Chapter Text
It was Friday morning. The armed detective agency was having a meeting, Dazai was of course missing. Visiting his friend grave, he would get an ear full from Kunikida later but he would say it was worth it.
The sunlight was peeking out, getting through some of the clouds. The atmosphere was pretty nice. Even Dazai thought so himself. The brown haired man spoke to his long gone friend as if he could hear him and reply back. He had somewhat of an idea how the other would respond so it made this easier for him.
The man stood up after sitting there for quiet some time, stretching his limbs to feel refreshed. Paying his final respects to his friend for today before heading to his dorm. It was somewhat of a long walk but he didn't mind too much. He would probably take even longer just so that he could skip the whole work today and go drink when he came back home as a sweet treat!
He decided to go though the bad part of town since he would get home easier, and hopefully he could run into something worth of his time. There was junk around him but he wasn't bothered at all he was in the mafia after all. Dead bodies were the usual there, so this? This was nothing for him. The area was pretty sketchy, lots of thieves since most of the people were poor. Again the man wasn't bothered since he had nothing on him worth of stealing. He decided to sit down on one of the almost broken benches to have time pass by. He heard crying. Nah it is fine, whatever it is it will pass right?
1 minute
5 minutes
15 minutes
Dazai couldn't take it anymore, getting up and deciding to see from where the hell the crying sound was coming from. Maybe that would be worth of his time? Or just waste it.
Peeking through an alley entry to see if it was safe to enter. After that he decided to walk into the said alley since it appears that the source of the loud crying came from there. There appeared to be a garbage bag in the middle of the alley. Jackpot. As he got closer to the garbage bag the crying was louder and louder, his theory was correct. He untied the bag to see what could have been inside.
To his surprise, he saw an infant inside. Screaming with its eyes closed, their face was all red from the amount of screaming and crying they have been doing.
I could leave them here right? Somebody else will do something, as Dazai was ready to turn around he remembered Oda. He wouldn't approve of Dazai leaving a child here, alone. God damn it Odasaku.
Still hesitating, Dazai reached down to pick up the crying infant. To his surprise the infant's crying slowly came to a stop as he held them. "You sure are a weird thing if you get calmed down by this." He looked at the child in his arms, it had tears around his whole face, some snot coming out of its nose. Gross, was what Dazai thought, he couldn't really realize why people liked children that much but eh everyone has their own thing i guess.
The man decided it would be best now if he returned to his workplace instead of his original plan, he had to give somebody the child that he was now holding, why would he care for it? It is just some random infant he had found and decided to save as the amazing hero he is. He didn't even take proper care of himself, what WOULD he do with a child? Let alone a child who is fully depends on another human to keep it alive.
Once the brown haired man entered his workplace he decided to say a little greeting "Hey, I finally arrived! With a surprise-" It was already 7pm so most of his co-workers were already home. Everyone besides his good old friend Kunikida who was staying overtime to finish Dazai's work.
"You came now? What did you do." Kunikida demanded an answer, not looking at the other man, focusing on the work he had to do.
"Kunikida! You are no fun, just turn around and look what I have!" Dazai said while pouting, wanting to show off the infant he had found to casually also give it away to somebody who wanted to take care of it.
"Dazai I don't have time for your-" Kunikida was about to finish his sentence before he actually turned around and saw the scene. His irresponsible work partner Dazai held an infant in his arms that looked like it came straight from a sewer.
"Surprise!" the brown haired man had said as he held the infant as if he were showing him off, making sure to hold his head and neck gently though. Not wanting to fuck up the poor kid, he wasn't THAT much of an asshole like people had told him.
After a good choking from Kunikida and a long talk about him missing the meeting, the blond could finally go on to talk about the other problem that was with them in the room.
"Did you steal this child?" he referred to the infant that was now laying down on the sofa that was in the lounge room of the office
"No! How dare you think that little of me my dear Kunikida! I found him in a garbage bag."
