Chapter Text
The rain tapped gently outside Kunikida’s window, barely visible against the backdrop of Yokohama's muted 10p.m. glow. Sighing, he readjusted his glasses and redirected his attention to the paperwork he needed to complete for tomorrow.
He leafed through the pages, selected an easier looking report and began filling in the details. Steam from the cup of tea on his desk next to him wafted into his nostrils – all that the smell managed to do, however, was make him more tired. He muffled a yawn, took off his glasses, and pinched the bridge of his nose. He needed sleep.
Maybe Dazai could do his own paperwork for once. Kunikida didn't trust him to actually complete it, but at the moment, all he was worried about was getting to bed.
He sipped his tea and went to his bedroom, sliding under the blankets which felt even more comfortable than usual in his tired state. The rain continued to patter, but apart from the soothing sound, all was silent.
###
Kunikida awoke to a crash.
Bleary-eyed, he stumbled out from his bedsheets, glancing at the digital clock on his bedside table.
2.14 a.m.
This time of night shouldn't even exist. Kunikida shoved on his glasses and tried to use his brain in this groggy state.
It sounded like glass. It came from my right.
Kunikida felt both relieved and anxious at the same time.
Dazai's dorm.
Kunikida and Dazai's Agency-provided dorms were side by side on the second floor of the apartment building. Dazai's room was technically in the middle, sandwiched between Yosano and Kunikida, but Yosano barely ever slept there – she was always spending her time tinkering in the Agency's infirmary, often sleeping there instead. Due to the rain, those sleeping downstairs probably hadn't heard the shattering noise, which meant that Kunikida was going to have to be the one to sacrifice his precious sleeping time in order to check on Dazai. It was at times like these that Kunikida wished Yosano were there to deal with it instead of him.
Kunikida was fairly sure that Dazai probably just dropped a glass of water or something, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Who knew what a suicidal maniac might do with some broken glass?
He grumbled to himself as he left his dorm, plonking along the rain-dampened walkway to Dazai's door, which was all of about two metres away.
Still too far to walk at this time of night, Kunikida thought to himself. He knocked briefly before opening the door without waiting for a reply.
The kitchen and dining area were dark, but a faint glow emerged from the door to Dazai's room. Kunikida swung open the door.
To say the least, he was a little confused.
Dazai was indeed awake. He was crouched on the ground, sweeping up shards of glass from–
“How the hell did you break your lamp?” Kunikida asked, perhaps more bluntly than usual. He was tired. Very tired.
Dazai jumped, whipping his head around. “When did you get here?” he asked, instantly launching from the floor into an upright standing position. He looked nervous.
“Just now. How'd you break it?”
Dazai relaxed slightly. Kunikida took note of that – is he hiding something?
Dazai rubbed the back of his neck, smiling slightly. “Well, funny story. I knocked it over in my sleep. That thing was expensive, too.” Dazai paused. “Why are you here?” Everything he said sounded breathless, like he'd just been on a long run. Strange.
Kunikida gave him a look. “I heard it break. It woke me up.” He threw a glance at the mess. “Must have been some dream you were having.”
“How light a sleeper are you?” Dazai said, returning back to the ground to sweep up the remaining shards.
“Very light. Also, these walls are paper thin. That's part of the reason why I ask you not to bring any dates home here.”
Dazai looked like he was about to make a dirty joke but Kunikida shushed him before he could start. “Save it. Just tidy this mess up.”
Dazai sighed dramatically, kneeling down. He scooped some glass into his hands and suddenly jerked his left hand away.
“Ah! Damn it,” he mumbled, inspecting the long but relatively shallow cut. It bled profusely, staining his palm red.
Kunikida did what he did best, which was basically mothering Dazai. “Put a bandage on that. I can get one.”
Dazai was silent, staring blankly at his bloodstained palm.
Kunikida sighed in annoyance. “Dazai. Hey, are you listening?”
Dazai inhaled quickly, snapped from his reverie. “Oh, yeah, uh – they're in the bathroom. The bandages, I mean. But I'll get them.”
Kunikida could tell Dazai was doing his best not to look at his hand again. That was odd – Kunikida had never known Dazai to be woozy, not even a little.
Dazai stood up, brushed past Kunikida and walked into the connected bathroom.
