Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

*Four Years Ago*

"What the fuck are you doing mackerel?" Chuuya asked, flicking the lights on in his garage to find a familiar bandage covered asshole messing around underneath his car. 

The man in question stilled, stopping whatever he was doing to seemingly consider Chuuya's words. 

Wait no, Chuuya realized. I caught him by surprise, he didn't expect me to be here, he's recalculating.

It had taken a long time for Chuuya to be able to read Dazai so well, and he prided himself on being able to figure out what Dazai was thinking at any given moment. But when Dazai pushed himself up out from under Chuuya's car, his expression was utterly unreadable.

Maybe because it was the first time Chuuya had seen his whole face unobstructed by bandages, despite the fact that his arms and neck still remained covered. 

"I was rigging your car to blow up the next time you tried to unlock it," Dazai said simply, only offering Chuuya a blank stare as if waiting to gauge Chuuya's reaction before saying anything else.

"Hah?!" Chuuya exclaimed. "Why would you do that?!"

Sure he and Dazai occasionally took things beyond what the average person would consider "too far" when it came to pranks, but there was no trace of the annoying sense of humor that would normally accompany such a statement. It was clear Dazai didn't want Chuuya dead. No, there were far easier ways he could have gone about pulling that off without rigging Chuuya's car that he rarely used to blow up, but something had to be up for Dazai to be acting in such a way.

"So you wouldn't be able to follow me," came the response, still in that same eerily calm tone that did nothing to ease Chuuya's nerves.

Chuuya hesitated, choosing his next words carefully. Whatever had gotten into Dazai was clearly more serious than one of his normal mood swings and if he misspoke here he could risk Dazai following through with whatever half baked plan he currently had in mind.

"Where are you planning on going that you don't want me following?" Chuuya asked.

This one took Dazai longer to answer, but eventually he met Chuuya's eyes with his own, truly looking at him for the first time in their partnership. "I'm leaving the Port Mafia."

Chuuya was stunned. Of all the things Dazai could have said, a confession that he was leaving the Port Mafia was the last thing Chuuya had been expecting. Sure if anyone had the ability to pull off such a feat it'd be Dazai, but-

"Why?" 

"Mori killed my friend."

That would do it. Apart from Chuuya, there were very few people that Dazai allowed to get close to him, always on edge that something would happen to the people he allowed into his heart. If Mori had killed one of the few people Dazai managed to actually care about... 

"And you're leaving to get revenge?"

"No," Dazai told him. "Odasaku... His dying request was that I do some good in the world instead of working for evil. If the side I'm working for doesn't matter then I should try and do good. Save some orphans."

"So you were going to leave without me and didn't want me following you."

Dazai nodded. "Lay low for a couple of years before joining another organization where I could make a difference."

It stung, Chuuya wasn't going to pretend it didn't, but he could understand why Dazai would come up with such an idea. They had... Something between them, even if both of them refused to acknowledge it, and if Dazai had disappeared, Chuuya would have been the first to go looking for him. Stopping him from following would be the easiest way to make sure Chuuya avoided suspicion and make sure he cut off any feelings that lingered between the two of them for good.

Steeling himself, Chuuya straightened, folding his arms over his chest and staring Dazai down. "If you're leaving, I'm out too."

Dazai let out a tired sigh, none of his usual wit or humor accompanying his words. "Chuuya you're a liability."

"A liability? How? We're Double Black, they'd never be able to take us alive. If you took me with you we'd be unstoppable, you wouldn't have to worry about laying low for a couple of years, we could go out in a blaze, rule the streets and do some good for Yokohama our own way."

A spark of the old Dazai flashed through the mask of what Chuuya now recognized as grief. "Can't take us alive huh? You mean if they catch us you'll commit a lover's suicide with me Chuuya?"

"Shut up about a lover's suicide you waste of bandages!" Chuuya exclaimed as his cheeks flushed red. If Dazai was able to tease him like normal, that had to be a good sign. "We're partners, whether we're in the Port Mafia or not. So take me with you and let's make Mori wish he'd never recruited us in the first place." Chuuya offered him his hand, as if to shake on their deal.

Dazai took his hand, but used it to pull Chuuya close to his chest instead of accepting the gesture for its intended purpose, their height difference magnified with the lack of distance between the two of them as he smirked down at his partner. "Partners on the run together? How romantic."

Chuuya stomped on his foot.

And while they knew things would be different for them from here on out, there was no doubt that wherever they went, Double Black had a truly unbreakable bond.

*Present Day *

Atsushi Nakajima had thought he was going to die when he'd been kicked out of his orphanage and left to fend for himself on the streets. After all, he'd spent his whole life sheltered in the relative safety of the orphanage. Even with all the abuse and torment he'd had to endure during his time there, the orphanage had still put a roof over his head and food in his stomach. Without those basic necessities, he'd found himself practically collapsed by the riverbank on the outskirts of Yokohama, all hope of being able to make a living for himself in any traditional sort of way completely lost. Instead, he'd resorted to trying to steal the wallets of the people passing by for the sake of buying himself a meal.

"You're never going to successfully steal anything if you're being so obvious about it," a voice chimed from behind him, making him jump in surprise.

Atsushi whipped around to identify the source of the person speaking to him, eyes wide as he shoved his hands in his pockets, doing his best to look as innocent as he could. "Me? Steal something? Sir I'm sorry, I don't know what you're talking about, I wasn't trying to steal anything from anyone."

The man, dressed in a tan overcoat, bangs hanging down in front of his face, merely smirked at Atsushi's antics. "You've been sitting here, not enjoying the scenery, or reading a book, or solving a puzzle like any normal park go-er would, but instead watching people as they walk past, trying to find a good mark. Your stomach has been growling on and off the entire time you've been here, and you look like you haven't had a proper night's sleep in weeks. If that isn't the appearance of a man desperate for a meal then I don't know what is."

Hanging his head in shame, Atsushi stared down at the ground. "Look, I haven't actually been able to steal anything, so you can't arrest me for that, right? I mean thinking about committing a crime isn't actually committing a crime, s-so you can't turn me in or anything..."

The man laughed. "Depends on the seriousness of the crime. I suppose conspiracy to commit terrorism or murder is something you could be arrested for, but thinking about stealing someone's wallet isn't a true crime."

Atsushi risked a glance up at the man before him, who seemed entirely too relaxed for someone that had just ruined Atsushi's last remaining plan to get food. As if on queue, Atsushi's stomach growled once more, and he wrapped his arms around his torso in embarrassment, as if that could prevent his stomach from growling again.

"You know, I'll tell you what," the man said. "I'll take you out for lunch instead, whatever you want to eat, in exchange for you telling me just how you ended up here in Yokohama trying to rob people."

After hesitating for a moment, Atsushi nodded. It wasn't like he was going to get a better offer for food any time soon, so it was best to take the opportunity he had in front of him. "My name's Atsushi Nakajima," he offered.

The man smiled. "I'm Dazai, Osamu Dazai."

Having a meal with Dazai wasn't the worst thing Atsushi had ever experienced, even if the man was a bit odder than Atsushi was used to. Dazai led him away from the riverbank and deeper into town, where the two sat down at a small restaurant that supplied all the chazuke Atsushi could eat. Over the course of the meal Dazai asked him about how Atsushi had ended up so desperate as to rob any person that walked by.

"I was kicked out of my orphanage," Atsushi confessed. "Something about downsizing because they didn't have enough room to support everyone, and since I was one of the oldest I was the first to go. I've been wandering the streets for a while now, looking for work or some way to support myself, only to end up penniless and jobless on the streets, with robbing people my only way to support myself."

Dazai nodded thoughtfully, mulling this information over as the waitress that had been serving them came over. 

"Are you ready for the bill today?" she asked, holding the small black book in her hands.

"Oh, I'm not paying," Dazai said, causing a spike of fear to shoot through Atsushi. "I'm afraid I left my wallet at home today, but not to fear! My darling partner should be here any minute to take care of it, so you can leave the check here, we should be set to go in a few minutes."

The waitress nodded, leaving the bill with them before walking off to tend to the other few customers that lingered in the store. 

"Partner?" Atsushi asked aloud. "Like a business partner or a partner of romantic nature instead?" It wasn't that Atsushi couldn't picture the man before him in a romantic relationship, but he did seem a little more.... Eclectic than most people Atsushi had met and though he hadn't known the other for very long, it was hard to see him in a long term relationship with someone else.

Dazai grinned. "A bit of both I suppose."

"DAZAI!" An angry voice yelled as the door burst open, causing Atsushi to whip around to face the door, ready to assess whatever threat had come for the man that had offered him lunch.

Dazai, on the other hand, didn't seem to flinch in the slightest, in fact his smug smile spreading a little wider as the angry ginger stalked towards the two of them.

"You can't just leave and get yourself into financial troubles and expect me to come and bail you out every single time!" the angry man said, grabbing Dazai by the collar and half pulling him up out of his seat, looking like he wanted to strangle the other man.

"Why not Chuuya?" Dazai pouted, looking entirely unconcerned at the fact that the other man - Chuuya apparently - looked like he wanted to commit a murder. "It's not like you have anything better to be doing with your time."

Chuuya's eye twitched and Atsushi was convinced he was going to be witness to a homicide right then and there, but luckily for him, Chuuya seemed to notice that Dazai was not in fact sitting there alone. "... Who is this?" he asked, loosening his grip on Dazai's collar.

"This is Atsushi Nakajima," Dazai said by way of explanation. "He's an orphan that I found near the riverbank trying to rob people to get enough to eat, so I thought I'd treat him to lunch instead."

Chuuya rolled his eyes as if this was something Dazai normally did, glancing at the bill that had been left on the table before pulling out his own wallet and throwing enough yen on the table to cover the meal as well as leave a sizeable tip. "I wondered why you asked me to meet you here of all places, especially when-" Chuuya stopped himself, letting out a sigh and shaking his head in disappointment. "Let's just get home, I'm sure you've already traumatized the poor kid enough."

"Actually, since Atsushi is currently looking for a place to stay, I was thinking I'd invite him to come and stay with us for a while until he's able to find a way to support himself," Dazai said.

A wordless conversation passed between the two partners, spoken entirely in glances and subtle changes in their expressions and Atsushi felt like he was intruding on a delicate moment somehow.

"Oh really, I couldn't be a burden on your hospitality like that," Atsushi piped up after more than a few beats of uncomfortable silence had passed. "I'll find a job somewhere in the city I'm sure of it, so really there's no need to worry about m-"

"No, don't worry about it," Chuuya said, only breaking eye contact with Dazai after he'd already finished his sentence. "It'd be no trouble to have you stay with us, and maybe you'll actually be able to talk some sense into the stupid mackerel."

And so, that was how Atsushi came to find a place to stay in Yokohama.

For a pair that obviously held enough wealth to have the ability to treat any random person they found out on the street out to lunch, Atsushi would have expected Dazai and Chuuya's place to be a lot more... Extravagant to say the least. Instead, upon arriving at the door to the place he'd be staying for the foreseeable future, Atsushi was met with the sight of a very large room that looked more akin to a warehouse than anything else. The size was only emphasized by the place's emptiness. 

Where others would have filled the space with character and charm, covering the walls in art or various items to reflect the tastes of the people who lived inside it, the house - if it could even be called that - was completely barren and empty, as if it had been abandoned long ago. There were a few beds pushed to the far corner of the wall, a spotless kitchenette in the other corner, and a couch facing a wall that looked as though it was supposed to be holding a TV but instead faced nothing. Apart from a few rooms off to the right of the place, it was as though the designer had asked for the most open floor plan possible and had ended up with no walls whatsoever.

"So... How did you two come to stay in Yokohama?" Atsushi asked as he looked around, trying and failing to come up with a unique compliment for their home that wasn't a lie and wouldn't sound sarcastic to the others' ears.

Dazai fell back dramatically on the couch in the house, holding the back of one hand to his forehead as if he were a dramatic damsel who had just had a bit of a fainting spell. "It's a dramatic tale my dear Atsushi-kun, of reckless love, and living a life on the run, but risking it all to do what's right."

Chuuya rolled his eyes, perching on the arm of the couch closest to Dazai's head. "You say that as if it's some mellow dramatic stage play, what it is is a damn tragedy filled with nothing but betrayal and pain."

"And you tell the story as though you're an edgy emo thirteen year old that has just gone through the biggest identity crisis in the world."

"I wouldn't know because you never actually let me finish telling the story you suicidal maniac!"

Just as Chuuya looked as though he was going to beat Dazai to a bloody pulp, the door opened behind him again, and Dazai's eyes lit up. "Ah! Speaking of edgy emo thirteen year olds going through identity crises! Akutagawa! So nice of you to stop by!"

"You say that as if I don't stop by every day at the exact same time," a raspy voice said from the doorway, and Atsushi turned to see... The most sickliest man he had ever seen. "Chuuya-san, please don't murder Dazai-san, it's only been twenty four hours since I was here last, I cannot handle cleaning up another one of your messes."

His face was paler than Atsushi had even known a face could be, he was thin to the point where Atsushi wondered if he was getting enough to eat, and his lack of eyebrows made his forehead look even bigger than it already did. Fighting the urge to ask if the other man was okay, Atsushi cleared his throat, accidentally interrupting - Akutagawa was it? - in his lecture for the two to stop their bickering and various murder attempts. 

"I'm Atsushi Nakajima," Atsushi said, sticking his hand out by way of introduction. "It's... Nice to meet you."

Akutagawa blinked. Looked at him. Then his hand. Back to him, before finally his gaze landed on Dazai behind him. "Are you picking up more strays? I'm already only here because I owed Chuuya-san a favor when you asked, I refuse to accept responsibility for yet another idiot."

"Akutagawa! How rude, that's no way to talk about your hosts," Dazai said, folding his arms over his chest in a way reminiscent of a child that hadn't gotten his way.

"After the stunt you two pulled to wind up here, I don't exactly think you can call yourself a host. I have to do everything here myself, I'm just here to stop you two from killing each other," Akutagawa replied, standing firm in his point of view that Dazai and Chuuya were more trouble than they were worth.

"You used to be so respectful all the time, what changed Ryuu?" Dazai asked.

"You know exactly what changed asshole!" Chuuya chimed in, "And I would be able to tell you exactly why if you let me tell the story already!"

Dazai's eyes lit up and though Atsushi hadn't known him for long he could tell that this wasn't a good precursor for anything that was about to come. 

"That's right! Akutagawa, you've heard this story before, you can be the judge of who tells it better!"

Akutagawa shot Dazai a look as if to ask him if he was really being serious right now.

When Dazai's expression did not change and Chuuya looked as though he was actually considering Dazai's suggestion, Akutagawa let out a sigh, setting down the bags of things he'd brought in with him before taking a seat in one of the few chairs the warehouse actually contained. "Alright, fine then, let's hear it."

"Seven years ago, when I first met Chuuya and recruited-"

"Blackmailed," Chuuya corrected.

"-coerced Chuuya into joining the Port Mafia," Dazai amended. "We were assigned to be partners and they called us Double Black.

"The city feared our names, because wherever we went, destruction followed in our wake, and we never ever left a job unfinished. That is at least until the head of the Port Mafia, Mori, ordered for the death of one of my only friends. My original plan was to run where a chibi like Chuuya couldn't follow-"

"-But I found him planting bombs underneath my car and suggested we choose a different path instead," Chuuya finished for him.

"And thus begins our tale of two partners in crime."

*Four Years Ago*

"So," Chuuya said, hands tucked into his pockets, hat pulled down low over his brow as they made their way down the streets of Yokohama. Sure it had been risky for them to stay in the city while the Port Mafia was still on their tails, but they were Double Black for god's sake. They'd taken down dozens of organizations in the three short years they'd been working together, and those had been outside organizations that they didn't know the attack plans and protocols of. Between his and Dazai's combined strength and their inner knowledge of how the Port Mafia functioned, they really didn't have much to worry about as long as they didn't try and pull anything too drastic. "What exactly does 'doing some good in the world' look like?"

Dazai hummed quietly beside him, a sign that he was thinking about how to respond to Chuuya's question. It was a habit Dazai had picked up even before they'd left the Port Mafia, but Chuuya noticed that it had increased in frequency in the two short weeks since they'd decided to run away together.

"To be completely honest with you, I'm not entirely sure," Dazai told him. "Odasaku wanted me to help orphans like he did, but somehow I can't exactly picture you wanting to stroll up to the nearest orphanage and take in some children."

Chuuya made a face at that, which caused Dazai to burst into laughter.

That was another thing Chuuya had noticed, the increased lightheartedness of his partner. To anyone else it would have seemed as though Dazai had had a burden lifted off his shoulders. As though now that he was free of the Port Mafia he was able to be a more careless, amusing person. But Chuuya could tell that Dazai wasn't quite enjoying himself the way he wanted Chuuya to believe he was. Even if Chuuya hadn't already been convinced that his partner was still processing through Odasaku's death, it was clear from the haunted look in his eyes that he was only putting on this show because he felt like he had to. Because if he didn't do something with his life, if he wasn't moved by Odasaku's death enough, if no good came from such a tragedy, and all that happened was that that bastard Mori walked away with a special division permit like he'd been hoping for the entire time, well then, it meant Oda had died for nothing.

