Chapter Text
Chuuya was a rather ordinary person. He had a job, and was in college, making his way through life easily enough. Currently, he is living with a friend in an apartment off campus. Tachihara wasn’t a bad roommate, but he was hyper, and often kept Chuuya awake late into the night, or woke him up early.
So, on this particular day, since he was annoyed with him for waking him up at five in the morning, Chuuya decided to go out for a walk. There was a forest nearby, and it had some beautiful walking trails. Although, he’d heard his entire life that most people go missing there if they go into the forest between the hours of six in the evening, and nine in the morning.
Most people in town liked telling stories about how the forest is cursed, and that demons live in it. However, there were very few disappearances there in Chuuya’s time living there, and he had grown up on the outskirts of town. Which made him doubt all the rumours, despite his parents telling him that they were true, and to stay out of the woods no matter what.
The morning air was cool, and Chuuya considered going back inside to grab a sweater, but he didn’t feel like listening to Tachihara blasting music. The younger man always played music while studying or reading, and it was often obnoxiously loud. So, he continued on, walking through town to the forest.
It was dark inside, as if sunlight couldn’t breach the leaves. But that didn’t deter him, and he kept walking along the dirt path into the woods. As he kept walking, it felt as if it got colder, and Chuuya was regretting not going back for his sweater. However, he didn’t want to turn back now, since he was already there.
After several minutes of walking, the forest opened up into a clearing. Sunlight poured into the glade, and it warmed Chuuya as he wandered into it. Finding it peaceful there, he sat down, looking around curiously. Surprised, he’d never heard about such a place just outside of town.
He was still exhausted from getting hardly any sleep, so he laid back and decided to take a nap. Curling up, and resting his eyes.
—
Chuuya woke up to the feeling of someone poking him in the cheek. He opened his eyes to look at who was poking him, expecting to see Tachihara, only to see someone unfamiliar. A young man with brown hair, wearing a loose dress that was tucked under him as he sat. In his eyes was a look of curiosity, clearly wondering about what Chuuya was doing there.
Jumping up to a sitting position, Chuuya yelled, “Who are you?!”
“I could ask you the same thing, weird ginger sleeping in the forest,” the brunette muttered.
“It was comfy, and I was tired, don’t judge me,” he snappishly replied.
The stranger brushed off the comment, “Anyway, who are you? It’s not often I see people sleeping in the forest by choice.”
Chuuya huffed in annoyance, “My roommate was being annoying, so I went out for a walk, and ended up falling asleep when I sat down for a bit. But, I’m Nakahara Chuuya, you can just call me Chuuya, though.”
“I see, well, it’s nice to meet you,” they beamed, having not expected to come across someone so willing to give their name.
“Well, what’s your name then?” he asked, seeing the surprise on the other’s face, he added on, “since I told you who I am.”
“Call me Dazai,” the stranger, Dazai, told him.
Chuuya held his hand out for a handshake, “Nice to meet you, Dazai.”
The handshake was returned by Dazai, “It’s nice to meet you too.”
Looking up at the sky, Chuuya noticed that the sun was high in the sky. Pulling out his phone, he saw it was afternoon already, and he had a class in twenty minutes. Pocketing his phone again, he got up, brushing any dirt on himself off.
“I’ve got to go, I didn’t realize how late it was. It was nice meeting you,” without warning, Chuuya ran off.
Dazai blinked in confusion, this human was odd.
—
Chuuya had to go back to the apartment to get his stuff for class, and he was practically panting from running all the way back from the forest. Upon stepping in the front door, he could still hear Tachihara’s music. Glancing at the clock as he grabbed his bag, he saw he had five minutes left.
Without hesitating, he ran out the door, and slammed it behind him. It would let Tachihara know he was going out, that way he wouldn’t expect him to be in his room. Which meant the music would likely be turned up even higher when he returned.
It was a sprint for him to get to class, and he barely managed to get there in time. However, there was someone following him, that he didn’t notice.
—
After Chuuya had run off, Dazai had decided to see what he was doing. It wasn’t often they were able to mess with humans, as they mostly knew better than to enter the forest. So, they had wanted to play tricks on the ginger, but didn’t get the chance before he ran off.
Following him was rather easy, since compared to a fae, he was slow in moving through the forest. Dazai could tell that something urgent was going on, but he hadn’t bothered to learn about human activities much, so he couldn’t tell what. The trees made Chuuya slower, until he left the woods, and Dazai realized they would have to be careful if they wanted to follow any further.
Walking out of the woods, he used his glamour to appear like he was wearing an outfit to fit the current human fashion. They found it strange, how the clothes were tight, and bright. However, fitting in was the goal, so Dazai did it.
Wandering through the town was nerve wracking for him, but eventually he saw Chuuya running down the street with a bag thrown over his shoulder. Trying not to be noticed, they followed a bit behind him, and hid whenever they thought they’d be seen. After following him for a while, Dazai stopped when the ginger walked into a large building.
The writing on the building stated that it was a college, something Dazai had heard of before. He knew humans had schools, and jobs, but he’d never understood why. But, he knew that he shouldn’t enter a building full of humans, without understanding what he should act like there.
Which was why Dazai turned around, and walked away.