Chapter Text
"So... You're going out?"
"Mhm..." Ozaki wasn't even looking at Chuuya, she was busy applying her second coat of lip gloss. Her red hair was tied up in a ponytail, and she had her usual attire of black garb. This time, however, she had a black choker... with silver spikes.
"That's a change..." Chuuya looked his sister up and down, and she also saw that she was wearing fishnets under her black shorts. "Did Akiko get you that choker, Nee-san?"
Ozaki whipped around, nearly smudging gloss onto her cheek in a shiny line. She looked bewildered, her face flushing a shade of pink as Chuuya cackled. "Shut up, shrimp. Least I have the courage to actually ask someone out."
"What do you mean?" Chuuya tilted his head in confusion, calming down a bit as he wiped tears from the corner of his eyes. "I don't have a crush."
"So you and Dazai don't talk?" Ozaki wiped hee cheek, and she was the one smirking as Chuuya's face flushed red. "I see... So you haven't confessed to him your undying love yet."
"Hey, I hate Dazai and he hates me!" Chuuya turned his flushed face away from his snickering sister. "Last year, that jerk made a short ass snowman and said it was me! He made all the others taller than me too!" The redhead huffed, crossing his arms when Ozaki continued to laugh.
Turning away, Chuuya stomped to his room. He didn't look back as Ozaki called out to him.
"You are short, you know!" She said, laughing harder when Chuuya screeched. "Chuuya, I don't think you'll get any taller any time soon."
"I'm fifteen, I'm still growing!" Grabbing a rubber ball off his dresser, Chuuya aimed for Ozaki. His sister dodged, though, so Chuuya just grumbled to himself and slammed the door extra hard to make a statement.
As he flopped onto his bed, Chuuya tried not to think about what Ozaki had teased him about.
He did not like Dazai!
Stupid Dazai with his stupid brown hair that looked like shit, it looked soft, along with his dumb brown eyes that were also shit and so wonderful to gaze into-
Chuuya stopped.
Fuck.
He was positive he didn't like Dazai! The brunette just went out of his way to make Chuuya miserable. He was always making Chuuya say and do stupid things, especially in front of his friends!
Nakahara Chuuya, at age seventeen, absolutely did not like Dazai Osamu in any romantic (or platonic) way whatsoever!
Grabbing a pillow, Chuuya imagined it was Dazai's face.
He wanted to-
Kiss it.
"Wait, what!" Chuuya shot up out of his bed, nearly falling off as he did so. A few things from his nightstand tumbled to the ground, and a few things on top of his shelf rattled.
A few seconds later, Ozaki poked her head in.
"So... Having your gay awakening?"
Ozaki had to duck as Chuuya chucked a book at her.
----
"This is what you're doing?" Dazai set Akiko's flyer down, and the girl nodded as she texted someone on her phone.
"Yeah... Some play. Our school agreed to help out with their fundraisers, and this is one of them." Yosano smiled as she looked at her phone, and Dazai blinked.
The brunette came up behind Yosano and peeked over her shoulder. "Who're you texting?"
"Wha- Hey!" Swatting Dazai away, Yosano nearly leapt out of her seat. "Don't do that, it's weird!"
"But Akiko, there's nothing else for me to do!" Dazai melted into a bored heap, and Akiko stood over him with an unimpressed look on his face.
The look soon turned into a smirk. "How about your boyfriend Chuuya? You seem to wanna do him."
Dazai got up at the speed of light, tripping and scrambling over his feet multiple times. "H-He's not-!"
"Please, Dazai. Save me the crap." Akiko towered over Dazai, making the brunette shrink back. "I've seen your flirting. If you're trying to be subtle, it's not working."
"I-I-I-!"
"You always mess with him."
"Only because he's fun to mess with!" Dazai whipped around, hiding his burning face. "Chuuya's reactions are the best, especially when he screams!"
Silence.
"AAAAAH- WAIT, IT'S-!"
"wHAT THE HELL IS ALL THIS YELLING!?" Kunikida burst through the door and stomped into the room, tired of all the noise when he was trying to study.
"Dazai's talking about how much he wants to smooch Chuuya!" Ranpo called from the other room. "He says that it's the best when Chuuya screams."
"wHy aRe yOu tAlKiNg aBoUt sUcH lEcHeRoUs tHiNgS-" Kunikida towered over Dazai along with Akiko, making the brunette shrink even smaller.
He continued to rant and Akiko continued to laugh.
"You misunderstood what I was saying! I'm not saying those things!" Dazai cowered as he yelled in his defense, and both Kunikida and Akiko looked at him skeptically.
Grumbling, Kunikida went back to his room. "...and I better not hear anything loud tonight, Dazai!"
"Yeah, and use protection!" Ranpo crunched on another cookie, scrolling through his phone. "Can't have you getting pregnant."
Dazai sputtered as all the blood in his body went straight to his face, and the brunette was speechless.
Needless to say, Dazai was curled up in his room for the rest of that afternoon.
----
"Dazai."
"Chibi."
"Ugh, I told you not to call me that!" Chuuya stomped his foot, nearly making small cracks in the concrete. "You're such an asshole."
"As are you."
Dazai smirked as he got the usual reaction out of Chuuya, as he did every morning when they were walking to school. They went the same route, so it was inevitable each time they bumped into each other.
"Yeah, well you love me, don't you?" Chuuya said sarcastically and tried to do his signature superior smile. However, he found himself speechless as Dazai's eyes widened and the brunette blushed.
