Bonding

Summary: Or, Dazai tries to tape some shattered relationships together. He's going to need more than ducktape, but it's doable. Dad!Mori, drabble.

Dazai had been trying to repair his relationship with Akutagawa. He had messed Akutagawa up pretty bad mentally he could fully admit that. Well, he had finally given the kid acknowledgement at least. And a rival and partner of his own, in the form of Dazai's new apprentice.

His thoughts soured. Of course, Akutagawa wasn't the only person....what about the others? Dazai hadn't just left behind Akutagawa after all. His relationship with Akutagawa wasn't the only broken one he had.

Perhaps, some of them were fixable.

His expression turned to a considering look.

XXX

There was one thing Chuuya wanted from Dazai, but he never expected it. He was too jaded from the mafia life, too knowledgeable about how Dazai was. He'd sooner expect Dazai to stop attempting suicide in stupid ways.

There was one thing Dazai should have given Chuuya but never could. He always shied away from it. He kept his cards and thoughts close and indecipherable to others, where they were safer.

Something poked Chuuya in the chest. His eyes shot open. His knife curved upwards, towards the intruder throat.

"Whoops," Dazai said. The knife stopped, centimeters from Dazai's throat. Even while half-asleep, his old partner recognized his voice.

Chuuya cursed. The knife moved back a little. "I changed the lock."

"Well." Dazai shrugged. "I guess you'll have to get a new one."

Chuuya scowled. The fingers holding the knife hilt flexed slightly, unsure. "What are you here for?"

"Nothing, nothing." An innocent look was on Dazai's face.

Chuuya sighed, fixing his partner with a look. "Dazai. I always know when you're lying," he pointed out.

Chuuya was right, he did always know. Dazai used to hate him for that, still did a bit.

Of course, Chuuya would still accuse Dazai of lying when properly annoyed, even though Dazai hadn't.

"I just wanted to talk." Dazai rolled his eyes playfully. He moved away and plopped himself down on Chuuya's bed, crossing his long legs childishly. Even like that, he took up a third of the bed.

Chuuya stared at Dazai, dubious. His blue eyes were full of suspicion. He raised an eyebrow to say, 'you think I'm dumb enough to believe that's all there is to this?'

Dazai sighed. "You ruin all my fun," he moped. His expression grew serious. "Okay, okay. Let me tell you about what happened five years ago, when you were gone."

Chuuya pulled back his knife, sheathing it again. He shifted, sitting up. "Why you left?"

"Why I left," Dazai confirmed. He had a fragile smile on his face.

It was the thing Dazai had never wanted to give and had never been able to.

The thing they both needed.

Honesty.

XXX

"Hey, Ane-san," Dazai chirped. He had his elbows propped on the kitchen table.

"Dazai-kun," Kouyou warily responded. She had just finished chopping some vegetables. The slices of cucumber were still on her wooden cutting board, along with a knife.

Dazai smiled at her. He began to spin tales of how Kyouka was doing and what the young teenager was up to. The stories included the shenanigans of Kyouka with Atsushi, Dazai, and other Agency members over the past few months.

Kouyou slowly relaxed, leaning against the counter. She drew her hand away from the knife. She listened, with a small smile.

XXX

Ango's phone rang. He picked it up after a glance at the caller ID. "Hello, Dazai-kun?" He asked. It hadn't been too long ago that he had ended up in a hospital because of Dazai's tampering.

"Hello Ango-kun." Dazai's voice was cheerful. "I thought you'd like to know about something. I sent you the file."

"What is it about?"

"Just something interesting," Dazai replied vaguely. "Bye, Ango-kun, have fun investigating!" He hung up.

Dazai stared at the wall. He had done what he needed to. The Special Ability Department had to get involved this week, or there would be more trouble for the Armed Detective Agency. The file would get Ango curious enough to check things out-mission accomplished.

As for him personally....

Dazai shook his head and put his phone in his pocket.

Not yet. He wasn't ready to move on. He couldn't forgive Ango in the slightest.

XXX

"True there is a disparity," Mori acknowledged. "But what about things like Price's law?" He moved his horse back to defend two of his pawns.

"The square root of the people involved will always do 50% of the work?" Dazai questioned. He hummed, eyes flitting around the chess board.

"Yes."

"Your argument is that there's always disparity regardless of the system?" Dazai moved the pawn in front of his right castle up two spaces.

"Inequality will always exist," Mori affirmed with a casual shrug.

"Now all you're saying is that the world isn't fair," Dazai teased. He moved his right castle up three spaces, right behind the pawn.

"My argument specifically against what you were saying, is that unfairness is inevitable. And that the only possible way not to have that disparity of outcome is to have a system to take away all options to fix the game of life," Mori clarified. "People are different and make different choices. And some of those choices are...well, humans, as we can agree, are stupid. The problem is the human element, usually."

Dazai took Mori's queen. He smiled, gesturing for Mori to continue.

"In systems like socialism and communism, wealth distribution has never actually worked out. Thus, there are better and worse ways of doing things, but inequality among people is an inherent fact of life." Mori took Dazai's queen with his bishop. "Check."

Dazai clicked his tongue. He moved a pawn in front, blocking the path of Mori's bishop. "Then what would you say matters when it comes to inequality and equality?"

They slowly picked off each other's pawns. Mixed in with them were all four castles, the rest of the horses, and a bishop of Mori's.

"What you have and what you do, not so much what everyone has or does," Mori proposed. "Taking responsibility for your own actions, self improvement, charity, et cetera." While he spoke, his pawn took Dazai's bishop.

"Now, is that a selfish way of looking at things or unselfish? You are only thinking of yourself then." Dazai's other bishop took the pawn.

"Unselfish," Mori replied. His horse took Dazai's remaining bishop. "Envy is wanting what others have. If people stopped looking at everyone else and focused on bettering themselves the world would be far better."

"The likelihood of such a movement happening is low, unfortunately," Dazai commented. He sighed and used his king to take Mori's horse. "Humans are stupid."

"But it is even more stupid to not include ourselves in the same category," Mori tacked on. He moved his king forward.

It was a draw. Their kings were a space away from each other, all other pieces had been captured.

Dazai laughed. "True."

A/N

It looks like the art is by 'Didi'? I think? So credit to them.

This isn't only Dad!Mori, but it contains a good bit of it. So I'm still putting it as part of my Dad!Mori series.

You can't tell me that Mori and Dazai don't bond by playing strategy games and arguing about things like philosophy.

Also, Dazai, seriously, stop blaming Ango for Oda's death.

-Silver