Work Text:
6:30 A.M.: Wake up
“Don't go falling asleep in the bathtub. You'll get water in your nose, Dazai.”
The voice was chiding, but the hand on his back was gentle as it supported Dazai's weight so he wouldn't sink fully into the water. Dazai opened his eyes a crack and let out a catlike yawn.
“I'm awake.”
“Sure you are,” Ango agreed with amusement. “You're all done, let's get you dressed.”
Dazai nodded and waited for Ango to pull him out of the bath, then wrap him in a fluffy towel, another one being used to dry his hair. Ango studied Dazai as the kid rubbed one of his eyes.
“Can I at least trust you to get yourself dressed, or should I help you?”
“Hmm.” Dazai thought with himself. He wobbled on his feet as he raised a thumbs up to Ango. “I can do it.”
Ango leveled him with a dubious look. “If you say so. Just don't fall asleep on the floor again.”
“That was one time!”
“Yes, it was the one time I caught you in the act. I'm sure you have done it many more times than I could count on my hands.”
“You can't prove anything,” Dazai said with a pout.
Momentarily distracted by his task, Ango was quiet as he ran the towel through Dazai's hair a few more times before deeming it dry enough. He smiled when he was faced with Dazai's frown once the towel was put away.
“I can't, but I have good instincts when it comes to you.” Ango gave Dazai an encouraging pat to the back before straightening up, wincing when his back cracked. “Go get dressed, I'll finish breakfast in the meantime.”
Not needing to be told twice, Dazai ran back to his room to fight off the cold that was setting in now that he was out of the bath. He found his clothes already laid out on his bed, so Dazai hurried to get inside them, craving the protection of the fabric.
With most of his uniform on, Dazai only paused when he noticed the absence of an item. “Ango! I can't find my socks!” He yelled, hands cupped around his mouth.
“Did you shove them under your bed again?” Came Ango exasperated reply.
Crouching, he took a look under his bed to find a terrifyingly high pile of socks.
“Ah.”
After hastily rolling the stockings past his knees, Dazai ran to the kitchen and slammed into Ango's leg as a form of greeting.
“I found them, but not under the bed,” Dazai said.
Ango stilled his hands so he could look down at Dazai, eyebrows raised. “Oh? Then do enlighten me, where did you find your socks?”
He shrugged. “You know.”
“You did throw them all under your bed again, then,” Ango said with an air of finality. Dazai didn't bother arguing with him, too busy trying to get a peek at whatever food Ango was making. “You'll strain your neck if you do that, Dazai. Just be patient, it's almost ready.”
“Fine,” he grumbled and went to sit down at the table, feet swinging in the air as he watched Ango. He was interrupted by his own stomach growling. “I'm hungry. Gimme some rice.”
“Are you really that hungry?” Ango sighed, but did hand him a bowl of rice. “Here, you can have a small portion in the meantime.”
Dazai cheered, clumsily holding his chopsticks to shove a bunch of rice into his mouth. The food worked in keeping his attention for a minute or so, but soon enough Dazai found himself getting sleepy again, eyes closing as he chewed slowly. He was just drifting off when there was a poke to his cheek.
“Don't fall asleep on your food either. How do you even manage to do that?”
Dazai raised his head, then his fist, striking a (quite lazy) pose. “It's my superpower.”
“What kind of power is that, really,” Ango mumbled to himself.
The man joined Dazai on the table, by his left side; Dazai took the opportunity to lean against Ango. Happy that he now could rest his head, Dazai continued to eat his meal, with Ango sometimes interjecting to adjust his hold on the chopsticks.
With Dazai still tired and half asleep, the morning was pretty quiet, and he enjoyed his food while looking at the small potted plant catching sunlight on the windowsill. Happily, he noticed that the plant was growing new leaves.
When he had properly finished his meal, Ango handed him a glass of milk, which he drank with no small amount of distaste.
While gathering the dishes, Ango glanced at him and asked, “How's your eye today?”
Dazai touched his right eye. It was't doing that thing where everything in the room was too bright and it felt like a thousand bees were stinging him directly in the eyeball. What did Ango say it was? Hyper... hypers-- Whatever.
