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Entry tags:
- bsd,
- bsd: c: akutagawa,
- bsd: c: atsushi,
- bsd: c: fukuzawa,
- bsd: c: ranpo,
- bunal,
- bunal: c: ango,
- bunal: c: arishima,
- bunal: c: bimei,
- bunal: c: chuuya,
- bunal: c: dazai,
- bunal: c: futabatei,
- bunal: c: hagiwara,
- bunal: c: koizumi,
- bunal: c: kunikida,
- bunal: c: kyoshi,
- bunal: c: mori,
- bunal: c: musha,
- bunal: c: naoya,
- bunal: c: odasaku,
- bunal: c: ranpo,
- bunal: c: takamura,
- bunal: c: tanizaki,
- bunal: c: tokuda,
- bunal: c: tsubouchi,
- bunal: p: ango/chuuya/dazai,
- bunal: p: dazai/odasaku,
- other: p: akutagawa/dazai,
- other: p: atsushi/chuuya
one hundred authors
Title: one hundred authors
Fandom: Bungou to Alchemist, Bungou Stray Dogs
Character(s): Dazai, Chuuya, Ango, Yakumo, Bimei, Tsubouchi, Futabatei, Oda, Mori, Koutarou, Tanizaki, Naoya, Musha, Ranpo, Tokuda, Kunikida, Arishima, Hagiwara, Kyoshi, BSD Akutagawa, BSD Atsushi, BSD Ranpo, Fukuzawa
Pairing(s): Dazai/Chuuya/Ango, BunAru Dazai/BSD Akutagawa, BSD Ranpo/BunAru Dazai, Tsubouchi/Futabatei, Dazai/Oda, BunAru Chuuya/BSD Atsushi, Fukuzawa/BunAru Mori, Musha/Naoya, Ranpo/Dazai
Genre: Varied
Word Count: 3000ish
Rating: up to NC-17
Warnings: None
Summary: Shortfic request collection for my 100th Bungou to Alchemist fic, summary by chapter.
Notes: Crossposting is a pain for very little reward, so I'm just linking to AO3 now and we'll see how that goes.
in the middle (Dazai/Ango/Chuuya, NSFW)
Ango is a man who has never been acquainted with embarrassment or shyness in his life. Or his afterlife, for that matter.
He is also a man who looks incredibly good stretched out on his stomach between Chuuya and Dazai, naked save for the dog tag around his neck. Chuuya is pretty sure he’d look good in any position, but like hell he’d say that out loud. Ango doesn’t need his ego swollen any more.
Dazai’s feeding his ego plenty. “Perfect, just like that, you’re so tight for me…” The murmured praise as he twists his fingers inside of Ango isn’t necessary - Chuuya knows this from experience, having opened Ango up many times before - but it makes Ango grin before Chuuya pulls his hair to remind him that he should be doing something else with his mouth right now.
(He can’t complain too much over the momentary distraction. That would require him to talk, and he doubts he could get a whole sentence out before Ango’s mouth sealed around Chuuya’s cock caused a sound that was the opposite of a complaint.)
Chuuya feels when Dazai pushes inside Ango because it forces Ango further down onto Chuuya. He remembers exactly what it’s like to have Dazai inside him, the thick heat that fills every inch of him, even as Ango’s throat working around Chuuya’s cock makes him shudder and rock his hips forward.
They settle on a rhythm. Dazai thrusting into Ango pushes him onto Chuuya’s cock before Chuuya’s response rocks him back onto Dazai. The world’s filthiest seesaw, Chuuya thinks, and can’t help but laugh.
Breathless, Dazai asks, “What’s so funny?”
“I’ll tell you later,” Chuuya says, tugging on Ango’s hair again. “When this guy can laugh without choking.”
The vibrations in Ango’s throat that follow tell Chuuya that Ango can indeed laugh without choking, or at least chuckle. They also tell him that he shouldn’t make too many jokes if he wants to last at all.
tall dark and dying (BunAru Dazai/BSD Akutagawa)
Of the words Akutagawa would use to describe his own body, ‘attractive’ is not on the top of the list. It’s not on the list at all. He can manage ‘tall’ and ‘dark’, but never ‘handsome’. He is gaunt, pockmarked from diseases he was too poor to treat and scarred from attacks he was too weak to deflect. If there is anything good about his body, it’s that his constant coughing has given his abs some strength, but even then there isn’t much muscle definition to be seen.
