Disclaimer: Don't own any of the characters. Written for self-entertainment purposes only.
A/N: This fic sorta takes place during Epitome of Eighteen Histories: Orihara Izaya Episode, which is an extra side story Narita wrote for the Drrr 2nd season dvd/blu-ray releases, where Izaya meets Shinra's half-sister Kazane. I took some liberties with it and decided to go off on a different direction, right after Izaya tries to make Kazane choose. Suffice to say, it would help if you've read that story first, but it's not absolutely necessary.
Anyway, please enjoy this self-indulgent what-if scenario with the added friendship feels. Yay!
Make Me Choose
"Well, this sucks..."
Situated at the top of a pedestrian bridge just past school time, an outing in plain view and surrounded by the buzzing noise of incoming cars and people passing by, Izaya lavishly stood in front of a girl he'd only just met for the first time, Kazane Kinomiya.
She was a relative of Kishitani Shinra, the one person Izaya considered a "friend." By some strings of fate, Izaya had recently discovered of her looming presence around his school and shortly sough to make her acquaintance. Being the first time they'd interact, Izaya had picked such a time and place to make his first impression seem inoffensive, and perhaps a little hospitable.
At least, that may have been the plan. Sadly, all manner of comfort in the otherwise neutral environment was forgone the minute Izaya opened his mouth. There was nothing soothing to the girl about being spoken to with duplicitous words and assaulted by the fear and anxiety that this person has been watching her, dug up information on her, and approached for the sake of goading her into an insane plan to frame his nemesis, Heiwajima Shizuo.
Of course, Kazane had turned down such a ludicrous plan. But rather than continue to convince her any further about the hypothetical dangers Heiwajima posed on her family, Izaya had suddenly leaned back into the rail, looked up into the sky and spoke his next words in an aloof tone, "Alright, fine. Well, to tell you the truth, I came here to tell you of your 'choices,' and to make you choose."
All Kazane had known of this man prior meeting him was that he was certainly a "friend" of her half-brother, Shinra. Yet she was already on high alert. Kazane listened to his words carefully, assured that some word riddle would follow. When Izaya looked back at her, he still gave his theatrical hand wave, thought his eyes held some mixed type of feeling. The slightest trace of bitterness masked as a confident smirk.
"That's right. I'm going to make you choose! Between the mass violence that is Shizu-chan and me who's trying to use you against that monster I despise, which one of us..." there was a tiny drip of hesitation as Izaya looked at his hand. He then extended it toward her, his words more firm than ever. "..is the more suitable to be your brother Shinra's friend?"
"What..?"
"Although, of course, wanting to strip both of us away might make the most sense," he finished, taking back his hand and looking sideways, half-turned.
Objectively speaking, there was no way Kazane could make such a decision. It wasn't in her right to decide something as important and personal as another one's friendship, yet she found herself internally making a choice right away. And Izaya, knowing what an arguable spot that put her in, still sough to face a reaction. Or perhaps.. twist an unwanted truth. The man was obviously dangerous. To further add to that effect, Kazane also recalled the rumor that allotted Izaya to be a man who injured her brother in the past due to a squabble.
What was to say the same would not repeat again or come to worse?
But Kazane hesitated. She thought to be the better person. She thought about what kind of trick Izaya might be playing, because.. had his intention been to make himself seem more favorable than Heiwajima, then shouldn't he have sough to be more sincere?
"Don't tell me you see both of us as worthy," Izaya interrupted her thoughts, pressing. "This isn't over until you choose. So what will it be? A monster who rampages and destroys, or me?"
With just the smallest prick at her back, Kazane reluctantly asked, "And if I make a choice.. what will happen?"
"Oh, I don't know..." Izaya said offhandedly. But then, as though he'd just now come up with the idea, he stepped forward and added, "If you say I'm not fit to be his friend, I might consider cutting off my ties with him."
And there it was! A strange incentive. Kazane did not understand why Izaya had bothered to make himself so precarious, but now she felt compelled to follow through with such a feeling, and to thrust that on to him.
"...you would do that?" And deep down, Kazane knew, she didn't have a say. But she still weighted that if she could prevent her brother from being stuck with someone as horrendous as Orihara Izaya, and that this could perhaps save him from real danger in the future, then it was worth it.
