Chapter Text
Dazai can’t sleep. It’s not that his agency dorm is too quiet or anything. He just can’t fall asleep. It’s just wrong. Everything about the room feels wrong.
And so, Dazai is awake when his phone buzzes at one o’clock in the morning, flashing a really unflattering photo of Chuuya.
He answers the phone with a soft greeting and waits. There’s silence on the other end. Dazai keeps silent too.
It feels like hours drag on, but it can’t have been longer than a minute.
“I’ll be there in fifteen minutes,” Dazai says.
Chuuya hangs up.
Dazai expects to let himself in with the key with no issues, but he gets to Chuuya’s floor and right outside Chuuya’s door is Atsushi and Akutagawa — arguing in hushed angry whispers and shoving one another kind of roughly.
Dazai clears his throat and immediately gets their attention. “Are you gonna tell me what’s going on or should I make assumptions?”
“I can’t sleep,” Atsushi blurts out immediately, not keen on finding out what assumptions Dazai can make.
“Gin has the Lizards over and they’re too loud,” Akutagawa says. He turns his face away. “Chuuya-niisan lets me sleep over when they’re there. I don’t know what the fucking jinko thinks he’s doing here.”
And neither Dazai nor Atsushi say anything for a long moment. But Chuuya, who had apparently been eavesdropping from the other side of the door, does. He yanks the door open and points at Akutagawa. “The fuck did you just call me?”
“Chuuya?” Akutagawa says, looking at Chuuya like he’s grown a second head. “Y’know, the same thing I’ve been calling you for years?”
“Ryuu,” Atsushi says, “you called him niisan.”
“I did not,” Akutagawa scoffs.
“And how long have you been calling Akutagawa by his given name?” Dazai asks Atsushi.
Atsushi frowns. “I don’t.”
“You just did,” Chuuya points out. “What are you even doing here? Ryuu, I don’t exactly have a spare bedroom anymore.”
“I know. I’ll sleep on the couch.”
Chuuya looks at Atsushi. “I don’t have clothes for you.”
“It’s fine,” Atsushi says. He doesn’t even deny that he wants to sleep over.
Chuuya looks at the three of them in turn before stepping back into the apartment and out of the doorway.
“You can put the TV on if you still can’t sleep,” Chuuya says, “but keep the volume down. Dazai.”
And Dazai follows Chuuya to his room while Akutagawa and Atsushi immediately begin to argue about who gets which couch.
When Atsushi wakes up, he is immediately aware of six things.
One, the TV is still on.
Two, Chuuya is taking a photo.
Three, Dazai is trying not to laugh.
Four, Akutagawa is hissing warnings at Dazai to stay quiet.
Five, he was sleeping on the same couch as Akutagawa and it’s, weirdly enough, more comfortable than when he was trying to sleep on the other couch alone. Okay, technically, he was sleeping on Akutagawa.
Six, Akutagawa’s hand in his hair feels really nice.
Atsushi closes his eyes and pretends to still be asleep. He can hear Dazai let out a soft squeak.
“Shut the fuck up,” Akutagawa hisses.
“Don’t you want to get up?” Chuuya whispers, so as to not piss Akutagawa off. “If I use my ability, he won’t —”
“I’m fine.”
And if the way the hand on Atsushi’s back presses down just a tinge more makes Atsushi’s heart stutter and if the vaguely possessive tone to Akutagawa’s voice makes Atsushi’s heart beat just a tad faster, then that’s between him and the traitorous organ.
“Make me breakfast, chibi,” Dazai says and though Chuuya complains, the sound of their voices slowly gets softer.
The weight of Akutagawa’s hand eases slightly and Atsushi just barely manages to put a lid on his whine of protest.
“You’re kind of cute when you shut up,” Akutagawa murmurs, twisting Atsushi’s hair around his finger.
Atsushi isn’t sure if he’ll be able to stay pretending to sleep if Akutagawa has anything else to say.
“Actually you’re kind of cute all the time. It’s just easier to deal with when you shut up.”
Oh my God.
