Chapter Text
The gunshot wound in his leg barely registered as he watched Chuuya look at him with a ferocity he’d never seen in the redhead before. Normally Chuuya was furious at him and didn’t hesitate to make it known as loudly as possible. But the rage in his ex-partner’s eyes was nothing he’d ever experienced from the man. It was a cold rage. Nearly unfeeling. The byproduct of the ability that had turned him into a vampire, Dazai assumed. It was unsettling but he didn’t let it phase him. He dodged the next two rounds Chuuya let fly in his direction.
“C’mon Chibi-chan! You and I both know you’re a better shot than that! Why don’t you toss me that pistol and I’ll show you how it’s done?” Dazai taunted the smaller man.
Then he got hit in the shoulder. Chuuya had fired the round nearly instantaneously, not giving him even a second to think. This was so unlike his Chuuya. Normally there was banter. Some vain attempt to prove the Dazai was the inferior of the pair. The two of them could go back and forth for hours on a mission and Chuuya always waited to counter Dazai with some stupid comeback before he hit him twice. Now there was no response at all. No indication the redhead had even heard or registered his words.
Dazai stumbled back slightly, and he felt the cold metal of the prison walls against his back. He hissed in pain and moved his hand up to touch his shoulder. It was his left. Chuuya had been aiming for his heart.
“A little too close to home Chibi,” Dazai muttered breathily.
A bullet entered his side. It had more force behind it than the first two. It ripped through skin of his abdomen like it were cardboard and ricocheted off the wall behind him. It embedded itself in his back, close to his spine. A few centimeters over and Dazai would have lost function in his legs. Chuuya was using his ability now.
Dazai needed to act and fast or Chuuya would kill him. Chuuya would kill him, and Fyodor would win. The Decay of Angels would complete their plan for world domination and everyone he knew would be helpless in the face of the reunited organization. The Agency members were strong but not even Ranpo could beat Fyodor and Fukuchi together. Dazai would have failed his promise to Oda. All that and Chuuya wouldn’t even know he did it.
Dazai choked as a surge of blood entered his mouth.
If the ability to turn someone into a vampire was similar to Q’s mind control ability, then just touching Chuuya might not be enough to dispel the ability. There may be some other artifact involved that Dazai would need to touch in order to dispel the ability. However, if he could prevent Chuuya from using his ability then he might stand to live long enough to figure it out.
Before he could move to touch Chuuya the redhead’s foot soared past him. Dazai went flying, landing roughly. Chuuya swung his leg downward and a gust of wind pushed Dazai back down to the ground. Chuuya was using his ability to push Dazai around to avoid the brunet from touching him.
Dazai struggled to sit. He had no way of stopping this Chuuya. He was losing blood fast and couldn’t get close enough to touch his partner. He thought about all those years he’d planned to kill Chuuya. All the different ways he’d get the annoying redhead to curse his name with his last breath. The only words worth hearing out of that annoying loudmouth.
“You know Chibi-chan,” Dazai coughed, blood covering the front of his white prison uniform and mixing with the blood pouring out of his wounds. “I always thought I get to be the one to kill you. Never considered it might be the other way around. Guess I should have done it when I had the chance.”
Dazai smiled weakly up at Chuuya as the shorter man stalked closer to him. Chuuya raised the gun in his hand and pointed it at Dazai. Directly at his head.
“Well Chibi if this is how I go…” Dazai’s voice got weaker with every word. “I guess I just wish it were really you, Chuuya…”
As the last word left his mouth, Dazai watch Chuuya’s eyes flicker for just a split second to realization and then to fear. In that moment Dazai lunged forward with everything he had left.
Chuuya’s cold stare returned, and he shot, but Dazai had moved just enough that the bullet didn’t pass through his skull, but merely grazed the side of his head.
Pain flared in Dazai’s head. But it was alright. His hand rested on Chuuya’s.
He watched the moment that his Chuuya returned, the icy gaze leaving fully. He saw Chuuya’s face contort into an expression of fear and concern. Dazai thought that he rather liked that Chuuya was concerned about him. Thought that maybe he just liked it because it meant that Chuuya did on some level care about him.
“Dazai?” Chuuya’s broken voice was the last thing Dazai heard before exhaustion overtook him and his entire world went dark.
***
When Dazai awoke the room was dim. It was either late at night or early morning. He looked around and realized he was in the infirmary at the Agency. His body ached terribly. He must have been healed by Yosano, but it had still taken a lot out of him.
