Chuya woke up to find himself in an unfamiliar room. His entire body felt like it had been the fuel for a fire, as if each individual part of him had been slowly taken apart then put back together again. And his head, his throbbing, dizzying head. He had never felt this bad, not even that time he had been shot twice in the thigh and one in the chest and then Dazai had made him drunk. And that was really saying something.
Chuya tried to look at something, anything, but his eyes wouldn't focus.
The next time he woke, he felt better. But then felt instantly worse again as he saw a person sitting next to him, a book in their hand. And even worse when he realised who it was.
He sat bolt upright, lifting his arm to punch Dazai away from him, but instantly regretted it when his muscles cried out in pain. He groaned as the shock of sitting up so fast spread through his nervous system, and again when he wasn't able to hold himself up anymore and collapsed onto the Dazai next to him. He was in a really embarrassing position, with his head on Dazai's lap, but he didn't have the strength to get up, and to be honest, he quite liked it.
"Good evening" said Dazai without looking up from his book.
Chuya didn't return his greeting, instead immediately asking "What happened? I feel like I've been run over by a bus carrying a bunch of circus elephants."
Dazai hummed in response "You're not that far from the truth. At least, the truth as I know it."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean I can't be sure what happened. We were fighting that woman when all of a sudden you started slinging balls of something or nothing all over the place. That seemed to scare the lady, because she ran away when she saw what you were doing."
Chuya thought he remembered some lady, and he tried to remember what he had done yesterday (was it yesterday?) but his head, oh his stupid, painful, throbbing head!
"You didn't stop when she left. And you didn't seem to hear me when I called your name, so I did the first thing that came to my mind: touch you."
The way Dazai had phrased that made Chuya grimace, but he thought he could recall a little more of what had happened.
"Now, Chuya. You tell me what happened."
So Chuya tried to tell him what he could. What he could remember, as the bits and pieces started coming back to him.
He told Dazai of the voice he had heard, the one he was sure had come from some otherworldly being. He told his partner of how he couldn't recall anything after that, how he could only remember an immense power seeping into him, and how he had lost control of his body and mind. When he was done, Dazai was quiet for some time.
"Do you think that could have been him?"
"Ha?"
"Arahabaki."
...
"Yeah.
I think it could have been him"
Latter Dazai told Chuya to go back to sleep, and since Chuya asked him not to leave, he stayed reading hi book next to the sleeping redhead until it was too dark to see any characters clearly, and he had to put his book away.
He thought back to what seemed like years but minutes at the same time, to when he had tried to kiss Chuya.
He knew he didn't like Chuya. Not in the way Chuya wanted Dazai to like him.
But there was something in the kiss that he liked, that he needed.
Chuya... he was a sun. Warm, full of heat, passion, and fire. When Dazai was with Chuya, he felt like he could borrow a little of Chuya's fire, a little of Chuya's... Chuya. Life.
He could take and take and take from Chuya, borrow as much warmth, as much light as he liked, but Chuya would never grow dim.
And that was what he craved, what he sought in that kiss.
