Work Text:
Snow. Chuuya’s vision was filled with snow as he looked out the library window. It kept pilling up, creating a white landscape that reflected the light of the moon and nearby streetlights. The whole campus was covered in snow... It was pretty.
Chuuya sighed, turning his attention on the assignments in front of him. He had spread them all over the library table. He should really start working, but he was still waiting for someone.
‘That bastard’s late.’
They had agreed on 18:30.. Heck, Chuuya went as far as to reserve the godforsaken library! (Courtesy of being the head of the poetry club). It was now 19:00 and there was no sign of someone coming. No text, no heads-up, no call, nothing at all. Maybe he wasn't going to come.. The guy had a thing for skipping class and work, so Chuuya wouldn't put it past him. He had hope it’d be different this time though. He thought they’d made up, after all those years of radio silence. He felt like their relationship, romantic or otherwise, was going up-hill. They started talking more, going out after school and having fun. Chuuya thought he started to take it more seriously. He thought that his friend, his ‘partner’, cared. Maybe today didn’t mean that much to him.. maybe he-
“Chuuya?”
His head immediately snapped towards the origin of the voice; The entrance of the library. His vision landed on a tall brunette with ember eyes. The guy had a calm demeanour, but was clearly trying to silence a laught at Chuuya’s bewildered expression. Chuuya narrowed his eyes, trying to analyze the man standing in front of him.
“Dazai.. You’re late you dead eyed bitch.” He said after a while. His words hold no bite.
“Ah.” Dazai responded with. “Why yes, I’m a tad late. Sorry about th-”
“Have you been running?”
Dazai, mouth still open from his previous dialogue, tilted his head at the question.
“What gave you that impression Chibi?”
Chuuya pointed an accusatory finger towards Dazai, ignoring the infuriating nickname the other had used.
“You’re sweating and your face is all red, you look like shit.”
Dazai closed the door of the library and marched up to the table, plopping himself in the chair right next to the other man.
“I was running late, I didn't want to keep my dog waiting!”
Chuuya’s expression soured at his words. He aimed a kick at Dazai’s shin, which the other skilfully avoided.
“Im not your dog you jackass!”
An airless laugh escaped the brunette's lips
“Then stop barking like one!”
Dazai paused, looking around the library.
“Wait, why is it so empty? Is it usually like that?”
Chuuya scoffed.
“Nah, I ranted the library.”
“You what!? You can rent libraries in your college!?”
“No..” Chuuya responded sheepishly. “But since I run the poetry club, I said it was for a meeting.”
Dazai, surprised, turning his body completely to address Chuuya.
“You? Abusing your power? That’s not like you Chibi...” He raised his hands in mock defence. “Not that I mind! I’m glad we get this whole library for ourselves!”
Dazai turned back, gazing into nothingness. With a hushed voice, he added: “Makes for a good study date..”
The man’s lips turned into a small smile. It was unclear whether his words were intended to be private or for Chuuya, but that didn’t stop Chuuya from hearing them.
He felt his cheeks burn. ‘Gosh, am I blushing like a high-school girl!? Get it together man!’ He quickly turned his face around to hide it from view of the other.
“Lets just start working already..”
“Ugh, Chibi chuuya!! I don’t get this!” Dazai whined loudly.
“Dazai, why the fuck would you pick a french literature major if you can’t read the damn language!”
“Stop barking and just help your master with his work already!” God, Dazai whines like he’s 5.
“Oi! I’m not your fucking dog you bandaged freak.”
Chuuya snatched the paper Dazai was working on, reading through it quickly.
“what are you having an issue with?”
Dazai looked over his paper in Chuuya’s hands, pointing out a certain sentence.
“I don’t get this.” Dazai pouted. What a fucking man child.
‘J’espère que tu aimes ce cadeau mon enfant! Le-savais-tu? Dans la vraie vie, il a réellement étudié la littérature française à l’université impériale de Tokyo!’
Chuuya sighed, taking a more parental tone than before.