But how had he gotten here? He had fainted at Meursault.
He tried to move and lift himself out of the bed, but something was trapping his left arm in place. He looked down to see a mop of disheveled red hair pinning his hand to the bed and a tattered hat resting on his stomach.
“Chuuya,” he breathed out, barely a whisper.
There was no telling the amount of destruction that had carved the path from Meursault to the Agency. If the overturned cot across the room and craters in the wall behind it were any indication, then Chuuya must have come close to using Corruption.
Chuuya was that angry over him?
No. He was turned into a vampire by Fyodor and used as a human weapon for the destruction of Meursault. He had nearly been forced to kill Dazai, yes, but knowing the redhead he would probably be more upset over the fact that it wasn’t of his own volition rather than about the act itself.
Still the memory of Chuuya’s moment of recognition came to Dazai’s mind. He had seen realization and clarity. But he had also seen fear. Chuuya had been scared. What was he scared of?
Dazai tried to put himself in Chuuya’s shoes, small as they were. If he’d almost killed his ex-partner by the will of another, he’d be furious. Chuuya was his to kill. All their years together, learning each other’s moves, skills, and habits, to the point that they were equals, had been so their fight would be fair. What Chuuya lacked in foresight and intelligence, he made up for in brute strength, strength Dazai could never hope to counter. As a result, Dazai cultivated his intelligence. He made plans for any possible attack Chuuya could think of.
They had vowed at fifteen years old that one of them would die by the hand of the other. For the seven years after that it had merely been a matter of who would go first. To have that taken from him would be enraging. There was only one Chuuya and his life belonged to Dazai, no other man had the right to take it. Chuuya was his, had been his, since they were fifteen years old.
Dazai looked back down at the smaller man sleeping on him.
“Chibi?” He whispered, moving his hand back and forth slightly. The red mop of hair shook back and forth but the man didn’t wake. Dazai realized he must be sleeping deeply due to overuse of his power so that his body could recover.
“Chibi-chan!” He yelled jostling Chuuya with much more force than before. “C’mon my arm is gonna fall off if you lay on it much longer!”
Chuuya woke with a start and immediately jumped up into a defensive position. His hair and clothing gained a reddish hue and began to float slightly off his body. However, he wasn’t poised to attack Dazai, rather he was facing the door, as if defending both himself and the man behind him.
Dazai reached up and put a hand on Chuuya’s arm.
“Chibi, you’re okay.” Chuuya turned sharply, his hands lowering and the tension leaving his body.
“You shitty fucking mackerel…” Chuuya breathed as he fell forward onto Dazai, his face in the taller man’s chest. “I thought you were gonna fucking die on me you piece of shit.”
Chuuya wrapped his arms around Dazai as best he could while he was laying on top of him.
Taken aback Dazai slowly lifted his right arm and placed it on Chuuya’s back.
“You think I’d go that easily?” Dazai laughed. “Have you no faith Chibi? I promised I’d be the one to kill you. I can’t do that too well if I kick the bucket first.”
Chuuya raised his head and locked eyes with Dazai. “You fucking scared me you fucking idiot.”
There it was again. Fear. Chuuya truly had been scared. Why? What had he been so terrified about? His lack of autonomy? The loss of his goal? What had caused one of the most powerful, fearless executives of the Port Mafia to feel genuine fear?
“Why?” Was all Dazai said.
Chuuya looked at him with confusion. “What do you mean ‘Why?’?”
Dazai could hear the slight anger in his partner’s voice.
“Why were you scared?”
Chuuya sat up so he was sitting on the edge of the bed rather than on top of Dazai.
“I thought I was going to kill you.”
“Isn’t that the plan? You’ve been talking about it since we were fifteen.” Dazai laughs to try and get Chuuya into a more teasing mood like they usually had. But it doesn’t work. Chuuya just looks at him in disbelief.
“You really are a fucking idiot.” Chuuya spat as he moved to get off the bed.
“Chib-!” Dazai starts but as he reaches after Chuuya something inside him tears and blood gushes into his mouth. He chokes and blood splatters the white blanket covering his lap.
Chuuya’s eyes widen and lets out a scream for Yosano. He lays Dazai back and turns him onto his side, so he doesn’t choke on his own blood before he yells again and begins to head for the door.
Dazai reaches after him weakly before his world fades to black once again.