Not surprisingly, little Chuuya had fallen asleep on the car ride back.
His eyelids drooped dangerously and he struggled to jolt awake every minute, but eventually, he had drifted off, still looking tense even in his sleep.
Dazai kept an eye on the road, for once not driving chaotically, as he pulled the blue blanket further up Chuuya when it had fallen off.
Dazai sighed, hopefully, they wouldn't be stuck with this version of Chuuya for too long, for the sake of all of their sanities.
Chuuya remained blissfully asleep as Dazai pulled up to the entrance of the parking garage and riffled through his coat pockets for Chuuya's phone.
Apparently, he needed proof that he was a resident of the apartment complex, which, fair.
He finally retrieved Chuuya's red cased phone from the depths of his pockets and quickly managed to find his pin number to get past the gate. (It was in his notes, how predictable.)
He parked in the closest space he could, luckily Chuuya's apartment building was fancy and had an elevator to get to the different rooms.
Dazai pocketed Chuuya's phone, possibly never to be seen again, and took a moment to contemplate.
Chuuya was a bit skittish considering the circumstances, so carrying him up wouldn't be an option.
Dazai decided that waking him up would be the best option, at least the chibi would be a bit less vicious with how tired he was.
"Chuuya," he shook his shoulder, the redhead's eyes fluttered open in record time.
It made sense that he was such a light sleeper now compared to his other ages, though Dazai wouldn't ponder on it too much more.
Chuuya's eyes were wild for a minute as he kicked blindly, back crashing against the car's door, but recognition crossed over his face and he halted.
"Oh," was all he said, but it got the point across to Dazai.
'Sorry.'
"That's fine" Dazai rubbed his red cheek from where Chuuya had planted his heel directly on it, "we're back at the apartment, so it's time to get out."
"...Right," Chuuya reluctantly pulled on the doorknob and Dazai met him on the other side of the car, opening his own door.
Dazai made sure not to lead him by the shoulder or stand behind him, though he always kept an eye over his shoulder. Who knew if the kid would run if he had the chance.
Luckily there was no one in the elevator, Chuuya eyed it apprehensive when they stepped into it, fidgeting under the blanket that had covered him.
In fact, it was dragging along the floor during their whole trip to the apartment, but they made it work and arrived without incident.
Chuuya must have been exhausted if he was acting sluggish, especially in his current mindset.
Perhaps, though, that worked out best for Dazai.
"...This is your apartment?" Chuuya asked, wide-eyed as he explored it with his eyes.
"Uh-huh!" Dazai nodded shamelessly. It was Chuuya's, and Chuuya was in custody meaning that all of his belongings also belonged to him, thus making his wine collection, hat collection, and his apartment Dazai's.
Then Dazai frowned "hey, why do you sound so surprised that this fine establishment is all mine."
Chuuya shrugged, his blanket swishing around his shoulders "I dunno, thought you were homeless."
Dazai let out an offended noise, suddenly regretting watching the little devil at all. Chuuya looked homeless too, but obviously, Dazai was not going to point that out he wasn't a monster.
Speaking of his appearance, they should probably do something about that.
"Chuuya, you should take a bath."
Chuuya turned back to him, eyes wide "really?"
"Well yeah I mean you're dirty-"
Chuuya pulled the blanket tighter around himself, looking down to his bare feet. "Tch, I know, I was ju- I was just surprised."
Oh right, it was evident that he didn't get cleaned much when he was in the lab, of course, he would be surprised.
Dazai was glad for this Chuuya's blunt personality because it made it a lot easier to pick up on emotions. Of course, Chuuya had always been blunt and wore his feelings on his sleeve, the opposite of Dazai, but he also knew how to hide it well.
"Okay," Dazai directed "the restroom is through my bedroom, it's pretty big-" He didn't even get to finish his sentence because Chuuya dropped to the wooden floor like a deadweight.
Dazai can't say he wasn't expecting it, Chuuya was exhausted and had just been pulled out of an abusive environment, of course, he wasn't going to just walk around and act like some vicious stray when he got out.
Well, at least not for the whole time.
Dazai knelt down next to the redhead, who had fallen to his knees, fingers scraping against the floor. "Hey, Chuuya, did you just pass out?"
Chuuya lifted his head, seemingly blinking the dots from his vision before nodding slightly.
He could probably stand to eat a few more meals and drink a lot more water, being a little on the malnourished side, but Dazai couldn't force any of that on him at the moment.
Well, not the food, but he did offer Chuuya a bottle of water.
Chuuya remained on the floor, taking tentative sips as if his system would reject the liquid. His brain probably felt like mush after all of the events.
"Do you still want to bathe?" Dazai asked, taking the empty bottle to throw somewhere into the kitchen.
He would totally put it in the trash later, but for now, he was focused on helping Chuuya stand on shaky legs.
He moved like a newborn deer, and Dazai didn't know how he failed to miss the shakiness of his limbs earlier. Probably because of the blanket covering his frame that was now it had fallen to the floor.
"Yeah" Chuuya regained his voice, though it sounded hoarse.
They seemed to come to a mutual agreement that Chuuya wouldn't be left alone in the restroom in case he were to pass out again.
Dazai just wanted to keep an eye on the kid to make sure that he didn't drown or run off, even if his energy was at zero percent at the moment, Dazai had learned not to underestimate the Chibi.
Dazai assisted in getting the water running and discarding the tattered hospital gown into a nearby trash can. The fabric was light and flimsy in his hold, but he abandoned the thought process in order to grip Chuuya's arm and lower him into the warm water.