“What don’t you get about this?”
“First, why did they put the ‘Le’ in ‘Le-savais-tu’? It doesn’t make sense..”
“Ah. Well, the sentence still works if you remove it, but the ‘Le’ is used as the word ‘did’. So it’s like saying; ‘Did you know?’.”
Dazai’s confused face suddenly turned into something calmer.
“Ohhhhh. I get it! What about this one” He pointed to another passage. “There’s an ‘a’ as in the verb ‘avoir/have’ but it doesn’t make sense with the sentence..”
“That’s cause the verb used isn't ‘avoir/have’, it’s ‘étudié/study’. Since the verb is conjugated in ‘Passé composé’, it’s composed of two verbs. ‘avoir/have’ is just an auxiliary. Basically, it’s like saying ‘Has studied’.”
Dazai looked at him with a mix of awe and confusion.
“… Why aren’t the two verbs together than?”
“Cause the bitch who wrote this decided to put an adverb in the middle to separate ‘em.”
“why’d they do that? Wait, you can do that?”
“Yeah, you can. They just did that to be fancy though, this shit don’t matter that much.”
“Hmm.”
“What’s up Mackerel?”
Dazai turned to look at him, his demeanor was more serious than ever before.
“I’m..” He let the silence stretch for a bit before continuing.
“Extremely bored. This is sooooo boring. Say Chibi, wanna do something other than working?”
Dazai’s expression suddenly lit up.
“Oh, I know! How about I read you a story!!! Say, do you think they have Isshun Boushi in this library?”
A sly grin took over Dazai’s lips as he uttered his next words.
“I bet you could relate to the character. I mean, since Chuuya is so small-”
Dazai was suddenly grabbed by the collar and yanked closer to Chuuya’s face. Their breath mingled, and Dazai couldn’t help staring at the other’s lips.
“The fuck did you just say to me!?”
Dazai simply smiled.
“Run that by me again and see where it get’s you, fucking freak!”
He looked up, exchanging eye contact.
“Chuuya, I-”
“What do you boys think you’re doing!”
Both of their head snapped to the door of the library, completely caught off guard by the woman standing in the doorway.
“This is no place for flirting and creating a ruckus!”
Chuuya’s face reddened at the woman’s comment. Dazai grinnned when he saw the man’s expression.
“Hey Chuuya..”
They had just finished wrapping things off. Their study session got cut short by the angry lady, but Dazai didn’t seem all that bothered. Instead, when they both exited the library, he grasped Chuuya’s hand.
“What do you want?” Chuuya responded, his irritation seeping through his tone.
“… Wanna come to my place?” He sounded confident, but Chuuya could feel the fast pulse of the other through their jointed hand. He was taken off guard by the offer. Dazai was pretty closed off, he usually didn’t let Chuuya enter his apartment, much less invite him.
“Um.. sure? What do you wanna do there?”
Dazai grinned at his response, his usual mischievous expression coming back to his face. He was already pulling Chuuya along with him as he started walking.
“Hmmm~ How about… a movie?”
“A movie?”
“Well, yeah! We worked hard enough for the day, we can just plop a movie and relax!”
He turned to look back at Chuuya, his face beaming like some 5 years old after getting offered candy.
“What do you say Chibiko?”
Chuuya punched his arm at the name.
“Tch, fine. Whatever, I’m down for a movie’
Chuuya hadn’t been to Dazai’s apartment for a while. It was weird.. like nothing changed, yet everything was messier than usual. Dazai is not the best at taking care of himself… That goes for his apartment too. He lets things pile up, not bothering to clean them, but he organizes his piles of mess. Its a weird display. For example, there’s about 10 empty bottles of sake, but they aren't scattered.. They are all in a neat pile on the kitchen counter. Well.. Dazai was weird, so go figure.
“Welcome to my humble abode!” Dazai said after they entered.
