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The credits began to roll on the third movie of the evening. Dazai sat up, tossing the blanket off his legs. He could hear Chuuya dozing beside him, Oda’s kids excitedly talking to him upstairs. Oda had set up a den in the basement of his new house for Dazai and Chuuya - they spent as much time at his place as they did their own apartment, so it seemed fitting.
The kids had insisted on staying awake until midnight so they could compete to be the first to tell Oda happy birthday when the clock struck twelve. When all attempts at getting them to bed before midnight had failed, Oda had kept them occupied with watching their favourite shows - it kept five children relatively quiet, at least.
For Dazai, it was an excuse to have a movie marathon with his boyfriend. He nudged Chuuya, who groggily blinked awake. ‘Sorry,’ he muttered, hiding a yawn. ‘What time is it?’
Dazai glanced at his phone. ‘Half ten.’ Dazai kissed the top of his head and stood up, stretching his legs. ‘Time for one more if we make it a short one.’ Chuuya nodded, picking through the remains of their bucket of popcorn.‘I’m gonna grab some more. You pick a movie and don’t fall asleep .’ Chuuya smiled sheepishly as Dazai walked upstairs.
Oda sat on the couch in the living room, two children on his right, three on his left. They barely noticed Dazai as he walked past, heading for the microwave.
‘Need some help with that?’ Oda called. Dazai had an uncanny ability to burn everything in the kitchen, and burnt popcorn was the last smell Oda wanted lingering around his house for the next week.
Dazai chuckled. ‘I’m good, Odasaku.’ He set the timer and leaned against the counter. From the kitchen he could still see the TV, bright cartoon characters flashing across the screen. He’d like to have thought his and Chuuya’s choice in film contrasted to theirs, but considering they had just finished rewatching Shrek ...well.
Kousuke and Katsumi left their father’s side, searching for more snacks in the kitchen. Oda had left them in a high cupboard in an attempt to stop them eating them all too quickly. It didn’t work. When they pointed to their desired snack, Dazai had no qualms feeding the rebellion of small children in the quest for snacks. Dazai was unusually patient when it came to Oda’s children - they had never judged or seemed scared of either Dazai nor Chuuya despite their jobs, never questioned Dazai’s bandages. They just saw the pair as people they could trust. ‘Where’s Uncle Chuuya?’ Katsumi asked.
Dazai turned around, handing a packet of sweets to Kousuke. ‘He fell asleep on me earlier. I told him to pick another movie but he’s probably asleep right now.’ He dramatically held his hand over his heart, pretending to wipe a tear from his eye. ‘Sometimes I think he prefers sleeping to spending time with me.’
Kousuke’s eyes lit up in the same way Dazai’s did when he was about to mess with someone. ‘Let’s wake him up for Uncle Dazai!’
Katsumi quickly nodded and followed his brother downstairs, unable to stop their giggles. Dazai leaned over the back of the couch to speak to Oda. ‘Since when are we uncles?’ He said. It had started a few weeks ago, but in his post-injury haze, he hadn’t thought much more of it, assuming he imagined it. But he definitely hadn’t imagined it just now.
Oda shrugged. ‘Beats me. I never talked about it. One day they just started calling you that.’ He twisted to face Dazai. ‘If it’s a problem I can ask them to stop, it didn’t cross my mind before-’
Dazai shook his head, heading back towards the kitchen. ‘It’s fine, just curious.’ It made him feel part of a family, a proper one, not the forced one a lot of their coworkers talked about. That was by circumstance. This was by choice.
The microwave timer dinged, and Dazai slowly opened the door, half expecting to get a facefull of smoke. Instead the sweet smell of fresh popcorn wafted out. He grabbed a fresh bowl, having left the other one with Chuuya, and emptied the bag. As he tossed the empty bag in the trash, a flash through the window caught his eye.
He frowned. It could have been a reflection from the TV, he reasoned. As he turned to return to the basement, another flash followed. Dazai narrowed his eyes. He didn’t want to raise unnecessary alarm, but if someone was amiss…
‘Hey, Odasaku? Did you see something--’
The front door being torn off its hinges interrupted him. Dazai dropped the bowl and it shattered on the floor. Oda was up in an instant, gun in his hand, the other shielding the three kids quivering behind the couch. Dazai reached for his own, silently cursing when he realised he had left it in his coat. Which he’d left in their apartment. Great.