"That's right," Izaya replied cheerfully, as though he was happily rendering his services. "I'll do my best to comply with your wishes. Though I cannot guarantee that-"
At that moment, Kazane smiled courageously and said,
"Heiwajima-san. I choose Heiwajima Shizuo."
In the middle of a sentence Izaya was about to finish, his mouth was left hung in surprise. The smallest wrinkle decorating his forehead.
"W-what?"
"He's the one more suitable to be brother's friend," Kazane reasoned. She confidently looked to Izaya and concluded, "He may at times attract dangerous situations, as you say, but I believe you've made it clear to be even more dangerous. Sincerely, I do not think you are fit to be brother's friend. I'm sorry, Izaya-san," she shook her head.
For a solid ten seconds, Izaya was silent. Then he tried another, this time more hollow smile.
"You know... that monster doesn't truly like your brother.."
"You asked me to choose, so I did," Kazane cut him off to shake away any lingering doubts. She had to do this for her brother's sake. "Will you keep your word and cut off your ties with him?" she said resolutely.
"I... I see, well," Izaya cleared a cough. "Fine. So you say I'm not fit." He stepped back and turned around to see the cars below. The slight curvature of his figure might have suggested he was a tad.. dejected. But Kazane didn't stop.
"That's right."
"In that case... I will do my best to accommodate your choice,"
"Yes, please."
"I will tell your brother.. we're no longer friends."
"Go ahead."
A few more seconds passed. The blaring car noises from below making themselves known. Kazane supposed the conversation should've been left at that. She almost began her farewell, but Izaya still interjected, a melancholic smile now foolishly hanging without grace.
"Ah, I just have to assure you.. whether you still happen to see him tailing after me-"
"But you just said,"
"-it's because your brother refused my declaration."
"..."
"..."
At this response, Kazane stared down her feet briefly and thought out loud,
"...that's what you're hoping happens, correct?"
"Nah, it probably won't happen," Izaya said, now with a bitter tone. He took a sudden walk toward the other side of the pedestrian bridge, only dismissively waving at her in farewell, an off-handed finger gun at the end of his sentence before fully turning away. "Well, see you around, Kinomiya-chan. Just know that you've been a complete disappointment."
"..What does that have to do with..?" Kazane couldn't help her look of confusion, but her voice was no longer audible between them as their distance increased.
As she watched him go down the stairs in a somewhat slouched manner, Kazane thought about it all. About the whole conversation.
Heiwajima Shizuo, his known rival, and her brother Kishitani Shinra, whom he thought of as a 'friend'...
...Just what was the true deal between all three of them?
~/~/~
One week passed.
One whole week of Izaya successfully avoiding the brother of that girl he just made a promise to.
He was not a man who felt absolutely compelled to follow through on his promises, but there had been a lingering reason masked behind a myriad of thoughts as to why he had asked her such a question, knowing full well she shouldn't be one to judge.
As it stood, he had avoided Shinra from purely being entirely absent from school.
It was no means to test the theory that Shinra was unlikely to stop by his house during these particular days. Nor was it because he had needed the extra time to gather enough courage to go through with his 'declaration.' That wasn't IT at all. Or so he thought. No, no, no no. Not at ALL...
Today he'd see if the boy in glasses would find him at the earliest opportunity now that his presence was known.
In earnest, he wasn't looking forward to it.
It didn't occur until lunch period, when Izaya stood by the fence of the school building's rooftop, scouting the people below in casual manner. He had been revising the speech in his head multiple times, trying to decipher the outcome. He wished to slip out unnoticed. Yet Shinra had found him like any other normal day and began talking to him unprompted, as if an entire week of absence was not noticed in the slightest.
"Yoooo, Izaya! You didn't start a fight with Shizuo today, huh? That's surprising. It's been pretty calm the last few days. I've been hanging out with him this whole time watching like a hawk. Waiting for the moment!" the boy, Kishitani Shinra proclaimed with uttermost ease and in his usual fascination, making hand gestures and theatrics as he spoke. It didn't make a difference that Izaya had yet to acknowledge him, or expressed his usual disdain at his tenacity to be cheerful at such a topic.
"..." Without a reply, Izaya turned the other way and begun his walk. As expected, Shinra tailed him. He was pretty much used to being snuffed by the very two people he called 'friends.' So he continued on without missing a beat, always wearing that comfortable (enviable) smile.
