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After having dragged his broken, bleeding body across the floors of Meursault and telling Fyodor to finish him off, Dazai sat there, breathing as deeply as he could counting down the seconds till he saw Chuuya. His eyes glanced once again at the camera watching him in the distance and even with the edges of his vision blacking out because of pain, he could still tell that the camera was pointing towards him. Like Fyodor didn’t completely trust Chuuya to finish him off.
All Dazai could do was hope that his roughly thrown-together plan of dragging Chuuya back out of his vampire state had worked.
Dazai shifted slightly; trying, hoping and then failing at finding some sort of position that would result in less pain. Everything hurt and he couldn't keep a single clear thought in his head. There was no plan. He was making everything up as he went along. He was completely relying on Chuuya at this point. In his trust in his ex-partner's capabilities. Chuuya could break free from anything he wanted to, as long as he was stubborn enough to break through it. He just had to believe in that.
He had to believe in his stubbornly loyal dog.
He heard soft footsteps echo down the hall beside him before hearing a silent thud as if someone had just sat down next to him. His eyes twitched over to look at who would want to silently sit beside a painfully dying and bleeding prisoner. When he was finally able to look over he felt his eyes widen.
“Odasaku?” He whispered the name out of his lips with complete disbelief. There was no way Odasaku would be anywhere else, other than six feet deep in cold dirt.
Yet here he was
Oda’s face turned to look at Dazai, although some of his facial features were weirdly faded. As if pure memory was holding Odasaku together but the memory of him was slowly fading away with time and so he became more faded with time.
His form twisted and turned, shifting around creating a fuzzy image that Dazai couldn’t quite focus on. But Odasaku would always be recognizable to him.
Dazai wished he could hear his voice, It had been years. Dazai longed for his big brother's voice, but Oda did not speak. He does not move from his spot. All he continues to do is watch Dazai, sitting next to him, as if trying to act like a strong shield to block away Dazai's pain. He watched him silently and even behind his fading face Dazai could tell what look Odasaku was giving him. It was one of deep concern.
“I’m tired, Odasaku'' Dazai sighed, his head thunking against the wall behind him as he closed his eyes. He could almost smell the cigarette smoke that clung to him, following him anywhere he went and the feel of his jacket from drunken nights when Odasaku had to manhandle him back to his house and make him sleep on his couch. Oda would never let him head back home to his container when he was drunk enough to stumble around.
“I’m tired and it hurts.” Dazai admitted.
Oda's hands reached out towards Dazai's untamed hair and went through it as if trying to comfort him. Dazai couldn't feel anything though, his hair never moved with the flow of the hand that was currently running through his hair. He hummed and opened his eyes again, tilting his head in Oda's direction.
“I know you're not real. You're not real, just a figment of my imagination… but thank you for stopping by”
Oda smiled and the next time Dazai blinked he was gone.
He heard the footsteps of someone coming down the hall. He knew it could only be a single person. With a small intake of breath to help prepare himself for what he may encounter, he turned his face towards the round of the footsteps that were quite literally stomping their way to him.
“Ahh… I’ve imagined this scene thousands and thousands of times. Although in my daydreams… the roles are reversed.” He uttered out of cracked lips, his voice a little shaky at the start from the pain.
Standing a few meters in front of him, having just turned the corner down the hall was Chuuya. Dazai felt his stomach plummet downwards as he noticed his fangs and eyes. He was still a vampire. He hadn’t been turned back.
Shit.
Chuuya slowly made his way closer to Dazai, his footsteps slow, but purposeful, clearly going for some sort of intimidation. Too bad that even with the mix of the situation that both Dazai and Chuuya were in, Dazai couldn’t find himself to be afraid of Chuuya. He couldn’t be afraid of a tiny hatrack after all.
His brain sped up making a plan he immediately threw it into action. Chuuya needed his free will back.
“... Well, come at me, Chuuya. Try and amuse me with your lame ass punches” Dazai taunted at him, a cheeky smile gracing his features.
Chuuya outright snarled, his eyes feral like a street dog, as he launched himself towards Dazai, towards No Longer Human.
“Stop!”
Inches away from punching Dazai Chuuya halted to a stop with the assistance of gravity suddenly weighing him down.
Dazai felt frustration burst in his chest and wiggle itself into a new hole to live in.
Fyodor's voice once again comes through the mic, his instructions clear, his tone of voice showing off the fact that in his eyes Fyodor had already won. This little game was over according to him.
“He’s provoking you. If you touch him, he’ll nullify the vampirism. Back up and put him down.”
"... Darn" Dazai said, a grimacing smile cutting across his face. He was about to be put down like a damn dog.