And Dazai. Not his Dazai - if Dazai ever really was his to begin with - but the softer one who doesn’t radiate danger. The one who isn’t angry if Akutagawa makes a mistake. The one whose smiles glow like candlelight. The most beautiful man Akutagawa has ever met.
There’s no reason for such a man to ever invite Akutagawa to his bed, and yet.
And yet Dazai kisses every inch of his skin slowly, tenderly. Whenever Akutagawa makes to return the favor Dazai shushes him - he wants to know Akutagawa’s body and to love it. It doesn’t make sense. Even if Akutagawa’s thoughts weren’t compromised by Dazai’s gentle touch on his skin, it wouldn’t make sense.
“You’re beautiful,” Dazai whispers against Akutagawa’s thigh. “You’re perfect just like this.”
Akutagawa can almost believe it.
foreign dialects (Yakumo, Bimei)
Koizumi’s Japanese isn’t perfect, far from it, but the librarians and the other writers are very patient with him. In exchange, it seems only right to share some of his English knowledge with the other writers.
Bimei is particularly interested in learning English terms, or in spending more time with Koizumi. Either way, Koizumi’s happy to teach him what he knows. Now and then Bimei will break out the English unprompted to see if he’s using it right.
At lunch one day, Bimei carefully prounounces, “I got a hickey on da shoot-da-chute.”
A few heads raise. In Japanese, Koizumi says, “Show me where.”
Bimei rubs the top of his head. Sure enough, there’s a bump there.
“Hmm… it looks not good… Eh? Why does everyone look ‘reassured’ suddenly?”
easy pickings (BSD Ranpo/BunAru Dazai)
Dazai doesn’t cry, not really. He can mimic the waterworks for his theatrics, but as for real tears from genuine emotion? Even Ranpo hasn’t seen that.
This “Dazai Osamu” with the birth name of Tsushima Shuji, on the other hand. Ranpo spots the pocket hand-sewn into his otherwise immaculate coat and the slight bulge in the shape of a packet of tissues, and grins.
“So you’re a crier?”
Dazai, Shuji, stiffens at once. “Absolutely not! I don’t know who told you that, but they’re spreading lies and slander for their own gain!”
“No one had to tell me anything.” Ranpo leans in, and Shuji leans back. “You cry easily. You hate it because you want to pretend that you’re less sensitive than you are. Even if you try to deny it, you’re still going to be easy pickings for anyone who wants to bully you.”
Already, tears are welling up in the corners of Shuji’s eyes, and he can’t rub them out quickly enough. “That’s not - who asked you?! Jerk! Stupid jerk!”
Ranpo is definitely a jerk, but not a stupid one. More relevantly: “You’re cute when you cry.”
Now Shuji stares at him, wide-eyed. “That isn’t…” He looks like he’s physically pained trying not to accept a compliment or something that sounds like a compliment. His face is still stained by tears.
Easy pickings, like Ranpo said. He almost feels bad for bullying a Dazai who has no defenses for it.
Almost.
no perfection (Tsubouchi/Futabatei)
As far as Tsubouchi is concerned, nothing is perfect. No person, and certainly no novel, is without flaw. There’s no reason to beat yourself up for your mistakes like Shimei does.
But that’s the kind of person Shimei is, so all Tsubouchi can do is gently bring his attention to the good that came from the works he’s dismissing as awful. A spring gale can redirect a drifting cloud, but not change its essential nature.
Still, Tsubouchi has considered more drastic measures in an emergency situation.
“I’m no good… I ought to just let the Taints take my work… it’s better if everyone forgets…”
With Shimei’s book actively being taken over by Taints as he speaks, this isn’t harmless. Shimei can’t be allowed to continue muttering in his room until he gets over himself or destroys his book in the process. And Shouyou has tried to redirect his attention with no success. There’s only one emergency measure left to him.
Tsubouchi sets his hands on Shimei’s shoulders and interrupts him with a kiss.
For a second Shimei’s only reaction is shock. Then, slowly, hesitantly, he rests his hands on Tsubouchi’s waist and returns the gesture.
Shimei probably won’t be beating himself up for a while. At least, not out loud.
deathdays (Dazai/Oda, NSFW)
On the day you died, things are different.
The rest of the year, you know that you’ve died. You wouldn’t be a spirit if you were still alive, so you must have died at some point. If you don’t remember your death clearly, you can find the date and cause as a footnote on any encyclopedia article about yourself.
On the anniversary of your death, you feel that you’ve died. The pain of every wound, every sickness, everything that caused the shadow of death to take you back then is as acute as it was while you were dying.
