Tempus Fugit

Communicate with me

I knew you from your body,
From how you sat,
Or the faces you made
Or even the glint in your eye,
to the way you spoke;
that's how I knew if you needed me by your side.
But now,
hearing you tell me how you feel
what makes you happy,
what's hard to face,
It makes me want to sit and talk with you for hours.
Just about the philosophies of  life;
About our lives,
About feelings.
About us.

Thankfully the day was so action-packed that it went by quite quickly, Dazai went to make sure that Atsushi and Kyouka were okay and Chuuya dragged Akutagawa back into his office to bandage him up after the beating he took from Atsushi.

"He really did a number on you," Chuuya whispered as he dabbed rubbing alcohol on the younger's wounds "That boy must be strong."

"He is, it's infuriating, he barely even knows how to use his ability and he beats me half to death."

"You're heart's pounding," Chuuya spoke, placing his hand over Akutagawa's chest "Don't tell me you li-"

"Oh! Don't you start with that too!" Akutagawa exclaimed, throwing his hands up in exasperation "I already got enough of it from Dazai," he grumbled, folding his arms and pouring like a child.

"You've spoken to Dazai?

"Yeah...I saw him when I went to get Jinko the first time, he stopped us from killing each other-" Akutagawa tried to explain before he hissed at the sting from the alcohol, a shudder from the cold liquid also accompanying it.

"Shit, I'm sorry," Chuuya whispered as he looked at him apologetically, untensing when the latter smiled gently at him, they sat in silence again until Chuuya couldn't help but want to know more about his meeting with Dazai" So... how come you didn't tell me that you saw him?"

Akutagawa swallowed thickly as he fidgeted nervously, not sure if he wanted to tell Chuuya that Dazai was nervous and that he also cried like an idiot when he saw him again, however he decided that Chuuya ought to know it made him emotional," I.. well... the first time I saw him, I cried like a baby. It was just reliving to see him again, especially considering sometimes I would wonder if he's still alive. I also thought about you... that you'd finally be happy. As for why I didn't tell you... we agreed on it together, I thought it would be better to tell you when you can actually see him, hence why I told you today... Oh also, turns out he was nervous to see you again as well."

"That's hard to believe, he was acting like his usual annoying self, saying I haven't changed and that my hat is weird; the way he was looking at me, I could just tell he was making fun of my height, lanky bastard! How do you even grow that much?!"

Akutagawa couldn't help but laugh, glad to see Chuuya complaining about Dazai the way he used to, it felt like he was fifteen all over again, hearing Chuuya use every and any chance to swear at the brunet. It was like he was finally seeing the Chuuya that had died from the day he came back from France, it made his heart race with glee.

They continued to talk as Chuuya cleaned his wounds and bandage him up, it wasn't anything interesting: missions, reports, stakeouts, fighting skills, the usual thing they resort to talking about when they're together and it doesn't involve any personal existential crises.

Once Chuuya was done, Akutagawa quickly resorted to putting his clothes back on and leaving, he didn't want to keep the older from Dazai for much longer.

******

Dazai sighed as he begrudgingly got out of the shower, unwilling to forcefully drag himself out of the cascading water's warm embrace. He'd sent Chuuya his address before he got in the shower and spent most of the time worrying about what the latter might think about his home, he'd come to like decorating and surrounding himself with a cosy and welcoming atmosphere, something he hadn't bothered to do in the past, considering he'd lived in a shipping container for while.