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06
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What a mess.
Fitzgerald’s announcement about Dazai’s casting causes chaos among the cast and crew. Some whisper excitedly over being part of Dazai’s comeback, some are curious and eager to raise the question of his sudden return, others gaze at the ex-actor with jealousy or scorn knowing he'll surely grab all the attention of their future audience.
And then there's Chuuya, Ango and Yosano. A trio who knows all the details of Dazai's past choices, and are more than just stunned by his appearance on set. Akutagawa can almost see the cogs running wild in their heads, battling to process and understand why he would be willing to work in the same place as Chuuya. Despite it being so many years, they might find it difficult to believe that Dazai had seriously dropped whatever grudge he should have been holding against Chuuya, but as far as Akutagawa is aware, he genuinely has. It's mostly Kunikida who bears the grudge for both himself and Dazai.
Though, that is just speculation on his part. From the little things he's seen and heard whenever Chuuya or comments about Dazai's career are brought up, he's noted that only Kunikida lashes out while Dazai remains almost completely indifferent. ‘Almost’ being the key word here.
Like the last two times when he’d sternly silenced Kunikida who'd gone rampant with insults and bitter anger toward Chuuya. His indifference doesn't equate to him not caring, it's simply that he chooses to keep a straight face to avoid showing what he honestly feels.
There's also the case of Dazai being the target of Kunikida’s out lashes from time to time. This shook Akutagawa quite a bit as he’d been accustomed to Kunikida’s overbearing protectiveness and soft heart toward Dazai, so it was wholly disconcerting to hear him yelling at Dazai to get out of his house and stay the hell away during one of Kunikida's episodes of writer's block.
What a hassle his friends and their complicated relationships are.
On his right, Atsushi slightly nudges Akutagawa’s shoulder with his own. “You didn't know about this?” He asks, paying mind to Akutagawa’s curious frown.
Akutagawa shakes his head. “He didn't tell any of us.” Not true. He'd told both Kyusaku and Kunikida. Also, Naomi doesn't seem very shocked by this revelation either. It's really just him who had no idea.
“Perhaps he wanted to give you a little surprise.” Atsushi muses. “You are the type to not scare easily, after all.”
Right… It could be that.
“Perhaps.” Akutagawa echoes.
“Hey, Akutagawa-kun.” Atsushi says calmly. “Can you move about two steps to your left?”
His request earns him a sceptical stare from Akutagawa, which only makes him grin and give a sly wink in return. Then Akutagawa understands, as he catches a glimpse of what he assumes Atsushi sees as well: Dazai sneakily slithering through the now dispersing crowd, attempting to catch Akutagawa off guard once again by steadily tiptoeing in their direction while Akutagawa is distracted in conversation with Atsushi.
“Ryu-chan~” Dazai calls mockingly as he makes a move to leap onto Akutagawa. Before he can do so, the latter follows Atsushi’s words and side steps out of the way, ending the ordeal with Dazai latching onto thin air and face-planting on the ground with a thud and a pained groan.
Was that too much? Akutagawa ponders. Sure, he is vaguely bitter about not being told something important yet again, but letting Dazai fall face first on the ground on his first day here might have been too cruel. Even if the victim in question is Dazai.
But he forgets his worry almost instantly when he hears Atsushi erupt in thundering laughter, as if he could no longer suppress it to spare Dazai from humiliation. The sound touches an uninhabited place in his chest. It's unpleasant. He wants to feel it again.
Chuuya and Kyusaku quietly giggle amongst themselves as well.
“Akutagawa?!” Dazai cries out in utter pain from the harsh landing.
“Oh… Dazai?” He gasps, playing the fool. “Why are you on the ground?”
“Ha-ha-ha.” Dazai drags out each syllable dryly. “I suppose I may have deserved that.”
Atsushi chooses to play dumb as well, as if it wasn't his very own idea to let Dazai kiss the ground so gracefully, he puts a hand out for Dazai to grab onto and helps lift the older up, all while smiling kindly.
“Nakajima Atsushi.” Atsushi introduces himself, still gripping Dazai’s hand, though only for a handshake this time. “It's an honour to get to meet you, Dazai-san. Ango has told me a few things about you.”
