Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Kunikida doesn’t think much of it when he meets Ranpo on his way up to the office. It’s unusual for him to actually start working when they’re supposed to, but it’s not a remarkable event.

It is a remarkable event to find Dazai already in the office when they step inside, though. And he seems to be working too, on top of all.

Kunikida looks over at Ranpo, just to be sure they’re both seeing the same thing and he’s not hallucinating, but Ranpo simply shrugs and walks to his desk, shouting a “Good morning!” on his way there that results in Dazai almost jumping out of his chair.

He clearly hasn’t noticed their presences up until now, and he mumbles out a low greeting back, before quickly turning his attention toward his laptop again.

While this is quite concerning, Kunikida would’ve thought that, maybe, Dazai has finally started to take his job seriously, if it wasn’t for the odd behaviour that has been going on for over a week.

Since receiving this new case that everyone had completely left aside, given the fact it was a request of investigation over an act of vandalism, a case of way too low importance for the Agency’s range of work and reputation, and that could be easily resolved by the police, Dazai started acting weirder than usual.

Kunikida was already writing a response saying it wasn’t a case they usually dealt with, and to send the report to the police department, but Dazai, upon brief examination of the case, had stopped him and said he was going to work on the case.

Which, in his eyes, seemed just a waste of time, but it’s not like they had any other important case at the moment, so he let Dazai take the case upon himself.

Something about it seemed to have set Dazai off, resulting in his odd behaviour, which so happened to be the fact he was actually working instead of slacking off during work hours.

He left work later than usual, skipped on lunch break to keep on working, or if he didn’t he always looked too caught up in his own thoughts.

He even brought the case file papers with him when retiring for the night.

Even yesterday, everyone had already left, except for him and Atsushi, and, of course, Dazai. Atsushi seemed to have noticed something about his mentor was off too, and when he got up to leave, he’d looked at Dazai and then at Kunikida, as if asking what they should do.

In the end, they both left, having left their greetings and referral of not leaving work too late.

Given the situation, it didn’t take him long to understand that Dazai wasn’t already in the office, but better, still in the office, if the surprise upon seeing them here and his dishevelled look was of any indication.

And even without his glasses Kunikida could’ve told Dazai looks exhausted.

He looks over at Ranpo again before going to sit at his desk, setting his belongings down and trying to seem casual as he glances at Dazai from time to time.

Right as he’s about to start working, he turns toward Dazai instead.

He thinks about it for a few moments before deciding to simply call out his name.

“Dazai?”

In a very unlike Dazai way, he doesn’t even move his eyes from his laptop screen before acknowledging him with a low hum.

“When did you leave work yesterday?” he asks.

Only then Dazai does stop typing on his laptop, almost suddenly, and slowly turns on his chair toward Kunikida.

“I… uh…” he hesitates, his eyes moving to the wall near Kunikida as if it will give him the answer, while he brings his hand down his face before resting on the desk again. It seems like he doesn’t find it, when he answers “I don’t know, I… didn’t check the time.”

He usually has an hard time figuring out his partner, but this time it’s like reading an open book. He can tell right away Dazai is lying.

After a couple seconds, Dazai adds “Why?”

So he goes on with his talking.

“You left work later than all of us, and you were here before everyone, too.” he looks at the heavy dark circles under his eyes, and at the fatigue clear in all of his movements “Maybe you should take the day off. You seem tired.”

A look of surprise flashes on Dazai’s face, and Kunikida was already prepared to hear a joke about him wasting precious time of his schedule to worry about him, but it never arrives.

Instead, Dazai gets almost defensive.

“There’s no need to. I’m fine, I’m not tired. I can keep working just fine.” he says, and gives him a small smile. Kunikida can tell it’s forced.

He can also tell Dazai is lying again.

He doesn’t have the time to address it, or smile back, that Dazai has already turned back to typing something down on his laptop.

He keeps looking at him for some more moments, before turning toward his own desk and starting with his work too.

He tries to focus on his own paperwork, but not even 5 minutes he’s interrupted by a soft thud, followed by the clacking sound of something falling on the floor.

