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carrotkicks · 7 months

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Fugitives arc - Abridged vrs.

(part of the sends them to school au)

hehe so guess what! I took my insanity to new heights and I actually tried to write (horrifying) do tell me how it goes for you

It took exactly 9 seconds to find the extra bandages. Dr. Mori was always reliable about keeping medical supplies ready on hand but Dazai counted anyway. It’s a habit she’s grown over the years. Her eyepatch had gotten rather grimy after a long day on the run, and the bacteria that may have collected could give her another infection, so she might as well change it, right?

Right! That’s a good start. Redoing her bandages is an excellent next step in her plan to somehow get herself and Chuuya out of this debacle.

Speaking of, Chuuya was currently in the bedroom, trying to find something to wear that was left lying around in this safe house. Dazai had helped her take a bath earlier, and it took a lot of effort on her part to not freak out. Not that Chuuya noticed, of course. Chuuya might have a second special ability to be completely oblivious to some things. Like when someone’s putting the moves on her, or when she’s in pain. It’s as though she entirely lacks self-preservation. Does she have a death wish or something? Oh wait –

Dazai freezes that horribly ironic train of thought to remind herself she’s in a bathroom surrounded by puddles of Chuuya’s blood and tattered clothes. After the bandages, I’ll clean this mess. That’s a good next, next step.

Chuuya had gotten injured, somehow. A deep gash on the back of her neck, like a creature sunk its claws in her and pulled something out. Dazai frowned at the thought as she pulled her patch off. Chuuya hasn’t said a word about why they were hiding but after the events of the past few days, Dazai’s overactive mind was starting to paint a bleak picture.

Chuuya wasn’t at school for the past few days. On the third day of her absence, her literature teacher pulled her aside with a packet of coursework in hand.

“I know you’re close to Nakahara-chan. Perhaps you can deliver her the materials she’s missed this past week so she doesn’t fall too far behind. And check in on her too, okay?”

Of course, Dazai readily agreed. Their Sensei has always shown exasperation towards Chuuya’s poor attendance habits, but today there was a strange tightness in her smile that made Dazai’s stomach settle uncomfortably.

Kunikida decided to join her to deliver the notes – “Not that I don’t think you’re capable of it on your own. I’m putting up with you because it’s a dangerous location, and I would like to see how Nakahara-san is doing” he declared. Naturally, Dazai had cheerfully wrapped an arm around his waist and accepted his chivalrous offer. Kunikida may give the pretenses of aloofness but he worries too much for the act to hold any weight. That’s how Dazai managed to figure out what happened after that disastrous mistake on her part last Friday.

Kunikida and Yosano both agreed to this story: Chuuya looked very pale when they entered the club room. She claimed she was ill and decided to leave after minutes in. That’s where it ended, frustratingly enough. At yesterday’s Detectives Club meeting, Ranpo mentioned to her briefly “I don’t think things look very good at home for Chuuya-kun.” Dazai nodded.

I figured as much too.

That’s why when she and Kunikida stepped up to a ratty-looking apartment unit in a ratty-looking apartment complex in the Suribachi neighborhood on the outskirts of Yokohama, she had Hirotsu in a van full of Mafia guards parked two blocks away. Her security detail was also following close by but she’s not supposed to know about them, so if anyone asks, what security detail?

“This is the right place?” Kunikida asked, looking back at the surroundings. The area didn’t seem safe, at least for a couple of kids wearing uniforms for one of the most prestigious private academies in Yokohama. Even if those kids were ability users.

“It’s the address Sensei gave me,” Dazai responded in a relaxed fashion. She gazed back to where Kunikida was looking. An armored truck hidden under the shade of a tree.

“Supposedly there’s a military base nearby,” she rationalized. Kunikida only nodded uneasily.

Dazai grinned and began ruffling through her bag for the handouts. “Hey, if Chuuya answers the door, she won’t be in her school uniform.”

“Hm.” Kunikida stepped forward and knocked. Three times.

“I bet she has an awful fashion sense. She seems like the type, right?”

“Anything Nakahara-san chooses for her style will be an improvement to your bandages, Dazai-chan.”

“Tch. Rude.”

The door opened. The timer starts.

