Shark (Dazai X reader)

(C. 24) A Letter

A/N yet again, I live in constant fear that one day, a chapter will post and the notes I took prepping to write it will still be at the bottom. I was just editing an earlier chapter that thankfully hadn't posted yet and found one I'd forgotten.

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"I don't feel like working." Dazai whined, nuzzling himself deeper into the couch of the Agency's lobby area.

"Stop sounding like a broken record." Kunikida sighed from his place in the doorway, hands deep in the pockets of his pants.

"I don't even feel like holding a conversation right now, Kunikida." 

Dazai let his eyes flutter shut as he spoke, hoping the emphasis it drew to his desires would cause his coworker to leave him be. He was so tired after everything that had happened in the past week. It was like the relief of having Y/n back by his side had opened the floodgates and now, his body felt like led.

"The town was saved from annihilation thanks to you, Atsushi, and Y/n. Why have you ended up like this just a day later? I figured you'd be celebrating." he asked, taking a step further into the room.

"The Boss has me lined up for this new job..." Dazai groaned, his voice muffled by the couch's cushions.

"Is it what Atsushi and the boss were discussing yesterday?"

Slowly, laboriously, Dazai drew himself up into a seated position. Leaning his arms on his knees, he leaned forward, watching as Fukuzawa stopped to stand beside Kunikida.

"It is." the President said, clearly having over heard their conversation.

Kunikida turned to face him, not having noticed his presence until he spoke.

"Good morning." he said politely, greeting his boss with the formality he thought the man deserved.

Dazai had no such reaction. The President didn't seem to mind.

"Dazai," he began, fixing his gaze on the younger man, "are we making progress on our secret meeting with the Port Mafia?"

"I've made arrangements, but..." Dazai let the rest of his sentence trail off into nothing, watching the President carefully.

"Do you think the Port Mafia boss will be there?"

"I'm sure of it." Dazai nodded, "It is a perfect opportunity to kill you, after all. How could he resist such a thing?"

Fukuzawa closed his eyes, thinking for a moment.

"That is preferable to having bloodshed among our members." he said at last, before leaving the room once more. 

Dazai sighed, resting his chin on the palm of his hand and turning to look out the large window beside him while Kunikida shot his coworker a curious glance.

"A secret meeting with the Port Mafia!?" he exclaimed once Fukuzawa was out of earshot.

"It was Atsushi's idea and Y/n said she thought it was good." he shrugged, "But it's turned into this whole big... deal for me to manage. Even though the Guild is now our biggest threat... it seems rather foolish to me."

Y/n stood on the opposite side of Mori from Chuuya. They were in a warehouse for a shipping company the Mafia owned, fallen members of their organization laid out on the ground around them. It had been organized to allow people from the organization to pay their respects to their former comrades in arms. 

The death toll of this war with the Agency and the Guild was already astounding. The Mafia had a huge amount of members, so the death count didn't really effect their operations but, it was still a sorry sight.

"There have been over a hundred deaths in our organization alone." Chuuya was saying, having been put in charge of handling the dead, "I hate to admit it, but if that tool, Dazai, hadn't neutralized the curse, we would have had ten times as many casualties."

"I have no face to show to the previous bosses." Mori mused, clasping his hands behind his back as he spoke. 

All three of them had their heads bowed in respect, hats off, solemn expressions. The sound of the door to the warehouse opening caused them to turn, seeing Koyo entering the room. She closed her umbrella as the door shut behind her. Y/n felt her spine stiffen at her fellow executives presence. She was, of course, the central instrument working to keep Kyoka in the Mafia.

"Koyo." the Boss said with a friendly nod of the head.

"Dazai kicked me out of the Agency office, saying he had no need for a useless prisoner." she lightly answered to his unasked question, walking over to where they stood, "He even had me running errands in exchange for my stay."

Gracefully, she pulled a letter from the folds of her kimono and suddenly, Dazai's sudden choice to release her made sense.

"This is from the boss of the Detective Agency." she explained, handing it over to Mori, "An invitation to have tea, it seems."

"Oh?" Mori hummed, taking it from her carefully manicured hands, "So that is the hand he has chosen to play. You wouldn't happen to have anything to do with this, would you, Y/n?"

Mori watched her out of the corner of his eye as she shook her head no. Lying to Mori was a skill she'd had to learn, one she still wasn't very good at. While in truth, she had taken no part in the formulation of the idea, she had pressed Dazai into taken action. She was, in some small way, involved. Mori smiled slightly, he could tell she was lying and Y/n knew it. Thankfully, he didn't press any further.

Opening the letter, he read it in a careful silence. Chuuya shot Y/n a look over the Boss' shoulder as he did. She responded with an almost imperceptible look to the upper left corner. It was a code they had established long ago. We'll talk later, it said. He nodded ever so slightly, returning his attention to the Boss who had reached the end of the short note and was deep in thought.

"Alright," he said at last, breaking the tense silence that had fallen between the four of them as he looked up once again, "we will go. Chuuya, call Black Lizard and tell them to meet us here. Y/n? You are going to come with me. You are my second in command, after all. My witness."

The flash of a memory cut through her mind, the night Mori had killed the Port Mafia's previous Boss. Once Mori had wiped the blood from his scalpel, he had turned to Dazai. There, he had named him and him alone the witness to the false story Mori wove to explain the death. Back then, the word witness had left his lips with the same sharp quiet. 

Mori was posing them against one another and Y/n knew it, trying to sow strife in their marriage. A protest died on her lips as she caught sight of his eyes. He wasn't angry, but he most certainly was not pleased with her either. She nodded once.