At least he didn't steal a kid... was what Kunikida was thinking to himself.
"At least for once you did the right thing... What shall we do with the child though? Should we talk about it with the president?" The blond had asked Dazai, wanting to hear his opinion on this.
"Well... I know how good you are with kids, so why don't you take it!" Dazai said with a smile on his face. As if he were talking about an item and not a child.
"Dazai i am serious! And, wait. You think I am good with kids?" Kunikida asked, shocked by the words from the other man.
"Well yeah, for one you were a math tutor which dealt with kids and you always try your best when talking to kids when we are on missions. You are the perfect person for this!" Not seeing any problem with his suggestion to the other.
"Thank you for the compliment. But if i may have a say in this, you are good with kids yourself. Like that one child you spoke to when we were on our first case together. You surprisingly managed to calm the girl down. Why wouldn't you take care of this infant if you are fit for the job yourself? It is not like i am the one that found the kid." Trying to reason with Dazai here. Kunikida didn't want more things to disturb his schedule and unfortunately a child would do that a lot.
"Kunikida." Dazai started speaking in a sort of comforting tone. "I just think you could really use something like taking care of a child." He said, this would be a perfect thing to mess up his schedule, and help him to not be consumed by that and his ideals.
"I could certainly think about it. But lets leave this for tomorrow, the president should also have a say." The blond had said. At this moment he had fully forgotten about his said schedule and he hadn't even realize for how long he had been talking to Dazai.
The infant started fussing again, at first its breathing became quicker and not long after it started crying. Dazai gave Kunikida a look to let him take a try at calming the kid down. With hesitation the blond stood up from where he was sitting and went to the sofa to pick the said child up. Making sure he was holding it in the best position for the comfort of the child. It stopped crying and looked up at Kunikida, reaching for his glasses. Kunikida was going to stop the child, but decided not to.
"Do you know the name of this child?" The green eyed man asked.
"It should say inside of his onesie, I didn't check though." He said while shrugging his shoulders. But now he was somewhat interested especially since he could see Kunikida himself taking a liking to this child. He knew he would have denied if he asked though.
The blond carefully sat down and put the infant in his lap. Deciding to peak into the onesie to check the name written inside. The tag had scribbles on it from a black marker. It seemed that written down on it was "Atsushi" and the other side probably had his last name but it had been erased, now just a smudge.
"Atsushi, hm." Kunikida thought to himself and yet said his words out loud for both the child named Atsushi and his partner Dazai.
"You like the kid don't you?" Dazai said with a smirk on his face, he couldn't hide it anymore.
"It isn't like that. The child just deserves love which it clearly doesn't have from the state you found them in" Kunikida tried defending himself
"Uh huh... Sure, trust you" Dazai said in a very sarcastic tone.
Kunikida didn't pay attention to him as he looked at Atsushi, the child who was poking and touching him curiously. It looked pretty unusual with their white hair. Were they possibly an albino? No, he had yellow eyes with the slight tint of purple. It was a nice color contrast. He hated to admit it but he really enjoyed the poking, always having a soft spot for kids despite not looking like it. Even wanting to have a child himself by a certain age according to his ideals. Dazai knew of that very well, but was also worried that his partner would decline the offer since he didn't think he was ready to take care of an infant yet. He would have to figure it out by tomorrow.
"Wait what is the gender of this child?" The blond asked all of a sudden.
"Uh... Have fun figuring it out!" Dazai said in a cheerful tone.
"Why am i not even surprised? You know what, just call Yosano. We can talk to her about this child and she could possibly do a check up if she can."
"You know what, great idea! Leaves me out of work to do too! Oh how i love you Kunikida!" The brown haired man said while looking at the blond who was still holding and cradling the child. They actually looked cute, and for once Dazai didn't want to mess with Kunikida.
