Em ♡♥︎♡ 27 ♥︎♡♥︎ icon by l-0puko ♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎ tip jar https://ko-fi.com/emdlare♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡ nsfw on https://www.patreon.com/emdlare (+18)
A gift I made for @emdlare! Thank you so much for being awesome! Here's a short story for you!
Also available on AO3
Power couldn’t see where she was going. She heard the tweeting of some birds, and she could feel the leaves being crushed under her feet, but she couldn’t see what was going on. That was odd. She always thought she could only trust what was ahead of her, never what was behind… and never what was inside. And yet, here she was, now trusting something else. Someone else. Her buddy, Denji.
“How much longer must this take, Denji?! You bore me with this childish game!” Denji’s hands were covering her eyes. It was his request, and she listened. For some reason. She couldn’t give you a coherent answer why.
“Oh, you’re such a baby sometimes,” He said, not really seriously, evident from the small chuckle he gave afterward. Even she could tell from that. Didn’t improve her impatience at all, however.
But she must’ve admitted, she didn’t really mind. After all, his wrist was so close to her face. She could feel the blood pumping in them. His blood. Something she had grown a fondness and familiarity with. She knew his blood far more than she knew anyone else's. She could tell so much of his feelings just from his blood alone. Like how his heart was beating a little fast today. He was excited, anxious even. She wasn’t sure why. But, it made her anxious too. What could it possibly be?
“Just… a… few… more steps, and we’re here!” Suddenly, Power’s eyes weren't covered. And a garden formed by nature herself appeared. Beds of several different kinds of flowers were surrounded by a circle of trees. They were rainbows made of life.
“Happy birthday!” Denji said.
That’s right. A few months ago, Denji had asked her when her birthday was. She thought it was a strange request. Devils aren’t born but reborn at random dates. The best she could give was the date of her first memory. Power didn’t think anything of it at the time. But she certainly did now. Her jaw went slack at the sight.
“I, uh… remember how much you wanted those flowers back at the cafe sooo, I went out hunting in the forest to find a whole buffet for you.” Denji rubbed the back of his neck. Power looked around. The sunlight peeked through the spaces the leaves of the trees left alone and hit the flowers in such a way that made it looked like they glowed. Power couldn’t speak. She could only compare it to being stunned from a Devil attack, except pleasant. Well… almost pleasant. It took her a minute to speak again.
“I… can’t believe it! That’s what you were doing when you said you were too busy to hang out! And-... wait, buffet?” The girl tilted her head.
“Yeah, I thought you wanted to eat them,” Denji shrugged.
“Huh?! What sorcery are you talking about?!” Power recoiled in horror.
“It’s what I’d do with them.” Denji bent down and picked one of the flowers up. It was yellow and dainty. He put it in his mouth and started munching on it. Power looked around before spotting just what she was looking for.
“Ugh, non-meat. You humans’ love of plants disgusts me.”
“Oh, yeah?” Denji pulled the barely-recognizable flower out of his mouth. “What would you rather wanna do then?” He shouldn’t have asked. Because he just gave Power an excuse. She gave him a small smile that showed a bit of her sharp teeth before pouncing on him, they tumbled across the bed of flowers laughing the whole time. When they came to a stop, Power ended up on top of him. They both drunkenly smiled at each other before she took a step to the left and laid beside him. Both of the duo’s hands were on their chests as they took the time to catch their breaths, their smiles never leaving their faces as they lay in a perfect mixture of sun and shade. Eventually Power crossed her arms behind her head as well as crossed her feet. She chortled for a sec.
“You really thought I was going to eat them? Of course, you did.” She turned to look at Denji before laughing. A blush painted his cheeks.
“Hey! They have a lot of nutritional value and less people yell at you for stealing them. So, I used to eat them as a kid. I know which ones I like, and I thought you did too. I mean, why else would you want them?” Power’s laughter came to a sudden stop. The hint of pink in her face matched her hair.
“...because… well, because they seem to mean something to you. You held onto them like a child. Were you always gonna eat them?” Denji looked at the sky before answering.
“Nah, I wasn’t gonna eat them this time. I had this dumb idea in my head that something was gonna go somewhere. So I thought maybe instead of seeing it as food, it could be a gift to someone else. Thought it be another change to my life in the city, but turned out to be nothing. To be honest… maybe I should’ve just given them to you to begin with. They didn’t even taste that good.” Power looked at him with a little frown, until it grew into a big smile again. She rolled until she laid on her side with her hand holding her head up. Denji turned to look at her.
“Well, you certainly made it up with this birthday present!”
“Heh, yeah… guess I did.” Denji laid frozen for a moment… before giving Power a quick peck on the lips. He quickly picked himself off and started dashing off. Power’s eyes were wide as she sat up and covered her lips with both her hands. She stared at where Denji ran off towards.
“WHY DID YOU DO THAT?!!” She yelled as loud as she could to make sure he heard her.
“IT FELT LIKE THE RIGHT THING TO DO, I’M SORRY!” His voice echoed from a distance. She wanted to chase after him and oh, she will. But as she stared at her hands, now stained from her already stained lips, she had a thought. She looked around, making sure even no critters were around… before kissing her own hand. Denji didn’t give her just one birthday present, he had given her two.
My piece for dazatsu exchange 2026 for @kryonix ♡ I hope u like it, I tried to mix every prompt you wrote which were hanahaki disease, hurt/comfort and abo :D well except it isnt fluffy abo but angsty, I hope you dont mind!
For the Dazatsu Exchange 2026: here you go- @emdlare!!
Event organizer: @dazatsuweek
I really liked the coffee shop idea and the concept of Dazai having a crush on customer Atsushi: mainly because he's giving him coffee for free!! But I hope it was okay that I added Atsushi having a bad day, seeing Dazai being a godsend!!
Dazai making Atsushis day a bit better with a cup of coffee ahhh ( ＾ω＾ ) i rlly love how you drew their expressions and that last panel is so so pretty!!!! This just made my day THANK U SO MUCH!!!!!! ♡♡♡
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blakekathryn
