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Today was Sunday. Which meant Dazai had to go grocery shopping with his husbands since every two-ish Sunday's was their bi-weekly grocery run.
He swore he was never very helpful, especially since he couldn't see well enough to help his partners get what they needed quickly, but they still insisted he come every time anyway.
At least to just get out of the house, if he didn't want Chuuya to make him feel up all the produce to figure out where the cucumbers and other vegetables they usually needed were because the employee's just loved switching it all around.
Currently, Dazai and his service dog—Bling—were on the hunt for yogurt, strawberries, snap peas (because Chuuya was having cravings like a pregnant woman and just wanted them), and a few other kinds of vegetables.
It was going well. Dazai hadn't heard anyone talking about Bling yet this time and found the first three things Chuuya requested he get quite easily.
Which all goes down the drain when someone starts following him.
He's only aware of it after he's grabbed a cabbage and is trying to locate where the edamame might be, because they follow directly behind him as he looks for it.
He thought he had been imagining it at first, but finds he isn't when he's standing there and getting the soybeans and Bling puts herself behind him to block the person from getting wayyy too close.
He's wondering how many soybeans Chuuya wanted him to get when he feels a slight tug on the leash and realizes it's not from Bling moving and that whoever was following him now had the audacity to pet his guide dog.
"Excuse me," Dazai says in their general direction, tone a bit clipped as he gives a soft tug on Bling's leash to guide her away from the hands touching her and to his other side. "My dog is working, you're not allowed to touch her because it can be distracting." He notifies them in case they were somehow ignorant.
The person—a woman, he now knows because of the feminine tone she has as she huffs like a petulant and spoiled child that was never told no—speaks to him in a rude and cocky way after Dazai had told her that.
"Why have her in public if no one can touch her?"
Dazai grinds his teeth together a bit, already getting annoyed by this woman who he knew would be a pain to get rid of. "She is my guide dog, ma'am." He answers and gestures to her vest where as much is plastered all over her dark purple sparkly vest on the yellow patches that had lighter purple lettering on them.
He had remembered to put them on, right..? He reaches down to feel his dog and is a little relieved when his fingers brush over the patches that told people she was an assistance dog.
The woman in front of him snorts like that's unbelievable. "You don't look like you need that dog. You're finding everything just fine without it's help." She comments. "You're probably just faking it for attention, so you can bring your dog anywhere you want."
Not wanting to catch the woman's ignorance or do something that got him banned from the store, this is when Dazai begins ignoring her.
He grabs Bling's guide handle as he walks away—even though the lady still follows after him—and asks his dog to, "Find Kuni." While gesturing forward in the direction he thinks Kunikida was in.
The man must have been pretty close because Bling locks in on his scent after they walk that way for a minute. The lady following behind him has gradually raised her voice as she talks at Dazai, who pays her no mind and tries to ground himself through the bounce of Bling's gait tugging him closer to his relief.
It's going well. Until she gets the bright idea to get in Dazai's way and block him and his guide dog from moving forward so he has to pay attention to her.
She is yelling in his face at this point, asking if he's gone deaf, too, but he still doesn't give her the satisfaction of getting a reply and tries to have Bling guide him around her.
She steps back in front of him, touching Dazai as she pushed him back and blocked their way forward with her body. He tries one more time to ask Bling to guide him around her. The woman sidesteps in front of them again, though this time probably too fast, because she steps her full weight onto one of Bling's paws making her yelp.
Before he can do anything, familiar fingers wrap around his forearm. Kunikida.
"Why are you harassing the disabled?" Kunikida asks while giving her a hard stare.
She scoffs. "How am I harassing him if he was being rude first? Doesn't he know that people like me are severely allergic to dogs? He can't just bring it in here because he thinks he needs it. I'll get you banned from here for bringing that in here when you don't need it." The woman states, backing up now that Kunikida, who had his full vision, was standing with Dazai.
