It was late in the evening when Mori was sitting in his chair overlooking the city. He had a devilish grin on his face and was texting someone when a knock came from his office door.
"I've brought her, boss," Chuuya said. Y/n remained out in the hallway, hugging the wall.
"So, where is she?" Mori said. Chuuya jerked his gaze at Y/n trying to sneak away from the scene.
Y/n hadn't spoken to Mori since the other night and was unsure of what to say to him now that she had returned. What if he's still mad at me? She thought. I know he sent people to find me, but what if he means to punish me in some way, or torture me? Or—
"And where do you think you're going?" Chuuya said, scowling at her. Mori raised an eyebrow at his executive's diverted attention.
Y/n whipped her head around with wide eyes. She shushed Chuuya and waved her hands at him to shut up.
Before Chuuya could respond to her ridiculous display, Y/n yanked his arm, pulling him away from the door frame, and covered his mouth with her hand. She crouched down in a whisper and said, "I'll visit him tomorrow. I need time to think, as I'm quite literally a mess right now. No one is giving me a break lately, so do something about this, will you?" She was like a whining child. Chuuya gave her a look of exhaustion.
He crouched down and said, "Is the princess really choosing right now of all times to act so stupidly pathetic? You just got your bloody ass beaten and shook it off without a care, but you're really going to lose your cool over this? Get a grip. He's probably just going to ask you about what happened, so get your ass in there already."
"And how do you know? He probably considers me a traitor for leaving."
"You'd be dead by now if that was the case. I'd personally see to it."
"But I still have blood in my hair," she said, pouting.
Chuuya rolled his eyes. "You've already been gone long enough as it is, so quit wasting my time, dammit," he said.
Y/n rushed to cover his mouth again, for fear of being overheard due to his loud voice, but tripped and fell on top of him instead. One of her arms accidentally slugged Chuuya in the throat, whereas one of his knees jabbed her in the gut as they both fell. They were both groaning in pain and cursing each other out when Mori decided to walk out to see what all the commotion was.
"Leave us," Mori said to Chuuya with a dead-eyed smile. Chuuya looked like a shaken Chihuahua as he felt a chill go up his spine.
After Y/n and Chuuya exchanged glares with each other, the latter got up and left while rubbing his neck with a grimacing face.
However, Y/n still remained seated on the floor. She didn't even want to look Mori in the eyes. She knew that it was disgraceful to act this way in front of the boss, but she couldn't seem to prop her legs up when he was already standing so close to her.
Mori stared at Y/n for about ten seconds without saying a word. His hands were folded behind in his dark coat and his silence made her even more nervous.
"Y/n," he said in a prompting tone, walking back into his office.
Y/n bit her lip harshly and stood up, following him like a guilty dog that just returned after running out the front door when their master wasn't looking. Mori approached the large window in his office, but did not sit back down. He simply stood gazing down at the city for a couple of minutes as Y/n's heart raced quicker with every passing moment of silence. Just rip the bandage off already, she thought as her facial muscles tensed. Y/n couldn't wait any longer in agony, so she decided to make the first move.
"I apologize if my absence caused everyone trouble, boss," she said with shifty eyes. "It won't happen again."
Mori's expression widened at her from a side glance. However, his face loosened and he let out a soft smile. Y/n's heartbeat increased once more and her expression remained blank with worry as she stared down at the floor. Yeah, I'm definitely going to die, she thought. Mori turned his whole body to face her, noticing how distant Y/n seemed to be acting towards him. She still hadn't looked him in the eyes yet and it was making him antsy. Did Dazai say something to her after all? He thought. Have I really lost her? Mori slightly frowned. He walked closer to her, which made Y/n stiffen from her head to her toes.
"It seems you were being held up by the Agency. Are you all right, Y/n?" Mori said, flashing his dashing smile like always.
"Huh? Uh, yes, boss. And if you have any new orders for me, I'm ready. I won't waste your time."
