There goes a day | Dazai x m! reader

3.

The phone beeped. Straight to voicemail. You sighed, feeling the steel railing of the tiny balcony digging into your elbows, even through the sleeves of your hoodie and shirt.

"Leave your message at the tone, or whatever," a young girl's voice crackled through the receiver- a prerecorded message. You introduced yourself after the tone.

"I'm looking for Mori Ougai. They're my emergency contact. Not that there's, like, a pressing emergency or anything, but- I was in an accident, and apparently my memories got scrambled or something? I was just... uh, get back to me when you can, please. Thank you in advance."

You confirmed the message and flipped your phone shut with your chin, and pulled your hoodie a bit tighter around yourself as if it would warm you up at all. You slid your phone into your pocket.

You didn't go back inside immediately. You couldn't bring yourself to sleep yet.

All you did was lean against the railing and look up at the stars, enjoying the chill of the night.

The sound of the door sliding open caught your attention, and you whirled around. Dazai. He laughed at how quickly you turned to face him. Your fingers curled over the balcony. (For some reason, you felt like you had been caught doing something wrong.)

"Ooh, who were you talking to?" he asked, leaning closer to you and sliding the door shut behind him.

"Nobody. It went to voicemail," you said. He hummed and leaned against the railing next to you, clearly unsatisfied with that answer. He remained silent for a moment before you spoke again. "It was my emergency contact. And, um, I thought you were asleep. Sorry I woke you up."

"I wasn't asleep. Is there an emergency? Is living with me so horrible you need to call for help?" he teased.

"No, no, not at all. Just, uh, I figured they would be able to help me figure out what happened. With the, uh. The whole memory thing." The chill was already beginning to get to you.

He hummed again, his shoulder brushing against yours.

"You know," you started, turning and facing out towards the railing again. "I've been getting this weird sense of nostalgia the past day or so."

"Oh?" Dazai asked. "About what?"

"I dunno. Just, like, in general."

He smiled, then reached over and ruffled your hair. "Weirdo."

—

Four days later, you found yourself at the agency again.

Two days earlier than you had wanted to.

Unfortunately, you'd had a particularly nasty flare up that was so bad you could barely stand on your own. The pain shot up through your knee, your hip, up across your back. You had taken an ibuprofen, and when it hadn't even touched the pain, you gritted your teeth and decided to suck it up and just tell Dazai you needed to go see Yosano.

(You were genuinely surprised he hadn't teased you about it. Maybe he knew how it felt?)

On the way to see Yosano, Dazai had gotten an earful about showing up to work halfway through the day. He had ignored it and helped you to Yosano's office.

Sitting in Yosano's office, though, on that metal table as she milled about- you couldn't help but think of last week, when you had been on this table and your entire world had turned upside down.

"You said meds didn't help?" she asked. You nodded. "Do you think a mobility aid would help?"

Oh.

You hadn't really considered that as a possibility.