#like when he he had dazai on the phone and made akutagawa run to talk to dazai?? what was that???

[sugarcarnation]

the magic of dazai and atsushis relationship is actually that they’re both kinda socially inept assholes

[robsterskellington]

Shin Soukoku again being the more popular vote, huh? This snippet has Vanitas being more of a side character, but he's still involved.

Context: "In six months time, I'm going to kill you." Akutagawa never breaks his promises, right?

*It's time.*

That text had frozen Atsushi's heart, and made him feel sick. After getting the date confirmed, he realised that it had been exactly six months since the end of the Cannibalism Incident, and thus it was time for Akutagawa to fight Atsushi to the death.

*Why? Why did this have to happen? I thought we were getting along, I thought we finally understood each other!* His thoughts weren't helping matters in the slightest- he felt betrayed, but how could he not? Akutagawa had been hanging out with him a lot; sometimes they sparred and fought, sometimes they simply met for tea, and sometimes Akutagawa would simply be there whenever Byakko needed to run around in that beautiful forest.

But clearly it was all for nothing. Akutagawa would never break a promise, especially not for an *enemy*. That's all Atsushi was, in the end. And it hurt, oh God it hurt. He had to excuse himself and run to the bathroom, crying his eyes out. This was always going to happen, Atsushi knew that, but... knowing that the time had come, knowing that Akutagawa was ready to kill him, it made him throw up.

Eventually he emerged, and simply texted back to ask where to meet. Maybe Atsushi would beat Akutagawa? But then would Akutagawa stop if Atsushi defeated him, or would the fight only stop when one of them died? Atsushi had to come to terms with the fact that it was likely Akutagawa had only been so kind, so good to him, to soften him until he refused to fight him, which would just give Akutagawa an easy win.

His sour mood didn't go unnoticed, but nobody spoke to him. Vanitas seemed keen on keeping everyone away from him, and Ranpo was helping. Dazai wasn't in the office, he was likely bothering Chuuya. Atsushi suddenly growled and faced them, "What's the deal with you all?!"

"Atsushi, just calm down." Vanitas spoke softly and looked at him, "Just go meet Akutagawa, and we'll talk later, okay?" Vanitas had been informed of the promise, but he didn't look nervous. If anything, there was a slight smile hidden on his face, and Atsushi noticed a twinkle in Yosano's eyes. They were up to something, obviously.

Atsushi was texted a bunch of coordinates- he still struggled to read them, so he showed Kyouka, who instructed him to go to the Port, and to an abandoned warehouse that had red paint, crumbling off on the outside. She then gave Atsushi a big hug, since she clearly wasn't in the same know-how as Ranpo, Yosano and Vanitas, and whispered softly, "Even if he begs you, don't kill him. And please don't die, I can't lose you."

He held her tightly, then kissed her forehead. She truly was the little sister he wished he had. After taking a breath, he left, his tears dry and his heart hardened.

****

After a walk that took entirely too long as a result of Atsushi dragging his feet, he arrived at the designated location. The whole area was barren, save some dilapidated buildings. The warehouse he was sent to was empty, just the main structures and some railings remained.

Akutagawa was stood leaning against a pillar, scrolling on his phone, not even dressed in his usual gear- his iconic coat was nowhere to be seen, he was wearing black jeans, black converse and a sky blue hoodie. Only a select few people, (meaning Dazai, Gin and Atsushi), knew that Akutagawa's favourite colour was actually lighter shades of blue.

The outfit was... inappropriate. Not because of the clothes having anything wrong with them, but because Rashōmon wouldn't have a good reach with them, though Akutagawa obviously didn't care. He looked completely relaxed, as if he hadn't just summoned Atsushi for a death match. That sight completely enraged him and he clenched his fists.

"*AKUTAGAWA!!*"

Atsushi jumped down, shaking with fury, but Akutagawa looked calm. In fact, after seeing Atsushi, he grew a warm smile, one that made Atsushi's heart skip a beat, "Greetings, Weretiger."

"...*greetings*?! That's all you can say right now? Fucking *greetings*?!" What was Akutagawa's play? This was insulting and ridiculous, and Akutagawa had the audacity to downplay his feelings?!

Akutagawa stood up properly, and walked calmly towards Atsushi, keeping his hands in his pockets, "You're upset, but you shouldn't be." Before the younger man could shout again, Akutagawa gently continued, "Jinko. I've spent my entire life making and keeping promises. I've never broken a promise. Only now do I realise just how idiotic that is."

That wasn't what Atsushi expected. It wasn't stupid to keep promises, was it? That was when a horrible image flashed in Atsushi's mind- Fukuchi and that cursed sword, slashing Akutagawa's throat. If Atsushi hadn't made Akutagawa promise not to kill, they might not have even gotten to that point. They could have killed the bastard before he could summon the sword. He couldn't speak, and he couldn't look at the man in front of him.

Akutagawa saw Atsushi's expression, and took that as a sign to continue, "These past six months have taught me so much. Finding ways to resolve situations without killing is certainly a good alternative, and it's less paperwork." He was only half-joking, but saw that Atsushi didn't even crack a smile. Taking another breath, he got to his point: "I can't kill you. I don't want to, so I refuse. This will be the first promise I *break*."

"...what?" This wasn't real. It couldn't be. But he hoped it was, that he wouldn't wake up and find out that this was just a dream.

Akutagawa took a step closer and smiled at Atsushi, "I... wanted to know what my actual feelings were. So during the time limit I set for us, I decided to spend time with you. I've been alive for nearly 21 years, and I swear that I've never laughed, cried, or enjoyed myself as much as I have when we're together. Being around you simply feels right. If I kill you, then that's all gone, and I cannot allow that."

He couldn't ignore his emotions anymore, and he didn't even really understand his jealousy in the first place! Sure, Atsushi got all of Dazai's attention and praise, but one, he'd earned every word of encouragement and kindness, and two, Akutagawa was dealing with a version of Dazai that was toxic and cruel. The facts of the matter was that they were a great team, the New Double Black, and knew that they could trust each other in any life or death situation. Akutagawa was done being cold to Atsushi, the man he willingly gave up his life for.

Atsushi was shaking, he felt more emotional than he'd done in a long time. Without thinking, he hugged Akutagawa tightly, sobbing into his chest. The tears fell more when he felt the other wrapping his arms securely around him, the two of them just embracing. After a little longer, Atsushi sniffed, "...Ryū? Is this really what you want?"

"I want a lot more, but that'll come later." He chuckled weakly, stroking the back of Atsushi's head, his eyes closed as he enjoyed the Weretiger's warmth, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier. I wanted to, but I was so scared you wouldn't believe me. I didn't want you to hate me again, we've come so far from when we first met."

"Still, I'll get you for scaring me like that, you lunatic." They both laughed a little, and Atsushi finally calmed down, pulling away and wiping his eyes. They needed to talk things through properly, but while his emotions and mind were a bit fried, Atsushi looked up at Akutagawa, "I was scared. I didn't wanna die, I didn't wanna hurt you. Seeing you die on the ship..." he frowned then tilted his head, "You never answered my question. Why did you save me that day? Was it because of Dazai's orders, or because you wanted to kill me yourself back then?"

"Actually, when he ordered me to protect you, I initially refused at the time, like a fool." Akutagawa reached out and stroked Atsushi's cheek, "I saved you, simply because I wanted you to live. I wanted you to see that even if you thought you had no right to live, other people like myself disagree. You have every right to live, and I'm so grateful every day I see you, alive and well. No more suffering or pain."

He'd never heard those words before. Atsushi had never been told that others wanted him to live. Sometimes implications weren't enough. Sure, Kyouka had asked him not to die, but it wasn't quite the same. Someone being grateful that Atsushi was alive felt so foreign to him, so alien. Coming from Akutagawa, it felt sincere. Leaning into Akutagawa's touch, he felt tears well up again, but he didn't fight to keep them, just letting them fall.

Once he regained his composure, Atsushi assumed that maybe they could go out for tea or something, but Akutagawa looked nervous suddenly, "Actually, would you mind taking me to the Agency? I believe your head detective will have figured out that I'm not keeping this particular promise, so there's no need for hostility."

"I mean, sure. I can bring you." He knew now that after six months of not killing, Akutagawa had changed. There was no way he'd flip like a switch now, especially when Akutagawa had since acknowledged that Dazai belonged at the Agency. Akutagawa was in the Port Mafia, so killing was unavoidable, but Akutagawa would *try* not to, so that gave Atsushi some peace. But still, "May I ask why, first?"

"You may, and I shall tell." Akutagawa looked uncomfortable for a moment, then looked at Atsushi with a soft expression, "As you're aware, I have a lung disease that's slowly but surely killing me. However, five months ago, Vanitas had given me a medicine to soothe the pain, and allow me to breathe properly. Because of it, I have grown physically stronger, and I feel healthier."

Atsushi knew all this, of course. Vanitas had given Akutagawa the herbal remedy he'd concocted while the Port Mafia were still Vampires, and he'd been taking it for so long that his coughing was a rare occurrence now. The problem was that lungs, once damaged, tend to remain that way. The medication helped with the breathing difficulties, and helped Akutagawa do more with his body and life, but the lung disease would kill him in the end.

He felt his heart fill with light when Akutagawa continued: "Before, I was so weak that if your Doctor Yosano tried to use her Ability on me, I would have died before Thou Shalt Not Die could activate, which is one Hell of a feat, considering it can cure death in certain circumstances." He cleared his throat, "Now... I'm not that weak anymore. I can survive. So, please take me to her... so I can get rid of this cursed illness once and for all, and live for as long as I can."

Atsushi was having a day of emotional whiplash. What started off with pure fear, was now a situation that filled him with so much joy that he couldn't see straight. Acting without thinking, Atsushi threw his arms around Akutagawa, who held him securely and swung him around using the momentum created, laughing! It was so ridiculous, but they were both happy and clearly doing things in the heat of the moment. This was completely verified by Atsushi, slamming his lips onto Akutagawa's.

The Black Caped Beast, the Rabid Dog of the Port Mafia, was stunned silent and completely red in the face as the infamous Weretiger of the Armed Detective Agency kissed him like he needed Akutagawa's lips in order to breathe. In that moment, Akutagawa felt the same way, his arms holding Atsushi close, both of them aware of Byakko and Rashōmon purring within them, also happy.

Once they pulled apart, Atsushi grabbed Akutagawa's hand and practically dragged him to the Agency; it was a good thing that Akutagawa's lungs were already on the mend, at least now he could keep up without losing breath too fast and feeling like trash! He didn't want anything to ruin the moment they just had...

****

Vanitas and Ranpo had smug looks on their faces when they saw the boys return, and Akutagawa glared, "...you both really did call it."

"Yep!" Ranpo grinned as Vanitas explained, "However, we didn't want to risk anything going wrong, so we kept it to ourselves. The only other people who figured this out was the President, and Doctor Yosano."

As if summoned, Yosano came from the infirmary, looking surprised when Akutagawa bowed to her, "Doctor Yosano, after everything I've done, I understand if you refuse, but... I'm in desperate need of healing. Even with Vanitas' medicines, I'm not going to live too long with my lungs in this state. I'm willing to pay any price-"

Yosano cut him off by raising her hand, and looked at him, "You're a patient in need of help, and I'm aware that Vanitas' medicines can only do so much, while Mr. Mori is useless when it comes to diseases. You don't need to pay me anything, I'm just proud of you for finally admitting that you need help." She looked towards Atsushi and smiled, "You can trust me with Akutagawa's health."

It wouldn't take long, but Atsushi was still nervous at seeing Yosano drag Akutagawa into the infirmary. Kyouka had to hold him back when he heard the chainsaw whirring and Akutagawa's scream- he'd never heard Akutagawa scream with utter fear before, and he silently vowed that he would never let Akutagawa scream like that ever again. Kyouka hugged Atsushi, and he leaned into her. Obviously he knew that Yosano would cure Akutagawa completely, but it was still nerve-wracking to wait.

It was only a couple of minutes before Yosano came out, with a satisfied look, "Okay, that lung disease is all gone! And *yes* Atsushi, you can-" He zipped right past her before she could finish her sentence, but she found herself still doing so, "...see him now."

Vanitas laughed and went to make Yosano some tea to help her recover, "How bad?"

"If you hadn't given him that stuff, Akutagawa's lungs would have gotten worse. That boy hasn't smoked in his life, but his lungs were in a similar state to a chain smoker." She looked tired, but it was obvious that she thought it was worth it. "He probably would have died before meeting the six month deadline he'd set for Atsushi."

That was depressing, but unfortunately that was how unlucky life could be for some people. Akutagawa was already sickly, prone to infections and illnesses of all kinds. It was good that now he had support, and was able to trust people enough to help him. After giving Yosano the tea, Vanitas and Kyouka peaked inside the infirmary to see that Akutagawa was sound asleep in the bed, with Atsushi holding his hand and resting his head on the edge of aforementioned bed.

Vanitas smiled and grabbed an extra blanket, covering Atsushi's sleeping form before taking Kyouka's hand and leading her to the café to relax for a while. He'd already taken note of the fact that Akutagawa's breathing sounded steady, and he didn't look uncomfortable anymore. His chest no longer rattled, and he didn't cough himself awake.

*****

Akutagawa woke up an hour later, and he could immediately feel that he was *better*. It didn't feel like smoke was filling his lungs, and he couldn't taste blood in the back of his throat anymore. He felt someone squeeze his hand, and turned to smile at Atsushi taking a nap close to him. His heart hammered at the memory of that kiss, and he blushed to himself.

Maybe this partnership had more similarities to Chuuya and Dazai's than he thought. Working together, capable of destruction, and at the end of the day, they completed each other. Akutagawa and Atsushi weren't a single soul in two bodies, but their Abilities in the form of Kokko Zessō absolutely was.

Akutagawa smiled to himself as he watched Atsushi slowly awaken from his nap, and he couldn't help but stroke Atsushi's face when he saw that sleepy smile, "Ryū... how you feeling?"

"Healthy." That was honestly the best way to describe how he felt at this moment. Akutagawa leaned forward and pressed his forehead against Atsushi's, the pair of them holding each other like that for a moment.

It felt like now or never, so Atsushi spoke softly, "I... Ryū, I think I've made my thoughts clear, but I'm still gonna say it. I don't want us to be enemies anymore, or rivals. You may be in the Port Mafia, but that doesn't matter to me. I just... I just want to spend my life with you..."

That was something exceedingly dangerous to ask of a Mafia member, however Akutagawa completely returned that sentiment. He'd known Atsushi for months now, and they'd been through so much together. All Akutagawa wanted was to watch Atsushi live his life, while standing beside him the entire time. He'd never attack Atsushi, and he didn't particularly have any beef with the Agency, so a feud was pointless in his opinion.

All Akutagawa could do in response was pull Atsushi onto the bed with him, hold him close, and kiss him again. Atsushi squeaked, but wrapped his arms around Akutagawa and let them both sink into the bed, staying there for what felt like hours.

This was trust. This was loyalty. This was *love*.

[imagineanime2022]

Amusement Park Outing *Part 3*

Chuya Nakahara X Fem!Reader

Word Count: 3205

Requested: Anon

Request: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8

Warning: Suicide, Talk of suicide, Suicidal reader, the reader is severely injured, hospitals and manipulation

*Part 2*

Yokohama had lost all sense since the escape of your prisoner, there were incidents all over the city, poisoned water, missing people, and even members of the Port Mafia had turned victim to whatever the rival group had been scheming. The official meeting had been postponed in favor of finding a way to save the city and the people in it.

You, Chuya and Koyo were in the middle of a meeting yourself after the realization that the poison used in the water was very similar to the one that they attempted to use against Koyo “with Akutagawa, Gin and Higuchi are sick now.” Koyo said. “They targeted them.” You leaned your head against your hand as you spoke, you were angry that you had managed to let the mirror user get away from you. “But what are they trying to get?” Koyo asked. “They want us to leave Mori and join them or die.” Chuya said “when I was fighting the hostage before she offered me a place with them.” “I’ll talk to Mori about this.” Koyo said as you all stood, before you could leave Ace appeared at the door. “The phone that you gave me, was hers?” Ace asked. “Who else would it belong to?” Chuya asked “She had it.” “Well then her last call before breaking out was to the Armed Detective Agency.” Ace handed over a piece of paper as you all looked at it. “The ADA…I didn’t think that they would have anything to do with this group.” You frowned. “Dazai might but the rest of them…That’s unlikely.” Chuya frowned. “You should all be more careful, you know after losing a hostage, you’ll be on his watch list.” Ace smirked, Koyo looked at him giving an overly friendly smile for the words that accompanied it. “You are barely an executive. I suggest that you stay out of this.” Koyo ordered. “Well then one last thing before I leave the signal came from somewhere near the river. (Y/N) you should check it out.” Ace explained before finally leaving. “We’ll report to Mori.” Koyo said as she looked at you, you nodded as you headed off to check the location that Ace gave you.

“You should go home and rest.” Koyo suggested after they had finished reporting to Mori, Chuya looked at her and frowned, he wanted to say no but the truth was that you had all been working hard and he wouldn’t be of any use to anyone if he tired himself out with the investigation.

As he made his way home, he texted you to make sure that you were okay, his attention taken from his phone as he looked over at the crowd blocking his journey home. “I heard it’s the Port Mafia.” Someone whispered, he frowned as he walked over to the scene, he pushed his way through the crowd crouching to look at the body that way lying on the floor, there was a woman, she had been stabbed with a knife, he assumed the one next to her, Chuya stood only for a woman to bump into him, he glared down at the coffee over the front of his shirt, he turned to try and find her but she was already gone, he grunted before stepping away from the scene and headed home.

Chuya run a bath as soon as he got home in the hopes that he could get the coffee smell off of his body, he new that he was going to have to get rid of the shirt as it would likely stain but he’d deal with that later. He was alerted to something being wrong by the sound of the water, he turned in time to grab the water user around the throat pressing her to the wall, she smirked before turning into water and reappearing slightly to the left of him “as much as I want to fight you, I have a message for you…” She said. “What?” Chuya asked. “We’ve stolen information from the Port Mafia, if you want it back then we want something in return, some information, we’ll tell you what we want when your boss agrees to a meeting” She explained. “That’s not how deals work.” Chuya glared before grabbing the knife under the sink and throwing it at her, she dodged before throwing water at him. “I really want to fight you, maybe something more… It's a shame that girl is still alive.” She sighed “the next time that we fight, I’ll fight and win, you’ll be crying for me to stop and then I’ll walk away taking that hat of yours with me as a trophy. Actually…” She reached over, taking the hat and putting it on her head, she disappeared as Chuya reached out for it. Once he was sure that she was gone, he emptied the water and left the room to Koyo who he hoped was still at the Mafia Base with Mori. “Chuya, how can I help you?” Koyo asked. “Well that water user we were talking about was just here, she said that they’ve stolen some information from us, she didn’t say what and she said that they wanted something in return, but she’d only reveal that in a meeting with the boss.” Chuya explained. “It seems that there is a lot to talk about (Y/N) has found something too.” Koyo explained. “The amusement park that you all went to a couple of months ago, seems to be the place that the poison originated from, it’s also long since been abandoned.” “It was a trap.” He mumbled. “What does the boss want to do?” “He wants to hear from everyone in the morning.” Koyo asked.

The next morning everyone relayed what they had found with Chuya starting, it then moved to you “even the gift that she got there was part of the plan, they’ve been tracking your location through her.” You explained. “Then it was a trap?” He asked. “It would seem so sir.” You nodded. “Well then you should both go and see what they want.” Mori suggested. “They said they would only tell us if you were there sir.” Chuya reminded him. “Well they’ll have to make do with you, now go.” He ordered, Chuya glanced at you, after he met you at the bar last night he had been worried about you, you’d been quiet, Chuya was about to ask if you could serve as backup when you spoke first. “I would like to do this alone.” You said, Mori smiled. “It’s too dangerous for you to go alone, you’ll go with Chuya.” He informed you before waving you both away. “Hey-” “If something goes wrong, call Dazai.” You said before walking away from him, he wanted to talk to you properly but you were gone before he could.

When you both got to the abandoned amusement park, you both saw the water user smirking at you with Chuya’s hat on her head, he grit his teeth. “Hello you two.” She waved. “I swear I’m going to kill you and take that hat back.” Chuya growled out as you walked over to the mirror user and walked back to Chuya. “It’s lucky this doesn’t matter because I know that’s all fake.” He smirked while throwing the paper to the floor “Is that what he told you to give us?” “You didn’t tell us what you wanted.” You glared at him. “Doesn’t matter, all she wants is to fight your boyfriend over there since he intrigues her so much.” He waved her off as the water user threw water at the two of you which forced you to split up. “Well, aren’t you a great friend? You are telling them all my secrets.” She glared over at him and he shrugged. “Not much of a secret is it?” He asked as he used his ability to separate the two of you. Chuya dodged the water attacks thrown at him, the water user growled before throwing some old debris at him with the water, he dodged making sure to touch the object before using his ability to throw it back at her. Chuya didn’t realized that head stepped close enough to the river on the to be dragged into the river, she attempted to drown him while she had him but it didn’t work, he easily broke her hold with his own ability and flew up above to water, Chuya threw water at her as a distraction before seemingly appearing in front of her and kicking her in the stomach knocking her to the floor, he attempted to punch her but she dodged before kicking him her foot connecting with his chin. “You really don’t remember me do you?” She asked, “Idiot.” “What are you talking about?” Chuya asked. “Well you're taller than you were when we first met.” She shrugged.

You looked at the mirror user in front of you “how are you still loyal to him after everything that you’ve been through at his hands?” He asked, you didn’t answer him, instead you activated your ability. “He saved me when I was a child.” You finally said. “He’s told you to let someone you cared for die, I feel sorry for you, even after all of that you can’t walk away from him.” the mirror user sighed. “Did you know that I can connect to spirits? Do you know what they say about you?” “You can’t connect to anything, spirits aren’t real.” You informed him. “Well what about the little girl that you left to die on her own.” He pointed to the mirror where your old friend stood, you remembered the day that she sacrifice herself for you “she died alone because of you and what about Oda, the man you neglected to help because Mori told you not to from what I understand he helped you get over the shyness and suicidal thoughts..” Oda then appeared in the mirror “and what about your father, you left him to die, the first time that you saw him use his ability to protect you.” Your father stepped out of the mirror this time his voice sounding through your head as he asked you why. Your hands came up to your head clutching your head as you cried. “You can make it stop.” The mirror user held a knife out in front of her , he wrapped her hand around the knife and pointed the end of the knife at her chest. “(Y/N)!” Chuya yelled “stop.” In a rush of movement the knife plunged into your hand.

“You should really focus on me.” The water user smirked as she attempted to hit him again, he dodged out of the way of the ice. “What the hell is he doing!?” Chuya asked. “We’ve been doing this for a week, capturing people close to the Port Mafia in some way and bringing up past mistakes, making them feel so guilty that they give in and kill themselves.” She explained “I assume he’s doing the same to her, looks like it won’t be long now.” Chuya attempted to get to you but the water user threw him back towards the river and away from you, he saw the knife in your hand, he recognised it as the one that was with the woman yesterday. The water user created a wave that carried rocks with it, he kicked the rock into the water user before attempting to get back to you, she hit Chuya before creating ice around his leg. “You really should remember me.” She held up the bracelet that looked too small for her to wear now, and he recognised it. “You were with the sheep?” He asked. “I tried to kill you before, I wanted to be queen.” She informed him. “I should have killed you back then.” He glared at her. “You should have, maybe the sheep wouldn’t have betrayed you, after all I’m the one who told them to.” She informed him, everything around them seemed to rise and fly around erratically. The water user stepped back onto the water, Chuya followed her and when she got the chance she created a water prison around him freezing it, he easily broke it before kicking a rock at her, she blocked it with an ice wall, Chuya used his ability to throw her into a wall before throwing some knives at her, she dodged those before she slumps forward Chuya pushed her back against the wall again “this was fun better than when we were kids.” She laughed. “Shut up.” He ordered throwing a rock at her.

“It’s okay to end this yourself, it’s the strongest choice you can make.” He said “Even if you want to make it as painful as possible.” “I’ve wanted to die in the most painful way since I was 15 years old.” You mumbled. “Well you're one step closer to that dream,” He promised. “This isn’t the same as that, I don’t want to die here.” You said as you started to stand, he lifted the gun he had concealed and shot you in the head, you continued moving, you kicked him creating some distance, he lifted gun and tried shooting you in the leg but again that didn’t work and you continued moving towards you, he didn’t understand, you weren’t bleeding or anything, you were fine. He retreated towards the mirror to try and escape you as he continued to shoot at you, you grabbed him around the throat headbutting him, he desperately threw glass in your face, you were hurt, you couldn’t see but you didn’t let go of him. “If I die today then I’ll be taking you with me.” You sneered, the mirror user seemed genuinely shocked though you would never see that look, he tried to get away from you but it was no use if your grip was too tight.