“It doesn't hurt,” he declared.
“Okay, so no eyepatch today, that's good.” Once his hands were free, Ango approached so he could fuss over Dazai's attire, making sure the long sleeved undershirt was properly in place. He narrowed his eyes at the stockings, of which the ends were peeking out from under his shorts. “Seems like you've grown again. I'll get you new socks as soon as I can.”
“Are we done?” Dazai asked.
“Don't think I'm forgetting about brushing your teeth.”
Dazai groaned loudly, but followed Ango back into the bathroom. By the time they were ready and good to go, it was already past seven, and Ango was hurrying to leave before he ended up being late.
“You know the drill, don't bother Fukuzawa-san too much, don't encourage Ranpo-kun's shenanigans, and don't provoke Yosano-chan again,” Ango rattled on as he locked the door to their apartment. “You know it doesn't end well for you.”
“I've never provoked her, ever!” Dazai protested. He was polite enough to wait for Ango to pocket his keys before tugging on his pants to be picked him up. “Stuff just happens.”
“If you insist on denying everything you do, at least work on your excuses.”
Ango raised him to his chest and held him securely, so Dazai put his forehead to Ango's shoulder.
By the time they reached Fukuzawa's house, Dazai was already asleep again.
9:00 A.M.: Class starts
Dazai hated when the teacher told them to do crafts. Well, no, he didn't really hate it: he liked doodling and painting. But put scissors in his hand and Dazai was left struggling to cut even the simplest shapes.
In dismay, he stared at the tiger he had just ruined with a badly aimed snip of the scissors. Dazai had been planning to give it to Atsushi afterwards, so he had put extra effort into making the drawing perfect. But alas, the tiger now had a cut halfway across its head, and Dazai was sure Atsushi would be distressed at the sight of it.
He crossed his arms and sulked for a minute, wallowing in his own misery.
It didn't take long for him to snap out of it, however, and soon enough Dazai's eyes widened as an idea came over him. Dazai scrambled to get two clean sheets of paper and stack them close to his tiger drawing. He glanced at Atsushi, who was engrossed in his own work a few tables over and grinned as he picked up his scissors with renewed vigor.
With some folding and a lot of glue, Dazai carefully assembled a letter envelope, leaving it open at the top so he could slip the actual letter in. Dazai had many things he could say to Atsushi, but he decided the ones that should go on a letter would have to be the most important.
He wrote with ease, only asking the teacher's help with the spelling once, and Dazai preened when she told him he was doing a good job. Feeling even more sure of his plan, Dazai finished by signing his name and doodling a bunch of stars (like the ones on the ceiling of Atsushi's room) at the corners. He thought of adding glitter as well, but remembered the time Atsushi got glitter in his hair and complained about it for an entire week. Dazai quickly discarded the idea.
Some more glue was all he needed to seal the envelope, with the tiger drawing serving as the seal—the glue helped keep the paper together, so the cut he made to the tiger's head was harder to notice. Dazai held up the letter with a smug smile, proud of his work. He didn't even mind that his hands were now sticking to everything.
Dazai was careful to hide the letter behind his back as he went over to Atsushi, not wanting to reveal the surprise too soon. However, unlike a few minutes ago, Atsushi was now surrounded by his classmates, all of them on their tiptoes to peer at the table over Atsushi's shoulders. Dazai frowned as he approached.
“Why are you guys all here?” He asked, almost in accusation.
Atsushi looked up with a smile already on his face, and he waved at Dazai, inviting him to come closer. Atsushi made space for him, so Dazai sat beside Atsushi and looked over at whatever was causing all the commotion. Little people joined by the hand and feet stared up at him; Dazai blinked.
“I made a chain of people,” Atsushi explained, holding it up to show off his handiwork.
“Ooh…” Dazai inspected the paper, now seeing that most of them had faces: the one right in the middle was clearly Atsushi, with Kyouka on one side and his father on the other. Dazai snorted at Kunikida's tiny frowning face.
