Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Chuuya let out a sigh, he'd just finished up his work earlier and he was about to leave, but for some reason, he was going to the boss' office instead.

Ane-san had told him Mori had a mission for him or something, which would have been fine— if it wasn't for the damn mackerel walking beside him. His presence seriously pissed Chuuya off, which leads him to wonder why on earth the boss paired them up so often. Right now, Dazai is whining, like an idiot. we have to see Mori! And I was nearly having a good day! Not to mention you're here too..' or something like that. Honestly, Chuuya didn't really know.. or care.
He tried his best to ignore the boy beside him as he walked, but it proved to be impossible, especially with the number of times the idiot would keep poking him— uh, and get pushed away.

At some point, the whining just turned into insults like 'this is why you're so short' or 'you should really drink more milk!'
At first, Chuuya told him he was still growing, and insulted him back. It didn't stop there though, so Chuuya punched him in the face, but gave up on getting him to shut up when his short jokes turned into dog jokes.

"Bad dog! Bad dog!" Yelled Dazai, quickly recovering from the punch. Chuuya's eye twitched as he felt a headache coming on. None of the other mafiosos approached them on the way there, so Chuuya was spared the frustration of having to answer stupid over-asked questions about things he didn't want to tell them. He let out a sigh and began to walk faster, in hopes of getting Dazai off his tai— uh. Away from him. Because he's not a dog and doesn't have a tail.

After a walk that seemed to last forever, they finally got to Mori's office. Chuuya greeted the boss in a respectful manner before getting up, while Dazai just hovered to his side, poofing Elise out of existence on his way. The boss was really too lenient with him.

"Mori, why did you disturb my tea break?"

"I didn't know fish could drink tea"

"And I didn't know dogs could talk, so?"

Mori cleared his throat before the fight could escalate— which with these two, could happen at any moment.

"Alright boys, let's not fight here, hm? Chuuya, I have a mission for you."

Chuuya's ears perked up. He'd do well to listen carefully.

"You will be going to Collège Françoise Dupont."

That earned an eyebrow from both Dazai and Chuuya. Dazai scoffed, had he figured something out?

"A college?"

"A high school."

"That's even worse."

"Hear me out before you come to conclusions, Chuuya..."

Mori sighed, looking a bit too amused to be as tired as he made himself out to be, Chuuya stayed silent, waiting for the boss to continue. He couldn't really just show a middle finger and walk away anyways, so he'd probably have to do the mission regardless of his thoughts.

"Alright, most ability users reside in Yokohama, or migrate here ever since the war. But abilities had existed long before that. They wouldn't be treated fairly, though. There was lots of discrimination and the ability users had to conceal themselves, pushing away both their potential and their greatness. But it just so happened, a group of ability users created— ah. That should be enough for now, no?"

Chuuya blinked, admittedly, he had gotten quite into the story... Uh- briefing. Not story.

"What?" He asked, puzzled.
"I apologise, Chuuya-kun... But the likeliness of this plan succeeding if I explain it to you is..."

Beside Mori, Dazai put a hand over his mouth, though he gave no effort to actually hide the fact he was snickering— quite a bit, actually. The bastard knew something, it was obvious.

"So you just—!"

"Chuuya-kun, if you don't start packing now you may not make it in time tomorrow.."

"Tomorrow?!"

"I'd like to get this over with as soon as possible."

Chuuya wanted to fight, but ran out the door— nevermind, jumped out the window instead. He was running out of precious time, he really needed to pack.
Dazai blankly stared at the window Chuuya jumped out through for a few moments, an innocent look, though it looked a little less than terrifying on him. After all, he was the Black Wraith of the port mafia. The Demonic Prodigy, One not to Cross, an Accident Waiting to Happen, the Youngest Executive of the Port Mafia. Mori's right hand man. And yet, all these people disappeared the moment Dazai swiftly turned back to face Mori, a large grin on his face, and now, only Osamu Dazai remained. Until the next time he will need to be someone else once more. Until the next time Osamu Dazai will need to be tucked away for safe keeping.

"The story of the ability users who created those magic jewels?" Dazai asked, laughing a bit.

"It's not just a story, Dazai-kun— ah-! Please step away from the window, I'd rather not have your corpse disturb those who are working."