Dazai sleeps through his deathday rather than spend the whole day struggling to breathe. But Oda, who hates acknowledging his weakness, stays awake and tries to go about his day normally
If normal was spending all day in his room.
There are empty bottles of morphine tablets on the floor: Ango smuggles them in for Oda every year and Dazai never asks how he gets them, only how long they’ll last. Oda lays on his bed, breathing. The breathing is important.
Dazai doesn’t ask how he’s doing. He just lays down beside Oda and turns his head for a kiss.
Every touch is something that can distract Oda from the pain. As long as Dazai takes the lead, they don’t have to acknowledge that Oda is too weak to do it himself. As long as Dazai is making Oda sigh and groan, they can pretend that that the coughing is just another sound, no more meaningful than the rest.
If Dazai has Oda’s knees to his chest as he pushes inside, then Oda can’t double over from pain. If Oda cries, it’s because of the way Dazai moves inside him, and nothing else.
And if Dazai takes special care to clean him up afterward, it’s because they got sweaty from the sex, and not because Oda is sick. No one said anything about Oda being sick.
date night (BunAru Chuuya/BSD Atsushi)
It would be really easy to do date night with Atsushi with no thought or effort put into it, on account of how he’s done practically nothing. Take him to a place he’s never been before, watch his eyes sparkle. Repeat.
It would be really easy, but Chuuya is not someone who will pick ‘easy’ over ‘thoughtful’ when it comes to his tiger lily. Atsushi deserves better, and Atsushi will get better.
Atsushi would be happy just to be taken out to dinner at DAYONE. Chuuya can see his eyes go wide the second he spots the signs filled with unique ochazuke options. Even Chuuya is pretty impressed by seeing grilled beef ochazuke, tomato ochazuke, and a dozen other dishes he hasn’t seen anywhere else. But:
“Reservations for Nakahara?”
They’re led into a private room with comfortable seating. Atsushi opens up his menu right away, then frowns.
“This doesn’t have any prices on it…?”
“On the house,” Chuuya says. Technically, Chuuya pulled a favor with the librarian who pulled a favor with the chief librarian who pulled a favor with someone else who is paying for all of this, but as far as he’s concerned that amounts to the same thing. “Have anything you want, as much as you want.”
He’d pay for it all himself, twice over, if it made Atsushi glow like this.
premonition of love (BSD Fukuzawa/BunAru Mori)
No one understands better than Fukuzawa that this Mori Ougai-
“Rintarou,” he says, “I prefer to keep my pen name as only that.”
-and the boss of the Port Mafia are not the same.
Some bits and pieces remind him of the Mori he knows better: they’re doctors, high-ranking in their organizations, and when Fukuzawa mentions Elise, Rintarou’s eyes light up some as he shares his story - not Vita Sexualis, but The Dancing Girl. When they speak of names they both recognize, Rintarou brings up Yosano - as a friend and equal, someone he threw poetry writing parties and founded a magazine with. Just saying that Mori is much older than the Yosano Fukuzawa knows makes Rintarou look bewildered, and Fukuzawa silently hopes he never finds out more about the person who shares his name.
This Mori is quiet, almost as serious as Fukuzawa himself. He carries himself as a soldier, with the dignity and kindness of an army doctor. When he speaks of his children, there’s nothing but a father’s love in the words.
“Do you have any children, or a spouse?” Rintarou asks, sipping his tea. They have the same taste in tea.
“I have the Agency,” Fukuzawa says.
“I understand.” The army is not the same as the detective agency, but the experience of being responsible for their subordinates’ lives is shared between them. “You lead them well.”
“…Thank you.”
If this had been the Mori Fukuzawa knew and worked with, who carries the burden of leadership without sacrificing the kindness that must accompany it, then… Fukuzawa isn’t sure if his answer now would be the same.
But ifs are only ifs, and this is not that Mori, and perhaps someday he’ll be asked that question again.
attic searching (Koutarou, Tanizaki)
There are people who you bring to investigate the library’s attic, and people you don’t. For example, you don’t bring Kyouka to cringe at every speck of dust, and you don’t bring Hagiwara to trip over something carelessly left on the floor. You don’t bring someone who’s been spooked by the rumors of strange noises coming from the attic at night.
If you’re Koutarou, and you want someone to accompany you, you bring Tanizaki. He’s known Tanizaki for a long time now, and he can confidently say that Tanizaki makes plenty of strange noises on his own. He has nothing to worry about.
“What is this machine meant to be used for…?” Tanizaki’s immediately zeroed in on the one thing that isn’t a book. “Some sort of modern torture device?”
