Praise (shinsoukoku)

Chapter 2

Today, there was a change of plans; a sudden but strong attack of Akutagawa’s illness forced him to stay at home, so the mafia changed him with Chuuya. The man, happy he didn’t need to do more paperwork, happily obliged.

If the mission were with Dazai, he probably would’ve said no. But once he found out it was with the weretiger, he sighed in relief. Today was probably going to be a calm day. At least calm conversation wise. With Dazau, they would have started fighting the second they saw each other but Atsushi… He was a very nice boy and Chuuya didn't really find him annoying.

Their meeting point is near the beach, by a small cafe. Chuuya walks out of his car and walks over there.

Him and Atsushi catch eye contact and the weretiger waves his hand, greeting him.

Chuuya often wondered how this boy, the poor weretiger that had to suffer so much at the orphanage, could be this happy.

“Hello, sir Nakahara!” Atsushi says and Chuuya nods his head to say hello too.

“You can call me Chuuya. We’re not that different age-wise” He says and the weretiger nods.

Chuuya was 24 and Atsushi was about to turn 20, so only 4 years. It was weird that the weretiger has been in the agency for almost 2 years already, and he and Chuuya barely saw each other.

The two almost immediately go to their mission and Chuuya must say, he’s fascinated by how much the weretiger’s power and strength has grown over the years.

He fully relied on his self-healing ability, not afraid if a bullet wound grazed him. That made him a very aggressive fighter and soon, the enemies started running away from him.

Unfortunately, sometimes when Atsushi turned into a full tiger, he would lose control.

“Hey, kid!” Chuuya yells as the white tiger is about to bite a human head off. The tiger growls at Chuuya but a few seconds later, his human consciousness returns and he backs away from the human.

He didn’t want to kill anyone.

Why did his tiger want that?

“Are you okay?” Chuuya asks Atsushi once he turns into a human again and pats his shoulder in a comforting way. The weretiger nods slowly and looks at the mafia executive.

“Yeah. Sorry” He says quickly but is surprised when he sees Chuuya’s comforting smile.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s a strong ability, so it’s going to be hard to fully master it. So while you calm down, how about we go to the bar for a drink?”

Before Atsushi can even have time to say no, he has to go back to the agency, Chuuya’s already dragging him away.

_______

“And, burp, then Dazai shot his head like, 10 times for no reason. He was long dead. Dazau’s not only a, burp, waste of bandages but also a waste of bullets” The short mafia execute mutters.

His face is all red and his eyes are very unfocused, but whenever Atsushi tries to make him stop drinking, Chuuya still somehow manages to buy another glass. So after a while, Atsushi gave up and just started listening to Chuuya’s rants about Dazai.

“One time, a few months later, he somehow managed to manipulate a guy into thinking he was Dazai’s son, even though he was well over his 50s.”

“How?” Atsushi asks, suddenly curious but Chuuya just shrugs his shoulders.

“No idea. I just know, one day the man keeps yelling at Dazai and not giving him the information that we needed, the other day the man’s almost on his knees, asking Dazai why ‘his dad won't pay attention to him’. After we got the information though, Dazai killed him with a single shot to the head” Chuuya finishes and the weretiger nods.

That‘s right, he almost forgot. Dazai was a master at manipulation.

Maybe he could learn a bit from him? Dazai was his mentor, after all.

_______

The next day, Atsushi and Akutagawa meet for their mission.

“Do you feel alright again? Was the attack yesterday very bad?“ He asks but all he gets in return is a scoff. Akutagawa believes Atssuhi‘s only making fun of him.

Because why else would the weretiger ask? Why would anyone care for his well-being?

Atsushi needs to cover his eyes from the sun rays coming on his face and he looks at Akutagawa again. And in that moment, his heart starts beating unbelievably fast.

Akutagawa‘s watching the sunset, his hair flowing perfectly in the wind. His eyes, the wonderful black, or maybe gray-sih color mirror the sun rays and Atsushi can‘t stop his mouth from moving.

“You‘re so pretty“ He says before he can stop himself, but a few seconds later he stops regretting saying anything.

Because a few seconds later, Akutagawa‘s red ears return once again. The blush from a few days ago.

„…shut up“ Akutagawa mutters and walks away.

That blush… Atsushi wants to see it more.

He wants Akutagawa to become more flustered by his words.

He makes a promise to himself; to always compliment Akutagawa from now on.

And who knows? Maybe Akutagawa will start liking these compliments.

Maybe Atsushi could soon take Dazai‘s place.

Maybe it will be him soon who Akutagawa will look up to. Who Akutagwa will want to get praise from.

…

Atsushi shakes his head.

It was probably all just weird fantasy.

_____

I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter
-Nat