"This is English."
"This is Japanese."
Warnings: There are none for this chapter.
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The night was quiet as they sat in this rusty warehouse. The only sound was the faint rustling of water and the beeping of ships that passed by.
Dazai sat on one of the crates, legs crossed and a book at hand. With [Name] sitting on a crate behind and above him, checking out the tabs and notifications from the system in the cloak of the dark, where no one could see them tapping at the air and probably think they're weird.
Atsushi curled up on the crate on the other side of the warehouse, hugging his knees close to his chest. He looked at the red book the brunette was holding.
He decides to ask a question, to start a conversation much more likable than this awkward silence enveloping them. "Dazai-san, what are you reading?" He sheepishly asks.
"A good book." Dazai answers plainly.
He wonders how on earth Dazai is able to read in the dark. "I'm surprised you can read when it's this dark."
"I have good vision."
"He just read the book over and over again, he practically knows every word on every page." [Name] finishes what they were doing, dismissing the screen, and jumping down their crate to Dazai's with a loud thump. They sit beside him, looking at the book out of boredom.
Atsushi asks another question with an awkward smile. "Why are you reading it, then, Dazai-san?"
"A good book is always a good book, no matter how many times you read it." He flipped back a few pages when he noticed [Name] behind him. "And besides, [Name]-chan reads it with me too sometimes." He looks at them for a moment, muttering a question like what page they were in.
"Page 94." [Name] utters.
Atsushi just nods and looks back at the gray floor. Worry was his current expression. "Will the tiger really show up here?"
"Yep." [Name] gazes at the book. 'It's because you are the tiger, and you're here so of course it would appear.' They read where they last left off.
He seems a bit more worried and unsettled then.
"Don't worry. Even if it shows up, it's no match for [Name] or me." He continues reading with them. "We may not look like much, but we are operatives of the Armed Detective Agency." He says with a lace of confidence in his voice.
"You're really confident." Atsushi says in a soft tone, as he hugs his knees closer. "I'm kind of jealous." With his past trauma, it led Atsushi to feeling inferior. "They called me a failure at the orphanage for as long as I can remember. And now, I don't even know where I'll sleep tonight, or if I'll eat tomorrow..."
The scene appears in his mind again, all those horrible, horrible words, all those painful words that lead him to a life of self-pity.
"No one would care if someone like me were to die in a ditch somewhere." He buries his face in his legs. "Yeah, I may as well be eaten by a tiger." The darkness around him felt like it was getting darker.
'Poor baby...' [Name] thought.
Dazai looks up at the large window of the warehouse "Now then," He watches as the gray clouds part, giving way to a bright cool light. "I think it'll be soon." He mutters, making only him and [Name] hear what he said.
A loud crash came behind the piles of crates behind Atsushi. The sound startled him, making him jump in place. "What?!" He attempts to back away and falls off the crate he was sitting on, falling flat on his back before he quickly recomposes and stands right back up.
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To the Stray Dogs |GN!Reader x BSD|
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