#atsushi notices the kid solves a problem the same way kunikida taught him too and is like

[karmicpunishment]

atsushi starts taking some college classes and meets some friends and one turns out to be one of kunikidas former students

[leonawriter]

Stray Dogs and Tiger Cubs (pt.17)

Also on AO3

Fandom: Bungo Stray Dogs

Characters: Dazai, Atsushi, Yosano, Kunikida, Chuuya, Akutagawa.

...

"O-o-ow-!"

"Oh, grow up, Dazai. Maybe if you hadn't gotten yourself into that situation in the first place, you wouldn't be in this one now. Atsushi's a better patient than you are!"

"Atsushi-chan can heal because of the tig-ow! - so that doesn't count. And you know I hate pain."

Atsushi himself, completely unharmed despite everything that had happened just earlier, looked over at Yosano with wide eyes.

"Is... is Da-san going to be okay?"

Dazai put on his most morose expression.

"I'm going to die," he said, putting his free arm not currently being manhandled by Yosano, over his eyes. "A long, slow, and painful death. It's awful."

"Don't be ridiculous, Dazai. Atsushi-chan, stop making that face, he's not dying, even if he wishes he was."

He lifted his arm away to find that yes, Atsushi was doing a very good job of making him feel guilty as hell by looking that concerned. 

"I'm just joking, Atsushi-chan~"

"You did get pretty beat up, though. Otherwise I wouldn't still be picking out bits of what can only be described as debris out of your hands. What were you doing, fighting a wall or something?"

"Or something," he said in a tone that was meant to be far more carefree than it came out, what with Yosano dabbing at yet another sore patch and making him wince.

"Da-san did say that Aku-san had been mean to him too," Atsushi said, making Dazai have to fight not to laugh.

Aku-san? So, Akutagawa has become Mr. Bad Guy now? Well... it isn't as though he hasn't earned it.

...

"I see you brought the girl back with you," Kunikida says stiffly.

It wasn't as though he wasn't concerned by everything that was going on; just the sight of Dazai's face had been enough to shock him speechless for a good moment when the small group had returned to the Agency. Dazai was the one out of all of them that was the hardest to kill, to the point where most of them had stopped being concerned at his disappearances a long time ago, expecting that he'd turn up sooner or later, or someone would eventually drag him back to them like a lost dog.

Seeing evidence of the fact that he wasn't somehow invulnerable and that those damn bandages of his probably hid worse, was more than a little unsettling, and he was still attempting to find his balance from the reminder.

"Of course," Dazai said, sounding nowhere near as concerned by any of this than he had any right to be. "She asked so politely not to have to go back to the mafia, so she's staying here for the time being, watching over Atsushi-chan."

He noticed the shift in honorific, and wondered if that meant anything, but made a mental note to ask Dazai about that later, since there were far more pressing problems right now.

"Yes, but - this is the mafia. Not some small gang that Kenji can encourage to just let the matter drop! And aside from that, she's a wanted murderer. The police are going to be after her!"

For a moment, Dazai doesn't respond, just staring over in the direction of where Atsushi is talking to Kenji, who then puts his hat on the small boy's head, which completely covers his eyes until his pushes it up so that he can see, a clear smile on his face as he looks over in their direction. In Dazai's direction.

Dazai smiles, and for the first time, Kunikida finds himself wondering if perhaps Dazai looking after Atsushi might not be the worst thing in the world, for either of them.

"I know that," his partner says at last, voice soft and low and reminding him of when they'd first met, with all of his secrets and no reason to be trusted yet. Reminding him that a lot of the things that he had distrusted Dazai for back then still haven't been answered, even if he's been able to trust the other man with his life for going on two years now. "We don't need to worry about the mafia for the moment, though," Dazai continues brightly, and the sense of something being swept under the rug and hidden away again makes Kunikida grind his teeth. "And I already have an idea for what we can do with her, too."

"Don't need to- do I even want to know what you mean by that?" He pinches the bridge of his nose. "And that'd better be a good idea, because for the life of me, I can't think of anything."

It wasn't for lack of trying, either, but-

"The mafia are busy right now, because someone made a very bad mistake in thinking that they could make them into fools," Dazai point out, and Kunikida shuddered. "Ah, well, because of all of that, and me being Atsushi-chan's guardian, it means that we'll be having to talk with them on even terms to figure out what happens next, which definitely won't be any fun. With any luck they'll just let it drop and go after the one who set up the bounty, but..." Dazai sighed, and trailed off.

