"Good morning everyone~" Dazai announced his presence as he pushed past the agency doors.

Kunikida's head immediately shot up, glasses nearly falling down his face with the sheer force of the movement. "Idiot Dazai! You finally show up to work after a week-"

Then the blonde noticed the figure behind Dazai, a familiar redhead clutching into his tan coat.

"You're scaring innocent children," Dazai said flatly, tone lower and more gentle than Kunikida had ever heard it.

Dazai then leaned closer to Kunikida's ear "avoid yelling, he's a victim of abuse."

Kunikida clamped his mouth shut, lips drawn into a thin line. It made sense now, the puzzle pieces interlocking. The way Chuuya had cowered when he aged up and having a panic attack when no kid his age should be experiencing such emotions of terror.

Dazai had been the one to calm him down, and he did it better than any of them could.

Dazai and Chuuya were still a mystery to Kunikida, but now he was starting to see both of them in a different light.

"Of course," he nodded, kneeling down to eye level with where Chuuya was staring at the floor.

"My name is Kunikida Doppo," he telegraphed his movements, slowly holding a hand out for the child to stare at in surprise.

Chuuya looked up to Dazai with bright eyes, and Dazai tapped his shoulder as if prompting him. "It's okay, he's one of the ones who helped get you out of that lab."

Ah, so he was... a child experiment. Kunikida knew that whoever had managed to land themselves in the port mafia- especially the higher ranking members- must have had a twisted life to lead them there.

But this was more than he had anticipated.

Chuuya obviously didn't like touching people, so Kunikida wasn't offended when instead of shaking his hand, he waved.

Kunikida smiled reassuringly, nodding in approval. Chuuya's lips twitched.

Kunikida could not believe that he was missing the smaller Chuuya's attitude and energy, though he could see it lingering under this one's tense shoulders.

Once he got accustomed to these new people then there was no doubt he would slowly but surely break through it.

"All right!" Dazai chirped, and Chuuya didn't even seem bothered. He must have been used to the bandaged disasters antics by now.

Kunikida truly felt pity for the time Chuuya had to spend with him.

A whole week.

Kunikida couldn't imagine.

"Let's meet the others," Dazai said to Chuuya "then you can sleep if you want." Kunikida knew it was just an offer but with the way Chuuya's shoulders tensed at the prospect of sleeping around these strangers, it must not have sat well with him.

When he had first seen Chuuya a week ago he looked so exhausted that he could pass out at any moment. He was small, and dangerously so, his skin the same pale shade as Dazai's.

But now he seemed to have a healthier shine to his skin, even a tinge of red on his cheeks. He still was small, he would never not be, but he seemed to gain the strength he lacked and no longer looked like he could collapse at any moment.

Dazai had taken care of him considerably well.

Maybe Kunikida would stop nagging him for the time being.

Though that quickly went down the drain when Dazai introduced Atsushi as an overgrown cat.

———-

Chuuya's blue eyes darted across the room, it was the same one he had woken up in. He found it strange how his first memory of ever being busted out of that place had been waking up here.

He guessed he could chalk it up to fatigue, he hadn't eaten much for a couple of days before, after retaliating against the lab workers.

Sometimes he had to pinch his skin raw just to make sure he was here and it wasn't some twisted nightmare. (Even if he never had those, his night thoughts came as flashbacks, his mind unable to conjure up any dreams.)

Chuuya wished he could not have to worry about watching his back any longer, that he could just make things easier for himself and trust these new people.

But after his time in that place, it made it so incredibly hard.

Slowly but surely he had been dropping hints of his life to the man with bandages, the one who took him back to his place and offered to let him stay there.

The bandaged man was strange, Chuuya had discovered. Chuuya could tell he was curious, yet he never pressed for answers. Personality-wise he was charming and patient, though Chuuya had a bastard detector and Dazai was definitely one of those.

And by Dazai's co-workers' reactions to Dazai, Chuuya could tell that he normally didn't act as he had been in the past few days.

He was a slack off that didn't do his work, but he was nice to Chuuya, he may tease him at times but he always explained what things were and never lost his temper as the others at the lab did.

So Chuuya didn't hate him.

So he stuck to him when they entered the office, scanning the occupants. He vaguely remembered their faces from when he was stuck in his panicked haze, and momentarily felt a rush of shame when he realized that all of them had seen him break down.

The first man introduced himself as Kunikida, he was a tall man and treated Chuuya like he was fragile.

Chuuya instinctively inched away from his outstretched hand, but he didn't want to seem weak or rude, so instead, he waved. The man didn't seem to care, in fact, he seemed satisfied.