The explosion drew the attention of Chuya and the water user, she rushed over to the now shattered mirror to her friend while Chuya rushed to you “(Y/N)?” He asked to lift your chin so that you were looking at him, he took a deep breath as he saw the glass around your eyes, he wasn’t sure how badly your eyesight would be affected, he looked back to see that the mirror user was. “Next time I’ll kill you, both of you.” The water user informed him before disappearing into the water, Chuya knew that he wouldn’t be able to chase them he instead turned to face you and realised that you were barely breathing. “(Y/N)…” He lifted your head so that it was on his lap as he took your phone out and called Dazai. “I didn’t think that you would call.” Dazai’s voice emitted from the phone. “She told me to call you if something went wrong, I think she’s almost dead.” Chuya said followed by an explanation of everything that happened. “Patch her up as best you can, I’ll be there soon.” Dazai said before hanging up the phone, Chuya but bandages on the wounds that he could see. Dazai appeared 30 minutes later to nullify her ability, this caused all of the wounds to bleed more, Chuya glared at him. “What the hell did you do?” Chuya asked. “She was using an ability called ‘painless’ . I nullified it.” Dazai answered. “What?” Chuya asked. “Painless allows her to turn her organs to stone and endure more pain than she normally would, unfortunately just like corruption the longer she uses it the more likely she is to die from it, when she stops using it the wound becomes much worse.” Dazai explained. “There must be others out there, there was a spy in the Armed Detective Agency, she manipulates memories, she’s already targeted Kyoka and Atsushi.” Handing him a picture. “She bumped into me yesterday.” Chuya muttered as he recalled the woman that spilled coffee on his shirt. “I think you were their next target but (Y/N) would get in the way so they decided to take her out instead.” Dazai explained. “You should keep an eye on her, she came here to kill herself, she asked to do this mission alone didn’t she?” “Yes.” Chuya answered. “Do you remember when we were younger, we weren’t joking, she wanted to die to escape the guilt of leaving her friend to die, that was why she was so impulsive and protective of me, she just didn’t value her own life. You are the only reason that she’s still alive, she admitted that she’s just not brave enough to disobey Mori that is until she saw you. You know you should get her to a hospital, she could lose her sight.” Dazai said as he stood up. “You hurt her feelings at the bar.” Chuya called out as Dazai crouched, picking something up. “I was only telling her the truth.” He walked back towards Chuya and put whatever he had picked up on his head, his hat he realised “look after her.”

It had been 4 months since the incident, you had been in a coma due to all of your injuries, Chuya visited you everyday and was there when you opened your eyes for the first time, he calmed you as you panicked about your surroundings and then allowed the doctors to check you over. “What happened with Mori? He's probably mad right?” You asked. “It doesn’t matter, you need to get better.” He said as he looked at her “we'll have to take a vacation after this.” “I don’t know-” “Shh.” Chuya muttered. “I need to ask you something.” He said before proceeding to explain everything that Dazai had said before asking if it was true. “I did intend to use Painless as an easy escape.” You admitted “everyone was disappointed in me and everyone around me was angry at me.” “I wasn’t.” He promised. “I need you to talk to me, I can’t have you dying on me.” “Will you let me lean on your head when I’m able to walk around?” You asked, he was relieved that you were making jokes but he wished that you would have talked about the actual issue more. “Doesn’t matter how much pain you're in, you'll never be able to do that.” He answered as you laughed, he rolled his eyes as there was a knock on the door, and you both looked back at Koyo at the door. “I came to make sure that you were okay.” She smiled softly. “Can I come in?” You nodded shyly as she walked over and put a vase of flowers on the bedside table. “Don’t ask him but Aktugawa wanted me to bring this for you, he worried for you.” She explained “as did we all,” “You did?” You asked. “Mm, you are a valued member of the mafia and friend to many.” She nodded. “Thank you for coming on their behalf.” You said as you smiled softly to yourself, Koyo caught Chuya’s eye as he mouthed ‘thank you.’ before a normal conversation continued even branching into what you wanted to eat when you were finally out of the hospital.

*Part 4*

Request Here!!

[kyouka-supremacy]

Okay and I'm back, here's the highlights:

The first cosplays I found were of Ranpo and Oda!!! I was very excited to see Oda because I had never met someone cosplaying him before, and I was in Dark Era Dazai cosplay so it got me a little emotional eheh. They were so sweet!!!

Gogol cosplay!!! They were so cute and kind too. I asked them if they had been keeping up with season 5 and they told me it had made them super depressed (because of Dostoyevsky) akdnfvekdnbdke I'm so sorry.

At that point I was kinda struck because despite having seen several bsd cosplays before, I don't think I ever met anyone as something other than Dazai / Chuuya / Atsushi.

Found a suegiku couple and they were SO CUTE. And then as I was looking away Jouno straight up pulled out HANDCUFFS AND HANDCUFFED ME and said they were bound to handcuff every Dazai they would have stumbled across akdbfgeksbdhekd it was SO FUNNY. And cute. It made for such a nice photo <3

Extremely cute fyolais :') As I was distributing stickers to them I asked if Akutagawa (stickers) were alright, and they showed me THEIR MATCHING PHONE COVERS WITH AKUTAGAWA'S BODY ON ONE AND HIS HEAD ON THE OTHER, I WAS LOSING IT THERE AND THEN AKDNFVKDNFHELSDBHE

Bram and Sigma cosplay couple!!! They were FABULOUS

A Dazai / Dostoyevsky / Chuuya trio, they all were such cool people!!!! I had so much fun making small talk while giving away stickers– Dazai was so quick-witted and funny, I was like “is Akutagawa okay with you” to Dostoyevsky and Dazai intervened to say “oh yeah, my least favorite student” ajdbfvskdbdhks. Dostoyevsky seemed to really like Akutagawa though– in the end I found so many people liking him, but not a single cosplay of his (╥﹏╥). When I went to ask if they had sighted any other bsd cosplay and they told me they'd seen an Atsushi, I went “oh I absolutely need to catch them then!!” and Dazai replied “yeah, go catch my favorite student!!” ahah. Oh and when I brought out the Akutagawa plushie to show Dostoyevsky, and offhandendly joked “yeah, wouldn't go out without my loyal dog, right?” Chuuya replied in a thin voice “he is your loyal dog?” IT WAS ADORABLE

OKAY TO THE ATSUSHI COSPLAY. THEY WERE MY FAVORITE AND NEW FAVORITE PERSON IN THE WORLD. As I was running after them I called out “Atsushi! Atsushi!” and for some reason when they turned to see what was going on their face inmediately LIGHTENED UP and they??? Went to hug me?!?!?!?!?!?!!!!!!!!!!! I have NO idea how that happened but let me tell you, it was the singlest cutest thing ever. We took photos of us hugging and they're so cute!!! And they mentioned that they loved Akutagawa, and I was VIBRATING, and I took out my Akutagawa plushie and they looked at it with glimmering eyes like it was the most beautiful thing in the world. Kissed him and everything. I'm storing the photo of them holding it close to their face while smiling brightly close to my heart.

A Chuuya cosplay!!! They were STUNNING. And it's very funny because looking back at it, as I saw them I kinda had the most Dazai reaction ever? So: by that time wearing the bandages over one eye was getting pretty painful, so I had previously pulled them up and put my glasses back on, you know? That means that as soon as I saw the Chuuya cosplay I turned bright red and turned my back to them and started fixing up myself the best I could akdbfhekdbheks. And then - as I figured they ware busy with something else and didn't want to interrupt - I stayed in the distance trying to appear the most nonchalant and disinterested when in reality I was watching out to never lose sight of them akdbfvekxnfbdkdnvdks. But in the end when I finally approached them they, too, were insanely kind (╥﹏╥) Other than, again, looked amazing!!!! I was really like “sorry to break character, but you look FABULOUS”. They wear such a beautiful smile!!!!!!! And they were super sweet.

One more soukoku couple, they were so kind and sweet!!!

One super cute Ranpo in the wild

A bigger group made of Mushitarou, Yokomizo, Gogol and Dostoyevsky. I was like “can I join you for a group photo?” and they were like “sure, join our dead husbands club! Although I guess that doesn't work for you. Uh. Dead-father-figure is close enough!” and I was like. UHM (ʘ‿ʘ)

I'm so sorry I didn't find any Akutagawa cosplay, I would have hugged them tight ಥ_ಥ

Btw @ anyone based in Italy among my followers, I'll be at romics on Friday! Feel free to hmu in dms if you'd like to say hi (ㅅ´ ˘ )♡

[ssatoritendou]

Dinner for Three

Pairing: Chuuya/reader

Chuuya Nakahara

Word count: 1.4k

+ summary: After a day being tormented by Osamu Dazai all you want to do was spend time with the lovely Chuuya...but an enemy has other plans for both of you

Genre: fluff

Warning: mentions of weapons

“Osamu I don’t get why I have to wear a face mask?”

In a whiney tone, with a pout, the dangerous mafioso responded, “___ it’s a disguise. No one can tell who you are.”

“Osamu, putting me in a suit, a face mask, and a different hairstyle won’t fool anyone. Besides we are in headquarters. Everyone knows we work together.” You argued with him.

“Boo-hoo for trying to make our day fun. And make you look interesting.” He laughed with an evil smirk.

“Keep talking Dazai, you’ll end up in more bandages.” You mumbled.

You were going through the paperwork you had to finish filling out and filing.

“___ I’m bored.”

You sighed, “Osamu maybe if you did your paperwork on time, we could be out on a raid or literally anything else.”

“Why would I do it? When I have a pretty Belladonna doing it for me.”

You chuckled with a sinister smile under your mask but to Dazai it looks like you liked the compliment. “Actually I’m doing Nakahara a favor.”

He faked a pain in his heart and fell out of the chair. “How dare you do that dog a favor! You are supposed to be my associate, not his!”

“Osamu you do realize we all work together, you might be my mentor but I’m friends with everyone.”

“And to think I gave you...what did I give you again?”

“Hmm...” you thought “you gave a roll of bandages. I think you even said over drinks used them when you have horrible injuries. Then you poured Chuuya’s wine into his hat. We were asked to leave Lupin. If Odasaku was there controlling what you were drinking maybe we wouldn’t have been kicked out.”

“You just said Chuuya. You never call him Chuuya. Always Nakahara, Mr. Nakahara, and Executive Nakahara.”

“Did I? Careless mistake. You say it all the time must have picked it up.” You said with a shrug finishing the last paper for Chuuya.

Knowing full well you messed up. You weren’t supposed to call him that outside of the home. You were supposed to meet him tonight for dinner. But now the ever so clever mafioso idiot Dazai Osamu, was glaring at you.

“Do you have any idea what you want to do or what we should do? Besides play dress up. Heard anything from Ogai?”

He looked down at his desk filled with paperwork. “No, I guess I have to meet Akutagawa soon.”

“So I can go home?” You asked excitedly.

“Yeah yeah. Keep the phone on though.”

You left headquarters and went home. You plopped on your couch loosening your tie.

“Hey baby,… what are wearing?” He looked you up and down.

“Dazai wanted to play dress-up today. He said it was a “disguise”.” You told your boyfriend.

He growled at the mention of Dazai. “I’m sorry he tortured by that asshole.”

“Chuuya that is not a kind way to describe our friend.”

He rolled his eyes. “He is a suicidal maniac and a piece of shit. Do not call him my friend.” He growled.

“Ok, sweetie. I’m going to get ready for dinner.” You told him.

“You still want to go out even with the suspicious sociopath out there?”

“I just spent the entire day with a bored Dazai, he dressed me up as Mori does with Elise. I deserve a night out at my favorite restaurant with my big bad mafioso boyfriend is going to take me there.”

“He dressed you like the way Mori does with Elise?!” He yelled, taking that small comparison away from your statement.

“Dinner. Tonight Chuuya.”

“You were right. We are needed the night out.” Chuuya said sipping his wine.

“It pays to be in the mafia with multiple restaurants willing to close just for you.”

Chuuya hummed to that as you both raised your glasses clinking them.

You two were in a comfy corner in the party room restaurant, arched doors closed, large paints hanging off the walls, maroon carpeted floors, a private bar across from the door, and a table lit by candlelight. A fine red wine Chuuya picked for you two tonight. Him even pinning his hair tonight under his fedora.

You recently saw an old picture when he first entered the Port Mafia with short hair. You casually mentioned you liked how he looked in his teens. He nearly chopped off his beautiful long ginger hair with a pair of kitchen scissors. You threw a knife in his direction to stop him from doing so. You adore his long locks, loved calming him down with running your fingers through his hair. Or when he had a pretty stressful day brushing it for him and braiding it, that ultimately lead to him braid yours in return.

“So please tell me how was your day today My Love.” You asked him.

“Pretty boring had to go over shipments coming in from the north, that was early in the morning. Then there was the delivery process. I was able to go for a short bike ride briefly, nearly got mugged by a kid on the street. He looked like he was starving I didn’t blame him I’ve been there. So I gave him so cash and a card just in case he needs a family.”

“Ever so kind My God.”

“What did I tell you about calling me your god.” He brought down his hat to cover his face flush from the comment.

“It’s only true, Mr. Executive.” You said teasingly knowing that gets a rise out of him. You started to play footies with his legs under the pristine white table cloth.

“I would like to go to dinner once where we actually eat and not having me rush home because you can’t behave.” He growled at you grabbing your thigh possessively.

You giggled. “Sorry for teasing you.” You liked down at your wine glass twirling your finger around the edge. You noticed a strange reflection in the glass.

“Chuuya duck.” You said in a calm manner.

You both hit the deck just as a rain of fire of bullets was coming from the main dining room.

You flipped the table over as the both of you made your way to the bar.

“Can you use your ability?”

“I can’t see who is out there or how many. They are covered.”

“And we are pinned down.” You sighed.

So this is how you and Chuuya, the love of your life were going to die. Pinned down in your favorite restaurant being killed by Port Mafia enemies.

“What can you do with a blowtorch?” Chuuya asked pulling it up from under the shelf.

“Depends how much do you like that jacket?”

He smirked and started ripping the jacket up. Putting the ends in liquor bottles. You turned on the blowtorch, starring at the beautiful flame.

Chuuya was smirking happily watching you ready to burn down a building and give him an opening to kill these men that were trying to kill you.

He saw one of the bullets and saw an interesting logo on the side.

“…Mori Corp.” He said with an angry low tone. “Don’t, we can’t kill them.”

“What they are shooting at us?”

“They are blanks. Look at the shells.”

“Son of a bitch, Osamu Dazai!” You yelled across the restaurant. You stood up from behind the bar. “The next person who shoots, I will have your head and Chuuya will play with your decapitated head.”

Chuuya face went blank after you said that.

“Ok ok boys you heard the little lady. You can all go home.” Dazai said with an evil smirk.

You jumped over the bar into the main dining hall grabbing the bandage freak by the neck.

“What the hell Dazai! You tortured me all day and I wanted to relax with my boyfriend and you had to ruin it.” He was laughing, “Why the hell are you laughing your maniac?!”

“You said Chuuya is your boyfriend.”

“That is what this is about?!” Chuuya yelled at him from the side.

“Now, Now you two, you were keeping a secret from your best friend. You should have told me because you didn’t you got shot at.” He said with his dead stare.

“You are psycho.” You sighed holding your head in hand. You flipped the table back up pulling three chairs over. “Are you idiots coming to eat or not?”

[todorokichills]

BSD boys reacting to their s/o being called short

Including Chuuya, Atsushi, and Akutagawa.

A/N: Hey guys! If you want to request an HC or Scenario, just ask me. (Totally don't need anything to do with my life)

Chuuya

Trust me, he knows your pain ;-;

Some guy called you short (or any offensive nickname meaning short ) and you felt offended but didn't say anything.

Chuuya was already irritated at the fact that someone called the love of his life such a name as “short”

But seeing you scared to create conflict but still very uncomfortable with the fact made his blood fucking BOIL

You can see steam coming out of his ears.

Knowing how Chuuya can get when angry, you put a hand on his shoulder as he was practically growling at the guy.

Feeling your touch, Chuuya knew to tone it down a bit.

He still gave the guy a death glare ( I said he tones it down a bit, so he's still pretty fucking pissed)

You walked up to the man and asked him,

“U-um sir, could you please not call me that?”

Waiting for the man to try and hurt you, Chuuya prepared a whole murder while you tried to settle things down.

The guy said “Fine. I just wanted to ask for your phone numb-”

BOOM

A chair, table, and maybe or maybe not a few knives were thrown at the guy.

“Don't you fucking come near her again, got that?”

The guy frantically nodded as you hid your face from the people who were staring at you two.

You and Chuuya leave, but not after you apologizing to the guy a million times and paying for his cab.

You guys get home and you and Chuuya talk about his temper but then it turns into a cuddle session.

Atsushi

Now, unlike Chuuya, man does NOT understand the pain of being short.

I mean, he's 5’7”, what'd you expect?

;-; *cries in 5’0”*

ANYWAYS,

You and Atsushi had to go run some errands for the agency.

Atsushi had gone to get Dazai's bandages and you were getting a kinda high item up the shelf,

When an employee came up behind you and said, “Hey, shorty!”

Atsushi had just turned the corner and heard what the employee said

He was looking for you and saw the employee talking to you, no, scolding you for something.

And our furry did NOT like that

He walked up to you starting to hear more of the conversation

“If you're too short then maybe you should ask for help!” oh hell no, this bitch was YELLING at you

Atsushi was confused why you were being scolded for being short.

He was always okay with your height, he loved you for YOU, and even though he’s as frantic as you when it comes to these situations, he is not afraid to stand up for his beloved,

“Um, Excuse me sir, but why are you yelling at them?”.

“They were trying to get something on the shelf, and almost knocked an item over!”.

You were standing in-between Atsushi and the employee silently panicking at the situation in front of you

Atsushi looked over at you for reassurance that you were ok

You weren't, you were looking down at the ground all tensed up and eyes widened whenever the man raised his tone.

Atsushi hated seeing you like this, he got angry when he saw you like this.

Now Atsushi isn't an “I’ll kick your ass if you even say one wrong thing” type of guy as we see in the anime (or manga)

He is an “I’ll resort to violence when I need to” type of guy

Atsushi knew he wasn't going to talk this man down, so, what did he do?

WE’LL FIND OUT ON THE NEXT EPISODE OF DRAGON BALL Z-

Lemme stop-

Atsushi started to glow while giving the man a dirty glare saying,

“They're not doing anything wrong, it was just an accident. Leave. Them. Alone.”

The man was sure as hell not angry anymore, he was frightened at Atsushi’s intimidating change of tone.

The man cautiously grumbled, “fine, just get your stuff and get out of here.”.

You and Atsushi left the aisle, you clinging to Atsushi’s arm.

“I'm so sorry Sushi, are you okay-”

“No it's alright, I should be asking you that.”

After reassuring everything you guys got back to the agency after finishing your errands.

And when you got home you cuddled in a blanket and watched a movie together

Something you two did even before you were dating when one or the other had a bad day.

Akutagawa

Again, this man does not understand stand the struggle of being short.

HE’S 5’8” JESUS CHRIST-

Ok, so he doesn't understand your struggle but honestly doesn't even notice it either

But if you're insecure about your height he'll destroy the fuck out of the reason that made you feel this way,

And silently cuddle you to make you feel better

My man is trying 🥺

Now you guys were planning (well, mostly you just kept saying please until Akutagawa gave in) a spa night.

So you went to the store (yes I'm using the same setting, whatchu going to do about it?) and we're looking for things that would help you two relax

You guys were just vibing when you asked Akutagawa to get eyeliner from the makeup aisle (plot twist, you were going to try and get him to let you do his eyeliner ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) )

Akutagawa obliged, thinking you needed for whatever reason, not expecting whatever you were planning.

So Akutagawa walked off, and you were looking at the various candies, looking for Akutagawa's favorite, (I couldn't find what his favorite is so let's just say it was Twizzlers or something).

Finding them, at of course the highest shelf, you cursed yourself for not being a few inches taller so you can reach it

You wanted to surprise Akutagawa with his favorite candy, so you didn't want to spoil it by asking him to help.

Deciding you'd utilize the wheelie cart next to you, without the knowledge of knowing an employee was using it.

Acquiring the Twizzlers (AKA [insert Akutagawa's fav candy] ) you hopped off the wheelie, but in the corner of your eye, you saw a man walking up to you, looking PISSED

Akutagawa found his way to the makeup aisle, got the eyeliner, and headed back to where your previous spot was.

Scanning the aisles for his S/O, he heard a commotion in the last aisle, peering into the aisle, he saw you, and a man, wait.

Was this peasant raising his tone at YOU? HIS BELOVED!?

Already tipped off at the unpleasant sight, he walked over to you.

“What’s the matter, dear?”

“Oh, I-”

“I'll tell you was wrong, this SHRIMP didn't want to ask for help and instead used my cart to get some candy!” the man was practically shouting.

Guess who was being choked by Rashoumon ☜(ﾟヮﾟ☜)

The employee ಠ_ಠ

Don’t worry he didn’t kill the man (I mean he almost did)

But you were there to stop him

“Akutagawa! It's ok I'm fine, let's just check out and leave.”

Akutagawa grumbled, deactivating Rashoumon.

You two left the man frightened in the aisle and went to purchase your items.

When you got home, you two did facemasks (which Akutagawa was very stingy with, but he watched your beautiful face to calm himself down)

Usually, he wouldn’t let you put eyeliner on him, only for special occasions

But for what happened at the store, he kinda felt like you deserved it.

You were surprised when he allowed you to do his eyeliner and you were giddy for the rest of the night

The whole problem at the store left your mind completely

You and Akutagawa cuddled and ate the Twizzlers (AKA [insert his fav candy]) while slowly falling asleep

That took longer than I expected :,)

Here is your bsd meme! Also, LOOK AT BABY HIGUCHI AND AKUTAGAWA THEY LOOK SO CUTE!!! Then again, I missed the event to scout them ╥﹏╥

[kachuuyaa]

AKUTAGAWA MY BABY BOY IS HERE NGNNGNGNGNFNSJSJS F U C K

I just have to continously praise you for your writing cause it's just so good okay? It's so detailed I can imagine it almost as a whole ass anime in my head it's so good.

Okay one thing I really love reading about this story and also your other writings is that there's no use of second hand embarressment to make it humorous. (I love how the humor has a similar quality of dryness like the Reader's personality. It just fits..). Like when reader told the GI boys to stay inside while they talk to the ADA and the boys don't sabotage their own safety and yours by meking their presence known. I just ❤ zhongli's response. He really said, he really woke up to the sound of someone screaming, decided "it's none of my business" and went back to sleep. Respect.

Also one thing that I really adore too is that Reader didn't guilt akutagawa for his exploding comment??? Like usually I see the trope of bullying someone into positive thinking a lot and I hate it. So seeing Reader understanding what happened to Akutagwa and expressing anger at Dazai (who "left you with a broken subordinate") who was the reason why Akutagawa became the way he is, instead of taking it out on him or guilt tripping him whatsoever??? Kachuuya I love you so much you don't know how much you mean to me.

(Yes this ramble was a lot I'm sorry HHNGGJDH I need to be known as the anon that writes long ass posts)

Reader with expensive wine at home? Chuuya only calming down with wine in the end?? Alcoholic behavior hdhdHhhdhdHHDHF

Thus entire plot to me is just like

Reader:

ADA: Buenos, you didn't hear this from me, but some little birdy told me

Reader:

ADA, leaning in close: some bitches you angered are after you

Reader: [deep sigh of regret] No me Diga

---

ALSO MORI AND READER'S RELATIONSHIP?? FATHERLESS BEHAVIOR (I'm joking but)

Mori: you were so sweet as a child. What happened to you?

Reader: when I was younger I thought that you were God! I thought if I disobeyed you I would end up dead in a ditch. Since then I have gained critical thinking skills.

Reader:

Reader, turning and walking away: --My bad on that one.

---

Reader: Mori I have a question.

Mori: go ahead

Reader: could you kill me if I were to call you something rude.

Mori: ...Yes.

Reader: ok ok, could you kill me...if I were to think something?

Mori: ...if you were to think? No.

Reader, immediately: I think you're a bitch.

----

Dazai: [breathes]

Reader, attacking him: you know what? Fuck you. YOU are sustown. You are the scientific name for Pig, and you are the 25th largest Greek island.

----

Reader, at almost everyone in the Port Mafia and the ADA: just like my check engine light, you mean nothing to me.

--

Also I was wondering, considering Reader is a top executive in the Port Mafia, wouldn't their disappearance, at least concerning Mori, Chuuya, and Akutagawa, be noticed quickly? You said they were in the Genshin verse for 4-5 years, so thst means someone would have to notice no? Or does time run differently and Reader hasn't missed much time??? Just a lil thought oof

🐗 anon

OHHH HIIIII 🐗 ANOOON i had a little episode where i had to put my phone down while reading this I ADOREEE YOU THANK YOU SO MUCH GENUINELY i had a dumb smile on My Face While reading this u Are So kind. THAAANK YOU i didnt want reader 2 be this toxic positive person + i made them SO flawed in terms of morality and personality THANK YOU.! the executives r just Really submitting to Wine ...! Huh! chuuya and reader = PARTNERLESS BEHAVIOUR 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

BLAME MORI FOR MAKING THE ADA AWAREEEE he’s the reason all this happened 🙁 the first plan was to make reader and the group go into a theme park LMFAOOO but i scrapped that idea and went for a more intense and dramatic plot

I LIVE FOR UR INCORRECT QUOTES IT’S AMAZING i love it

also....!!!!! i havent told u all yet..?.??? the reason why reader was sucked in the genshin world for like. years was bc they were in a business trip And!.. gues what. Their plane was hijacked and Boom.! time moves relatively fast in the genshin world compared to here AAAAAAND still not revealing how they got back ...! but mori just ruled it out as an irrelevancy bc he knows you’ll survive (OK MORI 😒😒)

[beneaththemasks]

Beast, Fifteen, Dead Apple and Fyodor´s ability put togheter

The first time I watched Bungou I didn't pay much attention to be honest and that lead me to committing a big mistake and that big mistake is what brings me here today.

This is a theory I´ve been working on for a long time now.

Before anything else I have to tell you that this is something I came up with entirely by myself, I don´t know if anyone has already written something similar to this, so any similitude is pure coincidence.