"But?"

"Kyouka-chan's the more complicated situation." And there was the serious expression, back again. "And my idea can only work if it's what she truly wants."

"And that is?"

Dazai just smiled enigmatically, damn him, and didn't answer.

...

"Akutagawa. Oi, Akutagawa, listen to me." Chuuya sighed. He'd had to listen to silence interspersed with coughing all the way back to headquarters, and then he'd had to force the damn coat of the overgrown bratty teenager just to get him to be treated. Mori had left him in his care for the time being, to boot. "Look, do you even have any idea why everyone's mad at you."

"...I went against orders."

It was the same stiff and unyielding tone Akutagawa had used against Mori earlier, and it didn't give him any feeling of hope that anything had actually sunk in.

"You do that all the time," he says, waving that idea out the window. "Hell, I went against orders by letting a traitor loose, but in the end, it was the right decision. So what's the difference? And that was a question. I'm expecting an answer."

"Chuuya-san is an executive," came the response, in the same tone as before, making Chuuya put his hand to his head. If he hadn't been getting a headache before, he definitely was now.

"Well, yeah, that helps, but mostly it was because I got good information out of it. Boss likes it best when he's got all the information, not just bits and pieces of it."

Which was similar to Dazai, come to think of it, though he wasn't sure if that was something the Boss had taught Dazai, or if it'd just naturally always been something the mackerel'd had in his head.

"I..." for a moment, he almost thought he'd imagined that, it was so quiet, even and especially with the fit of coughing. "I just... wanted to be stronger. Strong enough... he..."

Chuuya sighed. Leaned back on his chair, and stared at the ceiling, wondering just how many times his (ex) partner had told him how much he hated people who only threw around their strength without using their heads.

"You don't... really get Dazai, do you Akutagawa," he said, glancing back down.

Akutagawa blinked, and it took Chuuya a moment to realise that the expression he was now wearing was one of confusion.

"Get... Dazai-san? That's... it's pointless to even try. Anyone who attempts to understand him falls into a cognitive prison, a dead end with no way out."

"So that's what you think, huh." Dazai really did a number on this kid, whatever it was he did. I dunno if the worst thing is that Dazai doesn't even seem to realise what it is he's done. It's a damn good job he looks like he's treating that weretiger kid better, or... eh, I dunno. "That's your first mistake, then."

He expected some sort of response, a rebuttal, maybe, but all he got was Akutagawa's head turning away in an immature way of saying he didn't want to talk about it, or that's what it seemed like.

The most baffling thing was, Chuuya had worked with Akutagawa before this, and he'd never been this bad. The fact that he knew exactly what was causing it all only made it more frustrating.

"You start thinking of Dazai as some great mystery you're never gonna be able to solve, and it's a self-fulfilling prophecy you've got there. Sure, trying to get inside his head's like trying to stick your hand in a bag full of cats, and trying to figure out his plans is sometimes like trying to get 'em all in a line, but... motivation in general? Like, why he'd be pissed off right now? That's not too hard. He's as human as anyone, you and me included."

He was aware there was a certain amount of irony about that particular phrase and including himself in it, but... it fitted. All too well. But he wasn't about to explain personal things like that, not to Akutagawa, and not here and now.

"After all," added, carefully watching Akutagawa's reaction, "from what I heard, that kid's ability's less like how your Rashomon practically has a mind of its own, or that girl's Demon Snow, or ane-san's Golden Demon, either. Even just from what I saw, it's more like..." Like a softer, fluffier, version of Corruption that's less lethal to the user, came the unwelcome but unfortunately accurate thought. Right down to the fact that they both seemed to need Dazai to stop them once they'd started. "It's still the kid, it's just the shape that's changed."

He stands, hands in pockets and hat shading his eyes as he turns to leave the briefing room he'd appropriated for their 'discussion' a while back.

"But-" the one word paused him at the doorway, full of so much desperate emotion it'd be impossible to pick it all apart. "Dazai-san... Dazai-san never... never once treated me like that! What - what has one kid got, that I- I couldn't-!"

"Yeah? Welcome to the club, then. Personally, I'd say it's because he's an ass who finds it easier to piss people off than stay to deal with the fallout, but... that's just me."

In the end, it sucked, but that was the way things were. Besides, he didn't have time to play therapist when it felt like there were a million other things he needed to be doing right now along with making sure Dazai's mistakes didn't blow up in everyone's faces.