Work Text:
Two in the afternoon never came slower than it did today.
The clouds are low.
The rain is closing in.
All of his loose ends for the day are tied.
Every rival group in the immediate vicinity had the pleasure of a front-row viewing of his mangled fury in the briefing earlier. One lost shipment turned into two, and then it was a weekly occurrence that their arms dealer was pulling stock right from under their noses.
Only, Dazai knew, of course.
He had known the entire time from the moment the first shipment was taken. Yet, they’ve taken too much for it to be a mistake this time. He is merciful enough not to drag their anxiety out as they sat down. Instead, what he ordered was their leader’s removal from the room. Gin handled him after that.
Ryuunosuke and his squadron solved the insubordination issue at the docks with minimal lost time. All Dazai had to do was wait for the call, and now he was at the head of a very quiet table that will soon be spilling which one of them had known about it.
BUZZ
His phone vibrates in his pocket; once, twice, and a third time. A smile crosses his face.
It’s Chuuya.
“Don’t mind me,” Dazai waves his hand to the stagnant crowd of fearful onlookers, “my dearest needs my attention.”
The sleek black case fits snugly against his thick fingers. No one bothers looking at the reflection of a woman in his eyes.
Contrarily, they hear her.
“Samu, we are out of the damn peanut butter!” Chuuya’s voice rings loud against the speaker. Instead of texting, she talks into the phone because it's become easier for her.
Dazai quite likes the sound of her sweet voice echoing around the meeting room, “I can’t go without it and I’m too comfy sitting here—”
She’s under her new heated blanket then.
“—and I know you were the one who ate the rest of it so you can go and pick up some more. Don’t send Gin either, she’s going home on time today.”
Chuuya is right, he had made a quick slice of peanut butter toast to eat, but only because she told him he would be eating breakfast. He had never been a breakfast type until her. At most, he would sit around and starve until Gin noticed and ordered something.
Yet, his heart flutters at the sound of his unborn daughter’s name. He wishes he was back at home cradling the swell of her in his arms.
Chuuya has begun to sleep on her side with how large she has gotten. Aya is too big these days for her to do so much else other than sleep and eat. As much as Chuuya tries to be active, Aya takes it out of her.
She waddles now.
Oh, he wishes he was home. He hates boring meetings with people he has to remind to fear. Has he become too pleasant? Honestly, it’s rare for them to fall out of place, but of course, the newly annexed group decided to play without knowing his rules.
Chuuya is probably expecting a response. If there is one thing that makes her angry, it is his previous lack of reply.
“When you text someone, you don’t just open it and leave,” Chuuya had scolded him once, “sometimes you act so old, I swear.”
Now he knows better, so he opens the next message:
“Your daughter is kicking the shit out of my bladder! The entire time you’ve been at work, she won’t stop sitting on it!” Dazai chuckles quietly to himself as Chuuya’s huffs and puffs continue.
“Sometimes I honestly wonder why I let you put a baby in me. One kid is hard enough, but your giant ass kid…” Chuuya moans into the speaker. She’s moody which is to be expected. It’s good that she’s releasing the pent-up emotion over the phone instead of toward him whenever he barrels through the door.
It’s such a long message, yet he can’t help but enjoy her domestic updates. Ever since she left work she’s unsure how to deal with herself. Chuuya had tried different hobbies, but as she grows with their child it makes yoga and standing on her feet for more than two hours a tumultuous task.
“I swear….this big-headed baby of yours. Poor thing, she gets cursed with her father’s fat ass head.”
The look on Dazai’s face is equal to that of bliss.
“And I swear to god I’ve taken a piss every hour today. Every hour! She is only doing this to me because you’re gone, I guess she misses her aggravating father….”
Well, he was the one who knocked her up before asking to marry her, so he’ll take it in stride.
Dazai cradles the phone closer to his ear, turning the swiveling chair around and gazing out on the Yokohama skyline. Their home isn’t far from here if he squints….
There’s a quieter shuffling behind the phone as the voice message comes to a halt, “….and I miss you.”
His breath catches in his throat. Dazai can picture the image of his heavily pregnant wife murmuring it into the phone from where she so helplessly relaxes on the bed. Perhaps she was petting her stomach as she said it, thinking about having him next to her to calm Aya’s fury.
