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"Perhaps if i spit out a few moving words...a miracle will occur, and Chuuya will return to normal?" Dazai's voice rang out loud and clear in the prison's hallway, where he had stopped to rest after surviving an impressive elevator fall.
Now he stood face to face with his old partner, still the same as ever, and yet his eyes looked so, so terribly wrong, a deep, ugly crimson overtaking the beautiful sapphire that always shone with mirth whenever they would play pranks on Hirotsu.
Chuuya was holding a gun to his forehead, the cold muzzle slotting perfectly against his naturally frigid skin, as if they were one and the same.
But Dazai knew that it was not his time yet, he still had a job to do, a promise to uphold; so he mentally took a deep breath and prepared himself to sway Chuuya out of the Vampire's control, even if, logically, he knew that the chances were close to zero.
Another voice, Fyodor's voice, crackled through a microphone attached to the survaillance cameras in the hallway "if you think that will help, please go ahead" the tone was blank, but Dazai could hear Fyodor smirk, could smell his confidence form a mile away.
With that, Dazai began his little quest "Chuuya" he called out to the redhead with a firm voice, staring straight into his so unnatural eyes "come to your senses. Our fate will not end in a place like this." Dazai's voice remained steady and unyielding, speaking in a tone that he ever only used with Chuuya, something not soft, but not stern, a steady tone, something brimming with trust; he knew what he had to do, he had a mission, and he would be damned if he did not see it through.
Chuuya's hand, the one holding the gun, had started to minutely shake, something so subtle that it could not be picked up by anyone whose eyes had not been trained to spot the minimal changes in the redhead's behaviour. He was very volatile after all, and Dazai had to learn to watch, for his own well being of couse.
"Because you and I are destined to-" before he could finish his sentence a loud bang rang out, and he instinctively closed his eyes against the flash that soon followed.
By now Dazai expected pain to bloom across his head like thorns tearing through anyone who dares to hold them, but no such thing happened. He slowly opened his eyes, and was immediately met with blue. It was not the clear, crisp blue he remembered, this was muddled by a steadily receding red, but it was blue nonetheless. On Chuuya's face sat a shit eating grin as he gripped the gun in his grasp so tightly his whole hand turned white, still shaking, and pointed straight at Dazai's forehead. Though no bullet hole could be found on the brunnette's head.
That was all Dazai needed to understand what his partner wanted him to do. "play dead" was the wordless message passed between the two. And Dazai did.
He let his eyes cloud over as he let out a slow, breathless laugh, playing right into the act his partner layed out for him. "At long last.." he said more feebly than he thought himself capable of "I've been....looking forward to th..." with that he trailed off before he could finish the sentence, making it look like he lost all his strenght and finally kicked the bucket, by slumping slightly forward, letting his muscles fully relax and letting his head fall down.
With this, his little act was over. He had managed to snap Chuuya out of it, only God knows how. He knew that his chances were extremely low from the start, and he had to admit that some part of him had already accepted his impending death, welcoming it with open arms and a desperation only someone as broken as Dazai could have. Now, in the aftermath of his decision to keep himself alive, he started to regret not having taken the opportunity to finally achieve his dream. But a quick thought to why he had done all of this in the first place, of who's wish he had to fulfill, quickly made any regret dissipate, however begrudgingly.
Footsteps snapped him out of his musings. Chuuya was leaving, and Dazai just realized that one of his legs was mangled and he probably wouldn't be able to walk on that, so going back to help the agency would be harder than anticipated. Not to mention that he was still bleeding, and he could feel the bloodloss starting to affect him, making his head spin and his eyes feel heavy.
The moment Chuuya stepped out of the camera's range his hands twitched through a few, quick signs, take care , and Dazai inwardly smiled from where he had been watching the ginger, the movement of his half lidded eyes hidden by hair that now fell down his face, though he did not particularly know why. But that didn't matter right now.
As the minutes ticked by he sat unmoving, thoughts racing through his head about what the next best course of action would be, while he waited for Fyodor to move from the surveillance room. Once he felt as though enough time had past, he started stretching his limbs, wincing when he jostled his bad leg, and slowly moved to stand up, the blood loss making him dizzy and forcing him to lean on the wall for support.
It was then that his eyes landed on the four bullet holes on the wall. It was then that he noticed how the bullet that was supposed to finish him off was embedded in the wall just above where his head used to be minutes ago, close enough to have almost grazed the top of it. Even one millimeter below where it had landed, and that bullet would've drawn blood for sure.
Dazai grinned to himself. The Slug had used his ability on the bullet to deviate it's path at the last possible moment.