I do not own the characters or the universe, though I am borrowing them for my own purposes. This is an amnesia/fever fic, for those that are into that. It's also the first I've uploaded to FF in years.
It was nearly midnight, and the streets of Ikebukuro were only marginally less crowded than they would have been around the dinner hour. Had one stopped to listen, it might have even been possible to distinguish the horse-like roar of a black motorbike speeding back to a certain doctor's apartment or the jeering voices of the city's youngsters making trouble in dark alleys. A young couple, one with a scar on her neck and the other harboring a deep, obsessive love for an inhuman thing, sat on a bench and only gradually started to talk of returning home. More conscientious individuals were starting to drift off to sleep after finally logging off of the Dollars' forum; it was a weeknight, and the group's founder was still tied closely enough to normalcy that he could consider the need to sleep before school the next day.
Orihara Izaya knew much of these goings-on, reveled in them, as he traversed the city on foot. For all of the control he exercised over it, however, he was as much a part of it, a fragment of the sweeping dreamscape, as any one of his beloved humans.
Tonight, the informant was merely wandering with no particular tasks to complete. He sought only amusement at the probable expense of some poor individual. All he needed was some small occurrence – given the opportunity, he could draw out its potential to create a cascading sequence of events that would again throw Ikebukuro into chaos.
He loved chaos. Humans were at their best in places like this, big cities where secret conspiracies, hidden threats, and elastic tensions kept everything right on the edge of chaos. Chaos brought out the most interesting aspects of people. It made them crazy, reduced them to their basest impulses.
He let the city's currents carry him where they would. Curious, he followed the sound of one particularly violent scuffle and arrived just in time to glimpse a group of young men hurriedly escaping the echo of his footsteps. Small fry, the informant figured. Better make your getaway before the cops find you and your parents chew you out…
But Izaya was also curious as to the identity of their victim. He casually approached the darkest part of the alley and was gradually able to make out the vague outline of someone lying on the rain-slick ground. The informant immediately judged the person to be a man based on his height and build.
Interesting. He'd hoped to find a teenage girl – their reactions were often particularly fascinating – but there was always a chance that your standard mugging could turn into something interesting. He was there already, anyway. Might as well check it out.
"Let's see who it is," Izaya hummed to himself as he whipped out his cell phone and pushed the center button to ignite the display.
The ragged figure's blood-soaked blonde hair glistened in the sudden flash of bright blue light. His normally neat bartender uniform was streaked with dirt and blood, and although he was lying face-down on his stomach, Izaya could tell that Shizuo Heiwajima was very much unconscious.
"Shizu-chan," Izaya marveled. He knelt at the side of his sworn enemy and used one hand to shove him roughly onto his back.
The blonde's face, like his clothing, was coated in a layer of dirt and gravel. His eyes were closed, and a thin stream of blood was running from the corner of his mouth. Izaya glanced down and noticed with a start that Shizuo had been shot twice – once in his left side and again in the chest. This and a heavy blow to his head seemed to be the source of the red stains on his clothes and hair.
"You won't last long with wounds like those, Shizu-chan." The informant poked at the blonde's cheek. "Don't be so boring. I want you to see me while you slowly bleed to death."
The informant didn't cease his efforts to wake Shizuo until at last the blonde stirred a little and opened his eyes. "Nnnn… Wha's goin' on…?" he slurred as his eyes gradually focused on Izaya. "You…"
"Nice to finally see you awake, Shizu-chan! Looks like your troublemaking has finally caught up with you, huh~?"
"Shizu…chan?" The blonde's eyes filled with confusion and a dawning realization. "…'s that my name?"
"Very funny," Izaya said with a smirk. "But amnesia wouldn't be enough to make me pity you, anyway."
"Amnesia… Yeah, that must be it. My head feels all funny…" Shizuo looked searchingly up at the informant. "You… seem familiar somehow… Are you a friend…? D-doesn't seem like it…" He laughed shakily. "Shit… this really hurts…"
Izaya's eyes widened, and his smirk was replaced by an expression of disbelief. "You… really don't remember anything?" He scowled. "Jeez, it's like something out of a manga."
Indeed, coincidence has a lot to do with the transformation of minor incidents into large ones, into cataclysmic chains of events that destroy the status quo and disrupt even the most chaotic of cities. Even one as calculating and aloof as Orihara Izaya may be capable of largely irrational actions – try as he might, as he would, to justify everything he would do from that point on.