Standing there was a tall man wearing a lab coat and a gentle smile. “Hello. Can I help you?” He has glasses and graying hair. He’s keeping his hands in his pockets, one of which seems to be holding something. 6 seconds.

Kunikida must have picked up that Dazai wasn’t willing to talk, and took over. “Hello sir, is this the residence of Nakahara Chuuya-san?”

“Yes, I’m her father. She’s not well right now, so I’m afraid you can’t see her.” 18 seconds. From what Dazai could see there wasn’t any furniture other than a sofa, coffee table, and coat rack. Chuuya’s signature boots weren’t by the entrance.

“That’s… alright. We just came to deliver some of the notes and homework she’s missed. We’re classmates.” The blinds in the apartment were drawn, and there was something in the shadow that Dazai couldn’t make out clearly. 23 seconds.

Chuuya’s “father” accepted the offered papers swiftly without a second glance. “I’ll see that she gets these. Anything else?” 31 seconds. A glint of metal, that looked the shape of –

“Nope, that’s it! We’ll take our leave then. Please tell Chuuya we hope she feels better for us, sir” Dazai cut in. She nudged Kunikida’s foot Come on, time to go.

Kunikida gave a courteous bow. “Thank you for your time, Nakahara-san.”

At that, a strange smirk crossed over the man’s face, as if he heard the world’s most ironic joke. “Of course.” He made eye contact with Dazai for a moment and she really hoped she was giving him a polite smile because her eyes felt far too wide to be anything other than manic. Then the door slammed shut.

The entire encounter lasted 42 seconds, and Dazai already figured out more than she wanted to. “Chuuya wasn’t there. That man wasn’t her father” She tells Kunikida when they’re far enough away from the building. Her friend gave her a sharp look, but it wasn’t an "I don’t believe you". It helped the tightness in her throat clear a little.

“How do you figure?”

Dazai furrowed her brow, “That apartment isn’t lived in at all. None of Chuuya’s possessions were to be found. And…” She halted. Kunikida stopped beside her. “Inside I saw a glimpse of a rifle, a military-grade one. There was definitely an armed soldier hiding in the back, and likely the rest of their squad too.” Soldiers, a military base, a man in a lab coat, and a missing ability user. A terrible combination.

Kunikida muttered what was absolutely not a curse. “We need to find Nakahara quickly.” He says, not wasting a moment to pull out his phone to dial who she thinks is Ranpo.

Dazai nods, already feeling more confident. But Yokohama’s a big city, how are they supposed to find one tiny person like –

***

“Dazai. Dazaiiiiiiii! Are you- oh!” Chuuya rushed out about as quickly as she entered. Dazai had scrambled to throw her hands up to hide her uncovered eye. She exhaled heavily as she tried to suppress the irritation that flared up in her chest. That was terrible timing on her part, and she should have accounted for Chuuya being her spontaneous self.

“Seriously, Chibi? Didn’t anyone teach you to knock first?”

“Sorry. I didn’t expect you to be indecent.” Dazai isn’t naked, just bandage-less right now. Oh, Chuuya’s trying to be funny.

“Humor isn’t your thing Slug-chan. Hhh, tell me. Did you see it?” Dazai doesn’t know why she’s feeling so self-conscious. Her eye healed a long time ago, even if seeing out of it is still quite blurry, it looks perfectly fine. But in the year since the … injury … Dazai has only been able to bear looking at her own unobstructed reflection for only a few minutes at a time. The only other person who could be comparable was the Good Doctor himself.

There’s a silence behind the door. Then, Chuuya says, “I saw you, Dazai.”

Dazai doesn’t know how to respond to that, and it seems like Chuuya may have realized because there’s a hesitant turn of the door handle. Dazai puts her hand over the right side of her face for good measure.

The door creaks open and the redhead shuffles in. Literally shuffles, Dazai realized, those clothes were huge on her, practically swallowing her frame. The sleeves of the collared shirt she found were rolled up to her elbows and the black slacks she was wearing must have been cuffed 3(?) times. They must be Dr. Mori’s, a little voice in Dazai’s head supplied. She looks cute in them, an unhelpful one adds. She looked cuter covered in blood, to be honest, another, more unhelpful, eviler voice continued. Hold on, has Dazai ever seen Chuuya wear long pants before?