It wasn't anything Dazai had ever said out loud, in fact, Chuuya doubted he even realized the deeper meaning behind why he was doing what he was doing, but Chuuya knew. And if letting Dazai fake it til he made it was what it took to get him through this point in his life, who was Chuuya to pop that bubble of illusion? The best thing he could do for Dazai now was to let him process through all this in whatever way he could, and be ready for when Dazai could no longer keep living a lie that everything was fine and eventually came crashing back down to reality again.

"And since helping the poor and unfortunate children without parents isn't really Soukoku's style, I thought we could do things our own way," Dazai was saying, making Chuuya tune back in to the conversation. 

They'd stopped walking now, and Chuuya finally looked around them to see where they'd ended up. He'd largely ignored their surroundings as they'd walked, trusting Dazai to get them to wherever it was they were headed, and he now realized they'd stopped directly in front of a bank.

Chuuya raised an eyebrow, looking to Dazai as if to ask if whatever Dazai had planned was the same thing Chuuya was now thinking.

Giving a smirk in reply, Dazai grinned. "It's supposed to be one of the most secure vaults in the country, the world even, and as such, there are a number of corrupt politicians and other wealthy people in power that have decided to house their wealth here."

With a sigh, Chuuya pinched the bridge of his nose. "And you want us to rob it?"

"For the children of course!" Dazai insisted, "After all, if we kept it all to ourselves we'd be better off than spoiled royalty, and who needs all that? No, we're taking the money and giving it to the orphans, just like Odasaku would have wanted, even if he maybe would have disapproved of the crime bit."

Chuuya gave him a look, as if to ask if he was genuinely serious about this, but upon seeing the first trace of genuine excitement from Dazai he'd seen in months, it was hard to say no to him. "Alright, when are we doing this?"

Tilting his head to one side, Dazai pretended to consider the question. Chuuya could tell he was only pretending to consider it, because otherwise he would have done the same little hum-y thing he'd done before. This expression was far more common on Dazai, which was reserved for when Dazai wanted to act like he was considering something Chuuya had said, but had already thought through it a million times before.

... And the fact that he'd noticed these subtle differences in how Dazai expressed himself made him sick to his stomach.

"Well, they say there's no time like the present," Dazai said cheerfully, pushing open the doors to the bank before Chuuya had a moment to even try and come up with a counter argument. 

"Hello everyone!" Dazai announced to the tellers and various patrons milling about inside the building. "I'm sure you're all very nice people who didn't really deserve to have their day ruined like this, but unfortunately you either work for, or frequent a corrupt company and for that reason, I regret to inform you you're being robbed."

And then he turned to Chuuya, as though he expected his partner to do all the heavy lifting, which of course he did, and really, Dazai should count himself lucky to have a partner as loyal as Chuuya, because even as Chuuya was cursing Dazai's horrible take on 'put your hand up, this is a robbery', the tell tale red glow of Upon the Tainted Sorrow lit up around his hands, and screams descended within the building.

Surprisingly enough, it was a painless heist for one pulled off with seemingly zero planning from either end, and they managed to walk away without a single casualty or injury that couldn't be repaired by a basic first aid kit. Not to mention the fact that they'd literally taken several million out of the pockets of corrupt officials and now all they had to do was find a way to siphon large chunks of the money off to charities to have truly pulled off a successful job.

Weeks turned into months and before long the two had amassed quite a large sum of money from various corrupted organizations throughout the city and those that housed or routed their finances within Yokohama. On top of that, they still had a decent amount left over for themselves after all was said and done, despite the way they were rapidly siphoning it off to various charities that needed their funds.

"Oi, shitty Dazai," Chuuya piped up one night. The two of them were laid out beneath the stars on the outskirts of the city in a makeshift shelter that they'd hastily put together a few nights before. "I know we're supposed to be on the run and all that, but I think we could afford to spend at least a little money on some basic fucking necessities, like, I dunno, a roof?!"

While Dazai had never been one to purchase extravagant things with his Port Mafia salary even before they'd left, Chuuya hadn't quite realized that Dazai was so insistent on living this new selfless lifestyle that it meant that he'd give up basic necessities for himself, and inadvertently, Chuuya.

Part of him, deep down, wondered if Dazai was doing it on purpose. On a subconscious level if nothing else, to make up for all that he'd done in the past. As though leaving the Port Mafia and slowly draining it of its funds wasn't enough for him. As though he still had something to prove to show the world that he was a better person. As though somehow, suffering for his sins in addition to what he was doing to atone for them would make up for all the things he'd done in the past.

But of course, if Chuuya accused him of this, he'd only get shut down and send Dazai into a deeper spiral of denial, and so Chuuya had determined it was best to broach the subject as though it was a major inconvenience to him.

It wasn't, of course. Chuuya was more than accustomed to spending his nights in the outdoors, and while the wilderness environment certainly wasn't the most comfortable one he'd ever been in, it wasn't a big deal for him to handle such conditions night after night.

Dazai on the other hand, had always been overall worse at taking care of himself than Chuuya had. It was harder for the bandage wasting bastard to get a full night of sleep, or remember to do things like eat three full meals a day, or exercise in a way that actually helped to condition his body and not his mind. While Chuuya was confident in his own abilities to handle the adverse weather conditions, he wasn't confident in Dazai's.

But he also knew that making himself appear as the weaker one was the only way to get Dazai to concede to do something as simple as take care of himself.

"Awww, is Chibi afraid of the bed bugs?" Dazai teased, laying beside him, not bothering to turn his head to look at the source of the question. "I promise there are no species with deadly bites out here, I checked before we made camp."

Chuuya rolled his eyes. "It's not about the nonexistent bed bugs mackerel, it's about the fact that neither of us have a BED to even have bugs on!" He flung an arm out to smack Dazai in the face, hoping it would drive his point home. 

"I know we're doing this to save the orphans and do some good in the world, but if I don't get consistent access to indoor plumbing soon, I am going to torture you until you wish you were dead more than you usually do. And then I'm going to take all the orphans' money for myself, and you'll have to wait til you're out of the hospital to start trying to help them again."

Dazai let out a small laugh, but it was more genuine than most of the expressions he'd been faking his way through over the course of the last few months, and so Chuuya couldn't complain.

"I suppose, that if Chuuya really hates it moving from place to place and camping out doors and squatting in abandoned buildings, then perhaps we can look into a more permanent place of residence, for Chuu-Chuu's sake."

"Oi! That's not my name asshat!"

"Oh, I'm so sorry Chibi, my mistake."

"That's not my name either you shitty mackerel!"

"Right, right, my apologizes Slug."

"Don't make me get out of this sleeping bag and throttle you til you pass out,"

"My dearest most loyal dog would never dream of it," Dazai insisted. "After all it's too cold for him to come out of hibernation."

"Wh-!? That doesn't even make sense!!"

The two bickered back and forth for a while until eventually, one after the other, both of them drifted off into a restless sleep.

The next morning, they'd wake up and start scouting the city for an inconspicuous place to lay down a foundation for the time being, and plot their next move for how to piss off the Port Mafia and give back to the city of Yokohama.

*Present Day*

"No, no, no, no, no! You've got the story all wrong already, Chibi only thinks he was manipulating me into getting a new place to stay because he's been lying to himself for all these years. I of course immediately saw through your attempts to get me to take better care of myself and decided to simply sit back and let you embarrass yourself before doing something I was already going to do anyways!" Dazai protested, interrupting Chuuya as he began to tell the next part of their story.

"I have never heard more untrue words in my entire life, you absolute ass, there is no way in hell you were ever planning on actually getting a place for us to stay had it not been for me recognizing that your new quest to become a selfless person was hurting you in the long run!" Chuuya countered.

"I would too!"

"Would not!"

"Would too!"

"... Are they always like this?" Atsushi asked, turning to Akutagawa, hoping that if he could manage to be less annoying than the two fully grown men who were bickering back and forth like five year olds, Akutagawa might actually begin to harbor a better opinion of him. 

Sighing, Akutagawa gave his reply, "Unfortunately, yes, yes they are. But somehow, despite all their arguing they manage to be an unstoppable team when they finally decide to work together."

"And... How often does that happen? Them working together I mean," Atsushi amended.

Akutagawa shuddered slightly. "Not all that often, but when it does, pray that they never combine their forces to go against you."

As Atsushi was left to ponder whatever the hell that meant, Dazai and Chuuya's bickering had finally begun to die down.

With a grin that said that Atsushi was about to regret whatever happened next, Dazai clapped his hands together, looking between Atsushi and Akutagawa with mischievous anticipation.

"Well, since the hat rack is so terrible at telling the story the way it actually happened, I think you two should get to hear the real events of what happened next."

Chuuya rolled his eyes, although the longer Atsushi spent around the two of them, the more he was able to pick up on the masked affection hidden within the gesture. "As if you're even capable of telling a unbiased story that doesn't paint you in the highest light imaginable."

"It's not my fault that unbiased stories just so happen to show me in the best light, the truth just likes me better."

"The truth doesn't take sides dipshit!" Chuuya exclaimed, smacking the back of Dazai's head to drive the point home.  "That's what makes it the truth, it's supposed to be impartial!"

Atsushi let out a sigh. No matter what came next in the story, there was one thing for certain: he was in for a hell of a ride.

Chapter Text

*Present Day*

"So," Dazai said, clapping his hands together with a grin. "Where was it we last left off?"

Before any of them could even attempt to give a response, Dazai was already answering his own question. "Ah yes, of course, the stupid little slug here was trying to convince you that he had manipulated me of all people, even though I am a master manipulator and cannot possibly be beat at my own game."

"Oi, you're not supposed to be proud of the fact that you manipulate people you walking waste of bandages," Chuuya said with a roll of his eyes. "In fact, doesn't manipulation work better when people don't expect you to manipulate them??"

"Spoken like an amateur as always dear, it's clear you don't have nearly enough skill to pull one over on me from that sentence alone."

"So what happened after you agreed to find a more permanent place to stay?" Atsushi asked, trying to get the bickering couple to get back on track to the story they were supposed to be telling before they could get too off course.

Dazai's eyes lit up at that. "Ah yes, buying me and Chibi's first home together, that was quite an adventure you see, because despite the fact that he's a lowly slug, he has such picky and expensive tastes-"

"Excuse you, not wanting to get tetanus by walking around our own home is not considered a 'picky' or 'expensive' taste, in fact wanting a home without rusted metal poking out of the walls everywhere seems like a very basic ask for any-"

"Ah ah ah," Dazai said, interrupting Chuuya. "It's my turn to tell the story now, and you get to sit back and listen."

*Four Years Ago*

Dazai had never put much thought into where he'd lived before. Where he lay his head at night had never held much significance to him, and as such, he was never one to care about where he stayed on a more permanent basis. After all, a house was just an in between place of sorts, a place to return to between days, to prepare for the next task at hand, to finish the next job. A house was nothing special, just another building to return to each day, it had never held any semblance of meaning for him.

This though... For whatever reason, this felt different, finding a place to return to each night with Chuuya.

For starters, he'd never had to deal with someone so picky when it came to finding a place to live. Each building they visited was "there's too much mold" this and "that's a literal gaping hole in the wall shitty mackerel, how could you call this a suitable home" that. And that was the other thing, no matter how many places they visited, Chuuya insisted on rating each place they visited for its potential to be a home, rather than an insulated building for them to sleep in each night.

Dazai was no stranger to the subtleties of language, it was after all, one of the best ways to read people. Once you got a feel for the vernacular one typically used in their day to day life, it was easier to pick up on the small changes they made in their speech, giving away the subtlest of slips people unconsciously revealed about themselves. Dazai had not missed the way Chuuya used the word home instead of house as they looked for a place to stay, when back when they'd both been with the Port Mafia it had always simply been 'his apartment'.

And so if Chuuya was perhaps a bit more picky about where they ended up staying, well, Dazai could be a bit more gracious when it came to picking out a place that Chuuya actually deemed to be nice enough for them to stay in.

Eventually, they ended up in a small, mostly forgotten about building on the riverbank. It was close enough to the city that they could easily make their commute each day, but far enough out of the way that it'd give anyone that dared to come looking for them some trouble. Not that anyone dared to stand up to the infamous Double Black. While their names had been whispered across the streets of the underworld while they were with the Port Mafia, now all of Yokohama was gradually becoming aware of who they were from the reports on the news, and everyone knew to stay away from them if they knew what was good for them.

Recently, Dazai had insisted they start to target organizations and businesses with loose ties to the Port Mafia. They were riskier targets than the corrupt banks they'd started off with, but still distanced enough from the Port Mafia that would keep Mori off their back for the time being. It wasn't that Dazai didn't think they could handle anything Mori threw at them - Chuuya did harbor the spirit of a literal god inside of him after all, and no matter how much Dazai wanted to prevent him from the pains of using Corruption, it was technically always there as a last resort - but rather, he wanted to take his time making Mori feel the same pain he'd dealt him when he'd had Odasaku killed for his own personal gain.

"You're brooding again," Chuuya noted, walking into the living room, a steaming mug of something in his hands. 

Dazai looked up from the small coffee table he'd been standing in front of, a map of Yokohama spread out across the surface as he tried to chart out their next move. It was the only piece of furniture they owned so far, apart from the bedframe and mattress Chuuya had insisted they go out and buy as soon as they'd officially bought a place of their own. Dazai didn't mind the emptiness of their home. He had no doubt that slowly over time Chuuya would start moving stuff in to make the place more hospitable because he needed items to fill up the places he was living in as decorations or as reminders that he had a place to belong to. But for the time being, the emptiness of the living room made Dazai's behavior stand out more.

"I am not brooding, what gave you that impression?" Dazai asked, tilting his head to turn and look at Chuuya, eyebrow raised in a questioning manner.

"You have that crease in your brows you only get when you're thinking about something that bothers you," Chuuya said with a smugness that came with knowing he was right. It was an expression Dazai despised because Chuuya was only smug about being right when he actually was right, and not just grasping at straws to try and catch up with Dazai's overcomplicated rushed way of piecing together information. Which usually meant Dazai had to be the bigger person and concede that Chuuya had indeed had a point to what he was saying. "And you're staring at that map again, which means that you're focusing too much on the wrong thing."

"How is trying to figure out how to best help the city the wrong thing to focus on?" Dazai asked, "Weren't you the one that said we needed more of a plan before we just go and rob people?"

Chuuya shot Dazai a pointed look. "When was the last time you ate something?"

"I don't see how that's relevant to-"

"Drank something?"

"Again, that's not-"

"Showered?"

Dazai glared at Chuuya, who in turn, just held out the mug of what Dazai could now tell was cocoa, white fluffy mini marshmallows floating on the surface of the beverage.

Reluctantly, Dazai took the mug from him, forcing himself to take a sip and ignored the relief that spread through his body as he was hit with the remnants of the gnawing hunger he'd been ignoring for who knew how long.

"Dazai, if you can't take care of yourself how do you expect to take care of the city?"

"I am not 'taking care of the city', I'm getting revenge and fulfilling my dead friend's final wishes, there's a difference. I don't pretend to do this out of the goodness of my heart," Dazai said, wrinkling his nose at the thought of doing something so virtuous for no apparent reason. 

Chuuya sighed, the way he always did whenever Dazai made such a lighthearted comment about Odasaku's death. 

It wasn't as though Dazai wanted to disrespect the man, or make light of the reason that he'd died, but everything was always so heavy all the time. It was one thing to shoulder the burdens of how to best hurt Mori and the Port Mafia by extension. It was another to have to face the fact that the only friend he'd ever truly had - except for Chuuya of course, but that was an entirely different matter - had died. And he'd died because Dazai had been too weak, too slow, too stupid to save him.

So if he made a few jokes about the situation, or a distasteful comment here or there about what had happened to Odasaku in order to make it easier to ignore the hurt and the pain that threatened to consume him if he didn't hold it back, well then, that was his business and his way of coping and that goddamn slug should learn to mind his own goddamn business.

Is it really coping if all you're doing is ignoring your feelings? a voice in his head that sounded suspiciously like a microscopic hat rack questioned.

Dazai ignored that voice, as he usually did, though it was getting harder and harder to do so since he'd left the Port Mafia as it had started whispering suggestions more and more often in his ear the more time he spent around Chuuya.

A not so gentle smack to the back of his head startled him from his thoughts once more, as Chuuya glared at him before grabbing him by the arm and dragging him off to the bed.

Their bed, Chuuya had called it. Another small change that Dazai had picked up on. It was one thing that Chuuya had insisted they only get one, that it was more "financially stable" for them to only spend the money on one bed instead of two, even as the tips of his ears had gone red with embarrassment as he lied through his teeth about the reason for wanting only one bed. 

But even if Dazai hadn't noticed Chuuya's tell, it was impossible to miss the way Chuuya referred to everything as theirs. It was their home, their bed, their coffee table. When they were younger, it was always some sort of argument about what belonged to who. About who got to take charge on a mission, an emphasis on the word 'mine' whenever they had to call dibs.

