Praise (shinsoukoku)

Chapter 14

"What's got you so happy today, Atsushi?" Tachihara asks and puts a few documents on his table, all separated by color. His sister Naomi helped him organize everything.

"I don't know. I'm just in a happy mood" He says but Yosano looks at him suspiciously.

She didn't believe Atsushi was fine. After all, his partner just died in a brutal explosion.

Smiling all the time was probably something like his coping-mechanism.

The doctor stands up and looks into her bag. She put a few cookies in there in the morning, so she could give something to Atsushi in case he was sad.

Yosano walks over to him. He turns his head to look at her and smiles when he sees the cookies.

"Thanks, Yosano!" He says and grabs the cookies, putting the rest near his computer so he can always snack on them throughout the day.

"You're welcome, Atsushi. If you have any worries, feel welcome to always come to me, okay?" She tells him and the weretiger nods.

Everyone was so nice to him today, it was very comforting.

Who knew Akutgawa's fake death would give him so much joy?

A few minutes later, Dazai comes over to him and after just looking at him, he takes a few papers away from the weretiger's desk.

He remembers Atsushi's face from the day before. How broken he looked because of the death of Akutagawa...

He reminded Dazai of himself, holding Oda in his arms as he took his last breath.

"You don't need to work as much today." He says and takes at least half of all the documents on the weretiger's place. Atsushi's surprised but lets Dazai take the documents.

The day continues normally. He finishes a few reports, goes on a mission with Kunikida and Kyoka and later the three of them went to a restaurant to eat lunch together.

Kunikida paid and that made Atsushi think for a while.

How could he get enough money to care for him, Kyoka and Akutagawa, all at the same time?

He should probably let Kyoka move in with one of the other agency members. Else, hiding Akutagawa would be very difficult.

But he still has a lot of time to think about it.

For now, he only needs to pay for enough food for three people. If he saves up and doesn't buy anything for himself, it will be manageable.

He knows that if the prices ever go up, he will be in serious danger. He will have to somehow hide money he will use to buy food for Akutagawa.

Suddenly, in almost a hidden angle of his eye he notices sometimes through the window. A shop, well, maybe a doctor's office. It looks very old and creepy.

A few minutes earlier he ntoiced an old, probably homeless man who walked in threre and at first, Atsushi thought nothing of it.

However, now, the man walks out and there's an eyepatch on his left eye, an envelope full of money in his right hand.

...huh.

"Atsushi?" Kunikida asks him and the weretiger turns to him.

"Yeah?" He asks and the ex-teacher looks down at his food.

"Aren't you hungry? Your food is getting cold" He notices and points at thr plate. Atsushi quickly starts eating and Kunikida nods, glad the weretiger's eating again.

After lunch, Kunikida goes a different way than Kyoka and Atsushi.

"Are you going out tonight again?" She asks shortly before they enter their building and the weretiger nods.