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“We’re here...”
Dazai spoke quietly, unlocking the door to his apartment and making way for Chuuya to stumble inside.
Chuuya sat down on the first chair-like thing he could find and took a second to breathe. He was tired and wounded from their mission, and he couldn’t hide it from Dazai this time. It would’ve pissed him off, if he cared enough think about anything else but the wound on his abdomen.
After Chuuya calmed down, he took a look around Dazai’s apartment. It was a mess, nothing was clean or organized and it looked like it was going to fall apart at any second. The quintessential shitty apartment, although it’s not like he was expecting much.
“You really live in a shitty place like this...?” Chuuya said, finally breaking the silence.
Hurt, tired, and still cocky. Dazai almost respected that.
“Oh? Than am I to believe that your place is far superior?”
That shut Chuuya up really quickly, as Dazai only earned a scoff and a turn of the head in reply. He couldn’t help but chuckle.
“Let me get some bandages... Stay put.” With that, Dazai left Chuuya alone and disappeared into the hallway.
Chuuya leaned back against the wall. He shivered a bit from the feeling of the cold wall against his back and lifted his shirt up.
“Shit...” He touched the still-bleeding wound across his side, wincing quietly at the surge of pain that came as a result. It didn’t seem this bad when he got it, maybe he made it worse continuing to fight?
He heard Dazai’s footsteps getting closer and pushed his shirt back down.
“Alright, Chuuya, take it off.” Dazai said bluntly, not even bothering to look up at Chuuya as he fiddled with the bandages in his hands.
“What-“ Chuuya blurted out with an utterly baffled look on his face.
Dazai looked up and raised an eyebrow. He knew Chuuya was a horny teenager, but he had a brain right?
“Your shirt. Take it off. I need to treat that wound.”
“Oh...”
Chuuya coughed, an embarrassed expression spreading across his face as he realized what Dazai meant.
He sighed, sliding off his jacket and starting to unbutton his shirt. He liked the way he looked in his usual outfit, but he hated taking the damn thing off. Too many buttons, it pissed him off.
Eventually, he had it off, and we was sitting shirtless on... something- (a box, maybe?) waiting for Dazai.
Dazai had been setting things up on a table in the middle of the room, and when he was finally done, he stood up and turned to Chuuya.
“Are you ready?” He said, getting only a nod in reply from the smaller boy.
Dazai sat on his knees in front of him, taking a second to look at the smaller wounds to see if they needed any treatment before getting to the bigger ones. He ran gently ran his fingers over Chuuya’s slender frame, which made the boy in question want to start squirming. He wasn’t used to Dazai being so close and touchy. He would’ve been fine with it had the dumbass not felt the need to press on every small scrape or bruise he had.
After confirming they didn’t need to be tended to, Dazai focused on the gash on Chuuya’s side. He hummed with a thoughtful tone.
“What is it...?” Chuuya asked, looking at the expression on Dazai’s face.
“Nothing serious,” he replied, “it’s just worse than I thought it was.”
“Well then hurry up and and fix it, asshole.” Chuuya snapped.
Dazai rolled his eyes with a small smirk.
“Are you sure you want to take that tone with me, pipsqueak? I mean, I am trying to be charitable right now.”
“Dazai...”
Dazai could tell Chuuya wasn’t having it this time, so he decided to quit while he was ahead.
“Fine, fine...” He sighed, standing up again to grab what he needed for cleaning the wound.
He took a warm washcloth from the table and folded it over before pressing it to Chuuya’s side. Chuuya flinched at the sudden pain, though the warmth wasn’t entirely unpleasant.
“Would it kill you to be a bit more gentle?” He hissed, annoyance dripping off his words.
“No, but it would kill you to bleed out because I didn’t stop it...” Dazai responded calmly and only semi-sarcastically.
Chuuya rolled his eyes.
“I’m not gonna die from a little stab wound... I didn’t take you to be such a worrywart, Dazai.” He grinned, looking down at Dazai. For once, he was actually below him.
He was immediately shut down by Dazai pressing hard on the wound, which made Chuuya wince a little bit higher than he wanted to admit.
“I really hate you...” Chuuya mumbled, glaring daggers at the playful brunette.