Whatever. It didn’t matter because obviously, Dazai laughed out loud at the sight. Maybe overcompensated even, she really needed this chance to tease Chuuya. Any chance she’ll get. For her part, Chuuya must have anticipated this reaction because she just huffs out in annoyance and drags herself closer. When her giggles died down, she realized that Chuuya had grabbed her hand and was looking directly into her eyes, and a self-satisfied grin settled on her face.

Ah, Dazai’s mouth felt dry again, so she lowers her head. Chuuya took that as a cue to start talking. “It’s only fair, Dazai. You got to see all of me, so I deserve some leverage on you too.”

Leverage? Oh… Dazai thinks she gets it. Chuuya’s at Dazai’s mercy right now. Dazai’s father owns this safe house, Dazai’s people are guarding the perimeter, and Dazai’s the one who can treat her injuries. Chuuya’s asking for some control over the situation. She’s asking for trust in return. Dazai can handle that.

She looks up, but Chuuya’s already turned her head away, cheeks a faint red. She detaches her hand but Dazai grabs it before it can retreat further.

“Hey.” Dazai brings Chuuya’s hand close to her face. Chuuya meets here eyes. She seems confused. “A while ago I got into an accident.”

“An accident?” If Chuuya doubts her, she wouldn’t show it.

“Yeah. It really messed up the right side of my face. It used to look really bad so I always bandaged it. It became a habit.”

Dazai hesitated on the next part. “And when I see myself without the patches, I get reminded how human I look.”

Chuuya’s gaze was unreadable now.

Shit. Don’t say more. Dazai found herself stuck explaining, “And it makes me a fraud because I’m not a human. Not inside. Not where it matters” Stop oversharing! She can feel her heartbeat going faster “Ahh ~ that part’s not really a big deal, though. How’s my face, Chuuya-kun? Is it cute?”

“What the hell are you saying, Dazai?” When she’s upset Chuuya’s voice goes down an octave from her usual high throaty pitch. It seems that’s the case here. Dazai stayed transfixed to the anger brewing in her eyes, and didn’t noticed that Chuuya’s hands landed themselves on either side of her face, cupping it gentler than her expression would have let on.

“Don’t you ever say that to my face again! You're not human? That’s complete bullshit.” Who taught Chuuya how to curse, anyway?

“Chuuya I-”

“Shut up. Don’t you understand, Dazai?” She really doesn’t understand. Chuuya’s expression melts into something Dazai can’t recognize. Her thumb strokes her right cheek and then Dazai is being pulled closer to the Earth. At some point her eyes close. Some muddled thought about trust floats around her head.

“You’re the most human person I’ll ever meet.”

Something soft and warm. Right under her eye. Dazai snaps back into awareness as Chuuya pulls away, red-faced, like a shrimp. A shrimpy color on a shrimpy person. Or the color of crab. Dazai loves crab. Dazai loves- Chuuya squirmed under her gaze. Oh, right. How much time did she just lose?

“You took me by surprise last Friday,” Chuuya confesses, looking away in embarrassment. “And then I got scared, because I felt so good in that one moment with you, and then I had to go back… Home.” She shuddered. “And I’ve been trying change, you know? Because I didn’t feel alive until I met you, and then suddenly I wanted to feel alive for you.”

Dazai didn’t know how to respond, so she wrapped her hand around the back of Chuuya’s neck, carefully over thick patch of gauze that protected her injury. Chuuya looked breathless. “And then last week, I realized that my freedom had run out, so I took a chance and escaped. And now we’re here. And it’s all your fault Dazai. I did it because of you.”

There’s something dark and stormy in Chuuya’s eyes.

“And that stupid goddamned kiss. It was fucking incredible .”

