Our Armageddon
Chapter One
~reedleonn
Author Note: Alright, I've been hogging this story to myself long enough~
I actually started writing it on Shizuo's birthday this year (1/28) and actually have (I think) 12 chapters written already. Oh goodness, it's a long long way from being finished. I've been a bit stuck at starting the 13th chapter so I'm hoping starting to upload the story that I'll understand what to do next. I dunno why all of a sudden I finally realized, "Oh shit, right, I was going to start uploading a couple months ago." And now at 1AM a few months after starting this story I've said to myself, "Yeah, let's get this rolling."
Okay, well, let's do this.
Disclaimer: Nope. I don't own DRRR! (or whatever I'm supposed to write a disclaimer.) I mean the plot and story is essentially mine except for the bits that obviously belong to Narita-san, DRRR's creator.
Read, my friends, READ. And if you want to leave a review afterwards go ahead.
OH YEAH ONE MORE THING THAT I THINK I SHOULD RIGHT. It's a WARNING: There may be triggers for some in this story. But I don't know since there are a lot of people with a lot of different triggers...
On with it.
The man in the bartender suit put another cigarette to his lips. Taking out the lighter from his pocket and shielding the flame from the breeze, Shizuo watched the tip of the cigarette darken and glow. He inhaled, he exhaled, and watched the smoke as it was picked up by a gust of wind and carried off.
Peaceful. Ikebukuro was peaceful today and it felt strange.
A beeping emanated from somewhere on him and Shizuo felt around in all of his pockets for his cell phone. Finally locating it, he flipped it open to see another new text message, this one Shinra.
[Happy Birthday, Shizuo~! I can't believe my dear Celty beat me to texting you! Wah! I wanted to be the first to say that…but I've been overwhelmed with 'patients' all day…]
Shizuo twitched one of his eyebrows up and debated whether or not to respond to Shinra's text. He had been getting texts off and on all day wishing him 'happy birthday.' He let out a sigh and flipped his phone shut. This was getting tiring. How was he supposed to work with his phone beeping at him so much?!
"Tch. Pisses me off." Shizuo mumbled, about to put his cigarette to his lips for another puff.
"Talking to yourself again?" Tom said from behind where he was seated on a park bench. Shizuo flinched only slightly and let a growl escape his throat.
"Today is such a bitch." Shizuo finally took another inhale from his cigarette. Now that he thought about it, at least Tom didn't acknowledge his birthday. He probably didn't even know it was today.
Tom shrugged and then a grin crept onto his face. "Break's over by the way. It's been over for about 10 minutes."
Shizuo stood up and threw his cig to the ground, stepping on it to snuff it out. "Who's debt are we collecting next?"
Tom started walking and the Beast of Ikebukuro loyally followed. "The next guy is a real pain in the ass. He's a bit violent. Strong too…really strong."
"Great…"
"Yeah, he's a bit of a hassle to get money out off. Poor guy has such a hard time keeping a job. I think he's been through four in a year…or was it five?" Tom chuckled and Shizuo felt something was off.
Shizuo drowned out whatever else Tanaka-san was telling him. He felt like his anger was simmering and ready to boil over if the wrong person crossed his path. He stuffed his hands in his pants pockets, his hands starting to feel icy from the wind chill. Maybe he should invest in a pair of gloves. Maybe he should invest in a winter coat, realizing only now that he didn't own one and only ever wore his bartender outfit.
"Here we are." Tom's voice snapped Shizuo out of his thoughts. The blond looked up in time to notice they were walking into Russia Sushi.
Shizuo raised his eyebrows. "Why are we here? Does the guy work here right now or something?"
Just as they entered the main room of Russia Sushi a bunch of familiar faces popped out from their hiding spots, all with wide smiles on their faces. Shizuo jumped back, tripping over a bar stool and tumbling to the floor.
A loud mixture of laughter and 'happy birthdays' erupted from the group as Shizuo got to his feet.
He scratched the back of his head. Not knowing what else to say, and obviously a bit flustered, he awkwardly thanked them. "Geez…you people didn't have to go through all the trouble. You also could have told me." He glared at Tom during the final part of his statement. Tom looked away, trying to hold in his snickering.
Looking around the room, he saw many people whom he knew well but also a couple of who he could barely remember their names. Shinra, Celty, Kyohei, Walker, Erika, Saburo, and Simon he knew well. The other three…their names were…Mikado, Masaomi, and Anri. He decided to just assume those names were correct.
