There wasn't a remedy in existence to ease Chuuya's nerves. He should know considering he spent a majority of the night searching for one. Before he realized it there were only a handful of hours left until sunrise, and he wouldn't be spending them sleeping.
The exhausted tengu flopped onto his futon regardless. Perhaps he had a chance to convince himself to doze for even just an hour. Chuuya closed his eyes, but thoughts about spending the day with Dazai refused to leave him alone.
"Fine! Since I can't go to sleep I'll take a nice hot bath instead," he left the comforts of his futon to fetch a change of clothes.
Once he was convinced he had everything he needed he flew to a secluded hot spring. There weren't going to be many other yokai out at the current hour, but Chuuya liked his privacy.
He happened to stumble upon the hot spring a month or so ago when he decided to walk a different route in the forest below the mountains. To his knowledge, no other yokai had used the spring before. Otherwise, their scent would be all over it.
The tengu set his clean belongings down before stripping completely naked. He tested the temperature of the water with his big toe. It never failed to satisfy him, he simply had an odd habit of checking to be on the safe side. One never knew when they might have to scope out a new hot spring.
He climbed into the spring, letting the warm water ease any tension from his body. Especially his wings. More often than not, they grew sore quite easily. He submerged himself further into the water. Only his head and the top of his wings stayed above the water's surface. Chuuya was filled with content. Nothing could disrupt his blissful relaxation.
Another mistake. There was indeed someone to disturb the hot-tempered tengu.
"What's this? Too busy thinking about me to get any actual sleep," a familiar melodic voice chimed.
Chuuya blinked once, and there the nine-tailed fox was at the edge of the hot spring, soaking his feet in the soothing pool. The tengu groaned louder than he intended. So much for having a secret spot all to himself.
"Not happy to see me?" Dazai pouted.
"Depends. I was really enjoying my alone time. And it's not like we weren't going to see each other later on," Chuuya replied.
"Fine then. I'm going to steal the clothes you brought so that you have to chase me all the way to the human world in the nude," the fox teleported away from the edge of the hot spring to stand before the pile of Chuuya's clothes.
"I won't bother trying to hunt you down, bastard. I'll return home, and spend the rest of my day lazing about," he warned.
"You're no fun," Dazai whined, but he wouldn't be able to complain for much longer.
He was treated to the sight of Chuuya's naked body emerging from the depths of the water. Utterly transfixed by the drops of water running down the contours of the tengu's lean body.
"Stop staring, waste of bandages," a blush began to color Chuuya's cheeks. He folded his wings forward in order to cover up the front of his body, which forced the fox out of his trance. "At least let me get dressed in peace," to his surprise, Dazai actually allowed him to do so.
"Are you ready now, chibi tengu~?"
"Bite me, stupid fox."
"That can be arranged."
Chuuya felt a wet sensation against the crook of his neck. He initially intended to smack Dazai, but when sharp fangs nibbled on his skin a soft moan escaped his lips. The tengu flew from Dazai's embrace, clutching his night clothes to his chest in midair.
"I need to drop these off before we make our appearance in the human world," he said in a rush, taking off without a second notice.
Dazai followed Chuuya from a safe distance. His mind remained focused on the moan the smaller male made. That one sound was music to his ears. He wanted to hear more noises like that from his favorite tengu. Although, his wish was sure to be denied.
Chuuya dumped his clothes into his room, and debated whether or not he should hide at home all day. He immediately scrapped the idea because Dazai already knew where he would be, and would more than likely drag him out.
Remember your confession, his thoughts rang, but that did nothing to build his confidence.
The tengu willed himself to exit his room. He was going to the human world with the fox even if it killed him.
"Oi, Dazai. I'm ready to leave," the short tengu called to the distracted fox.
"About time. Have you finished prettying yourself up for me?" he teased while opening a portal between the two worlds.
"In your dreams," Chuuya retorted just as he jumped through the portal.
"You might be right about that," Dazai whispered to himself, closing the portal once they safely made it to the other side.
The two yokai already masked their features to blend in with the humans. Although, they didn't have much to conceal to begin with. Chuuya need only hide his wings. Whereas, Dazai had to hide a set of nine tails plus a pair of ears. Casting such a spell was child's play for the renowned pair.
"What do you wanna do first?" Dazai asked.
Chuuya knew exactly what he wanted to do. He picked up the gloves and choker last time, but what he didn't impulse buy was one particular hat. Now he had the opportunity to buy the hat if it were still available (he sincerely hoped it was). His fellow yokai would make fun of him for the decision, but he could care less.
"I want to go hat shopping," he stated with a sense of finality.
"Hat shopping? Ugh, you already have an awful fashion sense. Why make it worse?" Dazai groaned like he couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"I can go by myself," Chuuya's voice grew quiet. The exact opposite of what his voice normally did.
"No, I'll go with you," Dazai assured. "I can at least make sure you pick up a tasteful hat," he paused briefly, "Or we could go out to eat."
"Hat now. Food later," Chuuya insisted.
The fox held his hands up in mock defeat.
They walked around the port city of Yokohama, browsing through all of the apparel shops in the area. For whatever reason, the tengu was window shopping rather than going into any of the shops. Dazai assumed he must have seen the hat on display during his last visit. He almost kept walking until he realized Chuuya wasn't right next to him.
He stopped and turned to see the redhead's gloved hands pressed against a display's outer glass. His blue orbs wide with excitement as he peered at the item on the other side.
"It's here," he breathed. "They have it right here!" he sounded like a little kid who couldn't wait to get his hands on a new toy. Dazai smiled fondly at seeing how awestruck the tengu was.
The fox strode over to Chuuya so that he could examine the dreadful hat Chuuya deemed worthy enough to fuss over. It was a black hat, no surprise there, with a red hatband. Dazai took a moment to roll his eyes. Of course Chuuya would settle for that color combination. The hat also had a silver chain on one side that hung over the brim. If he were being honest, it wasn't the most terrible hat he had ever seen, but he wasn't going to give the tengu the satisfaction of knowing what he really thought.
"Awful. Simply awful," Dazai said, shaking his head back and forth.
"Piss off," Chuuya growled.
"Are you sure you want me to do that? I was going to buy it for you."
"You can't be serious," Chuuya had a feeling Dazai was fucking with him.
"Oh, I'm very serious. It's a gift after all. I don't have to like what I'm buying as long as the person I'm buying it for likes it."
The pair walked inside of the store. The tengu refused to believe Dazai until he witnessed the other paying for the hat. The exchange went smoothly enough. Dazai hadn't acted like he was disgusted to be handling the hat. Before Chuuya realized it, the fox placed the hat on top of his head.
"Where's my reward?" Dazai arched an eyebrow.
Chuuya had no idea what to say to that. So the brunet used his hand to lift Chuuya's chin, forcing their eyes to meet. Then, he leaned down to place a gentle kiss on Chuuya's lips. There was a lot of tender love behind that one kiss, leaving the redhead a flustered, blushing mess.
Dazai broke the kiss, standing up straight while he sensuously licked his lips, "let's eat." With a wink he turned on his heel to exit the shop.
Author's Note: I was thinking about making this chapter longer, and ending it on a big cliffhanger, but then I thought it would be too soon for that to happen. Please enjoy the fluff while you can because I'm switching gears somewhere in chapter three.