Behind him, twenty-five people sit in abject silence. They hope silently that there will be no orchestrated executions or botched deals on their own part. None of them look away from their laps.
The room feels too full, and everyone’s downcast eyes are suddenly too much.
Quickly, he scrolls to the bottom of their messages.
Osamu: I will be home soon, dear <3
Once she had said that using emojis made his messages sound less bland because he talks as if he’s ten years older than he actually is. Mid-thirties isn’t old by any standard.
Dazai is past the awkward years of his twenties when he was busy remedying the mess the Port Mafia had become in the latter years of the succession war. Since he rose to boss, they have doubled their revenue and secured claim on half of the government officials.
However, he’s been disconnected from a proper social life for years now. Unless you count seedy bars and escorts sitting in his lap, he’s been busy acting as the de facto leader of the city. If adding little pictograms to his messages makes his wife happier, he will do it in a heartbeat.
Dazai’s expensive leather chair kisses the table when he stands. Before he could utter a word, Gin opened the doors with an understanding nod, “Out.”
As if a flood was sent, the room clears.
“Gin-chan, have a good rest of your day,” Dazai said, pulling his coat over the broadness of his shoulders.
“We’re through?”
“I’m leaving early, send those in attendance a meeting invitation for a week from today. The representative from the Ito group will be made into an example, so don’t forget to add that to my calendar before you leave.”
Gin holds the door open for him, “Yes sir, I hope Chuuya-san is doing well. All of them.”
Dazai beelines for his private car, two men following him the entire way to the door. Unfortunately, he is unable to return home yet. Someone needs their snack.
Osamu: Creamy or chunky?
Osamu: If it would please you I would buy the entire store. 💸💸💸
Chuuya: why are you asking, you know this ? Also no store, just peanut butter pls this kid is killing me.
Osamu: perhaps I wanted to text my pretty wife?
💕
💞
💕
Chuuya: you’re not the best texter in the world
Osamu: Love, that hurts.💔💔💔
I am using the emojis you told me to use. I am injured.
Chuuya: omg you text like an old man
Osamu: You love it?😒🙄
Chuuya: unfortunately
Osamu: Are you sleepy, darling?
Chuuya: no why?
Osamu: Your eyes were rolling back into your head?
Chuuya: it’s eye-rolling. i am eye-rolling you, old man.
Dazai held his weak heart as he read her message. He wasn’t old, no. Was he older than her? Yes. Albeit, she did enjoy his ‘maturity’.
Her words not his own.
Osamu: would you like for me to make your eyes roll?
Osamu: I can relieve your back pain with my fingers, or maybe you’d like the real thing instead. I think you’d look stunning on your knees this way. Though….the baby might make you top-heavy since you’re so small.
Dazai held his weak heart as he read her message. He wasn’t old, no. Was he older than her? Yes. Albeit, she did enjoy his ‘maturity’.
Her words not his own.
Osamu: would you like for me to make your eyes roll?
Osamu: I can relieve your back pain with my fingers, or maybe you’d like the real thing instead. I think you’d look stunning on your knees this way. Though….the baby might make you top-heavy since you’re so small.
Chuuya begins to type and stops.
He can feel her frustration.
She starts again.
Chuuya: 😡😡😡 DONT SEND DIRTY SHIT WHEN YOU'RE NOT CLOSE ENOUGH TO HOME!!!
Osamu: I want to do dirty things to you 🛌❤️🔥
Chuuya: AGGHH😡😡😒
Chuuya: just get my peanut butter!!!
Chuuya: you can do the dirty things when you’re closer to home…my back does feel like shit because she’s heavy🙁
Osamu: Anything you want.
Osamu: Will we need other groceries? 🍅🥝🥥🍑🥒
Chuuya: I don’t need the food emojis, but no.
Chuuya: dad brought me some pie earlier because I needed something sweet :)
Dazai tilts his head at the text. Rimbaud was particularly sweet on his daughter, even though she had married into the mafia. It’s not like she was coerced, she did know right away.
Osamu: Did you save me a piece? ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Chuuya: no
Dazai smiles.
