Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The zombie-fucking-apocolypse.

Never in Chuuya’s life did he think this is where he would end up, scavenging for anything that resembled food or water. Wandering aimlessly through deserted towns, farms, and long forgotten highways. Not a human soul in sight, unless you count zombies but do they have souls at this point? Are they still classified as human? Or are they a completely different speci- ah who cares. What's the point in deep thought in an apocalypse am I right? To put it simply, the world ended, and Chuuya’s life went from bad to… not as bad. Despite the brain-eating monsters, the lack of life, and the occasional crazy human cult, the apocalypse has been kind to Chuuya. After wandering for a couple months he finally found a place safe enough to stay longer than a few days, all this without the fear of some scientist sucking him dry like a starving vampire.

Safe to say, he’s been enjoying the apocalypse. It didn’t seem like anything could go wrong at this point. Well that is until…

“Who the fuck are you?” Chuuya raises his gun at the intruder, the sun slowly shining in and casting the interaction in a golden light. A tall man with dark brown hair, and incredibly bloodied clothes stands before him. A bag in one hand, and the other slowly stealing from his canned food supply. The man stares at Chuuya for a moment, seemingly shocked that there was actually life this far out. Chuuya pushes the gun further into the man's space, hinting for a response.

“You’re pretty short for a man.”

…

“GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HOUSE ASSHOLE!” Chuuya turns the safety off as he points it closer to the man.

“Woah woah woah! Hey man I'm sorry it's just, I haven’t seen someone in a while and you just happened to spook me into insulting you.”

“That doesnt even make any fucking sense. And for the record I'm average height, you're just obscenely tall.”

“Average? For a middle school boy maybe but certainly not an adult.” The man giggles to himself as he raises his hands, he may be insulting Chuuya but he doesn’t seem to be a threat, (only to his ego). Chuuya takes a deep breath in.

“Answer my god damn question before I blow your face off.”

“Okay okay, My name's Dazai and I seriously didn’t know that anyone was living here, I mean it's so far from any sight of civilization.” The man, Dazai, puts his hands down and steps closer to Chuuya. Chuuya catches a slight limp from the other, a nasty ankle wound bleeding red into the hem of his pants.

“Is there even any civilization in this world anyway? Whatever, where did you come from?” Chuuya keeps the gun pointed at Dazai but he’s less on edge than before.

“California, trying to get away from that hell and the heat so I decided on Washington.”

“Doesn’t California have camps though? Why wouldn’t you go to one of those?” Chuuya's not an idiot, he knows that there are people out there that are trying to make places that feel like normal, though Chuuya doesn't really know what normal looks like.

“Yeah there is, I came from one, technically.” Dazai says as he takes a seat on a nearby box. The garage that the man trespassed in isn’t in the greatest of conditions. Rain has worn down the roof and spots leak through during major storms. Boxes line the walls and floor, whoever lived here prior to Chuuya must have been a hoarder. Chuuya stays silent, pushing for the other to continue. Dazai watches Chuuya's face as he speaks.

“They weren’t good people, the camp I was staying in. They were angry, relished in the anarchy we’re all now living in.” He stays silent for a moment before continuing.

“They killed for sport, it wasn’t a camp like the ones in the movies, it was more so a cult. All the bloodthirsty mentally deranged people built it up, stole from other camps then killed them, that sorta group y’know?” They stare at each other, a heavy silence drifts through the room. Chuuya watches Dazai’s face, looking for anything that would give a hint to if this is all some trap and Dazai’s still a part of the cult.

“Im not with them, stop trying to analyze me.”

“How do I know for sure?”

Dazai lifts up his pant leg, the wound Chuuya clocked earlier is much worse then what he expected. A deep cut throughout his achilles tendon oozes infection on anything that touches it. A wound like that isn’t an accident, it was purposeful.

“You know that's seriously infected right? How the hell did you even walk from California to up here?”

“I don’t know, call it the indomitable human spirit!” Dazai smiles as he says this. Chuuya determines he's either crazy, or delirious from blood loss. He weighs his options, either let this man die, or be the better person. He sighs, damnit.

“Give me your gun.”

“And why should I do that? For all I know you’re going to kill me as soon as I hand it over.”

“For all I know if I let you keep that gun you could kill me after I save your ass.”

‘...you’re actually gonna help me out?” Dazai asks shyly, all that previous bravado thrown out the window at the act of actual kindness.

“As long as you don’t insult my height again, yeah sure.” What Chuuya doesn’t say is that no matter what he tells himself, it gets lonely living out in the boonies of western Washington. Not a soul around to speak too but the occasional groaning deadman. Having someone to talk to, to just be in the presence of sounds horribly delightful. Even if the person is a bullying maniac, it's better than the silence. Dazai offers the gun towards Chuuya, a small touch of their fingers sends jolts through Chuuya's nervous system. Jesus, when's the last time he had any human interaction? He shoves the gun in his pocket, he’ll lock it in storage after he fixes the strange man's ankle.

“So where to chibi?” Dazai smirks towards Chuuya as he jumps upwards, the action not the greatest idea when your ankle is barely keeping your foot connected to your body.

“What the hell did I just say? No insulting my height you dick.”

“Aww come on, think of it as a pet name then!”

“You are something else. Come on, follow me.”

Chuuya leads Dazai further into the house. The floorboards creak underneath them, a telling sign of the age of the small cabin. The walls are covered in a peeling wood panel, the pictures frames of a family long dead lay along them hanging precariously from rusting screws. The cabin is dark, the windows harshly boarded up for protection, but a small warm light from what looks to be a kitchen lights up the hallway just enough for a human's sight. Dazai looks around his surroundings, quietly following the shorter man. Chuuya leads them into the bathroom nearest the kitchen, what used to be white tiles are dirtied and seem to have blood caked on the edges. A small sink houses a toothbrush and soap, the shower next to it looks to be actually functioning, wait what-

“You have running water.” Dazai says in disbelief as he watches Chuuya turn on the sink tap. Water slowly pours into the basin as the man digs through the cabinet beneath it.

“Yeah, that's the reason I'm staying here. I stayed at a house awhile ago before finding this one, and learned that I would rather live in a shack with water than a mansion without it. Sit over there.” Chuuya points to the toilet, dazai gratefully takes a seat, he may be holding it together but his ankle is starting to ache more after losing his main adrenaline. Dazai takes this moment to truly look at Chuuya for the first time. Long orange hair tied into a bun that seems more like a ponytail with how messy it has become. An angular face, etched with seriousness, and bright blue eyes. He wears a black leather jacket and dark cargo pants, fingerless gloves covering what seems to be scars with the raised skin that peaks out from them. He whispers curses under his breath as he searches for whatever he’s trying to find. He’s pretty for a man dazai thinks to himself. Definitely too pretty for a man in a zombie apocalypse.

“HAH? What did you just say?” Chuuya looks up at him with widened eyes, a slight blush forming on his cheeks.

Oh? Did he say that out loud?

“Yes you did, shit you’ve lost a lot of blood haven't you? How long has it been since you left California?” Chuuya kneels down to Dazai's ankle and slowly takes his shoes off. A feat that usually would be simple but is leading to a very delicate situation. His sock comes off next, sticking to the bloodied skin and leaving pieces of fuzz in the wound. Dazai watches, his mind seems to not be able to keep up anymore.

“Dazai, talk to me here.”

“Oh um… I had a car in what I think was Oregon so that helped out with the time, it's probably been 2 weeks? Idk the days have been blurring together for a while.”

“And you haven’t done anything to even try to patch yourself up?! Jesus, I've let an idiot into my house.”

“I'm not an idiot, I was delirious with blood loss… SHIT.” Dazai covers his mouth as Chuuya pours what looks to be alcohol over his wound. “Warn a guy next time Jesus!”

“Its better to just get it over with, isn't it? I’ve never understood giving yourself a warning before you do something painful.” Chuuya continues to clean the wound with the small bottle of rubbing alcohol he had left. Looks like a supply run is on the horizon. After washing the generous amount of blood that was stained on Dazai's ankle, Chuuya sees just how bad the cut was.

“My god man, you’re really lucky I'm feeling nice today. You’d be dead in a couple days if you didn’t get this patched up soon.” Stitches will be needed, chuuyas experience isn’t extraordinary but it should get the job done.

“Do you want something to bite down on? I'm gonna have to stitch this up, it's really bad.”

“No, iv- ive got it.” Dazai shudders as his other hand grips onto the edge of the sink. “I'll be fine, just be gentle please?”

“Yeah whatever you want princess.” Chuuya mutters jokingly before finding his needle and thread. Was this medical grade? No, but it doesn’t look like the CDC will be making an appearance any time soon. Chuuya starts the first stitch, ignoring the pained breaths coming from his “patient”. This may not be the first time Chuuya's had to do stitches, but it is the first time he’s done them on someone else. Despite their earlier interactions he doesn’t want to hurt the guy so he does what was asked and tries to be as gentle as possible. Well as gently as piercing skin with string can be.

“This shit sucks. Fucking hell.” His voice sounds wet, he's barely keeping it together.

“It probably wouldn’t hurt this much if you had dealt with it earlier.” Chuuya stays focused on his work, the final stitches coming together.

“You probably shouldn’t walk on it for a bit, I'll go set up the couch and grab you some clothes, stay here and do not stand up without me here.”

“Yes mom.” Dazai draws out the syllables acting as if he just got grounded by a parent.

