BSD Oneshots

Am I Normal? (Ranpo and Fukuzawa, Ranpoe)

He began to wonder why that was. He'd never offered, both because he wasn't sure if he wanted to do it and Ranpo never seemed like he wanted it either.

Poe wondered what that was all about. Granted, he could be completely wrong in thinking Ranpo didn't want it since he'd never been that great with social cues.

Which got him to thinking about all the ways he already knew he wasn't like a lot of the people he knew. He definitely found it hard to notice social cues, it was like some weird unknown language to him (he hated to admit it, but it took him a long time to realize Ranpo liked him). There was also the way he was so shy and always had been. His social skills had never been the best, which he credited to his sometimes crippling social anxiety. Very few things seemed to compare to how scary it could be to talk to people, which Poe found strange because he'd definitely done worse things in his life (he'd spent six years crafting a revenge with the intent to kill Ranpo, for crying out loud). There was also the way he kept his hair long and over his eyes, which most people assumed he did because he didn't like his eyes. That was partially true, but the main reason was so he didn't have to make eye contact. He didn't think it was normal how much he struggled to make such a simple movement, but that was the way he'd always been. It felt like there was never a time in his life where he found it easy to make friends. All his (few) friendships had started because the other person was always the first to talk to him. Even then, he was still a pretty quiet person. There was also the way he'd never been able to handle loud noises, they were just too overstimulating to deal with. They'd often send him into a meltdown or shutdown type of thing where he'd just retreat somewhere quiet, sometimes cry it out if he needed to, and have no desire to talk to anyone until he felt at least a little better. Though it did help a lot to have Karl there. He'd had the raccoon since he was a baby and they'd never been separated since then. Another little quirk Poe seemed to have was the way he loved reading. From the time he was little, he'd read any book he could get his hands on (though mysteries were always his favorite) and while he normally didn't like talking to people, sometimes the urge to ramble about whatever he was reading overwhelmed him. He also had a myriad of sensory issues which affected a lot of things from what he wore to what he ate (seriously, how did Ranpo handle eating that many sweets?). There was also the fact that change seemed to be one of the hardest things ever to deal with.

On a somewhat related note, Poe often wondered why Ranpo bothered with him and felt that the master detective deserved better. It was frustrating to Poe how he felt so down so often and often had a habit of overthinking. He couldn't ever seem to just relax.

All of this was to say that Poe knew he was different, but he didn't understand why he and Ranpo had never slept together despite being together for months now and why he'd never asked if they could. Did either of them even want it?

Poe didn't know.

He rambled to Karl about it, to which the raccoon just squeaked a few times and did his best to comfort his owner.

Unfortunately, all this wondering was making Poe have one of his bad days where he wondered why he couldn't just be "normal", and it wouldn't be an understatement to say he had a lot of those days.

Meanwhile...

Ranpo was still pacing around in the room, trying to get all his current thoughts out of his mind.

"Ranpo," a familiarly firm but gentle voice spoke up.

Ranpo froze and looked up.

Fukuzawa had stepped out of his office to see his adoptive son pacing around and noted that something was definitely bothering him. He nodded his head towards the doorway of his office, beckoning Ranpo to come in.