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Entry tags:
The Returnee
Title: The Returnee
Fandom: Bungou Stray Dogs
Character(s): Shibusawa, Oda
Pairing(s): Shibusawa/Oda
Genre: Awkward Flirting
Word Count: 1,505
Rating: PG
Warnings: Dead Apple spoilers, Dragon's Head spoilers
Summary: Only a year after the Dragon's Head incident, Shibusawa meets someone he wanted to meet again, and grows even more interested in him.
Notes: 'The Returnee' is a movie that Oda Sakunosuke wrote the script for. Shibusawa Tatsuhiko translated works by Marquis de Sade into Japanese.
Shibusawa has stopped being surprised by how easy it is to go around unnoticed in Yokohama only a year after the Dragon’s Head incident. If he puts his hair up and doesn’t wear white, no one will look twice at him or even consider that he might be the ‘White Dragon’. It’s a shame - white is his favorite color, as much as he has a favorite anything - but combat has long since stopped being an enjoyable toy.
Lately he’s been trying food. Many people claim to find enjoyment in food, and while Shibusawa hasn’t found any fulfillment in it so far, there are far more kinds of cuisine available than he remembers eating.
This restaurant sells good curry. Shibusawa can recognize that the quality of the dish is high, and if a person liked curry, then this might be their Mecca. To him, however, all it is is ordinary food.
“Uncle-”
The identity of the customer who just arrived is far more interesting. Shibusawa recognizes him instantly: it’s someone he met during the Dragon’s Head incident, someone he found intriguing enough to want to meet a second time. Such people are rare.
The man’s tension only shows in his jaw. “White Dragon.”
“Shibusawa, please. That name is tiring.” Shibusawa smiles. “Have you come to have lunch? Don’t let me keep you from it.”
“…Not here.” The man’s gaze flickers to the restaurant owner, who has gone much more stiff than him and is tightly gripping his ladle. As if that would help him any if Shibusawa wanted to kill him. “You wanted to meet again. Let’s talk somewhere else.”
“Oh? Is something wrong with this restaurant?” The man doesn’t answer, which Shibusawa takes as confirmation. “…Something precious to you is here, perhaps?”
The answer is near-instant: “They wouldn’t be valuable to you.”
“If it’s people, then you’re correct.” Shibusawa rises from his seat. “I don’t mind talking somewhere else to soothe your worries.”
“Thank you.” The man relaxes infinitesimally, and those thanks are genuine. Shibusawa walks out the door first, and the other doesn’t shoot him in the back.
What a strange, intriguing person.
“I don’t believe I know your name,” Shibusawa says, once they’re a sufficient distance from the restaurant that the man might relax enough to engage in conversation.
“It’s Oda.”
“Oda, an underling from a certain organization. No, forgive me, you must have risen in rank since we last met.” It would be strange for someone who continued to survive in the Port Mafia to remain an underling forever.
Oda shakes his head.
“Not at all?”
“Not at all. I’m still the mafia’s errand boy.”
“How interesting. If it was lack of skill, you would have died by now.” The Port Mafia is not known for giving easy jobs, even to the underlings. “Is it by choice?”
Oda nods. “I don’t kill people. So I stay at this rank.”
Shibusawa - laughs. It’s a sound he doesn’t often hear from himself, and it surprises him when it leaves his mouth. “A mafioso who doesn’t kill! You may be the most interesting man I’ve met, Oda.”
“That can’t be true. You’ve met Dazai,” Oda says, eyebrows raised a fraction.
“Hm? Oh, him.” Dazai and his partner with Corruption. That had been terribly painful, but in the long term, nothing more than an inconvenience. “He isn’t bad, but I’ve taken much more of a fancy to you.”
He was a jewel thief then because he was bored, and he liked beautiful things. That was reason enough to put his head in the lion’s mouth, as Oda put it. Someone who can genuinely capture his interest is more precious than even those jewels.
Shibusawa sets his hand on Oda’s cheek, studying the flush of his face, the way his blue eyes go wide…
The ringtone of the phone in his pocket.
Oda steps back, which Shibusawa allows. “…I need to take this call privately.”
