Archive of Our Own ^beta

Marinette darted into the classroom just as the final bell rang through the school. She shouted a quick “sosorryimlatemsbustier”, tripped up the stairs and hurriedly dove into her seat next to Alya, nearly knocking the other girl over in her enthusiasm.

Ms Bustier chuckled, and replied, “Marinette, good of you to join us on time.” Marinette blushed slightly, giggled nervously and pointedly ignored the chuckle that sounded throughout the rest of the class.

Ms Bustier carried on talking about whatever she was talking about, and Marinette slumped on her desk, groaning. Alya snickered to herself and patted Marinette on the back in comfort.

“Oversleep again, girl?”

Marinette grumbled into the wood of her desk something unintelligible and Alya snorted.

Just as Marinette was about to say something exceptionally witty (read: something stupid) in response, Ms Bustier clapped.

“Now class, if I could have everyone’s attention, I’d like to introduce your new classmates! This is Marc Anciel and Nathaniel Kurtzberg!” Ms Bustier announced, gesturing to the two awkward-looking kids next to her that Marinette hadn’t noticed in her race to get in the classroom.

She watched as the two new students quietly responded, with a verbal “hi” from Nathaniel and a soft wave from Marc. She put her hand up.

“Hey, I’m Marinette, the class representative, if you need anything at all you can ask me! I’m always around to help,” she smiled at them as charmingly as she could. New students were her expertise, as she was always the first to reach out to someone and make friends.

These two nodded at her, and walked to the back of the classroom where Ms Bustier told them they were supposed to sit.

Class went on basically as normal from then on, including Lila’s daily interruptions to talk about her own ‘adventures’. Every so often, Marinette snuck a glance behind her, determined to get to know her newest classmates.

~~~

Chuuya was going to kill Mori.

Honestly, going to school for a mission was one thing, but being given specific personalities for the characters they had to play? Awful. Why the hell was Chuuya a shy art kid? Was Mori making fun of him?!

To make matters worse, he was sat next to a really annoying girl. She just would not shut up about her stupid stories, to the point that it was interrupting the lessons. This Lila girl should be glad Kouyou forced him to go to anger management therapy, otherwise he would’ve sent her to the fucking ceiling.

And as the icing on the dog shit cake, Dazai didn’t look bothered at all. The dumbass wasn’t even trying to act shy, and was actively picking at his nails.

At least he wasn’t sat with him. This sausage-haired idiot wasn’t ideal, no way, but she was better than being directly next to the bastard known as Dazai Osamu. Or, to these kids, Marc Anciel. Seriously, who came up with their names? And why did Chuuya have to have the last name that wasn’t even french? Fucking Mori.

Whatever. They wouldn’t be here for long. They’d finish this mission and go home to Yokohama, all as quickly as possible. They had only been gone a day but Chuuya was missing his wine stash. Maybe he could find some here, he was in Paris after all.

Still, home wasn’t too long away for the redhead. And by god was he looking forward to it.

~~~

Class of your mom

sewing fairy: hey everyone! i’m gonna add Marc and Nathaniel here, since they’ve officially joined our class!

sewing fairy has added 1 user

sewing fairy: hi Marc! this is our class chat, please ignore the name Alix came up with it

kind of aro: fuck yeah i did

Marc: ahhh thank you marinette ◝(ᵔᗜᵔ)◜ ⋆⭒˚.⋆
Marc: unfortunately the slug doesn’t have an account :P⋆.˚

alYES: uh slug?

mackerel: yep, slug ( ˶ˆ꒳ˆ˵ )

alYES: …okay

bubblegum: hiiii marc!!!

Marc: hellooo, whoever you are!

sewing fairy: oh, yeah, if everyone could say who they are for Marc that would be great :) i’m marinette!

alYES: alya, i sit next to mari

niNO: nino, it was good to meet you guys today! i sit in front of mari and alya

bubblegum: i’m rose, and @marceline is juleka! we’re the ones
sat on the other back row :)

chronically blonde: Hey! I’m Adrien :) I sit next to Nino!

carpenter: hiya i’m sabrina! i’m the ginger one in the front row in class

sharpay evans: Chloe Bourgeois. I sit next to Sabrina.

anarqueen: hey i’m mylene! i’m the one with the multicoloured hair, and @anarking is my boyfriend, Ivan! I sit next to Alix :)

anarking: hey :)

Marc: ahh, anarchy puns? classy

our angel<3: Hello!! I’m Lila, I sit next to Nathaniel!

Marc: ah yes, the slug had a lot to say about you (∗˃̶ ᵕ ˂̶∗)

our angel<3: Is that good or bad?

Marc: so who are the other three??

kind of aro: prepare for trouble!

kind of dumb: make it double!

kind of aro: to protect the world from devastation!

kind of dumb: to unite all peoples within our nation!

kind of aro: to denounce the evils of truth and love!

kind of dumb: to extend our reach to the stars above!

kind of aro: alix!

kind of dumb: kim!

kind of aro: team rocket, blast off at the speed of light!

kind of dumb: surrender now, or prepare to fight!

kind of ace: Max. That’s right.

kind of dumb: aww come on maxie uve gotta put more effort in!!

kind of ace: No.

kind of aro: lmaooo

alYES: do you guys seriously have to do that every time we add someone new

kind of aro: yes

kind of dumb: yes

kind of ace: Apparently yes.

Marc: well i found it VERY entertaining! (๑>◡<๑)

kind of aro: finally someone with taste

sewing fairy: anyway, Marc! i hope you and Nathaniel settle in well, we’re all happy to have you guys!

Marc: i’m sure we will, thank you marinette! (ㅅ´ ˘ `)

Dazai shut off his phone and threw it next to him on the bed. Wow, those people were aggressively welcoming. It was almost funny. Almost.

He sighed loudly, and kicked his feet in the air. Stupid slug wanting to take a shower. He was bored, and if he couldn’t bully his hatrack what was he supposed to do for fun?

He thought back to class that day. It was excitingly new, but had become boring quickly. There was a reason he never went to school. Besides, why would he ever need to know about King Louis XVII and Marie Antoinette escaping from the french revolution dressed as peasants? School is pointless.

He said as much to Odasaku, griping to him over text about his boring day and stupid slug being stupid. Oda didn’t respond, he was probably at work after all. Stupid time zones.

Finally, Dazai heard the sound of the water being turned off. He grinned evilly, and rolled on the bed so he was facing the wall, away from the bathroom door.

He heard the door open, and Chuuya walked past him completely. It took about 30 seconds for Chuuya to notice something was wrong.

“Hey, bastard, where’s my hat?”

Dazai giggled to himself.

Chuuya scoffed and started digging around their tiny one bedroom apartment looking for it, only to come up empty-handed and even more annoyed.

“Where the fuck is my hat, dumbass?” he shouted at Dazai.

Dazai rolled over to face him, the picture of pure innocence, and replied, “I don’t know, Chuuuuuya, but a hat as tacky as yours will end up in a dumpster one day.”

“Oh for the love of- go to fucking hell, bastard.” Chuuya stomped off in the direction of the trash bin in their room and immediately grabbed his hat out of it. He brushed it off and put it on the bedside cabinet, out of Dazai’s reach.

Chuuya sat down at the foot of the bed and started brushing through his hair. Dazai gazed up at the ceiling, periodically kicking Chuuya in the side. They were both silent. It was unusual for them, being so quiet around each other, but Chuuya was tired and Dazai was content with the silence just then.

Or at least until the familiar notes of Mori’s ringtone sounded through the room.

Dazai let it ring.

Sure, he’d probably get in trouble for ignoring the Boss, but right now he didn’t care. If Mori wanted something, he could wait until Dazai wanted to talk.

Chuuya, his hair fully brushed, clambered up the bed and leaned against the headboard on Dazai’s right.

Mori had arranged for their apartment, but for whatever unknown reason had given them the tiniest one he could find. One-bedroom, 500 square feet, barely room for them both. Even more importantly, 500 square feet meant only room for one bed.

So there they were, the infamous Double Black, sharing a cramped bed in a cramped apartment in a cramped part of Paris.

Just what they always wanted.

Dazai’s phone finally stopped ringing, and Chuuya shot him a glance. Dazai had shed his coat, but was still wearing his full suit. Chuuya kicked his leg, and said, “you should get changed, it’s getting late.”

“Chibi wants to see me out of my clothes, hm?”

Chuuya rolled his eyes. “I meant that we should go to sleep, we have to be up crazy early tomorrow. And I doubt you’d want to sleep in your suit.”

Dazai groaned dramatically, but got off the bed and rummaged in his suitcase for sleep clothes all the same.

“So, what did you ‘deduce’ about the kids in that school, mackerel?” Chuuya asked, mockingly curling his fingers in air-quotes.

Dazai shrugged. “They’re just regular teenagers. Nothing special. That’s what you’re supposed to think, anyway. That Marinette girl is obviously hiding something, so is Adrien.”

Chuuya snorted. “Yeah, and they both just so happen to be the spitting image of Ladybug and Chat Noir.”

Dazai clicked and pointed a finger in his direction. “Exactly. It’s insane nobody else has pieced it together. Neither of them are subtle in the slightest.” Dazai started changing, and Chuuya kept his eyes trained on his fingers, busying himself with picking at the skin around his nails.

“What about anything to do with the mission, you noticed anything?” the ginger asked.

“Frustratingly little.” Dazai hummed in response. “But, that’s what this week is for, isn’t it!” Dazai clambered back onto the bed in his sleep clothes, chattering happily about their plans for the coming week.