DISCLAIMER: this contains spoilers from the manga and light novels and is quite long, so read at your own risk.

Any hateful comment will be simply ignored, this is just something I'm sharing with you because it makes sense to me and I want to know what you think.

Please excuse my english if it gets bad at times since it isn't my first language.

Let´s begin:

I´ll start talking to you about some guy named “Randou” who was presented in the light novel ''Fifteen” as the responsible for the mafia´s predecessor return and the Arahabaki incident.

For those of you who don´t remember him, here´s a picture.

Ok so, you might wonder why I'm bringing him up.

If he was supposed to be a forgettable face from the beginning, another extra character in the story, then why didn´t I forget him? Why do I mention him before anything?

The answer is simple: I can forget a face I´ve seen once or twice but not one I´ve seen thrice.

“What do you mean? we only saw the man one time” 

You´re totally right, however that wasn´t the case for me.

Confusing his face was the big mistake I made and the one that lead me to building this net of theories and clues that I'm putting together right here right now:

Even though the first time we see Fyodor´s face is at the ending of the second season and then again in Dead Apple, I remind you that I wasn't paying attention at all (like literally guys I already told you about how I would call tachihara “bad tanizaki” just because they looked the same to me). Due to my lack of attention, after finishing the “cannibalism” arc. and becoming more familiar with Fyodor´s face it occurred to me that he was the same guy involved in the arahabaki incident.

Why? because I can so I did.

My brain automatically assumed these guys were the same person just because they were dressed as if they were going to sleep on the top of the Everest for a whole month and because their faces were equally sad...

Of course, when I finished the anime and started reading the manga I was totally confused when Dazai asked Fyodor what his ability was, since I thought him and Randou were the same person, therefore I thought they shared ability.

After that I had to rewatch the whole anime and then realized how high I was when I watched it the first time.

But even when I managed to get the whole story right I still couldn't stop thinking about Randou, he was still a mystery, but more than the man himself, his story and the order in which they were presented by Kafka were somehow strange.

So after reading “Beast'' I came up with a few theories about the book being canonically in that alternate universe, because for me, even if Beast was supposed to be just a spin off written to promote the release of Dead Apple, it couldn´t be that and only that.

I just can´t accept  that “Kafka wrote a 200-page novel to promote a movie that had nothing to do with it when he was asked to just write a 50-page short story” because he just felt like doing it. I knew from the deep bottom of my heart that he was not the kind to write just for fanservice.

So I came up with this idea: “What if the release of Beast and fifteen are more important than we think?”

Despite the first time we see fyodor´s face being at the end of the second season, the first time we see him meeting Dazai, is during dead apple. However, he seems to be just an extra character, someone who doesn't seem to add much to the story at first sight (except for when he turns Shibusawa into a big dragon).

But if we think about it, the same happens with the mentioning of the book in “Beast” and with Randou´s appearance in “Fifteen”.

In these three stories, the book, Randou and Fyodor are like an app running in the background of your cell phone, they are responsible for some kind of event and or incident that we cannot see now but that eventually will go out to light.

These are all very small hints, but that's why it is important, the smaller the better.

We can´t forget that Kafka has always been a mastermind of hiding evidence in plain sight.

He wrote and published 3 stories at the same time  that have nothing in common and then used them to promote each other. He decided not to wait any longer nor release them earlier because they´re relevant to each other even when they don't seem to be. They are like a building in the middle of the city, we see it but we never get the chance to observe it because of all that's happening around it.

But as far as we know Randou dies at the end of fifteen. How could he possibly be related to Fyodor if they never met?

The importance here is not his death or them meeting, maybe not even Randou himself but what happened before his entrance to the PM and after his death.

As far as we know, Randou used to be an european spy tasked to investigate a powerful entity of power in japan and sent to steal it. However, during that mission he was betrayed by his friend who tried to kill him but is Randou who ended up killing him instead.

Nevertheless, in the story we never get to know why his friend betrayed him nor what is that so called “source of energy” that the japanese government has been secretly guarding.

we 

never

know

until now (?)

Towards the end:

What if that “source'' is actually the book itself and his friend tried to kill him to keep it for himself and escape with it? 

Even more important:

What if Randou, after killing his friend, decides to steal the book but forgets about it and it´s power after losing his memory in the Arahabaki incident? 

These explanations can perfectly fill a void we never even noticed was there: Randou dies without remembering that he has a very important item with him, which is the reason for which he was once chased by the GSS (an agrupation that is connected to the Guild who we already know was searching for the book as well) and the same Dazai could have stolen after the Port Mafia kept his belongings when he died.

Please please pleaaaaaaseeee finish the idea.

After writing for 2 days, tying knots and untying them, reading and rereading, remembering details and searching for others i couldn't remember, this is my final conclusion:

 Fyodor´s ability could be nothing more and nothing less than the book itself.

The proof of that being:

-All we know is his ability “Crime and Punishment” is presented as a perfect complement to one another. When he explains why Sibusawa´s mist didn't affect him he says “it´s because crime and punishment are good friends” which can mean that for one to appear, the other has to do something, that is to say, he has to commit a crime to receive punishment.

-We can assume that as someone whose objective is to free everyone from the sense of morality (as Gogol explains) he's the one to decide whether he commits a crime that deserves punishment or better said, his ability “the book” that can only function following the rules of karma.

 -He probably doesn't need to communicate with the outside at all and is trying to deceive Dazai since the plot is going according to his plans and to how he planned to write the story on that single page.

-We know he has a page since the beginning and he also knows everything that´s written on it (for example that sigma´s existence was written on it 3 years before) but it's never mentioned how he got it.

-He literally joined the Guild to search for that book (´cause it belongs to him).

-Despite everything, Dazai is not worried about his plans either (he says all he has to do is observe him) because he's confident that everything is gonna turn out in his favour (you can see the little bitch didn't mind sending Akutagawa to his own death) since he stole the book from Randou long ago.

-What Dazai could've done with the book is nothing more and nothing less than creating the “Beast”  universe after leaving the PM just to give Oda a proper farewell and because since he discovered the real power of that book he decided the best was to hide it.

However none of them can reveal any of this for obvious reasons.

Well I´ve nothing more to say, this is all I have for the moment.

 I know some of these ideas sound very complicated and even excessive, however in the end everything fitted perfectly to me (and I swear I came up with 3 different theories before putting this one together).

If you managed to read this far, thank you very much :,)

If you feel like commenting something feel free to do so :)

[musicprincess655]

Ryuu wakes up a week after his twenty-fifth birthday with a fully formed frontal lobe, the remnants of dream that didn’t even have the decency to be wet, and an unfortunate realization.

“Gin.”

She’s already up, of course, sipping at a coffee, but then, she’s always been the more functional one. Ryuu would argue that it’s because she’s younger and therefore spent less time in the slums before their lives found some stability in the Port Mafia. Gin would argue that it’s because Chuuya raised her instead of Dazai.

“I believe I may have…feelings…for Jinko.”

She doesn’t look suitably impressed by the earth-shattering news.

“Do you want a regular cake or a cupcake tower at the wedding?”

Ryuu is so shocked by her lack of shock that he actually answers.

“Cupcake tower.” He shakes his head. “Did you hear me? I have feelings for Jinko.”

“It’s kind of too late to go back to calling him Jinko when you’ve been calling him by his real name for over a year.”

“I have feelings for-!”

“I heard you the first two times!”

“Then tell me what I’m supposed to do!”

“I don’t know!” she snaps, although she sounds more exasperated than mad. “Woo him? Marry him? Bear his weird tiger babies?”

“That’s physically impossible. Also, no?”

“I don’t know what you want here,” she says. “General dating advice wouldn’t work on you two.”

“Dating?!”

“Fucking hell.” She sounds so frustrated that Ryuu is sure she’s about to throw a knife at him just to get him to shut up. “Try talking to him.”

“No.”

“Then eat shit and die!”

Ryuu isn’t quite sure who else to ask for help. He almost goes to Chuuya, but considering Chuuya’s – arrangement? Relationship? – with Dazai, Ryuu thinks that might actually make everything worse. Whatever those two are doing, he doesn’t think it’ll work for anyone else.

So he takes the second option presented to him: he shoves those feelings right back where they belong and forgets they ever existed. Or tries to.

See, Ryuu is good at anger. He recognizes it in himself, knows now how to ramp it down or let it take him as necessary, knows how to use it, TED talk to follow. What is he supposed to do with something so much softer?

It should be easy to ignore. But like an amorphous block, the soft edges of the feelings squeeze out no matter where he tries to shove them down.

Ryuu doesn’t think Atsushi has noticed anything is off. He’s sure Atsushi would have said something by now otherwise. As an adult, Atsushi has all the observation skills of a detective and none of the reticence for sharing his observations that he used to. The new confidence is annoying, and has led to annoying things like Ryuu being forced to buy Atsushi food all the time, and in general, Atsushi is somehow more annoying than when he went running scared from Ryuu’s every glare.

And Ryuu has feelings for him anyway. His taste leaves much to be desired, and he needs to come up with some synonyms for annoying.

This systematic denial works for all of two weeks, and Ryuu is ready to celebrate the success of creating a new normal so seamlessly that Atsushi hasn’t even noticed they have a new normal, when it all goes to shit.

They don’t have quite as many people to beat into the ground to protect Yokohama as they did when they started their partnership, but every so often, a new group thinks it’s a good idea to disturb the peace. Ryuu and Atsushi, for their efficiency alone, are the best choice for dealing with it.

Some syndicate from Europe seems to think they have the right to expand into the Asian market, and they’ve set their eyes on the port of Yokohama for their first step in. They don’t have nearly the same aversion to city-wide destruction that the Port Mafia do, which makes this the Armed Detective Agency’s problem too, and, consequently, Ryuu and Atsushi’s problem. They’re in charge of stopping and containing a Gifted vanguard while the combined strategic might of Dazai and Mori deal with the rest of the syndicate.

It’s a tough fight, but Ryuu gets to let loose and use his Ability to the fullest. His deal with Atsushi to not kill is long since over, but he developed habits during those six months that he hasn’t bothered to shake, and the fight isn’t the bloodbath it could be. Still, when the last person raises their hands in surrender, Ryuu is almost gasping for breath. He may have learned to work smarter instead of harder, but working smarter is hard on him in its own way.

“Good work today,” Atsushi says, wiping blood from an already-healed cut off his mouth. Even after all this time, the praise still sends a thrill down Ryuu’s spine.

Then Atsushi lifts his head, and his eye are so wide, and he looks so happy, smiling without reservation at Ryuu, and Ryuu doesn’t know what his face does, but it must be pretty spectacular because Atsushi’s smile fades.

“Are you okay?” he asks. “You’re not hurt, are you?”

“I’m fine,” Ryuu says, turning on his heel to get away from Atsushi and the emotions he wears so openly. He needs to find a bar, one Atsushi won’t follow him to, and he doesn’t stop to consider the implications of skipping their post-mission dinner arrangement for the first time in years.

When Chuuya finds him, he’s getting systematically drunk.

Which, granted, doesn’t take much, He’s always been a bit of a lightweight, probably due to how severely underweight he’s been for most of his life. That’s not quite the problem it used to be, and one shot isn’t enough to take him out at the knees anymore, but he doesn’t even have to use his fancy mafia paycheck to get well and truly plastered.

“So I know I’m about to sound like a hypocrite, but it’s barely five,” Chuuya says, and while his words are chiding, his tone isn’t. Ryuu is still working on reading people’s intentions, but Chuuya has never been hard. He’s worried. “Wanna talk?”

“Stupid fucking Jinko and his stupid fucking doe eyes,” Ryuu mutters before he can stop himself. He’s had six shots. He wishes he had a better excuse.

“Oh, so it’s that kind of drinking,” Chuuya sighs. He raises his hand to catch the bartender’s attention, elegant and confident in one motion. “Whiskey for me. Water for him.”

“I’m fine.”

“Akutagawa.”

Chuuya rests his hand on Ryuu’s head, and Ryuu is almost ashamed of the way he leans into the touch immediately. Despite all the jokes even he himself makes, he’s not a dog. Still, to have someone touch him without even the intention of hurting him…it’s nice. It’s uncommon. It’s, perhaps, something that shouldn’t be so uncommon from a superior.

He’s so drunk.

“Do you want my advice?” Chuuya asks after the bartender sets both of their drinks down and Ryuu throws back half the tall glass of water.

Ryuu is silent for just a beat too long.

“Kid,” Chuuya sighs again, not angry or even exasperated, as is more common with him and Ryuu recently. He sounds faintly amused. “I know we’ve talked about this. You’re allowed to say no to me.”

“It’s not…” Ryuu tries. “I just…” He has to parse it into words, the fact that after Gin, Chuuya was the first he thought to turn to, and why he didn’t in the end. “I don’t know if I, necessarily, want the answer I think you’ll give me.”

“What answer do you think I’ll give you?” Chuuya asks. His hand is still on Ryuu’s head, pulling until Ryuu is very nearly tucked into his shoulder.

“Two options,” Ryuu says. “Something I can’t use, or something I won’t want to.”

“Ah.” Chuuya takes a sip of his whiskey. “You know I’ve had relationships with people other than Dazai, right?”

“That’s where the something I can’t use comes from.”

“So my relationship with Dazai is too fucked up, but all my other relationships are too normal?” Chuuya asks, summing it up entirely too well.

“I don’t think I can do normal,” Ryuu says. “I’m pretty sure he can’t either.”

“I can’t tell you how to fix that,” Chuuya admits. “If I knew, I wouldn’t be where I am. Which isn’t a complaint, by the way. I’m happy. But I’ll admit parts of my life are less than functional, and that’s down to choices I’ve made. That being said…” he gives Ryuu’s hair a little tug until Ryuu is truly resting on his shoulder, head momentarily stopped from spinning, “…I doubt Nakajima would kick you out of his life for anything at this point.”

“You think I should talk to him too,” Ryuu says.

“Gin’s smarter than you give her credit for.”

“She told you about this?”

“I just know she’s the only other person you’d tell about this,” Chuuya says. “You’re not actually that complicated.”

“I talk to Higuchi about stuff,” Ryuu pouts. He won’t admit he’s pouting.

“You’re not cruel to her anymore,” Chuuya says. “So no, I don’t think you would’ve told her about this.”

“I want another shot.”

“You should probably be done for the night,” Chuuya advises. “Listen. I don’t know how this is gonna shake out. I don’t know Nakajima well enough to guess what he’ll do. But I do know you, and I can tell you that you’re gonna be okay.”

“You think?”

“I think it would take another city-destroying disaster for you to not be okay,” Chuuya says. “And that wasn’t an invitation. I’m enjoying the peace. It’s good for business.” His phone chimes. “Your ride is here, and you’re cut off.”

“You called a car?”

“Like I said,” Chuuya says, getting to his feet, “I know you.”

Having a superior care so openly about him is still a bit of a new experience, and rather than try to examine anything Chuuya said, Ryuu just collapses into bed when the driver drops him off, hoping he’ll just forget everything by the morning. He doesn’t, of course, because that would be too easy.

Things were fine between him and Atsushi before, but suddenly, there’s a new tension. Ryuu panics, convinced Atsushi knows, but after a day of careful observation, he’s almost positive that Atsushi actually doesn’t. Atsushi isn’t shying away from the parts of their alliance that Ryuu, a few years ago, had reluctantly labelled as friendship. He doesn’t have a problem with their casual conversation, and their shared food arrangements have picked up again without so much as a mention of one missed.

In fact, the only thing that has changed is actually something Ryuu’s seen before, just not in years.

They’re friends now. Beyond just tolerating his presence, Ryuu does like having Atsushi around. He even has these new mushy feelings that make him a little sick to his stomach if he thinks about them too hard. But none of that changes the fact that sometimes, Atsushi annoys the ever-loving fuck out of him.

Snapping at Atsushi usually only gets Ryuu an eye roll now, or sometimes a shut up if he says something particularly spiteful, but ever since Ryuu bailed on dinner, every time he snaps at Atsushi, instead of the customary dismissal, Ryuu gets a flinch like he used to when they first started working together.

And seriously, what the fuck? He knows Atsushi isn’t scared of him anymore. For one thing, they’ve proven a few times that Atsushi can beat him into the ground if he wants. For another, Ryuu has calmed down a bit and Atsushi has stuck around enough to figure out how to exist in the same space without killing each other. They haven’t had a serious fight in years.

Ryuu can’t figure out what Atsushi’s sudden problem is, and doubly can’t figure out why it would’ve started after he skipped buying Atsushi food once. It’s almost enough to push the mush feelings that started this whole mess to a backburner, only surfacing when Ryuu’s eyes linger too long on the clean, lithe lines of Atsushi’s body, and he knows he’s not the only one who stares, anyway.

And then a new group surfaces. A remnant faction of the Guild that has apparently spent the better part of five years biding their time and preparing to take revenge on both the Port Mafia and the ADA. Since Ryuu and Atsushi were the ones to take down Fitzgerald, the faction prepared the most for them. From the beginning of an attack they only had the slightest warning for, Ryuu and Atsushi are methodically separated from everyone else.

They’re losing. Badly. Ryuu doesn’t know where any allies are except for Atsushi, and then only because Rashomon still has a tendril on him. Blood pours down his leg from a shot above his knee, and Ryuu resists the urge to favor the leg in case he has to run again. He ducks into an alley and slides down the wall, trying to catch his breath, get his bearings. He hasn’t had to legitimately fight for survival in a long time, and though his life has made him no stranger to pain, he’s not as young as he used to be, and his body protests when Ryuu tries to demand movement from it.

“Aku.”

It seems Atsushi has found him. Ryuu doesn’t even bother to snap at him for the nickname. Atsushi picked up the habit a few years back, saying Ryuu’s name was too long for him to yell, and Ryuu has begrudgingly gotten used to it, only putting up token protests now. He hurts too much for those, though.

“We have to get clear,” Ryuu tells him.

He heard some distant explosions he’d bet his coat are Chuuya, and where they find Chuuya, they’ll find the Black Lizard – they’ll find Gin – and they’ll find Dazai, or at least Dazai’s mind, talking through an earpiece and entirely out of the fight, safe where he’s most effective. Those allies would be enough to turn the tide, if only Ryuu had any damn clue how they could get clear.

“I have an idea,” Atsushi says.

“That is not your area,” Ryuu counters. He can’t help himself. Everything hurts.

“I know you’re mad at me, but trust me on this,” Atsushi pleads.

“I’m not…” Ryuu is so taken aback he needs a second to organize a response. “Why would I be mad at you?”

Generally speaking, he’s almost never mad at Atsushi anymore. If he is’ it’s a fleeting anger, gone as soon as he recognizes it. He has no clue why Atsushi might think he’s angry enough to revert their relationship back five years.

“Because you skipped dinner, and you made this face…” Atsushi trails off, and Ryuu…

His taste leaves so much to be desired. Atsushi is an idiot, all personal growth aside, and Ryuu realizes, with a degree of horror, that he feels something very close to fond.

“That’s not why,” he says, voice gruff, and he’s once again lost control of his face. Atsushi searches his eyes, and Ryuu sees the moment the truth dawns on him.

“Are you…?”

“You said you had an idea?” Ryuu interrupts. He keeps his eyes off Atsushi’s face.

“I do,” Atsushi says. “I need all of Rashomon.”

Ryuu instinctively holds his Ability closer. He’d given all of her to Atsushi earlier, a standard play when they’re in an all-out fight, but it only works when Atsushi takes all the hits. After he got shot in the leg, he pulled part of her back.

“Do you think you can hold onto me?” Atsushi asks.

“Why?”

“I won’t be able to hold onto you.”

“You’re going to get us both killed,” Ryuu accuses without heat. He can already feel himself relenting.

“Trust me,” Atsushi begs.

Ryuu does.

“I guess another trip with the world’s worst Uber driver isn’t the worst way to go,” Ryuu sighs.

Atsushi crouches in front of him, hands careful on Ryuu’s leg as he clambers onto Atsushi’s back. It aches, but Ryuu holds with both his arms and hopes for the best.

“Use Rashomon to amplify the jump,” Atsushi tells him. “And leave me plenty of slack.”

“Slack…why?” Ryuu asks, but Atsushi is already gone under his hands, replaced with a tiger. “Oh.”

Atsushi’s muscles bunch, and that’s all the warning Ryuu gets before they take off into the sky.

The tiger can’t fly, but the jump is so powerful, especially with the added strength of Rashomon, that it feels like a near thing. They soar above the building they’d been sheltered behind, over the heads of their enemies, and by the time anyone thinks to attack, it’s already too late.

“East,” Ryuu shouts above the wind. With the new vantage point he can get a better idea of where Chuuya is. Atsushi can’t answer him, of course, but he obeys anyway, touching down and running towards the explosions. They’re almost to relative safety when a strike from the side sends them both sprawling.

An Ability user approaches them, hands crackling with something obviously dangerous. Ryuu doesn’t stop to think. He just attacks, Rashomon rushing the man in furious tendrils. He pulls back at the last minute, and when the dust clears, the man is unconscious and full of holes, but still breathing.

Ryuu is just turning to see if he needs to pull emergency first aid skills out of his ass when he gets an armful of re-humanized Atsushi and a pair of lips hitting his own like a punch. He doesn’t even have time to respond to the kiss before Atsushi shoves him back by the shoulders.

“Wait, shit!”

Atsushi regrets the kiss. Atsushi regrets him.

Ryuu’s hand twitches towards the phone in his pocket. He can leave this all behind and start a new life. In Iceland. He can use the Duolingo app Chuuya made him download to learn the language. He’ll herd sheep. He’ll change his name to Sven.

“I was supposed to ask for consent first!”

“What?” Ryuu – Sven – asks.

“I’m supposed to ask for consent before I kiss you!”

This doesn’t…feel like rejection. Sven – Ryuu – takes his thumb off the Duolingo app.

“You’ve been thinking about kissing me?” he asks.

“I was…I mean…” Atsushi flushes red. “For a while now? I never thought you’d want me to, but then you did, and…”

Leave it to Atsushi to charge right through all the hesitancy Ryuu’s been feeling. He always has been the kind to leap before he looks.

In a better world, they’d have time to let this play out like a shoujo manga, time for them to gaze into each other’s eyes, time to work up to a kiss much softer and slower, something a first kiss deserves to be.

But it’s not a better world, and they’re still not safe, but they’re close enough to allies that they can make a run for it.

“We have to get out of here,” Ryuu says. He can already hear enemies approaching. Atsushi lets go of his shoulders, and they both start running, Ryuu limping on his bad leg. “And Atsushi?”

“Hm?”

“Buy me dinner first.”

Ryuu doesn’t watch Atsushi take that for the consent it is, but he knows the message is received when Atsushi reaches out to squeeze his hand as they run, letting it drop so they can move faster. They’ll probably have to talk this out when they’re safe, because Gin is right; they need to talk. But now they both know it’s not one-sided, and it’s as good a starting place as any.

In spite of the pain in his leg and his lungs, in spite of the danger they’re still in, Ryuu can’t help the grin that spreads across his face as he runs, Atsushi by his side.

[patchwork-panda]

If A Moment Is All We Are (22/?)

AO3 link: here

“Hey, Kirako-san?”

I knocked quietly against the open doorway of the clerk room and poked my head into the room. Kirako was sitting by the window with her laptop open, clearly engrossed in shopping for a new collar for her cat, “Mii-chan,” and she jumped when I called her name a little louder.

“Kirako-san?”

“I’m working hard, I swear!” she shrieked, rapidly closing a bunch of windows all at once. “Don’t write me up!!”

“Relax, Kirako-san,” I laughed, “it’s just me. I’m not going to tell anyone what you were doing but if I were you...”

I looked around and lowered my voice to a whisper.

“I wouldn’t go with that fuchsia collar,” I said, grinning, “It’ll clash with the orange in Mii-chan’s fur.”

“You think?” Kirako groused as I nodded firmly.

She sighed.

“Still, I’m glad it’s just you, Kyou-chan,” she mumbled, putting her hand on her chest and leaning back in her chair. “Kunikida-san would have my head for sure if he caught me shopping during work hours. Do you need something from me?”

I nodded.

It had been almost a full day since the explosion at Yamazaki Shuji’s second apartment. As the firefighters continued to put out the flames, Kunikida and I went back to Katai’s place, retrieved a small handful of printouts and then immediately returned to the Agency. I decided to leave the black access card with Katai, in case he needed it for something else and Katai, for his part, agreed to call me back the minute he found something new, in exchange for nothing more than a simple grocery run.

“I don’t like to leave the house,” he’d mumbled quietly before burrowing back into his futon like a hibernating bear in a cave.

With Katai’s printouts to guide me, I spent the rest of yesterday afternoon trying to find anything else I could on the aliases “Tsushima Shuji” and “Yamazaki Shuji.” Unfortunately, I couldn’t find much beyond what Katai had already figured out. I ended up staying a full hour past the end of my shift, alternating between manically searching the internet and hitting my head against my desk in frustration until a very concerned Atsushi shook me and insisted I call it quits for the day.

But just when I thought I was going to be at a dead end, I remembered this morning that Kunikida and Dazai had been the ones to orchestrate Mrs. Yamazaki’s relocation. If they’d done it shortly after I’d first informed them of her upcoming murder, then they were sure to have documented their proceedings somewhere, as part of the paperwork they did when they finished a case—my case.

I’d run so fast to the clerk room that I’d nearly tripped on my way there.

So here I was, standing before Kirako, with my fingers crossed in my burgundy skirt pocket, hoping that she might have something for me.

“I’m looking for my case files.”

Kirako adjusted her glasses and squinted at me through her bright pink frames.