The others were filled with their classmates’ face, like Tanizaki and Akutagawa. Dazai frowned as the line continued on and there was no sign of a face that looked like his.
“What about me?” Dazai asked, still squinting at the paper dolls.
“I'm sorry, everyone else asked first, so…” Atsushi glanced at his classmates, then turned to Dazai with a guilty look. “There's no space for you…”
“But there's one empty one,” Dazai pointed out, staring at the blank paper doll at the very end of the chain. He would be holding hands with Akutagawa, but he supposed it was better than nothing.
“That one is mine, Dazai!” A voice said behind everyone else. Given the fact that he couldn't see the person it belonged to, Dazai quickly guessed who it was.
“Shut up, Chuuya.” He stuck his tongue out just for good measure.
But Atsushi was already picking up an orange pencil, so Dazai sighed and resigned himself to being excluded from Atsushi's chain of people. It was whatever, he didn't care. Dazai would stick around to give Atsushi his letter when everyone else was gone, and that was all that mattered to him.
With the task in mind, Dazai hid the envelope under his legs and rested his head on the table, intending to take a nap while the teacher wasn't looking. He'd ended up getting scolded again for falling asleep in class, but Dazai wasn't particularly concerned about it as he slipped his eyes shut.
Not the best of ideas, as he ended up dreaming of giant cockroaches having a family dinner with him, somehow speaking even though they didn't have mouths. When a hand touched his shoulder, Dazai shot up, snapping himself awake and jerking away from the touch.
“Dazai-kun?” Atsushi says, not touching Dazai again, but still concerned about him.
Disoriented, Dazai looked at the ground, then up to the ceiling just to be sure. Confirming there was only his usual classmates in the room, Dazai relaxed.
The moment he took to scan the room brought his attention to where Atsushi's work was hanging on the wall, most kids often pausing to stare at it. Dazai felt a twinge of bitterness, but he didn't say anything. He stared down at his lap.
“Are you mad…?” Atsushi asked and touched his arm hesitantly. Dazai didn't shrug out of the touch, but he puffed out his cheeks.
“Nope,” he said simply, still not looking at Atsushi.
His friend sighed and shook Dazai a little. “Don’t be grumpy, just listen to me—” Atsushi interrupted himself to hand Dazai something. “I made one for you.”
Dazai glanced at Atsushi's hand to see his own face drawn on a paper doll, linked to another one but with Atsushi's face. Dazai looked up, lingering on the paper for a moment, before going higher to see Atsushi's smile.
“Oh.” He took the papermen into his own hands with care, afraid he might accidentally tear it apart. He stared at the two little people. “Just for me?”
“Just for you.” Atsushi scratched his cheek, and for the brief second that Dazai looked at him, he saw that Atsushi had averted his eyes. “I didn't mean to leave you out, everyone just started asking me to draw them first. Akutagawa was really pushy, it was a little scary.”
Dazai chuckled; that sounded like Atsushi alright.
“Yeah, I know. I'm sorry I got mad at you,” Dazai said, his words also serving as a confession.
“It's okay.”
Dazai finally teared his eyes away from the piece of paper in his hands for long enough to retrieve the letter he meant to give Atsushi earlier.
“Here, I wanted to give you this.” Dazai smiled as he saw the awed look Atsushi had as he took the letter from him. “But you can't open now, only when you get home. Got it?”
“Got it!” Atsushi pressed the letter to his chest. “Thank you, I'll take good care of it!”
Dazai closed his hands over the paper doll and smiled. “I will too.”
11:30 A.M.: Lunch
It would always surprise Dazai just how much Kenji ate. While he was still in the middle of eating his lunch, Kenji had just finished his second bento, and was considering going for the third one. Dazai was unsure how Kenji's old grandma managed to cook him so much food every day.
Sandwiched between Atsushi and Naomi, Kyouka wasn't much better. She ate at a less terrifying pace, but as soon as she finished her own food, the girl stared quietly at Atsushi's, as if waiting for something. As for Atsushi, it took him a long while for him to realize he was being looked at—and when he did, it was with surprise, enough to have Atsushi startle and inhale his food. He weakly pounded his chest and tried to get through his coughing fit. Kyouka patted his back in an attempt to help Atsushi with the choking problem, but Dazai noticed her eyes were still on Atsushi's lunch.
