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Being drunk was fun.
Those were Chuuya's only real coherent thoughts at the moment. He'd heard from many people throughout his life that being drunk was aggravating, or made you slow, or made you feel sad or got you in tricky situations, but honestly, he didn't understand why. Being drunk was actually really fucking cool. It made Chuuya feel warm and energetic and not sad at all.
Not even shitty Dazai's boring presence could tarnish his fun, Chuuya noted, as he realized the brunette was still by his side for at least the fourth time this night. Dazai was so quiet he kept forgetting he was there. He didn't really understand why he wasn't leaving, either— cause, really, it probably wasn't a lot of fun for Dazai to watch over him.
Still, the young executive stayed next to him for the whole night, barely even speaking, but still very much present. His face didn't betray his emotions the slightest bit, as usual, but he didn't look very happy to be there. Or maybe it was just Chuuya's loud laughs and the way he kept getting them all over his shirt that worsened the brunette's mood.
But, really, being drunk was so much fun. Chuuya didn't remember the world being that funny before. He could simply watch the bartender mix drinks together and start bursting out laughing, because it was so amusing! Why? Ah, he couldn't tell that much. It just was. Maybe the repetitive clinks of the ice cubes against the glass were what kept him so entertained, or the low voices of the men asking for drinks on his right and on his left— who knew?
Certainly not Chuuya, who howled with laughter as he chatted with a red-haired boy who was sat next to him. He couldn't keep himself from wheezing and giggling maniacally, but the boy didn't seem to mind. He looked one or two years younger than him, maybe fifteen or sixteen, with a friendly freckled face and amber eyes. His hair was darker than his, and significantly shorter, and there was a band-aid plastered on his nose bridge.
When Chuuya had asked if he'd hurt himself somehow, the boy had replied;
"No. It just looks cool, don't cha think?"
And Chuuya burst out laughing again, of course, under the dissatisfied expression of his brown-haired partner, who kept glaring at the freckled boy.
Chuuya happily asked for another drink from the barman, giggling at the sight of two shiny bottles of wine, who turned around to look at Dazai.
"Don't think he can stand his drink very well, sir, he's already plenty drunk. You sure I should give him another one?"
Dazai tilted his head to the side to glance at Chuuya. "You heard that, chibi? You're too much of a lightweight to drink!"
Chuuya pouted, hands on his hips. He was the same height as Dazai when he was sitting, so he felt fairly confident of his intimidating figure. "Am not a lightweight— bastard."
"You totally are," the brunette replied with a smack of his lips.
"Am not!"
"Are too!"
"Am not!"
"Are too!" Dazai cooed, grinning for the first time this evening.
The freckled boy Chuuya had been talking to blinked and looked at him. "Are you two friends or not? I really can't tell, he's been shit-talking you since I met him."
Dazai raised an eyebrow. "I don't believe shit-talking someone is a show of affection."
"Well, in most cases, I guess not," the redhead agreed. "But I've literally never seen anyone talk so passionately about someone they hate. There's a load of stuff to unpack there, if you ask me."
"Which is why I didn't ask you", Dazai muttered under his breath.
Chuuya gasped, outraged. "That's rude!"
"I'm sure he'll live," the brunette snickered, taking a sip of Chuuya's glass of rum.
Chuuya was a little confused by that, because his own lips were on that glass! And Dazai just put his lips where Chuuya had put his lips, so that meant… they'd just kissed? Not-really-kissed-but-still-kissed? That was really fucking weird!
Chuuya kicked Dazai's shin under the table for making him feel confused. "You're a rude asshole," he declared.
"Booo, I'm gonna cry." Dazai rolled his eyes, and it was very dry, and Chuuya didn't like it at all.
He kicked Dazai's leg again for good measure.
"Ow— for God's sake, chibikko, will you stop hitting me?" Dazai complained, pulling his leg up against his chest. "So violent!"
Chuuya attempted to kick him again, but his leg wouldn't obey, for some reason. Disappointed, he turned to the barman and sighed.
