Chapter Text
Chuuya knocked on the door to Dazai's dorm room, quietly enough that he hoped he wouldn't gain the other Agency members' attention, since most of them also lived in the building.
“Coming!” he heard Natsuki call cheerfully, heavy footsteps running towards the door despite Dazai trying to stop her.
Opening the door, the little girl grinned at him. “Good morning!”
“Good morning.” The redhead’s lips quirked into a small smile, which switched to a smirk as Dazai came into view, smiling at Chuuya in greeting before turning his attention to his charge.
“Natsu-chan, what’s the rule?” the brunette asked.
Natsuki blinked up at him in a moment in confusion before wincing.
“Don’t open the door even if you think you know who’s on the other side.” She said quietly. “I’m sorry, I forgot.”
“It’s okay, just be more careful in the future.” Dazai ruffled her hair a bit, turning to Chuuya. “Are you ready to go, Slug?"
This time he saw Natsuki's attempted elbow to the gut coming and managed to dodge it, sticking his tongue out at the little girl and earning the same expression in response.
Chuuya hummed his agreement, amused. "Natsuki-chan, you realize that Mackerel and I have been calling each other those names for years, right? If it was meant to be an actual insult I'd hit him for it myself."
"Yeah, Natsu-chan!" Dazai pouted cutely. "The hatrack and I--"
He was cut off as Chuuya socked him in the gut, just hard enough to knock the wind out of him for a moment but not hard enough to really hurt the brunette.
"See?" the redhead asked the girl cheerfully. "That was a joke about my height, so I got him back for it."
"So mean, Chuuya!" Dazai complained after he recovered. "It's not my fault you haven't grown even a centimeter since we met."
"Yes it is!" Chuuya reminded him with a scowl. "I seem to recall you putting that annoying curse on me."
Dazai opened his mouth to protest before closing it again.
"I didn't think it would actually work." he admitted with a careless shrug. "But hey, now you get the satisfaction of seeing the looks on people's faces when you're able to beat them up despite the difference in size!"
"Uh huh." Chuuya said dryly, though he privately admitted to himself that seeing said expressions was kind of funny, at least until his opponent made a comment on his size and pissed him off.
"You guys are weird." Natsuki said suddenly, earning almost startled looks from the two men.
"Embrace the weirdness, Natsu-chan, life is so boring otherwise." Dazai said with a playful wink, dramatic as ever.
"Whatever helps you sleep at night, Dazai." Chuuya snorted before turning to Natsuki. "So, we were going to go get a tree, right? Figures you'd need my help--I don't think Dazai's strong enough to get it inside all by himself."
"Hey, I could too!" Dazai whined with a pout, despite the fact that Chuuya had said it in a teasing tone. "But why should I go through the hassle when Chuuya can just use his Ability and do it faster?"
"Sure, just keep telling yourself that, you lazy bastard." Chuuya snorted before freezing, turning slowly towards Natsuki.
"Oops. Sorry, Natsu-chan." he winced, also taking a moment to glance up at Dazai apologetically. "Er, please don't repeat that."
"I won't." the tiny blonde giggled.
"It's fine, you should see Kunikida try to find alternative ways to insult me." Dazai's lips twitched as he tried not to let out a laugh. "He's getting more and more creative every day, but he's slipped up a few times, too. Do you think we should set up a cursing jar, Natsu-chan, so that every time someone curses they have to put a hundred yen in?"
"Yeah!" Natsuki’s eyes lit up. "Can I keep the money?"
“Hm…” Dazai tapped his chin thoughtfully. “I don’t see why not. But don’t spend it all on candy unless you’re going to try and bribe Ranpo-san, okay?”
“I won’t!” she swore with a beaming smile.
Chuuya’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline at the devious glint that had appeared in her eyes the moment Dazai agreed she could keep the hypothetical cursing money, the six-year-old clearly thinking of ways she could try and make people curse more to take advantage of it.
Clearly he wasn’t the only one who had noticed, if the proud expression on Dazai’s face meant anything.
“Aw, my little businesswoman, already thinking on how to empty people’s pockets.” Dazai said with a sniff, bringing his hand up to his face as if to wipe away a tear.
The brunette was too busy being dramatic to notice the pleased expression on the little girl’s face at the fact that Dazai had expressed his approval, but Chuuya certainly did.