He realises the sound came from Dazai’s desk, and he turns his head toward that direction, just to be met with the sight of Dazai deep asleep on his desk, and a pencil rolling away from his chair.

One of his arm is folded under his head as a makeshift pillow, his body slumped over the desk in what appeared to be a rather uncomfortable position, and his other arm is laying on the desk near his laptop. His eyes are closed, and his back is moving rhythmically with every breath he takes.

The office is silent, other than the sound of Dazai’s soft breaths and the creaking of the chair as Kunikida turns fully toward him.

He looks over at Ranpo to check if he has noticed too, but when he does, Ranpo is already looking at him.

“Should we do something?” Kunikida asks, his voice just slightly louder than a whisper.

“Call Mr. Fancy Hat.”

Kunikida frowns.

“Nakahara?”

Ranpo nods back. “Dazai won’t listen to us, no matter how many times we tell him to go home. He’ll listen to Fancy Hat though, and even if not, he wouldn’t hesitate a second to drag him back to his dorm if needed.” he opens a pack of lollipops and puts one in his mouth, “In one way or another, he’ll get him home.”

Kunikida is still a bit hesitant, but if Ranpo said so, then it means it’s the best course of action.

They’d all learned the hard way to always listen to what Ranpo said. And if he considers a mafia executive safe enough to take Dazai home, then he has no choice but to trust him.

After all, they are still on a truce, and after the Meursault events, it’s clear that their main enemy isn’t the Port Mafia.

He keeps on telling himself so as he dials the number and brings his phone to his ear.

—

Chuuya was just about to grab his keys and leave his apartment when his phone rang.

He groans softly as he searches his pockets for his phone, annoyed upon receiving a call this early in the morning and right when he was about to leave for work.

He’ll damn whoever it is if they’ll make him be late for work.

He finally find his phone in his back pocket, and he frowns once he reads the caller ID.

It’s Kunikida.

While it is true that they are on a truce, he hasn’t gotten that much close to the Agency members for them to casually call him.

Okay, well, actually, he has gotten a bit closer with some of them, but Kunikida is, without doubt, the last on the list, so it was a bit weird to receive a call from him, out of all the Agency.

Still, he presses on the answer button.

“What?” he says, not bothering to hide the annoyance in his tone before speaking.

“Good morning to you too, Nakahara.” he hears the other say, and he can’t help but roll his eyes at his scolding tone. “Before you hang up, I’m calling for Dazai. Ranpo-san told me to call you.”

It’s not that he hasn’t been listening before, but he does get a bit more interested in what Kunikida is talking about once he hears him saying it was about Dazai.

“Did something happen to him?” he’s quick to ask, almost cutting off the other.

“He’s not in any sort of danger.” Kunikida speaks, and Chuuya feels himself relaxing the tiniest bit upon hearing Dazai isn’t hurt nor injured, “He’s… okay, but he took a new case in and he’s been working a lot the past days, and he’s refusing to go home even though he’s clearly tired. Ranpo-san thinks Dazai will listen to you if you talk to him.”

He scoffs. “That idiot, still pulling off this shit.” he speaks, more to himself than to the one on the other end of the line. He doesn’t give him a chance to answer that he adds “Where is he know?”

“He’s in the office, He fell asleep at his desk a while ago.” he pauses, and only then Chuuya realised that it seems like he’s trying to keep his voice low.

“He spent the whole night working, didn’t he?” Chuuya says, and he’s already grabbing his keys when he gets an answer, opting to take his car’s.

“I guess so. He was still in the office when we left yesterday evening, and we found him already here this morning.”

Chuuya almost wants to laugh, realising that Dazai hasn’t changed a single bit in these years, remembering all the times he’d found him passed out on his desk when they were still both in the mafia, with heavy dark circles under his eyes and paperworks scattered all around him.

On good days, he’d silently move Dazai to the small couch in his office and let him sleep. On bad days, Chuuya would wake him up and force him to go home, scolding him all the way back to his own apartment.

(Speaking honestly, Dazai preferred the bad days. He liked to fall asleep to the sound of Chuuya’s voice, that got softer and softer as he began drifting off, and the feeling of his hand gently running through his hair. And he liked waking up in Chuuya’s bed wearing his clothes, even though he’d wake up alone most of the times.)

