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The most unnerving thing is that strawberries go well with chocolate.
Dazai finds himself fuming, hunched over his desk with his head in hands, trying to breathe. Only one hour left and he's free.
Only one hour more and he has to think about buying /something/.
Odasaku finds him like that and clears his throat to make his colleague look back at him. By the scrunch of his nose, Dazai can tell that it's way too obvious. The stress and desperation hang in the air, oozing off of Dazai even as he's wearing both scent blocking choker /and/ has all his scent glands thickly covered with a blocking cream.
As far as the first one is the school's requirement for all the teachers, the cream is Dazai's choice.
Oda goes straight up to the window, opening it and taking a deep breath.
"Okay come on, take off the choker for a moment. I'm sure it's not as bad as you... oh god" the other alfa nearly snarls at him, which makes Dazai laugh.
He knows he reeks. Not only of stress but for those few seconds he took the choker off, the scent of rotting apples filled the air around him.
"My rut is coming up," he says, closing the choker over his nape with a soft 'click'.
"Yeah, I can tell..." and when Dazai stays eerily quiet, Oda decides to ask. "So... you're going to find someone for that time?".
"For Valentine's Day?".
"For your rut, idiot".
There's a whine coming from the back of his throat before he answers. Although it's muffled as he hides his face in the crook of his arm.
"I think I'll spend it with Chuuya".
At that Oda blinks, slightly confused. He knew that both of them were close, in the end, they started sharing a flat more than a year ago, but to hear about spending the rut with his flatmate--
"So you're a couple now?" there's another whine coming from Dazai, and as far as Oda understands it means 'no'. Then the memory of the brunette skipping a few days of classes out of nowhere a month ago makes Oda connect the dots on the imaginary whiteboard. "But you spent his heat together, huh?".
The sole mention of it makes Dazai slightly tense, feeling his fangs tingling.
"Either way..." sighs Oda, seeing that his friend certainly isn't in the most talkative episode now. "You have to suck it up for now. We can grab a drink in the evening".
"I can't".
"Well your rut isn't starting /today/. You certainly can-".
"I already promised Chuuya to-".
"So let me get this straight-- you're not together. But you're his heat partner and with your upcoming rut... you're spending Valentine's Day together--".
"Are you done?" it's the first time Dazai sits properly in his chair, looking at Oda. The smell of rotting apples is killed for a moment by burnt cinnamon. Irritation certainly doesn't sit well with Dazai's scents, and Oda rolls his eyes before simply saying his goodbyes and leaving the class.
The worst thing he can do now is to get on Dazai's already strained nerves.
--
Dazai stares at the fancy package of chocolate-covered strawberries and macarons in his hand as he stands in the queue.
He will like them, right? The first thing he can think of when he sees Chuuya are strawberries. When the chibi first moved in, Dazai was surprised, to say the least. He would imagine a fiery omega like him smelling like bonfire or coffee. Instead, his nose was hit with the sweetness of strawberries and vanilla.
And the thing is that... Dazai's sure that strawberries go way better with chocolate. Dark, white, whatever, but with... chocolate. He can imagine Chuuya's scent like that after being with someone... better. More suitable.
Chuuya smells like strawberries and vanilla. And Dazai thinks that the last thing that those two scents need is an alpha smelling like apple and cinnamon.
A miserable apple pie, if you will.
"Sir?" he snaps back to reality, looking at the cashier that is reaching out for the box of sweets in his hand. "Can you...".
"Oh, right. Sorry" he blurts out, letting her scan the small gift. He pays quickly and leaves the shop.
Fortunately for him, there's no queue in the coffee shop. Trying not to think too much about the chocolate-strawberry mix, he orders two coffees to go.
The amount of cute couples outside of the museum is petrifying. He's glad that he doesn't have to be in the line or even look at all of them strolling through the museum. He goes around the corner to the back doors, where the staff usually spends their breaks.
And there he is, smoking the cigarette on the small chair that no one wants to tell how it ended up outside of the museum's walls.
"Thought that you wouldn't make it" Chuuya greets him, but then he seems to register the two paper cups in Dazai's hands and a paper bag from their favorite pastry shop. And Dazai knows him well enough by now to recognize and take pride in the delicate shade of pink on the omega's cheeks.
The moment he hands him his coffee, Dazai takes a few steps back, sipping on his cappuccino. They start talking about work: Dazai's classes and how insufferable kids can be and Chuuya's shift which, with couples flooding the place, makes him gag.
They're finishing their drinks when Chuuya stands up and steps closer.
He even parts his lips, which Dazai notices right away, his eyes momentarily focusing on that, feeling his instincts roar to bite, suck, /claim/ what's his...
"Your scent... It's not...".
"I put on the cream" he sighs, looking away because they had this conversation already. About Dazai despising his scent, about the need of hiding it, especially when he's nervous and close to his rut. When he's snarling at everyone and everything, his nose constantly being hit with every smell only induced by the reeking of rotting apples...
He hates that so much.
There's a hand on his cheek, caressing it delicately. He doesn't think when he turns his head, pressing his nose to Chuuya's wrist. Natural strawberries don't smell the same anymore. They seem to be fake, their aroma numbed, when compared to Chuuya's scent.
And when he mindlessly kisses the scent gland there, lapping it with his tongue and feeling Chuuya shiver from it, his nose is hit with vanilla. It's soft and comforting.
Just like Chuuya's kisses, like his hands around Dazai's neck...
It's something that Dazai doesn't want to let go. With a slightly fogged mind, he kisses back. With more heat, more /hunger/.
"Someone's needy already..." he teases sighing quietly with another kiss that lands on his jaw and then lower, over his scent glands there. Dazai's hands hold him in place, but he still shivers when alpha's tongue and then mouth lap over his pulse point.
Dazai would usually think that he's the one knowing what to do, how to act.
How to get things his way.
But it's when Chuuya tilts his head back and kisses him so passionately, Dazai realizes that he's a lost man. His insides twisting pleasantly, lips already parting for another kiss but instead:
"I don't want to smell any of this cream once I come home..." he says, his lips millimeters away from Dazai's. "Want to feel you, Osamu. All of you".
The alpha tries to say something, but another kiss shuts him up. When Chuuya has to go, taking the valentine gift with him and smiling shyly as if he wasn't kissing him feverishly just seconds ago, Dazai thinks that maybe their scents do mix well together.
That /maybe/ the smell of baked, sweet apples and vanilla filling Chuuya's bedroom the same night as they lay together is nice.