Catchall for Domestic Post-Airlocked AU Shenanigans w/Mini

[jesustapdancingchrist]

 wtf am I doing

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[tenimuho]

It's okay. I don't mind talking about it.

[And it is what it is: he can't undo what happened.

He's learned better than to try that sort of thing, now.]

[heartswapped]

Would you... mind if I asked you about your friends?

[She remembers that he said he had to say goodbye to a couple of them.

He must miss them terribly.]

[tenimuho]

[He does and he doesn't. They didn't see each other all that often, they didn't open up about themselves, and one of them already betrayed him, but...

He was happy then, in that bar, clinking glasses with Dazai and Ango. He misses those moments.]

I don't mind. Have I said anything about Dazai or Ango to you?

[He doesn't remember. Space prison was a long time ago.]

[heartswapped]

...I don't think so, no.

[Aria looks at peace. It's enough for Elaine to say:]

And I think she just likes hearing you talk.

tw: suicide mention

[tenimuho]

[He looks fondly at Aria for a second, putting his thoughts together.]

Dazai Osamu... Was the youngest executive in the history of the Port Mafia. He's a genius, almost never wrong about anything. He takes heavy things lightly and makes jokes about serious things, and he was always looking for a way to die.

...But he was too smart, and couldn't find anything that meant anything to him. There's an emptiness in him that I couldn't fix, and neither could anyone else.

He called me a friend. When I died the first time, he was holding me, and he listened to my last wish. 'Go to the side that helps people.'

When I came back, he'd already left the Port Mafia. Because I asked him to.

I mean

[heartswapped]

[Elaine listens, for as long as she needs to. Aria stirs and groans a little, and it's enough to make Elaine need to adjust her position in the middle of Oda's story, but she's right: that kid does like the sound of Dad's voice.

But it does make her say one thing:]

...so you were dead there, too.

I can't imagine what it must have been like for him to see you again.

[tenimuho]

Difficult. But I didn't want him to not know I was alive again. He deserved to know.

[Despite everything they were - that both of them still are - Dazai is his friend.]

[heartswapped]

I'm just glad he got to see you again.

...did he at least know where you were going?

[Now she feels bad for separating them.]

[tenimuho]

I told him a few things. He wished us luck, and said you sounded like a wonderful woman.

[He doesn't think Dazai was just being his usual flirtatious self there.]