"Your hands look like a girl's."
His movements stilled then, a dumbfounded expression marring his face when he averted his gaze towards Shizuo; brow arched in question. From the way Shizuo's eyes were practically glued to his hands (funny he hadn't noticed that), he was sure that the statement was directed at him— unless of course, Shizuo was imagining a girl in front of him instead of Izaya.
"Pardon me, Shizu-chan?" Izaya asked.
Their little exchange had managed to perk Shinra and Kadota's interests, both of them pretending as though they were focused on the math equations before them, but really, they were listening in on the conversation.
"Look at the fingers," of course Shizuo was daring enough to reach out and actually prod at his fingers, like he was a little boy fascinated by something, "they're so thin, pale, and smooth."
"Well, Shizu-chan's have rough skin from lifting all the poles and bricks he threw at me, mm?"
"I'm saying they're pretty."
If before he was irked from thinking that Shizuo was insulting his hands, now he wasn't sure what kind of emotion he was feeling; faint red painted across his cheeks while he blinked in silence for a few seconds, processing what was just said to him. What had gotten into Shizuo? Had the complicated math equations had finally taken a toll on him?
Izaya wouldn't be surprised if that was the case.
"Would you like to know what it's like to hold a girl's hand?" despite being conscious of Shizuo's stare, Izaya twirled the pencil in his hand skillfully, bottom lip caught between the set of his teeth with the next words he uttered, "I can help."
There was no need to wait for Shizuo's answer, he thought as he curled his fingers around Shizuo's palm— the skin did feel rough, just according to what he'd mentioned (the claims that he just butchered up in retaliation then), but overall, it was warm and rather comforting.
"Uh, no thanks," Shizuo pulled back, grimacing.
"What?"
"It'd be much better if the girl wasn't you."
"Pff—" Shinra wasn't as good at suppressing the incoming bout of laughter as Kadota, the noise he made drawing Izaya's attention, who only scrunched his nose up at him before those crimson eyes narrowed into slits.
"At least my hands aren't tainted with blood from corpses."
"Thank you, Orihara-kun."