The hospital room smelled like too much antiseptic and not enough sunlight. You hated it here — the bland ceiling tiles, the low hum of machines, the way time stretched thin between doses and checkups.

But Ranpo made it feel less like a waiting room for the inevitable.

He burst in like he always did, with too much energy for the hour and a paper bag swinging in his hand. His coat caught on the door, but he didn’t notice. He never did.

“Honey!” he called, voice loud enough to earn a dirty look from a passing nurse, “I brought candy for both of us — but I was hoping you'd leave most of it for me.”

He grinned like the room wasn’t dim and sterile. Like you weren’t hooked up to a monitor. Like there was still time.

That was his trick.

Making it all feel normal. Comfortable. As if the world hadn’t already started folding in on itself.

He plopped down beside your bed, opened the bag, and pulled out your favorite sweets with exaggerated care, like they were top-secret files.

“Only the good stuff,” he said. “I interrogated the poor guy at the candy shop until he confessed where the freshest ones were. Not that I needed him to. I already knew, obviously.”

You smiled faintly. It was hard to laugh now without coughing. But you still smiled for him.

Ranpo reached into his pocket and pulled out a small plastic magnifying glass — the cheap kind from a kids’ detective kit. He held it up dramatically and inspected your face like a mystery.

“Diagnosis: still the prettiest patient on this floor.”

He meant for it to be funny.

But you saw it — the quick flick of his gaze to the IV, to the way your hands trembled when you reached for the candy. The tight pull at the corner of his mouth before he looked away.

He knew.

Of course he knew.

Ranpo had known from the start — even before the doctors confirmed it, before the coughs turned red and the tests came back bad. He had seen it in the way your eyes dulled some days. In the way you stopped laughing quite so loudly.

But he stayed.

Not out of pity. Never that.

He stayed because he wanted to make the time you had feel like the time he didn’t want to forget.

He nudged your shoulder gently, setting a few wrapped sweets on your lap.

“Don’t go thinking this means you can eat them all,” he said, mouth quirking into a teasing grin. “I’m still watching you.”