This is just a little plot bunny that wouldn't leave me alone, despite it having nothing to do with the main plot of Tech Support.
Disclaimer: Arlua is mine, and so is Tania, but that's it. I don't own Izaya or any of his alternates, or anything else related to DRRR
"Arlua Teki?"
The technician looked up and blinked. The voice was the same, the face was the same, the hair was the same…but the eyes and the clothes were different.
"Yes…that's me." She frowned and tilted her head. "You're not him. You look like him. But you're not him," she murmured.
"Not who?" His tone was wrong, too, not as cheerful as it should have been.
"Izaya. Your eyes are different, and your manner isn't at all like his," she murmured.
"Oh, so you know Iza-kun?" Arlua blinked. There were two?
"Unfortunately," she replied. "If you mean Izaya Orihara." The first had red eyes and wore almost the same outfit as Izaya's usual attire, but his jacket was edged in red, not brown. This second one, the one who called Izaya 'Iza-kun,' had pink eyes and wore a pink and white coat.
"Yep! That's Iza-kun!" the pink one chirped. Arlua blinked at him.
"Okay, so we all know who Izaya is, and you two apparently know who I am, but I have no idea who you are," she pointed out. The red one was watching her with a vaguely unpleasant expression. Was he…disgusted? By what?
"I'm Psyche!" the pink one told her happily. "And that's Roppi-kun."
"My name is Hachimenroppi," the red one corrected with a glare at the pink one. Arlua blinked.
"Are those your first names?" she inquired.
"Obviously. Our last name is Orihara, like Izaya's," the red one snapped, as if she should have known this. Arlua rolled her eyes.
"Yes, because that was so apparent. Everyone who looks alike must have the same last name," she muttered.
"Pay no mind to Hachimenroppi. He is simply in a bad mood. Constantly." Arlua gaped. When had this third one – dressed in some sort of gold and white costume, complete with gold a cape and crown – shown up? And how had he gotten that horse into the building?!
"Hibi-chan, I thought you weren't coming!" the pink one exclaimed.
"Hibiya, why did you bring your horse?" the red one sighed. The gold one ignored them and focused on Arlua.
"I am Hibiya, prince of the Oriharas. You must be the commoner Izaya has told us about."
"How many of you are there?!" Arlua demanded.
"Four." Arlua's jaw dropped. This one had the right eye color and bearing, but this one…was a girl. "I'm Kanra. You're Lu-chan, right?"
"That's what that impossible little cretin calls me, yes," Arlua answered. "Why do you all look exactly like him?"
"I do not look exactly like that commoner – or the rest of these commoners, for that matter!" the gold one announced loftily.
"We're a part of Iza-kun. Of course we look like him," the pink one explained.
"You think we look just like him? How boring!~ I thought for sure you'd be able to tell us apart," the girl sighed.
"Oh, I can tell you apart. Goldy there is a snob, pinky's like a little kid, and red's either disgusted by something or has something uncomfortable stuck somewhere he doesn't want it," Arlua replied easily. "But apart from your eyes and outfits and the way you all move and such, you all look incredibly similar. I bet most people would mistake you for Izzy – even you, Kanra," she added. The girl smirked.
"He was right. You must know him really well to notice that the way we move is a little different," she commented. Arlua shrugged.
"You move a lot like him, but you're smaller. Izzy moves more subtly than Hibiya, and his energy is more contained than Psyche's, and he doesn't move like he's disgusted to touch anyone the way Hachimenroppi does," the technician explained.
"Just call him Roppi. Everyone else does," the girl told her. Arlua tilted her head.
"I suppose Hachimenroppi is a bit of a mouthful," she mused. The red one glared, and the pink one giggled. The gold one sniffed haughtily.
"Are you all bothering Lu-chan without me?~ That's no fun!~" a familiar voice complained from behind the technician. Arlua didn't even turn around.
"If you put them up to this, cretin, I'm going to wipe your hard drive again," she announced.
"Lu-chan is mean!" Izaya exclaimed, moving forward to lean against the desk. Arlua glanced at him, then pointedly turned her attention back to her work.
"I wouldn't be so mean if you weren't so insane," she replied. "And it's about time you showed up. All these look-alikes were beginning to make me wonder if the real Izaya was going to come back or not."
"Aw, were you worried I wouldn't come back?~" he asked.
"In your dreams," she muttered. "Now leave me alone; I have work to do." Izaya laughed, and she realized that the others – Psyche, Roppi, Hibiya, and Kanra – had all vanished.
"Ah, but this is your dream, Lu-chan. You won't get any work done unless you wake up," he murmured.
Arlua blinked awake and looked around. She was in Izaya's office, laying on the couch.
"Sleeping on the job, Lu-chan?~" She looked up and found him perched on the arm of said couch, looking down at her with his trademark smirk firmly in place. She sighed and closed her eyes.
"Go away, Izzy," she muttered.
"So rude! Not even a thank-you for carrying you to the couch from my chair, where you fell asleep?" he protested. Arlua opened her eyes and glared at him.
"You could have just woke me up, you know," she grumbled.
"But I needed the chair; I had my own work to do," he told her. Arlua scowled.
"If you could do your work, then I fixed what I needed to, and my work was done, so I wasn't sleeping on the job," she informed him.
"Whatever you say, Lu-chan," he said cheerfully. Arlua rolled her eyes at him and sat up. "Did you sleep well?"
"Like you care," she snapped.
I think…I had a really weird dream, though… she thought absently. About…more than one Izaya…except… The technician shook off her thoughts and checked her phone, wondering how long she had slept.
"Crap! I was supposed to meet Tania in Ikebukuro half an hour ago!"