Work Text:
Chuuya awoke to the sound of a firm “Fuck!” being yelled out from the bathroom attached to the bedroom. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and stood up, dragging his feet along the carpet as he took the few steps required to reach the bathroom door. He knocked a few times, his fist slightly dragging down the wooden door on each knock in his half-awake state.
“What’s the matter Dazai, what the hell are you yelling about at six in the morning?!” A low grumble escaped Chuuya’s throat as he awaited a response, finally receiving one after a full ten seconds.
“I got it again! I thought it was gone since I haven’t gotten it in three months. But I guess not!” Chuuya could hear the slight anger through Dazai’s sarcastic tone and decided to not bother him any further and headed to the kitchen to make coffee.
By the time Chuuya had poured him and Dazai a cup, Dazai had finally made his way out of the bathroom into the living room that connected to the kitchen. He was dressed only in oversized black sweatpants, the top half of his body covered in messily wrapped bandages. He slowly made his way to the couch before falling face-first onto it over the arm and groaning “Owwwwwwww.”
“Well aren’t you just a ray of sunshine this morning,” Chuuya murmured in response to Dazai’s half-dead appearance.
Dazai raised his head for only a moment to glower at Chuuya, noticing the steam from the fresh coffee out of the corner of his eye. Weakened by his pain, Dazai’s face returned to the couch cushion, his words muffled through the fabric as he spoke, “Can I have some….please.”
Chuuya reluctantly brought the coffee to Dazai, placing it along with two Advil on the small table next to the couch. “Here you go, my prince. Is there anything else I may do for you?”
Dazai lifted his head once more and his mood suddenly flipped, graciously placing the two pills in his mouth before washing them down with coffee. “Ah, thank you, my sweet boyfriend, that will be all.”
“Next time you pull that I’ll kill you,” this of course was not true, but sometimes the things Dazai did make Chuuya consider it for a brief moment. Dazai did have some sympathy points this time, though, since Chuuya had first-hand experience of how much of a pain in the ass cramps could be.
It took Chuuya almost an hour to finally drag Dazai out of the apartment since he refused to get up from the couch. They decided to take Chuuya’s bike to work that day, well, it was more like Chuuya decided to take his bike since he already knew there was no way in hell he could get Dazai to walk. He plopped a helmet over Dazai’s head and told him to hold on tight before heading out to their work.
Chuuya had been working at the agency for around two and a half weeks now, having breezed his way through his entrance exam. The two of them entered the door to the main office, Chuuya giving a slight nod to the agency members who were already there before dragging Dazai by the hand behind him to his desk. Atsushi had ended up moving his desk down so Chuuya could slide one in between him and Dazai, making it easier for Dazai to show Chuuya the ropes of how the office was run. In reality, though, it was Kunikida who ended up teaching Chuuya most of it.
The second the two sat down Dazai leaned his head onto Chuuya’s shoulder, his rolling chair almost slipping out from under him. It was never much of a secret that the two were dating since Dazai loved to embarrass Chuuya at any chance he could get. This, of course, was one of those times. With his head on his shoulder, Dazai lifted one of his hands and began poking at Chuuya’s cheek. Kunikida glanced over at the movement in the corner of his eye, giving Chuuya a sympathetic nod now that Dazai’s antics at the office had been passed on to him. Kunikida was in a way grateful that there was a new target for Dazai to mess with, but he would feel too bad to ever admit that.
Chuuya attempted to ignore Dazai, but after about ten minutes straight of a steady beat of poking, Chuuya’s cheek turned redder at the same rate that his patience was running out. Just as he was about to grab Dazai by the pointer finger and chuck him out the window, the door suddenly swung open. Since everyone was already in the office, all the heads in the room turned to the door to see who it could be.
The boss, Fukuzawa, stepped into the room, his powerful presence radiating from his body. He turned his head to the left, eyeing Chuuya and the person slumped over him. His lips curled into a slight smile of amusement which he pushed away with a sigh, then began to speak. “Chuuya,” Fukuzawa’s gaze drifted to the lump of dark hair over his arm, “Dazai, I’d like to speak with you. Report to my office immediately.” Before Chuuya could even open his mouth Fukuzawa turned back around and strolled out of the room, the old door swinging shut with a loud creak.
Chuuya stood up, causing Dazai to actually fall off his chair this time, and headed towards the boss’s office. He knew Dazai would eventually come along since he respected Fukuzawa’s orders. His shoes clicked as he walked along the hardwood, and he straightened his hat with his right hand before taking a deep breath and entering the office. As he entered the room he felt someone grab his sleeve, and he turned to see Dazai who somehow made it to the office at the same time he did. Chuuya glared down at him since Dazai was slumped over and then turned back and continued to walk into the office, ignoring the hand that was still grasping his sleeve.
