Just Passing By (Soukoku)

V

The ginger glanced at the office they were in. Relatively big.
The ginger, upon noticing the red, clean carpet neatly spread across the floor, quickly stepped out of the room, knocking his shoes on the ground before going back in. The brunette looked in disbelief. Chuuya noticed it and gave a confused look, Dazai chuckled, “Mori-san taught you that?”

“You mean knocking dust off my shoes before entering a room with a carpet? Isn’t that common sense?” The ginger rolled his eyes at Dazai who just continued laughing. “I already like you.” Chuuya just scoffed. 

The brunette just walked to the big table, a big glass panel behind it. The scene of Yokohama was presented to the ginger as Chuuya squinted his eyes, looking at the cars driving past on the road. It was only then when he realised how tall the building was. He glanced at the other who was already sitting, head rested lazily on his propped up hand. 

Dazai gestured to the seat opposite the table and Chuuya just sat in it, clenching his hands together on his lap. He only then felt the tension in the room. Chuuya felt a shiver go down his spine when he saw the brunette staring at him. He bit his lip and covered his sudden nervousness with a smile. Was he doing some kind of interview with the boss of the port mafia? Seemed like it.

After a few more staring contests, the brunette smiled back and clapped his hands together which made Chuuya flinch. Dazai obviously noticed the small action but ignored it. “So, what’s your full name? I only know you’re called Chuuya?”

The ginger relaxed himself. “Nakahara Chuuya.” 

“Any skills?” 

Chuuya kept silent for a while before softly suggesting, “Pick pocketing?” It was phrased as a question as if he wasn’t sure whether his answer was right either. Was that counted as a skill? Probably...he thinks? 

The brunette nodded, not clearly impressed. “You can say that is a skill…Anything else?”

“No…?” The ginger’s vein snapped out of a sudden as he asked back.

“Wait for a second. Why are you suddenly asking me questions?” 

“To get to know you better and hire you into the port mafia of course.” 

“I didn’t say I wanted to be in the mafia though.” The ginger retorted, standing up from his seat. The brunette stood up too as his smile became a pout. “But why? You have nowhere else to go anyway. It can give you privileges as well!” The brunette whined and Chuuya questioned himself whether this man really was the boss of the port mafia.

The ginger fell silent as he stuttered. “I’ll l-leave.” Dazai, realising his mistake, immediately shut his mouth and grabbed onto the ginger’s arm. “Can you at least give it some thought? You don’t have to give me an answer so soon. Just think about it for a while…?” 

Chuuya gently pulled his arm away from the other’s grip and nodded. “I’ll think about it.” 

Dazai put up a big smile as he hummed in content. He walked ahead of Chuuya. “Let’s go eat. I’m hungry.” 

The ginger scoffed. He has been doing that a lot. He followed the brunette reluctantly.

—

With that, the ginger would just follow the brunette around, helping with sorting out and organising. Chuuya always called Dazai a messy person. True to his words, the brunette was a messy person. The ginger had no idea how the Dazai could still remember where he keeps his things from binders to pieces of papers, it was strewn all in yhe drawer. The ginger had to take a whole day to clean and organise alll the 12 shelves and 6 drawers in Dazai's office.

The ginger knew Dazai would mess it up again afterwards so he threatened to burn important documents if he messes up the stacks of papers which Chuuya painstakingly organised.

Dazai couldn't care less about the state his room was in and didn’t take Chuuya's threaten seriously. He messed up on eof the drawers and the ginger could feel his last vein snap.

---

"Chuuya~Let's go. What's taking you so long?"

The brunette strolled into his office but he stopped when he set foot into the big room.

There, in front of the table was the ginger, one of his hands holding on to what Dazai recognised as the contract with another organisation which supplies them with weapons, especially guns.

The brunette's eyes widened when he glanced at Chuuya's other hand, which was a lighter. He didn't actually thought that Chuuya was being serious. He exclaimed, "Chuuya, drop the paper. Its important."

Chuuya rolled his eyes, "I told you not to mess the drawers and the shelves."

With that, the ginger flipped open the cover of the lighter and a orange fire licked the paper up. Dazai stared in disbelief at the ginger.

"H..how could you do that?"

"I warned you but you didn't listen. Let's take that as a lesson to heed my advice." Chuuya blew the fire out and dropped the burned paper, letting it drift to floor, half of it was already burnt and charred.

The ginger went over to the table, picking up another piece of paper and handing it to the brunette. Dazai skimmed throught the paper.

"The contract?" Dazai looked at the important piece of paper confused.

"I used your printer to print a duplicate of the contract and burned that."

The brunette couldn't help but sigh in intense relief. This was the first time he ever panicked that bad and felt anxious.

He placed the paper gently on the table before turning to face the ginger.

"Smart."

Chuuya just gave a confident side glanced to the other before placing the important document back into its place in the already organised drawer.

The brunette walked over to Chuuya and the ginger sighed, "Keep your things in the order I placed them next time or I'll actually burn them."

Bandaged arms snaked around the ginger's waist and made Chuuya flinch slightly.

"Why so touchy today?" Chuuya continued filing papers into its respective files.

"Just thanking Chuuya since he cares so much about me."

The ginger snickered, "Care for yourself. You're a grown man."

"I thought you said a suicidal bastard can't take of himself?"

The ginger clicked his tongue in annoynace, "Asshole for twisting my words."

The brunette chuckled gripping tighter to the ginger's waist. Chuuya coughed awkwardly. Dazai snickered, "Shy one aren't you?"

The ginger scoffed, "Bold one aren't you?" He retorted back.

Dazai nodded, resting his chin on the crook of Chuuya's neck.

They've only met a few weeks back and Dazai was already making a move. The ginger never had to worry about stealing anymore. His full time job was cleaning up and organising the office. He met a few of Dazai's subordinates and could talk to all them but he was closest to Dazai.

Everyone had the same expression when he told them he was always with the brunette. It seems that Dazai was actually quite scary but Chuuya never got the chance to see that part of Dazai, yet.

Maybe he was about to just now but he didn't feel any malicious aura.

"If you're thinking of making a move, forget it." The ginger pushed himself out of the grip Dazai held him in and walked out of the office.

Dazai pouted but he slowly smirked. Everything goes his way, it's just a matter of time.