Dazai closed the distance between them again. And again. And again. And again and again and again and again and again andagainandagainandagainandagainandagainandagainandagainandagainandagainandagainandagainandagainandagainandagainandagainandagainandagainandagain –

***

So their night went peacefully after that. Dazai never ended up rewrapping her eye, just for the sake of savoring that adorable flustered look on Chuuya’s face. Cleaning the bathroom was a more irritating chore. Dazai had nudged the pile that was Chuuya’s blood-soaked uniform and a random set of green and yellow gardening gloves she somehow acquired. (“Hey you sure you didn’t go and murder anyone, Slug?” she had taunted. Chuuya ominously didn’t answer.) Dr Mori had kept a huge stock of spicy instant noodles in the pantry and the two of them held a contest to see who could handle the spice better. It ended in a tie because Dazai refused to admit she had a runny nose and tears in her eyes.

And now they were in bed, in each other's arms. Dazai hugged her… girlfriend? partner? … closer. Chuuya was so warm. Like a human furnace. Dazai could happily die right now. Until Chuuya spoke up.

“Dazai, why did you tell me I would look cute in a cage right before you kissed me. ” Death needs to arrive a little faster. Dazai is a little spent from the embarrassing and soulbearing conversations earlier.

“It. It was a dog joke Chuuya. Because you’re my doggy.”

“Likely story. You just want me to have no freedom under you instead.” Dazai pointedly didn’t wrap herself around Chuuya more, to prove her self restraint and respect for Chuuya’s autonomy.

“Please drop it. You don’t understand my prodigal mind.”

“Hmm. How about never?”

A comfortable silence settled over them again. Chuuya pushed herself deeper into Dazai’s hold. She was wearing a pair of oven mits that she found in the kitchen, and Dazai didn’t bother to ask why. What did matter was that this moment never ended.

“Dazai.” Chuuya started. “I’m…”

“Hm?” Dazai shifted her position so she could see Chuuya’s expression. It was horribly vulnerable.

“I… don’t think I’ll be sleeping tonight.”

The unspoken words rang clearly in Dazai’s mind. She smiled and ran her hand through the short red hair. There was a light shining in Chuuya’s eyes. If they were going to pull an all-nighter, then Dazai better start counting.

“Yeah. Me too, Chuuya”

***

Dazai woke up to the barrel of an assault rifle pressed to her temple and a tall man in a white lab coat holding Chuuya in his arms.

#i never actually written like. normally non-essay context b4 so sorry if it doesn't work well.#but here lemme ramble a second.#i skipped around a bit like where dazai actually finds chuuya. or this part where black lizard fights the military fight to let skk escape #i've always had this fixation with dazai timing things to the second. whether it be for plans or to help him analyze things quickly #or just a habit #i'm obssesed with flipping the script for these two in the au. chuuya get's to be 'ur literally peak human' to dazai this time #minor headcanon abt dz's right eye #I wanted to put a little effort into Kunikida and dazai's friendship here too! he's such a reliable bro. putting an emphasis on trust yknow #you can ask about the oven mitts but i can't really give you a response #no apologies for the ending :3 #anyways. escalate escalate escalate escalate #no more school! time for the Horrors #what's next on schoolkoku trauma hour?#dazai finally gets the bigger picture and then it becomes sends them to jail au.#fukuzawa and mori must team up to post bail.#and the return of Coach Frankenstein???#bsd #bungo stray dogs #dazai #chuuya #kunikida #mentioned: yosano ranpo mori and hirotsu.#skk #fem soukoku

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dixonious · 5 years

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arrowheads | a twd fanfic

Summary: Y/N and Sophia have breakfast, while doing so Y/N askes about Sophia's aloneness when she found her.

Warning: some language and possible grammatical errors.

ONWARD AND YONWARD!!

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Chapter [4]: Burning Squirrels and Talking Shop

Narrator's POV.

To Y/N's suprise, no danger had found them that night. It was quiet, other than the crickets and cicadas that hummed in the darkness.

It was deemed "safe" for that night, yeah, but Y/N wouldn't want to try her luck being under tree than in one again.

Now, just a couple of hours before the sun rose, Y/N watched as the little blonde started to stir in her spot against the tree. She was only sitting a few feet away from her as she figure it'd be nice for the little girl to wake up to breakfast. Squirrel.

"Mhn." A quiet groan escaped Sophia's lips. Her eyes shot open, and she began to look around frantically.

Y/N quickly took action, "hey, hey." Y/N said rushed over towards Sophia, putting her knife she used to poke at the squirrel in it's holster. "It's alright, you're alright." She said once she reached Sophia, trying to make eye contact with the girl as her eyes bounced all over the place.

