Chapter Text
It was an average day for the bandaged agency member, waking up already late to work. Dazai takes his sweet time getting ready to go bother his co-workers for the day, and by the time he actually leaves, he is about two hours late to work. The agency door swings open and all gazes turn toward the loud opening. “Good Morning~” the sing-song voice coming from the bandaged man is almost the opposite to how he feels. Upon hearing Dazai’s cheery voice Kunikida could be heard sighing.
“It’s one in the afternoon, Dazai.” Kunikida did not seem to appreciate Dazai’s tardiness, but he was used to it at this point. After all, Dazai had been doing this for the entire three years he had been working there. “Don’t be so upset Kunikida~” He crossed his arms and pretended to be very annoyed at his co-worker. “Whatever, just get to work. Don’t think I’ll let you push all the work onto Atsushi today… Again.” With a roll of the eyes the man was already back to checking things off his to-do list.
“I-I really don’t mind, if Dazai-san needs me to do a few things I will.” Atsushi spoke up from nowhere, he was definitely a people pleaser. “Not everything though, and only if he needs proper help.” Atsushi stared down Dazai in the nicest way he could while still getting his point across.
“Well, I’ll then tell you that if Dazai needs help he can ask me for it, you have enough on your plate already.” Kunikida turns around almost to drive the point into Atsushi’s brain. “Okay?”
“That is true. Sorry Dazai, looks like you aren’t getting any work from me.” He returns to the work he was already doing before the interruptions.Dazai heads over towards his own desk which is next to Atsushi. Taking one look at his desk and the stack of paper he decides that this was going to be a long day. He plopped down onto his chair and began working for once. Dazai soon realizes that doing his work partially distracts him from the fact that a certain tiny slug was on a two week long mission. The distraction doesn’t work for very long, the thoughts keep winning….
“He isn’t coming back for you. The mission was a fake so he could leave from the hell you put him in.”
“Chibi definitely will fall for someone much better and just stay there with them.”
“Wait, no he couldn’t just leave his mafia family…”
“That would mean he’d bring the other person back with them, and I’d have to face the truth.”
“What if he has to use corruption, I’m not there so he’ll die!”
…
“Dazai?”
“DAZAI!” The loud voice snapped Dazai out of his entrance .
“Huh? What’s the matter? Did a very beautiful women come looking for a man to commit suicide with?” He let out a small laugh to make the others think everything was fine.
“No... Are you okay though? You look dead.” Yosano, The agency’s doctor, was staring down at him. “You good?” Her eyebrow raised as she questioned the man slumped in his chair. “Why yes! Of course I am good, why wouldn’t I be?” The masked smile reappears like a light turning on from a switch. “Well, you look miserable, so I thought I’d check up on you. I am a doctor and I can tell you don’t look too healthy. I won’t push it but if you need anything I’m in my office.” She placed two very suspicious pills on his desk. “Take these, you'll feel better.”
“What are they exactly? Also how do you know, you didn’t even ask me what I’m feeling. Ah, is this you finally trying to kill me?” being skeptical he looks up and cocks his head to the left. “No one is trying to kill you, Dazai. Those are pain killers, I could see you rubbing your forehead like you have a headache. They won’t do any harm. Now stop asking questions and take them.” She gave a small smile and walked away. Still being skeptical and only just realizing how badly his head hurt, he swallows the pills without any liquid. They sting the back of his throat a bit but he doesn’t care, he doesn’t have the energy to care.
Dazai tries to focus on the work that he has in front of him, however he needs to clear his head. “Hey Atsushi, if Kunikida asks I’ve gone for a walk.” Dazai raises his voice a bit as he leaves the room. “Uh… okay?” Atsushi shouts back, obviously confused by his superiors actions. Walking out of the building he sneaks into an empty alleyway, and pulls out his phone.
> Chibi!!! <
> What do you need, Mackerel? You know
that I am busy. <
> WAAahH so mean Chuuya am I not
allowed to talk to my darling Chibi? <
> Just tell me what you need. <
> Hmph, fine I just wanted to ask
If you knew when you’d be home <
> You know I still have a full week left,
I should be back sometime next week. <
> But that’s so far away!!!!! <
> I know, I’m sorry ‘Samu, I have to go, but
I'll call you later.” <
> Okay. :[ <
> <3 <
A heavy sigh is left and the phone is slipped back into his pocket. Trying to clear his mind he takes a small walk around a nearby park. The end of fall is cold so there aren't many people around the park, definitely no children at the playground. With that in mind Dazai finds himself sitting on a swing set.
The metal swing handles are cold to the touch, it stings a little. He isn’t really sure how long he has been sitting there, that is until he recognizes a presence walking towards the swing next to him. “Dazai?” He didn’t even need to look up to be able to tell who was there.
“Hello Atsushi!” with a smile that was probably obvious to be fake, thankfully Atsushi decided not to mention it.
“Kunikida sent me to come find you, since you’ve been gone for over two hours.” He looks over to the weretiger with wide eyes. Has it really been that long?
“... And you never answered your phone.” Hearing that he pulled his phone out of his pocket. Sure enough there were fifty-seven different notifications. Mostly from the man himself, Kunikida. The latest text Dazai could read said “Nevermind. I give up. I’m sending Atsushi to come find you.”