Mori continued staring at her, trying to figure out what was going through her head. He had never felt so perplexed by one individual before. Even when it came to Dazai, Mori still could at least interpret his mindset somewhat, even if it wasn't totally clear. But with Y/n, her true thoughts seemed to be an endless puzzle to him. It was intoxicating. He loved a good challenge and Y/n was the most breathtaking one yet. He wanted to ask her so many things about what had happened after she left, including about the alleyway incident, as well as her time with the Agency, but for now, he simply wanted to ease her apparent apprehension towards him.
Mori put a hand on her shoulder and gave her a reassuring smile. "You've never been any trouble to me, Y/n. I'm just glad to see that you've safely returned to us." He sat back down in his chair while maintaining his level-headed grin. He's not mad? Is he not even going to ask me what happened? She thought. Y/n could sense that Mori was hiding something from her, but this time, she wasn't afraid of what those secrets might be. She just wanted to be worthy of those secrets.
"But I feel that I should make up for my irresponsible behavior, boss. Please give me any task and I will see it done," Y/n said.
Mori looked back at her and smirked. He had missed this. Y/n was always so eager to please him, but even still, he was tired of these pretenses between them. He knew that Y/n was a hard worker, but he needed to come to a clearer understanding about something that was rattling his mind.
"I appreciate your enthusiasm, Y/n, but I do wonder, why are you still so eager to work for me? You had the chance to return to the Armed Detective Agency, but still chose to come back here." Mori said. "It's quite unexpected."
"You're a respectable boss, sir. My decision was a non-issue," she said with a stoic face.
Mori sighed at her response. He had forgotten how difficult it was to get a straight answer out of her. "So there was no other reason?"
"Where else would I go?" Y/n said, shrugging with a smile. "This place is simply better suited to my gifts and the other members of the Port Mafia are quite welcoming, so I decided to stay. That is all." She was hoping that Mori wouldn't pry too deep into this. She had dealt with enough mind games for one day.
Y/n's smile wasn't fooling Mori and he could tell that she wasn't being her usual self. She seemed more on edge than before. He stood up from his chair and this time, removed all pleasantries from his face. His charming smile and goofy tone was gone and his gaze was now focused solely on her.
"Be honest and look at me, Y/n. Do you feel that you can be yourself when you're here?" Mori said.
Y/n could sense the shift in his demeanor. He wasn't just looking at her, but through her. Something was crawling up her spine and she could feel it itching in her bones. She replied, "I can. You're all quite gracious towards me."
Mori's eyes narrowed. "Then why do you continue to act this way in my presence?"
Y/n's eyes shot open at his bluntness and now held a frantic expression behind her polite smile. "I'm always as honest as I can be with you, boss. I promise."
Mori's eyes saddened at how she still wasn't seeing the bigger picture. She was lying to him, whether she intended to or otherwise, and the wall between them was only getting denser the more they spoke. "Do you trust me, Y/n?" He said.
She tried to regain her composure by gently grinning, but the cracking sound in her chest kept getting louder. "I do, boss. More than anyone."
"Then why are you dodging my questions in such a manner? I want to trust you, Y/n—I do—but that facade of yours isn't helping your predicament."
Y/n was being shredded. It was as if Mori was peeling the layers of her skin back piece by piece and the deeper he dug, the more terrified she became of this conversation. She thought that all she needed to do was remove Dazai from her life and all would be well again, but Y/n didn't expect that Mori was still so eager to butt in on her most fragile self. It was just like the night she ran out on him. But this time, it was more complicated. She wanted to smother the marbles that seemed to be rolling around in her gut, but she also wanted to set them free, and Mori's demands were only making it harder for her to keep them at bay.
"I'm not faking anything, boss," Y/n said. "I'm just relieved that I'm not dead, you know. Three on one-I wasn't sure if I was going to make it." She chuckled, hoping to lighten the tension.
"Enough, Y/n." Mori's tone was harsher this time. Y/n's heart ached at his growing frustration with her. Not again, she thought. "Are you acting like this because of Dazai? Did he say something to you? About me?" Mori asked.
"Well-he only had bad things to say about you," she said.
Mori sighed and clenched his jaw as if trying to break a tooth. "What about you? Do you agree with him?"
"I wouldn't know."
"So you've really lost your faith in me?"
