Chapter Text
Chuuya had always really liked movies. Specifically the sappy, coming of age rom coms where the girl never failed to end with the guy and they happily married off somewhere far away from their shitty hometown.
If anything, that’s the type of story ending he’d want.
However, Chuuya was now sixteen years old and hadn’t even had his first kiss yet. Let alone a relationship.
It really did suck sometimes, especially when the majority of teenagers had experience with things that were further down the Rated R lane.
The closest ‘relationship’ thing he has ever done in his life is probably hug Dazai. And even then, calling it a relationship thing almost made him gag.
Speaking of the devil, he could spot the other boy walking towards where he sat with two cups and spoons in his hands.
Chuuya watched as Dazai licked his snowball, earning a loud and nasty curse from him. “Get your gross mouth off of my snowball you ass!”
Dazai stuck his tongue out, “sharing is caring!”
Chuuya gave him the finger and took his snowball.
He felt Dazai sit on the edge of the sidewalk with him, their extended legs now comically paralleling (due to their height differences).
The view of the street they’ve grown up with since they were children hadn’t changed at all. There was still that snowball shop they always went to, with the cranky owner Hirotsu who Dazai made fun of because of his monocle.
(Everytime Dazai cracked a joke about it in front of the older man, he wouldn’t get a snowball for the rest of the week.)
Next to the snowball shop was a nice, quaint outdoor fast food restaurant run by Oda and Ango. Both of them decided on a sort of ‘small town, low budget’ aesthetic that Chuuya thought was amazing. It was dining outside only, with the actual restaurant just being the kitchen and registers with sliding windows and old painted benches as tables.
Dazai also personally loved that place, refusing to eat anywhere else whenever he and Chuuya were hungry.
This particular spot always seemed more empty than the rest, away from the big stores and loud streets. Only occasionally would a few cars pass by here and now.
Dazai groaned out of nowhere, almost startling Chuuya. “We start school tomorrow,”
Chuuya’s shoulders relaxed, sticking his spoon in his snowball. “Fucking Mondays. I hate em’.”
“Shall we celebrate?” Dazai raised an eyebrow at Chuuya in a knowingly way.
“No way.” Chuuya refused. “Last time we ‘ celebrated’ we got kicked out of the damn mall. We were banned from it and can't go back until god knows when!”
Chuuya almost cringed at the memory of Dazai releasing snakes in every other store.
(Yes, fucking snakes. He had so many of them. Seriously, where the fuck do you get 17 snakes from?)
Dazai gasped, almost offended. “Chuuya! I had an even better one this time.”
“If by better you mean worse, then count me out.”
Dazai pouted, turning back to look down at his snowball. “We haven’t hung out lately… Chuuya is becoming boring.”
Chuuya glanced over, his insides churning uncomfortably. Sure, he and Dazai seemed to always spend less and less time together when school started again. It especially got bad when they didn’t have the same classes.
“We’re hanging out right now.”
Dazai looked up, meeting Chuuya’s eyes. “Yeah but I meant doing something fun. Play a game or something. Not the arcade— I got bored of that.”
Chuuya pursed his lips, staring at dazai. “Fine. What do you suggest then?”
Dazai’s mischievous grin finally showed. Specifically the ‘up to no good’ grin as Chuuya would categorize it.
“Glad you asked.”
What Chuuya had expected when Dazai said to do something fun, he might’ve imagined something more… Well, fun.
“We’re playing hide and seek. At Walmart.” Chuuya deadpanned, his unimpressed eyes never leaving the bright Walmart sign with his arms crossed.
“Correct!”
“What are we? Four?”
“No, but you’re four feet- ow! My leg!”
“Not to mention it’s getting late,” Chuuya checked his phone, barely holding back a gasp. “It’s 10:30pm!”
Dazai shrugged, “relax. I texted your mom that we’d probably be back later than usual.”
Chuuya glanced up from his phone, eyebrows raised. “You have my mom's phone number?”
“We play 8ball sometimes.”
“Why the hell do you-“
“Anyway! Onto the game!”
(That ended with Chuuya muttering a couple curses and something about blocking his number from his mom’s phone later).