"Mhm.. so, what now?" Dazai asked, tilting his head before continuing, the light shining, making his eyes glint red, a thin smile forming on his face ,"and what's in it for me?"

Elise appeared once more, as Mori summoned her and rushed over to a drawer, before running towards Dazai and handing him a note, keeping her distance while doing so. Dazai raised an eyebrow while opening it, but a look of disbelief soon replaced it.

"You're kidding me..." He said, though his smile contradicted his tone of voice.

"It's all yours."

*•. Miraculous!  *•.________________________

Chuuya stared out the window, in a few more minutes, he'd be in Paris.

Everything following that went into a haze, and before he knew it, he was walking down a street, feeling tired, the jetlag catching up to him faster than he'd like.
He took his phone out beside a bakery, to check for his hotel's name and location, he was literally just standing there, so there was no way someone could walk into him, right? Well, that's somewhat true— Marinette Dupain Cheng ran into him, spilling some drinks she was holding all over the both of them in the process, Chuuya quickly activated his gravity manipulation to prevent himself from falling, and his hand reflexively went to his hat, but his phone wasn't as protected...

"The hell?!"

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry! Are you alright?!"

Marinette proceeded to trip over once more, landing right on top of Chuuya's phone, he helped her up, frustrated and really not getting a good first impression, you could only imagine his horror at seeing the state of his phone..

"My phone..." He barely made out, staring at used to be his phone. How was it humanely possible to be so blind? He was literally standing right there.

He wasn't so short that she couldn't see him, he knew that for a fact. No matter how much Dazai might've exaggerated it time after time, he really wasn't that short.

He wanted to get mad, to cause a scene. How would he even know where to go now? He didn't even pack any money because he was going to use his damn phone for payments, dammit!! What was he meant to do now? Just live on the bloody streets? He couldn't even get as mad as he'd like to because it may hinder his mission... Whatever it's supposed to be.

A couple who look like they may be the girl's parents come outside the bakery, likely seeing what happened.

"Our daughter is really clumsy at times, please don't be so mad at her.. Maybe we could help you pay for the the repair?" Said the black haired lady, looking apologetic.

"Everything was on that phone! I don't have money, or even the address of the hotel I'm supposed to stay at without it!" Exclaimed Chuuya, unable to control himself. The taller man and the woman stayed close, huddled together.

"Oh dear... We're so sorry, we didn't know that .. maybe we could help you? We could.. perhaps you could stay with us until your phone is fixed?" They asked, Chuuya felt like he'd been punched in the gut. He saw the scene more clearly now; the couple was huddled together, holding each other close. The girl was visibly penitent, having already picked up his broken phone. They were scared of him. This lovely couple was willing to fix his phone and give him a place to stay— and yet he mistreated them so much.

His anger slowly subsided and his senses came to him once more.

"I'm ... Sorry for how I acted before" he apologized, the girl approached him. Surprisingly enough, she was shorter than him. (Take that, Dazai! Chuuya wasn't so short after all, huh.)
"I'm really sorry for breaking your phone too, it looks really expensive.."

"It was"

The girl but her lip, looking uneasy, how would they help pay such a large bill?

"Hey, hey it's fine. You guys don't have to help pay for the repair. I'll figure it out."

He said with a sigh, the couple looked like they really wanted to help, but they had no clue how they could. They wouldn't be able to offer much anyways, helping pay for a most likely pricy repair... It would be like throwing sand on their own heads.

"On the other hand, I would still like if you would be kind enough to let me stay in your home for a while.."

Chapter Text

Chuuya had been staying with the Dupain-Cheng family for a while now. The girl's name was Marinette, and the couple's names were Tom and Sabine. Overall, they were very good company. It was safe to say, they were really— really sweet.

