Chapter Text
Instead of his usual alarm, Nakahara Chuuya was jolted awake by a raging storm outside his window. The executive had just gotten home three hours ago, around four in the morning, and he desperately needed sleep. Although Chuuya wanted to be home sooner, an easy mission had gone south and he was kept out much longer than he wanted to be.
Chuuya groaned as he looked at the clock on his nightstand. He had to be at work in two hours! The tired executive sat up and ran a hand through his hair. It would be pointless to go back to sleep when he needed to be awake in an hour.
Today is going to be such a long day, Chuuya thought with a sigh. The small redhead dragged himself out of bed and immediately wanted to get back in. Fighting the urge to do so, he walked himself into the kitchen and made some breakfast.
After breakfast, Chuuya got dressed and dragged himself out the door, dreading the paperwork already. Hell, he began dreading the work last night when he heard the mission took a wrong turn.
All Chuuya wanted was sleep, but sleep was rare when you held a place in the Port Mafia.
As much as it hurt his pride to think so, maybe Chuuya needed a break. A few days of rest might do him some good. Especially after last night’s mission, which wasn’t the first in the past week to go so terribly wrong.
Getting to his office on time was quite the accomplishment that morning considering the storm, traffic, his lack of sleep, and a few other factors. When he finally got inside, Chuuya took his seat at the desk and let his head fall on top of the papers.
Though it was only nine in the morning, the exhausted hatrack believed there was no way in hell that today could get worse. But of course, there was.
The bandage wasting machine himself called. Chuuya let it ring for a few seconds, wondering if he should answer. It wasn’t unusual for Dazai to call him as of late; with the whole alliance still in place. Both the Armed Detective Agency and the Mafia found it rather beneficial to be in each other’s good graces and so they continued to work together.
That didn’t mean Chuuya had to answer that damned mackerel. He let his phone ring, the sound piercing the silence that had held his office not long ago. The executive decided if it was truly important, Dazai would call a second time.
No second call came, thank God, and Chuuya was able to enjoy the silence yet again. He was considering taking a quick nap when a knock sounded at his door. Feeling the heaviness of sleep deprivation, Chuuya slowly stood up to answer. Said door opened before he could get to it, and the tired redhead was met with the limitless energy of a small child.
The small child just so happened to be Elise, a girl who was the manifestation of the Boss’s ability. Elise, despite her innocent appearance, practically ran the Mafia. If she wanted something, Mori would make sure she got it. Chuuya was taken aback and wondered if it was the sleep deprivation playing games with him. Today should have been a quiet day, one of paperwork and mourning those who lost their lives during yesterday’s mission.
“Chuuya! Will you take me shopping today? Rintaro is boring me and you have good fashion sense,” the blonde child called out. Chuuya, still trying to decide if he was seeing things or not, was surprised by the sudden compliment.
He looked down at his own clothes, and not realizing it, asked Elise, “Oh? You think?”
Elsie bounced on her heels and rushed forward to grab Chuuya’s hand.
“Yep! Now let’s go!”
Chuuya didn’t argue, for the work that needed to be done today would quickly be excused if Elise spoke up for him. And she would speak up for him, she always did. Chuuya thought it was really sweet of her and he would even go as far to say Elise would be nice if she weren’t Mori’s ability.
Chuuya allowed himself to be led by Elise as they exited the Port Mafia’s headquarters. Luckily, the storm from earlier had passed on without much fuss. Not long into their journey, the two passed a small ice cream stand. Elise immediately pointed to it, her blue eyes bright with excitement.
“Chuuya! Can we get ice cream?”
The executive looked down at the small girl and was hit with the realization that he could not say no to her. After all, Elise was his excuse for his soon-to-be-missing report. The tired smile Chuuya gave her didn’t quite reach his eyes, but he smiled nonetheless.
“I see no reason why not,” he replied. The big smile Elise gave Chuuya in return made it worth the money he was about to spend. She bounced up and down and clapped her hands, looking as if Chuuya told her she got a pony for her birthday. Maybe I should get her a pony , Chuuya thought to himself. It would be quite entertaining to see the Mafia’s leader chasing after a small girl on a pony.
Chuuya’s thoughts were interrupted as he was dragged towards the ice cream stand which, he noticed rather quickly, was not cheap. He smiled as he handed the retailer his money, but he was dying on the inside. It was fine, he was an executive, he had the money to spare for ice cream, Chuuya tried to remind himself. But if Elise was willing to spend that much on just ice cream, then all of Chuuya’s salary would be gone by the end of the day.
So much for getting that fancy new motorcycle. Or paying any bills.
The exhaustion had Chuuya wondering if he could hold a small funeral for his bills that he hadn’t paid yet. He was beginning to regret not setting aside money for them beforehand, but then again Elise’s shopping spree was never in his schedule.
Once Elise had her ice cream, the pair crossed the street and entered a cozy cafe. Let it be known that Chuuya had Elise hold his hand while crossing the road. The executive refused to have anything happen to the girl, who was his excuse for getting out of paperwork and his Boss’s daughter? Ability? (Mori sometimes claimed wife, but everyone else stuck to daughter…) Either way, Mori would personally kill Chuuya if anything happened to her.
“Sorry for the quick stop, Elise, but I need coffee if we’re doing this all day,” he apologized and received a small, forgiving smile in return. The executive quickly, and happily, ordered his desperately needed coffee.
Chuuya found it funny how both he and Elise had what others would call expensive tastes, yet his coffee was much cheaper than the girl’s ice cream. Maybe that had just been the stand she chose. Despite how it seemed, Elise did not just buy what was expensive, she chose to buy things that were quality. And in this way, she and Chuuya could have been cut from the same cloth.
