Chapter Text
“Hey! Fukuzawa!”
Fukuzawa wasnt being paid enough to deal with scrap orphans mori gave him.
“Yes dazai?”
Dazai was leaned against the coffee table, hands clenching the sanded edges.
“You know how its valentines day”
He nods.
“Im not giving you the day off to seduce women.”
Dazai puts a hand to his heart.
“So cruel! But no.”
Fukuzawa raises his eyebrows.
“Then where is this going?”
Dazai picks at the bandages on his forearms, springing out with indents from his fingernails.
“Do we have any cases that need to get done?”
Fukuzawas eyes widen momentarily, before muttering something about only living once. He reaches for a beige folder on the table beside him, flipping through the pages.
“We have exactly one, although its not that interesting. Its quite niche for your tastes”
Dazai nods.
“Hit me!”
Fukuzawa looks ready to jump out of the nearest window.
“You know that peach blossom liquor that always sells out today?”
“What about it?”
“Supposedly theres a planned robbery, it won’t take long, all you need to do is keep it secure until buisness hours start.”
Dazai inhales, this is what he was waiting to ask.
“Do you think…. I could go with a partner?”
“A partner? What for?”
Dazai grumbles, hoping fukuzawa can mold it into some formable excuse.
“Strength in numbers..? Im just a fragile man whos had rope on his neck more that jewelry?”
Fukuzawa groans.
“I have to check which ADA members are free, however atsushi just called out to deal with housing, ranpo called out, kunikida is….”
They both wince.
“Busy. yosano is preparing some elaborate tonic (lime soda and crushed up cherries) to cure her from her sad lesbianitis singleismgitis.”
Dazai blinks.
“Is that a thing?”
“No. But shes my daughter and i take pity that she may never find true love”
Fukuzawa grimaces.
“I found the yuri….”
Dazai pretended not to hear that.
“Everyone else has called out, so sadly theres no one you can go with…”
Dazai suddenly puts his hand up.
“Wait! What if i went with someone from the port mafia?”
Fukuzawas jaw drops slightly.
“….why”
He laughs nervously.
“Uhm… no reason?”
His eyes narrow, dazai gulps.
Dazai very defeated, explains to fukuzawa, who cycled through about 5 emotions before landing on resignation.
“Fine. Chuuya is currently available, you can go with him.”
Dazai nods.
“Thanks!”
And just like that, he was gone.
Fukuzawa sighs, rubbing his temples.
“I need an aspirin…”
Yosano perks up from her office.
“Oji-san! Do you want my tonic? It tastes like love and rose petals!”
Fukuzawa,sighs.
“No thank you.”
**
“Chuuya!”
Chuuya avoids dazai.
“Dont make this look weird, I knew I shouldve called out today”
Dazai grins.
“Oh woe, you’re stuck with me, lighten up a bit!”
“Youre gonna feel real light when i punch your lights out.”
Dazai gasps.
“So so cruel…”
“Lets just get this over with, how long until opening?”
“1 hour.”
Chuuya groans, already walking.
“Come on already”
Dazai takes a few strides before matching chuuya.
“Do you not have a valentine chuuya?~”
Chuuya clenches his fist.
“Believe me i will throw you into-“
“You know, i can be your valentine.”
Chuuya pauses.
“Stop joking around.”
What chuuya didnt see was the absence of laughter. Instead, it was a stare that lingered far too long.
“Ah, yeah…”
As they walked, the snow had thinned down, somehow, a few trees were still a navy green, filtering in komorebi against the thinly stitched sheet of white.
Birds so freely flew against the skys limits, singing so beautifully above them.
Chuuya looked up, his hat tilting backwards, hair loosely falling behind hs face and pooling at his neck, catching the light like rubies.
Dazai stops, his boots halting in the snow as if it were glue.
Although his eyes were blue, at that moment the center of them matched the brown in his own. The paleness of his skin acted as a mirror, pupils served as a window, window to every thought and wish dazai wished chuuya would tell him, yell at him.
But in that moment, he was fine just looking at him.
“So angels do have orange hair…”
Dazai lets out a shaky breath, almost a laugh if you will.
“I never would’ve guessed ….”
Chuuya turns around, not hearing what dazai had said but assuming it was not good.
“What did you say?”
“You look really ugly no wonder you’re working today.”
