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“What the hell was that, you suicidal maniac!?” Chuuya lectured him as soon as they were done with the mission, rolling the shoulder he’d hurt. “Just because you want to die, doesn’t mean the rest of us do!”
Most people probably wouldn't have noticed Dazai performing worse than usual, as he was still pretty good, but they weren't "pretty good", they were soukoku, and they almost let the guy get away!
“Relax, Chibi,” Dazai breathed out, closing his eyes slowly, “besides, we killed the enemy, didn’t we?” he added but his voice lacked the usual teasing. If anything, he sounded worn out.
Chuuya paused, narrowing his eyes at Dazai when he wavered slightly on his feet. First, he almost screwed up the whole mission and now-whatever this was.
“Almost didn’t,” Chuuya reminded, studying Dazai for his reaction. Dazai, however, didn’t so much as come up with some snarky ass comment.
“Why are you being weird?” he hissed out, turning around to begin walking towards their ride, not in the mood to deal with his partner. He’d be lying if he said the mission didn’t have him a bit worn out as well. After all, it was harder when his excuse of a partner was suddenly incapable of doing anything without messing it up!
“Aww, is Chuuya worried about me?” Dazai mocked. It sounded kind of blank, more practiced than a real remark, but it never took much from Dazai to rile Chuuya up.
“Like hell I am!” Chuuya turned to face him again. “Forget I even asked!” He snarled, grabbing him by the collar, only stopping when he saw how out of it the other looked. Not like usual, this was different. He studied Dazai’s face for a moment; slightly red, eyebags worse than usual, overall visibly tired, before letting go harshly, making Dazai stumble on his feet to find balance again.
“Hey..” he protested meekly at being shoved, but didn’t do more than that.
“Are you sick or something?” Chuuya snapped. It’s not like that was an excuse for slacking off, he should have said something before the mission, but he just looked kind of pathetic like this, so much that Chuuya almost pitied him. Almost.
“I don’t get sick.” Was all Dazai had to say because he’s stubborn as a fucking mule despite the fact that he’s clearly slurring on his words just ever so slightly. Of course that idiot didn’t even consider being sick a possibility.
Chuuya, unconvinced as ever, grabbed Dazai by the shoulder, effectively being able to reach his forehead, which was indeed burning up. At the confirmation, he let Dazai go again, just a tad less aggressive than he usually would.
“You better hope you have some pain killers in that shipping container of yours,” he told him as he continued walking towards the car waiting for them, ignoring the feeling settling in his stomach at the thought of letting the bastard freeze in that thing while he was sick.
The ride back wasn’t so unbearable, which was weird, because Dazai was there and Mori had let them take the rest of the day off, in case of injuries (or more like, in case Chuuya had to use Arahabaki.) Usually, Dazai would see this as a perfect opportunity to be as annoying as possible.
Chuuya glanced over to where his partner was laying back against his seat with his eyes closed. His bangs covered most of his face in the least graceful way possible and his clothes would probably stain the seat considering that the blood hadn’t gotten a chance to dry yet. This time he’d gotten way bloodier than Chuuya, which usually made sense if Dazai had done most of the..ugly work, but this time he hadn’t.
He could have been sleeping with the way his breathing was slightly slower than usual, though Chuuya doubted it. That insomniac barely slept at night.
But he looked..relaxed, almost. His features were softer than usual and he wasn’t making any stupid faces. It made him look more like an actual kid for once, harder to see the "demon prodigy" as people called him. Sometimes it was hard to remember he actually was a kid with the way he acted. Chuuya appreciated the sight, mostly because he was actually being quiet for once.
Suddenly rain started pouring down outside, interrupting the silence. The droplets of water barely had time to settle on the car window before being replaced with new ones. Seriously? He looked back at his partner again with a sigh, knowing Dazai stood no chances of getting well again out in the rain. He turned his head up and closed his eyes, silently cursing out whatever god was up there as he came to terms with his fate.
It’s not like they got sick days where they worked. So, for the sake of their next mission, he couldn’t just leave Dazai like this in the cold. God knows he wouldn’t be taking care of himself, so (for the sake of work), he had no choice but to drag him home with him.