Chuuya eyed the place with judging eyes. He quickly noticed that, although there was piles of trash, it didn’t particularly smelled bad. In fact, it smelled like Dazai.. Now, one could argue Dazai smelled bad, but Chuuya would beg to differ. Yes, people joked around about the smell of the brunette, but no one truly thought he stinked.
“you go and pick the movie, ill prepare ourselves some drinks~” Dazai said, winking at chuuya.
“Don’t poison mine!” He responded with, heading to the sofa in the living room while Dazai disappeared in the kitchen.
He quickly picked the remote, scrolling through the movies. He wanted a classic, something with a good story. As an inspiring writer, he wanted something captivating, a commentary on the world. He stopped on a movie.
“Hey Dazai!” He screamed.
“You good with the truman show?”
“If Chibi wants that, than sure!!” Dazai responded from the kitchen.
He pressed on the movie, starting it right after Dazai’s response, not bothering to wait for the other as he got comfortable on the couch.
“Hey! Wait up slug!” The brunette rushed back to the living room with two mugs in hand, handing one to Chuuya before slumping next to him on the couch.
“shut up and just watch the movie bastard.”
He hoped Dazai would like the movie, the bastard needs to wind down with something other than alcohol… Speaking of alcohol.
“Dazai...”
“Yes, my love~?”
Chuuya felt his cheek burn, but he calmed himself down quickly. He would not let that mummy get the better of him!
“What the fuck did you put in there.”
Dazai glanced at the mug.
“What do you mean? It’s hot chocolate.”
Chuuya scowled.
“Did you spike my drink!? This is differently not normal hot chocolate!”
Dazai’s eyes widened in understanding. He reached for Chuuya’s mug, exchanging it with his own.
“Sorry, I mixed up our drinks..”
“What??? What did you put in there?”
“Alcohol.”
“Dazai.. You gotta be fucking with me.”
The ginger glanced at the mug, than at Dazai. Snatching the mug from Dazai, he made his way to the kitchen, emptying it in the sink. The brunette had followed after him.
“Hey! Chuuya! You wasted my perfectly good hot chocolate!!”
“You fucking asshole! Im not letting you drink that crap!” He said, his anger seeping through his tone.
“I don't care! I'm making you another one, with NO alcohol! You get your alcoholic ass back to the couch and watch the fucking movie or I’ll make you regret it!”
“Geez.. the chihuahua is angry.” He raised his hands in mock surrender.
“Alright alright, Ill go. No need to get so worked up over a drink.”
Before Chuuya could retort, Dazai was already gone.
A good 10min had passed before Chuuya finished the drink. To be fair, he didn’t know where any of the ingredients were, and he wasn’t going to ask Dazai about it. That prick fucking hid the milk in the frig, putting it behind some cans of crab or some shit. It’s like, even when he’s not there, he’s still able to rile Chuuya up.
Chuuya made his way back to the living room, only to find Dazai asleep on the sofa, the movie still playing in the background. It was.. kinda endearing. He was pretty, his face was peaceful. Chuuya tried his best to stop starring… Tried. He sat next to him, their shoulders touching. He focused on the movie, tough his mind still wondered to the sleeping idiot next to him.
It was getting late and the soft sound of Dazai’s snoring made Chuuya all the more sleepy. His eyelids felt heavy as he leaned on the shoulder of the brunette. He relax, feeling his consciousness slip. The only thing keeping him awake was the coldness of the room. Maybe it was the snow outside, maybe it was just how Dazai’s apartment was, but he shuttered at the temperature. He felt a cold… soft? Wind. Could wind be soft? The wind started to get warmer, as if trapping his body heat… A blanket. He was under a blanket. Someone put a blanket over him.
“Dazai..?” He said tiredly. His voice quiet.
He was still slumped on the brunette’s shoulder.
“Shh, just sleep.” Dazai’s voice was as quiet and tired as his, but there was a hint of fondness behind it.
Chuuya leaned further into the other, he could feel himself slowly succumbing to sleep. Finally, his consciousness dissipated as gentle hands started caressing his hair. It felt nice.. It felt like home.