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A hand, gloved and strangely small, stops him from moving away. He stiffens, tensing uncomfortably, and the redhead touching him frowns. “Dazai,” Chuuya tries, trailing off as if he meant to continue but doesn’t know what to say.
Dazai breathes in swiftly as motion returns to his body almost robotically, a smile creasing on his face insincerely. “Yes, hatrack?”
Chuuya doesn’t even scowl at the nickname, sending Dazai’s specifically honed, if a little out of practice, Chuuya-senses ringing all the bells. “Dazai,” he says again, fiery brows furrowing. “I… I didn’t mean it.”
Dazai blinks. His quick mind whirs, umber eyes narrowing. A few long, beats pass by them, and the silence, for probably the first time ever in their relationship and friendship, is deeply uncomfortable.
He comes to the conclusion he really has no clue what the smaller man is trying to communicate.
“Chibi, I don’t understand.”
Chuuya, who, very uncharacteristically has moved his hands to clasp them together nervously in front of his person, gives Dazai a disconcerted look. “I-” he sighs, less like a sigh and more like a quick, calming heave of his chest, inhalation of air, and then exhalation of air. “I’m sorry. I’m trying to say I’m sorry, shitty-Dazai. I said- I said to leave and to be gone by when I got back and to never come back and then you were gone, and I just wanted to say- I’m sorry, yeah?” At the end of it, the mafioso is blushing and looking just about anywhere except the other.
The bandaged man reels.
The chibi... really thought all that?
He swallows, the bandages wrapped around his throat shifting, loosed from a day’s wear already.
His eyes darken as a thought strikes him. “Chuuya, you don’t think the reason I left was because of you, right?”
Chuuya scoffs. “No, of course not, I’ve read the reports about the whole thing. It was that friend of yours’ death. Oda, was it?”
Dazai nods. “Odasaku, yes.”
Chuuya continues, “I’m not stupid enough to think my words matter enough to you to make you leave like that. If they did, you’d’ve left a long time before Oda. I’m just sorry that those were my last words to you, before you left.”
“Chuuya-chan is sorry, huh?”
The redhead glowers at his ex-partner. “Yes, I am.”
Dazai smirks, gaze turning amber.
“Don’t give me that look! If this is how you’re going to act after I say something like that then I’m just going to leave!"
A hand, wrapped in pristine white cloth, reaches out.
“Chibi, I’m sorry, too.”