"Is that the last one?" She asked when yet another suitcase was loaded into the bus after she let out a long yawn. "Yes, we're ready to go." Kenji replied with a smile. "Thanks for helping Kenji-kun." She returned the smile despite feeling too tired to move any muscle in her body.
At least it was the good kind of tired. Long story short, after their walk in the forest they haven't left their room all day yesterday. Even now they seemed to be joined at the hip. Needless to say she enjoyed the trip a lot. It even seemed like it did what it was supposed to do. Compared to before the members of the Guild and the members of the Agency were a lot more comfortable around each other, it was easy to tell just from where everyone was sitting in the bus now.
Unlike before it was all mixed up, even Louisa was talking to someone from the Agency. Turned out she and Kunikida shared a common interest in book binding.
"Maybe he took my advice to heart?" Dazai asked her thoughtfully. They were sitting far enough away for them to not hear. Clarissa couldn't be bothered to lift her head off his shoulder when she replied. "It wasn't exactly advice. Besides, I don't think she's his type."
Dazai moved to rest his cheek against the top of her head. "You think? Seems like their kind of alike." She yawned again. How was he not tired? "Exactly. She might even fit his... what was it? Fifty-eight ideals. But... he's the type of person who needs someone who challenges him. Louisa is too sweet for that."
He huffed. "He'd probably disagree but you make a good point." She felt him nod slightly, and he started rolling a strand of her hair between his fingers.
The rest of the journey felt a lot shorter than it did when they traveled to the onsen. Maybe because she didn't have to worry about planning out everything as much anymore. Or maybe it was because she was half asleep the entire time.
When they were finally back home she left the suitcase at the door and fell face first onto her bed to take a proper nap. Only when she woke up a while later she had some time to let the events of the previous day sink in.
She told Dazai she loved him. He told her he loved her too. It still felt like something that happened to two other people.
But the more she thought about it the more she realized how... naturally it all progressed between the two of them. Yes, they skipped a few steps when they turned their friendship into something else by hooking up right away. But after that, they dated, got to know each other more, spend a lot of time at each others places, made it official and then admitted to their true feelings for each other.
When she looked at it in that light it sounded so normal. Which was probably why she had trouble believing it was something that happened to her since nothing in her life had ever been normal. But she had to admit, she liked it. What they had was still unique though.
The weeks after their trip went by quietly. There were some cases where they started involving members of the Guild even though they could have handled it themselves. But they were more comfortable learning how they could work together.
She and Dazai were doing better than ever too. He took the bandages off in front of her more often and it felt like he was more comfortable it every time.
Everything went well until Dazai and Kunikida returned to the office completely soaked, smelling like, well...
"Oh bloody hell!" She covered her nose the moment they stepped through the door. "Did you crawl through the sewers?!" Clarissa rolled back her chair until it was at the other end of the room.
"Yes." Kunikida answered shortly. It looked like he cleaned off his glasses but the rest of him was covered in a very questionably colored liquid. So was Dazai.
"Go home and clean yourselves off, why do you have to subject us to this smell?!" She complained loudly. Atsushi already opened all windows and leaned so far out of one she was worried he would fall out. It was probably even worse to his sensitive nose.
Dazai sighed. "Don't blame me, blame him." He said, pointing at his taller partner. "We promised the president we'd report back as soon as we return." The blonde... well he didn't exactly look blonde anymore, replied.
They were in the president's office for about five seconds. "Told you he wouldn't be happy to see and smell us like this." Dazai laughed when they came back out. Everyone in the room was covering their nose, except for Atsushi who was sitting on the window frame now.
"Get out already!" Ranpo yelled, throwing a pen at them. "You're going to catch a cold if you don't get changed into some dry clothes. On top of whatever other kind of diseases you probably already caught." Yosano added, her voice sounding different because she was pinching her nose.
Turned out the young doctor was right. The next day Kunikida called in sick. Dazai showed up, insisting he was fine. It wouldn't really be surprising since she already noticed his immune system was very resilient. But she could tell he wasn't really focused during work.
"You're burning up." She scolded him when she walked behind him to feel his forehead. "I'm fine, it's just way too hot in here." He insisted. Clarissa sighed and grabbed his arm to pull him out of his seat. "Hey, let me go where are you... why are you so strong?!"
He complained the entire way to the infirmary where it took them another few minutes to convince him to get examined by Yosano. "Urgh. This is really bad." The black haired woman groaned after listening to his lungs, the end of the stethoscope touching between the white bandages.