“If you must.” Stealing jewels is much simpler than stealing people, after all. Jewels aren’t upset about being removed from their jewel friends. Shibusawa does not feel particularly strongly about Oda being upset with him, except that it would make it more difficult for him to be around Oda to observe him.
Oda ducks around a corner, and shortly after that returns with his phone in his pocket. “I have a mission. I’m sorry, I have to go.”
Genuinely apologizing to an enemy for having to leave. Shibusawa offers what approaches a genuine smile, for him. “Don’t worry. I’ll see you again.”
He does see Oda again, more than Oda sees him.
It becomes something of a hobby of his to track Oda’s movements through the city. The missions are unpredictable: Oda seems to be assigned anything and everything that no one else wants to take on. When he isn’t on a mission, Oda is remarkably regular in his activities. He visits that same restaurant a few times a week. He’s a patron of the same bookstore immediately after he received his paycheck. He drinks at the same bar with the same two Port Mafia members.
Shibusawa never dares enter that bar. Oda might be surprisingly willing to tolerate Shibusawa being around and alive after Corruption should have killed him, but Dazai and Ango would not be so kind. Most people are not as kind as Oda, of course, so that’s no surprise. It’s just inconvenient.
There are plenty of other places to catch Oda if he wants to speak to him directly, instead of just observe.
“Marquis de Sade seems a bold choice for you.”
Oda doesn’t seem particularly surprised to see Shibusawa standing outside the door to his apartment. “I’ve heard many things about his work, but I’ve never read it myself. I wanted to at least read some before I made a judgment.”
Shibusawa hums thoughtfully. “You’re doing the same with me, after all. Unless your executive friend has ordered you to keep track of me?”
“I haven’t said anything about you.” Oda tilts his head. “But he must already know that you’re here. He’s Dazai.”
The unwavering faith Oda has in Dazai amazes Shibusawa, just a little. It’s undeserved, but just possessing that level of trust is notable. “Aren’t you going to invite me into your home?”
Oda’s apartment is sparsely decorated, save for the numerous bookcases stuffed to capacity. Shibusawa scans over the titles, finding classics mixed in among books he’s never heard of.
“Do you want me to make you some coffee?” Oda asks, leaning against the wall of what passes for a living room.
“No, thank you. It’s bad for my health.” Shibusawa smiles at a private joke, before turning to face Oda. “You’re an interesting person, Oda.”
“You keep telling me that,” Oda replies, clearly not any more likely to believe it than the first time.
“You keep reminding me of it.” Shibusawa takes a step toward him, and then another step, until he’s close enough to feel Oda’s breath.
Flawless is a powerful ability, and it would look lovely on Shibusawa’s shelf, but its best use is to allow Shibusawa to get this close: if Flawless doesn’t activate, Oda knows Shibusawa doesn’t mean harm. Not physical harm, at least.
“On our first meeting, you asked me what my true character was, and I told you that I take a fancy to beautiful things.” Shibusawa sets a hand on Oda’s cheek. “I wonder, has anyone told you that you, yourself, are beautiful?”
“…No one has.” Oda’s reactions are almost always minute, but from this distance it’s easy to notice the blush that goes all the way up to his ears.
“Such a shame.”
Shibusawa does not care much for human beings. He finds them boring at best and annoying at worst. It’s impossible for him to grow attached to someone whose every action he can predict. If he finds someone who surprises him, then he grows attached and wants to make them his.
Stealing people is entirely different from stealing jewels. The process is more time-consuming and more delicate, and it would be easy for Shibusawa to get bored and wander off, were there not rewards along the way.
This moment is the best reward thus far. Shibusawa doesn’t know how Oda will react when he presses him into the wall and kisses him, and that’s rare enough. The physical sensation of kissing him is pleasant for easily explainable reasons, chemicals and hormones; the dazed look in Oda’s eyes when Shibusawa pulls back is pleasant for reasons Shibusawa can’t put names to.
“Shibusawa.” Oda grips Shibusawa’s shoulders, but doesn’t try push him back, and when Shibusawa leans in again, Oda meets him halfway.
The kind of person Shibusawa was made to be enjoys his playthings, grows bored, and throws them away before moving on. No doubt Shibusawa will become bored of Oda one day and be rid of him.
But until that day, he plans to enjoy him as much as he possibly can, and make sure Oda enjoys himself as well.