“But... you haven’t turned them in yet,” she said, sounding confused.

“No, not those,” I said, shaking my head. “The files Dazai-san and Kunikida-san turned in when they rescued me from Akutagawa at the art gallery.”

Kirako’s forest-green eyes widened.

“You want those?”

For a second, she looked uncomfortable.

“Uh. Kyou-chan... You sure you want those?” she asked again, staring doubtfully at me. “Most people generally avoid looking at their own case files... depending on who wrote the reports, they’re not always that flattering...”

“I’m sure,” I said firmly, “And I’m not after my own information, I’m trying to look into Yamazaki Tomie-san, my old neighbor.”

“Your old neighbor?” she asked, turning back to the computer and pulling up the filing software. “Are you just looking out of curiosity? Because this says she’s been relocated to Nagano.”

“Yeah, I know about that,” I admitted, “But is there anything else on her? Or her husband? Anything that Dazai-san or Kunikida-san might’ve filed around the time when I joined?”

“Let’s check...”

Kirako began typing but when she found what she was looking for, I heard a sound like a buzzer. I glanced over her shoulder at a grayed-out file. It looked a little like the hidden files Katai had dug up on Mr. Yamazaki yesterday.

“What’s that noise?” I asked curiously.

Kirako frowned.

“That’s weird,” she mumbled, clicking the mouse again. “It looks like the file is locked.”

“Locked?” I repeated incredulously, staring at the screen in shock. “But you’re the highest ranking clerk—you have access to everything! How could it be locked?”

“I don’t know,” Kirako said quietly, clicking through, “it’s probably some kind of error. Either that or whoever wrote it made it so that only they or President Fukuzawa could open it, which doesn’t happen too often...”

She shot me an apologetic look.

“We can ask IT to look into it but for now, I’m afraid I can’t help you.”

I slapped my hand over my face and groaned as Kirako clicked through a few more screens.

“You know,” she said, scrolling through what seemed to be a separate document, “from the looks of this bit here, Yamazaki Tomie-san might actually be in witness protection. If that’s the case, I’m not sure how much you’re going to be able to find on her here with us...”

She glanced up at me.

“Why are you looking into her right now?” she asked. Her features softened into a sympathetic smile. “Do you miss her, Kyou-chan? If you just want to talk to her, I’m sure it can wait.”

“I did think about reaching out yesterday,” I admitted, thinking back to my conversation with Kyouka and Atsushi about bento boxes, “but this has something to do with my current case. The company that hired me and Dazai-san thinks her husband stole a lot of money from them.”

Kirako’s eyes shot up into her bangs.

“Really? Well, if that’s the case, maybe you could try the police department? If he’s a known criminal, they might have something?”

I chewed my cheek.

“I don’t know if that’s such a good idea...”

If Mr. and Mrs. Yamazaki were in some kind of trouble with the Port Mafia or the criminal underworld, then asking the police could draw more unwanted attention to them. And even if that weren’t the case, if Mrs. Yamazaki was in witness protection, there’s no way someone like me, an employee of a private detective agency, would be allowed access to that kind of information, no matter how important Ranpo-san liked to say we were.

Not to mention, the last time I checked in with the police, I ended up being confronted by Akutagawa and nearly getting my legs chopped off...

“Wait...” I mumbled, suddenly remembering something. “Maybe Dazai-san has her information. He’s the one who told me she relocated, after all, maybe he has her phone number—”

“Whose number would I have?” a familiar tenor voice chirped from behind me.

I whirled.

“Dazai-san!”

For once, I was actually happy to see him and it must’ve shown on my face because the bandaged brunette brightened up instantly.

“Well, this is a pleasant surprise!” he declared, his chocolate-brown eyes sparkling as he regarded me. “Now why can’t you smile this sweetly for me every time I see you?”

“Do you happen to have Yamazaki Tomie-san’s phone number by any chance?” I asked, choosing to ignore his previous remark. “You know, my old neighbor?”

One of Dazai’s dark eyebrows quirked upwards into his messy bangs.

“No...? Why would I have that?” he asked blankly.

As usual, he wasn’t wearing his trench coat while he was in the office and he crossed his bandaged arms with a confused look on his face.

“She’s married. And a bit old for me, don’t you think?”

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Normally, I wouldn’t hesitate to call him out for being too flirty for his own good but right now, I needed something from him and it was probably wisest to stay on his good side.

“I just thought,” I said slowly, “that you might have it since you were the last person to come into contact with her after... the incident at the art gallery.”

“Ohhh, I see,” Dazai murmured, rubbing his chin. “You’re trying to check up on her, aren’t you? Well, sorry to disappoint you, Kusunoki-kun, but I don’t have it.”

I felt my shoulders droop in disappointment.

“But if you like...” Dazai offered, that impish grin sliding back onto his face, “I could help you track her down. In exchange for a small favor, of course.”

“You’re going to help me find her,” I said, smiling as pleasantly as possible, “because it’s relevant to our case. I went over to Katai-san’s yesterday and—”

“That’s right!” Dazai suddenly exclaimed, clapping his hands together in excitement, “How did everything go with Kunikida-kun yester—”

I slapped both my hands over his mouth to stop him from saying anything further and shot a horrified look over my shoulder at Kirako, who, thankfully, only looked confused.

“Dazai-san.”

There was an edge to my smile and without removing one of my hands from his mouth, I started pushing him out the door.

“Could I speak to you about our case? In private?”

Without waiting for him to answer, I pushed him right past the threshold and nodded politely to Kirako as we left. I didn’t take my hand off Dazai’s mouth (ugh, this felt so weird) until I’d pushed him into the conference room. This time, however, I didn’t lock the door.

“What are you doing?!” I snapped, all patience exhausted. “Why would you bring up Kunikida-san in front of Kirako-san?! I thought you said you wouldn’t tell anyone!”

“I wasn’t going to!” Dazai claimed, looking affronted, “I just wanted to know what you found out at Katai’s place.”

As I eyed him suspiciously, Dazai put up both hands in a gesture of surrender.

“Well, it turns out, Tsushima Shuji and Yamazaki Shuji are the same person,” I told him. “Katai managed to get into the company employee files and I recognized the ID photo he pulled up. It looks like it was taken a few decades ago, around the time Shuji-san and Tomie-san got married. They must’ve moved here from Nagano when Tanaka Investments hired him.”

“So he’s been working at the company this whole time,” Dazai mumbled, tapping his chin. “Interesting.”

“What about you, Dazai-san?” I asked, putting a hand on my hip. “I didn’t see you all afternoon yesterday—”

“Oh?”

Dazai suddenly perked up, taking his hand off his chin.

“Did you miss me, my sweet—?”

“That’s not what I meant and you know it,” I cut him off, slapping away his hands before he could put them somewhere I’d make him regret. “I’m asking you what you found yesterday while I was talking to Katai-san. He said he was going to try to trace everything he could of Yamazaki Shuji today and that he’d call me once he’d finished but I’d like to hear what you found.”

I crossed my arms and fixed him with a suspicious look.

“You said you were going out to talk to some information brokers yesterday, didn’t you? Don’t tell me you actually stayed at my desk all day, huffing my markers or something? And no—”

I jabbed a finger in his face like he was a misbehaving dog. Dazai had suddenly looked a little too excited at the prospect of digging through my desk for Sharpies.

“I’m not going to let you do that,” I stressed. “For one, it’s not going to kill you, just get you high as a kite, and two, you’ll dry them out and then I won’t be able to use them any more.”

I crossed my arms as Dazai wilted visibly and let out a heavy sigh.

“I’m not going to go through your desk,” he mumbled, rubbing the back of his bandaged neck. “Not for markers, anyway. But you’re right, that’s not important. We should talk about what I learned about Shuji-san.”

He pulled out a chair for me and gestured for me to sit.

Making a mental note to move anything even remotely toxic out of my desk and into my locker, I also let out a heavy sigh and sat.

“So my information corroborates yours,” Dazai said, pulling out his own chair and scooting noisily against the tiles until he was squished up right next to me in the large, empty conference room.

He took out a set of papers from inside his black vest and put them down on the long table in front of us.

“Yamazaki Shuji does appear to be our target’s real name. He grew up in Nagano, where he met his wife, Tomie-san, then relocated with her to Yokohama when Tanaka Investments scouted him. Over the years, he rose up through the ranks until he became one of their most senior accountants and account managers.”

Dazai placed another document on the table.

“According to these records, Shuji-san took a lot of business trips abroad and was rarely at the company. His last visit to the company headquarters took place about a month ago.”

“Wait a second,” I said, shifting the set of papers on the table. “Katai-san says Shuji-san seems to have disappeared off the face of the Earth a month ago, but his card was used to get building access two nights ago—the night before the bombing.”

I glanced up at Dazai.

“That means someone used his card to get into the building—probably to set the bomb that nearly got us yesterday.”

Dazai nodded.

“I assume you saw the dead bird in the trash can?” he asked, leaning one bandaged arm on the table as he looked at me, his striped shirt sleeve scuffing up one set of the documents.

“I did,” I replied, trying to shove his arm off the papers but he wouldn’t budge. I gave up. “President Tanaka must’ve tightened security because he’s afraid someone’s after him. And given there was that bombing at Shuji-san’s second apartment, I can’t blame him.”

Dazai raised an eyebrow.

“‘Second’ apartment?” he asked, “Why do you call it that?”

“Because,” I said, surprised.

He hadn’t figured it out?

“His first apartment is the one he shared with his wife, down the hall where I lived.”

Dazai grew quiet. He seemed to be scrutinizing me very carefully and for just a moment, the look in his bright brown eyes appeared to be one of pity. At once, I frowned.

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Kusunoki,” Dazai began.

He tapped his fingers against the table as he studied me.

“Let me ask you a question. It’s a philosophical question but, please, humor me for a second.”

“What?” I asked, taken aback. “A philosophy question? Now?”

Dazai nodded and at the look in his eyes, I was struck silent.

I’d seen the expression in those clear brown eyes once before, the night I was rescued from the gallery. It was the same look Dazai had given me when I was holding that glass shard to my own neck... like he was seeing something in me that I didn’t want to see in myself...

The brightly lit room suddenly felt warm and stuffy. My heart began to race.

“...What is it?”

“It’s from an old book I read once,” Dazai said, still staring deep into my eyes, “Let’s say for nine years, I had an apple. I believed it was a goodly apple but after possessing it for those nine years and one day, I discover that it is rotten to its core.”

He lowered his gaze momentarily, his thick, dark bangs dropping just a little over his eyes.

“Had been the whole time, actually, even though I had not been aware of it,” he said, smiling softly to no one in particular.

I could barely breathe.

“Would it be fair to say then,” Dazai continued, glancing back up at me, “that I had possessed for nine years, a goodly apple?”

“I...”

I looked away.

“I’m not sure I understand the question.”

“I think you do.”

And with that, Dazai gently laid one large, half bandaged hand over mine. My heart stopped as the weight of his hand settled against it.

“Answer my question, Kusunoki,” he said gently. “Did I, for those nine years, possess a goodly apple?”

His fingers closed around mine.

“Dazai...?”

I felt a lump forming in my throat as I stared back into his deep brown eyes.

Was he really asking about an apple...?

I could tell Dazai was waiting patiently for my answer, so with some difficulty, I swallowed and opened my mouth to speak. I couldn’t bring myself to move my hand out from under his.

“I think...” I replied slowly, “that it was. A goodly apple that is. You spent nine good years with it, didn’t you? And it brought you joy.”

“Joy?” Dazai asked, his dark brows drawing together momentarily in thought.

“Yes.”

I studied his face as I answered.

“They say time heals all wounds. I’m sure you will always remember the moment you found out about the rotten core, but as time passes, the pain will start to fade and you’ll be left with the memories of those nine good years instead. And if it’s the nine years you remember best, then...”

I smiled and Dazai’s dark eyes widened just a fraction. His hand twitched where it lay over mine.

“Yes. It was a goodly apple.”

“Kyou...” Dazai breathed.

For a moment, neither of us spoke. Dazai was staring at me as if he had never properly seen my face before and I felt my face warm under the intensity of his stare. And in that moment, the curtains behind his dark eyes seemed to lift... and I found myself once again seeing a side of Dazai that I’d only caught fleeting glimpses of before...

It was the same Dazai who pulled away from me yesterday morning, when I’d reached back to place my hand over his.

And the same lonely Dazai who’d walked me home that cold, spring night...

... and asked me to join him in double suicide.

I couldn’t breathe.

“Hey... Dazai?”

I bit my lip.

“Are you okay? Why did you ask me this question?”

At once, Dazai smiled. The curtains came down like a steel door and his mask snapped back into place. It all happened so quickly that I was left wondering what I had just seen—and if I had actually seen anything at all.

Dazai’s smile softened and he slowly leaned in.

“I’m fine,” he whispered sweetly, giving my hand a light, affectionate squeeze. “But is that your final answer, Kyou-chan? Do you really believe in the healing power of time so strongly?”

“I—I do,” I stammered, my heart suddenly beating faster than before as his eyes seemed to darken. “I mean, of course I do. Why—”

My voice caught in my throat and I cleared it lightly to try to stop the words from sticking.

“Why wouldn’t I?” I asked, “when my own Ability allows me to see the future?”

Dimly, I thought back to Saeki Mei from the convenience store, the woman who had been kidnapped during my first case. I thought about how I’d seen a vision of her in the summer, through the old manager’s eyes. Mei would be laughing and jogging and wearing new blonde highlights in her pitch-black hair when she returned in July. And Mei would be back. The manager had assured me of this.

“I’ve seen it,” I said at last, staring back into his eyes. “I’ve seen people heal.”

“That’s good,” Dazai said quietly, still watching me with that inscrutable look in his eyes. He started leaning in close. “Good to hear...”

“Um, Dazai...?” I whispered, my heart beating so loud I was sure he could hear it too. “Sh-shouldn’t we go back to talking about the case...?”

“Case?” Dazai repeated absentmindedly.

The sound of someone knocking on the conference room door drew my attention and Dazai and I looked up as one as Tanizaki Junichiro poked his head into the room.

“Oh, there you are, Kusunoki-san,” he said.

I saw his eyes shift towards the table, where Dazai’s hand still lay over mine and at once, I shifted and pulled my hand back. Dazai, however, hadn’t moved.

“I was looking for you,” Tanizaki continued, opening the door further and stepping fully into the room.

He jerked a thumb behind him towards the direction of the main lobby.

“I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind cleaning up the area around your desk a little. We’re expecting some deliveries this afternoon and Kunikida-san asked us to keep the main office space clear for it...”

He glanced at the set of printouts spread out across the table.

“Unless, of course, you’re discussing a case and you’re busy? I can come back later, you know.”

“No, it’s okay!” I said, jumping to attention the instant Kunikida’s name crossed Tanizaki’s lips. “I can help. Unless...”

I shot an annoyed glance at Dazai, who quickly stifled an audible snicker behind one half-bandaged hand.

“...we need to do this now?”

“No, it can wait,” Dazai said, the ghost of his laughter still visible in the smile on his face.

He pulled out a handheld gaming console from somewhere underneath the desk and started up some sort of game, ignoring me as I frowned at him.

So that’s why he chose to sit here—he must’ve taped all sorts of weird toys and things under the table so he wouldn’t get bored during conferences.

It wasn’t necessarily because he was trying to get close to me...

“Uh, Kusunoki-san?” Tanizaki prompted me, “You still coming?”

“Yeah!” I replied, not understanding where the strange sense of disappointment was coming from. I turned to look at Dazai, who was now sitting with his feet on the table, almost scuffing the printouts, fully immersed in playing his game.

“Guess I’ll get going then?”

Without looking up at me, Dazai nodded. He pursed his lips in concentration and continued madly pushing at the buttons on his console.

“Yeah, sure, go,” he said in between spurts of frantic button mashing. “Let’s pick this back up when I’ve beaten this second boss—I mean, when you’re done out there.”

Victory music blasted from the speakers and Dazai let out a raucous cheer. He put down the device for just a second and winked.

“Go impress Kunikida-kun.”

“You—!”

I bit back my retort as I saw the look of confusion on Tanizaki’s face. I slapped a hand over my face and sighed.

“Never mind. See you later, Dazai-san.”

“Ciao!”

Rolling my eyes, I followed Tanizaki out the door as the sounds of video game music resumed playing.

“Oh, and Kusunoki-kun?”

I turned back slightly at the sound of Dazai’s voice.

“Yes?”

I heard fight music playing over the speakers of Dazai’s gaming console. He met my gaze and smiled.

“There’s no need to worry about Yamazaki Tomie-san. I checked in on her nephew a few days ago and she’s doing well. She said to tell you ‘hi.’”

I brought my hand up to my mouth.

“Dazai-san...!”

He actually went and checked on her?

“Thank you,” I said, smiling warmly at him. “That’s... surprisingly sweet of you.”

“I can be full of surprises,” Dazai quipped, grinning cheekily. “Have fun!”

And with that, he went back to his game. Still smiling, I let the door close behind me, the tinny sounds of electronic bells and whistles disappearing as the conference room sealed itself once more.

***

“So what kind of deliveries are we expecting today?” I asked as Tanizaki shuffled about the empty main office with a simple broom and dustpan in his hands.

It was relatively early in the afternoon but it seemed everyone was out. Everyone except for me, Tanizaki, Dazai, and Kirako, anyway. Kunikida had apparently left Tanizaki in charge of the main office area (his sister was out running shopping errands for the office) and Kirako in charge of the clerks while a few of the detectives accompanied President Fukuzawa to escort a foreign diplomat around Yokohama. Because Dazai and I were working on a relatively big case, we were allowed to remain. Everyone else, it seemed, was out working in the field. I paused my own sweeping to glance over at Kyouka’s desk, which had been refurbished and delivered yesterday, just before I started this case with Dazai.

“Is someone else getting an improved desk?”

“No, but we’re getting some new equipment,” Tanizaki replied, sweeping towards the main door. “First thing coming this afternoon is a fancy new printer, the kind with the copier built in. Haruno-san’s been asking for it for months and Kunikida-san finally caved.”

“Ah.” I smiled. “Good for her.”

I might not have been with the Agency long, but even a couple of weeks was enough for me to find out how difficult it was to get Kunikida to spend money. That man watched the budget like accounting was his second job... which it probably was, I realized with a silent grimace.

If I was doing the math correctly (I might not be, I still remembered that overblown math lesson Kunikida gave me after I passed my Entrance Exam), the overall costs from my Entrance Exam still might not have been recovered yet. Not by me alone, anyway.

“By the way, how did everything go yesterday?” Tanizaki asked with a friendly smile.

“Dazai’s lying!!” I exclaimed in a rush, squeezing my broom handle so tightly in my hands that it nearly bent. “I don’t know what you heard but it’s not true! It was all professional, I swear!!”

Tanizaki blinked at me in confusion, then slowly and steadily started backing away.

“Uhh, okay,” he said slowly, putting his broom up defensively, the way one might when facing a dangerous animal, “I didn’t hear anything in particular, just that you met with Katai-san and you needed to talk to him about your case?”

“Oh,” I breathed out, instantly settling down. “Oh, right. Yeah, everything went fine.”

Hoping it would put Tanizaki at ease, I laughed a little.

“Katai-san is an interesting person, isn’t he?” I said, resuming my sweeping. “I heard he used to work for the Agency, years ago and it seems the only person he really keeps in touch with is Kunikida-san. Have you met Katai-san, Tanizaki-kun?”

At once, Tanizaki’s face darkened and I actually flinched when I saw the murderous look in his red-tinted eyes.

“Yeah, I have,” the redhead growled, nearly snapping his broom in half as he recalled some offensive incident. “I’d heard he gets really weird around girls but I’ll never forget the shit he pulled around Naomi. The way he stared at her...”

His grip tightened on his broom handle and this time, it was my turn to back away from Tanizaki as he trailed off and fumed in silence. Yosano had warned me never to ask any questions about the Tanizaki siblings’ relationship and I thought it best to take her advice. Two weeks in the Agency was more than enough for me to guess...

“I-it’s lucky I wasn’t exactly Katai-san’s type, then huh?” I tried to joke.

Although Katai had thought I was Kunikida’s...

Just thinking about it made my face burn so I looked away and continued sweeping.

“Yeah, that’s good,” Tanizaki mumbled, making his way towards the trash can by the client booth.

He set his broom against the stained glass paneling and opened up the lid

“So you’re making progress on your case, then?” Tanizaki asked as I nodded and joined him by the trash bin. “That’s good. It seems like a tough one. Tougher still since you’re working with Dazai-san. I mean.”

He elbowed me slightly and laughed.

“Speaking of men who get weird around girls, am I right?”

Tanizaki continued chuckling to himself as I emptied my dustbin into the trash but I couldn’t bring myself to return the laugh.

Dazai was definitely the worst kind of flirt but there was something about him back there, something different from his usual antics. Nobody had ever looked at me the way Dazai had just now... like he was trying—really trying—to get to know me. Like he was utterly fascinated by me...

And that he really liked what he saw...

I put down the dustbin and broom and stared into the trash, at the ashes from the fire Dazai had set yesterday.

Why had he asked me that question...? He clearly hadn’t been asking me about a literal apple but why did Dazai want to ask about my worldview so suddenly? And why did he seem so surprised by my answer?

So genuinely surprised... and pleased?

I bit my lip as I thought about the way his hand had rested against mine and how I hadn’t moved away.

I hadn’t moved away because I didn’t want to...

Why?

Why does my heart beat so fast when he looks at me like that...?

Why does his smile make me want to stop and stare at him for hours on end?

I closed my eyes and tried to put the thoughts out of my head but no sooner had I done so than a memory floated back to me—the memory of the day I’d met Dazai—the way he’d smiled when he handed me my drawing, the way his eyes had sparkled when he’d caught me staring...

I put my hand up to my face and covered my eyes.

Why can’t I stop thinking about him all of a sudden?

The only man I liked was Kunikida... and only Kunikida...

Right...?

“Kusunoki-san?” Tanizaki asked, sounding confused and slightly concerned when I suddenly and violently twitched, as if I were falling asleep on my feet and abruptly woke back up.

He leaned over to peer into the trash with me.

“What are you looking at? Oh.”

He wrinkled his nose and sighed when he saw the charred ring of residue in the metal bin.

“The fire, huh? Yeah it’s a good thing you weren’t here when Dazai did that. I swear to God, all hell broke loose right before lunch yesterday. Kunikida basically lost it—you should’ve heard him yelling and screaming—”

“Should I take this outside and wash it?” I asked, pointing to the can but Tanizaki was already shaking his head.

“Nah, you don’t need to. We can ask the building janitor to take care of it. Then again...”

He studied my face, looking slightly concerned.

“If you need a breath of fresh air,” he said, “we could always just make a quick trip to the larger bins out back. I’ll take these. Why don’t you go to the shredders by the printer and see what you can get?”

Nodding furiously, I hurried off towards the printers—only to trip on the very trash can I’d just offered to clean up. I fell to the ground with an undignified squawk of surprise, spilling ashes and scraps of paper everywhere as the trash can rolled away on its side. I leaped to my feet.

“Sorry!” I exclaimed, scrambling to clean up the mess I’d just made. “Let me get this—”

“That’s fine, but you don’t have to use your hands!” Tanizaki cried, looking frantic and now more worried than ever. “Kusunoki, what’s going on? Are you feeling okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I insisted, picking up scraps of paper and flinging them into the trash, completely disregarding Tanizaki’s protests. “This was my fault so I’ll...”

I trailed off as my eyes landed on a name on one of the larger scraps of paper. The corner was burned and there were dried chunks of fire extinguisher foam on the black ink of the text, but I could still make out the words.

It was an autopsy report, forwarded to the Armed Detective Agency by request of one of the detectives looking into an open case.

The name of the victim: Yamazaki Tomie.

And the detective who had requested the report...

Dazai Osamu.

[writing-radionoises]

attraction

ship: shin soukoku / akuatsu, kunikidazai 

genre: slow burn romance

prompt: akutagawa is pining and has no idea what to do about it

notes: ada akutagawa, sequel to satisfaction 

It’s been at least a month since the announcement of Dazai and Kunikida’s wedding, a month since Ryunosuke left that dreaded anonymous love letter on Atsushi’s desk.

And yet, Atsushi has not figured out who wrote the love letter. Or maybe he did, and Akutagawa just didn’t know, or maybe Atsushi is even avoiding him…

God knows, all Akutagawa knows is that he’s locked in the bathroom on his former mentor’s wedding day while Atsushi bangs on the door.

“Ryunosuke, you are coming to the wedding, you fucking lawnmower!” He yells from outside.

Akutagawa puts his head into his hands. He’s ready, he changed up his normal top to a short sleeve white blouse without ruffles, it revealed all his scars and bruises, but it was a cute top that Atsushi picked out. Atsushi even tied his tie, fixed his hair, and everything, but here he was, insecure once again.

“He probably doesn’t even want me there…” Akutagawa responded from the bathroom.

“Then why would Dazai-san invite you?” Kyouka said from outside the bathroom, her tone much softer than Atsushi’s.

Ryunosuke had actually forgotten she was there…

Atsushi sighed, “Even if he didn’t want you at his wedding, which he does, I would want you there. Ryuu-san, pleeease!”

… The truth is, Akutagawa could never say no to Atsushi, especially when Atsushi uses his personal nickname for Akutagawa.

The sound of it alone brings color to Akutagawa’s sickly pale face.

“... Okay,” Akutagawa hesitantly agrees, fixing the little cat hair clip in his hair before unlocking the door to the bathroom and opening it.

Atsushi is in a similar outfit to his agency wear, a short sleeve white button up with the addition of a bowtie instead of a typical tie, as well as tan suspenders instead of black.

