Two Sides of a Coin
Chapter 1
Orihara Izaya, information broker, 23 years-old, likes ootoro sushi, loves humans, hates Heiwajima Shizuo.
Heiwajima Shizuo, debt collector, strongest man in Ikebukuro, loves peace, hates Orihara Izaya.
How can two people whose only relationship is that of a snake and a mongoose ever have a truce?
"Tom-san, can you stop narrating in the background and instead lead us to the next client?" Shizuo grumbled in irritation as his employer began to point out the pecularities of the relationship between Shizuo and 'that louse'. Sensing, Shizuo's increasing anger, Tom stopped mid-sentence and wisely changed the topic. No subject can best make Shizuo lose his temper other than the subject of Orihara Izaya himself.
The two traversed the streets of Ikebukuro on a daily basis, seeking out the poor bastards who made the mistake of borrowing money from Tom's loan shark establishment. Of course, those poor bastards never knew that they had to face Shizuo's infamous strenght if they can't pay on the deadline.
They were each off in their own worlds when out of nowhere, a white furry 'thing' launched itself on Shizuo crying.
"Tsugaru-tan~! WAAAHHH! I was looking for you!" said the furry white thing. Its arms nearly choked Shizuo as it held on for dear life. Its crying face was buried in Shizuo's neck but Tom-san could never mistake that wave of black hair peeking out of the white jacket. Orihara Izaya's face was certainly under those black bangs.
Face turning pale, Tom tried to find coherence in the scene he was looking at right now. One, Tom was probably still dreaming. Two, Izaya had gone completely bonkers. Three, Izaya was on a suicide run. Four, this will probably never happen but there's a 0.00000000001% possibility that Shizuo had made up with Izaya.
The look on Shizuo's face quickly eradicated the percentage of option 4 ever happening.
With a solid grunt, Shizuo grabbed the back of Izaya's jacket and tried throwing the smaller man off him. Izaya however, was tenacious as his hands locked tight around Shizuo's neck. The black-haired boy was still crying though, oblivious to the fact that he was now clinging to a raging rhino hell-bent on shredding him to little pieces.
"Tsugaru, Tsugaru, Tsugaru!"
Tom-san was still in confusion as to why Izaya would purposely feed himself to Shizuo's wrath. It was then that he took notice of Izaya's strange garments and his facial features through the tears.
"Shizuo, SHIZUO! Stop, stop that. This guy isn't Izaya! Listen to me for a moment!" Tom cried out in a panic. Shizuo seemed to hear his employer through the haze of his anger and went still. He was breathing heavily though and the veins of his temple stood out.
"Tsugaru, Tsugaru. Tsugaru. I lost you." Izaya continued to cry in a completely different voice. It wasn't that mocking voice that constantly grated on Shizuo's nerve, it was a wholly different voice.
"Oi, can you get off my back?" Shizuo said calmly, realizing he wasn't dealing with the louse right now. He noticed the white jacket similar in style but completely different from the louse's usual attire. The white shirt and jeans that Shizuo knew Izaya doesn't have and the pink headphones that that louse will never wear in his whole life.
The Izaya-look-alike dismounted Shizuo's back hesitantly. He then clumsily wiped off his tears with the sleeves of his jacket and only managed to smear snot and tears all over his face again. Tom-san sighed in resignation and pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket and began cleaning the boy's face.
"Let's talk somewhere else," Shizuo said as more people began to gawk at the three of them.
"What's your name?" Tom asked. They were sitting in a park and Shizuo had gone to fetch something to drink for the kid.
"Saike;" the boy answered. Saike's eyes were pink instead of red and tears were threatening to fall again as he struggled to retain his composure. "I came here with Tsugaru-tan but we got seperated in the subway and now I'm lost and he's angry with me. He said that I should stay in one place if I got lost but there were some mean people in the subway and they started chasing me and now I don't know where I am. I ran as fast as I could and ended up in that street where I met you and Tsugaru-tan again!"
"Calm down now. We'll help you find your Tsugaru-san. Now, can you tell me where you were supposed to go with Tsugaru-san?" Tom asked feeling a bit sorry for the boy. Saike probably mistook Shizuo for this Tsugaru, it was his only misfortune that he looked the spitting image of Izaya.
"Did you get anything out of him?" Shizuo suddenly asked from behind them. He had coffee for Tom, oolong for himself and orange juice for the kid. Saike readily accepted the can and drank thirstily from it. All the while, his eyes were on Shizuo.
"You really look like Tsugaru-tan, mister." Saike suddenly chirped up. "Only, Tsugaru-tan wears a kimono and has these really blue eyes and doesn't shout at me like you did." The kid suddenly began to pout as thoughts of his companion came back to him again. "I hope Tsugaru-tan doesn't get lonely without me. Ya know, he gets lonely real easy and cries easy too." Saike said all this though he himself looked like he was on the verge of tears again.
"Definitely not him." Tom and Shizuo said in unison.
Chapter 2 Meanwhile, in Shibuya.
Namie was home with a cold and Izaya's day was free. He wanted to go eat sushi at Russian Sushi but he was currently caught in a situation even he can never cook up. And the name of that situation was Tsugaru.
It all started after Izaya got off the Fukotoshin line. As usual, the subways were packed like sardine cans and movement was limited even with Izaya's agility. Just as he was on the verge of being swallowed by the wave, a helping hand reached out and pulled him out of the mob easy. As Izaya was about to thank his saviour, he was suddenly pulled along by him and out of the subway.
"Saike, I told you not to let go of my hand," Izaya's saviour said. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, it was a tight fit there so let me recover my- Shizuo-san?" Izaya instinctively reached into his pocket for his flick knife readying it for the moment Shizuo decided to launch him through the air.
"Uh, no. My name is Tsugaru, Saike. Did you get bonked in the subway? Did you hurt your head?" Shizuo asked in concern as he reached into his kimono's sleeve.
Wait.
A kimono? Shizuo would never wear a kimono.
But the fact that Shizuo was right now wearing a light blue kimono and smoking a kiseru instead of a cigarette didn't escape Izaya's discerning eye.
Izaya noticed some differences as well, such as this man's blue irises and that elegant air he had around him that Shizuo can never exude.
"Tsugaru-san, was it?" Izaya asked tentatively. The blonde man sighed in relief and stopped looking through his sleeve. "I'm afraid you have the wrong person." Izaya said awkwardly.
"Eh? What do you mean?"
