"It's a gamble," she warns him, but she's already leaning up slightly to meet him halfway.
"We will either heal together," he concludes, mouth already pressed to hers, "or we will both be destroyed."
And, together, they fall.
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The idea of being casually intimate with anyone has never occurred to her until she begins noticing just how often she indulges in Dazai's company and unthinking skinship.
They are both starved for physical affection of any sort and seem to be making up for it now, instinctively reaching for the other even when it is technically unneeded.
No wonder the rumors start almost instantly.
It starts off with his hand seemingly always ending up against the small of her back, walking close enough for shoulders to brush, lingering for longer than they need to and, eventually, just simply linking arms or lacing their fingers together.
Convenience is no longer an excuse. It's a matter of getting carried away by something that is new for the both of them.
And it's entirely too obvious.
Soon enough, the organization is quietly buzzing with talks of the match made in hell. Romance within the Mafia walls isn't unheard of, but it is typically frowned upon because it's exposing a weakness and that is in line with what is considered to be an act of stupidity.
However, when the ones indulging in the intimacy are as capable and reputed as the both of them are, no one is in any position to question them.
It's not like they're in a romantic relationship anyways. At least, not officially.
Not that it matters to the gossips. Due to the recent inactivity in the Mafia, people were bound to talk about the unlikely pair.
Although she wonders how unlikely a duo they really are. Knowing Mori, he probably expected this to happen when he formed Triple Dark. The man tends to understand and predict the actions of his subordinates before they even think of doing anything, after all. And she has a feeling he would have called them in had he not anticipated the shift in their dyanmics from colleagues to whatever they are now.
She thinks it's strange to be caught in this strange conundrum with Dazai Osamu of all people, where they experiment with each other's boundaries in all sorts of intimacies when no one is looking.
He leads her through a strange dance of their demons where neither of them truly know the song nor the accompanying steps, but for whatever reason, she allows it to happen and she trusts him to catch her if she falls.
Only a fool would trust Dazai when the boy speaks the prettiest lies as easily as he breathes. And she knows this, but when he manages a tentative smile at her that is honest about his uncertainty towards the emotion's sincerity, she finds herself feeling less alone in the sea of perpetual darkness she has always been swimming in.
Perhaps she is a fool then.
Who else would allow a killer as deadly as him to lay beside them in their home, elbows and knees tucked in to fit all their sharp edges and clinging shadows, close enough for her to be sucked in by the black-holes in his eyes.