Finally catching the girl's eyes, Y/N nodded at her in reassurance. "You're okay." Sophia nodded back, getting that she was okay.

Y/N smiled softly, "I'm making squirrel. Figured we could eat and talk about getting you back to whoever you were with, yeah."

Sophia stared at Y/N for q long minute before looking over her shoulder and pointing.

Y/N frowned and gave a head tilt before following Sophia's gaze, her jaw nearly hitting the ground as she caught sight of the problem.

Squirrels catching flame.

"Shit!" Y/N exclaimed as she rushed over to their meal. She quickly grabbed the shirt she had as an oven mitt and she picked up the stick that was holding the squirrels.

She held it up and blew as hard as she could at it.

For Sophia, this was pretty amusing. She sat straight up, letting the blanket fall from under her chin. She watched as her rescuer struggled to get the flame out.

Y/N continue to blow and blow, and eventually the flame distinguished.

"Phew!" Y/N let out a breathe of air. "I'd say this is just about perfectly done." She said with confidence. "Or. It's just about perfectly overcooked." Y/N let out a chuckled sigh,

"this is why I shouldn't be allowed to cooked." Y/N whispered to herself.

Y/N's head snapped over to where a giggled came from her left side, "so you think this is funny, huh?" The h/c archer said with amusement in her tone.

Sophia continued to giggled as she nodded her.

Y/N snorted, "yeah, yeah, laugh it up." She said as she put out the fire and placed the squirrels back onto the makeshift rack.

"Come on, we'll let these cool a bit and then we can eat up."

Sophia took herself and the blanket over to where Y/N sat, sitting crisscross applesause on the opposite side of her. And to Y/N's suprise, the little blonde spoke.

"Do you always burn your food?" Sophia asked, laughter in her voice, along with curiosity.

"Pfft! No. No way! I'mma good cook." Y/N denied.

Sophia raised an eyebrow at her.

"Okay, fine. I do. But not always. Just sometimes."

Sophia giggled again, and Y/N couldn't help but smile.

"Messing up food has nearly always been with me." Y/N explained as she twirled a twig into the dirt. "I can cook, I swear. I just, at times, forget about the food that I'm cooking and it may or may not burn."

"It does burn." Sophia said in laughter.

"Yeah." Y/N chuckled.

A couple of minutes passed. Those minutes spent in silence, and munching on their squirrels. Y/N took the more burnt one, while Sophia took the less burnt one. And honestly, to Y/N, her burnt squirrel wasn't that bad. She finished it up rather quickly with having barely ate the day before.

When she was done, she went into her pack and count the bottles of water that were there. Four. Four water bottles. The Georgia heat would make a person want to drown them all right then and there. But they'd have to make this work until she could find a new source of water.

Y/N reached and pulled out one, she screwed the cap off and drank a little less than half. She passed the rest to Sophia, who gratefully accepted it.

She finished up the rest of her squirrel and took to pretty small gulps of the water.

Sophia reached the bottle back out toward Y/N. "No, no. It's cool. You drink it." Y/N said.

Sophia looked reluctant to, but she took another swallow, reaching the bottle back to Y/N again.

"We should save it." She said softly.

"Kid, just drink it." Y/N said with a slight chuckle.

"Mhn-mhn." The little blonde shook her head.

The archer sigh, taking the bottle from the little girl. She screwed the cap back on and placed it back into her bag.

"Little Blue. The last time you saw your people or whoever. They were alive right?" Y/N asked as she closed her bag back up, hoping she would get an answer.

"Yes." Sophia responded.

"Okay. I wanna help you find 'em." I said, waiting for a response.

There was a long silence before she decided to reply, "I was with my mom. And a brunch of other people, friends. We were coming from this really big..doctor place."

"The CDC?" Y/N asked.

"Yeah, yeah that's it." Sophia exclaimed.

"Was that were y'all last were?"

"No." Sophia said sadly. "I think the doctor that was there..I think he was crazy. We wanted to leave but he locked us inside. I didn't really understand what was going on. There were a lot a big words used. But, I remember him saying something about the air going to set on fire."

