Molly's Fics Cause she Refuses to Read Them on Ao3

Sweet Little Lies

Tw/Tags: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Angst and Feels, Post-Corruption Ability Use, First Kiss, First Time, Anal Sex, Denial of Feelings, 5+1 Things, Canonical Character Death, Not Really Character Death, Stormbringer Light Novel Spoilers, Dark Era, Bungou Stray Dogs Manga Spoilers
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1. I don't want to be his partner.

The day they officially became partners Dazai always considered to be the worst day of his short, meaningless life.

A little more than a year has passed since the first time they met in Suribachi and only a few days since the incident with Verlaine, when Mori summoned the two of them to his office, where, without any preludes, bluntly stated that from that very day Dazai and Chuuya will officially be partners and all subsequent tasks will be performed together for an indefinite period of time.

If Dazai had been less professional, he would have shot Mori or, better yet, himself in the head.

During his two years in the mafia, he managed to gain enough experience to not be surprised by any quirks of the boss, keeping his cool regardless of the difficulty or cruelty of the order. But this time even his endurance was not enough to contain all the indignation he felt.

For already quarter of an hour Dazai has been following Mori back and forth across the long office that was illuminated by midday sunlight thanks to huge, French windows offering a beautiful view of the city. But Dazai didn't care how beautiful this view was.

"Mori-san, that's just unfair." Dazai continued to complain. "I'm much higher in rank than him. If I work with him, then only as a superior. I refuse be on the same level as this red-haired mutt. I'm a member of the Executive Committee! I can't do the same job as him, like we're on equal terms."

Having finished his fiery speech and hearing the same thing that he had heard in response to each of his arguments before, he sat down in a chair near the boss's desk with a pained groan and covered his eyes with his hands. Somewhere behind him, Mori, completely calm, seemed to be saying something about diamonds and his ulterior motives, which they will get to know for the hundredth time already. Kouyou, who was also in the office, giggled softly, covering her red lips with the sleeve of a chic kimono. Raising his eyes, Dazai looked at his "partner" for the first time this morning.

Chuuya was leaning against the cool surface of the wall with his back, his hands folded in front of him and pulling his ugly hat a little lower on his forehead than usual. His ice-blue eyes were looking somewhere ahead of him, but it seemed that he was not focusing his gaze on anything in particular. His thin pale lips were slightly pursed, his eyebrows, always raised in indignation, were now two straight lines. It was one of those moments when Dazai couldn't determine what kind of emotion that freckled face was expressing.

Chuuya, with perfect indifference, one might even say apathy on his face, watched the performance taking place in front of him. Dazai felt himself boiling even more just by looking at this dwarf in a hat. How did it happen that the irritable and hot-tempered Nakahara, who couldn't stand Dazai, reacted so calmly to all this, while Dazai himself was ready to blow up the whole office. At what point did they fucking switch the roles?!

Although it was worth noting that in the last few days, after all this story with Verlaine and Professor N, Chuuya behaved as strangely as possible. Dazai hasn't exchanged a few words with him these days, but he's always been very observant. And this time, he didn't even need to be that observant. To not notice that there was something wrong with Chuuya one should be either blind or stupid. The boy was surprisingly quiet, almost always following Kouyou around, even spending the nights at her place. When talking to someone, he often asked again or even completely ignored the question someone asked him. He was lost in thought, as if he didn't know where to put himself. Dazai knew that yesterday he spent almost the whole day at the cemetery, probably visiting his dead friends. Many people thought that Chuuya pretty quickly got over everything that had happened to him over the past week, but Dazai had known him long enough to understand that he was, to put it mildly, shocked.