Work Text:
- CHECK THE WEATHER.
The day starts off cloudy when Kunikida rises out of his bed that morning, he checks his watch for the time:
6:05am.
Kunikida turns the TV on as he walks into the bathroom and brushes his teeth, listening to the news reporter talk. The weather could change his schedule at any moment, so he has to make sure he can account for it. He suspects it will only be a drizzle, though.
“Today’s weather, Yokohama is expecting to see a light drizzle—”
That’s all he needs to know.
TODAY'S SCHEDULE
- CLOCK INTO WORK.
Kunikida clocks into work at exactly 7:00am, about fifteen minutes before any of the other agency members arrive—including the president. This helps him set up and prepare the office, or see if he received any emails about any possible cases. It also gives him plenty of time to tidy up his dorm if he deems it as messy that day, or grab an early meal as he heads to the office.
CLOCK INTO WORK.- CHECK EMAILS.
7:03am, Kunikida sits down and opens his laptop.
7:07am, his inbox finally loads, and there are a handful of emails. He rubs his eyes, yawns a bit, 7:08am, he opens one. It is from nobody important, but he still reads and lingers on every word. Never judge a book by its cover.
7:17am, Ranpo arrived precisely two minutes ago, right as Kunikida closed an email from Dazai. (Which was not an important one, only a shitty image of a cat.)
7:34am, Kunikida starts to skim over some words in emails, his eyes almost droop close multiple times, but that's fine. Ranpo is watching over his shoulder, and Kunikida takes about five minutes to lean back and rub his eyes.
“You're tired,” Ranpo comments at 7:36am.
“I know,” Kunikida replies at 7:37am, before returning his attention to the emails. Most of them are for payments, or from clerks about some organizations and low supplies, and one from Yosano about medications.
“No clients.”
“No clients,” Kunikida confirms as he skims over the email addresses. “I should make a list of what they need.” He murmurs, mostly to himself.
Ranpo steps away.
7:50am, Yosano finally clocks in, she usually clocks in at 7:45.
“I slept in.” That is her explanation.
Kunikida lets it slide this time. “Listen to your alarm next time.”
“Not my dad.” An eye roll. “But fine.”
He sighs as her heels click down the hall to the medbay. He stares at the lined piece of paper.
“She's also gonna need more bandages,” Ranpo predicts, popping a lollipop in his mouth.
Kunikida nods, and he begins to write.
SHOPPING LIST
Pencils
Printer Ink
Plastic Containers
Bandages
Pain Medications and other
Prescriptions for Yosano
Towels
New Coat hanger
He adds an extra to the list for himself:
New Pair of Glasses
(Which was something he has been postponing for quite a while.)
Before folding the paper in half, then into thirds, then he slips it into his chest pocket. He stands up, making sure to start the shutdown on the laptop, before packing up to leave the office for this shopping trip, Ranpo throwing him an extra candy on his way out at exactly 7:58am.
CLOCK INTO WORK.CHECK EMAILS.- GO SHOPPING.
8:00am. He adjusts his glasses as he leaves the Armed Detective Agency’s building, making sure to nod and thank the Cafe Uzumaki’s owner as he begins to prepare for his early bird employees to begin their respective shifts. Kunikida steps out onto the sidewalk at 8:01am, he glances down at his wristwatch to note, before continuing to walk down the sidewalk. No groceries are needed today, but he wouldn’t be surprised if he should pick up a few extra bento boxes. While there are perks to having Cafe Uzumaki right under the agency’s office, not everyone wants to go down all the stairs just to get some food, so it isn’t unusual for Kunikida to get food for them.
As he makes his way to a stationary store (for the pencils, and printer ink), his phone begins to ring. He wastes no time in answering.
8:06am.
Tanizaki sounds so tired. “Naomi, uh, had an accident at school, so I’ll be late. Sorry.”
“Is she alright?”
“Yeah.”
Then another phone call.
8:13am.
“Aah, Kunikida-san? Dazai-san kind of—”
“Tell him I’m not helping his ass out of the river if he jumped into one.” Kunikida scoffs.
He swears he hears a faint ‘cruel!’ from Dazai, but Atsushi mumbles about five hundred apologies before hanging up. Kunikida sighs.
And then, right as he enters the store, his phone rings again.
Kunikida almost crushes said phone, but he decides to answer it anyway.
8:27am. Kunikida has to postpone the shopping trip, as apparently a Port Mafia grunt had decided to break in through Cafe Uzumaki’s window. He immediately makes his way back to the agency building to make sure everyone is alright.
CLOCK INTO WORK.CHECK EMAILS.GO SHOPPING.CHECK ON THE AGENCY.
9:19am, Kunikida checks his wristwatch, everyone is alright.
