Work Text:
It was a bright sunny day in Yokohama, a Monday morning to be exact.
Dazai hated Mondays.
Especially since today he felt slightly off. (Though he never feels “good” or “okay” fully). He sat up in bed only to realize the sharp pain in his chest. He let out a small cough, which eventually turned into a painful coughing match that lasted a good three-ish minutes. He immediately came to a conclusion he was getting sick.
He let out a small sigh, and got up to use the bathroom. As he got up, he fell right back onto the foot of his bed, extremely weak and everything around him was blurred.
“Just great.” He muttered to himself.
He decided to stay in bed a little longer, considering he is late to work everyday anyway, and grabbed his phone on the nightstand next to him.
The brightness was too high for his liking. He scrolled through the messages, he stopped on one from Kunikida, reading:
“We have a very important case this week, and you know this. Don’t you DARE try to skip work just because you don’t feel like attending. You have no choice. Get your ass over here, Dazai.”
Dazai groaned after reading the message, and thought to himself for a moment. He put his phone down and held onto the wall as he walked himself to the bathroom. He looked in the mirror, and let out a dry cough. He tried speaking, but hardly anything came out.
“I must really be sick then.” He said in a whisper to himself.
He cleared his throat, and spoke again. This time the words came out mostly normal, sounding somewhat congested but he assumed it wouldn’t be enough for anyone at the agency to notice. He splashed his face with water in attempt to look less sickly, put on his clothes, and rushed out the door without even thinking about food or water.
————————————
Dazai arrived slightly later than his usual time (which was already late to begin with) but hopefully no one would notice. He opened the agency’s door, and masked his suffering with his optimistic “persona”.
“Kunikida, Atsushi!, Good morning!” (He could tell he seemed less upbeat than normal but he was hardly holding it together as it is). Atsushi looked at him, slightly concerned whilst kunikida was just pissed off as hell.
“You are later than normal dazai!” Kunikida said, sternly.
“Yes-yes, sorry about that. I was just thinking of new ways to tournament you on my way here, and then got distracted by a beautiful women I could potentially commit a double suicide with!”
“Cough”
Dazai quickly suppressed the other two coughs he could feel coming on, as painful as that was. Kunikida didn’t even notice the cough he let out after his convincing “Typical Dazai” rant. Kunikida rolled his eyes, and sighed deeply.
“We don’t have time for this today, Dazai. We have to get to work immediately. You’ll be with me.”
Dazai could feel how exhausting it was going to be today. “Just get it over with and then you can stay home and recover tomorrow.” He thought to himself.
————————————
About three hours into the work on the case, Dazai could feel himself slowly getting worse. He was able to do everything without any problems caused by his symptoms earlier… but now he could hardly even hold his pen, let alone write.
Kunikida noticed he was starting to slack off, he walked up to dazai and slapped him behind his head. Dazai winced, and then looked up at Kunikida without saying a word.
Kunikida felt something off about him but decided they were too busy to dive Into it.
“This case is extremely important. I don’t care how much you don’t want to do this, get it done.”
(Little did he know saying that was a huge mistake)
Dazai immediately started blacking out while trying to get a comeback out.
Dazai was shot awake by the feeling crawling up in his chest. He held his mouth, however no matter how hard he tried to suppress it, started coughing up a storm.
Kunikida watched as Dazai’s face went white. He left his serious stature to check on him. The members who weren’t actively at the case sight also turned their eyes to them.
He felt a little guilty saying what he did sixty seconds ago to his work partner, and put a hand on Dazai’s shoulder.
“Are you..sick?”
Dazai tried to cover it up, saying “No! Just something in my throat!” But Kunikida could tell by the tone of his voice he was obviously not okay.
A few moments Dazai stopped coughing, and let out a sigh of relief.
“See?! I’m perfectly-“
Oh god.
Please, not now. Not here.
He was going to puke.
Kunikida jumped at the sudden reaction Dazai had, he watched as he ran to the nearest garbage can. Kunikida was realizing he was definitely sick. He felt guilty for what he said earlier.
Fortunately, Dazai just barely made it to the trashcan before he started vomiting his brains out. Yosano heard him all the way from inside the infirmity, and came to attend to his need.
“Sorry- I should’ve realized sooner.” Kunikida said sounding extremely guilty.
“Don’t apologize, none of us noticed. Busy day and all. Just help me carry him into the infirmity. He is definitely too weak to stand at the moment.”
Kunikida nodded in agreement, and help Yosano carry the still gagging Dazai inside the infirmity.
