So I'm not sure if it's a thing in Japan, but in America we have a thing called "Candy Stripers" where it's pretty much teenagers who volunteer at hospitals to visit patients and play with kids and whatnot, which is pretty much what Shizuo is.
This is my entry for Day 1 of Shizaya week! The prompt was First Meeting/Break Up, so I did the First Meeting side of things - though I'd love to do a break-up fic for these two at some point as well.
Disclaimer: I don't own Durarara
Candy Striper
In order to avoid getting into too much trouble after school, Heiwajima Shizuo volunteers at the hospital he spent so much of his youth in. It's here that he meets Orihara Izaya for the first time. AU – Canon Divergence
"Shizuo-kun!" One of the nurses stops him almost immediately after he signs in. Shizuo has just put on the shirt the candy stripers are required to wear while volunteering, pinning a nametag on. He normally spends his volunteer hours in the pediatric play area, letting the in-patient cancer kids use him as a jungle gym until their attendings call them back to their rooms. Actually having something to do is a novelty for Shizuo. "Just who I wanted to see!"
"What is it Hashira-san?" Shizuo asks the nurse politely.
"I've told you before, just call me Akira!" She insists, before turning and beckoning for him to follow her down the hall. Having walked the halls of the hospital for pretty much years, it doesn't take long for Shizuo to recognize that Hashira-san is taking him down to pediatrics, where he was heading anyways. "But, the other nurses and I would love it if you could help us with a patient. I know you normally play with the cancer patients, but we would really appreciate your help."
"Okay," He hesitantly agrees, uncertain as to what he is supposed to do.
"Wonderful!" Hashira-san smiles widely, clapping her hands together twice. "See, we have a patient who isn't eating, and has started refusing his visitor. He's not really responding when the nurses approach him, so we were hoping you could try Shizuo-kun, seeing as you two are really close in age."
"What do you want me to do?" Shizuo doesn't know how he, of all people, is supposed to get the kid to open up, and doesn't dwell on how Hashira-san said 'visitor' instead of 'visitors'.
They turn the corner, and then they're by the play area for pediatrics. There's a chorus of kids cheering "Shizuo-kun!" and a stampede of footsteps charging straight towards Shizuo and Hashira-san.
"Not today kiddos," Hashira-san informs the children patiently, provoking a round of disappointed "Awws". "I need to borrow Shizuo-kun for a little while. Next time, all right?"
"Yes, Hashira-sensei," The kids shuffle off sadly back to their toys, and Shizuo feels a bit of regret when he sees their disappointed faces. But when he's volunteering he's supposed to be doing what the nurses ask him to, and if they want him to help with a patient, then Shizuo is obligated to at least try and help with the patient.
"Anyways, what we need you to do is really simple Shizuo-kun," Hashira-san continues once they've moved on. "All you have to do is deliver his dinner and make sure he eats at least some of it, and get him to talk a little." She makes it sound a lot easier than Shizuo thinks it really is.
Still, Shizuo can't argue, so when he's handed a dinner tray by Kitagawa-san and is directed three doors down the hall, he does as he's told.
The door is closed when he gets there, so Shizuo gives the door three quick raps. There's something mumbled from the other side – if he has to wager a guess, it'd be that the boy on the other side told him to "Go away". Shizuo looks back down the hall towards Hashira-san and Kitagawa-san, and the two nurses motion for him to go in. He balances the tray on one hand as he opens the door with the other.
There's a miserable looking lump on the bed, facing away from the door, and Shizuo can barely see the mop of black hair that's poking out from underneath the blankets. Hashira-san didn't tell Shizuo why this kid is in the hospital, but she's right in that he's miserable. Before Shizuo can take even one step into the room, the boy says,
"Go away," and shuffles a bit, as if he's trying to bury himself deeper into the bed. He looks back to the nurses, and they flutter their hands again, encouraging him.
Shizuo steps into the room, and the boy doesn't do anything until the dinner tray is clattering on the bedside table as Shizuo puts it down to fiddle with the lap table so the kid can eat.
The blankets flurry upwards as the boy pulls himself into a sitting position to snap, "I said go away!"
Shizuo's met with the hard glint of vermillion glaring down at him, and he feels the unmistakable emotion of rage bubble up into him before he can stop it. Like he normally does when one of the younger kids pisses him off, Shizuo takes a deep breath and counts to five. It's not their fault that they're in the hospital, and they only piss people off because they want attention – this kid is no doubt the same. It's not the boy's fault he's in the hospital, and he's only worrying the nurses and pissing people off because he's lonely.
"Hi." Shizuo responds awkwardly, reacting to the boy's outburst by pretending it never happened. He finds the latch for the lap table, and it springs down. "I, uh, brought your dinner." The statement is emphasized by Shizuo moving the tray from one table to the other.
