Chapter Text
"Come on Chuuya, you said I could get a turn~" Dazai was whining while laying on the floor of Chuuya's bedroom. They were having a sleepover again. It was pretty much a routine thing at this point for Dazai to be around Chuuya's house for the whole weekend.
"God dammit! You just made me lose, you idiot!" Chuuya groans as he let's himself fall down to his pillow. "Fine you can have your turn now. I still don't get why your parents won't allow you to have your own phone. You're 14 already."
Dazai happily takes the phone from Chuuya and starts playing. "They just said no phones before high school. They think I'm irresponsible or something, which I think is complete bullshit."
"You are irresponsible Dazai. Or then they just don't wanna spend money on you." Chuuya mumbled as he stared at Dazai who was now fully engaged on the random mobile game they had decided to try out that day.
Even if Dazai was annoying as hell and a complete idiot. Chuuya still enjoyed his company. Dazai could always find a way to make the most boring things interesting. Plus they had been friends since they were 10. Dazai knew too many of his secrets for Chuuya to drob him as a friend now. He wasn't gonna risk getting blackmailed by that annoying little... Wait, was he still staring at Dazai? Chuuya abruptly laid back on his back to stare at the roof instead, though he could still feel the slight flush of embarrassment rising to his cheeks.
"You gotta give my phone back after that match, it's almost 11 pm. And my parents agreed on these sleepovers on the condition that we'd go to bed by midnight." Chuuya said with an annoyed tone in his voice.
"Come on Chuuya, we just started! Sleep is boring." It seemed that Dazai had resolved to whining again.
"Oh shut up, we don't have to actually sleep. As long as we keep quiet my parents won't notice. Their bedroom is like on the other side of the house. But we gotta pretend like we're going to bed because mom will come check up on us before she goes to bed."
After some more complaining from Dazai's end and bickering between the both of them, they were finally starting to get prepared for bed. While Dazai was changing into his pajamas, Chuuya noticed the bandages on his arms. Obviously he was used to his friend being covered in bandages. He knew of Dazai's tendencies after all. He didn't particularly hide them. But right now he was pretty sure those were the exact same bandages he had put on Dazai's arms two weeks ago. They even had dirt stains on them.
"Dazai. Give me your arm." He demanded.
"Why? You wanna admire my pretty hands?" Dazai's tone was sarcastic but he still complied.
"... Eww, no. I want to know when the last time you've changed these is. They've got stains on them. For fuck sake, you're 14. You could atleast try to take care of yourself. You should by all means know how to change bandages by now considering you're pretty much akways wearing them." He was dragging Dazai to the bathroom while complaining about how he always had to take care of Dazai's dumbass and and continued on that as he started looking for fresh bandages in the medicine cabinet. He stopped talking once he found the bandages.
Dazai sat down on a stool and let Chuuya work on removing his old bandages without a word. The two stayed silent until Chuuya finished applying new bandages on Dazai's arms.
"You got bandages anywhere else that need changing?"
"Nope. Not right now." Dazai answered simply as he stood up from the stool. They then made their way back to the bedroom for Chuuya's mom's bed time check.
~
Chuuya was sitting at his desk beside the window. Math class was always boring when Dazai decided to skip. He was the only friends Chuuya had in this class and he hadn't been showing up to school at all this week. The last time he'd seen him was during their sleepover the last weekend. Obviously this wasn't unusual. Dazai skipped school often. But he couldn't help getting worried when he had no way of contacting him during that time. Dazai didn't have a phone that he could call or text him with after all. One of the main reasons who Chuuya had been thinking about getting Dazai a phone he could use in secret with his own money. His parents were pretty loaded and he got good allowance. He could do it if he saved up for a bit. He just didn't know how to present this idea to Dazai without making him think he was pitying him or something. He knew Dazai absolutely hated the thought of being pitied. But he'd figure something out when Dazai came back to school.
Days pass, but Dazai still isn't showing up at school. Chuuya's worry was becoming more real by day. While Dazai was usually just bluffing with the shit he talked about, his tendencies were still real. What if he had actually done something this time? He could just go to Dazai's house and see if he was fine himself, but he hated going to Dazai's house. His parents always gave him such an intimidated feeling. He thought they were weird people. They were strict on stuff like getting Dazai a phone, but didn't seem to care at all where he spent his freetime or when he skipped school. But he would have to go over sooner or later. Otherwise the worry would keep eating at him.
The next day Chuuya made his way to Dazai's house after school. He knocked on the door, already regretting his decision to come. A few minutes later a middle aged woman opened the door. "What do you need?" She asks while looking over Chuuya.
"I just wanted to see if your son was home. I'm his friend from school, I haven't seen him in a few days, just thought I'd check in." Chuuya answers while tucking his hands in his hoodie pockets.
The woman looked like she was searching her mind for something. "You mean Osamu, right? I don't think we've seen that boy in a bit. But he'll be back sooner or later. He gets these little moods every now and then. Pretends to run away. So no, he's not here. You can be on your way now, I'm a bit busy here." And with that, the door was closed on Chuuya's face. He was completely dumbfounded. Well that didn't help his nerves at all.
Chuuya laid in his bed later that same night. What the hell was he supposed to do now. Dazai was who knows where and his parents didn't seem to give two shits about it. For now, it felt like all he could do is wait...
~
Weeks pass. By the six week mark teachers have stopped calling Dazai's name during roll call. At the end of the semester, Chuuya ended up emptying Dazai's locker himself, since he knew the code and taking his things home. He gathered whatever Dazai's belongings that he'd left in his house during their sleepovers and put them in a box with the school supplies from his desk. He then pushed the box in his closet. He'd return it to Dazai if he came back, but he didn't feel like looking at them right now. With the objects reminding him of Dazai out of sight, buried in the back of his closet, Chuuya slowly started thinking less about Dazai. He had other friend beside Dazai, it's not like his life revolved around him. But during nights when he laid in bed unable to sleep, he couldn't help wondering about what had happened to him or if he was even alive.