Chapter Text
Chuuya frowned as he tapped his pen thoughtfully on the papers in front of him. It had been four days since his fight with Lovecraft, and three days since Mori had quite rudely forbidden him from doing any work.
Rest and recover, his boss had said. As if he wasn’t capable of still doing light work while recovering, he had plenty of paperwork that had stacked up —not that he really wanted to do paperwork, but paperwork didn’t care about his feelings.
And yet despite the fact that he healed fast, Mori had been adamant about his orders. He’d even insisted on coming by regularly to check on Chuuya, suspiciously examining Chuuya’s apartment like he was a parent searching for signs their child had been sneaking out to party.
It seemed that Chuuya might have been a bit too rebellious lately, given how paranoid Mori was being. He’d have to try and be on his best behavior for the next little while, or rather, he’d have to pretend that he was on his best behavior.
Chuuya wasn’t about to sacrifice doing what needed to be done, just because Mori was being fussy. Still, he’d rather not give his boss an aneurysm from stress, so he’d have to be subtle about it.
Just because Mori was being strict though didn’t mean that Chuuya had been totally unproductive. He might not be able to go into the office, or help with the clean up efforts, but Mori could do nothing to stop his ghosts. Not even if he had known about them.
Most of them were still busy, but Miyu was free to run errands and messages for Chuuya.
The vast majority of the information she had brought him was about the aftermath of the Guild’s defeat. So far it seemed that none of the Guild members were showing any sign of leaving Japan, but that wasn’t surprising. It had only been a few days since Fitzgerald’s capture after all, and the Guild probably wasn’t even sure exactly what had happened to him.
Quite frankly Chuuya was more concerned about the information he wasn’t getting. He’d sent Ayumi to try and track down a certain Russian, since he’d had to pull her off of watching him while they were dealing with the Guild, but there hadn’t been much luck.
There had been a few sightings of him, but most of them were old and gave no indication of where he was now.
Circling the name Fyodor Dostoevsky on the paper in front of him, Chuuya wrote the words ‘in hiding’ next to it, followed by a question mark. He wasn’t sure if Fyodor was deliberately trying to lay low, there was no way he could know Chuuya was onto him after all, but he was definitely difficult to find.
Letting out a sigh, Chuuya looked over all the notes he had written. There didn’t seem to be any obvious common denominators between the sightings of him, nothing that Chuuya could use to even get a vague idea of the area he was in.
He was getting nowhere, maybe he needed a break.
Gathering up the papers from his desk, Chuuya unlocked one of the drawers in it and slipped them into a file, before locking it again. It wouldn’t stop anyone who really wanted to gain access, but it would at least slow them down.
Standing up from his desk, he ran a hand through his hair. He felt like he was going a bit stir crazy.
Although there were plenty of things for him to do in his apartment, Chuuya had reached his limit. Even the frequent presence of his brother —not that he was there now, Chuuya had forced him to go check on Rimbaud and Fitzgerald— wasn’t enough to keep him from getting restless.
He needed something different. Something out of his apartment.
Although he was still sore and tired, Chuuyya had gotten a decent amount of his strength back. It wasn’t like his legs were going to collapse under him anymore, or that anyone would realize that he wasn’t feeling his best at the moment.
And it wasn’t like Mori had specifically told him had to stay at home. All he’d said was to rest and recover. If Chuuya were to do something like say, see if any of the FLAGS wanted to grab lunch, that surely still counted as resting.
And that was the story Chuuya would be sticking to if Mori or his brother took issue with it.
Of course, spending time with the FLAGS did mean that he was probably going to get chewed out by them for his recent behavior, but that would happen eventually regardless. He might as well get it over with.
At least he didn’t have to worry about them fussying over his injury, he had somehow managed to convince Mori to help him keep the fact that he was injured on the down low.
As far as anyone save it be Mori, Elise, and perhaps Q knew, Chuuya simply had been put on leave to rest, due to being overworked. It was still an excuse that would unfortunately lead to lectures from those who were close to him, but it was still far better than them finding out he’d been seriously injured.
Reaching into his pocket for his phone, Chuuya frowned. It wasn’t there, where had he put it? Thinking for a moment Chuuya remembered he had set it down on the counter while eating breakfast, he must have left it there.
Wandering out to his kitchen, Chuuya indeed spotted his phone sitting on the counter. Snatching it up, he frowned. He really needed to be more careful about not leaving it lying around, developing the habit at home could lead to him accidentally doing the same elsewhere.
Not to mention that there were people in Chuuya’s life that would have no problem breaking into his apartment and snooping around. Namely Dazai.
Scrolling through his list of contacts, Chuuya hesitated, trying to figure out who to text. Even if he only contacted one person, he’d probably end up with several of the FLAGS showing up to hang out. Maybe Kouyou would actually be better to contact.