Clarissa blinked concerned. "Bad? What is it?" Yosano sighed deeply. "A common cold." The redhead frowned. "Don't scare me like that I thought it was something actually bad." She complained but the other woman chuckled. "It's bad enough if it's him." Her gloved fingers pointed at Dazai while he pulled his shirt down again and rolled his eyes.
"I'm right here, don't talk about me in third person." Yosano glared at him. "Alright, I will. You're the absolute worst patient. Making sure you take your medicine properly is absolutely impossible. And you never actually rest. Which is ironic since I always find you napping on one of the beds here when you're supposed to be doing paper work."
The redhead was really glad she wasn't on the receiving end of that rant. She made a mental note to just do whatever Yosano told her when she was treating her because... she could be scary when she wanted to be.
"It's such a pain to deal with, it always requires my full attention and I fall behind with my own work. But... luckily for both of us..." Oh... oh she did not like where this was going. Clarissa stood behind the doctor but carefully stepped back now. But after just one step she felt her hand around her wrist.
"You have a loving and caring girlfriend now who will be happy to take some time off work to nurse you back to health. Right, Clarissa-chan?" She turned her head to smile at her with a smile that send chills down her spine. Urgh.
She groaned and covered her face with her free hand. "Give me the medicine." The British woman grumbled. Yosano stood up and when to look for it. "Don't make this harder than it has to be." She warned Dazai while the doctor was busy.
"You're the ones insisting anything even has to be done. I'm fine." He crossed his arms in front of his chest and puffed his cheeks. It made him look like a very tall five-year old. "There it is." Yosano came back and handed her the pill bottle. "How many does he have to take?" Clarissa sighed.
"One in the morning and two in the evening." She said but the redhead frowned. "No. I mean how many does he have to take, so he'll be passed out all day?" She clarified. Dazai sighed happily. "You really are the perfect woman, my love."
Yosano rolled her eyes at them. "You two are perfect for each other at least, I'll give you that." She mumbled, pinching the bridge of her nose. "One in the morning. Two in the evening. Make sure he drinks a lot of water and tea, eats and gets a lot of sleep."
The doctor said sternly. "I don't want to see you back here for at least four days." She added, warning Dazai.
"She's scary." Dazai commented once they were in front of the elevator. "Not as scary as I will be if you don't do as I tell you in the next four days." She grumbled and moved her hand to feel his forehead again. "106." Yosano took his temperature before.
"How are you even standing up straight?" He shrugged but closed his eyes and leaned into her cool hand slightly.
They decided to go to her place. He already had some sleeping clothes at hers anyway. "You should wash up first before getting some sleep." She decided while she led him to the bathroom. "Are you going to join me at least?" He asked with a flirty tone.
"Yes but no funny business. I don't want to catch your cold." The woman warned him, and he luckily didn't argue with her. It was a good thing he was okay with her seeing him without the bandages now, it made showering together a lot less uncomfortable with the wet fabric all over him. And with a fever like he had now he would sweat through them in a matter of hours too.
"You're really going to force me to sleep all day? That sounds so boring." He complained while she stood behind him and washed his hair. "We can just watch something online. Or read. Just something you can do while also resting. Don't be so grumpy about this, usually you have to issues with being lazy." He groaned. "It's different when I have no choice but to do nothing all day."
She took the shower head and rinsed out his hair. "I guess that makes sense. But you are doing something. You're taking care of yourself." He shrugged, leaning back his head a bit while he closed his eyes. "That's something I never do." Dazai pointed out.
Clarissa paused. "Yeah but... it'd be nice if you'd start trying... I'd like to keep you around for a while." She said quietly and turned off the water. He didn't reply. Even while she was blow-drying his hair he was suspiciously quiet.
It wasn't until he laid down in the bed he spoke up again. "Lay down with me for a while? I won't even bother you while you finish up your report, I'll just read something." He promised, looking at her with those annoying puppy eyes, so she gave in.
He kept his promise. She was tapping away on her laptop while he read a book. "Ah, finally done." Clarissa sighed and stretched her arms over her head. When she looked next to herself she noticed that Dazai had fallen asleep with the book on his chest. She tried to quietly put her laptop away but the movement woke him up.
"Go back to sleep." She said softly and brushed through his hair while the other took his book to lay it on the nightstand. His head still felt really warm and his face looked flushed. He grumbled and leaned into her hand. "Finally accepting that you're sick?"