Dazai had pushed the limits once he'd noticed, to see how far Chuuya was willing to take this whole sharing thing, and had claimed the mug Chuuya typically used as his own one morning instead of the one Chuuya usually gave him. 

Chuuya hadn't fallen for the bait, hadn't blinked an eye at the fact that Dazai was using his mug. And when Dazai had asked him about it, Chuuya had simply shrugged and responded, "Well they're our mugs right? If you want to use the red one, go ahead and use the red one, I can drink from the blue mug today."

Dazai didn't think he'd ever been part of an 'ours' before. He wasn't quite sure how he felt about it.

But then Chuuya had walked away to get himself the other mug, and that had been that.

It wasn't until Dazai became vaguely aware of the back of his knees hitting the mattress, of Chuuya draping a blanket over his shoulders, of the mug being raised to his lips once more so he'd take another sip of cocoa, that he found the common thread tying all these various trains of thoughts together. That maybe being part of an 'ours', being forcibly taken care of, having someone notice things about him that no one else did made him feel cared for. Loved perhaps. Although that was a dangerous track to head down so perhaps 'cared for' was a better term after all. 

"Shut up slug, I'm fine, you don't know what you're talking about," Dazai said in response to... Something Chuuya had said. He couldn't exactly remember, and the specifics were mostly unimportant anyways. Chuuya was always saying something stupid, and nine times out of ten didn't know what he was talking about, so Dazai's response probably fit regardless.

A laugh was the only response he got from the other man, a laugh. 

Dazai frowned, trying to glare at Chuuya, but there was a fuzzy feeling in his head that made it hard to focus on where exactly Chuuya was, especially when the cocoa was so warm and his eyelids were so heavy and-

"Go to sleep bastard," Chuuya said, gently taking the mug of cocoa from his hands and setting it down somewhere Dazai could no longer reach it. There was a hand on his shoulder and then Chuuya was tipping him backwards onto the bed, and god being horizontal had never felt so good.

Dazai glared up at the ceiling, or at least glared as best he could when he was half asleep as it was already, gripping Chuuya's wrist tight enough so that when he tugged, Chuuya fell forward on top of him. 

"What are you-?" Chuuya began, but at that point, Dazai was already too unconscious to process any more of what he was saying. 

***

He was running, running through the streets, and his legs burned. It wasn't anything new to him the running, he'd run plenty, and made sure he knew how to do it properly so he'd be prepared for the situations that required it, but he hadn't imagined this, hadn't imagined that he'd be running because he was too late, he was too late and he'd already wasted too much time. If he didn't hurry, it would be all his fault. It was going to be all his fault regardless, he knew the damage had already been done, but if he'd only been a little bit faster, a little bit better, a little bit smarter-

He was no longer running, he was kneeling now, kneeling in something warm and sticky, pulsating with life and yet cold and empty and dead. He was kneeling and the cold seeped through his pants to his knees, to his legs, his legs that ached from running and the cold concrete floor that wasn't doing anything to help and he could see. He could see properly for the first time in years, but he'd lost so much in return. He was too late and too stupid and it was all his fault. 

The gunshots were still ringing in his ears. He could still hear them, ringing out as he made it, he finally made it, but he'd made it too late. 

"Nothing in this world can fill that lonely hole you have. You will wander the darkness for eternity."

And he knew, he knew and he'd known that from the beginning and yet still he'd foolishly thought, he'd hoped that maybe, somehow, someday something would change. 

The gunshot rang again, and again, and again, and again, and his knees hit the floor again, and again, and again, and again, and every time there was nothing he could do to stop it, nothing he could to to change it, he was stuck, in a loop and he was crying, screaming for help, in a way he couldn't remember himself doing since he was a baby and didn't know any better. It was humiliating, embarrassing, but the worst part was the devastating truth that no matter how loud he screamed there was no one that could undo his mistakes.

"Oi, hey, mackerel, snap out of it you're okay," Chuuya said, though Dazai couldn't see him.

Or rather, perhaps he was only seeing him.

It was dark and his body was cold and clammy and he was clinging to something, to someone, hands clenching the back of Chuuya's shirt so tightly that his knuckles were white from the exertion and his face and most of Chuuya's shoulder was wet.

Dazai felt a hand rub his back gently, arms still wrapped around him tightly.

"You're awake now and nothing is going to hurt you here, okay? We're partners, whether you like it or not and that means I'm not going to let shit touch you okay? You're alright, I've got you."

And if Dazai clung to him a little tighter, or cried for a little longer, well, no one else needed to know. 

If I lose everything I care about, Dazai thought to himself before he drifted back off to sleep that night. Then I can never be allowed to care about him.

***

The thing about Chuuya Nakahara, was that he was very hard not to care about.

Not when he'd given up everything for Dazai. Not when he never once mentioned the incident of the previous night, and seemed as though he wasn't going to until Dazai broached the subject himself. And where most people would have refused to mention it out of fear of awkwardness, or berated him with questions after such a night, every time Dazai had hinted at it, he'd been met with a challenge stare.

Searching Dazai's own gaze for... Something. A willingness to talk, he supposed. 

And how could he not care when Chuuya was simply like that? When Chuuya did not need to be told that Dazai was only pretending to be fine, when he saw through every lie and excuse Dazai made to both himself and to Chuuya about who he was doing, and did the best thing for Dazai anyways?

It was annoying is what it was, the way that Chuuya had somehow managed to endear himself to Dazai like the loyal dog he was. And of course he made everything more difficult for him and his life because Dazai couldn't care about him. If he allowed himself to care for Chuuya the universe would notice, and the universe would find a way to take Chuuya away. Just like everything else Dazai cared about in the world. 

And so he set out to find a way to avoid yet another tragedy.

If he couldn't find a way to stop himself from caring about Chuuya, he had to find a way to make sure that his curse of misfortune couldn't ruin this too.

The answer came in the form of a man who called himself "Lee". It was most assuredly a fake name, but Dazai couldn't bring himself to care who the guy was as long as he could actually do the things he claimed he could.

"I'm heading out," Dazai said, rushing for the door before Chuuya could possibly try and stop him.

He didn't know when it had become a habit to tell Chuuya when he was leaving, especially since it was rare that one of them was leaving without the other in the first place, but he supposed that in the six months since they'd actually gotten a house - a home, his mind not so helpfully corrected, loving to remind him of the way Chuuya referred to the place they slept in each night - together, it had become a bit of a habit to tell him when he was leaving.

Unfortunately for Dazai though, Chuuya wasn't going to let such a simple explanation slide.

"Heading out where? To do what?" Chuuya asked, conveniently appearing from wherever he'd been in the house to not so subtly block the doorway so Dazai couldn't run first and answer questions later. 

Dazai sighed, rolling his eyes to sell the act even more. "Can't I go out on my own without a sticky little hat rack like you questioning me? You don't really need to know where I am every second of the day do you?"

"I do when your antics usually involve me showing up and having to clean up your messes," Chuuya shot back, not willing to budge on the subject. "So where are you going? Dazai, I swear to god, if you're trying to target another company that does business with the Port Mafia on your own-"

"Relaaaax slug, I'm not stupid enough to do something like that twice, I promise, no revenge business involved, I simply have prior obligations to meet up with a potential business partner."

In the six months since Dazai had come to the revelation that his options were to stop caring about Chuuya or find a way to avoid tragedy in it's entirety he'd begun to take increasingly bigger and bigger risks in regards to his revenge on the Port Mafia, making decisions that might be considered "reckless" by an outsider's standards each time he ran into a dead end with protecting Chuuya.

Of course, Chuuya didn't know any of what Dazai had been planning, nor did he know anything of the nights that Dazai stayed up looking for ways to avoid inadvertently bringing Chuuya harm the way he had to everyone else he'd ever cared about in his life. Because if Chuuya knew about what Dazai was doing, Dazai had no doubt that Chuuya would give him that stare he gave when Dazai was having a particularly rough day, place his hands on Dazai's shoulders and swear to him that there was nothing that could happen that would cause Chuuya to leave him because they were partners, and partners had each other's back.

But Dazai had cared about enough people to know that in the end, everyone he loved left him eventually, whether they wanted to or not. And Chuuya's words, no matter how comforting he thought they'd be, would only make everything hurt worse when he inevitably left Dazai. 

Which is why it was imperative Dazai find a way to save Chuuya first, and then and only then, could he tell Chuuya what he'd really been up to for these past six months. 

His revenge on the Port Mafia had been pushed to the side, no longer his main concern or focus, more of an escape to not have to focus on all the ways he'd failed to find a solution to his current and bigger problem than anything else. 

So maybe, if he had tried to march down to the Port Mafia headquarters one drunken night on his own, to either shoot down Mori himself or die trying, and Chuuya had had to stop him before things had been taken too far and Dazai found himself dead in his ex-boss's office, well. It had just been a particularly nasty dead end Dazai had found himself at, and that was simply his way of dealing with it.

Now though, it was clear that Chuuya was concerned for his well being, and wasn't going to let him out unless he gave Chuuya something to go off of. Unfortunately, the best lies were the ones based in the truth, and so Dazai reluctantly spit out a small portion of the secret he'd been hiding.

"Listen, I have a meeting with a guy about an insurance policy," Dazai said indignantly. "And if you don't let me out, I'm going to be late."

"You're meeting with an insurance agent?" Chuuya said, raising one eyebrow and giving him a look that said he didn't buy a single word of what Dazai was saying.

"Of sorts. Obviously a typical plan wouldn't exactly work with our current lifestyle, but trust me when I say that we'll be better off knowing that if it all goes south one day-"

"We'll have financial compensation to help us out when it's all over?" Chuuya asked, rolling his eyes.

"Exactly!" Dazai beamed. It wasn't anything close to what he was actually going to say, but Dazai had learned over time that the strongest lies were the ones people told themselves. It was a hell of a lot easier to get someone to believe something they'd come up with than it was to feed them a lie of your own. "So you can teach an old dog new tricks after all!"

Chuuya glared at him for that one, but stepped aside from the door nonetheless, allowing him to leave. "Fine, but if you bring back any trouble, I'm never going to let you hear the end of it."

"Trouble? Me? I'm offended that you would even suggest such a thing Chuuya, you of all people should know I never get into trouble," Dazai said, already two steps out the door.

He heard a snort from behind him, followed by a muttered "Yeah sure," under Chuuya's breath, and then the door was clicking shut behind him and Dazai was free on the streets of Yokohama to meet with the man that claimed he could solve all of Dazai's issues.

***

Lee was British, which somehow was the one thing Dazai hadn't predicted. They met in a sketchy restaurant on the far side of town, tucked into an alleyway people barely ever walked past. Lee, who had seemed skittish at best and downright paranoid at worst as Dazai had been talking to him online, was dressed in a trench coat that was a size or two too big, and wore sunglasses and a wide brimmed hat to 'disguise' his identity. All the rest, Dazai had more or less been able to predict. But the British part had been a surprise.

Dazai had arrived to their meeting spot fifteen minutes early, which gave him plenty of time to plot out all the various escape routes from the small café he was sitting in, as well as get the opportunity to watch as Lee arrived. The British man was unable to look more suspicious if he'd tried as his gaze flickered all around the café before inevitably landing on Dazai, seeming to startle slightly when he saw him.

Hesitantly, Lee took the seat across from Dazai, trying and failing to hide the way his hands shook from nerves.

"It's really you huh? The Demon Prodigy? The brains of the legendary Double Black?" Lee asked, his voice a mixture of fear and awe at Dazai's reputation.

"I don't usually go by Demon Prodigy anymore, but yes, that's me," Dazai responded, keeping his tone even and uninterested. Though he was the one that had gone through the trouble of setting up such a meeting it was better to make it seem as though he could walk at any moment. It was easier to drive the price down that way, and it was clear that Lee had no idea what he was doing, which should make his job that much easier.

Lee leaned back in his seat, presumably in a subconscious attempt to get as far away from Dazai as possible without actually leaving in the middle of their deal.

"Look," Lee said. "I don't want any trouble, alright? I don't need to know why you want it, or what you want to do with it, but as far as I'm aware, once you use it, there's no going back."

"But does it actually work?" Dazai asked, letting his gaze sharpen into something a little more threatening.

Lee nodded furiously, pulling out a container about the size of a watch box, setting it down on the table between the two of them before sliding it across to Dazai. "Never tried it myself, but I've seen its effects with my own two eyes, it works alright."

Opening the box revealed a block of foam with two cylindrical cut outs towards the center that held two small vials of a transparent red liquid. Dazai picked one up and swirled the liquid around. "And it's not an ability?"

"Not as far as I'm aware," Lee said. "Most abilities don't have the capability to hold long term effects like this one, nor are they able to last or wait to be delivered, if I had to guess, I'd say it's closer to some form of magic or alchemy."

Dazai snapped the box shut. "You said you'd seen it's effects yourself, right? I'd like proof."

Lee blinked. "Proof? I don't think you realize what you're asking for mate, that's-"

"You want me to pay you how much for a two vials of what could just be water with food coloring in it?? I want proof, and I'm not asking you to demonstrate on anyone else, I just want to see the same thing you saw," Dazai said, sliding the box off the table and putting it into his pocket.

"Hey now," Lee said. "You can't just take that and walk off-"

Dazai stood, fishing a wad of cash from his inside pocket and dropping it on the table in front of Lee, though it was only about a quarter of the actual price they'd agreed upon beforehand. "If you want the rest, I'm going to need more than just your word to believe you. You know how to reach me once you've set up the arrangements."

Lee shrank back into his seat, but not before grabbing the offered payment and practically clutching it to his chest as though he was afraid Dazai would take it back at any moment. "... Fine, but don't blame me if it takes a while to make the arrangements. It's a tricky business crossing international lines y'know, and then there's the matter of not drawing attention to the matter-"

"I don't care," Dazai said, interrupting him and letting the blank stare he'd worn as a mask in the Port Mafia slip back over his face. "Proof, or you're not getting paid a single cent more than what I've already given you."

And with that he turned and walked out of the café, ignoring the way his heart was pounding in his chest at the way he'd allowed hope to overtake him once more.

There was no guarantee it would work. Though Dazai hadn't sensed that he'd been being deceived, there was still no telling if what he'd purchased would work on him, considering the fact that his ability canceled out all others. Sure there'd been special circumstances in which Dazai had managed to get hit with an ability on occasion, provided he wasn't actually touching the person trying to use the ability, but if it was real, if it actually worked, well. Maybe he could allow himself to care again, just a little, without fear that everything he cared for, everything he loved, would be taken away. 

*Present Day*

"Oh my god you are such a sap!" Chuuya let out with a laugh, though no one in the room had missed the way he'd had tears welled up in his eyes the entire time Dazai had been retelling the story. 

"I am not," Dazai protested, shooting an annoyed look Chuuya's way. "My version of events is just much more accurate and therefore superior to yours, you're just trying to criticize it because you're jealous of my storytelling skills."

Chuuya snorted. "What events did you tell exactly? Because all I heard was you rambling on and on and on about how in love you are with me and how you don't know how to process your own suppressed homosexual feelings."

"Wait, so what was in the vials?" Atsushi asked before the two could descend into another fit of bickering. 

Dazai grinned. "It's a surprise dear Atsushi, that would spoil the ending of our woeful tale!"

Chuuya rolled his eyes. "Oh please, it's not that big of a deal, even I was able to figure that out."

"You did not," Dazai said, giving his partner an incredulous look.

"I did too," Chuuya shot back, looking smug. "Although part of that was because I followed you after you left and interrogated Lee after you were done in the café, but that's beside the point."

Dazai looked... Lovestruck almost, at this revelation. "You followed me?"

"Yes."

"And I didn't notice?"

"Clearly."

"Please do not start making out in front of us," Akutagawa piped up, pinching the bridge of his nose as though this was something he had experienced before and had no desire to experience ever again. "And just get on with the rest of the story? I've been here long enough as it is."

Chuuya grinned. "Well, buckle in, because this is where it actually starts to get good."

Chapter Text

*Present Day *

"After Dazai's shady meeting to obtain what seemed to me to be poison, I was obviously on high alert," Chuuya said, ignoring the way Dazai was now pressed up against his side. "When you hear someone talk about offing themselves so much, it starts to put ideas in your head. But of course, Dazai has never once been that straight forward, so I followed him to his second meeting with this so called 'Lee' interested to see what sort of proof it was Dazai was looking for.

"I couldn't see much of course, not without giving myself away that I was there in the first place. It was easy enough to keep myself hidden from the others, and I knew Dazai's blind spots like the back of my hand, what with us being partners and all. However, that also presented the problem of the fact that Dazai knew mine as well, which... Complicated the issue of tailing him."

"I still can't believe I never noticed you were there," Dazai cut in, "To have followed me not just once but twice? And escaped my notice both times? I suppose if anyone could do it, it'd be a tiny slug like you, but still."

Chuuya smacked his shoulder, "Be patient will you? You had your time to talk already, it's my turn now, be quiet."

