The white powder surrounding the floor slowly began to melt as the air around warmed. The remnants of the winter fading into April. It had been a long ride since the start of the year. Though it had been hard, and at times the world seemed to go too fast or too slow; those moments bred small moments of joy. Every life has ups and downs. Some days you dive down into anguish, while others you soar high into bliss. That had been the year they had, a pair who'd started the year out with knives at each other's throats, unable to get along. Among their rocky road's they ended up a sweet pair.
"Chibi, could you fetch me the bowl atop the cabinet!" Despite being in a relationship with the short ginger, Dazai still had his tendency to be a little cruel. Though he knew now what insults to avoid, what comments would make Chuuya uncomfortable.
Chuuya huffed swinging himself from the sofa, he rarely let Dazai cook, considering he wasn't the best at anything that wasn't instant ramen. He was letting him attempt to make chicken for them tonight. "I'm not... god, I hate you!"
Dazai snickered, leaning his elbow on the shorter male's head. "Aww, can Chibi not reach?" His snarky remark ended with a smack to the face.
"Get the damned thing yourself, waste of bandages." Chuuya rolled his eyes walking into the cabinet to grab a handful of seasoning. "Were you planning to just dunk it into the flour..." Dazai looked at the cut chicken and the bowl of flour with a confused tilt of his head.
"I was..."
"God... you're a fucking idiot Dazai. First, no flour yet, second, use bread dumb-ass. For somebody who's supposed to be highly intelligent, you act like an actual idiot." Chuuya rolled his eyes watching Dazai stand there in confusion. "Alright, grab the bread, cut the crust, tear it into tiny pieces, dry it out in the microwave." Chuuya grumbled, leaning against the counter with his arms crossed.
"Like this?" Dazai glanced at Chuuya, making sure he got an 'okay', as he did as told. Taking out the breadcrumbs, now dried, he turned back to Chuuya. "Next?"
Rolling his eyes, Chuuya pointed to the salt, pepper, and lemon zest. "We don't have a food processor, so you'll have to do it by hand, but press that all together. Eye out the amount you need to mix with the crumbs."
Dazai grabbed a smaller bowl, eyeing the salt and pepper, less was always better than more. If need be, they could add more later. "Alright, I think that's the best it'll get. What now?"
"Separate the flour, eggs, and crumbs into separate bowls, use the shallow ones." Dazai nodded, cracking a few eggs and arranging the bowls next to each other.
"I season the chicken right?" Chuuya nodded to Dazai with a small smile. "Salt and pepper?" Chuuya nodded once more watching Dazai take pinches of salt and pepper and dust it over the chicken. "Then I dip it into the flour first, then egg, then the bread crumbs?" Chuuya hummed watching Dazai's hands work carefully. He tried his best to make everything even, and do so with little mess. He placed each piece of chicken on the small pan located on the portable stove-top. "Wait- there isn't an oven." Dazai looked to Chuuya, who sighed, pointing to the microwave.
"You can just use that, genius." Dazai stuck his tongue out, placing the chicken on a plate and sliding it into the microwave.
When it finished, Dazai cut through one of the two pieces to make sure it was cooked, before placing it on the table. "Dinner is ready and served for the tiny person." Chuuya exhaled and glared at the taller male as he finished his words.
"You're just tall, I'm not... I have a few centimeters left! I'm only 18..." Dazai clicked his tongue with a heavy sigh.
"Oh Chuuya, when will you accept that you're going to be short forever?" Dazai placed an arm over his forehead with a snicker. Only to find his knees being kicked in. He fell forward, only to have the scruff of his shirt yanked, preventing him from completely falling forward.
"I'm still growing damn it!" Chuuya looked directly into his eyes, knowing the gleam within the hazel was pure satisfaction and amusement. He was about to bite out insults when Dazai pushed closer, slotting his lips over his. Slowly, Chuuya let go of Dazai's collar, moving his arms over the male's shoulders, allowing him to straighten his posture just a tad. When Dazai pulled back, he held himself with a proud smirk. Chuuya rolled his eyes while crossing his arms, standing straight to make himself appear a bit taller. "That was a shitty move, Dazai."
