This story mentions KazuRan, ShinRan, and HeiShin, but since they're not explicitly involved I didn't include it in the tags. Consider this the warning.

The story starts with a broken phone.

Sonoko couldn't really remember a time where she went without a phone for longer than a couple of days. But the week before, hers managed to meet an unfortunate circumstance involving a public restroom and dropping it while she tried to get something else out of her purse. She had tried every remedy to fix it afterwards, from keeping it in rice overnight to some dumb refrigerator trick she saw online, but of course, none of it worked.

She could have easily gotten a new phone, she was due for one anyway since the one she had was on its last legs, but there had been a certain model coming out that she planned on getting anyway - so how bad could waiting two weeks for it to come out be?

Hell. Waiting for two weeks was absolute hell. The first week was really painful because almost immediately after breaking her phone her parents decided that it would be the perfect time to spend a couple of days away, leaving her disconnected from everybody, especially Ran and Makoto.

It was awful. Terrible. Sonoko was 98 percent sure she was going to die.

Luckily, she was back within no time, which only meant a few more days of being only just a little bit cut off. The minute she was back in Beika, she ran straight to the Mouri's and into the arms of her best friend, anxious to talk about anything and everything - just to get some kind of interpersonal contact.

Ran had just finished telling her about an exhibit she'd seen the last time she visited Osaka, something about experimental artwork with trash. She pulled out her cell phone and started flipping through pictures, "I really didn't think it was going to be that interesting, but Kazuha-chan's mom had gotten some free tickets from her job and suggested it to us. Oh, this one was my favorite!" She stopped on a picture that looked like a small statue made out of cleverly tied paper bags. Before she could continue, the phone for the agency rang and Ran sighed, "I'm sorry, let me get that. I'll be right back, you can keep looking."

While Sonoko wasn't really interested in the...artwork, she continued to flip through the pictures anyway, considering that maybe there was a reason Ran found it so fascinating. Even after a few admittedly crafty collages and small statues, she still couldn't find the appeal.

But then she hit a certain picture, and she felt her stomach drop.

The picture was the slightest bit sloppy, with just a hint of a motion blur and a weird angle that could only be achieved with a front facing camera if you weren't holding your arm out completely straight. In the picture was Ran, obviously, but she wasn't holding the phone. Instead that girl from Osaka (Toyama-chan, right? She didn't really know her all that well.) held it at arm's length as she planted a full-out kiss on Ran's lips.

A couple of things came to mind at that.

The first was a conversation with Ran, way back in their second year of middle school, whispered between the two of them at a sleepover. The same conversation where Ran explained that she couldn't like Shinichi not just because she had a crush on a third-year on the basketball team, but because she liked the girl in Class D that would come visit the karate club.

So, yeah, the idea of Ran and Toyama-chan liking each other wasn't that big of an issue in that sense. All things considered, Sonoko probably should have noticed it - especially given how often Ran would absently gush about the other girl or the way Toyama-chan had given her best friend goo goo eyes the handful of times the three of them were in the same room. But she guess she always figured that Ran was too far gone on Shinichi to actually do anything about it.

Which led to the second thing on her mind…

"Is something wrong?"

Sonoko hadn't realized that she was making a face, but Ran was good at noticing when people were unhappy. She looked over at Ran and turned the phone so the screen was facing her, "Are you cheating on Shinichi-kun?"

Ran's face paled at that, "Sonoko…"

"Look, I understand if things aren't okay between the two of you, but I didn't think you would stoop to something like this!"

"It's not like that! It's...it's a lot more complicated." She played with a strand of her hair, a queasy look overcoming her face as she continued, "I'm not cheating on Shinichi, I wouldn't do that. We're just...I'm...Kazuha...it's really, really complicated. We're still kind of figuring it out too."

Sonoko raised an eyebrow and made a motion for Ran to continue, "I've got all the time in the world."

She sunk down into the couch, letting her hands fall into her lap as she took a deep breath, "I'm still with Shinichi, I'm just with Kazuha-chan too," she quickly added on, "they both know what's going on, Hattori-kun does too."

"And the guys are just...okay with this?" When Ran didn't answer at first, she wondered if she had a reason to be worried. What if there was a bigger issue? She didn't know Hattori-kun all that well, but she hoped that Shinichi wasn't forcing Ran into something she didn't want to do. She reached over to touch her shoulder, "Ran?"

Ran gave her a sheepish look, "They're fine with it...the two of them are actually together too."

Oh.

Well that was unexpected. Confusing and unexpected. For once, Sonoko found herself at a loss of what to say or do. Normally she wasn't one to mince words or stumble over them, but this? This was kind of a shock.

Sonoko wasn't sure if she was making a face or if her nearest and dearest friend was just that good at reading her, but Ran continued to explain without needing to be asked, "I know...I said it was complicated, but it's actually really great. I mean it was a little rough at first, but then it just kind of clicked…" she bit her lip. "I can explain if you want?"

"...I didn't know Shinichi liked guys. I mean, besides Sherlock Holmes." She kind of wanted to smack herself at that. All of the questions running through her mind, and of course that one would be the first one to come out. Nothing like "are you happy" or "how can you be in a relationship with four people" - nope, just wondering about Shinichi's sexuality, no big deal.

Unsurprisingly, Ran burst out laughing instead, "I know, right? He keeps insisting it's just Hattori-kun."

"Please, we both know he'd leave both of you in a heartbeat if it was legally and physically possible to marry a fictional character."

"Right? Hattori-kun gives him such a hard time about it." Ran splayed herself dramatically across the couch with the back of her had laid across her forehead. She put on her what had to be her best (worst) impression of Hattori-kun's voice, "Oi, Kudo. Are you kissin' me or Sherlock?"

And then it was Sonoko's turn to start laughing, tears gathering in the corners of her eyes as she did so, "You're kidding! He did not say that!"

"He did! Shinichi got so red and I had to try so hard to keep a straight face."

"Oh my god," she laughed harder, wrapping her arms around her now aching stomach, "I wish I could have seen that."

"It was a moment that I'll never forget."

The two of them took a few moments to calm down, stifling their laughter into snickers and giving the muscles in their stomachs a chance to relax.

Sonoko wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes, trying to regain her composure as the last few giggles came out, "So, spill. I want to know the whole story."

"I'll try my best." Ran sat back up, "Should I make coffee? It's going to take a while."

"I think tea might be better."

Ran playfully swatted at her arm, muttering that she was terrible, but still got up nonetheless.

"Also, maybe warn someone before you let them swipe through your phone!" She ignored the indigent noise before reaching for Ran's phone again. It definitely was a complicated situation, and she probably wouldn't understand everything (even after grilling Shinichi the next time she got the chance), but if everyone involved was happy - that was all Sonoko could actually ask for.

Guess what's back, back again. It's Polyverse. Tell a friend.

I actually have had like 90% of this written since 2015-ish? 2016? Google Docs says I've been working on it since 2014, hooboy. But like, things have been busy on my end (jobs gained, jobs lost, grad school, mental breakdowns) so my writing as suffered for it. I mostly couldn't figure out how to end this.

This takes place before Date Night and A Lesson in Cockblocking and kind of negligible to Assignments, Coffee, and Blankets . One day I'll get to writing how they actually all got together. (Although it might not match canon at this point because I'm so far behind jfc)

(Also holy fucking shit, I haven't uploaded anything to FFN in 5ever. I can't believe I still remember how to upload stuff here and it's still just as annoying as it's always been.)