Snow has its very own unique and special beauty, so the unforeseen appearance of large snowflakes falling from the sky on Christmas Eve was a happy turn of events for most inhabitants of Tokyo. Christmas in Japan was not the same as everywhere else, but it was still a night which held a special meaning in the hearts of many. Some confessed their feelings to the people they loved while most enjoyed a quiet family dinner. Children were especially fond of the Christmas cake brought by their parents as they arrived home from work.
There were, of course, also those who couldn't have cared less about it. Heiwajima Shizuo was such a person. He lived alone, he rarely talked to his family, and he didn't really have that many friends. There was Shinra and Celty, but the last thing he wanted to do was to disturb the two of them while Shinra was probably confessing his love to Celty for like the millionth time. As for Tom, he got along well with him, but they didn't exactly tend to hang out together after work.
Speaking of work, Shizuo especially hated working on Christmas Eve because it was one of the busiest days of the year. People had the unhealthy habit of borrowing even more money as the New Year approached, only to find themselves unable to pay back their debts, which in turn made them unpredictable creatures. Shizuo never really saw that baseball bat heading straight for his head, too focused on beating up the man in front of him to worry about the guy's previously thought to be the scared-shitless buddy behind him. He did, however, feel it as it hit home.
He frowned at the memory and gingerly touched the back of his head, wincing when he felt the coldness of the crimson liquid with his fingertips. His day couldn't have possibly gone any worse, so all he wanted to do was to go home, take a shower and get some much needed rest. Unfortunately, things rarely went the way he wanted or expected, and he wasn't at all surprised when he felt the louse's presence nearby. Hell, he could even smell the bastard from miles away, the insect's disgusting stench tainting Ikebukuro's air the second he'd set foot in it.
It was official, Heiwajima Shizuo hated Christmas.
His eye twitched in annoyance, already feeling the beginning of a vicious headache. There was no point in trying to locate Izaya when he knew with absolute certainty that the bastard would head straight for him, so he lit up a cigarette and waited for Izaya's singsong voice to call him by that retarded nickname the louse always used in order to piss him off.
"Ah, Shizu-chan, fancy seeing you here~" said Izaya as he made his appearance from around the corner.
Shizuo took a drag from the cigarette. "Flea, I told you to stay out of Ikebuburo how many times already?"
Izaya chuckled and took out the switchblade from the pocket of his coat before approaching Shizuo as though the other man wasn't a hair's breath away from snapping and crushing him until there would be nothing left but dust. "Aww, but Shizu-chan, it's Christmas, and you know how much I like people-watching during this time of year," Izaya whined, a pout now adorning his youthful visage. "Besides, I wanted to see how my favorite monster spends Christmas Eve," he added, a malicious smirk replacing the previous innocent expression.
Shizuo's hand stopped in mid-air before he unconsciously broke the cigarette in half as his archenemy finally got to him. "IIIIIZAAAYAAAAA!" he growled as he threw away the remnants and rushed to grab and pull out of concrete the nearest stop sign. "Kill kill kill," he kept murmuring as the chase began, the slippery bastard that was Izaya laughing as though he had no care in the world. Shizuo saw red, and in the next second he swung the street sign in hope of smacking Izaya like the annoying flea that he was only to fail just as miserably as he'd done so many times before.
"Shizu-chan should really stop this unsightly display of violence so that I could give him the present I bought especially for him," Izaya piped before laughing in response to the man's angry roar.
Everything about Izaya pissed Shizuo off, especially the insect's inhuman agility. Then again, it was the only way for someone like Orihara Izaya who didn't posses extraordinary strength to be able to confront him and walk away with minimum damage. Enraged, he threw the stop sign at Izaya, but instead of the agonized scream he hoped to get he only heard mocking laughter. He did hear a few screams though, but those were merely the cries of a startled passerby.
"Shizu-chaaan, catch me if you can," Izaya taunted as he jumped over a fence.
Shizuo immediately followed, and for a split second he was amazed at his own agility, but he quickly got over it when he figured that it was only natural considering how he'd been trying to kill the flea for years. "Stop running, you bastard!" Shizuo growled when he almost grabbed Izaya by the fur of his coat.
Izaya laughed again, a bit out of breath this time. "I'm not suicidal, Shizu-chan, so I can't acquiesce to your request."
The insect was suddenly running faster, something that Shizuo didn't think was possible, and seeing how he was out of options he grabbed the nearest object which happened to be a fist-sized wooden gnome sitting on the table of a street vendor. He thought he heard the man scream after him, but he tuned out everything except for the sounds of Izaya's footsteps. He swung his arm to get momentum in order to hit harder, but Izaya turned around the corner just as Shizuo was about to throw it and he barely managed to stop himself in time. Angry at having missed the chance, he grit his teeth harder and followed Izaya through the narrow space between two apartment buildings. His most hated enemy was not that far ahead of him, so he took the opportunity to aim the gnome straight for the bastard's head. He didn't think he'd actually hit but he did, and when Izaya dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes, he stood frozen on the spot, finding it very hard to believe that he had actually succeeded in hitting the insect with it.