Chuuya gets up and closes the bathroom door and leans against it. There's another person in his house. There's another human here, not some brain eating demon, but a real live person. It hits him like a ton of bricks… He's not alone anymore. There will be someone to talk to, someone to share meals with. He’s missed that camaraderie. That connection to another soul. He’ll at least have someone around until the idiot's ankle heals. He can’t decide if this is a good thing. To have someone for a little bit and feel their absence when they leave, or to never have anyone at all. What is the better option in this scenario, he doesn’t know. He sighs before setting off to his room, there’s gotta be some clothes that’ll fit that skyscraper of a man. He digs through the closet of the man that once lived here and finds some good enough choices, sweats and a t-shirt will have to work. He moves to see if he has any extra blankets and pillows. He finds that whoever lived here before must have stayed during the winter; a colony of blankets shoved in the corner gives him the hint. This better be enough. Chuuya drops the blankets and pillow off at the couch before returning to the bathroom and slowly opens the door. Dazai sits quietly, leaning against the wall.

“You look like shit.” The words are out of his mouth before he can stop them.

“I feel like shit. But I won't die thanks to you so… thanks.” Dazai smiles weakly at Chuuya, genuine and relieved.

“Whatever, hopefully these fit you, it's all I've really got. I gotta go on a supply run soon so I'll see if I can pick up something better then.” He hands the clothes off to dazai who looks at them in humor.

“I hate to tell you but I might be a little too tall for these.” He unfolds the pants and looks questioningly at the other man.

“Maybe if you weren’t as tall as the empire state building I would have some clothes for you.”

“Did you ever wonder that maybe it's your short stature that's the problem here, hm?” Dazai starts to shrug his coat off before Chuuya steps in to help.

“Let me get it. Jesus this thing is covered in blood.”

“Thats the apocalypse aesthetic, don't tell me you haven’t been keeping up with the fashion trends chibi.”

“You’re the strangest man I've ever met.” He sets the coat to the side and reaches for Dazai's shirt before the man's hand grips his wrist.

“What?”

“Promise you won’t say anything.”

Chuuya looks at the man for a second before scoffing and continuing on to ripping the bloodied shirt off.

“Whatever it is, I won't say shit, let's just get you into something that doesn’t reek, ok?”

“Mm.”

Chuuya finally gets the shirt off Dazai with much hassle, damn thing was practically glued to his body. Chuuya goes to grab the new shirt when his eyes catch on the skin in front of him. Besides the speckles of dried blood are deep healed over scars everywhere across his chest. Dozens upon dozens of scars line his skin, raised enough to appear like small white lines. That's why he was worried. He didn’t want Chuuya to see them. Chuuya blinks and gets back to the task at hand, he makes a note to ask him about them when they're a tad bit closer.

“I can get the rest, chibi.”

“You sure as hell can’t, did you forget that I just practically sewed your foot back onto your body? Lift your ass so I can get your pants off.”

“So vulgar, if your gonna ask me that at least take me out for dinner first.”

“When was the last time you ate? You were scavenging through my stock as if you hadn’t eaten in years.”

“I would guess a week ago. Not sense Oregon atleast, oh and I've been meaning to ask, where are we?”

“You don’t know? Were you walking backroads or something before you got out here?” Chuuya finally manages to get Dazai out of his pants (and underwear) and into the new clean ones before standing up and reaching for Dazai's hand, signaling for him to stand as well.

“Yeah I tried to stick off the main roads in case something were to happen, zombie hoards or even humans can be pretty dangerous nowadays.” Dazai stands up leaning the majority of his weight onto Chuuya's side. They walk slowly out of the bathroom and near the living room. Chuuya sets dazai down on the couch and forces his leg to lay flat along the cushions.

“We’re a little outside Olympia, Washington. You have any idea where that is?” He walks over into the kitchen, grabbing and filling a kettle before waking back towards the living room.

“No, I really only know that Washington was close enough to California to make it here hopefully without dying, and was far enough away that the group probably wouldn’t go after me.” Dazai gets more comfortable against the couch, his eyes track Chuuya's movements as he lights the fire for the kettle. “Is that tea?” he asks.

“Yeah, I got a lot of it, a small luxury. Anyways, Olympia used to be the capitol of the state, it was always more like a small town though. Nice people, a lot of them went to the Canadian camps near the border. We're a little bit further south, somewhere in the forest surrounding the county.”

“You grew up here?”

Chuuya stays silent for a moment. Dazai watches as he stares at the fire for a minute before putting the kettle on and turning to him.

“No…atleast, i don’t think so. I don’t remember much of my childhood. But I've been here in Washington since all this started. I read up on its history, whoever used to live here must have been a history nerd of something they got books on the state for days.”

“I don’t remember my childhood either. My walk here was nice though, I think it would have been a good place to live when the world wasn’t fucked.” They stare at each other for a moment, slowly getting more comfortable with the other.

“Yeah, it's beautiful out here, especially in the early fall when the rain isn’t too heavy, just enough to be peaceful.” The kettle whistles and he moves to pick it up. The fire crackles set a somewhat cozy mood for the apocalypse, but Dazai’s not complaining. It's been a while since he’s felt safe, especially in front of another person. Not since-

“Here, be careful it's hot, and eat this in small bites. I don't want to deal with puke.” Chuuya hands him a mug of what seems to be black tea, as well as a plate of saltine crackers. Dazai picks one up and does as Chuuya says. It’s nice to eat again.

“I have a question for you.” Chuuya asks as he takes the seat across from him.

“Hmm? What is it?”

“Why were you in that group to begin with? The cult one you mentioned earlier.”

“Its…not a pretty story.”

“This world isn’t very pretty anymore.” Chuuya takes a sip of his tea as he stares at Dazai. Dazai sighs before doing the same. He might as well pay by the favor by relieving the chibi of his curiosity.

“I didn’t really have a choice. I needed help and they were willing after they saw something I had done.”

“What did you do?”

“I killed someone.”

Chuuya stares at Dazai for a prolonged moment, their eyes catching. Neither break the contact, until Chuuya starts.

“Was it warranted?” Chuuya's face stays serious, calm and composed.

“He killed someone I loved.” Dazai says plainly. The pain is still making its repercussions in his heart and mind.

“I’ve killed someone too. Many people actually. I believe in this world as long as it's warranted, sometimes murder is needed.” Chuuya says it as if he’s speaking about the weather. As if he didn’t just say something slightly concerning and profound.

“Hm. I guess I agree with that.” Dazai glances into his mug before continuing.

“I was injured, and they saw potential in me. They had picked up someone else my age earlier that day and decided to throw us together as new members. After that they made us kill others to prove our usefulness. They used me for my strategist skills, before all this I was interested in becoming a detective. I had always been smart so I thought why not use it for good? Well I guess that didn’t really go to plan.” He scoffs whilst remembering the memory.

“Lifes not fair is it?” Chuuya's looking out the window now. A distant look on his face. Dazai knows that look well, it reminds him of himself.

“Yeah i guess it-”

“Queit.” Chuyya whisper barks at him. Dazai shuts up immediately whilst raising his brow. He glances to the window, the only one with a slight view to the outside. It's hard to tell what's out there but if he really squints he sees why he got told to shut up. Standing just outside are two zombies. They walk slowly around the building, listening for any signs of life. Chuuya gets up onto his feet and quietly steps over to the window, grabbing his gun on the way. Dazai watches the scene intently. He knew that Chuuya had experience with a gun the first second he saw him. The gun sat comfortably and confidently in his hand. Looking now he sees it further, this wasn’t something new with the apocalypse. Chuuya watches the dead duo outside, tracking their movements. A few minutes go by before he speaks again.

“They're gone.”

“You think they followed me?”

“Maybe. You look like shit by the way, do you want to sleep?” Chuuya walks to the fireplace and adds another few logs. The glow of the fire makes his head a deeper orange, pretty, he thinks to himself. Oh shit, yeah it's time for bed.

“Yeah yeah I could sleep, we taking watches?”

“Yeah lets do that, I’ll wake you up later, you need to sleep before I do.”

“Alright… Hey Chuuya?”

“Hm?”

“Thanks again. For helping me out when you didn’t have to.”

“Mm. I know what it's like to be injured and stranded. I just did what I wish someone would have done for me. Okay get some sleep idiot.” Chuuya goes to sit next to the window again, eyes scanning the outdoors in case of any danger.

“Goodnight.”

Dazai lays his head down on the pillow and watches the shorter man in front of him, lost in thought.

Chapter Text

Dazai’s startled awake by a light force on his shoulder. He opens his still tired eyes, the red head stands in front of him quietly.

“Hey, time to switch?” Chuuya asks, he looks tired. Dazai doesn’t know how long he had been out. But considering it was sunset when he got here and now he can see the sun-peaking in through the windows, he’ll assume for a while.

“Yeah, you look tired. Did anything happen while I was in dream land?” Dazai raises his arms above his head, relishing in the stretch. Chuuya's eyes catch on the slim piece of skin that gets revealed past the too small shirt. Damnit Chuuya get it together.

“Nothing of interest. Stay on the couch and scream if something tries to break down a wall. I'll be in my bedroom.” The sleep must be getting to him, thinking crazy thoughts like that. Maybe it's touch starvation, yeah he can blame it on that. Dazai watches as Chuuya mumbles to himself as he walks to the door across the living room. His steps are jumbled, exhaustion evident from his strides. Dazai wonders how long he’s been here alone. If by the little information he has gotten out of the short man, it seems that it's been since the early apocalypse. He counts on his fingers the years. 1,2,3,4- 5 YEARS? Washington may be beautiful but even dazai, who is somewhat of an introvert, wouldn’t stay out here alone for 5 god damn years. There must be either something keeping him here, that be physically or mentally. With his ankle like this, dazai guesses he might get to learn the reason sooner or later.

Dazai looks around his surroundings with the new found daylight peeking through the boarded windows. Bookshelves line the majority of the room, dusty and breaking but clearly loved by the previous owner, and the current one. Dazai notices a stack of books next to the couch, Chuuya must have brought some over for entertainment, how thoughtful of the chibi. He picks the first one off the top, hands skimming over the worn cover. A book on Washington, hmm it seems Chuuya is smarter than he looks. He glances through the pages, info on its history to its state flowers, birds, trees, you name it. Dazai did have some info on Washington from long ago, a forgotten time at this point. He knows that that old coffee brand was from here, Starbucks was the name if he is recalling correctly, and Amazon. God he would kill for some same day delivery on pain meds right now. He flips to chapter one and dives in.

