Dance of song | Soukoku dance au |

The Academy

Note// ... Uhm... I have no excuse T_T. Y'all no, seriously though, I'm actually really apologetic for starting this and then falling from my obsession, but hey it's back and so yay I'm updating again... Also, I'm out of practice with Soukoku, so if this is terrible, please forgive me-

Dazai sat across the table from a woman, much more alike to him in looks than the man he stayed with typically. His head rested on his hand, half sprawled across the table as the woman signed papers. "Osamu, you know you should try sitting up straight, it might help you be less tired." The woman smiled, brunette locks covering her eyes slightly as she scribbled her signature.

Dazai's half-lidded eyes watched her without responding. A soft yawn escaped his lips as he shrugged. The chuckle that left her lips warmed him with a kind of comfort he rarely got to experience. "You're probably right, but I'm always tired."

The woman set the pen down, only to lace her fingers in the boy's hair. "Your father didn't approve of you going to this Academy, did he?" Dazai's eyes darted away from her, guilt, a rare emotion for him slipping into his chest. "Osamu... he has most of the custody over you... he's not going to be happy about this."

Dazai let her fingers drift through his hair, just like he was a young child again. When things were alright between the family, before the issues. "Not like the bastard is paying for it... I'm an adult in the eyes of the law. He can disown me for all I care. I'd like that better. I wish you'd stood up for yourself, advocated for the shitty way he treated you. Would have made my teen years easier." Dazai rambled words that only ever left his mouth around his mother. She sighed, moving her chair to be closer to her child.

"Osamu... I tried... you know I tried, but I was deemed... unfit to raise you by the court. You and I know he has the money to make anything he wants happen, you just need to bear with it for a little while longer, alright dear? This academy will be good for your health. Maybe you'll meet somebody who helps with the pain, maybe somebody who can make you smile again. I miss your smile Kiddo." Dazai reached for his mother's hand, holding it close to him with a saddened smile, forced emotion that his mother saw through, but he made an attempt. He'd always been a bit off, a little detached from the world. She avoided the words 'fix you' but she was hinting at it. Yet it comforted him, unlike when Mori spoke about his mentality on the world, she never made him feel invalid like he was just doing it all for attention.

"I've got to leave..." Toshiko nodded, handing over the papers to Dazai, before leaving a motherly kiss to the top of his forehead. She rubbed his head one more time as he collected everything into a folder and placed it in a bag.

For weeks he dragged out the summer visiting his mother here and there. It was difficult avoiding Mori's judging gaze, unsure if Dazai was tricking him into thinking he was attending an actual college.

His feet stepped onto the campus soil, hair blowing within the wind, leaves already floating down from the trees. His eyes feign joy with their lack of light. His hands gripped luggage as he stared at the school. He wasn't sure how he'd gotten this far without Mori finding out. Elise prodded about his things often, yet she had never found the papers, the letters of acceptance... he'd kept it all so well under wraps. He was proud of himself for this, to hide something this big from his so-called family.

The halls were huge, the entire campus something he'd never experienced. He was at home though, more than he was at the family home. The walls were quiet, no nagging sister, no stepmother to yell at him, and most importantly, no Mori. He was without his father, and he felt as if he'd lost some of the weight that clung to his back.

It took him a bit to navigate the dorm halls, coming up against the rooms. He inhaled, before stepping inside his dorm room. He didn't do it for confidence, but to acknowledge a new life. To start anew and perhaps find that missing part of him that music genuinely filled, whilst only for the moments it played. He noticed whoever else shared the room was already neatly packed away inside their room. He was surprised by how apartment-like the dorm was. Then again, this was an expensive college... perhaps it was to be expected. There was a lack of a stove, but everything else seemed to be there. He set his belongings down in the free room, still glancing over the space he had. There was enough to set up a mic on the desk, and he could mount his guitar in the room and still have space for things. This was the top school of music in the nation, he'd need to keep on track with studies while working to keep Mori off his ass, keep him believing he wasn't at some performing college. May whatever higher power out there help him if his father ever found out this was how he was spending his second year of college.