Instead, he takes a deep sigh, sounding almost exasperated. “Alright, I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.” he tells Kunikida, as he closes the door to his apartment behind him and begins walking toward the stairs, “I’m on my way.”

He doesn’t give the other any time to answer that he’s already hung up.

-

It ends up taking only 10 minutes to arrive to a stop in front of the Agency building.

He locks his car and starts making his way up the stairs to the office, pausing in front of the door with his hand on the door handle.

He takes a couple seconds to mentally prepare himself to face all of the Agency, sighing deeply, before pushing the door open, with a bit too much force than needed.

Right as the door hits the wall, he’s met with a unison hushing sound, coming from all the members present in the office.

He raises his hands up almost in surrender, and once the sound stops all of their eyes move from him to the same point.

Chuuya follows their gaze and spots a still-asleep Dazai slumped over his desk.

He hasn’t seen much from this distance but he can tell already that Dazai looks like shit.

After taking a few moments to take in the full situation, he finds Ranpo with his gaze, and he looks back at him with a knowing expression that can only mean he already knows everything there is to know.

Which, honestly, isn’t much, since they weren’t exactly trying to keep it a secret. But they also weren’t really keen on flaunting every single detail of their relationship to every living being.

Limiting even the smallest gestures of affection for the safety of their apartments probably isn’t helping with the whole secrecy issue, but they concluded that if someone were to ask, they wouldn’t deny the implications of it.

That doesn’t stop him from rolling his eyes at Ranpo. After all, it was him who told Kunikida to call Chuuya.

Of course, he knows something that the others haven’t understand yet.

Before he has time to think about what to do, Ranpo suddenly gets his feet off from his desk and stands up.

“Alright,” he says, getting everyone’s attention, “let’s leave Fancy Hat alone to do his thing.” and right on cue, everyone follows suit and starts heading outside of the office.

They all look at him as they pass by. Kyouka gives him a small wave, Kenji brightens upon seeing him and would’ve probably stopped to chat if it wasn’t for one red-head kid urging him to keep walking. Kunikida nods at him, and Ranpo pats his shoulder while saying “I’ll leave him to you.”, mimicking a father leaving referrals to his daughter’s first date.

Once they’re all out of the door, he instantly goes to close it, and takes a sigh at finally being left alone.

He looks over at Dazai, still sleeping soundly, and he quietly makes his way over to his desk.

His coat is draped over his shoulders as a makeshift blanket, courtesy of Kyouka, who has arrived shortly after the call ended, and his head is resting on his arm.

He appears to be sleeping so peacefully, Chuuya almost doesn’t want to wake him up. But then he notices his disheveled look, and the dark circles under his eyes, and tells himself that he’s not going to let Dazai sleep curled over himself on a desk when he looks like he hasn’t had a proper night of rest in weeks.

“Dazai, hey.” he whispers, as he gently brushes some strands of hair out of Dazai’s face and tucks them behind his ear.

It doesn’t get the reaction Chuuya was hoping for, and instead, Dazai almost startles.

“Shh, it’s just me, Mackerel.” he reassures softly, taking his hand away while Dazai begins to stir awake.

“Chuuya?” his eyes are still closed when he questions it, his voice still a bit hoarse from sleep.

“Yeah, it’s me.” Chuuya murmurs in confirmation, letting Dazai takes his time to come to awareness.

He slowly blinks his eyes open and raises from his desk, tiredly looking around him before settling his gaze on Chuuya.

“What… what are you doing here?” Dazai manages to ask after a while, confusion obvious in his tone. It’s clear he’s still not fully present, the exhaustion from the past days clearly taking a toll on him.

It doesn’t stop him front turning his attention back on his laptop as he waits for a response.

“Picking you up,” Chuuya answers, bringing one of his gloved hands up to rest on Dazai’s cheek, “Your Agency friends called me.”

Dazai frowns at that, even more confused than he was before, but he only manages to turn his head back toward Chuuya that he’s saying something to him again, not letting him came up with an answer.

“They told me what you’ve been up to.” he explains, his thumb gently brushing Dazai’s cheek, “That you’ve been overworking yourself all this past week, and that you spent the whole night here.” his voice sounds strangely soft and not reprimanding despite his words.

