Chapter 13

"Class! Let's draw a scenery today! You can add anythig you want!" The female instructed the class while handing out the plain sheets of paper for them to draw on. The kids took out their crayons and pencils and started chatting excitedly about their cute ideas of what they want in their scenery.

"Hey Chuuya! I'm going to draw a mountains- and a mango tree- and us climbing it and eating the mangoes!" Ryuichi, Chuuya's new friend and older brother said, his cheeks puffing up in excitement "What about you little bro? What will you draw?"
"Papa! Papa eating ice cream!" Chuuya replied with the same excitement
"But aren't we supposed to draw scenery?"
"I want to draw papa" Chuuya replied in a 'I know we're supposed to make a scenery but I'm gonna draw what I want anyways' tone
"But—"
"I want to draw papa"
"Okayy.."

Both the boys excitedly started painting their masterpieces. With full concentration they filled their pages with beautiful, vibrant but ridiculous colors. For example, Ryuichi painted the mountains with pinks and oranges in an alternate fashion. Chuuya on the other hand painted Dazai's bandages a mix of bright green and blue.

While the kids drew, the teacher went around the class, looking at everyone's drawings and praising them. She came towards the two boys' table and looked at their artworks.

"Ryuichi kun, you're drawing really well! And Chuuya kun, I see, is drawing his papa. Good work Chuuya kun, it looks really good" she smiled warmly
"Thank you Sensei!"

He went back to finishing his work, unaware of the jealous stares directed towards him.

Chuuya sat on a swing alone, waiting for Ryuichi. Five of his classmates came up to him, their leader standing in the centre and said

"Oi Nakahala! Why ale you sitting alone? Did you friend get tired of you?"
"No, he is with sensei. He should be coming back anytime" Chuuya replied innocently, totally not catching the mockery in their words
"I'm pwetty sure he doshn't want to be your friend, that's why he left you alone here" another one said quickly
"No, he is coming. He just went because sensei called him" Chuuya again replied with the same innocence, with threw the boys aback
"You're stupid" they tried a different approach
"Hmm. Papa said that's why he is sending me to school"
"Y-your drawing was awful"
"Ok?"

The boys felt a little intimidated. How is it that someone who is smaller than them isn't getting intimidated by their presence but is making them feel intimidated by his? The leader chose to use his final card, that was Dazai

"Your dad is odd! He looks like a cweep! You don't even look like him! You'le not his son. He probably hates you and wants you to be away from him. That's why he sends you away. He looks like he would kill people- like the bad guys in movies. You know what happens to the bad guys in movies right, the helo kills them!"

They realised they went too far as Chuuya's innocent expression was slowly replaced by with one of sadness and anger.

"Go away" Chuuya growled in a low voice, barely containing himself from punching these kids in the face or crying in front of them
"No!" The leader ignored Chuuya's anger and decided to continue on with his words, not realising how it could affect the other. "I'm just telling you the truth. Haven't you seen movies? Youl dad probably doesn't want you to know that he's a bad guy. Where's your mom? Why doesn't she—

A small sniffle was heard from the little redhead who quickly covered his mouth with his hands, in attempt to calm himself and stop himself from bursting into tears. It wasn't helping, his vision was already blurred from the tears that were sitting on his lower eyelids, ready to fall off any second.

Suddenly they heard a voice shout

"Oi! What are you doing? Get away from Chuuya!"

Ryuichi had just came back. He stormed towards the gang, angrily, with a small branch in his hand. The kids ran away, fearing that Ryuichi would hit them if they didn't. He would have too, no one can hurt his little brother.

He chased them away for a good minute and ran back to Chuuya.

"Chuuya, you okay? What did they say to you?"
"They said- papa is a- bad person- and—" Chuuya burst into tears before he could finish his sentence. Ryuichi hugged him tightly
"Shh.. It's okay. I'll teach them a lesson, okay? I'm sure your papa is amazing"
"Hmm"
"Come on, let's play! Your birthday is coming up soon too!"
"Hmm!"

"He cried?" Dazai asked, a little worried and surprised. He had came to pick chibi up, and was greeted by a very puffy eyed Chuuya and an apologetic looking teacher who explained everything that happened, apologising over and over for being irresponsible.

"Yes. I apologise for being so irresponsile"
"It's okay. It's not your fault sensei. Don't worry I'll have a talk with him about this. " He said, while lifting Chuuya in his arms. "Also Ryuichi kun, thank you for helping him" He patted the other little boy on the head, bowed and left with Chuuya

.

"Hey chibi, what happened? Did they bully you?" Dazai asked as they both walked down the streets, making their way back home.
"Hmn"
"What did they say? Didn't I tell you to just bully them back?"
"Hmn. Ryu nii helped me"
"Akutagawa?"
"Ryuichi"
"Oh. Well what did they say?"

Chuuya went completely silent for sometime, which worried Dazai.

'Did they say something too bad to share? But they were just kids- how bad could they even get with words? Maybe, it was something else, maybe they didn't say something but—'

A fear crept in the pits of Dazai's stomach. Did they-?

"Hey chibi, they didn't hi—"
"They said bad things about you"
"...What? Me? Not you?"

'Did he cry because they badmouthed me?'

"What did they say?" Dazai asked, a little curious now. What on earth could they have said to make him that upset?
"Nothing. You'll get sad"
"...Okay"

They walked in silence for a while until Dazai decided to break it

"Hey Chibi... I don't care what they say about me as long as you don't hate me, it's fine. Okay?" Dazai said, looking up at the sky, as if telling someone 'look how much I want to meet you, but this person is the one holding me to this ground, with no regrets'

"Okay" Chuuya mumbled
"Now, let's get some shopping done. I'm making curry and rice"

'Just you wait Odasaku, I'll prove it to you. I can be a better person just like you said'

Bonus!

Dazai cleaned up the house with Chuuya in one arm, sleeping with his head on his shoulder. It was almost midnight.

Dazai had tried tucking Chuuya to bed but everytime he would end up waking so the only option Dazai had was to carry Chuuya around with him and do the housework.

He saw Chuuya's school bag and checked if the teacher had sent any note regarding anything the kids needed to bring to school the next day. While searching he found a piece of paper folded neatly between a notebook. He took out the paper and unfolded it.

He chuckled at the cute art on the paper, admiring the efforts of the small human in his arms.

'Whoa! that's one heck of a tall ice cream and- why are my bandages blue and green? How cute. Chibi must really want me to have some ice cream, guess I'll have to get some with him later'

A/N:What, according to you, is love?

Before anyone asks, I swear I'm not in love. I just wanna know everyone's definition of what they presume love is cuz my bff told me her definition of love and I swear it is freakin beautiful.

What am I doing with my life :D

I really wanna make a birthday special chapter for Chuuya but knowing me, I'll just end up being late again :(

I guess I should sleep a little, I dunno why I'm trembling so much ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Also I'm sorry the chapter is so crappy °-°