Dazai sighed dramatically, but stayed silent for once, draping himself further into Chuuya's lap as Chuuya continued to speak with a roll of his eyes.

*Three Years Ago*

By the time Chuuya arrived at the meeting, detouring his arrival so as to not attract attention from the people that were already there, he found himself hidden in a corner out of sight, and unfortunately unable to see much of what was going on.

"This is your proof?" Dazai's voice cut through the silence, his words dripping with a condescending tone. "They hardly look as though they've been impacted by your tincture."

Chuuya risked peaking out around the corner he was hidden in, catching a brief glance at the two people Lee had brought with them. They didn't... Seem any different to Chuuya, and they were both very clearly standing there not dead, so whatever Dazai had bought couldn't have been poison. Chuuya's nerves calmed at the fact the Dazai was not trying to kill himself for real the way Chuuya had initially feared.

But then what in the world could be that big that he'd need to hide it from me? Chuuya thought to himself. 

"I can assure you, it worked just as intended," Lee assured him, a nervous tremble causing his voice to come out as more of a squeak than anything else. "This is Ro, and Jules, they were the first to realize what the elixir could do, and while I've been informed it's been put to use in other places, Ro and Jules are the only ones that have... Needed to rely on it as a failsafe."

Ducking back out of sight, Chuuya heard Dazai's footsteps circle around the two figures he assumed, inspecting... What, he didn't quite know.

"And how do you expect me to believe that it's worked the way you said it has? There's nothing about them that's seemed to have changed," Dazai asked, voice cold, but despite that, Chuuya could sense the genuine intrigue in his words. It had been a long time since Dazai had encountered a supernatural ability that didn't cancel out with his own, and it was clear he was enjoying the challenge of the parameters set forth by this new ability-adjacent liquid.

There was a short pause in the conversation, and Chuuya assumed there was some sort of unspoken conversation happening out of sight before an unfamiliar voice let out a sigh. "I assumed your client would want a demonstration if you were going through the hassle of bringing us all the way here," a more feminine voice spoke out. "Your ability lets you cancel out any other ability through touch right?"

Dazai gave a small noise of affirmation and Chuuya deemed it safe to sneak another glance at the group once more.

The woman standing there held out her arm, offered to Dazai as though inviting him to test if he could cancel whatever factor was at play here.

"Jules you can't," the man - Ro, Chuuya assumed - hissed under his breath, reaching out to grab her arm and pull it back down to her side.

Jules turned to Ro, and something in the man's expression shifted. "It's too dangerous, we don't know what would happen if he managed to cancel the potion's effects."

So something they're dependent on now then, Chuuya put together. Lee said they're the only ones that have needed to rely on its effects as a failsafe... So some sort of last resort? If it leaves you dependent on whatever impact it causes? What the hell is Dazai planning?

"It's fine Ro," Jules said, her expression hardening into one of determination. "Besides, it's not an ability, so it won't cancel. And besides, it's not as though he'd be able to touch me anyways."

That gave Chuuya pause, and apparently Dazai as well, as Chuuya could make out the shape of his partner's eyebrow quirking up in surprise.

So that's new information for him too... What the hell has he gotten himself into?

Chuuya shifted his weight, ducking back into his hiding spot just in time for Lee's eyes to do a sweep of the room. 

Would it have killed them to go somewhere in which Chuuya could have easily hidden the faint red glow of his ability?? Instead they had to have picked the dimmest possible place to meet, with the lowest ceilings Chuuya had ever seen. It was smart, he supposed, for keeping out people you didn't want to pick up on details of their meeting. In fact, it was something Chuuya probably would have done himself if he was organizing a secret meeting spot - but it was frustrating if nothing else to have such precautions work against him.

"If you're sure then?" Dazai's voice cut through Chuuya's thoughts.

"I'm sure," Jules responded, and then it was silent for a few moments, as Dazai attempted to use his ability on her.

At any second, he expected the tell tale blue of No Longer Human to light up the room, despite the fact that it was too risky to peak around the corner once more to see what was going on. To his surprise though, no such glow never came.

"Fascinating," Dazai breathed, sounding genuinely intrigued in a way that Chuuya hadn't heard in a long while.

"I told you it was the real deal!" Lee said, relief flooding his voice at the fact that he'd managed to earn the rest of what Dazai had promised him. "I wouldn't lie about this, and if it can't be undone by your ability, I'd be wiling to wager that your ability won't cancel it out if you use it either."

"I suppose you've done well enough," Dazai agreed. "I'll have the rest of the money to you by the end of the night, but for now, I'm late for dinner."

Shit.

***

It had been exactly one year since Odasaku's death and Soukoku's subsequent leave from the Port Mafia. Four months of living on the streets, jumping from place to place and eight months since they'd moved into a more permanent structure together, and with the way that Dazai had been acting since his initial meet up with Lee two months ago, Chuuya had thought it would be a good idea to do something to celebrate, in order to take his mind off of all that was going on.

It was times like these that Chuuya hated that he couldn't read Dazai as well as Dazai could read him. If Chuuya had been acting weird the way Dazai was, he was sure the other man would have gotten to the bottom of it by now, figured out exactly what was wrong with Chuuya from the way he carried himself, done a better job at tailing him and been able to to piece together exactly the thing that Chuuya was trying to hide.

But Chuuya, while he was brilliant in his own right, paled in comparison to the skills of his partner in this way. Between the two of them, he was very much the brawn of the operation, while Dazai handled the nitty gritty details. It wasn't that Chuuya couldn't strategize, or that Dazai couldn't fight, because both of them were more than capable of taking care of themselves, but overall they stuck to what they were good at. It was what made the two of them such good partners after all, but man what Chuuya would have done to achieve Dazai's level of observation in that moment.

And Dazai wouldn't have forgotten about the fucking dinner reservations, Chuuya grumbled to himself as he raced across rooftops, aided by Upon the Tainted Sorrow to return home faster than Dazai did. He was supposed to be at home right now, getting ready for the two of them to go out and celebrate the year they'd spent on their own, without influence from the Port Mafia. It had been his suggestion and he'd forgotten, too caught up in whatever it was Dazai was trying to handle with this Lee guy.

A surge of what could only be described as jealousy pulsed through him, caught up in his own head about the fact that Dazai had almost been late to their dinner for the sake of doing business with Lee to get proof of whatever was in the vials, but Chuuya quicky forced himself to shake the feeling off.

He was being ridiculous. Dazai would either tell him eventually or he wouldn't, and one way or another, Chuuya would eventually find out. There was no sense in being caught up in it all now, especially when he had more important things to focus on.

Chuuya made it home roughly thirty minutes faster than Dazai, if he'd counted right about how long it had taken them to get to the meeting spot on foot. It was hard to tell for sure since he'd had to continuously change routes and pace in order to avoid being spotted by Dazai, impacting the amount of time it had taken him to get there, but it would have to be enough. Chuuya hoped he'd be able to shower quickly and get changed into a nicer outfit, suitable for the more upscale restaurant he'd booked them a reservation at for the night.

It was a nice place, but nothing too upscale. In the year since they'd struck out on their own, they'd gained more than a bit of a reputation, and it wouldn't do for them to go around flaunting their wealth - not that they often had much left over after they'd distributed it to the surrounding lower class schools and hospitals and nonprofits - but Chuuya figured just this once they should be allowed to celebrate a nice thing for the two of them. 

And it didn't hurt that Dazai's acceptance of the dinner meant he was growing in regards to letting himself accept nice things for himself.

A year ago, he would have deemed the whole thing too frivolous, too distracting from their mission of doing good on the city to even consider such a thing. Now, despite his initial hesitation to agree to the dinner in the first place, he had inevitably accepted, no longer pushing for philanthropy for the sake of hurting himself, but rather a genuine concern for those that he was helping.

Dazai walked in the door as soon as Chuuya managed to finish tying his tie on properly, internally letting out a sigh of relief at the fact that he'd managed to accomplish all that he'd needed to as fast as he did, saving him from any suspicions Dazai may have had about being followed to his meeting.

"There you are, I thought you were going to make us late," Chuuya said, shooting Dazai a look. "What took you so long anyways?"

He knew Dazai wasn't going to tell him the truth, that he'd come up with some lie about where he'd been for the past few hours while he was meeting with Lee across town. 

That didn't mean it hurt any less to hear the lie spill forth from his lips.

"Just tying up a few loose ends from our most recent heist," Dazai said, a lazy grin spreading across his face as though it was no big deal. "Apparently there was some doubt about who was behind the crime, and I wanted to make sure everyone knew it was Double Black that managed to take them on and emerge unscathed."

Chuuya rolled his eyes. "Ah yes, because giving us an even bigger profile in the eyes of the city is suuuch a good idea," he mocked, swatting a hand at Dazai's shoulder as he walked past. "And go change bastard, I told you we were going to a nice restaurant, you'll stand out like a sore thumb if you show up dressed like that."

Dazai laughed to himself, ducking into their bedroom to get dressed instead, and Chuuya ignored the sinking feeling in his gut that had arisen at Dazai's words.

After all that we've been through... After all that I've given up for him... He still won't tell me what's going on? What could possibly be so important that Dazai would feel the need to hide his business from me of all people? Doesn't he know there's nothing he could possibly be doing that would make me turn my back on him? So what's the point in all the secrecy?

Chuuya did his best to clear those types of thoughts from his mind. 

Dazai was his partner. One way or another, Chuuya would find out what he was doing, and hopefully, his reason for doing it. They had to trust each other in their line of work. Even when they first started working together at the ripe age of fifteen, they'd had to put complete trust in one another before they were any good at any mission they attempted. Many people would stab you in the back if given the chance, it was the one thing you could depend on when working in the mafia. But with Dazai? Despite the fact that he may withhold information when it felt relevant, or piss you off whenever given the chance, Chuuya had always been able to trust Dazai to do what needed to be done.

Never once had he led them astray, or backed them into a corner they couldn't get out of. Sure there'd been circumstances that had ended up less than ideal that could have been solved if Dazai had been more straightforward, but their partnership wouldn't have functioned if they had even the smallest sliver of doubt in their relationship. Whatever this business was, whatever Dazai had deemed so important he couldn't tell Chuuya, whatever plans he was making, Chuuya had to trust that eventually, he'd understand.

Even if it hurt like a mother fucker to know that he trusted Dazai more than Dazai trusted him.

***

Chuuya returned from the bathroom just in time to see Dazai pour a vial into each of their wine glasses, presumably whatever it was he'd purchased from Lee.

Whatever it was he saw in that demonstration must have convinced him if he's willing to jump into using it so quickly, Chuuya thought to himself. But what the hell could have been in those vials that would require both of us to drink it?

By now, Chuuya's feet had carried him back to their table at the restaurant, and sat him across from his partner, who was acting as though he hadn't just drugged Chuuya's drink and was instead enjoying a pleasant night out.

Honestly, if Chuuya hadn't seen him add something to the wine, the fact that Dazai was on such good behavior would have probably given away that something was up. 

"This... Has been nice, Chuuya," Dazai said, seemingly more relaxed than he'd been before Chuuya had excused himself. As though the deal between him and Lee being settled had calmed some part of his mind, and using whatever ability-adjacent substance he'd bought was putting him at rest.

It can't be poison can it? After all, Dazai wouldn't have put it in his own drink if- Actually, no wait, he'd probably be more likely to put it in his own drink if it was poison, the suicidal maniac, that's not a good point to make. But those two people he saw as "proof" seemed totally fine, so it's not as though he's trying to get both of us to die in some convoluted murder-suicide. Besides, knowing Dazai's weird obsession with a lovers suicide, he probably wouldn't be willing to kill me unless I was willing to die, so it can't be that.

"Thank you, for taking the time to remind me why we're doing all this," Dazai continued, somehow oblivious to Chuuya's nonstop ramble of thoughts going through his head. "And... For being my partner, even through all that we've been through."

His voice seemed to catch on his last sentence, a slight quaver that would have been imperceptible to anyone else if they'd been listening but stood out to Chuuya like a sore thumb.

"Of course idiot, we'll always be partners," Chuuya promised, the words flying out of his mouth as an automatic reassurance, but even he could hear the conviction in his voice, how deeply he meant that statement. 

"A toast then?" Dazai suggested, holding up his glass that was spiked with a substance that Chuuya still couldn't figure out, but he couldn't back out now, it'd be suspicious.

"... To Double Black," Chuuya said, holding up his own glass and clinking it gently against Dazai's as it occurred to him that it didn't really matter what was in his drink. Whatever Dazai was doing, he had his reasons for it, and he trusted them. They were partners, first and foremost, and if they couldn't trust each other, then what did they have left in this world? It was the conclusion he'd come to earlier, but now there was no doubt left in his mind.

"To Double Black," Dazai echoed, before raising the glass to his lips and downing the contents.

Chuuya did the same, savoring the taste of the wine, which was far from the best vintage he'd ever had, but still better than the shitty boxed wine from the convenience store he'd forced himself to get used to over the past year. There was no trace of anything being added to his beverage, whatever it was he'd just consumed, it did a good job of disguising itself.

Setting the glass back on the table, Chuuya smiled softly at his partner. Whatever he'd just gotten himself into, they'd gone into it together, as partners, and Chuuya had no doubt that they'd find a way through it as partners too.

*Present Day *

Dazai teared up slightly, sitting up from where his head was resting in Chuuya's lap to stare at him with a look that was a mix of incredulousness and awe. "You watched me slip it into your drink that night and still drank it willingly? I thought Chuuya just appreciated the wine variety I ordered him."

Snorting, Chuuya replied, "Oh please, as though you knew the first thing about ordering wine, that vintage was the shittiest variety they could serve at that restaurant while still being considered high end."

"Just because it was the cheapest wine on the list doesn't always mean it's the worst!" Dazai shot back, earlier anxieties now all but forgotten, instead focused on how miffed he was at Chuuya's comments.

Chuuya tilted his head back and laughed. "Of course you'd pick a wine because it was the cheapest option on the menu."

Something in Atsushi's gut twisted at their casual banter. He couldn't remember the last time he'd seen two people be so casually affectionate with one another, as though expressing their fondness was second nature.

I wonder what that'd be like, to have someone you can trust as easily as breathing like that. To depend on someone else for once and not be let down. To know that someone is keeping secrets from you and still trust them to make the right decisions for you... To swallow something that could have been poison and still believe wholeheartedly that things would end up okay as long as they had each other.

"As much as I enjoy seeing the two of you make bedroom eyes at each other, I do believe Chuuya-san was in the middle of recounting the story you begged me to listen to?" Akutagawa chimed in, interrupting Atsushi's thoughts.

The space between Dazai and Chuuya had completely disappeared now, made further evident by the fact that Dazai's body shook with Chuuya's as he let out a chuckle. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll get on with it."

Dazai shifted slightly in Chuuya's arms, causing Chuuya's eyes to flicker down at the other man. "... Unless you had something you wanted to say?"

"No, no, Chuuya's doing an acceptable job of telling the story," Dazai insisted. "Even with how dramatic he's been in recounting his side of events."

Chuuya rolled his eyes. "Oh please, I'd like to see you try and recount the rest without being overly emotional about it, you utter sap."

"Great! So I will!" Dazai said, eyes lighting up in victory as he got what he'd been aiming for all along.

Apart from snorting, Chuuya stayed silent, content to watch his partner's expression come alive as he continued their tale.

*Three Years Ago*

After their long and relaxing dinner, it didn't take much more for Chuuya to fall asleep once the two of them returned home.

They'd been working overtime these past few weeks, which had been part of Chuuya's reasoning for getting them to take a break in the first place. However, now that they'd finally allowed themselves time to rest for a bit, the exhaustion of all the work they'd been doing didn't take long to catch up to them.

Even without factoring in their abilities, Dazai wasn't nearly as strong as Chuuya was, however, it was no trouble for Dazai to carry him in to their bed. He made sure Chuuya was tucked in and comfortable for the night before moving to change into his pajamas himself. What Dazai hadn't expected though, was for Chuuya to refuse to let go of him after he set him down, pulling him into their bed to cuddles, even subconsciously wanting to be closer to him.

Dazai smiled, leaning down to press a kiss to Chuuya's forehead before sliding into bed beside him, easily slipping underneath the covers to hold Chuuya while he slept, despite the fact that his own mind was racing.

He'd done it, he'd finally done it. After searching for so long, he finally found a way to protect Chuuya, to keep him safe.

Dazai knew he wasn't human, knew he only attracted death and destruction and ruin wherever he went, knew that everything he ever loved was taken from him. He'd loved his family out of obligation if nothing else, and they were taken from him when he joined the mafia. He'd loved Odasaku, not in the way that he loved Chuuya of course, but he loved him nonetheless, as the family he would have liked to have, and he loved-

Wait, Dazai said, his brain short circuiting as he processed his previous thought process. Since when do I love Chuuya?

Since the moment you met him, came the response in his mind, unbidden. 

A flash of bright orange hair and brilliant blue eyes that stared through him to his soul as Chuuya launched in to attack him the first time they'd encountered each other.

