depth of darkness || nakahara chuuya x reader

5

you woke up to the sound of your phone ringing, and groaned as you rolled over on your bed to reach for it, answering it with a groggy "hello?"

there was an audible sigh on the other line, and some shuffling. "boss wants you down in my office. we're gonna sort files to build teamwork skills." chuuya tells you, and immediately annoyance builds in your chest.

"down in a bit." you groan, hanging up the phone before the man can respond to you.

you get out of bed, dragging your feet as you walk to your wardrobe and pick out a tight black tank top and a pair of equally dark jeans, throwing them on with a cropped black jean jacket.

you put your hair into a neat pony tail, before heading down to chuuya's office.

when you reached it, you wasted no time in knocking on the door, waiting for the okay to come in, before entering.

immediately, your gaze fell upon the executive, who was leaning back in his chair, feet on his desk as he looked through a stack of files.

"don't you look happy." he comments, beckoning you over and gesturing to a chair in front of the desk.

"do i? that would be my face." you retort, taking a seat across from the ginger, who's hat was resting on a coat rack behind him, along with his long sleeved coat.

he ignored your response and looked back down at the files he was sorting through. "simple enough, put these files in chronological order. shouldn't take too long with the both of us." he was irritated, and you understood why. but you couldn't bring yourself to really try understand why it is that it bothered you.

this man caught your eye the day you first met him in the meeting with mori, when you were first put in kouyou's division. but you weren't sure what it was that had sparked your curiosity. even now, there was something about him that you couldn't seem to place that made some of your passive aggression dissipate.

the two of you worked in silence, neither one of you saying anything as you separated and placed the files in order, until you had finished them all.

"and that's it." chuuya concluded, and immediately you stood from your seat.

"been a pleasure." you smirked, tipping a pretend hat, and marching towards the door.

chuuya would deny that he smiled at your antics. in reality, he didn't dislike you at all. in fact, he thought your fighting style was cool, and he ended up hoping that maybe the two of you could get along as partners.

——————

throughout the week, mori had you and chuuya work together on small things like sorting files, or researching small ideas that mori was interested in setting into motion.

today was another day of file sorting, and this pile was the biggest one yet. thankfully, mori said this would probably be the last for a while.

chuuya glanced up at you as you entered the office, by now you didn't care to knock, especially when he was expecting you anyway.

"l/n." chuuya greeted as you moved to sit in your usual seat across from his desk. he had a glass of red wine perched on top of a small pile of books in the corner of his desk, out of the way of the files.

you said nothing, and immediately got to work on what was in front of you. setting aside the files that didn't belong at the bottom of the pile.

"how has your day been?" he questions, glancing up at you to find you ignoring his efforts.

"you could put in a little effort, you know. i don't know what your problem with me is, and i can't fix it unless you tell me." he states, raising his hands in exasperation. you don't move. he wants to fix it? but he hasn't done any-

exactly.

he hasn't done anything to wrong you, but you were treating him like he has. and you knew that, but it was just so hard to stop when you've never been able to trust people before.

but you're not even trying to work on it

you sighed. it's true. you hadn't put much effort into working on your distrust, even though you knew it was misplaced.

but you were just so afraid that when you let your guard down, chuuya would end up no different than the rest.

you didn't want to be stuck with a partner who would treat you as miserably as they did.

"my day was fine. kouyou and i went shopping. i forgot how busy malls are." you answer his previous question, never looking up at the mafioso as you spoke, worried that if you saw his face, you might change your mind and march right back to your room.

"that sounds nice. malls are pretty crowded, but did you enjoy it?" the executive carries one the conversation, neither of you looking at each other as you speak.

you, afraid to lose your nerve, and chuuya, afraid to startle you by staring.

"i did. kouyou and i got lunch at a small soba shop when we finished, and then we came back here." you placed another file on top of your growing pile. "kouyou likes taking me to new places."

chuuya nods alone as you speak, listening intently as you finally open up to him, instead of pushing him away and ignoring him.

"i hope you know that i wasn't against this partnership because of you." he says, which he had said before in the training room.

"you said so already." you clarified for him, hopefully letting him know that he didn't need to ruin this now. not when you were finally trying to build up a little bit of a bond between the two of you.

"i know. but i want to make sure you understand that." he tells you, finally raising his head to look up at you, his azure eyes locking with your e/c ones. you shrug. "i had a partner before. and he was a dumbass mackerel." chuuya went on, and you suddenly dreaded the sob story he was about to go into.

still, you remained silent. if he wanted to explain to you, then you would not stop him. but that didn't mean you really cared.

"we were partners for a long time until he disappeared from the port mafia for four years. turns out he joined the detective agency, which is our rival organization." chuuya explained, and you sensed the anger radiating off of him in waves as he took a long swing of his wine, finishing off the glass before placing it back onto the stack of books.

you nodded, taking in his little story. you weren't sure why he told you that. but it was clearly important to him so you didn't say anything insulting.

"i'm sorry he left you." you said quietly, thinking of all the times you were left alone in your cell, cold and afraid of what was to happen to you next. the loneliness was something you could drown in, and the silence was deafening. maybe you didn't quite understand his situation. but you understood how he must have felt. "i can only imagine that sucked."

chuuya shook his head. "i hated him. part of me was relieved when he left, actually. but it still didn't make me any less angry." you stayed silent. wondering how the conversation came to this.

the two of you continued to sort through the files, one on top of the other, until finally you were finished again.

"remember, we have that mission in a few days. it's best to be ready for it." chuuya reminded you, to which you nodded in response.

"night, y/n." he said, pushing the stack of files to one side of his desk.

"night." you reply, exiting the room, and heading back to yours.

why does it make me angry that his old partner abandoned him like that?