Then Dazai led him to where his desk was, another man sat next to it, though he looked significantly younger with white hair and multi-colored eyes. Something about him was off-putting and Chuuya could tell that he hid power behind that nervous demeanor of his.

"Hi, Chuuya!" He greeted carefully "I'm Atsushi." He smiled brightly but didn't hold a hand out, and for that Chuuya found himself thankful.

He simply nodded, letting Dazai lead him to the next clump of desks. These kids looked young, older than Chuuya but too young to be working an agency job.

Chuuya narrowed his eyes, was this agency some kind of cover-up for child labor?

One of the kids, a blonde, waved brightly. Chuuya saw the hand in the air and aimed his head away out of its trajectory, preparing for the familiar sting to hit his cheek.

It never came, Chuuya opened his eye to see the hand still in the air, but now the boy was frowning. Chuuya could tell that this boy didn't frown too much, he looked like the bright happy go lucky type.

"I'm sorry," he apologized, but Chuuya shrugged him off.

"'S fine."

The smile returned to the boy's face "I'm Kenji! And you're the wall walking dude!"

Chuuya's eyes darkened as he backed away, his whole body instantly tensing up like a coil.

How did he know that?

Only the lab would know that he could walk on walls.

No, he needed out he needed to go-

A hand was on his shoulder, the familiar weight of a bandaged hand and Chuuya hated that he relaxed into it.

He was supposed to be on alert at all times, ready to escape, but it was hard to think that around Dazai, the one who had strangely gained his trust.

"-uuya, Chuuya." Dazai said, rust-colored eyes meeting Chuuya's azure ones "it's okay, we all know of your... capabilities. The only reason we know this is because we retrieved your files from the facility we burned it down."

Right, that made sense. They got the records of the testing trials before they... burned it down. It was gone, ashes, he couldn't go back there.

Chuuya took a steady breath before continuing to the next kid, a dark-haired girl with an emotionless face.

She analyzed him with icy eyes, and Chuuya could conclude that she had lived a life of bloodshed, just now experiencing the light. Chuuya knew this because it was something they had in common. It was easy to tell from how their eyes looked.

"Kyouka," She silently nodded, not saying much.

Chuuya liked her.

The next person they visited was worlds away from how the girl acted. He slumped back into his chair, legs kicked up on his desk as he sucked on a candy.

(Chuuya had asked what a lollipop was when he saw it on TV, Dazai had explained it slowly, claiming that Chuuya should try one.)

"Hello!" He smirked "I am the greatest detective in the world! Feast your eyes upon the great Ranpo."

Chuuya slowly nodded along with Ranpo's explanation. He reminded him of that idiot Dazai. They probably got along.

"Ne, kid you don't seem too impressed."

"I'm not," Chuuya said flatly. He felt a moment of fear grasp his heart, but when Dazai snorted from behind him, he knew he wouldn't get thrown out for the comment.

Ranpo cackled "you'll see how awesome I am! Mark my words!"

"...Sure."

"Alright enough of him," Dazai steered him away and to the next desk where a boy who looked around Atsushi's age sat. He had the same hair color as Chuuya, though it was a shade darker. "This is Tanizaki, he's a nervous person."

Tanizaki, true to the title Dazai had given him, awkwardly lifted his head from where he had been typing on the computer, a nervous smile spreading across his face.

"Hello, Chuuya-San, nice to meet you."

Chuuya scrunched up his nose at the strange honorific. What was up with that?

"...Just Chuuya," he corrected, thoroughly confused.

Dazai looked to his right and left "oh wonderful, his sister isn't around."

Chuuya decided not to question it.

Dazai pulled a thoughtful face before pointing to two doors that were side by side, one was open and Chuuya could catch a glimpse of curtains and tiles, the other was closed.

"That," Dazai gestured to the open door "is the infirmary. We don't need to go in there."

Chuuya wasn't curious about the infirmary at all, just seeing a small part of it made his breath quicken, he quickly reigned it in, nodding his head and averting his gaze.

He wasn't about to have another attack, not in front of these people and not just because he saw a room.

He couldn't just cry over every little thing that reminded him of that place, he was stronger than that.

That is what he told himself.

"And there is the boss's office. I don't feel like getting fired so we're not going in there."

Chuuya slowly nodded, eyes trained on the closed office door. Much more welcoming than the infirmary.

So he pointedly avoided it as he walked back with Dazai to his desk, sitting on a vacant chair next to it. He had already scoped out his surroundings for all possible exits in case things were to go south.

If anything happened would Dazai be on his side? From the time Chuuya had gotten to know him, he could see the brunette's cunning side even if he didn't show it around him. Maybe he would.