He regretted that decision before they could even step into his house, when he was reminded of the fact that Dazai is Dazai, and Dazai isn't quiet like he was in the car. As soon as they got out of the car and Chuuya started dragging him along, he started wailing as usual, earning lots of confused eyes on them during the 2 minute walk it took to get to Chuuya’s house from where they got dropped off.
“Someone, help! I’m being kidnapped by a cockroach!” Dazai dramatically put a hand to his forehead while Chuuya tried his best to cast a reassuring look at the poor mother explaining to her kid that, no, this man probably wasn’t in any actual danger, despite not looking fully convinced herself.
The same second Chuuya closed the door to his house, he threw a fist right at Dazai’s face, sick or not. He surely wasn’t acting sick anymore, by the way! Especially with how he swiftly catched the punch that was thrown at him full force with his hand like it was nothing.
“I should’ve left you to die!” He hung his coat on the hanger and threw off his boots, placing them on the shoe rack, ignoring the urge to beat the shit out of his partner who despite his antics, was still running a fever.
Dazai huffed out a laugh and slumped down on the sofa, sprawling himself out like a cat as the tiredness started to catch up to him. It was pretty comfortable.
From the kitchen, Chuuya could see Dazai's shoes on the doormat, which was very much not the shoe rack, and he couldn't see his coat, meaning he still had it on-
“Oi, shitty Dazai! You better not be laying on my couch with your bloody ass clothes!” he yelled, running over to where Dazai was in fact laying and steadying himself with his hands on the back cushion, taking in the sight before him. Dazai, on his fucking couch, asleep, still wearing the same thing he just killed like 5 people in.
He walked around the sofa and kicked Dazai in the leg, not enough to hurt him but just to jerk him awake.
“Get up. Take a shower. Then you can sleep.” He watched intensely as Dazai slowly regained consciousness and took in his surroundings, then grimacing at the mention of showering.
“...don’t wanna.” he groaned, turning his head away from Chuuya and into the soft cushions. He felt awful all of a sudden, nausea creeping up his throat.
“It wasn't a question. I’m taking a shower and then I'm filling up a bath for ya and you take the damn coat off!” he yelled, going off to the bathroom to take a shower. He hated how disgusting he always felt after missions. As soon as he got home, the first thing he did was always to shower, not wasting a second to get off all the sweat, blood, dirt and what else that was clinging to his body after a day at work.
Dazai sighed, listening to Chuuya's footsteps as he walked to the bathroom. It didn't creak, it was just solid and consistent thuds against the floor. Chuuya had a new, fancy apartment, not like those old houses.
His head was killing him. At least a bath sounded nicer than showering, the thought of the water pouring down on his sore limbs sounded like a nightmare.
Propping himself up on his arms, he rested his forehead against one of the cushions, feeling dizzy. Everything felt way worse now, being in the comfort of Chuuya’s home instead of the battlefield. He really hadn't felt that sick before, but now it hit him worse than ever.
He hadn’t lied before, he didn't get sick. A little under the weather every now and then sure, but he had stuff to do. He just had to pull through. But here it was..different. It felt kind of nice honestly, like he could be sick.
Safe.
The word quickly snapped him out of his thoughts. Gee, the fever must be really getting to him. He did take his coat off after that, silently grateful for the fact Chuuya hadn’t actually left him out there in the rain and knowing that he definitely could have.
Chuuya got back around 20 minutes later, having showered and changed into comfier clothes. He’d found some medicine for Dazai, who was sitting on the couch with his coat lying beside him and Chuuya was relieved he was at least being slightly cooperative.
When he got to the couch, he held out his hand, revealing two pills. Despite the glass of water he was clearly holding with his other hand, Dazai only took the two tablets, dry swallowing them like a fucking weirdo.
“I literally have water for you right here!”
“But that wouldn’t be as fun as watching you get all weirded out by it.” He sounded softer than usual but that didn’t mean Chuuya was less annoyed, knowing he definitely meant it like he usually would say it.
“You’re still drinking this.” He held out the water for him to take and he did, only doing what seems to be an attempt at glaring at him while drinking. It didn’t work out for him well, as he looked tired and pale and just overall sick. It was hard to effectively glare at someone in that state.
“The bath is full, go wash yourself before you make my whole apartment reek.”
