ANGEL'S ASHES, bungou stray dogs [on hold]

xxxiii. the sun rises on secrets

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𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐋'𝐒 𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐄𝐒

𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘳𝘵𝘺-𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘦: 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘯 𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘯
𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘴

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⚠ content warning ⚠

     MORNING COMES, THE SUN giving life to the sleeping city below, coaxing man and beast alike awake. It burns through the terrors of the night, giving life to new chances and fates to be changed with single decisions. There's nothing that can be hidden in the new light of morning, it lays people bare; showing the parts of their true selves they kept hidden under tight lock and key — never to be disclosed until their last breaths.

     At least, that's how it works with people who tend to have 'normal' lives. For people like Angel, Chūya, and Dazai, keeping secrets is a second nature ingrained since birth — but they find it almost agonising to keep secrets from each other; almost physically painful to be hiding someone monumental, or even something so small it's practically insignificant, from the ones they hold dear. However, there are just some things that they don't need to know about her, but Angel has no doubt will one day see the scathing light of day without her willingness to share with them.

     There is one monumental thing Chūya knows that Dazai doesn't, and Angel has no doubt that, one day soon, most likely today given how things are going, the No Longer Human wielder will find out just what she is hiding. Angel doesn't want to be anywhere near him when he finds out, because she knows how badly he will react when the truth is revealed — he will explode worse than Angel has ever seen before, and he may well turn his anger on the wrong people. Although, it's not as though he can turn it to the right people, considering they have been dead and buried over a decade now.

     Angel wakes to find herself on her stomach, between the two idiots she can't seem to get enough of, one of Chūya's arms underneath her chest and the other meeting Dazai's on her back. There'd be no unease if it were the redhead's hand splayed out on her back, but, given it's the brunet's, Angel's stomach churns in a way it hasn't around this man since he was fourteen. He's too smart not to know, but he also has his moments where he has no clue about anything, which she is more than grateful for.

     "Mmmm, morning, tenshi," Dazai murmurs, still half asleep alongside the rising sun.

     "Morning, lover," Angel replies softly, reaching over and brushing her fingers through his hair.