“Whoops! I guess I forgot there was work to do.” Trying to play into his normal façade, he knew it was obviously fake. He also knew that Atsushi could see through his act, yet he didn’t mention it and for that Dazai was thankful. “We should go back to the agency. Kunikida might be annoyed but he is also worried.” Dazai suddenly realized how cold he was, which made him choose to hop off of the swing.
“Alright, it’s quite boring out here anyway. No Kunikida’s to annoy.” No longer having the motivation to keep up the act, he let his mask slip slightly. Right before entering the agency building he is met with Kunikida standing there with Yosano.
“There you are Dazai.” With how cold it was he could almost see the sigh. “Aww, was Kunikida worried about me? Didn’t Atsushi tell you I was just going for a walk?” With more people around, his mask appeared out of nowhere.
“Of course I was worried dimwit, I care about all the agency members. Atsushi told me that you said you were going for a SHORT walk, not a two hour long walk.” Kunikida pinched the bridge of his nose. “Yeah you weren’t even walking when I found you.” Dazai looked back towards Atsushi who was clearly worried.
“You don’t know that, maybe I was walking. Also two hours is a short walk.” giving a playful pout, and seeing the relief in his co-workers' faces, he knew the act was working. “He clearly isn’t going to get any work done today, I say you should just let him go home, and get some rest.” Yosano, who was holding her trusty chainsaw, said. “Or maybe he needs a check up.. What’ll be Dazai?” He tensed up slightly, that doctor could be scary sometimes.
“Very good idea! I will take my leave now.” Dazai skipped away until he reached out of sight from his co-workers. As soon as he knows he is out of sight he lets his mask fully fall. Reaching into his pocket to grab his phone he realized that he left his keys at the office. He would not be going back now, he could easily break in without damaging anything. Not wanting to go back to the empty home quite yet, Dazai takes the long way home. The walk home took him much longer than he thought it would, leaving him to get home around one in the morning.
Walking up to the entrance of the place he called home, he remembered he didn’t have his keys. “Shit.” Walking around to the back entrance since the backdoor was easier to pick the lock, he successfully made it inside his house. Immediately opting to text a certain someone.
> Chuuya~ <
> Yes? <
> You said you’d call tonight :( <
> Shit, yeah give me a second. <
A long minute later and the phone starts ringing.
“How dare the chibi forget to call me.” is the first thing Chuuya hears as soon as his outgoing phone call is picked up. “Sorry, Dazai. I forgot about the time difference.” Chuuya's sigh is heard through the phone. “Thankfully, this is actually a good time for me. What time is it over there anyway?” “Hmm, it’s probably close to one… In the morning.” Dazai approached the kitchen to find something to eat. “I just got home.” He said as he sighed while grabbing a thing of canned crab.
“You don’t normally get home so late, is everything alright? Have you eaten?” Chuuya’s worry could be heard through the phone. “I haven’t eaten, I was planning to do that now, don't worry.” He opened the can of crab, which happened to be much louder than he had expected. Dazai could only hope that Chuuya couldn’t hear it. “Osamu. I love you but you can’t just eat canned crab all the time.” As expected, Chuuya did hear the can being opened.
Dazai gasps "I love you too Chuuya!" After a moment of silence Dazai quickly added “Just because it’s a can doesn’t mean that it’s crab.” Chuuya could practically hear the pout through the phone. “Dazai. Have you eaten anything other than crab since I left?” the detective let out a long yet quiet sigh before letting the other know that he hasn’t. “No, Chuuya I have not eaten anything else other than crab, but what else am I supposed to eat?” There was a moment of silence before a loud sigh could be heard from the other side of the phone. “I guess I don’t really care what you eat, as long as you are eating. It’s not going to stay that way when I get back though.”
Something must have happened on Chuuya’s side because all Dazai could hear was a loud bang. “Is everything okay Chibi?” His eyebrows scrunched in worry. “I’m not sure.. I’ll be right back” He could tell that Chuuya set his phone down on the table. Of course he would try and eavesdrop as much as he could.
“Hello, Mr. Nakahara!”
“Hello? Also I told you just Chuuya is fine. Anyway, what do you need?”
“I was asked to tell you that ********* wants to talk.”
“Why’d you whisper his name?”
“He said it must be private.”
“God he couldn’t have just texted me? Nevermind that, is it urgent?”
“He said it was ‘very urgent’ but also that it ‘wasn’t important.’ I have no idea what he’s talking about.”
“Okay, thank you for letting me know. I’ll go see what he’s up to.”
“Alright, I’ll be off.”
Some rustling could be heard in the background, before the other side of the call came back. “Ugh, sorry Dazai. I’m gonna have to go now. Someone seems to have done something stupid. I think they did, anyway.”
“That’s alright Chibi, I was going to try and sleep soon anyways.” A sigh of relief was heard from the shorter one. “Good, take care of yourself. I’ll call you tomorrow during my break, love you!” Then the call ended and he was alone again. Dazai finished eating his crab before making his way to bed. He knew sleep wouldn’t come easily, but he figured he could at least try. What else could he do, there were no tiny redheads to bother. He ended up not sleeping all night.