Work Text:
It was around two o'clock in the morning when Chuuya was awakened by the sound of his apartment door opening, uneven and unbalanced footsteps echoing down the short hallway. He was out of bed and creeping out of his room before he had time to register it, shoulders drawn back and tensed as the Mafia executive searched for the intruder.
It was around two o'clock when Chuuya Nakahara came face to face with the bloodied and bruised from of his former partner. A pained smile was plastered on the brunettes face, his lower lip bused and cheek swollen from what the redhead could only assume had been a particularly aggressive punch. It seemed that the longer Chuuya gazed at Dazai, the more injuries he uncovered.
"...You look like shit. What the fuck happened?"
Dazai let out a broken laugh that was quickly cut off by an ensuing coughing fit, blood staining the already dirtied bandages as he choked on the thick red substance.
Chuuya cursed under his breath, arms reaching out to steady the bandage wasting man, but just as he did so, Dazai's legs seemingly gave out and he collapsed against Chuuya's chest, continuing to sputter and cough. The ginger sighed, easily hoisting his ex-partner up, which proved to be a simple task given his strength and Dazai's lanky form.
He effortlessly carried the taller young man to his bathroom, carefully placing him on a counter. Chuuya used one hand to support Dazai, who was now slumped against him, and busied the other with hastily ravaging his medicine cabinet until he came across bandages and hydrogen peroxide. Dazai let out a faint groan of pain and hid his face in the shorter male's shoulder, arms wrapping around the latter's narrow waist in a crushing embrace that had the executives face burning a crimson red.
"What the hell happened, Dazai..?" Chuuya questioned softly, just barely loud enough for the both of them to hear. He pulled back slightly, gently cupping the brunettes non-injured cheek and tilting his head up, both to get a better look at his bruises and simultaneously meet Dazai's gaze.
An exhausted sigh was his only initial response before and obviously strained voice spoke up. "Mission..."
It wasn't hard for Chuuya to put two and two together; he'd been on a mission, something happened, it went awry, and Dazai got his ass kicked. Bad.
"Tch. Damned waste of bandages.. Maybe try to be careful next time, yeah?" Chuuya scolded, but his words came out more like a plea than a demand.
"Aww~ Is Chibi worried about m- Ow! Ow, sorry!" Chuuya pressed down especially hard on the bruise on Dazai's cheek as punishment for the teasing, eliciting a yelp from the younger man. "Ahh, Chuuya's so cruel! Hurting an injured person, how malicious!"
"I'll show you malicious if you don't shut the hell up!" the redhead snapped, but he couldn't resist the relief he felt as he noticed some of the tension in Dazai's figure dissipate, relaxing about as much as a person beaten to hell could. He tentatively reached up to dab at the former Mafia members swollen cheek, placing a large bandaid over the the area where the skin had broke and bled, then wiping away the blood that had leaked from his lip.
For once, Dazai remained silent, only occasionally flinching and hissing through clenched teeth at the pain. The noised resulted in Chuuya's chest tightening painfully, he hated seeing his former partner like this, regardless of the situation. Even at times when he had had been the render Dazai in such a state, even when he'd very well deserved it, Chuuya would be liar if he said he didn't feel a nagging guilt in the back of his mind.
Then, he abruptly heard Dazai's breath falter and he immediately paused his ministrations. Chuuya's fingers hovered cautiously over the tightly wound bandages that covered the mackerels arms and he hesitated, glancing up at Dazai.
"I'm gonna need to these off, they need changed, they're covered in your nasty blood. Not to mention ripped?" Chuuya informed slowly, trying to sound as gentle as a person capable of immense destruction could. Then cocking a brow at the way the bandages were torn and cut.
"Tried to... Block... Had knives.." Dazai replied sluggishly, his voice sounding hollow and far away as he started to lax in Chuuya's hold, a sign that the ginger really did not like.
