Chapter Text
Elise didn’t particularly like Dazai. He was annoying and made fun of her and liked violence way too much. She always felt like he was secretly laughing at her. Plus he liked to make her disappear which was very rude!
But sometimes he wasn’t the absolute worst. He listened to her ramblings about her drawings and would help her annoy Rintarou for fun. He would take her to buy sweets and wouldn’t ask for any or tell her to buy less. (Though she did always give him something. He wouldn’t eat unless it was directly gifted to him and he had the tendency to approach sweets or really any kind of food with a somewhat sweet naivety.)
When she had remarked to him about how she wanted some practical clothes to wear in the rain, the next day on her bed lay a box stained red with what was probably blood and inside lay a raincoat and rubber boots. Later that day he distracted Rintarou so she could go run around in the rain.
Dazai couldn’t and wouldn’t replace her and so she tolerated him. He was part of her family. Rintarou and her were fine before Dazai, they didn’t need anyone else; especially not that she-bitch Yosano; but Dazai fit. He fit in between where she and Rintarou were missing pieces. He was cruel and intelligent, but with an innocence that balanced him out. Rintarou had remarked to himself one summer’s evening that Dazai’s intelligence likely surpassed his own. She wasn’t surprised.
He seemed to always be watching, and was quite observant. At one point when the clinic was attacked by a gang with a grudge he was the one who found the leader and helped them hunt all the members down. He never flinched from violence or death and even led torture sessions; managing to make them entertaining for her.
In many ways, he fit and she could never see him belonging elsewhere. If they ventured out together, it was never her that drew people’s eyes, but the way Dazai moved through the world like he wasn’t really a part of it. She remembered teaching him how to smile and how to pout. In exchange he taught her how to cuss and pick locks.
He belonged so he would stay with them. Well until he didn’t.
Until Rintarou forgot that the humanlike mannerisms he instilled in the both of them also gave them -or at least Dazai- the ability to leave him. Sigh. Rintarou was such a big idiot. But he was confident that Dazai would come back home, so Elise would wait for their Dazai to return. She finished her drawing of the three of them holding hands and grinned. He’s ours afterall.