Natsuki was having a blast, running from tree to tree and asking Dazai and Chuuya for their opinions on which one they thought looked best.
“Natsu-chan, I have no idea.” Dazai told her for the third time. “I’ve never had a Christmas tree before.”
“How about this one?” Chuuya suggested, nodding at one that looked decent enough to him.
“But this one’s barely taller than you are!” Dazai argued, gracefully dodging the kick the redhead sent his way as Natsuki giggled. “We should get a bigger one, right Natsu-chan?”
“Well…” Natsuki glanced between them, torn on whether her agreement would somehow make Chuuya think she agreed with Dazai’s teasing.
(Not that Chuuya wasn’t short, of course, and Natsuki hoped she grew taller than him someday, but she didn’t want him to think she was mean.)
“The bigger the tree the more ornaments we’ll be able to put on it…” Dazai added with a grin, knowing he’d won the argument.
“Bigger tree it is!” Natsuki agreed immediately.
“Traitor.” Chuuya said with a laugh, winking at the little girl to show her he was just joking and wasn’t actually mad.
Dazai opened his mouth to say something, but then his nose wrinkled, and he sneezed.
After that he couldn’t seem to stop, eyes watering and nose starting to run, causing Chuuya to offer him a handkerchief, which he accepted gratefully.
“What’s wrong?” Natsuki asked worriedly.
“I think he might be allergic to Christmas trees.” The redhead laughed incredulously, earning a miserable groan from the brunette that was interrupted by another sneeze.
They left the tree farm quickly after that, Dazai having promised that with some allergy medication he would fine. A quick Google search told them that Dazai’s allergies were probably irritated by the fragrance of the trees instead of the trees themselves, so they hoped that their single tree wouldn’t bother him too much.
Luckily getting out of there made his symptoms subside for the most part, the brunette grumbling from his spot in the passenger seat of Chuuya’s car, since Dazai didn’t have his own and no one in their right mind would have let him drive anyway.
Natsuki laughed at him from the back seat (he had bought a booster seat for her as soon as he had realized that he would likely need one) as Chuuya ignored Dazai’s protests that they didn’t need to stop anywhere for the medication because he had some back at his dorm, the redhead not trusting him to have gotten the stuff that actually worked.
(He complained even more when Chuuya insisted on some nasal spray, because that stuff sucked.)
An hour later, they were finally back at the dorm, and Chuuya had managed to refrain from maiming his former partner when they were working to get the tree set up, the detective having pretended it looked crooked for a good ten minutes before Chuuya and Natsuki caught on.
“Oh!” Natsuki gasped, as one of the ornaments she’d picked out slipped out of her grasp, dismay turning into awe as a faint red light surrounded the glass fox, floating gently back into her hands.
“Guess my Ability is more practical than yours, Mackerel.” Chuuya grinned at his former partner.
“Isn’t it always?” Dazai asked with a wry smile as he finished making sure all of the Christmas lights were working, having had to Google how to fix it when not all of them came on despite being brand new.
The redhead blinked in surprise, because yeah, the fact that his own Ability was generally more useful than Dazai’s was obvious, but he hadn’t expected the brunette to admit it so nonchalantly.
Shaking his head, he floated up to put a few ornaments towards the top of the tree, trusting Dazai not to use No Longer Human to make him fall, and chatted with the pair about the other things Natsuki wanted to do with the pair of them to celebrate the holiday, and how they should do something special on Christmas Eve, too.
Dazai looked slightly confused at that last bit, but Chuuya just tried not to chuckle as he wondered which one of his coworkers had informed the little girl that Christmas Eve was a day couples spent together.
He also wondered why Dazai didn’t just make a move already and act on the attraction that was so obvious even a six-year-old had been able to see it.
In the meantime, however, he was more than entertained by Dazai being the one dancing to another’s tune for once, instead of being the one pulling the strings as he usually was.
When it came time to put the star on the tree Dazai glanced towards Natsuki, though after a moment he looked at his own arms and the height of the tree, grimacing slightly.
Realizing that Dazai didn’t like his chances of being able to pick the little girl up and lift her high enough to put the star on the tree without risking accidentally dropping her (Dazai wasn’t actually that weak, but the tree was wide and stability would be an issue), Chuuya stepped up.
“Hey, Natsu-chan, have you ever wanted to fly?” the redhead asked.