The informant straightened up and moved away from the blonde, phone in hand as he dialed Shinra's number.
"Shinra? It's me. "
A pause.
"A favor. Could you come meet me? There's someone here who needs a doctor as soon as possible."
Another pause, then – "At least two bullet wounds and a pretty nasty-looking head injury. Yeah. Yes, it's that bad."
After he had finished relating his location to the doctor, Izaya disconnected the call and returned to Shizuo's side with an exasperated sigh. He whipped out his knife, and Shizuo flinched a little as his clothes were neatly cut away. The informant then tugged off his fur-lined coat and hurriedly pressed it into the blonde's wounds.
"Ne… what's your name?" Shizuo whispered.
"Stop talking," Izaya hissed, his expression now a volatile mixture of anger and determination.
"Can't… I'm not supposed to sleep after getting hit like this, right?"
"If you know that much, why can't you at least remember your own name?" Izaya grumbled sulkily.
"You called me Shizu-chan earlier," the blonde reminded the informant. "I thought you must be someone I know really well, since you're using a nickname like that."
"Shizu-chan hates his nickname," Izaya answered vaguely as he laughed softly to himself. "So, how about this? I'll tell you some things about yourself, and you'll listen quietly – no talking." He emphasized the last part of his offer with a glare that warned Shizuo to keep his response to a minimum.
"Sure…" Shizuo said softly, and Izaya sighed. The hell was he doing? Why couldn't the stupid monster just pretend he knew what was going on so that the informant might fully enjoy his suffering? He considered telling said monster some sort of lie – something that might afford Izaya a few laughs later on, when Shizuo realized his mistake and flew into another one of his outrageous tantrums.
He didn't, though. Perhaps he merely felt like showing off a little; after all, Izaya's knowledge of Ikebukuro's "Fortissimo" was second to none – excepting, perhaps, Shizuo's immediate family.
"Your full name is Heiwajima Shizuo. You're 185 cm tall, weigh approximately 70 kg, and have a birthday coming up on January 28th. You're 24 years old now, and you have a younger brother, Heiwajima Kasuka, who goes by the stage name Hanejima Yuuhei. Tanaka Tom-san, your sempai from middle school, now works as a debt collector and employs you as his bodyguard. The idea was supposed to be that your reputation alone would be enough to prevent violence on the job, but your ridiculous temper and monstrous strength are constantly causing trouble for everyone around you."
"That's… a lot to take in," Shizuo murmured. His vision was blurring a little at the edges, and he was afraid that he might not be able to stay awake for much longer. "You didn't say anything about yourself..."
"Oi, Shizu-chan. I said not to talk," Izaya almost growled as he continued to increase the amount of pressure he was applying to the blonde's chest. "And what does that matter, anyway…?"
"Well, nothing you just said makes any sense to me, and I honestly don't know if you're even telling the truth. I don't remember anything at all about you, but you're someone I unmistakably know," Shizuo said. His voice grew stronger the longer he talked, and he watched Izaya with eyes full of curiosity.
"Izaya."
"Eh?"
"My name is Orihara Izaya. I work as an information broker in Shinjuku and Ikebukuro. Do you know where that is?"
"Ike…bukuro… Mm, I think so. That's this city, right? I think it must be a pretty amazing place… or something." Shizuo smiled, a little embarrassed to have been caught saying something so sentimental.
Izaya smirked. "Right. Well, you and I often fight here. Always demanding that I leave… you're so harsh sometimes! It's your fault for being so easy to provoke. And how can I resist provoking Shizu-chan? After all, you're not fun or interesting at all if I can't play with you sometimes. Because Shizu-chan constantly gets in my way whenever I try to stir things up! It's so incredibly annoying!"
Blinking, Shizuo said slowly, "It sounds like you're sort of the bad guy here… What do you mean by 'fun'?"
The informant laughed. "I mean that I love watching and manipulating people for my own edification. Of course, I'm what some might consider a disgusting or twisted person. I don't mind at all, though. In fact, I think it's even more fun to fool others into thinking that I'm something different. You see, Shizu-chan, I love all humans! All of them! You're the only one I hate – a beast who embodies nothing more than pure rage and violence! I can't have fun using you because you somehow always manage to escape the roles I lay out for you."