“What do you need from us boss?” Chuuya tried to remain as professional as possible and pulled Dazai upright with his arm. He was somewhat surprised that he was still putting on this act even with Fukuzawa in the room.
“Chuuya, Dazai, I would like to try something today,” Chuuya and Dazai met eyes as they anticipated Fukuzawa’s next words, “and by that I mean I would like you, Chuuya, to attempt to activate Corruption and control it through my ability.” Fukuzawa’s ability, All Men are Equal, allows his subordinates to control their own abilities. Dazai had the idea rolling in the back of his mind of whether or not Chuuya would now be able to control Corruption, but he had avoided bringing it up since he didn’t want to put Chuuya through that if it ended up not working. He realized now, though, that eventually, they would need to try it on the off chance that it would actually work.
After discussing the specifics and how they would be doing this, the three of them headed out of the agency and got into a cab that Fukuzawa had called for beforehand. He knew the cab driver personally, so he had already told him the location that they would be heading. The place they would be testing it was an open field near an abandoned railroad, one far enough from Yokohama that they were unlikely to hurt anyone if the plan went wrong. With Fukuzawa in the passenger’s seat and Chuuya and Dazai in the back, Dazai took this opportunity to once again lay down on Chuuya, his face looking like he was half asleep.
Chuuya gently tapped Dazai on the head a few times, “Dazai, why are you being like this today? Did the painkillers already wear off?” At the mention of painkillers, Fukuzawa glanced at the two of them through the rear-view mirror.
“Dazai, are you alright? Should we wait and do this another day?” Hearing the boss’s voice Dazai suddenly sprang up, fixing his hair and sitting back against the seat. “Sorry boss, I’m alright, just a little headache is all.” Fukuzawa shot Dazai a concerned and slightly unbelieving glance before turning his gaze back to the car in front of them.
Chuuya could see in Dazai’s downturned glance that he really was in pain, and placed a comforting hand onto his leg. Dazai happily accepted it and placed his own hand over Chuuya’s.
It took them about forty-five minutes to reach their destination since it was pretty far off from their office in Yokohama. The three of them stepped out of the car, Fukuzawa thanking the cab driver and paying him as Dazai and Chuuya made their way towards the large, grassy patch of land. As Fukuzawa walked up next to the two of them, he noticed that both of their eyes were wide open, their lips slightly parted as if they just saw a ghost.
“Is something the matter, should we find somewhere else to do this?” Chuuya suddenly snapped out of his trance-like state and turned to Fukuzawa, “No no, it’s fine. It’s just that this place seems….oddly familiar.” Fukuzawa gave Chuuya a bewildered look before giving up on trying to figure out what he was talking about and taking another step forward.
“Alright, so Dazai and I will stand here while you activate your ability. If anything feels off or it doesn’t work, Dazai will step in and nullify it. Are you ready?”
Chuuya gave Fukuzawa a nod and gave a final glance to Dazai before stepping up into the sunlit field. He felt the heat of the sun against his face as he gracefully removed his gloves, bending down slightly and placing them on the ground beside him. He closed his eyes for a brief moment, taking a deep breath in before chanting those words he knew all too well,
“Grantors of dark disgrace,
you need not wake me again.”
At first, he felt as he always did, a sense of his conscious fading away and those luminescent swirls growing to cover his face and limbs. His vision began to blur and he expected to be lost to the darkness of his mind after a few more seconds, but that didn’t happen. He could still feel the grasp Corruption had on him, but it wasn’t completely in control this time. He slowly turned around to face Fukuzawa, his irises like small pebbles against a vast stretch of white sand, the red of the marks on his body combined with his blood forming a sort of frame around each eye.
Fukuzawa hesitantly stepped towards Chuuya, Dazai staying in place as he watched Chuuya intently. “Chuuya?” was all he asked, opening his right palm as if he was approaching a rabid dog. Chuuya just stood there, his eyes darting from side to side and eventually settling on Fukuzawa. His entire body was trembling, but the lack of gravitons forming seemed to be a good sign.
Chuuya opened his mouth as if he were about to say something, but his eyes suddenly turned to the left of Fukuzawa, staring at where Dazai was standing. He took a small step forward, a concerned look on his face, “D-Daza-ai..” Fukuzawa turned around to look at Dazai, noticing that his body was slightly swaying and his eyes looked glossy.
Dazai noticed that he now had two sets of eyes on him, though his blurring vision made it difficult to determine whose eyes were whose. He aimlessly reached his hand out, mumbling “Chuuya…” before collapsing backward and losing consciousness. Chuuya wasn’t exactly in a state to help him right now, so Fukuzawa ran up to him to catch him before he hit the ground. He was a bit nervous to take his eyes off of Chuuya, but without Dazai they couldn’t nullify Chuuya’s ability.