The way Dazai had been fascinated by Chuuya's undying loyalty, even when it came to the Sheep, people that had betrayed him without a second thought because they'd never really understood Chuuya at all.

Encountering Chuuya in the Port Mafia headquarters, walking with Kouyou and immediately feeling a strange sense of jealousy overcome him at seeing Chuuya by her side, because Chuuya was his dog, his partner, because Chuuya had always had his heart.

I love him, Dazai realized, the statement far less terrifying than it would have been even just a few hours earlier, before they'd drank the concoction that now bound them together. I love him.

Beneath his head, the pillow grew damp, and Dazai realized that there were tears streaming down his face as he held Chuuya close to his chest, overwhelmed with this newfound emotion that had overcome him, now that he had finally allowed himself to feel the all encompassing suffocation of his love for his partner. 

"I love you," Dazai whispered to the night air, his words absorbed by Chuuya's hair as he pressed a kiss to the top of his head, just to see how the words felt on his lips. "I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you." Dazai said again, and again, and again, and again, each time pressing a chaste kiss to a different part of Chuuya's face, tears streaming down his own cheeks all the while. 

It felt as though a burden had been lifted off his shoulders, allowing him to finally breathe for the first time in a long time, knowing for once that everything he cared about was safe. Because as long as he had Chuuya by his side, anything was manageable.

***

Dazai awoke to empty arms, sending him spiraling into a state of panic when he realized Chuuya was no longer before him.

His worries were quelled though by the warm presence at his back, arms wrapped around him instead, instantly allowing him to relax as he realized that he and Chuuya had merely switched positions in the middle of the night, and Chuuya was now holding him rather than the other way around.

"Go back to sleep dummy," Chuuya murmured, face buried in Dazai's shoulder. "It's too early for this."

It was far from the first time they'd woken up entangled like this in the time that they'd been living together, but it was the first time they'd woken up entangled like this since Dazai had allowed himself to admit his feelings for his partner, and he felt as though if he had to wait to tell him one second more he was going to burst.

"But Chuuuuuya," Dazai said, wriggling around so he was facing towards his partner instead of away from him, cupping Chuuya's face in his hands, causing his partner's eyes to open slightly in confusion, brow furrowed as he tried to figure out what the hell Dazai was doing. "I love you."

Chuuya blinked, staring at him.

Fear seized Dazai's heart as he realized it wasn't a given that Chuuya would feel the same way, that maybe he should have thought it through before baring his heart to his partner at such an early hour in the morning, maybe he should have given it more time, maybe he should have-

"Is that all?" Chuuya asked, snorting as he swatted away Dazai's hands from his face, bringing his own up to grab Dazai by the collar, pressing a sleepy kiss to his lips as he bonked his forehead against Dazai's simultaneously. "I love you too dumbass, and we can have an actual conversation about this at a descent hour after we've actually gotten some sleep but for now, it is still far too early to be awake right now."

Dazai froze as Chuuya buried his face in Dazai's neck, completely still with the exception of his heart pounding in his chest. "Chuuya really means it? He loves me?"

"Do you really think I would have left the Port Mafia for you if I wasn't fucking in love with you idiot?" Chuuya muttered, already half asleep again. "I'm glad you've finally come to your senses though, I didn't know how much longer it would take for the concept to get through your thick ass prodigy head."

Tears welled up in his eyes once more as Dazai held him closer.

Chuuya loves me, he thought to himself, allowing his eyes to shut as his head rested on top of Chuuya's.

The sky was blue, the grass was green, and Soukoku was in love. Everything else would turn out okay in the end.

*Present Day*

Dazai's tale was immediately interrupted by cackling laughter from his partner, unable to contain his amusement at Dazai's words.

"You make fun of me for being overly dramatic in my story telling and then you're going to go on a ramble like that?" Chuuya managed to ask between fits of laughter. "Mackerel, I love you, but you have absolutely no right to complain about my story telling when you're far worse than I am at this."

"Please," Dazai said, rolling his eyes. "You make everything life and death and high stakes, and played up to make it sound more action-y than it actually was! I can't help it my story telling is more realistic."

"Realistic?" Chuuya asked. "Realistic? You just went on a ten minute ramble about how you it took you three fucking years to realize you were in love with me and felt as thought you were going to die if you didn't confess your feelings right that very second, I fail to see how that's more realistic than the way that I tell the story."

"I did not!" Dazai protested, turning to Akutagawa and Atsushi as though to get them to back him up.

Akutagawa merely raised an eyebrow in response, causing an overly dramatic wounded expression to appear upon Dazai's face.

"Atsushi-kun?" Dazai asked, an edge of desperation in his tone.

"I'm sorry Dazai-san, but Chuuya-san has a bit of a point," Atsushi admitted sheepishly. "Not that your story-telling isn't good! It's just... Maybe not as realistic as you initially thought it was?"

"You wound me Atsushi," Dazai said, putting a hand to his forehead before falling back against Chuuya in an overexaggerated manner. 

"Oh poor baby, your overinflated ego has suffered the smallest of dents, whatever are you going to do?" Chuuya asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

Dazai opened his mouth to respond, but Chuuya cut him off before he could even form the words, continuing to talk as though he hadn't even posed a question to Dazai in the first place. 

"Anyways, after Dazai finally his head out of his ass, not much changed between the two of us, we'd been partners for three years at that point, and completely on our own for at least one of those three years, so Dazai finally coming to terms with his feelings didn't have much of an impact on our day to day life," Chuuya began, trying to get their story back on track before Dazai could derail it any further. "But of course, all our hits against the Port Mafia could only go undealt with for so long. It was bad enough that Dazai and I had both defected at the same time, causing the Port Mafia to lose its two most powerful members, but attacking their allies after we left was just rubbing salt in the wound."

"Ah," Akutagawa spoke up, realization seeming to dawn on his face. "This is where I come in."

Chuuya nodded in agreement, "It was only a matter of time before Dazai and I slipped up, and who better to send after us than the Port Mafia's very own hellhound?"

Chapter Text

Atsushi's eyes widened in surprise as he digested this information, seeming to process Chuuya's words for the first time. "Wait-" he began, his head whipping from Chuuya to Akutagawa, who was still calmly sitting beside him. "You're part of the mafia??"

Yes he had heard Dazai and Chuuya recount their history to one another, and was aware that he'd been taken in by ex-mafiosos, which was something he was saving to process later, but the keyword there was ex-mafiosos. If nothing else, they'd made it blatantly clear that they had left the mafia, and held no warm wishes for the organization. That was vastly different than actively being in the mafia.

Akutagawa just blinked at him, a blank look on his face that managed to be both incredibly exasperated and judgmental at the same time. "Don't tell me that's what's troubling you after all the shit you've just heard the two of them spout off."

He sort of has a point there, Atsushi conceded in his mind That's far from the weirdest thing you've heard so far. 

"B-But! If they left the mafia, and they're clearly regarded as traitors, then how come you're-? Why aren't you-?" Atsushi stuttered.

"All will be explained in due time dear Atsushi-kun," Dazai promised, a mischievous grin spreading across his face, which Atsushi did not like the look of at all. "But spoiling things now would ruin all the narrative build up we've established so far! Where's the emotionally satisfying payoff if we just spoiled everything for you now?"

Chuuya rolled his eyes at that, but said nothing to contradict Dazai as Atsushi looked to him for an answer.

"Okay, fine then, I'll be patient and wait to find out how all this-" he gestured to the three of them in the room "all works out, but you can't keep leaving these things on cliffhangers! Like what was in the vials? What did they do? How did Lee's demonstration convince you to use them so quickly? Did your ability cancel them out?"

Dazai just gave Atsushi a look in response, not needing to repeat himself for Atsushi to get the message. 

"Fiiiine, what happened next then Chuuya-san? How did Akutagawa find you? I thought you two were too well hidden for the Port Mafia to find you?"

"Actually, I'm not 100% how Akutagawa managed to locate us... Or locate me, in particular. I always thought it was interesting you targeted me and not Dazai first."

"Ah, well... I can provide some clarity on that front," Akutagawa spoke up. "If you'd allow me to take a turn at recounting the tale? I don't know if I can quite capture the amount of dramatics of Chuuya-san, or the gay yearning of Dazai-san, but I can at the very least shed some insight on what happened that night."

Atsushi choked back a laugh at Akutagawa's words, and upon hearing no protests from the two partners, he continued with his side of events.

*Three Years Ago*

The Port Mafia was no stranger to traitors.

Avarice was the one constant in the hearts of men, and oftentimes it worked in the Port Mafia's favor. Not many people joined an underground criminal organization just for the fun of it, greed was the lever used to increase their forces, and it was their intemperance that held their loyalty. But there was nothing in this world that was without its faults, and just as greed worked for the betterment of the Port Mafia, it doubled as the very thing that weakened it as well.

The promise of more money if only for the sake of skimming a little off the top here, a casual whisper about a trade shipment there, bits and pieces that played into the greed of men, nudging them closer and closer towards the precipice of betrayal, until a lowly subordinate found themselves firmly aligned as an enemy of the Port Mafia. To prevent such a problem, there was one way, and one way only to deal with traitors. And that was to obliterate them with the fury of a thousand gods. To make an example of them so that no one else would dare to follow in their footsteps. To use fear to maintain their forces just as keenly as they'd used greed to draw them in in the first place.

To rise to power as they had, the Port Mafia could not allow for things such as mercy or forgiveness, it was not a feasible way to uphold such an organization. They were ruthless and cold and unfeeling, and only those that had truly proven themselves, that had truly proven their loyalty, were allowed even a taste of the power and the might that the Port Mafia truly possessed. In order to reach the level that Dazai had, in order to become the youngest Port Mafia executive in the history of the organization, well, that took skill. It took power. And it took a willingness to do anything to achieve one's goals, no matter how dirty you had to get your hands in the process.

Dazai was a legend. The Demon Prodigy, the man most devoted to the Port Mafia's cause, who was sure to become the next successor that many assumed would lead to the Port Mafia taking over the city outright. There was nothing he couldn't accomplish if he set his mind to it, and so, perhaps it shouldn't have been such a revelation to see that he'd even managed to do the impossible, and defect from the very organization he'd dedicated so much of his life to.

The act of defection, of betrayal was so unfounded, it sent the entire organization into a flurry of disorganization. Shock and fear at the news that not only Dazai had left the Port Mafia, but that Chuuya had disappeared as well. The legendary Double Black, the Port Mafia's greatest weapon, not broken or destroyed, but let loose on the world, and out of the Port Mafia's control. There were no limits to the rumors of what had brought Soukoku to the Port Mafia in the first place, and the rumors about what could have caused them to leave spread even further and even faster.

No one dared to step even the smallest hint of a toe out of line for months after their defection, breaths held in anticipation at how the traitors would be hunted down and punished, because surely the organization's biggest betrayal warranted an equally proportionate punishment, did it not?

And yet, no punishment ever came.

Double Black was too smart, too strong, too formidable to go after, even once they'd made themselves known publicly among the streets of Yokohama for the havoc they wrought on the general public. But the infallible can only remain that way for so long until even they make mistakes. It comes down to a battle of patience more than anything else. So long as your party is not the first to lose their vigilance, victory is all but guaranteed.

And so it was on that night, after a year of attempting to get closer to Double Black, to see what they had planned, to learn their secrets and their patterns, that a Port Mafia meeting between a representative and a potential client had occurred in the very same restaurant the two had gone to to celebrate their year of continued success.

Oftentimes, the Port Mafia conducted such meetings at far more higher end restaurants, flaunting their wealth to prove just how lucrative doing business with them could be, but tonight's client was one of far less importance, that was unaware of the resources they possessed and how they could be of use to the Port Mafia, and thus the restaurant had not needed to be the most exuberant one in existence in order to win them over.

Still though, due to the unsavory nature of most of their business deals, the Port Mafia representative and the potential client had been seated at a private table, closed off to the vast majority of restaurant goers, and remained undetected as they witnessed Double Black's toast to one another, and quickly called for a tail to be placed on the two of them as they journeyed back to their current home. 

Weeks passed, and once the Port Mafia was sure that it was not some sort of trap set out to lull them into a sense of complacency, and that they actually had located where Double Black was staying, it was only a matter of arranging a meeting. The situation would have to be handled delicately, and while ordinarily, Akutagawa was prone to do things with a far more dramatic style, he was one of the people most familiar with how Double Black operated, that could be trusted to handle the situation without sympathy to their cause. 

And so it was then, after a month of making sure they'd gotten Soukoku right where they wanted them, that the Port Mafia finally made their move.

***

"Chuuya-san," Akutagawa said, keeping his voice cool and even, making his presence known as he approached his former boss from behind, catching him unaware as he browsed the aisle of the grocery store.

Chuuya startled slightly. Not much, and it would not have been clear to someone that did not know Port Mafia standards, but it was obvious to Akutagawa that he had been taken by surprise.

He's grown sloppy, Akutagawa thought to himself. The old Chuuya would have constantly been aware of his surroundings, would have sensed that there was someone coming up to him specifically, and not just another shopper in his vicinity. He would have been more vigilant, more alert, more on guard. 

He's grown complacent.

Akutagawa did not think about why this was so. About the fact that perhaps it was not right for a 19 year old to be constantly paranoid that someone was out to get him. That perhaps it was the fact that Chuuya had been allowed to feel safe for the first time in his life that he did not feel the need to be on guard. About the fact that Akutagawa himself, at the age of 17, should not have had to be used to such intense paranoia either. Akutagawa did not think about any of these things at all. It was not his job to, nor was it his place to, and so instead, he found himself staring down at his former boss with nothing but contempt and distain, despite the sense of longing or jealousy a weaker, lesser individual Chuuya's reaction would have sparked had they been in his place.

"Akutagawa," Chuuya said in response, immediately on guard and wary of their interaction as a whole. If he had not been on guard before, he clearly was now, showcased in the stiffness of his posture, the slight widening of his eyes to take in more information about his surroundings, and measured breathing as though he was bracing himself for a fight.

"You've been busy in your... Retirement," Akutagawa said, his tone lighthearted and conversational, tilting his head to the side and allowing his lips to quirk up ever so slightly in an imitation of a sly smile, as though he knew something Chuuya didn't. Part of it was to throw him off yes, that was the main reasoning for his behavior, but he would be lying if he claimed the action didn't bring him a strange satisfaction as well. To know that he held power over someone that used to hold so much over him... He could see why people went crazy for the stuff.

"Cut the crap Akutagawa, we both know you're not here for small talk," Chuuya said, scowling. "What do you want?"

Akutagawa allowed himself to smile for a little while longer before letting the expression drop from his face, returning to its normal mask of impassiveness. "You defected from the Port Mafia Chuuya-san. Surely you didn't think you could put this off forever."

"What? So you're here to bring me in? In the middle of a grocery store? While I know you're capable of murdering everyone in here before they can even think about calling the police, I really thought the Mafia was trying to stay under the radar nowadays. The news has started to connect the dots y'know. About how all the places that have been struck by Double Black have all been places with mafia ties? It's attracting the attention of the government now, and I doubt that Special Ability Permit your boss has is going to do much to protect you when the citizens of the city are constantly calling for action. And try as you might, not even Mori can't silence everyone."

So they have put thought into this, Akutagawa realized, the thought much more calming than it should have been. They haven't completely lost their minds in their defection, though clearly they're not as sharp as they used to be.

"If I were here to bring you in, you'd have already been subdued and on your way back to the boss' office. You'd never have seen me coming, and I certainly wouldn't have given you this much time to strategize," Akutagawa told Chuuya. "No, I'm simply here to give you a warning."

Chuuya's eyes narrowed at that. An attack from the Port Mafia, an attempt to bring him back would have been expected. Predictable. But the Port Mafia knew who they were up against, and they knew that if Double Black truly had their hearts set on taking them down, there'd be no way to convince them to change course. They could not afford to be predictable, or complacent. The only way their organization would survive Soukoku's intermittent but persistent attacks was to go on the offensive. The moment they were forced to rely on defensive strategies would be the very moment they lost.

"As powerful as you and Dazai-san are when you work together, not even you can hope to stand against the full force of the Port Mafia," Akutagawa informed his former superior. "You know that, it's why you've avoided outright attacking us all this time. If you leave Yokohama now, there's still a chance for the two of you to get out of this alive. If you continue down your current path, neither you nor Dazai-san will walk away from this endeavor alive."

Chuuya snorted. "Right. As if the Port Mafia is just going to let us go and do whatever the hell we want if we just up and left now. You're going to hunt us down no matter what we do. Dazai and I have always known that, and we're not going to turn tail and run just because you think you can intimidate us into cleaning up your messes for you."

"I never said that we wouldn't," Akutagawa admitted. "But you will not survive if you continue to provoke us. I can promise you that."

"What, so you just came here to deliver that wondrously cheery message and then fuck right back off to the mafia? That's all?" Chuuya asked, looking unimpressed.

"I wouldn't phrase it in that way, but more or less yes," Akutagawa said. "A warning is all I came here to deliver. Whether you choose to listen to it is up to your own foolish mind."

