To See You Again (Chuuya Nakahara x Reader x Dazai Osamu)

Chapter Twenty

Dazai's phone buzzed on the couch beside him. Gently, he put his book face down on the table, so as to hold his page, and picked it up. There was a single new text displayed on the screen from an unknown number. Let me in was all it said. He smirked, getting to his feet. Slowly, he walked to the door, unlocked the three locks, and opened it to reveal Y/n.

She was standing to the side of the door, her arms crossed. The maroon scarf she so frequently wore was hanging loose around her neck, doing nothing to protect her from the cold and her hair hung undone around her face. She looked positively disheveled.

"Took you long enough." she grumbled, "Aren't you going to let me in?"

Dazai stepped to the side politely, allowing her entry into his home. Shutting the door behind her as she unbuttoned her coat, he pointed to a hook on the wall where she could hang it. Y/n obliged. Once her coat was off, Dazai could see the lack of order to her being continued beneath it. Her white collard shirt was untucked and slightly wrinkled, the sleeves rolled up to her elbows. There was even a bit of dried blood on one of her hands.

"Come into the kitchen, I'll make you a drink."

Y/n sat across from him at the old wooden table within, eyeing her drink suspiciously.

"What is it?" she asked, sniffing the contents of the glass.

"Something Yosano taught me actually." he replied calmly, taking a sip of his own drink, "Gin, lemon juice, cointreau, dry vermouth, absinthe, and the smallest bit of freshly squeezed orange. She called it a corpse reviver."

Y/n sniffed the glass tentatively once again before taking a small sip.

"It's good." she noted.

"What happened to your hand?" Dazai asked as she placed her glass back on the table, the movement revealing a cut across the palm of it.

"Broke a dish." she mumbled casually.

"You should be more careful."

It was his turn to take a sip of his drink, and he did so carefully, watching Y/n over the rim of his glass as she fiddled with the stem of her own.

"I thought you turned down my invitation for dinner." Dazai said coyly, pulling the glass from his lips.

"This isn't dinner. This is just two friends having drinks."

"And what do friends talk about over drinks?"

Y/n glared at him, downing the rest of her glass.

"Do you have a balcony?" she asked suddenly.

"Yes. Why?"

"Make me another."

Shoving her glass across the table at him, Dazai sighed. He stood up, downing the rest of his drink. Y/n watched as he made them both another. It was a delicate process, he measured everything. There was a need for perfection in the way he moved as he did so.

"You're nervous." she commented.

"Who wouldn't be when around you? A dangerous, ex-executive."

"I'll let it slide, but know I know that's not the truth."

Dazai laughed lightly.

"Touche."

Putting the finishing touches on their drinks, he turned and placed Y/n's on the table in front of him. She stood, picking the glass up as she did.

"Let's go out, I need a smoke."

Without a word, Dazai obliged, leading her out onto his small balcony. Y/n placed her glass on the rail, lighting a cigarette as he closed the sliding door behind them.