“Of course.” Natsuki blinked up at him, tilting her head curiously.
Dazai’s eyes lit up, the warm lights from the tree making his eyes practically shine as he figured out what Chuuya was doing. His lips, seemingly without any conscious thought on Dazai’s part (unlike with most of the expressions he showed the world), formed a small smile more honest than most of the ones Chuuya had seen from him over the years.
Now that Chuuya thought about it, he was seeing those genuine smiles from the brunette more and more often, more since Natsuki came into Dazai’s life but even before then, too. Certainly more than he ever had when the other man was still in the Port Mafia.
He hoped with everything he had that he would be able to see more of them in the future.
“Well then, milady…” Chuuya grinned, floating a few inches off the ground and holding his hand out to her, his Ability enveloping the girl when she accepted.
Natsuki seemed to startle slightly as she realized that her feet were no longer touching the ground, faltering slightly before she regained her confidence. After all, Dazai and Chuuya were with her, so even if she fell they would make sure she didn’t get hurt.
“I feel like Peter Pan!” she said excitedly.
“Does that mean Chuuya is Tinkerbell?” Dazai grinned from his place on the floor, passing the star to her and being careful not to touch either of the two in the air. “Well, I suppose they are pretty similar. Tiny and—” he dodged the ornament Chuuya threw at him, chosen due to the fact that it was made of fabric and wouldn’t break, before finishing. “Temperamental.”
“Asshole.” Chuuya huffed slightly.
“That’ll be another 100 yen for the curse jar!” Dazai rebutted cheerfully.
“Worth it.” The redhead snorted. “It’s not like Natsuki cares, since it’ll go in her pocket anyway.”
“Nope!” Natsuki grinned, carefully placing the star on top of the tree.
“Come now, Chuuya, what would Ane-san say if she saw you cursing in front of a child?” Dazai teased.
Chuuya froze, paling as he imagined that scenario.
“Who’s Ane-san?” Natsuki asked curiously.
“Chuuya’s mentor/friend/older sibling/sort of parental figure.” Dazai answered promptly, clearly having thought about it before.
Unbeknownst to the other two, Dazai had once tried to figure out how his relationship with Odasaku could be categorized. He knew that it wasn’t romantic on either of their ends, since Odasaku was straight and Dazai already liked Chuuya, but neither was it the same type of partnership Dazai had shared with Chuuya even before he’d developed an attraction to him.
Having such limited experience with interpersonal connections, Dazai had chosen to compare their relationship to others around him, and the closest he could come up with was the one between Chuuya and Kouyou. Sure, Mori had been his official mentor, but Odasaku was the one who Dazai had actually tried to learn something from. The age difference between them was even similar, though Odasaku and Dazai were actually a year farther apart in age than Kouyou and Chuuya.
“Kouyou is in the Port Mafia, too, but Chuuya likes you and she would never hurt anyone he cares about, so she’s not a threat to you.” Dazai analyzed. “Actually, we should probably introduce her to you soon…”
Chuuya blinked in surprise at Dazai’s apparent willingness to expose Natsuki to another mafioso that could tell Mori about her, but the redhead knew for certain that Kouyou would keep the secret.
“Yeah, I’m sure we can set something up.” He agreed.
“Good.” Dazai nodded before murmuring to himself that it might cheer Kouyou up a bit, having another young girl to spoil, especially after Kyouka’s decision to join the Agency.
Chuuya smiled to himself as he lowered Natsuki and himself to the ground.
Dazai and Kouyou had never really gotten along, for reasons Chuuya wasn’t sure he fully understood, but it was nice to see Dazai showing consideration towards her despite that.
As he gathered his coat and hat to leave for the night, Chuuya only barely managed to catch Natsuki using Sign Language to say something to Dazai.
Are you going to kiss him?
Usually communicating nonverbally would be a great way to tell someone something private without risk of eavesdropping, but Natsuki must not have realized that Chuuya knew it too, having learned the language right alongside Dazai to make their missions easier.
Chuuya pretended to be distracted checking something on his phone as Dazai stiffened and looked in his direction, checking if he had seen what Natsuki had asked and slowly relaxing when Chuuya didn’t react. He saw Dazai sign back to her out of his peripheral, the brunette’s cheeks faintly pink, but didn’t manage to catch what it was.
Still, Chuuya couldn’t help but wonder about the answer to Natsuki’s question, himself.