{Soukoku One Shots}

Chapter 4 (part 1)

A/N: This chapter is a short story I wrote for English which I based off of Dazai and Chuuya's partnership
Because of the guidelines we had for our assignment, they DO NOT have abilities
(Also they are a bit out of character)
I've reedited it a bit for the purpose of this story, but I've had bad writers block for a bit so enjoy this AU

~~~
[Dazai's POV]

        "You'll let me choose?" The words fell from his mouth, not in a question but in a way that stressed his increasing annoyance towards me. It took all I had not to start laughing, the very scene itself was too ridiculous to be real, but at this point the ground beneath our feet could open up and all hell break lose and it wouldn't be much of a surprise to me. I turned towards the rain soaked man once more to see his glare still fixed on my face, I cleared my throat and nodded feeling my own drenched hair weighing on my head.

        "Yes." My fingers slid over the cold metal in my hand reminding me that this situation, no, mistake, was still real and not a dream that I could wake up from and be back in my stiff, uncomfortable mattress. "Something wrong with that?"

        I could hear his agitated sigh over the ear splitting sirens and rain pounding against the street we were wasting time on. Time, something so simple, something everyone takes for advantage of until moments like this where minutes, even seconds could decide years or sometimes, entire lives. Having him by my side again in this moment made all those bad decisions and time spent on crime seem even more absurd than the day that I decided to leave that life behind.

        The man in front of me now, my accomplice, my friend, my partner, the man who told me he was above the law and would always stay untouched by any and all authority. But that was years ago. Crouching in front of me now was a shell of that man, the same man who had dragged me into countless atrocities that could've ended our lives at any given moment. Theft, assault, addiction, countless offenses and felonies, it even went as far as attempted homicides, but he never saw the crimes he dragged me into as something unlawful. He had always enjoyed the risk and adrenaline that came with his acts, but I had never truly understood what made that kind of life so exciting for him. But, what else could I have done? We had grown up together in those run down neighborhoods together, no way to get by and no one to tell us what we had been doing was wrong, no, I found that out only after everything was said and done. And when I finally had had enough of that life, I left him to continue down that road himself.

        It's not that I hated him for everything he had done and made me do, I had only wanted to avoid the situation we found ourselves in now. In fact, I didn't believe he was a bad person at all, he was the only person who looked out for me, the only one who stuck with me through it all, and the one who got me this far in my life period.

        Suddenly everything seemed so distant from me in that moment, the rain, the sirens, the sound of a voice yelling for us to surrender, all of it was too far for me to notice. The man in front of me might not have decided to better his life like me, but he had never once left the only person in the world who had ever cared for him. No, only I had done that.

         And by leaving him to better my life, what difference did it make in where I found myself now? Everything was already done, no good act in the world could change what was happening now, what was going to happen. But this time, whatever happened, the least I can do is do the right thing, not for society, but for the only friend I've ever had.

        This time I wouldn't run, this time I'd make it up to him. The man in front of me now, my accomplice, my friend, my partner.