Double Black

50-50 chance

The barrage of footsteps on the floor were absolutely deafening.

The sight of Dazai ignoring work to laze around on his designated couch was rather ordinary at this point. The man was known to be lazy, after all. But the sight of the man pacing in front of his couch, clearly in deep thought? 

That was clearly one of the first signs of impending doom.

It was a day like any other. It was a weekday, which meant that Kunikida was rushing to ensure that everything went according to his schedule. The other Agency employees were busy doing their own work. All except Dazai. Which, as mentioned, was nothing new. But the fact he was pacing, looking so distressed; that was certainly a matter of serious concern.

The first one to approach the ticking time bomb- uh, the detective-, was the resident weretiger. Atsushi walked over to his mentor while the latter was in the midst of glaring at the window; his footsteps light, and his hands shaking just a little due to his nerves. 

He cleared his throat, "Um, Dazai-san. Are you alright?"

His mentor paused in his step, considering that, "I'd suppose so. Thank you, Atsushi-kun."

That was all he said before he went right back to pacing across the office floor, his hands folded, his coat trailing behind him. He clearly didn't want to talk about it. Atsushi had no other choice but to leave him be, and go back to finishing his reports.

Over the next few minutes, this cycle continued. Dazai kept pacing, and the Agency members took turns in their attempts to intercept him, and maybe get answers as to what was wrong. As expected, the currently troubled detective just thanked them for his concern before going right back to eroding the floor with his heavy footsteps.

After quite a while, the steps stopped when the Agency's doctor burst out of the infirmary. Yosano stalked over to her co-worker, "God fucking hell, Dazai. Can you stop that?! It's like a freaking army march in here."

Dazai scrunched up his nose dramatically, clearly feeling easier around the woman, "I'm sorry my concerns are too noisy for you, Yosano-sensei."

Ranpo chose this moment to enter the office, arms overflowing with a variety of snacks, "Hm. What's going on?"

Yosano turned to face the genius, her hand pointing towards the idiotic genius, "Dazai won't stop pacing in here. Something about having concerns or whatever."

Ranpo looked over at the other, "Concerns, you say?" After considering the situation for a few seconds, he snapped his fingers, "Oh, I see! You're finally going to ask out Nakahara, isn't that it?"

Regular high school teachers would be very pleased with the pin-drop silence that enveloped the room. Considering Kunikida used to be a math teacher, did it make him happy as well?

Clearly not.

The former math teacher was rather quick to stand up from his desk, "Nakahara as in the Mafia Executive?"

Ranpo nodded as he put away his snacks, "Mr. Fancy Hat, yeah. It's obvious Dazai is in love with him or whatever, so he's been stressing out about finally asking him out. Isn't that correct?"

Dazai sighed as he finally, finally stopped pacing and slumped over his desk, "Absolutely right."

From the desk next to him, Atsushi peeked at his mentor, "Um. You intend to ask out your ex-partner on a date?"

Looking up at the boy, Dazai insisted, "I want to ask Chuuya on a date."

There was silence as his co-workers considered that. Sure, everybody knew of Dazai's previous affiliations with the Mafia. But it's been almost five years since he left that life behind. Everyone was also aware of his former partnership with the now Mafia Executive. But going back to him to be in a relationship? Wasn't such a thing unforeseen and hence disastrous!