He might get a judging stare from her and a comment about taking care of himself better, but she wouldn’t rant at him like the FLAGS would.
Before he could come to a decision though, there was a sound from the direction of his door. A soft scraping noise, like metal against metal. He had heard it before, plenty of times during his partnership with Dazai.
The sound of someone picking his lock.
His brother had a key, so it wouldn’t be him. And in this instance neither Mori, nor any of his friends would be breaking in.
Which meant one obvious answer.
Stalking towards the door, Chuuya unlocked and quickly yanked it open. As he had expected, Dazai was crouched in front of his doors, lockpicks in hand. What Chuuya hadn’t expected though, was that Atsushi and Kyoka were with him.
Atsushi seemed quite nervous about what Dazai was doing, and his nerves had probably only increased now that they had been caught. Kyoka on the other hand, seemed to simply be silently judging Dazai.
For the moment though, Chuuya ignored them, focusing his attention on Dazai instead.
“Dazai, are you aware of a concept called knocking?”
Dazai tilted his head slightly to the side, looking thoughtful. “Nope!” He said cheerfully, after a moment. “That doesn’t sound familiar at all.”
He looked so pleased with himself, as if he had done something to be proud of instead of being a nuisance. Then again, to Dazai they might be the same thing.
Chuuya felt a headache starting to grow.
“He said he had permission to let himself in.” Kyoka said, ratting out Dazai without hesitation.
The glare Chuuya had fixed on Dazai deepened. “If that had been the case,” He said, “I would have given him a key.”
Despite his lie being exposed, Dazai didn’t seem bothered in the slightest, and Chuuya couldn’t help but sigh.
“Why are you even here Dazai?” He asked, “And why did you bring the kids?”
It wouldn’t have been too surprising if it had been just Dazai who had shown up, Chuuya had sent him several messages recently that had contained the bare minimum amount of information necessary. Dazai didn’t like not knowing things.
That didn’t explain why Kyoka and Atsushi were there though.
“Ah right, Kyoka-chan wanted to thank you for your help.” Dazai said, motioning for the girl to speak.
“Thank you for dealing with the police, Chuuya-san.” Kyoka said, giving a slight bow. “I’m sorry for causing you trouble.”
Chuuya raised an eyebrow. “It wasn’t really any trouble.”
Sure he had been badly injured and only staying on his feet thanks to adrenaline, but actually blackmailing the police superintendent had been easy enough.
Besides, to some extent Chuuya couldn’t help but feel like he had failed Kyoka, by not protecting her more while she was in the mafia.
He had done what he could, had tried to limit the jobs she was sent on and sat with her when she came back from a kill, but his influence had been limited. He had not been the one who had brought her into the mafia, nor who had decided she would be an assassin, so there were some things that were out of his hands.
“Also,” Dazai began, but he was interrupted as Argent woke from his nap on the cat tower, and came rushing towards the door upon hearing the sound of people.
Chuuya stuck out a foot to stop the cat from escaping, before quickly scooping him up. Last time Argent had managed to get out into the hall, he’d managed to get himself lost and started crying like he was being murdered until Chuuya had retrieved him.
He had been less than twenty feet from home.
Kyoka’s eyes widened at the sight of Argent in Chuuya’s arms, her fingers twitching slightly as if she wanted to reach out and pet the cat.
“You have a cat Chuuya-san?” Atsushi asked, looking surprised. For some reason it seemed like a lot of people outside of the mafia didn’t realize that its members didn’t spend all their time being criminals, they did normal things too, like having pets, going shopping and in a few cases, even having families.
“He has two of them,” Dazai piped up before Chuuya could say anything. “Unless of course he’s picked up more strays since I was last here.”
Chuuya glared at him. “I don’t know about strays, but I certainly see a useless mutt in front of me.”
Dazai shook his head, “Now, now Chuuya. We both know you’re the dog here.” He teased, earning a growl of annoyance from Chuuya.
The thing that made his words the most annoying, was that Dazai wasn’t entirely wrong about calling Chuuya a dog. It just wasn’t for the reasons Dazai thought.
For Dazai, calling Chuuya a dog was a way of mocking his loyalty, his friendliness and his stubbornness. It was also a way of showing himself to be just as much of a possessive bastard as plenty of other people in Chuuya’s life. From the day they’d met, Dazai had seemed to have some incessant need to try and control Chuuya, not that that was uncommon, there were plenty of people who wanted to control Chuuya.
He unfortunately seemed to naturally attract them. His brother always said that it was because the combination of Chuuya’s strength and kindness was too tempting for people.
Given that Verlaine himself was a recovering controlling type, Chuuya supposed he might possibly have some idea what he was talking about.
None of that made him a dog though.