Of course Kasuka was there lingering near the back. He nodded to Shizuo and Shizuo nodded back, slight warmth in him at seeing his brother.
Shizuo also noticed the vast array of sushi on most of the tables. His stomach grumbled, reminding him that he hadn't eaten breakfast or lunch today.
"Shall we eat?" Shinra said through a mouthful of sushi.
"Yes! Eat happy sushi, be happy! Shizuo is birthday boy. Shizuo must eat lot of sushi!" Simon ruffled the blond's hair.
Erika had snuck her way next to Shizuo with a sly look on her face. "Too bad Iza-Iza couldn't come~"
Shizuo glared down at her but she didn't shrink away in the slightest. Shizuo looked around to see that the woman was correct. The Flea was nowhere in sight. "I consider that a good thing." Shizuo mumbled.
"Aww…" she blushed and she put her hands to her cheeks. Shizuo's hands twitched and then squeezed into fists. "One day Shizuo-kun and Iza-Iza will fall in love and then make sweet, sweet-" Erika was cut off suddenly and Shizuo didn't even get a chance to put in a word to stop her either.
There was a loud rumbling, almost a groan, and the floor seemed to convulse. Lights swayed back and forth while flickering on and off. A couple chairs fell over and few things slid off of the sushi bar. The group clung to whatever they could to avoid losing their balance.
About 15 seconds later, the shaking stopped. For a few moments, nobody moved and no one spoke. They all just glanced around at one another with both fear and relief in their eyes.
When they started talking again, no one was really sure who was asking what or to whom it was directed.
"Whoa…"
"Everyone alright…?"
"Scary."
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"Me too. Everyone else looks alright too."
"Anything get damaged?"
"A cup broke…"
"Oh NO!" Shinra shrieked. All eyes were worriedly on him. "One of the plates of sushi..." Their eyes followed to where Shinra's glace fell. "It's on the floor…I would advise against eating it…as medical advise."
Most of the group chuckled. Celty seemed preoccupied with harshly shoving her elbow into his side repeatedly.
"Ow! Celty!" He giggled. "Stop~"
"I'll still eat it!" Saburo offered.
"You're an idiot." Kyohei grumbled.
"Ever heard of the 'five second rule?'" Saburo defended his decision.
Kyohei sighed. "No. But it sounds like a dumb rule."
The party continued lightheartedly. Although it seemed the strange geographical occurrence had been forgotten about, there was a sense of apprehension in the air. It was true that where they all were standing, nothing horrible had come of it. But it was possible that somewhere else had been devastated. They wouldn't know until later, when they were in the comfort of their homes reading about it on the Internet.
As the light outside grew dimmer and as the streetlights eventually came on, it was high time the party disbanded. With a few final birthday wishes, they all went their separate ways. Only Tom, Simon, Kasuka and Shizuo remained outside Russia Sushi.
Kasuka looked up to his brother. "Onii-san." He said to get Shizuo's attention. "I placed a large order of sweets for you. It should arrive tomorrow."
"Ah…" Shizuo blinked as he was at a loss for words. "Thank you, Kasuka…"
Kasuka began to take his leave. "I won't wish you a happy birthday because I know it annoys you. Goodnight, Onii-san."
"'Night, Kasuka." Shizuo faintly smiled.
"Good party. Shizuo happy now." Simon grinned.
Shizuo exhaled some smoke from his cigarette. He nodded.
Tom stretched his arms above his head and turned to Shizuo. He had zoned out for a few minutes. "Hey, by the way, Happy Birthday. I was surprised when you didn't take the day off." His employee shrugged at him. "Well, anyway, I'll see you at work tomor-" Tom's phone rang and after glancing at the caller I.D. he answered. "'Evening. What's up-" Shizuo could only hear the tone of the person on the other side of the call and they sounded rushed in what they were saying. "I'll head over tonight…Okay. Bye."
Flipping his phone shut, Tom shook the nervous look he had had on his face only moments before. "Everything alright?" Shizuo asked.
"Huh? Oh, I'm sure everything will be fine." Tom pocketed his phone. "Listen, why don't you take a few days off. I have to hurry to my parents' place. Looks like that earthquake caused more damage where they are. They could use my help."
"Hm? Nothing too serious…?" Shizuo's brow furrowed slightly. Simon too was looking at Tanaka-san with concern.
"Nah, nah." Tom reassured them. "It'll be alright. But I'm just going to pop over to my apartment to grab some things then head to the station," He said and Shizuo nodded as his employer began walking away. "See 'ya in a few days, Shizuo!"