Little Chuuya made a noise at the contact of the water against his skin but slowly eased into it. It couldn't have felt too good on the cuts and bruises that littered his bare skin, Dazai had noticed a concerning amount.
He would deal with those later, for now, he stepped back and sat on the counter as Chuuya hummed, satisfied with the water.
Despite apparently appearing like a homeless man, Dazia couldn't imagine not bathing for longer than a couple of weeks.
He resorted to scrolling through his phone, the splashing noises Chuuya made becoming white noise. Well, until it stopped around ten minutes later.
Dazai immediately looked up to see that Chuuya had slumped over, head tilted back onto the porcelain.
His eyes were closed, he had fallen asleep again.
"Chuuya, don't drown on me now~" Dazai swiftly knelt in front of the bathtub, once again taking Chuuya's shoulder and nudging it.
Thankfully there was no violent reaction, just Chuuya's hazy stare as Dazai took off his coat and rolled up his sleeves.
"You in there, Chuuya?"
Chuuya grunted "my muscles are tired" he stated, and Dazai could hear the tinge of embarrassment laced in his tone. Ah, his arms must have gotten tired out after shampooing his hair.
"It's fine," Dazai waved him off, reaching for the conditioner "I can wrap it up for you."
Since when had he gotten so nice? Dazai couldn't wait until the Chibi grew so he could be mean once again.
Chuuya leaned into his touch as Dazai carded his fingers through his uncared for hair, finally relaxing his tense muscles.
Small steps.
Like Dazai did to the younger Chuuya's, he cupped the redhead's face so as to not get water in his eyes, washing the soapy suds out of his hair.
Once the slow process was over, Dazai unplugged the drain and helped Chuuya out, wrapping a fluffy towel around him.
"I need to check your injuries," Dazai informed Chuuya once he was sitting on the counter "put these on, I'll give you a shirt when I'm done wrapping you up." Dazai handed off the sweatpants he found in Kouyou's bag, setting the T-shirt aside.
"I don' wanna look like you" Chuuya complained, his eyes half-lidded as he tiredly pulled the pants up.
Dazai scoffed "the bandages are a wonderful fashion statement, thank you very much. Ah- now sit up".
Chuuya listened to instruction as Dazai checked over his torso, lathering ointment over the nasty cuts and bruises. His skin was littered with them, there were more areas covered with bruises than there weren't.
He noticed how the cuts were strategic enough to not leave long-lasting scars, but the sheer amount of them was probably worse than that possibility.
Dazai ended up wrapping his whole torso in a similar fashion to his own, just with more gentleness than he ever did himself.
Chuuya winced and let out small hisses when Dazai's fingers ghosted over tender places, but other than that he remained still.
What happened to you?
"Fucked up shit" Chuuya grumbled, and Dazai startled when he realized he had said that out loud.
"That lab was certainly not a good place," Dazai stated the obvious.
Chuuya made a small noise when Dazai reached his wrists. The skin was rubbed raw, puffy, and irritated.
They were where the shackles had been, and it looks like they had been so tight that Chuuya could easily lose circulation.
There was also a band-shaped strip of skin around his neck that was just as bad, the skin a sickly purple. Not only was he shackled, but he had some kind of collar on too.
Suddenly all of the dog jokes Dazai had made about Chuuya when they were younger left a bad taste on his tongue.
Chuuya had rolled up the cuffs of his sweatpants so that they wouldn't bother the area of his ankles where there were similarly shaped bruises.
Dazai bit the inside of his cheek but didn't linger, putting the bandages away and sitting up. "All done," at least his voice was at least functioning.
Chuuya had been dozing off again, startling awake at Dazai's announcement.
Dazai was going to offer him more food, to maybe ask him more questions, but the look on Chuuya's face stopped him.
So instead his mouth remained sealed shut as he searched through Chuuya's drawers until he finally found what he was looking for.
"...brush?" Chuuya asked shortly, staring at the object.
Older Chuuya would maim Dazai if he found out that he let his younger self take a bath and left his hair all tangled.
"Yep," Dazai answered, showcasing the object. "Come on, let's get out of there, the humidity is messing with my hair." While it was true, due to the hot water the mirror had fogged up, making the air heavy. But if anyone knew Dazai then they knew that he didn't care about his hair.
Surprisingly Chuuya didn't care when Dazai practically held up most of his weight on their journey to the bed. In fact, he was falling asleep on his feet.
Dazai hopped on the bed first, patting the area between his legs. "Sit here," he wiggled the brush in his hand.
Chuuya furrowed his eyebrows judgmentally before climbing onto the bed and sitting between Dazai's legs.
The Chibi was being slightly more cooperative than Dazai thought he would be, which was suspicious in itself.
But the longer he stayed at Dazai's and out of the lab, the more he would trust that he wasn't going back there and that this was not some kind of twisted dream.
Dazai started on Chuuya's hair, tugging lightly on the tangled strands with his fingers before running through it was his- or Chuuya's- brush.
He wasn't sure how long they sat there, zoned out in their own little world. Or that was until Chuuya fully slumped over, falling asleep for what seemed to be the tenth time that day.
Though this time, Dazai didn't wake him up. Instead, he sat as still as possible. The slug was like a cat, if you moved them when they were sleeping then there would be hell to pay.
So Dazai settled to his fate, leaning back against the headboard as Chuuya slumbered, pulling the blanket up over him.
"The things I do for you" he grumbled, rolling his eyes.
He hated kids, he truly did. But it seemed that Chuuya was ruining his reputation.