Shizuo laughed softly. "That's a strange reason to hate someone. And I'm supposed to feel the same way about you?"
"Well, your feelings are probably far simpler, but that's how it is." A motorbike roared suddenly somewhere nearby. Izaya smiled and looked toward the end of the alley as a black bike with two riders atop it sped around a corner and toward the two men. "Looks like our conversation stops there, Shizu-chan."
"Izaya, we came as fast as we c- Shizuo-kun?!" Shinra, who had just dismounted the bike, looked wordlessly back at Celty, who immediately understood and passed him his bag of medical supplies. The two quickly joined the informant on the ground.
"Yo…" Shizuo said awkwardly. His eyes felt so heavy that he could barely keep them open enough to see the faces of these new people.
"Shizuo-kun, can you tell me where it hurts the most?" the doctor asked desperately as he took the blood-soaked jacket from Izaya and quickly fished several surgical tools from his bag.
"That," Shizuo said, wincing. "And my head hurts like a bitch."
"I'm going to take a look at that in a second, so can you please do whatever it takes to stay awake?"
"S-sure. Talking okay?"
Shinra nodded as he set to started to search for the first of the two bullets in the dim lighting.
Shizuo turned his attention to the informant, who was still watching him intently. "Izaya-san."
Upon hearing this formal honorific used together with the name of Shizuo's hated enemy, Shinra and Celty both glanced up at the blonde in surprise.
"Yeah?" Izaya responded casually.
"Thanks. You talk like you're a bad person, but I think you must really be good to some extent. I owe you one."
Izaya laughed. "There's one thing I never would have expected to hear from Shizu-chan. Too bad, though – I think most people would disagree with you."
"Shizuo-kun…? What are you saying all of a sudden?" Shinra asked as he located the first bullet and removed it carefully from the blonde's side.
"Huh? Oh-! I'm sorry, I didn't… I mean, I can't remember anything, so if you know me… Well, I'm still trying to figure all this out for the time being."
"Eh?" Shinra looked as if he thought Shizuo might have been joking.
Celty pushed her PDA at Shizuo, her hand shaking slightly. You can't remember yourself, either? Not even a little?
"I can't… Um, is there a reason you can't speak to me directly?"
Celty and Shinra exchanged a glance. After a moment, Shinra nodded, and the dullahan tilted back the visor of her helmet so that Shizuo could see inside.
She had half-expected him to react with terror, but his eyes only widened slightly. "Wow… What are you?"
A friend of yours.
(~##*##~)
Shinra found the second bullet soon after the first and did his best to plug the wounds up as quickly and painlessly as possible.
"How many fingers am I holding up?" he asked Shizuo as he used his free hand to gently probe the blonde's scalp.
"Three… four…?" Shizuo winced as the doctor inadvertently touched a sensitive spot. "Ow…"
"Two." Shinra frowned and looked up at Izaya. "I assumed you would know what to do with this sort of injury, but I need to double-check. When you found him, you didn't move him at all, did you?"
Izaya grinned sheepishly. "Well, you know…"
"What, so you're saying you did? What would you have done if his spinal cord had been hurt?"
"Nothing. I wasn't really planning on helping Shizu-chan anyway, so I didn't bother to think about it. Besides, I seem to recall hearing somewhere that you're also not supposed to let patients talk until they've been treated properly," Izaya retorted.
"Yeah? Then, is that what you were doing when we got here?!"
"W-wait. I was the one who refused to stop talking," Shizuo cut in. "Izaya-san kept insisting that I be quiet, but I… I have a lot of things to ask…"
"That's enough. You don't have to force yourself to defend this guy so much," Shinra said gently. Izaya watched in complete bewilderment as the blonde shook his head slightly and mumbled a response.
"He didn't do anything wrong. He only helped me."
"…Huh," the informant stated blandly. "Well, he's moving enough, right? Guess the spine thing is kind of a moot point."
Shinra nodded slowly. "I suppose you're right. And it looks like the injury to his skull is fairly minor considering the damage it's done to his brain. Retrograde amnesia like this usually doesn't encompass all of a person's past memories, after all. According to Ribot's Law, you're much likelier to suffer the loss of more recent memories; those dating back to one's childhood years typically survive. You could say that Shizuo-kun has been lucky here – he won't even need stitches, and the bullets both missed all of his major organs – but he was also unfortunate enough to wind up with severe memory loss by sheer chance."
