Archive of Our Own ^beta

When Atsushi had woken up that morning, the sun was not as bright as usual, and there wasn’t a lot of light seeping into his dorm from the window. He picked up his cellphone to look at the time and see that he had slept in late, since usually the light woke him up. Either that or a call from Dazai, but there had been nothing that morning. Not even a text.

Atsushi sat up in his cot, stretching, before climbing out of it and walking to the window. He wondered why it was so dark out this morning, especially when he couldn’t hear raindrops hitting the window. It wasn’t storming, yet from inside his room it seemed as though the sky must be covered with storm clouds. When he pulled up the blinds, though, he realized that he was at least partially correct.

No, it wasn’t raining that morning, but the sky was indeed covered with dark clouds. It was snowing, and quite heavily, too. The first snow that Atsushi had seen since he had become part of the Armed Detective Agency.

Atsushi’s eyes widened as he watched the snow pile up on the ground, having the feeling that it wouldn’t let up anytime soon. He wondered now even more why Dazai hadn’t called him yet this morning. Atsushi should have been with the others as soon as anyone had realized it was snowing. The weather was going to make any cases they might have today even more challenging than they usually were, most likely.

It didn’t really matter now, though. The time had already passed. The most that Atsushi could do now was get dressed and head to the Agency, and hope that Kunikida wouldn’t scold him too harshly for being late.

The problem was that, while Atsushi did have warm clothes to wear, he hadn’t yet prepared for a winter storm like this. Hats, gloves, scarves, and winter coats were nowhere to be seen in his dorm. To get to the Agency, he’d have to brave the cold weather outside in only a sweater and his pants.

But he could do it. After all, the Agency wasn’t even that far away from here. He could be there in five minutes flat, no sweat.

Well, no sweat indeed. By the time he actually had reached the Agency, he felt like his limbs were going to fall off. It was so much colder outside than he had expected. He had probably gotten frost bite, or something. He felt like he was going to die of hypothermia before he even reached the room where the others were working.

He opened the door, shaking and shivering, covered in snow, and all heads turned to him.

“Ah, Atsushi! There you are, we’ve been waiting for you!” Dazai called out from his perch on top of the desk in the back of the room.

“You’re late,” Kunikida stated simply.

Neither of them, nor anyone else in the room, seemed to notice just how cold Atsushi really was.

“Oh, lay off, Kunikida. We’re not even doing anything, anyways. It’s a snow day and we don’t even have any cases, for once,” Dazai said, waving his hand dismissively.

“That’s no excuse. What if we had had a case this morning, and Atsushi wasn’t here? Besides, the snow was all the more reason to be on time, as it will definitely cause us problems if and when we get a case today, or any time while the snow sticks around,” Kunikida retorted.

“Sorry, Kunikida… The clouds were blocking the sun so I didn’t get any light into my room, and usually that wakes me up,” Atsushi said, walking further into the room, trailing sludgy footprints across the wooden floor.

“Brat! Take those shoes off and keep them somewhere until they’re dry! Don’t track mud all over the goddamn place!” Kunikida snapped, glaring at Atsushi.

Atsushi flinched a little before bending down to take off his shoes. “Right, sorry, Kunikida. Where should I put them?” he asked.

“On the towel over there with everyone else’s shoes,” Kunikida replied, pointing to said towel.

Atsushi sighed, doing as he was told and bringing the shoes over to the towel. He dropped them with the others before going to find a place to sit at one of the many desks in the room. Everyone else went back to work, but Dazai was staring out one of the windows at the snow.

“It’s really such a nice day out today. We haven’t had a snow day like this in ages,” he said humming softly. He then turned to look at everyone else in the room. “Hey, we don’t have anything better to do at the moment! Why don’t we all go outside and play in the snow?” he suggested.

Kunikida seemed to grimace at Dazai’s suggestion. “No thanks. I’d rather stay in here and keep an eye on things, in case we do end up with something to do today,” he grumbled.

“Aww, Kunikida, why don’t you take a break for just a little while? You always work so hard, why don’t you come play with me for a bit?” Dazai urged.

”No,” Kunikida repeated sternly, making Dazai sigh.

“What about you, Ranpo?” Dazai asked, looking across the room at the man he was addressing. “Playing in the snow today sounds fun, doesn’t it?”

“Nah, Dazai… I need some rest today. Yesterday’s case sure was a doozy! For a second I almost thought my Super Deduction wasn’t going to work!” Ranpo said, kicking his feet up onto his desk and leaning back in his chair, with his arms folded behind his head. “But of course, that’s impossible,” he added, smirking a little.

“Yosano…?” Dazai asked, looking at the women in a near last-ditch attempt to get somebody to go outside with him.

However, Yosano scoffed at the suggestion. “If you want to go act like a child in the snow then be my guest, but I’m staying inside where it’s dry and warm,” she said.

Dazai sighed again. “At this rate I might as well just go outside by myself and lay in the snow naked until I freeze to death,” he murmured.

“Good riddance,” Kunikida snorted.

Atsushi looked at Dazai. “I’d go with you, but I don’t have the right clothes. I’d be the one freezing to death if we went out there together,” he said.

Dazai’s eyes brightened. “Nonsense, Atsushi! You can just borrow Tanizaki’s things, I’m sure he won’t mind!” Dazai’s gaze shifted to the boy in question. “Right, Tanizaki?”

