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Chuuya couldn’t cry.
He couldn’t
He couldn’t
He couldn’t.
—
Soukoku was on a mission. The two boys were heading to an enemy base to meet an informant. Was it a trap? Obviously. Were they still going to enter the enemy base for the sake of information? Of course. The plan was simple. Collect the information, wait for the enemy to strike, and beat the shit out of them.
It was a simple plan.
It should have been a simple plan.
—
“Chuuya-san, correct?”
“Huh? Yeah.” Chuuya answered, surprised at the sudden question. The two boys were inside of the building, waiting for their informant to arrive. Dazai was usually the one to be asked anything, most people didn’t even know Chuuya had skills other than brawn. The man asking the question was wearing a well fitted suit, wearing a red rubber band on his hand, unlike the rest of the bodyguards, who were wearing green.
“Do you mind listening to my offer?”
Chuuya glanced at Dazai, then back at the man. It was obviously a scheme to get to one of them. Dazai nodded, walking away.
“Allright.”
Chuuya and the man walked outside of the building, into an empty space. Chuuya glanced around the space, only seeing endless grass. A golf course maybe? Fucking rich people.
“Chuuya.” The man began, as he kept walking.
“Yeah?”
“You only recently joined the Port Mafia, correct?”
“I joined like three years ago.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes..?”
“I see.” The man kept walking.
“Why?”
“You did not always wish to be part of the mafia, yes?”
“Does it matter? That was three years ago.”
“I was just wondering, I mean no harm.”
“Okay.”
“You are aware of what our business is, correct?”
“Yeah.” Why does this dude keep saying correct at the end of every sentence?
“We are a trading company. You run the jewels, or black market part of the mafia.”
“I know.”
“Do you wish to join us?”
Chuuya paused. He looked at the man, who also stopped walking. He glanced behind him, the building they left from wasn’t too far away, but far enough for Chuuya to not be able to run back. Chuuya activated his ability, only letting the red outline appear visible, a threat to the man.
The man sighed.
“You know, I really thought you would have wanted to join. I’m sorry, I didn’t plan on this.”
He touched Chuuya’s shoulder. Chuuya jumped back, drowsiness overtaking his body.
“Chuuya! Slug! Get up!” A voice yelled behind him. The ginger boy felt himself collapse onto the ground, shouts fading slowly.
—
Chuuya could see his life practically flashing before his eyes. Little pieces of his life he could truly remember.
The streets
The Sheep
The betrayal
The Flags
Their dead bodies
The lab
Blood
Dead
Bodies
“Chuuya.” Dazai said, looking at Chuuya. They were walking alongside the beach together.
“Yeah?”
“Do you love me?”
Chuuya paused. He looked back at Dazai, his eyes empty. Neither of them were ones to ask such questions.
“Of course I do. Why wouldn’t I?”
“Well I don’t.”
“You don’t love yourself?”
“Well, that too, but I don’t love you.”
“What?”
Dazai’s shirt started to be filled with blood. His eyes poured blood.
“Dazai?! What the fuck?!”
“I don’t love you, Chuuya. And now I’m dying all because of you. You were caught off guard. You’re supposed to be the brute. The strong one. The protector. And now I’m dead because of you.”
“..What..?”
“Maybe you’re just incapable of protecting people. Maybe even incapable of love.”
“...What’re you saying..? Dazai?”
“It’s your fault, you know. The reason the sheep is gone, the reason the flags are dead, the reason all your subordinate friends can’t live longer than a few weeks.”
“Stop.”
“Stop what? I’m only telling the truth and you know it.”
Dazai’s bloody body collapsed to the ground with open eyes. Everyone's corpse surrounded him. Wasn’t he alone? How did so many people get here?
—
Chuuya woke up, startled. He sat up quickly. He looked around in fear, the grass, originally a bright green, was covered in dark red liquid. The man who was talking to Chuuya was dead on the ground, full of bullet holes. The other bodyguards, some with red, some with green rubber bands were also dead.
“Chibi! Hi slug, you slept a while.”
Chuuya flinched, practically jumping away from Dazai as he touched his shoulder. His eyes widened.
“Chuuya?” Dazai asked, watching as Chuuya shook in fear at the mere mention of his name.
“Chuuya? Seriously, are you okay?”
“S-stop.”
“Huh? Stop what?” Dazai asked. Watching Chuuya cower in fear was a sight to see. Not a good one. Even seeing him stutter was rare.
Dazai reached for Chuuya’s hand, an attempt of getting him to stand up. Chuuya jumped, opting to stand up by himself, his shaking legs trying to pull him down.
“Chuuya.”
“...”
“What happened? I know the ability hit you.”
“...”
Dazai sighed, knowing he wouldn't be getting any answers out of Chuuya in his state,
The two began to walk - or tried to until Chuuya stumbled, almost collapsing to the floor. Dazai caught the ginger, and took his shoulders, turning Chuuya around to see Dazai’s face.
