Chapter Text
Atsushi had been asleep for ten minutes after they had began discussing doctor’s appointments. They debated doing the checkup while he was asleep, but he was so tense that he might wake up in panic — and he had already shrieked enough for the buildings down the street to hear. They didn’t need the cops on them.
Atsushi woke up when Kunikida and Yosano were in the midst of discussing vaccines. He blinked and turned his head around before looking up at Fukuzawa — who didn’t hold him too tightly, giving him free rein to run away and hide under a desk again.
Something bit at Atsushi’s instincts at the back of his head — telling him he could relax. Telling him that he wasn’t going to hurt him.
But he didn’t listen, and leaped out of his arms almost effortlessly before stumbling onto the ground. He brought himself to his feet and put a fair amount of distance between him and the randoms that he so happened to encounter.
The man who had been holding him didn’t say anything. He simply crossed one leg over the other and turned his body slightly to the right to face a man with somewhat unkempt brown hair and bandages on his wrists.
Atsushi scanned the room. Nobody was paying attention to him, which in his opinion— was a good thing. He didn’t like attention. Not anymore.
Atsushi crept past the desks and stood on his toes to reach the doorknob to leave the main office area when someone had already twisted the knob and opened it. The person, unseeing of Atsushi, opened the door to its full limit and rather quickly.
Atsushi was practically tossed to the side like a ragdoll, a small, frightened whimper escaping from his throat. He covered his mouth with both hands and looked up.
A lady with short, light brown hair and green eyes and clothes that seemed like they belonged to a librarian looked down at him with empathy clearly written all over her face.
“I’m sorry! You’re so small, I couldn’t see you!” She apologized, crouching down to Atsushi’s height. Atsushi scooted himself backward, taking his hands off his mouth to shake his head — as if saying that she didn’t need to apologize.
“Haruno,” Tanizaki began, getting up from his spot next to Naomi and walking up to her.
“That’s Atsushi. An ability user struck him and reverted him to his old self.” He explained, gesturing at the small boy who was now trying to leave the room.
“Atsushi. Stay in the room, please.” Kunikida called out.
The boy tilted his head to the side.
‘Atsushi.’ He thought.
. . .
’Is that my name?’
It didn’t matter — the voice was loud and demanding and that was enough to get him to listen. He hesitantly lost his grip on the door and went back to hiding behind the desk like an animal.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
An hour had passed, doctor discussions long forgotten, but now a different topic was at hand.
How do the get a skittish, shivering five year old to Yosano’s office without having the Agency become a Tom and Jerry episode?
Within the few hours that Atsushi was in the Agency, he had not grown comfortable with any of them.
Five year olds already don’t like the doctors for a multitude of reasons — shots, the weird equipment, the smell of insulin reeking throughout the clinic — the reasons go on and on.
But Atsushi? The stupid cat hasn’t shown much interest for anything besides candy since he’s gotten here. And everyone knows Ranpo doesn’t do sharing.
…Which is why Kunikida is at Ranpo’s desk, trying to convince him to use some of his candy to get Atsushi in the doctor’s office.
“Ranpo, this is important. Atsushi could have god who knows what—“
”If he has rabies I’m going to scream.”
“If he had rabies, he would be trying to tear our heads off!” Yosano shouted from across the room, standing a good five feet away from Atsushi, who was shaking like a leaf.
“He probably just has lice or something, he’s fine.” Ranpo waved a dismissive hand at Kunikida, popping another lollipop into his mouth.
“If he has lice, i’m quitting.” Dazai, who was trying to help Yosano get Atsushi, was now standing behind Naomi, who was standing behind Tanizaki.
“If he has lice, he needs to get it checked out! You don’t even have to give us one of your favorites!” Kunikida groaned, tugging at his tie in annoyance (he’s trying to quit tugging at his hair)
“If you’re so determined to get him, just go and buy some candy.”
“Not everyone has a rich, American boyfriend who supplies them with a diabetes-worthy stash of candy!” Tanizaki shouted
”You leave Poe out of this!”
“Ranpo, give Kunikida some of your candy. We need to make sure Atsushi is healthy.” Fukuzawa lightly scolded, turning around in his chair to face Ranpo’s desk.
Ranpo frowned, but reluctantly opened his lollipop drawer and handed Kunikida 4 different flavors of dum-dum lollipops.
“Thank you.” Fukuzawa smiled.
Ranpo crossed his arms and grumbled in reply.
Atsushi was focused on Yosano, sure. But he couldn’t ignore his other surroundings.
’Poe? Who’s Poe?’
’Lice? I feel like I’ve heard that word before…’
‘Why is that sweet smell so strong?!’
‘Why did the bandaged one go away?’
Atsushi heard a loud snap of someone’s fingers and nearly jumped to keep his sitting stance proper. Back straight, chin up, hands in his lap.
Yosano turned at the sound and looked at Atsushi and frowned before walking off.
Finger-snapping had one and only one definition in Atsushi’s mind.
‘You sit like a slob. Fix your posture before I kick one into your head.’
