Work Text:
In all terms, it seemed like a normal day. Kunikida tapping away at his keyboard, Ranpo ignoring his work and eating his snacks, and Osamu balancing a pencil on his nose.
The smell of charcoal and lead assaulted his senses, and he could feel the tip drawing a little dot into his skin.
“Hey Kunikida, look.”
The clicking could still be heard. “No.”
“It’ll fall soon, look what I’m doing.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be working?”
Osamu turned his head slightly and the pencil tumbled off his nose and onto the floor. That was awfully dangerous, he was almost stabbed in the eye.
Judging by how hostages had screamed, he assumed it was quite painful.
He frowned at the discarded pencil. “It fell.”
“Good,” Kunikida sighed.
“Aw, you’re no fun.”
He left his seat and stepped behind his partner. He could almost feel Kunikida rolling his eyes. He leaned his chin on his hair, inhaling the scent. He smelled like vanilla. (Osamu hated vanilla- it had burned his nostrils way too many times.)
He gently twirled a few strands of Kunikida’s blond hair around his index finger, humming a tune that was familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.
“Hey, can I ask a weird question?” Osamu asked.
“When aren’t your questions weird?”
“How should you react when your abuser has blackmail on you?”
The clicking stopped.
The humming continued.
The man underneath him tensed suddenly, obviously taken aback.
“What kind of blackmail?” His voice was strained.
“Oh, y’know, videos, pictures, et cetera.”
“Videos and pictures?” Kunikida sounded like he was barely hanging on a thread.
“Nothing horrible,” Osamu assured, rubbing his head affectionately. “Don’t worry, they’re just short and mostly safe for work ones.”
“Any blackmail is bad.”
Osamu hummed again. “That’s what everyone says, and yet, I don’t understand.”
“What do you mean?” Kunikida pulled in a shaky breath.
“They’re always saying things like ‘why aren’t you angry? You should be furious’ but that’s the thing; I’m not angry. Not in the slightest.”
“Why not?”
“Not sure, actually. I believe I’ve lost the ability to be angry. Emotions slip away from me like fish slip away from a man's hands.”
The clicking started again. Osamu supposed that meant Kunikida was done with the conversation. So many others seemed disturbed as well. He never understood why.
“I guess I have to start working now,” he sighed, letting go of his partner.
“Please do.”
He sat back in his chair, humming his tune.
“Hey, Dazai?”
“Yeah?”
“We’ll talk about this later.” His voice had an emotion that
Osamu couldn’t quite pinpoint yet. His eyes seemed weirdly soft.
Osamu tried to balance the pencil on his nose again.
“If you say so.”