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“Oh, Poe-chan, look at that.”
“Ah?”
Poe stops walking when she notices Ranpo has as well. She follows the other woman’s finger and finds a dress on the other side. A long, silky white dress. It reminds her of a fairytale princess with its flowery skirt and froofy shoulders. The tiara-styled veil further sells the idea because of course it does: the calligraphy print on the window doesn’t read “Every bride is a princess” for no reason.
She never struck Poe as the type to care for marriage or weddings. There must be something else she’s spotted, something that has set her detective mind on the trail. Poe steps closer to the window, trying to find whatever it was. All she sees is white in front of her and then, further inside the boutique, even more white. Some cream. A few off-white.
…She has no idea what Ranpo is getting at.
“Have you thought about picking one out yet?”
The question takes a moment to travel from Poe’s ears to her brain. When it does, she whips around with enough force to almost throw poor Karl off her shoulders. “What!?”
Ranpo furrows her eyebrows. “I knew it. We’ve had years to think about it, you know.”
“Wait, wait, wait!” Poe shakes her head. Where’s this coming from? A dress? Picking out a dress- a wedding dress!? “Wha- wha, since when were we thinking about that?”
A mixed look of disbelief and disappointment paints Ranpo’s features. It makes Poe feel like running inside the boutique and hiding under mounds of toile and satin until it’s safe to come back out. But this doesn’t make any sense! She only knew that they were even dating for sure a few weeks ago when she happened upon Poe telling Yosano-sensei about the new novel her- and she remembers she used this word exactly- beloved (beloved!) is piecing together. Up til that point their relationship had been… look, it had made sense to them.
Until now! “Don’t look at me like that, Ranpo-chan, you’re being unfair. We only just started dating, it’s far too early to think about stuff like that!”
She can practically hear the thousands of fast little cogs turning in Ranpo’s head. “Don’t be stupid, Poe-chan, we’ve been together for years. Did you hit your head and forget the day we met?"
The mental catalog of Poe’s memories is scoured in milliseconds: six years, the competition, her humiliation, her determination. How she met the woman who would come to dominate her thoughts and how she hid herself from the reality of why until they reunited and Poe finally, finally understood why her rival was so important to her. “I could never forget that day!”
“Right!” Ranpo folds her arms.
Poe looks at her, waiting for further explanation
Promptly, Ranpo turns away.
“R- Ranpo-chan!” She steps around to see the other’s face, only for her to turn on her heel away from her again. “You didn’t propose to me! I absolutely, positively would have remembered that!”
“Hmph.” Is all that Ranpo offers.
Poe sighs and worries her fingers through her shaggy locks. Her darling’s mind is a wonderful thing, it’s true. Having been both victim and witness to it, there is little about the brilliance that fails to leave her in awe. Sometimes for the better and sometimes for worse. Right now is the latter of those times.
In turning away from Poe, Ranpo reveals her loneliness.
Poe understands, to a degree; feeling cut off from others due to the sudden reveal that they don’t see things the same way. Seeing people walk and talk to each other but never being able to breach the barrier that holds your mind back from connecting to theirs… For all her writings, there is nothing more mysterious than the people around her.
Does Ranpo feel that way now? Has she seen something Poe hasn’t and is feeling upset because of it? Or…
“Are you embarrassed, Ranpo-chan?”
Ranpo grumbles and lowers her head into her folded arms.
Poe sighs. “Come on, turn around.” Ranpo doesn’t move but Poe continues anyway. “I didn’t know we were together until I heard you talking to Yosano-sensei a few weeks ago, so I haven’t thought about marriage at all.”
“What are you saying?” Ranpo whines. “I’ve been with you, I’ve been talking to you, we go to places together, I even hold your hand… why didn’t you get the message? Did you need me to walk up to you and say that we’re together? That’s awkward! Nobody does that! And Poe-chan would faint if I did that.”
That’s not untrue. She can feel a very hot and red blush on her cheeks from the thought alone. “Yeah, but… mph, we’re women, Ranpo-chan. People expect us to do that if we’re friends. I thought that you just liked to be close to me.”
Ranpo’s eyes glow verdant. “I don’t do ‘that’ with anyone but you.”
Poe’s heart dances in her chest like a butterfly around its favorite flower. Does that mean Ranpo’s friends take note of Ranpo being close to her? Leaning against her, holding her hand? It’s strange; Poe would believe that the thought of people thinking about her would make her shrink into the shadows, just like everything else.
But since it’s her and Ranpo it feels different. It isn’t her being scrutinized for something she can’t see or control. What it is is her and Ranpo, together.
She looks down at her own hands, clasped together in what was once shock and nerves. “I’m glad. I want to do it with you too, all the time.” With some skill, she slips her hand inside Ranpo’s crossed arms, untangling them to take her hand in hers. As Ranpo pretends to put up a fight, Ranpo continues. “I want you to tell me more things like that. It helps me to understand.”
When Ranpo settles into the hold her other hand rubs the back of her neck. “Yeah, fine, whatever.”
There’s a pause while she thinks. Poe feels her squeeze her hand and it makes her smile until she does it again, and again, then for a long time, another long time, and now Poe’s lost track. “Are you okay-”
“It’s Wabun code! If you don’t understand I’ll keep doing it until you have it memorized, or if you forget then you can ask me to do it and I’ll do it! Then you can learn it and then you’ll know what it means! Okay!”
“O- okay?” Poe is beyond questioning at this point. Wabun code? Is it like Morse? She really will have to find out for herself. “But about the dress-”
“I thought we were engaged!” Before Poe can react, Ranpo yanks her down the path and away from the boutique, pushing past anyone unfortunate enough to be in her way. “I’m not explaining more! You can figure it out, Poe-chan. You’re smart, aren’t you?”
“Of course I am!” Despite the annoyance in her voice, and the many apologies she tries to offer to the people being jostled to the side, Poe is smiling.
The mystery of the wedding dress… how can she not be inspired?