Dazai barely suppressed his laughter as he lifted the cloth.
Chuuya watched with curious eyes as Dazai grabbed a different, dry cloth off the table and poured something on it. He couldn’t see the bottle, but he could tell it was liquid.
Before he had time to ask what it was, Dazai was pressing it against his wound again. And this time it was incredibly cold. Chuuya shivered at coolness of it, goosebumps running up his entire torso. At least he knew what the “mystery liquid” was now.
“Fuckin’ Christ...” He muttered.
“Don’t be such a baby...” Dazai scoffed. “You can handle getting smacked around in a fight but not this?” he looked up to meet Chuuya’s eyes, raising his eyebrow once more.
Chuuya had no real response to this, because while he did make a good point, he was too stubborn to admit it.
“Shut up.” He said.
“You know, you to tell me to shut up a lot. But you should know by now I never stop running my mouth.” Dazai said only half-jokingly as he dabbed across the wound.
“You think I don’t know that? I have to listen to it, don’t I?” Chuuya rested his chin on his palm, looking at Dazai expecting him to snark back at him. But he only got a chuckle, as if he if to say “fair point” without actually saying anything at all.
Dazai finally pulled the cold cloth away from Chuuya’s stomach and Chuuya sighed in relief. He was almost done with this.
Dazai finally grabbed a roll of bandages off the table and sat in front of Chuuya one last time.
“Lift up your arms and sit up straight.” Dazai said, unraveling the roll in his hands.
Chuuya complied with a nod.
Dazai carefully started wrapping the bandage around Chuuya’s side. He was a bit slow, but Chuuya didn’t mind, at least he was being careful this time.
Chuuya kind of liked this... Dazai being so tentative and caring towards him. The quiet and somewhat cozy atmosphere of Dazai’s crappy little home. Their usual back-and-forth. He would be fine just sitting here and bickering with Dazai all night.
And as soon as he started thinking like that, Dazai was all done. Good, he could kick those stupid ass thoughts out of his head now.
Dazai signaled to Chuuya that he could put his arms down, and he was happy to do so.
“If they’re not too tight or too loose, then we should be done here. Feel free to put your clothes back on.”
Chuuya stood up and stretched his arms before starting to put his clothes back on again.
Dazai grabbed a second roll of bandages off the table and turned his back to Chuuya.
“I should go fix my own bandages, these are all gross now.” He said, starting to walk out of the room.
That was before Chuuya called out to him.
“Uh, hey, wait up-“
“What is it now?” Dazai turned on his heel to look at Chuuya again.
“Let me do it.” Chuuya said with all the confidence of a tiny kitten.
Dazai immediately began to enjoy this far too much. His face lit up with that classic shit eating grin of his and he could barely contain his laughter.
“Oh? Does the stone-cold Chuuya want to help for once? Are you finally lowering your walls for me? Or maybe you’ve fallen for me?” He spoke in a teasing tone, the kind that makes you want to punch someone in the nose as soon as they open their mouth.
Chuuya balled up his fists as his face turned a rather cute shade of pink, and he thought he was going to punt Dazai’s sorry ass in to the fucking stratosphere for a moment.
“I’m trying to be nice, asshole! Let me return the favor!” He barked, contradicting the kindness(?) of his own statements with the tone of his voice.
Dazai laughed and thought it over for a second. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to not have to do it himself for once.
So he sat down on the couch and set the roll back on the table, wordlessly, but he knew Chuuya would get it anyways.
Chuuya hesitated, standing there silently and staring at Dazai.
“What’s wrong?” Dazai said quizzically with a small tilt of his head. He looked like a confused puppy, almost. Quite the contrast to Chuuya’s angry kitten shtick.
“Uh... Take off your shirt.” Chuuya sighed. He wasn’t exactly a “blushing mess”, but he did look awkward as hell.
Dazai complied taking off his jacket, then his shirt, and finally his dirty bandages. He was almost entirely unharmed under the bandages, a few scrapes and bruises sure, but nothing major. Chuuya couldn’t help but feel a bit envious at the sight.
Chuuya didn’t understand how Dazai dealt with all that cloth, frankly, it seemed way too bothersome.