The newly caffeinated redhead sipped his coffee as he and Elise crossed the street, holding hands again. They made their way to Elise’s favorite shopping mall, the small girl skipping enthusiastically down the street. She was careful not to let go of Chuuya’s hand.
A few hours later, Elise had decided she was going to get her revenge on Rintaro by picking out her own dresses for once. And what better time to do so than when she had Chuuya as her critic with good taste and her personal wallet?
Several rejected outfits later, Elise stepped out of the dressing room wearing a slightly poofy, knee length, royal blue dress. The bodice was covered in a white lace pattern and had a diamond outline. It came with a feathery white hair accessory, which Elise happily put in, and white elbow-length gloves. The entire ensemble made her feel quite elegant and she enjoyed the change from the red dress she was always wearing. However, Elise couldn’t decide if it was too much. So, naturally, she wanted Chuuya’s opinion.
“Chuuya! What about this one,” Elise asked, still full of energy.
The redhead in question looked up from the new fedora he was eyeing suspiciously. No one could see him cheating on his favorite hat, but the fedora looked very nice. Very pricey, too.
“Eh? Oh!” Like any good critic, he took a careful look at the dress before replying. “Well, I do think it’s too over-the-top. The blue compliments your eyes nicely, though.”
Chuuya thought about it a bit more. “It’s definitely a change from your usual outfit, but if you like it, get it! I’m sure the boss won't care about that old red dress if you’re happy.” At least, he hoped Mori wouldn’t care.
Elise was happy to hear that Chuuya’s opinion was so similar to her own. Although she suspected as much, it was good to hear that Mori didn’t influence the critiques of her new favorite shopping buddy.
In the end, Elise decided to get her over-the-top dress because, if everyone else in the mafia can have an over-the-top aesthetic, then so could she. At least she wasn’t as over-the-top as that one lady from the Guild.
As Elise and Chuuya wandered the mall, she began to wonder how mad Rintaro would be if she got her hair cut. Could she even convince Chuuya to let her do that? Elise decided it was time to find out and test her luck.
She glanced up at Chuuya, who was able to juggle an uncountable number of bags and still hold her hand. “Hey, Chuuya!”
“Eh?”
“I wanna get my hair cut!” Now, Chuuya knew this was a horrible idea. Mori would already be upset that Elise changed her outfit without consulting him. How would he react if Chuuya let her chop off her hair?
“EH? Elise, why?” Chuuya asked, a bit frantically. His paycheck, and possibly his life, was at stake. “It’s pretty like it is, and I think cutting it off without the boss’s permission would be crossing a line. Besides, I’m running low on money here! Next time, we’ll ask and see what Mori says, okay?” Chuuya crossed his fingers and hoped his poor attempt at changing Elise’s mind worked.
Surprisingly, it did. Chuuya had yet to realize that he was one of the few people Elise actually listened to.
“Okay, fine! You usually know what’s best anyways,” the small girl replied. She shrugged and the two kept walking. On their way to another store, Chuuya heard his phone ringing from his pocket. It was Dazai… again.
Damn that mackerel. Was it impossible to have one day free of that suicidal maniac? Chuuya considered letting it ring like he did earlier that morning, but this was the second call. What if it was something important? So, the small executive answered.
“What?!”
“Oi, Chuuya! I’ve been trying to get in touch with you all day!” Sure enough, Chuuya had received various texts and a voicemail from Dazai. He ignored them all. Mostly because he was busy with Elise, but also because Dazai deserved it.
“What do you need, shitty bastard?”
“My, chibi is so rude today! I just wanted to inform you to stay away from the mall today!”
“Eh? Why’s that?”
“We have word that there’s gonna be a serial suicide bombing! I’m heading over to join soon, but you might want to get out of there. Don’t you have Elise with you, hatrack?”
“Tch, how did you- nevermind. When is this happening?” Gripping Elise’s hand tighter, Chuuya began to lead her to the exit. They weren’t staying for another second. “And don’t you think you should finish your paperwork before dying? That partner of yours will bring you back from beyond the grave to get you to finish your reports.”
“Oh, in about half an hour or so! And don’t you worry so much about my death, Chuuya! I’ve got everything covered!”
“Of course you do. Are we done here?”
“Yep! Tell Elise I said hi!”
And with that, the waste of bandages ended the call.
Elise, having heard everything, looked up at Chuuya and asked, “I thought this was an all day shopping trip?”
Chuuya immediately felt guilty for having to leave her favorite mall so soon, but he couldn’t stop the bombers who were planning to destroy the place in half an hour.
Or… could he? Chuuya was an executive in the Mafia, he could do whatever he pleased! This was Elise’s favorite place to shop, after all. It would be very tragic if the place was blown to bits. And by tragic, Chuuya knew no one in the Mafia would hear the end of her mourning.
If he was able to drop off Elise at the Port Mafia headquarters in fifteen minutes, he could rush and make it back in time to hopefully stop the bombings. If not, Dazai would surely stop them. But what if Dazai failed? The last thing Chuuya wanted was to have to do more work because the mall got destroyed.
The possibility of Dazai failing tainted the executive’s thoughts as he returned Elise and her bags back to the Mafia headquarters safely. Hirotsu was at the door, about to leave actually, when Chuuya shoved the bags into the poor man’s arms and left in a hurry.
Chuuya found Dazai in the mall five minutes later, and needless to say, Elise’s favorite mall still stands. Nearly as tall as the mound of paperwork on Chuuya’s desk the very next day.
Unsurprisingly, most of it was a passive aggressive punishment for allowing Elise to change her outfit, but Chuuya didn’t care. Seeing Elise as happy as she was made it all worth it.
At least, it was all worth it when he finally poured a glass of wine after finishing his paperwork.
Thank God his paycheck didn’t suffer any.