Kyouka, on the other hand, is wearing something a little more fancy than Akutagawa and Nakajima, simply because she’s the flower girl. Her dress is a tank top, knee length white dress with a dark blue lace collar, a dark blue ribbon around her waist as well. Atsushi has placed a flower crown of blue hydrangeas on her head, as well.

… She’s quite adorable.

“Are we ready to go?” Kyouka asks.

The trio leave the apartment, and make their way towards Fukuzawa’s house.

--

It’s awkward. It’s horribly awkward for Akutagawa. It’s such a small wedding, it’s really only the agency there, with the addition of some guild members, Gin, Higuchi, and a small appearance from Chuuya before he quickly leaves.

Akutagawa had never felt so much relief seeing Chuuya leave.

He ends up sitting next to his sister and Higuchi, Gin wearing a dress Akutagawa had bought her for her sixteenth birthday a few months ago, and Higuchi wearing a simple suit as they watch Kunikida and Dazai.

Fukuzawa got ordained specifically for this wedding, and probably only this wedding. So, up at the altar are Fukuzawa, Dazai, Kunikida, Atsushi, and Ranpo.

There wasn’t a need for a whole set of groom’s men, so the two best men were picked out and left at that.

… Akutagawa found it hard to look at anything but Atsushi. Looking at anybody else made him feel awkward and out of place.

… But Atsushi was a safe ground, the reason Akutagawa went to this event in the first place.

If it was hard to not look at Atsushi, it was even more difficult to not imagine being up at the altar with him. Declaring vows, holding hands, kissing… It made Ryunosuke giddy, feeling his face heat up.

Kyouka poked fun at him earlier about it, saying that him and Atsushi were probably going to be married next.

It’d be so nice… Akutagawa thought, But I don’t think he thinks of me in that way.

Pining is awful, so Akutagawa has discovered. It’s fucking painful.

When the reception starts, Akutagawa makes a run to the bathroom and locks himself in a stall for at least 30 minutes.

He washes his hands and hand at least ten times, as if trying to wash away the thoughts of Atsushi.

They don’t leave.

--

Akutagawa is sitting at a table at the reception awkwardly, watching Kyouka and Atsushi dance from a distance with some others when Dazai approaches, taking a seat beside Akutagawa.

“You don’t look like you’re having a lot of fun, huh?” Dazai starts.

“... I’m having a hard time with feelings, but congratulations on your marriage. Please don’t let my feelings concern you,” Ryunosuke replied, looking back over at Dazai, “It’s supposed to be a happy day for you.”

Dazai smiles a bit, shaking his head. His attire isn’t much different outside of the flowers in his hair, and a new brooch on his chest. His coat has been forsaken somewhere, probably Kunikida’s car.

“Thank you, but your feelings won’t upset me. I know they don’t have a whole ton to do with me,” answered the brunette, “Your feelings have to do with the kitty cat over there, huh?”

Ryunosuke blushed, looking away from Dazai, “Don’t tell him.”

Dazai lets out a fake gasp, putting a hand to his chest, “Ah, I would never! For this is a Romeo And Juliet tale, a beautiful romance written by Shakespear himself! And yet, I am just a supporting character for sir Romeo.”

“If it wasn’t your wedding day, I would kick your ass.”

Dazai chuckles, “You should, anyway. But anyways, I hope things go well for you, blah, blah, blah, all the other shit you’ve probably already heard. You need anything?”

Akutagawa fell silent, shrugging as he looked back at Atsushi, smiling and laughing with Junichiro.

“I think I know what you need,” Dazai responds, standing up from his seat as he holds his arms out to Akutagawa, “A good, old fashion Dazai hug!” Akutagawa smiles a bit as he stands up, taking the hug from Dazai as he rests his head on his former mentor’s shoulder.

… Dazai’s hugs aren’t nearly as nice as Atsushi’s, but it feels nice to finally get attention from Dazai after all these years.

--

Fuck it, tiger lilies, Akutagawa thought, quickly pointing to them on the menu for the cashier to place the order. He paid for the flowers, and was given a date to pick up the flowers as Akutagawa left the flower shop, pulling out his phone and beginning to dial a familiar number.

“Kunikida Doppo speaking, what can I do for you?”

“How did you tell Dazai-san you liked him?

Kunikida sighed from the other end of the phone while Akutagawa starts his walk down to the train station, “Not even a hello?”

“Hello, Kunikida, how did you tell Dazai-san you liked him?” Ryunosuke quickly rephrased.

“Well, it’s difficult to say because I truly didn’t end up telling him.”

“So he was the one who confessed?” “In a way, yes. We are talking about Osamu here, he already figured out that I loved him through his connections to just about everyone in Yokohama. So what happened was Osamu invited me to dinner, told me he knew about my feelings, and that he returned them. We started dating shortly afterwards,” Kunikida explained.

“Ah, you had it easy... “ Akutagawa replied, nervously tapping his fingers on his knee, “... I can’t seem to get my love interest to pick up on my feelings. They’re oblivious.”

“Hmm, you’re in a tough spot, then.”

“I don’t know who to go to anymore… I’ve spoken to Dazai-san, Higuchi, my sister, now you…” Akutagawa sighed, “It seems like no matter what, they can’t seem to figure it out, and I don’t want to be super blunt about it either… That’s just embarrassing.”

Kunikida fell silent, “I have an idea. To understand someone who is oblivious, you should talk to someone who was oblivious. You should talk to Poe, Ranpo’s boyfriend, they were in a similar situation. Poe might be able to give you some advice.”

Akutagawa smiles a bit as his train arrives to get back to the agency, “Thank you, Kunikida, I’ll get to it. I have to go, have a good afternoon.”

--

“Jinko, please think about this for more than five seconds. Please,” Ryunosuke says sadly, watching Atsushi pause from walking into their shared kitchen with the tiger lillies Akutagawa had just bought for him.

Atsushi turns back to him, “Think about what?”

Ryunosuke feels himself freeze up, trying to quickly come up with a response before eventually stuttering something out, “N, nevermind. Don’t think about it.”

Atsushi gives him a strange look, and then shrugs as he goes to put the flowers in the vase, and Ryunosuke goes to make some tea. His heart aches as Akutagawa pulls down a tea bag, then coughing into his hand.

“You look upset,” Atsushi comments, standing besides Akutagawa. Akutagawa hadn’t even noticed that his face was scrunched up into something of hurt. It’s understandable, but now was not a good time for that.

“... Do you have any idea how long I’ve been trying to tell you this? You just keep brushing me off, if you don’t like me, please just say it,” he replied, the words fell out of his mouth without a thought. The moment he said it, Ryunosuke felt a wave of regret wash over him as he quickly tried to distract himself, continuing to make his tea.

There’s a moment of silence. Akutagawa can’t bear to even look at Atsushi, so scared of his response, scared to burst into tears just by looking at the other.

“... Ryunosuke. I like you a lot, you are my very best friend. I don’t know what you’re trying to say, though, and I can tell it’s hurting you,” Atsushi replied, his voice is calm and full of worry, “What are you trying to say?”

“Think about it. Just… Think about it, please, Atsushi. I’ve been so obvious, practically the whole agency knows,” Akutagawa pauses to rub his eyes on his sleeve.

Atsushi reaches out and places a hand on Akutagawa’s shoulder, spinning his friend around to look at him. Akutagawa’s eyes are watering as he holds his entire cup in his hand, then setting the cup down on the counter.

“Do you just… Not get it? What else do I have to do? Jinko, this is fucking ridiculous, we’ve been doing this for months now. Are you really this dense?” Ryunosuke said, to which Atsushi fell silent, not responding.

Akutagawa didn’t know what to say, just staring intently at Atsushi with his heart pounding when Atsushi reached out for Akutagawa, cupping his face in his hands and bringing their lips towards in a swift motion.

Ryunosuke is left in shock for a moment, he had never really kissed someone before. Higuchi kissed his cheek once, though that might be the most he’s ever gotten.

… Regardless, it’s nice. Akutagawa quickly relaxes against Atsushi, moving his hand over the one Atsushi has on his face.

And when Atsushi pulls away, Akutagawa has to resist from pulling him back into the kiss. Atsushi smiles at Akutagawa, he is still holding the other’s hand as he speaks.

“Was I right?”

Ryunosuke nodded, “Yes, you were.”

“I didn’t think you actually liked me back,” replied Atsushi.

“... Please say you’re joking.”

“I wish I was.”

Akutagawa chuckles, hiding his smile behind his hand, “Jinko, you are dense.”

Atsushi smiles once again as he pulls the other into a hug, “Yup!”

… They are not going to hear the end of this from Dazai.

[dearosamu]

DESPERADO - PURGATORIO

SYPNOSIS:  she, a dancer with personified problems all the while more that intrigues osamu dazai who came into her life amidst the chaos that is [name] [last name].

WARNING/S: implied nsfw

three - four

dinner was .. entertaining, more or less. but it seemed such a drag to [name].

she hated dazai. she hated letting someone else pay for her. she hated how her younger brother liked him easily out of all people.

though, dazai with any means, isn't good with children. even with yumeno basically flooding him with questions he could easily answer, yet the questions itself were too .. peculiar.

"osa-chan, how did you meet onee-chan?"

"have you two known each other before? onee-chan, why didn't you tell me!-"

"yumeno, no i don't. he's just..an acquaintance from work." [name]'s eye twitched from the sentence that left her mouth.

"hmm," yumeno picked on his cake tart before taking a bite. "whyth ish thathf soth?" his question came out muffled.

"don't talk when your mouth is full, yumeno."

the boy only groaned and nodded before swallowing his food and asking his question more properly. "why is that so? onee-chan and osa-chan seem close.."

[name] scoffed while dazai only chuckled. "mhm, we do seem very close don't we, [name]?"

"don't even consider it."

"oh dear, i dream of it."

"you're gross."

"you're pretty."

"please," [name] rolled her eyes. "flattery won't get you anywhere."

"but i am trying," dazai grinned teasingly referring to what she does for a living. [name] stared at him with disgust, slapping his arm which she only received a stuck out tongue in return. yumeno looked between the two confused.

"onee-chan, what does osa-chan mean by that?"

dazai looked at yumeno with a mischievous glint in his eyes. "well you see yumeno-kun, your osa-chan wants to court your onee-chan, but she rejects me every time!" he dramatically lifted an arm to his forehead.

"dazai.." [name] spoke his name in an irritated tone, wanting to pummel the male six feet to the ground already.

"oh really?" yumeno's lips curved a cheshire grin, tarted with cake crumbs. "do you think she'll accept one day?"

"i hope so," dazai sighed dreamily. "i await for the day i'll get the chance to spoil her rotten."

"don't get your hopes too high," [name] interjected. "what even makes you think i'll ever like you? you're a jerk."

dazai waved her off. "you'll see, mon cherie."

"what's with the nicknames?"

"simply because you are one of a kind."

"har-har, i'm flattered," the woman replies with gritted teeth.

"onee-chan! what are you having anyway? you're not gonna eat?" yumeno interrupted upon seeing the woman only drinking her cold beverage.

"no, i'm not hungry."

"but you should eat!"

"yumeno, no--"

"listen to him [name]~" dazai crooned. "you really should eat. yumeno-kun, what do you want your onee-chan to have?"

"cake tarts!" yumeno cheered.

"big sister can't eat cake tarts, she'll get fat," [name] said, taking a sip of her [f.d.].

"eh? onee-chan, fat?" yumeno blinked. "but onee-chan, you don't care if you eat too much or get fat don't you? isn't that what you said when you ate a big chunk of-"

"ahaha, yumeno that's enough of you," [name] nervously laughed as she covered yumeno's mouth with her hand to stop him from embarassing her any further.

dazai chuckled at the sight. "you worry if you get fat?"

"shut up and no i don't," she denied.

"how cute."

"why are you even here?" the woman groaned.

"because yumeno-kun invited me for dinner." [name] scoffed.

"then can you leave if i ask you to?"

"yes."

"then why won't you leave?"

"because i was invited and it would be rude to come here and then leave so sudden," dazai answered, crossing his arms. "besides, i am hungry."

"you're such an idiot," she huffed.

"why, thank you."

"that was not a compliment."

"if it comes from you, then it is," dazai winked. a vein popped out of said woman's forehead.

"you're really annoying, you know that?"

"countless of times, yes."

[name] only groaned once more for she had to endure this for the entire evening

.

---

"i'm not your personal favorite, so why did you ask for me?" akutagawa asked dazai slightly confused but amused at the situation. dazai only responded with a light groan before slumping on the leather chair. "my little kitten is a bit off-put at the moment," he pouted. "i don't really favor anyone else here."

"chuuya-san is here you know." akutagawa says in a questioning tone but it sounded more like a statement.

"yeah, but that good for nothing hat rack simply isn't enough to please me. plus we hate each other." akutagawa scoffed. "you should see how much money he makes in a day."

"ah, but i think you provide much better service than him," dazai grinned at akutagawa teasingly, in which the latter huffed at this action. "[name] and chuuya-san may come off as rude to their clients, but believe me when i say they're good at what they do."

dazai exhaled through his nose as akutagawa sat on his lap, running his hands through his brown locks of hair. he came back to the strip club to meet his belladonna for a night out alone. as usual, chuuya was there to bash on him and to insult the male. before leaving, chuuya informed dazai that [name] did not go to work today; something about calling in sick but dazai went on in and called for akutagawa instead. he was conflicted about coming to the strip club but he could not refused for had oda didn't invite him, he wouldn't even be there in the first place.

how oda was able to put up with dazai's perspective of things was honestly impressive since it was no secret that dazai enjoyed oda's view of things since he was less systematic than dazai. he'd often accompany dazai with whatever he had up his sleeve but it's not really safe to say that his plans never had excellent result. its dazai after all.

things went downhill once he got back to his office after having dinner with [name] and yumeno. higuchi had been waiting for dazai to get back to report terrible news that their sales are going down and a few people -- to be more specific, con artists had been scamming people with their products that they previously sold at auctions and it made people believe that the corporation were only after their money and sold fake items in their past auctions.

dazai had been stressed over by his colleagues and needed to cool off, though thinking of ways to somehow restore the mafia's reputation and to get rid of the people who were dumb enough to even try and bring down the mafia.

"think you can handle it?"

"psh, you called for me of all people," akutagawa rolled his eyes before placing a chaste kiss on dazai's head. "but i promise to make you feel good."

still, it was weird to see [name] -- even akutagawa stri- dance for him. he'd even expect it to himself that he'd be denied of his desires, but it was still given to him with little difficulty. he was a mess inside.

"you know, it's not like you to switch out on dancers."

"needed a change," dazai mumbled. "is that a problem?"

akutagawa pursed his lips. "not really, it's just that when i used to be your regular, you wouldn't let anyone touch me," he placed a hand on dazai's broad shoulders. "you were possessive."

"that was back then." dazai growled lowly.

akutagawa hummed. "what's on your mind?"

"nothing that i'd like to speak about." akutagawa sighed heavily. "i'd press on you to tell me, but you've always been stubborn." it was a trait he and [name] both shared.

"always have, always will." dazai stated with a close eyed smile.

"..right since this isn't a therapy session." akutagawa deadpans. dazai placed both his hands on akutagawa's thighs and hips, knowing he had permission to.

"i trust that you'll get rid of all my stress away?"

"like i said before, i promise i'll make you feel good."

---

oda patiently waited for dazai, knowing he always takes longer on his time -- specially if it's with akutagawa. he knows he never really keeps his meetings 'formal' with the younger male. dazai stumbled out of the black curtains looking very much disheveled then he was when he entered the strip club, his neck tie missing and a few bruise marks were on his neck. they were small, but visible enough. a sly grin was on his face which reminded oda of a cat.

"had fun?" oda downed on his third shot of vodka.

"you bet i did," dazai snickered as he stumbled to the stool next to oda. "can i have some of that special sake you keep at your place? you know how much i love those."

"sure. when you're much more sober that is," oda shook his head. "you probably had akutagawa hit you up with heavy shit."

"oh, come onn!! it was only a little~!" dazai slurred, throwing a hand over oda's shoulders. "it's not like i got overly high again!"

"tell me that again once you're actually sober would you? this is why i always give akutagawa head warnings." he removed dazai's hand from his shoulders, making the brunette whine and slump on the counter top. oda held a hand against his temple and massaged it, muttering things about dazai not listening to him again of the sorts.

"come on odasakuu! not even a little bit?" dazai pouted as he turned his head sideways from the counter to face oda.

"no."

"please?? i swear i'll only get one shot!" dazai insisted, shaking oda's left arm. oda groaned before reluctantly agreeing to dazai's request. ".. fine, but don't blame me if you can't get home."

"relax! i can take care of myself just fine."

"i'll message my assistant then," oda huffed, taking out his phone and texted his assistant to bring a bottle of sake to his office later. dazai hummed, twirling his index finger on oda's glass of tequila.

"he's still around?"

"you bet." oda tapped away one his phone. after a few seconds, he slipped it back into his pocket and turned to dazai. "chuuya told me you didn't visit your favorite?"

"she would not appreciate seeing me here," mumbled dazai. "plus she didn't even go to work today."

oda let out a soft chuckle. "you think she ever did? that girl hates your guts."

"it gets worse," dazai groaned, standing up from his seat and heading towards the exit. "i'll tell you later at my office."

"still want to keep on leaving people hanging?"

"i'm just a poor man, odasaku."

"please, you just got laid and run a company. you're basically the definition of spoiled."

".. quiet you."

---

oda poured a minimum amount of sake on dazai's glass, who accepted it with glee. he downed on it and sighed in content. "you keep the best stuff, odasaku. why don't you ever give me some?"

"wouldn't want the risk of a suicidal man holding a bottle of sake running around the building naked .." oda muttered, taking a seat on one of dazai's office couches.

"hey! i do not get that tipsy! i'll have you know that i hold my liquor very well." dazai boasted, holding a hand to his chest.

"sure," oda leaned onto the coffee table, placing his chin on his interwined fingers. "anyways, humour me already with what you were supposed to tell me."

"well, i ran into [name] into the mall yesterday with this kid--"

"she has kids?!"

"jesus odasaku, no!" dazai exclaimed. "it's just her little brother.. i think.." dazai said lowly.

"god, dazai," oda huffed. "you're such an idiot."

"why are so many people calling me an idiot??" dazai sulked.

"because you are one," oda shook his head, sighing. "do they have any caretakers?"

"no. [name]'s the one taking care of her little brother."

"what did you do this time?"

"i just ran into her in the mall since i was hurrying to our business meeting, but her little brother ran into me and asked between two things he wanted to buy. [name] didn't want me to talk to him but he asked me a question and i gave him an answer. i also insisted that i pay for yumeno's sweets instead and later then he invited me for dinner and i made [name] eat. i basically paid for her entire day." dazai explains.

oda sunked even further into the cushioned couch. "you really are an idiot .." he muttered, shaking his head. "first of all, you pay her ridiculous amounts of money just for her body -- which, in her eyes, is already degrading on it's own -- and now you pay for her too?"

"i don't get what's the problem here," dazai mumbled. "i have the money, she needs the money. it can work."

"no, dazai. it doesn't work that way." oda scratched the back of head, thinking of a way to explain the situation thoroughly. "think of it this way; [name] and yumeno were abandoned by their parents at a young age for whatever reason and that left [name] to raise her little brother by herself. she struggles with financial problems as she had no one to support her and her little brother."

"and what you're meaning to say is?"

"she dislikes the fact that you figured out the limbing situation she is in. and possibly only giving her more money out of sympathy. she doesn't want to connect her home life to her job."

"but i'm helping her, aren't i?" dazai grumbled, frustration slowly building up.

"in her case, she feels as if you're intruding," oda frowned. "it really is none of your business to be sticking your nose around what she does in her personal life and her connections with people." oda poured a small amount of sake on his glass and took a quick gulp.

"you really think that's why?"

"hey, i'm not entirely sure. it's just an analysis i have figured from what you've told me." he shrugged.

"then why won't she take me?" dazai pouts. "i have the money that she needs to live the life she wants for her and her brother. it seems too easy."

"that's probably just from her nature," oda chuckles. "now, about that plan to rebuild our reputation and to get rid of the con artists ..”

[yellowcanna]

Two Sides, Same Coin

Summary: Since the beginning of Quirks, Yokohama has announced independence from Japan and closed itself from the rest of the world.

To this day and age, no one knows what lies within the city of Yokohama—or that was what the public was made to believe. In reality, Yokohama has long fallen into the control of the world’s largest criminal organization known as the Port Mafia.

Follow Class 1-A as their principal organized a field trip to Yokohama! In their short trip there, they must change their perspectives and learn exactly what it means to be justice and what it means to be villains.

Rating: T

Genre: Crossover, hint of shounen-ai (boy love)

Pairing: Contains mild Soukoku (Dazai x Chuuya) and Shin Soukoku (Akutagawa x Atsushi) if you squint

Author: Canna / Yellow Canna

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CHAPTER 8

LOOMING DARKNESS (DAY 1: SUNDAY)

“…Is he alive?”

The group gathered around the man lying within the spider lilies. None of them has any idea what in the world had happened. When the man dropped down from the tree and hung there, they were all too stunned by the sight to even think let alone move.

Then, after swaying around for a bit, the branch probably couldn’t handle the excess weight anymore and snapped, sending the man crashing into the bed of flowers with the branch falling over his head, creating a sickening crack.

It was this that snapped the kids out of their shock and instantly moved in to help.

Sato and Kirishima removed the branch from the man while the rest of them frantically loosened the white rope which turned out to be bandages wrapped on the man’s neck.

The man was surprisingly handsome. The phrase tall, dark and handsome fit this man's appearance perfectly. However, his appearance wasn't what caught all of their attentions. What caught their attention was the bandages wrapped around his exposed arms and neck…as well as the single, silvery handcuff locked around his right wrist.

“Hey…he couldn’t be a criminal, could he?” Hagakure spoke out everyone's thoughts. 

“There’s no way…right?” Sato mumbled unsurely. After all, who else but a criminal would go around with a handcuff?

“It could be cosplay though.” Sero pointed out.

Midoriya had a hand to his mouth, brows furrowed in deep concentration as he stared at the handcuff, then to the bandages possibly covering the man’s entire body. His green eyes flew wide as he looked over to the broken branch, then back to the man.

Those injuries…

The way he had dropped from the branch…

The way his bandages held him up…

And most importantly, that handcuff.

Suddenly, everything linked together in his brain as he imagined a vivid image of what had happened.

“Midoriya-chan, did you think of something?” Asui asked, a finger to her lips as she tilted her head curiously.

“It’s possible…that he’s trying to commit suicide.” Midoriya said seriously.

“S-suicide?!” Yaoyorozu gasped with her hands to her mouth.

“No shit, did you just think of that now?” Bakugou sneered.

“Why do you think that?” Kirishima asked. “His bandages could have just gotten tangled up.”

“But why would he be here?”

He put together a story of a criminal on the run, having no choice but to commit suicide in this isolated place…

"We should contact the police," Iida said as he pulled out his flip phone.

It was at that moment when the man sat up.

It was as if time had stopped for Class 1-A. They stared in shock at the man that had just so casually sat up, blinking those chocolate brown eyes as he stared back at the kids.

Just as the man parted his lips, the green-haired teen was already in his face, shouting, “Killing yourself is bad!”

“…Eh?” The brown-haired man stared at the boy blankly. Unfortunately, no one paid any attention to his expression, as the rest of the kids crowded around the man.

“Yeah, killing yourself is bad, dude!”

“You can talk to us, sir!”

“Tell us what’s wrong! I’m sure we can figure it out together!”

“You shouldn’t treat your life so lightly!”

The man blinked once…twice…and then, he laughed.

“I’m afraid there might be some misunderstand here.” The man chuckled as he pointed up at the branches stretched over their heads. “I was having lunch up there when I slipped, got my bandage caught in the branch and fell off.”

“I-is that so?” Midoriya was completely flushed in red from the embarrassment of misunderstanding the situation. He was so certain the man had been trying to kill himself…

“Fucking nerd.” Bakugou—who had been watching them as if they were idiots from the sideline—sneered. He turned to the man, eyes narrowed in suspicion and snapped in a rude tone, “Why the fuck were you having lunch in a tree with those scrawny limbs?”

It was the blond’s way of questioning why the man had climbed a tree when he clearly doesn’t have the physical ability to do so. Bakugou was suspecting the truth behind the man’s words, along with the man himself.

The man smiled and looked at Bakugou from the corner of his eyes. The brunet pulled one of his knees up, resting his elbow on top while his chin in the palm of his hand. His action made everyone shift their eyes to the handcuff dangling on his wrist. The cuff was bathed in the light of the setting sun, reflecting the crimson hue in a strange, eerie glint.

“Well, I was enjoying a good meal made by my ever-loving wife! But then I couldn’t help but overheard that little lady’s story. It gave me such a fright that I lost my balance and fell off!”

“Eeeeh?!” Ashido gapped, pointing to herself. “It’s my fault?!”

“Dude, you almost committed murder.” Kaminari teased the flustered girl.

Bakugou narrowed his eyes, obviously not pleased to have his question bypassed just like that. He opened his mouth, about to snap at the man when Kirishima interrupted him, causing the vein on his head to throb even harder.

“But you spat out blood!”

The man blinked, obviously confused. He wiped a hand over his lips and looked down at the red stain on his fingertips.

“Aaaah~ this is the tomato juice I was drinking!”

“Tomato juice?!”

The kids stared at the red stain. It really did look like blood…

“It’s disgusting, you should try it.” The man said merrily, causing more than half of them to stare at the man, wondering if they’ve heard wrong.

