Chapter Text
It wasn’t only his forehead, but his entire body felt as if it were laying under a burning fire.
He woke up sweaty, and tired. He had to force himself to get up.
The day wasn’t a normal day, it felt..weird.
Spirals and colors swarmed all around him, and his head felt groggy. Sweat glands poured on from his forehead down to his chest.
His skin was probably paler than ever.
He didn’t even want to look at himself.
The others wouldn’t like to know he was sick; that would be annoying, irritating, wouldn’t it? It was only a slight headache, and his body would heal itself after just a few hours.
If he hid it, and pushed through all this nonsense that fussed up inside of him, it would be alright.
‘You aren’t supposed to be this weak, Atsushi.’
The uniform that he wore every day felt wrinkled and uneat.
His belt was still sticking out like a little tail, as always, but his shirt, pants were squished up together, making him feel even more worse.
When he finally arrived at the agency, the noise made it worse. He felt like an old tv, filled with static and noises.
He was still quite sweaty. Not like it mattered, nobody should notice anyway. It was only sweat.
When he stepped foot into that room, the usual scene greeted him. Kunikida was scolding Dazai for who knows what reason that could be, and the others were doing their own work, Ranpo sitting in a chair looking at marbles.
When he opened that door, it looked like eyes, or the entire world was staring at him, terrifyingly.
“Atsushi?..” Kunikida had said, finally taking his attention off Dazai for a second.
“..unusual, you’re late.”
He kept his sweet tone. “Sorry..” he hoped that his voice sounded alright, but with all the stares he was getting, he doubted it.
Kunikida squinted his eyes, and then shook it off.
“Don’t let it happen again.”
“Yes, I promise!” another gland of sweat spilled down his back.
He rushed to his seat, looking at the papers, and the computer that stood in front of him.
The work he knew he had to complete made this day, this process even more agonizing than it already was.
Suddenly, a noise, sounding like a pull from a chair with its wheels rolling, greeted him.
“Atsushi~” Dazai said, leaning closer to him.
He was awfully closer than he wanted him to be.
“..Hey Dazai..” he smiled awkwardly.
Dazai stared at him for a few seconds. He blinked.
“Hey, Atsushi, you sleeping alright?” he gave his regular grin while saying his words.
‘No.’
“..yea, why?” his head started to pound.
“Well, you have pretty heavy eyebags, you know.”
Shoot. Eyebags. Right. If he had covered it up with any kind of makeup, then maybe this wouldn’t be a problem.