Atsushi hated that. He didn’t like being kicked, so naturally, he listened.
He still got kicked, but it was never for his posture. If he was going to be good at one thing, it might as well be as simple as something like sitting down. Easy, quick, and there’s many ways to do so.
(But only very few that the orphanage headmaster approves of.)
He shook his head, and blinked a few times to refocus. The last person he wants to think of is his father.
Instead, the enticing smell of something sweet filled Atsushi’s nostrils, and he looked down infront of him, finding a piece of wrapper on a small, white stick infront of him, which seemed to be the source of where the smell was coming from.
The white haired boy tilted his head to the side before looking further ahead, spotting another one of those wrapper-stick things, just with a different color on the wrapper.
‘Food? Why?’ Atsushi knew that food trails were always no good. The other kids at the orphanage used that trick like how rich business men use money. All the time, everyday, and at the expense of everyone else.
But in this case, everyone else was just Atsushi. But he learned very quickly as to what following these trails meant — and it was never good. So, he stayed put.
For two hours. Because that’s when everyone began to “leave.” (Dazai had realized that he may not be moving because of all the people nearby so they all left the office)
Once everyone was gone and about 30 minutes had passed, he gently picked up the wrapper-stick thing — or that’s what Atsushi called a ‘lollipop’, anyway.
He slowly stood up and dragged his feet to the next lollipop, and several feet ahead, was the next one, with green decor on the wrapper instead of the blue and pink he’s already seen.
He knows he’s going to get punished just for being gullible and following the trail. For eating anything he saw? Another blow to the side of his neck, probably more. But some part of him always wondered if the punishment he deserved was different.
Maybe death was beyond the door. All he had to do was follow the trail, and maybe the grim reaper themself would be on the other side, willing to ease Atsushi into its intoxicatingly gentle embrace, wrapping its skeleton arms around him and promising he won’t ever return to a place so beautiful that he had to be constantly tortured in order to be allowed to live.
The thought alone brought a small smile onto Atsushi’s face, a small sniffle emitting from him. If he died, the children at the orphanage could live in peace, and so could his father. And that’s all he could ever ask for.
With that thought in mind, he continued walking along the trail, finding a door at the end of it labeled “INFIRMARY”
Now, Atsushi wasn’t sure what that meant, but he sure hoped it was a synonym for death. He brought a small hand to the door and knocked 3 times, bringing his hand down afterward and waiting for the door to open.
It felt like eternity for Atsushi. He couldn’t believe it. He was finally going to get the one things he’s only ever wanted. He could finally survive in one of the greatest ways possible — lying down six feet underground in a small, brown box with his name etched on stone. He hoped it would be in the middle of a graveyard, so his brought the most attention. It would be good attention, for once.
But when the door opened, the grim reaper did not look like what Atsushi thought they would.
“Hello…You finally decided to follow the trail, hm? Why don’t you come on in?” Yosano moved out the way and held the door for the young boy.
‘Well that’s not the damn grim reaper, now is it?’ Sarcasm and dissatisfaction seeped into his brain as he stood there. He contemplated turning around, but Yosano gently pushed him in with a hand on his back and shut the door behind them.
“Sit down on that chair over there, Atsushi.” She pointed to a chair near a monitor and a whole bunch of other things Atsushi didn’t recognize. He dragged himself over to the chair and climbed onto it, sitting down with his back straight up.
“Took you long enough, Atsushi. I was beginning to think you left when the others did.” Yosano commented as she walked over to him and grabbed some kind of cast? No, casts aren’t typically black.
“Put your arm right here. This thing here will squeeze your arm and it will tell me your blood pressure.”
“…will it hurt?” Atsushi whispered, his voice dry and raspy from not drinking or saying anything in a while. Yosano grimaced and the sound, but didn’t say anything about it.
“It’s not supposed to.” She replied as Atsushi placed his arm in the small cuff. Yosano wrapped it around his arm and it instantly began to squeeze around Atsushi’s arm.
‘I didn’t even think they made blood pressure cuffs in that size.’ Yosano’s mind wandered. Atsushi was so thin that if you compared him to a variety of sticks, some of the sticks may actually be thicker.
His blood pressure rate was horrific at least, his bones were all too prominent; making him look more like an abnormal doll with long limbs than a child, and his fingertips were hypothermia blue upon further inspection, so he was given a hot drink (that he only took one small, reluctant sip out of.)
Oh, and his physical was not any better.
The average five year old is somewhere between 36-46 pounds. Atsushi? A whopping 23. It was a surprise he was still alive, but Yosano assumed that maybe it was the tigers ability that kept the poor thing up and running. The only good thing that came out of his physical was his eyesight — which was expected. His reflexes were jerky and acted on their own even before Yosano got the reflex mallet.
His hair was matted to an extreme and his haircut looked worse than it already was. His face was all bruised and cut up and several splinters were found in his legs, some sticking to the dried blood of his skin and causing more of a mess than Yosano intended. His eyes looked like they were shoved into his face with glue and the white of his eyes were a light reddish color — most likely red from how many tears he spilled over himself.