Over the past week or so they've given him nothing but kindness, not to mention the joy that always sparkled in their eyes... It was beautiful, truly a sight to behold.
Rather than that, he's noticed that Marinette... well, she was.. something. He couldn't get any other words to describe it, because a while back, it seemed humanly impossible to be so.. so clumsy, but now? Marinette. Chuuya has grown to find it funny recently, though. It seemed like her parents found it cheerful as well, because whenever Marinette messed something up she always fixed it in the silliest ways possible, like the time when she nearly dropped some plates she was carrying! She was in an extremely awkward position, but it worked. She had plates balancing on her hands, head and legs but she still had that aura around her that made her so enjoyable to be around, even when she was like that. That vibe that no one but Marinette could pull off. So then comes the question... Where did that Marinette go? Why was this one hunched over the table with her head in her plate looking so dull?

"What's up, Rinette?" Chuuya asked, his voice somewhat muffled by the food in his mouth, to which Marinette just responded with a groan.

Sabine walked up to Chuuya holding a few macarons, which Chuuya gladly took, "her school is opening again"
Chuuya raised his eyebrow at that— wasn't school supposed to be something good? He knew that some kids didn't really like it, but was that really the reason for this expression?

"It's not school that's the problem, mom!! It's Chloe! I can't stand her, but I know she's going to be in my class, again."

" Is that even possible? You've already been in the same class for three years.."

"Definately. Lucky me..!!" She said the last bit sarcastically.

"Don't say that, it's the start of a new year..I know you'll be fine." Comforted her mother, giving her a kiss on the forehead. Marinette gave her a smile, placing down the box of cereal she was putting in her bowl, the force somehow managing to push an orange out of the fruitbowl, the orange slid down a cracker then onto a butterknife that had been resting on top of some unsalted butter, Marinette desperately tried stopping it, and just then, as it hit the milk— !!

"Carreful there." Warned Chuuya, catching the milk as well as that naughty orange that nearly caused more trouble than necessary in a single day. This had somewhat become a habit, Marinette comes extremely close to messing something up and Chuuya manages to stop it just in time. It's gotten to the point where Chuuya wondered if Marinette secretly had an uncontrollable ability like No Longer Human that caused her to be so clumsy.

"Sorry, sorry..!" exclaimed Marinette, taking the orange from his hand and keeping it back in the bowl.

"Alright now, who's Chloe? Did I miss an episode or something?" Asked Chuuya, genuinely curious. But from what he could currently tell, this 'Chloe' was definately not a friend.
"Well, she's—"

"Marinette, come check out these macarons!" Called out Tom— Marinette's father, unknowingly interrupting whatever she was going to say next.
Her face instantly lit up, awe replacing her glum expression.
"Dad, these look awesome! The class will love these!! You're the best!" she explained, triggering Chuuya's curiosity, which resulted in him peaking into the box as well, in the end he found himself oblivious to the rest of the house— just staring at the macaroons instead. Huh. Those did look good. Sabine must've noticed Chuuya's stare, because she brought out some more macaroons and offered them to him, causing him to flush, just a little, hiding his face with one hand, his other on his hip "darn it..I didn't mean to stare, I'm sorry.." he said, looking embarrassed— Sabine just smiled "oh, I'm glad to give you pasteries, dear, you'll have to ask me more often."
Tom walked up, holding a notebook with a drawing of their bakery's logo on it," did you know? It was actually our Marinette that made the bakery's logo!" He said, it had become a habit for Tom to boast about his daughter any chance he got. He had to admit though, that design did look good. Did Marinette want to study designing? It would fit her. The word 'study' brought up a thought of that mission he had forgotten about.

"Hold on... Marinette, where do you study?" He asked, that was the right question, right? He didn't really know, but the point should get across either way, so.
"Oh- well, I go to Collège Françoise Dupont" said Marinette, the long school name coming out of her mouth easily. Regrettably, Chuuya had forgotten it a few times, but with how much he read the name over and over on his flight he knew for sure—

"That's the school I'm supposed to go to."

This was good... This meant the mission wasn't lost!

"Which grade are you in again?"

"I'm in the ninth grade!"

"No way? So am I!"

Sabine walked up to Marinette, hugging her from behind as Ton put a hand around the both of him, bringing Chuuya closer as well," Maybe this year won't be that bad after all, right dear? Even if Chloe ends up in your class." Marinette smiled as well, maybe she believed it to be true as well.

Chuuya found his eyes wandering around the new ... temporary home. A thought wandered through his head. In the blogs he read... Weren't ninth graders supposed to be fourteen?!