★彡[ᴇᴠᴇʀʏᴏɴᴇ ʟᴏᴠᴇꜱ ᴄʜᴜᴜʏᴀ]彡★

Insufferable Ringing 𝟚/𝟛

This is the first part of a double update! Be sure to check out the part that comes after °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°!

Chuuya gasped and spun around, fists clenched and body humming with anticipation.

But there was nothing there. Nothing except for the dark vastness of the crate filled warehouse and steady drip, drip from a leaky pipe somewhere off in the distance. 

Once it had finally registered to him that he was not in any immediate danger, Chuuya lowered his fists and straightened, shooting a withering glare at his partner. 

"Of course," he grumbled, voice echoing in the enclosed space, "Only you would get stabbed in the side and still insist of driving me up a wall."

"Interesting choice of words," Dazai said breezily, pointing at the ground, "But no, look."

Chuuya followed the motion, blue eyes landing on a dark splatter on the concrete. It was too dark to make out much color, but the gravity-manipulator was all too familiar with the substance to mistake it for anything else.

"Blood..." he whispered, then looked back to the detective, "How do you know this belongs to the monster? It could very well be yours. Or mine, even."

"Doubt it, I wrapped your leg up pretty well." Dazai said, stepping past Chuuya so his back was now to him, studying the stain with an odd solemnness. "And it's definitely not mine."

"But how do you know-"

"I just do," Dazai said, making an impatient motion and heading briskly down the maze of boxes, "Come on, lets look before stabby mcstabberson back there decides to make a comeback."

Chuuya gave the splatter a long look before hurrying after Dazai, falling into step beside his long strides. 

Something was wrong.

He couldn't say exactly what it was. A shift in the air, a flicker in the shadows, skin crawling as if he were being watched by a thousand eyes. The old, musty scent of mildew and formaldehyde was dense enough to choke on, the crates and boxes surrounding him starting to feel claustrophobic.

The feeling continued to needle at him with every step, heart thumping in his chest and a sheen of sweat causing the back of his shirt to stick to his skin. Something was wrong, something was wrong, in any moment now something was going to go wrong.

Really, the only thing keeping him going at that point was Dazai's self assured steps beside him. Whatever Chuuya was feeling, Dazai clearly didn't. So he couldn't exactly say he was thrilled when the detective stopped, tapped his chin thoughtfully and said,

"Perhaps we should split up and-."

"No." Chuuya said before Dazai even finished speaking. 

When that earned him an odd look he hugged his arms to himself and added, "If one of us runs into the monster then what? If it's really as bad as Atsushi said it was, then we don't stand a chance by ourselves."

Dazai's lip quirked, "Ah, so you are scared."

Chuuya shot him a furious look and snarled, "Of course I'm scared. I was scared when I had to go to your damn agency to get help when everyone first started acting wack, I was scared when I had 'ta go on a fucking date with Fyodor Dostoevsky, I was scared when I entered the stupid Chuestival . So you better be sure as hell that I'm scared now -- is that really so wrong?"

Dazai blinked, looking both mildly taken aback and impressed. 

"Well if anything, I guess this whole ordeal mellowed out that ego of yours."

"Yeah, now we just gotta do something 'bout yours." Chuuya uncrossed his arms, only then noting faintly that Dazai's little quip had been more of a backhanded compliment than an insult. 

Dazai smiled, "Fair. But...don't forget. You're Chuuya Nakahara."

"Eh? What's that supposed to mean?"

Dazai's shoulders brushed against his. 

"Doesn't matter how nervous you might be, you still walked out victorious from each one of those situations, did you not?"

Then, for the killing blow, the bandaged mad added, "I have complete faith in your ability to handle this."

For probably the hundredth time that week, Chuuya felt his face warm, anger poofing away in a cloud of butterflies.

That was, of course, until he realized.

"So you still want us to split up, huh?"

Dazai nodded, "That would be best, yes."

"Piece of shit," Chuuya muttered, although without any bite in his voice as he reluctantly strayed from Dazai's side. "I'll head this way, you go the other. Be careful, alright?"

"You too," said Dazai, turning in the other direction, "Give a shout if you need me."

"Right," Chuuya said, watching the darkness swallow his partner before spinning on his heel and walking away. His fear had subsided somewhat, but a tenseness still nagged at him.

Perhaps he was just being paranoid...