Back from the void with some ShinRan! This is for @shinran-week day 4 (which was supposed to be posted earlier, but I still needed to finished some details 😅), luckily I managed to finish it up for Shinichi's bday!
References under cut:
Excalibur (1981), Arthur & Guinnivere's Wedding
I listened to Connie Francis' Al Di Là (along with many of her other hits) when drawing this, so I'm adding it here (it probably counts as an influence):
Not a reference but, I made Ran in Tomodachi Life LTD and she turned out so cute! (Ignore Bruce Wayne there lol)
A ShinRan Week 2026 Entry
Prompt: Mutual Pining / Domestic / College Roomates!AU / Birthday
Words: ~1.2k
"Where the hell is that Pabron Gold A," Shinichi grumbles for the eighth time, arm extended up to the back of the kitchen cabinet. Today, he is supposed to be basking under the heat of the sun, feet in contact with a soccer ball and surrounded by his team he promised a game with, not trudging the floor of the apartment like a sorry old man attempting to look for a medicine in his sorry bleary state.
"I was gone for a minute and I see you like this." From behind him, Shinichi hears the prick in his best friend's tone. He doesn't mean for her to see him doing this behind her back, but he can't be expected to sit idly either while in a near-death experience. "And you say you'll get better soon? What a child."
Like a child, Shinchi is escorted by Ran back their shared apartment's living room couch. "I told you to stay still, Mr. Birthday Boy. Let me be the one to serve you."
On another day Shinichi would have smirked at the unintentional innuendo, but he is too troubled by an impending sneeze that he replies to Ran with a, well, sneeze.
"Happy Birthday to me, indeed." He slumped back into the couch.
On the other end of the floor, Ran prepares a glass of warm water and sets up a kettle, mind briefly drifting to the birthday cake in the fridge. Seems it will have to sit in there a little longer until she can share it together with her best friend sans the sore throat.
She cannot see Shinichi at the moment, but she can picture the face he's sporting then, what with the petty grumbles of "can't believe I missed soccer, damn" and "what a waste of a fine day" she overhears in between occasional bouts of cough. Ran sighs, addresses Shinichi from the kitchen with a voice that resonates across the unit. "Soccer can wait, Shinichi."
"Says the woman who still attended karate training despite a sprain," Shinichi croaks back.
"To clarify, that was not a sprain. Just a strained muscle."
"Sure." Shinichi coughs again and winces.
"Anyway, as I was saying," Ran cuts him off before he prolongs the banter, stopping in front of the couch to kneel in front of him who has risen begrudgingly to a sitting position. She places the glass of water near his mouth for him to hold and pops a tablet to his palm. "Soccer can wait. Your immune system can't. It will be a shame if you die on your birthday. These meds you're looking for are right beside you by the way."
"Oh. Thanks."
He feels her watch him down the medicine with water, as if Ran doesn't trust him enough to drink his medicine all the way. It isn't supposed to make him feel awkward, she's consistently done the same since the first hour of his fever, and yet the feeling of being monitored down to the very last detail by his childhood friend of almost sixteen years flusters him. Man is he ever going to get used to this.
"I can take care of my self yanno. I’m twenty," Shinichi states feebly, after he gives her back the empty glass and Ran pulls up a cooling gel sheet from the end table.
“Shut up. I’ll take care of you until we’re eighty,” she replies, eyes thin, looming closer to his face.
He sniggers. "That long? You gonna marry me or something?"
It is a remark borne out of confidence that the recipient who has known him for almost his entire life will take it in jest. Even so, in the burning soreness of his throat - not sure if caused by his sickness or the words which left his mouth - Shinichi feels like the fever is being sucked out of himself everytime he sees her responsive smile and hears her little laugh.
"I'll think about it," she says, as she combs his bangs away with her fingers, and places the gel patch over his forehead.
Shinichi knows it's a response borne out of confidence that the recipient will be certain Ran doesn't literally mean it. That she will not step out of sight and lean behind the kitchen wall and ponder about his amateur proposal as if her life depends on it. Which actually, it does. A lifetime with him? Pfft. Too early to imagine. It's better to dwell in the now. With her. Taking care of him. Best friends for almost two decades now, on a milestone day in his life.
Still.
"You don't have to, though," he mumbles, inaudible for Ran to hear.
More inaudible are the thoughts he doesn't convert to speech, looping like a broken record in his brain:
You don't have to- We don't have to think about it that hard.
It's obvious.
We can decide right here, right now.
But if you let me speak first Ran, I think, for the longest time, I have already made my choice-
"You said something, Shinichi?"