Dazai complied uncharacteristically fast, waltzing off to the bathroom and leaving Chuuya by himself. Maybe he could take a nap..
Chuuya woke up half an hour later, alarmed as soon as he realized that Dazai still hadn't come back.
If he was messing around again-
“Dazai?” Chuuya knocked on the bathroom door, a bit more aggressively than he had intended, already filled with the urge to punch something (Preferably Dazai). “What’s taking you so long? I swear, if you’re trying to drown yourself in my bathroom, that’ll be the last time you’re here!”
Ignoring the unease blooming in his chest as the silence continued, he reached for the doorknob, hastily throwing up the door as the words died on his tongue.
“Nnh, Chuuya?” Dazai slowly opened his eyes and looked up at him from where he was laying in the bathtub, as if he hadn’t heard Chuuya yelling for the past minute. He looked horrible. The slight redness of his cheeks were gone, instead pale as a ghost, with sweat clinging to his face despite his hair being dry meaning he probably hadn’t washed it and eyes dazed in a way that made him look kind of high. He almost looked vulnerable.
“Didn’t you take the damn pills?” Chuuya opened a cabinet to look for a thermometer, quieting down just a bit when he heard Dazai wincing at the volume of his actions.
As soon as he found it he crouched down beside the bathtub and looked at the thing in his hand, taking in the different buttons and signs. He’d never actually used this before-
Insults bubbled up in his throat again when he suddenly felt water dropping onto his pants but disappeared when he lifted his head up to see Dazai, looking like he was seconds from passing out, reaching for the thermometer. It probably shouldn’t get wet but it seemed to work as Dazai pressed some buttons and held it to his ear. When it made a beep sound, Chuuya reached for it again.
“41.5? Isn’t that alot?” he mumbled, looking through the cupboard again for some medicine that actually worked while googling at what point you should go to the ER for a fever. It's not like he would do that, since both he and Dazai hated hospitals, but just to know how serious it was.
Based on the results he got, they really should be on their way at this point, but even if he wanted to he knew he wouldn't be able to get Dazai to cooperate at all about going to the ER so he settled for giving him the aspirin he found instead.
“Here, take this,” he said, softer, sitting down on his knees beside the tub. When Dazai didn’t make a move to take it, his shoulders slumped slightly and he sighed. “You won’t feel better if you don’t,” he muttered, trying to keep most of the annoyance out of his voice as he leaned back against the wall.
“...dizzy,” Dazai mumbled into his arms from where he was leaning against the rim of the tub. Chuuya sat up straighter again, still holding two pills in his hand.
“Have you eaten today?” The silence was enough of an answer, because of course he fucking haven’t. Chuuya held out his hand again, waiting for Dazai to take the pills. When he still didn’t, Chuuya pulled at a chunk of his hair causing him to jerk up, despite the dizziness. “Ow-” “Here.” He pushed the pills to Dazai's lips, not giving him a chance to protest and Dazai reluctantly swallowed them. He mumbled something about it being "unnecessary" which Chuuya couldn't quite hear as he reached for the shampoo from the small shelf on the other side of the tub.
“Dip your hair.” Dazai, who was leaning on the rim again but this time facing him, looked at him in confusion as Chuuya poured shampoo on his own hands. When he put the bottle down Chuuya looked at him expectantly and Dazai was way too tired to argue, moving to dip his head in the water. As soon as sat up again, Chuuya began working through his hair, forcing Dazai to switch position and lean back against the longer part of the rim instead.
He wasn’t sure why Chuuya was doing this, but as drowsy as he felt at the moment he couldn’t bring himself to really mind. Chuuya however, sensing the question, replied to his thoughts anyway.
“What, you thought I was gonna let you out of here without washing your hair? You smell like sweat and blood.” Despite the roughness of his voice, the hands massaging his scalp were anything but.
After a few minutes Chuuya took the shower head and washed his hair out, careful not to get it in Dazai's eyes.
“You’re being oddly nice today,” Dazai murmured quietly, not being able to shut up for more than a few minutes at a time even if he was sick.
“Don’t get used to it,” he replied, quietly working on the others' hair.