Chuuya: I’m kidding….do you think I’d actually eat an ENTIRE pie by myself, Osamu?!?!?
He looks at the screen amused by her answer. He can tease her through the situation, but she won't be happy about it.
Osamu: 😂
Chuuya: !?!???
Osamu: 😂😂
Chuuya: do you want to sleep alone tonight?
Osamu: I would die from lack of Chuuya’s sweet snoring!! Do not sentence me to an early grave!!
Osamu: Who would be there to make sure we have more babies?
Dazai hasn’t realized the car has been stopped at the little grocery market Chuuya frequents because he is so enamored with his cell phone. Only when the driver politely tells him they have stopped does his car door open. The same two guards with sharpshooting skills good enough to nail a tree three hundred meters behind trail behind.
It’s a quaint market. Chuuya wasn’t used to expensive food before she met him. She was a nurse working in too many different departments because the hospital was sorely understaffed.
She barely had time to eat because she worked so much. Chuuya was a chronic workaholic in a different way than Dazai. Where he worked in strange bursts and needed incentive, she worked because she wanted to — because she needed to.
Chuuya enjoyed helping people, so she did. She wanted to save those who needed it; rich or poor, good or evil.
Even if it was a mafia boss dying on her porch after a nearly successful assassination, Chuuya took him in while he flirted and bled.
And then she found herself in his bed.
(He had an unlived-in apartment without a picture on the wall, but at least the mattress and sex were good.)
And then she went on a date, another, and suddenly they were dating.
(He’s not a bad date after she knocks some sense into that head of his)
And then she married him.
(He can be serious when he wants to be, and he wanted her despite how much she told him she would never be ready for him)
Chuuya: you think you’re putting another baby in me after this?!?!! you’re fucking crazy
Osamu: 🙁🙁🙁 You loved it when I did it
Osamu: You said you enjoyed being full of me. I remember the cute look on your face…all those tears…
Chuuya: SHUT UP 🖕
Osamu: 😚😚 I want to make many babies with you, my love
Osamu: 👶 🍼 🤰🤰🤰👼👼👼
Osamu: this is you ^
Osamu: 🤱
Chuuya: just get the damn groceries and come home or you will ACTUALLY sleep alone. 🙄🙄
Dazai entered the market with a dopey smile on his face. When the older woman who ignored his trained guards to ask him about Chuuya’s seventh month of pregnancy, he was all too happy to pull out his stash of pictures of her sleeping up against his chest.
And of course, the sonogram he carried proudly in his left pocket was shown to each passerby attracted to the charming, handsome man bragging about how big his baby was.
Once he’s back in the car with a small bag and a bottle of the finest sparkling grape juice you can find, he texts her back. He’s starting to enjoy using emojis. Chuuya was right.
Osamu: I bought virgin sangria for you tonight. Expect a nice long bath with your peanut butter crackers shorty😽😽😽😽🍷🥜
No answer.
His driver started towards the building they call home.
Osamu: 💒I will be home soon 💝💝
No answer.
Osamu: Chuuya? 🙀
“Chuuya isn’t answering me,” Dazai sighs into the bulletproof window glass he was facing. Even now, sitting on leather seats with his hands resting perfectly still in his lap, he contemplates the possibility of something going wrong.
As a nurse, Chuuya is trained to deal with bad situations. He’s seen her with a gun held to her head and still brushes them off because she’s Chuuya, she can do whatever she puts her mind to. Being scared was never an option for her.
“Boss, perhaps she’s left her phone to take a shower?” One of the guards offers.
The dark of the car could not compare to the void shining in his eyes, dripping with anger.
“Are you thinking about my wife showering?” Dazai scathes.
The man pales, “No sir!”
“That’s great, I thought I was going to have to shoot you in my favorite car.”
Upon arrival, he is wished a proper farewell as their boss and is entered into the private building.
It’s natural for a man of his caliber to be paranoid, even if it is just about heading home to see his wife and child. Kyouka is staying with a friend tonight. He didn’t tell anyone that he has Higuchi on standby near the friend’s home.
When he finally enters their home, the pit in his stomach diminishes.
Nothing is amiss.
Nothing it knocked over.
Nothing is wrong.
