That Night - Shin Soukoku

Chapter One

Atsushi POV

Right now, I am on a mission with Akutagawa. Neither of us are quite sure what it's for, but Dazai told us we had to beat their asses, and that's exactly what we're doing. 

Well, that's what we were doing. We already completed the mission. Now, we just need to get out of here.

"Did you hear that?" I whisper to Akutagawa, grabbing the back of his collar to keep him from running past another hallway. There's voices coming from that direction. 

"Yeah, sounds like the police. They must've called them during our attack. Seems like they're gonna be trouble." As he says this, I see a police officer running on the other side of the hallway. He looks around and makes eye contact with Akutagawa, then with me. He grabs his walkie talkie and says something that I'm to far away to hear, running towards us.

"Shit," Akutagawa curses under his breath, grabbing me by the wrist and running. I stare at his hand wrapped around my wrist, then at the back of his head. I get a weird, sort of dizzying feeling. 

I realize I'm zoned out when we make a few sharp turns, him still holding my wrist, for some reason. I hear police chasing us, still, and it sounds like they're catching up. 

Akutagawa stops so suddenly, I run into him. "I made a wrong turn," there's a slight panic in his voice, one you would only be able to catch if you know him well. 

"What do we do? The police are right beh-" I can't finish my sentence because Akutagawa faces me, and presses his lips against mine, pushing me backwards towards the wall.

With a thousand thoughts running through my mind, I don't even realize it when the police run straight past us, but Akutagawa does. He grabs my wrist again and pulls me in the other direction before letting go. 

"What has been up with you this mission? You seem really unfocused and out of it," he says, looking around a corner. 

"What's up with me? You just kissed me!" I whisper yell, so the police don't hear us, trying to sound angry, but I don't think anger was the reason my face was so red.

He tilts his head down slightly, staying silent for a moment. After what feels like an eternity, he finally whispers, "I didn't want them to realize it was us, and that's the only way I could think of to cover both of our faces."

I feel my face get even hotter, if that was even possible. "The only thing you could think of was to kiss me? I can think of so many different ways to go about that." I scoff. "And you said I  seemed unfocused." 

"That's not what I meant and you know that."

Akutagawa POV

Why did I do that why did I do that why did I do that

I look down. "I didn't want them to recognize us." Half true. "And that's the only thing I could think of." Not true.

"The only thing you could think of was to kiss me? I can think of so many different ways to go about that." He scoffs quietly. "And you said I seemed unfocused."

My face goes red. He seems really mad. God, why did I do that. I feel like such a shit person, more than I ever have. Not when I kill people, but when I kissed him. Stupid stupid stupid.

For the rest of the mission, we stay quiet. I'm not sure if it's because we didn't want to speak, or if it's because we couldn't.

At some point, one of the officers sneaks up behind me. I thought he was already dead, but he wasn't. He takes a knife he found on the ground next to another body. I hear him moving, so I turn around and he stabs me. Luckily, I stop him before he can get the knife too deep, but it still hurts like hell. It's clear that Atsushi doesn't notice, and I use Rashomon to temporarily keep the bleeding at bay.

Once we leave, we meet up with Dazai. I try really hard to hide my wound, but he notices.

"Atsushi." He says, looking at where my wound is, then to Jinko. "You are to stay at Akutagawa's place tonight, to make sure he doesn't bleed to death." He smirks, looking at me, then back to Atsushi, who has a weird, half annoyed, half confused look on his face.

"Bleed to death..." He mutters, looking at me, then down to my stomach. A look of worry crosses his face, then another one I don't recognize. He glances at Dazai, looking like he would rather do anything else besides what Dazai asked of him, but Dazai doesn't seem to care. He looks at him, grinning, then pushes us both towards my apartment, which isn't very far.

Atsushi looks like he's dying more than I am.

(821 words)