“Time to go home.” he adds at last.

Dazai can’t help but melt into the warm hand holding his face. His eyelids drop closed, and it gets a bit harder to think and put words together.

He’s able to snap himself out of it before he manages to drift off again, mustering some energy to form a coherent sentence.

“I’m okay, I just need to work on the case.” he mumbles, already turning toward his work again. Chuuya doesn’t let up though, following after Dazai as he turns on his chair.

“I need to work.” Dazai says again, trying to sound firm as he moves away from the hand still holding his face.

Chuuya complies and takes his hand back, rolling his eyes at him when he sees Dazai yawn and tiredly rub his eye despite insisting of keeping on working.

This could be much quicker if he simply threw Dazai over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and dragged him back to his dorm to rest, but he felt like they were long past that. Maybe force used to be the only thing working with Dazai years ago, but Chuuya is confident soft spoken words and gentle touches are what takes to mellow him out now.

More like, he’s sure of it.

Dazai is stubborn, and he’d do anything to try and get the win to stay firm on his beliefs, but Chuuya knows him, and he could almost feel the way Dazai was melting under his touch.

He still doesn’t wanna let up, and he readjust his laptop screen to show Chuuya his work.

“Dazai, you won’t get anything done if you’re tired,” Chuuya speaks, looking at him instead of the laptop on the desk” You need to rest.”

“I don’t need to rest.” Dazai argues, and he sounds a lot like a child refusing his nap.

He glares at the side of Dazai’s head for a bit, while Dazai firmly looks forward toward his work, and Chuuya can’t help but roll his eyes again when he realises that Dazai is not going to face him, and follows his wish and moves to look at the laptop screen.

And honestly, Chuuya doesn’t understand what Dazai is trying to prove since the only thing he can see on the opened document page are random words scattered here and there that blends into a keyboard smash and the letter “A” repeated for another five lines.

He raises an eyebrow as he turns to look at Dazai. “Really? Have you seen what you’ve written?”

It’s clear that the answer is no, when Dazai leans forward to squint at the screen through the slight blurriness left from sleep, and his face contorts into something between a frown and a pout.

Chuuya watches him as Dazai tries to come up with a way to justify his very thoughtful work, the gears messily swirling in his head while trying to send away the grogginess of the exhaustion, but it’s all over when Chuuya suddenly places his hand back on Dazai’s cheek.

Dazai tries to think of what to say to get out of this situation, but he kind of gets lost in the rhythmic movement of Chuuya’s thumb caressing his cheek, and he doesn’t know when his eyes have fallen shut, or when he’s slumped to the side to lay against Chuuya.

Chuuya lets him lay against him, after successfully managing to catch Dazai and not letting him slam his head into the desk or fall off the chair.

It was almost endearing how little it took to have him drifting off again, but on the other side, it was also a reminder of how fucked up Dazai’s sleeping schedule must be, for him to fall asleep that fast and while sitting up just out of the comfort Chuuya’s touch brought.

And really, Chuuya is flattered, but also kind of fucking worried.

Dazai really must be exhausted if he let his guard down that easily, even if only around Chuuya.

“Alright,” Chuuya says after a while, keeping his voice gentle as he moves Dazai to sit upright again, “We’re going home now.”

He’s a bit eager to get Dazai to finally lay down comfortably in a bed in what could be the first time in multiple days and have him sleeping for at least twelve hours in a row.

Dazai slowly stirs awake again, muttering a low “Not tired.”

“Sure.” is Chuuya’s only answer as he retrieves the coat that has slipped off Dazai’s shoulders and helps him putting it on.

Dazai keeps on protesting, mumbling about how he’s not tired and says “I need to work.” while Chuuya reaches forward to close his laptop.

Chuuya just shushes him when it seems like he’s going to protest, his hand finding his way on Dazai’s cheek again to make him settle.

Dazai still tries to fight him when Chuuya helps him stand up, and Chuuya would have almost worried that he’s actually going against Dazai’s will, but he knows Dazai, and he knows that if he really didn’t want to, he would’ve fought harder, no matter how worn out he was.