Chuuya noted he was still wearing his bandages.

~~~

5am. Way too early to be functioning.

That was Chuuya’s opinion, anyways, but they had been staking out a specific base every morning for the past two weeks that Mori had put particular emphasis on. Apparently, this is where the uprisings started that got Chuuya and Dazai sent on this mission. A small faction in the Port Mafia’s French branch had rebelled for no apparent reason, and Double Black were sent to find out exactly why they rebelled and what they wanted. And to beat them up.

Dazai had sat them basically inside some bushes with a near-birdseye view of the base, watching the front doors intently. Chuuya huffed, making part of his fringe flutter in the air. He wasn’t built for shit like this. He was built for impulse, for violence, not sitting around doing fuck all. But, as much as he hated to admit it, Dazai knew how to plan, and if he said this was what they needed to do then Chuuya would do it, albeit begrudgingly.

They sat there whisper arguing with each other for about an hour before something happened.

A very sketchy looking person dragged a decently sized crate right out of the front door. They clearly weren’t authorised to do so, as they were dragging it along the ground, damaging the corners. Dazai and Chuuya watched as they hoisted it up higher, dropped it on their toes, swore as quietly as they could, and finally settled on shoving the crate from behind into the woods surrounding the base.

Chuuya looked at Dazai, tilting his head in the direction of the mystery person. Dazai shook his head, and looked back at the base. That person was just a distraction.

After another hour, Chuuya was starting to doubt Dazai’s choice to leave the mystery person alone, when a jeep pulled up to the front. Two people got out, one with a walking stick of some kind. They walked up to the entrance, and were let inside the base.

Dazai motioned for Chuuya to follow, and together they crept down to the jeep. As silently as possible, they searched the jeep for anything they could find. Dazai found a pair of sunglasses, and Chuuya found a ripped piece of fabric. That was all they could snag before someone noticed them, and they legged it through the woods again, into the sunrise.

Once they had gotten back to the city, Dazai snatched the fabric out of Chuuya’s hands and inspected it closely. Chuuya, his hands on his knees and catching his breath, let him without too much argument. Two whole weeks here and all they managed to get was sunglasses and a piece of fabric. How stupid.

Dazai grabbed Chuuya’s wrist and started dragging him through the city. Chuuya had no choice but to follow, but not without swearing up a storm at the other. Seriously, the nerve of him to drag Chuuya around like some fucking rag doll.

“Where the fuck are we going, bastard?!” Chuuya yelled.

Dazai just rolled his eyes. “Wow, chibi’s even stupider than I thought. It’s nearly 8am, and we’re on the opposite side of the city to school, which we need to go to.”

“Oh. Right.” Chuuya flushed slightly, embarrassed he forgot about that. He finally wrenched his wrist out of Dazai’s hold and fell into step next to him.

Deciding to change the subject from his blunder, Chuuya asked, “So, anything you’ve figured out from what we got?”

Dazai hummed. “A hunch, but that’s about it.”

“Care to share, or are you just gonna be secretive about it?”

A smirk spread its way across Dazai’s cheeks, and he remained silent. Chuuya huffed and kicked a stone in his way, sending it flying.

The two arrived at the steps of Collège Françoise Dupont, and were about to climb up them when Dazai stopped. Marinette and Alya were chatting in front of the steps, and Dazai pondered something. He remembered Marinette’s username was ‘sewing fairy’, so maybe she could decipher something from the fabric?

He waltzed up to the pair, charming grin on his face, and addressed them both.

“Hey, Marinette, Alya, how are you both?”

Marinette flinched and whirled to face him, and Alya just smiled and waved her fingers at him with her hand holding her bag strap.

“Marc! Hey! It’s good to see you! I’m all good, yeah! How are you guys?” Marinette asked, looking between Dazai and Chuuya.

Dazai chattered happily with the two girls, and Chuuya just watched. Whatever the bastard was planning, Chuuya didn’t know hide nor hair of it. Still, Chuuya wanted to know what Dazai was thinking. So he stayed where he was, on the outskirts of the group’s conversation. Really playing the part of the shy art kid well, Chuuya.

A sleek sports car pulled up in front of the group, and Adrien Agreste got out and waved to the driver. He walked up to the group, smiling at them all.

“Hello, Marinette!” He directed at the girl.

“H-h-hey! A-Adrien! You are how? I MEAN- how you are? NO I MEAN- how are you?” she frantically stumbled over her words, blushing violently.

Dazai took a step back to let the chaos that was Marinette trying to talk to Adrien ensue, and stood next to Chuuya. Subtly, he showed Chuuya the fabric and murmured, “Marinette said it’s a designer fabric, though she couldn’t pinpoint which one.”

“So, what, we just go around finding all the fashion designers and matching this to all of their pieces?” Chuuya asked quietly.

Dazai nodded, grinning again. Chuuya sighed. So much work.

The bell rang, and the group made their way inside, bumping into Nino on the way. They all walked into the classroom together, heading to their own seats. Chuuya’s eyes narrowed when he noticed Lila there already. He really, really didn’t like that girl. She so clearly lied about everything, how couldn’t the others see that?

Dazai took his seat next to Ivan, in the row in front of Chuuya. He took out his phone, opened a messaging app, and started typing furiously. Chuuya dismissed this, he was probably just texting Oda. The rest of the school day went on as usual.

~~~

Over the past two weeks, Chuuya and Dazai had managed to fully integrate themselves into the class. Everyone knew them, and had even offered olive branches of friendship. Another one was offered at lunch, and this time neither boy could find it in them to decline.

“So, Kitty Section rehearsals, are we all gonna be there?” Marinette had started.

The others had nodded. Rose beamed enthusiastically at Dazai and Chuuya, and said, “you guys should come watch us practice! It would be amazing if you could!”

Everyone around them had seemed to brighten, and agreed as enthusiastically as Rose had. Double Black glanced at each other, and ultimately caved. They were now officially hanging out with the main friend group of their year outside of school.

And that was how Chuuya found himself sat on a box pressed up against Marinette, listening to the band play.

Admittedly, they were good. Really good, actually. And the blue-haired lead guitarist was pretty cute. Chuuya decided against anything, however, when he noticed how longingly the guy gazed at Marinette. Instead, Chuuya glanced at Dazai, squished next to him and the side of the houseboat. He had an air of nonchalance about him, but Chuuya knew better than that. His mind was moving at a million miles a minute, piecing together all the information they had and rolling it around.

The song finished, and Rose looked at the two of them somewhat expectantly.

“So? What do you guys think?” she asked innocently.

Chuuya nodded, subtly elbowing Dazai to bring him back. “It was good, you guys are awesome.” He replied. Rose and the others beamed, happy that he enjoyed it.

“Do either of you two play anything?” The lead guitarist asked. Chuuya shook his head at the same time that Dazai said, “Chibi sings!”

Rose perked up at that. She skipped over to Chuuya and handed him her microphone, encouraging him to sing for them all. He shot a scowl at Dazai, trying to turn down her offer as politely as he could, but overall was shoved onto the stage.

He huffed, and glared as Dazai grinned at him and shot him a mocking thumbs up.

In the middle of trying to kill Dazai with his eyes, Chuuya heard a very familiar song title. He whipped his head round to the blue-haired guy, and without thinking, blurted, “How do you know I like that song?”

The blue-haired guy shrugged, a small smile on his face. “Your inner melody sounds similar to it.” Was the only answer he gave Chuuya.

Chuuya didn’t have time to react, as blue-hair counted everyone in and the song started. Instantaneously, Chuuya locked onto the rhythm and started singing.

As he belted out the final line and the song closed, Chuuya grinned.

He always felt so free when he sang.

He felt a hand on his shoulder, and looked back at blue-hair guy smiling down at him.
“That was amazing, you really did Trash Candy justice! You should definitely sing with us more.” A resounding “yes” could be heard from the rest of the band.