Fandom: Bungou Stray Dogs
Character(s): Shibusawa, Oda
Pairing(s): Shibusawa/Oda
Genre: Awkward Flirting
Word Count: 1,505
Rating: PG
Warnings: Dead Apple spoilers, Dragon's Head spoilers
Summary: Only a year after the Dragon's Head incident, Shibusawa meets someone he wanted to meet again, and grows even more interested in him.
Notes: 'The Returnee' is a movie that Oda Sakunosuke wrote the script for. Shibusawa Tatsuhiko translated works by Marquis de Sade into Japanese.
Shibusawa has stopped being surprised by how easy it is to go around unnoticed in Yokohama only a year after the Dragon’s Head incident. If he puts his hair up and doesn’t wear white, no one will look twice at him or even consider that he might be the ‘White Dragon’. It’s a shame - white is his favorite color, as much as he has a favorite anything - but combat has long since stopped being an enjoyable toy.
Lately he’s been trying food. Many people claim to find enjoyment in food, and while Shibusawa hasn’t found any fulfillment in it so far, there are far more kinds of cuisine available than he remembers eating.
This restaurant sells good curry. Shibusawa can recognize that the quality of the dish is high, and if a person liked curry, then this might be their Mecca. To him, however, all it is is ordinary food.
“Uncle-”
The identity of the customer who just arrived is far more interesting. Shibusawa recognizes him instantly: it’s someone he met during the Dragon’s Head incident, someone he found intriguing enough to want to meet a second time. Such people are rare.
The man’s tension only shows in his jaw. “White Dragon.”
“Shibusawa, please. That name is tiring.” Shibusawa smiles. “Have you come to have lunch? Don’t let me keep you from it.”
“…Not here.” The man’s gaze flickers to the restaurant owner, who has gone much more stiff than him and is tightly gripping his ladle. As if that would help him any if Shibusawa wanted to kill him. “You wanted to meet again. Let’s talk somewhere else.”
“Oh? Is something wrong with this restaurant?” The man doesn’t answer, which Shibusawa takes as confirmation. “…Something precious to you is here, perhaps?”
The answer is near-instant: “They wouldn’t be valuable to you.”
“If it’s people, then you’re correct.” Shibusawa rises from his seat. “I don’t mind talking somewhere else to soothe your worries.”
“Thank you.” The man relaxes infinitesimally, and those thanks are genuine. Shibusawa walks out the door first, and the other doesn’t shoot him in the back.
What a strange, intriguing person.
“I don’t believe I know your name,” Shibusawa says, once they’re a sufficient distance from the restaurant that the man might relax enough to engage in conversation.
“It’s Oda.”
“Oda, an underling from a certain organization. No, forgive me, you must have risen in rank since we last met.” It would be strange for someone who continued to survive in the Port Mafia to remain an underling forever.
Oda shakes his head.
“Not at all?”
“Not at all. I’m still the mafia’s errand boy.”
“How interesting. If it was lack of skill, you would have died by now.” The Port Mafia is not known for giving easy jobs, even to the underlings. “Is it by choice?”
Oda nods. “I don’t kill people. So I stay at this rank.”
Shibusawa - laughs. It’s a sound he doesn’t often hear from himself, and it surprises him when it leaves his mouth. “A mafioso who doesn’t kill! You may be the most interesting man I’ve met, Oda.”
“That can’t be true. You’ve met Dazai,” Oda says, eyebrows raised a fraction.
“Hm? Oh, him.” Dazai and his partner with Corruption. That had been terribly painful, but in the long term, nothing more than an inconvenience. “He isn’t bad, but I’ve taken much more of a fancy to you.”
He was a jewel thief then because he was bored, and he liked beautiful things. That was reason enough to put his head in the lion’s mouth, as Oda put it. Someone who can genuinely capture his interest is more precious than even those jewels.
Shibusawa sets his hand on Oda’s cheek, studying the flush of his face, the way his blue eyes go wide…
The ringtone of the phone in his pocket.
Oda steps back, which Shibusawa allows. “…I need to take this call privately.”
“If you must.” Stealing jewels is much simpler than stealing people, after all. Jewels aren’t upset about being removed from their jewel friends. Shibusawa does not feel particularly strongly about Oda being upset with him, except that it would make it more difficult for him to be around Oda to observe him.