If it’s disgusting, why should they try it?

“Why the hell would we want to try that?!” Bakugou roared.

“It’s good for hair growth.” The man replied, looking back up at Bakugou. “Your temper reminds me of my wife—and you don’t look like you’ll grow tall either. If you keep this up you’ll start going bald after entering your twenties. Best to rack up vitamins while you still—”

It was at that moment when it happened.

All they saw was a blur of red flashing by their sight before their eardrums were assaulted by the loud, explosive sound. It was like the cracking sound of thunder—like something moving at a super high speed—tearing through the air.

And then…

Boink

A gust of wind was suddenly blasted into their faces, forcing the kids to shut their eyes as crimson petals and leaves danced wildly in the air.

When the sudden wind died down, they opened their eyes and the first thing they saw was the strange man—face planted an inch within the dirt with his butt sticking out of the flowers. Right next to mop of messy brown hair was something cylinder slowly rolling away.

Asui—being the closest person—bent down and picked it up.

“Gero?” She turned the object around in her hand blinked before holding it up so that her classmates could see.

“A…can?” Midoriya frowned in confusion.

It wasn’t just any can. On the tall can, there was the image of a juicy red tomato printed on it. At the bottom corner of the can was a dent.

They all stared at the can, then to the man still kissing the dirt.

“What was that just now?” Yaoyorozu asked uncertainly.

They all looked around to each other, but none of them had any answers.

It had all happened way too fast, and none of them had their eyes open enough to see anything. From what they felt and heard, the only explanation was this can—but that itself already made no sense! If this can was traveling at that kind of speed, it wouldn't just leave a dent. Shouldn’t the entire thing would be flattened from the force?

A couple of the students were looking up the tree, but they didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. 

“Ah…that’s where it went.” A large, slender hand reached out, taking the can from Asui.

“Are…are you alright?” Iida asked as they stared at the man who was rubbing the back of his head as he slowly got up.

“Yep.” The man replied as if he didn’t find the situation the slightest bit weird. His long, nimble fingers spun the can around as he looked back up at the kids with a Cheshire cat smile. “So, what brings you kids here?”

“Oh, we’re just looking around and—” Uraraka responded, but was cut off by the man holding up a hand to her.

“No,” the brunet corrected, “I meant, what brings you to Yokohama?”

A deathly silence filled the place. The U.A students stared at the man with wide eyes for three full seconds before panic seeped in.

“H-how did you know?!” Hagakure was close to tears. Three hours and they've already been exposed twice! She couldn’t begin to imagine what would happen if Aizawa was to find out!

“Well, for one thing, that young lady’s scarf is still down.” The man pointed at Ashido whose scarf indeed was down. Due to her wiping the strawberry jam off her lips, she had also wiped off some foundations, revealing the pink skin underneath.

Ashido hurriedly pulled up her scarf, but it was already meaningless by this point.

“And this place is closed to the public. Although there’s no sign, everyone in Yokohama knows they can’t enter this place.” The man added, causing the kids to stiffened.

“S-sorry, we didn’t mean to trespass. Can you not tell anyone about this?” Yaoyorozu pleaded.

“We’re not suspicious people! We’re just here on a tour!” Uraraka quickly added.

“Sure.” The man shrugged. “As long as you keep the fact that you’ve met me here a secret as well.”

“Why’s that?” Kirishima asked in confusion.

“As I've said, this place is closed to the public. It’ll be bad if I’m found here.”

“So you’re trespassing as well!” Bakugou accused.

“Never said I wasn’t.” The man hummed lightheartedly. "My workplace is nearby and this place got a good view. Though I am saddened to hear how such a romantic place has been turned into a horror story."

“Romantic?” Jiro looked around the red maples and flowers.

“May I ask what is this place?” Yaoyorozu was unable to contain her curiosity. After all, no matter what age, women will always be weak to the word romantic.

“Yes! Can you please tell us?” Hagakure pleaded.

“There’s no name yet, but this place was built four years ago.” The man began as he stood up, brushing the petals and leaves off his suits as he does so. He walked through the group of kids—all of them parting ways for him—and stood at the shore, bathed in the fiery light.

“The owner remodeled this place to propose to the person he loves. He planted the lilies and maples and proposed exactly at this time—when the sea and the sky are dyed in the colour of blood. He said…”

“Will you walk down this bloody path with me to and through the gate of hell?”

The kids all felt that strange chill from before returning, silently creeping up their spines and wrapped around their necks, making the air suddenly harder to breathe.

“And then…?” Uraraka asked hesitantly.

By now, all the girls' curiosity of the so-called romance died away, realizing that this was very different than what they've imagined.

The man slowly turned. With the crimson light shining behind him, he was covered in shadows.

The chill the kids were feeling suddenly turned into full out fear as their heart rates spiked. However, none of them could move. They just stared at the man, whose eyes were the only thing they were able to see. Those eyes were gleaming, reflecting the red around them—looking very much like the eyes of a devil.

“Of course…” The man stepped forward and all at once the kids held their breaths.

“His lover accepted his proposal and they got happily married!” The man suddenly burst out cheerfully, jumping right into their faces as the shadows peeled off him, revealing a gigantic smile on his lips.

“…HUH?” The students stared blankly at the man.

At the back of the group, Mineta tilted backward. His eyes were rolled into the back of his head as he tumbled into the flowers. Unfortunately, no one had noticed him, as all of them were too busy staring at the man.

“I-is that…a joke?” Aoyama stammered with a hand clenching his chest. He nearly had a heart attack!

“Of course not.” The man held up his right arm and showed them the handcuff on his wrist. "As proof of their love, they handcuffed each other, so that they will always be tied. Even in death, their sins will continue to bind them together.”

A moment of silence passed by as the kids stared at the man’s handcuff.

“Wait...that’s what that handcuff is?!” Iida gapped in realization before letting out a long breath of relief. Thank goodness the man wasn’t some criminal on the run.

“Did you think it was anything else?” The man tilted his head in a curious gesture.

“Ah, no, it’s just in Japan—I mean back at our home, we don't use uh, handcuffs,"  Ojiro explained awkwardly. In fact, it wasn’t just Japan…there’s probably nowhere else in the world that would propose with handcuffs…

“Though I think it’s romantic!” Hagakure swooned, earning surprised and weird looks from her classmates.

“After that, a myth began in Yokohama.” The man hummed. “They say that if you proposed when the sky and the sky are at the reddest, your love will receive blessings from Port Mafia.”

“Port Mafia?” Tokoyami gasped.

“What does Port Mafia got anything to do with this?” Sato asked.

“Hmm? Did I not tell you?” The man blinked innocently. “The one who made this place and proposed is the current boss of the Port Mafia.”

“EEEEEEEEEH?!”

The last bit of sunlight has vanished into the sea. The sky was gradually turning purple as the crimson that once bathed this land began to fade into the coming darkness.

“Now then, I believe it’s time for you kids to get going.” The brunet waved his hand. “If you’re gone for too long, your guardian will be worried.”

As if on cue, the ringing sound of phone echoed into the air.

At first, none of the kids reacted, as it’s wasn’t a ringtone any of them were familiar with. But then they remembered the temporary phones they were given and immediately started frantically pulling them out.

In the end, it turned out the ringing was from Midoriya’s phone.

“Hello?” Midoriya put the phone on speaker as everyone gathered around him. The man just stood there, hands tucked in his pockets as he watched them quietly.

“WHERE DID YOU GUYS GO?!” A panicky voice none of them had ever heard of before shouted through the speaker. “Give me your location! I’m coming right now!”

“E-eh?! Uh…” Midoriya panicked as he looked around, finding nothing that could possibly indicate their current location. Then, Midoriya’s eyes got drawn to the tall stranger. He was smiling at him and mouthing a string of words.

Midoriya wasn’t supposed to understand. He knew nothing about lip-reading, but he understood the man perfectly. His lips moved in such clear and simplistic ways that Midoriya could almost hear him whispering the words into his ears. He shivered at the weird feeling but quickly relayed the address he has gotten. 

With a sharp click, the person on the other side hung up.

“...What do you guys think that’s about?” Kirishima asked as he looked around his companions. 

“They couldn’t have found out…could they?” Mineta—who was woken up by the phone call—shivered at the thought of the teachers finding out what happened early today.

“Either way, we should get going," Shouji suggested. The rest of the students nodded before remembering the strange man who was still standing there, watching them with a light smile on his lips.

“Although it wasn’t my intention, I did cause you some trouble. I apologize for that. I do hope you’ll enjoy our city during your stay.” And then, the man held his long index finger to his thin lips. “Remember not to tell anyone you’ve met me here, or I’ll be in huge trouble.”

“O-of course!” Yaoyorozu bowed. “Thank you for keeping our secret as well!”

“Just make sure to wrap yourselves up properly next time. You never know who might be watching.”

“Yes! Thank you so much!” Ashido along with the rest of the class thanked the man. They hurriedly left, afraid that if they waste any more time whoever was on the phone would call back to yell at them again.

Chocolate brown eyes trailed after the kids, watching them until they vanished into the shadows of the forest.

As the night began to set in, scarlet lanterns that were hidden within the maple trees began to light up one by one, illuminating the man’s surroundings and once more bathing the field in crimson light.

The leaves of the Japanese maples turned transparent from the light, revealing the silhouette of a person sitting high up on the branch.

“Da-za-iiii!” A low and husky voice growled from behind the curtain of red, stretching out the name of the brunet who gazed up the tree with a sly smile.

“Yes, Chuu-yaaa~?” The man sang back, stretching out the other’s name just as long.

“The fuck’s with that shitty story?!” The figure snapped, shadows moving behind the leaves yet despite his movements, the branch he perched on didn’t shake by the slightest bit.

“My dear, how could you say that about our love proposals?!” Dazai gasped with one hand to his heart while his handcuffed hand stretched towards the figure.

The tree shook this time. Within a whirlwind of leaves, a man dressed in all black dropped down, landing gracefully within the flowers as his wavy pumpkin orange locks fluttered in the air.

“Love proposal?” The man snorted. “Since when did bringing me to this damn place without any explanation, handcuffed me, ordering me never to take it off and to cross the Styx River with your shitty ass became a love proposal?!”

“Oh?” Amusement swirled within Dazai’s brown eyes as he stared at his companion. “But according to my memory, Chuuya agreed to it, didn’t you? You said you’ll spend the rest of your life with me~!”

“Like hell I did! I said I’ll—!” Chuuya cut himself off, pink hue slowly dusting over his cheeks as he finally realized just what the other man was trying to gull him into saying.

"Yes?" Dazai was meaning dangerously close to Chuuya. “What was it you’ve said again, Chuu-yaaa?”

Scarlet burst across the shorter man’s face, but it wasn’t red from embarrassment. He was red from anger as the veins beneath his forehead throbbed.

Dazai chuckled as he gracefully leaped back—just in time to avoid a slender leg coming at him in a roundhouse kick. Then he raised a hand, catching the tomato can that came hurling at him once more, except this time it lacked the speed and power it had before.

And then—Dazai was swept off his legs.

He fell into the flowers, his back hitting painfully against the hard ground and was pinned down by the weight of another person. He smirked, not even the slightest bit surprised as he stared at the petite man sitting on top of him, looking down at him with a dead serious look.

“…You promised you wouldn’t do it again.”

“Hm?” Dazai tilted his head. Burnt umber eyes stared into those bright blue eyes that seemed to glow in the night sky. There was a mixture of bitterness and anger swirling within them like a storm—well, mostly anger.

“That.” Chuuya spat. “Your idiotic suicides!”

“But Chuuya!” Dazai countered innocently. “You’re the one who kicked me off the tree!”

“I wouldn’t have kicked you in the first place if you just behave like an adult!” Chuuya roared. He grabbed Dazai by the collar and with just a single hand, he jerked the brunet up so that they were face to face. “You made me kick you! Right after you tied your bandage onto a fucking branch in my blind spot!”

“Which means it wasn’t suicide!” Dazai chirped merrily.

The sounds of veins snapping could be heard from the shorter man.

Thinking quickly, Dazai did the only thing that could save him from the incoming pain. He leaned forward, closing the last bit of gap between them as his lips captured a pair of softer ones. While his lover was frozen in the state of shock, Dazai wrapped his arms around the redhead’s small and lithe frame. With a flip, he rolled them around, their lips never detaching as Chuuya sprawled beneath him.

The kiss lasted for a full minute before Dazai had to reluctantly pull away.

“Besides,” The brunet licked his lips, marveling the way the redhead’s lips glistened in the warm lighting. “I know Chuuya would save me. Didn’t you break that branch for me?”

“I rather not be put under suspicion of murdering you on top of all these shits you’ve started.” Chuuya huffed, turning his head away and refusing to keep looking at that irritating smug face.

“So?” He spoke with full sarcasm, “What the fuck was that about?”

“Of course it was to teach those kids a lesson.” Dazai huffed. “I spent months planning this romantic theme for my proposal and to hear them using it as a horror story saddens me greatly!”

“Like hell anyone would find this creepy place romantic!” Chuuya rolled his eyes, clearly not believing a word that comes out of the other’s mouth.

“Oh? Then perhaps I could change your mind…” Dazai was already reaching for those delectable lips when…

“Ahem~”

“Ugh!” Dazai crumbled into the spider lilies. His body was curled up like a shrimp in boiling water with arms clutching over his stomach where he had been mercilessly punched.

Chuuya was instantly on his feet, petals fluttering off him in his haste as he bowed to the tall woman slowly walking out from the crimson maple trees as if she was on an evening stroll. She carried a crimson parasol over her head, protecting her from the fluttering leaves of the forest. 

“Ane-san!” Chuuya greeted respectfully.

“My, my~ I do hope I am not interrupting.” The woman said, bringing her pink kimono sleeve up to her lips. She was seemingly hiding her smile, but her sleeve was just low enough for the two men to see the corner of her curved lips.

“As an executive, it is part of my duty to make sure our boss’s image does not get tarnished in the hearts of our men, so I decided to come first and make sure you’re…” Her ruby red eyes looked over the brunet up and down. “Presentable.”

"But of course," Dazai said through gritted teeth while maintaining a smile matching the woman's. “Chuuya.”

Chuuya reached into his pocket, pulling out a roll of bandage as he began unwrapping the messy old bandages from Dazai’s neck and replacing them with new ones. The woman watched the two’s interactions, the mocking smile on her lips turning genuine as she turned her attention elsewhere.

Specifically—the ruined flower field.

Due to Dazai’s idiocy and the appearances of twenty kids walking around, a lot of the spider lilies were crushed 

“Such a pity for these flowers to wilt like this.” The woman lamented. “They would make a very nice bouquet.”

“Take as much as you like, Kouyou-san.” Dazai waved his hand dismissively.

“Well…since the boss so generously offered, who am I to reject?” Kouyou reached down and pick up a beautiful spider lily that had its stem bent. “I’m sure Boss wouldn’t mind me taking a detour for tomorrow’s mission, would you?”

“Of course not.” Dazai stood up once Chuuya fixed his bandage in place.

Chuuya held a hand towards the maple tree he had been hiding within when the kids were present. From within the crimson leaves, a black coat and a long maroon scarf came flying out, shrouded by crimson light as they flew into the man’s outstretched hand.

Dazai didn’t move as he allowed Chuuya to put the black jacket over his shoulders and the long scarf around his neck. Just as the shorter man was about to put away the bandages, a slender hand touched his, stopping his movement.

“Kouyou-san, what are your thoughts on those kids?” Dazai asked as he took the bandages from Chuuya.

The elegant woman smiled, not the slightest bit ashamed in knowing she had been caught peeking. After all, it was also part of her duty to watch over her young boss.

“Not worth mentioning.” Kouyou’s words were harsh, yet her voice was still light and airy as if she was discussing the weather.

The sound of footsteps came from all directions around them. One by one, men and women emerged from the shadows. Most of them were all dressed in black suits with sunglasses hiding their faces. They all knelt and dipped their heads low, bowing respectfully to the brown-haired man standing at the center.

Kouyou grinned as a dangerous glint flickered across her sharp eyes. “Even to the very end, those children have no idea that their lives had been spared.”

That’s right, the moment those Heroes-in-training got close to Dazai, a noose had been wrapped around each of their necks. All they needed was a signal and those children’s life would have ended as quickly as a snap of a finger.

“Chuuya?” Dazai turned his gaze to Chuuya who had assumed his business attitude—standing dutifully by his side with his hands folded behind his back.

“I’m with Ane-san," Chuuya responded. “If those were my subordinates, I would have given each of them three shots.”

The kids had high awareness, but that was the extent of it. None of them were able to figure out the truth behind everything.

Despite what Dazai said, Chuuya knew why the brunet had hung himself.

As those kids stood within the flowers, their senses were alerting them of danger. They were able to sense the danger they were in, but they were too unfamiliar with the sense of death hanging over their heads, so they weren’t able to pinpoint exactly what their body was alerting their brains of.

This was all due to their lack of experience and the peaceful lives they’ve undoubtedly led.

Dazai’s dramatic entrance shattered that. He drew all of their attention onto himself, making them dismiss the uneasy feeling they’ve had ever since arriving. Even if they felt anything off after that, those suspicions would all be directed at Dazai, not their surroundings.

And that was all built upon Dazai giving them a chance.

When that pale-haired boy questioned Dazai on his lie, Dazai used the most obvious way possible to change the topic. There was a handful within the group that noticed, but none of them pointed that out—not even the boy that questioned it.

“It goes to show the levels of Heroes and Villains these days.” Dazai hummed.

Chuuya snorted quietly. There were so many things he wanted to retort about his Boss, but he couldn’t do that with all these people present. Kouyou was right. As executives, they had to at the very least protect the image of their boss—though Chuuya liked to argue that their boss's image was tarnished years ago.

“Chuuya.” Upon being called again, Chuuya looked up and was shocked by what he was seeing. “Help me out here. It’s a bit hard to do this without a mirror.”

“…I thought you should be used to it by now.” Chuuya muttered, eyes unable to leave the man’s face as he drank in that nostalgic sight. He slowly reached his hands up, the situation still feeling surreal to him as he helped fixed the bandages in place.

Even Kouyou’s eyes rounded as she stared at Dazai.

“If the former boss was to see you now…he would be very pleased.” She whispered gently in a nostalgic tone.

Right there, standing at the very center, was a brown-haired man dressed in nothing but black with bandages wrapped around his left eye—concealing half of his face. This was no longer the Dazai they’ve familiarized themselves with for the past couple of years. 

This was the old Dazai—the Dazai before the battle with Mimic.

This was the Demon Prodigy of Port Mafia—the other half of Double Black.

Chuuya stepped back after he finished tying the knot. The face that was now in front of him perfectly overlapped with the one in his childhood memories.

Dazai gave the orange-haired man a light smile before his expression completely changed. Warmth seeped away from those soft brown eyes, taking a darker, colder glint that will make anyone who looked into them shiver in fright.

“Now then.”

At the change of his tone, the two executives got down to their knees. Chuuya took off his hat, placing it against his chest while Kouyou had retracted her parasol and laid it by her side.

Their free time was over.

Now, it was time for them to get to work.

“Tachihara, what are the statuses of our guests?” Dazai looked towards a young man with spikey auburn hair and a bandage over the bridge of his nose.

The man was one of the few within the group to not wear the standard black suits, but a green jacket with fur around the collar and a white v-neck shirt with black borders underneath.

“They have settled within Block 03, just as you predicted, Boss.” The young man responded. “The Black Lizard is on standby for your orders.”

“Send out three men to tail each member. If they show signs of trying to shake you off, let them. In two days, they will be contacting us—right when Hirotsu-san returns from his vacation, I believe?”

“Yes, Boss.” Tachihara nodded.

Dazai didn’t look at Tachihara anymore. He gazed up at the full moon shining brightly within the night sky. A gentle breeze flew by, causing the crimson leaves to rustle as the lanterns within swayed lightly.

This short moment of peacefulness was shattered by the next words that came out of Dazai’s mouth.

“Release Q.”

All mafia members that had been within Port Mafia long enough or had at least heard the rumours stiffened in alarm. Even Kouyou—given her years of experience—twitched ever so slightly at hearing the name.

The only one completely unaffected was Chuuya. The man continued to kneel by his boss’s side, head dipped low as with his bangs falling over his face, hiding his expression from the rest of the world.

“Will that be wise?” Kouyou questioned, lifting her head just enough for her eyes to meet with Dazai’s. “He is still being punished for escaping his confinement during the Guild’s attack.”

"I believe he has learned his lesson," Dazai smirked. “A proper caretaker has already been arranged.”

“Then as you command, I will release him.” Kouyou lowered her head once more, easily accepting her boss’s decision.

Dazai turned, coat whirling around him like a dark cape as he walked off with Chuuya and Kouyou close behind him. 

“Let’s go, we have a long night ahead of us.”

“YES, BOSS!”

◤◢◣◥◤◢◣◥◤◢◣◥◤◢◣◥

It had taken a while for Class 1-A to leave the forest.

In the beginning, the darkness made it hard to navigate, especially when none of them familiar with their surroundings. However, halfway through, lights suddenly appeared within the trees, chasing away the darkness and allowing them to see properly. When they looked through the leaves, they found that those were red lanterns hung on the branches. The red coating on the lanterns was the same colour as the maple leaves. That was why none of them had noticed during the day.

The lanterns lid up their paths little by little. Drawn by the gorgeous lights, their feet had unintentionally slowed as they admired the scenery.

By the time they’ve made it out into the street, the sky was completely dark. They waited there, watching cars passing by until they heard a voice in the distance.

“You guys!”

They all turned to see a boy running over to them. He looked only a couple years older than them with butterscotch coloured hair, a v-neck shirt and a red sweater tied around his waist.

“I was looking everywhere for you guys!” The boy nearly shouted in panic, then looked towards the entrance to the forest as if it would turn into a monster at any moment and devour him. “Please don’t tell me you went in there!”

“W-we uh…” Uraraka stuttered, not sure how to explain.

“Who are you?” Iida asked, but the other person wasn’t listening at all as he pulled out his phone to check the time.

“It’s already seven! Coming on, we need to head back to the Agency or we’ll never hear the end of it!”

Hearing the word Agency, Class 1-A finally realized that this person must have been the caller—meaning he was also someone from the Armed Detective Agency. Although none of them had any idea what had happened, they followed the boy around the city, arriving back in the Agency in half an hour.

“YOU MORONS!” Kunikida all but exploded in their faces the moment they made it back into the office.

If that wasn’t bad enough, Aizawa was standing right next to the blond, glaring at them with those gleaming red eyes with his hair fluttering in the air.

“After I specifically told you not to use your Quirks, you used it and even attacked an Ability user!”

“Hiie! H-how did he know?!” Mineta cried, jumping into Kaminari’s arms as the two boys quivered.

“Not even going to make excuses huh?” Aizawa said darkly. “You kids got guts.”

“W-wait, please hear us out, sensei!” Kirishima shouted, but Kunikida cut them off as he opened up his notebook.

“Minoru Mineta, peeked under a girl’s skirt at 2:43pm. The lady, Lucy Maud Montgomery then trapped him within her Ability. Not only did you guys not properly talked to her to defuse the situation or call one of us, Bakugou Katsuki even taunted her to activate her Ability despite not having any clear understanding of her powers. Then within her dimension, just because you didn’t think you were being watched, you all activated your Quirks against one lady.”

“H-how?!” Ashido spluttered.

“Allow me to introduce.” Kunihida snapped his notebook shut as the young man from before walked over to the blond. “This is Junichirou Tanizaki. He has been tasked with watching over you during your time outside.”

“Hello.” The boy, Junichirou Tanizaki, greeted meekly.

“Watching over us?” Midoriya was digging into his memories, trying to recall anything but nothing came to his mind.   

“Since when?” Iida gasped, also having no idea how none of them noticed.

“Since the beginning.” Kunikida replied.

“Then…don’t tell me you were in Lucy’s dimension as well?” Kirishima gasped.

“I was.” Tanizaki nodded.

“Impossible! We didn’t see you at all!” Bakugou shouted.

“Tanizaki.” Kunikida looked over to Tanizaki who nodded.

Then, right in front of their eyes, Tanizaki changed. Within a mass of green pixels, the young man disappeared. In his place was a large built man in his forties dressed in standard bus driver uniforms.

Toshinori and Aizawa immediately recognized this man. It took a while for the kids, but one by one they began to recalled who that was.

“Aren’t you…the bus driver?!” Ashido gapped in shock.

“That’s right! You were…wait…what’s going on?” Kirishima furiously scratched his head.

“An illusion?” Midoriya blinked when something drifted by his eyes. He thought it was a large piece of dust, but when he looked around, he realized that it was suddenly snowing.

No, this wasn’t snow. These were light particles coming down from the green aurora that came out of nowhere and shrouded them.

“What is this?” Uraraka stretched out her hand and watched her fingers going through the green light. She couldn’t feel anything. There was no warmth or coldness coming from the light. It was as if it wasn’t even real.

“This is my Ability, Light Snow.” The bus driver replied. In another mass of green pixels, Tanizaki transformed back to himself. “I used my Ability to hide within you guys before you got transported into the other dimension.”

“Tanizaki’s Ability allows him to create illusions." Kunikida explained, vein still throbbing in his head. “That was how he’s been tailing you without any of you noticing. If Lucy Maud Montgomery had more battle experiences, she may have noticed she took one extra person in, but she didn’t. Since Tanizaki can slip in without anyone noticing, it won’t be surprising if someone from the Port Mafia had done the same.”

“T-then—” Aoyama became extremely pale.

“Were we found out?” Todoroki asked, voice calm and steady compared to most of his classmates.