Chuuyas face sours.
“I just thought….”
He sighs. They passed under a peach blossom tree, the air smelling sweet yet refreshing, like perfume.
“Nevermind, kill yourself you idiot.”
Dazai looked up, then at chuuya.
“Under a blossom tree, how poetic chuuya! You’re such an artist.”
“Stop.”
“Yknow, my favorite flowers are peach blossoms.”
Chuuya groans.
“You’re mocking me because i said i liked them….whatever.”
“Do you know why?”
Chuuya grits his teeth.
“I swear if this is a sucide joke—“
“Its not!”
“Oi shut up, youre hurting my head. I know its a suicide joke, todays not the day”
Dazais step slowed down, just slightly.
“Ah”
The store cleared up, a mundane little buildimg with checkered fabric that shaded and lined the roof, a sign with flashing lights that used to work and small green hedges that barely peeked out from the white.
“Aw how quaint! Almsot as cute as you chuuya—“
Thwack.
“Ow…”
Chuuya turns away , grumbling.
“I should be the one stealing, not protecting it. It’s just juice with a kick inside glass bottles.”
Dazai turns to chuuya, again.
“Say chuuya, you smell clean today, did you decide to take a shower for once?”
Chuuya kicks dazai, he stumbles forward.
“I didn’t have a cigarette today, geez. The first person who noticed just has to be so….”
Chuuya tugs at his hair out of pure anger.
“Not all of us can be clean so easily….”
Before dazai could say anything, chuuya suddenly sped up. This time, dazai didn’t try catching up, he could take a hint when due.
The doorbell chimed as they entered, the back smelling of wine and joy. Disgusting.
“Ok where are the bottles, heard these sell out like hotcakes.”
He looks around, before seeing a giant lumpy bound of brown cloth.
“Bingo.”
He walks over to it, pulling the cover off, an array of green bottles with pink stickers flurrying along the waist.
“They’re…. Pretty. Alright, we just need to get all of this to the shelves and watch it till opening.”
They take turns carrying the crates and stacking the bottles on one another like a game of jenga, a very risky and expensive game of jenga.
**
Customers slowly pooled in, and there was no suspicious activity. The owner of the store was a sweet old man, with wrinkles lining his forehead and the cracks of his eyes.
“Dazai… wasn’t there supposed to be criminal activity?”
“Well, I might’ve left out that it wasn’t…. Official. It was just a watch.”
Chuuya slowly turned to dazai, ready to strangle him.
“You’re telling me… i was dragged here, for nothing?!”
Dazai laughs nervously.
“Maybe…?”
Chuuya has to avoid screaming and choking dazai in broad daylight.
“Cmon lighten up! You still have a whole day off!”
Chuuya scoffs.
“Now it’s tainted thanks you to you.”
Dazai stops , his hand still mid air, quickly keeping it to his side when chuuya turns around.
He just nods, hair falling on his eyes.
“And why are you nodding so much. You’re acting like someone told you that the world was ending. Although knowing you youd be happy.”
As they walked out, the crisp wind blew against both of their faces, chuuya keps his hands in his pockets, trudging instead of walking.
“Hey, theres a patch of green”
Dazai points to a square of melted snow on the meadow.
“And?”
Dazai inhales, he gaze lingering on the shimmer in chuuyas eyes.
“We should sit in it”
Chuuya raises an eyebrow.
“What? Why do you think i’d—“
“Or are you incapable of fun? Aw chuuya lighten up~”
“Hey! I can have tons of fun!”
“Prove it.”
Chuuya groans, but does sit, dazai sits next to him, laying on his back, looking up at the pink blossoms above them.
“Look! Theres some flowers still here!”
Chuuya ignores him, but he does lay down as well, well, more like dazai yanked him down.
“Yeesh… what was that for…”
Dazai didn’t respond, instead, his gaze lingered on chuuya. The subtle parts of his facial expressions, the way his eyebrows scrunched before relaxing, or how his cheek rested downwards but his jaw rode up into the ghost of a smile.
“Why…. Are you looking at me like that?”
“Like what?”
Chuuya sighs.
“Nevermind….”
Dazai was fidgeting with his arms again, it’s something chuuya hadn’t seen since they were 15.
“Are you…. Nervous?”
Dazai looks at chuuya.
“I mean…”
Chuuyas face goes pink.