“Alright doggy, put your foot in.” Dazai ordered, to which Chuuya unconsciously put his foot in before his mind even registered the name.
“Hey, you fuck-“
“Bubble gum, bubble gum…”
“Are you serious?!”
“Join me!”
Chuuya sighed.
“Bubble gum, bubble gum, in a dish, how many pieces do you wish?” Dazai’s finger ended up on Chuuya’s shoe.
“Um, six.”
Dazai’s finger went back and forth from Chuuya’s to his own. “One, two, three, four, five, six. Ah, Chuuya’s the seeker!”
Chuuya scoffed, pulling his foot back. “This is your idea of fun ?”
Dazai nodded, pulling his own foot back. “Yes. But! I have a twist.”
“What is the twist. Please, enlighten me.”
“It’ll be timed, and whoever finds the other first questions to do or ask anything they want.”
“You’re saying I have a time limit?”
“Ten minutes to be exact!” Dazai chirped.
Chuuya groaned, “You and your big head. This is not hide and seek.”
“Well, chibi, I am hiding and you are seeking so!”
Chuuya glared. “I told you to stop calling me that. Now stop talking and go hide before I kick your ass.”
“Okay chibi~” Dazai mocked one more, running across the parking lot and letting the automatic doors slide open for him to enter. Chuuya didn’t even bother yelling as he watched the idiot sprint inside of the store, holding back a laugh of how seriously the guy was taking it.
The Walmart was unsurprisingly empty. For a Sunday night, the only people you could spot were old people shopping in the frozen sections or moms with toddlers in their carts who looked a little too tired.
Chuuya walked by the toys section, glancing at the long shelves filled with action figures and plastic dolls. He continued walking past, passing the bicycles and helmets until he was near the toilet paper area.
His steps started becoming lighter and cautious as he glanced around and behind the shelves, searching for a certain mop of brown hair somewhere or even a sound.
Through the almost deafening quiet Walmart, chuuya really would’ve moved onto the next place to look if it weren’t for the slightest rustle of plastic down the aisle.
Chuuya bit back a smirk before he stepped away from the aisle, taking a detour to walk around and pop up from the other end where the sound was closer.
“Found you.” In one smooth kick he threw away the packs of toilet paper, earning a shriek from a hidden Dazai.
Chuuya and Dazai just stared at each other in silence, both startled by the sound that came from Dazai’s mouth.
Dazai spoke first. “You. Will never speak about-“
He was cut off by Chuuya’s loud guffaw.
The boy watched as the redhead wrapped his arms around his ribs, how his face was starting to become a light shade of pink, how tears began prickingling around his eyes.
“It was not that funny.”
“It… was, fucking. Hilarious.” Chuuya finally breathed out, eyes falling on Dazai who still sat in the same spot. Only now with his arms crossed and a sheepish pout on his lips.
Chuuya extended a hand to which Dazai took, murmuring a “Whatever,” before he told Chuuya to start hiding while he counted to 20.
Dazai covered his eyes with his hands and counted (rather loudly) in the silent store. “…eighteen, nineteen… twenty! Ready or not, here I come, chibi!”
Dazai skipped through the Walmart, humming a soft tune to himself as he thought of the places his dear Chuuya would possibly choose.
He would probably hide where all the furniture was, or maybe on top of the shelves.
Dazai snickered to himself, Chuuya wouldn’t even be able to reach the shelves.
Dazai stuck his hands in his oversized hoodie, now peeking around corners and under things to see if he could spot at least a strand of that bright orange hair.
He hummed to himself, glancing around the empty store. He could spot a few workers still stocking shelves, and he waved to the old man that was sweeping by the milk.
Now, to say Dazai was shocked was an understatement when he heard laughter from above him. He was probably going crazy, maybe Hirotsu put something in that snowball earlier. Because there was no way that-
“No way.” His head tilted up, getting a good look at Chuuya on top of the fucking lights covering his mouth to laugh.
Finally, chuuya bursted, “that doesn’t count! You wouldn’t have found me if I hadn't laughed!”
The workers restocking and the old man all turned to the loud boy on top of the hanging lights, all watching with mouths agape.
Dazai spared a quick glance to them, then back to chuuya. “Alright, you win chibi. Now come back down before you hurt yourself.” He spread his arms open, as if expecting Chuuya to jump.