-~-

It's mid-afternoon by the time Chuuya wakes up. Despite the fact that there was basically a stranger in his house while he was unconscious, it was the first time in a while he got anything longer than 2 hours of sleep. It was strange, but he wasn’t complaining; he hasn't felt this refreshed in years. He gets dressed in his usual cargos, a long sleeve, and his leather jacket. It may be the apocalypse but he likes to stay presentable, lord knows he didn’t get to a lot in his life. He exits his room and almost jumps at the sight of another person before remembering that yeah, there's someone else here.

“Good morning.” Chuuya says as he walks over to Dazai a small smile on his face at the scene in front of him. Dazai is surrounded by blankets up to his chin while he looks to be carefully reading one of the books Chuuya had left for him. He knew dazai would be bored out of his mind, and he didn’t want him to try and walk around, lord knows he would, so he had given him some options. It seems he got too engrossed in the books however, the crossword and wordsearches he left are untouched.

“Oh, good morning. Thanks for the books, they are quite fascinating. I didn’t know how diverse Washington's climate was.” He sets the book down and watches Chuuya stumble towards the kitchen, sleep still clings to his movements.

“Yeah went on an adventure to the rainforest up near the top once, beautiful scenery. Quiet too, not a lot of people out there anymore.” Chuuya goes to the pantry to find something suitable for breakfast. He finds two cans of chicken noodle soup and decides that could pass as a breakfast food.

“Mm. Wish I could’ve visited before this whole thing.” He says as he twirls his hands around him. “I was stuck in New York my whole, old, life.”

“New york huh?” Chuuya moves to the fireplace soup in hand, eyes curious when they lock on to Dazais.

“Yeah, not the greatest. To many people, lots of work to do.”

“Never been but I've heard stories.” Chuuya gets the fire going and breakfast is started.

The two new found allies (not friends) sit in comfortable silence throughout their breakfast. Letting the quiet company wash over them as the sun warms the house with its peeking rays. Chuuya notices that Dazai is in pain but is trying to hide it, he doesn't know why. Anyone whose ankle was hanging by a string would be in pain so why is he trying to seem nonchalant? From the other side of the living room Dazai notices that Chuuya bounces his leg when he's anxious. Everytime a small noise went off his leg started to go up and down and up and down. Dazai’s concluded that Chuuya was naturally anxious before all this, the habit seems ingrained in his body.

“I need to get you pain meds.” Chuuya says simply.

“I'm fine chibi.”

“You're shaking.”

“It's cold.”

“You're under three blankets, and I'm sweating with my jacket on, which means you're probably feverish, which also means I need to get you some tylenol and I just so happened to run out a couple days before you so kindly scavenged through my garage like a raccoon.”

“I was not scavenging, I was simply sorting through your goods like a respectable human, not some stupid raccoon.” He sneers at Chuuya but the effect is lost when he starts to violently cough.

“My original point is still proven. I’ll be heading out in an hour.” He stands and heads for a room Dazai has yet to see. By the crack that is shown when Chuuya opens it he guesses it's his “weaponry”, guns lined one wall. Jesus Dazai’s just now realising he truly doesn’t know that much about his chibi. His chibi? Jesus he is sick.

-~-

Dazai spends the next hours reading… And worrying but he will never admit that! He met this guy yesterday for christ sake. But in his defense the Chibi did save his life so god forbid he feels a little worried he’ll die trying to keep his ass alive. Chuuya left over three hours ago, he told him before that its usually a 3 hour trip so if that man doesn’t show up in the next couple min-

“Im alive.”

Dazai lets out a breath he didn’t know he was holding.

“Good, I thought I was gonna have to go find you and that would be such a hassle.” Dazai looks over Chuuya and notices the red smeared across the majority of his clothing.

“Z’s?”

“Yeah, two, also don’t be mean to me when I risked my life to get you some pain meds asshole!.” He drops a bag on the coffee table as he shrugs his jacket off, and dazai goes for the bag immediately. He spots the tylenol and takes three gratefully, dry swallowing them as fast as possible. He may have been too stubborn to ask for meds but god he wasn't going to ignore them if they were right there.

“Your welcome by the way, Jesus couldn’t even wait for water?” Chuuya’s walking towards his room when he does something that cements a thought in Dazai's brain. Dazai could acknowledge that Chuuya was attractive, and had obviously been through something but this really put it into perspective. Chuuya’s clothes were trashed, stained in blood so of course he was gonna take them off. What Dazai didn’t expect was for him to just start stripping on the way to his room. One hand drags his shirt off as he slowly walks to his door. Muscles and scars on full display for dazai to see. Now dazai has seen a lot of men, but Chuuya was different. Despite his stature his back was incredibly defined, obvious signs of strength rippled throughout lines of scars, different then Dazai’s. Chuuya’s scars were deep, far deeper than Dazai's. They looked more like a giant surgical mishap than the self-deprecating kind that lined his own chest. Safe to say that Dazai was… interested. Not just because the chibi without a shirt on was incredibly sexy in ways dazai does not want to unpack, but also because those scars do not just happen to anyone. Dazai doesn’t realize how long he had been staring at Chuuya’s door until he walks back out with a fresh shirt on, damn.

“What are you staring at, hm?” Chuuya asks smugly, a smirk lays on his face as he goes to the other bag he had set down.

“Wha- NOTHING.” He shrieks, wow so cool and chill dazai.

Chuuya only laughs at him before throwing something his way. Dazai looks down to see a pack of Snoballs in his lap.

“Snoballs? Where the hell did you find these?” He cracks them open before shoving half of it in his mouth. Somehow it still tastes just as fresh as it would have years ago, and if that isn’t concerning he doesn’t know what is.

“Convience store still had some, honestly I'm surprised I thought the locals would have taken everything they could have, doesn’t matter more for us. Also slow down you pig, your stomach is still readjusting.”

“Wfaht?” Dazai says with his mouth full of coconut chocolate goodness. Coconut crumbs stick to the stumble building up on his face. He looks younger like this, like he isn’t about to knock on death's door anymore. In spite of himself, Chuuya lets out a light laugh at the face dazai is making, confusion and joy lining it. Dazai can’t help but join in, he hasn’t laughed in years. It's a welcome feeling.

Chuuya watches Dazai laugh at himself. A warm ring in his ears. “He’s quite pretty like this” Chuuya thinks to himself. Cast in warm light, blankets sprawled across him and the couch, food and a smile stuck to his face. Dazai catches him staring and Chuuya clears his throat before excusing himself to put the rest of his supply run treasures away.

-~-

The rest of the day goes by in a blur of books and easy conversation. It's until dinner when dazai actually asks how his adventure went today.

“Ugh, it wasn’t the best day. Certainly more Z’s out there for some reason.”

“Tell me about it, I'm so bored, you're keeping me on this couch like I'm some trapped princess.”

“Im keeping you on the couch so you don’t die… princess.” He sneers at dazai with a lilt in his voice. Dazai hates that he likes when Chuuya calls him that, ugh how gross.

“But alright I guess I could tell you, it's weird I haven’t talked about my day like this in a long time.”

-~-

Walking out into the fresh aired forest is something Chuuya didn’t know he needed. Despite enjoying having his slightly aggravating company, Chuuya also needs his normal. He wouldn’t call himself someone who abides by a specific planned out daily schedule, but he has his normal activities that feel strange to not be doing. The crunch of the leaves underneath his feet bring a familiarity he had been craving. The early fall lingers in the air, promising colder weather in the coming weeks. He’ll need to find clothes this time too, something long enough for the lanky man currently crashed on his couch. He sighs, this will be a long trip.

-~-

It's about half an hour later before he catches a glimpse of his usual town. The fog seems to be lingering longer these days. It casts a haunted look over the abandoned buildings, but nonetheless Chuuya continues. A little fog isn’t gonna scare him, except for that one time but we DO NOT talk about that. Chuuya takes in his surroundings, he had chosen the other town for his last supply run, this one didn’t have much wood planks anymore, but thankfully he wasn’t after that this time. He starts his walk down main street, eyes watching the alleys and side streets for any sign of movement. The damn fog makes it a little harder to tell if any Z’s are in the area. With the 2 around his house yesterday it's a possibility that some had been tracking Dazai, smelling the fresh blood from his open wound.

The towns are in pretty rough shape these days, paint peels from older buildings, stones cracked on the others. It's definitely got that creepy small town vibe, more like that one video game his brother used to tell him about with the fog. What was that called again… Silent hill? That sounds right. Definitely has that vibe today, especially with that iconic sound of dead groaning, great.

-

“You know Silent Hill?” Dazai asks, taking Chuuya out of his focused storytime.

“Wh- that's your first question?”

“Yeah, I didn't really take you for a Silent Hill guy.”

“It was my brother's interest, he just told me about it. Anyways if you’ll let me get back to the story that if im not mistaken you asked fo-!”

“I’m sorry I’m sorry continue… please?” Dazai raises his hands in defence with a teasing smile.

-

Chuuya spins in the direction of the groan, right where he was heading, just fantastic. He decides to go to the convenience store first, save the bloodshed for last. He picks up the essentials, water, any food that looks somewhat edible, pain pills that are no doubt expired but will have to do, and a small treat for later. As he makes his way over to the house he originally wanted to go inside he hears the groaning continue, no doubt the Z’s inside it. He sighs before grabbing the machete from his pack. He prefers to use a knife in situations like this, it seems to be just one Z not a whole pack so a guns not worth it. He wanders closer to the source of the noise, the small house he’s visited before, it's got warmer and larger clothes in one of the rooms. Last he remembers being here there wasn’t any Z’s stuck inside so the door must’ve finally given out. He steps onto the front porch, careful to not let it creak too loudly. A zombie running through the door wouldn’t be the greatest situation right now. He goes to one of the front windows, eyes flitting through the dusty glass. He spots the Z almost instantly. A young girl, must’ve been barely born when the apocalypse hit to be this young now. He takes into account that her bite looks fresh, still bleeding from her neck. There's gotta be another Z around for that to have happened, shit.

