Archive of Our Own ^beta

“your body is a sky I want to sing into forever and my body is that trembling song.”
—Jeremy Radin

--

Fukuzawa has seen a lot of things in his lifetime thus far but this, this really took the cake. He was coming back from lunch break one day; the morning was as normal as it can be in the office and yet when he returned, he was greeted with quite the sight.

“Oh, president.” Atsushi went up to him and smiled at him. “Welcome back, how was your lunch break?”

“It was good, thank you.” Fukuzawa nodded before turning his attention back to the sight at hand. “I can see that it has been eventful lunch hour for you all as well.”

Atsushi’s smile had a bit of strain as he followed his boss’s line of sight. “Um…I’m not sure myself but…Kunikida-san and Dazai-san are having a fight.”

It surely seemed as something went down alright as Fukuzawa nodded. At the shared desk space was his second in command Kunikida who is sitting on a chair and had his arms crossed with a furrow of his eyebrows along with a deep frown. Sitting on another chair and having his back to Kunikida was Dazai who, for once, didn’t have much of a carefree expression, there was tones of unpleasantness but kept the face neutral as he also had his arms crossed.

Both of them had their backs to each other and wasn’t saying a word.

“I honestly don’t know what happen, sir.” Atsushi continued as he sighed. “I was going to get something from the storage room and when I come back, I saw this.”

“I see.” Fukuzawa sighed; feeling more like a father than a boss that very moment. “Atsushi-kun, inform the rest of the staff to take an extended lunch break.”

“Sir?” Atsushi looked at him, wondering if he heard that correctly.

“This is an issue that requires time, time that is burrowed in this case.” Fukuzawa started cracking his knuckles. “Sometimes a straightforward solution is best to resolve it.”

Gulping, Atsushi nodded. “Yes, sir.” He went around and told every one about what the president ordered and they all fled the office as if there was a fire in the office.

Once everyone was gone, Fukuzawa walked up to the pair. “Now then, what is the issue at hand?” He wasn’t one to mince words.

Kunikida’s mouth was in a thin line before he murmured something under his breath.

“Come again?”

“I said….Dazai made a paper plane out of a few pages from my notebook!” Kunikida let out. “Those things aren’t cheap! And he had the gall to not even apologize!”

Fukuzawa didn’t think this would be surprising and yet he arched an eyebrow all the same. “And what does the other party have to say about it?” His eyes now to Dazai.

Dazai sighed; seemingly tired. “I just thought that Kunikida-kun would appreciate something cool since he had to do all the paperwork in one go instead of spending time with a certain someone.”

“I told you in a second!” Kunikida stood up and glared at Dazai. “Would it kill you to wait for once in your damn life?!”

“That would be a boring way to go especially if you think that doing paperwork is more important than taking a break.”

“Then say it outright! You didn’t have to fuck with my notebook! At least give a shit on that--!” Kunikida covered his mouth as he realized the president was still in the room. “A-Apologies, president.”

Honestly, Fukuzawa had heard worse but it was polite of Kunikida to be aware. “It seems that the issue is deeper than we first thought.” He turned to Dazai. “Certainly, you two make valid points. However, there is a time and place to discuss them. I can understand that there is only so much time in the world and lives are finite but that doesn’t mean we need to resort to passive aggressive ways. You two are better than that.”

Kunikida rubbed the back of his head; ashamed. Dazai was swaying on the balls of his feet; feeling a bit of guilt.

“Be that as it may,” Fukuzawa continued. “I think we should pull back and start over; from the beginning.” He gestured them to take a seat as he took another one for his own as he sat down with them. “Now, we’re going to have a very long and possibly painful talk about communication, making mistakes and reconciliation of those mistakes. No one leaves here until an understand is brought to light, am I clear?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Of course.”

Satisfied for the moment, Fukuzawa placed his hands on his lap. “Now let’s start from point A: how did your day start, the both of you?”

--

In hindsight, Atsushi should have asked the president how long the extended lunch was. However, he relaxed when Haruno sent a mass text saying that everyone can go home for the day.  As he was going through the office door to get his things, he noticed that Kunikida and Dazai were nowhere to be seen. He wasn’t sure though if that was a good thing or not.

“Atsushi.”

The weretiger nearly yelped in surprise but his mouth was covered by none other than the president’s hand. He calmed down a bit as the hand dropped slowly. “S-Sorry.”

“No worries.” Fukuzawa had Atsushi’s bag, noticing that it was out in the open in the office. “I thought you’d be looking for this. I apologize for not notifying you all sooner about the unexpected time off, I’ll make sure you all are paid for the time missed.”

Well that was nice of him, a bit odd but nice. “T-Thank you sir.” Atsushi took the bag and sling it over his shoulder. “So, is everything okay now? I couldn’t help but worry a bit.”

“Everything is fine.” Fukuzawa nodded. “It was just layers of issues rolled into one. Do not worry, they will be okay by tomorrow.”

That was good to hear as Atsushi smiled widely. “That’s good. Have a good night, president.” He bowed his head before he left the office.

Fukuzawa waved the young man off. As the door closed, he sighed before going to the lounge section of the office. Poking his head in, he saw quite the sight.

Kunikida and Dazai were lightly resting on the couch with a blanket over them. Kunikida’s tear stains were drying up and Dazai had slight bags under his own. They seemed to be recovering from the long talk that they all had and while it did cause a lot of shouting and such, they couldn’t stay mad at each other even if their pride demanded otherwise.

They were still growing as people and as a couple.

With that in mind, Fukuzawa decided to let them be for a little while longer. He’ll wake them up eventually and join them on a dinner trip before seeing them back to the dorms. It wasn’t easy for either one of them, but he had faith that things will be more than fine.

It wasn’t easy being a ‘dad’ but someone has to look over the children.

--

END