Chuuya thought about it for three full seconds before agreeing.

~~~

Class of your mom

sewing fairy: hey guess what! Luka helped Nathaniel make an account! i’m gonna add him here :)

sewing fairy has added 1 user

Nathaniel: hey

bubblegum: hi nathaniel!!! you were awesome today!!!

Nathaniel: thanks rose

niNO: yeah dude, you killed it!

sewing fairy: it was amazing!

our angel<3: What happened?

anarqueen: oh, lila, you should’ve been there! nathaniel sang at kitty section’s practice today and he was awesome!

our angel<3: Oh, that’s nice! I wish I had been invited, though…

bubblegum: next time for sure, Lila!!!

sewing fairy: yeah. sure.

chronically blonde: Hello Nathaniel!

Nathaniel: hey adrien

kind of aro: how come luka helped u make an account

Nathaniel: we talked after practice and he wanted to be able to contact me for kitty section if i’m needed

kind of dumb: ooo he wanted to contact youuuu

bubblegum: aww, that’s so sweet

Nathaniel: what

marceline: if it helps hes been talking about you a lot

alYES: do i sense a ship~

Marc: hatrack!!!

kind of aro: who’s that directed at

Nathaniel: the fuck do you want, dumbass

kind of aro: oh

Marc: go get me some water :3

Nathaniel: get your own fucking water bastard, you have legs

Marc: much longer legs than yours, right chibi?

Nathaniel: YOU MOTHERFUCKER

sewing fairy: ???

kind of aro: go kill him nath
kind of aro: us short people gotta stick together

chronically blonde: Why did Nathaniel respond to being called hatrack?

alYES: that’s actually a really good question, well done agreste

chronically blonde: Thanks!

Marc: i survived (˶ˆ꒳ˆ˵) ୭ ˚. ᵎᵎ

Nathaniel: fuck you

chronically blonde: Yay!

carpenter: are you two usually like this?

Marc: yep!! chibi loves to hurt me :3

Nathaniel: don’t fucking say it like that mackerel

Marc: my apologies, slug

anarqueen: okay circling back to the convo we were having before, you’re getting close to Luka, Nathaniel?

Nathaniel: yeah, is that a problem?

anarqueen: nono! not a problem at all!
anarqueen: you know what, it’s such a beautiful day, i think i’m gonna spend some time in the GARDEN

alYES: yeah me too see ya guys

kind of aro: i’ll come with, later losers

bubblegum: me and jules will be there too!!

sewing fairy: guysss, that’s not necessary, we have other things to focus on!

alYES: come on, girl, the garden is important

sewing fairy: fineee, i’ll come too

chronically blonde: Can I come?

kind of aro: no can do, sorry buddy

chronically blonde: Oh, that’s okay! Have fun!

Nathaniel: wtf

niNO: it’s code for “let’s go talk about mari’s love life”

chronically blonde: It is?

niNO: yeah, dude

kind of dumb: idk y they think they need a code if we all know

anarking: let them have their fun kim

niNO: oh wait before i forget, marc and nathaniel we’re having a boys night for adrien tomorrow, wanna come with?

Marc: of course! (˶˃ ᵕ ˂˶) ⟡ ݁₊ .

niNO: cool, see ya guys then!

“Dazai, what the fuck, we need to find the source of the fabric tomorrow.”

Dazai shook his head. “Silly chibi, not seeing the bigger picture.”

Chuuya scoffed, “Isn’t the mission important? Don’t you wanna go home?”

“Not particularly,” Dazai smiled lazily.

Chuuya looked at him. They were sat side by side on their bed, a book sat in Chuuya’s lap that he was reading before Marinette added him to that group chat.

“Why not?”

Dazai looked back at his phone.

Fine. If he’s just gonna ignore him, that’s fine with Chuuya.

Chuuya turned to his own phone with an eye roll at Dazai’s antics and opened his chat with Luka. He had learned his name after the practice that day, and the two had been messaging on and off that evening.

my melody: i just think some people need more music in their life

Nathaniel: yeah, i agree

my melody: changing the subject slightly, how come you and marc came to paris?

Nathaniel: just some personal reasons, yk

my melody: ah, of course, i apologise if i overstepped

Nathaniel: it’s fine, luka

my melody: it’s interesting, though, you both have such interesting melodies

Nathaniel: what?

my melody: i can hear people’s inner melodies, it’s how i knew i wanted to get to know you, your melody is beautiful

Nathaniel: you said mine sounded like trash candy though

my melody: yes, it’s harsh and brash and sounds angry to those that don’t know it, but ultimately shows your drive in life, how you keep going despite problems and struggles, and that’s really admirable

Chuuya blinked. Okay, that’s weird, this guy can just tell that stuff from an ‘inner melody’?

Nathaniel: huh, that’s really accurate

my melody: marc’s is interesting, too

Nathaniel: really? in what way?

my melody: marc seems like a happy person, i picked that up just from his body language, but his melody is so sad, like he’s in pain

“Who are you texting?”

Chuuya nearly jumped out of his skin at the voice right in his ear. He turned his phone screen away from Dazai, and scowled at him.

“None of your fucking business, now move,” he replied, shoving Dazai back to his side of the bed.

Dazai, however, had other ideas. In one swift motion, he launched himself at Chuuya and snatched his phone out of his hand, pinning him down to the bed.

As Chuuya kicked and hit and swore, Dazai scrolled through the messages between him and Luka, clicking his tongue in distaste.

“You really wanna talk to this guy? He’s so pretentious.” Dazai said, looking down at Chuuya underneath him.

Chuuya glared up at him, muttered a “look who’s talking,” and attempted to snatch his phone back. That failed attempt shifted them both and they toppled off of the bed onto the floor, Chuuya on top of Dazai this time.

Wrenching his phone out of Dazai’s grubby hands, Chuuya sat up and tapped out a reply to Luka’s question of where he went.

It took him about ten seconds to realise he was sat in Dazai’s lap.

By the time he did, Dazai was propped up on his elbows, staring at him.

Chuuya’s brain decided this was the perfect time to stop working, and he gaped at Dazai. Then, his face turned the colour of his hair, and he scrambled to his feet, stormed into the shower room, and slammed the door behind him.

God, what the fuck was that?! Did the universe hate him or something? How did he end up in that kind of position and with Dazai of all goddamned people?! The suicidal maniac he was forced to be around? The bandaged menace of the Port Mafia? The stupid mackerel with his stupid intelligence and his stupid ability and his stupid pretty face-

“What the fuck.” Chuuya said out loud to his still bright red reflection.

And then, because Chuuya was sixteen and emotional, he punched the mirror.

~~~

“Nathaniel, what happened to your hand?”

A phrase that would not leave Chuuya alone that day. He was grateful for their concern, he supposed, but there’s only so many times he can bullshit his way through an excuse that wasn’t “I punched a mirror because I got flustered by my best friend.”

It was odd though. Nobody in the Port Mafia would’ve cared. Well, Kouyou would, but even then Chuuya gets injured from fights just often enough that anyone who saw his bandaged hand would just assume he got it in a fight. Technically he had, albeit with a mirror that got on his nerves.

Even more odd was Dazai’s reaction. Sure, he did the typical Dazai things of relentlessly making fun of him, but he also took him to the hospital, and most importantly didn’t tell Mori that he was the reason the mirror was broken. Chuuya didn’t really know how to feel about that.

He stared out the window of the classroom, contemplating all of this, when a loud crash sounded through the school.

The students all started, but for the most part remained calm. Even when the cause of the crash started yelling about ‘justice’ and ‘honour’ and ‘repercussions’.

So. Some idiot had gotten themselves akumatised. Chuuya was looking forward to seeing how Marinette and Adrien-

“Ms Bustier! I need the bathroom!” Marinette yelled at the same time as Adrien, both of them already out of their seats and at the door. They stared at each other, but ultimately just went through the door in the direction of the bathrooms together. Chuuya could only imagine the awkward blabbering from both of them when they had to find a way to get away from each other to transform.

“Everyone stay calm, Ladybug and Chat Noir will arrive and deal with the akumatised villain,” Ms Bustier calmly announced to the class, more out of obligation than necessity since the class seemed generally calm. Chuuya and Dazai included, since Monarch was insanely obsessive and made a new villain several times a week.

When they were first briefed about the situation in Paris, Chuuya thought it was stupid. An opinion he still held as he watched the commotion in the courtyard, Ladybug and Chat Noir there suspiciously quickly and seemingly from the direction of the toilets.

Except something wasn’t quite right.

He couldn’t put his finger on what exactly, but something was wrong. Something obvious, something staring him in the face, something-

“I know Mori sent you! Come out now, Mafia scum!”

Shit.

This wasn’t an akumatised villain. They were an ability user.

An incredibly angry, incredibly strong ability user.

Chuuya looked at Dazai, who was watching the fight like everyone else. However, where everyone else was watching in awe, Dazai had an unreadable expression spread across his face. He looked at Chuuya when he felt his gaze, and shrugged. There was nothing they could do if they wanted to keep their cover in tact.

But Ladybug and Chat Noir wouldn’t be able to do anything. They fought villains that had easily spotted weaknesses, ones that returned to normal after the akuma was freed. They had never faced something like this before.

Chuuya knew he needed to act.

He sent a look at Dazai. ‘We’ve gotta so something,’ it said.

Dazai returned his look. ‘I know. But we also need to keep our cover.’

‘Then what should we do?’

A grin. ‘Trust me’.

Chuuya did.

Dazai span around and announced loudly, “Nathaniel’s ill! He just told me he was gonna throw up!”

Chuuya glared at him. Seriously? What was the point of this? He played along, though, considering Dazai thought it was necessary for Chuuya to be ill.

Ms Bustier nodded, and ushered the two of them out of the classroom and into a nearby supply closet. There were buckets in there he could use, since it was too dangerous to go down to the courtyard to where the toilets were.

The second she left, Chuuya shot Dazai a look.

“Okay, what now, smartass?”

“Use Upon the Tainted Sorrow.” Dazai said coolly.

“Are you kidding?! Someone will notice if I go out there glowing red and defying gravity.”

Dazai rolled his eyes, and Chuuya bristled.

“I meant use it from here and make the floor we’re standing on collapse on the guy, and I’ll call the suits that are the nearest to detain him.” Dazai said slowly, like Chuuya was a toddler.

Chuuya grabbed the first thing he felt and threw it at Dazai. It turned out to be a sponge, so not much damage done, but it made him feel better anyway. Nobody talks down to him and gets away unscathed, even Dazai.

They peeked out of the door to the supply closet, watching the fight closely. Dazai took a step back and Chuuya activated his ability.

“Don’t do it until I say.” Dazai instructed.

“Fuck off, bastard.” Chuuya said, agreeing to Dazai’s request.

The two watched as Chat Noir got thrown into the wall, and got up after a few seconds and threw himself at the villain again. Even with their enhanced abilities, the heroes were lagging.

The ability user was yelling again, shouting for the Mafia dogs to stop being cowards and come out, dammit. He charged at Ladybug, who dodged at the last second, leaving the ability user under the overhang of the second floor, directly under Chuuya’s and Dazai’s feet.

“Now.”

Chuuya forced the floor to crumble, and it fell onto the villain, crushing him. He hovered above the hole in the floor, sparing a glance at Dazai stood in the doorway.

Ladybug and Chat Noir gaped at the carnage, unsure of what to do.

The sound of car tires screeching against pavement sounded through the courtyard, and a group of people dressed in black suits came in, guns drawn. They took the ability user out of the rubble, sedated him and dragged his unconscious body away, out of the school.

Dazai turned and swanned fully out of the supply closet, going over to the railing. Chuuya joined him, and the pair watched the heroes stare at each other in shock, conversing non verbally.

Students started pouring out of the classrooms, wondering what just happened. Who was the person that didn’t have an akuma but had powers, who were the people that took him?

Excited chatter drowned out everything else, and then cheers as Chat Noir held out his fist to Ladybug and she bumped it with hers. And with that, they were both off.

Chuuya exhaled, and put his head in his hands, leaning his forearms on the railing. His thoughts were in overdrive. Their entire mission could’ve been ripped open. The rebels clearly know someone was there to squash them, even if they didn’t know who. And worst of all, Chuuya realised with a start that he had been genuinely scared for Marinette and Adrien. He couldn’t deny they were friends, not anymore. Not when his heart was thundering at the thought that they would’ve lost the fight and gotten hurt if it wasn’t for Dazai’s quick mind.

