SW: (N/A)
RI: Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Gin Akutagawa, Ranpo Edogawa, Chuuya Nakahara, Doppo Kunikida, Osamu Dazai, Akiko Yosano, Atsushi Nakajima, Junichiro Tanizaki
Akutagawa sat up straight on the bed he barely ever used. In the same room was Gin. She was in a different bed next to his, but she couldn't fall asleep either.
"Hey, Ryu, you should get some sleep now," she murmured. The fact that she was half-asleep was extraordinarily clear in her voice.
"It's not possible for me to sleep," Akutagawa replied. He wanted to end the conversation there, but Gin wasn't going to allow that.
"Admit it, Ryu, you're in love." He did not expect to hear those words from her mouth at that moment to say the very least. But now, he had to accept the fact that he liked you.
"Emotions work in funny ways, Gin. But it doesn't make me weak. I won't let it bring me down. I refuse to accept something so utterly stupid be my downfall," he grumbled.
Gin looked down, deciding that the ground was a better place to look at than her brother at the moment. She turned to leave, but before she could, Akutagawa spoke up.
"You know... you should get your emotions in check too, Gin. There must be a reason why you accepted Chuuya's request to make a funeral for them."
She turned around in an instant, determined to defend her emotions. "What are you talking about? You know I hardly even know them," she retorted. A small blush on her cheeks was proof of her actual hidden feelings.
"I feel the same way, but I think deep down you know it's true." Akutagawa grimaced and sighed, "I recommend doing what I did. Accept it, but don't let it weaken you. Don't let them hold you back. Only humans make mistakes like that."
~-•-~
You walked up to your desk, looking at the bouquet you had gotten from Yosano that you had to put down so quickly. The moment you left the infirmary, you quickly set it on the desk before leaving. You decided you could take the flowers and decorate your cafe with them. But when you picked them up, you saw a small box of truffles and candy hearts and a small note.
When you opened up the box, you were immediately overcome with a delicious smell. It was obviously originally a box of eight chocolates, but now there were only six. The final two spots had two little candy hearts to make up for it.
The first candy heart was a lime color. On the treat, you could make out the words "new you". The second candy heart was pink and had the words "ever after" on it.
Plopping one of the truffles into your mouth, you picked up the small note and read it to yourself. It went as followed:
My dear Mochi,
Welcome back!
I'm sure whatever you've been through has been extremely confusing, but I'm glad you're finally back safe and sound. In all honesty, most of us thought you were dead.
Kunikida definitely knows that you're coming back already. My text message to him should've been obvious enough for someone like him to read it, and he must've told you about it. He wouldn't hide a single detail of his day from you. His emotions are a different matter though.
On the other hand, I got you these truffles and candy hearts. I hope you enjoyed them! I went to a good candy shop for the truffles, so they should taste great. Sorry that I couldn't do more though.
You better be thankful for these. I took some of Kunikida's money for them. He'll probably blame it on Dazai, but if he ever figures out I'm the one who committed the crime, I'll be in a lot of trouble. I don't want to even imagine the possibility of him telling Fukuzawa.
All in all, thank you for coming back. It felt unsettling with you not here. I'm glad you're home again.
Much love, Ranpo Edogawa
You set the note down, trying to suppress a giggle. Typical Ranpo, you thought. Though something else you noticed was that the note seemed more sincere and thoughtful than Ranpo would usually act like. It was as if he spent a long time trying to figure out what words to say and make sure he didn't mess up. All together, the note was sweet in your opinion.
Just then, you felt your phone ring in your pocket. Taking it out, you realized the familiar contact info and raised it to your ear. "Chuuya? Where are you? I've been trying to find you all day..."
"Sorry that I didn't say anything sooner," Chuuya immediately exclaimed, "but I have something I need to ask you. It's really important to me. Can we meet up at your cafe in thirty minutes?" It sounded like he was running due to the breathiness of his voice.
"Of course, I'll see you then." You replied and hung up on him. To tell the truth, you were incredibly confused and wondering what "important thing" he would ever want to ask you. After all, you still hadn't thanked him for everything he had done. Maybe he needed something in return for helping you? Perhaps that was it...
Despite your confusion, you followed his instructions and made your way to the cafe, arriving a little bit earlier than the time he gave you.