“I don’t see where you’d put someone if it was.” Koutarou immediately takes out a notebook to start sketching it, since he can already tell they aren’t going to be able to carry it down by themselves.
“You could put their fingers in these slots…”
“The top doesn’t come down far enough to squeeze them.”
According to the librarian, when Koutarou shows her the sketch later, it’s a broken microform scanner that makes awful noises whenever she tries to get it working again. Trying to fix it could be considered a form of torture, she says, and Tanizaki is satisfied.
dog names (Naoya/Musha)
If Musha can’t find Shiga, he can follow the sound of excited dogs.
He can’t count the number of times he’s found Shiga with an armful of pup. Sometimes they’re stray dogs. Sometimes they’re dogs that have wandered away from their owners for a minute and found their way to Shiga. Sometimes Shiga just accosts people who are walking their dogs and pets them for ages.
This is one of the stray dogs Musha’s seen more often, a white spitz that’s about 90% fur. It yips and barks as Shiga rubs it behind the ears.
“We should name him,” Musha says, watching the display.
“We can’t keep him,” Shiga says. He doesn’t let this stop his show of affection at all.
“I want to name one!” Musha sticks his hands on his hips. “Shigaaa, whyyyy.”
“If you name him and he stops coming around, you’ll get even sadder than you usually do.”
He’s right. Dammit.
“…Okay.” After a second, Musha goes on: “Can we have a kid instead?”
Shiga chokes. The dog licks his face.
less guro and more ero (Ranpo/Dazai)
Saying that Dazai is a notorious flirt is an understatement. He won’t let himself be seen if he’s not looking his best, and local girls taking notice of him makes his ego swell even more.
On the other hand, he’s less used to being flirted with by men, especially…
“Eroguro pickup lines?”
Ranpo grins. “You’re beautiful - I’d love to see what you look like from the inside.”
Dazai is easily flattered, even by someone talking about his internal organs. His face turns pink and he stares at the floor. “That can’t work all that often…”
“The performance is more important than success or failure.” Ranpo tilts Dazai’s chin up with one finger. “But I enjoy the successes all the same.”
self-taught cooking (Tokuda, Naoya)
Tokuda isn’t much of a cook. He doesn’t ask for fancy food because he can’t make it himself. He was a commoner and never got used to the expensive meals that someone of, say, the white birch school might have all the time.
But if someone of the white birch school happened to make take notice of Tokuda and brighten his days, and he wanted to impress him, then he had a problem. Because not only is Shiga used to fancy meals, but Shiga himself can cook. Nothing Tokuda can make will even approach Shiga’s standards.
There’s only one approach that even has a hope of working, and that’s ‘it’s the thought that counts’.
Not how badly he burns the first fish he cooks, or how the second one manages to taste completely flavorless. It’s the sentiment that’s important.
“Need any help there?”
“…Shiga. I don’t really-”
“Don’t worry about it, everyone burns a few fish when they start out. Next time…”
Shiga immediately starts giving Tokuda advice on how to cook properly, which is great, except.
How is he supposed to tell Shiga that the meal was meant for him in the first place?
stained glasses (Kunikida, Arishima)
There are monsters, and then there are monsters.
An exorcist, like any other human being, only has so much time and energy. There’s no point in wasting that energy trying to cleanse beings that aren’t doing humans any harm instead of monsters who are actively hunting and eating innocents.
Besides, it’s more likely that Arishima will fall asleep in midair and fry himself on an electric wire than he’ll cause trouble. With that in mind, Kunikida allows him free entry to his church.
“…The stained glass is nice.” Arishima rests his hand against the window, idly tracing the lines.
“They’re lovely.” With a slightly impish smile, Kunikida asks, “Have you flown into a clear window before?”
“I’m a bat, not a bird. …Only one time.”
a curse to make it better (Yakumo, Hagiwara)
Yakumo appreciates speaking to Hagiwara as an exchange of cultures, and to learn more Japanese from someone with a natural gift for it. Even someone who isn’t completely fluent can appreciate a poet.
That’s not to say that he only likes Hagiwara for his language skills.
“Ow…”
Normally it would be Muroo fussing over Hagiwara with a stubbed toe, but with Muroo in a book delve right now, Yakumo steps up to the challenge. Or kneels down to it, more accurately. “Does it hurt badly?”
Hagiwara sniffles. “Y-yes…”
“Do not fear! With the power ‘kept’ within me, I will cure you of your pain!”
“You can do that, Hearn?” Hagiwara asks with wide eyes.