Dazai sighed. "I guess I'm not feeling completely fine... I didn't notice until I actually laid down and relaxed though." He mumbled sleepily. Of course, he was the type to fight against the symptoms to the point he didn't even notice them unless he relaxed.
She laid down with him and pulled him against her chest. After he fell asleep again she took a nap as well. She woke up well before him though and got up to make some work calls and then ordered some food. For Dazai she got some miso soup with crab. It seemed like something she could easily convince him to eat but would still be good for him at the moment.
After the food arrived she went to check on Dazai who was still asleep. But it was time for his medicine, so she carefully woke him up. "Osamu. Wake up and eat something, yeah? After that you can go back to sleep." She promised and laid the tray on his lap after he sat up. The pills he had to take were next to a glass of water.
"You're a much better nurse than Yosano-san." Dazai huffed softly and started eating his soup. "Well, she's a doctor and not a nurse but... yeah, her bedside manner is absolutely awful." She nodded in agreement.
"How are you feeling?" Clarissa asked, tilting her head to study him carefully. His forehead looked sweaty again, and he could barely keep his eyes open. "Fine." He said quickly but then looked up at her with a sigh. "Actually... kind of loopy. And my throat hurts. But this makes it feel better." Dazai said, pointing at the soup with his spoon.
She smiled, glad she seemed to be doing everything right so far. After all it was the first time she was taking care of someone while they were sick. After he took the medicine and finished dinner they took his temperature again.
"Your fever is going down already, that's a relief." Clarissa breathed softly. "Sorry you had to take the day off. You should go back to work again tomorrow, I'll be fine. It's not like you'll be far away." He shrugged but he shook her head.
"No, Akiko-chan is right. I'd rather keep an eye on you. You'd probably try to overdose on the medicine." She rolled her eyes while she spoke.
"I wouldn't." He said so seriously it caught her full attention. "I... I mean, I probably would have a few months ago to test if it would be a painless way to go but..." His face looked flushed, and she wondered if it wash just the fever. "Being alive hasn't been so bad lately." He said and raised his head to look at her.
She blinked at him, feeling her heart skip a beat because she realized the meaning behind those words. So she leaned in to kiss him. But before her lips could touch his he turned his head. "What are you doing? You'll catch my cold." Clarissa smiled at him.
"That's fine. If I do... you're going to take care of me too, right?" He turned his head to look at her again and his lips slowly turned up in a smile. "Of course." Dazai nodded and kissed her.
When she was sick she usually hid herself from the world and just took care of herself. Allowing herself to trust Dazai enough to take care of her in that kind of state seemed like nothing scary to her anymore though.
After wiping off some of the cold sweat with a damp wash cloth he was back to sleep right away. She wondered if he had just powered through it if they hadn't forced him to stay home. From her experience every gifted person had more strength and endurance than a regular person. Even if their ability wasn't a physical one and had nothing to do with strength.
Dazai had without a doubt much more endurance than anyone she had met before though. It was probably the only reason he actually managed to survive his suicide attempts so far. And he seemed to not get sick often either. But that might just be because he hid it well.
Over the next few days he managed to recover quickly in her care. She did stay off from work even though she trusted him not to do anything stupid she knew she wouldn't be able to focus anyway. Luckily she didn't end up getting sick, so they were both back to work after the four days Yosano ordered him to stay home.
Kunikida was back a few days later. "Next time please get out of those wet clothes right away, Akiko-chan was right, you were lucky the only thing you both got was a cold." She chided the tall detective. "I learned my lesson, trust me." He replied with a sigh and bowed his head to her slightly. "Thank you for sending food to my place during that time it was very helpful."
Clarissa waved him off. "Don't mention it." She hadn't visited him because she doubted he would even open the door to anyone but the doctor, but she felt like she should do at least this much.
"Wait. What? And here I felt special because you were taking care of me." Dazai whined dramatically. "Do I have to be worried?" He asked suspiciously. Clarissa and Kunikida looked at each other for a moment before they both chuckled.
"Come on, we both know I don't even meet half of those fifty-eight ideals." She assured Dazai while still laughing but Kunikida stopped. "How do you know that?" He asked with a frown. "Oh, I swiped it off you and read through it during my first day here." The redhead said with an innocent shrug.
The blonde gritted his teeth. "You two are perfect for each other." He commented in an eerily calm tone but the vein on his forehead gave away his real mood.
She grinned at Dazai who winked at her. "Agreed."