Kunikida followed, although it was quite clear from the fact that Dazai shut the bathroom door behind him that he wanted to be alone. At this time of night, however, Kunikida was in no mood to be reasonable.
“Dazai.” After opening the door again, he shook the shoulder of Dazai, who was kneeled on the clean tiles and rifling through a very cluttered vanity drawer.
Dazai barely acknowledged Kunikida with nothing more than a, “Mm.”
“Is something wrong?”
Dazai opened a different drawer, leaving the other partially open and still spilling assorted bathroom supplies all over the ground. “Nope. What makes you say that?”
Kunikida almost laughed. Almost. “Don't you remember anything that's just happened? You're acting strange.”
Dazai didn't reply, instead finally locating a roll of bandages and wrapping a strip expertly around his hand. The strange look returned to his face as he saw the bloody palm again – wide-eyed and numb, almost surprised. He looked like he was remembering something.
Winding the fabric carefully around, the deep, rich red was gradually smothered by layers of bandages, and once he was done, Dazai got off the floor and went back to the bedroom.
By this point, Kunikida was beginning to feel exasperated. It was already nearing 3.00 a.m., which left him with 3 and a half hours of sleep, if he planned to stick to his schedule. Not nearly enough to have an efficient workday, which meant that his whole schedule would probably be delayed, unless he worked overtime tomorrow night to catch up on paperwork. Somehow, he knew that was exactly what would happen.
“Dazai, what's going on?” Kunikida reached Dazai in the bedroom and stopped him from moving with a hand on his shoulder.
To an outsider, Dazai was nearly impossible to read, always giving off an aura of complete composure under scrutiny. However, after working with him for so long, Kunikida had easily picked up on the small tells that gave him away.
Dazai stiffened ever so slightly. It was practically unnoticeable unless you were looking for it, which Kunikida was. His shoulders drew forwards and up by a millimetre at most, but that was confirmation enough.
Dazai sat down on the mattress, carefully avoiding eye contact. “Nothing important.” He cleared his throat. “You should go back to bed. Imagine the outrage if you showed up late to work. The President would be appalled.”
Kunikida felt a small rush of panic at these words before noting the sarcasm in them.
“Very funny. But you're right.” He tiredly headed for the door. “Go to sleep. And if anything happens, tell me.”
“Don't be so paranoid,” Dazai mocked. “Nothing's happened, nothing's gonna happen.” He sighed and said, quietly, almost as Kunikida was out the door, “I'm sorry I woke you up.”
Kunikida almost stopped in his tracks. He replied with a mandatory, “It's fine,” as he shut the door.
He made it back to his dorm in a daze. Dazai? Apologising for causing him an inconvenience?
Something was very, very wrong. That much Kunikida knew for sure.
###
The next morning.
Kunikida awoke at 6.32, already 2 minutes behind schedule. He felt disgusted with himself for allowing such a travesty to take place and began making and eating his breakfast at top speed to make up for the lost time.
Dazai's dorm was silent, which Kunikida took to mean that he was sleeping. He would check on him before he left for work.
Kunikida still had that paperwork to catch up on, although he planned to let Dazai do his own for a change, which meant out of the thick stack in front of him he only had about 5 pages to fill out.
By the time Kunikida finished, it was 7.59 a.m., which was almost exactly when he planned to leave for work. Of course, his shift didn't start until 9, but Kunikida always left at 8, walked to the building, and started early before everyone else at 8.30 on the dot.
Kunikida gathered his things and left his dorm. Hoping that Dazai was actually awake, he knocked rapidly on the door to his dorm and waited.
To his surprise, the door opened almost instantly.
“Mind if I walk with you?” a highly caffeinated Dazai asked perkily. “I wanna see what it's like to be on time for once. And we better get going now, because I probably don't walk as fast as you, I don't really exercise at all–”
“Dazai,” Kunikida said flatly. “Have you been awake all night?”
“Yeah, pretty much. How could you tell? I don't know how you do it, Kunikida, it's like you can read my mind, it's kinda scary actually–”
Kunikida pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Please shut up. You reek of coffee, which is a giveaway. Also, you tend to act crazier when you're tired. But please. Just be quiet if you want to walk with me.” Kunikida sniffed, frowning slightly. “You need a shower.”
Dazai nodded enthusiastically. “I know. And I will shut up now, but I found out about something really cool and I just have to tell you. So basically, I was making a coffee–”
“And how many exactly have you had since last night?”