“Of course!” Yakumo murmurs in Greek: the words themselves aren’t as important as Hagiwara believing they have power. “Pain, pain, go away, come again another day… Pain, pain, go away…”
After a moment, Hagiwara says, “I think I do feel a little better… Can you teach me how to do that for myself? I don’t want to bother you.”
Quite seriously, Yakumo replies, “The dark power would drive you mad.”
chinjuki (Kyoshi)
first camellia
sixty years since its wilting
blooms even brighter
Fandom: Bungou to Alchemist, Bungou Stray Dogs
Character(s): Dazai, Chuuya, Ango, Yakumo, Bimei, Tsubouchi, Futabatei, Oda, Mori, Koutarou, Tanizaki, Naoya, Musha, Ranpo, Tokuda, Kunikida, Arishima, Hagiwara, Kyoshi, BSD Akutagawa, BSD Atsushi, BSD Ranpo, Fukuzawa
Pairing(s): Dazai/Chuuya/Ango, BunAru Dazai/BSD Akutagawa, BSD Ranpo/BunAru Dazai, Tsubouchi/Futabatei, Dazai/Oda, BunAru Chuuya/BSD Atsushi, Fukuzawa/BunAru Mori, Musha/Naoya, Ranpo/Dazai
Genre: Varied
Word Count: 3000ish
Rating: up to NC-17
Warnings: None
Summary: Shortfic request collection for my 100th Bungou to Alchemist fic, summary by chapter.
Notes: Crossposting is a pain for very little reward, so I'm just linking to AO3 now and we'll see how that goes.
in the middle (Dazai/Ango/Chuuya, NSFW)
Ango is a man who has never been acquainted with embarrassment or shyness in his life. Or his afterlife, for that matter.
He is also a man who looks incredibly good stretched out on his stomach between Chuuya and Dazai, naked save for the dog tag around his neck. Chuuya is pretty sure he’d look good in any position, but like hell he’d say that out loud. Ango doesn’t need his ego swollen any more.
Dazai’s feeding his ego plenty. “Perfect, just like that, you’re so tight for me…” The murmured praise as he twists his fingers inside of Ango isn’t necessary - Chuuya knows this from experience, having opened Ango up many times before - but it makes Ango grin before Chuuya pulls his hair to remind him that he should be doing something else with his mouth right now.
(He can’t complain too much over the momentary distraction. That would require him to talk, and he doubts he could get a whole sentence out before Ango’s mouth sealed around Chuuya’s cock caused a sound that was the opposite of a complaint.)
Chuuya feels when Dazai pushes inside Ango because it forces Ango further down onto Chuuya. He remembers exactly what it’s like to have Dazai inside him, the thick heat that fills every inch of him, even as Ango’s throat working around Chuuya’s cock makes him shudder and rock his hips forward.
They settle on a rhythm. Dazai thrusting into Ango pushes him onto Chuuya’s cock before Chuuya’s response rocks him back onto Dazai. The world’s filthiest seesaw, Chuuya thinks, and can’t help but laugh.
Breathless, Dazai asks, “What’s so funny?”
“I’ll tell you later,” Chuuya says, tugging on Ango’s hair again. “When this guy can laugh without choking.”
The vibrations in Ango’s throat that follow tell Chuuya that Ango can indeed laugh without choking, or at least chuckle. They also tell him that he shouldn’t make too many jokes if he wants to last at all.
tall dark and dying (BunAru Dazai/BSD Akutagawa)
Of the words Akutagawa would use to describe his own body, ‘attractive’ is not on the top of the list. It’s not on the list at all. He can manage ‘tall’ and ‘dark’, but never ‘handsome’. He is gaunt, pockmarked from diseases he was too poor to treat and scarred from attacks he was too weak to deflect. If there is anything good about his body, it’s that his constant coughing has given his abs some strength, but even then there isn’t much muscle definition to be seen.
And Dazai. Not his Dazai - if Dazai ever really was his to begin with - but the softer one who doesn’t radiate danger. The one who isn’t angry if Akutagawa makes a mistake. The one whose smiles glow like candlelight. The most beautiful man Akutagawa has ever met.
There’s no reason for such a man to ever invite Akutagawa to his bed, and yet.
And yet Dazai kisses every inch of his skin slowly, tenderly. Whenever Akutagawa makes to return the favor Dazai shushes him - he wants to know Akutagawa’s body and to love it. It doesn’t make sense. Even if Akutagawa’s thoughts weren’t compromised by Dazai’s gentle touch on his skin, it wouldn’t make sense.
