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‘I’m bored.’
The brown-haired boy reached his arms out in a stretch, nearly hitting the person next to him in the process. Not that he cared that there was someone there.
‘How the fuck are you bored already? We’ve literally been in this arcade for five fucking minutes, bastard.’ The redhead opposite him tilted his head to the side, just enough to see his face. Probably still annoyed over losing their last bet over who’d win the game.
‘Five minutes too long!’ Yawning, Dazai took the tickets from the machine they were on. Suddenly jumping up from his seat, Dazai, who seems to have spotted something, bolted in the direction of a few glowing arcade machines with a circular screen in the middle, with circles around it as well. Sighing, Chuuya stood up to follow the blue fish he’d somehow agreed to come here with.
‘What now? Don’t tell me-‘ Dazai’s hands were already clicking random buttons Chuuya couldn’t quite catch before they disappeared across the screen. ‘It’s called Maimai! Chibi’s never heard of it?’
Choosing to ignore his partner, Chuuya looked at the rings around the circular screen. It seemed to have areas you press on, and he went over to the machine next to Dazai to have a better look at how the game seemed to work. It seemed to be a rhythm game of sorts, where you hit the buttons on the outer circle.
Out of the corner of his eye, Dazai had already chosen a song. Chuuya glanced at the level name, barely catching the name of the song before the screen flickered and the level seemed to start. ‘the.. EmpError?’
Dazai’s hands seemed to fly around the circle as the colorful notes started appearing from the centre of the circular screen and start moving towards the outside at a seemingly impossible speed. Chuuya couldn’t really make sense of how you were supposed to do all the different types of notes just by watching Dazai play, but he decided to give it a shot anyway.
Directing his attention back to the machine in front of him, he flipped through the selection of songs in front of him and picked the first one he faintly recognised from Yuan playing it at some point.
The game, Maimai, was not as easy as Dazai made it seem.
Despite Chuuya priding himself in his hand-eye coordination and agility, or at least when fighting, the screen displaying colorful notes to an upbeat song seemed to be an impossible task. He didn’t really understand the parts where he had to… move his hand around the circle? Is that even correct?
Giving up on the impossible notes, he exited out of the game and turned to Dazai again. ‘Chibikko-chan can’t handle a little game so he turns to me again?’ Dazai grinned at him, eyes never leaving the screen. How Dazai managed to keep his combo while also talking to him was a miracle to Chuuya.
‘I hope you die.’ The redhead scowls, but keeps his eyes on Dazai’s game screen. He seems to be approaching the end of the song, almost without effort? The song ends as the words ‘ALL PERFECT!’ Printed in orange pops out on Dazai’s game screen, and he just shrugs in response. ‘Piece of cake.’ Chuuya’s mouth dropped wide open, but quickly snapped shut as if to hide his surprise. Dazai just grinned at him from the side.
‘That was fun! I’m bored again though…’ the brown-haired boy next to him sighed, sat down on a chair nearby and pulled out his phone. Chuuya decided to have another go at the game - but not before making sure Dazai wasn’t looking at him at all. He wasn’t about to give that fish another way to tease him.
To his surprise, Chuuya finished the song with green letters flashing ‘FULL COMBO!’ on his screen. Triumphantly turning to Dazai, he grins. Only to realize Dazai probably wasn’t looking at him at all. Instead, his fingers are now tapping across his phone as he stares down at it in concentration. Or, what seemed to be concentration.
Chuuya walks behind him, peering over his shoulder to see what was going on. ‘We’re at an arcade, we paid to be here and you’re here on your fucking phone, playing another one of these?’ He says, as he sees the purplish white notes and sometimes green ones moving from the top of the screen to the bottom. ‘They don’t have anything more, I’m bored and we’ve got time to kill.’ Dazai shrugged, not even looking at him as his eyes stared directly at his phone screen.
Something Chuuya would never understand is how Dazai seemed to be effortlessly good at every arcade game possible. Another ‘ALL PERFECT!!’ in rainbow letters pops up on Dazai’s phone screen, and he smiles as the screen fades to black. ‘You should try it, slug! Good luck, you’ll need it!’ Dazai held his phone up to Chuuya, and drops it as he suddenly stands up. ‘Oi! Where are you going, blockhead?’ Chuuya yells at his partner as he catches the phone, nearly dropping it in the process.
Actually having a good look at the game now that that ass was finally gone, Chuuya finds out the name of the game. ‘Project SEKAI… Colorful Stage?’ He read out, and shrugged, making a note to check it out on his own phone later. Finding his way to the characters screen, he looked through them for a little while.
‘So, which is your favorite?’ Dazai, seemingly popping out of nowhere, asks from next to him. Sighing, Chuuya hands his phone back to him. ‘They all suck. You have shit taste in games.’ He muttered, standing back up. ‘Chuuuuuyaaaa!! Wait for me!’
-
Despite Chuuya saying he hated the game, Dazai could see out of the corner of his eye that the tiny redhead was obviously playing it. He was so concentrated Dazai didn’t think he even realized he was looking at him.
Chuuya’s concentrated face was so funny to Dazai. All his faces were so funny to Dazai. Chuuya in many ways seemed like the complete opposite of himself - everything shown in his face seemed to be his true, honest thoughts at any given moment. His eyes knitted together and fixed on the screen as his hands moved across the tiny object in his grasp.
There was something so utterly terrifyingly human in the redhead which was Chuuya Nakahara, the vessel of Arahabaki. Something which Dazai could and would never understand. Yet that same face which bought to him amusement and laughter bought a strange sort of comfort, something which bought a rare genuine smile to the demon prodigy’s face.
A warmth seemed to spread across Dazai’s chest as he smiled at Chuuya, his hair illuminated by the setting sun.