Tanizaki looked up at Dazai. “Eh? Uh, right. Yeah, go ahead and borrow them, Atsushi. I don’t mind,” he said, looking over at Atsushi.

Atsushi smiled faintly at him. “Thanks, Tanizaki. Where is all your stuff, though?” he asked.

“Oh, it’s in that pile over there,” Tanizaki said, pointing to a corner of the room where a coat and some other garments were piled up.

“Thanks,” Atsushi said again, and stood up from his chair to go get the clothes.

Dazai smirked and stood up from the desk to get his own clothes as well. Atsushi and Dazai quickly pulled their coats, hats, shoes, and gloves on, and Dazai rushed to the door to wait for Atsushi. When Atsushi joined him, Dazai pulled the door open and dashed out into the hall. As Atsushi joined Dazai in the hall, he could hear Kunikida mutter one thing before the door closed.

“Good luck.”

Atsushi had no time to wonder about what on Earth Kunikida could have meant by wishing him good luck, for as soon as he was in the hallway, Dazai grabbed his wrist and started pulling him downstairs. It was a miracle that neither of them tripped or fell on their walk to the main door. Dazai grabbed the handle and pulled the door open before shoving Atsushi outside and following him quickly.

Atsushi was much warmer outside this time around. It was still chilly, of course, but it was mostly his legs and face that were cold. His coat, hat, and gloves were all incredibly warm. Now that Atsushi didn’t feel like he was going to die of hypothermia, he had time to admire the snow in peace.

Or, so he thought.

As Atsushi was looking up at the snow while it came down and settled on his face and on his hat, he suddenly felt the collar of his shirt being pulled back, and a second later he felt something incredibly cold and wet sliding down his back. Atsushi gave a loud yelp and jumped forward, trying to reach into the back of his shirt to find out what was there. Dazai started laughing and Atsushi hopped around and snow started falling out from underneath his coat.

“Snow war!!” Dazai shouted, and before Atsushi could say anything in protest, Dazai had started making snowballs and throwing them at Atsushi.

“Hey- Dazai what’re you- Dazai stop it-!!”

“Oh, what? Changed your mind already? You don’t want to have any fun with me?” Dazai asked, halting his snowball barrage for just a moment, and frowning.

Now Atsushi realized why Kunikida had told him “Good luck.” He also realized why no one else gave even a thought to coming outside to play with Dazai. Nobody else wanted to get pelted with Dazai’s snowballs, but nobody had bothered to warn Atsushi not to play with Dazai in the snow.

“No way, Dazai. You didn’t tell me you were coming out here just to kick my ass with snowballs. I’m going back inside,” Atsushi said.

“Oh, come on, Atsushi… Don’t be as totally un-cool as everybody else!! We were having a great time!!” Dazai whined.

“I’m going back inside,” Atsushi repeated, starting to walk back towards the door.

Dazai huffed and turned around, folding his arms over his chest. Big mistake. Atsushi quickly scooped some snow into his hands, making a rugged ball out of it and tossing it hard at the back of Dazai’s neck.

Dazai shrieked and almost keeled over. Now it was Atsushi’s turn to laugh. Dazai gasped indignantly.

“That was cruel, Atsushi! Making me think you were leaving me all alone out here, only to turn around and throw snow at me when I wasn’t ready!” he wailed.

Atsushi smirked at him. “Hey, you’re the one who shoved snow down my back, first,” he said.

Dazai smirked back at him. “Are you ready to fight for real, now?” he asked.

“Bring it on,” Atsushi replied.

Atsushi dashed off behind the Agency building, finding a place to hide so that he could easily create ammunition for this fight, while Dazai searched for him. Dazai wasn’t going after that boy without being prepared, though. Dazai stopped to make his own ammunition as well.

In a few minutes, both Dazai and Atsushi had tall piles of snowballs. Dazai dared to venture into finding Atsushi, carrying just a few of his snowballs with him. When he found Atsushi, he threw the snowballs that he had before running off back to his pile, with Atsushi following behind him.

The two pelted each other with snowballs for what seemed like ages, until their pants were so wet they could feel their legs getting jelly-like. Their faces were going numb, as well. Both of them were so exhausted that they ended up just collapsing next to each other in the snow, and laying there for a bit, panting.

Dazai looked over at Atsushi, who subsequently shifted his gaze over to Dazai. “I think we ought to call this a draw,” he said, smiling softly.

Atsushi smiled back at him. “I think so, too.”

“We should probably get inside, if we’re finished. Kunikida will scold us if we complain about how frozen our legs are, or if we catch cold and can’t do our work,” Dazai said.

Atsushi nodded. “Yeah, you’re right…” he said, pushing himself into a sitting position. “Come on, let’s go inside,” he urged as he stood up, and bent down to give Dazai a hand.

Dazai took Atsushi’s hand and smiled broader as Atsushi pulled him to his feet. They both dusted off their gloves before walking back around to the front of the building. Dazai took off one of his gloves and then took Atsushi’s hat off to ruffle his hair before pulling the door open and holding it for Atsushi. Atsushi couldn’t help but laugh, and stuck his tongue out at Dazai before going inside.

It was a quiet day. A day unlike any that Atsushi had had since he joined the Agency, or even since he had been kicked out of the orphanage. He was glad he had gotten to spend it with Dazai.