That was the scariest thing of all.

~~~

Dazai glared at Chuuya.

They were at the boys night/sleepover that had been arranged the day before, and what Dazai hadn’t quite realised is that ‘boys night’ meant all the boys.

Including Luka.

Dazai had to endure Luka flirting with Chuuya the whole evening. I mean seriously, could he be laying it on any thicker? And to make matters way, way worse, Chuuya seemed like he was actually into it, and was even flirting back a bit.

All this to say, Dazai was not having a good time.

Sure, Adrien’s room was insanely big and had a lot to do, but all Dazai wanted to do was piss off his dog, but noooo, he couldn’t even do that.

His staring was noticed, however.

“Yo, dude, you okay?” Came Nino’s voice from his left.

Dazai finally tore his gaze away from his hatrack, and looked at Nino. He flashed one of his signature charming grins, and replied “of course!” before dropping the smile and glaring back at Chuuya.

Nino chuckled. “Okay, dude, stop staring at Nath. It’s getting creepy.”

Dazai rolled his eyes and looked back at Nino. To his utter dismay, the other boys were also looking at him, varying levels of amusement on their faces.

“According to my calculations, Marc here appears to be exhibiting symptoms of jealousy, for whatever secret reason he has.” Max spoke, adjusting his glasses.

The other boys snickered. Well, all of them except Adrien, who looked gobsmacked. Poor kid, it must be awful to be so oblivious to everything.

Dazai, however, wasn’t fazed. Of course he was jealous, Chuuya was his, and this blue-haired music freak was out here making moves on Dazai’s property.

He needed to put an end to this. Immediately.

“Hey, dog, pass me those snacks you have.”

The room went silent. Dazai had spoken loudly enough that Luka and Chuuya had heard, and now all the boys in the room were looking at him confused.

Then, the boys expressions shifted from slightly confused to full on baffled when Chuuya stood up, placed the bowl of snacks in Dazai’s lap, kicked him in the ribs for good measure, and sat back down in his spot next to Luka.

“What the fuck.” Kim said.

Everyone else agreed with varying levels of conviction. Nathaniel, to their knowledge, would never have responded to a comment like that, let alone obey it, so what the fuck?

Dazai popped one of the snacks in his mouth, wiggling his eyebrows at the other boys.

“I’m surprised you didn’t yell at me for calling you dog this time.”

“Yeah, well, shut your fucking mouth.”

A laugh. “There’s the slug I know.”

Eager to change the subject from whatever the fuck just happened, Nino started talking about the newest update to some video game they all played. Dazai had never heard of it before, so he ultimately ignored their conversation.

The night went on relatively normally from there. Though it went slightly downhill after Kim suggested telling each other ghost stories and seeing who gets the most freaked out.

Completely unexpectedly, Adrien was absolutely fine with the horror stories being told, claiming it was because they were so obviously fake he couldn’t be scared. It turned out Kim was the biggest chicken.

But Adrien’s unwavering bravery in the face of horror was where the idea came unstuck.

“So, when I was last in Japan, I learnt about this god, though I can’t remember his name. They’ve got a lot of gods in Japanese mythology, all with different ideas and powers and purposes, but this one was different. He was one of the first Japanese gods to appear in Shinto practices in about 200AD,” he started.

Nino whistled at Adrien’s knowledge. “Dang, dude, I didn’t expect you’d be into this stuff.”

Adrien shrugged. “Kagami’s really into it, and she got me into it. Anyway, there was this guy, Nagasunehiko. He was a prince, and he worshipped the god until he lost his mind. He rebelled against the emperor, Jimmu, and because of that Emperor Jimmu killed Nagasunehiko and destroyed everything relating to him. Which included ruining the reputation of the god he worshipped so much.”

Ivan paled. “That’s not good, the god didn’t deserve that!”

The boys all nodded, Adrien included. He kept talking, going on about how the Emperor destroyed the god’s reputation, so the god buried himself in the earth and festered in his rage until a war broke out and he opened the floodgates for his rage and resentment to manifest in the physical world. Kind of a boring ghost story, if Dazai was being honest. Familiar, though. Weird.

“So now, the vessel for this god walks the earth, seemingly a normal human being, but a monster beneath the mask.” Adrien concluded.

Kim had turned sheet-white, and was clinging to Max like an octopus. “Seriously? That god is just walking around humans?!” he asked.

Adrien nodded. “Yeah, isn’t that fascinating!”

Luka smiled. “Very interesting, Adrien. And, I think I know what god you’re talking about.”

“Oh, you do?” Adrien asked, looking excited.

The other boys all leaned forward, even Chuuya did slightly, as Luka continued smiling.

“The gods name is Arahabaki.”

Dazai looked at Chuuya. He was sat ramrod straight, frozen. Nobody else noticed, though.

“Of course it is! How could I have forgotten,” Adrien exclaimed, smacking his forehead.

“What a freaky name!” Kim nearly yelled.

“Yeah, freaky, but if the god is a monster then it needs a freaky name.” Nino countered, laughing.

“A monstrous name for a monstrous creature.” Luka said wistfully.

“So that Arahabaki is walking around among us?” Ivan asked.

“Hah you said among us,” Kim snorted.

Max rolled his eyes at Kim’s joke, and looked to Adrien and Luka. “You said a human vessel, yes? So anybody could be housing this god?”

“Yep, anybody in the world! It could even be one of us,” Adrien responded, grinning.

Chuuya walked out.

~~~

Dazai stood outside of the master bathroom’s door, listening to Chuuya have a breakdown.

He didn’t know what to do. For the first time since he could remember, he had absolutely no idea what to do. He could come up with the cleverest plans, think his way through any issue that came up, was one of the smartest people in the entire Port Mafia, but this was different.

This was Chuuya.

He heard a loud bang, and decided to ignore the warning bells in his mind telling him to stay away. He knocked on the bathroom door.

“Chuuya, let me in.”

Silence.

Then, softer than Dazai had ever heard him speak, Chuuya replied.

“Go away, Osamu.”

Dazai blanched at the use of his first name. Chuuya only ever used it in serious situations. Which meant he was serious.

Dazai picked the lock.

He pushed open the bathroom door, and looked at the scene in front of him. The bathroom looked like a war zone. Product bottles had been flung, and apparently exploded on impact. Chuuya himself sat curled up against the wall furthest from the door, his knees pulled up to his chest and his head between them. His hands were gripping his hair harshly.

Dazai shut the door and sat down in front of Chuuya. He didn’t say anything, didn’t move to comfort Chuuya with any sort of physical touch, he just sat there.

Chuuya’s breathing was ragged, like he was trying to stop himself from crying, or shouting, or something else Dazai couldn’t bring to mind.

“Why can’t you just listen to me when I want you to,” Came a hoarse voice. “Why do you have to just ignore what I ask? Why, Osamu?”
Chuuya’s voice had raised in volume the more he spoke, until he practically shouted Dazai’s name at him. He was looking at Dazai now, his eyes red and wide and angry.

Dazai simply stared at him some more.

Chuuya kicked him half-heartedly and buried his head back into his arms.

Dazai’s stomach churned. He didn’t like seeing Chuuya like this. He didn’t like that he felt so useless. He didn’t like that Chuuya didn’t want him there.

He didn’t like how much he cared.

“If I was housing Arahabaki, would you call me a monster?” Dazai asked, as softly as he could muster.

Chuuya looked back at him.

“What?”

“If I was housing Arahabaki, would you call me a monster?” Dazai repeated, with more emphasis.

“No, I wouldn’t.” Chuuya replied after a few seconds.

“Then why do you think you are?”

Dazai didn’t take his eyes away from Chuuya’s face, watching him for any reaction he might have. And boy, did Chuuya have a reaction.

He glowed red, scowling at Dazai aggressively. Dazai reached out, putting his hand on Chuuya’s wrist.

Then Chuuya fell forward, onto Dazai’s shoulder.

Dazai blinked. Okay. That was weird. Did Chuuya want… affection?

Dazai put his hand on Chuuya’s back experimentally. Chuuya just huffed, and spat out, “Just hug me, you fucking idiot.”

Dazai wrapped his arms around Chuuya.

Chuuya wrapped his arms around Dazai.

They stayed like that for a while, wrapped around each other, with Chuuya’s breathing getting stabler throughout their hug.

“You must think I’m pathetic, right Mackerel?”

Dazai snorted. “Always, Slug.” He replied, with way too much affection in his voice.

~~~

A month. A whole damn month here and nothing. Nothing.

Chuuya didn’t get it. It was like Dazai was purposely making their trip as long as possible. Realistically, the mission would’ve been over in three days, maybe four. But a whole month? Something was clearly up.

And Chuuya intended to find out what.

He knew Mori and Dazai had argued before they left, but about what Chuuya had no idea. He figured whatever they argued about was the reason, though. Chuuya had an idea of what to do to find out, but he wanted to see if Dazai talked first.

“Hey dumbass, why are we still here?” He asked out of the blue.

Dazai looked at him like he was an idiot. “Because it’s still the school day? Why else would we be here?”

Chuuya rolled his eyes. “Not what I meant, and you know it.”

They were sat on the steps up to the second floor in the courtyard, most of their friends eating elsewhere for lunch. That was another thing, they were actually properly friends with these people, how the hell did that happen?

Dazai was silent. Chuuya was prepared to use all the tactics he knew to get Dazai to talk, when Dazai opened his mouth.

“Because Mori’s an asshole.”

Chuuya snorted. “Yeah, I’m aware. What does that have to do with this, though?”

Dazai looked Chuuya in his eyes. Chuuya held his gaze easily.

Dazai sighed and looked away.

“Not here, hatrack.” He glanced over to where Marinette was not-subtly-whatsoever watching the pair. She had been doing that ever since the incident with the ability user. Everyone else credited her and Chat Noir with the defeat, including the store room collapsing, but she obviously knew it wasn’t her or her partner. And since Chuuya and Dazai had waltzed out from said store room completely unscathed, she was incredibly and obviously suspicious of them.

Chuuya followed his gaze and huffed. “I wish she’d just talk to us directly. Being watched like this is creepy as shit.”

Dazai laughed. “That’s not how Marinette works.”

Chuuya chuckled along with him.

They fell into a comfortable silence, Chuuya looking at his phone and Dazai leaned back on his elbows, watching the sky.

Then eleven pairs of feet showed in Chuuya’s peripheral vision. He glanced up, and was greeted with almost their entire friend group smiling at him and Dazai.

“Hey guys!” Marinette started.

Chuuya put his phone back in his pocket, and Dazai didn’t move.

“Hey?” Chuuya responded. Everyone’s grins remained on their faces, and it was getting quite unsettling the more time passed.

Adrien butted in then, saying, “We’re all going to the park next to the bakery after school today, do you guys wanna come with us?”

Chuuya looked at Dazai, who was still gazing at the clouds. Chuuya stomped on his foot.

“Oww! Chibi’s so mean to me today,” Dazai pouted as he sat up and rubbed his foot. Chuuya rolled his eyes and gestured with his head at the group stood in front of them.

Dazai grinned at them all. “Of course, we’d love to!”

The group’s smiles got even wider somehow, and they all nodded or gave the two some thumbs ups, before leaving.

“Well that was fucking weird.”

Dazai stood up and stretched just as the bell rang for afternoon classes. He waltzed away from the stairs and Chuuya, his hands in his pockets.

“Hey asshole, mind telling me what you’re thinking?”

Dazai just shot a smirk in Chuuya’s direction and disappeared into the crowd of students.