His weak attempt at pushing Chuuya away are simply because he’s stubborn as fuck, and still refuses to admit he’s tired.

Dazai almost falls over once he fully stands up, but Chuuya is there to steady him, and lets him lay all of his weight on him.

They slowly start to make their way toward the door, and they meet Kunikida and Ranpo on their way to the stairs.

“I’ll make sure he won’t come back before two days of rest.” Chuuya tells them as they walk by.

Kunikida politely thanks him, while Ranpo opts to simply wave at them.

Meanwhile, Dazai tries to glare at them in a way that would say “This is your fault.” but before he can manage that, they’re already walking down the stairs.

Before Dazai knows it, Chuuya is helping him get into the passenger seat of his car.

“My dorm is the other way.” he mutters weakly once Chuuya is seated in the driver seat next to him.

“I know,” he answers,” We’re not going to your dorm.”

Dazai frowns at that, confused, trying to think of where they could possibly be going if not to his dorm.

(Dazai still hopes it’s his dorm they’re going to though, he’ll never admit it, but he doesn’t think he can handle anything that doesn’t require him to sleep for the next week or so.

Honestly, he’s tired enough he might actually start crying if the reason why Chuuya picked him up for isn’t to get him to rest.

He’s tired. Really, really, really tired. He doesn’t remember the last time he’s slept for more than an hour in a row this past week. He just wants to go to sleep.

But he’d rather stay awake and go wherever it is that they’re going for whatever long it’s going to take before he admits it to Chuuya.

Or cry, that’s an option too.)

“You said you’d take me home.” Dazai murmurs, matter of factly.

“Yeah, my home.” Chuuya answers, “We’re going to my apartment.”

Dazai wants to protest, say that his dorm is closer, but he doesn’t find it in himself to do so, not when he’s been spending almost every night ever since they got back from Meursault at Chuuya’s place. Chuuya’s bed is more comfortable anyway, and his apartment is always so much warmer than Dazai’s dorm.

(Honestly, Chuuya should’ve known something was up the moment Dazai stopped showing up at his apartment. It had been far too quiet to be normal.)

Dazai remains quiet after that, but Chuuya must notice something, because as they start heading toward his apartment, he speaks up.

“You can fall asleep if you want.” he says, not taking his eyes off the road as he does so, “I’ll take care of you.”

“Not tired.” Dazai says, almost petulantly, “I can take care of myself.” he adds, and even though Chuuya can’t see him, he can almost hear the pout in his voice.

“I see how you can take care of yourself.” he answers sarcastically, noticing the way Dazai is struggling to stay awake in the corner of his eye.

It almost hurts to look at him fighting against sleep when he looks like he could use at least 24 hours of uninterrupted sleep.

It doesn’t last long, thankfully, and after a few minutes, he hears the soft sound of Dazai’s phone falling on the car mat (Chuuya has no idea when he’d even had time to grab his phone, but it didn’t matter), and he smiles softly when he sees that Dazai has finally fallen asleep.

It takes another few minutes to get to his apartment, and Dazai stays asleep all the way there.

They arrive to a stop in front of the building, and Chuuya tries to be quiet as he gets out of the car and walks to the passenger side.

He’s not planning on waking him up now that he’s finally given in into sleep, opting to carrying him up to the apartment.

He opens the door and tries to unbuckle his seatbelt, but that’s what does him in, and Dazai almost jumps awake at the sound.

“Shh, it’s just me.” he whispers, trying to shush him, bringing his hand up to Dazai’s cheek to reassure him, “We’re here.”

Dazai sluggishly opens his eyes and begins waking up from his brief slumber, and Chuuya takes that opportunity while he’s still not fully aware to move to pick him up.

Dazai must realise what he’s about to do, because he’s suddenly squirming and trying to brush Chuuya’s hands off him.

“‘m okay.” Dazai mumbles, now fully - or as much as anyone that sleep deprived could be - awake. “I don’t need any help.” he argues, whilst moving to get up and out of the car by himself.

He only made it far enough to put both of his feet on the ground, before Chuuya got tired of the miserable sight in front of him and steps in to help Dazai stand up.

