I want to be an idle teen.

55.The Order

As the time before the mission passed, he couldn't help but feel a tad bit nervous. Still, Atsushi believed that he could do it. Not only him, but the entire team.

"As promised, your pay." The man smiled, touching his shoulder and making him frown. Still as creepy as ever.

"Let's see that cash first, yeah?" He muttered in a voice quite strange to him. He was playing the role rather nicely for now, and the man seemingly had little to no clue that he was here to do this trade for entirely different reasons than the ones he portrayed.

"Of course, of course." The target chuckled, opening the case filled to the brim with an amount of money that Atsushi was pretty sure a normal person wouldn't spend in a lifetime, with his cold eyes sending shivers down the tiger's spine. "You know…I'd need a pretty boy like you around my own organisation." The creepy guy commented, his hand falling down to Atsushi's own, as he pretended to check the money.

"I bet I could make it real beneficial for you." The young man grit his teeth into a smile that he hoped seemed as pissed as his character would actually be by the offer.

"No thank you." He mumbled, as he closed the case, and passed the man the one with the gun.

"Well. your loss." The man said as he cocked the gun and loaded it, causing a strange feeling of anxiety to run down his spine.

He had a bad feeling about this.

"Now…I would need to test this. But testing it on my own seller would be so mean." The target breathed, as Atsushi already inched a bit back, clutching the case of money in his hand.

"But…that guy that's been staring daggers at me, in the shadows behind you though, that's one perfect fly to smack."

Fuck. Shit. Akutagawa's cover was blown.

Before Atsushi could do anything stupid Akutagawa came out of the shadows with his arms raised.

He wanted to kill the man himself.

Atsushi spared a hysterical look towards the raven, asking him quietly what in the hell he was doing, and getting a goddamn shrug in turn, as he walked in between Atsushi and their target.

Backup. They needed backup now.

"Did you truly hire Diablo to protect you during this meeting of ours?" The target asked, scratching his head with the barrel, seemingly believing that Atsushi was still just a scum and not a double agent.

Shit. He had to still be in character. He couldn't even blow his cover too. They couldn't both get shot on the spot.

"A man can never be too careful." He mumbled, as he tried to keep his cool. There was no goddamn way that he was letting Ryūnosuke take a bullet for him.

"Well, this helps me out quite a lot." And that's when the shot rang out.

And floored his coworker.

He was panicking, internally. But blowing his cover right now would do them no good, he reminded himself, as he tried to breathe.

"Because I did want to start a war with the port mafia for a while now." The man  chuckled, as he kicked the growling raven, making him glance up with a glare. Atsushi's skin was crawling with the urge to attack him. "Hey, Diablo-kun? You alive, buddy?" His voice was filled with mock and pettiness, and although the tiger hated Akutagawa's guts, he almost wanted to slash the target's throat because of the way that he treated the young man.

"Oh, well. Looks like it works. Maybe a bit too well." The target shrugged, at the weak man on the ground, before tapping Atsushi's shoulder again.

" Pleasure doing business with you. Hope you change your mind soon."

"Likewise," He growled under his breath, knowing that his words were far from the truth, but keeping up the charade as the man smiled and turned back to his team.

With that the man was gone. And Atsushi finally broke his facade, and kneeled down, helping Akutagawa up and tearing a piece of his coat to wrap the other man up the best he could, with shaky hands.

"What were you thinking , just coming out like that? You should've ran !" The tiger growled, getting a glare in turn.

"I couldn't leave you behind." Ryūnosuke sighed, almost in disappointment, as he tested his ability to no avail.

"Fuck, don't give me that sentimental bullshit Akutagawa. I was doing just fine." Nakajima rolled his eyes, getting his hands smacked away from the wound on Akutagawa's shoulder.

"I don't think you get it, Jinko ." The raven rolled his eyes, as he got up slowly, hands and legs still quite weak.

"Those were my orders."

What?

His bafflement was quite obvious to the man who gave him a snarl.

"I was ordered to tank a bullet for you in case he shot at you." The sentence made his blood run cold.

"So, honestly I expected this."

"What do you mean by that?" The tiger asked, not truly wanting to know the answer.

"Dazai-san gave me clear orders, is all I'm saying."

Dazai.

No.

He….did Dazai have so little hope for him? To go as far as to order Akutagawa to protect him ?

Confusion and sadness turned into blinding rage, as he thought about it.

Did Osamu actually trust him so little? There was a feeling of actual hurt running through his veins, as he gripped his hand in a fist.

"And did…did our executive give you the get-go for this sub-mission?" Atsushi asked, holding his breath.

"Yeah?" 

His nails turned to claws, as they dug inside of his palm.

The very last thing Atsushi ever wanted was to be introduced to the team, to Akutagawa of all people, as some weak damsel in distress needing rescue and protection.

And the second to last was having anyone sacrifice themselves for him.

After all the time that he's spent with the two, he thought they knew that much.

Did he seem so weak and fragile, so incompetent that he needed to be monitored and protected by the rest?

Was there a need for them to shelter him that much?

Atsushi was the kind of person that never got mad.

People could kick him down all they wanted, abuse him, irritate him to no end, and he'd take it.

He'd take any punishment and any harsh word he needed to.

But the one thing he would never let pass by  was this.

Not only was he hurt by the fact that they didn't trust him, but he was livid at the fact that they ordered a fellow subordinate of theirs to sacrifice himself for Atsushi's sake.

The way they valued Akutagawa's life so little did not sit right with him. Akutagawa was doing everything for the organisation as a whole that he could, he was so fucking annoyingly consumed by his job that he never even took a day off, yet they just threw him to the wolves for Atsushi who they met much later?

The fact that they thought so little of Atsushi too, made Nakajima want to scream. They found him as useless as this , reduced him to nothing but their pet, that they had to have someone watch over him, made him…angry.

For the first time in his life, he was so angry and blinded by rage, consumed by hurt, that he felt like he was ready to explode.

And he won't let this pass, punishments be damned.

-RAN:
And what a true banger of a chapter to kick this series back to life with. Get fucked losers, no fluff for you.

Dazai wanting to protect Atsushi because he cares about him: Akutagawa, be his shield.

Atsushi- I hate feeling weak- Nakajima: Does this mean...they consider me useless -.-