~~~

Chuuya took in the scene he was presented with.

Sat on a picnic blanket with only room for two people was Luka, a basket next to him, gently strumming his acoustic guitar.

Of course. Of fucking course this was a set up.

“Hey, Nath!” Luka waved when he saw him.

Chuuya waved back.

Luka put his guitar down and patted the blanket next to him, smiling invitingly. And because Chuuya clearly enjoyed following orders, he went over and sat down.

“I believe we’ve been set up, Nath.” Luka said, smiling kindly at Chuuya.

“Yeah, seems like it.” Chuuya responded.

Luka chuckled and opened the basket next to him. He held out a piece of bread to Chuuya, and Chuuya stared at it for a second before taking it.

Eating their bread together, Luka started a conversation. Chuuya engaged with it, since Luka was a cool person to talk to. He kept shooting glances at Marinette’s balcony.

Luka caught this, and looked with him at one point. “They think they’re subtle, don’t they?”

“The binoculars are a bit much.”

They laughed and turned back to each other.

“I wonder what else is in here,” Luka wondered aloud, reaching into the basket. He pulled out two tupperware’s with some rice dish in it, Chuuya couldn’t tell.

Except he could tell when he pulled the lid off and was met with chazuke and an onigiri ball on the side.

Chuuya stared at it in disbelief.

“How… what?” Chuuya said eloquently.

Luka chuckled and took a bite of his own onigiri.

Chuuya couldn’t stop staring down at the meal. Sure, it was just simple, but it was a slap in the face of home. Chuuya wasn’t used to this feeling of homesickness, but he felt it now. He missed working back in Japan, he missed being able to beat people up whenever he please, he missed Kouyou. He missed being able to have at least one second away from Dazai. Selfish, annoying, arrogant, intelligent, amazing, caring, beautiful Dazai.

Dazai who had apparently packed this food, if the crab in the onigiri had anything to say for itself.

Chuuya looked back at Marinette’s balcony and could see Dazai in all his bandaged glory leaning against the railing, looking right back. Chuuya couldn’t make out his facial expression from here, but he could guess. Probably smug. That was basically his default after all.

Chuuya ate his food. He and Luka chatted and spent another hour and a half on the blanket, talking about nothing in particular. It was a nice night, all things considered.

Except Chuuya felt that it would be much better if someone else was on that blanket with him. Someone that infuriated him to no end, but he also trusted more than anyone else on this planet. Someone that had helped Chuuya through his nightmares, through his breakdowns, through nights he was kept up by Arahabaki. Someone Chuuya had helped as much as he was let.

Chuuya didn’t look back at the balcony.

~~~

“This is going so well!” Rose squealed.

Alya was beaming. “It’s going almost scarily well, considering this was a Marinette Plan.”

Marinette squawked. “Hey! My plans are always amazing! And successful!”

Everyone on the balcony, except Adrien, looked at her with an eyebrow raised.

She flushed and mumbled something under her breath, leaning grumpily on the railing again.

Dazai watched this whole scene with amusement. He was leaned against the railing, stood next to the wall of Marinette’s building. He had kept his eyes on Luka and Chuuya the whole time they were up there.

Now, why did he agree to help set this up? Because Dazai knew Chuuya. He knew perfectly well all the things Chuuya liked and disliked. Which is why he worked as hard as he could to make it an evening Chuuya would love.

Which, again, seems odd, why would he want his dog to have a good night with someone else? Well, while the others thought he was just trying to be supportive, Dazai knew better. He had made this as perfect for Chuuya as possible while also making it obvious that he was the one making it good, not Luka. A brilliant plan, if Dazai was being honest.

“It’s weird though, they’ve eaten and talked but they haven’t kissed or even held hands yet,” Kim stated, draped across the sun chair on the balcony.

“Some people take longer than others, Kim,” Mylene replied. “Take me and Ivan! We took a while to properly get together, even though we both clearly liked each other!”

Ivan nodded and squeezed Mylene close to him. “And now we’re really happy!” He added onto Mylene’s point. They looked at each other and smiled lovingly.

Dazai wanted to hurl. He wasn’t one for the sappy smiles and sickeningly loving looks. He preferred teasing and teasing until the other yelled at him, or kicked him. He preferred having an innate sense of trust without having to prove all the time that they cared. Though, he supposed he could relate to something about Ivan. He also preferred a shorter partner.

He looked at Chuuya.

Dazai was well aware of his feelings towards his hatrack. After all, whenever he insulted the ginger he always made sure he said ‘his’. His slug, his hatrack, his dog. Chuuya was his, and nothing could change that. Not Mori, not blue-haired freaks, nothing.

He didn’t know how Chuuya felt. He knew Chuuya trusted him with his life, due to the amount of times Chuuya had used Corruption. A small amount, compared to his other attacks, but significant enough. He knew Chuuya was comfortable around him, if the hug they shared in Adrien’s bathroom meant anything. Chuuya didn’t hate him. But he didn’t like him either.

That was fine. Dazai didn’t need Chuuya to like him back. He just needed Chuuya around. And Chuuya needed him around.

Dazai was snapped out of his thoughts when Alix said, “hey, look! They’re doing something!”

He shot his eyes back to Chuuya and lo and behold, Luka was stood up and holding out a hand to Chuuya. Which Chuuya took, hoisted himself up, and neither let go.

Dazai’s grip on the railing tightened.

Dazai watched as Luka lifted his hand and tucked a stray piece of hair behind Chuuya’s ear and left his hand there. One hand on the side of his head, one hand holding Chuuya’s hand.

He moved his hand on the side of Chuuya’s face and slowly took off his hat.

Luka tilted his head, and gently brought Chuuya’s forward and upward slightly.

Dazai nearly punched the railing.

~~~

The group was grabbing each other in excitement, hands clamped together and watching.

Watching as Nathaniel…

…pulled away?

The group watched in astonishment as Nathaniel grabbed his hat back, put it firmly on his head, and took a step away from Luka. They watched as Luka, confused, followed, and Nathaniel put his hands on Luka’s chest to stop him. They watched their conversation, Nathaniel looking almost apologetic, and they watched as both Nathaniel and Luka looked up at the balcony.

What they all missed, however, was that Nathaniel and Luka looked directly at Marc.

Marinette sighed loudly. “Why didn’t it work? It was perfect!”

Alya patted her on the back. “It’s okay, girl, we tried.” She soothed.

The others looked relatively sad that their plan hadn’t worked, but quickly encouraged Marinette. They assured her that her plan was beautiful, and that they could try again.

“That’s not a good idea.”

The group looked at Marc, who hadn’t moved.

“Nathaniel isn’t one to be convoluted with his words. He means what he says. If he said no, he meant it.” Marc carried on.

“So, there’s no point in trying to matchmake again?” Rose asked.

Marc finally moved. He let go of the railing and looked at the group, smiling. “No point whatsoever.”

Kagami piped up from next to Marinette. “You seem happy about that, Marc.” She said, in her usual blunt tone.

He shrugged and turned back to the scene.

“Oh! We need to go comfort Luka!” Marinette yelped, and everyone agreed. They all rushed down the three floors of Marinette’s home and bakery, and ran into the park.

Luka was sat, strumming his guitar once again, and Nathaniel was nowhere to be seen.

“Luka? You okay?” Marinette asked.

Luka looked up and smiled at the group.

“Yes, Marinette, I’m okay, thank you.” He replied simply.

“Sorry it didn’t work out…” Adrien said, and the rest of them (save Marc) agreed with him, presenting their own apologies to him.

Luka just smiled. “Thanks for worrying about me, I’m truly grateful, but we just weren’t meant to be. Nathaniel is destined for someone else, as am I.”

Everyone nodded sympathetically, until a thought hit Alix.

“Hey, where is Nath anyways?”

They looked around, but he had well and truly disappeared.

“Should we go look for him?” Mylene asked hesitantly.

Luka nodded. “He seemed frustrated, it might be worth checking he hasn’t been akumatised. And also just checking on him as our friend.”

The group paired off, ready to search as much of Paris as they could for their friend.

~~~

So Chuuya might have messed up.

Well, it’s not his fault. Not completely. He just needed to blow off some steam after the weird night he had, so he had gone to a quarry he found a few weeks prior to privately use his ability. He couldn’t get alcohol without Dazai, the curse of being so baby faced (read: short). So, he had to find other ways to let his emotions out.

Kicking rocks together seemed to do the trick.

It was while he was kicking rocks that a group of teenagers stumbled into the quarry, somewhat drunk, and found him floating upside down in mid air on a piece of rock.

They screeched, yelling about ‘akumas’, and Chuuya figured it was best to stop for the evening.

God, Dazai would laugh until he fell over if he found out someone had caught Chuuya and mistook him for those stupid akumas. At least they were drunk, that way nobody would fully believe them when they saw Chuuya decidedly not akumatised. At least, he hoped.

Chuuya took to wandering the Paris streets. It was late, around 1am, but he didn’t want to go home. Home meant Dazai. He didn’t really want to confront the thing that made him stop Luka from kissing him.

So he walked. He wasn’t entirely sure where he was, but that didn’t matter. He was in France, and while he missed Yokohama, he figured he should fully enjoy the experience of Paris at midnight.

That was until someone decided to try and mug him.

They had appeared in front of him, knife drawn, demanding he empty his pockets. Chuuya just gave the guy a dirty look and walked past.

The mugger spluttered, clearly not expecting him to react like that, and spun around to Chuuya’s back. He spat something along the lines of “you’ll regret underestimating me”, and Chuuya spun on his heel, jumped in the air and kicked the guy in the face. He slumped to the floor, unconscious, and Chuuya kept walking. What he had failed to notice was Paris’ favourite spotted hero sat on a building across the street, jaw slack and eyes wide at what she just witnessed.