“Jesus.” he whispers to himself. No matter how many Z’s he’s seen and mercied. Children always get to him. He regrips his machete and goes for the door. The scent of decaying flesh and dust fills his nose as he walks inside. The girl hears his footsteps and slowly starts inching towards him. She’s got an ankle injury similar to Dazai's, making her steps uneven and slow.

“I give you mercy.” He whispers towards her and anyone who will hear him. His machete cuts a clean line through skull and she falls to the ground. He keeps his breathing steady as he moves her to the couch, he notices a stuffed animal to the side of the kitchen and grabs it. He puts it on the couch next to the girl and moves on.

-

“That was nice of you.”

“She didn’t deserve to live through this and didn't deserve to die, just wanted to help her feel at peace.”

“Was the plushie hers you think? I haven’t seen many Z’s carrying things but I guess you never know.”

“Oh I'm getting to that.”

“Oh?”

-

Now at the time Chuuya will admit he didn’t think much of the plushie being there. His reasoning for it being there was that the original family had a young child, but he knows better than that. Or he should’ve known better than that. He should’ve taken in more context clues, stuffed animal that looked far too like it belonged with the girl, a fresh bite still bleeding, and in a house that previously didn’t have any Z’s? The signs were obvious, the girl's murderer was in the house. And boy oh boy was Chuuya about to find that out.

-

“Oh you absolute idiot!”

“Come on, I just had to kill a 5 year old, give me some slack!”

“You didn’t kill her, you gave her mercy, but really? You didn’t even think that it could be in the house?”

“I wasn’t thinking straight so no, I didn’t think it was in the house.”

“That's why you came home so bloody.” Chuuya's going to ignore how warm it felt when Dazai called this house a home.

“Yeah it is.”

“Wait, none of that blood was yours was it?” He asks anxiously looking over Chuuya, he didn’t look injured but his clothes had been fully drenched when he had gotten back.

“No thankfully, just didn’t aim great on this guy.”

-

Chuuya walked towards the stairs, the room that must have housed the tall son that sits in the family photos on the wall. Chuuya hoped he was tall enough to match his giant. Each step on the stairs makes the wood groan, louder with each foot fall. Chuuya, ignorant as he is, doesn't seem to notice the fact that some of the groaning doesn't seem to be coming from just the stairs only. Chuuya reaches the top step when he finally realizes something's off. His fight or flight is activated but why? He thought the girl was the only Z in the house. He's not hearing anything so why…

“FUCK!” Chuuyas thrown onto the ground by an unknown force. An older man, definitely long dead, crawls on top of him aiming for any body part open to the air.

“Fuck get off me! Hate to tell you but you're really not my type!” Chuuya pushes the Z off him as he struggles. The zombies strong though and even though Chuuyas back up significantly re-reaching for his machete, the Z’s already got his fingers wrapped around his ankle trying to bring him down.

-

“Did you actually say that out loud?” Dazai laughs openly.

“I'm sorry I get cocky when I'm stressed.”Chuuya says it as annoyed as possible.

“So what is your type then Chibi?”

“We are NOT having this conversation right now, Jesus dazai.” The other man just laughs.

-

Chuuya yanks his machete free and stabs the Zombies hand, blood shoots out across his clothes but he frankly would rather have ruined clothes then be dead. The Zombies persistent, continuing after Chuuya despite his wrecked hand. He slashes the machete at the zombie again, hitting his neck this time. He takes another step back and tries to balance himself out this time. The zombie goes back towards him, this time Chuuya won’t mess up.

“I give you mercy.” He reaches back and stabs the Z right in between the eyes. It stills for a moment before falling on the groaning wood planks. He leans back against the closest wall and breathes. It’s been a while since he’s had to even fight against a Z, let alone one so persistent in eating him. He takes a couple breaths before nodding to himself and heading for the room.

-

“And then I got your clothes, there in that bag at the end of the couch by the way, and headed home.”

“I can’t believe you didn’t think there could be another Z in that house.”

“It was a rookie mistake I know.” He laughs, shaking his head. He looks up to see Dazai smiling at him, he looks comfortable.

“Well, thank you chibi for doing that. I’m going with you next time though. Just to make sure you're not an idiot and almost get yourself killed!”

“I didn’t almost get killed! And stop calling me chibi you you-you Mackerel?” He sputters out confused by himself.

“Mackerel?! That's what you thought of?!?!” Dazai looks stupidfied by such a crazy nickname.

“Yes, you kinda look like one in a way? Idk I'm too tired for this crap.” Chuuya sighs as he leans back in the arm chair across from dazai.

“Go to bed then chibi, I'll take the first watch. You go get some rest.”

“Aren’t you tired?”

“I’ve been awake for longer before, don't worry about it.” He waves Chuuya off.

“Ugh, I guess I won’t say no, just don't fall asleep okay?!” Chuuya starts for his bedroom before Dazai catches his wrist, his hands are cold.

“Hey, thanks seriously.” Dazai looks up at him sincerely. Chuuya hates that he likes it.

“Whatever.” He shrugs his hand out of Dazai’s and goes to open his door when dazai yells out a final thought.

“Gotta make sure you sleep so you can grow real tall! Am I right Chibi?”

“THATS IT GET OUT!”

Chapter Text

Chapter 3- Days

Day 3 - Stepping stones

“How's your ankle? Did those pain meds actually work?” Their both Sitting in the living room again, Dazai’s still trapped but has been allowed to walk to the bathroom on his own. Blankets covering them as the cups full of tea warm their hands. If it wasn’t noticeable that fall was on its way it definitely is now. Chuuya guessed it must be early October or late September from the frost covering the grass outside. A cold breeze makes its way through the walls and boarded windows, bringing flushed cheeks to both Chuuya and Dazai.

“They worked enough, make a fire would you? It's freezing this morning.”

“I would usually argue with your tone, but I have to agree with you instead. It's frigid in here.” Dazai watches as Chuuya runs his hands across his arms, an attempt to keep himself warm. He starts up the fire, scrabbling for the matches. Dazai watches the struggle, Chuuya's hand shakes in the cold temperature making for quite the humorous scene.

“Can’t pick up a couple matches, Chibi?”

“Shut your mouth.”

“Make me.”

It takes a lot of self control for Chuuya to not kick this guy's ass at the moment. It also takes a lot of self control for him to not punch himself in the face for wanting to do just what dazai asked.

“Pervert” is what he simply replies with.

“You're so easy to rile up Chibi.” Dazai laughs into his fist as Chuuya finally gets the fire started.

“And you're easily annoying.” He mumbles more to himself, but by the fact Dazai laughs hard Chuuya will take it that he heard him.

“So, what is your favorite school subject?” Dazai asks as he takes a bite out of what is surely beyond stale Wheat Thins.

“Huh? Where’d this come from?”

“I was just wondering, I can't really move much and I’m bored so it's question time.”

“Question time, really?”

“Yes, Oo! Lets play twenty questions, that way you can ask questions to, that make you feel better?” He quirks his head at Chuuya for a moment.

“Fine, we can play twenty questions, whatever that is.” Chuuya sits on the other end of the couch, lifting Dazai’s feet onto his laps and grabs for the wrapping he left on the coffee table.

“You don’t know what twenty questions is?!” Dazai asks, leaning closer into Chuuya's personal space.

“No, never played.” He starts to take the wrapping off his ankle, it's not bleeding anymore but man it's still not pretty. A scar will definitely form, especially with his messy stitching job. “This might hurt a bit by the way, hold still please.” He pushes on Dazai’s chest for him to lean back. Dazai lands with a hmph before delving into the rules.

“Okay so twenty questions is where you go back and forth with whatever questions you want until your twenty questions are up! And the other person has to answer the question.”

“Alright, these better be easy questions.”

“They will be, now answer my question from earlier, that's my first one.”

“I didn’t really go to school, but I've always been a fan of reading, so english I guess.” He starts to put the fresh wrapping around his ankle, it should only be a couple more days before he's good to go. He hates to think about it, as annoying as he is, he’s been enjoying the company.

“I see it, you kinda look like the type to wear glasses and drink wine while reading next to a rainy window.” Dazai flails his arm around while insulting (?) Chuuya.

“That's…odly specific but thank you? Okay my question is the same one.”

“Ugh, boring but okay, I would say English or psychology. I enjoy reading as well but I like how the human brain works too you know? We’re very interesting creatures.” He watches Chuuya while saying it. Chuuya can't help but think he's trying to get in his brain at that moment.

“Okay, hmmmm, what is your favourite food?” Dazai ponders before coming up with just maybe the most basic questions imaginable.

“I like simple rice dishes. How about you?”

“You can’t just keep asking the same questions, chibi, but it's crab. Anything with crab I adore.” He smiles looking down at his hands. Crab huh? Chuuya still can’t believe he never made it out to Washington, he knows that the market up in Seattle had some of the greatest.

“Alright what's your favorite color then?” Okay maybe that's the most basic question.

“It's blue.” He says it so fast it doesn’t really register in Chuuyas head.

“Blue? Don’t even have to think about it? You like it that much?” Chuuya finishes the wrapping and looks back up towards Dazai, finding him already staring intently at him.

“Yeah… no reason i just.. I just like it I guess.” He says staring into Chuuya's eyes. They sit in silence for a moment before Dazai coughs and asks the next question.

“What’s your favorite season?”

“Autumn, I like the colors and the smell. It was Autumn when I got here, there was still apple cider in some of the fridges, a small win in the early days.” He doesn’t move Dazai’s feet off his lap like Dazai thought he would, he just moves the blanket over both his feet and himself. Huh.

