Work Text:
"Stop looking at your phone."
Kyouka was finally sick of seeing Dazai looking on his phone every second, then staring distantly outside the large glass window, and back his gaze to his phone.
Dazai only frowned as Kyouka turns off his phone. Whether the offended look was meant for Kyouka, the phone or the ignored lunch box that she slides to him right after taking his phone.
"Disrespectful." He meant to sound more dramatic and playful.
She still gets it anyway.
"In my opinion, its more disrespectful to be looking at your phone, in the middle of a lunch."
"I-"
",and its disrespectful not to eat the lunch box I prepared specifically for you, even when I was busy this morning."
Dazai didn't say anything, anymore. He glances at Kyouka, who glances back at him until he gave up on the eye contact.
She lets out a satisfied hum, "eat."
Kyouka never gave him a chance to reason nowadays. But not feeling in the mood to argue or tease her, he sighs and looks at his lunch box.
It wasn't bad, no doubt it tasted good because Kyouka is an excellent cook. But looking at the amount, he really can't help and lose the remains of his already lost appetite.
He knows that Kyouka knows this.
(And she really wants him to eat.)
"You know, you are being like a parent right now."
"That is a weird thing to say to a seventeen year old."
Dazai forgot that she was already seventeen.
(oh, how the days go by so fast.)
"And can you blame me?" she continues after, obviously cutting Dazai's next words on purpose.
"You act like an irresponsible child, but with a big crush."
Just as she grew old, the more she became straightforward with Dazai. Usually she wouldn't be so brutal towards Dazai even without Atsushi's presence around.
He rest his temple between his thumb and index, massaging his not-really-growing headache.
Kyouka takes a sip of the tea she prepared, "...I guess I'll buy some ginger tea too later." she said nonchalantly.
(This feels like a losing battle.)
"You really need to stop worrying so much." Kyouka said about Atsushi. She looks at Dazai and his lunch box back and forth.
Dazai only stared. She raised a brow.
Relenting to her demand, he finally takes the spoon and scoop a bit of the rice, "How can I not?..."
"You are not the only one worrying."
At that, he stayed silent and ate his lunch obediently.
"Atsushi-kun will be back safe." Kyouka assured, a clear finality on her tone.
"I know that."
"and yet you don't act like it."
Dazai ignores the way she looked at him. He concentrates on his lunch box, hoping that she will stop talking.
(She was a bit scary.)
"Stop being clingy."
"I am not being clingy, Kyouka-chan."
"Well,you are, you keep thinking of him. To the point of being distracted during our work."
"The work is already done and we did good."
"Doesn't mean that I am going to ignore how you almost got stabbed."
Dazai sighs, "I didn't saw the other guy coming, okay?"
"Atsushi-kun would see it coming."
"You are not being fair."
"In what way am I not being fair?"
Dazai had nothing to say against that. Usually Dazai had something to say back. A sarcastic remark, a dark joke or a joking comment but turns out it had something more about it.
Thinking of Atsushi so much will become his own death.
(This really is a losing battle.)
Dazai finds himself laughing, "is this how a family fight? during lunch?"
Kyouka huffs, "This isn't a fight. I am scolding you, and you're not even putting up a fight."
"I'm tired."
"I know."
Dazai only pokes the fish put beside the rice on his lunch box. Its dead eye looking at him.
He wondered again how he grew close with Kyouka that he started thinking of her as someone close to him.
Atsushi treats her like a sister. She was one of the first people that they told about them getting together. She didn't trust him at first and kept a distance.
But they shared so many things in common.
They both came from the dark. They both went out of it.
(They both found a light.)
And now, they are close. Pretty close.
"Kyouka-chan?"
She didn't say anything but he knew that she is listening.
"Technically, you are my sister-in-law."
"What else is new?"
Dazai laughs at her reply, "You can also be my mother-in-law."
"I hope you know how lucky you are that I accepted you."
"...But like, you can also be our daughter."
"Sleep deprivation really makes a man weird."
Dazai didn't think that today he would laugh alongside Kyouka, but here they are anyway, eating lunch together in a cafeteria with just the two of them, their laughs echo throughout.
He finished his lunch just for Kyouka.
(and for Atsushi.)
His phone rang while he was looking at the flower garden downstairs, out of the large glass window beside their table.
He reads the message from Tanizaki.
He stands up from his chair, "I need to go now, Kyouka-chan."
She didn't ask about it and only nods her head. She took his empty lunch box and smiles, "Don't get too distracted this time and don't make Atsushi-kun uncomfortable."
"Of course."
Dazai was about to walk out but he stopped. He turns around to look at Kyouka.
She sat there silently and waits for him to speak. Her hair was tied in ponytail messily, she didn't wore her kimono this time and wear something more casual.
(She looks tired.)
"Thank you." ,was all Dazai said to her.
(And he knows that she understood him.)
She nods.
(Though he was already out of her sight, a bit out of earshot, he still heard her words clearly.)
"Take care of yourself."