It’s lemonade, it’ll cool you down,” Poe’s hand is cool against her forehead and the cool sweet liquid actually does help her clear her thoughts slowly. She takes the lemonade from the woman who participates in all her dreams, and drinks happily.
Once she’s done and the cup is empty, she notices the fries seated next to her notes, carefully placed so none of the sauce got in anything. She looks up and finds Poe smiling at her, and the sight of it makes Ranpo melt inside.
“Thank you! Did you get some for yourself too?” She gestures at the cup in Poe’s long fingers, and is surprised when the other one pushes the cup to her, alongside the fries.
“I figured you would drink it all and then eat the fries, which would lead to you wanting another lemonade,” She laughs and it’s angelic, honestly this woman will be the death of Ranpo.
She blushes and goes for the fries, “You’re so smart! Thanks again!” And happily devours the fries.
She eats half and looks for napkins to clean her hands with, and finds them hiding under one of her pages and hums triumphantly as she cleans her hands.
Poe watches her puzzled and tilts her head, “Are you not finishing the fries? Did you not like them?” She makes a move to stand up and presumably get something better from the menu but Ranpo stops her with a wave of a hand and pushes the fries towards her.
“They’re for you! Here, I even left some lemonade, too!” She swings her legs happily as she watches Poe carefully take the fries and drink from Ranpo’s poor attempt to have clean hands.
“It’s okay really, that coffee is enough to get me through the day…” Poe tries to fight it but watches as Ranpo seems to deflate and looks at her with confusion, and changes her mind and decides eating and drinking would certainly appease her friend. So she does, as Ranpo beams, eyes shrinking to happy crescents.
She takes a few bites under Ranpo’s watchful eyes and her phone dings in messages. Ranpo stares at it and back at her, “You want me to get that for you? You’re eating and your hands are occupied,” And Poe seems to have a split second conflict in her eyes but it's gone and she nods.
Ranpo happily takes her phone and reads out loud, ignoring the fact that she deduced her password right the first time,” Oh! It’s Akiko! She wants to know if you’re still down to go to the small party next week.” Poe’s attention on her while her phone is in her hands is unnerving, as if being watched by a hawk, and she waits for a nod before she sends a confirmation text.
Poe is unmoving almost, chewing mechanically as her body is as still as a rock, eyes wide under her bangs. Ranpo tries not to be offended at the sudden hesitation and downright anxiety stemming from her and is about to give the phone back when it rings with another notification, a message.
From an app. A dating app.
It’s comical really, how fast Poe drops her fries to reach for her phone but not as fast as Ranpo stands up from her reach, “Tinder? Seriously?” Ranpo swipes down from the message and her eyes cannot believe the amount of notification from other apps Poe seems to be popular on.
And honestly, Ranpo’s not stupid. She knows how hot her best friend is, there’s a reason why she’s been in love with her for the past year and has recently even started having sexual dreams and thoughts of her, regardless of her never having such thoughts for anyone before. What she didn’t know was just how often Poe was apparently dating behind her back (she hates that, they’re just friends, damn it) and of course, a beauty like Poe has over twenty recent chats in all three of the dating apps she seems to own.
She sees the message You were amazing last night ;) like it personally punched her in the face and also ran over her dog in front of her and is in shock when Poe snatches her phone back.
“Those are personal, Ranpo! You can’t just–” Poe takes a sharp deep breath, trying to calm herself, and Ranpo has never seen her as red faced and as annoyed and mad as she seems to be.
There’s half an apology on her tongue but all that comes out is,” I guess his dick must have been amazing considering you missed movie night last night,” And it tastes like acid, like her gums have been submerged in the most agonizing sour liquid, and she knows it's the taste of jealousy overflowing.
She can see it, while she’s waiting under the comfy blankets waiting for a text back from her best friend, two bodies in a bed, having sex, Edaline having sex with a man, as she moans and whimpers under him as he fucks her, and Ranpo playing with her plushie to entertain herself while she waits for a text back. She can see it, a satisfied Poe vaguely remembering her compromise with her and sending a quick sorry can’t tonight as she turns to him for round two, and Ranpo sadly cuddling her plushies to sleep.
Fukuzawa always said Ranpo’s imagination does tend to run wild sometimes.
She feels cold hands on her face and the pain from being squished alerts her back to the present and stares with unshed tears at her best friend.
“It’s not what you think, he’s a classmate that needed help with homework and I ended up helping him out through the night, it’s a coincidence we also matched in that app.” Her voice is clear and sounds slightly annoyed. And Ranpo immediately feels dumb and insecurity builds up. So she does what she knows will make her feel better, she smashes her face against Poe’s chest and cries. Poe seems to calm down and wraps her hands around her, keeping her close and brushes Ranpo’s sweaty bangs as she pats her back.