“Why’d you go from NYC to Cali?" Dazai stiffens at that question. “You don’t have to answer..”

“No it's okay, just wasn’t expecting it..” He laughs weakly before continuing. “I was with someone for a bit before I got stuck in that group. He wanted to go to Cali for the possible safe camps. Most of the east coast is dead man's land, there wasn’t a peep about any safe camps out there so we went for the ones we knew existed.”

“I take it that someone didn’t make it.”

“No, I mercied him.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It's fine… he's probably in a better place now to be honest.” Dazai looks down, mood slightly deflated. Good job Chuuya.

“We can sto-”

“When did you get so buff, like do you have a secret workout place in this house or what?” Dazai asks suddenly, mood doing a 180 and making Chuuya's brain falter for a second.

“Wh- Yeah I work out actually. I go on runs and I mean if you couldn’t tell I go through a lot of wood so there's a lot of wood to be chopped.”

“Oh I'm sure you go through a lot of wood.” Dazai wiggles his eyebrows at him.

“You did not just make a dick joke! Wtf!” Chuuya sputters out as his face goes bright red. Dazai laughs loud and brightly next to the now tomato of a man, at least he finds his own joke funny.

“My god who knew I was going to pick up some horny man on a random tuesday.”

Dazai has to take a few deep breaths before asking between giggles, “How do you know it was a Tuesday?!"

“I don't! I was just making a saying?” Chuuya wonders if he will make it through however long Dazai's stay is. He doesn’t know if his heart can take anymore crazy statements.

~-~

Questions take turns between both men. Hours pass by, the leaves fall outside, the fire grows dim, and in this, a friendship is born.

~-~

Day 5 - Oh boy!

5 days go by in a blur in the small cabin out in the pacific northwest wilderness. Birds chirp outside, each day quieter with the sign of fall throwing itself at everything it possibly can. Dazai watches from his new spot, Chuuya’s chair next to the window, as said man chops wood for the fire. Dazai was reading, he was supposed to still be reading. He had meant to finish this chapter so he could actually start the crossword that Chuuya hadn’t been able to finish. He was supposed to be doing all of that, but Dazai had spent the majority of the past hour watching Chuuya chop wood. And damnit he knows he shouldn’t be but Chuuya is an attractive man and he should be allowed to look if he’s flaunting it like he currently is! Chuuya spots him looking through the window and raises a brow at him as he throws the axe down. Dazai looks away as fast as possible. He does not need to develop a stupid school girl crush on his little savior.

~-~

Day 7 - Up and at em soldier!

A week in is when Chuuya decides that Dazai can probably walk around further than the bathroom. Dazai is not excited at all. Okay maybe he is but you try being forced to sit on a couch for that long! His ankle isn’t terribly happy with being up and about but he doesn’t have much more time to waste. Dazai finally gets to look more into the bookshelves around the living room. Chuuya was definitely right, the previous owners were history nerds for sure. Shelves upon shelves lined with just about every Washington topic possible. Native stories, ghost stories, historical events, the Seattle underground? Hmm he wonders how overrun that is with zombies these days. He moves on towards the kitchen on the left side of his little living space. The cabinets are a deep green in color with wooden counter tops. The sink has seen better days and so has most of the pieces in here but it feels like home. Cans line the countertops, no doubt Chuuya has been keeping track of their stock everyday. Dazai actually knows this for a fact, every morning Chuuya goes and counts.

~Day 4~

Dazai wakes to see Chuuya silently walk towards the kitchen. He sees him run his hand across the counters, his mouth moves in what looks like the shape of numbers. 3,4,5… what is he counting? He tries to look deeper into the kitchen, his couch angle is not helping much. That's when he sees the outline of a can. Oh, he's keeping stock. When did he start doing that? Hopefully he hasn’t been stressing out that much about this. Dazai could’ve been out of his hair faster if he knew Chuuya was so worried about resources. But Chuuya has never once told Dazai to get out (in a serious manner that is). He's always wanted to help him, not push him out. Dazai vows to ask Chuuya if he wants him out of his hair when his ankle is healed enough.

~Present~

“Exploring?”

“Yeah, I’ve been meaning to ask you something though.” Dazai dreads the answer that will come out of the other's mouth. He doesn’t want to be alone again.

“Do you…Want me to leave? You’ve helped me out alot, I mean you practically saved my life and I owe you a lot and if that's getting me out of your hair I'll-” he pauses. “I’ll do it.” He looks up to Chuuya then, the face he’s making shocks Dazai a little. A confused, hurt face lays on the man in front of him.

“Do you want to leave??” Chuuya asks quietly.

“If that's what you want then yes.”

“No, what do you want?” Chuuya pushes into Dazai's space, face dangerously close to his own.

“I don’t want to leave.” Dazai grabs onto Chuuya's hand. Chuuya grabs back.

“Then you stay.” He squeezes once before letting go.

Dazai stares at the space where the other man had just held his hand before moving on to the rest of the house.

-~-

Day 10 - Strategize time

“So, we need to go get supplies soon is what you're telling me.” Chuuya paces in front of where Dazai sits on the kitchen counter. To Chuuya's dismay, Dazai has not stopped doing things a person with a serious ankle issue should not be doing.

“Yes, we’re running low on wrapping for your ankle, and frankly with the way you hurt yourself as if it isn’t a serious thing is concerning and I would rather have more medical equipment on hand.”

“Awww! The chibi cares about me!”

“You slashed your hand on one of my hunting knives! I thought you were gonna need more stitches!” Chuuya sneers at him.

~Day 8~

“So this is your weaponry? It's pretty maxed out honestly. Should I be more scared of the Chibi?”

“I would never hurt you idiot.”

Dazai pauses at that. He… doesn’t know what to do with that information yet.

“Well.. that's good to know! So I can annoy the Chibi as much as I want and he won't touch me!”

“I didn’t say I wouldn't touch you.” Chuuya smirks at him as he starts to clean one of the hunting knives.

“So you’ll touch me?” Dazai edges him on, knowing it will get the Chibi riled up and flushing that pretty red. At least it usually does.

“I just might.” Chuuya says casually, focus never leaving the knife in front of him.

Dazai thinks Chuuya might have lost it, or maybe he has. He takes a step back in confusion and trips, hand going for anything to stabilize him. That thing just so happened to be one of the knives Chuuya had been cleaning earlier left on the main table.

“OUCH! Jesus!” Dazai grabs ahold of his hand watching blood slowly drip down his arm.

“My god Dazai seriously? I just patched you up 8 days ago!” Chuuya groans as he runs towards the living room where the medical supplies have moved to.

~Present~

“That's only because yo-you insinuated touching me! In other ways! I was confused about what to do!”

“I'm not that innocent you know?” Chuuya does that smirk again. Dazai’s brain starts creating images he would rather not think about in front of the very man he's picturing.

“STOP DOING THAT!” Dazai yells, Chuuya laughs him off.

“Okay but seriously, we need to go get supplies. Do you think you’re up for a supply run in maybe, let's say, 5 days?” Chuuya checks out the window as he says it. The rain has been going pretty steady for the last two days, the Chibi keeps telling him it’ll probably last another couple. Washington weather really is strange.

“You really think it’ll take that long to let up?”

“Probably not, but I don't want to risk going out when there's a chance of flooding in areas. With the downpour on that first day it would be safe to assume that some rural roads like ours would be flooding.”

“Hmm, that was actually smart, Chibi!”

“I AM SMART!”

“Mm, whatever you say!”

“Ugh whatever, your on first watch I'm tired.”

“Wha! Why me? I woke up before you today.”

“And I chopped us a bunch of wood while you drooled over it from the window, let me sleep first.”

“I was not drooling…” Dazai whispers, he can’t believe Chuuya saw that.

“Mhm… Anyways goodnight Dazai.” Chuuya waves as he heads for bed. Dazai sighs and lightly jumps down, careful of his still tender ankle.

~-~

Day 14 - Let’s prepare shall we?

“So tomorrow, we eat and then hit the road? Are we doing another 3 hour trip like you did previously?” Dazai asks over a mouthful of canned beans.

“Yes, that's the plan, we should be able to find what we are needing in the town I went to last time. I'm just hoping there's no Z’s out there like before.” Chuuya huffs, he looks tired.

“Mm. You haven’t been sleeping well, why's that?”

“You noticed?”

“We live together 24/7, yes I noticed how you’ve gotten crankier, and your legs have been bouncing a mile a minute for the last 3 days.” Dazai points his finger at Chuuya's leg, showing the proof. Yep, Chuuya's leg was still bouncing.

“I don’t know, I just haven’t been. Nothing out of the ordinary sometimes it gets like this.”

“Anything strange that wakes you up?” Dazai’s trying to be subtle about asking about nightmares, he hopes Chuuya gets his hints.

“You wondering about Nightmares? Yeah, that is the issue I'm facing. Don’t make fun of me.” Dazai did a once over of Chuuya this morning and came to the conclusion of nightmares. He was sweaty even though it was cold every morning. He was cranky and got scared more easily, he stayed on watch more. All signs of trauma induced nightmares. Dazai knows the look, it's usually on him.

“Im going to make a suggestion, and you can’t laugh at me, or kick me out got it.” Dazai tells him, making a pointed look at Chuuya.

“You know I'm not going to kick you out so spit it out.” He looks exhausted.

“Let me sleep next to you.”

…

Chuuya looks at him for a minute before running his hands down his face, he leaves them there before ultimately standing up. His hand shoots at out Dazai, a clear offering.

“Fuck it I’m too tired to say no, get in my bed.”

“Well take me to dinner first if you're gonna word it like that.”

“Shut up and get in bed.”

“Yes sir!” He bows before Chuuya and stumbles into the bedroom. Chuuya's not going to think about how he liked that.