He scoffed, “what, you want me to jump?”
Suddenly the store cop came running with his walkie talkie in hand. He clearly looked more distressed than the two teenage boys. “What is going on? Hey kid, stay there! Don’t panic, I’ll call the firefighters right now, don’t worry.”
Dazai raised his eyebrows, pointing with his thumb to Chuuya who watched from above. “Does he look like he’s panicking?”
“Shut up! I can get down by myself!” Chuuya yelled, getting a little annoyed.
“No no no no! Stay there! How did you get up there anyway? And why?!” The police officer whipped his head back and forth between them, waiting for an explanation.
They both shrugged, “hide and seek.” They said in union.
Suddenly the manager came out, along with a few other employees. “Why is there a kid… on the ceiling lights?”
“I’m sixteen!”
Dazai nodded, repeating. “He’s sixteen.”
“The firefighters are on their way, along with the police. We’re taking you home.” The officer interrupted, a now less worried tone replaced with a serious one.
Dazai and Chuuya immediately looked at each other in panic. The last time the police got involved due to their shenanigans, they couldn’t see each other for the whole summer.
And so, Dazai yelled. “Operation ‘Shame And Toad’?”
Something flickered in Chuuya’s eyes at the moment, and Dazai could feel his excitement begin to bubble in his stomach.
Chuuya smirked, “hell yeah.”
Everyone looked back and forth between them, and then Dazai gasped, (in his most melodramatic and loud way,) pointing behind them. “Is that Beyoncé?!”
Everyone turned immediately, gasps and murmurs already starting while Dazai turned around and sprinted. Honestly, he doesn’t think he would've ever ran a day in his life if it weren’t for always having to run away during situations with Chuuya.
On the topic of Chuuya, Dazai couldn’t help but stare as the other hopped down gracefully from the lights onto the higher shelves and began running on them not much after. He watched as Chuuya skipped and jumped on the top of the shelves aisle after aisle, one of his electrifying smiles fully visible.
It brought a smile to his own lips as well. This was the kind of fun he missed.
The adults didn’t take long to figure out they were running away, all of them spreading out to catch one of the two. The annoying officer was giving orders too, which made Dazai roll his eyes as he grabbed a bag of chips and stuck it in his hoodie.
He ran past the candy section, grabbing a shit ton of chocolates and remembering to take a specific brand of gummy worms for a certain redhead.
“Hey!” One of the employees yelled behind him, making him speed up. The rest of the goods were holding on pretty well in his pockets (thank god he could zip them up), meanwhile he held two large bags of chips in his arms that were starting to become quite bothersome.
After losing that irritating employee, Dazai had already lost Chuuya a while ago. He glanced around to see if anyone was near before opening the mini fridge and taking two Hawaiian punches in clear bottles and making a run for the exit.
The alarm rang, and despite Dazai being out of breath and rather disgustingly sweaty, he ran even further into the shortcut just behind the snowball shop. He didn’t look back until he knew that he was far away and deep enough into the woods to sit down and take a breather.
His chest heaved up and down, Dazai wiping the sweat off of his forehead.
It took just a few minutes for Dazai to finally come down from the slight rush of the night, twisting the blue cap of his drink and downing half of it.
He let out a deep breath, slumping against the tree before standing up. (The sound of bags in his pockets might’ve made him flinch, but nonetheless he was fearless in the night.)
He took out his phone, checking the time and any messages he might’ve gotten from Chuuya.
12:03 and None.
Dazai didn’t worry really, he never did.
One of the things he and Chuuya had unspokenly agreed on, was that they don’t look for each other in situations like these. And thankfully, Dazai was grateful for it.
And yes, maybe he did feel his heart pick up the pace a little when he was the first to come out and Chuuya was nowhere to be found. But that was normal, he always convinced himself it was because he was out of breath and needed to exercise more.
But even if Dazai would never voice it out loud— the best feeling in the world always came afterwards. Chuuya would suddenly appear with the biggest smile on his face, sweaty all over, hair all messed up, and some nasty insult coming out of his mouth despite the fondness in his tone.