Sophia watched as Y/N's face scrunched up in horror, "we all got out. Well, except our friend Jacqui. She didn't. I remember us running to the cars and we got down and the place exploded." The little girl said, sadness in her voice.

"We were on going somewhere else, but we got to this highway and cars blocked our way and a lot of the monsters came, we hid under the cars. I thought that they were all gone, but they weren't. I got up, and two of them chased me."

"That's how you got lost." Y/N said in understanding.

Sophia nodded, sadly as she looked at the ground.

"I'm sorry. And I'm sorry about your friend Jacqui, too." Y/N said sincerely.

"Me too." The little blonde whispered.

Y/N thought over everything that Sophia had just told her. She knew about the CDC. About how they were looking for a cure for all this shit. They. Yet there was just him? One doctor?

Maybe the others had died. But they should've been safe inside there, right? Y/N was pretty sure they were heavy on lock down. It was a facility after all.

That one doctor was still there and then he stayed even with knowing the place would blow. And so did that Jaqui lady. They knew what was going to happen. They knew their fate if they stayed.

There were times were Y/N just wanted to quit. To give up, even before all this. But, she could never actually see herself giving up. She was determined to stay alive, to beat this. Determined was practically Y/N's middle name.

"Do you know where the highway is, Sophia?" Y/N asked.

"No." She answered. "I just remember, mostly going straight towards it from the CDC. And that there were a lot of cars there."

Y/N frowned in thought. If this was the same highway that she was thinking of, then she knew were it was. Hell, she had gotten just about half of her supplies from there.

"I think I know where it is." Y/N said.

Sophia's head shot up immediately, "you do?" She asked.

"Yeah," Y/N said, surely. "I came across is it, a week or so ago. But, we're not that far from it." Y/N answered.

Sophia frowned in confusion.

"Yes, just about a week ago I was there. But I didn't exactly leave the area. It's only about less than a 2 day's walk." The archer explained. "Do you know how long were you out here before I found you, Sophia?"

The little girl looked up in wonder. "It got dark 2 times, so 2 days? I think." She said.

"Holy sh-crap." Y/N said, catching herself, Sophia smiled a bit.

"Sorry." Y/N chuckled, catching the girl's smile. "You've just been out here all by yourself for a long while."

"I stayed the first night in a small cabin in a closet."

Y/N frowned, "why didn't you stay there?"

"I heard a monster. I got scared and I ran."

Y/N nodded. That was understandable for someone her age and size.

"I'm gonna getcha back to your people, Kid. To your mom." Y/N said determinedly as she stood from her spot on the ground, she grabbed her bookbag from the ground, Sophia took this as sign of leaving so she reached the blanket she had wrapped around her out towards Y/N.

"We'll backtrack to where I found you. You think you can remember which way you came from there?" Y/N asked as she started to pack everything up.

"I think so." Sophia said in a tiny voice.

"Alright. It's no big, if you can't. I'm no pro, but I'm a pretty good tracker. If nothing messed up your path, we're good." Y/N stated.

"Okay." Said Sophia, as she reached for her doll and stood.

After packing everything up, and placing everything where it went on her, compound bow in hand, Y/N knelt down to Sophia's height.

"Listen, Little Blue. Those idiot living-nonliving things usually don't go to deep into the woods, but that doesn't mean they can't." Y/N explained carefully.

"If we come across them you gotta promise me you won't run. If you do, you might get lost again, and maybe I won't be able to find you. I'm not gonna let anything happen to you. But you can't run. Okay?"

Sophia took in every word the woman had said to her. She understood. But she wasn't sure if she could not run. But she'd try.

"Okay. I understand." She said, with just as much determination in her voice as Y/N had just moments ago.

"Good. So, let's do this." The archer said, as she stood full height, reaching her hand out to Sophia, who accepted with no hesitation.

Together, the two set out on their journey.

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Boom! And that's the fourth chapter! I really like this one, I hope y'all do, too! :) let me know what you think?

The next chapter may be up in a few hours or tomorrow, so see ya then!

@coffeebooksandfandom, @checkintoreality, @wnygirl2012, @assassinsasha23, @catlya, & @aristocracy-y.

If anyone else wants a tag, just let me know!

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