~~~

It had been about a week since the failed picnic and subsequent group wide freak out about Nathaniel’s whereabouts afterwards. About a week since Marinette witnessed Nathaniel kicking a grown man unconscious in one hit and walking away completely unaffected.

To say she was suspicious was an understatement.

She sat at the lunch table the friend group usually sat at, watching Nathaniel and Marc closely. She was already suspicious back when the akuma-that-wasn’t-an-akuma happened, but now she was convinced something was up.

She just couldn’t pinpoint what it was.

They seemed normal, if a bit unconventional. Okay maybe a lot unconventional but still, they were somewhat regular people.

What was weird, however, was how little information there was on them. Marinette was past her stalking phase, but she still retained some of the skills she had picked up from it, and decided to utilise them. She had snuck into Mr Damocles’ office and snooped through a few files, and found their entrance forms. All those forms said, though, was their names, ages, address (singular because apparently they lived together?), and nothing else. Not even parents.

Marinette decided to ask her friends if they had noticed anything.

~~~

sewing fairy has created a new chat

sewing fairy has added 12 users

sewing fairy has named chat what’s up with marc and nath?

sewing fairy: please say i’m not the only one that’s noticed something

kind of aro: nah, you’re not
kind of aro: smth is def up w those two

niNO: yeah definitely

sewing fairy: has anyone noticed anything specific?

kind of dumb: well, at the boys sleepover they were a lil weird

alYES: oh? do tell

anarking: well, adrien was telling us all this really scary ghost story…

chronically online: It was about Arahabaki, a Japanese god!

niNO: yeah, except adrien forgot its name so was just describing a random god to us but then luka said he knew the name

my melody: yes, me and Kagami have talked about Japanese culture and mythology before, so i knew the story

kind of dumb: yeah well after he said that it was called arawhatever nath just stood up and left?? and he had this rlly weird expression??

anarking: and marc followed him and they were gone for a good 20 minutes

sewing fairy: so nath got upset by the mention of a god called arahabaki? that’s odd

alYES: suuuper odd
alYES: i’ll look into it.

kind of ace: I’ll assist you, Alya.

alYES: thx max

sewing fairy: okay, anything else?

Tsurugi Kagami: They’re very private, to the point that it’s concerning.

sewing fairy: any examples, kagami?

Tsurugi Kagami: I once asked Nathaniel about where he and Marc lived before they moved here, and he said it was Yokohama, but refused to elaborate any specifics when I asked.

kind of dumb: that doesn’t seem too bad tho

Tsurugi Kagami: Yokohama has a very famous Mafia, and I asked how it was living in a city with something like that. Nathaniel just responded vaguely and changed the subject to where my family lived.

kind of aro: woah woah woah, what the fuck???
kind of aro: kagami what are you suggesting???

Tsurugi Kagami: The swift topic change from the Port Mafia is suspicious, that’s all.

sewing fairy: no theres no way they’re part of the mafia, that’s not like them

Tsurugi Kagami: My apologies. I was merely stating facts like you asked.

sewing fairy: no, sorry, i didn’t mean that rudely, thank you for your help kagami :)

Tsurugi Kagami: Oh, okay then. :)

sewing fairy: okay, everyone keep your eyes peeled, we can figure this out if we work together

niNO: yes ma’am o7

alYES: yes mari!!

~~~

“Chuuuuuyaaaaaa~”

“Fuck off, bastard.”

“Heh, I don’t think I will~”

“I swear to fucking god, I will throw you into the Seine.”

“Aww, someone’s upset today, isn’t he?”

“Yes, dumbass, I’m upset, because you waited three. Fucking. Weeks. To inform me of something that was very important to this mission that we’ve been on for way too long.”

Dazai sighed and rolled his eyes and Chuuya nearly threw a pillow at him.

“Anything else you’ve been keeping from me?”

Dazai shook his head.

Chuuya sighed and put his head into his hands. “So, Gabriel Agreste and Tsurugi Tomoe are the people infiltrating the Paris base, the people we saw a month ago walking right through the front fucking door, and are clearly trying to find research on abilities. Why the fuck are they doing that?”

“Well, I have a theory, but I need some more concrete evidence.”

Chuuya leaned back against the headboard of their bed and crossed his arms. “What kind of evidence?”

“I need to get akumatised.”

Chuuya did throw a pillow at him that time.

Dazai dodged, obviously expecting him to do that.

“Are you fucking insane?! You can’t get akumatised, dumbass, that’s gonna be catastrophic!” Chuuya yelled.

Dazai huffed and dropped his hand into his lap. “I meant that I could get upset enough to be akumatised, talk to Monarch, and then break out of it and not actually get affected.”

“They why didn’t you say that in the first place, you stupid piece of shit?” Chuuya replied, flopping back against the headboard.

“Because I wanted to see Chibi caring about me~”

“I will throw another pillow at you.”

Dazai cackled and got a mouthful of pillow.

“I’ve got a question. Why you? Surely it would make sense if I got akumatised, since I’m angrier than you it would be easier, right?”

Dazai nodded. “Yeah, it would, you’re such a yappy dog,” He caught Chuuya’s fist coming at his face. “But that’s precisely why it can’t be you. You’d probably get so angry you wouldn’t be able to push back and break free, and you getting akumatised with Arahabaki would cause all sorts of devastation.”

Chuuya faltered. He hadn’t thought of that. His arm went slack and Dazai lowered it to his lap.

“So, what, you’ve just gotta get upset?”

“Yep!” Dazai grinned. “And that’s where you come in.”

Chuuya blinked. “Me? Seriously? You never get upset over the shit I say to you.”

Dazai chuckled and ran his thumb over Chuuya’s knuckles. “I don’t need you to say anything. Just, stay there and be ready to snap me out of this if needed.” And with that, Dazai let go of Chuuya’s hand and picked up his phone.

He dialed in a number and held the phone up to his ear.

Chuuya couldn’t hear exactly what the other person said, but it was clearly making Dazai angrier and angrier. Chuuya could hear exactly what Dazai was saying, but it made no sense to him.

“Yes, everything is fine.”

“No, that hasn’t happened.”

“I told you it would be fine, and you still don’t believe me.”

“Bullshit.”

“You don’t know that.”

“No, I know whats gonna happen, and you’re wrong. You’re so wrong you don’t even know how wrong you are.”

“I don’t give a shit what you think about him.”

He hung up, and a purple butterfly flew through the open window. Chuuya inhaled sharply when he saw it and watched it enter Dazai’s phone. Dazai looked up, seemingly at Chuuya, but his eyes were elsewhere. A glowing purple butterfly shape appeared around his eyes.

“Hello, Monarch.” Dazai said, smirking.

“Ooo, big, dangerous powers, huh? Sounds fun, but I’ve gotta say no. And don’t even try and convince me, it’s not gonna work. Oh, and one more thing, thank you for confirming my suspicions, Mr Agreste. Buh-bye!” The butterfly outline disappeared, and the purple butterfly removed itself from Dazai’s phone and flew quickly out of the window.

Chuuya gaped at Dazai. “Gabriel Agreste…?”

Dazai nodded. “I had some suspicions, but now I know for sure. And, it’s likely Tsurugi is working with him as Monarch, since their businesses are working together now on those ring things.”

Silence descended as Chuuya didn’t respond. Dazai furrowed his eyebrows, and prodded Chuuya in the knee. “Slug?”

“Poor Adrien.”

Dazai shrugged. “Yeah, his Dad’s the biggest supervillain in Paris, so sad. Anyway, I have an idea of why Agreste is infiltrating the Paris branch, basically he-“

“Don’t you fucking get it, dumbass? Adrien’s mother is dead, his dad’s Monarch, do you have any idea what that’s gonna do to the guy? And he’s fighting his own dad multiple times a week! That’s fucking awful!” Chuuya snapped at Dazai.

Dazai blinked. “Chuuya, we have to stop Gabriel Agreste from infiltrating the mafia more than he has already.”

“Is that all you care about? What about the fact he’s Monarch? What about the fact Adrien is gonna lose his only parent if we do something? What about all the people that get affected by this shit every goddamn day because Agreste is some power hungry freak?”

Dazai rolled his eyes again. “People don’t matter, and I thought you wanted to go home? We finish the mission, we go home. Isn’t that good?”

Chuuya stood up from the bed. “No. Not if it’s just for him messing with the PM.”

“Chuuya, we’re only here to stop the rebellion and infiltration, and we’ve simultaneously found the culprit and Monarch, we can knock out two birds with one stone or whatever the phrase is.”

Chuuya shoved his hands in his pockets and stayed facing away from Dazai. “Do you really want to put someone through what we’ve been through?”

Dazai stood up from the bed too. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m not going to orphan him, Osamu.”

Dazai didn’t respond.

Chuuya turned and looked up, straight into Dazai’s eyes. “We need to tell Adrien and Marinette what we’ve found out, and hand him over to the authorities.”

“Chuuya, this doesn’t concern them. It’s Port Mafia business first and foremost, we have to finish the mission!” Dazai glared into Chuuya’s blue and brown eyes.

“Yes it fucking does! They’ve spent the past two years fighting this guy, and he’s Adrien’s fucking father, they deserve to know. We can’t kill him.” Chuuya yelled, taking a step closer.

Dazai took a step closer too. “We don’t have time to wait, Agreste knows I know his secret, he’s gonna move fast. We have to confront and eliminate him now.”

