That Night

Chapter Twenty-Two

"How many times do I have to tell you? I'm not doing your work, Dazai." I exclaim, getting irritated with his nagging. I only have another hour until I can leave, my work is done, and Dazai is trying to get me to finish his.

"Please, Atsushi." He begs. "I'll buy you your favorite food."

"Bribery doesn't work on me, Dazai." I turn to look at him. "If you want something, then beg Chuuya for it. I bet he'd like that. Spice things up a bit."

"Hey!" Chuuya exclaims from across the room.

I just shrug, amused with his reddening face. "It's true."

He glares at me before rolling his eyes. "Whatever, I'm going to see if Ranpo left any snacks in the lounge." He pushes away from his desk and leaves the room.

"CHUUYA WAIT FOR ME!" Dazai screams, following his boyfriend out of the room.

I looked over at Kunikida, who had just entered the room. "What was that about?"

"Just Dazai being Dazai." I respond.

"Of course. He's a leech. Literally." He sits at his desk before opening his drawer. After taking a quick glance around the room, he pulls something out of the drawer and tosses it to me. "I managed to keep that out of Ranpo's clutches just for you."

I caught the item and looked at it, a smile spreading across my face. "Thanks, Kunikida."

"No problem. You're the most tolerable person in this building anyway." He nods before going back to his work.

I smile and unwrap the candy before sticking it in my mouth.

As time passes, Chuuya comes back into the room, and Dazai is nowhere to be seen.

"What happened to Dazai?" I ask, not particularly caring about what happened as much as I am curious.

"Nothing. He's sleeping." Chuuya shrugs as he gets back to work.

"Sleeping?" Kunikida asks, apparently just as skeptical as I am.

"Yep. I may have hit him a little too hard and knocked him out, but he's sleeping."

Kunikida and I share a look before quietly going back to what we were doing, not really wanting to know why or how Dazai got knocked out by someone over a foot shorter than him.

In the remaining time I have until I get to leave, I allow my mind to wander. Not that it's hard.

Nothing in particular keeps me occupied as random thoughts and memories flash through my mind. Strangely, nothing Ryu has done recently can even keep my attention.

I get up and head to the bathroom, my hand straying to my forehead, unconsciously checking its temperature.

I step into the bathroom and look into the mirror. Nothing looks different. I don't feel different. I'm not panicking. I'm not anxious. Come to think about it, I haven't had any sort of attack or flashback in a while. Not even my schizophrenia has made an appearance.

Should I be concerned?

Turning on the sink, I fill my hands with water and splash it on my face to try snapping myself out of this strange stupor I'm in. I look around the room, looking for nothing in particular. I stop moving and mentally locate and follow the rhythm of my heartbeat.

I don't feel anything.

My mind is blank. I can't even stick with a thought.

It's like my mind is spinning in a void, almost as though I were dizzy, but nothing around me is spinning. I don't even feel dizzy.