Dazai laughed as he watched the two, Atsushi with tears in his eyes as he handed Kyouka some of his food, and Kyouka with hers shining when she gained permission to eat.
“You sure eat a lot, Kyouka-chan,” Dazai said. “Though Kenji-kun eats even more.”
Kyouka gave a silent nod, while Kenji finally looked up from the bento he was still contemplating over.
“What?” Kenji asked, lost on what the conversation was about.
“Dazai-kun said you and Kyouka-chan eat a lot. How do you guys fit all that food in you?” Tanizaki asked, and he glanced at Kenji's stomach as if expecting it to explode any second.
Kenji hummed, also looking at his tummy. “Maybe I'm like a cow. Extra eating space,” he explained, but only serving the purpose of getting everyone mildly flabbergasted.
“You mean you have two stomachs?” Dazai said, laughing. “That's so weird! I like it.”
“Do you really have…?” Atsushi whispered. “You're not lying?”
“Nope!” Kenji said reassuringly. “Maybe I changed to be like a cow because I ate so many of them.”
Atsushi breathed in a horrified gasp, shifting a little closer to Dazai. “Does this mean we become what we eat?” He asked.
Dazai perked up. “Oh! I've read that somewhere before!” He nodded very seriously. “We are what we eat.”
“Then, I'll be tofu…” Kyouka commented, looking down at her hands, awaiting her transformation.
“If you become something yummy, do you think you could eat yourself?” That was Naomi who finally spoke, and everyone turned to her with very divergent emotions. Kenji looked particularly interested, while Atsushi was becoming paler by the second. Tanizaki was attempting to scold Naomi, while the girl just giggled into her hand as everyone talked over each other.
Did someone just say they think their arm tastes delicious?
Dazai sighed. “That wouldn't be fun, you know,” he said, mainly to Kyouka and Kenji.
“Why not?” Kenji asked, pouting.
“It'd hurt a lot, like when a dog bites you. Do you really wanna feel like a dog is biting you?”
“I like dogs, though,” Kyouka protested.
“It would still hurt,” Dazai said.
With a huff, Kyouka nodded, while Kenji lowered his arm back into his lap.
“Were you actually about to try it?” Atsushi asked, a look to his face as if he just saw someone grow an extra pair of eyes. “Let's not bite anyone, okay?”
Dazai, who had heard the same thing said to him by Ango perhaps a million times before, just laughed at the plea.
Or he did for a moment, until he was hit in the nose with a piece of food, to the sound of everyone's gasp and Chuuya's stupid laughter.
02:30 A.M.: Class ends/pick up time
“Tomorrow we'll build an ever bigger castle for Kenji to destroy, go it?” Dazai stated, almost as an order, as he walked to the gate where Fukuzawa waited for him.
The smaller boy nodded enthusiastically. “Okay, I'll try my best!”
“I'll see you tomorrow then, bye bye.” Dazai patted Atsushi on the head as usual, then waved over his shoulder as he kept walking.
Atsushi waved back, grinning widely. “Bye bye!”
Dazai joined Fukuzawa, and the man's promptly took his hand out of his sleeves to offer it to Dazai, who took it without hesitation.
“I'm sorry I cut your time with Atsushi short,” Fukuzawa said in that too serious tone of his that always had Dazai on the verge of laughing.
“It's fine. We didn't build the ultra-mega-castle, but Atsushi promised we'll do it tomorrow.” He liked how Atsushi would frown and his tongue would peek out from the corner of his mouth when he was focused on a task, and liked it even more when Kenji sent the blocks flying as he imitated a rampaging monster.
“Is that so? Then, tomorrow I'll make sure to come a bit later than usual, so you can finish the castle as you wish.”
Dazai swung Fukuzawa's hand back and forth, beaming. “Awesome! Then I'll make it extra big!”
