Chapter Text
Every child in the kingdom knew his name.
Parents spoke it in warnings. Merchants muttered it in frustration. Nobles cursed it behind locked doors.
Dazai.
The phantom thief.
The ghost who slipped through palace walls untouched. The criminal who left empty vaults, missing jewels, and humiliated guards in his wake. No lock could keep him out. No prison could keep him in.
For years, kingdoms had tried to capture him.
For years, they had failed.
Rumors followed him wherever he went.
Some claimed he could vanish into thin air.
Others swore he could talk his way out of any situation.
One particularly dramatic witness insisted he had jumped from a clock tower and survived.
No one knew which stories were true.
Only one thing was certain.
The thief was dangerous.
That was why soldiers were ordered to hunt him.
That was why nobles wanted his head.
That was why wanted posters bearing his face covered nearly every city wall.
And that was exactly why Prince Chuuya Nakahara should not have been waiting for him on a palace balcony at eight o'clock in the evening.
Yet there he stood.
Watching the moon rise.
Waiting.
The city stretched endlessly beneath him, bathed in silver moonlight and flickering lanterns.
From this height, everything seemed peaceful.
The crowded markets had long since closed. Merchants packed away their wares. Families gathered around dinner tables. Guards patrolled the streets below, their armor glinting faintly whenever they passed beneath the lanterns.
It was the kind of night poets wrote about.
Chuuya hated it.
His fingers drummed impatiently against the stone railing.
Eight o'clock.
Right on schedule.
Eight fifteen.
No sign of him.
A muscle in Chuuya's jaw twitched.
Eight twenty.
Still nothing.
"Your Highness?"
Chuuya turned.
One of the palace guards stood near the balcony entrance.
The man bowed respectfully.
"The evening meeting begins shortly."
"I know."
"Should I inform the council you'll be arriving soon?"
"No."
The guard hesitated.
"The ministers have been waiting for nearly half an hour."
"Then they can wait another half hour."
The guard wisely chose not to argue.
After another bow, he disappeared back inside.
The moment the door shut, Chuuya groaned and leaned against the railing.
Idiot.
Absolute idiot.
For years, Dazai had been the most wanted criminal in the continent.
A thief.
A liar.
A menace.
An insufferable man who seemed physically incapable of taking anything seriously.
And somehow, despite all common sense, Chuuya had grown accustomed to his visits.
What had started as chance encounters had become conversations.
Conversations had become routine.
And routine had become
A shadow dropped from above.
Chuuya immediately stepped aside.
A figure landed neatly on the railing.
"Good evening, Your Highness."
"There you are."
Dark waves.
Bandaged arms.
That stupid grin.
Dazai spread his arms dramatically.
"Were you waiting for me?"
"No."
"You checked the clock three times."
"I was checking the time."
"The time of my arrival?"
"The time of literally anything else."
Dazai laughed.
The sound echoed softly through the night air.
For a brief moment, Chuuya found himself staring.
Not at the infamous thief.
Not at the criminal plastered across every wanted poster.
Just Dazai.
And for the first time that evening, he felt himself relax.
Unfortunately, Dazai noticed.
"Oh?"
"Don't."
"You missed me."
"Dazai."
"You definitely missed me."
"Dazai."
The grin widened.
"Chuuya."
"I can still have you arrested."
"No, you can't."
The worst part was that Dazai sounded completely confident.
The even worse part was that he was probably right.