However, Arahabaki did have some canine like traits. According to Rimbaud he had even taken a dog-like form during the brief moment he’d taken over when Chuuya had escaped the lab. And some of those traits seemed to have been passed down to Chuuya.
Sharpened teeth, increased sense of hearing and smell, a strong preference for meat. And those were just the things Chuuya had noticed, for all he knew there were more ways that Arahabaki had influenced him.
He still didn’t appreciate being treated like a pet though. Chuuya was already well aware that he wasn’t human, he didn’t need to be treated like an animal on top of that.
It made Chuuya really want to kick Dazai out of the building, but Kyoka was looking at Argent with bright eyes, and so he just let out a sigh instead. Turning, he walked deeper into his apartment, leaving the door open behind him. He didn’t hear any footsteps after a few seconds though, so he turned back to see the three of them still standing there.
“If you’re going to come in, then come in already. If not, then you can leave.” He said, before pausing for a moment. “Actually Dazai, you can just go ahead and leave.”
Dazai grinned slightly, leading the way in walking into Chuuya’s apartment. “Sorry, no can do. Kunikida would have a conniption if I left the kids alone with a dangerous mafioso."
Atsushi gave Dazai an exasperated look as he hesitantly followed him in, which Chuuya attributed to the fact that —according to Oda– Dazai regularly gave Kunikida conniptions for the fun of it. He might be trying to be a better man in the Agency, but it seemed there were some traits that never went away.
“Ah yes,” Chuuya said dryly, “It really would be a huge risk to leave a man-eating tiger and a former assassin alone with a mafia member, better add a former mafia member to the mix as well.”
Atsushi frowned at Chuuya’s words, “I don’t eat people!” He protested, and Chuuya inclined his head slightly in acknowledgment.
“My apologies,” He said, actually meaning it. It would be hypocritical of him to saddle Atsushi with a label that made him uncomfortable. “A non-man-eating tiger then.”
Dazai clapped his hands together. “I’m so glad you understand the situation.” He said, ignoring all of Chuuya’s sarcasm.
A roll of his eyes was the only response that Chuuya was willing to dignify him with.
He put Dazai’s immaturity out of his mind for the moment though, focusing instead on watching Kyoka and Atsushi as they looked around his apartment. Thankfully he had kept it clean these past few days and didn’t have anything out which they shouldn’t see.
Though honestly Dazai was more of a worry when it came to that kind of thing, and having things put away wouldn’t stop him from snooping. Concern about other people’s privacy wasn’t something that ever weighed on Dazai’s mind.
Quite frankly, Chuuya was beginning to think that he probably needed to move. He highly doubted that the two times Dazai had shown up at his apartment so far would be the only times, and now he’d gone on to show Agency members where Chuuya lived.
Not that Chuuya had anything against the two of them personally, he loved Kyoka like a little sister and Atsushi seemed like a good lad, but he still would prefer them to not know where he lived. It would be too easy for them to pass that information on to other Agency members or anyone else, and Chuuya didn’t need them being able to show up as well.
Moving would be a pain though, and Dazai would probably find where he lived anyway, so it might not be worth it.
“Mrow!” Kohaku let out a meow to announce her presence as she exited Chuuya’s bedroom, shooting a judging look at the way Argent was flopped in Chuuya’s arms like a ragdoll. As she passed by Dazai, she made a very purposeful swipe at his shoes, leaving obvious claw marks behind in the leather.
Chuuya couldn’t help but feel proud of her.
“Chuuuuya, why does your cat hate me!” Dazai whined, looking down at his shoe with displeasure.
Chuuya scoffed, watching as Kohaku walked over and circled Kyoka a few times, before starting to sniff at her hand as the girl crouched down and held it out for her.
“It’s called having taste,” He told Dazai.
Kohaku was a picky cat when it came to who she was willing to interact with, unlike Argent who could get kidnapped without even realizing it.
It seemed Kyoka had earned Kohaku’s approval though, as she began nuzzling her head against the girl’s palm, earning a small smile. Not that Chuuya was surprised, Kyoka might have excelled as an assassin, but she was still just a young and kind girl at heart.
“What’s her name?” Kyoka asked, as she began scratching behind the cat's ears, finding the spot that Kohaku liked, and drawing out a deep rumbling purr.
“That’s Kohaku. And this idiot…” Chuuya gestured to the cat still lounging in his arms. “Is Argent.”
He placed the silver cat on the ground, who instantly ran over to paw at Atsushi’s leg, apparently sensing a fellow feline. Atsushi looked surprised for a moment, before smiling and crouching down to pet the cat.
With the kids suitably distracted for the moment, Chuuya turned to Dazai and raised an eyebrow, waiting for him to explain the real reason he was here. Dazai rarely did anything for only a single motive.
Dazai smiled, and though he lacked the sharp teeth that Chuuya had, somehow it seemed more threatening.
“Let’s talk about Fitzgerald.”