★彡[ᴇᴠᴇʀʏᴏɴᴇ ʟᴏᴠᴇꜱ ᴄʜᴜᴜʏᴀ]彡★

A Threat Among The Fan Mail

Meanwhile, oblivious to the disastrous plans being made without his consent, Chuuya Nakahara arrived at the mafia buildings still feeling groggy and irritable from the night before.

Taking special care to avoid his infatuated comrades, he made his way to what had once been Mori's office and slipped inside. 

There were three things that he noticed right away:

One -- half of the windows that made up the left wall were covered by mechanical shades -- creating an orange, glowing effect.

Two -- there was an enormous stack of letters on Mori's desk, envelopes varying vastly in size and color. 

Three -- Elsie was tied to a chair.

 Chuuya rushed over to the little girl, "Elise! What happened? Who did this to you?"

She made an annoyed, muffled sound. He reached for the red cloth around her mouth, fully intending to pull it loose -

"Don't."

Chuuya startled.

Standing next to the desk was Dazai. His brown eyes were downcast as he sorted through the letters, casually tossing them into separate piles. Evidently, he had somehow managed to find his coat, as he was currently wearing it despite there being a good number of scruff marks on the fabric.

"Good morning, Chuuya," he said airily, mostly distracted by what he was doing, "I hope you found the contents of my note to be alright?"

Note? Oh. That little slip of paper he had given Chuuya.

Dammit, I totally forgot to read it.

"Nevermind that right now," Chuuya said, "Why is Elise tied up?"

Dazai let out an overly melodramatic sigh, rolling his shoulders back "She happened to be here when I came in and started screaming so I only did the natural thing."

"Dazai-! You can't just tie children up!"

The detective shrugged, "Meh. If you swear her to secrecy you can probably let her go. Probably."

Grumbling, Chuuya knelt in front of Mori's ability. Through gritted teeth he said, "Okay, Elise. I know you're not the biggest fan of that  sadistic idiot over there, but I've got business with him --  do you think you can keep this all under wraps for me?

Elsie nodded her head and Chuuya readily undid the ropes.

"Chu!" she gasped once he removed the gag, face practically sparkling, "You should have said something yesterday when we were all talking so badly about him! I had no idea you felt the same w-"

"Why don't you go play with your fellow children, Elise?" Chuuya said hurriedly, leaping to his feet and gently steering her towards the door.

"But I don't know any other children! Except for Q, but they scare me."

"Go play with Kajii then, he acts enough like a child."

"Okie~"

 Before she left, she pressed a little finger to her lips and giggled, "I'll keep your secret Chu, no need to worry!"

Once she was gone, Chuuya whirled to Dazai. He was going to continue to yell at him, but ended up saying with a sigh instead, "I'd ask how you got in here but I don't think I want to know."

Dazai grinned. He glanced briefly at the current mafia boss with twinkling eyes before returning to organizing the letters.

 "Good choice."

Chuuya felt a burst of something fluttery. Ha, he got Dazai to smile.

Wait, what the hell?

Ugh, not this again. Truth was, he always felt this spark of energy whenever he got a reaction out of Dazai. But never had he given it a name before.