"Another margarita, please," he mumbled. The barman simply laughed, then spun on his heels to go prepare the drinks.
The ginger-haired boy next to him chuckled, so Chuuya turned to him, perplexed. "Dude, what's your name?"
His new friend blinked, the corners of his lips twitching upwards. "Um. Tachihara?"
"Okay." Chuuya reached for the boy's shoulder to give him a friendly pat, nearly falling off his chair in the process. "Name's, uh, Ch—"
" Chibi ," Dazai cut in. "His name is Chibi."
Tachihara appeared slightly confused, but soon simply huffed. "Sure, man. Chibi. And you are?"
"Daz—" Chuuya helpfully began, only to be cut off by the brunette once more.
"Dazoo." The executive smiled, his jaw tense. Regret was shining in his eyes. "My name is Dazoo. And he is Chibi. It's nice to meet you, Tachihara."
Chuuya nodded a couple of times, very amused by the brunette's lies, although he didn't quite get why they had to lie to the very nice, very funny redhead. He decided to go along with Dazai's fake claims because even in his drunken state, Chuuya quite frankly believed that the brunette would do what he had to to keep him safe… Even if he took advantage of the situation to mock Chuuya a little bit beforehand.
Tachihara let out an amused sigh, then turned to Chuuya once again. Their knees bumped into each other's, and when Dazai noticed it his face soured again. Chuuya found that very funny.
"So, Chibi—"
Chuuya frowned, slightly irritated. He didn't get why everyone wanted to ruin his happy day so badly!
"You're not allowed to call me that," he stated.
The redhead looked both tired and amused. "But you just said—"
"No. Only Daz– Dazoo gets to call me that." Chuuya glanced at the brunette and grinned, pleased with himself for remembering the fake name. He was insanely smart, that was for sure.
Dazai's eyes softened a little, though with the drunken haze and the harsh lighting of the bar Chuuya couldn't be sure. He was resting his cheek on his hand, his elbow on the bar counter, and didn't stop looking at him for even a second. It made Chuuya feel a little fuzzy and warm inside, but not in the same way alcohol did.
"Oh, really?" Dazai smiled a bit. It suited him a lot more than his regular emotionless frown. "Why?"
Chuuya blinked, then frowned so much it sort of hurt. "Well, 'cause I love you. Duh."
Dazai choked, his eyes actually widening. Chuuya didn't think he'd ever seen him that surprised in the three years he'd known him, or at least that genuinely surprised. If you looked very hard, his cheeks were slightly rosy, too, although the blue and purple lights were so bright it was hard to notice. Chuuya was just so used to staring at the brunette that any change that happened to him was easy to spot.
The hand that was supporting his cheek came to cover his mouth as Dazai coughed a couple of times, his eyes shut tight. Chuuya swung his legs on his sit, not sure how he felt with the fact that his feet didn't reach the floor like Dazai's or Tachihara's did. He waited for the brunette to stop choking while Tachihara tried to smoother his own laughs with his sleeves.
Once Dazai had stopped dying, he straightened, then glared at Chuuya. The redhead frowned again, then raised his hands to prove his innocence.
"Why're you lookin' at me— like that?!" he slurred, suddenly feeling embarrassed for no good reason at all.
Stupid Dazai. Always here to make him feel weird shit when there were no reasons for it. Like how his stomach fluttered strangely whenever their eyes met on the battlefield, or how a shiver electrified his entire body when their hands brushed on accident when sitting next to each other for Mafia meetings.
"Nothing," Dazai muttered. "No reason at all."
The barman approached them again with Chuuya's margarita in his hand, a sideway smile on his lips. He placed the glass in front of him, then left, his strong smell of smoke and beer tickling Chuuya's nose. He sneezed. The man sort of reminded him of the older brown-eyed guy Dazai always hung out with.
Osu…
Osudake…?
Chuuya rubbed his eyes, which were starting to sting a little, and looked at Dazai. "Do you like him?"
Dazai startled. "Who?"
"Osu…" He squinted. "Osuda Sakenosu?"