Three men came barging through the door, guns pointed at them both.
‘What do you want?’ Oda’s voice was steady and even. He could only pray the men hadn’t noticed Sakura, Shinji and Yuu dive behind the couch. If he could get them from behind the couch to the kitchen island, they could sneak downstairs. There was no guarantee they’d be safe there, but it was safer than where they were.
The man standing in the middle spoke, his gun trained on Oda. ‘Put the gun down, and no one gets hurt.’
Oda stepped forward. ‘What do you want?’
The man on the left aimed his gun at Oda, Dazai noticed. Only the smaller man on the right was now aiming at Dazai. Even without a weapon, he could probably take him. Oda could handle the other two, though with his determination not to kill, it would be more challenging. Accomplishing that while also protecting three children? Difficult, but not impossible. They would just need a distraction.
Without hesitation, Dazai charged at the smaller man. His gun was skidding across the wooden floor in a matter of seconds, the two tackling each other. Oda was quick to act, swiping the legs from one man and sending him barrelling into the other. Out of the corner of his eye, Dazai noticed the kids take their queue and ran downstairs. Why hadn’t Chuuya come up? The sounds should have alerted him even if he had been asleep.
The man on top of Dazai applied pressure to his neck with an alarming amount of strength. Most who tried strangulation couldn’t quite apply pressure in the right place, but this guy was experienced. Dazai felt his lungs burning, his legs and arms not responding properly. He could hear groans and thuds from across the room, but couldn’t identify the voices. The man reached to the side, temporarily releasing some of the pressure. Dazai sucked in air, trying to get his limbs to respond.
As he felt his legs regain the ability to move, something heavy hit his head, and he stopped fighting. Dazai could tell he wasn’t entirely unconscious, but close enough that he knew he wasn’t going anywhere. The man stood up and pulled him across the floor by his wrist, either not noticing or not caring when Dazai felt his head hit something. He couldn’t hear Oda anymore, just muffled speech from the three men. His heart began to race. If Oda was out, and he was incapacitated, would they go after the kids? Surely they must have seen them fleeing, or they’d find them if they did a sweep of the house, or find Chuuya in who knows what state.
He heard a door slam shut as colour began to make its way back into his vision. ‘Where are they?’ A gruff voice demanded.
Dazai peered up, recognising the room as the storage closet. A gun was pointing down at him. ‘They?’
The man - the leader, he remembered - rolled his eyes. ‘We know they’re here. Don’t try and hide them.’
Them? Who was ‘them’? Who was hunting them? Dazai’s mind struggled to catch up. ‘What are you--’ He received a punch to the face, his neck snapping to the side.
‘The host of Arahabaki. We know they’re in this house, and we won’t leave until they’re found.’
Dazai’s blood turned cold. Chuuya. He had been concerned when his boyfriend hadn’t emerged from the basement to help, but now he was relieved. It meant they didn’t know it was Chuuya specifically. Still, Dazai had to play it safe. ‘Why do you think they’re here?’
‘An informant told us. A reliable one, at that. Remember the murder of that executive last year - Ace, was it? Told us exactly where he’d be and when.’
These were the men who took down Ace? They weren’t who Dazai had expected them to be, but then again, there had been almost no evidence left from that crime.
‘Why’ve you gone quiet on me now?’ The man towered over Dazai. ‘I’m not in the mood to deal with any trouble, so you either tell me who it is in the next thirty seconds, or everyone and this house will be shot down.’ A sly grin appeared. ‘And my men have deadly accuracy. They never miss a shot.’
Dazai’s heart hammered in his chest as he stared down the barrel of the gun.
He couldn’t give up Chuuya. He would never forgive himself. Oda and the kids were out of the question.
That only left…
He swallowed.
‘So if I tell you, you’ll leave everyone else here unharmed?’
The man studied him for a second before nodding curtly.
Dazai made eye-contact with the man. ‘It’s me. Take me. Just leave them out of this.’
The man raised an eyebrow, and began to chuckle darkly. ‘I’ll keep my word on the others, but...sorry to break it to you, but we aren’t here to take a prisoner today.’
Dazai’s eyes widened in panic as the gun fired.