“If it's coming from him I doubt it's anything good.” Dazai quips. “Likewise, I have heard plenty about you from Ryu.”
Akutagawa clenches his hand into a fist. It's moments like this when he understands why Kunikida often follows through with his threats of beating the daylights out of Dazai.
Sensing the killing intent being directed his way, Dazai circles around Atsushi to hide himself.
Of course, he is not given the benefit of using the beloved Nakajima Atsushi as a human shield as the shield in question is too interested in sticking close to Akutagawa, so when he trudges off toward the snack bar to relieve his minor frustration, Atsushi wordlessly follows behind leaving Dazai alone and embarrassed.
“Osamu-”
“I should greet Odasaku, where is he anyway?”
“...”
“Dazaiii, wait for me! I’ll see you on set, Chuuya!”
•••
“Can we send him back now?”
“That's your job, Odasaku.” Akutagawa chides, shrugging his nagging manager off his shoulders. “You brought him here, get rid of him.”
“Who are we talking about? Not me, I hope?”
“If you know then kindly go home, Dazai.”
“Your words hurt, Ryu-chan. I’m here to help your precious tv show flourish with my marvellous self making a grand reappearance after all these years!”
“Get off me.”
Dazai complies, playfully grinning. His eyes flick left to right in search of something. “Wasn't Nakajima with you?”
“Phone Call.”
“It's ugly to talk with your mouth full, Ryu-chan.” He grabs one of Akutagawa’s eclairs, stuffing it in his own mouth, proceeding to do exactly what he'd reprimanded Akutagawa for doing. “Well, that's what Dos-kun would say at least.”
Again with the mysterious Russian dancer/teacher guy. Akutagawa really is curious about this person.
“You know,” Dazai continues. “Doesn't Nakajima freak you out a little bit?”
“What?”
“Just now when he greeted me, it felt so stiff, forced even. Did I do something to offend him? Anyway he's a little scary, I don't like it.”
Dazai notices it too. Atsushi’s strange behaviour is not something that Akutagawa was aware of alone.
How many others sense it too?
“I suppose Ryu-chan wouldn't find it strange though, you do it too.”
“What?” Why would he say something like that? Akutagawa knows what he's like, he doesn't do that. He doesn't. “I don't do that. And stop calling me Ryu-chan.”
“So you know!”
He opens his mouth to condemn Dazai for tricking him, but the latter suddenly loses his smile while gazing at something behind Akutagawa.
Atsushi. He hadn't heard what Dazai said, had he? If he did, he doesn't give any signs indicating so.
“Did I interrupt something?” He asks. “What's got Dazai-san so serious all of a sudden?”
Yep. He heard.
Akutagawa shakes his head, scolding Dazai with a quick, cold glare. He pinches Atsushi’s sleeve and gently leads the younger one away from the table and the other two present. “Nevermind that, Jinko. We should find Lucy, she wanted to discuss our next scene together.”
He doesn't fully register his own words as he hurriedly tries to get Atsushi as far away from Dazai as possible. So when Atsushi breaks out into a full blush, eyes wide as saucers, Akutagawa is mildly confused but decides not to think about it too much.
Oda and Dazai are left standing there with almost similar expressions.
“Did he-”
“Nevermind that, Odasaku.”
•••
Lucy is oddly restless when Akutagawa spots her. She's biting the edge of her thumb, pacing back and forth while looking at her phone and mumbling.
“Is everything all right, Lucy?” Atsushi asks, beating Akutagawa to the question.
As he thought, Lucy had been too distracted to see them approach, much less realise that they were right beside her. She's a little disoriented from staring too hard into her screen, so it takes a second for her eyes to adjust to the new sight of two very real, non-pixelated men in front of her.
“Atsushi. Akutagawa-kun. Good morning.” She greets, smiling tiredly. The look on her face tells Akutagawa it's been everything but a ‘good’ morning for her. At least he's not alone in that aspect. “A friend of mine is supposed to be visiting from America but when I went to pick him up at the airport he wasn't there.”
“He didn't contact you at all?”
