Unravel Me

7: The Truth

   Chuuya woke up with the usual sort of disorientation one faces after spending the night in an unfamiliar place. It wasn't until he rubbed the sleep from his eyes enough to see the water-stained ceiling that he remembered he'd spent the night on Dazai's couch.

   He groaned into a big stretch before rolling over, pawing at the floor until he found his phone. There were no angry texts from Yuan or Shirase, so it seemed that his failure to make an appearance at movie night had been forgiven. Then again, ten o'clock was still a little early for either of them to be awake on a Sunday, so he wasn't sure he was totally in the clear.

   "Sleep well?"

   Chuuya jumped at the question. He hadn't noticed Dazai sitting at the kitchen counter, picking at a bowl of granola while he did the crosswords.

   "Jesus christ."

   "Sorry," he laughed. "Didn't mean to scare you."

   "It's fine, slept fine."

   "Couch wasn't too lumpy for you?"

   "No," he lied. Really, it was, but what would the alternative have been? Going broke getting a ride to his apartment? Getting mugged on his walk home at night? Dazai had done him a favor, so he shouldn't complain.

   He sat up, pulling the hairtie from his ponytail, which had shifted and tangled in his sleep. He ran his fingers through the knots to try to tame them.

   "You want coffee?" Dazai asked as he watched him struggle.

   He sighed, giving up and deciding to just throw his hair back into a messy bun. "Coffee would be great."

   "I thought so, too. Unfortunately, my coffee maker is currently out-of-commission, but there's this cafe we could go to. They make a really good pour over. It's only a short train ride away."

   "Yeah, whatever, sounds good."

   Dazai smiled to himself. Things were going exactly as he'd hoped. "Do you need time to change, or are you going like that?"

   Chuuya glanced down at himself. He was swimming in the t-shirt and sweats that Dazai had let him borrow. As comfortable as they'd been to sleep in, he imagined he'd look pretty ridiculous to anyone that saw him on the street. "Let me just put my work clothes back on and i'll be good."

"Work clothes?" Dazai questioned, remembering what he'd shown up in the night before. "What job do you have that lets you wear track pants?"

"I work at the gym on campus."

"Oh? What do you do there?"

Chuuya shrugged. "Scan badges, clean the equipment, and give personal training sessions if someone requests them."

"Huh, I didn't know the school even offered that kind of thing."

"Yeah, I don't think many people do. My shifts are usually pretty slow."

   Dazai hummed like he was in thought, but there was nothing in his expression that allowed Chuuya to read his mind. "Alright, well, i'll be here when you're ready," he said, going back to his crossword.

   Chuuya gathered his clothes and made his way down the hall to the bathroom, locking the door behind him before stripping out of Dazai's clothes and pulling his own back on. He then quickly washed his face and used the same toothbrush as before on his teeth, putting it back in the drawer when he was finished.

   As promised, Dazai was still sitting at the counter when Chuuya returned, though the bowl of granola was gone and the crossword looked like it had been finished.