Fukuzawa nodded, and Dazai continued to ramble as they made their way to the elementary school just three blocks away.
It was a different path for them: usually, they'd go straight to Fukuzawa's house and tea shop, where Dazai would spend the afternoon helping Fukuzawa until he got bored—then he'd settle down with a toy to pass the time while he waited for Ango to be done with work for the day. They were picking up Ranpo on the way this time, however, because Yosano was going to some friend's home that day, and Fukuzawa told him Ranpo couldn't get home on his own.
(Dazai would never let Ranpo know that he took pride in being better than him on that, at least.)
The track was peaceful, filled with Dazai's enthusiastic rambling—Fukuzawa didn't talk much, happy to listen to his stories, but Dazai knew he was paying close attention, so he didn't mind. They stopped only once when a cat hopped on the fence of some fancy house, and Fukuzawa paused to give it treats (he held Dazai up to pet it, too).
Soon enough, they were waiting for Ranpo at the gate much like Fukuzawa had done for Dazai before. He was in the middle of telling Fukuzawa about how Akutagawa got gum in his hair and made a really funny face the whole time because he refused to cry, when he spotted familiar pigtails. Dazai froze mid sentence, then brightened up.
“Sakura!” He yelled, grin growing when the girl turned and confirmed that it was actually her. Dazai looked up to Fukuzawa, waiting for permission to go to Sakura.
“Go ahead, I will wait for you here.”
Dazai was already sprinting before Fukuzawa even finished his sentence, coming to a halt in front of the older girl. Dazai raised both his hands, and Sakura slapped their palms together.
“What are you doing here?” Sakura asked, curious.
“We're waiting for Ranpo-san!” Dazai pointed to Fukuzawa to elaborate his point. “Are you waiting for the others?”
“Mhm! So we can walk home together.”
Dazai let out a low “oooh” of appreciation. He didn't have siblings, so he didn't know what it was like to walk home with other kids, but no adults around. It did sound fun when he thought about it.
“Hey, hey, Sakura. Do you think I can come with you?”
“I don't think Papa would mind it. But you should probably let your dad know, or else he'll be worried.”
“Then I'll call him, hold on!”
Dazai hurried back to Fukuzawa, smiling up at him and bouncing on the balls of his feet. After a quick explanation, said all in one breath, Fukuzawa agreed to call Ango for Dazai.
When he heard Ango's voice mutter a “yes” from the other end of the line, Dazai sent two thumbs up to Sakura, and they both cheered.
07:00 P.M.: Going home
Dazai stood to attention from the very moment the doorbell rang. He looked up from the book he was coloring and stared at the door, watching Oda make his way to the entrance. Dazai didn't blink once the entire time until the door was opened and he could see the kind of fancy shoes that only one person he knew wore. Dazai beamed, but didn't leave the floor, waiting for Ango to fully enter the house.
Or at least that was the initial plan; Dazai had no problem in letting Ango catch up for a bit—in fact, he understood perfectly, as he too missed Odasaku. But when the minutes kept going by, with the two hovering around the entrance, deep in conversation, Dazai felt his patience quickly depleting.
He turned to Shinji, who was absorbed in a very similar book as the one Dazai himself had, and pushed his supplies towards the other boy. Their shared coloring pencils rolled messily across the floor.
“Shinji, you protect this for now, okay?” Dazai ordered firmly. Shinji looked up, appearing confused. “We have to protect the pencils from Katsumi's evil feet.” Dazai wiggled his fingers for emphasis.
It took a moment for it to register, but there was a look of realization that fell on Shinji's face, so Dazai was sure he was recalling the time Katsumi slipped on an open book and not only teared some of the pages out, but also broke a couple of crayons that were lying next to said book. Shinji frowned and clutched his pencils closer.
“Ah, I'll try my best… I dunno if I can really help, but…”
“No 'but’! I'm trusting you with my life!” Dazai stared at Shinji, who backed off at the intensity of Dazai's words.
“You can count on me,” he whispered shyly, and Dazai nodded in satisfaction.
“I'll be right back!”