Oda ducks around a corner, and shortly after that returns with his phone in his pocket. “I have a mission. I’m sorry, I have to go.”
Genuinely apologizing to an enemy for having to leave. Shibusawa offers what approaches a genuine smile, for him. “Don’t worry. I’ll see you again.”
He does see Oda again, more than Oda sees him.
It becomes something of a hobby of his to track Oda’s movements through the city. The missions are unpredictable: Oda seems to be assigned anything and everything that no one else wants to take on. When he isn’t on a mission, Oda is remarkably regular in his activities. He visits that same restaurant a few times a week. He’s a patron of the same bookstore immediately after he received his paycheck. He drinks at the same bar with the same two Port Mafia members.
Shibusawa never dares enter that bar. Oda might be surprisingly willing to tolerate Shibusawa being around and alive after Corruption should have killed him, but Dazai and Ango would not be so kind. Most people are not as kind as Oda, of course, so that’s no surprise. It’s just inconvenient.
There are plenty of other places to catch Oda if he wants to speak to him directly, instead of just observe.
“Marquis de Sade seems a bold choice for you.”
Oda doesn’t seem particularly surprised to see Shibusawa standing outside the door to his apartment. “I’ve heard many things about his work, but I’ve never read it myself. I wanted to at least read some before I made a judgment.”
Shibusawa hums thoughtfully. “You’re doing the same with me, after all. Unless your executive friend has ordered you to keep track of me?”
“I haven’t said anything about you.” Oda tilts his head. “But he must already know that you’re here. He’s Dazai.”
The unwavering faith Oda has in Dazai amazes Shibusawa, just a little. It’s undeserved, but just possessing that level of trust is notable. “Aren’t you going to invite me into your home?”
Oda’s apartment is sparsely decorated, save for the numerous bookcases stuffed to capacity. Shibusawa scans over the titles, finding classics mixed in among books he’s never heard of.
“Do you want me to make you some coffee?” Oda asks, leaning against the wall of what passes for a living room.
“No, thank you. It’s bad for my health.” Shibusawa smiles at a private joke, before turning to face Oda. “You’re an interesting person, Oda.”
“You keep telling me that,” Oda replies, clearly not any more likely to believe it than the first time.
“You keep reminding me of it.” Shibusawa takes a step toward him, and then another step, until he’s close enough to feel Oda’s breath.
Flawless is a powerful ability, and it would look lovely on Shibusawa’s shelf, but its best use is to allow Shibusawa to get this close: if Flawless doesn’t activate, Oda knows Shibusawa doesn’t mean harm. Not physical harm, at least.
“On our first meeting, you asked me what my true character was, and I told you that I take a fancy to beautiful things.” Shibusawa sets a hand on Oda’s cheek. “I wonder, has anyone told you that you, yourself, are beautiful?”
“…No one has.” Oda’s reactions are almost always minute, but from this distance it’s easy to notice the blush that goes all the way up to his ears.
“Such a shame.”
Shibusawa does not care much for human beings. He finds them boring at best and annoying at worst. It’s impossible for him to grow attached to someone whose every action he can predict. If he finds someone who surprises him, then he grows attached and wants to make them his.
Stealing people is entirely different from stealing jewels. The process is more time-consuming and more delicate, and it would be easy for Shibusawa to get bored and wander off, were there not rewards along the way.
This moment is the best reward thus far. Shibusawa doesn’t know how Oda will react when he presses him into the wall and kisses him, and that’s rare enough. The physical sensation of kissing him is pleasant for easily explainable reasons, chemicals and hormones; the dazed look in Oda’s eyes when Shibusawa pulls back is pleasant for reasons Shibusawa can’t put names to.
“Shibusawa.” Oda grips Shibusawa’s shoulders, but doesn’t try push him back, and when Shibusawa leans in again, Oda meets him halfway.
The kind of person Shibusawa was made to be enjoys his playthings, grows bored, and throws them away before moving on. No doubt Shibusawa will become bored of Oda one day and be rid of him.
But until that day, he plans to enjoy him as much as he possibly can, and make sure Oda enjoys himself as well.