"I'm not hungry," The boy says, not even bothering to look at the food. He hasn't moved his eyes since he first saw Shizuo. He'd be lying if he said it's not a bit creepy.
"Hashira-san said you aren't eating," Shizuo doesn't stop himself before he automatically blurts that out. He's pretty sure he shouldn't have said that. "You have to be hungry, if you aren't then something else is wrong."
"Something else is wrong?" The boy quips, brow furrowing in confusion.
"Yeah," Shizuo nods slowly, wondering why the boy is confused. "You know, other than the reason why you're in here."
"The reason I'm in here isn't because something's wrong, it's because I was stabbed," Shizuo is informed by an incredulous voice. Shizuo's pretty sure being stabbed constitutes as something being wrong. "And the idiot who did it broke my wrist too, and I let it happen."
"No one lets themselves get stabbed," Shizuo barely stops himself from snapping the response, but can't help the quick eye dart to see that, yes, the boy's right wrist is in a bright red cast. He's not a stranger to casts, and he's only mildly surprised to see the black ink of only one name adorning it. He can't read it from this angle, but Shizuo remembers the nurse's words from earlier, of how the boy only has one visitor.
"I did," The boy repeats, shuffling so his cast gets hidden from sight. "Are you going to leave now?"
"Are you going to eat?" Shizuo retorts, and the boy hums.
"Probably not," He shrugs, poking a finger at the cup of Jell-O. It flops sadly in its cup.
"Then no," Shizuo settles himself down in the chair normally meant for visitors. The boy scrunches his nose up like he doesn't enjoy that idea. Oh well. Shizuo doesn't like this odd feeling bubbling in the pit of his stomach, but he has to deal with it, so the boy will deal with Shizuo's presence.
"Ugh, you've never had to eat hospital food before," The kid complains, picking up the chopsticks and poking at the rice he was given. "It's –"
"Terrible," Shizuo finishes for him, earning a startled look. "I know – I've been in and out of here for the past three years. The food is shit, but you gotta eat or they're just gonna use that as an excuse to keep you here longer and make you suffer through more of it."
"Fun," Though his tone implies anything but. The brat looks up at Shizuo through shadowed eyelashes, a sneaky look on his face that Shizuo doesn't like but still does funny things to his stomach. "I'm guessing you've been in here for… broken bones?" It's a casual guess, like he's taking a shot in the dark, but Shizuo doesn't like how the kid hits the nail on the head. Still, he can get something from this.
"I'll tell you if you eat something," Shizuo nods his head towards the bowl, and he's not surprised by the dark, unhappy look he receives. It's a look that says the kid didn't quite expect that response, but he pokes his chopsticks through his food anyways.
"I suppose," The kid gives an overdramatic sigh that Shizuo's used to hearing from other kids in the pediatric ward when he gets them to give in – the kids normally do it because they want him to think that they're doing him a favor when they all know that they were going to give in eventually regardless. "I mean, I already know I'm right, but if it'll make Shizuo-kun happy, I'll eat something."
He's almost confused as to why the kid knows his name until he remembers that he's wearing a nametag. Shizuo focuses instead on the brat scooping out a piece of chicken from the bowl like a picky eater – which Shizuo doesn't doubt that he is.
"Wow Izaya-kun!" A voice crows from the still-open door of the kid's – apparently Izaya – room. Shizuo watches as Izaya chokes on the piece of chicken he just stuck in the mouth, and it only takes him half a second to recognize the annoying voice. He turns to the other even though Shizuo knows he shouldn't. "I never thought you'd crack this soon! And gosh, Shizuo-kun, here I thought I was going to have to introduce the two of you at some point."
Kishitani Shinra waltzes into the hospital room like Izaya isn't staring at him like he wants to stab the other with his chopsticks – Shizuo honestly doesn't blame him – and Hashira-san gives Shizuo a smile and a thumbs-up from her spot outside the room before disappearing back down the hall.
When Shizuo turns back to Izaya – Orihara Izaya, Shinra formally introduces them when he drops into the seat on the other side of the bed – Izaya has moved his casted wrist to the top of the table where his food tray is sitting, and Shizuo can see the chicken scratch writing cheerfully announcing "Kishitani Shinra" as the only one who signed his cast.
By the end of his visit, Shizuo has rescued the brat's Jell-O cup from Shinra's thieving hands (having been a victim of them several times before) and commandeered a marker from the play area.
After all, he decides as he's forcibly pulling Shinra from Izaya's room as visiting hours end, "Heiwajima Shizuo" looks a lot better on Izaya's cast than "Kishitani Shinra".
Please read and review~! I'll see everyone tomorrow hopefully, with day 2's prompt!