Brown and Orange - Soukoku

24

Dazai's POV

"Happy birthday Chuuuya!" I jumped out from hiding behind the door. He almost immediately flinched backwards. "Geez, you scared me. I don't even see the point of celebrating my birthday, it's not like I was actually born" he signed.

"Of course we have to celebrate your birthday! Everyone has one, including you!" I chirped. I dragged him to the dining table and lit the candle on the cake.

"Make a wish Chuuya" he was about to say something when I stopped him. "You're not supposed to say the wish out loud, or else it won't come true" I signed.

"How am I supposed to know that? I never celebrated my birthday before" he defended. "Wait, you never celebrated your birthday? Like never ever? Your first birthday is going to be with me!" I giggled.

"Actually, I never had a first birt-" I cut him off. "Well, at least the first birthday party you're going to have is with me" I made sure to emphasize the 'party'. "Yeah whatever" he rolled his eyes.

He thought for a second, then blew out the candle letting the smoke escape through the vents. "Here try this, I bought it at that cafe around the corner" I lifted a spoon into his mouth.

I bought him a strawberry chocolate cake with vanilla fillings, whipped cream on the edges, and mocha drizzle on top. The strawberry part was because he liked them. The chocolate pat was because I liked it.

I mean, if I'm paying for the cake I should get to enjoy it too right? "I thought that it usually comes with taro" he mumbled with food in his mouth.

"It does, I asked them to make it without taro" I replied. "How do you know I don't like taro?" he questioned. "You pick it out of desserts all the time" I responded.

"Why is there a slice missing from the cake?" he asked. "I got hungry, I've been waiting here for two hours already" I answered.

"Two hours? Don't you have better things to do?" he retorted. "Nothing is better than waiting for you" I smiled. In those two hours, I also decorated our entire living room.

There were dozens of rainbow balloons tied to a chair, a big poster that read 'happy birthday', and confetti everywhere from the popped balloons.

After eating a few slices of cake, we decided to put on a movie. The lights were on a dim mode, only lighting the room up a little. "Can you turn the heater on? It's so cold in here" he buried himself deeper into the blanket.

"The heater's broken, I don't feel cold at all though" I responded. How could he possibly be cold? It's pretty warm in here to me. I suddenly had a great idea. I wrapped my arms around him tightly and brung him completely under the blanket.

"Dazai let go! I'm going to suffocate, I can't breathe" he was trying to kick me off of him. "Didn't you say you were cold?" I played a confused look on my face.

I slightly loosened my grip on him so he could get some air. "Asshole" he was probably going to punch me if I let his arms free. A few hours later, the movie was finished and we were just cuddling under the blanket.

"Thank you, Dazai" he whispered so quietly that I could only barely hear him. "What was that Chuuya?" I teased. I heard him, I just wanted to annoy him. "Nothing" he mumbled.

April 29.

A day I didn't need to mark on my calendar. It was engraved in my brain so deeply that I could never forget.

.

7 years into the future

I was sitting next to him on his bed. He still lives here. The very same apartment, same room and everything. Looks like he kept a lot of our stuff.

He kept the white fluffy blanket which was now covering us. I was sitting pressed up against a pillow while he laid down, still quietly sleeping.

He also kept the picture frame. It was on a small table next to the bed. One where we were eating ice cream in a random gas station.

He had a strawberry ice cream with two scoops while I got the same thing but in chocolate. In the picture, I was stealing his ice cream and tasting both of the flavors. He had melted ice cream on his face and we were both laughing.

Everything else was also the same. It just looked a little emptier without my stuff here. The blanket covering us started to move. He shifted closer to me and snuggled up against my lap. His hair is just as soft as I remember.

I started playing with his hair, running my fingers through each individual hair strand and untangling it in the process. I switched to braiding his hair, grabbing just a small section and doing a basic three strand braid.

I picked up my phone and opened the camera app. I took another picture of him just peacefully sleeping on top of me with his hair slightly covering his face.

Click.

I forgot about the Japanese shutter feature. Every picture you take with a Japanese phone, it will always make a shutter sound even if it's on silent mode. I think it's to prevent unwanted pictures in public or something.

He stirred awake from his sleep and his eyes were full of confusion. I heard that when you first wake up you don't remember anything for the first five seconds, that could just be a myth though.

"Dazai?" he sat up a little and rubbed his eyes. "Dazai. What are you doing here in my apartment" he mumbled. "Well, I kind of had to carry you home because you fell asleep" I signed.

"Why do you know where I live? How did you unlock the door?" he questioned. "I asked Mori for your address, he has a file for that. And did you forget something? This is my apartment, I still have the keys" I rolled my eyes.

————————————————————————————————————————————————————

1017 words