Glad that that was taken care of, Dazai focused back on his main problem: the fact that Ango was still standing around instead of coming in like some weirdo.
“...and the interview was dreadful, it was like talking to a wall,” Ango was saying with exasperation, which Dazai just barely understood. “You'd think someone with a PhD would know how to interpret a question correctly, but—”
Ango cut himself off when he heard the soft sound of Dazai's footsteps. Before Ango could even think about properly greeting him, Dazai walked up to him and pinched his thigh.
“Dazai!” Ango said with a wince. He rubbed the pinched spot while grumbling, but Dazai noticed Ango was smiling when he looked at him. “Hello to you.”
Ango, with practiced easy, crouched and opened his arms, waiting for Dazai to crawl into the curve of his body, which he did with a pleased huff. Dazai decided not to tease Ango (this time) over the groan he let out as he straightened up.
“So, how was your day?”
“The same as always. But I behaved! I was an angel to whole time. Right, Odasaku?” Dazai looked over at Oda, who was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.
“Yes, he was.”
“Odasaku, don't agree with him so easily…” Ango sighed. “I've told you that so many times.”
“Odasaku is just telling the truth!” Dazai protested.
Oda shrugged, apparently not worried about defending himself. Ango slumped his shoulders, defeated, and Dazai laughed and patted his cheek.
“Are the kids still awake? I should at least say hi to them before taking my leave,” Ango said.
The words were directed at Odasaku, but Dazai was the one to give an enthusiastic nod of his head. “Me and Shinji were coloring together! Everyone else is playing, with Katsumi,” here, Dazai made a dramatic pause, narrowing his eyes, “and his evil feet.”
“You'll have to let go of that accident at some point, you know that, right?” Ango said, eyebrows raised.
“His feet are just clumsy,” Oda added. He gestured towards the living room, so Ango took that as his cue to come in.
“I can forgive him, but never his feet,” Dazai told them, giving no space for discussion.
“Sounds fair enough,” Oda said.
Their voices had attracted the attention of the only person in the living room, so when the little group entered, Shinji was already on his feet, waiting for them. He shifted awkwardly, not making eye contact with anyone.
“Hello, Shinji. Are you doing well?” Ango asked, and Dazai snickered thinking Ango sounded the exact same as he did when he was taking a work call.
The other boy didn't seem to mind, however, taking the greeting as a silent permission to get closer. Quietly, Shinji pressed himself to Ango's side and nodded as his only answer.
“That's good.”
“The others should be upstairs,” Oda explained—though, with the screams they heard coming from somewhere above their heads, the statement was a little redundant. “Let me call them down.”
It turned out it wasn't necessary, as a head popped up just as Oda finished his sentence. Watching them from the stairs, the person (was that Kousuke?) gasped.
“Is that Ango?”
That was enough for three other heads to appear, talking over each other when they noticed Ango looking at them with an amused smile.
Then, they were all hurrying down the stairs—mostly just Kousuke and Katsumi, with Yuu getting caught in their rampage. It was no surprise that they ended up stumbling on the last step, falling over themselves as they collapsed into a pile. Through all the chaos, Sakura carefully stepped over her siblings, being the only one unscathed.
“Hello, Ango-san,” Sakura greeted. Holding the ends of her dress, she dipped into a graceful bow—an old joke between Ango and Sakura that had quickly become habit.
“Hello, Your Highness,” Ango said, returning the bow. He turned to the boys still sitting on the floor, rubbing their back and knees. “You too, Kousuke, Katsumi, Yuu.”
At the sound of his name, Kousuke perked up. “Ango-san, are you staying tonight?” He asked, dripping with excitement.
All five kids stared at Ango in expectation, while Dazai, who already knew his answer, only patted Ango's back in consolation.
“Ah, no, I'm sorry. I just wanted to see you all before I go,” he explained, voice tinged with guilt.
There was a chorus of “awww” coming from the children, so Ango apologized again. Oda, who had been silent until then, touched Ango's elbow to get his attention, but didn't remove the hand when Ango looked at him.
“You really can't stay?”