A few moments later, Atsushi and Kenji ran in after them. Right after they were done with the case, worried for their superior.
As they walked in, the sight was a painful one to watch. Dazai was still coughing up vomit, Atsushi wincing at the painful sound. Kenji just watched idly as Yosano and Kunikida were caring for him.
“Dazai, are you done now?” Seeing as Dazai stopped gagging. Yosano handed him a cloth, and he weakly rubbed his face on it.
“Sorry Dazai, are you alright?”
Dazai couldn’t do anything but blink at what Kunikida said. He saw Atsushi, who looked extremely worried. He tried to say “I’m fine, don’t worry about me!” but he felt himself black out. Yosano and Kunikida quickly caught his head nearly before it would’ve slammed against the metal rail, and placed it gently on the infirmity bed alongside the rest of his weak body.
————————————
Dazai didn’t know how long he was out for. When he woke up, he saw concerned agency members crowded around him.
“He’s awake Dr. Yosano!” He recognized it as Kenji’s voice.
“Very well, everyone please stay out of my way. Kunikida, Atsushi, I’ll need both of your help. You can stay.”
They both nodded in agreement. Dazai wasn’t used to this side of Yosano (although he does visit her during depressive episodes… she always is the one to clean up his fresh cuts if his slug wasn’t available.)
“Y-Yosano.” Dazai let out weakly, and began coughing. He sounded so much worse than he did this morning. He also felt worse too.
“Don’t speak, open your mouth. I’m gonna check your temperature.”
Dazai agreed, letting Yosano care for him.
“Hey- Dazai, im sorry. You’re my work partner. I probably should’ve noticed if you weren’t feeling well.”
Dazai looked at Kunikida, letting out a small smile, as Yosano took the thermometer out.
“It’s okay…I wasn’t trying to make it know, anyway.” Dazai said, his voice sound so much quieter and less out there than it normally does.
Dazai let out 2 more coughs as Yosano read the thermometer.
“104.6, that’s dangerously high.”
“Shit Dazai, I wish you told us you weren’t feeling well. Now you have an extremely high fever.”
Yosano looked at Kunikida “you’re not making it any better” was the expression she made.
Dazai sniffled, hardly able to breath. He let out a soft chuckle, and began coughing again. “I want my slug.”
“What?” The three of them said in sync.
Dazai let out painful coughs, he couldn’t elaborate on what he said. He started wincing from the pain in his chest, hardly able to think straight. He was also panting, from his high fever.
“I hate this.” Dazai muttered.
Yosano quickly came back to him, feeling his head. Even though she read the thermometer, he seemed so much warmer than 104.
“We’re gonna try to get your fever down at least a bit. Then we will have someone take you home. We probably can’t stay though, unfortunately.”
Can’t stay? He hates being alone, in this state.
However, dazai nodded.
About an hour later, they were able to get his fever down to 104.1. Obviously still very high, but it was better than earlier. Kunikida drove him home with the help of Atsushi, and before they left they made sure he was comfortable.
“I feel bad for leaving you like this Dazai. I’m worried about you.” Atsushi looked down at the floor, obviously very worried for his mentor. he didn’t think Dazai could even get sick.
“I’ll be alright.” Dazai said, lacking his normal tone of voice.
Kunikida, after making sure everything was alright around Dazai’s dorm, gestured Atsushi to head out the door so they can leave. They said their goodbyes and then Dazai was alone.
He sighed, let out a cough, and thought about eating something. It made him more nauseous than he already was so he decided he wasn’t going to eat anything. His phone buzzed, and reluctantly he picked up his phone and read the message (his eyes squinting because the phone screen was way too bright as it was earlier).
“Where are you shitty mackerel? It’s already been 30 minutes. You’re late.”
Shit.
He forgot about his date with his boyfriend…aka the slug. Chuuya Nakahara.
Dazai tried to seem happy over the text, he replied with “I’m sick…sorry. I was passed out in the agency’s infirmary right before you got there I’m assuming. But chuuya cares about me? How sweet!”
“Shitty Dazai.….im on my way.”
On his way.
Dazai had chuuya around him before when he was sick, he also was there when he was having depressive episodes. This was quite normal behavior for chuuya. However, Dazai was really sick. He doesn’t remember the last time he was this sick. He was worried about that. He loved chuuya dearly, and is the only person he lets see his true emotions.
He didn’t want to get chuuya sick, too.
-
While dazai was drowning in his thoughts, he didn’t even hear his front door open. He didn’t even realize someone was calling out to him until he heard his bedroom door open.