From testing Dazai’s ability while he was asleep at work, which was unsurprisingly a common occurrence, the agency had discovered that while he was asleep no ability could be used directly on Dazai, but Dazai couldn’t fully nullify someone’s else’s ability. This was clearly an issue in their current situation since that would be necessary to stop Chuuya from going on a rampage.
“Dazai! Dazai wake up!” Fukuzawa was forcefully shaking Dazai, his typical calm and collected facade slightly cracking as sweat dripped from his temple. After receiving no response from Dazai, he slowly turned to Chuuya, who hadn’t moved from where he was standing before Fukuzawa had taken his eyes off of him.
The two stayed completely frozen for a moment, neither breaking eye contact with the other. Chuuya had managed to stop his body from shaking and got a grip on his ability, but he could feel his strength draining and he didn’t know how much longer he could hold on. He dropped to his knees, placing his hands onto the rough grass and digging his fingers into the dirt. Having a physical grip onto the earth helped him feel a bit more stable, and after a few deep breaths, the red lines reaching down to his hands began to fade.
“That’s it Chuuya, calm down,” Fukuzawa was still on the ground beside Dazai and was grateful that Chuuya had managed to get a hold of his ability and control it. He didn’t know what he would’ve done if…
Chuuya suddenly started violently coughing up blood, the tremble he once had returning, this time at double the intensity. It almost sounded as if he was crying between coughs, grasping at anything he could to not lose the control he had managed to gain. He began to crawl forward, digging deep into the uneven ground as he made his way towards the other two men. He reached Dazai’s side, opposite Fukuzawa, and grabbed him by the lapel to pull him upwards. He started shouting Dazai’s name, blood pouring out of his mouth with each syllable, staining Dazai’s shirt a deep crimson. His eyes were switching between large azure orbs and black points and his voice cracked until it was practically gone.
Fukuzawa grabbed Chuuya by the sleeve, causing Chuuya’s head to shoot up. The moment their eyes met Fukuzawa realized he had made a mistake. A pitch-black orb grew from Chuuya’s hand, shooting into Fukuzawa at almost point-blank range. Fukuzawa was shot backward, tumbling back until he slammed into a tree trunk, hitting his head and instantly being knocked unconscious. The part of Chuuya that was still cognizant was mortified, but there wasn’t much else he could do but force his body to turn back towards Dazai and continue begging for him to wake up.
Just as Corruption was about to fully take over, Dazai’s eyes fluttered open. Chuuya could no longer see, but he could feel the coldness of Dazai’s hand against his cheek, his entire hand shaking as blue light seeped from his fingertips, illuminating the vermillion dried to Chuuya’s skin.
Chuuya returned to his senses, meeting eyes with Dazai who was already slipping back into unconsciousness. They feebly smiled at one another, almost as if to say “Rest now, it’s okay.” Chuuya collapsed onto Dazai and it wasn’t long until Dazai slipped under along with him.
Dazai woke up to the sound of wheels against rough gravel, his head pressed against the window of a car. He sat up, feeling as if every bone in his body creaked, taking in his surroundings. This time it was Chuuya that was laying on him, softly snoring with a hand curled over Dazai’s knee. They were once again in the back seat of a cab, the driver seemingly the same one as before. Noticing Dazai’s movement Fukuzawa, who was the first to wake up and managed to call the cab back, turned around to face him.
“Oh good, you’re awake. What happened, why’d you faint?”
Dazai looked down at Chuuya who was fast asleep and began twirling Chuuya’s hair with his fingers, something he tended to do when he was nervous. He knew why he fainted, it seemed to always happen when he first got that, but he couldn’t exactly tell Fukuzawa. “I think I was just dehydrated and sleep-deprived. If I drink some water and get some rest I should be fine by tomorrow.” Fukuzawa could tell that there was no point in pushing the topic any further, so he turned back and gave Dazai some time to himself.
By the time they had reached the agency, it was already dark, and only Ranpo remained in the office. He was packing up his things, placing them into a brown canvas messenger bag, then grabbing his hat off his desk to secure it over his hair.
He noticed the three men enter the office, greeting Fukuzawa with his eyes before turning to Dazai who had Chuuya slung over his back. Without a word he turned to his desk, fumbling through one of his drawers and pulling something out.
He walked up to Dazai, holding out to him whatever it was that he had pulled out of his desk. Dazai looked down at the offering. In his hand was a bottle of water and some Ibuprofen. “It’s a pain in the ass, isn’t it?” Ranpo smirked through his words. Dazai bemusedly accepted the two items and paused in place, his mind racing behind his eyes before he chuckled, “Heh, yeah it is.”