A pause, and then:

"Or well, I suppose I should say a warning, and an offer," Akutagawa amended.

"There's nothing your shitty organization could offer me that I could possibly want," Chuuya spat.

Akutagawa chuckled. "The boss figured you might say such a thing," he said, reaching into his coat pocket to pull out a sheet of paper. It was a thicker sheet of paper, heavy with the message it contained inside. "But think of it as a failsafe, if nothing else."

Chuuya reached out to take the paper from Akutagawa, eyebrow raised even as he opened it. "He can't be serious-" he breathed as his eyes skimmed the contents.

"I'm afraid that he is," Akutagawa reassured him. "If you return to the Port Mafia, willingly and of your own accord, and sever all ties and loyalty with Dazai, we'll spare him."

"You're lying," Chuuya practically snarled, the paper wrinkling slightly in his grip as he held the paper tightly.

But Akutagawa could tell that he didn't truly believe that. The fact that Chuuya was still holding the paper delicately was sign enough of that. If he had truly believed it was fake, the paper would have been torn to shreds by now, or crumpled into a ball and thrown back at Akutagawa, but he clutched the paper tightly, too afraid to ruin it, because he knew - or at the very least hoped - that its contents were what they stated.

"I am not," Akutagawa stated, simply, calmly. "If you denounce all your ties to Dazai, and leave him behind with no scheming or tricks, if you wholeheartedly and fully return to the Port Mafia, we'll reinstate you at your previous position, and allow Dazai to do as he wishes, without fear of repercussion from our organization. It's all there in writing, with the appropriate and verified signatures of all the remaining executives."

Akutagawa leaned over and tapped the wax seal that had been impressed upon the page. "You of all people should know how hard those are to come by Chuuya... The documentation has not been faked, and you know the Port Mafia doesn't lie." That smug satisfaction came back full force, and Akutagawa allowed a thin smile to spread across his face once more. "At least, not when it comes to things like this."

And with that, Akutagawa had accomplished all that he'd come to the grocery store to do, turning on his heel to exit, and leaving Chuuya standing where he was, clutching the missive to his chest. The trap had been laid. All that was left to do now, was to wait.

*Present Day*

"Ah," Dazai said, looking contemplative, as though this was the first time he'd heard this information. "That explains... A lot."

"You didn't know?" Atsushi asked, slightly confused. "You made it seem like you told this story all the time."

Dazai shook his head. "Never in its entirety... And I don't think I knew just how long Akutagawa had been involved in our tale of how we ended up here. I knew that he had reached out to you at some point before everything happened... But for a whole year? You lived with that choice weighing on you for a whole year?"

"It wasn't as though I had much of a choice," Chuuya admitted. "When I got back, I read through the missive in its entirety, and if I had said anything to you, if I let you know about their offer, the whole deal would go out the window."

Dazai was silent at this information, seeming to ponder the implications, re-examining his memories in this new light now that he had more information to go alongside it. He didn't seem upset by this revelation though, the way that Atsushi had assumed he might have. Rather, it instead seemed to make him more fond of Chuuya, if that was even possible, cuddling closer to him and closing his eyes, humming slightly as he seemed to come to terms with it.

"I would have told you, if I could," Chuuya said softly, and all of a sudden Atsushi felt like he was intruding on their moment.

"I know," Dazai replied, just as gently. "You just wanted to have the ability to protect me, if it came down to that. The same way that I needed to know that I had the ability to protect you."

Chuuya snorted. "What a lot of good that did us, trying to hide the lengths we'd go to to protect each other only made things more complicated in the end."

A grin spread across Dazai's face. "What a pair we make."

"What a pair indeed."

Akutagawa cleared his throat loudly, as though to remind them not for the first time that they were not the only two people in the room at the moment.

Chuuya blinked, looking back at Akutagawa and Atsushi, snapping out of whatever spellbound trance Dazai had sucked him into.

"The rest of the story, right," Chuuya said, finally remembering the topic of their conversation.

He looked at his partner, "Do you wanna finish our 'dramatic tale of reckless love' or should I?"

"I think we should finish our tale the same way it began," Dazai replied, reaching to intertwine his fingers with Chuuya's. "Together."

*Two Years Ago*

The rest of the year passed without much fanfare. Despite Akutagawa's warning, the Port Mafia didn't seem to make any further moves on them. Chuuya never told Dazai of how Akutagawa had approached him, or the Port Mafia's threat. He did his best to mitigate the risks they took in their missions without Dazai noticing what he was doing, keeping them away from the mafia's direct connections for as long as possible, and was surprisingly successful.

Since that morning on the anniversary of the day they'd run away together, when Dazai had finally gotten his head out of his ass and realized he was in love with Chuuya, things had been better. No longer was he forcing himself to take unnecessary risks, or putting himself in danger just for the hell of it. Chuuya couldn't tell if it was because of the fact that they'd solidified their partnership beyond what it had been before, or the fact that Dazai had finally gotten to use the tonic he'd bought from Lee, but either way Chuuya couldn't complain.

One way or another, Dazai had stopped sabotaging himself and his health, and each and every day he got better at taking the time to take care of himself, going to bed at reasonable times and barely even protesting when Chuuya insisted he took a break. It seemed as though Dazai was finally allowing himself to process his grief around Odasaku's death in a way that was... Healthy, at least as healthy as Dazai could manage considering his circumstances, and Chuuya was proud of him for growing so much in their time together. It was almost enough to make Chuuya forget about the ever present threat looming over their heads.

Almost.

"CHUUYA!" Dazai yelled, throwing open the door to their new place, too much excitement bubbling up in his voice to remember to add an insult to his greeting.

They'd moved out of their original house a few weeks earlier, to a bigger place that would allow them to properly take up space for once. As much as Chuuya would miss the first place they'd gotten, it was more than a little cramped for the amount of space they currently needed, and so they were in the process of moving everything over. As of right now they only had a few beds pushed against the corner of the wall, across from the kitchenette in the other corner, and a couch facing one wall where they'd soon be moving over their TV.

Chuuya turned at the sound of his partner's voice, eyebrow raised as he turned to see whatever trouble Dazai had gotten himself into now. 

"You'll never believe this!" Dazai said, setting down the stack of papers he'd brought in with him, motioning for Chuuya to come over and take a look at what he'd found.

"What's all this?" Chuuya asked, flipping through the papers Dazai had set down, trying to see what had gotten him so excited.

"It's the moment we've been waiting for," Dazai said, shifting his weight from one foot to the other in excitement, unable to contain his joy. "The perfect way to get revenge for what Mori did to Odasaku."

Chuuya's brow furrowed, and his hand stilled on the papers, looking up at Dazai. "... What do you mean?"

"You've heard the public's frustration with our attacks, haven't you?" Dazai asked, "It was bad enough this time last year, when people started to connect the dots and realize that the only places in Yokohama that were being targeted were ones with ties - however loose - to the Port Mafia, and we've only gotten closer and closer to our real target. It's put enough pressure on the government that they're holding a press conference to discuss why they haven't been able to crack down on Port Mafia crime."

"They're going to reveal that they've given the Port Mafia a Skilled Business Permit," Chuuya put together.

"Exactly!" Dazai said. "But obviously, if they reveal that, the Port Mafia loses their edge, because there is in fact, a law, that not many people know about, that allows for a Skilled Business Permit to be revoked."

Chuuya's eyes widened. "Revoked? You mean we wouldn't have to steal it from them to get it back... But they could get it taken away?"

Dazai grinned, gesturing to the papers. "It's all there in writing," he assured him. "A Skilled Business Permit can be revoked if the public deems that it's a general safety hazard for a business to posses it. The permits exist for the sake of providing protection to ability users of course, but there has to be a system of checks and balances right? And with the way people have already been insisting that the government take actual steps to take down the Port Mafia, it will only be a matter of time before someone discovers this law and they become the government's problem too."

"So the Port Mafia needs to stop the press conference before it happens then, and I take it we're going to stop them?" Chuuya asked, a wry smile on his face. 

"You know me so well Chibi," Dazai crooned.

"So when's the press conference then? How long do we have to prepare?"

Dazai cracked his knuckles, a determined glint in his eye, and Chuuya knew that his brain was already working overtime to formulate a way to finally accomplish the thing he'd set out to do when he'd first defected from the Port Mafia two years ago. "Two days."

***

For the first time since Odasaku had died two years ago, Dazai was actually, genuinely happy.

He finally, finally had a way to hurt the Port Mafia the way that it had hurt him. In taking back the very thing Mori had killed Odasaku to obtain, he was freeing himself from the obsessive need to avenge his fallen friend. He refused to let Odasaku's death benefit the very man that killed him, and he wouldn't let his friend's death be in vain either. After this, after he did this to fix things, he could finally pursue the peace and goodness in life, the way Odasaku had wanted for him. He and Chuuya could focus their attentions not on the life of crime and devastation they'd known for most of their lives, but happier, better things. Doing good through... Volunteering, or whatever it was normal people did to do good in the world.

Dazai smiled to himself. In two days it would all be over, and he and Chuuya could start a new chapter of their lives. A Double Black that was truly good, rather than the morally grey space they currently found themselves in.

Yes, Dazai was happy in a way he hadn't allowed himself to be in years, and though he would never admit it - because that felt like a betrayal in some way, to admit that he could have some how "moved on" past Odasaku - he was happier than he'd been on that final night with Odasaku and Ango in Lupin, before everything changed between them. Because now, his happiness was not overshadowed by the pervading fear that all that he loved would be taken from him.

Because he was safe. Chuuya was safe. He'd done it, he'd found a way to protect the thing he loved most in the world, to the point where he could admit that Chuuya was the thing he loved most in the world without fear of losing him. They were safe now, and soon all their troubles would be over.

There was still a lot to do of course, before they could get to that point. In order to pull off an operation like this, they not only had to evade the government officials that would surely be keeping the event secure to the best of their ability, but also the Port Mafia, all without letting the press conference be interrupted.

Not to mention the fact that if they were caught by the government at any point, there'd be no way to reassure them that they were fighting for the same side. No, it was safer to handle things on their own, under the radar, to avoid any further complications, even if that required more planning on their parts.

But Dazai had always been good at planning. It was what he was good at, seeing every angle, preparing for every eventuality. Of all the things he'd done in his life, save for maybe obtaining the vials from Lee to protect Chuuya, this would be the most important. He couldn't afford to miss an angle, couldn't afford to mess this up. This was his chance to avenge Odasaku's death and take down Mori and the Port Mafia once and for all. He'd find a way to get through this, no matter what it took.

"Osamu," a voice said, snapping him out of his thoughts. The only voice he cared to hear really, that could make a small smile spread across his face just from the sound of it. "Go to sleep already."

Dazai turned, leaning down to press a kiss to the top of Chuuya's head, wrapping his arms around him so that way his partner couldn't see just how tired he was. "I'm fine slug, you can head to bed without me, I just need to make sure everything goes smoothly."

"And you're not going to be able to do that if you're running on so little sleep you can't see straight you tacky bastard, go to sleep," Chuuya shot back.

Dazai hesitated for a moment, considering the idea. Chuuya had a point, he supposed. It wouldn't do any good to wear himself out before he could formulate a plan, or miss something because he'd been too tired to see an alternate angle. But still...

"... I don't think I could fall asleep right now, even if I tried," Dazai admitted, and he could feel the way in which Chuuya pressed himself closer to Dazai at his words, squeezing him just a little bit tighter to express his affection and pride at the fact that Dazai felt comfortable enough to admit those things to Chuuya. "There's too much to do in too little time, and I'm-" scared was the word he wanted to say, but that still felt a little too raw, a little too real to be able to say out loud. "-worried that I'm not going to get another opportunity like this again. And if I mess it up this time... And I lose the only chance I have to take them down..."

"I know," Chuuya said, looking up at him to gently press a kiss to Dazai's cheek. "But we're partners, always have been, always will be, and if we're going to take down the Port Mafia, then we're going to do it together. You're not in this on your own Osamu," Chuuya said, cupping Dazai's face in his hands and forcing Dazai to look at him.

That's right, he was part of a 'we' now. He didn't have to do it on his own, he had Chuuya. Just as Chuuya had him.

"Come to bed," Chuuya told him, gently tugging on his hand to pull him in that direction. "And even if you can't fall asleep just... Lay with me for a while, and get some rest."

It was a ploy, Dazai knew it. If he laid down with Chuuya, he'd fall asleep eventually, even if it took him longer than it'd care to admit. Chuuya had always been good at that, getting Dazai to calm down, to turn his brain off, to rest for once and actually find a way to relax. But he found he didn't mind the ploy so much because it was coming from Chuuya. Because Chuuya cared.

"Fiiiiiiiiiine, if you insist," Dazai said, allowing himself to be dragged off to bed, his lanky body curling up alongside Chuuya, feeling more safe and at home than he did anywhere else in the world.

"Close your eyes mackerel," Chuuya said, bumping his forehead against Dazai's. "Even if you don't feel tired, it'll help calm that big brain of yours down."

"And lose the honor of witnessing such a beautiful sight?" Dazai teased, smirking slightly at his partner.

Chuuya just rolled his eyes in response, doing his best to act unaffected, but Dazai did not miss the way the tips of his ears were now tinged red. "Shuddup and close your eyes idiot."

Dazai did so, smiling the entire time, pulling Chuuya closer to his chest, comforted by the weight of him in his arms, comforted by the feeling of being home.

At least, no matter what happened, they'd have each other. And nothing at the press conference could possibly change that.

***

The plan was simple.

Or well, as simple as a plan of this magnitude could possibly be. Dazai had come up with the framework, and Chuuya had helped to flesh it out, both of them combing over every inch of the plan in order to make sure they weren't missing anything. The two had agreed that the less moving parts it had the better. It would be easy to overcomplicate things, in an effort to make sure they had thought of every eventuality, but too many moving parts meant that the plan had more of a chance to be sabotaged, and thus, they had decided to err on the side of caution.

This day had to go off perfectly if they wanted any hope of retribution for the Port Mafia's crimes against Odasaku.

It was unfortunate that their plan had been doomed from the start.

"Something is off," Chuuya murmured under his breath as he and Dazai made their way into the building where the press conference was being held. "I can't articulate it, but something about this feels... Wrong. Hadn't we prepared for more external security?"

Dazai shook his head, silently moving alongside him. "There was no guarantee things would be exactly as we planned for them to be laid out... We accounted for the typical layers of security that would accompany a press conference like this, there was always the possibility that the government could have gotten wind of the Port Mafia's plans for sabotage and adjusted accordingly by concentrating the amount of security personnel closer to where the actual event is taking place. It makes sense honestly, there's not much government men could do to deal with a task force sent by the Port Mafia, it would be logical for them to delegate the people posted outside on lookout duty, only there to really alert the people inside of any suspicious activity. That gives the personnel on the inside enough time to make a decision about whether or not they should put up a good defensive, or move the press conference to another location in its entirety."

There was something in Chuuya that was still dubious of the situation they'd walked in to, but Dazai was right, it had been an eventuality that they'd prepared for, and so there was no need to go panicking about it now. They'd handle it one step at a time, together, the same way they always had. Regardless of why things were different than the way they had planned, there was nothing they could do about it, all that was left was to move forward.

It was then that the lights shut off, plunging them into darkness for a few brief moments before the emergency lights kicked on, bathing them in a harsh red light.

"... Shit."

"I think," Dazai said, doing a remarkably good job of keeping his voice level and even, despite how much Chuuya knew he was counting on this going right. "We've been set up."

As if on cue, a low hissing sound started to sound from around them. 

"The vents, they're gassing the room," Dazai said, grabbing Chuuya's hand and running back the way they came, only to find that the doors had been locked behind them, of course they were. "Of fucking course," Dazai muttered to himself, looking around at the other various exits. "Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck," he swore to himself. "There's no way out, is there?"

Chuuya looked around the room, brows furrowed at the doors, pulling his shirt up over his nose to mitigate the effects of whatever they were flooding the room with. "There's like three other doors in here, what do you mean there's no way out?"

"It's a trap," Dazai said, eyes still flickering around the room as though he was trying to find a way to get them out of there. "Whoever did this knew we'd be here, they laid this trap for us specifically, if we go deeper into the building, assuming that those doors are unlocked, we only put ourselves further from the exit and deeper into their trap. If they have the skills to flood the building with gas like this, then there's no way that they haven't secured the entire building too."

"Then we just go back out the way we came," Chuuya said, letting go of Dazai's hand so that the red glow of Upon the Tainted Sorrow could wash over his hand, reaching out towards the locked door they'd just tried to escape out of.

"NO!" Dazai said, reaching out to grab Chuuya's hand and cancel his ability with his own before Chuuya could do anything more. "That's just as dangerous too, whoever locked the door, did it immediately behind us, they're waiting on the other side with who knows what kind of attack? If they've done their research on us, then surely it's something that could account for our combined skill, it's too dangerous to go out that way too, we can't risk it."