“You’re beautiful,” Dazai whispers against Akutagawa’s thigh. “You’re perfect just like this.”
Akutagawa can almost believe it.
foreign dialects (Yakumo, Bimei)
Koizumi’s Japanese isn’t perfect, far from it, but the librarians and the other writers are very patient with him. In exchange, it seems only right to share some of his English knowledge with the other writers.
Bimei is particularly interested in learning English terms, or in spending more time with Koizumi. Either way, Koizumi’s happy to teach him what he knows. Now and then Bimei will break out the English unprompted to see if he’s using it right.
At lunch one day, Bimei carefully prounounces, “I got a hickey on da shoot-da-chute.”
A few heads raise. In Japanese, Koizumi says, “Show me where.”
Bimei rubs the top of his head. Sure enough, there’s a bump there.
“Hmm… it looks not good… Eh? Why does everyone look ‘reassured’ suddenly?”
easy pickings (BSD Ranpo/BunAru Dazai)
Dazai doesn’t cry, not really. He can mimic the waterworks for his theatrics, but as for real tears from genuine emotion? Even Ranpo hasn’t seen that.
This “Dazai Osamu” with the birth name of Tsushima Shuji, on the other hand. Ranpo spots the pocket hand-sewn into his otherwise immaculate coat and the slight bulge in the shape of a packet of tissues, and grins.
“So you’re a crier?”
Dazai, Shuji, stiffens at once. “Absolutely not! I don’t know who told you that, but they’re spreading lies and slander for their own gain!”
“No one had to tell me anything.” Ranpo leans in, and Shuji leans back. “You cry easily. You hate it because you want to pretend that you’re less sensitive than you are. Even if you try to deny it, you’re still going to be easy pickings for anyone who wants to bully you.”
Already, tears are welling up in the corners of Shuji’s eyes, and he can’t rub them out quickly enough. “That’s not - who asked you?! Jerk! Stupid jerk!”
Ranpo is definitely a jerk, but not a stupid one. More relevantly: “You’re cute when you cry.”
Now Shuji stares at him, wide-eyed. “That isn’t…” He looks like he’s physically pained trying not to accept a compliment or something that sounds like a compliment. His face is still stained by tears.
Easy pickings, like Ranpo said. He almost feels bad for bullying a Dazai who has no defenses for it.
Almost.
no perfection (Tsubouchi/Futabatei)
As far as Tsubouchi is concerned, nothing is perfect. No person, and certainly no novel, is without flaw. There’s no reason to beat yourself up for your mistakes like Shimei does.
But that’s the kind of person Shimei is, so all Tsubouchi can do is gently bring his attention to the good that came from the works he’s dismissing as awful. A spring gale can redirect a drifting cloud, but not change its essential nature.
Still, Tsubouchi has considered more drastic measures in an emergency situation.
“I’m no good… I ought to just let the Taints take my work… it’s better if everyone forgets…”
With Shimei’s book actively being taken over by Taints as he speaks, this isn’t harmless. Shimei can’t be allowed to continue muttering in his room until he gets over himself or destroys his book in the process. And Shouyou has tried to redirect his attention with no success. There’s only one emergency measure left to him.
Tsubouchi sets his hands on Shimei’s shoulders and interrupts him with a kiss.
For a second Shimei’s only reaction is shock. Then, slowly, hesitantly, he rests his hands on Tsubouchi’s waist and returns the gesture.
Shimei probably won’t be beating himself up for a while. At least, not out loud.
deathdays (Dazai/Oda, NSFW)
On the day you died, things are different.
The rest of the year, you know that you’ve died. You wouldn’t be a spirit if you were still alive, so you must have died at some point. If you don’t remember your death clearly, you can find the date and cause as a footnote on any encyclopedia article about yourself.
On the anniversary of your death, you feel that you’ve died. The pain of every wound, every sickness, everything that caused the shadow of death to take you back then is as acute as it was while you were dying.
Dazai sleeps through his deathday rather than spend the whole day struggling to breathe. But Oda, who hates acknowledging his weakness, stays awake and tries to go about his day normally
If normal was spending all day in his room.
There are empty bottles of morphine tablets on the floor: Ango smuggles them in for Oda every year and Dazai never asks how he gets them, only how long they’ll last. Oda lays on his bed, breathing. The breathing is important.
Dazai doesn’t ask how he’s doing. He just lays down beside Oda and turns his head for a kiss.
