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Looking at Chuuya, the way he acted and held himself, how he spoke and how he walked, one could say he was the very picture of self-confidence. Loud, ambitious and very much assured in his own skills. He was the role model for all his underlings, maybe even for all the mafia people.
If you asked Dazai, however, the bandaged man would say there were many things that made Chuuya very self conscious. Like his height, for example. For all intents and purposes, Chuuya was quite short. Dazai loved to point it out every occasion he got, and always received quite an interesting reaction in return.
One other thing Dazai would like to point out was Chuuya’s sense of fashion. Which is to say, no sense of fashion at all. After all, ugly hats and even uglier shoes couldn’t be considered fashionable even under the threat of death.
Another thing Dazai always brought up was Chuuya’s short temper. For an executive, Chuuya was rather impulsive and quick to anger. Not character traits desirable in someone in charge of armies of armored tugs.
All of these, and many more, were things Dazai called out as insecurities Chuuya had, and liked to prompt their enemies to use against the small mafioso.
Obviously, the jabs worked enough to anger the redhead but they did not cut deep. Not really. Chuuya knew he was short but there was nothing to be done about it, and he cared only when Dazai made fun of it. He liked his sense of fashion, he could keep his cool when it mattered, and any other insults Dazai threw at him were quickly thrown back.
There was, however, one thing Dazai never used against him and would never, could never, disclose to their enemies. That thing was the number on Chuuya’s neck.
Dark ink of the tattoo stood out against the pale skin. Designation number – A5158 – marked Chuuya as government property. He was never, ever meant to be free. He broke out of the facility but the number would always be there to remind him that he was only an experiment.
Chuuya hid the number under a choker. He grew out that atrocious strand of hair in case the piece of leather ever got lost. He wanted to forget it was ever there. He wanted to forget he was never meant to be human.
The tattoo was the one thing Dazai never teased Chuuya about.
However, Chuuya trusted his partner enough to take the choker off when they were alone. He trusted Dazai enough to let him touch his exposed neck and run fingers over the number. He trusted Dazai enough to know he would never think of him less no matter what he was created to become.
And when Dazai kissed the cursed number it was to show that he accepted and loved everything Chuuya had to offer, even the parts Chuuya couldn’t yet fully accept himself.