Will You Take My Hand? (Bungo Stray Dogs Soukoku)[Book 2]

Chapter 14- Such a Headache

Warning
Flashback
Miya is her own adorable warning

"Do you ever miss your family, Dazai?"

The question hit me so suddenly, making me have to process it before I could answer.

I looked over at Chuuya in the bathroom of the hotel we were certain staying in due to a mission we had finished earlier in the day.

"Nope," I answered as bluntly as I could, rolling over on my stomach and getting frustrated with my loosing bandages. "I was never close with my family, only the servants that took care of me."

He looked at me from where he was standing in front of the mirror looking over the little love bites and markings I had just left over his body. He was frowning, my answer seeming to no settle right with him.

I heaved a sigh, pushing myself up from the bed and walking over to him, unwrapping my bandages as I did.

"There was one servant that was more motherly to me than my own was. My parents were always praising my brother and spoiling him with new gifts, but even though that servant worked for my family, she treated me with care."

I came to stand right behind Chuuya, his eyes locking with mine in the mirror. My arms, now unbandaged, came around his waist to pull him back against me.

"She was beautiful and had the kindest heart I had ever seen, especially for someone who went through such a horrible tragedy."

"Tragedy? What happened?" Chuuya turned around in my arms, helping me unravel the bandages around my neck and chest.

I frowned, remembering her broken words and red, tear stained cheeks. "She had lost her entire family. Her husband had been murdered and her eight sons all taken, seven of them later found dead in various ways."

Chuuya stopped, his eyes staring at my chest before he tilted his head up to look at me. "What about the last one?"

Looking at Chuuya look so hurt by this, the same exact look on his face that Fuku had had on hers, it was painful. I couldn't do much to comfort her but I was able to cup Chuuya's face in my hands and press my lips to his forehead.

"He was never found," I answered into his hair as he pressed his face into my chest and wrapped his arms around my waist. "She said that she had hoped for me to have met him since he was my age."

I smiled a bit, running my fingers through red curls. "She gave me a few of his favorite things, saying she hoped I could love them as much as he did. At first, I thought it odd but I did come to love them."

"Do you still have any of them?" Chuuya asked, pulling back to continue work at removing my bandages.

I nodded. "Most of the stuff was lost in the fire of my manor but I was able to save my favorite of the things she gave me."

Chuuya reached over, taking a new roll of bandages before he slowly began rolling them over my body, starting at my waist. "What is it?"

I smiled. "An old fairy tale book that told a story of a boy made of wood who wanted to be real."

That seemed to make him smile. "Who would have thought the Demon Prodigy still has a children's book? That's honestly hard to believe."