Dazai sighed as Chuuya backed up towards the camera and then pointed the gun at him. There was a moment when Dazai thought that Chuuya wouldn't shoot him.
Chuuya shot him in the shoulder like a little bitch.
Dazai howled in pain and roughly gripped his shoulder with his hand, clenching around the bullet hole. He swore the bullet was shot with increased gravity because what the fuck. He heard the wall behind him crack!
"Where the hell were you aiming, You goddamn clutz!?" Dazai screeched. He knew for a fact Chuuya could aim, he didn't need to use guns often but he knew how to use them. He shouldn't have missed, especially at what was almost point-blank range. He couldn't have missed…
Dazai felt the warm tip of the gun press against his forehead. Either a threat or a message to keep still, or both if Chuuya is actively fighting the vampirism.
"With this… there's no need to worry" Fyodor continued despite the gunfire. He sounded highly amused with the turnout of events. The sick Bastard probably was.
Dazai dramatically sighed, sliding slightly down the wall he was leaning on, Chuuya backed off a little so that the gun wasn't touching his forehead the moment Dazai shifted.
“This is the goddamn worst! My shoulder hurts… and now I'm going to lose to Dostoyevsky and if that weren’t enough I'm about to be killed by Chuuya!”
"Looks like you're all out of ideas" Fyodor hummed lightly, Dazai could imagine him picking the dirt from underneath his nails as he said this with how bored and matter-of-fact he sounded.
“Am I though?”
Dazai smiled, his eyes looking straight into Chuuya’s
"Perhaps if I spit out a few moving words… A miracle will occur, and Chuuya will return to normal?"
Fyodor's silence spoke volumes of what he thought of that statement.
“If you think that will help, please, go ahead.”
Dazai turned his face slightly to look directly at the camera instead of at Chuuya’s face. His face shifted into a displeased expression. He still thought their bond was shallow.
Turning back towards Chuuya, Dazai shuffled forward slightly to be closer to Chuuya, he looked him once again in the eyes, stating without any hesitation in his voice;
“Chuuya. Come to your senses. Our fate will not end in a place like this. Because you and I are destined to-”
Bang.
Dazai choked on his next words. His forehead hurt. He was shot in the head?
Chuuya had… shot him again?
And again.
And again.
He slammed back into the now-cracked wall. The wall had been cracked with the power of three separate bullets. All of them had increased their gravity when released from the chamber. No Longer Human could stop For The Tainted Sorrow, but it couldn't stop the force of pure gravity.
This was it. He was a dead man.
Dazai felt himself slide down the wall, his vision which was already fading at the edges was now starting to fade away completely.
Dazai weakly laughed, more to himself than anything else. He was truly shocked. He thought Chuuya wouldn't shoot him. He thought that he would have fought enough to break through.
But Dazai was wrong
“At long last. I’ve been… looking forward to th…”
Dazais head fell forward, hanging lifelessly, accepting what he believed to be death's final embrace. He hoped that he would see Odasaku for real this time. He missed him deeply.
There Chuuya stood, his hand shaking slightly on the gun, his body shielding Fyodor's view of Dazai. He isn't all there but he was present enough to protect Dazai.
Even when Dazai needed protection from Chuuya himself.
The second bullet was behind his back. It never fully entered Dazai’s skull. It was small enough that the camera couldn't pick it up.
Thank god.
Chuuya deep inside was still slightly panicked. Dazai had stopped moving. He wasn’t even twitching. He couldn't tell if he was breathing. He couldn't move forward to check, his body wasn't in his control.
He hated this.
This was a nightmare and he never wanted to experience one in his sleep.
Suddenly the vampirism disappeared. It was like being able to breathe once again after surfacing from the pitch-black ocean. The next instant the camera and mic behind him imploded from the sudden pressure of gravity.
Chuuya skidded the short distance from where he was to his partner. He must still be breathing, Chuuya didn’t kill Dazai. Not like this. He ran one of his hands through Dazais hair, brushing out the knots gently as he checked for any and all signs of life. He found what he was desperately looking for.
Chuuya took one big, deep, calming breath.
Chuuya started gathering him in his arms, watching him wince and whine as he tried to shift him into a better position for his injuries, not that there was one for how broken Dazai was. Once Dazai was in his arms and as comfortable as Chuuya could make him he strode off to kick Fyodor right into the stratosphere. He had this coming long before the shallow bond comment, but even more so now. Chuuya was angry and he was about to take it out on the person who almost killed his partner.
Along the way any mics and cameras he saw also imploded. It meant that he had to set Dazai down for a second but Fyodor wasn’t allowed to look at or mock Dazai anymore. Chuuya has had enough.
It was comforting, Dazais shallow breaths against his neck. It meant he was still alive. It meant he still had time.
He just needed time.