"Please, do relax a little. I simply wished to take this time to see how you've been settling in", he motioned for her to take a seat in one of the plush chairs before his desk as he sank into his own happily, Elise laying on the ground nearby drawing away silently, though she did flash a glance at Dez.
"We're family now", Mori continued, "Yet I haven't taken the chance to check in on things. I know that my son can be a bit...of a handful at times, so I do hope that he hasn't caused you too many issues". He smiled, clasping his hands together as he studied the girl with a rather intensive gaze.
"Please - tell me if you've been having any concerns regarding our arrangement. I do wish for you to be comfortable".
My part for the SSKKBB2020 (or SKB20^2) Really makes me think about all the incomplete and unposted things from 2019 until now.
Anyway, my partner this time was the lovely PrinceMeerKat on AO3, under the same name on twitter, so give them a follow and a kudos.
Their fic Step To You can be found here.
The most interesting thing, Mori thought, was that Dazai didn’t cry. There had been plenty for the boy to cry about, really. He was the sole survivor of a home fire and apparently had only survived because he’d been locked in the basement and while the fire had ravished the building above, it had left the stone foundation intact.
He was quiet but not well behaved. Mori had seen him do a number things no child that age does, really. All the way from age six to twelve, he had looked endearing but used his prodigious intellect and always listening ears to ask the most inappropriate and heartwrenching questions. It was easy to put anyone off-balance when Dazai was there, sitting prim in the small tailored suit Mori had bought him, looking pretty as a doll until he opened his mouth:
“I’m sorry that you won’t be with us much longer, cancer, isn’t it?”
“Your wife cheated on you, didn’t she? I would say that was unfortunate, but she wasn’t satisfied with you.”
“You should know, your bastard son isn’t safe, we already know who he is.”
It had been off-putting for a six year old to point out someone’s heart murmur and had been terrifying for a twelve year old to tell a man his own assassination plans, as if he had been reading his mind.
Dazai was useful in a way no other toy would be, for Mori. Which is why he treated the boy well, groomed him as he needed but had introduced pain in a logical way, a way that Dazai could understand. Pain was a punishment, a punishment was a lesson, the lesson was vital to his survival. (It was a pity that Dazai’s motivation for living was as fragile as a candle flame in the wind, whimsical and fickle, occasionally latching on to interest but never being vivacious as Mori would like).
Dazai never cried, and he endured beautifully. Which is why Mori had to wonder, when Dazai was eighteen, who had taught him to say “No, stop!” It was only a matter of time before he found out and taught Dazai a new lesson.
Such simple words, yet when they came from Miran, they truly meant the world to him. It really wasn't fair though. He'd been attempting to stay mad at her, yet she'd just walked in, sat on the bed and whispered those words, as though she hadn't been driving him crazy only a few moments ago! And the worst thing was, he felt his lips move. He smiled. He was supposed to be upset!
"...I'm still annoyed", he grumbled, burying his face into the pillow he'd been laying on, trying to hide the way in which his lips kept curling into a soft smile just because she was near. What was it about this woman that caused him to just fall apart like this? After everything he'd been through, because of her, yet he was now willing to give up his life for her? Was he mad? Maybe....Maybe those experiments had done more than give him this dumb ability.
"...you can't keep going out and risking your life like that - if you get hurt again I'll be pissed off", he grumbled, slowly lifting his head to glare towards her, "I can't handle you and Shirase...only one of you can be dumb at a time! And...". He sighed, reaching out, his hand gently taking hold of Mirans,
"Your smile is much more wonderful than mine, Princess".
Hmm. Why did it feel as though he'd been down this pathway before now? He sighed, pausing for a moment, glancing around him before sighing - it also felt as though someone had been following him, but surely no one was foolish enough to try and sneak up on him, right? Still, the Boss had said that the location was near here, yet no matter how often he paused to look over the map, everything was looking about the same.
Shaking his head, he decided that if the ground wasn't working, he might as well try the roof - maybe he'd be able to see if he was actually being followed from there too, though just before he took to the sky, he spotted a hint of movement, spinning quickly on his heel to glare in their direction.
"Alright - you can come out now!". Honestly, he was more annoyed at the idea of someone having witnessed just how lost he'd gotten rather than actually being followed by this point.
He had to be one of the worst people to ask to perform a job like this. He wasn't good with children and the awkward silence that had built between them since leaving the police station, only continued to grow. He was simply there to make sure that she got back home and that she stayed there, but that didn't stop him from feeling a bit uneasy. Should he ask how she was? What had happened? Anything at all?
"...Elyon, right? Your uncle was worried about you..."
"...Miran".
He glanced around the room one more time, before back at his wife, as though wondering if she could see the same as he was. The twins were barely crawling at the moment, Rai was simply grateful just to have a roof over his head and Strelitzia certainly wasn't expecting the entirety of Santa's Grotto to appear under the tree...yet that was what seemed to have ended up happening here.
"...do you think that maybe, just maybe, we might have got a little carried away?". He couldn't put all the blame on her - he had gone a little overboard for the twins, since it was their first Christmas and all - and then there was all the new clothing for Rai since he'd barely anything to his name before Miran took him in...but still.
"How are we even going to wrap all this...how have you kept all this hidden...you sure your ability isn't something like dimension storage...?"
Ah, how peaceful it was once everyone had gone to bed. Now was the one time of the day that they both had the chance to sit back and simply enjoy the silence that came with all the children now being fast asleep - and as it was the weekend, a wee cheeky drink was allowed, right? Oda sipped on his glass as he watched the flames of their fireplace grow stronger, a comforting warmth washing over the room, beckoning in sleep that he wasn't wishing to fall to, at least not at that moment.
"Is that everyone?", he asked in a soft voice as Miran sat back by his side, passing her a glass of wine, before gently wrapping an arm around her shoulders, "Another successful week - how are you feeling?"