"Take care, Tom." Shizuo watched, as the man was absorbed into the pedestrian crowd.
Shizuo then heard light footsteps from behind him but before he could react, someone had covered his eyes with their hands. Shizuo's initial reaction was surprise with a hint of fear. But after a moment without imminent danger, his previous emotions were replaced with confusion.
"Ne, Shizu-chan. I came all the way from Shinjuku to wish you happ-" Izaya was cut off when Shizuo shook the informant off of him, pulling himself away from the other's reach, to turn around to attempt to grab hold of his scrawny neck.
Izaya easily dodged and watched the beast with amusement. "Damn it, Louse, stand still and let me strangle the life out of you!" The beast growled.
"Why would I let you do that~?" Izaya hummed.
"Consider it your birthday present to me!" Shizuo ground his teeth against each other in a crazed smile.
Izaya sprinted off. "Maybe I'll let you strangle me if you can catch me!"
Shizuo gave chase without another thought. He had heard Simon behind him yell something, probably just trying to tell him that fighting was bad…So, he ignored the statement entirely.
Alleyway after alleyway, the two rivals ran. Izaya only looked back every so often to smirk at Shizuo and Shizuo only concentrated on catching his prey. They'd throw witty remarks back and forth, toss objects, or make obstacles to make the chase more interesting. Or, in Shizuo's case, more annoying.
Even though it seemed Izaya was nowhere near tired, Shizuo was panting and his legs were starting to scream in protest. He slowed down and stopped, putting his hands on his bent knees for support as he caught his breath.
"Shizu-chan. Tired already, ne?" The Flea stood a few feet away with a wide grin plastered on his face.
"You're a bastard…Flea…" Shizuo said, relishing the oxygen entering his lungs.
They stood like this in a random alleyway for a moment until Izaya shifted, breaking the odd trance that had overtaken both of them.
"Hey…Flea…" Shizuo stopped. He wanted to say something to the other boy but couldn't quite put his finger on what it was exactly. "Tch, never mind. I forgot what I was going to say."
The statement only made Izaya's smile deepen. "Stupid protozoan."
It looked as if Izaya had more to say but both of their attention was pulled from the conversation when a loud rumbling started up again, almost simultaneous with the ground shaking. It was more violent this time.
They were both having trouble not falling to the ground. Shizuo gripped a nearby dumpster for support. When he looked to Izaya, he saw that the imformant really didn't have anything to hold on to but was doing pretty well staying upright.
Movement from the building directly towering above Izaya, made Shizuo's eyes shift wildly. Bricks were gradually dislodging themselves from the wall and when a few started to tumble downward in Izaya's direction, Shizuo push himself away from the dumpster and ran towards the other man.
"Izaya!" Shizuo screamed and saw the informant's eyes glance up right before Shizuo tackled him to the ground. The bricks crumbling right in the exact spot where Izaya had been standing moments before.
For a brief moment, the world was silent.
At first when Shizuo opened his eyes, the world was a bit blurry and the dust and debris were just settling. He coughed slightly from said debris irritating his lungs and scratching his throat. His eyes adjusted and he looked down at Izaya to whom he was clinging. The raven had his fingers digging into the fabric on his chest, eyes scrunched closed.
"You okay, Flea?" Shizuo asked but did not get a response. There was only the slightest quivering from the smaller male. "Izaya?" After still failing to invoke a response in him, Shizuo slowly brought his palm to Izaya's cheek.
Izaya's eyes shot open but he still didn't move for a moment more.
It was only when his eyes darted around his environment did anything begin to register. "Hey…say something." Shizuo told him. "Izaya…?"
Quick as Izaya could, he pushed Shizuo away, sat up for a second before standing and running off. He didn't say a word. Shizuo continued to sit in the alley, a bit baffled.
"Hm…" Shizuo's eyes wandered over to the pile of bricks that had almost done them both in.
The wail of sirens broke Shizuo out of his daze. Anxiety creeping into him, he stood up and began swiftly in the direction of his apartment, while whipping out his mobile. He felt the urge to phone his brother and his friends just to ease his mind that they were all safe.
No, scratch that.
He needed to know they were all safe.
To Be Continued...
AN: Uh...Hope you enjoyed the first chapter. Like I said I have a bunch written already. I'll try to upload a chapter once a week. I. WILL. TRY. Unless you all hate it, which would suck. But, I'd probably just keep uploading anyway because I feel like it~