He slings Dazai’s arm around his shoulders, earning a venomous glare and another childish protest in response.

“I can walk by myself.”

“I know.” Chuuya answers, helping Dazai get on his feet and keep his balance with the arm wrapped around his waist.

“I don’t need your help.” Dazai mumbles again, but doesn’t try to push Chuuya away, and instead leans on him for support.

It’s not that he’s tired, or that he needs help, it’s just that all of his limbs feel so heavy, and it’s a bit harder than usual to get them to function properly.

“I know.” Chuuya says again, softly.

“I have to go back to work.”

“I know.”

“And ‘m not tired.”

“I know.”

“And you’re stupid.”

“I know.”

“And I hate you.”

Chuuya laughs softly, knowing that Dazai doesn’t mean anything of what he’s just said, and that he’s just trying to annoy him.

But honestly, it’s more funny than annoying, a really funny, tired, but mostly, really bad, copy of his usual annoying self.

“I know.” he answers again, as they finally make it to the elevator - because there’s no way Dazai could handle four flights of stairs -.

The rest of the walk is silent. Dazai stays quiet during the elevator ride, and the following short walk to the apartment.

Chuuya looks at him a couple of times just to make sure he’s not about to collapse, and aside from Dazai tripping over his own feet here and there, they made it safely inside.

They don’t waste any time getting their shoes off, and instead, Chuuya brings them both to the living room.

First thing first, he leads Dazai to the couch, gently pushing him down to sit on it, making him actually sit and rest his back against the couch so that he wouldn’t try getting up.

Next, while Dazai is too busy trying not to fall asleep, he crouches down in front of him, and goes to untie Dazai’s shoes’ laces to get them off.

“Chuuya, I need to go back to work.” Dazai mutters, hoping that the message will get through and that Chuuya will stop, but he’s just met with another “I know.”

Both of his shoes are off, and before Dazai has time to realise it, Chuuya is already helping him get out of his coat.

He could’ve done it alone (probably), but he doesn’t think it’s something worth complaining for right now, so he just lets Chuuya do as he wants.

The coat is off before he knows it too, and Chuuya is suddenly pulling away to stand near the couch.

“Stay here.” he orders, “I’m just going to leave these by the door, alright?”

It takes a while, but eventually, Dazai manages to nod, and Chuuya leaves and disappears behind the corner.

He places Dazai’s coat on the coat rack, along with his own coat and hat, getting his shoes off too and leaving both pairs near the door before walking back to the living room.

He must’ve been away for about two minutes at most, and yet, when he steps back into the room and he spots Dazai, he’s on the floor.

He’s sitting in front of the couch, half turned and giving Chuuya his back, his head is resting on the couch, and he can tell by the way he’s positioned that he, most likely, tried to get up, and fell off the couch instead.

Chuuya sighs fondly as he walks up to Dazai, crouching down next to him and preparing to ask just what the hell he was doing on the floor, that Dazai spoke first.

“Not tired.” he murmurs for the umpteenth time, attempting, and failing, to rise his head, just for it to loll back onto the couch, “I need to work.”

“Alright.” Chuuya replies, slipping one of his arms behind Dazai’s knees and the other around his back, right before picking him up from the floor and settling him in his arms in a bridal carry. “Time to go to bed.”

Dazai is a bit taken off guard by the sudden gesture, and he doesn’t have time to react that he’s already being lifted up from his comfortable spot on the floor by a pair of arms.

He wants to complain, tell Chuuya he isn’t tired, and to let him go, but it kind of felt nice. And he does feel tired. And he can’t help his head from falling on his shoulder, and it gets a bit hard to pick it up again with how heavy it felt. And Chuuya’s shoulder is comfortable, so he leaves it there.

He’s still not happy about it though, and to make Chuuya aware of that, he whines, since it’s not something worth the effort of talking - and definitely not because he’s too tired to speak -.

“You know, your work will still be there after you’ll have rested, your case can wait.” Chuuya tells him, and meanwhile he’s started walking toward his bedroom, “You’ll be able to work better after some hours of sleep.”