"Hey, so I was thinking, if you're not too busy receiving yet more confessions and gifts from girls at school or otherwise being absent doing god-knows-what, you could come over to my place tonight. We could play a game! Or go to your favorite sushi place."
"I'm gonna be busy, Shinra," Izaya replied sternly.
"Ah, well then, no problem! We'll re-schedule it for tomorrow!" Shinra insisted.
"That day too, and the day after that." Izaya stopped but still withheld eye contact. He counted to ten. He knew such simple replies wouldn't get Shinra off his back once he got into his pestering moods. It was difficult to continue to say no to him.
A weakness Izaya perhaps didn't recognize. His heart palpitated rapidly at the thought of what he would say next.
"Then it'll be the day after that!" Shinra interjected. "That is, if my roommate doesn't mind noise. In which case, four days after tomorrow!" Shinra held out his hand announcing the aforementioned number of digits excitedly, completely unaware of the paleness and unease that had befallen his friend suddenly.
Izaya swallowed. It wasn't that he owed some sort of great debt to Kinomiya Kazane. But there was a nagging question that kept pounding at the back of his head, had troubled him in his sleep for a whole week, had been why he foolishly thought to briefly project Shinra onto this girl-
Make her choose.
Predict what he would choose.
Amuse himself regardless of the outcome. (desirable)
It had started as a whim. Merely a whim!
But Izaya follows his whims, even if he only receives torment in the end, until another one takes its place.
And right now, there was something he wanted.. needed.. to confirm. He reinforced internally that he told Kazane he would. Do. This.
"I won't be going, nor that day or ever," he said in an unusually rough voice, his palms getting damp from nervous sweat.
"Hm?" Shinra wasn't deterred in the slightest. He simply continued, cooing, "But you always budge eventually, Izaya~"
"..I'm not your friend, Shinra. Not anymore."
"Come again?"
Izaya inhaled and stood straight. Without meaning any of his usual pretense, he needed to tell Shinra flatly, even if the repercussions terrified him.
"Consider this my declaration."
"..." Shinra's open eyes merely blinked at that statement, dumbfounded and ignorant.
"We're not going to be friends anymore!" Izaya said in raised tone, firm as he could, though there was a slight intonation in that voice that shook. He then turned away and decided to conclude it. "So, you can stop pestering me now. You can stop pretending tha-"
"That's ok."
Instantaneously, Izaya felt his voice drown at the chill of minus one hundred degrees. "... what?"
"You don't have to be my friend."
"..." His already high-paced heart begun a somersault into his throat. He almost stepped back until Shinra-
"You can just think of me as, 'that guy that won't leave me alone.' That would work."
"...?"
Shinra just said the most absurd—although perhaps predictable in hindsight—reply.
"It's what Shizuo thinks of me anyway, yet we still hang around! Or.. rather, I pester him. Who cares! You don't have to think of me as 'a friend' if you don't want to," Shinra spoke such self-deprecating words without once removing his amicable smile. There was no doubt in his eyes. They were as open as Izaya always saw them. As cheerfully and confident as he always wished to be. "Regardless, I'll still call you mine!"
"..." oh
Oh.
All at once, the drowning sea of anxiety began to ease at the pit of Izaya's stomach. He almost wanted to laugh in derision.
"So anyways..." Shinra attempted to carry on his previous conversation, "..about you coming over to my place eventually."
As if the out of place declaration from Izaya had been about absolutely nothing at all.
"...You really are annoying huh..."
"Huh, that's what all the people I care about think of me! Which is only like... three. Well, I wouldn't know if others think of me this way, since I don't really care, hahaha." A laughter so easy and so welcomed. Izaya felt his chest compress and expand at hearing it. But nonetheless, he too, smiled.
"So does that mean you change your mind about today?"
Izaya knew he would yield. He always did yield. "...fine..."
"I knew it!"
And the two boys would then settle into what would be their usual banter. Just a couple of more minutes until the bell rang to take them away to their next class. But at least, Izaya felt satisfied. At least. For the day.
He later wrote a letter to the girl from the prior week, although he never found the chance to deliver it. Writing it alone was enough for Izaya, and he pictured being able to say such words to the girl face-to-face with a grandiose smirk if the opportunity ever came.
Dear Kazane Kinomiya-chan,
As I thought! Your brother ignored my declaration of ending our friendship.
The Joke is on you!
TRY HARDER!
Lovingly, Izaya Orihara
~/~/~