Y/n scoffed. "If this is about me storming off the other night, it had nothing to do with you. I just wanted to find my parents' murderer," Y/n said, irritated at his endless questioning of her motives.
"And yet you didn't think to ask me for my help before wandering off?"
"You didn't want me to go."
"I didn't want you to be reckless. There's a difference. Your hastiness puts you in danger. I can't allow that."
They both stared each other down in stubbornness before Mori sighed again.
"Can we stop this already, Y/n? We both know that your reaction that night was only a conduit for something else."
"Like what?" She said in a sassy tone.
"You tell me. You're the one who's lying the most right now. Don't become the same thing you hate and fear, Y/n."
She grinned. "I'm not. I'm the same as I've always been," she said, crossing her fingers behind her back.
"Do you really want to test my patience right now?" Mori's expression was growing more stirn the longer Y/n continued to dance around the truth. However, the more that Mori pried her for answers, the more violent her urges became. Her breathing was slow and heavy, and her palms began smoking at the tips of her fingers.
A switch seemed to flip in Y/n, similar to the night she let herself get thrashed to a pulp in that alleyway, as well as that day she was about to blow up that warehouse before Dazai managed to stop her. Her mind was becoming unsteady again and the tension sprouting between her and Mori seemed to propose a nice outlet for Y/n's troubled emotions. She smirked as if to mock his concern for her. "Yeah, I don't mind it."
"So you're amused by this?" Mori said. It seemed to him like she was intentionally trying to upset him.
Y/n beamed a sadistic smile at him. "Isn't this more fun?"
"Do you enjoy having people worry about you? Is that it? You enjoy tricking people into taking pity on you?"
Y/n's dropped her smile and her eyes went cold. "No, I hate it. People should mind their own business."
Mori raised his eyebrows. Y/n was finally being honest with him. He had to admit, her coldness towards him felt absolutely destructive. He loved how much it made his heart flutter. He lightly grinned.
"And I assume you think that by putting on this act of yours it will keep people from interfering too deeply into your life? That it will allow you to keep doing whatever you want without consequence? But you won't last this way forever, Y/n. One day you will fall and when you do, don't be surprised if there's no one around to pick up your own self-plucked feathers."
"Everyone sure seems to think that they know me better than I do."
"Maybe we are just more interested in you than you are in yourself."
'Interested'? Y/n thought. She was taken aback by what he could have been implying by that. This snapped Y/n out of her fury and made her regain her more polite demeanor. She wanted to know if she truly was deluding herself into thinking that Mori might have felt something more for her than she thought, or if this was simply another one of his games. "Do you—"
A knock sounded at the door. Akutagawa entered the office and addressed Mori with his usually stoic demeanor. "We've captured Dazai as you've requested, boss. I can begin the questioning as soon as you'd like," he said. In the Mafia, questioning was actually code for torture. Y/n scrunched her forehead.
She turned her head towards Mori and observed his callously blank expression that showed no hint of fallacy coming from the other man's statement.
"Thank you, Akutagawa. I'll deal with him later," Mori said before the other man left.
"What does he mean?" Y/n asked Mori with a stunned expression.
"Your punishment," Mori said, avoiding her steel-cutting eyes.
"What do you gain by torturing Dazai? Or am I to prove my loyalty to you by doing it myself or something? Is that it? Because if so, then fine. I'll do whatever you want," she said, reluctantly. "But if this is about something else, then—" She paused. Her voice got weaker. "Why do you insist on prying open my heart and using it against me?"
Mori turned to Y/n and softened at the desperation in her eyes. He knew why. He just didn't want to say it. He was just as scared as her. If his impression of her was wrong, then it might put everything in jeopardy. It wasn't just his pride, but his organization that was at risk as well if he trusted himself to the wrong person. While it's true that he was close with his executives, he still kept them at arm's length in the case of one of them betraying him. But with Y/n, he hated being so far from her. He wanted everything about her to be his and his alone. He was willing to keep her closer than most and definitely did not want to risk losing her again to someone or something. So he took a gamble.
"Because I love you."
Thank you all for reading!! Wishing you joy and peace :)
/// To be continued... 🧡