The brunette snickered, eyes flicking to the bartender who was shaking drinks together and showing off for the new clients that were coming in.
"That's not him."
"I know that," Chuuya frowned. "Am not stupid."
"I never said that." Dazai rolled his eyes. "And I suppose it depends on what you mean by like , chibikko."
"Like—" Chuuya bit his lip, then tried scooting closer to Dazai by sitting on the end of his chair. "Like like like ."
"Like like," the brunette repeated drily.
Tachihara had been fully forgotten, at this point. Not that the taller redhead minded, as he took the opportunity to flee out of the bar and escape 'Dazoo' and 'Chibi's strange conversation.
"Like like," Chuuya confirmed. "Like when you fuckin' like someone, y'know?"
"Ah." Dazai's eyes turned to him again, gentler than he'd expected. "Like how you 'love' me?"
The redhead found it hard to meet Dazai's eyes, suddenly. It was like suddenly sobering up. "Yeah."
The brunette hummed, then gave him a crooked grin that made Chuuya's ears turn bright red in a matter of seconds. "Then, no."
"No?"
"No."
"He's your best friend?" Chuuya asked, tilting his head to the side so he could show Dazai he was very curious about his relationship with Osu-something.
Somehow everything didn't seem as funny anymore. He was slightly aware that the effects of the alcohol were starting to slip away, but he didn't really like that. Being drunk was fun. Chuuya didn't know why he'd ever want to not be drunk anymore.
"You could call him that," Dazai conceded. "He is twice my age, though, so I think—"
"He's your father figure," Chuuya said, then yawned. His eyes felt awfully heavy, for some reason.
Dazai hummed again. The sound buzzed in Chuuya's ears. Why had the bizarre happiness gone away? Chuuya missed being that ecstatic. Now, he just felt sad. And tired. His new best friend and the fellow redhead had run away somewhere, and Dazai wasn't even reacting to his beautiful love confession. The alcohol was wearing off, and even if he had a fresh glass of margarita right in front of him, raising his hand to pick it up seemed way too exhausting of a task at the moment.
"D'zai," Chuuya called, mumbling. "'Feel tired."
Dazai tilted his head to the side. He bumped their feet together from under the bar counter. "It's no wonder, chibi, it's one a.m. We should head back to our apartment."
The blue and purple lights flickered on and off, making Chuuya frown and squint, his eyes stinging even harder. It looked very good on Dazai, sure, but he didn't quite like being assaulted that way when drunk. He mornfully turned to his poor margarita.
"I'm sorry," he told the margarita.
The margarita did not respond.
Dazai huffed under his breath and got off the stool. "Drunk chibi sure is interesting," he said.
Chuuya hopped off his own stood, struggling to stay on his feet for a few seconds. He hadn't realised the floor was so hard . It was a lot more complicated to walk on the floor than stay sat on a chair with his feet in the air. He glanced at the brunette looking down at him.
"I don't like walking," he announced, making Dazai roll his eyes.
"Yes, well, as I'm sure you've noticed previously, I can't really carry you there. And I'm not the one who has gravity manipulation powers."
Chuuya scowled. "You could compli— uh, definitely carry my— me if you wanted to!"
Dazai shrugged, taking two long steps towards the bar's entrance, his long coat floating prettily behind him. "What's that? Can't hear you!"
"Bastard!" Chuuya rushed to catch up to him, grabbing his arm to stabilise himself in case he ended up falling down.
Dazai smiled a little. "Everything all right down there, chibikko?"
"Shut— shut up," Chuuya muttered. He tightened his grip on the brunette's arm, but Dazai didn't seem to mind.
They left the bar together, and maybe it was the alcohol, but Dazai was awfully gentle with him, for once. He actually seemed to be cautious of Chuuya's struggle, and held him by the waist whenever he tripped. It made Chuuya's insides feel fuzzy again, and the feeling climbed up in his throat until words were pushed out of his mouth;
"Love you, D'zai," he mumbled.
The corners of Dazai's lips twitched upwards. "Love you too, chibi."