Chapter Text
“Good morning~” Dazai said in a singsong voice, dangerously close to Atsushi’s ear.
“W-Woah, Good morning Dazai-san!” Atsushi replied, slightly startled.
The former mafioso dances around the desk, his headphones that are resting around his neck clattering loudly as he throws his jacket onto his chair. He strolls over to the coffee machine to brew the darkest coffee known to mankind. He remembers Chuuya disgustedly watching him make his coffee back at the Port Mafia and calling it “as dark as your soul” before storming off to mission. Dazai could only hold back his chuckle at the memory, remembering it had ended in Chuuya being covered in coffee, somehow.
“Oi Dazai don’t go around terrorising other member’s this early in the morning.” Kunikida says.
“But Kunniikiiiidaaa-kuuuun~” Dazai sings while dancing and leaning closer to the blond. Kunikida dodges out of the way of Dazai’s lazy hands before dragging him by his collar into his seat. Kunikida scolds him, “And TODAY you WILL do your paperwork or I swear to my ideals that I will punish you.” he angrily states, glaring at Dazai through his abnormally clean glasses.
“Soo harsh~ right Atsushi-kuun” Dazai whines sadly, clinging on to the poor weretiger’s arm.
“Uhm…but in fairness..” Atsushi eyes the towering stack of paper on Dazai’s desk before sneakily looking back at Dazai.
“Nooo even my mentee hates meee~” Dazai groans in frustration. Huffing in defeat Dazai slumps down at his table grumbling while stabbing his pen at his paper. Atsushi hums constantly at the morning chatter, and at normal banter between his coworkers in the morning. The view out of the window at first glance had been beautiful, but when he blinked again he felt as if it was taunting him. Atsushi furrowed his brows in confusion before turning back to his paperwork. He massages his forehead gently, as he feels a slight headache coming on. The weretiger huffed at the slight inconvenience but nonetheless returned to his work, slightly less eager.
However after a few hours of a headache slowly creeping up, and the words on his paper almost swimming around mockingly he sighs, giving up and slumping back in his chair. The work office around him is almost empty as he realised he had worked into his lunch break, yet to his surprise Dazai-san was still lazing around the desk next to him, doing anything but his work. He looks in front of him to see Kyouka happily having lunch with Kenji, and he couldn’t help but smile. When he turned to his left again he was immediately surprised by the fact that Dazai-san was staring at him. Directly. And they had locked eye contact.
“Uhm…Dazai-san, is there something I could help you with? I mean as long as it’s not paperwork…” Atsushi mumbles nervously under the seemingly crushing pressure of Dazai-san’s gaze.
“Well Atsushi, I was wondering if you and Kyouka would like to come to a theme park with me today. I happened to acquire some tokens and I wasn’t sure what to do with them.” Dazai says, his calculating glare melting for an unreadable expression, but warmer(?).
“R-Really? I mean I’ve never been to one before and I’ll ask Kyoka-chan too and-” Atsushi starts waving his hands around animatedly before being bluntly cut off.
“Yes, seriously. And I’ve already asked Kyoka-chan while you were up in the clouds.” Dazai chuckles to himself, twirling the pen in his fingers.
“O-Oh well then I’d be really thankful to go. Thank you Dazai-san!” Atsushi smiles brightly at Dazai, with all his nervousness melted away, almost as quickly as it came about.
“Mhm no problem Atsushi-kun, you looked like you needed the break. If you work too much you’ll become a workaholic like stupid Kunikida-kun.”
The door to the front of the agency slams open, but somehow doesn’t hit the wall. A flash of blond hair emerges from the entrance.
“OI WHO ARE YOU CALLING A WORKAHOLIC YOU LAZY ROCK FOR BRAINS!” Kunikida yells accusingly from the doorway, with Yosano looking already done for the day behind him.
“Well you of course Mr Stickler for Rules.” Dazai says, pointing and wiggling his finger at Kunikida.
Atsushi sighs as a full blown verbal fight breaks out between the two partners, making Atsushi wonder how the two were actually such a good team in the first place. But he couldn’t help but excitedly shuffle in his seat, while turning back to his work with a new found motivation.