"I mean, you don't have to answer that. Haha," is what he says instead. "I was joking, Ran."
Ran is silent for a long time, then smiles.
"I know, idiot Shinichi," she says after a moment, ruffling his bangs. "You would never choose a crybaby caretaker like me, right?"
A certain quiet commonly shared by two childhood best friends lingers in the room, and in the pause he starts to wonder if he has actually been vague with Ran all this time. He doesn't know why there is a pang of disappointment in his chest, but if such does exist, he is certain it is not directed at her response, but rather, at himself. For once, on his birthday, Shinichi actually wishes.
Shinichi wishes for something different. He wishes for a slight bit of reciprocation that is beyond the realm of friendship. He wishes for Ran to take back what she said and have enough faith in him to believe that he actually would.
After all, this certain feeling hasn't left him since he was four, since he saw her in that kindergarten classroom with a mile-wide smile despite tears clouding her eyes, a crumpled sakura paper in hand with his name in hiragana written on it.
Before he can open his mouth, she speaks first.
"Anyway! I give you a pass to tease me because it's your birthday. Get well soon so we can at least go out and have a nice dinner later, okay?" Her smile is natural, as always, along with the ocean blue of her eyes and the apple of her cheeks.
For the longest time he's known: that smile impressed upon him is meant as platonic.
Ran grazes a hand over his forehead one last time before rising to her knees. "I'll prepare tea, Shinichi," she says, solemnly.
In the silence she leaves him as she hums away unto the whistling kettle, in between the soft rhythm of Shinichi's beating heart, there's an endless rippling stream, drip drip dripping throughout himself. In his heart lies an unshakeable, pressing ache. A need devoid of malice. A truth that will take a hundred more birthday wishes and a thousand meteors crashing down earth before he caves into verbal admission -
This is actually part of the shinran college roomates!AU anthology I have stored in my mind palace for 5+ years now lmao, and I used this special week and Shinichi's birthday as an excuse to write and release a chapter out. <3 The anthology is meant to cover various scenarios in the daily life of childhood-friends-turned-best-friends-turned-roommates (turned lovers?) Shinichi and Ran, with many bloopers and comedy and fighting and bonding and yearning in between. This chapter is supposedly chapter ten or smth... but it's ok it can still make sense as a standalone^^
A ShinRan Week 2026 Entry
Prompt: Mutual Pining / Domestic / College Roomates!AU / Birthday
Words: ~1.2k
"Where the hell is that Pabron Gold A," Shinichi grumbles for the eighth time, arm extended up to the back of the kitchen cabinet. Today, he is supposed to be basking under the heat of the sun, feet in contact with a soccer ball and surrounded by his team he promised a game with, not trudging the floor of the apartment like a sorry old man attempting to look for a medicine in his sorry bleary state.
"I was gone for a minute and I see you like this." From behind him, Shinichi hears the prick in his best friend's tone. He doesn't mean for her to see him doing this behind her back, but he can't be expected to sit idly either while in a near-death experience. "And you say you'll get better soon? What a child."
Like a child, Shinchi is escorted by Ran back their shared apartment's living room couch. "I told you to stay still, Mr. Birthday Boy. Let me be the one to serve you."
On another day Shinichi would have smirked at the unintentional innuendo, but he is too troubled by an impending sneeze that he replies to Ran with a, well, sneeze.
"Happy Birthday to me, indeed." He slumped back into the couch.
On the other end of the floor, Ran prepares a glass of warm water and sets up a kettle, mind briefly drifting to the birthday cake in the fridge. Seems it will have to sit in there a little longer until she can share it together with her best friend sans the sore throat.
She cannot see Shinichi at the moment, but she can picture the face he's sporting then, what with the petty grumbles of "can't believe I missed soccer, damn" and "what a waste of a fine day" she overhears in between occasional bouts of cough. Ran sighs, addresses Shinichi from the kitchen with a voice that resonates across the unit. "Soccer can wait, Shinichi."
"Says the woman who still attended karate training despite a sprain," Shinichi croaks back.
"To clarify, that was not a sprain. Just a strained muscle."
"Sure." Shinichi coughs again and winces.
"Anyway, as I was saying," Ran cuts him off before he prolongs the banter, stopping in front of the couch to kneel in front of him who has risen begrudgingly to a sitting position. She places the glass of water near his mouth for him to hold and pops a tablet to his palm. "Soccer can wait. Your immune system can't. It will be a shame if you die on your birthday. These meds you're looking for are right beside you by the way."
"Oh. Thanks."
