Work Text:
Dazai could never puzzle out how he felt whenever he discovered that the apartment door was unlocked. On the one hand, it was left that was for him, because not only did Chuuya expect his calling by, wanted him to. On the other hand, it was a dangerous habit to leave one's door unlocked. Even Chuuya wasn't invulnerable. He could be caught unawares and get hurt for it.
Especially when he was still recovering from using Corruption. Like he was currently.
Pushing open the door just enough to peek his head though, Dazai called out. "Chuuya? Dearest hat rack, you home?"
His voice was swallowed up by the dark and seemingly empty apartment. All the lights were off and curtains drawn. Normally it would be sign nobody was home, except Dazai knew Chuuya's eyes were particularly sensitive to light after corruption, due the migraines he'd get.
As he stepped inside and kicked off his shoes, he finally heard a reply.
"'n 'ere." A muffled voice drifted from the bedroom door which was open just a crack. The tiny space between the door and it's frame showed that no light was coming from the bedroom either.
He swiftly followed Chuuya's voice into the bedroom and was met with the sight of Chuuya in just his boxers lay face down across the middle of his bed, his pillow tucking into his arms and under his face. A trail of Chuuya's clothes led from the door to the bed, where Chuuya had pulled them off and collapsed onto the mattress. From the looks of it, he hadn't managed to move at all since.
Even in the gloomy dark Dazai could see the freshly irritated scars snaking their way across Chuuya's body. Scorched marks of his past winding around his arms and legs, up his torso and neck. Though Chuuya's face was hidden, Dazai knew a warped eye would still be branded into his cheek.
Dazai picked up the discarded clothes and placed them in the dirty laundry basket. As he did so, he striped off his own clothes until he was down to just his boxers too. His own clothes went into the basket along with Chuuya's like they belonged there.
"Are you sure you shouldn't still be in the infirmary?" Dazai asked as he crawled on the bed and sat next to Chuuya. Who still hadn't moved at all. If not for him answering earlier Dazai would have assumed, Chuuya had passed out.
"M fine, jus' tired." Came another barely comprehensible mumble.
"Oh, how convincing." Dazai chuckled softly. His hand threaded through the locks of Chuuya's hair, gently untangling the curls with his fingers. His nails ghosting along Chuuya's scalp.
Chuuya hummed, before rolling his head to the side so he could see Dazai. There were bags under hid eyes, his skin unusually pale. He removed a hand from under the pillow so it could clasp Dazai's wrist. Not in an attempt to stop him, but to keep Dazai's hand close to him. "I wanna be here."
"Okay." Dazai relented, tucking the loose stands of hair behind Chuuya's ear, feeling his skin shiver under his fingertips. "Did you eat before you belly flopped?"
"Yea."
"Hydrated?"
"Mmhm." Chuuya's eyes slipped closed again as he pulled Dazai's hand to rest against his cheek. "Have you done any of that?"
Sometimes, Dazai hated how well Chuuya knew him. He hadn't thought about his own body's needs all day, not since he recieved the text from Chuuya that he was out of the infirmary and back home. Leaving work, Dazai had come straight here, the last time he'd eaten was at lunch, and that was only the food he scrounged off of Kunikida.
"Silly pup." He muttered, leaning down to press a kiss to Chuuya's temple. "Always worrying about his master when he'd the one with a limp paw."
Chuuya grumbled, tucking his face back into his pillow and letting go of Dazai's wrist. "Go eat, moron."
Dazai left Chuuya for the shortest amount of time he could, electing to make himself a simple pot noodle. He would have eaten it in the bedroom if Chuuya's stomach was so sensitive after Corruption. Any strong scent had his stomach churning. Something Dazai had discovered when they were teens and the infirmary had scented incense that was supposed promote relaxation.
So Dazai ate his pot noodles alone, in just his boxers, in the front room. Then he swiftly disposed of the pot, scrubbed his hands and face, and even removed the bandages from his forearms too.
When he returned to the bedroom Chuuya had shifted positions. No longer was he flat on his stomach, but tensed up on his side, his limbs curled up around his pillow, with a pained look on his face.
"Chuuya?" Dazai rushed to his side, climbing on the mattress to kneel behind him. Gentle, like Chuuya was made of fracturing glass, Dazai laid his hand on Chuuya's shoulder testing his reaction. He didn't finch away, nor relax either. "Chuuya, how do I help?"
Chuuya shook his head violently, his eyes squeezed shut.
It hurt to witness him so closed in on himself, but Dazai had to remind himself that this reaction was better than it was worse. Chuuya had heard and responded to him, so he was at least present of mind.
"Okay, come here." Tucking his hands under Chuuya's arms, Dazai pulled his upper body into his own lap. Letting Chuuya's head rest again his stomach. Again, he brushed stray strands of copper hair away from Chuuya's eyes and then shifted his position, so Chuuya was lay between his legs. "You should have said you were in pain."
Another shake of Chuuya's head, this time he buried his nose into the bandages across Dazai's stomach. "Not pain… 'S too much."
"What do you need?"
Releasing the pillow, Chuuya's arms came around Dazai's middle instead, hugging himself closer, his grip almost uncomfortably tight. "This… Need this."
He couldn't help the small smile that came to his lips hearing that. Dazai let his palm rest against Chuuya's nape, his thumb stroking across the skin. "I'm here, you have me."
The tether holding Chuuya taut released with those words, as he melted against Dazai. He let loose a long weary sigh, nestling against Dazai stomach. His fingers finding their way under the bandages at the small of Dazai's back. "Like this, a little while longer."
"As long as you need." With his free hand Dazai reached for the blanket, draping it over his own shoulders first, them wrapping around them both, cocooning them together.
Under the covers he allowed his fingertips to wander over Chuuya's back, tracing along the sensitive scars of corruption, down Chuuya's spine and drawing idle patterns along his shoulder blades. The skin under his nails flinching with the occasional tickles.
They remained that way until Chuuya fell asleep and then some. Just long enough for Dazai to know, moving Chuuya wouldn't wake him again. At which point Dazai carefully shuffled them both backwards so he could lie down with Chuuya secure in his arms.
In the end, Dazai agreed, Chuuya was better off here than at the infirmary. Here Dazai could keep him safe.