Dazai wants to protest again, because what Chuuya is saying is just bullshit, and clearly not true, but being carried felt nice, and the walking motion, added to the arms holding him, and his head on Chuuya’s shoulder, and his face almost buried in his neck, and his familiar scent, and his soft voice-

It made him feel sleepy.

He’s struggling to keep his eyes open by this point, but he still manages to mutter a slurred “Y’re mean.” directed to Chuuya.

Mean, because he made Dazai feel sleepy. Mean, because he picked him up from work and brought him home. Mean, because he is currently carrying him to bed.

Really mean indeed.

Chuuya can’t help but roll his eyes at him.

“Idiot.” he says, but he doesn’t try to hide the fond smile on his face.

Once they make it to the bedroom, Chuuya gently sets Dazai down on the bed, and Dazai doesn’t remember when he has wrapped his arms around Chuuya’s neck, but then Chuuya is untangling them from around his neck.

He is on the bed now, but not laying down just yet, and Dazai lets out a low confused hum as Chuuya pulls away. He’d really like to lay down right now.

Chuuya tries to get Dazai to sit upright for a while as he starts unbuttoning his vest.

He would’ve liked to get Dazai to change into more comfortable clothes, but by this point he’s too far gone for that, and he can see the way Dazai’s head drops to the side from time to time.

“I’m just making you more comfortable, so that you’ll sleep better, okay?” he explains, while he tries to be as quick as possible with the buttons, “You can lay down soon.”

He’s only halfway done when Dazai suddenly slumps forward, his head falling on Chuuya’s shoulder again.

He lets Dazai lay against him as he finishes with the last buttons, but he has to move him upright again to slip it off his shoulders.

That gets another low whine out of Dazai, who’s clearly not happy to be disturbed again.

“Shhh, I know. We’re almost done.” Chuuya whispers reassuringly, keeping Dazai upright just long enough for him to take his belt and bolo tie off, and getting the first couple buttons of his shirt undone.

His eyes are already beginning to shut closed when Chuuya finally helps him lay down, and for God-knows what reason, Dazai just whines again.

“Shhh, we’re done now.” he whispers again, guiding Dazai’s head to rest on the pillow and tucking the covers around him.

Now that Dazai is properly bundled up under the covers, Chuuya sits on the edge of the bed next to him, shushing him again when he has the audacity to mumble that he’s not tired again.

“Shh, it’s okay. Go to sleep now.” he whispers softly, bringing his hand on his head to slowly run his fingers through Dazai’s hair. “I’ll take care of you.”

It’s obvious he’s struggling to keep his eyes open, and form coherent sentences and thoughts, and with the soft hand on his head and the warmth of the covers it’s a lost battle, and it takes about 10 seconds before Dazai’s out like a light.

Chuuya stays there for a little longer, taking that moment to simply run his fingers through his hair and gently brush his cheek with his thumb, admiring his relaxed sleeping expression and the delicate features adorning his face, accompanied by the gentle rise and fall of his chest, a clear indication that he is truly asleep.

He brushes a strand of hair out of Dazai’s face and behind his ear, smiling softly when Dazai leans into the touch. Chuuya bends down to leave a gentle kiss to his forehead, before getting up from the bed and leaving Dazai to sleep.

He stops by the window to close the curtains on his way out, leaving the door ajar, to let a small glimmer of light shine from the hallway into the bedroom, just to not leave the whole room plunged in darkness. Chuuya knows Dazai can’t sleep with the lights on, but that he doesn’t particularly enjoy sleeping in total darkness either, and Chuuya had discovered that the faint light coming from the slightly opened door is the perfect compromise.

Not that Dazai would ever tell him directly. He more left it to him to guess.

Now that Dazai is finally settled and resting, Chuuya should probably head to work like he was planning on doing before getting interrupted by the call, but he doesn’t really trust Dazai to stay here and sleep alone.

Chuuya knows Dazai well enough to worry that he might try and get back to work, if he happens to wake up after only a couple hours of sleep to an empty apartment and with no one to force him back to bed.

He can’t risk that.

After the effort it took to get him to bed, Chuuya has to make sure he stays asleep and actually rest. (And he’s still a bit worried about his recent sleeping schedule.)

