A Long Day and A Father to Seven [BSD oneshot]

. . .

Everyone in the Armed Detective Agency was undeniably drained. If the Port Mafia were to raid them right now, they'd be as good as dead. An extremely difficult case had come up while Ranpo was out of town and had stolen every ounce of energy that each member of the agency possessed to solve. That didn't mean that Ranpo wasn't exhausted as well though. He didn't really have an issue with the case he was responsible for, but on the way back he had an entire squad of assassins on his tail which led to him having to figure out how to drive a plane while quite literally dodging death due to the assassins somehow infiltrating the plane and killing both pilots. That combined with the detective's limited battle experience left him incredibly worn out by the time he got back.

Funnily enough, the person who seemed the least tired was the only one who was slacking off on work; Dazai Osamu. The older members already knew this lack of sleepiness was really just thanks to his terrible sleeping habits as well as him just being incredibly good at keeping up facades and not because he hadn't pulled his own weight in the case. In fact, back in the earlier days of the agency, Kunikida had sworn he had seen him get shot, but Dazai was so good at hiding it that he eventually concluded that he had only been seeing things. You could imagine poor Kunikida's horror when Dazai brought it up weeks later dismissively as if a gunshot wound wasn't worth worrying about. Ranpo added to the story by admitting that he knew of the gunshot wound but never told them because he was confident in Dazai's ability to patch himself up.  He was right, as always, and the brunette ended up completely fine. This did little to ease everyone else though. Yosano made sure to force Ranpo to tell them about any wound he noticed that she couldn't pick up on when it came to Dazai from that day on until Dazai opened up to them more. However, judging from the smirks and eyebrow wiggles Ranpo and Dazai openly shared back then, everyone was fairly sure that Ranpo never gave the complete truth.

That of course, was the past, and Dazai being the only one resting on the couch was the present. Not for long though.

Dazai wasn't asleep, to be fair, just listening to something on his headphones while laying taking on the couch as if it were a bed. After a few hours of rather unproductive work, Kenji finally just got up from his chair and stumbled toward the couch sleepily. Dazai wordlessly took off his headphones, got into a sitting position, and scooted a bit to the side, allowing the tired blonde ball of sunshine to use the armrest of the couch as a pillow. Only after the brunette knew Kenji was comfortable did he put his headphones back over his ears and lean his head back into the soft couch cushions. The couch that Dazai frequented wasn't the only one in the agency, but it seemed he didn't really have any problem sharing it with Kenji. In fact, he didn't even react when the kid shifted in his sleep and somehow ended up leaning on Dazai's arm. On the contrary, he took off his headphones and tossed them gently onto the table in front of him so as to not disrupt Kenji's slumber.

Atsushi was the second to give up on working. He quietly got up from his seat and, after walking over to Dazai, sheepishly asked if he could sit with him as well. If the boy was perfectly awake and aware, he surely would have been too embarrassed to ask this, but in his sleep-deprived condition, it seemed he had thrown all caution to the wind. Dazai reached his free arm out to him invitingly so Atsushi ungracefully plopped down onto the couch side opposite to Kenji. Dazai placed his arm around him gently as Atsushi laid his head on his shoulder. So now there were three on the couch; Kenji leaning on Dazai and away from the right armrest, Atsushi also leaning on Dazai but not even near the left armrest, and the man himself supporting both of them. It was kind of adorable if you asked the other members.

Not long after, Kyouka also silently shuffled to the couch and sat next to Atsushi without any forewarning, leaning onto him as if he were a pillow. Dazai, as if reading Atsushi's mind, removed his arm to let Atsushi put his own arm around the girl that he considered his sister. Only after Atsushi did that did Dazai drape his arm back around both of the siblings. Now only three adults remained in their seats, but not for long.