Mikau: Greetings! And thank you so much to the fabulous people who reviewed last time: Lady Rosencrantz, Eve of the Stars, Kimmiko T, ForgetfulDaffodil, Loner Kid, Shana-Fujioka, patternleap, and Flesh Delirium. Today we have my attempt at SeRan! …You know, reading back over this, maybe it's not as good as I originally thought. Or maybe I'm just a really bad judge of my own work. -.-; Well, I won't worry about it and just let you be the judge. How's that sound? Terrific! Let's do it!

Disclaimer: DCMK is the intellectual property of Aoyama Gosho, and the prompt for this chapter was sent in by Darkest Absol on Poirot Café.

…

Darkest Absol: Can my prompt be fluffy Sera/Ran?

When Sera Masumi head-butted and broke the wrist of a guy who had been trying to grope Ran on a train, the karate champion began to think that maybe Sera-san was kind of cool.

Sera railed at the guy and then gave a little snort of outrage at the injustice. She took off her hat and sighed as she raked a hand through her hair, and that only added to Ran's impression that her classmate was secretly some action movie star.

Seeming to remember that she was being observed, Sera gave a little start, and she turned back to Ran with that goofy, cheerful grin that was starting to look refreshing to Ran.

"You okay, Ran-chan?" Sera inquired out of concern for her friend, and Ran appreciated the gentlemanly gesture.

She nodded. "Yeah. Thanks for that, Sera-san."

"No problem!" Sera assured with that same bubbly smile.

And it sort of made Ran's heart beat a little faster.

…

Shinichi never called anymore. On the off chance he did, it was always to say that he was still busy with the case after four years! And she was so fed up with the same excuses.

Hadn't he said that he loved her? Was this love? It sure didn't feel like it. Ran felt like she was being strung along, and while all of her friends and classmates were finding true love and getting engaged, Ran still hadn't gotten her first kiss.

Her life was passing her by as she waited for a guy that she wasn't so sure was actually coming back to her anymore.

Ran was crying silent tears of frustration and anger, gripping her phone, about ready to smash it against the wall when Sera Masumi walked into the apartment.

The two young women froze in surprise at the sight of one another.

Sera found her voice first. "S-Sorry. I—Sonoko-chan said to come on up and get the textbook on the sofa myself because the door was open, so I…" She bit her lip, and her brow furrowed as she really saw what was going on. "Is it Kudo-kun again?"

Ran winced, closing her eyes, trying to shut out the pain.

"Do you want to talk about it, Ran-chan, or do you want to be left alone?" Sera softly inquired. "'Cause either way, I want you to know that I'm here for you, okay? If you need help, if you just want to talk it out…"

"Oh, Sera-san!" Ran cried, breaking down and dropping to her knees as she let it all out.

"Hey, hey," Sera called softly, hopping over the back of the couch to get to Ran faster.

She knelt on the floor beside her friend, wrapping her arms around the bawling Ran and letting Ran cry on her shoulder.

They stayed like that for a good ten minutes before Ran calmed down enough to be persuaded up off her knees and onto the couch. And then they sat there together for another hour or so as Ran intermittently cried and explained everything she had been going through with Shinichi over the past four years.

Sera listened and held her and let her cry it out in turns, stroking Ran's hair and dabbing at her face with a handkerchief at appropriate intervals. She spoke soothing words and all of the usual empty platitudes while Ran was going through the worst of it, but when Ran calmed down enough to speak to rationally, Sera suggested, "You know, Ran-chan…even though you and Kudo-kun have all of this history together, have you ever thought that maybe he's not the one you need to be spending your future with?"

Ran froze and blinked. Clearly the thought had never crossed her mind.

"Ran-chan, you are one heck of an amazing woman, and you are wasted on that guy. Kudo-kun may be a good man, Ran-chan—he may be cool and heroic and funny and handsome—but if he's such a sucky boyfriend to you, why are you still wasting your time on him? You can still be friends with him when he has the decency to drop in on you, but I really think you need to dump his ass and find someone who's gonna be there for you. Love isn't something that you do on your own. You need two people to make a relationship work, and if he's never around, you don't have a real partnership anyway, so…"

Sera frowned, biting her lip, as if conflicted about whether to go on or not. "Look, Ran-chan. I care about you a lot. You're really precious to me, and I can't stand seeing this guy treating your heart like garbage. You're special, and you need to be with someone who treats you that way, so…don't hate me, but I really do think you need to move on."

And in that moment Ran made up her mind. The look in Sera's eye, the love and concern that was there…the way Sera held her and called her precious… Ran wanted that always. That was what she had been craving in a romantic partner.

"I do too," Ran whispered, leaning in and placing a hesitant kiss to Sera's lips.

To her immense surprise, Sera didn't recoil in disgust. Instead, the olive-eyed girl leaned into the kiss, deepening it as she put the force of her own feelings behind it.

"Then I'd be delighted to help you with that," Sera whispered, cupping Ran's cheek and kissing her silly all over again.

…

Mikau: Well, I hope you liked it. Next up, Conan and Kaito go on an outing, and Conan can't enjoy it because he's too busy waiting for this episode's crime to happen. Look forward to it!