Chapter Text
When Chuuya had first read the cast list, his first thought had been “well, shit.” Not because he hadn’t gotten a good role. In fact, he’d been cast as a lead. The only problem was that Osamu Dazai had also been cast as a lead. Specifically, his love interest.
When Chuuya had first read the script, his first thought had, believe it or not, also been “well, shit.” Not only did he have to play Dazai’s lover, but he had to kiss him too. Absolutely not. It was not happening. Logically, he could ask the director to alter the scene. He knew he wouldn’t be denied. He also knew he wasn’t going to end up asking regardless. He didn’t want them to have to mess with the show on his request. Part of it may have also been that he knew Dazai wouldn’t care half as much as he did, and he couldn’t show that he was bothered by it. So he decided he wasn’t bothered by it. Not at all.
Rehearsals went by smoothly for the first two weeks, surprisingly. Chuuya was enjoying his role and working with most of the cast. Most of them. Dazai, however, was a constant grating presence. He was so effortlessly annoying that Chuuya was almost impressed. Chuuya had no clue how the brunette had been cast in a lead role. Directors hated laziness, and Dazai put just about zero effort into the play, never having his lines or blocking memorized and hardly trying in general.
When the director had instructed the cast, save for himself and Dazai, to leave from the stage area to run their lines elsewhere, he knew he was screwed. They were definitely working the kiss scene today. Chuuya didn’t want to kiss Dazai. He really didn’t. But he also didn’t want to make a scene. So when the script said his character placed his hands on Dazai’s face and pulled him into a kiss, Chuuya was going to do as such, no matter how weird the thought made him feel.
“Excited?” Dazai asked smugly. Chuuya wanted more than anything to push him off the stage.
“Fuck off,” Chuuya whispered. “Just kiss me.”
“So straightforward,” Dazai said.
“Fuck you, you know what I meant.”
The director was watching from one of the many seats in the audience section, reminding Chuuya of what he was meant to be doing. As said in the script, he took Dazai’s face in his hands and kissed him. It only lasted the time of a brief second, definitely not because Chuuya got scared and pulled back. Never that.
He just hadn’t realized how pretty Dazai was until he was this close. He hadn’t noticed how nice he smelled, and hadn’t known how good he tasted.
The thought startled Chuuya.
Dazai had the gall to smile as though he was completely unfazed by the situation, which he likely was. Dazai never cared about anything, really. It didn’t matter to him at all. He wasn’t stupidly flustered the way Chuuya for some reason was. Chuuya resisted the urge to wipe his own lips.
“Good,” the director said. “Now let it last a moment longer. This is the climax of the show. It’s the scene the audience has been waiting for, let them revel in it for a few seconds,” he instructed.
Chuuya wished he had given any note but that. The idea of kissing Dazai was already fucking terrifying, he didn’t need it to last longer. Alas, what the director said went. So he repeated his last few lines before taking Dazai’s face in his hands once again and pulled him down to kiss him a second time. He forced himself to not pull away or think too hard about it. If he started thinking about what he was doing, he was worried his thoughts would start going a different direction.
Dazai pulled gently away this time after what felt like a substantial amount of time, although it felt like eternity against his lips.
“Was that…better?” Chuuya asked, turning to the director.
“Yes,” he said. “Good. You two can call the rest of the cast back in here now. We’ll work on it some more tomorrow.”
Chuuya had never felt more relieved. He immediately booked it through the backstage door into the theater hallway.
“You’re nervous,” Dazai said, catching up to Chuuya with his hands in his pockets as he fell into step beside him.
“Shut up. What are you talking about?” Chuuya glared at him out of the corner of his eye. He hated that Dazai could tell small things like that. It made Chuuya feel like he wasn’t doing so well at hiding it.
Dazai turns his head to look at him closer. Then he gained an amused sort of glint in his face. “Oh my gosh, are you blushing?” He grinned.
“No, what the hell? Go away,” Chuuya said insistently.
“You are!” Dazai seemed absolutely delighted.
“What is your problem?” Chuuya asked, growing increasingly more frustrated.
Dazai’s grin just widened. “Is Chuuya flustered from kissing me? Don’t worry, I get it. It’s natural.”
“Shut the fuck up. You’re awful.” Chuuya spat.
Dazai’s grin didn’t falter. “Yeah, and you still kissed me.”
“Don’t make it sound like I’d do it willingly,” Chuuya said, speeding up his pace to hopefully leave Dazai behind. This, obviously, did not work. Dazai just sped up to match his pace and continued walking.
“You know you wanted to,” Dazai said, his voice all too confident.
“Not in a million years,” Chuuya said. The rest of the cast was scattered around the halls and connected rooms. Chuuya was grateful he could melt into the crowd and hopefully avoid Dazai for a while. He knew, however, that a while wasn’t nearly long enough. He was ashamed just to look Dazai in the eyes after feeling his lips on his like that. Unfortunately for Chuuya, he’d have to find a way to survive looking in those brown eyes a thousand times more between every kiss they shared.
It was going to be a long show.