“Watch out Chibi, you could have fallen.”
Chuuya turned his head away, attempting to walk again.
“Fuck-”
He fell.
“Chibi! The fuck are you doing?”
“I didn’t mean t-to fall.”
“I know that, but I guess it’s just a slugs true nature,” Dazai sighed, crouching down to Chuuya. Dazai turned around facing his arms to Chuuya.
“Get on my back, let’s just go home already.”
“...Fuck you.” Chuuya muttered, hopping onto Dazai’s back. The two boys, or, one boy walked towards the direction of their home in silence. After ten minutes, Dazai asked the question,
“What happened with the ability?”
“...”
“That dude was Shion Miura. His ability is called ‘The Great Passage.’ His ability basically makes you see your biggest fear, I guess? Or more like a mix of your fears, your past, and insecurities that’s made into a vision. It’s a pretty scary ability. He’s dead now though.”
“...”
“Oi, are you asleep or something?”
“Nah. You’re just stupid”
“How am I stupid? I literally saved you. Praise your savior!”
“Psh, savior? Fuck off.”
“I’m a perfectly capable savior!”
“A savior that wants to die isn’t a good thing.”
“Shut up. Also give me your keys.”
“What? I gave you like three copies.”
“I lost them.”
“...”
“...”
“..How the fuck did you lose them?”
“I tossed myself into a river but all my keys were in my pocket so now they’re gone.”
“God I fucking hate you.”
Dazai, carrying Chuuya, entered their apartment building. Dazai tossed both of them onto the couch and started to head for their room.”
“I’m gonna bring a change of clothes so wait here slug.”
“ ‘kay.”
Once Daza came back, he was wearing a dull blue shirt and black pants. He was carrying a large red shirt and black shorts.
“Allright go get changed, slug.”
“Don’t boss me around, mackerel.” Chuuya muttered, taking the clothes and entering the bathroom (shakily, Dazai noticed.)
—
Chuuya changed, and entered the living room. It took him a while, considering his hands were shaking too much for him to even pick up his shirt, but he managed. Dazai was opening a box of takeout, courtesy of neither of them knowing how to cook.
“Hi chibi! You sure took a while.”
“Fuck you too. Whatcha order?”
“I got some-”
“Is that fucking crab? I didn’t even know you could order crab and shit online.”
“Well, you can.”
Chuuya sighed, sitting down next to Dazai. He took a pair of chopsticks, and picked up a piece of food. Or tried too, his shaking hands making him drop his food.
“Shit.”
“Your hands are shaking.”
“I know, genius.”
“Why?’
“Who cares why? I dunno.”
Dazai sighed, “Chuuya, I know why, it’s a rhetorical question, do you wanna tell me what you saw with that ability yet?”
Chuuya paused, blinking a few times before looking at Dazai. The bandaged boy was looking right back at Chuuya, brown and blue eyes locking.
“Why do you care?”
“Do you want me to get sappy with you? I care about you and I don’t want you to just let me ignore your problems.”
“Sap.”
“I warned you!”
Chuuya laughed softly, and Dazai glanced at his hands, the ginger's hands still shaking.
“Allright Chibi, enough avoiding the question and tell me what happened.”
Chuuyas expression dropped, his eyebrows furrowing.
“Does it really matter that much..?”
“Yes. It does. You were on the verge of tears, and I’ve never even seen you stutter. You could barely get up to change without your knees locking.”
Shit. He noticed. Chuuya grimaced, looking away from Dazai.
“You’re not gonna let this up, are you.”
“Nope.”
“It was just like.. The flags, the sheep, my subordinates, and you. Well , not really. We were together and then you asked me if I loved you, and then you were all like ‘oh I don’t love you and you’re incapable of love and protecting people’ or some bullshit and It was really stupid and by the time you were done talking there were a bunch of corpses around you and you collpased and you were all bloody and-”
Dazai touched Chuuya’s cheek.
“Calm down Chuuya, It wasn’t real.”
“I-I know that but it felt real, and it looked real.”
“That’s the power of some abilities, slug,” Dazai muttered, pulling Chuuya into a hug. The boy stiffened, he never truly got used to such affection. He soon relaxed under Dazai’s touch, his soft fingers wiping away his tears. He hadn’t even known he was crying, when did that happen? Chuuya blinked a few times, attempting to take his tears away. He never found crying as an escape or something, it was more a reminder of weakness.
“It’s okay to cry, idiot slug.”
“Shut up.” Chuuya softly punched Dazai, knowing he didn’t do any damage. Dazai laughed, hugging Chuuya tighter.
“We should probably eat this food.”
“Mhm,” Chuuya muttered, staring at the cooled down food in front of the two. He let Dazai cup his face, sinking into the touch of the other boy. Exhaustion took over Chuuya once they finished their meal, Dazai drawing soft patterns onto his back.
“Goodnight chibi!”
“ ‘night.”