Izaya cringed, his eyes squeezing shut because the pain was too much. He laughed, causing his ribs to poke painfully into his lungs, as he thought that he, Izaya Orihara, was dying like a normal person on the street. He was a god, and if anything he should be dying somewhere noble, somewhere worthy of the blood spilling from his wounds. But no, instead he be bleeding out on a common street in a worthless town far away from anyone who even knew him.
It would have been cliché to complain about all the things he hadn't done yet in life, or even to say that his life flashed before his eyes. No, Izaya was a true individual and thought none of these things. He didn't think about his friends, family, or even his precious humans. The only thing he was thinking was about how pathetic the scenery was, and that Shizuo wouldn't have the honor of finishing off the infamous informant.
Izaya laughed at he imagined Shizuo's face upon hearing about his rival's demise. No doubt the blonde would have that confused look on his face, like whenever the brunette had slipped away right under his nose.
Izaya laughed again, clutching at his chest. It wouldn't be long now. His clothes were almost entirely drenched in his blood, and his leg was now completely numb. Izaya glanced down the street again, realizing that no one would be around at four in the morning, even the drunks would have gone home sooner or passed out in some alley. He closed his eyes, thankful that no one would disturb him in his dying moments.
Shizuo strolled down the street exhausted. He couldn't even remember the name of this back-water town, and almost regretted coming.
Kasuka had gotten a role in a shojo anime as the main romance interest, and girls were flooding into the town where he was signing autographs. Worried, Shizuo had decided to take the short train ride to the town and make sure Kasuka didn't get in any serious danger. Shizuo's worries came to nothing and his brother had looked at him like his presence was pointless. Irritated with himself, Shizuo had gone to a few bars and was reluctantly heading back to his shitty hotel at what was either really late or really early depending on how he looked at it.
Shizuo listened to the steady sound of his footsteps on the sidewalk and lit a new cigarette. He paused to light it, and almost burned his fingers as he saw a familiar figure slumped on the ground against a wall. Not trusting his eyes, he moved closer to the slumped figure and gazed in amazement as he realized that it was definitely the flea.
"Hey!" Shizuo snapped, kicking his rival in the rubs to shock the man awake. "Wake up you freak! What the fuck are you doing here?"
Izaya's body just fell to the ground, and that was when Shizuo noticed the blood. The coat had concealed the dark substance covering his chest. Glancing down, Shizuo noticed that the flea's legs were bloody too, his blood ruining all of his clothes except the jacket.
"Shit," Shizuo swore. He yanked the flea's jacket off and tore it up. Using a shred of the jacket, he wrapped Izaya's chest where he felt the worst wounds. He used another couple of shreds to tie off the bullet wounds in the brunette's legs. Feeling for any other wounds, Shizuo found another large bash in the flea's head. Wrenching off his own tie, he wrapped it around Izaya's head to stanch the bleeding.
Satisfied with his work, Shizuo grabbed the smaller man – he was shocked at how light the flea was, but put it out of his mind in favor of other thoughts – and tried to remember what the fastest way to get help. Carrying Izaya princess-style, Shizuo jogged down the street in a hurry to try and save his dying rival.
Izaya blinked open his eyes before immediately shutting them as they let in too much light. Jerking a hand up to shield his eyes, Izaya sat up slowly and the slight ache in his chest reminded him of how he shouldn't be alive. Daring to open his eyes again, Izaya looked around the room. Nothing about it was familiar, but he knew it wasn't a hospital or clinic or some formal place like that. Instead it looked like someone's home, but it couldn't be Shinra's apartment because Izaya had been there too much to not recognize the room.
"And the patient's awake!" Shinra's annoyingly cheery voice called as the sound of a door opening drew Izaya's attention. "Was wondering if you would truthfully, but Celty was confident that not even those wounds could kill you."
Izaya blinked at him. For a second there he was considering that this was an actual afterlife, a shitty one but one all the same. But no afterlife would have the annoying doctor, heaven or hell.
"How did I get here?" Izaya asked with a strong voice. Well he tried to make it sounds strong, but it ended up sounding pained and vulnerable. Hating his voice, Izaya tried to at least look confident and in control.
Shinra beamed as he checked Izaya's vitals. "He said not to tell you, but then again I'm sure you could guess even without the hint I just gave you."
Izaya's eyes narrowed. He remembered hearing and Yuhei's new role as eye candy for anime otakus. Of course that would mean Shizu-chan would be concerned about his little brother and check in on him. Which would make him in the same town as Izaya, and the only one who would have taken him to Shinra and not a normal doctor like a normal human would.