That was apparently the wrong thing to ask, as Kunikida looked even more irritated—if that was even possible. The blond-haired man pulled out a letter from his pocket. It was a very wrinkled letter—as if someone had crushed it repeatedly within his palm.

They watched as Kunikida pulled out the letter from within the white envelope, eyebrow twitching as he began to read the content to them.

“Dear Armed Detective Agency,

It has come to my attention that the students of U.A High School have violated our agreement with regards to the usage of Quirks. On behave of their principal, and the fact that their actions did not impact Yokohama specifically, I will overlook it.

I suppose I am partly to blame in thinking that the elites within the Armed Detective Agency would be able to properly monitor them. I do hope you’ll be more adequate in the future.

Sincerely,

Port Mafia.”

The sounds of knuckles crackling were the only warning they got as the next couple minutes, Kunikida went berserk. It was like the last thread of his sanity had snapped. He fisted two ends of the letter, tearing it in half before he proceeded to shred them into tiny pieces within his hands before rolling them into a ball and slamming it into the trash can so hard that the papers just ended up flying back out.

“All of you go to the meeting room, NOW!” He ordered as some of the tiny pieces of paper landed within his hair.

None of them dared to speak. They quietly shuffled towards the room with Tanizaki kindly leading the way. After they went in, Tanizaki closed the door and came back over to where the two U.A teachers and Kunikida waited.

 “Tanizaki. It’s not like you to lose some kids.” Kunikida said. Despite shoulder so much calmer, his hands were still busy tearing apart the envelope that had come with the letter. “What happened?”

Aizawa and All Might were curious as well.

They may not understand the boy’s skills, but just from his Ability, they could tell first hand just how good this illusion was. If a normal person can stalk a group of twenty kids walking down the street, it made no sense that a professional would fail at something so simple.

The uncertain look on Tanizaki’s face turned serious as he retold the event from his perspective.

“I was following them after they parted with that former Guild member. Just when I was crossing the street, a car ran through the red light and came right at me. By the time I dodged and look back, the kids were gone.”

Kunikida clicked his teeth as irritation returned at full speed.

“Is it the Port Mafia?” Despite asking, Toshinori was already one hundred percent certain of his guess. After all, this kind of diversion was too deliberate. They weren't even trying to hide it! On top of that, there was also the timing of the letter…no matter how he thought about it, it could only be the Port Mafia.

“Where did you find them?” Kunikida then questioned his co-worker.

“…They were standing in front of the gate to that forest.” Tanizaki mumbled, clapping his hands over his ears just in time to block out his superior’s scream.

“WHAT?!”

“What is wrong with this forest?” Aizawa frowned. Just by the two’s reactions, it can’t be anything good.

“There is a small forest around here owned by the current Port Mafia boss.” Kunikida replied seriously as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “No one but the Port Mafias ever goes in there.”

“You don’t mean…” Aizawa and Toshinori felt their hearts skipped a beat.

“Looks like we’ll need some serious talk with the kids.” Toshinori sighed as he ran a hand through his hair.

The Port Mafia…what exactly are they planning?

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[no-longer-tainted]

Six chances to fail according to plan [fic]

Happy Valentine’s Day Yuri! ♥ ( @chuuyeetos ) I’m your Secret Valentine on the Discord Server and I hope you enjoy the fic I’ve written for you!! 

Title: Six chances to fail according to plan Summary: It’s Valentine’s Day and every time Dazai is alone with Chuuya, someone interrupts them with something Dazai thinks of unnecessary. It takes him six tries until they are alone and he can ask Chuuya what he planned since morning. 

Read on: AO3 

"Alone on Valentine's Day?", Dazai asked Chuuya who was sitting on a working laptop in the Port Mafia's empty canteen. It was still too early for lunch so no one was around here. "As expected from someone like you." 

A sigh escaped Chuuya and he rolled his eyes while shaking his head slightly. "It's not like you have a date yourself, right?" He finished typing the sentence, he started before Dazai interrupted him and closed the device after saving the document. With Dazai around, it was impossible to concentrate on work and the report could take some delay. "So what?", he asked and let his hand hover over an envelope next to the laptop, not sure if he should put it away or not. 

Dazai sat down on the table next to the closed laptop and his lips formed a smirk. "I was about to ask someone to be my Valentine for today." 

For a moment, surprise lit up in Chuuya's eyes before he raised his eyebrow at his partner, ignoring the nervous skip of his heart. He hadn't expected that Dazai would place importance on commercial days like today but then again, he never knew what he had to expect with him anyway. "Oh yeah? Who is that lucky person you want to ask out?" 

"Actually-" Dazai chuckled, looking around in the room like he was searching for the right words. "it's a pretty dumb person who wouldn't even get it if I asked directly." 

Frowning now at Dazai, Chuuya wasn't sure what he should answer on that, putting the envelope back in his pocket. When he was honest, Chuuya couldn't take a guess on the person, Dazai wanted to ask out. Who would be so dense and not getting a direct question like this?  "How complicated are you planning to ask them out?", Chuuya asked finally, taking a sip of his coke afterwards. Maybe more sugar helped to deal with this idiot.

"Oh, Chuuya, here you are." 

Chuuya leaned back in the chair to have a look on who was interrupting them. "Ane-san!" His eyes lit up with happiness and he jumped up from his chair. "What can I do for you?" 

Kouyou looked at Dazai, scanned him from head to toes before she spoke up to him: "Even as an executive member of the Port Mafia it is inappropriate to sit on the table, Dazai." After he jumped down with a simple 'I'm sorry.', Kouyou put her attention on Chuuya. She reached out to him and gave him a small purplish-red textile pouch with pink cherry blossoms on it. "It is some chocolate. I hope you can enjoy it." 

Smiling at Kouyou, Chuuya thanked her for it with a brief hug and a simple but euphoric "Thank you!" It was the first chocolate he received today and that it was from Kouyou made him really happy. Though, he knew she wouldn't go all out and make it herself but he appreciated her gesture and that she thought of him as important enough to buy him something. 

"You look way too happy about it, chibi," Dazai said to him after Kouyou had left them again because she had a meeting with Mori. He was playing with the textile package, Chuuya had received, his head supported on his other hand. 

Chuuya took it before Dazai would open it and probably eat it without giving it another thought. "You're just jealous that I got something from Ane-san and you came away empty-handed!" He definitely wouldn't let his mood marred by Dazai. 

Clicking his tongue. "As if." Dazai turned to leave Chuuya.

It wasn't a full hour later when Chuuya was walking through the Port Mafia halls to get rid of some time. There wasn't exactly much to do today so it was a little boring since he was already done with all the reports for the day.

"Chuuuya~"

Maybe he shouldn't have thought about it being boring because this always seemed to summon his loud partner. "What do you need now, shitty Dazai?" 

Putting an arm around Chuuya, Dazai walked next to his partner. "Can't I just greet my partner without having a reason for it?", he asked and had the most innocent smile on his face while Chuuya just raised both eyebrows at him, not believing a single word he just heard. "Okay~ maybe I wanted to ask you something." 

Not minding the arm around him, Chuuya just stopped and looked at Dazai, waiting for whatever question the other executive member would have. He guessed it would be something stupid about his next suicide attempt - maybe he found some Valentine's Day specific methods on the internet and wanted to clarify something. 

"You know~," Dazai began and was looking around in the halls. It was empty, only a few open offices doors from where you could hear the typing sounds on keyboards or some phones ringing. "Do you want-"

Before he was able to finish his sentence, Hirotsu left one of the offices and approached them, waving at them. "Oh, Chuuya-san. I already looked for you but couldn't find you." The old man greeted Dazai with a short nod with his head and looked back at Chuuya. "I wanted to give you my gratitude for recommending me those wines a few days ago." 

Chuuya put the arm of Dazai away while turning towards Hirotsu to face him while talking. 

Dazai really wasn't in the mood to discuss some expensive alcohol that didn't even taste delicious. 

Chuuya, on the other hand, beamed happily at Hirotsu. "Oh, I'm glad you liked them! I tried to find some in different price classes, so which one was the best for you?" The taller man rolled his eyes before he slipped away. Confused, Chuuya looked at Dazai. What crawled up his ass so suddenly? Though, he wasn't able to stop Dazai by calling him back because Hirotsu was giving him the answer to his question and distracted Chuuya for a while. 

Two or three hours after lunch hour, Dazai tried to approach Chuuya again but before he could reach him, Kyouka was already by Chuuya's side and he decided to just let it be and watch the situation. 

Kyouka was holding a small box behind her back and her fingers played with the red ribbon around it, her cheeks having a slightly red color - unusual for the little girl to be nervous around someone so openly. 

"What can I do for you, Kyouka?", Chuuya asked her and patted her head softly with a smile on his lips. He saw that she was nervous around him and tried to ease it a little. 

Pressing her lips into a thin line, Kyouka looked to her side before she looked directly at Chuuya with her blue eyes - more vivid than in most other situations. "It's Valentine's Day," she started to speak up, "So I made you some chocolates." With those words, she put the box behind her back in front of her and tried to hold eye contact with Chuuya. 

Chuuya took the small black box with the red ribbon. He hadn't expected to get something from her, too.

"It-It's a thank you for always looking out for me. It was the first time I made chocolates by myself so I hope you'll like them!", she explained her situation and it was clearly visible on her face that she was relieved when Chuuya gave her a hug and another pat on her head. 

"Thank you, I'm glad you thought about me!"

A shy smile appeared on the girls face and you could almost feel how happy she was that Chuuya had accepted her Valentine’s present. "Oh, did you already give him your present for Valentine's Day?", she asked and Chuuya shrugged his head. 

"No, not yet. There wasn't the right time until now."

While Chuuya gave Kyouka the answer to her question, Dazai had approached them and gave Chuuya a soft clap on his butt, what made him jump closer to Kyouka and angrily turn around to Dazai. "What the hell?!" 

"Don't mind me," Dazai said and looked at Chuuya with a smug smile on his face. "I just wanted to give chibi a push to ask their crush out!" 

Before Chuuya could punch Dazai, Kyouka grabbed his sleeve and stared at him with her huge blue eyes. It made Chuuya sigh deeply. He patted Kyouka's head with his free hand and tried to smile at her. "Thank you, I'll ask them later."

A while later, both Dazai and Chuuya, left Mori's office together. He had summoned them for a quick mission update they will begin in three days. Chuuya looked up at Dazai who wasn't paying much attention to his surroundings. "So? Did you manage to ask your-" His heart clenched a little when he thought about the word he wanted to use. "crush if they want to be your Valentine?" 

Humming, Dazai just shrugged his shoulders as an answer. "Who knows? Why do you want to know?" Like most of the time, his spoken answer was a counter question. 

It was to be expected, Chuuya thought. As if he would just straight forward tell him when he asked. "Just curious and I wanted to pity the poor person having the honour of getting your attention." 

"You could just-" But before he was able to form a full sentence, Higuchi had stopped right in front of them, out of nowhere and almost crashing into them with the speed she evinced. Breathlessly, she supported her arms on her knees and tried to catch some air. 

Her hair was a mess and most of her hair wasn't in her hair bun. "Dazai-san-, Nakahara-san." The syllable of their names only came out in broken parts because she was still recovering from her long-run, her face slowly recovering from the redness. "Do you know where Akutagawa-senpai is?" 

Chuuya and Dazai both looked at each other before they shook their head in synchronous. Now that Higuchi mentioned him, Chuuya hadn't seen him the whole day and as far as he knew he wasn't assigned to any mission for today either. 

Higuchi bit on the nail of her thumb and seemed to think feverish about where to find Akutagawa. After a brief moment, she sighed and bowed slightly in front of the two executive members. "I'm sorry for disturbing you." She walked a few steps past them and turned around again: "Please enjoy your Valentine's Day together!" With a wide smile, she waved at them before she walking off to find Akutagawa.

Hearing her words made Chuuya blush slightly. "As if I would enjoy this day with this shitty mackerel!", he called at her but she only waved it off with her hand while speeding up her steps to find Akutagawa. 

"Chuuya! Wait for me!" Dazai sped up his steps to catch up with Chuuya who stopped and turned around to him. 

"What do you need now?", he asked his partner. "If you want to complain that you got dumped by your planned Valentine-" Dazai had caught up to Chuuya in the meanwhile. "then sorry. I've no time for that." 

"I didn't get dumped, chibi~," Dazai said and both started to walk next to each other, "Actually, I wanted to ask you if-"

Though, they weren't even able to walk more than three meters together when someone ran in between them and hid behind Chuuya, grabbing his coat like he himself was a shield. 

"Elise-chan!"

Now it was more than obvious who was hiding behind Chuuya without even turning around. 

"Oh, Dazai-kun, Chuuya-kun." Mori greeted them with his typical smile. "I'm sorry to interrupt your togetherness on Valentine's Day again." Subtle like a child in a toy shop, Mori tried to look behind Chuuya to get a glimpse of Elise. "Come on, Elise-chan, don't let us interrupt them more." 

"Actually-", Chuuya began but Dazai interrupted him by grabbing his arm and pulling him away from Elise to give Mori a full sight on the little girl. "What?" Confused Chuuya looked up at Dazai and frowned slightly. 

"I wanted to show you something." Not waiting for any reaction of the others, Dazai pulled Chuuya along with him. Mori and Elise both looking at each other before they watched the scene of Chuuya stumbling behind Dazai's fast walking pace, insulting him the most creative way they ever heard. 

The moment, they reached the door to leave the building, Chuuya got called again. For a split second, Dazai thought about not stopping and just walk outside, pulling Chuuya with him but Chuuya had stopped and with a strong movement also freed his wrist from Dazai's grip. 

"Mi- Tachihara, what can I do for you?", Chuuya asked and smiled at him. Nervously, Tachihara looked around and wasn't able to look directly at Chuuya, Dazai rolling his eyes standing behind Chuuya. "I wanted to ask if you have a spare minute?" 

"No, he doesn't," Dazai hissed with a death glare at Tachihara what made both him and Chuuya flinch. 

"What? Of course I-"

"No." Dazai grabbed his hand and intertwined their fingers, his eyes about to kill Tachihara on spot. "Did you already forget that I wanted to show you something?"

Chuuya's reaction to their intertwined fingers was more than obvious with his red cheeks and his three tries to form a sentence towards Dazai before he turned towards Tachihara and apologized. "Sorry, we can talk later, okay?"

Tachihara only nodded, still feeling Dazai's death glare on him. 

When they left the building, it was already pitch black outside and the cold wind danced around them. "So what do you want to show me now?", Chuuya asked him, still feeling the heat in his face from their joined hands. They walked a few more meters, leaving footprints in the freshly fallen snow behind them before Chuuya asked again. "Dazai?" 

Dazai stopped underneath a lighted street lamp. No one else was around them and the streets around them were empty too. "You were about to call him by his given name." 

The statement confused Chuuya. "Who?" What was he talking about now and why the hell did he stop in the middle of nowhere? 

"Tachihara." 

The dry answer made Chuuya look away. So Dazai had noticed how he corrected himself. "Yeah, but it has nothing to do with you anyway therefore what's your problem with it?" He didn't want to hear any lectures about him getting too familiar with his subordinates and he didn't want to hear any other stupid comment Dazai may have upon his sleeve. 

Not looking at Chuuya, Dazai seemed to search an answer elsewhere in their environment. "Why-" He bit on his bottom lip and chewed on it, having Chuuya's confused eyes on him. "Why did you never try to call me by my name?"

Taken aback by this, Chuuya's eyes widened and within a second he had turned away from Dazai, freeing his hand with the same movement. His heart skipped a few beats in his rib cage before speeding up to the double, the blood rushing up in his face. "What-What the hell?" 

Dazai took a deep breath. "I always call you Chuuya but you never called me-" Turning around back to face Dazai, he pressed his hand against his mouth. "Stop that!", he shouted. "It's fucking embarrassing okay?" His heartbeat still worked against him and he tried to calm down by taking a few deep breaths. "I don't know why it's so hard but just calling you- just thinking about calling you-" Chuuya bit on his bottom lip, looking down on his in snow-covered boots. His hand sank down next to his body and he played with the hem of his jacket. 

"Can you look at me, Chuuya?"  

Chuuya shook his head and felt like a little child not wanting to eat his vegetables.

Dazai stepped a little closer and intertwined their fingers again. "I can't show you what I wanted to show you," Dazai said and took another step closer. 

With his face still red, Chuuya looked up and before he even realized it, his face was cupped by Dazai's hand and his whole body prickled warm when he felt the other man's lips on his own. 

It was only a fleeting moment before Dazai pulled away, his hands slowly slipping away from Chuuya's face. "I love you, Chuuya." He took a step back and smiled at Chuuya. "That's all I wanted to tell you and it's up to you if you believe me or not."

Two things were obvious on Chuuya's face right now. First was his embarrassment about the direct confession towards him. The second thing was how his brain worked for an answer but all Chuuya got was a total blackout. "What do you mean?" 

"See?", Dazai tried to avoid direct eye contact with Chuuya. "I already said you this morning that the person I want to ask out is too dumb to understand it even if I say it directly to them." 

Chuuya could feel how the anger slowly crept up in his body. He wasn't mad at Dazai for what he said, more on how he expected him to read his barely spread hints again. "How am I supposed to believe that?!" Chuuya made a counter question. "All you do is teasing me!"

Brushing a hand through his brown locks, Dazai sighed. "Because that's the only time I get your full attention."

"That's not-"

"Just look back at today's day," Dazai said, interrupting Chuuya. "I was around you on so many occasions but as soon as someone else entered our space, you turned away." 

Chuuya was about to deny it but Dazai was right. "I-" He was at a total loss for words and his hands began to sweat while his heart still jumped like crazy. "Then you probably don't take this as an answer?" Chuuya searched in his pocket for the small envelope and the plastic bag to give it to Dazai, shoving it against his chest with maybe a little too much power. "Now it comes off like it's a sorry present but actually I wanted to give it to you the whole day." 

After Dazai held them with a questionable look, Chuuya added: "The cookies are bought and the tickets for a movie today may seem- I don't know? Boring? But that's what you need to put up with loving me because that's everything I can come up and I know you're probably used to more than that as presents but then again, I wasn't sure what to get for you because you could buy everything yourself anyway and-." 

The flood of words out of Chuuya's mouth only stopped, when Dazai kissed him again. 

This time it was more confident and when he felt Chuuya relaxing, he parted his lips slightly. Chuuya's hand clung onto Dazai's shirt and he supported his body against his chest when he tiptoed to get even closer to Dazai. 

"For fuck's sake! It's your fault that we missed the movie!"

"Oh yeah? Who was the one not letting go of my lips, huh?"

[datura-foxglove]

a gift for both

Thank you @bsd-secret-santa for organizing this event and answering a lot of my questions! Merry Christmast @neonfigs, I hope for a happy holiday to you, from you secret santa hahaha XD I hope you are satisfied with this DaAku fanfics!

(Akutagawa and Dazai meeting each other in christmas party)

Everything in that huge ballroom repulsed him.

The bright and colorful lights that hurts his eyes, the cheerful conversations that not quite overwhelmed the soft background music, the mouth-watering scents of various kinds of dishes arranged like art on the tables, the carefree smiles from both the mafia and the agency people…

Akutagawa Ryuunosuke stayed on the corner of the room, the only one who radiated aura that repulsed others just like how they repulsed him. The only taint in the painting of myriad colors and happiness.

He covered his mouth with his hand, familiar tinge of copper coated his tongue as his lungs racked from another cough fit. He stubbornly washed the taste down with water from the glass he had acquired earlier when a waiter foolishly approached him with a tray. The only reason why the weak waiter dared to approach him at all was the oath that both Mori and Fukuzawa agreed to in order to have this party. An oath to have both sides refrained from hurting and killing anyone for tonight, the night of celebration party for surviving their latest catastrophe. Any old grudges and strife must be forgotten for this night only, a night of peace after days of gruesome war against the Hunting Dogs. Every member of mafia couldn’t disobey that oath, for they didn’t wish to humiliate their Boss. That was why Akutagawa had to bear the muzzle that restrained his fangs, replacing his usual black coat with ridiculous party get up that Chuuya had coordinated himself. Gin had said that he looked good, but Higuchi was clearly unable to look at him without stuttering like a fool.

But Mori’s order wasn’t the only thing that forced Akutagawa to leave behind his coat, his only absolute safety and most treasured possession, to attend this party that he wished nothing to do with. No, Akutagawa’s reason to attend the party despite his misgivings, was the possibility that man would also attend this party. Akutagawa had done more terrible and more dangerous thing for that person that this sacrifice of comfort was laughable, yet he still stayed in that party. His sharp eyes looked for each corner of the room, hoping to see even the shadow of that person…

His patience was nearing his limit of having to hear the joyful laughter of the weretiger, so near to him but unable to silence with his black beast when his phone suddenly rang. His annoyed growl made everyone around him flinched and backed away, avoiding his ire as Akutagawa yanked out his phone from his pocket. However, all of that barely contained anger went down the drain the moment he saw the name of the caller. Without wasting any more precious second, Akutagawa accepted the call and hurriedly brought the phone to his ear with shaking hands. It felt like he waited forever until he heard that voice. The only voice that would erase everything from his mind so that he could focus on the owner of that voice alone.

“Hi, Akutagawa-kun.”

The messy and tangled thread of his mind slowly unraveled the moment he heard him calling his name. “Dazai-san…” he stood up straight and his eyes sharpened until people around him felt like he could cut them with just his gaze alone. “Do you need anything from me?”

Dazai calling him meant that he got an order for him. An absolute order that Akutagawa would risk even his life to fulfill, no matter what kind of order that was. He waited attentively, like a soldier ready to strike. However to his confusion, Akutagawa heard laughter from the phone. He had never heard Dazai laugh before, at least not from genuine amusement.

“No need to be so tense, I don’t have any order for you.” Akutagawa felt his heart sank to his stomach. Dazai must be able to see his face, because he heard that laughter again. “Don’t look so forlorn, Akutagawa-kun. I do have a request for you though.”

“What is it, Dazai-san?” Akutagawa immediately responded, the only response he would give to anything Dazai wished of him.

“Look up.”

Akutagawa raised his head, his eyes scanning the second floor balcony. Among the fewer people partying their life away on the second floor, he saw his former mentor casually observing him with both arms leaned on the railings. Just like Akutagawa, Dazai had discarded his usual beige trench coat with a formal suit. The left side of his hair was brushed behind his ear, which made Akutagawa’s heart stopped beating for a second. He knew Dazai looked good usually, his female fans back when he was in the mafia proved that, but it was unexpected that just a change or hair style could completely shut down Akutagawa’s brain for a moment.

He knew he was staring, but he couldn’t help it. Dazai noticed it too, but other than a smirk he didn’t say anything. He heard the call on his phone suddenly got cut off and Akutagawa felt the same disappointment and anger as that day when Dazai and the weretiger tricked him to chase after the wireless communication device when in the end Dazai hung up on him.

Dazai stood up straight, just like Akutagawa thought. He was going to leave him again, gaining amusement from how Akutagawa chased after every scrap of attention Dazai deigned to give to him. To his surprise, instead of just leaving cruelly like always, Dazai’s hand raise in front of him. He made a motion as if grabbing something from the thin air and pulled it gently towards him. Unconsciously, Akutagawa’s foot moved on it’s own and he stepped forward.

He saw a glint of satisfaction in Dazai’s eyes and that pushed him to move his foot again. Step by step, he walked closer. When he reached the stairs, Akutagawa had already forgotten everything. The party. Boss’ order. His own disappointment. Everything was unnecessary, so he discard everything away to chase after his former mentor. He even didn’t realize that he had started running, only his body’s hard trained instinct that enabled him to evade the other guests in his chase. He saw Dazai walked away, but his hand was still making that tugging motion.

As Akutagawa chased after that man’s shadow, he realized that Dazai was tugging the invisible chain that bound both of them together. Chain that Akutagawa wore himself years ago, in gratitude for giving a meaning to his life. That deep respect that wouldn’t be erased, no matter how the harsh Dazai trained him to life in the mafia. No matter how many times he was betrayed.

He ran and ran, his barely able to think mind in awe of how Dazai could keep the distance despite how relaxed he walked in comparison to Akutagawa’s frantic sprint. Dazai led him towards a secluded part of the hotel, outside of the noisy ballroom. Akutagawa remembered the blueprint of the hotel for emergency situation and his mind helpfully informed him that they were in the lobby. The mafia rented the whole hotel for tonight’s party and the whole staffs were busy servicing the party, so no one was in the lobby since there wouldn’t be anymore guest coming. But there should be guards patrolling the area…

“I had distracted the guards. We have around fifteen minutes before any of them back.” Dazai turned around and faced him, finally stopping. Akutagawa’s feet also halted, his whole body frozen when he had the full attention of his former mentor. “Let’s talk for a bit.”

Akutagawa didn’t know what to do. What was it that Dazai wished to say to him that he went out of his way to ensure privacy for them? His mind thought of many possibilities and only one seemed the most plausible in his mind.

“Do you want me to kill someone for you?” Akutagawa could only think that. Dazai was working for the Agency now and he may be unable to eradicate anyone without consequences like when he was in the mafia. He knew that Dazai could kill someone and leave no trace behind, but using him was the easiest. Akutagawa was infamous for his reputation as the mafia’s rabid dog, people wouldn’t bat an eye if he killed. Although… he had promised the weretiger to not kill for a while, in order to challenge him again. Of course, he could discard that promise if that became an obstacle in fulfilling Dazai’s order. Although, that would leave a bad taste after his hard work for months in restraining himself from killing his targets.

