Author's Note: I figured it was about time that I had a Shizuo POV fic posted, since I always seem to write about Izaya. This will include the alternatives/clones of both at various points, just as a heads up, though not all of them (Seeing as there is about 34334 of them). I'm super excited about this though.
Reviews are always welcomed; Whole thing will be told in Shizuo's POV, first person~.
People are always travelling, always moving. They go from one place to another to see rivers or mountains, new stars or funny animals and strange new breeds of human. It's supposed to broaden the mind, or so I'd always been told, even as a kid by some woman in the corner shop who'd give me milk bottles for free, but it was never really that way for me. Things are kind of different now, after all that's happened, I guess I'm glad about that.
I used to travel a lot for work, and somewhere in the piles of paperwork and the tight offices I lost the romantic view of the world I'd had as a kid. When you travel across the country, overseas and all that, working a lifetime's worth of overtime, just moving from hotel room to hotel room, yeah, you kind of lose the desire for anything but getting your work done and going back home. Home. I was used to being away from it, it didn't bother me really. I wasn't the snotty homesick type of guy who got all choked up about being away. I didn't really see much of my family anyway, we weren't the sort of lovey dovey lot anyway, just got together around the holidays, you know. And with my parents divorced anyway, it wasn't like I saw a whole lot of either of them growing up. It was just something I guess I got used to over time. It's still the same now really, except I see a lot more of my brother than I did before, but that doesn't matter, it didn't really matter then.
And okay, okay, I may not have liked my job, but I was good at it, I guess. I'd graduated with average grades, but hadn't made it to college, spent a year or something like that bouncing from dead end job to dead end job. So yeah, I really lucked out when I landed a job at the Tanaka Financing firm. I never thought I was going to get it, so I remember how I swore I would do the best I could to show that Mr Tanaka had made the right choice. Guess that was why Tom Tanaka, the boss's son, took such a liking to me. I made his department look good, got my work in on time, handed in paperwork and suggesting new proposals. Yeah, so I was good at my job. I worked hard, because I guess that's the type of person I am, still hasn't changed even now. But no, I didn't like it; really, it was just something I had to do.
Yeah, so I did what I could. It paid off, I guess. I got promoted pretty quick, ended up being sent across the country and eventually overseas when the company expanded to deal with contracts and contacts and all the usual banking, financial bullshit. My friends were pretty excited when I told them at first, Shinra and Kadota had sounded like they wanted to swap places and jet off to all these places too, though Shinra got to jet off a lot anyway. I forget how much doctors earn these days, but it's more than I earn that's for sure, not that my salary is anything to be pissed about. It gets me by, more so now than it did back then. Perks of promotion and all that, right? I guess I was a bit excited at first too. I'd never gone on school trips that far, my luck had been the cause of that. It seemed whenever they'd gone I'd be in the hospital with some kind of broken bone or fracture.
That excitement kind of wore off after the first five trips. The novelty of living in a hotel room for a couple of weeks kind of runs out when you do it every other month or more, it gets boring. Sometimes home really is where the heart is, and I know I missed my shabby apartment in Tokyo more than once while I was away. I guess because of the company, Mr Tanaka or Tom had arranged for me to be treated like some kind of aristocrat. It was nice at first, but after a while, it lost its sparkle and made me uncomfortable. Travel is meant to broaden the mind, but I never had time to see any of the sites of where I was being sent for work, so I came to associate travel with work and stress. Shitty of me to do, I know, but when you've got work pressing in on you from every angle, what else can you do? I saw it as a nuisance; because I'd just have to drag all of my stuff from one place to another and then haul the shit all the way back again. I began to grow cranky whenever I had to travel too far or stay away for too long. Pretty soon I began to be cranky all of the time, even in the Tokyo offices, and I would scowl at nothing. I guess it was no wonder my social life kind of declined for a while back then. It was only occasionally that I'd go out with Kadota or Shinra and his girlfriend. Tom and I went drinking together once, but we weren't exactly friends. But I didn't complain, it was my job, and I had been hired to do it, so that was just what I was going to do.
Things are different now, really they are. Now I look back it seems fucking crazy that I used to live the way I did. Honestly, I'm surprised I didn't crack under it all long before I did. I guess things like that, the appalling way that you live or something, has to be pointed out by someone else for you to realise it. I hated travelling back then, I'm not too keen on it now if I'm honest; I'd prefer to stay home any day rather than go off somewhere, but it's not just up to me anymore, I have someone else I have to consider too. Heh, maybe sending me all over the place was Karma's way of making it up to me for being such a sickly kid and having a pretty shitty childhood because of that. I don't know. I guess maybe I owe her one, seeing as without it, I wouldn't have met someone that I did.
But fuck, hey, look at me, getting all sob story on you there. Guess that's something else about me that's changed, I never used to be like this, can you believe it? I was some rock, just a suit with no personality. Guess all the travelling did that. I hated it, I hated my job, and I guess if I'm honest, I kind of hated myself too.
But yeah, yeah, whatever, let's not get too caught up in all that soppy bullshit. I've changed, but not that fucking much. Yet. Heh. I guess it's only a matter of time before he has me changing again. Yeah, I'm Heiwajima Shizuo. I used to be a businessman who always managed to get his work in on time and who travelled the world for his job, even if he hated it. But I'm different now, after everything that's happened.
Yeah, you know those crazy stories you hear in manga or cheesy late night movies? People never think anything like that will happen in real life. Ha. I thought that too, until I got tossed in at the deep end of something I wasn't even remotely prepared for, a chain of events that changed everything.
And it all started with the arrival of a suitcase.