Disclaimer: Durarara! belongs to Ryougo Narita and not me… which is a good thing.
A/N: This takes place during Izaya and Shinra's first year at middle school.
Izaya Orihara figured that after knowing Shinra Kishitani for six months, he'd have familiarised himself with the latter's habit of asking him odd questions when he least expected it. However it seemed like Shinra had outdone himself- he'd just asked Izaya his oddest question yet.
The funny thing was that if anyone but Shinra had asked him that particular question, it would have sounded downright normal.
"Can you come to my place today after school?"
Izaya was silently thankful that his face didn't betray his surprise. He merely raised an eyebrow and asked, "Should I have a reason to do that?"
Shinra's request had been particularly odd because the bespectacled boy had always insisted that he come over to Izaya's house whenever the two were stuck doing a school project together (Shinra actually had the dubious honour of gaining his twin sisters' approval). A four-year-old would be able to tell that Shinra was hiding something, and Izaya was certain he knew what it was- or rather, who it was.
Shinra scratched his chin and regarded Izaya thoughtfully before replying, "Well, I've told my loved one a bit about you and she's now eager to meet you."
He paused and added, "I think you should be somewhat flattered- you're the only one outside my family who knows anything about her. Even my friend from elementary school doesn't know a thing about her."
Izaya didn't need to think much over the matter. This was a huge opportunity to figure Shinra out- what was it about this "loved one" that made Shinra's nonchalant tone change, just by a little bit? Izaya had discarded the necrophilia idea months ago- his daily interactions with Shinra had proved to him that the latter usually had both feet on the ground.
As such, Izaya's reply was,
"Fine."
He'd never been one to let an opportunity slip from his grasp.
Celty was heating up the previous night's leftovers for Shinra when the doorbell rang. She turned off the microwave oven and made her way to the door, mentally making a note to try cooking herself someday. It wasn't that Shingen was a bad cook- he was actually quite good, judging from the fragrant aroma that often filled the house when he was in the kitchen- she just couldn't help wondering if she was a good cook.
When she opened the door, she was quite surprised to find Shinra with another boy his age. Shinra never brought anyone home with him. The boy seemed to be equally (if not more) surprised; Celty saw his eyes pop out of his head for a split second before he quickly composed himself. It made her wish that she had her helmet on.
[Hello Shinra,]she typed on her ever-ready new mobile phone. [Welcome back. Who is this you've got with you?]
As they entered the living room, Shinra cheerfully introduced the boy with him as Izaya Orihara. The name made Celty think that if she had a head attached to her body, one eyebrow would probably be raised. Shinra had told her that he'd started a Biology club with someone named Izaya Orihara, and had occasionally entertained her with stories of the more interesting aspects of his school life- in which Izaya came up every now and then (though the only things she gathered from Shinra's stories were that he was the club's vice-president and engaged in activities "of a certain nature", as Shinra ambiguously put it). Celty remembered expressing an interest in meeting the only classmate Shinra interacted with regularly and could possibly call a friend- but she didn't think Shinra would have taken her seriously.
She typed out another greeting to Izaya, who gave a tiny nod in return. The look he was giving her made Celty wonder about the company Shinra was in.
She hoped she was wrong- she didn't want to rob Shinra of any friends he'd made- but there was something off about Izaya.
Not evil, perhaps, but a little… shifty.
Izaya couldn't remember the last time he'd been struck dumb. In fact, he was absolutely sure that it'd never happened before.
Shinra hadn't been kidding about walking corpses.
The idea that Shinra's loved one (he knew it the moment he'd caught the slight alteration in Shinra's tone) was an actual living headless woman – one with smoke coming out from of her neck, no less- was so far from what he'd expected that he wanted to laugh.
That was supposed to be against the laws of nature. Apparently, it wasn't, or the being in front of him would never have existed in the first place.
He allowed himself a small smirk- something that would make a young child nervous.
I suppose I'll have to broaden my horizons now, haven't I?
The headless woman- "Celty", Shinra had called her when he did introductions earlier- showed her phone to them.
[Lunch is in the microwave oven, Shinra. Go and help yourself- I have to go out for a bit. Izaya, help yourself to anything in the fridge- and do forgive me for being a poor host. Bye.]
She grabbed a helmet that had been lying on the sofa and made her way towards the door. Shinra waved as she left the house.
"What a pity," Shinra said, as they headed to the kitchen. "I was hoping she wouldn't leave so early."
He gave a tiny sigh. "Sometimes I wish that she'd stop worrying about her head."
Izaya was starting to find that he absolutely loathed being in the dark about things. He raised an eyebrow and asked, "What do you mean?"
"Ah, I should tell you the whole story now, shouldn't I? Well, Celty's a dullahan, a fairy who carries her head with her from Scottish and Irish mythology- except that she's clearly not a myth. I found her when I was four and she's been living with my father and me since then," Shinra said casually as he removed the food from the microwave oven and started digging in. He looked up from his food. "You've probably managed to deduce by now that she's lost her head and is looking for it."
"Your opinion of my intelligence is flattering," Izaya remarked dryly, suddenly feeling like a complete idiot. It took every ounce of the considerable mental strength he liked to think he had to prevent his sudden embarrassment from showing on his face. Shinra had, once again, utilized his talent for making Izaya feel like the humans he watched instead of the detached observer he wanted to be (and was when Shinra wasn't around).
Izaya left the kitchen, deep in thought.
The fact that his intuition was telling him that that particular ability of Shinra's wasn't something he was going to figure out in the short term didn't annoy him as much as it would have when he first met Shinra. He supposed merely waiting for a clue to help him figure Shinra out had cultivated an odd sense of patience in him.
Or maybe it's just that there's something equally interesting to consider right now, Izaya thought as he contemplated Shinra and the dullahan (he still found it odd to think of the being as "Celty").
His thoughts began racing.
What Shinra had told him wasn't "the whole story", as far as Izaya was concerned, but the information was sufficient, and some of the pieces were starting to fall together as he recalled the conversation he had with Shinra in the early days of the Biology Club. It didn't take Izaya long to come up with the surprisingly simple conclusion:
He's so enraptured by her that he doesn't care for or see anything else in the world. The fact that she's not human might account for the fact that he sees her as something more…
He's completely, hopelessly and utterly besotted with her.
At that moment, Izaya felt jealousy and pity towards Shinra. As he pushed the emotions away before they could torment him, he couldn't help thinking:
Sometimes love can be very troublesome.
A/N: I hope no one's OOC… I noticed that in Vol. 9, Izaya never took what Shinra said about living corpses at face value. He considers necrophilia and manga (perfectly logical choices) but never once thought, "Oh, he knows a living corpse." Since Izaya here is only 12-14, I figured that meeting Celty without her helmet on would be more of a nasty shock to him. Hence, I wrote him as he is in this story. Also, Celty isn't in love with Shinra- yet.