Chuuya's mind raced, flashing back to the unease he'd had as they'd slipped their way into the building. Into who else knew the two of them would be there. 

If you continue down your current path, neither you nor Dazai-san will walk away from this endeavor alive.

The words echoed in Chuuya's ears, despite the fact that they'd been said a year ago now, haunting his choices. How could he have been so foolish? He should have said something, he should have protested more, he should have warned Dazai, but he didn't all because of-

The letter.

He hadn't told Dazai, hadn't warned Dazai about Akutagawa's sudden appearance, and what that meant for the two of them, in hopes of being able to save him if he needed to. If he could trust Mori, and the other executives, that they weren't lying about truly letting Dazai go.

There was a way out. Chuuya just wasn't sure it was a path he wanted to take.

He looked to Dazai, contemplating his options. He was spiraling right now, as he tried to figure out a way for them to escape, no more aware of his surroundings than he absolutely needed to be, because he had no reason not to trust Chuuya here in this moment.

It would be easy, to knock him out, take him by surprise, hide his unconscious body in a corner out of sight from the doorway before he ripped the entrance apart with Upon the Tainted Sorrow, and convinced the Port Mafia on the other side of his reawakened loyalty to the Port Mafia.

If you return to the Port Mafia, willingly and of your own accord, and sever all ties and loyalty with Dazai we'll spare him.

He pictured it in his mind, having to leave Dazai behind, never being able to tell him what happened, having to face Mori again, after two years, to serve him as faithfully and with as much devotion as he had in his youth. It would be painful, but he could suffer through it. He'd suffer through it a million times if it meant that he could spare Dazai from the trap they'd found themselves in.

Chuuya's hand balled into a fist at his side. He could do it. He would do it, if-

He pictured Dazai, coming to from unconsciousness, in an unfamiliar room. In the room where he was supposed to finally be able to avenge his dead friend, and instead had been punched and betrayed by his partner. He pictured Dazai, stumbling to his feet, and trying to get his bearings, looking around for Chuuya, assuming the worst, and trying to find him, because they were partners, they were partners and surely Chuuya would never betray him. He pictured Dazai, hearing the news that Chuuya was a Port Mafia executive, that his partner had left him for the organization that had ruined his life and killed his only friend. He felt the hurt that Dazai would feel, felt the pain, felt the betrayal that would consume him, that would leave him with nothing.

One by one, Chuuya's fingers gently uncurled from his palm. He could live with the pain of never seeing Dazai again, but he could not live with the pain that his actions would inflict upon Dazai, not after he had done so much already.

Dazai was right. They were trapped. There was no way out, not unless-

Dazai's head whipped up to face Chuuya's, eyes wide as they came to the same conclusion at the same time.

"No."

It was funny, usually Chuuya was the one protesting when it came down to this particular last resort. 

"We don't have any other choice Osamu,"

"Don't," Dazai spat, his breathing growing labored, "Don't call me that when you're thinking of that I'll find another way! There's got to be another way!"

"They've got us pinned Osamu," Chuuya said, ignoring his partner's request, slipping one finger, and then a second under the base of one of his gloves. "We don't have any other choice."

"NO!" Dazai said, reaching out to grab Chuuya's exposed arm, cancelling his ability before he could even dare to activate it. "I told you, we'll find another way!"

But even without factoring in their abilities, Dazai had never been as strong as Chuuya was. It was easy to pull Dazai's grip off of his own wrist, to shove him back and out of the way without seriously hurting him.

"We don't have time! It can't be that much longer before the gas' effects set in, and like you said, there's no way out. I know you're scared, but I'm not quitting, okay? I trust you Osamu, and I trust us."

Chuuya took a deep breath, slipping one glove off, and then the other, letting them unceremoniously fall to the ground at his feet. He spoke softly, closing his eyes. "Oh grantors of dark disgrace,"

Somewhere, in the background of things he was tuning out, he could hear screams of protest, of someone rushing across the room to try and stop him.

"... You need not wake me again."

***

Chuuya was beautiful.

He always was, but there was something in particular to be said about Chuuya when he was using Corruption. About the beauty of destruction and the way he wielded it, harnessing the power of a god with such grace. His beauty was only enhanced when Dazai thought about the risks it posed to Chuuya. That he'd activate such a painful and powerful might for the sake of protecting him. Trusting Dazai to bring him back, to save him from himself, the same way Dazai had depended on Chuuya to prevent him from withering away into nothingness.

Although now, he wished for nothing more than for Chuuya to have just had a little less unyielding faith in him, to have doubted him a little more to avoid doing such a thing to himself. He hated having to put Chuuya through Corruption, hated having to depend on it as a last resort, hated to have to put him in a state that made him indestructible while also so intensely vulnerable at the same time.

But Chuuya was right. They had been running out of options, and if he hadn't activated Corruption when he had, hadn't broken down the door that was keeping them trapped inside, hadn't allowed for the night air to come rushing in and clear his lungs, they might have found themselves in a far worse state.

The Port Mafia lackeys - because of course, who else would have known how to ambush them so well - awaiting their emergence were not prepared to be met with the full force of Corruption. Few people ever were. 

He saw them scramble for cover, hurry to get away, only to be caught up in Arahabaki's path of destruction, crackling red and black spheres of pure energy headed on an unavoidable trajectory for them.

They had been fools, to challenge Chuuya like that. What had given them any thought that it wouldn't have ended like this? Yes, the extent to which Chuuya's power ranged was a closely kept secret, but surely they would have been briefed on what to expect from the gravity manipulator when backing them into a corner like that?

... Unless they had been expecting Chuuya to choose a different outcome.

But it wasn't as though Chuuya had any other options, there was no way Chuuya would willingly use Corruption if there was literally any other alternative, so what other choice could they possibly have been expecting him to make?

Dazai felt someone rush behind him, grabbing his arms and twisting them behind his back. It was his own fault really, for not being more aware of what was going on. But whatever that gas had been had made his mind addled, and he was always a little distracted when he witnessed Chuuya's beauty, so really, who could blame him?

"You weren't the bastard we were expecting, but you'll have to make due," some low level grunt muttered in his ear as he began to drag him away from the scene of the chaos, less concerned with the havoc Chuuya was causing and more so focused on making sure Dazai got to wherever they were dragging him. 

Dazai elbowed back at him in an attempt to free himself, but his strength had been greatly diminished, and he didn't accomplish much in terms of freeing himself.

Continuing to struggle in the man's arms in an effort to slow their progress down, Dazai mulled over what the lackey had said.

They were expecting Chuuya to join them, he realized. Had they given him an ultimatum? Something that they thought he couldn't refuse?

But it was clear that Chuuya hadn't gone for it, hadn't truly considered it to be an option, otherwise he would have never suggested the use of Corruption in the first place.

What could possibly be so bad that Chuuya would rather use Corruption than face the consequences of his ultimatum though? And why didn't he tell me about it?

A flash of what Dazai refused to acknowledge as jealousy flashed through his chest, but now was most definetly not the time nor was it the place for such thoughts.

He needed to break out of this hold, he needed to get back to Chuuya, he needed to cancel Corruption before it could ruin Chuuya.

But no matter how much he raged against his captor, it was as though his body no longer wanted to work for him. He'd breathed in too much of whatever that stupid gas had been and now it was preventing him from being there for Chuuya when Chuuya needed him most.

"You fool, what are you doing?" Dazai heard an all too familiar voice hiss out from somewhere off to his left.

Rashomon shot up through the air to devour a piece of shrapnel that had been flying their way before piercing the man that held him captive straight through his shoulder. "Do you not understand that that man that you're trying to drag off to god knows where is our only hope of getting out of here alive?!"

The man holding onto him cried out in pain, loosening his grip enough for Dazai to finally pull away, though his movements somehow felt sluggish and yet sharp with pain at the same time. He stumbled forward a few steps in Chuuya's direction, intending on hurrying to him in order to cancel out his ability, but he only made it a few steps before he was falling to the ground on his knees.

Akutagawa swore under his breath, glaring between Dazai and the subordinate he'd just stabbed in the shoulder before rushing over to Dazai's side. "This is not how this night was supposed to go."

"Oh really, Akutagawa?" Dazai asked, allowing his bitterness to fully seep into his tone. "Tell me then, how exactly was this night supposed to go?"

Akutagawa stared at him in amazement, before laughing of all things, as though anything about this situation could possibly be found amusing in the slightest. "You truly do bring out the stupidity in each other, don't you?"

A fist made it's way from Dazai's side before connecting with Akutagawa's face, the sharp pain in his arm allowing him enough control to throw a punch, though he instantly regretted it when the pain seemed to reverberate through his bones and into the rest of his body, causing even more of an ache to spread throughout him. 

Akutagawa looked shocked at the action, the scowled, and schooled his features into a much more impassive expression.

"I suppose some things never change, do they?" Akutagawa muttered, more to himself than anything else, bitterness seeping into his tone. 

Another wave of pain spread through Dazai's body, as though every tendon in his body was being stretched to its limits. It was an almost unbearable agony and Dazai had never experienced anything like it before in his life.

"What-" he managed to seethe through his teeth. "The hell was in those vents?"

An expression almost akin to concern spread across Akutagawa's face, his brow furrowed in confusion. "A sleeping gas, why do you look like you're in so much pain? It should have merely knocked you out, it shouldn't be doing all of that."

Dazai looked up at Chuuya, who hovered in the sky, skin covered in the red swirls of Corruption, eyes fully white, looking at everything around him but seeing nothing at all, and felt another bolt of pain stretch through his body. His eyes widened as a brief moment of clarity swept through his brain, allowing a single but dangerous thought to pass through.

"He's dying," Dazai half murmured, eyes wide as he looked up at his partner, tears welling up in his eyes as he realized that the pain he'd been feeling was only an unobtrusive watered down version of the agony Chuuya went through each and every time he used Corruption. "And the potion is doing its job."

***

Chuuya could tell he was almost at his limit. Or at least what was left of Chuuya when he was in this state, vaguely aware of reality around him as Corruption raged against his surroundings.

That's the price you pay for harboring the power of a god, Chuuya thought to himself as he felt another piece of his humanity slip away.

It was funny, how things occurred to you when you least expected it. How he'd been questioning his humanity for so long only to be so sure of it now that he was about to die.

Or maybe, maybe he'd known before.

Maybe he'd known he was human all along, from the moment he'd come across that bandaged wasting bastard rigging his car to blow up. Or since the sunny days that followed in which he worked with Dazai to take care of the city. And to make sure, in turn that Dazai was taking care of himself. Or maybe he'd only suspected he was human then, but had only ever come to believe it when he'd groggily awoken to his partner's hands cupping his face, to the murmured words that had remained unspoken between the two of them for so long.

I love you.

He was going to miss him.

I'm sorry, Chuuya wanted to say. I didn't mean to leave you too.

Another thread of his humanity snapped.

But it was better this way, all things considered. Better to wind up dead, to have Dazai lose him in this way, to have Dazai lose him knowing he was loved, than it would have been for both of them to remain alive, but on opposite sides. Better than Dazai having to face off against him, betrayed and abandoned as his partner went back to the organization that had hurt him so much, that had killed his best friend.

Yes it was better this way. If he had to leave Dazai, if their parting truly was inevitable, to leave him with the knowledge that Chuuya would never leave him willingly, not if he could help it.

Around him, Arahabaki raged, calling for more death, more destruction, more chaos, more pain, and Chuuya felt himself disappearing for good.

I'm sorry, Chuuya thought with the last remnants of his mind that had not already been stolen away by the malevolent god he shared a body with.

I love you.

***

Dazai knew he had to do something. If he could just reach Chuuya then everything would be alright. It didn't matter what happened with the Port Mafia, it didn't matter what would happen to them after, they could handle that together, as a team, as Double Black, as Soukoku, and everything would be alright. But he needed the other half of his partnership to survive in order for that to happen in the first place.

Between the overwhelming pain of being linked with Chuuya - at least now he had confirmation that his ability had not in fact canceled out the tonic that he and Chuuya had taken together a year ago in celebration of their defection - and the lingering effects of the sleeping gas he'd been drugged with, Dazai could not very well carry himself across the war torn lawn to get to Chuuya in order to cancel out Corruption and end its reign of terror. 

Thankfully, Akutagawa at least had some common sense and self preservation when it came to the dangers of Corruption, and assisted Dazai in getting as close to Chuuya as possible. The only issue was that Akutagawa could not hold onto Dazai and use his ability to transport them forward, and so getting to Chuuya was proving to be more and more difficult as they continued farther and farther on.

Akutagawa could not support Dazai's weight on his own for very long, and the suffocating feeling in Dazai's lungs only got worse the longer it took for him to reach Chuuya.

"I don't know how he does it," Dazai muttered under his breath as they stumbled forward, needing to focus on something, anything else to distract him from the growing sense of dread in the pit of his stomach that he wouldn't make it on time, wouldn't be able to save Chuuya. 

"Does what?" Akutagawa asked, the question coming out almost as a wheeze, attempting to get enough air into his lungs with every step they took.

"Bear the pain of Corruption," Dazai replied, staring up at his partner, a star shining bright in the sky as it dealt judgment to their enemies down below. A new bloom of pain sprouted from deep within him, its tendrils spreading out to every reach of his body, aching as though he'd ripped ever muscle apart and itching as though he had to feel every second of them stitching themselves back together. It was very nearly immobilizing, and yet Dazai knew it was only a fraction of the way Chuuya must have been feeling right now, and still he managed to handle it with such grace. 

Dazai forced himself to move forward faster, and faster still, despite the way it pulled at his limbs, despite the way he wanted nothing more than to curl up into a ball and scream and sob until the pain went away, until his body knit itself back together, until all was right with the world. The solution Lee had given him was working perfectly, just as it should have, warning him that Chuuya was at the verge of death, the threshold between this world and the one that came next. He could feel it pulling on his own life force, just as he'd wanted it to, but never had he imagined that it would work this well, that Chuuya's second hand agony would have seeped into him so much that now it was preventing Dazai from saving Chuuya.

I trust you Osamu, I trust us

Tears welled up in Dazai's eyes as a scream sounded from the sky. The pain that had sprouted within him now clenched at his heart, squeezing the organ tighter and tighter, until it felt like it was about to burst.

We're Double Black they'd never be able to take us alive, Chuuya had said, that fateful night that he'd caught Dazai rigging his car to blow up. If you took me with you we'd be unstoppable, we could go out in a blaze.

The pressure had reached his head now, a splitting headache that made it to suffocating to breathe right, and still, Dazai forced his legs to stumble forward, no longer aware of the motion, but moving habitually, raggedly, with the sole purpose of reaching Chuuya. He wasn't going to make it in time, he wasn't going to reach him, his legs burned again, and though this time he wasn't running, he was still too late, he was always too late, if he'd been a little bit faster, a little bit better, a little bit smarter, a little less paranoid-

You mean if they catch us you'll commit a lover's suicide with me Chuuya?

How much more stupid could he have been?

Dazai collapsed to the ground, no longer able to support his own weight, pulling Akutagawa down to the ground with him.

His ex-subordinate was saying something, in a frantic tone, but Dazai could no longer hear him, only able to hear the blood pounding in his ears and the curdled scream that had now mixed with choked back sobs coming from the sky.

The sound of Chuuya's agony rang out again, and again, and again, and again, and again, until Dazai could no longer tell if the sound was real or in his head.

A hand rolled him onto his back so that now he was facing up at the sky, unable to look at the sight above him but seeing it all the same. Chuuya, his partner, floating high in the sky directly above him, arched in an agony that was still beautiful even now. His skin was almost completely reddened, more made up of Corruption scars than the absence of them at this point, and Dazai knew that yet again he'd made it, he'd finally made it, but he'd made it too late.

I knew what would happen if I cared about him, and yet-

Above him, it grew darker and darker and darker, until the whole sky was a swirl of black and red, showing the true extent of Chuuya's power. There was something important happening, he was sure, something he was supposed to be doing, but his mind couldn't focus on that and the pain that filled his body, and then all of a sudden there was nothing at all, and only a single thought remained left behind as evidence that Dazai had ever existed in the first place.

He used Corruption believing in me? How beautiful.

How disgustingly, foolishly beautiful.

***

***

They opened their eyes, and all they could see was each other.

That was fine by them, it wasn't as though much else mattered. They were Soukoku, after all. Double Black. They'd always had an unbreakable bond.

And not even death could do them part.

***

***

"Mackerel," Chuuya spat through gritted teeth, somehow finding the energy to glare at his partner. "What the fuck just happened?"

Dazai blinked, taking in the sensation of the cool ground beneath his right cheek, at the sight of bright orange hair and brilliant blue eyes that stared back at him. Listened to the harsh tone with thinly veiled affection behind it. At the fact that he was here, with Chuuya, that somehow, despite the fact that he'd lost everything he ever cared about, somehow, Chuuya remained.

Slowly, without even realizing what he was doing, he felt a smile stretch wide across his face, emotion bubbling up inside him until he was laughing, cackling so hard it hurt his sides, because really, what else could he possibly do in that moment but laugh?