“Not a word.” Lucy seethes. “His flight was scheduled to arrive at seven. I waited for four hours after that just in case there was a delay and yet…!”
“I’m worried something might have happened to him. His Japanese isn't great and the person who should be arriving with him won't be much help either, he's not the brightest when it comes to public transportation. Though I’m not sure whether planes are included in that.”
‘Who knew there were more people like Ranpo.’ Akutagawa thinks.
He observes Atsushi as he casually retrieves a slip of paper from the front pocket of Lucy's shirt. The contents of the paper appear to bewilder him, as evident from the sudden shift in his expression. Intrigued, Akutagawa leans over his shoulder to steal a curious glance. Their eyes meet briefly, exchanging an amused look.
“Lucy.” Atsushi utters.
In response to his call, Lucy reluctantly raises her gaze from her phone, her panic preventing her from concentrating on anything else. However, a brief moment of surprise crosses her face when she spots the two men standing in front of her. Maybe their unusual proximity catches her off guard. Despite this, Akutagawa shows no intention of distancing himself from Atsushi.
‘I don't think he even realises it.’ Lucy guesses internally. She waits for Atsushi to speak, but all he does is show her the slip of paper, one she recognises as the arrival time she’d jotted down on last night in order to remember.
11:00AM - Pick up time.
The hastily scrawled words in Lucy's messy handwriting catch her eye. At first, everything seems fine, but then realisation dawns upon her.
"You mentioned waiting four hours after 7?" Atsushi asks, his voice trembling.
Akutagawa playfully taps Atsushi's other shoulder, almost as if to signal him not to mock their co-star's error, even though he's concealing his own laughter.
“You think they'll still be there if she goes back now?” Akutagawa jests.
“Don't even joke about this, Akutagawa-kun.” Lucy wails. “We have to film soon so I can't leave until this evening. What should I do?”
“Take your revenge and make them wait this time.”
“Atsushi.”
“I’m sorry.”
Right then, Lucy’s phone buzzes, setting her into a panicked state once more. She hastily fumbles around momentarily forgetting how to answer calls in her frizzled stupor, sliding her thumb across the arrows repeatedly to no avail. This elicits a frustrated groan from her, and out of pity Akutagawa decides to give her a hand —albeit somewhat reluctantly as he was feeling pretty comfortable in his current position.
He calmly grabs the phone from her and answers in her stead. “Hello?”
“Ah…Hel- A man? No, did I get the wrong number?” The man on the other side whispers to himself in English. He sounds just as anxious as Lucy is; understandable given the situation. He clears his throat and attempts to ask in Japanese, “Um…this…may…who this be?”
That poor pronunciation and structure seems oddly familiar to Akutagawa. “This is Akutagawa Ryunosuke, I’m one of Lucy's co-stars. She's a little occupied right now.” He switches to English this time for the man’s convenience. He has to do it often before whenever- …No way, it can't be.
“Oh! ---Ranpo-kun, it's Ryunosuke-san!
---Ryunosuke? Like Akutagawa Ryunosuke?---Yes! It appears he is working with Lucy!---Shit, can he hear me? Why'd you say my name! Hang up immediately, Poe.---But…!” Their not so silent background conversation stops abruptly, followed by loud movement and fumbling.
Ranpo’s voice appears from the other end. “Akutagawa Ryunosuke, not a word of this reaches Fukuzawa’s ears. Tell Lucy that I already called Mushitaro to get us and we're at his place. Poe's phone was dead until now. Goodbye.”
And the line goes dead, ending the call. Akutagawa stares at the blank screen for a minute, processing what had just happened before he hands the phone back to Lucy.
“What did he say?” She asks.
“They're with a friend. Lucy, when did Ranpo go to America again?”
“You know Ranpo? He's been there for a few days now, maybe five?”
Akutagawa something Fukuzawa said on Dazai’s birthday.
(“I told him to get out if he won't help and he did exactly that. He'll probably go back to the hotel, I suppose it's fine since I know where he is.”)
‘If he only knew…’
“Thoughts and prayers.” He mutters to himself, earning a weird look from Atsushi.