“That’s my side, get on the other side.”

“How was I supposed to know!”

“Mind reading, now give me more blanket.”

“Ugh fine you greedy man.”

“You literally have all of it! It's my bed, give it to me!”

Yeah this was going to go spectacularly.

~-~

Day 15 - Oopsie Daisies

Chuuya wakes up with a steady weight against him. Blinking open his eyes he finds a body in front of him. His own arms betraying him as they lay across the other bodies middle. Well fuck, how did he end up cuddling in his sleep. If Dazai sees this he's 100% blaming it on him. He unwraps himself from the other man, as calmly as possible in fear of waking him up. He might’ve been the one that needed to sleep, but he could tell Dazai was tired too. The dark bags under both of their eyes were too noticeable. He stands to go to the bathroom and looks at himself in the mirror. He looks better slept than he has in…years. Jesus sleeping with a guy for one night will really save your ass.

…

Don’t look into that last sentence too much. Chuuya blames it on the sleep. As he’s finishing up he hears Dazai stretch from the bedroom. He walks back in to see a bleary-eyed Dazai sitting up in bed rubbing his eyes. He looks like an angry child like this.

“Good morning.”

“Mm, mornin’” The man flops back and pulls the covers back over his head.

'“Dazai we have to get up.”

“Shut up, give me five more minutes. This is the first time I've slept in a bed in a while.” Shit, yeah Chuuya hadn’t thought about that. Dazai probably should’ve slept in here earlier, if not for his foot, then for his own comfort.

“I’m sorry, I should've let you sleep in here long ago.” Chuuya says as he sits on the edge of the bed, getting the crust out of his own eyes.

“It’s fine. Don’ mind it much.” He says sleepily, peeking his head out of the blankets to look back up at Chuuya. He smiles before asking about breakfast.

“I’ll get it started, I guess you can stay in bed for a bit longer.” Chuuya reaches to run his fingers through Dazai's hair before he stops mid-air. Dazai’s looking at his hand, Chuuya's looking at his hand. And then Chuuya runs out.

Dazai’s left wondering what it would’ve felt like to receive affection from his Chibi.

~-~

Breakfast goes by in a blur. Next thing Dazai knows is there's a bag packed and in his waiting hands. Chuuya’s in the weaponry searching for bullets to Dazai's gun. It seems to be going poorly by the muttered curses coming from under the door. Dazai waits patiently, mind still reeling from the night and morning. Does Chuuya also have that strange feeling that-

“FINALLY! Gods, you would not believe how long it took me to find these.”

“I actually can believe it because I waited out here for you.”

“Okay smartass.” Chuuya shoves his shoulder playfully before dropping the bullets in Dazai's hand.

“You ready for this?” Chuuya asks peering up at Dazai.

Dazai thinks for a minute, and feels out his ankle pain. It's still there, obviously, but it's dulled. The tylenol he's been taking seems to be doing the trick despite its long overdue expiration date.

“Yeah, I should be fine. It hurts but nothing I can't handle.” He shrugs.

“Okay, well. I'll go put out the fire if you wanna go outside, it’ll just be a second.” Chuuya starts for the fireplace when a sound makes both men pause. Groans coming from outside start to get louder with each second.

“Wh- Z’s? We didn’t hear anything last night or this morning. Why all of a sudden?” Dazai rushes to the openish window when he sees the Z’s, yes plural, outside.

“Uh oh Chuuya, this is bad. Like really bad.” Chuuya gets to the window and sees it.

“Shit, get your gun out.”

A hoard had decided to come over unannounced. How impolite.

Chapter Text

A bullet flies past Dazai's head as he starts running with all the might he can muster. His ankle is screaming but so are the dozens of Z’s chasing them down the forest path. He doesn’t know what's worse. Chuuya’s in front of him taking shots whenever he can, keeping a steady eye on Dazai’s ankle in the process. Dazai chances a look behind himself, the flames of the house grow steadily. At least the hoard looks smaller than its original number.

You might be wondering how they got here. Well it goes a little like this.

-30 minutes earlier-

“So this is bad. Like really bad bad.” Dazai mutters as he puts his ammo into his gun, turns the safety off and gets ready.

“Yeah, check the window in the kitchen, tell me how many you see over there.” Chuuya runs into the bedroom jumping over the bed to get another view. Dazai does as he’s asked and looks.

“Um, it's about 6 or maybe 7?”

“Fuck this is bad.” Chuuya’s running back towards the weaponry, grabbing who knows what.

“Yeah, how bad was it over there?” Dazai asks, speeding over to Chuuya, he's frantically grabbing knives and guns. Dazai’s starting to get the feeling he knows the answer to his own question.

“Take this, fill it with as much of our food as you can, start grabbing blankets too.” Chuuya throws a couple bags in Dazai's direction, Dazai scrambles to catch them.

“That bad?” Dazai doesn’t get a response looking at Chuuya for a moment longer.

“We're not coming back.” Chuuya stops at that, turns and then says:

“No. Get the stuff.” He gives a stern and concerned look at Dazai, Dazai gets to work after that.

Dazai’s in the middle of grabbing as much canned food as he can when it happens. He hears it first before he sees it, the sounds of hinges breaking, wood snapping under weight. He watches Chuuya run out of the bathroom, bags dropped to the floor as he races for his gun. Dazai rushes for his own, turning the safety off before getting into position. He hears Chuuya's gun go off before he lets out a couple yelled curses.

“What's wrong?!” Dazai calls out.

“Way more in the front than I thought.” Chuuya moves backwards towards the kitchen, Dazai peaks his head towards the front door and sees it. About a dozen Z’s stagger towards the cabin, a couple more trail farther back.

“Shit, and I thought the ones in the back were bad.”

“I estimated 14 on the bedroom side. Take this stuff and go out the back, I'll try to get as many of these Z’s on the floor so we can get out of here.” Chuuya aims and shoots another Z right between the eyes. Dazai grabs the bags Chuuya had been packing and heads for the door. He pulls on the handle, barely opening it when a Z decides to let itself in.

“Ah shit.” Dazai aims and shoots, ears ring with the close quarters of the shot. Blood splatters onto his face, yummy. He takes a glance before carefully stepping outside. Gun raised and cautious he looked around, and good thing he did. Two Z’s notice his steps and start to run towards the man. Dazai ducks from one and shoots at the other, misses, and side steps to get away from the previous one. This time he doesn’t miss, but the other one grabs onto his arm.

“FUCK get off!” He yells, Chuuya comes running through the door and shoots one handed, knife in the other.

“There's too many, I'm grabbing the last things and we're hauling ass out of here, got it?” Chuuya runs back inside, Dazai nods to himself before catching a glimpse of what seems to be a never ending hoard headed straight for the cabin. How did this happen, when did all of these Z’s get in the area? Did a group just go down all together, how are there this many. Dazai searches for the best way out of here, the Z’s that had been here seem to be converging towards the front, most likely after Chuuya, great. He sees movement through the windows, gunshots go off, and then Chuuya’s sprinting out the door.

“Let's go!” He demands, Z’s running fast behind him. Dazai takes his gun and shoots, bullet flying by and hitting a Z dead on, it goes down but the one behind it doesn’t seem to mind stepping over its brethren's body.

“Hey thanks but seriously leave ‘em and run.” Chuuya grabs onto Dazai's wrist and yanks him towards the forest.

“Um Chuuya?” Dazai asks, he's trying to keep up with the Chibi even with his ankle but it’s proving to be a feat. Dazai looks behind him for a second, noticing something slightly off.

“What?” Chuuya's panting, both men are stacked in resources no doubt slowing them down.

“Why’s our house on fire?” Dazai asks, looking behind him still. The small cabin roaring into flames, the color matches the sunrise.

“Most of them were heading through the house to get to me. Didn't want that full hoard after us so I had to make a small sacrifice. We wouldn’t have been able to stay long anyways, let's face it.” He says it calmly but there's no mistaking the pain on his face. Chuuya had told him early on that he had picked this house, he had been living here for months if not years already it would suck to see all that down to ashes.

“We’ll find something better.” Dazai ushers out in between breaths, his teeth clenching in pain.

“Shit your ankle, I didn't think we would be running from brain-eating zombies today, what's your pain level?”

“On a scale of ouchie to WOWZA, I would say I'm at a WOWZA.” Dazai shouts.

“God can you ever be serious.”

“No, it's my coping mechanism.”

Both men look behind them to check on the hoard, had there been a chance they would have stopped at the burning house? Yes, but neither of them had ever been lucky. Around 15 Z’s run steadily at them, not even slowing down in the forest terrain.

“Fuck did these Z’s do Cross Country how are they running so fast through a forest! Shouldn’t they be uncoordinated as hell!”

“Its probably because your ankle is bleeding, they get all like locked in on the smell and then their bodies go into hyper drive!”

“What do you mean my ankle’s bleeding!” Dazai looks down and sure enough, blood’s dripping down his pant leg. “Ah shit, must’ve caught something.”

“And your ankle had been healing so well but your dumbass just had to go and get it banged up, again!” Chuuya sneers at Dazai, pulling his gun back out from his pack. He whips around and takes a couple shots at some of the front running Z’s. Dazai doesn’t forget how he nails every shot, yeah his Chibi definitely has a past.

His ankle is killing him at this point, they’ve been running for what he guesses is five minutes and with the amount on their asses they won’t be stopping soon. Damn he should’ve taken some tylenol when he noticed them. They continue their delightful morning run through the forest until Dazai has to skid to a halt when they reach a ravine.

“Take a left!” Chuuya calls out.

“Why left?!”

“Oh my god just do what I say!” Uh oh, Chibi’s angry.

Dazai does take the left when Chuuya starts sprinting in that direction. If not for their doom trailing them he thinks he would’ve enjoyed a nice run out here.

“Hey Chuuya?”