Dazai picked up all of the snacks, carrying it all together as he walked around in the (honestly pitch dark,) forest. But then he could see a small light from just another 10 feet away and a smile was already on his lips as he picked up his own pace.
Dazai stopped once he was already in front of the old wooden bridge, his eyes gazing at the light that now shined brighter through the window.
When Chuuya and Dazai were ten years old, they built a treehouse together.
(From scratch, may he add proudly.)
It was actually all of Chuuya’s idea— Dazai never found interest in those types of things. Especially when he was young and was still getting to know chuuya, he was very… unenthusiastic.
“You’re so quiet!” Chuuya whined, still receiving no response from the other boy across from him. They were sitting on the grass, a couple stones and sticks laying randomly around as a result to some game they were playing earlier.
“At least say something, yeah?! You might as well be a fish. You just mumble and sound like you say ‘glob glob glob’.”
And that was the first time Dazai ever laughed in front of the ten year old Chuuya.
Dazai really thought the treehouse was just a little joke between them, and that Chuuya would eventually let go of the idea. Which he never did.
It was a random night, one that Dazai would remember for the rest of his life, really.
Dazai swore his heart was going a million miles per hour when he heard the loud, quick knocks on his window. He stood up from his twin bed as fast as he could, putting his book facing down on the covers and rushing towards his window.
He moved the blue curtains cautiously, expecting a monster. Maybe the boogieman finally came to retrieve him.
Nothing really prepared him to see a familiar redhead smiling. Dazai cocked his head, confused, opening the window.
“Chuuya?” Dazai whispered, making sure he was quiet enough for his parents not to hear.
“Mackerel!” Chuuya greeted, later then being silenced by Dazai’s hand over his mouth and a harsh shush.
Chuuya stayed quiet for a moment before licking Dazai’s hand, Dazai mumbling a low “ew.” and taking it away.
Chuuya the. whispered “I have to show you something, let me in.”
Then Dazai noticed the blueprints in Chuuya’s arms, a pencil case, and a photo album.
After that, they really did build a treehouse, and over the years they ended up even perfecting it.
Dazai crossed the bridge, the usual unsteady swaying due to the years of it having been there. Then he passed the bird house they made when they were thirteen, painted one side blue and the other a fiery orange.
It might’ve been crooked from an outside perspective, but to them it was beauty and art combined.
He ended up throwing the two bags of chips through the window, along with their drinks. Fortunately, at least one hit the bullseye.
“What the fuck-“
Not a second later, Dazai climbed the latter, popping his head up and giving a flashy smile.
“Chibi!”
“Finally, it took you long enough.” Chuuya replied, learning back into his bean bag with his red switch in hand.
Dazai hopped up, unleashing the amazing amount of junk in his pockets. Chuuya raised an eyebrow at the sight.
Dazai tried his best to keep his voice nonchalant. “I happened to see some.” He said, pulling out bags of gummy worms that made Chuuya almost bounce in delight.
He tossed them towards the redhead, turning around to hide the growing smile on his lips as he heard the bag rip open and a small thank you.
Dazai glanced around the treehouse, hands in his pockets once again. Every little thing was tied to a certain memory from their childhood.
On the shelves, there was an embarrassingly large collection of Five Nights At Freddy’s plushies from Dazai’s ‘phase’ when he was twelve. Next to them there were small fake plants Chuuya thought were so cute he needed to buy seven of them.
They had posters hung up of different artists, Chuuya was particularly fond of 80’s rock and current pop while Dazai preferred jazz and classical piano. There were fairy lights strung lazily around, which was literally their source of light in the dark of the night.
There was a table full of uno cards and chess all scattered around messily together from Chuuya’s rage fit after losing to Dazai again.
They had a big, ugly neon green fluffy carpet in the middle they bought at a thrift store solely for the satire purpose of calling it fashionable.
Then of course two big bean bags that Chuuya currently sat in, one red and one blue.
Chuuya nibbled on a blue gummy worm as he played on his switch. He was actually currently very focused and likely to burst right now if he lost.
And lastly, officially named the best part of the whole treehouse by Dazai; the corner with the tree trunk.
As much as the two may protest that they hate each other and would be caught dead before showing affection, The Corner says otherwise.