The situation at headquarters has calmed down increasingly this past month after the chaos the vampire curse had caused, and there isn’t any mission insight he’s supposed to take part in. Most of his job right now consists of office work, and this would give him the chance to catch up with all the paperwork he’s been trying to avoid comfortably from his apartment.

He’s already got a stack of paperwork here that he’d brought back from his office, to work upon if he happened to have some time to spare, and this seemed like the perfect occasion to fill all those papers in.

It’s nearing 10 AM when Chuuya is able to settle down in his living room and get to work, paperwork piled up on the coffee table and laptop sitting next to him on the couch.

His working session doesn’t last long though, and he’s interrupted not even an hour later by a loud thud coming from his bedroom.

His first thought upon hearing the noise is that Dazai has woken up and is trying to escape without Chuuya noticing (at which he’s clearly already failed, if that was his plan), but he doesn’t exclude that Dazai might’ve had a nightmare.

It’s unlikely, since it’s been a while since Dazai has had a bad enough nightmare that had him trash around enough to fall out of bed (and also because those were usually accompanied by heart wrenching screams, and apart from that thud the whole apartment is silent), but Chuuya still prepares himself in case he has to talk Dazai out of what could possibly be an incoming panic attack.

“Dazai?” Chuuya calls out as he sets everything down and quickly makes his way over to the bedroom, and he almost crashes into Dazai once he pushes the door open.

Chuuya finds him standing near the door, swaying slightly, and he soon notices that Dazai looks still half asleep.

His eyelids drop closed more than they stay open, his hair is still a bit messy from sleep, and his shirt had untucked a bit from his pants, adding to the whole sleepy and cute look.

“Hey, what are you doing awake?” he asks Dazai softly, as he places one of his hand on Dazai’s shoulder and the other on his cheek, in an attempt to lead him back to the bed.

Dazai instantly melts into the hand on his cheek, and it’s even more obvious he’s not fully awake when he simply mumbles “…crab.”

When he’s figured out what to say next, Chuuya has already turned him and leading him toward the bed.

Dazai doesn’t try to fight him, it looks like he doesn’t understand what’s even happening in the first place, murmuring something again as he lets Chuuya guide him.

“…tried t’eat me.” he mumbles, his voice slurred and soft with sleep.

At first, Chuuya has absolutely no fucking idea of what Dazai is even talking about, but then it suddenly clicks that he’s probably talking about a dream he had and that has woken him up.

He lets out a chuckle, “Don’t worry, I won’t let any crab eat you.” Chuuya tells him, tease clear in his tone as he speaks. Dazai probably won’t even catch up on the joke, but it was still too funny to mess with him a bit.

In fact, Dazai only hums in response, and when he does, Chuuya has already sat him down on the bed.

He gently guides Dazai’s head back on the pillow as he lays down, hushing him softly when he protested because of the covers being pulled over him.

Chuuya doesn’t understand what caused him to complain, he thought they were past over this by now, but nonetheless, sits next to Dazai on the bed.

“You barely slept for an hour.” he starts, running his fingers through Dazai’s hair, “Go back to sleep. I’ll make sure not even a single crab makes it past the front door.”

Despite it coming out more like a tease, Chuuya actually does mean what he said. And even though he won’t be guarding the door from crabs, he’ll make sure to keep Dazai safe.

There’s an high chance Dazai won’t even remember about all of this once he wakes up again, Chuuya thinks as Dazai shifts closer to where he’s sitting before drifting off to sleep again, lulled by Chuuya’s soft voice and gentle touch, and he’s definitely not going to make him live this down.

Chuuya quietly gets up and leaves the room again, sending Dazai one last brief glance before closing the door and heading back toward the living room.

He resumes his work, and it’s around lunchtime when he goes to check up on Dazai again.

Chuuya finds him still deep asleep, his mouth slightly open as he drools on his pillow.

Although it is a bit gross (and absolutely unattractive yet strangely adorable), he is mostly glad to see Dazai is comfortable, and that he’s actually resting and not faking sleep like he used to do.

He still keeps in mind to go and check up on him every once in a while in between his work sessions, but it’s not really necessary.

Dazai just sleeps like a rock for the next ten hours.