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The three of them had gone on many attractions, including a roller coaster, which almost ended all of them on the spot. Dazai could swear he had heart palpitations even though he wasn’t doing anything. The haunted house which Kyouka insisted they had to go through, although Atsushi and himself had to stop Kyouka from stabbing real life actors that had scared Atsushi and Kyouka out of their wits. The second best was definitely the dropper ride that ended up with the three of them unable to control their laughter for the whole ride after witnessing some of the other people in the theme park exit the ride in absolute shambles.
The final ride they went on was a simple attraction. “Oh my god this is amazing!!!” Kyouka couldn’t help but squeal as the spinning teacup spun around faster and faster, while Dazai could stop cackling at a pale faced Atsushi begging Kyouka to stop turning the cup faster. He could swear he heard Atsushi reciting prayers from the bible. Dazai was revelling in the idea of having a photo or a video of this, but sadly he didn’t have a camera on him so he just had to imprint this moment on his mind forever. Not too hard then. Dazai thought to himself that this teacup ride had pretty much summoned up the whole day.
–
Atsushi staggered off the ride, gasping for fresh air and clinging on to Kyouka for dear life. As the weretiger started mumbling about hearing colours and seeing sounds, Kyouka was sent into another set of giggles for the nth time that day. But Kyouka half-heartedly apologised, feeling slightly bad that she had dragged the two men around so much but couldn’t help but talk about how it was so much fun. She even reminisced about the first time Atsushi and she met. The three detectives made their way to the bench sitting on the quieter side of the theme park.
Kyouka-chan had bounced up excitedly at the sight of a cotton candy attraction and shot off, leaving Atsushi and Dazai to sit and wait on the bench while watching the long queue of people dwindle down, Kyouka lost somewhere in the crowd. Atsushi smiled at the comfortable silence and felt a weight lift off his shoulders, his headache finally receding a few hours before with some painkillers that Dazai-san had offered. (Come to think of it, he had never told Dazai-san about his headache, I guess he couldn’t underestimate Dazai-san as a detective.)
“So Atsushi-kun…did you manage to have some fun?” the bandaged man asks, something of a happy note in his voice.
“Yes I did, and I know Kyouka did too, thank you so much Dazai-san you didn’t need to do something like that for us.”
“Don’t say things like that, you deserve a break every now and then too Atsushi-kun. You can’t always work forever, and I wouldn’t be able to bear myself if I taught and influenced a workaholic like Kunikida-kun, actually I think I’d rather drown.”
“Dazai-san…please stop making jokes like that.”
“I know…I know. Sorry…” Dazai-san’s voice trails off quietly.
Atsushi looked forward to the sun setting over the park, unable to make eye contact or look at his mentor. He knew so little about Dazai-san’s thoughts and suicidal tendencies that he felt like he didn’t have a say in anything, so he couldn’t formulate a response to Dazai-san’s saddening response. The sunset colourfully engulfs the theme park with the occasional scream or soft music pulling the weretiger’s attention away from the view.
Not before long he sees Kyouka running back with the biggest rainbow cotton candy he had ever seen. Just as he was about to greet the girl, she rips off a piece and shoves it into Atsushi’s mouth. He sees Dazai-san’s mouth quirk up about to laugh, before he meets the same fate as Atsushi. After the two of them instantly eat the cotton candy, he turns to Dazai-san and points to the side of his mouth, trying to indicate that Dazai-san had some cotton candy on the side of his face before Kyouka giggles.
“You should check the side of your mouth too Atsushi-kun.” Kyouka says, stifling her laughter with her hand.
Atsushi quickly swipes at the side of his mouth, removing a blue bit of cotton candy while laughing with Kyouka.
“Shall we head home then. We don’t want to miss the train!” Dazai-san says, also laughing, unable to stop being swept away by the giggles.
“Of course race you there!” Kyouka-chan dashes out of the theme park dodging through the crowd.
“Hey wait, that's cheating Kyouka-chan!!!” Atsushi yells over the soft din of the crowd, chasing after the girl.
“Too bad!” He heard her voice somewhere ahead of him, before he cracked another smile.