𝐁𝐀𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐒𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐒

file 028 | surprise visit and gift

It was a calm day for once. Ran was spending the day with Suzume at the latter's house. True to her word, Haibara did end up asking Hikaru to knock out Suzume when he got home after telling him about the lack of sleep Suzume had been getting. In fact, one of the reasons why Ran was spending the day at Suzume's house was to make sure the detective actually did get some rest.

At the moment, Ran was making some tea and had actually locked up the coffee machine in case Suzume somehow managed to sneak into the kitchen to make some coffee. I swear, she's addicted to coffee...

The karate champion sighed as she poured the tea into two cups before setting them onto a tray with a bowl of chocolate, one of Suzume's favorite comfort snacks. She knew that Haibara almost committing suicide hit her hard, so she wanted to make sure she wouldn't fall back into a bad state of mind.

Her slipper-covered feet padded down the halls of the house as she made her way back to Suzume's room. Her eyes traced the pictures on the walls before she slowly came to a stop at one particular photo that made her smile.

It was from right after Suzume and Ran became friends in preschool. Ran had her arms wrapped around Suzume, who was disgruntled but still had a smile on her face as they both stared at the camera. She couldn't help but chuckle. To think I hated her when we first met...and now we're dating.

She continued down the halls and knocked lightly on the door of Suzume's room before walking inside to see her girlfriend laying in bed, scrolling on her phone with a frown. She blinked as she walked over to the desk and set down the tray.

"Is everything okay?" Ran asked curiously.

Suzume glanced at her with a smile, turning off her phone and setting it off to the side. "I'm fine," she said as she sat up. She eyed the bowl of chocolate. "Is that chocolate?"

Ran chuckled before handing it over, Suzume taking it with child-like glee. The Kudo immediately popped a piece into her mouth and sighed with a dreamy expression on her face. The sight immediately made Ran relax before her eyes snapped towards the window.

Suzume gave her a curious look when she saw Ran look towards her window with a frown. "You okay?" she asked, setting aside the bowl as she looked towards her window. "Did you see something?"

"I...just got a feeling," Ran said slowly, confused. She looked at her girlfriend. "I've been meaning to ask you something about Ai-chan."

"Oh?" Suzume tilted her head, raising an eyebrow.

Ran gave her an apologetic smile. "There's something about her mannerisms...like she's a teenager like us."

Suzume swallowed but let Ran continue.

"And with you mentioning she tried to let herself be blown up on the bus the other day," Ran continued quietly. "What's going on, Suzume?"

The detective was quiet as she thought over what she should say. She wanted to protect her, but she knew that Ran was fairly capable of taking care of herself. That, and she was just horrible at attempting to keep secrets from her longest friend. She sighed before looking at her girlfriend with resolve.

"What I'm about to tell you isn't easy," Suzume started with, earning Ran's attention. "Do you really want to know what's going on? Why I've been off since our trip to Tropical Land, after the roller coaster?"

Ran's eyes widened. She didn't even need to consider anything before nodding her head, determined.

Suzume smiled. "Well, I guess the best place to begin is when our victim had his head cut off..."