"But it shut you up and you enjoyed it~" Dazai slid his chair out, resting his chin on the table as Chuuya sat across from him.
"Tch, fucking idiot," Chuuya grumbled as they began eating. "Underseasonsed, but you didn't poison it and it's not burned, so it's alright." Chuuya smirked looking at Dazai, who puffed his cheeks out.
"Chuuya is such a critic! It tastes perfectly fine, it's completely mediocre, nothing less." Dazai pouted, leaning back in his chair with crossed arms. His empty plate already shoved towards the middle of the small table.
Chuuya stood with another snicker, grabbing the plate and walking by Dazai to flick his forehead. "Alright you giant child, I suppose you could call it a mediocre meal." Dazai brightened up immediately with a smile.
"Are we going to that party today?" Dazai turned to rest his chin on the back of his chair, watching as Chuuya pulled his hair into a bun, so it wasn't in the way when he washed the dishes.
"Uh, you mean the dance being held by the journalism club as a fundraiser? I thought we were planning to go together? Higuchi is in the club, remember?" Chuuya looked from the plates to Dazai for a moment before glancing at the time.
"I know, I was just making sure you still wanted to go." Chuuya nodded, setting the plate aside to be dried as he worked on the rest of the dishes.
~
As the sun finally fell, the pair walked alongside each other. Dazai poked at the suit jacket with a frown. "Next time I'm picking outfits..." Dazai shot an unpleasant glance to Chuuya, who rolled his eyes.
"You look better in black though! You're lucky I didn't let you wear whatever that plaid thing was. I ought to burn that ugly thing. Plus, we match today." Chuuya sounded proud, fixing his tie with a grin.
"Eh? We do not! I would never dare match with your sense of style Chibi! We have different colored vests on! Yours is a gross red and mine at least a bearable shade of blue. The only part I like is the shoes." Chuuya looked up with a smile.
"Really?"
"Of course not!" That had Dazai hopping back to avoid being kicked. "Chibi! Don't hit me!"
"Then stop being a bastard!" Chuuya huffed, sending a glare with his arms crossed heavily across his chest. Dazai snickered as he rolled his eyes. Pleased with the reaction he sparked from the small male.
Arriving at the party, Dazai stuck to Chuuya like glue. Holding his hands behind his back as he scanned the surroundings. Keeping an eye out for the danger that came in the form of two men. One a worse danger than the other, one who at this point was getting tiresomely repetitive. Truly, the constant appearances were picking on his nerves, that constant presence Chuuya's first Ex had was boarding on creepy. It seemed everywhere Chuuya showed there was always trouble following. So for tonight, he had no plans of letting anything happen. The two of them had been through far too much to simply let everything fall into shambles now. Dazai held out a hand, getting a confused look from Chuuya.
"Come on, let's dance." Dazai smiled lightly, watching Chuuya sigh and grab his hand. Letting Dazai pull him to the crowd of people. Staying close to each other with the music blaring in the background. Chuuya continued to glance at his partner as if checking to see if Dazai had gone off.
They danced until they were both growing tired of it, walking away to the tables. "Yo, Dazai, want to go grab us something to drink, maybe some of the desserts?" How could he say no to Chuuya? He was positive his main concern wasn't attending tonight, no need to glue himself to Chuuya for every moment of tonight.
"Sure! But don't throw a fit if you don't get what you want, Chibi!" Chuuya rolled his eyes, pushing back a few loose strands of his hair as he sat with his head on the table.
He could tell without turning around or lifting his head from the table, whose shadow was growing close. Closing his eyes, Chuuya ignored it until the stench of drunk wafted from the silver-haired male. Chuuya sat up, leaning his head on his hand as he sighed. "I'm this close to a restraining order, this fucking close Shirise." When had he gotten so bold? When had he managed to sum up the confidence or not care enough to keep his cool?
"Come on, don't be like that~'' Chuuya's stomach fell, wanting to vomit at the honeycombed tone the drunk looming over him used.