Every touch is something that can distract Oda from the pain. As long as Dazai takes the lead, they don’t have to acknowledge that Oda is too weak to do it himself. As long as Dazai is making Oda sigh and groan, they can pretend that that the coughing is just another sound, no more meaningful than the rest.
If Dazai has Oda’s knees to his chest as he pushes inside, then Oda can’t double over from pain. If Oda cries, it’s because of the way Dazai moves inside him, and nothing else.
And if Dazai takes special care to clean him up afterward, it’s because they got sweaty from the sex, and not because Oda is sick. No one said anything about Oda being sick.
date night (BunAru Chuuya/BSD Atsushi)
It would be really easy to do date night with Atsushi with no thought or effort put into it, on account of how he’s done practically nothing. Take him to a place he’s never been before, watch his eyes sparkle. Repeat.
It would be really easy, but Chuuya is not someone who will pick ‘easy’ over ‘thoughtful’ when it comes to his tiger lily. Atsushi deserves better, and Atsushi will get better.
Atsushi would be happy just to be taken out to dinner at DAYONE. Chuuya can see his eyes go wide the second he spots the signs filled with unique ochazuke options. Even Chuuya is pretty impressed by seeing grilled beef ochazuke, tomato ochazuke, and a dozen other dishes he hasn’t seen anywhere else. But:
“Reservations for Nakahara?”
They’re led into a private room with comfortable seating. Atsushi opens up his menu right away, then frowns.
“This doesn’t have any prices on it…?”
“On the house,” Chuuya says. Technically, Chuuya pulled a favor with the librarian who pulled a favor with the chief librarian who pulled a favor with someone else who is paying for all of this, but as far as he’s concerned that amounts to the same thing. “Have anything you want, as much as you want.”
He’d pay for it all himself, twice over, if it made Atsushi glow like this.
premonition of love (BSD Fukuzawa/BunAru Mori)
No one understands better than Fukuzawa that this Mori Ougai-
“Rintarou,” he says, “I prefer to keep my pen name as only that.”
-and the boss of the Port Mafia are not the same.
Some bits and pieces remind him of the Mori he knows better: they’re doctors, high-ranking in their organizations, and when Fukuzawa mentions Elise, Rintarou’s eyes light up some as he shares his story - not Vita Sexualis, but The Dancing Girl. When they speak of names they both recognize, Rintarou brings up Yosano - as a friend and equal, someone he threw poetry writing parties and founded a magazine with. Just saying that Mori is much older than the Yosano Fukuzawa knows makes Rintarou look bewildered, and Fukuzawa silently hopes he never finds out more about the person who shares his name.
This Mori is quiet, almost as serious as Fukuzawa himself. He carries himself as a soldier, with the dignity and kindness of an army doctor. When he speaks of his children, there’s nothing but a father’s love in the words.
“Do you have any children, or a spouse?” Rintarou asks, sipping his tea. They have the same taste in tea.
“I have the Agency,” Fukuzawa says.
“I understand.” The army is not the same as the detective agency, but the experience of being responsible for their subordinates’ lives is shared between them. “You lead them well.”
“…Thank you.”
If this had been the Mori Fukuzawa knew and worked with, who carries the burden of leadership without sacrificing the kindness that must accompany it, then… Fukuzawa isn’t sure if his answer now would be the same.
But ifs are only ifs, and this is not that Mori, and perhaps someday he’ll be asked that question again.
attic searching (Koutarou, Tanizaki)
There are people who you bring to investigate the library’s attic, and people you don’t. For example, you don’t bring Kyouka to cringe at every speck of dust, and you don’t bring Hagiwara to trip over something carelessly left on the floor. You don’t bring someone who’s been spooked by the rumors of strange noises coming from the attic at night.
If you’re Koutarou, and you want someone to accompany you, you bring Tanizaki. He’s known Tanizaki for a long time now, and he can confidently say that Tanizaki makes plenty of strange noises on his own. He has nothing to worry about.
“What is this machine meant to be used for…?” Tanizaki’s immediately zeroed in on the one thing that isn’t a book. “Some sort of modern torture device?”
“I don’t see where you’d put someone if it was.” Koutarou immediately takes out a notebook to start sketching it, since he can already tell they aren’t going to be able to carry it down by themselves.
“You could put their fingers in these slots…”
“The top doesn’t come down far enough to squeeze them.”
According to the librarian, when Koutarou shows her the sketch later, it’s a broken microform scanner that makes awful noises whenever she tries to get it working again. Trying to fix it could be considered a form of torture, she says, and Tanizaki is satisfied.
dog names (Naoya/Musha)
If Musha can’t find Shiga, he can follow the sound of excited dogs.