CLOCK INTO WORK.CHECK EMAILS.GO SHOPPING.CHECK ON THE AGENCY.- GO SHOPPING.
Dazai and Atsushi arrive at the building finally at 9:27am, right as Kunikida is leaving.
Atsushi opens his mouth to say what is most likely an apology, but Dazai drags him away right at that moment, and Kunikida takes a deep breath. In, hold for five seconds, then out. It is almost 9:30am, and Kunikida has barely done anything.
He should focus on getting to the store.
The world seems to be against that, however, as there are some stupid drivers on the road, causing Kunikida to focus more on dodging cars than crossing the street peacefully, some crowds he has to make his way through, and someone dropping their purse and accusing another of stealing it, leaving Kunikida to calm the situation down and tell the lady (very politely) that she was being a bit dramatic.
10:01am, Kunikida finally arrives at the store.
He checks the list again.
SHOPPING LIST
Pencils
Printer Ink
Plastic Containers
Bandages
Pain Medications and other
Prescriptions for Yosano
Towels
New Coat hanger
New Pair of Glasses
And he begins to look for the aisle that has pencils.
Thankfully, he finds the pencils with ease, he makes sure to buy extra (like he did last time), just in case, and it’d allow for them to save more money later on. He then asks an employee if they sell any cartridges for printer ink, they say no, he should try another store. Kunikida makes sure to buy some of the store’s plastic containers before he leaves.
SHOPPING LIST
Pencils
Printer Ink
Plastic Containers
Bandages
Pain Medications and other
Prescriptions for Yosano
Towels
New Coat hanger
New Pair of Glasses
10:14am, He texts the president, and the president says he will order the printer ink online, it’ll save more time.
He crosses that off the list.
SHOPPING LIST
Pencils
Printer Ink will be ordered online.
Plastic Containers
Bandages
Pain Medications and other
Prescriptions for Yosano
Towels
New Coat hanger
New Pair of Glasses
Kunikida supposes he should head to the pharmacy.
At 10:38am, lots of traffic and long lines slowed him down, but he arrived. The employee seems to be buried under customers at the moment, so he’ll go find some bandages. He texts Yosano,
DOPPO KUNIKIDA:
What kind of bandages do you need?
AKIKO YOSANO:
Both gauze and cotton. We’re fine on elastic ones.
DOPPO KUNIKIDA:
Thank you.
He sets off for the section with gauze and cotton bandages.
SHOPPING LIST
Pencils
Printer Ink will be ordered online.
Plastic Containers
Bandages
Pain Medications and other
Prescriptions for Yosano
Towels
New Coat hanger
New Pair of Glasses
10:47am, Kunikida puts himself in line. The poor pharmacist seems overwhelmed. He hopes this is over quickly and smoothly.
11:04am, he finally receives the prescriptions he needs—he thanks the employee, even if he’s a bit agitated at the wait, and he sets off to find the towels, which he would’ve gotten sooner, but he decided to get into the line just before it got even longer than it was when he arrived. Which seemed to be a good idea.
SHOPPING LIST
Pencils
Printer Ink will be ordered online.
Plastic Containers
Bandages
Pain Medications and other
Prescriptions for Yosano
Towels
New Coat hanger
New Pair of Glasses
At 11:16am, Kunikida leaves the pharmacy.
At 11:17am,
RANPO-SAN:
no need to pick up a new coat hanger lol. we just ordered one
get urself the glasses
pretty please
i’ll stop the pres from bringing five stray cats into the office
SHOPPING LIST
Pencils
Printer Ink will be ordered online.
Plastic Containers
Bandages
Pain Medications and other
Prescriptions for Yosano
Towels
New Coat hanger
ordered online.
New Pair of Glasses
11:19am. Kunikida decides to go find an eyeglasses store that will allow him to get new prescriptions, as while his current ones are fine, Ranpo points out his vision is a bit blurry still even with them on. Not to mention how many times he’s dropped them and had the lenses crack, he might as well get them upgraded.
SHOPPING LIST
Pencils
Printer Ink will be ordered online.
Plastic Containers
Bandages
Pain Medications and other
Prescriptions for Yosano
Towels
New Coat hanger
ordered online.
New Pair of Glasses
At 11:30am, Kunikida decides to go on a walk through Yokohama Park.
CLOCK INTO WORK.CHECK EMAILS.GO SHOPPING. CHECK ON THE AGENCY.GO SHOPPING.- EAT LUNCH.
12:15pm.
Kunikida arrives back at the agency’s building. He is hungry. He originally would’ve scheduled lunch for earlier, but he decides he can check emails while he eats.
At 12:19pm, Lucy takes his order. They talk a bit.
At 12:24pm, Lucy lets herself be called over by one of her colleagues.