The moment you opened the doors to the cafe, you didn't expect Ishiko to run up to you and yell, "(Y/N)! You idiot! Where were you? We thought you were dead! That bandaged asshole and short hat man you have crushes on were planning your funeral! We even had two people help out a bit with your job since I couldn't work two shifts a day. We were looking for a whole new employee, dammit!"
"I got to say, I expected a warmer welcome home," you laughed. Emotions got the better of you, and a smile appeared on your face. You were just so happy that everything was going back to normal again. But suddenly, one of Ishiko's words struck you. "Wait... two people? Who were they?"
"I'm not sure, they said they knew you through work. One of them had long black hair and a pretty face. She was actually really kind. Her brother wanted to help too, but he scared all of the customers away. Apparently he was too forceful. We had to stop him from continuing immediately. The other one who wanted to work here was a mean blond guy. Well... he seemed mean at first until he started serving customers. He's actually really kind. He's the perfect malewife for you if you ask me," Ishiko admitted. Like always, she spoke in the oddest of ways. Her extensive teenage vocabulary never ran short of odd nouns that made no sense to some adults.
"Malewife? Are you talking about Kunikida?" You had no idea who the other two people could be though. Although your mind immediately went to Akutagawa from her descriptions, you guessed he probably didn't have a sister and he wouldn't have wanted to help your workplace anyways.
"Ah," she gasped, "that was his name!" But before she could say anything more, she looked past your shoulder and evilly grinned. "Looks like your date is here."
"Date?" You quickly spun around, only to be met with the sight of a panting Chuuya. It looked like he had run to your cafe. He was out of breath, and needed a second before he spoke with you. You could see in his hands a small bouquet of light pink and blue flowers.
Ishiko giggled and began running upstairs. "I'll leave you two to it! I promise I won't tell that 'Dazai' guy about anything I see or hear!" With that, she had left you with a blushing and angry face. But when you looked back at Chuuya again, your anger dropped to give him a more gentle and caring expression.
Eventually, he caught his breath and looked up at you. As he straightened his position, you asked. "So what did you want to say to me?"
He walked up to you, holding out the bouquet. "I wanted to ask if you've forgiven me yet," he explained, "I thought some Juliet roses and hydrangeas would help with your answer, but I realized that it seems a bit forceful to give you these right after asking that question. I also didn't think about how hard it would be to buy freshly cut flowers. It's not easy to find someone selling Juliet roses around here to say the very least."
You cocked your head to the side, grabbing the bouquet and setting it down on the table next to you. Needless to say, you had no idea how expensive the flowers were. "Forgive you? What is there to forgive?"
"Do you seriously not remember? I lied to you about my personal life ever since day one. In the Port Mafia building, you said you didn't forgive me completely even after I did what Dazai requested of me, no matter how embarrassing that was," Chuuya reminded you.
Now that you had gotten the reminder, your mind wandered back to everything that had happened since then. "Chuuya... do you seriously think you need to ask if I have forgiven you? Of course I have. I had already forgiven you before all of this, but you somehow just keep getting better and better. There is nothing to forgive. You've forgiven me for everything I've done, every secret I've kept, and you've been my friend through all of it. Now you've saved my life. If anything, I should be begging for your forgiveness."
You smiled warmly at him and continued, "Chuuya, without you, I would be a literal ghost right now. Thank you, really. I hope one day I can repay you for all you've done for me, but I know I can never be as good as you are. You may try to act tough, but you do have a kind, caring, and loyal side that I've gotten to see so many times. I forgive you a million times over, so what can I do to ever get you to forgive me?"
"Just continue being here for me," Chuuya pleaded, "don't leave or betray me like everyone else has."
"Of course I won't do that. After all you've done for me, I couldn't imagine ever leaving you," you promised, "I'll always be here, by your side. Even if the Port Mafia goes against the agency, I could never fight you. Is there seriously nothing else you'd want? Not even a puppy?"
"There's nothing else I want, no one else I want," he answered, chuckling a bit at your suggestion of a puppy. "Just you... and maybe a puppy or two in the future."
"Well then, I promise I'll try my best to fulfill your requests," you replied, giggling at his additional order.
