Work Text:
You do the talking
The knight braced for the impact, the last thing on his mind was the white-haired boy who fought beside him. He had no recollection of who he was, but something in him knew; that he was just as precious as the princess. So as a knight, he must do the job given to him; to protect.
And he braced for the blow of a sword.
“ Consider us even.” The knight heard as he peered behind him. “ Away with you…” This wasn’t supposed to happen. The boy’s arm was sliced cleanly off, taking the blow of the ame-no-gozen, no –
“ … you fool.” The boy said, as the weretiger slowly disintegrated, with a smile on his face. Almost as if –
Suddenly the haze that clouded his head was lifted and a memory struck him. The memory of Akutagawa himself , on the ground, neck oozing blood out on the wooden deck of a ship, a final smile only for Ryuunosuke’s rival to see. And an uttered softly, “ You damn fool,” and a “ hurry up and go.” and a –
“ WERE-TIGER!”
Sew up my mouth if I can’t keep it closed.
Everything from there was a haze, but not the same way it was before when he was The Princess’ Knight; no, it was more of a horrified haze. He vaguely remembers standing still, remembers running; remembers hearing Dostoyevsky say something, and suddenly, he’s crashing onto the floor, far away from where they were fighting in the airport. His knees buckled onto the concrete epoxy floor, finally collapsing to exhaustion.
Ryuunosuke’s breaths were heavy, to the still knight-cladded boy, somehow it felt harder to breathe than usual, even harder than when it already was ridden with his lung disease. All that could go through his mind was that god-awful smile, that smug smile. The were-tiger knew what he said, and left him off with the same emotions that he could only assume the were-tiger had felt when he had died, as hazy memories of him as a vampire and as a knight slowly became clearer.
There’s a dog, dog barking right around the block.
What was he supposed to do? The were-tiger, their one hope of ending this entire thing, is gone. All because of him. Akutagawa couldn’t even fulfil the purpose of his existence; to protect the princess and to save the were-tiger. In the end, Nakajima sacrificed his life for him. Him, a mafioso who no longer killed thanks to the promise of the detective. A wanted criminal. 6 months was still not up. He couldn’t have been slain, right? The knight leaned against the wall behind him, spiralling.
The knight can’t believe it, he simply refuses. Because the were-tiger could not be dead. He could not be. He simply couldn’t. If the were-tiger was dead, he would have been dead a long time ago. Akutagawa would have been the one to have killed him in that dingy alley. Nakajima Atsushi is not –
And a big ol’ whistle blow.
Akutagawa halted his thoughts. God, he was so tired, so so tired. So tired of how pathetically ironic the were-tiger could be. The were-tiger was the one yelling at a vampire who acted animalistic and inhumane to snap out of that cloudy haze, telling him that the 6 months weren’t up yet. That he needed to uphold my side of the promise, hypocrite. He didn’t even end up dead, and yet, the same boy who made the promise died for him. He swore to the were-tiger that he would be the one to kill him.
He hadn’t even realized he was hyperventilating till he cut off his thoughts again. He gripped onto the fabric portions of his armour to ground himself, slowly breathing in and out. As he calmed, he pondered, what if he had just been a little stronger? What if he had just had his memories, would Nakajima still be alive? Would Nakajima be fighting alongside him right now? Maybe they would have won already. His head pounded, exhaustion slowly dangling over him, he forced an arm up, pressing his palm against his forehead to satiate the headache.
Run for it, I’ll keep ‘em occupied for you,
He has to accept it, doesn’t he? Nakajima Atsushi is gone. He doesn’t know how to process that information. He feels numb, tired, alone. Akutagawa would never consider this, or even think about it, but how would he manage to survive against Fyodor Dostoyevsky? Nakajima didn’t go up against Dostoyevsky, but he will. What would…
What would Atsushi do?
(He didn’t know when considering what Dazai would do became Atsushi would do, but it scared him.)
Cause I love you, I love you so.
His head flashes at the multiple missions he and Atsushi had gone through before. Now that Akutagawa thought about it, it was almost as if they were getting along. When he would accidentally run into Atsushi on simple days like groceries, or just a day out of the house. Suddenly he wondered what it’d be like now that he was gone. He didn’t go down the thought that far, pushing it to the back of his head. It wasn’t something he wanted to think about.
Maybe in another life, they would have been good friends. Or perhaps not, but as long as there was a world where both of them could exist, whether they hated each other or not, Akutagawa thought it would still be a good life nonetheless. He could only hope though, as the exhaustion creeping under his bones crawled deeper. It was tempting, to just lay there and rest.
But then his mind flashes back to Atsushi, the disappointment on his face if he were to take the easy way out when people were suffering, (now when has he cared?) his mind flashed to Gin, his dearest sister, what would the look on her face be if she knew he picked his selfishness over her? He knew better. So he forced himself up, his ears rang slightly, his limbs aching and asking for a break. But he still had one job, one last purpose.
The Princess must be alright. It is one thing Ryuunosuke could do.
Left me hangin’ at the station, but you’ll be back for me soon.
I’m ‘bout to die yet the only thing I find I’m worried about is you.
Atsushi walked, following ‘Dazai.’ He had felt the way his body disintegrated, but one thing plagued his head. Besides the obvious question of how ‘Dazai’ knew all about this, the ame-no-gozen's true realm, the 4th-dimensional space, the one singular thing.
He only hoped Akutagawa was alright.
Something tells me you aren’t coming, guess that I’m truly doomed
I’m ‘bout to die yet the only thing I find I’m worried about is you.
I’m ‘bout to die yet the thing on my mind seems to nearly be nothing but you.