What's Your Name?

Empty Nest

"...Are you freaked out?"

"...No," Dazai answers carefully. He doesn't love the idea of it—but he isn't petrified either.

And grand gestures aren't usually Chuuya's thing to begin with, so...Dazai doesn't want to throw him off—especially when Chuuya is stepping out of his comfort zone to make Dazai happy.

"Are you sure ?"

Dazai nods slowly, "Is it a long way?"

Chuuya shakes his head, "No, just a little over an hour."

Dazai nods, rocking back on his heels, "After an hour and a half with Fyodor—I can handle that."

Chuuya sighs with relief, "Alright."

Dazai walks over to the passenger door—and he does hesitate for a moment, his fingers hovering over the handle.There's still a loud, terrified gnawing in the back of his mind, telling him not to get in—

But it's a little quieter than it was last time. "Where are we going?"

Chuuya shakes his head, climbing in and buckling up— "You took me all the way to Aomori without telling me where we were going. You can handle a little suspense."

Dazai pouts, but Chuuya has a point. "I guess that's fair..."

And, compared to Fyodor, riding with Chuuya in the driver's seat is a lot less terrifying. He's careful in his movements, making gentle turns, never speeding up too quickly or braking too hard.

That doesn't erase Dazai's anxieties, but — i t makes it all very bearable.

"Why did Oda of all people teach you how to drive?"

Chuuya shakes his head, his eyes never leaving the road. "Mori tried, but..." he trails off. "Ane-san asked Oda to do it."

"And he drove over from Tokyo for that?"

"..." Chuuya makes a face, "I'm pretty sure he was bribed."

Dazai snorts.

"Shut up! It was gross!"

Dazai is tempted to say that Oda probably wouldn't say that, but Chuuya looks queasy enough.Dazai leans back in his seat, hugging his arms around himself as he tries to relax, and he's sort of succeeding, even if his teeth hurt from clenching together.

As far as birthdays go—he can't say his 20th has been bad so far. Oda came back home for the weekend, they all suffered through a movie Dazai wanted to see and went out to a nice dinner—Mori even bought him a new laptop for school.

But as he watches the city lights shrink into the distance, he doesn't know what to expect from here.Grand gestures have always been his thing—Chuuya finds them embarrassing, and he prefers to show he cares in small ways. Like remembering how Dazai likes his coffee, or nagging him to make sure he eats enough. So, he doesn't exactly know what this is going to be.

"Given the fact that you basically admitted you've never been camping in your life," Dazai comments, "I'm intrigued."

Chuuya rolls his eyes, taking the highway exit heading towards Hakone, "Well—it's not exactly camping."

"But it's sort of like camping?" Dazai questions, proud of his ability to wheedle information out of the redhead—and he can tell from the scowl on Chuuya's face, he didn't mean to spare that detail.

"Could you lay off?! We're almost there."

Dazai laughs, but he complies. And he doesn't immediately realize what this is—because Fuji Hakone Izu National Park is a pretty common tourist location, even though he can't exactly pick out why Chuuya thought it was something Dazai would want for his birthday.