He feels her watch him down the medicine with water, as if Ran doesn't trust him enough to drink his medicine all the way. It isn't supposed to make him feel awkward, she's consistently done the same since the first hour of his fever, and yet the feeling of being monitored down to the very last detail by his childhood friend of almost sixteen years flusters him. Man is he ever going to get used to this.
"I can take care of my self yanno. I’m twenty," Shinichi states feebly, after he gives her back the empty glass and Ran pulls up a cooling gel sheet from the end table.
“Shut up. I’ll take care of you until we’re eighty,” she replies, eyes thin, looming closer to his face.
He sniggers. "That long? You gonna marry me or something?"
It is a remark borne out of confidence that the recipient who has known him for almost his entire life will take it in jest. Even so, in the burning soreness of his throat - not sure if caused by his sickness or the words which left his mouth - Shinichi feels like the fever is being sucked out of himself everytime he sees her responsive smile and hears her little laugh.
"I'll think about it," she says, as she combs his bangs away with her fingers, and places the gel patch over his forehead.
Shinichi knows it's a response borne out of confidence that the recipient will be certain Ran doesn't literally mean it. That she will not step out of sight and lean behind the kitchen wall and ponder about his amateur proposal as if her life depends on it. Which actually, it does. A lifetime with him? Pfft. Too early to imagine. It's better to dwell in the now. With her. Taking care of him. Best friends for almost two decades now, on a milestone day in his life.
Still.
"You don't have to, though," he mumbles, inaudible for Ran to hear.
More inaudible are the thoughts he doesn't convert to speech, looping like a broken record in his brain:
You don't have to- We don't have to think about it that hard.
It's obvious.
We can decide right here, right now.
But if you let me speak first Ran, I think, for the longest time, I have already made my choice-
"You said something, Shinichi?"
"I mean, you don't have to answer that. Haha," is what he says instead. "I was joking, Ran."
Ran is silent for a long time, then smiles.
"I know, idiot Shinichi," she says after a moment, ruffling his bangs. "You would never choose a crybaby caretaker like me, right?"
A certain quiet commonly shared by two childhood best friends lingers in the room, and in the pause he starts to wonder if he has actually been vague with Ran all this time. He doesn't know why there is a pang of disappointment in his chest, but if such does exist, he is certain it is not directed at her response, but rather, at himself. For once, on his birthday, Shinichi actually wishes.
Shinichi wishes for something different. He wishes for a slight bit of reciprocation that is beyond the realm of friendship. He wishes for Ran to take back what she said and have enough faith in him to believe that he actually would.
After all, this certain feeling hasn't left him since he was four, since he saw her in that kindergarten classroom with a mile-wide smile despite tears clouding her eyes, a crumpled sakura paper in hand with his name in hiragana written on it.
Before he can open his mouth, she speaks first.
"Anyway! I give you a pass to tease me because it's your birthday. Get well soon so we can at least go out and have a nice dinner later, okay?" Her smile is natural, as always, along with the ocean blue of her eyes and the apple of her cheeks.
For the longest time he's known: that smile impressed upon him is meant as platonic.
Ran grazes a hand over his forehead one last time before rising to her knees. "I'll prepare tea, Shinichi," she says, solemnly.
In the silence she leaves him as she hums away unto the whistling kettle, in between the soft rhythm of Shinichi's beating heart, there's an endless rippling stream, drip drip dripping throughout himself. In his heart lies an unshakeable, pressing ache. A need devoid of malice. A truth that will take a hundred more birthday wishes and a thousand meteors crashing down earth before he caves into verbal admission -
This is actually part of the shinran college roomates!AU anthology I have stored in my mind palace for 5+ years now lmao, and I used this special week and Shinichi's birthday as an excuse to write and release a chapter out. <3 The anthology is meant to cover various scenarios in the daily life of childhood-friends-turned-best-friends-turned-roommates (turned lovers?) Shinichi and Ran, with many bloopers and comedy and fighting and bonding and yearning in between. This chapter is supposedly chapter ten or smth... but it's ok it can still make sense as a standalone^^
I noticed you liked my Domestic story for ShinRanweek! That poor tempura! At least they didn't burn down the kitchen!
Yes I did!! Hahahaha agree. It's hilarious having the the two teenagers getting all lovey dovey while the children wait on the other side of the room for their burning tempura 😂😂
Day 4: AU Day || The AU is that they’re all cats lol
Kitty Ran’s about to attack and Kitty Shinichi is kinda worried for someone’s safety(and it isn’t Ran’s, he knows she’s gonna win and kick butt)
prguitarman
gummygunk
stormborns
areudirty
vaporwave
janainaart
annaxmalina