It all comes to a screeching halt when Atsushi’s own hair tickles his nose and he sneezes. Akutagawa pushes him off the couch and in the time it takes to whine and sit up, Akutagawa disappears, making a beeline for the kitchen, demanding breakfast.
“Asshole,” Atsushi mutters and he’s not sure if he’s talking to Akutagawa or to his hair for ruining it.
They go to work. Akutagawa and Chuuya return to the Port Mafia, and Atsushi and Dazai return to the agency office.
And at the end of the day, Dazai finds Atsushi and Akutagawa on the floor outside Chuuya’s apartment, arms folded and not looking at each other.
“Can I help you two?” Dazai asks with an amused grin.
They look up at him, at each other, and whip their heads to face in opposite directions.
Dazai chuckles and opens the door. “We’re back,” he calls.
And there’s something really nice about ‘we’.
“Took you fuckers long enough,” Chuuya calls back. “Dinner’s getting cold.”
Dazai glances behind him at Atsushi and Akutagawa. “You heard the slug. Dinner’s waiting.”
Dinner goes well, except for Akutagawa trying to embarrass Atsushi and Atsushi kicking him under the dining table — that Chuuya hasn’t once eaten at before — hard enough to nearly knock Akutagawa over.
Dazai and Chuuya bid them good night and leave them to bicker about who gets the comfier couch.
(There isn’t one. All the couches feel the same to sleep on. All four of them are well aware of this.)
In the end, Akutagawa gets the supposedly better one in front of the TV and Atsushi gets to pick between one of the other two.
Atsushi tries to go to sleep, but as luxurious as Chuuya’s couches are, it doesn’t hold a candle to Akutagawa from the night before.
After a moment, Akutagawa sits up. “I'm going to put the TV on.”
Atsushi hums and turns over so he can see the TV too. “Whatcha watchin’?”
“I dunno. Something boring.” Akutagawa shoots him an amused grin. “Maybe a tiger documentary.”
“Ouch,” Atsushi says flatly.
Akutagawa scrolls through Chuuya’s Netflix, idly glancing at posters and titles.
“Oh, I’ve never seen that one,” Atsushi murmurs when Akutagawa clicks on yet another random show to check the description. “I think Tanizaki said it was nice.”
“It’s stupid,” Akutagawa says. “Tachihara made everyone watch the first season when he stayed over after one of their assignments. I went to bed halfway through the first episode but Tachihara was screaming at the TV. Longest night of my entire life.”
“Aw, I kinda wanted to see it.”
Akutagawa glances at Atsushi before clicking on the first episode. “You can watch it. I’ll bore myself to sleep with it.”
Atsushi can’t contain his smile as the episode begins.
By the second episode, they’re both sitting on Akutagawa’s couch with a bag of chips they emptied into a bowl so the bag wouldn’t make any noise and wake Dazai or Chuuya.
“I told you she was gonna get caught,” Akutagawa says. “I would’ve plucked her eyes out first, though.”
“Thank you for that image,” Atsushi mutters, giving Akutagawa a concerned side-eye and a grimace.
“I’m just saying. It would’ve hurt more if the bitch had done it while she was conscious. What’s the point if she already passed out from blood loss?”
“What are you, the torture expert?”
“No, that was . . . uh, Dazai.”
Atsushi glances at Akutagawa. “You feel weird about it too!” he whispers loudly.
“Shut the fuck up, jinko. No, I don’t.”
“You do! It’s weird, isn’t it?”
“Well, I’m not fucking calling him dad.”
“I didn’t say that. I just said it feels weird. But you didn’t have any problems calling — uh, Chuuya your brother.”
Akutagawa glares at Atsushi. “It just slipped out, okay? He’s nice to me. He treats me like Gin does. It’s different.”
Atsushi turns back to the TV, where the girl he’d been rooting for is busy dying. “I think D-Dazai treats me like a little brother. I’m not sure.”
“Didn’t you say you were crying one time and he slapped you?”
“Yeah. Something about a wake up call.”
“Mm. I mean, I haven’t done that to Gin but I did pull her hair so . . . I guess it counts.”