Dazai smiled, as if expecting his words. “No. Beside, didn’t you make a promise with Atsushi-kun to not kill? I had heard about it, how you managed to keep that promise until now. Even when your opponents were the Hunting Dogs.” Dazai closed his eyes, his expression became a bit more genuine. “I am proud of you.”

Akutagawa’s whole body froze, his widened eyes stared at Dazai in disbelief. “What…?”

“Before, no matter how many times I ordered you to restrain yourself, you keep showing no mercy and killed your opponents.” Akutagawa barely able to hide the wince as he remembered Dazai’s harsh punishment, and from the way the smile disappeared from Dazai’s face he knew that he couldn’t hide it from Dazai. “But you have grown now. You are able to keep to your words, no matter how hard you have to retrain your natural killing instinct and how much more difficult it was to fight tough opponents.”

He remembered the fight with the Hunting Dogs, of how much he had to restrain Rashoumon from targeting vital spots in his enemies’ body. Despite how his hesitance dulled his blade and made it easy for his enemies to corner him.

“You are still in the process, but you will someday outgrow the shadow that I left behind.” Dazai’s words were like hammer that completely destroyed him. “My role as your mentor is over.”

Rashoumon responded to the turmoil in his heart and raged, tendrils of black beast ripped from his clothing, familiar and strange at the same time. Akutagawa was used to pain. His life was full of painful experiences, but everytime he managed to grit his teeth and bear it. But this pain, like there was an invisible blade stabbing through his chest, was unlike any other. He couldn’t deal with the burn behind his eyes nor the way his heart felt like it would break into pieces. So Akutagawa sought for comfort from other feelings that he knew better.

Anger.

Hatred.

“Why!?” Akutagawa screamed, his eyes wild like a mad beast finally unleashed. “Why do you keep leaving me behind? Why—“

He felt a touch on his cheek, and the tranquil that washed over him was familiar. No Longer Human forced Rashoumon back, leaving him defenseless without his most powerful weapon and shield. Akutagawa hissed as he pulled back his fist, trying to prove to Dazai and himself that he wasn’t weak just because his Ability was nullified, but Dazai caught his fist as well.

“Calm down. I said that I am no longer your mentor, but that doesn’t mean that our relationship is over.” Dazai kept his fist and Ability sealed, but it was his words that completely bound him. “This just means that we are equal now.”

Akutagawa slowly pulled his hand back, staring at Dazai in disbelief. “Equal…?”

“I have done a lot of horrible things to you in the past out of necessity and I know you won’t blame me for it because you thought it made you stronger. I can’t make things right if you don’t even wish for it in the first place.” Dazai caressed his cheek, making Akutagawa shivered. He didn’t know if it was from the skin contact or Dazai’s words. Maybe both. “So let’s start over from the beginning. I am not your mentor and you are not my subordinate.”

In despair, Akutagawa reached forward and grabbed Dazai’s suits. “But… if I am not your subordinate anymore, then what am I to you now?” His meaning to life, his only ambition and desire, was to someday meet Dazai’s expectation of him. If Dazai wasn’t his mentor anymore, the meaning of his life would be forever unattainable.

Dazai gently touched his trembling hands, the gentleness unfamiliar to Akutagawa that he couldn’t help to flinch. The shine in Dazai’s eyes darkened a bit at that, but his touch stayed gentle. “Now that you are no longer my subordinate, you are someone precious to me. Akutagawa-kun, you always stay loyal to me, even after I have left you behind in the mafia. I don’t deserve that loyalty, but you give it to me anyway. I had expected you to discard me as you seek power, but you keep me in your heart still.”

Dazai leaned forward, until his lips were right beside Akutagawa’s ear. “I want to see more of your growth, with me by your side.”

Akutagawa could feel warmth radiated in his chest from Dazai’s words. It made butterflies flew around in his stomach and the corner of his lips twitched outside of his control. Dazai leaned back, his widened eyes stared at Akutagawa in somewhat stunned look. It took Dazai a few moments before he smiled. An awe filled him, similar yet different with the awe he felt when he looked at calligraphy.

“What a beautiful smile.” Dazai chuckled as he said that. “Is that my Christmas gift?”

Akutagawa was shocked. He didn’t realize that he had smiled at all. He shook his head to protest, because he was sure that Dazai’s smile was much more beautiful than his.

“Now that I have received such a nice gift, I have to give you one too.” Dazai whispered, a sharp glint appeared in his eyes that made Akutagawa instantly wary. “Close your eyes.”

Akutagawa closed his eyes, still used to instantly obeying whatever Dazai ordered him to do. Dazai made a rueful sigh sound, but he didn’t comment on it. Akutagawa waited for what Dazai had planned, but nothing prepared him when he felt something soft and warm touched the corner of his lips, light like butterfly’s wings.

Akutagawa immediately opened his eyes, his gaze immediately fell on Dazai’s face right in front of him. There was a naughty smirk on his face, although that smirk disappeared quickly when both of them heard the footsteps of the guards returning.

“It seems time is up. We should return.” Dazai walked ahead of him. Akutagawa thought he would be left alone with his brain still is mush with what happened earlier, but Dazai turned around and offered his hand to him. “Will you go back with me?”

There was no longer invisible chain binding Akutagawa to this man, yet he still feel the pull to follow him. His hand gingerly accepted Dazai’s, both of their cold hands warmed by each other. Dazai pulled him along gently with him and Akutagawa stepped beside him, walking side by side as they returned back to the still ongoing party. All the way and even after they returned, their hands still intertwined with each other.

(A bit of bonus, since I can’t decide between this fic and the other I had made. You can take this as a sequel from the first one, although it’s not really related.)

Akutagawa woke to the sound of Gin cooking in the kitchen. He looked at the clock by the side of his bed and frowned. It was rare that he slept for more than three hours. The morning chill made his chest uncomfortable, but he ignored the discomfort as he started his morning routine.

Gin had already prepared his breakfast, light and just the bare minimum, with a plate of figs as dessert. Just the way he liked it. They ate in silence, with sometimes Gin talking about her upcoming missions as he nodded along.

Suddenly, his phone rang. Akutagawa pulled it out from his pocket, expecting sudden missions. To his surprise, a short message from Dazai was the one that appeared on the screen. Gin hid her knowing smile behind her mug, making Akutagawa wondered if he was that easy to read.

Still, the butterfly on his stomach fluttered as he read the message.

“Today is Christmas. How about a date?”

Dazai didn’t have to ask. Akutagawa would drop any unimportant things if that meant he could spend time with him.

“Yes, Dazai-san.”

“Great, I will wait for you at the station at ten then.”

“Understood.”

Akutagawa put away his phone and stood up, already about to leave for the station when Gin stopped him by pulling his coat.

“It’s cold outside, it’s better if you wear more layers. It will be bad if you get sick while you are with Dazai-san.” Gin reasoned, her smile kind. “It won’t take much time at all. I will help you.”

Akutagawa relented as his sister wrapped him up with scarf and thicker coat, the material warm and light. Gin picked a pair of black gloves to keep his hands warm. In the end, he looked almost ridiculous with all the extra layers despite Gin’s insistence that he looked really great.

Despite still having a lot of time to spare, Akutagawa almost sprinted outside if not for Gin walking halfway with him as she was going to her work.

When Dazai finally appeared just in time, Akutagawa had been waiting. He frowned when he noticed how pale Akutagawa looked. Dazai stripped off one of his gloves and touched Akutagawa’s skin, his frown deepening when he felt how cold Akutagawa’s cheek was. He took Akutagawa’s hand and brought him inside of a café nearby. Akutagawa didn’t resist as Dazai made him sat in one of the tables, wrapped him in a blanket the café provided, and ordered a hot green tea and hot coffee for both of them.

Dazai sighed as they wait for their order. Akutagawa thought that Dazai would reprimand him, but Dazai kept silent. Wordlessly, Dazai pulled Akutagawa’s gloves off and then hold his hands. The warmth of Dazai’s hand felt really nice on his cold skin.

“I got tickets for calligraphy art exhibition.” Dazai’s thumb caressed the knuckles of his hands. “You still like those, right?”

Akutagawa nodded. Even if he didn’t like it, as long as it was with Dazai he would follow wherever he would go. But he was honest when he said that he still liked calligraphy. The strokes of the blank ink on a white paper was the closest thing Akutagawa could feel to awe at any beauty.

Dazai’s frown melted into a small smile. “Good. I already reserved a place for dinner, but do you have somewhere you want to go for lunch?”

“Anywhere is fine.” Akutagawa nodded. As long as he was with Dazai, anyplace was fine.

“That is actually the hardest to choose, you know?” Dazai chuckled a bit. “There is a restaurant nearby the museum, do you want to try that place?”

Akutagawa nodded again, probably to Dazai’s expectation. Their conversation was interrupted when a waiter brought their orders; a coffee for Dazai and a hot green tea for Akutagawa. Dazai let go of his hands so Akutagawa could hold the better source of warmth, but Akutagawa preferred the warmth of Dazai’s hands than the hot cup of green tea.

They talked a bit more, their conversation light as they relearn everything about each other. Some things had changed, while others remained the same. Akutagawa etched everything Dazai told him in his heart, memorizing every words. It wasn’t long at all, but they finally left the café after finishing up their drinks and Akutagawa’s body had warmed up.

The cold bit into his skin when they braved the cold weather outside of the café, but this time Dazai stayed close and held his hand. Akutagawa felt like he turned into a sponge that absorbed any warmth given by Dazai. The walk from the café towards the museum was quite long, but spending it with Dazai by his side made it barely noticeable. The warm air inside the museum made the two of them breathe a sigh of relief, although Akutagawa’s attention was quickly distracted by the myriad of calligraphy proudly displayed on the walls.

They took their time to visit and appreciated each one of the calligraphy. Each calligraphy, even with the same kanji, had different brush strokes that attracted his interests. When Dazai excused himself to search for a toilet, Akutagawa revisit each one of his favorites and made sure to remember the calligrapher in his mind.

They left the museum hours later, not noticing how time had gone. It was too late for lunch, so they bought a nikuman at the nearest convenience store that they shared. Both of them ate very little, so they didn’t want to ruin their appetite for dinner by eating too much.

Dazai broke the hot white bun in two and offered one to Akutagawa as they walked. “There is still time until dinner, do you want to go somewhere? I won’t accept answers like ‘anywhere is fine’.”

Akutagawa froze a bit, completely troubled. Dazai’s teasing smirk didn’t help at all. Akutagawa tried to postpone his answer by taking a bite of his steaming bun, but Dazai only waited patiently, not letting Akutagawa escape at all. When he had eaten the last bit of his nikuman, Akutagawa finally remembered something. “How about the traditional garden?”

Dazai knew which one Akutagawa talked about. “The one Kouyou-nee likes? Since it’s winter, there will be less people there.”

Akutagawa nodded. He preferred places with less people than the crowded ones. “Can we go there?”

“Sure.” Dazai smiled and took Akutagawa’s hand once again. “Anywhere you want.”

The act of kindness, no matter how many times Dazai had showed this side of him, had never failed to send his heart aflutter. His cheeks reddened and he followed beside Dazai as Dazai took him to the station.

They went to the park. Then they had dinner in a nice restaurant with a secluded room for privacy. The food was delightful and not heavy enough that his stomach protested at the end of the meal. The whole time, they had small talks about everything and nothing at once. It was a really nice date for Akutagawa, he even got a dessert takeout for Gin. Time passed by so quickly, surprising Akutagawa when the sky was dark the time they left the restaurant.

The end of their date was slowly coming. They had to return soon because tomorrow their presence would be demanded by their work place. The Port Mafia for him, and The Detective Agency for Dazai. The peaceful day they enjoyed would soon be chased by days of fighting once again. Today was like an oasis in the harsh desert of their life.

When they reached the station where they met up in the morning, Dazai let go of his hand. His hand felt achingly empty and cold without Dazai’s to hold. But Akutagawa gritted his teeth and endured his dissatisfaction. Both of them looked at each other, hesitating to say goodbye.

At last, Dazai smiled wistfully. “Merry Christmas, Akutagawa-kun.” Dazai took out a small box of present that he hid on the pocket of his coat.

Akutagawa’s eyes widened. He didn’t expect that both of them would exchange any gift. “I—My apologies, I didn’t—“

“It’s alright. I already received it.” Dazai leaned over and brushed his lips on Akutagawa’s cheek. “Today is the nicest gift you can give to me.”

Akutagawa’s cheek burned on the spot where Dazai kissed him. His trembling hands accepted the small box, his breath hitched when the paper that enveloped his gift had a print of calligraphy on it. “Is this--?”

“A set of calligraphy brushes and charcoal ink.” Dazai grinned. “Make sure you show me your calligraphy soon, okay?”

He had never tried calligraphy himself, despite his interest in it. But now that Dazai was expecting him to do it, the fire of determination burned him. He would make sure he could create a calligraphy art that would make Dazai proud of him. “I understand.”

Dazai sighed, although his eyes watched Akutagawa with fondness. “See you again, Akutagawa-kun. Say ‘hi’ to Gin for me.”

Akutagawa hesitated, which made Dazai frowned a bit. He saw Dazai opened his mouth to ask what’s wrong, but Akutagawa quickly stepped forward. He grabbed Dazai’s coat and pulled him closer to plant a kiss on Dazai’s lips. Dazai’s eyes widened for a moment, before mischief bloomed in those dark eyes and Akutagawa was surprised when Dazai deepened the kiss. It was just an innocent kiss, but it took his breath away unlike the way his illness usually did. It felt way more pleasant… and it warmed Akutagawa’s heart and body. Akutagawa whispered ‘Merry Christmas’ to Dazai’s lips as Dazai kissed him again.

They would have to part ways soon, but this moment, this single moment… was all that they need.

[mulledberrry]

Not So Secret Admirer

@kitikat707 happy valentines! 

College Au fluffffff I hope this is good, I haven’t written a fic in ages so I’m sorry if it sucks!

And please just let me know if I made any mistakes!

Prompt ‘Can I borrow some money?’

Italics are texts!

Shinskk and slight skk

Word count: 2.5k

 Akutagawa hesitantly cleared his throat, alerting his roommate to his presence in the doorway of their shared room. The red head swivelled his chair around to face him, ready for whatever Akutagawa had to say.

“What do you-“

“Can I borrow some money?”

The question rushed out of Akutagawa’s mouth before Chuuya could even finish asking him what he wanted. Chuuya swallows once, the request throwing him off guard slightly; he thought Aku had enough money, he had been keeping an eye on both of their finances after all.

“Of course, I thought you had enough for food, but I can always help if you need more.”

Aku mumbled something under his breath, something that sounded suspiciously like “It’s not for food” to Chuuya, but wanting to be a good friend, Chuuya didn’t push the younger man to tell him, secretly rather pleased that his roommate was finally asking him for help when he needed it.

Armed with a generous amount of cash from Chuuya, Aku made his way to the shopping district furthest away from campus. It had pained him to ask Chuuya for some extra money and the last thing he wanted was to be seen by someone that knew him.

His plan had started way back at the first party of the semester that Chuuya had dragged him to, insisting that he needed to have more than one friend, dismissing Aku’s argument that he already had Chuuya and his sister Gin. Once they reached the party, Chuuya didn’t leave Aku alone, something Aku was actually grateful for. The only downside was that he then had to look after his increasingly drunk roommate who was insisting on fighting his old roommate, Dazai, who had been seen at the party.

He was so close to getting Chuuya out of the door and back to their dorm by carrying him, when the older shouted “Mackerel!” while pointing at a tall, dark haired man who looked surprisingly gleeful at being so insultingly greeted. Aku glanced sideways to see Chuuya’s face twisted into a snarl which was immediately softened by the fact that he had to cling to Aku’s coat in order to stay upright. He’d never admit it but Chuuya reminded him of a chihuahua right now. Chuuya was clearly trying to intimidate this other man, which led Aku to realise that this was Dazai, Chuuya’s old roommate and apparent nemesis.

“Ah chibi, I didn’t know you were here tonight, I would’ve gone somewhere else if I’d known.” Aku could hear Chuuya grinding his teeth in annoyance but they both remained silent, allowing Dazai to continuing complaining that he had expected Chuuya to have drank himself to death by now. When Dazai paused his speech, Aku cleared his throat, attempting to move the two old roommates on so they could get home. But Dazai took the sound as an introduction so he threw his arm around Aku’s shoulders, dragging him away from Chuuya who seemed content to slump to the floor without his human crutch.

“So you’re in charge of the chibi now? He does need a baby sitter,” Dazai chuckled as he turned his head to look back at Chuuya, now asleep on the floor, his expression softening ever so slightly, while Aku focused his sight on the heaving crowd of people before them.  

“I noticed that he didn’t introduce you to anyone tonight,” Dazai pouted, the childish action making Aku wince as he was directed to the kitchen of the host’s house, where he found two people leaning against the kitchen counter, casually chatting. The more serious of the two, a tall, blonde man, glanced at Aku, acknowledging his presence. The other young man caught Aku’s attention as he raised his hand to wave a greeting. Aku had never seen someone like him before, with lopsided hair that Aku immediately decided suited him and incredible eyes.

“Kunikida, Atsushi, this is Akutagawa, chibi’s new roommate,” Dazai introduced. Aku briefly wondered how Dazai knew his name but that thought was cut short when he made eye contact with the young man that Dazai had introduced as Atsushi. Something about him made Aku’s heart thud in his chest and his breath catch in his throat. Only Dazai noticed Aku’s reaction to Atsushi and he immediately took the chance to move the conversation onto the topic of romance.

“So Aku, I can call you Aku right? Anyone caught your eye on campus?” Aku answered the first question with a dismissive shrug and the second with a vigorous shake of his head, feeling his face heat up with the three pairs of eyes directed at him.

“That’s a shame, poor Atsushi here is in the same boat, he’s just too shy to talk to anyone!” Dazai exclaimed as he moved away from Aku, throwing his arm around Atsushi’s shoulders making him blush, another action that made Aku wince but for a different reason than before. He couldn’t stand being near this Atsushi any longer, especially with Dazai being so close and. Using Chuuya as his reason, Aku excused himself from the conversation which had turned into Kunikida scoling Dazai for making Atsushi uncomfortable. As he turned on his heels with his hands deep in his pockets, he felt someone tap his shoulder and turned again to find Dazai a few inches from his face.

“If you ever need advice on how to woo the next pretty face that catches your eye, here’s my number, that chibi is just no good at romance so don’t even bother asking him about it,” Dazai said with a wink, handing Aku a small piece of paper with his number on it.

“Thank you,” came Aku’s clipped reply, he was beginning to get annoyed with the man’s distinct lack of personal space and boundaries. After that, Dazai released Aku’s shoulder, allowing him to return to Chuuya. Once he had managed to get his roommate to his feet, Aku took one last look into the crowd of people, hoping to see Atsushi one last time.

Over the next few days, Aku replayed that party and Dazai’s parting words to him. His thoughts kept drifting back to Atsushi and the way his eyes gently sparkled when he looked at Aku, the way his har softly framed his pretty, no perfect, face.

Aku sighed to himself as he sat at his desk in the dorm room, running a hand over his face trying to avoid simply staring at his phone in front of him. How could he get to know Atsushi when Atsushi was too shy to talk to anyone and he certainly couldn’t talk to Atsushi. Every time they bumped into each other on campus, Atsushi would wave and smile, actions that sent Aku’s head spinning and made him freeze on the spot.

He groaned, slumping in his chair. If he wanted to show Atsushi he was interested he would have to get some advice. He stared at the piece of paper that held Dazai’s number but thought better of texting him, he still didn’t fully trust Dazai so he resolved to ask the one person he trusted, Chuuya.

Hey.

What’s up Aku?

What do you do if you want to talk to someone but can’t?

Straight to the point there Aku lol

Nakahara-san please.

Sorry lol. If you don’t want to talk to them then you could leave messages or gifts? That’s pretty romantic 😊

Thanks.

Chuuya chuckled fondly at the messages, pleased that Aku was branching out and actively trying to make friends, Chuuya just hoped that his blunt and formal approach wouldn’t put off whoever he was trying to impress.

So there Aku was, a week after the party and a day after he asked to borrow some money from Chuuya. He stared at the rows of chocolates and sweets in the candy shop not wanting to admit that he was in way over his head. Asking Chuuya for advice and money was opening up to the red head enough, let alone asking about what to buy. At the sight of an assistant coming towards him, no doubt to ask if he needed help, Aku grabbed the closest box of chocolates to him to avoid any awkward interactions with anyone else.

Breathing a sigh of relief as he left the shop, Aku decided to return to the dorm, formulating his idea of showing Atsushi that he wanted to get to know him. Once he was in the safety of his dorm room, Aku set the box of chocolates down on his desk, reading Chuuya’s note saying that he had had to leave early for class. He sat and stared at the box for a while, almost willing it to grow legs and take itself to Atsushi’s dorm room. After a while of considering the chocolates Aku thought about attaching a note saying who it was from, but then quickly dismissed the idea in favour of being anonymous. That was best, he thought to himself, so that he could find out if Atsushi appreciated the gift and then he could make his next move. What that would be Aku was not sure, but he sure as hell would put it off for as long as he could.

Realising that if he wanted to put his plan into action he would actually need to move. He remembered which room Atsushi’s was, having been invited to a small get together there with Chuuya. He had declined, of course, not wanting to actually have to talk to Atsushi.

Walking along the corridor to Atsushi’s room, Aku’s almost natural scowl shielded him from anyone trying to stop to talk to him, allowing him to make the short journey in peace. Once he reached the right door, Aku stood, hand poised to knock, then quickly shook his head and decided to leave the box of chocolates in front of the door to be picked up by Atsushi or his roommate. Sighing once more, Aku turned to leave and retreat back to his room. He only managed to get a few paces before he walked into Dazai who was rounding the corner.

“Aku! What a surprise, I didn’t expect to see you here!” Dazai exclaimed with a wide smile, increasing Aku’s anxiety about the whole situation.

“I was just getting some notes from a class that I missed, I need to go ack now to continue with my work,” Aku explained as he made to move past Dazai. Dazai just shrugged, knowing that the quieter young man was not that sociable.

“I guess I won’t keep you then,” Dazai moved past Aku as he said this, his eyes landing on the box of chocolates that Aku had left. As Aku continued walking, he heard Dazai call for him.

“And I’ll make sure Atsushi gets these chocolates.” At this Aku blanched. How did Dazai know? Did he leave a note? Aku turned to see Dazai with the chocolates in his hand, opening the door to the room he shared with Atsushi. Aku froze, once again, and mumbled a quick, “thanks,” as he left with a blush on his face, one that he did not want Dazai to see under any circumstances.

Dazai smiled softly, looking down at the box of chocolates in his hand as he entered his shared room. He had an idea himself, one that would move his blossoming romance along.

A couple of days after Aku had, very bravely in his own opinion, left the chocolates outside of Atsushi’s dorm, he was slightly relieved that nothing had been said, at least Atsushi wouldn’t have known it was him.

“And then, my professor said that he couldn’t accept my project as extra credit which is absolute bullshit if you ask me!”

“Of course, Nakahara-san,” Aku gently replied to his roommate’s rant about on of his classes as they walked back from to their dorm. He felt slightly guilty for no fully listening to Chuuya’s rant, as the red head was getting himself more and more angry, but his mind continued to drift to Atsushi and if he liked the chocolates, and what should his next move be?

“And then-,” Chuuya suddenly stopped mid rant, causing Aku to look up from his feet, he had a habit of looking at them while he walked. Seeing the scowl across Chuuya’s face, Aku was greeted by the sight of Dazai and Atsushi walking towards them, Atsushi smiling in greeting and Dazai smirking, probably at the fact that Chuuya was so angry at the mere sight of him.

Once the four were standing facing each other, Chuuya’s attention was directed at glaring at Dazai while Atsushi’s was focused on Aku.

“Thank you for the chocolates Akutagwa-san,” Atsushi beamed at him, “They were really lovely to come home to, especially after a really hard test that I had that day.”

Aku rubbed the back of his neck nervously, reminding himself to smile and to respond. But before he could, Atsushi continued to speak.

“And I would like to take you up on your offer of dinner, is seven tomorrow night okay?”

Aku gaped at the younger, until Chuuya realised and nudged him.

“Y-y-yes,” Aku stammered, before clearing his throat and trying again, “Yes I would like that very much.”

There was Atsushi’s gorgeous smile again, something that Aku could not help but stare at as the younger walked closer to him.

“If you want we could talk for a little bit this afternoon, I know I’d really like that,” Atsushi blushed as he said this to Aku, shyly rambling about the two of them spending some time together. He beamed once again when Aku agreed.

“Thank you, Akutagawa-san! I know that you aren’t a big talker, so I was really worried that you wouldn’t want to…” Atsushi trailed off as to everyone’s surprise Aku had leaned towards him and gently pecked his cheek, having sensed the younger’s insecurity which helped to ease his own. That and he’d been dying to kiss Atsushi and had only just realised it. The two left to take a walk in the late afternoon sun, leaving Dazai and Chuuya alone, with Dazai still smirking at Chuuya’s glare.

“You put a note on his gift, didn’t you?” Chuuya accused Dazai, “I know that my oblivious roommate would not have had the stones to do something like that.”

Dazai simply shrugged in response, “If I left it up to the two of them they’d graduate without even talking to each other,” he argued back. “Besides, give our little Aku some credit, he did leave a very romantic gift for Atsushi,” as he said this Dazai had moved closer to Chuuya, gently resting a hand on his shoulder. Chuuya glanced at Dazai’s hand but didn’t shake him off.

“After all, wasn’t it a box of your favourite sweets that I left for you before asking you out?”