Despite the missing window, the cafe seems to be doing fine. It isn’t unusual for them to continue work shifts, especially if the other agency members are working, it is more convenient, after all.
CLOCK INTO WORK.CHECK EMAILS.GO SHOPPING. CHECK ON THE AGENCY.GO SHOPPING.EAT LUNCH.- SORT THROUGH PAPERWORK.
12:45pm. Kunikida heads upstairs to the agency’s offices once he finishes eating, making sure to leave a tip for Lucy.
Dazai is folding paper—paper that Kunikida suspects is at least one of his that he was supposed to be working on—into an airplane. Kunikida crosses his arms at that, and he holds up a hand and catches the paper plane when Dazai throws it at him. He unfolds it, slamming it back down on Dazai's desk. “Do your work, Dazai.”
“You're no fun.” Dazai pouts.
A glare from Kunikida makes him hold his hands up innocently, and Kunikida sits down at his desk.
1:00pm, Kunikida remembers he didn't buy extra bento boxes, and sighs. He'll remember next time, surely.
1:33pm, Kenji arrives with some extra food from the cafe. Kunikida isn't hungry, though. Dazai only eats half, as usual, and Atsushi happily takes his time eating his own.
2:06pm, Tanizaki arrives and apologizes for being late, Kunikida just tells him to work extra hard on his paperwork. Tanizaki high-fives Kenji as he goes to his desk and sits down.
2:17pm, Kunikida stands up and says they have a case—unsurprisingly, Dazai doesn't offer any help, but Kenji and Ranpo say they've got it.
He stares up at the clock on the wall and notes when they leave for the case, 2:19pm.
Tick. Tock. Tick.
He glances at his watch at 2:49pm, he still has more than half of a stack of paperwork to go.
Yosano glances in and frowns as he continues to work.
3:36pm. One of his eyes twitches.
3:57pm.
4:28pm.
5:46pm. Dazai leaves the office. Kenji and Ranpo return with ice cream, but Kunikida isn't hungry.
6:13pm.
6:27pm. Ranpo leaves.
6:49pm. Kunikida opens his laptop to double-check emails.
7:31pm.
7:54pm. He yawns, then blinks as he notices something wrapped up on his desk.
A sticky note is on it—from Dazai, it's his leftovers.
It ends up being Kunikida's dinner at 8:00pm.
8:14pm. A sleeping Kenji is taken out of the office by Tanizaki.
8:56pm.
9:34pm.
10:58pm.
CLOCK INTO WORK.CHECK EMAILS.GO SHOPPING. CHECK ON THE AGENCY.GO SHOPPING.EAT LUNCH.SORT THROUGH PAPERWORK.EAT DINNER.- FEED THE PRESIDENT’S FAVORITE STRAYS.
11:05pm.
Kunikida leaves his laptop on as he gets up, going down the hall and opening a storage closet. He then takes out the extra cat food, and he heads down the stairs. He doesn't go to Cafe Uzumaki this time, instead going to a backdoor that leads to one of Yokohama's allies. He crouches down, near some bowls Fukuzawa sets out every night, and pours the cat food into each bowl, making sure all of the bowls are equally filled, before sitting on the little steps up to the door.
He looks at his watch.
11:21pm. That took more time than he thought.
He takes off his glasses and rubs the bridge of his nose.
He still has some emails to go through, then he has to restock the medication cabinet in the medbay, not to mention he usually closes up the building on late nights like these. He’ll go home to make himself some chamomile tea, he'll drink it, then he'll go to bed. He will wake up after seven hours (he hopes), and do this all over again.
(Without interruptions or delays.)
He is brought out of his thoughts by a ‘mrrow’. He puts his glasses back on and looks over to the food bowls. A brown tabby pads on over, staring at him with big eyes. Kunikida nudges one of the bowls closer with his shoe. The tabby sits very politely before beginning to eat.
CLOCK INTO WORK.CHECK EMAILS.GO SHOPPING. CHECK ON THE AGENCY.GO SHOPPING.EAT LUNCH.SORT THROUGH PAPERWORK.EAT DINNER.FEED THE PRESIDENT’S FAVORITE STRAYS.
“Kunikida?”
Kunikida pauses, looking behind himself.
Yosano stands there with a tilted head, “The president left two hours ago, I thought you had too. Saw your laptop was still on and came to find you.”
“Oh.” Kunikida rubs his eyes. “My apologies.”
“You're fine.” Yosano steps out, sitting next to him. She crosses her legs, dusting her skirt off a bit and adjusting her tie a bit.
He clasps his hands together, leaning forward and fidgeting with his hands. “I still have a lot on my schedule.”