Chuuya bared his teeth at Dazai, and snarled in response, “Well I’m not fucking helping you.” And with that, Chuuya grabbed his coat and stormed out of their apartment. He knew Dazai wouldn’t be able to do anything without him there to fight, and Chuuya also knew he was right. Adrien deserved to know what his father was doing before he was killed.

~~~

The Eiffel Tower. A beautiful monument representative of France’s innovation and culture. A beautiful monument Dazai had made plenty of dirty jokes about.

Annoyingly, those jokes were all that was floating through Chuuya’s head as Ms Bustier stood in front of the tower, explaining things about it that Chuuya really couldn’t care less about right now. He needed to find an opportunity to talk to Marinette and Adrien, separately since they didn’t know each other’s secret identities yet.

At least he didn’t have to worry about Dazai doing something stupid. All he’d do is make a joke to whoever was stood next to him about the Eiffel Tower being “the perfect shape”. God, the guy is weird sometimes.

Chuuya was still desperately trying to find an out to talk to either Adrien or Marinette when the worst possible thing happened.

“Marc Anciel! Your days have ended here!” Monarch him-fucking-self was stood on the platform of the Eiffel Tower, pointing directly at Dazai with his cane. The class all stared in terror at what was happening.

The people around all ran away as quickly as they could, except of course Dazai and Chuuya’s friends. They stared down Monarch, ready to protect Dazai. Even Ms Bustier was, stood at the front of the group now huddled together.

“I don’t know who you are, but you know who I am, and for that you will perish!” Monarch released a blue feather and a huge, hulking creature blossomed into existence.

“Go, Enourmica, crush this little pest!”

The creature, Enourmica, found its target and took one massive step forward.

The group was stood, terrified. Marinette and Adrien looked the most freaked out, as they could do nothing right here. They couldn’t run away without drawing suspicion, but they couldn’t transform out here, what were they supposed to do?

To everyone’s shock, Marc simply smirked.

“Well, Monarch, you should’ve done your homework.” He called, smug as all hell.

The creature took another step, its foot hovering over the group. Chuuya could hear them calling out for Ladybug or Chat Noir or anyone to help. So he did.

The group watched in astonishment as Nathaniel glowed a bright red, shot into the sky and caught the sentimonster easily. The sentimonster itself now shone bright red, was pushed up into the air, and slammed hard into the ground to the side. Chuuya lowered himself back to the ground, and put his hands back in his pockets.

Monarch looked like he had seen a ghost.

“No, it can’t be! Nakahara Chuuya, the gravity manipulator?! What are you doing here?!”

Chuuya smirked. “The Boss sent us here because someone was trying to infiltrate our France branch. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you, Gabriel Agreste?”

Gasps rang out behind him as he revealed Monarch’s identity. He felt a pang of guilt, especially towards Adrien, but he didn’t have time for that.

“Wait, if you’re here, then that means…”

“Yep! Dazai Osamu here, and would you look at that, you’re up against Double Black! Isn’t that fun?” Dazai shouted.

Adrien made a choked sound. “D-Double Black? The most powerful duo in the Port Mafia?”

The class whipped their heads to Dazai and Chuuya. Kagami was fucking right?!

Dazai grinned. “Why don’t you tell them what Chibi can do, Adrien?”

Adrien gulped. “He’s the strongest ability user in the world, and… oh my god.”

“Hmm?” Dazai hummed, wiggling his eyebrows.

“He’s the vessel to Arahabaki…”

The class looked floored. Again.

“Bingo! And the strongest ability user in the world and vessel to the God of Calamity is about to beat the shit out of your father, you might need to go to therapy after this.”

“Oi, asshole! Leave the kid alone.” Chuuya yelled.

Dazai held up his hands placatingly and turned back to where Monarch was cowering in fear.

“So, how do you wanna take him?” Dazai asked.

Chuuya shifted his stance. “I could take him by myself, easily, but if he makes any more of those sentimonster things it’ll be harder.”

“So, who do we need?”

“Ladybug and Chat Noir, to keep the sentis busy.” Chuuya looked directly at Marinette.

“I’m sorry about this, Mari, but you need to transform. We need your ability to cure everything after, and your Lucky Charm too.”

“You too, Adrien.” Dazai added.

The class turned to Marinette and Adrien, who were both frozen. Marinette called, “Tikki, spots on.” And transformed into Ladybug in front of the eyes of her closest friends.

“Plagg, claws out.” Adrien said, and transformed too. The pair stared at each other, too many emotions filling their chests.

And then Monarch called forth even more Sentimonsters with an outraged yell.

Chuuya growled, and shot forward with a battle cry at the monsters. He kicked at them, knocking them into each other, and Ladybug and Chat Noir joined the fight.

Ms Bustier turned to Dazai. “What’s your role in this, Marc? Or, Dazai?”

He grinned even more. “I get to stand and watch Chuuya be amazing.”

Chuuya touched ground, and the ground he touched floated into the air with him on it. He floated up to eye level with Monarch, and sneered at him.

“You’ve got balls to mess with the Port Mafia, Agreste.”

Monarch smirked. “I wanted to know more about abilities, and now I have a front row seat to the strongest in the world. If I can akumatise you, I’ll win!” He lunged forward, and landed on the rock. Chuuya broke it, and shot Gabriel down to the ground, and he slammed into it, unmoving.

Ladybug and Chat Noir joined Chuuya on the rock he was on.

“What now?” Chat Noir asked. Chuuya looked at him.

“I’m sorry, Adrien. I’m really, really sorry.”

Chat Noir nodded. “Thanks. But we have bigger things to deal with right now.”

Ladybug nodded and put her hand on Chat Noir’s shoulder.

Below them, Monarch pushed himself up weakly. He whispered to himself something Chuuya couldn’t hear, and suddenly a flurry of purple butterflies shot towards their friends.

Chuuya, Ladybug, Chat Noir and Dazai couldn’t stop their friends from getting akumatised again.

“Shit.” Chuuya swore.

Chuuya lowered them to the ground, and was caught in a face off. Queen Wasp had stung Dazai, who was now frozen in place. Chuuya’s fists shook in his pockets.

“Go, my villains, destroy these insects!” Monarch called.

The battle had officially begun.

Chuuya darted back into the air and wrestled with Dark Cupid, slamming him into the ground. Ladybug and Chat Noir took defensive positions and swung their weapons around as a shield. Chuuya landed between them, shooting pieces of rock at any enemy that came too close.

“What should we do, Nakahara?” Chat Noir yelled.

Chuuya looked at Dazai’s frozen form. It was a humungous risk, but one he had to take if they wanted to win. Especially since even more akumatised people were showing up, almost everyone Gabriel had akumatised in the past.

“Ladybug, you need to find a way to free Dazai.” He grit out.

“The only way to do that is to use the magical ladybugs to cure him, and I can only do that if we win!” She yelled.

Chuuya took his hands out of his pockets and slid off his gloves. “Then we better win.”

“O acquaintances, grantors of dark disgrace, do not wake me again.”

His eyes hazed over with red, and he could feel the burning of marks on his skin. He could feel Arahabaki clawing at him from the inside.

He was gone.

~~~

Huge chunks of earth floated into the sky. Chuuya screeched, and flung himself at Guitar Villain, who had been shooting out his musical beams at basically anyone. Chuuya flung Guitar Villain into the Eiffel Tower, and moved onto the other airborne villains.

Ladybug and Chat Noir fought off all the ones that hadn’t been brought into the air by Chuuya. They watched as Chuuya sent balls of compressed gravity into the villains, swallowing them whole. They watched him kill people with his bare hands.

Marinette swore they would win and bring all those people back.

She flung her yo-yo out, wrapping it around Gigantitan and bringing him crashing to the ground. Chat Noir used him as leverage to jump into the air and whack Stoneheart with his baton. Stoneheart crumbled to the floor, and Chat Noir knew he had a few minutes before Stone Heart would rebuild himself.

Ladybug swore when Lady Wifi came way too close to pausing her, and she threw her yo-yo into the air, yelling “LUCKY CHARM!”

She was given mirror.

The battle raged on, with Ladybug and Chat Noir incapacitating the villains and Chuuya ripping them apart.

He tore through Captain Hardrock’s ship, grabbed her and slammed her into the ground. He left her body there and moved to Stormy Weather. He shot out a gravity ball at her and it sucked her in. He shot out thirty more and killed all the villains close to him.

He jumped around on the floating chunks of earth, punching villains into buildings and immobilising them.

Ladybug looked around. Everyone was either unconscious or dead. All that was left was Monarch, who was nowhere to be seen.

“Adrien, I-“

“Don’t do this, Mari. Please. I don’t want to think about it right now. If I do, he’ll be able to akumatise me.”

Ladybug flinched. She didn’t want to face Chat Blanc again.

“Okay. Fine. But we’re having a very long conversation about this all when we’re done here.”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way, my lady,” Chat Noir grinned at her, and she smiled back.

Then Chuuya shot into Chat Noir.

He slammed him into the ground, and drew up his fist. Ladybug threw her yo-yo and wrapped it around his hand, holding it back.

“Nakahara, what are you doing?!”

He looked at her and she froze.

He was snarling at her like an animal.

He yanked his arm down, and Ladybug was sent straight into Chat Noir.

She shrieked as Chuuya launched himself into the air, then shot himself straight down.

She closed her eyes and held her arms above her face, bracing for a very painful impact, when she was shoved out of the way.

Monarch himself had moved her and Chat Noir out of the way, and had taken the entirety of Chuuya’s force.

He was dead under Chuuya’s feet.

Chuuya stood properly, breathing heavily. He stared directly at Ladybug and Chat Noir, his fists balled together.

The villains around them detransformed, but remained unconscious or dead.

“Okay, you can call off your ability now.” She told him.

“Um, Ladybug, that’s not gonna work…” Chat Noir piped up.

She whipped her head over to Chat just as Chuuya launched himself at him.

Chat kicked his legs up and pushed Chuuya off of him, but it didn’t stop him for long. Chuuya slammed his fist into Chat’s stomach, and Chat made a horrible noise.

Chuuya lifted his head and looked at Ladybug.

She realised, way too late, that he wasn’t himself anymore.

She took a defensive stance, swinging her yo-yo in front of her and slowly backing away from Chuuya.

He took a step toward her.

Her eyes darted around, trying to find anything to stop this. She hadn’t used her lucky charm yet, the mirror strapped to her back. She looked back at Chuuya, who was gearing up to do something to her, and it clicked.

The lucky charm hadn’t been for the battle. It was for Chuuya.

She wrenched the mirror off her back and held it in front of her just as Chuuya shot himself at her. She braced for an impact that never came.