Ango shook his head. “I really can't. There is a lot to get done for tomorrow. With the recent events, the paper is working overtime to get a scoop on the situation—”
“Ango, it's okay.” Oda reassured. “I understand. You don't have to explain yourself.”
Ango smiled, leaning a bit closer to Oda. “Thank you. I'll make sure I visit for longer when I have the time.”
“I look forward to it.”
Dazai stared at both of them with narrowed eyes. The two adults didn't even pay any attention to Dazai, and he shared a knowing look with the other children—who were also watching with interest.
9 P.M.: Sleep
Dazai helped Ango pick up his stray toys and many notebooks that Dazai liked to doodle and write on; Dazai handed them to Ango, and Ango arranged them neatly in their proper storage space. Dazai had tried to convince Ango to carry him instead so he could reach the shelves, but the man had put one hand to his lower back and immediately refused.
Silently, Dazai watched Ango talk into his phone as he handed him a box of crayons. Dazai didn't really get what Ango worked with—he always said he worked for the newspaper, but he wasn't the one delivering the newspaper, so Dazai was all out of ideas on what he actually did—, but he liked seeing Ango doing it. When he talked to someone on the phone like that, he always sounded way more serious than he ever did with Dazai, which was hilarious to him.
While Ango wasn't looking, Dazai straightened up into a rigid position and put his knuckles to his cheek as a makeshift phone. Without making any noise, he imitated the way Ango frowned and talked about something Serious, capital letter very much needed.
Ango ended the call with a sigh, and Dazai scrambled to look innocent when his gaze was turned to him. Thankfully, Ango was too distracted to notice Dazai pouting and humming to himself in an effort to make himself less suspicious.
“Did we get everything?” Ango asked.
Dazai inspected the room, squinting at it as he made sure there was nothing left on the floor. “Yup!”
“Good. You ready for bed, then?”
“Nooo,” he whined. “I'm not sleepy yet!”
“You always say that, even when you end up falling asleep as soon you're under the blankets.” Ango sighed. Even with Dazai's response, Ango was already getting his pajamas for him.
“It's because I get sleepy when I fall asleep.”
“One day, you'll give me an explanation that makes sense.” Ango paused to take Dazai's shirt off, then his undershirt. “Today is not that day.”
“I make sense! Maybe you're just bad at understanding things.”
“You keep telling yourself that.”
Once Ango was finished dressing (and fussing over) him, the two headed to the bed; Dazai covered by his mountain of blankets, and Ango sat by his head.
“I'll keep you company until you fall asleep.”
“Okay.”
Dazai stared at Ango while he typed on his phone, lost in whatever he was doing. From this angle, Dazai could see Ango kinda looked like a mess, with his eye bags and pale face. After a few more long minutes of watching him, Dazai went up to his elbow and reached out a hand to poke the crease between Ango's eyebrow.
“Don't worry, Ango. You'll get the scoop…?” The last part ended up as a question, as the new word felt too unfamiliar when he said it.
Ango's eyes widened, and he just looked at Dazai with his mouth agape for awhile. Then, he schooled his expression back into something neutral.
“Do I look that worried?”
“Mhm. You look like a mess,” Dazai said, voicing his thought from a moment ago.
Ango laughed, the pinched look that had been on his face finally melting away, so Dazai smiled victoriously at the sight.
“I suppose I do need some sleep too…” Ango said quietly, more to himself than to Dazai.
“We should have stayed at Odasaku's,” Dazai decided.
Ango raised his eyebrows. “What does Odasaku have to do with this?”
“He can get you to rest when you don't want to. You listen if it's him.”
To Dazai's wonderment, Ango's cheeks turned red, the color spreading to his entire face until it looked like a tomato.
“Yeah, well,” Ango cleared his throat, but there was no follow up. After a pause that stretched for far too long, Ango huffed. “You're way too observant for a six years old child.”
“Thanks.”
“Go to sleep, Dazai.”
Dazai whined, interested in Ango's embarrassed frown, but relented when his eyes were getting heavy after all.
He would make sure to prod Ango about it another day.