“Are siblings really like that?” Atsushi asks, frowning at Akutagawa. “One time, Kyoka said she wasn’t feeling up to the day and Kenji just body slammed her into a door. Yosano said they were behaving like idiot siblings. I thought it didn’t make sense but then again, I don’t exactly have a reference frame for sibling behaviour.”
“Doesn’t the orange one have a little sister?”
Atsushi gives Akutagawa a hollow stare. “We don’t talk about the Tanizaki siblings. That’s — they’re not even outliers. They’re on a different chart.”
“Hm. Well, Gin pushed me down the stairs once because I jokingly said she had a crush on Higuchi. And another time, she punched me in the face when I said she needed to stop eating all the snacks I was getting for myself or she’d get fat.”
“That sounds violent. But very Akutagawa-like.”
“Siblings are weird. Ane-san twists Chuuya’s ears a lot and she said she thinks of him as her baby brother, so maybe it’s just how we all are. Or maybe sisters are just extra mean.”
Atsushi thinks about it. “Kyoka did threaten to stab Kenji but she was an assassin so I’m not sure if that was sister behaviour or old habit.”
“Kyoka doesn’t like stabbing people. It makes a mess. That was definitely not old habit.”
Atsushi stares at Akutagawa for a moment. (Nothing important is happening in the episode right now.) “This is the strangest conversation I’ve ever had in my entire life.”
Akutagawa opens his mouth to respond, but he glances at the TV and his mouth hangs open limply. “She’s still alive!”
“What?”
And sure enough, the dying and blinded girl is on her feet and fighting for her life.
“There’s no way anyone can still walk after that.”
“It’s not realistic, Ryuu. Last episode, the guy who was starved for six days made a break for it and managed to run all the way to the city. Trust me, that’s not possible.”
“You sound like you’re speaking from experience.”
Atsushi nods as he watches the character he was rooting for successfully kill her captor even blind. “I am. You already know that the orphanage wasn’t exactly kind to me. Hey, do you think she’ll survive the season?”
Akutagawa shrugs and goes with the change in conversation. “Maybe. Tachihara said he liked her too, so she must stick around for a while, because he’s seen all the seasons so I don’t think he’d so vividly remember someone who died in episode three.”
“Hm. Who’s your favourite character so far?”
“I don’t even like this show,” Akutagawa lies, because when Atsushi tried to say something during a conversation scene, Akutagawa told him to shut up or he’d stab Atsushi with a butter knife.
Atsushi rolls his eyes and continues watching the blind girl try to make her way out of the manor.
“Okay, fine. It’s Hibiki.”
“The kid from the pilot? Isn’t he dead?”
“We don’t know that for sure! He was in the opening. He’s got to be important.”
Atsushi raises the hand that isn’t holding the bowl in surrender. “Sorry.”
They watch three more episodes and empty the bowl before Atsushi gets sleepy. Beside him, Akutagawa is dozing off.
Atsushi reaches for the remote and turns the TV off. The darkness is sudden and Atsushi hates pitch black darkness, but Chuuya’s apartment feels secure and the sound of another person’s even breathing helps.
Atsushi nearly jumps out of his skin, though, when he moves to get up and Akutagawa grabs his wrist.
“Don’t scare me like that,” he hisses quietly, because everything sounds louder now that the only light in the apartment comes from the window.
Akutagawa doesn’t say anything, but he doesn’t let go either. He does make a noise of complaint when Atsushi tries to get up again.
Atsushi sighs. “Let me at least get my blanket.”
Akutagawa lightly slaps Atsushi with the corner of his blanket.
He gives in to his fate and tries to figure out how he’s supposed to share the couch with Akutagawa. He still doesn’t know how Akutagawa ended up on his couch, under him, the previous night. Akutagawa seems to sense this and tugs on Atsushi’s arm until he follows.
“You know,” Atsushi whispers as he pulls the blanket up, “you could’ve just asked me to lay with you instead of staying up half the night to watch that show.”
“Go to sleep,” Akutagawa snaps.
“Okay.”