“What is it this time!?” He asks angrily. Looking behind him and realizing what Dazai is about to ask. “Shit where did they come from?” The couple Z’s that had been tracking them suddenly turned into around 20.

“They love us, we must be famous or something!” Dazai jokes. Chuuya doesn’t find it funny.

Chuuya raises his gun and aims at the leader. The bullet racing by Dazai’s head

“GIVE A MAN SOME WARNING NEXT TIME!” He barks at Chuuya.

“Trying to keep us alive dumbass, duck next time so I can get a better aim!”

“You expect me to just use mind reading to know when you're going to shoot!!?” Dazai says, but in the next moment he catches Chuuya's hand raising upwards and ducks. The shot flies over his head as he stumbles forward a bit, raising his eyes back up to Chuuya.

“Seems like you got the hang of it.” Chuuya laughs out.

“Haha. STILL WARN ME!”

Chuuya keeps laughing, Dazai can’t help but join in. Despite the circumstances, both of them acknowledge that it's better to have someone than the lonely silence. It's better to laugh with somebody while getting chased by man-eating monsters than crying to yourself.

They continue running through the forest until Dazai catches a glimpse of pavement. A road in the middle of the trees stands like a beacon of light to the duo.

“There it is finally.” Chuuya sighs out, his breathing uneven from the activity. Dazai’s breaths sound similar.

“Was this why we went left?”

“Yeah, it leads into town. We should be able to find shelter away from those guys.” Chuuya points behind them. Only a few Z’s continue their stalk on the duo. Still too many but significantly better than the dozens around the cabin. Dazai takes a glance up to the top of the trees and sees the smoke far away. The cabin he finally felt safe in smolders deep inside the evergreens. Dazai can’t help but feel saddened at the thought.

“I’m gonna miss that house.” He says in between the shots Chuuya’s taking. Three of the Z’s fall to the ground. Dazai grabs his gun and aims at the remaining two. Shots ring out and then it’s finally silent.

“Yeah. Same here.” They stop in the middle of the road to catch their breath. Staring at the bodies lying on the asphalt. Three older men, an older woman and a small kid.

“This shit sucks.”

“I think everyone can agree on that.” Dazai doesn’t respond to that. He knows it’s not true.

“Let's get going and see what we managed to save, hm?” Chuuya looks at him, taking something out of his bag in the process.

“Yeah, it sounds good.” Dazai watches as Chuuya grabs whatever he had been looking for, then takes his hand. Two tylenol.

“Aw how thoughtful of the Chibi!” Dazai gleefully says and downs the pills in one swallow.

“Your ankle looks like shit, thought you’d be in pain.” He says, looking away.

“Yeah I think if we kept running I would have passed out.” They start walking. To where? Dazai has no clue, his trust falling onto the Chibi to get them to safety.

“I would have picked you up and slapped the shit out of you later if you had gone and done that.” He punches Dazai’s shoulder lightly.

“Ouchie dont punch me, I'm already dying here!” Dazai gasps at him, rubbing his “hurt” shoulder.

“That didn’t hurt at all, if I had actually punched you, you would be saying a lot more than ouchie.” He glares jokingly in the taller man's direction.

“I believe it, I've seen your arms.”

“I know that, you're constantly ogling me.”

“I'M NOT OGLING YOU!” Dazai huffs out, cheeks red.

“Mhm.” Chuuya chuckles, smug bastard.

~-~

The road turns out to feel safer than Dazai thought. Being in the open first sounded like a major red flag for Z’s and humans in general but it’s been… quiet. Maybe too quiet but Dazai isn’t one to complain, or well he is but oh never mind.

“Have you traveled on this road a lot?”

“I guess I have, this is the one that heads to Olympia.” Chuuya keeps watching Dazai’s ankle, man the Chibi is really worried here.

“We going to go to Olympia?” Dazai looks out in front of him, it doesn’t look like there's a capital city up ahead but what does he know?

“Probably not, we’ll probably go through Tumwater and stay there for a bit. There's still some people there so we’re going to have to be careful, got it?” Chuuya looks up from his ankle to his eyes. Dazai thinks he likes this sternness from Chuuya.

“Mkay Chibi!” He grins at the shorter man who just looks away, a small upwards lift of his lips gives him away though.

The road goes on infinitely in front of them, houses occasionally line it, farms and side roads split off. The leaves fall quietly with the wind, they cover the asphalt almost everywhere, little peaks of black road see through orange and yellow. Chuuya stays focused in the front, watching for any sign of movement, gun raised and ready. Dazai follows behind watching the world move around them. Leaves, wind, grass, birds. The world continues to live on without a care. He wonders how well the zombie apocalypse has changed climate change. Maybe this whole thing was a plot against us made up by Mother Nature. Nature seems pretty happy now, maybe this thought isn’t so far off.

“What are you thinking about back there?”

“Do you think Mother Nature created the Z’s?”

Dazai doesn’t miss the way Chuuya stops, he wouldn’t have been able to since he runs directly into his back.

“What's wrong Chibi? Too much thought for that small brain of yours?”

Chuuya doesn’t move and stares at the trees above them.

“No. I don’t think she did.” Dazai pauses at that.

“What do you think started this then?”

“Angry, ignorant men.” He drops his eyes to the ground, Dazai follows his eyes, they lay on the gun in his hand.

“You believe it was the government? If I understood your wording correctly.”

“Something like that.” He sniffs, looks back up into Dazai’s eyes, and turns away. He continues on forth to whatever destination he’s chosen. Dazai’s left wondering what kind of man Chuuya really is.

~-~

“So this is Tumwater? Kinda sad to be honest.” Dazai takes in the new scenery. Bland buildings tower overhead, cars wrecked against the curbs, ivy and moss grow high against any surface.

“Trust me, this is much better than what it used to look like. The greenery really adds something to the place.” Chuuya mumbles. The rest of the trek from where they had been was quiet, it seems Dazai had hit a prickly spot on Chuuya.

“I could see that, why is every building this boring beige? Their city planners were so stupid.” He shakes his head in disappointment. It makes Chuuya smile a bit, a small win for Dazai. They continue their walk through the cityscape, Chuuya still hasn’t told Dazai where they're going but Dazai doesn't mind, for now.

“This way.”

“You really know your way around here don’t you?”

“Stayed in one of the houses up here, that's where we’re headed.” Well that solves that mystery.

“Why’d you leave this one? Was it the water situation?”

“Yeah it was the one before I found that cabin. Good house, safe, just no water.”

Chuuya looks tired, more so than he usually does. I guess fighting off a hoard and watching your house burn down would do that to a person. Dazai gives him a once over to make sure everything's okay when he sees blood that doesn’t really look like it was from a Z.

“Chuuya.”

“Hm?” He turns tiredly, eyeing the other.

“You're bleeding.”

“Huh, oh. Yeah I got myself on something back there.” He shrugs and continues walking.

“Wh- No Chuuya we need to patch you up! Why didn’t you tell me earlier?” Dazai catches up to Chuuya and grabs his arm giving it a closer look. Chuuya shrugs his arm away from Dazai, Dazai sees the wince that comes with it.

“Chuuya.”

“Dazai, let's just get to the house.” He pleads.

Dazai gives him a look, but doesn’t say anything else. He watches Chuuya's arm, Chuuya doesn’t say anything.

~-~

The house is a small ranch style, not as deep in the forest as the cabin but definitely not in the city. A small neighborhood surrounds them, most windows broken, grass severely overgrown. Chuuya walks to the side of the house, moving a trash can and jumps over the fence.

“Wait there, do not try to do what I did, please.” He hears Chuuya moving around from the other side. Next thing he hears is a door opening and then the front door is open as well. Chuuya grabs the stuff he dropped earlier and heads inside, signaling for Dazai to follow.

The house is clean for being in the apocalypse. The floors don’t seem too dirty, the walls not covered in holes or dried blood. It seems almost… normal? Chuuya sees his confusion.

“I cleaned it, got bored during a snowstorm once.” He says and takes a seat on the couch. Dazai follows to relax his ankle, and to be closer to the Chibi. He starts searching through Chuuya's bag, finding the med kit inside.

“Turn this way.”

“Dazai, it's not that bad.” Chuuya sighs out as he rubs at his eyes.

“Turn.” Chuuya looks at Dazai’s face and finds determination. Chuuya hasn’t seen him this serious, and doesn’t want to learn what happens if he disobeys, he turns.

“See? That wasn’t so hard now was it?” Dazai smiles and starts to try to take Chuuya’s shirt off.

“Woah woah woah, ask a guy first? Where’s your bedside manners?” Chuuya pulls off his jacket and reaches for his shirt, grabbing it with one hand and lifting it over his head. Dazai is really struggling to focus now, Jesus he didn’t think very far did he?

“Um, I don't know.” Dazai’s staring. I mean who wouldn’t Chuuya is built.

“Mhm, now are you going to patch me up or are you going to continue to drool over my chest?” Dazai flicks his forehead and grabs his arm, inspecting the wound.

“Jesus what did you do? There's a deep gash in your arm.”

“Grabbing more ammo out of the weaponry and got caught on a knife.”

“And you made fun of me for getting myself slashed in there, now look who's talking.” Dazai goes for the small bottle of alcohol they had, gauze in hand and starts to apply pressure whilst he cleans. Chuuya clenches his teeth but says nothing else.

“Does it hurt bad?” Dazai asks, getting the wrapping from the kit and starting to slide it around Chuuya's bicep.

“No, just stings. My pain tolerance is…high.” He says quietly.

“I figured, but still if it hurt I would’ve made you take tylenol.”

“You need it more than me.” Chuuya gives him a look.

“And I need you at your best.” Dazai stops his movement to stare into his eyes. Their faces are too close to each other. Chuuya looks down.

“I’ll be fine.” He says, Dazai looks for a moment longer, accepts the answer and finishes the wrapping.

“There, don’t wait to fix an injury, didn’t I teach you anything?”