9pm, they had gotten Yosano to do a full check up on him and they even got some supplies that they would need for how like formula, diapers and clothes for the child. The infant Atsushi laid on one of the beds in the infirmary, now fully asleep. If he wasn't he would probably be crying again, it became clear to everyone that he hated being alone. And they also finally knew the gender, the child was a boy.
"I think it would be the best if one of you would stay with him here in the infirmary so that he wouldn't be alone. Also he would need to be fed if he woke up hungry." The doctor had said as she looked at a chart she made of the kid and their medical information from what she could gather. "Or he could go with one of you home, whatever works better."
As soon as Dazai heard that he would need to actually put in work he was out. "Ah my deepest apologies but i can not help. You see i have things to attend to."
"Attend your suicide attempts? Yeah right. You will stay here with me since you are the one that found this child. That is the least you can do" The blond said, not wanting to deal with his partners bullshit of an excuse to get out of doing any work.
"It is settled then. The two of you will stay here with the child, and if i find out one of you left i will report that to the president since you would be abandoning a mission given to you." She said as she started getting ready to leave the infirmary to go to her dorm.
"You can't be serious Yosano! Come on give me a good old laugh now!" Dazai said, not believing she was really serious.
"Well you may find out. If i could i would use my ability on you at least 4 times but that won't work due to your own ability. So that one will only apply to Kunikida." And with that the doctor Yosano had left for the day, again.
Kunikida had taken notes on what Yosano had told them earlier, and she also mentioned that they were free to check the medical information she had gotten on the boy. Of course he would read it at least once to be prepared for anything.
"This is so boring! And look at him he is just asleep... Soooo boring." Dazai said, wanting something exciting to happen instead of the silence.
"He is a baby, around 5 months old from what the record here says. He won't be doing much for months to say the least. Also he is pretty small for his age which is worrying. It is either he is just developing slower than what is usual or he has been treated very badly. I like to think of the first option but i think we both know which one is most likely." The blond had said. Dazai was surprised at how he actually worded it, yes he loved saying every single fact but the way he said it only proved further that he did take a liking to this kid which was exactly what Dazai wanted to happen.
"I've got a question for you Doppo. Why do you care so much about children?" The shorter man had said while looking at the other, curious about his point of view in this. The green eyed man looked at him, looking away from the boy he was staring at with gentle eyes earlier. Thinking of what he should exactly say without seeming too "soft" for his liking.
"They are the future of our world, the ones that will continue what we had started after we pass on... And, I guess it is nice to see humans from a point in their lives when they are the most pure. No evil or sin attached to them, since they don't even know of that until older, around 6 years old if i may say so. Yet again it does depend on each child." Kunikida had told the other. Dazai was for once a little surprised. He hadn't expected the blond to be that open with him. They had formed a close bond with time but he did not think the blond trusted him like that. It actually made him smile.
"Ah i see, thank you for telling me." Dazai says before looking back at the infant who was laying on one of the beds, Kunikida sitting on a stool next to the bed. He looked at the child more, really looking. Babies are weird, but with Kunikida's view on it he might understand why people enjoy such young versions of their own kind.
The small infant's stomach rose up and then back down as he took slow breaths. Every now and then he would kick his feet or start mumbling and making some fascinating or either worrying sounds if you had asked Dazai himself.
After chatting for a few hours, they realized that the infant won't be waking up from his sleep. Thank the lord. Now it was time for the two adults to go to sleep themselves. Kunikida slept on a bed that was on the right side of Atsushi's. Meanwhile Dazai decided to sleep on a chair for some reason. The blond had told him to get into one of the beds but he just shook his head. Denying his offer. Pretty soon Kunikida had fallen asleep as he was pretty tired. Unlike the other man.
Dazai was looking though a window, looking up at the starry sky. It wan't often that the start were this visible especially in this part of the city.
"Odasaku..." Dazai said as he pretended to reach for the moonn with his hand. "Are you, proud of who I have become? I hope you are. I really do." The brown haired man was imagining something. He had been doing so until he fell asleep himself after a long time of looking at the start that shined bright in the dark sky.