"Chuuya," speak of the devil and he shall appear, the man poked at his ribs and Chuuya hid the wince when it jostled his injuries.

Though nothing went unhidden in Dazai's eyes, he quickly pulled back.

"What is it?"

"Do you know your time's tables?"

Chuuya looked up at Dazai, eyes clouded in confusion. That was possibly one of the most random questions he had ever been asked.

He racked his mind for an appropriate response "...Multiplication?"

Dazai shrugged "yes, same thing."

"...No," Chuuya admitted grudgingly, crossing his arms defensively.

Dazai didn't taunt him, though Chuuya could see the humor dancing in his eyes as he turned to the blonde man, Kunikida.

"Kunikida-Kun~ You have a new student!"

This is what led to Chuuya staring over the paper in blank confusion, almost pulling at his hair. He should never have agreed to try to learn this stupid subject.

Math was stupid. Learning was stupid.

"When am I ever going to use this in life!" Chuuya finally yelled, accidentally snapping the pencil between his fingers.

Dazai laughed in the back as Kunikida shuffled over to check his work, which Chuuya knew was incredibly wrong. He had put random numbers down and prayed that by some crazy chance they were correct.

Kunikida's face remained impassive as he pulled up a chair and handed over a new pencil. Oh. Chuuya quickly looked to the remains of the pencil he had destroyed in his bit of anger. It was hard to control the amount of force he was putting into actions sometimes, and when he accidentally destroyed things at the lab...

Chuuya scrambled to pick up the pieces of the pencil, hell-bound on ignoring Kunikida's surprised grunt.

"Sorry," Chuuya grumbled, "I didn't mean t-"

A hand grabbed his, but the touch wasn't scorching and Chuuya didn't feel the normal urge to pull away. Something about Kunikida was calming, in the way that he was patient and stern yet gentle. "It's alright," Kunikida said in a low voice, "It's normal."

Chuuya's eyes widened. That was the first time someone had said something like that to him before.

It was... Alright?

It was... Normal?

The blonde man must have noticed the weight that his words carried, so he nodded firmly "No need to cry over a broken pencil when there are many more to be used. No one blames you for the loss of a replaceable object."

Chuuya slowed his breathing, slowly backing away to sit back and watch numbly as Kunikida simply swept the remains of the pencil into the trash can.

"I do that all the time too," Kenji chimed in from next to Chuuya where he and Kyouka had been working on their own work, it was something called algebra. It sounded a lot more painful than multiplication.

"It does?" Chuuya asked, apprehensive. The blonde didn't seem swayed by his closed-off attitude.

"Yes!" he nodded, clenching his fist in front of his face "I have this strange strength when I'm hungry, and sometimes it can be hard to go without breaking a few steel beams."

Chuuya's thoughts immediately lingered on how an ability such as that one could be weaponized. If that place got their hands on him then they would probably starve him to work him.

Shame and guilt tugged at his guts at the thought. He was thinking strategically as they did, the teachings they had tried to implement upon them had led him astray to some more... dark... thoughts.

"That's... cool," Chuuya replied weakly, returning to his work to listen to Kunikida to explain to him the problems he had gotten wrong.

Which was all of them.

And despite the all-encompassing feeling of failure that clawed at his insides, there was also a small tinge of... Normalcy.

A normal child would be sitting and learning school work just as he was. It was something that Chuuya never got to do until now, and a ray of light was cast upon him, a beam through the shadows of the lab.

Chuuya returned to his work, trying to keep the small tug of his lips hidden.

———

By the end of the day, Chuuya had decided that these people could be trusted. He didn't know when he would be able to truly lower his guard or stop looking for escape routes, but once he did, it would be around these people.

Growing up in his conditions, Chuuya learned to be deceptive. He could tell that no one in the agency was two-faced or had ill intentions. (And even if Dazai came off to have different sides to his less than favorable personality, Chuuya felt a strange bond to him.)

So by the end of the day, he was mentally exhausted and ready to go, Dazai practically dragging Chuuya out of the agency.

"Oh wait, he hasn't met Yosano yet!" Atsushi announced, and that was when there was a rustling from inside of the infirmary.

"Ah Atsushi-Kun, that can wait," Dazai waved him off, but Chuuya ignored their conversation, eyes trained on the infirmary.

But it seemed that the darkness creeping in the back of Chuuya's mind had corrupted his vision when the door to the infirmary opened wide, the clacking of heels could be heard as a woman exited the room.

Chuuya's eyes flashed to her face, she had a confident posture, and Chuuya would have thought that they could get along if it weren't for the stark white lab coat she wore.

She smirked just as the other scientist had, even taking off her latex gloves in the same manner as them.