Chuuya rolled his eyes, patiently waiting for Dazai to calm down. Before long though, Dazai was curled around his partner, his laughter dissolving into sobs as he buried his face into Chuuya's neck.

"You're here," Dazai said. "It worked."

He did his best to calm his sobs, clinging to Chuuya as though he was his last lifeline, which... In a way he was.

Gently, Chuuya wrapped his arms around Dazai as well, gripping him tightly and holding him close, and it wasn't long before Dazai's shoulder was wet with tears as well, holding him as though he never wanted to let go ever again.

They laid like that for a while, ignorant of the world around them, taking comfort in the presence of one another, because someway, somehow, they'd gotten through it all together.

"I'm sorry," Dazai said, his voice shaky still, even after a few minutes of trying to calm himself down. "I'm so sorry Chuuya, I'm so sorry, I didn't think-"

"Hey," Chuuya said, loosening his grip on Dazai just enough for the two of them to rest their foreheads against one another, so Chuuya could look him in the eyes when he spoke. "It's okay shitty mackerel, we survived didn't we?"

Laughter spilled forth from his lips as tears welled up in his eyes again, threatening to streak down his cheeks once more. "That's the thing slug," Dazai began, his voice more unsteady than Chuuya had ever heard it before, "I don't think we did."

"... What is that supposed to mean?" Chuuya asked, doing his best to keep his tone level and calm, because Dazai was clearly more worried about this than anything else that had come between them in all five years of their partnership. 

"I know I have no right to ask you for forgiveness, but I-" Dazai began, unable to meet Chuuya's eyes. "I was so scared of losing you. I've lost everything that's ever mattered to me in my entire life, and so when I realized just how much I cared for you, I knew that I had to find a way to protect you first, that way I wouldn't have to lose you too. And after months of searching, I found a solution in the form of a man named William, going by the alias of Lee of all things, and he swore up and down that he had an ability adjacent... Potion of sorts that could do what I needed it to."

Chuuya's brow furrowed, trying to figure out where Dazai was going with this, but remained silent, not wanting to interrupt his partner's explanation.

"A tonic that could link two people's fates together, in the sense that if one person died, the other would too, and in exchange, the solution would grant both people three extra years of... Life, in a way, to wrap up whatever unfinished business remained," Dazai confessed, finally daring to look up at Chuuya.

There were... Many questions Chuuya had about the logistics of that, but one question stood out more than the others. "So you got the tonic, bound our fates or whatever, and then I died using Corruption, killing you too... But we're clearly here, not dead, even if all this is... Interesting to say the least."

By interesting, he was referring to their surroundings. They currently appeared to be laying in a crater six feet down and ten feet wide, practically enclosed by the Earth around them. He'd assumed that it was just one of the after-effect of Arahabaki's rage, but maybe it could have been some form of the afterlife? The afterlife was pretty damn boring though if that was the case.

Dazai sat up, pulling Chuuya with him, hesitating as he tried to figure out a way to explain to him the situation he'd gotten the two of them into, Chuuya using Upon the Tainted Sorrow to lift himself up out of the crater and then pull Dazai up after him.

"We're not... Fully dead," Dazai said as the two of them got their bearings amongst the wreckage of the battle. "But we're not fully living either."

Dazai crouched down to one of the Port Mafia lackeys that lay in a crumpled heap on the ground, reaching out as though to turn him over, but instead, his arm passed straight through him.

"So... We're fucking ghosts then?" Chuuya asked, eyes wide and trying his very hardest not to freak out about this.

"In a way," Dazai acquiesced.

"And we've got three years to figure our shit out?"

Dazai nodded.

Chuuya let out a breath. "That's... A lot to process Osamu."

Dazai reached out to take Chuuya's hand gently in his own, intertwining their fingers before squeezing his hand softly. "I know. And I'm sorry."

Chuuya squeezed his hand back, raising their hands to his lips to gently press a kiss to Dazai's knuckles. "So... What the hell do we do next?"

"I'm... Not sure," Dazai admitted. "But whatever happens, we'll get through it together."

Chapter Text

*Two Years Ago*

It took them time, to figure out how to adjust to this new way of almost living. It was an adjustment, to get used to the fact that they no longer needed to eat or drink or even really sleep anymore, since everything had happened. To figure out the bounds of what they could and couldn't interact with, how to get some semblance of control over their new adjustments, and to figure out the specifics of their supposed unfinished business. 

But they worked through it together, and with the worst of their problems out of the way - after all, things can't really get much worse once you're dead - they found themselves communicating better, avoiding the downfalls that had lead them to the fateful night Soukoku disappeared from the world. 

It was not long after they'd gotten settled into some semblance of a new routine that they were startled from their day by a frantic knocking at the door. 

Chuuya frowned, eyes narrowed as he looked in the direction of the disturbance, glancing at Dazai as if to silently ask if he knew what was going on.

Shaking his head slightly, Dazai headed to the door to open it. After all, there wasn't much risk of danger for the two of them anymore, and there wasn't much to lose by letting his curiosity getting best of him. The door handle, along with the majority of the other things in their new house, were things they could actually touch. With everything else it tended to be hit or miss, and they hadn't quite figured out when they'd go through objects as opposed to when they'd interact with them just yet.

On the other side of the door, on the front step of their new doorway, was none other than Akutagawa himself.

Dazai blinked, stared at his former mentee with as much shock and surprise as Akutagawa seemed to be expressing himself, and then promptly shut the door in his face.

"Mackerel," Chuuya chided. "He more than likely came here for a reason. The least we can do is hear him out."

"We wouldn't have died in the first place if it wasn't for him," Dazai scowled. "Nothing he has to say can possibly lead to a productive conversation."

"Dazai," Chuuya said, taking a step towards the front door.

"It's not worth it!" Dazai protested.

"Osamu," Chuuya sighed, hand on the doorknob. "It's fine."

And with that he opened the door again, revealing a still shell shocked Akutagawa, who looked even more surprised to see Chuuya than he'd been to see Dazai. 

"You- You're alive," Akutagawa said. 

"Alive enough," Chuuya said.

"I watched you succumb to Corruption," Akutagawa said in shock, "I barely managed to survive the blast you let off, Rashomon had to devour all the space around me to avoid being ripped apart by gravity. I couldn't get Dazai to you in time, you should be dead."

Chuuya just raised an eyebrow, stepping aside to allow Akutagawa in. "We... Have much to discuss."

Forty-five minutes and many incredulous explanations later, the three had finally reached some semblance of an understanding.

In the eyes of Mori, the rest of the Port Mafia and the government as a whole, both Dazai and Chuuya were presumed dead. Apart from dealing with the number of casualties the Port Mafia had suffered, most people had moved past the event. But with Akutagawa being the sole survivor of the tragedy, he was still wracked with guilt from all that had happened and had personally done some digging in order to find out their last known abode.

"I didn't- No one expected that night to turn out that way," Akutagawa confessed, the weight of what had happened to the two of them still seeming to heavily press upon him. "The thought was that Chuuya-san would come back to our rankings, and without him to motivate you moving forward, we'd lose Dazai-san as an adversary. Less than half the operation there even knew what Corruption was, it was in no way our intention to force you into making such a choice, and neither of you were intended to lose your lives."

"What's done is done, it can't be changed," Chuuya said, "the only thing we can do now is to move forward."

Dazai however, did not share these opinions, and was still very much against Akutagawa being there at all.

"If there is anything I can do to atone for what's happened-" Akutagawa began, still visibly riddled with guilt.

At this, Dazai perked up. "Is that so?"

Akutagawa's face steeled into an expression that was far less guilt, and far more anger and betrayal. "I was not talking to you."

"God, I need a drink," Chuuya muttered to himself before things could escalate between the two of them any further. "Can ghosts get drunk? It's worth a shot to try and find out, mackerel, did we have any alcohol in the house before we died that I can try and drink?"

Chuuya pushed himself up to his feet, leaving Akutagawa and Dazai behind him as he made his way to their kitchen cabinets to rifle through and see if there was anything in the cupboards he could possibly use to get himself drunk. 

Did he have the faintest idea how the logistics of such an ordeal would work when all previous attempts at consuming food or drink had failed? Absolutely not. However, that was not going to stop him from trying.

Maybe if he tried to phase through a bottle of alcohol and just stopped with the bottle still inside of him, that would work? 

Behind him, he heard Dazai and Akutagawa both get up with a nonzero amount of bickering between him and follow him into the kitchen.

Chuuya very pointedly did not turn around to look at either of them, pretending to be distracted by the barren countertop before him.

Dazai cleared his throat, and Chuuya took a deep breath in, counting to ten to calm his nerves before turning around to face the two of them.

"Are you two going to stop bickering like children?" He asked, eyes flickering between the two of them. "I know you two have some shit you need to work out, but if I have to spend the rest of my afterlife listening to you argue with one another, I will make both of your lives a living hell."

Both Dazai and Akutagawa remained silent, the closest thing either of them could come to an apology in front of the other.

God, they really are too similar for their own good, Chuuya thought to himself. Not that either of them would ever actually come to that conclusion on their own.

"Listen," Chuuya began, letting out a sigh. "Akutagawa, I appreciate your sympathies, but no one could have seen any of that coming, you said it yourself. So there's no need to 'make amends' or any of that bullshit okay? You're not responsible for the fact that Dazai and I died, and you never will be."

Akutagawa shifted his weight uncomfortably from one foot to the other at that statement, looking like he wanted to disagree but refusing to allow himself to do so.

"However, Dazai and I still have a lot to figure out about how to navigate... Whatever the hell this is, and it would be useful-" Chuuya emphasized, glaring at the bandage wasting bastard as he opened his mouth to protest Chuuya's words. "-to have someone living to help us navigate things and bring us things from the outside world, since we don't yet know the boundaries of what we can and can't do in this form."

Akutagawa nodded, relieved at having something he could do to help, and Chuuya just shook his head in silence, wondering where the hell the kid got such a sense of guilt from.

"And Dazai, I know you've never gotten along with Akutagawa, and I know that you blame him for what happened that night, but whether Akutagawa had been there or not, regardless of what he's said or done, there was no physical way for you to get to me with Corruption impacting you physically too, no matter how much you don't want to admit it," Chuuya said, turning his attention to his petulant partner with one eyebrow raised. "The poor kid feels bad enough as it is, so whatever grudge you're holding onto, you should get rid of it now, because we're all in this for the long haul."

Dazai let out a sigh, arms folded over his chest, clearly unhappy with the outcome of the situation, but not willing to argue about it right then and there.

"Now can one of you two help me figure out how to get a drink or what? Because I am not dealing with the rest of this conversation sober."

It would take a long time for him and Dazai to adjust to being dead, and a longer time still for Dazai and Akutagawa to reach something that felt like an understanding, but somehow, they managed to get through it.

After all, they were Soukoku. Dead or alive, together or apart, their unbreakable bond would lead them back to one another and they'd take down their challenges together, as partners.

*Present Day*

"And that's the end of our tale of reckless love, two lovers and partners in crime, meeting their unfortunate end as the consequences of their actions finally caught up to them," Dazai said with a dramatic flair, falling back against Chuuya as the two finished telling their story.

Atsushi stared in shock at the two men before him, jaw practically on the floor by the time they reached the end of their tale. 

"This... This is a joke, right?" he asked, nervously looking between Dazai and Chuuya before glancing at Akutagawa too for good measure. "Ghosts? Like... Actually?"

The legendary Double Black made eye contact with each other, yet another wordless conversation passing between the two of them before all of a sudden both of them shifted backwards through the couch and came out standing on the other side.

Atsushi's jaw dropped straight down to the ground, rubbing at his eyes as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing. "That's- You- I-" He looked to Akutagawa, who merely shrugged at Atsushi's shocked expression.

"It took me a while to wrap my head around it too, but they really are ghosts," Akutagawa admitted, his tone too bored and unimpressed for Atsushi to truly believe that he was being messed with. "Though really, if anyone was going to pull off the impossible and bring themselves back from the dead, I shouldn't be surprised that it was these two. They always find a way to do the most unexpected thing as though it's second nature to them."

"So you- But then-" Atsushi stumbled over his words, trying to reconceptualize his entire perspective of the two men that had now made their way back to the couch in front of him. It made sense now why their house was so barren he supposed, if they had just moved into it before their deaths and were no longer able to interact with much outside of it.

Did they still have their old place then? Was it still waiting for them, filled with all their old stuff? And didn't they say there was a time limit to how long their ghost-hood would last?

"Wait, so what convinced you that the vials would work then?" Atsushi asked, forcing himself to try and focus on just one thing at a time instead of the barrage of questions he had for the three of them all at once. "When you met up with Lee for the second time, what is it Jules and Ro did that made you so sure that it would work?"

"I couldn't touch Jules to cancel out whatever supposed ability was on effect on her because my hand went right through her," Dazai said simply. "Clearly something had made the two of them incorporeal and I was inclined to believe Lee... It wasn't as though he was widely advertising what his compound could do, if he was trying to scam people he would have been more obvious about it, I still had to go digging to find him and with my reputation it would have been very unwise to lie to me in the first place. Between his general skittishness and his clear fear of me, it seemed obvious that he wasn't trying to cheat me out of what I was paying him for. Seeing proof that it actually worked, that Ro and Jules had managed to pass off as the living up until the point I went to make physical contact... It was exactly what I had been looking for, and I didn't see a point in waiting to use it any longer."

Atsushi nodded, processing this information, trying to calm himself down at the shock of what had happened. "Didn't you say you had a time limit? The whole... Ghost thing wasn't going to last forever? You had three years right? And it's been... Two now? Since you... Died? Have you managed to finish your unfinished business? What happens if you finish it early? What happens if you don't finish on time? Do you even know what your unfinished business is? How do you-"

"Slow your roll there kid," Chuuya said, cutting him off. "One thing at a time."

Atsushi took a deep breath, head still whirling at the fact that all of this was real. Just a few hours ago, he'd accepted his inevitable turn to a life of crime in order to stop himself from starving to death, and now he was living with two ghosts that had once worked for the mafia, and-

He really had to stop himself from following down that particular train of thought or else it was going to send him back to the verge of hysterics again.

"Yes, we did have three years from the date of our death in order to finish our unfinished business," Chuuya began, keeping his tone calm and level headed. "Two of those three years have now passed, leaving us with one year more to get everything together. We have not managed to accomplish that goal quite yet, otherwise-"

"We'd be alive again," Dazai cut in, a ridiculous grin spreading across his face as he delivered the news. 

"What," Akutagawa asked, choking on air in his shock at that information. "You've never told me that before! Why didn't you mention there was a way to bring you back? You're telling me you knew of this the entire time?? And never said anything at all? How could you have wasted two whole thirds of your time left when we could have been doing something to help fix all this!"

"It wasn't the right time," Chuuya said, doing his best to calm the situation before Dazai could take things too out of hand. "You know how the bastard is with his stupid last minute plans where everything somehow turns out okay in the end. We've been over this before, and though I was reluctant at first, I can see how he came up with the plan that he did. We've got it under control."

Akutagawa clenched his fists at his side, jaw clenched so tightly Atsushi could see his muscles twitch in his neck. "If... You insist."

The words seemed like a struggle to get out, but Atsushi figured that if he'd found out that there'd been a way to bring back his two ghost friends from the undead and they had just conveniently decided not to mention it, he'd be pretty upset too.

"I just hope that whatever scheme you've worked your way into is worth risking your lives for," Akutagawa spat, staring down at the ground, and refusing to meet Dazai or Chuuya's eyes.

"Oh please Ryuu," Dazai insisted, his eyes hardening despite the way his tone retained its lighthearted nature. "I would never risk chibi's life for something as trivial as my own hubris."

Atsushi cleared his throat, as though to remind the three men he was still in the same room as them. "If... If it's not too much trouble can I ask one more question?"

"That already was a question dullard," Akutagawa muttered to himself with a roll of his eyes.

At least he's not upset enough to forget to be insulting every second, Atsushi thought to himself as his eyes flickered between Chuuya and Dazai, waiting for one of them to provide him with a response.

Dazai gave a slight nod, indicating for Atsushi to continue on with his question.

"Why... Why save me from the riverbank?" Atsushi asked. "Was it just because of the promise you made to your friend? I'm sure he'd understand that your circumstances are extreme, I mean he can't expect you to try and save orphans even after you've died, that seems like a bit much, shouldn't you be spending your time trying to figure out how to bring yourselves back to life?"

At his words, a smile flickered across Dazai's lips, and Atsushi got the sense that nothing good was going to come from whatever Dazai was about to say next. "Have you ever heard the expression 'kill two birds with one stone' dear Atsushi-kun?"

Hesitantly, Atsushi nodded, the pit of anxiety growing in his stomach.

Dazai leaned forward closer to Atsushi, resting his elbows on the edge of his knees as he smiled wide, a knowing look in his eyes, as though he'd figured the whole thing out already. "The reason I offered you a place to stay when I encountered you on that riverbank was in part because of my promise to Odasaku, yes, but also because you're the one that's going to help Chuuya and I fulfill our unfinished business."