After a few more performances, Mori Ougai was ready to leave. He didn't even want to be here! He was only present at this 18- 19, now- year old's fucking birthday party because of his darling Elise.

Elise was now currently talking to a child her age, it seemed. He hadn't gotten a good look at the kid before, and he was starting to regret it.

He breathed out. "Holy. Fucking. Shit." His eyes grew wide because oh dear lord he recognized this child. The security guard was still next to him and was looking about as enthused as Mori felt when he realized the kid his dear daughter has been talking to for the past two hours is the same little brat who stole his wallet!

He didn't blink as he reached to the security guard and pulled on his sleeve, eyes still trained on the kid.

The security guard- Fukuzawa, if he remembered correctly- rolled his eyes and opened his mouth, probably to say something offensive, before his eyes followed Mori's finger which was pointed at the child.

"Y-you recognize them, correct?" Mori stuttered out, still in shock because how could he not realize this before?

Fukuzawa's eyes flickered with recognition and Mori knew he wasn't crazy.

Fukuzawa took a step forward, hopefully to invoke the power of justice into this misguided child, when the kid themself stepped towards the baffled men. Elise followed close behind.

The child spoke. "I-I'm sorry for stealing your wallet, sir. If I knew that you're Elise's dad, I wouldn't have, honestly. It's just that, things at home haven't been the best since I came out to my mom as nonbinary. I ran away from home with a little money, but it wasn't enough, so I had to resort to stealing to survive. That doesn't excuse it, but. . ."

Oh dear lord. Mori couldn't deal with this. Not on a good day and definitely not on the worst day of his life at some stranger's birthday party in a dirty karaoke bar.

Thankfully, he didn't have to.

The entire room was silent. Everyone was looking at them. He assumed they all had heard the sob story.

Honestly, Mori was a little sympathetic. He really felt for the kid. It must have been hard, not knowing if they would have enough money to buy food to stay alive. He wasn't sure what to say, but someone moved forward so he didn't have to.

They moved through the crowd and stopped in front of the child, who had tears in their eyes. They kneeled down to get to eye level with them.

The child looked at them.

They spoke. "Hey, my name is Gin. May I ask yours?"

They moved their teary gaze to the ground and spoke softly. ". . .Yumeno."

Gin smiled at Yumeno. "I went through the same thing. I was a little bit older than you, but I remember it. Thankfully, I had my brother with me the entire time, and we ran away together." They paused and smiled fondly, as if remembering. A serious expression overtook their face a moment later. "If people don't accept you for who you really are, you don't need those people in your life. To get away from that environment was a good idea. If your mother was hurting you, you were right to leave."

At the end of Gin's speech, everyone's eyes were watery, and aome were even silently crying.

Yumeno starting crying and ran to hug Gin, who waited with expecting arms.

"Thank you. . ."

"Anything I can do to help someone in need."

¤¤¤

Needless to say, Yumeno is currently staying with the Akutagawa siblings at their home and is very happy and safe there.

And although Nikolai went with Fyodor to karaoke, someone else's birthday party wasn't the most romantic place to have a date. Or any birthday party in general.

So he was sitting on his couch, contemplating the best way to woo some guy he barely knows.

"We both know you're not actually thinking anything useful."

Nikolai scoffed and glared at Yosano. She was sitting in Kouyou's lap on his chair.

"You come into my apartment, drink my cheap alcohol- and this is the way you treat me?" Nikolai could not fathom the disrespect!

Kouyou shuddered. "You're right about the cheap part. You live like this?"

Okay, okay. Maybe he didn't marry one of the richest men in Japan, but his apartment and booze wasn't that bad.

(Kouyou would like to point out that her ex-husband is dead. Nikolai wishes she wouldn't. No one knows exactly what Kouyou did to get that money. No one really wants to know. She always says it's his mistake for writing her in his will.)

Anyways, the point is that there is a very cute Russian sulking around his (trashy) place of employment who stole his heart!

Now, it doesn't take much to capture Nikolai's attention, but something about Fyodor was different from all the other people he's dated.

Yosano shifted around in her girlfriend's lap, crossed her legs and stated, "Now I can see ya thinkin', blondie." She grinned and downed the rest of her (his) wine in one gulp.

"Oh, yeah? How about you help me then? I can make it worth your while." It's known around the mall (to most people) that Nikolai always keeps his word when he says he owes you and always pays his debt back to you whenever you need.

This made even Kouyou smile as she wound her arms around Yosano's waist.

"I believe we have ourselves a deal, Kolya."
And oh man, maybe he needs new friends because the smile on both the their faces was really putting him on edge.

He brushed it off. He stood up from the couch and crossed the room. They shook hands. It was done.

Being in Kouyou and Yosano's favor wasn't something Nikolai looked forward to, but he knew they would help. It would be worth it.

He hoped.

"A deal's a deal, ladies. Now, let's get to work."

¤¤

When Ranpo walked into Fukuzawa's (extremely small) office, he could see the older man's shoulder's tense.

"Fukuzawa! There's no need for that! Have you ever heard the saying 'turn that frown upside down?' Well, you have now!" Ranpo plopped down in a chair in front of the desk and smiled.

Ranpo could hear Fukuzawa try to stifle an annoyed groan. He quickly conposed himself, clearing his throat, and asked. "Why are you here?"

"Well, I thoguht I would simultaneously grace you with my presence and update you on Operation: Ranpoe. It has an 'e' at the end. Get it?"

"Operation what now?" Fukuzawa struggled to keep his composure.

Ranpo rolled his eyes. "Mine and Edgar's relationship?" He said it as if it were obvious (because it is). "Gosh, keep up. I know you're old, but you're not senile."

Fukuzawa was used to Ranpo's antics by now, but it was still hard to believe that he's actually an adult.

He sighed. "Give me the updates." He said it almost reluctantly, although he listened intently to what Ranpo said.

He listened for hours. And really, didn't he know Fukuzawa had an actual job? He should. There's a fine line between the employed and those who aren't.

Ranpo rambled on and on about how Edgar had initiated conversation today, and that- oh, oh- yesterday, he commented on Ranpo's outfit. Can you believe that, Fukuzawa?

And per usual, Ranpo picked up on the smallest things. Things that might seem insignificant to others, so he didn't miss a thing that Poe did.

Apparently, Edgar was smarter than most people he's met before because he would just not shut up about this boy.

Truth be told, Fukuzawa is really glad that he's focusing his energy on something else instead of case files. Ranpo seems genuinely happy when he talks about his crush.

Fukuzawa gave the tiniest of smiles, and even Ranpo was too far gone to notice it.