"Your logic is flawed. He cannot get banned from a store in which he has done no wrong in. It is also not our fault that you are allergic. If you were really so concerned, you would stay away instead of following them around."
Kunikida's valid point makes the woman flustered and she stutters as she tries to think of anything.
She sputters before laughing. "Yeah, right. Wait 'til I talk to the manager. Then we'll see who's getting kicked out of the store."
"The legality of it does not work that way, but you can try if you'd like." Kunikida says, just to entertain that woman's thoughts and also inform her. Especially since she now walks away and finally leaves Dazai alone.
Kunikida then turns his attention to Dazai, who had went silent as the lady talked about him like he wasn't capable of doing it for himself, and notices his blank stare. Kunikida trails his hand down his arm until their fingers lace together and squeezes his hand to get his attention.
"Okay..?" Kunikida carefully asks, not trying to treat him like he's fragile, but genuinely wanting to know (because Dazai was spacing and that didn't really happen unless he was close to a break(ing point)).
Dazai seems to come back to himself somewhat at Kunikida's attention, holding his hand a bit tighter as he asked, "Is Bling's foot okay?" Not at all concerned with answering about his own state after being harassed around the store like that, only thinking about his dog that he needed to assist him. "That bitch stepped on her."
Kunikida makes a slight startled sound and lets go of Dazai's hand for now to crouch in front of the dog. He picks up her leg to examine her one foot first, not missing the way she shivers as he does, very obviously shaken by what happened and concerned with Kunikida touching so close to her injured paw.
The one he picked up, Bling's front right foot, is definitely the one woman stepped on. A few of her nails are bent or broken off and bleeding and one of her toes seems to maybe be fractured.
"We'll have to take her to the vet." Kunikida murmurs, setting down Bling's foot and looking up to gauge Dazai.
A nasty look crosses his face and he clenches the leash in his hand. "How bad?"
"A few broken nails, I'd just like to take her to make sure her toe isn't fractured or broken because it looks a bit odd." Kunikida reassures as he stands up again and grabs Dazai's hand. Dazai loosely holds it back, probably overstimulated and close to a panic attack.
Kunikida is about to suggest they go find Chuuya so they could report the woman to the store and potentially authorities before going, when Chuuya runs up to them. "Hey-!"
Chuuya glances at Dazai's face as he stops in front of his spouses. He was going to ask about the person who had been yelling and then Bling's pained noise that had echoed loudly through the store, but it seemed like Dazai needed his attention more.
"Let's go pay for our stuff and talk to whoever we need to and get out of here." Chuuya proclaims.
Dazai nods in agreement, hating how he knows he'll have to talk to the police before they go, and follows Chuuya back to wherever he left his cart.
-
Chuuya is almost done checking out, Dazai is very aware. And that made him…itch. He felt sort of restless and kept getting in Chuuya's way because every time he moved out of his way, he was just in it again. Which was ticking off the older, though he knew it wasn't purely intentional. Mostly because Dazai kept getting distracted staring down the few officers by the doorway that led outside.
His vision may be limited and shitty, but he could still make them out.
After shuffling past Dazai, his dog and the cart again, Chuuya sighs irritably. "'Zai, why don't you go out and wait in the car?" He suggests with a snappy tone he tries to suppress, which is hard with his clenched teeth. "Me and Kuni'll talk to them for you." He clarifies, voice softening back to the subtle fondness he usually spoke to his partners with, because he knew Dazai wasn't actually trying irritate the fuck out of him right now.
Dazai takes the opportunity swiftly, "Okay! No take backsies, Chuuya!" And makes his way to the exit, not missing the chance to brush his hand past Chuuya's trim waist as he walks by and goes out to find the car.
His chest feels light despite Bling's slightly limping stride pulling him towards wherever it was Chuuya parked the car.
The thought that he wasn't alone, and that his partners were there for him, unraveling the dark ball of feelings that was accumulating in the space.