“I thought you were out there having sex all the time when you could spend time with me instead.” Ranpo says childish, face full of boobs. Poe flinches slightly at the sex all the time part and there’s an awkward beat where Ranpo’s brilliant brain supplies the next thought:
Poe has all those dating apps not to date, but to have casual sex.
Ranpo decides she’s getting a lobotomy if her brain keeps revealing secrets she does not need to know.
“I–I well, I am in my prime 20’s, and well, I do have..uhm, sexual needs, albeit a bit higher than most of my peers,” And it takes all of Ranpo’s force to not open her mouth and bite down in frustration from hearing her crush admit she has sex a lot of fucking sex with other fucking people and she never bothered to tell her, and she cringes on the inside knowing Poe says,” A-And well, I know your interest in sex is quite low, nonexistent kind of, and you always seem to be uncomfortable at the mention of it, and I-I mean it is quite the personal thing to be talking about–”
And honestly Ranpo should have minded her own damn business because as much as she loves her she knows Poe loves her back in a platonic way and will always try to please her and take care of her like a little sister she needs to take care of, and this whole explaining young adults have casual sex is just the nail in the coffin.
This is also why Poe seems to allow her to use her own chest because isn’t that what mother figures do? They let their little ones use their chest and cry into it as they brush their hair and wait patiently for them to calm down from their tantrum.
Oh god, Ranpo is going to perform the lobotomy on herself if this keeps going on.
“Ranpo? Can you say something, please?” Ranpo drags her face out from her comfort spot and makes eye contact, and of course she just keeps making mistake after mistake because Poe’s gorgeous gray eyes are filled with worry and slight shame and Ranpo wants to dug a hole and die in it because the last thing Poe should be feeling is shame from being a normal twenty three year old. It’s not Poe’s fault Ranpo’s perverted mind started waking up five years late from puberty, making her attached to the most gorgeous human being in her close distance.
“It’s okay, I’m sorry. I’m overreacting to this, haha,” Her voice is as weak as her laugh as Poe makes her sit down. “Can you–uh, can you let me know if you’re going to…you know?” Ranpo hopes her face isn’t as red as it feels.
Poe looks at her with wide eyes,” Like…If I’m sleeping with someone?” They’re faces match now. Ranpo nods. Poe’s eyes seem to grow even wider, “Oh…S-sure, but uhm, why the sudden interest?”
Torture, Ranpo thinks, instead she says, ”W-well, I know I said I wasn’t interested in that kind of stuff, but these days,” months “It’s been hard to ignore…I keep having, uhm, thoughts and well I have no experience in that area and since you apparently do it so much, I’d like to learn from your experiences.” Ranpo should win a medal with how good she’s gotten at bullshitting.
Poe's sudden grip on her hands startles her as she sees her locking eyes with her, “Are you serious? I thought–Oh well this is fantastic news–I uhm I mean haha, this is great that you’re curious about these things,” She’s rambling and there's a hidden excitement as Ranpo watches her ask questions like,” How detailed would you like me to be? Is it to know if you’d like to do certain stuff?” and Ranpo nods, focussing more on the nice pressure of their held hands than on what Poe is talking about,” Do you want more detail from my encounter with guys or with girls? Or with–”
“Girls.” Ranpo’s answer jumps out without her wanting to and Poe smiles maniacally, as if she's won the lottery.
The pressure on her hands grows as Poe fidgets, blushing, and Ranpo feels like she’s having an out of body experience as she hears,” A-are you interested in girls? Do you have a preference?” Ranpo doesn’t know what she means by that but she shakes her head no and Poe nods, taking it as a suitable answer.
“Oh well this is wonderful Ranpo!” She takes a deep breath and stutters, face flushed under the sun,” I-if you’d l-like, some..uhm…help with f-figuring out what kind of stuff you l-like…”
It’s kind of deja vu, this awkward flushed Poe. She remembers a few years ago when they met, how she had beat her in a university game of deduction, and Poe had held on to her obsessively, hanging out with her and trying to please her.
Until Poe asked her, “Are you interested in relationships?” and Ranpo had said,”No, not really. They sound tedious, especially the sex part.”
Poe calmed down drastically after that and it was easier to ease into the close relationship they have now as best friends. Poe is still kind and does anything Ranpo wants, but it’s most likely her need to take care of the younger student than one of romantic feelings, Ranpo’s brain supplies.
And now in the present, it’s gorgeous red faced Poe asking her if she needs help finding out what she likes? Ranpo thinks. She knows what she likes, she likes hugs and putting her face on Poe’s chest, she likes her hands being held the way they’re being held right now, likes the way her hair is brushed until she sleeps and she likes the occasional hello cheek kisses she gets from Poe.
“Sure.” She says. And she figures out later when she’s laying down underneath her beautiful tall best friend that her dumbass has agreed to being friends with benefits with the person she’s in love with.
She doesn’t know whenever to cry tears of joy or pain as her best friend leans down and gives her her first kiss.