Heiwajima Shizuo was starting to like Christmas.
Time was of the essence when it came to capturing the flea, so he pounced on the stunned man like a predator on its prey. Judging by the shocked expression on the insect's face, the brunet was just as surprised as Shizuo had been mere moments before. He immediately twisted Izaya's arms behind his back and then picked him up and pinned him to the wall. Izaya grunted in pain when his already bleeding head made contact with the hard surface, and Shizuo grinned maliciously at the sound that was like music to his ears.
"Shi-Shizu-chan," Izaya stuttered, but before he could say anything else Shizuo grabbed a fistful of black hair and pulled it back hard enough to make him yelp.
Shizuo flashed him a terrifying grin and he felt the flea tense in his grasp. Perhaps Izaya was starting to doubt that he might make it out of there alive. "You told me to catch you if I can," Shizuo reminded him before he paused to look into Izaya's fearful crimson eyes, "and guess what? I caught you."
"Indeed you have, Shizu-chan, good job! I'd give you a pat on the back, but I'm a bit tied up at the moment," he said and then snickered when Shizuo's grin morphed into an angry snarl.
"Shut the fuck up," Shizuo hissed through clenched teeth as he smashed Izaya's head into the wall the second the bastard opened his mouth to mock him some more. Izaya's eyes turned in his head and Shizuo eased his grip only to regret it when the louse somehow managed to get his now free hand on the switchblade and slash at Shizuo's fingers that were still clenched in his hair. Shizuo staggered backwards, but before he could react Izaya propped his foot on the wall and pushed himself backwards hard enough to throw Shizuo into the opposite building. Shizuo grunted when he hit the wall and he managed to raise his arms just in time to protect his neck from being slashed. The knife made a deep cut on his forearm, but Shizuo didn't care because he could not under any circumstance allow Izaya to escape his grasp again. That's when he had an epiphany, and he realized that sometimes, in a fight, one must sacrifice something in order to win. With this new mindset he lunged himself at Izaya, the bastard's knife barely missing his heart and embedding itself into his shoulder instead. His right hand flew towards Izaya's neck whilst his left one grabbed the man's right wrist, successfully immobilizing the insect once again. He tightened his grip on that wrist, and soon enough Izaya let go of the knife as the pain became too much, an anguished scream escaping his bloody lips.
"Ne, Shizu-chan, are you really trying to kill me?" Izaya asked, his venomous tone betraying his anger at having been caught by Shizuo again.
Shizuo gave him an incredulous look. "Are you seriously asking me this after you've just tried to kill me yourself?"
Izaya scoffed and threw Shizuo a hateful glare, but the blond didn't care anymore about what Izaya had to say because the flea was at his mercy and he would finally get the chance to take his revenge on the asshole who'd kept screwing up his life. He tightened his hold around the frail neck, knowing how easy it would be to break it, and even though he really wanted to do so, he knew that the flea was not worth him spending the rest of his life in jail. There was no doubt that the flea sorely deserved to die and much more, but Shizuo was no hero and he didn't want to rid the world of the insect at the price of his own freedom. He wasn't that selfless.
And since killing Izaya was out of the question he did the only thing he could do to the flea, which was to beat him within an inch of his miserable life. He punched and kicked until he heard bones break, and even then he didn't stop because a few broken bones were not enough to satisfy his thirst for revenge. When Izaya tried to hit back, Shizuo only hit harder, and when the flea tried to get up, Shizuo made sure that he could not do it again anytime soon. By the time he was done venting his rage, Izaya was a bloody mess of bruised flesh and broken bones.
Shizuo took a deep breath and tried to slow down his racing heart. His eyes wandered to the broken informant, and for some strange reason, he couldn't stop grinning like an idiot.
"That felt good," he said, finally remembering to pull out the switchblade still embedded in his shoulder. He only looked at it for a moment before dropping on the ground next to Izaya's beaten body.
Izaya opened an eye at the sound of metal hitting concrete and he tried to say something, but he ended up gurgling as blood filled his throat. He immediately turned his head to the side with the little strength he had left and spat some of it in order to be able to speak.
"My p-pocket," Shizuo heard him say, and the blond remembered that Izaya had told him that he had a present for him. "Why the hell not?" he shrugged and crouched next to Izaya to look through the man's pockets. He found the present in the right pocket of the flea's pants, and he heard the bastard laugh when he frowned at the sight of the small Hulk phone accessory that was obviously meant as an insult.
Shizuo was feeling rather good after blowing off some steam, so he gave Izaya a genuine smile instead of the angry scowl the insect was hoping for. "Thanks, Izaya-kun," he said and got up, chuckling at the stunned expression on the man's bloody face.
"Merry Christmas, flea," he said snickering as he walked away, leaving Izaya in that dark alley and knowing that someone would find him sooner or later. Preferably later rather than sooner.
He grinned during his entire walk home, not even caring that he was a bloody mess himself, and when he reached his apartment he slumped on the couch and allowed his body to finally relax.
It had felt really good to beat up Orihara Izaya, and his opinion on Christmas did a one hundred and eighty degrees turn.
Heiwajima Shizuo loved Christmas.
