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Dazai and Bram weren't very close.
This was a pretty well-known fact amongst anyone who knew the two. It wasn't out of malice, or spite, or any kind of Ill-intent, it was just a simple fact. Dazai and Bram weren't very close.
And yet, here Dazai was, sitting on Bram's bed, watching him reorganize his bookshelf.
They don't quite remember how it happened, just that they were having a bad day, and Fyodor was away, and Bram let them into his room when they knocked without a word before returning to his books.
Dazai was watching him idly now, running their fingers along the blanket they were sitting on. It was velvet-y, in a way, and they found themself liking the feeling of it.
Bram paused in his organization, frowning as he turned to look at a pile of books he had color-coded.
"Dazai?"
Dazai perked up, humming as if to tell him to continue, head tilted.
Bram shifted, looking back to his bookshelf. He didn't speak for awhile, and while Dazai realized he must have been having trouble with his words, he didn't give them the chance to interject before asking, "should these be organized by color, height, genre, or a mix?"
Dazai blinked, brows furrowing. Most of Bram's books were the same genre anyways, so it wouldn't really matter whether he organized them by that or not. Height was always a required organization rule in their mind, so that would be the obvious choice, but color would add a nice look to it aswell. Bram's books had mostly customized covers (Gifts from his cousin, apparently, as well as Dazai's own artistic capabilities mixed with Bram's obsession with book-binding), so the colors went well together, especially with the darker aesthetic of his room, but organizing them by color would inevitably ruin the height rule, wouldn't it?
Bram was watching them now, head tilted similarly to their own, eyes narrow. Offhandedly, they thought it was a bit funny; Dazai's eyes were always big in situations like this, according to Fyodor, whereas Bram's seemed to be the opposite. He looked a bit like a cat. Dazai held back a laugh at that.
They shook themself out of their head after a moment, pursing their lips. They didn't have their phone on them, and speaking hadn't been very, well, do-able, for quite some time. They supposed they were pretty similar to Bram in that way.
Bram seemed to realize this, eyes widening a bit (now they looked like how Dazai imagined their own) as he gestured towards his phone resting on the floor by his bed.
Dazai leaned down and picked it up, scrunching up their face as they wracked their brain for the password. They knew Bram had told them the code in a previous conversation, something about emergency scenarios and whatnot, they just couldn't remember what it was.
Bram opened his mouth to speak, probably to tell them the password, but they let out a wordless exclamation in response, shaking their head. They could figure this out on their own, thank you very much!
Bram just shrugged, leaning back against the bookshelf and letting his eyes slip shut as he waited for Dazai's answer to his initial question.
After a moment, Dazai perked up, typing in what they could only hope was the right answer, beaming as the phone unlocked.
Right! Now to find Bram's AAC app..
With a frown, Dazai realized all the words were in Romanian. They didn't know Romanian.
They groaned, dragging out the sound until it turned into a whine, watching as Bram furrowed his brows.
He opened his eyes after a moment, clearly annoyed. He must be tired, then. Though, he was always tired, wasn't he?
"What is it?"
Dazai huffed, tossing his phone towards him, watching in mild satisfaction as he jolted forward to catch it. He frowned, but Dazai knew he wasn't quite upset. Bram's expressions were pretty easy for them to decipher, considering he had so few of them. It was something they liked about him.
"Oh."
He bit his lip, doing something Dazai didn't care to figure out on his phone before tossing it (read: handing it after stretching as far as his limited mobility would allow) back to Dazai. He had changed the language setting to Japanese. Dazai beamed.
"Height, obviously yes. Color, maybe. Color only if works with weight."
Bram nodded, seemingly satisfied with that answer, turning back to his bookshelf and busying himself in his organization once more.
The two continued to sit in silence for God knows how long, and eventually, Bram finished his work, leaning back with a satisfied look on his face. Dazai clapped enthusiastically. Bram didn't find it very funny, if his deadpan was anything to go off of, but hey, the man was like a living example of monotone autism, so Dazai could definitely be wrong (they aren't. Bram did not care for the applause).
Bram made a move to get up after a moment, grimacing before looking to Dazai with that look on his face that let Dazai know he wanted to ask them for something. Something being help getting up.
They blinked, leaning forward hesitantly before standing up, biting down on their lip. Pulling him up by the hand probably wouldn't work, given their own stability issues and their combined arm strength amounting to just about nothing, but they weren't sure what else he'd be comfortable with.
Bram sucked in a breath, eyes following Dazai's movements before he pulled Dazai into a crouch next to him, slinging his arm around them. Dazai mimicked the action, wrapping their arm around his midsection. They rose a brow, shooting him a questioning look as if to ask "am I doing this right?"
Bram nodded after a moment, stumbling a bit as Dazai eased them both up off of the ground. They had to blink a couple times to fight off the dark haze clouding their vision at the movement, frowning. Was everyone in this damn apartment anemic?? (They definitely weren't anemic, but it'd be pretty funny).
"Thank you."
Dazai jolted, pulling their arm away from Bram almost immediately. They honestly forgot he was there. They offered him a small smile after a moment, nodding. He'd do the same for them, and he'd do the same for Fyodor, so it was really the least they could do.
Bram sat down on his bed after a moment, and Dazai followed suit. He slid a book off of his nightstand, pulling his knees up to his chest as he leaned back against the wall, opening it up.
Dazai wasn't entirely sure what to do from there, so they looked around his room for a moment, humming softly.
Bram levelled them with a look after a moment, frowning. "Sit here?" His head was dipped slightly to his right. An invitation, then. Dazai tried not to let their giddiness show as they took their place beside him, practically curling into his side. Bram returned his gaze to his book, humming softly in response to Dazai resting their head on his shoulder so they could see his book properly.
Hours later, when the two were headed to bed, Bram asked, with his head buried in their hoodie, if they knew how to make mămăligă in the softest tone they'd ever heard leave his mouth.
They had to resist the urge to burst into tears right then and there.