“Such a good dog, taking care of its owne-” He was cut off by Chuuya splashing the water in his face, which sent him coughing and he sat up straighter to get some air. The aspirin seemed to be working a bit, at least, because he didn’t feel as spacey anymore and could sit without too much of a problem.
When he stopped coughing Chuuya handed him the showerhead and stood up, about to leave when he spoke.
“I’ll get some clothes,” he said, sounding way more affectionate than intended so he quickly added “don’t drown while I’m gone.”
It wasn’t easy finding anything that would fit Dazai considering he himself were at least 2 sizes smaller than him but eventually he found one of Dazai’s sweaters that had been washed since last time and some pink sweatpants Elise had ordered on his phone that were way too big for him to wear.
Taking those and a pair of socks and boxers Dazai had left at his house at some point, he walked back into the bathroom and laid everything on the cold floor along with a towel.
“There. Feeling better or am I gonna have to drag you out as well?” While it did sound like sarcasm, the offer was genuine on Chuuya’s part. But thankfully, Dazai had regained some color to him (not that he had much to begin with) and could at least sit up straight now. “..’s fine.”
At that, Chuuya left the room, with the door half open. It’s not that he didn’t trust Dazai, it's just-..well. Actually no, It was 100% because he doesn’t trust Dazai. Not with stuff like this, anyways.
The dizziness was a bit better, given the fact he was actually able to sit without everything turning black now, but it was far from gone. Even so, the water was beginning to run cold and he really didn’t feel like sitting there freezing so he stood up and after a few seconds he was able to see and wash himself off.
He wouldn’t say he’s insecure about his scars, he just prefers having bandages on, especially if he’s not alone. It was different with Chuuya, though. He’d seen them before. Hell, he’d cleaned him up after multiple attempts. He was definitely putting on bandages as soon as he got the clothes on but it was kind of..nice, to have someone that knew and still thought of him the same.
He turned the water off and stepped out of the tub, reaching for the towel and then immediately crouching down when his vision turned black, steadying himself with his hand on the cupboard while slowly regaining his vision again. When was the last time he actually ate? He doesn’t really remember. Probably not the last 2 days, at least.
“Asshole, you alive?” Chuuya shouted from the kitchen when it had been quiet in the bathroom for a while.
“Yeah…” he managed to grunt out, which seemed to be enough for Chuuya as he continued making sounds with different things in the kitchen.
He glanced at the clothes Chuuya had gotten for him. God, he was exhausted. Slowly, he dried himself off and put on the boxers so he could sit down properly, not too fond of how the cold bathroom floor would feel under his bare ass.
Leaning back against the cupboard under the sink he closed his eyes, resting for a few moments before reaching for the sweater. Putting it on was a pain, stuff like this was usually a chore and being sick definitely didn’t help. His body was sore and it hurt to put it on.
You’d think Dazai wouldn’t mind that much, given his...tendencies, but Dazai truly hated pain. It was uncomfortable and he just wanted it to be over already. The aspirin helped, but only enough so that he was actually able to think somewhat again.
Of course, in the mafia, there are times where you get hurt, really more often than not-but that’s different. There, if you get shot, you just have to deal with it and that’s that. Not that it happens a lot, he is good at what he does, but it’s not often you get out without at least a few scratches. Besides, at least if he gets shot, there’s a chance he’ll die. A slim one, considering the lengths Mori would go to ensure that’s not possible, but still. Now, this was just pain, which he absolutely hated. And in the comfort of Chuuya’s apartment, it felt more okay to be in pain whether he liked it or not (he doesn’t), so now he actually has to deal with the fact that he is, indeed, sick.
With a sigh, he stood up and pulled the sweatpants on. Deciding that he was too tired to sit down and then get up again, he grabbed both the towel and the socks and made his way out to the sofa.
As soon as he sat down, he put the socks on, which was a little hard considering he was still relatively wet. In the kitchen, Chuuya was making food, which wasn’t surprising but that didn’t help the nausea immediately consuming him at the thought of eating. He really hates food.
Chuuya knows Dazai wouldn’t willingly eat almost anything in this state so, he made the only thing he knew his partner would eat. Well, there wasn’t a lot left to “do” considering it was canned crab but he was heating it up for him, while steaking some eggs for himself.