“This was a small cut nothing like your ankle, you freak!” Chuuya yells out as Dazai stands up.

“It was deeper than it looked, Chibi. Now what's the plan?” He smiles down at Chuuya, hands on his hips.

“The plan is first to wrap your ankle. Then we take stock of what we have and go get the rest.” Chuuya mutters, hands carding through his hair. Dazai nods, lifting his ankle onto the couch, grabbing the wrapping again.

“I can do it for you.”

“No I’ve got it this time, you rest your arm.”

“Its not that bad.” Chuuya argues, Dazai ignores him.

Dazai finishes and goes to start organizing the bags of supplies. Chuuya sits next to him, finding some paper in one of the cabinet drawers that sits against the wall. Dazai tells him the amount of cans they have, medical supplies, and ammo. Chuuya writes down everything then calculates what they're going to need.

“Will we be staying here long?”

“I don’t know, if we can I’d like to try and find another house with water. But that can wait a bit if we need to rest.” He says, Dazai nods once before looking out the window.

“It looks like it's going to rain.” Small drips of water fall against the window, a light sprinkle flows from the sky.

“Mm, I knew that the storm wasn’t completely over. We should get stuff quickly then. Grab a pack, let's go.”

~-~

“Sooooo.” Dazai leans into Chuuya’s space on the pavement, "What's your type?”

“HUH? Why on earth are you asking me that?!” Chuuya glares at him in anger and surprise.

“Its just a question you don’t have to answer Chibi, I mean if you’re too scared to that’s okay.” Dazai says with a glint in his eye, he knows the Chibi won’t back down from a challenge.

“Oh you, you asshole. Fine.” Chuuya sighs, Dazai hits their shoulders together, egging him on.

“I can’t believe I'm telling you this,” he mumbles, “Taller I guess.”

“Just taller? That's not really a type, Chibi.” Dazai chuckles at him.

“Okay well what's your type then, huh?”

“Shorter, ginger, strong.” Dazai looks him up and down. Chuuya is going to ignore that and ignore that Dazai’s type is practically describing him.

“Okay well, then if I'm basing off your list I would say my type is again: Tall, brunette and can hold his own.”

“His?” Dazai gives him a look.

“Not into chicks.” Chuuya shrugs and keeps walking.

“Chibi wants a big strong man hehe.” Dazai mocks.

“Ugh! Like you're any better asshole!” Chuuya screeches and abruptly turns, Dazai runs to catch up.

“Hey! Tell me what way you're going, dumbass!” Dazai pouts.

~-~

It doesn’t take them long to find the convenience store Chuuya had mentioned. He had said that it had been pretty cleared out but there still might be some water or pain meds if they looked hard enough. Chuuya was right, it was practically empty. Dazai scavenges around, picking up anything that looks close to edible, he finds a couple bags of chips, some band aids, and a singular Gatorade hidden in the corner. Chuuya’s delving into the back of the store, coming out with what looks like a bottle of some pain meds.

“Whatcha find?”

“I think it's Advil, the labels pretty gone but I can see the outline somewhat.” He chucks it at Dazai who catches it, looking closer at the bottle in his hands.

“Hmm I think you're right, never know till we try it though!”

“God I hope it's actually Advil.” Chuuya starts heading for the door when they both stop, crunching of leaves outside signal another's presence.

“Z?” Dazai asks, walking over to Chuuya, grabbing his gun from the pack.

“Idk, there's no groaning. Stay on guard.” Chuuya's gun lies in his own hand, safety off.

Dazai peeks through the window above Chuuya’s head. A man walks into view, gun strapped to his back, human.

“Shit, let's pray he’s friendly.” Dazai whispers, Chuuya hums in agreement. They slowly open the door, guns out first. The man catches sight of them and grabs a hold of his own gun. Dazai and Chuuya step out of the store, careful of the other man.

“Hey”

“Hey.”

“Anything in there?” The new guy asks.

“Not really, just grabbed the last of it.” Chuuya speaks up for both of them. Dazai stands behind, watching.

“Well… shit that sucks bu-.” The man pauses as he takes in Dazai. A look on his face now as he raises his gun higher, aiming towards the tall man.

“You know what you got there with you?” He asks. Chuuya’s own gun is raised, confusion evident on his face.

“What on earth do you mean?”

“Chuuya, let's get out of here, please.” Dazai whispers behind him.

“That tall man behind you, he's one of The Rats. That mafia group out in cali that kills for sport?” The man takes a step forward. Chuuya takes one back, putting out an arm to push Dazai behind him.

“So? He told me he didn’t wanna be there and I trust him.” Chuuya barks out.

“Trust him? You must be stupid to trust a Rat, they're ruthless. Killed like 10 of my group by forcing zombies on them until they turned. They have no set of morals.” The man sneers, direction pointed at Dazai.

“I did not want to be associated with them, it was simply survival.”

“You’re their strategist, the demon prodigy right? Supposedly you were last seen up here on some mission. Isn’t that right?”

“I'm not here on a mission, I left.” Dazai’s getting angry now. Chuuya keeps him behind him, if not to protect him then to keep him from getting to aggressive.

“Nobody leaves them.” The man takes another step forward and aims his gun at dazai, he doesn’t get far however. The next second the man's taking a step and a fall towards the ground, blood pools around him. Dazai stares at the body laying on the floor, then he spares a glance in Chuuya's direction. His gun sits idly in his hand, his face is stern and honestly a little angrier then Dazai was predicting.

“Why’d you do that?” Dazai whispers.

“Didn’t like his tone.” the shorter man says simply.

“Chuuya.”

“Dazai.” Chuuya turns and looks at him, face completely serious now. A hand comes up and pulls Dazai down by his collar.

“Nobody gets to talk about you or too you like that, except me, got it.” Chuuya says, hand gripping harder against the coat collar.

Dazai doesn’t know how to respond. Well his mind is coming up with many ways he could respond to that but they aren’t to that level…yet.

“Lets go, grab your stuff. Ima see what this dick had on him.” Chuuya lets go and squats down to the body. Dazai stares blankly at the scene, confused, concerned, and albeit a little horny all at once.

“Stop thinking, grab your shit.” Chuuya snaps his fingers in his direction, getting him out of his thoughts.

Dazai moves as asked, mind still not fully comprehending what had just happened. Chuuya grabs his hand and yanks him back in the direction of home. He doesn’t let go until they get through the front door.

~-~

“I’m making dinner.”

“Oh? Whatcha gonna make me Chibi?”

A couple hours after the whole ordeal, the two men wander around the kitchen. Dazai on a stool facing Chuuya as he works on some strange can opener. Chuuya had taken a minute to collect himself when they had gotten back, disguising it as a “nap”. Dazai knew better, but relented and read through some of the new books at his disposal. Chuuya woke up in a lighter mood than when he went to sleep so Dazai took it as a win.

“Chili and some of those Fritos you found. If we drown them in the chili they shouldn’t be that stale.”

“Sounds yummy!”

“Sounds like almost every meal we’ve had for weeks.” Chuuya gives him a raised brow.

“Yeah but we didn’t have Fritos those times! Now there's something to look forward to.” Dazai claps his hands, a light giggle spilling from his lips.

“Mhm.” Chuuya shakes his head, a small smile graces his face.

They eat in silence once it’s ready. A fire illuminates the now darkened room. Chuuya and Dazai sit shoulder to shoulder on the couch, books in their hands. Chuuya’s a mystery, Dazai’s a romance of all things.

“I still can’t believe you picked the one romance in this house.”

“Oh come on! I like to read happy stories.” Dazai huffs out and positions himself away from Chuuya.

“Ugh I guess that's fair.” Chuuya sighs, before analyzing the other man. His body turned away, the fire giving harsher light, shadowing the angles of his face. He chews on his bottom lip when he’s focused, a trait he’s done since the first time Chuuya saw him reading. He assumes it’s a habit he hasn’t been able to break in a long time.

“Chuuya?” Dazai’s voice takes him out of his thoughts, the man now facing him.

“Hm?”

“Do you really trust me?”

“Should I not?”

“Maybe.”

“Why shouldn’t I?”

“Because! I was with a dangerous group of insane serial killers! I planned out all their little adventures. Why would you trust me?!”

“I don’t care where you came from.”

“Why?”

“Cause it doesn’t matter, you’ve been nothing but a pain in my ass but you’ve also cared for me. You’ve helped me out in ways you don’t even recognize, I don’t know how I’ve stayed alive this long without having someone near me and I don’t want to lose it.” Chuuya's in his face now, trying to shove his words down Dazai’s throat.

“You could’ve found any other person! You just like me because I needed you and you needed another human to interact with!”

“That's not true either.”

“What is the truth?!” Dazai shouts and backs away from Chuuya before Chuuya grabs the sides of his face. Their lips inches away from each other at this point.

“The truth is, I like you Dazai. Not just because you're another human, but because you're funny. You can make fun of me in ways that aren’t mean, they're just playful. You're smart, you know how to make plans which I can sometimes be an idiot with, you make sure I don't do stupid things even though you do stupid things way more than me. You keep me on my toes and I don't know how I would continue on without you anymore and it's only been around a month! You're my perfect missing half, don't you see that?” Chuuya’s panting at the end of his rant. Dazai stares at him with a look he doesn’t fully understand.

“I like you too.” He speaks it so quietly, if they weren’t so close Chuuya wouldn’t have been able to hear it.

“Yeah, I got that idiot. With the amount you drool over me.” Chuuya laughs.

“You just had to ruin the moment didn’t you?”

“Of course, that's what we do.” Chuuya rests his forehead against Dazais. Dazai leans further into it, grabs Chuuya’s hand and holds on.

The next thing they know, the suns shining through the windows. The duo doesn’t notice, their limbs tangled together in awkward angles on the couch.

Something sparked that night.

Something they hope won’t burn out for a long, long time.