For some odd reason, Chuuya felt his body temperature rise through the atmosphere and his heartbeat quicken from 0 to 1,000,000,000.
"Shut up." Dazai just ground out, and Chuuya saw that the tips of his ears were flushed red as well. "...Idiot."
"What's wrong, Mackerel? Cat got your shitty tounge?" Chuuya said, fighting to keep his own body temperature under control. "Good, I really hate you, so it's a dream come true for me." Chuuya didn't realize that Dazai's breath quickened as if he'd gotten panicked.
The rest of the way to school was uncharacteristically silent, and Chuuya found himself kind of missing Dazai's constant pestering in those tense ten minutes.
When they got to school, Dazai went straight to his school locker. He didn't stop at Chuuya's like he normally , and the redhead literally felt the frostiness as Dazai gave him the cold shoulder.
Technically, it had only been about five minutes since they'd gotten to school, but Chuuya felt as if years had gone by since he was last genuinely annoyed.
"That was quite the dick move, Chuuya."
Chuuya nearlt jumped seventy feet in the air as he heard a voice behind him, only to realize a millisecond later that it was Akutagawa.
"Jeez, Aku what the hell?!" Chuuya clutched at his speeding heart, then glared at his friend. "Wear a bell, dammit! Did you hear all that?!"
"I was right behind you."
"You're such a creep..."
Akutagawa just coughed and took out his shoes. "Sorry about the absences, my coughing got really bad."
"No need to worry." Chuuya said, trying to tug his shoes on, but he found it rather difficult. They were a relatively new pair, could they have gotten too small already?
"You have a lot on your mind, don't you?" Akutagawa already had his shoes on, and watched aa Chuuya struggled.
"What makes you say that?" Chuuya grunted, still struggling. "Dammit, I think I need new shoes..."
"That's not what's on your mind." Akutagawa pointed at Chuuya's feet. "You have your shoes on the wrong feet."
"...Oh." Chuuya was stuck for a moment before he realized that Akutagawa was right. Cheeks dusting a light pink, he took them off and put them back on correctly. "Thanks."
"No problem."
Akutagawa leaned against the lockers, and checked his watch. "We have a few minutes. Care to tell me what's got you so shaken that you're putting your shoes on wrong?"
"Shut up."
"That's not the correct answer, but I'll take it." Akutagawa suddenly looked like he was pitying Chuuya. "Does thinking hurt you? I'll bring you to the nurse if you want."
Chuuya blinked.
"Wait.... hAAAH-! WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN!?" He yelled, beating Akutagawa over the head with his bag.
"Ow."
"I'm not some thoughtless ball of testosterone, asshole." Chuuya grumbled, huffing as he straightened himself out. "Little do you know, I actually have a conscience."
Akutagawa stared, then tilted his head.
"...Asshole." Chuuya turned away and started to walk to homeroom.
"Did it hurt?" Akutagawa was suddenly behind the redhead again, but Chuuya just expected that. Now, though, he was confused.
"What hurt?"
"Growing a conscience must have been excruciating." Akutagawa said, and he looked pitying again.
"I hate you."
----
It was the end of the day, and Chuuya was honestly feeling a bit...weird.
The same routine that had been going on since forever ago was now broken.
Back then, everyday Dazai messed with him was a day that Chuuya wished he'd stop. He'd wish that Dazai would just suddenly get bored, or maybe just stop one day altogether. Chuuya remembered even wishing that Dazai would leave the school, maybe the country.
More recently, though, Chuuya was feeling all tingly each time Dazai brushed past him, looked him in the eye, and even just walked near him it made the redhead's heartbeat go crazy.
He found himself nervous around Dazai, so much so that his legs trembled as if he'd forgotten to walk. Chuuya saw that it was challenging to even keep his cool when Dazai was around, and it was a struggle not to just...punch something.
"You okay, Chuuya?" Atsushi was at the lockers with them, taking his place next to Akutagawa. "Ryuu told me what happened."
"I'm fine, I guess..." Chuuya sighed, tapping his foot to try and calm himself down. "Just... A lot on my mind lately."
"Oh, not that." Atsushi said, and Chuuya looked at him with a puzzled look. "Ryuu told me that you got yourself a conscience. Did it hurt?" Atsushi gave him the same pitying look that Akutagawa had given Chuuya that morning.
"...You know wha-" Chuuya had opened his locker mid-sentence, and stopped as an envelope slipped from it. Picking it up, Chuuya turned the envelope over.
Both Atsushi and Akutagawa looked ovee his shoulder.
"A... Love letter?" Chuuya guessed, seeing that the envelope was pink, decorated in flowers and had a heart sticker on it. The back had handwriting in pink pen.
Come meet me on the roof at 4:30 tomorrow! I'll be waiting for you! ~Sasaki
"Sasaki?" Akutagawa read, furrowing his brow. "Do you know her?"
"She's in a few of my classes, and we've spoken maybe once or twice. Huh. Wonder what she wants." Chuuya shrugged, and blinked as his friends gave him pitying looks again.
"....Did your conscience ever finish growing, Chuuya?" Atsushi placed a hand on Chuuya's forehead. "I think it's underdeveloped... Maybe you're missing something."
Missing something... Am I really missing something? Chuuya just sighed, and followed a figure that he saw walking in the distance.
It was Dazai.
The brunette turned back to look behind him, and Chuuya felt something in him pang.
Even though they were too far to see each other's expressions, both Chuuya and Dazai knew that they were both in some kind of pain.