The reason he had canned crab stored at home was only because Mori would go bonkers if Dazai starved to death, and Dazai sure as well wasn’t going to make sure he wouldn’t himself.
Dazai had come out of the bathroom a few minutes ago, so he put the last egg on his plate and took both plates with him to the sofa where Dazai was sitting. Sure, maybe crab wasn’t the healthiest or most nutrition filled food he could be eating, but it was better than nothing.
Dazai let out a gasp at the sight of the crab, already looking a little better from just seeing it which was kind of cute annoying.
“Did you just have that laying around?” He asked looking way to smug because of course he did. He wished he could wipe that stupid grin off his stupid face.“Someone has to make sure you don’t starve to death,” he reached for the remote, “and I know you won’t.”
Dazai gasped again, this time in mock offense. “Are you implying that I can’t take care of myself?” He closed his eyes, as if that would be a cruel thing to assume.
“Yes,” he deadpanned, “or maybe you can, but you won’t.” he threw the TV remote at Dazai. “Now choose something we can watch. NOT beauty and the beast.” He added the last part sternly, having watched that movie like 7 too many times now, as he went to get some water for them as well.
Since Chuuya had shut down his go-to answer, Dazai was now stuck scrolling on Disney for a good movie to watch. There were so many, with beauty and the beast obviously being the best one. It was hard to decide!
Chuuya suddenly put down two glasses of water on the small sofa table and looked at the TV where Dazai was trying to choose a movie and Dazai tried to ignore the fact he hadn’t heard him approaching.
“You know, I feel like you’d play a role in Snow white.” Dazai said in a way that made Chuuya question if he should really ask, but curiosity won over logic as usual.
“Why?”
“You’d be one of the dwarfs, of course! Probably grumpy-” Dazai explained, cut off by Chuuya throwing a pillow at him. He burts into a fit of giggles, that were almost cute if they weren’t so fucking annoying.
“Well, you’d be the damn Huntsman!” He yelled, walking off to the bathroom to get something.
“What?! No!” Dazai shrieked after him in offense, but definitely feeling better now that the medicine really kicked in.
Chuuya came back with a stack of bandages in his hand. He usually wrapped Dazai’s bandages when he was here, it became kind of a routine.
“For the record, I’d be snow white, obviously,” Dazai said when he sat down, giving him his arm so that he could wrap the bandages.
“The hell, man? As if.”
“There’s no reason to be jealous just because I’d make a beautiful princess and you wouldn’t!”
“You’d be a horrible snow white!”
“Nuh uh,” he shook his head to which Chuuya simply sighed.
Dazai continued looking through movies on the TV while Chuuya rolled up his sleeve and began wrapping him up. He’d seen them before, lots of times, and he ignored how it still ached a little in his heart every time.
They fell into a comfortable silence as Chuuya finished wrapping up his arms. Though, after about 20 minutes, Dazai was taking so long to choose a goddamn movie that he almost considered watching Beauty and the Beast with him again just to get started already when Dazai’s head suddenly dropped down on his fucking shoulder-
“Oi, did you just fall asleep?” he asked incredulously, looking to his side where-yes, Dazai was asleep on his fucking shoulder. He paused for a moment, having been to fixated on the fact he somehow fell asleep while browsing for movies to process the fact he’s actually leaning against his fucking shoulder before he quickly jerked him away.
With a groan, Dazai rubbed his eye and looked up at him for a few seconds.
“Hnn, that was a somewhat violent way of waking snow white..”
“Shut up!” Chuuya focused his gaze on the TV again, having stolen the remote as his cheeks felt a bit warmer for a moment and he ignored the feeling in his stomach at the implication as to what Dazai was saying.
Before Dazai could say anything more, Chuuya put on Beauty and the Beast and Dazai just snickered, which didn’t help.
“You’re not fucking snow white..” Chuuya grumbled after a few moments, arms crossed and pouting like a little kid.
“And you’re not the prince, yet-” He was once again cut off by another pillow thrown in his face. Ignoring his heart beating faster than usual, Chuuya was determined to watch the damn movie.
“Just eat your damn crab.”
And around one hour later, Dazai fell asleep again, only this time Chuuya didn’t wake him.