(Dazai likes to always mess with Chuuya about it. He also calls it the Lovers Corner sometimes just to spice it up.)
There were Polaroid pictures of them hung everywhere with stickers and tacks holding them up. From the first time they ever took a picture in the brand new treehouse until now, six years later.
There was the one where they went fishing for the first time and Dazai caught a catfish, which Chuuya insisted on taking a picture of.
Ten year old Dazai just eyeballed the fish on the hook that would not sit still.
There was the one when they went to the beach with their families and both made a ham, cheese, dorito and mayonnaise sandwich after swimming that they were entirely too proud of not to take a picture.
Or when they went to the carnival at fourteen, they got their faces painted with matching cats and Dazai won a giant dog plushie for Chuuya.
Middle school orientation, Chuuya sneakily taking a picture of Dazai in the cafeteria. The picture was just a little blurry, but he had his hand on his cheek, a boring expression on his face as he looked somewhere else.
A trashy middle school dance where Dazai took a picture of Chuuya rejecting a girl in one of the dark corners of their nasty gym. He was wearing this ugly tuxedo with his hair was shining with gel.
There were so many other ones Dazai could spend all day talking about. What they did that day, how it went, how he felt, at exactly what time Chuuya did this or that.
Though, out of all of them his personal favorite was the one he took of Chuuya feeding pigeons.
Dazai doesn’t know why he decided to take their Polaroid camera that day, but he did. And after school, when they were walking home last year, Chuuya suddenly stopped to feed the pigeons by the park. There was a lake behind him, and the sun was hitting Chuuya at an angle where he looked like the most beautiful piece of art. He was kneeling down, with his black book bag over his shoulder, his hair was tied into a messy bun and he had a soft smile on his face while he crumpled up pieces of bread into small ones of the birds.
This was also the day he came to the terrible realization that Dazai was in love with the boy.
“What’re ya looking at?”
Dazai’s eyes widened slightly but turned his face to look at the shorter one who began to also analyze the pictures.
“Nothing. Just us,” he mumbled back, his eyes not leaving Chuuya.
“This is my favorite one.” Chuuya pointed onto a random Polaroid, making Dazai look. It was one that Chuuya took last year as well, but instead it was Dazai trying to eat a chocolate crepe without all the cream spilling on his face.
Dazai remembers how nice that day was. It was a Saturday afternoon during fall and they decided they wanted to try the new cafe that opened downtown. Of course they had to argue about whether to sit inside or outside and cause a scene, so they decided outside. The orange leaves with the dark skies and the steaming hot chocolate brought a sense of comfort to Dazai.
Dazai snorted. “Why? Didn’t you call me gross for getting chocolate over my face.”
“Yeah, but you looked cute.”
Both of them freeze, their shoulders becoming stiff as they stare at the tree trunk without even breathing. They refuse to even glance at each other and Dazai’s heart can probably be heard in the silence, Chuuya’s might as well explode right now.
Dazai cannot flirt for the life of him. Really, at least, he thinks he sucks at it. Sometimes he’ll be a little too polite to girls and they’ll take it the wrong way, when really he’s just very respectful to women.
(It’s the feminist in him, he can’t help it.)
He’s never liked anyone besides Chuuya. And it’s horrible! All he knows are dirty insults and jokes about his height, and he knows that just pisses him off so how the hell does he go from that to all the romantic stuff you see on tv?
But Dazai also really wants to get it over with, and if this is heading the way the tiny voice in the back of his mind is saying, it won’t hurt to take the risk.
And if he’s wrong, well. He’ll only lose his undeniably beautiful, kind hearted, absolutely fun to be around, hilarious, bad mouthed, short temper, short in general, best friend and probably the love of his life. No big deal.
“This one’s my favorite.” Dazai pointed to the one he was looking at earlier, Chuuya with the pigeons. Chuuya follows his finger, looking at the picture.
He swallowed, “why?” He asked, his voice small compared to how loud he seemed just a few hours ago.
And Dazai’s heart might as well be beating so hard it’s shaking his brain, but to hell with it. “You looked beautiful,”
Chuuya’s mouth opens and closes, his eyes still gazing at the picture with dozens of emotions displayed on his face all flashing in front of Dazai.