His breathing was ragged and came in sharp, shaky in and outtakes, and his eyes never left Yosano’s hands.
‘God, what did they done to him?’ Yosano frowned as she continued her examinations. When she was done, Atsushi gave Yosano the only lollipop he had picked up and sat down infront of her — like she was some god to beg to for forgiveness.
(Which to a lot of women, maybe she was some kind of god. But to a child — let alone, Atsushi? No, never to Atsushi.)
”Atsushi, you can take the lollipop. Adults don’t eat a lot of candy.”
Atsushi tilted its head to the side.
”But that black-haired boy seemed to eat a lot of it…”
”He doesn’t count, Atsushi. He has the same mentality as a ten year old.” Yosano sighed, waving the lollipop around before the child took it, looking at it in his hand as if it was a foreign object.
————-
The rest of his examining went as you would expect from a child. He physically recoiled at the sight of a needle and clung to a shelf for a good thirty minutes before coming down (at the promise that Yosano would give him a bath.), he was startled by anything sharp and would refuse any vitamin gummies because he thought they were injected with “the drink that makes people sleep.”
(Anesthesia. He was talking about Anesthesia.)
But in the end, he got his promised bath so he had no complaints, not that he was supposed to have any, but you get what I mean, yeah?
Thats when Yosano realized that she has no clothes for Atsushi…and she’d rather go to hell than make him wear those dirty, orphanage rags.
So, naturally, she makes a call.
———————
the members of the agency were all downstairs in the cafeteria, having coffee and a few small pastries (all on Dazai’s still unpaid tab, might I add.)
”Are you sure you’re equipped to handle a child, Dazai? You can barely take care of yourself.” Kunikida had asked him this question ten — now eleven times.
“Yes, yes, I’m sure. I doubt he’ll bother me much. ‘Ok give him food, water, a bed, the works. He’ll do whatever until we catch this ability user.” Dazai reassured, sipping on his coffee.
“You’re talking about him like he’s an animal.” Naomi pointed out.
“Humans are animals. Very selfish ones, at that.” Dazai shrugged.
“But don’t you think you’re being selfish, only giving him what he would need to live? What do you do with the leftover money that isn’t used for rent, groceries, and a car?” Naomi asked.
Ranpo spoke up, elbows on the table and holding his chin in his hand.
“Humans are only more complex animals with more readable desires, Dazai-kun! You talk about little Atsushi-kun like he’s a cat. You don’t consider him as the same species as you. Or not on the same level, at least. Not as an equal. A child is not below you, especially when you act like one all the time.”
“You’re the one to talk about acting like a child, Ranpo-kun.”
”At least I acknowledge it! Im smart enough to recognize how I act!” Ranpo crossed his arms.
”Are you?”
Dazai rolled his eyes, not addressing the truth in his coworkers words. Dazai Osamu is not childish.
Said man was dwelling on his thoughts when his phone rang in his pocket. He picked up his phone.
Huh..what does she need? Dazai thought before picking up the phone
“Hello, Dazai. Think ya can run a favor for me? Don’t answer that! You don’t get a choice. Head to the clothing store for me and get Atsushi some clothes. I can’t tell what size he is, so just go with ya gut, okay? Thank youuu!!” She had a sing-songy tone with the ‘thank youuu!’ part before she hung up.
”Sounds like you’ll be busy.” Kunikida mumbled, sipping his own cup of coffee.
”Guess so..well, I’m going clothes shopping for the tiger. Don’t miss me too much!” Dazai got up from the table, a grin on his face.
As much as he didn’t want to admit it, he was 100% going to buy the first fuzzy set of clothes he sees because it’s the closest thing he’s ever gonna get to tiger fur, okay?? Let an animal be selfish for once.
”oh, oh! I wanna go! Tanizaki-Nii, let’s go!” Naomi dragged her brother out of the chair and in seconds they were standing next to Dazai.
“Okay…I guess we’re going out, then. We’ll be back soon!!” Dazai corrected himself, waving the other members off before he, Tanizaki, and Naomi left the cafe.
“..Are we sure letting Dazai go clothes shopping is the best idea?” Kunikida whispered to Ranpo.
“meh. Probably. He adores the kid, just won’t say it.” Ranpo whispered back, waving off Kunikida’s concerned tone.
Kunikida wasn’t sure if he should trust Ranpo on this one, but because it’s something so little like clothes shopping, Kunikida will let himself believe Dazai will be a responsible shopper…hopefully.
——————-
Atsushi had never felt this clean before. The warm water was such a beautiful, gentle embrace that he almost didn’t want to leave.
…Until he fell face first into the water because he was dozing off and immediately requested out while trying to get water out of his nose. Hilarious sight, really.
But now he’s asleep on one of the infirmary beds, covered in at least three towels because he was cold.
Yosano slightly hoped Dazai would take his sweet fucking time, because a sleeping Atsushi that hasn’t tried to claw her throat out (or the curtains off) was a very peaceful Atsushi and she wanted it to stay forever. And he’s very cute as a child after being washed and swaddled in towels, so can you blame her?