"Are you just going to sit there and ramble all night, or are we going to go someplace a little more comfortable?" Shizuo grumbled. He reached up and placed his hand on Izaya's shoulder. The informant jumped a little and tried to shrug away, but stopped when he noticed that he was serving as the blonde's support as he dragged himself into a sitting position. "Ngh… Damn…" Shizuo winced and leaned heavily into Celty's arms when the dullahan moved in to help. "This really sucks," he complained, voice wavering slightly.
"You're amazing, Shizuo-kun. A normal person would probably be unconscious after losing that much blood…" Shinra straightened up, and Izaya quickly followed suit, cell phone in hand.
The informant then called a reluctant Namie to come with her car, Celty climbed onto her horse, and the group found itself in front of Shizuo's apartment building within the hour.
"So, what are you going to do now?" Izaya sighed when his assistant turned off the car's engine.
The blonde looked back at the informant, eyes wide. "With what?"
"Well, you're not seriously planning to stay alone, are you? You can barely stand without help, let alone fix meals or change those bandages. Who do you want to stay with you?"
"Izaya, are you saying you'd really be willing to stay here with – " But the informant clapped a hand over Shinra's mouth to silence him.
"So?" he prompted Shizuo impatiently.
"I really don't think I need to bother anyone with this," Shizuo said shyly. To prove his point, he swung the car door open and, using the car's roof for support, pulled himself unsteadily to his feet. His legs gave out in a few seconds, however, and Celty had to catch him with her shadows before he hit the ground. "…"
"Yeah, looks like you'll be totally fine on your own," Izaya remarked sarcastically.
"He has a point, Shizuo-kun. Besides, you'll need to be closely monitored for at least twenty-four hours to ensure that your head injury isn't more severe than we think it is."
"F-fine. Izaya-san, could you…? If it's – you know – not too much trouble…"
Izaya smirked and helped the blonde to his feet. "Shizu-chan, you're so timid all of a sudden. But are you sure you want me to stick around knowing how we usually get along?"
Shizuo nodded and cringed when his head throbbed painfully in response to the movement. "It has to be you," he insisted.
Shinra looked from one to the other of his two friends. "Shizuo-kun, I'm not sure that's a good idea. If you were to suddenly recover your memories of Izaya with him around, there's a good chance you might have to find yourself a new apartment. And, depending on the circumstances, one of you might – "
"Look, it's okay. I promise… no matter what, I won't… I don't know, attack Izaya-san, or whatever it is you expect me to do."
"Celty… say something…" Shinra begged. The dullahan's shoulders moved up and down in a gesture that greatly resembled a sigh, and she quickly typed something into her PDA before showing it to Shizuo.
He once framed you for a crime to get himself out of trouble, and you lost an important job because of it. He also constantly manipulates gangs and other bad people into trying to fight with you. Of course, that's when you two aren't going at it one-on-one. His personality is beyond twisted.
Shizuo shrugged. "Why are you telling me all this?" His voice had taken on that familiar tone of irritation which usually served as a precursor to extreme violence. "I can't remember any of it, so why should I bother thinking so hard about it? I'm just doing what I want to do, and I honestly hope that I have enough self-control to keep my promise. Or am I really that unreasonable a person?"
Izaya nodded and laughed, but Shinra prevented him from saying anything by cutting in abruptly. "Okay. If you can be told all of this and still feel that strongly, then no one will try to stop you. Just calm down, alright?"
Shizuo shook his head in an attempt to clear it. "Tch… S-sorry. I just…"
The doctor nodded sympathetically. "I know, and it's fine. For now, though, we really should get you inside and in bed. You don't look good."
"That would be nice," Izaya called from the bottom of the apartment's main flight of stairs. "I'd rather not stand here with this all night long."
Shinra noticed the overnight bag in the informant's hands and jogged over to meet him. "How do you already have that ready?" he demanded.
"I always prepare for all possible outcomes, and the way things were going, I figured I might need to be ready for things to turn out like this. I keep one ready most of the time just in case, so it was as simple as having Namie-san bring it here with her."