Dazai laughed and shrugged. “I don't know, at least 6 or 7. Probably 8. Definitely 9, actually. Anyway, I found out – bare with me here – if you mix chilli powder and mayonnaise in–”
Kunikida sighed and tuned Dazai out.
First, Dazai was being quiet and reserved, and now he was acting like a child on a sugar high. He could only hope that last night would be a one off event.
They reached the office in good time, and Kunikida settled down at his desk to get to work. He sighed in contentment, feeling truly at peace and in control in his little corner of the world.
On the other side of the same desk, Dazai was crashing from his caffeine crazed energy high. He was clearly trying not to give in and fall asleep but Kunikida doubted that resolve would last for long. It never had before.
“Hey, Dazai,” he said. He pulled from his work supplies the thick stack of paperwork. “This is all yours to do. May as well get a head start on it before the others arrive, right?”
Within a few minutes of trying to fill out the forms, Dazai was dozing quietly, slumped on the desk as per usual. Kunikida felt a sense of relief. Finally, he would get a chance to work without distraction.
Eventually, the others filed into the room, expressing mild surprise at the fact that Dazai had shown up to work on time, although that didn't change the fact that he wasn't actually working. The sight of Dazai asleep on a desk was a common one in the Agency by now.
The morning passed in relative uneventfulness apart from one instance of Ranpo throwing a tantrum when he couldn't find his snack stash, but Kunikida did his best to ignore that. The day wore on, and soon it was getting late into the afternoon.
Dazai continued to sleep through the whole day, which was setting a new record, even for him. Usually he would be awake now and trying to leave the second it hit 5.30.
Despite the fact that he was grumpy and sleep deprived, Kunikida didn't have it in him to wake Dazai up, even as the others filed out and headed home.
Kunikida always stayed in the office for an extra hour or two after everyone else to get ahead on work, and today was no exception. The only difference was now, Dazai was present.
As the hour wore on, Kunikida realised with a slight jolt as he was finishing up his work that Dazai was still there – he had almost forgotten him. He was still sleeping.
Kunikida slid out of his chair as quietly as possible, stacking his files neatly in preparation to leave. His eyes caught on the stack of paperwork on Dazai's desk – which he was currently using as a pillow.
Kunikida walked to Dazai's side of the table and gently shook his shoulder.
“Dazai,” he whispered. Dazai didn't respond. “Dazai, wake up. It's getting late.”
Dazai breathed deeply through his nose and squeezed his eyes shut tighter. He made an unintelligible annoyed noise and tried to shake Kunikida’s hand off his shoulder.
“Dazai, seriously,” Kunikida said, raising his voice slightly. “I need to lock up. Wake up.” He gripped Dazai's shoulders and pulled his torso up from where it was slumped facedown on the desk.
Dazai inhaled strongly and forced himself to open his eyes, squinting blankly ahead of himself. He stretched half heartedly and slouched in his chair.
“I'm so tired.” He rubbed his eyes. “I'm really tired, Kunikida.”
“Yeah, I know, me too. But we've got to head home now. So get up.” He started pulling Dazai out of the chair, expecting him to get up of his own accord, but he stayed almost completely limp until he was practically on his feet.
“Kunikida, can I just spend the night here? I'm too tired to walk all the way back, and–”
“Sorry, no. Let's get going.” The second the words left his mouth, Kunikida regretted them, and the harsh tone he'd spoken them in. Damn it, Kunikida. Try to be a little nicer. Something obviously happened last night and he'll never tell you about it if you're grumpy with him.
Dazai didn't look in the least offended, luckily, and instead sighed and headed for the door.
“Can we get a cab or something?” He leaned against the wall of the hallway as Kunikida locked the front door to the office. “I'm actually not going to make it.”
Kunikida sent him a look. “We're walking. If you collapse on the way there I'll just drag you home.”
Dazai looked pleased. “Suits me.”
The walk back seemed longer than before, although that could have been because Dazai was shuffling along at a snail's pace, but eventually they made it up the outdoor stairs to the second floor of the apartment building. Kunikida unlocked his dorm and walked in, while Dazai went into his own dorm. Both shut their doors in unison.
Kunikida collapsed onto his bed, praying for an uneventful night, and fell asleep almost instantly.