“Whatever, don’t make it weird.”
Dazai smiles, turning over, propping on his elbow to look at chuuya.
“Hey chuuya?”
Chuuya closes his eyes.
“What.”
“Do you know why peach blossoms are my favorite flower?”
Chuuya groans.
“Please not this again.”
“You’re not listening to me.”
Chuuya clenches his fist.
“Fine, enlighten me, please.”
Dazai inhales, staring up, catching a stray flower that’d been blown down, fluttering down into his palm.
“To start, some of them have a really beautiful orange color, like the color of the setting sun.”
Chuuya hadn’t opened his eyes, but he was listening.
“Some animals may stay away considering how bright and poisonous they may look.”
He pauses.
“But they can be eaten raw, they’re beautiful. No matter how scary they may look to animals, i’ll always find then precious.”
Chuuyas face shifts, cheeks tinting.
“You sound like poe right now…”
Dazai laughs, soft.
“They’re really small, so I can always keep them around. I can go around knowing they’re always there somewhere.”
Dazai smiles. Not his manic mental crisis smile, but a real one.
“They symbolize love, prosperity, an icon of everything blessed in someones life.”
He lays the flower on chuuyas nose, each petal softening.
Dazai hadn’t noticed, but his voice had gotten unusually soft. Not wavering or stuttering, just quiet.
“Dazai….”
Dazai tenses.
“Yes?”
Chuuya inhales.
“Where…. Are you going with this.”
Dazai exhales.
“There definitely are prettier flowers out there, or sweeter tasting and smelling. But they’ve always been here, so they’ll always be mine.”
Chuuya was silent.
Dazai inhaled, he felt his palms sweating through his bandages.
“Chuuya…”
Chuuya glanced away, even with his eyes closed.
“What…”
Dazai smiles, a smile chuuya couldn’t see but could feel.
“Im proud of you.”
Chuuyas eye twitched.
“For what?”
Dazai rested on his elbow, his head lay on his cheek.
“You didn’t smoke today right?”
Chuuya sighs.
“What, it’s not like I smoke everyday. I just do it whenever I’m like… drinking or something.”
“Still, i remember you’ve smoked every year on this day exactly since we were 15”
Chuuya doesn’t comment.
“Do you want to know why I really like them?”
Chuuyas face went red, similar to his state whenever he was drunk.
“Yeah , i mean… i don’t care”
Dazais smile went from calm and composed to frayed.
“Because they remind me of you.”
They both freeze, before chuuya breaks the silence.
“What the hell are you talking about.”
Dazai had expected this, he just didn’t wish chuuya was so dense.
Dazai shifts, moving like liquid until his nose was over and almost touching chuuyas.
Now chuuya had opened his eyes, the pupils a lot larger than before.
“What are you doing…”
Dazai inhales.
“I’m saying I love you.”
This time, chuuya freezes for real. The depth of his words sinking into his skin like ink.
Dazai took the opportunity.
He leaned down, closing the space between them.
Chuuya felt the the bandages of dazais palms on his jaw, fingers laying on his cheek, letting his eyes flutter shut.
Dazai moved down, the weight of his head more than enough on chuuyas mind. Chuuyas hands found dazais shoulders, not to move him away, but to keep him grounded.
When dazai pulled away and opened his eyes, chuuya was bright red now, his breath coming out in ragged gasps.
He settles back down next to chuuya, holding his gloved hand, smiling.
Chuuya covers his mouth with his free hand, mind reeling.
“I told you they’re my favorite.”
Chuuya tried to scoff, but even under his palm, dazai could see chuuya smile, not the ghost of one, a real one.
“Happy valentines day chuuya.”
“You’re insufferable.”
**
“So tell me dazai, why on earth do you want me to partner you with chuuya on this mission? It’s not even a mission! I can tell when there is a fake case, you just wrote this.”
Dazai leaned against the window, looking up, likely asking for strength from god.
“Less of a mission, more of a…..”
Fukuzawa raised an eyebrow.
“More of a?”
Dazai sighs.
“I want to ask chuuya out, it’s been 7 years since we met. This is more of a date.”
Fukuzawas eyes widen, before settling.
“Ah, i see.”
He smiles, faintly.
“Well then, i’ll give you the “case”.”
Dazai nods, his head bowing slightly, before walking out.