"Oi, stay with me, damned mackerel!" the Mafia executive ordered, lightly smacking Dazai's face and-as much as he didn't want to-applying pressure to his bruised cheek. It seemed to work and the brunette whined and complained about Chuuya's "violent" methods, but if it was enough to keep the suicidal maniac awake and alive, he'd do it. He didn't think blood loss would kick in now, the bastard didn't even seem to have lost that much blood, but he also didn't know how long the brunette had been out there.
"Aw, Chibi wants me to stay with him~! How cute," Dazai teased, and Chuuya was about ready to fire back a retort, but was cut off just as he opened his mouth. "But that's okay.. I'll always stay with Chibi, he's my knight in shining armor after all!"
"S-shut up! You're clearly delirious from the pain, shitty waste of bandages!" the short young man growled, gingerly unraveling the bandages. The sight was enough to make his breath hitch and his throat dry.
Black and blue blotches bloomed over the skin on Dazai's arms, accompanied by nasty looking cuts and even a few gashes, but they didn't appear deep enough to require stitches. His knuckles were bloodied and an angry shade of red, swelled from what had probably been an attempt at self defense. Chuuya bit his lip as a feeling of pure rage and sympathy (only for Dazai) welled up inside him. He was going to find whatever sick bastards did this, and crush every bone in their body until they were damn near liquefied. Nobody, absolutely nobody laid a hand on Dazai unless it was Chuuya and Chuuya alone.
"Who the fuck did this?" it wasn't so much of a question as it was a demand, teeth grinding and gritting together in a show of barely suppressed fury.
"Chuuya-"
"Tell me. Now."
Dazai huffed, but complied. "They were gun smugglers of some sort, they went by Snake Eyes and used teenagers as a distraction. We.. We didn't expect them to use the teenagers to attack us."
Chuuya hummed in acknowledgement, but it was low and bordered dangerously on feral. He continued his work, cleaning the cuts with the peroxide and lightly scrubbing away the blood, cringing at the hiss of pain the action earned him. He tossed the wipes away and exchanged them for a clean roll of bandages. unrolling them before rewrapping them over Dazai's arms, once again concealing the cuts and the telltale scars from the past.
Finally, finished with patching his former partner up, Chuuya stood back to admire his work. Dazai still had blood staining his trench coat and still seemed fatigued, but he looked generally better. He pulled the brunette up a bit, helping him shrug off the article of clothing and simultaneously allowing the taller man to lean against him once more.
Chuuya found himself smiling before he'd even realized it, pulling the other into a careful, yet firm embrace. However, it was a yawn that broke the moment, but the sound wasn't entirely unwelcomed as an identical noise from the other followed soon after, eliciting a laugh from the pair.
"Come on, extra-stuff-that-comes-with-the-bandages," Chuuya ushered, helping Dazai down as his legs wobbled from exhaustion. The redhead wordlessly offered him his shoulder to lean on until they reached the bed. "I still have some of your clothes if you want.."
Dazai blinked at him in surprise, chuckling and shrugging. "Sure, is my lovely nurse going to help me change~?"
"Wh- I- Hell no! And don't call me a fuckin' nurse!" Chuuya hissed, jerking away from the bandage waster and storming over to his bed, immediately hiding his face in his pillow and yanking his sheets up over himself.
Snickering, Dazai hurried and changed, slipping on an old black T-shirt before hastily crawling into bed next to Chuuya. It certainly wasn't the first time they'd shared a bed, and it probably wouldn't be the last/ There was something that they had both missed about the presence, the reassurance and solace.
A soft noise of surprise escaped Chuuya's mouth as arms circled his waist once again, legs tangling with his and a warm chest greeted his back as the two fit together like pieces of a puzzle. Another surprise came when a pair of lips pressed against the back of his neck, words mumbled against his skin.
"Goodnight, Partner.."
"Night, Osamu."
A few days later, the gang known as Snake Eyes was mysteriously destroyed, not a single member surviving. A few days later, Chuuya would realize that a faint whisper of another sentence had also been pressed into his skin, a whisper of 'I love you.'