Ladybug peeked over the top of the mirror and saw Chuuya staring at himself in it. He was almost in a trance, staring at his reflection. Then he attacked his reflection.

Ladybug darted away at the last second as Chuuya punched the mirror with the entire force of gravity. He shrieked and snarled at it, tearing into it with his hands.

“His reflection! He hates his image!” She realised, and got to work.

Ladybug grabbed the nearest supplies she could, including Pixelator’s camera lense and a shard of glass from her mirror Chuuya had flung. She built a makeshift projector, and pointed it at the Eiffel Tower.

When Chuuya had finished ripping apart the mirror, he looked up and saw his image projected onto the Eiffel Tower. He crashed into it, attempting to destroy it. Ladybug scooped up the broken mirror and threw it high into the air.

“Miraculous Ladybug!”

The magical ladybugs swarmed, fixing buildings and people and bringing back all the people Chuuya had killed.

Chat Noir sat up, holding his head, and Ladybug launched herself at him.

“Adrien, I’m so sorry, he- he-“

“It’s okay, Mari. You brought me back.” He chuckled softly into her hair.

“I love you, Adrien.”

“I love you too, Marinette.”

Their mouths came together and they kissed tenderly in the crater on the ground.

Wait, crater?

Ladybug pulled back, and saw that chunks of ground were still floating in the air. She saw that Chuuya was still affected by whatever power he was using. She saw him still destroying the Eiffel Tower.

She stood up and called out.

“People of Paris, you need to evacuate. That man up there helped us, but he is incredibly dangerous. Everyone please, run and get to safety, and we’ll deal with this.”

The people listened and ran in all directions.

Everyone except their friends.

“Marinette!” Alya yelled, as the group rushed over to her and Chat Noir.

“Alya, you have to get out of here, all of you do! I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s really bad!” Ladybug yelled at them.

Kagami spoke up. “He’s activated Corruption. It is a part of his ability that can only be stopped if he dies or if it is nullified. We don’t have a nullifier here, so somebody has to kill him.”

“And that’s where you’re wrong,” came a voice.

Dazai stood next to Kagami and flung an arm around her shoulders. “You sure are clever, Kagami-san, but you’re missing one thing.”

Kagami smiled. “How could I forget, the other half of Double Black.”

Dazai grinned back at her. “I must say, I’m very impressed by your knowledge, where did you find all of this out?”

“My mother wanted me well-versed in the workings of the Port Mafia. I knew who you two were immediately.” She replied.

Dazai snorted, and stepped to the front of the group.

He stopped when the group, including Ladybug and Chat Noir, were behind him.

Chuuya was still wrecking the Eiffel Tower.

Dazai raised his hands up to his mouth, and shouted, “Hey, dog! Stop being so stupid, shortass!”

Nino clapped a hand over Dazai’s mouth. “Are you crazy?! You’re gonna get his attention! He’ll kill you!”

Dazai pushed Nino’s hand away and laughed. “Like I’d let a stupid slug kill me.”

He took a step back as a chunk of the Eiffel Tower landed where he had just been standing.

Chuuya was up in the air, directly above Dazai, and descending quickly.

Ladybug gasped. “Quick, you have to move, he’ll kill you!”

Dazai stuck his hand up, and Chuuya made contact.

A blinding light burst at the point of contact, and Chuuya lowered to the ground, the red glow around him fading and the red marks on his body disappearing, leaving harsh scars on his body where the marks were. The floating chunks of earth returned to ground, and Chuuya slumped into Dazai’s arms, barely conscious.

“Chuuya, good to have you back.”

“Fuck off, bastard.”

Dazai chuckled. Chuuya glared up at him, and Dazai smiled at him.

Then Chuuya stuck his arm out next to him and punched Monarch in the balls.

In all the commotion of Chuuya coming back to himself, Monarch had snuck up to the group, intent on capturing the Miraculouses he wished for so badly, but he had underestimated Chuuya and Dazai.

Dazai passed Chuuya over to Kagami, who lowered him onto the ground as he passed out.

Dazai turned back to Monarch.

“So, Gabriel Agreste. Did you enjoy your little infiltration?”

Monarch flashed his teeth at Dazai and made to stand up, but Dazai kicked him in the side of the head. He reached to Monarch’s collar, and snatched the butterfly miraculous off of him.

Monarch detransformed into Gabriel, and the group of friends gasped. They couldn’t deny it now.

Chat Noir stepped forward, and stood next to Dazai.

“Claws in.”

Adrien stood before his father, looking down at him.

“I just want to know one thing. Why?” He asked, emotion clear in his voice.

Gabriel looked up at his son. “I wanted to bring your mother back, Adrien. I was going to wish for her back, and we could be together again! We could be happy again, Adrien!”

Adrien stared at his father, tears running down his cheeks.

“She’s dead, Father. She has been for years. And destroying Paris isn’t the way to fix that.”

Gabriel broke down.

“I just want her back. I want us to be happy, I want you to be happy, why is that so wrong?” he pleaded.

Ladybug stepped forward and detransformed.

“Because, Mr Agreste, you’ve hurt people. In attempting to bring your wife back, you’ve hurt every person in Paris, including your own son. Would your wife have wanted that?”

“Marinette’s right. Mother wouldn’t have wanted this. She would’ve stopped you.” Adrien said, nearly sobbing now.

“I-I’m sorry Adrien, I’m so sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry-“

Dazai pointed a gun at Gabriel’s head.

“In infiltrating our organisation, you have disrespected Mori Ougai himself. He has called for yours and Tsurugi Tomoe’s execution. And after your actions these last few years, I doubt many people will have an objection.” Dazai said, his voice void of emotion.

“No, please no, don’t kill my father!” Adrien shouted.

Dazai looked at him, pity on his face. “If I don’t, Mori will send someone else to do it for me. No matter how secure a prison is, nothing stops the Port Mafia. Nothing at all.”

“Please! I know he’s done awful things but I can’t lose him, please!”

For the first time in his life, Dazai wavered. He had always tuned out emotional wailing before, and powered through whatever he was doing. But now, with Adrien begging him to not shoot, he was hesitating.

Dazai looked at Chuuya’s unconscious form leaning against Kagami on the floor.

“We can’t kill him.”

“They deserve to know.”

“I’m not going to orphan him, Osamu.”

Dazai lowered the gun.

The Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure quickly arrived, arresting Gabriel and taking him into custody.

A severe-looking woman ordered for the friend group to be taken for questioning, but Dazai stepped in front.

“If you’ll excuse my insolence, my name is Dazai Osamu. I am an executive in the Port Mafia. No, don’t even try and arrest me,” he said in response to the woman pulling her gun on him.

“Put Gabriel Agreste in the most secure cell you have. I can’t promise he’ll survive, as my boss called for his death, but it’s worth a try. These kids don’t know anything, they’re all innocent in this and had no idea of my identity. They don’t need questioning, just let them leave. And, let Adrien go with them. He needs time to process.”

The woman stared at Dazai in astonishment, but held her gun up at him resolutely.

“I’ll do what you say, but you need to come with me. So does your partner, Nakahara Chuuya. We know of Double Black, and I’m sure the Japanese government will be very happy we’ve caught their most powerful criminals.”

Dazai rolled his eyes and walked up to the gun, pressing his forehead against it.

“If you want to get out of this unscathed, I’d suggest you let us go. I die and Chuuya can’t get out of Corruption. I die and Chuuya rips the Earth apart.” He said to her in a dangerous voice.

A constipated look passed across the woman’s features, and she lowered her gun and stepped back, shouting orders to leave the kids alone and get out of there.

The DGSE left, and the group of kids were left standing in the shadow of the remainder of the Eiffel Tower.

~~~

“So, what do we do now?” Chuuya asked, taking a swig from his wine bottle.

Dazai took a sip of his sake, and sighed. “Home, I suppose.”

They were sat on the bank of the Seine river, drinking away the stressful day they had the day before. The sun was setting.

“You don’t seem very happy about that.” Chuuya remarked.

“No. I’m not.” Dazai responded.

Chuuya took one more gulp of wine and set his bottle down hard on the stone.

“Okay, what the fuck is going on?”

Dazai didn’t look at him.

“I’m not fucking stupid, I know you and Mori had an argument before we were sent here, is that why you don’t wanna go back? What did you argue about that was so awful you don’t wanna go home? I mean seriously, what-”

“You.”

Chuuya choked.

A small coughing fit later and Chuuya stared at Dazai incredulously. “…Me?” He croaked.

Dazai looked up at the sky, watching the rainbow of colours stretch across the expanse.

“He wanted to lock you up with Q.”

“Oh.”

“He said that you were more dangerous than Q, so if they had to be locked up so did you. I told him to go fuck himself, and he shipped us here for a mission we were really overqualified for.”

A pause.

“You stood up to Mori…, for me?”

Dazai laughed through his nose. “Of course, slug. It would’ve been so boring around the office if you were only let out for missions.”

“Osamu.”

Dazai finally looked at Chuuya.

“Why did you really do it?” He asked firmly.

Dazai didn’t say anything. He just looked at Chuuya, with all the love his stupid fractured heart could muster.

Chuuya kissed Dazai.

Dazai kissed Chuuya.

Chuuya clambered into Dazai’s lap, and Dazai wrapped his arms around Chuuya’s body. Their mouths never left each other’s.

Dazai threaded his hands into Chuuya’s hair, gently gripping his head and tilting it to get a better angle. Chuuya sighed softly, and wound his arms around Dazai’s neck.

They lost themselves in each other, sat in the light of the setting sun.

Chuuya pulled back and rested his forehead on Dazai’s. The pair opened their eyes and looked at each other, and Chuuya started to chuckle.

Dazai laughed along with him.

“I don’t care how long we spend here, mackerel.”

“Good, I want to make Mori suffer for as long as possible, slug.”

Chuuya stood up and held his hand out to Dazai. Dazai took it and was pulled up to his feet. Grinning, Chuuya grabbed the two bottles of alcohol and dragged Dazai through the streets of Paris, back to their cramped apartment, onto their cramped bed, and Double Black spent the night in each other’s arms.

Chuuya took off his hat, and Dazai took off his bandages.