“Why do you wear all those anyways...? You’re not even injured at all.” Chuuya questioned.
“Come on, Chuuya, I have to keep some secrets you know.” Dazai replied, a knowing smile on his face.
“‘Some’ huh?” Chuuya looked at Dazai with an irritated expression, which he just laughed off of course.
Eventually, Chuuya found it in himself to actually start going.
He took his time, but that was mainly because he was trying to remember the exact way Dazai did it. He had a feeling he wouldn’t hear the end of it if he got it wrong.
”You’re surprisingly gentle, Chuuya.” Said Dazai, casually as ever.
“No, you just underestimate me.” Chuuya replied, surprisingly without any hint of aggravation in his voice, though that was mainly because he was focused on Dazai more than anything.
“Oh? Do I now?” Dazai questioned, seeming at least semi-intrigued.
Chuuya nodded with a somewhat annoying yet somehow cute sense of arrogance.
“Do you think about it that much? You must be so desperate for my approval the-“ Dazai was cut off by Chuuya suddenly tightening the bandages around his waist, which caused him to flinch slightly.
Not really out of pain, it didn’t hurt all that much, but it did startle him.
Dazai took the hint and shut up for a few minutes, finally, and let Chuuya focus for a bit.
After a while, Chuuya got to Dazai’s face.
He was almost done, but this part was going to be harder than the others. He just sat there staring at Dazai’s face for a moment.
Eventually he realized no matter what it was going to be awkward as hell and just told himself to suck it up. He did volunteer to do this after all.
With a sigh, Chuuya gently cupped Dazai’s face and started to wrap the bandage around his eye.
It only took a minute, but it felt like hours. For once Chuuya wished Dazai would start running that mouth of his again.
But at last, he was finished.
As he started to pull away, Dazai gently gripped his wrist to keep his hand on his face.
Chuuya raised an eyebrow and stared at Dazai, his own expression conveying his confusion better than words could.
And then, with no answer to the wordless question he’d posed, he was pulled into a soft, sweet kiss.
Chuuya blinked, not even processing for a moment that it was a kiss. But when he did, he had zero idea how to react. He didn’t exactly hate it or anything, so it’s not like he wanted to push Dazai away. But on the other hand, what was he actually supposed to do here...? It hadn’t even fully sunken in yet.
And then, just as fast as it had started, the kiss ended and Dazai pulled away. It probably would’ve gone on slightly longer had Chuuya returned it.
A few seconds of silence pass, the moment finally sinks into Chuuya’s thick skull, the silence ends very quickly.
“What the hell was that for!?” Chuuya shouted, bright red sneaking up his face. The yelling was more out of embarrassment and sheer confusion than anger.
And of course, Dazai gave him no response, he just started laughing at the reaction.
“God Chuuya, you make it way too easy to mess with you.” Dazai managed to speak between his mini fits of laughter.
“I- huh?” Chuuya looked at Dazai’s expression for some kind of answer to his question, but to no avail.
“Are you dense? I wanted to see your reaction.” Dazai finally managed to calm down a bit. Though his words were obviously insulting, his tone wasn’t.
Chuuya was somewhere in between being mad that Dazai kissed him and disappointed that it wasn’t anything serious.
“I despise you. I’m going home.” Chuuya huffed and stood up, immediately turning heel and walking towards the front door.
“Aw, so cold, not even a thank you? And are you sure you should be going home so late after tonight?” Dazai was slightly concerned, but he didn’t make an attempt to follow him. He figured he could handle himself if anything happened.
“Fuck off.” Chuuya didn’t turn around, he just flipped Dazai off and exited the apartment building, leaving him alone once more.
Once the door closed behind him, he leaned against it with a sigh.
It was so cold out, and yet Chuuya’s face was almost uncomfortably warm. Thought he couldn’t exactly pinpoint if he disliked it or not.
He let himself dwell on the past few minutes, basically mentally retracing his steps.
Dazai really did kiss him, that was a fact, but... Was he being truthful about doing it just to mess with him?
“God, what an asshole.”
He shook his head, shoved his hands into his pockets, and started heading home.