Chapter Text
It was a day like any other school was boring, Chuuya sighed as he sat down in English class. He reaches for his bag pulling out his notebook, Chuuya starts to scribble down notes for the class.
“Our next book study will be on the book; Moby dick by Herman Melville.” The teacher’s voice boomed.
Half the class laughed over the name and the other half groaned. Chuuya was one of them who groaned. He glanced over to his friend beside him.
Dazai was too busy drawing in his notebook to care about what was happening in class.
“Hey, Dazai.” Chuuya whispered.
The taller boy turned his short slightly curly black hair swayed with his head movement. His brown eyes looked at Chuuya. The teen had bandages wrapped around his arms, no one really asked about them, they were just part of his style. After all, Dazai wore mostly darker clothing, baggier shirts and looser pants he often got told he looked like a skater boy.
“Hmm?” Dazai hummed.
“We have a new book study, this one is on Moby dick.” Chuuya explained.
Dazai looked up towards the board and frowned. “I’ve read that one like four times already!”
Chuuya wasn’t surprised Dazai spent most of his time drawing, reading, or annoying Chuuya. Dazai was one if not the smartest kid in the school, smarter than some of the grade twelves. Dazai’s main flaw is he just didn’t care very much, so he often didn’t join any clubs or go for extra credit.
Dazai looked back to Chuuya “Are we heading to the arcade after school?”
Chuuya nodded. The bell rings, luckfully that was the last class for the day so they filled out heading for the exit.
They walked over to the arcade, the dim interior with flashing lights and sounds of the games being played was almost comforting to the two boys. The environment was pleasantly familiar to the teens. They walked over to the coin machine inserting some cash for coins.
“Best out of three?” Dazau challenges.
Chuuya grins. “You’re on!”
They head over to StreetBrawler, to no one's surprise Dazai wins. Chuuya complains, saying it was rigid. They bicker as they continue to play more games, Dazai wins most, but Chuuya gets the occasional victory.
After being there for around an hour they decide to head out. They walk out the sun harsh to their eyes.
“Do you want to head over to my place?” Chuuya asks.
“Sure.” Dazai shrugs.
They head over to Chuuya’s house, and as they get inside they are greeted by his older sister Kouyou. The older girl waves to them, her long red hair flowing over her shoulders. Dazai waves back, and Chuuya does as well. They watch as she walks off.
Dazai turns back to Chuuya, “to your room?”
_______
Chuuya and Dazai hung out in Chuuya’s room talking and playing video games. There’s a knock at the door and Chuuya’s mom pokes her head in.
“Hey boys.” She is surprised in the slightest to see Dazai here in fact it's more odd to not see him here. “Dinner will be ready shortly, we are having curry.”
The boys nodded, the smell of curry starting to waft in making them hungry.
They went downstairs for dinner, they sat at the dining table which now always had an extra chair for Dazai. Dazai and Chuuya sat beside each other, Kouyou sat to the left of Chuuya, Dazai on his right. To Dazai’s right sat Chuuya’s Mom, beside her was Chuuya’s Dad. To finish off the table sat Kyouka the youngest of the Nakahara family, like her father she had black hair a striking contrast to her older siblings who had red hair.
They ate and talked, it was so normal for Dazai to be there that it was more like he lived there then he didn’t.
KNOCK KNOCK
There’s a knock at the door, Dazai internally groans he knows it’s his ‘Dad’, Mori. He stands grabbing his bag, and heading to the door.
“Bye, thank you as always.” Dazai bows his head in thanks. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Chuuya.” He adds.
Chuuya’s smile falters for a moment, sad Dazai has to leave. “Yeah…See you tomorrow.”
Dazai walks out of the house, closing the door behind him. Chuuya notes that he didn’t hear Dazai greet his Dad. Chuuya knew they didn’t get along, but he wasn’t aware of the degree of hatred.
_______
Dazai got into the back of the car, sitting beside his little sister, Elise. Elise is ten, she has long slightly curled blond hair, she loved this one particular red dress she often wore.
Dazai smiled at his sister. “Did you have fun at your friend’s house?”
Elise smiled back. “Yeah! I did! We played this really fun card game.” Elise kept rampling on about her day, Dazai smiled and listened.
Dazai did everything in his power to protect Elise from Mori. He knew she was aware of the abuse he faced, after all she was still abused just not as much. There were many times Dazai would take the blame for things to protect her. He did so gladly, sure it meant he got punishments but Dazai would and will do anything to protect Elise.
“WILL YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP!” Mori screamed.
Elise went silent, her face shifting from an expression of excitement to one of fear. Dazai flinched before recomposing himself.
Dazai snapped back, “Why can’t she talk about her day! I was listening, you know you could try to do that sometime.”
Mori’s eyes narrowed in the rear view mirror. “Are you talking back to me? Can’t I just have silence after working a ten hour shift at the hospital!”
Dazai went silent, he knew not to say anything more. If he did, the punishment would be severe.
They pulled up to the house, Dazai grabbed Elise’s stuff from the trunk. They headed inside, Elise practically ran to her room with her stuff. Dazai was heading to go up stairs when he felt a sharp pain on the back of his head. He turned around to see Mori with his hand out, he had just slapped him.
“If you talk back to me again it will be much worse than a slap to the back of your head.” Mori sneered.
Dazai nodded before retreating to his room.
Why
Why couldn’t I have gotten a family like Chuuya’s. Dazai thought.