“Let’s go together.” Chuuya blurted out. Dazai raised an eyebrow, and Chuuya finally looked at him. “The dance. Come with me.”
“We’ve always gone together,” Dazai chuckled, still not looking away from him.”
“Not like that. I meant, as my date.”
“Oh.”
Chuuya crossed his arms a frown on his face, “bad oh or good oh?”
Dazai furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. “…good? What? Is this happening?”
Chuuya pursed his lips, trying to stop a growing smile. “Yes? Are you gonna say yes or no?”
“Well, this is not a very datey-way of asking someone out to the dance, Chibi.”
Chuuya scoffs, “Not like I had time, It just came out and now I can’t turn back!”
Dazai smirked, leaning closer and lower to Chuuya’s height. “And what if I had said no, hm?”
Protesting against his shaking knees and heating cheeks, Chuuya leaned closer too. There was no way in hell that he would let Dazai of all people outflirt him.
“I don’t think you would’ve.”
“What makes you so sure?”
“I don’t know, you aren’t exactly good at hiding things you know. You’ve been acting really fucking weird since,” he pointed the the photo of himself with the birds without as much as moving from his position. “This day.”
Dazai smiles, and Chuuya’s heart melts. “I always forget you aren’t as stupid as you look, my dear chibi.”
Chuuya’s brain repeated the ‘my’ part. Emphasis on the mine part. “Stop calling me that.”
“Do you prefer boyfriend?”
As shocked as Chuuya may have been, he pretended to think about it. “Maybe.”
Dazai hummed, and the next thing Chuuya knew, he felt a warm touch on his chin slightly tilting it up. They were so close. Chuuya was beginning to feel like eyes flutter shut as their lips brushed against one another. Dazai’s breath hesitantly hovered over his lips before they gently pressed on his.
Chuuya’s insides did backflips and cartwheels as Dazai’s other hand came to snake around his waist and pull him closer. Chuuya’s hands somehow ended up around Dazai’s neck loosely, their lips beginning to move slowly against one another, testing the waters.
Dazai’s hand was now on Chuuya’s cheek, his fingers brushing against his dangling earrings and closer to his neck that gave him the urge to shudder.
And then they both pulled away to breathe, their eyes still closed and their foreheads resting on one another.
Chuuya opened his eyes first, bringing one hand up to caress Dazai’s cheek. His hand then ended up playing with Dazai’s extremely soft hair. Chuuya had guessed it was soft from a distance, but he never thought he would ever physically run his hands through it like he is now.
Dazai opened his eyes, staring at Chuuya like he’s one of the seven wonders of the world. It made Chuuya’s heart leap unhealthy. Seriously, he was considering going to the doctor.
Dazai cracked a smile that caught Chuuya completely off guard, mostly for the fact that it reached Dazai's eyes and it made him want to cry.
Dazai’s hands came up to squish Chuuya’s cheeks like a pufferfish. “My little chibi is so cute.”
“I thought it was boyfriend now. Do not call me chibi ever again, fucker.” Chuuya said, muffled buy the action.
Dazai threw it head back, releasing Chuuya and laughing. “Okay, okay, only if you ask me out to the dance properly.”
Chuuya crossed his arms, huffing. “Have some mercy on my dignity. This is the closest shit you’ll ever get to a big ass sign and some ugly flowers asking if you’ll go to the dance with me.”
And Dazai laughed again, pulling Chuuya close to his body. Chuuya stiffened for a second before hesitantly wrapping his arms around Dazai’s tall, lanky frame. He smelled like clean laundry and a hint of outside, but he smelled like Dazai.
Dazai let his hand come up to play with Chuuya’s hair, his head resting against his. This was probably what true happiness feels like. Honestly, if a bomb hit earth right now he wouldn’t even be slightly annoyed.
“Don’t expect me to hug you or kiss you so much, okay? That’s the ugly lovey-dovey shit they do in the movies and we are not like that. Understand?” Chuuya murmured, arms still around Dazai.
Dazai nodded, with an affectionately serious tone and small smile on his face hidden from Chuuya’s view. “Yes, my little boyfriend.”
“Remove the little you bastard.”