Was he really that out of it? That he couldn’t even sense if someone was near?
“Mackerel?”
“Oh, there you are Dazai-“
When he got closer he froze. Dazai was extremely pale, sweaty to the point his hair was sticking to his face, he was slightly shaking, his eyes were red and puffy, and he had a sickly expression on his face. He’s never seen Dazai this sick before, even when he had poor living conditions in the mafia.
“Oi…are you that sick? I’m sorry. You should’ve told me this morning.” He came over to Dazai and before he could even say anything, he kissed his very hot forehead.
“Mm…I felt sick this morning, but not as bad as I do right now-“
Hard painful coughs…accidentally in Chuuya’s face.
“S-shit” He couldn’t stop coughing. Chuuya stepped back (mainly because he didn’t want to get sick) but also because he felt utterly horrible for Dazai. It pained him to see him in this frail state.
“What’s your temperature?”
“104-“
“Shit- that’s really high.”
Dazai didn’t respond. Chuuya could tell how badly this was effecting him because he wasn’t having his playful persona or giving stupid remarks to chuuya like he normally would. But he knew he didn’t act like that right now also because he trusted chuuya. His boyfriend.
“Chibi…I hate pain.”
“I know, I’m sorry.”
Chuuya sat back down, pushing Dazai’s now wet hair out of his face. He was panting really heavily and this spiked Chuuya’s worry again.
“Do you perchance have a thermometer?” He started looking through Dazai’s drawers. “Ah- Wait what?”
Dazai sat up, which caused Chuuya to be very confused.
“Calm down Asshole it’s just a thermometer.”
“It’s not that-I-I’m gonna vomit again.”
“Again? Just how many times have you-“
Dazai puked all over himself.
————————————
Chuuya was running a for Dazai. He was sitting on the couch since his bed was now covered in his bodily fluids.
“103.8. It’s lower than earlier, but it’s weird. You aren’t getting better you’re getting worse.”
Dazai let out another cough. He looked at Chuuya weakly and then darted his eyes to the floor. He hated feeling like this, and he did love Chuuya, but he really didn’t want him to see him like this, despite how close they are.
“Come on the bath is ready, let me help you.”
“I can do it myself.”
Dazai stood up but his legs immediately gave out. He sighed, and looked up at chuuya. “Guess you do have to help, how unfortunate.” Sounding slightly playful.
“Yeah, yeah whatever.” Chuuya carried him bridal style and sat him down on the toilet. He helped take his bandages off. He stared at his scarred arms, satisfied to not see any new ones. He let Dazai do the rest. Chuuya helped him into the tub and washed his hair for him.
-
Chuuya and Dazai were on the couch. Dazai’s coughs weren’t calming down at all, but he could breathe better as the bath made him a little less congested. Chuuya thought for a moment and said
“Put your damn shoes on, we’re going to the store.”
Dazai looked confused, wondering why Chuuya was gonna bring him to the store.
“Why are you taking me with you?”
Chuuya laughed and put his hand in Dazai’s now soft hair.
“Because you’re a fucking idiot and own no medicine, and I don’t know what kind you’ll actually take. Also, you can hardly stand so I’d like to just be able to watch you right now.”
Dazai nodded, thus going to the store with chuuya.
About 25 minutes later, they came back. Dazai Didn’t feel good at all, plopped onto the couch and started coughing again.
Dazai winced again, in severe pain from all the coughing.
“Tea….” He said quietly.
“You want tea?” Chuuya looked into Dazai’s puffy eyes, feeling horrible. He hated how much pain his lover was in at this moment.
“And crab.”
“You can’t always eat crab. You’re gonna have soup wether you like it or not”
“But chibi!”
Chuuya didn’t like how normal that chibi sounded.
————————————
Chuuya made the soup and tea. He watched as dazai ate and drank everything (he assumed he was quite hungry from all that vomiting).
He sat in the couch next to dazai, and played with his hair some more.
“I love you.”
Dazai smiled, and weakly held his hand in Chuuya’s.
“I love you too slug.”
-
A few days later, Dazai was well enough to go back to work. Chuuya did stay with him an extra two days to make sure he was a hundred percent back to himself.
The following day, Chuuya got sick. And Dazai took his turn of caring for his boyfriend.
“Shitty mackerel” cough
Dazai chuckled, looking down at his lover in the bed, he stroked his hair back and sat on the bed with him. He watched as he slowly fell asleep in his arms.