Chuuya's mind immediately spiraled, the woman's shape taking on another appearance. One of a man tall in posture, glasses shining under the light as he bent over Chuuya, so uncomfortably close that Chuuya could smell his breath.

This was the same man who had been poking and prodding at Chuuya, throwing him into cages meant for small dogs and making him wear shackles, worse treatment than any other animal. Chuuya wasn't even a living being in their eyes.

A protest tore through his throat as he backed away, and he could barely hear the murmur of people coming from the background, a female voice, in particular, could be heard. She was asking what was happening.

It was the same question people had asked him when he was there.

Chuuya's breath hitched and he gained tunnel vision on the lab coats in front of him.

———-

"Ah, Atsushi-Kun that can wait," Dazai waved Atsushi off, "no need to bother her during the afternoon hours like this~"

Though it looked like no more needed to be said because Yosano was already emerging from her 'cave,' that satisfied smirk on her face as if she had just finished dissecting a new human.

She probably had.

Her lab coat swished around her as she paused to cross her arms over her face, looking down at Chuuya "Is that the young executive?"

Well... This certainly wouldn't be good.

Dazai could hear Chuuya's breath hitch and continue in an uneven pattern as his eyes fixated on the agency's doctor, his pupils shook as if looking at an invisible scene.

"No!" He yelped suddenly, desperately scooting back and hitting Dazai's stomach.

He was having a flashback.

In front of everyone.

If there was one thing that Dazai had learned about this Chuuya was that he hated showing weakness in front of everyone. Of course, he hated it when he was an adult too, but the standards the lab had forced on him held a tight leash on his inner thoughts.

He was a prisoner to his own standards.

Dazai had to get him away from the prying eyes.

So he cupped a hand over Chuuya's glazed-over eyes, looking back to Yosano, whose brows were knit together in worry.

Before Dazai could ask her to take off her lab coat, she had already shrugged it off and threw it behind her before closing the door from the infirmary.

Dazai nodded before returning his attention to Chuuya, uncovering his face. He placed a grounding hand on his face and took one of Chuuya's hands in his own, rubbing circles in it just as he had the last time Chuuya had panicked in front of him.

The method seemed to work as Chuuya came down from his panic, faster than last time. Dazai waved goodbye to the others and led Chuuya out to the hallway, letting him sit on the floor as he regained his bearings.

'Are you okay?' Would be a meaningless question, and Dazai did not ask meaningless questions, so instead, he let the silence speak for him as he passed the redhead a water bottle.

"Thanks," Chuuya's voice sounded raspy, but at least he was talking.

Chuuya furiously wiped the tears away after chugging the water, a flush settling over his face. Dazai realized that he wasn't embarrassed, but ashamed. Ashamed of something that was out of his control.

Dazai analyzed his shaking figure.

"Dammit!" Chuuya spat unexpectedly, clenching his fingers into a fist and banging it against the carpeted floor.

Dazai watched as he continued cursing, random words spewing past his lips as his voice cracked under the weight of his emotions.

He was frustrated, so frustrated. Feelings radiated off of him in waves, making Dazai want to get up and walk out of the vicinity so as to not somehow be dragged into them. But he couldn't, not when Chuuya started to drag his fingers over his scalp and tug on his hair. Hard.

Dazai was quick to put a stop to it, bringing his hands up to Chuuya's and dislodging his fingers and their iron grip one by one. "Stop it," he said, and Chuuya's arms went limp at his side.

Dazai slid down to sit across from him against the other wall, "want to tell me what that was?"

Chuuya's gaze was downcast, but no longer held the anger it once did, "no," he murmured, but continued to speak anyway. "I hated that, I hate that I can't control it. I'm out of that place," his voice was broken, and he looked up to Dazai with equally as shattered eyes "so why do I keep acting weak?"

Dazai hummed, "there are plenty of things we can't control, Chibi, and this is one of them. I won't lie and say 'it gets better' because that all depends on you." Dazai paused briefly to assess his next words, "there's nothing to be ashamed about, I'm not sure what those labs told you about 'weakness,' but this isn't it. In fact, you're strong for making it this far and just as strong for facing the consequences of what you experienced."

It seemed to be exactly what the redhead needed to hear, because his face was open in its surprise, bottom lip trembling. It was the first time Dazai had seen Chuuya this age wear such an expressive facial expression besides fear, tension, or his apprehensive looks.

He let the words sink in before clambering to his feet and holding a bandaged hand out to Chuuya, "come on, let's go back home."

Chuuya took his hand.

"Home..." he uttered under his breath as if he was saying an unfamiliar word for the first time.