Less than a second after you had finished your sentence, he lunged forward and placed his lips on top of yours, initiating a sloppier and rougher kiss than any other you have had before. His kiss was so full of emotion, and he didn't stop with just a light peck on your lips.
His arms wrapped around your waist, holding you close to him. His breath mingled with yours, and soon the world disappeared around you both. You closed your eyes, putting a hand in his hair to deepen the kiss, enjoying the feeling of the intimacy shared between the both of you in that moment. You could taste the alcohol on his lips. He clearly hadn't planned for this to happen, but you could care less. Everything felt so right, even if he never meant for it to happen.
When he finally pulled away to catch his breath, both of you opened your eyes. It was easy to tell that both of you were equally shocked.
"I can't believe I did that," he breathed out, taking his hands away from your waist so he could fix his hat and attempt to hide his blushing expression.
"I can't believe you did that too," you lightly chuckled, taking your hand away from the back of his head. "It felt a bit sudden but... I suppose I enjoyed it." Your cheeks felt hot, and you were quickly aware it must've been because you were blushing.
"Oh," he responded, his face just as flustered as yours. "I'm glad," he laughed, letting out one of his rare, joyous smiles. "So... we really should hang out away from the cafe soon..."
"Definitely!' You exclaimed, "how about we grab dinner sometime later this week?"
"That sounds wonderful," Chuuya replied.
Everything felt so right, leaving you confused and worried. You were confused by your feelings, and yet at the same time you couldn't help but be scared about the future. You thought to yourself, if it's this good right now for everyone, things can only get worse...
If only you knew just how right you were.
President Fukuzawa's Final Report on the "Spectre Case":
With (Y/N) (L/N)'s safety secured, the Spectre Case ended without further conflict.
Afterwards, a report came in from Mori that Yurei Kutsuki would be gone thanks to a certain mafioso named Ryunosuke Akutagawa, the same man who almost killed Atsushi and the Tanizaki siblings. By "gone", we can only assume that the mafia took care of him in their naturally violent ways.
With (Y/N)'s return, Doppo Kunikida got some much needed sleep. Osamu Dazai finally regained a bit of his humorous personality and finally got to cleaning his room. Ranpo Edogawa seemed less mentally exhausted and his usual instant case-solving skills returned. Akiko Yosano returned back to her place to continue healing people at the agency and Atsushi Nakajima was no longer tearing up the moment he entered the workplace. Things are getting better.
One thing I'd like to mention for later reference is one of my employee's weird behavior recently. He's somehow gotten weirder ever since (Y/N) has come back. Recently, Junichiro Tanizaki has been getting more and more distant from his sister, Naomi Tanizaki. He looks puzzled about something and has started muttering to himself. He's also frequently spacing out and staring at random people in the agency sometimes, especially at (Y/N).
However, I've decided to not worry about him just yet. I'm sure it's just work stress or something that will only take Tanizaki a week or less to fix.
Something I have come to realize with (Y/N)'s momentary disappearance is how much our mentality depends on them. We all care too much about each other, and with the obvious tension between several of my employees and them, only bad things can happen to my employees if something bad happens to them. I believe that my employees will refuse to let them vanish like that ever again.
We are now entering a period of peace, I believe. Perhaps I shall allow my agency members more time to rest soon. Today is one of the days when I'm glad to be the person I am today instead of the person I was before.
Little did Fukuzawa know that next day would be the day Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald met with him. Not only would Fitzgerald make Fukuzawa feel uncomfortable, but he also brought with him the first major problem the agency had yet to overcome...
<~-•-~>
(A/N): Hello everyone!! I hope you enjoyed the thirty-second chapter!
To anyone wondering, yes, I did just Google the most expensive flowers in the world... if you want to go search up how much those are, have fun LOL (it's insane how much a real one of those flowers costs).
Also I saw one person worrying in the comments in Chapter 27 that the reader might not thank Chuuya and stuff for everything he's done for them. Like... hell no they're going to thank him. How else could I set up the endless amount of angst in the future? Heheheh...
Weekly song recommendation: "Milk" by Jack Stauber
A hint for the future... People Watching
Anyways, I hope you all enjoy the story and don't forget to vote, comment, and maybe follow if you really liked it!
Everyone have an exceptional day/night!!
(2740 words)