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Thud!
Always something at the door. He didn’t even bother opening his eyes.
Thud!
Could the agency give him a break? It was 3:00 AM.
Thud!
No chance. “Mm coming, I’m coming…” Dazai lazily stumbled towards his dorm door. He hesitated. As normal as he has been all day, in the end he had nothing to distract himself at night.
So did his tired, depressed self really feel like putting up a front right now? To prepare for a long monologue from Kunikida? Or a request from anyone else?
That’s why he backed away from the handle. Hopefully the person on the opposing side hadn’t heard his muttered answer. Avoiding the creaking floor boards he made his way back to the warm, cozy, protective futon…
He heard a whine. Not a “can you just let me in already” whine, but rather a more animalistic one. Dazai turned around, approaching the entrance far quicker this time and opened the door.
“Atsushi-kun?”
A gust of air flew into Dazai’s face as he was met face to face with a black striped white tiger. It’s eyes were piercing and strong. It didn’t intimidate Dazai in the least, however, it was surely a sight to see. Especially at 3:00 AM.
Guessing that Atsushi wanted him to deactivate the usually spontaneous ability, Dazai raised his hand up to the tiger’s forehead, only to have Atsushi back up.
“Eh…?” The man rubbed his eyes and yawned. “Why come to my apartment if you don’t need anything… is there a reason you won’t deactivate it?”
Atsushi moved past Dazai swiftly, not even acknowledging his question, tiger tail smacking the young man on the nose.
“Naughty kitty…” he muttered, too tired to care about a literal tiger pushing into his dorm.
Atsushi sat next to the futon, curling up his tail around it, almost possessively, in a way. He glanced up at Dazai, as if he were waiting for his owner to sleep.
“Not so different from a house cat after all,” Dazai murmured, leaning against Atsushi’s fuzzy figure. “It’s odd, though. What you’re doing: it’s odd.”
Atsushi purred and curled his tail around Dazai.
“… I wasn’t going anywhere.”
A load groan.
“I wasn’t!” He looked up at Atsushi’s head and sighed. “Even if I did die today what would it matter? I always say things like that—!”
A heavy weight on Dazai’s chest. A paw pinned him to the futon. Why was Atsushi so worried? This wasn’t new. This was normal. Who could even say when he’d die?
He flung his hand over his forehead. Again, no dice. He couldn’t just be left alone. As if the pain tonight wasn’t just a rerun of any other. As if he hadn’t experienced this for years, years prior to Atsushi even knowing him. It just wasn’t new. How dare he come into his dorm, acting so nonsensical—
Play it off as a joke, it would do, like it does any time.
“Hah… how dare… how… hu…” Why were tears running down his cheeks? Why is that, when he lifted his hand to deactivate Atsushi’s ability, only sadness filled his veins instead? His arm felt heavy.
“How…” Dazai felt the weight lift off his chest, both metaphorically and literally. He sobbed as Atsushi licked his hair, nuzzling his forehead with his big nose.
“I…It hurts…” Dazai smiled. “It’s terrible. Look at me, Atsushi.”
“Please… just look in disgust…” He closed his eyes, hoping it was just a dream. A really sick and twisted dream. He sat up and laid down in between Atsushi’s paws.
“Please…” he whispered once more before closing his eyes. Please…