"Of course Shizuo wouldn't want you to think he saved your life," Shinra continued babbling as he saw Izaya had figured it out. "He probably wanted to kill you himself, really, but then he could have just punched you before you had died and killed you first. Maybe that wouldn't be satisfying though, and he wanted to kill you properly. What do you think?"
Izaya ignored his friend's babbling and glanced behind him at Celty who had come in the room to check on him herself. She waved, and then left to leave Shinra to his ranting. Izaya wished he could to likewise.
"Well it looks like you'll be perfectly fine within a day or two," Shinra continued. "Those bullet wounds in your legs are healing up well, and the only things that will take longer than those to heal are the two broken ribs. Someone wanted to hurt you, though apparently not enough to just shoot you in the chest. Your head took a bashing too, but that was only slightly bruised compared to your other injuries."
"Can I go home soon?" Izaya asked.
Shinra grinned and chimed, "Yep! You should take a few pain meds though, since broken ribs hurt like hell. Other than that I'm not going to stop you. You've already been here a day after all, and I know how annoyed you get when your plans are delayed."
Shizuo puffed out smoke from his cigarette as he gazed at the setting sun. He tried desperately not to think of Izaya and how he was doing, but images of Izaya lying broken on the dirty street kept coming back to him and he couldn't help worrying. Taking another long drag, he glanced around to try and find something to occupy his mind. Finding nothing, he walked a few feet over to a bench and slouched down on it as he continued watching the sun go down.
Shizuo sensed the flea's presence before he felt the breath on his shoulder. He decided to say nothing and let the flea talk first. The flea stayed silent as well, leaning against the back of the bench and watching the sunset. Together they looked like some lame postcard, some picture that should have "Wish you were here" written all over the top. Shizuo held back a chuckle from the thought and took another drag of his cigarette.
"Must you?" the brunette complained.
The blonde snorted in response but said nothing.
"That really is unhealthy you know. You'll die one day if you keep smoking like that."
"Like you care."
Izaya sighed. "This is kind of a new thing for me, but…"
"You don't have to say it."
Izaya walked around the bench to stare at Shizuo. The sun had set by now, and the little light that was left made him look like he was glowing. "Well, Shizu-chan, I'm going to say it anyway. Why aren't I dead?"
Shizuo lifted an eyebrow. "Did you want to die, because I was under the impression that death was your only fear."
Surprise flashed in the flea's eyes but disappeared, the owner of the emotion not allowing himself to express anything. "Why would you think that?"
"I'm not dumb flea, no matter what you say. Besides, you rant on and on to Celty about it. Is she not allow to talk to me about it?"
Shizuo saw in Izaya's eyes that clearly Celty was not allowed anything of the sort, but of course the rest of him showed no reaction. "Well that is not the point. Answer my question!"
Shizuo shrugged. "You're not allowed to die until I kill you myself."
"So why aren't you killing me now?"
"I called a truce."
Izaya's eyes narrowed. "So you won't try and kill me no matter what I do?" Shizuo lifted an eyebrow but said nothing. "So what if I do this?"
Izaya sat down next to him on the bench, and Shizuo shrugged. The brunette slid closer to the blonde, their legs touching. Still finding no reaction, he rested his head against Shizuo's. The blonde wasn't even close to being irritated so he found the flea's attempts amusing. Only when Izaya planted a kiss on Shizuo's cheek did the bartender lose his cool.
"What the fuck flea?" Shizuo gasped, a hand shooting up to touch the place the flea had kissed him as if there would be a wound. He shot up, as did Izaya, and they squared off like they usually did on the streets.
"Nothing would work," Izaya justified with a grin, "so I thought it would be fun."
"You're dead flea!" Shizuo snarled. He grabbed the bench and raised it over his head.
"Aw, be gentle with the cripple," Izaya whined gloatingly.
"Die flea!" Shizuo screamed, throwing the bench at the small male with all his strength.
Izaya dodged it by spinning away. Starting their chase, Izaya turned on his heels and started running.
"IZAYAAA!" Shizuo yelled, running after him as he looked for something to throw.
This ended up really close to a doujinshi I read (and read again while I was writing this) and so I tried really hard to keep it entirely separate so the ending may seem a little weird and sudden. Not meant to be fluff or whatever, just sort of a 'what if' thing as a prelude or something to how they could have possibly gotten together. Not my best work, but I liked it and will keep it.
Wrote this in only a few hours with breaks for dinner and pokémon and stuff. Not bad huh?