"Did Yuan finally dump your pitiful ass? She finally got sick of you?" He loved it, the feeling of having a bit of power over the situation. Knowing he could get under the skin of the other.
"So what? Never cared much anyway. Just to make a certain somebody jealous, but that didn't really work." Chuuya felt sick again, that confidence seemingly disappearing. It completely shattered when the man touched his shoulder, his eyes slowly dragging over the space to land on the contact. His hand moved to shove the man away before his personal space was completely overtaken. So instead, he resorted to backing up, letting himself fall from the chair, his eyes shutting to block away any and every image.
The sound of glass shattering quickly had his eyes opened. Dazai stood in front of him with a bottle of what had previously held wine in his hand. Slight splotches of crimson dropping off the broken pieces. He wasn't finished though, his feet coming up in the way Chuuya normally attempted to kick him. Slamming into the man's head before stomping down on the man's stomach. "Don't fucking touch him, you sick creep." Dazai's voice, he'd never heard it be so dark and cold. Chuuya was used to his light tone or the occasional emotionless sentence, but this... this sent a chill down even his spine.
Before Dazai could land another strike, and risk either committing murder or having security called, Chuuya stood and tugged on Dazai's arm. "I'm fine Dazai... Let's go back to the dorms, I'll talk to Higuchi some other time."
Dazai turned to him with a sharp sign, holding out his arm for Chuuya to grab. Chuuya snickered at this unusually protective side of Dazai. "Fine... let's go back to the dorm." Dazai shot one last glare at the drunk man staggering to stand up while cupping the wound on his head.
~
As soon as they were back, Dazai and Chuuya snuggled against each other with the TV. on and popcorn in their laps. Watching some cheesy rom-com. Dazai twirled his fingers through Chuuya's hair, unsurprised when the male's soft snores reached his ears. He struggled to lift the ginger from the couch and to his bed. Making sure to put the heater on and tuck him in for the night, he hesitated for a moment before placing a soft peck on his forehead. He took a photo to add to his pictures of "Chibi being adorable" album. An album Chuuya had attempted to delete three times already. Which was completely hypocritical since he had a very imposing album of pictures on his phone! Pictures of what he labeled "soft mackerel", where Dazai was either smiling or showing an expression that wasn't dull, scheming, or fake.
Slipping from the room, making sure the door was closed softly, Dazai crept into his room. He was still too worked up to sleep. He wanted to make that boy suffer like he made Chuuya suffer, he would have done much more if Chuuya hadn't stepped in. This wasn't new to him. He had the same thought around the two orphans he took in. If anybody ever hurt them, he was willing to send somebody to death... the only thing stopping him was the jail sentence and their disappointed faces. He hadn't pulled strings in a long time, perhaps getting this boy kicked from college would be enough. He had enough evidence to do so. The frequent occurrences all start from day one. Hell, he could get him arrested if he wished for it. Though he doubted Chuuya wanted to go to court with this. He'd called Mori before he could react to doing so. Letting it ring before the man picked up with a sigh. "It's a little late. Don't you have school in the morning?"
Dazai put the phone on speaker, leaning back with a smirk on his lips. "I do, but something happened. You want to earn some dad points?"
The silence followed by a sigh, and the shuffle of paper on the line had Dazai's smirk growing. "What do you need me to do?" Mori answered back after the dreadful silence.
"There's a boy, an abusive ex from Chibiko's high school days... I want him expelled. I could do it on my own, but you hold a position of power given you play a lot into the way the city is run. Backing up politicians, owning hospitals, drug stores, etcetera. I doubt a complaint from you would go overlooked." Dazai moved to lean back to his phone with a knowing smile on his lips.
"So what I did to get your school to such on the rumors swirling about Chuuya?"
"Yes, but make sure he's expelled and it goes everywhere. Of course, make sure Chuuya's name stays clean of any papers that circle." Dazai listened to the sigh from Mori before he ended the call. His mind was more relaxed and his body felt lighter as he dropped into bed.
"You're welcome, Chibi, he won't bother you anymore." Dazai whispered the words to himself before he fell into the embrace of slumber.