the beauty of water: deep end | o. dazai ✔

chapter twelve.

It had been too long since (Y/n) had been in the comfort of a bed, let alone wrapped in blankets in a room she could genuinely consider safe (especially since she was in no need of Yosano's treatment). She moved around slightly, feeling the somewhat thin sheets wrapped around her as she began to wake up.

A bright fluorescent light beat down upon the curtain shielding her from it, allowing her not to be blinded as she opened her eyes. She stared up at the ceiling, regaining her senses as she could hear chatter on the other side of the curtain and outside Yosano's office, where she had been sleeping in.

She sat up, reaching up and rubbing her head, letting her hair untangle between her fingers as it had been let down within the time she had been brought back to the agency. She looked around the slightly darkened room, looking down at herself as she saw that she was no longer wearing the equipment she had put on before leaving to go rescue Q, but was now wearing her usual black long-sleeve and shorts.

I guess Dazai was able to get Q and I back. Oh jeez, he had to carry both of us... I'll have to apologize for letting him do that, she thought as she fully woke up, remembering what had occurred before she had fainted. Speaking of him, where is he? Wait... Am I...

She looked down at her hands, rolling up her sleeves to reveal her forearms – finding her skin to be completely clear, not a single blue mark or swirl in sight. She let out a breath, a sigh mixed with exhaustion and relief. While she had woken up, her brief sleep was more to recuperate from her ability rather than to rest from all the chaos.

(Y/n) flung the covers off of herself, revealing a pair of black socks – a pair she wasn't wearing the night before, and while it disturbed her slightly, it was not the main focus at that point. She slid her feet against the cool tiles, pushing off the edge of the bed as she stood up.

She shuffled towards the curtain, her legs wobbling as she drew nearer to the white fabric shielding her from the chaos outside. She reached out towards it, about to pull it open when someone else slid it open with one swift motion.

"Well good morning," Dazai greeted as his eyes met hers. "You've only been awake for a few minutes and you're already on your feet."

"I guess there's just too much to do—" She was cut off when her shaking legs finally gave out, causing her feet to slide against the smooth ground and begin to pummel to the floor.

He luckily caught her before she could go any further, using one hand to grab her upper arm and the other to wrap around her waist. She quietly thanked him as he helped her to her feet once again, putting her arm around his shoulders as he walked her back over to the bed.

"I guess I wasn't as ready to go as I thought I was," (Y/n) awkwardly chuckled as she sat back down on the bed, pulling her legs under the covers as Dazai sat on the edge next to her. "Sorry..."

"You don't have anything to apologize for. If anything, you should probably be making me apologize soon." He had a smile on his face, one that seemed to mask something he was hiding from her – something that was certainly going to irritate her.

She thought for a moment, quickly realizing what he had done. She narrowed her brows, asking him in a stern tone, "Did you bring Chuuya to the extraction point?"

He didn't answer, just looking away as he quietly whistled. But that was all he needed to do for her to learn the truth.

She let out a heavy breath, one that wasn't a sigh, and raised her hand to pinch the bridge of her nose. She shook her head as she said, "Please don't tell me that you just left him there."

"Okay then, I won't," he replied with a coy smile, looking back to her briefly before turning away again.

"How the hell were you two partners?" she rhetorically questioned as she stopped shaking her head, resting her hand on her lap as she looked back up to him.