Yosano looks at him, she looks tired, he is too. But he doesn't comment on that, he just continues on, “I thought I'd let myself get a breather for five or so minutes.”
“I think you should just head back to your dorm after this.” She snorts.
“I can't.”
She places a hand on his shoulder. “...You can move those things to tomorrow, you know.”
“But it'll be less in the long run if I do it today, too.” He doesn't look at her, “If I let myself fall behind, I'll never get ahead.”
Yosano frowns. Kunikida's heart hurts, he looks down at his watch—11:46pm. Fuck. “I should get going soon, then I can get to bed at a relatively reasonable time.”
“It's almost midnight.”
“You're still up.”
“I'm up because you are.”
Kunikida looks at her as his watch moves to 11:47. “ What? ”
“I want to make sure you go to bed at a healthy time instead of eleven or even later every night.” Yosano crosses her arms. “Call it an intervention, whatever, I want you to let yourself sleep longer.”
“My sleep schedule is fine.” Kunikida says, slightly with a defensive tone, arms crossing too as he feels himself tense.
“No, it's really not.” Yosano grabs his hands. “Listen to me, for five minutes, without arguing or interrupting. Please.”
Kunikida shifts.
“If you want to continue this work ethic, fine, but let me say my thoughts.”
He takes a deep breath,
“Okay.”
“I know you try to sleep for seven hours, but lately, I can tell it's been four, maybe less.” She pulls him a bit closer, “If it's trouble with sleeping, I can get you meds for that, if it's anxiety, meds if it's anything I know I can help with, I will help you. But I can't let you keep going on like this and do nothing.”
Kunikida opens his mouth, but he receives a glare, and he shuts it.
“I want you-” her grip on his hands tightened- “to be okay.”
He stares at her.
“And you're not letting yourself be okay. I see you work, I see you eat, I see you work and work yourself to the bone, I barely see you eat, you lock up the building, you leave.”
He wants to say something.
“You are more tired everyday, you're fatigued, does time even pass in your head? Does the watch help ground you? The bags under your eyes are so obvious, Kunikida, Dazai purposely leaves his leftovers so you already have dinner.”
Just something.
Yosano pulls him into a hug, he doesn't expect it, this wasn't on his schedule—
Oh.
Kunikida hears himself sniffle.
He's so tired.
He's so, so tired. He really is. He knows he needs that sleep, he knows he's overworking, he knows his bones ache, he knows it’s bad.
A cat nuzzles him. It's a calico one. Kunikida remembers he had the bag of cat food still out, but he can't pick it up right now.
Meoow.
“These cats are ruining the moment.” Yosano mumbles, Kunikida just nods. “You can cry, by the way, unless the cats mrrrrooww decided to, like, completely remove your sadness.”
Kunikida snorts a little. “Yeah. They probably just want food.”
“Our sign to head inside, then. They don't get extra.” Yosano lets go of him and stands up.
Kunikida gets up too, picking up the bag of cat food and stepping inside, breathing in the cold night air one more time before the door shuts and the sounds of the cats chewing on the food-filled bowls is now faint. “...I am going to put this in the storage closet.”
“Right.” Yosano raises an eyebrow, looking at him.
“And then I’m going to go into the office,” She gives him a look as he continues, “And shut down my laptop.”
She pauses at that. “...So you’re freeing your schedule up, then?”
Kunikida nods. “...Some things can wait until tomorrow.”
“Right.” She leans on the door. “Speaking of which, I wanted to ask you something else about your schedule.”
Kunikida looks back at her, still holding the cat food up, “What?”
“Think you’ve got any room for going to an art museum with me tomorrow, at like, one thirty or so?”
Kunikida smiles faintly, glancing down at his watch—12:06am—but he doesn’t mind too much now. “I’ll check.”
Yosano grins. “Good.
TODAY’S SCHEDULE
CLOCK INTO WORK.CHECK EMAILS.GO SHOPPING. CHECK ON THE AGENCY.GO SHOPPING.EAT LUNCH.SORT THROUGH PAPERWORK.EAT DINNER.FEED THE PRESIDENT’S FAVORITE STRAYS.- GO THROUGH EMAILS A SECOND TIME.
- DOUBLE-CHECK ALREADY DONE PAPERWORK.
- RESTOCK MEDICATION CABINET FOR YOSANO.
- LOCK UP THE OFFICE AFTER LEAVING WORK.
- MAKE SOME CHAMOMILE TEA.
TALK TO YOSANO.
TOMORROW’S SCHEDULE
- CHECK THE WEATHER.
- CLOCK INTO WORK.
- CHECK EMAILS.
- GO TO AN ART MUSEUM WITH YOSANO.
- RETURN TO THE AGENCY BUILDING FOR LUNCH.
…
12:17am.
GO TO BED.