His coat goes to the hanger and the groceries set on the fine dining table he purchased because of an off-handed comment Chuuya made. It’s not where they go, but he’s on the hunt, so he will take the scolding later.
Nearly missing her as he passes, Dazai does eventually find her.
A blanket pools around her lower waist where she lay on the couch. There’s a plate of food balancing on her stomach: pieces of hastily chopped fruit and a few pieces of candy. It looks more like what little Kyouka asks to eat for dinner than Chuuya ever would.
Pregnancy is strange.
Chuuya is sleeping away with her back propped by two pillows and her face hidden in the cushions.
Dazai’s heart had settled at a steady beat, but he can feel it pick up when he knelt down to rub the swell of her abdomen. It’s quite perfectly round and heavy. The larger she grows the more her stomach dwarfs her tiny body. He can’t imagine having to carry such a thing at her height, but then again she does tell him plenty that it is his fault that her back pain is atrocious.
“Papa is home,” He murmurs a kiss against the swell. He removes the plate of food and straightens back to his full height. “But you need to let Mama sleep on the bed, this only makes her back hurt more, little one.”
His only response is the television finally turning off in the background. She’s exhausted from the looks of it, as happens when you’re less than two months away from giving birth.
Yesterday she was upset over her swollen ankles and being unable to enjoy walking as much as she used to. Aya is a hefty baby from what the obstetrician said. Is it his fault? Most likely, he’s a foot taller than her.
“Mmm,” comes Chuuya's whine.
That’s his cue.
Dazai tucks his hand under her back and the other under her thighs. One scoop and she’s resting against his chest. Getting upstairs isn’t too difficult with a heavily pregnant woman—Chuuya’s not entirely dead weight once she slides her arms around his neck.
“Falling asleep before I can properly feed you, Chuuya, that is low,” Dazai speaks openly, uncaring if she’s sleeping or not simply because he loves talking to her.
He beelines for the master bedroom, “I even bought nice grape juice for you to enjoy tonight to pair with the three jars of peanut butter I bought.” Dazai’s knees touch the bed first. He uses one arm to support her bottom, admiring the curve of her nose. His thick fingers brush her hair from her face, “Everyone at the market misses seeing you and the baby...you should visit soon or they may get antsy.”
Dazai bends slowly to lay her on the memory foam mattress, turning on her heating pad that she doesn’t so much as share when they fall asleep together. It’s good for her cramps.
“Samu?”
There she is.
Chuuya finds his palm easily, as she always has.
“Shush, you’re supposed to be sleeping, love.”
Chuuya’s grip stiffens, “Where you goin’?”
“Nowhere,” Dazai kisses her hand, carefully extracting it from around him, “nowhere for you to worry about.”
Her bleary eyes flutter closed, “Mhm, yeah right...”
“Mhm,” Dazai mimics.
His shoes were left at the door, but his tie still sat tight on his neck. Chuuya is a little too good at tying it so he can’t rip it off at the slightest inconvenience anymore. She may also do it to choke him, but he hasn’t confirmed it yet. Dazai throws it to the side and his waistcoat goes next.
The moment he sinks into bed, his hand travels back to her stomach and begins to rub small circles over her pink stretch marks. Chuuya’s body gravitates toward him as he settles against her back. Her head thumps against his chest, ensuring that he will eventually eat a mouthful of her messy curls sometime tonight. She’s had a long day by the looks of it. Dazai can only imagine that they’ll get longer the more Aya develops.
“Aya is so naughty for keeping her Mama from good sleep,” Dazai whispers, chin to the crown of her hair, “and Chuuya is naughty for keeping her hair up.”
He pinches the ribbon between his two fingers and pulls it until it's out.
“Papa is being naughty by talking.”
“Heh.”
“Don’t think I've forgotten that,” Chuuya yawns. She presses a little bit closer, “stupid text you sent.”
The hand that had been rubbing small circles on his child’s resting place stops as the smile he had been withholding finally blossoms, “I wouldn’t dare.”
“Sleep then.”
“Yes, love.”
Two days later, Chuuya found out he threatened his guard and stood by his desk while he formally apologized. She even made him arrange a fruit basket for the poor man’s family.