He can’t count the number of times he’s found Shiga with an armful of pup. Sometimes they’re stray dogs. Sometimes they’re dogs that have wandered away from their owners for a minute and found their way to Shiga. Sometimes Shiga just accosts people who are walking their dogs and pets them for ages.
This is one of the stray dogs Musha’s seen more often, a white spitz that’s about 90% fur. It yips and barks as Shiga rubs it behind the ears.
“We should name him,” Musha says, watching the display.
“We can’t keep him,” Shiga says. He doesn’t let this stop his show of affection at all.
“I want to name one!” Musha sticks his hands on his hips. “Shigaaa, whyyyy.”
“If you name him and he stops coming around, you’ll get even sadder than you usually do.”
He’s right. Dammit.
“…Okay.” After a second, Musha goes on: “Can we have a kid instead?”
Shiga chokes. The dog licks his face.
less guro and more ero (Ranpo/Dazai)
Saying that Dazai is a notorious flirt is an understatement. He won’t let himself be seen if he’s not looking his best, and local girls taking notice of him makes his ego swell even more.
On the other hand, he’s less used to being flirted with by men, especially…
“Eroguro pickup lines?”
Ranpo grins. “You’re beautiful - I’d love to see what you look like from the inside.”
Dazai is easily flattered, even by someone talking about his internal organs. His face turns pink and he stares at the floor. “That can’t work all that often…”
“The performance is more important than success or failure.” Ranpo tilts Dazai’s chin up with one finger. “But I enjoy the successes all the same.”
self-taught cooking (Tokuda, Naoya)
Tokuda isn’t much of a cook. He doesn’t ask for fancy food because he can’t make it himself. He was a commoner and never got used to the expensive meals that someone of, say, the white birch school might have all the time.
But if someone of the white birch school happened to make take notice of Tokuda and brighten his days, and he wanted to impress him, then he had a problem. Because not only is Shiga used to fancy meals, but Shiga himself can cook. Nothing Tokuda can make will even approach Shiga’s standards.
There’s only one approach that even has a hope of working, and that’s ‘it’s the thought that counts’.
Not how badly he burns the first fish he cooks, or how the second one manages to taste completely flavorless. It’s the sentiment that’s important.
“Need any help there?”
“…Shiga. I don’t really-”
“Don’t worry about it, everyone burns a few fish when they start out. Next time…”
Shiga immediately starts giving Tokuda advice on how to cook properly, which is great, except.
How is he supposed to tell Shiga that the meal was meant for him in the first place?
stained glasses (Kunikida, Arishima)
There are monsters, and then there are monsters.
An exorcist, like any other human being, only has so much time and energy. There’s no point in wasting that energy trying to cleanse beings that aren’t doing humans any harm instead of monsters who are actively hunting and eating innocents.
Besides, it’s more likely that Arishima will fall asleep in midair and fry himself on an electric wire than he’ll cause trouble. With that in mind, Kunikida allows him free entry to his church.
“…The stained glass is nice.” Arishima rests his hand against the window, idly tracing the lines.
“They’re lovely.” With a slightly impish smile, Kunikida asks, “Have you flown into a clear window before?”
“I’m a bat, not a bird. …Only one time.”
a curse to make it better (Yakumo, Hagiwara)
Yakumo appreciates speaking to Hagiwara as an exchange of cultures, and to learn more Japanese from someone with a natural gift for it. Even someone who isn’t completely fluent can appreciate a poet.
That’s not to say that he only likes Hagiwara for his language skills.
“Ow…”
Normally it would be Muroo fussing over Hagiwara with a stubbed toe, but with Muroo in a book delve right now, Yakumo steps up to the challenge. Or kneels down to it, more accurately. “Does it hurt badly?”
Hagiwara sniffles. “Y-yes…”
“Do not fear! With the power ‘kept’ within me, I will cure you of your pain!”
“You can do that, Hearn?” Hagiwara asks with wide eyes.
“Of course!” Yakumo murmurs in Greek: the words themselves aren’t as important as Hagiwara believing they have power. “Pain, pain, go away, come again another day… Pain, pain, go away…”
After a moment, Hagiwara says, “I think I do feel a little better… Can you teach me how to do that for myself? I don’t want to bother you.”
Quite seriously, Yakumo replies, “The dark power would drive you mad.”
chinjuki (Kyoshi)
first camellia
sixty years since its wilting
blooms even brighter